palaeomagnetic evidence for late miocene rotation of the swiss alps results from the north alpine foreland basin magnetostratigraphic studies in the oligocene to miocene north alpine foreland basin of switzerland suggest a post middle miocene 13 ma clockwise rotation of the swiss alps the angle of rotation is 16 17 with respect to the present day earth s magnetic field this rotation can be observed in 12 sections analysed for palaeomagnetic directions which cover a lateral distance of 250 km sw ne extension the rotation angle shows neither a significant change throughout the examined period of deposition nor is it dependent on the tectonic position of the individual regions in the basin autochthonous or allochthonous molasse

climatic and tectonic controls on sedimentation and erosion during the pliocene quaternary in the qaidam basin china the qaidam basin is an internally drained basin located in the northeastern tibetan plateau presently over 50 of the basin floor exposes thick 1 km sections of pliocene quaternary strata that are deformed by folding and faulting we investigated this nearly continuous pliocene quaternary sedimentary record for the effects of global climate change and deformation on basin sedimentation new detailed stratigraphic magnetostratigraphic and stable isotope 18 o 13 c data from the pliocene shizigou and pleistocene qigequan formations along the southwestern flank of an intrabasin fold within the north central qaidam basin are presented here strata reveal climatically controlled meter scale parasequences within shallow lacustrine marginal lacustrine and deltaic lithofacies paleocurrents shift from eastward at the base to southwestward for the majority of the section but they abruptly shift toward the south southeast in the upper 400 m twenty two magnetozones constrain deposition between 5 2 ma and ca 0 8 ma and reveal that sedimentation rates were fairly constant 474 34 m m y from 5 2 to 3 0 ma after which time rates abruptly decreased to 154 40 mm yr before increasing again to 750 m m y since 1 2 ma the 18 o values shift from relatively constant values avg 6 8 range 9 6 to 4 5 relative to vienna peedee belemnite vpdb to less negative values avg 1 2 range 1 2 to 2 7 vpdb between 3 1 and 2 6 ma and to extremely variable values avg 2 9 range 8 3 to 4 0 after ca 2 6 ma the post 2 6 ma extreme variability in stable isotopes reflects the same timeframe of enhanced climatic cyclicity associated with northern hemisphere glaciation the 13 c values remain relatively constant average 4 0 range 5 7 to 1 0 until ca 0 9 ma when the values increase to 0 3 range 1 0 to 1 5 vpdb the appearance of growth strata at 3 0 ma shallow water evaporite deposition after 2 6 ma and the observation of paleoyardangs buried wind sculpted landforms within lake marginal strata at 2 4 ma imply that emergence of the adjacent anticline was followed by the shallowing and partitioning of the lake basin and subaerial exposure and erosion of marginal lake sediments these data reflect a significant change to a more arid climate in the qaidam basin between ca 3 1 ma and 2 6 ma overlapping with the onset of significant northern hemisphere glaciations and basin floor deformation lake level cycles were on 230 000 yr frequency from 2 6 ma to 1 2 ma before increasing to 12 000 yr frequency suggesting increased aridity and broad subaerial exposure of lake sediments after the pliocene quaternary transition deformation of intrabasin sediments by at least 3 0 ma caused uplift of the basin floor which provided an environment rich in friable material for wind deflation of the qaidam basin a likely source for sediments on the chinese loess plateau and nutrients for the pacific ocean carried by westerly winds by 2 6 ma deformation of the qaidam basin created closed depressions that facilitated evaporite sedimentation that continues today coeval intrabasin deformation combined with increasing aridity after 3 1 ma thus controlled both deposition and erosion within the region

flexural subsidence by 29 ma on the ne edge of tibet from the magnetostratigraphy of linxia basin china abstract this study provides a detailed magnetostratigraphic record of subsidence in the linxia basin documenting a 27 myr long sedimentary record from the northeastern edge of the tibetan plateau deposition in the linxia basin began at 29 ma and continued nearly uninterruptedly until 1 7 ma increasing rates of subsidence between 29 and 6 ma in the linxia basin suggest deposition in the foredeep portion of a flexural basin and constrain the timing of shortening in the northeastern margin of the plateau to late oligocene late miocene time by late miocene early pliocene time a decrease in subsidence rates in the linxia basin associated with thrust faulting and a 10 clockwise rotation in the basin indicates that the deformation front of the tibetan plateau had propagated into the currently deforming region northeast of the plateau

mountains and arid climates of middle latitudes simulations from a global climate model with and without orography have been used to investigate the role of mountains in maintaining extensive arid climates in middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere dry climates similar to those observed were simulated over central asia and western interior north america in the experiment with mountains whereas relatively moist climates were simulated in these areas in the absence of orography the experiments suggest that these interior regions are dry because general subsidence and relatively infrequent storm development occur upstream of orographically induced stationary wave troughs downstream of these troughs precipitation bearing storms develop frequently in association with strong jet streams in contrast both atmospheric circulation and precipitation were more zonally symmetric in the experiment without mountains in addition orography reduces the moisture transport into the continental interiors from nearby oceanic sources the relative soil wetness of these regions in the experiment without mountains is consistent with paleoclimatic evidence of less aridity during the late tertiary before substantial uplift of the rocky mountains and tibetan plateau is believed to have occurred

present day deformation of the qaidam basin with implications for intra continental tectonics abstract the qaidam basin is a plateau of low relief about 3 km in elevation and covering a large area of 1 2 105 km2 physiographically the basin marks a transitional region between the northeastern tibetan plateau 5 0 5 km in elevation and the surrounding low lying areas the northeastern and southwestern edges of the basin are bounded by the qilian shan nan shan and qimantag eastern kunlun shan mountain belts respectively at present the entire region is under northeast southwest compression based on a synthesis of recent geological and geophysical results we propose that each flanking mountain belt consists of a sequence of crustal nappes originating from ramp thrusts at mid crustal levels 15 km deep over a distance range of 700 km these two broad fold and thrust belts operating in tandem and with some uniform shortening in the intervening qaidam basin successively raised the surface elevation from below 2 km to 5 km at depth the crust is correspondingly thickened from 40 km beneath the foreland of the qilian shan to approximately 55 km under the interior of the qaidam basin and then to nearly 70 km beneath tibet in contrast to the himalayan front where earthquake faulting occurs down to a depth of 50 km in the foreland but the zone of active thrust faulting is less than 200 km in width plateau building in the qaidam region illustrates how a wide orogen is developing along northeastern tibet in the interior of eurasia

bed by bed fold growth by kink band migration sant llorenc de morunys eastern pyrenees ahstract rowth strata deposited over and against the flank of the sant llorenc de morunys fold during its final stages of deformation have been mapped at high resolution as the basis for unraveling the kinematics of fold growth we use restoration techniques based on normal balancing assumptions to decipher the detailed kinematic history of folding the progressive restorations as well as balanced forward modeling show that the last few hundred meters of fold growth were dominated by kink band migration of a sort that is typical of much faultrelated folding the kink band migration has produced complex anticlinal hinge zone geometry including segmented fold hinges linked by disconformities and unconformities which has direct and detailed explanation in terms of fluctuations in deposition rate relative to curved hinge kink band migration rate large fluctuations in the convolution of non steady sedimentation and deformation are demonstrated although the absolute fluctuations in deformation and sedimentation are unknown at a length scale of 100 m kink band migration with little or no deposition is interspersed with sedimentation with little or no deformation at the length scale of 500 m deposition ranges from 200 to 50 of uplift 0 1997 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

