An overview of the Permian (Karoo) coal deposits of southern Africa

The coal deposits of southern Africa (Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) are reviewed. The coal seams formed during two periods, the Early Permian (Artinskian–Kungurian) and the Late Permian (Ufimian–Kazanian). The coals are associated with non-marine terrestrial clastic sedimentary sequences, most commonly mudrock and sandstones, assigned to the Karoo Supergroup. The Early Permian coals are most commonly sandstone-hosted while the younger coals typically occur interbedded with mudstones. The sediments were deposited in varying tectono-sedimentary basins such as foreland, intracratonic rifts and intercratonic grabens and half-grabens. The depositional environments that produced the coal-bearing successions were primarily deltaic and fluvial, with some minor shoreline and lacustrine settings. Coals vary in rank from high-volatile bituminous to anthracite and characteristically have a relatively high inertinite component, and medium- to high-ash content. In countries where coal is mined, it is used for power generation, coking coal, synfuel generation, gasification and for (local) domestic household consumption.     

鄂尔多斯盆地东南缘下二叠统沉积相

近几年的勘探开发发现,鄂尔多斯盆地东南缘下二叠统具有巨大的非常规天然气资源潜力。为探明其沉积环境,在详细的岩心、测井及室内分析化验的基础上,运用沉积学理论,对鄂尔多斯盆地东南缘下二叠统沉积相进行研究。研究结果表明:太原组发育障壁岛、泻湖、潮坪、浅海陆棚沉积,山西组发育三角洲、湖泊沉积;自太原组至山西组沉积环境经历了由海陆过渡相至陆相的演化过程。     

Origin of Dolostones of the Lower Permian in East Yunnan

In the East Yunnan—West Sichuan area,dolostones are well developed and can be divided into two typesmassive dolostones and patchy dolostones.     

Facies of slurry-flow deposits, Britannia Formation (Lower Cretaceous), North Sea: implications for flow evolution and deposit geometry

ABSTRACT Mud‐rich sandstone beds in the Lower Cretaceous Britannia Formation, UK North Sea, were deposited by sediment flows transitional between debris flows and turbidity currents, termed slurry flows. Much of the mud in these flows was transported as sand‐ and silt‐sized grains that were approximately hydraulically equivalent to suspended quartz and feldspar. In the eastern Britannia Field, individual slurry beds are continuous over long distances, and abundant core makes it possible to document facies changes across the field. Most beds display regular areal grain‐size changes. In this study, fining trends, especially in the size of the largest grains, are used to estimate palaeoflow and palaeoslope directions. In the middle part of the Britannia Formation, stratigraphic zones 40 and 45, slurry flows moved from south‐west and south towards the north‐east and north. Most zone 45 beds lens out before reaching the northern edge of the field, apparently by wedging out against the northern basin slope. Zone 40 and 45 beds show downflow facies transitions from low‐mud‐content, dish‐structured and wispy‐laminated sandstone to high‐mud‐content banded units. In zone 50, at the top of the formation, flows moved from north to south or north‐west to south‐east, and their deposits show transitions from proximal mud‐rich banded and mixed slurried beds to more distal lower‐mud‐content banded and wispy‐laminated units. The contrasting facies trends in zones 40 and 45 and zone 50 may reflect differing grain‐size relationships between quartz and feldspar grains and mud particles in the depositing flows. In zones 40 and 45, quartz grains average 0·30–0·32 mm in diameter, ≈ 0·10 mm coarser than in zone 50. The medium‐grained quartz in zones 40 and 45 flows may have been slightly coarser than the associated mud grains, resulting in the preferential deposition of quartz in proximal areas and downslope enrichment of the flows in mud. In zone 50 flows, mud was probably slightly coarser than the associated fine‐grained quartz, resulting in early mud sedimentation and enrichment of the distal flows in fine‐grained quartz and feldspar. Mud particles in all flows may have had an effective grain size of ≈ 0·25 mm. Both mud content and suspended‐load fallout rate played key roles in the sedimentation of Britannia slurry flows and structuring of the resulting deposits. During deposition of zones 40 and 45, the area of the eastern Britannia Field in block 16/26 may have been a locally enclosed subbasin within which the depositing slurry flows were locally ponded. Slurry beds in the eastern Britannia Field are ‘lumpy’ sheet‐like bodies that show facies changes but little additional complexity. There is no thin‐bedded facies that might represent waning flows analogous to low‐density turbidity currents. The dominance of laminar, cohesion‐dominated shear layers during sedimentation prevented most bed erosion, and the deposystem lacked channel, levee and overbank facies that commonly make up turbidity current‐dominated systems. Britannia slurry flows, although turbulent and capable of size‐fractionating even fine‐grained sediments, left sand bodies with geometries and facies more like those deposited by poorly differentiated laminar debris flows.     

