Stress modeling of tectonic blocks at Cape Kamchatka, Russia using principal stress proxies from high-resolution SAR: new evidence for the Komandorskiy Block

A new data set of 851 lineaments mapped from European Remote Sensing satellites 1 and 2 full resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data are interpreted as geological proxies for stresses resulting from plate and block collision near the Cape Kamchatka region of the Kamchatka Peninsula using a Geographical Information Systems-based analysis. Numerical Manifold Method (NMM) analysis is used to model the stress field within the Cape Kamchatka region resulting from the collision of lithospheric plates and blocks. Results of our NMM model, using different plate motion and plate configuration in the region, are compared with orientation data for the mapped set of lineaments. These data suggest that the lineaments observed in SAR cannot be fully explained by a simple two-plate model in this in the Cape Kamchatka region. As an alternative, we propose that the data can be explained by the existence of the previously proposed Komandorskiy Block. Recent Global Positioning Satellite measurements in the Aleutian Islands support our lineament-derived model and show that the near Islands/Komandorskiy Island block of the extreme western Aleutians is moving independently of the North American Plate.     

What path and how fast? The effect of flight time and path on user spatial understanding in map tour animations

GIScience scholars have identified map tours as an important visualization type for communicating spatial information: map tours are animations where the virtual camera moves through space and are common on the web, mobile devices, and television. Understanding how to enhance their effectiveness is timely because of recent, growing interest in virtual reality and animated map presentation tools such as Esri Story Maps? and Google Earth? tours. Despite this popularity, little empirical evidence exists about how people learn from map tours and how they should best be designed to improve effectiveness. This research is aimed at answering that need. An empirical study is described, which was designed to understand how virtual camera speed, path, and dynamic tilting within a map tour influence subjects’ ability to develop survey knowledge. The results of the experiment show that paths encompassing overviews of the landscape improve the viewer’s ability to build up survey knowledge; that tilting appears to have a much weaker effect; and that combining fast speed and a difficult path within a map tour increases the viewer’s cognitive load.     

Polychaete Communities of Greece: An Ecological Overview

Abstract. Benthic samples were collected from 188 stations distributed over the Aegean and Ionian Seas (Greece, Eastern Mediterranean). Sampled substrata represented a variety of biotopes in soft bottoms with depths ranging from 3 to 380 m. The samples yielded a total of 398 species of polychaetes. Detrended Correspondence Analysis was applied to the whole set of data as well as to three bathymetric groups into which the data was divided. The results showed that in each bathymetric group, different factors determine the spatial distribution of species. Over the whole data set the type of substrata proved to be the major factor, whereas depth is the second most important. Other controlling factors were the substratum type and exposure to hydrodynamism in the shallow group, depth and substratum in the intermediate, and sediment granulometry and depth in the deep one. Diversity, species number and density tended to decrease with depth, while diversity and species number are favoured by coarse material in the sediment.     

Effect of marine litter on the benthic megafauna of coastal soft bottoms: a manipulative field experiment

The effect of litter on the abundance and community structure of soft-bottom epibenthic megafauna was investigated in three coves of the Saronikos Gulf (Aegean Sea). At each site, two surfaces were defined on the sea-bottom. One of the surfaces was uniformly littered with debris (16 items per 100 m(2)), while the other remained 'clean' and acted as control. Benthic megafauna was censused with SCUBA diving, once before the littering episode and then monthly for one year. Both total abundance and the number of species showed an increasing trend in the impacted surfaces, either because the litter provided refuge or reproduction sites for mobile species or because hard-substratum sessile species had the opportunity to settle on provided surfaces. A marked gradual deviation in the community structure of the impacted surface from the control and a clear successional pattern of change in the community composition of the impacted surfaces were demonstrated.     

Paleomagnetism of Khatyrka and Maynitsky superterranes, Koryak highlands, far eastern Russia

We have completed a paleomagnetic reconnaissance study of sedimentary and volcanic extrusive rocks collected from two major tectonic zones in northeastern Russia. Paleomagnetic sites were sampled within the fault-bounded structural units of the Khatyrka and Maynitsky superterranes and an overlap sequence of the Khatyrka superterrane. These sampling localities were chosen to allow both within-site and between-site fold tests. Stepwise thermal demagnetization within the temperature range 200–640°C showed a characteristic linear demagnetization path between thermal demagnetization steps of 400°C and 530°C. For thermal steps above 550°C, the magnetic intensity of many samples began to increase rapidly with magnetic directions, which were random between heating steps, suggesting the formation of new magnetic phases in these samples. Paleomagnetic samples collected from basalts and sediments of the Khatyrka superterrane and basalts and gabbros of the Maynitsky superterrane pass fold tests and show significant poleward motion of these superterranes since the formation of their rocks. The observed paleomagnetic paleolatitudes between 24°N or S and 32°N or S can be compared with expected paleolatitudes of 57°N to 79°N. Paleomagnetic results from sites collected from overlapping Senonian rocks pass a fold test at the 99% confidence level and give a pole position not significantly different from that expected from the apparent polar wander path for the Eurasia or North America plates, suggesting that these sedimentary units overlapping the Khatyrka superterrane were deposited along the ancient northeast margin of the Eurasian plate. The declination, in stratigraphie coordinates, shows a maximum clockwise rotation of about 20° when compared with the Eurasian APWP.     

