Aminostratigraphy and sea-level history of the Pleistocene Bridgewater Formation,Mount Gambier region,southern Australia

A geochronological framework based on amino acid racemisation (AAR) and constrained by previously reported optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages is presented for the evolution and paleosea-level record of the Pleistocene Bridgewater Formation of the Mount Gambier region, of southern Australia. Within the study area, the Bridgewater Formation is represented by late early Pleistocene [Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 23 at 933 ka] to Holocene barrier shoreline successions deposited during sea-level highstands. Regional monotonic uplift (0.13 mm yr^–1) and pervasive calcrete development during the Pleistocene have preserved the sequence of calcarenite (mixed quartz-skeletal carbonate sand) shoreline complexes from denudation. AAR analyses confirm that the barriers generally increase in age landwards and correlate with sea-level highstands associated with interglacials as defined by the marine oxygen isotope record. AAR analyses on the benthic foraminifer Elphidium crispum have proved more reliable than the whole-rock method in extending the age range of AAR dating of these relict shoreline successions. Paleosea-levels from the coastal plain are as follows: MIS 7, –9 ± 2 m; MIS 9, 4 ± 1 m; and a minimum sea-level of 2 ± 2 m is derived for MIS 11. Paleosea-level could not be determined for MIS 15, 19 or 23 as diagnostic sea-level indicators were not identified within these sedimentary successions. Dismal Range, dated at 933 ± 145 ka (MIS 23), represents a correlative feature to the East Naracoorte Range but is some 25 km seaward of the Kanawinka Fault compared with the same barrier at Naracoorte. Mingbool Range (788 ± 18 ka) is of similar age to the West Naracoorte Range (MIS 19) and formed as an arcuate shoreline complex that became attached to the higher relief of the area represented by the Mount Burr Volcanic Province. The higher topographical relief resulted from crustal doming of the Oligo-Miocene Gambier Limestone caused by the intrusion of magma associated with the volcanic province. The AAR age of 788 ± 118 ka for Mingbool Range indicates that the Mount Burr volcanics predate the deposition of this shoreline complex.     

Pliocene aridity and Neogene landscape evolution recorded by a fluvial sediment system (Campaspe Formation) in northeast Queensland

Campaspe Formation, a surficial, fluviatile, sand-dominated unit, is extensively developed in the Charters Towers region of north Queensland where it covers an area of 11 000 km², overlying Paleozoic basement and erosional remnants of Paleogene Southern Cross Formation. In the northern part of its distribution, it is interlayered with, and overlain by, flows of Nulla Basalt. It is dated as mid-Pliocene, based on the 3.48 Ma age of the Myrrilumbing Flow interlayered with its upper part, an antiquity consistent with thin ferricrete locally developed at its surface. The formation defines the Campaspe Surface at an elevation of 200–440 m in the present landscape, falling gently from upland to the west towards the current channel of the Burdekin River. This surface is a relict alluvial plain little incised by easterly flowing tributaries of the Burdekin River and has survived, essentially intact, from the early Pliocene. Geometry of the formation is established from some 2000 mineral exploration drill holes and seismic profiling. It has an average thickness of some 60 m, reaching a maximum of over 200 m. It blankets a pre-existing, low relief landscape in which a basement ridge divides it into two sub-basins that mirror the present drainage. The formation consists of poorly sorted sandstone with minor conglomerate and siltstone, and contains paleosol horizons with associated calcrete. Matrix supported sandstone in the succession, indicates deposition in part from hyperconcentrated flows. Sandstones generally show poorly defined planar layering as typical of ephemeral overbank and terminal splay sediment bodies but beds with cross-lamination, indicating fluvial channel bed forms, are also present. They are characterised by pore-filling silt and mud, largely emplaced by post-depositional infiltration, such that the unit produces essentially no groundwater. Facies attributes are consistent with fluvial deposition in ephemeral, dry climate, distributary system, with inefficient cross-drainage discharge that induced aggradation, resulting in a substantial sediment body perched in the landscape. Framework grain compositions show the formation to be mineralogically mature, representing erosional debris derived from intense weathering in an earlier climatic regime recorded, at least in part, by duricrust developed in the fluviatile–lacustrine Southern Cross Formation of Paleogene age. Such duricrust intervals are now upstanding in the landscape, representing erosional remnants from inverted relief developed in a mid-Cenozoic, pluvial, landscape cycle. Paleoclimatic signature of the Campaspe Formation extends the record of Pliocene aridity, widely recognised elsewhere in Australia, to northeast Queensland. In large part the landscape of the Charters Towers district is relict from the early Pliocene and is in the process of readjusting to more pluvial climatic regimes. By implication, Pliocene aridity has, on a small scale, exerted a strong influence on the present physiography of Australian landscapes.     

