Grain boundary migration of water and carbon dioxide during uplift of garnet-zone Alpine Schist, New Zealand

Abstract Deformed quartz veins in garnet-zone schist adjacent to the active Alpine Fault, New Zealand, have fluid inclusions trapped along quartz grain boundaries. Textures suggest that the inclusions formed in their present shapes during annealing of the deformed veins. Many of the inclusions are empty, but some contain carbon dioxide with densities that range from 0.16 to 0.80 g cm⁻³. No water, nitrogen or methane was detected. The inclusions are considerably more CO₂-rich than either the primary metamorphic fluid (<5% CO₂) or fluids trapped in fracture-related situations in the same, or related, rocks (<50% CO₂). Enrichment of CO₂ is inferred to have resulted from selective migration (wicking) of saline water from the inclusions along water-wet grain boundaries after cooling-induced immiscibility of a water-CO₂ mixture. Inclusion volumes changed after loss of water. Non-wetting CO₂ remained trapped in the inclusions until further percolation progressively removed CO₂ in solution. This mechanism of fluid migration dominated in ductile quartz-rich rocks near, but below, the brittle-ductile transition. At deeper levels, hydraulic fracturing is also an important mechanism for fluid migration, whereas at shallower levels advection through open fractures dominates the fluid flow regime.     

围栏引起的有蹄类动物死亡及其对未来祁连山国家公园管理的启示

围栏是牧区畜牧业的重要组成部分。但是,这些围栏也给野生动物带来了很多负面影响,会制约它们的活动范围,妨碍其种群扩散甚至会直接导致死亡。甘肃盐池湾国家级自然保护区未来将成为祁连山国家公园的重要组成部分,本文对该区内围栏的现状及其所产生的影响进行了评估。我们通过70份调查问卷,了解了当地牧民对围栏的看法、围栏对野生有蹄类动物的威胁以及观察到的被围栏缠绕的野生动物的数量。我们发现,如果当地居民发现用于管理牲畜的围栏会伤害到野生动物,他们更可能意识到围栏带来的负面影响,那些认为围栏对野生动物有害的人更有可能支持拆除围栏。然而,对于需要雇用他人来照看家畜的牧民,支持围栏拆除的可能性较小。最佳模型只解释了部分数据差异,这表明虽然对围栏威胁的认识很重要,但其他因素可能也会影响牧民对围栏拆除的支持度。因此,为了能在新的国家公园内成功开展围栏拆除工作,有必要强化社区服务和社区合作,以减少围栏拆除对牲畜管理的影响。调查发现,当地牧民在围栏上发现过死亡的藏野驴、盘羊和藏原羚,其中发现藏野驴的次数明显多于其他两个物种。这一结果表明,前述三个物种可能更容易被围栏缠绕,未来需要加强相关研究,这将有助于推动围栏拆除计划的实施。     

Early applications of geographical information systems at the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology

Abstract

The Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) Digital Cartographic Service provides a range of services to the scientists of ITE (and others) including various techniques within the field of geographical information systems (GIS). This paper discusses work of this type as it is applied to specific ITE projects. The emphasis is very much on GIS applications to ‘real ecological science’ such as the ‘acid water’ problem and the change of forest areas into heathland. Some comments are made on fundamental GIS techniques, their use and limitations. At ITE, GIS applications are growing out of an existing use of digital mapping and remote sensing technologies; they have not purchased a GIS system ‘off the shelf.’     

Metamorphic evolution of the Central Metamorphic Belt, Klamath Province, California: an inverted metamorphic gradient beneath the Trinity peridotite

ABSTRACT Metabasalts and metasedimentary rocks of the Devonian Central Metamorphic Belt comprise the lower plate of the east-dipping Trinity thrust system in the Klamath province. An inverted metamorphic gradient is preserved in the Central Metamorphic Belt; metamorphic conditions decrease from amphibolite facies adjacent to the Trinity thrust, through albite-epidote amphibolite facies, to upper greenschist facies at the base of the Central Metamorphic Belt. Mineral chemistry, mineral assemblages and limited geothermometry suggest that peak metamorphic conditions decrease structurally downward from 650 ± 50° C at the Trinity thrust to 500 ± 50° C at the base of the Central Metamorphic Belt, under pressures of 5 ± 3 kbar. Synmetamorphic Ab + Qtz veins, up to 1 m thick, increase in abundance towards the Trinity thrust. Infiltration of H₂O-CO₂ fluids derived from prograde devolatilization reactions in the Central Metamorphic Belt caused extensive hydration and metasomatism of the Trinity peridotite; the hanging wall block of the Trinity thrust zone. Geological relationships and the preserved inverted metamorphic gradient suggest that the Central Metamorphic Belt formed in an east-dipping Devonian subduction zone in an oceanic environment. The Central Metamorphic Belt appears to represent a discrete slice of accreted oceanic crust several km thick, rather than progressively accreted material. Metamorphic pressures recorded by the Central Metamorphic Belt are intermediate between the ∼2 kbar pressures recorded in dynamothermal aureoles beneath obducted ophiolites and the 7–10 kbar preserved in subduction-related inverted metamorphic gradients. The lack of blueschist facies mineral assemblages in the Central Metamorphic Belt may possibly be explained by an anomalously warm geotherm prior to subduction or early shear heating prior to the arrival of wet rocks at depth.     

Segregation of leucogranite microplutons during syn-anatectic deformation: an example from the Taylor Valley, Antarctica

A suite of migmatites in uppermost amphibolite facies schists of the Koettlitz Group exposed in the Taylor Valley, Antarctica, provides direct evidence of the behaviour of partially molten rock during syn-anatectic deformation. The geometry of the migmatites is directly related to their position relative to the hinge of a kilometre-scale antiform. Migmatitic rocks on the fold limbs are characterized by extensional shears and fractures, filled with leucosome material, that intersect the pervasive foliation and millimetre-thick stromatic leucosomes. Vein- and dyke-like leucosomes become more common and thicker from the limb to the hinge region of the antiform. Rocks characterized by high leucosome-to-rock ratios near the antiform hinge are xenolithic in appearance. Major parasitic folds within the hinge contain leucogranite 'microplutons' up to 50 m across beneath refractory 'cap-rock' layers.
Angular boudinage structures in schists surrounded by leucosomes indicate a relatively low yield strength in the leucosome, which is compatible with a molten rather than solid leucosome. Leucogranite-bearing extensional shears and fractures indicate that repeated extensional fracturing and shearing promoted by high fluid (melt) pressure is an important mechanism of melt segregation. Dilation in the hinges of developing folds aids the migration of melt into fold hinges and the development of 10–50-m-wide 'microplutons' of xenolith-rich leucogranite.
Lack of vapour-absent melting and consequent low melt-to-rock ratios allowed the Koettlitz Group to maintain its structural coherency on a kilometre scale. Consequently, leucosome 'microplutons' did not exceed 50 m in width, and therefore observed leucosomes have not contributed to the development of adjacent plutonic-scale granitoids.