Burial Records of Reactive Iron in Cretaceous Black Shales and Oceanic Red Beds from Southern Tibet

One of the new directions in the field of Cretaceous research is to elucidate the mechanism of the sedimentary transition from the Cretaceous black shales to oceanic red beds. A chemical sequential extraction method was applied to these two types of rocks from southern Tibet to investigate the burial records of reactive iron. Results indicate that carbonate-associated iron and pyrite are relatively enriched in the black shales, but depleted or absent in red beds. The main feature of the reactive iron in the red beds is relative enrichment of iron oxides （largely hematite）, which occurred during syn-depostion or early diagenesis. The ratio between iron oxides and the total iron indicates an oxygen-enriched environment for red bed deposition. A comparison between the reactive iron burial records and proxies of paleo-productivity suggests that paleo-productivity decreases when the ratio between iron oxides and the total iron increases in the red beds. This phenomenon could imply that the relationship between marine redox and productivity might be one of the reasons for the sedimentary transition from Cretaceous black shale to oceanic red bed deposition.     

Response of Reactive Phosphorus Burial to the Sedimentary Transition from Cretaceous Black Shales to Oceanic Red Beds in Southern Tibet

The mechanism of sedimentary transition from the Cretaceous black shales to the oceanic red beds is a new and important direction of Cretaceous research. Chemical sequential extraction is applied to study the burial records of reactive phosphorus in the black shale of the Gyabula Formation and oceanic red beds of the Chuangde Formation, Southern Tibet. Results indicate that the principal reactive phosphorus species is the authigenic and carbonate-associated phosphorus (CaP) in the Gyabula Formation and iron oxides-associated phosphorus (FeP) in the Chuangde Formation which accounts for more than half of their own total phosphorus content. While the authigenic and carbonate-associated phosphorus (CaP) is almost equal in the two Formations; the iron oxides-associated phosphorus is about 1.6 times higher in the Chuangde Formation than that in the Gyabula Formation resulting in a higher content of the total phosphorus in the Chuangde Formation. According to the observations on the marine phosphorus cycle in Modern Ocean, it is found that preferential burial and regeneration of reactive phosphorus corresponds to highly oxic and reducing conditions, respectively, leading to the different distribution of phosphorus in these two distinct type of marine sediments. It is the redox-sensitive behavior of phosphorus cycle to the different redox conditions in the ocean and the controlling effects of phosphorus to the marine production that stimulate the local sedimentary transition from the Cretaceous black shale to the oceanic red beds.     

Variation on Foraminiferal Composition in Cretaceous Black-Gray-Red Bed Sequence of Southern Tibet, China

An Upper Cretaceous black-gray-red bed sequence was deposited in the Tethys-Himalayan Sea where abundant foraminifera, especially planktons, were yielded. In the shallow shelf to the upper slope on the north margin of Indian plate was recorded an extinction-recovery-radiation cycle of foraminiferal fauna highly sensitive to paleoceanographical changes. The black unit, consisting of the Late Cenomanian-earliest Turonian beds, displays a major extinction, with keeled planktonic and many benthic species as the principal victims at the end of the Cenomanian when existed only low diversity, sin-face water-dwelling foraminifera. The gray unit spans a long-term recovery interval from the Turonian to the early Santonian with keeled planktonic foraminifera returning stepwise to the water colunm. The planktonic biota in the red unit, extremely abundant, indicate a biotic radiation during the Late Santonian and the Early Campanian, implying that the high oxygen levels had returned to all the oceanic depth levels,and that the water stratification disappeared, followed by the radiation of all depth-dwellers. The variation on foraminiferal faunas from the whole sequence refers to the extreme warm climate that appeared in the Middle Cretaceous and to the declined temperature toward the late epoch. Substantial deposits for this warming and cooling zones represent the black shales in the Middle Cretaceous and the red beds in the later period of the southern Tibet. The change in the foraminiferal composition corresponded to the formation of dysaerobic facies and to the development of high-oxidized circumstances.     

冀北—辽西早白垩世沉积有机质特征与古气候环境演变

本文对冀北—辽西地区早白垩世沉积盆地富有机质沉积岩进行了初步有机地球化学分析研究。结果显示,冀北—辽西沉积盆沉积有机质特征在时间和空间上存在很大差异,代表白垩系早期沉积的滦平盆地大北沟组有机质丰度低,这不仅显示其所代表的沉积相带不利于有机质的聚集,也反映了当时生物不够繁盛;大店子组时期沉积相带发生了变化,有机质类型随着发生了变化,丰度有所增高,但总体上显示环境条件不利于生物的发育和繁盛。到了桥头组和义县组沉积岩有机质丰度大幅升高,表明生物界非常繁盛,古气候环境有利于有机质的大量生成和堆积,总体上反映了温湿的气候条件;但同时也存在较为频繁或交替性寒冷气候波动,具体的古气候环境状态尚需进一步深入研究。     

南黄海中部表层沉积物有机质分布与分子组成研究

通过分析南黄海中部501个站位表层沉积物通沉积物有机质、粒度及常量元素特征,了解有机质分布特征及影响因素,并进一步对其中64个站位的进行气相色谱（GC-FID）分析,探讨有机质分子组成。分析表明:南黄海中部总有机碳受水动力影响呈分布西低东高分布,总有机碳与Al2O3含量中值粒径依次相关特性;正构烷烃组成表明有机质主要来源于陆源高等植物,海洋浮游藻类贡献次之,陆源植物中草本植物与木本植物贡献相当,类异戊二烯烃反映了短链正构烷烃明显海洋还原沉积环境;常量元素与正构烷烃参数综合分析表明,南黄海中部陆源有机质主要来自于现代黄河、苏北古黄河输入,体现无机-有机综合分析对有机质物源判断;部分样品具有明显石油源输入特征,细菌对沉积物有机质贡献普遍存在。     

