Bimodal magmatism and associated sedimentary facies with particular reference to the correlation between orogeny and regression

It is stressed that a thorough investigation of the subtle and still poorly understood relationships between orogeny, magmatism and associated sediments is warranted. Certain types of sediments appear to be commonly linked to specific magmatic contexts. This is especially true for the oceanic crust, but it may be equally valid for bimodal continental magmatism with the development of granite. Grand scale regression with the formation of continental detrital deposits could represent the response to mantle upwelling and/or plume activity.

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Zusammenfassung Zwischen Orogenese, Magmatismus und zugehörigen Sedimenten existiert ein enger Zusammenhang, der meist wenig verstanden ist und dringend eingehender Studien bedarf. Gewisse Sediment-Typen sind meist an einen ganz spezifischen, magmatischen Kontext gebunden. Dies ist insbesondere der Fall für die ozeanische Kruste, könnte aber auch für den bimodalen, kontinentalen magmatischen Zyklus mit der Bildung von Granit zutreffen. Die gro\räumigen Regressionen und die damit verbundene Entstehung von kontinentalen, detritischen Ablagerungen könnte die Antwort auf vertikale Mantel-Konvektion oder Plume-Aktivität sein.

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Résumé Il est important de mieux comprendre les relations subtiles existant entre orogenèse, magmatisme et sédiments associés. Certains types de sédiments sont systématiquement apparentés à un contexte magmatique spécifique. Ceci est particulièrement évident pour la croûte océanique, mais pourrait Être également valable dans le cadre du magmatisme continental bimodal avec développement de granite. Les régressions à grande échelle avec formation de sédiments détritiques continentaux pourraient représenter la conséquence d'une activité accrue et/ou de mouvements convectifs du manteau.

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Ice and climate modeling: An editorial essay

The growth and decay of ice sheets are driven by forces affecting the seasonal cycles of snowfall and snowmelt. The external forces are likely to be variations in the earth's orbit which cause differences in the solar radiation received. Radiational control of snowmelt is modulated by the seasonal cycles of snow albedo and cloud cover. The effects of orbital changes can be magnified by feedbacks involving atmospheric CO₂ content, ocean temperatures and desert areas. Climate modeling of the causes of the Pleistocene ice ages involves modeling the interactions of all components of the climate system; snow, sea ice, glacier ice, the ocean, the atmosphere, and the solid earth. Such modeling is also necessary for interpreting oxygen isotope records from ice and ocean as paleoclimatic evidence.     

Late Holocene paleoecology of the Southern Plains

Analyses of pollen and land snails from rocksheter sites in the Osage Hills of northeastern Oklahoma indicate that the period 2000-1000 yr B.P. was moister than today. During that time, colonies of the prairie vole Microtus ochrogaster were present in the Texas Panhandle. About 1000 yr B.P. the climate changed to dry conditions that have persisted to the present. Disjunct colonies of small mammals in Texas became extinct at the beginning of the dry episode, thereby establishing the composition of the modern fauna. The climatic model for the origin of the Panhandle Aspect (A.D. 1200–1500) is questioned on the grounds that the Southern Plains experienced a long period of dry climate commencing A.D. 950.     

Late Pleistocene paleo-oceanography of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea: Benthic foraminiferal evidence

Fluctuations in benthic foraminiferal faunas over the last 130,000 yr in four piston cores from the Norwegian Sea are correlated with the standard worldwide oxygen-isotope stratigraphy. One species, Cibicides wuellerstorfi, dominates in the Holocene section of each core, but alternates downcore with Oridorsalis tener, a species dominant today only in the deepest part of the basin. O. tener is the most abundant species throughout the entire basin during periods of particularly cold climate when the Norwegian Sea presumably was ice covered year round and surface productivity lowered. Portions of isotope Stages 6, 3, and 2 are barren of benthic foraminifera; this is probably due to lowered benthic productivity, perhaps combined with dilution by ice-rafted sediment; there is no evidence that the Norwegian Sea became azoic. The Holocene and Substage 5e (the last interglacial) are similar faunally. This similarity, combined with other evidence, supports the presumption that the Norwegian Sea was a source of dense overflows into the North Atlantic during Substage 5e as it is today. Oxygen-isotope analyses of benthic foraminifera indicate that Norwegian Sea bottom waters warmer than they are today from Substage 5d to Stage 2, with the possible exception of Substage 5a. These data show that the glacial Norwegian Sea was not a sink for dense surface water, as it is now, and thus it was not a source of deep-water overflows. The benthic foraminiferal populations of the deep Norwegian Sea seem at least as responsive to near-surface conditions, such as sea-ice cover, as they are to fluctuations in the hydrography of the deep water. Benthic foraminiferal evidence from the Norwegian Sea is insufficient in itself to establish whether or not the basin was a source of overflows into the North Atlantic at any time between the Substage 5e/5d boundary at 115,000 yr B.P. and the Holocene.