Climate, exposed source-rock lithologies, crustal uplift and surface erosion: a theoretical analysis calibrated with data from the Alps/North Alpine Foreland Basin system

Paleofloristic data imply that paleoclimate changed in the Swiss Alps at the Oligocene/Miocene boundary from humid and hot conditions toward a climate with high temperature and low humidity. The aridization is associated with a change in depositional pattern from alluvial fans to lakes and floodplains, suggesting decreasing sediment discharge. A further 25-40% decrease of sediment discharge occurred at ca. 20 Ma when the orogenic core of the Alps became exposed to the surface. We applied a surface processes model to explore potential controls on the pattern of sediment discharge and on the evolution of the Alpine drainage basin. The model is based on the presumption that the rates of fluvial incision into bedrock are proportional to shear-stress exerted by the flowing water. The model results imply that the paleoclimate change resulted in an instantaneous decrease of sediment discharge and a vertical topographic growth until steady-state conditions between erosional and crustal mass flux are established. However, exposure of the crystalline core of the Alps at ca. 20 Ma is likely to have resulted in the 25-40% decrease of sediment discharge and the reorganization of the drainage pattern from an orogen-normal to an orogen-parallel orientation of dispersion.     

Channel network morphology and sediment dynamics under alternating periglacial and temperate regimes: a numerical simulation study

The occurrence of permafrost in a highly permeable catchment has a profound effect on runoff generation. The presence of permafrost effectively makes the subsoil impermeable. Therefore, overland flow can be the dominant runoff-generating process during periglacial conditions. The absence of permafrost will promote subsurface drainage and, therefore, saturation excess overland flow can become the dominant runoff-generating process during temperate conditions. In this paper, we present a numerical modelling study in which the effect of alternating climate-related phases of permafrost and nonpermafrost on catchment hydrology and geomorphology is investigated. Special attention is given to the characteristics of the channel network being formed, and the sediment yield from these catchments. We find that channel networks expand under permafrost conditions and contract under nonpermafrost conditions. A change from permafrost to nonpermafrost conditions is characterised by a decrease in sediment yield, while a change towards permafrost conditions is marked by a peak in sediment yield. This peak is explained by the build-up of a reservoir of erodible sediment during the nonpermafrost phase. The driving force behind this reservoir build-up may be local base-level change due to tectonic uplift or eustacy. We present a number of experiments, which show the details of this process. The results are in line with existing reconstructions of climate and fluvial dynamics during the Pleistocene in Europe and offer a new explanation to these observations.     

Network‐scale dynamics of grain‐size sorting: implications for downstream fining,stream‐profile concavity,and drainage basin morphology

We explore the link between channel‐bed texture and river basin concavity in equilibrium catchments using a numerical landscape evolution model. Theory from homogeneous sediment transport predicts that river basin concavity directly increases with bed sediment size. If the effective grain size on a river bed governs its concavity, then natural phenomena such as grain‐size sorting and channel armouring should be linked to concavity. We examine this hypothesis by allowing the bed sediment texture to evolve in a transport‐limited regime using a two grain‐size mixture of sand and gravel. Downstream ?ning through selective particle erosion is produced in equilibrium. As the channel‐bed texture adjusts downstream so does the local slope. Our model predicts that it is not the texture of the original sediment mixture that governs basin concavity. Rather, concavity is linked to the texture of the sorted surface layer. Two different textural regimes are produced in the experiments: a transitional regime where the mobility of sand and gravel changes with channel‐bed texture, and a sand‐dominated region where the mobility of sand and gravel is constant. The concavity of these regions varies depending on the median gravel‐ or sand‐grain size, erosion rate, and precipitation rate. The results highlight the importance of adjustments in both surface texture and slope in natural rivers in response to changes in ?uvial and sediment inputs throughout a drainage network. This adjustment can only be captured numerically using multiple grain sizes or empirical downstream ?ning rules. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the impact of Celaque National Park on forest fragmentation in western Honduras

