Evaluation of ostracod-based palaeoenvironmental reconstruction with instrumental data from the arid Faiyum Depression,Egypt

The utility of ostracod-based palaeoenvironmental reconstruction was evaluated using instrumental data for Lake Qarun, Egypt. The euryhaline ostracod Cyprideis torosa was the only species found in the lake’s recent sediment record. This species is known to tolerate salinity levels and water solute compositions that may prevent colonisation by other species. Oxygen and carbon isotope ratios of ostracod carbonate from lake sediments covary with changes in instrumental values for lake level and salinity for the period 1890–1974. δ¹³C-values correlate negatively with lake water salinity (r ² = 0.87) and δ¹⁸O-values correlate negatively with measured lake level changes (r ² = 0.41). Other ostracod proxy data provide qualitative information on lake level trends. Fossil assemblage data (juvenile/adult and valve/carapace ratios and valve preservation) provide information on wave energy. Ecophenotypic variation of C. torosa valves provided some useful palaeolimnological information. Sr/Ca and Mg/Ca ratios in ostracods were not found to reflect water composition, due to the uncoupling of these ratios with salinity in Lake Qarun. Overall, our results highlight the need to calibrate ostracod proxy data in modern systems prior to their use for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.     

Paleolimnological assessment of human impacts on an urban South African lake

North End Lake is a polluted and eutrophic freshwater system located in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Since the lake is expected to be used for recreational/tourist purposes by 2010, a rehabilitation program will have to be designed. For this reason, we retrieved a sediment core from the central region of the lake to decipher the effect of historical human impacts on the water body. Pre-disturbance paleolimnological inferences indicate that the lake was likely mesotrophic. After ∼1831, when sheep farming activities were undertaken in the catchment, increases in trophic state and changes in sediment composition were observed. After ∼1937, increases in trace metal levels, organic matter, spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCP) and changes in sediment composition were recorded. The system became eutrophic as indicated by the dominance of the diatom Actinocyclus normanii, a cosmopolitan species often observed in systems where water quality has been dramatically degraded. The conditions worsened after 1986 because of the construction of a storm-water retention system, which intentionally channeled storm-water runoff into the lake. Because of this, extremely high values of fecal coliforms (i.e. 2 × 10⁶ every 100 ml) have been measured in the water column. The paleolimnological information identified the sharp increase in organic content in the uppermost section of the core, and this could be correlated to the operation of the storm-water retention system. Therefore, as an immediate management measure, we suggest that the storm-water retention system should either no longer be utilized, or the storm-water runoff should be treated before disposal into the lake. In addition, an effective sewage system has to be constructed.     

Glaciolacustrine varved sediment as an alpine hydroclimatic proxy

The physical significance of a negative correlation between a varve record from Mud Lake, British Columbia, and temperature is discussed in the context of a process-network. The process-network is defined as the system of temporally and spatially connected processes involved in the transfer of a signal from climate to varved glaciolacustrine sediment. The six systems defining the network include climate, glacier, fluvial, geomorphic, terrestrial biologic and lacustrine systems to which each process belongs. A literature review outlines significant variation in the strength and character of correlations between components of the process-network and highlights that more comprehensive interpretations of varves as a hydroclimatic proxy require an improved understanding of the process-network. Documenting each process in the network is integral to informing a more complete model of this system, identifying processes that constitute signal transfer and assessing hydroclimatic proxies based on linear correlation. Such documentation is of growing importance as varved lacustrine sediments are increasingly used as a hydroclimatic proxy. The complex nature of the process-network requires greater emphasis on interdisciplinary cooperation and alternative methods to the linear statistical model.     

Isotopic and Geochemical Constraints on the Origin and Evolution of the Columbia River Basalt

New major and trace element data on over 70 samples are combinedwith a wider knowledge of the regional stratigraphy, and ofthe tectonic evolution of the boundary between the ColumbiaPlateau and the northern margin of the Basin and Range province,to distinguish three subgroups within the Columbia River BasaltGroup (CRBG): the Picture Gorge Basalt; the main sequence ofColumbia River flood basalts, here named the Clarkston Basalt;and the Saddle Mountains Basalt. The subgroups are characterizedby different incompatible element and Sr-, Nd-, and Pb-isotoperatios, and they are interpreted in terms of different sourceregions mobilized under different tectonic conditions. The majordifferences between the subgroups are consistent with partialmelting processes in the upper mantle, and it is argued thatthey reflect previous partial melting episodes which resultedin source regions that were variably enriched and depleted inincompatible elements. The major variations within the PictureGorge and Clarkston Basalt subgroups include increases in theabundances of large ion lithophile elements (LILE) and increasesin the ratios of LILE/high field strength elements (HFSE) whichare interpreted as the addition of a lithospheric/subduction-relatedcomponent. The Picture Gorge Basalt has a depleted isotopic and chemicalsignature on which is superimposed an enrichment of LILE toproduce a trace element pattern similar to that of other 17–0-Mabasalts erupted south of the Olympic Wallowa Lineament. Thispattern is characteristic of volcanism associated with the Basinand Range extensional province, and others have attributed itto a source component derived from an enriched subcontinentallithospheric mantle (SCLM). Of the Clarkston Basalts, the Imnaha and Grande Ronde Basaltsform chemical and isotopic arrays which indicate mixing of componentsfrom two distinct source regions. One had high ratios of LILE/HFSEand light rare earth elements (LREE)/HFSE, and as these arenot common in oceanic basalts, this component is thought tohave been derived from the continental mantle lithosphere. Itsisotope ratios are more enriched (older?) than those of thePicture Gorge Basalt, and its Rb/Sr ratios are much higher thanthose in its source rocks, consistent with preferential mobilizationof LILE at the time of magmatism. The second component was derivedfrom an asthenospheric source similar to that of Hawaii basaltsand is most obviously attributed to mantle plume activity. Basaltsof the Eckler Mountain and Wanapum Formations (smaller, separateformations of the Clarkston Basalt as redefined in this paper)fit this mixing model less well and may represent mixing betweenmore than two components. Flows of the third CRBG subgroup,the Saddle Mountains Basalt, also carry a lithospheric geochemicalsignature and have long been recognized as having more radiogenicisotopic signatures than the other two subgroups. Thus, SaddleMountains flows appear to require a lithospheric source enrichedin LILE at an even earlier time, and we concur with other workersthat the isotopic and chemical evidence implies their derivationfrom subcontinental lithospheric mantle enriched at {small tilde}2000Ma. Within each subgroup, the chemical effects of partial melting,fractional crystallization, and magma mixing processes can allbe distinguished within particular flow sequences. In the ImnahaBasalt variable degrees of partial melting during the generationof the CRBG magmas, and gabbro fractionation within the lowercrust, played major roles in their evolution. In the GrandeRonde Basalt fractional crystallization appears to be restrictedto >10%. The chemical and isotopic data for each CRBG subgroup, and thedifferent sources which those data imply, can be accommodatedin a tectonic model which includes the passing of the Yellowstonehotspot south of the center of the CRBG eruption before significantBasin and Range extension had moved north of the Brothers Faultzone at 15 Ma.     

