Nickel-rich metasomatism of the lithospheric mantle by pre-kimberlitic alkali-S–Cl-rich C–O–H fluids

Metasomatism of the lithospheric mantle sometimes produces unusual assemblages containing native metals and alloys, which provide important insight into metasomatic processes in the mantle. In this study, we describe the metasomatic enrichment of a refractory harzburgite xenolith in Ni, Fe and, to a lesser extent, Cu, Co, As and Sb. The xenolith (XM1/422) derives from the Bultfontein kimberlite (Kimberley, South Africa) and hosts Ni mineralisation that includes native nickel (Ni_84.5-98.0), heazlewoodite (Ni₃S₂) and Ni-rich silicates (e.g. up to 37.5 wt % NiO in olivine, and 22.4 wt % NiO in phlogopite). The presence of several mineral phases enriched in alkali and volatile species (e.g. phlogopite, phosphates, carbonates, chlorides, djerfisherite) indicates that the transition metal cations were likely introduced during metasomatism by alkali-rich C–O–H fluids or alkali-carbonate melts. It is postulated that sulphide breakdown and fluid reaction with refractory mantle rocks contributed to the fluid’s enrichment in Ni and other metallic cations. The Ni-rich assemblages of xenolith XM1/422 show local chemical disequilibrium, and modelling of the Ni diffusion profiles adjacent to olivine-native nickel and olivine-heazlewoodite grain boundaries, suggests a close temporal relationship between Ni-rich metasomatism and subsequent entrainment by the kimberlite magma. However, metal-rich metasomatism has also been observed in other lithospheric mantle domains, including orogenic peridotitic massifs and the suboceanic mantle; regions unaffected by kimberlite magmatsim. As micro-scale occurrences of metallic phases are easily overlooked, it is possible that metal-rich metasomatism is more widespread in the Earth’s mantle than previously recognised.     

Sediment changes upstream and downstream of the Altnahinch Dam in the River Bush in Northern Ireland: a preliminary study

The River Bush must reach a standard of good ecological potential (GEP) by 2015 due to the requirements of the water framework directive. The role of sediments within a water body is extremely important to all aspects of a river’s regime. The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of Altnahinch Dam on sediment distribution in the River Bush (a heavily modified water body) with comparison made against the Glendun River (an unmodified water body). Samples collected from the rivers were analysed by physical (pebble count, sieve analysis) and statistical methods (ANOVA, GRADISTAT). An increase in fine sediments upstream of the dam provides evidence that the dam is impacting sediment distribution. Downstream effects are not shown to be significant. The output of this study also implies similar impacts at other drinking water storage impoundments. This research recommends that a sediment management plan be put in place for Altnahinch Dam and that further studies be carried-out concentrating on fine sediment distribution upstream of the dam.     

Development of a subglacial drainage system and its effect on glacitectonism within the polydeformed Middle Pleistocene (Anglian) glacigenic sequence of north Norfolk,Eastern England

The efficiency of subglacial drainage is known to have a profound influence on subglacial deformation and glacier dynamics with, in particular, high meltwater contents and/or pressures aiding glacier motion. The complex sequence of Middle Pleistocene tills and glacial outwash sediments exposed along the north Norfolk coast (Eastern England) were deposited in the ice-marginal zone of the British Ice Sheet and contain widespread evidence for subglacial deformation during repeated phases of ice advance and retreat. During a phase of easterly directed ice advance, the glacial and pre-glacial sequences were pervasively deformed leading to the development of a thick unit of glacitectonic mélange. Although the role of pressurised meltwater has been recognised in facilitating deformation and mélange formation, this paper provides evidence for the subsequent development of a channelised subglacial drainage system beneath this part of the British Ice Sheet filled by a complex assemblage of sands, gravels and mass flow deposits. The channels are relatively undeformed when compared to the host mélange, forming elongate, lenticular to U-shaped, flat-topped bodies (up to 20–30 m thick) located within the upper part of this highly deformed unit. This relatively stable channelised system led to an increase in the efficiency of subglacial drainage from beneath the British Ice Sheet and the collapse of the subglacial shear zone, potentially slowing or even arresting the easterly directed advance of the ice sheet.     

