Glacier fluctuations between 1975 and 2008 in the Greater Himalaya Range of Zanskar, southern Ladakh

Glaciers in the Himalaya are often heavily covered with supraglacial debris,making them difficult to study with remotely-sensed imagery alone.Various methods such as band ratios can be used effectively to map clean-ice glaciers;however,a thicker layer of debris often makes it impossible to distinguish between supraglacial debris and the surrounding terrain.Previously,a morphometric mapping approach employing an ASTER-derived digital elevation model has been used to map glaciers in the Khumbu Himal and the Tien Shan.This study on glaciers in the Greater Himalaya Range in Zanskar,southern Ladakh,aims (i) to use the morphometric approach to map large debris-covered glaciers;and (ii) to use Landsat and ASTER data and GPS and field measurements to document glacier change over the past four decades.Field work was carried out in the summers of 2008.For clean ice,band ratios from the ASTER dataset were used to distinguish glacial features.For debris-covered glaciers,topographic features such as slope were combined with thermal imagery and supervised classifiers to map glacial margins.The method is promising for large glaciers,although problems occurred in the distal and lateral parts and in the fore field of the glaciers.A multi-temporal analysis of glaciers in Zanskar showed that in general they have receded since at least the mid-to late-1970s.However,some few glaciers that advanced or oscillated - probably because of specific local environmental conditions - do exist.     

Secular non-random variations of cosmogenic carbon-14 in the terrestrial atmosphere

The time dependence of the¹⁴C content of bristlecone pine wood samples dated by their tree rings and grown during the last 8000 years was examined. The¹⁴C values as measured by the La Jolla Radiocarbon Laboratory were used for the investigation.Two different smoothing techniques were used for constructing values for equal time intervals. In this manner the introduction of regularities, that could have resulted from applied mathematical techniques, could be excluded.There is good evidence for non-random features in the power spectrum, in particular for a 200-year periodicity.The regularities in the power spectrum are further indications supporting the assumption that the¹⁴C variations reflect a property of the sun.     

Mineralogy and geochemistry of sediments in arid lakes of Australia

Arid lakes of South, Central and Western Australia generally fill local depressions in Pre-Cambrian rocks. Their hydrochemical evolution represents a special type within the system of inland waters and is characterized by the lack of carbonate sedimentation. The mineralogical and chemical composition of the fine-grained lake deposits is mainly influenced by mechanical weathering products, indicating a distinct detrital heritage from the lithology of the lake basins and of the surrounding areas.Thus, sediments from arid lakes provide simplified conditions to evaluate both (1) economic metal accumulations and (2) baseline data for environmental geochemistry. The former is shown by the concentrations of nickel, chromium and cobalt in lakes of the Western Australian greenstone area. The latter is demonstrated by the concendations of zinc and copper, which are particularly uniform and similar to average shale composition; elevated contents of lead in sediments in some of the lakes studied might indicate an increase of atmospheric lead pollution.

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Zusammenfassung Die Trockenseen Süd-, Zentral- und Westaustraliens füllen lokale Vertiefungen, überwiegend in präkambrischen Gesteinen, mit meist geringmächtigen Ablagerungen. Ihre hydrochemische Entwicklung stellt einen besonderen Typus im System der Binnengewässer dar und zeichnet sich durch das Fehlen von Karbonatabscheidungen aus. Die mineralogische und chemische Zusammensetzung der feinkörnigen Seeablagerungen ist in erster Linie von mechanischen Verwitterungseinflüssen geprägt und läßt eine deutliche detritische Verwandtschaft zu den Gesteinen im Seebecken und der näheren Umgebung erkennen.Die Ablagerungen in ariden Seen bieten deshalb günstige Voraussetzungen (1) zur Exploration nutzbarer Metallanreicherungen und (2) zur Ermittlung von background Daten für umwelt-geochemische Untersuchungen. Der erstgenannte Aspekt wird anhand von Nickel-, Chrom- und Kobaltanreicherungen in See-Sedimenten Westaustraliens beschrieben. Für den zweiten Anwendungsbereich sind vor allem die Zink- und Kupferwerte zu nennen, die sehr geringe Schwankungen aufweisen und mit ihren Durchschnittsgehalten den mittleren Tongesteinsanteilen dieser Elemente entsprechen; die Zunahme der Bleigehalte in den Sedimenten einiger der untersuchten australischen Trockenseen könnte einen Hinweis auf den Anstieg der atmosphärischen Bleiverschmutzung darstellen.

