Complex Provenance Research Articles

Provenance Characteristics from the Mesozoic to Cenozoic Era and Their Implications for Basin-Mountain System Evolution in the Southwestern Junggar Basin: Insights from Field Outcrop Observations in the Tostai Area

The Mesozoic-Cenozoic formations in the southwestern Junggar Basin are a key target for oil and gas exploration. However, complex provenance conditions hinder comprehensive understanding of sedimentary reservoirs. Based on petrology and elemental geochemistry analysis of field outcrops in the Tostai area. Research was conducted on the tectonic background, sediment transport distances, compositions of parent rocks and evolutionary Characteristics of Provenance Conditions in the provenance areas. It is generally believed that there have been three notable shifts in basin-mountain relationships during this period. Initially, from the Triassic to Jurassic, the Northern Tianshan magmatic rock area predominated as the primary provenance, with decreasing basin-mountain proximity and predominantly magmatic rock sediment composition indicating near provenance. Subsequently, heightened Cretaceous tectonic activity in the Tianshan Mountains led to significant uplift of metamorphic rock regions in the Middle Tianshan Mountains, gradually becoming the provenance for the study area. This increased distance between provenance and sedimentary areas, marked by a substantial presence of metamorphic rocks in sediments indicating far provenance. Lastly, the Cenozoic Himalayan movement resulted in vigorous uplift of the magmatic rock area in the northern Tianshan Mountains, reestablishing it as the primary provenance. This minimized basin-mountain distance, leading to deposition of near-provenance transported alluvial fans, braided rivers, and predominantly magmatic rock sediments.

Early Paleozoic accretionary history of the Pearya terrane: New insights from igneous and detrital zircon signatures of the Kulutingwak Formation, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada

The juxtaposition of the composite Pearya terrane and the northern Laurentian margin at Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada, has significant ramifications for the Paleozoic tectonic history of the circum-Arctic region. Published tectonic models rely upon interpretation of the subduction-related Kulutingwak Formation as an indicator of Ordovician and/or Silurian accretion (Trettin, 1998). New igneous and detrital zircon U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotopic data from 16 samples collected in the Yelverton Inlet–Kulutingwak Fiord region of northern Ellesmere Island suggest that the Kulutingwak Formation of Trettin (1998) contains structural blocks derived from both the Pearya terrane and Silurian strata associated with the ancestral Laurentian margin. Data from this study demonstrate a complex provenance history for rocks within the Petersen Bay, Kulutingwak Fiord, and Emma Fiord fault zones, with age probability peaks of ca. 470 Ma, 650 Ma, and 960–980 Ma that suggest affinity with the Pearya terrane, and age probability peaks of ca. 1800 Ma and 2700 Ma that indicate connections to the Laurentian margin. The combination of these signatures in Kulutingwak Formation rocks suggests that the Pearya terrane was proximal to the northern Laurentian margin by Late Ordovician time. Silurian and younger strike-slip displacement on the major fault zones resulted in the incorporation of blocks derived from the Pearya terrane basement and Silurian clastic rocks into the Kulutingwak Formation. Silurian displacement along these strike-slip faults, which are integral components of the Canadian Arctic transform system, is recorded by syndepositional deformation structures in the Danish River Formation and prevented the transition from soft to hard collision of the Pearya terrane. The two-stage model for the Pearya terrane—accretion followed by significant translation—provides a process for developing complex steep terrane boundaries with contentious displacement histories that are common in accretionary orogens.

