The Physico-Chemical Properties of a Subducted Slab from Garnet Zonation Patterns (Sesia Zone, Western Alps)

Garnets in continentally derived high-pressure (HP) rocks ofthe Sesia Zone (Western Alps) exhibit three different chemicalzonation patterns, depending on sample locality. Comparisonof observed garnet zonation patterns with thermodynamicallymodelled patterns shows that the different patterns are causedby differences in the water content of the subducted protolithsduring prograde metamorphism. Zonation patterns of garnets inwater-saturated host rocks show typical prograde chemical zonationswith steadily increasing pyrope content and increasing XMg,together with bell-shaped spessartine patterns. In contrast,garnets in water-undersaturated rocks have more complex zonationpatterns with a characteristic decrease in pyrope and XMg betweencore and inner rim. In some cases, garnets show an abrupt compositionalchange in core-to-rim profiles, possibly due to water-undersaturationprior to HP metamorphism. Garnets from both water-saturatedand water-undersaturated rocks show signs of intervening growthinterruptions and core resorption. This growth interruptionresults from bulk-rock depletion caused by fractional garnetcrystallization. The water content during burial influences significantly thephysical properties of the subducted rocks. Due to enhancedgarnet crystallization, water-undersaturated rocks, i.e. thoselacking a free fluid phase, become denser than their water-saturatedequivalents, facilitating the subduction of continental material.Although water-bearing phases such as phengite and epidote arestable up to eclogite-facies conditions in these rocks, dehydrationreactions during subduction are lacking in water-undersaturatedrocks up to the transition to the eclogite facies, due to thethermodynamic stability of such hydrous phases at high P–Tconditions. Our calculations show that garnet zonation patternsstrongly depend on the mineral parageneses stable during garnetgrowth and that certain co-genetic mineral assemblages causedistinct garnet zonation patterns. This observation enablesinterpretation of complex garnet growth zonation patterns interms of garnet-forming reactions and water content during HPmetamorphism, as well determination of detailed P–T paths. KEY WORDS: dehydration; high-pressure metamorphism; Sesia Zone; subduction; thermodynamic modelling     

Flow dynamics and geomorphology of a trough blowout

The dynamics and geomorphological development of a trough blowout located at Fiona Beach in the Myall Lakes National Park in NSW, Australia, are examined. Wind speeds, velocities and flow structure were measured utilizing an array of miniature Rimco cup anemometers, Gill bivane and UVW instruments, and wind vanes. Flow measurements indicate that when the wind approaches the trough blowout parallel to the throat orientation, jets occur both in the deflation basin and along the erosional walls, relative flow deceleration and expansion occurs up the depositional lobe, jets are formed over the depositional lobe crest accompanied by downwind flow separation on the leeward side of the lobe, and flow separation and the formation of corkscrew vortices occur over the crests of the erosional walls. Maximum erosion and transport occurs up the deflation basin and onto the depositional lobe. Trough blowout morphologies are explained as a function of these flow patterns. When the wind approaches the blowout obliquely, the flow is steered considerably within the blowout, and the degree and complexity of topographic steering is dependent on the blowout topography. The flow is usually extremely turbulent and large corkscrew vortices are common. The local topography of a blowout can be very important in determining overall sand transport and blowout evolutionary conditions and paths. Estimates of potential sand transport within the blowout may be up to two orders of magnitude lower than actual rates if remotely sensed wind data are used.     

