塞拉利昂中部马卡利地区金矿特征及成矿远景

塞拉利昂中部马卡利地区出露有大片的太古界花岗-绿岩带地质体,其金矿资源丰富。通过矿产勘查和成矿规律研究表明,金的来源与太古界花岗-绿岩带地体密切相关。岩金矿床类型为含铁建造金矿床,主要赋存于绿岩带的绿片岩中及含铁建造的片岩中,受褶皱和断裂构造控制;砂金矿的类型为河流冲积型砂金矿,主要分布在花岗-绿岩带内及其周边河流中的全新统冲积层中下部砂砾石层中。重砂异常和地球化学异常区内具备良好的岩金、砂金成矿地质背景和找矿前景,实施砂金-岩金综合找矿方法,找矿潜力巨大。     

地面高精度磁法在塞拉利昂洛琴铁矿区的应用

塞拉利昂位于赤道附近,属于低纬度地区。在低纬度区,以水平磁化为主的条件下,磁性体所产生的ΔT磁异常以负异常为主,正异常伴生。通过对磁资料进行倒相180°、化赤、化极处理方法的对比,认为在不考虑剩磁、磁性体退磁作用的情况下,结合当地地质情况,倒相180°的处理方法能够展现该区的磁场特征,以此作为基础资料对全区的磁异常进行解释。利用不同高度的向上延拓处理,有效地排除了浅层干扰,突出深层异常特征,再结合最大坡度法、经验切线法、欧拉奇次方程法确定其磁性体的埋深和水平大致位置,最后,采用二度半人机交互反演拟合磁性体大致的形态,通过布设钻探施工,验证结果与推断吻合较好。     

Experiencing agricultural failure: Internal migration, tourism and local perceptions of regional change in the Yucatan

In response to a growing body of literature encouraging geographers to present textured, regional case studies that demonstrate how neoliberalism functions at diverse scales, this article presents a nuanced account of neoliberalism in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. The study seeks to illustrate how neoliberal reforms to agriculture and ongoing neoliberal tourism development in the Yucatecan state of Quintana Roo intersect to create a unique regional context for migration between the state’s rural areas and Mexico’s largest planned tourism development zone in Cancun. The research presented is based on a series of in-depth qualitative interviews that took place in 2003 with rural residents and regional migrants working in Cancun. Through the employment of an experiential definition of neoliberalism, grounded in the lived experiences and perceptions of study participants, the article suggests that rural-urban tourist pole migration is the result of a complex negotiation of the region’s neoliberal landscape. The article argues that rural residents’ and migrants’ perceptions of the failure of agriculture as a livelihood is shaped relative to the perceived success of the tourism industry and better livelihood opportunities in Cancun. These widespread perceptions of agricultural failure in the Yucatan peninsula are constructed not solely in response to local conditions but rather in response to the overall regional outcome of neoliberal economic restructuring initiatives which have negatively affected traditional agriculture in the rural sphere while privileging tourism development in the urban sphere centered in Cancun.     

Moving players,traversing perspectives: Global value chains,production networks and Ghanaian football labour migration

This article examines the production and transnational export of Ghanaian football labour. It does so via a cross-disciplinary approach that utilises perspectives rooted in the sociology of development (global value chains) and economic geography (global production networks). The article is underpinned by two central arguments. Firstly, it contends that the GVC framework is useful in accounting for how Ghanaian players are produced and prepared for the international market, identifying the key agents and agencies involved, mapping the geography of production and export and assessing the institutional context within which the trade operates locally, nationally and internationally. The second draws on the GPN perspective to argue that while Ghanaian football labour migration remains a process contoured by uneven asymmetries of power that favour actors, stakeholders and entities in the global North, there are currently segments of the production–export chain where power is much more diffuse and some benefits are captured in the global South. The paper draws on interview data and observations gleaned from four periods of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana between January 2008 and June 2011.     

