A simple method to classify diamicts by scanning electron microscope from surface microtextures

Interpretation of quartz sand grain surface microtextures with scanning electron microscopy has been riddled with inconsistencies, invalid assumptions and much subjectivity. Therefore, a novel classification for analysing grain surface microtextures is presented based on the origin of complete grain surfaces. This novel method has solved most of the earlier problems of interpretation of surface microtextures, and it is easy to use and to quickly find evident genetic interpretations of diamicts. The data are plotted graphically in ‘2‐History Diagrams’ or ‘3‐History Diagrams’ for quick visual inspection and statistical evaluation. Source rocks and Quaternary glacial deposits from Scandinavia and Southern Ontario, representing different ice‐substrate dynamics, are analysed to define surface microtextures from typical glacigenic grains, bedrock and fluvially transported grains. Typical glacially crushed grains display large‐scale fractures and abrasion. Shield bedrock grains display large or small‐scale fractures and solution/precipitation microtextures. Fluvially transported grains exhibit abrasion and solution/precipitation microtextures.     

Role of vegetation in shaping Early Pennsylvanian braided rivers: Architecture of the Boss Point Formation,Atlantic Canada

Vegetation is a major driver of fluvial dynamics in modern rivers, but few facies models incorporate its influence. This article partially fills that gap by documenting the stratigraphy, architecture and palaeobotany of the Lower Pennsylvanian Boss Point Formation of Atlantic Canada, which contains some of the Earth's earliest accumulations of large woody debris. Braided‐fluvial systems occupied channel belts of varied scale within valleys several tens of metres deep and more than 12 km wide, and their deposits predominantly consist of sandy and gravelly bedforms with subordinate accretionary macroforms, high flow‐strength sand sheets and rippled abandonment facies. Discrete accumulations of clastic detritus and woody debris are up to 6 m thick and constitute at least 18% of the in‐channel deposits; they represent lags at the base of large and small channels, fills of minor channels and sandy macroforms that developed in central positions in the upper parts of channel fills. Sandstones with roots and other remnants of in situ vegetation demonstrate that vegetated islands were present, and the abundance of discrete channel fills suggests that the formation represents an anabranching, island‐braided sandbed river, the earliest example documented to date. Although some sphenopsid and lycopsid remains are present, most woody fragments are derived from cordaitalean trees, and the evolution of this group late in the Mississippian is inferred to have exerted a significant influence on fluvial morphodynamic patterns. The formation records a landscape in which active channel belts alternated with well‐drained floodplains colonized by dense, mature forests and local patches of pioneering, disturbance‐tolerant vegetation. Lakes and poorly drained floodplains dominated by carbonate and organic deposition, respectively, were also present. A large supply of woody debris triggered channel blockage and avulsion, and active channel margins and islands within the channel belts were initially colonized by pioneer vegetation and subsequently stabilized by large trees. A similar alternation of stable and unstable conditions is observed in modern braided rivers actively influenced by vegetation.     

Climatic versus halokinetic control on sedimentation in a dryland fluvial succession

