北京石花洞第四纪钟乳石剖面的年代学研究

北京石花洞位于房山花岗岩体边缘向形带的东北扬起端,与北京猿人遗址南北相望。地层为460Ma前形成的中奥陶统马家沟组石灰岩,洞穴大形态从25Ma前的上新世开始形成,洞内钟乳石从0.37Ma前的中更新世开始形成。在中国岩溶洞穴中,北京石花洞的层数最多,洞穴钟乳石种类齐全,裂隙渗透水沉积的石盾多、体积大,滴水沉积的石笋叠置关系明显,池水沉积的月奶石发育好,全新世石笋微层理发育清晰。该洞的大形态反映了北京西山新构造运动的期次,可以同华北地文期和永定河阶地对比,洞内钟乳石记录了中更新世以来北京西山古环境的变化,可以建立第四纪剖面,与周口店洞穴群碎屑沉积物剖面进行对比。钙板的铀系年龄为334.99～366.74ka,可定名钙板组。粗犷石笋的铀系年龄为169～235ka,粗犷石笋的电子自旋共振年龄为130～518ka,为中更新世沉积,可定名云水洞组。杆状石笋的铀系年龄为14.9±2.1～100.3±11.1ka,为晚更新世沉积,可定名石花洞组。在全新世石笋中,微层与微层之间存在厚约1μm的条带状纹线,是划分微层层数的标志,具有微层理的石笋14C年龄为为0.58～2.50ka,AMS14C年龄为为130±100～670±130a,可定名守备支洞组。     

清江神女洞岩溶洞穴沉积物的磁学研究

通过对清江神女洞岩溶沉积物的磁学研究,得出有关该洞沉积物形成环境的下列判断：岩溶洞穴沉积物形成于早更新世至中更新世;岩溶洞穴沉积物形成于湿暖、干冷交替的环境;岩溶洞穴沉积物形成于ＮＥ５６°流向的古水流中。     

Towards a climate event stratigraphy for New Zealand over the past 30 000 years (NZ‐INTIMATE project)

It is widely recognised that the acquisition of high‐resolution palaeoclimate records from southern mid‐latitude sites is essential for establishing a coherent picture of inter‐hemispheric climate change and for better understanding of the role of Antarctic climate dynamics in the global climate system. New Zealand is considered to be a sensitive monitor of climate change because it is one of a few sizeable landmasses in the Southern Hemisphere westerly circulation zone, a critical transition zone between subtropical and Antarctic influences. New Zealand has mountainous axial ranges that amplify the climate signals and, consequently, the environmental gradients are highly sensitive to subtle changes in atmospheric and oceanic conditions. Since 1995, INTIMATE has, through a series of international workshops, sought ways to improve procedures for establishing the precise ages of climate events, and to correlate them with high precision, for the last 30 000 calendar years. The NZ‐INTIMATE project commenced in late 2003, and has involved virtually the entire New Zealand palaeoclimate community. Its aim is to develop an event stratigraphy for the New Zealand region over the past 30 000 years, and to reconcile these events against the established climatostratigraphy of the last glacial cycle which has largely been developed from Northern Hemisphere records (e.g. Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Termination I, Younger Dryas). An initial outcome of NZ‐INTIMATE has been the identification of a series of well‐dated, high‐resolution onshore and offshore proxy records from a variety of latitudes and elevations on a common calendar timescale from 30 000 cal. yr BP to the present day. High‐resolution records for the last glacial coldest period (LGCP) (including the LGM sensu stricto) and last glacial–interglacial transition (LGIT) from Auckland maars, Kaipo and Otamangakau wetlands on eastern and central North Island, marine core MD97‐2121 east of southern North Island, speleothems on northwest South Island, Okarito wetland on southwestern South Island, are presented. Discontinuous (fragmentary) records comprising compilations of glacial sequences, fluvial sequences, loess accumulation, and aeolian quartz accumulation in an andesitic terrain are described. Comparisons with ice‐core records from Antarctica (EPICA Dome C) and Greenland (GISP2) are discussed. A major advantage immediately evident from these records apart from the speleothem record, is that they are linked precisely by one or more tephra layers. Based on these New Zealand terrestrial and marine records, a reasonably coherent, regionally applicable, sequence of climatically linked stratigraphic events over the past 30 000 cal. yr is emerging. Three major climate events are recognised: (1) LGCP beginning at ca. 28 000 cal. yr BP, ending at Termination I, ca. 18 000 cal. yr BP, and including a warmer and more variable phase between ca. 27 000 and 21 000 cal. yr BP, (2) LGIT between ca. 18 000 and 11 600 cal. yr BP, including a Lateglacial warm period from ca. 14 800 to 13 500 cal. yr BP and a Lateglacial climate reversal between ca. 13 500 and 11 600 cal. yr BP, and (3) Holocene interglacial conditions, with two phases of greatest warmth between ca. 11 600 and 10 800 cal. yr BP and from ca. 6 800 to 6 500 cal. yr BP. Some key boundaries coincide with volcanic tephras. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Paleoflood events recorded by speleothems in caves

