Diachronous evolution of volcano-sedimentary basins north of the Congo craton: Insights from U–Pb ion microprobe dating of zircons from the Poli, Lom and Yaoundé Groups (Cameroon)

Ion microprobe U–Pb dating of zircons from Neoproterozoic volcano-sedimentary sequences in Cameroon north of the Congo craton is presented. For the Poli basin, the depositional age is constrained between 700–665 Ma; detrital sources comprise ca. 920, 830, 780 and 736 Ma magmatic zircons. In the Lom basin, the depositional age is constrained between 613 and 600 Ma, and detrital sources include Archaean to Palaeoproterozoic, late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic (1100–950 Ma), and Neoproterozoic (735, 644 and 613 Ma) zircons. The Yaoundé Group is probably younger than 625 Ma, and detrital sources include Palaeoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic zircons. The depositional age of the Mahan metavolcano-sedimentary sequence is post-820 Ma, and detrital sources include late Mesoproterozoic (1070 Ma) and early Neoproterozoic volcanic rocks (824 Ma). The following conclusions can be made from these data. (1) The three basins evolved during the Pan-African event but are significantly different in age and tectonic setting; the Poli is a pre- to syn-collisional basin developed upon, or in the vicinity of young magmatic arcs; the Lom basin is post-collisional and intracontinental and developed on old crust; the tectono-metamorphic evolution of the Yaoundé Group resulted from rapid tectonic burial and subsequent collision between the Congo craton and the Adamawa–Yade block. (2) Late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic inheritance reflects the presence of magmatic event(s) of this age in west–central Africa.     

Middle Weichselian environments on western Yamal Peninsula, Kara Sea based on pollen records

Pollen data from two sections from a coastal cliff on the western Yamal Peninsula (69°43.27′N, 66°48.80′E) document the environmental history during the Karginsky (Middle Weichselian) interstadial. Low pollen concentrations, high amounts of redeposited pollen, and relatively high presence of Artemisia pollen characterize sediments deposited at about 33,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. Grass-sedge plant associations with few other herbs occupied the area during the late Karginsky interstadial. Artemisia pollen may indicate rather xerophytic vegetation and disturbed soils in the area. The dominance of redeposited pollen reflects scarce (disturbed) vegetation cover and low pollen productivity. The climate was relatively cold and dry. Sediments dated to 32,400 ¹⁴C yr B.P. contain fewer redeposited pollen and concentration of non-redeposited pollen is significantly higher. Pollen contents indicate the dominance of tundra-like grass-sedge vegetation and more humid conditions. Pollen records dated between 30,100 and 25,100 ¹⁴C yr B.P. also reflect scarce tundra-like vegetation during this interval. The presence of Betula nana and Salix pollen may reflect limited presence of shrub communities. This suggests that the climate was somewhat warmer during the latter part of the interstadial. However, generally the pollen records show that harsh environmental conditions prevailed on the Yamal Peninsula during the Karginsky interstadial.     

Late Holocene sea-level changes and isostasy in western Denmark

Cores and exposed cliff sections in salt marshes around Ho Bugt, a tidal embayment in the northernmost part of the Danish Wadden Sea, were subjected to ¹⁴C dating and litho- and biostratigraphical analyses to reconstruct paleoenvironmental changes and to establish a late Holocene relative sea-level history. Four stages in the late Holocene development of Ho Bugt can be identified: (1) groundwater-table rise and growth of basal peat (from at least 2300 BC to AD 0); (2) salt-marsh formation (0 to AD 250); (3) a freshening phase (AD 250 to AD 1600?), culminating in the drying out of the marshes and producing a distinct black horizon followed by an aeolian phase with sand deposition; and (4) renewed salt-marsh deposition (AD 1600? to present). From 16 calibrated AMS radiocarbon ages on fossil plant fragments and 4 calibrated conventional radiocarbon ages on peat, we reconstructed a local relative sea-level history that shows a steady sea-level rise of 4 m since 4000 cal yr BP. Contrary to suggestions made in the literature, the relative sea-level record of Ho Bugt does not contain a late Holocene highstand. Relative sea-level changes at Ho Bugt are controlled by glacio-isostatic subsidence and can be duplicated by a glacial isostatic adjustment model in which no water is added to the world's oceans after ca. 5000 cal yr BP.     

