Seismic evidence for deep low-velocity anomalies in the transition zone beneath West Antarctica

We present a three-dimensional (3D) SV-wave velocity model of the upper mantle beneath the Antarctic plate constrained by fundamental and higher mode Rayleigh waves recorded at regional distances. The good agreement between our results and previous surface wave studies in the uppermost 200 km of the mantle confirms that despite strong differences in data processing, modern surface wave tomographic techniques allow to produce consistent velocity models, even at regional scale. At greater depths the higher mode information present in our data set allows us to improve the resolution compared to previous regional surface wave studies in Antarctica that were all restricted to the analysis of the fundamental mode. This paper is therefore mostly devoted to the discussion of the deeper part of the model. Our seismic model displays broad domains of anomalously low seismic velocities in the asthenosphere. Moreover, we show that some of these broad, low-velocity regions can be more deeply rooted. The most remarkable new features of our model are vertical low-velocity structures extending from the asthenosphere down to the transition zone beneath the volcanic region of Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica and a portion of the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge close to the Balleny Islands hotspot. A deep low-velocity anomaly may also exist beneath the Ross Sea hotspot. These vertical structures cannot be explained by vertical smearing of shallow seismic anomalies and synthetic tests show that they are compatible with a structure narrower than 200 km which would have been horizontally smoothed by the tomographic inversion. These deep low-velocity anomalies may favor the existence of several distinct mantle plumes, instead of a large single one, as the origin of volcanism in and around West Antarctica. These hypothetical deep plumes could feed large regions of low seismic velocities in the asthenosphere.     

Understanding Climatic Impacts, Vulnerabilities, and Adaptation in the United States: Building a Capacity for Assessment

Based on the experience of the U.S. National Assessment, we propose a program of research and analysis to advance capability for assessment of climate impacts, vulnerabilities, and adaptation options. We identify specific priorities for scientific research on the responses of ecological and socioeconomic systems to climate and other stresses; for improvement in the climatic inputs to impact assessments; and for further development of assessment methods to improve their practical utility to decision-makers. Finally, we propose a new institutional model for assessment, based principally on regional efforts that integrate observations, research, data, applications, and assessment on climate and linked environmental-change issues. The proposed program will require effective collaboration between scientists, resource managers, and other stakeholders, all of whose expertise is needed to define and prioritize key regional issues, characterize relevant uncertainties, and assess potential responses. While both scientifically and organizationally challenging, such an integrated program holds the best promise of advancing our capacity to manage resources and the economy adaptively under a changing climate.     

Erosion rates of alpine bedrock summit surfaces deduced from in situ Be and Al

We have measured the concentration of in situ produced cosmogenic ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al from bare bedrock surfaces on summit flats in four western U.S. mountain ranges. The maximum mean bare-bedrock erosion rate from these alpine environments is 7.6 ± 3.9 m My⁻¹. Individual measurements vary between 2 and 19 m My⁻¹. These erosion rates are similar to previous cosmogenic radionuclide (CRN) erosion rates measured in other environments, except for those from extremely arid regions. This indicates that bare bedrock is not weathered into transportable material more rapidly in alpine environments than in other environments, even though frost weathering should be intense in these areas. Our CRN-deduced point measurements of bedrock erosion are slower than typical basin-averaged denudation rates ( 50 m My⁻¹). If our measured CRN erosion rates are accurate indicators of the rate at which summit flats are lowered by erosion, then relief in the mountain ranges examined here is probably increasing.

We develop a model of outcrop erosion to investigate the magnitude of errors associated with applying the steady-state erosion model to episodically eroding outcrops. Our simulations show that interpreting measurements with the steady-state erosion model can yield erosion rates which are either greater or less than the actual long-term mean erosion rate. While errors resulting from episodic erosion are potentially greater than both measurement and production rate errors for single samples, the mean value of many steady-state erosion rate measurements provides a much better estimate of the long-term erosion rate.     

