Late Mesozoic Chresmodids with Forewing from Inner Mongolia, China (Polyneoptera: Archaeorthoptera)

Abstract: Three new species of Chresmodidae are described. They belong to two different genera: Chresmoda multinervis sp. nov., Chresmoda shihi sp. nov. and Jurachresmoda sanyica sp. nov.. A study of the forewing venation is provided. Longitudinal veins are mostly parallel; costal area is broad at the basal and narrowing distally; ScP is probably extending close to the wing apex; R is parallel at length to ScP; MA is running close to R, with two long parallel branches; MA branched-off basally; while MP is not branched until the middle of the wing. However, the important basal part of MP and CuP is poorly preserved. In addition, unique fringing hairs on the mid legs of C. shihi sp. nov. and J. sanyica sp. nov. are described and compared with Jurachresmoda gaskelli Zhang, Ren and Shih, 2008.     

A New Family of Moths from the Middle Jurassic (Insecta: Lepidoptera)

<正>Three lepidopteran species,from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou beds(inner Mongolia,China),are described in a new family,Mesokristenseniidae,and new genus,Mesokristensenia,which could represent the sister group of the Micropterigidae.Mesokristensenia differs from all extant Lepidoptera,but one genus(Agathiphaga, Agathiphagidae),in retaining four median veins in the forewing,a plesiomorphy also present in many Trichoptera. Evidence for placing Mesokristensenia in the Lepidoptera includes four traits,notably a previously unrecorded autapomorphy of this insect order:beyond stem M1+2,vein M1 is bent and connected to cross-vein r-m(in both wing pairs).Among 24 characters taken into account to assess the systematic position of Mesokristensenia,12 are considered informative for a cladistic analysis involving this fossil taxon and the four suborders recognized in present-day Lepidoptera(Zeugloptera,Aglossata,Heterobathmiina,and Glossata).     

Middle Pleistocene biota of the early Anglian ‘Arctic Fresh-water Bed’ at Ostend, Norfolk, UK

At three sites along the North Norfolk coast, freshwater sediments containing arctic plants have been reported to occur immediately beneath the glacial deposits. The sections at Mundesley and Beeston are no longer visible but a small exposure of this ‘Arctic Fresh-water Bed’ has recently been rediscovered at Ostend near Bacton. The fossils from this deposit are distinctly high boreal/arctic in character, indicating a small, possibly ephemeral, pool in a generally open landscape supporting some dwarf shrubs and conifers. Noteworthy records include three beetle species (Pterostichus brevicornis, P. middendorffi and Helophorus obscurellus) that today have their closest occurrences on either the Kanin or Kola peninsulas in arctic Russia. A Mutual Climatic Range reconstruction on the limited beetle fauna suggests that the mean temperatures of the warmest and coldest months were between 9 °C and 11 °C and between −36 °C and −10 °C, respectively. Other noteworthy occurrences include the aquatic pulmonate gastropod Gyraulus rossmaessleri (second and earliest British record), the ostracod Amplocypris tonnensis (earliest British record), ground squirrel (Spermophilus sp.) and the first record of arctic lemming (Dicrostonyx sp.) from the Cromer Forest-bed Formation (CF-bF). The ‘Arctic Fresh-water Bed’ has been assigned to the Bacton Member of the CF-bF and formed during the early Anglian, correlated with Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12 of the deep sea record. The Ostend assemblage is therefore important in providing a glimpse of conditions that occurred during a major cold stage in the early Middle Pleistocene.     

从中下三叠统膏盐特征看中下扬子早印支运动

中下扬子早-中三叠世膏盐层是对早印支运动的沉积响应,本文从膏盐的成因、中下扬子膏盐层位的差异、沉积环境的变迁、膏盐的厚度变化和产状特征、沉积中心和沉降中心的分布等方面,分析早印支运动的表现形式。中下扬子早-中三叠世依次出现陆棚台地(碳酸盐岩)、潟湖—潮坪(白云岩与膏盐)和滨海(碎屑岩),这种大规模海退,正是早印支运动表现为构造抬升的结果。抬升过程中,残留海水在炎热干燥的气候条件下蒸发形成膏盐层,而中扬子的膏盐层位比下扬子低,据此推测中扬子先于下扬子与华北板块碰撞而抬升。平面上,现今构造格局(主要由中印支—早燕山运动形成复向斜、复背斜和推覆构造)的坳陷区主要为白云岩与(硬)石膏互层或石膏夹少量白云岩或云质石膏,膏盐层厚度大,现今构造的隆坳过渡区主要为石膏假晶、含膏云岩、石膏质白云岩、白云岩夹石膏等,膏盐层厚度小,而膏盐的厚度和产状与沉积时的水深和地势直接相关;另外,地层等厚图显示膏盐层主要分布于当时的沉降中心。这些沉积特征显示膏盐沉积时的地势与现今隆坳相间的构造地貌存在一定程度的吻合,说明膏盐沉积时的地层已经发生了轻微的褶皱变形(未见角度不整合和地层缺失)。     

