Sedimentation rates off SW Africa since the late Miocene deciphered from spectral analyses of borehole and GRA bulk density profiles: ODP Sites 1081–1084

Sedimentation rates (SRs) off SW Africa were calculated by performing spectral analyses in the depth domain on borehole and gamma-ray attenuation (GRA) bulk density data from ODP Sites 1081–1084. Inversion and integration of SRs versus depth from spectral analysis yielded detailed SR profiles in the time domain. Our technique allowed the detection of excursions in calculated SRs that not only often differed from those established through coarse-scaled biostratigraphic data, but also revealed a greater regional variability in the sediment accumulation over time. High-resolution bulk density data exhibited distinct periodicity in the waveband of Milankovitch cycles (precession at 19–23 kyr; obliquity at 41 kyr; eccentricity at 100 kyr). The pronounced Milankovitch cyclicity suggests that climate variability and trends in SRs along the Benguela Current System (BCS) were responding to insolation patterns during the past 6 Myr. We find relatively low SRs when evolutive amplitude spectra are dominated by obliquity and eccentricity periods. In contrast, significant SR peaks at all sites often occur when strong precessional amplitudes coexist with obliquity and eccentricity cycles. Episodes of high SRs often coincide with peaks in organic carbon mass accumulation rates (MAR C_org) and reduced sea surface temperature (SST) in the southern Walvis Basin, which have been associated with increased regional upwelling. This suggests that the high SRs reflect high productivity (high MAR C_org) attributed to strong wind and upwelling intensity during cool climate periods (low SSTs) in accordance with orbital forcing patterns observed in our spectra.     

旋回地层学：地层学解读时间的第三里程碑

围绕对地质时间的认识,地层学取得了从岩石地层学、生物地层学和旋回地层学3次里程碑性的重大进展.以生物地层学为基础并与放射性同位素定年技术相结合建立的、以百万年为计时单位的地质年代表既创造了地层学的辉煌,也在一定程度上降低了地质学对精确数字定年的不懈追求和为人类社会服务的功能.本文以时间为线索,简要回顾了地层学解读时间的漫长过程,阐述了旋回地层学概念的起源、形成和发展,以及旋回地层学与层序地层学在科学目标、研究内容和研究方法上的异同.以广西晚泥盆世弗拉期-法门期之交海相碳酸盐地层为例,从理论与实践的结合上剖析了旋回地层学的研究方法以及在岩石地层学和生物地层学基础上构建高分辨率,并能与人类社会时间接轨的地质时间坐标的广阔前景和科学意义.     

Characteristics of Milankovitch Cycles in the Mid‐Permian Liangshan and Qixia Formations of the Sichuan Basin—Examples from Well‐Long17 and Well‐Wujia1

The Liangshan and Qixia formations in the Sichuan Basin of central China were formed in the earlier middle Permian. Based on outcrop observation of the Changjianggou section at Shangsi, Guangyuan region and 3rd-order sequence division in typical drillings, one-dimensional spectrum analysis has been used to choose the better curve between the natural gamma ray spectrometry log(ln(Th/K)) in Well-Long17 and the gamma ray log(GR) in Well-Wujia1, respectively, for identifying Milankovitch cycles in Sequence PSQ1 which comprises the Liangshan and Qixia formations, and then to identify the variation in the Milankovitch cycle sequences. On this basis, the system tract and 4th-order sequence interfaces in Sequence PSQ1 were found via two-dimensional spectral analysis and digital filtering. Finally, a high-frequency sequence division program was established. Among these cycles, long eccentricity (413.0 ka) and short eccentricity (123.0 ka) are the most unambiguous, and they are separately the major control factors in forming 4th-order (parasequence sets) and 5th-order (parasequences) sequences, with the average thicknesses corresponding to the main cycles being 11.47 m and 3.32 m in Well-Long17, and 14.21 m and 3.79 m in Well-Wujia1, respectively. In other words, the deposition rate in the beach subfacies is faster than that of the inner ramp facies. The ln(Th/K) curve is more sensitive than the GR as the index of relatively ancient water depth in carbonate deposition. One-dimensional spectrum analysis of ln(Th/K) curve could distinguish the Milankovitch cycle sequences that arose from the Precession cycle (20.90 ka), with a much higher credibility. Sequence PSQ1 in Well-Long17 contains 10 4th-order sequences, and the growth span of Sequence PSQ1 consisting of the Liangshan and Qixia formations is about 4.13 Ma. The single deposition thickness of the long eccentricity cycle sequence has the characteristics of thinning and then thickening in the two-dimensional spectrum, which could be used to identify the system tract interface of the 3rd-order sequence. The precession sequence thickness remains stationary. As a result, the early deposition rate in the mid-Permian of the Sichuan basin was very slow, remaining nearly stationary, and this reflects a sustained depositional environment. Whole-rock carbon and oxygen isotope curves could also prove this point. Milankovitch cycle sequence studies provide a basis for paleoenvironmental analysis and, as such, can be used to analyze ancient climate change, calculate deposition rate and deposition time, and carry out fine isochronous stratigraphic correlation.     

