Microstructure,metamorphism, thermochronology and P-T-t-deformation history of the Port aux Basques gneisses,south-west Newfoundland,Canada*

Abstract The Port aux Basques gneisses comprise three lithostratigraphic units separated by major fault zones: the Grand Bay Complex; the Port aux Basques Complex; and the Harbor le Cou Group. A similar regionally developed polyphase history of penetrative deformation characterizes each of these units. Thickening during D1 produced rare recumbent folds (F1) and an axial planar schistosity (S1), overprinted by D2 recumbent folds (F2), and transposed during development of a locally penetrative, differentiated crenulation cleavage (S2). In western sectors of the area, D2 was associated with NW-directed reverse shearing. The NE-trending structural grain reflects D3 transpression, partitioned into dextral transcurrent movement along major shear zones and development of upright-to-steeply inclined, periclinal folds (F3) and a variably penetrative schistosity (S3). Amphibolite facies metamorphism increases in grade from west to east across the area. Microstructures, including porphyroblast-matrix foliation relations and internal textural unconformities in garnet, indicate episodic porphyroblast nucleation and growth, which reflect a prograde traverse sequentially across univariant reactions during syntectonic metamorphism. Garnet, kyanite and staurolite porphyroblasts are wrapped by the S2 foliation, but each may contain trails of inclusions that define S1; commonly these trails preserve early stages of S2 crenulation cleavage development. Progressive and sequential reaction out of kyanite, staurolite and muscovite in favour of sillimanite, garnet, biotite and K-feldspar, and the development of an increasing volume of anatectic migmatite in south-eastern sectors of the area record syn- to late-D2 peak metamorphic conditions. Microstructural relationships and petrogenetic grid considerations indicate clockwise trajectories in P-T space for units of the Port aux Basques gneisses. Peak metamorphic conditions are estimated to have been 620–650° C at ≤8kbar in the west and 700–750° C at ≤8 kbar in the east. Titanite from an upper amphibolite facies calc-silicate gneiss yields U-Pb ages of c. 420 Ma, interpreted to date cooling shortly after the thermal peak in these gneisses. Variable D3 strain was associated with some recrystallization of hornblende and micas. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar hornblende plateau isotope correlation ages range from c. 419 to c. 393 Ma, from east to west across the area, and are interpreted to record cooling through c. 500° C coeval with or soon after D3 deformation. The range in ages may record the effects of heterogeneous D3 deformation and differential uplift from south-east to north-west associated with displacement on major shear zones. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar muscovite plateau ages cluster at c. 390 Ma, and date cooling through c. 375° C during regional exhumation. Cooling rates are moderate to fast and may indicate a component of tectonic exhumation. The Port aux Basques gneisses are a product of Silurian collisional tectonics. The higher grade of metamorphism in comparison with adjacent areas of the Canadian Appalachians is interpreted to reflect greater thickening due to juxtaposition of the St Lawrence promontory (Laurentian margin) with the Cabot promontory (Avalonian margin) during closure of the Iapetus Ocean.     

Lewis Cliff 86360: An Antarctic L-chondrite with a terrestrial age of 2.35 million years

Abstract— We measured the concentrations of the cosmogenic radionuclides ¹⁰Be (half-life = 1.51 × 10⁶ a), ²⁶Al (7.05 × 10⁵ a) and ³⁶Cl (3.01 × 10⁵ a) in Lewis Cliff (LEW) 86360, an L-chondrite from the Lewis Cliff stranding area, East Antarctica. In addition, the concentrations and isotopic compositions of He, Ne and Ar were measured. The combined results yield a terrestrial age of 2.35 ± 0.15 Ma. Only one other stony meteorite with a similar terrestrial age (～2 Ma) is known from the Allan Hills stranding area (ALH 88019), whereas all previously dated stony meteorites from Antarctica are younger than 1 Ma. We argue that LEW 86360 spent most of its terrestrial residence time deep inside the ice, near the base of the glacier, where ice flow rates are much lower than at the surface. The terrestrial ages of LEW 86360 and ALH 88019 are consistent with existing hypotheses concerning the stability and persistence of the East Antarctic ice sheet.     

