内蒙古四子王旗东八号中新世含深源捕虏体富钾橄榄玄武岩的发现及其意义

内蒙古四子王旗东八号地区最近发现含有深源捕虏体的富钾橄榄玄武岩。玄武岩为灰黑色致密块状,以富碱(K2O+Na2O5．91％～6．47％)、高钾(K2O2．82％～3．12％)和较高的钛(TiO2 2．22％—2．36％)为特征,属钾玄岩系列,全岩K—Ar年龄为21．9±1．7Ma。捕虏体主要为尖晶石二辉橄榄岩、二辉橄榄岩等。根据矿物平衡温压计算表明：捕虏体形成温度为1100—1250℃,压力为1．7—2．0GPa,应源自于岩石圈地幔。四子王旗橄榄玄武岩较高的TiO2和K2O,暗示其岩浆可能源于幔柱作用。推测华北板块北缘自中生代开始可能受到来自深部的幔柱作用,大量上升的岩浆因受到阻挡而保留在岩石圈底部,底侵作用和部分继续上升的岩浆,将岩石圈地幔的捕虏体携出地表。     

Magnetochronology of Late Miocene Mammal Fauna in Xining Basin, NE Tibetan Plateau, China

The Xining basin is located in the northeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It is a rift basin formed in Mesozoic and Cenozoic and structurally belongs to the intersection of Kunlun and Qilian Mountains. Cenozoic fluvial and lacustrine sedimentary strata are continuous in the Xining basin, with a thickness of more than 800 m, completely recording the deformation uplifting, weathering and denudation history and climate change process of the northeastern plateau. Currently, early Miocene Xijia fauna, early Middle Miocene Danshuilu fauna and late Middle Miocene Diaogou fauna are discovered in the Xining basin, which provide an important basis for the stratigraphic correlation of the Cenozoic strata in the Xining basin. However, in the next few decades, there are no reports about the large mammal fossils in the Xining basin, especially about late Miocene fauna. The author discovered a large amount of mammal fossils in the Neogene sedimentary strata in Huzhu area, Xining basin. According to the identification results of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, these fossils mainly included Hipparion dongxiangense, Chilotherium sp., Parelasmotherium sp., Stephanocemas sp. and Kubanochoerus sp. and their age was early Late Miocene. Since the discovery of this set of fossils directly filled the blank that there were no large mammal fossils in the Xining basin in Late Miocene, it was very important for studying the magnetic stratigraphic chronology of fossil-forming strata and establishing the paleomagnetic chronology scale plate of mammal fossils. In this paper, the paleomagnetic data of the fossil-forming stratigraphic profile, Banyan profile, were measured and the paleomagnetic records were collected through high density sampling, and finally the paleomagnetic polarity column of the profile was established. The results showed that five positive and five negative polarity segments were recorded in Banyan profile, which corresponded well to the polarity between C3Br.1n-C4n.2n in the standard polarity column. The age of profile top was about 7.25 Ma and profile bottom was about 8.4 Ma, with an age range of 1.15 Ma. The mammal fossils discovered this time were exposed between positive and negative polarities N5 and R5 at the bottom of the profile, corresponding to C4r.1r at negative polarity and C4n.2n at positive polarity in the standard polarity column. The age of mammal fossils was about 8.3 Ma. The paleomagnetic chronology of the strata and paleontological fossils determined the absolute age of late Miocene mammal fossils and expanded the upper age of late Miocene Xianshuihe Formation (N1xn) in the Xining basin, which had provided new basic data for further studying the stratigraphic deposition and correlation of late Cenozoic strata and regional environmental evolution.     