New biostratigraphic data from the Cretaceous Bolinxiala Formation in Zanda, southwestern Tibet of China, and their paleogeographic and paleoceanographic implications

Planktonic foraminiferal fossil assemblages identified from the Bolinxiala Formation in Bolin, Zanda, southwestern Tibet of China, determine its age from latest Albian to Maastrichtian. The fossil contents of the Bolinxiala Formation allow its correlation with successions across a platform-to-basin transect of the Late Cretaceous Tethyan Himalaya passive margin. The ocean anoxic event at the Cenomanian–Turonian transition (OAE2) is located at the Whiteinella archaeocretacaea biozone in Zanda, but lithologically it is characterized by grey and bioturbated limestone, implying that during the OAE2 the shallow-water environments of the Tethyan Himalayan carbonate platform remained oxic. Paleogeographic reconstruction indicates that the Upper Cretaceous Oceanic Red Beds (CORBs) in southern Tibet are restricted to the slope and basinal environments but they are entirely missing in the shelf environments. This phenomenon suggests the formation of CORBs by oxidation of Fe(II)-enriched anoxic deep ocean seawater at the chemocline that separated the oxic surface ocean from anoxic deep ocean. For depositional environments above the chemocline, no CORBs would be expected. Because of the chemocline instability across different sedimentary basins, CORBs may be significantly diachronous, consistent with the occurrence of CORBs documented from global sedimentary basins.     

哈素海沉积物中氮和有机质的分布特征

针对哈素海富营养化日趋严重的现实,系统开展了湖泊沉积物中不同形态氮及有机质的空间分布和污染特征研究。结果表明,表层沉积物中TN、Org N、NH+4 N及有机质的水平分布均表现经向分异特征,Org N的分布特征主导了TN的水平分布格局,有机质与TN具有强相关性。沉积柱芯中TN随深度增加而递减,有机质和Org N与TN的垂向分布相似,尽管 NH+4 N的垂直变化分异较大,但仍表现于表层富集的特点。Org N为表层沉积物和沉积柱芯中氮的主导形态,NH+4 N为无机氮的主导形态,成岩过程中,沉积物中TN只有极少部分在发生矿化。沉积物中有机质主要来源于湖中芦苇等大型挺水植物及陆源输入。哈素海表层沉积物的氮污染对底栖生物已经产生了严重的生态毒性效应,对底栖生物群落及整个水生生态系统构成了严重威胁。     

THE ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY OF POLLEN FROM THE MESOZOIC—CENOZOIC RED BEDS IN NORTHERN TIBET

THE ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY OF POLLEN FROM THE MESOZOIC—CENOZOIC RED BEDS IN NORTHERN TIBETtheNational (G19980 40 80 0 5 .3)andtheProject (49872 0 0 3)supportedbyNNSFC     

藏南日喀则地区白垩纪泥岩、页岩有机质丰度及其油气地质意义

对藏南发育完整的、厚度巨大的海相白垩纪地层中的暗色泥、页岩开展了有机质丰度研究。综合分析结果表明：该区泥、页岩中残余有机碳含量在0.05％~1.1％之间,平均值约为0.42％,其中下白垩统约为0.531％,上白垩统约为0.265％,有机碳平均含量变化特征与该区的古地理格局及海平面升降有关。氯仿沥青‘A’含量在0.0009％~0.0072％之间,平均含量约为0.0040％。有机碳与氯仿沥青‘A’最大值与最小值之比分别为22和8。有机碳与氯仿沥青‘A’这种弱负相关性与两者遭受剧烈的地表风化作用、强烈的紫外线照射和高程度有机质热演化后的损失量有关,后者远大于前者。白垩系残余有机碳含量大于0.6％的中等—好生油岩样10件,占样品总数的27％,下白垩统样品9件,占样品总数的24.3％,上白垩统样品1件,占样品总数的2.7％,表明来自北喜马拉雅地区东山组和康马—隆子地区甲不拉组的早白垩世泥、页岩为该区主要的有效生油岩。     

Discovery of Pseudofrenelopsis gansuensis from the Lower Cretaceous of Wangqing, Jilin Province, and Its Significance in Correlation of Cretaceous Red Beds in China

New data from abundant vegetative shoots and cuticular analysis are provided for the Cretaceous cheirolepidiaceous conifer Pseudofrenelopsis gansuensis Deng, Yang et Lu. The material was found from a new locality of the Lower Cretaceous strata in the Luozigou Basin, Wangqing, Jilin Province, northeastern China. Pseudofrenelopsis is a common plant in the Dalazi Formation of the Yanji Basin about 150 km from Wangqing, but there exists different species, Pseudofrenelopsis dalatzensis only. Both P. dalatzensis and P. gansuensis have been recorded from the Lower Cretaceous of Jiuquan, Gansu Province, but they are in different stratigraphic horizons. The Lower Cretaceous plant-bearing strata in Luozigou have used to correlate with the Dalazi Formation of the Yanji Basin. The discovery of P. gansuensis, which is lower in horizon than P. dalatzensis in Jiuquan, may indicate that they are also different in horizon in Jilin. Cheirolepidiaceous conifers are among the few fossils of red beds of the Early Cretaceous in China. The present discovery of Pseudofrenelopsis gansuensis provides important evidence for classification, correlation and determination of geological ages of the Early Cretaceous non-marine red deposits of the two separate basins in remote areas of North China.