A giant sauropod dinosaur from an Upper Cretaceous mangrove deposit in Egypt

We describe a giant titanosaurid sauropod dinosaur discovered in coastal deposits in the Upper Cretaceous Bahariya Formation of Egypt, a unit that has produced three Tyrannosaurus-sized theropods and numerous other vertebrate taxa. Paralititan stromeri is the first tetrapod reported from Bahariya since 1935. Its 1.69-meter-long humerus is longer than that of any known Cretaceous sauropod. The autochthonous scavenged skeleton was preserved in mangrove deposits, raising the possibility that titanosaurids and their predators habitually entered such environments.     

The age of the Sahara desert

In the Sahara region, the age of onset of the desert condition has been uncertain until now. Here we report on the discovery of 7,000,000-year-old eolian dune deposits from the northern Chad Basin. This geological archive is the oldest known evidence for desert occurrence in the Sahara.     

Fallout of pyroclastic debris from submarine volcanic eruptions

Volcanic fallout deposits on land, being widespread and accessible for study, have received much attention and have revealed a great deal about subaerial eruption mechanisms. In contrast, virtually nothing is known about equivalent deposits produced by submarine volcanoes, despite the probable abundance of such material in today's oceans and in accreted volcanic arc terrains. Many submarine deposits may form by the fallout of debris to the sea floor downcurrent from the umbrella region of submarine eruption columns. Experiments on water-saturated pumice and pieces of rock (lithics) show that particles settling to the sea floor at terminal velocities of 10 to 50 centimeters per second will display conspicuous bimodality of particle diameters: pieces of pumice may be five to ten times as large as codeposited lithic fragments. Similar material, erupted into the air and deposited on land, displays less well-developed bimodality; pumice diameters are generally two to three times as large as associated lithics. Submarine fallout deposits are therefore distinctive and may be used to indicate a subaqueous origin for some of the great thicknesses of nonfossiliferous volcanic debris contained in ancient volcanic terrains worldwide whose environment of deposition has been uncertain.     

湖北中晚更新世沉积物母质上土壤某些特性的比较

在湖北省中晚更新世沉积母质发育的土壤上,观察了6个代表性剖面。并以黄土母质上发育的褐土作为对照,分层取样进行了某些土壤性质的测定。以此分析两种母质上形成的土壤的异同点。两种土壤共同的特征是全剖面质地粘重,粉粘比小。中更新世沉积物上发育的土壤,其盐基指数低于晚更新世沉积物上发育的土壤。而分解系数则相反。中更新世沉积物形成的棕红壤,其粘土矿物以高岭石、水云母为主;晚更新世沉积物形成的黄棕壤,黄褐土,粘土矿物以水云母、蛭石为主,高岭石次之。后者处于脱硅的初级阶段,前者则呈明显的脱硅现象,且土壤中存在的无定形硅前者约为后者的两倍。     

Fossil birds from the hawaiian islands: evidence for wholesale extinction by man before Western contact

Thousands of fossil bird bones from the Hawaiian Islands collected since 1971 include remains of at least 39 species of land birds that are not known to have survived into the historic period; this more than doubles the number of endemic species of land birds previously known from the main islands. Bones were found in deposits of late Quaternary age; most are Holocene and many are contemporaneous with Polynesian culture. The loss of species of birds appears to be due to predation and destruction of lowland habitats by humans before the arrival of Europeans. Because the historically known fauna and flora of the Hawaiian Islands represent only afraction of natural species diversity, biogeographical inferences about natural processes based only on historically known taxa may be misleading or incorrect.     

国产农用喷雾器喷头性能参数测定与分析

本文介绍了国产喷雾器喷头的几个主要性能参数与国外著名喷头公司产品的对比结果、并提出了改进我国喷头产品的若干建议。如:1.影响侧向进液式喷头喷量变异的因素。2.缝隙式扇雾喷头药液沉积横向分布中的牛角、对喷杆式喷雾器药液沉积分布均匀性有着极坏的影响。     

Radar sounding of the Medusae Fossae Formation Mars: equatorial ice or dry, low-density deposits?

