Are isolated stable rigid clasts in shear zones equivalent to voids?

Particles in shear enclose important information about a rock's past and can potentially be used to decipher the kinematic history and mechanical behavior of a certain outcrop or region. Isolated rigid clasts in shear zones often exhibit systematic inclinations with respect to the shear-plane at small angles, tending towards the instantaneous stretching direction of the shear zone. This shape preferred orientation cannot be easily explained by any of the analytical theories used in geology. It was recently recognized that a weak mantle surrounding the clast or a slipping clast–matrix interface might be responsible for the development of the observed inclinations. Physical considerations lead us to conjecture that such mantled, rigid clasts can be effectively treated as voids that are not allowed to change their shape. The resulting equivalent void conjecture agrees well with numerical and field data and has the following important geological implications. (i) Clasts in shear zones can have stable positions in simple shear without the requirement of an additional pure shear component. (ii) The stable orientation can be approached either syn- or antithetically; hence, the clast can rotate against the applied shear sense. (iii) The strain needed to develop a strong shape preferred orientation is small (γ≈1) and therefore evaluations based on other theories may overestimate strain by orders of magnitude. (iv) The reconstruction of far-field shear flow conditions and kinematic vorticity analysis must be modified to incorporate these new findings.     

Chondritic osmium isotopic composition of Archean ophiolitic mantle, North China craton

Podiform chromitites are diagnostic but rare features of Phanerozoic ophiolites, and often contain the most pristine textural, chemical and isotopic record of convective upper mantle conditions extant during ophiolite genesis. Ophiolitic podiform chromitites, owing to their high Os concentrations and low Re/Os ratios provide the best evidence for the Os-isotopic evolution of oceanic mantle, but established records of ophiolitic chromites from bona fide Archean ophiolites are still lacking. We report Re–Os isotopic compositions of the world's oldest known ophiolitic podiform chromites from the 2.5 billion year old Dongwanzi–Zunhua ophiolite, North China. This provides the oldest Os isotope composition for the convective upper mantle yet obtained from ophiolitic podiform chromitites, and reveals a chondritic Os isotopic composition of the Archean convective upper mantle.     

Geochronology of the khondalite belt of Trivandrum Block, Southern India: Electron probe ages and implications for Gondwana tectonics

In a comprehensive U–Pb electron microprobe study of zircon and monazite from the khondalite belt of Trivandrum Block in southern Kerala, we present age data on five key metapelite locations (Nedumpara, Oottukuzhi, Kulappara, Poolanthara and Paranthal). The rocks here, characterized by the assemblage of garnet–sillimanite–spinel–cordierite–biotite–K–feldsapr–plagiocalse–quartz–graphite, have been subjected to granulite facies metamorphism under extreme thermal conditions as indicated by the stability of spinel + quartz and the presence of mesoperthites that equilibrated at ultrahigh-temperature (ca. 1000 °C) conditions. The oldest spot age of 3534 Ma comes from the core of a detrital zircon at Nedumpara and is by far the oldest age reported from this supracrustal belt. Regression of age data from several spot analyses in single zircons shows “isochrons” ranging from 3193 ± 72 to 2148 ± 94 Ma, indicating heterogeneous population of zircons derived from multiple provenance. However, majority of zircons from the various localities shows Neoproterozoic apparent ages with sharply defined peaks in individual localities, ranging between 644–746 Ma. The youngest zircon age of 483 Ma was obtained from the outermost rim of a grain that incorporates a relict core displaying ages in the range of 2061–2543 Ma.The cores of monazites also show apparent older ages of Palaeo-Mesoproterozoic range, which are mantled by late Neoproterozoic/Cambrian rims. The oldest monazite core has an apparent age of 2057 Ma. Extensive growth of new monazite during latest Neoproterozoic to Cambrian–Ordovician times is also displayed by grain cores with apparent ages up to 622 Ma. The homogeneous core of a sub-rounded monazite grain yielded a maximum age of 569 Ma, markedly younger than the 610 Ma age reported in a previous study from homogenous and rounded zircon core from a metapelite in Trivandrum Block. These younger ages from abraded grains that have undergone fluvial transport are interpreted to indicate that deposition within the khondalite belt was as young as, or later than, this range. Probability density plots indicate that majority of the monazite grain population belong to Late Proterozoic/Cambrian age (ca. 560–520 Ma) with major peaks defining sharp spikes in individual localities.The age data presented in this study indicate that the metasediments of the Trivandrum Block sourced from Archaean and Paleo-Mesoproterozoic crustal fragments that were probably assembled in older supercontinents like Ur and Columbia. The largest age population of zircons belong to the Neoproterozoic, and are obviously related to orogenies during the pre-assembly phase of Gondwana, possibly from terrains belonging to the East African Orogen. Several prominent age spikes within the broad late Neoproterozoic–Cambrian age range displayed by monazites denote the dynamic conditions and extreme thermal perturbations attending the birth of Gondwana. Our study further establishes the coherent link between India and Madagascar within the East Gondwana ensemble prior to the final assembly of the Gondwana supercontinent.     

