The Quaternary Lancaster Sound trough‐mouth fan,NW Baffin Bay

The development of the Lancaster Sound Trough Mouth Fan (TMF) and glacial history in Arctic Canada were studied using a high‐resolution seismic profile across the entire fan and two piston cores. Stacked tills separated by erosion surfaces on the shelf pass seaward through till deltas into thick transparent glacigenic debris flow (GDF) deposits on the slope, separated by thin, well‐stratified glaciomarine layers. An age model was built by ties to the Ocean Drilling Program Site 645. The deepest GDF on the seismic profile was indicative of the onset of shelf‐crossing glaciation in the Early Pleistocene. The transition of the growth of Lancaster Sound TMF from an aggradational sequence (unit M) to an aggradational–progradational sequence (unit F) occurred at the Middle Pleistocene transition in glacial cyclicity. In the most recent glacial cycle, GDF sheets were deposited during Heinrich events 4 and 2 according to the correlation of the main detrital carbonate beds in two piston cores. The outmost till wedge reflects the maximum advance of the grounding glacier, far seaward of previously proposed Last Glacial Maximum ice extent. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SHRIMP U–Pb geochronology of authigenic xenotime and its potential for dating sedimentary basins

SHRIMP (Sensitive High‐Resolution Ion MicroProbe) analytical procedures have been developed to enable dating of the small, early diagenetic xenotime overgrowths that commonly occur on zircons in siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The method will be particularly useful in Precambrian terranes, where diagenetic xenotime dating could play a role equivalent to biostratigraphic dating in the Phanerozoic. Reliable ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb data are more readily obtained than ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U, which also favours application to the Precambrian. However, it is demonstrated that ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U dating of larger overgrowths (>10 μm) is also viable and applicable to Phanerozoic samples. SHRIMP Pb/Pb geochronology of authigenic xenotime in an unmetamorphosed Palaeoproterozoic sandstone in the Kimberley Basin has constrained diagenesis to a precision of ± 7 Ma. In contrast, greenschist‐facies metasediments of the Archaean Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa, contain both authigenic and alteration xenotime that record a complex history of growth from early diagenesis to the last major thermal event to affect the basin.     

SHRIMP zircon age for an Early Cambrian dolerite dyke: An intrusive phase of the Antrim Plateau Volcanics of northern Australia

The Antrim Plateau Volcanics, Australia's largest Phanerozoic flood‐basalt province, originally covered an area of at least 300 000 km² across northern Australia. Stratigraphic constraints indicate that the Antrim Plateau Volcanics are of Early Cambrian age (ca 545–509 Ma), although previous attempts to date the Antrim basalts by radiometric methods have been inconclusive. We present an ion microprobe U–Pb zircon age of 513 ± 12 Ma for the ～250 km‐long Milliwindi dolerite dyke in the west Kimberley. The dolerite is geochemically identical to basalts of the Antrim Plateau Volcanics, and was probably a feeder dyke for basalts that have since been eroded. It is suggested that the Antrim Plateau Volcanics extended hundreds of kilometres further to the west than recognised previously and may have once covered part of the Kimberley block.     

华山树木年轮年表的建立

本文以秦岭东部的华山为例，论述了建立常规标准化、差值、自回归标准化这三种树木年轮年表的途径，指出了在半湿润地区利用这种途径建立树木年轮气候学年表的必要性，并进一步分析了三种年表对气候要素的响应及其差异。在取样环境较复杂的地点，建立多种年表有利于深入探讨气候要素与树木生长之间的关系，有推广的价值。     

Chronology of the high-pressure metamorphism of Norwegian garnet peridotites/pyroxenites