Holocene overflow events of the lower Yellow River recorded in Huangdun ancient lake, northern Jiangsu Plain, China

ABSTRACTOverflow events are important embodiments of the evolutionary characteristics of the lower Yellow River. Lakes in the lower reaches of the Yellow River have the capacity to record these events. Due to the complex provenance and transport pathways of sediments in local lakes, it is difficult to extract reliable information on sediments delivered by the Yellow River based on conventional methods and proxies. Here, we show results from a genetically meaningful end‐member (EM) decomposition of sediment grain‐size data from Huangdun ancient lake. The grain‐size of the sediments can be decomposed into three end‐members. Comprehensive analysis combining environmental magnetism and geochemical indicators clarifies the significance of each end‐member. EM1 represents mixed signals of various proximal fluvial sediments and the Yellow River materials. EM2 is similar to terrestrial fine‐grained debris in conjunction with local pedogenic materials, aeolian inputs and some Yi River materials. EM3 represents a component that is mainly derived from long‐distance transport by the lower Yellow River. End‐member analysis successfully identified overflow events of the lower Yellow River on a southward‐flowing path during the Holocene. This study provides a meaningful attempt to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the lower Yellow River from sedimentary records.

Late Jurassic paleogeography of the U.S. Cordillera from detrital zircon age and hafnium analysis of the Galice Formation, Klamath Mountains, Oregon and California, USA

The Upper Jurassic Galice Formation, a metasedimentary unit in the Western Klamath Mountains, formed within an intra-arc basin prior to and during the Nevadan orogeny. New detrital zircon U-Pb age analyses (N = 11; n = 2792) yield maximum depositional ages (MDA) ranging from ca. 160 Ma to 151 Ma, which span Oxfordian to Kimmeridgian time and overlap Nevadan contractional deformation that began by ca. 157 Ma. Zircon ages indicate a significant North American continental provenance component that is consistent with tectonic models placing the Western Klamath terrane on the continental margin in Late Jurassic time. Hf isotopic analysis of Mesozoic detrital zircon (n = 603) from Galice samples reveals wide-ranging εHf values for Jurassic and Triassic grains, many of which cannot be explained by a proximal source in the Klamath Mountains, thus indicating a complex provenance. New U-Pb ages and Hf data from Jurassic plutons within the Klamath Mountains match some of the Galice Formation detrital zircon, but these data cannot account for the most non-radiogenic Jurassic detrital grains. In fact, the in situ Cordilleran arc record does not provide a clear match for the wide-ranging isotopic signature of Triassic and Jurassic grains. When compiled, Galice samples indicate sources in the Sierra Nevada pre-batholithic framework and retroarc region, older Klamath terranes, and possibly overlap strata from the Blue Mountains and the Insular superterrane. Detrital zircon age spectra from strata of the Upper Jurassic Great Valley Group and Mariposa Formation contain similar age modes, which suggests shared sediment sources. Inferred Galice provenance within the Klamath Mountains and more distal sources suggest that the Galice basin received siliciclastic turbidites fed by rivers that traversed the Klamath-Sierran arc from headwaters in the retroarc region. Thus, the Galice Formation contains a record of active Jurassic magmatism in the continental arc, with significant detrital input from continental sediment sources within and east of the active arc. These westward-flowing river systems remained active throughout the shift in Cordilleran arc tectonics from a transtensional system to the Nevadan contractional system, which is characterized by sediment sourced in uplifts within and east of the arc and the thrusting of older Galice sediments beneath older Klamath terranes to the east.

Provenance of the conglomerate and siliciclastic rocks from the Gadag Greenstone Belt, Western Dharwar Craton, India: Implications for understanding Neoarchean basin margin sedimentation

Petrographic, whole‐rock geochemical and geochronological analysis of polymictic conglomerate, associated siltstone and greywacke in the Neoarchean Gadag Greenstone Belt in the Western Dharwar Craton, India, provides new insights into sedimentary provenance and tectonic setting. The polymictic conglomerate contains granitic, gneissic, felsic and mafic volcanic, quartzite and banded ferruginous chert clasts within a quartzo‐feldspathic matrix. Framework grains in the siltstone and greywacke are quartz, feldspar with rock fragments, embedded in a chlorite‐dominant matrix. The chemical index of alteration values (~70) and A‐CN‐K plot for the rocks suggest a low‐to‐moderate degree of weathering. Rare earth element (REE) patterns show moderate fractionation (LaN/YbN ~ 12.31) with a weak negative europium anomaly (0.82). Enrichment in transition elements (Ni, Cr, Co, Sc) and depletion in high‐field‐strength elements, as well as relatively low La/Co (0.62), moderate to high Th/Yb (3.06), La/Th (5.16), La/Yb (17.5), and La/Sc (~2.37) ratios, suggest a mixed felsic‐mafic provenance. U–Pb dating of detrital zircon from the conglomerate and greywacke revealed major age peaks at ca. (3.2, 2.9, 2.8, 2.6, 2.5 Ga) and a maximum age of deposition of 2,508 ± 26 Ma, 2,493 ± 20 Ma, respectively. The above data suggest low to moderately weathered proximal sources for both conglomerate and greywacke, indicating that these two rock types were not deposited simultaneously, but rather separately. The association of these conglomerates and greywacke with continental arc‐related volcanics indicates the closing of an arc at the time of sedimentation. Complex provenance consisting of recycled and magmatic arc during basin closure confirm the notion of modern style plate tectonics operating during Neoarchaean.