Possible indicators of microbial mat deposits in shales and sandstones: examples from the Mid-Proterozoic Belt Supergroup, Montana, U.S.A.

It has been suspected for some time that microbial mats probably colonized sediment surfaces in many terrigenous clastic sedimentary environments during the Proterozoic. However, domination of mat morphology by depositional processes, post-depositional compaction, and poor potential for cellular preservation of mat-building organisms make their positive identification a formidable challenge. Within terrigenous clastics of the Mid-Proterozoic Belt Supergroup, a variety of sedimentary structures and textural features have been observed that can be interpreted as the result of microbial colonization of sediment surfaces. Among these are: (a) domal buildups resembling stromatolites in carbonates; (b) cohesive behaviour of laminae during soft-sediment deformation, erosion, and transport; (c) wavy–crinkly character of laminae; (d) bed surfaces with pustular–wrinkled appearance; (e) rippled patches on otherwise smooth surfaces; (f) laminae with mica enrichment and/or randomly oriented micas; (g) irregular, curved–wrinkled impressions on bedding planes; (h) uparched laminae near mud-cracks resembling growth ridges of polygonal stromatolites; and (i) lamina-specific distribution of certain early diagenetic minerals (dolomite, ferroan carbonates, pyrite). Although in none of the described examples can it irrefutably be proven that they are microbial mat deposits, the observed features are consistent with such an interpretation and should be considered indicators of possible microbial mat presence in other Proterozoic sequences.     

Late Quaternary deformation and slip rates in the northern San Andreas fault zone at Olema Valley, Marin County, California

Quaternary sedimentary deposits along the structural depression of the San Andreas fault (SAF) zone north of San Francisco in Marin County provide an excellent record of rates and styles of neotectonic deformation in a location near where the greatest amount of horizontal offset was measured after the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake. A high-resolution gravity survey in the Olema Valley was used to determine the depth to bedrock and the thickness of sediment fill along and across the SAF valley. In the gravity profile across the SAF zone, Quaternary deposits are offset across the 1906 fault trace and truncated by the Western and Eastern Boundary faults, whose youthful activity was previously unknown. The gravity profile parallel to the fault valley shows a basement surface that slopes northward toward an area of present-day subsidence near the head of Tomales Bay. Surface and subsurface investigations of the late Pleistocene Olema Creek Formation (Qoc) indicate that this area of subsidence was located further south during deposition of the Qoc and that it has migrated northward since then. Localized subsidence has been replaced by localized contraction that has produced folding and uplift of the Qoc. This apparent alternation between transtension and transpression may be the result of a northward-diverging fault geometry of fault strands that includes the valley-bounding faults as well as the 1906 SAF trace. The Vedanta marsh is a smaller example of localized subsidence in the fault zone, between the 1906 SAF trace and the Western Boundary fault. Analyses of Holocene marsh sediments in cores and a paleoseismic trench indicate thickening, and probably tilting, toward the 1906 trace, consistent with coseismic deformation observed at the site following the 1906 earthquake.New age data and offset sedimentary and geomorphic features were used to calculate four late Quaternary slip rate estimates for the SAF at this latitude. Luminescence dates of 112–186 ka for the middle part of the Olema Creek Formation (Qoc), the oldest Quaternary deposit in this part of the valley, suggest a late Pleistocene slip rate of 17–35 mm/year, which replaces the unit to a position adjacent to its sediment source area. A younger alluvial fan deposit (Qqf; basal age 30 ka) is exposed in a quarry along the medial ridge of the fault valley. This fan deposit has been truncated on its western side by dextral SAF movement, and west-side-down vertical movement that has created the Vedanta marsh. Paleocurrent measurements, clast compositions, sediment facies distributions, and soil characteristics show that the Bear Valley Creek drainage, now located northwest of the site, supplied sediment to the fan, which is now being eroded. Restoration of the drainage to its previous location provides an estimated slip rate of 25 mm/year. Furthermore, the Bear Valley Creek drainage probably created a water gap located north of the Qqf deposit during the last glacial maximum 18 ka. The amount of offset between the drainage and the water gap yields an average slip rate of 21–30 mm/year. Finally, displacement of a 1000-year-old debris lobe approximately 20 m from its hillside hollow along the medial ridge indicates a minimum late Holocene slip rate of 21–25 mm/year. Similarity of the late Pleistocene rates to the Holocene slip rate, and to previous rates obtained in paleoseismic trenches in the area, indicates that the rates may not have changed over the past 30 ka, and perhaps the past 200–400 ka. Stratigraphic and structural observations also indicate that valley-bounding faults were active in the late Pleistocene and suggest the need for further study to evaluate their continued seismic potential.     

