Seismic stratigraphy of the Adare Trough area, Antarctica

The Adare Trough, located 100 km NE of Cape Adare, Antarctica, is the extinct third arm of a Tertiary spreading ridge that separated East from West Antarctica. We use seismic reflection data, tied to DSDP Site 274, to link our seismic stratigraphic interpretation to changes in ocean-bottom currents, Ross Sea ice cover, and regional tectonics through time. Two extended unconformities are observed in the seismic profiles. We suggest that the earliest hiatus (early Oligocene to Mid-Miocene) is related to low sediment supply from the adjacent Ross Shelf, comprised of small, isolated basins. The later hiatus (mid-Miocene to late Miocene) is likely caused by strong bottom currents sourced from the open-marine Ross Sea due to increased Antarctic glaciation induced by mid-Miocene cooling (from Mi-3). Further global cooling during the Pliocene, causing changes in global ocean circulation patterns, correlates with Adare Basin sediments and indicate the continuing but weakened influence of bottom currents. The contourite/turbidite pattern present in the Adare Trough seismic data is consistent with the 3-phase contourite growth system proposed for the Weddell Sea and Antarctic Peninsula. Multibeam bathymetry and seismic reflection profiles show ubiquitous volcanic cones and intrusions throughout the Adare Basin that we interpret to have formed from the Oligocene to the present. Seismic reflection profiles reveal trans-tensional/strike-slip faults that indicate oblique extension dominated Adare Trough tectonics at 32–15 Ma. Observed volcanism patterns and anomalously shallow basement depth in the Adare Trough area are most likely caused by mantle upwelling, an explanation supported by mantle density reconstructions, which show anomalously hot mantle beneath the Adare Trough area forming in the Late Tertiary.     

Echinoderms from Cape Hallett,ross sea

Fifteen species of echinoderms are recorded from collections made through sea‐ice off Cape Hallett in the Ross Sea; 12 of these are new for this area. Except for one ophiuroid, here described as a new species, all are known to occur elsewhere in the Ross Sea. Crinoids and holothurians were not taken and it is probable that only a portion of the fauna has been collected.     

Distribution and abundance of the Weddell seal in the western Ross Sea,Antarctica

The distribution and abundance of the Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddelli Lesson) in the fast ice and pack ice of the western Ross Sea, Antarctica, were investigated during 1967 and 1968 from icebreakers and accompanying helicopters. It was estimated that there were about 50,000 Weddell seals in the western Ross Sea between Cape Adare and McMurdo Sound. Weddell seals appear to breed mainly in the fast ice along the Victoria Land coast and less frequently in some nearby areas of pack ice. Fast ice is preferred to pack ice. Most Weddell seals in the pack ice were adults. General observations on the distribution of crabeater, leopard, and Ross seals are included.     

15 ka以来罗斯海陆架岩心沉积学记录及古海洋学意义

本文对取自罗斯海陆架的JB04岩心沉积物进行AMS14C测年、粒度、有机碳等测试,结合沉积物粒度组分因子分析,研究该岩心的沉积学记录,探讨其古海洋学意义。结果显示:JB04岩心沉积物的底部年龄为15 ka;沉积物粒度组分因子分析提取出3个环境敏感粒级,分别代表正常冰海沉积、低能海洋沉积和高能海洋沉积;综合沉积物岩相及沉积物组成特征,可以将岩心分为4段,从底部到顶部依次为主要受冰盖刮蚀影响的冰盖下沉积、属低能海洋环境的冰架下沉积、属高能海洋环境的冰架前缘沉积和主要受冰山影响的季节性海冰区沉积。该岩心的沉积地质记录及其古海洋学研究对全面认识罗斯海的海洋环境演变具有重要的意义。     

Trace metal concentrations in the Ross Sea and their relationship with nutrients and phytoplankton growth

Dissolved and particulate trace metal concentrations (dissolved Fe, Zn, Cd, Co, Cu and Ni; particulate Fe, Mn and Al) were measured along two transects in the Ross Sea during austral summer of 1990. Total Fe concentrations in southern Ross Sea and inshore waters were elevated >3.5 times that of northern waters. Dissolved Zn, Cd and Co concentrations were lower by factors of 4.5, 3.5 and 1.6 in southern surface waters relative to northern waters. Dissolved Cu and Ni concentrations were similar in both areas. Elevated Fe concentrations coincided with areas of increased productivity, phytoplankton biomass and nutrient drawdown, indicating that Fe is an important factor controlling the location of phytoplankton blooms in the Ross Sea. Particulate concentrations of Fe, Mn and Al indicate two possible sources of iron to the Ross Sea, resuspension of continental shelf sediments and iron incorporated in annual sea ice and released with meltwaters.     

