四川长宁石林地质遗迹景观资源特征及开发建议

长宁石林地质遗迹景观资源丰富,类型多样。最具代表性的景观资源是岩溶地貌,有溶洞、石林、天坑、漏斗、地缝、暗河、瀑布等,并有其他多种配套景观资源。这些地质景观资源具有重要的地学科研和美学观赏价值,具有较大的开发潜力。     

湖北宜昌重要地质遗迹资源特征及发展模式探讨

本文系统总结了湖北宜昌地区省级及省级以上地质遗迹资源,认为该地区地质遗迹分布规律主要可概括为两个方面,一是受控于地形和河流的综合作用,以各类地貌景观遗迹为特点;二是各个地质时代地层剖面齐全,古生物化石产地聚集。其中可归类为世界级地质遗迹点为5个,均以“古生物化石”为核心,分别为三峡地区埃迪卡拉生物群、长阳寒武纪清江生物群、黄花场中奥陶统大坪阶“金钉子”、王家湾上奥陶统赫南特阶“金钉子”和远安三叠系南漳—远安动物群。立足于此,文中首次详细总结了这些地质遗迹点的化石代表、科学及科普意义,并从地质遗迹自身保护和应用方式、地质遗迹载体、地学研学、地质文化的传播和文创科普产品5个方面对古生物地质遗迹资源的发展模式进行了详细探讨,从而为宜昌地区全域地质遗迹开发和旅游提供新思路。     

中国地质遗迹资源保护

在地球形成与演化过程中,由于内外动力共同作用形成了众多具有科学价值和观赏价值的地质遗迹。地质遗迹是地质环境的重要组成部分,因此对于地质遗迹的保护也是自然环境保护的重要部分。中国地质遗迹资源丰富,主要有地层剖面、构造剖面以及古生物化石等。本文系统总结我国地质遗迹分布现状、地质遗迹调查工作进展情况和遗迹保护现状,分析了我国地质遗迹保护工作中存在的主要问题,提出了地质遗迹资源保护与开发利用建议。     

四川筠连县岩溶泉群地质遗迹保护研究

筠连县岩溶泉群地质遗迹在温带——亚热带岩溶地区具有代表性,是四川省国土资源厅明文规定要保护的项目之一。通过分析筠连县岩溶泉群的保护现状及存在的问题,为制定保护规划,提出具体的保护措施提供了科学依据。     

山西王莽岭国家地质公园地貌景观特征及其成因研究

王莽岭国家地质公园位于太行山南段,地质遗迹资源丰富、类型多样,具有重要的美学及科学价值。本文以王莽岭地质公园为研究区,通过野外调查并依据地质遗迹的成因、形态及规模、自然属性及分布特征,将地质遗迹资源划分为地貌景观、沉积构造、构造形迹、古生物化石四类,系统地研究了峡谷、岩溶、夷平面、河流阶地、瀑布等地貌的成因,为太行山的形成演化研究提供了资料,对提升研究区地质遗迹资源的科学价值具有重要意义。     

中国第四纪冰川地质遗迹调查方法综述

第四纪冰川和冰川地质遗迹的研究,是研究第四纪全球气候变化的重要课题之一。中国第四纪冰川地质遗迹分布很广,类型多。最北的大兴安岭、南部的广西大明山、东部的长白山和台湾玉山、最西的喀喇昆仑山第四纪冰川地质遗迹均有分布,是世界上低纬度地区山岳冰川发育最广泛的国家。本文在前人研究的基础上,系统阐述我国第四纪冰川地质遗迹分布概况,结合开展的全国重要地质遗迹调查,以地质遗迹调查规范为基础,系统开展第四纪冰川地质遗迹调查方法研究。根据冰川在运动过程中对地面的侵蚀、冰碛物的搬运和堆积等不同的地质作用阶段,总结我国第四纪冰川地质遗迹调查方法体系,为开展同类地质遗迹调查提供方法指导依据。     

Geoheritage at the small scale: tidal-zone bubble-sand structures as diagnostic paleo-environmental indicators,and their geoheritage significance

In identifying sites of geoheritage significance, commonly there has been an emphasis on the larger-scale features. However, the story of geology and the significant features that are critical to unravel geological processes and geological history are commonly small in scale. This contribution focuses on bubble sand and bubble-sand structures as features that are small-scale but nonetheless important to geology, and hence are of geoheritage significance. Bubble sand and bubble-sand structures are ubiquitous on modern beaches and tidal flats, occurring in the uppermost tidal zone of sandy beaches, as a distinct layer in a shoaling beach-to-dune stratigraphy, and are a diagnostic indicator of upper-tidal conditions where a rising tide and a concomitantly rising water-table interacts with the upper swash-zone wave processes. On sandy tidal flats, bubble sand and bubble-sand structures may occur in the mid- to upper-tidal zones; here they are also diagnostic indicators of tidal conditions, forming during a rising tide where a rising water-table forces air upwards to be trapped in moist sand. If found in ancient sequences, bubble-sand structures are a powerful environmental indicator of tidal conditions and, for beach sequences, an indicator of the high-tide level and sea level. Bubble-sand structures have been found in a number of ancient sequences throughout the geological record as far back as the Neoproterozoic, e.g. within beach-to-dune stratigraphy in Pleistocene limestones of the Perth Basin and in southeastern USA, and in tidal-flat sands of the Mesozoic Broome Sandstone of the Canning Basin. The bubble-sand structure is a significant geological tool for use in paleo-environmental and paleo-oceanographic reconstructions, and determination of the position of a paleo-water-table. Given the rarity of their preservation, these occurrences of bubble-sand structures are of geoheritage significance in their own right and, depending on age of sequence and how common they are in the region, they may be nationally significant or globally significant.     

