Petrography and textural development of inorganic and biogenic lithotypes in a relict barite tufa deposit at Flybye Springs, NT, Canada

A relict mound of Holocene barite (BaSO₄) tufa underlies the Flybye Springs, a small, barium‐rich, cold sulphur spring system in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The tufa is composed of relatively pure barite with ≤0·34 wt% Ca²⁺ and ≤0·77 wt% Sr²⁺. The mound is made up of coated bubble, raft, undulatory sheet, stromatolitic, coated grain and detrital conglomerate barite tufa. Although previously unreported in barite, these lithotypes are akin to facies found in many carbonate spring deposits. Raft and ooid‐coated grain tufa was formed via ‘inorganic’ barite precipitation in spring water ponds and tributaries where rapid oxidation of sulphide to sulphate established barite supersaturation. Undulatory sheet tufa may have formed by the reaction of dissolved barium with sulphate derived from the oxidation of extracellular polysaccharide‐rich colloidal sulphur films floating in oxygenated, barite‐saturated spring water ponds. Coated bubble, oncoid‐coated grain and stromatolitic tufa with filamentous microfossils was formed in close association with sulphur‐tolerant microbes inhabiting dysoxic and oxygenated spring water tributaries and ponds. Adsorption of dissolved barium to microbial extracellular polysaccharide probably facilitated the development of these ‘biogenic’ lithotypes. Detrital conglomerate tufa was formed by barite cementation of microdetrital tufa, allochthonous lithoclasts and organic detritus, including caribou hair. Biogenic textures, organic artefacts and microfossils in the Flybye barite tufa have survived diagenetic aggradational recrystallization and precipitation of secondary cements, indicating the potential for palaeoecological information to be preserved in barite in the geological record. Similarities between the Flybye barite tufa and carbonate spring deposits demonstrate that analogous textures can develop in chemical sedimentary systems with distinct mineralogy, biology and physiochemistry.     

Springs of Great Britain

Predictably, in a country such as Britain, with its preponderance of consolidated, sedimentary, mainly fissure-flow aquifers, there is a very large number of springs, many of which are, or have been, used for public supply. Migratory springs are a feature of the British (Ur. Cretaceous) Chalk, the most important British aquifer. The Chalk's low specific yield and high capillary moisture retention together give rise to very considerable fluctuations (more than 33 m in some areas) of the unconfined water table. Along the gentle dip slopes of the Chalk (North and South Downs of southern and southeastern England) springs may migrate laterally for several miles, giving rise to seasonal streams locally known as bournes or lavants. However, springs such as at Duncton, West Sussex, at the base of the much steeper scarp slopes of the Chalk, form point sources, the flows from which tend to be relatively steady; such springs commonly supply and are the original reason for the existence of many of the small towns and villages which nestle along the bases of the chalk scarps of Sussex and Kent.Where the Chalk forms coastal cliffs, a number of springs break out at the base of the cliff between high and low tide levels; there are major chalk coastal springs, for instance, at St. Margaret's Bay (Kent) and at Arish Mells, east of Lulworth Cove, Dorset. Such springs are not used for direct supply (their salinity is usually too high) but are indicators of the presence of local reserves of groundwater for possible future development.     

Evidence for deep groundwater flow and convective heat transport in mountainous terrain, Delta County, Colorado, USA

The Tongue Creek watershed lies on the south flank of Grand Mesa in western Colorado, USA and is a site with 1.5 km of topographic relief, heat flow of 100 mW/m², thermal conductivity of 3.3 W m^–1 °C^–1, hydraulic conductivity of 10^-8 m/s, a water table that closely follows surface topography, and groundwater temperatures 3–15°C above mean surface temperatures. These data suggest that convective heat transport by groundwater flow has modified the thermal regime of the site. Steady state three-dimensional numerical simulations of heat flow, groundwater flow, and convective transport were used to model these thermal and hydrological data. The simulations provided estimates for the scale of hydraulic conductivity and bedrock base flow discharge within the watershed. The numerical models show that (1) complex three-dimensional flow systems develop with a range of scales from tens of meters to tens of kilometers; (2) mapped springs are frequently found at locations where contours of hydraulic head indicate strong vertical flow at the water table, and; (3) the distribution of groundwater temperatures in water wells as a function of surface elevation is predicted by the model.     

Mallow Springs,County Cork,Ireland

Because of its copious and reliable rainfall, Ireland has an abundance of springs. Many of the larger ones issue from the Carboniferous limestone that occurs in over 40% of the country. The spring water is mainly a calcium bicarbonate type with a temperature of about 10°C. In the 18th century, warm and cold springs were developed as spas in various parts of Ireland. The popularity of these springs was short and most were in major decline by 1850. Today only one cold spa at Lisdoonvarna, Co. Clare is still operating. Springs in Ireland were places of religious significance for the pre-Christian Druidic religion. In the Christian period they became holy wells, under the patronage of various saints. Cures for many different ailments were attributed to water from these wells.     

The fountains of Pretoria

The occurrence of groundwater in South Africa is to a very large degree limited to a surficial zone of weathered and fractured hard rock formations. Primary aquifers include narrow strips of alluvium along certain river stretches and to Cenozoic coastal deposits. Coupled with a rainfall that is well below the world average, South Africa is therefore poorly endowed with large springs. These are almost totally confined to karst areas.     

