Geochemical characteristics of trace elements in sediments of Dongting Lake, central China

Although eutrophication and trace element contamination are two key environmental problems in Dongting Lake, a systematic study of the distribution of trace elements in sediments of this lake has not previously been undertaken. In order to identify the current levels of trace metal contamination in Dongting Lake, the concentrations of trace elements （Cd, Cr Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, As and Hg） in the sediments at 53 locations were investigated in this study. The lake, the second largest fresh-water lake in China, boasts three China wetlands of international importance. Dongting Lake which lies in the south of the middle Yangtze River is the most important reservoir lake in the Yangtze River drainage area, and is characterized by fast flow-through water, large runoff volume and short period of exchanging water （no more than 20 days）. The granulometric analysis result of sediments shows that a large proportion of the sediments measures at 2-63 μm in size; the result of mineralogical analysis shows that original mineral is the main composition of the sediments, followed by clay mineral and carbonate. The contents of copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, arsenic and mercury are higher than the background levels of soil （ Ⅰ Soil） in China, but lower than the threshold values for severely polluted soil （Ⅲ Soil） in China except Cd higher than that in Ⅲ Soil. The concentrations of trace elements analyzed are higher than the Threshold Effect Level of Interim Sediment Quality Guideline by Canada EPA and are lower than the Probable Effect Level. The assessment by geoaccumulation index shows that the contamination of Cd reached strong level in Dongting Lake. Study on speciation of metals by a BCR procedure indicates that the trace elements （Cu, Zn, Cr, and Ni） analyzed are mainly distributed in residual phases but Pb in Fe/Mn oxhydroxide phase and Cd in soluble and carbonate-bound fraction. The potential risk was the highest in East Dongting Lake based on the calculated contamination factors which are mostly probably caused by the deposition of the trace element pollutants via the Xiangjiang River and the discharge of the pollution sources in the vicinity of East Dongting Lake.     

3D Velocity Structure and Its Tectonic Implications in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea

3D structure of the crust and upper mantle in the studied area has been analyzed from surface wave tomography. The velocity distribution in the uppermost crust is symmetrical on two sides of the central line of the sea, and coincides with the structure of crystalline basement. The essential difference in tectonics between the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea mainly lies in that the velocity structures of their lower crust and upper mantle are identical to those of South China and North China respectively. In the upper mantle there exists a high-velocity zone with a nearly EW strike from the Hangzhou Bay, China, to the Tokara Channel, Japan, along about the latitude of 30°N. It is found that between the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea there are systematical differences in geomorphology, geology, seismicity, heat flow, quality factor and gravity and aeromagnetic anomalies, which is related to both left-lateral shear dislocation and right-lateral tear of the Benioff zone from the Hangzhou Bay to the Tokara Channel.It is inferred that the East China Sea was formed by Cenozoic back-arc extension. The boundary between the North China and South China crustal blocks stretches along the southern piedmont of Mts. Daba-Dabie-Hangzhou Bay-Tokara Channel, and the subduction zone at the Okinawa trench is the eastern boundary of the South China crustal block. The movements of the Pacific plate, Indian plate and upper mantle rather than the Philippine plate subduction have played a dominant role for the modern tectonic movements in East Asia.     

Middle and Late Carboniferous Tetracoral Assemblages and Biogeography of China

China is rich in Middle and Carboniferous fossil corals. The coral faunas in different regions have varying characteristics and can be divided into distinct assemblages. The coral fauna in South China is dominated by the order Caninida and contains numerous endemic elements; that in North China has a lot of Middle Carboniferous corals which are monotonous in species, with Late Carboniferous solitary corals being predominant. The coral fauna in Junggar mainly contains large bi-zoned solitary caninids, while that in southern Khingan is similar to that in South China due to the presence of abundant tri-zoned compound corals. In northern Tibet the coral fauna is also similar to that in South China, but in southern Tibet it is of a cold-water type. Therefore, the Middle and Late Carboniferous coral geography of China can be divided into the Tethys, Boreal and Gondwana Realms.     

