Millennial-scale paleoceanography in Okinawa Trough during Late Quaternary period

Based on the analyses of foraminifer and accelerator mass spectrometer radiocarbon dating in DGKS9603 core from mid-Okinawa Trough close to bottom, oscillation curve, which expressed the relation between the surface water temperature and the depth, has been obtained by using foraminifer analysis and calculation of FP-12E transfer function. The whole core indicated seven cold phases and eight warm phases. Obvious expression of low temperature event during Middle and Late Holocene, YD,H1,H2,H3 and H4 events, as well as the short cold phase during the middle last glacial period, implied that short shifts since 50 kaBP would have been global significance. Sedimentation rate during cold phases is usually faster than that in warm stages, with the lowest rate in Holocene, which may be connected with rising sea level and principal axial of Kuroshio Current moving to west. Volcanic activities highly developed in Okinawa Trough during the Quaternary period, thus abundant volcanic glass and pumice were well preserved.

Analysis of arable land loss and its impact on rural sustainability in Southern Jiangsu Province of China

Rapid urbanization and industrialization in southern Jiangsu Province have consumed a huge amount of arable land. Through comparative analysis of land cover maps derived from TM images in 1990, 2000 and 2006, we identified the trend of arable land loss. It is found that most arable land is lost to urbanization and rural settlements development. Urban settlements, rural settlements, and industrial park-mine-transport land increased, respectively, by 87 997 ha (174.65%), 81 041 ha (104.52%), and 12 692 ha (397.99%) from 1990 to 2006. Most of the source (e.g., change from) land covers are rice paddy fields and dryland. These two covers contributed to newly urbanized areas by 37.12% and 73.52% during 1990-2000, and 46.39% and 38.86% during 2000-2006. However, the loss of arable land is weakly correlated with ecological service value, per capita net income of farmers, but positively with grain yield for some counties. Most areas in the study site have a low arable land depletion rate and a high potential for sustainable development. More attention should be directed at those counties that have a high depletion rate but a low potential for sustainable development. Rural settlements should be controlled and rationalized through legislative measures to achieve harmonious development between urban and rural areas, and sustainable development for rural areas with a minimal impact on the ecoenvironment. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Origin, development and evolutionary model of shelf desertization environment in late stage of Upper Pleistocene

Based on the study of palaeo-environmental evolution in the shelves of the Eastern China Seas, the concept of ''shelf desertization'' in the late stage of Upper Pleistocene is defined; the environmental background and evolutionary process of shelf desertization are analysed. Study on the records of subbottom profiling and the data of core samples from shelf areas revealed that during low sea-level stages, the sedimentary environment in the exposed shelf plains was dominated by aeolian depositional process under cold and dry climatic conditions, i.e. under the action of strong winter-monsoon winds. Parts of the exposed marine strata were disintegrated, and aeolian sand dunes were formed on the disintegrated marine deposits, from which the finer sediment grains were blown away by wind and deposited in the downwind areas to form the derivative loess deposits. Thus a desertization environmental system was formed in the exposed shelf plains of the Eastern China Seas.

东大别山晚中生代主剪切带及伸展构造研究

Dabie shan lies between Northchina crust and Yangzi crust, which is the result of the collisional orogenen in Triassic period. The biggest area of UHP metamorphic zone have been found in Dabie Shan, which have been verified formed during the course of collision and extrusion after orogenic activity. The Dabie shan is divisioned into four parts, which are North Huaiyang metamorphic zone, North Dabie complex zone, South Dabie ultra-high pressure metamorphic zone and Susong metamorphic zone. Extension structure of late Mesozoic is the key to explain the intrusion and outcrop of UHP metamorphic rocks in Dabie Shan. During the course of structure evolution of the Dabie shan in late Mesozoic period, Luotian dome was formed with the old gneiss lifting from the core of the Dabie shan. There are four enormous ductile zone circled Luotian dorm. Xiaotian-mozitan shear zone is the limit of North Huaiyang metamorphic zone and North Dabie complex zone; Shuihou-wuhe shear zone is the limit of North Dabie complex zone and South Dabie ultra-high pressure metamorphic zone; Taihu-mamiao shears zone is the limit of South Dabie ultra-high pressure metamorphic zone and Susong metamorphic zone and Susong-Qingshuihe shear zone is the south limit of Susong metamorphic zone; the old stress at Dabie shan in late Mesozoic was about 90MPa through the experiment of transmission electricity microscope. The main four ductile shear zone of Dabie shan all have the characteristic of detachment, Xiaotian-mozitan shear zone detached to NNE, the detachment direction of Shuihou-wuhe shear zone and Taihu-mamiao shears zone is SSE, and Susong-Qingshuihe shear zone is SW. The finite strain measurement show that Xiaotian-mozitan shear zone have experienced detachment which was more than 50km, and the detachment of Susong-Qingshuihe shear zone was more than 12km in late Mesozoic; the Flin parameter of Shuihou-wuhe shear zone is much smaller than 1(0.01-0.1), which show that this shear zone was squeezed when it was formed and the initiative function of Luotian granite intrusion during the course of detachment. The Flin parameter of Taihu-mamiao shears zone is above 1(1.1) and Susong-Qingshuihe shear zone is much more than 1(7.6), which show that they are formed in the state of extension at the beginning. These all Flin parameter imply a transition from pure shear to simple shear of the south three shear zone circling Luotian dome from north to south. The rock group analysis show that the rocks inside shear zone encountered middle or high temperature metamorphic activity. The single mineral ~(40)Ar/~(39)Ar age of the main shear zone at Dabie shan show that the three shear zone north to Luotian dome were formed about 190Ma.Taihu-mamiao shear zone was the earliest, Susong shear zone was later than former, and Shuihou-wuhe sheanaone was the latest. They were all the chanel of returning of UHP metamorphic rocks, so they all representative the returning age of UHP metamorphic rocks. The final outcrop of these UHP metamorphic rocks was due to the detachment aroused by the enormous magma intrusion. The biotite age of deformed rocks in Susong-Qingshuihe shear zone is in average 126Ma, and the age of Xiaotian-mozitan is about 125Ma, which is in the same time or a little later than magma intrusion of Luotian dome, and imply that granite intrusion of late Mesozoic in Dabie orogenen is the reason of the detachment.

Features of Late Cenozoic Deepwater Sedimentation in Southern Qiongdongnan Basin, Northwestern South China Sea

Based on high resolution 2D and 3D seismic data acquired in recent years, using sequence stratigraphy analysis and geophysical methods, we discuss the features of Late Cenozoic deepwater sedimentation in the southern Qiongdongnan (sic) basin. The study area entered a bathyal slope environment in the Miocene. The channel developed in the Sanya (sic) Formation was controlled by a fault break, and its shingled seismic characteristics represent multiple erosion and fill, which may indicate that turbidite current developed in the slope environment. The polygon faults found in mudstone of the Meishan (sic) Formation represent the deepwater hungry sedimentary environment. The large-scale channels developed on the top of Huangliu (sic) Formation could be the result of a big sea level drop and an increase of sediment supply. The fantastic turbidite channel developed in Late Quaternary in the slope environment has "fan-like" body and long frontal tiny avulsion channel. The analysis of these features suggests that the sediment supply of the study area in the post-rifting period was dominant from the Vietnam uplift in the southwest. These deepwater sedimentary features could be potential reservoirs or migration pathways for deepwater petroleum systems.