末次盛冰期以来西沙海槽天然气水合物储库变化及其对环境的影响

利用Milkov和Sassen的模型计算了目前及末次盛冰期时西沙海槽天然气水合物的稳定带(GHSZ) 厚度及资源量, 讨论了末次盛冰期以来海洋底水温度增加和海平面升高对西沙海槽天然气水合物储库变化的影响.计算结果表明, 底水温度增加使GHSZ厚度减薄, 资源量减少; 而海平面上升使GHSZ厚度增加, 资源量增加, 但底水温度变化对GHSZ厚度和资源量的影响比海平面变化的影响更大.西沙海槽末次盛冰期时GHSZ平均厚度约为299m, 天然气水合物资源量约为2.87×1010m3, 甲烷数量约为4.71×1012m3; 目前的GHSZ平均厚度约为287m, 天然气水合物资源量约为2.76×1010m3, 甲烷数量约为4.52×1012m3.由此可见, 自末次盛冰期以来西沙海槽的GHSZ平均厚度减薄了~12m, 大约1.1×109m3的天然气水合物分解释放了1.9×1011m3的甲烷, 这些甲烷可能对环境产生了重要影响.      

MM5 Simulations of the China Regional Climate During the LGM.Ⅰ: Influence of CO2 and Earth Orbit Change

Using a regional climate model MM5 nested to an atmospheric global climate model CCM3, a series of simulations and sensitivity experiments have been performed to investigate the relative Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) climate response to different mechanisms over China. Model simulations of the present day (PD) climate and the LGM climate change are in good agreement with the observation data and geological records, especially in the simulation of precipitation change. Under the PD and LGM climate, changes of earth orbital parameters have a small influence on the annual mean temperature over China.However, the magnitude of the effect shows a seasonal pattern, with a significant response in winter. Thus,this influence cannot be neglected. During the LGM, CO2 concentration reached its lowest point to 200 ppmv. This results in a temperature decrease over China. The influences of CO2 concentration on climate show seasonal and regional patterns as well, with a significant influence in winter. On the contrary, CO2concentration has less impact in summer season. In some cases, temperature even increases with decreasing in CO2 concentration. This temperature increase is the outcome of decrease in cloud amount; hence increase the solar radiation that reached the earth's surface. This result suggests that cloud amount plays a very important role in climate change and could direct the response patterns of some climate variables such as temperature during certain periods and over certain regions. In the Tibetan Plateau, the temperature responses to changes of the above two factors are generally weaker than those in other regions because the cloud amount in this area is generally more than in the other areas. Relative to the current climate, changes in orbital parameters have less impact on the LGM climate than changes in CO2 concentration. However,both factors have rather less contributions to the climate change in the LGM. About 3%-10% changes in the annual mean temperature are contributed by CO2.     

青藏高原末次盛冰期和全新世大暖期多年冻土边界变化的探讨

位于中低纬的青藏高原多年冻土是第四纪高原隆升和冰期气候叠加的产物, 与高纬多年冻土相比, 具有厚度薄和不稳定的特点, 对全球变化反应敏感。因此, 评价冰期-间冰期多年冻土扩张-收缩过程和其范围重建, 是研究高原环境变化的重要工作。本文依据青藏高原及周边地区温度数据和《中国冰川冻土沙漠图》, 对青藏高原现代大片多年冻土、岛状多年冻土和高山多年冻土分布进行恢复。依据来自冰川、冰缘和湖泊等证据, 采用末次盛冰期气温较现代低7℃, 全新世大暖期气温较现代高4℃, 进行末次盛冰期和全新世大暖期多年冻土分布重建。重建结果表明: 末次盛冰期多年冻土扩张明显, 面积约为现代冻土面积的195%; 末次盛冰期大片多年冻土几乎覆盖整个高原, 岛状多年冻土向东扩张明显, 向西范围逐渐收缩变窄, 高山多年冻土在喜马拉雅山、祁连山和横断山脉等地区扩张明显。全新世大暖期多年冻土明显收缩, 面积是现代多年冻土的73%; 大片多年冻土收缩幅度较小, 岛状多年冻土在高原东南部收缩明显, 高山多年冻土在喜马拉雅山脉、祁连山脉、横断山脉等高海拔山地发育。     

