Abstract:A new boreopterid pterosaur: Zhenyuanopterus longirostris gen. et sp. nov. from the Yixian Formation of western Liaoning is erected, based on the complete skeleton with a skull and lower jaws preserved. It is characterized by: a large boreopterid pterosaur with a high number of teeth, where the anterior teeth are much larger than posterior ones; the length of the dorsal + sacral vertebrae is nearly half the length of the skull; ratio of the length of the humerus to metacarpal IV is approximately 91% and the, humerus, femur and third wing phalanx are all equal in length and the feet are specially small. It represents the largest boroepterid pterosaur discovered from western Liaoning and its surrounding areas so far

Abstract:We report on a new species of enantiornithine bird from the Lower Cretaceous Qiaotou Formation of northern Hebei, China. The new taxon, Shenqiornis mengi gen. et sp. nov., possesses several enantiornithine synapomorphies but is unique from other known species. The specimen has a well-preserved skull that reveals new information about enantiornithine cranial morphology. The new taxon possesses a large postorbital with a long tapering jugal process indicating that some enantiornithines may have had a fully diapsid skull, as in Confuciusornis. The tooth morphology of the specimen is unique and likely represents a previously unknown trophic specialization within Enantiornithes.

Abstract:A new species of gymnospermous fossil wood, Protophyllocladoxylon jingyuanense sp. nov., is described from the lower part of the Tsingyuan Formation (Serpukhovian/Late Mississippian), near the coal mine of Ciyao, Gansu, northwestern China. The specimen is preserved only in silicified secondary xylem, while growth rings are absent. Pits in radial tracheidal walls are araucaroid in type, uniseriate, occasionally biseriate. Xylem rays are homogeneous, uniseriate, occasionally biseriate. Cross-field pits are simple, large, one to two in number. Axial parenchyma is absent. The anatomical characters and geographic distribution of Protophyllocladoxylon woods through geological ages are documented. Those species with axial parenchyma and without growth rings live in warm climate, whereas the species without axial parenchyma and with growth rings are present either in warm or cool climate. The ideal living climate for Protophyllocladoxylon woods is warm and wet. Our new species, as a fossil wood of Early Carboniferous, is likely the earliest known species of Protophyllocladoxylon.

Abstract:The Outangdi Formation in Jiangshan, Zhejiang, is the mixing deposit of terrigenous clastics and carbonates in Weiningian of the late Carboniferous. The mixing deposits include interbeddings, which constitute a series of alternated clastic and carbonate beds and mixing within the same bed which forms “hunji rock”. The Outangdi Formation has the features of intercalated marine and terrestrial deposits with the progradational sequences, which are lower fine and upper coarse sedimentary granularity in the section. Hunji rock is formed in a seashore environment. It is a mixed carbonate sediment found in beaches or tideland facies with quartz sand taken from a bayou or beach by coastwise flow and circumfluence. There are two kinds of hunji sequences: (1) interbeds of sandstone and carbonate rock in seashore environments; and (2) interbeds of clastics in river facies and carbonate rock in ocean facies. It is indicated that mixing depositions belong to “facies mixing”, affected mainly by regional tectonic uplift, rise of the global sea level, and the dynamics of water medium in the basin. Regional sea level periodic changes and progradational sequences probably resulted from the intense uplift of the old land called Cathaysia. The classification and name of mixed sediments are also discussed in the present study. Interbeds and alternated beds of clastic and carbonate beds are named “hunji sequence”, a new genetic term. It is suggested that hunji rock means a special sediment event of mixing terrigenous clastics and carbonates instead of a name of a specific rock.

Abstract:Based on field geological survey, stratigraphic section measurement and indoor comprehensive investigation, the Zanda Basin’s tectonic location in the Himalaya Plate was ascertained, and the formation and evolution of the Zanda Basin during the Pliocene to Early Pleistocene was classified as six stages: (a) primary rift-faulting stage, (b) quick rift-faulting Stage, (c) intensive rift-faulting stage, (d) stasis stage, (e) secondary rift-faulting stage, and (f) secondary quick rift-faulting stage. Based on this six-staged formation-evolution theory of the Zanda Basin, the upwelling process of the Western Himalaya Mountains from the Pliocene to Early Pleistocene was classified as the following five stages: (a) slow upwelling stage (5.4–4.4 Ma), (b) mid-velocity upwelling stage (4.4–3.5 Ma), (c) quick upwelling stage (3.5–3.2 Ma), (d) upwelling-ceasing stage (3.2–2.7 Ma), and (e) quick upwelling stage (2.7 Ma). Research has shown that in the duration from the Early Pliocene (4.7 Ma) to the End of Pliocene (2.67 Ma), which lasted 2.03 million years, the Himalaya Mountains had uplifted 1500 m at a velocity of 0.74 mm/a; this belongs to a mid-velocity upwelling. During the 1.31 million years in the Early Stage of the Early Pleistocene, the Himalaya Mountains had risen up another 1500 m at a velocity of 1.15 mm/a; this is a rather quick upwelling. All of these data have shown that the upwelling of the Western Himalaya Mountains is along a complicated process with multi-stages, multi-velocities, and non-uniformitarian features.

