what controlled mid late miocene long term aridification in central asia global cooling or tibetan plateau uplift a review abstract debate continues over whether global cooling or uplift of the tibetan plateau provided the first order driver for the aridification moisture levels of central asia throughout the mid late miocene between about 17 and 5 ma this review attempts to throw new light on the relations between the aridification and these two key factors this paper examines the evolution of miocene climate both moisture and temperature within five separate regions of eurasia to help understand the large scale controls of long term moisture in central asia the five regions include 1 europe 2 high latitude asia 3 the east asian monsoon region 4 the south asian monsoon region and 5 central asia itself because moisture reaching central asia has to firstly cross at least one of the other four regions temperature proxy data compiled from these five regions correlate with ocean temperatures from the global deep sea oxygen isotope records furthermore compiled moisture proxy data from the four regions surrounding central asia co vary and correlate with each other this can be explained by positive feedbacks between drying and cooling and supports the assumption that global cooling provides a dominant driving factor for the drying of eurasia global cooling reduces the amount of water vapor held in the atmosphere and thereby can cause terrestrial drying however in central asia the moisture evolution shows less similarity with its surroundings the uplift of the tibetan plateau including the tianshan mountains could provide a possible explanation for this difference the changing topography resulting from uplift events over time and space strongly influenced the moisture patterns in central asia during miocene times future research on the spatial timing and amplitude of tibetan plateau uplift should be useful to understand the moisture processes in central asia during the miocene

active thrusting and folding along the northern tien shan and late cenozoic rotation of the tarim relative to dzungaria and kazakhstan we have studied geometries and rates of late cenozoic thrust faulting and folding along the northern piedmont of the tien shan mountain belt west of urumqi where the m 8 3 manas earthquake occurred on december 23 1906 the northern range of the tien shan rising above 5000 m overthrusts a flexural foredeep filled with up to 11 000 m of sediment of the dzungarian basement our fieldwork reveals that the active thrust reaches the surface 30 km north of the range front within a 200 km long zone of neogene quaternary anticlines fault scarps are clearest across inset terraces within narrow valleys incised through the anticlines by large rivers flowing down from the range in all the valleys the scarps offset vertically the highest terrace surface by the same amount 10 2 0 7 m inferring an early holocene age 10 2 kyr for this terrace which is continuous with the largest recent fans of the piedmont yields a rate of vertical throw of 1 0 0 3mm yr on the main active thrust at the surface a quantitative morphological analysis of the degradation of terrace edges that are offset by the thrust corroborates such a rate and yields a mass diffusivity of 5 5 2 5 m 2 kyr a rather fresh surface scarp 0 8 0 15 m high that is unlikely to result from shallow earthquakes with 6 m 7 in the last 230 years is visible at the extremities of the main fold zone we associate this scarp with the 1906 manas earthquake and infer that a structure comprising a deep basement ramp under the range gently dipping flats in the foreland and shallow ramps responsible for the formation of the active fault propagation anticlines could have been activated by that earthquake if so the return period of a 1906 type event would be 850 380 years the small size of the scarp for an earthquake of this magnitude suggests that a large fraction of the slip at depth 2 3 is taken up by incremental folding near the surface comparable earthquakes might activate flat detachments and ramp anticlines at a distance from the front of other rising quaternary ranges such as the san gabriel mountains in california or the mont blanc aar massifs in the alps we estimate the finite cenozoic shortening of the folded dzungarian sediments to be of the order of 30 km and the cenozoic shortening rate to have been 3 1 5 mm yr assuming comparable shortening along the tarim piedmont and minor additional active thrusting within the mountain belt we infer the rate of shortening across the tien shan to be at least 6 3 mm yr at the longitude of manas 85 5 e a total shortening of 125 30 km is estimated from crustal thickening assuming local airy isostatic equilibrium under the same assumption serial n s sections imply that cenozoic shortening across the belt increases westwards to 203 50 km at the longitude of kashgar 76 e as reflected by the westward increase of the width of the belt this strain gradient implies a clockwise rotation of tarim relative to dzungaria and kazakhstan of 7 2 5 around a pole located near the eastern extremity of the tien shan west of hami 96 e 43 5 n comparable to that revealed by paleomagnetism between tarim and dzungaria 8 6 8 7 a 6 mm yr rate of shortening at the longitude of manas would imply a rate of rotation of 0 45 m y and would be consistent with a shortening rate of 12 mm yr north of kashgar taking such values to be representative of late cenozoic rates would place the onset of reactivation of the tien shan by the india asia collision in the early to middle miocene 16 22 9 m y in accord with the existence of particularly thick late neogene and quaternary deposits such reactivation would thus have started much later than the collision roughly at the time of the great mid miocene changes in tectonic regimes denudation and sedimentation rates observed in southeast asia the himalayas and the bay of bengal and of the correlative rapid change in seawater sr isotopic ratio 20 to 15 ma like these other changes the rise of the tien shan might be a distant consequence of the end of indochina s escape

