Temporal trends in grain-size measures on a linear sand dune

Within aeolian dune systems spatial patterns of grain-size variation have been recognized, but little has been said about temporal changes. Increasingly it is becoming clear that linear dunes are associated with bi-directional wind regimes which are often seasonal. In the Namib Sand Sea, where linear dunes are aligned roughly north-south, winds blow from the west in summer and from the east in winter. In response to this regime, sand is eroded from the west slopes and deposited on the east slopes in summer, and eroded from the east slopes and deposited on the west slopes in winter. Preliminary evidence from a study of a single Namib linear dune reported here confirms that this seasonal aeolian regime induces seasonal responses in some grain-size measurements due to the dynamics of sand transport on the dune, the characteristics of the sand source immediately upwind of the sample point and the nature of the deposit. Thus, time of sampling is crucial to the results obtained.     

Geohazard assessment of sand dunes between Jeddah and Al-Lith, western Saudi Arabia

Serious hazards have taken place in urban areas and road construction in Saudi Arabia because of the presence of accumulations of drifting sand dunes. Several researches, which carried out investigative work to solve this problem, were reviewed. Three locations of dune fields along the area between Jeddah and Al-Lith were investigated. The dune forms was identified. Detailed field investigations showed that barchan dunes are dominant in the area. The sands from the studied locations were found to be similar in grain size and shape parameters. Mineralogically, the sand reflects the composition of the surrounding igneous and metamorphic rocks. Regression analyses were performed and empirical relationships between dune height, width, windward length, slip-face length, and rate of movements were developed. Relatively strong relations exist between these parameters. The most important geometric parameter controlling dune movement with wind speed and direction is determined to be the dune height. A reasonable similarity occurs between the barchan dunes in the study area and those existing in Al Nufud, Al Jafurah sand seas, and Khulays area. The studied dune fields pose some natural hazards on the roads, and the surrounding buildings and constructions in the villages along the area between Jeddah and Al-Lith, especially during wind storms.     

Sedimentology of an ancient erg margin: the Lower Jurassic Aztec Sandstone, southern Nevada and southern California

The Lower Jurassic Aztec Sandstone is an aeolian-deposited quartzose sandstone that represents the western margin of the southerly-migrating Navajo-Nugget sand sea (or erg). Vertical and lateral facies relations suggest that the erg margin encroached upon volcanic highlands, alluvial fan, wadi and sabkha environments. In southern Nevada, 700 m thick facies successions record the arrival of the Aztec sand sea. Initial erg sedimentation in the Valley of Fire consists of lenticular or tongue-shaped aeolian sand bodies interstratified with fluvially-deposited coarse sandstone and mudstone. Above, evaporite-rich fine sandstone and mudstone are overlain by thick, cross-stratified aeolian sandstone that shows an upsection increase in set thickness. The lithofacies succession represents aeolian sand sheets and small dunes that migrated over a siliciclastic sabkha traversed by ephemeral wadis. These deposits were ultimately buried by large dunes and draas of the erg. In the Spring Mountains, a similar facies succession also contains thin, lenticular volcaniclastic conglomerate and sandstone. These sediments represent the distal margin of an alluvial fan complex sourced from the west. Thin aeolian sequences are interbedded with volcanic flow rocks, ash-flow tuffs, debris flows, and fluvial deposits in the Mojave Desert of southern California. These aeolian strata represent erg migration up the eastern flanks of a magmatic arc. The westward diminution of aeolian-deposited units may reflect incomplete erg migration, thin accumulation of aeolian sediment succeptible to erosion, and stratigraphic dilution by arc-derived sediment. A two-part division of the Aztec erg is suggested by lithofacies associations, the size and geometry of aeolian cross-strata, and sediment dispersal data. The leading or downwind margin of the erg, here termed the fore-erg, is represented by a 10–100 m thick succession of isolated pods, lenses, and tongues of aeolian-deposited sediment encased in fluvial and sabkha deposits. Continued sand-sea migration brought large dunes and draas of the erg interior into the study area; these 150–500 m thick central-erg sediments buried the fore-erg deposits. The trailing, upwind margin of the erg is represented by back-erg deposits in northern Utah and Wyoming.     