Infrastructures of insecurity: Housing and language testing in Asia-Australia migration

This paper explores how migration infrastructure conditions migrant mobilities within receiving states. The paper examines two infrastructural case studies, language testing and housing markets, in relation to Asian ‘middling’ migrants, that is, the relatively educated and skilled but not elite, who arrive in Australia on temporary visas. The analysis highlights the interplays and dependencies of different ‘logics of operation’ (Xiang and Lindquist, 2014) of infrastructure in relation to these migrants’ status mobilities and housing mobilities within the receiving society. The paper draws on data from in-depth narrative interviews with migrants to also understand how infrastructure produces perceptions and meaning-making around the migration process. This analysis reveals that, in this empirical context, migration infrastructure produces varied kinds of spatio-temporal insecurity as much as it mediates mobility.     

墨西哥西马德雷山脉中—新生代构造、岩浆演化及成矿特征

墨西哥西马德雷山脉是白垩纪—新生代岩浆活动和构造运动形成的。中新生代岩浆活动可以分为5个主要阶段:侏罗纪—早白垩世、晚白垩世—古新世、始新世—渐新世、中新世早期和中新世中期—现代。这些岩浆活动和构造运动与法拉隆(Farallon)板块向北美大陆俯冲和加利福尼亚湾打开相关。墨西哥中新生代的成矿作用与东太平洋板块边缘连续的俯冲过程密切相关,矿床类型多样,包括VMS(与火山相关的块状硫化物)型、斑岩型、IOCG(铁氧化物铜金)型、矽卡岩型等。     

Extension and magmatism in the Cerocahui basin,northern Sierra Madre Occidental,western Chihuahua,Mexico

The Sierra Madre Occidental of northwestern Mexico is the biggest silicic large igneous province of the Cenozoic, yet very little is known about its geology due to difficulties of access to much of this region. This study presents geologic maps and two new U-Pb zircon laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry ages from the Cerocahui basin, a previously unmapped and undated ~25 km-long by ~12 km-wide half-graben along the western edge of the relatively unextended core of the northern Sierra Madre Occidental silicic large igneous province. Five stratigraphic units are defined in the study area: (1) undated welded to non-welded silicic ignimbrites that underlie the rocks of the Cerocahui basin, likely correlative to Oligocene-age ignimbrites to the east and west; (2) the ca. 27.5–26 Ma Bahuichivo volcanics, comprising mafic-intermediate lavas and subvolcanic intrusions in the Cerocahui basin; (3) alluvial fan deposits and interbedded distal non-welded silicic ignimbrites of the Cerocahui clastic unit; (4) basalt lavas erupted into the Cerocahui basin following alluvial deposition; and (5) silicic hypabyssal intrusions emplaced along the eastern margin of the basin and to a lesser degree within the basin deposits.

The main geologic structures in the Cerocahui basin and surrounding region are NNW-trending normal faults, with the basin bounded on the east by the syndepositional W-dipping Bahuichivo–Bachamichi and Pañales faults. Evidence of syndepositional extension in the half-graben (e.g. fanning dips, unconformities, coarsening of clastic deposits toward basin-bounding faults) indicates that normal faulting was active during deposition in the Cerocahui basin (Bahuichivo volcanics, Cerocahui clastic unit, and basalt lavas), and may have been active earlier based on regional correlations.

The rocks in the Cerocahui basin and adjacent areas record: (1) the eruption of silicic outflow ignimbrite sheets, likely erupted from caldera sources to the east during the early Oligocene pulse of the mid-Cenozoic ignimbrite flare-up, mostly prior to synextensional deposition in the Cerocahui basin (pre-27.5 Ma); (2) synextensional late Oligocene mafic-intermediate composition magmatism and alluvial fan sedimentation (ca. 27.5–24.5 Ma), which occurred during the lull between the Early Oligocene and early Miocene pulses of the ignimbrite flare-up; and (3) post-extensional emplacement of silicic hypabyssal intrusions along pre-existing normal faults, likely during the early Miocene pulse of the ignimbrite flare-up (younger than ca. 24.5 Ma). The timing of extensional faulting and magmatism in the Cerocahui basin and surrounding area generally coincides with previous models of regional-scale middle Eocene to early Miocene southwestward migration of active volcanism and crustal extension in the northern Sierra Madre Occidental controlled by post-late Eocene (ca. 40 Ma) rollback/fallback of the subducted Farallon slab.     

