Late Quaternary submarine bedforms and ice‐sheet flow in Gerlache Strait and on the adjacent continental shelf,Antarctic Peninsula

Geophysical data from Gerlache Strait, Croker Passage, Bismarck Strait and the adjacent continental shelf reveal streamlined subglacial bedforms that were produced at the bed of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet (APIS) during the last glaciation. The spatial arrangement and orientation of these bedforms record the former drainage pattern and flow dynamics of an APIS outlet up‐flow, and feeding into, a palaeo‐ice stream in the Western Bransfield Basin. Evidence suggests that together, they represent a single ice‐flow system that drained the APIS during the last glaciation. The ice‐sheet outlet flowed north/northeastwards through Gerlache Strait and Croker Passage and converged with a second, more easterly ice‐flow tributary on the middle shelf to form the main palaeo‐ice stream. The dominance of drumlins with low elongation ratios suggests that ice‐sheet outlet draining through Gerlache Strait was comparatively slower than the main palaeo‐ice stream in the Western Bransfield Basin, although the low elongation ratios may also partly reflect the lack of sediment. Progressive elongation of drumlins further down‐flow indicates that the ice sheet accelerated through Croker Passage and the western tributary trough, and fed into the main zone of streaming flow in the Western Bransfield Basin. Topography would have exerted a strong control on the development of the palaeo‐ice stream system but subglacial geology may also have been significant given the transition from crystalline bedrock to sedimentary strata on the inner–mid‐shelf. In the broader context, the APIS was drained by a number of major fast‐flowing outlets through cross‐shelf troughs to the outer continental shelf during the last glaciation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evolution of 2:1 layered silicates in low-grade metamorphosed Liassic shales of Central Switzerland

White mica from the Liassic black shales and slates in Central Switzerland was analysed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron microprobe to determine its textural and compositional evolution during very low-grade prograde metamorphism. Samples were studied from the diagenetic zone, anchizone and epizone (T ≈100°–450 °C). Phyllosilicate minerals analysed include illite/smectite (I/S), phengite, muscovite, brammallite, paragonite, margarite and glauconite. Textural evolution primarily is towards larger, more defect-free grains with compositions that approach those of their respective end-members. The smectite-to-illite transformation reduced the amounts of the exchange components SiK_?1Al_?1, MgSiAl_?2, and Fe³⁺Al_?1. These trends continue to a lesser degree in the anchizone and epizone. Correlations between the proportion of smectite in I/S and the composition of I/S indicate that smectite layers may contain a high layer charge. Illite in I/S bears a compositional resemblance to macrocrystalline phengite in some samples, but is different in others. Paragonite first appears in the upper diagenetic zone or lower anchizone as an interlayer-deficient brammallite, and it may be mixed with muscovite on the nanometre scale. Owing to the small calculated structure factor for paragonite-muscovite superstructures, conventional X-ray powder diffraction cannot distinguish between mixed-layer structures and a homogeneous compositionally intermediate solid solutions. However, indirect TEM evidence shows that irregularly shaped domains of Na- and K-rich mica exist below 10 nm. Subsequent coarsening of domains at higher grades produced discrete paragonite grains at the margins of muscovite crystals or in laths parallel to the basal plane of the host muscovite. Margarite appears in the epizone and follows a textural evolution similar to paragonite in that mixtures of margarite, paragonite, and muscovite may initially occur on the nanometre scale. However, no evidence of interlayer-poor margarite has been found.     

High-pressure eclogites in northern Jiangsu – southern Shandong province, eastern China

Abstract Eclogites are distributed for more than 500 km along a major tectonic boundary between the Sino-Korean and Yangtze cratons in central and eastern China. These eclogites usually have high-P assemblages including omphacite + kyanite and/or coesite (or its pseudomorph), and form a high-P eclogite terrane. They occur as isolated lenses or blocks 10 cm to 300 m long in gneisses (Type I), serpentinized garnet peridotites (Type II) and marbles (Type III). Type I eclogites were formed by prograde metamorphism, and their primary metamorphic mineral assemblage consists mainly of garnet [pyrope (Prp) = 15–40 mol%], omphacite [jadeite (Jd) = 34–64 mol%], pargasitic amphibole, kyanite, phengitic muscovite, zoisite, an SiO₂ phase, apatite, rutile and zircon. Type II eclogites characteristically contain no SiO₂ phase, and are divided into prograde eclogites and mantle-derived eclogites. The prograde eclogites of Type II are petrographically similar to Type I eclogites. The mantle-derived eclogites have high MgO/(FeO + Fe₂O₃) and Cr₂O₃ compositions in bulk rock and minerals, and consist mainly of pyrope-rich garnet (Prp = 48–60 mol%), sodic augite (Jd = 10–27 mol%) and rutile. Type III eclogites have an unusual mineral assemblage of grossular-rich (Grs = 57 mol%) garnet + omphacite (Jd = 30–34 mol%) + pargasite + rutile. Pargasitic and taramitic amphiboles, calcic plagioclase (An₆₈), epidote, zoisite, K-feldspar and paragonite occur as inclusions in garnet and omphacite in the prograde eclogites. This suggests that the prograde eclogites were formed by recrystallization of epidote amphibolite and/or amphibolite facies rocks with near-isothermal compression reflecting crustal thickening during continent–continent collision of late Proterozoic age. Equilibrium conditions of the prograde eclogites range from P > 26 kbar and T= 500–750°C in the western part to P > 28 kbar and T= 810–880°C in the eastern part of the high-P eclogite terrane. The prograde eclogites in the eastern part are considered to have been derived from a deeper position than those in the western part. Subsequent reactions, manifested by (1) narrow rims of sodic plagioclase or paragonite on kyanite and (2) symplectites between omphacite and quartz are interpreted as an effect of near-isothermal decompression during the retrograde stage. The conditions at which symplectites re-equilibrated tend to increase from west (P < 10 kbar and T < 580°C) to east (P > 9 kbar and T > 680°C). Equilibrium temperatures of Type II mantle-derived eclogites and Type III eclogite are 730–750°C and 680°C, respectively.     