The effectiveness of parks as management regimes is much in debate. This study examines the effect of establishment of the Celaque National Park, Honduras, in 1987, on limiting deforestation through a comparison with the surrounding landscape using remote sensing, GIS and landscape pattern analysis. Pressure on the park region is found to relate spatially to the locations of towns and roads, with increasing deforestation in the landscape surrounding the park. In contrast, the park has been largely successful in maintaining forest cover. Although the extent of change within the park is not pronounced, the pattern of change is. Expansion of agriculture and coffee production have led to increasing pressure on the park boundaries, with as much as 25% of the landscape surrounding the park experiencing land cover change between 1996 and 2000. This has significant implications for the future of the park.     

A magnetic study of single-crystal titanomagnetite (Fe2.4Ti0.6O4)

Single crystals of approximate composition Fe_2.4Ti_0.6O₄ were prepared from which spherical samples of diameters 1–2 mm were obtained. The measured values of the Königsberger ratio, the ratio of saturation remanence to saturation magnetization and a Lowrie-Fuller test showed that they were multidomain in character. The temperature variation of the coercive force and saturation magnetization was measured between room temperature and the Curie point. The field dependence of intensity of acquired thermoremanent magnetization (TRM) was determined. The predictions of some of the theoretical models for multidomain TRM, which, of necessity, apply to simplifications of real materials (either natural or synthetic), compare favourably with the results of the present study. The validity of the assumptions made in this comparison is discussed.     

The laboratory simulation of deuteric oxidation of titanomagnetites: effect on magnetic properties and stability of thermoremanence

Synthetic single crystals of titanomagnetite of nominal composition Fe_2.4Ti_0.6O₄ have been oxidized at 1275°C in controlled gas atmospheres, producing multiphase intergrowths to simulate the natural process of deuteric oxidation. The evolution of the intergrowths was monitored using the conventional techniques of petrology: optical and electron microscopy and X-ray and electron microprobe analyses. In addition, the measured magnetic properties — particularly the temperature-dependence of hysteresis properties — provided further information about the composition and concentrations of magnetic phases, and their domain state, as oxidation proceeded. The evolution of a trellis pattern of ilmenite lamellae, characteristic of the “exsolution” stages of deuteric oxidation, was observed in the oxidized crystals. The interlamellar spinel region consisted of two iron-enriched titanomagnetites, one thought to occur along the lamellar boundaries. The magnetic hardness of both phases was found to be greater than the original homogeneous multidomain titanomagnetite crystals, although neither phase achieved monodomain characteristics, and the stability of thermoremanence (TRM) remained quite low (median destructive fields (MDF) of the order of a few thousend A m^?1). The lamellae made little contribution to the total remanence. A sharp rise in magnetic hardness, observed during the post-exsolution stages of oxidation, was due to the presence of fine-grain monodomain magnetite, thought to be distributed within the haemoilmenite matrix, but probably not having been formed by lamellar subdivision. The crystals could now carry an intense and stable TRM with MDFs of many tens of thousands of A m^?1.     

Interactions between onshore bedrock-channel incision and nearshore wave-base erosion forced by eustasy and tectonics

We explore the response of bedrock streams to eustatic and tectonically induced fluctuations in base level. A numerical model coupling onshore fluvial erosion with offshore wave‐base erosion is developed. The results of a series of simulations for simple transgressions with constant rate of sea‐level change (SLR) show that response depends on the relative rates of rock uplift (U) and wave‐base erosion (?_w). Simple regression runs highlight the importance of nearshore bathymetry. Shoreline position during sea‐level fall is set by the relative rate of base‐level fall (U‐SLR) and ?_w, and is constant horizontally when these two quantities are equal. The results of models forced by a realistic Late Quaternary sea‐level curve are presented. These runs show that a stable shoreline position cannot be obtained if offshore uplift rates exceed ?_w. Only in the presence of a relatively stable shoreline position, fluvial profiles can begin to approximate a steady‐state condition, with U balanced by fluvial erosion rate (?_f). In the presence of a rapid offshore decrease in rock‐uplift rate (U), short (～5 km) fluvial channels respond to significant changes in rock‐uplift rate in just a few eustatic cycles. The results of the model are compared to real stream‐profile data from the Mendocino triple junction region of northern California. The late Holocene sea‐level stillstand response exhibited by the simulated channels is similar to the low‐gradient mouths seen in the California streams.     