Periglacial disruption and subsequent glacitectonic deformation of bedrock: an example from Anglesey,North Wales,UK

The deformed metasedimentary bedrock and overlying diamictons in western Anglesey, NW Wales, record evidence of glacier-permafrost interactions during the Late Devensian (Weichselian). The locally highly brecciated New Harbour Group bedrock is directly overlain by a bedrock-rich diamicton which preserves evidence of having undergone both periglacial (brecciation, hydrofracturing) and glacitectonic deformation (thrusting, folding), and is therefore interpreted as periglacial head deposit. The diamicton locally posses a well-developed clast macrofabric which preserves the orientation of the pre-existing tectonic structures within underlying metasedimentary rocks. Both the diamicton and New Harbour Group were variably reworked during the deposition of the later Irish Sea diamicton, resulting in the detachment of bedrock rafts and formation of a pervasively deformed glacitectonite. These structural and stratigraphic relationships are used to demonstrate that a potentially extensive layer of permafrost developed across the island before it was overridden by the Irish Sea Ice Stream. These findings have important implications for the glacial history of Anglesey, indicating that the island remained relatively ice-free prior to its inundation by ice flowing southwards down the Irish Sea Basin. Palynological data obtained from the diamictons across Anglesey clearly demonstrates that they have an Irish Sea provenance. Importantly no Lower Palaeozoic palynomorphs were identified, indicating that it is unlikely that Anglesey was overridden by ice emanating from the Snowdon ice cap developed on the adjacent Welsh mainland. Permafrost was once again re-established across Anglesey after the Irish Sea Ice Stream had retreated, resulting in the formation of involutions which deform both the lower bedrock-rich and overlying Irish Sea diamictons.     

Micromorphological evidence for subglacial multiphase sedimentation and deformation during overpressurized fluid flow associated with hydrofracturing

Hydrofracture systems are being increasingly recognized within subglacial to ice‐marginal settings and represent a visible expression of the passage of pressurized meltwater through these glacial environments. Such structures provide a clear record of the fluctuating hydrostatic pressure and of the resulting brittle fracturing of the host sediment/bedrock and the pene‐contemporaneous liquefaction and introduction of sediment‐fill. A detailed macro‐ and microstructural study of a hydrofracture system cutting Devonian sandstone bedrock exposed at the Meads of St John, near Inverness (NE Scotland), has revealed that this complex multiphase system was active over a prolonged period and accommodated several phases of fluid flow. The main conduits that fed the hydrofracture system are located along bedding within the sandstone, with the site of the wider, steeply inclined to subvertical, transgressive linking sections being controlled by the contemporaneous development of high‐angle fractures and normal faults, the latter occurring in response to localized extension within the bedrock. A comparison with published engineering hydraulic fracturing data indicates that the various stages of sediment‐fill deposited during a flow event can be directly related to the fluctuation in overpressure during hydrofracturing. A model is proposed linking the evolution of this hydrofracture system to the retreat of the overlying Findhorn glacier. The results of this study also indicate that the development and repeated reactivation of subglacial hydrofracture systems can have a dramatic effect on the permeability of the bed, influencing the potential for overpressure build‐up within the subglacial hydrogeological system, and facilitating the migration of meltwater beneath glaciers and ice sheets.     

Evolution of a reworked orogenic zone: The boundary between the delamerian and lachlan fold belts,southeastern Australia *

⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age data from the boundary between the Delamerian and Lachlan Fold Belts identify the Moornambool Metamorphic Complex as a Cambrian metamorphic belt in the western Stawell Zone of the Palaeozoic Tasmanide System of southeastern Australia. A reworked orogenic zone exists between the Lachlan and Delamerian Fold Belts that contains the eastern section of the Cambrian Delamerian Fold Belt and the western limit of orogenesis associated with the formation of an Ordovician to Silurian accretionary wedge (Lachlan Fold Belt). Delamerian thrusting is craton-verging and occurred at the same time as the final consolidation of Gondwana. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age data indicate rapid cooling of the Moornambool Metamorphic Complex at about 500 Ma at a rate of 20 – 30°C per million years, temporally associated with calc-alkaline volcanism followed by clastic sedimentation. Extension in the overriding plate of a subduction zone is interpreted to have exhumed the metamorphic rocks within the Moornambool Metamorphic Complex. The Delamerian system varies from a high geothermal gradient with syntectonic plutonism in the west to lower geothermal gradients in the east (no syntectonic plutonism). This metamorphic zonation is consistent with a west-dipping subduction zone. Contrary to some previous models involving a reversal in subduction polarity, the Ross and Delamerian systems of Antarctica and Australia are inferred to reflect deformation processes associated with a Cambrian subduction zone that dipped towards the Gondwana supercontinent. Western Lachlan Fold Belt orogenesis occurred about 40 million years after the Delamerian Orogeny and deformed older, colder, and denser oceanic crust, with metamorphism indicative of a low geothermal gradient. This orogenesis closed a marginal ocean basin by west-directed underthrusting of oceanic crust that produced an accretionary wedge with west-dipping faults that verge away from the major craton. The western Lachlan Fold Belt was not associated with arc-related volcanism and plutonism occurred 40 – 60 million years after initial deformation. The revised orogenic boundaries have implications for the location of world-class 440 Ma orogenic gold deposits. The structural complexity of the 440 Ma Stawell gold deposit reflects its location in a reworked part of the Cambrian Delamerian Fold Belt, while the structurally simpler 440 Ma Bendigo deposit is hosted by younger Ordovician turbidites solely deformed by Lachlan orogenesis.     