sandstone provenance of north western sectors of the intracontinental cenozoic qaidam basin western china tectonic vs climatic control abstract sandstone samples from all cenozoic formations of the nonmarine internally drained qaidam basin have been collected for provenance analysis to monitor possible changes in sandstone composition driven either by tectonics or climate provided an appropriate hinterland biotite contents may be a reasonable indicator for aridity moderately sorted sandstones with subangular to subrounded grains from the northwestern part of the qaidam basin are immature indicated by a high proportion of feldspars and lithic fragments nevertheless they have relatively high quartz contents of 29 65 averaging between 40 and 45 the average framework compositions of the formations show only a slight variation over time limited to the oldest and youngest cenozoic formations contents of white mica and biotite are significantly higher in upper portions of the section white mica contents increases from 1 0 to 3 7 and biotite from 0 1 to 1 6 respectively this change can be explained by increasing aridity during neogene and surface uplift of altyn mountains and qimantagh which led to higher relief when plotted on basic variation diagrams total quartz feldspar lithic fragments there is a slight shift from continental block field to orogenic field which might reflect the motion of the altyn tagh fault since oligocene times although climate changed during the cenozoic from arid over semiarid back to arid we could not find any distinct changes in the framework mineral compositions over time that could be related to climatic events few selected mudstones from eocene to lower miocene formations have been geochemically analysed by icp ms all samples display uniform high enrichment in light rees in chondrite normalized diagrams with one exception the ree concentrations are decreasing in a stepwise manner although insignificantly from formation to formation with time due to a diluting effect by carbonate

elevation or alteration evaluation of isotopic constraints on paleoaltitudes surrounding the eocene green river basin low oxygen isotope values 16 relative to peedee belemnite standard obtained from microbial carbonates of the green river formation have been interpreted as evidence for snowmelt and high elevations surrounding this early eocene lake basin however low values from microbial precipitates could also represent a diagenetic overprint we investigate these alternate hypotheses by measuring the oxygen isotope composition of altered and unaltered freshwater bivalves from the basin we analyzed subannual samples from 3 individuals and bulk samples from 54 individuals subannual samples exhibit clear seasonal fluctuations in oxygen isotope values these fluctuations are large enough to require seasonal shifts in temperature and or the oxygen isotope value of the lake water however the lowest value of any unaltered sample either bulk or high resolution corresponds to lake water 18 o of 12 relative to standard mean ocean water and is not low enough to require the addition of snowmelt to the lake a few bulk samples exhibit very low oxygen isotope values which would seem to suggest snowmelt however these samples also show clear evidence of calcite in x ray diffraction patterns demonstrating the presence of diagenetic precipitates given that 1 diagenetic alteration is a plausible explanation of very low 18 o values 2 alteration has not been examined in microbial carbonates and 3 unaltered aragonitic bivalves provide no independent evidence for low 18 o values for lake waters we conclude that robust isotopic evidence for high elevations surrounding the green river basin during the eocene is currently lacking

convectively induced transition in mantle rheological behavior mantle flow occurs through both linear and nonlinear creep mechanisms and the style of convection is strongly influenced by the dominant creep mechanism in a composite rheology we show here by numerical modelling of convection with a composite flow law that the nonlinear strain rate dependence of mantle rheology would dominate over the linear newtonian portion for sufficiently vigorous convection such as might have prevailed in the early earth this rheological transition occurs at a rayleigh number value which increases dramatically with higher values of the activation energy for activation energy values for dislocation and diffusion creep of about 100 and 70 kj mole respectively we find a transition between rayleigh numbers 106 and 107 corresponding values of the transition stress agree with estimates for the lower mantle from empirical data for perovskite analogue these results suggest that early in the earth s thermal history a transition would have taken place from a primarily non newtonian flow to a newtonian temperature dependent style of mantle convection with a high activation energy greater than 125 kj mole the mantle would have been in a newtonian regime throughout most of its thermal history

north atlantic deepwater temperature change during late pliocene and late quaternary climatic cycles variations in the ratio of magnesium to calcium mg ca in fossil ostracodes from deep sea drilling project site 607 in the deep north atlantic show that the change in bottom water temperature during late pliocene 41 000 year obliquity cycles averaged 1 5 c between 3 2 and 2 8 million years ago ma and increased to 2 3 c between 2 8 and 2 3 ma coincidentally with the intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation during the last two 100 000 year glacial to interglacial climatic cycles of the quaternary bottom water temperatures changed by 4 5 c these results show that glacial deepwater cooling has intensified since 3 2 ma most likely as the result of progressively diminished deepwater production in the north atlantic and of the greater influence of antarctic bottom water in the north atlantic during glacial periods the ostracode mg ca data also allow the direct determination of the temperature component of the benthic foraminiferal oxygen isotope record from site 607 as well as derivation of a hypothetical sea level curve for the late pliocene and late quaternary the effects of dissolution on the mg ca ratios of ostracode shells appear to have been minimal

hotspot evolution and venusian tectonic style because hotspots represent an important manifestation of heat loss on venus their geological evolution is of fundamental importance for any attempt to understand venusian tectonics eistla regio is a 7500 km long moderately elevated region inferred to overlie one or more large mantle upwellings or hotspots it also contains many shield volcanoes and coronae believed due to the rise of thermal plumes in the mantle central eistla regio includes two large volcanoes sappho and anala and several coronae in close proximity detailed mapping in this region results in two conclusions of tectonic significance 1 sappho and anala occur near the intersection of two major extensional deformation zones and 2 the coronae are older than the large volcanoes several of the coronae occur as a chain along guor linea one of the major extensional deformation zones stratigraphic relationships indicate that the coronae began forming very soon after the emplacement of the widespread regional plains materials thus central eistla regio was the site of a swarm of plumes that first formed coronae and then later formed shield volcanoes the expected result of such a swarm would be thermal thinning of the elastic lithosphere with time however model results geological observations and gravity data suggest that the change from coronae to shield volcanoes was accompanied by a thickening of the lithosphere with time this thickening is interpreted to be the result of global cooling of the lithosphere following the most recent episode of near global resurfacing the global cooling must have occurred faster than local heating of the lithosphere due to the impingement of thermal plumes

temperature dependent newtonian and non newtonian convection implications for lithospheric processes convection studies of temperature dependent newtonian and non newtonian rheology in aspect ratio seven boxes have been carried out for volume averaged rayleigh numbers between o 105 and o 107 large lateral viscosity variations o 104 are found for non newtonian cases with total temperature dependent viscosity variations up to 250 flow structures for both rheologies are distinguished by large scale circulations with relatively stable descending limbs much larger hot thermal anomalies are found near the surface for non newtonian rheology lithospheric thinning is facilitated by non newtonian rheology because of stress softening and the lubrication of the descending limbs by hot diapirs

mesozoic cenozoic evolution of the xining minhe and dangchang basins northeastern tibetan plateau magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic results 1 accurate stratigraphic ages are crucial to understanding the deformation history of the tibetan plateau prior to and during the indo asian collision efforts to quantify mesozoiccenozoic ages are hindered by limited fossils and a paucity of volcanic horizons and regionally correlative strata magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic results from the xining minhe longzhong basin complex and dangchang basin provide an improved chronology of nonmarine basin development over a large region of the northeastern tibetan plateau 34 37 n 101 105 e analyses of 171 magnetostratigraphic levels and 24 palynological assemblages 120 species indicate late jurassic early cretaceous to mid tertiary deposition although magnetic polarity zonation is incomplete independent palynological age control partially restricts possible correlations to the geomagnetic polarity timescale the sediment accumulation record basin provenance structural geology and published thermochronological data support a history of jurassic exhumation late jurassic early cretaceous fault related basin initiation and cretaceous paleogene reduced accumulation these patterns which are compatible with late jurassic early cretaceous extension and cretaceous paleogene postrift thermal subsidence were disrupted at about 40 30 ma when shortening related to the indo asian collision induced localized range uplift vertical axis rotation and amplified subsidence indexterms 1520 geomagnetism and paleomagnetism magnetostratigraphy 8102 tectonophysics continental contractional orogenic belts 9320 information related to geographic region asia 9604 information related to geologic time cenozoic 9609 information related to geologic time mesozoic keywords tectonics magnetostratigraphy tibetan plateau cenozoic mesozoic sedimentary basins

instabilities from phase transitions and the timescales of mantle thermal evolution we have investigated the effects of mantle phase transitions on the earth s thermal evolution by numerical modelling our results show that the tendency of layering grows with increasing vigor of convection a self consistent model which couples the convective dynamics of the mantle to the secular cooling of the core is constructed for a temperature dependent effective viscosity we found that the thermal history of the earth is characterized by two timescales one is associated with layered convection in the early period which is followed by a transition period with dramatic overturns as the rayleigh number decreases sufficiently low whole mantle convection prevails and a faster cooling timescale ensues