昌黎海岸风成沙丘砂组构特征及其与海滩砂的比较

对昌黎海岸沙丘砂进行薄片统计,重砂矿物分析,电镜扫描,粒度分析及与海滩砂的对比研究发现,沙丘砂在物质组成、颗粒形态、石英砂表面结构特征和粒度特征方面均继承了海滩砂特征,不过,海滩砂中也有沙丘砂的某些特征,反映了两者沉积的混合。这是由于向岸风和离岸风共同作用的结果。     

Luminescence chronology of the inland sand dunes from SE India

Records of past climate changes have been preserved variously on the earth's surface. Sand dunes are one such prominent imprint, and it is suggested that their presence is an indicator of periods of transition from arid to less arid phases. We report inland sand dunes from Andhra Pradesh (SE India) spread over an area of ~ 500 km², ~ 75 km inland from the east coast. The dune sands are examined to understand their provenance, transportation, timing of sand aggradation and their relationship to past climates. The dune distribution, grain morphology and the grain-size studies on sands suggest an aeolian origin. Physiography of the study area, heavy mineral assemblage, and abundance of quartz in the parent rocks indicate that the dune sands are largely derived from first-order streams emanating from hills in the region and from weathering of the Nellore schist belt. It appears that the geomorphology and wind direction pattern both facilitated and restricted the dune aggradation and preservation to a limited area. OSL dating of 47 dune samples ranged from the present to ~ 50 ka, thereby suggesting a long duration of sand-dune aggradation and/or reworking history.     

Episodic Late Holocene dune movements on the sand-sheet area, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, San Luis Valley, Colorado, USA

The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (GSDNPP) in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, contains a variety of eolian landforms that reflect Holocene drought variability. The most spectacular is a dune mass banked against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which is fronted by an extensive sand sheet with stabilized parabolic dunes. Stratigraphic exposures of parabolic dunes and associated luminescence dating of quartz grains by single-aliquot regeneration (SAR) protocols indicate eolian deposition of unknown magnitude occurred ca. 1290-940, 715 ± 80, 320 ± 30, and 200-120 yr ago and in the 20th century. There are 11 drought intervals inferred from the tree-ring record in the past 1300 yr at GSDNPP potentially associated with dune movement, though only five eolian depositional events are currently recognized in the stratigraphic record. There is evidence for eolian transport associated with dune movement in the 13th century, which may coincide with the “Great Drought”, a 26-yr-long dry interval identified in the tree ring record, and associated with migration of Anasazi people from the Four Corners areas to wetter areas in southern New Mexico. This nascent chronology indicates that the transport of eolian sand across San Luis Valley was episodic in the late Holocene with appreciable dune migration in the 8th, 10-13th, and 19th centuries, which ultimately nourished the dune mass against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.     

What is preserved in the aeolian rock record? A Jurassic Entrada Sandstone case study at the Utah–Arizona border

Aeolian dune fields evolve from protodunes and small dunes into a pattern of progressively fewer, larger and more widely spaced dunes within limits defined by boundary conditions. However, the allogenic boundary conditions that promote aeolian dune‐field development, accumulation of strata and preservation of accumulated strata are not the same. Autogenic processes, such as dune interactions, scour‐depth variation along migrating dunes and substrate cannibalization by growing dunes, result in removal of the stratigraphic record. Moreover, dune‐field events may be collapsed into major erosional bounding surfaces. The question is what stages of evolving dune fields are represented in the rock record? This case study of ca 60 m of Jurassic Entrada Sandstone on the Utah/Arizona border (USA) defines stratigraphic intervals by gross architecture of bounding surfaces and sets of cross‐strata. The interpreted intervals in stratigraphic order consist of: (i) a lower sabkha bed that transitions upward into erosional remnants of small sets representing an initial wet aeolian system; (ii) large, compound cross‐strata representing a mature dune field; (iii) isolated scour‐fill representing negatively climbing dunes that produced ca 25 m of palaeo‐topographic relief; (iv) downlapping sets that fill the landscape‐scale relief; (v) four intervals of stacked climbing sets that each represent short periods of time; and (vi) an upper sabkha bed that again transitions into small sets representing a wet system. Accumulations appear to be associated with sediment pulses, a rising water table, and filling of scoured troughs and landscape‐scale depressions. Preservation of the accumulations is selective and associated with a rising water table, burial and subsidence. The preserved record appears remarkably incomplete. Speculation about missing strata gravitates towards cannibalization of the record of early dune‐field construction, and strata removed during the formation of bounding surfaces. This local Entrada record is thought to represent a point in the spectrum of preservation styles in the rock record.     