LGM lake records from China and an analysis of climate dynamics using a modelling approach

Lake-geological studies in China have reported that there were much higher lake levels and much fresher water than today at the last glacial maximum (LGM) in western China. A compilation of lake data in this study showed LGM conditions much drier than today in eastern China but somewhat wetter in western China. These E–W differential patterns of climate conditions were completely different from the modern dry-wet conditions with a N–S differential distribution. In this study palaeoclimate simulations by an AGCM coupled with land surface process model were used to explore the possible mechanisms of LGM climate in China. The results confirmed that the dry conditions in eastern China resulted from less summer precipitation due to the Pacific Subtropical High occupying eastern China and the decline in the summer monsoon. The wet conditions in western China were produced by a decrease in evaporation due to a low temperature on land surface at the LGM and increase in precipitation. Two experiments of the palaeoclimate simulations with different land surface of modern and palaeo-vegetations have been designed to test the discrepancies of simulated LGM climate with in precipitation and P–E fields. The results suggested that the feedback from the Asian land surface within the climate system would amplify and modify external forcing, leading to marked climate changes in China.     

An assessment of variations in mercury deposition to Antarctica over the past 34,000 years

We performed a comparison analysis of the variations .in Mercury ( Hg) concentrations and the precipitation proxies ( e. g. , 18 O values and 10 Be concentrations) in the Dome C ice core. The results showed that there were significant correlations between Hg and δ 10O values, 10Be concentrations, indicating that the accumulation rate in Dome C is one of the key factors controlling the variations of Hg concentrations in the past 34 ,000 years, and implying that Hg concentrations in ice core can be used as another reliable proxy of precipitation rate in Antarctica. Based upon the high-resolution δ 18O values, we estimated the variations in mercury deposition flux to Antarctica over the past 34,000 years. The highest mercury deposition flux is about 3. 80 pg cm-2 yr-1 during the Last Glacial Maxium (LGM) as high as 3. 5 times of the mercury deposition flux ( about 1. 08 pg cm -2 yr -1) in Holocene due to the fluctuations in natural mercury emissions such as the oceanic biological emissions.     

First cosmogenic 10Be constraints on LGM glaciation on New Zealand's North Island: Park Valley,Tararua Range

We report the first direct ages for late Quaternary glaciation on the North Island of New Zealand. Mt Ruapehu, the volcanic massif in the North Island's centre, is currently glaciated and probably sustained glaciers throughout the late Quaternary, yet no numeric ages have been reported for glacial advances anywhere on the North Island. Here, we describe cosmogenic ¹⁰Be ages of the surface layers of a glacially transported boulder and glacially polished bedrock from the Tararua Range, part of the axial ranges of the North Island. Results indicate that a limited valley glaciation occurred, culminating in recession at the end of the last glacial coldest period (LGCP, ca. 18 ka). This provides an initial age for deglaciation on the North Island during the last glacial–interglacial transition (LGIT). It appears that glaciation occurred in response to an equilibrium‐line altitude (ELA) lowering of ～1400 m below the present‐day mean summer freezing level. Ages for glaciation in the Tararua Range correspond closely to exposure ages for the last glacial maximum (LGM) from the lateral moraines of Cascade Valley in the South Island, and in Cobb Valley, in northern South Island. The corollary is that glaciation in the Tararua Range coincided with the phase of maximum cooling during MIS 2, prior to the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR), during the LGCP. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MM5 Simulations of the China Regional Climate During the LGM.II: In uence of Change of Land Area, Vegetation, and Large-scale Circulation Background

