中德合作三江源区和甜水海地区多年冻土退化过程科学考察和研究进展

为准确了解青藏高原多年冻土退化过程及其环境效应,中国科学院寒区旱区环境与工程研究所和德国海德堡大学环境物理研究所共同组成科研小组,先后对我国三江源区、西昆仑甜水海地区进行了多年冻土退化过程的前期勘察研究工作.首次在人烟稀少的玉树-不冻泉沿线等地建立了3个长期综合观测研究站.在技术手段上,除应用常规的坑探、水土取样、水分现场观测、地面调查外,主要应用了最新的双天线、多回路探地雷达勘测技术,对不同地貌条件下的活动层结构特征、上限附近冻土结构、冷生组构等诸多方面进行了快速勘察,同时还进行了水分场分布规律、盐份迁移过程的初步研究.研究结果表明:地表景观特征对热质迁移规律、地温场具有重要影响;青藏高原新疆甜水海地区的低温(<-4℃)冻土与高原东部和腹地的高温(>-1℃)冻土在地质背景和地下冰发育情况等方面有所区别;甜水海地区生态环境在过去30多年的时间里已发生重大改变:地表植被发生大面积退化,地表普遍发生不同程度盐渍化;在该地区发现大量小型冻胀丘、石环等冰缘现象的存在.探地雷达勘察结果显示,地表地貌单元、植被分布、地表水分条件的变化均对多年冻土上限变化和地下冰的赋存产生重要影响.     

Evaluating ice‐rafted debris as a proxy for glacier calving in Upernavik Isfjord,NW Greenland

Records of ice‐rafted debris (IRD) in sediments are commonly used as a proxy for iceberg production and to reconstruct past changes of glacier stability. However, the interpretation of IRD is complex as multiple processes modulate its variability. This study investigates the relationship between IRD variability and glaciological change by measuring IRD records from Upernavik Fjord and comparing these to frontal positions of Upernavik Isstrøm during the past century. Results show that the spatial variability of IRD deposition throughout the fjord is high, indicating that randomness inherent to IRD distorts the calving signal. However, we investigate whether IRD records can be combined to improve the reconstruction, as previously suggested, and show the importance of core site selection and number of cores on this approach. The outer‐fjord core compares relatively well to the observed front positions and this is reflected in the composite record: increased IRD deposition in 1937–1946, 1968–1980, and 1996–1999 occurred during periods of faster retreat. Comparison with climatic records shows that the calving episodes in the late ‘30 s/early ‘40 s and late ‘90 s are related to warm ocean and air temperatures, whereas intensified retreat and calving during the ‘70 s reflects partly an internal glacier response to the fjord geometry.     

Sr isotope systematics during melt generation by intrusion of basalt into continental crust

We have studied the Sr isotopic composition of partial melts of biotite granite generated experimentally and by intrusion of basalt into the Sierra Nevada Batholith. The experiments employed large, 3-cm cubes of granite to duplicate natural grain-boundary textures and were performed in air over the temperature interval 1000–1250 °C, to simulate basalt-induced wall rock and xenolith melting in the shallow crust. In both the experimental and natural analogs, fusion of plagioclase + alkali-feldspar ± quartz and biotite + plagioclase ± quartz results in the formation of colorless and brown melt (quenched to glass) respectively. Accordant with this melting behavior, brown glasses are enriched in radiogenic Sr and MgO, FeO, CaO, and TiO₂ relative to colorless glasses. These results support recent studies indicating that the isotopic compositions of crustal melts can reflect the relative contributions of mineral phases entering the melt, rather than the isotopic composition of the bulk source rock. In addition, we show that at shallow-crustal conditions preferential breakdown of biotite leads to initial high-⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, low-Sr concentration melts. However, as the degree of melting increases, melts become less radiogenic yet are more enriched in elemental Sr due to loss of biotite from the restite and increased consumption of feldspars. Our results therefore suggest, if partial melts of granitic crust segregate rapidly during episodic magmatic underplating, successive melt batches can evolve from high-⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr to low-⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr liquids as melting progresses. Received: 25 August 1998 / Accepted: 10 March 1999     

