Paleomagnetism of the Cretaceous Morelos and Mezcala Formations, southern Mexico

A paleomagnetic study of platform-facies carbonate rocks of the mid-Cretaceous Morelos Formation and deep-water carbonate rocks of the overlying Upper Cretaceous Mezcala Formation, sampled at Zopilote canyon, in Guerrero State, southern Mexico, indicates that their characteristic magnetization was acquired contemporaneously with folding of these rocks during the Late Cretaceous Laramide orogeny. The remanence carrier is interpreted to be magnetite, although other mineral phases of high coercivity carry recent secondary overprints. The overall mean is of Dec=323.1° and Inc=36.5° (k=162.7; α₉₅=2.7°; N=18 sites; 64% unfolding). Comparison with the North America reference direction indicates that this area has experienced a small, yet statistically significant, counterclockwise direction of 19.2±4.0°. Similar rotations are documented in other localities from southern Mexico; rotations are linked to mid-Tertiary deformation associated with the left-lateral strike-slip fault system that accommodated motion of the Chortis and Xolapa blocks.     

Papua New Guinea Highlands: palaeomagnetic constraints on terrane tectonics

Oblique convergence since the Early Cenozoic between the northward-moving Australian plate, westward-moving Pacific plate and almost stationary Eurasian plate has created a world-ranking tectonic zone in the eastern Indonesia–New Guinea–Southwest Pacific region (Tonga–Sulawesi megashear) that is notorious for its complex mix of tectonic styles and terrane juxtapositions. Unlike an ancient analog—the Mesozoic–Cenozoic Cordillera of North America—palaeomagnetic constraints on terrane motions in the zone are few. To improve the framework of quantitative control on such motions and therefore our understanding of the development of the zone, results of a palaeomagnetic study in the Highlands region of Papua New Guinea (PNG), in the southern part of the New Guinea Orogen, are reported. The study yields new insights into terrane tectonics along the Australian craton's active northern margin and confirms the complexity of block rotations to be expected at the local scale in tectonically intricate zones. The study is based on more than 500 samples (21 localities) collected from an interior and an exterior zone of New Guinea's central cordillera. The two zones are separated by the Tahin and Stolle–Lagaip–Kaugel Fault zones and collectively represent the para-autochthonous northern margin of the Australian craton. Samples from the interior zone, which in the study area comprises a cratonic spur of uncertain—probably displaced—origin, come from Triassic to Miocene sediments and subordinate volcanics of the Kubor Anticline, Jimi Terrane, and Yaveufa Syncline (16 localities) in the central and eastern Highlands. Samples from the exterior zone, which represent a basement-involved, Pliocene foreland fold-and-thrust belt, come from Middle Eocene to Middle Miocene carbonates and clastics (five localities) in the southern Highlands of the Papuan Fold Belt. Results permit us to constrain the tectonic evolution of the two zones palaeomagnetically. Using mainly thermal demagnetization techniques, three main magnetic components have been identified in the collection: (1) a recent field overprint of both normal and reverse polarity; (2) a pervasive overprint of mainly normal polarity that originated during extensive Middle to Late Miocene intrusive activity in the central cordillera; and (3) a primary component which has been identified in only 7 of the 21 localities (5 of 11 stratigraphic units represented in the collection). All components show patterns of rotation that are consistent within the zones, but differ between them. In the interior zone (central and eastern Highlands), large-scale counterclockwise rotations of between 30°+ and 100°+ have been established throughout the Kubor Anticline and Jimi Terrane, with some clockwise rotation present in the southern part of the Yaveufa Syncline. In contrast, in the Mendi area of the exterior zone (southern Highlands), clockwise rotations of between 30°+ and 50°+ can be recognized. These contrasting rotation patterns across the Tahin and Stolle–Lagaip–Kaugel Fault zones indicate decoupling of the two tectonic zones, probably along basement-involved faults. The clockwise rotations in the southern Highlands of the Papuan Fold Belt are to be expected from its structural grain, and are probably governed by regional basement faults and transverse lineaments. In contrast, the pattern of counterclockwise rotations in the Kubor Anticline–Jimi Terrane cratonic spur of the central and eastern Highlands was unexpected. The pattern is interpreted to result from non-rigid rotation of continental terranes as they were transported westward across the northeastern margin of the Australian craton. This margin became reorganised after the Middle Miocene, when the steadily northward-advancing Australian craton impinged into the westward-moving Pacific plate/buffer-plate system. Transpressional reorganisation under the influence of the sinistral Tonga–Sulawesi megashear became enhanced with Mio-Pliocene docking, and subsequent southward overthrusting, of the Finisterre Terrane onto the northeastern margin of the Australian craton.     

