Flexural and gravity modelling of the Mérida Andes and Barinas–Apure Basin, Western Venezuela

The kinematic evolution of the Barinas–Apure Basin and the southern Mérida Andes from Lower Miocene to the Present is numerically modelled using flexural isostatic theory and geophysical and geological data. Two published regional transects are used to build up a reference section, which is then used to constrain important parameters (e.g. shortenings and sedimentary thicknesses) for the flexural modelling. To control the location of the main fault system in the flexural model earthquake information is also used. The estimated flexural elastic thickness of the South American lithosphere beneath the Barinas–Apure Basin and the Mérida Andes Range is 25 km. The value for the final total shortening is 60 km. The flexural isostatic model shows that the Andean uplift has caused the South American lithosphere subsidence and the development of the Barinas–Apure Basin.In addition, gravity modelling was used to understand deep crustal features that could not be predicted by flexural theory. Consequently, the best-fit flexural model is used to build a gravity model across the Mérida Andes and the Barinas–Apure Basin preserving the best-controlled structural features from the flexural modelling (e.g. basin wavelength and depth) and slightly changing the main bodies density values and deep crustal structures. The final gravity model is intended to be representative of the major features affecting the gravity field in the study area. The predicted morphology in the lower crustal level of the final gravity model favours the hypothesis of a present delamination or megathrust of the Maracaibo crust over the South American Shield. This process would use the Conrad discontinuity as a main detachment surface within an incipient NW dipping continental subduction.     

Age, distribution, tectonics, and eustatic controls of the Paranense and Caribbean marine transgressions in southern Bolivia and Argentina

Marine transgression onto the South American continent took place at least twice in the Miocene along distinct paleogeographic corridors. The first event occurred between 15 and 13 Ma and the second between 10 and 5? Ma. Each event has particular dominant variables (tectonism, eustacy, sediment accumulation rate) that permitted the preservation of the record and development of the sea on the continent. The 15–13 Ma transgression was tectonically and eustatically controlled, flooding older sedimentary accommodation zones on the South American plate during a global high sea level, whereas the 105? Ma event was predominantly tectonically controlled, generated by tectonic loading created in the Cordillera Oriental fold-and-thrust belt. A new 7.72±0.31 Ma ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar date from the Río Parapetí in Bolivia suggests that the 15–13 Ma transgression registered in Argentina produced no continental connection to the Caribbean transgression, registered in Bolivia, because of temporal constraints.     

23,000 yr of vegetation history of the Upper Lerma, a tropical high-altitude basin in Central Mexico

Pollen analysis on a 9.54-m sediment core from lake Chignahuapan in the upper Lerma basin, the highest intermontane basin in Central Mexico (2570 m asl), documents vegetation and limnological changes over the past ∼23,000 ¹⁴C yr. The core was drilled near the archaeological site of Santa Cruz Atizapán, a site with a long history of human occupation, abandoned at the end of the Epiclassic period (ca. 900 AD). Six radiocarbon AMS dates and two well-dated volcanic events, the Upper Toluca Pumice with an age of 11,600 ¹⁴C yr B.P. and the Tres Cruces Tephra of 8500 ¹⁴C yr B.P., provide the chronological framework for the lacustrine sequence. From ca. 23,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. to ca. 11,600 ¹⁴C yr B.P. the plant communities were woodlands and grasslands based on the pollen data. The glacial advances MII-1 and MII-2 correlate with abundant non-arboreal pollen, mainly grasses, from ca. 21,000 to 16,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P., and at ca. 12,600 ¹⁴C yr B.P. During the late Pleistocene, lake Chignahuapan was a shallow freshwater lake with a phase of lower level between 19,000 and 16,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. After 10,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P., tree cover in the area increased, and a more variable lake level is documented. Late Holocene (ca. 3100 ¹⁴C yr B.P.) deforestation was concurrent with human population expansion at the beginning of the Formative period (1500 B.C.). Agriculture and manipulation of the lacustrine environment by human lakeshore populations appear at 1200 ¹⁴C yr B.P. (550 A.D.) with the appearance of Zea mays pollen and abundant charcoal particles.     

Statistical identification of orographic effects in the regional analysis of extreme rainfall

Regional models of extreme rainfall must address the spatial variability induced by orographic obstacles. However, the proper detection of orographic effects often depends on the availability of a well‐designed rain gauge network. The aim of this study is to investigate a new method for identifying and characterizing the effects of orography on the spatial structure of extreme rainfall at the regional scale, including where rainfall data are lacking or fail to describe rainfall features thoroughly. We analyse the annual maxima of daily rainfall data in the Campania region, an orographically complex region in Southern Italy, and introduce a statistical procedure to identify spatial outliers in a low order statistic (namely the mean). The locations of these outliers are then compared with a pattern of orographic objects that has been a priori identified through the application of an automatic geomorphological procedure. The results show a direct and clear link between a particular set of orographic objects and a local increase in the spatial variability of extreme rainfall. This analysis allowed us to objectively identify areas where orography produces enhanced variability in extreme rainfall. It has direct implications for rain gauge network design criteria and has led to promising developments in the regional analysis of extreme rainfall. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The use of the exponent K(q) function to delimit homogeneous regions in regional frequency analysis of extreme annual daily rainfall

