Low temperature (LT) combustion of sediments does not necessarily provide accurate radiocarbon ages for site chronology

Radiocarbon dating of soils and sediments is notoriously problematic for the purposes of dating a specific event due to their heterogeneous mix of multiple organic fractions, each of which may have a different radiocarbon age. Numerous studies have failed to agree on which sedimentary fraction or radiocarbon pre-treatment method, if any, provides the closest agreement between the age of a sedimentary fraction and that of associated plant macrofossils or charcoal. We tested the stepped-combustion method of McGeehin et al. (2001), as well as standard radiocarbon humin and humic extraction techniques, using samples from a chronologically well-constrained perennially-frozen site at Quartz Creek, Yukon Territory, Canada. The ages in closest agreement with associated radiocarbon-dated plant macrofossils and with the overlying Dawson tephra were given by the humic and humin fractions, but even these were still older than the macrofossil ages by up to 4195 ± 260 radiocarbon years. The low temperature (LT) humin method recommended by McGeehin et al. (2001) yielded ages older than the macrofossils by up to nearly 4425 ± 240 radiocarbon years. These fractions, while still providing information on the mobility and potential residence times of carbon in soils and sediments, should not be relied upon to provide consistently accurate site chronologies.     

On topographic core-mantle coupling

Abstract

The purpose of this note is two-fold: to draw attention to a perplexing difficulty connected with topographic core-mantle coupling, and to suggest tentatively an explanation. The difficulty is an apparent conflict between the most comprehensive theory of the coupling so far attempted (Anufriev and Braginsky, 1975a, b, 1977a, b) and recent explicit calculations based on magnetic and seismic information (Speith et al., 1986). It is argued that asymmetric deviations from Anufriev and Braginsky's basically axisymmetric model of the underlying core flow are capable of resolving the difficulty.     

Single-grain OSL dating of glaciofluvial quartz constrains Reid glaciation in NW Canada to MIS 6

Improved chronological control on the penultimate advance of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet in northwest Canada (the Reid glaciation) is required for a better understanding of late Quaternary palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental change in eastern Beringia. However, reliable dating of glaciation events beyond the last glacial maximum is commonly hindered by a lack of directly dateable material. In this study we (i) provide the first combined minimum and maximum age constraint on the Reid glaciation at Ash Bend, its reference locale in the Stewart River valley, northwestern Canadian Cordillera, using single-grain optically stimulated luminescence dating of quartz; and (ii) compare the timing of the Reid glaciation with other penultimate ice sheet advances in the region with the aim of establishing improved glacial reconstructions in eastern Beringia. We obtain ages of 158 ± 18 ka and 132 ± 18 ka for glaciofluvial sands overlying and underlying the Reid till, respectively. These ages indicate that the Reid advance, at its reference locale, occurred during MIS 6. This precludes an earlier MIS 8 age, and suggests that the Reid advance may have been synchronous with the Delta glaciation of central Alaska, and is likely correlative with the Mirror Creek glaciation in southern Yukon.     

The formation and evolution of the Bitincke nickel laterite deposit, Albania

The Bitincke nickel laterite deposit, located in the south east of Albania, contains an estimated ore resource of 35.6?Mt of nickel ore with a grade of 1.2?% Ni. The deposit developed on peridotites within Late Jurassic ophiolites which were obducted in the Early Cretaceous and which form part of the Albanian Mirdita ophiolite zone. Limestones and conglomerates overlying the deposit delimit the minimum age of lateritization to the mid-Eocene. The laterite is composed of two distinct ore zones characterized by silicate nickel and iron oxide phases. Within the silicate zone, Ni concentrations reach a maximum of 1.5?wt% and although laterally and vertically variable this zone is typically characterized by olivine and serpentine at the base of the horizon which are gradually replaced by secondary silicates and iron oxides up section. The boundary between the silicate and the oxide zone above is normally sharp and characterized by an increase in Fe₂O₃ (from ~10 to 80?wt%), decreases in SiO₂ (from ~30 to 5?wt%) and a dramatic reduction in MgO content (from ~10 to 0.1?wt%). The oxide horizon is dominated by goethite and displays relatively little variation in textural morphology or geochemistry. Nickel concentrations are greatest near the base of this zone, reaching a maximum of 2.3?wt%. Weathering profile formation and variation in the thickness of the deposit was controlled by the interaction between topography, faulting and protolith fracture density. The oxide zone formed on topographic highs was subject to increased rates of erosion, whereas the laterite profile within topographic lows, and in areas of relatively high fracture density, tends to be thicker due to increased permeability. The most substantive sections of the Ni laterite weathering profile developed in small fault controlled basins and were preserved by the deposition of a sequence of limestones and mudstones.     

