Androecium of Archaefructus , the Late Jurassic Angiosperms from Western Liaoning, China

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＡｒｃｈａｅｆｒｕｃｔｕｓ ,ｔｈｅｏｌｄｅｓｔｋｎｏｗｎａｎｇｉｏｓｐｅｒｍｓ ,ｗｅｒｅｆｏｕｎｄｆｒｏｍｔｈｅＵｐｐｅｒＪｕｒａｓｓｉｃＪｉａｎｓｈａｎｇｏｕＦｏｒｍａｔｉｏｎ (ｉ.ｅ .ｔｈｅｆｏｒｍｅｒｌｏｗｅｒｐａｒｔｏｆＹｉ     

Towards biomarker analysis of hydrocarbons trapped in individual fluid inclusions: First extraction by ErYAG laser

Fluid inclusions act as sealed vessels containing information about the fluid environment in which the minerals precipitated, and until decrepitated, the chemical composition of the fluid inside the inclusion stays intact. In many cases fluid inclusions contain trapped hydrocarbons, which may provide useful information in paleontological, organic geochemical and astrobiological research since they act as containers of non-contaminated organic matter with a defined minimum age. Here we present a novel concept for extraction of fluid inclusions in preparation for application to extract single fluid inclusions. The method is based on the illumination of a sample with an ErYAG laser (). The wavelength of the laser is absorbed by water and organic material, and with the minerals encapsulating the inclusions transparent to the wavelength, the fluid will expand and the inclusion will decrepitate. The initial results of our study demonstrate that fluid inclusions can be extracted by the use of an ErYAG laser, and that organic biomarkers may survive the process, readily available for GC–MS analysis.     

Androecium of Archaefructus,the Late Jurassic Angioperms from Western Liaoning,China

Androecium of the earliest known flowering plant Archaefructus liaoningensis was found from the Upper Jurassic Jianshangou Formation of western Liaoning, China. The androecium consists of numerous stamens bearing in pair on the re-productive axes below conduplicate carpels. The stamens are composed of a short filament and basifixed anther for each. Mo-nosulcate pollen in situ are found from the anthers. The characters of the androecium reveals that Archaefructus are probably protandrous, and the paired stamens and monosulcate pollen appear to indicate that Archaefructus, as primitive angiosperms, might be derived from extinct seed-ferns during the Older Mesozoic. Archaefructus is considered Late Jurassic in age.     

The largest scale perturbations: A window on the physics of the beginning

I present results of new statistical techniques for the interpretation of the temperature and polarization maps and power spectra of the cosmic microwave background. We show that the power deficit at low ℓ in the WMAP1 data is consistent with a statistical fluctuation at the 10% level; that future high S/N maps of the temperature and polarization anisotropies can be combined into a reconstruction of the metric perturbations imprinted during inflation; and that machine learning techniques can accelerate cosmological parameter estimation by orders of magnitude while being highly accurate and robust.     

“Terrae motus factus est”: earthquakes in Switzerland before A.D. 1000. A critical approach

We focus on Swiss earthquakes in antiquity and the early medieval period before A.D. 1000. We have information on less than half a dozen earthquakes within this era, since written records for the first half of the first millennium A.D. are minimal, and there is little hope of finding more written evidence for earthquakes. Furthermore, interpreting the documents at hand is somewhat complex. For the 6th century Gregory of Tours in Historia Francorum gives hints of a rockslide near the castle Tauredunum (Le Grammont) in the Swiss canton Valais, an event that has been considered in the literature as caused by an earthquake. The Carolingian period (ca. 750–950) included the rise of some very important cultural centers in various parts of today’s Switzerland. For instance, the ecclesiastical culture in St. Gallen generated a remarkable number of written records, which survived for our use in a unique manner. From the 9th and 10th centuries, we have evidence for earthquakes in the years 849, 867, 902, and 944. However, information on them remains so scarce that their location and intensity are generally difficult to assess. Nevertheless, the finding of a new document - a memoir written by the abbot of Reichenau - offers some insight into the A.D. 849 event and its reportedly aftershocks.

