Climate change in the Asian interior during the early Cenozoic remains poorly constrained due to difficulties in distinguishing the impacts of global cooling, the early uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and the retreat of the Paratethys. A quantitative estimation of paleolake salinity enables a better understanding of the regional hydrological cycle and contemporaneous climate change. Here, we present

Long-term changes in flood activity have often been reconstructed to understand their relationships to climate changes. This requires identification of flood layers according to certain characteristics (e.g., texture, geochemical composition, grain-size) and then to count them using naked-eye observation. This method is, however, time-consuming, and intrinsically characterized by a low resolution that

Stromatolites have been a major focus in the search for ancient microbial life, however, the organic carbon biosignatures of dolomitized stromatolites have not yet been fully characterized or correlated with their dolomitizing conditions. Although dolomitization rarely preserves microbial morphology, the presence of organic carbon can provide valuable information for characterization of fossils' biogenicity

The Sakmarian–Kungurian (Early Permian) carbonate mounds of the Amushan Formation of the Deyanqimiao section in eastern Inner Mongolia, North China comprise phylloid algae-echinoderm mound, fusulinid-echinoderm mound and echinoderm mound. They were constructed by repeating the following steps in the mid-ramp and outer ramp environments: 1) skeletal grains accumulated in situ, or after short-distance

Peritidal carbonate-evaporite successions, since they are developed in the transition between continental and marine realms, provide essential keys for palaeobathymetric and palaeoclimatic interpretations. As a result, several facies models have been proposed to assist on the interpretation of ancient tidal flat deposits, and peritidal successions have been extensively used for cyclicity analyses.

The expansion of ice sheets over soft, sandy substrates was widespread in the Early Palaeozoic, during the Late Ordovician glaciation of North Africa and Arabia. Similarly, large parts of southern Africa were glaciated by soft bedded ice sheets in the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age. An unanswered question is the extent to which subglacial deformation involved the passive recycling of unconsolidated materials

The carbonate rocks of the Ordovician Majiagou Formation from the northwestern part of Henan Province and their diverse trace fossils provide an outcrop analogue for bioturbated, low porosity and low permeability carbonate reservoirs. Three ichnofabrics can be defined based on the ichnotaxonomy, ichnodiversities, individual abundances and overall bioturbation indices. The Balanoglossites ichnofabric

Manchuriophycus-like elliptical cracks are found in thin mudstone layers and lenses intercalated with wave-rippled lacustrine sandstone beds of the Lower Cretaceous Jinju Formation, South Korea. The cracks are interpreted as intrastratal shrinkage cracks formed by liquidization and injection of sand, hydroplastic deformation of mud, and concomitant dewatering of the sediments in water-saturated conditions

This article presents a series of stratigraphic forward simulations of deep lacustrine sedimentary fills of continental multi-segment rift basins. These models integrate basin filling with the evolution of the extrabasinal catchment area, and relate tectonism and precipitation fluctuations to changes in lake level and sediment supply. The models reproduce the physical processes acting on the whole

The history of the East Asian monsoon and the relationship between the development of the monsoon climate, tectonics and global climate are complicated and controversial. Earlier studies have indicated that the East Asian monsoon fluctuated in the Asian interior during the Pliocene. Thus, the chemical weathering record in coastal regions of East Asia can be the key to elucidating its evolution as well

We conducted flume experiments to examine the effects of grain size on the distribution of tsunami deposits, using well-sorted quartz sand with median diameters (D50) of 0.064, 0.134, 0.215, and 0.250 mm. In these experiments, we investigated deposits transported onto a flat terrestrial area by a single tsunami-like bore without a strong backwash flow. The post-tsunami distributions of the coarser

Understanding the spatial-temporal pattern of sedimentary dynamics on tidal flats is important for examining their ecological function and evolutionary trend. In this study, the dynamic state of sediments across an open-coast tidal flat of the meso-tidal Changjiang Estuary, China, on a monthly scale from December 2014 to June 2016 was examined, based on a high-spatial-resolution sedimentological-topographic

Three sedimentary sequences from a coastal wetland behind a sand barrier, on the west coast of d'Urville Island, New Zealand, were examined using a multi-proxy approach, including sedimentological, geochemical and microfossil (diatom) analyses, with the chronology established using radiocarbon and 210Pb dating. Data show that a brackish lagoon started developing 7300 year ago after formation of the

The hydrodynamic impact contributes to the initiation of subaerial boulder transport by tsunamis and tsunami-like flows. Here, we consider two approaches to modelling this impact force—hydrostatic and hydrodynamic—and assess the suitability of each in boulder transport models. The model proposed, solved as an ordinary differential equation, eliminates the need to assume a conservative value of flow

