Late Miocene increasing exhumation rates in the eastern part of the Alps – implications from low temperature thermochronology

A new set of apatite fission‐track and apatite (U–Th)/He data reveals a hitherto undated late Miocene exhumation pulse in the eastern part of the Eastern Alps. While distinct parts of the study area, including the Seckauer Tauern, have been at near surface conditions (<100 °C) since the Eocene, the neighbouring Niedere Tauern experienced enhanced cooling and exhumation in the middle Miocene and again at the late Miocene/Pliocene boundary. Middle Miocene exhumation is interpreted as a result of tectonic escape and convergence that operated simultaneously during lateral extrusion of the Eastern Alps. As the higher late Miocene/Pliocene exhumation rates are restricted to a single tectonic block, namely the Niedere Tauern, we infer a tectonic trigger that is probably related to a change in the external stress field that affected the Alps during this time.     

Atmospheric range correction for two-frequency SLR measurements

It has been widely known that the use of two-frequency Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) system is limited by stringent precision requirements of the range measurements and the proper atmospheric model. Owing to the stringent requirements, this SLR system is impractical for the current requirement of SLR measurements within the framework of global geodetic observing system (GGOS). If in the future this stringent requirement could be met, this SLR system would be an attractive tool to reduce atmospheric propagation effects of SLR and would be of great benefit for the next generation of GGOS design. To anticipate possible future developments of the two-frequency SLR systems, we have developed a new atmospheric correction formula for the two-frequency SLR measurements. The new formula eliminates the total atmospheric density effect including its gradient and provides two terms to calculate the curvature effect and the water vapor distribution effect. While the curvature effect can be calculated by an accurate model, the required information about the water vapor distribution along the propagation path can be calculated using previous developments of optical delay modeling or alternatively using results from microwave measurements. Theoretical simulations using the two-frequency systems of the Graz and TIGO-Concepción stations shows that the new formula completely reduces all propagation effects at any elevation angle above 3° with an accuracy better than 1 mm. However, the required precision for the difference of the two-frequency SLR measurements, i.e. better than 45 μm for a single epoch, exceeds the capability of the current state of the art SLR systems.     

Injection of Zero‐Valent Iron into an Unconfined Aquifer Using Shear‐Thinning Fluids

Approximately 190 kg of 2 μm‐diameter zero‐valent iron (ZVI) particles were injected into a test zone in the top 2 m of an unconfined aquifer within a trichloroethene (TCE) source area. A shear‐thinning fluid was used to enhance ZVI delivery in the subsurface to a radial distance of up to 4 m from a single injection well. The ZVI particles were mixed in‐line with the injection water, shear‐thinning fluid, and a low concentration of surfactant. ZVI was observed at each of the seven monitoring wells within the targeted radius of influence during injection. Additionally, all wells within the targeted zone showed low TCE concentrations and primarily dechlorination products present 44 d after injection. These results suggest that ZVI can be directly injected into an aquifer with shear‐thinning fluids to induce dechlorination and extends the applicability of ZVI to situations where other emplacement methods may not be viable.     

Field Survey of the 27 February 2010 Chile Tsunami

On 27 February 2010, a magnitude M _w?=?8.8 earthquake occurred off the coast of Chile??s Maule region causing substantial damage and loss of life. Ancestral tsunami knowledge from the 1960 event combined with education and evacuation exercises prompted most coastal residents to spontaneously evacuate after the earthquake. Many of the tsunami victims were tourists in coastal campgrounds. The international tsunami survey team (ITST) was deployed within days of the event and surveyed 800?km of coastline from Quintero to Mehuín and the Pacific Islands of Santa María, Mocha, Juan Fernández Archipelago, and Rapa Nui (Easter). The collected survey data include more than 400 tsunami flow depth, runup and coastal uplift measurements. The tsunami peaked with a localized runup of 29?m on a coastal bluff at Constitución. The observed runup distributions exhibit significant variations on local and regional scales. Observations from the 2010 and 1960 Chile tsunamis are compared.     

