The Antarctic achondrite ALHA 76005: a polymict eucrite

ALHA 76005 is a basaltic achondrite containing few. if any, orthopyroxenes. Its bulk major and trace element composition is like that of a non-cumulate eucrite, and unlike that of a howardite. It contains a variety of igneous clasts which differ in their textures, pyroxene/plagioclase ratios and pyroxene and plagioclase compositions. One clast, No. 4, was found to have the REE pattern of a cumulate eucrite and an oxygen isotopic composition different from that of the bulk meteorite. Both the chemical and oxygen isotopic composition of clast No. 4 suggest that it was derived from a source different from its host. These observations lead to the conclusion that ALHA 76005 is a polymict eucrite.     

Elemental,infra-red spectrophotometric and electron spin resonance investigations of non-chemically isolated humic material

Naturally occurring organic material from a lake in the southeastern United States was isolated by ultrafiltration and analyzed by i.r. spectrophotometry and electron spin resonance spectrometry, and for its elemental composition without chemical pretreatment. The results of the study indicate the isolate is an apparent high molecular weight fulvic acid with associated, hydrated Mn²⁺ ion which does not appear strongly bound to the organic moiety.     

The contemporary distribution of pollen in eastern North America: A comparison with the vegetation

By mapping and summarizing 478 pollen counts from surface samples at 406 locations in eastern North America, this study documents the relationships between the distributions of pollen and vegetation on a continental scale. The most common pollen types in this region are pine, birch, oak, and spruce. Maps showing isopercentage contours or isopolls for 13 important pollen types reflect the general N-S zonation of the vegetation. The maps and tabulations of average pollen spectra for the six major vegetational regions indicate high values for the following pollen types in each region: (1) tundra-nonarboreal birch, sedge, and alder; (2) forest/tundra-spruce, nonarboreal birch and alder; (3) boreal forest-spruce, jack pine (type), and arboreal birch with fir in the southeastern part; (4) conifer/hardwood forest-white pine, arboreal birch, and hemlock with beech, maple, and oak in the southern part; (5) deciduous forest-oak, pine, hickory, and elm, with beech and maple in the northern part, and highest values of oak and hickory west of the Appalachian crest; and (6) southeastern forest-pine, oak, hickory, tupelo, and Myricaceae. In some cases, less abundant pollen types are diagnostic for the region, e.g., bald cypress in the southeast. In the conifer-hardwood region and southward, pollen of weeds associated with deforestation and agriculture is abundant. The maps also show that much of southeastern U.S. and the area just to the east of Hudson Bay are in need of additional sampling. At 51 of the sites, absolute pollen frequencies (APF; grains/ml lake sediment) were obtained. These confirm the major conclusions from the percentage data, but differences are evident, e.g., the percentages of alder pollen peak in the tundra whereas alder APFs peak in the boreal forest, and spruce percentages peak in the forest-tundra whereas spruce APFs peak in the boreal forest. Because the APF data reflect the patterns of absolute abundance of individual taxa in the vegetation as well as the overall forest densities, future counts of modern pollen should include APF determinations. The effects of sedimentation processes on APF quantities indicate that APF samples should be obtained from moderate size lakes of similar morphology and hydrology and that, in each lake, several samples from the profundal zone should be pooled to create a sample representative of that lake.     

The piezomagnetic computation of magnetic anomalies due to ground loading by a man-made lake

Summary A method has been developed to determine the stress distribution and resultant piezomagnetic surface anomaly field due to the load imposed on the earth's crust from filling man-made lakes of variable depths and arbitrary geometries but uniform elastic properties. The dam-magnetic effect observed byDavis andStacey [1] on Talbingo reservoir in the Snowy Mountains of SE Australia is adequately explained in terms of the piezomagnetic effect if more highly magnetic rock than that measured on the surface is present at depth.     

Zur Geologie und Petrologie der Inseln Nisyros und Jali (Dodekanes)

Nisyros as well as the islet of Yiali are found in the crossing of two fault lines, that of Episcopi — Patmos and the one of southern Aegean (Soussaki-Gulf of Saronic — Milos — Santorini — Dodecanese) it consists almost exclusively of volcanic rocks, that is lavas and tuff and very limited appearence of Holocene formations. The presence of two volcanic effusions is certified, everyone of which began from basic magma, poor in SiO₂ (olivinic pyroxenic andesites), and gave as final products acidic petrological types (liparites and volcanic glasses). The basic magmas of the first volcanic periods are found only in few places and in very limited areas of appearence. After the ascension of volcanic fragmental products the cycle of the first volcanic period closed with the creation of very thick beds of pumice. The second volcanic period gave more petrological types with transitive forms. After the creation of olivinic — pyroxenic andesites followed the exit of trachyandesites, trachytic and dacitic lavas with final creation of rhyolite and of volcanic glasses. The extension of the mentioned rocks is noted in detail on the geological map. The classification of the exact geological age is difficult because there is no place where they come in contact with sediments. In general the researches think that the volcanity in the region of Dodecanese began during the middle or the end of the Miocene with successive explosions up to the young geological ages. Only on the islet Yiali which consists exclusively of acid lavas (pumice stones, rhyolite, perlite) fossiliferous layers of marly limestone, sandstone and konglomerate are found, as much at the sea level as in the top of the layers of pumice stone, of tyrrhenian age. The discovery of tools of obsidian in the layers of pumice stone is perhaps a sign that these explosions continued up to the Holocene period. Among the post volcanic phenomena are classified emanations, sulfur-genetic activity with the creation of sulfur deposits of the island and the presence of the thermal healing springs in many parts. Petrochemically the lavas of the island Nisyros and Yiali belong to calcium alkaline magmas.     

