The Eltanin asteroid impact: possible South Pacific palaeomegatsunami footprint and potential implications for the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition

Large asteroid impacts are rare, and those into the deep ocean are rarer still. The Eltanin asteroid impact around 2.51 ± 0.07 Ma occurred at a time of great climatic and geological change associated with the Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary. Numerical models of the event indicate that a megatsunami was generated, although there is debate concerning its magnitude and the region‐wide extent of its influence. We summarise the existing evidence for possible Eltanin megatsunami deposits in Antarctica, Chile and New Zealand, while also examining other potential sites from several locations, mainly around the South Pacific region. In reviewing these data we note that these events were unfolding at the same time as those associated with the Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary and, as such, most of the geological evidence from that time has a climatic interpretation. The potential climatic and geological ramifications of the Eltanin asteroid impact, however, have failed to be considered by most researchers studying this time period. Although we are not advocating that all geological activity at that time is connected with the Eltanin asteroid impact, it raises interesting questions about the role potentially played by such catastrophic events in contributing to or even triggering epochal transitions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

南京直立人的发现及其研究意义

南京直立人的发现与研究的主要意义在于深入探讨了南京汤山葫芦洞古人类头骨的性质、性别、年龄、病理、环境、遗传基因和时代等一系列学术问题。对古人类在南京地区的发现、发展演化及其与国内外已知直立人的关系等方面的研究提供了重要证据。     

中亚陆间区南带上古生界构造和油气远景（代序）

安加拉-阿尔丹和华北-塔里木两大克拉通之间地壳相对活动性的地区,地质界多称为中亚陆间区,其南带大部分在中国境内。近年来,中国开始把其上古生界作为油气新区、新领域。多数人认为,其在晚古生代已形成过渡型地壳区,其中有许多地块已逐步拼合,在其上发育裂谷型沉积地质体,未受到区域变质,若干实体变形微弱并被上覆层掩盖而得到保存。源于上古生界的油气既可赋存在其内,也可运聚于中生界或基岩内,在其西段已发现了大中型油气田群。但其整体地质研究程度偏低,仍有许多重大区域地质、油气地质问题存在歧见。针对其近年来的进展、存在的问题和油气远景评价作了概括性的评论。     

Associated terrestrial and marine fossils in the late-glacial Presumpscot Formation, southern Maine, USA, and the marine reservoir effect on radiocarbon ages

Excavations in the late-glacial Presumpscot Formation at Portland, Maine, uncovered tree remains and other terrestrial organics associated with marine invertebrate shells in a landslide deposit. Buds of Populus balsamifera (balsam poplar) occurred with twigs of Picea glauca (white spruce) in the Presumpscot clay. Tree rings in Picea logs indicate that the trees all died during winter dormancy in the same year. Ring widths show patterns of variation indicating responses to environmental changes. Fossil mosses and insects represent a variety of species and wet to dry microsites. The late-glacial environment at the site was similar to that of today's Maine coast. Radiocarbon ages of 14 tree samples are 11,907 ± 31 to 11,650 ± 50 ¹⁴C yr BP. Wiggle matching of dated tree-ring segments to radiocarbon calibration data sets dates the landslide occurrence at ca. 13,520 + 95/−20 cal yr BP. Ages of shells juxtaposed with the logs are 12,850 ± 65 ¹⁴C yr BP (Mytilus edulis) and 12,800 ± 55 ¹⁴C yr BP (Balanus sp.), indicating a marine reservoir age of about 1000 yr. Using this value to correct previously published radiocarbon ages reduces the discrepancy between the Maine deglaciation chronology and the varve-based chronology elsewhere in New England.     

Anomiid (bivalve) bioerosion on Pleistocene pectinid (bivalve) shells,Rhodes, Greece

A trace fossil, Centrichnus eccentricus, was found beneath a saddle oyster (Anomia ephippium) that was preserved undisturbed on its substratum (a shell of Pecten jacobaeus), at the site of attachment of the calcified byssus.     

