Chalk micropalaeontology and the provenancing of middle pleistocene lowestoft formation till in eastern England

The distribution and deposits of British and Scandinavian Middle Pleistocene ice sheets in eastern England remain problematic. A new till provenancing technique based on Chalk micropalaeontology is described, with the object of refining understanding of the ice sheet which deposited the Lowestoft Formation till (Anglian/Elsterian) and its relationship to Scandinavian ice sheets. The technique involves extracting foraminifera from Chalk erratics and till matrix obtained from stratigraphically controlled till sections and comparing their micropalaeontology with that of Upper Cretaceous Chalk bedrock. Application to the Lowestoft Formation till of eastern England suggests that current models of ice‐flow in this region require revision involving reinstatement of some earlier ideas. Chalk provenance data indicate an initial phase of glaciation, with ice streaming southwards across eastern England before fanning across East Anglia from the position of the Fen basin. This was followed by a later phase in which the main southward trajectory of ice‐flow was located further east in the North Sea Basin, but again with ice fanning out across East Anglia. These ice‐flow trajectories imply constraint of the British ice sheet by Scandinavian ice. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopic characterization of Neoproterozoic organic microfossils from the Fifteenmile Group in Yukon,Canada

Conventional and synchrotron radiation‐based (SR) Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopies (micro‐FTIR) were applied to four types of ~ 810 Ma organic‐walled microfossils together with diffuse organic matter (OM) and one irregularly shaped structure from the Fifteenmile Group, in Yukon, Canada, for their chemical characterization. The microfossils comprised one filamentous type and three coccoidal types. Micro‐FTIR mapping analysis revealed the micrometer‐scale, spatial distribution of organic components (aliphatic C‐H bonds) and carbonate in the microfossils. Based on comparisons of CH₃/CH₂ peak height ratios (R_3/2) and morphologies of the microfossils (without the diffuse OM) to those of previously described Proterozoic microfossils, possible affinities of the microfossils are suggested, as follows. Palaeolyngbya? and Glenobotrydion belong to bacteria. Myxococcoides is not clearly characterized due to the significant mixing with diffuse OM containing abundant aliphatic C‐H groups. The irregularly shaped structure may represent a eukaryote. The diffuse OM may represent a mixture of decomposed microbial cells and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). SR micro‐FTIR measurements of two coccoid types (Glenobotrydion and Unnamed Coccoid Form D) revealed that the R_3/2 values of the internal spots with wall structures are similar to those without wall structures in Glenobotrydion: those values from Unnamed Coccoid Form D were different. The results suggest that these two coccoids are different chemically as well as morphologically. Micro‐FTIR characterization of the organic‐walled microfossils together with morphological analysis provides new insight into their biological affinities.     

New Riphean microbiotas of the Billyakh Group,the north Anabar region (Fomich River basin): To Riphean biostratigraphy of the Siberian platform

Excellently preserved organic-walled and silicified microfossils are first found in the Lower Riphean Ust-Il’ya and Kotuikan formations of the Billyakh Group in the northern slope of the Anabar Uplift (the Fomich River basin). Similar assemblages were previously known only from sections located southward in the Kotuikan River basin, and taxonomic composition of organic-walled microbiotas from the Ust-Il’ya and Kotuikan formations became a corner stone in competitive microphytological models that are based on different approaches. In their composition and general appearance, microbiotas from the Kotuikan and Ust-Il’ya formations in the Fomich River basin are similar to microbiotas reported from the Kotuikan River basin, although northern sections of the above formations characterize deeper sedimentation settings than in localities known before. The Ust-Il’ya and Kotuikan assemblages of organic-walled microfossils include sphaeromorphic Chuaria circularis and Leiosphaeridia, two-layer vesicles the genus Simia, filamentous Plicatidium and Taenitrichoides, and some others. The silicified microbiota from the lower Kotuikan Subformation is largely composed of akinetes of Anabaena-like cyanobacteria Archaeoellipsoides, spherical Myxococcoides grandis, and short trichomes Filiconstrictosus and Orculiphycus representing initial germination stages of Anabaena-like cyanobacterial spores. Acanthomorphic acritarchs known from lithology-similar Lower and Middle Riphean (Mesoproterozoic) formations of Australia and China have not been observed in the Ust-Il’ya and Kotuikan microbiotas, which are probably of older age. The found microbiotas outline substantially wider distribution area of organic-walled and silicified microfossils, supplement microphytological characteristics of Riphean sediments in the Anabar Uplift, provide information on taxonomic composition of microbiotas from a wider spectrum of facies, and specify relationships between Early and Middle Riphean assemblages of microorganisms from different continents.     