mass accumulation rates in asia during the cenozoic summary this work establishes estimates of mass accumulation rates in 18 mostly offshore sedimentary basins in asia since the beginning of the cenozoic 66 ma the estimates were derived from isopach maps cross sections and drill holes or stratigraphic columns assuming regional similarity of the strata average solid phase volumes and accumulation rates were calculated for nine epochs approximately corresponding to geological periods palaeocene 66 58 ma eocene 58 37 ma oligocene 37 30 and 30 24 ma miocene 24 17 17 11 and 11 5 ma pliocene 5 2 ma and quaternary 2 0 ma these rates shed new light on the geological history of asia since the onset of the collision of india with asia 50 ma the overall average accumulation rates curve for asian sedimentary basins since the beginning of the tertiary shows an exponential form with slow accumulation rates less than 0 5 106 km3 myr 1 until the beginning of the oligocene more than 15 myr after the onset of the collision from the oligocene onwards rates increase quickly in an exponential manner reaching their maximum values in the quaternary more than 1 5 106 km3 myr 1 from these observations we suggest that extrusion and crustal shortening are complementary processes that have been successively dominant throughout the india eurasia collision history at smaller scales one may distinguish between independent histories at the subcontinental and basin scales this permits a comparison of the relative importance of tectonic and climatic erosion processes affecting the different mountain belts of asia during the cenozoic

cenozoic deformation history of the qaidam basin nw china results from cross section restoration and implications for qinghai tibet plateau tectonics abstract the deformation and uplifting history of the qinghai tibet plateau is a controversial issue and so far there has been insufficient evidence for interpretation investigations of the cenozoic deformation in the northeastern edge of this plateau may provide some relevant information in this paper the cenozoic deformation history of the qaidam basin has been studied based on results from the balanced cross section restoration of six geological sections they indicate that 1 the qaidam basin has been undergoing continuous shortening since the beginning of cenozoic with two relatively fast shortening phases the first during 42 8 40 5 ma and the second during 2 8 ma present 2 the shortening rate of the qaidam basin reached its maximum value since 2 8 ma and approximately 32 of the average total cenozoic shortening took place in this period and 3 the shortening of all sections reached approximately 50 of their respective total shortening by miocene the cenozoic deformation history of the qaidam basin shows good synchroneity with uplifting history of the qinghai tibet plateau it is therefore proposed that the deformation and uplifting in the south and north edges of the qinghai tibet plateau was almost synchronous with the altyn tagh fault formed at the beginning of india asia collision accordingly it is postulated that since the india asia collision at the beginning of cenozoic the indian plate moved northward continuously with two relatively fast phases the first during 42 8 40 5 ma and the second during 2 8 ma present approximately 50 of the total cenozoic northward displacement of the indian plate of the total amount of crustal shortening and uplifting of the qinghai tibet plateau and of the total cenozoic strike slip displacement of the altyn tagh fault were probably reached by the early miocene moreover another 30 40 might have taken place during 2 8 ma present the periods during 42 8 40 5 ma and during 2 8 ma present may also be the two fast phases for crustal shortening and uplifting of the qinghai tibet plateau and strike slip displacement of the altyn tagh fault

tectonic plates d thermal structure and the nature of mantle plumes it is proposed that subducting tectonic plates can affect the nature of thermal mantle plumes by determining the temperature drop across a plume source layer the temperature drop affects source layer stability and the morphology of plumes emitted from it numerical models are presented to demonstrate how introduction of platelike behavior in a convecting temperature dependent medium driven by a combination of internal and basal heating can increase the temperature drop across the lower boundary layer the temperature drop increases dramatically following introduction of platelike behavior due to formation of a cold temperature inversion above the lower boundary layer this thermal inversion induced by deposition of upper boundary layer material to the system base decays in time but the temperature drop across the lower boundary layer always remains considerably higher than in models lacking platelike behavior on the basis of model inferred boundary layer temperature drops and previous studies of plume dynamics we argue that generally accepted notions as to the nature of mantle plumes on earth may hinge on the presence of plates the implication for mars and venus planets apparently lacking plate tectonics is that mantle plumes of these planets may differ morphologically from those of earth a corollary model based argument is that as a result of slab induced thermal inversions above the core mantle boundary the lower most mantle may be subadiabatic on average in space and time if major plate reorganization timescales are less than those required to diffuse newly deposited slab material

spatial and glacial interglacial variations in provenance of the chinese loess plateau the chinese loess plateau clp covers an extensive area over 440 000 km2 and provides an unprecedented terrestrial record of neogene climate however it is still unclear whether the provenance of these loess deposits is uniform or contains spatial and temporal differences here this is addressed by comparing detrital zircon age spectra of typical loess and paleosol samples from three distant sites located at the western middle and southeastern parts of the clp our results reveal that the zircon age spectra not only change between loess and paleosol layers but also vary from the western to the eastern clp at least during the last glacial cycle the discrepancies of the zircon age spectra among different sites suggest that the loess provenance of clp is heterogeneous and spatially variable although it has been suggested that the mineralogical elemental and isotopic compositions of loess deposits on clp are highly homogenous spatially and in glacial interglacial cycles

monitoring cenozoic climate evolution of northeastern tibet stable isotope constraints from the western qaidam basin china carbon and oxygen stable isotopic composition of cenozoic lacustrine carbonates from the intramontane qaidam basin yields cycles of variable length and shows several distinct events driven by tectonics and climate changes from eocene to oligocene the over all trend in the 13c composition of lacustrine carbonates shows a shift toward higher values possibly related to higher proportions of dissolved inorganic carbon transported to the lake or lower input of soil derived co2 at the same time the 18o composition of lacustrine carbonates is decreasing in accordance with the global cooling trend and northwards drifting of the whole region during the miocene distinct isotopic events can be recognized although their interpretation and linkage to a certain tectonic event remains difficult these events may be related to uplift in the himalayas to the strongest phase of uplift in the altyn mountains to pronounced subsidence of the qaidam basin or to the expansion of c4 plants on land generally cold highly evaporative conditions can be deduced from enrichment of 18o isotopic compositions during pliocene and quaternary times

forcing of late cenozoic northern hemisphere climate by plateau uplift in southern asia and the american west geologic evidence indicates that net vertical uplift occurred on a large kilometer scale and at accelerating rates during the middle and late cenozoic in plateaus of southern asia and the american west based on this evidence general circulation model sensitivity tests were run to isolate the unique effects of plateau uplift on climate the experiments simulated significant climatic changes in many places some far from the uplifted regions the basic direction of most of these simulated responses to progressive uplift is borne out by changes found in the geologic record winter cooling of north america northern europe northern asia and the arctic ocean summer drying of the north american west coast the eurasian interior and the mediterranean winter drying of the north american northern plains and the interior of asia and changes over the north atlantic ocean conducive to increased formation of deep water the modeled changes result from increased orographic diversion of westerly winds from cyclonic and anticyclonic surface flow induced by summer heating and winter cooling of the uplifted plateaus and from the intensification of vertical circulation cells in the atmosphere caused by exchanges of mass between the summer heated and winter cooled plateaus and the mid latitude oceans disagreements between the geologic record and the model simulations in alaska and the southern rockies and plains may be related mainly to the lack of narrow mountain barriers in the model orography taken together the observed regional trends comprise much of the pattern of late cenozoic climatic deterioration in the northern hemisphere that culminated in the plio pleistocene ice ages the success of the uplift sensitivity experiment in simulating the correct pattern and sign of most of the observed regional climatic trends points to uplift as an important forcing function of late cenozoic climatic change in the northern hemisphere at time scales longer than orbital variations however the modest amplitude of the uplift induced cooling simulated at high latitudes indicates a probable need for additional climatic forcing

magnetostratigraphy of a late miocene pliocene loess soil sequence in the western loess plateau in china 1 eolian deposits of pliocene age have never been reported from the western loess plateau in china here a 73 7 m eolian sequence is dated using magnetostratigraphic method and micromammalian fossils the polarity zonation correlates with the geomagnetic polarity timescale gpts from chron 3br 1r to chron 2an 3n indicating an age from 7 10 to 3 52 ma bp the sequence is characterized by clear expression of eighty four pairs of loess and soil layers while individual soils are basically indefinable for the eolian deposits of the same age in the eastern loess plateau suggesting that the later has experienced other geological processes this sequence extends the upper limit of the previously reported miocene loess soil sequences at qinan into the pliocene about 3 52 ma bp