MIGRATION IN THE PRESENCE OF NOISE*

It is shown that the so-called Kirchhoff-summation operator is of a very wide-band nature and even contains an evanescent part. As a consequence, discretization may cause serious aliasing errors, particularly for small extrapolation steps. It is proposed to use in all practical cases band-limited versions of the summation operator, the spatial cut-off frequency being determined by the spatial Fourier spectrum of the coherent noise.     

A Silurian–Devonian acritarch flora from Saalian till in The Netherlands

Micropaleontological analysis of a silt intraclast in till exposed near Steenwijk in the northern Netherlands revealed an acritarch flora of Late Silurian–Early Devonian age, of southeastern Baltic Basin origin. The age of this assemblage contrasts with what is known about the palynomorph content of Dutch tills. Petrologic analysis of the silt intraclast provides further insight in the direction and mode of Saalian glacier transport.     

Low temperature tolerance and osmotic regulation in the amphipod Gammarus oceanicus from Spitsbergen waters

The amphipod Gammarus oceanicus can survive being frozen into solid sea ice at a temperature of –6 to 7C- The animals appear to be supercooled at this temperature. No thermal hysteresis agents were present the haemolymph, and the prevention of internal freezing in the animals thus requires a body surface with a low Permeability to water and ice. Gammarus oceanicus is a euryhaline species. Below 700 mOsm seawater, it displays a very efficient osmoregulation, whereas it is an osmoconformer at seawater osmolalities above this value. At +5°C the amphipods die whenever their body fluid osmolality exceeds about 1000 mOsm. When the animals are trapped in freezing seawater, the osmolality of the brine may exceed this value considerably. The tolerance of the animals to hyperosmotic stress thus seems to be higher at subzero temperatures than at +5°C.     

Ice algae in the Barents Sea: types of assemblages, origin, fate and role in the ice-edge phytoplankton bloom

Ice algal accumulations were recognised by their vertical distribution in the ice, as surface, interior and bottom assemblages. The latter were quantitatively the most important in the Barents Sea and in particular the sub-ice assemblage floating towards, or attached to, the undcr-surface of the sea ice. Colonisation of the ice takes place by a "sieving" of the water between closely spaced platelets on the ice under-surface. Once associated with the ice, the assemblage undergoes a succession terminated by the dominance of ice specialists. In a horizontal S-N section through the ice, three distinct zones may be recognised: at the ice edge the recently colonised ice has a layer of algae up to a few millimeters in thickness consisting primarily of planktonic species. Further into older first year ice the algal layer becomes thicker and is typically dominated by the pennate diatom Nilzschia frigida Grunow. Below multi-year ice in the central polar basin decimetre-thick mats of algae are found, consisting almost exclusively of the centric diatom Melosira arclica (Ehrenberg) Dickie and a few associated, mostly epiphytic, species. The predominantly planktonic sub-ice assemblages at the ice edge can grow under stable conditions as soon as the light becomes adequate in the spring, and they are able to multiply actively for one to two months before planktonic growth is possible. The sub-ice plankton assemblage thus forms an inoculum released to the stabilising water when the ice starts melting. This may explain how a phytoplankton bloom can develop explosively at the ice edge as soon as the ice melting commences, at a time when the number of algal cells in the water column is still very low.     

Plagioclase porphyroblast growth and its relation to deformation in the Alhamilla unit (Sierra Alhamilla, Betic Cordilleras, SE Spain)

Abstract. Plagioclase porphyroblasts from silvergrey schists belonging to the Nevado Filabride Complex in the Sierra Alhamilla (Betic Zone, SE Spain) are interpreted as having been formed preand synkinematically with respect to the second phase of deformation. Different types of inclusion patterns represent 'snap-shots'(high growth-rate/strain-rate ratio features) of the formation of a diffentiated crenulation cleavage during this second phase of deformation, by the processes of kinking, crenulation and associated differentiation.
Regional considerations indicate an Alpine age for this tectono-metamorphic event, which can be explained by the'hot emplacement'of the higher Nevado Filabride units. The observed structural evolution is not consistent with a pre-Alpine polyphase deformation history.