BOULDER, Colo.- The Geological Society of America's April issue of GEOLOGY contains a number of newsworthy items. Topics include new evidence supporting the cool early Earth hypothesis; the discovery of an underground magma source for a Pacific Ocean volcano near Washington state; research revealing that the Beijing area was covered by a sea within the last 80 ky -- about 30 times younger than was thought; the definition of the location of the heretofore elusive Nubia-Somalia plate boundary; and the discovery of a natural 'plastic wrap' that beautifully fossilized certain Silurian ocean-going animals.
Highlights from GEOLOGY and a summary of the science article for the April GSA TODAY are provided below. The GSAT topic is a timely one: The volcanic risks of the Yucca Mountain site. Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to GEOLOGY in stories published. Contact Ann Cairns at acairns@geosociety.org for copies of articles and for additional information or other assistance.
Carboniferous-Triassic subduction and accretion in the western Kunlun, China: Implications for the collisional and accretionary tectonics of the northern Tibetan Plateau.
Wen Jiao Xiao et al. Laboratory of Lithosphere Tectonic Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China. Pages 295-298.
The western Kunlun mountain range in Southwest China provides new and important information on the tectonic evolution of the northwestern margin of the Tibetan plateau. From ca. 350-200 Ma (in Carboniferous to Triassic time) a huge (250 km by 500 km) subduction-accretion complex, the Mazar accretionary prism, formed during closure of the Paleotethyan Ocean. The accretionary prism is similar to those that are forming underwater off the eastern side of Japan today. Such an accretionary prism forms when piec
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Contact: Ann Cairns
acairns@geosociety.org
303-357-1057
Geological Society of America
5-Apr-2002