Environmental change recorded in sediments from the Marmes rockshelter archaeological site, southeastern Washington state, USA

The Marmes Rockshelter archaeological site in southeastern Washington state contains a > 11 kyr stratigraphic record that was excavated in the 1960s but only recently analyzed in detail. We present the results of physical, chemical, and isotopic analyses of archived Marmes sediments from rockshelter, hillslope, and floodplain locations. Multiple lines of evidence including éboulis production, soil chemistry, and δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O signatures in soil organic matter and calcium carbonate suggest that relatively cool, moist conditions 10,600 to 9700 ¹⁴C yr BP were followed by relatively warm and dry conditions as early as 9000 ¹⁴C yr BP. Warm and dry conditions extended to the late Holocene, followed by a return to cooler and moister climate. The limited range of δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values in Marmes paleosols suggests that the magnitude of moisture and temperature shifts was locally buffered in the lower Snake River Canyon but adequate to generate significant changes in sedimentation and soil formation, possibly due to nonlinear geological and pedological processes. These buffered canyon environments were well suited for establishing residential bases associated with foraging and logistical collecting strategies and may have minimized the influence of climate changes in food resource abundance.     

Cenozoic volcanic rocks in the Belog Co area, Qiangtang, northern Tibet, China： Petrochemical evidence for partial melting of the mantle-crust transition zone

Neogene volcanic rocks in the Belog Co area, Qiangtang, northern Tibet, are represented by a typical intermediate-basic and intermediate alkaline rock association, with latite-trachyte as the main rock type. The results of chemical analysis are: SiO2=52%–62%, Al2O3>15%, Na2O/K2O>1 and MgO<3.30%. In addition, the volcanic rocks are LREE-enriched with LREE/HREE=10–13, (La/Yb)N=15–19, and show a weak negative Eu anomaly with δEu=0.71–0.89. The close relationship between Mg# and SiO2 and the co-variation of the magmatophile elements and ultra-magmatophile elements such as La/Sm-La and Cr-Tb indicate that this association of volcanic rocks is the product of comagmatic fractional crystallization. The rock association type and lower Sm/Yb values (Sm/Yb=3.23–3.97) imply that this association of volcanic rocks should have originated from partial melting of spinel lherzolite in the lithospheric mantle. On the other hand, the weak negative Eu anomaly and relative depletion in Nb, Ta and Ti reflect the features of terrigenous magma. So the Neogene Belog Co alkaline volcanic rocks should be the result of partial melting of the special crust-mantle transition zone on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.     

青藏高原东缘龙门-锦屏造山带的崛起——大型拆离断层和挤出机制

龙门-锦屏山的东缘发育一系列逆冲断裂和飞来峰构造,逆冲作用使山体向东叠置在四川盆地之上。新的野外调查、显微构造分析和糜棱岩石英组构的EBSD测量表明,在龙门-锦屏山的前震旦纪变质杂岩体西缘(即青藏高原东缘)发育一条近NS向的大型韧性拆离断裂,被20Ma以来形成的NW—SE向鲜水河韧性走滑剪切带[1]左行错位80km。青藏高原东缘韧性拆离断裂中黑云母40Ar-39Ar测年获得112～120Ma的年龄,表明龙门-锦屏山的崛起可能与白垩纪开始的垂向挤出机制密切关联。结合四川前陆盆地的沉积及演化特征,认为晚三叠世时期羌塘/东昆仑/扬子陆块的碰撞形成松潘-甘孜造山带,晚三叠世—侏罗纪在其东南缘形成四川前陆盆地沉积;早白垩世龙门-锦屏山开始抬升,晚白垩世快速崛起,在四川前陆盆地沉积之上叠置白垩纪—第四纪再生前陆盆地的沉积。龙门-锦屏山的崛起与白垩纪以来扬子板块岩石圈对于松潘-甘孜地体的陆内俯冲作用有关,使位于中下地壳的变质基底岩石在挤出机制下隆起。     

