东南极内陆格罗夫山地区新生代冰川活动和古气候演化记录

地处东南极内陆的格罗夫山地区是研究南极冰川进退和气候演化的理想场所。我国第22次南极考察(2005/2006)进行了该地区冰盖进退和古气候演化专题研究。笔者在野外考察过程中,对格罗夫山地区新生代冰川活动记录(包括冰川侵蚀地貌及冰川堆积物)进行了详细的观测,获得了很多有关该地区冰盖进退及古气候演化方面的第一手材料,同时系统回收了对反映该地区古冰川活动具有重要意义的新生代沉积岩漂砾。本文简要报道本次野外考察在冰盖进退和古气候演化方面所取得的主要成果。     

辽宁排山楼金矿围岩的岩石学特征

排山楼地区变质作用的主要因素为热量(约600℃)、化学活动流体和压力(地压应力和挤压应力).地壳震动是造成本区造山作用的原因.这种现象与板块构造理论相吻合.矿物分异作用序列为:首先,受火成侵入活动的影响,产生片麻岩、糜棱岩、花岗岩;然后,经历地压和挤压的作用;最后,发生各种类型蚀变作用,包括绢云母化、硅化、碳酸岩化、方解石化、绿泥石化、脱氧作用等.排山楼金矿成矿模式可概述如下:a)成矿作用为热液蚀变型,矿床赋存在太古宙变质岩大型韧性剪切带中;b)矿体产于裂隙中;c)矿体形态与岩脉和细脉形态一致;d)围岩经历了强烈的蚀变作用;e)黄铁矿是最重要的富金矿物,热液流体来源于侵入体,在流经破碎带和裂隙带后,在围岩中沉积黄铁矿.主要岩石类型有花岗岩、角闪岩、片岩、片麻岩和糜棱岩.区内广泛发育青盘岩化、泥化和绢云母化蚀变作用.主要蚀变矿物有石英、黄铁矿、白云母、绢云母、绿帘石、黑云母、微斜长石、方解石、角闪石、云母和锆石.矿体主要赋存在花岗岩和片麻岩中.主要蚀变作用为绢云母化、黑云母化、硅化和方解石化.蚀变过程中,铁氧化物(铁帽、云母)覆于贫硫酸盐矿石表面.蚀变类型有青盘岩化(黏土)、泥化和绢云母化.通常,氧化铁与黏土矿物的混合影响卫星影像中光谱的反射.利用遥感技术方法,适于这类矿床的进一步预测研究.     

试论岩石构造相及其在储层研究中的意义

近年来取得的油气勘探突破多与古构造活动区密切相关,如渤海湾盆地大港油田千米桥潜山凝析气藏、鄂尔多斯盆地靖边气田、塔里木盆地和田河气田及塔河油田的发现等。多年来的勘探实践证明,适时的古构造隆起对油气运移、聚集和成藏起着十分关键的作用。研究认为构造活动还直接控制着古风化壳岩溶裂缝—洞穴型、裂缝型等多种类型储层或储集体的发育。提出了岩石构造相的概念及分类体系;指出岩石构造相是岩石固结成岩后在不同时期所受构造作用的物质体现,可以按照岩石地层单元、构造运动期次及构造运动方式对其进行分类。分别以冀中坳陷任丘雾迷山组古潜山油藏及四川盆地赤水地区须家河组气藏为例,分析了抬升岩溶构造相及节理构造相储层的特征;认为前者多见于碳酸盐岩,各种溶蚀孔、洞、缝为储集空间,而后者见于不同岩类,构造裂缝及其伴生孔隙为储集空间,它们的物性特征都比较复杂。建议加强储层岩石构造相的研究,开展相关识别技术的开发。     

新疆特克斯县阔拉萨依铁锌矿成矿特征分析

阔拉萨依铁锌矿位于新疆西天山伊犁金铜成矿带—伊什基里克成矿亚带,矿床类型属于火山岩型。文章在对阔拉萨依铁锌矿的成矿地质背景及矿区地质特征进行了系统研究的基础上,对矿区的矿床成因及控矿因素进行了分析,从而推断该区具有良好的铁锌找矿前景。     

Mesozoic and Cenozoic vertical movements in the Atlas system (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia): An overview

