Transmission electron microscopy of subsolidus oxidation and weathering of olivine

Olivine crystals in basaltic andesites which crop out in the Abert Rim, south-central Oregon have been studied by high-resolution and analytical transmission electron microscopy. The observations reveal three distinct assemblages of alteration products that seem to correspond to three episodes of olivine oxidation. The olivine crystals contain rare, dense arrays of coherently intergrown Ti-free magnetite and inclusions of a phase inferred to be amorphous silica. We interpret this first assemblage to be the product of an early subsolidus oxidation event in the lava. The second olivine alteration assemblage contains complex ordered intergrowths on (001) of forsterite-rich olivine and laihunite (distorted olivine structure with Fe³⁺ charge balanced by vacancies). Based on experimental results for laihunite synthesis (Kondoh et al. 1985), these intergrowths probably formed by olivine oxidation between 400 and 800°C. The third episode of alteration involves the destruction of olivine by low-temperature hydrothermal alteration and weathering. Elongate etch-pits and channels in the margins of fresh olivine crystals contain semi-oriented bands of smectite. Olivine weathers to smectite and hematite, and subsequently to arrays of oriented hematite crystals. The textures resemble those reported by Eggleton (1984) and Smith et al. (1987). We find no evidence for a metastable phase intermediate between olivine and smectite (M — Eggleton 1984). The presence of laihunite exerts a strong control on the geometry of olivine weathering. Single laihunite layers and laihunite-forsteritic olivine intergrowths increase the resistance of crystals to weathering. Preferential development of channels between laihunite layers occurs where growth of laihunite produced compositional variations in olivine, rather than where coherency-strain is associated with laihunite-olivine interfaces.     

Modelling weathering processes at the catchment scale: The WITCH numerical model

A numerical model of chemical weathering in soil horizons and underlying bedrock (WITCH) has been coupled to a numerical model of water and carbon cycles in forest ecosystems (ASPECTS) to simulate the concentration of major species within the soil horizons and the stream of the Strengbach granitic watershed, located in the Vosges Mountains (France). For the first time, simulations of solute concentrations in soil layers and in the catchment river have been performed on a seasonal basis. The model is able to reproduce the concentrations of most major species within the soil horizons, as well as catching the first-order seasonal fluctuations of aqueous calcium, magnesium and silica concentrations. However, the WITCH model underestimates concentrations of Mg²⁺ and silica at the spring of the catchment stream, and significantly underestimates Ca²⁺ concentration. The deficit in calculated calcium can be compensated for by dissolution of trace apatite disseminated in the bedrock. However, the resulting increased Ca²⁺ release yields important smectite precipitation in the deepest model layer (in contact with the bedrock) and subsequent removal of large amount of silica and magnesium from solution. In contrast, the model accurately accounts for the concentrations of major species (Ca, Mg and silica) measured in the catchment stream when precipitation of clay minerals is not allowed. The model underestimation of Mg²⁺ and H₄SiO₄ concentrations when precipitation of well crystallized smectites is allowed strongly suggests that precipitation of well crystallized clay minerals is overestimated and that more soluble poorly crystallized and amorphous materials may be forming. In agreement with observations on other watersheds draining granitic rocks, this study indicates that highly soluble trace calcic phases control the aqueous calcium budget in the Strengbach watershed.     

Genesis of monazite and Y zoning in garnet from the Black Hills, South Dakota

The paragenesis of monazite in metapelitic rocks from the contact aureole of the Harney Peak Granite, Black Hills, South Dakota, was investigated using zoning patterns of monazite and garnet, electron microprobe dating of monazite, bulk-rock compositions, and major phase mineral equilibria. The area is characterized by low-pressure and high-temperature metamorphism with metamorphic zones ranging from garnet to sillimanite zones. Garnet porphyroblasts containing euhedral Y annuli are observed from the garnet to sillimanite zones. Although major phase mineral equilibria predict resorption of garnet at the staurolite isograd and regrowth at the andalusite isograd, textural and mass balance analyses suggest that the formation of the Y annuli is not related to the resorption-and-regrowth of garnet having formed instead during garnet growth in the garnet zone. Monazite grains in Black Hills pelites were divided into two generations on the basis of zoning patterns of Y and U: monazite 1 with low-Y and -U and monazite 2 with high-Y and -U. Monazite 1 occurs in the garnet zone and persists into the sillimanite zone as cores shielded by monazite 2 which starts to form in the andalusite zone. Pelites containing garnet porphyroblasts with Y annuli and monazite 1 with patchy Th zoning are more calcic than those with garnet with no Y annuli and monazite with concentric Th zoning. Monazite 1 is attributed to breakdown of allanite in the garnet zone, additionally giving rise to the Y annuli observed in garnet. Monazite 2 grows in the andalusite zone, probably at the expense of garnet and monazite 1 in the andalusite and sillimanite zones. The ages of the two different generations of monazite are within the precision of chemical dating of electron microprobe. The electron microprobe ages of all monazites from the Black Hills show a single ca. 1713 Ma population, close to the intrusion age of the Harney Peak Granite (1715 Ma). This study demonstrates that Y zoning in garnet and monazite are critical to the interpretation of monazite petrogenesis and therefore monazite ages.     

