Is Darwin's ‘Abominable Mystery’ still a mystery today?

Darwin described the Cretaceous diversification and subsequent rapid rise of flowering plants (angiosperms) as an “abominable mystery”: how could they have achieved worldwide ecological dominance by early Paleogene times when the oldest angiosperm fossils are only Cretaceous in age? However, recent phylogenetic and palaeobiogeographical analyses have suggested a much earlier, perhaps Triassic origin for the stem angiosperms. We suggest that the fossil record is accurately reflecting the rapid diversification of the crown angiosperms that molecular data suggests occurred in Cretaceous–early Palaeogene times, and which coincides with similar explosive diversifications that occurred in other parts of the terrestrial biota including insects, birds and mammals. Early, stem angiosperms are poorly represented in the fossil record for a combination of taphonomic and ecological reasons. We conclude that the reported evidence shows that the Darwin's “mystery” is in fact no mystery and confirms that it merely requires an appropriate reading of the fossil record.     

雷州半岛局部地热异常及其形成机制

雷州半岛地热场主要受基底构造格局的控制和地下水活动的影响,隐伏花岗岩体放射性元素生热对盖层地温的贡献不可忽视,第四纪更新世火山喷发活动的岩浆余热已几乎完全散失,岩浆体和围岩温度已趋于平衡。由火山喷发而形成的雷北螺岗岭和雷南石峁岭两个玄武岩台地,为半岛地下水的主要补给区,由于冷水流下渗的地温效应,新生界盖层浅部地温梯度<3℃/100m,呈现地热负异常。在以传导传热为主的区域,地热场特点与华北盆地相似,新生界盖层地温梯度与基底岩面的埋深密切相关。由于地壳深部较均一的热流在地壳表部再分配的结果,若干凸起区盖层地温梯度为4—5℃/100m,呈现地热正异常。某些控制凸起区的边界断裂,当深层热水沿其上涌,造成附加热源,和传导传热相叠加,盖层地温梯度可高达5—8℃/100m,形成更鲜明的地热正异常。     

Faunal and palaeoenvironmental changes in the Çal Basin,SW Anatolia: Implications for regional stratigraphic correlation of late Cenozoic basins

The Çal Basin formed in the late Miocene as an orogen-top rift hosting terrestrial sedimentation. The initial array of alluvial fans in a half-graben basin was replaced by an axial meandering-river system during the late Tortonian. Palaeomammal taxa indicate a mid-Turolian age of the deposits and a grass-dominated steppe ecosystem. Isotopic data from pedogenic carbonates indicate a warm, semiarid to arid climate. Subhumid to humid climatic conditions prevailed in the Pliocene, with a palustrine environment and savannah-type open ecosystem, recording a regional response to the marine flooding that terminated the Messinian ‘salinity crisis’ in the Mediterranean. Pleistocene saw re-establishment of a fluvial system in the basin with the development of an open steppe ecosystem in warm, semiarid to arid climatic conditions. The sedimentary facies analysis of the basin-fill succession, combined with biostratigraphic data, render the basin a regional reference and help to refine the Neogene tectono-climatic history of SW Anatolia.     

沉积盆地中恢复地层剥蚀量的新方法

主要介绍了磷灰石裂变径迹分析法,沉积波动过程分析法和宇宙成因核素分析法等３种恢复和计算地层剥蚀量的新方法。它们的优点是不但给出一个剥蚀面造成的地层总的剥蚀量,还能详细刻画整个剥蚀过程,从而能计算出每一期构造抬升引起的地层剥蚀量。     

Glacier fluctuations in the southern Peruvian Andes during the late‐glacial period,constrained with cosmogenic 3He

The occurrence of pronounced climate reversals during the last glacial termination has long been recognised in palaeoclimate records from both hemispheres and from high to low latitudes. Accurate constraint of both the timing and magnitude of events, such as the Younger Dryas and Antarctic Cold Reversal, is vital in order to test different hypotheses for the causes and propagation of abrupt climate change. However, in contrast to higher‐latitude regions, well‐dated records from the Tropics are rare and the structure of late‐glacial tropical climate remains uncertain. As a step toward addressing this problem, we present an in situ cosmogenic ³He surface exposure chronology from Nevado Coropuna, southern Peru, documenting a significant fluctuation of the ice margin during the late‐glacial period. Ten tightly clustered ages from a pair of moraines located halfway between the modern glacier and the Last Glacial Maximum terminus range from 11.9 to 13.9 ka and give an arithmetic mean age of 12.8 ± 0.7 ka (1σ). These data constitute direct evidence for a readvance, or prolonged stillstand, of glaciers in the arid Andes of southwestern Peru. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Applications géodésiques du système DORIS à l'Institut géographique national

IGN is in charge of the installation and maintenance of the DORIS orbit determination network. More recently, in collaboration with JPL, precise geodetic computations were performed. The goal of this paper is to recall the various historic contributions of IGN to the DORIS system in their international context and then to describe a new estimation technique developed for a multi-satellite mode, making full profit of a better modeling for satellites and ground clocks as well as tropospheric correction parameters. Derived geodetic results demonstrate a precision in the order of 1 cm for station positions. To cite this article: P. Willis et al., C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).     

Coevolution between Terrestrial Ecosystem and Earth Environment

Coevolution between terrestrial ecosystem and Earth environment is a hot research topic in both biology and geology. Last progresses in these field are reported from following research subjects: evolution of jawed vertebrates(gnathostomata) from Silurian; occurrence of earliest forests from Devonian of Xinjiang; biodiversity of insects in amber from Cretaceous of Myanmar; Evolution of primates and geochemistry studies from Eocene/Oligocene; studies of Longdan fauna from Lingxia basin, Gansu Province of earlier Pleistocene and endemic cloven-breast fishes from Pliocene Tibet; the correlations thick-boned fish,Hsianwenia wui, and the aridification of the Qaidam Basin; monsoon climate and its impact on biodiversity; study on the flora from Mankang, Tibet of Miocene and its palaeoclimate; depositional environment and its impact on the preservation of fossils; contraction of high resolution Stratigraphic series by using data of paleomagnetism and mammal fossils.     

沧州地区地热资源开发利用探讨

沧州地区地热资源丰富,开采利用地热资源在该区的经济建设中占据着重要地位。介绍了该地区热储层概况及地热异常区划分、地热资源开发现状、地热井分布利用情况、存在的问题及发展前景。并在此基础上对利用地热资源的情况进行了探讨,提出遵循开发与保护并重的原则,制定科学的地热开发资源规划方案,优化地热井布局,并以市场为导向,大力发展供暖、洗浴、游泳、特色养殖、等区域地热资源合理开发的一些设想与建议。     

论中国陆相侏罗系——白垩系界线

介绍了中国学者近几年在陆相侏罗系—白垩系界线研究领域的最新成果,讨论了陆相侏罗系一白垩系界线研究的原则和方法,指出了目前工作中存在的问题,初步认为在建立中国陆相中生界区域年代系统时要特别注意系、统的界线必须与国际接轨,时间上应与国际系、统界线相一致。如果国际地质科学联合会和国际地层委员会最终采用135Ma作为国际侏罗系—白垩系界线的年龄值,那么冀北—辽西地区陆相侏罗系—白垩系界线推测应在张家口组底部,与区域不整合面相一致,表明热河生物群的时代肯定为早白垩世。如果国际侏罗系—白垩系界线的年龄值将来确定为145Ma,那么冀北—辽西地区陆相侏罗系—白垩系界线推测位于土城子组的上部,意味着冀北地区缺失凡兰吟阶的地层,辽西地区可能缺失凡兰吟阶和欧特里沃阶的地层。