IGCP Board; 10th session; Report of the ... - unesdoc - Unesco

y the Geological Survey of Canada, and for
the Athabaska Basin by the Saskatchewan Geological
Survey.
Working Group 2 (International Phosphate Resource
Data Base, IPRDB): The aim of this
working group is to produce a needed and comprehensive
world survey of both sedimentary
and igneous phosphate rock occurrences. In
1981 considerable progress was made in the
building up of the computerized bibliography on
the geology of phosphorite and apatite. At the
present time, over 5, 000 references have been
entered into the file, including a large number
of abstracts. A bibliography comprising some
3, 000 references on a country basis has been
prepared by the Institute of Geological Sciences
and is to be published in early 1982.
Progress on the data base itself has been slight.
A number of entries for deposits in the US, USSR,
and India now are in hand but they have not been
entered into the computer file. The entry and
retrieval software has been completed. Due to
financial constraints, it seems likely that the
file will have to be moved to another computer.
In view of this change, the development plan of
the programme has been re-assessed and it is
tentatively planned to publish short papers on
the important phosphorite occurrences of the
world. A two-year programme is envisaged for
this work. An outline for papers that parallel
the computer format will be worked out and
country specialists of the Project will be enlisted
to prepare the reports. It is planned also
to publish the bibliography of the geology of phosphorite
and apatite.
Working Group 3 (Young Phosphogenic Systems):
This group is effective in support of the main
objective of the Project - Protèrozoic and Cambrian
phosphorites, through an improved understanding
of the genesis of economic sedimentary
phosphorite deposits by providing comparisons
with ancient deposits and modern analogues. In
France, geological, geochemical, isotopic, and
bacterial studies have been programmed into the
activities of Working Group 3. Four proposed
research cruises to offshore North Carolina,
the Lau Ridge offshore New Caledonia, offshore
Peru, and offshore Portugal, involve members
of the Working Group from France, USA, and
New Zealand. Working Group 3 held a one-day
seminar in association with the Baja California
phosphorite meeting, at which four research status
papers were presented. Members of the
Working Group also participated in a NATO Advanced
Research Institute meeting on coastal upwelling
and its sediment record which was held
at Algarve, Portugal between 1-4 September.
Activities planned. The fifth international field
workshop and seminar of the Project will be
held in early December 1982 in China. The
meeting will concentrate on the Lower Cambrian
phosphorites of the Meisuchun Formation of
Yunnan Province. In addition, it is hoped that
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a regional meeting can be organized in Central
Africa to bring together countries from the African
Continent having interests in phosphorites.
A workshop on phosphates in Australia will be
held in Canberra between 25-26 February, 1982,
and a training course will be held at Macquarie
University in May 1982. It is hoped that some
activities in the Cretaceous-Eocene Tethyan
phosphogenic province will get underway in 1982.
No. 157 EARLY ORGANIC EVOLUTION AND
MINERAL AND ENERGY RESOURCES
M. Schidlowski, Max-Planck-Institut fur Chemie,
Saarstrasse 23, Postfach 3060, Mainz, FRG.
Description. The aim of the Project is to evaluate
organic geochemical, isotopic, and palaeontological
data in terms of the evolution of life and its
relationship to episodic formation of Precambrian
and Lower Palaeozoic mineral deposits, particularly
those of base metals and hydrocarbons.
Summary of activities. 1981 was mainly a year
of quiet and intensive work for the preparation of
the forthcoming meeting of Projects 157 and 160
in Mexico City (11-14 January 1982).
Subproject 1: "Precambrian Weathering Horizons"
(convenor: A. Button): Work has proceeded mainly
along the same lines. The accent was on palaeosols
from North America and South Africa. Cataloguing
of important palaeosols is being continued
as new data arise.
Subproject 2: "Organic Geochemistry of pre-
Devonian Crude Oils and their Source Rocks"
(convenor: D.M. McKirdy): Recent activities
have focused upon four principal areas: (i) Biological
marker geochemistry of pre-Devonian
crude oils; (ii) Palaeoenvironments and petroleum
geology of Proterozoic and early Palaeozoic
sedimentary basins; (iii) Association of organic
matter (kerogen, hydrocarbons) with pre-
Devonian phosphorites and Mississippi Valleytype
base-metal mineralization; and (iv) Types
and maturation of pre-Devonian kerogens.
D.M. McKirdy and co-workers completed a study
which revealed an unexpectedly diverse array of
biological marker hydrocarbons (isoprenoid,
steroid, and hopanoid alkanes) in seven Vendian-
Cambrian oils from Australia, Namibia, and the
USA. Further work is planned on Palaeozoic oils
from the Appalachian Basin, USA. The exciting
discovery by J. Zumberge of tricyclic diterpanes
in early Palaeozoic oils from the Williston Basin,
USA suggests that many hydrocarbons were derived
from primitive marine biota, and therefore
are not necessarily specific biomarkers of vascular
plants. M. Fowler and A.G. Douglas continued
their work on a large collection of Proterozoic
and Palaeozoic oils and potential source
rocks from the USA, Canada, Australia, Algeria,
Sweden, and the USSR. A recent highlight was
the discovery of woody material in Silurian shales