塔里木盆地西北缘皮羌辉长岩体的时代讨论

皮羌辉长岩体位于塔里木盆地柯坪断隆西部,皮羌村北约15 km处。该岩体的围岩包括志留系、泥盆系和石炭系—二叠系,新近系不整合覆盖其上。采集该辉长岩样品进行单矿物分离,取分离出的斜长石进行Ar-Ar定年。700～1400℃的8个加热阶段析出的~(39)Ar为总量的95.89%,在坪谱图上得到一个较稳定的坪,坪年龄为265.5±1.2 Ma;与之相对应的等时线年龄为267.29±5.62 Ma。结合区域地质分析,皮羌辉长岩体的侵入时代为中二叠世早期;是塔里木二叠纪岩浆活动的一部分。其侵入后基本未受后期构造热事件影响。     

Microbial mounds prior to the Frasnian‐Famennian mass extinctions,Hantang, Guilin,South China

Late Frasnian mounds of the Yunghsien Formation, Guilin, South China, developed as part of the Guilin platform, mostly in reef‐flat and platform margin settings. Microbial mounds in platform margin settings at Hantang, about 10 km west of Guilin, contain Frasnian biota, such as Stachyodes and Kuangxiastraea and, thus, occur below the Frasnian‐Famennian mass extinction boundary. Platform margin facies were dominated by microbes, algae and receptaculitids. Massive corals and stromatoporoids are not common and rarely show reef‐building functions as they did in Givetian time. The margin mounds are composed of brachiopod‐receptaculitid cementstone, and a variety of boundstones that contain Rothpletzella, Renalcis, thrombolite and stromatolite. Other microbial communities include Girvanella, Izhella, Ortonella and Wetheredella. Solenoporoid algae are abundant locally. Zebra structures and neptunian dykes are well‐developed at some intervals. Pervasive early cementation played an important role in lithification of the microbial boundstones and rudstones. Frasnian reefs of many regions of the world were constructed by stromatoporoids and corals, although a shift to calcimicrobe‐dominated frameworks occurred before the Famennian. However, the exact ages of many Frasnian margin outcrops are poorly constrained owing to difficulties dating shallow carbonate facies. The Hantang mounds represent a microbe‐dominated reef‐building community with rare skeletal reef builders, consistent with major Late Devonian changes in reef composition, diversity and guild structure occurring before the end of the Frasnian. A similar transition occurred in the Canning Basin of Western Australia, but coeval successions in North America, Western Europe and the northern Urals are either less well‐known or represent different bathymetric settings. The transition in reef‐building style below the Frasnian‐Famennian boundary is documented here in the two best exposed successions on two continents, which may have been global. Set in the larger context of Late Devonian and Mississippian microbial reef‐building, the Hantang mounds help to demonstrate that controls on microbial reef communities differed from those on larger skeletal reef biota. Calcimicrobes replaced stromatoporoids as major reef builders before the Frasnian‐Famennian extinction event, and increasing stromatoporoid diversity towards the end of the Famennian did not result in a resurgence of skeletal reef frameworks. Calcimicrobes dominated margin facies through the Famennian, but declined near the Devonian‐Carboniferous boundary. Stromatolite and thrombolite facies, which occurred behind the mound margin at Hantang, rose to dominate Mississippian shallow‐water reef frameworks with only a minor resurgence of the important Frasnian calcimicrobe Renalcis in the Visean when well‐skeletonized organisms (corals) also became volumetrically significant frame builders again.     

