A Reconnaissance Method for Delineation of Tracts for Regional-Scale Mineral-Resource Assessment Based on Geologic-Map Data

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is proposing to conduct a global mineral-resource assessment using geologic maps, significant deposits, and exploration history as minimal data requirements. Using a geologic map and locations of significant pluton-related deposits, the pluton-related-deposit tract maps from the USGS national mineral-resource assessment have been reproduced with GIS-based analysis and modeling techniques. Agreement, kappa, and Jaccard's C correlation statistics between the expert USGS and calculated tract maps of 87%, 40%, and 28%, respectively, have been achieved using a combination of weights-of-evidence and weighted logistic regression methods. Between the experts' and calculated maps, the ranking of states measured by total permissive area correlates at 84%. The disagreement between the experts and calculated results can be explained primarily by tracts defined by geophysical evidence not considered in the calculations, generalization of tracts by the experts, differences in map scales, and the experts' inclusion of large tracts that are arguably not permissive. This analysis shows that tracts for regional mineral-resource assessment approximating those delineated by USGS experts can be calculated using weights of evidence and weighted logistic regression, a geologic map, and the location of significant deposits. Weights of evidence and weighted logistic regression applied to a global geologic map could provide quickly a useful reconnaissance definition of tracts for mineral assessment that is tied to the data and is reproducible.     

Late Archaean to Palaeoproterozoic geotherms in the Kaapvaal craton, South Africa: constraints on the thermal evolution of the Witwatersrand Basin

The c. 2.97–2.71 Ga Witwatersrand Basin located in the Kaapvaal craton of South Africa represents a remnant of a large Late Archaean sedimentary basin that hosts the world's premier gold deposit within a series of conglomerate horizons. Evidence of postdepositional gold mobility within these conglomerates associated with hydrothermal–metamorphic activity has led to speculation about the Late Archaean to Palaeoproterozoic geothermal gradients in the basin. We use surface heat flow and heat production data from rocks in the basin and its environs in order to calculate detailed temperature profiles for the central Kaapvaal craton that show that the steady state crustal geotherm during the Late Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic was relatively cool at 15–20 K km^?1. The geotherm in the upper crustal strata is also largely unaffected by substantial increases in the heat flow into the base of the crust. Consequently, regional greenschist facies metamorphism of the basin sediments could only have been achieved during a transient thermal event that advected heat into the upper crust. The most likely candidate for this is the Bushveld magmatic event at 2.06 Ga.     

Employment and Socio-spatial Relations in Australia's Cultural Economy

This paper examines the significance and contribution of Australian 'creative' industry activities in light of recent debates on the emergence of the 'cultural economy of cities'. First, census employment data and business location counts are used to illustrate patterns of metropolitan primacy and concentration in the cultural industries both across states and in Sydney. Second, the specificities of the locations of cultural production, and the links between cultural industry activities and wider urban-regional change are explored in more detail. A set of observations of urban-regional change is used to demonstrate how the notion of 'cultural economy' should include complex interactions between the material activities of consumers and producers, and the discursive worlds of image makers and place marketers. Urban renewal, housing market pressures and intra-regional migration all mediate Australian experiences of the 'cultural economy'. Such interactions, in addition to key quantitative data on employment and business activity, suggest important policy considerations.     

(Re)surveying the uses of Geographical Information Systems in Health Authorities 1991–2001

This paper provides a comparative analysis of two separate national surveys of the uptake and use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) by Health Authorities (HAs) in England and Wales. The surveys were undertaken at two different time points (1991 and 2001), and the intervening period has been characterized by major (and continuing) health sector restructuring. The substantial number of HA mergers between 1991 and 2001 provide a methodological challenge in attempting to make comparisons. A pragmatic approach is adopted and the presentation of results has to be restricted solely to English and Welsh HA data. Our findings show that there has been a considerable increase in the use of GIS since the early 1990s, and there is some evidence of more sophisticated uses for a wider range of policy-related and application tasks. However, we conclude that there is still considerable scope for the wider uptake and use of GIS within the NHS. In addition, our findings provide a baseline with which to monitor the impacts of future organizational restructuring on the uses of GIS within the NHS. We suggest that this is important given the replacement of 95 English HAs with 28 new Strategic HAs (StHAs) from April 2002, and the repercussions of the anticipated shift in GIS responsibility to Primary Care Trusts.     