Bulk arc strain,crustal thickening,magma emplacement,and mass balances in the Mesozoic Sierra Nevada arc

Quantifying crustal deformation is important for evaluating mass balance, material transfer, and the interplay between tectonism and magmatism in continental arcs. We present a dataset of >650 finite strain analyses compiled from published works and our own studies with associated structural, geochronologic, and geobarometric information in central and southern Sierra Nevada, California, to quantify the arc crust deformation. Our results show that Mesozoic tectonism results in 65% arc-perpendicular bulk crust shortening under a more or less plane strain condition. Mesozoic arc magmatism replaced ∼80% of this actively deforming arc crust with plutons requiring significantly greater crustal thickening. We suggest that by ∼85 Ma, the arc crust thickness was ∼80 km with a 30-km-thick arc root, resulting in a ∼5 km elevation. Most tectonic shortening and magma emplacement must be accommodated by downward displacements of crustal materials into growing crustal roots at the estimated downward transfer rate of 2–13 km/Myr. The downward transfer of crustal materials must occur in active magma channels, or in “escape channels” in between solidified plutons that decrease in size with time and depth resulting in an increase in the intensity of constrictional strain with depth. We argue that both tectonism and magmatism control the thickness of the crust and surface elevation with slight modification by surface erosion. The downward transported crustal materials initially fertilize the MASH zone thus enhancing to the generation of additional magmas. As the crustal root grows it may potentially pinch out and cool the mantle wedge and thus cause reduction of arc magmatism.     

The nature and location of the suture zone in the Rokelide orogen, Sierra Leone: Geochemical evidence

The boundaries of the West African Craton mark the location of a continuous suture zone that records Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian oceanic closure. The western part of the circum-West African suture zone extends through the line of outcrop of the Mauritanide, Bassaride and Rokelide mountain belts. Our geochemical analyses are consistent with the idea that igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Rokelide and Southern Mauritanide mountain belts of West Africa occupy a suture zone that records the closing of a Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian ocean basin during the Pan-African orogeny and final assembly of Gondwana. The closing of that basin was marked by the collision between Archean rocks of the Leo massif of the West African Craton and reactivated Archean and Paleoproterozoic rocks that now outcrop nearer to the coast of Africa in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Within the Rokelides, the geochemistry of the Kasewe Hills volcanic rocks and Marampa amphibolite indicate that remnants of an arc system are caught up in the suture zone. The geochemistry of Guingan schists that outcrop along strike of the Rokelides is compatible with the idea that the metamorphosed equivalents of the Marampa and Kasewe Hills arc volcanic rocks extend through the Bassarides and into the Southern Mauritanides.     

油气运移动力及输导体系对海塔盆地油气分布的控制作用

海塔盆地属于陆相断陷盆地,受断裂控制,生烃面积小,油气运移范围局限,运移距离和方向受到运移动力和输导体系的影响.二次运移的动力包括浮力和构造活动力,其主要影响因素是地层倾角和断裂活动强度.输导体系包括砂体、断层、不整合及其空间组合.通过解剖海塔盆地典型油气藏,分析了源岩生排烃特征、储层沉积相、物性条件以及断层分布特征,...     

