华南氧化锰矿晚新生代大规模成矿

氧化锰矿是我国仅次于沉积型碳酸锰矿的重要锰矿床类型,主要分布在广西、湖南、广东和福建等南方省区,但由于定年手段的限制,迄今对我国氧化锰矿形成时代的了解还极其有限.作者近几年利用激光阶段加热40Ar/39Ar同位素分析技术对华南地区典型氧化锰矿进行了系统和精确的年龄测定,获得了一大批可靠的成矿年龄,年龄值介于23.64 ± 0.29 Ma和0.48 ± 0.17 Ma (2σ),表明华南氧化锰矿的大规模成矿至少在渐新世末-中新世初就已开始并一直持续到更新世末期.基于多数氧化锰矿的上部矿石已被剥蚀或开采殆尽这一事实,可将华南氧化锰矿的成矿时间上溯到渐新世早期甚至始新世末期.研究发现,氧化锰矿的保存程度和年龄分布明显受新构造运动的影响;如果剔除后期剥蚀程度和采样系统性的影响,可以认为华南氧化锰矿的形成在区域上具有同时性.本次研究还说明,次生氧化锰矿的成矿是一个极其漫长的过程,形成一个具有工业意义的氧化锰矿可能需要上千万年的时间;这明显有别于多数内生热液矿床的成矿.本项研究为我国氧化锰矿以及其他类型的风化矿床(如红土型金矿和红土型镍矿)的年代学研究提供了新的思路和途径.     

Analyzing the spatial interactions between rainfall levels and flooding prediction in São Paulo

Rainfall is one of the primary triggers for many geological and hydrological natural disasters. While the geological events are related to mass movements in land collapse due to waterlogging, the hydrological ones are usually assigned to runoff or flooding. Studies in the literature propose predicting mass movement events as a function of accumulated rainfall levels recorded at distinct periods. According to these approaches, a two-dimensional rainfall levels feature space is segmented into the occurrence and non-occurrence decision regions by an empirical critical curve (CC). Although this scheme may easily be extended to other purposes and applications, studies in the literature need to discuss its use for flooding prediction. In light of this motivation, the present study is unfolded in (1) verifying that defining CCs in the rainfall levels feature space is a practical approach for flooding prediction and (2) analyzing how geospatial components interact with rainfall levels and flooding prediction. A database containing the rainfall levels recorded for flooding and non-flooding events in São Paulo city, Brazil, regarding the period 2015–2016, was considered in this study. The results indicate good accuracy for flooding prediction using only partial rain, which can be improved by adding physical characteristics of the flooding locations, demonstrating a direct correlation with spatial interactions, and rainfall levels.     

Vertical deformation partitioning across a collapsing large and hot orogen

Featuring 3 000-km-long large and hot orogen, the Mantiqueira Province provides a rare opportunity to study the process of gravitational collapse at mid to deep crustal levels. Distinct but contemporary (~500 Ma) post-collisional intrusions show structures and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) fabrics related to their emplacements, recording different flow patterns. In southern deep-seated intrusions, ellipsoidal-shaped roots with gabbroic-to-hybrid cores surrounded by granitic rocks show concentric patterns of AMS fabrics that cut across the NE-trending regional foliation. In contrast, northern intrusions, exposed as the upper sections of batholith-size bodies of coarse-grained granite emplaced at the shallow to mid-crust, show general NS-trending magnetic fabrics roughly parallel to strike of the orogen and the regional foliation of host rocks. These contrasting magnetic patterns from shallow to deeper crust suggest vertical magma migration from the overthickened orogenic core to be emplaced across its thinner stretched flanks during the gravitational collapse of the orogenic edifice.     

Paleoenvironmental dynamics in central-eastern Brazil during the last 23 000 years: tropical peatland record in the Cerrado biome

The Cerrado biome is the second largest in Brazil, but the evolution of the Cerrado during the late Quaternary is not yet fully known. This study identifies paleoenvironmental changes during the last 23 000 years, based on a tropical mountain peatland record, in the Serra do Espinhaço Meridional in central-eastern Brazil. A multi-proxy approach was used that involved palynological analysis, stable isotopes (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N), geochemistry, radiocarbon dating and multivariate statistics derived from a peatland core from Rio Preto (Minas Gerais state). The study reveals a very humid and cold climate during the late Pleistocene, with an increase in temperature and decrease in humidity at the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. During this period there was strong instability in the landscape (episodes of erosion). At the beginning of the Holocene there was a reduction in humidity with greater landscape stability. The current sub-humid climatic conditions seem to have been established in the mid-/late Holocene, with periods of landscape instability. Our findings agree with other Cerrado records that contradict previously established hypotheses, such as the Amazonian Refuge and the Pleistocene Arc.