Geochemical stratigraphy of the lavas of the Solund-Stavfjord Ophiolite Complex,W. Norway,and magma-chamber dynamics

Bulletin of Volcanology - The stratigraphy and geochemistry of the uppermost 200–300&;nbsp;m of the metabasalt sequence of the Solund-Stavfjord Ophiolite Complex of western Norway has been...     

pH changes in peralkaline late-magmatic fluids

The 1.15-Ga-old Ilimaussaq intrusive complex in South Greenland shows an extensive fractionation trend from alkaline augite syenite to various varieties of strongly peralkaline, agpaitic nepheline syenites. The peralkaline nepheline-bearing syenites crystallized between ca. 900 and 450 °C at 1 kbar and they are cut by late-magmatic hydrothermal veins with nepheline-absent assemblages of albite + aegirine + analcime - sodalite - Na-Be-silicates (tugtupite, chkalovite, sørensenite) - ussingite (NaAlSi₃O₈*NaOH). Based on fluid inclusions and phase equilibria, these veins crystallized between 300 and 500 °C at 1 kbar. Textures indicate that the hydrothermal veins at least partly replaced earlier Ilimaussaq rocks. The occurrence of ussingite and tugtupite suggests that the late-magmatic fluids had strongly basic pH values. Speciation calculations show that the pH in fluids of the system Na-Al-Si-O-H-Cl mainly depends on the Na/Cl ratio and, to a lesser degree, on salinity and temperature. If the Na/Cl ratio is greater than 1, pH (at 400 °C and 1 kbar, where neutrality is about at pH 5) lies between 7 and 12. Because Na/Cl tends to decrease in the final stages of magmatism and during crystallization of the vein assemblage, pH of late-magmatic fluids generally should become more acidic, and only two processes can increase Na/Cl and, thus, pH: dissolution of a Cl-poor or Cl-free Na silicate or unmixing of an HCl-enriched vapour phase. Field observations and microtextures suggest that replacement reactions are responsible for the change to basic pH at least in some alteration assemblages. While replacement of 1 mol nepheline by 1 mol analcime would not alter the pH, the volume-conserving reaction 1.85  Ne + 2.3  H₂ O + 0.19  H₄ SiO₄ = 1.02  Anl + 0.83   Na⁺ + 0.83  Al(OH)₄^-1.85\;{\rm Ne} + 2.3\;{\rm H}_{\rm 2} {\rm O} + 0.19\;{\rm H}_{\rm 4} {\rm SiO}_4 = 1.02\;{\rm Anl} + 0.83\,\;{\rm Na}^ + + 0.83\;{\rm Al(OH)}_4^ - can be used to model the replacement process quantitatively, provided it occurred in a more or less closed system. Progress of this reaction leads to successively increasing pH of the fluid during fluid-rock interaction and stabilizes minerals such as ussingite and tugtupite. Transferring the two processes to a larger scale, it is proposed that the extreme 'hyper-agpaitic' assemblages at Ilimaussaq or at the Kola peninsula, which include copious amounts of very basic, water-soluble minerals such as trona, villiaumite or thermonatrite, are formed either in this way by autometasomatic reactions of late-magmatic fluids or melts (or supercritical fluid-melt-mixtures) with earlier crystallized rocks of the same plutonic complex or by large-scale vapour unmixing in the very final stages of magmatism.     

Solubility of the assemblage albite+K-feldspar+andalusite+quartz in supercritical aqueous chloride solutions at 650 °C and 2 kbar

The solubility of the high grade pelite assemblage albite+K-feldspar+andalusite+quartz at 650 °C and 2 kbar was determined in aqueous solutions over a total chloride range of 0.01–3 m_Cl^tot using rapid-quench hydrothermal technique. The concentration of Na, K, Si, and Al was determined in the fluid phase after quench. The K/Na ratio was determined by approaching the equilibrium from below and above. It is 0.34 at low chloride concentrations and decreases slightly to 0.31 with increasing total chloride. Silica and aluminum concentrations were determined only from undersaturation. The silica solubility is found to be independent of chloride concentration and is 0.13 molal. Aluminum is nearly independent of chloride concentration decreasing only slightly from 0.0015 to 0.0007 molal. Comparison of the experimental data with thermodynamic model calculations demonstrates that the silica concentrations are well predicted, while significant differences exist between individual databases for Al speciation and its total concentration. Al concentrations are underestimated by up to 10 to 15 orders of magnitude using the SUPCRT92 database. Predicted K/Na ratios are underestimated by up to 30%. The best predictions achieved for this simplified high-grade pelite assemblage are those using the SUPCRT92 database with revised thermodynamic data for feldspars and K- and Na-species (J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data 24 (1995) 1401) and additional Al-species (Am. J. Sci. 295 (1995) 1255; Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 61 (1997) 2175). The use of ideal mixing for neutral complexes in combination with the extended Debye–Hückel activity model for the charged species yields the most compatible speciation model.     