Mesozoic interaction of the Kula plate and the western margin of north america

Oceanic crust west of North America at the beginning of the Jurassic belonged to the Kula plate. The development of the western margin of North America since the Jurassic reflects interaction with the Kula plate, the Kula-Farallon spreading center and the Farallon plate. The Kula plate ceased to exist in the Paleocene and later developments were caused by interaction of the Farallon plate and, subsequently, collision with the East Pacific Rise.At the beginning of the Jurassic, when spreading between North and South America began, the Kula-Farallon-Pacific triple junction moved to the north relative to North America, and the eastern end of the Kula-Farallon spreading center swept northwards along the continental margin.During the Paleocene, Kula-Pacific spreading ceased and the Kula plate fused to the Pacific plate. Throughout the Mesozoic, subduction of the Kula plate took place along the Alaskan continental margin. When the Kula plate joined the Pacific plate a new subduction zone formed along the line of the present Aleutian chain.Wrangellia and Stikinia, anomalous terrains in Alaska and northwestern Canada respectively, were emplaced by transport on the Kula plate from lower latitudes. Hypotheses which require transport of these plates in the Mesozoic from the “far reaches of the Pacific” ignore the problem of transport across either the Kula-Pacific or Kula-Farallon spreading centers. The interaction of the Kula plate and western North America throughout the Jurassic and the Cretaceous should result in emplacement of these terrains by motion oblique to the continental margin. Tethyan faunas in Stikinia must come from the western end of Tethys between North and South America, not the Indonesian region at the eastern end of Tethys.As the northeastern end of the Kula-Farallon ridge moved northward, the sense of motion changed from right lateral shear between the Kula and North American plates to collision or left lateral shear between the Farallon and North American plates. Left lateral shear along zones analogous to the Mojave-Sonora megashear may have been the means by which anomalous terrains were transported to the southeast into the gap between North and South America forming present day Central America. Such a model overcomes the overlap difficulties suffered in previous attempts to reconstruct the Mesozoic paleogeography of Central America.     

A comparison of methods used in measuring finite strains from ellipsoidal objects

The available methods for measuring strains in two and three dimensions from passive ellipsoidal objects are compared in an attempt to determine the most useful and precise procedure for the structural geologist. A comparison of data collection techniques showed that the use of thin orthogonally cut slabs or mylar overlays used with a monocomparater provides the most reproducible data. Lisle's theta-curve and Shimamoto and Ikeda's algebraic methods provided the most precise, and probably most accurate, two-dimensional data while Miller and Oertel's procedure and possibly Dunnet's PHASE 5 program gave the best three-dimensional results.An examination of errors encountered in strain analyses suggests that all of the available methods give accurate orientations of the finite strain ellipsoid. However, the magnitudes of strain ratios show large variations that are dependent on the sample size and procedure used. Shimamoto and Ikeda's method again proved to be the most precise, giving reproducible results with as few as ten elliptical objects.The samples used in the above comparison are part of a larger analysis of strains occurring in southeastern Maine. Structural elements observed in four selected areas of Avalonian belt rocks and the strain data collected suggest that the region has undergone at least three non-coaxial deformations with D₁ >D₂ >D₃.     

Attenuation of electrons flux penetrating through the lower ionosphere

The angular variation of elastic and inelastic scattering cross-sections has been calculated and used to study the energy deposition by precipitating electrons with the help of Monte Carlo Method. Monoenergetic, power law electron spectrum with isotropic and monodinational incidence starting at an altitude of 300 km have been used to obtain the angular and energy distributions at certain height intervals. In these calculations constant magnetic field has been used.     

Problem of the Relationship between Phosphorites and Evaporites (Critical Comments to the Work by A.S. Sokolov “Paragenetic Interrelations between Phosphoritic and Saliferous Basins,” Lithology and Mineral Resources, 1999, no. 2)

Lithology and Mineral Resources -     

The Structure and Formation Conditions of the Callovian–Oxfordian Deposits of Sudak Bay (Crimea)

The composition and origin of the Callovian–Oxfordian deposits of the Sudak Bay were characterized on the basis of the generalization and analysis of our own results, as well as published and unpublished data. The botanical future was first implemented for the geological mapping of the Oxfordian deposits.