sensitivity of lacustrine stromatolites to cenozoic tectonic and climatic forcing in the southern junggar basin nw china new insights from mineralogical stable and clumped isotope compositions abstract lacustrine stromatolites serve as high resolution and sensitive archives of palaeoenvironmental settings and palaeoclimatic conditions an exceptionally well developed stromatolite bed was discovered within nearshore shallow lacustrine sediments of the lower miocene taxihe formation on the southern margin of the junggar basin north of the tian shan range we investigated the morphology mineralogy clumped and traditional stable isotope geochemistry of the stromatolites by using a multi method approach with the application of x ray diffraction analysis advanced mineral identification and characterization amicscan a clumped isotope palaeothermometer and modelling the overall positive excursions and covariance of 18o varying from 10 61 to 5 82 v pdb and 13c ranging between 1 27 and 2 08 v pdb values are interpreted as the result of deposition in a closed basin system under local progressive evaporation conditions during an episode of aridification clumped isotope proxy records display a significant decrease in water 18o values and a decline of lake water temperature from 38 to 32 c suggesting a shift towards more arid and relatively cooler conditions during the course of stromatolite accretion this interpretation agrees with lake volume and water level decreases inferred from isotope modelling results the late cenozoic aridification of the southern margin of the junggar basin is thus interpreted from a new and unique perspective to have prevailed since the early miocene driven by renewed uplift of the northern tian shan range the investigated stromatolite records reflect a snapshot of the local palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental evolution and our work provides references for potential studies of future discoveries of lacustrine microbialites in northwestern china

a high resolution stable isotopic record from the junggar basin nw china implications for the paleotopographic evolution of the tianshan mountains this study presents high resolution oxygen and carbon isotopic records of paleosol carbonates from fluvial sediments and lacustrine carbonates sampled from the jingou he and kuitun he stratigraphic sections located in the northern tianshan piedmont these sections expose remarkable outcrops of junggar foreland basin sediments that have been previously dated by high resolution magnetostratigraphy to between 23 6 and 1 ma and 10 5 and 3 1 ma a total of 216 samples of fluvio lacustrine sediments were collected from which isotopic analyses yield 18o smow values that range from 13 7 to 29 9 in the jingou he section and 16 3 to 21 0 in the kuitun he section 13c pdb values range from 12 9 to 3 0 in the jingou he section and from 7 8 to 4 0 in the kuitun he section 18o values decrease between 25 and 23 ma and then remain relatively steady with the exception of one period that contains samples with higher oxygen isotope values at 16 ma during the periods when there are samples that overlap in time from the kuitun he and jingou he sections we observe a difference of 1 7 between values from the two locales the 13c values also decrease between 25 and 23 ma and then remain relatively steady until 10 ma with again one short period of higher values at 16 ma then between 10 and 3 1 ma carbon isotope values progressively increase we interpret that 18o and 13c isotopic values during lacustrine periods 25 23 ma and 16 ma as largely controlled by evaporation and opening closing of the lake to external inputs we interpret the 18o values of paleosol carbonate in the junggar basin to be influenced by the hypsometry of the high tianshan range while the 13c values may record the uplift history of the depositional area in the foreland basin itself as well as the isotopic composition of plants consequently we conclude that the jingou he and kuitun he drainage basins in the central tianshan have remained at relatively unchanged elevations for the past 20 ma we also suggest that the elevation of the southern part of the foreland basin increased between 10 and 3 1 ma probably as a result of tectonic deformation in the piedmont and sedimentary filling of the sedimentary basin the carbon isotope record remains relatively stable through time and isotopic values suggest that there was little or no expansion of c4 plants in this region in the late miocene

