What is preserved in the aeolian rock record? A Jurassic Entrada Sandstone case study at the Utah–Arizona border

Aeolian dune fields evolve from protodunes and small dunes into a pattern of progressively fewer, larger and more widely spaced dunes within limits defined by boundary conditions. However, the allogenic boundary conditions that promote aeolian dune‐field development, accumulation of strata and preservation of accumulated strata are not the same. Autogenic processes, such as dune interactions, scour‐depth variation along migrating dunes and substrate cannibalization by growing dunes, result in removal of the stratigraphic record. Moreover, dune‐field events may be collapsed into major erosional bounding surfaces. The question is what stages of evolving dune fields are represented in the rock record? This case study of ca 60 m of Jurassic Entrada Sandstone on the Utah/Arizona border (USA) defines stratigraphic intervals by gross architecture of bounding surfaces and sets of cross‐strata. The interpreted intervals in stratigraphic order consist of: (i) a lower sabkha bed that transitions upward into erosional remnants of small sets representing an initial wet aeolian system; (ii) large, compound cross‐strata representing a mature dune field; (iii) isolated scour‐fill representing negatively climbing dunes that produced ca 25 m of palaeo‐topographic relief; (iv) downlapping sets that fill the landscape‐scale relief; (v) four intervals of stacked climbing sets that each represent short periods of time; and (vi) an upper sabkha bed that again transitions into small sets representing a wet system. Accumulations appear to be associated with sediment pulses, a rising water table, and filling of scoured troughs and landscape‐scale depressions. Preservation of the accumulations is selective and associated with a rising water table, burial and subsidence. The preserved record appears remarkably incomplete. Speculation about missing strata gravitates towards cannibalization of the record of early dune‐field construction, and strata removed during the formation of bounding surfaces. This local Entrada record is thought to represent a point in the spectrum of preservation styles in the rock record.     

What is Franciscan?: revisited

The Franciscan Complex of California is better understood now than in 1972, when Berkland et al. defined it as a complex and divided it into three geographic belts. A re-evaluation is needed. Belts first served as major architectural units, but they have been abandoned by some and renamed as and subdivided into tectonostratigraphic terranes by others. The Franciscan Complex – considered to be the archetypical accretionary complex by many – is the folded, faulted, and stratally disrupted rock mass comprising the supramantle basement of the California-Southern Oregon Coast Ranges exposed east of the Salinian Block and west of and structurally below principal exposures of the Coast Range Fault, Coast Range Ophiolite, Great Valley Group, and Klamath Mountains. The Complex is dominated by sandstones and mudrocks, but contains mafic oceanic crustal fragments with chert, limestone, and other rock types, and zeolite, prehnite-pumpellyite, blueschist, and rare amphibolite and eclogite facies metamorphic rocks. Review of historical precedence, new data, available large-scale maps, and fundamental definitions suggest now (1) that the Belt terminology as applied to the entire Franciscan Complex conflicts with current knowledge of Franciscan rocks and architecture; and (2) that most named Franciscan terranes and nappes are inconsistent with basic definitions of those unit types. The major architectural units into which the Franciscan Complex can be divided are accretionary units – mélanges and underthrust sheets. Underthrust sheets can be subdivided into smaller units, e.g. broken formations and olistostromal mélanges, mappable using traditional lithostratigraphic and structural mapping techniques. Unresolved controversies in reconstruction of the nature and history of the accretionary complex relate to specific mélange origins; megathrust versus subduction channel mélange models; chert conundrums; delineation of the ages, subdivisions, and regional architecture of Franciscan units; palinspastic reconstruction of the pre-Late Cenozoic architecture; and reconstruction of the complete histories of accretionary units.     

On and Off the North China Craton: Where is the Archaean Keel?

Geophysical data indicate that the lithosphere beneath the NorthChina Craton (NCC) is     

What is the ‘Just Transition’?

