The nappe structure of the central Northern Calcareous Alps and its disintegration during Miocene tectonic extrusion—a contribution to understanding the orogenic evolution of the Eastern Alps

The classical concept of the nappe structure of the central Northern Calcareous Alps (NCA) is in contradiction with modern stratigraphic, structural, metamorphic and geochronological data. We first perform a palinspastic restoration for the time before Miocene lateral tectonic extrusion, which shows good continuity of structures, facies and diagenetic/metamorphic zones. We present a new nappe concept, in which the Tirolic unit practically takes the whole area of the central NCA and is divided into three subunits (nappes): Lower and Upper Tirolic subunit, separated by the Upper Jurassic Trattberg Thrust, and the metamorphic Ultra-Tirolic unit. The Hallstatt (Iuvavic) nappe(s) formed the highest unit, but were completely destroyed by erosion after nappe stacking. Remnants of the Hallstatt nappes are only represented by components of up to 1 km in size in Middle/Upper Jurassic radiolaritic wildflysch sediments ("Hallstatt Mélange" belonging to the Tirolic unit). Destruction of the continental margin started in Middle to Upper Jurassic time and prograded from the oceanic side towards the shelf. The original substratum of the external nappes (Bavaric units) of the NCA was largely the Austroalpine crystalline basement, of the internal nappes (Tirolic units) the weakly metamorphosed Palaeozoic sequences (Greywacke Zone and equivalents). Eocene movements caused limited internal deformation in the Tirolic unit.     

The basement complexes in Italy, with special regards to those exposed in the Alps： a review

Most of the sedimentary rocks occurring in Italy are post-Carboniferous. All what lies below is considered basement, mostly metamorphic or igneous. Understand-ing the pre-Carboniferous evolution depends on the reconstruction of the sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous evolution of the basement. In general, the base-ment sedimentary protoliths were Lower to Middle Pale-ozoic siliciclastic rocks, while the igneous protolithsbelong to an Ordovician cycle. The prevailing metamor-phism,from very-low grade to granulite facies, is Variscan. It was followed by the formation of large amounts of granitic melts.     

The miarolitic pegmatites from the K?nigshain: a contribution to understanding the genesis of pegmatites

In this paper, we show that the crystallization of miarolitic pegmatites at K?nigshain started at about 700°C, in melts containing up to 30 mass% water. Such high water concentration at low pressures (1–3 kbar) is only possible if the melts are peralkaline. Such peralkaline melts are highly corrosive, and reacted with the wall rock—here the granite host—forming the graphic granite zone, in part via a magmatic–metasomatic reaction. With cooling, the water concentration in some melt fractions increased up to 50 mass% H₂O. The melt-dominated system ends below 600°C and passes into a fluid-dominated system, the beginning of which is characterized by strong pressure fluctuations, caused by the change of OH and CO₃ ²⁻ in the melt, to molecular water and CO₂. We note two generations of smoky quartz, one crystallized above the β–α-transition of quartz (≈573°C), and one below, both of which contain melt inclusions. This indicates that some melt fraction remains during at least the higher-temperature portion of the growth of minerals into the miarolitic cavity, contradicting the view that minerals growing into a pegmatite chamber only do so from aqueous fluids. We show that the K?nigshain miarolitic pegmatites are part of the broad spectrum of pegmatite types, and the processes active at K?nigshain are representative of processes found in most granitic pegmatites, and are thus instructive in the understanding of pegmatite formation in general, and constraining the composition and characteristics of pegmatite-forming melts. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

The Teggiolo zone: a key to the Helvetic–Penninic connection (stratigraphy and tectonics in the Val Bavona,Ticino, Central Alps)

