The role of climate and vegetation in weathering and clay mineral formation in late Quaternary soils of the Swiss and Italian Alps

Interactions between climate and soil remain ambiguous, particularly when silicate weathering and clay mineral formation and transformation rates are considered in relation to global climate changes. Recent studies suggest that climate affects weathering rates much less than previously thought. Here we show that the climate in the central European Alps has a significant, but indirect, influence on the weathering of soils through vegetation. The pattern of element leaching and mineral transformations is not only due to precipitation and temperature. Element leaching was greatest in subalpine forests near the timberline; weathering is lessened at higher and lower altitudes. Vegetation, therefore, contributes significantly to weathering processes. The highest accumulation of organic matter was found in climatically cooler sites (subalpine range) where the production of organic ligands, which enhance weathering, is greatest. Patterns of smectite formation and distribution had strong similarities to that of the elemental losses of Fe and Al (R = 0.69; P < 0.01) or base cations (R = 0.58; P < 0.05). Higher precipitation rates and the production of organic chelating compounds in the soil promoted the appearance of smectites. The relationship between climate, element leaching (Fe, Al, Ca, Mg, K, Na), and smectite formation is strongly nonlinear and driven by the podzolisation process, which is more pronounced near the timberline because of the bioclimatic constellation. Climate warming will probably, in the future, lead to a decrease in SOM stocks in the subalpine to alpine range because of more favourable conditions for biodegradation that would also affect weathering processes.     

A restored section of the “southern Variscan realm” across the Corsica–Sardinia microcontinent

A complete section of the southern realm of the Variscan orogenic belt can be restored in the Corsica–Sardinia segment. Northern Corsica exposes a nonmetamorphosed Palaeozoic succession lying on Panafrican mica schist related to a microcontinent (most likely Armorica or from a microcontinent from the Hun superterrane) that had drifted away directly from Gondwana. These formations are thrust over the Variscan Internal Zone composed mainly of anatectic high-grade Palaeozoic formations that crop out from central Corsica to northern Sardinia; the metamorphic peak of the eclogite remnants has been dated at c. 420 Ma. The Variscan Internal Zone interpreted here as a collision zone, and also the Eovariscan suture, was intruded in Corsica by Mg–K granite from 345 to 335 Ma. The thrust of this Internal Zone onto the stack of parautochthonous nappes in central Sardinia is cross-cut by the Posada Asinara dextral shear zone. To the south, parautochthonous nappes overthrust the North-Gondwana margin which displays a possible Panafrican basement topped by an Iglesiente–Sulcis nonmetamorphic/anchimetamorphic Palaeozoic succession.     

Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy applications to meteorites: Chemical analysis and composition profiles

A fast procedure for chemical analysis of different meteorites is presented, based on LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy). The technique is applied to several test cases (Dhofar 019, Dhofar 461, Sahara 98222, Toluca, Sikhote Alin and Campo del Cielo) and can be useful for rapid meteorite identification providing geologists with specific chemical information for meteorite classification. Concentration profiles of Fe, Ni and Co are simultaneously detected across the Widmanstätten structure of the iron meteorite Toluca with a view to determining cooling rates. The LIBS analysis of meteorites is also used as a laboratory test for analogous studies on the respective parent bodies (Mars, asteroids) in space exploration missions where one clear advantage of the proposed technique is that no direct contact with the sample is required.     

Multi-methodological investigation of kunzite, hiddenite, alexandrite, elbaite and topaz, based on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and conventional analytical techniques for supporting mineralogical characterization

Gem-quality alexandrite, hiddenite and kunzite, elbaite and topaz minerals were characterized through a multi-methodological investigation based on EMPA-WDS, LA-ICP-MS, and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). With respect to the others, the latter technique enables a simultaneous multi-elemental composition without any sample preparation and the detection of light elements, such as Li, Be and B. The criteria for the choice of minerals were: (a) the presence of chromophore elements in minor contents and/or as traces; (b) the presence of light lithophile elements (Li, Be and B); (c) different crystal chemistry complexity. The results show that LIBS can be employed in mineralogical studies for the identification and characterization of minerals, and as a fast screening method to determine the chemical composition, including the chromophore and light lithophile elements.     

