Timescales of geological processes: Preface

1.Introduction One of the major challenges in Geoscience is to understand how the formation and evolution of the Earth System are governed by timescales-that is,how the various geological processes that continue to contribute to its present-day structure and composition operated in the deep past.The traditional view of such processes refers to events that occur at immense spatial scales and over hundreds of millions of years,constrained in most cases by the ages of rocks determined using isotopic dating methods or the fossil record.However,the modern view of geological processes has increasingly acknowledged that their durations can be significantly shorter than previously thought possible,or indeed detectable without recent analytical innovations.Earthquakes are a prime example of rapid,high energy and episodic events that have a profound effect on subsequent processes such as metamorphism,fluid transport,and ore formation e the evidence of which is written in microstructures,compositional zoning,and P-T records.Experimental studies have also revealed that the reaction rates between fluids and rocks can be extremely rapid relative to geological timescales.This has led to the notion that geological processes are not necessarily continuous over millions of years but may,in fact,be sporadic,with long periods where essentially no reactions take place punctuated by periods of intense activity.

New Integrative Stratigraphy and Timescale for China Released

New integrative stratigraphy and timescales for 13 geological periods in China from the Ediacaran to the Quaternary have recently been published in a special issue of SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences.The research summarizes the latest advances in stratigraphy and timescale as well as discusses the correlation among different blocks in China and with international timescales.

Climatic and lake environmental changes in the Serling Co region of Tibet over a variety of timescales

The Serling Co region is located at the transitional zone of the interaction between the Indian monsoon and the westerlies over the Tibetan Plateau. The Serling Co lake covers a water area of2,389 km2(June 2017) in a 45,530 km2drainage basin. Under the dramatic hydro-meteorological changes on the Tibetan Plateau in recent decades, and complex hydrological compositions of rivers and lakes in the basin, the lake area expanded by 43%, from1,667 km2in 1976, to 2,389 km2in 2017 (1)In 2014 it surpassed Nam Co as the largest lake on the Tibetan Plateau [2], and exerts significant effect on regional environmental conditions.

Permian integrative stratigraphy and timescale of China

A series of global major geological and biological events occurred during the Permian Period. Establishing a highresolution stratigraphic and temporal framework is essential to understand their cause-effect relationship. The official International timescale of the Permian System consists of three series(i.e., Cisuralian, Guadalupian and Lopingian in ascending order) and nine stages. In China, the Permian System is composed of three series(Chuanshanian, Yansingian and Lopingian) and eight stages, of which the subdivisions and definitions of the Chuanshanian and Yangsingian series are very different from the Cisuralian and Guadalupian series. The Permian Period spanned ～47 Myr. Its base is defined by the First Appearance Datum(FAD) of the conodont Streptognathodus isolatus at Aidaralash, Kazakhstan with an interpolated absolute age 298.9±0.15 Ma at Usolka, southern Urals, Russia. Its top equals the base of the Triassic System and is defined by the FAD of the conodont Hindeodus parvus at Meishan D section, southeast China with an interpolated absolute age 251.902±0.024 Ma. Thirty-five conodont, 23 fusulinid, 17 radiolarian and 20 ammonoid zones are established for the Permian in China, of which the Guadalupian and Lopingian conodont zones have been served as the standard for international correlation. The Permian δ13 Ccarbtrend indicates that it is characterized by a rapid negative shift of 3–5‰ at the end of the Changhsingian, which can be used for global correlation of the end-Permian mass extinction interval, but δ13 Ccarbrecords from all other intervals may have more or less suffered subsequent diagenetic alteration or represented regional or local signatures only. Permian δ18 Oapatitestudies suggest that an icehouse stage dominated the time interval from the late Carboniferous to Kungurian(late Cisuralian). However, paleoclimate began to ameriolate during the late Kungurian and gradually shifted into a greenhouse-dominated stage during the Guadalupian.The Changhsingian was a relatively cool stage, followed by a globally-recognizable rapid temperature rise of 8–10°C at the very end of the Changhsingian. The87 Sr/86 Sr ratio trend shows that their values at the beginning of the Permian were between 0.70800,then gradually decreased to the late Capitanian minimum 0.70680–0.70690, followed by a persistent increase until the end of the Permian with the value 0.70708. Magenetostratigraphy suggests two distinct stages separated by the Illawarra Reversal in the middle Wordian, of which the lower is the reverse polarity Kiaman Superchron and the upper is the mixed-polarity Illawarra Superchron. The end-Guadalupian(or pre-Lopingian) biological crisis occurred during the late Capitanian, when faunal changeovers of different fossil groups had different paces, but generally experienced a relatively long time from the Jinogondolella altudensis Zone until the earliest Wuchiapingian. The end-Permian mass extinction was a catastrophic event that is best constrained at the Meishan section, which occurred at 251.941±0.037 Ma and persisted no more than 61±48 kyr. After the major pulse at Bed 25, the extinction patterns are displayed differently in different sections. The global end-Guadalupian regression is manifested between the conodont Jinogondolella xuanhanensis and Clarkina dukouensis zones and the endChanghsingian transgression began in the Hindeodus changxingensis-Clarkina zhejiangensis Zone. The Permian Period is also characterized by strong faunal provincialism in general, which resulted in difficulties in inter-continental and inter-regional correlation of both marine and terrestrial systems.

