Cold events of Holocene indicated by primary elements distribution of the high-resolution sand dunes in the Salawusu River Valley

The components of the primary elements in the dune sands for the MGS1 subsec-tion of the Milanggouwan section in the Salawusu River valley, compared with those of mod-ern dune sands, show that they were caused by East Asian winter monsoon in the Mu Us desert during Holocene. The examined ages for the 11 layers of dune sands, based on the average sedimentary rate, are: 0 to 960, 1350–2240, 2470 to 3530, 4000 to 4180, 4290 to 4350, 4380 to 4760, 5040 to 5920, 6570 to 8270, 9020 to 9700, 9880 to 10160 and 10580 to 11080 a BP, respectively. The climatic events indicated by these dune sands are consistent with those records in the Huguangyan volcanic lake, Zoige peat bog, Hulu cave and Dunde ice core, particularly with the climatic fluctuations of the North Atlantic since 11 000 a BP. Among them, patterns from B0 to B8 correspond to the peak values of 0MD, 2D, 4D, 6D+8D+10D, 12D, 14D, 16D, 18D and 20D respectively. It might be caused by the North Atlantic ice age induced by the heat circulation, which strengthened the polar high pressure and Siberian-Mongolian high pressure and further led to the dominance of the winter mon-soon over China’s desert area.     

Sedimentary characteristics of paleo-aeolian dune sands of Salawusu Formation in the Salawusu River Valley

The Salawusu Formation of Milanggouwan section in Salawusu River Valley in-cludes 7 layers of paleo-mobile dune sands, and 4 layers of paleo-fixed and semi-fixed dune sands. Their structures have been observed and their grain size, surface textural features and several main chemical elements have been analyzed. The results showed that: 1) Some of the aeolian structural characteristics of these dune sands are similar to that of the recent dune sands. 2) They are also similar to the recent dune sands in grain size components, and parameters of Mz, σ, Sk and Kg, as well as in several main chemical components. 3) The scattergrams of Mz-σ and SiO2–Al2O3+TOFE and the probability curves of grain size showed that these paleo-dune sands are different from paleosols and fluvio-lacustrine facies, but are consistency with recent dune sands. 4) Quartz sands have well roundness and surface textural features such as dish-shaped pits, crescent-shaped pits, pockmarked pits, upturned cleavage plates, siliceous precipitates and siliceous crevasses, indicating that they had been carried for a long time by the wind. As the 11 layers of paleo-dune sands possess the aeolian characteristics in structure, grain size, surface textural features and chemical elements, the origin of their formation should be attributed to eolation.     

Topographic changes of a supply‐limited inland parabolic sand dune during the incipient phase of stabilization

Topographic surveys on an inland parabolic sand dune over a six‐year period provide insight into the effects of diminishing local sand supply on dune stabilization. During the interval (2003–2009) sparse vegetation cover (Psoralea lanceolata) increased despite drier than normal moisture conditions and steady wind power during the growing season. Whereas these climatic conditions are typically ascribed to sustaining or increasing dune activity, here they coincide with stabilization. Through the use of geographic information system (GIS) analysis of volumetric changes it is shown that the increase of P. lanceolata can be attributed to the reduction of local sand supply from two blowouts along the arms of the parabolic dune during the six‐year period. These results show that climate is not the only control on dune activity in vegetated inland dunefields. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coastal dune rock development and Holocene climate changes in South China

Coastal dune rocks in China are eolian sands cemented by calcium carbonate under subaerial conditions, widely distributing on the tropical and subtropical coasts of South China. Particular temperature and precipitation as well as local wave and landform conditions are required for the formation of the dune rocks. A correspondence was found between Holocene environmental changes and coastal dune rock development by comparing the features of the sea-level and climate changes in the Holocene period with the ages, scales, and cementation of the dune rocks on the South China coasts. The findings provide well grounded explanation for some problems unresolved in the past researches on the coastal dune rock in South China: (1) There were no dune rocks with ages older than 6000 years in South China because the dune rocks formed before 6000 a BP were covered by the sea water that rose in the later period; (2) the dune rocks with ages of around 3000 a BP were widely found in South China today because the coastal dunes were cumulated on a large scale at that time as a result of temperature falling after the end of Megathermal; (3) Medieval Warm Period was the main period for the eolian dunes to be cemented into the coastal dune rocks in South China; (4) lack of dune rocks of younger than 1000 a BP was accounted for by that the climate conditions in recent one thousand years were not suitable for the cementation.     