Speleothems are usually composed of thin layers of calcite (or aragonite). However, cemented detrital materials interlayered between laminae of speleothemic carbonate have been also observed in many caves. Flowstones comprising discontinuous carbonate layers form due to flowing water films, while flood events introduce fluviokarstic sediments in caves that, on occasion, are recorded as clayey layers inside flowstones and stalagmites. This record provides a potential means of understanding the frequency of palaeofloods using cave records. In this work, we investigate the origin of this type of detrital deposit in El Soplao Cave (Northern Spain). The age of the lowest aragonite layer of a flowstone reveals that the earliest flood period occurred before 500 ka, though most of the flowstone formed between 422 +69/‐43 ka and 400 +66/‐42 ka. This suggests that the cave was periodically affected by palaeoflood events that introduced detrital sediments from the surface as a result of occasional extreme rainfall events, especially at around 400 ka. The mineralogical data enable an evolutionary model for this flowstone to be generated based on the alternation of flood events with laminar flows and carbonate layers precipitation that can be extrapolated to other caves in which detrital sediments inside speleothems have been found. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Speleothems from Mawsmai and Krem Phyllut caves,Meghalaya, India: some evidences on biogenic activities

The Mawsmai cave and Krem Phyllut caves, East Khasi hills, Meghalaya, India has so far not yet attracted the attention of geomicrobiologists. Observations and hypotheses on the possible influence of identified microorganisms for speleothem formations in Meghalaya are reported for the first time. XRD studies identified calcite in speleothems and gypsum in cave wall deposits as the dominant minerals. SEM-EDAX showed interesting microfabric features showing strong resemblance with fossilised bacteria, calcified filaments, needle calcite and numerous nano scale calcite crystals, highly weathered and disintegrated crystals of calcite, that point towards a significant microbial influence in its genesis. Thin section petrography showed laminated stromatolitic features. The microorganisms identified by conventional isolation and further evaluation of isolates by molecular techniques include Bacillus cereus, Bacillus mycoides, Bacillus licheniformis, Micrococcus luteus, and Actinomycetes. Microscopic observations also showed unidentifiable cocci and four unidentifiable strains of CaSO₄ (gypsum) precipitating bacteria. Experimental studies confirmed that these bacteria are able to precipitate calcium minerals (calcite, gypsum, minor amounts of dolomite) in the laboratory. These results allow us to postulate that species like these may contribute to active biogenic influence in the cave formations at Meghalaya.     

石笋稀土元素含量的两种溶样方法测试结果对比分析

对于采自川东北诺水河溶洞群的石笋SJ3,采用2%的HNO3和HF+HNO3两种溶样方法分析测试了其稀土元素(REE)含量。结果表明:虽然多数石笋中存在碎屑物质,SJ3的少数样品在采用2%的HNO3溶解后有明显的残留物存在,但采用HF+HNO3全部溶解样品得到的SJ3的REE含量与采用稀HNO3溶样得到的结果并没有显著的差别。这表明SJ3的REE可能主要不是直接来自于地表土壤中难溶的硅酸盐矿物,而可能是土壤风化释放的REE通过吸附在颗粒/胶体态物质的表面,经过岩溶地下水的搬运而沉积到SJ3中。由此认为,采用稀酸溶样基本上可以将石笋SJ3的REE释放出来。      

Décollement folds in Redbank area,northern territory

The structural deformation which produced more than 80 Jura‐type folds each of an axial length exceeding 1 km, in the Redbank Area, N.T., involved only a 360‐to 400‐m thick blanket of sediments. This thin skin of sediments and volcanic rocks, belonging to the Lower Proterozoic Tawallah Group, consists from bottom to top of the Wollogorang Formation, Gold Creek Volcanics, and Pungalina beds. Folding did not involve the underlying Settlement Creek Volcanics or Aquarium Formation. It is postulated that the cause of this detachment and shearing off along the bottom of the thin blanket of sediments is the infiltration of carbonated, K‐rich hydrothermal fluids under high pressure. This occurred during a period of igneous activity related to a postulated deep‐seated alkaline magma thought to be responsible for the many breccia pipes in the area. Thus the folds result from a décollement triggered by high fluid pressure, and from the accompanying gravity gliding and gravitational induced deformation of the thin skin of sediments along a gentle slope.     

