CHRONOLOGY OF YICHANG GRAVEL LAYER BASED ON QUARTZ TI-LI CENTER ESR DATING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE INCISION TIMING OF THE THREE GORGES VALLEY

Uplift of Tibet Plateau and formation of Asian Monsoon greatly affect East Asian geomorphological evolution, climate change and environment systems. Thus, those phenomena also control the origin, size and direction of river systems. The Yangtze River, as the most important linkage between Tibet Plateau and the East Asian marginal seas, delivers large volumes of water, sediment, and associated chemicals from its headwater regions and tributaries to the East China Sea, significantly influencing sedimentary system evolution in its drainage basin. Therefore, the formation of the modern Yangtze River and its geological-time evolution history have been paid more and more attention to since the beginning of the last century. After debated for more than a century, the First Bend in Shigu area and the Three Gorges have been known as the key capture point of the Yangtze River's evolution history. In particularly, the Three Gorges incision period remains greatly controversial, which mainly focuses on Cretaceous period-Neogene period, early Pleistocene period, and late Quaternary period. The Yichang Gravel, just located downstream and outlet of the Three Gorges with an inverted triangle shape, is mainly distributed in western Jianghan Basin with over 1 000km². Because of its wide distribution and key geographical location, many typical profiles of Yichang Gravel have been the critical materials for studies on stratigraphic division, geomorphic evolution, and paleoenvironment change in middle Yangtze River Basin, especially on the Three Gorges incision history. Based on the previous field investigation, the Yichang gravel unconformably overlies the Cretaceous bedrocks and underlies the mid-Pleistocene vermicular red earth. In addition, studies on heavy mineral assemblages, Pb isotopic compositions of detrital K-feldspar grains, magnetic characteristics as well as pollen assemblage characteristics have showed that sediments in Yichang Gravel are mainly derived from upper Yangtze River Basin, such as Jinshangjiang drainage, Minjiang drainage, Jialingjiang drainage and Wujiang drainage. Based on the above comprehensive analysis, researchers demonstrated that the depositing time of Yichang Gravel can best constrain the Three Gorges incising time. The absolute altitude of Yichang Gravel exceeds 110m, and many thick sand lens are developed from top to bottom of the profiles. In this study, we applied the quartz Ti-Li center ESR dating method in Yichang Gravel to determine its absolute formation age, and then to constrain the minimum cutting-through time of Three Gorges. Eight samples(SXY-1, SXY-2, YC-1-4, LJY-1, LJY-2)were collected from the sand lens at depths of 4m, 19m, 40m, 51m, 63m, 75m, 83m and 99m respectively from the top of the profile. At the same time, in order to evaluate the residual dose of Ti-Li center after sunlight bleaching, we also sampled four modern surface Yangtze River sediments near Yichang Gravel for ESR measurement. The result shows that the quartz Ti-Li center ESR signal intensity of the 4 modern fluvial sediments samples are zero, which implies that the Ti-Li center ESR signal intensity of quartz in Yichang Gravel sand lens could be bleached to zero before the last burial. Thus, the above results indicate that the ESR dating results of this paper are reliable. The ESR absolute age from top to bottom of the profile is 0.73Ma BP,0.87Ma BP,0.98Ma BP,1.04Ma BP,1.05Ma BP,1.10Ma BP, 1.11Ma BP, 1.12Ma BP, respectively. The ESR dating results show that the Yichang Gravel began to deposit at about 1. 12Ma BP until 0. 73Ma BP, and the Ti-Li center ESR age indicates that the Yangtze River cut through Three Gorges area no later than 1.12Ma BP.     

Late Quaternary geomorphic evolution of the lower Narmada valley, Western India: implications for neotectonic activity along the Narmada–Son Fault

Geomorphic data combined with stratigraphic studies provide significant information to constrain timing and amount of fault movement. The lower Narmada valley lies astride the Narmada–Son Fault (NSF), an important ENE–WSW-trending tectonic element responsible for the current intraplate seismicity being experienced in the central part of the Indian plate. Varying nature and degree of tectonic movements along the NSF during Late Pleistocene and Holocene have produced four geomorphic surfaces in the lower Narmada valley: the alluvial plain (S₁), ravine surface (S₂), a gravelly fan surface (S₃) and the valley fill terrace surface (S₄). Two major phases of tectonic movements in a compressive stress regime are recorded along the NSF: slow synsedimentary subsidence of the basin during Late Pleistocene due to differential movement, followed by inversion of the basin during the Holocene marked by differential uplift along the NSF. The study suggests that the inversion of the basin is in response to the significant increase in the intensity of compressive stresses in the Indian plate mainly during the Early Holocene. The present incisive drainage and recent seismic activity indicate that the compressive stresses continue to accumulate along the NSF due to continued northward movement of the Indian plate.     