The ability to trace and quantify sediment provenance in northwestern Patagonia is increasingly needed to properly understand modern sediment erosion and transport processes in this rapidly changing environment, and to accurately interpret sediment records from adjacent basins in terms of climate and environmental change. Nonetheless, no study so far has systematically evaluated the effectiveness of

Large carbonate microbialite build-ups are relatively uncommon in ancient fresh-water lacustrine basins as compared with those marine and saline environments. This paper discusses the formation of a large continental lacustrine deposit, the Oligocene-Miocene Carinao Formation in Argentina, which contains large bioherms. The lacustrine formation occurs in N-S corridor and is mostly composed by meter

We examined the effect of the coastal forest on tsunami sediment movement on the Sendai Plain, Japan, during the 2011 Tohoku tsunami using a numerical simulation of sediment transport. To account for the variable roughness coefficient in the coastal forest, a composite equivalent roughness coefficient was adopted. The simulated mean concentration of suspended sediment, wave height, flow velocity, and

Understanding the variability of depositional environment and depositional processes of the Late Permian Kuishan Member, North China Craton, is crucial for unraveling the evolution of sedimentary basin and epicontinental sea in Shandong tectonic domain. The Kuishan Member in the Eastern Block of the North China Craton, formed in association with general regression of an epicontinental sea, is composed

The Sines Contourite Drift (SCD), located in the Alentejo margin, southwest Iberian continental margin, has been through many depositional phases in result of climatic variations and bottom current oscillations, which determined a variable depositional pattern and an irregular sedimentary evolution since the Late Pleistocene. The SCD, being in the main path of the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW)

Our current knowledge of deep-water depositional systems is mainly built of extensive achievements obtained from marine basins. Although lacustrine basins are important oil & gas productive areas of the world, gravity-induced deposits in these basins are poorly understood in the literature when compared with those documented in marine basins. Based on new insights from 3D seismic data, this paper attempts

Outcrops of Neogene carbonates of the North Brazilian platform occur exclusively along the equatorial coast and represent some of the few existing examples of Neogene carbonate systems of the Atlantic coast of South America. The Pirabas Formation (early-middle Miocene) is the northernmost part of this platform. Although onshore mainly consists of small and scattered outcrops, it considerably extends

The ~125 m thick lower to lowermost upper Sinemurian peritidal to shallow subtidal platform carbonates in the Llevant Mountains of Mallorca (Spain) have been analysed from four stratigraphic sections, to provide new data on the hierarchical stacking pattern of high-frequency depositional sequences. Due to the fact that in shallow water environments the stacking of carbonate facies can be controlled

The Khor Al Adaid embayment of southern Qatar represents a unique shallow-water mixed siliciclastic‑carbonate coastal depositional system that developed in a hyper-arid climatic setting over the past 6000 years. The embayment, which was formed during the Flandrian transgression as a result of flooding across a partially fault-controlled incised fluvial drainage, is supplied by quartz-rich sands delivered

High-resolution sedimentary records reveal the patterns of weathering and erosion in response to climate change, environmental variability, and human activity. Here, we present major and trace element data, SrNd isotopic compositions, and mass accumulation rates (MARs) for the siliciclastic sediment fraction of a relatively high-resolution sedimentary archive from the southern Okinawa Trough, East

Recent advances in laser-ablation inductively coupled-plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) in-situ U-Pb radiometric dating and clumped isotope thermometry (Δ47) of carbonate minerals provide potential for refining the fluid flow and diagenetic history of carbonate successions. In this study, the Middle Permian dolomites proximal to the Longmenshan fold and thrust belt in northwest Sichuan Basin, southwest

Siliceous sinter deposits from El Tatio, Chile, preserve a wide variety of depositional environments and biosignatures, from high-temperature (~85 °C) vent-proximal facies to distal deposits dominated by silicified microbial mats. Four cores were drilled into an El Tatio sinter mound and associated distal apron to investigate changes in hydrothermal environments over geologic timescales. Sedimentary

Karst bauxite deposits represent 11% of the global quantity of bauxite (Bardossy and Aleva, 1990). Karst Bauxite is defined as bauxite deposits overlying carbonate rocks above a more or less karstified surface. Allochtonous karst bauxites result from two successive processes: (1) intense weathering and formation of a lateritic profile, involving the development of bauxitic and duricrust horizons; and