Abstract:The Lüliang Mountains, located in the North China Craton, is a relatively stable block, but it has experienced uplift and denudation since the late Mesozoic. We hence aim to explore its time and rate of the exhumation by the fission-track method. The results show that, no matter what type rocks are, the pooled ages of zircon and apatite fission-track range from 60.0 to 93.7 Ma and 28.6 to 43.3 Ma, respectively; all of the apatite fission-track length distributions are unimodal and yield a mean length of ~13?μm; and the thermal history modeling results based on apatite fission-track data indicate that the time-temperature paths exhibit similar patterns and the cooling has been accelerated for each sample since the Pliocene (c.5 Ma). Therefore, we can conclude that a successive cooling, probably involving two slow (during c.75-35 Ma and 35-5 Ma) and one rapid (during c.5 Ma-0 Ma) cooling, has occurred through the exhumation of the Lüliang Mountains since the late Cretaceous. The maximum exhumation is more than 5 km under a steady-state geothermal gradient of 35°C/km. Combined with the tectonic setting, this exhumation may be the resultant effect from the surrounding plate interactions, and it has been accelerated since c.5 Ma predominantly due to the India-Eurasia collision.

Abstract:Does Cenozoic exhumation occur in the Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica? In the present paper, we conducted an apatite fission-track thermochronologic study across the Larsemann Hills of East Antarctica. Our work reveals a Cenozoic exhumation event at 49.8 ± 12 Ma, which we interpret to be a result of exhumation caused by crustal extension. Within the uncertainty of our age determination, the timing of extension in East Antarctica determined by our study is coeval with the onset time of rifting in West Antarctica at c.55 Ma. The apatite fission-track cooling ages vary systematically in space, indicating a coherent block rotation of the Larsemann Hills region from c.50 Ma to c.10 Ma. This pattern of block tilting was locally disrupted by normal faulting along the Larsemann Hills detachment fault at c.5.4 Ma. The regional extension in the Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica was the result of tectonic evolution in this area, and may be related to the global extension. Through the discussion of Pan-Gondwanaland movement, and Mesozoic and Cenozoic extensions in West and East Antarctica and adjacent areas, we suggest that the protracted Cenozoic cooling over the Larsemann Hills area was caused by extensional tectonics related to separation and formation of the India Ocean at the time of Gondwanaland breakup.

Abstract:The Longgouhe and Ershiyizhan intrusions of the Late Jurassic, located in the Upper Heilongjiang Basin of the northern Great Hinggan Range, are closely related to porphyry Cu-Au mineralizations. In lithology the intrusions are quartz diorite, quartz monzodiorite and granodiorite of high-K calc-alkaline series, with minor aspects of shoshonite series. Their SiO2 and Al2O3 contents range from 61.37% to 66.59% and 15.35% to 17.06%, respectively. The MgO content ranges from 2.02% to 3.47%, with Mg# indices of 44–59. The (La/Yb)N and Eu/Eu* values range from 16.85 to 81.73 and 0.68 to 0.93, respectively, showing strong differentiation rare earth element (REE) patterns similar to those of adakites. The rocks are enriched in Ba, Sr and light REE (LREE), obviously depleted in Nb and Ta, slightly depleted in Rb and Ti, and poor in Yb and Y, with Yb and Y contents of 0.31–1.32 ppm ?and 4.32–12.07 ppm, respectively. As indicated by Sr/Y ratios of 67.74–220.60, the rocks are characterized by low-Y and high-Sr contents, which characterize the adakites in the world. Holistically, geochemical tracers suggest that the interested intrusions are adakitic rocks. Given that the Paleo-Asian Ocean and Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean were closed in the Late Paleozoic and Permian-Middle Jurassic, respectively, the interested intrusions should be formed by partial melting of delaminated crust, which had been thickened during collisional orogeny between the Siberian and Mongolian-Sinokorean continents.

