Euxinia as a dominant process during OAE1a (Early Aptian) on the Eastern Russian Platform and during OAE1b (Early Albian) in the Middle Caspian

A detailed study of the mineral composition and microstructure of the black shales associated with OAE1a (Eastern Russian Platform), OAE1b (Middle Caspian), and the host rocks has been carried out using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopic, and microprobe analyses. The results provide important constraints for depositional environments in the sedimentary basins. Black shales with pyrite framboids imply euxinic (sulfidic) conditions with increased organic matter preservation. Disintegrating framboids suggest partial or complete dissolution of the organic matter inside the framboids due to increasing water oxygenation. OAE1a on the Eastern Russian Platform is heterogeneous as it includes thin interbeds of concretionary coccolith limestones within the interval of bituminous shales, and correlates with the Lower Aptian Rhagodiscus angustus nannofossil zone. The coccolith limestones indicate short intermittent episodes of interrupted stagnation, rapid oxygenation, and restoration of normal marine conditions. The presence of montmorillonite, albite, microcline, and diopside in the bituminous siltstones and in the host siltstones of OAE1a on the Eastern Russian Platform, as well as a high content of titanium in the black siltstones correlated with OAE1b in the Middle Caspian allow proposing significant input of pyroclastic material into the extant sea.     

Arsenic Speciation in a Contaminated Gold Processing Tailings Dam

Gold recovery in ores containing arsenopyrite releases significant amounts of arsenic into the environment due to mineral processing and oxidation during storage. The extent of arsenic weathering in a tailings dam has been investigated. Speciation of As in surface and pore waters and pond sediments showed that for gold tailings in the dam, As enrichment took place in the pore water relative to the surface water. In pond sediments As was predominantly present as residual arsenopyrite and partly as a substance co-precipitated with iron hydroxide. The arsenic release from the sediment results from a reductive dissolution of the arsenopyrite and Fe oxides. In the surface water, arsenate and arsenite are the main arsenic species (arsenate is dominant), but in the pore waters methylation processes play a significant role. Arsenic transport is accompanied by the transformation of As into the less toxic compounds (methylated species) co-existing with the most toxic species (arsenite).     

Geology, mineralization, stable isotope geochemistry, and fluid inclusion characteristics of the Novogodnee–Monto oxidized Au–(Cu) skarn and porphyry deposit, Polar Ural, Russia

The Novogodnee–Monto oxidized Au–(Cu) skarn and porphyry deposit is situated in the large metallogenic belt of magnetite skarn and Cu–Au porphyry deposits formed along the Devonian–Carboniferous Urals orogen. The deposit area incorporates nearly contemporaneous Middle–Late Devonian to Late Devonian–Early Carboniferous calc-alkaline (gabbro to diorite) and potassic (monzogabbro, monzodiorite- to monzonite-porphyry, also lamprophyres) intrusive suites. The deposit is represented by magnetite skarn overprinted by amphibole–chlorite–epidote–quartz–albite and then sericite–quartz–carbonate assemblages bearing Au-sulfide mineralization. This mineralization includes early high-fineness (900–990?‰) native Au associated mostly with cobaltite as well as with chalcopyrite and Co-pyrite, intermediate-stage native Au (fineness 830–860?‰) associated mostly with galena, and late native Au (760–830?‰) associated with Te minerals. Fluid inclusion and stable isotope data indicate an involvement of magmatic–hydrothermal high-salinity (>20 wt.% NaCl-equiv.) chloride fluids. The potassic igneous suite may have directly sourced fluids, metals, and/or sulfur. The abundance of Au mineralization is consistent with the oxidized character of the system, and its association with Co-sulfides suggests elevated sulfur fugacity.     

The role of forcing and internal dynamics in explaining the “Medieval Climate Anomaly”

Proxy reconstructions suggest that peak global temperature during the past warm interval known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA, roughly 950–1250 AD) has been exceeded only during the most recent decades. To better understand the origin of this warm period, we use model simulations constrained by data assimilation establishing the spatial pattern of temperature changes that is most consistent with forcing estimates, model physics and the empirical information contained in paleoclimate proxy records. These numerical experiments demonstrate that the reconstructed spatial temperature pattern of the MCA can be explained by a simple thermodynamical response of the climate system to relatively weak changes in radiative forcing combined with a modification of the atmospheric circulation, displaying some similarities with the positive phase of the so-called Arctic Oscillation, and with northward shifts in the position of the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio currents. The mechanisms underlying the MCA are thus quite different from anthropogenic mechanisms responsible for modern global warming.     

