科希斯坦-拉达克弧及其周缘地块的古地磁学研究进展

对于科希斯坦-拉达克弧在印度-亚洲碰撞前的构造属性,学界存在两种不同的认识:陆缘弧和洋内弧.厘定其构造属性,将直接关联新特提斯洋古地理重建方案,对进一步解析印度-亚洲碰撞时间、位置和方式,以及恢复亚洲大陆构造变形历史等具有重要科学意义.本文在总结白垩纪至古新世科希斯坦-拉达克弧及其周缘地块古地磁数据的基础上,主要从古地磁学的视角,重建科希斯坦-拉达克弧及周缘地块的时空构造格局,厘定科希斯坦-拉达克弧的构造属性.在晚白垩世,喀喇昆仑地块与拉萨地块西缘的古纬度一致,两者基本稳定位于亚洲大陆南缘;科希斯坦-拉达克弧在90 Ma位于南半球赤道附近,而在64 Ma已经向北漂移到北半球低纬度地区;特提斯喜马拉雅在75 Ma左右作为印度被动大陆边缘,其中部和东部分别位于16.7°和19.4°S.在64 Ma科希斯坦-拉达克弧与拉萨地块西缘之间仍然被南北向宽度约为900 km的洋盆所分隔,意味着科希斯坦-拉达克弧为洋内弧.在重建印度-亚洲碰撞系统时,综合考虑特提斯喜马拉雅及科希斯坦-拉达克弧的古地磁数据,构建了印度-亚洲三阶段碰撞模型.该模型不仅协调了一系列地质证据,还为新特提斯洋古地理重建及亚洲陆内变形提供重要约束.例如,什约克缝合带与雅鲁藏布江缝合带曾经相连并可对比,据此推断,喀喇昆仑断裂至少具有400 km的位移量.

New dating indicates intermittent human occupation of the Nwya Devu Paleolithic site on the high-altitude central Tibetan Plateau during the past 45,000 years

The timing and mechanisms of the human occupation of the demanding high-altitude Tibetan Plateau environment are of great interest.Here,we report on our reinvestigations and dating of the Nwya Devu site,located nearly 4600 meters above sea level on the central Tibetan Plateau.A new microblade techno-complex was identified on a lower lake shore at this site,distinct from the previously reported blade tool assemblage.These two lithic assemblages were dated to 45.6±2.6 and10.3±0.5 ka using optically stimulated luminescence and accelerator mass spectrometry^(14)C methods.They represent,respectively,the earliest known Paleolithic and microlithic sites on the interior Tibetan Plateau,indicating multiple occupation episodes of hunter-gatherers during the past 45 ka.Our studies reveal that relatively stable depositional conditions and a paleoenvironment characterized by a comparatively warm climate facilitated these multiple occupations at Nwya Devu.The contemporaneous occurrence of the Upper Paleolithic blade technology on the Tibetan Plateau and most of Eurasia between 50 and 40 ka indicates rapid,large-scale dispersals of humans that profoundly affected human demography on a large scale.Combining new archaeological evidence and previously reported genetic data,we conclude that the Tibetan Plateau provided a relatively stable habitat for Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers,which may have contributed to the complex and multiple-origin gene pool of present-day Tibetans.