贵州绥阳红果树景区地质遗迹特征及探险、洞穴养生旅游

为了普及绥阳红果树景区旅游科普知识,为其它喀斯特旅游区提供探险、洞穴养生等旅游产品的科普示范,文章通过野外实地考察并结合景区地质背景,阐述了贵州绥阳红果树景区地质遗迹特征,并在此基础上深入研究景区“飞拉达”攀登、SRT（单绳技术）升降、洞穴养生等旅游产品,及其产品开发方式。研究表明,绥阳红果树景区地质遗迹丰富、美观、有特色,具有较高的观赏、旅游及科普价值;开展探险、洞穴养生等旅游产品开发在红果树景区具有较好的可行性,其娱乐性、功能性强,发展潜力较大,绥阳红果树景区的探险、洞穴养生项目可作为其它喀斯特旅游区多元化开发之范本。      

库布齐沙漠南缘沙丘固定与活化过程中的形态演变

以1998-2014年5期库布齐沙漠南缘的遥感影像为主要数据源,结合野外调查分析了沙丘固定与活化过程中的形态演变,探讨了区域风况和降水等气象要素对沙丘固定与活化及形态演变的影响。结果表明：研究区沙丘随降水量的年际波动经历了固定-活化-再固定3个阶段。监测初期的片状流动沙丘演变为大型抛物线形沙丘并得以固定,固定的抛物线形沙丘以发育风蚀坑形式活化,进而形成多个抛物线形沙丘,最后这些沙丘又被植被固定,沙丘形态趋于更加复杂。但在此过程中,风的作用并不显著.研究区抛物线形沙丘既可起源于新月形沙丘或片状流沙,也可由风蚀坑发育而成,其中植被作为沙丘的重要组成部分,起着重要作用。同时发现在抛物线形沙丘移动过程中,当背风坡发育滑落面时,沙丘的移动最快。     

Dune field development,interactions and boundary conditions for crescentic and stellate megadunes of the Al Liwa Basin,the Empty Quarter

Within the greater Ar Rub' al Khali (Empty Quarter) sand sea lies an internal depocentre, the Al Liwa Basin, which comprises a variety of mega‐scale dune types. Crescentic dunes dominant the north of the basin while megadunes of stellate or star form are a major landform of the south‐eastern reaches. Their development into dune fields is determined by the style and rate of dune–dune interactions, the boundary conditions imposed by a multi‐modal wind regime, fluctuating groundwater levels, and sediment availability under an assortment of climatic conditions throughout the Quaternary. As a result, dune field patterns are a collective response to these perturbations in space, time and environment. The R‐statistic is a collective measure of these responses, and is a metric capable of identifying the degree of pattern maturity or self‐organization of the aeolian system, and the pathways from which patterns evolve. The spatial signature of the southerly located star dunes is characterized by two definitive patterns of organization: the first, one of complete spatial randomness, the second, a low degree of spatial uniformity. In isolation, these results appear to be unrelated to those for crescentic dunes of the region in which a significantly higher degree of pattern dispersion is the norm. However, when spatial statistical measures are integrated with the theoretical understanding of dune–dune interactions and the involvement of environmental agents, the complex morphodynamic pathways and linkages between regional dune fields is better understood. In this case, both constructive (e.g. merging, lateral linking) and regenerative activity (e.g. calving) have played important roles in the development of dune size, and associated adjustments in spacing, and dune numbers, and subsequently dune field patterns. Synergetic patterns are emblematic of this vast dunescape, whereby transitional geographic, morphologic, dimensional and environmental modifications exist between the mega‐crescentic and mega‐stellate dunes of the Empty Quarter. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Annual to decadal morphodynamics of the foredune system at Greenwich Dunes,Prince Edward Island,Canada

