The stratigraphical signature of the Anthropocene in England and its wider context     

Jan Zalasiewicz  Colin Waters  Mark Williams  David C. Aldridge  Ian P. Wilkinson 《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2018,129(3):482-491

The Anthropocene deposits of England, here regarded as those formed after ～1950 CE, are now extensive, take various forms, and may be characterized and recognized by a number of stratigraphic signals, such as artificial radionuclides, pesticide residues, microplastics, enhanced fly ash levels, concrete fragments and a novel variety of ‘technofossils’ and neobiotic species. They include the uppermost parts of both ‘natural’ deposits such as the sediment layers formed in lakes and estuaries, and more directly human-made or human-influenced ones such as landfill deposits and the ‘artificial ground’ beneath urban areas and around major constructions. ‘Negative deposits’ include the worked areas of quarries and regions such as the English Fenland, where thick peat deposits have ablated to leave a strongly modified underlying landscape, and extend beneath into the subterranean realm as mine workings, metro systems and boreholes. The production of these is still rapidly increasing and evolving in character, while the early signs of global change, such as warming, sea level rise, and modifications to biotic assemblages, are beginning to further modify the emerging geology of this new phase of Earth history.  相似文献   

Reading the Rocks: How Victorian Geologists Discovered the Secret of Life,Brenda Maddox,Bloomsbury, London (2017), xii+254 pp., Hbk., ISBN: 978-1-4088-7958-0. UK£20.00     

Stephen K. Donovan 《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2018,129(1):92

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The Quaternary Landscape History of Teesdale and the North Pennines: Field Guide. Evans,D.J.A. (ed.). Quaternary Research Association,London (2017). Price: £24.00, ISBN: 0907780253     

Derek A. Teasdale 《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2018,129(2):241-242

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A Monograph of the Fossil Reptilia of the Mesozoic Formations (reprint), Richard Owen,Cambridge University Press,Cambridge (2015), 97 pp. (Paperback,ISBN 978-1-108-08134-4, UK£ 19.99)     

Eric W.A. Mulder 《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2018,129(2):243

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The Neogene and Quaternary of England: landscape evolution,tectonics, climate change and their expression in the geological record     

Jonathan R. Lee  Ian Candy  Richard Haslam 《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2018,129(3):452-481

During the Neogene and Quaternary, tectonic and climatic processes have had a profound impact upon landscape evolution in England and, perhaps as far back as 0.9 Ma, patterns of early human occupation. Until the Late Miocene, large-scale plate tectonic processes were the principal drivers of landscape evolution causing localised basin inversion and widespread exhumation. This drove, in places, the erosion of several kilometres of Mesozoic cover rocks and the development of a regional unconformity across England and the North Sea Basin. By the Pliocene, the relative influence of tectonics on landscape evolution waned as the background tectonic stress regime evolved and climatic influences became more prominent. Global-scale climate-forcing increased step-wise during the Plio-Pleistocene amplifying erosional and depositional processes that operated within the landscape. These processes caused differential unloading (uplift) and loading (subsidence) of the crust (‘denudational isostasy’) in areas undergoing net erosion (upland areas and slopes) and deposition (basins). Denudational isostasy amplified during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (c.0.9 Ma) as landscapes become progressively synchronised to large-scale 100 ka ‘eccentricity’ climate forcing. Over the past 0.5 Ma, this has led to the establishment of a robust climate record of individual glacial/interglacial cycles enabling comparison to other regional and global records. During the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition and early Holocene (c.16–7 ka), evidence for more abrupt (millennial/centennial) scale climatic events has been discovered. This indicates that superimposed upon the longer-term pattern of landscape evolution is a more dynamic response of the landscape to local and regional drivers.  相似文献   

A Rhaetian microvertebrate fauna from Stowey Quarry,Somerset, U.K.     

Iacopo Cavicchini  H. Cecilia Heyworth  Christopher J. Duffin  Claudia Hildebrandt  Michael J. Benton 《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2018,129(2):144-158

Rhaetian bone beds have been described from many locations in south-west England, around Bristol. One site that has never been reported is Stowey Quarry, some 13?km south of Bristol. This quarry yielded Lias, and revealed thin Rhaetian units in the quarry floor, including two bone beds, the basal Rhaetian bone bed, and a second, higher bone bed, also within the Westbury Formation. The fossil fauna of both includes elements typical of Rhaetian bone beds elsewhere, but showing differences in faunal composition between the two. The basal bone bed yielded more specimens and more species, with three taxa (Sargodon tomicus, Rhomphaiodon minor and Hybodus cloacinus) exclusive to this bed and eleven identified in total. Severnichthys acuminatus accounts for more than 50% of the countable teeth from the basal bone bed, followed by Gyrolepis albertii with 20%, Lissodus minimus with 14% and Rhomphaiodon minor with 9%. The basal bone bed, as ever, is dominated by chondrichthyans, whereas the upper bone bed is dominated by osteichthyans, which form 90% of the non-dental remains. The only unique taxon is Dapedium, and Gyrolepis albertii is the most abundant species with 45% of countable teeth, followed by Severnichthys acuminatus with 38% and Duffinselache holwellensis with 11%. These faunal differences, and the equally good condition of specimens between both samples confirms that the upper bone bed is independent of the basal bone bed, and is not a reworked subsample.  相似文献   

