目前,亚洲内陆包含了北半球最大的荒漠区。这些荒漠是何时形成的?为什么?这些一直是学术界关注的、但没有解决的问题,对理解荒漠的发展也有一定的现实意义。2002年3月14日,英国《Nature》周刊以“亮点文章”的形式,发表了中国科学院地质与地球物理所郭正堂博士等的论文“中国黄土指示亚洲荒漠化起源于2200万年前”。《Nature》杂志高级编辑Langenberg博士专门写了评述,题为“风尘可能解决喜马拉雅的争议”。这项研究工作是在国家自然科学基金资助下,从1998年开始的一项阶段性研究成果,是古全球变化领域基础研究的最新进展。《Nature》周刊在新闻发布后,新华社伦敦分社播发了消息,国内外许多媒体竞相作了报道。 在甘肃秦安县境内新发现的厚达253m的黄土-古土壤序列是全球迄今发现的最为连续完整的晚新生代陆相风尘堆积序列,也是全球独一无二的古环境演化纪录。通过磁性地层和化石研究确定,它的形成时 Currently, the interior of Asia contains the largest desert area in the northern hemisphere. When did these deserts form? Why? These have always been the academic concern, but the problems that have not been solved are of practical significance for understanding the development of the desert. On March 14, 2002, the “Nature” magazine in the United Kingdom published “Highlights Article” entitled “China Loess Indicated Desertification in Asia Originated from 22 Million Years ago” by Dr. Guo Zhengtang, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Langenberg, a senior editor of Nature magazine, wrote a special essay titled “The Dust Can Resolve the Himalayan Controversy.” This research project is a milestone research project started in 1998 funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and is the latest progress of basic research in the field of ancient global change. After the release of the “Nature” magazine, the Xinhua News Agency branch in London broadcast the news and many domestic and foreign media outlets made some reports. The newly discovered sequence of loess-paleosol with a thickness of 253 m in Qin’an County, Gansu Province is the most continuous and complete series of late Cenozoic terrestrial dust deposits discovered to date in the world, and is also the only record of ancient paleoenvironment evolution in the world. By magnetic stratigraphy and fossil studies it is determined when it is formed