The Olivares Formation, a lower Paleogene unit of the Subbetic Zone in Southern Spain, is mostly composed of calcarenites comprising 60–90% of resedimented Microcodium remains, which are intercalated in hemipelagic marls rich in planktonic foraminifera. Microcodium is formed on the roots of terrestrial plants adapted to live on carbonate-rich substrates, its occurrence in the Olivares Formation entailing

Recent studies suggest that the massive Precambrian dolomite successions were likely the products of specific seawater conditions known as “dolomite seas”. However, whether these so-called “dolomite seas” existed in the terminal Ediacaran ocean has not yet been constrained. The widespread botryoidal dolomite with well-preserved sedimentary fabrics from the Upper Ediacaran Dengying Formation (ca. 551

Understanding the distribution of grain coating minerals in sandstones may be crucial in evaluating the reservoir quality of deeply buried lithologies since they can inhibit syntaxial overgrowth cementation and thus preserve intergranular pore space. In unconsolidated sediments, the presence of clay mineral grain coatings and their coverage are often related to the depositional subenvironment, grain

The low-latitude Marinoan glaciation (635 Ma) record in the southern Amazon Craton has been one of the most important sites with strong evidence for the Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth hypothesis. In Central Brazil, the 50-m-thick carbonate succession of the post-Marinoan cap carbonate exposed in the Tangará da Serra region, Central Brazil, represents a complementary section of the classical occurrence

Soft-sediment deformation structures (SSDS) are an important tool for interpreting paleoseismicity and depositional environments in ancient basin successions. The northwestern margin of Junggar Basin is a key region for understanding the paleogeography and basin attribute of the Junggar Basin during the early Permian. In the Lower Permian (Kungurian) Fengcheng Formation, nine lithofacies are grouped

Clastic sediments provide important clues to the timing and processes of ophiolite emplacement, when integrated into the regional temporal and tectonic framework. Four related settings of Late Cretaceous ophiolite-related clastic sediment deposition are exposed in the SW segment of the Antalya Complex, along the western limb of the Isparta Angle, an orocline in SW Turkey. The restored pre-emplacement

Diagenesis of carbonate minerals is ubiquitous throughout the geologic record. Alteration is initiated immediately after deposition, or takes place in the endo- and exoskeletons as early as during the lifetime of a given carbonate-secreting biota, and can continue throughout the burial history of carbonate sediments and rocks. Variations in the diagenetic response of carbonate archives pose challenges

The extraction of palaeoenvironmental (palaeoclimatic) signals from the chemical composition of siliciclastic sediments is valuable for the reconstruction of past environments, particularly in continental basins. Here we test novel weathering proxies, which are less sensitive to lithological control than the previously used raw element ratios K/Al, K/Ti, and K/Rb: (1) local enrichment factors of K/Al

The Paleogene coal-bearing deposits (Pinghu Formation) of the Xihu Depression form the most productive hydrocarbon source in the East China Sea Shelf Basin. Due to the lack of reliable magnetostratigraphic, paleontologic and geochemical/isotope data, these source rocks are still poorly dated. The absence of a robust time frame results in many disputes on the age and duration of the Pinghu Formation

Glacial strata are excellent stratigraphic markers in Paleozoic basins worldwide. The eastern Parnaíba Basin in northern Brazil is a highly favorable setting for studying episodes related to the Ordovician-Silurian glaciation. Previous studies in this region led to the recognition of unequivocally glaciogenic sediments associated with pre- and postglacial deposits, favoring the understanding of lower

Major climate transitions and perturbations in global carbon cycle are known to have occurred during the Eocene, between 56 and 34 million years ago (Ma). A series of carbon isotope excursions (CIEs) mark variations in the global carbon cycle and changes in climate through early Eocene. Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) ca. 56 Ma is the most pronounced and well documented of these events expressed

Unlike most Neogene basins of the Betic Cordillera where the Salinity Crisis is dated to the Messinian, a contradictory Tortonian dating was proposed for evaporites of the Lorca Basin. As a consequence, complex structural models have been proposed in the literature to explain this discrepancy in the timing of evaporites. In order to integrate the Lorca Basin into the geological context of the western

Genetic and diagenetic processes of travertine were examined at Futamata hot spring, where both active and inactive (subfossil and fossil) travertines are present. Geochemical and geomicrobiological analyses of active travertines reveal that abiotic process of CaCO3 precipitation is predominant. Photosynthetic inhibition of CaCO3 precipitation occurs at the upstream, while the cyanobacterial population