南黄海盆地中部隆起的形成与演化

南黄海盆地是在前震旦系克拉通基础上发育的中、古生界海相与中、新生界陆相多旋回叠合盆地。通过地震资料解释,结合邻区钻井与区域地质资料,对南黄海盆地中部隆起中、古生代地层及其形成演化进行了研究,结果表明,南黄海盆地中部隆起沉积了较全的中、古生界海相地层,发育第四系—新近系、中—下三叠统青龙组、上二叠统、下二叠统—上泥盆统、中—下志留统,奥陶系—震旦系和前震旦系变质岩系等7套地震地质层序;主要经历了前震旦纪基底形成、震旦纪—早古生代克拉通发育、晚古生代—中三叠世稳定台地—陆内裂陷、晚三叠世—古近纪形成与抬升剥蚀及新近纪-第四纪坳陷沉降5个阶段。     

A preliminary assessment of the hydrocarbon potential of the Larsen Basin,Antarctica

The Larsen Basin, on the northwest margin of the Weddell Sea, formed as a Mesozoic ensialic basin during Gondwana breakup. Deposition was either in half grabens on the extending Weddell Sea margin, or in a restricted back-arc basin. At the northern end of this basin 5–6 km of sedimentary rock crop out on James Ross Island, exposing elements of a large potential hydrocarbon system. Aeromagnetic and outcrop data suggest that the basin structure inferred from James Ross Island can be recognised at least as far south as 70°S.Upper Jurassic anoxic marine strata, deposited prior to the main phase of arc development, form a rich potential source (T.O.C. up to 3.5%) with both marine and terrestrial kerogens. Arc-derived volcaniclastic sediments of Barremian — Oligocene age form a regressive megasequence. Basal strata represent slope apron and rudaceous submarine fan deposits proximal to the margin; fan conglomerates form lenticular bodies hundreds of metres thick and tens of kilometres across, enveloped in slope-apron mudstones. Late Cretaceous fault reactivation and uplift led to dramatic shallowing of the basin, with deposition of shelf facies. Although there are many potentially attractive reservoir targets, there may be problems of pore occlusion due to the abundant labile volcanic grains. However, there is evidence of more quartzose sandstone towards the top of the section, and, inferentially, toward the basin centre.In the Larsen Basin, there is moderate potential for oil generated from Upper Jurassic source rocks and reservoired in Cretaceous and Tertiary sandstones and conglomerates, in large stratigraphic or structural traps caused by partial basin inversion during deposition.     

罗斯海西部末次冰盛期以来沉积环境重建:有机碳与生物标志化合物分析

本文研究采自位于南极罗斯海西部的ANT32-RB16C柱状沉积物,根据粒度、有机碳和生物标志化合物数据探讨末次冰盛期(24.8 ～20 ka BP)以来该地区有机质来源及沉积环境特征。该柱状样记录了冰架下沉积、冰架前沉积、开阔海域沉积的沉积环境。指示有机质来源的生物标志化合物指标表明该柱状样中所含有机质主要为浮游植物、细菌等海源输入,同时伴有少量陆源物质混合输入。末次冰盛期,由于冰架的影响有机质含量较低,环流影响使得有机质受低等浮游藻类生物等海源影响较大。末次冰消期(20～11.7 ka BP),罗斯冰架消退,冰川溶解释放的有机质在此沉积,使得陆源有机质输入增多,有机质含量升高。进入全新世,有机质含量较末次冰盛期和末次冰消期明显升高,海源输入比例增大,同时细菌等原核生物增多,导致短链正构烷烃降解程度较大。研究区的氧化还原环境主要受冰架与海冰限制作用的影响,与有机质含量和高氧的南极底层水关系不大。总体来说,从末次冰盛期到末次冰消期,研究区沉积环境受罗斯冰架进退影响,全新世以来受气候变化影响。     