Relative sea-level change inferred from intertidal sediments beneath marshes on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Relative sea-level change at the time of, and since, the most recent great earthquake at the Cascadia subduction zone is estimated from intertidal sediments at three marshes on western Vancouver Island, British Columbia. We compare the elevation of the pre-earthquake surface, which is marked by a tsunami sand sheet, with the modern depositional elevation range of the sediment type upon which the sand was deposited. At a site south of the Nootka fault zone, which is the northern boundary of the subducting Juan de Fuca plate, tidal mud overlies the pre-earthquake marsh surface. The stratigraphy at this site indicates 0.2–1.6 m of coseismic submergence and 1.1 m of subsequent emergence. In contrast, two sites to the north lack obvious stratigraphic evidence for coseismic land-level change and record between 0.1 and 1.7 m of post-earthquake submergence. These results indicate a difference in tectonic environment across the Nootka fault zone and suggest that plate-boundary rupture during the last great Cascadia earthquake probably did not extend north of central Vancouver Island.     

Comparison of two different approaches for computing the gravitational effect of a tesseroid

Studia Geophysica et Geodaetica - Forward modelling in the space domain is a very important task in geodesy and other geosciences. From topographical or isostatic information in the form of digital...     

First distribution record of the invasive copepod Oithona davisae Ferrari and Orsi, 1984, in the coastal waters of the Aegean Sea

The occurrence of the invasive nonindigenous copepod Oithona davisae Ferrari and Orsi, 1984, is reported for the first time in the Aegean Sea. The data we collected in August 2017 from 14 stations along the Turkish coast of the Aegean Sea reveal the spatial distribution of O. davisae between the openning of the Dardanelles Strait in the north and the Izmir Bay in the south. The O. davisae individuals, in seven mesozooplankton samples collected from a single station, were consistently found in the inner part of the Izmir Bay from April 2015‐October 2016. The abundance of female O. davisae ranged from 4 ind./m³ in April 2015 to 31,524 ind./m³ in July 2016 and contributed to the total oithonid female population by 10.8% in April 2015 and 92.8% in September 2016. Our results show that this species is well established in the inner part of Izmir Bay and that it has become a permanent component of the copepod community in the area.     

An abyssal recipe

Fine- and microstructure observations indicate bottom-intensified turbulent dissipation above rough bathymetry associated with internal wave breaking. Simple analytic representations for the depth profile of turbulent dissipation are proposed here under the assumption that the near bottom wavefield is dominated by a baroclinic tide. This scheme is intended for use in numerical models and thus captures only the gross features of detailed solutions to the energy balance of the internal wavefield. The possible sensitivity of the magnitude and vertical variability of the dissipation rate profile to various environmental parameters is discussed. An expression for the diapycnal buoyancy flux is presented that explicitly treats the difference between the height of an isopycnal above the mean bottom and the actual bottom. This returns a diapycnal velocity estimate that is consistent with both tracer observations of downwelling and a basin scale mass budget that requires upwelling.     

A strike‐slip core complex from the Najd fault system,Arabian shield

Metamorphic core complexes are usually thought to be associated with regional crustal extension and crustal thinning, where deep crustal material is exhumed along gently dipping normal shear zones oblique to the regional extension direction. We present a new mechanism whereby metamorphic core complexes can be exhumed along crustal‐scale strike‐slip fault systems that accommodated crustal shortening. The Qazaz metamorphic dome in Saudi Arabia was exhumed along a gently dipping jog in a crustal‐scale vertical strike‐slip fault zone that caused more than 25 km of exhumation of lower crustal rocks by 30 km of lateral motion. Subsequently, the complex was transected by a branch of the strike‐slip fault zone, and the segments were separated by another 30 km of lateral motion. Strike‐slip core complexes like the Qazaz Dome may be common and may have an important local effect on crustal strength.