Petrology and U–Pb geochronology of lower crustal xenoliths and the development of a craton, Slave Province, Canada

Lower crustal xenoliths recovered from Eocene to Cambrian kimberlites in the central and southern Slave craton are dominated by mafic granulites (garnet, clinopyroxene, plagioclase±orthopyroxene), with subordinate metatonalite and peraluminous felsic granulites. Geothermobarometry indicates metamorphic conditions of 650–800 °C at pressures of 0.9–1.1 GPa. The metamorphic conditions are consistent with temperatures expected for the lower crust of high-temperature low-pressure (HT-LP) metamorphic belts characteristic of Neoarchean metamorphism in the Slave craton. U–Pb geochronology of zircon, rutile and titanite demonstrate a complex history in the lower crust. Mesoarchean protoliths occur beneath the central Slave supporting models of an east-dipping boundary between Mesoarchean crust in the western and Neoarchean crust in the eastern Slave. At least, two episodes of igneous and metamorphic zircon growth occurred in the interval 2.64–2.58 Ga that correlate with the age of plutonism and metamorphism in the upper crust, indicating magmatic addition to the lower crust and metamorphic reworking during this period. In addition, discrete periods of younger zircon growth at ca. 2.56–2.55 and 2.51 Ga occurred 20–70 my after the cessation of ca. 2.60–2.58 Ga regional HT-LP metamorphism and granitic magmatism in the upper crust. This pattern of younger metamorphic events in the deep crust is characteristic of the Slave as well as other Archean cratons (e.g., Superior). The high temperature of the lower crust immediately following amalgamation of the craton, coupled with evidence for continued metamorphic zircon growth for >70 my after ‘stabilization’ of the upper crust, is difficult to reconcile with a thick (200 km), cool lithospheric mantle root beneath the craton prior to this event. We suggest that thick tectosphere developed synchronously or after these events, most likely by imbrication of mantle beneath the craton at or after ca. 2.6 Ga. The minimum age for establishing a cratonic like geotherm is given by lower crustal rutile ages of ca. 1.8 Ga in the southern Slave. Transient heating and possible magmatic additions to the lower crust continued through the Proterozoic, with possible additional growth of the tectosphere.     

Thermal radiative fluxes through inhomogeneous cloud fields: a sensitivity study using a new stochastic cloud generator

We analyze the effects of flat and bumpy top, fractional and internally inhomogeneous cloud layers on large area-averaged thermal radiative fluxes. Inhomogeneous clouds are generated by a new stochastic model: the tree-driven mass accumulation process (tdMAP). This model is able to provide stratocumulus and cumulus cloud fields with properties close to those observed in real clouds. A sensitivity study of cloud parameters is done by analyzing differences between 3D fluxes simulated by the spherical harmonic discrete ordinate method and three “standard” models likely to be used in general circulation models: plane-parallel homogeneous cloud model (PPH), PPH with fractional cloud coverage model (FCPPH) and independent pixel approximation model (IPA). We show that thermal fluxes are strong functions of fractional cloud coverage, mean optical depth, mean geometrical thickness and cloud base altitude. Fluctuations of “in-cloud” horizontal variability in optical depth and cloud-top bumps have negligible effects in the whole. We also showed that PPH, FCPPH and IPA models are not suitable to compute thermal fluxes of flat top fractional inhomogeneous cloud layer, except for completely overcast cloud. This implies that horizontal transport of photon at thermal wavelengths is important when cloudy cells are separated by optically thin regions.     