Feldspar Lead Isotopic Composition of Granitoids from the Eastern Qinling Orogenic Belt and Their Tectonic Significance

This paper reports 48 feldspar lead isotope analyses from 27 granitic intrusions,which formed from the Late Proterozic to Mesozoic within the Eastern Qinling oregenic belt. Itis found that the granitic rocks of South Qinling are characterized by a strong block-effect anddepletion in U-Pb and Th-Pb, showing that these rocks came from the same lead isotopetectono-geochemical province, while those of North Qinling are characterized by higher U-Pband Th-Pb for Late Proterozoic to Early Paleozoic ones and lower U-Pb and Th-Pb forLate-Palaeozoic and younger ones in their feldspar lead isotopic composition. In the NorthQinling block, lead isotopic signatures reflect that the source of granitic magma had changedsince the Late Palaeozoic. Comparison of feldspar lead isotopic composition between SouthQinling and North Qinling shows that there is marked difference in lead isotopic compositionfor pre-Palaeozoic granitoids, indicating that the South Qinling and the North Qinling blocksbelong to different tectonic units, but the similarities in lead isotopic composition are quiteclear, which indicates that the South Qinling block had been welded with the North Qinlingblock and that the magma sources of both blocks were identical. The analysis provides directevidence for underplating of the continental crust of South Qinling beneath the North Qinlingblock in the continent-continent interaction stage of the Eastern Qinling oregenic belt.     

A Novel Type of Oil—generating Organic Matter —Crystal—enclosed Organic Matter

The comparative study of organic matter in carbonate rocks and argillaceous rocks from the same horizon indicates that the organic thermal maturities of carbonate rocks are much lower than those of argillaceous rocks .Ana extensive analysis of extracted and inclused organic matter from the same sample shows that inclused organic matter is different from extracted organic matter,and the thermal maturity of the former is usually lower than that of the latter in terms of biomarker structural parameters.It seems that carbonate mineras could preserve organic matter and retard organic maturation.The inclused organic matter,abundant in most carbonate rocks,will be released from minerals and transformed into oil and gas during the high-thermal maturity stage.     

Adaptive state estimation of groundwater contaminant boundary input flux in a 2-dimensional aquifer

In many circumstances involving heat and mass transfer issues,it is considered impractical to measure the input flux and the resulting state distribution in the domain.Therefore,the need to develop techniques to provide solutions for such problems and estimate the inverse mass flux becomes imperative.Adaptive state estimator(ASE)is increasingly becoming a popular inverse estimation technique which resolves inverse problems by incorporating the semi-Markovian concept into a Bayesian estimation technique,thereby developing an inverse input and state estimator consisting of a bank of parallel adaptively weighted Kalman filters.The ASE is particularly designed for a system that encompasses independent unknowns and/or random switching of input and measurement biases.The present study describes the scheme to estimate the groundwater input contaminant flux and its transient distribution in a conjectural two-dimensional aquifer by means of ASE,which in particular is because of its unique ability to efficiently handle the process noise giving an estimation of keeping the relative error range within 10%in 2-dimensional problems.Numerical simulation results show that the proposed estimator presents decent estimation performance for both smoothly and abruptly varying input flux scenarios.Results also show that ASE enjoys a better estimation performance than its competitor,Recursive Least Square Estimator(RLSE)due to its larger error tolerance in greater process noise regimes.ASE's inherent deficiency of being slower than the RLSE,resulting from the complexity of algorithm,was also noticed.The chosen input scenarios are tested to calculate the effect of input area and both estimators show improved results with an increase in input flux area especially as sensors are moved closer to the assumed input location.     

Sr,Nd,Pb Isotope Geochemistry and Magma Evolution of the Potassic Volcanic Rocks,Wudalianchi,Northeast China

Wudalianchi volcanic rocks are the most typical Cenozoic potassic volcanic rocks in easten China.Compositional comparisons between whole rocks and glasses of various occurrences indicate that the magma tends to become rich in silica and alkalis as a result of crystal differentiation in the course of evolu-tion.They are unique in isotopic composition with more radiogenic Sr but less radiogenic Pb.^87Sr/^86Sr is higher and ^143Nd/^144Nd is lower than the undifferentiated global values.In comparison to continental pot-ash volcanic rocks,Pb isotopes are apparently lower.These various threads of evidence indicate that the rocks were derived from a primary enriched mantle which had not been subjected to reworking and shows no sign of incorporation of crustal material.The correlation between Pb and Sr suggests the regional heterogeneity in the upper mantle in terms of chemical composition.     