A New Species of Tsuga (Pinaceae) based on Lignified Wood from the Late Miocene of Central Yunnan, China, and Its Paleoenvironmental Implications

A new species, Tsuga nanfengensis sp. nov. (Pinaceae), is described on the basis of lignified fossil wood from the late Miocene of the Xianfeng Basin, central Yunnan, southwestern China. Detailed observation of the fossil wood specimens show the following characteristics: distinct growth rings, absence of resin canals, uniseriate bordered pits in the radial wall of tracheids, ray tracheids and piceoid and cupressoid cross-field pits. These features indicate similarities to the wood of extant Tsuga canadensis, T. chinensis, and T. dumosa. According to the fossil record, Tsuga was present in Xundian County during the Miocene. Today Tsuga is drought intolerant, preferring wet conditions with no extant species growing naturally in Xundian County. The presence of Tsuga in the Miocene of Xundian County indicates a humid climate consistent with previous palaeoclimatic reconstructions showing a wetter and probably shorter dry season in the Miocene, relative to the present day. Therefore, the change in the local climate such as increasing aridity through the Miocene might explain the local extinction of Tsuga from central Yunnan.     

Re-evaluation of the Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy of Herefordshire,England

Lithostratigraphical analysis of remnants of high-level, poorly sorted gravel remnants in northeast Herefordshire has allowed the revision and expansion of the existing regional Middle Pleistocene stratigraphical sequence to incorporate two new formations. The oldest Pleistocene sediments in the region, the Humber Formation, represents part of a major, northerly derived, cold-stage fluvial system, which incorporated the ancestors of the rivers Lugg and Wye and tributaries of the Severn. The Risbury Formation consists of glacigenic sediments, which were deposited by a large ice-lobe emanating from a Welsh ice-cap. The Risbury Formation is correlated with glacigenic deposits in the Cradley Brook Valley on the west side of the Malvern Hills, which were formerly ascribed to a pre-Hoxnian, Severn Valley ice-sheet. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Late Pleistocene sea-level oscillations (MIS 10–2) recorded in shallow marine and coastal plain sediments of the southern Wanganui Basin, New Zealand

The northern Wanganui Basin, New Zealand, is one of the key global sites for understanding marine cyclic sedimentation during the Quaternary. This paper presents the first evidence of marine cyclic sedimentation from its central-southern parts. Sedimentological, micropalaeontological and palynological analyses on a 280-m-deep borehole encountered units dating back to MIS 10. The sequence includes four marine cycles spanning MIS 9–5, which are overlain by terrestrial fluvial aggradation surfaces dating from MIS 4–2. Each marine unit represents a progressively shallowing depositional environment from the mid-shelf to coastal plain. This is overlain by a terrestrial sequence of lowstand fluvial terraces. Localized fault movements appear to have influenced the sedimentary character of the sequence during MIS 7a and 5e producing basement highs which provided protection to the shoreline. The cyclothems described in this paper now extend the already extensive, previously described record from MIS 17–10 to produce a combined eustatic record of Quaternary sea level change within the basin to MIS 5. They also provide an excellent example of the sedimentary response of a coastal basin to a progressive loss of sedimentation accommodation space.     

南京汤山驼子洞洞穴堆积及其意义

通过对南京汤山驼子洞洞穴堆积观察描述和样品分析测试,结合前人研究成果和汤山地区地质地貌演化的历史,讨论了驼子洞堆积的时代、堆积过程和方式,并对其蕴含的构造、地貌、气候和生物进化等古环境信息进行了合理的挖掘。初步研究表明驼子洞堆积可能是跨早更新世与中更新世早期的地层,其上部含哺乳动物化石的堆积可能反映了偏暖的气候环境。     

新型压力均布型锚索锚固机理的试验研究

通过改变压力型锚索锚固段承载体结构形式和锚固段围岩强度,研究新型压力均布型锚索锚固段承载体和砂浆之间作用力传递机理,获得承载体压力分布及其大小,阐述注浆体抗剪性能的变化,从而可以确定压力均布型锚索合理的承载体结构形式。研究结果表明压力均布型锚索承载体轴力沿钢管径向均布,承载体表面肋状结构增加砂浆体的抗剪性能,大大提高压力均布型锚索的锚固能力,从而可以优化锚索锚固段的长度。