The E-W trending Atlas System of Maghreb consists of weakly shortened, intra-continental fold belts associated with plateau areas (“Mesetas”), extending between the south-westernmost branch of the Mediterranean Alpine Belt (Rif-Tell) and the Sahara Platform. Although the Atlas system has been erected contemporaneously from Morocco to Algeria and Tunisia during the Middle Eocene to Recent, it displays a conspicuous longitudinal asymmetry, with i) Paleozoic outcrops restricted to its western part; ii) highest elevation occurring in the west, both in the Atlas System and its foreland (Anti-Atlas); iii) low elevation corridors (e.g. Hodna) and depressed foreland (Tunisian Chotts and Sahel area) in the east. We analyse the origin of these striking contrasts in relation with i) the Variscan heritage; ii) crustal vertical movements during the Mesozoic; iii) crustal shortening during the Cenozoic and finally, iv) the occurrence of a Miocene-Quaternary hot mantle anomaly in the west. The Maghreb lithosphere was affected by the Variscan orogeny, and thus thickened only in its western part. During the Late Permian-Triassic, a paleo-high formed in the west between the Central Atlantic and Alpine Tethys rift systems, giving birth to the emergent/poorly subsident West Moroccan Arch. During the late Middle Jurassic-Early Cretaceous, Morocco and western Algeria were dominantly emergent whereas rifting lasted on in eastern Algeria and Tunisia. We ascribe the uplift of the western regions to thermal doming, consistent with the Late Jurassic and Barremian gabbroic magmatism observed there. After the widespread transgression of the high stand Cenomanian-Turonian seas, the inversion of the Atlas System began during the Senonian as a consequence of the Africa-Eurasia convergence. Erosion affected three ENE-trending uplifted areas of NW Africa, which we consider as lithospheric anticlines related to the incipient Africa-Europe convergence. In contrast, in eastern Algeria and Tunisia a NW-trending rift system developed contemporaneously (Sirt rifting), normal to the general trend of the Atlas System. The general inversion and orogenesis of the Atlas System occurred during two distinct episodes, Middle-Late Eocene-Oligocene and Late Miocene-Pliocene, respectively, whereas during the intervening period, the Africa-Europe convergence was mainly accommodated in the Rif-Tell system. Inversion tectonics and crustal thickening may account for the moderate uplift of the eastern Atlas System, not for the high elevation of the western mountain ranges (Middle Atlas, High Atlas, Anti-Atlas). In line with previous authors, we ascribe part of the recent uplift of the latter regions to the occurrence of a NE-trending, high-temperature mantle anomaly, here labelled the Moroccan Hot Line (MHL), which is also marked by a strip of late Miocene-Quaternary alkaline magmatism and significant seismicity.     

Sediment supply from the Betic-Rif orogen to basins through Neogene

We present a quantification of total and partial (divided by time slices) sedimentary volumes in the Neogene basins of the Betic-Rif orogen. These basins include the Alboran Sea, the intramontane basins, the Guadalquivir and Rharb foreland basins and the Atlantic Margin of the Gibraltar Arc. The total volume of Neogene sediments deposited in these basins is ~ 209,000 km³ and is equally distributed between the internal (Alboran Basin and intramontane basins) and the external basins (foreland basins and Atlantic Margin). The largest volumes are recorded by the Alboran Basin (89,600 km³) and the Atlantic Margin (81,600 km³). The Guadalquivir and Rharb basins amount 14,000 km³ and 14,550 km³, respectively whereas the intramontane basins record 9235 km³. Calculated mean sediment accumulation rates for the early-middle Miocene show an outstanding asymmetry between the Alboran basin (0.24 mm/yr) and the foreland basins (0.06-0.07 mm/yr) and the Atlantic Margin (0.03 mm/yr). During the late Miocene, sedimentation rates range between 0.17 and 0.18 mm/yr recorded in the Alboran Basin and 0.04 mm/yr in the intramontane basins. In the Pliocene-Quaternary, the highest sedimentation rates are recorded in the Atlantic Margin reaching 0.22 mm/yr. Sedimentary contribution shows similar values for the inner and outer basins with a generalized increase from late Miocene to present (from 3500 to 6500 km³/My). Interestingly, the Alboran Basin records the maximum sedimentary contribution during the late Miocene (5500 km³/My), whereas the Atlantic Margin does during the Pliocene-Quaternary (6600 km³/My). The spatial and time variability of the sediment supply from the Betic-Rif orogen to basins is closely related to the morphotectonic evolution of the region. The high sedimentation rates obtained in the Alboran Basin during the early-middle Miocene are related to active extensional tectonics, which produced narrow and deep basins in its western domain. The highest sedimentary contribution in this basin, as well as in the foreland and intramontane basins, is recorded during the late Miocene due to the uplift of wide areas of the Betics and Rif chains. The analysis of the sedimentary supply also evidences strong relationships with the post-Tortonian crustal thickening and coeval topographic amplification that occurred in the central Betics and Rif with the concomitant evolution of the drainage network showing the fluvial capture of some internal basins by rivers draining to the Atlantic Ocean (the ancestral Guadalquivir).     