Cenozoic Plate interaction of the Australia and Philippine Sea Plates: “hit-and-run” tectonics

Recent studies in northwest New Guinea have shown the presence of at least two marginal basins of different age, both of which formed in back-arc settings. The older basin opened between the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, a remnant of which is now preserved as the New Guinea Ophiolite. Its obduction started at 40 Ma and it was finally emplaced on the Australian margin at 30 Ma. The younger basin was active during the Oligocene to Middle Miocene and was obducted in the Early Pliocene. Studies of the western edge of the Philippine Sea also reveal an important deformation of the Philippine arc in the Oligocene, which hitherto has remained unexplained. Using information from these systems, paleomagnetic results, kinematic reconstructions and geochemistry of the supra-subduction ophiolite, we present a plate model to explain the region's Eo–Oligocene development. We suggest that an extensive portion of oceanic crust extended the Australian Plate a considerable distance north of the Australian Craton. As Australia began its steady 7–8 cm/year northward drift in the Early Eocene, this lithosphere was subducted. Thus, the portion of the Philippine Sea Plate carrying the Taiwan–Philippine Arc to its present site may have actually been in contact with the ophiolite now in New Guinea and obduction led to deformation of the Philippine Sea Plate itself. Neogene Plate kinematics transported the deformed belt in contact with the Sunda block in the Late Miocene and Pliocene. This interpretation has implications for the origin for the Philippine Sea Plate and the potential incorporation of continental fragments against its boundaries.     

一次强对流系列风暴个例的多普勒天气雷达资料分析

讨论了新一代（多普勒）天气雷达对2002年5月14日19:00至21:00影响湖南常德地区的3个对流风暴的探测情况，其中两个为超级单体，一个为飑线。观测到了与超级单体相联系的中气旋和龙卷式涡旋特征（TVS）。上述强对流系统产生了地面大风、大冰雹和龙卷等强烈天气，与雷达的探测相吻合。特别值得一提的是在中国首次探测到了三体散射（TBSS）和龙卷式涡旋特征（TVS）这两个分别指示大冰雹和龙卷的雷达回波特征，并得到了地面报告的印证。     

200 years of mining activities at La Paz/San Luis Potosí/Mexico - Consequences for environment and geochemical exploration

The Ag---Pb---Zn---Cu---Au mining district of Santa María de La Paz has been extensively exploited for approximately 200 years. Consequences of these activities are several deposits of tailings with high As and heavy metal concentrations, which are completely unstable. The climate is semiarid and as the dumps have no protective cover, material from the dumps is dispersed by strong winds. It is also washed out during seasonally heavy rainfalls. By these processes approximately 100 km² of surrounding have been contaminated by dump material. The As and heavy metal content of the soils was determined as well as their level in crops (Zea Maize) from agricultural lands in the vicinity of the dumps. In the direction of prevailing winds concentrations up to 1000 ppm Zn, 400 ppm Pb, 16 ppm Cd, 550 ppm Cu and 300 As have been detected in top soils. Using fuzzy cluster analysis the different contamination sources could be identified. Grains of corn from contaminated sites showed no critical concentrations, but leaves which are also used tor fodder, have As-concentrations up to 20 ppm.     

