The crustal evolution of South America from a zircon Hf‐isotope perspective

Hf‐isotope data of >1100 detrital zircon grains from the Palaeozoic, south‐central Andean Gondwana margin record the complete crustal evolution of South America, which was the predominant source. The oldest grains, with crustal residence ages of 3.8–4.0 Ga, are consistent with complete recycling of existing continental crust around 4 Ga. We confirm three major Archaean, Palaeoproterozoic (Transamazonian) and late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic crust‐addition phases as well as six igneous phases during Proterozoic to Palaeozoic time involving mixing of juvenile and crustally reworked material. A late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic, Grenville‐age igneous belt can be postulated along the palaeo‐margin of South America. This belt was the basement for later magmatic arcs and accreted allochthonous microcontinents as recorded by similar crustal residence ages. Crustal reworking likely dominated over juvenile addition during the Palaeozoic era, and Proterozoic and Archaean zircon was mainly crustally reworked from the eroding, thickened Ordovician Famatinian arc.     

Flux comparison of Eulerian and Lagrangian estimates of Agulhas leakage: A case study using a numerical model

Estimating the magnitude of Agulhas leakage, the volume flux of water from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean, is difficult because of the presence of other circulation systems in the Agulhas region. Indian Ocean water in the Atlantic Ocean is vigorously mixed and diluted in the Cape Basin. Eulerian integration methods, where the velocity field perpendicular to a section is integrated to yield a flux, have to be calibrated so that only the flux by Agulhas leakage is sampled. Two Eulerian methods for estimating the magnitude of Agulhas leakage are tested within a high-resolution two-way nested model with the goal to devise a mooring-based measurement strategy. At the GoodHope line, a section halfway through the Cape Basin, the integrated velocity perpendicular to that line is compared to the magnitude of Agulhas leakage as determined from the transport carried by numerical Lagrangian floats. In the first method, integration is limited to the flux of water warmer and more saline than specific threshold values. These threshold values are determined by maximizing the correlation with the float-determined time series. By using the threshold values, approximately half of the leakage can directly be measured. The total amount of Agulhas leakage can be estimated using a linear regression, within a 90% confidence band of 12 Sv. In the second method, a subregion of the GoodHope line is sought so that integration over that subregion yields an Eulerian flux as close to the float-determined leakage as possible. It appears that when integration is limited within the model to the upper 300 m of the water column within 900 km of the African coast the time series have the smallest root-mean-square difference. This method yields a root-mean-square error of only 5.2 Sv but the 90% confidence band of the estimate is 20 Sv. It is concluded that the optimum thermohaline threshold method leads to more accurate estimates even though the directly measured transport is a factor of two lower than the actual magnitude of Agulhas leakage in this model.     

Long-term ice sheet–climate interactions under anthropogenic greenhouse forcing simulated with a complex Earth System Model

Several multi-century and multi-millennia simulations have been performed with a complex Earth System Model (ESM) for different anthropogenic climate change scenarios in order to study the long-term evolution of sea level and the impact of ice sheet changes on the climate system. The core of the ESM is a coupled coarse-resolution Atmosphere–Ocean General Circulation Model (AOGCM). Ocean biogeochemistry, land vegetation and ice sheets are included as components of the ESM. The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) decays in all simulations, while the Antarctic ice sheet contributes negatively to sea level rise, due to enhanced storage of water caused by larger snowfall rates. Freshwater flux increases from Greenland are one order of magnitude smaller than total freshwater flux increases into the North Atlantic basin (the sum of the contribution from changes in precipitation, evaporation, run-off and Greenland meltwater) and do not play an important role in changes in the strength of the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (NAMOC). The regional climate change associated with weakening/collapse of the NAMOC drastically reduces the decay rate of the GrIS. The dynamical changes due to GrIS topography modification driven by mass balance changes act first as a negative feedback for the decay of the ice sheet, but accelerate the decay at a later stage. The increase of surface temperature due to reduced topographic heights causes a strong acceleration of the decay of the ice sheet in the long term. Other feedbacks between ice sheet and atmosphere are not important for the mass balance of the GrIS until it is reduced to 3/4 of the original size. From then, the reduction in the albedo of Greenland strongly accelerates the decay of the ice sheet.     

Trace metals in fucoid algae and purple sea urchins near a high Arctic lead/zinc ore deposit

Seaweed and urchins accumulate Fe and Zn to higher concentrations near a lead/zinc ore body than further away. The concentration of three metals (Cu, Fe and Zn) in seaweed increase with age of tissue. As and Cd are lowest in tissue of intermediate age, suggesting a reversible bonding mechanism for the two elements.Concentrations of Fe in whole urchins, and Zn in the gonads, are higher than concentrations in Fucus tips, which represent a lower level in the food web. Fe is higher in whole sea urchins than in their gonads. For As and Zn the relationship is reversed.     

