Age and provenance of early Precambrian metasedimentary rocks in the Lapland–Kola Belt, Russia: evidence from Pb and Nd isotopic data

²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb ages are presented for detrital zircons (Laser Ablation Microprobe ICP‐MS) and whole‐rock Nd isotopic determinations (TIMS) from samples of Neoarchean and Palaeoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks from the Umba granulite terrane and the Keivy domain of the Central Kola composite terrane, Kola Peninsula, north‐western Russia. Three are samples of rocks from the Umba granulite terrane that were deposited ≈ 2.20–1.90 Ga; they contain Archaean detritus, much of it older than 3.0 Gyr, as well as abundant 2.20–1.95‐Gyr‐old material. Deposition may have occurred on the margin of an Archaean craton with an exposed Palaeoproterozoic magmatic arc source, possibly during orogenesis. Two samples from the Keivy domain have remarkably similar, dominantly Archaean detrital zircon age spectra. One was deposited pre‐2.4 Ga, whereas the other was probably deposited post‐2.01 Ga. Both had similar sources, compatible with the proximal country rocks, and possible shallow‐water (?) cratonic margin depositional settings.     

New Horizons 2005

Eve Daly, Colin Brown and Peter Maguire report on a BGA meeting in Galway where British and Irish geophysics postgraduate students got together to present and discuss their work.     

Energetic Electrons as a Field Line Topology Tracer in the High Latitude Boundary/CUSP Region: Cluster Rapid Observations

Energetic electrons (e.g., 50 keV) travel along field lines with a high speed of around 20 R_Es⁻¹. These swift electrons trace out field lines in the magnetosphere in a rather short time, and therefore can provide nearly instantaneous information about the changes in the field configuration in regions of geospace. The energetic electrons in the high latitude boundary regions (including the cusp) have been examined in detail by using Cluster/RAPID data for four consecutive high latitude/cusp crossings between 16 March and 19 March 2001. Energetic electrons with high and stable fluxes were observed in the time interval when the IMF had a predominately positive B_z component. These electrons appeared to be associated with a lower plasma density exhibiting no obvious tailward plasma flow (<20 keV). On the other hand, no electrons or only spike-like electron events have been observed in the cusp region during southward IMF. At that time, the plasma density was as high as that in the magnetosheath and was associated with a clear tailward flow. The fact that no stable energetic electron fluxes were observed during southward IMF indicates that the cusp has an open field line geometry. The observations indicate that both the South and North high latitude magnetospheric boundary regions (including both North and South cusp) can be energetic particle trapping regions. The energetic electron observations provide new ways to investigate the dynamic cusp processes. Finally, trajectory tracing of test particles has been performed using the Tsyganenko 96 model; this demonstrates that energetic particles (both ions and electrons) may be indeed trapped in the high latitude magnetosphere.     

New Early Permian paleomagnetic results from the Brive basin (French Massif Central) and their implications for Late Variscan tectonics

In order to assess the structural evolution of the Brive basin and the Paleozoic activity of surrounding major faults in the French Massif Central, we carried out a paleomagnetic study on Early Permian rocks from this basin. Positive-fold tests and solely reversed polarities indicate that the characteristic remanent magnetization is likely to be primary. Early Permian tilt-corrected site mean declinations vary from 207°–167° indicating that the Brive basin experienced internal vertical-axis rotations. On the contrary, Late Permian paleomagnetic site means exhibit a circular Fisherian distribution showing no relative rotations. Detailed analyses of Permian paleomagnetic data from five contemporaneous basins of the French Massif Central reveal that these basins share the same equatorial paleolatitude with stable Europe throughout the Permian. However, in Early Permian, three of the five basins experienced differential rotations. The Saint-Affrique basin not only suffered internal deformation during the Early Permian, but the basin as a whole underwent a full-scale counterclockwise vertical-axis block rotation with respect to stable Europe. As a consequence, paleomagnetic data from similar late orogenic basins have to be thus carefully considered for establishment of Apparent Polar Wander paths.