攀西地区晚新生代沉积研究回顾与问题讨论

攀西地区晚新生代沉积是研究青藏高原东南缘隆升演化历史及其周缘环境响应、中国第一第二阶梯地貌格局演变和高原东南缘水系变迁的天然地质记录,具有重要科学意义。对该区晚新生代河湖相沉积,尤其是昔格达组和大箐梁子组的研究历史、岩性内涵、形成时代、古地理与古气候意义等进行了较全面的回顾。在此基础上对晚新生代冰碛物记录的冰川发育过程、青藏高原东南缘新构造运动和隆升历史、水系格局变迁等过程进行了评述。针对该区晚新生代沉积研究中存在的问题和分歧,提出了今后研究的方向,认为在详细的地层学和地貌学等综合研究基础上开展高精度的年代学研究是当前攀西地区晚新生代沉积研究的重点。     

Late Quaternary record of sea-level changes in the Antarctic

The Late Quaternary sediment sequence of the continental margin in the eastern Weddell Sea is well suited for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. Two cores from the upper slope, which contain the sedimentary record of the last 300 ky, have been sedimentologically investigated. Age models are based on lithostratigraphy and are correlated with the stable isotope record. As a result of a detailed analysis of the clay mineral composition, grain size distributions and structures, this sedimentary record provides the first marine evidence that the Antarctic ice sheet extended to the shelf edge during the last glacial.The variations in volume and size of the ice sheet were also simulated in numerical models. Changes in accumulation rate and ice temperature are of some importance, but the model revealed that fluctuations are primarily driven by changes in eustatic sea-level and that the ice edge extended to the shelf edge during the last glacial maximum. This causal relationship implies that the maximum ice extension strongly depends on the magnitude and duration of the sea-level depression during a glacial period. The results of the sedimentological investigations and of the numerical models show that the Antarctic ice sheet follows glacial events in the northern hemisphere by teleconnections of sea level. Correspondence to: H. Grobe     

Dissolved oxygen variations in alpine glacial meltwaters

Recent models of chemical weathering in alpine glacial meltwaters suggest that sulphide oxidation is a major source of solute in the distributed component of the subglacial hydrological system. This reaction requires O₂, and may lower dissolved oxygen levels to below saturation with respect to the atmosphere. This should result in an inverse association between SO₇^2- and dissolved oxygen saturation. However, measurements of O₂ saturation in bulk meltwaters draining the Haut Glacier d'Arolla, Switzerland, show that there is a positive association between SO₄^2- and O₂ saturation. The O₂ content of glacial meltwaters depends on the initial content of snow and icemelt, which may be controlled by the rate of melting, and the kinetic balance between O₂ losses (e.g. sulphide oxidation, microbial respiration) and gains (e.g. diffusion of O₂ into solution).     

东海舟山QZ504孔古生物组合特征及地层划分

东海残留沉积区舟山ＱＺ５０４孔未发现上海地区普遍存在的全新世暗绿色硬粘土层。但通过对该孔微体古生物组合特征的分析与对比，划分了全新世与更新世的更线，反映了气候的变化，证实了滚流对本区的影响。     

Rates of cave and landform development in the Yorkshire Dales from speleothem age data

Uranium-series ages have been obtained for 87 speleothems collected from nine major cave systems in the Craven district of northern England. Large systems such as Ease Gill Caverns, the West Kingsdale caves, and Gaping Gill-Ingleborough Cave, which contain relict high-level tunnels, are found to be older than 350,000 years (the limit of the ²³⁰Th/²³⁴U dating method). There is little evidence to indicate a significant enlargement of these passages since this time. Estimates of the age of Victoria Cave from ²³⁴U/²³⁸U isotopic ratios suggest that the cave has been fully relict for more than 500,000 years. Ages of in situ speleothems immediately adjacent to local base level cave streams show that mean maximum downcutting rates in limestone channels are about 2 to 5 cm 1000 yr. These rates are significantly lower than those obtained from direct measurements on limestone bedrock in stream channels but are comparable to areal denudation rates based on solute budgets. Using the present elevation of caves with respect to adjacent valley floor levels, mean maximum valley entrenchment rates are found to range between 5 cm/ky and < 20cm/ky, which corresponds to 6 m to < 24 m of lowering per glacial/interglacial cycle. These rates suggest that upper beds of the limestone were incised to form the Yorkshire Dales between 1 and 2 million years ago. The results indicate that the erosional effects of individual glaciations are not as severe as previously proposed in the literature.     

Cosmogenic nuclide measurements in southernmost South America and implications for landscape change

We measured in situ ¹⁰Be, ²⁶Al and³⁶Cl on glacial deposits as old as 1.1 Myr in the southernmost part of Patagonia and on northern Tierra del Fuego to understand boulder and moraine and, by inference, landscape changes. Nuclide concentrations indicate that surface boulders have been exposed for far less time than the ages of moraines they sit upon. The moraine ages are themselves constrained by previously obtained ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages on interbedded lava flows or U-series and amino acid measurements on related (non-glacial) marine deposits. We suggest that a combination of boulder erosion and their exhumation from the moraine matrix could cause the erratics to have a large age variance and often short exposure histories, despite the fact that some moraine landforms are demonstrably 1 Myr old. We hypothesize that fast or episodic rates of landscape change occurred during glacial times or near the sea during interglacials. Comparison with boulder erosion rates and exhumation histories derived for the middle latitudes of semi-arid Patagonia imply different geomorphic processes operating in southernmost South America. We infer a faster rate of landscape degradation towards the higher latitudes where conditions have been colder and wetter.     

关于南国冰臼群成因的商榷之二

南国冰臼群分布区大量冰川堆积、冰川条痕石及变形砾石的发现，再次有力地证明是“冰臼”不是“壶穴”的正确结论，由冰川漂砾经融冻作用形成的“石海”，与化学风化作用产生的花岗岩“石蛋”地貌特征，有天渊之别，不应混为一谈；边滩是由河流冲积物组成，不能与基岩冰床相提并论；圆滚水钻与急流旋涡及风蚀作用，形成的动力学性质、方向和方式完全不同，不该阴错阳差；节理、构造只影响冰臼的形态和发育程度，不是控制形成的动力学性质、方向和方式完全不同，不该阴错阳差；节理、构造只影响冰臼的形态和发育程度，不是控制冰臼的发育部位，不致于是非不辨，南国地区古冰川遗迹的大量发现，证明距今约二三百万年的第四纪早期确实曾发生过大规模的古冰川运动，为争论了半个多世纪的中国东部中低山区有无第四纪冰川问题，从此画上一个圆满的句号。     

质疑粤西北的冰川遗迹

从地貌、沉积物、第四纪地层关系、古气候、古环境等方面论证了广东封开-怀集-带所谓的冰川谷、冰蚀三角面、悬谷、角峰、刃脊、冰半、鼻山尾、冰碛砾石、蛇形丘以及近百万年来发生过3次冰期，是既不符合地学基础理论也不符合野外实际，所以是不确实的，那里没有第四纪冰川遗迹。