Ageing,migration and familial support in rural China

Accelerated by economic reforms, a large scale migration of younger workers from rural to urban China has taken place since the 1990s. This has separated many adult children from their ageing parents and imposed significant challenges on traditional patterns of familial support for rural older people. These challenges are augmented by the fact that in rural China the elderly have been deprived a state pension and other welfare provisions available to urban residents.Drawing upon qualitative data from a project on ageing in rural China, this article examines the agency of older people and their families in responding to geographical separation resulting from the migration of the economically active to the cities. Through 32 life history interviews with multiple generations of nine households in one rural village, this article sheds light on the resilience and flexibility of rural households which have experienced migration and highlights the webs of interdependence that feature in the daily strategies of householding. It shows how members of the household across different geographical locations worked together to build and maintain the collective welfare of the family. In particular, this article argues that it would be over simplistic to suggest that migration is always detrimental to the older generation who stay behind. Contrary to assumptions in some migration studies and ageing literature in China, it shows that it is the breakdown of the webs of interdependence and reciprocity rather than the event of migration that will have inevitable negative effects upon old age care for the seniors in the household. Further, while highlighting the significance of householding, this article reveals the internal dynamics within a household. It identifies the role of gender in daily householding and suggests that the caring, supportive and kin-keeping roles performed mainly by women played a critical role in ensuring social and physical reproduction across generations. The article finds that while daughters took over some responsibilities which were traditionally expected from their brothers and sisters-in-law in old age support, the persistence of gendered practices and traditions in rural villages allowed sons more symbolic status and material benefits.     

Women's migration and quality of life in Turkey

Turkey's urban growth has been unprecedented for the last two decades with women playing an increasingly substantial role in its development. In this context, we examine determinants of women's migration and quality of life in cities in 1990 (the most recent published census of Turkey) and onwards. Factor analysis of provincial data identified three quality of life dimensions: affluence, deprivation, and housing. Substantial disparities in quality of life indices exist between men and women, urban and rural milieu, and geographic regions. Migrants, especially women, still tend to move with their families but they prefer provinces with high scores on (relative) urban affluence and avoid deprived, rural provinces. Thus Istanbul, Ankara, and southern coastal provinces are preferred destinations. Policy implications for urban growth, regional development, and gender equality relative to migration are discussed.     

Evidence of temperature depression and hydrological variations in the eastern Sierra Nevada during the Younger Dryas stade

Sediment records from two lakes in the east-central Sierra Nevada, California, provide evidence of cooling and hydrological shifts during the Younger Dryas stade (YD; ~ 12,900-11,500 cal yr BP). A chironomid transfer function suggests that lake-water temperatures were depressed by 2°C to 4°C relative to maximum temperatures during the preceding Bølling-Allerød interstade (BA; ~ 14,500-12,900 cal yr BP). Diatom and stable isotope records suggest dry conditions during the latter part of the BA interstade and development of relatively moist conditions during the initiation of the YD stade, with a reversion to drier conditions later in the YD. These paleohydrological inferences correlate with similar timed changes detected in the adjacent Great Basin. Vegetation response during the YD stade includes the development of more open and xeric vegetation toward the end of the YD. The new records support linkages between the North Atlantic, the North Pacific, and widespread YD cooling in western North America, but they also suggest complex hydrological influences. Shifting hydrological conditions and relatively muted vegetation changes may explain the previous lack of evidence for the YD stade in the Sierra Nevada and the discordance in some paleohydrological and glacial records of the YD stade from the western United States.     

Welfare reform and the intra-regional migration of beneficiaries in New Zealand

This paper investigates the net effect of major cuts in welfare benefits and associated changes in the delivery of housing assistance on the relocation behavior of beneficiaries. It does so against an international literature which has documented the tendency of welfare recipients to adjust their costs of living by moving from urban to rural settlements. The paper reviews the literature on welfare and migration, introduces a theoretical framework based on a metropolitan labour market and then tests several hypotheses about the possible effects of benefits cuts on spatial adjustment. The research design uses quinquennial census data to compare core beneficiary relocation patterns with those of non-beneficiaries before and after the cuts to welfare benefits in the Wellington region of New Zealand in 1991. The period following the benefit cuts in New Zealand was characterised by increasing job opportunities which helped to mitigate their adverse effect and made it difficult to identify a more general down-market residential adjustment. While a downward adjustment in housing consumption by core beneficiaries was identified, residential movement from urban to the cheaper settlements in adjacent rural areas was only observed from former State house areas where the income effects of benefit cuts were compounded by increases in rents on former State houses. Thus, while this paper supports the findings of independent sample survey work, our census based analysis underscores the highly contingent nature of that response. Evidence of urban-rural migration is placed in the context of the government's `remote area policy' which attempts to dissuade beneficiaries (who are receiving a social security benefit related to their employment status) from moving without good reason to `remote' locations where job prospects are weak. The paper raises the more general policy issue where benefit cuts, designed to stimulate more active job searching among the unemployed, actually prompt some beneficiaries to relocate to the urban fringe and in some cases to remote parts of the country where job prospects are weak. The theoretical and policy implication of this paper is that there are geographical correlates to the reservation wage which need to be integrated into thinking about the participation consequences of setting benefit levels.     