The equatorial Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF) is enigmatic and perhaps among the youngest geologic deposits on Mars. They are thought to be composed of volcanic ash, eolian sediments, or an ice-rich material analogous to polar layered deposits. The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument aboard the Mars Express Spacecraft has detected nadir echoes offset in time-delay from the surface return in orbits over MFF material. These echoes are interpreted to be from the subsurface interface between the MFF material and the underlying terrain. The delay time between the MFF surface and subsurface echoes is consistent with massive deposits emplaced on generally planar lowlands materials with a real dielectric constant of approximately 2.9 +/- 0.4. The real dielectric constant and the estimated dielectric losses are consistent with a substantial component of water ice. However, an anomalously low-density, ice-poor material cannot be ruled out. If ice-rich, the MFF must have a higher percentage of dust and sand than polar layered deposits. The volume of water in an ice-rich MFF deposit would be comparable to that of the south polar layered deposits.     

Carbonate inhibits the crystallization of aluminum hydroxide in bauxite

Although the role of anions such as nitrate, chloride, and sulfate in inhibiting the crystallization of aluminum hydroxide in soils and geological deposits is generally accepted, the dramatic effect of the carbonate ion in maintaining aluminum hydroxide gel in the amorphous form has been overlooked by most earth scientists. Examination of bauxite occurrences suggests that the inhibiting effect of carbonate is quite apparent in the smaller grain size of gibbsite in karstic bauxite deposits as compared to that in lateritic bauxite. Scarbr?ite, a crystalline aluminum hydroxy carbonate, has been observed in rare instances. It is suggested that the highly reactive carbonate-containing aluminum hydroxide gels used as pharmaceutical antacids are amorphous or poorly crystalline forms of scarbr?ite. The effect of the sulfate anion is also apparent in certain bauxite deposits where dissolution of gibbsite by sulfuric acid has resulted from the oxidation of pyrite, with subsequent reprecipitation of gibbsite.     

Fracture-controlled paleo-fluid flow in Candor Chasma, Mars

Color observations from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal zones of localized fluid alteration (cementation and bleaching) along joints within layered deposits in western Candor Chasma, Mars. This fluid alteration occurred within the subsurface in the geologic past and has been exposed at the surface through subsequent erosion. These findings demonstrate that fluid flow along fractures was a mechanism by which subsurface fluids migrated through these layered deposits. Fractured layered deposits are thus promising sites for investigating the geologic history of water on Mars.     

Podocarpus from the eocene of north america

A few leafy gymnosperm shoots were found in Eocene deposits of southeastern North America. Similar fossil material from Tertiary deposits in North America has been identified as Taxodium, Taxites, and Sequoia. This new fossil material is not related to these genera but belongs to Podocarpus section Stachycarpus. This is the first fossil record of this section in North America.     

Amber with Insect and Plant Inclusions from the Dominican Republic

An amber-bearing formation observed in the Dominican Republic in 1959 is described, and several insect orders, spiders, and plants found in amber are noted. An amber trace is recorded for Haiti, and the known fossil-bearing amber deposits or sites in the New World are summarized.     

Ancient impact and aqueous processes at Endeavour Crater, Mars

The rover Opportunity has investigated the rim of Endeavour Crater, a large ancient impact crater on Mars. Basaltic breccias produced by the impact form the rim deposits, with stratigraphy similar to that observed at similar-sized craters on Earth. Highly localized zinc enrichments in some breccia materials suggest hydrothermal alteration of rim deposits. Gypsum-rich veins cut sedimentary rocks adjacent to the crater rim. The gypsum was precipitated from low-temperature aqueous fluids flowing upward from the ancient materials of the rim, leading temporarily to potentially habitable conditions and providing some of the waters involved in formation of the ubiquitous sulfate-rich sandstones of the Meridiani region.     

Density of Mars' south polar layered deposits

Both poles of Mars are hidden beneath caps of layered ice. We calculated the density of the south polar layered deposits by combining the gravity field obtained from initial results of radio tracking of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter with existing surface topography from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft and basal topography from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding on the Mars Express spacecraft. The results indicate a best-fit density of 1220 kilograms per cubic meter, which is consistent with water ice that has approximately 15% admixed dust. The results demonstrate that the deposits are probably composed of relatively clean water ice and also refine the martian surface-water inventory.     

A close-up look at Io from Galileo's near-infrared mapping spectrometer

Infrared spectral images of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io, acquired during the October and November 1999 and February 2000 flybys of the Galileo spacecraft, were used to study the thermal structure and sulfur dioxide distribution of active volcanoes. Loki Patera, the solar system's most powerful known volcano, exhibits large expanses of dark, cooling lava on its caldera floor. Prometheus, the site of long-lived plume activity, has two major areas of thermal emission, which support ideas of plume migration. Sulfur dioxide deposits were mapped at local scales and show a more complex relationship to surface colors than previously thought, indicating the presence of other sulfur compounds.     

