Quaternary slope processes and morphologies in the upper Sehonghong Valley, eastern Lesotho

Several high south-facing slopes in the southern Drakensberg were glaciated during the Late Quaternary, yet little is known about the slope geomorphic history on equally high slopes that appear not to have been glaciated. To this end, we examine evidence for Late Quaternary slope dynamics in a high alpine valley of eastern Lesotho, with particular attention given to palaeo-environmental signatures offered by deep colluvial mantles along the flanks of the Sehonghong River and pronival ramparts along the upper southerly-facing slopes of the adjoining Thabana-Ntlenyana. Sedimentary exposures were mapped and sampled for clast fabric, clast shape, organic matter content, granulometry and ¹⁴C age determination. Similarly, a pronival rampart was mapped and clast size, shape and fabric determined for various micro-topographic settings. A palaeosol beneath the rampart was also Radiocarbon dated. Findings suggest that the deep and extensive debris mantles on lower south-facing slopes are a product of prolonged colluviation, whilst the more stratified sequences on north-facing slopes indicate greater slope geomorphic-process variability over time. Radiocarbon ages suggest sediment accumulation along the north-facing exposure from at least ∼43 ka. It is proposed that snowcreep and snowpush on high (>3400 m a.s.l.) southeast-facing slopes during a relatively cold, yet moist period at ∼AD 300-1000 initiated boulder movement to form the pronival ramparts.     

Late Quaternary Floodplain History of the Brazos River in East-Central Texas

The floodplain along a 75-km segment of the Brazos River, traversing the Gulf Coastal Plain of Texas, has a complex late Quaternary history. From 18,000 to 8500 yr B.P., the Brazos River was a competent meandering stream that migrated from one side of the floodplain to the other, creating a thick layer of coarse-grained lateral accretion deposits. After 8500 yr B.P., the hydrologic regime of the Brazos River changed. The river became an underfit meandering stream that repeatedly became confined within narrow and unstable meander belts that would occasionally avulse. Avulsion occurred four times; first at 8100 yr B.P., then at 2500 yr B.P., again around 500 yr B.P., and finally around 300 yr B.P. The depositional regime on the floodplain also changed after 8500 yr B.P., with floodplain construction dominated by vertical accretion. Most vertical accretion occurred from 8100 to 4200 yr B.P. and from 2500 to 1250 yr B.P. Two major and three minor periods of soil formation are documented in the floodplain sequence. The two most developed soils formed from 4200 to 2500 yr B.P. and from around 1250 to 500 yr B.P. These changes on the floodplain appear to be the result not of a single factor, but of the complex interplay among changes in climate, sediment yield, and intrinsic floodplain variables over time.     

萨拉乌苏河流域第四系岩石地层及其时间界限

根据对位于鄂尔多斯高原毛乌素沙漠东南部边缘萨拉乌苏河流域的米浪沟湾剖面岩石地层划分并结合年代测试结果,提出了如下一些看法1以组为代表的岩石地层单元的形成时间为离石组>150000aB.P.、萨拉乌苏组150000-75000aB.P.、城川组75000-10000aB.P.、大沟湾组-滴哨沟湾组10000-1000aB.P.、范家沟湾组1000aB.P.-现代.2以上岩石单元与黄土高原相同时期层系具有较好的对比关系离石组\萨拉乌苏组、萨拉乌苏组\城川组和城川组\大沟湾组在地质时代上依次与L₂\S₁(时限为140000aB.P.)、S1\L1(时限为80000aB.P.)和L1\S0(时限为11000-10000aB.P.)大体是等时的.3如以过去全球变化而论,则目前已经可以确切地将米浪沟湾剖面诸岩石单元与深海和大陆冰川最近地质时期的若干氧同位素阶段进行对比,以“”表示为离石组MIS6、萨拉乌苏组MIS5、城川组MIS2～MIS4、大沟湾组+滴哨沟湾组+范家沟湾组MIS1.显然,这一对比关系清楚地说明,我国沙漠万年时间尺度环境演变,与黄土的研究结果一样,在很大程度上受到北半球冰期间冰期气候波动的影响.据此,可以按气候地层进行划分,将离石组、萨拉乌苏组、城川组、大沟湾组+滴哨沟湾组+范家沟湾组的时代分别置于里斯冰期、里斯-玉木间冰期(末次间冰期)、玉木冰期(末次冰期)和冰后期。     

Quaternary geology and nature conservation

Applied geology has broad terms of reference in the Danish Quaternary. Environmental geology, which is one aspect of this, can be defined as the contribution which geology can make to improve the quality of life. Nature conservation is an important aspect of environmental geology. Geologisk Institut, Aarhus University, has been involved for several years with the conservation of a variety of sites, including Quaternary profiles and landscapes. The work has been carried out in co-operation with, among others, Fredningsstyrelsen under the Ministry of the Environment and the county council authorities. This article presents examples of this activity, including topics of national, as well as of regional and more local importance.     