Wanderings: The Provenance of Six Sri Lankan Objects

Six objects that are displayed together in the Rijksmuseum were researched as part of the Sri Lanka work-package of the Pilot Project Provenance Research on Objects of the Colonial Era. This group of elegantly decorated ceremonial weapons has a clear Sri Lankan origin as it shows recognizable Kandyan workmanship. The objects are linked to the violent plundering of the town and palace of the kingdom of Kandy by the Dutch in 1765 and are said to have been looted and added to the collection of the Dutch Stadholders shortly afterwards. This has made the objects controversial. While we could confirm that they were likely spoils of the Dutch Kandyan war, we also found that each of them had a different itinerary before it was placed in the collection. Unfortunately, the inventories of Stadholder Willem v’s collection remained silent about these objects: their exact moment of arrival in the collection has not been recorded. Our provenance research therefore included a reconstruction of the wanderings of each of these objects from the palace of Kandy to the Dutch Stadholder’s collection. In this contribution we discuss the research process, and highlight the problem of archival silences and histories of forgetting, and of mis- and re-interpretations that haunted these objects and troubled us along the way. Our eventual reconstruction of the wanderings of the objects was therefore based on intensive archival research and historical and art-historical contextualization, as well as etymological research and material analysis. For complex provenance cases like this, such an interdisciplinary approach is indispensable.

The Evolution of Permian Source-to-Sink Systems and Tectonics Implications in the NW Junggar Basin, China: Evidence from Detrital Zircon Geochronology

The basin type of the Junggar Basin changed during the Permian, but the time constraint of the tectonic evolution remains unclear. Besides, the fan deltas developed in the Permian in the Mahu Sag in the northwestern of the oil-rich basin. However, the provenances of the sedimentary systems remain unclear. Based on petrology and detrital zircon U-Pb ages, this study investigates the source-to-sink systems evolution and tectonics implications. Abundant lithic clasts in sandstones with low compositional and textural maturity imply proximal sources. The dating results showed a dominant peak (310–330 Ma) and a secondary peak (400–440 Ma) in the northern Mahu Sag, only one peak at 295–325 Ma in the central Mahu Sag, several peaks at 270–350 Ma in the southern Mahu Sag, and multiple peaks at 370–450 Ma in the Zhongguai Uplift. Thus, the north-western Junggar Basin was divided into four major source-to-sink systems, with adjacent central West Junggar as the main provenance and northern and southern West Junggar as the secondary provenance. The proportion of sediment supply from the southern and northern West Junggar is higher during the Middle-Late Permian. It suggests that the source-to-sink systems show inheritance and evolve from a single provenance into a complex provenance, indicating the uplift of West Junggar. The tectonic inversion may occur early in the Middle Permian and the response to tectonic activity is stronger in the southern West Junggar than in the northern West Junggar.

A Lintel Fragment from the Meniset Temple of Amenhotep I and Ahmose Nefertari at Thebes

A limestone relief fragment in the Barnes Foundation (A303), Philadelphia is identified as a recut fragment from a Sed festival lintel that surmounted a doorway in the Meniset temple of Amenhotep I and Ahmose Nefertari at Thebes. Originally found by Wilhelm Spiegelberg and only documented through a photograph of a squeeze, the condition of the relief speaks to a complex provenance history and provides confirmation of the reconstruction of the festival scene by Kurt Sethe.

