深海沉积与地球系统

DEEP SEA SEDIMENTS AND EARTH SYSTEM

20世纪50年代以来深海沉积学的一系列突破性发展,打破了沉积学的长期静寂,也推动了地球系统演变中一系列相关学科。从几个方面回顾了国际深海沉积学的发展历程:从浊流到等深流,从深海风暴到沉积牵引体,从沉积捕集器到海底边界层的定点观测,从沉积过程的时间序列到海底联网观测系统,以至连接现代沉积过程和层序地层学的"从源到汇",和深海沉积过程在碳循环中作用的研究。由于这种种发展,深海沉积学成为地球系统科学的一个关键环节。回顾半个多世纪来的深海沉积学,其重大进展都是和海洋的现场观测紧密相连,都得益于与相关学科的结合,也都有大型国际计划作为依托,可惜这些计划几乎全在欧美海区。我国当前出现了发展深海沉积学的良机,建议除了增加投入和设备外,要尽快启动深海大型科研计划的实施,并对我国深海沉积学的研究方向提出了三点具体建议。

A series of breakthroughs in deep-sea sedimentology since the 1950s brought the long-term stagnation in sedimentary studies to an end, and meanwhile gave an impetus to the development of various research fields related to the Earth system science. The present paper briefly reviews the international development of deep-sea sedimentology, covering a broad spectrum of aspects ranging from turbidite to contourite, from deep storm to sediment drift, from sediment trap to on-site observation of the BBL, from time series of sedimentation to cabled sea-floor observation, as well as the ＂source to sink＂ studies connecting the modern process to sequence stratigraphy, and the role of deep-sea sedimentation in carbon cycling. All the progress has made deep-sea sedimentology a crucial link in the Earth system science. In the half-century history of deep-sea sedimentology, all the major advances were achieved with offshore on-site observa- tions and benefited from interdisciplinary approaches with neighboring sciences, and were associated with large international research programs which were almost all focused on areas off the American and European coasts. At the present, China is experiencing its golden age to develop deep-sea sedimentology. Aside from the enhancement of research budget and equipment, an urgent need in China is to launch large-scale deep-sea research programs. The paper concludes with three suggestions concerning the future directions of deep-sea sedimentology in the country.