On the use of geochronology of detrital grains in determining the time of deposition of clastic sedimentary strata

Placing geologic events in a temporal framework is essential to telling the story of Earth history. However, clastic sedimentary rocks can be difficult to date in an absolute reference because they are made up of grains that are older than the rock in which they are now found, and some clastic rocks do not contain fossils that allow precise reference to the Geologic Timescale. For such rocks, the isotopic dating of detrital minerals can be used to estimate the time of deposition; the clastic rock must be younger than the youngest grain analysed. However, many researchers eschew this simple and straightforward approach in favour of schemes that estimate the maximum allowable depositional age as the weighted mean of the age of several grains, chosen by a variety of selection criteria. This is a mistake; in the absence of a geochemical resemblance apart from the similarity of their age, detrital grains should not be assumed to have originated in the same system and therefore any averaging or other manipulation of such data is statistically invalid and produces results without geologic significance. In the absence of interbedded volcanic rocks or index fossils, dating of detrital minerals can be an important aid in understanding the time of deposition of clastic rocks, but the best estimate will come from taking note of the youngest single grain and not by inappropriately averaging data.     

Climatically controlled lacustrine clinoforms: Theory and modelling results

Lacustrine basins and their deposits are good paleoclimate recorders and contain rich energy resources. Shelf-margin clinoforms do exist in deep lacustrine basins, but with striking differences from those in deep marine basins, caused by a correlation between the river-derived sediment supply and the lake level. This study uses empirical relationships to calculate the water and sediment discharge from rivers and coeval lake level during wet–dry cycles at 10 s of ky time scale. Sediment supply and lake-level changes are used for a stratigraphic forward model to understand how lacustrine clinoforms develop under different climate conditions. The results show that both wet and dry cycles can be associated with thick deep-water fan deposits, supporting the existing climate-driven lacustrine model proposed based on field data (e.g. Neogene Pannonian Basin and Eocene Uinta Basin). The wet period with high sediment supply and rising lake level creates the highly aggradational shelf, progradational slope and thick bottomset deposits. This is contrary from marine basin settings where the presence of rising shelf-margin trajectory commonly indicates limited deep-water fan deposits. This work suggests marine-based stratigraphic models cannot be directly applied to lacustrine basins.     

日本海西南陆坡全新世对马暖流演化的沉积学和地球化学记录

对日本海西南陆坡对马暖流主流轴下方高沉积速率沉积物柱状样,进行了沉积学和地球化学系统研究,以探讨全新世以来对马暖流在研究区的形成与演化,并得出了与附近地区古海洋学方法非常相近的结果,从而为今后研究区的对马暖流演化研究提供了沉积学和地球化学指标。据此,该柱状样中所记录的对马暖流演化可划分为5个主要阶段。全新世初期(9.6kaBP),对马暖流开始进入日本海,其强度较弱,同时,伴随着富营养东海沿岸水的影响,海底环境由还原性向氧化性转变;6.5kaBP时,对马暖流控制下的日本海南部现代对流模式最终建立起来,东海沿岸水的影响基本消失,随后,对马暖流明显减弱;3.0kaBP时,对马暖流再次增强并基本达到现在水平,且在随后的3ka里保持总体稳定,期间在2.0～0.7kaBP存在一次较弱的减弱过程。     

The Quaternary Lancaster Sound trough‐mouth fan,NW Baffin Bay

The development of the Lancaster Sound Trough Mouth Fan (TMF) and glacial history in Arctic Canada were studied using a high‐resolution seismic profile across the entire fan and two piston cores. Stacked tills separated by erosion surfaces on the shelf pass seaward through till deltas into thick transparent glacigenic debris flow (GDF) deposits on the slope, separated by thin, well‐stratified glaciomarine layers. An age model was built by ties to the Ocean Drilling Program Site 645. The deepest GDF on the seismic profile was indicative of the onset of shelf‐crossing glaciation in the Early Pleistocene. The transition of the growth of Lancaster Sound TMF from an aggradational sequence (unit M) to an aggradational–progradational sequence (unit F) occurred at the Middle Pleistocene transition in glacial cyclicity. In the most recent glacial cycle, GDF sheets were deposited during Heinrich events 4 and 2 according to the correlation of the main detrital carbonate beds in two piston cores. The outmost till wedge reflects the maximum advance of the grounding glacier, far seaward of previously proposed Last Glacial Maximum ice extent. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Late Quaternary stratigraphy and sedimentology of the inner part of southwest Joseph Bonaparte Gulf