Metamorphic Evolution of the Seward Peninsula Blueschist Terrane

Blucschists and greenschists of the central Seward Peninsula(the Nome Group) crop out over an 8000 km² area. The protolithpackage for the mid-Jurassic high P/T metamorphism consistedlargely of Cambrian, possibly also Precambrian, to Devoniansedimentary rocks (limestones, marls, pelites, carbonaceoussiltites, quartzites) of shallow water miogeoclinal origin,which maintained a coherent lithostratigraphy during metamorphismand concurrent high-strain, noncoaxial deformation. Several experimentally and empirically calibrated geothermobarometershave been integrated with textural and microstructural observationsin order to derive a pressure-temperature (P-T) path for themetamorphism of the Nome Group. These data, coupled with previouslyobtained Rb-Sr phengite-whole-rock isochron ages, yield a P-T-tpath showing a steep burial segment followed by a prolongedperiod ({small tilde}55 Ma) of isothermal decompression. Peakpressures, obtained from the jadeite content of clinopyroxenein rare, isofacial eclogites, and from the celadonite contentin phengite yield {small tilde}12 kb. Temperatures at this pressure,gained from garnet-clinopyroxene and microcline-plagioclasepairs, were 460?30?C. Decompression temperatures were essentiallythe same, as evidenced by calcite-dolomite and garnet-biotitethermometry. Uniformity of metamorphic conditions throughoutthe Seward Peninsula blueschist terrane coupled with the miogeoclinalnature of the protolith package indicate burial beneath a flat-lying(A-type) subduction zone. The derived P-T-t path is difficultto reconcile with one-dimensional thermal models of collisionalblueschists, where peak P and T are not generally coincident.     

Pressure image assimilation for atmospheric motion estimation

The complexity of the laws of dynamics governing 3-D atmospheric flows associated with incomplete and noisy observations make the recovery of atmospheric dynamics from satellite image sequences very difficult. In this paper, we address the challenging problem of estimating physical sound and time-consistent horizontal motion fields at various atmospheric depths for a whole image sequence. Based on a vertical decomposition of the atmosphere, we propose a dynamically consistent atmospheric motion estimator relying on a multilayer dynamic model. This estimator is based on a weak constraint variational data assimilation scheme and is applied on noisy and incomplete pressure difference observations derived from satellite images. The dynamic model is a simplified vorticity-divergence form of a multilayer shallow-water model. Average horizontal motion fields are estimated for each layer. The performance of the proposed technique is assessed using synthetic examples and using real world meteorological satellite image sequences. In particular, it is shown that the estimator enables exploiting fine spatio-temporal image structures and succeeds in characterizing motion at small spatial scales.     

Frederick M'Coy: an eminent Victorian palaeontologist and his synopses of Irish palaeontology of 1844 and 1846

To most modern-day students of palaeontology, the name Frederick M'Coys (c. 1823–1899) is familiar; to other Earth scientists it possibly won't be. Who was M'Coy and why is 1994 a significant year for palaeontologists and historians of the Earth sciences? This year marks the sesquicentenary of the publication of M'Coy's A Synopsis of the Characters of the Carboniferous Limestone Fossils of Ireland (1844). This monograph, together with that for Lower Palaeozoic fossils, A Synopsis of the Silurian Fossils of Ireland, published two years later, which describe the collections of Richard Griffith, remain highly important to palaeontologists working today.     

Storm sedimentation

Storm-driven currents can carry sand from the shoreline tens of kilometres out onto the continental shelves where it is moulded by storm waves into a storm-sand bed showing distinctive sedimentary structures, including hummocky crossstratification. An understanding of the nature of the depositional currents and the processes that form hummocky cross-stratification comes from the work of oceanographers, observations by geologists and experimental studies in the laboratory, although the conclusions reached are sometimes conflicting. Storm-sandstone beds provide valuable information about sediment dispersal and depositional systems in nearshore and shelf environments. Hummocky crossstratification indicates the activity of storm waves and hence the approximate depth of ancient shelf seas.     

RESTORATION OF SHEEP TRANSHUMANCE IN THE EBRO VALLEY,ARAGON, SPAIN*

For centuries, sheep transhumance has connected the Spanish highlands with the lowlands, creating a livestock system with important social, economic, cultural, and landscape effects. About 5 million sheep were involved in transhumant movements in the mid‐1700s, but transhumance started to decay in the nineteenth century and almost disappeared in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1980s, transhumant sheep did not number more than 25,000 in the study area; at present the number exceeds 134,000, with herders practicing both descending and ascending transhumance. In this article we provide information not only on current numbers of transhumant sheep but also on the origins and destinations of the flocks. We also confirm that the reputation of transhumance, once regarded as quaint and antiquated, has been enhanced by the ecosystem services it provides and by the cultural and heritage continuities it renders.