late cenozoic tectonic evolution of the southern chinese tian shan structural sedimentological magnetostratigraphic and 40ar 39ar thermochronological investigations were conducted in the southern chinese tian shan on the basis of our own mapping and earlier investigations in the area the late cenozoic southern tian shan thrust belt may be divided into four segments based on their style of deformation from west to east they are 1 kashi aksu imbricate thrust system 2 the baicheng kuche fold and thrust system 3 the korla right slip transfer system and 4 the lop nor thrust system the westernmost kashi aksu system is characterized by the occurrence of evenly spaced 12 15 km imbricate thrusts the baicheng kuche and korla systems are expressed by a major north dipping thrust the kuche thrust that changes its strike eastward to become a nw striking oblique thrust ramp the korla transfer zone the lop nor system in the eastern most part of the southern chinese tian shan consists of widely spaced thrusts all involved with basement rocks geologic mapping and cross section construction suggest that at least 20 40 km of crustal shortening with a horizontal shortening strain of 20 30 has occurred in the southern chinese tian shan during the late cenozoic these estimates are minimum because of both conservative extrapolation of the thrust geometries and partial coverage of the thrust belt by the cross sections the timing of initial thrusting is best constrained in the kuche basin where crustal shortening may have occurred at 21 24 ma the time of a major facies transition between lacustrine and braided fluvial sequences constrained in general by biostratigraphy and in detail by magnetostratigraphy this estimate represents only a minimum age as development of thrusts in the southern chinese tian shan may have propagated southward toward the foreland thus the sedimentary record only represents the southernmost and therefore youngest phase of thrusting if our estimate of timing for the thrust initiation 21 24 ma is correct using the estimated magnitude of shortening 20 40 km and shortening strain 20 30 the averaged rates of late cenozoic horizontal slip and shortening strain are 1 1 9 mm yr 1 and 2 9 4 5 10 16 s 1 respectively our reconnaissance 40ar 39ar thermochronological analysis in conjunction with earlier published results of apatite fission track analysis by other workers in the chinese tian shan suggests that the magnitude of cenozoic denudation is no more than 10 km most likely less than 5 km we demonstrate via a simple airy isostasy model that when the thermal effect on changes in surface elevation is negligible determination of the spatial distribution and temporal variation of both horizontal shortening strain and denudation becomes a key to reconstructing the elevation history of the tian shan using this simple model the loosely constrained magnitude of crustal shortening strain and denudation in the southern chinese tian shan implies that it may have been elevated 1 0 2 0 km since the onset of cenozoic thrusting

palaeozoic collisional tectonics and magmatism of the chinese tien shan central asia abstract the chinese tien shan range is a palaeozoic orogenic belt which contains two collision zones the older southern collision accreted a north facing passive continental margin on the north side of the tarim block to an active continental margin on the south side of an elongate continental tract the central tien shan collision occurred along the qinbulak qawabulak fault southern tien shan suture the time of the collision is poorly constrained but was probably in in the late devonian early carboniferous we propose this age because of a major disconformity at this time along the north side of the tarim block and because the youshugou ophiolite is imbricated with middle devonian sediments a younger probably late carboniferous early permian collision along the north tien shan fault northern tien shan suture accreted the northern side of the central tien shan to an island arc which lay to its north the north tien shan arc this collision is bracketed by the middle carboniferous termination of arc magmatism and the appearance of late carboniferous or early permian elastics in a foreland basin developed over the extinct arc thrust sheets generated by the collision are proposed as the tectonic load responsible for the subsidence of this basin post collisional but palaeozoic dextral shear occurred along the northern suture zone this was accompanied by the intrusion of basic and acidic magmas in the central tien shan late palaeozoic basic igneous rocks from all three lithospheric blocks represented in the tien shan possess chemical characteristics associated with generation in supra subduction zone environments even though many post date one or both collisions rocks from each block also possess distinctive trace element chemistries which supports the three fold structural division of the orogenic belt it is unclear whether the chemical differences represent different source characteristics or are due to different episodes of magmatism being juxtaposed by later dextral strike slip fault motions because the southern collision zone in the tien shan is the older of the two the tarim block sensu stricto collided not with the eurasian landmass but with a continental block which was itself separated from eurasia by at least one ocean the destruction of this ocean in late carboniferous early permian times represented the final elimination of all oceanic basins from this part of central asia

