The origin of very flinty dry-valley deposits in the Marlow area,Buckinghamshire, England

Some of the soils on the floors of dry chalkland valleys north of the River Thames in the Marlow area have surface horizons of moderately to very flinty, weakly or non-calcareous, poorly sorted loams, which were deposited in the late Holocene. These overlie typical chalkland gelifluction and periglacial fluvial deposits. Fine calcareous colluvial loams also occur but are less common than in valleys elsewhere on the English chalk. Particle size and mineralogical analyses suggest that the loamy matrix of the flinty surface horizons was derived from loess and early Tnames terrace deposits or Clay-with-flints occurring on interfluves between the dry-valleys. On the evidence of their poorly sorted nature, lack of carbonate, abundance of large flints and irregularly ridged surfaces, it is suggested that they originated mainly as valley-side debris flows.     

The Widdington Sands: High-level Kesgrave Sands and Gravels near the Cam-Stort interfluve,Northwest Essex,UK

A small but stratigraphically significant exposure of Quaternary sandy sediments (Widdington Sands) was observed and recorded in the early 1970s in northwest Essex. These data are here re-examined and re-evaluated, yielding new insights into early proto-Thames aggradation following the marine recession of the Norwich Crag Formation (MIS 74–71, about 2 Ma). As the proto-Thames trajectory shifted south eastwards, a period of landscape stability ensued in the early Middle Pleistocene (MIS 19–13) during which the Valley Farm Soil was formed. This and the succeeding Barham Soil can be recognised in the stratigraphy, the second palaeosol heralding the arrival of glaciation in the Anglian Stage (MIS 12, 480–420 ka). These pedogenic signatures are enclosed within palaeokarstic features in the form of infilled sinkhole pipes. A large doline has functioned as a sediment trap preserving pre-truncation structures including reverse ring faults. These confirm basal support removal leading to upward migration of a dissolution cavity and roof collapse within the sinkhole pipe. The process and timing of subsidence can thus be defined more clearly than for similar features found in comparable Kesgrave aggradations of the Middle Thames. The likely glacitectonic origin of the planar sub-till surface is examined and discussed. Dating of Early Pleistocene fluvial activity is constrained by estimating the height of a former terrace surface whose elevation points to a correlation with the higher Stoke Row Member (MIS 64, 1.8 Ma), suggesting the oldest known proto-Thames activity within southern East Anglia.     

First occurrence of azhdarchoid pterosaurs in the Gault Formation (Lower Cretaceous,Albian) of England,United Kingdom with a brief review of Gault pterosaurs

Pterosaurs are a rare component of the Early Cretaceous (Albian) Gault Formation of southern England. The only named taxon reported, ‘Pterodactylus’ daviesii Owen, 1874, is widely regarded as a nomen dubium or as Pterodactyloidea incertae sedis, while most other material can be referred to Pterodactyloidea indet. Here we describe a fragmentary humerus and elongate mid-series cervical vertebra both from the Gault Formation of Kent, southeast England that can be referred to the edentulous pterodactyloid clade Azhdarchoidea. The cervical vertebra is identified as being from a non-tapejaromorph azhdarchoid on account of its reduced neural spine, a neural arch confluent with the centrum, a neural canal that is subsumed into the centrum and the lack of foramina on the lateral surfaces of the centrum. The humerus is referred to Azhdarchoidea on account of its sub-rectangular distal end.     

The marginal Wealden (non-marine Lower Cretaceous) between Wiltshire and Buckinghamshire,England

Non-marine Lower Cretaceous beds of Wealden aspect have long been known from the northern margin of the Wessex–Weald Basin, between Wiltshire and the south Midlands. Termed the Whitchurch Sands Formation, these badly exposed and generally poorly fossiliferous strata appear to represent interdigitating alluvial and brackish-marine units separated by significant sedimentary breaks. Geological Conservation Review sites within the Whitchurch Sands are described and interpreted for their chronostratigraphic, palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic significance.     

秦昆结合部塔秀地区隆务河组碎屑锆石LA-ICP-MSU-Pb年代学及其地质意义

秦昆结合部独特的地质组成与复杂的造山带结构受到广泛关注。前人对该地区沉积物质来源进行了初步分析,但存在较大争议。选取隆务河组碎屑岩为研究对象,运用碎屑锆石LA-ICP-MS U-Pb同位素年代学方法,探讨隆务河组物源特征。U-Pb测年结果表明,隆务河组碎屑锆石年龄谱明显分为4组:2 746~2 084 Ma,1 094~775 Ma,492~411 Ma,372~237 Ma。其中,372~237 Ma年龄组约占总体的56.79%,所占比例最大,年龄相对集中,且呈现出强烈的峰值,代表了阿尼玛卿洋向北俯冲碰撞产生的一系列构造岩浆事件,其余年龄段所占比例则较少。综合分析显示,隆务河组碎屑沉积物质来源较为复杂,具有明显的多元性,存在祁连造山带、柴北缘构造带和东昆仑造山带3个物源区,其中东昆仑造山带提供了大部分物源,为隆务河组贡献最大的物源区。     

