William Smith's map brought alive by digital remastering

The geological mapping carried out by William Smith, which resulted in the publication of his famous map in 1815, was remarkable in many respects, not least because it relied on him being able to make consistent and accurate observations on the rock types he encountered during his fieldwork. This ability, gained from his many years studying rocks, allowed him to observe features with his own eyes (or at the very least, with the aid of a simple magnifying device) that others could not. We take a new look at William Smith's original stratigraphical sequences, and with samples collected from his classic field areas (many of which are around the city of Bath, Somerset, UK), demonstrate how spatial mineralogy mapping can be incorporated into the modern age of digital mapping.     

New insights into precious metal enrichment on the Isle of Rum,Scotland

The Rum Layered Suite (NW Scotland) is generally regarded as one of a handful of classic examples of open‐system layered mafic‐ultramafic intrusions, or ‘fossilized’ basaltic magma chambers, world‐wide. The eastern portion of the Rum intrusion is constructed of sixteen repeated, coupled, peridotite–troctolite units. Each major cyclic unit has been linked to a major magma replenishment event, with repeated settling out of ‘crops’ of olivine and plagioclase crystals to form the cumulate rocks. However, there are variations in the lithological succession that complicate this oversimplified model, including the presence of chromitite (>60 vol. percent Cr‐spinel) seams. The ～2 mm thick chromitite seams host significant platinum‐group element (PGE) enrichment (e.g. ～2 ppm Pt) and likely formed in situ, i.e. at the crystal mush–magma interface. Given that the bulk of the world's exploited PGE come from a layered intrusion that bears remarkable structural and lithological similarities to Rum, the Bushveld Complex (South Africa), comparisons between these intrusions raise intriguing implications for precious metal mineralization in layered intrusions.     

Geochemistry and geochronology of chemical weathering,Butler Hill Granite,Missouri

Major element, Rb, Sr and Sr isotope abundances were examined in an ancient (Cambrian) weathering zone in the Butler Hill Granite, Missouri. Most of the major elements behaved predictably and systematically as a result of weathering intensity. MgO and the alkalis (Na₂O and K₂O) show highly erratic variations in both fresh and weathered rocks, suggesting considerable initial heterogeneity in the composition of biotite and feldspar. Rb predictably follows the behaviour of K during weathering (showing erratic variations similar to K), whereas Sr follows Ca (decreasing steadily as a result of weathering intensity). A method is postulated to date ancient weathering episodes using Rb-Sr data from a sequence of fresh to highly weathered samples. Data from the Butler Hill Granite (1185 m.y.) lend support to the proposed dating technique but show that more detailed sampling of the most intensely weathered regions is needed to produce more accurate results in future studies.     

Rubidium,strontium and the isotopic composition of strontium in ultramafic nodule minerals and host basalts

The concentrations of rubidium and strontium and the isotopic composition of strontium have been determined in minerals separated from ultramaflc nodules occurring in late Tertiary and Quaternary basalts of wide geographic distribution. Clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene and olivine from each of three Iherzolite nodules show a relatively wide range of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr disequilibrium and none of the minerals is in isotopic equilibrium with its host basalt. In two cases there is a correlation between ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and ⁸⁷Rb/⁸⁶Sr ratios of the nodule minerals, indicating apparent isochron relationships which may represent relict mantle events. Clinopyroxene and olivine from each of two wehrlite nodules are not in isotopic equilibrium, although the magnitude of the disequilibrium is smaller than that observed in the Iherzolite nodules. None of these ultramafic nodules can be a crystal cumulate from its host basalt, and it is doubtful that any type of genetic relationship exists. The strontium isotopic disequilibrium between nodule minerals seems to be a primary feature inherited from past mantle histories.     

Climate change influences on pollinator,forest, and farm interactions across a climate gradient

Improved cookstoves have been identified in Mexico as a key opportunity to advance sustainable local development priorities in disadvantaged regions while mitigating climate change. This paper reviews the Patsari Cookstove Project initiated in 2003 by an NGO, Interdisciplinary Group on Appropriate Rural Technology (GIRA). The project applied an interdisciplinary and participative user-centered approach to disseminate improved cookstoves in rural Mexico, with a special focus on indigenous and poor rural communities. To date, GIRA and the Patsari Network have disseminated thousands of stoves using a “training to trainers” model. Benefits from the project include tangible improvements in users’ health, as well as savings in time and money expended on fuelwood procurement and use. The project has also documented substantive environmental benefits from significant mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with traditional open fires. To sustain scaling up efforts over the long-term, two networks have been created: The Patsari Network, which includes several organizations promoting Patsari stoves for household users, and the Tsiri Network, which supports local food security and the empowerment of indigenous women through the promotion of institutional cookstoves. Through appropriately designed and implemented local interventions, the project demonstrates that the goals of advancing sustainable local development in rural areas and climate change mitigation may not be contradictory, and may in fact reinforce one another.     

Burial,Maturation, and Petroleum Generation History of the Arkoma Basin and Ouachita Foldbelt,Oklahoma and Arkansas

Removed overburden, burial, maturation, and petroleum generation analysis indicates that maturity in the Arkoma Basin and the Ouachita Foldbelt is explained effectively using simple burial models that account for the significant surface erosion that has occurred and assuming geothermal gradients similar to present-day gradients have been approximately constant through geologic time. Regional models, based on analysis at 115 well locations, indicate that from 5,000 to 15,000 ft (1.5–4.5 km) of section, differing with location from north to south and west to east, has been removed from the Arkoma Basin region, and as much as 25,000–40,000 ft (7.5–12 km) have been removed from areas of the Ouachita Foldbelt. Based on burial and thermal history reconstruction, increasing maturation from west to east across the basin is primarily the result of increasing overburden and subsequent surface erosion from west to east. The models predict most publicly available vitrinite reflectance data within a factor of 1.5 at two standard deviations. Comparison of model and measured reflectance-depth trends in six wells indicates that hydrothermal fluid movement should not have modified reflectance by more than approximately 20% in the center of the basin. Analysis indicates that most of the basin is overmature for oil production from intervals below the Spiro Sandstone, except to the north and northwest. Although thermal maturities are high, methane is stable throughout the basin. Except for the basal Arbuckle Group, all formations were thermally immature for oil generation prior to burial by the Mississippian and Morrowan in the Ouachita Foldbelt of Oklahoma and by the Atokan and Desmoinesian over most of the basin and study area. In the deeper part of the present basin, all strata entered and passed through the oil window during or within 10 My after Atokan time. Because no additional major quantities of hydrocarbons were generated after Atokan time, the hydrocarbons must have been emplaced and trapped during this brief time interval.     

Active regions losing their moorings by subsurface reconnection

Eleven microwave spike events observed with the 2.6–3.8 GHz spectrometer of Beijing Astronomical Observatory (BAO) are analysed. The polarization degrees of spikes are variable, some spikes have frequency drift with the drift rate of several GHz s^–1. In particular, the time delay (8 ms) between the two polarization modes of spike is detected, which is different from previous results. According to the leading spot rule, we conclude that the o-modes arrive first. Moreover, the reversal of polarization sense versus frequency is also found. A change of the emission mode may be the cause of the polarization reversal.