Opal and chalcedony speleothems on quartz sandstones in the Sydney region,southeastern Australia

Speleothems of silica are far rarer than those of calcite but occur in a range of types including stalactites, stalagmites and flowstones. This study has found a wider range and far greater number of silica speleothems on the quartz sandstones of the Sydney region than the small number of previous accounts had suggested. Speleothems on the Sydney region sandstones are composed of multiple layers of amorphous opal‐A and cryptocrystalline chalcedony. Silica slowly dissolved from detrital and diagenetic quartz and kaolinite clays of the host arenites is redeposited as opal‐A at the sandstone surface when groundwater evaporates. This amorphous silica converts over time by Ostwald‐type paragenesis to the cryptocrystalline form, but the expected intermediate opal‐CT phase has not been detected. The crystallisation of chalcedony at earth‐surface temperatures is generally believed to take an extremely long time and its presence makes these speleothems very significant, especially as it is reported in only a small number of silica speleothems elsewhere. Furthermore, a similar paragenetic silica‐‘ripening’ mechanism may also be involved in the low‐temperature earth‐surface formation of other crystalline silica deposits such as silcrete duricrusts and pedogenic quartz. Additional closely coupled laboratory and field investigations into the processes that control silica paragenesis under earth‐surface conditions are sorely needed.     

Hydrological conditions over the western Mediterranean basin during the deposition of the cold Sapropel 6 (ca. 175 kyr BP)

A new oxygen isotope record is reported from a stalagmite collected in the Argentarola Cave located on the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy. As shown from observations and numerical modeling of δ¹⁸O in modern precipitation, the recorded δ¹⁸O variability for this zone is dominated by the amount of precipitation (so-called ‘amount effect’). The δ¹⁸O profile measured in the stalagmite is characterized by a prominent negative excursion (ca. 2-3‰) between 180 and 170 kyr BP. This paleoclimatic feature is interpreted as being due to a relatively wet period which occurred during the penultimate glacial period, more precisely, during Marine Isotope Stage 6.5. This pluvial phase is shown to correspond chronologically to the deposition of the sapropel event 6 (S6). Although this particular sapropel event occurred during a cold phase, the δ¹⁸O excursion is similar to those corresponding to other sapropels (S4, S3 and S2). The evidence for humid conditions during S6 in the western Mediterranean basin agrees with previous studies based on deep-sea sediment cores. Taken collectively, the data suggest that during sapropel events dilution of ocean surface waters was not restricted to the output of the river Nile but was rather widespread over the entire Mediterranean Sea due to increased rainfall.     

Exceptional silica speleothems in a volcanic cave: A unique example of silicification and sub‐aquatic opaline stromatolite formation (Terceira,Azores)

Silica stromatolites occur in a number of modern hydrothermal environments, but their formation in caves is very rare. The silica stromatolitic speleothems of the Branca Opala cave (Terceira Island, Azores), however, provide an excellent opportunity for their study. These formations may be analogous to ancient silica stromatolites seen around the world. Petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical analyses were undertaken on the silica speleothems of the above cave, and on the silica‐tufa deposits outside it, with the aim of understanding their genesis. The possible hydrothermal origin of their silica is discussed. X‐ray diffraction analyses showed opal‐A to be the sole silica phase. Negligible ordering of this opal‐A showed ageing to be insignificant, as expected for recent silica deposits. Most of the silica speleothems examined were definable as sub‐aquatic opaline stromatolites that are not currently growing. Optical microscopy clearly revealed a lower microlaminated, an intermediate and an upper microlaminated zone within the stromatolites. Stromatolite types (I, II and III) were classified with respect to their internal structure and distribution throughout the cave. Scanning electron microscopy showed silicified bacterial filaments within the stromatolites, the silicified plant remains and the silica‐tufa deposits. Bacteria therefore played a major role in the precipitation of the opal‐A. Plasma emission/mass spectrometry showed major, minor and rare earth elements to be present in only small quantities. The rare earth elements were mainly hosted within volcanic grains. Rapid silica precipitation from highly super‐saturated water would explain the intense silicification of the plant remains found inside and outside the cave. The opaline stromatolites, the silica‐tufa deposits and the above‐mentioned intense general silicification suggest a local hydrothermal source for the silica. Indeed, these deposits strongly resemble plant‐rich silica sinter associated with low‐temperature hot spring deposits that include bacterial filaments. However, no geochemical signals that might indicate a hydrothermal origin could be found.