Facies and cyclicity of the Late Permian Bainmedart Coal Measures in the Northern Prince Charles Mountains, MacRobertson Land, Antarctica

The Late Permian Bainmedart Coal Measures form part of the Permo-Triassic Amery Group, which crops out in the Beaver Lake area of the Northern Prince Charles Mountains, MacRobertson Land, Antarctica. The exposed strata are believed to have formed in graben or half-graben sub-basins on the western edge of the Lambert Graben, a major failed rift system. Sedimentological analysis has revealed that these rocks formed in alluvial environments in which swiftly flowing rivers of low sinuosity (represented by Facies A1 and A2) flowed northward down the axis of the basin, and were associated with waterlogged floodbasin and peat-forming wetlands (Facies B1-B4). A third Facies Association (comprising Facies C1-C3), interpreted as the deposits of lake floor and delta environments, is exclusively developed within a distinctive, fine-grained interval here named the Dragon's Teeth Member. The proportion of Association B facies within the succession increases markedly above the level of the Dragon's Teeth Member (at about 300 m above the base of the formation). Flat, low-angle and undulatory bedding structures preserved within channel deposits are suggestive of sediment deposition in flow conditions which were often critical or supercritical. Presence of massive and chaotic intervals of sandstone further implies some deposition from high-concentration aqueous flows. Alluvial channel bodies show evidence of incision into underlying substrates, both during initiation and at later stages in channel belt construction. The lack of interfingering between channel deposits and coals suggests that thick peats formed only in areas and at times of minimal clastic sediment supply. Analysis of well-developed cyclicity within the coal measures suggests that the dominant control on sequence architecture was climatic, related to precessional Milankovitch fluctuations of c. 19-kyr periodicity. Cycles began abruptly with the deposition of coarse-grained material in high-energy alluvial channels, which contracted with time in response to changes in water supply (rainfall). Upper parts of cycles are dominated by finer-grained sediments and then coal, indicative of progressively reduced coarse sediment input. Tectonic processes overprinted this pattern at least once during the period of sediment accumulation, to form the Dragon's Teeth Member.     

Facies architecture and cyclicity in a mosaic carbonate platform: effects of fault-block tectonics (Lower Lias, Causses platform, south-east France)

In the Causses platform (south‐east France), Late Hettangian to Sinemurian deposits were interpreted previously as shallow‐water carbonate ramp deposits. A new look at these deposits has shown a fault‐controlled mosaic carbonate platform that is different from the carbonate ramp models. Within the platform mosaic, 15 lithofacies have been recognized, which are organized in four facies associations, including peritidal, restricted shallow sub‐tidal, sand dunes and sub‐tidal shelf facies associations. The rapid lateral and vertical facies changes, and the lack of consistent landward or seaward direction indicated by the pattern of facies changes, question the existence of a shoreline suggested by the traditional models for this region. Instead, the facies organization and cycle stacking pattern suggest deposition in a mosaic of intertidal islands between which sub‐tidal restricted or open conditions could coexist in very close proximity. Such a platform mosaic would have been defined by tectonic activities along normal faults which segmented the shallow‐water Causses platform. The facies and facies associations are arranged into metre‐scale, peritidal and sub‐tidal cycles that are also variable. Certain cycles show the same stacking pattern in all the sections and seem to be traceable over tens of kilometres. On the contrary, other cycles cannot be correlated; they are present only in specific sections and have a maximum lateral extension of 1 or 2 km. These metre‐scale cycles stack to form four medium‐scale cycles bounded by surfaces that display sub‐aerial exposure features. Medium‐scale cycles stack into two larger‐scale cycles (tens of metres thick) and are bounded by well‐defined karstic surfaces. Based on their lateral continuity and their stacking pattern, the metre‐scale cycles are controlled probably by high frequency eustatic variations overprinting the topographic irregularities formed by differential subsidence of fault‐bounded blocks. Episodic fault activities may reorganize the topography so that, even if eustatic changes may still be the major control of cycles, the expression and number of cycles could be different. Cycles of medium and large‐scale are interpreted as being allogenic, controlled by changes in eustasy and/or subsidence rates as evidenced by their lateral continuity and the correlations of the large‐scale cycles with third‐order depositional sequences.     