The Teggiolo zone is the sedimentary cover of the Antigorio nappe, one of the lowest tectonic units of the Penninic Central Alps. Detailed mapping, stratigraphic and structural analyses, and comparisons with less metamorphic series in several well-studied domains of the Alps, provide a new stratigraphic interpretation. The Teggiolo zone is comprised of several sedimentary cycles, separated by erosive surfaces and large stratigraphic gaps, which cover the time span from Triassic to Eocene. At Mid-Jurassic times it appears as an uplifted, partially emergent block, marking the southern limit of the main Helvetic basin (the Limiting South-Helvetic Rise LSHR). The main mass of the Teggiolo calcschists, whose base truncates the Triassic–Jurassic cycles and can erode the Antigorio basement, consists of fine-grained clastic sediments analogous to the deep-water flyschoid deposits of Late Cretaceous to Eocene age in the North-Penninic (or Valais s.l.) basins. Thus the Antigorio-Teggiolo domain occupies a crucial paleogeographic position, on the boundary between the Helvetic and Penninic realms: from Triassic to Early Cretaceous its affinity is with the Helvetic; at the end of Cretaceous it is incorporated into the North-Penninic basins. An unexpected result is the discovery of the important role played by complex formations of wildflysch type at the top of the Teggiolo zone. They contain blocks of various sizes. According to their nature, three different associations are distinguished that have specific vertical and lateral distributions. These blocks give clues to the existence of territories that have disappeared from the present-day level of observation and impose constraints on the kinematics of early folding and embryonic nappe emplacement. Tectonics produced several phases of superimposed folds and schistosities, more in the metasediments than in the gneissic basement. Older deformations that predate the amplification of the frontal hinge of the nappe generated the dominant schistosity and the km-wide Vanzèla isoclinal fold.     

The Eocene unconformity of the Briançonnais domain in the French—Italian Alps,revisited (Marguareis massif,Cuneo); a hint for a Late Cretaceous—Middle Eocene frontal bulge setting

Abstract

The tectonic significance of the Eocene unconformity in the Briançonnais domain, classically regarded as recording a compressional event, is re-evaluated, based on field studies in the Marguareis massif, Maritime-Ligurian Alps. In this external, weakly metamorphic Briançonnais unit, we describe N-trending, folded paleo-normal faults. These paleofaults operated during the Late Cretaceous-Late Eocene, and control both the thickness of the Senonian-Paleocene calcschists and the distribution of the disconformable Middle Eocene-Early Priabonian formations, i.e. the channelised, resedimented Nummulitic limestones, associated with sandy turbidites, and the sandy- calcareous Lower Flysch Noir. The chaotic Upper Flysch Noir (Priabonian), which includes olistoliths from the Helminthoid Flysch nappes, disconformably overlies the Late Cretaceous-Middle/Late Eocene levels. At the scale of the whole Briançonnais domain of the French-Italian Alps, the superimposed Senonian-Eocene disconformities would indicate extensional faulting and block tilting, associated with a regional uplift which caused emersion of part of the domain (most internal Briançonnais, Corsica). Extension and coeval uplift would record the crossing of the frontal flexure (external bulge) of the European/Briançonnais lower plate situated west of the Alpine subduction zone between 80–70 Ma and ～40 Ma, i.e. before the subduction of the Briançonnais plateau around 38–35 Ma. © 2002 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.     

The Hell Creek Formation and its contribution to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction: A short primer

