长江河口北槽弯道横向次生流、混合与层化

2013年2月25至26日(枯季/大潮)、7月23至24日(洪季/大潮)分别在长江河口北槽弯道沿着3条横向测线CS6、CSW和CS3(每条测线上有北、中、南3个站位)测得水位、流速、盐度和含沙量的时间序列资料。通过这些资料的定量计算、分析,理解弯道横向次生流、混合与层化的时、空变化和各种物理机制及其相对重要性。3条横向测线均存在横向次生流,且横向测线CS3还出现横向次生环流。枯、洪季,仅在横向测线CS6、CS3出现环状欧拉余流。枯、洪季,沿着横向测线CS3,3个站位的横向斜压梯度比离心加速度和科氏加速度都大1~2个数量级,而后两项大小接近且数量级都是10-4,罗斯贝数在1左右。这些表明:横向次生流受横向斜压梯度、离心加速度和科氏加速度共同驱动,前一项相对于后两项更加重要。沿着3条横向测线:1)枯、洪季大潮,平均势能差异分别约为54.23、66.56 J/m3,表明洪季层化强于枯季;2)枯季涨潮,平均的势能差异普遍小于落潮,而洪季涨潮,平均的势能差异普遍大于落潮,表明枯、洪季湍流混合均存在潮汐不对称性;3)枯季,由横向、纵向水深平均应变(ΦS-y、ΦS-x)引起的势能差异变化率的范围分别是-67×10~(-3)~37×10~(-3)、-7×10~(-3)~11×10~(-3)W/m~3,而洪季,相应的范围分别是-45×10~(-3)~30×10~(-3)、-14×10~(-3)~13×10~(-3)W/m~3,表明枯、洪季差异不明显,横向水深平均应变(ΦS-y)均大于纵向水深平均应变(ΦS-x),前项对水体混合与层化的影响更大;4)枯季大潮,纵向平流(ΦA-x)、横向平流(ΦA-y)、纵向水深平均应变(ΦS-x)和横向水深平均应变(ΦS-y)的潮汐平均绝对值占四项总和之比例分别为26%、33%、18%和23%,而洪季大潮,相应的值的比例分别为13%、9%、22%和56%,表明枯季,平流项(ΦA-y最大)对混合与层化的控制可能占主导地位;洪季,应变项(ΦS-y最大)可能占主导地位。无量纲数(m)被用于判别横向平流(ΦA-y)、横向水深-平均应变(ΦS-y)的相对重要性。一个概念性模式被用于显示层化与横向次生流/环流的相互关系。     

Airline networks and the international diffusion of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

In fewer than four months in 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) spread from China to 25 countries and Taiwan, becoming the first new, easily transmissible infectious disease of the twenty-first century. The role of air transport in the diffusion of the disease became obvious early in the crisis; to assess that role more carefully, this study relates the spatial-temporal pattern of the SARS outbreak to a measure of airline network accessibility. Specifically, the accessibility from those countries that were infected by SARS, beginning with China, to other countries was measured using airline schedules. The country-pair accessibility measure, along with other country-level factors relevant to the disease, were tested as determinants of the speed with which SARS arrived in infected countries as well as its failure to arrive in most countries. The analyses indicate that airline network accessibility was an especially influential variable but also that the importance of this variable diminished in the latter weeks of the outbreak. The latter finding is partly attributable to public health measures, particularly health screening in airports. The timing and geography of those measures are reviewed using data from media reports and interim World Health Organization (WHO) documents during the outbreak. The uneven effort to curtail the international diffusion of SARS suggests further planning is needed to develop a concerted response to contain future epidemics.     

Interrelations between framework-building and encrusting skeletal organisms and microbes: more-refined growth history of Lower Devonian bindstones

