Organic geochemistry and pore water chemistry of sediments from Mangrove Lake,Bermuda

Mangrove Lake, Bermuda, is a small coastal, brackish-water lake that has accumulated 14 m of banded, gelatinous, sapropelic sediments in less than 10⁴ yr. Stratigraphic evidence indicates that Mangrove Lake's sedimentary environment has undergone three major depositional changes (peat, freshwater gel, brackish-water gel) as a result of sea level changes. The deposits were examined geochemically in an effort to delineate sedimentological and diagenetic changes. Gas and pore water studies include measurements of sulfides, ammonia, methane, nitrogen gas, calcium, magnesium, chloride, alkalinity, and pH. Results indicate that sulfate reduction is complete, and some evidence is presented for bacterial denitrification and metal sulfide precipitation. The organic-rich sapropel is predominantly algal in origin, composed mostly of carbohydrates and insoluble macromolecular organic matter called humin with minor amounts of proteins, lipids, and humic acids. Carbohydrates and proteins undergo hydrolysis with depth in the marine sapropel but tend to be preserved in the freshwater sapropel. The humin, which has a predominantly aliphatic structure, increases linearly with depth and composes the greatest fraction of the organic matter. Humic acids are minor components and are more like polysaccharides than typical marine humic acids. Fatty acid distributions reveal that the lipids are of an algal and/or terrestrial plant source. Normal alkanes with a total concentration of 75 ppm exhibit two distribution maxima. One is centered about n-C₂₂ with no odd/even predominance, suggestive of a degraded algal source. The other is centered at n-C₃₁ with a distinct odd/even predominance indicative of a vascular plant origin. Stratigraphic changes in the sediment correlate to observed changes in the gas and pore water chemistry and the organic geochemistry.     

The modern geoid and ancient plate boundaries

The non-hydrostatic geoid is dominated by three large anomalies: an area of high gravity potential in the equatorial Pacific; another stretching from Greenland through Africa to the southwest Indian Ocean; and a semi-continuous low region passing from Hudson's Bay through Siberia to India and on to Antarctica. None of these three high-amplitude (greater than 60 m) and long-wavelength anomalies corresponds to present-day plate boundaries. However, if the modern geoid is plotted over the positions of continents and plate boundaries at 125 Ma B.P. (reconstructed relative to hotspots) a strong correlation emerges. The modern geoidal low corresponds in position to the areas of subduction surrounding the Pacific 125 Ma ago. The geoidal high now centered on Africa is entirely contained within ancient Pangaea, and the equatorial Pacific high overlies the location of the spreading centers preserved in the magnetic anomalies of the central Pacific. The most plausible cause of the large geoidal undulations is lower mantle convection only weakly coupled to plate motions. The correspondence between modern geoid and ancient plate boundaries implies either that the coupling was much more intimate in the past, or that there is a lag of at least 100 Ma in response of the lower mantle to upper mantle conditions.     

Inverted-polarity electrical structures in thunderstorms in the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study (STEPS)

Balloon-borne electric field soundings and lightning mapping data have been analyzed for three of the storms that occurred in the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study field program in 2000 to determine if the storms had inverted-polarity electrical structures. The polarities of all or some of the vertically stacked charge regions in such storms are opposite to the polarities observed at comparable heights in normal storms. Analyses compared the charge structures inferred from electric field soundings in the storms with charges inferred from three-dimensional lightning mapping data. Charge structures were inferred from electric field profiles by combining the one-dimensional approximation of Gauss's law with additional information from three-dimensional patterns in the electric field vectors. The three different ways of inferring the charge structure in the storms were found to complement each other and to be consistent overall. Charge deposition by lightning possibly occurred and increased the charge complexity of one of the storms.Many of the cloud flashes in each case were inverted-polarity flashes. Two storms produced ground flash activity comprised predominantly of positive ground flashes. One storm, which was an isolated thunderstorm, produced inverted-polarity cloud flashes, but no flashes to ground. The positive and negative thunderstorm charge regions were found at altitudes where, respectively, negative and positive charge would be found in normal-polarity storms. Thus, we conclude that these storms had anomalous and inverted-polarity electrical structures. Collectively, these three cases (along with the limited cases in the refereed literature) provide additional evidence that thunderstorms can have inverted-polarity electrical structures.     

Material use,economic growth,and the environment

The three broad categories of commodity inputs to the economy are food, fuel, and material, defined as everything else not used for the first two purposes. Material provides physical structure, houses, cars, and packaging; is an important constitutent of modern agriculture in the form of fertilizer and insecticides; and supports the service sector through telecommunications and equipment and paper for our copying machines. The efficient flow of this material is an important factor in the U.S. economy.Correspondence should be directed to Earle B. Amey, U.S. Geological Survey, National Center 983, Reston, Virgina 20192.     

Pyrometamorphism and partial melting of shales during combustion metamorphism: mineralogical,textural, and chemical effects

Eocene shales metamorphosed by a naturally ignited coal seam in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming record a continuum of mineralogic and textural changes from relatively unaltered shale to melt developed during pyrometamorphism. Samples collected along a section 2 m in length, corresponding to a temperature range of approximately 1300°C, were examined optically and by XRD, SEM, and STEM. The low temperature samples are comprised primarily of silt-sized quartz, K-feldspar, and minor amounts of other detrital minerals in a continuous matrix of illite/smectite (I/S). Delamination of phyllosilicates due to dehydroxylation occurs early in the sequence with curling of individual layers from rim to core. Within one-half meter of melted areas, phyllosilicates have undergone an essentially isochemical reconstitution with nucleation and growth of mullite crystals with maximum diameters of 50 nm, randomly distributed within a non-crystalline phase that replaces I/S. Large detrital grains remain for the most part unaffected except for the inversion of quartz to tridymite/cristobalite. Within 1 mm of the solid/melt interface, the mullitebearing clay mineral matrix is essentially homogeneous in composition with obscure grain boundaries, caused by apparent homogenization of poorly crystalline material. This material is similar in composition to parent clays and acts as a matrix to angular, remnant tridymite/cristobalite grains. Rounded, smaller silica grains have reaction rims with the non-crystalline matrix; K-feldspar is no longer present (apparently reacted with the matrix) and the matrix contains abundant pore space due to shrinkage upon dehydroxylation. As isolated pods of paralava (glass) or fractures are approached, Fe–Ti–Al oxides become abundant. Vesicular glass is separated from clinker by a well-defined interface and contains numerous phenocrysts. XRF analyses and reduced area rastering using EDS imply enrichment of the melt phase in Fe, Ca, Mg and Mn, apparently due to vapor transport from other layers lower in the sedimentary sequence.Contribution No. 490, the Mineralogical Laboratory, Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Michigan