dynamical consequences on fast subducting slabs from a self regulating mechanism due to viscous heating in variable viscosity convection the authors have studied 2 d time dependent convection for a rheology which is both non newtonian and temperature dependent strong effects associated with viscous heating are found in the downwelling sheets which are heated on both sides with an intensity around o 10 sup 2 times the chondritic value the magnitude of viscous heating increases strongly with the subduction speed the slab interior is weakened by viscous heating and slab breakoff then takes place this process provides a self regulating mechanism for governing the speed of intact slabs able to reach the deep mantle timescales associated with viscous heating are quite short a few million years internal heating by radioactivity decreases the amount of shear heating 13 refs 5 figs

fluvial and lacustrine palaeoenvironments of the miocene siwalik group khaur area northern pakistan the miocene siwalik group upsection the chinji nagri and dhok pathan formations in northern pakistan records fluvial and lacustrine environments within the himalayan foreland basin thick 5 m to tens of metres sandstones are composed of channel bar and fill deposits of low sinuousity 1 08 1 19 single channel meandering and braided rivers which formed large low gradient sediment fans or megafans river flow was dominantly toward the south east and likely perennial palaeohydraulic reconstructions indicate that chinji and dhok pathan rivers were small relative to nagri rivers bankfull channel depths of chinji and dhok pathan rivers were generally 15 m and up to 33 m for nagri rivers widths of channel segments including single channels of meandering rivers and individual channels around braid bars were 320 710 m for chinji rivers 320 1050 m for nagri rivers and 270 340 m for dhok pathan rivers mean channel bed slopes were on the order of 0 000056 0 00011 bankfull discharges of channel segments for chinji and dhok pathan rivers were generally 700 800 m3s 1 with full river discharges possibly up to 2400 m3s 1 bankfull discharges of channel segments for nagri rivers were generally 1800 3500 m3s 1 with discharges of some larger channel segments possibly on the order of 9000 32 000 m3s 1 full river discharges of some of the largest nagri braided rivers may have been twice these values thin decimetres to a few metres sandstones represent deposits of levees crevasse channels and splays floodplain channels and large sheet floods laminated mudstones represent floodplain and lacustrine deposits lakes were both perennial and short lived and likely less than 10 m deep with maximum fetches on the order of a few tens of kilometres trace fossils and body fossils within all facies indicate the former existence of terrestrial vertebrates molluscs bivalves and gastropods arthropods including insects worms aquatic fauna e g fish turtles crocodiles trees bushes grasses and aquatic flora palaeoenvironmental reconstructions are consistent with previous palaeoclimatic interpretations of monsoonal conditions

age and palaeoclimatic significance of the loess of lanzhou north china extending in a broad arc that abuts the sandy non gobi deserts the loess plateau of northern china1 3 is one of the most massive accumulations of loess in the world the loess sequence is typically characterized by an alternation of silty or sandy loess with more clay rich palaeosols these alternations in conjunction with their enclosed faunas and distinctive mineralogies have been interpreted as reflecting pleistocene glacial interglacial cycles3 8 because it holds implications for the climatic and anthropological history of china9 10 the definition of a reliable chronological framework for loess deposition is of great interest recent palaeomagnetic studies4 5 have indicated that loess deposition in shaanxi province commenced 2 4 myr ago to assess the synchrony of loess accumulation across the loess plateau we have dated a 330 m thick loess sequence near lanzhou gansu province the magnetostrati graphical results reported here indicate that the base of this loess succession dates from 1 3 my r ago this young age in comparison to the shaanxi sequence is attributed to uplift along the northern fringe of the tibetan plateau11 that precluded early pleistocene loess preservation in this mountainous region palaeosols in the basal loess occur on average once every 25 kyr suggesting that climates conducive to soil forming events may have been modulated by orbital precession in the early pleistocene

subduction zones observations and geodynamic models abstract this review of subduction and geodynamic models is organized around three central questions 1 why is subduction asymmetric 2 are subducted slabs strong or weak 3 how do subducted slabs interact with phase transformations changes in mantle rheology and possibly chemical boundaries in the mantle based on laboratory measurements of the temperature dependence of olivine one would conclude that the core of a subducting slab is at least 10 000 times more viscous than ambient mantle however there are a number of complementary but independent observations that suggest that slabs are much weaker than this slabs undergo significant deformation in the upper mantle and may thicken to twice their original width by the time they reach the base of the transition zone the lack of a clear correlation between the observed dip angle of deep slabs and plate velocity rate of trench migration and slab age in modern subduction zones is consistent with hypothesis that subduction is a time dependent phenomenon both tank and numerical convection experiments with plates conclude that subduction is not a steady phenomenon but that slabs bend thicken stretch and change dip through time this is at odds with the assumptions used in steady state slab thermal models where slab deformation is not considered

anatomy and evolution of a lower cretaceous alluvial plain sedimentology and palaeosols in the upper blairmore group south western alberta canada the lower cretaceous albian upper blairmore group is part of a thick clastic wedge that formed adjacent to the rising cordillera in south western alberta regional transgressive intervals are superimposed on the overall regressive succession alluvial conglomerates sandstones and mudstones were deposited in east north eastward draining fluvial systems orientated transverse to the basin axis five facies associations have been identified igneous pebble conglomerate thick sandstone interbedded lenticular sandstone and mudstone thick mudstone with thin sandstone interlayers and fossiliferous sandstone and mudstone the facies associations are interpreted as gravelly fluvial channels sandy fluvial channels sand dominated floodplains mud dominated floodplains and marine shoreline deposits respectively five types of palaeosols are recognized in the upper blairmore group based on lithology the presence of pedogenic features clay coatings root traces ferruginous nodules slickensides carbonate nodules and degree of horizonization the regional distribution of the various types of palaeosols enables a refinement of the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction permitting an assessment of the controls on floodplain evolution in source proximal areas palaeosol development was inhibited by high rates of sedimentation in source distal locations poor drainage resulting from high watertables low topography and lower rates of sedimentation also inhibited palaeosol development the best developed palaeosols containing bt horizons occur in intermediate alluvial plain positions tectonic hinge zone where the floodplains were most stable due to a balance between sedimentation erosion and subsidence rates extrapolating from the upper blairmore group suggests that the tectonic hinge zone of continental foreland basins can be established by palaeosol analysis at the hinge zone soil development is controlled primarily by climate and tectonics and their effect on sediment supply whereas closer to the palaeoshoreline relative sea level fluctuations resulting in poor drainage may have a more significant influence

mid pliocene warmth stronger greenhouse and stronger conveyor abstract three million years ago prior to the onset of northern hemisphere glaciation global mean temperatures may have been as much as 3 5 c warmer than at present we present evidence based on the carbon isotopic composition of marine organic matter that atmospheric co2 levels at this time were on average only about 35 higher than the preindustrial value of 280 ppm we also present carbon isotopic evidence for stronger thermohaline circulation in the atlantic ocean during the warmest intervals and propose that the north atlantic conveyor belt may act as a positive feedback to global warming by enhancing sea ice retreat and decreasing high latitude albedo based on our results it seems unlikely that the mid pliocene warm period was a doubled co2 world

plio pleistocene ice volume antarctic climate and the global δ18o record we propose that from 3 to 1 million years ago ice volume changes occurred in both the northern and southern hemispheres each controlled by local summer insolation because earth9s orbital precession is out of phase between hemispheres 23 000 year changes in ice volume in each hemisphere cancel out in globally integrated proxies such as ocean 18 o or sea level leaving the in phase obliquity 41 000 years component of insolation to dominate those records only a modest ice mass change in antarctica is required to effectively cancel out a much larger northern ice volume signal at the mid pleistocene transition we propose that marine based ice sheet margins replaced terrestrial ice margins around the perimeter of east antarctica resulting in a shift to in phase behavior of northern and southern ice sheets as well as the strengthening of 23 000 year cyclicity in the marine 18 o record

