The last deglaciation of the Franz Victoria Trough, northern Barents Sea

A study of two piston cores and a 3.5 kHz seismic profile from the Franz Victoria Trough provides new stratigraphic, stable isotopic and foraminiferal AMS ¹⁴C data that help constrain the timing of ice-sheet retreat in the northern Barents Sea and the nature of the deglacial marine environment. Silty diamicton at the base of each core, interpreted as till or ice-marginal debris flow, suggests that the Barents ice sheet was grounded at the core sites (470 m water depth). Eight AMS ¹⁴C dates on sediment overlying the diamicton indicate that the ice sheet retreated from both core sites by 12.9 ka and that postglacial sedimentation began 10 ka ago. These dates, combined with a recently published ¹⁴C date from a nearby core, suggest that the Franz Victoria Trough may not have been deglaciated until c . 13 ka, 2000 years later than modeled ice-sheet reconstructions indicate. In the trough, oxygen isotopic ratios in planktonic foraminifera ^N. pachyderma (sinistral) were 0.5–0.750, lower during deglaciation than after, probably as a result of ice-sheet and/or iceberg melting. Foraminiferal assemblages suggest that Atlantic-derived intermediate water may have begun to penetrate the trough c . 13 ka ago.     

Economic, legal, and public policy issues influencing the creation, accessibility, and use of GIS databases

Rhind (1992) argued that government data policies and Intellectual Property Righr (IPR) considerations would play an increasingly large role in influencing the use of GIS. This has proved to be correct in general but the non-technical factors affecting data collection, supply, and price have become ever more complex. Indeed, one characteristic of the present situation is that it is now impossible to consider the legal, economic, and public policy issues in isolation. Consequently, this paper sets out to identify the interactions between them and the areas of conflict. It draws upon the literature of a much wider area than traditional GIS. This approach is essential because of two factors. The first is that GIS databases are presently of modest commercial value compared to some other data and hence key decisions on IPR, etc are being made outside our discipline. The second is that the nature of GIS databases is mutating rapidly through the wider use of multi-media and of the internet. It is concluded that the future is largely unpredictable in any detail since the interactions differ in different countries and at different moments in time. In many cases, however, revenue generation from sales or leasing of data or from services built upon data exploitation is likely to be a characteristic of both the public and the private sectors. Such charging has observable beneficial effects to set against the frequently claimed disadvantages, whether measured in financial, legal, or public access terms.     

Rock varnish in the Sonoran Desert: microbiologically mediated accumulation of manganiferous sediments

Rock varnish occurs in virtually all environments, most commonly in arid and semi-arid climates, including Antarctica. Rock varnish consists of thin layers of intimately mixed aeolian and chemical sediments often showing botryoidal and more rarely stromatolite-like morphologies. Typical rock varnish samples collected at Twin Peak Mountain Park, near Phoenix, Arizona, consist of abundant quartz, with plagioclase, illite and a mixed layer, Fe-clay mineral, probably corrensite. EDS, SEM (BSE) and TEM analyses revealed that the typical Mn, Fe minerals occur as minute particles; some of these particles and other mineral grains are attached to filaments. XRD and electron diffraction showed that the Mn.Fe-bearing particles are poorly crystalline. The filaments, based on morphological criteria, are virtually indistinguishable from fungal filaments. Most filaments are fragments, probably broken by scraping during sample collection. Coccoid and rod-shaped forms, resembling cyanobacteria and other bacteria, respectively, are also present. Unlike definitive minerals, these filaments disintegrated in the concentrated energy of the SEM electron beam at the instrumental and experimental conditions used. In addition, no filamentous, rod-shaped or coccoid forms were observed in samples hydrolysed with 6 N HCl for 24 h at 100°C. Bacteria and fungi in powdered rock varnish were cultured on four media, incubated aerobically in the dark at 25°C. The culture media yielded dense growths of spore-forming bacteria and filamentous fungi. One fungus and two Bacillus isolates oxidized and concentrated manganese. Control experiments revealed that fungi and bacteria are present on and below the surfaces of rock varnish. Free and hydrolysed, peptide/protein-bound amino acids were identified in the rock varnish. Amino acids showed virtually no racemization with the exception of D/L asp = 0.1. Relatively high molecular weight humic matter was also separated from the rock varnish. High-resolution mass spectrometry revealed non-hydrocarbon moieties, similar to a Suwannee River (FL) humic acid standard. Micro-organisms and their original biochemical compounds do not seem to be preserved for long in the accreting varnish layer. The studies showed that the filaments helped to trap mineral particles of rock varnish, and that bacteria and fungi abetted Mn concentration. Some structures in the layers of rock varnish resemble stromatolites and present definitions would allow them to be termed as such.     

