Changes in the abundance of the seagrassesZostera marina L. (eelgrass) andRuppia maritima L. (widgeongrass) in San Diego, California, following and El Niño Event

Changes in environmental conditions can be accompanied by shifts in the distribution and abundances of organisms. When physical factors become unsuitable for growth ofZostera marina (eelgrass), which is a dominant seagrass species in North America, other more ruderal seagrass species, includingRuppia maritima (widgeongrass), often increase in abundance or replace the dominant species. We report the proliferation of widgeongrass into eelgrass beds in Mission Bay and San Diego Bay in San Diego, California, during the 1997 to 1998 El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Widgeongrass persisted in these eelgrass beds at least one year after a return to non-ENSO conditions and an increase in eelgrass density. We suggest that a warming of the water in two bays in San Diego by 1.5–2.5°C could result, in a permanent shift in the local seagrass vegetation from eelgrass to widgeongrass. This shift, could, have substantial ecosystem-level ramifications.     

The Puncoviscana trough — a large basin of Late Precambrian to Early Cambrian age on the pacific edge of the Brazilian shield

During the Late Precambrian to Early Cambrian a large basin with a homogeneous psammitic-pelitic sediment fill existed in the area of the NW-Argentine Andes. It is now exposed in different tectonic levels. This basin of meridional elongation was situated on a stable continental margin at the western edge of the Brazilian shield. It was underlain by segmented older continental crust. According to the modal and chemical composition of the greywackes and subgreywackes a predominant metasedimentary source may be supposed. Four clastic facies types indicate a transport by gravity currents within a submarine fan system, while massive red pelites represent cut-off periods, and rare carbonates deposition on rises. The gravity currents derived from easterly directions. The sedimentation age is proved by a rich ichnofauna and some medusoid impressions.

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Zusammenfassung Im Jungpräkambrium bis Unterkambrium existierte im Bereich der NW-argentinischen Anden ein ausgedehnter Trog mit homogener psammitisch-pelitischer Füllung, die heute in verschiedenen Gebirgsstockwerken aufgeschlossen ist. Dieses Becken lag an einem stabilen Kontinentalrand im Westen des Brasilianischen Schildes und war von segmentierter älterer, kontinentaler Kruste unterlagert. Nach der modalen und chemischen Zusammensetzung der Grauwacken und Subgrauwacken sind überwiegend metasedimentäre Herkunftsgesteine anzunehmen. Vier klastische Faziestypen lassen auf Transport durch Trübeströme in submarine Fächer schließen, während mächtige Rotpelite Ruhezeiten und die seltenen Karbonate Ablagerungen auf Schwellen anzeigen. Die Schüttungen stammen aus östlichen Richtungen. Das Sedimentationsalter ist durch eine reichhaltige Ichnofauna und einige Medusenabdrücke dokumentiert.

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Résumén Durante el Precámbrico superior hasta el Cámbrico inferior en los Andes del NW Argentino se extendía una larga cuenca rellena de sedimentos psamo-pelíticos homogéneos, que hoy afloran en distintos pisos tectónicos. Esta cuenca de elongación meridional estaba situada en un margen continental estable al lado occidental del escudo brasileño, sobre corteza continental segmentada más antigua. Según su composición modal y química, las grauvacas y subgrauvacas derivaron predominantemente de rocas metasedimentarias. Cuatro tipos de facies clásticas indican su transporte en corrientes de gravedad, provenientes del este, y sedimentación en conos submarinos. Pelitas rojas macizas representan períodos de sedimentación pelágica, mientras que los escasos carbonatos se depositaron en dorsales. Una icnofauna amplia y algunas impresiones de medusoides documentan la edad de sedimentación.

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Determination of the P,T paths of natural eclogites during metamorphism—record of subduction: A correction to a paper by Råheim & Green (1975)

Recalculation of the published analyses using improved methods of estimating Fe³⁺ leads to revised values for Fe²⁺, K_D and temperature. The revised temperatures are in most cases lower than previously suggested, but the trends remain the same and support the main conclusions of the original paper.     

