Palynology of Triassic–Jurassic boundary sections in northern Switzerland

A first palynostratigraphic scheme of Upper Triassic deposits in northern Switzerland was established based on spore-pollen associations and dinoflagellate cyst records from the upper part of the Upper Triassic Klettgau Formation and the lower part of the Lower Jurassic Staffelegg Formation. Drill cores from the Adlerberg region (Basel Tabular Jura) and from Weiach (northern part of Canton Zurich) as well as from an outcrop at the Chilchzimmersattel (Basel Folded Jura) were studied and five informal palynological associations are distinguished. These palynological associations correlate with palynological association of the Central European Epicontinental Basin and the Tethyan realm and provide a stratigraphic framework for the uppermost Triassic sediments in northern Switzerland. Throughout the uppermost Triassic to Jurassic palynological succession a remarkable prominence of Classopollis spp. is observed. Besides Classopollis spp. the three Rhaetian palynological associations A to C from the Upper Triassic Belchen Member include typical Rhaetian spore-pollen and dinoflagellate taxa (e.g., Rhaetipollis germanicus, Geopollis zwolinskae, Rhaetogonyaulax rhaetica, and Dapcodinium priscum). Association B differs from association A in a higher relative abundance of the sporomorph taxa Perinopollenites spp. and the consistent occurrence of Granuloperculatipollis rudis and Ricciisporites tuberculatus. Spore diversity is highest in the late Rhaetian palynological association C and includes Polypodiisporites polymicroforatus. A Rhaetian age for the Belchen Member is confirmed by palynological associations A–C, but there is no record of the latest Rhaetian and the earliest Jurassic. In contrast to the Rhaetian palynological associations the Early Jurassic associations W and D include Pinuspollenites spp., Trachysporites fuscus (in association W), and Ischyosporites variegatus. In the view of the end-Triassic mass extinction and contemporaneous environmental changes the described palynofloral succession represents the pre-extinction phase (associations A and B) including a distinct transgression, the extinction phase (association C) associated with a regression, and the post-extinction phase (association W).     

Co–rich Mn crusts from the Magellan Seamount cluster: the long journey through time

The Magellan seamounts began forming as large submarine shield volcanoes south of the equator during the Cretaceous. These volcanoes formed as a cluster on the small Pacific plate in a period when tectonic stress was absent. Thermal subsidence of the seafloor led to sinking of these volcanoes and the formation of guyots as the seamounts crossed the equatorial South Pacific (10–0°S) sequentially and ocean surface temperatures became too high for calcareous organisms to survive. Guyot formation was completed between about 59 and 45 Ma and the guyots became phosphatized at about 39–34 and 27–21 Ma. Ferromanganese crusts began formation as proto-crusts on the seamounts and guyots of the Magellan Seamount cluster towards the end of the Cretaceous up to 55 Ma after the formation of the seamounts themselves. The chemical composition of these crusts evolved over time in a series of steps in response to changes in global climate and ocean circulation. The great thickness of these crusts (up to 15–20 cm) reflects their very long period of growth. The high Co contents of the outer parts of the crusts are a consequence of the increasing deep circulation of the ocean and the resulting deepening of the oxygen minimum zone with time. Growth of the Co-rich Mn crusts in the Magellan Seamount cluster can be considered to be the culmination of a long journey through time.     

The Levant Slumps and the Phoenician Structures: collapse features along the continental margin of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea

Two distinct series of slumps deform the upper part of the sedimentary sequence along the continental margin of the Levant. One series is found along the base of the continental slope, where it overlies the disrupted eastern edge of the Messinian evaporites. The second series of slumps transects the continental margin from the shelf break to the Levant Basin. It seemed that the two series were triggered by two unrelated, though contemporaneous, processes. The shore-parallel slumps were initiated by basinwards flow of the Messinian salt, that carried along the overlying Plio-Quaternary sediments. Seawater that percolated along the detachment faults dissolved the underlying salt to form distinctly disrupted structures. The slope-normal slumps are located on top of large canyons that cut into the pre-Messinian sedimentary rocks. A layer of salt is found in the canyons, and the Plio-Quaternary sediments were deposited on that layer. The slumps are bounded by large, NW-trending faults where post-Messinian faulted offset was measured. We presume that the flow of the salt in the canyons also drives the slope-normal slumps. Thus thin-skinned halokynetic processes generated the composite post-Tortonian structural patterns of the Levant margin. The Phoenician Structures are a prime example of the collapse of a distal continental margin due to the dissolution of a massive salt layer.     