循化盆地晚渐新世-早中新世沉积物中黏土矿物特征及其古气候指示意义

采用X射线衍射、扫描电子显微镜分析方法,对青海循化盆地晚渐新世-早中新世沉积物中黏土矿物的微观形貌、体积分数、结晶度及其古气候指示作用进行了深入的研究。分析结果表明,晚渐新世盆地沉积物中的黏土矿物主要为蒙脱石、伊利石、坡缕石和绿泥石,以蒙脱石为主,指示循化地区总体为相对温暖潮湿的气候条件,蒙脱石、伊利石和绿泥石相对体积分数及伊利石、蒙脱石结晶度值均出现明显的周期性波动,表明循化地区气候经历了干旱-温暖潮湿交替的变化;早中新世盆地沉积物中的黏土矿物主要为伊利石、蒙脱石和绿泥石,以伊利石为主,各黏土矿物体积分数及伊利石、蒙脱石结晶度值的变化范围不大,表明循化地区气候以相对持续冷干为特征。从晚渐新世到早中新世,气候条件由相对温暖潮湿到相对冷干的转变,揭示其间(约21.3Ma)出现了一次极端的降温事件,可能与青藏高原隆升及亚洲沙漠化密切相关。     

浅成侵入岩储层分布模式——以新西兰Lyttelton火山中新世浅成岩脉为例

侵入岩油气藏广泛分布于世界各盆地中,具有良好的油气勘探潜力。但对原生孔隙发育的岩脉储层模式的研究尚未引起足够的关注。本文以新西兰基督城Lyttelton火山西北部的中新世浅成岩脉为研究对象,根据野外露头调查、孔渗测试、图像分析和经验公式的渗透率计算,对其孔隙构成、储层分布模式和储层控制因素进行分析。结果表明:该区浅成侵入岩为孔隙-裂缝型储层,储集空间以气孔为主,冷凝收缩缝次之;气孔可见定向拉长的大直径椭圆形和离散的小直径圆形两类,对孔隙度的贡献以前者为主;柱状节理可见规则和不规则两类,后者的裂缝面密度较高;具有中孔-中渗的特征,局部高孔-高渗;柱体横截面形态和规则性是影响地层渗透性的关键因素。整体上,浅成岩脉从下到上孔隙度由小变大,柱状节理由规则变为不规则;气孔可由柱状节理沟通,其连通性受柱状节理缝间距、缝宽,以及定向拉长气孔与柱状节理之间的夹角控制;Lyttelton火山的浅成岩脉显示,冷凝固结阶段气孔的初始连通率可高达35%。综上,浅成岩脉可具有良好的储集性能,气孔初始连通性较高,可作为有利的勘探目标。     

Climate model sensitivity to atmospheric CO2 concentrations for the middle Miocene

We present results of the first middle Miocene climate modelling study using the latest NCAR Community Atmosphere Model (CAM v.3.1) and Community Land Model (CLM v.3.0) coupled to a slab ocean. We examine the sensitivity of the middle Miocene climate to varying concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (180, 355 and 700 ppm). Model simulations are forced with realistic Miocene boundary conditions for continental geometry, topography and vegetation. Global annual mean surface temperature increases by 2.2 °C with each successive doubling of CO₂ which is consistent with climate sensitivity of previous paleoclimate studies and estimates for future climate. In addition to growing evidence that tropical sea surface temperatures were higher than suggested by proxy-data, our understanding of middle to high latitude warming mechanisms is still incomplete. We compare our results to the late Miocene study of Steppuhn et al. [Steppuhn, A., Micheels, A., Bruch, A., Uhl, D., Utescher, T., Mosbrugger, V., 2007. The sensitivity of ECHAM4/ML to a double CO₂ scenario for the Late Miocene and the comparison to terrestrial proxy data. Global and Planetary Change, 57, 189–212] to explore the dependence of paleoclimate model sensitivities on different software systems and boundary conditions. Our comparison shows climate sensitivity to be overall quite robust — this is as significant, as it is often unclear to what extent simulation behaviour and outputs are dependent on a particular model implementation and initial/boundary conditions. Some distinct differences in model outputs, such as our reduced latitudinal surface temperature gradient and stronger Asian monsoon system, compared to the late Miocene study of Steppuhn et al. [Steppuhn, A., Micheels, A., Bruch, A., Uhl, D., Utescher, T., Mosbrugger, V., 2007. The sensitivity of ECHAM4/ML to a double CO₂ scenario for the Late Miocene and the comparison to terrestrial proxy data. Global and Planetary Change, 57, 189–212] are shown to be closely linked to the choice of topography, vegetation and ocean heat flux.     