Joseph Bonaparte Gulf is a large embayment on the northwestern continental margin of Australia. It is approximately 300 km east‐west and 120 km north‐south with a broad continental shelf to seaward. Maximum width from the southernmost shore of Joseph Bonaparte Gulf to the edge of the continental shelf is 560 km. Several large rivers enter the gulf along its shores. The climate is monsoonal, sub‐humid, and cyclone‐prone during the December‐March wet season. A bedrock high (Sahul Rise) rims the shelf margin. The sediments within the gulf are carbonates to seaward, grading into clastics inshore. A seaward‐thinning wedge of highstand muds dominates the sediments of the inner shelf of Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. Mud banks up to 15m thick have developed inshore. Coarse‐grained sand ridges up to 15 m high are found off the mouth of the Ord River. These overlie an Upper Pleistocene transgressive lag of mixed carbonate and gravelly siliciclastic sand. Four drowned strandlines are present on the inner shelf at depths of 20, 25, 28 and 30 m below datum. These are interpreted as having formed during stillstands in the Late Pleistocene transgression. Older strandlines at great depths are inferred as having formed during the fall in sea‐level following the last highstand. For the most part the Upper Pleistocene‐Holocene marine sediments overlie an erosion surface cut into older Pleistocene sediments. Incised valleys cut into this erosion surface are up to 5 km wide and have a relief of at least 20 m. The largest valley is that cut by the Ord River. Upper Pleistocene sediments deposited in the incised valleys include interpreted lowstand fluvial gravels, early transgressive channel sands and floodplain silts, and late transgressive estuarine sands and gravels. Older Pleistocene sediments are inferred to have been deposited before and during the 120 ka highstand (isotope stage 5). They consist of sandy calcarenites deposited in high‐energy tide‐dominated shelf environments. Still older shelf and valley‐fill sediments underlie these. The contrast between the Holocene muddy clastic sediments and the sandy carbonates deposited by the 120 ka highstand suggests that either the climate was more arid in the past, with less fluvial transport, or that mud was more effectively trapped in estuaries, allowing development of carbonate depositional environments inshore.     

The last deglaciation in the Picos de Europa National Park (Cantabrian Mountains,northern Spain)

A sedimentological and geochemical study of the Lago Enol sequence (Cantabrian Mountains, northern Spain), together with detailed geomorphological mapping, provides a first record of glacier evolution and climate change over the last 40 ka in the Picos de Europa National Park. The Enol glacier retreated from its maximum extent prior to 40 ka BP as demonstrated by the onset of proglacial lacustrine sedimentation in two glaciated depressions: the Comella hollow to the north (before 40 ka BP) and the Lago Enol (before 38 ka BP). These results support previous evidence that the maximum extent of southern European glaciers occurred earlier than in northern Europe. Alternation of homogeneous and laminated proglacial sediments during the glacier retreat illustrate a dynamic glacial evolution during the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (40–26 ka BP). A slight warming is detected at 26 ka ago with the change from proglacial sediments (in a lake located in contact to the glacier) to glaciolacustrine sedimentation (in a non‐contact or distal lake). Finally, the onset of organic‐rich sediments took place at 18 ka ago. This last transition occurred in two phases, similarly to the North Atlantic Last Termination, suggesting a link between North Atlantic Deep Water formation oscillations and palaeohydrological variability in the Cantabrian Mountains. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

全球旋回地层学

全球旋回地层学是指在对全球沉积岩进行综合系统研究之基础上，通过估算沉积盆地中源于物源区的沉积物类型和沉积环境条件变化，来预测地层学特征的一种过程一结果模型。其研究内容包括对全球地质演化时期全球海平面变化、全球气候条件、全球构造运动、全球古地理背景、全球沉积环境特征、全球古生物事件及全球矿产形成过程进行动态模拟，强调古气候在地质记录中的意义，注重沉积记录的全球同时性研究；强调各种事件在沉积作用中的意     

野外露头沉积学描述计算机辅助系统模型设计

野外露头沉积学描述计算机辅助系统的任务是要帮助地质工作者实现野外露头沉积学描述信息的数字化处理,即利用计算机实现方便的数据录入、存储、管理、输出、辅助分析等。从地质模型分析入手,给出了系统的功能模型、模块划分和数据库模型。本系统的特点是实现了有关地质信息标准化采集、管理和处理分析,可为盆地分析、成岩成矿分析和区域地质调查工作提供技术支持。     

中国沉积学的回顾和展望

本文对中国沉积学50年来的发展历史进行了回顾，并对中国沉积学未来所面临的问题和发展方向进行深入的解释。中国沉积学经历了50年代的奠基阶段、50年代未和60年代初的总结提高阶段、70年代科学的沉积学发展阶段和80年代之后的走向国际和走向全球阶段。中国的沉积学已经取得了举世瞩目的伟大成就，但沉积学界所面临的任务和没有解决的问题依然很多。