Insights from trace element geochemistry as to the roles of subduction zone geometry and subduction input on the chemistry of arc magmas

Subduction zones of continental, transitional, and oceanic settings, relative to the nature of the overriding plate, are compared in terms of trace element compositions of mafic to intermediate arc rocks, in order to evaluate the relationship between subduction parameters and the presence of subduction fluids. The continental Chilean Southern Volcanic Zone (SVZ) and the transitional to oceanic Central American Volcanic Arc (CAVA) show increasing degrees of melting with increasing involvement of slab fluids, as is typical for hydrous flux melting beneath arc volcanoes. At the SVZ, the central segment with the thinnest continental crust/lithosphere erupted the highest-degree melts from the most depleted sources, similar to the oceanic-like Nicaraguan segment of the CAVA. The northern part of the SVZ, located on the thickest continental crust/lithosphere, exhibits features more similar to Costa Rica situated on the Caribbean Large Igneous Province, with lower degrees of melting from more enriched source materials. The composition of the slab fluids is characteristic for each arc system, with a particularly pronounced enrichment in Pb at the SVZ and in Ba at the CAVA. A direct compositional relationship between the arc rocks and the corresponding marine sediments that are subducted at the trenches clearly shows that the compositional signature of the lavas erupted in the different arcs carries an inherited signal from the subducted sediments.     

Experimental study of mechanical and hydraulic properties of bedded rock salt from the Jintan location

A series of triaxial compression tests, triaxial extension tests, and triaxial compression creep tests were conducted to evaluate the strength, deformability, and permeability of rock salt from the Jintan location. Based on a previous analysis, the measured data can be physically modeled very well as shown by the constitutive model Hou/Lux and indicate that China’s representative bedded rock salt from the Jintan location is characterized by good ductility and deformation properties, similar to the European high-purity rock salt. Based on a comparison of compression as well as extension failure strength determined at rock salt from Jintan location, a similarity of compression and extension failure strength could be demonstrated. Permeation flow seems to be an anisotropic process because the permeability measured at samples prior to failure by compression tests differs to those measured at samples prior to failure by extension tests. The anisotropy of damage and destruction of rock salt has a significant influence on permeability. In case of triaxial compression tests, the measured permeability increases two to six orders of magnitude because of consistent direction of injection and cracks. In case of triaxial extension tests, however, the permeability increases less with a maximum of two orders in magnitude. The test results are significant for understanding the load-bearing behavior of rock salt from Jintan location and investigations with reference to the stability and tightness of underground caverns.     

Constraining the prograde and retrograde P-T-t path of Eocene HP rocks by SHRIMP dating of different zircon domains: inferred rates of heating, burial, cooling and exhumation for central Rhodope, northern Greece

Ion microprobe (SHRIMP) dating was carried out on different zircon domains from metamorphic rocks of the HP-HT terrane of central Rhodope, northern Greece, to constrain the timing of prograde and retrograde stages within a single tectono-metamorphic cycle. A well determined P-T-t(relative) path for the metamorphic rocks of this terrane was used as a petrological basis for the geochronological investigations. Ion microprobe work was assisted by cathodoluminescence (CL) images of the zircon crystals. The geochronological results revealed that Hercynian continental crust was subducted during the Eocene. Several stages of the Eocene tectono-metamorphic cycle – including both the prograde and retrograde parts of the P-T path above ca 300 °C, 0.3 GPa – were dated using zircons from the following rock types: (1) A deformed quartz vein probably formed at ca 300 °C, 0.3 GPa. Zircons in this vein precipitated from a hydrothermal fluid; they yielded an age of 45.3 ± 0.9 Ma which corresponds to the time of a low-T prograde stage of metamorphism. (2) In kyanite eclogites, zircons were entirely reset during eclogite-facies metamorphism. Resetting was very probably enhanced by the presence of fluids derived by H₂O liberating reactions close to the P-peak. They yielded an age of 42.2 ± 0.9 Ma. (3) Orthogneisses surrounding the kyanite eclogites contained zircons with magmatic oscillatory zoned cores, which yielded Hercynian ages of 294 ± 8 Ma (age of granitic protolith formation), whereas CL-bright, metamorphic rims yielded, like the eclogite zircons, ages of 42.0 ± 1.1 Ma. Therefore, both the eclogites and orthogneisses are interpreted to have approached maximum depth at around 42 Ma. (4) In a leucosome of a migmatized orthogneiss, oscillatory zoned zircons yielded an age of 40.0 ± 1.0 Ma. At this time the rocks reached maximum temperatures during early decompression. (5) A late pegmatite crosscutting the schistosity of amphibolites contained oscillatory zoned zircons that yielded a crystallization age of 36.1 ± 1.2 Ma. Thus, the whole tectono-metamorphic cycle above ca 300 °C, 0.3 GPa lasted from 45.3 ± 0.9 Ma to 36.1 ± 1.2 Ma, that is 9.2 Ma with an extreme error value of 2.1 Ma. Based on combined SHRIMP and petrological data, the average rates of heating and burial during subduction (above ca 300 °C, 0.3 GPa) are >94 °C/Ma and >15 mm/a, respectively. Rates of cooling and exhumation (also above 300 °C, 0.3 GPa) are calculated to be >128° C/Ma and >7.7 mm/a. The Eocene age of metamorphism in central Rhodope implies that the terrane of, at least, central Rhodope and the Cyclades very probably was part of the same continental crust. Received: 5 October 1998 / Accepted: 18 January 1999     

