Anthropogenic and natural contributions to the rainfall chemistry of a mountainous area in the Cevennes National Park (Mont-Lozere, southern France)

Nine years of bulk precipitation chemistry data for a mountainous site in southern France are presented. The mean rainwater is of moderate acidity (pH 4.63, alkalinity −4 μEql⁻¹) even though there is high, non-marine, deposition of sulphur (near 20 kg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹). Based on the statistical characteristics of the data set, three major sources of elements are identified: long range pollution, Mediterranean sea salt aerosols and aeolian erosion dust, mainly from the Sahara. Most of the sulphur in the rainfall is present as neutral sulphate salts, owing to the latter being rich in alkaline minerals; this counteracts the strong acid input.     

Altération latéritique du gîte aurifère d'Ovala (Gabon), et formation d'une anomalie superficielle de dispersion

Résumé Les sols de la région d'Ovala (Sud Gabon) présentent une anomalie superficielle en or, à l'aplomb d'une minéralisation de la roche-mère, latéritisée sur 50 m d'épaisseur. De bas en haut, le profil d'altération comprend trois horizons principaux: saprolitique, nodulaire et sablo-argileux. Cette altération est développée in-situ à partir de gneiss archéens et de roches métamorphiques protérozoïques du faciès schiste vert. Dans la roche fraîche, l'or est associé avec du quartz, de la pyrite, de la tourmaline et de la muscovite. Lorsque l'altération progresse, les particules aurifères sont libérées et chimiquement arrondies. Depuis la minéralisation primaire jusqu'à la surface, les mécanismes de dissolution amenuisent de plus les particules d'or, et les appauvrissent en argent. Une dispersion mécanique latérale, vers l'aval des versants, se superpose á l'évolution verticale. Ce mécanisme fournit les particules de plus petite taille, dans l'horizon superficiel. Des mécanismes á la fois chimiques et physiques sont á l'origine de la formation du halo supergène.

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In the southern part of Gabon, at Ovala, a surficial gold anomaly has been found in soils. This anomaly develops directly from an underlying fresh mineralized rock through a 50-m-thick lateritic profile. From the bottom to the top, this profile consists of saprolite, a nodular layer and a sandy-clayey layer. The weathering profile formed in situ from Archean gneisses and Proterozoic greenschist facies. In the fresh rock, gold is associated with quartz, pyrite, tourmaline and muscovite. With increasing weathering, the residual gold particles become free and chemically rounded. From the primary gold mineralization to the surface, dissolution processes make gold more and more fine and Ag-depleted. Lateral downslope mechanical dispersion superimposes on this vertical evolution. This process spreads out the finest gold particles through the sandy-clayey layer. Both chemical and physical processes are responsible for the formation of the supergene dispersion halo.

     

Climatic controls on Holocene lake-level changes in Europe

Sensitivity experiments with a simple water-balance model were used to constrain the possible climatic causes of distinct Holocene patterns of lake-level variation in different regions of Europe. Lakes in S Sweden were low at 9 ka, high around 6.5 ka, low again around 4 ka and are high now. Lakes in Estonia show similar but weaker trends. Lakes in S France were highest around 9 ka, lowest around 4 ka, intermediate now. Lakes in Greece were also high around 9 ka but continued rising until 7.5 ka, then fell gradually from 5 ka with a brief high phase around 3 ka, and are low now. The model was forced with insolation anomalies deduced from orbital variations, temperature anomalies inferred from the pollen record and cloudiness anomalies derived from changes in the position of the subtropical anticyclone (inferred from reconstructed changes in the equator-to-pole temperature gradient), in order to evaluate the effects of resultant evaporation changes on catchment water balance. The resulting simulated changes in runoff (precipitation minus actual evapotranspiration) were slight, and frequently opposite to the observed trends. Larger changes in precipitation are plausible and are required to explain the data. The required precipitation increase in N Europe from 9 ka (low) to 6 ka (high) is suggested by GCM experiments to have been a consequence of interacting insolation and residual ice-sheet effects on the atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic. The explanation of other observed changes, including the drying trend during the Holocene in S Europe, has not been provided by GCM experiments to date. Explanations may lie in changes in mesoscale circulation, sea-surface temperature patterns and the coupling between these phenomena that may not follow orbital changes in any simple way. Correspondence to: SP Harrison     