Microbial mats in siliciclastic coastal environments are considered as non-lithifying systems that lack the potential for calcification. This work documents precipitation and preservation of well-defined, laterally continuous carbonate laminae in low-relief microbial mats from a siliciclastic supratidal flat in northern Patagonia (Paso Seco, Argentina). Petrographic, epifluorescence, and SEM-EDS studies

Changes in drainage basin reorganization as preserved in the stratigraphic record have direct implications for the composition, organization, and scaling relationships of sedimentary systems. However, isolating the stratigraphic signature of drainage basin reorganization in response to tectonic and/or climatic drivers can be challenging. In the Neogene foreland basin of the southern Central Andes between

Dryland alluvial successions across interior South Africa are a focus of pedosedimentary research because they provide insights into past hydrogeomorphic changes and improve our understanding of allogenic and autogenic controls on fluvial system behaviour. This paper focuses on an alluvial succession preserved within the Wilgerbosch River, on the Great Escarpment, South Africa. The pedosedimentary

The Eocene-Oligocene transition represents the latest greenhouse-icehouse shift faced by Earth, a major global climate change associated with carbon cycle perturbation. In this paper, we investigate the Massignano stratigraphic section (northern Apennines, Italy), GSSP of the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, by X-ray diffraction analysis of clay minerals and carbon and oxygen stable isotopes to explore the

The mechanisms leading to environmental and climate change prior to and anticipating the well-studied Toarcian oceanic anoxic event are not completely understood. Specifically, the role of the continuing break-up of Pangea, associated palaeogeographic rearrangements, and the influence of volcanic activity are less well known. Therefore, we studied the Pliensbachian interval in the open marine, hemipelagic

We present a detailed stratigraphy of the Coranzulí caldera-forming deposits. This caldera, located in the Altiplano-Puna Volcanic Complex (Central Andes), generated four ignimbrite deposits with similar field characteristics and facies that differ from each other in, above all, the nature of the lithic fragments they contain. Three different lithofacies (fine-grained cross-stratified facies, massive

Shallow buried unconsolidated sands generally provide very little information about diagenesis as most detrital minerals remain unchanged. However, in rare cases carbonate cemented nodules or sandstone layers may occur inside unconsolidated series. These cements could help to reconstruct the chronology of events from early to late phase stages of diagenesis. The Late Cretaceous sequence of the Zoovch

The characteristics of tropical cyclone (TC) deposits are highly variable, and in the shallow waters of straits their character has not been established. Multiple coarse-grained beds in lower Pliocene strata in the Western Foreland Basin of Taiwan are interpreted as TC deposits, and the sedimentology of these beds reflects evolving TC processes and storm stages. By comparing sedimentological data from

A number of unidirectionally migrating channels have been interpreted as the result of the interaction between turbidity flows and bottom currents. Based on the analysis of the morphology and internal architecture of channels, different conceptual models of unidirectionally migrating channels were built to reveal the flow process of the interaction between turbidity flows and bottom currents. Most

The spatial and temporal pattern of sedimentation in a rift basin is a result of complex interplay between tectonically induced vertical crustal movement and climatic condition. Though the conceptual and numerical models for tectono-sedimentary evolution of half grabens are available, the stratigraphic arrangement of lithofacies produced by the environments on hangingwall block is poorly documented

The lack of modern analogues for the thick primary selenite gypsum deposits formed in the Mediterranean area limits the understanding of the Messinian (Miocene) evaporitic systems and particularly of their lateral relationships, their evolution through time and their related ecosystems. Some complex stratigraphic relationships of these extreme environments are revealed in the Messinian Caños Formation

We present a sedimentological analysis of the Wielkopolska Member, the upper unit of the Poznań Formation which formed in a fluvial environment within a tectonic graben during the middle Miocene to early Pliocene in Poland. Large excavations in a lignite opencast mine have enabled our study of palaeochannel infills, in which sandy to silty-clayey ribbons are scattered within overbank clays. Channel

This study aims to hydrochemically characterise three CO2-bearing springs representing distinct hydrofacies in NW Gorveh (western Iran) and interpret them in the light of their geological setting. The results of laboratory measurements of elemental concentrations, stable oxygen, carbon and hydrogen isotopes, dissolved and particulate organic and inorganic carbon (DIC, DOC, POC, PIC) and alkalinity

Clastic sedimentary successions are subject to variable amounts of compaction, which causes a decrease in both the thickness and porosity of sand-rich depositional units. Methods for estimating the degree of sediment compaction are needed for characterizing changes in the geometry and petrophysical properties of depositional elements in relation to their burial history. Conventional methods for estimating