Testing the preservation potential of early diagenetic dolomites as geochemical archives

Early marine diagenetic dolomite is a rather thermodynamically-stable carbonate phase and has potential to act as an archive of marine porewater properties. However, the variety of early to late diagenetic dolomite phases that can coexist within a single sample can result in extensive complexity. Here, the archive potential of early marine dolomites exposed to extreme post-depositional processes is tested using various types of analyses, including: petrography, fluid inclusion data, stable δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O isotopes, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios, and U-Pb age dating of various dolomite phases. In this example, a Triassic carbonate platform was dissected and overprinted (diagenetic temperatures of 50 to 430°C) in a strike-slip zone in Southern Spain. Eight episodes of dolomitization, a dolostone cataclasite and late stage meteoric/vadose cementation were recognized. The following processes were found to be diagenetically relevant: (i) protolith deposition and fabric-preservation, and marine dolomitization of precursor aragonite and calcite during the Middle–Late Triassic; (ii) intermediate burial and formation of zebra saddle dolomite and precipitation of various dolomite cements in a Proto-Atlantic opening stress regime (T ca 250°C) during the Early–Middle Jurassic; (iii) dolomite cement precipitation during early Alpine tectonism, rapid burial to ca 15 km, and high-grade anchizone overprint during Alpine tectonic evolution in the Early Eocene to Early Miocene; (iv) brecciation of dolostones to cataclasite during the onset of the Carboneras Fault Zone activity during the Middle Miocene; and (v) late-stage regression and subsequent meteoric overprint. Data shown here document that, under favourable conditions, early diagenetic marine dolomites and their archive data may resist petrographic and geochemical resetting over time intervals of 10⁸ or more years. Evidence for this preservation includes preserved Late Triassic seawater δ¹³C_DIC values and primary fluid inclusion data. Data also indicate that oversimplified statements based on bulk data from other petrographically-complex dolomite archives must be considered with caution.     

Zielvorgaben für Pflanzenschutzmittelwirkstoffe und andere Schadstoffe in Oberflächengewässern

Quality Targets for Pesticides and Other Pollutants in Surface Waters Surface waters are not only adversely affected by industrial and municipal wastewaters but also by diffuse sources. For the control of the ecological water quality, so‐called quality targets are set. The quality targets are threshold concentrations for hazardous substances related to the protected goods like water ecosystems, drinking water supply, sediments, or fishing. In this paper, quality targets for the protection of aquatic life in surface waters were derived on the basis of a concept developed by the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (Internationale Kommission zum Schutze des Rheins – IKSR). The quality targets for the selected hazardous substances, which mainly belong to the chemical class of pesticides, were calculated using ecotoxicological results for species of bacteria, algae, fish, and small crustaceans, as the four trophic standards of the water ecosystem. In cooperation with the Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt – UBA) the effect data were taken from ecotoxicological data bases. According to the concept of the IKSR, the lowest test result for the most sensitive species was multiplied by an assessment factor. This proceeding concerns the difficulty in describing the complex interactions in water ecosystems with toxicity data of single laboratory experiments for a few organisms. For seven pesticides quality targets below 0.1 μg/L were proposed. These results show that the ecotoxicologically based quality targets might be even lower than the limit values for pesticides in drinking water of 0.1 μg/L. But for most of the substances the determined values are significantly higher. The great concentration range of quality targets demonstrates distinctly that one standard concentration for all pesticides could not be given with regard to the different effects on aquatic organisms.