Quaternary Series Research Articles

Cenozoic excl. Danian limestone

During the Quaternary and Tertiary a regional subsidence took place resulting in a large depositional basin, the axis of which coincides with the central part of the present North Sea. Thick Tertiary and Quaternary series were deposited, consisting mainly of clays with an increasing amount of sand upwards. The upper part of the series is particularly uninfluenced by deeply seated structures or by major tectonic activities (fig. 36).

Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse and Geodætiske Institut North Greenland expeditions, 1978–80

The second year of the three-year programme of geological investigations in eastern North Greenland has been successfully completed by the Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse (GGU) [Geological Survey of Greenland], in close cooperation, for logistic purposes, with the Geodætiske Institute (GI) [Danish Geodetic Institute] and the Royal Danish Air Force. This programme is the culmination of many years’ planning and the results from it are to be used in the compilation of sheet 8 of the 1:500 000 Greenland geological and Quaternary map series (Watt, 1976), in addition to more detailed maps of specific areas at 1: 100 000.

Prototype design for a closed marine system employing quarternary water processing

A small 2, 271-1 (600-gallon) prototype recirculating marine water system was designed and evaluated (26 months). The system employed a quaternary (mechanical, algal, bacterial and chemical) series of processing units with the aim of achieving long-term seawater quality and constancy without water replacement. Total ammonia (0.05±0.005 ppm), un-ionized ammonia (0.0036±0.0003 ppm), nitrite (0.10±0.014 ppm), nitrate (24.6±2.0 ppm), phosphate (14.0±2.1 ppm), dissolved oxygen (6.5–7.2 mg/l) and pH (7.80 to 8.25) were maintained at acceptable levels for the entire period. The biomass load (1.82 kg/397 l) consisted of 4 nurse sharks which were fed ad-lib twice a week. Further, low levels of total bacteria (1.5×102 bacteria/ml) and coliforms [most probable number (MPN) index 17/dl] were present in the seawater. The system design is suggested for use in laboratory and mariculture installations.

Le volcanisme à Madagascar

The important cretaceous volcanic manifestations on the west and east coasts of Madagascar, as well as the flows in the Androy Range, are formed by calcoalcalinous series of Pacific type, ranging from rhyolites to basalts. Basic veins with diabasic facies frequently cut sedimentary rocks in the west, up to the upper cretaceous, as well as the cristalline basement of the eastern shore. The Pacific type of the emissions shows apparently the great depth reached by the cretaceous breaking tectonic. Strictly tertiary, probably neogene, manifestations, in the south of Alaotra Lake and in Andramidioka Range, (Takarindoha), present with their ankaratrites and basanitoids, an alcalino-calcic series of an evident Atlantic type. In the extreme north of Madagascar, Ambre, Tsaratanana and Ankaizina Ranges, and the Ampasindava province, show a volcanic complex with a wide range of lavas, from rhyolites, trachytes and phonolites to basalts, basanitoids and limburgites. Fissural type emissions, more or less interrupted, range from the end of oligocene up to quaternary time. Petrochemistry shows the existence of two Atlantic series, one alcalino-calcic, the most important, the other alcalinous, shorter, on basic term side. Although the quaternary series is always of the Atlantic type, it differs substantially from the two older other series. Comores Islands belong probably to this extreme North neogenequaternary volcanic series. In the center of Hauts-Plateaux, plio-quaternary emissions of the Ankaratra Range, and quaternary emissions of the Itasy Range, belong also to alcalinous fissural manifestations of the Atlantic type.

LANDFORM EVOLUTION OF THE KANTÔ PLAIN

The Kanto Plain, in the central part of which Tokyo is situated, is the largest in Japan. This plain is built by the Quaternary series, marine, fluvial and eolian deposits which are considered to be standard series of the Japanese Quaternary. In this paper, first, the author summarized the previous studies on volcanic ash layers, the so-called “Kanto Loam”, which covered almost all of terrce surfaces of the Kanto Plain, then tried to obtain chronological relationships between all of the volcanic ash layers. In the southern Kanto, the Kanto Loam, a part of which is derived from Mt.Fuji, is divided into four beds, and in the northern Kant, that is derived from Mt. Asama and other many volcanoes, into three or four beds. To correlate volcanic ash beds with each other, it is quite effective to trace the characteristic layers such as pumice, scoria or buried soil beds, and also the heavy mineral compositions of the volcanic ashes (Figs. 2 and 3). Secondly, he described the characteristics of landform surfaces in the plain, and chronological horizon of all of them mainly by using relationships between landform surfaces and the volcanic ash beds (Fig. 8). From the a hove mentioned studies, the five stages of landform surfaces, A(Hollocene in age), Du I (upper most Pleistocene), Du b, Dula, and Dl I (middle or Lower Pleistocene), could be classified accordingly. Thirdly, the palaeogeographical maps of each stage of land form surfaces were illustrated (Fig.9) and the evolution of landform of the Kanto Plain was explaind. As can be seen palaeogeographical maps transgression and regression came into being alternately in the Kanto Plain. The landform evolution of the Kanto Plain was, therefore, mainly caused by these transgressions and regressions, but the distribution and the shapes of the landform surfaces were greatly contorolled by the crustal movements in this region since the middle Pleistocene. Broadly speaking, the plain is a large depositional basin surrounded by up-warped belts, in which the southern hilly land shows the greatest upheaval to more than 300 meters since the middle Pleistocene. But precisely speking, there are three down-warped besins. Of the three, the largest one is in the northern part of the Kanto Plain, the second is located in the south-western part and the third is in the Tokyo Bay.

The Raised Beaches, and ‘Head’ or Rubble-drift, of the South of England: their Relation to the Valley Drifts and to the Glacial Period; and on a late post-Glacial Submergence

§1. Objects of the Paper. I have HAVE been led of late years to conclude that, besides the subaerial, marine, and river-valley drifts of Glacial and post-Glacial age, there is another which cannot be referred to any of the causes to which those drifts owe their origin. Nevertheless this drift is not only of common occurrence, but it is found in positions and with characters at one time simulating the Valley Gravels, and at another presenting features more analogous to those due to Glacial or to Subaerial action. It is therefore desirable, in order to prevent confusion, that the place of this Drift should be defined before proceeding, as I had intended, with the other Quaternary series ill their due order. I described long ago one phase of the Rubble-drift—as I propose for the present to term this drift—in the Sangatte Cliff, 1 namely that long known as the ‘Head,’ which is associated with all our Raised Beaches; and more recently I have briefly discussed some of the theoretical questions connected with its origin 2 Since then I have, however, materially enlarged the scope of the enquiry and arrived at more definite conclusions. I purpose, therefore, in this paper—lstly, to give the range of the Raised Beaches and Head in the South of England and South Wales; 2ndly, to show their relation to the Valley Drifts; 3rdly, to define the characters and position of the Head or Rubble-drift, and to determine its several phases inland; and, 4thly, to enquire into the