Although it represents but one geographic data point, the uppermost Maastrichtian Hell Creek Formation (HCF), exposed in the upper Great Plains of the North American craton, remains the most studied source for understanding the final ∼1.5 Myr of the Mesozoic Era in the terrestrial realm. Because it lies conformably below the earliest Paleocene Fort Union Formation, and together these two units preserve a rich fauna and flora, much of what is understood about the terrestrial Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary comes from this sequence.The HCF has been reconstructed as an expansive, fluvially drained, low coastal plain, built out, to the west, against the Laramide Orogen, and to the east, against the ultimate transgression (Cannonball) of the Western Interior Sea. Its meandering rivers and moist soils supported a multi-tiered angiosperm-dominated flora and rich insect and vertebrate faunas, including dinosaurs, crocodilians, squamates, turtles, and mammals. A dramatic facies change representing the initiation of catastrophic flooding is preserved, within available levels precision, at the K–Pg boundary.High-precision stratigraphy has proven difficult in this lenticular fluvial system. Where present, the boundary can be recognized by the bipartite boundary claystone; otherwise, palynostratigraphy has proven a powerful tool. Numerical dates have been successfully obtained from in tonsteins at the boundary and above, in the Fort Union; however, these have proven elusive below the boundary within the HCF. The K–Pg boundary in this region is dated at 66.043 Ma (Renne et al., 2013). Magnetostratigraphic studies have been carried out in the HCF; although all but one have lacked numerical dates, these have been used for correlations of widespread, disjunct exposures and for the estimation of sedimentation rates.The palynoflora is largely homogenous through the HCF; at the K–Pg boundary, it shows an abrupt ∼30% extinction. This makes it a powerful tool for identification of the K–Pg boundary, although because the boundary is identified on absence of Cretaceous taxa rather than presence of earliest Paleocene taxa, several competing methods have been applied to identifying the K–Pg boundary using pollen.The macroflora, consisting largely of leaves, consists of three successive floras, showing increasing diversity through the HCF. The ultimate of these three floras undergoes an abrupt 57% extinction; taken as a whole, however, the macroflora undergoes a 78% extinction at the K–Pg boundary.The best data available for dinosaurs – including archaic Aves – show an abrupt extinction. By contrast, salamanders and other lissamphibians, as well as chelonians, cross the boundary virtually without perturbation. Squamates appear to have suffered significant extinctions at the K–Pg boundary, as did euselachians (elasmobranchs) and insects. Mammals suffered a 75% extinction; however, some of this figure cannot be shown to have occurred in less than the last 500 kyr of the Cretaceous, and thus has been potentially attributable to causes other than a bolide impact. Taken together, the survivorship patterns are concordant with the catastrophic inception of ubiquitous flooding characterizing the K–Pg boundary.While the key K–Pg boundary question in the HCF was once the rate of the biotic extinction, it has moved to the distinction between single-cause scenarios, with the Chicxulub bolide as agent of extinction, and multi-cause scenarios, uniting habitat partitioning, Deccan flood-basalt volcanism, climate change, competition, and bolide impact. Not every potential environmental perturbation need be a mechanism for the extinction: parsimony and the data continue to be concordant with a bolide impact as the single agent of the terrestrial K–Pg mass extinction.     

The use of iron chemical analysis of podzols to date the Late Pleistocene–Holocene deglaciation history of the Central Italian Alps

Podzols that have developed on glacial and periglacial features provide the opportunity to reconstruct glacial evolution after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) using different soil indices. Analysing 17 soils classified as podzol, we used the crystallinity ratio of free iron oxides (CRF) on both the A and Bs horizons, and absolute ages for the same landforms containing the soil profile, to create dating curves. Two equations were generated: age = 4566.9 × ln (CRF) + 1760 (1), and age = 3907 × ln (CRF) + 3508.2 (2). The reliability of the curves was evaluated with the Fe_o/Fe_d ratio, and with the difference of ages calculated using both equations. Equation (2) is considered more reliable because the A horizon may be influenced by new pedogenesis on the pre-existing podzol, leading to the development of a new type of soil. By dating the soils, we reconstructed the glacial history of the three main upper branches of the LGM Adda Glacier in the Central Italian Alps, specifically the Stelvio Pass area (ST), Gavia Pass area (GV), and the Val Viola valley (VV). Seven glacial advances were identified at 16.7–14.7 ka (phase I), 12.3 ka (phase II), 11 ka (phase III), 10–9.7 ka (phase IV), 9 ka (phase V), 7.5 ka (phase VI) and 5.3 ka (phase VII). The first five phases are chronologically similar to the main Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene phases recorded in the Central European Alps. The last two Holocene phases, which are both longer in duration than the Little Ice Age, are recorded in ST and GV. Interestingly, these phases generally are not recorded in the rest of the Central European Alps, where the late Holocene glaciers were smaller than their present size.     

The Franciscan Complex (California,USA) – The model case for return-flow in a subduction channel put to the test

