Evidence for a mid‐Pleistocene shift of ice‐drift pattern in the Nordic seas

Sediment proxy records from a continuous, 1.5 million year long deep‐sea sediment core from a site in the western Norwegian Sea were used to obtain new insights into the nature of palaeoceanographic change in the northern North Atlantic (Nordic seas) during the climatic shift of the Mid‐Pleistocene Revolution (MPR). Red‐green sediment colour and magnetic susceptibility records both reveal significant differences in their mean values when comparing the intervals older than 700 000 yr (700 ka) with those from the past 500 kyr. The timing and duration of these changes indicates that the MPR in the Nordic seas is characterised by a gradual transition lasting about 200 kyr. Together with further sedimentological evidence this suggests that the mid‐Pleistocene climate shift was accompanied by a general change in ice‐drift pattern. It is further proposed that prior to the onset of the major late Pleistocene glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere a significant proportion of the ice in the eastern Nordic seas originated from a southern provenance, whereas later it dominantly came from the surrounding landmasses. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ionprobe U-Pb zircon ages from the high-pressure/low-temperature mélange of Syros, Greece: age diversity and the importance of pre-Eocene subduction

The Cycladic blueschist belt in the central Aegean Sea has experienced high‐pressure (HP) metamorphism during collisional processes between the Apulian microplate and Eurasia. The general geological and tectonometamorphic framework is well documented, but one aspect which is yet not sufficiently explored is the importance of HP mélanges which occur within volcano‐sedimentary successions. Unresolved issues concern the range in magmatic and metamorphic ages recorded by mélange blocks and the significance of eventual pre‐Eocene HP metamorphism. These aspects are here addressed in a U‐Pb zircon study focusing on the block–matrix association exposed on the island of Syros. Two gneisses from a tectonic slab of this mélange, consisting of an interlayered felsic gneiss‐glaucophanite sequence, yielded zircon ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U ages of 240.1 ± 4.1 and 245.3 ± 4.9 Ma, respectively, similar to Triassic ages determined on zircon in meta‐volcanic rocks from structurally coherent sequences elsewhere in the Cyclades. This strongly suggests that parts of these successions have been incorporated in the mélanges and provides the first geochronological evidence that the provenance of mélange blocks/slabs is neither restricted to a single source nor confined to fragments of oceanic lithosphere. Zircon from a jadeitite and associated alteration zones (omphacitite, glaucophanite and chlorite‐actinolite rock) all yielded identical ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U ages of c. 80 Ma. Similar Cretaceous U‐Pb zircon ages previously reported for mélange blocks have been interpreted by different authors to reflect magmatic or metamorphic ages. The present study adds a further argument in favour of the view that zircon formed newly in some rock types at c. 80 Ma, due to hydrothermal or metasomatic processes in a subduction zone environment, and supports the interpretation that the Cycladic blueschist belt records both Cretaceous and Eocene HP episodes and not only a single Tertiary HP event.     

Descriptors of impulsive signal levels commonly used in underwateracoustics

Impulsive acoustic waveforms are characterized by a different set of derived quantities than are continuous waveforms. This note presents commonly accepted definitions, units, and symbols used to describe the magnitude of impulsive underwater signals     

Multistep matched-field inversion for broad-band data from ASIAEX2001

This paper discusses the results of geoacoustic inversion carried out using explosive charge data from the Asian Seas International Acoustic Experiment (ASIAEX) East China Sea (ECS) Experiment. A multifrequency incoherent matched-field inversion processor and a genetic algorithm (GA) are used for the inversion. A multistep matched field inversion approach is presented, which makes use of the varying sensitivities of wave fields at various frequencies to reduce the inversion problem into a sequence of smaller inversions with fewer unknowns to estimate at each stage. Different parameters are estimated using data at different frequencies according to their sensitivities. Inversion results for different areas in the ECS region are summarized and compared with core data.     