Indigenous knowledge and the desertification debate: problematising expert knowledge in North Africa

In Morocco the crisis narrative of desertification has been invoked for decades to facilitate and justify policy and legal changes that have systematically disadvantaged pastoralists and damaged the environment. The existing data from southern Morocco, however, do not support the claims of widespread desertification due to overgrazing or other pastoral activities. Furthermore, many anti-desertification and range improvement projects in southern Morocco have not succeeded. In an effort to rethink desertification and range ecology in Morocco, this paper presents an overview of the indigenous knowledge of range ecology among the Aarib, a group of camel pastoralists in southern Morocco, and compares it to the “expert” knowledge of Moroccan range managers. It suggests that this expert knowledge is based on questionable evidence and that it has been privileged over local knowledge primarily for political, economic and administrative reasons. The discrepancies between expert and indigenous knowledges of range ecology presented here underscore the need to reconsider range ecology in Morocco, taking indigenous ecological knowledge into account. Doing so may point the way to more successful development and conservation projects which are more environmentally appropriate and socially just. Not doing so will likely exacerbate environmental degradation in the region.     

The Liaonan metamorphic core complex, Southeastern Liaoning Province, North China: A likely contributor to Cretaceous rotation of Eastern Liaoning, Korea and contiguous areas

The Mesozoic Liaonan metamorphic core complex (mcc) of the southeastern Liaoning province, North China, is an asymmetric Cordilleran-style complex with a west-rooting master detachment fault, the Jinzhou fault. A thick sequence of lower plate, fault-related mylonitic and gneissic rocks derived from Archean and Early Cretaceous crystalline protoliths has been transported ESE-ward from mid-crustal depths. U–Pb ages of lower plate syntectonic plutons (ca. 130–120 Ma), ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar cooling ages in the mylonitic and gneissic sequence (ca. 120–110 Ma), and a Cretaceous supradetachment basin attest to the Early Cretaceous age of this extensional complex. The recent discovery of the coeval and similarly west-rooting Waziyu mcc in western Liaoning [Darby, B.J., Davis, G.A., Zhang, X., Wu, F., Wilde, S., Yang, J., 2004. The newly discovered Waziyu metamorphic core complex, Yiwulushan, western Liaoning Province, North China. Earth Science Frontiers 11, 145–155] indicates that the Gulf of Liaoning, which lies between the two complexes, was the center of a region of major crustal extension.Clockwise crustal rotation of a large region including eastern Liaoning province and the Korean Peninsula with respect to a non-rotated North China block has been conclusively documented by paleomagnetic studies over the past decade. The timing of this rotation and the reasons for it are controversial. Lin et al. [Lin, W., Chen, Y., Faure, M., Wang, Q., 2003. Tectonic implication of new Late Cretaceous paleomagnetic constraints from Eastern Liaoning Peninsula, NE China. Journal of Geophysical Research 108 (B-6) (EPM 5-1 to 5-17)] proposed that a clockwise rotation of 22.5° ± 10.2° was largely post-Early Cretaceous in age, and was the consequence of extension within a crustal domain that tapers southwards towards the Bohai Sea (of which the Gulf of Liaoning is the northernmost part). Paleomagnetic studies of Early Cretaceous strata (ca 134–120 Ma) in the Yixian–Fuxin supradetachment basin of the Waziyu mcc indicate the non-rotation of North China and the basin [Zhu, R.X., Shao, J.A., Pan, Y.X., Shi, R.P., Shi, G.H., Li, D.M., 2002. Paleomagnetic data from Early Cretaceous volcanic rocks of West Liaoning: evidence for intracontinental rotation. Chinese Science Bulletin 47, 1832–1837]. Such upper-plate non-rotation supports our conclusion that the lower plates of the Waziyu and Liaonan metamorphic core complexes were displaced ESE-ward in an absolute sense away from the stable North China block, thus contributing to the rotation of Korea and contiguous areas. Rotation is inferred to have affected only the upper crust above mid-crustal levels into which we believe the Jinzhou and Waziyu detachment fault zones flattened. If this is the case, the regional Tan Lu fault that lies between the two core complexes was truncated at mid-crustal depth, since in areas to the south it forms the boundary between the North and South China lithospheric blocks. It is noteworthy that the two extensional complexes lie not far north of the Bohai Bay, the area proposed by Lin et al. [Lin, W., Chen, Y., Faure, M., Wang, Q., 2003. Tectonic implication of new Late Cretaceous paleomagnetic constraints from Eastern Liaoning Peninsula, NE China. Journal of Geophysical Research 108 (B-6) (EPM 5-1 to 5-17)] as the site of the pole of rotation for Korea's clockwise displacement.Lin et al. [Lin, W., Chen, Y., Faure, M., Wang, Q., 2003. Tectonic implication of new Late Cretaceous paleomagnetic constraints from Eastern Liaoning Peninsula, NE China. Journal of Geophysical Research 108 (B-6) (EPM 5-1 to 5-17)] were unaware of the Liaonan and Waziyu mcc's and argued that most of the regional block rotation was post-Early Cretaceous and, in part, early Cenozoic. However, the ca. 130–120 Ma ages of the two Liaoning mcc's and a Songliao basin mcc (Xujiaweizi), the latter discovered only by recent drilling through its younger stratigraphic cover, support our and some Korean coworkers' conclusions that most of the clockwise rotation was Early Cretaceous.