crustal loading near great salt lake utah two sites of the bargen gps network are located 30 km south of great salt lake gsl lake level records since mid 1996 indicate seasonal water elevation variations of 0 3 m amplitude superimposed on a roughly decadal feature of amplitude 0 6 m using an elastic green s function and a simplified load geometry for gsl we calculate that these variations translate into radial crustal loading signals of 0 5 mm seasonal and 1 mm decadal the horizontal loading signals are a factor of 2 smaller despite the small size of the expected loading signals we conclude that we can observe them using gps time series for the coordinates of these two sites the observed amplitudes of the variations agree with the predicted decadal variations to 0 5 mm the observed annual variations however disagree this difference may be caused by some combination of local precipitation induced site motion unmodeled loading from other nearby sources errors in the gsl model and atmospheric errors

late cenozoic tectonic deformation across the northern foreland of the chinese tian shan abstract to understand the reactivation and intensified uplift of the tian shan range in the cenozoic the age of development of the associated series of anticlinal belts formed in the southern and northern foreland basins must be constrained to estimate the shortening magnitude and rates in the northern foreland basin we provide here regional structural analysis based on identified growth strata dated with existing magnetostratigraphy together with balanced cross sections from interpreted seismic data these results indicate that three paralleled rows of anticlinal belts have developed sequentially from south to north accommodating a total shortening of 15 km at the location of the structurally restored seismic section provided here these three belts present different structural deformational styles with the southern qingshuihe anticline as a basement involved fold the middle huoerguosi anticline as a fault bend fold and the northern anjihai anticline as a fault propagation fold growth strata inferred from seismic profiles start stratigraphically far below growth strata observed on the outcrop the latter coincide with accelerated folding of the anticlinal belts at 6 ma for the southern 2 ma for the middle 1 ma for the northern our results imply that the northern tian shan foreland rates of deformation were lower until late miocene and increased in more recent times to values in line with gps derived rates

cenozoic tectonic and geodynamic evolution of the kyrgyz tien shan mountains a review of geological thermochronological and geophysical data abstract the complex crustal structure of the tien shan has a strong impact on the distribution of strain induced by the india eurasia collision with intracontinental deformation in eurasia s interior as a distant effect the northward propagation of the india eurasia deformation front is suggested by the rejuvenation of mountain ranges and intermittent intramontane basins the tien shan basement is formed by the rigid heterogeneous precambrian blocks microcontinents of tarim issyk kul or central tien shan and aktyuz boordin surrounded by a soft matrix of paleozoic accretion collision belts the kyrgyz tien shan mountains are situated between the active structures of the tarim plate and the pamir indenter south and the stable kazakhstan shield north underplating by the tarim plate and thrusting by the pamirs are responsible for the building of the cenozoic tien shan the reactivation of its inherited structural fabric and the tectonic layering of the upper lithosphere underlying the area large earthquakes m 6 delineate the northern and southern margins of the issyk kul microcontinent indicating that crustal heterogeneity influenced the location of active structures in the northern kyrgyz tien shan

palaeoclimate interpretation of stable isotope data from lake sediment archives the isotope composition of authigenic and biogenic carbonates and diatom silica are commonly used as palaeoclimate proxies from lake sediments this article reviews the controls on the isotope composition of lacustrine skeletal and non skeletal deposits and illustrates how stable isotope studies contribute to an understanding of changes in temperature precipitation patterns evaporation and the carbon cycle it highlights the differences in the palaeoclimate potential of a wide range of lakes ranging from open to closed lake basins a large number of the case histories but not all are drawn from studies of temperate lakes from europe large closed lake systems in the tropics and elsewhere lose water predominantly through evaporation and contain sediments with variable and generally high 18o values fluctuations in the isotope composition of authigenic or biogenic minerals are mainly a function of long term changes in the precipitation evaporation ratio in contrast small open lakes which have a degree of through flow typically contain sediments with 18o values that vary by no more than a few these variations are generally ascribed to variations in temperature or the isotope composition of precipitation p from which either an annual or seasonally specific signal can be gained these types of lakes are common in northern europe and at high altitudes the interpretation of isotope data from a lacustrine succession requires a knowledge of the local processes that might control and modify the signal their effects need to be quantified and a robust calibration using the modern lake system is necessary to establish the relationship between the measured signal the isotopic composition of the host waters and climate

