Rapid societal change as a proxy for regional environmental forcing: Evidence and explanations for Pacific island societies in the 14–15th centuries

Given the unquestioned impacts of recent/future environmental changes on human societies, it is reasonable to posit that past societal responses could be used as proxies of contemporaneous environmental forcing and might help identify the drivers of these, particularly where independent evidence of the effects of these events is inadequate. Such areas include Pacific oceanic islands for most of which there is evidence of a societal perturbation in the 14th and 15th centuries that saw the outbreak of region‐wide conflict, abandonment of coastal settlements and the abrupt end of long‐distance cross‐ocean voyaging networks. The contemporaneity of these effects across a vast region requires a driver that is external to particular island groups with the only possibility that of oceanic origin, most likely large waves (tsunamis or storm surges) or rapid sea‐level change. The explanation is less important than the principle that societal changes can be used as proxies for environmental activity.     

西藏墨竹工卡县洞中拉铅锌矿床S、Pb同位素组成及成矿物质来源

为了探讨西藏墨竹工卡县洞中拉铅锌矿的成矿物质来源,研究矿床成矿机制,对该矿床的矿石样品进行了硫和铅同位素分析,并对其变化规律和成因意义进行讨论。研究结果表明,6件金属硫化物样品(闪锌矿、黄铜矿、方铅矿)的δ34S值变化于2.2‰～4.8‰之间,显示硫同位素组成比较稳定。根据共生硫化物对所确定的温度,该矿床属中低温热液矿床。6件金属硫化物样品206Pb/204Pb、207Pb/204Pb和208Pb/204Pb变化范围分别为18.628 0～18.629 6、15.698 0～15.699 9、39.077 5～39.082 4,平均值分别为18.628 70、15.699 02和39.079 37。硫和铅同位素研究结果表明,洞中拉铅锌矿床的硫主要来自沉积围岩,主要为无机还原成因,有少量硫来自本地区燕山晚期花岗岩;洞中拉铅锌矿床矿石铅主要来自上地壳物质。