Inferring erosional resistance of bedrock units in the east Tennessee mountains from digital elevation data

Measures of local relief, regional relief, and slope were calculated from digital elevation models (DEMs) for 50 bedrock units in the Ridge and Valley and Blue Ridge provinces of Tennessee. Each of these measures was normalized and the three were then averaged to produce the erosional resistance index (ERI). Bedrock units with higher ERI values include coarse clastics, intermediate clastics, and metaplutonics. Units with lower values include shales, limestones, limestones plus dolostones, and carbonates plus fine clastics. Dolostones tend to have intermediate values. The calculated ERI values were compared with subjective ratings by a geologist with decades of field experience in east Tennessee. Generally, the agreement between the two ratings was good, the most glaring exception being several shales with improbably high ERI values. These turned out to be thin units cropping out beneath very hard sandstones, allowing them to stand higher and steeper than would otherwise be possible. A systematic method for detecting such erroneously high ERI values is suggested. Inspection of a drainage map superimposed on the geology map shows that in a given area, streams tend to flow on rock units with the lowest ERI values. In addition, statistical analysis shows that bedrock units with the lowest ERI values are, on average, almost three times closer to the nearest stream and six times as likely to have streams flowing on them than are units with highest values. Further, the effect of ERI on stream location is strongest for streams with drainage areas between 1 and 30 km². Thus, small streams appear to be subject to greater lithologic control than are larger streams.     

Recent Changes in the Climate At the Dead Sea – a Preliminary Study

In the last decade pan evaporation measured at the Southern Dead Sea has significantly increased. Wind, temperature and humidity measurements at the Dead Sea starting in the 1930s as well as 3-D model simulations all seem to indicate a statistically significant change in the local climate of the Dead Sea region. The potential contribution to this climatic change through the weakening of the local land-sea breeze circulation caused by the reduction in the Dead Sea surface area in 1979–1981, is examined. It is suggested that since the breeze tempers the Dead Sea climate, its weakening has caused the air temperature to increase, the relative humidity to decrease and thus increased the pan evaporation. The climatic changes as implied by the MM4 Mesoscale PSU/NCAR model simulations, seem to fit the observed changes and to suggest a local tendency to the more arid climate that now prevails to the south of the study region.     

SENSITIVITY OF MALARIA, SCHISTOSOMIASIS AND DENGUE TO GLOBAL WARMING

Global assessment of the potential impacts of anthropogenically-induced climate change on vector-borne diseases suggests an increase in extent of the geographical areas susceptible to transmission of malarial Plasmodium parasites, dengue Flavivirus and Schistosoma worms. The transmission potential of the three associated vector-borne diseases studied is highly sensitive to climate changes on the periphery of the currently endemic areas and at higher altitudes within such areas. Our findings vis-à-vis the present endemic areas indicate that the increase in the epidemic potential of malaria and dengue transmission may be estimated at 12–27% and 31–47%, respectively, while in contrast, schistosomiasis transmission potential may be expected to exhibit a 11–17% decrease.     

Petrochemistry of Jurassic and Cretaceous tholeiites from Kong Karls Land, Svalbard, and their relation to Mesozoic magmatism in the Arctic

A study of the whole-rock geochemistry and mineral chemistry of high-TiO₂ Upper Jurassic and medium-TiO₂ Lower Cretaceous basalts from Kong Karls Land, Svalbard, is presented. Geochemical criteria indicate that the basalts are initial rifting tholeiites with weak signs of crustal contamination. The Upper Jurassic basalts appear to be associated with the Olga Rift, part of a trans-Barents rift system which failed to link the proto-Atlantic and proto-Arctic basins. The Lower Cretaceous basalts may be more closely related to initial rifting tholeiites on Franz Josef Land and Spitsbergen generated during the rifting stage of opening of the Canada Basin. During break-up of the Barents Shelf, the sequence of magma types corresponds to the pre-, syn- and post-rifting stages established in other areas of continental break-up. Evidence for a possible hot-spot or plume trail, extending from Siberia to the Yermak Plateau over 250 Ma, is assembled.     

Monitoring of rapid salt weathering in the central Namib Desert using limestone blocks

Pre-weighed blocks of a Jurassic Limestone were exposed on the ground surface in the coastal Namib Desert for a period of 2 years. The environment is both salty and foggy. Some of the blocks suffered extensive disintegration, and laboratory analyses (including geochemistry, XRD and SEM) indicate that the weathered samples have a high halite (sodium chloride) content. Cycles of wetting and drying associated with the frequent fog events of the area cause cycles of halite crystallization. Rocks exposed at the surface absorb salts from the surrounding desert surface and then disintegrate, contributing to planation of the landscape.     

Late Cretaceous rift-related upwelling and melting of the Trindade starting mantle plume head beneath western Brazil

High mantle potential temperatures and local extension, associated with the Late-Cretaceous impact of the Trindade mantle plume, produced substantial widespread and voluminous magmatism around the northern half of the Paraná sedimentary basin. Our previous studies have shown that, above the central and eastern portions of the postulated impact zone where lithosphere extension is minimal, heat conducted by the plume caused large-scale melting of the more fusible parts of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle beneath the margin of the São Francisco craton and the surrounding Brasilía mobile belt. Here we combine geochemical data and field evidence from the Poxoreu Igneous Province, western Brazil to show how more intense lithospheric extension above the western margin of the postulated impact zone permitted greater upwelling and melting of the Trindade plume than further east. Laser ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age determinations indicate that rift-related basaltic magmas of the Poxoreu Igneous Province were emplaced at ? 84 Ma. Our detailed geochemical study of the mafic magmas shows that the parental melts underwent polybaric crystal fractionation within the crust prior to final emplacement. Furthermore, some magmas (quartz-normative) appear to have assimilated upper crust whereas others (nepheline- and hypersthene-normative) appear to have been unaffected by open-system crustal magma chamber processes. Incompatible trace element ratios (e.g. chondrite-normalised La/Nb?=?1) and isotopic ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr?=?0.704 and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd?=?0.51274) of the Hy-normative basalts resemble those of oceanic islands (OIB). We therefore propose that these “OIB-like” magmas were predominantly derived from convecting-mantle-source melts (i.e. Trindade mantle plume). Inverse modelling of rare-earth element (REE) abundances suggests that the initial melts were predominantly generated within the depth range of ?80–100 km, in mantle with a potential temperature of ?1500 °C.