Grain-size sensitive deformation of a stretched conglomerate from Plymouth, Vermont

The finite strain of clasts (maximum aspect ratio varying from 2 to 40) in a deformed conglomerate from Dry Hill, Plymouth, Vermont, correlates inversely with the average grain size (300-150 μm) in the clast, suggesting that the operative deformation mechanism was grain-size sensitive. In a general way, the average quartz grain size appeared to be smaller in those clasts with higher volume of minerals other than quartz. Dislocation densities varied by as much as a factor of 10 from grain to grain within a clast, but the average dislocation density was relatively constant from clast to clast. If grain-size sensitivity of strength is accepted as a working hypothesis, other elements of the microstructure, such as grain flattening, grain morphology, and dislocation structure can be reconciled as happening either through a late, low strain, high stress pulse—if the current palaeostress indicators are correct to within a factor of 10 or as happening concurrently with the grain-size sensitive mechanism if the current palaeostress estimates are in error. The evidence from this study agrees with several previously published suggestions that grain-size sensitive deformation occurs in the crust for quartzose rocks with grain size of 100 to 300 μm at temperatures of 350 to 420°C.     

Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of a glaciotectonized Early and Middle Pleistocene land surface, palaeosol and river sediments: Great Sampford, Suffolk, England

Glaciotectonized sediments and palaeosol at Great Sampford, western Suffolk, England are reconstructed to their original positions in order to determine the form of the original land surface and the associated soil development. The restored stratigraphy consists of Early Pleistocene Kesgrave Sands and Gravels which were deposited by the 'pre-glacial' river Thames, with the Early-Middle Pleistocene Valley Farm Soil developed on a terrace surface. These units are overlain by Sampford Deformation Till and Lowestoft Till, which were formed during the Middle Pleistocene Anglian glaciation. The micromorphological features of the reconstructed soil are interpreted in terms of three climatic cycles, each comprising a period of temperate climate soil formation followed by cold climate soil disruption. The final stage of disruption is associated with the periglacial climate that preceded Anglian glacierization. This pedological reconstruction is the most complex yet recognized from British Early and Middle Pleistocene palaeosols and provides an insight into major climatic oscillations prior to the Anglian Glaciation. The surface upon which the soil developed is one of the oldest terraces of the 'pre-glacial' River Thames that were formed when this river flowed northwards through East Anglia.     

