New data about structure and time of formation of the Khamar-Daban terrane: U-Pb LA-ICP-MS zircon ages

This paper provides new data on the age of detrital zircons from metaterrigenous rocks of the Khamardaban Group (Kornilovskaya and Shubutuiskaya formations) which crown the succession of the Khamar-Daban terrain. It was established that the accumulation of the protoliths of both formations occurred in the interval between the Late Riphean and Early Ordovician. In this case, there is a difference between sequences of Shubutuiskaya and Kornilovskaya formations due to a sharp change in a provenance area and depositional conditions, which is a consequence of the change in the paleogeodynamic environment. In addition, this indicates the tectonic juxtaposition of these sequences and probability of accumulation of deposits of the Shubutuiskaya Formation within Dzhida island arc system.     

Investigations of the development of thunderstorm with hail. Part 1. Cloud development and formation of electric discharges

The results of synchronous radar, radiometric, and lightning-detection measurements are analyzed to reveal interrelations between the parameters of electric discharges and the parameters of cumulonimbus clouds developing in the North Caucasus. The dependences of electric activity of the cloud on radar parameiers as well as on the parameiers reirieved from Meteosat SEVIRI radiometer measurements are considered. Electric discharges (intracloud discharges and lightnings) were registered for 1 hour 40 minutes (the maximum frequency was equal to 448 discharges per minute). The relation ships are identified that connect the parameters of electric discharges with the precipitation rate and with the field of cloud top temperaiure. It was found that the frequency of eleciric discharges increases as the precipitation rate increases. The maximum frequency is reached at the precipitation rate equal to 70 mm/hour. Normalized autocorrelation functions ofthe field ofcloud top temperature retrieved from the satellite data are constructed. The high correlation is revealed between the scale of inhomogeneity of the field of cloud top temperature and the frequency of electrical discharges.     

On intense internal waves in the coastal zone of the Peter the Great Bay (the Sea of Japan)

Spatiotemporal variability of the internal gravity waves in the Sea of Japan shelf zone (in the Peter the Great Bay) is analyzed basing on the results of the experimental data processing. It is shown that, as for autumn water structure, the tidal internal waves moving towards the coast are transformed due to the non-linear effects and may reach significant amplitudes (of about 10 meters). Such waves are usually referred to as strongly non-linear. The main characteristics of such intense waves were estimated. An example of the disintegration of solitary temperature depression into the package of short-period intense internal waves is given.     

Dualistic distribution coefficients of trace elements in the system mineral–hydrothermal solution. III. precious metals (Au and Pd) in magnetite and manganmagnetite

Distribution coefficients D of Au and Pd between magnetite (manganmagnetite) and ammonium chloride hydrothermal solution and the structural D^str and surface-related D^sur terms of these coefficients were determined at 450 and 500°С and a pressure of 1 kbar using internal sampling techniques. Quantitative data on the speciation of precious metals are obtained using the technique of statistical selections of analytical data on single crystals SSADSC and compared with LA-ICP-MS data. Both Pd and Au are elements compatible with magnetite and its manganoan variety: D^str is ≈3 for Pd and ≈1 for Au, although Au seems to weakly enrich fluid at 500°C: D^str ≈ 0.5–0.8. The trends of postmagmatic Pd and Au fractionation can thus strongly depend on the presence of spinel-group minerals, first of all, magnetite and its solid solutions. The dualistic nature of the distribution coefficients provides sound grounds to believe that both elements are highly compatible, with regard not only for the structural but also for the surface-related modes of their occurrence (D^sur ≈ 17 and ≈50–70 for Au and Pd, respectively). The maximum concentrations of structural modes of the elements are 5.3 ppm for Au and 5.1 ppm for Pd and were found in the solid solution whose jacobsite mole fractions were 0.82 and 0.49, respectively. The principal distribution patterns of the elements in crystals are confirmed by LA-ICP-MS data. Data on this system testify that the distribution coefficients of minor and trace elements are geochemically dualistic because of the abnormal absorption properties of nanometer-sized nonautonomous phases on the surface of ore minerals, and this dualism plays an important geochemical role.     

