A time-series study of the spring bloom at the Bering Sea ice edge I. Physical processes, chlorophyll and nutrient chemistry

An intense but short-lived phytoplankton bloom develops in the low-salinity melt waters at the edge of the Bering Sea ice as the ice melts and retreats each spring. In spring 1988 we followed the development of this bloom by sampling every 3 h while following a freely drifting drogue in the marginal ice-edge zone for two four-day periods. The first period (29 April–3 May) was at an early stage of the bloom while the second period (10–13 May) was at the peak of the bloom. Early in the bloom, the phytoplankton consumed all the nitrate (400 mmoles m⁻²) initially present in the surface water producing large accumulations of particulate carbon (>1000 mmoles C m⁻²). By the time of peak chlorophyll concentrations (35 mg M⁻³), nitrate concentrations had been depleted so that the sustained high productivity depended on either recycled or imported nutrients. After this point, there was little net additional accumulation of biomass. From these data plus cruise data from previous years, we find that the Bering Sea ice-edge bloom typically begins in the last week of April and appears to precede blooms in the adjacent ice-free waters by days to weeks. The variability in bloom onset observed over several years is not linked very closely to the large scale climatic variations found in this region, but rather appears to be related to local weather during the end of April and the first part of May, with calm, sunny weather being required to initiate the blooms.     

Regional to detailed geochemical mapping of the Kariisk ore district, eastern Trans-Baikal region, Russia

The Kariisk ore district is situated in a dome-ring complex formed during late Mesozoic tectono-magmatic activity. The district comprises magmatic to post-magmatic vein-type mineralizations, which developed during four stages characterized by different mineral parageneses: (1) quartz-pyrite-tourmaline; (2) quartz-actinolite-magnetite; (3) quartz-arsenopyrite; and (4) quartz-carbonate-poly metallic. Geochemical surveys at regional to detailed scales involved ca. 12 000 rock samples which were analyzed for 40 elements including Au and associated elements Bi, W, Ag, B, As, Mo, Cu, Pb, Sn, and Zn. The results are presented as geochemical maps illustrating the distribution of anomalous gold and multi-element associations. The geochemically anomalous area shows a finger-like pattern radiating from the core of the ring complex and has a concentric zoning of element associations outwards from the margin of the core: W-Mo, Bi-Ag-B, Au-As-Cu-Pb, and B-Ag-Zn. These features are interpreted to reflect that the mineralising process induced by heat from the granitoid magma in the core of the complex occurred in a number of separate pulses.     

Die Bruchtektonik in den Ostalpen

Zusammenfassung Es wird eine Kurzübersicht über die bruchtektonischen Strukturen der Ostalpen aus der Zeit des alpidischen geosynklinalen, orogenen und kratogenen Stadiums gegeben. Der Überblick läßt erkennen, daß hier eine Bruchtektonik herrscht, die in enger kausaler und zeitlicher Beziehung zur alpinotypen Transversal-Tektonik im Orogen steht. Aufgrund des Studiums der Bruchtektonik der Ostalpen läßt sich durch Abstraktion eine genetische bruchtektonische Zyklenabfolge für das Orogen schlechthin ableiten.

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The author gives a short survey of the fault-systems of the Eastern Alps, which were formed during the geosynclinal, the orogenic and the cratogenic stage of the alpidic era. This review shows that the origin of this fault-system is in a close causative and temporal connection with the formation of the great transversal tectonic structures of alpinotype style during all the phases of the evolution of the orogene. Finally, as a result of the study of the characteristic succession of different fault-systems within the Eastern Alps, it is possible to deduce the general principle of the typical succession of cycles of fault-systems for the orogen.

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Résumé L'auteur donne un aperçu du système des failles des Alpes orientales, formé pendant l'époque géosynclinale, orogénique et cratogénique de l'ère alpidique. Cette revue montre que la génèse de ce système de failles a des rapports étroits causaux et temporels avec la génèse des structures tectoniques transversales de style alpinotype pendant toutes les phases de l'évolution de l'orogène. Enfin, l'étude de cette succession génétique des differents systèmes de failles dans les Alpes orientales permet de déduire une succession caractéristique des cycles de failles typiques, valable pour l'orogène en général.

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Tectonic causes of landslides

The relationship between mass movements and tectonic lineaments is investigated in the Pliocene sand and clay terrains of Montepulciano (central Italy). Satellite images and aerial photographs show six families of lineament in southern Tuscany, all of which are present in the Montepulciano area. The orientation, location and density of these are related to corresponding attributes of morphological phenomena such as retrogressive slumps, drainage density and slope angle. Rose diagrams, stereographic plots and statistical analysis all reveal a close correspondence between slumping mass movements and the directions and spatial concentrations of fracture traces. Although slopes and valley trends respond more closely to Apennine (NW-trending) and anti-Apennine (NE-trending) lineaments, the longitudinal axes of landslides are strongly orientated NNW to N, the direction of one of the most significant lineament groups in western central Italy and the local study area.     

