The channel between Gran Canaria and Tenerife: constructive processes and destructive events during the evolution of volcanic islands

Seismic, sidescan sonar, bathymetric multibeam and ODP (Ocean Drilling Program) data obtained in the submarine channel between the volcanic islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife allow to identify constructive features and destructive events during the evolution of both islands. The most prominent constructive features are the submarine island flanks being the acoustic basement of the seismic images. The build-up of Tenerife started following the submarine stage of Gran Canaria because the submarine island flank of Tenerife onlaps the steeper flank of Gran Canaria. The overlying sediments in the channel between Gran Canaria and Tenerife are chaotic, consisting of slumps, debris flow deposits, syn-ignimbrite turbidites, ash layers, and other volcaniclastic rocks generated by eruptions, erosion, and flank collapse of the volcanoes. Volcanic cones on the submarine island flanks reflect ongoing submarine volcanic activity. The construction of the islands is interrupted by large destructive events, especially by flank collapses resulting in giant landslides. Several Miocene flank collapses (e.g., the formation of the Horgazales basin) were identified by combining seismic and drilling data whereas young giant landslides (e.g., the Güimar debris avalanche) are documented by sidescan, bathymetric and drilling data. Sediments are also transported through numerous submarine canyons from the islands into the volcaniclastic apron. Seismic profiles across the channel do not show a major offset of reflectors. The existence of a repeatedly postulated major NE-SW-trending fault zone between Gran Canaria and Tenerife is thus in doubt. The sporadic earthquake activity in this area may be related to the regional stress field or the submarine volcanic activity in this area. Seismic reflectors cannot be correlated through the channel between the sedimentary basins north and south of Gran Canaria because the channel acts as sediment barrier. The sedimentary basins to the north and south evolved differently following the submarine growth of Gran Canaria and Tenerife in the Miocene.     

砂宝斯金矿区多矿物脉特征及其对砂岩的改造

砂宝斯矿区的成矿围岩为长石石英砂岩，砂岩被多期次的石英脉、方解石脉和高岭石脉所穿切，这些多矿物脉是热液流体运移的结果。矿物脉形成过程中对围岩进行了热改造，使砂岩发生了压溶作用、胶结作用和溶蚀作用，形成了蚀变砂岩。由于流体酸碱性和温压的变化，孔隙水介质的性质由酸性向碱性转变，在酸性成岩环境下形成的蚀变高岭石、伊利石将转变成绿泥石、绢云母等。绢云母的大量出现，石英次生加大和自生粘土矿物的形成均是热液流体活动的产物。     

山西铝土矿床成矿物质来源

山西铝土矿矿石中鲕、豆、碎屑等组构均具红土性质，结合化学成分特征、稀土元素特征、氧同住素特征、锆石等副矿物特征及含矿岩系底部岩层与下伏中奥陶纪灰岩关系和矿床分布与古陆、古岛的依赖关系等方面分析，铝土矿的成矿物质多是异源的，多为古陆上的铝硅酸盐岩红土风化产物，经流水以机械碎屑形式被搬运至海盆，沉积成矿     

Torngat ultramafic lamprophyres and their relation to the North Atlantic Alkaline Province

Geological mapping and diamond exploration in northern Quebec and Labrador has revealed an undeformed ultramafic dyke swarm in the northern Torngat Mountains. The dyke rocks are dominated by an olivine-phlogopite mineralogy and contain varying amounts of primary carbonate. Their mineralogy, mineral compositional trends and the presence of typomorphic minerals (e.g. kimzeyitic garnet), indicate that these dykes comprise an ultramafic lamprophyre suite grading into carbonatite. Recognized rock varieties are aillikite, mela-aillikite and subordinate carbonatite. Carbonatite and aillikite have in common high carbonate content and a lack of clinopyroxene. In contrast, mela-aillikites are richer in mafic silicate minerals, in particular clinopyroxene and amphibole, and contain only small amounts of primary carbonate. The modal mineralogy and textures of the dyke varieties are gradational, indicating that they represent end-members in a compositional continuum.

The Torngat ultramafic lamprophyres are characterized by high but variable MgO (10–25 wt.%), CaO (5–20 wt.%), TiO₂ (3–10 wt.%) and K₂O (1–4 wt.%), but low SiO₂ (22–37 wt.%) and Al₂O₃ (2–6 wt.%). Higher SiO₂, Al₂O₃, Na₂O and lower CO₂ content distinguish the mela-aillikites from the aillikites. Whereas the bulk rock major and trace element concentrations of the aillikites and mela-aillikites overlap, there is no fractional crystallization relation between them. The major and trace element characteristics imply related parental magmas, with minor olivine and Cr-spinel fractionation accounting for intra-group variation.