新产业区与经济活动全球化的地理研究

本文评述了90年代国际经济地理学界关注的两个研究领域：新产业区和经济活动全球化。在分析两者的含义和研究关键内容基础上，提出如何在我国开展该项研究。     

The Zihuatanejo, Mexico, earthquake of 1994 December 10 (M= 6.6): source characteristics and tectonic implications

An analysis of the Zihuatanejo, Mexico, earthquake of 1994 December 10 ( M = 6.6), based on teleseismic and near-source data, shows that it was a normal-faulting, intermediate-depth ( H = 50 ± 5 km) event. It was located about 30 km inland, within the subducted Cocos plate. The preferred fault plane has an azimuth of 130°, a dip of 79° and a rake of −86°. The rupture consisted of two subevents which were separated in time by about 2 s, with the second subevent occurring downdip of the first. The measured stress drop was relatively high, requiring a Δσ of about a kilobar to explain the high-frequency level of the near-source spectra. A rough estimate of the thickness of the seismogenic part of the oceanic lithosphere below Zihuatanejo, based on the depth and the rupture extent of this event, is 40 km.
This event and the Oaxaca earthquake of 1931 January 15 ( M = 7.8) are the two significant normal-faulting, intermediate-depth shocks whose epicentres are closest to the coast. Both of these earthquakes were preceded by several large to great shallow, low-angle thrust earthquakes, occurring updip. The observations in other subduction zones show just the opposite: normal-faulting events precede, not succeed, updip, thrust shocks. Indeed, the thrust events, soon after their occurrence, are expected to cause compression in the slab, thus inhibiting the occurrence of normal-faulting events. To explain the occurrence of the Zihuatanejo earthquake, we note that the Cocos plate, after an initial shallow-angle subduction, unbends and becomes subhorizontal. In the region of the unbending, the bottom of the slab is in horizontal extension. We speculate that the large updip seismic slip during shallow, low-angle thrust events increases the buckling of the slab, resulting in an incremental tensional stress at the bottom of the slab and causing normal-faulting earthquakes. This explanation may also hold for the 1931 Oaxaca event.     

湖北郧西六斗金矿床地质地球化学及矿床成因研究

郧西县六斗石英脉一破碎蚀变岩型金矿床，是鄂西北地区近年新发现的金矿床之一。通过对金矿床产出地质背景、控矿地质条件、围岩蚀变、矿石矿物、包体物理化学、同位素地球化学等的研究，阐述了六斗金矿床的形成机理和成矿物质来源。确定了该矿床成因类型为与韧性剪切变形变质作用有关的中一低温热液矿床。     

Metropolitan growth and labor markets in Mexico

The objective of this paper is to examine the main changes in the metropolitan labor markets associated with economic restructuring in Mexico during the late 1980s and beginning of the 1990s. The analysis refers particularly to the four largest metropoles of the country, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Puebla, looking for common characteristics in their emergent employment structures now strongly differentiated in terms of rewards, stability in employment relations and conditions of access to jobs. The analysis reveals that largest metropolitan areas have been the most profoundly affected by the economic restructuring resulting from globalization, through a rapid de-industrialization and the expansion of the tertiary sector. Metropolitan labor markets in Mexico, at the time that show signs of social polarization in the formal sector, put in evidence a general process of precarization – less labor stability, replacement of permanent by part-time jobs, and increasing subcontracting –, segmentation of the labor force, and an increasing informal conditions of economic activities with small businesses and unskilled, temporarly and poorly paid jobs. The labor force segmentation and its more precarious and casual conditions are mostly explained by the impact of recent neoliberal policies, and recurrent economic crisis during the 1980s and 1990s which highly contributes to social inequality.     

青海德令哈巴音郭勒河断裂带的新活动特征

在青海德令哈巴音郭勒河北侧山前冲洪积扇上新发现了一条长约60km的逆断裂带,属于本区NNW-NWW向的柴达木盆地北缘活动断裂系内的一条次级挤压构造。断裂在地貌上表现为明显的挤压逆冲断层陡坎,晚更新世晚期以来的平均垂直滑动速率为0.41±0.27mm/a。探槽剖面确定了三次古地震事件,其年代分别为距今约32.7±1.45ka、15.54±1.32ka和3.2±0.33ka。