Palinostratigraphy of glaciomarine and marine sedimentsof the Barents Sea

By combining the palynologic, lithologic and published geophysical data a stratigraphic division into three main sedimentary units representing major stages in the development of post-glacial sedimentary environments in the southeastern and central parts of the Barents Sea has been substantiated. Unit 3 presumably characterizes proglacial environments of the early deglaciation (tentatively older than 15 ka) and is represented by relatively fine-grained, dark grey sediment matrix with numerous coarse terrigenous clasts. The unit contains low in diversity and concentration pollen assemblage, which is dominated by reworked, mostly Mesozoic pollen and sparse dinocysts of a cryophylic species Islandinium var. minutum. Unit 2 represents later deglacial conditions (estimated ca 12-15 ka) and is composed of finely laminated, grey to brownish sandy/silty muds with coarse clasts interpreted as iceberg-rafted debris. It is characterized by pollen assemblage zone with a low concentration of plant remains, a significant proportion of reworked pre-Cenozoic microfossils and club mosses among spores as well as a high percentage of dwarfBetula, Poaceae and Artemisia Islandinium var. minutum dominates among the aquatic palynomorphs. Unit 1, younger than ca 12 ka, is composed of soft, olive-grey mud with traces of bioturbations and spots of hydrotroilite at the top or sandy-silty mud within the South-Novozemelskii Trough and sand with inclusions of pebbles and broken shells within the Kanin Plateau. Three pollen assemblage zones correspond to it. They are marked by a high percentage of birch and pine pollen, an increased share of pollen of spruce and alder, as well as Sphagnum mosses and ferns. Constant presence of sparse pollen of broad-leaved plants in combination with peak values of Operculodinium centrocarpum and Spiniferites sp. testify the enhancement of Atlantic water influence upon the studied regions.

The Vendian–Cambrian Cyclometric Stratigraphic Scale for the Southern and Central Siberian Platform

—The general Vendian stratigraphic scale of Siberia, with the uncertain age of the Vendian base ranging from 600 to 630– 640 Ma in most of recent publications, remains worse constrained than the Cambrian scale, in which the boundaries of epochs and stages have been well defined. However, the imperfect classical stratigraphic division has been compensated by data on the cyclicity of the Vendian–Cambrian sedimentary section. The Vendian stratigraphy of the Siberian Platform and the related deposition history with cycles of sedimentation and gaps, as well as the hierarchy of sedimentation processes, can be inferred from the succession of alternating clastic, carbonate, and salt units. The cyclicity of geologic processes and their recurrence are attributed to periodic oscillatory motions of the crust. The ranks of these motions correlate with the cyclicity of sedimentary strata, including regocyclites, nexocyclites, and halcyclites separated by gaps. Each Vendian long-period oscillatory motion begins with a regocyclite and ends with a regional-scale gap. The Cambrian section includes one pre-Mayan regional gap at the end of the early Cambrian long-period cycle. Cambrian regocyclites are composed of carbonate subformations and formations in the lower part and alternating salt and carbonate beds in the upper part.

Geology of southeastern Barbados

ABSTRACT This chapter presents geological documentation of Quaternary (and perhaps older) event histories of southeastern Barbados. The Barbados Limestone is herein formally defined. A time-stratigraphic division of the Barbados Limestone in southeastern Barbados and the properties of the stratigraphic units are presented. A major finding of this study is that the marine terraces originated wholly by marine erosion, not by reef construction, and evolved in stages over a long duration. The hydrology and thickness data of the Barbados Limestone are discussed, and hypotheses on causes of thickness variations are given. The study domain is divided into seven areas that contain a continuous flight of nine marine terraces preserved in various partial sequences. Discussions of these key seven areas in southeastern Barbados are supported by geologic maps at large scale and cross sections. Sections with VE > 1 display limestone stratigraphy and facies over relatively large lengths. Sections with VE = 1 show true structural configurations over short lengths. Detailed observations and radioisotopic dating of the limestone units permit differentiation and correlation among them.