The ‘just transition’ is a concept receiving more attention in the literature to-date. This critical review discusses this and how there are overlaps with literature on energy, environmental and climate justice. Within the separate energy, environment and climate change scholar communities, there is too much distortion of what the ‘transition’ means and what ‘justice’ means, and they all should be understood within the just transition concept. To increase public understanding and public acceptance of a just transition, these research communities need to unite rather than continue alone.     

What is the deepest part of the Vostok ice core telling us?

This review paper is mainly concerned with a geochemical investigation of the deepest part of the Vostok ice core between 3310 m, the depth at which the palaeoenvironmental record present in the ice above is lost, and the bottom of the core about 130 m above subglacial Lake Vostok. Two sections constitute this part of the core.The upper section (3310–3539 m depth) still consists of ice of meteoric origin but subjected to widespread complex deformation. This deformation is analysed in light of a δD–deuterium excess diagram and information on microparticles, crystal sizes and chemical elements distributions in that part of the core. Such ice deformation occurred when the ice was still grounded upstream from Vostok station in a region with subfreezing temperatures.The lower section from 3539 m to the bottom of the core at 3623 m depth is lake ice formed by freezing of subglacial Lake Vostok waters. This is indicated by the isotopic properties (δD, δ¹⁸O and deuterium excess), by electrical conductivity measurements (ECM), crystallography and gas content of the ice. These ice core data together with data on ionic chemistry favour an origin of the lake ice by frazil ice generation in a supercooled (below pressure melting point) water plume existing in the lake followed by accretion and consolidation by subsequent freezing of the host water.The helium profile of this deepest part of the Vostok core is quite unusual and surprising. It has important implications for the interactions between the ice sheet and the lake. Two constrasting scenarios can be satisfactorily constructed so that the lake residence time is not well constrained.     

‘Unionising’ the new spaces of the new economy? Alternative labour organising in India’s IT Enabled Services-Business Process Outsourcing industry

This paper explores the lived experiences and aspirational social constructions of call centre work and employment in India’s high profile IT Enabled Services-Business Process Outsourcing (ITES-BPO) industry; the ways in which they differ from those previously documented amongst call centre workers in the Global North (specifically the UK); and the consequences of that geographical reconfiguration of offshored call centre work for the replicability in India of workplace collective bargaining strategies successfully developed in some UK call centres. These issues are analysed using new empirical evidence from a regional survey of 511 non-unionised ITES-BPO workers and 42 in-depth interviews in India’s National Capital Region. Based on this analysis, the paper then discusses the operation, outcomes and ongoing challenges faced by the newly formed ‘Union for ITES Professionals’ (UNITES Pro) in developing an alternative occupational organising model better suited to the particular needs, motivations and preferences of India’s young, mobile, call centre workers. The empirical analysis presented in the paper is located, therefore, within wider debates on the role of geographical context in shaping possibilities for organising white-collar service workers at different ends of global service chains in the new economy.     

Conspicuous redemption? Reflections on the promises and perils of the ‘Celebritization’ of climate change

With rising public awareness of climate change, celebrities have become an increasingly important community of non nation-state ‘actors’ influencing discourse and action, thereby comprising an emergent climate science-policy-celebrity complex. Some feel that these amplified and prominent voices contribute to greater public understanding of climate change science, as well as potentially catalyze climate policy cooperation. However, critics posit that increased involvement from the entertainment industry has not served to influence substantive long-term advancements in these arenas; rather, it has instead reduced the politics of climate change to the domain of fashion and fad, devoid of political and public saliency. Through tracking media coverage in Australia, Canada, the United States, and United Kingdom, we map out the terrain of a ‘Politicized Celebrity System’ in attempts to cut through dualistic characterizations of celebrity involvement in politics. We develop a classification system of the various types of climate change celebrity activities, and situate movements in contemporary consumer- and spectacle-driven carbon-based society. Through these analyses, we place dynamic and contested interactions in a spatially and temporally-sensitive ‘Cultural Circuits of Climate Change Celebrities’ model. In so doing, first we explore how these newly ‘authorized’ speakers and ‘experts’ might open up spaces in the public sphere and the science/policy nexus through ‘celebritization’ effects. Second, we examine how the celebrity as the ‘heroic individual’ seeking ‘conspicuous redemption’ may focus climate change actions through individualist frames. Overall, this paper explores potential promises, pitfalls and contradictions of this increasingly entrenched set of ‘agents’ in the cultural politics of climate change. Thus, as a form of climate change action, we consider whether it is more effective to ‘plant’ celebrities instead of trees.     