Temporal Variations of Nutrients, ­Chlorophyll a and Particulate Matter in Three Coastal Lagoons of Amvrakikos Gulf (Ionian Sea, Greece)

Abstract. The temporal variations of nutrients, chlorophyll a (chl a ), suspended particulate matter (SPM) and particulate organic carbon (POC) were measured over 12 months in three shallow coastal brackish water lagoons of the Amvrakikos Gulf, Ionian Sea. Two of the lagoons, Tsoukalio and Rodia, are interconnected but separated from Logarou by a narrow strip of land. Logarou has a better water exchange with the sea as indicated by the higher salinity and dissolved oxygen concentrations and the smaller variation of the above-mentioned parameters. Nitrate concentrations were largely the same in the three lagoons and higher than in the Amvrakikos Gulf. Phosphate concentrations in Logarou exceeded by far those of Tsoukalio/Rodia; the increased phosphate levels recorded in January caused an extended phytoplankton bloom with chl a concentrations higher than in the other two lagoons. Chl a in Tsoukalio was positively correlated with nitrate whereas in the most shallow lagoon, Logarou, it showed a positive correlation with light winds (force 4 and lower), probably caused by resuspension from the sediment. Increased phytoplankton biomass in Logarou coupled with the better water exchange may be related to the higher fish production in this lagoon.     

Extension of lattice strain theory to mineral/mineral rare-earth element partitioning: An approach for assessing disequilibrium and developing internally consistent partition coefficients between olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene and basaltic melt

Olivine/melt and orthopyroxene/melt rare-earth element (REE) partition coefficients consistent with clinopyroxene/melt partition coefficients were determined indirectly from subsolidus partitioning between olivine, orthopyroxene, and clinopyroxene after suitable correction for temperature. Heavy- and middle-REE ratios for olivine/clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene/clinopyroxene pairs correlate negatively with effective cationic radius, whereas those for the light REEs correlate positively with cationic radius, generating a U-shaped pattern in apparent mineral/clinopyroxene partition coefficients versus cationic radius. Lattice strain models of partitioning modified for subsolidus conditions yield negative correlations of olivine/clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene/clinopyroxene with respect to cationic radii, predicting well the measured partitioning behaviors of the heavy and middle REEs but not that of the light REEs. The light-REE systematics cannot be explained with lattice strain theory and, instead, can be explained by disequilibrium enrichment of the light REEs in melt inclusions or on the rims of olivine and orthopyroxene. Realistic light-REE partition coefficients were thus extrapolated from the measured heavy- and middle-REE partition coefficients using the lattice strain model. Light REE olivine/melt and orthopyroxene/melt partition coefficients calculated in this manner are lower than most published values, but agree reasonably well with partitioning experiments using the most recent in situ analytical techniques (secondary-ionization mass spectrometry and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry). These new olivine/melt and orthopyroxene/melt partition coefficients are useful for accurate modeling of the REE contents of clinopyroxene-poor to -free lithologies, such as harzburgitic residues of melting. Finally, the application of the lattice strain theory to subsolidus conditions represents a framework for assessing the degree of REE disequilibrium in a rock.     

Paleomagnetism of Cretaceous units of the Mametchinskiy Peninsula, Kuyul Region, Northeastern Russia: implications for development and evolution of the Northwest Pacific Basin

The northernmost part of the Kamchatka Peninsula of northeastern Russia, located along the northwestern margin of the Bering Sea, consists of zones of complexly deformed accreted terranes. Progressing from the northwestern Bering Sea inland are the Olyutorskiy, Ukelayat, and Koryak superterranes, which were accreted to the Okhotsk–Chukotsk volcanic–plutonic belt (OChVB) during the Campanian–Maastrichtian (Koryak) to Middle Eocene (Olyutorskiy), respectively. To constrain the accretion paleolatitude of the Koryak superterrane, we paleomagnetically sampled a sedimentary series on the Mametchinskiy Peninsula. At the Mametchinskiy Peninsula, in the northeastern Penzhinskaya Guba (61.45° N, 163.75° E), a gently deformed, well-bedded section of fine-grained Lower to lower Upper Cretaceous turbidites, the Mametchinskaya and Tylakrylskaya Formations are exposed. These strata, which represent the lower part of the sedimentary cover of the terranes in this region and the forearc of OChVB, were sampled at 39 sites (three to seven samples per site). Within the Ainyn terrane, more than 1000 m of section of Cenomanian–Turonian age was sampled at a basal locality (sample groups I and II, sites 1–18, 19–29) and at an upper locality of Valanginian–Barremian age (sample group III, sites 30–39) along the western shore of the Peninsula. Thermal demagnetization and principal component analysis of the demagnetization data show lower-temperature (A) and higher-temperature (B) magnetic components. Although group III samples did not display a coherent A component, the A component of group I and II samples was observed as a single-polarity lower-unblocking temperature component generally removed by 100–400 °C. This component failed the fold test at the 95% confidence level. With respect to direction, the A component is similar to both the present-day field and axial–geocentric dipole directions expected at this site. The B component was observed during thermal demagnetization steps up to 580 °C and was always of downward-directed inclination. Coherence of bedding corrections within each section do not allow statistically meaningful fold tests within groups I, II or III. Assuming the B component represents a Cretaceous magnetization, two overall models are proposed. In the first model (preferred), with the highest clustering of directions (k-value=36.7, N (sites)=36), indicates significant poleward motion of the Ainyn terrane (observed paleolatitude λ_M1=61.0±6.5°; expected North America plate reference site paleolatitude λ_E=74.0±3.5°). In the second model, no significant poleward displacement is implied (λ_M2=72.0±9.6).