Wind sedimentation in the Jafurah sand sea, Saudi Arabia

The Jafurah sand sea of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia extends along the Arabian Gulf coastline from Kuwait in the north to the Rub Al Khali in the south, a distance of about 800 km. Sand drifts southward to south-eastward from regions of high wind energy in the north to low wind energy in the south. The aeolian landscape is zoned, with areas of deflation, transport and deposition from north to south. Drift rates in the zone of transport, near Abqaiq, range from 2 m³ m-w^-1 yr^-1 on sabkhas, to 29 m³ m-w^-1 yr^-1 on the crests of dunes. Average drift rates of approximately 18 m³ m-w^-1 yr^-1 observed during the study can cause about 1 m of accumulation per 5500 yr in a 100 km zone of deposition downwind, not including the bulk transport represented by the forward advance of dunes. Dune advance ranged from 23 m (2.9 m high dune) to 3 m (23 m high dune) during April-October 1980. The study area consists of dune, interdune, sand sheet and siliciclastic sabkha terrains, each of which is characterized by differing drift rates, and differing rates of erosion or deposition. Sedimentation occurs by lateral movement of dunes and interdunes, and vertical accretion by sand sheets and sabkhas.     

Structural and stratigraphic evolution of Abu Dhabi in the context of Arabia

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is famed for its coastal carbonate, sabkhas and sand dunes; it is located in the NE part of the Arabian Plate, which formed during the Late Neoproterozoic (~820–750 Ma) by the accretion of island arcs and microcontinents to early Gondwana. Most of Arabia seems to have spent its existence within the Southern Hemisphere until it crossed the Equator during the Mesozoic; parts were involved in four glaciations, two in the Proterozoic (~750–630 Ma—Iceball or Slushball Earth?), and two more in the Palaeozoic (Late Ordovician and Permo-Carboniferous transition). In the early Palaeozoic the Arabian Plate was oriented about 90° counter clockwise relative to today’s poles. Gondwana later skirted the South Pole, migrating to the other side of the planet, eventually emerging the ‘right-way up’ with the Arabian Plate oriented to the poles more or less as seen today. Cold and temperate climate conditions ensured that for much of its early existence, Arabia was the site of mainly quartz-rich deposits. Later in the Neoproterozoic, however, extensive stromatolitic carbonate deposition took the lead, culminating around the Cambro-Precambrian boundary with deposition of the extensive Ara and Hormuz evaporites. Since south Arabia’s Permo-Carboniferous glaciation, the Arabian plate has been drifting northward, crossing temperate climatic zones conducive to fluvial and aeolian sandstone deposition and, from the later Permian, to tropical shallow-marine carbonates and evaporites In parallel with the above, the rifting of Gondwana opened an oceanic trough in the Late Permian off the NE flank of Arabia. Slope carbonates and deepwater Hawasina turbidites with a clear flow to the NE were deposited until they were obducted (together with associated ophiolites) in the Late Cretaceous on the edge of the Arabian plate in Oman and Iran. The deposition of widespread Early Silurian hydrocarbon source rocks in east-central Arabia was followed in the later Permian by extensive reservoir rocks with more during the mid-Late Mesozoic, giving rise to major oilfields both on- and off-shore, including Abu Dhabi. Arabia and Africa began to separate late in the Miocene with the opening of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. SSW–NNE compressive stresses caused uplift and volcanic activity in west Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Some products of erosion flowed eastward into Abu Dhabi. At the NE margin of Arabia, the Tethys Ocean narrowed, the NE flank of the newly forming Zagros Mountains of Iran is being subducted beneath southern Asia. To the SE, roughly coeval crustal compression adjacent to the Gulf of Oman led to uplift of the Oman Mountains and deposition of erosional products flanking the mountains mainly to the W and SW. The Oman Mountains are currently rising at about 2 mm/a, while northern Musandam is subsiding into the Strait of Hormuz at some 6 mm/a in association with subduction of the Arabian plate margin below the Eurasian plate. Alternations between polar glaciations and interglacials over the past few 100 ka resulted in considerable climatic changes over Arabia; slow glacial build-ups lasting some 80 to 120 ka led, somewhat erratically, to a fall in sea level of up to 130 m, to strong winds and the building of systems of extensive sand dunes such as the Rub’ al Khali. The joint Tigris–Euphrates river system flowed through a desert landscape, reaching the ocean only SE of the Strait of Hormuz. The peak of the last glaciation about 21 ka was followed by its rapid collapse and flooding of the Arabian Gulf to its present level between about 12 or 10 and 6 ka, a horizontal marine advance of some 200–300 m/a. Abu Dhabi is now the site of shallow-marine carbonates offshore and classical sabkhas and carbonate-rich sand dunes onshore.     