Quaternary integrative stratigraphy and timescale of China

Quaternary strata in China mainly comprise continental deposits in a variety of depositional settings. The continental Quaternary in temperate northern China consists mainly of eolian and fluvio-lacustrine deposits; that in subtropical southern China, mainly of vermiculated red soils, cave/fissure deposits, and fluvio-lacustrine deposits; and that in the alpine Tibetan Plateau, mainly of fluvio-lacustrine and piedmont deposits. The marine Quaternary in China consists of detrital deposits and biogenic reef deposits. The integration of biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, climatostratigraphy and an astronomically calibrated chronology has led to the establishment of high-precision climatochronostratigraphic timescales for the detrital marine Quaternary in the South China Sea and the loess-paleosol sequence in the Chinese Loess Plateau. Extremely high-precision230 Th dating has provided a high-precision absolute age model for cave stalagmites over the past 640000 years as well as highresolution oxygen isotope records representing orbital-to suborbital-scale climate changes. By combining magnetic stratigraphy and biostratigraphy, robust chronostratigraphic frameworks for non-eolian continental Quaternary deposits on the scale of Quaternary geomagnetic polarities have been established. The continental Pleistocene Series consists, from oldest to youngest,of the Nihewanian Stage of the Lower Pleistocene, the Zhoukoudianian Stage of the Middle Pleistocene, and the Salawusuan Stage of the Upper Pleistocene. Stages of the continental Holocene Series have not yet been established. This review summarizes recent developments in the Quaternary chronostratigraphy of representative Quaternary strata and associated faunas, and then proposes an integrative chronostratigraphic framework and a stratigraphic correlation scheme for Quaternary continental strata in China. In the near-future, it is hoped to establish not only a Chinese continental Quaternary climatochronostratigraphic chart on the scale of glacial-interglacial cycles but also a Quaternary integrative chronostratigraphic chart including both continental and marine strata in China.

The use of fire at Zhoukoudian:evidence from magnetic susceptibility and color measurements

In order to provide direct evidence for the use of fire by humans at Locality 1,Zhoukoudian,we examine the burnt and unburnt sediments of newly excavated area in Layer 4 by detailed measurements of magnetic susceptibility,color,and diffuse reflectance spectrum.Results show that the magnetic susceptibility and redness of the burnt sediments are remarkably higher than those of other areas on the same level:up to*22 times for magnetic susceptibility and*3 times for redness of those of the adjacent unburnt sediments.Fine-grained(superparamagnetic/stable single-domain)magnetite and hematite grains make dominant contributions to the distinctly high values of magnetic susceptibility and redness in the burnt sediments.Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy results show that the burnt sediments contain more hematite than those of other areas and localities 2 and 3.High-temperature magnetic susceptibility measurements demonstrate that the burnt sediments have been heated above 700°C.Those changes in low-frequency magnetic susceptibility and redness are impossibly resulted from natural fires,thus most likely signaling the human activities of controlled use of fire.However,further work is needed to confirm whether or not these heat-affected sediments were produced in situ.

Lake geochemistry reveals marked environmental change in Southwest China during the Mid Miocene Climatic Optimum

The Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum （MMCO; 15-17 Ma） was one of the short-term climatic warm events that punctuated the Cenozoic long-term cooling trend. Because there are very few terrestrial records of this event, most of our understanding comes from marine cores. In this report, we first present new palaeomagnetic data that revises the dating of our 400 m-thick lacustrine section in Wenshan （Yunnan）, previously thought to be Late Mio- cene. These new data suggest an older age, ca. 15.2-16.5 Ma, coinciding with the MMCO. We measured δ13C on bulk organic matter （3 Corg）, total organic carbon （TOC）, total nitrogen （TN） and C/N ratios at a high sample resolution to： （1） reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental changes in the lake catchment area, and （2） infer mechanisms responsible for these changes. Our results show that all four geochemical parameters demonstrate that a strong environmental change occurred around the middle of the section, shortly after the C5Cn/C5Br geomagnetic reversal and the Early/Middle Miocene boundary at 15.97 Ma. We propose that the environmental shift may be due to a combination of a change in climate, which became cooler, together with a change in organic matter cycling within the lake. This study provides a new insight into the MMCO and demonstrates that although the MMCO was generally a warm event, it was also a time of climatic instability and abrupt environmental changes.