青藏高原拉萨地块松多榴辉岩的岩相学特征和变质演化过程

松多榴辉岩出露于拉萨地块的石英片岩中,主要由较为基性的金红石榴辉岩和较为酸性的石英榴辉岩组成。榴辉岩相矿物组合为石榴子石 绿辉石 绿帘石±多硅白云母±石英±金红石。岩石发生了较强烈的退变质作用,退变质矿物有角闪石、绿帘石、石英、钠长石及绿泥石。石榴子石变斑晶具有生长环带结构,变斑晶和基质石榴子石主要落入C类榴辉岩区,少数石榴子石变斑晶边部和基质石榴子石落入B类榴辉岩区;单斜辉石主要为绿辉石,少数Ⅰ世代和Ⅲ世代为普通辉石;角闪石均为钙质角闪石。根据石榴子石-绿辉石-多硅白云母矿物温压计计算,获得的温压范围为630～777℃和2.58～2.70GPa,峰期变质条件接近于石英-柯石英转变线。榴辉岩的原岩经历了从高绿片岩相、角闪岩相、榴辉岩相、角闪岩相到高绿片岩相的变质过程,这反映了与古特提斯洋闭合有关的俯冲进变质作用和随后的折返退变质作用。     

Constraining the stepwise migration of the eastern Tibetan Plateau margin by apatite fission track thermochronology

Granites sampled from Garzê-Litang thrust, Longmen Shan thrust, Garzê and Litang strike-slip faults in the eastern Tibetan Plateau have been analyzed with apatite fission track thermochronological method in this study. The measured fission track apparent ages, combined with the simulated annealing mod- eling of the thermal history, have been used to reconstruct the thermal evolutionary histories of the samples and interpret the active history of the thrusts and faults in these areas. Thermal history mod- eling shows that earlier tectonic cooling occurred in the Garzê-Litang thrust in Miocene (~20―16 Ma) whereas the later cooling occurred mainly in the Longmen Shan thrust since ~5 Ma. Our study sug- gests that the margin of eastern Tibetan Plateau was extended by stages: through strike-slip faults deformations and related thrusts, the upper crust formed the Garzê-Litang margin in the Miocene epoch and then moved to the Longmen Shan margin since ~5 Ma. During this process, the deformations of different phases in the eastern Tibetan Plateau were absorbed by the thrusts within them and conse- quently the tectonic events of long-distance slip and extrusion up to hundreds of kilometers have not been found.     

An 8.1Ma calcite record of Asian summer monsoon evolution on the Chinese central Loess Plateau

Carbonates in loess-red clay sequences consist mainly of calcite and dolomite. The EDTA analysis of carbonates in different size fractions and magnetic susceptibility reveal that calcite is a sensitive index of summer monsoon. The chemical analysis of carbonates and calcite from an 8.1 Ma loess-red clay sequence at Chaona on the Chinese central Loess Plateau shows that the evolution of the Asian summer monsoon experienced four stages, namely 8.1―5.5 Ma, 5.5―2.8 Ma, 2.8―1.5 Ma and 1.5―0 Ma, with increasing intensification and fluctuation, suggesting a possible combining impacts of uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and global changes on the Asian summer monsoon.     

Soil organic carbon storage and soil CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> flux in the alpine meadow ecosystem

High-resolution sampling, measurements of organic carbon contents and ¹⁴C signatures of selected four soil profiles in the Haibei Station situated on the northeast Tibetan Plateau, and application of ¹⁴C tracing technology were conducted in an attempt to investigate the turnover times of soil organic carbon and the soil-CO₂ flux in the alpine meadow ecosystem. The results show that the organic carbon stored in the soils varies from 22.12×10⁴ kg C hm⁻² to 30.75×10⁴ kg C hm⁻² in the alpine meadow ecosystems, with an average of 26.86×10⁴ kg C hm⁻². Turnover times of organic carbon pools increase with depth from 45 a to 73 a in the surface soil horizon to hundreds of years or millennia or even longer at the deep soil horizons in the alpine meadow ecosystems. The soil-CO₂ flux ranges from 103.24 g C m⁻² a⁻¹ to 254.93 gC m⁻² a⁻¹, with an average of 191.23 g C m⁻² a⁻¹. The CO₂ efflux produced from microbial decomposition of organic matter varies from 73.3 g C m⁻² a⁻¹ to 181 g C m⁻² a⁻¹. More than 30% of total soil organic carbon resides in the active carbon pool and 72.8%281.23% of total CO₂ emitted from organic matter decomposition results from the topsoil horizon (from 0 cm to 10 cm) for the Kobresia meadow. Responding to global warming, the storage, volume of flow and fate of the soil organic carbon in the alpine meadow ecosystem of the Tibetan Plateau will be changed, which needs further research. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40231015, 40471120 and 40473002) and the Guangdong Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 06300102)     