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Résumé Les lacs arides de l'Australie du Sud, de l'Ouest et du Centre représentent un type spécial dans la système des eaux continentales. Leur développement hydrochimique se caractérise par l'absence d'une précipitation de carbonates. La composition minéralogique des sédiments lacustres est surtout influencée par une dégradation nonchimique et montre un »héritage détritique« distinct des formations rocheuses situées dans le basin lacustre et dans sa proximité.Les sédiments dans les lacs arides offrent donc des conditions favorables (1) à l'exploration des enrichissements de métaux exploitables et (2) à l'évaluation de données fondamentales (»background«) pour les analyses géochimiques de l'environnement. Le premier de ces deux aspects sera décrit au moyen des enrichissements de nickel, de chrome et de cobalt dans les sédiments lacustres de l'Australie de l'Ouest. Pour le second aspect et pour son application, il faut avant tout signaler les teneurs de zinc et de cuivre, qui varient très peu et qui correspondent aux teneurs moyennes de ces métaux dans les roches argileuses; l'enrichissement en plomb dans les sédiments de quelques lacs arides explorés en Australie pourrait donner une indication sur l'accroisement de la pollution atmosphérique par le plomb.

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Experimental shock synthesis of diamonds in a graphite gneiss

Abstract— The occurrence of diamonds in terrestrial impact craters and meteorites is related to dynamic shock loading during hypervelocity impacts. To understand the mechanism of impact diamond formation in natural rocks, shock‐recovery experiments with graphite gneiss were carried out at shock pressures between 35 and 79 GPa. This is the first report on the successful shock synthesis of microdiamonds in a natural rock. Micrometer‐size diamonds and a wide range of intermediate, presently unclassified, amorphous, and disordered carbon phases were observed within vesiculated biotite melts in the vicinity of relic graphite grains using microRaman spectrometry. We explain these findings by jetting mechanisms of carbon and graphite clusters, originating at the edges of graphite grains, into the very hot and volatile rich biotitic melt veins during shock loading. This environment enabled the thermally activated crystallization of diamonds during shock compression in a period of less than 0.5 μsec. Regraphitization of diamonds during pressure release was widespread and caused the formation of the amorphous to disordered carbon phases recorded frequently with microRaman spectroscopy. The surviving diamonds must have cooled down to 2000 K during the compression phase at local thermal sinks and cooler interfaces to avoid regraphitization.     

Experimental investigation of shock metamorphic effects in a metapelitic granulite: The importance of shock impedance contrast between components

Shock recovery experiments were performed at 12.5, 25, 34, 40, and 56 GPa at 25 °C, and at 18 and 25 GPa at 400 °C, on a high‐grade, migmatitic, garnet‐cordierite metapelite from the Etivé aureole, Scotland. Objectives for this study were to (1) characterize shock effects in a complex polymineralic rock with a significant proportion of hydrous ferromagnesian minerals, both as a function of variable shock pressure and preshock temperature, and (2) to explore the effects of shock impedance contrast between component minerals on the respective abundances and distribution of these features. At any shock pressure, the order of decreasing intensity of shock metamorphic effects in component phases is: cordierite (Crd)→biotite (Bt)→plagioclase (Pl)→K‐feldspar (Kfs)→quartz (Qtz)→garnet (Grt)→orthopyroxene (Opx). Samples shocked to pressures below 40 GPa (25 °C) were typically characterized by marked heterogeneous distribution of shock effects on both intragranular and intergranular scales. Shock heterogeneity is mainly attributed to shock impedance contrast between contiguous phases, and manifests as shock amplification locally where shock impedance contrast is greatest, and shock suppression where impedance contrast is least. The heterogeneous distribution of shock metamorphic effects in both experiments and natural rocks is a signature of extreme disequilibrium at the submillimeter scale. The heterogeneous distribution of shock metamorphic effects mitigates against the use of shock effects in minerals exclusively as regional shock pressure barometers, and ought to be augmented by additional constraints on shock pressure from numerical models.     

Shock experiments in support of the Lithopanspermia theory: The influence of host rock composition,temperature, and shock pressure on the survival rate of endolithic and epilithic microorganisms

Abstract– Shock recovery experiments were performed with an explosive set‐up in which three types of microorganisms embedded in various types of host rocks were exposed to strong shock waves with pressure pulse lengths of lower than 0.5 μs: spores of the bacterium Bacillus subtilis, Xanthoria elegans lichens, and cells of the cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis sp. 029. In these experiments, three fundamental parameters were systematically varied (1) shock pressures ranging from 5 to 50 GPa, (2) preshock ambient temperature of 293, 233 and 193 K, and (3) the type of host rock, including nonporous igneous rocks (gabbro and dunite as analogs for the Martian shergottites and chassignites, respectively), porous sandstone, rock salt (halite), and a clay‐rich mineral mixture as porous analogs for dry and water‐saturated Martian regolith. The results show that the three parameters have a strong influence on the survival rates of the microorganisms. The most favorable conditions for the impact ejection from Mars for microorganisms would be (1) low porosity host rocks, (2) pressures <10–20 GPa, and (3) low ambient temperature of target rocks during impact. All tested microorganisms were capable of surviving to a certain extent impact ejection in different geological materials under distinct conditions.     

