美国全球变化研究计划（USGCRP）2012年度计划

全球气候变化通过改变环境、自然资源、经济等诸多方面对美国产生广泛的影响。美国全球变化研究计划（USGCRP）主要为美国乃至全世界提供帮助来理解和预测气候变化、环境响应机制等相关的科学知识,预测气候变化或气候变异引起其他的变化,为应对气候变化的相关政策和风险管理提供理论依据。研究主要包括理论基础研究、综合观测研究、模型预测研究,为决策者提供相关产品等。2011年年末NSF如期对USGCRP进行了完善,并率先发展和制定了USGCRP战略新计划。从NSF对USGCRP的资助力度来看,2012年度预算比2011年预算增加了33％,即106．05百万美元,2012年度的重点研究领域为：     

美国住宅设计见闻(上)

作者在美国居住期间，观察美国住宅类型、构造、附属设施等，并就与我国住宅建筑的不同之处加以比较分析，为我国住宅设计提供了很多有益的思路。     

Geochemistry of the waste isolation pilot plant (WIPP) site, southestern New Mexico, U.S.A.

An extensive geochemical data base, including analyses of major and minor solutes, mineralogical studies of core samples, and isotopic studies of waters, carbonates and sulfates, has been assembled for evaporites and related rocks in the northern Delaware Basin of southeastern New Mexico. These data were compiled for the geological and hydrological characterization of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), which is excavated in the evaporites of the Salado Formation. These data were evaluated in order: (1) to determine the stability of the evaporite mineralogy over geological time; (2) to compare the aqueous geochemistry with host rock mineralogy; (3) to delineate the nature and timing of water-rock interactions, such as dissolution and recrystallization; (4) to determine the geological and climatic conditions that have governed groundwater recharge. The resulting synthesis of data and current hypotheses concerning the origin, composition and history of waters in the evaporite rocks and related units of the Delaware Basin provides a tentative conceptual model for the behavior of the water-rock system since the deposition of the evaporites in the Permian. Essential components of this model include: (1) widespread Late Triassic/Early Jurassic evaporite recrystallization; (2) accumulation of deep-basin brines isolated from meteoric recharge; (3) evaporite dissolution by meteoric waters flowing in carbonates and sulfates interbedded in the uppermost Permian section and at the basin margin; (4) lateral rather than vertical infiltration of pre-Holocene meteoric waters in the uppermost Permian section; and (5) climatic conditions presently less conducive to recharge than in the Late Pleistocene.     

Determination of Bromine and Iodine in U.S.G.S. Standard Marine Mud (MAG-1)

The concentrations of bromine and iodine in USGS reference material MAG-1 were determined by standard addition with secondary-source x-ray fluorescence spectrometric detection. Three determinations of bromine in the same sample yielded 311, 309 and 346 μg Br/g solid. The iodine content was found to be 380 μg I/g solid. The determination of bromine in a second bottle of MAG-1 (266 ± 9 μg Br/g) indicated that a large variation in halogen concentration may exist between samples of this reference material.     

Bivalve mollusks of the Far Eastern Seas of the U.S.S.R. (Order Dysodonta)

This short section of Skarlato's monograph, Bivalve Mollusks of the Far Eastern Seas of the U. S. S. R. (Order Dysodonta), discusses the genus Arvella Bartsch, 1940 ms. The genus includes the species formerly assigned to Crenella. Diagnostic features of the species included in genus Arvella Bartsch are given. Vilasina Bartsch, 1940 ms is discussed, also The author states that the hinges of Vilasina clearly assign the species to the genus Crenella. The form and position of the umbo relate the species closely to the genus Arvella, though. The almost entirely smooth laminated surface distinguishes Vilasina from both genera, as does the finely serrated ventral edge of the shell. The last section discusses the genus Modiolus Lamarck, 1799. — A. W. Bellais.     

Deinocephalians of the U.S.S.R.

The deinocephalian pelvic girdle, of general pelycosaurian structure, is useful in systematic diagnosis. In primitive Russian deinocephalians, two contrasting pelvic patterns are recognized, one light, thin-walled, narrow, and of V-shaped cross-section, and the other massive, thick-walled, wide, and of U-shaped cross-section. The former is characteristic of two families of lightly- built, mobile land carnivores, the Eotitanosuchidae and the Brithopodidae. The Eotitanosuchidae are more primitive and pelycosaur-like, while the Brithopodidae show more variation, and specializations of large size, shallower acetabulum (related to mobility?), and re-enforcement of a weak pubic symphysis by additional processes. The massive type of pelvis characterizes large, heavily built herbivorous animals of the family Estemmenosuchidae. In general pelvic structure, the Estemmenosuchidae resemble the South African anteosaurs and tapinocephalians and the Russian tapinocephalians. In detail, however, they show a more primitive stage of evolution, overlaid by characteristic specializations which relate them more closely to the advanced Russian forms than to those of South Africa. Three new genera are erected, Biarmosaurus, fam. Eotitanosuchidae; Chthomaloporus, fam. Brithopodidae; and Molybdopygus, fam. Estemmenosuchidae. One specimen formerly referred to Deuterosaurus Yefremov 1954, and five formerly included in the type of Brithopus Yefremov 1954 are referred to Molybdopygus. The more primitive deinocephalians are from Yezhovo in the Ocher District, Perm Province, while more advanced forms are from Isheyevo, in Tataria, where-therocephalians and other South African elements are also found. It is therefore concluded that the Ochersk beds are older than those of Isheyevo and must be dated to zone I of Yefremov's system. — N. Hotton III.     

Paleomagnetism of the triassic chugwater redbeds revisited (Wyoming, U.S.A.)