Post-collisional lamprophyric event in Sierra Norte, Córdoba, Argentina: Mineralogical, geochemical and isotopic characteristics

Over 20 lamprophyre dykes, varying in width between a few centimeters and several meters, have been identified in central Sierra Norte – Eastern Pampean Ranges, Córdoba, Argentina. Their mineralogy and chemistry indicate that they are part of the calc-alkaline lamprophyres clan (CAL). They contain phenocrysts of magnesiohornblende ± augite set in a groundmass of magnesiohornblende, calcic-plagioclase, alkali feldspar, and opaque minerals, which designate them as spessartite-type lamprophyres. Alteration products include chlorite, calcite and iron oxides after mafic phenocrysts, though some are partially replaced by actinolite. Feldspars are replaced by carbonate and clay minerals.The dykes are relatively primitive, and show restricted major element variation (SiO₂ 51.1–55.3 wt.%, Al₂O₃ 12–16.6 wt.%, total alkalies 1.5–4.7 wt.%), high Mg# (55–77), high Cr contents (27–988 ppm) and moderate to high Ni contents (60–190 ppm). Lamprophyre LILE (e.g. Rb averages 110 ppm, Sr 211–387 ppm, Ba 203–452 ppm) are high relative to HFSE (e.g., Ta 0.2–1.6 ppm, Nb 4–11 ppm, Y 17–21 ppm), and are enriched in LREE (30–70 times chondrite). They are characterized by relatively high ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb (38.8–39.9), ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb (15.7), and ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb (18.7–20.1), combined with low (epsilon)ε_Nd (−4.69 to −1.52) and a relative moderately high (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr)_i of 0.7055–0.7074. The Rb–Sr whole rock isochron indicates an Early Ordovician age of 485 ± 25 Ma. The calculated T_DM (1.7 Ga) suggests that these rocks appear to have originated from a reservoir that was created during a mantle metasomatism event related to the Pampean orogeny.The Sierra Norte lamprophyres show affinities with a subduction-related magma in an active continental margin. Their geochemical and isotopic features suggest a multicomponent source, composed of enriched mantle material variably contaminated by crustal components. The lamprophyric suite emplacement occurred at the dawning stage of the Pampean orogeny, in a regional post-collisional extensional setting developed in the Sierra Norte-Ambargasta batholith (SNAB) in Early Ordovician times.     

The middle space of migration: A case study on brokerage and recruitment agencies in Nepal

Foreign employment has become a global phenomenon. With the increasing commercialisation and formalisation of transnational labour migration, recruitment agencies and agents have gained importance. The paper aims to contribute to a more differentiated understanding of the role and the practices of the main actors in the middle space of migration, the brokers in the recruitment process for transnational migration. Based on empirical material from Nepal, it argues that the detected negative reputation of labour brokers is only partially justified. Besides common bad practices and fraud cases, recruiters perform important roles for the facilitation of transnational mobility and present the necessary infrastructure for labour migration. They connect people and places, establish networks and can play an important role in making migration safer. Brokers are important facilitators in supporting alternative income strategies and new livelihood options of people. At the same time they are entrepreneurs in a competitive and risky economic field, confronted with multifaceted constraints. As long as the gap between the dreams of potential migrants and the reality of marginality in Nepal remains wide, labour brokers might persist as important middlemen for global work. Thus, migration brokerage is likely to remain big business.     