Palaeoenvironmental control on coal formation, distribution and quality in the Permian Vryheid Formation, East Witbank Coalfield, South Africa

The No. 1 and No. 2 coal seams from the Permian Vryheid Formation in the east Witbank Coalfield, South Africa are described with respect to their distribution, thickness and quality. These two coal seams accumulated in a postglacial climatic environment and peat accumulation was closely associated with and influenced by deposition in a braided river system. The fluvial channels that were syndepositional with peat accumulation have resulted in thinning of coal below and above channel axes and pinch-out of coal adjacent to channel margins. Low-ash coal originated from peat which accumulated in areas away from the influence of clastic sedimentation. In contrast, higher-ash coals are situated adjacent and parallel to channel margins where interbedded channel sand and silt contaminated the peat.The lower No. 1 seam peat originated under near-optimum conditions in a lacustrine swamp which blanketed an underlying platform of glaciofluvial braided river sediment. This peat swamp was not subjected to syndepositional clastic contamination and as a result is of superior quality (lower ash/higher calorific value and volatile matter) than the overlying No. 2 coal seam. The No. 2 seam is split by a clastic parting produced by a braided fluvial channel which transected the swamp midway through peat accumulation. This fluvial clastic parting deleteriously affected coal thickness and quality.A comparison of the Gondwanan Permian peat-forming conditions with those from Carboniferous northern hemisphere counterparts suggests that the differences in coal characteristics between these two regions are probably related to different palaeoclimatic conditions and basin tectonics. Cool-temperate climatic conditions which prevailed over the Permian peat swamps resulted in less species diversification of vegetation at these high-latitude settings than the diverse floral assemblages of the Carboniferous swamps. A stable intracronic basin platform caused lateral dispersion of sedimentary facies rather than the stacking of vertical facies which occurred in rapidly subsiding depositories. Partial exposure of the Permian peat swamps during peat accumulation may account for the relatively higher inertinite content of the coals.     

坦桑尼亚维多利亚湖东部绿岩带金矿床地质特征及成因浅析

坦桑尼亚维多利亚湖绿岩带是世界上非常有名的金成矿区,目前已发现数个世界级的金矿床。本文分析了该地区典型金矿床成矿地质特征,认为维多利亚湖东部绿岩带金矿床类型为构造蚀变岩型,矿体赋存在受EW向、NW向和NE向三组剪切破碎带控制的构造蚀变岩中,矿石类型主要为黄铁绢英蚀变岩和含金石英脉,与成矿有关的蚀变主要为硅化、绢云母化和黄铁矿化。同时,将这些矿床与中国胶东绿岩带的“焦家式”金矿床进行了对比,探讨了成矿模型研究所面临的问题。     

