Husson Jon M, Peters Shanan E
School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada.
Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
Emerg Top Life Sci. 2018 Sep 28;2(2):125-136. doi: 10.1042/ETLS20170152.
The sedimentary rock reservoir both records and influences changes in Earth's surface environment. Geoscientists extract data from the rock record to constrain long-term environmental, climatic and biological evolution, with the understanding that geological processes of erosion and rock destruction may have overprinted some aspects of their results. It has also long been recognized that changes in the mass and chemical composition of buried sediments, operating in conjunction with biologically catalyzed reactions, exert a first-order control on Earth surface conditions on geologic timescales. Thus, the construction and destruction of the rock record has the potential to influence both how Earth and life history are sampled, and drive long-term trends in surface conditions that otherwise are difficult to affect. However, directly testing what the dominant process signal in the sedimentary record is - rock construction or destruction - has rarely been undertaken, primarily due to the difficulty of assembling data on the mass and age of rocks in Earth's crust. Here, we present results on the chronological age and general properties of rocks and sediments in the Macrostrat geospatial database (https://macrostrat.org). Empirical patterns in surviving rock quantity as a function of age are indicative of both continual cycling (gross sedimentation) and long-term sediment accumulation (net sedimentation). Temporal variation in the net sedimentary reservoir was driven by major changes in the ability of continental crust to accommodate sediments. The implied history of episodic growth of sediment mass on continental crust has many attendant implications for the drivers of long-term biogeochemical evolution of Earth and life.
沉积岩储层既记录又影响地球表面环境的变化。地球科学家从岩石记录中提取数据，以限制长期的环境、气候和生物演化，同时明白侵蚀和岩石破坏的地质过程可能会覆盖其结果的某些方面。长期以来，人们也认识到，埋藏沉积物的质量和化学成分的变化，与生物催化反应共同作用，在地质时间尺度上对地球表面状况施加一级控制。因此，岩石记录的形成和破坏有可能影响地球和生命历史的采样方式，并推动表面状况的长期趋势，否则这些趋势很难受到影响。然而，直接测试沉积记录中的主要过程信号是岩石形成还是破坏，这种情况很少发生，主要是因为难以收集有关地壳岩石质量和年龄的数据。在这里，我们展示了宏观地层地理空间数据库（https://macrostrat.org）中岩石和沉积物的年代顺序和一般特性的结果。现存岩石数量随年龄变化的经验模式表明了持续循环（总沉积）和长期沉积物积累（净沉积）。净沉积储层的时间变化是由大陆地壳容纳沉积物能力的重大变化驱动的。大陆地壳上沉积物质量 episodic 增长的隐含历史对地球和生命长期生物地球化学演化的驱动因素有许多附带影响。 （注：episodic 在这里可能是“阶段性的”意思，但不太确定其准确含义，根据上下文推测翻译。）