Data assimilation (4D-VAR) to forecast flood in shallow-waters with sediment erosion

In this paper, the four-dimensional variational data assimilation technique (4D-VAR) is presented as a tool to forecast floods. Our study is limited to purely hydrological flows and supposes that the weather, here a big rain, has been already forecasted by meteorological services. The technique consists in minimizing, in the sense of Lagrange, the cost function: a measure of the difference between calculated data and available observations, here the water level. This is done under constraints that are the equations of the physical model. In our case, we modified the shallow-water equations to include a simplified sediment transport model. The steepest descent algorithm is then used to find the minimum. This is made possible because we can compute analytically the gradient of the cost function by using the adjoint equations of the model. As an application of the 4D-VAR technique, the overflowing of the Chicoutimi River at the Chute-Garneau dam, during the 1996 flood, is investigated. It is found that the 4D-VAR method reduces the error in the water height forecast even when the erosion model is not activated. In terms of Lyapunov exponents, we estimate the predictability horizon of such an event to be about half-an-hour after a big rain. However, this limit of predictability can be increased by using more observations or by using a finer computational grid.     

Upper mantle structure of the South American continent and neighboring oceans from surface wave tomography

We present a new three-dimensional SV-wave velocity model for the upper mantle beneath South America and the surrounding oceans, built from the waveform inversion of 5850 Rayleigh wave seismograms. The dense path coverage and the use of higher modes to supplement the fundamental mode of surface waves allow us to constrain seismic heterogeneities with horizontal wavelengths of a few hundred kilometres in the uppermost 400 km of the mantle.The large scale features of our tomographic model confirm previous results from global and regional tomographic studies (e.g. the depth extent of the high velocity cratonic roots down to about 200–250 km).Several new features are highlighted in our model. Down to 100 km depth, the high velocity lid beneath the Amazonian craton is separated in two parts associated with the Guyana and Guapore shields, suggesting that the rifting episode responsible for the formation of the Amazon basin has involved a significant part of the lithosphere. Along the Andean subduction belt, the structure of the high velocity anomaly associated with the sudbduction of the Nazca plate beneath the South American plate reflects the along-strike variation in dip of the subducting plate. Slow velocities are observed down to about 100 km and 150 km at the intersection of the Carnegie and Chile ridges with the continent and are likely to represent the thermal anomalies associated with the subducted ridges. These lowered velocities might correspond to zones of weakness in the subducted plate and may have led to the formation of “slab windows” developed through unzipping of the subducted ridges; these windows might accommodate a transfer of asthenospheric mantle from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean. From 150 to 250 km depth, the subducting Nazca plate is associated with high seismic velocities between 5°S and 37°S. We find high seismic velocities beneath the Paraná basin down to about 200 km depth, underlain by a low velocity anomaly in the depth range 200–400 km located beneath the Ponta Grossa arc at the southern tip of the basin. This high velocity anomaly is located southward of a narrow S-wave low velocity structure observed between 200 and 500–600 km depth in body wave studies, but irresolvable with our long period datasets. Both anomalies point to a model in which several, possibly diachronous, plumes have risen to the surface to generate the Paraná large igneous province (LIP).     

Post-Collisional Transition from Subduction- to Intraplate-type Magmatism in the Westernmost Mediterranean: Evidence for Continental-Edge Delamination of Subcontinental Lithosphere

