Chronology,stratigraphy and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of a Late Pleistocene to mid‐Holocene cave accumulation on Kangaroo Island,South Australia

Chronological, sedimentological and geochemical analyses of a clastic infill from Kelly Hill Cave (5K1), Kangaroo Island, document a palaeoenvironmental record that spans from the Late Pleistocene to the middle Holocene. We AMS radiocarbon‐dated bone collagen and U–Th‐dated speleothem to determine that fossiliferous sediments were deposited between >20 ka and 7 ka ago. Most of the 15 sedimentary layers are dominated by sand‐ and silt‐sized quartz that is physically and geochemically comparable with surface soils in the Kelly Hill area. Late Pleistocene and Last Glacial Maximum strata are represented primarily by homogeneous, poorly sorted quartz‐rich sediments that contain little organic matter, but include a thin layer composed largely of silt‐sized clay pellets that resemble sediments deflated from playa lakes. Microstructures observed in petrographic slides indicate that, with the exception of one layer, all sediments experienced little reworking once deposited in the cave. Some layers display pedogenic microstructures such as redeposited clays and opaline silica infilling that indicate postdepositional modification; that is, cave‐floor soil development. Overlying Holocene‐aged sediments also consist mainly of quartz but have much greater organic matter content. Some of these sediments have been strongly influenced by re‐precipitated organic matter that appears to have been transported into the cave via vadose drip water. The presence of dissolved organic matter in soil/vadose waters suggests a high vegetation density and acidic soils, which are congruent with the more equitable climatic conditions characteristic of the Holocene. The sediments described here provide a valuable palaeoenvironmental record that will facilitate future interpretation of associated vertebrate fossils.     

Seasonal Responses of Net Primary Productivity of Vegetation to Phen-ological Dynamics in the Loess Plateau,China

With global warming,the great changes in the patterns of plant growth have occurred.The conditions in early spring and late autumn have changed the process of v...     

越南东北部Cat Ba岛泥盆系-石炭系过渡层的初探

The Pho Han Formation is exposed on southern Cat Ba Island, Hai Phong Province in northeastern Vietnam, and intercalates the Devonian and Carbonif-erous (D-C) boundary (Ta and Doan, 2007; Komatsu et al., 2012). The D-C boundary section consists mainly of limestone beds, numbered from 1 to 167, interca-lated with alternating black organic-rich shales. The limestone yields abundant brachiopods, crinoid-stems and conodonts. Preliminary investigations on strati-graphy (conodont biostratigraphy and δ13C) and sedi-mentology of beds 113-133 were undertaken in this study.     

Occurrence and geochemistry of radium in water from principal drinking-water aquifer systems of the United States

A total of 1270 raw-water samples (before treatment) were collected from 15 principal and other major aquifer systems (PAs) used for drinking water in 45 states in all major physiographic provinces of the USA and analyzed for concentrations of the Ra isotopes ²²⁴Ra, ²²⁶Ra and ²²⁸Ra establishing the framework for evaluating Ra occurrence. The US Environmental Protection Agency Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 0.185 Bq/L (5 pCi/L) for combined Ra (²²⁶Ra plus ²²⁸Ra) for drinking water was exceeded in 4.02% (39 of 971) of samples for which both ²²⁶Ra and ²²⁸Ra were determined, or in 3.15% (40 of 1266) of the samples in which at least one isotope concentration (²²⁶Ra or ²²⁸Ra) was determined. The maximum concentration of combined Ra was 0.755 Bq/L (20.4 pCi/L) in water from the North Atlantic Coastal Plain quartzose sand aquifer system. All the exceedences of the MCL for combined Ra occurred in water samples from the following 7 PAs (in order of decreasing relative frequency of occurrence): the Midcontinent and Ozark Plateau Cambro-Ordovician dolomites and sandstones, the North Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Floridan, the crystalline rocks (granitic, metamorphic) of New England, the Mesozoic basins of the Appalachian Piedmont, the Gulf Coastal Plain, and the glacial sands and gravels (highest concentrations in New England).     