Abstract:Precambrian tectonic history of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi provinces of south China is important for understanding the tectonic evolution of South China but its magmatic activity, petrogenesis, stratigraphic sequence of the Mamianshan Group is still strongly controversial. Here we present new sensitive high resolution ion micro-probe (SHRIMP) U-Pb zircon geochronological data for the Mamianshan Group and petrographical data to constrain the tectonic framework of the regions. Our results showed that the SHRIMP U-Pb zircon age of green schists of the Dongyan Formation is 796.5±9.3 Ma, the Daling Formation is 756.2±7.2 Ma, and mica-quartz schist of the Longbeixi Formation is 825.5±9.8 Ma. These data indicate that the Mamianshan Group was formed not in the Mesoproterozoic, but in the Neoproterozoic and its stratigraphic sequences should be composed of Longbeixi, Dongyan, and Daling Formations from the bottom to the top. Rocks from this Group, from Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, constituted the upper basement of the Cathaysia Block that overlay the lower basement of the Mayuan Group. Detailed petrographic studies demonstrate that the amphibole schists of the Dongyan Formation in the Mamianshan Group were formed within an intra-arc rift setting rather than a continental rift as previously suggested. Rather, this island-arc type formation was developed by collision and/or subduction between various blocks resulting from the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia at c.850–750 Ma. The Zhuzhou conglomerate, distributed near Dikou Town, Jian’ou City, Fujian Province and previously considered as evidence of the Mesoproterozoic Dikou movement, is shown here not to be the basal conglomerate above the angular unconformity between the upper and lower basements. Our conclusions have important implications for understanding the Precambrian tectonics of South China.

Abstract:Thus far, our understanding of the emplacement of Xuebaoding granite and the occurrence and evolution of the Songpan-Garzê Orogenic Belt has been complicated by differing age spectra results. Therefore, in this study, the 40Ar/39Ar and sensitive high resolution ion micro-probe (SHRIMP) U-Pb dating methods were both used and the results compared, particularly with respect to dating data for Pankou and Pukouling granites from Xuebaoding, to establish ages that are close to the real emplacements. The results of SHRIMP U-Pb dating for zircon showed a high amount of U, but a very low value for Th/U. The high U amount, coupled with characteristics of inclusions in zircons, indicates that Xuebaoding granites are not suitable for U-Pb dating. Therefore, muscovite in the same granite samples was selected for 40Ar/39Ar dating. The 40Ar/39Ar age spectrum obtained on bulk muscovite from Pukouling granite in the Xuebaoding, gave a plateau age of 200.1±1.2 Ma and an inverse isochron age of 200.6±1.2 Ma. The 40Ar/39Ar age spectrum obtained on bulk muscovite from Pankou granite in the Xuebaoding gave another plateau age of 193.4± 1.1 Ma and an inverse isochron age of 193.7±1.1 Ma. The 40Ar/36Ar intercept of 277.0±23.4 (2σ) was very close to the air ratio, indicating that no apparent excess argon contamination was present. These age dating spectra indicate that both granites were emplaced at 200.6±1.3 Ma and 193.7±1.1 Ma, respectively. Through comparison of both dating methods and their results, we can conclude that it is feasible that the muscovite in the granite bearing high U could be used for 40Ar/39Ar dating without extra Ar. Based on this evidence, as well as the geological characteristics of the Xuebaoding W-Sn-Be deposit and petrology of granites, it can be concluded that the material origin of the Xuebaoding W-Sn-Be deposit might partially originate from the Xuebaoding granite group emplacement at about 200 Ma. Moreover, compared with other granites and deposits distributed in various positions in the Songpan-Garzê Orogenic Belt, the Xuebaoding emplacement ages further show that the main rare metal deposits and granites in peripheral regions occurred earlier than those in the inner Songpan-Garzê. Therefore, 40Ar/39Ar dating of Xuebaoding granite will lay a solid foundation for studying the occurrence and evolution of granite and rare earth element deposits in the Songpan-Garzê Orogenic Belt.