The model of “Return-Flow in a Subduction Channel” (RFSC) is put to the test, by opposing key-assumptions of the model to an integrated review of field data, petrology, geochronology and structures of high-P mélanges of the Franciscan Subduction Complex (FSC), to which RFSC has been first applied. Key-assumptions are: (i) The subduction channel (SC) is a low-viscosity zone of finite width restrained by the rigid, subducted and overriding plates. (ii) Forced (return) flow in the SC is associated with formation and km-scale displacements of small tectonic blocks (< 1 km) in a highly deformable matrix. (iii) This results in apparently random distributions and close associations of blocks exhumed from different depths. Hence, the block-in-matrix structures and “exotic” blocks in high-P mélanges would reflect the structural state at depth of the SC. On the basis of the predictions ensuing from the key assumptions of the RFSC model on the rock record, it is detailed why the actual record of the high-P mélanges of the FSC does not comply with this perception. The record rather reflects recurring subduction, underplating-associated décollement, erosion and mingling of high-P rocks by sedimentary processes, in the trench, all occurring in an 80 m.y.-lasting period. Distributed deformation of the mélange matrix is unrelated to formation of apparently chaotic block-in-matrix structures since: (i) creation, subduction, ascent and cooling of “exotic” blocks on counterclockwise P-T paths predates deposition of the bulk of the metasediments constituting the matrix by ~ 20–40 m.y.; (ii) deformation of the matrix occurs during a second loop of high-P metamorphism postdating creation and ascent of the “exotic” blocks by at least ~ 20–40 m.y.; (iii) the magnitudes of distributed deformation of the matrix are too low to cause juxtaposition of blocks different in P-T paths against each other from km-scale vertical distances. Instead, narrow (few tens of metres-wide) fault/shear and décollement zones formed at locally high pore fluid pressures accumulate the major tectonic transport during high-P metamorphism. They bound several 100s of metres wide tabular tectonic bodies that are coherent. Sedimentary processes at the active continental margin formed the bulk of the mélanges. Tectonically formed block-in-matrix structures within the shear and décollement zones are unrelated to juxtaposition of “exotic” blocks. Universal diagnostic criteria are developed to identify return-RFSC as a mechanism that potentially amalgamates heterogeneous metamorphic terrains by using field data petrology and geochronology.     

Fluid inclusions related to Variscan and Alpine metamorphism in the Austroalpine Ötztal Basement, Eastern Alps

Summary The Austroalpine Ötztal Basement (AOB) was affected by three metamorphic events during the Caledonian (ca. 450 Ma), Variscan (ca. 320 Ma) and Eo-Alpine (ca. 90 Ma) orogeny. The Variscan and Alpine events are clearly distinguished in terms of pressure and temperature evolution. Significant differences were observed between textures and densities of fluid inclusions of Variscan and Alpine age. Microthermometric and Raman spectroscopic investigations were done on fluid inclusions entrapped in garnet, apatite and quartz. Apatite hosts fluid inclusions of Variscan age which re-equilibrated during the Alpine overprint. Variscan garnets from metasedimentary rocks contain fluid inclusions, which were entrapped during isothermal decompression after the Variscan amphibolite facies temperature peak. The crystallinity of graphite coatings on the walls of fluid inclusions in Variscan garnets from orthogneisses as determined by Raman spectrosocopy indicates formation temperatures in excess of 550 °C. Superdense CO₂ inclusions in quartz indicate isobaric cooling after the Alpine metamorphic temperature peak. The textures and the high density of late aqueous inclusions suggest their entrappment during the Alpine event. Raman spectra from hydrohalite and antarcticite support the presence of Na and Ca in the Variscan metamorphic fluid. Metasomatic reactions involving feldspars lead to the enrichment of these two elements in the fluid phase. The similarities of the chemical compositions of the metamorphic fluids within Variscan and Alpine inclusions suggest minor compositional changes with time and corroborate efficient rock buffering of the fluids. The combination of data from fluid inclusions, petrographic observations and published geothermobarometric data yields an improved and more detailed picture of the Variscan and Alpine metamorphic P-T evolution.

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Flüssigkeitseinschlüsse im Zusammenhang mit variszischer und alpidischer Metamorphose im Ötztalkristallin (Ostalpen)

