The terrestrial fauna of the Late Triassic Pant-y-ffynnon Quarry fissures,South Wales,UK and a new species of Clevosaurus (Lepidosauria: Rhynchocephalia)

Pant-y-ffynnon Quarry in South Wales yielded a rich cache of fossils in the early 1950s, including articulated specimens of new species (the small sauropodomorph dinosaur Pantydraco caducus and the crocodylomorph Terrestrisuchus gracilis), but no substantial study of the wider fauna of the Pant-y-ffynnon fissure systems has been published. Here, our overview of existing specimens, a few described but mostly undescribed, as well as freshly processed material, provides a comprehensive picture of the Pant-y-ffynnon palaeo-island of the Late Triassic. This was an island with a relatively impoverished fauna dominated by small clevosaurs (rhynchocephalians), including a new species, Clevosaurus cambrica, described here from a partially articulated specimen and isolated bones. The new species has a dental morphology that is intermediate between the Late Triassic Clevosaurus hudsoni, from Cromhall Quarry to the east, and the younger C. convallis from Pant Quarry to the west, suggesting adaptive radiation of clevosaurs in the palaeo-archipelago. The larger reptiles on the palaeo-island do not exceed 1.5?m in length, including a small carnivorous crocodylomorph, Terrestrisuchus, and a possible example of insular dwarfism in the basal dinosaur Pantydraco.     

A Kinematic Model of the Formation of the Sim Trough of the Uralian Foredeep

The structural features and mechanism of the formation of the Sim trough within the Uralian Foredeep, as well as the development of the entire Karatau–Suleiman block, are considered. This wedge-shaped block was subject to lateral extrusion to the north along conjugated strike-slip fault zones under a general latitudinal compression. This factor determined the local meridional compression and latitudinal extension of the block. In the central part of the block, the latitudinal extension was compensated by gradual subsidence, which resulted in the formation of the Sim trough.     

The Composition and Reservoir Properties of the Deposits of the Bazhenov Formation in the Central Part of the Tundrin Depression

The section structure was characterized according to the lithological and petrophysical studies of the core from the Bazhenov Formation that has been uncovered in the central part of the Tundrin Depression. The productive oil intervals where the reservoirs of the pore and fissure-pore types occur were identified.     

Geochemistry and formation model of manganiferous rocks in jaspers of the South Urals

Specific features of the geochemistry of manganiferous siliceous rocks confined to Devonian volcanogenic complexes of the Magnitogorsk belt in the South Urals are discussed. It is shown that with respect to the distribution of the major petrogenic and rare earth elements, as well as base and rare metals, manganese rocks are comparable with rocks of the low-temperature hydrothermal sources in active volcanic zones of the World Ocean. Our results agree well with the existing concepts about the hydrothermal-sedimentary origin of manganese deposits in the South Urals and corroborate this hypothesis with new independently obtained data.     

Geochemical Features and Geodynamic Settings of the Formation of Cretaceous Terrigenous Rocks of the West Sakhalin Terrane

The geochemical composition of Cretaceous terrigenous rocks of the West Sakhalin terrane is analyzed and their paleogeodynamic interpretation is suggested. It is revealed that the rocks are characterized by the low maturity of clastic material. They contain fragments of both volcanomictic and sialic material and in composition correspond to graywackes, being petrogenic or “first cycle” rocks. The geochemical data were generalized and interpreted on the basis of their comparison with compositions of the present-day and ancient rocks formed in known geodynamic settings. The obtained results indicate that terrigenous rocks of the terrane were formed in a pull-apart basin at an active continental margin. The source area, which supplied clastic material in this sedimentation basin during the Berriasian–Danian, included a sialic land made up of granite-metamorphic and sedimentary rocks and the mature (deeply dissected) ensialic Moneron–Samarga island arc, which was accreted to the continental margin at the moment of basin initiation. Sediments were accumulated in general along the continent–ocean boundary against the background of large-scale sinistral transform strike-slip movements of the Izanagi Plate relative to the Eurasian continent.     

