Rb-Sr dating of alteration events in granitoids

Veins and other effects of low-grade metamorphism are often found in igneous rocks. A method for dating such veins is proposed. It is based on the presence of Ca-bearing, Rb-free minerals in the veins and their aureoles. The method is applicable if five conditions are satisfied. The effects of low-grade metamorphism on Rb-Sr dating of the emplacement (extrusion) age are also studied. Veins and their aureoles in granitoid rocks from Central Sweden are used as a working example. Two groups of vein ages were found, 1600-1500 Ma and 1250-1100 Ma, which coincide with the two known periods of tensional movements in the region. The ratio ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr in the aureoles and their neighbourhood at the time of vein formation (Sr(a)) shows several different patterns. One with constant Sr(a), independent of the distance to the vein, indicates complete homogenization at the time of alteration. Another shows an increase in Sr(a) close to the vein, indicating that it was rejuvenated. Furthermore, the Sr ratio might determine whether an alteration effect could be of deuteric origin or not: deuteric effects should be characterized by a Sr(a) value equal to the initial Sr-isotope ratio.     

Mapping and clustering the adoption of carbon pricing policies: what polities price carbon and why?

Carbon pricing, including carbon taxes and emissions trading, has been adopted by different kinds of polities worldwide. Yet, beyond the increasing adoption over time, little is known about what polities – countries as well as sub- and supranational entities – adopt carbon pricing and why. This paper explores patterns of adoption (both implemented policies and those scheduled to be) through cluster analysis, with the purpose of investigating factors that could explain polities’ decisions to adopt carbon pricing. The study contributes empirically by studying carbon taxes and emissions trading together and by ordering the polities adopting carbon pricing into clusters. It also contributes theoretically, by exploring constellations of variables that drive the adoption of carbon pricing within individual clusters. We investigated 66 adopted policies of carbon pricing, which were divided into five clusters: early adopters, North-American subnational entities, Chinese pilot provinces, second-wave developed polities, and second-wave developing polities. The analysis indicates that the reasons for adopting carbon pricing have shifted over time. While international factors (climate commitments or influences from polities within the same region) are increasingly salient, domestic factors (including crises and income levels) were more important for the early adopters.

Key policy insights

• Carbon pricing has become a global mainstream policy instrument.

• Economic and fiscal crises provide windows of opportunity for promoting carbon pricing.

• The international climate regime can support the adoption of carbon pricing through mitigation commitments and international financial and technical assistance.

• Learning between polities from the same region is a useful tool for promoting carbon pricing.

• Carbon intensive economies tend to prefer emissions trading over carbon taxes.

     

Analysis of piled raft coefficient and load-settlement on sandy soil

A piled raft foundation is a combined foundation, which is developed to utilize the load-carrying capabilities of both raft and piles. To obtain an optimum piled raft design, it is important to properly evaluate and consider the load-sharing behavior between the raft and piles, which changes according to the settlement level of the piled raft. In this study, 27 three-dimensional finite element models were analyzed to investigate the piled raft coefficient with linear and nonlinear load-settlement behaviors. The length of piles was varied between 10, 15, and 20 m. The spacing between pile centers was varied between 3D, 5D, and 7D, and the pile diameter was kept constant. The number of piles and the distance between the exterior piles and the edge of the raft were maintained at 9 and 1 m, respectively. The sand conditions varied between dense, medium, and loose. The results indicated that the piled raft coefficient increases when the load-settlement curve is linear and decreases when the load-settlement curve is nonlinear. The influence of the incremental increase in pile length on the piled raft coefficient is more pronounced in short piles than in longer piles. The raft thickness has a negligible effect on the piled raft coefficient.     

The analytical continuation bias in geoid determination using potential coefficients and terrestrial gravity data

One important application of an Earth Gravity Model (EGM) is to determine the geoid. Since an EGM is represented by an external-type series of spherical harmonics, a biased geoid model is obtained when the EGM is applied inside the masses in continental regions. In order to convert the downward-continued height anomaly to the corresponding geoid undulation, a correction has to be applied for the analytical continuation bias of the geoid height. This technique is here called the geoid bias method. A correction for the geoid bias can also be utilised when an EGM is combined with terrestrial gravity data, using the combined approach to topographic corrections. The geoid bias can be computed either by a strict integral formula, or by means of one or more terms in a binomial expansion. The accuracy of the lowest binomial terms is studied numerically. It is concluded that the first term (of power H²) can be used with high accuracy up to degree 360 everywhere on Earth. If very high mountains are disregarded, then the use of the H² term can be extended up to maximum degrees as high as 1800. It is also shown that the geoid bias method is practically equal to the technique applied by Rapp, which utilises the quasigeoid-to-geoid separation. Another objective is to carefully consider how the combined approach to topographic corrections should be interpreted. This includes investigations of how the above-mentioned H² term should be computed, as well as how it can be improved by a correction for the residual geoid bias. It is concluded that the computation of the combined topographic effect is efficient in the case that the residual geoid bias can be neglected, since the computation of the latter is very time consuming. It is nevertheless important to be able to compute the residual bias for individual stations. For reasonable maximum degrees, this can be used to check the quality of the H² approximation in different situations.Acknowledgement The author would like to thank Prof. L.E. Sjöberg for several ideas and for reading two draft versions of the paper. His support and constructive remarks have improved its quality considerably. The valuable suggestions from three unknown reviewers are also appreciated.     