加里曼丹岛和马来半岛中生代岩相古地理特征及其构造意义

印支运动以后,在现今的南海及其周围存在过2个古海洋,其中晚侏罗世一早白垩世消失于南海北部陆缘区、北巴拉望-礼乐滩-南沙地块以北的古海洋为“中特提斯”,而早第三纪期间消失于南沙地块以南沙捞越一带的古海洋为“古南海”。它们的结束时间和消失的古地理位置完全不同。对它们的正确识别和区分,对目前进行的南海周边地区中一新生代构造演化研究极为重要。对马来半岛、加里曼丹岛中生代岩相古地理资料的整理和分析结果支持如下结论：中特提斯洋的延伸是从苏门答腊的Woyla缝合线,过婆罗洲的Meratus缝合线。然后绕西南婆罗洲地块至加里曼丹岛的西北(Lupar带或者Boyan带),进入南海西南角(南沙-礼乐滩-北巴拉望地块等以北),再接南海北部陆缘区内的中特提斯缝合线。该区中生代海相地层的分布明显受构造演化的控制,整体趋势是向南退缩。印支运动以前、早-中三叠世的海侵广泛分布于古特提斯带及以南地区,涉及华南,中南地块,马来半岛及以南地区;印支运动基本结束了古特提斯带的海侵,因此晚三叠世一早侏罗世的海侵主要限于中特提斯海域及以南地区,如与中特提斯洋相邻的陆域,包括华南的湘赣粤海湾晚三叠世一早侏罗世的海侵、中南半岛东南部早侏罗世的海侵以及新加坡早侏罗世的海相地层。白垩纪海相地层主要分布于中特提斯以南地区,如加里曼丹岛。     

广东饶平海山区第四纪腹足类

首次报道了广东饶平海山区腹足类。经整理和分类研究,共鉴定出腹足类16科25属30种。这些种均为现生分布种,主要分布在中国沿海,特别是浙江以南海区,少数分布在黄海较北部海区。大多数种类栖息于低潮线至浅海几十米水深的沙泥质或泥沙质海底,也出现一些潮间带岩礁栖息型种类。可能反映了具较高海水能量的浅水沉积环境。根据动物群的组合特征,它们应为第四纪全新世的产物。     

A late pleistocene-holocene sapropelic layer in the Northwest Aegean Sea,Eastern Mediterranean

Sedimentological, geochemical, and micropaleontological analyses of nine gravity and two piston cores from the northwest Aegean Sea, eastern Mediterranean, revealed the presence of five lithologies deposited during the last 18,000 years. These are a Continental Shelf Unit, a hemipelagic-turbiditic Upper Unit, a hemipelagic-turbiditic Middle Unit, a marine transgression Lower Unit, and within the Middle Unit, a Sapropelic layer. Deposition of the Sapropelic layer took place beneath a water column depleted in dissolved oxygen, and reduced in salinity and temperature compared to existing conditions today. The main input for the organic matter preserved was fluvial, issuing from the Greek mainland.     

南极罗斯海域AUV海洋调查试验

在介绍罗斯海海洋环境概况的基础上,分析了AUV在南极罗斯海海洋调查试验,利用AUV调查数据分析了试验海域0~60m水体的温度、盐度、溶解氧、水质浊度等特征。调查数据表明:试验海域温度向下缓慢较小,盐度向下逐渐增加,溶解氧呈3段结构,水质浊度较低,验证了南极AUV调查方式具有较强的应用价值,数据分析结果具有一定的科学意义。     

东海的形成与构造演化

东海地区构造演化的地球动力学背景处于晚三叠世以来古亚洲大陆形成、太平洋板块向欧亚大陆俯冲及印度板块向欧亚大陆俯冲的远程效应共同作用下。东海的海洋沉积环境是在上新世以来持续的构造沉降、弧后裂谷作用及全球海平面上升作用下形成的。东海地质构造的剖析及其形成演化的研究,对于理解亚洲地形现代地形格局的形成及大江大河的演化具有重要意义。     

基于突发海洋生态灾害防范的海洋工程海冰灾害风险监测——以渤海石油平台为例

基于突发海洋生态灾害防范的需求,文章以渤海石油平台为例,研究海洋工程海冰灾害风险监测系统及其应用。研究表明,围绕风险监测的目标和内容确定系统构架,渤海石油平台海冰灾害风险监测系统主要包括结构运行状态监测和海冰环境要素监测2个子系统,可综合结构振动监测和冰情监测直接判别和动态监控风险等级。     

Seismic images of a collision zone offshore NW Sabah/Borneo

Multichannel reflection seismic data from the southern South China Sea, refraction and gravity modelling were used to investigate the compressional sedimentary structures of the collision-prone continental margin off NW Borneo. An elongated imbricate deepwater fan, the toe Thrust Zone bounds the Northwest Borneo Trough to the southeast. The faults separating the individual imbricates cut through post-Early Miocene sediments and curve down to a carbonate platform at the top of the subsiding continental Dangerous Grounds platform that forms the major detachment surface. The age of deformation migrates outward toward the front of the wedge. We propose crustal shortening mechanisms as the main reason for the formation of the imbricate fan. At the location of the in the past defined Lower Tertiary Thrust Sheet tectonostratigraphic province a high velocity body was found but with a much smaller extend than the previously defined structure. The high velocity structure may be interpreted either as carbonates that limit the transfer of seismic energy into the sedimentary layers beneath or as Paleogene Crocker sediments dissected by remnants of a proto-South China Sea oceanic crust that were overthrust onto a southward migrating attenuated continental block of the Dangerous Grounds during plate convergence.     