13c 18o isotope signatures and clumped isotope thermometry in foraminifera and coccoliths accurate constraints on past ocean temperatures and compositions are critical for documenting climate change and resolving its causes most proxies for temperature are not thermodynamically based appear to be subject to biological processes require regional calibrations and or are influenced by fluid composition as a result their interpretation becomes uncertain when they are applied in settings not necessarily resembling those in which they were empirically calibrated independent proxies for past temperature could provide an important means of testing and or expanding on existing reconstructions here we report measurements of abundances of stable isotopologues of calcitic and aragonitic benthic and planktic foraminifera and coccoliths relate those abundances to independently estimated growth temperatures and discuss the possible scope of equilibrium and kinetic isotope effects the proportions of 13c 18o bonds in these samples exhibits a temperature dependence that is generally similar to that previously been reported for inorganic calcite and other biologically precipitated carbonate containing minerals apatite from fish reptile and mammal teeth calcitic brachiopods and molluscs aragonitic coral and mollusks most species that exhibit non equilibrium 18o 16o 18o and 13c 12c 13c ratios are characterized by 13c 18o bond abundances that are similar to inorganic calcite and are generally indistinguishable from apparent equilibrium with possible exceptions among benthic foraminiferal samples from the arctic ocean where temperatures are near freezing observed isotope ratios in biogenic carbonates can be explained if carbonate minerals generally preserve a state of ordering that reflects the extent of isotopic equilibration of the dissolved inorganic carbon species

intracratonic indentation of the archean slave province into the early proterozoic thelon tectonic zone of the churchill province northwestern canadian shield some time between 1735 and 1840 ma an intracratonic compression resulted in the indentation and consequent underthrusting of the eastern thelon tectonic zone by the central slave province and part

combined textural and stable isotopic data as proxies for the mid cretaceous paleoclimate a case study of lacustrine stromatolites in the gyeongsang basin se korea abstract microbial interference of the prevailing sedimentary dynamics during stromatolite growth records vital biogeochemical information which reflects the prevailing paleoclimatic conditions this study documents the simultaneous geochemical and textural changes in mid cretaceous lacustrine stromatolites gyeongsang basin se korea deposited in a semi arid setting fibrous calcite micrite couplets in the stromatolites occurring in the sinyangdong hwasan and banyawol formations constitute the basic growth cycles and can be divided into first second and third order cycles second order cycles show couplets with gradual textural changes from fibrous calcite to micrite laminae and three different types of micrite are present sometimes one type of micrite evolves into another within the second order cycle in the sinyangdong stromatolites consistent enrichments in 18o and depletion in 13c towards micrites within the sinyangdong and hwasan stromatolite couplets and a concomitant depletion of both isotopes from fibrous calcite to micrite in the banyawol sample can be observed these shifts reflect paleohydrological changes in the lake water related to paleoproductivity and paleosalinity fluctuations relatively higher paleosalinity values within the sinyangdong lake water system is registered by higher 18o values of fibrous calcite and micrite in the sy 3 than in the sy 1 and sy 2 stromatolites the consistent shifts in 18o and 13c isotopes in different textural growth fabrics indicate that paleohydrological factors could play a significant role in the formation of these primary lacustrine carbonates textural changes shown by the frequency of the growth cycles also corresponds with oxygen and carbon isotopic values these results appear to have been influenced by climate related paleohydrological changes

δ13c δ18c covariance as a paleohydrological indicator for closed basin lakes the relationship between 18o and 13c in a closed basin lake is a function of hydrological change vapor exchange lake productivity and total co2 or carbonate alkalinity concentration covariance of 18o and 13c usually occurs in lake sediments under the condition of hydrological closure for time periods of the order of 5000 yr or longer on shorter time scales however certain subtleties in the use of the 13c 18o covariance as a hydrology history indicator must be recognized the covariant trend may not be found in hyper alkaline lakes because of the insensitivity of 13c to lake volume changes for less alkaline closed basin lakes covariance of 13c 18o will result from relatively rapid increase or decrease of lake volume with the rapid decrease condition giving rise to heavy and narrow ranged isotopic values for both 13c and 18o due to the coupled evaporation productivity effect when the lake volume remains stable as is the case for an over flowing open lake poor 13c 18o covariance will ensue due to the effect of vapor exchange with the atmosphere we have used the measured 13c 18o covariance in carbonate sediments of mono lake california to deduce paleo hydrological and lake water alkalinity and salinity variations and found the results in consonance with holocene lake level history derived from the 18o and other information