东非宝石级铬钒钙铝榴石(察沃石)矿床成因模式探讨

东非的肯尼亚_坦桑尼亚的宝石级铬钒钙铝榴石(又称察沃石),均产于新元古代莫桑比克变质带的钙质硅酸盐石墨片麻岩中,形成于泛非造山运动(650~500 Ma)过程中。察沃石原生矿床主要为区域变质矿床(或变成矿床),其次为接触交代(矽卡岩)矿床,而次生矿床为沉积砂矿床。在察沃石形成必须具备的5个控制因素:地层、岩性、有用的致色离子、高级变质作用和构造中,地层(特别是石墨片麻岩地层)和岩性(特别是蒸发岩)是含察沃石结核形成的关键控矿因素,而构造(特别是大地构造作用)则是矿化石英脉形成的关键控矿因素。Feneyrol等(2013)将察沃石矿床划分为3个类型8个亚型:Ⅰ型_结核(包括:NI亚型,由初始硬石膏_石膏凝结而成;NII亚型,由初始重晶石凝结而成)、Ⅱ型_石英脉(包括:ⅡA亚型,位于转折端;ⅡB亚型,位于鞍部;ⅡC亚型,位于交代区)和Ⅲ型_砂矿(包括:ⅢA亚型,残积砂矿;ⅢB亚型,坡积砂矿;ⅢC亚型,冲积砂矿)。东非察沃石矿床的成因过程可以概括为4期:1变质原岩沉积期(900~700 Ma),在"莫桑比克洋"的海岸萨布哈环境中,形成了由蒸发岩矿物和有机质构成的变质沉积岩的原岩;2区域变质变形成矿期(700~500 Ma),为主成矿期,这些沉积岩发生了角闪岩相或麻粒岩相变质作用,伴随着变质沉积地台发生韧性剪切作用,形成了多相变质热液成矿系统,主要发育结核状和石英脉状两种矿化作用;3接触交代(矽卡岩)成矿期(500~450 Ma),东非造山运动晚期有超镁铁质岩浆侵入,辉石岩与碳酸盐类围岩接触带发生矽卡岩矿化作用;4机械沉积分异成矿期,原生矿床经风化、搬运、聚集成砂矿。对比研究表明,在中国四川和新疆的矽卡岩体中有望找到具有经济价值的察沃石矿床。     

Issues associated with the distinction between climatic and tectonic controls on Permian alluvial fan deposits from the Kotzen and Barnim Basins (North German Basin)

Facies analysis focussing on coarse-grained sediments has been carried out on more than 2500 m of drill cores from seven wells from southern margins of the North German Basin (NGB). The NGB forms a central element of the Southern Permian Basin (SPB). The wells exposed conglomerates and sandstones of the Rotliegend Grüneberg and Parchim Formations deposited in the Kotzen Basin and the Barnim Basin.17 lithofacies types have been grouped into six lithofacies associations. The studied successions are dominated by fluid gravity flow deposits (hyperconcentrated flows and stream flows) of alluvial fan and alluvial plain systems. Maximum particle size/bed thickness plots (MPS/BTh) support the interpretation as fluid gravity flow deposits. The MPS and BTh data have also been used to differentiate coarsening–thickening and fining–thinning trends of the fan systems.The dominance of water-rich mass flow processes together with sedimentary structures such as dewatering structures and outwashed tops suggests the presence of wet-type fans and plains under semi-humid to semi-arid seasonal climates in the central SPB. The investigated sediments show variation in clast composition subsequent to deep erosion processes on basin margins and changes of source areas. Synsedimentary normal faults and clastic dykes have been interpreted as indicators of tectonic activity of grabens itself and its frames. On a larger scale, then evolution from a half-graben to a graben is apparent for the Tuchen Sub-basin at least. The progradational/retrogradational cycles of the studied alluvial fan systems document combined local tectonic movements and influences of climatic changes. However, our data did not allow for a clear distinction between climatic and tectonic signals. Furthermore, a one-to-one correlation of fan cycles with depositional trends in the NGB basin centre would appear to be oversimplistic.     

High-frequency cyclicity (Milankovitch and millennial-scale) in slope-apron carbonates: Zechstein (Upper Permian), North-east England