Geochemistry of the Boil Mountain ophiolitic complex,northwest Maine,and tectonic implications

A coherent ophiolitic complex of pyroxenite, serpentinite, metagabbro, mafic volcanics, felsic volcanics and sediments crops out in NW Maine, adjacent to the Chain Lakes massif. The complex (here informally referred to as the Boil Mountain ophiolitic complex) is about 500 m.y. old. The volcanic sequence is not typical of ophiolites in that it contains a large proportion of felsic volcanics. The mafic volcanics are divided into two geochemical groups. A stratigraphically lower group is depleted in Ti, Zr, Y, Cr and REE contents similar to basalts from supra-subduction zone ophiolites. An upper mafic group has trace element contents similar to normal mid-ocean ridge basalts. The felsic volcanics are mostly rhyolitic and similar to low-K rhyolites found in the forearc of the Marianas trench and in an island arc sequence in the Klamath Mountains, California. The flat REE patterns of the felsic volcanic rocks are similar to those found in siliceous rocks in the Oman ophiolite. The presence of thick sequences of felsic volcanics, the abundance of pyroxenite, the low Ti, Zr and REE contents of some mafic rocks, the flat REE patterns of the felsic volcanics, and the composition of clinopyroxene all suggest the complex was formed in the vicinity of a subduction zone. The complex may be correlated with ophiolitic fragments in the eastern part of the Dunnage Zone in Newfoundland, rather than the main ophiolite belt of the western Appalachians.     

Ophiolites from the Mianlue Suture in the Southern Qinling and Their Relationship with the Eastern Paleotethys Evolution

The Mianlue suture extends from Derni-Nanping-Pipasi-Kangxian to the Lueyang-Mianxian area, then traverses the Bashan arcuate structure eastward to the Huashan region, and finally to the Qingshuihe area of the southern Dabie Mountains. From east to west, with a length of over 1500 km, the ophiolitic melange associations are distributed discontinuously along the suture. The rock assemblages include ophiolite, island-arc and oceanic island rock series, indicating that there existed a suture zone and a vanished paleo-ocean basin. The Mianliie paleo-ocean basin experienced its main expansion and formation process during the Carboniferous-Permian and closed totally in the Triassic. It belongs to the northern branch of the eastern paleotethys, separated from the northern margin of the Yangtze block under the paleotethys mantle dynamic system.     

新疆铬铁矿成矿条件与勘查部署建议

新疆为我国铬铁矿成矿条件优越,资源分布较丰富的省区之一,铬铁矿较集中分布于西准噶尔地区,东准噶尔、东天山和西昆仑也有零星出露.主要受控于特提斯和古亚洲两大构造域俯冲增生杂岩带或蛇绿混杂岩带.唐巴勒-卡拉麦里复合俯冲型增生杂岩带、碱泉蛇绿混杂岩带、库地-其曼于特蛇绿混杂岩带为主要代表,变质橄榄岩中上部斜辉橄榄岩+纯橄岩组合是新疆镁铁-超镁铁型铬铁矿主要赋存岩相带.我国是铬铁矿进口大国,对外依存度极高,在新疆开展新一轮铬铁矿找矿勘查已迫在眉睫.     