Post-collisional magmatism in the southern Iberian and northwesternAfrican continental margins contains important clues for theunderstanding of a possible causal connection between movementsin the Earth's upper mantle, the uplift of continental lithosphereand the origin of circum-Mediterranean igneous activity. Systematicgeochemical and geochronological studies (major and trace element,Sr–Nd–Pb-isotope analysis and laser ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar-agedating) on igneous rocks provide constraints for understandingthe post-collisional history of the southern Iberian and northwesternAfrican continental margins. Two groups of magmatic rocks canbe distinguished: (1) an Upper Miocene to Lower Pliocene (8·2–4·8Ma), Si–K-rich group including high-K (calc-alkaline)and shoshonitic series rocks; (2) an Upper Miocene to Pleistocene(6·3–0·65 Ma), Si-poor, Na-rich group includingbasanites and alkali basalts to hawaiites and tephrites. Maficsamples from the Si–K-rich group generally show geochemicalaffinities with volcanic rocks from active subduction zones(e.g. Izu–Bonin and Aeolian island arcs), whereas maficsamples from the Si-poor, Na-rich group are geochemically similarto lavas found in intraplate volcanic settings derived fromsub-lithospheric mantle sources (e.g. Canary Islands). The transitionfrom Si-rich (subduction-related) to Si-poor (intraplate-type)magmatism between 6·3 Ma (first alkali basalt) and 4·8Ma (latest shoshonite) can be observed both on a regional scaleand in individual volcanic systems. Si–K-rich and Si-poorigneous rocks from the continental margins of southern Iberiaand northwestern Africa are, respectively, proposed to havebeen derived from metasomatized subcontinental lithosphere andsub-lithospheric mantle that was contaminated with plume material.A three-dimensional geodynamic model for the westernmost Mediterraneanis presented in which subduction of oceanic lithosphere is inferredto have caused continental-edge delamination of subcontinentallithosphere associated with upwelling of plume-contaminatedsub-lithospheric mantle and lithospheric uplift. This processmay operate worldwide in areas where subduction-related andintraplate-type magmatism are spatially and temporally associated. KEY WORDS: post-collisional magmatism; Mediterranean-style back-arc basins; subduction; delamination; uplift of marine gateways     

Emplacement age and thermal footprint of the diamondiferous Ellendale E9 lamproite pipe, Western Australia

The diamondiferous Ellendale 9 (E9) pipe is a funnel-shaped maar-diatreme volcano consisting of inward-dipping tuff sequences intruded by lamproite plugs and dykes. The host rocks for the E9 pipe are Permian sandstones. The multiple lithological contacts exposed within the mined maar volcano provide a natural laboratory in which to study the effect of volcanic processes on U–Th–Pb–He systematics. Zircon from the regional sandstone and E9 lamproite display a bimodal distribution of ages on (U–Th)/He–U/Pb plots. The zircon U/Pb ages for the E9 pipe (n?=?52) range from 440 to 2,725 Ma, while the cluster of (U–Th)/He ages for the lamproite dyke zircon indicate that dyke emplacement occurred at 20.6?±?2.8 Ma, concordant with a maximum emplacement age of about ≤22 Ma from phlogopite ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar. These ages indicate a xenocrystic origin for the zircon entrained in the E9 dyke. The U/Pb ages of detrital zircon from the regional sandstone host (373–3,248 Ma; n?=?41) are indistinguishable from those of the lamproite zircon xenocrysts, whereas the detrital zircon in the host sandstone yield (U–Th)/He ages from 260 to 1,500 Ma. A thermochronology traverse across the E9 lamproite dyke reveals that the zircon (U–Th)/He ages in the host sandstone have not been significantly thermally reset during dyke emplacement, even at the contact. The capability of the zircon (U–Th)/He method to distinguish deep, mantle source lithologies from upper crustal source lithologies could be used in geochemical exploration for diamonds. Pre-screening of detrital samples using etching and helium assay methods will improve the efficiency and decrease the cost of greenfields exploration.     

Diagenetic formation of gypsum and dolomite in a cold‐water coral mound in the Porcupine Seabight,off Ireland

Authigenic gypsum was found in a gravity core, retrieved from the top of Mound Perseverance, a giant cold‐water coral mound in the Porcupine Basin, off Ireland. The occurrence of gypsum in such an environment is intriguing, because gypsum, a classic evaporitic mineral, is undersaturated with respect to sea water. Sedimentological, petrographic and isotopic evidence point to diagenetic formation of the gypsum, tied to oxidation of sedimentary sulphide minerals (i.e. pyrite). This oxidation is attributed to a phase of increased bottom currents which caused erosion and enhanced inflow of oxidizing fluids into the mound sediments. The oxidation of pyrite produced acidity, causing carbonate dissolution and subsequently leading to pore‐water oversaturation with respect to gypsum and dolomite. Calculations based on the isotopic compositions of gypsum and pyrite reveal that between 21·6% and 28·6% of the sulphate incorporated into the gypsum derived from pyrite oxidation. The dissolution of carbonate increased the porosity in the affected sediment layer but promoted lithification of the sediments at the sediment‐water interface. Thus, authigenic gypsum can serve as a signature for diagenetic oxidation events in carbonate‐rich sediments. These observations demonstrate that fluid flow, steered by environmental factors, has an important effect on the diagenesis of coral mounds.     

