Breakup of a supercontinent between 625 Ma and 555 Ma: new evidence and implications for continental histories

A method developed recently for constructing tectonic subsidence curves in early Paleozoic miogeoclines has produced new evidence for the breakup of a late Proterozoic supercontinent. Tectonic subsidence analyses in miogeoclines of eastern and western North America, northwestern Argentina, the Middle East and northwestern Australia limit the timing of the continental breakup to between 625 and 555 Ma. These results refine the implications of a much broader range of radiometric ages of rift-related igneous rocks and biostratigraphic ages of the transition from active extension to passive subsidence in miogeoclines.

The recognition of the timing and extent of rifting has led to testable hypotheses for latest Proterozoic and early Paleozoic continental histories. Breakup and onset of drift along an extensive system of continental fractures within a relatively short period of time would generate a large amount of young ocean floor, thereby reducing the volume of the global ocean basin and causing a sea level rise. Maximum reduction of ocean basin volume would postdate the time of breakup, probably by about 70 m.y., placing the transgressive peak at a time not older then about 510–520 Ma. That age agrees well with the time of maximum flooding on the continents close to the end of the Cambrian. Restriction of the breakup to between 625 and 555 Ma reduces the time gap between an essentially intact late Proterozoic supercontinent and the oldest reliable paleomagnetic reconstruction of the dispersed continents at about 560 Ma. A continental reconstruction produced by rotating Laurentia and Baltica into Gondwana a minimum distance from the 560 Ma position is consistent with limited geologic data. However, that reconstruction places Laurentia and Baltica in low latitudes which is difficult to reconcile with the absence of evaporites in syn-rift complexes in both continents.     

Landowner and Practitioner Perspectives on Private Land Conservation Programs

Efforts to reverse declines in native grasslands benefit from agricultural policies that encourage private land conservation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) improved conservation across landscapes but enrollment has declined. We used sequential exploratory mixed methods to compare landowner and conservation practitioners’ perceptions, evaluate perceived benefits, and identify potential improvements to CRP. Focus groups of practitioners informed a quantitative survey of landowners who had properties >160 total acres in Nebraska. Results suggest potential misalignment in perceptions between practitioners and landowners. Practitioners were concerned that conservation, especially of wildlife, was secondary to profit. But the majority of landowners valued CRP-related ecosystem services, including native pollinators. Practitioners posited that younger landowners were primarily profit motivated, but CRP enrollment did not differ by demographics. Practitioners and landowners identified rule complexity as a major challenge and practitioner–landowner relationships as critical to success. Findings suggest that practitioners may underestimate non-economic motivations and illuminate opportunities to encourage private land conservation.     

Regional soil erosion in response to land use and increased typhoon frequency and intensity,Taiwan

Reservoir sedimentation data and sediment yields from Taiwanese rivers show increased soil erosion in response to both 20th century changes in land use and a more recent increase in typhoon frequency and intensity. Decadal variations of up to 5- to 20-fold in suspended-sediment rating curves demonstrate supply-limited transport and correspond to increased sediment delivery from hillslopes due to changes in land use, regional ground shaking during the Chi-Chi earthquake, and post-2000 changes in typhoon frequency and intensity. While accelerated erosion in central Taiwan after the Chi-Chi earthquake has been documented previously, our results show that periods of increased upland erosion also occurred earlier, in response to 20th century changes in land use. Analyses of rainfall records and typhoon frequency for the period 1900–2009 further point to an island-wide increase in erosion rates corresponding to increased typhoon frequency and intensity after 1990.     

East pacific ridge (2°S–19°S) versus nazca intraplate volcanism: Rare-earth evidence

Basalts from seamounts within the Nazca Plate representing intraplate volcanism, and the East Pacific Ridge between 19°S and 2°N have similar light rare earth depleted abundance patterns. Both intraplate and ridge basalts appear to have been derived from the low-velocity layer apparently depleted in large lithophile elements (DLVL). Nepheline-normative basalts and ferrobasalts occasionally occurring on the East Pacific Rise are shown to have also been derived from the same DLVL source. Furthermore, the rare-earth pattern similarity of nepheline-normative and tholeiitic basalts from the East Pacific Rise is best explained by distinct, pressure induced, conditions of partial melting of the DLVL source; whereas total rare-earth pattern enrichment and relative europium depletion of the ferrobasalts are consistent with shallow depth fractional crystallization during ascent.     

Impacts of a raw sewage spill on water and sediment quality in an urbanized estuary

A sewer main serving a large municipal wastewater system ruptured, discharging approximately 3,000,000 gallons (11,355,000 L) of raw human sewage into a multi-branched tidal creek estuary along the US East Coast. The biochemical oxygen demand caused severe hypoxia in the system, causing a large fish kill. The sewage load led to high fecal coliform bacteria concentrations in the creek (maximum of 270,000 CFU 100ml(-1)), which declined in an approximate logarithmic manner over the first few days. The spill caused elevated sediment fecal coliform bacteria and enterococcus counts that declined much more gradually than water column counts. Persistence of relatively high concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria in sediments for several weeks after the spill suggests that sediment sampling should be included in response to major sewage spills. The high concentration of nutrients in the spilled sewage led to several algal blooms. However, nutrient concentrations in the water column declined rapidly, demonstrating the value of conserving marshes because of their pollutant filtration function.     

