A gradual transition to plate tectonics on Earth between 3.2 to 2.7 billion years ago

Zircon crystals precipitated from granitoid magmas contain a robust record of the age and chemistry of continental magmatism spanning some 4.375 Ga of Earth history, a record that charts initiation of plate tectonics. However, constraining when exactly plate tectonics began to dominate crustal growth processes is challenging as the geochemical signatures of individual rocks may reflect local subduction processes rather than global plate tectonics. Here we apply counting statistics to a global database of coupled U–Pb and Hf isotope analyses on magmatic zircon grains from continental igneous and sedimentary rocks to quantify changes in the compositions of their source rocks. The analysis reveals a globally significant change in the sources of granitoid magmas between 3.2 and 2.7 Ga. These secular changes in zircon chemistry are driven by a coupling of the deep (depleted mantle) and shallow (crustal) Earth reservoirs, consistent with a geodynamic regime dominated by Wilson cycle style plate tectonics.     

Clay Minerals in Basalt Sills from the Sediment Cover,East Pacific Rise

Clay minerals in basalt sills from the northern East Pacific Rise, covered by Upper Pleistocene clayey–sandy–silty sediments (turbidites, hemipelagites, and diatom oozes) sampled from DSDP Holes 477, 478, and 481A, were studied by X-ray methods based on the modeling of diffraction patterns. Trioctahedral smectites formed in thin (0.1–0.5 and 1.8–4 m) fissured sills that are well permeable for water delivered from the water-saturated host sediments heated by the sills. Smectites in basalts are found in the interstices (20–40 vol % in the rock and up to 50–80 vol % in hyalobasalts). They replace olivine and fill cracks and vesicles. Plagioclase and clinopyroxene are generally unaltered. The structure of smectites is characterized by different height of layers depending on the composition of cations in the interlayers and the degree of their hydration. The different-height layers either make up individual smectite phases or alternate in different proportions and with a high degree of segregation in the mixed-layer structures. Under conditions of a prolonged cooling, thick (43 m) sills are distinguished from the thin varieties by the formation of trioctahedral minerals (smectite–chlorite, chlorite, defective chlorite, and talc). They are found mainly in the interstices that make up 3–7 vol % of the rock.     

Hydrogeochemistry of two river main floodplain lakes,Hessia, FR Germany

Two lakes, Lake Gänseweiher (LGW) and Lake Fechenheimer Weiher (LFW) occupy groundwater filled abandoned gravel pits which serve as fishing grounds and are part of recreational areas, respectively.Both lakes are cut into a near-surface groundwater aquifer, which is located in the pleistocene River Main gravel terrace t₆. They are sealed at the base by miocene clays and above by overlying flood deposits of the River Main. The latter provide protection from pollutants derived from wet and dry deposition of atmospheric contaminants.Groundwater chemistry determines the pool of dissolved constituents in lake water. The temporal and spatial distribution patterns of chemical compounds in lake water are brought about by endo-biogenic processes, of which the indicators are nitrate-nitrogen and dissolved silica. The latter illustrates an instantaneous response to pulses of diatom blooms.Both lakes are eutrophic (polytrophic) according to the classification guidelines presented in literature.     

A new type of noble metal mineralization in the Northern Caucasus

The weathering crust of the Beden ultrabasite massif (the basin of Big Laba River) is identified and studied. Anomalously high contents of noble metals (Au, Pt, Pd) are revealed in the basal horizon of the Jurassic part of the weathering crust. For this reason we suspect an existence of a belt of noble metal miner-alization in the Paleozoic ultrabasites in the Peredovoi Range of the Northern Caucasus.     

Baroclinic seiches in rotating basins of variable depth in the case of two-layer density stratification

We solve a plane problem of linear baroclinic seiches in closed rotating basins of variable depth with two-layer density stratification. In the long-wave approximation, we get a boundary-value problem for a system of ordinary differential equations and propose a numerical procedure for finding internal seiches. The analytic solutions of the problem are obtained for a basin of constant depth. The numerical analysis of seiches is performed for the distributions of depth corresponding to the zonal and meridional sections of the Black Sea and model basins including the cases of a shelf zone and an underwater ridge. It is shown that the baroclinic seiches become more intense in shallow-water regions and that the intense longshore currents caused by Earth’s rotation are formed in the shelf zones and over the underwater ridges.     

Seismicity and isostasy

Both a theoretical treatment and observed data show that the isostatic gravity field and the seismicity are closely related. The equation for harmonic loading shows that large deviations from isostatic equilibrium lead to large shear stresses in the crust. High seismic activity correlates well with large isostatic gravity anomalies and with large horizontal gradients of isostatic gravity anomalies. Studies of seismicity should consider the isostatic gravity field.