Weinan section consists of Holocene soil SO, last glacial loess L1, and last interglacial soil S1, furtherly L1 can be subdivided into three layers of loess (L1-1, L1-3, and L1-5), and two layerS of weakly developed s...Weinan section consists of Holocene soil SO, last glacial loess L1, and last interglacial soil S1, furtherly L1 can be subdivided into three layers of loess (L1-1, L1-3, and L1-5), and two layerS of weakly developed soil (L1-2 and L1-4). Based on studying the content variations of Carbonate, free Fe2O3, and the total organic content in Weinan section, the environmental evolution of this region has been discussed over the last glacial-interglacial cycle. Our results indicate that the chemical parameters can be ed as climatic proxy data, and the variations of these indexes reflect the cyclic nature of the Quaternary climatic change. In addition, the climatic records of Weinan section can also be correlated with that of the marine oxygen isotope records, so the environmental evolution of the Loess Plateau is also consistent with the global climatic changes. The unexpected finding is that the climatic curve of L1-5, which can be correlated with stage 4 of marine oxygen isotope records, consists of three troughs and two sandwiched peaks, and may suggest the existence of the second-order warmcold oscillations of this period.展开更多
In the Cordillera of western North America, the influence of the Pacific Interdecadal Oscillation only affects coastal areas west of the Coast Range and the lowlands of western and southern Alaska. The rest of the are...In the Cordillera of western North America, the influence of the Pacific Interdecadal Oscillation only affects coastal areas west of the Coast Range and the lowlands of western and southern Alaska. The rest of the area is subject to a climate controlled by the relative strengths of three distinct air masses, viz., the cold cA/cP air that is dominant in winter, the mP air bringing cool moist air over the mountains throughout the year, and the dry hot cT air from the deserts of the southwestern United States. The Arctic Front marks the boundary between the cA/cP air mass and the other two. Changes in the relative strengths of these air masses appear to explain the climatic changes documented throughout the region. Thus, in the last 30 years, the average position of the Arctic Front has moved north from about 53°N to 58°N, causing the warming in northern British Columbia and cooling south of Calgary, Alberta. This concept of changing positions of the air masses also appears to explain the mechanism behind the past climatic changes in this region. During the last Neoglacial event （c.1400-1900 A.D.）, it appears that the cA/cP air mass had strengthened enough to push the Arctic Front south of the 49th parallel. Incursions of mP air increased with localized areas of short-term heavy snowfalls resulting in small-scale advances of glaciers in these regions. This accounts for the variability in timing and extent of these glacial advances, while the resulting increased Chinook activity produced the development of a sand sea between Medicine Hat and Regina on the southern Prairies. The cT air mass was relatively weak, permitting these changes. During the maximum of the Altithermal/Hysithermal warm event （6,000 years B.P.）, the Arctic Front had retreated into the southern Yukon Territory as the cT air mass became stronger. The mP air could not move inland as easily, resulting in drier climates across the region. Prairie plants mi- grated into the southern Yukon Territory, and land snails from the eastern United States were able to migrate up the Saskatchewan River system as far as Lake Louise, Alberta. On the southern Prairies, the many small sloughs and lakes dried up. During the maximum of the Late Wisconsin Glacial event （15,000 years B.P.）, the Arctic Front had moved south to the vicinity of 30°N, while there had been a southward movement of the Zone of Intertropical Convergence from the equator to about 10°S. The mP air was also very strong and dumped enormous quantities of snow in the glaciated Canadian Cordillera, but it does not appear to have moved south any distance into the northern United States, witness the limited glaciation and widespread permafrost that developed there. Instead, there is evidence for buffering of the climatic changes in the closed basins in the northern Cordillera of the contiguous United States. The source of the cT air mass had moved south into the northern part of South America, permitting an exchange of savannah biota between the two continents. An extensive area of white dune sands inundated both savannah and forest along the inland hills in Guyana. This parallels the massive changes in African climatology during the last Ice Age （Fairbridge, 1964）. If these changes occurred each time there was a major glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere, this would explain the movement of biota from all terrestrial environments between the two American continents in the last 2 million years. A similar northward movement of climatic belts occurred in South America, with the cA air from Antarctica expanding northwards into southern Argentina and Chili. However paucity of data and the potential effects of El Ni o and the Southern Oscillation make it difficult toprovide details of the changes there in the present state of knowledge. This technique of studying the mechanisms of present-day climatic changes and applying the results to past climatic events has considerable potential for elucidating past climatic changes elsewhere in continental regions. This may prove particularly valuable in studying the Siberian anticyclone that is the main cause of the distribution of permafrost, but this will need international cooperation to be successful.展开更多