用微体古生物定量水深法对东营凹陷沙四上亚段沉积早期湖泊水深再造

东营凹陷广布的始新统沙河街组四段上亚段滩坝砂岩具有十分巨大的勘探价值和潜力。对沙河街组沙四上亚段滩坝砂体的精细勘探,要求对古水深展开水深量化再造的研究。文中在对东营凹陷47口含沙四上亚层段低位域层段多门类微体古生物分析和高分辨层序地层学地层划分基础上,确定量化估计水深的古生物替代标志,获得如下主要研究成果:(1)获得较高分辨率(2m等深线表示)的东营凹陷沙四上亚段低位体系域沉积期间古水深量化等值图;(2)东营凹陷是一个以滨浅湖(水深0～15m)为主的湖泊;(3)湖盆具"北深陡南浅缓"的特点,湖边高地或隆起向湖方向深入的岬角一带与陡坡冲积环境相邻;(4)湖盆凹陷内"东西分异"的次级地貌格局,从东向西,出现较深水区、中央深水区和西南浅水带,其长轴均为北东-南西走向。上述结果可与前人研究比较或验证,表明文中所获的多门类微体化石叠合水深量化标志和结果可信。     

Long-distance transport of terrestrial plant material by convection resulting from forest fires

Paleoecologists widely accept macroscopic plant remains preserved in lake sediment as good indicators of the vegetation communities growing within and adjacent to the margin of a lake or mire. However, the study of ash fallout from a small to moderate size forest fire in a low elevation Pseudotsuga menziesii/Pinus contorta/Abies lasiocarpa stand near Bozeman, Montana suggests that certain macroscopic plant remains can be transported long distances through the atmosphere. Conifer needles, pollen cones, cone scales, bracts and wood fragments were transported via the atmosphere and subsequently deposited at least 20 km from the forest fire. The majority of the plant remains that were identified were A. lasiocarpa needles. Pseudotsuga menziesii and P. contorta needles were also identified, but both were less abundant than A. lasiocarpa. The plant material that was recovered exhibited varying degrees of charring suggesting that it may be difficult to distinguish plant material that has been transported long-distances by forest fires from that which has been derived locally. Severe convection and vortices associated with intense forest fires are believed to be the primary mechanisms responsible for transporting plant material via the atmosphere.     

The Upper Riphean of the Yenisei Range

The Yenisei Range and the adjacent territories in the east are subdivided into (1) the Mid-Angara intracratonic depression; (2) the Yenisei pericratonic trough; and 3) a marginal oceanic block, the Isakovka-Predivinsk area. The lower part of the Riphean succession is subdivided into two principally different sedimentary complexes — the Lower Sukhoi Pit Subgroup and the Upper Sukhoi Pit Subgroup (the Pogoryui-Alad'in interval of the succession). The fundamental nature of the events that separate these two complexes and the characteristic, rhythmically bedded structure of the Upper Sukhoi Pit Subgroup allow the latter to be ranked a separate straton, the Bol'shoi Pit Group. Its lower boundary is associated with the Grenvillian events commencing with the emplacement of the Teya granite-gneiss domes and other intrusive complexes dated at 1100–1000 Ma. In the sedimentation record these events are manifested as a sudden change from the slate complex, for which we keep the name Sukhoi Pit Group, to the rhythmically bedded succession of the Bol'shoi Pit Group. The latter is interpreted as a product of uproofing of an elevated hinterland to the west. Insofar as the amplitude of this elevated area decreases progressively toward the Mid-Angara trough, the Bol'shoi Pit erosional unconformity and the associated interval of nondeposition are absent from the area. In the west of the Yenisei Range, in contrast, there is a major stratigraphic gap in the sequence, which is associated with the aforementioned events. The hypothesis on intensive events separating the deposition of the Bol'shoi Pit Group of the Kerpylian Horizon and the Tungusik Group of the Lakhandinian Horizon is not supported by the new data. The change from carbonate facies into siliciclastics in the west was misinterpreted as an erosional unconformity, with basal deposits corresponding to the lower boundary of the Tungusik Group. The occurrence of the Upper Tungusik deposits overlying much older rocks is a result of the pre-Bol'shoi Pit erosion and the gradual expansion of the Tungusik transgression. Thus, there are no grounds to argue for significant pre-Lakhandinian events in the region. Hence, the Kerpylian and Lakhandinian in the Yenisei Range, as well as in other parts of the Siberian Craton, constitute two parts of a larger supraregional straton, which corresponds to the lower half of the Upper Riphean and is designated here the Mayanian. The fundamentally different nature of the events associated with the next, Baikalian stage of the development allows its tripartite subdivision in the region. Deposition of the Lower Baikalian (the Oslyanka Group) was preceded by the crustal extension at the junction between the continental and oceanic blocks and, possibly, the formation of one of the Yenisei Range ophiolite complexes, followed by the emplacement of the Tatarka-Ayakhta batholiths at around 850 Ma. Fragments of both complexes are found as clasts in the basal conglomerates of the Middle Baikalian Chingasan Horizon. The specific character of the pre-Baikalian events determines their apparently poor expression in the sedimentation (weaker metamorphism of the Oslyanka deposits compared with the Tungusik Group). Even the activity leading to the formation of the Tatarka-Ayakhta granites cannot be regarded as a full-scale orogenic process. Collisional events separating the Lower and Middle Baikalian are manifested as the erosional unconformity at the base of the Chingasan Group and the emplacement of the Glushikha granites (760–730 Ma). The Middle Baikalian age of the Chingasan deposits is constrained by the data from paleontology, historical geology, and geochronology. Furthermore, the presence of glacial deposits renders this straton as a global stratigraphic marker. Further expansion of transgression in the Upper Baikalian is linked to another important event, but additional paleontological and geochronological information is needed to date the Upper Baikalian (Chapa Group) more accurately. The Baikalian events synchronously manifested themselves in all structural-facies zones of the Yenisei Range and are coeval to structural complexes from adjacent areas of the Siberian Craton. The tripartite Baikalian, therefore, has a potential for being included into the General Scale of the upper Upper Riphean.     

