Regional record of a global oceanic anoxic event: OAE1a on the Apulia Platform margin, Gargano Promontory, southern Italy

The Gargano Promontory of southern Italy, located on the eastern margin of the Apulia Platform, represents a peculiar Tethyan area where the transition between carbonate platform and adjacent basins is exposed on land. The Aptian stratigraphic record, represented in shallow-water, slope and deep-water deposits, provides a good opportunity to investigate the regional response to the worldwide documented climatic, biotic and palaeoceanographic changes related to Oceanic Anoxic Event 1a (OAE1a). A synthesis of data previously published (Ischitella and Coppitella sections), together with original data (Val Carbonara and Coppa della Guardia sections), from four stratigraphic sections from different depositional settings (proximal to distal) is provided, using an integrated, high-resolution micropalaeontological (planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils) and, for one section, geochemical (stable carbon and oxygen isotopes) approach. Organic matter preservation is confined to the more distal areas and consists of two thin intervals of black shales in the Aptian portion of the Marne a Fucoidi Formation. Biostratigraphic data assign the older black shale (5 cm thick) to the Selli Level equivalent (OAE1a, Lower Aptian); this carbon-rich interval is immediately followed by another black shale (7–10 cm thick) of early Late Aptian age.OAE1a is generally interpreted as a high-productivity event during a warming interval, followed by a cooling trend. In the Gargano Promontory, although the oxygen isotope curve indicates the above-mentioned climatic evolution, the micropalaeontological data do not support high fertility of the surface water, whereas micropalaeontological and geochemical data for the younger black shale do record high productivity (radiolarian increase in overall abundance, low nannofossil and foraminiferal species richness, increase in abudance of nannofossil fertility indices) associated with a cooling trend. The carbon and oxygen isotope record is in line with evidence from the curves documented elsewhere, whereas, among the biotic events, only the “nannoconid crisis” preceding OAE1a is revealed to be globally correlable.Environmental models for the two episodes of organic matter preservation are proposed, taking into account both global and local controlling factors.     

Stratigraphic evolution of a fluvial–eolian succession: The example of the Upper Jurassic—Lower Cretaceous Guará and Botucatu formations, Paraná Basin, Southernmost Brazil

The Guará and Botucatu formations comprise an 80 to 120 m thick continental succession that crops out on the western portion of the Rio Grande do Sul State (Southernmost Brazil). The Guará Formation (Upper Jurassic) displays a well-defined facies shift along its outcrop belt. On its northern portion it is characterised by coarse-grained to conglomeratic sandstones with trough and planar cross-bedding, as well as low-angle lamination, which are interpreted to represent braided river deposits. Southwards these fluvial facies thin out and interfinger with fine- to medium-grained sandstones with large-scale cross-stratification and horizontal lamination, interpreted as eolian dune and eolian sand sheets deposits, respectively. The Botucatu Formation is characterised by large-scale cross-strata formed by successive climbing of eolian dunes, without interdune and/or fluvial accumulation (dry eolian system). The contact between the Guará and the Botucatu formations is delineated by a basin-wide deflation surface (supersurface). The abrupt change in the depositional conditions that took place across this supersurface suggests a major climate change, from semi-arid (Upper Jurassic) to hyper-arid (Lower Cretaceous) conditions. A rearrangement of the Paraná Basin depocenters is contemporaneous to this climate change, which seems to have changed from a more restrict accumulation area in the Guará Formation to a wider sedimentary context in the Botucatu Formation.     

Partial melting and P–T evolution of the Kodaikanal Metapelite Belt, southern India

The Kodaikanal region of the Madurai Block in southern India exposes a segment of high-grade metamorphic rocks dominated by an aluminous garnet–cordierite–spinel–sillimanite–quartz migmatite suite, designated herein as the Kodaikanal Metapelite Belt (KMB). These rocks were subjected to extreme crustal metamorphism during the Late Neoproterozoic despite the lack of diagnostic ultrahigh-temperature assemblages. The rocks preserve microstructural evidence demonstrating initial-heating, dehydration melting to generate the peak metamorphic assemblage and later retrogression of the residual assemblages with remaining melt. The peak metamorphic assemblage is interpreted to be garnet + sillimanite + K-feldspar + spinel + Fe–Ti oxide + quartz + melt, which indicates pressure–temperature (P–T) conditions around 950–1000 °C and 7–8 kbar based on calculated phase diagrams. A clockwise P–T path is proposed by integrating microstructural information with pseudosections. We show that evidence for extreme crustal metamorphism at ultrahigh-temperature conditions can be extracted even in the cases where the rocks lack diagnostic ultrahigh-temperature mineral assemblages. Our approach confirms the widespread regional occurrence of UHT metamorphism in the Madurai Block during Gondwana assembly and point out the need for similar studies on adjacent continental fragments.     