Reduced-order Modeling and Dynamic Stability Analysis of MTDC Systems in DC Voltage Control Timescale

An equivalent source-load MTDC system including DC voltage control units,power control units and interconnected DC lines is considered in this paper,which can be regarded as a generic structure of low-voltage DC microgrids,mediumvoltage DC distribution systems or HVDC transmission systems with a common DC bus.A reduced-order model is proposed with a circuit structure of a resistor,inductor and capacitor in parallel for dynamic stability analysis of the system in DC voltage control timescale.The relationship between control parameters and physical parameters of the equivalent circuit can be found,which provides an intuitive insight into the physical meaning of control parameters.Employing this model,a second-order characteristic equation is further derived to investigate system dynamic stability mechanisms in an analytical approach.As a result,the system oscillation frequency and damping are characterized in a straight forward manner,and the role of electrical and control parameters and different system-level control strategies in system dynamic stability in DC voltage control timescale is defined.The effectiveness of the proposed reduced-order model and the correctness of the theoretical analysis are verified by simulation based on PSCAD/EMTDC and an experiment based on a hardware low-voltage MTDC system platform.

Net Damping Criterion for Stability Analysis of Grid-tied VSCs in DC Voltage Control Timescale

Stability of grid-connected VSCs in DC voltage control(DVC)timescales(i.e.,the frequency range of dynamics covering converter outer controls)has recently caught increased attention,while the existing approaches,such as eigenvalue analysis and dq-domain impedance analysis,have respective limitations on addressing these types of stability issues.This paper proposes an alternative net damping criterion dedicated for analyzing the DVC timescale stability in a multi-VSC system.This criterion is strictly mapped from the Nyquist stability criterion utilizing the gain margin concept,which preserves the advantages of the classical positive net damping criterion suggested by Canay[20]–allowing for decomposition analysis of a subsystem’s contribution to the closed-loop stability in a single-input single-output(SISO)framework,but overcomes its deficiency of possibly erroneous prediction of system dynamic behaviors.Case studies show that the proposed criterion can correctly predict some unstable conditions(e.g.,monotonic divergence)which cannot be identified by the classical net damping criterion.Additionally,the condition for when the classical criterion is available is also pointed out,the proposed criterion can also act as a complement of the classical criterion for stability examination.

Transient-state instability analysis of dissolution-timescale reactive infiltration in fluid-saturated porous rocks: Purely mathematical approach

This paper deals with how the purely mathematical approach can be used to solve transient-state instability problems of dissolution-timescale reactive infiltration(DTRI) in fluid-saturated porous rocks. Three key steps involved in such an approach are:(1) to mathematically derive an analytical solution(known as the base solution or conventional solution) for a quasi-steady state problem of the dissolution timescale, which is viewed as a frozen state of the original transient-state instability problem;(2)to mathematically deduce a group of first-order perturbation partial-differential equations(PDEs) for the quasi-steady state problem;(3) to mathematically derive an analytical solution(known as the perturbation solution or unconventional solution) for this group of first-order perturbation PDEs. Because of difficulty in mathematically solving a transient-state instability problem of DTRI in general cases, only a special case, in which some nonlinear coupling between governing PDEs of the problem can be decoupled, is considered to illustrate these three key steps in this study. The related theoretical results demonstrated that the transient chemical dissolution front can become unstable in the DTRI system of large Zh numbers when the long wavelength perturbations are applied to the system. This new finding may lay the theoretical foundation for developing innovative technique to exploit shale gas resources in the deep Earth.

