云南元谋古猿动物群化石埋藏学

云南元谋小河-雷老一带含古猿新近系（上第三系）是一套紫红色含砾细砂-粉砂岩，夹有多层黄色砂砾石层。化石埋藏学研究及含化石层岩性特征、组合及沉积构造表明，该层以山前洪积堆积为主，并有发育的扇上河道沉积。通过30余个发掘地点化石野外埋藏资料及数千件化石标本的分析鉴定，化石埋藏类型有两种，埋藏Ⅰ型的化石数量稀少、保存完整，赋存在扇体细粒沉积物中；理藏Ⅱ型化石保存丰富但相当残破，赋存在粗粒沉积的扇上河道各个部位。化石埋藏类型与古气候、古生态有着密切的关系，化石埋藏特征表明该区自然环境分带已形成。元谋古猿动物群的生存时代是一个从森林向草原-灌丛环境过渡的动荡时期。     

黄河下游壶穴的研究

黄河下游(泺口以下)发育了大量的壶穴(Pothole),按成因可以分为6种:流水侵蚀、风蚀、圆砾铸模、冰压刻、冰融水滴蚀及泄气侵蚀。流水侵蚀形成的圆形Pothole规模不一,小者直径在十余厘米,深数厘米,大者直径达数米,深1 m余;风蚀形成的圆形Pothole规模一般比较小,直径多在二、三十厘米以下,深10 cm以下,大部分穴壁缓斜,状如盘碟;圆砾铸模形成的Pothole规模一般较小,直径多在一、二十厘米以下、穴壁陡倾,状如锅穴;冰融水滴蚀形成的Pothole形态复杂,规模不一,既有穴壁缓斜的盘碟状者,也有穴壁陡倾近乎直立的近圆柱状者,直径从不足1cm到三、四十厘米,其穴缘、穴壁和穴底常有次级构造;泄气侵蚀形成的Pothole更是十分复杂,平面形态可以圆形到近圆形甚至其他复杂形态,穴壁可以非常平缓,也可以陡倾,直径从数厘米到数十厘米,深数毫米到二、三十厘米,穴缘和穴壁也常有次级伴生构造,既可单独产出,也可成群产出,同时还可以多个密集产出,状如蜂巢,这一类Pothole的成因极为独特,主要与黄河断流河床捕获的空气泄漏有关。     

Cripple Creek and other alkaline-related gold deposits in the southern Rocky Mountains, USA: influence of regional tectonics

Alkaline-related epithermal vein, breccia, disseminated, skarn, and porphyry gold deposits form a belt in the southern Rocky Mountains along the eastern edge of the North American Cordillera. Alkaline igneous rocks and associated hydrothermal deposits formed at two times. The first was during the Laramide orogeny (about 70-40 Ma), with deposits restricted spatially to the Colorado mineral belt (CMB). Other alkaline igneous rocks and associated gold deposits formed later, during the transition from a compressional to an extensional regime (about 35-27 Ma). These younger rocks and associated deposits are more widespread, following the Rocky Mountain front southward, from Cripple Creek in Colorado through New Mexico. All of these deposits are on the eastern margin of the Cordillera, with voluminous calc-alkaline rocks to the west. The largest deposits in the belt include Cripple Creek and those in the CMB. The most important factor in the formation of all of the gold deposits was the near-surface emplacement of relatively oxidized volatile-rich alkaline magmas. Strontium and lead isotope compositions suggest that the source of the magmas was subduction-modified subcontinental lithosphere. However, Cripple Creek alkaline rocks and older Laramide alkaline rocks in the CMB that were emplaced through hydrously altered LREE-enriched rocks of the Colorado (Yavapai) province have ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb ratios that suggest these magmas assimilated and mixed with significant amounts of lower crust. The anomalously hot, thick, and light crust beneath Colorado may have been a catalyst for large-scale transfer of volatiles and crustal melting. Increased dissolved H₂O (and CO₂, F, Cl) of these magmas may have resulted in more productive gold deposits due to more efficient magmatic-hydrothermal systems. High volatile contents may also have promoted Te and V enrichment, explaining the presence of fluorite, roscoelite (vanadium-rich mica) and tellurides in the CMB deposits and Cripple Creek as opposed to deposits to the south. Deep-seated structures of regional extent that formed during the Proterozoic allowed the magmas to rise to shallow crustal levels. Proterozoic sites of intrusions at 1.65, 1.4, and 1.1 Ga were also important precursors to alkaline-related gold deposits. Many of the larger gold deposits are located at sites of Proterozoic intrusions, and are localized at the intersection of northeast-trending ductile shear zones formed during Mesoproterozoic deformation, and an important north-trending fault formed during 1.1 Ga rifting.     