Stratigraphy and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology of the Santa Rosa basin,Baja California: Dynamic evolution of a constrictional rift basin during oblique extension in the Gulf of California

The Santa Rosa basin of northeastern Baja California is one of several transtensional basins that formed during Neogene oblique opening of the Gulf of California. The basin comprises Late Miocene to Pleistocene sedimentary and volcanic strata that define an asymmetric half‐graben above the Santa Rosa detachment, a low‐angle normal fault with ca. 4–5 km of SE‐directed displacement. Stratigraphic analysis reveals systematic basin‐scale facies variations both parallel and across the basin. The basin‐fill exhibits an overall fining‐upward cycle, from conglomerate and breccia at the base to alternating sandstone‐mudstone in the depocentre, which interfingers with the fault‐scarp facies of the detachment. Sediment dispersal was transverse‐dominated and occurred through coalescing alluvial fans from the immediate hanging wall and/or footwall of the detachment. Different stratigraphic sections reveal important lateral facies variations that correlate with major corrugations of the detachment fault. The latter represent extension‐parallel folds that formed largely in response to the ca. N‐S constrictional strain regime of the transtensional plate boundary. The upward vertical deflection associated with antiformal folding dampened subsidence in the northeastern Santa Rosa basin, and resulted in steep topographic gradients with a high influx of coarse conglomerate here. By contrast, the downward motion in the synform hinge resulted in increased subsidence, and led to a southwestward migration of the depocentre with time. Thus, the Santa Rosa basin represents a new type of transtensional rift basin in which oblique extension is partitioned between diffuse constriction and discrete normal faulting. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology of intercalated volcanic rocks suggests that transtensional deformation began during the Late Miocene, between 9.36 ± 0.14 Ma and 6.78 ± 0.12 Ma, and confirms previous results from low‐temperature thermochronology (Seiler et al., 2011). Two other volcanic units that appear to be part of a conformable syn‐rift sequence are, in fact, duplicates of pre‐rift volcanics and represent allochthonous, gravity‐driven slide blocks that originated from the hanging wall.     

Mode identification in the δ Scuti Star 1 Mon

We present new multicolour photometry and simultaneous high-dispersion spectroscopy for the δ Scuti star 1 Mon. The two main periodicities in the star are still present, but the third known period is not directly detected in the new radial velocities or light variations. However, it is detected in the periodogram of the second moment of the line profile variations. We use the cross-correlation function as an approximation for the line profile variations. By computing theoretical profiles for a given mode and comparing them with phased cross-correlation profiles, we are able to determine a goodness-of-fit criterion and estimate the most probable spherical harmonic degree,     the azimuthal order, m , of the pulsation and also the angle of inclination. We then compare the relative amplitudes and phases of the photometric variations in five wavebands and obtain the best estimates of     for the two visible periodicities. We confirm the earlier determinations that the main periodicity is a radial mode and that the other periodicity is probably         We show that the line profile variations and light variations give consistent results. We point out the importance of a long wavelength range when using the photometric mode identification technique. Finally, we attempt to match the two periods with unstable modes from linear, non-adiabatic calculations. We are able to show that the principal period is well matched by either the fundamental or first overtone radial mode, but could not find a satisfactory fit to the     mode. We discuss implications for mode identification of δ Scuti stars based on what we have learned from this star.