U–Pb ages of the Dalsfjord Complex, SW Norway, and their bearing on the correlation of allochthonous crystalline segments of the Scandinavian Caledonides

The Dalsfjord Complex is an allochthonous crystalline unit in the hanging wall of a major extensional detachment of the Caledonian orogen on the western coast of Norway. U-Pb geochronology has been carried out to test a previously proposed correlation between this unit and the Jotun Nappe Complex, a member of the Middle Allochthon now occupying a foreland position to the east. A monzonite sample of the Dalsfjord suite yields a zircon age of 1,634Dž Ma, whereas a crosscutting gabbro was formed at 1,464Lj Ma. Both rocks were strongly overprinted during the Sveconorwegian orogeny, especially the monzonite whose zircons U-Pb data were strongly pulled towards a lower intercept age of 882ᆱ Ma, and whose titanite indicates a two-stage growth history at >960 Ma and <920 Ma. These relationships support the correlation of these units with the Jotun Complex, and to some degree also with the Lindås Nappe in the Bergen Arcs.     

The fall and rise of metropolitan government in Copenhagen

In this paper it is argued that the re-establishment of a metropolitan government in the Greater Copenhagen Area in 2000 (Greater Copenhagen Authority) is not to be seen as a return to the kind of regional, coordinative authority (Greater Copenhagen Council) that was abolished in the Thatcherite climate of the 1980s. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s new forms of urban governance, entrepreneurialism and a higher national priority to the capital region were introduced, which changed the conditions under which the new metropolitan government is operating. This `contextualization' of the analysis of the two generations of metropolitan government points to the fact that typologies of metropolitan government, such as the one put forward by Sharpe (1995), often lacks analytical cogency. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The channel between Gran Canaria and Tenerife: constructive processes and destructive events during the evolution of volcanic islands

Seismic, sidescan sonar, bathymetric multibeam and ODP (Ocean Drilling Program) data obtained in the submarine channel between the volcanic islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife allow to identify constructive features and destructive events during the evolution of both islands. The most prominent constructive features are the submarine island flanks being the acoustic basement of the seismic images. The build-up of Tenerife started following the submarine stage of Gran Canaria because the submarine island flank of Tenerife onlaps the steeper flank of Gran Canaria. The overlying sediments in the channel between Gran Canaria and Tenerife are chaotic, consisting of slumps, debris flow deposits, syn-ignimbrite turbidites, ash layers, and other volcaniclastic rocks generated by eruptions, erosion, and flank collapse of the volcanoes. Volcanic cones on the submarine island flanks reflect ongoing submarine volcanic activity. The construction of the islands is interrupted by large destructive events, especially by flank collapses resulting in giant landslides. Several Miocene flank collapses (e.g., the formation of the Horgazales basin) were identified by combining seismic and drilling data whereas young giant landslides (e.g., the Güimar debris avalanche) are documented by sidescan, bathymetric and drilling data. Sediments are also transported through numerous submarine canyons from the islands into the volcaniclastic apron. Seismic profiles across the channel do not show a major offset of reflectors. The existence of a repeatedly postulated major NE-SW-trending fault zone between Gran Canaria and Tenerife is thus in doubt. The sporadic earthquake activity in this area may be related to the regional stress field or the submarine volcanic activity in this area. Seismic reflectors cannot be correlated through the channel between the sedimentary basins north and south of Gran Canaria because the channel acts as sediment barrier. The sedimentary basins to the north and south evolved differently following the submarine growth of Gran Canaria and Tenerife in the Miocene.     

First-Order Chemistry in the Surface-Flux Layer

We have discussed the behavior of a non-conserved scalar in the stationary, horizontally homogeneous, neutral surface-flux layer and, on the basis of conventional second-order closure, derived analytic expressions for flux and for mean concentration of a gas, subjected to a first-order removal process. The analytic flux solution showed a clear deviation from the constant flux, characterizing a conserved scalar in the surface-flux layer. It decreases with height and is reduced by an order of magnitude of the surface flux at a height equal to about the typical mean distance a molecule can travel before destruction. The predicted mean concentration profile, however, shows only a small deviation from the logarithmic behavior of a conserved scalar. The solution is consistent with assuming a flux-gradient relationship with a turbulent diffusivity corrected by the Damköhler ratio, the ratio of a characteristic turbulent time scale and the scalar mean lifetime. We show that if we use only first-order closure and neglect the effect of the Damköhler ratio on the turbulent diffusivity we obtain another analytic solution for the profiles of the flux and the mean concentration which, from an experimental point of view, is indistinguishable from the first analytic solution. We have discussed two cases where the model should apply, namely NO which, by night, is irreversibly destroyed by interaction with mainly O₃ and the radioactive ²²⁰Rn. Only in the last case was it possible to find data to shed light on the validity of our predictions. The agreement seemed such that a falsification of our model was impossible. It is shown how the model can be used to predict the surface flux of ²²⁰Rn from measured concentration profiles.     

Lu–Hf and U–Pb isotope systematics of zircons from the Storgangen intrusion, Rogaland Intrusive Complex, SW Norway: implications for the composition and evolution of Precambrian lower crust in the Baltic Shield

The Storgangen orebody is a concordantly layered, sill-like body of ilmenite-rich norite, intruding anorthosites of the Rogaland Intrusive Complex (RIC), SW Norway. 17 zircon grains were separated from ca. 5 kg of sand-size flotation waste collected from the on-site repository from ilmenite mining. These zircons were analysed for major and trace elements by electron microprobe, and for U–Pb and Lu–Hf isotopes by laser ablation microprobe plasma source mass spectrometry. Eight of the zircons define a well-constrained (MSWD=0.37) concordant population with an age of 949±7 Ma, which is significantly older than the 920–930 Ma ages previously reported for zircon inclusions in orthopyroxene megacrysts from the RIC. The remaining zircons, interpreted as inherited grains, show a range of ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb ages up to 1407±14 Ma, with an upper intercept age at ca. 1520 Ma. The concordant zircons have similar trace element patterns, and a mean initial Hf isotope composition of ¹⁷⁶Hf/¹⁷⁷Hf_{949 Ma}=0.28223±5 (_Hf=+2±2). This is similar to the Hf-isotope composition of zircons in a range of post-tectonic Sveconorwegian granites from South Norway, and slightly more radiogenic than expected for mid-Proterozoic juvenile crust. The older, inherited zircons show Lu–Hf crustal residence ages in the range 1.85–2.04 Ga. One (undated) zircon plots well within the field of Hf isotope evolution of Paleoproterozoic rocks of the Baltic Shield. These findings indicate the presence of Paleoproterozoic components in the deep crust of the Rogaland area, but do not demonstrate that such rocks, or a Sveconorwegian mantle-derived component, contributed significantly to the petrogenesis of the RIC. If the parent magma was derived from a homogeneous, lower crustal mafic granulite source, the lower crustal protolith must be at least 1.5 Ga old, and it must have an elevated Rb/Sr ratio. This component would be indistinguishable in Sr, Nd and Hf isotopes from some intermediate mixtures between Sveconorwegian mantle and Paleoprotoerzoic felsic crust, but it cannot account for the initial ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd of the most primitive, late Sveconorwegian granite in the region, without the addition of mantle-derived material.