Quantitative analysis of variations in depositional sequence thickness from submarine channel levees

Abstract Thickness variations across‐levee and downchannel in acoustically defined depositional sequences from six submarine channel‐levee systems show consistent and quantifiable patterns. The thickness of depositional sequences perpendicular to the channel trend, i.e. across the levee, decreases exponentially, as characterized by a spatial decay constant, k. Similarly, the thickness of sediment at the levee crest decreases exponentially down the upper reaches of submarine channels and can be characterized by a second spatial decay constant, λ. The inverse of these decay constants has units of length and defines depositional length scales such that k^?1 is a measure of levee width and λ^?1 is a measure of levee length. Quantification of levee architecture in this way allowed investigation of relationships between levee architecture and channel dimensions. It was found that these measures of levee e‐folding width and levee e‐folding length are directly related to channel width and relief. The dimensions of channels and levees are thus intimately related, thereby limiting the range of potential channel‐levee morphologies, regardless of allocyclic forcing. A simple sediment budget model relates the product of the levee e‐folding width and e‐folding length to through‐channel volume discharge. A classification system based on the quantitative downchannel behaviour of levee architecture allows identification of a ‘mid‐channel’ reach, where sediment is passively transferred from the through‐channel flow to the levees as an overspilling flow. Downstream from this reach, the channel gradually looses its control on guiding turbidity currents, and the resulting flow can be considered as an unconfined or spreading flow.     

Enacting geographies

We conclude the editorial by glancing ahead to the individual papers. This overview seeks only to highlight motifs, themes, arcs and trajectories (since the papers will obviously exceed anything we might say about them).John Wylie's paper, An essay on ascending Glastonbury Tor, draws upon the work of Merleau Ponty and Heidegger to illustrate how the act of visualizing itself is always a making of seer and seen. The paper thus seeks to speak of a subjectivity produced and performed via practices of ascension and elevation, and, in doing so, to move towards a new understanding of visible landscape in terms of sensuous practices. Cataloguing his own ascent of Glastonbury Tor, Wylie seeks to enact the Tor for the reader, engendering its visibility, its cultural histories, and thus its sensuous reality through his narrative.Motifs of landscape and practice recur in Mitch Rose's paper, Landscape and Labyrinths, which seeks to sketch out a conceptual and methodological approach to cultural landscape beyond the structuralism of cultural geography, which, Rose argues, skewers landscape through stabilisations of meaning. An ontology of overdetermination and surplus, as elaborated by Althusser and Bataille, is offered by Rose as a possible means of becoming attentive to the excessiveness of landscape.Derek McCormack's A paper with an interest in rhythm moves from the false problematic of representing movement to become an exposition of movement within the folds of writing. In a virtuosic exploration of rhythm McCormack produces an animated space that moves, folds and achieves consistency via both non-subjectifying and subjectifying forces. Theoretical considerations are not side-stepped by this performance; rather, the particular rhythms of Deleuze, Guattari and Lefebvre are engaged and enfolded by the paper.Paul Harrison's paper The Caesura: Remarks on Wittgenstein's interruption of theory, or, why practices elude explanation, presents a precise and exacting philosophical exposition of the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Harrison uses the work of Wittgenstein to offer a diagnosis of idealism within much contemporary social analysis. Linking up with the special issue's concerns, Harrison suggests that it is the performative which occupies the space vacated by Idealism; a replacement of the Cartesian Ideals of certainty for 'infinitive', and distinctly geographic, understandings––taking -place, making -sense––which speak of the time of the present, not of all Time.