Eclogite facies mineral assemblages are variably preserved in mafic and ultramafic rocks within the Western Gneiss Region (WGR) of Norway. Mineralogical and microstructural data indicate that some Mg–Cr-rich, Alpine-type peridotites have had a complex metamorphic history. The metamorphic evolution of these rocks has been described in terms of a seven-stage evolutionary model; each stage is characterized by a specific mineral assemblage. Stages II and III both comprise garnet-bearing mineral assemblages. Garnet-bearing assemblages are also present in Fe–Ti-rich peridotites which commonly occur as layers in mafic complexes. Sm–Nd isotopic results are reported for mineral and whole rock samples from both of these types of peridotites and related rocks. The partitioning of Sm and Nd between coexisting garnet and clinopyroxene is used to assess chemical equilibrium. One sample of Mg–Cr-type peridotite shows non-disturbed partitioning of Sm and Nd between Stage II garnet and clinopyroxene pairs and yields a garnet–clinopyroxene–whole-rock date of 1703 ± 29 Ma (I= 0.51069, MSWD = 0.04). This is the best estimate for the age of the Stage II high-P assemblage. Other Stage II garnet–clinopyroxene pairs reflect later disturbance of the Sm–Nd system and yield dates in the range 1303 to 1040 Ma. These dates may not have any geological significance. Stage III garnet–clinopyroxene pairs typically have equilibrated Sm–Nd partitioning and two samples yield dates of 437 ± 58 and 511 ± 18 Ma. This suggests that equilibration of the Stage III high-P assemblage is related to the Caledonian orogeny and is more or less contemporaneous with high-P metamorphism of ‘country-rock’eclogites in the surrounding gneisses. The Sm–Nd mineral data for the Fe–Ti-rich garnet peridotites and for a superferrian eclogite, which occurs as a dyke within the Gurskebotn Mg–Cr-type peridotite, are consistent with a Palaeozoic high-P metamorphism. Finally a synoptic P–T–t path is proposed for the Mg–Cr-type peridotites which is consistent with the petrological and geochronological data.     

TEMPERATURE SEQUENCE AND ITS CHANGE FOR RECENT 200 YEARS IN THE MIDDLE REACHES OF THE TARIM RIVER

Based on the populus euphratica chronologies in the middle reaches of the Tarim River,the temperaturesequence in growing season of populus euphratica for recent 200 years at Shaya weather station is reconstructed,which can be regarded as evidence of warm-cold changes in recent 100 years in the middle reaches of theTarim River.     

Neptune: A marine micropaleontology database

Marine micropaleontology must in the future provide more precise chronologic and paleoenvironmental information, which in turn must be based on better, more consistent taxonomic and distributional data. Better tools for synthesis and standardization of this data are needed, as the ever expanding published literature is rapidly becoming unmanageable by purely manual compilation methods. The micropaleontology group at the ETH has developed a large relational database of marine microfossil data to partially meet this need. It currently contains biogeographic data on the distribution in Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) holes of nearly 8,000 species of Cenozoic planktonic foraminifera, radiolaria, diatoms and calcareous nannofossils. The database also includes full stratigraphic occurrence (range chart) data for these fossil groups from more than 100 selected Neogene holes. A particular feature of the database is that all sample information and species names in the original reports are linked to newly created, updatable, comprehensive age models and synonymy lists which reflect modern chronology and taxonomic usage. Searches of the database automatically make use of this information in producing reports. Species ' occurrences, including first and last occurrence information, can be further analyzed using external spreadsheet and statistics packages; plotted by mapping programs; or displayed by a new program which creates composite age-range charts.     

准噶尔盆地第三纪磁性地层柱的建立

通过对新疆准噶尔盆地第三系３个剖面古地磁样品的分析、测试，在生物地层学研究的基础上，建立了一条较为完整的第三纪磁性地层柱，标定了各组地质年代，为在不同盆地进行对比，提供了新的依据。     

High resolution time series of lead and zinc in sediments of Lake Constance

Sediments in Lake Constance have been dated by radiometric methods and lamination counting. Investigations into the concentrations of lead and zinc in the sediments were carried out to get detailed information about environmental history. Maximum concentrations were found at the beginning of the 1960's. The lead maximum contamination occurred 3 years before the zinc maximum and has an unidentified source. The use of coal, leaded gasoline or the remobilization within the sediment could be excluded to result in the lead maximum. The fluctuations in zinc contamination could be explained with increasing and decreasing pollution (industry, coal burning, building of sewage plants). The greatest fluctuations of both metals occur during periods of great change in the economic history of Germany.