Evaluation of the relative roles of global versus local sedimentary controls on Middle to Late Pleistocene formation of continental margin strata,Canterbury Basin,New Zealand

Determining the relative influence of eustasy versus local sedimentary processes on strata formation is a fundamental challenge in the study of continental margin stratigraphy. In this paper, the relative contribution of these factors on continental margin evolution during the Middle to Late Pleistocene is evaluated using samples from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 317. Core‐logging, biostratigraphy and quantitative X‐ray diffraction mineralogy are used to delineate continental shelf sedimentary systems. Major lithological unconformities bound stratigraphic sequences that contain recurring compositional patterns and that resemble other examples of Middle to Upper Pleistocene sequences. However, a preliminary chronology suggests that sequence boundary formation cannot be linked ‘one to one’ with eustatic cycles and therefore these sequences can contain multiple ca 100 ka eustatic cycles. Smaller amplitude, higher frequency transitions in sediment composition are interpreted as stratigraphic sequences driven by more rapid perturbations in the interplay of accommodation and sediment supply; their stratigraphy is variable in time and across the shelf, suggesting a strong influence of local sedimentary forcing in their formation. Changes in sediment composition after the Middle Pleistocene Transition indicate that sediment transfer from onshore sources in the glaciated Southern Alps to the middle‐shelf occurred over a single 100 ka glacio‐eustatic cycle, with an additional 100 ka lag before the mineralogical signal was preserved on the outer‐shelf. This phenomenon is coincident with rapid shelf progradation in this basin, suggesting a causal relation between across‐shelf sediment transport and margin progradation. This is one of very few studies that provide insights at the core scale into the processes driving continental margin evolution during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. This work shows that compositional changes in mud‐dominated successions can lead to a sequence stratigraphic interpretation and the identification of high‐frequency sequences, which may not be possible using a conventional stratigraphic approach.     

东海陆架第四纪地层层序的初步研究

根据我局在东海陆架所获得的区域海洋地质和工程地质调查资料,对已有的第四纪地质孔进行统一的第四纪地层划分和对比,建立了东海陆架第四纪地层层序。将第四系四分,从老到新依次为下更新统西湖组、中更新统金鸡山组、上更新统西泠组、全新统海礁组或下全新统鸡骨礁组、中全新统大戟山组、上全新统嵊泗组。     

Late Quaternary stratigraphy and sedimentology of the inner part of southwest Joseph Bonaparte Gulf

Joseph Bonaparte Gulf is a large embayment on the northwestern continental margin of Australia. It is approximately 300 km east‐west and 120 km north‐south with a broad continental shelf to seaward. Maximum width from the southernmost shore of Joseph Bonaparte Gulf to the edge of the continental shelf is 560 km. Several large rivers enter the gulf along its shores. The climate is monsoonal, sub‐humid, and cyclone‐prone during the December‐March wet season. A bedrock high (Sahul Rise) rims the shelf margin. The sediments within the gulf are carbonates to seaward, grading into clastics inshore. A seaward‐thinning wedge of highstand muds dominates the sediments of the inner shelf of Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. Mud banks up to 15m thick have developed inshore. Coarse‐grained sand ridges up to 15 m high are found off the mouth of the Ord River. These overlie an Upper Pleistocene transgressive lag of mixed carbonate and gravelly siliciclastic sand. Four drowned strandlines are present on the inner shelf at depths of 20, 25, 28 and 30 m below datum. These are interpreted as having formed during stillstands in the Late Pleistocene transgression. Older strandlines at great depths are inferred as having formed during the fall in sea‐level following the last highstand. For the most part the Upper Pleistocene‐Holocene marine sediments overlie an erosion surface cut into older Pleistocene sediments. Incised valleys cut into this erosion surface are up to 5 km wide and have a relief of at least 20 m. The largest valley is that cut by the Ord River. Upper Pleistocene sediments deposited in the incised valleys include interpreted lowstand fluvial gravels, early transgressive channel sands and floodplain silts, and late transgressive estuarine sands and gravels. Older Pleistocene sediments are inferred to have been deposited before and during the 120 ka highstand (isotope stage 5). They consist of sandy calcarenites deposited in high‐energy tide‐dominated shelf environments. Still older shelf and valley‐fill sediments underlie these. The contrast between the Holocene muddy clastic sediments and the sandy carbonates deposited by the 120 ka highstand suggests that either the climate was more arid in the past, with less fluvial transport, or that mud was more effectively trapped in estuaries, allowing development of carbonate depositional environments inshore.     