Late orogenic collapse and thermal doming in the northern Gondwana margin incorporated in the Variscan Chain: A case study from the Ozieri Metamorphic Complex, northern Sardinia, Italy

A branch of the South European Variscan chain is noticeably exposed in Sardinia. The early stage of collision between the Northern Gondwana margin and the Armorica Terrane Assemblage (ATA) generated syn-metamorphic folding and thrusting. The evidences of such deformation are well preserved in the nappe zone, a structural domain characterized by stacking of different tectonic units under metamorphism of Barrovian greenschist facies. A late, post-nappe, shortening, under retrograde metamorphic conditions, gave rise to wide, upright, N120–N160 trending antiforms that control the trend of the chain. The structural analysis of the Ozieri Metamorphic Complex (OMC) shows evidence of an important phase of late-Variscan extensional tectonics. Deformation results in, the formation of oppositely dipping, normal shear zones, which developed at upper and middle structural level along the limbs of major regional antiforms causing fabric reactivation, crustal thinning, and exhumation of the OMC core. Within the OMC, the activity of the shear zones was coeval with HT-LP metamorphism as suggests the occurrence of syn-kinematic cordierite + andalusite ± sillimanite + biotite. Whereas syntectonic dykes and a tonalite body in the deeper part of the OMC indicate that early emplacement of melt along shear zones and/or in the antiform hinges possibly supplied the heat for the anomalous thermal gradient and triggered the exhumation of a core complex-like structure.     

Exact density–potential pairs from the holomorphic Coulomb field

We show how the complex-shift method developed by Appell to study the gravitational field of a point mass (and used in electrodynamics by, among others, Newman, Carter, Lynden-Bell, and Kaiser to determine some remarkable properties of the electromagnetic field of rotating charged configurations) can be extended to obtain new and explicit density–potential pairs for self-gravitating systems departing significantly from spherical symmetry. The rotational properties of two axisymmetric baroclinic gaseous configurations derived with the proposed method are illustrated.     

A note on the tidally induced potential of a satellite in eccentric orbit

A planetary body moving on an eccentric orbit around the primary is subject to a periodic perturbing potential, affecting its internal mass distribution. In a previous paper (Rappaport et al., 1997, Icarus 126, 313), we have calculated the periodic modulation of the gravity coefficients of degree 2, for a body on a synchronous orbit. Here, the previous analysis is extended by considering also non-synchronous orbits, and by properly accounting for the apparent motion of the primary due to the non uniform motion along the elliptical orbit. The cases of Titan and Mercury are briefly discussed.     

Modelling the lithospheric rheology control on the Cretaceous rifting in West Antarctica

Small‐scale analogue models were used to investigate the process of Cretaceous orthogonal extension in the West Antarctic Rift System. The models considered the transition from the East Antarctic Craton to a weaker lithosphere, and the results support previous hypotheses about the strong control exerted by lateral variations in lithospheric structures on the process of extension. Strain was mostly accommodated at the boundary between the two types of lithosphere, with a relative uplift of the cratonic block which remained essentially undeformed. Conversely, the weaker lithosphere showed wide‐rifting style geometry, locally associated with core complex‐like structures. In agreement with the natural prototype, this tectonic scenario led to a long‐lasting extension without continental break‐up, and to the absence of relevant surface magmatism.     

Occurrence of palygorskite and sepiolite in upper Paleocene–middle Eocene marine deep sediments of the Lagonegro Basin (Southern Apennines—Italy): Paleoenvironmental and provenance inferences

A mineralogical and geochemical study of clay lithologies and a biostratigraphic analysis of the carbonates from the deep-sea Lagonegro Basin (Southern Apennines—Italy) have been carried out to deduce in general the provenance of clay sediments and their paleoenvironmental conditions and particular to recognize the signature of the Paleocene–Eocene climatic global warming. The analysed succession comprising a wide stratigraphic interval of the Sannio Unit, spanning between Albian to the upper Oligocene–lower Miocene, is exposed near Accettura and Stigliano villages. Eighteen clay samples were analysed by XRD, XRF, SEM, TG-DTA. Their age was framed by biostratigraphic analyses carried out on carbonate sediments. Mineral assemblage of the clay sediments includes quartz, carbonates (calcite and dolomite), feldspars (plagioclase and k-feldspars), hematite, randomly illite/smectite mixed layers with a low illite percentage, kaolinite, discrete illite–muscovite, chlorite, palygorskite and sepiolite. The low illite percentage in randomly illite/smectite mixed layers indicates low diagenetic conditions for the studied successions. These features are unique for the Cretaceous–Tertiary successions of the Lagonegro domain and are particularly significant for the preservation of the native mineralogical assemblage useful to determine the provenance and paleoenvironmental conditions of the clayey sediments. Palygorskite and sepiolite are concentrated in the upper Paleocene–middle Eocene stratigraphic interval and particularly in the upper part of the early Eocene—lower part of the middle Eocene (biozone of Blow P 9–12). Clay sediments rich in palygorskite and sepiolite show a higher P₂O₅ amount and a lower kaolinite percentage, compatible with warm and arid climatic conditions typical of the global warming event well recorded in the southern tethyan margin. Likely palygorskite and sepiolite formed in lagoonal environment in nearby carbonate platform margins and then they were transported into the Lagonegro Basin as indicated by the well developed habitus of palygorskite. During the Paleogene the Lagonegro Basin and the nearby carbonate platforms represented a key sector the southern paleodomains of the Tethys. The discovery of these minerals gives a contribution to the reconstruction paleoenvironmental conditions of the Tethian paleo-margin during the early–middle Eocene.