Tidally flooded back-barrier dunefield, Guerrero Negro area, Baja California, Mexico

A 45 km long barrier island exists west of the town of Guerrero Negro, Mexico, along the western coast of the Baja California peninsula, about 720 km south of San Diego, California. This barrier has developed in a mesotidal, arid-climate regime characterized by steady, strong, onshore winds from the NW. The barrier island W of Guerrero Negro has prograded seaward about 1·6 km in the last 1800 years while an aeolian dunefield fed by sand blown from beaches has advanced inland up to 13 km. Landward progradation of the dune system from the barrier has occurred during relative rise in sea-level; thus, aeolian sediments exist at or below the water table over a wide area. The progradation of dunes across marshes, tidal flats, and tidal channels, as well as the repeated submergence of interdune areas by tidal waters, has created a complex suite of mixed aeolian and subaqueous sediments in the back barrier. The complexity of the suites of aeolian sedimentary structures, together with the inclusion of subaqueously formed structures such as current and oscillation ripples, would make recognition of the aeolian origin of much of the sediments difficult in ancient rocks. In addition to the scientific importance of recognizing the aeolian deposits, the sedimentation model represented by the Guerrero Negro barrier has applications in petroleum exploration and development. Currently, most preservational models for barrier islands attach little volumetric importance to aeolian deposits. This modern example suggests that volumetrically significant aeolian deposits can be preserved behind a barrier, particularly in an arid-climate regime. If preserved and charged with oil, the resulting productive sandstone could have an extremely irregular landward edge comprised in part of onshore-prograded aeolian dune sandstone with excellent reservoir characteristics. As with current barrier models, the reservoir would be sealed landward and above by lagoonal mudstone and silt, evaporites, or evaporitic, sandy sabkha deposits. High organic productivity occurs in lagoons immediately adjacent to the dunefields of Guerrero Negro, suggesting that organic-rich source rock may exist near aeolian sandstone in ancient settings similar to Guerrero Negro.     

Aeolian sand sea development along the mid‐Cretaceous western Tethyan margin (Spain): erg sedimentology and palaeoclimate implications

The existence of a mid‐Cretaceous erg system along the western Tethyan margin (Iberian Basin, Spain) was recently demonstrated based on the occurrence of wind‐blown desert sands in coeval shallow marine deposits. Here, the first direct evidence of this mid‐Cretaceous erg in Europe is presented and the palaeoclimate and palaeoceanographic implications are discussed. The aeolian sand sea extended over an area of 4600 km². Compound crescentic dunes, linear draa and complex aeolian dunes, sand sheets, wet, dry and evaporitic interdunes, sabkha deposits and coeval extradune lagoonal deposits form the main architectural elements of this desert system that was located in a sub‐tropical arid belt along the western Tethyan margin. Sub‐critically climbing translatent strata, grain flow and grain fall deposits, pin‐stripe lamination, lee side dune wind ripples, soft‐sediment deformations, vertebrate tracks, biogenic traces, tubes and wood fragments are some of the small‐scale structures and components observed in the aeolian dune sandstones. At the boundary between the aeolian sand sea and the marine realm, intertonguing of aeolian deposits and marine facies occurs. Massive sandstone units were laid down by mass flow events that reworked aeolian dune sands during flooding events. The cyclic occurrence of soft sediment deformation is ascribed to intermittent (marine) flooding of aeolian dunes and associated rise in the water table. The aeolian erg system developed in an active extensional tectonic setting that favoured its preservation. Because of the close proximity of the marine realm, the water table was high and contributed to the preservation of the aeolian facies. A sand‐drift surface marks the onset of aeolian dune construction and accumulation, whereby aeolian deposits cover an earlier succession of coastal coal deposits formed in a more humid period. A prominent aeolian super‐surface forms an angular unconformity that divides the aeolian succession into two erg sequences. This super‐surface formed in response to a major tectonic reactivation in the basin, and also marks the change in style of aeolian sedimentation from compound climbing crescentic dunes to aeolian draas. The location of the mid‐Cretaceous palaeoerg fits well to both the global distribution of other known Cretaceous erg systems and with current palaeoclimate data that suggest a global cooling period and a sea‐level lowstand during early mid‐Cretaceous times. The occurrence of a sub‐tropical coastal erg in the mid‐Cretaceous of Spain correlates with the exposure of carbonate platforms on the Arabian platform during much of the Late Aptian to Middle Albian, and is related to this eustatic sea‐level lowstand.     