A nonstationary extreme value distribution for analysing the cessation of karst spring discharge

The effects of climate change and population growth in recent decades are leading us to consider their combined and potentially extreme consequences, particularly regarding hydrological processes, which can be modeled using a generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution. Most of the GEV models were based on a stationary assumption for hydrological processes, in contrast to the nonstationary reality due to climate change and human activities. In this paper, we present the nonstationary generalized extreme value (NSGEV) distribution and use it to investigate the risk of Niangziguan Springs discharge decreasing to zero. Rather than assuming the location, scale, and shape parameters to be constant as one might do for a stationary GEV distribution analysis, the NSGEV approach can reflect the dynamic processes by defining the GEV parameters as functions of time. Because most of the GEV model is designed to evaluate maxima (e.g. flooding, represented by positive numbers), and spring discharge cessation is a ?minima’, we deduced an NSGEV model for minima by applying opposite numbers, i.e. negative instead of positive numbers. The results of the model application to Niangziguan Springs showed that the probability of zero discharge at Niangziguan Springs will be 1/80 in 2025, and 1/10 in 2030. After 2025, the rate of decrease in spring discharge will accelerate, and the probability that Niangziguan Springs will cease flowing will dramatically increase. The NSGEV model is a robust method for analysing karst spring discharge. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What does the occurrence of Sporormiella (Preussia) spores mean in Australian fossil sequences?

Understanding the loss of the final few species of Australian megafauna is beset by a paucity of data on human arrival, well‐provenanced megafauna, human/megafauna population range and distribution (coexistence and interaction), and the range, scale and impact of environmental changes spanning the human–megafauna period. To overcome these shortcomings, the occurrence and decline of coprophilous fungal spores of Sporormiella in sediments have been used as a proxy for extinct megaherbivores. The Sporormiella evidence is presented as the key indicator of extinction timing and these reports are often from locations where there is no known archaeological record or megafauna remains. However, interpreting fungal spore occurrence is not straightforward, as demonstrated by studies investigating taphonomy, taxonomy and the types of animal dung where Sporormiella occurs. No detailed studies on these problems exist for Australia and no evidence supporting the use of Sporormiella as a valid proxy has been reported. Here we examine the occurrence of Sporormiella spores from Cuddie Springs in south‐eastern Australia. Despite a well‐preserved suite of megafauna fossils, Sporormiella occurrence is sporadic and frequencies are low. We conclude that using Sporormiella alone as an indicator for the presence of megafauna is premature for the Australian context.     

Quantitative analysis of springs

Growing demand for groundwater resources and stringent environmental concerns has led to large groundwater investigations, including characterization of aquifer systems that are hydraulically connected to springs. A pumping test is one of the most reliable means of quantifying hydraulic characteristics and the response of natural springs to pumping because it yields results that, in general, are representative of a larger area than are results from a single point observation. Recharge to the aquifer sustaining discharge from springs must be evaluated prior to the utilization of springs. The spring hydrograph is analyzed, as the shape of a hydrograph is a reflection of the response of the aquifer to recharge. The form and rate of recession provide significant information on the storage, lithological composition, and structural characteristics of the aquifer system sustaining the spring. Water tracing techniques have been developed and used over a period of centuries to delineate catchment boundaries, estimate groundwater flow velocities, determine areas of recharge, and identify sources of pollution of spring water.     

The role of anthropogenic activities in karst spring discharge volatility

The traditional hydrological time series methods tend to focus on the mean of whichever variable is analysed but neglect its time‐varying variance (i.e. assuming the variance remains constant). The variances of hydrological time series vary with time under anthropogenic influence. There is evidence that extensive well drilling and groundwater pumping can intercept groundwater run‐off and consequently induce spring discharge volatility or variance varying with time (i.e. heteroskedasticity). To investigate the time‐varying variance or heteroskedasticity of spring discharge, this paper presents a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average with general autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (SARIMA‐GARCH) model, whose the SARIMA model is used to estimate the mean of hydrological time series, and the GARCH model estimates its time‐varying variance. The SARIMA‐GARCH model was then applied to the Xin'an Springs Basin, China, where extensive groundwater development has occurred since 1978 (e.g. the average annual groundwater pumping rates were less than 0.20 m³/s in the 1970s, reached 1.20 m³/s at the end of the 1980s, surpassed 2.0 m³/s in the 1990s and exceeded 3.0 m³/s by 2007). To identify whether human activities or natural stressors caused the heteroskedasticity of Xin'an Springs discharge, we segmented the spring discharge sequence into two periods: a predevelopment stage (i.e. 1956–1977) and a developed stage (i.e. 1978–2012), and set up the SARIMA‐GARCH model for the two stages, respectively. By comparing the models, we detected the role of human activities in spring discharge volatility. The results showed that human activities caused the heteroskedasticity of the Xin'an Spring discharge. The predicted Xin'an Springs discharge by the SARIMA‐GARCH model showed that the mean monthly spring discharge is predicted to continue to decline to 0.93 m³/s in 2013, 0.67 m³/s in 2014 and 0.73 m³/s in 2015. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The geology of Australian Mars analogue sites

Australia has numerous landforms and features, some unique, that provide a useful reference for interpreting the results of spacecraft orbiting Mars and exploring the martian surface. Examples of desert landforms, impact structures, relief inversion, long-term landscape evolution and hydrothermal systems that are relevant to Mars are outlined and the relevant literature reviewed. The Mars analogue value of Australia's acid lakes, hypersaline embayments and mound spring complexes is highlighted along with the Pilbara region, where the oldest convincing evidence of life guides exploration for early life on Mars. The distinctive characteristics of the Arkaroola Mars Analogue Region are also assessed and opportunities for future work in Australia are outlined.