Geomorphological and sequence stratigraphic variability in wave‐dominated,shoreface‐shelf parasequences

Abstract Physical stratigraphy within shoreface‐shelf parasequences contains a detailed, but virtually unstudied, record of shallow‐marine processes over a range of historical and geological timescales. Using high‐quality outcrop data sets, it is possible to reconstruct ancient shoreface‐shelf morphology from clinoform surfaces, and to track the evolving morphology of the ancient shoreface‐shelf. Our results suggest that shoreface‐shelf morphology varied considerably in response to processes that operate over a range of timescales. (1) Individual clinoform surfaces form as a result of enhanced wave scour and/or sediment starvation, which may be driven by minor fluctuations in relative sea level, sediment supply and/or wave climate over short timescales (10¹?10³ years). These external controls cannot be distinguished in vertical facies successions, but may potentially be differentiated by the resulting clinoform geometries. (2) Clinoform geometry and distribution changes systematically within a single parasequence, reflecting the cycle in sea level and/or sediment supply that produced the parasequence (10²?10⁵ years). These changes record steepening of the shoreface‐shelf profile during early progradation and maintenance of a relatively uniform profile during late progradation. Modern shorefaces are not representative of this stratigraphic variability. (3) Clinoform geometries vary greatly between different parasequences as a result of variations in parasequence stacking pattern and relict shelf morphology during shoreface progradation (10⁵?10⁸ years). These controls determine the external dimensions of the parasequence.     

Numerical models of mantle convection with secular cooling

A 2-D time-dependent finite-difference numerical model is used to investigate the thermal character and evolution of a convecting layer which is cooling as it convects. Two basic cooling modes are considered: in the first, both upper and lower boundaries are cooled at the same rate, while maintaining the same temperature difference across the layer; in the second, the lower boundary temperature decreases with time while the upper boundary temperature is fixed at 0°C. The first cooling mode simulates the effects of internal heating while the second simulates planetary cooling as mantle convection extracts heat from, and thereby cools, the Earth's core. The mathematical analogue between the effects of cooling and internal heating is verified for finite-amplitude convection. It is found that after an initial transient period the central core of a steady but vigorous convection cell cools at a constant rate which is governed by the rate of cooling of the boundaries and the viscosity structure of the layer. For upper-mantle models the transient stage lasts for about 30 per cent of the age of the Earth, while for the whole mantle it lasts for longer than the age of the Earth. Consequently, in our models the bulk cooling of the mantle lags behind the cooling of the core-mantle boundary. Models with temperature-dependent viscosity are found to cool in the same manner as models with depth-dependent viscosity; the rate of cooling is controlled primarily by the horizontally averaged variation of viscosity with depth. If the Earth's mantle cools in a similar fashion, secular cooling of the planet may be insensitive to lateral variations of viscosity.     

Late Cretaceous rift-related upwelling and melting of the Trindade starting mantle plume head beneath western Brazil

High mantle potential temperatures and local extension, associated with the Late-Cretaceous impact of the Trindade mantle plume, produced substantial widespread and voluminous magmatism around the northern half of the Paraná sedimentary basin. Our previous studies have shown that, above the central and eastern portions of the postulated impact zone where lithosphere extension is minimal, heat conducted by the plume caused large-scale melting of the more fusible parts of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle beneath the margin of the São Francisco craton and the surrounding Brasilía mobile belt. Here we combine geochemical data and field evidence from the Poxoreu Igneous Province, western Brazil to show how more intense lithospheric extension above the western margin of the postulated impact zone permitted greater upwelling and melting of the Trindade plume than further east. Laser ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age determinations indicate that rift-related basaltic magmas of the Poxoreu Igneous Province were emplaced at ? 84 Ma. Our detailed geochemical study of the mafic magmas shows that the parental melts underwent polybaric crystal fractionation within the crust prior to final emplacement. Furthermore, some magmas (quartz-normative) appear to have assimilated upper crust whereas others (nepheline- and hypersthene-normative) appear to have been unaffected by open-system crustal magma chamber processes. Incompatible trace element ratios (e.g. chondrite-normalised La/Nb?=?1) and isotopic ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr?=?0.704 and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd?=?0.51274) of the Hy-normative basalts resemble those of oceanic islands (OIB). We therefore propose that these “OIB-like” magmas were predominantly derived from convecting-mantle-source melts (i.e. Trindade mantle plume). Inverse modelling of rare-earth element (REE) abundances suggests that the initial melts were predominantly generated within the depth range of ?80–100 km, in mantle with a potential temperature of ?1500 °C.