Preface: New advances in the integrative stratigraphy and timescale of China

A series of major geological and biological events which altered the evolutionary processes of whole biosphere occurred during the earth history. Establishing a high-resolution stratigraphic framework and timescale is essential to understand their tempo and causes. High-resolution biostratigraphy remains the most useful approach and forms the basis of dividing the chronostratigraphic system and making the inter-continental and regional correlation. China possesses nearly complete strata from Ediacaran to Quaternary covering wide palaeogeographic regions and containing abundant well-preserved fossils. Traditional biostratigraphy based on sytematic palaeontology of various fossil groups have played an important role in establishing the GSSPs and improving the International and Chinese Stratigraphic Charts. 11 out of 72 establised GSSPs are located in China.Recently, more high-precision geochronology, chemostratigraphy, cyclostrtatigraphy have been applied for stratigraphy and correlation and important advances have been made in some periods. This volume invited Chinese palaeontologists and stratigraphers to summarize the progresses of stratigraphy and timescale from Ediacaran to Quaternary and intercontinental and regional correlation during the last two decades.

Asian Monsoon variations on orbital to millennial timescales

With the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Ministry of Science and Technology of China,a team of international researchers led by Prof.Cheng Hai（程海）at the Institute of Global Environmental Change,Xi’an Jiaotong University,have extended the Chinese cave δ18O record

Characterisation of Meteorological Drought in Northern Nigeria Using Comparative Rainfall-Based Drought Metrics

Meteorological droughts occur when there is deficiency in rainfall;i.e. rainfall availability is below some acclaimed normal values. Hence, the greater challenge is to be able to obtain suitable methods for assessing drought occurrence, its onset or initiation and termination. Thus, an attempt was made in this paper to evaluate the performance of Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardised Precipitation Anomaly Index (SPAI) to characterise drought in Northern Nigeria for purposes of comparison and eventual adoption of probable candidate index for the development of an Early Warning System. The findings indicated that despite the fact that the annual timescale may be long, it can be employed to obtain information on the temporal evolution of drought especially, regional behaviour. However, monthly timescale can be more appropriate if emphasis is on evaluating the effects of drought in situations relating to water supply, agriculture and groundwater abstractions. The SPAI can be employed for periodic rainfall time series though;it accentuates drought signatures and may not necessarily dampen high fluctuations due to implications of high climatic variability considering the stochastic nature and state transition of drought phenomena. On the other hand, the temporal evolution of SPI and SPAI were not coherent at different temporal accumulations with differences in fluctuations. However, despite the differences between the SPI and SPAI, generally at some timescales, for instance, 6-month accumulation, both spatial and temporal distributions of drought characteristics were seemingly consistent. In view of the observed shortcomings of both indices, especially the SPI, the Standardised Nonstationary Precipitation Index (SnsPI) should be looked into and too, other indexes that take into consideration the implications of global warming by incorporating potential evapotranspiration may be deemed more suitable for drought studies in Northern Nigeria.

Ad Hoc网络中联合跨层拥塞控制和资源调度

提出一个联合传输速率、链路的传输时间和链路速率的网络利用最大化模型(NUM),并用对偶分解理论设计该问题的分布式算法。目标是为了得到传输层的最优的端到端的源速率,物理层的功率以及MAC层资源的最优分配,从而使网络利用率达到最大的同时使所有链路的功耗最小。通过仿真实验,验证算法的可行性,能达到预期的目标。

THE ASYMPTOTIC THEORY OF SEMILINEAR PERTURBED TELEGRAPH EQUATION AND ITS APPLICATION

This paper is devoted to studying the asymptotic theory of initial value problemsfor a semilinear perturbed telegraph equation. The asymptotic theory and validity offormal approximations are constructed on long timescale O(|ε|-1). Asan application ofthe asymptotic theory, the initial value problenis for a special telegraph equation arestudied and two asymptotic solutions of order O(|ε|-1) are presented.