The Torngat ultramafic lamprophyres have a Neoproterozoic age and are spatially and compositionally closely related with the Neoproterozoic ultramafic lamprophyres from central West Greenland. Ultramafic potassic-to-carbonatitic magmatism occurred in both eastern Laurentia and western Baltica during the Late Neoproterozoic. It can be inferred from the emplacement ages of the alkaline complexes and timing of Late Proterozoic processes in the North Atlantic region that this volatile-rich, deep-seated igneous activity was a distal effect of the breakup of Rodinia. This occurred during and/or after the rift-to-drift transition that led to the opening of the Iapetus Ocean.     

Paleontological records indicate the occurrence of open woodlands in a dry inland climate at the present-day Arctic coast in western Beringia during the Last Interglacial

Permafrost records, accessible at outcrops along the coast of Oyogos Yar at the Dmitry Laptev Strait, NE-Siberia, provide unique insights into the environmental history of Western Beringia during the Last Interglacial. The remains of terrestrial and freshwater organisms, including plants, coleopterans, chironomids, cladocerans, ostracods and molluscs, have been preserved in the frozen deposits of a shallow paleo-lake and indicate a boreal climate at the present-day arctic mainland coast during the Last Interglacial. Terrestrial beetle and plant remains suggest the former existence of open forest-tundra with larch (Larix dahurica), tree alder (Alnus incana), birch and alder shrubs (Duschekia fruticosa, Betula fruticosa, Betula divaricata, Betula nana), interspersed with patches of steppe and meadows. Consequently, the tree line was shifted to at least 270 km north of its current position. Aquatic organisms, such as chironomids, cladocerans, ostracods, molluscs and hydrophytes, indicate the formation of a shallow lake as the result of thermokarst processes. Steppe plants and beetles suggest low net precipitation. Littoral pioneer plants and chironomids indicate intense lake level fluctuations due to high evaporation. Many of the organisms are thermophilous, indicating a mean air temperature of the warmest month that was greater than 13 °C, which is above the minimum requirements for tree growth. These temperatures are in contrast to the modern values of less than 4 °C in the study area. The terrestrial and freshwater organism remains were found at a coastal exposure that was only 3.5 m above sea level and in a position where they should have been under sea during the Last Interglacial when the global sea level was 6–10 m higher than the current levels. The results suggest that during the last warm stage, the site was inland, and its modern coastal situation is the result of tectonic subsidence.     

Towards more systematic perceptual model development: a case study using 3 Luxembourgish catchments

The synthesis of experimental understanding of catchment behaviour and its translation into qualitative perceptual models is an important objective of hydrological sciences. We explore this challenge by examining the cumulative understanding of the hydrology of three experimental catchments and how it evolves through the application of different investigation techniques. The case study considers the Huewelerbach, Weierbach and Wollefsbach headwater catchments of the Attert basin in Luxembourg. Subsurface investigations including bore holes and pits, analysis of soil samples and Electrical Resistivity Tomography measurements are presented and discussed. Streamflow and tracer data are used to gain further insights into the streamflow dynamics of the catchments, using end‐member mixing analysis and hydrograph separation based on dissolved silica and electrical conductivity. We show that the streamflow generating processes in all three catchments are controlled primarily by the subsolum and underlying bedrock. In the Huewelerbach, the permeable sandstone formation supports a stable groundwater component with little seasonality, which reaches the stream through a series of sources at the contact zone with the impermeable marls formation. In the Weierbach, the schist formation is relatively impermeable and supports a ‘fill and spill’‐type of flow mechanism; during wet conditions, it produces a delayed response dominated by pre‐event water. In the Wollefsbach, the impermeable marls formation is responsible for a saturation‐excess runoff generating process, producing a fast and highly seasonal response dominated by event water. The distinct streamflow generating processes of the three catchments are represented qualitatively using perceptual models. The perceptual models are in turn translated into quantitative conceptual models, which simulate the hydrological processes using networks of connected reservoirs and transfer functions. More generally, the paper illustrates the evolution of perceptual models based on experimental fieldwork data, the translation of perceptual models into conceptual models and the value of different types of data for processes understanding and model representation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.