The purpose of this study was to quantify relationships between season, sediment availability, sediment transport pathways, and beach/foredune morphology at Greenwich Dunes, PEI. This was done for periods ranging from a few days to multiple decades using erosion pins, bedframe measurements, annual surveys, and digital photogrammetry using historical aerial photographs. The relative significance of seasonal/annual processes versus response of the foredune system to broader geomorphic controls (e.g. relative sea level rise, storms, etc.) was also assessed. The data show that there are clear seasonal differences in the patterns of sand supply from the beach to the foredune at Greenwich and that there are differences in sediment supply to the foredune between the east and west reaches of the study area, resulting in ongoing differences in foredune morphology. They also demonstrate that models that incorporate wind climate alone, or even models that include other factors like beach moisture, would not be able to predict the amount of sediment movement from the beach to the foredune in this environment unless there were some way to parameterize system morphology, especially the presence or absence of a dune ramp. Finally, the data suggest that the foredune can migrate landward while maintaining its form via transfers of sediment from the stoss slope, over the crest, and onto the lee slope. Although the rate of foredune development or recovery after disturbance changes over time due to morphological feedback, the overall decadal evolution of the foredune system at Greenwich is consistent with, and supports, the Davidson‐Arnott (2005) conceptual model of dune transgression under rising sea level. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A stratigraphic model to account for complexity in aeolian dune and interdune successions

Wet aeolian systems, in which the water table or its capillary fringe are in contact with the accumulation surface, such that moisture influences sedimentation, are well‐known from modern aeolian systems and several ancient preserved successions are recognized from outcrop. One common mechanism by which accumulation of wet aeolian system deposits occurs is via a progressive rise in the relative water‐table level that is coincident with ongoing dune and interdune migration, the angle of dune climb being determined by the ratio between the rate of relative water‐table rise and the rate of downwind migration of the bedforms. Accumulations of wet aeolian system deposits tend to be characterized by units of climbing dune strata separated by units of damp or wet interdune strata. For simple geometric configurations, where the size of the dune and interdune units, the rate of bedform migration and the rate of aggradation all remain constant over space and time, the resulting accumulation has a simple architecture characterized by sets of uniform thickness inclined at a constant angle. However, the dynamic nature of most aeolian dune systems means that such simple configurations are unlikely in nature. The complexity inherent in these systems is accounted for here by a numerical model in which key controlling parameters, including dune and interdune wavelength and spacing, migration rate and aggradation rate, are allowed to vary systematically both spatially (from a dune‐field centre to its margin) and temporally (in response to changes in sediment availability or water‐table level). The range of synthetic stratigraphic architectures generated by the model accounts for all the best‐known examples of aeolian dune and interdune stratigraphic configurations documented from the stratigraphic record. Modelling results have enabled the erection of a scheme for the classification of dune system type whereby the many elaborate stratal architectures known to exist in nature can effectively be accounted for by only four parameters that are allowed to vary over space and time: dune and interdune wavelength and spacing, rate of bedform migration and rate of accumulation. Results have applied implications, including the modelling of reservoir heterogeneity and the prediction of fluid flow pathways of hydrocarbons, water, CO₂ and contaminants in subsurface reservoirs and aquifers, in which low permeability interdune units might act as baffles or barriers.     

库布齐沙漠南缘抛物线形沙丘表面粒度特征

对库布齐沙漠南缘抛物线形沙丘特征断面上下层（0~5cm、5~10cm）沉积物采样分析结果表明,沙丘粒径与分选参数及其分布随沙丘形态、发育程度和植被生长状况发生变化。抛物线形沙丘丘体迎风坡下凹背风坡上凸,丘顶始终处于侵蚀亚环境。在顺风向断面,平均粒径从迎风坡脚到丘顶变粗,从丘顶到背风坡脚又变细,且这种变化在高大沙丘上更为明显;分选性在迎风坡为中等和较好,丘顶较差,顺风向到背风坡脚逐渐由中等变为较好;粒径频率曲线在丘顶双峰正偏,除迎风坡脚单峰正偏外,其余部位均单峰近对称。在垂直于风向的两翼断面,平均粒径在成熟沙丘由翼顶向两侧坡脚趋于变细,而在欠成熟沙丘无明显的变化趋势。翼间平地沉积物受植被等影响,平均粒径偏细但分选性差,偏度为正偏和极正偏,峰度为尖锐和非常尖锐。受不同时期风况的影响,成熟抛物线形沙丘上下层粒度参数在沙丘断面的分布较欠成熟沙丘一致。