Orbital-scale Asian summer monsoon variations:Paradox and exploration

The Asian summer monsoon(ASM) is a vast climate system, whose variability is critical to the livelihoods of billions of people across the Asian continent. During the past half-century, much progress has been made in understanding variations on a wide range of timescales, yet several significant issues remain unresolved. Of note are two long-standing problems concerning orbital-scale variations of the ASM.(1) Chinese loess magnetic susceptibility records show a persistent glacial-interglacial dominated ~100 kyr(thousand years) periodicity, while the cave oxygen-isotope(δ18 O) records reveal periodicity in an almost pure precession band(~20 kyr periodicity)—the "Chinese 100 kyr problem".(2) ASM records from the Arabian Sea and other oceans surrounding the Asian continent show a significant lag of 8–10 kyr to Northern Hemisphere summer insolation(NHSI), whereas the Asian cave δ18 O records follow NHSI without a significant lag—a discrepancy termed the "sea-land precession-phase paradox". How can we reconcile these differences? Recent and more refined model simulations now provide spatial patterns of rainfall and wind across the precession cycle, revealing distinct regional divergences in the ASM domain, which can well explain a large portion of the disparities between the loess, marine, and cave proxy records. Overall, we also find that the loess, marine, and cave records are indeed complementary rather than incompatible, with each record preferentially describing a certain aspect of ASM dynamics. Our study provides new insight into the understanding of different hydroclimatic proxies and largely reconciles the "Chinese 100 kyr problem" and "sea-land precession-phase paradox".

New SIMS U-Pb geochronology for the Shahezi Formation from CCSD-SK-IIe borehole in the Songliao Basin,NE China

The Songliao Basin,northeastern China(Fig.1a),is one of the largest non-marine petroliferous basins in the world and contains a nearly complete Cretaceous terrestrial sedimentary sequences.This succession provides vital information that can improve our knowledge of a series of important geodynamical,geological,and paleoenvironmental events[1,2].The lower Cretaceous Shahezi Formation,which is the main source rock strata in the basin,formed during the rifting stage of the basin and consists of gray to black lacustrine and floodplain mudstones and siltstones interbedded with gray sandstones and conglomerates.The unit overlies the Huoshiling Formation and is overlain by the Yingcheng Formation(Fig.1b).

Fossil seeds of Euryale(Nymphaeaceae) indicate a lake or swamp environment in the late Miocene Zhaotong Basin of southwestern China

Euryale （Nymphaeaceae） is a monotypic genus distributed in eastern Asia, but fossils in its native distribu- tion are sparse as compared to Europe where the genus has disappeared. Here, we describe a new fossil species, Euryale yunnanensis sp. nov., from the late Miocene Zhaotong Basin in southwestern China on the basis of seed remains. Char- acteristics including an ellipsoidal to almost spherical shape, a smooth surface, a germination cap that covers the micro- pyle, the separation of the hilum and germination cap （mi- cropyle）, elliptic testa surface cells with undulate margins and thickened cell walls collectively indicate a close affinity with the genus Euryale in Nymphaeaceae. Comparisons of seed morphology and anatomy demonstrate that the newly described fossil species differs from modem and other fossil species of Euryale and thus verify the assignment to a new fossil species. As the modem Euryale is an aquatic plant, preferably living in swamps and lakes with shallow and stable water, we hypothesize that a lake and/or swamp environment with shallow water was present near Shui- tangba in the Zhaotong Basin, where the Shuitangba homi- noid lived during the late Miocene. This inference is generally consistent with paleoenvironmental data extracted from avian, fish, frog, turtle and crocodile fossils, as well as from aquatic pollen. The fossil history suggests a compara- tively recent （Miocene） emergence of Euryale, which is roughly in agreement with the divergence time inferred from the molecular information.

Fossil leaves of Berhamniphyllum(Rhamnaceae) from Markam,Tibet and their biogeographic implications

