A New Enantiornithes (Aves) from the Early Cretaceous of China

A new bird from the early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China is described. This new species, Grabauornis lingyuanensis, shares several synapomorphies with the Enantiornithes. The specimen is relatively well preserved. The skeletal morphology of Grabauornis bears close resemblance to that of other Chinese members of this clade. The brachial index （the ratio between the lengths of humerus and ulna） is 0.95, which is close to the average for enantiornithine birds. It indicates that Grabauornis was a rather good flyer, and the presence of an alula in the wing further testifies to this.     

Petroleum geoscience in Norden - exploration, production and organization

Offshore exploration in Norway and Denmark-in the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea-has involved drilling about 850 wildcat wells, resulting in about 300 oil and gas finds, of which 84 are fields with production. The recoverable resources of all these finds total about 65 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Almost all these hydrocarbons come from a Jurassic source and the main reservoirs and traps are Jurassic sandstones in fault blocks and Paleocene sandstones or Cretaceous chalks in gentle domes. The article describes four major fields-Ekofisk, Gullfaks, Ormen Lange and SnФhvitto illustrate some of the many challenges in developing and producing the hydrocarbons.
Elsewhere in Norden, there has been much less exploration. Drilling results have mostly been negative in mainland Sweden, onshore Denmark, onshore Svalbard and on- and offshore West Greenland. Minor oil finds have been made in Palaeozoic rocks in the Baltic Sea. The first wells have recently been drilled off the Faroe Islands, resulting in one discovery. No drilling has taken place on- or offshore East Greenland.
As a result of the hydrocarbon activities in Norway and Denmark, petroleum geoscience there has flourished, with 2000 geoscientists currently employed in the industry, many technical innovations made, a wealth of publically available information and a great increase in the understanding of the geology.     

Putative Meteoritic Craters in Río Cuarto (Central Argentina) Interpreted as Eolian Structures

Ten oblong aligned depressions in the Río Cuarto area (provincia de Córdoba, Argentina) were supposed to be the result of very-low-angle Holocene meteoroid impacts. However, we consider that authors that studied the structures did not demonstrated their extraterrestrial origin. We suggest that an eolian origin for the structures of Río Cuarto is more likely. Actually, these landforms integrate large systems of similar deflation/accumulation geoforms aligned according to predominant winds during different periods.     

Towards a 4D topographic view of the Norwegian sea margin

The present-day topography/bathymetry of the Norwegian mainland and passive margin is a product of complex interactions between large-scale tectonomagmatic and climatic processes that can be traced back in time to the Late Silurian Caledonian Orogeny. The isostatic balance of the crust and lithosphere was clearly influenced by orogenic thickening during the Caledonian Orogeny, but was soon affected by post-orogenic collapse including overprinting of the mountain root, and was subsequently affected by a number of discrete extensional events eventually leading to continental break-up in Early Eocene time. In the mid-Jurassic the land areas experienced deep erosion in the warm and humid climate, forming a regional paleic surface. Rift episodes in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, with differential uplift along major fault zones, led to more pronounced topographic contrasts during the Cretaceous, and thick sequences of clastic sediments accumulated in the subsiding basins on the shelf. Following renewed extension in the Late Cretaceous, a new paleic surface developed in the Paleocene. Following break-up the margin has largely subsided thermally, but several Cenozoic shortening events have generated positive contraction structures. On the western side of the on-shore drainage divide, deeper erosion took place along pre-existing weakness zones, creating the template of the present day valleys and fjords. In the Neogene the mainland and large portions of the Barents Sea were uplifted. It appears that this uplift permitted ice caps to nucleate and accumulate during the Late Pliocene northern hemisphere climatic deterioration. The Late Pliocene to Pleistocene glacial erosion caused huge sediment aprons to be shed on to the Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea margins. Upon removal of the ice load the landmass adjusted isostatically, and this still continues today.     

High‐resolution reconstruction of a coastal barrier system: impact of Holocene sea‐level change

This study presents a detailed reconstruction of the sedimentary effects of Holocene sea‐level rise on a modern coastal barrier system. Increasing concern over the evolution of coastal barrier systems due to future accelerated rates of sea‐level rise calls for a better understanding of coastal barrier response to sea‐level changes. The complex evolution and sequence stratigraphic framework of the investigated coastal barrier system is reconstructed using facies analysis, high‐resolution optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon dating. During the formation of the coastal barrier system starting 8 to 7 ka rapid relative sea‐level rise outpaced sediment accumulation. Not before rates of relative sea‐level rise had decreased to ca 2 mm yr^?1 did sediment accumulation outpace sea‐level rise. From ca 5·5 ka, rates of regionally averaged sediment accumulation increased to 4·3 mm yr^?1 and the back‐barrier basin was filled in. This increase in sediment accumulation resulted from retreat of the barrier island and probably also due to formation of a tidal inlet close to the study area. Continued transgression and shoreface retreat created a distinct hiatus and wave ravinement surface in the seaward part of the coastal barrier system before the barrier shoreline stabilized between 5·0 ka and 4·5 ka. Back‐barrier shoreline erosion due to sediment starvation in the back‐barrier basin was pronounced from 4·5 to 2·5 ka but, in the last 2·5 kyr, barrier sedimentation has kept up with and outpaced sea‐level. In the last 0·4 kyr the coastal barrier system has been prograding episodically. Sediment accumulation shows considerable variation, with periods of rapid sediment deposition and periods of non‐deposition or erosion resulting in a highly punctuated sediment record. The study demonstrates how core‐based facies interpretations supported by a high‐resolution chronology and a well‐documented sea‐level history allow identification of depositional environments, erosion surfaces and hiatuses within a very homogeneous stratigraphy, and allow a detailed temporal reconstruction of a coastal barrier system in relation to sea‐level rise and sediment supply.     