Heavy metal contamination of soil around Pali Industrial Area,Rajasthan, India

Due to rapid industrialization, urbanization and intensive agriculture in India increasing contamination of heavy metals in soil has become a major concern. An environmental geochemical investigation was carried out in and around the Pali industrial development area of Rajasthan to determine the effect of contamination in the study area. Soil samples collected near the Pali industrial area were analyzed for Pb, Cr, Cu, Zn, Sr and V contents by using Philips PW 2440 X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. Samples were collected from the industrial area of Pali from the top 10 cm layer of the soil. Most of the samples were collected near small streams adjacent to industrial areas, and near Bandi River. Levels of the metals in soils around the industrial area were found to be significantly higher than their normal distribution in soil such as Pb – 293 mg/kg, Cr – 240 mg/kg, Cu – 298 mg/kg, Zn – 1,364 mg/kg, Sr – 2,694 mg/kg and V – 377 mg/kg. High concentration of these toxic elements in soil is responsible for the development of toxicity in agriculture products, which in turn affects human life. Distribution of metals, their contents at different locations, correlation of heavy metals in soil and their effect on human health are discussed in the paper.     

Formation of mud clast breccias and the process of sedimentary autobrecciation in the hominin-bearing (Homo naledi) Rising Star Cave system,South Africa

Unconsolidated mud clast breccia facies in the hominin-bearing (Homo naledi) Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, are interpreted to have formed through a process termed sedimentary autobrecciation in this study. This process, by which most of the angular mud clast breccia deposits are thought to have formed autochthonously to para-autochthonously via a combination of erosion, desiccation, diagenesis and microbial alteration of laminated mud deposits, is thought to have taken place under relatively dry (i.e. non-flooded) conditions inside the cave. Subsequently, gravitational slumping and collapse was the dominant mechanism that produced the mud clast breccia deposits, which commonly accumulate into debris aprons. The mud clast breccia is typically associated with (micro) mammal fossils and is a common facies throughout the cave system, occurring in lithified and unlithified form. This facies has not been described from other cave localities in the Cradle of Humankind. Additionally, sedimentary autobrecciation took place during the deposition of some of the fossils within the Rising Star Cave, including the abundant Homo naledi skeletal remains found in the Dinaledi Subsystem. Reworking of the mud clast breccia deposits occurs in some chambers as they slump towards floor drains, resulting in the repositioning of fossils embedded in the breccias as evidenced by cross-cutting manganese staining lines on some Homo naledi fossil remains. The formation of the unlithified mud clast breccia deposits is a slow process, with first order formation rates estimated to be ca 8 × 10⁻⁴ mm year⁻¹. The slow formation of the unlithified mud clast breccia facies sediments and lack of laminated mud facies within these deposits, indicates that conditions in the Dinaledi Chamber were probably stable and dry for at least the last ca 300 ka, meaning that this study excludes Homo naledi being actively transported by fluvial mechanisms during the time their remains entered the cave.     

Clast ploughing, lodgement and glacier sliding over a soft glacier bed

Rarely-preserved features indicative of clast lodgement are exceptionally well preserved near Peoria, Illinois, on the contact surface between Illinoian till and underlying glacifluvial sand due to synsedimentary cementation of the substrate contact. Features preserved on the cemented contact surface record a history of particle transport, lodgement by ploughing into a deformable substrate, and subsequent overriding by abrasive debris-rich ice. Linear grooves and frontal sediment prows suggest that clasts embedded in the glacier sole ploughed through the soft, deformable bed. Increasing form resistance by the enlargement of sediment prows that developed on the lee side of clasts and deeper penetration of the clasts into the substrate eventually exceeded the force exerted on the clasts by ice flow, and the clasts lodged. Subsequently, clasts were abraded on their up-ice flanks and plucked on their down-ice flanks, resulting in stoss-lee morphology. These features offer direct information on the nature of the interface between aglacier and a soft, deformable substrate such as characterized large areas of former ice sheets.     

Effects of Climate Change on Soils in Glacial Deposits, Wind River Basin, Wyoming

Soil chronofunctions are often quasilinear, but those relationships may be only gross, fortuitous generalizations that ignore changes in soils resulting from climatic and other cyclic external influences that govern soil formation or soil degradation. In the Rocky Mountains, soil development has been extensively used to estimate the age of sediments, but the number of soils is usually few, and large ranges in values for soil data may be dismissed as “normal variation.” In a detailed study of soils in the Wind River Range and Wind River Basin, characteristics of near-surface horizons do not follow age trends. However, the underlying carbonate-bearing horizons do have age-related characteristics. This “soil paradox” may be related to glacial–interglacial cycles in which (1) wind erodes near-surface horizons and then provides new parent material and (2) cryoturbation disrupts carbonate horizons, remobilizing carbonate and changing carbonate morphology but with only minimal loss of carbonate from the soil.     