Trends on physical understanding of bioink printability

Recently, 3D bioprinting is developed as an emerging approach, increasingly applied to materials for healthcare;while, the precise placement of cells and materials, and the shape fidelity of forming constructs is of great importance for successful application of 3D bioprinting. Research efforts have been made to develop new bioinks as "raw materials" with better biocompatibility and biofunctionality, but the printability of bioinks is largely ignored and still needs to be carefully examined to enable robotic bioprinting. This article aims to introduce a recent published review (Appl. Phys. Rev. 2018, 5, 041304) on the evaluation of bioink printability by Huang's research group from University of Florida. Huang et al. comprehensively reviewed the bioink printability based on the physical point of view during inkjet printing, laser printing, and microextrusion, and a series of self-consistent time scales and dimensi on less quantities were utilized to physically understand and evaluate bioink printability. This article would be helpful to know the trends on physical understanding of bioink printability.

The Ordovician Magnetostratigraphy and Cyclostratigraphy:A Review

The study of magnetostratigraphy and cyclostratigraphy in the last two decades has provided a great deal of opportunities to improve the geologic time scale.The Cenozoic and Mesozoic geologic timescale have been well calibrated(Gradstein et al..2012;Ogg et al,2012;Cohen et al.,2018).However,for the Paleozoic era the uncertainty over boundary ages are still very large.

INTERDECADAL TRANSITIONS AND TWO EXCEPTIONAL YEARS OF JUNE PRECIPITATION OVER SOUTH CHINA

An analysis of high-resolution precipitation data for 1978-2006 indicates that the precipitation over southern China in June experienced a low-value period in 1980-1989 and a high-value period in 1992-2001.It also reveals that exceptional heavy(light) precipitation occurred in June 2005(2004) since 1951.For these variations on both interdecadal and interannual timescales,fairly uniform anomalies of precipitation appeared over Vietnam,southern China,and southeastern China.Corresponding to positive(negative) precipitation anomalies,anomalous southeasterly(northwesterly) flow at 850 hPa reached Vietnam and anomalous southwesterly(northeasterly) flow expanded to the coastal regions of southern and southeastern China.Precedent to the positive(negative) precipitation anomalies during 1992-2001(1980-1989),positive(negative) anomalies of sea surface temperature appeared over the extratropical northwestern Pacific in the winter and spring seasons,associated with a strong(weak) extension of the warm Kuroshio Current that affects the coastal region of eastern China.The above-normal precipitation in June 2005 was associated with the pseudo-ENSO event in the previous winter,and the below-normal precipitation in June 2004 was associated with negative anomalies of sea surface temperature over the equatorial central Pacific and positive anomalies over the equatorial western and eastern Pacific.

The Golden Spike Still Glitters:The(Re)construction of a Global Chronostratigraphy

1 Introduction Stratigraphy,placing the sequence of events in Earth history into order,is a fundamental part of the geosciences.Traditionally the starting point is a regional stratigraphy,based on lithological,mappable units,correlated by fossils with local,regional and global chronostratigraphical schemes.Chronostratigraphic units were traditionally defined on their fossil content,as essentially unit stratotypes.But,commonly there were no clear boundaries.