late cenozoic eolian deposition in the north pacific asian drying tibetan uplift and cooling of the northern hemisphere a newly constructed record of eolian dust accumulation from the central north pacific shows that dust deposition increased by an order of magnitude quite rapidly at 3 6 ma we associate this sudden drying with the uplift of at least the northern portion of the tibetan plateau shutting off the indian ocean moisture source to central and western china this ten fold increase in atmospheric dust loading appears to be associated with the 1 m y long shift toward heavy 18o values that occurred at 3 6 2 6 ma the dust grain size record of wind intensity begins its late cenozoic coarsening a million years before the drying event at 4 5 ma the northern hemisphere cooling that results in intensification of the subpolar westerly winds may have as its ultimate cause the drawdown of atmospheric co2 in the latest miocene and the early pliocene closing of the panamanian seaway

modelling of viscoelastic plume lithosphere interaction using the adaptive multilevel wavelet collocation method summary modelling of mantle flows with sharp viscosity contrasts in a viscoelastic medium is a challenging computational problem in geodynamics because of its multiple scale nature in space and time we have employed a recently developed adaptive multilevel wavelet collocation algorithm to study the dynamics of a small rising diapir interacting with a stiff lithosphere in a maxwell viscoelastic mantle in this kinematic model we have prescribed the upward velocity of the diapir and then we need to integrate in time only the momentum equation governing the temporal evolution of the pressure stress and velocity components which together constitute a sixth order system in time the total number of collocation points did not exceed 10 4 compared to more than 10 6 gridpoints using conventional evenly spaced grid methods the viscosity of the diapir is 10 x4 times lower than that of the surrounding mantle while the viscosity of the thin lithosphere about 5 10 per cent of the entire layer depth is 10 4 10 8 times stiffer than the ambient mantle our results demonstrate the efficacy of wavelets to capture the sharp gradients of the stress and pressure fields developed in the diapiric impingement process the interaction of the viscoelastic lithosphere with the rising viscoelastic diapir results in the localization of stress within the lithosphere the magnitude of the stress fields can reach around 100 300 mpa our simple kinematic model shows clearly that viscoelasticity can potentially play an important role in the dynamics of the lithosphere especially concerning the potential severage of the lithosphere by mantle upwellings

northeastward growth and uplift of the tibetan plateau magnetostratigraphic insights from the guide basin 1 most of the evidence for the uplift of the tibetan plateau comes from its southern and central parts although the northern rim has been less studied it may greatly contribute to the understanding of the mechanism and timing of the uplift recent studies on the northeastern part of the plateau suggest that the uplift can largely be explained by cenozoic thrusting and folding linked to the movement of the altyn tagh and kunlun faults and that diffuse shortening might be a realistic way to explain the thickening of the continental interior nevertheless the age of sediments that record the tectonic processes is poorly known the terrigenous formations in the guide gonghe basin ne tibet show several phases of deformation and include thick deposits of conglomerates interbedded with sandstones and siltstones that are thought to be the result of an increased sediment flux dating of these gravel deposits with magnetostratigraphic and faunal studies has permitted the precise timing of the basin infilling and its tectonic evolution to be established our results indicate that the onset of conglomerate accumulation occurs in the pliocene an observation that is in agreement with those of the linxia basin just east of the plateau if the high sedimentation rates 22 cm kyr in the guide basin are mostly due to tectonism then significant uplift occurred as late as pliocene

palaeo yardangs wind scoured desert landforms at the permo triassic unconformity in canyonlands national park south east utah at least 29 partly exhumed aligned sandstone ridges trending generally n20 w occur at the upper unconformable surface of the lower permian leonardian white rim sandstone the ridges are at least 1 5 km long 250 m wide and have up to 14 m of vertical relief mean of 9 m a thin lag of coarse sandstone that contains wind ripple laminae and granule ripples directly overlies the ridges angular blocks of sandstone within the lag and sand filled fissures immediately below the lag within the ridges attest to early cementation of the ridge forming material se dipping aeolian cross strata within the white rim sandstone and within the lag closely parallel the ridge trend the ridges are interpreted as wind sculpted desert landforms yardangs that developed on the lithified upper surface of the white rim sandstone during an extended period of hyperaridity towards the end of the permian

loess stratigraphy in central china abstract the loess deposits in central china record world wide climate changes of the last 2 5 ma numerous climatic oscillations are marked by alternating loess and soil units with continuous coverage of the matuyama and brunhes epochs magnetic susceptibility of the deposits correlates closely with the oxygen isotope record of the deep sea sediments and provides an independent measure of climate and time the key marker bed of the chinese loess sequence is the paleosol s5 the time equivalent of the mid brunhes oxygen isotope stages 13 14 and 15 it marks a prolonged interval of warm humid climate lasting from approximately 615 to 470 thousand years ago several episodes of river downcutting coincide with deposition of the exceptionally thick loess units l1 oceanic oxygen isotope stages 2 to 4 l2 stage 6 l5 stage 12 l6 stage 16 l9 stage 22 l15 stage 38 about 1 15 ma and ws4 about 2 3 ma these erosional events are interpreted as a result of episodic uplift of the loess plateau the deposition of the earliest loess layers between 2 5 and 2 3 ma ago marks a first order shift from warm and humid environments toward harsh continental steppes comparable to those of the middle and late pleistocene little if any lithologic or paleontologic changes were noted within or above the olduvai magnetozone so that the proposed plio pleistocene boundary at approximately 1 65 ma has no lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic representation in the chinese loess series comparison with the deep sea drilling program core 552a in the north atlantic and with the santerno river section near bologna shows that the occurrence of the earliest loess in china coincides with the timing of the first significant ice rafting in the north atlantic and with the appearance of cold water foraminifers in the marine deposits of northern italy an extension of the stage system of the oxygen isotope signal extended back to the gauss matuyama boundary is proposed

defining the quaternary abstract the quaternary system is under threat of extinction as a chronostratigraphic unit in the international geological time scale in its place the neogene system previously comprising miocene and pliocene series is to be extended to include the pleistocene and holocene series it may be possible to save the quaternary by defining it as a subsystem of the neogene in doing so it would be an opportune time to extend the base of the quaternary to 2 6 ma to encompass the time during which 1 earth s climate has been strongly influenced by bi polar glaciation and 2 the genus homo first appeared and evolved

the paleoaltimetry of tibet an isotopic perspective stable isotopes provide a valuable perspective on the timing of elevation change of the tibetan plateau we begin our paper by looking in depth at isotopic patterns in modern tibet we show that the 18 o value of surface waters decreases systematically up the himalayan front in central nepal by about 2 8 km in agreement with the patterns documented and modeled by previous research on the tibetan plateau itself there is no apparent correlation between elevation and the 18 o value of flowing surface waters both surface waters and soil carbonates display a northward increase in 18 o values of about 1 5 north of the himalayan crest even though elevation increases modestly the isotopic increase with latitude reduces the isotope elevation gradient for water in the northernmost plateau to 1 to 2 km carbonates in both soils and lakes form at higher temperatures than assumed by previous studies on the plateau temperature estimates from clumped isotope 47 analyses of modern soil carbonates significantly exceed mean annual air t and modeled maximum summer soil temperatures by 15 8 2 8 and 9 7 2 5 c respectively similarly elevated temperatures best account for the 18 o values observed in modern soil and lake carbonates we recalculated paleoelevations from previous studies on the plateau using both higher formation temperatures and latitude corrected isotopic values with one notable exception our revised model produces paleoelevation estimates very close to previous estimates the exception is the reconstruction from late eocene age deposits at xoh xil for which we calculate elevations that are higher and much closer to the current elevation than previously reconstructed therefore there is no evidence for northward progression through time of tibetan elevation change instead the available but admittedly very scanty evidence suggests that much of tibet attained its modern elevation by the mid eocene a truly robust test of the various geodynamic models of uplift await expansion and replication of isotopic records all across tibet especially in the center and north and for 15 ma

recent antarctic sea ice trends in the context of southern ocean surface climate variations since 1950 this study compares the distribution of surface climate trends over the southern ocean in austral summer between 1979 2011 and 1950 1978 using a wide variety of data sets including uninterpolated gridded marine archives land station data reanalysis and satellite products apart from the antarctic peninsula and adjacent regions sea surface temperatures and surface air temperatures decreased during 1979 2011 consistent with the expansion of antarctic sea ice in contrast the southern ocean and coastal antarctica warmed during 1950 1978 sea level pressure slp and zonal wind trends provide additional evidence for a sign reversal between the two periods with cooling warming accompanied by stronger weaker westerlies and lower higher slp at polar latitudes in the early late period such physically consistent trends across a range of independently measured parameters provide robust evidence for multidecadal climate variability over the southern ocean and place the recent antarctic sea ice trends into a broader context