Ultra-rapid landscape response and sediment yield following glacier retreat, Icy Bay, southern Alaska

The páramo is a neotropical alpine ecosystem that covers more than 75,000 km² of the northern Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Peru. It provides important environmental services: more than 10 million people in the Andean highlands benefit from the water supply and regulation function, which is attributed to the volcanic soils that underlie the ecosystem. The soils are also major carbon sinks of global significance. Severe land use changes and soil degradation threaten both the hydrology and carbon sink function. Nevertheless, soil genesis and properties in the páramo is rather poorly understood, nor are their ecological functions well documented. The impact of the geomorphology of the páramo on soil genesis was studied in the rio Paute basin, south Ecuador. Two toposequences were described and analysed. In each toposequence, four pedons were selected representing summit, backslope, undrained plain situation, and valley bottom positions in the landscape. The soils are classified as Hydric Andosols in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources and Epiaquands or Hydrudands in Soil Taxonomy. They are very acidic and have a high organic matter content, high P deficiency, and Al toxicity. Their water content ranges from 2.64 g g^− 1 at saturation, down to 1.24 g g^− 1 at wilting point, resulting in a large water storage capacity. Two major soil forming processes are identified: (1) volcanic ash deposition and (2) accumulation of organic carbon. Volcanic ash deposits may vary in depth as a result of regional geomorphological factors such as parent material, orientation, slope, and altitude. Organic carbon accumulation is an interaction of both waterlogging, which depends on the position in the landscape, and the formation of organometallic complexes with Al and Fe released during volcanic ash breakdown. Despite the high variability in parent material and topography, the soil is characterised by a notable homogeneity in physico-chemical properties. Statistical analysis reveals that only topographic location has a slight but significant influence on soil pH as well as the organic matter content, saturated conductivity and water retention at high pressure. Finally, the exceptional properties of these soils provide useful insights to improve classification of the Andosols reference group of the FAO World reference Base for Soil Resources.     

Spatial process and data models: Toward integration of agent-based models and GIS

The use of object-orientation for both spatial data and spatial process models facilitates their integration, which can allow exploration and explanation of spatial-temporal phenomena. In order to better understand how tight coupling might proceed and to evaluate the possible functional and efficiency gains from such a tight coupling, we identify four key relationships affecting how geographic data (fields and objects) and agent-based process models can interact: identity, causal, temporal and topological. We discuss approaches to implementing tight integration, focusing on a middleware approach that links existing GIS and ABM development platforms, and illustrate the need and approaches with example agent-based models.     

Basement-controlled faulting of Paleozoic strata in southern Ontario, Canada: new evidence from geophysical lineament mapping

Basement fault reactivation is now recognized as an important control on sedimentation and fault propagation in intracratonic basins. In southern Ontario, the basement consists of complexly structured mid-Proterozoic (ca. 1.2 Ga) crystalline rocks and metasedimentary rocks that are overlain by up to 1500 m of Paleozoic sedimentary strata. Reactivation of basement structures is suspected to control the location of Paleozoic fault and fracture systems, but evaluation has been hindered by a limited understanding of the regional structural characteristics of the buried basement. New aeromagnetic- and gravimetric-lineament mapping presented in this paper better resolves the location of basement discontinuities and provides further evidence for basement controls on the distribution of Paleozoic fault and fracture systems. Lineament mapping was facilitated by reprocessing and digital image enhancement (micro-levelling, regional residual separation, derivative filtering) of existing regional gravity and aeromagnetic datasets. Reprocessed images identify new details of the structural fabric of the basement below southern Ontario and delineate several previously unrecognized aeromagnetic and gravity lineaments and linear zones. Linear zones parallel the projected trends of mid-Proterozoic terrane boundaries identified by field mapping on the exposed shield to the north of the study area, and are interpreted as zones of shearing and basement faulting. Mapped aeromagnetic and gravity lineaments show similar trends to Paleozoic faults and fracture networks and broad zones of seismicity in southern Ontario. These new data support an ‘inheritance model’ for Paleozoic faulting, involving repeated reactivation and upward propagation of basement faults and fractures into overlying cover strata.     