Radio spectra of the low-luminosity active galactic nucleus NGC 266 at centimetre-to-submillimetre wavelengths

We report multi-frequency and multi-epoch radio continuum observations with multi-spatial resolution for the low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (LLAGN) NGC 266. In the centimetre regime, we find diffuse components with Very Large Array (VLA) observations, and a variable compact core with a rising spectrum with Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations. Although the spectral index of the rising spectrum is consistent with the prediction of the simple advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) model, the observed radio power is slightly high compared with that of the model prediction. A spectral break at centimetre-to-millimetre wavelengths is inferred from the upper limits of flux densities from Nobeyama Millimetre Array (NMA) and James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) data at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths, respectively. More complicated considerations are required for the theoretical model to interpret such observed radio properties.     

Flexure of Europa's lithosphere due to ridge-loading

Using photoclinometry, topographic profiles across europan ridges have been produced. These profiles allow the identification of bulges in the terrain adjacent to the ridges. The bulges are assumed to have been produced by flexure of the elastic lithosphere due to the load of the ridges, which lie along cracks in the crust. The distance from the crack to these “fore-bulges” depends on the thickness of the elastic plate being flexed. Based on a survey of ridges in Galileo images with resolution <300 m/pixel, the thickness of the elastic lithosphere has been determined by this method at a wide variety of sites along the leading and trailing hemispheres of Europa. The average thickness is about 200 m. The elastic lithosphere underneath smooth dilational bands tends to be thicker than plains morphology, an effect that is pronounced at Thynia Linea and Astypalaea Linea. Among the ridges investigated here, more recent loading correlates with a thicker elastic lithosphere, which may either reflect an intrinsically thicker layer, or less viscous relaxation over the shorter time period.     

Ocean-floor hydrothermal metamorphism in the Limousin ophiolites (western French Massif Central): evidence of a rare preserved Variscan oceanic marker

The Limousin ophiolite is located at the suture zone between two major thrust sheets in the western French Massif Central. This ophiolitic section comprises mantle‐harzburgite, mantle‐dunite, wehrlites, troctolites and layered gabbros. It has recorded a static metamorphic event transforming the gabbros into undeformed amphibolites and the magmatic ultramafites into serpentinites and/or pargasite‐bearing chloritites. With various thermobarometric methods, it is possible to show that the different varieties of amphibole have registered low‐P (c. 0.2 GPa) conditions with temperature ranging from high‐T, late‐magmatic conditions to greenschist–zeolite metamorphic facies. The abundance of undeformed metamorphic rocks (which is typical of the lower oceanic crust), the occurrence of Ca–Al (–Mg) metasomatism illustrated by the growth of Ca–Al silicates in veins or replacing the primary magmatic minerals, the P–T conditions of the metamorphism and the numerous similarities with oceanic crustal rocks from Ocean Drilling Program and worldwide ophiolites are the main arguments for an ocean‐floor hydrothermal metamorphism in the vicinity of a palaeo‐ridge. Among the West‐European Variscan ophiolites, the Limousin ophiolites constitute an extremely rare occurrence that has not been involved in any HP (subduction‐related) or MP (orogenic) metamorphism as observed in other ophiolite occurrences (i.e. France, Spain and Germany).     

Estimation of dispersion in estuaries by a self-consistent method

Longitudinal and transverse dispersion in estuaries may be determined in principle by measuring the change in time of the concentration field of a water soluble dye. In practice, measurements may take the form of several sampling runs crossing the dye patch. The coefficients of dispersion are usually estimated from the second moments of the concentration field; the use of second moments, in particular, introduces errors because measurements at long times or distance are unduly emphasized.A self-consistent method, free of the disadvantages inherent in the use of higher moments, is described in which the distribution of concentration in space is related to the zeroth spatial moment of concentration. In this formulation, based upon sampling runs across the dye patch, the concentration field in the estuary may be directly and simply related to the dispersion coefficients in both the intercept and gradient of a linear graph.The methods are illustrated by the characterization of a series of experiments in the Inner Estuary of Milford Haven.