chinese loess record of monsoon climate during the last glacial interglacial cycle the thick loess paleosol succession of central china contains a detailed record of changes in east asian monsoon climate since the late miocene epoch the alternating loess paleosol stratigraphy closely resembles the marine oxygen isotope record implying that episodic dust deposition and pedogenesis are in phase with global ice volume fluctuations and controlled by variations in solar radiation reaching the land surface deposits equivalent to marine isotope stages mis 5 through 1 have been dated by 14c 10be luminescence and magnetic susceptibility and grain size models malan loess mis 4 2 decreases in thickness southeastward from 30 m in the western loess plateau to 5 m east of xi an downwind asian dust is found in japan the north pacific ocean and the greenland ice sheet where it has a chemical signature that points to a primary source in western china during glacial times the mean dust flux in the central loess plateau reached 0 35 mm year whereas in interglacial times it fell to 0 1 mm year times of high dust influx and reduced soil development coincided with strengthened winter monsoon conditions which are inferred from variations in loess grain size times of decreased dust accumulation and strong pedogenesis marked by high values of magnetic susceptibility represent times of strengthened summer monsoon conditions high frequency fluctuations in dust influx during deposition of the malan loess include peaks that likely correlate with north atlantic heinrich events the younger dryas oscillation is recorded in chinese eolian and organic deposits by a shift from cool humid late glacial conditions to cold and dry conditions followed by a return to milder humid climate at the beginning of the holocene warm moist climate associated with a strong summer monsoon characterized the first half of the holocene epoch when a widespread paleosol complex developed on the loess plateau increased dust deposition during the middle to late holocene marked a shift to cooler drier conditions

ultrafast upwelling bursting through the upper mantle a high resolution calculation of strongly time dependent thermal convection in the upper mantle with non newtonian temperature dependent rheology shows that for an effective rayleigh number of around 106 extremely fast upwellings at times exceeding 10 m yr can be generated a few hundred kilometers below the lithosphere there is a clear separation of timescales between this fast jet and the more slowly convecting mantle within this fast vertical shear layer is embedded a thermal boundary layer with a width of the order of 50 km the development of the fast non newtonian upwelling is characterized by the growth of the plume head to a large enough size before the plume takes off rapidly at a depth of around 350 km upon impinging the base of the lithosphere this fast plume thins the lithosphere and the flow then becomes a horizontally moving hot sheet extending out for around 1000 km this scenario is found to repeat itself at the same location about 10 myr after the first plume impingement

controls of erosional denudation in the orogen on foreland basin evolution the oligocene central swiss molasse basin as an example a high resolution three dimensional reconstruction of the 25 m y old central swiss molasse basin reveals two sedimentary domains separated by a 5 km wide flood plain the proximal domain of the basin attained a width of 20 km and its basement is steeply flexed 6 7 dip petrographic data indicate that it was filled by sediment from the rigi dispersal system derived from the central alps of eastern switzerland and by locally sourced bajadas in contrast the distal sedimentary domain located farther north was gently dipping 2 and was filled by the meandering lac leman and honegg dispersal systems chronological data reveal that sedimentation in the northern proximal part of the basin started at 27 ma when sediment supply to the basin started to increase deflection of the foreland plate at 25 ma is successfully simulated by flexural modeling of the thrust load and the sediment load the model reveals that the lac leman and honegg dispersal systems are located on a buried flexural bulge furthermore it shows that burial and suppression of the flexural bulge at 27 ma as well as an increase of the basin wavelength were controlled by the contemporaneous increase in the sediment supply rate of the rigi system the model presented suggests that the tectonic subsidence of the molasse basin was mainly controlled by tectonic events in the northern part of the orogen within 70 km distance from the tip of the orogenic wedge crustal thickening in this part of the orogen is reflected in the proximal molasse by sedimentary cycles characterized by an increase in the sediment accumulation rates up section and by the presence of locally sourced bajada fans at the top of each cycle although south vergent back thrusting along the insubric line 150 km south of the foreland basin contributed little to flexure it resulted in an increase of the sediment supply to the foreland basin this is reflected in the molasse by coarsening and thickening upward trends an increase of the basin wavelength basinward shifts of the depocenters of the dispersal systems and uplift and erosion of the proximal basin border

vertebrate paleontology biostratigraphy geochronology and paleoenvironment of qaidam basin in northern tibetan plateau abstract qaidam basin is the largest terrestrial basin of the tibetan plateau and has the most continuous sedimentary record in the cenozoic although constituting the first known fossil vertebrates of the tibetan plateau and discovered in early scientific expeditions in the 1930s mammalian fossils from qaidam basin have not played a significant role in studying the basin stratigraphy our explorations in the qaidam basin during the past 8 years have resulted in the first well documented collection of fossil vertebrates from there in addition to being the best organisms for terrestrial biostratigraphy in the cenozoic the new fossil vertebrates offer a unique window into the ancient biotas that chronicle the late cenozoic uplift of the plateau and associated environmental changes here we establish for the first time a faunal sequence of early oligocene to early pliocene age four mammalian faunas are recognized olongbuluk mammal fauna middle miocene tuosu mammal fauna early late miocene shengou mammal fauna early late miocene and huaitoutala mammal fauna early pliocene all four mammal faunas can be directly or indirectly tied to a paleomagnetic section in the olongbuluk huaitoutala area permitting robust calibration of the chronology of these faunas at least four fish faunas are also found lulehe fish fauna late early to early late oligocene shengou fish fauna early late miocene eboliang fish fauna late late miocene to early pliocene and yahu fish fauna early pliocene the fish faunas represent the only records of their respective times in the tibetan plateau and thus by themselves cannot be used for age determination however these fish faunas are either integrated into paleomagnetic sections or directly tied to mammal faunas of known ages permitting independent assessment of their chronology zoogeographically qaidam mammal faunas show increasing endemism through time presumably related to topographic barriers formed by the growth and uplift of the tibetan plateau and to climatic changes triggered by the same tectonic process fishes that were trapped in internally drained basins developed pachyostotic morphologies caused by hypersaline environments which are associated with the increasing aridity of the tibetan plateau since early pliocene

the potential role of non newtonian rheology in the resurfacing of venus several analyses of the impact cratering record on venus have concluded that 80 of venus was resurfaced sometime in the last 300 m y 700 m y the cratering record further indicates that the resurfacing took place over a 30 m y 100 m y interval since this period there has been little large scale tectonic activity on venus this study proposes that such behavior may result from the interaction of phase change induced avalanches with a non newtonian lithosphere the mechanism proposed here suggests that because of non newtonian rheology the venusian lithosphere becomes highly mobile during brief periods when avalanches occur afterwards due to the reduction in stress levels the lithosphere becomes rigid and large scale tectonics ceases

rheological transition in mantle convection with a composite temperature dependent non newtonian and newtonian rheology numerical simulations of mantle convection with a composite temperature dependent newtonian and non newtonian creep law have revealed a transition in the dominant creep mechanism with the increasing vigour of convection newtonian creep is found to dominate in the low rayleigh number regime with sufficiently high effective rayleigh number the overall creep mechanism in the convective flow becomes non newtonian the transitional rayleigh number increases strongly with the activation energy these results would suggest a scenario that in the early epochs of earth the flow in the mantle would have been governed by non newtonian rheology and would have exhibited both strong spatial and temporal fluctuations with time the flow mechanism would behave like a newtonian fluid and would have a different time dependent character in time dependent newtonian dominated flows there are still localized features with distinctly non newtonian character our analysis of the relative contributions to the lateral viscosity field supports the idea that the inference of the nature of lateral viscosity heterogeneities by seismic tomography may be strongly contaminated by the dominant non newtonian contributions to the total lateral viscosity field

