Rift basins and supradetachment basins: intracontinental extensional end-members

Two end-members characterize a continuum of continental extensional tectonism: rift settings and highly extended terrains. These different styles result in and are recorded by different extensional basins. Intracontinental rifts (e.g. East Africa, Lake Baikal) usually occur in thermally equilibrated crust of normal thickness. Rift settings commonly display alkali to tholeiitic magmatism, steeply dipping (45–60°) bounding faults, slip rates <1 mm yr^-1 and low-magnitude extension (10–25%). Total extension typically requires > 25 Myr. The fault and sub-basin geometry which dominates depositional style is a half-graben bounded by a steeply dipping normal fault. Associated basins are deep (6–10 km), and sedimentation is predominantly axial- or hangingwall-derived. Asymmetric subsidence localizes depocentres along the active basin-bounding scarp. Highly extended continental terrains (e.g. Colorado River extensional corridor, the Cyclade Islands) represent a different tectonic end-member. They form in back-arc regions where the crust has undergone dramatic thickening before extension, and usually reactivate recently deformed crust. Volcanism is typically calc-alkalic, and 80–90% of total extension requires much less time (<10 Myr). Bounding faults are commonly active at shallow dips (15–35°); slip rates (commonly > 2 mm yr^-1) and bulk extension (often > 100%) are high. The differences in extension magnitude and rate, volcanism, heat flow, and structural style suggest basin evolution will differ with tectonic setting. Supradetachment basins, or basins formed in highly extended terrains, have predominantly long, transverse drainage networks derived from the breakaway footwall. Depocentres are distal (10–20 km) to the main bounding fault. Basin fill is relatively thin (typically 1–3 km), probably due to rapid uplift of the tectonically and erosionally denuded footwall. Sedimentation rates are high (? 1 m kyr^-1) and interrupted by substantial unconformities. In arid and semi-arid regions, fluvial systems are poorly developed and alluvial fans dominated by mass-wasting (debris-flow, rock-avalanche breccias, glide blocks) represent a significant proportion (30–50%) of basin fill. The key parameters for comparing supradetachment to rift systems are extension rate and amount, which are functions of other factors like crustal thickness, thermal state of the lithosphere and tectonic environment. Changes in these parameters over time appear to result in changes to basin systematics.     

Inversion of electromagnetic data: An overview of new techniques

This paper explores some of the newer techniques for acquiring and inverting electromagnetic data. Attention is confined primarily to the 2d magnetotelluric (MT) problem but the inverse methods are applicable to all areas of EM induction. The basis of the EMAP technique of Bostick is presented along with examples to illustrate the efficacy of that method in structural imaging and in overcoming the deleterious effects of near-surface distortions of the electric field. Reflectivity imaging methods and the application of seismic migration techniques to EM problems are also explored as imaging tools. Two new approaches to the solution of the inverse problem are presented. The AIM (Approximate Inverse Mapping) inversion of Oldenburg and Ellis uses a new way to estimate a perturbation in an iterative solution which does not involve linearization of the equations. The RRI (Rapid Relaxation Inverse) of Smith and Booker shows how approximate Fréchet derivatives and sequences of 1d inversions can be used to develop a practical inversion algorithm. The overview is structured to provide insight about the latest inversion techniques and also to touch upon most areas of the inverse problem that must be considered to carry out a practical inversion. These include model parameterization, methods of calculating first order sensitivities, and methods for setting up a linearized inversion.     

R. E. (Ted) Munn — Founding editor; a mini-biography

Ted Munn founded Boundary-Layer Meteorology in 1970 and served as Editor for 75 volumes over a 25 year period. This short article briefly reviews Ted's scientific career with the Atmospheric Environment Service (of Canada), the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria and with the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto, and as editor of this journal.     

Interactions of growing folds and coeval depositional systems

Responses of both modern and ancient fluvial depositional systems to growing folds can be interpreted in terms of interactions among competing controlling variables which can be incorporated into simple conceptual models. The ratio of the rate of sediment accumulation to the rate of structural uplift determines whether a fold develops a topographic expression above local base level. The balance between (a) stream power and rates of upstream deposition vs. (b) bedrock resistance and rates of crestal uplift and of fold widening determines whether an antecedent stream maintains its course or is defeated by a growing structure. Modern drainage configurations in actively folding landscapes can often be interpreted in terms of these competing variables, and through analysis of digital topography, detailed topographic characteristics of these folds can be quantified. Modern examples of growing folds display both defeated and persistent antecedent rivers, deflected drainages and laterally propagating structures. The topography associated with a defeated antecedent river at Wheeler Ridge, California, is consistent with a model in which defeat results from forced aggradation in the piggyback basin, without the need to vary discharge or uplift rate. Reconstruction of the long-term interplay between a depositional system and evolving folds requires a stratigraphic perspective, such as that provided by syntectonic strata which are directly juxtaposed with ancient folds and faults. Analysis of Palaeogene growth strata bounding the Catalan Coastal Ranges of NE Spain demonstrates the synchronous growth and the kinematic history of multiple folds and faults in the proximal foreland basin. Although dominated by transverse rivers which crossed fold crests, palaeovalleys, interfan lows, structural re-entrants and saddles, and rising anticlines diverted flow and influenced local deposition. In the ancient record, drainage-network events, such as avulsion or defeat of a transverse stream, usually cannot be unambiguously attributed to a single cause. Examination of ancient syntectonic strata from a geomorphological perspective, however, permits successive reconstructions of synorogenic topography, landscapes and depositional systems.     