The Upper Permian (Zechstein) slope carbonates in the Roker Formation (Zechstein 2nd‐cycle Carbonate) in North‐east England consist of turbidites interbedded with laminated lime‐mudstone. Studies of turbidite bed thickness and relative proportion of turbidites (percentage turbidites in 20 cm of section) reveal well‐developed cyclicities consisting of thinning‐upward and thickening‐upward packages of turbidite beds. These packages are on four scales, from less than a metre, up to 50 m in thickness. Assuming that the laminae of the hemipelagic background sediment are annual allows the durations of the cycles to be estimated. In addition, counting the number and thickness of turbidite beds in 20 cm of laminated lime‐mudstone, which is approximately equivalent to 1000 years (each lamina is 200 μm), gives the frequencies of the turbidite beds, the average thicknesses and the overall sedimentation rates through the succession for 1000 year time‐slots. Figures obtained are comparable with modern rates of deposition on carbonate slopes. The cyclicity present in the Roker Formation can be shown to include: Milankovitch‐band ca 100 kyr short‐eccentricity, ca 20 kyr precession and ca 10 kyr semi‐precession cycles and sub‐Milankovitch millennial‐scale cycles (0·7 to 4·3 kyr). Eccentricity and precession‐scale cycles are related to ‘highstand‐shedding’ and relative sea‐level change caused by Milankovitch‐band orbital forcing controlling carbonate productivity. The millennial‐scale cycles, which are quasi‐periodic, probably are produced by environmental changes controlled by solar forcing, i.e. variations in solar irradiance, or volcanic activity. Most probable here are fluctuations in carbonate productivity related to aridity–humidity and/or temperature changes. Precession and millennial‐scale cycles are defined most strongly in early transgressive and highstand parts of the larger‐scale short‐eccentricity cycles. The duration of the Roker Formation as a whole can be estimated from the thickness of the laminated lithotype as ca 0·3 Myr.     

Tectonic and lithological constraints on the evolution of the Karoo graben of northern Malawi (East Africa)

The results of a lithostratigraphic, tectonic and kinematic study of the Karoo deposits of northern Malawi are reported. The objective of the lithostratigraphic study is to correlate the deposits of the Karoo basins of northern Malawi with the well-known deposits of southern Tanzania, thus establishing a stratigraphic framework through which the timing of faulting can be constrained. The kinematic analysis of faulting constrains the opening direction for the Karoo graben in this area and provides basic data to discuss the Karoo graben development within the regional tectonic framework of south-eastern Africa. The studied adults are defined by moderately to steeply dipping cataclastic zones with a width of up to 15 m and are characterized by an array of slickensided fault surfaces with different orientations and slip directions. In this study, small faults (offset < 10 m) and meso-scale faults (offset > 10 m, but generally not exceeding 30–40 m) have been distinguished. Methods used to analyse the kinematic data include the ‘pressure tension’ (PT) method, which estimates the principal axes for the bulk brittle strain, and the internal rotation axis (IRA) method, which estimates the axis of bulk internal rotation and the overall sense of slip at the faults. A mass balance calculation reveals a volume increase of up to 16% during cataclastic deformation in the fault zones. The PT method shows an approximately east trending extension direction for faults that occur only in the latest Carboniferous (?) and Early Permian strata, whereas the fault kinematics from faults that cut middle Permian to Early Triassic rocks is characterized by a ESE to SE trending extension direction. The small faults yield essentially the same kinematic results as the meso-scale faults. In a transport-parallel cross-sectional view, the principal extension axes are at an acute angle of approximately 60° to the major fault planes. Given the moderate fault density, the relatively high angle between the orientation of the principal extension axis and the fault planes suggest only a moderate amount of horizontal extension across the Karoo graben of northern Malawi. Riedel structures in the fault zones formed within two conjugate sets of localized shear zones; slip on one set was top to the W/NW and, on the other, top to the E/SE. The two conjugate sets of Riedel structures have an acute angle about the regional shortening axes, implying that no pronounced rotation of the strain axes occurred. The internal rotation axes for the Riedel structures reveal a largely bimodal distribution and inferred weakly monoclinic to orthorhombic symmetry. Therefore the overall deformation during Karoo rifting in northern Malawi is interpreted to be close to a coaxial deformation with a limited amount of horizontal extension.[/p]     

Fusulinid biostratigraphy of the Lower Permian Zweikofel Formation (Rattendorf Group; Carnic Alps,Austria) and Lower Permian Tethyan chronostratigraphy

