LAST GLACIATION AND MAXIMUM GLACIATION IN THE QINGHAI-XIZANG (TIBET) PLATEAU: A CONTROVERSY TO M. KUHLE,S ICE SHEET HYPOTHESIS

Since the late 1950's, many Chinese scientists have explored the remains of the Quaternary glaciation in the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau and its surrounding mountains. In the main, 3-4 glaciations have been recognized. The largest one occurred in the Late Middle Pleistocene with piedmont glaciers, ice caps and trellis valley glaciers in many high peak regions. But here is no evidence of a unified ice sheet covering the whole plateau as described by M. Kuhle. Due to the further uplifting of the Himalayas and Qinghai-Xizang Plateau the climate became progressively drier, diminishing the extension of glaciers during the Late Pleistocene. The elevation of the snow line during the Last Glaciation was about 4,000 m on the south, east and northeast edges of the plateau and ascended to 5500 m on the hinder northwest of the plateau. The thermal effect of the big plateau massif, the sharp increase of aridity from the southeast rim to the northwest inland area and the abrupt decrease of precipitation during the     

澜沧江云南德钦古水一带第四纪堰塞湖的沉积特征及其环境意义

在云南省西北部德钦县古水一带深切的澜沧江河谷中,发现了一套第四纪湖相沉积物,以纹层状粘土、粉砂质粘土和粉砂的互层组合为特征,构成了第三和第四级阶地的基座.笔者对该湖相剖面进行了U系、孢粉和若干地球化学指标的分析测试,并以这些结果讨论了古湖的形成时代和成因,以及古湖堆积时期的古植被和古气候.剖面顶部、中部和中下部粘土的U系法年龄测定结果分别为52.3±3.4 ka、64.2±5.6 ka和81.9±6.5 ka,说明古水古湖形成于晚更新世早中期的末次间冰期晚期和末次冰期的早冰阶与间冰阶早期,很可能是大型冰川(如下游的明永冰川等)或巨量的冰水沉积物堰塞了澜沧江河谷而造成的结果.     

Benthic foraminifers in upper Quaternary sediments of the southern Bering Sea: Distribution and paleoceanographic interpretations

Composition and distribution of benthic foraminifers, being coupled with isotopic-geochemical data on Upper Pleistocene and Holocene sediments from the southern Bering Sea (Core GC-11; 53°31′ N, 178°51′E, water depth 3060 m), demonstrate variations in bottom water properties during the last 54 kyr. Their abundance increased to some extent during short periods corresponding to warm Dansgaard-Oeshger interstadials 14, 12, 8, and 2 of marine isotopic stages (MIS) 3 and 2. The first and second deglaciation phases separated by the Younger Dryas cooling episode are marked by significant abundance peaks of benthic foraminifers (an order magnitude higher than in the glacial period), although their share in community of benthic and planktonic foraminifers taken together decreases. Species typical of stable high-productivity areas gain the dominant position. A significant proportion of agglutinated species in the Holocene sediments is indicative of Ca ions deficiency that accelerates dissolution of carbonate tests up to their disappearance approximately 2.5–3 ka ago.     

马鞍山的古冰川地貌

马鞍山是四川盆地西南边缘第一高山。此山存在第四纪冰川地貌。它是我国东部一处典型的古冰川地貌，时代属末次冰期与新冰期。     

Fifty-thousand-year vegetation and climate history of Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, Bolivian Amazon

Pollen and charcoal records from two large, shallow lakes reveal that throughout most of the past 50,000 yr Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, in northeastern lowland Bolivia (southwestern Amazon Basin), was predominantly covered by savannas and seasonally dry semideciduous forests. Lowered atmospheric CO₂ concentrations, in combination with a longer dry season, caused expansion of dry forests and savannas during the last glacial period, especially at the last glacial maximum. These ecosystems persisted until the mid-Holocene, although they underwent significant species reassortment. Forest communities containing a mixture of evergreen and semideciduous species began to expand between 6000 and 3000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. Humid evergreen rain forests expanded to cover most of the area within the past 2000 ¹⁴C yr B.P., coincident with a reduction in fire frequencies. Comparisons between modern pollen spectra and vegetation reveal that the Moraceae-dominated rain forest pollen spectra likely have a regional source area at least 2-3 km beyond the lake shore, whereas the grass- and sedge-dominated savanna pollen spectra likely have a predominantly local source area. The Holocene vegetation changes are consistent with independent paleoprecipitation records from the Bolivian Altiplano and paleovegetation records from other parts of southwestern Amazonia. The progressive expansion in rain forests through the Holocene can be largely attributed to enhanced convective activity over Amazonia, due to greater seasonality of insolation in the Southern Hemisphere tropics driven by the precession cycle according to the Milankovitch Astronomical Theory.     