An Early Cretaceous extinct spreading center in the northern Natal valley

We have identified an extinct E–W spreading center in the northern Natal valley on the basis of magnetic anomalies which was active from chron M11 (133 Ma) to 125.3 Ma, just before chron M2 (124 Ma) in the Early Cretaceous. Seafloor spreading in the northern Natal valley accounts for approximately 170 km of north–south motion between the Mozambique Ridge and Africa. This extension resolves the predicted overlap of the continental (central and southern) Mozambique Ridge and Antarctica in the chron M2 to M11 reconstructions from Mesozoic finite rotation parameters for Africa and Antarctica. In addition, the magnetic data reveal that the Mozambique Ridge was an independent microplate from at least 133 to 125 Ma. The northern Natal valley extinct spreading center connects to the spreading center separating the Mozambique Basin and the Riiser-Larsen Sea to the east. It follows that the northern Mozambique Ridge was either formed after the emplacement of the surrounding oceanic crust or it is the product of a very robust spreading center. To the west the extinct spreading center connects to the spreading center separating the southern Natal valley and Georgia Basin via a transform fault. Prior to chron M11, there is still a problem with the overlap of Mozambique Ridge if it is assumed to be fixed with respect to either the African or Antarctic plates. Some of the overlap can be accounted for by Jurassic deformation of the Mozambique Ridge, Mozambique Basin, and Dronning Maud land. It appears though that the Mozambique Ridge was an independent microplate from the breakup of Gondwana, 160 Ma, until it became part of the African plate, 125 Ma.     

Small-Mammal Data on Early and Middle Holocene Climates and Biotic Communities in the Bonneville Basin, USA

Archaeological investigations in Camels Back Cave, western Utah, recovered a series of small-mammal bone assemblages from stratified deposits dating between ca. 12,000 and 500 ¹⁴C yr B.P. The cave's early Holocene fauna includes a number of species adapted to montane or mesic habitats containing grasses and/or sagebrush (e.g., Lepus townsendii, Marmota flaviventris, Reithrodontomys megalotis, and Brachylagus idahoensis) which suggest that the region was relatively cool and moist until after 8800 ¹⁴C yr B.P. Between ca. 8600 and 8100 ¹⁴C yr B.P. these mammals became locally extinct, taxonomic diversity declined, and there was an increase in species well-adapted to xeric, low-elevation habitats, including ground squirrels, Lepus californicus and Neotoma lepida. The early small-mammal record from Camels Back Cave is similar to the 11,300–6000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. mammalian sequence from Homestead Cave, northwestern Utah, and provides corroborative data on Bonneville Basin paleoenvironments and mammalian responses to middle Holocene desertification.     

河北平原水系密度与隐伏活动构造的关系

以1926年出版的比例尺为1：5万的顺直地形图作为基础图件，用地理信息系统技术对河北平原作水系密度计量分析，揭示隐伏在第四纪巨厚的沉积物之下活动构造的信息，研究结果证实水系线密度统计图与使用其它地球科学方法获得的成果，例如基底活动断块图，地貌类型图和第四纪厚度图都有很好的对应，特别与布格重力图对应更好，研究结果发现水系密度图与布格重力异常图在总体一致性较好的前提下，多处反向异常区均为近代强震发生的区域，提出这种地表水系密度统计研究的成果不仅可以揭示深部隐伏的活动构造，而且具有较明确的时间含义。     