Dynamical features of near-inertial motions in global ocean based on the GDP dataset from 2000 to 2019

Based on the latest oceanic surface drifter dataset from the global drifter program during 2000–2019,this study investigated the global variation of relative frequency shift(RFS),near-inertial energy(NIE)and inverse excess bandwidth(IEB)of near-inertial motions,and analyzed their relations with oceanic mesoscale dynamics,relative vorticity and strain.Compared with previous works,we have some new findings in this study:(1)the RFS was high with negative values in some regions in which we found a significant blue shift of the RFS in the equatorward of 30°N(S)and from 50°N to 60°N in the Pacific,and a red shift in the western boundary currents and their extension regions,the North Atlantic and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current regions;(2)more peak values of the NIE were found in global regions like the South Indian Ocean,the Luzon Strait and some areas of the South Ocean;(3)the global distribution of the IEB were characterized by clear zonal bands and affected by vorticity and wind field;(4)the RFS was elevated as the absolute value of the gradient of vorticity increased,the IEB did not depend on the gradient of vorticity,and the eddy kinetic energy(EKE)weakened with the decrease of the absolute value of RFS;(5)the NIE decreased with increasing absolute value of the relative vorticity and the gradient of vorticity,but it increased with increasing strain and EKE when EKE was larger than 0.0032 m2/s2.

The paleoclimate change of Qaidam Basin during the last 2.85 Ma recorded by Gamma-ray logging

The geographical location of Qaidam Basin corresponds toN36°05′-38°10′ and E90°10′-98°05′. The thickness of the Quaternary deposits in the basin reaches 2000-3000 m. This paper deals mainly with the aspect of paleoclimate change of the basin. The approach used for the study consisted of (1) establishing the paleoclimate curve of the basin according to the climate indices, including the spore-pollen statistics, carbonate content and δ18O, obtained from the samples of the 760 m continuously-cored exploration holes sited in the basin, (2) comparing the paleoclimate curve with the natural gamma-logs of the same exploration holes, and (3) determining the paleoclimatic changes in the last 2.85 Ma on the basis of detailed geochronological calculations. These results are extremely important for comparison with the δ18O-based climate curve derived from the ODP659 in the Atlantic Ocean and with the cycles of paleosol in the Chinese loess.

Modulation of the Intraseasonal Variability of Pacific-Japan Pattern by ENSO

This study investigates how the El Nino-Southern Oscillation(ENSO)modulates the intraseasonal variability(ISV)of Pacific-Japan(PJ)teleconnection pattern.The PJ index during boreal summer is constructed from the empirical orthogonal function(EOF)of the 850-hPa zonal wind(U850)anomalies.Distinct periods of the PJ index are found during El Nino and La Nina summers.Although ISV of the PJ pattern is significant during 10-25 days for both types of summers,it peaks on Days 30 and 60 in El Nino and La Nina summers respectively.During El Nino summers,the 30-day ISV of PJ pattern is related to the northwestward propagating intraseasonal oscillation(ISO)over the western North Pacific(WNP),which is originated from the tropical Indian Ocean(IO).During La Nina summers,the 60-day ISV of PJ pattern is related to the northeastward propagating ISO from the tropical IO.The low-frequency ISV modes in both El Nino and La Nina summers are closely related to the boreal summer ISO(BSISO),and the high-frequency ISV modes over WNP are related to the quasi-biweekly oscillation.The underlying mechanisms for these different evolutions are also discussed.

Progress and Prospects of Research on Subseasonal to Seasonal Variability and Prediction of the East Asian Monsoon

Subseasonal to seasonal(S2S)variability represents the atmospheric disturbance on the 10–90-day timescale,which is an important bridge linking weather and climate.In 2015,China Meteorological Administration(CMA)listed the S2S prediction project that was initiated by WMO programs three years ago as one of its key tasks.After five years of research,significant progress has been made on the mechanisms of the East Asian monsoon(EAM)S2S variability,related impact of climate change,as well as the predictability on the S2S timescale of numerical models.The S2S variability of the EAM is closely linked to extreme persistent climate events in China and is an important target for seasonal climate prediction.However,under the influence of global warming and the interactions among climate systems,the S2S variability of the EAM is so complex that its prediction remains a great challenge.This paper reviews the past achievement and summarizes the recent progress in research of the EAM S2S variability and prediction,including characteristics of the main S2S modes of the EAM,their impact on the extreme events in China,effects of external and internal forcing on the S2S variability,as well as uncertainties of climate models in predicting the S2S variability,with a focus on the progress achieved by the S2S research team of the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences.The present bottlenecks,future directions,and critical research recommendations are also analyzed and presented.