Large-scale Tazhong Ordovician Reef-flat Oil-Gas Field in the Tarim Basin of China

The Tazhong reef-flat oil-gas field is the first large-scale Ordovician organic reef type oil-gas field found in China. Its organic reefs were developed in the early Late Ordovician Lianglitag Formation, and are the first large reefs of the coral-stromatoporoid hermatypic community found in China. The organic reefs and platform-margin grain banks constitute a reef-flat complex, mainly consisting of biolithites and grainstones. The biolithites can be classified into the framestone, bafflestone, bindstone etc. The main body of the complex lies around the wells from Tazhong-24 to Tazhong-82, trending northwest, with the thickness from 100 to 300 m, length about 220 km and width 5-10 km. It is a reef-flat lithologic hydrocarbon reservoir, with a very complex hydrocarbon distribution: being a gas condensate reservoir as a whole with local oil reservoirs. The hydrocarbon distribution is controlled by the reef complex, generally located in the upper 100-200 m part of the complex, and largely in a banded shape along the complex. On the profile, the reservoir shows a stratified feature, with an altitude difference of almost 2200 m from southeast to northwest. The petroleum accumulation is controlled by karst reservoir beds and the northeast strike-slip fault belt. The total geologic reserves had reached 297.667 Mt by 2007.     

Colin Patterson (1933–1998): a major vertebrate palaeontologist of this century

Geologie en Mijnbouw -     

论找矿勘查的风险性和降低风险的预测性勘查战略

找矿勘查的高风险性表现在找到可赢利矿床的成功率低和找矿发现的成本越来越高,这不仅影响了矿业经济的发展,也影响了公众对地球科学的认识。根据国际找矿勘查的一些统计资料和实例分析了造成找矿勘查高风险性的原因,提出降低风险的预测性勘查战略。区域地质背景、成矿作用的复杂性和勘查者所具有的知识、思维能力、技术手段的局限性等客观因素使找矿勘查的风险不可避免,但不少找矿勘查的失败是由勘查者在资料使用、观察、思维等方面的主观失误造成的。勘查者可以通过增加尝试的次数来获取成功,更可取的是通过提高矿床预测的准确度,以预测性勘查促找矿发现,进而降低找矿勘查的风险。     

Mineralization and Ore-controlling Implications of Low-angle Faults

Low-angle faults include those occurring in thrust-nappe structures in a compressive setting and the detachment of metamorphic core complexes in an extensional setting. All low-angle faults have their own particularities. The low-angle fault plays an important role in controlling over some endogenetic metallic ore deposits. Based on studies of the Xiaoban gold deposit, Xinzhou gold deposit, and Longfengchang polymetallic ore deposit, and comparisons with other mines, the authors conclude the ore-controlling implications of low-angle faults as follows. (1) Because of high temperature and high pressure, as well as strong ductile deformation, the internal energy of the elements rises in the large-scale deep ductile low-angle faults, which causes the elements to activate and differentiate from the source rocks, forming ore-bearing hydrothermal solution, and bring mineralization to happen. (2) When rising from depths and flowing along the low-angle faults, the ore-bearing hydrothermal solution will alter and     

Growing Operational Use of FY-3 Data in the ECMWF System

This paper reviews the data quality and impact of observations from the FY-3 satellite series used operationally in the ECMWF system. This includes data from the passive microwave radiometers MWHS-1, MWHS-2 and MWRI, as well as observations from the radio occultation receiver GNOS. Evaluations against background equivalents show that the quality of the observations is broadly comparable to that of similar instruments on other polar-orbiting satellites, even though biases for the passive microwave observations can be somewhat larger and more complex for some channels. An observing system experiment shows that the FY-3 instruments jointly contribute significantly to the forecast skill in the ECMWF system. Positive impact of up to 2% is seen for most variables out to the day-2 forecasts over hemispheric scales, with significant benefits for total column water vapor or for temperature and wind in the stratosphere out to day 4.     

On the history of the Late Devensian Lake Sparks in southern Fenland,Cambridgeshire, England

A section in a gravel quarry at Somersham, Cambridgeshire, has revealed evidence for a lake, named Lake Sparks, in Fenland during the Late Devensian substage of the Pleistocene. Varved sediments were deposited in this lake over a minimum period of ca. 65 yr. The varved clays contain red diamicton clasts, interpreted as dump, delivered to the area by icebergs or floes from the ice-front in the Wash that deposited the Hunstanton Till. The lake is therefore considered a result of impounding by the Late Devensian ice advance on the east coast. A small number of pale varves have a characteristic structure indicating increased calcite deposition in the summer. They are interpreted as a result of cooler summers with reduced gelifluction from the surrounding Jurassic (Ampthill) Clay. Such gelifluction introduced a mudflow into the varved sequence at the southern end of the section. Pollen analysis confirms the derivation of the clays from the surrounding Ampthill Clay. The varved clays are succeeded by fluviatile sediments related to a delta building into the lake from the north. The delta sediments show periodic influx of sand into the lake interrupted by quiet periods with the development of Chara meadows. A thin spread of fluviatile gravels succeed the delta sediments, indicating the development of a braided river plain as the lake drained on the melting of the Late Devensian ice. This was followed by permafrost development, with the formation of thin thermal contraction cracks and coversand deposition. Later, degradation of the permafrost was associated with the formation of diapirs and a solifluction mantle, and incision of the fluviatile and lacustrine sediments took place. Flandrian peat and marl later filled the valley so formed. A radiocarbon date of 18310 yr BP from Salix leaves in a drift mud at the top of channel sands preceding lake sediment, in a neighbouring section, confirms the relation of the lake to the Late Devensian ice advance. The significance of the Late Devensian sediments at Somersham lies in the information they give on the timing and variety of processes related to drainage and ice movement in the period before, during and after the ice advance to the Wash. A period of low deposition rate in the lake was followed by rapid delta sedimentation and lake drainage, with implications for climatic change.     

Palaeontology and taphonomy of Late Quaternary fossil assemblages at Somersham,Cambridgeshire, England,and the problem of reworking

Assemblages of foraminifers, ostracods and molluscs from temperate Ipswichian Stage (last temperate stage) sediments and overlying cold Devensian Stage (last cold stage) sediments at Somersham in the southern Fenland of Cambridgeshire have been analysed. The Ipswichian sediments contain faunas consistent with temperate brackish water conditions under tidal influence. The Devensian assemblages were recovered from a series of sands and gravels laterally accreting in a channel cutting into Ipswichian sediments. In contrast to the Ipswichian faunas, the faunas of particular Devensian samples show a complex mixture of temperate freshwater, brackish and marine taxa. The molluscs are mainly freshwater, with few land snails; they occur together with foraminifers and ostracods. Freshwater, brackish water and marine ostracods are present with foraminifers. A sample of Devensian fine laminated sediment in the channel was analysed for pollen; only abundant pre-Quaternary spores were present, with abundant foraminifers in the same sample. The taphonomy of the assemblages and the difficulties of their interpretation in environmental terms are discussed. The importance of taphonomy in assessing environments, climate, range of taxa and dating is stressed.     

Magnetic field changes associated with a sub-flare and surge

A sub-flare and surge were observed on June 13, 1990, with the Marshall Space Flight Center vector magnetograph and coaligned H telescope. This activity occurred at the site of a parasitic polarity near a large, mature sunspot. Analysis of the vector magnetic field showed that while flux emergence and other field changes occurred sporadically throughout a period of 4 days, the sub-flare and surge only took place after an increase in magnetic shear in the field of the parasitic polarity. This event also provided an example of relaxation of magnetic shear following the flare and surging.