Quaternary glaciations of the Rongbuk Valley,Tibet

Randomisation tests on boulder weathering data distinguish moraines of four different ages in the Rongbuk Valley, all deposited by valley glaciers flowing northward into Tibet from the Himalaya. Lichenometry utilising subgenus Rhizocarpon distinguishes two groups of moraines, those <100 yr old and those older than several thousand years. The degree of soil development has a similar, limited utility in relative-age dating these moraines. The radiocarbon ages of calcium carbonate coatings in the lower horizons of moraine soils provide minimum-limiting ages of 1900 yr BP for the penultimate advance of the Rongbuk glacier (Samdopo moraine) and 9500 yr BP for the Rongbuk moraine, the moraine suggested by previous workers to represent the last glacial maximum. Equilibrium-line depression associated with the Rongbuk moraine probably was slight, <200 m. The small magnitude of this depression relative to glaciers in other mountain ranges could relate to a weakening of the monsoon in full glacial times, recent tectonic uplift, and/or to the insensitivity of these high-altitude glaciers to lowering temperatures in the rain shadow of Mount Everest.     

萨拉乌苏河流域第四纪地层及古环境研究综述

萨拉乌苏河流域位于我国毛乌素沙漠～黄土高原过渡带,对东亚夏季风和冬季风驱动的古环境波动及全球冰期—间冰期旋回有良好的地质记录.流域内河湖相和风成相沉积交错互层,发育有华北地区晚更新世标准地层——萨拉乌苏组,并含有河套人化石、萨拉乌苏动物群和丰富的文化遗迹.从其发现定名至今,就得到了古人类学家和地质学家的广泛关注.研究表明,流域内出露的第四纪地层主要包括晚更新世萨拉乌苏组和城川组,全新世大沟湾组、滴哨沟湾组和范家沟湾组,这与古气候代用指标所反映的沉积环境有很好的阶段响应.本文通过对滴哨沟湾和米浪沟湾剖面研究进展的回顾和总结,认为在建立精确的地层年代序列,重建末次间冰期以来的高分辨率古环境历史,明确萨拉乌苏动物群及文化层的归属和厘定萨拉乌苏组沉积相等方面有待更深入的研究.     

The Quaternary geology of the British Isles

This editorial accompanies the second of two sets of papers in the Proceedings (the first set appeared in Part 4 of 2009) that arise from the Annual Discussion Meeting of the Quaternary Research Association, co-hosted by the Royal Geographical Society. This collection represents two main categories of paper: on (1) on sand and gravel, several arising from projects funded from the British Government's Aggregates Levy, and (2) glaciation, with a degree of overlap between these. Both categories also include results of PhD research. The first category includes presentation of fluvially-based data from SW England, North Yorkshire, the Trent and the Fen Basin, as well as studies of raised beach deposits in southern England and County Durham. At the boundary between the categories is a paper on a pre-glacial fluvial valley system in the glaciated Dyfi basin, west Wales, and another on the marginal area between the Late Devensian Welsh ice cap and the contemporaneous Irish Sea ice stream, encompassing glacio-fluvial sands and gravels as well as fully glacigenic diamictons. There are also papers on the Woore Moraine, in Shropshire, and the glaciofluvial deposits of the Brampton kame belt, east of Carlisle, Cumbria. Studies at either end of Yorkshire include a paper on the sedimentology and luminescence dating of Glacial Lake Humber deposits, in the central Vale of York, and another that documents deglaciation and the emergence of the rivers in the watershed area between the rivers of this Vale (the Swale-Ure-Ouse system) and the Tees, to the north. The latter is followed up by a third paper on the palaeo-environmental evidence from the middle ‘piedmont’ reaches of these rivers. Two final papers fall outside of these categories. One documents periglacial activity during the Loch Lomond Stadial in south London, revealing significant complexity. The second reviews the engagement of the Quaternary community with the formal education system, with institutions, policy makers, planners and with the public at large, offering examples of good practice and setting out aspirations for continuation of such ‘outreach’ in the future.     

天山托木尔河流域第四纪冰川沉积序列及其初步年代学

谷冰川,规模最盛时冰川长分别为47 km、60 km、≥70 km.     