青海南部杂多地区超镁铁质-镁铁质岩石的特征及Ar—Ar定年

通过野外地质研究和室内岩相学、岩石地球化学研究,在位于青藏高原中部的青海杂多地区的双湖-澜沧江结合带中发现了一套超镁铁质岩、镁铁质岩。该超镁铁质岩、镁铁质岩沿北西—南东向区域构造线多呈岩脉状侵入在早石炭世杂多群中,局部呈构造透镜体分布在断裂带中或呈包体分布在白垩纪花岗岩中,出露规模不大,局部侵入体具有层状侵入杂岩体的特征。主要岩石类型为辉石橄榄岩、辉长岩、辉长辉绿岩,岩石地球化学具高Ti、Fe、Al、Ga和LREE中等富集的特征。橄榄岩中角闪石的~(40)Ar/~(39)Ar同位素测年得到275.3Ma±1.9Ma的坪年龄,表明这套超镁铁—镁铁质岩石可能为早、中二叠世弧后盆地拉张的产物。     

青藏高原北部新生代湖相碳酸盐岩碳氧同位素特征及古环境意义

对青藏高原北部地区新生代陆相地层中湖相碳酸盐岩进行了系统采样分析，以碳氧同位素作为古环境和古气候变化的替代指标,试图从古湖泊演化的角度，阐明高原新生代早期环境演变历史和过程。研究结果表明，该区所有分析样品中生物碎屑灰岩类样品的δ¹⁸O和δ¹³C显示最低值，反映它们沉积在一个水体滞留时间短的开放性淡水湖泊系统中。泥晶灰岩类样品的δ¹⁸O和δ¹³C之间具有正相关关系，表明它们发育在蒸发作用明显的封闭性咸水湖泊体系中，而叠层石灰岩类明显富集13C可能与微生物活动有关。从始新世到渐新世至中新世，湖相碳酸盐岩δ¹⁸O值具有逐渐增大的趋势，δ¹³C则由古近纪的负值变为新近纪的正值，反映该区古湖泊系统经历了一个由开放到封闭的过程，预示古近纪到新近纪之交高原古气候格局发生了重大变革。     

青藏高原羌塘中部果干加年山上三叠统望湖岭组的建立及意义

在果干加年山的主脊及其以北识别出一套稳定的沉积岩系,角度不整合于蛇绿混杂岩之上,以细砂岩、硅质粉砂岩为主,其中夹有大小不等的古生代外来岩块,底砾岩成分因地而异并具有快速堆积的特点,底部夹有流纹岩。厚度大于1633m。流纹岩夹层获得的锆石SHRIMPU-Pb谐和年龄为214Ma±4Ma,时代为晚三叠世诺利期。在剖面测制和区域对比的基础上建立了上三叠统望湖岭组,代表龙木错-双湖缝合带闭合以后接受的最早的沉积盖层。望湖岭组之下的蛇绿混杂岩获得阳起石Ar-Ar年龄219.7Ma±6.5Ma。同位素定年确定构造转化事件发生在214～220Ma之间,为龙木错-双湖缝合带的闭合时间提供了确切的时间约束,望湖岭组是这一事件的沉积记录,是龙木错-双湖缝合带蛇绿混杂岩之上首次发现的沉积盖层。