Postglacial chironomid assemblage succession in northernmost Ungava Peninsula,Canada

Sediment cores spanning the postglacial period were recovered from two coastal freshwater basins located 300 km apart in northernmost Ungava (Nunavik, Canada). A basal date from the sequence recovered near Wakeham Bay suggests that the region was ice‐free by as early as 9600 cal. a BP. The initial development of both investigated lacustrine ecosystems was characterised by chironomid assemblages strongly dominated by the Subtribe Tanytarsina. These early postglacial assemblages showed greatly reduced diversity but much greater abundance than during subsequent periods of lake evolution. An abrupt and distinct turnover in sedimentary chironomid assemblage composition and productivity, marked by a switch to a dominance of Orthocladiinae, occurred around 6 ka BP. This turnover likely corresponds with a significant disturbance in the regional environment, which could be linked to the final disappearance of the last remnants of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. These findings, based on the first palaeolimnological investigations undertaken in northernmost Ungava, provide new insights into lateglacial and postglacial faunal recolonisation patterns in aquatic ecosystems of the eastern Canadian Arctic. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The formation of boundary clinopyroxenes and associated glass veins in type B1 CAIs

Abstract— We used focused ion beam thin section preparation and scanning transmission electron microscopy (FIB/STEM) to examine the interfacial region between spinel and host melilite for spinel grains in type B1 inclusions from the Allende and Leoville carbonaceous chondrites. Boundary clinopyroxenes decorating spinel surfaces have compositions similar to those of coarser clinopyroxenes from the same region of the inclusion, suggesting little movement after formation. Host melilite displays no anomalous compositions near the interface and late‐stage minerals are not observed, suggesting that boundary pyroxenes did not form by crystallization of residual liquid. Allende spinels display either direct spinel‐melilite contact or an intervening boundary clinopyroxene between the two phases. Spinel‐melilite interfacial regions in a Leoville B1 are more complex, with boundary clinopyroxene, as observed in Allende, but also variable amounts of glass, secondary calcite, perovskite, and an Mg‐, Al‐, OH‐rich and Ca‐, Si‐poor crystalline phase that may be a layered double hydrate. One possible scenario of formation for the glass veins is that open system alteration of melilite produced a porous, hydrated aggregate of Mg‐carpholite or sudoite + aluminous diopside that was shock melted and quenched to a glass. The hydrated crystalline phase we observed may have been a shocked remnant of the precursor phase assemblage, but is more likely to have formed later by alteration of the glass. In the mantle, boundary clinopyroxenes may have been crystallized from Ti‐rich liquids formed by the direct dissolution of perovskite and an associated Sc‐Zr‐rich phase or as a reaction product between dissolving perovskite and liquid. In the core, any perovskite and associated Ti‐enriched liquids that may have originally been present disappeared before the growth of boundary clinopyroxene, and the observed boundary clinopyroxene may have nucleated and grown from the liquid, along with the larger core clinopyroxene.     

Stratigraphic,sedimentological and palaeoenvironmental constraints on the rise of the Urgonian platform in the western Swiss Jura

Urgonian‐type carbonates are a characteristic feature of many late Early Cretaceous shallow‐marine, tropical and subtropical environments. The presence of typical photozoan carbonate‐producing communities including corals and rudists indicates the prevalence of warm, transparent and presumably oligotrophic conditions in a period otherwise characterized by the high density of globally occurring anoxic episodes. Of particular interest, therefore, is the exploration of relationships between Urgonian platform growth and palaeoceanographic change. In the French and Swiss Jura Mountains, the onset and evolution of the Urgonian platform have been controversially dated, and a correlation with other, better dated, successions is correspondingly difficult. It is for this reason that the stratigraphy and sedimentology of a series of recently exposed sections (Eclépens, Vaumarcus and Neuchâtel) and, in addition, the section of the Gorges de l’Areuse were analysed. Calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy, the evolution of phosphorus contents of bulk rock, a sequence‐stratigraphic interpretation and a correlation of drowning unconformities with better dated sections in the Helvetic Alps were used to constrain the age of the Urgonian platform. The sum of the data and field observations suggests the following evolution: during the Hauterivian, important outward and upward growth of a bioclastic and oolitic carbonate platform is documented in two sequences, separated by a phase of platform drowning during the late Early Hauterivian. Following these two phases of platform growth, a second drowning phase occurred during the latest Hauterivian and Early Barremian, which was accompanied by significant platform erosion and sediment reworking. The Late Barremian witnessed the renewed installation of a carbonate platform, which initiated with a phase of oolite production, and which progressively evolved into a typical Urgonian carbonate platform colonized by corals and rudists. This phase terminated at the latest in the middle Early Aptian, due to a further drowning event. The evolution of this particular platform segment is compatible with that of more distal and well‐dated segments of the same northern Tethyan platform preserved in the Helvetic zone of the Alps and in the northern subalpine chains (Chartreuse and Vercors).     

Review on the use of natural cave speleothems as palaeoseismic or neotectonics indicators

Collapses that affect cave speleothems have frequently been attributed to earthquakes, although this has not been proved. Observations after an earthquake and laboratory tests indicate that only slender speleothems break under coseismic solicitation. Other causes as subsidence, decompression and creeping of ice or cave sediments explain most of the breaks. Tectonics is also a major cause of speleothems breakages and it is possible to detect minute movements of faults. It seems possible to make the difference between brutal coseismic movements and aseismic slow ones. However, the interpretation is often difficult, as the damage can also be caused by gravity tectonics or glacitectonics. To cite this article: É. Gilli, C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).     

Volcans de la chaîne des Puys (Massif central,France) : point sur la chronologie Vasset–Kilian–Pariou–Chopine

On the basis of radiocarbon ages obtained on wood burned by base surges and tephrochronological observations, it has been possible to assess that the Puy Chopine, aged ca 9700 yr is older by a few centuries than both the Vasset and Kilian volcanoes. The last two have nearly the same age, ca 9300–9400 yr. Layers of trachytic tephra, most probably originated from Kilian or Vasset, can be observed overlapping those from the Pariou. This last volcano had been previously thought to be the younger of the area on the basis of the observation of trachytic tephra beneath its own tephra. However, new observations allow us to assume that those trachytes originated from the acid phase of the Pariou itself. Therefore, it can be assessed that the four volcanoes erupted according to the following sequence: Chopine/Pariou/?Vasset?/Kilian; the chronological situation of Vasset lies on poor arguments and it should be confirmed. To cite this article: D. Miallier et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).     

Évolution temporelle et architecture interne d'un banc sableux estuarien : la Longe de Boyard (littoral atlantique,France)

The evolution and the internal architecture of an estuary type sand ridge has been studied with a set of bathymetric data recorded during the last two centuries and with a dense grid of recent very high resolution seismic profiles. Bathymetric data of the so-called, Longe de Boyard sand ridge, displays sand losts due to wave and tide erosion. Internal geometry, through seismic profile analysis, indicates two main phases of deposition recording both, a recent high energy environment and an older low energy one, respectively. Such an evolution is believed to record changes in sedimentation processes mainly related to the end of the Holocene transgression (8 000–5 000 yr BP). To cite this article: É. Chaumillon et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 119–126.