The structure, isostasy and gravity field of the Levant continental margin and the southeast Mediterranean area

A 3-D layered structure of the Levant and the southeastern Mediterranean lithospheric plates was constructed using interpretations of seismic measurements and borehole data. Structural maps of three principal interfaces, elevation, top basement and the Moho, were constructed for the area studied. This area includes the African, Sinai and Arabian plates, the Herodotus and the Levant marine basins and the Nile sedimentary cone. In addition, an isopach map of the Pliocene sediments, as well as the contemporaneous amount of denuded rock units, was prepared to enable setting up the structural map of the base Pliocene sediment. Variable density distributions are suggested for the sedimentary succession in accord with its composition and compaction. The spatial density distribution in the crystalline crust was calculated by weighting the thicknesses of the lower mafic and the upper felsic crustal layers, with densities of 2.9 g/cm³ and 2.77 g/cm³, respectively. Results of the local (Airy) isostatic modeling with compensation on the Moho interface show significant deviations from the local isostasy and require variable density distribution in the upper mantle. Moving the compensation level to the base of the lithosphere ( 100 km depth) and adopting density variations in the mantle lithosphere yielded isostatic compensation (± 200 m) over most of the area studied. The spatial pattern obtained of a density distribution with a range of ± 0.05 g/cm³ is supported by a regional heat flux. Simulations of the flexure (Vening Meinesz) isostasy related to the Pliocene to Recent sedimentary loading and unloading revealed concentric oscillatory negative and positive anomalies mostly related to the Nile sedimentary cone. Such anomalies may explain the rapid subsidence in the Levant Basin and the arching in central Israel, northern Sinai and Egypt during Pliocene–Recent times. Comparison between the observed (Bouguer) gravity and the calculated gravity for the constructed 3-D lithospheric structure, which has variable density distributions, provided a good match and an independent constraint for the large-scale structure suggested and confirmed an oceanic nature for the Levant Basin lithosphere.     

Long-period planetary waves in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere above Davis, Antarctica

The accumulation of MF radar wind and hydroxyl temperature measurements at Davis from 1997 to 2005 has enabled the compilation of a climatology of long-period (period >1 day) wave activity. A time domain filtering technique that makes allowance for the differing sampling characteristics of the measurements is described and wave amplitudes are presented for 1.7–4, 4–8 and 8–16 day period bands. Product averages of the time series yield horizontal heat and momentum fluxes for the height of the hydroxyl layer (approximately 86 km). The climatology is then discussed in terms of current knowledge of planetary wave characteristics and forcing. Heat and momentum fluxes during the year of the southern hemisphere stratospheric warming (2002) are also presented.     

Facies in a Devonian‐Carboniferous volcanic fore‐arc succession,Campwyn Volcanics,Mackay district,central Queensland∗

The Middle Devonian to Early Carboniferous Campwyn Volcanics of coastal central Queensland form part of the fore‐arc basin and eastern flank of the volcanic arc of the northern New England Fold Belt. They consist of a complex association of pyroclastic, hyaloclastic and resedimented, texturally immature volcaniclastic facies associated with shallow intrusions, lavas and minor limestone, non‐volcanic siliciclastics and ignimbrite. Primary igneous rocks indicate a predominantly mafic‐intermediate parentage. Mafic to intermediate pyroclastic rocks within the unit formed from both subaerial and ?submarine to emergent strombolian and phreatomagmatic eruptions. Quench‐fragmented hyaloclastite breccias are widespread and abundant. Shallow marine conditions for much of the succession are indicated by fossil assemblages and intercalated limestone and epiclastic sandstone and conglomerate facies. Volcanism and associated intrusions were widely dispersed in the Campwyn depositional basin in both space and time. The minor component of silicic volcanic products is thought to have been less proximal and derived from eruptive centres to the west, inboard of the basin.     

Reviving Ancient Water Tunnels in the Desert-Digging for Gold？

The water shortage in the Middle East is a well-known problem. The introduction of diesel operated pumps for irrigation has caused a severe drop in groundwater levels. At the same time the demand for groundwater is growing to alarming proportions. Alternative ways of groundwater supply and management need to be found to halt social and economical disaster in the future. Why not look at history？ Qanats are subterranean tunnels ancient civilizations built to access groundwater. The technique is a sustainable method of groundwater extraction. Throughout the Middle East some settlements still make use of these ancient systems. In the summer of 2000, a community rehabilitation of a qanat was executed International Center for Areas （ICARDA） and with support from the Agricultural Research in Dry international donors. The renovation served as a pilot community intervention within a participatory action research project aimed at evaluating the use of qanats in Syria. In a second stage of the project, the pilot was scaled up to a nation-wide survey of Syrian qanats in 2001. This resulted in qanat renovations on other sites executed in 2oo2 and 2oo3 with further international support. This paper compares the first pilot renovation with a recent qanat renovation that took place in Qarah, Syria.