Crustal structure of the Ruby Mountains and southern Carlin Trend region, Nevada, from magnetotelluric data

We have collected about 150 magnetotelluric (MT) soundings in northeastern Nevada in the region of the Ruby Mountains metamorphic core complex uplift and southern Carlin mineral trend, in an effort to illuminate controls on core complex evolution and deposition of world-class gold deposits. The region has experienced a broad range of tectonic events including several periods of compressional and extensional deformation, which have contributed to the total expression of electrical resistivity. Most of the soundings reside in three east–west profiles across increasing degrees of core uplift to the north (Bald Mountain, Harrison Pass, and Secret Pass latitudes). One short cross-line was also taken to assess an east–west structure to the north of the northern profile. Model resistivity cross-sections were derived from the MT data using a 2-D inversion algorithm, which damps departures of model parameters from an a priori structure. Geological interpretation of the resistivity combines previous seismic, potential field and isotope models, structural and petrological models for regional compression and extension, and detailed structural/stratigraphic interpretations incorporating drilling for petroleum and mineral exploration. To first order, the resistivity structure is one of a moderately conductive, Phanerozoic sedimentary section fundamentally disrupted by intrusion and uplift of resistive crystalline rocks. Late Devonian and early Mississippian shales of the Pilot and Chainman Formations together form an important conductive marker sequence in the stratigraphy and show pronounced increases in conductance (conductivity–thickness product) from east to west. These increases are attributed to graphitization caused by Elko–Sevier era compressional shear deformation and possibly by intrusive heating. The resistive crystalline central massifs adjoin the host stratigraphy across crustal-scale, steeply dipping fault zones. The zones provide pathways to the lower crust for heterogeneous, upper crustal induced, electric current flow. Resistive core complex crust appears steeply bounded under the middle of the neighboring grabens and not to deepen at a shallow angle to arbitrary distances to the west. The numerous crustal breaks imaged with MT may contribute to the low effective elastic thickness (T_e) estimated regionally for the Great Basin and exemplify the mid-crustal, steeply dipping slip zones in which major earthquakes nucleate. An east–west oriented conductor in the crystalline upper crust spans the East Humboldt Range and northern Ruby Mountains. The conductor may be related to nearby graphitic metasediments, with possible alteration by middle Tertiary magmatism. Lower crustal resistivity everywhere under the profiles is low and appears quasi one-dimensional. It is consistent with a low rock porosity (<1 vol.%) containing hypersaline brines and possible water-undersaturated crustal melts, residual to the mostly Miocene regional extension. The resistivity expression of the southern Carlin Trend (CT) in the Pinon Range is not a simple lineament but rather a family of structures attributed to Eocene intrusion, stratal deformation, and alteration/graphitization. Substantial reactivation or overprinting by core complex uplift or Basin–Range extensional events seems likely. We concur with others that the Carlin Trend may result in part from overlap of the large Eocene Northeast Nevada Volcanic Field with Precambrian–Paleozoic deep-water clastic source rocks thickening abruptly to the west of the Pinon Range, and projecting to the north–northwest.     

