Late Quaternary activity of the Pajarito fault, Rio Grande rift of northern New Mexico, USA

The Pajarito fault forms the western margin of the Rio Grande rift in north-central New Mexico, and lies adjacent to Los Alamos National Laboratory, a major Federal research facility. Vertical displacement on this normal fault over the past 1.2 Ma has created a 50- to 120-m-high fault scarp on Bandelier Tuff (1.2 Ma), yielding a long-term average slip rate of ca. 0.1 mm/yr. In support of a Laboratory-wide seismic hazards assessment, we excavated 14 trenches in the Pajarito fault zone to determine the age of the most recent displacement event, the recurrence interval between events, the displacement per event, and the variability in slip rate and recurrence through time. The large number of trenches was required by the large height of the fault scarp and the complexity of the fault zone. Only about half the trenches contained significant thicknesses of Holocene deposits, but in those trenches there was clear evidence for an early-to-mid-Holocene displacement event. The previous event was at least 20–40 ka, and the average recurrence interval over the past ca. 300 ka was about 20–40 kyr. We infer that much of the structural relief across this fault developed soon after eruption of the Bandelier Tuff between 1.0 and 1.2 Ma, and that slip rate slowed considerably after that time.     

气候变化与人类活动对水文影响的研究进展

气候变化与人类活动对水文过程产生了重大影响,估计和区分二者的影响是水科学研究中的热点问题。针对气候变化和人类活动(土地利用/覆盖变化)两个驱动因素,分别综述了气候变化、人类活动和两者综合对水文影响的研究进展;介绍了未来的气候情景和人类活动情景;阐述了区分气候变化和人类活动对水文要素过去和未来影响的研究方法,并总结了方法中常用的分布式水文模型。提出当前研究中存在气候和人类活动情景重复交叉、缺乏两者对水文极值事件的影响研究等问题。     

永定河中下游MIS7以来地层沉积演化及新石器时代以来气候变化

利用廊坊东A27钻孔岩心资料,样品微体生物、孢粉特征综合分析,结合AMS14C测年,对永定河中下游地区MIS7以来的地层进行分析,建立了MIS7以来的沉积地层格架,并对其进行了年代厘定,讨论了该地区大约MIS7阶段以来氧同位素分期气候下的地层及环境效应.结果表明,永定河中下游地区晚第四纪可划分为U1～U8共8个沉积单元...     

Vegetation in western Central Mexico during the last 50 000 years: modern analogs and climate in the Zacapu Basin

The late glacial and the transition towards the Holocene marked a period of significant environmental change at a global scale. In western Central Mexico, few records span beyond the Holocene, and little is known about Pleistocene climatic and environmental variability. Here we report on the pollen record of a composite sequence made of three cores that cover the last 50 ka (thousands of calibrated radiocarbon years before present) in the Zacapu Basin, western Central Mexico (～1970 m asl). The conjunction of modern pollen rain from the area with the composite fossil pollen sequence from cores Cantabria, Cantabria 1 and CEMCA Point‐1 provided a detailed history of the vegetation of the area. Recognition of modern environmental patterns through individual modern pollen taxa proved difficult, but multivariate analysis separated different vegetation types. No‐modern‐analog communities relative to the modern vegetation cover of the area were evident, especially during periods of drought. Apparently, summer precipitation was significant before 40 ka and after the deglaciation. However, this moisture source declined from ～40 to 10 ka because tradewinds from the Gulf of Mexico were blocked by the eastern mountains of Central Mexico as a result of lower temperatures. By contrast, westerly and northerly winds were enhanced by maximum ice cover from ～19 to 17 ka, providing abundant winter precipitation and therefore preventing extreme drought in the area. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

乾安县浅层高氟地下水的分布规律及成因的初步探讨

本文主要阐述了乾安县浅层高氟地下水的分布规律;探讨了浅层高氟地下水的成因与构造、地貌、古气候、地层岩性和水文地质条件的关系,从而闸明了广泛分布的湖沼相松散沉积物的组成和水文地质条件是本区浅层高氟地下水的主要原因。     

The Neogene and Quaternary of England: landscape evolution,tectonics, climate change and their expression in the geological record

During the Neogene and Quaternary, tectonic and climatic processes have had a profound impact upon landscape evolution in England and, perhaps as far back as 0.9 Ma, patterns of early human occupation. Until the Late Miocene, large-scale plate tectonic processes were the principal drivers of landscape evolution causing localised basin inversion and widespread exhumation. This drove, in places, the erosion of several kilometres of Mesozoic cover rocks and the development of a regional unconformity across England and the North Sea Basin. By the Pliocene, the relative influence of tectonics on landscape evolution waned as the background tectonic stress regime evolved and climatic influences became more prominent. Global-scale climate-forcing increased step-wise during the Plio-Pleistocene amplifying erosional and depositional processes that operated within the landscape. These processes caused differential unloading (uplift) and loading (subsidence) of the crust (‘denudational isostasy’) in areas undergoing net erosion (upland areas and slopes) and deposition (basins). Denudational isostasy amplified during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (c.0.9 Ma) as landscapes become progressively synchronised to large-scale 100 ka ‘eccentricity’ climate forcing. Over the past 0.5 Ma, this has led to the establishment of a robust climate record of individual glacial/interglacial cycles enabling comparison to other regional and global records. During the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition and early Holocene (c.16–7 ka), evidence for more abrupt (millennial/centennial) scale climatic events has been discovered. This indicates that superimposed upon the longer-term pattern of landscape evolution is a more dynamic response of the landscape to local and regional drivers.     

