東澳大利亞悉尼盆地南部二疊紀的地層、沈積環境與盆地演化

The latest Carboniferous to Triassic Sydney-Gunnedah-Bowen Basin System in the eastern Australia is an elongate structural basin that locates between the Lachlan Caledonian Fold Belt in the west and the New England Fold Belt in the east. Extending from the Gunnedah district in the north to the Batemans Bay in the south, the Sydney Basin is a subbasin located in the southern part of the Sydney-Gunnedah-Bowen Basin System. The Permian in Sydney Basin consists of sedimentary sequences of fluvial, delta, littoral and shallow marine environments, as well as volcanic rocks. In the southwest of southern Sydney Basin, the Permian unconformably onlaps the highly deformed and metamorphosed Lachlan Fold Belts. The Permian System from the southern Sydney Basin comprises the Lower Permian Tallaterang Group (consisting of Clyde Coal Measures and Wasp Head Formation), Shoalhaven Group ( consisting of the Lower Permian Yadboro & Tallong Conglomerate, Yarrunga Coal Measures, Pebbly Beach Formation, Snapper Point Formation and the Middle Permian Wandrawandian Siltstone, Nowra Sandstone, Berry Siltstone and Broughton Formation) and the Upper Permian Illwarra Coal Measures. From the latest Carboniferous to the Middle Triassic, the SydneyBowen Basin had experienced different tectonic phases from a back-arc extensional regime to a typical foreland basin: a back-arc extensional phase, a passive thermal sag phase and a flexural loading and increased compressional phase.

Post-extinction brachiopod faunas from the late Permian Wuchiapingian coal series of South China

This paper describes fourteen brachiopod species in eleven genera from the Late Permian Wuchiapingian Coal Series (Lungtan Formation) of South China. Of these, the shell bed fauna from the basal Lungtan Formation is interpreted to represent the onset of the recovery of shelly faunas in the aftermath of the Guadalupian/Lopingian (G/L) mass extinction in South China. The post-extinction brachiopod faunas in the Wuchiapingian are characterized by the presence of numerous Lazarus taxa, survivors, and newly originating taxa. These elements capable of adapting their life habits were relatively more resistant to the G/L crisis. The post-extinction faunas, including survivors and the elements originating in the recovery period, have no life habit preference, but they were all adapted to a variety of newly vacated niches in the Late Permian oceans. Two new species, Meekella beipeiensis and Niutoushania chongqingensis, are described, and two Chinese genera, Niutoushania and Chengxianoproductus, are emended based on re-examination of the type specimens and new topotype materials from the Lungtan Formation.

Soft-sediment deformation structures in the middle permian Wandrawandian siltstone, southern Sydney basin: implications for depositional environment and basin tectonics

The Middle Permian Wandrawandian Siltstone at Warden Head near Ulladulla in the southern Sydney Basin is dominated by fossiliferous siltstone and mudstone, with a large amount of dropstones (lonestones) and some pebbly sandstone beds. Two general types of deposits are recognised from the cliff succession in view of the timing and mechanism of their formation. One is represented by the background (or primary) deposits of offshore to slope environments with abundant dropstones of glacial marine origin. This facies occurs throughout the cliff sections at Warden Head. The second type is distinguished by secondary, soft-sediment deformational deposits and structures of the primary (background) deposits, and comprises three successive layers of sandy mudstone dikes. In the second type of deposit, metre scale, laterally extensive syn-depositional slump deformation structures occur extensively in the middle part of the Wandrawandian Siltstone. The deformation structures vary in morphology and pattern, including large-scale complex-type folds, flexural stratification, concave-up structures, small-magnitude -faults accompanied by folding and brecciation. The slumps and associated syn-depositional structures are herein attributed to penecontemporaneous deformations of soft sediments (mostly mud and silty mud), formed as a result of mass movement of unconsolidated and/or semi-consolidated substrate following earthquake events. The occurrence of the earthquake event deposits (or seismites) at Warden Head supports the current view that the Sydney Basin was located in a back-arc setting near the New England magmatic arc on an active continental margin during the Middle Permian, and the timing of the earthquake events is here interpreted to indicate the onset of the Hunter Bowen Orogeny in the southern Sydney Basin.

Too good to leave, too bad to stay: anti-retaliation precautionary measures for whistle blowers

Whistle blowing is an act of exposing the wrongdoings in an organization, either committed by its members of the lower level or the top management. Many have agreed that whistle blowing is an effective means of deterring and detecting organizational mishaps. Whistle blowers have been referred to as canaries in the coal mine. The idea of telling the truth however, may result in exposure to uncontrolled risk by the whistle blower. The extent to which the whistle blower is protected and safe after information is leaked to the public or the relevant authority remains unknown. In the Malaysian context, whistle blowing is not new. Being honest is a custom among Malaysians. Honesty is deeply rooted in Malaysian culture and is supported by the high value Malaysian place on spiritual belief which also put a premium on moral virtue. But being loyal to the management is another thing. A critical issue that whistle blowers face is the tension between the virtues of honesty and the virtues of loyalty. The ethical dilemmas faced by the whistle blowers place them in situations where there are significant and difficult ethical conflicts. Recently, the Parliament of Malaysia has passed the Whistle Blowing Protection Act which was seen as an holistic approach to cover all Malaysians who were willing to blow the whistle. Some do not feel confident that such program under the Act can be accomplished in Malaysia as the Malaysian culture believing keeping things to ourselves. Thus the paper intends to explore the anti-retaliation precautionary factors mediate by the culture that will most likely explain motivational issues subordinates face in publicizing the wrongs that are harmful to the organization in Malaysia.

Wallace lines in eastern Gondwana : palaeobiogeography of Australasian permian brachipoda

The present Australian continent was a major component of the north eastern peninsula of Gondwana, itself the southern region of Pangaea, during the Permian period. Surrounding what is now Australia, were additional elements of north eastern Gondwana that are now incorporated into the tectonically complex regions of New Zealand, New Caledonia, the island of New Guinea, Timor, south east Asia, the Himalaya and southern Tibet. India was to the west and south west and Antarctica to the south. Marine water temperatures ranged from cold to temperate and tropical as Permian global climates ameliorated, global surface ocean circulation systems warmed, and due to rifting and northward drifting of some terranes.

Provincialism of global marine faunas was pronounced during the Permian and hence refined biostratigraphical correlations are often fraught with difficulty. The 'middle' Permian stratotypes approved by the International Subcommission on the Permian System have little direct relevance to correlations within the Gondwanan Region at the level of operational biostratigraphical zonal schemes. Brachiopoda are a dominant marine benthonic faunal element of Permian Gondwanan faunas and they provide refined correlations between marine basins within a specific faunal province. Modem faunal provinces are recognised by the distribution patterns of species and genera belonging to a single family or superfamily such as the Papilionoidea within the Insecta. This review provides an example from Permian Brachiopoda, using the distribution data of genera and subgenera of the superfamily Ingelarelloidea, in order to demonstrate the ability to define provinces and their 'Wallace lines' of demarcation between provinces in the geological past.