Using a regional climate model MM5 nested to an atmospheric global climate model CCM3, a series of simulations and sensitivity experiments have been performed to investigate the relative LGM climate response to changes of land-sea distribution, vegetation, and large-scale circulation background over China.Model results show that compared with the present climate, the fluctuations of sea-land distribution in eastern Asia during the LGM result in the temperature decrease in winter and increase in summer. It has significant impact on the temperature and precipitation in the east coastal region of China. The impact on precipitation in the east coastal region of China is the most significant one, with 25%-50% decrease in the total precipitation change during the LGM. On the other hand, the changes in sea-land distribution have less influence on the climate of inland and western part of China. During the LGM, significant changes in vegetation result in temperature alternating with winter increase and summer decrease, but differences in the annual mean temperature are minor. During the LGM, the global climate, i.e., the large-scale circulation background has changed signi cantly. These changes have signi cant influences on temperature and precipitation over China. They result in considerable temperature decreases in this area, and direct the primary patterns and characteristics of temperature changes. Results display that, northeastern China has the greatest temperature decrease, and the temperature decrease in the Tibetan Plateau is larger than in the eastern part of China located at the same latitude. Moreover, the change of large-scale circulation background also controls the pattern of precipitation change. Results also show that, most of the changes in precipitation over western and northeastern parts of China are the consequences of changing large-scale circulation background, of which 50%-75% of precipitation changes over northern and eastern China are the results of changes in large-scale circulation background. Over China, the LGM climate responses to di erent mechanisms in order of strength from strong to weak are, the large-scale circulation pattern, sealand distribution, vegetation, CO2 concentration, and earth orbital parameters.     

Marine geophysical evidence for former expansion and flow of the Greenland Ice Sheet across the north‐east Greenland continental shelf

High‐resolution swath bathymetry and TOPAS sub‐bottom profiler acoustic data from the inner and middle continental shelf of north‐east Greenland record the presence of streamlined mega‐scale glacial lineations and other subglacial landforms that are formed in the surface of a continuous soft sediment layer. The best‐developed lineations are found in Westwind Trough, a bathymetric trough connecting Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Gletscher and Zachariae Isstrøm to the continental shelf edge. The geomorphological and stratigraphical data indicate that the Greenland Ice Sheet covered the inner‐middle shelf in north‐east Greenland during the most recent ice advance of the Late Weichselian glaciation. Earlier sedimentological and chronological studies indicated that the last major delivery of glacigenic sediment to the shelf and Fram Strait was prior to the Holocene during Marine Isotope Stage 2, supporting our assertion that the subglacial landforms and ice sheet expansion in north‐east Greenland occurred during the Late Weichselian. Glacimarine sediment gravity flow deposits found on the north‐east Greenland continental slope imply that the ice sheet extended beyond the middle continental shelf, and supplied subglacial sediment direct to the shelf edge with subsequent remobilisation downslope. These marine geophysical data indicate that the flow of the Late Weichselian Greenland Ice Sheet through Westwind Trough was in the form of a fast‐flowing palaeo‐ice stream, and that it provides the first direct geomorphological evidence for the former presence of ice streams on the Greenland continental shelf. The presence of streamlined subglacially derived landforms and till layers on the shallow AWI Bank and Northwind Shoal indicates that ice sheet flow was not only channelled through the cross‐shelf bathymetric troughs but also occurred across the shallow intra‐trough regions of north‐east Greenland. Collectively these data record for the first time that ice streams were an important glacio‐dynamic feature that drained interior basins of the Late Weichselian Greenland Ice Sheet across the adjacent continental margin, and that the ice sheet was far more extensive in north‐east Greenland during the Last Glacial Maximum than the previous terrestrial–glacial reconstructions showed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Quaternary deformations along the ‘Engadine–Gruf tectonic system’, Swiss–Italian Alps

The Engadine Line (EL) is a seismically active fault in southeastern Switzerland. In the field we studied its western segment, presently not affected by seismicity but characterised by features suggesting neotectonic motions, and the coterminous Gruf Line. Uphill‐ and downhill‐facing scarps, offset rivers, non‐equilibrium hydrological conditions and aligned deep‐seated gravitational slope deformations are dominant in the western sector of the EL in the Inn Valley. Landform offsets and the most recent fault striations point to oblique left‐lateral strike‐slip. Close to the EL, at the Maloja Pass, a huge collapse beheaded the Inn Valley. Trench excavation with palaeoseismic analysis, stratigraphic correlations of Quaternary deposits and optically stimulated luminescence dating indicate that the collapse and faulting mostly occurred in the Late Pleistocene. In the Bregaglia Valley, the Gruf Line stretches along the southwestern extension of the EL. Six deep‐seated gravitational slope deformations developed along the Gruf Line and were dated to pre‐ and post‐Last Glacial Maximum times. We suggest that the western sector of the EL moved also in a Pleistocene time interval during which tectonic forces in the area were probably larger than at present, favouring local uplift, widespread gravity deformation, and retrogressive slope failure at the Inn Valley head. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.