Sediment resuspension events induced by the wake wash of deep-draft vessels

Hydrodynamics and sediment resuspension events, induced at the shoreline by a deep-draft vessel passing nearby, are described. Measurements (pressure, currents and turbidity) were obtained at 4 Hz, on a lower beach ~50 m from a channel where large car ferries operate in Wootton Creek, Isle of Wight. The study focuses on a representative 8-min 32-s-long record, during which two large vessels passed the channel section. At the shore, the passage of each vessel induced a long-period water-level drawdown, followed by a water-level oscillation (seiche) of similar period, and the short-period waves of the wake. Both drawdowns were the main constituents of the prevailing wave pattern. The second drawdown was the largest in amplitude, in response to a higher speed of the ferry, and the influence of the seiche which had been activated during the preceding event. Two successive peaks of turbidity were observed shortly after this drawdown. Analyses of current velocity and direction indicate that the sediments resuspended originated from the shallower upper beach. Anthropogenically induced erosion of the foreshore is predicted at Wootton Creek.     

Pockmarks on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar: formation from overpressured shallow contourite gas reservoirs and internal wave action during the last glacial sea-level lowstand?

Integrating novel and published swath bathymetry (3,980 km²), as well as chirp and high-resolution 2D seismic reflection profiles (2,190 km), this study presents the mapping of 436 pockmarks at water depths varying widely between 370 and 1,020 m on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar. On the Atlantic side in the south-eastern Gulf of Cádiz near the Camarinal Sill, 198 newly discovered pockmarks occur in three well localized and separated fields: on the upper slope (n=14), in the main channel of the Mediterranean outflow water (MOW, n=160), and on the huge contourite levee of the MOW main channel (n=24) near the well-known TASYO field. These pockmarks vary in diameter from 60 to 919 m, and are sub-circular to irregularly elongated or lobate in shape. Their slope angles on average range from 3° to 25°. On the Mediterranean side of the strait on the Ceuta Drift of the western Alborán Basin, where pockmarks were already known to occur, 238 pockmarks were identified and grouped into three interconnected fields, i.e. a northern (n=34), a central (n=61) and a southern field (n=143). In the latter two fields the pockmarks are mainly sub-circular, ranging from 130 to 400 m in diameter with slope angles averaging 1.5° to 15°. In the northern sector, by contrast, they are elongated up to 1,430 m, probably reflecting MOW activity. Based on seismo-stratigraphic interpretation, it is inferred that most pockmarks formed during and shortly after the last glacial sea-level lowstand, as they are related to the final erosional discontinuity sealed by Holocene transgressive deposits. Combining these findings with other existing knowledge, it is proposed that pockmark formation on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar resulted from gas and/or sediment pore-water venting from overpressured shallow gas reservoirs entrapped in coarse-grained contourites of levee deposits and Pleistocene palaeochannel infillings. Venting was either triggered or promoted by hydraulic pumping associated with topographically forced internal waves. This mechanism is analogous to the long-known effect of tidal pumping on the dynamics of unit pockmarks observed along the Norwegian continental margin.     

Endogenous growth in channelized komatiite lava flows: evidence from spinifex-textured sills at Pyke Hill and Serpentine Mountain,Western Abitibi Greenstone Belt,Northeastern Ontario,Canada

Spinifex-textured sills (i.e., veins) characterized by komatiitic magmas that have intruded their own volcanic-piles have long been recognized. For instance, in the early 1970s, Pyke and coworkers, in their classic work at Pyke Hill in Munro Township, noted that not all spinifex-bearing ultramafic rocks formed as lava flows, rather some were clearly emplaced as small dikes and sills. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain spinifex-textured sills: intrusion into a cold host, filter pressing, or drainage of residual liquid. However, these do not satisfactorily explain the phenomenon. Field and petrographic observations at Pyke Hill and Serpentine Mountain demonstrate that spinifex-bearing komatiite sills and dikes were emplaced during channel inflation processes when new magma was intruded into a cooler, semi-consolidated but permeable cumulate material. Komatiitic liquids were intruded into the olivine cumulate rocks near the boundary between the spinifex and the cumulate zones of well-organized to organized komatiite flows. Spinifex-textured sills are generally tabular in morphology, stacked one above another, with curviplanar contacts sub-parallel to stratigraphy. Some sills exhibit complex digitated apophyses. Thinner sills typically have a random olivine spinifex texture similar, though generally composed of coarser crystals, to that of komatiite lava flows. Thicker sills exhibit more complex organization of their constituent crystals characterized by zones of random olivine spinifex, overlying zones of organized coarse spinifex crystals similar to those found in lava flows. They have striking coarse dendritic spinifex zones composed of very large olivine crystals, up to several centimetres long and up to 1 cm wide that are not observed in lava flows. Typically, at the sill margins, the cumulate material of the host flow is composed of euhedral to subhedral olivine crystals that are larger than those distal to the contact. Many of these margin-crystals have either concentric overgrowth shells or dendritic olivine overgrowths that grew from the cumulate-sill contact toward the sill interior. The dendrites grew on pre-existing olivine cumulate at the contact in response to a sharp temperature gradient imposed by the intrusion of hot material, whereas the concentric overgrowths formed as new melt percolated into the unconsolidated groundmass of the host-flow cumulate material. Spinifex-textured sills and dikes occur in well-organized to organized flows that are interpreted to have formed by “breakouts” above and peripheral to lava pathways (channels/conduits) as a result of inflation that accompanied voluminous komatiitic eruptions responsible for the construction and channelization of komatiitic flow fields. The spinifex-textured dikes and sills represent komatiitic lava that was originally emplaced into the channel roof during periods of episodic inflation that resulted in lava breakouts and was subsequently trapped in the “roof rocks” during periods of channel deflation. Accordingly, the occurrence of spinifex-textured sills and dikes may indicate proximity to, and aid in the identification and delineation of lava channel-ways that could potentially host Ni–Cu–(PGE) mineralization within komatiitic lava flow-fields.     