The Shirokoe Place as a reference section of the upper Visean substage in the Upper Pechora basin (Unya river, Northern Urals)

Research subject. Carbonate rocks in the “Shirokoe Place” section (Unya River, Northern Urals). Material and methods. The work was based on a study of the composition and structural peculiarities of rocks and species diversities of forami- nifera and calcareous algae in the most important section of Upper Visean sediments in the lower reaches of the Unya river.Results. The rocks in the section are represented by bioclastic limestones, dolomites and various transition differences. The section features a wide presence of green Koninckopora, red Epistacheoides and Ungdarella algae. Less common are Palaeoberesella, Anthracoporella, Kamaena and Stacheoides. Fasciella is extremely rare, and Calcifolium is virtually absent. Foraminifera complexes are representative, but there are no zonal species Eostaffella tenebrosa (Venevsky horizon), genera Valvulinella (Tula horizon), Bradyina and Howchinia (Mikhailovsky and Venevsky horizons). Endothyranopsis, Janischewskina and Cribrospira are rare.Conclusions. The study of the species diversity of foraminifera and calcareous algae allowed us to clarify the stratigraphic division of the upper Visean sediments in the “Shirokoe Place” section. The Tula, Aleksinsky, Mikhailovsky and Venevsky horizons of the Upper Visean were reliably identified. The studied section can be used as a reference when creating stratigraphic schemes of Later Visean deposits for the Western subzone of the Upper Pechora transverse sinking of the Western folded zone of the Urals and adjacent areas of the PreUrals regional trough.

MESOZOIC RADIOLARIANS FROM RHYTHMICALLY LAYERED SEDIMENTS OF THE RIMSKY-KORSAKOV ISLANDS (PETER THE GREAT BAY, JAPAN SEA) AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE FOR DETERMINING THE TRIASSIC-JURASSIC BOUNDARY

The results of the biostratigraphic study based on the radiolarian analysis of the rhythmically layered terrigenous deposits from the Islands of the Rimsky-Korsakov Archipelago (Peter the Great Bay, Japan Sea) have been presented. These deposits are most similar to the medium-grained turbidites. For the first time the distribution and stratigraphic division of the boundary sediments of the upper Triassic and lower Jurassic separated by a marking layer were substantiated in the research area. On the basis of comparisons with isochronous zonal units of the Pacific and Tethyan areas in the upper Triassic sediments of the studied sections, layers with Globolaxtorum tozeri (upper Rhaetian) were established, and in the lower Jurassic zone Pantanellium tanuense Zone (Hettangian) was traced and layers with Parahsuum simplum (Sinemurian – Pliensbachian) were established.

Rock Location and Property Analysis of Lunar Regolith at Chang’E-4 Landing Site Based on Local Correlation and Semblance Analysis

The Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) onboard the Yutu-2 rover from China’s Chang’E-4 (CE-4) mission is used to probe the subsurface structure and the near-surface stratigraphic structure of the lunar regolith on the farside of the Moon. Structural analysis of regolith could provide abundant information on the formation and evolution of the Moon, in which the rock location and property analysis are the key procedures during the interpretation of LPR data. The subsurface velocity of electromagnetic waves is a vital parameter for stratigraphic division, rock location estimates, and calculating the rock properties in the interpretation of LPR data. In this paper, we propose a procedure that combines the regolith rock extraction technique based on local correlation between the two sets of LPR high-frequency channel data and the common offset semblance analysis to determine the velocity from LPR diffraction hyperbola. We consider the heterogeneity of the regolith and derive the relative permittivity distribution based on the rock extraction and semblance analysis. The numerical simulation results show that the procedure is able to obtain the high-precision position and properties of the rock. Furthermore, we apply this procedure to CE-4 LPR data and obtain preferable estimations of the rock locations and the properties of the lunar subsurface regolith.