龙首山岩带典型镁铁-超镁铁质岩体岩石地球化学特征

通过龙首山岩带中几个典型镁铁-超镁铁质岩体样品的岩石地球化学分析,对金川超镁铁质岩体与其外围镁铁-超镁铁质岩体的形成演化关系进行探讨,结果发现:这些岩体处于相同的构造环境,样品点整体为亚碱性拉斑玄武岩系列,随M g#值的增加,C aO,A l2O3,N a2O,K2O值具有连续减少的趋势,指示了它们存在连续的岩浆演化关系;稀土与微量元素分析,蛛网图整体具有右倾特征,龙首山岩带中段岩体有明显δEu负异常,东、西段岩体样品有δEu正异常或无异常,暗示中段岩体较外围岩体经历了更完全的分离结晶作用;结合前人对金川所做的S r-N d同位素等资料,证明金川岩体的岩浆源区为富集型地幔。     

Algodones dune field of southeastern California: case history of a migrating modern dune field

The Algodones dune field of southeastern California is one of the largest active dune fields in North America. The dune field is migrating in an easterly direction, oblique to the resultant sand flow direction (S 24° E). The migration of the Algodones results from an interaction between regional winds and the dune field. This interaction generates a localized secondary flow that has caused the dune field to migrate in a direction oblique to the resultant sand flow direction. Four lines of evidence suggest that the Algodones has migrated in an easterly direction: (1) A ramp, interpreted as the trailing edge of the dune field, 35 m thick and 500 m wide composed of aeolian deposits that borders the western edge of the dune field. No similar deposits are found on the eastern (leading edge) margin of the dune field. (2) Leading-edge sand-sheet deposits are exposed in interdune areas within the dune field. These deposits are west of the modern leading-edge sand sheet. (3) Across the breadth of the dune field sands are consistently coarser and more poorly sorted in the west and finer and better sorted in the east. This observation suggests that sand is transported from west to east. (4) Eastward migration of a large compound-complex crescentic dune. If the dune field continues to migrate it will deposit a vertical sequence consisting of: a basal sand-sheet deposit consisting of wind and water-ripple laminae, small-scale aeolian cross-strata, and ephemeral stream (wadi) deposits; aeolian dune deposits consisting of medium-scale aeolian compound cross-strata; small-scale simple sets of aeolian cross-strata with highly variable dip directions; a sand sheet containing low-angle wind-ripple cross-strata capped by a coarse sand lag super bounding surface.     

Grainfall processes in the lee of transverse dunes, Silver Peak, Nevada

Grainfall deposition and associated grainflows in the lee of aeolian dunes are important in that they are preserved as cross‐beds in the geological record and provide a key to the interpretation of the aeolian rock record. Despite their recognized importance, there have been very few field, laboratory or numerical simulation studies of leeside depositional processes on aeolian dunes. As part of an ongoing study, the relationships among grainfall, wind (speed and direction), stoss sand transport rates and dune morphometry (height and aspect ratio) were investigated on four relatively small, straight‐crested transverse dunes at Silver Peak, Nevada. Between 55% and 95% of the total grainfall was found to be deposited within 1 m of the crest, and 84–99% within 2 m, depending primarily on dune size and shape. Grainfall decay rates on high dunes of large aspect ratio were observed to be very consistent, with a weak positive dependence on wind speed. For small dunes with low aspect ratios, grainfall deposition was more varied and decreased rapidly within 1 m of the dune crest, whereas at increased distance from the dune crest, it eventually approached the smaller decay rates observed on the large dunes. No dependence of grainfall on wind speed was observed for these small dunes. Comparison of field data with predictions from 1 ) saltation model of grainfall, based on the computation of saltation path lengths, indicates lack of agreement in the following areas: (1) deposition rate magnitude; (2) variation in decay rate with wind speed; and (3) the magnitude and location of the localized lee‐slope depositional maxima. The Silver Peak field results demonstrate the importance of dune aspect ratio and related wake effects in determining the rate and pattern of grainfall. This work confirms earlier speculation by 7 ) that temporary, turbulent suspension (or `modified saltation') of relatively large grains does occur within the dune wake, so that transport distances generally are larger than predicted by numerical simulations of `true' saltation.     