A pre-shock event at Jupiter on 30 January 2001

In this paper we analyze a pre-shock event that we observed in the foot region of the quasi-parallel bow shock (BS) that the Cassini spacecraft crossed on 30 January 2001, at about 1030 UT. Before crossing the BS, the incoming solar wind first decelerated, and then the bulk velocity both of the proton and α components increased, the flow accelerated and decelerated, heated and cooled several times. We characterize the plasma in the foot using the data measured by the magnetometer, the radio and plasma wave science (RPWS) instrument, and the Cassini plasma spectrometer (CAPS) being carried onboard the Cassini spacecraft, and analyze the observations. We argue that the velocity and temperature changes can be caused by firehose instabilities excited by ions reflected from the shock. We investigate another possibility, shocklet formation, to account for the observed features, but conclude that this explanation seems to be less likely. In the foot we also identified both backstreaming electrons and ions and electrostatic waves in the 100-1000 Hz range very likely excited by the backstreaming electrons.     

Exploring debris‐flow history and process dynamics using an integrative approach on a dolomitic cone in western Austria

The evolution of a debris‐flow cone depends on a multitude of factors in the hydrogeomorphic system. Investigations of debris‐flow history and cone dynamics in highly active catchments therefore require an integrative approach with a temporal and spatial resolution appropriate for the goals of the study. We present the use of an orthophoto time series to augment standard dendrogeomorphic techniques to describe the spatio‐temporal dynamics of debris flows on a highly active cone in the western Austrian Alps. Analysis of seven orthophotos since 1951 revealed a migration of active deposition areas with a resulting severe loss of forest cover (> 80%) and a mean tree loss per year of 10·4 (range 1·3–16·6 trees per year). Analysis of 193 Pinus mugo ssp. uncinata trees allowed the identification of 161 growth disturbances corresponding to 16 debris flows since 1839 and an average decadal frequency of 0·9 events. As a result of the severe loss of forest cover, we speculate that < 20% of the more recent events were actually captured in the tree‐ring record, giving a decadal return interval of ~7·5 events for a period of 60 years. Based on three annual field observations, it is evident that this catchment (the Bärenrüfe) produces very frequent (< 1 yr), small (in the order of a few 10 to 100 m³) debris flows with minor material relocation. The specific challenges of tree‐ring analysis in this tree species and in highly active environments are explicitly addressed in the discussion and underline the necessity of employing complementary methods of analysis in an integrative manner. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact cratering records of the mid-sized, icy saturnian satellites

Resolution of Voyager 1 and 2 images of the mid-sized, icy saturnian satellites was generally not much better than 1 km per line pair, except for a few, isolated higher resolution images. Therefore, analyses of impact crater distributions were generally limited to diameters (D) of tens of kilometers. Even with the limitation, however, these analyses demonstrated that studying impact crater distributions could expand understanding of the geology of the saturnian satellites and impact cratering in the outer Solar System. Thus to gain further insight into Saturn’s mid-sized satellites and impact cratering in the outer Solar System, we have compiled cratering records of these satellites using higher resolution CassiniISS images. Images from Cassini of the satellites range in resolution from tens m/pixel to hundreds m/pixel. These high-resolution images provide a look at the impact cratering records of these satellites never seen before, expanding the observable craters down to diameters of hundreds of meters. The diameters and locations of all observable craters are recorded for regions of Mimas, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus, and Phoebe. These impact crater data are then analyzed and compared using cumulative, differential and relative (R) size-frequency distributions. Results indicate that the heavily cratered terrains on Rhea and Iapetus have similar distributions implying one common impactor population bombarded these two satellites. The distributions for Mimas and Dione, however, are different from Rhea and Iapetus, but are similar to one another, possibly implying another impactor population common to those two satellites. The difference between these two populations is a relative increase of craters with diameters between 10 and 30 km and a relative deficiency of craters with diameters between 30 and 80 km for Mimas and Dione compared with Rhea and Iapetus. This may support the result from Voyager images of two distinct impactor populations. One population was suggested to have a greater number of large impactors, most likely heliocentric comets (Saturn Population I in the Voyager literature), and the other a relative deficiency of large impactors and a greater number of small impactors, most likely planetocentric debris (Saturn Population II). Meanwhile, Tethys’ impact crater size-frequency distribution, which has some similarity to the distributions of Mimas, Dione, Rhea, and Iapetus, may be transitional between the two populations. Furthermore, when the impact crater distributions from these older cratered terrains are compared to younger ones like Dione’s smooth plains, the distributions have some similarities and differences. Therefore, it is uncertain whether the size-frequency distribution of the impactor population(s) changed over time. Finally, we find that Phoebe has a unique impact crater distribution. Phoebe appears to be lacking craters in a narrow diameter range around 1 km. The explanation for this confined “dip” at D = 1 km is not yet clear, but may have something to do with the interaction of Saturn’s irregular satellites or the capture of Phoebe.