Growth and deformation of porphyroblasts in the Foothills terrane, central Sierra Nevada, California: negotiating a microstructural minefield

Abstract The main porphyroblastic minerals in schists and phyllites of the Foothills terrane, Western Metamorphic Belt, central Sierra Nevada, California, are cordierite and andalusite (mostly chiastolite). Less commonly, biotite, muscovite, chlorite, garnet or staurolite are also present as porphyroblasts. The variety of porphyroblast and matrix microstructures in these rocks makes them suitable for testing three modern hypotheses on growth and deformation of porphyroblasts: (1) porphyroblast growth is always syndeformational; (2) porphyroblasts nucleate only in low-strain, largely coaxially deformed, quartz-rich (Q) domains of a crenulation foliation and are dissolved in active high-strain, non-coaxially deformed, mica-rich (M) domains, the spacing between which limits the size of the porphyroblasts; and (3) porphyroblasts generally do not rotate, with respect to geographical coordinates, during deformation, provided they do not deform internally, so that they may be used as reliable indicators of the orientation of former regional structural surfaces, even on the scale of orogenic belts. Some porphyroblast–matrix relationships in the Foothills terrane are inconsistent with hypotheses 1 and 2, and others are equivocal. For example, in many rocks it cannot be determined whether the porphyroblasts grew where the strain had already been partitioned into M and Q domains, whether the porphyroblasts caused this partitioning, or both. Although most porphyroblasts appear to be syndeformational, as predicted by hypothesis 1, observations that do not support the general application of hypotheses 1 and 2 to rocks of the Foothills terrane include: (a) lack of residual crenulations in many strain-shadows and alternative explanations where they are present; (b) absence of porphyroblasts smaller than the distance between nearest mica-rich domains; (c) nucleation of crenulations on existing porphyroblasts, rather than nucleation of porphyroblasts between existing crenulations; (d) presence of micaceous ‘arcs’in an undifferentiated matrix against some porphyroblasts, suggesting static growth; (e) absence of crenulations in porphyroblastic rocks showing sedimentary bedding; and (f) porphyroblasts with very small, random inclusions, which are probably pre-deformational. Similarly, porphyroblasts that have overgrown sets of crenulations and porphyroblasts with micaceous ‘arcs’are probably post-deformational, at least on the scale of a large thin section and probably over much larger areas, judging from mesoscopic structural evidence. Some porphyroblasts in rocks of the Foothills terrane do not appear to have rotated, with respect to geographical coordinates, during matrix deformation, in accordance with hypothesis 3, at least on the scale of a large thin section. However, other porphyroblasts evidently have rotated. In some instances, this appears to be due to mutual interference, but many apparently rotational porphyroblasts are too far apart to have interfered with each other, which indicates that the rotation was associated with deformation of the matrix. The occurrence of planar bedding surfaces adjacent to porphyroblasts about which bedding and/or foliation surfaces are folded suggests rotation of the porphyroblasts during non-coaxial flow parallel to bedding, rather than crenulation of the matrix foliation around static porphyroblasts. It appears that porphyroblasts may rotate during deformation if the matrix is relatively homogeneous, so that the strain is effectively non-coaxial. This may occur after homogenization of a matrix in response to the strongest degree of crenulation folding, whereas the same porphyroblasts may have been inhibited from rotating previously, when strain accumulation was partitioned in the matrix.     