Ambient well-bore mixing, aquifer cross-contamination, pumping stress, and water quality from long-screened wells: What is sampled and what is not?

Water quality tests were performed on two long-screened alluvial aquifer wells (15–30 m of screen) that had been completed in a heterogeneous aquifer that exhibits extreme temporal water quality variability. When stressed, the total dissolved solids (TDS) in one well decreased from 10,600 to 3,500 mg/L and in another well the TDS increased from 136 to 2,255 mg/L. Nested short-screened monitoring wells were constructed in chemically distinct horizons affecting each well. Water level measurements and solute and isotopic samples were obtained from the production wells and the monitoring wells during a water quality test. Results of a time drawdown tests demonstrate transmissivity differences between horizons. Ambient water quality in the production wells and aquifer cross-contamination are controlled by well-bore mixing due to head differences of as little as 0.01 m between chemically distinct horizons which are linked by the production well screen. During non-stress periods, the ambient well-bore chemistry is controlled by the horizon with the greatest hydraulic head, whereas during stressed conditions, horizon transmissivity controls the well-bore chemistry. In one well, aquifer cross-contamination, driven by an ambient head differential of 1.2 m, persisted until about 1,600 well-bore volumes were purged.     

What happens in the Earth’s crust between sunset and sunrise?

Doklady Earth Sciences -     

Competitiveness versus ‘clean and green’? The regulation and governance of GMOs in Australia and the UK

It is increasingly argued that we are entering into a “biotech century”, in which biotechnology promises major advances in agricultural productivity. The development of biotechnology is not a straightforward affair, however, and the advent of GMOs has led to public protest and consumer resistance. This paper draws upon a comparative Australian-UK project concerned with the role of regulation and governance in mediating the debates and managing the associated risks. Regulatory responses and the mediation of conflicts by the Australian and UK governments have been shaped by the institutional and policy environments in these two countries. The implications of these public debates and regulatory responses for the capture of competitive opportunities are considered. The fact that the two countries have broadly similar systems of governance and regulation reveals how alike the circumstances are in many respects. But at the same time there are important differences in both the style and the content of the policy debates. In both the UK and Australia, the respective central governments remain committed to a ‘biotechnology future’. Against this background, there is little doubt that the choices about biotechnology will play a defining role in shaping the future of rural places.     

What is responsible for development of the Asian–Pacific transition zone: The geodynamics of oceanic plates or the Asian continent?

The main unusual feature of tectogenesis of the Asian–Pacific transition zone in the Mesozoic–Cenozoic consists in the formation of left-lateral strike-slip faults, which form the East Asian global shear zone with paragenesis of its constituent variously oriented fault systems. Paragenetic analysis has revealed that continental blocks of the Asian–Pacific transition zone were displaced along systems of transit left-lateral strike-slip faults of the East Asian global shear zone by hundreds of kilometers in the southerly to southwesterly direction due to tectonic activity of the Asian continent, which drifted southwestward. This process was accompanied by the formation of compression and extension structures. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the structuring of the overhanging margin of the continent by subduction of oceanic lithospheric plates in the northerly to northwesterly direction opposite relative to the displacement of the continental crust as is usually thought.     

Regarding an Oceanic Crust/Upper Mantle Geochemical Signature at the KT Boundary: If not from Chicxulub Crater, then Where Did it Come from?