A new occurrence of buckthorn fossil leaves is reported from the upper Eocene strata of Markam Basin,southeastern Tibet,China.The leaf margin is either entire or slightly sinuous.Secondary veins are regularly spaced,forming eucamptodromous venation.These secondaries exist as straight lines from midvein to near margin and then arch abruptly upward and enter into a margin vein.The tertiary veins are densely spaced and parallel,and are percurrent to secondary veins.This leaf architecture conforms with Berhamniphyllum Jones and Dilcher,an extinct fossil genus reported from America.Our fossils are characterized by their dense secondaries,with secondary veins on the upper half portion of the blade accounting for over 40%of all secondaries.A new species,Berhamniphyllum junrongiae Z.K.Zhou,T.X.Wang et J.Huang sp.nov.,is proposed.Further analysis shows that confident assignment among Rhamnidium,Berchemia,and Karwinskia cannot be made based on leaf characters alone.Berhamniphyllum might represent an extinct common ancestor of these genera.In this study,several fossil Berchemia from Yunnan and Shandong are emended and reassigned to Berhamniphyllum.A new complex,namely the Berchemia Complex,is proposed based on morphology,molecular evidence,and the fossil record.This complex contains the fossil leaves of Rhamnidium,Karwinskia,Berchemia,and Berhamniphyllum.The historical biogeography of the Berchemia Complex is also discussed in this paper.This complex might have originated in the late Cretaceous in Colombia,South America,and dispersed to North America via Central America during the Eocene.Subsequently,the complex moved from North America to East Asia via the Bering Land Bridge no later than the late Eocene.Besides,the complex migrated from North America to Europe via the North Atlantic Land Bridge and then migrated further to Africa.In East Asia,it first appeared in Markam on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau,and then dispersed to other regions of Asia.

Neogene–quaternary magnetostratigraphy of the biogenic reef sequence of core NK–1 in Nansha Qundao,South China Sea

The tropical reef ecosystems are created by living organisms,such as corals and algae,and provide important habitats for millions of people and a variety of marine life,which have been severely threatened by climate changes over the past decades[1].These biogenic reefs account for a quarter of global CaCO_(3)production and thus are critical to global carbon cycling[2,3].

Astronomical tuning and magnetostratigraphy of Neogene biogenic reefs in Xisha Islands, South China Sea

Biogenic reefs are one of two major depositional types in the South China Sea, and are constructed by coral, algae and bryozoa. The West Pacific is a major area of biogenic reef development and plays a critical role in the global carbon cycle. However, the lack of geochronological studies in previous works inhibits our understanding of their contributions. Herein, we conduct a cyclostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic study on Neogene biogenic reefs using the XK–1 core that was drilled at the Shidao Island,Xisha(Paracel) Islands. The main findings of this study are:(1) the establishment of reliable magentostratigraphy for Ledong, Huangliu, Meishan and Sanya Formations;(2) the magnetic susceptibility variation can be inferred as growth index and tuned to the 405–ka long eccentricity cycle;(3) the astronomical geochronology suggests that the bottom ages for Ledong, Yinggehai, Huangliu, Meishan,and Sanya Formations are 2.2 Ma, 5.7 Ma, 10.4 Ma, 16.6 Ma, and 24.3 Ma, respectively; and (4) Earth's eccentricity and obliquity played predominant roles in biogenic reef establishment on orbital to tectonic timescales. Thus, the reported geochronology offers an opportunity to test the contributions of various factors and hypothesize their roles in the global carbon cycle in future.

新特提斯洋俯冲与大气二氧化碳浓度变化的动力学联系

新特提斯洋的脱碳俯冲被认为在新生代气候变化中发挥了重要作用,但仍然缺少定量的研究.本研究使用改进的地震层析成像重建方法构建了过去的俯冲情景,并计算了印度-欧亚大陆碰撞区域的俯冲板块通量.新生代时期的俯冲板片通量和古气候参数的变化之间存在显著的同步性,表明这些过程之间存在因果关系.新生代早期,新特提洋内俯冲的关闭导致更多富含碳的沉积物沿着欧亚大陆边缘俯冲,为大陆弧火山的岩浆作用提供了更多的碳源,进一步引发了全球变暖.在全球气候达到早始新世峰值后,印度-欧亚大陆碰撞导致的新特提斯俯冲的突然终止造成了距今50~40 Ma期间大气中二氧化碳浓度的快速下降.距今40 Ma后,大气中的二氧化碳浓度逐渐降低,这可能是由于青藏高原的生长导致大陆风化作用增强所致.本文结果有助于更好地理解新特提斯洋演化的动态含义,并可能为未来的碳循环模型提供新的约束条件.