Current crescents from the Herreria Formation (Lower Cambrian) of northern Spain

Current crescents are well preserved on the upper surfaces of quartzite beds in the Lower Cambrian Herreria Formation of the Cantabrian Mountains in northern Spain. Within a sequence of nearshore deposits, the current crescents are interpreted as having formed by flow separation of wave backwash around obstacles on a beach. The obstacles are not preserved and are inferred to have been perishable organic material, such as stranded algae or jellyfish, which subsequently decayed.     

Convection forced by a descending dry layer and low-level moist convergence

A narrow line of convective showers was observed over southern England on 18 July 2005 during the Convective Storm Initiation Project (CSIP). The showers formed behind a cold front (CF), beneath two apparently descending dry layers (i.e. sloping so that they descended relative to the instruments observing them). The lowermost dry layer was associated with a tropopause fold from a depression, which formed 2 d earlier from a breaking Rossby wave, located northwest of the UK. The uppermost dry layer had fragmented from the original streamer due to rotation around the depression (This rotation was also responsible for the observations of apparent descent—ascent would otherwise be seen behind a CF). The lowermost dry layer descended over the UK and overran higher  θ _w   air beneath it, resulting in potential instability. Combined with a surface convergence line (which triggered the convection but had less impact on the convective available potential energy than the potential instability), convection was forced up to 5.5 km where the uppermost dry layer capped it. The period when convection was possible was very short, thus explaining the narrowness of the shower band. Convective Storm Initiation Project observations and model data are presented to illustrate the unique processes in this case.     

ENDOLITHIC LICHENS,RAPID BIOLOGICAL WEATHERING AND SCHMIDT HAMMER R‐VALUES ON RECENTLY EXPOSED ROCK SURFACES: STORBREEN GLACIER FORELAND,JOTUNHEIMEN, NORWAY

The endolithic lichen Lecidea auriculata is known to enhance rock surface weathering on the Little Ice Age moraines of the glacier Storbreen in Jotunheimen, central southern Norway. This study demonstrates the reduction in Schmidt hammer Rvalues that followed the rapid colonization by this lichen of pyroxene‐granulite boulders on terrain deglaciated over the last 88 years. In the absence of this lichen, the characteristic mean R‐value of boulder surfaces is 61.0 ± 0.3; where this lichen is present, R‐values are lower by at least 20 units on surfaces exposed for 30–40 years. A similar reduction in rock hardness on rock surfaces without a lichen cover requires about 10 ka. The rapid initial weakening of the rock surfaces is indicative of rates of biological weathering by endolithic lichens that may be two orders of magnitude (200–300 times) faster than rates of physico‐chemical weathering alone. If not avoided, the effects of this type of lichen are likely to negate the effectiveness of the Schmidt hammer and other methods for exposure‐age dating, including cosmogenic‐nuclide dating, in severe alpine and polar periglacial environments. The results also suggest a new method for dating rock surfaces exposed for <50 years.     

Schmidt hammer exposure-age dating: developing linear age-calibration curves using Holocene bedrock surfaces from the Jotunheimen–Jostedalsbreen regions of southern Norway

Matthews, J. A. & Owen, G. 2009: Schmidt hammer exposure-age dating: developing linear age-calibration curves using Holocene bedrock surfaces from the Jotunheimen–Jostedalsbreen regions of southern Norway. Boreas , 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2009.00107.x. ISSN 0300-9483.
The approach to calibrated-age dating of rock surfaces using Schmidt hammer R-values is developed, potential errors in dating Holocene rock surfaces are estimated and limitations are assessed. Multiple sites from glacially abraded bedrock outcrops of two ages (glacier forelands deglaciated for c . 100 years and adjacent late-Preboreal terrain deglaciated for c . 9700 years) are used to analyse the variability of mean R-values and to construct linear age-calibration curves for three sub-regions in the Jotunheimen–Jostedalsbreen regions of southern Norway. Conservative potential dating errors of 246–632 years are estimated using 95% confidence intervals associated with two control points, the width of the error limits being significantly greater for the Preboreal surfaces than for the younger Little Ice Age surfaces. Substantial improvements over previous age calibrations are largely attributable to the use of multiple sites as part of a research design that has effectively controlled for geological differences between the three sub-regions. In the context of the Holocene time scale, the technique is seen as complementary to cosmogenic-nuclide dating (which currently has lower precision) and lichenometric dating (which has a lower temporal range).     