Anticlockwise evolution of ultrahigh-temperature granulites within continental collision zone in southern India

We report three new localities of corundum and sapphirine-bearing hyper aluminous Mg-rich and silica-poor ultrahigh-temperature granulites formed during Late Neoproterozoic-Cambrian times within the Palghat–Cauvery Shear Zone system in southern India. From petrologic characteristics, mineral chemistry and petrogenetic grid considerations, the peak metamorphic conditions of these rocks are inferred to lie around 950–1000 °C (as suggested by Al in orthopyroxene thermometer) at pressures above 10 kbar (as indicated by the equilibrium orthopyroxene–sillimanite–gedrite ± quartz assemblage). These rocks preserve several remarkable reaction textures, the most prominent among which is the triple corona of spinel–sapphirine–cordierite on corundum, with the whole textural assembly embedded within the matrix of gedrite, suggesting the reaction: Ged + Crn = Spl + Spr + Crd. The formation of sapphirine–sillimanite assemblage/symplectite associated with relict corundum and porphyroblasitc cordierite is explained by the reaction: Crd + Crn = Spr + Sil. The association of sapphirine cordierite symplectite with gedrite–sillimanite assemblage as well as with aluminosilicate boundaries indicates the gedrite consuming reaction: Ged + Sil = Spr + Crd. Extensive growth of sapphirine–cordierite observed on the rim of gedrite porphyroblasts with spinel occurring as relict inclusions within the sapphirine indicates the reaction: Ged + Spl = Spr + Crd. The pressure–temperature (P–T) path defined from the observed mineral assemblages and reaction texture is characterized by anticlockwise trajectory, with a prograde segment of initial heating and subsequent deep burial, followed by retrograde near-isothermal decompression. Such an anticlockwise trajectory is being reported for the first time from southern India and has important tectonic implications since these rocks were developed at the leading edge of the crustal block that was involved in collisional orogeny and subsequent extension during the final phase of assembly of the Gondwana supercontinent. We propose that the rocks were subjected to deep subduction and rapid exhumation, and the extreme thermal conditions were attained either through input from underplated mantle-derived magmas, or convective thinning or detachment of the lithospheric thermal boundary layer during or after crustal thickening.     

Spinel–sapphirine–quartz bearing composite inclusion within garnet from an ultrahigh-temperature pelitic granulite: Implications for metamorphic history and P–T path

We report here a multiphase mineral inclusion composed of quartz, plagioclase, K-feldspar, sapphirine, spinel, orthopyroxene, and biotite, in porphyroblastic garnet within a pelitic granulite from Rajapalaiyam in the Madurai Granulite Block, southern India. In this unique textural association, hitherto unreported in previous studies, sapphirine shows four occurrences: (1) as anhedral mineral between spinel and quartz (Spr-1), (2) subhedral to euhedral needles mantled by quartz (Spr-2), (3) subhedral to anhedral mineral in orthopyroxene, and (4) isolated inclusion with quartz (Spr-4). Spr-1, Spr-2, and Spr-4 show direct grain contact with quartz, providing evidence for ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) metamorphism at temperatures exceeding 1000 °C. Associated orthopyroxene shows high Mg/(Fe + Mg) ratio ( 0.75) and Al₂O₃ content (up to 9.6 wt.%), also suggesting T > 1050 °C and P > 10 kbar during peak metamorphism.

Coarse spinel (Spl-1) with irregular grain morphology and adjacent quartz grains are separated by thin films of Spr-1 and K-feldspar, suggesting that Spl-1 and quartz were in equilibrium before the stability of Spr-1 + quartz. This texture implies that the P–T conditions of the rock shifted from the stability field of spinel + quartz to sapphirine + quartz. Petrogenetic grid considerations based on available data from the FMAS system favour exhumation along a counterclockwise P–T trajectory. The irregular shape of the inclusion and chemistry of the inclusion minerals are markedly different from the matrix phases suggesting the possibility that the inclusion minerals could have equilibrated from cordierite-bearing silicate-melt pockets during the garnet growth at extreme UHT conditions.     