Younger Dryas glaciolacustrine rhythmites and cirque glacier variations at Kråkenes, western Norway: depositional processes and climate

Kråkenes faces the open sea on the west coast of Norway. During the Younger Dryas a cirque glacier deposited a large outer and a smaller inner moraine in a cirque at the site and melt-water entered a small lake depositing glaciolacustrine sediments. The glaciolacustrine succession can be divided into three sub-units corresponding to the advance, the still-stand and the retreat phases of the glacier. The sediment succession contains both varves and other types of rhythmites, the latter being mainly deposited as turbidity underflows caused by localized slumping events. Lee-side accumulation of snow by wind and avalanching into the cirque was crucial to form and maintain the cirque glacier once summer temperatures were low enough. At maximum, the glacier likely was in equilibrium with climate. The initial retreat from the maximum position might have been triggered by fall-out of volcanic ash from Iceland, but the continued retreat was due to increased ablation season temperatures. The most rapid change in climate at the Younger Dryas/Preboreal transition occurred after the cirque glacier had melted away completely.     

云南东北部拱王山末次冰期

1 Introduction The Gongwang mountains constitute one of the few high m ountains of irrefutable late Pleistocene glaciation in eastern China. This area is one of the m ost extensively studied Quaternary geologicallocationsin eastern China and the interpret…     

The Carrancas Formation,Bambuí Group: A record of pre-Marinoan sedimentation on the southern São Francisco craton,Brazil

The Carrancas Formation outcrops in east-central Brazil on the southern margin of the São Francisco craton where it comprises the base of the late Neoproterozoic Bambuí Group. It is overlain by the basal Ediacaran cap carbonate Sete Lagoas Formation and was for a long time considered to be glacially influenced and correlative with the glaciogenic Jequitaí Formation. New stratigraphic, isotopic and geochronologic data imply that the Carrancas Formation was instead formed by the shedding of debris from basement highs uplifted during an episode of minor continental rifting. Reddish dolostones in the upper Carrancas Formation have δ¹³C values ranging from +7.1 to +9.6‰, which is a unique C isotopic composition for the lowermost Bambuí Group but similar to values found in the Tijucuçu sequence, a pre-glacial unit in the Araçuaí fold belt on the eastern margin of the São Francisco craton. The stratigraphic position below basal Ediacaran cap carbonates and the highly positive δ¹³C values together indicate a Cryogenian interglacial age for the Carrancas Formation, with the high δ¹³C values representing the so-called Keele peak, which precedes the pre-Marinoan Trezona negative δ¹³C excursion in other well characterized Cryogenian sequences. Hence, The Carrancas Formation pre-dates de Marinoan Jequitaí Formation and represents an interval of Cryogenian stratigraphy not previously known to occur on the southern margin of São Francicso craton. Documentation of Cryogenian interglacial strata on the São Francisco craton reinforces recent revisions to the age of Bambuí Group strata and has implications for the development of the Bambuí basin.     

Geomorphological evidence from the Lleyn Peninsula constraining models of the magnitude and rate of isostatic rebound during deglaciation of the Irish Sea Basin

A stepped series of sand and gravel terraces on the Lleyn peninsula of North Wales is used to test the magnitude and rate of isostatic depression required by the recently proposed glacimarine model of deglaciation of the Irish Sea Basin. A relative sea-level fall of 70 m is required while the ice remained pinned at the north Lleyn coast. Even taking the maximum known rate of isostatic uplift, the margin would have to remain stationary for 1400 years. It seems more reasonable to interpret the Lleyn terraces, and similar features around the Irish Sea Basin, as glacifluvial and glacilacustrine.     

东海陆架的古河道和古三角洲

基于１９９６年中法东海海洋地质调查电火花单道地震资料,确定了晚更亲世早期和中期长江（黄河）水下三角洲的分布范围和大致时间。中更新世晚期东海陆架为一自西南向东北倾斜的河流冲积平原,晚更新世以来自西北方向的大型河流的三角洲受此控制主要发育在东北部较低地区。东海陆架较大古河道多发育在末次冰期中的亚间冰期（氧同位素３期）。