A geochronological framework for orogenic gold mineralisation in central Victoria, Australia

New ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronological data support, and significantly expand upon, preliminary age data that were interpreted to suggest an episodic and diachronous emplacement of gold across the western Lachlan fold belt, Australia. These geochronological data indicate that mineralisation in the central Victorian gold province occurred in response to episodic, eastward progressing deformation, metamorphism and exhumation associated with the formation of the western Lachlan fold belt. Initial gold formation throughout the Stawell and the Bendigo structural zones can be constrained to a broad interval of time between 455 and 435 Ma, with remobilisation of metals into new structures and/or new pulses of mineralisation occurring between 420 and 400 Ma, and again between 380 and 370 Ma, linked to episodic variations in the regional stress-field and during intrusion of felsic dykes and plutons. This separation of ages is incompatible with the view that gold emplacement in the western Lachlan fold belt was the result of a single, orogen-wide event during the Devonian. A distinct phase of gold mineralisation, characterised by elevated Cu, Mo, Sb or W, is associated with both Late Silurian to Early Devonian (~420 to 400 Ma) and Middle to Late Devonian (~380 to 370 Ma) magmatism, when crustal thickening and shortening during the ongoing consolidation of the western Lachlan Fold Belt led to extensive melt development in the lower crust and resulted in widespread magmatism throughout central Victoria. These ~420 to 400 Ma and ~380 to 370 Ma occurrences, best exemplified by the Wonga deposit in the Stawell structural zone and many of the Woods Point deposits in the Melbourne structural zone, but also evidenced by occurrences at Fosterville and Maldon in the Bendigo structural zone, clearly formed synchronous with, or post-date, the emplacement of plutons and dykes, and thus are spatially (if not genetically) related to melt generation at depth. This later, magmatic-associated and polymetallic type of gold mineralisation is economically subordinate to the earlier, metamorphic-associated type of gold deposition in the Stawell and Bendigo structural zones, but tends to be the dominant style in the Melbourne Zone. These new geochronological constraints, together with zircon U-Pb data from felsic intrusive rocks of known relationship to gold mineralisation, demonstrate that initial hydrothermal alteration associated with gold emplacement in the western Lachlan fold belt was metamorphic-related, predating the emplacement of granite plutons by as much as 80 million years. This timing differs from other important orogenic gold districts where gold deposition is closely associated spatially with felsic magmatism. The early introduction of metamorphically derived fluids well before magmatism may reflect variations in the timing of peak metamorphic conditions at different crustal levels in an accretionary prism undergoing simultaneous deformation and erosion. Consequently, no genetic link exists between the main phase(s) of gold mineralisation and magmatism in the central Victorian gold province. With the exception of formation of a minor magmatism-related and geochemically-distinct mineralisation style at about 420 to 400 Ma, and again at about 380 to 370 Ma, the apparent spatial relationship between gold mineralisation and felsic intrusions is merely the result of melts and fluids being channelised along the same structures.     

Pb---Nd---Sr isotopic constraints on the origin of the Caledonian Bindal Batholith, central Norway

The Bindal Batholith is the largest granitoid batholith in the Scandinavian Caledonides, emplaced prior to or during the Scandian collision in a complex scenario of Ordovician to Middle Silurian nappe assembly. The Bindal Batholith ranges in compositon from mafic gabbro to leucogranite, but granites and granodiorites are by far the most abundant rock types.

Pb---Pb, Sm---Nd and Rb---Sr isotopic results from plutons of the batholith constrain the origin of the Bindal Batholith magmas. The isotope results suggest the presence of several source reservoirs, giving rise to the granitoid magmas. Both a source relatively depleted in U, Th and Rb and enriched in Sm, a source enriched in U and Rb and depleted in Sm, a source enriched in Th and Rb, but depleted in Sm, and, finally, a source enriched in Th and Sm, but depleted in Rb, is indicated by the initial compositions of the radiogenic isotope ratios. It is suggested that the depleted source reservoirs were contemporaneous depleted mantle and mantle derived rocks in the nappe sequences, that the enriched source reservoir was sediments derived from Proterozoic upper crust of Baltic Shield affinity and that the Th-enriched source reservoir was various Proterozoic rocks, in a lower crustal position, of either Baltic or Laurentian affinity.     

Airborne VLF measurements and mapping of ground conductivity in Sweden

Airborne VLF data are routinely collected by The Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU) as part of its bedrock mapping programme. In this paper we demonstrate that the novel Tensor VLF technique developed at Uppsala University and SGU can provide useful qualitative and quantitative information about the electrical conductivity distribution in the upper few hundred meters. Single transmitter scalar VLF maps emphasize those conductive structures that have dominant strikes in the direction of the transmitter. The tensor tipper (essentially the vertical magnetic field from currents along the strike direction) calculated from multiple transmitters is dependent only upon the underlying conductivity structure. Transformation of the tipper into the peaker (the horizontal divergence) has proven to enhance the lateral resolution while the transformation to the apparent resistivity can be used to discriminate different rock types. Two case histories from the application of VLF data are presented in this study. Two dimensional structures can be quantitatively modelled by modern inversion methods developed originally for deep electromagnetic MT soundings. Direct inversion of the real and imaginary parts of the tipper provides more quantitative information about the subsurface resistivity distribution.