230th 234u and 36cl dating of evaporite deposits from the western qaidam basin china implications for glacial period dust export from central asia the western qaidam basin contains numerous hydrologically closed lakes and playas we have measured uranium thorium and chlorine radioisotopes in sediments from drill cores at two of these gasikule lake and dalangtan dry playa in order to date cycles of high and low lake level the sediment chronologies from the two sub basins are generally concordant and the u th ages indicate transitions from high to low lake levels at 302 56 ka at 138 6 ka and at 16 3 2 2 ka these ages indicate that high lake stands in the qaidam basin were terminated at the end of continental glacial maxima this result is unexpected because previously the large eolian dust fluxes out of central asia during glacial maxima have been considered to be associated with increased aridity in the region not increased humidity the lacustrine evidence combined with previous data from ice cores suggests instead that the persistence of strong winds may have played a more important role in enhanced dust fluxes than did variations in dust availability due to changes in aridity

relationship between the tibetan plateau heating and east asian summer monsoon rainfall 1 this study reveals the close correspondence between the interannual variability of the dominant east asian summer rainfall pattern and the diabatic heating over the tibetan plateau in both spring and summer the heating fluctuation over the tibetan plateau is associated with two wave like circulation patterns which bear the characteristics of forced rossby wave emanating away from the deep heating the wave like pattern in turn affects the east asian summer rainfall because of the persistent heating over the tibetan plateau from spring to summer and its possible effect on the surrounding areas the heating index defined in this study can be used as a good predictor for the jja heating and precipitation distributions evidences shown suggest that external conditions other than the sst anomaly must be considered to understand the interannual variability of the east asian summer rainfall

the effects of adiabatic and viscous heatings on plumes we have assessed the influence of viscous and adiabatic heatings on the transient development of plumes by employing the time dependent convection equations in the extended boussinesq limit both temperature dependent and temperature and pressure dependent viscosities are employed for constant thermal expansion of coefficient we find the vigor of plume flows is diminished with larger magnitudes of the thermal expansivity this effects is caused by the local domination of adiabatic decompression over viscous heating inside the developing plume for both the cartesian and axisymmetric domains for deep mantle flows a thermal expansivity decreasing with depth is required for thin plume structures to exist values of the thermal expansivity contrast which can promote plume growth are in accord with estimates from recent studies in seismic equation of state copyright american geophysical union 1987

an astronomically tuned 8 1 ma eolian record from the chinese loess plateau and its implication on the evolution of asian monsoon the chinese loess paleosol sequences have led to a great understanding of the evolution of the east asian monsoon eam in the quaternary however evolution of the eam in the late miocene and pliocene is quite blurry hindering our understanding of the mechanisms driving the eam thus we obtained high resolution grain size records of 8 1 ma from the thickest eolian red clay sequence at chaona on the chinese central loess plateau and astronomically tuned the grain size records to the orbital variation with a time resolution of 1 5 ka to 5 8 ka the variability of coarse size fraction a recognized proxy for the east asian winter monsoon eawm indicates a persistent but stepwise intensification of the eawm at ca 5 5 ma 3 6 ma 2 6 ma and 1 ma filtering of this proxy record at 100 41 and 21 ka bands was conducted to trace the evolution of the eawm in a frequency domain over 8 1 ma temporal variations of these three cycles show a remarkable simultaneous enhancement at ca 5 5 ma indicating a synchronous intensification of high and low latitude signals in the eawm record we suggest that the closure of panama seaway to form the north atlantic thermohaline circulation and the high latitude cooling during this time might collectively trigger such a response copyright 2011 by the american geophysical union

active lithospheric thinning abstract this paper starts with a discussion of the physical mechanisms capable of inducing a rapid upward migration of the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary two models based on a thermomechanical destabilization of the lower lithosphere are proposed first we consider the enhancement of small scale sublithospheric convection modes by a hot thermal plume a perturbation of a few hundred degrees is found to thin the lithosphere and generate uplift within a few tens of million years this efficient erosion from below only stops when it reaches a layer of low density such as the crust or some depleted mantle material second we show that passive lithospheric stretching leads to an unstable lithospheric configuration on the sides of the rift the denser unstretched lithosphere is subject to a lateral convective penetration by the hotter asthenospheric mantle material coming from the rift zone this lateral destabilization generates uplift of the shoulders natural examples can be found along passive continental margins a good example is given by the uplift of the scandinavian caledonides following the break up in the north atlantic

magnetochronology of the upper cenozoic strata in the southwestern chinese tian shan rates of pleistocene folding and thrusting abstract the southwestern chinese tian shan of central asia is an actively deforming part of the indian asian collision system paleomagnetic investigations of two plio pleistocene terrestrial successions provide the first detailed magnetostratigraphy for the upper cenozoic strata in this region paleomagnetic samples were collected from 358 sites within the atushi formation and xiyu formation across the atushi talanghe anticline near atushi thermal demagnetization behavior reversal and fold tests of paleomagnetic stability indicate that the characteristic remanence directions were acquired before tilting and folding of the strata a composite magnetostratigraphic section for this sequence correlates with the mammoth subchron to the jaramillo subchron between 3 3 and 1 07 myr of the geomagnetic polarity timescale of cande and kent j geophys res 100 1995 6093 6095 the mean declination 349 3 in the boguzihe section indicates a counterclockwise vertical axis rotation 11 2 during the past 1 4 myr the conglomeratic xiyu formation is time transgressive along its progradational contact with the underlying atushi formation across a map distance of 6 km the basal contact ranges from less than 1 0 myr in the ganhangou section to 1 9 myr in the boguzihe section to the southwest and to 2 8 myr on the northwest limb of the anticline northeastward lateral propagation and growth of the atushi talanghe anticline initiated at 1 4 myr in the boguzihe and 1 2 myr in the ganhangou the cross section in the boguzihe provides a conservative maximum estimate of shortening rate of 3 3 4 4 mm yr and uplift rate of 3 mm yr this rate represents about half of the geodetically determined shortening rate between the northern tarim basin and the kyrgyz tian shan wang et al acta seismol sin 22 2000 263 270 reiger et al earth planet sci lett 191 2001 157 165 during fold growth over the past 1 4 myr the crest of the atushi talanghe anticline eroded at an average rate of 2 6 2 7 mm yr

the significance of dropstones in a tropical lacustrine setting eastern cameros basin late jurassic early cretaceous spain abstract outsized clasts mainly white quartzite pebbles are found in carbonate deposits of the enciso group exposed on the northern border of the cameros rift basin late jurassic early cretaceous northern spain in the arnedillo section all the stones are enclosed in micrite which was assumed deposited in littoral to open lacustrine environments with minor inputs of deltaic sandstones the clasts are found in fine grained lacustrine sediments either as isolated stones or as loosely packed elongated clusters occasionally associated with quartz sands and gravels the mean size of the clasts is 40 mm range 3 100 mm they are polished well rounded and lack any faceting or striae lithology suggests that the clasts were potentially supplied by three stratigraphic formations cropping out in the catchment area of the cameros lake the occurrence of outsized stones within featureless micrite indicative of low energy conditions involves a hydrodynamic paradox which can only be resolved by their vertical or oblique emplacement in the host sediment as dropstones the lack of mass flow deposits in the enciso group precludes gravitational processes and suggests deposition from a rafting agent icebergs and stone swallowing animals are the main transport agents identified in continental settings here stone swallowing is rejected as the transport mechanism because the stones are loosely packed and are never associated with skeletal remains ice rafting is also rejected because of the low density of clusters and the absence of faceting and striations which characterize glacial sediments furthermore the sub tropical position of iberia the absence of surrounding high relief and global climatic models for the aptian corroborate the absence of a glaciolacustrine environment consequently we propose wood rafting as an alternative depositional mechanism for dropstones in non glacial lacustrine environments although no direct evidence has yet been found i e stones enclosed in the roots of rafted woods several data support our interpretation first the occurrence of isolated stones and loosely packed elongated clusters is consistent with the fall of single stones or the disintegration of clods embedded among tree roots the occurrence of large rafted conifer trunks in lacustrine deposits of the enciso group indicates that they may have rafted small clusters of stones from the catchment area into the lake if wood rafting is a possible depositional mechanism the occurrence of dropstones is consequently not a sound criterion for inferring the existence of glacial conditions in lacustrine environments the reliability of wood rafted dropstones in lacustrine settings as an indicator of paleoclimate is also discussed