Zur Altersstellung und Entstehung der Sulfiderze vom Typus Falun

Zusammenfassung Die Sulfiderze vom Typus Falun werden allgemein charakterisiert und bisherige Bearbeitungen und Deutungen mitgeteilt. Entgegen der derzeit dominierenden Auffassung einer in Verbindung mit den synsvionischen Gneisgraniten pyrometasomatischen Entstehung werden für das prototypische Falun stratigraphische, strukturelle und petrogenetische Kriterien beigebracht, die gegen einen Zusammenhang von Sulfiderzbildung/Mg-Metasomatose und Gneisgranitgenese sprechen. Demzufolge sind Erze und Material für die Kristallisation der Mg-Fe-Si-Metasomatose bereits vor Eindringen der Quarzporphyrgänge, die einer Spätphase der Suprakrustalgenese angehören, maßgeblich am Platze gewesen. Für die Erze ist eine synsedimentär-exhalativ-thermale Entstehung wahrscheinlich. Der Stoffbestand für die heute als Umwandlungsaureolen bezeichneten Nebengesteine dürfte zusammen mit, oder im Anschluß an die Erzbildung durch Auto- oder Infiltrationsmetasomatose angelegt worden sein. Während der svionischen Orogenese wurde der Gesteinsverband durch Polymetamorphose maßgeblichen Umkristallisationen und Stoffverschiebungen ausgesetzt. Letztere erfolgten oder wurden hauptsächlich durch Kinetometamorphose ausgelöst. Deutliche Tendenz für molekuläre Platzbeständigkeit liegt vor.

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This paper gives the general characteristics of the Falun type ores and includes a review of previous work and interpretations. Formerly prevailing concepts consider a pyrometasomatic ore formation genetically connected with the emplacement of the synsvionic gneissgranites. According to the present reappraisal the ores and the materials used in the crystallization of Mg-Fe-Si-metasomatic rocks have mostly been present previous to the intrusion of the quartz-porphyry dikes which belong to a late stage of supracrustal formation. The original formation of the ores is suggested to be due to synsedimentation exhalative-thermal processes. The chemical composition of the part of the wallrock formerly described as alteration aureoles is believed to have been developed by auto- or infiltration metasomatism connected with the formation of the ores. During the Svionic orogeny the rocks and ores suffered polymetamorphic reworking resulting in recrystallizations and materials movements. The latter changes were occasioned or triggered by kinetometamorphism. There is a pronounced tendency for localization stability of the chemical constituents.

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Résumé Les minerais sulfureux de Falun sont caractérisés d'une façon générale et les études qu'on en a faites et les essais d'explication jusqu'ici ont été communiqués. Contrairement à l'opinion émise autrefois en relation avec les granites gneissiques synsvioniques d'une origine pyrométasomatique, on a déterminé des critères stratigraphiques, structurels et pétrogénétiques qui contredisent le rapport de la formation des minerais sulfureux avec métasomatose magnésienne et de celle de granites gneissiques. D'après ces recherches, les minerais et le matériau pour les cristallisations de la «métasomatose Mg-Fe-Si» se sont déjà trouvés sur place avant l'intrusion des filons de porphyre quartzifère qui appartiennent à une phase tardive de la genèse supracrustale. Les minerais ont vraisemblablement une origine à la fois synsédimentaire, exhalative et thérmale. La matière des roches encaissantes désignées sous le nom d'auréoles de métamorphisme a dû venir s'ajouter en liaison avec la formation des minerais par autométasomatose ou métasomatose d'infiltration. Pendant l'orogenèse svionique l'ensemble des roches a été exposé, par polymétamorphisme, à des recristallisations et à des transformations de la matière. Ces dernières furent provoquées soit intégralèment soit essentiellement par une cinétométamorphose. On peut observer une nette tendance à la constance de position moléculaire.

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Vortrag, der mit Ausnahme der historischen Übersieht am 10.3.1962 auf der Grundgebirgstagung der Geologischen Vereinigung in Göttingen gehalten wurde.

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Der Verfasser dankt der Stora Kopparbergs Bergslags AB, Falun, für die Erlaubnis, auf Resultate von Begutachtungen zurückgreifen zu dürfen.