Rayleigh wave tomography in the North Atlantic: high resolution images of the Iceland, Azores and Eifel mantle plumes

Presented in this paper is a high resolution S_v-wave velocity and azimuthal anisotropy model for the upper mantle beneath the North Atlantic and surrounding region derived from the analysis of about 9000 fundamental and higher-mode Rayleigh waveforms. Much of the dataset comes from global and national digital seismic networks, but to improve the path coverage a number of instruments at coastal sites in northwest Europe, Iceland and eastern Greenland was deployed by us and a number of collaborators. The dense path coverage, the wide azimuthal distribution and the substantial higher-mode content of the dataset, as well as the relatively short path-lengths in the dataset have enabled us to build an upper mantle model with a horizontal resolution of a few hundred kilometers extending to 400 km depth. Low upper mantle velocities exist beneath three major hotspots: Iceland, the Azores and Eifel. The best depth resolution in the model occurs in NW Europe and in this area low S_v-velocities in the vicinity of the Eifel hotspot extend to about 400 km depth. Major negative velocity anomalies exist in the North Atlantic upper mantle beneath both Iceland and the Azores hotspots. Both anomalies are, above 200 km depth, 4–7% slow with respect to PREM and elongated along the mid-Atlantic Ridge. Low velocities extend to the south of Iceland beneath the Reykjanes Ridge where other geophysical and geochemical observations indicate the presence of hot plume material. The low velocities also extend beneath the Kolbeinsey Ridge north of Iceland, where there is also supporting geochemical evidence for the presence of hot plume material. The low-velocity upper mantle beneath the Kolbeinsey Ridge may also be associated with a plume beneath Jan Mayen. The anomaly associated with the Azores extends from about 25°N to 45°N along the ridge axis, which is in agreement with the area influenced by the Azores Plume, predicted from geophysical and geochemical observations. Compared to the anomaly associated with Iceland, the Azores anomaly is elongated further along the ridge, is shallower and decays more rapidly with depth. The fast propagation direction of horizontally propagating S_v-waves in the Atlantic south of Iceland correlates well with the east–west ridge-spreading direction at all depths and changes to a direction close to NS in the vicinity of Iceland.     

Factors controlling carbonate dissolution rates quantified in a field test in the Austrian alps

Carbonate dissolution rates were investigated by measuring the mass difference of carbonate tablets exposed to natural dissolution for 1 year. 70 tablets were distributed over 13 test sites on the north slope of the Hochschwab Massif in the Austrian Alps. The influences of altitude, subsoil vs. sub-aerial exposure, vegetation, karst morphology, soil humidity, sample lithology, and sample surface morphology were investigated. The observed dissolution rates varied between 13 and 40 μm/a for subcutaneous samples and about 11 μm/a for sub-aerial exposure. Outstandingly high rates of 48 μm/a were observed in a doline and nearly zero rates were measured at a site influenced by seeping spring water.A mass balance, using high-resolution hydrological data, was calculated for the Kläffer Spring, which has an average outflow of 4.8 m³/s. It indicated a loss of 21×10⁶ kg of carbonate rock per year which gives an average dissolution rate of 95 μm/a for the catchment area of 83 km². The dissolution rates of 10 μm/a from the sub-aerially exposed samples are comparable to values from limestone pedestals, which were protected from dissolution by glacial erratics for the past 15 ka.     

Drought 2002 in Colorado: An Unprecedented Drought or a Routine Drought?

