Taphonomy of a Baurusuchus (Crocodyliformes,Baurusuchidae) from the Adamantina Formation (Upper Cretaceous,Bauru Basin), Brazil: Implications for preservational modes,time resolution and paleoecology

Upper Cretaceous vertebrate accumulations from the Adamantina Formation are known due to their high taxonomic diversity. On the other hand, taphonomic analyses still are rare, limiting the understanding of processes related to the biostratinomic and fossildiagenetic histories of this lithostratigraphic unit. In 2005, fossils were collected from an outcrop located at Jales municipality, state of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil. From this outcrop, a well-preserved Baurusuchus was recovered, which displays a peculiar set of taphonomic signatures. This paper identifies and interprets taphonomic features of a specimen of Baurusuchus (Crocodyliformes, Baurusuchidae; UFRJ DG 418-R) from the Adamantina Formation (Upper Cretaceous of the Bauru Basin), in Jales municipality, state of São Paulo. Brief taphonomic comparisons with other specimens previously studied (crocodiles and dinosaurs) and a lithofaciological analysis of the outcrop were undertaken in order to enhance the knowledge of the stratigraphy and paleoenvironment and improve the time resolution for the Adamantina Formation in the region of Jales. Furthermore, paleoecological data were interpreted based on the taphonomic analysis.The fossil is composed of an articulated segment of vertebral column, ribs, part of the pelvic girdle and gastralia. There is no hydraulic equivalence between both the specimen of Baurusuchus and the size of quartz grain predominant in the fossiliferous layer, suggesting death in situ or short transport as a “water carcass”. Teeth marks identified on the pubes were assigned to a small/juvenile baurusuchid crocodyliform or a theropod dinosaur. The repositioning of some elements (ribs and dorsal osteoderms) is suggestive of mummification. Desiccation marks were observed and attributed to the stage 1 of weathering. These features suggest subaerial exposure of the carcass prior to burial, however, probably after the mummification. On the other hand, the subaerial exposure was short, because the individual was not fully disarticulated. Furthermore, the degrees of articulation and preservation of the specimen nullify the hypothesis of reworking.Lithofaciological and taphonomic analyses suggest a well-drained floodplain as the burial environment and an arid or semi-arid climate in the region of Jales outcrop. In addition, the taphonomic signatures seem to indicate a time resolution about 10⁰–10⁴ years for the layer where the crocodyliforms were collected, but it seems to have, within this time limit, temporal-mixing among terrestrial crocodiles and dinosaurs collected from the same layer, suggesting time-averaging in this outcrop.     

Safety assessment of infrastructures using a new Bayesian Monte Carlo method

A recently developed Bayesian Monte Carlo (BMC) method and its application to safety assessment of structures are described in this paper. We use a one-dimensional BMC method that was proposed in 2009 by Rajabalinejad in order to develop a weighted logical dependence between successive Monte Carlo simulations. Our main objective in this research is to show that the extended BMC can dramatically improve simulation efficiency by using prior information from modelling and outcomes of preceding simulations. We provide theory and numerical algorithms for an extended BMC method for multi-dimensional problems, integrate it with a probabilistic finite element model and apply these coupled models to assessment of reliability of a flood defence for the 17th Street Flood Wall system in New Orleans. This is the first successful demonstration of the BMC method to a complex system. We provide a comparison of the numerical efficiency for the BMC, Monte Carlo (MC) and Dynamic Bounds methods that are used in reliability assessment of complex infrastructures.     

Frasnian rugose and tabulate corals from the eastern Taurus (Kozan region,Turkey)

A section near the Kilgen Lake (Adana Province) has yielded a fauna of rugose and tabulate corals including Disphyllum cf. rugosum (Wedekind, 1922), D. cf. curtum Hill, 1954, Wapitiphyllum sp., Thamnopora sp., and Alveolites sp. This coral assemblage is consistent with the previous Frasnian age assigned to the limestones of the Gümü?ali Formation. The rather well-preserved material provides new data on the structure and microstructure of Disphyllum and allows to describe in Thamnopora unusual calicinal morphology (septal ridges, median teeth, and pseudopercula) as well as new structures linked to the lateral increase (basal low wall, apical cul-de-sac).     

Tectono-sedimentary evolution of the Upper Prealpine nappe (Switzerland and France): nappe formation by Late Cretaceous-Paleogene accretion

Abstract

The Upper Prealpine nappe of the Swiss and French Prealps consists of a composite stack of various tectonic slivers (Gets, Simme, Dranse and Sarine sub-nappes, from top to bottom). The structural superposition and stratigraphic content of the individual sub-nappes suggests a successive stacking at the South Penninic/Adriatic transition zone during the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleogene. The present paper deals with two aspects. (1) new data obtained from the Complexe de base Series of the Dranse sub-nappe which underlies the Helminthoid Sandstone Formation, and (2) the development of a geodynamic accretionary model for the Upper Prealpine nappe stacking.