Genesis of the Dalingzi Pb-Zn Deposit in the Western Margin of Yangtze Plate: Constraints from Fluid Inclusions and Isotopic EvidenceEI北大核心CSCD

The Daliangzi Pb-Zn deposit is a large deposit hosted in the Sinian Dengying Formation dolostone, located in the Sichuan-Yunnan-Guizhou ore concentration area. Ore minerals are mianly sphalerite, galena, and gangue minerals consist of dolomite, quartz and calcite. The metallogenic stages may be divided into sphalerite-pyrite-carbon stage, sphalerite-galena stage and galena-chalcopyrite-carbonate stage. The ore-forming fluid is basin brine, which is characterized by medium-low temperature of 117.5 ℃ to 320.3 ℃ and medium salinity of 5.11% NaCleqv to 18.96% NaCleqv, moreover, the abundant CH4 and pitch in the fluid inclusions indicate that the participation of organic matter in the mineralization. The δ13CV-PDB and δ18OSMOW values of the Dengying Formation dolostone are similar to that of marine carbonate, revealing that the dolostone belongs to marine carbonate. Both the δ13CV-PDB and δ18OSMOW values of hydrothermal calcites are lower than that of the Dengying Formation dolostone, which may result from dissolution of the Dengying Formation dolostone. The δ34S values of ore minerals are mainly in the range of 9.8‰-20.8‰, indicating the sulfur may come from thermochemical reduction of marine sulfate in the Dengying Formation. The 207Pb/204Pb versus 206Pb/204Pb diagram manifests that Pb is crustal origin, and likely comes mainly from the wall rocks and less from the basement. (87Sr/86Sr)i ratios of sphalerites and hydrothermal calcite are higher than that of the Dengying Formation dolostone, indicating that the ore-forming fluid flew through the basement. In conclusion, the ore-forming fluid was basin brine, which extracted the metallogenic materials, Pb and Zn, from the basement and wall rocks. When the ore-forming fluid reached the "black fractured zones", carbonized tectonic breccia zone, S2- was produced by the thermochemical reduction reaction under the influence of the organic matter, and interaction between the S2- and Pb2+, Zn2+, resulted in the precipitation of ore metals. © 2018, Science Press. All right reserved.     

PCBs and OCPs in sediments from Hongfeng Reservoir in Guizhou Province, China

In this research, chlorinated hydrocarbons （polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides） were measured by GC-ECD in sediments from the Hongfeng Reservoir area. The concentrations of total PCBs range from 3.2 to 31.6 ng/g, among which PCB28, PCB52 are the major congeners with the concentrations from 0.5 to 4.6 ng/g, and from 0.4 to 28.1 ng/g, respectively. The concentrations of these pollutants decrease from surface to bottom, while the concentrations at 1-4 cm are lower than at 5-8 cm, suggesting the decline of PCBs input. TOC concentrations of sediment are found in a significant positive correlation with those of PCBs, suggesting that PCBs are mainly adsorbed on organic matter and particles. HCHs and DDTs are the predominant organochlorine pesticides with the concentrations ranging from 1.6 to 8.9 ng/g （average 3.2 ng/g） and 0.9 to 25.7 ng/g （average 7.8 ng/g）, respectively. β-HCH and γ-HCH （lindane） are the predominant HCH isomers from sediments, and p, p＇-DDE and p, p＇-DDT are the predominant DDT isomers. DDT/DDE＋DDD and α-HCH/γ-HCH ratios range from 0.6 to 0.9 and 0.1 to 3.0, respectively, which indicates more use of lindane than technical mixtures of HCHs before, and also suggests changes in HCHs and DDTs in the environment. The high values of β-HCH and p, p＇-DDE also show that atmospheric input is one of the important sources of the Hongfeng Reservoir, because β-HCH and p, p＇-DDE are stable and have low Sw and Pv so that they can be easily transferred over a long range in atmosphere.     

