Winter Meso-Scale Shear Front in the Yellow Sea and Its Sedimentary Effects

In this paper,the authors explored the presence of shear fronts between the Yellow Sea Coastal Current(YSCC) and the monsoon-strengthened Yellow Sea Warm Current(YSWC) in winter and their sedimentary effects within the shear zone based on a fully validated numerical model.This work added the wind force to a tidal model during simulating the winter baroclinic circulation in the Yellow Sea.The results indicate that the YSWC is significantly strengthened by wind-driven compensation due to a northeast monsoon during winter time.When this warm current encounters the North Shandong-South Yellow Sea coastal current,there is a strong reverse shear action between the two current systems,forming a reverse-S-shaped shear front that begins near 34?N in the south and extends to approximately 38?N,with an overall length of over 600 km.The main driving force for the formation of this shear front derives from the circulation system with the reverse flow.In the shear zone,temperature and salinity gradients increase,flow velocities are relatively small and the flow direction on one side of the shear zone is opposite to that on the other side.The vertical circulation structure is complicated,consisting of a series of meso-and small-scale anti-clockwise eddies.Particularly,this shear effect significantly hinders the horizontal exchange of coastal sediments carried by warm currents,resulting in fine sediments deposition due to the weak hydrodynamic regime.

Effects on Sedimentary Processes via Upper Triassic Climate Forcing Caused by Multiple Impacting and Large Igneous Provinces (LIP)-Rifting/Degassing: Jordanian Platform/Arabian Plate and Germanic Basin/Central Europe

Upper Triassic sedimentary systems of both the Arabian Plate and the Germanic Basin reveal climate- and plate tectonic-forced effects through certain time-intervals experienced by architectural elements, lithofacies types, unconformities, flash flood deposits, maximum flooding surfaces/sequence boundary (MFS/SB), mineralogy, and isotope anomalies. Further, Moon recession and changes of Earth’s rotation velocity (core/mantle boundary) are associated with multiple impacting and large igneous provinces/Mid Oceanic Ridge Basalt, LIP/MORB-rifting/degassing. While acidification (by degassing, sturz-rain) does influence tectosilicates and carbonates, montmorillonite represents a key mineral as transformation of volcanic/impact glass (Tephra) to be found as co-components in and in certain pelite units as “boundary clay-suspicions” (mixture of eolian paleoloess, pelite, paleosol, and tephra → tuffite). Obviously, unconformities and sequence boundaries of both study areas separate and dislocate interrupted ∂13C and 87Sr/86Sr-data groups along the isotope curves. Both Proto-Arctic Ocean rifting/degassing comprising kimberlitic pyroclastic eruptions and Neotethys rifting/degassing as well as multiple impacting played the most important role during the Norian, followed by the incipient Central Atlantic Magmatic Provinces rifting since the Rhaetian. The following associations are encountered and dealt with in this study: Sequence boundaries-∂13C, maximum flooding surfaces-(FUCs)-∂13C, unconformities-plate motion, tephra-pelite-tuffite-montmorillonite. Norian: maximum flooding surfaces (MFSs)-“paleosol”/boundary clay?-rifting-volcanism, Moon/Earth data change. So the Norian (~221 - 206 Ma) hosts anomalous “amalgamated maximum flooding surfaces (MFSs)”, amalgamated paleosol (Jordanian Platform), multiple impacting (~219 - 214 Ma), the maximum opening of the Proto-Arctic Ocean (PAO) (~230 - 200 Ma), Neo-Tethys (NT)-subvolcanic (sills, dikes) in the NE Dead Sea area prior the Rhaetian, and a significant change of Earth/Moon relation data. The study concludes that rare and extreme events are very strongly shaping the geologic constellations in the Earth System.