中国海域海相中生代油气

我国近海沉积盆地已发现的油气大部分产于陆相第三系。随着勘探工作尤其是地球物理勘探的逐步深入，在我国东海南部和南海北部陆坡深水海区，包括潮汕坳陷和台西南盆地的地震调查对可能存在的海相中生代地层的了解已取得了突破性进展。调查成果结合区域地质背景，认定海相中生代沉积主要来自由西而东的特提斯入侵。而寻找海相油气将会成为我国海域油气勘探的重大目标。     

A high-resolution,multi-channel,over-sea-ice seismic reflection survey over the Mackay Sea Valley,Granite Harbor,Antarctica

In the austral summer of 2007, 20.5 km of high-resolution over-sea-ice seismic reflection data were collected in the Granite Harbor region of southern McMurdo Sound over the Mackay Sea Valley. The goal of the survey was to image thin pelagic sediment deposited in the Mackay Sea Valley after the Last Glacial Maximum. A generator–injector air gun was lowered beneath the sea ice through holes drilled by an auger drill system. The recording system was a 60 channel snow streamer with vertically oriented gimbaled geophones spaced 25 m apart. Unique problems in the over-sea-ice seismic reflection survey—noise from the ice column flexing and timing delays caused by trapped air at previous shot points—were overcome to improve the quality of the seismic data. The Mackay Sea Valley survey produced seismic data with a vertical resolution of 6.3 m. The processed seismic data show pelagic sediment thickness of up to 50 m within the Mackay Sea Valley with some locations showing possible older sediments beneath the pelagic sediment layer.     

A Scenario of the Late-Pleistocene-Holocene Changes in the Distributional Range of Antarctic Krill (Euphausia superba)

Abstract. Oceanographic evidence along with the data on Euphausia superba distribution indicate that the reproductive range of this species is related to the southernmost core of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), the Weddell Gyre, the Ross Gyre, and the systems of mesoscale eddies in the Bellingshausen Sea, in the Prydz Bay area. and the D'Urville Sea. During the Last Glaciation Maximum, at ca. 18 ka BP, both the Weddell and the Ross Gyres as well as near-coastal circulations probably lost their importance in the maintenance of Antarctic krill populations due to cooling of the water column and development of multi-year sea ice. Within the ACC at that time, some smaller-scale circulations related to islands and seamounts could have played a major role in controlling krill distribution. If, nevertheless. refugia for self-maintained krill populations remained in the near-coastal zone, particularly in the eastern Indian sector, geographical isolation might have caused divergence between the two species of the gregarine Cephaloidophora commonly infesting krill at present.     

Circulation and melting under the Ross Ice Shelf: estimates from evolving CFC,salinity and temperature fields in the Ross Sea

Temperature, salinity and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) 11, 12 and 113 were measured on a line of stations along the front of the Ross Ice Shelf in the austral summers of 1984, 1994 and 2000. Water mass distributions were similar each year but with high variability in the cross-sectional areas. CFC concentrations increased and salinity decreased with time throughout the water column. CFC saturation levels in the shelf and surface waters also increased with time and ranged from 43% to 90%. The undersaturation was due to inflow of low-CFC modified Circumpolar Deep Water, gas exchange limited by sea ice cover and isolation of water from the atmosphere beneath the ice shelf. The residence time of dense shelf waters resulting from sea ice formation is less well constrained by the chemical data than is the strong flow into the Ross Ice Shelf cavity. Shelf waters are transformed over about 3.5 years, by net basal melting of the ice shelf, into fresher Ice Shelf Water (ISW), which emerges as a large plume near the central ice front at temperatures below the sea surface freezing point. We estimate an average ISW production rate of 0.86 Sv and an average net basal melt rate of 60 km³/year for the Ross Ice Shelf exceeding a 300 m draft (75% of the ice cavity) during recent decades from box and stream tube models fit to all of the CFC and salinity data. Model fits to the individual data sets suggest ISW production and net basal melt rate variability due to interannual changes on a shorter time scale than our observations. ISW production based on the CFC budget is better constrained than net basal melting based on thermohaline data, with a heat budget yielding a rate of only 20 km³/yr. Reconciling differences between apparent freshwater and temperature changes under the ice shelf involves considerations of mixing, freezing and the flow of meltwater across the ice shelf grounding line.