More and more concentrations have been focused on the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and its effects on regional and global environment. The development of Asian monsoon has a close relationship with the uplift of the ...More and more concentrations have been focused on the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and its effects on regional and global environment. The development of Asian monsoon has a close relationship with the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. The understanding for the development of Asian monsoon is the key to the understanding of the process and the mechanism of the environmental evolution of the Asian region and to the understanding of the history of the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. It is found that a big change of the Asian monsoon system occurred at about 2 6Ma ago. The winter monsoon strengthened (Ding et al.,1992 ), the change of winter monsoon began to in the opposite phase to the summer monsoon in East Asia (An et al., 1998 ), the tropical Southwest monsoon was hard to influence the North China (Li, 1999). However, whether there were changes in direction of winter monsoon and strength of summer monsoon occurred and how to change are still not clear. In this paper, the changes of the Asian monsoon system at about 2 6Ma ago are discussed, based on the reanalysis and combination of the results of atmospheric simulations and the geological records existed. It is suggested that, at about 2 6Ma ago, both winter monsoon and summer monsoon strengthened obviously, because that the amplitude of the climatic change increased a lot—warmer during the warm periods and colder during the cold periods. The direction of winter monsoon in Northern China changed from North—West—West to Northwest or North—West—North, because that the expansion direction of eolian\|deposit\|distribution area in China changed from mainly eastward to mainly southward. The area influenced by subtropical monsoon increased, but the area influenced by tropical monsoon decreased in China, because of the rising of the Tibetan Plateau and the southwest\|ward migration of the center of the Asian Low. At some time of the Pliocene, the tropical monsoon had penetrated onto the Qinghai\|Xizang region and influenced on the North China and Northwest China. However, after 2.6Ma B.P., the effects of the tropical monsoon on Northwest China and the northern part of the Tibetan Plateau decreased. All these suggest that the Tibetan Plateau perhaps reached about 2000m elevation at about 2 6Ma B.P..展开更多
The Kamenushka Formation, exposed in the northern part of South Primorye （Kamennshka-1 and Kamenushka-2 sections）, is one of the few localities in the world with richly fossiliferous Lower-Upper Olenekian sedimentar...The Kamenushka Formation, exposed in the northern part of South Primorye （Kamennshka-1 and Kamenushka-2 sections）, is one of the few localities in the world with richly fossiliferous Lower-Upper Olenekian sedimentary successions. Lower to Middle Triassic ammonoid-, brachiopod- and conodont-bearing silty-clayey deposits of the Kamenushka-1 and Kamenushka-2 sections have been isotope-geochemically investigated in detail. As a result, these sections, together with the previously investigated Abrek Section, exposed in the southern part of South Primorye, provide almost complete ^15Non- and ^13Corg- records for the Lower Triassic of this region. Nine N- isotope intervals and the five negative C-isotope excursions, reflecting, apparently, unstable climatic and hydrological conditions, have been distinguished in the Lower Triassic of South Primorye. On the basis of the new C-isotope data the Mesohedenstroemia bosphorensis Zone （upper part）, Shimanskyites shimanskyi and Neocolumbites insignis zones of South Primorye are correlated now with the Lower Smithian part of the Yinkeng Formation, the Upper Smithian part of the Helongshan Formation and the Middle Spathian part of the Nanlinghu Formation in South China, respectively, as has been observed in the Abrek, Kamenushka-2, West Pingdingshan and Majiashan sections.展开更多
文摘Weinan section consists of Holocene soil SO, last glacial loess L1, and last interglacial soil S1, furtherly L1 can be subdivided into three layers of loess (L1-1, L1-3, and L1-5), and two layerS of weakly developed soil (L1-2 and L1-4). Based on studying the content variations of Carbonate, free Fe2O3, and the total organic content in Weinan section, the environmental evolution of this region has been discussed over the last glacial-interglacial cycle. Our results indicate that the chemical parameters can be ed as climatic proxy data, and the variations of these indexes reflect the cyclic nature of the Quaternary climatic change. In addition, the climatic records of Weinan section can also be correlated with that of the marine oxygen isotope records, so the environmental evolution of the Loess Plateau is also consistent with the global climatic changes. The unexpected finding is that the climatic curve of L1-5, which can be correlated with stage 4 of marine oxygen isotope records, consists of three troughs and two sandwiched peaks, and may suggest the existence of the second-order warmcold oscillations of this period.