Sm-Nd ISOTOPIC AGE OF LAMPROPHYRES IN THE GEZHEN GOLD-BEARING SHEAR ZONE ON HAINAN ISLAND AND ITS GEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

Sm-Nd isotopic compositions of eight lamprophyre samples, which come from the Gezhen gold-bearing shear zone on western Hainan Island, are measured. The Sm-Nd isochron age is 495.98&#177;13.14 Ma, (143Nd/144Nd) 0=0.512094, εNd(t) ranges from +1.80 to +2.00 and TDM from 982 Ma to 1196 Ma (average: 1060 Ma). The authors point out that the whole-rock Sm-Nd isochron age (495.98 &#177; 13.14 Ma) really represents the petrogenetic age of lamprophyre and the time of magmatism during subsequent subduction.     

秦岭中部山地落叶阔叶林超级垂直带的发现与意义

山地垂直带谱是气候和植被水平地带变化和更替的缩影,垂直带的带幅、带间过渡方式、带内结构和垂直带组合方式都表现出高度的异质性和复杂性。本文发现在中国南北过渡带中部太白山发育了世界上最宽的山地垂直带——山地落叶阔叶林垂直带。该垂直带从基带到典型垂直带再到先锋性垂直带皆为山地落叶阔叶林,3种本来可以独立存在的垂直带,连续分布形成了包含3个栎林亚带、2个桦林亚带的“三层五亚带”超级垂直带,远远超过正常情况下山地垂直带1000 m的阈值,且其上限达到了海拔2800 m。它的形成与秦岭所处的过渡性地理位置、秦岭中部垂直带谱的完整性、丰富的落叶木本植物种群及其形成的强大群落竞争优势等因素紧密相关。超级垂直带的发现有多方面的意义：它是中国南北过渡带又一重要的标志性自然地理特征;它表明山地垂直带在特殊的山地环境中可以具有非常复杂的内部结构和宽大带幅,这扩展了我们对山地垂直带谱结构及机理认识的广度,对于创建山地垂直带谱结构理论具有十分重要的意义;超级垂直带的发现,也说明中国南北过渡带还有很多科学内容有待我们去探索和发现,希望本文能起到抛砖引玉的作用,引起学界对超级垂直带形成的气候和生物多样性因素、地理过渡带的结构和生态效应等重大问题进行深入研究。     

干旱区典型流域近30年土地利用/土地覆被变化的分形特征分析——以玛纳斯河流域为例

利用1976、1989、2005年三期遥感影像,运用GIS和分形理论研究干旱区典型流域——玛纳斯河流域近30年的土地利用/土地覆被变化的复杂性和稳定性。结果表明:玛纳斯河流域各时段的土地利用/土地覆被类型分布具有分形结构,土地利用/土地覆被类型形状复杂性和斑块的稳定性波动变化,1976、1989、2005年三时期的各种土地利用/土地覆被类型总平均分维值分别为1.394 0、1.363 4和1.389 9。总平均稳定性指数分别为0.606 0、0.636 6、0.610 1。三期土地利用/覆被类型平均稳定性排序为:沙地>未利用土地>居民点工矿用地>水域>林地>草地>耕地>盐碱地。耕地、林地、草地、盐碱地稳定性相对较差。通过对流域土地利用/土地覆被类型变化复杂性和稳定性的研究,可以为政府协调水土开发和调整土地利用结构提供支持。     

陕西黄土高原人工林土壤干层及形成原因

1 Introduction Abroad, a lot of research on soil water removal, seeping and evaporation has been done (Ole, 1998; Rapp, 2000). A seeping model of soil water was suggested (Yuin, 1998) and it was known that water removal is very slow in the unsaturated zon…     

黄河海港动力地貌条件的初步探讨

在黄河海港选址及未来预测中,作者通过海岸动力、悬沙分布、粒度特征、地形对比研究法等分析,获得了黄河口迁离黄河海港附近8年后的海底蚀淤厚度、侵蚀与淤积速率、净余侵蚀总重量、泥沙活动带的活动规律与海岸剖面塑造及其演变的关系,从而为黄河海港的设置与工程布局提供了科学依据。