Geologic evolution of the Gulf of Maine region

In this study we reconstruct the evolution of the northern New England passive margin whose development has been influenced by Pleistocene glaciations. The morphology of the northern New England shelf is rather unique consisting of a inner lowland, the Gulf of Maine, with an average depth of 150 m and an area of 90,700 km² and Georges Bank, a high whose crest is less than 40 m deep and has an area of 27,000 km². The bank's northern slope, facing the Gulf of Maine, has a maximum relief of 377 m. On the seaward side of Georges Bank is the 2000 m high continental slope deeply cut by canyons. Two channels, Northeast and Great South Channels, east and west of Georges Bank, provide passageways from the Gulf of Maine to the open sea. This morphology was acquired by a combination of Tertiary fluvial erosion, Pleistocene glacial erosion/deposition and Pleistocene/Holocene marine processes. Fluvial/glacial erosion in the Gulf of Maine was so extensive as to expose basement, thus making it possible to map the various terranes making up this foundation. These terranes include the pre-Carboniferous Avalon and Meguma units, a Carboniferous–Permian rift basin formed by the oblique continental collision during the closure of the Paleozoic proto-Atlantic and a Late Triassic–Early Jurassic rift system created during the opening of the present Atlantic. Basement in the Gulf of Maine remained above sea level from the opening of the Atlantic 190 Ma (Early Jurassic) to the Eocene 55 Ma. That the Gulf of Maine remained a high for so long may have been due to igneous activity along the northwest-trending Boston–Ottawa Lineation extending from the vicinity of the St. Lawrence River, Canada to Gulf of Maine from Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous. The northwest-trending New England Seamounts south of Georges Bank may represent a seaward extension of this lineation. On Georges Bank, rising hundreds of meters above the Gulf of Maine, the basement exposed in the gulf is mantled by sediments thousands of meters thick. Included in these sediments are Early Jurassic- to earliest Cretaceous reefs along the continental slope and carbonates north of the reefs grading landward into continental sediments, Cretaceous–Cenozoic continental/marine terrigenous sediments and Pleistocene glacial deposits. The continental slope on the seaward flank of Georges Bank has a complex history of early to mid Mesozoic carbonate accretion, mid to late Mesozoic and Cenozoic calcareous/terrigenous sediments and canyon erosion, burial and exhumation going back to Early Cretaceous.     

Pleistocene proboscidean fossils from the Alaskan continental shelf

Pleistocene proboscidean fossils recovered from the Bering Land Bridge strengthen the hypothesis that man may have originally colonized the Americas via this route during times of lowered sea level.     

A late paleo-Indian/Early archaic water well in Mexico—Possible oldest water-Management feature in the new world

A filled prehistoric water well discovered at the village of San Marcos Necoxtla, Puebla, Mexico, may be the oldest directly dated water-management feature in the Americas. The ∼10 m stratigraphic section exposed at this remarkable site records 18,000+ yr of deposition, erosion, water-table and hydrochemical fluctuations, and ≥10,000 yr of continual occupation. Temporal control is afforded by a multicomponent cultural chronology and radiocarbon assays by conventional and experimental techniques. The ∼10 m wide, ∼5 m deep well was excavated, utilized, maintained, and filled with cultural material between <9863 and ≫5950 yr B.P., a span of ≪3913 yr. Ages of other reported Late Pleistocene(?) to Middle Holocene wells in the New World are based on indirect or questionable dating, or are ≤6600 yr. Because of its age and continuity of occupation, the San Marcos Necoxtla well site may help define the nature of the peopling of the Americas and the advent of New World agriculture. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Morphology and geology of the continental shelf and upper slope of southern Central Chile (33°S–43°S)