Refinement of the age of the Middle Miocene Fort Ternan Beds,Western Kenya,and its implications for Old World biochronology

It has become increasingly obvious over the past two decades that the fossiliferous strata at Fort Ternan, Kenya, are probably somewhat younger than 14 Ma, an age which has long been attached to the deposits. This realisation flows from geological and biochronological observations. In order to test the hypothesis, resampling of all the lava flows in the region of Fort Ternan was undertaken in 2003, especially those underlying the Fort Ternan Beds in the Kipchorion Gorge where the sequence is the most complete. Samples obtained from lava flows underlying and overlying the fossil beds were analysed for anorthoclase K/Ar and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar and biotite ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age determinations. The results reveal that the age of the fossiliferous sediments is ca $13.7\pm 0.3\text{Ma}$. Since Fort Ternan yielded the ‘core fauna’ that defines Faunal Set IV of the East African biochronological sequence this refinement of its age will impact on age estimates of neighbouring Faunal Sets, as well as on other faunas correlated to Fort Ternan, including those in Europe belonging to MN Zones MN 5, MN 6 and MN 7/8. To cite this article: M. Pickford et al., C. R. Geoscience 338 (2006).     

Global Miocene tectonics and the modern world

An amazing congruence of seemingly unrelated, diverse global events began in the Middle and Upper Miocene and established our modern world. Two global orogenic belts were active, mostly in the Middle and Upper Miocene, while backarc basins formed along the eastern margin of Asia. Coincident with these events global temperatures cooled in both the ocean and atmosphere, desertification occurred from Central Asia into and across most of northern Africa and also in Australia, and in southern South America. Coincident with the expansion of the Antarctic ice cap at 14 Ma, there was initial widespread deep sea erosion and changes in patterns of deep sea sedimentation. Muddy pelagic sedimentation increased six-fold in the North and Central Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and global changes in circulation lead to more diatomites in the Pacific and fewer in the Atlantic. By the end of the Miocene most of the Mediterranean Sea had evaporated. Broadly coincident with these events, many old, large river systems were destroyed and new ones formed as much of the world's landscape changed. Collectively, these global on-shore tectonic and ocean-atmospheric events provide the foundation for our modern world—a mixture of new and rejuvenated orogenic belts and their far-field effects (distant epiorogenic uplift, rain-shadow deserts, large alluvial aprons, and distant deltas) as inherited Gondwanan landscapes persisted remote from plate boundaries. Thus at the end of the Miocene much of the world's landscape, except for that changed by Pleistocene continental glaciation, would be recognizable to us today.We argue that all of these events had the same ultimate common cause-an internal Earth engine-that drove plate motions in two broad ways: first, the opening and closing of seven key gateways to deep-water oceanic currents radically altered global heat transfer and changed a lingering Greenhouse to an Icehouse world; secondly, these events were in part coincident with renewed heat flow in the African and Pacific Superplumes that energized global plate motions in the Middle and Upper Miocene. We hope this global synthesis will stimulate more research on the many global events of the Miocene—to understand better both our modern world and earlier global orogenies.     

Late Miocene nonmarine sedimentation and formation of magnesites in the Acıgöl Basin, southwestern Anatolia, Turkey