fast plumeheads temperature dependent versus non newtonian rheology in a series of two dimensional cartesian simulations with high resolution on the order of 2 km we have compared for the same effective rayleigh number around 106 the dynamics between newtonian and non newtonian rheologies a viscosity contrast due to temperature of 1200 has been employed throughout with surface dissipation numbers varying between 0 05 and 0 2 peak velocities for non newtonian plumes are at least 50 times faster than the peak newtonian velocities and reach magnitudes in excess of m yr upon impinging the surface plume head structures of the non newtonian rheology contain much greater complexity in the thermal mechanical structure than for newtonian plumes

magnetic polarity stratigraphy of the neogene siwalik group at khutia khola far western nepal the middle miocene pliocene siwalik group was deposited in the himalayan foreland basin in response to uplift and erosion in the himalayan fold thrust belt results of thermal demagnetization experiments on samples from the siwalik group in central and western nepal demonstrate that laminated siltstones yield paleomagnetic data useful for tectonic and magnetostratigraphic studies sandstones and paleosols of the siwalik group however generally display highly erratic paleomagnetic behavior during thermal demagnetization on the basis of these observations siltstones from a well exposed 2423 m thick section of the siwalik group in khutia khola far western nepal were sampled for magnetic polarity stratigraphy the siwalik group is composed of informal lower middle and upper members correlation of the resulting polarity stratigraphy with the geomagnetic polarity timescale indicates that the exposed section spans 13 30 to 7 65 ma the lower middle siwalik boundary occurs at 11 05 ma near the beginning of chron c5n the rate of sediment accumulation increases upsection similar to rate changes previously observed in the pakistan siwalik group and probably in response to increasing proximity of the himalayan thrust belt in the khutia khola section a discordant declination indicates that this region has rotated about a vertical axis 16 6 counterclockwise with respect to the indian subcontinent measurements of 13 c in paleosol carbonate indicate the predominance of c 3 plants until 7 65 ma and the clear presence of c 4 plants higher in the undated portion of the section

seismites in the mesoproterozoic altyn formation belt supergroup montana a test for tectonic control of peritidal carbonate cyclicity the mesoproterozoic altyn formation of western montana contains abundant seismites that record the physical state of the sediment at the time of earthquake induced ground motion earthquakes were likely generated by normal faulting during subsidence because part of the altyn is composed of cyclic upward shallowing peritidal carbonates it may afford an opportunity to test whether spasmodic subsidence provides a viable mechanism for the episodic generation of the requisite accommodation space at cycle tops no stratigraphic relation between the seismites and peritidal cycles is perceived however so it appears that this process may not be a control of cyclicity

is the lower mantle rheology newtonian today the issue concerning the dominant creep mechanism in mantle convection has been studied numerically with a rheology incorporating both linear and non linear elements we have employed a rheology suggested by the recently obtained melting temperature of lower mantle constituents for an effective rayleigh number between 105 and 106 this type of strongly temperature and pressure dependent rheology induces a circulation in the earth s mantle which is characterized by a sluggish type of flow in the lower mantle with a prevailing newtonian character while in the upper mantle much more vigorous flows are developed in a predominantly non newtonian rheology

multiple origins of linear dunes on earth and titan the formation of dunes is controlled by the direction of the prevailing winds and the characteristics of the sediments linear dunes in the qaidam basin china are shown to form from cohesive sediments a model that could be applicable to dunes on titan

pliocene uplift of the northern tibetan plateau neogene redbeds passing upward into upward coarsening conglomerate and debris flow deposits at the foot of the kunlun mountains record the change in paleoslope related to uplift of the surface of the northern tibetan plateau detailed magnetostratigraphy of a 4 5 km section near yecheng in the western kunlun mountains shows that the change from deposition on distal alluvial plains to proximal alluvial fans occurred during the gilbert reversed chron 4 5 3 5 ma the change in depositional facies was accompanied by an increase in sedimentation rate from an average 0 15 mm yr between the earliest oligocene and the earliest pliocene to 1 4 mm yr in the gauss normal chron 3 6 2 6 ma we interpret the change in depositional facies and increase in sedimentation rate as indicating that the main uplift of the northwestern tibetan plateau began ca 4 5 ma

increasing nd isotopic ratio of asian dust indicates progressive uplift of the north tibetan plateau since the middle miocene the time and rate of tibetan uplift is critical in understanding both the geodynamics of plateau growth and the influence of mountain building on climate change models predict that the uplift of the north tibetan plateau ntp occurred later than uplift of the south and central tibetan plateau uplift of the ntp is believed to have initiated the aridity in the interior of asia and to have critically affected the evolution of asian monsoon and ultimately global climate the history of ntp uplift has remained uncertain however scenarios range from early miocene to the past million years this work provides new evidence by relating the nd isotopic evolution of asian dust to ntp uplift the sources of the asian dust are located in the arid lands between the ntp and the central asia orogen mass balance calculations indicate that the decreasing e nd values from 8 2 to 10 4 for pacific dust since 15 ma reflects increasing relative contribution of ntp materials 40 to 70 to the dust source as paleoelevation in the central asia orogen has largely remained constant the increasing relative ntp detritus contribution is interpreted to reflect the progressive surface uplift of the ntp at a rate of at least 0 12 mm yr 1 since 15 ma

effects of strongly temperature dependent viscosity on time dependent three dimensional models of mantle convection numerical simulations of thermal convection in a wide 8 8 1 cartesian box heated from below with temperature dependent viscosity contrasts of 1000 and rayleigh number 105 show that boundary conditions and aspect ratio have an enormous effect on the preferred flow pattern with rigid upper and lower boundaries spoke pattern flow with small diameter 1 5 cells is obtained consistent with laboratory experiments and previous numerical results however with the arguably more realistic stress free boundaries the flow chooses the largest possible wavelength forming a single square cell of aspect ratio 8 with one huge cylindrical downwelling surrounded by upwelling sheets the addition of stress dependence to the rheology weakens the stiff upper boundary layer resulting in smaller cells though still with upwelling sheets and downwelling plumes

late pleistocene evolution of salt lakes in the qaidam basin qinghai province china abstract the qaidam basin is a tectonically controlled depression at 2700 m altitude on the northern margin of the qinghai xizang tibet plateau rimmed by the high aljun qilian ranges to the north and kunlun peaks to the south rising above 5000 m the basin floor experiences hyper arid conditions with evaporation precipitation ratios exceeding 100 1 periglacial and glacial conditions prevail on montane peaks with permafrost above 3800 m on the basin floor small waterbodies lie on extensive halite salt flats on the largest the qarhan salt flat 5800 km2 in extent the small lakes dabuxun and taijinier represent contracted remnants of a once expansive water body throughout neogene time a succession of clastic sediments indicates lake depo centre migration from nw to se towards late pliocene evaporitic conditions developed with formation of gypsum halite celestite mirabilite and bloedite continued deformation through pleistocene time has developed a series of nw se trending domes and troughs this setting has continued to exert a controlling influence on basin and brine evolution with progressive development through sulfate to chloride brines as dry conditions intensified in late pleistocene expanded lake conditions qarhan mega lake corresponding to near the 2800 m contour indicate the existence of past climates much more humid than those of today a drilling program has defined the lateral and vertical extent of evaporitic halite deposits freshwater clastics and shell deposits which predate the halite phase indicate humid lacustral conditions until after 40 000 30 000 yr b p desiccation from about 25 000 yr until about 9000 yr b p resulted in deposition of halite to 60 m thick with thin parting muds representing brief returns to more humid environments high lake shorelines with aragonitic ooids surrounding the dry playa kunteyi and high level ostracod rich beach and near shore deposits on xiao qaidam attest to the presence of expanded late pleistocene lacustral conditions on lakes other than qarhan preceding the final evaporite stage clastic sediments associated with the halite are dominated by loessial silts equivalent to the late pleistocene malan deposits of central china simultaneous halite and loess deposition reflect the dry conditions that developed in the qaidam basin during the latter part of the last glaciation and which have persisted ever since the final evolution of brines has resulted in development of extensive potassium rich brines and salts with the mineral carnallite providing the basis for a large potash extraction industry near golmud the hydrologic history documented by the analyses of lake sediments reflects the interaction of tectonic deformation and climatic change in the development of brines to the potash stage