The complex provenance of Cu-binding ligands in the South-East Atlantic

Organic ligands play a key role in the marine biogeochemical cycle of copper (Cu), a bio-essential element, regulating its solubility and bioavailability. However, the sources, abundance, and distribution of these ligands are still poorly understood. In this study, we examined vertical Cu speciation profiles from the South-East Atlantic (GEOTRACES section GA08). Profiles were collected from a range of ocean conditions, including the Benguela upwelling region, the oligotrophic South Atlantic Gyre, and the Congo River outflow. In general, the lack of a significant correlation between most of the parameters assessed here with Cu speciation data obscures the provenance of Cu-binding ligands, suggesting that Cu speciation in the South-East Atlantic is influenced by a complex interplay between biotic and abiotic processes. Nevertheless, the total dissolved Cu (CuT) illustrated an allochthonous origin in the working area, while Cu-binding ligands showed both an allochthonous and a biogenic, autochthonous origin. Pigment concentrations showed that the phylogeography of different microorganisms influenced the spatial features of the Cu-binding ligand pool in the South-East Atlantic. Allochthonous Cu-binding ligand sources in the upper water column are likely associated with dissolved organic matter which originated from the Congo River and the Benguela upwelling system. Deep water ligand sources could include refractory dissolved organic carbon (DOC), resuspended benthic inputs, and lateral advected inputs from the shelf margin. The degradation of L1-type ligands and/or siderophores in low oxygen conditions may also be a source of L2-type ligands in the deep. Free Cu ion levels (1.7 to 156 fM), the biologically available form of CuT, were below the putative biolimiting threshold of many marine organisms. Two classes of ligands were found in this study with total ligand concentrations ([LT]) ranging from 2.5 to 283.0 nM and conditional stability constants (logKCuL, Cu2+cond) ranging from 10.7 to 14.6. The Cu speciation values were spatially variable across the three subregions, suggesting that biogeochemical processes and sources strongly influence Cu speciation.

Comment on ‘New insights on Franciscan Complex geology, architecture, depositional age, and provenance for the western Mt. Tamalpais area, Marin County, California’ by Bero et al. (2020)

ABSTRACT Serious errors and inconsistencies in the article undermine many of its interpretations to the point that principal conclusions are not valid. Much dependence is placed on the maximum depositional age (Dmax) of sandstone units based on zircon analysis of 10 samples, but calculation of those Dmax values is flawed, and their use confuses maximum with actual depositional ages and makes age distinctions finer than the resolution of the data. Conclusions that are compromised include the concept of a westward/downward-younging tectonostratigraphic stack of accretionary units, comparison of mapped sandstones with other California Coast Ranges sandstones, comparison of timing of events recorded in the map area with regional events, identification of mélange only in a narrow band in the study area, and detrital provenance of some of the sandstone units.

Reply to discussion of ‘new insights on Franciscan complex geology, architecture, depositional age, and provenance for the western Mt. Tamalpais area, Marin County, California’ by Graymer et al. (2021): part 1

ABSTRACT For western Mt. Tamalpais, we incorrectly reported the Dmax value of Kfu3 as 114 Ma and correct it to 96 Ma. Initially, we used a conservative method of calculating maximum depositional age, but we here offer a set of less conservative values. Labels on the Supplementary File data table are corrected from 2-sigma to 1-sigma. A few additional errors, some resulting from those noted above, are corrected. We note that we do not share the alternative views offered in the Comment document about some debatable issues of Franciscan geology . The major conclusions of our paper remain unaltered.

