The earthquake sequence of May 1951 at Jucuapa, El Salvador

Three earthquakes that happened over two days in May 1951 caused extensive damage to villages in a small area of eastern El Salvador (Central America). Contemporary hypocentral solutions indicated focal depths, confirmed by re-calculations using available seismic data, of the order of 90 km, suggesting events associated with the subducted Cocos plate. Macroseismic observations strongly indicate that the earthquakes were of very shallow focus and this is supported by wave-form modeling and the appearance of seismograms recorded in Guatemala. A re-evaluation of the location and source characteristics for these events is presented, together with a fault plane solution and additional macroseismic evidence. The implications for seismic hazard and risk assessment in Central America, where shallow earthquakes of moderate magnitude, frequently occurring in clusters, pose the greatest threat to settlements which, like the area affected by these events, are concentrated along the axis of Quaternary volcanoes.     

页岩气藏地质学特征研究新进展——来自2011年AAPG年会的信息

以2011年美国AAPG年会论文摘要和大会专题发言材料为主要依据,结合近年来对北美地区页岩气野外地质考察的成果,对页岩气藏的地质学特征作了一个基本介绍。重点介绍北美地区页岩气藏的分布和开发现状,页岩气藏的地层沉积相和层序地层特征,储集岩特征和岩石学、成岩作用特征4个方面的内容,并结合中国页岩气藏研究的现状,对中国页岩气资源潜力进行了概述性分析。     

A new Brachiosauridae Sauropod dinosaur from the lower Cretaceous of Europe (Soria Province,Spain)

A new dinosaur sauropod from the Golmayo Formation (upper Hauterivian-lower Barremian) in Soria province (Spain) is described as Soriatitan golmayensis gen. et sp. nov. The new material consists of one tooth, three dorsal vertebrae with ribs, a partial sacrum, five caudal centra, two caudal vertebral spines, one chevron, a humerus, an ulna, a radius, two partial ilia, two ischia, a fragment of pubis, and a partial femur. Cladistic analysis identified the material as belonging to Brachiosaruidae within Titanosauriformes. Sauropod material from the Golmayo Formation shares a diagnostic feature with Abydosaurus, Cedarosaurus, Tastavinsaurus and Venenosaurus including anteriorly deflected anterior–middle caudal neural spines and with Cedarosaurus a proximodistally straight lateral margin between the proximal head and the shaft of the humerus. Eight characters are potential autapomorphies in the sauropod from Spain, including the presence of a large rectangular ventral ridge below the preacetabular process of the ilium, the same length of the pubic and ischiadic blades in the ischium, and two lateral ridges in the lateral area of the deltopectoral crest of the humerus. The presence of Early Cretaceous brachiosarids in both, North America and Europe, give support to the hypothesis of a connection between the tectonic plates of these continents at some point during the Early Cretaceous.     

“Yes to Peace”? Environmental peacemaking and transboundary conservation in Central America

The use of transboundary conservation as tools for improving interstate relations has become a widely supported initiative in nature conservation. The rationale follows the environmental peacemaking hypothesis, which argues that seemingly neutral environmental issues can provide a sound basis for cooperation between states. The paper investigates the hypothesis’ premise through the case of International System of Protected Areas for Peace (Si-A-Paz), a transboundary protected area shared by Costa Rica and Nicaragua. In recent years, both countries have been involved in a number of border conflicts within Si-A-Paz and linked to the use of the San Juan River, contested land areas, and oil resources. The case of Si-A-Paz shows that transboundary environmental issues can provide arguments for maintaining or even strengthening conflicts rather than fostering peace between states. The case also shows the emergence of environmental issues as a new arena for geopolitical play, where actors not only justify their actions through an environmental discourse but also, the environmental discourse is stretched to include a variety of issues through which actors can obtain international support. The events in Nicaragua and Costa Rica raise questions about the role of transboundary conservation as a peacebuilding tool.     