北京地区城市化过程与机制研究

在长时间序列高分辨率Landsat TM/MSS数据的支持下，对北京地区1975-1997年城市化基本过程和驱动机制进行了分析研究，基本结论如下；（1）北京地区城市化过程主要表现为中心大区和边缘次级中心区的面状城市化，中心大区和边缘次级中心区之间沿交通干线的线状城市化以及中心大区与边缘次级中心区之间的点状城市化3种基本模式，其中，中心大区、在城市边缘区的面状成都市化过程在区域内居于优势地位。（2）北京地区城市化过程和城市格局的形成是地形，交通等内在适应性因素和经济因素，政府行为，文化传统，突发事件等外在驱动因素共同作用的结果。其中，城市规划，产业发展政策等政府行为和3000年城市发展形成的旧有城市格局和古都风貌从根本上决定了现代北京城市发展的基本过程。     

Archipelagos and networks: urbanization and water privatization in the South

This paper examines the interrelationship between urbanization and water supply privatization in cities in the global South. The purpose of the paper is not to evaluate the impacts of privatization; rather, the paper analyses the differences in pathways and modes of water supply privatization, focusing on urban and contrasting with rural areas. A distinction is drawn between privatization (organizational change) and commercialization (institutional change) of water supply. Emphasis is placed upon the interrelationship between regulatory change (a shift from public to private management of water supply systems), human use of and access to water, and urban waterscapes. In contrast to metaphors of 'networks' so often applied in analyses of water management, the 'archipelago' is posited as a metaphor which better captures the complex overlapping strategies of water supply provision in urban areas in the South. Building on this metaphor, and in response to the 'public–private' dualism often invoked in studies of privatization, the paper outlines an alternative typology of water management in urban areas in the South. This typology foregrounds the concepts of the territorialization of corporate power as a means of understanding the articulation between privatization and urbanization processes in the South.     

'Trees, forests and communities': some historiographical approaches to environmental history on Africa

Focusing on the contested issue of trees and forests, this paper looks at various ways in which historians have explored environmental change and human agency in Africa. It looks in particular at the colonial period and positions the case of the Cape Colony (South Africa) in a broader historiographical context. Colonial silviculture involved both the appropriation of the natural forests and the creation of exotic plantations. These policies generated a mixture of reactions from African communities and had varying effects on the environment. Colonial science and the projects it gave rise to have since been critiqued, contributing to the promotion of community-based forestry schemes that try to incorporate indigenous knowledge and ideas about land use.     

Recent temperature and precipitation increases in West Siberia and their association with the Arctic Oscillation

Surface air temperature and precipitation records for the years 1958-1999 from ten meteorological stations located throughout West Siberia are used to identify climatic trends and determine to what extent these trends are potentially attributable to the Arctic Oscillation (AO). Although recent changes in atmospheric variability are associated with broad Arctic climate change, West Siberia appears particularly susceptible to warming. Furthermore, unlike most of the Arctic, moisture transport in the region is highly variable. The records show that West Siberia is experiencing significant warming and notable increases in precipitation, likely driven, in part, by large-scale Arctic atmospheric variability. Because this region contains a large percentage of the world's peatlands and contributes a significant portion of the total terrestrial freshwater flux to the Arctic Ocean, these recent climatic trends may have globally significant repercussions. The most robust patterns found are strong and prevalent springtime warming, winter precipitation increases, and strong association of non-summer air temperatures with the AO. Warming rates for both spring (0.5-0.8 °C/decade) and annual (0.3-0.5°C/decade) records are statistically significant for nine often stations. On average, the AO is linearly congruent with 96% (winter), 19% (spring), 0% (summer), 67% (autumn) and 53% (annual) of the warming found in this study. Significant trends in precipitation occur most commonly during winter, when four of ten stations exhibit significant increases (4-13 %/decade). The AO may play a lesser role in precipitation variability and is linearly congruent with only 17% (winter), 13% (spring), 12% (summer), 1% (autumn) and 26% (annual) of precipitation trends.