Radar soundings of the subsurface of Mars

The martian subsurface has been probed to kilometer depths by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding instrument aboard the Mars Express orbiter. Signals penetrate the polar layered deposits, probably imaging the base of the deposits. Data from the northern lowlands of Chryse Planitia have revealed a shallowly buried quasi-circular structure about 250 kilometers in diameter that is interpreted to be an impact basin. In addition, a planar reflector associated with the basin structure may indicate the presence of a low-loss deposit that is more than 1 kilometer thick.     

Hydrous sodium silicates from lake magadi, kenya: precursors of bedded chert

Two new hydrous sodium silicates, NaSi(7)O(13)(OH)(3).3H(2)O (magadiite) and NaSi(11)O(20.5)(OH)(4).3H(2)O (kenyaite), were found in lake beds at Lake Magadi, Kenya. Both are well-crystallized layered silicates with large basal spacings. Concretions within the magadiite bed consist of kenyaite or quartz (chert) in the center, surrounded by kenyaite. In dilute acids magadiite and kenyaite are converted to 6SiO(2).H(2)O (SH), the first known crystalline hydrate of silica. The magadiite bed probably represents a chemical precipitate from alkaline brines. Percolating waters convert magadiite to kenyaite and eventually to chert. Thus a mechanism has been outlined for the formation of bedded chert deposits through inorganic precipitation. Alternations between silica-rich and iron-rich bands of iron formations may be due to concentration cycles in alkaline lakes.     

A late Triassic impact ejecta layer in southwestern Britain

Despite the 160 or so known terrestrial impact craters of Phanerozoic age, equivalent ejecta deposits within distal sedimentary successions are rare. We report a Triassic deposit in southwestern Britain that contains spherules and shocked quartz, characteristic of an impact ejecta layer. Inter- and intragranular potassium feldspar from the deposit yields an argon-argon age of 214 +/- 2.5 million years old. This is within the age range of several known Triassic impact craters, the two closest of which, both in age and location, are Manicouagan in northeastern Canada and Rochechouart in central France. The ejecta deposit provides an important sedimentary record of an extraterrestrial impact in the Mesozoic that will help to decipher the number and effect of impact events, the source and dynamics of the event that left this distinctive sedimentary marker, and the relation of this ejecta layer to the timing of extinctions in the fossil record.     

Galapagos hydrothermal mounds: stratigraphy and chemistry revealed by deep-sea drilling

The Galápagos mounds sea-floor hydrothermal system is at least 300,000 years old and once produced manganese-poor sediments, which nearly blanketed the area of the present mounds field. Present-day mound deposits are limited manganese-rich exposures, suggesting that the system has changed from rock-to water-dominated and has diminished in intensity with time.     

Direct radiometric dating of hydrocarbon deposits using rhenium-osmium isotopes

Rhenium-osmium (Re-Os) data from migrated hydrocarbons establish the timing of petroleum emplacement for the giant oil sand deposits of Alberta, Canada, at 112 +/- 5.3 million years ago. This date does not support models that invoke oil generation and migration for these deposits in the Late Cretaceous. Most Re-Os data from a variety of deposits within the giant hydrocarbon system show similar characteristics, supporting the notion of a single source for these hydrocarbons. The Re-Os data disqualify Cretaceous rocks as the primary hydrocarbon source but suggest an origin from older source rocks. This approach should be applicable to dating oil deposits worldwide.     

Proximal cretaceous-tertiary boundary impact deposits in the Caribbean

Trace element, isotopic, and mineralogic studies indicate that the proposed impact at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary occurred in an ocean basin, although a minor component of continental material is required. The size and abundance of shocked minerals and the restricted geographic occurrence of the ejecta layer and impact-wave deposits suggest an impact between the Americas. Coarse boundary sediments at sites 151 and 153 in the Colombian Basin and 5- to 450-meter-thick boundary sediments in Cuba may be deposits of a giant wave produced by a nearby oceanic impact. On the southern peninsula of Haiti, a approximately 50-centimeter-thick ejecta layer occurs at the K-T boundary. This ejecta layer is approximately 25 times as thick as that at any known K-T site and suggests an impact site within approximately 1000 kilometers. Seismic reflection profiles suggest that a buried approximately 300-km-diameter candidate structure occurs in the Colombian Basin.