Formation of adakitic granitoids in the collisional orogens: Evidence from the Early Paleozoic granitoids of the Munku–Sardyk Range,Eastern Sayan

The classical models of adakite formation by melting of basaltic layer of oceanic lithosphere in the subduction zone were verified using geochemical and Sr–Nd isotope data on the Early Paleozoic granitoids of Eastern Sayan. The presence of adakites in fold belts is usually regarded as geochemical proxy for paleogeodynamic reconstruction. The formation of felsic derivatives with adakitic signatures in the collisional orogens is inconsistent with these models and requires their revision. It is shown that the composition of the granitoids and their evolution cannot be described with these models. In order to solve this problem, two hypotheses of granitoid formation by mixing of two geochemically contrasting reservoirs were proposed and verified. According to the first hypothesis, the granitoids represent the mixing products between alkaline olivine basalts and partial melts of the gray gneiss basement of this region. The second model relates the formation of the granitoids with melting of geochemically 2700 Ma-old enriched source in the subcontinental lithospheric mantle. In spite of differences, both these hypotheses are based on the remobilization of sources formed at the previous stages of the geological evolution of the region. In both cases, adakitic geochemical characteristics of forming felsic magmas are determined by the composition of protolith rather than by their geodynamic position. Obtained preliminary results place constraints on genetic models and geochemical reservoirs participating in the formation of the granitoids.     

Quantitative parameters of Pleistocene pelagic sedimentation in the Atlantic Ocean

Lithological–facies maps of Eopleistocene and Neopleistocene sediments (with 10 and 20 m isopachs) are compiled for the pelagic part of the Atlantic Ocean based on materials recovered by 283 ocean drilling sites. Data for both maps were calculated using A.B. Ronov’s volumetric method. The calculated results include such quantitative sedimentation parameters of major sediment types as the areas covered by these sediments, their volumes, masses of the dry sedimentary material, and masses of sedimentary material deposited per specified time unit. These parameters are compared for both Eopleistocene and Neopleistocene time, and the data are utilized to separately interpret the results for terrigenous, carbonate, and siliceous sediments. The supply of terrigenous material is proved to have been enhanced in the Pleistocene as a result of both tectonic uplift of continents and climatic changes, including intensification of continental glaciation at high latitudes in both hemispheres. The growth in the productivity of carbonate plankton was overridden by growing generation of bottom and deep water masses and ensuing intensification of the dissolution of pelagic carbonates. The productivity of siliceous plankton practically did not change, perhaps, because of a favorable combination of the supply of dissolved silica and other nutrients from both West and East Antarctica.     

Gently sloping shear zones in the Belomorian Mobile Belt: Geology,structure, and <Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis>–<Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis> parameters

The Belomorian Mobile Belt (BMB) in northern Karelia mostly consists of gently sloping shear zones, whose gneisses and migmatized amphibolites and blastomylonites are typically thinly banded, with their banding consistently dipping north- and northeastward. These gently sloping shear zones were not affected by folding after they were produced and are not cut by Paleoproterozoic metabasite dikes. Intrusive metabasites in the gently sloping shear zones make up relatively small (usually <5 m) equant or elongate bodies and occur as fragments of larger bodies. These fragments are often concentrated in stripes. Metabasites in the gently sloping shear zone are sometimes also found as lenses and tabular bodies of relatively small thickness, which are conformable with the foliation of the host rocks. The gently sloping shear zones cut across older domains of more complicated structure, which suggests that these zones are gently sloping ductile shear zones. Along these zones, the nappes were thrust south- and southwestward, and this process was the last in the origin of major structural features of BMB when the Paleoproterozoic Lapland–Kola orogen was formed. Practically identical age values were obtained for the gently sloping shear zone in the two widely separated Engonozero and Chupa segments of BMB: 1879 ± 21 Ma (⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar amphibole age of amphibolite whose protolith was mafic rock) and 1857 ± 13 Ma (Sm–Nd mineral isochron age of garnet amphibolites after gabbronorite). The P–T metamorphic parameters in these gently sloping shear zones are remarkably different from the metamorphic parameters outside these zones: the pressure is 3–4 kbar lower and the temperature is 60–100°C lower. Thrusting-related decompression triggered the transition from the older high-pressure episode of Paleoproterozoic metamorphism to a younger syn-thrusting higher temperature metamorphic episode. The peak metamorphic parameters corresponding to the boundary between the amphibolite and granulite facies were reached only in the central portions of the shear zones: T= 680–760°C, P = 8.0–11.9 kbar. In areas of the most intense migmatization, temperature estimates in the central portions of the shear are as high as 810–830°C. The marginal portions of the shear zones were formed at lower temperatures of 610–630°C. The temperature heterogeneous and rock heating in the gently sloping shear zones may have resulted from flows of high-temperature metamorphic fluid that were focused to the central portions of the zones.