太湖全新世微古化石环境的辨析

为确认太湖本身和其周围地区是否有全新世海相沉积物, 对其沉积物中的微古生物化石的性质与特征, 以及它与沉积物所含的盐度、层间水、岩相等的关系进行了研究, 并通过古遗址分布情况、古地理环境等因素的调查, 确认本区的全新世生物坪葬群是长江涨潮流带来异地埋葬的产物, 不能作为海相地层的唯一依据。     

峡东陡山沱组一些微化石的再研究

陡山沱期在生物进化中是一个重要的阶段,这一时期不仅在动物界而且在植物界均有明显的变化.峡东陡山沱组多种多样的微化石已有众多报道.这个生物群落包括浮游的球形体、底栖的藻丝体和瓶状微化石.最近笔者重新研究了陡山沱组薄片中的微化石,这些微生物三维地保存在几乎未蚀变的条件下,以丰富的具剌疑源类为特征,主要者有Baltisphaeridium,Filisphaeridium,Tianzhushania和Comaspheridium等.陡山沱组的碳酸盐岩相具刺疑源类和瓶状微化石与产自Spitsbergen的化石近似.这似乎说明陡山沱组与位于Spitsbergen东北部的Svanbergfjellet组沉积可以对比.但由于化石只发现在少数薄片中,因此上述结论可能是片面的,这些化石可能只代表峡东陡山沱组生态环境的一部分.     

A study of the microbial mineralization in submarine black smoker chimneys from the Okinawa Trough

Large amounts of microfossil records discovered in the seafloor black smoker chimney are reported from the Okinawa Trough. They are well preserved and can be divided into four types of filamentous microfossils. It suggests that the fossils may be derived from sulfur or iron oxidation chemolithotrophic prokaryotes and fungi. Based on the comparison studies of the microbial mineralization processes, two steps of biomineralization were hypothesized:(1) biology controlled mineralization; and (2) biology induced mineralization. At the early stage of the mineralization, the biology controlling mineralization is dominating; at the later stage, the biology inducing mineralization is the main mechanism. The composition of the fluids and the species of the microbes will determine the types of the minerals formed.     

聚焦离子束扫描电镜研究微体化石的微观孔隙结构

聚焦离子束扫描电镜(FIB-SEM)是将聚焦离子束切割和扫描电镜结合起来的双束系统,可以在纳米尺度对样品进行切割加工与实时成像。文中用聚焦离子束扫描电镜对兰多维列统(志留系)龙马溪组黑色页岩内的几类微体化石进行了观察研究,并显示牙形刺、几丁石、疑源类均发育有亚微米至纳米级孔隙,这些孔隙可以为页岩气的储集提供有效空间,不同的微体化石孔隙发育的差异可以为页岩中有机质孔隙非均质性成因研究提供重要依据。