新疆博格达南缘后碰撞期陆内裂谷和水下滑塌构造

本文较为系统地研究了哈密市七角井-车轱辘泉和乌鲁木齐市白杨沟地区晚古生代后碰撞期陆内裂谷和滑塌构造的几何学、岩石学和地球化学特征。研究表明,在博格达山南缘的七角井-车轱辘泉一带,玄武岩和流纹岩彼此互层产出,构成厚度较大的后碰撞期双峰式火山岩系,呈近东西方向平行造山带展布,堆积在早二叠世红色磨拉石之上;在白杨沟一带,后碰撞水下滑塌堆积岩与火山岩共存,构成一个厚1300m的滑塌构造剖面,由水下滑塌堆积岩夹双峰式火山岩带、枕状熔岩-气孔状玄武岩带和硅质、泥砂质岩带所组成。其底部以北东走向的拆离断层和晚石炭世灰岩、砂岩岩层接触。在岩石地球化学特征上,火山岩的SiO2含量在53%-67%之间出现间断,呈现双峰式火山岩的特点。其中,流纹岩SiO2平均71.65%,CaO2.15%,Na2O与K2O含量相近(3.2%-3.7%),含碱量>含钙量,ANKC值>1.1;轻稀土富集、稀土总量高,铕亏损,具明显Eu负异常。与之共生的玄武岩则以富硅贫碱为特征,SiO2平均51.05%,TiO2含量变化较大,轻稀土轻度富集,铕异常不明显,属拉斑系列玄武岩类。其特征和东非阿法尔裂谷的双峰式火山岩相近,反映陆内裂谷环境。对滑塌堆积岩带中的辉绿玢岩作锆石U-Pb测年,获289±5Ma年龄值,相当于二叠纪初期。从晚二迭叠世开始,全区处于相对稳定的剥蚀-堆积环境中,形成了厚度较大的磨拉石,并逐渐演化为三叠纪的准平原化环境。     

DMS and SO2 at Baring Head, New Zealand: Implications for the Yield of SO2 from DMS

Atmospheric dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂) concentrations were measured at Baring Head, New Zealandduring February and March 2000. Anti-correlated DMS and SO₂ diurnalcycles, consistent with the photochemical production of SO₂ from DMS, were observed in clean southerly air off the ocean. The data is used to infer a yield of SO₂ from DMS oxidation. The estimated yields are highly dependent on assumptions about the DMS oxidation rate. Fitting the measured data in a photochemical box model using model-generated OH levels and the Hynes et al. (1986) DMS + OH rate constant suggests that theSO₂ yield is 50–100%, similar to current estimates for the tropical Pacific.However, the observed amplitude of the DMS diurnal cycle suggests that the oxidation rate is higher than that used by the model, and therefore, that theSO₂ yield is lower in the range of 20–40%.     

武当地块基性岩席群及其地质意义

侵位于武当地块内部的大量的板状为基性侵入体近年来一直被认为是800Ma左右发生的扬子古大陆裂解的重要依据。然而作者在武当地块北缘与西南部所做的1：5万地质填图以及相应的构造学和同位素年代学研究表明，它们与武当地块顺层伸展滑脱构造主滑脱面之顺层韧性一韧性变形带有密切的空间关系，是被褶皱了的岩席群。最新获得的岩体单颗粒锆石U－Pb年龄为401－407Ma，结合已有的地球化学研究成果，并考虑到邻区同时代碱性岩浆的侵位，作者认为，这套基性岩群代表了泥盆纪时南秦岭地区曾发生过大规模的上地幔岩浆的底侵作用，并因此导致南秦岭上部地壳的伸展减薄。     

秦岭造山带勉略缝合带构造变形与造山过程

秦岭晚古生代以来造山过程中的构造变形研究对建立华北板块与华南板块之间的最终拼合过程尤为重要。为此，选择勉略带进行了详细的野外调查，对其物质组成，几何学结构，变形序列，运动学和动力学作了系统解剖，认为：勉略带是有一定宽度，由一定实体组成的蛇构造混杂岩带，它包括不同时代，不同构造背景，不同起源的一系列构造岩片，如：基底岩片组，洋壳岩片组，岛弧岩片组，碰撞构造沉积楔形体，大陆边缘岩片组，它们被一系列的北倾南冲的断裂分割。勉略带到－高川段的北倾南冲逆冲断裂和勉略带北部南倾北冲的逆冲断裂组合成为现今不对称的正花状几何学结构，但勉略带的北界状元碑断裂和南界 到－略阳断裂走滑特征明显。结合勉略带邻区的构造特征，分别对带内重要断裂及岩片的构造解析表明，除主造山的大地构造演化阶段外，可将勉略带构造变形序列及演化历程总体归纳为三大阶段：俯冲变形阶段，主造山碰撞变形阶段的陆内造山调整变形阶段，并对不同变表阶段的时限，变形特征，运动学和动力学分别作了描述；最后针对该区复杂的楔入，挤出（逃逸）走滑，逆冲过程，提出了一个统一的动力学演化模式。