2022年9月5日四川泸定6.8级地震初步研究结果

北京时间2022年9月5日12时52分四川甘孜州泸定县(29.59°N,102.08°E)发生6.8级地震,中国地震预警网于震后6.1s产出首报预警结果;中国地震台网中心于震后3min发布自动速报结果,震后11min发布正式速报结果,同时联合中国地震局地球物理研究所、地质研究所、地震预测研究所和应急管理部国家自然灾害防治研究院启动地震应急产品产出工作,共产出震源基本参数、历史地震、地震构造、地震矩张量、余震精定位、地震烈度和震源破裂过程等9类应急产品。结合上述应急产品,对本次地震进行了研究,初步刻画了地震的构造环境、震源特征、断层形态和受灾区域,并分析了地震成因。结果表明,本次地震是发生在鲜水河断裂带南东段雪门坎—磨西断裂上的一次倾角近直立的走滑型事件,自起始破裂点向南东破裂,破裂长度约20km,最大滑移点深度约6km。余震精定位结果显示余震呈NW—SE向展布,长度约50km,深度主要集中在3～14km,展布方向与震中区域断裂走向基本一致,主震震中处断层倾角近乎垂直,与震源机制揭示的特征一致。烈度速报推测与地震烈度图显示极震区烈度达Ⅸ度,区域面积约280km²,Ⅷ度及以上区域总面积约505km²,涉及17个乡镇。认为本次地震是青藏高原隆升和高原上地壳物质向南东挤出,导致鲜水河断裂南东段雪门坎—磨西断裂上积累的应力的一次快速释放过程。     

国家地震烈度速报与预警工程建设进展

2010年1月,中国地震局启动国家地震烈度速报与预警工程项目立项建议书编制工作,2015年经国务院常务会议同意后获批,历经可行性研究、初步设计等,于2018年启动项目建设,并计划2023年投入运行,开展试服务。随着项目的实施,在台站观测系统建设、中心建设与集成、定制化软件研发、服务系统建设与拓展等方面取得重要进展。本文结合预警工程的目标、主要内容、技术体系等情况,对预警工程进展进行了介绍,随着项目的建设,部分地区已经开始对外开展地震预警试服务工作,工程完成后将成为我国防震减灾事业核心业务系统。     

Detrital Zircon U-Pb Geochronology of the Xilin Group:Constraints for the Early Paleozoic Tectonic Evolution of the Songliao Massif

The Xilin Group, composed of the Chenming, Laodaomiaogou, Qianshan and Wuxingzhen formations, is one of the Early Paleozoic terranes in the eastern Songliao Massif, mainly consisting of thick layers of fine clastic and carbonate rocks. This study presents LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb geochronological data for the Laodaomiaogou and Qianshan formations, further constraining their provenance and the Early Paleozoic tectonic evolution of the Songliao Massif on the eastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt. Most zircons from the Laodaomiaogou and Qianshan formations show magmatic oscillatory zoning and high Th/U ratios (0.26–2.41). Zircon U-Pb dating results indicate that the detrital zircons from the silty mudstone of the Laodaomiaogou Formation yield peak ages of 634 Ma, 775 Ma, 820 Ma, 880 Ma and 927 Ma, as well as multi-episodic Archean to Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic ages (1405–643 Ma), implying its deposition time is younger than ~634 Ma. Furthermore, the occurrence of Early Cambrian fossils indicates that the Laodaomiaogou Formation was deposited during the late stage of the Early Cambrian (~514 Ma). The zircons from the K-bentonite of the Qianshan Formation show four peak ages of 444 Ma, 471 Ma, 489 Ma and 518 Ma and the youngest age peak of 444 ± 4 Ma (n = 6) indicates that the Qianshan Formation was deposited during the Late Ordovician. In addition, the peak ages of the detrital zircons in the silty mudstone of the Qianshan Formation are 472 Ma and 498 Ma, as well as two other concordant points with 207Pb/206Pb apparent ages of 1824 Ma and 1985 Ma. The dating results in this study, together with published data, indicate the absence of Pan-African magmatic events in the Songliao Massif prior to the initial deposition of the Xilin Group, in contrast to those distributed widely in the Jiamusi Massif. Taken together, we conclude that the depositional provenance of the Laodaomiaogou and Qianshan formations was derived from the Songliao Massif. Furthermore, the characteristics of the detrital zircon age composition and rock associations indicate that the Laodaomiaogou Formation formed in a passive continental margin environment, in contrast to the Qianshan Formation, which formed in an active continental margin environment. The above results also imply that the Songliao and Jiamusi massifs might not have collided before the Late Ordovician.     