Cosmogenic <Superscript>10</Superscript>Be-derived denudation rates of the Eastern and Southern European Alps

Denudation rates from cosmogenic ¹⁰Be measured in quartz from recent river sediment have previously been used in the Central Alps to argue that rock uplift occurs through isostatic response to erosion in the absence of ongoing convergence. We present new basin-averaged denudation rates from large rivers in the Eastern and Southern European Alps together with a detailed topographic analysis in order to infer the forces driving erosion. Denudation rates in the Eastern and Southern Alps of 170–1,400 mm ky⁻¹ are within a similar range to those in the Central Alps for similar lithologies. However, these denudation rates vary considerably with lithology, and their variability generally increases with steeper landscapes, where correlations with topographic metrics also become poorer. Tertiary igneous rocks are associated with steep hillslopes and channels and low denudation rates, whereas pre-Alpine gneisses usually exhibit steep hillslopes and higher denudation rates. Molasse, flysch, and schists display lower mean basin slopes and channel gradients, and, despite their high erodibility, low erosion rates. Exceptionally low denudation rates are also measured in Permian rhyolite, which has high mean basin slopes. We invoke geomorphic inheritance as a major factor controlling erosion, such that large erosive glaciers in the late Quaternary cold periods were more effective in priming landscapes in the Central Alps for erosion than in the interior Eastern Alps. However, the difference in tectonic evolution of the Eastern and Central Alps potentially adds to differences in their geomorphic response; their deep structures differ significantly and, unlike the Central Alps, the Eastern Alps are affected by ongoing tectonic influx due to the slow motion and rotation of Adria. The result is a complex pattern of high mountain erosion in the Eastern Alps, which has evolved from one confined to the narrow belt of the Tauern Window in late Tertiary time to one affecting the entire underthrust basement, orogenic lid, and parts of the Southern Alps today.     

Phase equilibrium, geothermobarometric and xenotime age dating constraints on the Alpine metamorphism recorded in chloritoid schists from the southern part of the Tisia Mega-Unit (Slavonian Mts., NE Croatia)

The chloritoid schists from the Slavonian Mts., which are attributed to the basal part of Devonian to Permian “Hercynian Semimetamorphic Complex,” represent a very rare lithology, not only in the Tisia Mega-Unit outcrops in Croatia, but also in the wider area. The investigated outcrop in the Kutjeva?ka Rijeka transect (Mt. Papuk) encompasses chloritoid-bearing metapelitic and metapsammitic lithologies. Both contain K-white mica, chlorite, chloritoid (10–15 vol.%), quartz and minor K-feldspar, plagioclase (albite), opaque minerals and pyrophyllite, together with accessory zircon, rutile, xenotime. The Th–U–Pb age dating on xenotime grains within the K-white mica + chlorite + quartz matrix and on inclusions found inside the chloritoids gave an average age 120 ± 36 Ma. Peak metamorphic conditions during the Alpine chloritoid-forming event reached 3.5–4 kbar and 340–380 °C, based on phengite barometry, chlorite–chloritoid thermometry and intersection of chlorite and chloritoid isopleths in the KFMASH quantitative phase diagram. The post-tectonic character of lath- and rosette-shaped chloritoids with respect to two foliations in the rock, together with the older age of 219 ± 81 Ma obtained on Yb-rich xenotime core domain(s), implies a possible existence of older low-grade metamorphic phase(s). The chemistry of the chloritoid schists bears the signature of upper continental crustal felsic rocks as potential protoliths, probably the felsic rocks of the nearby Papuk Complex of Slavonian Mts. The evidence presented here for the chloritoid-bearing low-grade metamorphic rocks from the Slavonian Mountains clearly show that the prograde Alpine metamorphic event had a more significant influence on the evolution of the southern part of Tisia Mega-Unit than previously considered.