late cenozoic central asian drying inferred from a palynological record from the northern tian shan abstract sediments contained in basins adjacent to great mountains provide opportunities to reconstruct the aridification history of central asia here we use a palynological record from the fluviolucustrine jingou river section collected from the northern tian shan nw china to reconstruct aridification in central asia during the late cenozoic biogeomagnetic results show that the section was continuously deposited through the interval 28 4 2 ma the palynological record with the auxiliary of the principal component analysis and the diversity index indicates that a late oligocene wet condition existed in central asia and shifted to dry conditions at 23 8 23 3 ma the dry condition remained until 17 3 ma and subsequently ameliorated to a relatively wet stage to 16 2 ma but then began to increase once again and reached a peak at 13 5 ma that last throughout the late miocene and the early pliocene comparing the aridification process to the global temperature trend and history of tectonics we suggest that the long term drying trend in central asia is dominated by late cenozoic cooling while the dry events that occurred at 23 8 23 3 ma and 16 2 13 5 ma are more likely associated with regional mountain building the land sea redistribution further complicated the drying processes

late cenozoic tectonics of the kepingtage thrust zone interactions of the tien shan and tarim basin northwest china the kepingtage kalpin thrust zone northwest china is an actively deforming part of the india asia collision system it lies south of the tien shan has an area of 16 000 km2 and consists of arcuate emergent imbricates overall vergence is toward the interior of the tarim basin to the south thrust sheets typically expose upper cambrian to permian platformal strata thrusting is largely thin skinned thin upper cambrian evaporites are likely to be the main decollement horizon the kepingtage thrust zone is the only margin of the tarim basin to deform in this style in the cenozoic it is replaced to the east and west by thrust zones which have propagated shorter distances into the interior of the tarim basin thick up to 10 km mesozoic and cenozoic clastic successions are present and deformed in these regions such successions are not present in the kepingtage thrust zone or the adjacent bachu uplift within the tarim basin because of episodic activity on steep northwest southeast trending thrusts which define the margins of the bachu uplift these mesozoic cenozoic strata may have suppressed the ability of regions along strike from the kepingtage thrust zone to deform by thin skinned thrusting utilizing the upper cambrian decollement the along strike variation in active thrusting at the southern margin of the tien shan is an example of syntectonic sedimentation controlling thrust belt deformation style a balanced section across the thrust zone indicates 28 shortening equivalent to 35 km this is equivalent to an average slip rate of 1 8 mm yr 1 and a strain rate of 4 4 10 16 s 1 assuming deformation began at circa 20 ma active deformation is focused along the frontal thrust the kepingtage fault the northern boundary of the kepingtage thrust zone is formed by the south tien shan fault this major north dipping thrust is seismically active with published earthquake focal depths at midcrustal levels 14 and 18 km it juxtaposes upper carboniferous sedimentary rocks of different facies and different paleozoic deformation histories speculatively it represents a reactivation of a late paleozoic thrust which originated at the boundary between the platformal interior of the tarim block and a deeper water foreland basin to its north

refuting the evidence for an earlier birth of the taklimakan desert in a recent issue of pnas zheng et al 1 report a late oligocene early miocene age of the taklimakan desert in northwest china their age was based on 40ar 39ar dating of biotites and u pb dating of zircons from layers within the xiyu formation which they interpreted as volcanic ash this chronology effectively extends the formation of the taklimakan desert from 5 ma as recently reported from outcrop 2 and high resolution borehole data 3 to 27 ma 1