A New 40Ar/39Ar Analysis Method of Volcanoclastic Strata to Determine Eruption Periods—Example of Xintaimen, China

The Jehol Biota is famous for its diversity of Early Cretaceous fossils preserved under large amounts of pyroclastic materials. However, the precise determination on the ages of volcanoclastic strata is challenging, because of their complex provenance. The solution to this problem may lie in the greatly improved geochronological methods, such as the 40Ar/39Ar geochronology. In this study, we use the laser fusion 40Ar/39Ar dating method to date volcanoclastic samples and apply statistical analyses of the acquired apparent ages to determine the volcanic eruption periods. From the 12 volcanoclastic samples analyzed in this study, we obtained 262 apparent ages that vary from 85.5 to 153.6 Ma. By fitting these apparent ages with a Gaussian mixture distribution model, we find three age clusters that are normally distributed, with each cluster statistically representing an eruption period. The mean values of the three normal distributions are 90.37±2.72 (1σ), 109.89±4.94, and 125.26±10.01 Ma. A comparison of our results with a statistical analysis of literature data indicates that volcanic activities occurred over a wide spatial scale across western Liaoning Province during the two older periods, whereas during the last time period, eruptions occurred more locally and belonged to the final stage of volcanic eruptions in the basin. The method and results reported in this study provide a good example of (1) dating volcanoclastic materials using the 40Ar/39Ar method to determine the time periods of volcanic activities and (2) investigating the stratigraphic correlation in complex volcanoclastic basins.

Interplay of southern, western, and northern sources during deposition of North Wales Carboniferous sandstones, determined from heavy minerals, mineral chemistry, and detrital zircon ages

A study of heavy mineral assemblages, rutile compositions, and detrital zircon age populations in Namurian to Westphalian sandstones in North Wales, deposited in the southwestern part of the Pennine Basin of the United Kingdom, has revealed considerable complexity in their provenance history. The Pendleian to Marsdenian Cefn‐y‐fedw Sandstone Formation, which is known to have been derived from the Wales–Brabant Massif (WBM) to the south on the basis of palaeocurrent and petrographic information, has a heavy mineral assemblage characteristic of this southerly provenance, and includes Late Neoproterozoic zircons apparently of local WBM origin. However, the formation is dominated by zircons that were most probably recycled from sandstones of northern origin from the Caledonian Belt that had been previously deposited over the massif during Late Devonian times, and, as such, has a comparable history to the sedimentologically‐equivalent Morridge Formation of the English Midlands. Heavy mineral analysis shows that sandstones in the Brigantian Minera Formation and Yeadonian part of the Bowland Shale Formation are of similar southern provenance. The Yeadonian Gwespyr Sandstone, previously interpreted as having a northern origin, similar to the time‐equivalent Rough Rock, has variations in heavy mineral analysis and zircon spectrum that suggest a complex provenance history and includes sand bodies with northern, western, and southern origins.

New insights on Franciscan Complex geology, architecture, depositional age, and provenance for the western Mt. Tamalpais area, Marin County, California

ABSTRACT New geologic mapping of the Franciscan Complex in the western Mt. Tamalpais area northwest of San Francisco, California, reveals a tectonostratigraphic stack of accretionary units that young westward and structurally downward. Serpentinite-matrix mélange at the top of the section, beneath a possible basal fragment of Coast Range Ophiolite, and a structurally low black-rock-bearing, mudrock-matrix Ocean Plate Stratigraphy (OPS) mélange located near the base of the section, bracket lithic and feldspathic metasandstone-dominated accretionary units. The ages of the metasedimentary accretionary units are constrained by U-Pb age dating of detrital zircons. Maximum depositional ages fall between 124 Ma and 88 Ma. Sediment provenance is dominantly in the Sierra Nevada arc to the east, but minor numbers of detrital zircons were derived from Paleozoic and Precambrian sources. The provenance age profiles (cumulative distribution plots) reveal changing age components of zircon populations over time, reflecting the history of unroofing in the Sierra Nevada arc. An unusual post-accretion thrust fault and atypical greenschist facies metamorphism uncharacteristic of the Franciscan Complex, plus probable Late Cenozoic faults, complicate the character of the geology of the Mt. Tamalpais area.

