Post-eruptive sedimentary processes in volcanic crater lakes: implications for deciphering the Samoan sedimentary record

The two largest islands of the Samoan chain, Savai’i and Upolu, possess almost 400 volcanic cones. Their craters form enclosed, internally drained basins that potentially retain long, detailed and uninterrupted sedimentary sequences. Because of the sparsity, fragmentary nature and low temporal resolution of records of environmental change from the tropical Pacific, these deposits have the potential to fill an important gap in our knowledge of global climatic and environmental change. To interpret such records we must understand the depositional processes that operate in these basins. Unfortunately, although the post-eruptive sedimentology of volcanic calderas and maars is relatively well-established, that of crater lakes remains poorly understood. The volcanic edifice of Mount Lanotō in southeast Upolu was selected for investigation. The form of the volcano and its crater are typical of those observed across the island. The sediments retained in the crater are composed largely of plant-organic-rich muds that display little visible evidence of stratigraphic variation. Mineral magnetic and chemical methods were therefore employed to document the types and distribution of sedimentary facies represented in the post-eruptive crater fill and, by inference, the processes of sedimentation that had operated in the crater. The earliest post-eruptive deposits are the result of the failure of the crater’s oversteepened internal slopes. The crater floor subsequently collapsed to form a pit crater. The basal deposits in the pit crater are likely to be the product of the collapse of its walls and roof. However, the bulk of the material in the feature was laid down under lacustrine conditions. These deposits accumulated in a relatively deep-water environment. Across the rest of the accumulation zone, by contrast, water levels appear to have been shallow. Sedimentation during this phase was dominated by autochthonous plant-organic-rich deposits, with minor fine-grained clastic input. Deposition was intermittently interrupted by localised episodes of mass movement that reworked the regolith mantling the steep internal slopes of the crater into the accumulation zone in the form of low-angle fans. At the broad scale, the sedimentology of Lake Lanotō displays similarities with that of volcanic calderas and maar lakes. However, the morphological simplicity of the basin, the general absence of contemporaneous volcanic activity, the timing of the onset of lacustrine conditions, the derivation of the clastic deposits in the volcanic crater almost solely from the by-products of the volcanic eruption, and the high biological activity in the lake waters mean that there are important differences between the types and distribution of sedimentary facies identified in Lake Lanotō and those represented in models of deposition in maars and volcanic calderas.     

澜沧江和怒江流域的气候变化及其对径流的影响

采用VIP（Vegetation Interface Processes）模型和HIMS（Hydro-Informatic Modeling System）模型,模拟分析了1957-2012年澜沧江和怒江流域（简称两江流域）水资源量的演变。根据CMIP5 RCP2.6,RCP4.5和RCP8.5情景预测,模拟了2030年代和2050年代流域水资源的变化。研究发现,过去50年间,两江流域的气温都呈升高趋势,但海拔较高的上游地区升幅大于下游。年总降水量的变化趋势不明显,但春季降水增加趋势明显。两江流域年总水资源量为650亿～ 850亿m3,水资源总量长期变化趋势不明显,其中澜沧江的波动性（1.884,最大与最小之比）大于怒江。空间上水资源量呈现北低－南高的格局。在未来,两江流域气温仍呈增加趋势,降水呈增加趋势,径流呈增加趋势,空间变异性趋小,但较强的季节性变化对水资源安全仍具有较大的挑战性。     

怒江峡谷构造地貌的演化:阶地宇宙成因核素定年的初步结果

地貌产生于构造活动和各种地表营力驱动的侵蚀夷平和堆积过程,如在构造抬升活跃的地区,河流强烈的侵蚀作用往往造就深切的峡谷地貌。对于这样的地区河流下切速率往往被用来衡量构造抬升速率[1,2]。然而河流下切速率的变化不仅与构造抬升有关,而且与气候变化有关。因此,正确理解     

Offsetting China's CO2 Emissions by Soil Carbon Sequestration

Fossil fuel emissions of carbon (C) in China in 2000 was about 1 Pg/yr, which may surpass that of the U.S. (1.84 Pg C) by 2020. Terrestrial C pool of China comprises about 35 to 60 Pg in the forest and 120 to 186 Pg in soils. Soil degradation is a major issue affecting 145 Mha by different degradative processes, of which 126 Mha are prone to accelerated soil erosion. Similar to world soils, agricultural soils of China have also lost 30 to 50% or more of the antecedent soil organic carbon (SOC) pool.Some of the depleted SOC pool can be re-sequestered through restoration of degraded soils, and adoption of recommended management practices. The latter include conversion of upland crops to multiple cropping and rice paddies, adoption of integrated nutrient management (INM) strategies, incorporation of cover crops in the rotations cycle and adoption of conservation-effective systems including conservation tillage. A crude estimated potential of soil C sequestration in China is 119 to 226 Tg C/y of SOC and 7 to 138 Tg C/y for soil inorganic carbon (SIC) up to 50 years. The total potential of soil C sequestration is about 12 Pg, and this potential can offset about 25%of the annual fossil fuel emissions in China.     

Rotational overthrusting of the northwestern Himalaya: further palaeomagnetic evidence from the Riasi thrust sheet, Jammu foothills, India

Thermal demagnetization results (316 samples) are presented for the Tertiary succession of the Riasi thrust sheet (Jammu foothills, northwestern Himalaya). Primary and secondary magnetization directions of Murree Group red beds (Miocene to Upper Eocene) sampled northeast of Jammu indicate, for this part of the Riasi thrust sheet, a clockwise rotation over about 45° with respect to the Indian shield since Late Eocene/Early Miocene time. This accords with clockwise rotations of similar magnitude observed in the Panjal Nappe and the Krol Belt, and is interpreted as representative for the northwestern Himalaya. Results from the western part of the Kalakot inlier, sampled northwest of Jammu, i.e. basal Murree claystone (Middle Eocene) and carbonate from the Subathu Group (lower Middle to Lower Eocene), indicate an aberrant 20–25° counterclockwise rotation which is of local importance only. Available observations on rotation of Himalayan thrust sheets with respect to the Indian shield, indicate that the Himalayan Arc has formed through oroclinal bending. This supports Powell and Conaghan's and Veevers et al.'s model of Greater India with large-scale intracontinental underthrusting along the Main Central Thrust beneath the Tibetan Plateau. Minimal magnitudes of underthrusting of 550 km in the Krol Belt and 650 km in the Thakkhola region are concluded. Palaeolatitude observations (herein and in [1[) agree with absolute positioning of the Indian plate based on India-Africa relative movement data fixed to a hotspot frame in the Atlantic Ocean, and with palaeolatitude observations from DSDP cores on the Indian plate. Collision-related secondary magnetic components observed both to the north and to the south of the Indus-Tsangpo Suture zone show palaeolatitudes between the equator and 7°N. Comparison of both datasets indicates that initial contact between Greater India and south-central Asia had been established in the Hindu Kush—Karakorum region by about 60 Ma ago whereas eastwards progressive suturing had advanced to the Lhasa Block segment of the Indus-Tsangpo Suture zone before 50 Ma ago.