GPS-derived strain in northwestern California: Termination of the San Andreas fault system and convergence of the Sierra Nevada–Great Valley block contribute to southern Cascadia forearc contraction

GPS-derived velocities (1993–2002) in northwestern California show that processes other than subduction are in part accountable for observed upper-plate contraction north of the Mendocino triple junction (MTJ) region. After removing the component of elastic strain accumulation due to the Cascadia subduction zone from the station velocities, two additional processes account for accumulated strain in northern California. The first is the westward convergence of the Sierra Nevada–Great Valley (SNGV) block toward the coast and the second is the north–northwest impingement of the San Andreas fault system from the south on the northern California coastal region in the vicinity of Humboldt Bay. Sierra Nevada–Great Valley block motion is northwest toward the coast, convergent with the more northerly, north–northwest San Andreas transform fault-parallel motion. In addition to the westward-converging Sierra Nevada–Great Valley block, San Andreas transform-parallel shortening also occurs in the Humboldt Bay region. Approximately 22 mm/yr of distributed Pacific–SNGV motion is observed inland of Cape Mendocino across the northern projections of the Maacama and Bartlett Springs fault zones but station velocities decrease rapidly north of Cape Mendocino. The resultant 6–10 mm/yr of San Andreas fault-parallel shortening occurs above the southern edge of the subducted Gorda plate and at the latitude of Humboldt Bay. Part of the San Andreas fault-parallel shortening may be due to the viscous coupling of the southern edge of the Gorda plate to overlying North American plate. We conclude that significant portions of the upper-plate contraction observed north of the MTJ region are not solely a result of subduction of the Gorda plate but also a consequence of impingement of the western edge of the Sierra Nevada–Great Valley block and growth of the northernmost segments of the San Andreas fault system.     

Paleofire reconstruction for high-elevation forests in the Sierra Nevada, California, with implications for wildfire synchrony and climate variability in the late Holocene

Here, we present two high-resolution records of macroscopic charcoal from high-elevation lake sites in the Sierra Nevada, California, and evaluate the synchroneity of fire response for east- and west-side subalpine forests during the past 9200 yr. Charcoal influx was low between 11,200 and 8000 cal yr BP when vegetation consisted of sparse Pinus-dominated forest and montane chaparral shrubs. High charcoal influx after ∼ 8000 cal yr BP marks the arrival of Tsuga mertensiana and Abies magnifica, and a higher-than-present treeline that persisted into the mid-Holocene. Coeval decreases in fire episode frequency coincide with neoglacial advances and lower treeline in the Sierra Nevada after 3800 cal yr BP. Independent fire response occurs between 9200 and 5000 cal yr BP, and significant synchrony at 100- to 1000-yr timescales emerges between 5000 cal yr BP and the present, especially during the last 2500 yr. Indistinguishable fire-return interval distributions and synchronous fires show that climatic control of fire became increasingly important during the late Holocene. Fires after 1200 cal yr BP are often synchronous and corroborate with inferred droughts. Holocene fire activity in the high Sierra Nevada is driven by changes in climate linked to insolation and appears to be sensitive to the dynamics of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.     

Regulatory migration regimes and the production of space: The case of Nepalese workers in South Korea

This paper engages with contemporary debates in labour geography through its focus on: migrant workers as active agents of change; precarious employment, its complexities and consequences; and the importance of material spaces in migrant labour struggles. Since the early 2000s the South Korean government has been strengthening the institutionalised regulation of low-wage migrant workers. A key tool in this process is the Employment Permit System (EPS), in force since 2004. Under this policy migrant workers are temporary sojourners and effectively socio-politically, culturally and spatially excluded from Korean society. EPS restricts migrants’ freedom to choose or change workplaces, which renders them vulnerable to economic and social precarity. Employers use these restrictions to segregate migrant workers from co-nationals, and low-waged migrant workers often find themselves in exploitative working conditions in isolated places. This paper is based on deep ethnographic fieldwork in “Nepal Town” in Seoul and remote Nepalese workers’ accommodation. We examine how such precarious working conditions and isolation impact on workers’ active involvement in the formation and transformation of Nepal Town in Seoul. We examine the ways in which Nepal Town is a site of spatial agency and praxis for Nepalese workers and explore the potentialities of ‘reactive ethnicity’. The empirical insights provided, suggest that the regulatory migration regime for low-wage migrant workers is strongly linked with new formations of material landscapes of connection, mobility, freedom and safe space. Such space production enables migrant workers to perform agency and employ tactics of resistance in order to create spaces of possibility.