The Zweikofel Formation of the Rattendorf Group in the Carnic Alps (Austria) is 95–102 m thick and consists of a cyclic succession of thin‐ to thick‐bedded fossiliferous limestone and intercalated thin intervals of siliciclastic sediment. The siliciclastic intervals were deposited in a shallow marine nearshore environment. The variety of carbonate facies indicates deposition in a shallow neritic, normal‐saline, low‐ to high‐energy environment. The Zweikofel Formation is characterized by a paracyclic vertical arrangement of facies and represents sedimentary sequences that are not well understood elsewhere in the Tethys. Fusulinids and conodonts from the upper Grenzland and Zweikofel formations in the Carnic Alps clearly suggest that what has been called ‘Sakmarian’ in the Tethys includes both the Sakmarian and Artinskian stages of the Global Time scale. Fusulinids from the lower part of the Zweikofel Formation at Zweikofel closely resemble those of the Grenzland Formation and approximately correlate with the upper part of the Sakmarian and lower part of the Artinskian of the Global Time scale. The upper part of the Zweikofel Formation correlates approximately with the lower‐middle (?) parts of the Artinskian Stage of the Global Time scale. A new regional Hermagorian Stage of the Tethyan scale is proposed between the Asselian and Yakhtashian. The lower boundary of the Hermagorian Stage is proposed to be located at the base of bed 81 in the 1015 section of Darvaz (Tadzhikistan). The boundary between the Hermagorian and Yakhtashian stages is placed at the base of bed 73 in the Zweikofel section at Zweikofel, Carnic Alps. In the Darvaz region, Tadzhikistan, the type area for the Yakhtashian Stage, this boundary has never been precisely defined. The entire fusulinid assemblage of the upper part of the Grenzland and Zweikofel formations reported herein includes 62 species of 18 genera, of which one subgenus and 12 species and subspecies are new. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

川西北下二叠统栖霞组有利成岩作用与孔隙演化

据宏观、微观及地球化学特征等综合分析,川西北下二叠统栖霞组储层段主要的建设性成岩作用有同生一准同生期溶解、埋藏期溶解、构造抬升期溶解、混合水白云石化、埋藏白云石化及重结晶作用.其中埋藏期溶蚀和埋藏白云石化作用对储集层的储集空间贡献最大,其产生的晶间孔、晶间溶孔、洞、缝是现今该层段主要的储集空间;其次是重结晶作用.重结晶作用对储集空间的直接贡献不大,但重结晶作用提高了岩石的有效孔隙度和渗透率从而为后期的溶蚀作用提供了条件:而同生期的溶解作用形成的孔隙由于后期的压实、胶结等作用破坏而几乎消失殆尽.     

Early Permian to Middle Jurassic rifting and sedimentation in East Africa and Madagascar

Pre-drift sediments of Madagascar (Early Permian-Middle Jurassic) have been studied palynologically. These studies resulted in a more precise dating of individual stratigraphic units and the recognition of minor and major breaks in the succession. Palynostratigraphic and physical evidence of unconformities have been used to subdivide the pre-drift sediments into depositional cycles and to infer rifting events. A comparison with equivalent strata of Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia shows a general correspondence and provides additional information for the construction of a generalized framework for the East African/Madagascan region which demonstrates the relationships between rifting and sedimentation and elucidates the prehistory of the break-up of Gondwana into a western and eastern fragment during the Middle Jurassic. The predrift succession of East Africa/Madagascar can be subdivided into two major sequences, a Karoo sequence (cycles 1–5, Asselian-early Smithian) and a transitional sequence (cycles 6–9, Ladinian-early Bajocian). The two sequences are separeted by a late Scythian to Anisian hiatus which indicates extensive uplift and erosion before a major rifting event initiated the resumption of sedimentation in the Ladinian. This Middle Triassic event marks the transition from the intracratonic rift stage to the pericratonic basin stage and correlates with a significant event in the Pangaean history, the transition from final coalescence to initial dispersal. The onset of the southward drift of Madagascar is believed to have occurred about 60 Ma later near the Aalenian-Bajocian boundary, contemporaneous with or immediately after the deposition of syntectonic sediments of cycle 9.     