The Complexe de base Series reveals a succession of black shales at the base, grading upward into variegated red/green and red shales which were deposited in an abyssal plain environment starved of clastic input. It is overlain by the Helminthoid Sandstone Formation. The combined analysis of planktic and agglutinated benthic foraminifera and comparisons with other Tethyan series suggest an Albian to Campanian age of the Complexe de base succession. Tectonic transport of the abyssal plain segment into a trench environment allowed for the stratigraphic superposition by the Helminthoid sandstone sequence. The present findings combine well with the general scheme of the Upper Prealpine nappe stack and several single results on parts of the nappe stack. We take that opportunity to present a comprehensive model for the tectono-sedimentary evolution of the Upper Prealpine nappe.

We suggest that Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous asymmetric (?) extension at the South Penninic-Adriatic margin created an extensional alloehthon. Later during the mid-Cretaceous, the start of convergence drove the obduction of oceanic crust on the northern margin of the extensional allochthon. The resulting ophiolitic/continental source supplied clasts to the trench basin in front (Manche turbidite series), and the backarc basin (Mocausa Formation) and abyssal plain (Perrières turbidite series) to the South. During Middle to Late Coniacian the main Adriatic margin was thrusted over the obductionrelated mixed belt and established an incipient accretionary prism containing the former trench, backarc and abyssal plain basin fill series. During this stage the Gueyraz (melange) Complex formed, which separates the trench series from the retroarc and abyssal plain formations. On top of the incipient accretionary prism a forearc basin developed hosting the Hundsrück Formation. The frontal abyssal plain formation (Complexe de base) still received few turbiditic intercalations. From Campanian time on, the forearc basin was bypassed and deposition of the Helminthoid Sandstone Formation occurred on the Complexe de base succession. During the Maastrichtian the abyssal plain and trench fill succession (Dranse nappe) was accreted to the incipient wedge, and in front of a newly active buttress, the Gurnigel trench basin was established. Another accretionary event during latest Paleocene/earliest Eocene added parts of that trench series to the base of the wedge (Sarine nappe). During the Late Eocene the accretionary wedge and remaining trench fill series (Gurnigel nappe) were thrusted en-bloc over the Middle Penninic limestone nappes and partly overtook the latter. Continued shortening of the resulting nappe pile and out-of-sequence thrusting accomplished the overriding of the Middle Penninic units over the former South Penninic Gurnigel trench series (inversion of palaeogeographic domains).     

Late Cretaceous ophiolite obduction and Paleocene India-Asia collision in the westernmost Himalaya

Abstract

Collision of the Kohistan island arc with Asia at ~100 Ma resulted in N-S compression within the Neo-Tethys at a spreading center north of the Indo-Pakistani craton. Subsequent India-Asia convergence converted the Neo-Tethyan spreading center into a short-lived subduction zone. The hanging wall of the subduction zone became the Waziristan, Khost and Jalalabad igneous complexes. During the Santonian- Campanian (late Cretaceous), thrusting of the NW IndoPakistani craton beneath Albian oceanic crust and a Cenomanian volcano-sedimentary complex, generated an ophiolite-radiolarite belt. Ophiolite obduction resulted in tectonic loading and flexural subsidence of the NW Indian margin and sub-CCD deposition of shelf-derived olistostromes and turbidites in the foredeep. Campanian-Maastriehtian calci- clastic and siliciclastic sediment gravity flows derived from both margins filled the foredeep as a huge allochthon of Triassic-Jurassic rise and slope strata was thrust ahead of the ophiolites onto the Indo-Pakistani craton. Shallow to intermediate marine strata covered the foredeep during the late Maastrichtian. As ophiolite obduction neared completion during the Maastrichtian, the majority of India-Asia convergence was accommodated along the southern margin of Asia. During the Paleocene, India was thrust beneath a second allochthon that included open marine middle Maastrichtian colored mélange which represents the Asian Makran-Indus-Tsangpo accretionary prism. Latérites that formed on the eroded ophiolites and structurally higher colored mélange during the Paleocene wei’e unconformably overlapped by upper Paleocene and Middle Eocene shallow marine limestone and shale that delineate distinct episodes of Paleocene collisional and Early Eocene post-collisional deformation.     