Zusammenfassung Das Ötztalkristallin wurde von drei Metamorphoseereignissen während der kaledonischen (ca. 450 Ma), variszischen (ca. 320 Ma) und alpidischen (ca. 90 Ma) Gebirgsbildung Beeinflußt. Die variszischen und alpidischen Ereignisse sind in Bezug auf ihre Druck- und Temperaturentwicklung eindeutig unterscheidbar. Deutliche Unterschiede wurden in den Texturen und den Dichte variszischer und alpidischer Flüssigkeitseinschlüsse beobachtet. Mikrothermometrische und Raman-spektroskopische Untersuchungen wurden an in Granat, Apatit und Quarz eingeschlossenen Flüssigkeitseinschlüssen durchgeführt. Apatit führt variszische Flüssigkeitseinschlüsse, die während der alpidischen Überprägung reequilibrierten. Varizischer Granat aus metasedimentären Gesteinen enthält Flüssigkeitseinschlüsse, die während der isothermalen Druckentlastung nach dem variszischen amphibolitfaziellen Temperaturhö-hepunkt eingefangen wurden. Die Kristallinität von Graphitausfdllungen an den Wänden von Flüssigkeitseinschlussen in variszischen Orthogneis-Granaten wurde mit Raman Spektroskopie bestimmt und zeigt Bildungstemperaturen über 550°C an. Hochdichte CO₂-Einschlfisse in Quarz zeigen isobares Abkühlen nach dem alpidischen Metamorphosehöhepunkt an. Die Texturen und die hohe Dichte von späten wässrigen Einschlussen legen deren Einfangen während des alpidischen Ereignisses nahe. RamanSpektren von Hydrohalit und Antarcticit unterstützen das Vorhandensein von Na und Ca im variszisch metamorphen Fluid. Metasomatische Reaktionen unter Beteiligung von Feldspat führten zur Anreicherung dieser beiden Elemente in der fluiden Phase. Die Ähnlichkeiten den chemischen Zusammensetzung des metamorphen Fluides in variszischen und alpidischen Einschlussen legt eine geringe zeitliche Änderung der Zusammensetzung nape und bestätigt eine effiziente Bufferung den Fluide durch das Gestein. Die Kombination von Flüssigkeitseinschlußdaten, petrographischer Beobachtung und Geothermobarometrie aus der Literatur liefert ein verbessertes und detailiertes Bild der variszischen und alpidischen metamorphen P-T Entwicklung.

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With 8 Figures     

Speleothem-based chronology and environmental context of deposits from the Mishin Kamik Cave,NW Bulgaria – A contribution to the archaeological study of the Late Pleistocene human occupation in the Balkans

The Balkan Peninsula represents one of the most important human pathways into and out of Europe during the Pleistocene. Mishin Kamik cave, located in the karst region of Western Stara Planina, has a rich faunal content and shows promising features indicating a human occupation site with the discovery of potential bone artefacts and an intriguing accumulation of bear skulls and bones. Petrographic study and U-series dating of a stalagmite and other calcite deposits in the cave provide an absolute chronological frame for the detrital infillings and their archaeological content and inform the environmental and climatic context of the cave evolution. Most detrital deposits in the cave were probably deposited before Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 and the cave morphology and sedimentary deposits display current morphologies since ~135 ka. Consequently, the palaeontological and archaeological findings are older than ~135 ka. Calcite dated on and under the accumulation of bear skulls and bones suggests deposition during MIS 7. A first depositional contextualization of the bone accumulation does not allow us to discriminate between a natural or anthropogenic origin. The study emphasizes the added value of speleothem studies in archaeological sites and particularly in bringing a well-constrained chronological and environmental framework.     

The Pfitsch-Mörchner Basin,an example of the post-Variscan sedimentary evolution in the Tauern Window (Eastern Alps)

A review of post-Variscan metasedimentary and metavolcanic successions in the western Tauern Window is presented. U/Pb – datations of zircons in metavolcanic rocks reveal ages between 309 and 280 Ma. Deposition of grey conglomerates and black pelites started before 309 Ma in the northernmost basin of the Tauern, the Riffler-Schönach basin. In the more central Pfitsch-Mörchner basin, the onset of conglomerate sedimentation can be dated into the time span between 293 and 280 Ma. The Pfitsch and Windtal Formations are newly defined. The basins were filled with up to 1 km of mainly continental clastics until Early Triassic. Short marine ingressions in Middle- and Late Triassic times flooded only basinal parts of the area where we suppose a more or less continuous sedimentation until the Late Jurassic. Only the Hochstegen Marble documents a nearly complete submergence in the area of the Tauern Window. In spite of the metamorphic overprint, the tentative interpretations of the sedimentary facies give a reasonable picture and allow correlations to nonmetamorphic areas in South Germany or the External Massifs of Eastern Switzerland.     