Relation of Isotope Geochemical Steep Zones with Geophysical Fields and Tectonics in the Junction Area of the Cathaysian, Yangtze and Indochina Plates

Through lead isotope geochemical mapping in the Yunnan-Guizhou area geochemical steep zones (GSZ) have been established, which clearly reveal the junction relationship of the Cathaysian, Yangtze and Indo-China plates. GSZ are closey related to gravity Mono gradient zones and lithospheric thickness. The GSZ between the Yangtze and Cathaysian plates is consistent with the Shizong-Mile tectonic belt, where island arc basalts are well developed. The Yangtze-Indo-China GSZ is parallel to the Jingdong-Mojiang volcanic belt in rift-island arc environments. The evidence of geology, geophysics and geochemistry all indicates that Cathaysia was subducted towards the Yangtze plate and that the Yangtze plate was underthrust beneath the Indo-China, which took place from the Early Carboniferous to the Early Triassic.     

The Discovery of Late Ordovician Granodiorite in the Xiemisitai Area, Xinjiang and its Geological Significance

<正>Objective The Xiemisitai area located in the northern part of the West Junggar,Xinjiang is an important component of the central Asian metallogenic domain.Recent studies show that the formation age of acid volcanic and intrusive rocks in the Xiemisitai area mainly ranges from the Late Silurian to the Early Devonian,and the age of the mineralized dacite porphyry is Early Silurian.These rocks are the     

应用激电法勘查隐蔽型油砂矿--以二连盆地包楞油砂矿为例

巴音都兰凹陷包楞地区是二连盆地油砂资源主要分布的三大地区之一,油砂层厚度大、埋藏浅、含油率高,属于隐蔽型油砂矿,为古油藏破坏型成矿模式。为了进一步搞清油砂矿的分布范围和资源规模,对包楞油砂矿进行了激电法勘探,建立了电性参数与油砂矿分布之间的对应关系,圈定了油砂分布面积,预测了油砂地质资源,并选择激电法勘查的有利区进行了钻井验证。结果表明,激电法对包楞隐蔽油砂矿勘探是有效的勘查方法。     

黑龙江金厂金矿区火山构造及其控矿特征

金厂矿区化类型主要有隐爆角砾岩型、构造蚀变岩型和黄铁矿及多金属硫化物细脉充填型，与其相对应的容矿构造分别为隐爆角砾岩筒，断裂和环状、放射状断裂。其中隐爆角砾岩筒和环状、放射状断裂是印支期花岗岩和燕山中－晚期闪长玢岩岩浆活动时伴生的火山－次火山构造,岩浆期后含矿热液充填其中并发生蚀变交代，形成了隐爆角砾岩型矿体及由黄铁矿－石英脉和多金属硫化物－石英脉充填的环状、放射状矿体。     

吐鲁番八仙口地区沉积体系及其与铀成矿的关系

通过钻孔岩心编录和测井解释资料的综合统计,以及野外地质露头分析,八仙口地区中下侏罗统含矿目的层可划分出3个沉积体系:辫状三角洲沉积体系、滨浅湖沉积体系和曲流河沉积体系。文章详细论述了各沉积体系的沉积相特征,分析了各沉积体系及沉积相与砂岩型铀矿的成矿关系,指出辫状三角洲沉积体系对砂岩型铀矿成矿最为有利,三角洲前缘、河口坝及分流河道微相是砂岩型铀矿主要的控矿沉积相。     

Deep channel sedimentation in the Lower Cretaceous McMurray Formation, Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta

ABSTRACT In the region of the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, the Lower Cretaceous McMurray Formation comprises 50-80 m of uncemented quartz sand and associated shale, saturated throughout by bitumen. The sediments are dominantly of continental origin, except in the uppermost parts of the formation where sedimentation was influenced by the encroaching boreal sea.
In most outcrop and mine face exposures of the McMurray Formation, a sequence of three facies is recognized. In ascending order these are: (1) an erosionally based thick-bedded sand facies, 2-20 m thick, dominated by large-scale trough cross-beds; (2) an epsilon cross-stratified facies with solitary sets up to 25 m in thickness, consisting of decimetre to metre thick couplets of sand/mud, with depositional slopes of 8-12° and palaeocurrent indications parallel to the strike of the epsilon cross-set; and (3) a horizontally bedded argillaceous sand facies up to a few metres thick. The three-fold sequence is interpreted as a single upward-fining cycle of channel sedimentation, the trough cross-bedded sands resulting from channel bottom deposition, the epsilon cross-strata accumulating by lateral accretion of channel point bars, and the upper argillaceous sand representing floodplain sedimentation. Where the McMurray Formation is relatively thin (less than 50 m), virtually the entire formation is commonly composed of a single upward-fining channel deposit.
Details of the size and physiographic setting of the channels are somewhat uncertain, but the present evidence suggests that the epsilon-dominated McMurray Formation sequence in the Athabasca Deposit region represents the coastal plain culmination of a very large fluvial drainage system.