Paleomagnetic results from 107 samples of the Chugwater Group near Lander, Wyoming, show a regular progression in pole positions from bottom to top of the sequence. This pole position trend of about 25° matches very well the North American apparent polar wander path between Early Permian and Early Triassic. It could be argued that this “agreement” results in a conflict between the apparent magnetic age (Permian) and the Early to Late Triassic age generally assigned to the Chugwater Group. However, similar progressions of paleomagnetic pole positions have been reported for the Early Triassic Moenkopi Formation in Colorado; thus it appears that long-term variations and swings characterized the geomagnetic field at that time. With detailed paleomagnetic sampling, these features can be utilized for stratigraphic correlation in addition to magnetic-reversal stratigraphy. This will eliminate, to some degree, part of the non-uniqueness inherently present in correlations based on reversal stratigraphy only.     

A drowned lycopsid forest above the Mahoning coal (Conemaugh Group, Upper Pennsylvanian) in eastern Ohio, U.S.A.

Over 800 mud-filled casts of upright lycopsid tree stumps have been documented immediately above the Mahoning coal in an active underground mine located in northwestern Jefferson County, Ohio. The coal body originated as a pod-shaped peat body of 60 km². Trees are rooted at several levels within a thin (15–40 cm) bone coal directly above the banded coal; they extend upward up to 15 cm into overlying, flat-bedded, carbonaceous mudstones that coarsen up. From a maximum basal diameter of 1.2 m, stumps taper upward to diameters no less than 0.3 m. Within single-entry transects, < 6 m wide that total 2585 m in length, stumps are randomly distributed. The trees are identified as lepidodenrids on the basis of gross morphology, external stem patterns, and attached stigmarian root systems, and provisionally as Lepidophloios or Lepidodendron by associated palynology of the enclosing matrix. Palynological analyses of incremental seam samples indicate an initial dominance of lycopsid spores with lepidodendracean affinities (Lycospora granulata from Lepidophloios hallii), replaced upwards by tree-fern spores, with a reoccurrence of lepidodendracean spores in the upper benches: spores of Sigillaria (Crassispora) are abundant only at the base of the coal. Petrographic analyses indicate a prallel trend from vitrinite-rich to inertinite- and liptinite-rich upward in the coal body. All data indicate that the peat represented by the Mahoning coal was drowned slowly. During the earliest stages of inundation, a lycopsid forest was re-established, only to be subsequently drowned.     

Socio-economic geography in the U.S.S.R.

A major field of research since the 1920s has been methods and theories of economic regionalization. The territorial-production complex is now recognized as a key developmental tool within the framework of economic-planning regions. Recently, there has been a more marked growth of study into problems of natural-resource development, social progress and change in the U.S.S.R. as well as into the spatial structure of other nations, particularly other socialist countries and non-socialist developing countries.     

Precambrian tillite rocks of U.S.S.R.

Detailed regional studies and the author' personal observations on tillite-like rocks in Siberia and Ural suggest that pseudo-tillites, only too common in subaqueous landslide formations, were often mistaken for tillites or tillite-like rocks, because of their resemblance to fossil moraines. --V. P. Sokoloff.     

Eozoic complexes of the U.S.S.R.

Soviet geologists consider the Precambrian to be divided into two groups — Archaean and Proterozoic; but such a division is unsatisfactory. A major unconformity separates Proterozoic volcanic and sedimentary formations from an underlying sequence that contains two supergroups of supercrustal formations. The oldest of these is unanimously considered to be Archaean. Rocks of that supergroup play an essential part in the composition of the Baltic, Ukrainian, Aldan and Anabar Shields and of the ancient fold belts of the East-European and Siberian platforms.Distinctive features in the composition, tectonic structure, metamorphism and metallogeny of Archaean complexes lead to the conclusion that they were formed in specifically mobile areas, different from geosynclinal areas.The other supergroup of high-grade metamorphic rocks has no clear place in the accepted two-fold stratigraphic scheme of the Precambrian, and it is considered sometimes to be Archaean and sometimes to be Early Proterozoic. We propose restoring the forgotten name “Eozoic” for that supergroup. Eozoic complexes are characterized by peculiarities of composition and inner structure, which signify changes in the tectonic regime of the earth at the lower and upper boundaries of the Eozoic Supergroup. These peculiarities give grounds for distinguishing the Eozoic Supergroup as an independent stratigraphic division.The Stanovoy Complex of the southern part of the Aldan Shield is a stratotype for the Eozoic Supergroup. Many well-known stratigraphic subdivisions of the Siberian Platform (e.g., the Eniseiskaya, the Birusinskaya series and others), the Taratash Complex of the Urals, the Goranskaya and Shahdarinskaya series of the South-West Pamir, the Tikitch complex and Aulskaya series of the Ukrainian Shield, and in part the Belomorsky Complex of the Baltic Shield, as well as some others, are also Eozoic.The Eozoic complexes are characterized by the following specific features: only some supercrustal formations are typical for them; the small number of rock types which have a total thickness about 5–6 km; relatively monotonous mineral composition of the rocks; variable quantitative ratios of rocks; absence of contrasting marker beds; regional metamorphism and ultrametamorphism in the amphibolite facies; wide development of ultrametamorphic granitoids and migmatites; distinct tectonic differentiations of the basin of sedimentation.Dates determined by isotopic analyses, which mostly reflect the metamorphism of the deposits, fall predominantly in the range 2600–3100 Ma.     

GEOBOTANICAL MAP OF THE U.S.S.R.

A newly compiled geobotanical map of the U.S.S.R. scale 1:4,000,000 is described. Two hundred and ten categories of vegetation are mapped, classified under 15 major groups. The relation of the mapped vegetation units to climate, soil, ground condition (permafrost), watersheds, and major geomorphic features is emphasized. -- M. Russell.