Something in the Air: Civic science and contentious environmental politics in post-apartheid South Africa

The emergence of an environmental movement in post-apartheid South Africa has involved the reframing of the environment as a ‘brown’ issue, articulating the discourse of social and environmental justice and a rights-based notion of democracy. Environmental movements have pursued a dual strategy of deliberation and activist opposition. Environmental movements have deployed science to pursue the strategic task of democratic opposition and have established networks of environmental knowledge and expertise. Ecological modernization is the dominant approach to environmental governance and adopts a science-based policy approach. In this context the regulation and management of the environment is premised on the need for science, which provides the authoritative basis for a regulatory response. In local environmental movements, there exists a fundamental tension between a cumulative history of lay knowledge about pollution and the lack of official acknowledgement of qualitative narratives. This is accompanied by a lack and suspicion of reliable official data. Environmental movements have thus employed ‘civic science’ strategically to place the issue of air pollution on the political agenda. This paper uses the case of environmental politics in Durban to reflect on the ways in which civic science and lay knowledge, together constituting community hybrid knowledge, are produced and disseminated in order to pressure the state and capital. The three ways in which knowledge is deployed are: to frame environmental problems, in strategies of oppositional advocacy, and in deliberative policy forums. Empirical analysis shows that civic science is produced through knowledge networks, and both lay knowledge and civic science are opportunistically used by environmental movements to engage both inside and outside formal policy making arenas. This deployment of hybrid knowledge by environmental movements represents a broader challenge to the power of science and technology based on increasing evidence of the hazards and risks facing ordinary people in their daily lives.     

Governmentality and security in the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)

This article offers a critical theoretical exploration of the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The article examines the background to PEPFAR and its reauthorization in Washington DC in 2008 through the conceptual lens of governmentality. Building on existing work, it interprets PEPFAR as a programme for securing the welfare of populations. It also qualifies and extends this work in the following ways. Rather than representing a break with the history of geopolitics, it argues that PEPFAR emerged out of accommodations between geopolitics and governmentality. This point is developed through two takes on geopolitics, first in terms of the projection of sovereign power, and second in terms of articulations between PEPFAR and geopolitical economies of global health. The article suggests, first, that the geopolitics of sovereign power shaped the timing, scale and form of PEPFAR, and second, that PEPFAR articulated with geopolitical economies of global health through its mobilization of US-based corporations, non-governmental and faith-based organizations. The article extends existing work by examining the role of critical mobilizations in shaping PEPFAR, both in relation to questions of political economy and the contentious politics of life. Reflecting on the politics of global health, it considers the prospects for using ideas of security and the international response to HIV/AIDS as stepping stones towards the development of broad-based health systems.     

The role of strong earthquakes and tsunami in the Late Holocene evolution of the Fortore River coastal plain (Apulia, Italy): A synthesis

Morphological analysis of the Fortore River coastal plain and the Lesina Lake coastal barrier integrated with radiocarbon age data indicates that the evolution of the coastal landscape has been strongly affected by a number of strong earthquakes and related tsunamis which occurred during the last 3000 years. The first seismic event struck this coastal area in the V century BC. It produced strong erosion of the Fortore River coastal plain and significant emersion of Punta delle Pietre Nere, as well as the large tsunami responsible for the development of the Sant'Andrea washover fan. The second event occurred in 493 AD; it induced severe erosion of the Fortore River coastal plain and triggered the large tsunami that hit the Lesina Lake coastal barrier, producing the Foce Cauto washover fan. Then later in 1627, an earthquake was responsible for the further coseismic uplift of Punta delle Pietre Nere, the subsidence of Lesina village area and the development of a tsunami which produced two washover fans.Morphological analysis points out that seismic events strong enough to control the morphological evolution of local coastal landscapes show a statistical return period of about 1000 years. These major events produced important coseismic vertical movements and large tsunamis. However, the correct identification of the tectonic structure responsible for the generation of these strong earthquakes is still an unsolved problem.     

Vertical crustal motions from differential tide gauge observations and satellite altimetry in southern Italy

Our goal is to determine vertical crustal movement rates from tide gauge and satellite altimetry measurements. Tide gauges measure sea level, but as they are fixed to the crust, they sense both sea surface height variations and vertical crustal movements. The differential sea level rates of sufficiently nearby stations are a good means to determine differential crustal movement rates, when sea level height variations can be assumed to be homogeneous. Satellite altimetric measurements determine sea surface height variations directly and can be used to separate the crustal signal from the sea surface height variations in tide gauge measurements. The correction of the tide gauge sea level rates for the sea surface height contribution requires collocation of the satellite pass and the tide gauge station. We show that even if this is not the case, the satellite altimetric observations enable correction of differential tide gauge rates for the effects of sea surface rate inhomogeneities.