The convergence of harmonic reduction to an internal sphere

The boundary value problem of physical geodesy has been solved with the use of a harmonic reduction down to an internal sphere using a discrete procedure. (For gravity cf. Bjerhammar 1964 and for the potential cf. Bjerhammar 1968). This was a finite-dimensional approach mostly with one-to-one correspondence between observations and unknowns on the sphere. Earlier studies were made with the use of surface elements (on the sphere) with constantgravity. Integration over the surface elements was replaced by a discrete approach with the use of the distance to a point in the centre of the surface element. See Bjerhammar (1968) and (1969). This approach was later presented as a “reflexive prediction” technique for a weakly stationary stochastic process. Bjerhammar (1974, 1976). Krarup (1969) minimized the L²-norm of the potential on the internal sphere. It will here be proved that the two solutions are identical for a proper choice of the radii of the internal spheres. The proof is given for a spherical earth with selected choice of “carrier points”. The convergence problem is discussed. The L²-norm solution is found convergent for the fully harmonic case. Uniform convergence is obtained in the non-harmonic case with the use of the original procedure applied in accordance with the theorems of Keldych-Lavrentieff and Yamabe.     

Arsenic in marine organisms from West Greenland

Natural background levels of trace metals in marine organisms from a West Greenland inlet were studied during the summer of 1972 and 1973. Dry weight arsenic levels ranged from 11.1 to 307 ppm in fish fillets and from 7.6 to 512 ppm in fish livers. Prawns had arsenic levels ranging up to 80.2 ppm, contrasting with 6.0 ppm in planktonic copepods. The results suggest that in certain marine organisms organo-arsenics predominate and are less toxic than inorganic arsenic compounds.     

Study of peristerites using transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis

Peristerite feldspars from Seiland in Norway have been studied by a combination of transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The different types of microtextures have been correlated with the local mean composition, and it is found that the miscibility gap between An₄ and An₁₇ extends into the ternary Or—Ab—An region. The orientation of the more common type of exsolution lamellae varies from (08¯1) to about (¯1, 21, ¯2) with increasing potassium content.     

Experimental determination of the temperature and pressure dependence of the Fe-Mg partition coefficient for coexisting garnet and clinopyroxene

An experimental study initiated to calibrate the distribution coefficient \(K_D = \frac{{({\text{FeO}}/{\text{MgO}})_{{\text{ga}}} }}{{{\text{(FeO}}/{\text{MgO)}}_{{\text{cpx}}} }}\) in eclogites as a geothermometer has been done on (a) a mineral mis, (b) a glass of the typical tholeiite composition and (c) a series of glasses of tholeiite compositions with \(6.2 < \frac{{100{\text{Mg}}}}{{{\text{Mg}} + {\text{Fe}}^{ + + } }} < 93.\) The mineral mix was found to be unsuitable as reactant due to incomplete equilibration but the minimum K _D of the mineral mix and the K _D from glass of tholeiite composition are identical within experimental uncertainty. These data constitute a reversal of the garnet/clinopyroxene partition relationship and provide justification of the use of glass as a reactant for the project. To eliminate any uncertainty in interpretation of mineral analyses due to possible variation in Fe⁺⁺⁺/Fe⁺⁺ between runs, experiments were carried out in iron capsules on the nine tholeiite glasses, thus maintaining iron as Fe⁺⁺. Microprobe analytical techniques yielded mineral analyses of comparable accuracy to analyses of natural phases for experiments within the temperature range from 600° C to 1500° C and a pressure range from 20 kb to 40 kb. It has been shown that for \(6.2 < \frac{{100{\text{Mg}}}}{{{\text{Mg}} + {\text{Fe}}^{ + + } }} < 85\) , the bulk chemical composition does not perceptibly affect the K _D value. At 30 kb the K _D value ranges from 18.0 at 600° C to 1.45 at 1400° C, defining the linear relationship in a ln K _D vs 1/T(°K) plot. The pressure dependence of the K _D -value has been shown to be greater than previously predicted. There is a straight line relationship in ln K _D vs Pressure (Kb) between 20 and 40 kb at constant temperature (1100°C). This enables us to determine K _D =fn (T, P) and \(T(^\circ {\text{K}}) = \frac{{3686 + 28.35 \times P({\text{Kb}})}}{{\ln K_D + 2.33}}\) . This expression uniquely determines the temperature of equilibration of natural eclogites of basaltic bulk composition when the K _D ^ga,cpx is known and a pressure estimate can be given.