Age and intensity of thermal events by fission track analysis: The Ries impact crater

A thermal event reduces the number of previously registered fission tracks in a mineral dependent upon the track retention properties of the individual mineral. Apatite, sphene and zircon have retention properties over a wide range of temperatures (from 100° to 550°C); apatite data reveal information at lowest temperatures while sphene and zircon data are useful for higher temperatures.Thermal events within this temperature range of 100°C to about 550°C are suitable for study with this technique. The age of the event is determined from samples in which the fission tracks are completely erased, while minerals containing partially removed (erased) tracks provide information on the temperatures occurring during the thermal event.As a test case, the analysis of the temperatures developed by the meteorite impact which produced the Ries crater at 14.7 m.y. ago is presented.     

The Nazca Group of south-central Peru: Age,source, and regional volcanic and tectonic significance

The Nazca Group, exposed east of Nazca, Peru, consists of a lower part composed of conglomerate and finer-grained clastic strata and an upper part made up of at least seven ash-flow sheets (cooling units or ignimbrites), collectively known as the Nazca Tuff. These tuffs were erupted between about 22 and 18 m.y. ago from a vent area in the vicinity of Pampa Galeras now marked by a collapse caldera. The early Miocene age of the Nazca Tuff provides additional evidence for a major pulse of largely pyroclastic felsic volcanism throughout the central Andes during the early Miocene. Recognition of the Pampa Galeras caldera supports the idea that many of these rocks were erupted from vent areas of the collapse-caldera type located near the eastern margin of the Coastal batholith.The Nazca Group overlies a major erosional surface cut on the Coastal batholith and its envelope that can be traced southward to the Chilean border. This surface is a continuation of the post-Incaic erosional surface to the north, which is overlain by conglomerate and radiometrically dated volcanic rock of late Eocene age. The post-Incaic surface therefore represents a major episode of regional uplift and pedimentation that followed early Tertiary orogeny. The absence of volcanic rocks of late Eocene/early Oligocene age overlying the Coastal batholith near Nazca and in southern Peru may reflect a general absence of post-Incaic volcanism in this portion of the Andes possibly related to differences in the angle of subduction and/or restriction of volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of this age to depositional basins east of the batholith.     

Stability of titanian clinohumite: Experiments and thermodynamic analysis

Reversed hydrothermal experiments on a natural titanoclinohumite [Ti-Cl; approximate formula Mg_7.5FeTi_0.5O₁₆(OH)] show that it breaks down at 475°±11° C (3.5 kbar), 620°±11° C (14 kbar) and 675°±8° C (21 kbar) to the assemblage olivine +ilmenite+vapor. An internal-consistency analysis of the data yields _r G _s ^/0 (298 K, 1 bar)=36,760±3,326 cal (mole Ti-Cl)^–1. _r S _s ^/0 (298 K, 1 bar)=34.14±5.91 cal deg^–1(mole Ti-Cl)^–1. Linear correlation coefficient r _G–S 1.0. A solution model that accounts for TiO₂-M(OH)₂ and F-OH substitution shows that the results for our nearly F-free Ti-Cl are in reasonable agreement with the unreversed breakdown experiments of Mer-rill et al. (1972) on a F-bearing Ti-Cl.Because fluorine is necessary to stabilize Ti-Cl under mantle conditions, we suggest that Ti-Cl is much more likely to be a storage device for fluorine than for water in the mantle.     

Changing trade patterns of the West Pacific

In the enormous expansion of world trade in the quarter century after 1950, the share generated by countries of the Western Pacific remained remarkably constant. This relationship primarily reflected the rise of Japan as a major force in the international economy. Whereas Japan's own trade grew more widely oriented and the Western Pacific margins relatively less important as trading partners than before WW II, to the states of the Western Pacific Japan's status both as a supplier of imports and as an export market greatly enlarged —only rarely is Japan not the leading trading partner. The Japanese strategy of export-led growth has been replicated by South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. All of these countries, as well as Japan itself, depend overwhelmingly on imports for their raw materials and energy supplies. Elsewhere trade patterns have been greatly modified by a rising spirit of nationalism that has emphasized development of manufacturing industries in Australia and New Zealand no less than in the states of SE Asia.     