The continental shelf and slope of southern Central Chile have been subject to a number of international as well as Chilean research campaigns over the last 30 years. This work summarizes the geologic setting of the southern Central Chilean Continental shelf (33°S–43°S) using recently published geophysical, seismological, sedimentological and bio-geochemical data. Additionally, unpublished data such as reflection seismic profiles, swath bathymetry and observations on biota that allow further insights into the evolution of this continental platform are integrated. The outcome is an overview of the current knowledge about the geology of the southern Central Chilean shelf and upper slope. We observe both patches of reduced as well as high recent sedimentation on the shelf and upper slope, due to local redistribution of fluvial input, mainly governed by bottom currents and submarine canyons and highly productive upwelling zones. Shelf basins show highly variable thickness of Oligocene-Quaternary sedimentary units that are dissected by the marine continuations of upper plate faults known from land. Seismic velocity studies indicate that a paleo-accretionary complex that is sandwiched between the present, relatively small active accretionary prism and the continental crust forms the bulk of the continental margin of southern Central Chile.     

Geologic controls on the morphology of La Aguja submarine canyon

The seascape of the continental shelf and slope offshore Santa Marta is sculpted by the submarine Aguja Canyon, a deep seafloor incision that extends from the inner shelf to the continental rise along some 115 km. No major modern rivers flow into this canyon, thus ruling out principal fluvial control on the present geometry of this feature. Recently acquired multibeam sonar bathymetry data have provided insight into the three-dimensional geometry of this outstanding feature that disrupts the seafloor relief. In addition, seismic reflection data provide images of the internal structure of the canyon’s subsurface. In this study, we describe the morphology of the Aguja Canyon along a series of transects, interpret the structure under the canyon, and discuss possible geologic processes that played a role during its formation and modification. Seismic data indicate that incision of the canyon’s inner reach is the result of recent motion along the western termination of the active Oca strike–slip fault. Relief in the middle reach may be predominantly controlled by sedimentary processes (erosion, infilling and lateral thalweg migration). In the past, however, the middle reach may have been tectonically controlled. The outer reach appears to be the combined result of tectonics, sedimentary process and mud-diapiric intrusions. We conclude that the Aguja Canyon is predominantly a tectonic feature that accommodates shallow transpressive stresses as dislocation of the seafloor.     

Seismic stratigraphy of the NW Moroccan Atlantic continental shelf and Quaternary deformation at the offshore termination of the southern Rif front

A recent high resolution seismic survey was carried out along the North-West Moroccan Atlantic continental shelf to perform sequence stratigraphy and to better understand the link between the onshore observations across the western termination of the Rif front and the multibeam bathymetric data previously collected across the Gulf of Cadiz. Seismic interpretation clearly shows evidence of deformation affecting the Pleistocene sedimentary cover. This is mainly located between the Lalla Zahra ridge and the Neogene nappes that outcrop at the seabed to the North of Larache, where the identified structures bound the upper part of a gravitationally spreading lobe and are interpreted to be developed by activation of the major tectonic structures located at the southern front of the Rif Cordillera. The offshore extension of the Lalla Zahra Ridge is characterised by an east-west trending major folded and faulted corridor. This structure marks the active front of Prerifan area and corresponds to a major Quaternary kinematic boundary in the western prolongation of the ENE-WSW trending Jebha fault.     

The beach: for enthusiasts of sun,surf and unusual geology,this is the place

The Carpinteria State Beach is a little known public park in Carpinteria, near Ventura, California, USA. Miocene‐age conglomerates and sandstone bluffs along the Pacific Ocean beachfront have featured continual natural oil seeps since the Pleistocene epoch. While not as famous as the La Brea Tar Pits of downtown Los Angeles, the park is the only public beach in North America where such a geological phenomenon is readily seen. Long used by the Chumash Indians for the asphaltum used to waterproof their seagoing canoes, asphaltum came into general use in the late nineteenth century. The beach is the former site of an industrial plant, devoted to removing and processing the asphaltum to yield many commercial products. Before it became a state park it served as a travel camp and a camp for World War II GIs suffering from battle fatigue.     