Fluvial systems and their preserved stratigraphic expression as the fill of evolving basins are controlled by multiple factors, which can vary both spatially and temporally, including prevailing climate, sediment provenance, localized changes in the rates of creation and infill of accommodation in response to subsidence, and diversion by surface topographic features. In basins that develop in response to halokinesis, mobilized salt tends to be displaced by sediment loading to create a series of rapidly subsiding mini‐basins, each separated by growing salt walls. The style and pattern of fluvial sedimentation governs the rate at which accommodation becomes filled, whereas the rate of growth of basin‐bounding salt walls governs whether an emergent surface topography will develop that has the potential to divert and modify fluvial drainage pathways and thereby dictate the resultant fluvial stratigraphic architecture. Discerning the relative roles played by halokinesis and other factors, such as climate‐driven variations in the rate and style of sediment supply, is far from straightforward. Diverse stratigraphic architectures present in temporally equivalent, neighbouring salt‐walled mini‐basins demonstrate the effectiveness of topographically elevated salt walls as agents that partition and guide fluvial pathways, and thereby control the loci of accumulation of fluvial successions in evolving mini‐basins: drainage pathways can be focused into a single mini‐basin to preserve a sand‐prone fill style, whilst leaving adjoining basins relatively sand‐starved. By contrast, over the evolutionary history of a suite of salt‐walled mini‐basins, region‐wide changes in fluvial style can be shown to have been driven by changes in palaeoclimate and sediment‐delivery style. The Triassic Moenkopi Formation of the south‐western USA represents the preserved expression of a dryland fluvial system that accumulated across a broad, low‐relief alluvial plain, in a regressive continental to paralic setting. Within south‐eastern Utah, the Moenkopi Formation accumulated in a series of actively subsiding salt‐walled mini‐basins, ongoing evolution of which exerted a significant control on the style of drainage and resultant pattern of stratigraphic accumulation. Drainage pathways developed axial (parallel) to salt walls, resulting in compartmentalized accumulation of strata whereby neighbouring mini‐basins record significant variations in sedimentary style at the same stratigraphic level. Despite the complexities created by halokinetic controls, the signature of climate‐driven sediment delivery can be deciphered from the preserved succession by comparison with the stratigraphic expression of part of the system that accumulated beyond the influence of halokinesis, and this approach can be used to demonstrate regional variations in climate‐controlled styles of sediment delivery.     

3.45 Ma以来滦河冲积扇中部唐山TD1孔记录的区域构造和气候演化

对位于渤海湾西北岸晚更新世早期滦河冲积扇中部的TD1孔进行了磁性地层学、¹⁴C测年、沉积旋回、测井沉积学、孢粉地层学和介形类研究,结果表明:(1)220m 深的钻孔地层记录了古地磁学布容(Brunhes)、松山(Matuyama)和高斯(Gauss)极性时,钻孔底部层位年龄接近3.45 Ma。(2)钻孔揭示了滦河冲积扇中部地层结构,最厚的湖相沉积地层出现在上新世,第四纪以来主要由辫状河流体系分支河道相与相关沉积构成。(3)测井相与岩心沉积相分析结合显示,约3.45Ma以来出现6个大沉积旋回,与冲积扇顶端钻孔所见沉积旋回在深度上基本可以对比,其中3.2、3.0、2.0和0.78Ma的沉积旋回分别覆于全孔4期浅水湖泊—湖沼沉积物之上;末次盛冰期与渤海湾西岸钻孔一样出现浊黄橙色沉积,显示低水位域的沉积特征。(4)尽管古季风可以导致降水增多并出现湖沼沉积,但是该钻孔有机质含量最高的是在6 ka BP层位,中全新世大暖期气候对该地水热状况影响最大。     

川西地区上三叠统须家河组前陆盆地可容空间变化特征与油气成藏研究

本文利用川西盆地"安县"运动产生的不整合面,对存在多个地层划分分区的川西盆地上三叠统须家河组地层进行了岩性地层和层序地层的对比和划分。在具体分析了前陆盆地逆冲断层的幕式活动基础上,提出了前陆盆地中可容空间变化的不统一性,并且进一步在总结Posamentier(1992)利用盆地中构造沉降速度的分带现象将前陆盆地二分理论的基础上,提出了前陆盆地可容空间变化带分为四带:消失带、减小带、增加带、产生带。进而从构造运动、气候变化、物源供给和河流平衡剖面迁移四个方面对影响前陆盆地可容空间变化特征的因素进行了分析,认为河流平衡剖面迁移在前陆盆地中起到比断陷湖盆中更为重要的作用。     

三峡工程运用初期石首河弯河势演变三维数值模拟

采用考虑河岸坍塌的三维水沙数值模型,对三峡工程运用初期石首河弯的河势演变进行了模拟分析.数值模型中采用基于非正交网格的局部网格可动技术,将传统水沙模型与二元结构河岸坍塌力学模型相结合.利用三峡水库蓄水前后2002~2004年石首河段冲淤演变资料对模型进行了验证,模拟结果与实测结果吻合较好;模型不仅能模拟出河道的垂向冲淤过程,而且还可模拟出由河岸坍塌所引起的河道横向摆动过程.计算分析了三峡工程运行至2016年末河段的河势演变情况,结果可为河段的河道整治提供参考.     