Marginal formation of De Geer moraines and their implications to the dynamics of grounding‐line recession

De Geer moraine ridges occur in abundance in the coastal zone of northern Sweden, preferentially in areas with proglacial water depths in excess of 150 m at deglaciation. From detailed sedimentological and structural investigations in machine‐dug trenches across De Geer ridges it is concluded that the moraines formed due to subglacial sediment advection to the ice margin during temporary halts in grounding‐line retreat, forming gradually thickening sediment wedges. The proximal part of the moraines were built up in submarginal position as stacked sequences of deforming bed diamictons, intercalated with glaciofluvial canal‐infill sediments, whereas the distal parts were built up from the grounding line by prograding sediment gravity‐flow deposits, distally interfingering with glaciolacustrine sediments. The rapid grounding‐line retreat (ca. 400 m yr^?1) was driven by rapid calving, in turn enhanced by fast iceflow and marginal thinning of ice due to deforming bed conditions. The spatial distribution of the moraine ridges indicates stepwise retreat of the grounding line. It is suggested that this is due to slab and flake calving of the ice cliff above the waterline, forming a gradually widening subaqueous ice ledge which eventually breaks off to a new grounding line, followed by regained sediment delivery and ridge build‐up. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A magnetostratigraphic comparison between 14C years and varve years during the Late Weichselian,indicating significant differences between the time-scales

A ¹⁴C-dated magnetostratigraphy of absolute declination and inclination between 12500 and 10000 ¹⁴C yr BP was recently developed for southern Sweden. Recently also the Swedish geochronological time-scale, based on c. 11 500 annually deposited clay-varves, was connected with the present. It should therefore be possible to compare the two chronologies with a reliable magnetostratigraphic record in an appropriate clay-varve section. We have found such a site within the Middle Swedish end-moraine zone. Statistical correlations between the two independently dated time-scales suggest that at 10500–10200 ¹⁴Cy r BP the varve chronology exceeds the ¹⁴C chronology by the order of 500-600 varve yr. Other correlations indicate that the difference between the two chronologies was less at 11000 ¹⁴C yr BP, and further correlations between the time-scales at 12000 ¹⁴C yr BP suggest that the difference between the chronologies increased steadily from 12000 to 10000 ¹⁴C yr BP. If these correlations are correct they imply that the ¹⁴C production rate increased steadily during the Late Weichselian.     

A salt-stratified tank for measuring the dynamic response of conductivity probes

A 2 1/2-m-high salt-stratified tank has been developed to measure the dynamic response functions of conductivity probes. By using stirring grids to sharpen a two-layer interface, it has been possible to obtain the response functions over the wavenumber range of 0.5 to 300 cycles/m. Test probes, which are mounted on the end of a vertically oriented ram, have been fired through the interface at speeds from 5 mm/s to 3.1 m/s.     

Partitioning of semi-soluble organic compounds between the water phase and oil droplets in produced water

When selecting produced water treatment technologies, one should focus on reducing the major contributors to the total environmental impact. These are dispersed oil and semi-soluble hydrocarbons, alkylated phenols, and added chemicals. Experiments with produced water have been performed offshore on the Statoil operated platforms Gullfaks C and Statfjord B. These experiments were designed to find how much of the environmentally relevant compounds were dissolved in the water phase and not associated to the dispersed oil in the produced water. Results show that the distribution between the dispersed oil and the water phase varies highly for the different components groups. For example the concentration of PAHs and the C6-C9 alkylated phenols is strongly correlated to the content of dispersed oil. Therefore, the technologies enhancing the removal of dispersed oil have a higher potential for reducing the environmental impact of the produced water than previously considered.     

Gridded Croatian climatology for 1961–1990

In climatology, one of the most important pieces of information about the climate of a place or a region is information about the Climatological Normals (CLINO)—the average values of meteorological elements for a 30-year period. This kind of information usually comes in tables and is available for different observation sites from national meteorological services or from World Meteorological Organisation publications. The key issue, then, becomes how to interpolate these values over the entire area of interest to get reliable and accurate estimates (maps) of climatic elements. Here, the regression kriging framework has been applied for mapping of 20 climatological parameters for the 1961–1990 period for the 56,594 km² of Croatian territory, with a resolution of 1 km. In total, 152 main and climatological and 567 precipitation-measuring stations have been used in the analysis. Extensive pre-processing of metadata on station co-ordinates has been done, as well as completion of missing monthly averages. The final results are 20 climatological maps available in high resolution together with error maps and accuracy assessment measures.