The regional frequency analysis of extreme annual rainfall data is a useful methodology in hydrology to obtain certain quantile values when no long data series are available. The most crucial step in the analysis is the grouping of sites into homogeneous regions. This work presents a new grouping criterion based on some multifractal properties of rainfall data. For this purpose, a regional frequency analysis of extreme annual rainfall data from the Maule Region (Chile) has been performed. Daily rainfall data series of 53 available stations have been studied, and their empirical moments scaling exponent functions K(q) have been obtained. Two characteristics parameters of the K(q) functions (γ_max and K(0)) have been used to group the stations into three homogeneous regions. Only five sites have not been possible to include into any homogenous regions, being the local frequency analysis of extreme daily rainfall the most appropriate method to be used at these locations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pre‐Alpine discordant granitic dikes in the metamorphic core of the Betic Cordillera: tectonic implications

Pegmatite dikes bearing andalusite crosscut foliation S₂ in Alpujarride gneisses and schists. Post‐S₂ andalusite is transposed by a foliation S₃, defined by fibrolite, which affects the dikes. The dikes represent highly differentiated granitic magmas with low REE and Zr contents and a positive Eu anomaly. U‐Pb SHRIMP dating of magmatic zircons provided Pan‐African ages (cores) and late Variscan ages (rims). However, U‐rich rims also provided metamorphic Alpine ages, supporting a polyorogenic tectonometamorphic history for pre‐Mesozoic Alpujarride rocks.     

Deciphering late Devonian–early Carboniferous P–T–t path of mylonitized garnet-mica schists from Prins Karls Forland,Svalbard

Quartz-in-garnet inclusion barometry integrated with trace element thermometry and calculated phase relations is applied to mylonitized schists of the Pinkie unit cropping out on the island of Prins Karls Forland, western part of the Svalbard Archipelago. This approach combines conventional and novel techniques and allows deciphering of the pressure–temperature (P–T) evolution of mylonitic rocks, for which the P–T conditions could not have been easily deciphered using traditional methods. The results obtained suggest that rocks of the Pinkie unit were metamorphosed under amphibolite facies conditions at 8–10 kbar and 560–630°C and mylonitized at ~500 to 550°C and 9–11 kbar. The P–T results are coupled with in-situ Th–U-total Pb monazite dating, which records amphibolite facies metamorphism at c. 359–355 Ma. This is the very first evidence of late Devonian–early Carboniferous metamorphism in Svalbard and it implies that the Ellesmerian Orogeny on Svalbard was associated with metamorphism up to amphibolite facies conditions. Thus, it can be concluded that the Ellesmerian collision between the Franklinian margin of Laurentia and Pearya and Svalbard caused not only commonly accepted brittle deformation and weak greenschist facies metamorphism, but also a burial and deformation of rock complexes at much greater depths at elevated temperatures.     

Late Holocene environmental conditions in Coronation Gulf,southwestern Canadian Arctic Archipelago: evidence from dinoflagellate cysts,other non‐pollen palynomorphs,and pollen

Boxcore 99LSSL‐001 (68.095° N, 114.186° W; 211 m water depth) from Coronation Gulf represents the first decadal‐scale marine palynology and late Holocene sediment record for the southwestern part of the Northwest Passage. The record was studied for organic‐walled microfossils (dinoflagellate cysts, non‐pollen palynomorphs), pollen, terrestrial spores, and sediment characteristics. ²¹⁰Pb, ¹³⁷Cs, and three accelerator mass spectrometry ¹⁴C dates constrain the chronology. Three prominent palaeoenvironmental zones were identified. During the interval AD 1470–1680 (Zone I), the climate was warmer and wetter than at present, and environmental conditions were more favourable to biological activity and northward boreal forest migration, with reduced sea‐ice and a longer open‐water (growing) season. The interval AD 1680–1940 (Zone II) records sea‐ice increase, and generally cool, polar conditions during the Little Ice Age. During AD 1940–2000 (Zone III), organic microfossils indicate an extended open‐water season and decreased sea‐ice, with suggested amelioration surpassing that of Zone I. Although more marine studies are needed to place this record into an appropriate context, the succession from ameliorated (Zone I) to cooler, sea‐ice influenced conditions (Zone II) and finally to 20th‐century warming (Zone III) corresponds well with several terrestrial climatic records from the neighbouring mainland and Victoria Island, and with lower‐resolution marine records to the west. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Segmentation and kinematics of the North America‐Caribbean plate boundary offshore Hispaniola

We explored the submarine portions of the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden Fault zone (EPGFZ) and the Septentrional–Oriente Fault zone (SOFZ) along the Northern Caribbean plate boundary using high‐resolution multibeam echo‐sounding and shallow seismic reflection. The bathymetric data shed light on poorly documented or previously unknown submarine fault zones running over 200 km between Haiti and Jamaica (EPGFZ) and 300 km between the Dominican Republic and Cuba (SOFZ). The primary plate‐boundary structures are a series of strike‐slip fault segments associated with pressure ridges, restraining bends, step overs and dogleg offsets indicating very active tectonics. Several distinct segments 50–100 km long cut across pre‐existing structures inherited from former tectonic regimes or bypass recent morphologies formed under the current strike‐slip regime. Along the most recent trace of the SOFZ, we measured a strike‐slip offset of 16.5 km, which indicates steady activity for the past ~1.8 Ma if its current GPS‐derived motion of 9.8 ± 2 mm a^?1 has remained stable during the entire Quaternary.