Geophysical and Geological Features of the Meso-Cenozoic Lower Yangtze Rift Zone

It is clarified in this paper that the Lower Yangtze depression is a Meso-Cenozoic rift zone formed on thebasement of the Hercynian-Indosinian foreland basins. The rift zone is divided into eastern and western sectorsand is different in northern and southern parts. The rift zone in plane combination comprises parallel.trifurcate or splitting rifts. The North Jiangsu-South Yellow Sea region represents a "drift-type" rift basinwhose deposition center migrates gradually castward. The formation mechanism and dynamic evolution of therift basin are discussed from a viewpoint of the crustal fine-structure, with evidence in geology and geophysicsand analysis results of dynamic forces given.     

Geochemical characteristics and petrogenesis of the Dashipo-Heishantuo batholith in Beijing and its geological significanceEI北大核心CSCD

The early Jurassic Dashipo-Heishantuo batholith in Beijing, which consists of the Dashipo hornblende-biotite syenite and Heishantuo granite, exposed in the western Yanshan orogenic belt, eastern North China Craton. The Dashipo syenite is magnesian potassic intermediate rock enriched in large ion lithophile elements such as Rb, Ba, Sr, Pb and LREE, and relatively depleted in high field strength elements such as Nb, Ta, U, Th, Zr, Hf as well as P and Ti, with εNd(t) values from -12.1 to -12.2 and ISr values of 0.70506-0.70464. The Heishantuo granite is magnesian peraluminous high K calc-alkaline, with an enrichment of large ion lithophile elements and radioactive elements such as Rb, Ba, Th, U and Pb, and a depletion of HREE and high field strength elements such as Nb, Ta, Zr and Hf as well as Sr, P and Ti, with εNd(t) values from -15.5 to -18.0 and ISr values of 0.70516-0.70593. The magma of the Dashipo syenite is produced by fractional crystallization of mantle-derived K-rich mafic magma under high pressure. The partial melting of the lower crust, which was heated and metasomatised by the mantle-derived magma, produced granitic magma that intruded into the unconsolidated Dashipo syenite to form the concentric batholith. The petrology and geochemistry of the Dashipo hornblende-biotite syenite indicate that the water weakening was important for the lithospheric destruction within the interior part of the North China Craton. Meanwhile, the partial melting related to the double-diffusion of energy and chemical composition between mantle-derived magma and crustal rocks was an important mechanism for the Mesozoic calc-alkaline felsic magmatism occurred in the interior of the North China Craton. ©, 2015, Science Press. All right reserved.     

Lead Isotopic Composition and Lead Source of the Huogeqi Cu-Pb-Zn Deposit, Inner Mongolia, China

