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.     

河南汝阳地区-巨型蜥脚类恐龙股骨化石的发现及其地层学意义

报道了首次在河南省汝阳县发现的大型蜥脚类恐龙股骨化石。从股骨近端的大小来判断,该股骨的实际长度可能超过2m,应属于巨型蜥脚类恐龙的股骨无疑。虽然化石破碎,种属的归属存在一定的困难,但是它的发现无论从晰脚类恐龙的分布、演化还是从地层学上都具有重要意义。该恐龙股骨化石的发现,将该地区原认为属于古近系蟒川组的时代向前推至早白垩世晚期或晚白垩世早期,同时其下伏地层陈宅沟组也应划归白垩纪时期的沉积。     

东太平洋573孔始新世末渐新世纪地层特征及稀土元素地球化学

根据深海钻探样品分析，对东太平洋地区573孔始新世末渐新世初的地层进行了研究，尤其是研究了其稀土元素地球化学特征。各层球粒陨石标准化值曲线平缓，重稀土相对富集，各层Ce严重亏损（第2层轻度亏损），各层的Eu仅轻度亏损。始新世与渐新世的界线地层含钨粘土层的稀土元素含量明显比其它层含量高得多。此外，该层还富含Fe及指示地外成因的Ni、Co、Ir等元素，且底部富含微玻璃陨石。这些特征说明该含金属粘土层的形成与火山活动有显关系，其底部可能还与陨击作用相联系。从区域地质情况来看，始新世末期有明显的生物灭绝和环境变化，微玻璃陨石广泛发育，说明该时期明显的灾变事件发生。     

Pattern,style and timing of British–Irish Ice Sheet advance and retreat over the last 45 000 years: evidence from NW Scotland and the adjacent continental shelf

Predicting the future response of ice sheets to climate warming and rising global sea level is important but difficult. This is especially so when fast-flowing glaciers or ice streams, buffered by ice shelves, are grounded on beds below sea level. What happens when these ice shelves are removed? And how do the ice stream and the surrounding ice sheet respond to the abruptly altered boundary conditions? To address these questions and others we present new geological, geomorphological, geophysical and geochronological data from the ice-stream-dominated NW sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). The study area covers around 45 000 km² of NW Scotland and the surrounding continental shelf. Alongside seabed geomorphological mapping and Quaternary sediment analysis, we use a suite of over 100 new absolute ages (including cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages, optically stimulated luminescence ages and radiocarbon dates) collected from onshore and offshore, to build a sector-wide ice-sheet reconstruction combining all available evidence with Bayesian chronosequence modelling. Using this information we present a detailed assessment of ice-sheet advance/retreat history, and the glaciological connections between different areas of the NW BIIS sector, at different times during the last glacial cycle. The results show a highly dynamic, partly marine, partly terrestrial, ice-sheet sector undergoing large size variations in response to sub-millennial-scale climatic (Dansgaard–Oeschger) cycles over the last 45 000 years. Superimposed on these trends we identify internally driven instabilities, operating at higher frequency, conditioned by local topographic factors, tidewater dynamics and glaciological feedbacks during deglaciation. Specifically, our new evidence indicates extensive marine-terminating ice-sheet glaciation of the NW BIIS sector during Greenland Stadials 12 to 9 – prior to the main ‘Late Weichselian’ ice-sheet glaciation. After a period of restricted glaciation, in Greenland Interstadials 8 to 6, we find good evidence for rapid renewed ice-sheet build-up in NW Scotland, with the Minch ice-stream terminus reaching the continental shelf edge in Greenland Stadial 5, perhaps only briefly. Deglaciation of the NW sector took place in numerous stages. Several grounding-zone wedges and moraines on the mid- and inner continental shelf attest to significant stabilizations of the ice-sheet grounding line, or ice margin, during overall retreat in Greenland Stadials 3 and 2, and to the development of ice shelves. NW Lewis was the first substantial present-day land area to deglaciate, in the first half of Greenland Stadial 3 at a time of globally reduced sea-level c. 26 kabp , followed by Cape Wrath at c. 24 kabp. The topographic confinement of the Minch straits probably promoted ice-shelf development in early Greenland Stadial 2, providing the ice stream with additional support and buffering it somewhat from external drivers. However, c. 20–19 kabp , as the grounding-line migrated into shoreward deepening water, coinciding with a marked change in marine geology and bed strength, the ice stream became unstable. We find that, once underway, grounding-line retreat proceeded in an uninterrupted fashion with the rapid loss of fronting ice shelves – first in the west, then the east troughs – before eventual glacier stabilization at fjord mouths in NW Scotland by ~17 kabp. Around the same time, ~19–17 kabp , ice-sheet lobes readvanced into the East Minch – possibly a glaciological response to the marine-instability-triggered loss of adjacent ice stream (and/or ice shelf) support in the Minch trough. An independent ice cap on Lewis also experienced margin oscillations during mid-Greenland Stadial 2, with an ice-accumulation centre in West Lewis existing into the latter part of Heinrich Stadial 1. Final ice-sheet deglaciation of NW mainland Scotland was punctuated by at least one other coherent readvance at c. 15.5 kabp , before significant ice-mass losses thereafter. At the glacial termination, c. 14.5 kabp , glaciers fed outwash sediment to now-abandoned coastal deltas in NW mainland Scotland around the time of global Meltwater Pulse 1A. Overall, this work on the BIIS NW sector reconstructs a highly dynamic ice-sheet oscillating in extent and volume for much of the last 45 000 years. Periods of expansive ice-sheet glaciation dominated by ice-streaming were interspersed with periods of much more restricted ice-cap or tidewater/fjordic glaciation. Finally, this work indicates that the role of ice streams in ice-sheet evolution is complex but mechanistically important throughout the lifetime of an ice sheet – with ice streams contributing to the regulation of ice-sheet health but also to the acceleration of ice-sheet demise via marine ice-sheet instabilities.     