Holocene valley aggradation and gully erosion in headwater catchments,south-eastern highlands of Australia

Late Quaternary stratigraphy of a 50 km² catchment on the south-eastern highlands of Australia reveals processes and history of denudation, and helps resolve a long-standing debate about factors controlling episodic valley aggradation and degradation during Holocene times. Valley sedimentation occurred when swampy vegetation fully colonized valley floors and obliterated all channels, promoting aggradation for periods of several thousand years, with most incoming sediment being trapped in swampy meadows. Much of the sediment was reworked from late Pleistocene alluvial fan and valley fill deposits, and primary hillslope erosion was minor during the Holocene. Differing sedimentation patterns between the Late Pleistocene, Holocene and Post-European settlement periods reflect regional changes in sediment supply and transport capacity as a result of major environmental change. Within the Holocene, however, valley fill stratigraphy is controlled by massive, episodic gully erosion terminating aggradation. Gully initiation appears to be controlled more by thresholds of incision into vegetated valley floors than by changes to sediment supply. Whether the thresholds are exceeded because of climatic change, autonomous change or extreme events cannot yet be determined. Overall, the Holocene history represents continuing complex response to events of the Late Pleistocene, and does not support the K-cycle concept, which has strongly influenced late Quaternary geomorphology in Australia.     

Tectonic interpretation of regional conductivity anomalies

This review paper selects key results from electromagnetic induction studies of a variety of distinctive tectonic phenomena in the top 200 km of the Earth. Its main theme is that electromagnetic data are essential for an understanding of tectonism involving partial melting, recycling of large volumes of fluids (CO₂ and H₂O) and underthrusting of metasedimentary rocks. The wide variety of tectonic regimes in which these processes are known to be important is reflected in the choice of case studies. A discussion of conductivity models for young oceanic lithosphere and asthenosphere is followed by results from induction studies across the S.E. Australian passive margin, the North American active margin, the Ryukyu Island-Arc and the Oregon Cascades continental arc. The importance of partial melting and free fluid movement i apparent in these regions. Terrain accretion and/or continent-continent collisions recorded at palaeosuture zones in Ireland, Germany and Scandinavia have left distinctive conductivity structures. These are often associated with grain-boundary graphite either in weakly-metamorphosed black shales in underthrust sedimentary basins or precipitated from CO₂-rich fluids. They are discussed in the context of the evolution of mature continental crust. All of the case studies are based on experiments published since 1989 in which the electromagnetic results have been central to an integrated geophysical and geological interpretation.     

Clays and other minerals in coal seams of the Moura-Baralaba area, Bowen Basin, Australia

The clays and other minerals in a succession of Late Permian coals of high-volatile bituminous to semi-anthracite rank have been identified, using low-temperature oxygen plasma ashing and X-ray diffraction, and evaluated to identify the relative roles in mineral matter formation of detrital input, early diagenesis in the peat swamp and late diagenesis associated with rank advance. Although well-ordered kaolinite of probable early diagenetic origin is abundant throughout the succession, the uppermost and lowermost seams of the sequence, regardless of rank, contain relatively abundant illite and/or interstratified illite/smectite, along with a small but significant proportion of chlorite. These clays are thought to be essentially of detrital origin, washed or blown into the peat deposit in relative abundance during the establishment and subsequent overwhelming of an extensive and long-lived swampy environment. Quartz is also abundant in the lower seams of the sequence, especially close to the regional sediment source area. Illite is unusually abundant in the topmost seam in both high- and low-rank parts of the succession, and thus appears to represent detrital input from a particular source material. Although significant changes are reported in the clays of the associated strata due to rank advance, the principal effect of rank advance on the minerals in the coal itself appears to be the development of an ammonium illite, and possibly some additional fine-grained chlorite, in the semi-anthracite material. Isolation within the organic matter of the coal is thought to have inhibited access for ions such as K⁺, which might otherwise have become involved in metamorphic reactions and given rise to mineralogical changes commonly found in non-coal sedimentary successions.