The Huogeqi orefield located on the northern side of Mt. Langshan, Inner Mongolia occurs in the Middle Proterozoic Langshan Group metamorphic rocks, and the orebodies arc stratiform. In the past twenty years, many Chinese geologists have conducted researches on the Huogeqi Cu-Pb-Zn deposit, but there has been still a controversy on its origin. Some advocate that the deposit is of sedimentary-metamorphic rcworking origin, some hold that it is of sea-floor SEDEX origin, and others have a preference for magmatic superimposition origin. The crux of the controversy is that there is no common understanding about the source of ore-forming materials. In this paper, the Pb isotopic compositions of regional Achaean-Early Proterozoic basement rocks, various types of sedimentary- metamorphic rocks and volcanic rocks in the mining district, Late Proterozoic and Hercynian magmatic rocks arc introduced and compared with the orc-lead composition, so as to constrain the source of the ore lead. The result indicates that （1） sulfides in the ores have homogeneous Pb isotopic compositions, showing a narrow variation range. Their ^206pb/^204pb ratios arc within a range of 17.027- 17.317; ^207Pb/^204pb ratios, 15.451-15.786 and ^208Pb/^204pb ratios, 36.747-37.669; （2） the Pb isotopic compositions of the regional Achaean-Early Proterozoic basement rocks arc characteristic of the old Pb isotopic composition at the early-stage evolution of the Earth, which varies over a wider range, reflecting significant differences in Pb isotopic compositions of the ores. All this indicates that the source of ore lead has no bearing on the basement rocks; （3） the sedimentary-metamorphic rocks in the mining district arc characterized by highly variable and more radiogenic Pb isotopic compositions and their Pb isotopic ratios arc obviously higher than those of ores, demonstrating that ore lead did not result from metamorphic rcworking of these rocks; （4） Pb isotopic compositions of Late Proterozoic diorite-gabbro and Hercynian granite are higher than those of ores. Meanwhile, the Pb isotopic compositions of sulfides in the small-sized strata-penetrating mineralized veinlets formed at later stages arc completely consistent with that of sulfides in stratiform-banded ores, suggesting that these veiniets arc the product of autochthonous rcworking of the stratiform-banded ores during the period of metamorphism and the late magmatic superimposition-mineralization can be excluded; （5） amphibolite, whose protolith is basic volcanic rocks, has the same Pb isotopic compositions as ores, implying that ore lead was derived probably from basic volcanism. So, the source of ore-forming materials for the Huogeqi deposit is like that of the volcanic massive sulfide （VMS） deposits. However, the orebodies do not occur directly within the volcanic rocks, and instead they overlie the volcanic rocks, showing some differences from those typical VMS-type deposits.     

Sulphur and Lead Isotope Compositions of the Dajiangping Deposit in Western Guangdong Province

The Dajiangping pyrite deposit located in the middle sector of the Yunkai uplift in western Guangdong is a stratiform sulphide deposit occurring in Sinian marine clastic and fine clastic rocks. The formation of the deposit was related to submarine exhalation and hot brine deposition. A part of it was reformed by late-stage hydrothermal solution. The δ34S values of pyrite vary from - 25.55‰ to +21.07‰, which are inversely proportional to the content of organic carbon in ore and pyrite. Passing from striped fine-grained pyrite ore to massive coarse-grained pyrite ore, i.e. from south to north, the sulphur isotopic composition changes from the light sulphur-enriched one to the heavy sulphur-enriched one. The lead isotopic composition of striped ore is consistent with that of the country rocks of orebodies and the lead is radiogenic lead derived from the upper crust. The lead isotopic composition of massive ore is relatively homogeneous and its 206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb and 208Pb/204Pb ratios are a bit lo     

Chemistry of Aerosols over Chukchi Sea and Bering Sea

The contents of elements in aerosols sampled during the First Chinese Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE-1) show great differences from one element to another. Na, K,Ca, Mg, A1, F, and Cl are the major components in the aerosols, whose contents are larger than 30 ng/m^3. The chemical elements whose contents vary between 0.1 - 30 ng/m^3 are Br,Sr, Cr, Ni, and Zn. The chemical elements whose contents are close to or slightly higher than 0.1 ng/m^3 are Rb, Ba, Zr, Th, and Pb. The contents of As, Sb, W, Mo, Au, La, Ce, Nd,Sin, Eu, Tb, Yb, Lu, Sc, Co, Hf, Ta, and Cd are less than 0.1 ng/m^3. The mass concentration data for the same element, as observed during CHINARE-1, are almost accordant, but much lower than what is observed in the China‘ s seas or the coasts of China. The enrichment factor and electron microscopic analyses and lead isotope tracing were used to distinguish their sources.Four groups of sources can be classified as follows: anthropogenic: As, Sb, W, F, Mo, Au,Cu, Pb, Cd, V; crustal: La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, Yb, Lu, Fe, Sc, Cr, Co, Ba, Zr, Hf,Ta, Cs, Mn, Th, U; oceanic:Na, K, Ca, and Mg; and mixing: Rb, Sr, Ca, and Mg.     