A late Pleistocene human presence at Huaca Prieta,Peru, and early Pacific Coastal adaptations

Archaeological excavations in deep pre-mound levels at Huaca Prieta in northern Peru have yielded new evidence of late Pleistocene cultural deposits that shed insights into the early human occupation of the Pacific coast of South America. Radiocarbon dates place this occupation between ~ 14,200 and 13,300 cal yr BP. The cultural evidence shares certain basic technological and subsistence traits, including maritime resources and simple flake tools, with previously discovered late Pleistocene sites along the Pacific coast of Peru and Chile. The results help to expand our knowledge of early maritime societies and human adaption to changing coastal environments.     

Parasite findings in archeological remains: Diagnosis and interpretation

Paleoparasitology has contributed to resolving the debate about the peopling of the Americas and determining the antiquity of human parasite infection. Hookworm (Ancylostomidae) and whipworm (Trichuris trichiura) and other exclusive human intestinal parasites have been recorded in pre-Columbian America. These parasite species originated in pre-hominids and have accompanied humans across continents when people went out of Africa. However, for those human populations that crossed the Bering Land Bridge from Siberia to Alaska, cold climate conditions hampered parasite transmission. Alternative migration routes have been proposed to explain the presence of these parasites in pre-Columbian populations in the Americas. Other parasites were established in the New World long before humans entered the American continents.One such malady is Chagas disease. Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, offers an example of how animals and humans have interacted in the past. Classical theory points to the origin and dispersion of human T. cruzi infection among Andean populations, starting with sedentary habits and animal domestication 6000 years ago. However, recent PCR results in mummified bodies outside the Andean region have challenged this theory. Pre-Columbian Brazilian mummies were found positive for T. cruzi infection, raising an alternative hypothesis on the antiquity of Chagas disease in the Americas. Paleoparasitology is a new tool to study past events, shedding light on human and other animal behavior, migration routes, diet, and other aspects of host–parasite environment evolution.     

Tectonics and geology of spreading ridge subduction at the Chile Triple Junction: a synthesis of results from Leg 141 of the Ocean Drilling Program

An active oceanic spreading ridge is being subducted beneath the South American continent at the Chile Triple Junction. This process has played a major part in the evolution of most of the continental margins that border the Pacific Ocean basin. A combination of high resolution swath bathymetric maps, seismic reflection profiles and drillhole and core data from five sites drilled during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 141 provide important data that define the tectonic, structural and stratigraphic effects of this modern example of spreading ridge subduction.A change from subduction accretion to subduction erosion occurs along-strike of the South American forearc. This change is prominently expressed by normal faulting, forearc subsidence, oversteepening of topographic slopes and intensive sedimentary mass wasting, overprinted on older signatures of sediment accretion, overthrusting and uplift processes in the forearc. Data from drill sites north of the triple junction (Sites 859–861) show that after an important phase of forearc building in the early to late Pliocene, subduction accretion had ceased in the late Pliocene. Since that time sediment on the downgoing oceanic Nazca plate has been subducted. Site 863 was drilled into the forearc in the immediate vicinity of the triple junction above the subducted spreading ridge axis. Here, thick and intensely folded and faulted trench slope sediments of Pleistocene age are currently involved in the frontal deformation of the forearc. Early faults with thrust and reverse kinematics are overprinted by later normal faults.The Chile Triple Junction is also the site of apparent ophiolite emplacement into the South American forearc. Drilling at Site 862 on the Taitao Ridge revealed an offshore volcanic sequence of Plio-Pleistocene age associated with the Taitao Fracture Zone, adjacent to exposures of the Pliocene-aged Taitao ophiolite onshore. Despite the large-scale loss of material from the forearc at the triple junction, ophiolite emplacement produces a large topographic promontory in the forearc immediately after ridge subduction, and represents the first stage of forearc rebuilding.     