1961-2012年6-8月内蒙古降水异常及环流特征分析

利用内蒙古自治区100个站1961-2012年6-8月各月降水量资料,以降水距平百分率划分了单站和全区各月的多、少雨年份,分析了6-8月全区多雨和少雨站点百分率变化特征。针对异常多雨和少雨年份,探讨了同期北半球欧亚地区大气环流的分布特征。结果表明：8月降水存在减少趋势,6月和7月则主要表现为阶段性多（少）雨,且少雨年多于多雨年。在多雨月份,100hPa高度场上,欧亚中高纬度呈径向环流分布,极涡较弱。其中,6月为两槽一脊型,内蒙古位于高压脊区前部,7、8月为两脊一槽型,内蒙古位于高压脊区后部;500 hPa高度场上,6月,亚洲区主要表现为变形场,内蒙古处于锋生区,或是亚洲中高纬度环流为两脊一槽型,内蒙古处于两高之间的宽广低槽中, 7月、8月欧亚中高纬度环流主要表现为东高西低,内蒙古自治区位于低压槽区中;850hPa流场图上内蒙古为气旋性切变区域或为风场辐合区域控制。在少雨月份,100hPa和500hPa高度场上,欧亚中高纬度呈纬向环流分布,极涡较强,内蒙古位于南亚高压北边的正距平区域;850hPa流场图上表现为弱的风场特征,无明显的水汽输送。     

Extinct isotope heterogeneities in the mantles of Earth and Mars: Implications for mantle stirring rates

Heterogeneities in terrestrial samples for ¹⁸²W/¹⁸³W and ¹⁴²Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd are only preserved in Hadean and Archean rocks while heterogeneities in ¹²⁹Xe/¹³⁰Xe and ¹³⁶Xe/¹³⁰Xe persist to very young mantle‐derived rocks. In contrast, meteorites from Mars show that the Martian mantle preserves heterogeneities in ¹⁸²W/¹⁸³W and ¹⁴²Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd up to the present. As a consequence of the probable “deep magma ocean” core formation process, we assume that the Earth and Mars both had a very early two‐mantle‐reservoir structure with different initial extinct nuclide isotopic compositions (different ¹⁸²W/¹⁸³W, ¹⁴²Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd, ¹²⁹Xe/¹³⁰Xe, ¹³⁶Xe/¹³⁰Xe ratios). Based on this assumption, we developed a simple stochastic model to trace the evolution of a mantle with two initially distinct layers for the extinct isotopes and its development into a heterogeneous mantle by convective mixing and stretching of these two layers. Using the extinct isotope system ¹⁸²Hf‐¹⁸²W, we find that the mantles of Earth and Mars exhibit substantially different mixing or stirring rates. This is consistent with Mars having cooled faster than the Earth due to its smaller size, resulting in less efficient mantle mixing for Mars. Moreover, the mantle stirring rate obtained for Earth using ¹⁸²Hf‐¹⁸²W is consistent with the mantle stirring rate of ~500 Myr constrained by the long‐lived isotope system, ⁸⁷Rb‐⁸⁷Sr and ¹⁴⁷Sm‐¹⁴³Nd. The apparent absence of ¹⁸²W/¹⁸³W isotopic heterogeneity in modern terrestrial rocks is attributed to very active mantle stirring which reduced the ¹⁸²W/¹⁸³W isotopic heterogeneity to a relatively small scale (~83 m for a mantle stirring rate of 500 Myr) compared to the common sampling scale of terrestrial basalts (~30 or 100 km). Our results also support the “deep magma ocean” core formation model as being applicable to both Mars and Earth.     

Stability and equation of state of post-aragonite BaCO3

At ambient conditions, witherite is the stable form of BaCO₃ and has the aragonite structure with space group Pmcn. Above ~10 GPa, BaCO₃ adopts a post-aragonite structure with space group Pmmn. High-pressure and high-temperature synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments were used to study the stability and equation of state of post-aragonite BaCO₃, which remained stable to the highest experimental P–T conditions of 150 GPa and 2,000 K. We obtained a bulk modulus K ₀ = 88(2) GPa with $K'$  = 4.8(3) and V ₀ = 128.1(5) ų using a third-order Birch-Murnaghan fit to the 300 K experimental data. We also carried out density functional theory (DFT) calculations of enthalpy (H) of two structures of BaCO₃ relative to the enthalpy of the post-aragonite phase. In agreement with previous studies and the current experiments, the calculations show aragonite to post-aragonite phase transitions at ~8 GPa. We also tested a potential high-pressure post–post-aragonite structure (space group C222 ₁ ) featuring four-fold coordination of oxygen around carbon. In agreement with previous DFT studies, ΔH between the C222 ₁ structure and post-aragonite (Pmmn) decreases with pressure, but the Pmmn structure remains energetically favorable to pressures greater than 200 GPa. We conclude that post–post-aragonite phase transformations of carbonates do not follow systematic trends observed for post-aragonite transitions governed solely by the ionic radii of their metal cations.     