Stability analysis of the 2007 Chehalis lake landslide based on long-range terrestrial photogrammetry and airborne LiDAR data

On December 4th 2007, a 3-Mm³ landslide occurred along the northwestern shore of Chehalis Lake. The initiation zone is located at the intersection of the main valley slope and the northern sidewall of a prominent gully. The slope failure caused a displacement wave that ran up to 38 m on the opposite shore of the lake. The landslide is temporally associated with a rain-on-snow meteorological event which is thought to have triggered it. This paper describes the Chehalis Lake landslide and presents a comparison of discontinuity orientation datasets obtained using three techniques: field measurements, terrestrial photogrammetric 3D models and an airborne LiDAR digital elevation model to describe the orientation and characteristics of the five discontinuity sets present. The discontinuity orientation data are used to perform kinematic, surface wedge limit equilibrium and three-dimensional distinct element analyses. The kinematic and surface wedge analyses suggest that the location of the slope failure (intersection of the valley slope and a gully wall) has facilitated the development of the unstable rock mass which initiated as a planar sliding failure. Results from the three-dimensional distinct element analyses suggest that the presence, orientation and high persistence of a discontinuity set dipping obliquely to the slope were critical to the development of the landslide and led to a failure mechanism dominated by planar sliding. The three-dimensional distinct element modelling also suggests that the presence of a steeply dipping discontinuity set striking perpendicular to the slope and associated with a fault exerted a significant control on the volume and extent of the failed rock mass but not on the overall stability of the slope.     

A new tool for evaluating the physics of coupled atmosphere�Cocean variability in nature and in general circulation models

Intermediate models of the coupled tropical atmosphere?Cocean system have been used to illuminate the physics of interannual climate phenomenon such as El Ni?o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the tropical Pacific and to explore how the tropics might respond to a forcing such as changing insolation (Milankovitch) or atmospheric carbon dioxide. Importantly, most of the intermediate models are constructed as anomaly models: models that evolve on a prescribed climatological mean state, which is typically prescribed and done so on a rather ad hoc basis. Here we show how the observed climatological mean state fields [ocean currents and upwelling, sea surface temperature (SST) and atmospheric surface winds] can be incorporated into a linearized intermediate model of the tropical coupled atmosphere?Cocean system: called Linear Ocean?CAtmosphere Model (LOAM), it is a linearized version of the Zebiak and Cane model. With realistic, seasonally varying mean state fields, we find that the essential physics of the ENSO mode is very similar to that in the original model and to that in the observations and that the observed mean fields support an ENSO mode that is stable to perturbations. Thus, our results provide further evidence that ENSO is generated and maintained by stochastic (uncoupled) perturbations. The method that we have outlined can be used to assimilate any set of ocean and atmosphere climatological data into the linearized atmosphere?Cocean model. In a companion paper, we apply this same method to incorporate mean field output from two global climate models into the linearised model. We use the latter to diagnose the physics of the leading coupled mode (ENSO) that is supported by the climate models, and to illuminate why the structure and variance in the ENSO mode changes in the models when they are forced by early Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum boundary conditions.     

Fisheries mismanagement

We analysed the extent to which European politicians have adhered to scientific recommendations on annual total allowable catches (TACs) from 1987 to 2011, covering most of the period of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). For the 11 stocks examined, TACs were set higher than scientific recommendations in 68% of decisions. Politically-adjusted TACs averaged 33% above scientifically recommended levels. There was no evidence that the 2002 reform of the CFP improved decision-making, as was claimed at the time. We modelled the effects of such politically-driven decision-making on stock sustainability. Our results suggest that political adjustment of scientific recommendations dramatically increases the probability of a stock collapsing within 40 years.In 2012 European fisheries policy will undergo a once-a-decade reform. Ten years ago radical reforms were promised but the changes failed to improve sustainability. It is likely that the 2012 reform will be similarly ineffective unless decision-making is changed so that catch allocations are based on science rather than politics.     