Tectonics induced switching of provenance during the Late Quaternary aggradation of the Indus River Valley,Ladakh, India

The Indus River flows through Ladakh, one of the driest and coldest places on earth, in a tectonically active domain. Fluvial, glaciofluvial, lacustrine and debris dominated sequences represent the Late Quaternary sedimentary record along the river course. Karakoram Fault, a major crustal scaled feature reported to be active during the Quaternary, is associated with the Indus River drainage. Linkages between a major, active fault and deposits formed during the activity period of the fault are explored using heavy mineral deduced provenance and Optically Stimulated Luminescence(OSL) chronology.Five deposits in a ~200 km long stretch of the Indus River have been examined for a ~80 ka period to decipher the climate linked aggradation history. Damming of the Indus River at ~79 ka and existence of the Spituk Lake for >30 ka is demonstrated. Using geology of the provenance in relation to the mineralogical attributes of the Quaternary deposits, the major drainage reorganization when the connection of the Tangtse Valley to the Indus was blocked, is inferred at ~73 ka. It is supported by the geologicalgeomorphological evidence. The study demonstrates the application of provenance linked mineralogy in terrestrial aggradation in a tectonically active region.     

Quaternary fossil fauna from the Luangwa Valley,Zambia

This paper describes a large collection of Quaternary fossil fauna from the Luangwa Rift Valley, Zambia. Stone Age artefacts have been recovered from stratified fluvial contexts, but no in situ fossil faunas have yet been recovered. We report on 500 fossil specimens collected from the surface of point bars exposed seasonally along the banks of the main Luangwa River channel. We used non‐destructive X‐ray fluorescence analysis of the fossils' chemical signatures to determine whether they derive from one or many primary contexts, and the relationship between chemical signature and state of preservation. Specimens are identified to taxon (genus) to reconstruct palaeoenvironments and biochronology. A relatively wide range of taxa is identified, including a fossil hominin talus, described here. None of the fossils is positively attributable to extinct species, except a femur of an extinct Theropithecus reported in 2003. Although no additional extinct taxa were identified, some of the remains were attributable to genera that are not currently found in this region. The results suggest that most of the assemblage derives from sediments which are Middle Pleistocene or later, and that past environments in the Luangwa Valley may have differed from the habitat availability found today.     

湖北省钟祥市汉江河谷平原区浅层孔隙水的脆弱性评价

以MAPGIS为工作平台,以地下水类型、盖层岩性、地下水埋深为评价指标,利用国际上广泛应用的GOD模型开展了湖北省钟祥市第四系浅层孔隙水的脆弱性评价.研究结果表明:区内浅层孔隙水的脆弱性评分值在0～0.7间,其中极低脆弱性区(评分值=0～0.1)、低脆弱性区(评分值= 0.1～0.3)、中等脆弱性区(评分值=0.3～0.5)、高脆弱性区(评分值=0.5～0.7)和极高脆弱性区(评分值=0.7~10.0)的面积分别占评价区总面积的0.3 %,0.0 %,64.1 %,35.6 %,0. 0 %.换言之,钟祥市汉江河谷平原区浅层孔隙水总体上具有中等脆弱性和高脆弱性,且脆弱性最高的地段几乎全部分布在汉江沿岸.为解决钟祥市工农业发展带来的高污染风险性与地下水具有较高脆弱性这一对明显的矛盾,应加强汉江河谷平原区的地下水资源的管理工作.     

Quaternary geology and deglaciation of the continental shelf off Troms, north Norway

The study is based mainly on 4700 km shallow seismic profiling, soil mechanical, and micropaleontological analyses from forty localities, and seven radiocarbon datings. Six foraminiferal assemblages are recognized. The thickness of Quaternary deposits ranges from sparse to more than 200 m. They consist of top sand, soft sensitive clay, and glacial drift divided into four seismic stratigraphic units. The oldest unit, which is the thickest and most extensive, is built up of various sediments and is partly eroded, especially in the southern part. The remaining units occur as three complex linear belts running broadly parallel to the present coast and were deposited during deglaciation. Dating of the outer unit, the Nordvestsnaget Drift, suggests a maximum age of 13,300 years B.P., and datings from the top of the middle unit, the Mulegga Drift, have given a minimum age of about 12,200 years B.P. Seismic stratigraphy shows that the inner unit, the Havbrobakken Drift, is younger than the Mulegga Drift, but no datings have been obtained so far.     

Quaternary paleoecology of the Lower Mississippi Valley

In 1938, Clair A. Brown published his classic paleobotanical discoveries from the Tunica Hills of southeastern Louisiana, indicating ice-age plant migrations of more than 1100 km. Brown collected fossils of both boreal trees such as white spruce (Picea glauca) and southern coastal plain plants from deposits mapped as the Port Hickey (Prairie) river terrace by Harold N. Fisk. Subsequent revisions of terrace mapping, radiocarbon dating, and paleoecological analysis reconciled Brown's conceptual and stratigraphic “mixing” of these two ecologically incompatible fossil plant groups. An older Terrace 2 (of Sangamonian to Altonian age) contains the warm-temperate assemblage. A younger Terrace 1 (of Farmdalian, Woodfordian, and Holocene age) includes full-glacial and late-glacial remains of both boreal and cool-temperate plants; and a warm-temperate suite of plants dates from the Holocene interglacial. New plant fossil localities with radiocarbon chronologies are now available from within the Lower Mississippi Valley of Missouri and Arkansas as well as from the adjacent Ozark Plateaus, the Interior Low Plateaus of Kentucky and Tennessee, and the bordering Blufflands of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. These studies demonstrate that glacial and interglacial patterns of vegetation have been influenced by regional changes in climate, glacial runoff, and regime of the Mississippi River.     