Contribution Of Spray Irrigation Of Wastewater To Groundwater Contamination In The Karst Of Southeastern Minnesota,USA

A vegetable- and meat-canning facility located in the karst of southeastern Minnesota disposes ≈2.85×10⁵ m³ yr^?1 of wastewater by spray irrigation of an 83.7-ha field located atop the local groundwater divide. Cannery effluent contains high levels of chloride and nitrogen (organic and ammonia), in excess of 7000 mg/l and 400 mg/l, respectively. Nitrate-nitrogen concentrations are generally < 5 mg/l. Agricultural, domestic, and municipal sources of chloride and nitrate are common in the region, and water supplies frequently exceed the drinking-water limit for nitrate-nitrogen of 10 mg/l. Fifty-two area wells and thirteen surface-water locations were sampled and analyzed for five ionic species, including: chloride (Cl), nitrate-nitrogen (NO₃-N), sulfate (SO₄), nitrite-nitrogen (NO₂-N), and phosphate (PO₄). Two distinct chloride plumes flowing outward from the groundwater divide were identified, and 65% of the wells sampled had nitrate-nitrogen concentrations in excess of 10 mg/l. The data were divided into two groups: one group of samples from wells located near the canning facility and another group from outside that area. A correlation coefficient of R²= 0.004 for Cl vs. NO₃-N in the vicinity of the irrigation fields indicates essentially no relationship between the source of Cl and NO₃. In areas of agricultural and domestic activities located away from the cannery, an R² of 0.54 suggests that Cl and NO₃ have common sources in these areas.     

Composition and vertical flux of organic matter in a large Alaskan estuary

Observations of the composition and rate of input of organic matter to the sea floor were made at three locations in lower Cook Inlet, Alaska, during five cruises taken in the spring and summer of 1978. Total particulate, plant pigment, carbon, nitrogen, fecal pellet, and phytoplankton cell fluxes, inferred from sediment trap samples, were related to algal biomass and production in overlying waters. A daily average of 7.5% of the phytoplankton biomass was lost to the bottom. Of this loss, 83% was attributable to zooplankton grazing and fecal pellet production. At the three sampling sites, an average of 39 g C m^?2 (range of 17–60 g C m^?2, was sedimented to the bottom between May and August. This carbon flux represented an average of 12% of the total primary production measured for that time period. Kachemak Bay eastern arm of the inlet, is identified as an extremely productive embayment in which large amounts of organic matter were transferred to the sea floor.     

The stress field near the sites of the Meckering (1968) and Calingiri (1970) earthquakes, Western Australia

A comparison of three methods of stress determination using overcoring tests, earthquake focal-mechanism solutions, and fault-displacement analysis, was carried out near the epicentres of the 1968 Meckering and the 1970 Calingiri earthquakes, Western Australia. Shallow overcoring measurements (3–10 m) were made at seven sites in competent granite, along a 200-km north—south traverse through the location of the Meckering earthquake. The in situ measurements indicate a high regional compressive stress, acting about N77°E. This compares with the direction of the P-axes from the Meckering and Calingiri earthquakes of N91°E and N102°E, respectively, and east-west orientation of major principal stress deduced from observations of surface faulting. The highest maximum principal stress, 23 MPa, was measured at the site farthest north from the Meckering epicentre (~ 90 km), and the lowest, 4 MPa, was measured near the epicentre. The magnitude of the stress increases with distance away from the epicentral area at about 0.2 kPa/m. The results were corrected for drilling water temperature, thermal rock stresses, and suction pore pressure. The total correction was less than 2 MPa at most sites.Estimates of shear stress release from the fault-scarp displacements for Meckering and Calingiri were of similar magnitude (~10 MPa) to the difference between observed shear stress at sites close to and sites remote from the Meckering earthquake.As a cause of the earthquake it is proposed that the fault plane is progressively weakened by alteration or weathering, and that a small long-term fluctuation of head of ground water was the trigger.The high stress at shallow depths, the growing evidence of east—west major principal stress in most of the Australian continent, and the existence of horizontal stress higher than gravity lithostatic stress may have a common explanation, in terms of the driving forces of plate tectonics. The Australian results do not agree with the north—south orientation suggested by crude plate-drift theories in which the major stress is in the direction of the drift, and do not appear to fit with orientations from other continents, in the Richardson et al. (1976) interacting plate model which assumes a velocity-dependent plate driving force. An analysis of driving forces at diverging plate boundaries was carried out and suggests no dominant force-velocity relationship, thus forces independent of plate velocity may control the stress orientation in the plate.     

Radiocarbon dating of the rate of movement of two solifluction lobes in the Ruby Range, Yukon Territory

The rates of solifluction of two lobes in the Ruby Range have been determined by ¹⁴C dates of samples taken from buried organic layers in the lobes. Twenty-one dates are available from one lobe, and seven from another. When plotted against distance back from control points at the lobe fronts the dates show considerable scatter. In part the scatter is thought to be due to a potential age range of 340 ± 100 yr in the organic layers. Linear and polynomial regressions were calculated for the time/distance relationships shown by the dates. The rates of lobe advance established by these means for the lobe with seven dates are not thought to be reliable. Reasonably good estimates of movement rate were determined for the second lobe by both the linear and polynomial methods. However, the rates established by the two methods are quite similar. Because of this and other uncertainties it is difficult to draw inferences of climatic change from the changes in movement rate shown by the polynomial solution.     

Rare earth abundances in Deccan trap basalts

Twenty one basaltic flows of known mineralogical and chemical composition from the Deccan of western India have been analyzed for nine rare-earth elements (REE), together with Hf, Ta and Th by instrumental neutron activation methods. The flows, which are tholeiites and transitional alkali basalts, are relatively enriched in the Light REE and have total REE abundances systematically related to their bulk petrochemistry. The results are compared with REE abundances of basalts from other provinces.