嘉鱼断裂西向延伸与第四系活动特征

嘉鱼断裂为已证实的隐伏断层。该断裂从洪湖老湾西南横切长江,沿近东西—北东东向延展,经嘉鱼县城东北马鞍山北缘向东延伸于斧头湖,长约40 km,该断裂东端已有明显出露,而断裂尾部并没有明显出露。由于区内小尺度物探资料的缺乏,使得该断裂的走向和活动性都缺少相关证据。本文利用浅层地震反射结合折射层析成像方法,采用2 m道间距接收人工地震波,利用多次覆盖技术和密集炮集折射记录,分别对数据进行反射处理和层析成像,获取了浅层地震反射剖面和高分辨率折射层析成像剖面,并参考相关区域地震安全性评价钻孔资料进行解译。综合研究结果表明：浅层地震反射和高分辨率折射联合应用可互补,尤其在外界干扰较为严重的区域,利用高分辨率折射层析成像可减少浅层地震反射对断层的误判。此外,研究结果证实了嘉鱼断裂的具体位置,其性质为北盘下降、南盘上升的正断层,且该断层错断了第四系沉积层。     

Sedimentary processes,stratigraphic sequences and middens: the link between archaeology and geoheritage—a case study from the Quaternary of the Broome region,Western Australia

The cliffed and active dune coastal region of Broome provides an excellent record of Pleistocene and Holocene stratigraphy of desert environments interfacing with the Indian Ocean. The Mesozoic Broome Sandstone is the basal stratigraphic unit in the area and is overlain by Pleistocene red desert quartz sand (Mowanjum Sand). Modern coastal processes of waves, wind and tide have resulted in distinctive sedimentary bodies (stratigraphic units) clearly linked to the sedimentary environment. The Mowanjum Sand, reworked by coastal winds, generates the landward-ingressing orange quartzose Churchill Sand, or reworked by waves and abraded to white sand with the addition of carbonate grains that form the beaches (Cable Beach Sand) and with eolian action, coastal dunes or inland-ingressing white dunes (Shoonta Hill Sand). These sedimentary bodies and stratigraphic units form a template with which to locate and interpret archaeological middens and Indigenous occupation over the past 5000?years in a context of coastal occupation, coastal stability, mean sea-level changes, climate changes, and availability of marine food and freshwater. Shell middens and stone artefacts form definitive layers or horizons in relation to the stratigraphy, in places in situ, and elsewhere reworked as sheets and plumes; understanding their inter-relationships has enabled the unravelling of the archaeological history and relating Indigenous occupation to biofacies and lithofacies. The array of sedimentary, biofacies and stratigraphic units are of national geoheritage significance in their own right. The addition of archaeological deposits as stratigraphic units provides a link between geoheritage and archaeology, where the archaeological materials are viewed as part of the complex stratigraphic story, part of the coastal history, and part of the geoheritage story.     

Investigations on the Quaternary Glaciation in the Khumbu Himal (Nepal, East-Himalaya)

Based on geomorphological field work the mapping of former lateral/terminal moraines in the middle segment of the Bhotekoshi Nadi is quite similar to the geomorphological findings of Heuberger (1956: Fig. 2). The deductive calculation of the equilibrium line altitudes is oriented on the reconstructed types of former glaciers. Based on the geomorphological findings of this valley segment the relation of Neoglacial and Late Glacial ice margins of the glaciers of the tributary valleys of the Bhotekoshi Nadi is not conclusive. A post-late glacial maximum snow-line depression of at least 950 m has not obligatory caused an ice fill of the Bhotekoshi Nadi below 3200 m. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Geophysical methods for mapping Quaternary sediment thickness: Application to the Saint-Lary basin (French Pyrenees)

This study aims at mapping the sediment infill thickness in the Saint-Lary basin (Aure valley, French Pyrenees). For this purpose, we combine passive seismic and gravity surveys. The resonance frequencies of the sediment body are retrieved from seismic ambient measurements, while the gravimetric survey shows negative residual anomaly of about −3 mGal in the basin. Both methods reveal unexpected but consistent bedrock shape. The southern Saint-Lary basin appears deeper than its northern part, with maximal infill thickness of about 300 m and 150 m, respectively. Valley cross sections show regular and smooth “U”-shape in the southern Saint-Lary basin, in contrast to an irregular and asymmetric pattern in the northern basin. This basin shape may be related to Quaternary fluvio-glacial carving processes especially controlled by a regional fault (the Soulan fault), variations in bedrock hardness, and preferential ice flow paths.