amino acid paleothermometry of quaternary ostracodes from the bonneville basin utah abstract unlike many other proxy climate recorders temperature dependent chemical reactions that take place in fossils are independent of paleoprecipitation changes and therefore allow paleotemperatures to be calculated uniquely in this study i use the extent of amino acid racemization in fossil ostracode shells to reconstruct the temperature history of the bonneville basin utah the enantiomeric composition d l ratios of 64 ostracode samples each comprising an average of 18 subsamples from 25 sites were analyzed by reverse phase hplc the effective diagenetic temperature edt for five intervals of the quaternary including the last full glacial period was calculated for two amino acids aspartic and glutamic acids errors associated with the edt calculations were derived using a monte carlo procedure age control was provided by both new and previously published ams 14 c luminescence tephra and amino acid geochronology the edt for the southern bonneville basin during the middle pleistocene interval from 620 150 ka oxygen isotope stages ois 16 6 was 5 7 1 5 c this compares with an edt of 10 9 1 3 c for the late holocene last 5 8 cal ka and a current mean annual temperature of about 9 4 c at nearby sites 40 n latitude the edt then decreased to 3 3 1 3 c for the interval from ois 6 2 150 12 cal ka during the last full glacial period 24 12 cal ka ois 2 the edt was 1 1 2 5 c or about 10 3 c lower than during the late holocene paleotemperatures this low suggest that reduced evaporation rather than increased precipitation could have accounted for the increased effective moisture and the growth of lake bonneville

paleozoic tectonic evolution of the tianshan orogen northwestern china abstract the chinese tianshan orogenic belt which extends west east for about 1500 km is one of the most important paleozoic orogenic belts in central asia it includes parts of the tarim yili central tianshan and junggar plates which are microcontinental blocks with precambrian basements and meso cenozoic depositional covers the tarim plate is separated from the yili central tianshan plate by the southern central tianshan suture early carboniferous ophiolitic melanges and blueschists are widespread in this suture and are believed to be produced by the collision between a passive continental margin on the north side of the tarim plate and an active continental margin on the south side of the yili central tianshan plate the collision occurred at the end of early carboniferous the yili central tianshan and the junggar plates are separated by the northern central tianshan suture also considered as an early carboniferous collisional zone along which the middle ordovician ophiolitic melanges blueschists and late devonian early carboniferous ophiolites are exposed in early paleozoic times the subduction of the paleo junggar ocean took place in an active margin on the north side of the yili central tianshan plate along the northern central tianshan suture at the end of early carboniferous the north side of the yili central tianshan plate collided with the north tianshan arc along this suture the paleo oceanic crust in the tianshan and adjacent region was entirely consumed at the end of early carboniferous meanwhile the tarim yili central tianshan and junggar plates were accreted to eurasia epicontinental sediments were then deposited throughout the tianshan region during the middle late carboniferous times in the early permian tianshan began to uplift with accompanying volcanic eruption and granitic intrusion the uplift was accelerated in the late permian and continental molasse was extensively deposited

cessation of a productive coastal upwelling system in the panthalassic ocean at the permian triassic boundary abstract while the end permian extinction in the marine realm is well known from the tethys ocean it remains little studied in the vast panthalassic ocean opal creek alberta canada is a biostratigraphically continuous permian triassic boundary ptb section that is interpreted to have been deposited in a deep outer shelf setting along the panthalassic western margin of pangaea significant organic carbon and nitrogen isotope excursions precede the extinction of the dominant late permian benthic organisms siliceous sponges geochemical comparison with underlying guadalupian age rocks and analysis of the conodont fauna suggest that the latest permian at opal creek records the shutdown of a productive cold water upwelling ecosystem with a mid water column oxygen minimum followed by the transition to a warm and less vigorously circulating system with a bottom water oxygen minimum the transition from a low diversity cold water conodont fauna in the middle permian to a more diverse latest permian fauna containing equatorial species coincides with a transition from elevated 15n values characteristic of coastal zones with denitrification in a mid water oxygen minimum to more normal marine values a spike in the 13c of organic carbon following a latest permian marine transgression along western pangaea is here attributed to transient increased productivity in the photic zone preceding the main extinction likely related to the synergistic effects of warming increased nutrient runoff and residual upwelling this is followed by an equilibration to lower 13corg values characteristic of a lower productivity regime in the early triassic