中国西南天山西域砾岩的磁性地层年代与地质意义*

西域组是我国西部一重要并广泛引用的晚新生代地层,关于其年代和成因至今尚存争议。在西南天山喀什远源盆地喀什-阿图什褶皱带不同构造部位选择有代表性的5~6个晚新生代地层剖面开展了详细的沉积学、磁性地层年代学对比研究,据此限定了不同构造的起始变形时间以及西域砾岩的沉积年代。西域砾岩并非一年代地层单位,作为一岩石地层单位,其底界具有穿时特征,从山体(北)向喀什前陆盆地(南)逐渐变新。其底界年龄在盆地北部近源区约为15.5Ma^[1],在盆地中部中源区约为8.6Ma^[1],在盆地南部远源区的阿图什背斜为1.9Ma,喀什背斜为1.6~0.7Ma。这一穿时的砾岩沉积楔体的起始堆积起因于盆地北部边界逆冲断层(KBT)的活动。构造变形是由北南脉冲式迁移扩展的,其速率是非均匀的,在约15.5Ma至4.0Ma期间为1.4~3.4mm/a,在约4.0Ma以来剧增至>10mm/a。西域砾岩沉积前缘向南进积速率与构造变形前缘迁移速率有很好的一致性,但在时间上较构造变形可能滞后2.0Ma。这表明构造变形前缘向南的脉冲式扩展是西域砾岩进积并发生侧向和垂向上岩相突变的主因。     

The 2nd Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE‐2): meteorological and chemical context

A review is given of the climatological and actual meteorological conditions in the sub‐tropical northeast Atlantic, during June–July 1997, when the 2nd Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE‐2) took place. Surface pressure maps, trajectory calculations and in‐situ measurements show how the outflow of European pollution into the marine boundary layer of this area is determined by the location of the Azores high pressure cell. Observations during ACE‐2 and 3 preceding summers show that pollution outbreaks both from the Iberian peninsula and from northern or central Europe can occur during such situations. During ACE‐2, an unusually low number of strong North African dust outbreaks were recorded at the free tropospheric station of Izaña (Tenerife, 2360 m asl), although dust was recorded aloft the station.     

Five young star clusters in the outer region of the Small Magellanic Cloud

Colour–magnitude diagrams in the Washington system are presented for the first time for five star clusters projected on to the outer region of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The clusters are found to have ages in the range 0.1–1.0 Gyr, as derived from the fit of isochrones with   Z = 0.004  . This sample increases substantially the number of young clusters in the outer SMC – particularly in the south-east quadrant – with well-derived parameters. We combine our results with those for other clusters in the literature to derive as large and homogeneous a data base as possible (totalling 49 clusters) in order to study global effects. We find no conclusive evidence for a dispersion in the cluster ages and metallicities as a function of their distance from the galaxy centre, in the SMC outer region. L 114 and 115, although very distant, are very young clusters, lying in the bridge of the SMC and therefore most likely formed during the interaction which formed this feature. We also find very good agreement between the cluster age–metallicity relation (AMR) and the prediction from a bursting model from Pagel & Tautvaišienė with a burst that occurred 3 Gyr ago. Comparing the present cluster AMR with that derived by Harris & Zaritsky for field stars in the main body of the SMC, we find that field stars and clusters underwent similar chemical enrichment histories during approximately the last couple of Gyr, but their chemical evolution was clearly different between 4 and 10 Gyr ago.     

A composite Fe,Ni‐FeS and enstatite‐forsterite‐diopside‐glass vitrophyre clast in the Larkman Nunatak 04316 aubrite: Origin by pyroclastic volcanism

Abstract– We studied the mineralogy, petrology, and bulk, trace element, oxygen, and noble gas isotopic compositions of a composite clast approximately 20 mm in diameter discovered in the Larkman Nunatak (LAR) 04316 aubrite regolith breccia. The clast consists of two lithologies: One is a quench‐textured intergrowth of troilite with spottily zoned metallic Fe,Ni which forms a dendritic or cellular structure. The approximately 30 μm spacings between the Fe,Ni arms yield an estimated cooling rate of this lithology of approximately 25–30 °C s^?1. The other is a quench‐textured enstatite‐forsterite‐diopside‐glass vitrophyre lithology. The composition of the clast suggests that it formed at an exceptionally high degree of partial melting, perhaps approaching complete melting, and that the melts from which the composite clast crystallized were quenched from a temperature of approximately 1380–1400 °C at a rate of approximately 25–30 °C s^?1. The association of the two lithologies in a composite clast allows, for the first time, an estimation of the cooling rate of a silicate vitrophyre in an aubrite of approximately 25–30 °C s^?1. While we cannot completely rule out an impact origin of the clast, we present what we consider is very strong evidence that this composite clast is one of the elusive pyroclasts produced during pyroclastic volcanism on the aubrite parent body ( Wilson and Keil 1991 ). We further suggest that this clast was not ejected into space but retained on the aubrite parent body by virtue of the relatively large size of the clast of approximately 20 mm. Our modeling, taking into account the size of the clast, suggests that the aubrite parent body must have been between approximately 40 and 100 km in diameter, and that the melt from which the clast crystallized must have contained an estimated maximum range of allowed volatile mass fractions between approximately 500 and approximately 4500 ppm.