Soil carbon stock of the Central-East Asia in the climate warming

Water samples from the Wujiang River, a typical karst river system, were analyzed for major ion concentrations and δ^34S values of dissolved sulfate in order to identify the sources of sulfate, quantify the sulfate export flux and understand the role of sulfur cycling in chemical weathering rate of carbonate. Spatial variations in sulfate concentration and sulfur isotopic composition of tributaries over the catchment area are obvious, allowing to decipher S sources between rocks and atmosphere. According to the variations in sulfate concentration and isotopic composition, it is inferred that sulfate ions in the upper-reach river waters may have three sources, rain water, sulfate resultant from oxidation of pyrite in coal, and sulfate from sulfide deposits. In the lower reaches, the S isotopic composition of the samples lies mainly on a mixing trend between evaporite sulfate and rainwater sulfate, the contribution of sulfate from oxidation of pyrite being lesser. A pronounced seasonal variation in both content and isotopic composition of sulfate characterizes the Wujiang River. The average sulfate concentration of the waters is 0.65 mmol/L in winter, 0.17 mmol/L higher than that in summer. River water δ^34S values range from -15.7‰ to 18.9‰ in winter, while the δ^34S values of river waters in summer vary to a lesser extent than in winter, from -11.5‰ to 8.3‰. The δ^34S values of the main stream range from -6.7‰ to -3.9‰ in summer, averaging 3‰ lower than in winter. This indicates that in summer, when the discharge increases, the contribution of a source enriched in light isotopes to the atmosphere or the oxidation of pyrite in coal is more important.     

冀东滦县一带前震旦纪含铁石英岩中磁铁矿的氧同位素组成

BrFs technique was adopted in extracting oxygen from magnetite. The measurements have shown that the samples from Sijiayin mining district have the δO^18 values of -5.50- 7.58‰ with a range of 13.08‰. The δO^18 values are higher for samples from the northern and southern ,parts of the mining district, varying within a small limit, while they are lower in the central part, with a wide range. The δO^18 values of ores subjected to alteration caused by chloritization and pyritization turn out to be much lower. As for rich ores, two aspects are recognized as follows: (1) δO^18 is dose to that of poor ores; (2) δO^18 is remarkably lower than that of poor ores, indicating a more complex mode of occurrence of rich ores.     

Mesozoic–Cenozoic Tectonic Evolution and Uplift in Pamir: Application of Fission Track Thermochronology

The Pamir Plateau can be divided into three secondary tectonic units from north to south: the North, the Middle and the South Pamir Blocks. The North Pamir Block belonged to the southern margin of Tarim-Karakum, thermochronological study of the Pamir structural intersection indicates that accretion of the Middle Pamir Block to the Eurasian Continental Margin and its subduction and collision with the North Pamir Block occurred in the Middle–Late Jurassic. Due to the Neo-Tethys closure in the Early Cretaceous, the South Pamir Block began to collide with the accretion(the Middle Pamir Block) of the Eurasian Continental Margin. Affected by the collision and continuous convergence between the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate since the Cenozoic, Pamir is in a multi-stage differential uplift process. During 56.1–48.5 Ma, North Pamir took the lead in uplifting, that is, the first rapid uplift in the Pamir region began there. The continuous compression and contraction of the Indian and Eurasian plates during 22.0–15.1 Ma forced the Pamir tectonic syntaxis to begin its overall uplift, i.e. Pamir began to enter the second rapid uplift stage in the Early Oligocene, which lasted until the Middle Miocene. During 14.6–8.5 Ma, South Pamir was in a rapid uplift stage, while North Pamir was in a relatively stable state, showing asymmetry of tectonic deformation in the Pamir region in space. Since 6.5 Ma, Pamir began to rapidly uplift again.     

A New Material of Lindera (Lauraceae) of the Late Pliocene from Tengchong, Yunnan and the Genus' Biogeography Significance