Zircon U-Pb Age,Geochemical, and Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf Isotopic Constraints on the Time Frame and Origin of Early Cretaceous Mafic Dykes in the Wuling Mountain Gravity Lineament,South China

In view of the importance of mafic dyke swarms and their contribution to current scientific problems relating to South China, herein, we present the findings of studies on twenty–five representative mafic dykes cropping out in Hunan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, within the southern Wuling Mountain gravity lineament, China. These results include new zircon LA-ICP-MS U-Pb age, whole rock geochemical, Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic, and zircon Hf isotopic data for these dykes. The dykes formed between 131.5 ± 1.2 and 121.6 ± 1.1 Ma, and have typical doleritic textures. They fall into the alkaline and shoshonitic series, are enriched in light rare earth elements(LREE), some large ion lithophile elements(LILE; e.g., Rb, Ba, and Sr), Th, U, and Pb, and are depleted in Nb, Ta, Hf, and Ti. Moreover, the dolerites have high initial87 Sr/86 Sr ratios(0.7055–0.7057), negative εNd(t) and zircon εHf(t) values(-14.8 to-11.9,-30.4 to-14.9), and relatively constant initial Pb isotopic ratios(that are EM1-like, 16.77–16.94, 15.43–15.47, and 36.84–36.92 for 206 Pb/204 Pb,207 Pb/204 Pb, and 208 Pb/204 Pb, respectively). These results indicate that the dykes were likely derived from magma generated through low-degree partial melting(1.0%–10%) of an EM1-like garnet–lherzolite mantle source. The parental magmas fractionated olivine, clinopyroxene, plagioclase, and Ti-bearing phases with negligible crustal contamination, during ascent and dyke emplacement. Several possible models have been proposed to explain the origin of Mesozoic magmatism along the Wuling Mountain gravity lineament. Herein we propose a reasonable model for the origin of these mafic dykes,involving the collision between the paleo-Pacific Plate and South China, which led to subsequent lithospheric extension and asthenosphere upwelling, resulting in partial melting the underlying mantle lithosphere in the Early Cretaceous, to form the parental magmas to the WMGL mafic dykes, as studied.     

西昆仑山前塔里木盆地叶城凹陷中新统震积岩及其地质意义*

通过对6口钻井岩心的详细观察,在塔里木盆地西南缘的西昆仑山前叶城凹陷中新统克孜洛依组和安居安组发现同沉积的软沉积物变形构造,包括液化砂脉、负载及球枕构造、挤入构造、液化卷曲变形、软泥触变变形、液化底劈、软布丁构造及同沉积微断层等,分布广,且重复出现。经与典型的震积岩比较认为,它们都属于地震成因的沉积构造。分析认为,克孜洛依组和安居安组的震积岩可分为4个发育时期,时间跨度大约为5 Ma(16—11 Ma),第1、2期时间较长、构造活动较强烈,第3、4期时间较短、构造活动较弱。这是首次在塔西南地区新近系陆相地层中发现震积岩,震积岩的发育与中新世西昆仑山阶段性隆升、山前逆冲带多条逆冲断层活动引发的周期性地震活动有关。