South Australian geology and the State Heritage Register: an example of geoconservation of the Naracoorte Caves complex and karst environment

South Australia’s State Heritage Register contains 2294 listed places, the majority of which are from the ‘Built’ environment, ranging from settlers’ huts, community buildings, historical industrial sites to magnificent stone mansions. Only 96 places are linked to the ‘Natural’ environment. The Register listings protect heritage places from alteration, damage or removal without formal prior consultation, compulsory under the South Australian Development Act. ‘Natural’ environments are landscape-based and oriented towards Geological, Archaeological, Palaeontological and Speleological heritage (‘GAPS heritage’). A process to provide a greater balance between ‘Natural’ and ‘Built’ listings has initiated a series of State Heritage ‘Natural’ environment assessments, mostly of single sites. Two individual caves in the Naracoorte Caves National Park are already entered in the State Heritage Register as single sites. However, an innovative broader multiple-site nomination has focused on the many different but significant GAPS features contained within the 25 caves of the Naracoorte Caves National Park, providing a further level of protection for the land and the caves’ exteriors and interiors. The example of the Naracoorte Caves draws attention to the number of important land and coastal karst (limestone) features across South Australia that were generated by steady geological uplift of three large sections of Oligocene–Miocene limestone—the Nullarbor Plain, the Murray Basin and the Gambier Karstfield (which includes Naracoorte and Mount Gambier), resulting in specific karst forms worthy of a broader coordinating management approach across South Australian karst parks.     

Sedimentary processes,stratigraphic sequences and middens: the link between archaeology and geoheritage—a case study from the Quaternary of the Broome region,Western Australia

The cliffed and active dune coastal region of Broome provides an excellent record of Pleistocene and Holocene stratigraphy of desert environments interfacing with the Indian Ocean. The Mesozoic Broome Sandstone is the basal stratigraphic unit in the area and is overlain by Pleistocene red desert quartz sand (Mowanjum Sand). Modern coastal processes of waves, wind and tide have resulted in distinctive sedimentary bodies (stratigraphic units) clearly linked to the sedimentary environment. The Mowanjum Sand, reworked by coastal winds, generates the landward-ingressing orange quartzose Churchill Sand, or reworked by waves and abraded to white sand with the addition of carbonate grains that form the beaches (Cable Beach Sand) and with eolian action, coastal dunes or inland-ingressing white dunes (Shoonta Hill Sand). These sedimentary bodies and stratigraphic units form a template with which to locate and interpret archaeological middens and Indigenous occupation over the past 5000?years in a context of coastal occupation, coastal stability, mean sea-level changes, climate changes, and availability of marine food and freshwater. Shell middens and stone artefacts form definitive layers or horizons in relation to the stratigraphy, in places in situ, and elsewhere reworked as sheets and plumes; understanding their inter-relationships has enabled the unravelling of the archaeological history and relating Indigenous occupation to biofacies and lithofacies. The array of sedimentary, biofacies and stratigraphic units are of national geoheritage significance in their own right. The addition of archaeological deposits as stratigraphic units provides a link between geoheritage and archaeology, where the archaeological materials are viewed as part of the complex stratigraphic story, part of the coastal history, and part of the geoheritage story.     

Saving and conserving the caves: reflections on 37 years of listings,disputes, submissions and court cases

In order of impact, the main anthropogenic threats to caves in eastern Australia are and have been for the European history of Australia: mining, inundation, vandalism, wear and tear, lampenflora, lint and dust, scientists and poorly informed decisions. Destruction of caves by natural processes is not a focus of this paper as it occurs over a geological time scale and there are few historical accounts of natural catastrophic cave failure. Saving and protecting caves are difficult due to the reliance and insistence on conservation by secrecy used by cavers and the organisations that represent them. Other issues that inhibit cave conservation are: limited public exposure, perceptions of land managers and farmers about caves, a shortage of research-based information on caves and difficulties with establishing the significance of a cave. Cave monitoring and the education of managers and cave guides are known to enhance the conservation of show caves. Actions that would help to save and conserve caves throughout Australia include: changes to planning legislation, establishment of a cave conservation organisation, introduction of specific cave protection legislation and the establishment of a Research Centre for Caves, Karst and Geoheritage.