K-Ar ages of the metamorphic sole of the Semail Ophiolite: implications for ophiolite cooling history

K–Ar ages have been determined on micas and hornblendes in the basal metamorphic sequence and in metamorphic rocks squeezed into the mantle sequence of the Semail Ophiolite. The hornblende ages of 99±0.5 and 102±0.8 Ma and the 90 Ma ages of coexisting micas from the high-grade metamorphic portion of the sequence are interpreted as cooling stages following the peak of metamorphism (T 800–850° C, P 6.5–9 kbar). The new pressure estimates are based on findings of kyanite in garnet-amphibolite and cordierite in quartzitic rocks. These data indicate a cooling rate of 10–30° C/Ma. The oldest mica ages of 95±1 Ma are observed in the lowest-grade greenschists. These also largely represent cooling ages, but might in part also include formation ages. The pattern of the muscovite ages across the metamorphic sole indicates that the cooling front moved from the low-grade metamorphic zone, through the high-grade rocks and into the base of the overlying ophiolite. Radiometric ages of hornblendes (92.3±0.5 and 94.8±0.6 Ma) indicate that the crustal gabbro sequence cooled below 500° C later than the base of the ophiolite sequence. Metamorphism of the sole rocks occurred during subduction of oceanic sediments and volcanic or gabbroic rocks as they progressively came into contact with hotter zones at the base of the overriding plate. The peak of metamorphism must have been contemporaneous with the main magmatism in the Semail Ophiolite. One of the dated muscovites yields an age of 81.3±0.8 Ma, but this is related to discrete deformation zones that were active during late-stage emplacement of the ophiolite.     

SHRIMP U–Pb zircon geochronology and geochemistry of metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks in Northwestern Fujian, Cathaysia block, China: Tectonic implications and the need to redefine lithostratigraphic units

Northwestern Fujian Province is one of the most important Pre-Palaeozoic areas in the Cathaysia Block of South China. Metavolcano-sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks of different types, ages and metamorphic grades (granulite to upper greenschist facies) are present, and previously were divided into several Formations and Groups. Tectonic contacts occur between some units, whereas (deformed) unconformities have been reported between others. New SHRIMP U–Pb zircon ages presented here indicate that the original lithostratigraphy and the old “Group” and “Formation” terminology should be abandoned. Thus the “Tianjingping Formation” was not formed in the Archaean or Palaeoproterozoic, as previously considered, but must be younger than its youngest detrital zircons (1790 Ma) but older than regional metamorphism (460 Ma). Besides magmatic zircon ages of 807 Ma obtained from metavolcano-sedimentary rocks of the “Nanshan Formation” and 751–728 Ma for the “Mamianshan Group”, many inherited and detrital zircons with ages ranging from 1.0 to 0.8 Ga were also found in them. These ages indicate that the geological evolution of the study area may be related to the assembly and subsequent break-up of the Rodinia supercontinent. The new zircon results poorly constrain the age of the “Mayuan Group” as Neoproterozoic to early Palaeozoic (728–458 Ma), and not Palaeoproterozoic as previously thought. Many older inherited and detrital zircons with ages of 3.6, 2.8, 2.7, 2.6–2.5, 2.0–1.8 and 1.6 Ga were found in this study. A 3.6 Ga detrital grain is the oldest one so far identified in northwestern Fujian Province as well as throughout the Cathaysia Block. Nd isotope t_DM values of eight volcano-sedimentary and clastic sedimentary rock samples centre on 2.73–1.68 Ga, being much older than the formation ages of their protoliths and thus showing that the recycling of older crust played an important role in their formation. These rocks underwent high grade metamorphism in the early Palaeozoic (458–425 Ma) during an important tectono-thermal event in the Cathaysia Block.     