Plio‐Pleistocene tectonics and eustasy in the Gippsland Basin,southeast Australia: Evidence from magnetic imagery and marine geological data

The Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments of the Gippsland shelf are dominated by mixed carbonates and siliciclastics. From a detailed stratigraphic study that combines conventional marine geology techniques with magnetic imagery, the Late Neogene tectonic and eustatic history can be interpreted and correlated to the onshore section. Stratigraphic analyses of eight oil and gasfield foundation bores drilled to 150 m below the seabed revealed three principal facies types: (i) Facies A is fine‐grained limestone and limey marl deeper than 50 m below the seabed, of Late Pliocene age (nannofossil zones CN11–12); (ii) Facies B is a fine‐coarse pebble quartz‐carbonate sand that occurs 10–50 m below the seabed in the inner shelf, grading down into Facies A in wells in the outer shelf, and is of Early‐Middle Pleistocene age (nannofossil subzones CN13a-14b: ca 1.95–0.26 Ma); and (iii) discontinuous horizons of Facies C composed of carbonate‐poor carbonaceous and micaceous fine quartz sand occurring 10–50 m below the seabed. The sparse benthic foraminifers in Facies C are inner shelf or Gippsland (euryhaline) Lakes forms. Holocene sands dominate the upper 1.5–2.5 m of the Gippsland shelf and disconformably overlie cemented limestones with aragonite dissolution, indicating previous exposure to meteoric water. Nannofossil dating of the limestones indicates ages within subzone CN14b (dated between ca 0.26 and 0.47 Ma). Airborne magnetic imaging across the Gippsland shelf and onshore provides details of buried magnetic palaeoriver channels and barrier systems. The river systems trend south‐southeast from the Snowy, Tambo, Mitchell, Avon, Macalister and Latrobe Rivers across the shelf. Sparker seismic surveys show the magnetic palaeochannels as seismic ‘smudges’ 20–40 m below the seabed. They appear to correspond to Facies C lenses (i.e. are Early to Middle Pleistocene features). Magnetic palaeobarrier systems trending south‐southwest in the inner shelf and onshore beneath the Gippsland Lakes are orientated 15° different to the modern Ninety Mile Beach barrier trend. Offshore, they correlate stratigraphically to progradation packages of Facies B. Analysis of bore data in the adjacent onshore Gippsland Lakes suggests that a Pliocene barrier sequence 100–120 m below surface is overlain by fluvial sand‐gravel and lacustrine mud facies. The ferruginous sandstone beds resemble offshore Facies C, and are located where magnetic palaeoriver channel systems occur, implying Early to Middle Pleistocene ages. Presence of the estuarine bivalve Anadara trapezia in the upper lacustrine mud facies suggests that the Gippsland Lakes/Ninety Mile Beach‐type barriers developed over the past 0.2 million years. Further inland, magnetic river channels that cut across present‐day uplifted structures, such as the Baragwanath Anticline, suggest that onshore Gippsland uplift continued into the Middle Pleistocene.     

Ancient transpacific voyaging to the new world via Pleistocene South Pacific Islands

How humans first arrived in America remains a mystery. Although the Beringian and coastal options have been discussed in detail, a transpacific route from the Old World to the New World via the islands of Oceania has been essentially ignored. Of the many factors involved in completing such a voyage, besides an adequate watercraft, landfall frequency and prevailing winds and currents were most important. A chain of islands in the landless eastern South Pacific, with its consequent and possibly favorable modifications of regional sea surface currents, would have been particularly beneficial to eastbound mariners. Comparing present‐day bathymetry with estimated late Pleistocene glacially induced sea level fluctuations suggests that latent islands may actually exist, especially when the effects of other geological phenomena are also considered. If exposed during the last glacial maximum (LGM), such a chain of islands could have provided facilitating layover points for ancient eastbound seafaring explorers, thus making a transpacific journey more plausible. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consolidation of the American Cordilleras