The framework‐building stromatoporoid Stachyodes, the encrusting calcimicrobe Rothpletzella and encrusting Graticula‐like red algae are major contributors to red algal–calcimicrobial–stromatoporoid bindstones in the Lower Devonian Elmside Formation of the Yass Basin, New South Wales, Australia. The distribution and accumulation patterns of encrusting organisms within the red algal–calcimicrobial–stromatoporoid bindstones observed by optical microscopy and SEM imply a biotic interrelationship between skeletal organisms and microbes that reflects environmental changes. Rothpletzella is characterized by prostrate filaments with frequent branching and a high angle of bifurcation. Filaments of Graticula‐like red algae exhibit rare branching and a relatively low angle of bifurcation. In addition, they are prostrate at the base before becoming erect. Both Rothpletzella and the red algae successively encrust the surfaces of skeletal frameworks, but exhibit different distributions. Rothpletzella and other calcimicrobes cover both the lower and upper surfaces of frameworks, whereas red algae are limited to the upper surfaces. Their individual distributions are thus significantly influenced by the frameworks formed by the thin, laminar stromatoporoid Stachyodes, which create different microenvironments as by‐products. The limited distribution of the red algae was probably related to light levels or phototropism. Upper framework surfaces are variously encrusted by calcimicrobes and the red algae to form thick crusts with varying accumulation patterns. Micritization around the algal thalli, covering of calcimicrobes such as Wetheredella, and microbial micrites between algal thalli all suggest interruptions of algal growth that correspond to episodes of harsh environmental conditions. Transitions from Graticula‐like red algae to Rothpletzella reflect periods of deteriorating environmental change for skeletal organisms, which resulted in the predominance of microbial growth. In contrast, a resurgence of red algae on calcimicrobes suggests improved environmental change. Repeated accumulation patterns between Graticula‐like red algae and Rothpletzella indicate changing habitat environments and competitive relations within skeletal organisms and microbes. These relationships provide insight into understanding how skeletal organisms and microbes utilized space and how they interrelated with each other to produce Devonian reefal limestones.     

Sedimentary response to a tectonically induced sea-level fall in a shallow back-arc basin: the Mulichinco Formation (Lower Cretaceous), Neuquén Basin, Argentina

This study examines the sedimentary response to a tectonically driven relative sea‐level fall that occurred in the Neuquén Basin, west‐central Argentina, during the late Early Valanginian (Early Cretaceous). At this time the basin lay behind the emergent Andean magmatic arc to the west. Following the relative sea‐level fall, sedimentation was limited to the central part of the Neuquén Basin, with the deposition of a predominantly clastic, continental to shallow marine wedge on top of basinal black shales. This lowstand wedge is called the Mulichinco Formation and consists of a third‐order sequence that lasted about 2 Myr and contains high frequency lowstand, transgressive, and highstand deposits. Significant variations in facies, depositional architecture, and internal organization of the sequence occur along depositional strike. These variations are attributed mainly to tectonic and topographic controls upon sediment flux, basin gradient, fault tilting, and shifting of the depocentre through time. These controls were ultimately related to asymmetrically distributed tectonic activity that was greater towards the magmatic arc in the west. The superposition of fluvial deposits directly upon offshore facies provides unequivocal evidence for a sequence boundary at the base of the Mulichinco Formation. However, the Mulichinco sequence boundary is marked by shallow, low erosional relief and widespread fluvial deposition. The surface lacks prominent valleys traditionally associated with sequence boundaries. This non‐erosive sequence boundary geometry is attributed to the ramp‐type geometry of the basin and/or rapid uplift that limited stratigraphic adjustment to base‐level fall. Significant along‐strike facies changes and a low‐relief sequence boundary are attributes that may be common in tectonically active, semi‐enclosed basins (e.g. shallow back‐arc basins, foreland basins).     

峨眉山大火成岩省中苦橄岩与其共生岩石的地球化学特征及其对源区的约束

本文对在峨眉山玄武岩省中新发现的苦橄质岩石及其共生玄武岩的地球化学特征进行了研究,结果表明,除苦橄质岩石外,与其共生的玄武质岩石均属高Ti玄武岩。其主要元素特征与大多数大陆溢流玄武岩省相似,表现为高Fe_8、(CaO/Al_2O_3)_8和低Na_8,指示其形成压力高;其稀土和微量元素配分曲线相似,表现为轻稀土富集、高场强元素(HFSE)相对亏损,并且不存在Nb、Ta的负异常,而存在P和K的相对亏损。一些反映源区特征的比值,如La/Ta、La/Sm、(La/Nb)_(PM)、(Th/Ta)_(PM),Ta/Hf,Nb/Zr等,变化范围小,均指示了其地幔柱成因,且上升过程中很少或没有受到岩石圈地幔或地壳物质的混染,是石榴子石二辉橄榄岩在>75km时经大约7％的部分熔融的产物。而地幔柱的轴部位置可能位于现今云南丽江县城一带。     

Broughton Island–a reference area for Wisconsin and Holocene chronology and sea level changes on eastern Baffin Island

Broughton Island is 50 km from the eastern margin of the 6,000 km² Penny Ice Cap. During the early Wisconsin (> 54,000 BP) A younger glacial readvance is delimited by lateral moraines and glacio-marine deposits ¹⁴C dated at 24,100±850 BP; sea level was±18 m. During th last Wisconsin the glaciers terminated some distance inland from Broughton Island and sea alevel at 9,850±250BP was +5 m on Broughton Island. The head of Maktak Fiord, which presently contains a majour outlet glacier from the Penny Ice Cap, was deglaciated about 6,000 BP.