A Trip to Dinosaur Time in China - Deep Drilling in the Songliao Basin

["Paul H." <oxytropidoceras@cox.net>]

Qiu, J., 2010, Geology: A trip to dinosaur time. Nature. 
vol. 467, pp. 150-151.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100908/full/467150a.html

âA project to drill a 10-kilometre-deep hole in China 
will provide the best view yet of the turbulent 
Cretaceous period. Jane Qiu reports.â

âThe team analysed oxygen and carbon isotopes in 
fossil crustacean shells as a proxy for ancient 
temperature and carbon dioxide levels, finding that 
atmospheric CO2 levels doubled and then halved 
over 3 million years in the Late Cretaceous.â

The article also mentions that Cretaceous temperatures
plunged by 7 degrees C over a 10 million year period 
and of Cretaceous âsupergreenhousesâ and there is
a terrestrial record of the K/Pg extinction in these 
lakes sediments.

Terrestrial Scientific Drilling Project of the Cretaceous 
Songliao Basin, ICDP web sites.
http://www.icdp-online.org/front_content.php?idcat=1222

Terrestrial Scientific Drilling Project of the Cretaceous 
Songliao Basin, Cretaceous World
http://www.cretaceousworld.com/News_detail.asp?ID=533

Wang, C., and Y. Huang, 2009, Unlocking a Cretaceous 
geologic and geophysical puzzle. Scientific drilling of
Songliao Basin in northeast China. Leading Edge. vol. 28,
no. 3, pp. 340-344.
http://tle.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/3/340

There are papers about the Cretaceous strata cored in the 
Songliao Basin in volume 16, no. 2, of âEarth Science Frontiersâ 
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1872-5791(08)60077-9
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1872-5791(08)60080-9
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1872-5791(08)60081-0
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1872-5791(08)60078-0

Yours,

Paul