The Bunburra Rockhole meteorite fall in SW Australia: fireball trajectory,luminosity, dynamics,orbit, and impact position from photographic and photoelectric records

Abstract– We report an analysis of the first instrumentally observed meteorite fall in Australia, which was recorded photographically and photoelectrically by two eastern stations of the Desert Fireball Network (DFN) on July 20, 2007. The meteoroid with an initial mass of 22 kg entered the atmosphere with a low speed of 13.36 km s^?1 and began a luminous trajectory at an altitude of 62.83 km. In maximum, it reached ?9.6 absolute magnitude and terminated after a 5.7 s and 64.7 km long flight at an altitude of 29.59 km with a speed of 5.8 km s^?1. The angle of the atmospheric trajectory to the Earth’s surface was 30.9°. The first organized search took place in October 2008 and the first meteorite (150 g) was found 97 m southward from the predicted central line at the end of the first day of searching (October 3, 2008). The second stone (174 g) was recovered 39 m northward from the central line, both exactly in the predicted mass limits. During the second expedition in February 2009, a third fragment of 14.9 g was found again very close (～100 m) from the predicted position. Total recovered mass is 339 g. The meteorite was designated Bunburra Rockhole (BR) after a nearby landscape structure. This first DFN sample is an igneous achondrite. Initial petrography indicated that BR was a brecciated eucrite but detailed analyses proved that BR is not a typical eucrite, but an anomalous basaltic meteorite ( Bland et al. 2009 ). BR was delivered from an unusual, Aten type orbit (a < 1 AU) where virtually the entire orbit was contained within Earth’s orbit. BR is the first achondrite fall with a known orbit and it is one of the most precise orbits ever calculated for a meteorite dropping fireball.     

LANDSLIDE‐GLACIER INTERACTION IN A NEOPARAGLACIAL SETTING AT TVERRBYTNEDE,JOTUNHEIMEN, SOUTHERN NORWAY

A tongue‐like, boulder‐dominated deposit in Tverrbytnede, upper Visdalen, Jotunheimen, southern Norway, is interpreted as the product of a rock avalanche (landslide) due to its angular to subangular boulders, surface morphology with longitudinal ridges, down‐feature coarsening, and cross‐cutting relationship to ‘Little Ice Age’ moraines. The rock avalanche fell onto glacier ice, probably channelled along a furrow between two glaciers, and stopped on the glacier foreland, resulting in its elongated shape and long runout distance. Its distal margin may have become remobilized as a rock glacier, but a rock glacier origin for the entire landform is discounted due to lack of source debris, presence of matrix, lack of transverse ridges, and sparcity of melt‐out collapse pits. Lichenometric dating of the deposit indicates an approximate emplacement age of ad 1900. Analysis highlights the interaction of rock‐slope failures and glaciers during deglacierization in a neoparaglacial setting, with reduced slope stability due to debuttressing and permafrost degradation, and enhanced landslide mobility due to flow over a glacier and topographic channelling. Implications for the differentiation of relict landslides, moraines and rock glaciers are discussed and interrelationships between these landforms are considered in terms of an ice‐debris process continuum.     

The Marl Slate: a model for the precipitation of calcite, dolomite and sulphides in a newly formed anoxic sea