Plant assemblage from Opole,southern Poland: New data on Late Cretaceous vegetation of the northern part of the European Province     

Bartosz J. Płachno  Agata Jurkowska  Grzegorz Pacyna  Elżbieta Worobiec  Przemysław Gedl  Ewa Świerczewska-Gładysz 《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2018,129(2):159-170

This paper presents the results of studies on plant macroremains found in the upper Turonian of the Folwark Quarry, Opole, Poland, associated with palynological studies of the host rocks. In addition to a few macrofossils (gymnosperm wood, conifer Geinitzia reichenbachii and fern ?Didymosorus) rich sporomorphs (bryophyte, lycopod and fern spores, conifer and angiosperm pollen grains) and marine palynomorphs (mainly dinoflagellate cysts) were recorded. The palynological analysis revealed that the vegetation on the neighbouring land (the East Sudetic Island) in the late Turonian was much more diverse than could be reconstructed based on only macrofossil remains. The latter are taxonomically restricted and dominated by one gymnosperm species (Geinitzia reichenbachii), which make them similar to most neighbouring, coeval Central European assemblages. Its over representation is, thus, a result of taphonomy.  相似文献   

Periglacial Geomorphology,Wiley-Blackwell,Chichester (2018), 454 pp, £60.00 (paperback), ISBN 9781405100069     

John F. Hiemstra 《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2018,129(2):251-252

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Deformations and Manifestations of Degassing in the Sedimentary Cover of the Equatorial Segment of the West Atlantic: Implications for Lithospheric Geodynamics     

S.?Yu.?SokolovEmail author  A.?O.?Mazarovich  N.?N.?Turko  K.?O.?Dobrolyubova  A.?S.?Abramova  Yu.?A.?Zaraiskaya  E.?A.?Moroz 《Geotectonics》2018,52(4):401-420

Manifestations of fluids and deformations in the sedimentary cover, which are both factors of brightening (blanking anomalies) in seismoacoustic records, in the equatorial segment of the Atlantic coincide with the sublatitudinal zones of the activated passive parts of transform faults and with zones of lower gravity anomalies and higher values of remnant magnetization, which form as a result of serpentinization. The cause-and-effect sequence of intraplate phenomena includes: the contrasting geodynamic state → horizontal movements that form macrofractures → water supply to the upper mantle → serpentinization of rocks in the upper mantle → deformations associated with vertical uplift of basement and sedimentary cover blocks, coupled with fluid generation → and fluid accumulation in the sedimentary cover, accompanied by the formation of anomalies in seismoacoustic records. Based on the seismic data, we have identified imbricate-thrust deformations, diapir structures, stamp folds, and positive and negative flower structures, indicating the presence of strike-slip faults in the passive parts of transform faults. The general spatial distribution of deformation structures shows their concentration in cold mantle zones. Correlative comparison of the structural characteristics of deformations shows the direct relationship between the heights of structures and the development of serpentinization processes. As per the age of the basement, deformations range from 27–38 to 43–53 Ma; a quite thick sedimentary cover makes it possible to reveal them based on the characteristic types of seismoacoustic records. The formation of the Antilles arc ca. 10 Ma ago affected the equatorial segment of the Atlantic; it formed kink bands where lithospheric blocks underwent displacements with counterclockwise rotations, deformations related to compression and vertical uplift of crustal fragments, and local extension that favored degassing of endogenous fluids. Sublatitudinally oriented imbricate-thrust deformations with different vergences indicate irregularity and alternating strike-slip directions as blocks between fractures were laterally influenced.  相似文献   

The terrestrial fauna of the Late Triassic Pant-y-ffynnon Quarry fissures,South Wales,UK and a new species of Clevosaurus (Lepidosauria: Rhynchocephalia)     

Emily Keeble  David I. Whiteside  Michael J. Benton 《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2018,129(2):99-119

Pant-y-ffynnon Quarry in South Wales yielded a rich cache of fossils in the early 1950s, including articulated specimens of new species (the small sauropodomorph dinosaur Pantydraco caducus and the crocodylomorph Terrestrisuchus gracilis), but no substantial study of the wider fauna of the Pant-y-ffynnon fissure systems has been published. Here, our overview of existing specimens, a few described but mostly undescribed, as well as freshly processed material, provides a comprehensive picture of the Pant-y-ffynnon palaeo-island of the Late Triassic. This was an island with a relatively impoverished fauna dominated by small clevosaurs (rhynchocephalians), including a new species, Clevosaurus cambrica, described here from a partially articulated specimen and isolated bones. The new species has a dental morphology that is intermediate between the Late Triassic Clevosaurus hudsoni, from Cromhall Quarry to the east, and the younger C. convallis from Pant Quarry to the west, suggesting adaptive radiation of clevosaurs in the palaeo-archipelago. The larger reptiles on the palaeo-island do not exceed 1.5?m in length, including a small carnivorous crocodylomorph, Terrestrisuchus, and a possible example of insular dwarfism in the basal dinosaur Pantydraco.  相似文献