Electrogeochemical patterns in surface soils - Detection of blind mineralization beneath exotic cover, Thalanga, Queensland, Australia

The problem of using surface geochemical exploration techniques in areas of very thick and electrically conductive weathering residuum is common to much of Australia. At the Elura deposit (New South Wales) a distinct electrogeochemical H⁺ anomaly can be detected in the top few cm of residual soil above about 100 m of conductive residual overburden. In the present paper the results of an investigation of the much more difficult problem of detecting sulfide mineralization beneath thick conductive transported overburden are described.The objective of the study was to demonstrate that sulfide mineralization beneath thick transported overburden can be detected by geochemical patterns in surface soils in the context of an electrogeochemical model of dispersion.The Thalanga massive sulfide deposit in northeast Queensland has at least 4 million tonnes of 15% combined Zn, Pb and Cu. The mineralized horizon lies at the contact between rhyolitic and dacitic rocks of the Cambro-Ordovician Mt. Windsor Volcanics. The deposit is covered by transported cemented Tertiary terrigenous clayey sandstones and grits; these are electrically conductive and vary in thickness from 0 to 70 m.Near-surface soil samples were collected along five traverses normal to the strike of mineralization. The traverses were located to give 0 m, 1 m, 30 m, 50 m, and 70 m overburden thicknesses; there is no known significant mineralization along the last traverse which is assumed to be background, and there is a small gossan where the overburden is absent.Dispersion patterns influenced by electrogeochemical processes should result in relatively low values for ions over massive sulfides with lateral peaks; this has been termed a “rabbit-ear” anomaly. “Rabbit-ear” anomalies in surface soils for H⁺, Cu, and Zn occur over the sulfide zone. The H⁺ pattern is better defined where there is a significant depth of overburden (where the anomaly is about 500 m wide). The Cu anomaly is 300–600 m wide, and the Zn anomaly is 450–675 m wide.Even where the overburden is 50 m thick, anomalous “rabbit-ear” anomalies for H⁺ and Zn are clearly identifiable, but the anomaly for Cu is a single peak of 20 ppm over the hanging wall. It is suggested that the results of this work convincingly demonstrate that at Thalanga surface soil samples may reliably be used to detect massive sulfide deposits - even where they are effectively blind beneath a considerable thickness of transported and conductive overburden. The processes of dispersion are speculated to be diffusion, and it is argued that the pattern-controlling mechanism is electrochemical.     

Re-evaluation of the Cablac Limestone at its type area, East Timor: Revision of the Miocene stratigraphy of Timor

The Cablac Limestone, widely recorded in Timor, has its type area on Cablac Mountain where it was regarded as a Lower Miocene shallow-marine carbonate-platform succession. The Bahaman-like facies placed in the Cablac Limestone are now known to belong to the Upper Triassic–Lower Jurassic rather than the Lower Miocene. On the northern slopes of Cablac Mountain, a crush breccia, formerly regarded as the basal conglomerate of the formation, is now considered to have developed along a high-angle fault separating Banda Terrane units of Asian affinity from an overthrust limestone stack containing units belonging to the Gondwana and Australian-Margin Megasequences. The Cablac breccia includes rock fragments that were probably derived locally from these tectonostratigraphic units after terrane emplacement and overthrusting. Clasts include peloid and oolitic limestones of the Upper Triassic–Lower Jurassic derived from the Gondwana Megasequence, deep-water carbonate pelagites of the Cretaceous and Paleogene derived from the Australian-Margin Megasequence, Upper Oligocene–Lower Miocene (Te Letter Stage) shallow-water limestone derived from the Banda Terrane, and a younger Neogene calcarenite containing clasts of mixed tectonostratigraphic affinity. There is no evidence for significant sedimentary or tectonic transport of clasts that form the breccia. The clast types and the present understanding of the geological history of Timor suggest that the crush breccia formed late in the Plio-Pleistocene uplift history of Timor. It is not the basal conglomerate of the Cablac Limestone. However, the clasts of an Upper Oligocene–Lower Miocene limestone found in the breccia suggest that a shallow-marine limestone unit of this age either outcrops in the region and has not been detected in the field, or has been eroded completely during late Neogene uplift. The clasts are similar in age and lithology to an Upper Oligocene–Lower Miocene formation that unconformably overlies a metamorphic complex in the Booi region of West Timor, similar to the Lolotoi Metamorphic Complex (Banda Terrane) that is juxtaposed against the crush breccia of Cablac Mountain. The Cablac Limestone at its type area includes a mixed assemblage of carbonate rock units ranging in age from Triassic to Plio-Pleistocene and representing diverse facies. As a formation, the name “Cablac Limestone” should be discarded for a Cenozoic unit. The Upper Oligocene–Lower Miocene shallow-water limestone unit that is typified by outcrops in the Booi region of West Timor, and that has contributed to clasts in the Cablac breccia, is informally named the Booi limestone. It is considered part of the allochthonous Banda Terrane of Asian affinity and represents the only shallow-marine Lower Miocene unit known from Timor. The only other Miocene sedimentary unit known from Timor includes carbonate pelagites – designated the Kolbano beds – probably deposited on an Australian continental terrace at water depths between 1000 and 3000 m. On the northeastern edge of Cablac Mountain, oolitic limestone and associated units of the Gondwana Megasequence, the Kolbano beds of the Australian-Margin Megasequence, and the Booi limestone and associated metasediments of the Banda Terrane were juxtaposed by a Plio-Pleistocene high-angle fault along which the Cablac crush breccia formed.     