A contribution to regional stratigraphic correlations of the Afro-Brazilian depression – The Dom João Stage (Brotas Group and equivalent units – Late Jurassic) in Northeastern Brazilian sedimentary basins

The Dom João Stage comprises an interval with variable thickness between 100 and 1200 m, composed of fluvial, eolian and lacustrine deposits of Late Jurassic age, based mainly on the lacustrine ostracod fauna (although the top deposits may extend into the Early Cretaceous). These deposits comprise the so-called Afro-Brazilian Depression, initially characterized as containing the Brotas Group of the Recôncavo Basin (which includes the Aliança and the Sergi Formations) and subsequently extended into the Tucano, Jatobá, Camamu, Almada, Sergipe, Alagoas and Araripe Basins in northeastern Brazil, encompassing the study area of this paper. The large occurrence area of the Dom João Stage gives rise to discussions about the depositional connectivity between the basins, and the real extension of sedimentation. In the first studies of this stratigraphic interval, the Dom João Stage was strictly associated with the rift phase, as an initial stage (decades of 1960–70), but subsequent analyses considered the Dom João as an intracratonic basin or pre-rift phase – without any relation to the active mechanics of a tectonic syn-rift phase (decades of 1980–2000). The present work developed an evolutionary stratigraphic and tectonic model, based on the characterization of depositional sequences, internal flooding surfaces, depositional systems arrangement and paleoflow directions. Several outcrops on the onshore basins were used to build composite sections of each basin, comprising facies, architectural elements, depositional systems, stratigraphic and lithostratigraphic frameworks, and paleocurrents. In addition to that, over a hundred onshore and offshore exploration wells were used (only 21 of which are showed) to map the depositional sequences and generate correlation sections. These show the characteristics and relations of the Dom João Stage in each studied basin, and they were also extended to the Gabon Basin. The results indicate that there were two main phases during the Dom João Stage, in which distinctive sedimentary environments were developed, reflecting depositional system arrangements, paleoflow directions were diverse, and continuous or compartmented basins were developed.     

The upper Maastrichtian dinosaur fossil record from the southern Pyrenees and its contribution to the topic of the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction event

In the present paper, the fossil record of the archosaurs (dinosaurs, crocodylomorphs and pterosaurs) of the southern Pyrenees before the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) transition is revised. On the basis of this fossil record, a well-dated succession of dinosaurs and other archosaurs is established within polarity magnetochrons C30 and C29r. Almost 150 sites with dinosaur remains have been identified, containing hadrosauroid ornithopods, titanosaur sauropods and theropods, as well as egg sites and tracks. Fossil remains of dinosaurs and other archosaurs are abundant in C29r, disappearing abruptly near the top of the “Lower Red Garumnian” unit of the Tremp Formation. Thus this should be located very close to, or coinciding with the K–Pg boundary. These data suggest that the disappearance of the dinosaurs and other archosaurs was geologically abrupt in the southern Pyrenees, but to date there is no incontrovertible evidence of the presence of the impact level that marks the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary. Interestingly, what is highlighted in the southern Pyrenees is that the vertebrate-rich upper Maastrichtian continental sites were replaced by similar sedimentological facies characterized by the virtual absence not only of dinosaurs but also of any vertebrate remain throughout the lower Palaeocene. This could mean that the Danian terrestrial ecosystems of the southern Pyrenees took longer than other areas of the world to recover their biodiversity after the K−Pg extinction event.     

The effects of solid solution and diffusion on infiltration-driven metamorphism with application to metaperidotite,Val d’Efra,Central Swiss Alps