Evidence for a mantle and/or basaltic component in KT boundary distal ejecta is apparently inconsistent with ejection from Chicxulub Crater since it is located on~35km thick continental crust(De Paolo et al.,1983;Montanari et al.,1983;Hildebrand and Boynton,1988,1990).This evidence,along with ejected terrestrial chromites(Olds et al.,2016)suggest the impact sampled terrestrial mafic and/or ultramafic target rocks which are not known to exist in the Chicxulub target area.Possible resolutions to the paradox are:1)the existence of an unmapped/unknown suture in Yucatan Platform basement,2)an additional small unmapped/unknown impact site on oceanic lithosphere,or 3)an additional large impact on oceanic lithosphere or continental margin transitional to oceanic lithosphere.The third hypothesis is elaborated here since:1)Ophiolites nearest to Chicxulub crater are found in Cuba and apparently were obducted in latest Cretaceous/earliest Danian times(García-Casco,2008),inconsistent with the documented Eocene collision of Cuba with the Bahamas platform;and 2)Cuba hosts the world’s thickest known KT boundary deposits(Iturralde-Vinent,1992;Kiyokawa et al.,2002;Tada et al.,2003).These and geometric considerations suggest oceanic crust and upper mantle rock,exposed as ophiolite in the Greater Antilles island chain,marks the rim of a roughly 700 km diameter impact basin deformed and dismembered from an originally circular form by at least 50 million years of left-lateral shear displacement along the North American-Caribbeantransform plate boundary.     

Where does the South Anyui suture go in the New Siberian islands and Laptev Sea?: Implications for the Amerasia basin origin

The South Anyui suture is a major tectonic boundary in NE Asia, believed to represent the remains of an ocean basin which separated Siberia from North America in Jurassic time. Its history also figures prominently in the Mesozoic reconstruction of the Arctic and the origin and evolution of the Amerasia basin. Three types of proposed trends of the South Anyui suture are evaluated. 1) The suture ends near the Kolyma River mouth where it meets the rotational transform. The paper, however, proves that the suture continues further westward up to Big Lyakhov Is. Consequently, a simple geometric rotational model for Amerasia basin origin must be rejected. 2) The suture trends from Big Lyakhov to the Anjou islands. The Anjou islands geology is examined, and it is concluded that the suture could not go through them. Hence, all proposed versions of the rotational hypothesis of the Amerasia basin opening are claimed to be invalid. 3) A proposed Taimyrian connection of the suture is examined, and it is concluded that this model must be rejected as well. The failure of all previously suggested models for the suture extent through the New Siberian islands and Laptev Sea means that in Early Mesozoic there was no oceanic basin that separated the New Siberian–Chukotka terrane from Siberia. Thus Siberia and North America formed a continuous continent in Jurassic time. This paper presents evidence that the South Anyui suture has instead turned back from Big Lyakhov island and followed a sinuous path designated as the Chroma Loop before connecting with the Kolyma Loop suture. On this model the South Anyui suture can be interpreted as a small segment of extensive boundary which separated the Amerasia Jurassic margin and terranes accreted to it from the Pacific. The modern boundary around the North Pacific is also quite sinuous. It was suggested that in Jurassic time it was straighter and the Amerasia ocean was originated as a common back-arc basin. Finally a new two-pole parallelogram hypothesis for the Amerasia basin opening is suggested and the approaches to its verification are outlined.     