The geology and petrology of the Hannington Trachyphonolite formation,Kenya Rift Valley

Field, petrographical and geochemical studies of a group of late Pleistocene, alkaline and mildly peralkaline trachytic and trachyphonolitic lavas from the northern Kenya Rift have been undertaken. A large number of flows were erupted from widely dispersed centres to form an extensive volcanic shield within the floor of the rift. The major element composition of most rocks was substantially modified during crystallisation, but other data show that differentiation within the suite was the result of protracted feldspar fractionation of a trachytic magma with intially very low abundances of residual trace elements.     

Quaternary geology in Sweden in the 1980s

The author gives a brief review of the most important research on Quaternary geology in Sweden during the last few years and the main lines of development of ideas. Emphasis is put on the present 'state of the art' within the following fields: Mapping, international projects, Quaternary deposits, dating methods, Pleistocene stratigraphy, glaciation models, deglaciation, sea-level changes, and Holocene.     

长江中下游地区第四纪红土磁学特征及其环境意义

通过采集长江中下游湖南长沙(CS)、岳阳(HN)、江西南昌(NC)、新余(XY)和浙江金华高村(GC)5个剖面不同层位的红土样品,对其粒度和多种磁学参数进行测量和分析,探讨了红土剖面随深度变化的成土作用强弱以及多磁学参数在揭示我国南方红土第四纪气候演化信息的价值。结果表明:①粒度分析显示,红黄土交接带(约28°~31°N)的CS、HN、NC、GC 4个剖面的红土粒度与北方黄土和下蜀黄土有很好的可比性,具有明显的风成特性;位置更偏南的XY剖面红土颗粒较粗,10~50 μm粒组富集不明显,具有典型的冲积相特征。②各红土剖面的多磁学参数分析表明,成土过程中产生的磁铁矿、磁赤铁矿和赤铁矿是红土磁性的主要载体。③同一红土剖面内,不同沉积结构的磁性矿物含量和组成具有很大差异。下部网纹红土中赤铁矿的含量较高,磁赤铁矿的含量较上覆均质红土或黄棕色土低,揭示了网纹红土形成于中国南方一个极端湿润期,长期剧烈的水分活动导致均质红土中磁赤铁矿的溶解和铁质的流失,同时较强的成土作用使强磁性的磁赤铁矿向弱磁性的赤铁矿转化,从而导致网纹红土的磁化率比上覆均质红土或黄棕色土低了一个数量级。④具有冲积相特征的XY剖面磁学特征与其他风尘成因红土(特别是NC剖面)差异甚大,可能成为它具有不同物质来源的一个佐证。     

Late Quaternary valley-fill succession of the Lower Tagus Valley, Portugal

The Lower Tagus Valley in Portugal contains a well-developed valley-fill succession covering the complete Late Pleistocene and Holocene periods. As large-scale stratigraphic and chronologic frameworks of the Lower Tagus Valley are not yet available, this paper describes facies, facies distribution, and sedimentary architecture of the late Quaternary valley fill. Twenty four radiocarbon ages provide a detailed chronological framework. Local factors affected the nature and architecture of the incised valley-fill succession. The valley is confined by pre-Holocene deposits and is connected with a narrow continental shelf. This configuration facilitated deep incision, which prevented large-scale marine flooding and erosion. Consequently a thick lowstand systems tract has been preserved. The unusually thick lowstand systems tract was probably formed in a previously (30,000–20,000 cal BP) incised narrow valley, when relative sea-level fall was maximal. The lowstand deposits were preserved due to subsequent rapid early Holocene relative sea-level rise and transgression, when tidal and marine environments migrated inland (transgressive systems tract). A constant sea level in the middle to late Holocene, and continuous fluvial sediment supply, caused rapid bayhead delta progradation (highstand systems tract). This study shows that the late Quaternary evolution of the Lower Tagus Valley is determined by a narrow continental shelf and deep glacial incision, rapid post-glacial relative sea-level rise, a wave-protected setting, and large fluvial sediment supply.     

A state geological survey commitment to environmental geology—the Texas bureau of economic geology

Published by permission of the Director, Texas Bureau of Economic Geology.