Regional climate change experiments over southern South America. I: present climate

We present an analysis of a regional simulation of present-day climate (1981–1990) over southern South America. The regional model MM5 was nested within time-slice global atmospheric model experiments conducted by the HadAM3H model. We evaluate the capability of the model in simulating the observed climate with emphasis on low-level circulation patterns and surface variables, such as precipitation and surface air mean, maximum and minimum temperatures. The regional model performance was evaluated in terms of seasonal means, seasonal cycles, interannual variability and extreme events. Overall, the regional model is able to capture the main features of the observed mean surface climate over South America, its seasonal evolution and the regional detail due to topographic forcing. The observed regional patterns of surface air temperatures (mean, maxima and minima) are well reproduced. Biases are mostly within 3°C, temperature being overestimated over central Argentina and underestimated in mountainous regions during all seasons. Biases in northeastern Argentina and southeastern Brazil are positive during austral spring season and negative in other seasons. In general, maximum temperatures are better represented than minimum temperatures. Warm bias is larger during austral summer for maximum temperature and during austral winter for minimum temperature, mainly over central Argentina. The broad spatial pattern of precipitation and its seasonal evolution are well captured; however, the regional model overestimates the precipitation over the Andes region in all seasons and in southern Brazil during summer. Precipitation amounts are underestimated over the La Plata basin from fall to spring. Extremes of precipitation are better reproduced by the regional model compared with the driving model. Interannual variability is well reproduced too, but strongly regulated by boundary conditions, particularly during summer months. Overall, taking into account the quality of the simulation, we can conclude that the regional model is capable in reproducing the main regional patterns and seasonal cycle of surface variables. The present reference simulation constitutes the basis to examine the climate change simulations resulting from the A2 and B2 forcing scenarios which are being reported in a separate study.     

High-resolution sediment echosounding off Peru: Late Quaternary depositional sequences and sedimentary structures of a current-dominated shelf

About 6000 km of both bathymetric and high-resolution acoustic profiles were acquired on the shelf and upper slope offshore Peru between 9° S and 14° S. Two new sediment echosounder systems – SEL-96 and SES-2000DS – provided details of the sedimentary structures of the Quaternary sequences within the Sechura-Salaverry, Huacho and Pisco Basins. To a great extent, the poleward undercurrent determines the distribution of sediments. The undercurrent has generated numerous erosional unconformities, it has winnowed hardgrounds and has created mudwaves common between 250 m and 400 m water depth. Distinct subbottom reflectors within sedimentary units represent hiatuses due to periods of intensified winnowing or non-deposition. Erosional unconformities usually marked by pronounced reflectors suggest shifts of the undercurrent system related to climatic changes and eustatic variations of sea level. On a larger scale, the stacked prograding depositional sequences reflect the sea-level cycles of the Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene. Based on the stratigraphy of our piston cores and that of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 680, the depositional sequences limited by extended unconformities were assigned to oxygen isotope stages 1 to 7. Other sedimentary structures are small straight channels that were conduits for downslope sediment transport. Deformed sediments associated with synsedimentary normal faults result from creep movements indicating beginning slope failure.     

Campanian Climatic Change: Isotopic Evidence from Far East, North America, North Atlantic and Western Europe

Paleoclimatic settings have been reconstructed for the Campanian using original oxygen-isotopic analyses of well-preserved molluskan and foraminifera shells from Russian Far East, Hokkaido, USA, Belgium and some DSDP holes (95, 98, 102, 390A, and 392A) in North Atlantic. Early Early Campanian climatic optimum has been recognized from data on high bottom shelf water paleotemperatures in middle latitudes of both the western circum-Pacific (to 24.2°C) and the eastern circum-Pacific (to 26.4°C) areas and high bottom shallow water paleotemperatures in high latitudes of the Koryak Upland (22.4–25.5°C), which agrees with the data on the Campanian Barykovskaya flora in high latitudes (Golovneva and Herman, 1998) and Jonker flora and its equivalents in middle latitudes. Judging from the data on comparatively high bottom shallow water paleotemperature values in high latitudes, South Alaska (19.4°C) and the Koryak Upland (22.4–25.5°C), we also expect Latest Campanian temperature maximum, which has not been confirmed, however, for low and middle latitudes by neither of isotopic nor paleobotanic data now. Main climatic tendency during the Campanian (with the exception of Latest Campanian) has been learned from isotopic composition of Campanian aragonitic ammonoid shells from the Hokkaido-South Sakhalin (Krilyon) marine basin. In contrary to Huber’s et al. (2002) assumption, we expect warm greenhouse conditions during the most part of the Campanian.