Inversion of titanomaghemite in oceanic basalt during heating

We studied the change of magnetic behaviour upon laboratory heating of altered mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) samples in the age range of 16-35 Ma to determine the influence of titanomaghemite inversion on the thermal demagnetisation of natural remanent magnetisation (NRM) of these basalts. MORB samples were heated to successively higher temperatures and at the same time the temperature dependence of either saturation magnetisation or NRM was monitored continuously. After each heating step, hysteresis loops and remanent magnetisation curves between 10 K and room temperature were measured. With this procedure, it is shown that the dominant magnetic remanence carrier in our MORB samples is cation deficient titanomaghemite. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the titanomaghemite is gradually changing to a Ti-poor titanomagnetite as the final inversion product. During inversion, both the Curie temperature as well as the maximum unblocking temperature of the NRM are gradually increasing. We show that the paradox of unblocking temperatures above the Curie temperatures often observed for altered MORBs is an artefact of this gradual, heating induced inversion process.     

Strontium in rivers of the Baltic Basin

The rivers in the Baltic Basin drain a mixture of bedrocks ranging from Mesozoic-Paleozoic sediments in the south to Proterozoic-Archean intrusives in the north. The rivers in the sedimentary basin in the south have high concentrations of Sr, in the interval 100–500 µg l^–1 while the⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio is close to that of seawater, i.e. 0.71. The northern rivers in the Precambrian shield area on the other hand have low Sr concentrations of 15–50 µg l^–1 with high⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of about to 0.73 (0.721–0.745). The riverine input of dissolved Sr to the brackish Baltic Sea approaches 60 tons year^–1, with a weighted mean concentration approaching 130 µg l^–1 and a weighted mean⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio close to 0.712. Although the sedimentary area in the south supplies only about 43% of the total river discharge, it gives about 88% of the total Sr input. Because of this and the strong regional riverine variation in⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio, Sr and its isotopes seem to be a convenient tool to unveil mixing relations of water masses in the northern Baltic Sea, provided high resolution analyses are applied. For an overall characterization of water mixing in the Baltic Sea, the Nd system will be superior to that of Sr.     

Alteration paragenesis and mineral chemistry of the Tjårrojåkka apatite–iron and Cu (-Au) occurrences, Kiruna area, northern Sweden

The northern Norrbotten area in northern Sweden, is an important mining district and hosts several deposits of Fe-oxide Cu-Au-type. One of the best examples of spatially, and possibly genetically, related apatite–iron and copper–gold deposits in the region is at Tjårrojåkka, 50 km WSW of Kiruna. The deposits are hosted by strongly sheared and metamorphosed intermediate volcanic rocks and dolerites and show a structural control. The Tjårrojåkka iron deposit is a typical apatite–iron ore of Kiruna-type and the Tjårrojåkka copper occurrence shows the same characteristics as most other epigenetic deposits in Norrbotten. The host rock has been affected by strong albite and K-feldspar alteration related to mineralisation, resulting in an enrichment of Na, K, and Ba. Fe and V were depleted in the altered zones and added in mineralised samples. REE were enriched in the system, with the greatest addition related to mineralisation. Y was also mobile associated with albite alteration and copper mineralisation. The Tjårrojåkka iron and copper deposits show comparable hydrothermal alteration minerals and paragenesis, which might be a product of common host rock and similarities in ore fluid composition, or overprinting by successive alteration stages. Mineralogy and mineral chemistry of the alteration minerals (apatite, scapolite, feldspars, amphiboles, and biotite) indicate a higher salinity and Ba/K ratio in the fluid related to the alterations in the apatite–iron occurrence than in the copper deposit, where the minerals are enriched in F and S. The presence of hematite, barite, and in SO₄ in scapolite suggests more oxidising-rich conditions during the emplacement of the Tjårrojåkka-Cu deposit. From existing data it might be suggested that one evolving system created the two occurrences, with the copper mineralisation representing a slightly later product.