Origin of polyhalite deposits in the Zechstein (Upper Permian) Zdrada platform (northern Poland)

Polyhalite deposits in the Zechstein (Upper Permian) of northern Poland occur in the Lower Werra Anhydrite. In the Zdrada Sulphate Platform, the polyhalite appears to be a very early replacement of anhydrite. The replacement was caused by the halite-precipitating brines which contained potassium and magnesium ions. The formation of polyhalite was preceded by the syndepositional anhydritization of the original gypsum deposit which has often preserved its primary textures. This anhydritization on the platform and its slopes was a reaction of the precipitated gypsum in a hydrologically open evaporite basin, with brines of salt basins adjacent to the sulphate platform. These brines, when nearly saturated with respect to halite, and potassium and magnesium rich, reacted with anhydrite to precipitate polyhalite along the slopes of the Zdrada Platform. The oxygen and sulphur isotopic compositions of sulphate evaporites indicate that marine solutions were the only source of sulphate ions supplied to the Zechstein basin, and that anhydrite was transformed to polyhalite by reaction with marine brines more concentrated than those that precipitated precursor calcium sulphate minerals.     

东爪哇盆地抱球虫灰岩浮游有孔虫组成及指相意义

印尼东爪哇盆地上新世发育的抱球虫灰岩,已成为该地区主要的勘探目的层之一,目前已发现了多个油气田。该地区发育的抱球虫灰岩具有浮游有孔虫颗粒含量高达50%,粒间孔和浮游有孔虫体腔孔发育的特征,其岩芯分析孔隙度最高可达52%,是该区域优质储层,但对其沉积相研究因缺乏可靠的指相证据而认识不一,从而影响了对此类储层控制因素及展布的研究,限制了该区的油气勘探。通过对该套灰岩浮游有孔虫属种组成及生态环境分析,发现研究区抱球虫灰岩发育的浮游有孔虫种类众多,水深上包括浅层水种、中层水种及深水种,区带上包括热带、副热带及温带属种,为不同深度、温度带浮游有孔虫的混合。同时发现了指示存在上升流的属种Globigerina bulloides 和Globorotalia Menardii(s),并且大量发育,指示研究区抱球虫灰岩的形成与上升流有关,这对研究区该套储层的沉积相识别有重要指导意义。区域古沉积环境及海流分析表明研究区具有发育上升流的条件,进一步佐证了该套灰岩的形成受上升流影响。提出研究区抱球虫灰岩的形成主要是生活在陆坡及半深海的浅、中、深层水种的抱球虫死亡后,由海底洋流和上升流等水动力运移至陆棚边缘,因受离岸流的影响,能量减弱,而在陆棚边缘沉积,并经受波浪等水动力的淘洗、筛选,从而形成了不同生态环境抱球虫属种组成的抱球虫灰岩。     

Astronomically-tuned cyclicity in Upper Maeotian deposits of the eastern paratethys (Zheleznyi Rog section,Taman)

Astronomically-tuned cyclicity in Upper Maeotian deposits of the Zheleznyi Rog section (Taman, Eastern Paratethys) was revealed first time using the methods of cyclostratigraphy. According to the spectral analysis of the data on the magnetic susceptibility of rocks and basing on the peaks of Lomb-Scargle and REDFIT periodograms, cyclicity with a length of 7.1–8.9 m was established in studied deposits. These cycles are comparable with the period of oscillations of the Earth’s axis angle to the plane of its orbit, which corresponds to 41000 years. The data we obtained confirm the idea of the correlation of Upper Maeotian deposits to the greater part of the Chron C3An and duration of the late Maeotian no longer than 700000–750000 years.     

Permian fusulinids of the East Hindu Kush and West Karakorum (Pakistan)

Fusulinids from the Rosh Gol, Mastuj, Reshun Gol (East Hindu Kush) and Baroghil (West Karakorum) localities are studied. Five successive fusulinid assemblages from the Rosh Gol section characterize the Sakmarian (?), Yakhtashian-Bolorian, and Kubergandian stages of the Permian. Fusulinids of the Sakmarian (?) Stage are discovered in the Baroghil locality. In the Mastuj and Reshun Gol localities, rocks of natural outcrops, talus cones, and pebbles of the Cretaceous conglomerates yield predominantly the Kubergandian fusulinids accompanied sometimes by the Sakmarian (?) and Bolorian forms. Four new species Monodiexodina talenti, Nonpseudofusulina conaghani, N. yarkhunensis, and N. mawsoni are described.