Methane-rich fluid inclusions in skarn near the giant REE–Nb–Fe deposit at Bayan Obo, Northern China

We report fluid inclusion data for skarn, formed at the contact between Hercynian granitoids and dolomite of the Proterozoic Bayan Obo Group, in the vicinity of Bayan Obo REE–Nb–Fe deposit, Inner Mongolia, China. Three types of fluid inclusions are identified: two-phase CH₄-rich, three-phase liquid–vapour–solid and two-phase aqueous inclusions. Using microthermometry and laser Raman microprobe analysis to calculate isochores for CH₄-bearing inclusions, we estimate fluid trapping conditions at T=280 to 344 °C and P<1 to 2.3 kbar. Such conditions are compatible with formation of CH₄ inclusions as a result of reaction between graphite in the country rocks (black slate sequence) and fluids derived from magma. The lack of carbonaceous material in the inclusions supports the hypothesis that CH₄ was generated during fluid migration rather than by in situ reaction. In contrast to the skarn, and despite the fact that similar graphite-bearing slates are found in the host rocks, no CH₄-bearing inclusions have been so far reported from Bayan Obo REE ores. We therefore conclude that the skarn-forming fluids in the contact aureole of the Hercynian granitoids were not involved at any stage in the formation of the Bayan Obo deposit.     

Structure and evolution of an obliquely sheared continental margin: Rio Muni, West Africa

Oblique-shear margins are divergent continental terrains whose breakup and early drift evolution are characterized by significant obliquity in the plate divergence vector relative to the strike of the margin. We focus on the Rio Muni margin, equatorial West Africa, where the ca. 70-km-wide Ascension Fracture Zone (AFZ) exhibits oblique–slip faulting and synrift half-graben formation that accommodated oblique extension during the period leading up to and immediately following whole lithosphere failure and continental breakup (ca. 117 Ma). Oblique extension is recorded also by strike–slip and oblique–slip fault geometry within the AFZ, and buckling of Aptian synrift rocks in response to block rotation and local transpression. Rio Muni shares basic characteristics of both rifted and transform margins, the end members of a spectrum of continental margin kinematics. At transform margins, continental breakup and the onset of oceanic spreading (drifting) are separate episodes recorded by discrete breakup and drift unconformities. Oceanic opening will proceed immediately following breakup on a rifted margin, whereas transform and oblique-shear margins may experience several tens of millennia between breakup and drift. Noncoeval breakup and drift have important consequences for the fit of the equatorial South American and African margins because, in reconstructing the configuration of conjugate continental margins at the time of their breakup, it cannot be assumed that highly segmented margins like the South Atlantic will match each other at their ocean–continent boundaries (OCBs). Well known ‘misfits’ in reconstructions of South Atlantic continental margins may be accounted for by differential timing of breakup and drifting between oblique-shear margins and their adjacent rifted segments.     