The 2002 drought in Colorado was reported by the media and by public figures, and even by a national drought-monitoring agency, as an exceptionally severe drought. In this paper we examine evidence for this claim. Our study shows that, while the impacts of water shortages were exceptional everywhere, the observed precipitation deficit was less than extreme over a good fraction of the state. A likely explanation of this discrepancy is the imbalance between water supply and water demand over time. For a given level of water supply, water shortages become intensified as water demands increase over time. The sobering conclusion is that Colorado is more vulnerable to drought today than under similar precipitation deficits in the past.     

Structural analysis of a transform fault-rift zone junction in North Iceland

On the north coast of Iceland, the rift zone in North Iceland is shifted about 120 km to the west where it meets with, and joins, the mid-ocean Kolbeinsey ridge. This shift occurs along the Tjörnes fracture zone, an 80-km-wide zone of high seismicity, which is an oblique (non-perpendicular) transform fault. There are two main seismic lineaments within the Tjörnes fracture zone, one of which continues on land as a 25-km-long WNW-trending strike-slip fault. This fault, referred to as the Husavik fault, meets with, and joins, north-trending normal faults of the Theistareykir fissure swarm in the axial rift zone. The most clear-cut of these junctions occurs in a basaltic pahoehoe lava flow, of Holocene age, where the Husavik fault joins a large normal fault called Gudfinnugja. At this junction, the Husavik fault strikes N55°W, whereas Gudfinnugja strikes N5°E, so that they meet at an angle of 60°. The direction of the spreading vector in North Iceland is about N73°W, which is neither parallel with the strike of the Husavik fault nor perpendicular to the strike of the Gudfinnugja fault. During rifting episodes there is thus a slight opening on the Husavik fault as well as a considerable dextral strike-slip movement along the Gudfinnugja fault. Consequently, in the Holocene lava flow, there are tension fractures, collapse structures and pressure ridges along the Husavik fault, and pressure ridges and dextral pull-apart structures subparallel with the Gudfinnugja fault. The 60° angle between the Husavik strike-slip fault and the Gudfinnugja normal fault is the same as the angle between the Tjörnes fracture zone transform fault and the adjacent axial rift zones of North Iceland and the Kolbeinsey ridge. The junction between the faults of Husavik and Gudfinnugja may thus be viewed as a smaller-scale analogy to the junction between this transform fault and the nearby ridge segments. Using the results of photoelastic and finite-element studies, a model is provided for the tectonic development of these junctions. The model is based on an analogy between two offset cuts (mode I fractures) loaded in tension and segments of the axial rift zones (or parts thereof in the case of the Husavik fault). The results indicate that the Tjörnes fracture zone in general and the Husavik fault in particular, developed along zones of maximum shear stress. Furthermore, the model suggests that, as the ridge-segments propagate towards a zero-underlapping configuration, the angle between them and the associated major strike-slip faults gradually increases. This conclusion is supported by the trends of the main seismic lineaments of the Tjörnes fracture zone.     

The large-scale context for the TOGA Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment

Summary The TOGA Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) concentrated a variety of observational systems in the warm pool of the western equatorial Pacific for an Intensive Observation Period (IOP) November 1992 through February 1993. In this paper, aspects of the largescale variations of the tropical atmosphere and Pacific Ocean surrounding the observations of air-sea interaction in the Intensive Flux Array (IFA) during the IOP are described, with the objective of providing a context for the future analyses of these observations.The evolution of the 1991–1992 El Niño/Southern Oscillation event was unusual: Warm SST anomalies in the equatorial cold tongue region switched to colder than climatology in the last half of 1992, but waters warmer than 30°C remained displaced eastward just west of the dateline, coninuing to fuel anomalous convection there during the IOP. Fortunately, SST in the IFA remained warmer than 29°C during most of the IOP, and convective activity was observed over the IFA. The Southern Oscillation Index, which had relaxed to near zero prior to the experiment, decreased during the IOP, reflecting sea level presure changes associated with renewed westerly wind activity. In response to these westerly wind events, the warm pool migrated back into the central equatorial Pacific, leading to a reintensification of the ENSO warm SST anomalies east of the dateline.With 10 Figures     

Stress estimates from the length/width ratios of fractures

The hypothesis is advanced that, provided Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio of the rock are known, the length/width ratios of tension fractures can be used to estimate the tensile stress (assumed constant along the length of each fracture) at the time of fracture formation. The hypothesis is tested on a fissure swarm in a 10,000 year-old basaltic lava in Iceland. The length/width ratios of the fissures give the average tensile stress as of the order of a few MPa.