The continental margin orogenic systems of the western Americas are enormous features that formed along the Pacific margins of the North and South American plates during late Mesozoic through Cenozoic time. There has been considerable debate concerning their origin, and they are often compared with intra-oceanic fringing arc-trench systems more typical of the Australasian margins of the Pacific Ocean, in that both involve the subduction of oceanic lithosphere, often with similar convergent relative motion vectors. The onset of orogenesis in the two Cordilleras, as shown in reversal of sedimentary polarity from sources generally on the continent to sources along the Pacific margin, seems to date from shortly after emplacement of the oldest oceanic crust in that part of the Atlantic Ocaen east of each continent — i.e., about 170 Ma, or Middle Jurassic, in the case of the Central Atlantic, and about 135 to 100 Ma, or Early to mid-Cretaceous, in the case of the South Atlantic. These ages also seem to mark the onset of westward motion of the two continents over the Pacific Ocean basin and subsequent crustal thickening and uplift, with development of thrust belts, foreland basins, and foredeeps. Prior to this prolonged westward drift, both margins had been convergent for at least several hundred million years, but no massive mountain building had taken place. Instead, the margins were tectonically “neutral”, with typically submarine fringing arc-trench systems or shallow marine to continental margin arcs which stood “outboard” of shallow marine platformal shelves or basins whose main sedimentary polarity was from the continent. Although accretion of “suspect” terranes, high rates of convergence, and age of subducting lithosphere all may have influenced particularly local tectonic response and/or phases of orogenic activity in the two chains, the absolute motion of the two continental margins over the Pacific Ocean basin is considered to have been the dominant factor in Cordilleran tectonic evolution.     

Lost Foraging Opportunities for East Asian Hunter‐Gatherers Due to Rising Sea Level Since the Last Glacial Maximum

This paper explores how changes in sea level and biome distribution may have affected the habitats occupied by hunter‐gatherers in East Asia. Using a model‐based reconstruction of changing sea level from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to present day, our analysis reveals that the exposure of a large continental shelf during the LGM sea level lowstand created a wealth of wooded, estuarine, and coastal biomes that could have been exploited intensively by Late Pleistocene hunter‐gatherers. Models explaining hunter‐gatherer subsistence changes and migrations in this period should take into account the large area that has been lost to rising sea level since the LGM.     

南海北部晚更新世以来的古海洋环境演化特征——来自N-31柱样的沉积记录

对南海北部N-31柱状样沉积物进行了浮游有孔虫定量分析鉴定、氧碳同位素、碳酸盐含量和粒度测试以及AMS14C测年,并采用古生态转换函数计算了表层海水古温度和温跃层深度,揭示了该海区约55 ka以来的古海洋环境特征.转换函数计算的表层海水古温度结果表明,夏季温度的变化范围为27.0～29.6℃,变化幅度为2.6℃,冬季温...     

Oil and Gas Potential of Deep- and Ultradeep-Water Zones of Continental Margins

Oil- and gas-bearing basins of the World Ocean spreading to the continental shelf and foothill are considered. Large hydrocarbon resources, including oil pools have been discovered in the deep-water basins. The basins are confined to passive continental margins and characterized by the common mechanism of formation. Oil and gas (hereafter, petroleum) generation and accumulation are dictated by the optimum specifics of source and reservoir rocks accumulated under favorable conditions of rifts and deep-sea fans. Halokinesis played an important role in the formation of traps and migration of hydrocarbons. The global experience shows that the northern, eastern, and southern shelves of the Russian seas, as well as their continental slopes and foothills, have a big petroleum potential.     

东海盆地形成的区域地质背景与构造演化特征

东海盆地处于西太平洋俯冲带前缘,是发育在华南克拉通基底之上的,以晚白垩世-新生代沉积为主的新生代盆地.东海盆地性质是在活动大陆边缘减薄陆壳之上的,由于洋-陆俯冲消减所引起的张裂、拉伸作用而形成的弧后裂谷型盆地,是西太平洋众多“沟-弧-盆”体系的一部分.东海盆地陆架外缘隆起控制着东海盆地的演化过程,该地质单元形成于晚白垩世,是陆缘隆起和增生楔的复合体,中新世后由于菲律宾海板块的活动而解体为现今的钓鱼岛隆褶带和琉球隆起.结合对陆架外缘隆起的研究后认为,东海盆地晚白垩世以来的演化历程具有3大构造阶段,即:第一阶段,古新世-中始新世西部坳陷形成发展期;第二阶段,中始新世-渐新世东部坳陷形成发展期,其中,中晚始新世太平洋板块的转向是东、西部坳陷构造迁移的分界点;第三阶段,中新世-全新世,东海盆地进入到菲律宾板块影响时期,原先的构造格局开始分解.