Analyses d’ouvrages

New structural data and P–T estimates of syn-deformational assemblages within the Beni Bousera peridotites and their crustal envelope are used to explain their Alpine exhumation. The Beni Bousera peridotites occur as thin sheets within high grade crustal units of the lower Sebtides (inner Rif, Morocco) and are composed of weakly deformed spinel lherzolite in the core of the massif and garnet-spinel mylonite at the rim. The main foliation trajectories in both the peridotites and overlying crustal units show systematic rotation towards their mutual contact, indicating a kilometer-scale top to the NW shearing with a dextral component along this crust/mantle contact. Widespread top to the NW shear criteria within the crustal units overlying the peridotite support this feature. Available ages constrain the development of the main foliation in both the peridotites and crustal rocks between 25 and 20 Ma. New P–T data from the peridotites show that deformation occurs during decompression from ≈ 22 kbar, 1050°C to ≈ 9-15 kbar, 800°C. As a consequence, exhumation of the Beni Bousera peridotites takes place during the Oligo-Miocene lithosphere thinning in the footwall of a lithospheric extensional shear zone. The exceptional preservation of garnet within the mylonitic peridotites results from rapid cooling of the border of the massif due to the juxtaposition with colder crustal rocks along this shear zone. Uplifting of the hot mantle rocks simultaneously induces high temperature metamorphism in the overlying crustal units. These new findings allow us to reconstruct the deformation history of the Beni Bousera region and the Alboran domain in the framework of the western Mediterranean geodynamics during the last 40 Myrs.     

新疆尼勒克县圆头山后碰撞花岗斑岩的同位素年代学及地球化学特征

圆头山黑云母花岗斑岩位于尼勒克县城南,岩体普遍发育的铜矿化,以中部碎裂带中矿化最强。岩石具有典型的斑状结构,斑晶由碱性长石和黑云母组成,基质以长石、云母和石英为主,并含有少量的硫化物。圆头山黑云母花岗斑岩的轻重稀土分馏明显,并且明显富集大离子亲石元素(LILE) (除Sr外)和Pb,同时亏损高场强元素(HFSE)和Nb、Ta、P、Ti,显示出弧火山岩的地球化学特征。圆头山黑云母花岗形成年龄为269±3Ma,其源区以具有弧火山岩特征的下地壳为主,同时含有少量的幔源物质,而且在岩体的侵位过程中有高(⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr)_i (0.706054~0.709228)和高Pb含量(5.05×10^-6~32.5×10^-6)的陆壳物质混染。在下地壳物质熔融过程中,位于下地壳底部的富水和成矿元素的MASH带物质也被圈入,使原始岩浆富水和成矿物质。圆头山黑云母花岗斑形成于碰撞后阶段,岩石的形成主要受岩石圈地幔拆沉作用的控制,而岩石圈地幔的拆沉可能与中亚造山带的垮塌或塔里木地幔柱活动有关。     

中国石油地质学创新发展论评

石油地质学是国家石油战略的组成部分,是国家石油安全的组成部分,必须予以高度重视。石油地质学来源于实践。但随着石油勘探开发实践的不断深入,仅仅依靠归纳和总结来自实践的认识已经无法满足人们对石油地质学在科学层面的理解和掌握。从沉积层获得的有关构造、生油、储层方面的知识无法全面解释在结晶基底和火山岩中发育油气藏的事实,而最新揭示出金属、非金属矿床、油气藏与深部构造和深部流体存在密切关系,为我们发展石油地质学提供了崭新的思路。欧洲惠更斯号探测器发现土卫六上存在甲烷湖的事实告诉我们,石油地质学的不仅仅是地质学问题,更是天文学问题。所以,及时吸收消化各学科最新成果,创新发展中国石油地质学,已是保障国家石油安全的当务之急。     

关于1937年菏泽7级地震成因的探讨

本文以三维空间角度，从菏泽地震的地震构造环境、构造应力场、震源闭锁形式和地震玻裂机制等方面探讨了菏泽地震的成因。提出了断裂空间交汇闭锁模式和共轭破裂发震机制，分析了菏泽地震发生在聊考断裂的东侧、濮阳——开封上地幔隆起东翼的原因。     

上地幔顶部电导率异常的起因

地球物理深部探测研究表明,上地幔顶部个别地区具有显著的电导率异常,表现为高电导率和各向异性。造成上地幔顶部电导率异常的机理,一直以来是地球科学中极具争议的问题之一。目前比较流行的解释是由部分熔融产生的熔体和橄榄石中耦合的结构水所致,其它的解释包括由颗粒边界的石墨或硫化物以及其它一些导电性强的矿物所致。这些不同的模型,对于认识上地幔的结构、组成和性质有直接的影响。综合评述了近年来基于岩石学、地球化学、地球物理学、数值模拟和高温高压实验研究等方面的进展,对已有模型伴随的各种问题进行了探讨。局部地区的电导率异常可能主要由固态导电机制造成,但其主要载体可能不是构成地幔主体的橄榄岩,而很可能与上地幔岩石学组成上的宏观不均一性有关。不同地区上地幔顶部的电导率异常,可能由不同的因素造成,可能并不存在所谓的"单一"导电机制。