Abstract:Systematic analyses of the formation water and natural gas geochemistry in the Central Uplift of the Tarim Basin (CUTB) show that gas invasion at the late stage is accompanied by an increase of the contents of H2S and CO2 in natural gas, by the forming of the high total dissolved solids formation water, by an increase of the content of HCO3–, relative to Cl–, by an increase of the 2nd family ions (Ca2+, Mg2+, Sr2+ and Ba2+) and by a decrease of the content of SO42?, relative to Cl?. The above phenomena can be explained only by way of thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR). TSR often occurs in the transition zone of oil and water and is often described in the following reaction formula: ΣCH+CaSO4+H-2O→H2S+CO2+CaCO3. (1) Dissolved SO42? in the formation water is consumed in the above reaction, when H2S and CO2 are generated, resulting in a decrease of SO42? in the formation water and an increase of both H2S and CO2 in the natural gas. If formation water exists, the generated CO2 will go on reacting with the carbonate to form bicarbonate, which can be dissolved in the formation water, thus resulting in the enrichment of Ca2+ and HCO3?. The above reaction can be described by the following equation: CO2+H2O+CaCO3→Ca2++2HCO3?. The stratigraphic temperatures of the Cambrian and lower Ordovician in CUTB exceeded 120°C, which is the minimum for TSR to occur. At the same time, dolomitization, which might be a direct result of TSR, has been found in both the Cambrian and the lower Ordovician. The above evidence indicates that TSR is in an active reaction, providing a novel way to reevaluate the exploration potentials of natural gas in this district.

Abstract:The Bohai Bay Basin is a Mesozoic subsidence and Cenozoic rift basin in the North China Craton. Since the deposition of the Permo-Carboniferous hydrocarbon source rock, the basin has undergone many tectonic events. The source rocks have undergone non-uniform uplift, twisting, deep burying, and magmatism and that led to an interrupted or stepwise during the evolution of hydrocarbon source rocks. We have investigated the Permo-Carboniferous hydrocarbon source rocks history of burying, heating, and hydrocarbon generation, not only on the basis of tectonic disturbance and deeply buried but also with new studies on apatite fission track analysis, fluid inclusion measurements, and the application of the numerical simulation of EASY%Ro. The heating temperature of the source rocks continued to rise from the Indosinian to Himalayan stage and reached a maximum at the Late Himalayan. This led to the stepwise increases during organic maturation and multiple stages of hydrocarbon generation. The study delineated the tectonic stages, the intensity of hydrocarbon generation and spatial and temporal distribution of hydrocarbon generations. The hydrocarbon generation occurred during the Indosinian, Yanshanian, and particularly Late Himalayan. The hydrocarbon generation during the late Himalayan stage is the most important one for the Permo-Carboniferous source rocks of the Bohai Bay Basin in China.

Abstract:Foreland basin represents one of the most important hydrocarbon habitats in central and western China. To distinguish these foreland basins regionally, and according to the need of petroleum exploration and favorable exploration areas, the foreland basins in central and western China can be divided into three structural types: superimposed, retrogressive and reformative foreland basin (or thrust belt), each with distinctive petroleum system characteristics in their petroleum system components (such as the source rock, reservoir rock, caprock, time of oil and gas accumulation, the remolding of oil/gas reservoir after accumulation, and the favorable exploration area, etc.). The superimposed type foreland basins, as exemplified by the Kuqa Depression of the Tarim Basin, characterized by two stages of early and late foreland basin development, typically contain at least two hydrocarbon source beds, one deposited in the early foreland development and another in the later fault-trough lake stage. Hydrocarbon accumulations in this type of foreland basin often occur in multiple stages of the basin development, though most of the highly productive pools were formed during the late stage of hydrocarbon migration and entrapment (Himalayan period). This is in sharp contrast to the retrogressive foreland basins (only developing foreland basin during the Permian to Triassic) such as the western Sichuan Basin, where prolific hydrocarbon source rocks are associated with sediments deposited during the early stages of the foreland basin development. As a result, hydrocarbon accumulations in retrogressive foreland basins occur mainly in the early stage of basin evolution. The reformative foreland basins (only developing foreland basin during the Himalayan period) such as the northern Qaidam Basin, in contrast, contain organic-rich, lacustrine source rocks deposited only in fault-trough lake basins occurring prior to the reformative foreland development during the late Cenozoic, with hydrocarbon accumulations taking place relatively late (Himalayan period). Therefore, the ultimate hydrocarbon potentials in the three types of foreland basins are largely determined by the extent of spatial and temporal matching among the thrust belts, hydrocarbon source kitchens, and regional and local caprocks.