青藏铁路格尔木至安多段沿线高寒植被、土壤特性与人工植被恢复研究

 对青藏铁路格尔木至安多段沿线不同海拔梯度下高寒植被与土壤特征进行研究。沿线高寒植被的主要分布种有91个,主要建群种为:紫花针茅(Stipa purpurea)、青藏苔草(Carex moorcroftii Falc)、藏异燕麦(Helictotrichon tibeticum)、黄芪(Astragalus)、棘豆(Oxytropis)、粗壮嵩草(Kobresia robusta Maximowicz)、矮嵩草(Kobresia robusta Maximowicz)等。高寒植被物种数、平均盖度、地下生物量和总生物量与海拔呈正相关性,而平均高度和地上生物量与海拔呈负相关性。沿线高寒植物群落主要可划分为海拔小于4 000 m的高寒荒漠植被、海拔4 000~4 500 m的高寒河谷灌丛植被、海拔4 500~4 700 m的高寒草原植被、海拔4 700~4 800 m的高寒垫状植被、海拔4 800~4 900 m的高寒草甸植被和海拔5 000 m左右的高寒沼泽和高寒流石坡植被。土壤全氮和有机质含量都与海拔高度呈正相关性,但全磷、全钾及pH值则在高海拔地区达到最低。沿线土壤颗粒组成主要以中、细沙(d＜0.4 mm)为主,占到了总含量的85%以上,因此,中、细沙是构成沿线土壤的最主要颗粒。沿线植被恢复比较有效的方法是选择紫花针茅、垂穗披碱草、燕麦、棘豆、黄芪、蒿草、梭罗草等当地草种,采取原生植物种子异地繁殖,再经沿线播种或栽培抚育,从而达到植被恢复的目的。该研究对青藏铁路沿线的植被恢复与植物防沙工程具有一定的指导意义。     

山东荣成马草夼大理岩中的榴辉岩岩石地球化学特征及成因

山东荣成马草夼榴辉岩呈条带状或透镜状产出于大理岩中,对其进行了岩石学和地球化学研究。研究表明,其原岩可能为辉石质岩石,且经过了一定程度的分异作用,暗色矿物发生堆晶作用,在微量元素原始地幔标准化蛛网图中,Th明显的亏损,U强烈富集,Ce也呈微弱程度亏损,在稀土元素球粒陨石标准配分模式图中,呈左倾分布模式。岩石的原岩构造环境分析表明其接近板内构造环境,其原岩可能为结晶分异之后矿物堆晶作用形成的辉石质岩石。     

Salt tectonic controls on deep‐water turbidite depositional systems: Miocene,southwestern Lower Congo Basin,offshore Angola

Regionally extensive 3D seismic data from the Lower Congo Basin, offshore Angola, have been used to investigate the influence of salt‐related structures on the location, geometry and evolution of Miocene deep‐water depositional systems. Isochron variations and cross‐sectional lap‐out relationships have then been used to qualitatively reconstruct the syn‐depositional morphology of salt‐cored structures. Coherence and Red‐green‐blue‐blended spectral decomposition volumes, tied to cross‐sectional seismic facies, allow imaging of the main sediment transport pathways and the distribution of their component seismic facies. Major sediment transport pathways developed in an area of complex salt‐related structures comprising normal faults, isolated diapirs and elongate salt walls with intervening intraslope basins. Key structural controls on the location of the main sediment transport pathways and the local interaction between lobe‐channel‐levee systems and individual structures were the length and height of structures, the location and geometry of segment boundaries, the growth and linkage of individual structures, and the incidence angle between structural strike and flow direction. Where the regional flow direction was at a high angle to structural strike, transport pathways passed progressively through multiple intraslope basins in a fill and spill manner. Segment boundaries and structural lows between diapirs acted as spill points, focusing sediment transport between intraslope basins. Channel–lobe transitions are commonly associated with these spill points, where flows expanded and entered depocentres. Deflection of channel‐levee complexes around individual structures was mainly controlled by the length of structures and incidence angle. Where regional flow direction was at a low angle to structural strike, sediment transport pathways ran parallel to structure and were confined to individual intraslope basins for many tens of kilometres. Spill between intraslope basins was rare. The relative position of structures and their segment boundaries was fixed during the Miocene, which effectively pinned the locations where sediment spilled from one intraslope basin to the next. As a result, major sediment transport pathways were used repeatedly, giving rise to vertically stacked lobe‐channel‐levee complexes along the pathways. Shadow zones devoid of coarse clastics developed in areas that were either structurally isolated from the sediment transport pathways or bypassed as a result of channel diversion.