The Tendencies of the Development of the Mineral-Resources Sector at the Turn of the Century

Important tendencies in development of the world mineral-resources sector at the beginning of the 21st century were an increase in production and consumption of mineral materials differentiated by types of metals and nonmetallic mineral raw materials, by countries and regions, as well as the concentration of the production of mineral raw materials in a small number of countries, and a reduction in industrial reserves of minerals in the world economy, even at the current stage of their extraction. These tendencies should be taken into account in working out a strategy for development of the Russian mineral raw-material base.     

Biosorption of Rare-Earth Elements and Yttrium by Heterotrophic Bacteria in an Aqueous Environment

This paper reports the results of the experimental determination of the coefficient of sorption of rare-earth elements and yttrium (REY) under conditions of acidic pH using several strains of heterotrophic bacteria (Microbacterium sp., Curtobacterium sp., Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas putida, and Bacillus pumilis) that are widespread in natural and technogenic waters of the Far East (Russia). Insignificant fractionation between heavy and light rare-earth elements, negative cerium and dysprosium anomalies, and a positive europium anomaly were revealed. The selectivity of REY biosorption by gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, as well as inertia of the biosorption process under more acidic conditions of the medium, were shown.     

The Cyclic and Sequence Stratigraphic Characteristics of the Visean–Serpukhovian Deposits in the Southern Part of the Moscow Syneclise

The composition and origin of the Visean–Serpukhovian deposits in the southern part of the Moscow Syneclise have been characterized based upon generalizations of our own results and analysis of published and unpublished data. The levels of karst-influenced rocks correspond to the shallowest biogenic carbonate organogenic-clastic sediments of the initial and final phases of the eustatic cycle, i.e., the early transgression (transgressive system tract) and the late regression (the second half of the high-standing tract). Alluvial sands of the Oka River have been found in the karst cavities. A generalized model of the sequence has been proposed and a sequence stratigraphic interpretation of the studied section has been carried out.     

A Thermodynamic Model of the Water–Rock Interaction under Hydrothermal Exposure of the Bazhenov Formation

Thermodynamic modeling of the hydrothermal exposure of the rocks of the Bazhenov Formation resulted in revealing the equilibrium mineral associations at 50–350°C and the pressure of saturated water vapor. The calculation results show that mineral parageneses varied slightly with the increase of temperature. Thus, zeolites were characterized by the stilbite–laumontite–wairakite series; kaolinite, pyrite, dolomite, and brannerite were replaced by montmorillonite and/or albite, pyrrhotite, calcite, and uraninite, respectively. The modeling results were confirmed in experiments.     

Variations of trace gases over the Bay of Bengal during the summer monsoon

In situ measurements of near-surface ozone (\(\hbox {O}_{3})\), carbon monoxide (CO), and methane (\(\hbox {CH}_{4})\) were carried out over the Bay of Bengal (BoB) as a part of the Continental Tropical Convergence Zone (CTCZ) campaign during the summer monsoon season of 2009. \(\hbox {O}_{3}\), CO and \(\hbox {CH}_{4}\) mixing ratios varied in the ranges of 8–54 ppbv, 50–200 ppbv and 1.57–2.15 ppmv, respectively during 16 July–17 August 2009. The spatial distribution of mean tropospheric \(\hbox {O}_{3}\) from satellite retrievals is found to be similar to that in surface \(\hbox {O}_{3}\) observations, with higher levels over coastal and northern BoB as compared to central BoB. The comparison of in situ measurements with the Monitoring Atmospheric Composition & Climate (MACC) global reanalysis shows that MACC simulations reproduce the observations with small mean biases of 1.6 ppbv, –2.6 ppbv and 0.07 ppmv for \(\hbox {O}_{3}\), CO and \(\hbox {CH}_{4}\), respectively. The analysis of diurnal variation of \(\hbox {O}_{3}\) based on observations and the simulations from Weather Research and Forecasting coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) at a stationary point over the BoB did not show a net photochemical build up during daytime. Satellite retrievals show limitations in capturing \(\hbox {CH}_{4}\) variations as measured by in situ sample analysis highlighting the need of more shipborne in situ measurements of trace gases over this region during monsoon.