新疆金矿及其找矿远景分析

按金矿的集中分布区介绍了新疆１１个主要岩金产全区金矿的地质分布。成矿特征、控矿因素和矿床类型。对新疆金矿的找矿远景作出评估。认为新疆存在有利的金矿成矿条件，指出了找矿方向，提出了在新疆要重视对大型一特大型金矿研究。     

云南省元谋干热河谷的土壤抗旱力评价

根据土壤基本水分物理常数，将土壤水分蒸发划分为三个阶段，土壤水分累积蒸发量Ｑ与蒸发历时Ｔ具有：Ｑ＝ａＴ￣ｂ关系。不同土壤的蒸发能力不同，主要与土壤质地、结构等因素有关，同时不同土壤的抗旱力也有很大差异，土壤抗旱力由强至弱依次为：普通薄层土、变性燥红土、普通燥红土、表蚀干热的半干润变性土、表蚀燥红土。     

Lateroglacial valleys and landforms in the Karakoram Mountains (Pakistan)

Lateroglacial landforms play a major role in the geomorphological landscape assemblage of the Karakoram Mountains. Nevertheless, in the past they have received only little attention in the glacial-geomorphological literature. In this article, the lateroglacial landscape will be presented as a geomorphological landscape unit. The Karakoram glaciers with lengths of up to 60 km are accompanied by lateroglacial sediment complexes over tens of kilometers. Besides their large horizontal distribution, they are spread over a considerable vertical range and occur between 2500 m–5000 m.The traditional view is that primary processes of rock disintegration such as ice avalanches and freeze-thaw processes as well as glaciofluvial sediments are the main debris suppliers for the formation of lateroglacial sediment complexes. However, the investigation of the lateroglacial sediment landscape of the Karakoram glaciers showed, that firstly the secondary debris supply in form of reworking of older glacigenic deposits (Late glacial slope moraines) represents a major debris source. Secondly, the lateroglacial sediments are composed to a major part of debris supplies from the tributary valleys. In this regard, the sediment input by mudflow events accords a prominent role. Therefore a considerable proportion of the lateroglacial sediments is of non-glacial origin. This fact has to be taken into consideration regarding glacier reconstruction in recent unglaciated mountain valleys. Further on, resedimented mudflow deposits could be identified as important parent material for recent lateral moraine formation. The distribution of lateroglacial valleys (`lateral moraine valleys') was traditionally closely linked to differences in insolation, which are in the subtropical latitude very high (`ablation valleys'). Therefore the S-faced valley flank was seen as the favourable location for lateroglacial valleys. However, field observations on more than 20 glaciers in the Karakoram Mountains proved that lateroglacial valleys occur in all exposures, and can be even absent in S-exposure. Topographical factors seem to be more important than insolation differences for the distribution pattern. Only the distribution of `true ablation valleys' can be regarded as a result of insolation differences. In fact, they can act as initial form for the formation of lateral moraine valleys.     

滇西北沙溪—鸿文谷地的成因研究——金沙江河流袭夺问题的再商榷

不少中外学者曾认为,滇西北金沙江畔的沙溪—鸿文谷地是金沙江袭夺前的古河谷。本文认为,沙溪—鸿文谷地完全受断裂控制。它是一条自上新世以来,沿剑川断裂由南向北发展,直到全新世初才完全形成的断陷谷。它的形成与金沙江完全无关。当然在早、中更新世不可能有金沙江河流袭夺。     

陕西省蓝田县灞河谷地饮用天然矿泉水资源特征及开发利用条件

蓝田县灞河谷地是最近查明的一个饮用天然矿泉水集中区,已发现16处矿泉水。本文从这些矿泉水产出的地质—水文地质条件,分析了矿泉水的分布规律,进而论述了矿泉水水质、水量特征和可开采资源的保证程度,并对矿泉点的开发利用条件进行了多因素综合评价。     

岷江-沱江水系及新构造应力场

本文在运用水系分布统计反推新构造应力场的方法上做了一些改进,并首次引入“河段均长”概念来进行水系分布优势方向的组合,从而判断每组优势方向反映的构造应力场形成的先后次序。结果表明:岷江—沱江水系分布反映出两期构造应力场的先后作用。第Ⅰ期主压应力为北东向,河段均长24.9～29.5,可能与喜山运动第Ⅱ幕有关;第Ⅱ期主压应力为近东西向,河段均长14.7～14.8,可能形成于第四纪晚期以来。     

四川省宁南县干热河谷植物区系

宁南干热河谷内共有种子植物８１科２７６属１１５种。当地拥有全部１５类种子植物区系地理成分，其中以热带性质的属占优势，全热带分布的类型就有８１属，比值３２．０％，当地植物区系起源古老，与外地植物区系联系广泛。宁南（金沙江）干热河谷植物区系是热带植物界在当地的残存，并逐步演化而成。