Magmatic-to-hydrothermal crystallization in the W–Sn mineralized Mole Granite (NSW, Australia): Part I: Crystallization of zircon and REE-phosphates over three million years—a geochemical and U–Pb geochronological study

Zircon, monazite and xenotime crystallized over a temperature interval of several hundred degrees at the magmatic to hydrothermal transition of the Sn and W mineralized Mole Granite. Magmatic zircon and monazite, thought to have crystallized from hydrous silicate melt, were dated by conventional U–Pb techniques at an age of 247.6 ± 0.4 and 247.7 ± 0.5 Ma, respectively. Xenotime occurring in hydrothermal quartz is found to be significantly younger at 246.2 ± 0.5 Ma and is interpreted to represent hydrothermal growth. From associated fluid inclusions it is concluded that it precipitated from a hydrothermal brine ≤ 600 °C, which is below the accepted closure temperature for U–Pb in this mineral. These data are compatible with a two-stage crystallization process: precipitation of zircon and monazite as magmatic liquidus phases in deep crustal magma followed by complete crystallization and intimately associated Sn–W mineralization after intrusion of the shallow, sill-like body of the Mole Granite. Later hydrothermal formation of monazite in a biotite–fluorite–topaz reaction rim around a mineralized vein was dated at 244.4 ± 1.4 Ma, which distinctly postdates the Mole Granite and is possibly related to a younger hidden intrusion and its hydrothermal fluid system.

Obtaining precise age data for magmatic and hydrothermal minerals of the Mole Granite is hampered by uncertainties introduced by different corrections required for multiple highly radiogenic minerals crystallising from evolved hydrous granites, including ²³⁰Th disequilibrium due to Th/U fractionation during monazite and possibly xenotime crystallization, variable Th/U ratios of the fluids from which xenotime was precipitating, elevated contents of common lead, and post-crystallization lead loss in zircon, enhanced by the fluid-saturated environment. The data imply that monazite can also survive as a liquidus phase in protracted magmatic systems over periods of 10⁶ years. The outlined model is in agreement with prominent chemical core-rim variation of the zircon.     

P–T–fluid evolution in the Mahalapye Complex, Limpopo high-grade terrane, eastern Botswana

Metapelites, migmatites and granites from the c. 2 Ga Mahalapye Complex have been studied for determining the P–T–fluid influence on mineral assemblages and local equilibrium compositions in the rocks from the extreme southwestern part of the Central Zone of the Limpopo high‐grade terrane in Botswana. It was found that fluid infiltration played a leading role in the formation of the rocks. This conclusion is based on both well‐developed textures inferred to record metasomatic reactions, such as Bt ? And + Qtz + (K₂O) and Bt ± Qtz ? Sil + Kfs + Ms ± Pl, and zonation of Ms | Bt + Qtz | And + Qtz and Grt | Crd | Pl | Kfs + Qtz reflecting a perfect mobility (Korzhinskii terminology) of some chemical components. The conclusion is also supported by the results of a fluid inclusion study. CO₂ and H₂O ( = 0.6) are the major components of the fluid. The fluid has been trapped synchronously along the retrograde P–T path. The P–T path was derived using mineral thermobarometry and a combination of mineral thermometry and fluid inclusion density data. The Mahalapye Complex experienced low‐pressure granulite facies metamorphism with a retrograde evolution from 770 °C and 5.5 kbar to 560 °C and 2 kbar, presumably at c. 2 Ga.