Amphibole pyroxenite xenoliths: Cumulate or replacement phenomena from the upper mantle,Nunivak Island,Alaska

Interstitial to poikilitic amphibole found in garnet pyroxenite xenoliths has been interpreted, in the past, to represent a critically silica undersaturated, residual intercumulus melt trapped by its cumulate assemblage of anhydrous phases. The textural features of such amphibole in pyroxenite xenoliths from Nunivak Island, Alaska, however, are more compatible with an origin by replacement of the anhydrous phases of the pyroxenite, following a period of cooling and sub-solidus recrystallization in the upper mantle. The reaction of amphibole and olivine to give orthopyroxene, observed in two specimens, requires that the associated fluid phase was not critically silica undersaturated. The amphibole is therefore thought to reflect the interaction of an alkali-bearing, migratory, aqueous fluid and an upper mantle consisting of spinel lherzolite cut by veins of spinel and garnet pyroxenite.     

On the calculation of cosmic-ray exposure ages of stone meteorites

Abundances of cosmic ray-produced noble gases and ²⁶Al, including some new measurements, have been compiled for some 23 stone meteorites with exposure ages of < 3 × 10⁶ yr. Concentrations of cosmogenic He, Ne, and Ar in these meteorites have been corrected for differences in target element abundances by normalization to L-chondrite chemistry. Combined noble gas measurements in depth samples of the Keyes and St. Séverin chondrites are utilized to derive equations for normalizing the production rates of cosmogenic ³He, ²¹Ne, and ³⁸Ar in chondrites to an adopted ‘average’ shielding: ${}^{22}\text{Ne}{}^{21}\text{Ne}\text{= 1.114.}$ The measured unsaturated ²⁶Al concentrations and the calculated equilibrium ²⁶Al for these meteorites are combined to estimate exposure ages. These exposure ages are statistically compared with chemistry- and shielding-corrected concentrations of cosmogenic He, Ne, and Ar to derive absolute production rates for these nuclides. For L-chondrites, at ‘average’ shielding, these production rates (in 10^?8 cm³/g 10⁶ yr) are: ³He = 2.45,²¹Ne = 0.47, and ³⁸Ar = 0.069, which are ~ 25% higher than production rates used in the past. From these production rates and relative chemical correction factors, production rates for other classes of stone meteorites are derived.     

Greatlakean Substage: A replacement for Valderan Substage in the Lake Michigan basin

New evidence from recent field and seismic investigations in the Lake Michigan basin and in the type areas of the Valders, Two Creeks and Two Rivers deposits necessitates revision of late-glacial ice-front positions, rock- and time-stratigraphic nomenclature and climatic interpretations and deglaciation patterns for the period ca. 14,000–7,000 radiocarbon years B.P. The previously reported and long accepted pattern of deglaciation for the Lake Michigan basin started with a regular retreat from the Lake Border Morainic System, with a minor oscillation marked by the Port Huron moraine(s) and then an extensive Twocreekan deglaciation followed by a major (320 km) post-Twocreekan advance (Valders). However, we now record a major retreat between the times of the Lake Border and Port Huron moraines, followed by a gradual retreat from the Port Huron limit and interrupted by a minor standstill (deposition of Manitowoc Till), a retreat (Twocreekan) and a readvance (Two Rivers Till). No Woodfordian or younger readvance was as extensive as had been the preceding one. This sequence argues for a normal, climatically controlled, progressive deglaciation rather than one interrupted by a major post-Twocreekan (formerly Valderan) surge. This revision appears finally to harmonize the geologic evidence and the palynological record for the Great Lakes region. Our investigations show that Valders Till from which the Valderan Substage was named is late-Woodfordian in age. We propose the term “Greatlakean” as a replacement for the now misleading time-stratigraphic term “Valderan”. The type section and the definition of the upper and lower boundaries of the Greatlakean Substage remain the same as those originally proposed for the Valderan Substage but the name is changed.