The Late Miocene lacustrine Acıgöl Basin, SW Turkey, formed as an orogen-top, extensional half-graben, with the subaqueous accommodation controlled by the lake level and the bulk accommodation provided by active subsidence along a WSW-trending normal fault at the basin's southern margin. The basin-fill sedimentary succession consists of terminal alluvial-fan facies overlain by ephemeral lake-margin facies and perennial lake facies, with widespread fluvial facies at the top. The distal alluvial-fan facies include massive to stratified sandstones and massive mudstones with intervening nodular dolostones and incipient pedogenic horizons. The lake-margin facies are micritic magnesites passing laterally into peloidal, irregularly laminated magnesites towards the palaeolake margin and overlain by marlstones and dolostones, all with abundant evidence of episodic subaerial exposure (desiccation cracks, pedogenic features, and tepee structures). The perennial lake facies are micritic magnesites passing upwards into clayey dolostones and dolomitic or clayey marlstones. The fluvial facies capping the succession include planar cross-stratified conglomerates (channel-fill deposits), planar parallel-stratified, planar cross-stratified and rippled cross-laminated sandstones (crevasse-fill and crevasse splay deposits), and assemblages of mudstones intercalated with thin sandstone beds (overbank floodplain deposits).The sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical data reveal large variations in the basin's hydrological regime, including short-term oscillations and bulk rise of the lake level, periodical changes in the Mg/Ca ratio and terrigenous mud supply, and a negative covariance of δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C fluctuations. The composition of terrigenous sediment and the chemistry of water supplied to the lake were controlled by the weathering, chemical leaching and erosion of the ultramafic–dolomitic bedrock in the catchment area. The bedrock yielded Mg-rich carbonate solutions that caused the deposition of Mg-carbonates in the lake.Despite short-term lake-level fluctuations, the lake's net water budget remained positive. It is suggested that the region's present-day climate and Mg-rich alkaline lakes can serve as an analogue for the climatic and hydrological conditions in the Late Miocene Acıgöl Basin.     

PALEOBOTANY

正20140965Jia Gaowen(School of Earth Sciences,Lanzhou University,Lanzhou 730000,China);Liu Kenan Pod and Leaflet Fossils of Dalbergia(Leguminosae)from the Upper Miocene of Lincang,Yunnan Province(Acta Palaeontologica Sinica,ISSN0001-6616,CN32-1188/Q,52(2),2013,p.213-222,6     

Palaeomagnetic study of the Kepezdağ and Yamadağ volcanic complexes, central Turkey: Neogene tectonic escape and block definition in the central-east Anatolides

The Anatolian accretionary collage between Afro-Arabia and Eurasia is currently subject to two tectonic regimes. Ongoing slip of Arabia relative to Africa along the Dead Sea Fault Zone in the east is extruding crustal blocks away from the indenter by a combination of strike-slip and rotation. This zone of compression gives way to an extensional province in western Turkey, which also includes the eastern sector of Aegean Province. Although it is now well established that rotational deformation throughout Anatolia is distributed and differential, the sizes of the blocks involved are poorly understood. As a contribution towards evaluating this issue in central-east Turkey, we report palaeomagnetic study of the mid-Miocene Kepezda? and Yamada? volcanic complexes in central-south Anatolia (38–39.5°N, 37.5–39°E). A distributed sample through the Yamada? complex identifies eruption during an interval of multiple geomagnetic field reversals (40 normal, 36 reversed, 8 intermediate sites) with a selected mean defined by 63 sites of D/I = 335.4/51.1° (α₉₅ = 4.4°). The smaller Kepezda? complex (8 reversed, 4 normal and 1 intermediate site) yields a comparable mean direction from 12 sites of 338.7/49.8° (α₉₅ = 14.1°). In the context of a range of radiometric age evidence, two thick normal polarity zones within the Yamada? succession probably correlate with zones C5ACn and C5ADn of the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale and imply that the bulk of the volcanic activity took place between ∼15 and 13.5 Ma. Comparison of the palaeomagnetic results with the adjoining major plate indenters shows that the Yamada? complex has rotated CCW by 29.3 ± 5.2° relative to Eurasia; the much smaller dataset from the Kepezda? complex indicates a comparable CCW rotation of 26.0 ± 11.8° with respect to Eurasia. The Arabian Indenter has also been rotating CCW since mid Miocene times, and the block incorporating these two volcanic complexes north of the East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ) is determined to have rotated 18.2 ± 6.0° CCW relative to the northern perimeter of Arabia. Comparison with data to the north identifies quasi-uniform rotation across a ∼200 km wide block extending from the Central Anatolian Fault Zone in the northwest to close to the East Anatolian transform fault zone in the south east. Although absence of suitable younger rocks does not permit the timing of this rotation to be determined in the study area, analogies with results from the Sivas Basin suggest that it is young, and followed establishment of the major transform faults. Rotation has evidently taken place around bounding arcuate faults and accompanied westward expulsion as the accretionary collage north of Arabia has been subject to ongoing post-collisional indentation.