The Adventure of the Stradivarius: Violins in the Work of Arthur Conan Doyle and William Crawford Honeyman

Abstract The violin, despite its fleeting appearances in the stories of Sherlock Holmes, has become prominently associated with the character of Sherlock in modern TV and film adaptions. While the violin is never investigated by Holmes in the stories, it is represented in more depth in a precursory detective story by William Crawford Honeyman: a Scottish author-musician, whose work appears to have influenced Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of Sherlock Holmes. Honeyman’s short story ‘The Romance of a Real Cremona’ (1884) follows detective James McGovan as he traces and returns a stolen Stradivari violin and unravels its complex provenance. The importance of the violin’s inclusion in fictional works has been little discussed in scholarship. Here, the texts of Doyle and Honeyman serve as a lens through which to analyse the meaning of the violin during the Victorian era. By analysing the violin from an organological perspective, this article examines the violin’s prominence in nineteenth-century British domestic music-making, both as a fiscally and culturally valuable object. The final section of the article explores the meaning attached to, and created by, the violin in the stories of Doyle and Honeyman.

Micro‐fabrics and Genesis of Pyrite from Zhaoyuan Golden Deposits in Shandong Province, North China

AbstractNorth China Craton experienced significant lithospheric destruction or delamination during the Late Mesozoic, accompanied with the emergence of numerous basins and intensive volcanic activities. Extensional basins also formed in eastern Shandong Province. Even though they have been researched for decades, the relation between basin development and deep tectonic processes still remains obscure. Recently, a set of Early Cretaceous strata, characterized by translating from turbidite deposits to terrestrial strata unit and ending up with a unique volcanicalstic formation within a pretty short time span, has been found on Lingshan Island. Previous Studies have reached an agreement that Lingshan Island strata was formed in a distinct sedimentary background compared with the coeval sedimentary units in Jiaolai Basin. Essential information about basin development and its tectonic setting in the region during Early Cretaceous are preserved in the Lingshan Island strata. In this article, we show the characteristic of heavy mineral assemblage from the bottom to the top, and the characteristic of detrital minerals’ chemical component in the two representative samples. Based on these new works, we indicate that the Lingshan Island basin was developed in transpressional tectonic setting with complex provenance materials mainly from Qianliyan‐Uplift during the period ca.123∼120Ma. Then, the basin evolved within a extensional region and filled with locally derived clastics during 120 to 105Ma. Additionally, the basin was evolved during the procedure of progressive lithospheric thinning and asthenosphere upwelling, which could be proven by stratigraphic characteristics and chemical component of detrital spinels.

MetaStore: an adaptive metadata management framework for heterogeneous metadata models

In this paper, we present MetaStore, a metadata management framework for scientific data repositories. Scientific experiments are generating a deluge of data, and the handling of associated metadata is critical, as it enables discovering, analyzing, reusing, and sharing of scientific data. Moreover, metadata produced by scientific experiments are heterogeneous and subject to frequent changes, demanding a flexible data model. Existing metadata management systems provide a broad range of features for handling scientific metadata. However, the principal limitation of these systems is their architecture design that is restricted towards either a single or at the most a few standard metadata models. Support for handling different types of metadata models, i.e., administrative, descriptive, structural, and provenance metadata, and including community-specific metadata models is not possible with these systems. To address this challenge, we present MetaStore, an adaptive metadata management framework based on a NoSQL database and an RDF triple store. MetaStore provides a set of core functionalities to handle heterogeneous metadata models by automatically generating the necessary software code (services) and on-the-fly extends the functionality of the framework. To handle dynamic metadata and to control metadata quality, MetaStore also provides an extended set of functionalities such as enabling annotation of images and text by integrating the Web Annotation Data Model, allowing communities to define discipline-specific vocabularies using Simple Knowledge Organization System, and providing advanced search and analytical capabilities by integrating the ElasticSearch. To maximize the utilization of the data models supported by NoSQL databases, MetaStore automatically segregates the different categories of metadata in their corresponding data models. Complex provenance graphs and dynamic metadata are modeled and stored in an RDF triple store, whereas the static metadata is stored in a NoSQL database. For enabling large-scale harvesting (sharing) of metadata using the METS standard over the OAI-PMH protocol, MetaStore is designed OAI-compliant. Finally, to show the practical usability of the MetaStore framework and that the requirements from the research communities have been realized, we describe our experience in the adoption of MetaStore for three communities.