Abstract:Exploration and development experience show that there is obvious oil gravity difference between the southern part and northern part of the “M1”reservoir in the Fanny oil field in the slope of the Oriente Basin, Ecuador. The American Petroleum Institute Gravity (API) values of oils in the northern part are higher than the one in the southern part of the Fanny oil field, with the values of 20o and 10.0o–13.0o, respectively. So the primary purpose of this study was to analyze the heavy oil characteristics of biodegradation and the oil–oil correlation according to the biomarker data and the δ13C signature of oil samples from T block. The results of the hydrocarbon gas chromatography fingermark and the inversion attribute characteristics indicated that there are fluid compartments between the “M1” reservoir of Fanny south. Finally, the models of oil–gas accumulation under the control of multiple-activities of complicated fault systems, as well as the origin of heavy oil, are contended. The early stage oils from the western part of the basin were biodegraded heavily in varying degrees in the whole basin, and the later stage oils were derived from the southern part in a large scale and were mature and lighter. Generally, oil mixing is the primary control of net oil properties, such as API gravity in Oriente Basin. We therefore predicted that the API gravity variation of oil pools radically depends on the injection amount of the later stage oil. Because of the shale barrier in the “M1”reservoir of Fanny south, the later stage hydrocarbon could not pass through and contribute to increase the oil API value.

Abstract:The Huang Shui River, a main tributary of the Yellow River, crosses a series of tectonically subsided and uplifted areas that show different patterns of terrace formation. The distribution of fluvial terrace of the Huang Shui River is studied through topographic and sedimentologic terrace mapping. Three terraces in the Haiyan Basin, four terraces in the Huangyuan Basin, 19 terraces in the Xi’ning Basin (the four high terraces may belong to another river), nine terraces in the Ping’an Basin, five terraces in the Ledu Basin and 12 terraces in the Minhe Basin are recognized. Sedimentology research shows that the geomorphologic and sedimentological pattern of the Huang Shui River, which is located at the margin of Tibet, are different from that of the rivers at other regions. The formation process of the terrace is more complicated at the Huang Shui catchment: both accumulation terrace and erosion terrace were formed in each basin and accumulation terraces were developed in some basins when erosion terraces were formed in other basins, indicating fluvial aggradation may occur in some basins simultaneously with river incision in other basins. A conceptual model of the formation process of these two kinds of fluvial terraces at Huang Shui catchment is brought forward in this paper. First, the equilibrium state of the river is broken because of climatic change and/or tectonic movement, and the river incises in all basins in the whole catchment until reaching a new equilibrium state. Then, the downstream basin subsides quickly and the equilibrium state is broken again, and the river incises at upstream basins while the river accumulates at the subsidence basin quickly until approaching a new equilibrium state again. Finally, the river incises in the whole catchment because of climatic change and/or tectonic movement and the accumulation terrace is formed at the subsidence basin while the erosion terrace is formed at other basins. The existence of the accumulation terrace implied the tectonic subsidence in the sub-basins in Huang Shui catchment. These tectonic subsidence movements gradually developed from the downstream Minhe Basin to the upstream Huangyuan Basin. Dating the terrace sequence has potential to uncover the relationship between the subsidence in the catchment and the regional tectonic at the northeastern Tibetan Plateau.

Abstract:Mushroom Mountain karren with predominantly flat tops that formed along the stylolites and bedding planes dictated the special features of this karst landscape. Their features and rock relief clearly reflect the geological conditions and development. The subsoil karren with conical tops dissected by subsoil rock relief were exposed from beneath the soil. Below tree vegetation, the subsoil karren are to a great extent covered by moss and lichen, under which they acquire their characteristic shape. On the bare surface they were reshaped by rainwater that carves flutes and solution pans. The old cave that opens below the top of one of the cones reveals the period before its dissection into hills and cones when this part of the karst aquifer was still deep under the water table.

Abstract:The Ordos Cretaceous Groundwater Basin, located in an arid-semiarid area in northwestern China, is a large-style groundwater basin. SO42? is one of the major harmful components in groundwater. Dissolved SO42? concentrations, and δ34S-SO42? and δ18O-SO42? in groundwater from 14 boreholes and in gypsum from aquifer were analyzed. Results show that SO42? in shallow groundwaters originates from precipitation, sulfide oxidation, and dissolution of stratum sulphate, with a big range of δ34S values, from ?10.7‰ to 9.2‰, and addition of SO42? in deep groundwater results from dissolution of stratum sulphate, with bigger δ34S values, from 7.8‰ to 18.5‰, compared with those in shallow groundwater. This research also indicates that three types of sulphate are present in the strata, and characterized by high δ34S values and high δ18O values-style, high δ34S values and middle δ18O values-style, middle δ34S values and low δ18O values-style, respectively. The δ34S-SO42? and δ18O-SO42? in groundwater have a good perspective for application in distinguishing different groundwater systems and determining groundwater circulation and evolution in this area.