文摘In the Cordillera of western North America, the influence of the Pacific Interdecadal Oscillation only affects coastal areas west of the Coast Range and the lowlands of western and southern Alaska. The rest of the area is subject to a climate controlled by the relative strengths of three distinct air masses, viz., the cold cA/cP air that is dominant in winter, the mP air bringing cool moist air over the mountains throughout the year, and the dry hot cT air from the deserts of the southwestern United States. The Arctic Front marks the boundary between the cA/cP air mass and the other two. Changes in the relative strengths of these air masses appear to explain the climatic changes documented throughout the region. Thus, in the last 30 years, the average position of the Arctic Front has moved north from about 53°N to 58°N, causing the warming in northern British Columbia and cooling south of Calgary, Alberta. This concept of changing positions of the air masses also appears to explain the mechanism behind the past climatic changes in this region. During the last Neoglacial event （c.1400-1900 A.D.）, it appears that the cA/cP air mass had strengthened enough to push the Arctic Front south of the 49th parallel. Incursions of mP air increased with localized areas of short-term heavy snowfalls resulting in small-scale advances of glaciers in these regions. This accounts for the variability in timing and extent of these glacial advances, while the resulting increased Chinook activity produced the development of a sand sea between Medicine Hat and Regina on the southern Prairies. The cT air mass was relatively weak, permitting these changes. During the maximum of the Altithermal/Hysithermal warm event （6,000 years B.P.）, the Arctic Front had retreated into the southern Yukon Territory as the cT air mass became stronger. The mP air could not move inland as easily, resulting in drier climates across the region. Prairie plants mi- grated into the southern Yukon Territory, and land snails from the eastern United States were able to migrate up the Saskatchewan River system as far as Lake Louise, Alberta. On the southern Prairies, the many small sloughs and lakes dried up. During the maximum of the Late Wisconsin Glacial event （15,000 years B.P.）, the Arctic Front had moved south to the vicinity of 30°N, while there had been a southward movement of the Zone of Intertropical Convergence from the equator to about 10°S. The mP air was also very strong and dumped enormous quantities of snow in the glaciated Canadian Cordillera, but it does not appear to have moved south any distance into the northern United States, witness the limited glaciation and widespread permafrost that developed there. Instead, there is evidence for buffering of the climatic changes in the closed basins in the northern Cordillera of the contiguous United States. The source of the cT air mass had moved south into the northern part of South America, permitting an exchange of savannah biota between the two continents. An extensive area of white dune sands inundated both savannah and forest along the inland hills in Guyana. This parallels the massive changes in African climatology during the last Ice Age （Fairbridge, 1964）. If these changes occurred each time there was a major glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere, this would explain the movement of biota from all terrestrial environments between the two American continents in the last 2 million years. A similar northward movement of climatic belts occurred in South America, with the cA air from Antarctica expanding northwards into southern Argentina and Chili. However paucity of data and the potential effects of El Ni o and the Southern Oscillation make it difficult toprovide details of the changes there in the present state of knowledge. This technique of studying the mechanisms of present-day climatic changes and applying the results to past climatic events has considerable potential for elucidating past climatic changes elsewhere in continental regions. This may prove particularly valuable in studying the Siberian anticyclone that is the main cause of the distribution of permafrost, but this will need international cooperation to be successful.
文摘More and more concentrations have been focused on the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and its effects on regional and global environment. The development of Asian monsoon has a close relationship with the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. The understanding for the development of Asian monsoon is the key to the understanding of the process and the mechanism of the environmental evolution of the Asian region and to the understanding of the history of the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. It is found that a big change of the Asian monsoon system occurred at about 2 6Ma ago. The winter monsoon strengthened (Ding et al.,1992 ), the change of winter monsoon began to in the opposite phase to the summer monsoon in East Asia (An et al., 1998 ), the tropical Southwest monsoon was hard to influence the North China (Li, 1999). However, whether there were changes in direction of winter monsoon and strength of summer monsoon occurred and how to change are still not clear. In this paper, the changes of the Asian monsoon system at about 2 6Ma ago are discussed, based on the reanalysis and combination of the results of atmospheric simulations and the geological records existed. It is suggested that, at about 2 6Ma ago, both winter monsoon and summer monsoon strengthened obviously, because that the amplitude of the climatic change increased a lot—warmer during the warm periods and colder during the cold periods. The direction of winter monsoon in Northern China changed from North—West—West to Northwest or North—West—North, because that the expansion direction of eolian\|deposit\|distribution area in China changed from mainly eastward to mainly southward. The area influenced by subtropical monsoon increased, but the area influenced by tropical monsoon decreased in China, because of the rising of the Tibetan Plateau and the southwest\|ward migration of the center of the Asian Low. At some time of the Pliocene, the tropical monsoon had penetrated onto the Qinghai\|Xizang region and influenced on the North China and Northwest China. However, after 2.6Ma B.P., the effects of the tropical monsoon on Northwest China and the northern part of the Tibetan Plateau decreased. All these suggest that the Tibetan Plateau perhaps reached about 2000m elevation at about 2 6Ma B.P..
文摘The Kamenushka Formation, exposed in the northern part of South Primorye （Kamennshka-1 and Kamenushka-2 sections）, is one of the few localities in the world with richly fossiliferous Lower-Upper Olenekian sedimentary successions. Lower to Middle Triassic ammonoid-, brachiopod- and conodont-bearing silty-clayey deposits of the Kamenushka-1 and Kamenushka-2 sections have been isotope-geochemically investigated in detail. As a result, these sections, together with the previously investigated Abrek Section, exposed in the southern part of South Primorye, provide almost complete ^15Non- and ^13Corg- records for the Lower Triassic of this region. Nine N- isotope intervals and the five negative C-isotope excursions, reflecting, apparently, unstable climatic and hydrological conditions, have been distinguished in the Lower Triassic of South Primorye. On the basis of the new C-isotope data the Mesohedenstroemia bosphorensis Zone （upper part）, Shimanskyites shimanskyi and Neocolumbites insignis zones of South Primorye are correlated now with the Lower Smithian part of the Yinkeng Formation, the Upper Smithian part of the Helongshan Formation and the Middle Spathian part of the Nanlinghu Formation in South China, respectively, as has been observed in the Abrek, Kamenushka-2, West Pingdingshan and Majiashan sections.