Grain-size sorting within river bars in relation to downstream fining along a wandering channel

The textural variability of river bed gravels at bar scales is poorly understood, as are the relations between variability at this scale and at reach and river scales. Surface and subsurface grain‐size distributions were therefore examined at reach, bar and bedform scales along lower Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada. Grain‐size variations within compound bars are conditioned by longitudinal position, elevation and morphological setting. Surface and subsurface sediments tend to decrease in median size from bar head to bar tail by 33% and 17%, respectively. Sediment size is constrained at some upper limit that is inversely related to bar surface elevation and which is consistent with competence considerations. The surface sediments on unit bars are finer and better sorted than the bed materials in bar‐top channels and along the main bar edges. Secondary unit bars tend to have a lower sand content than other features, a consequence of sediment resorting. Individual unit bars and gravel sheets exhibit streamwise grain‐size fining and lee‐side sand deposition. Over time, significant amounts of cut and fill do not ipso facto cause changes in surface grain sizes; yet, sediment characteristics can change without any significant morphological adjustment taking place. At the reach scale there is a clear downstream fining trend, but local variability is consistently high due to within‐bar variations. The surface median grain‐size range on individual bars is, on average, 25% of that along the entire 50 km reach but is 68% on one bar. While the overall fining trend yields a downstream change in surface median size of 0·76 mm km^?1, the average value for ‘head‐to‐tail’ size reduction on individual bars is 6·3 mm km^?1, an order of magnitude difference that highlights the effectiveness of bar‐scale sorting processes in gravel‐bed rivers. Possibilities for modelling bar‐scale variability and the interaction of the different controls that are identified are discussed.     

环渤海湾盆地主要河流碎屑锆石U-Pb年龄特征及其物源示踪意义

在环渤海湾盆地的汇入河流碎屑沉积中寻找理想的物源示踪指标,对理解和认识渤海湾盆地以及中国东部陆架海的物质扩散均具有重要意义.利用激光剥蚀电感耦合等离子质谱仪(LA-ICP-MS)对渤海湾盆地周缘主要河流的碎屑锆石进行微区原位U-Pb年龄分析,对比前人已经报道的研究结果,发现辽河和滦河同时接受中亚造山带和燕山山脉的物质供...     

北京平谷山前河流阶地发育序列、形成时代及地质意义

河流阶地是研究河流演化、构造运动的良好载体, 虽然北京地区第四纪地质研究程度较高, 但北京东部地区对河流阶地的相关研究资料较少。本文以北京平谷燕山山前发育的泃河、黄松峪石河、将军关石河为研究对象, 通过野外地质调查、光释光测年技术（OSL）详细划分了上述河流阶地的发育序列, 在此基础上讨论了部分河流阶地的形成时代、阶地成因及河流阶地对燕山隆升的响应等地质问题, 认为泃河南岸发育有3级阶地, 北岸发育2级阶地;黄松峪石河最多发育有6级阶地;将军关石河发育有5级阶地。将军关石河至晚形成于中更新世晚期（161. 7±7. 7 ka BP）, 黄松峪石河至晚形成于晚更新世早期（121. 2±5. 4~100. 3±4. 1 ka BP）, 泃河至晚形成于晚更新世中期（79. 4±3. 3~70. 8±3. 4 ka BP）。泃河、黄松峪石河、将军关石河各级阶地的形成受到了古气候变化和燕山隆升的双重影响, 平谷地区燕山在中更新世晚期以来, 一直处于隆升的状态, 晚更新世早期时隆升速率达到最大, 可达0. 24~0. 34 mm/a, 晚更新世中期时隆升速率降低, 0. 18~0. 24 mm/a。以上成果对研究北京东部河流阶地发育特征、形成时代具有重要参考价值, 也为中更新世晚期以来燕山的隆升提供了新的证据。