Sediment-starved sand ridges on a mixed carbonate/siliciclastic inner shelf off west-central Florida

High-resolution side-scan mosaics, sediment analyses, and physical process data have revealed that the mixed carbonate/siliciclastic, inner shelf of west-central Florida supports a highly complex field of active sand ridges mantled by a hierarchy of bedforms. The sand ridges, mostly oriented obliquely to the shoreline trend, extend from 2 km to over 25 km offshore. They show many similarities to their well-known counterparts situated along the US Atlantic margin in that both increase in relief with increasing water depth, both are oriented obliquely to the coast, and both respond to modern shelf dynamics. There are significant differences in that the sand ridges on the west-central Florida shelf are smaller in all dimensions, have a relatively high carbonate content, and are separated by exposed rock surfaces. They are also shoreface-detached and are sediment-starved, thus stunting their development. Morphological details are highly distinctive and apparent in side-scan imagery due to the high acoustic contrast. The seafloor is active and not a relict system as indicated by: (1) relatively young AMS ¹⁴C dates (<1600 yr BP) from forams in the shallow subsurface (1.6 meters below seafloor), (2) apparent shifts in sharply distinctive grayscale boundaries seen in time-series side-scan mosaics, (3) maintenance of these sharp acoustic boundaries and development of small bedforms in an area of constant and extensive bioturbation, (4) sediment textural asymmetry indicative of selective transport across bedform topography, (5) morphological asymmetry of sand ridges and 2D dunes, and (6) current-meter data indicating that the critical threshold velocity for sediment transport is frequently exceeded. Although larger sand ridges are found along other portions of the west-central Florida inner shelf, these smaller sand ridges are best developed seaward of a major coastal headland, suggesting some genetic relationship. The headland may focus and accelerate the N–S reversing currents. An elevated rock terrace extending from the headland supports these ridges in a shallower water environment than the surrounding shelf, allowing them to be more easily influenced by currents and surface gravity waves. Tidal currents, storm-generated flows, and seasonally developed flows are shore-parallel and oriented obliquely to the NW–SE trending ridges, indicating that they have developed as described by the Huthnance model. Although inner shelf sand ridges have been extensively examined elsewhere, this study is the first to describe them in a low-energy, sediment-starved, dominantly mixed siliciclastic/carbonate sedimentary environment situated on a former limestone platform.     

混合型单调算子对的不动点研究及其在微分方程组的应用

提出了混合型单调算子对的概念,并给出了其不动点的存在唯一性;研究了它在微分方程组的具体应用.     

湍流数值模拟中封闭模式应用的局限性

通过对琼州海峡的潮流场特征进行数值模拟，指出了选择不同的特征混合长度表达式对数值模拟结果的影响，表明了基于特征混合长度理论的流封闭模式在近海湍流数值模拟中应用的局限性。     

Patterns and controls of surface sediment distribution: west-central Florida inner shelf

The west-central Florida inner shelf represents a transition between the quartz-dominated barrier-island system and the carbonate-dominated mid-outer shelf. Surface sediments exhibit a complex distribution pattern that can be attributed to multiple sediment sources and the ineffectiveness of physical processes for large-scale sediment redistribution. The west Florida shelf is the submerged extension of the Florida carbonate platform, consisting of a limestone karst surface veneered with a thin unconsolidated sediment cover. A total of 498 surface sediment samples were collected on the inner shelf and analyzed for texture and composition. Results show that sediment consists of a combination of fine quartz sand and coarse, biogenic carbonate sand and gravel, with variable but subordinate amounts of black, phosphorite-rich sand. The carbonate component consists primarily of molluskan fragments. The distribution is patchy and discontinuous with no discernible pattern, and the transition between sediment types is generally abrupt. Quartz-rich sediment dominates the inner 15 km north of the entrance into Tampa Bay, but south of the Bay is common only along the inner 3 km. Elsewhere, carbonate-rich sediment is the predominate sediment type, except where there is little sediment cover, in which cases black, phosphorite-rich sand dominates. Sediment sources are likely within, or around the periphery of the basin. Fine quartz sand is likely reworked from coastal units deposited during Pleistocene sea-level high stands. Carbonate sand and gravel is produced by marine organisms within the depositional basin. The black, phosphorite-rich sand likely originates from the bioerosion and reworking of the underlying strata that irregularly crop out within the study area. The distribution pattern contains elements of both storm- and tide-dominated siliciclastic shelves, but it is dictated primarily by the sediment source, similar to some carbonate systems. Other systems with similar sediment attributes include cool-water carbonate, sediment-starved, and mixed carbonate/siliciclastic systems. This study suggests a possible genetic link among the three systems.     