Determining the trophic guilds of fishes and macroinvertebrates in a seagrass food web

We established trophic guilds of macroinvertebrate and fish taxa using correspondence analysis and a hierarchical clustering strategy for a seagrass food web in winter in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. To create the diet matrix, we characterized the trophic linkages of macroinvertebrate and fish taxa present inHalodule wrightii seagrass habitat areas within the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (Florida) using binary data, combining dietary links obtained from relevant literature for macroinvertebrates with stomach analysis of common fishes collected during January and February of 1994. Heirarchical average-linkage cluster analysis of the 73 taxa of fishes and macroinvertebrates in the diet matrix yielded 14 clusters with diet similarity ≥ 0.60. We then used correspondence analysis with three factors to jointly plot the coordinates of the consumers (identified by cluster membership) and of the 33 food sources. Correspondence analysis served as a visualization tool for assigning each taxon to one of eight trophic guilds: herbivores, detritivores, suspension feeders, omnivores, molluscivores, meiobenthos consumers, macrobenthos consumers and piscivores. These trophic groups, corss-classified with major taxonomic groups, were further used to develop consumer compartments in a network analysis model of carbon flow in this seagrass ecosystem. The method presented here should greatly improve the development of future network models of food webs by providing an objective procedure for aggregating trophic groups.     

Ground truth seismic events and location capability at Degelen mountain, Kazakhstan

We utilized nuclear explosions from the Degelen Mountain sub-region of the Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS), Kazakhstan, to assess seismic location capability directly. Excellent ground truth information for these events was either known or was estimated from maps of the Degelen Mountain adit complex. Origin times were refined for events for which absolute origin time information was unknown using catalog arrival times, our ground truth location estimates, and a time baseline provided by fixing known origin times during a joint hypocenter determination (JHD). Precise arrival time picks were determined using a waveform cross-correlation process applied to the available digital data. These data were used in a JHD analysis. We found that very accurate locations were possible when high precision, waveform cross-correlation arrival times were combined with JHD. Relocation with our full digital data set resulted in a mean mislocation of 2 km and a mean 95% confidence ellipse (CE) area of 6.6 km² (90% CE: 5.1 km²), however, only 5 of the 18 computed error ellipses actually covered the associated ground truth location estimate. To test a more realistic nuclear test monitoring scenario, we applied our JHD analysis to a set of seven events (one fixed) using data only from seismic stations within 40° epicentral distance. Relocation with these data resulted in a mean mislocation of 7.4 km, with four of the 95% error ellipses covering less than 570 km² (90% CE: 438 km²), and the other two covering 1730 and 8869 km² (90% CE: 1331 and 6822 km²). Location uncertainties calculated using JHD often underestimated the true error, but a circular region with a radius equal to the mislocation covered less than 1000 km² for all events having more than three observations.     

Stable isotope values of Costa Rican surface waters

Stable isotope data of surface waters from the humid tropics in general, and Costa Rica in particular, are scarce. To improve our understanding of the spatial distribution of stable isotopes in surface waters, we measured δ¹⁸O and δD in river and lake (n=63) and precipitation (n=3) samples from Costa Rica. We also present data from the IAEA/WMO isotopes in precipitation network as context for our study. Surface water isotope values do not strongly correlate with elevation, stream head elevation, stream length, distance from Caribbean Sea, or estimated mean annual precipitation for the country as a whole. However, the data show distinct regional trends. The δ¹⁸O and δD values downwind of mountain ranges are inversely related to the altitude of the ranges the air masses traverse. In the lee of the high Talamanca Range, δ¹⁸O values are 6–8‰ lower, while in the lee of the lower Tilarán Range δ¹⁸O values are 2–3‰ lower than upwind sites along the Caribbean Slope. An altitude effect of −1.4‰ δ¹⁸O/km is present on the Pacific slope of southern Costa Rica, equivalent to a temperature effect of −0.3‰/°C. The Nicoya and Osa Peninsulas have higher values than upwind sites, suggesting input of Pacific-sourced moisture, evaporative enrichment, or decreased condensation temperatures. Elevated and increasing d-excess values inland along the Nicaragua Trough suggest a recycled component may be an important contributor to the water budget. These data provide preliminary stable isotope information for Costa Rica, and will benefit paleoclimatic research in the region. More detailed studies would be beneficial to our understanding of the controls on stable isotope composition of tropical waters.