Voids in the Las Campanas Redshift Survey versus cold dark matter models

We analysed the distribution of void sizes in the two-dimensional slices of the Las Campanas Redshift Survey (LCRS). Fourteen volume-limited subsamples were extracted from the six slices to cover a large part of the survey and to test the robustness of the results against cosmic variance. Thirteen samples were randomly culled to produce homogeneously selected samples. We then studied the relationship between the cumulative area covered by voids and the void size as a property of the void hierarchy. We found that the distribution of void sizes scaled with the mean galaxy separation, λ . In particular, we found that the size of voids covering half of the area is given by D _med≈ λ +(12±3)  h ⁻¹ Mpc. Next, by employing an environmental density threshold criterion to identify mock galaxies, we were able to extend this analysis to mock samples from dynamical N -body simulations of cold dark matter (CDM) models. To reproduce the observed void statistics, overdensity thresholds of δ _th≈0,…,1 are necessary. We compared standard (SCDM), open (OCDM), vacuum energy dominated (ΛCDM) and broken scale invariant CDM models (BCDM): we found that both the void size distribution and the two-point correlation function provided important and complementary information on the large-scale matter distribution. The dependence of the void statistics on the threshold criterion for the mock galaxy identification showed that the galaxy biasing was more crucial for the void size distribution than were differences between the cosmological models.     

Uranium-lead zircon and titanite ages from the northern portion of the Western Gneiss Region, south-central Norway

The geochronologic history of the northern portion of the Western Gneiss Region, south-central Norway has been investigated by UPb analyses of zircon and titanite from various basement units and one supracrustal gneiss. A six-point (four zircon and two titanite) discordia line from a migmatite melt-pod and its host-gneiss (Åstfjord migmatite gneiss) defines upper- and lower-intercept ages of 1659.1 ± 1.8 Ma and 393.6 ± 3.6 Ma, respectively. The upper-intercept age is interpreted as a time of tonalite emplacement and migmatite formation in the region.A seven-point (three zircon and four titanite) discordia line from the Ingdal granite gneiss has similar upper- and lower-intercept ages (1652.9 ± 1.7 Ma and 396.1 ± 4.9 Ma, respectively) and the upper-intercept age is interpreted as the time of granite crystallization. The lower-intercept age from both theÅstfjord migmatite gneiss and the Ingdal granite gneiss is interpreted as the time of regional metamorphic resetting and is evidence for Caledonian influence in the region.Titanite from these two gneiss units, as well as from other tonalite, granite, and supracrustal gneisses throughout the Western Gneiss Region displays a remarkably uniform pattern of discordance. Titanite discordance is variable from 6% to 100% and, in general, the degree of discordance is proportional to the Caledonian metamorphic grade of nearby supracrustal schists. Episodic, diffusional lead loss from titanite during Caledonian metamorphism probably caused the discordance pattern, but a combined mechanism of mixing and diffusional lead loss cannot be ruled out. In any case, the seventeen-point titanite and zircon discordia line clearly indicates that: (1) the bulk of the granitoid terrane in this portion of the Western Gneiss Region was emplaced, migmatized, and cooled in a short time interval about 1657 Ma ago; (2) a second, short-lived thermal event that exceeded the blocking temperature of titanite occurred about 395 Ma ago; and (3) titanite and zircon in the region were not isotopically disturbed by comparable geologic events in the period from 1657 to 395 Ma, or at any time after 395 Ma.