Uranium in Saline Lakes of Mongolia and Adjacent Areas

正1 Introduction Increasing demand for uranium raw materials for the nuclear industry has stimulated interest in non-traditional sources,including hydromineral ones[Qin,2009].Those are saline lakes located in the uranium ore districts.Accumulation of uranium in such lakes results from the leaching of uranium from the rocks by surface and ground     

Insight into the Last Glacial Maximum climate and environments of the Baikal region

This study presents a multi‐proxy record from Lake Kotokel in the Baikal region at decadal‐to‐multidecadal resolution and provides a reconstruction of terrestrial and aquatic environments in the area during a 2000‐year interval of globally harsh climate often referred to as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The studied lake is situated near the eastern shoreline of Lake Baikal, in a climatically sensitive zone that hosts boreal taiga and cold deciduous forests, cold steppe associations typical for northern Mongolia, and mountain tundra vegetation. The results provide a detailed picture of the period in focus, indicating (i) a driest phase (c. 24.0–23.4 cal. ka BP) with low precipitation, high summer evaporation, and low lake levels, (ii) a transitional interval of unstable conditions (c. 23.4–22.6 cal. ka BP), and (iii) a phase (c. 22.6–22.0 cal. ka BP) of relatively high precipitation (and moisture availability) and relatively high lake levels. One hotly debated issue in late Quaternary research is regional summer thermal conditions during the LGM. Our chironomid‐based reconstruction suggests at least 3.5 °C higher than present summer temperatures between c. 22.6 and 22.0 cal. ka BP, which are well in line with warmer and wetter conditions in the North Atlantic region inferred from Greenland ice‐cores. Overall, it appears that environments in central Eurasia during the LGM were affected by much colder than present winter temperatures and higher than present summer temperatures, although the effects of temperature oscillations were strongly influenced by changes in humidity.     

Taphonomic phenomenon of ancient hair from Glacial Beringia: perspectives for palaeoecological reconstructions

An accumulation of mammoth hair, discovered in the Bol'shaya Chukochya River valley (northeast Yakutia, Russia), was found to contain remains of terrestrial and aquatic organisms, including plants, insects, crustaceans, birds and mammals. Radiocarbon dating indicated that this post‐mortem taphocoenosis represented multiple time periods. The mammoth hair was dated to older than 45 ka BP, the plants were dated to 12 750±50 a BP (which corresponds to a shift in the environmental conditions and landscapes during the formation of thermokarst in northeastern Russia) and the bird feathers were dated to 4115±40 a BP. A scenario of the formation of this fossil assemblage is proposed, covering the MIS 3‐1 time range. The hair also yielded various Arctic branchiopod crustaceans, which inhabit shallow temporary water bodies and therefore are important for reconstruction of palaeoenvironments. The cladoceran subgenus Daphnia (Ctenodaphnia), currently absent from the Asian part of Beringia, is reported from this region for the first time. The study demonstrates that the discovered permafrost‐preserved hair is a unique repository of Ice Age organisms.     

Effects of and methods for determination of induced magnetic anisotropy of igneous and metamorphosed rocks

The phenomena of the magnetic memory of rocks associated with paleointensity, paleotemperature, and paleostress are reviewed and discussed here. The methods for the determination of the paleointensity and the paleoconditions are described and discussed in terms of their sensitivity and applicability. The determination of paleoconditions (stress and temperature) is essential for understanding rock mineral formation and rock history. Such knowledge is applicable also in ore deposit geology and geophysics. The phenomena of the magnetic memory manifest themselves through the constriction and asymmetry in the hysteresis loops, as well as through a nonlinear pattern in the anhysteretic magnetization curve, both being due to the induced magnetic anisotropy. The pros and cons of some applied methods are reviewed. The superposition of several paleotemperatures (re-heatings of the rock) and/or paleostresses is studied also. Under certain conditions, a rock can remember information on several paleotemperatures (paleo-heating events), as well as the respective intensities of the geomagnetic field of the past.     

Electrical conductivity at mid-mantle depths estimated from the data of Sq and long period geomagnetic variations

We present results of a classical global induction analysis of the geomagnetic variation data in the range of daily Sq variations, as well as for long period variations within the period range of about 8 to 400 days. The Sq data from 88 to 94 world observatories are processed in two ways, first by constructing and analyzing average monthly daily variations for the whole months of the International Quiet Sun Year (IQSY) 1995, and second by analyzing the individual, especially quiet Q* daily records from the same year. The electrical images of the Sq response functions obtained via the Schmucker’s ρ* — z* procedure show a good fit with results of other induction studies, though especially our global impedance phases show a larger scatter than two other published data sets used for comparison.     

How global are the Jurassic–Cretaceous unconformities?

The reality of the global‐scale sedimentation breaks remains controversial. A compilation of data on the Jurassic–Cretaceous unconformities in a number of regions with different tectonic settings and character of sedimentation, where new or updated stratigraphic frameworks are established, permits their correlation. Unconformities from three large reference regions, including North America, the Gulf of Mexico, and Western Europe, were also considered. The unconformities, which encompass the Jurassic‐Cretaceous, the Lower–Upper Cretaceous and the Cretaceous–Palaeogene transitions are of global extent. Other remarkable unconformities traced within many regions at the base of the Jurassic and at the Santonian–Campanian transition are not known from reference regions. A correlation of the Jurassic–Cretaceous global‐scale sedimentation breaks and eustatic curves is quite uncertain. Therefore, definition of global sequences will not be possible until eustatic changes are clarified. Activity of mantle plumes is among the likely causes of the documented unconformities.