The complication introduced by solid solutions in the analysis of infiltration-driven mineral reactions is that the mole fraction of tracer component i in fluid (X _i) changes with reaction progress (ξ). The effect was incorporated into transport models for coupled fluid flow and mineral reaction by parameterizing the relation between X _i and ξ. With specific reference to carbonation and hydration during regional metamorphism of the peridotite body in Val d’Efra, whose constituent minerals are all solid solutions, infiltration of a disequilibrium fluid produces a single sharp reaction front if rock is assumed uniform in composition. The reaction front separates completely unreacted rock downstream from rock upstream with ξ at a steady-state limit (ξ_ss ≤ ξ_max) that depends on input fluid composition (ξ_max is the maximum possible value). Novel phenomena develop, however, if the flow medium, like the metaperidotite body, is composed of many small domains that differ in initial mineral modes and compositions but with X _i homogenized at a spatial scale larger than the size of the domains (e.g., by diffusion). In this case, infiltration of a disequilibrium fluid produces up to as many different reaction fronts along the flow path as there are domains with 0 ≤ ξ < ξ_ss in all domains except upstream from the slowest moving front where ξ = ξ_ss in all domains. Measured values of ξ in the metaperidotite, (all 0 < ξ < ξ_max) are best reproduced by down-temperature infiltration of a disequilibrium fluid with X_\textCO2 =  0. 1 9 6 X_{{{\text{CO}}_{2} }} = \, 0. 1 9 6 into a multi-domain medium with uniform X_\textCO2 X_{{{\text{CO}}_{2} }} at each spatial point along the flow path (homogenized across the domains at the m-scale by diffusion), and time-integrated fluid flux ≥1,836 mol fluid/cm² rock. Results resolve the paradox of the widespread spatial distribution of reactants and products of infiltration-driven decarbonation/dehydration reactions in regional metamorphic terrains (which in the absence of solid solution and compositional domains indicate up-temperature flow) and the prediction of hydrodynamic models that regional metamorphic fluid flow normally is directed vertically upward and down temperature.     

Some aspects of the British Geological Survey’s contribution to the war effort at the Western Front, 1914–1918

The application of geology to warfare in regard to questions of water supply, ground conditions and access to strategic minerals has long been appreciated, and much has already been written on these aspects of the science. During the Great War of 1914–1918 the services of the British Geological Survey, under the directorship of Aubrey Strahan, were called upon to advise on such matters both at home and abroad. Surviving archived files at the Geological Survey allow us to examine some rather more unexpected applications of the science, particularly in regard to the European theatre of war. These files provide only a partial record of the full range of war-related activities undertaken by the Survey, but they do reveal more especially the application of petrography to aircraft compass design, forensic geology, and the choice of stone for war graves.     

The Bastar craton,central India: A window to Archean – Paleoproterozoic crustal evolution

The Bastar craton in central India, surrounded by cratonic blocks and Paleoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic orogenic belts, is a window to investigate the Archean-Paleoproterozoic crustal evolution and tectonic processes. Here we propose a new tectonic classification of the craton into the Western Bastar Craton (WBC), Eastern Bastar Craton (EBC), and the intervening Central Bastar Orogen (CBO). We present petrologic, geochemical and zircon U-Pb, REE and Lu-Hf data from a suite of rocks from the CBO and along the eastern margin of the WBC Including: (1) volcanic successions comprising meta-andesite and fine-grained amphibolite, representing arc-related volcanics along a convergent margin; (2) ferruginous sandstone, in association with rhyolite, representing a volcano-sedimentary succession, deposited in an active trench; and (3) metamorphosed mafic-ultramafic suite including gabbro, pyroxenite and dunite invaded by trondhjemite representing the section of sub-arc mantle and arc root adjacent to a long-lasting subduction system. Petrologic studies indicate that the mafic-ultramafic suite crystallized from an island arc tholeiitic parental magma in a suprasubduction zone environment. The chondrite-normalized and primitive mantle normalized diagrams of the mafic and ultramafic rocks suggest derivation from MORB magma. The mixed characters from N-MORB to E-MORB of the studied samples are consistent with subduction modification of a MORB related magma, involving partial melting of the metasomatized mantle wedge. Our zircon U-Pb age data suggest that the cratonic nuclei was constructed as early as Paleoarchean. We present evidence for active subduction and arc magmatism through Mesoarchean to Neoarchean and early Paleoproterozoic, with the trench remaining open until at least 2.3 Ga. Two major crust building events are recognized in the Bastar craton: during Mesoarchean (recycled Paleoarchean subduction-related as well as juvenile/depleted mantle components) and Neoarchean (accretion of juvenile oceanic crust, arc magmatism including granite batholiths and related porphyry mineralization). The final cratonization occurred during latest Paleoproterozoic, followed by collisional assembly of the craton and its incorporation within the Peninsular Indian mosaic during Mesoproterozoic. In the global supercontinent context, the craton preserves the history of Ur, the earliest supercontinent, followed by the Paleo-Mesoproterozoic Columbia, as well as minor thermal imprints of the Neoproterozoic Rodinia and associated Grenvillian orogeny.