西湖凹陷西次凹古近系花港组—平湖组深层油气成藏过程

西湖凹陷西次凹古近系花港组和平湖组深层油气资源丰富，是东海陆架盆地勘探开发新领域，受储层差异致密化影响，油气成藏机理复杂。为了厘清西次凹深层油气成藏过程，本文通过流体包裹体岩相学特征、显微测温、激光拉曼光谱、包裹体所含油气地球化学等实验分析，结合构造演化、地层埋藏史、热史等，开展了系统的储层特征、油气成藏期次、成藏过程研究。结果表明，花港组深层（>4000 m）和平湖组储层均已致密化，溶蚀孔隙是主要的储集孔隙类型；花港组和平湖组均发育两期油气包裹体，早期含油包裹体较多，晚期以天然气包裹体为主，成藏时间分别为龙井运动期和冲绳运动期，以晚期天然气成藏最为关键。包裹体中油气地球化学特征类似，反映生烃母质以高等植物生源为主，低等生物为辅，与平湖组煤系烃源岩特征一致。冲绳运动叠加平湖组生气增压是晚期天然气成藏的主要动力，此时H10段及以上储层未致密化。根据储层致密化与成藏时序匹配关系可将西次凹M构造深层油气藏类型划分为常规型、先成藏后致密型、先致密后成藏型和边成藏边致密型4种。本文成果可为研究区下一步致密砂岩气的勘探开发部署提供重要的理论依据。     

Approximate analysis for relative motion of satellite formation flying in elliptical orbits

This paper studies the relative motion of satellite formation flying in arbitrary elliptical orbits with no perturbation. The trajectories of the leader and follower satellites are projected onto the celestial sphere. These two projections and celestial equator intersect each other to form a spherical triangle, in which the vertex angles and arc-distances are used to describe the relative motion equations. This method is entitled the reference orbital element approach. Here the dimensionless distance is defined as the ratio of the maximal distance between the leader and follower satellites to the semi-major axis of the leader satellite. In close formations, this dimensionless distance, as well as some vertex angles and arc-distances of this spherical triangle, and the orbital element differences are small quantities. A series of order-of-magnitude analyses about these quantities are conducted. Consequently, the relative motion equations are approximated by expansions truncated to the second order, i.e. square of the dimensionless distance. In order to study the problem of periodicity of relative motion, the semi-major axis of the follower is expanded as Taylor series around that of the leader, by regarding relative position and velocity as small quantities. Using this expansion, it is proved that the periodicity condition derived from Lawden’s equations is equivalent to the condition that the Taylor series of order one is zero. The first-order relative motion equations, simplified from the second-order ones, possess the same forms as the periodic solutions of Lawden’s equations. It is presented that the latter are further first-order approximations to the former; and moreover, compared with the latter more suitable to research spacecraft rendezvous and docking, the former are more suitable to research relative orbit configurations. The first-order relative motion equations are expanded as trigonometric series with eccentric anomaly as the angle variable. Except the terms of order one, the trigonometric series’ amplitudes are geometric series, and corresponding phases are constant both in the radial and in-track directions. When the trajectory of the in-plane relative motion is similar to an ellipse, a method to seek this ellipse is presented. The advantage of this method is shown by an example.     

Metamorphic and structural evolution of the Early Proterozoic Puolankajärvi Formation, Finland – I. Structural and textural relations

The amphibolite facies Puolankajärvi Formation (PjF) occupies the western margin of the Early Proterozoic Kainuu Schist Belt (KSB) of northern Finland. The lower and middle parts of the PjF consist of turbiditic psammites and pelites and tempestitic semipelites. This report concentrates on the pelitic lithologies which include quartz–two-mica–plagioclase schists with variable amounts of garnet, staurolite, andalusite and biotite porphyroblasts as well as sillimanite and cordierite segregations. The KSB forms a major north–south-trending synclinorium between two Archaean blocks. It contains both autochthonous and allochthonous units and is cut by faults and shear zones. The PjF lies on the western side of the KSB and is probably allochthonous. The formation has undergone six major deformation phases (D₁, D₂, D_3a, D_3b, D₄ and D₅). During D_3a-D₅ the maximum principal stress (σ₁) changed in a clockwise direction from south-west to north-east. Between D₂ and D₃ the intermediate principal stress (σ₂) changed from horizontal to vertical and the interval between D₂ and D₃ marks a transition from thrust to strike-slip tectonics. Relict structures in the porphyroblasts indicate the following mineral growth–deformation evolution in the PjF. (1) Throughout the PjF there was a successive crystallization of garnet (syn-D₁), poryphyroblastic biotite (inter-D_3/4) and staurolite (inter-D_3/4) during the pre-D₄ stage. (2) A syn-D₄-inter-D_4/5 crystallization of kyanite, sillimanite (fibrolite), porphyroblastic tourmaline, magnetite, rutile, cordierite and muscovite–biotite–plagioclase pseudomorphs after staurolite was most localized at and near D₄ shear zones. (3) A syn- to post-D₅ generation of andalusite, ilmenohematite and sheet silicates after staurolite and after cordierite occurred near D₅ faults. The evolution outlined here permits the relative dating of the PjF parageneses, which is used in the second part of the study (Tuisku & Laajoki, 1990), and, together with the knowledge of the pressure–temperature conditions during various growth events, makes it possible to compile pressure–temperature–deformation paths for the PjF.     

