Isotopic age and metamorphic history of the banded gneiss at Danmarkshavn,East Greenland

Along the northern part of the East Greenland coast the Caledonian structures are superimposed on an older fold system called the Carolinidian. Traces of this Carolinidian belt are preserved in a few isolated fragments within the Caledonian fold belt. According to Haller (1970) one of these fragments exhibiting the typical Carolinidian NNW to NW-trending infrastructural folds is the peninsula of Germania Land which is accessible near the Danish weather station Danmarkshavn. The rock sampled there is a banded gneiss of granodioritic composition with steeply inclined, NNW-trending layers. Isotopic age determinations yielded essentially two groups of ages: 1) 3,000±150 m.y. (zircon suite and Rb/Sr whole rock analyses of layers) and 2) 320–380 m.y. (Rb/Sr mineral isochrons, U-Th-Pb on sphene, K/Ar on hornblende and biotite). The egg-shaped zircons support a sedimentary origin of the banded gneiss and in conjunction with the Rb/Sr whole rock ages determine the age of formation of the banded gneiss (or its last high grade metamorphism) some 3,000 m.y. ago. No other Precambrian metamorphism or orogeny is recorded in the rock. The ages between 320–380 m.y. date a thermal event of lower amphibolite facies grade related to a late Caledonian spasm.The new isotopic data reveal the existence of very old rocks in the hinterland — away from the direction of thrusting—of the East Greenland Caledonian belt. With respect to the age of the Carolinidian fold system three geological interpretations are compatible with the results of this study:

Order-disorder relations in natural and heated rhomb porphyry plagioclases

Several plagioclase samples from core and rim of rhomb porphyry phenocrysts of the Oslo region were heated under dry conditions at 1050° C for 1, 10, 97, and 811 hours. X-ray powder photographs show that the structurally disordered to intermediate core and rim plagioclases crystallized under similar conditions. Between the slope of the [(2 ₁₃₁–2 _1¯31) vs. heating time]-curve and the potassium content in solid solution of these plagioclases exists the relation: the lower the K content, the steeper is the slope.Dr. Gorica Harnik-optrajanova, EMPA, Swiss Federal Laboratory for Testing Materials and Research, Überlandstraße 129, CH-8600 Dübendori, Switzerland.     

Geochronology of a polymetamorphic and anatectic gneiss region: The moldanubicum of the area Lam-Deggendorf,eastern Bavaria,Germany

Rb-Sr isotopic analyses of whole-rocks and biotite and U-Th-Pb analyses of zircon and monazite reveal regional metamorphic events for the Ordovician (Caledonian metamorphism) and the Carboniferous (Variscan=Hercynian orogeny), both accompanied by anatexis. The extent of the Caledonian and Variscan anatexis, however, cannot be evaluated, so far, because the field petrographic criteria are not sufficient to distinguish clearly between early and late Paleozoic anatexites. Evidence for a Precambrian metamorphism has not been found. Rb-Sr whole-rock isochrons obtained on leucosomes and melanosomes of partially molten paragneisses are interpreted as a minimum age of the second, early Variscan anatexis. The alternative explanation of the isochrons as a result of local Sr isotopic redistribution without a melt involved is considered less likely. Concordant and nearly concordant zircon ages (318–335 m.y.) of a coarse-grained granite and of diatexites are regarded as evidence for an intensive early Variscan granitization and palingenesis. Concordant zircon ages of diorite dykes, crosscutting the anatexites, establish a lower time limit of 309–312 m.y. for the Variscan anatexis. Rb-Sr ages of biotite (310-290 m.y.) indicate the end of the Variscan metamorphism. Estimates of the time of sedimentation or diagenesis based on Rb-Sr whole-rock analyses for some metasediment series in the north of the area yield maximum ages of 550 m.y., provided that Rb and Sr migration did not exceed substantially the extent of the outcrops (30–500 m) between the time of diagenesis and the Ordovician metamorphism. Otherwise, an upper limit of 2000–2300 m.y., which is the primary age of detrital zircon populations, can be established. Zircon populations of paragneisses and their anatectic derivatives were separated into size and shape fractions. From morphologic studies and U-Pb isotopic analyses, they were found to be composites of young concordant (318–325 m.y.) and old, highly discordant zircon components, with more than fifty per cent of young crystals in some anatexites. The apparent ages of the composites are 320–750 m.y. The U concentrations of the newly formed crystals can be higher, equal, or lower than those of the inherited zircon component. Some peculiarities in the concordia plot of the zircon data of paragneisses and migmatites (curved pattern; inversion of the generally observed systematics with respect to U concentration, grain size, degree of discordance) are interpreted as the result of polyepisodic disturbances of the inherited crystals in connection with new zircon growth. In the concordia diagram, the data points of the individual zircon grains containing inherited components appear to plot in band or wedgelike areas, and not on lines as the patterns of size fractions of the same zircon populations could pretend. Consequently, ages obtained by extrapolation of the regression curves to the concordia are not necessarily meaningful and require verification by other methods.     

A decision support system for assessing and managing environment risk cross borders

Risk assessment and management, are increasingly established as key procedures in dealing with the range of environmental issues at different scales and of different nature. Although at the EU and international policy level requirements for the use of risk assessment and management are being established through emerging policy and legislation, this demand has not been followed with common guidance on how to do so. This has proven to hinder the effective adoption of such processes, and posed a barrier more so in its implementation for large transboundary issues. In this paper is presented a Decision Support System (DSS) designed to provide a common framework and procedure for environmental risk assessment and management. The DSS is web-based and was developed to enable the formalized and more systematic utilization of risk assessment and management procedures in environmental decision making processes, in particular for users such as public authority officials charged with the responsibility of implementing risk management legal and policy obligations, yet which have limited know how in the field of risk. The DSS presented herein enables environmental administrators and decision makers to undertake generic risk assessment and management identifying areas where detailed risk assessment is required, proposing as well as appropriate risk management options. The web DSS was developed and piloted as part of the STRiM project funded by the European Union. Herein are shown results from the web application which has been trailed successfully in four pilot trials addressing risks of forest damage from storms, water pollution from olive mill waste discharges, wetland loss from water abstraction, and damage from flooding.