Aeolian landscapes in central Australia: gypsiferous and quartz dune environments from Lake Amadeus

There are two different dune systems in central Australia; regional quartz dunefields and transverse gypsiferous dunes associated with playa lakes. These two systems, especially gypsiferous dunes at Lake Amadeus, the largest playa in central Australia, provide a sedimentary, geomorphological and environmental history of the region during the late Quaternary. The gypsifierous dunes consist of a surficial gypcrete overlying an aeolian sediment sequence below, a mixture of gypsum sand and quartz sand. No clay pellets have been found in the dune sequence, in significant contrast to the gypsiferous clay dunes in other parts of Australia. Three possible models of the environmental controls of gypsiferous dune formation are discussed. The most plausible one suggests simultaneous gypsum precipitation and deflation. Sandsized gypsum was precipitated in a groundwater-seepage zone around the playa margin during seasonally high water-tables and these crystals were deflated onto land during dry intervals, forming the marginal gypsiferous dunes. These processes require conditions of high regional water-table, strong climatic seasonality and probably a windier and overall wetter climate. At least two separate gypsiferous-duneforming episodes can be recognized. The age of formation of the younger one has been dated by thermoluminescence at 44–54 ka. The gypcrete crust capping the dunes is characterized by intergrown microcrystalline gypsum crystals, showing evidence of leaching, dissolution and recrystallization. It is interpreted as a pedogenic product formed during a stable period after accumulation of the gypsiferous dune. After the construction of the younger gypsiferous dune, there was a major episode of activation of regional quartz dunefields which formed thick quartz sand mantles overlying gypsiferous dunes on both playa margins and the dune islands within the playa. An equivalent aeolian sand layer was deposited within the playa. Soil structures in this unit indicate that the sand sheet over the playa was later colonized by vegetation. Activation of the regional dunefields suggests a major period of dry climate, which, although not dated, may correlate with the last glacial maximum identified as a period of maximum aridity from 25 to 18 ka at other sites in Australia.     

从冰前风沙地貌初看普若岗日冰原的形成演变

野外实地考察和室内样品分析表明,位于普若岗日冰原西侧冰川前缘带的大片风沙地貌,直接发育在冰碛之上,并以冰碛为主要物质来源,与冰川运动和冰原环境具有密切的联系,是相关冰川和冰原形成演化过程的良好反映与记录.结合沙丘沉积序列中的沉积构造测量、粒度分析及腐殖质夹层的¹⁴C测年等结果,初步得出:普若岗日冰原至少形成于18kaBP;冰原降水可能主要来自西风降水;18kaBP以来,冰原在总体上处于收缩过程,在约108kaBP来,冰原西缘的零平衡线的年均水平退缩速率约为088～102m·a^-1,铅直升高速率约为24～32mm·a^-1。     

Developmental characteristics of aeolian dunes and environmental changes in the adjoining region of Puruogangri ice sheet, North Tibetan Plateau

A large area of moraine sediments and cryogenic weathering products, formed by glacial action and a cold environment, are the main source of aeolian sand in the high and cold region of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau in China. The evolution of aeolian dunes is closely related to the periglacial environment. Owing to the freezing of dune-land surfaces, the evolution of sand dunes is dominated by expanding dune bases and vertical accretion, thereby forming large barchan dunes. The migration rates of these large barchan dunes are very slow at an average rate of 1.7–0.7 cm·a^–1. The temperature mainly controls the environmental changes in the adjoining region of Puruogangri ice sheet. The ¹⁴C dating of humus layers in the studied area of the sand dune are 10,780±130, 9,549±130, 8,320±110, 7,450±100, 5,970±95, 5,330±90, 4,420±80, 3,460±80, 2,280±70, 980±70 aBP, respectively. The regions high temperature rising up during summer from the southwest monsoon intensity might be an important factor. As long as both water and temperature conditions are suitable, the plants will grow well, sand dunes will be stabilized, forming humus layers. Otherwise, sand dunes are bare and re-activate.