Post-glacial sequence and sedimentation in the western Bohai Sea, China, and its linkage to global sea-level changes

Post-glacial sedimentary sequences provide a unique window for observing depositional and environmental responses to rapid changes in global climate and sea level. Here, we integrate seismic records and the lithological variations of sediment cores from western Bohai Bay, China, in order to reveal the history of sedimentation and its linkages to global sea-level changes since marine isotope stage 2 (MIS 2). The post-glacial succession consists of six seismic units (SU1–SU6, in descending order) which are bounded by six key reflection surfaces (T0, R1, R2, R3, T1 and T2), respectively corresponding to six depositional units (DU1–DU6) identified in sediment cores. Together they comprise the latest sequence of infilling of western Bohai Bay, where SU6 is associated with the Lowstand Systems Tract (LST), SU5 is associated with the Transgressive Systems Tract (TST), and the last four units of SU4–SU1 comprise the complex Highstand Systems Tract (HST). During the interval of the MIS 2 (22–11.6kyrBP) sea level lowstand, the LST was formed in a long-term environment of sub-aerial exposure or fluvial floodplain. The TST is composed of transgressive deposits formed during the interval of global sea-level rise, and is characterized by a retrogradational feature, from a swamp to a tidal flat environment, and then to an estuarine subtidal environment. A series of sedimentary facies transitions represent abrupt sea-level rises in the early Holocene, which may correspond to the events MWP-1C, “8.2-ka event” and MWP-2. Erosional trenches were well developed within SU5 in the central-eastern region, and were probably part of a transgressive waterway system rooted from Bohai Strait. They demonstrate that Bohai Bay experienced strong tidal erosion in the early Holocene, as a result of its morphology which consisted of a long narrow embayment. The complex HST was initially formed at ca. 7calkyrBP when sea-level essentially stabilized in a highstand, and developed rapidly after ca. 6calkyrBP when the Yellow River supplied large amounts of sediment to the western or southwestern margin of Bohai Bay. Its complex internal structure is related to the configuration of three flooding surfaces caused by changes in sediment supply, and which in historical times separated four stages of river discharge, mainly from the Yellow River. During ca. 7.0–3.4calkyrBP, the Yellow River at one time emptied into the southwestern margin of Bohai Bay, forcing its subaqueous delta to extend over the southern area of western Bohai Bay, while open shelf sedimentation in the central and northern area of Bohai Bay consisted of the accumulation of a shelly layer subject to intensive storm-reworking. During ca. 3.4–1calkyrBP, the Yellow River once discharged into the central and northern parts of western Bohai Bay, forming two detached subaqueous deltas. During ca. 1–0.8calkyrBP, the Yellow River discharged into the central region, stacking a subaqueous delta confined by the two older underlying subaqueous deltas. During the last ~800years, the discharge of the Yellow River out of Bohai Bay has dominated coastal marine sedimentation which has a complex provenance.

Improving the Domain Independence of Data Provenance Ontologies

Provenance is becoming increasingly important as more and more people are using data that they themselves did not generate. In the last decade, significant efforts have been directed toward developing generic, shared data provenance ontologies that support the interoperability of provenance across systems. An issue that is impeding the use of such provenance ontologies is that a generic provenance ontology, no matter how complete it is, is insufficient for capturing the diverse, complex provenance requirements in different domains. In this paper, the authors propose a novel approach to adapting and extending the W7 model, a well-known generic ontology of data provenance. Relying on various knowledge expansion mechanisms provided by the Conceptual Graph formalism, the authors' approach enables us to develop domain ontologies of provenance in a disciplined yet flexible way.

Constraining the Timing of the Molopo Farms Complex Emplacement and Provenance of Its Country Rock

Constraining the Timing of the Molopo Farms Complex Emplacement and Provenance of Its Country Rock