Lindera is a large genus of graceful, pleasantly scented and common native trees and shrubs of southern China and neighboring regions of SE Asia. There is a well-documented Cenozoic fossil record not only in these regions but also from elsewhere. A new fossil leaf record has been found in diatomite beds from the Upper Pliocene Mangbang Formation of Tuantian, Tengchong County, Yunnan. The leaves are identified and assigned to Lindera acuminatissima K. Q. Dao et B. N. Sun sp. nov., by comparing their leaf architecture and epidermal characteristics with those of 51 extant Lauraceae species and with 15 known fossil Lindera taxa. The specimens have well-preserved cuticles, with typical leaf architecture and epidermal characteristics of the Lauraceae, including entire leaf margin, intramarginal veins, basal ternate acrodromous primary veins, one-cell trichome base, paracytic stomatal apparatus, sunken guard cells, subsidiary hardly staining cells and presence of oil cells. These characteristics are consistent with Lindera sect. Daphnidium but are different from reported fossil and extant species of Lindera. The cuticles of Lindera are fragile and delicate with only three Lindera fossils reported based on this tissue. In terms of paleobiogeography, the fossil record indicates that Lindera is distributed in high- to mid-latitude regions of the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene northern hemisphere. Coincidentally, the records of Lindera located on both sides of the Bering Land Bridge possibly support the hypothesis that ancient plants extended via transcontinental exchanges through the Bering Corridor. In the Eocene, ancient Lindera spread to Europe through the Northern Degeer Route and the Southern Thulian Route. At the same time, ancient Lindera spread into Central Asia. Climatic changes and tectonization since the Neogene prevented the propagation of Lindera throughout Asia, North America and Europe, and hence the distribution areas have just regressed to the low-latitude regions in Asia and North America. From the Paleogene to the Neogene, Lindera has changed its distribution by surviving extreme climate changes. Quaternary glaciations ultimately led to Lindera becoming extinct in Europe. The new record from Tengchong, Yunnan, with its lower latitude located in tropical and subtropical regions, indicates that Lindera has lived in those regions since the late Pliocene.     

Absorption of Arsenite on Several Iron （Hydro-）Oxides and Impact from Pre-processing Methods

The absorption reactions of arsenite on Fe （hydro-）oxides are studied. The three absorbent types are Fe（OH）3 gel and two Fe （hydro-）oxides, in which the Fe（OH）3 gel was dried in a microwave oven under vacuum at 80℃. It is found that pH changes from 9.71 to 10.36 in 6 minutes after the Fe （OH）3 gel was mixed with NaAsO2 solution, as the arsenite replaces the OH- in goethite and Fe（OH）3. At the 40th minute after the start of the reaction, pH decreases, which is most probably because that the monodentate surface complex of absorbed arsenite has changed into mononuclear-bidentate complex and released proton. The decline in pH values indicates not the end of the absorption but a change in the reaction type. Temperature and dissolved gas has little effect on these two types of reactions. The total absorption of arsenite increases after the absorbent is irradiated with ultrasound, which also lead to difficulty in separating the solids from solution. The absorption capacity for arsenite of Fe（OH）3 gel dried in a microwave oven under vacuum is 53.18% and 17.22% respectively better than that of Fe （OH）3 gel and gel dried at 80℃. The possible reasons are that the water molecules in the gel vibrates with high frequency under the effect of microwave irradiation, thereby producing higher porosity and improved surface activity.     

A Carbon Isotopic Stratigraphic Pattern of the Late Palaeozoic Coals in the North China Platform and Its Palaeoclimatic Implications

This paper gives the stable carbon isotopic data in coals from the Late Namurian to Kazanian stages inthe Serteng Mt., Xishan and Huainan coalfields of the North China Platform. Its stratigraphic pattern shows that sev-eral isotopic shifts are apparent, and the large δ~(13)C negative shifts (approximately 2.5 to 3.0‰) occurred during theStephanian, Artinskian and Kazanian are observed in three Permo-Carboniferous coalfields. Those negative shifts areneither related to the coal rank and coal macerals, nor caused by the variety of peat-forming plants. The general de-crease in the δ~(13)C values of the Stephanian, Artinskian and Kazanian coals is consistent with an overall decrease inthe δ~(13)C values of ambient atmospheric CO_2 and/or a relative increase in atmospheric P_(CO2) during the coal-forming pe-riods. Therefore the authors postulate that the oxidation of peat, and the δ~(13)C-depleted CO_2 flux into the atmosphereduring the above stages may have contributed to coeval palaeoclimatic warming by way of the greenhouse effect.