成藏过程对天然气地球化学特征的控制作用

克拉2和阿克1天然气都具有组分明显偏干、碳同位素明显偏重的特征,如克拉2和阿克1天然气的干燥系数都接近于1.0,克拉2天然气的δ13C₁为-27.3‰～-31.1‰,阿克1天然气的δ13C₁为-21.9‰～-25.2‰,从“源控”的角度似乎这些天然气应该属于过成熟煤成气,这样计算所得到的天然气成熟度远大于实测和模拟计算的源岩成熟度。因此在解释克拉2和阿克1天然气数据的时候,除了“源控”的因素外,更应强调成藏过程的影响。分析认为晚期阶段聚气是造成克拉2和阿克1天然气都具有组分明显偏干、碳同位素明显偏重的主要因素。     

吉林省延边开山屯地区大蒜沟组生物化石的发现及其意义

在延边开山屯地区大蒜沟组地层中,发现的植物化石大部分在吉南—辽东地区太原组中所常见,具有明显的晚石炭世华夏植物群的色彩;动物化石也大多属石炭—二叠纪常见分子。将具有这种生物组合的大蒜沟组置于晚石炭世—早二叠世早期是合适的。     

山东半岛石笋记录的倒数第二次冰消期δ18O变化特征及其气候环境意义

文章基于山东半岛岩溶洞穴(上小峰洞)一根长约41 cm的石笋SD1的铀系测年和稳定同位素组成分析,获得138. 0~125. 8 ka B. P.平均分辨率为30年的石笋δ18O 和δ13C时间序列,并据此讨论了倒数第二次冰消期区域气候和环境变化的特征及与全球变化的联系.在倒数第二次冰消期,上小峰洞石笋( SD1)δ18O的变化与中国南方石笋δ18O的变化具有类似的阶段变化特征,进一步确认了冰消期北大西洋气候对亚洲季风的重要影响.通过对山东石笋高分辨δ18O记录进行时间序列分析,发现该记录存在显著的约60年、 75年和1620年周期,表明太阳活动和北大西洋涛动与该地区气候变化有紧密的联系.同时,通过对比东亚季风区高分辨率石笋记录,认为在倒数第二次冰消期为"两步冰消"的变化特征.除此之外,上小峰洞石笋碳酸盐δ18O冰期和间冰期平均值的差异仅为0. 7‰,远小于内陆洞穴石笋碳酸盐δ18O冰期和间冰期平均值的差异(羊口洞约为1. 4‰,董哥洞约为2. 2‰,三宝洞约为2. 4‰).这一显著差异可能主要源于海岸线迁移造成的海陆格局的变化对区域季风降水及降水氧同位素组成的重要影响;并且冰期-间冰期海平面变化对近海环境记录、大陆架下垫面、海洋沉积物气候指标等都可能产生影响.     

冀北-辽西地区侏罗纪土城子组的时代归属

土城子组的时代归属存有分歧.目前主要有5种观点：①中侏罗世晚期-晚侏罗世早期;②晚侏罗世早期;③晚侏罗世;④晚侏罗世-早白垩世;⑤早白垩世.根据侏罗纪年代地层学的研究现状,综合生物地层、磁性地层及同位素年代学的资料,认为土城子组的时代应为中侏罗世晚期-晚侏罗世早期（Callovian-Oxfordian）.土城子组的同位素年龄在147~136 Ma之间.