Detailed studies of a new, complete Marl Slate core in South Yorkshire have provided information on isotopic (δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O, δ³⁴S) and geochemical variations (trace elements and C/S ratio) which enable the formulation of a model for carbonate and sulphide precipitation in the Late Permian Zechstein Sea. Calcite and dolomite are intimately associated; the fine lamination, organic character and absence of benthos in the sediments are indicative of anoxic conditions. Lithologically the core can be divided into a lower, predominantly sapropelic Marl Slate (2 m) and an upper Transition Zone (0·65 m) of alternating sapropel and calcite-rich and dolomite-rich carbonates. C/S ratios are 2·22 for the Marl Slate and 1·72 for the Transition Zone respectively, both characteristic of anoxic environments. δ¹⁸O in the carbonates shows a large and systematic variation closely mirrored by variations in calcite/dolomite ratio. The results suggest a fractionation factor equivalent to a depletion of 3·8% for ¹⁸O and 1·5% for ¹³C in calcite. The δ³⁴S values of pyrite are isotopically light (mean value = - 32·7%) suggesting a fractionation factor for the Marl Slate of almost 44%, typical of anoxic basins. The results are related to stratification in the early Zechstein Sea. Calcite was precipitated in oxic upper layers above the halocline. Below the oxic/anoxic boundary framboidal pyrite was precipitated, resulting in lower sulphate concentration and elevated Mg/Ca ratio (due to calcite precipitation). As a result of this, dolomite formation occurred below the oxic/anoxic interface, within the anoxic water column and in bottom sediments. Variations in calcite/dolomite ratios, and isotopic variations, are thus explained by fluctuations in the relative level of the oxic/anoxic boundary in the Zechstein Sea.     

Experimental soft-sediment deformation: structures formed by the liquefaction of unconsolidated sands and some ancient examples

The effects of liquefaction in saturated sand bodies under a variety of driving forces are described from shaking table experiments, and structures from the geological record are presented which are analogous to the experimental structures. The collapse of sloping heaps of cross-bedded sand under a gravitational body force generates low-angle, essentially uncontorted stratification. A basal zone of shearing may be present, with steepened and folded foresets. Stretching of foresets may be accommodated on normal faults, and bottomsets may be contorted into inclined folds. In natural systems the substrate may also liquefy, causing deformation driven by an unevenly distributed confining load. Stratification in the surface bedform is flattened, and stratification in the substratum contorted. Experiments failed to produce relative displacement at the interface between stacked sand bodies. Liquefaction of gravitationally unstable systems in sands generates load structures comparable to those from sand-mud systems. Recumbent-folded deformed cross-bedding is formed by current shear over a liquefied bed, as has been inferred from field and theoretical analyses. Shear of nonliquefied sand forms angular folds. Other deformation mechanisms, such as fluidization or seepage, may generate structures similar to all of these. Local water-escape structures driven by fluidization occur in the upper parts of some liquefied sand bodies. They include cusps, sand volcanoes and clastic dykes. Transient cavities formed in some experiments and seemed to be preserved as breached cusps. Although the experiments tried to isolate individual driving forces, driving forces may operate together, and there may be a continuum between deformation driven by water escape and deformation driven by loading. Different structures from those described here may form where liquefaction develops in a buried layer as opposed to at the sediment surface.     

Petrology of Mantle Xenoliths from Harrat al Kishb: The Mantle beneath Western Saudi Arabia

Tertiary to Recent continental rifting and sea floor spreadingformed the Red Sea. Mantle xenoliths from the Saudi ArabianRed Sea margin provide an opportunity to study the mantle beneaththe flanks of this young ocean basin. The Harrat al Kishb mantlexenolith suite consists of Cr-diopside group spinel harzburgiteand lherzolite mantle wall rock, and a variety of pyroxenitesproduced by crystallization from mafic magmas within the mantle.The pyroxenites include two texturally distinct varieties ofCr-diopside group spinel websterites, and Al-augite group spinelpyroxenite, garnet-spinel websterite, and garnet-bearing spinelclinopyroxenite. All Harrat al Kishb xenoliths are deformedto some degree and many are recrystallized. Mineral exsolutionand zoning textures indicate reequilibration to decreasing temperatureconditions. Several xenoliths provide evidence for metasomaticprocesses in the mantle beneath western Saudi Arabia. Estimates of peridotite temperatures are 900–980?C withpressure bracketed between 13 and 19 kb. Al-augite spinel pyroxenitesyield temperatures of 1050–1070?C. Garnet-spinel websteritesyield temperatures and pressures in the range 1000–1030?C,13.8–16.5 kb. These P-T estimates show that mantle temperatures are elevatedwell above those predicted by low surface heat flow measurements.Mantle heating associated with rifting is young enough thatsurface heat flow has not yet equilibrated. The xenolith dataare consistent with a model of asthenosphere upwelling beneaththe Red Sea rift. Comparison of xenolith data with existingseismic refraction data reveals a coherent picture of the compositionof the western Saudi Arabian lithosphere.