Interglacial marine deposits of the Somerset Levels, South West England

Sands and gravels underlain by silts and clays, known as the Burtle Beds, from the Somerset Levels of South West England have been examined in a specially excavated pit. The Mollusca, Foraminifera and the Ostracoda, and the sparse macroscopic plant remains included in the deposit, all indicate a prgressive marine transgression in which water temperatures obtained approximating to those of the present sea in the adjacent Bristol Channel. The deposits are shown to be estuarine/marine near shore and intertidal sediments of interglacial age. Radiometric assays and studies of palaeomagnetism have failed to indicate clearly which interglacial marine transgressive phase is involved. Geomorphological considerations supported to some extent by the Ostracoda suggest that a last interglacial (Ipswichian) age is more likely than an earlier (Hoxnian?) date. Estimates of the height of sea levels involved are, of necessity, based on evidence which cannot be regarded as wholly reliable. Having regard to the environmental conditions indicated by the included fauna, and making allowance for post depositional erosion, it is suggested that mean sea level at the height of the ‘Burtle’ transgression was between 9 and 12 m above that of the present (O. D.). Assuming a similar tidal range to that of today, a MHWST (Mean High Water of Spring Tides) level of between 15 and 18 m above O. D. is indicated     

Avian predators as accumulators of fossil mammal material

Differences between the remains of mammalian prey in pellets of diurnal and nocturnal avian predators are discussed on the basis of recent material and in relation to probable fossil occurrences. The ability of diurnal predators to digest bone reduces the value of their pellets for quantitative or qualitative indications of the regional mammalian fauna. However, the remaining partially digested fragments in pellets of diurnal predators appear to have a characteristic morphology which may be recognised in a sample of fossil mammalian teeth from the type Cromerian Upper Freshwater Bed sediments at West Runton, England. The implications of such an origin for faunal analysis are briefly considered.
This is believed to be the first time that the role of diurnal predatory birds in accumulation of fossil vertebrate material has been recognised. The characteristically digested teeth from diurnal predator pellets may provide the only direct indication of the origin of at least a part of the mammalian material contained in deposits formed in open sedimentary environments where skeletal parts have been dissociated.     

Energy relations of density-current flows: an experimental investigation*

Three series of density-current experiments were performed in a 5.76 m flume. In the first series, the flume was horizontal, and in the second and third, it was inclined with a positive slope and negative slope, respectively. Energy relations during successive stages of density-current movement were computed from observed data, which showed an appreciable frictional energy dissipation. The computed friction factors of our experimental density-flows were compared to the friction factors for pipe flows (Moody diagram), and while the calculated friction factor increases with increasing Reynold's number within the range of our experiments (Re 2 × 10³?2 × 10⁴), it is concluded that with increasing Reynold's number above about 5 × 10⁴ the friction factor decreases. For natural turbidity currents, the Moody diagram gives a reasonable estimate of the friction factor between the current and sediment bed. The value of the friction factor for the interface between the current and overlying water was found to be about 0.2 times the friction factor for the current and flume. However, due to errors inherent in measuring the depth of the current, a value of 0.4 would be more reasonable for density-currents in our range of Reynold's number. Friction tends to decrease the value of the dimensionless coefficient in Keulegan's law of saline front and to decrease the thickness of the flow. In contrast, the presence of a slope in the direction of flow tends to compensate the effect of friction. The angle θ^c that provides the potential energy to exactly offset the energy losses incurred during movement by the density-currents in our experiments has a calculated value of 31′. An empirical formula φ= 0.935θ—0·57 relating friction, in terms of the hydraulic gradient φ, to the slope angle θ was obtained. Since the thickness of the current can be computed from the relationship between φ and θ, we estimated the thickness of naturally occurring density-currents in Swiss lakes. The results suggest the applicability of our experimental results to small turbidity currents in nature. Our analysis further indicates that large turbidity currents have a small φ and can be expected to flow very long distances on a flat abyssal plain.     

FLUVIATILE RUN-OFF AS A FACTOR IN THE PRIMARY DISPERSAL OF SUBMARINE GRAVELS IN FOVEAUX STRAIT, NEW ZEALAND

Sand is being deposited in a meandering estuary separating Sapelo and Blackbeard Islands, Georgia, in the channel of the estuary and on two point bars associated with meanders. Sand is being eroded by the meandering channel from slightly lithified Pleistocene and unconsolidated Holocene strandline deposits, and is being redeposited by the ebb tidal currents. The estuary-channel deposits are coarse grained and their grain-size decreases down ebb current from the source outcrops. The point bars are elongated in the direction of the ebb current, and increase in grain-size from their crests downward as they grade into the channel deposits. Festoon cross-bedding and ripple marks on the point bars record the ebb direction, while elongate plant fragments are preferentially oriented normal to the bar elongation (current). Horizontally stratified muds and muddy sands are being deposited behind the bars, and contain a rich fauna (primarily annelids, arthropods, and molluscs). However, the fauna is represented in the deposits more by burrows and disturbed stratification than by preserved organisms. The sands of the bars and channel are biologically less productive, but the bioclastic content of the sediment is high.     

Late Quaternary stratigraphy and paleo-oceanography of the Grand Banks continental margin, eastern Canada

Quaternary sediments cored on the continental slope off the Grand Banks and on nearby seamounts and abyssal hills have been correlated back to at least isotopic stage 6. using lithologic and hioslratigraphic markers and warm-cold cyclicity in microfossil assemblages. The sequence is dated using limited oxygen isotope and ^l4C data. The oldest continental slope cores penetrate to a glacial stade with an extrapolated age of 50. 0(H) B. P. The oldest scamount cores probably penetrate to isotopic stage 13. Watcrmass distribution over the area results from interaction of the Labrador Current with locally generated shelf water, and to a lesser extent, the Gulf Stream. Planktic foraminiferal assemblages and sedimentological evidence suggest that arctic Labrador Current core water extends onto the eastern Grand Banks only during full interglacials. During intcrstadials, this arctic core water is absent, probably because its source-was blocked by ice. Cold water during stadials probably results mostly from local cooling on the continental shelf.