What Is Going on with <Emphasis Type="Italic">Perkinsus marinus</Emphasis> in the Gulf of Mexico?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Status and Trends Mussel Watch Program sampled the largest oysters in nearly every major US coastal lagoon and estuary in the Gulf of Mexico once during the winter from 1986 to 2010. This contribution examines trends in the principal oyster disease in the Gulf of Mexico, Dermo, caused by Perkinsus marinus, and some related population dynamic characteristics for its host, Crassostrea virginica. During the 1986–2000 period, P. marinus prevalence and infection intensity and oyster population dynamics followed the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, responding to variations in salinity caused by variations in rainfall and freshwater inflow. The ENSO signal in the oyster population effectively ceased circa 2002. Beginning around this time, wintertime P. marinus prevalence and weighted prevalence began a decadal decline, as did the length of the largest oysters and the fraction of these largest animals that were female. The trends in Dermo disease, oyster length, and oyster sex ratio are all consistent with the following hypothesis: increasing temperature during the 2000s resulted in an increase in P. marinus infection intensity sufficient to increase the mortality rate in late summer and fall in the larger animals. This simultaneously reduced Dermo prevalence and infection intensity in the winter at the time of sampling and also resulted in the decline in the length of the largest animals targeted by Mussel Watch. Coincident with the decline in length is the expected decline in the fraction female, such that the percent female in the largest animals dropped to ≤50 % throughout much of the Gulf of Mexico. The decline in length leading to fewer large animals reproducing and the loss of females are predicted to have reduced oyster population reproductive capacity substantially during the 2000s. The early 60 % of the Mussel Watch time series took place during a period of negative Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) indices. The AMO moved into positive territory circa 2000. A positive AMO index is consistent with observed warmer water temperatures, and increased water temperature is consistent with an increase in Dermo-induced mortality.     

Tectonics or climate: What drove the Miocene global expansion of C4 grasslands?

Investigations into the most plausible causes which triggered the Late Miocene global expansion of C₄ grasslands have reached no consensus and are still being debated. The global decline in CO₂ levels in the Late Miocene has been thought to be the most common driver. Although C₄ grassland expansion was largely confined to the Late Miocene, their first appearance varied significantly in different parts of the Old and New world and therefore emphasizes role of local and/or regional factors may or may not be in combination with one or more global factors. The dynamic Himalayan orogen constitutes a significant global tectonic event that is believed to have affected global climate. Hence, a study of the Himalayan foreland basin sediments could help in gleaning out possible causes behind this major paleoecologic event, which could perhaps be directly or indirectly related. Stable carbon isotope analyses of a total of 141 pedogenic carbonates in the Mio-Pleistocene Siwalik paleosols of the Ramnagar sub-basin are coherent, providing a better insight into paleovegetational changes across the sub-basin on temporal and spatial scales. Furthermore, paleovegetational history during Oligocene is reconstructed from Dagshai paleosols exposed in the Subathu sub-basin. The isotopic results show dominance of C₃ vegetation pre-7 Ma and dominance of C₄ vegetation post-5 Ma. Percentage abundance of C₄ vegetation was less than 20 % pre-7 Ma but increased to more than 40 % post-5 Ma, reaching up to 100 % in the youngest analyzed sediments. There is exclusive dominance of C₃ vegetation during Oligocene. These results conform to the pattern of change in vegetation documented in other parts of the Himalayan belt. The global expansion of C₄ grasslands largely during Late Miocene have long been linked with then climate changes, particularly brought by declining atmospheric CO₂ level, large-scale fires, intensification of monsoon, seasonality, and aridity as demonstrated by various researchers. These major hypotheses explaining expansion of C₄ grasslands during Late Miocene are not very convincing due to significant shortcomings associated with them, for example, expansion of C₄ grasslands in non-monsoonal regions put serious constraints on the monsoonal intensification hypothesis. Likewise, aridity as being the primary driver of C₄ grassland expansion seems hard to support since there is no substantial evidence that could suggest global onset of arid conditions at about same geologic time, and some most arid periods, like the Triassic, show no evidence of C₄ plants. We suggest that the initial lowering of CO₂ below 450 ppmV created an environment for the beginning of C₄ vegetation, but the persistence of this threshold value for a considerable time during Late Miocene appears to be the probable cause of the Late Miocene global expansion of C₄ grasslands irrespective of their time of first appearance. It has been deduced through the correlation of Himalayan tectonic events with atmospheric CO₂ levels and paleovegetational changes since Upper Miocene times that it was indeed the Late Miocene continuous, intense tectonic instability of the Himalayas that significantly decreased atmospheric CO₂ levels and which perhaps played a key role in changing the nature of photosynthetic pathways.