高分辨率FMS成像测井资料在科学大洋钻探中的应用

FMS地层微电阻率扫描成像测井技术诞生于1986年,1989年首次在大洋钻探中获得应用。它采用纽扣电极阵列沿井壁纵向扫描方式采集地层的电阻率信息,经过适当的数字和图像处理后转化为井壁地层的二维微电阻率图像。FMS资料具有分辨率高(理论分辨率为5 mm)、连续原位测量及定向性等特点,是科学大洋钻探中岩芯地质分析方法的重要补充,具有其他地球物理方法难以替代的作用。从岩芯归位和定向、岩性岩相识别及地层剖面重建、沉积构造和古流方向分析、地层旋回性与古气候周期分析、浊积层厚度统计分析、构造和应力场分析及洋壳研究等7个方面对FMS在科学大洋钻探中的应用现状进行综述,对目前FMS成像测井资料应用中存在的问题及发展方向进行分析,包括利用率不高、定量分析成果欠缺、研究深度和广度有待拓展等。     

Several distinct wet periods since 420 ka in the Namib Desert inferred from U-series dates of speleothems

The scarcity of numerical dates of the arid areas in southern Africa is a challenge for reconstructing paleoclimate. This paper presents a chronological reconstruction in the central part of the Namib Desert, Namibia, for the last 420,000 yr. It is based on ²³⁰Th/U dates (TIMS) from a large stalagmite and a thick flowstone layer in a small cave located in the hyper-arid central Namib Desert. The results provide for the first time evidence of three or possibly four succeeding wet periods of decreasing intensity since 420 ka through which speleothem deposited at approximately 420–385 ka, 230–207 ka and 120–117 ka following the 100-ka Milankovitch cycle. Speleothem growth was not recorded for the Holocene. These wet periods interrupted the predominantly dry climate of the Namib Desert and coincided with wet phases in deserts of the northern hemisphere in the Murzuq Basin, Sahara, the Negev, Israel, the Nafud Desert, Saudi Arabia, and the arid northern Oman, Arabian Peninsula.     

中国西南地区晚二叠世泥炭地净初级生产力及其控制因素

米兰科维奇旋回理论是古环境研究中重要的时间“度量”工具.文中以贵州普安糯东17号煤层和云南富源天佑10号煤层为例,对晚二叠世煤层的地球物理测井信号进行频谱分析,以获得其中的米兰科维奇轨道周期参数.研究发现,测井信号所反映出的煤层灰分含量变化受泥炭地发育时期的米兰科维奇轨道周期(123 ka(偏心率):35.6 ka(斜...     

Precession‐scale cyclicity in the fluvial lower Eocene Willwood Formation of the Bighorn Basin,Wyoming (USA)

Little is known about controls on river avulsion at geological time scales longer than 10⁴ years, primarily because it is difficult to link observed changes in alluvial architecture to well‐defined allogenic mechanisms and to disentangle allogenic from autogenic processes. Recognition of Milankovitch‐sale orbital forcing in alluvial stratigraphy would provide unprecedented age control in terrestrial deposits, and also exploit models of allogenic forcing enabling more rigorous testing of allocyclic and autocyclic controls. The Willwood Formation of the Bighorn Basin is a lower Eocene fluvial unit distinctive for its thick sequence of laterally extensive lithological cycles on a scale of 4 to 10 m. Intervals of red palaeosols that formed on overbank mudstones are related to periods of relative channel stability when gradients between channel belts and floodplains were low. The intervening drab, heterolithic intervals with weak palaeosol development are attributed to episodes of channel avulsion that occurred when channels became super‐elevated above the floodplain. In the Deer Creek Amphitheater section in the McCullough Peaks area, these overbank and avulsion deposits alternate with a dominant cycle thickness of ca 7·1 m. Using integrated stratigraphic age constraints, this cyclicity has an estimated period of ca 21·6 kyr, which is in the range of the period of precession climate cycles in the early Eocene. Previous analyses of three older and younger sections in the Bighorn Basin showed a similar 7 to 8 m spacing of red palaeosol clusters with an estimated duration close to the precession period. Intervals of floodplain stability alternating with episodes of large‐scale reorganization of the fluvial system could be entirely autogenic; however, the remarkable regularity and the match in time scales documented here indicate that these alternations were probably paced by allogenic, astronomically forced climate change.     

Cyclostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic correlations in the Barremian–Aptian shallow-marine carbonates of the central-southern Apennines (Italy)

We present a high-resolution sedimentological analysis of Barremian–Aptian shallow-water carbonates from two cores (S. Maria 6 and 4) that were drilled in the central Apennines (central Italy) and one section (Monte Faito) that crops out in the southern Apennines (southern Italy). The aims of this work are (a) to propose a high-resolution correlation of sections that are located approximately 170 km apart in different tectonic units and paleogeographic domains using a microstratigraphic (cm-scale) approach and (b) to reveal global and regional mechanisms that control the stratigraphic architecture of these carbonate platform strata.A composite S. Maria section was assembled by integrating the sedimentologic and biostratigraphic analyses of the two cores, which overlap each other across the Barremian–Aptian boundary. Both the S. Maria and the Monte Faito sections show repetitive facies patterns that are expressed as elementary cycles, which are hierarchically grouped into bundles and superbundles. The elementary cycles are meter-scale sedimentary units that are bounded by subaerial erosion surfaces, which directly overlie subtidal deposits. This implies that they formed under the influence of relative sea-level fluctuations. In both sections, the superbundles are organized into Transgressive/Regressive Facies Trends (T/RFTs), which are considered to be expressions of lower-frequency relative sea-level changes.These deposits, like their Cretaceous analogues of other areas of the Apennines, show evidence of astronomically controlled eustatic oscillations, which are reflected in the hierarchical organization of their stacking patterns. They also exhibit a sequence-stratigraphic configuration that is best recognizable in the superbundles and T/RFTs. Based on integrated stratigraphic criteria, a high-resolution regional correlation between S. Maria and Monte Faito was developed and compared with the reference section of Monte Raggeto (M. Maggiore, southern Apennines, Italy), where biostratigraphic and cyclostratigraphic studies have been complemented by magneto- and isotope-stratigraphy.We also propose a chronostratigraphic correlation between our T/RFTs and the Tethyan stratigraphic cycles of Hardenbol et al. (1998). Based on the cyclostratigraphic interpretation and orbital chronostratigraphy of the studied interval, we estimate a minimum duration of 5.2 my for the Barremian interval, which is similar to the 4.5 my duration from the Geological Time Scale of Gradstein et al., (2012).     

利用Matlab函数识别沉积物中的米兰柯维奇旋回信号

针对旋回分析中需要对数据进行的各种处理,利用Matlab中集成的滤波（filter）函数、插值（interp1）函数、求均值（mean）函数、去线性趋势（detrend）函数、求方差（variance）函数及谱分析（pwelch）函数等的组合,编制了识别沉积物中米兰柯维奇旋回信号的程序。选择窗口宽度(window)约等于有用信号中最低频率信号的波长、交叠点数(noverlap)为窗口宽度的50％、傅里叶变换的数据点数(nfft)大于全部采样数据的长度且为2的最小整数次幂时,可获得较好的谱估计结果。其不足之处是不能估计背景的红噪声谱及给出谱峰值的置信水平。     

The fluvial cycle at cold–warm–cold transitions in lowland regions: A refinement of theory

A previously established non-linear theory of river cyclicity as a response to climate change states that short phases of fluvial instability occur both at the transition from relatively warm (temperate) to cold (periglacial) and from relatively cold to warm periods. Such instability typically starts with vertical erosion, successively followed by sedimentary fill of the erosive scar. In spite of frequent confirmation of this theory by geomorphological reconstructions, a few problems arise. First, there are fewer incision phases than climatic transitions. Secondly, remnants of erosion at ‘cold–warm’ transitions are scarce, in contrast to obvious erosion relics at ‘warm–cold’ transitions. Furthermore, it appears that the incision style is strikingly different at both kinds of climatic transitions. Similarly, the long stable phases are also expressed in terms of different floodplain development in cold and warm periods. These arguments require a modification of the general non-linear theory.At the transition from relatively temperate to colder conditions, rivers transformed gradually from a regular, low-energy, single-channel course to a periodically high-energy, multi-channel type. The latter (braided) type is characterized by intense lateral movement, rather than by deep vertical erosion. This results in a well-expressed morphology of wide, extensive floodplains and terraces. In contrast, the linear and constrained, meandering channels incise with small width–depth ratio and build floodplains of limited lateral extent. Consequences are twofold: 1) the spatial limitation of the deeply incised, meandering valleys at the beginning of warm periods counts against their recognition; 2) relatively strong, lateral migration of the braided rivers removes most traces of previous (meandering) systems, which contrasts with the limited lateral activity of confined meandering channels. It means that in a ‘warm–cold–warm’ alternation generally only one phase of vertical erosion is preserved, the one that is caused by the high-energy, braided river at the start of the cold period.