neogene uplift of the tian shan mountains observed in the magnetic record of the jingou river section northwest china the tian shan mountains constitute central asia s longest and highest mountain range understanding their cenozoic uplift history thus bears on mountain building processes in general and on how deformation has occurred under the influence of the india asia collision in particular in order to help decipher the uplift history of the tian shan we collected 970 samples for magnetostratigraphic analysis along a 4571 m thick section at the jingou river xinjiang province china stepwise alternating field and thermal demagnetization isolate a linear magnetization component that is interpreted as primary from this component a magnetostratigraphic column composed of 67 polarity chrons are correlated with the reference geomagnetic polarity timescale between 1 ma and 23 6 ma with some uncertainty below 21 ma this correlation places precise temporal control on the neogene stratigraphy of the southern junggar basin and provides evidence for two significant stepwise increases in sediment accumulation rate at 16 15 ma and 11 10 ma rock magnetic parameters also undergo important changes at 16 15 ma and 11 10 ma that correlate with changes in sedimentary depositional environments together with previous work we conclude that growth history of the modern tian shan mountains includes two pulses of uplift and erosion at 16 15 ma and 11 10 ma middle to upper tertiary rocks around the tian shan record very young 5 ma counterclockwise paleomagnetic rotations on the order of 15 to 20 which are interpreted as because of strain partitioning with a component of sinistral shear that localized rotations in the piedmont

insights from a synthesis of old and new climate proxy data from the pyramid and winnemucca lake basins for the period 48 to 11 5 cal ka abstract a synthesis of old and new paleoclimatic data from the pyramid and winnemucca lake basins indicates that between 48 0 and 11 5 103 calibrated years bp hereafter ka the climate of the western great basin was to a degree linked with the climate of the north atlantic paleomagnetic secular variation psv records from pyramid lake core plc08 1 were tied to the gisp2 ice core record via psv matches to north atlantic sediment cores whose isotopic and or carbonate records could be linked to the gisp2 18o record relatively dry intervals in the western great basin were associated with cold heinrich events and relatively wet intervals were associated with warm dansgaard oeschger do oscillations the association of western great basin dry events with north atlantic cold events and vice versa switched sometime after the laurentide ice sheet lis reached its maximum extent for example the lahontan highstand which culminated at 15 5 ka and a period of elevated lake level between 13 1 and 11 7 ka were associated with cold north atlantic conditions the latter period with the youngest dryas event relatively dry periods were associated with the bolling and allerod warm events a large percentage of the lis may have been lost to the north atlantic during heinrich events 1 and 2 and may have resulted in the repositioning of the polar jet stream over north america the trego hot springs wono carson sink and marble bluff tephras found in core plc08 1 have been assigned gisp2 calendar ages of respectively 29 9 33 7 34 1 and 43 2 ka given its unique trace element chemistry the carson sink bed is the same as wilson creek ash 15 in the mono lake basin this implies that the mono lake magnetic excursion occurred at approximately 34 ka and it is not the laschamp magnetic excursion the entrance of the first americans into the northern great basin is dated to approximately 14 4 ka a time when the climate was relatively dry evidence for human occupation of the great basin is lacking for the next 1100 years y i e the oldest western stemmed point site in the great basin dates to 13 3 ka two hypotheses are suggested for this cultural hiatus 1 the climate had deteriorated to the point that people vacated the great basin or 2 people moved to basin bottom wetlands that persisted during the dry period and then the subsequent younger dryas wet event erased the archaeological evidence deposited around the low elevation wetland sites

carbonate deposition pyramid lake subbasin nevada 2 lake levels and polar jet stream positions reconstructed from radiocarbon ages and elevations of carbonates tufas deposited in the lahontan basin most of the tufas in the pyramid lake subbasin were deposited within the last 35 000 yr including most of the mound tufas that border the existing lake many of the older tufas 21 000 yr b p contained in the mounds were formed in association with ground water discharge the radiocarbon 14c ages of the older tufas represent maximum estimates of the time of their formation lake lahontan experienced large and abrupt rises in level at 22 000 15 000 and 11 000 yr b p and three abrupt recessions in level at 16 000 13 600 and 10 000 yr b p the lake level rises that were initiated at 23 500 and 15 500 yr b p are believed to indicate the passage of the polar jet stream over the lahontan basin during expansion of the laurentide ice sheet the jet stream moved south across the basin and during the contraction of the ice sheet the jet stream moved north across the basin the bulk of the carbonate contained in the mound tufas was deposited during the last major lake cycle 23 500 12 000 yr b p indicating that ground and surface water discharges increased at 23 500 and decreased at 12 000 yr b p a lake level oscillation that occurred between 11 000 and 10 000 yr b p is represented by a 2 cm thick layer of dense laminated tufa that occurs at and below 1180 m in the low elevation tufa mounds and at 1205 m in the winnemucca lake subbasin