Age of Berh Hairhan Formation of Mongolia dated by conodonts

Conodont Caudicriodus angustus angustus(Steward et al.,1956)and Caudicriodus angustus cauda(Wang et al.,2005)were found from a big limestone lens of the Berh Hairhan Formation in the place of W 150 km to Ulaanbaatar City.The discovery indicates that the Berh Haihan Formation should be assigned to Middle Devonian Eifelian Stage.This conodont fauna was from a shallow cooler water facies in the relatively high latitude.     

Pleistocene sediments,soils and landscape evolution at Stebbing,Essex

Pleistocene sediments and soils exposed at Stebbing in central Essex, England are described, analysed and interpreted. The sand and gravel units above Eocene London Clay and Upper Pliocene Red Crag are shown to be a high level member of the Kesgrave Formation, with a surface immediately beneath that of the Westland Green Gravels, which are tentatively assigned to the Pre-Pastonian ‘a’ Stage of the British Quaternary succession. The rubified, argillic soil developed in the surface of these fluvial deposits is a composite of the Valley Farm and Barham Soils and displays micromorphological evidence of several phases of clay illuviation, gleying and clay coating disruption. Originally truncated and buried beneath Anglian gelifluction deposits, cover sand and till, the soil has been exhumed in most places by subsequent erosion. The full succession, however, is preserved within large gulls that formed by periglacial cambering prior to this erosion. More recent loess incorporation and pedogenesis have modified the exhumed soil and the materials within the gulls.     

淮河源区中更新世黄土堆积的元素地球化学特征及其古气候意义

利用地球化学元素分析方法,对淮河源区中更新世黄土、古土壤剖面含有的化学元素及多种化学元素指标进行了分析。研究表明:区内中更新世以来的气候变化,主要以湿热气候为主,淋溶及氧化作用较强;表现在气温上HT-1~HT-3的气温较低,HT-4~HT-7的气温高,HT-8的气温又相对较低,其变化趋势表现为中更新世经历了从早期寒冷转湿热转温干,中期凉干转暖湿到晚期温湿转暖湿。     

Member 1 of Yongji Formation (Ey1) sedimentary characteristics and its origin analysis in Yitong Graben

Ey1 has the unique desultory-weak or gap seismic reflection structure as its one of the most important characteristics. It is very important to clarify sedimentary characteristics and its origin for Yitong Graben and its sedimentary facies and tectonic evolution. On the basis of the research of core analyses, well logging data analyses, sedimentary facies analyses and seismic reflection structure analyses, the authors have concluded the sedimentary characteristics of Ey1, and have carried out Ey1 sedimentary environments and its origin. The result shows that Ey1 desultory-weak or gap seismic reflection may be a series of small scale secondary sediment fans superimposition.     

琼东南盆地深水区中央峡谷黄流组物源特征

物源分析作为岩相-古地理研究的前提和基础,物源体系决定了砂体的展布和储集性能。为明确中央峡谷体系黄流组储集体展布规律及下一步勘探方向,本文应用中央峡谷最新钻井资料,采用重矿物组合、锆石U-Pb测年等分析方法,结合地震反射特征,对中央峡谷黄流组物源体系特征进行分析。地震反射特征表明来自海南隆起和昆嵩隆起物源的三角洲体系,通过二次搬运沉积了陆架斜坡区和盆底的低位海底扇,为中央峡谷的沉积充填提供了充足的粗碎屑沉积物;新钻井黄流组样品中重矿物组合以白钛矿、石榴石、磁铁矿含量较高为主要特征,与莺歌海盆地受蓝江物源影响和琼东南盆地受丽水-秋滨河物源影响的地层重矿物组合相似;锆石U-Pb测年分析表明,中央峡谷黄流组地层中样品年龄图谱具有30~2 000Ma变化范围,与莺歌海盆地受昆嵩隆起物源影响的钻井以及越南现代河流采集的沙样具有非常一致的年龄段和丰度。综上所述,中央峡谷受多物源的影响,越南昆嵩隆起为主的琼东南盆地西部物源体系,是琼东南盆地乐东凹陷晚中新世深水扇以及中央峡谷粗碎屑物质的主要沉积物供给来源区。