World's largest known Precambrian fossil black smoker chimneys and associated microbial vent communities, North China: Implications for early life

Black smoker chimneys and biological vent communities have been identified at many sites on the deep seafloor, particularly along oceanic spreading centers. We report the largest and oldest known, microbe-rich sub-meter-sized black smoker chimneys and mounds from a 1.43 billion-year old sulfide deposit in a continental graben in northern China. These chimneys are especially well preserved, with characteristic morphology, internal textures and internal cylindrical mineralogical zonation. Four main types of chimneys are distinguished on textural and mineralogical criteria, exhibiting either Zn–Fe-sulfide or Pb–Zn–Fe-sulfide internal cylindrical mineralogical zones. The chimneys mark vent sites in submarine grabens indicating focused flow-venting processes. The fossil chimneys have mineralogical and geological evolutionary features similar to their counterparts on the modern seafloor and other submarine hydrothermal vents. Black smoker vent fluids and seafloor tectonism played important roles for formation of the massive sulfide deposits in the Mesoproterozoic.We also report the first known, remarkably diverse assemblage of fossil microbialites from around and inside Precambrian vent chimneys, demonstrating that Proterozoic life flourished around submarine hot vents and deep within the chimney vent passages. Filamentous, spherical, rod, and coccus-shaped fossil microbes are preserved preferentially on sulfide precipitates. Based on the depth and setting of the fossil biota, the organisms that produced the microbialites were likely sulfate-reducing chemosynthetic and thermophyllic microbes. Textural and mineralogical evidence shows that biomineralization processes enhanced chimney growth and sulfide precipitation.Close association of microorganisms with sulfide chimneys in modern deep-sea hydrothermal vents and younger ophiolites has sparked speculation about whether life may have originated at similar vents. However, little is known about fossil equivalents of vent microfossils and black smoker chimneys from Earth's early evolution. The fossilized microorganisms from the Gaobanhe black smoker chimney sulfide deposits include thread-like filaments with branching and twisted forms and preserved organic carbon, representing fossilized remnants of microbial mats metabolized at high temperatures characteristic of venting fluids. The preservation of fossil microorganisms provides evidence that microbial populations were closely associated with black smoker chimneys in Earth's early history. The microbial population clearly constitutes the site for mediating mineral formation. These ancient microbial fossils lead to a much better understanding of early life on the deep seafloor. The discovery of the Mesoproterozoic microfossils within black-smoker hydrothermal chimneys indicates that hydrothermal activity around sea-floor vents supported dense microbial communities, and supports speculation that vent sites may have hosted the origin of life.     

Subsidence breccias in kimberlite pipes—an application of fractal analysis

A particular variety of volcanogenic country rock breccia is described; a contact breccia that has been identified at Venetia, River Ranch and Wimbledon kimberlite pipes. The contact breccia is clast supported with no juvenile kimberlite component, has tightly packed, angular fragments (with occasional rounding of smaller particles), and has a shear-fabric dipping towards the center of each kimberlite pipe or volcanic event. Clasts have preferred orientations parallel to the fabric. Photographs of the breccia in the open pit face and measured data from drill core are analyzed specifically to quantify the clast size distributions and clast shapes by means of fractal analysis. The fractal dimension is one means of characterizing the breccia because the dimension can be specific to a fragmentation mechanism. Clast size distribution fractal dimensions in the coarser particles (greater than circa 3 cm) range from greater than 3 for nonsheared breccia, down to circa 2.3 for the sheared breccia. Breccia characterization based on this fractal analysis suggests that fragmentation occurred initially from confined high-energy explosions, followed by collapse and abrasion by subsequently gravity-induced rockmass subsidence. All studied contact breccias produced a distinctive fractal signature in the finer particles (<3 cm) of circa 1.6 that can be explained by a comminution fragmentation process in that particular particle size range. It is suggested that these subsidence breccias require a substantial volume deficit at depth within the volcanic pipe in order to explain their origin and size. The methodology used in this study could be used to characterize any other volcanic breccia and further model their origins.