Temporal association of arc–continent collision,progressive magma contamination in arc volcanism and formation of gold-rich massive sulphide deposits on Wetar Island (Banda arc)

Whole-rock ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and δ¹⁸O analyses of volcanic rocks and ³He/⁴He analyses of sulphides and sulphates from mineralized rocks on Wetar, Indonesia indicate a variable contribution of assimilated crustal material or sediment sourced from the subducted Australian craton to the south. These new data support the idea of progressive source contamination with precisely dated events showing that Wetar Island hosts the most extreme examples of crustal assimilation in the region. The increased continental contamination occurs during the Pliocene (Zanclian to Piacenzian) during distinct magmatic events between 5 and 4 Ma, and at 2.4 Ma when ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios in unaltered lavas, with whole-rock δ¹⁸O values between 5.7 and 9.6‰, increase from 0.707484 to extreme radiogenic values of 0.711656.The earlier of these magmatic events is important in the generation of the hydrothermal systems responsible for the mineralization recorded on Wetar. Samples from this yield radiogenic ³He/⁴He ratios between 0.5 and 1.4 R/R_A, similar to the data from volcanic rocks on nearby Romang. The later magmatic event coincides with the arrival of the Australian Continental Margin at the subduction zone along the Banda arc. Progressive incorporation of continental-sourced components into the source region below the Wetar Island edifice coincides with the formation of gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits hosted within the contaminated volcanic pile.     

Sedimentary recycling in arc magmas: geochemical and U–Pb–Hf–O constraints on the Mesoproterozoic Suldal Arc, SW Norway

The Hardangervidda-Rogaland Block within southwest Norway is host to ~1.52 to 1.48 Ga continental building and variable reworking during the ~1.1 to 0.9 Ga Sveconorwegian orogeny. Due to the lack of geochronological and geochemical data, the timing and tectonic setting of early Mesoproterozoic magmatism has long been ambiguous. This paper presents zircon U–Pb–Hf–O isotope data combined with whole-rock geochemistry to address the age and petrogenesis of basement units within the Suldal region, located in the centre of the Hardangervidda-Rogaland Block. The basement comprises variably deformed grey gneisses and granitoids that petrologically and geochemically resemble mature volcanic arc lithologies. U–Pb ages confirm that magmatism occurred from ~1,521 to 1,485 Ma, and conspicuously lack any xenocrystic inheritance of distinctly older crust. Hafnium isotope data range from εHf_(initial) +1 to +11, suggesting a rather juvenile magmatic source, but with possible involvement of late Palaeoproterozoic crust. Oxygen isotope data range from mantle-like (δ¹⁸O ~5 ‰) to elevated (~10 ‰) suggesting involvement of low-temperature altered material (e.g., supracrustal rocks) in the magma source. The Hf–O isotope array is compatible with mixing between mantle-derived material with young low-temperature altered material (oceanic crust/sediments) and older low-temperature altered material (continent-derived sediments). This, combined with a lack of xenoliths and xenocrysts, exposed older crust, AFC trends and S-type geochemistry, all point to mixing within a deep-crustal magma-generation zone. A proposed model comprises accretion of altered oceanic crust and the overlying sediments to a pre-existing continental margin, underthrusting to the magma-generation zone and remobilisation during arc magmatism. The geodynamic setting for this arc magmatism is comparable with that seen in the Phanerozoic (e.g., the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range batholiths), with compositions in the Suldal Sector reaching those of average upper continental crust. As within these younger examples, factors that drive magmatism towards the composition of the average continental crust include the addition of sedimentary material to magma source regions, and delamination of cumulate material. Underthrusting of sedimentary materials and their subsequent involvement in arc magmatism is perhaps a more widespread mechanism involved in continental growth than is currently recognised. Finally, the Suldal Arc magmatism represents a significant juvenile crustal addition to SW Fennoscandia.