The Geochemistry and Experimental Petrology of Sodic Alkaline Basalts from Oatlands, Tasmania

Sodic basalts of Oligocene-Early Micene age occur within anEarly Tertiary graben in the Oatlands district of Tasmania.They include olivine tholeiites, alkali olivine basalts, basanites,transitional nephelinites, nepheline hawaiites, and nephelinemugearites. They have compositional characteristics in commonwith sodic alkaline basalt suites from other parts of the world.With decreasing SiO₂, concentrations of CaO, alkalis, P₂O₅,and incompatible trace elements increase. Compositional and experimental data for the basalts are consistentwith their derivation by polybaric partial melting of a garnetlherzolite source enriched in P₂O₅, light rare earths, Nb, andother incompatible trace elements. Experimental data for a primitivenepheline basanite from the Oatlands district indicate thatconcentrations of H₂O+CO₂ need not have been more than 6?5 wt.%for the original basanite magma to have derived from an amphibole-bearinggarnet lherzolite source. In the case of more SiO₂-undersaturatedolivine melilitites from the neighbouring Central Plateau, theexperimental evidence is consistent with either higher concentrationsof H₂O+CO₂ (approaching 14 wt.%), or higher pressures of origin(>35 kb). Petrographic and geochemical evidence suggeststhat the latter is the more probable of the alternatives.     

ENDOLITHIC LICHENS,RAPID BIOLOGICAL WEATHERING AND SCHMIDT HAMMER R‐VALUES ON RECENTLY EXPOSED ROCK SURFACES: STORBREEN GLACIER FORELAND,JOTUNHEIMEN, NORWAY

The endolithic lichen Lecidea auriculata is known to enhance rock surface weathering on the Little Ice Age moraines of the glacier Storbreen in Jotunheimen, central southern Norway. This study demonstrates the reduction in Schmidt hammer Rvalues that followed the rapid colonization by this lichen of pyroxene‐granulite boulders on terrain deglaciated over the last 88 years. In the absence of this lichen, the characteristic mean R‐value of boulder surfaces is 61.0 ± 0.3; where this lichen is present, R‐values are lower by at least 20 units on surfaces exposed for 30–40 years. A similar reduction in rock hardness on rock surfaces without a lichen cover requires about 10 ka. The rapid initial weakening of the rock surfaces is indicative of rates of biological weathering by endolithic lichens that may be two orders of magnitude (200–300 times) faster than rates of physico‐chemical weathering alone. If not avoided, the effects of this type of lichen are likely to negate the effectiveness of the Schmidt hammer and other methods for exposure‐age dating, including cosmogenic‐nuclide dating, in severe alpine and polar periglacial environments. The results also suggest a new method for dating rock surfaces exposed for <50 years.     

Temporal Evolution of Boron Flux in the NE Japan and Izu Arcs Measured by Ion Microprobe from the Forearc Tephra Record

The enrichment of boron relative to similarly incompatible elements,such as Be, in arc volcanic rocks has been used as a proxy forthe involvement of slab flux in petrogenesis. New ion microprobeanalyses of single glass shards in tephra layers recovered bythe Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) in the Izu and NE Japan forearcbasins now allow the temporal variation in slab flux to be chartedsince 7 and 5 Ma, respectively. B/Be ratios are typically <70in NE Japan and <130 in Izu, with no single grain exceeding200. Although moderate to high for modern arcs, these valuesare much less than those recorded in the Marianas and Tongaat 3–4 Ma, shortly after the start of rifting of theirback-arc basins. This observation suggests that the peak B/Bevalues seen in Tonga and the Marianas are related to the tectonicsof slab roll-back and basin opening, rather than changes inthe dynamics of the Pacific Plate. There is no temporal trendto enrichment in the high field strength elements (HFSE) orrare earth elements (REE) in either Izu or NE Japan since 7Ma, although the two elemental groups do show clear positivecorrelation. A lack of correlation between REE, HFSE and B/Besuggests that slab flux is not the only control on melting inthese arcs.     

The Significance of Multiple Saturation Points in the Context of Polybaric Near-fractional Melting

Experimental petrologists have successfully located basalticliquid compositions parental to mid-ocean ridge basalt thatare, within experimental resolution, multiply saturated withthree-phase harzburgite or four-phase lherzolite assemblageson their liquidus at some elevated pressure. Such an experimentalresult is a necessary consequence of any paradigm in which eruptedbasalts derive from single-batch primary liquids that equilibratewith a mantle residue and undergo no subsequent magma mixingbefore differentiation and eruption. Here we investigate whether,conversely, such evidence of multiple saturation is sufficientto exclude dynamic melting models wherein increments of meltare mixed after segregation from residues, during melt transportor in magma chambers. Using two independent models of crystal–liquidequilibria to simulate polybaric near-fractional peridotitemelting, we find that aggregate liquids from such melting processescan display near-intersections of liquidus surfaces too closeto distinguish experimentally from exact multiple saturationpoints. Given uncertainties in glass compositions, fractionationcorrections, experimental temperature and pressure conditions,and achievement of equilibrium, these results suggest that polybaricmixtures can in fact masquerade as mantle-equilibrated single-batchprimary liquids. Multiple saturation points on the liquidussurfaces of primitive basalts do, however, preserve informationabout the average pressure of extraction of their constituentincrements of liquid. KEY WORDS: mantle melting; basaltic volcanism; experimental igneous petrology; thermodynamic modelling; inverse method     

Current continental palaeoclimatic research in the Nordic region (100 years since Gunnar Andersson 1909) – Introduction

Seppä, H., Birks, H. J. B., Bjune, A. E. & Nesje, A. 2010: Current continental palaeoclimatic research in the Nordic region (100 years since Gunnar Andersson 1909) – Introduction. Boreas, Vol. 39, pp. 649‐654. 10.1111/j.1502‐3885.2010.00170.x. ISSN 0300‐9483.     

The late Miocene to Pleistocene ice-rafting history of southeast Greenland

Analysis of a Miocene-Pleistocene ice-rafted debris (IRD) record from the western Irminger Basin provides evidence for the initiation and long-term behavior of the SE portion of the Greenland Ice Sheet. In the late Miocene (~7.3 Ma), IRD supply to Ocean Drilling Program site 918 increased significantly indicating that glaciers large enough to reach sea level were present in SE Greenland long before the onset of widespread Northern Hemisphere glaciation. IRD accumulated at this site throughout the Pliocene and Pleistocene, supporting the hypothesis that SE Greenland was a key nucleation area for the formation of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Since glacial onset, the western Irminger Basin IRD record is characterized by a succession of episodes with high IRD mass accumulation rates (MARs). The site 918 IRD record indicates that greatest iceberg production in SE Greenland occurred during major climatic transitions (e.g. widespread Northern Hemisphere glacial expansion at 2.7 Ma and the mid-Pleistocene climate shift at 0.9 Ma), and that SE Greenland sometimes also led the northern North Atlantic region in glacial response to climatic forcing (e.g. glacial intensification at ~4.8 and, along with NE Greenland, at ~3.5 Ma).