Steady Response of a Ventilated Thermocline to Enhanced Ekman Pumping

The steady response of the ventilated thermocline to an increase in Ekman pumping is investigated, focusing on the effect of the mixed layer depth distribution on the subsurface density anomaly. We consider only the subtropical gyre, and the mixed layer is assumed to be deep in the northwest and shallow elsewhere with a narrow transition zone separating the deep and shallow mixed layer regions. At the intersection of this narrow transition zone and the outcrop line, low potential vorticity fluid is subducted into and ventilates the thermocline. In such a situation, an enhancement of the Ekman pumping confined to the northern subtropical gyre leads to pronounced subsurface cold anomalies in the southern subtropics, which is free of anomalous forcing. These density anomalies are much greater than those that occur when either the mixed layer depth is zonally uniform or the Ekman pumping is enhanced in the whole subtropical gyre. They are caused by anomalous changes in the trajectory of the low potential vorticity fluid in response to anomalous Sverdrup flow. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

高程控制测量中的混合构网法

针对目前常规水准测量在山区公路高程控制测量中的局限性,本文提出了一种三角高程与常规水准测量相结合的混合构网方法,并通过实例得出,这种方法充分利用了两者的优势,在保证成果的可靠性和精度的同时,大大提高了工作效率,缩短了生产周期。     

Cambrian explosion: Birth of tree of animals

Excluding the sponges the Kingdom Animalia is usually divided into three subkingdoms: Diploblasta, Protostomia and Deuterostomia. The Cambrian Explosion consists of three major episodes, two of which were in the early Early Cambrian (one represented by the small skeletal fossils “SSFs” at the base of the Cambrian and the other represented by the succeeding Chengjiang faunas “CFs”), and the other episode as their prelude took place in the “Eocambrian” (i.e. the latest Precambrian), represented by the Ediacaran faunas. This unique Big Bang of life has been recognized as giving birth to the entire morphological Tree Of Animals (or metazoans), in short the TOA. Its “seed” in the deep Precambrian, represented by some sort of protist from which the complete TOA must have grown, remains unknown paleontologically. However, the fossil evidence suggests that the three major episodes of the Cambrian Explosion are responsible for the earliest radiations of the three subkingdoms of animals respectively. While the observed Ediacaran fauna might constitute only a small part of the whole Ediacaran biota, our evidence supports that it was dominated by diploblasts (the “trunk” of the TOA) with only a few possible stem-group triploblasts. The Early Cambrian in turn in two phases explosively yielded almost all the major triploblastic crown-branches (Bilateria: the huge “crown” of the TOA), which include the other two subkingdoms: first the extremely diverse protostomes in the Meishucunian Age and then followed by a nearly entire lineage of early deuterostomes from the Chengjiang, including even its most derived member – the earliest true vertebrates. Among the four most significant milestones of morphological origins and radiations in animal history, the first one (i.e. appearance of metazoans) took place in the Ediacaran Period or earlier times, and the other three can be seen in the windows available from the Chengjiang and the Meishucunian fossil assemblages. The newly discovered extinct Phylum Vetulicolia, which has primitively segmented body with simple gill slits in its anterior division, most probably represents one of the roots of the deuterostome subkingdom. Showing a mosaic of basic features possessed in both the bilateral vetulicolians and some primitive echinoderms, the soft-bodied vetulocystids are best regarded as one of the roots of the extant pentamerous echinoderms. Standing on the “top” of the deuterostome super-branch in the early Cambrian TOA are the “the first fish” Myllokunmingia and Haikouichthys, which bear paired eyes and salient proto-vertebrae. These animals represent the real root of the remainder of the vertebrates or craniates. On the contrary, yunnanozoans, including Yunnanozoon and Haikouella, possess neither eyes nor unequivocal vertebrae, and may have nothing to do with the craniates, let alone the vertebrates. Those enigmatic creatures share a similar body-plan with vetulicolians and should be treated as a side-branch within the lower deuterostomes.     

控制内蒙古二连盆地达尔其油田石油富集度的关键因素——不同油源原油的混合作用

在对3套烃源岩的质量和成熟度描述基础上,通过对原油物理性质、族组成和生物标志化合物参数的研究,在达尔其油田内划分出成熟度有明显差异的低熟油和成熟油。油源对比结果认为它们分别由都红木组一段低熟烃源岩和阿尔善组二段成熟烃源岩所生。推测成熟度参数介于低熟和成熟之间的原油为混源油。通过原油混合试验和油砂连续抽提试验证实了混源油的推测。通过油藏剖面中不同性质油层的分布特征研究,结合断层发育史与油气运移关系分析认为不同油源原油的混合是控制该油田石油富集度较高的关键因素。此外,还分析了控制混源的断层组合特征。     

改进的切线性模式对一个边界层模式变分资料同化的改善

大气、海洋中边界层物理过程的强非线性会对切线性模式近似（尤其是当积分时间长时）有较大的影响，从而给相应的4维变分资料同化问题的求解造成困难。本构造了Mellor-Yamada湍流封闭模式（level 2.5)的一个改进的切线性模式，相比通常的切线性模式和简化的切线性模式可以提高对非线性扰动的逼近。利用这个改进的切线性模式的伴随模式分别进行了1到7天的变分资料同化试验，得到了满意的结果。而用通常的伴随模式和简化的伴随模式都无法得到令人满意的结果。