The modeled atmospheric and oceanic response to the South China Sea SST anomaly

The sensitivity of the global atmospheric and oceanic response to sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) throughout the South China Sea (SCS) is investigated using the Fast Ocean-Atmosphere Model (FOAM). Forced by a warming SST, the experiment explicitly demonstrates that the responses of surface air temperature (SAT) and SST exhibit positive anomalous center over SCS and negative anomalous center over the Northern Pacific Ocean (NPO). The atmospheric response to the warm SST anomalies is characterized by a barotropical anomaly in middle-latitude, leading to a weak subtropical high in summer and a weak Aleutian low in winter. Accordingly, Indian monsoon and eastern Asian monsoon strengthen in summer but weaken in winter as a result of wind convergence owing to the warm SST. It is worth noting that the abnormal signals propagate poleward and eastward away in the form of Rossby Waves from the forcing region, which induces high pressure anomaly. Owing to action of the wind-driven circulation, an anomalous anti-cyclonic circulation is induced with a primary southward current in the upper ocean. An obvious cooling appears over the North Pacific, which can be explained by anomalous meridional cold advection and mixing as shown in the analysises of heat budget and other factors that affect SST.     

Geophysical investigation for shallow subsurface geotechnical problems of Mokattam area,Cairo, Egypt

Nine vertical electrical soundings of Schlumberger configuration were measured with AB/2 = 1–500 m. Manual and computerized interpretation were done to detect the subsurface stratigraphy of the study area. The results show that the subsurface section consists of alternated units of limestone, clay, marly limestone and dolomitic limestone and the thickness of clay unit ranged from 10 to 40 m. Nine dipole–dipole sections have also been constructed to give a clearer picture of the subsurface at the study area. The length of each dipole–dipole section is 235 m, with a electrode spacing ranging between 5 and 25 m. The Res2Dinv software was used for processing and interpretation of field data. The dipole–dipole sections at the upper plateau display high resistivity values at most parts of the plateau. Twelve shallow seismic refraction profiles are measured at selected locations for the dipole sections to define the interface between the fractured limestone and the upper surface of the clay layer. Each profile consists of 24 geophones with a geophone spacing of 2–3 m. Interpretation of seismic data indicates that the surface layer of the upper plateau consists of fractured limestone with a velocity range of 1.16–1.56 km/s and another layer of compacted clay with a velocity range of 1.38–1.88 km/s. Furthermore, the surface layer of the middle plateau consists of marl and marly limestone with a velocity about 2.1 km/s and its underlying layer consists of massive limestone with a velocity of 4.94 km/s.     

Assessing the effect of domain size over the Caribbean region using the PRECIS regional climate model

This study investigates the sensitivity of the one-way nested PRECIS regional climate model (RCM) to domain size for the Caribbean region. Simulated regional rainfall patterns from experiments using three domains with horizontal resolution of 50 km are compared with ERA reanalysis and observed datasets to determine if there is an optimal RCM configuration with respect to domain size and the ability to reproduce important observed climate features in the Caribbean. Results are presented for the early wet season (May–July) and late wet season (August–October). There is a relative insensitivity to domain size for simulating some important features of the regional circulation and key rainfall characteristics e.g. the Caribbean low level jet and the mid summer drought (MSD). The downscaled precipitation has a systematically negative precipitation bias, even when the domain was extended to the African coast to better represent circulation associated with easterly waves and tropical cyclones. The implications for optimizing modelling efforts within resource-limited regions like the Caribbean are discussed especially in the context of the region’s participation in global initiatives such as CORDEX.