Evaluating the Potential of an Airborne Laser-scanning System for Measuring Volume Changes of Glaciers

Airborne laser scanning (ALS) is well suited for the production of digital elevation models (DEM), and can, in contrast to photographic methods, be used to acquire a DEM independently of surface texture and external light sources. ALS thus serves as a tool to generate DEMs of firn areas where photogram- metric methods often fail.
The potential of an integrated ALS system – comprising a laser scanner, precise differential global positioning system, and a gyro platform – for DEM generation of firn areas is currently being assessed. The Unteraargletscher, Bernese Alps, Switzerland, has been chosen as a test site. As part of a pilot project aimed at determining the mass balance distribution of that glacier without the use of in situ information, ALS measurements were conducted in autumn 1997. The DEM derived from laser measurements is extremely sensitive to the position and attitude of the aircraft. Currently the main work focuses on assessing and improving the system's accuracy by error modelling and by the development of error-correction algorithms.
Preliminary results from Unteraargletscher are presented, and the potential of this method for the generation of DEMs of firn areas is discussed.     

Provenance of Cretaceous clastics in the Subhercynian Basin: constraints to exhumation of the Harz Mountains and timing of inversion tectonics in Central Europe

The Harz Mountains and the adjacent Subhercynian Cretaceous Basin figure as the most prominent surface representative for Late Cretaceous inversion structures in Central Europe. Facies, depositional architecture and provenance of the basin fill reflect mechanisms and timing of the exhumation of the Harz. From Hauterivian to Early Santonian there is no evidence for detrital input from the nearby Harz area. Sediments are mature quartzarenites derived from Paleozoic basement rocks and/or recycled Permian to Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. This situation changed drastically in Middle to Late Santonian when freshly exhumed and eroded Mesozoic sedimentary cover rocks of the Harz were delivered into the basin. Feldspar and lithoclasts reflect erosion of Triassic and, in places, Jurassic to Turonian strata. Apatite and garnet in heavy mineral spectra are derived from largely unweathered Lower Triassic Buntsandstein as indicated by apatite and garnet chemistry. In Early Campanian, Paleozoic lithoclasts indicate erosion cutting down into the basement of the Harz. Simultaneous strong decrease of feldspar, garnet and apatite suggest an almost complete removal of the 2–3 km thick Mesozoic cover of the Harz within only 2–4 Myr. This translates into an exhumation rate of approximately 1 mm/a consistent with apatite fission track data from granitoid rocks of the Harz Mountains.     

Jurassic granitoid magmatism in the Dinaride Neotethys: geochronological constraints from detrital minerals

Three independent single‐grain geochronometers applied to detrital minerals from Central Dinaride sediments constrain the timing of felsic magmatism that associated the Jurassic evolution of the Neotethys. The Lower Cretaceous clastic wedge of the Bosnian Flysch, sourced from the Dinaride ophiolitic thrust complex, yields magmatic monazite and zircon grains with dominant age components of 164 ± 3 and 152 ± 10 Ma respectively. A unique tephra horizon within the Adriatic Carbonate Platform was dated at 148 ± 11 Ma by apatite fission track analysis. These consistent results suggest that leucocractic melt generation in the Central Dinaride segment of the Neotethys culminated in Middle to Late Jurassic times, coeval with and slightly post‐dating subophiolitic sole metamorphism. Growth of magmatic monazite and explosive volcanism call for supra‐subduction‐zone processes at the convergent Neotethyan margin. New compilation of geochronological data demonstrates that such Jurassic felsic rocks are widespread in the entire Dinaride–Hellenide orogen.     

Ophiolitic detritus in Cretaceous clastic formations of the Dinarides (NW Croatia): evidence from Cr-spinel chemistry

Cr-spinel is a common heavy mineral in the sandstones of Cretaceous synorogenic sedimentary formations of the NW Dinarides, Croatia. The rocks occur in isolated exposures in the uplifted basement units of Medvednica, Ivanščica, Žumberak and Samobor Mountains near Zagreb. In this area, evidence of the early Alpine evolution of the Dinarides is obscured due to strong dismemberment of pre-Tertiary tectonostratigraphic units resulting from an intense tectonic history, as well as due to the widespread sedimentary cover of the Pannonian Basin. Electron microprobe analyses of detrital Cr-spinels from the Oštrc Formation reveal that in the Early Cretaceous the ophiolitic source area was predominantly composed of harzburgite peridotites and associated cumulate rocks, which developed in a supra-subduction zone setting. The supply of Cr-spinels with the same chemical signature remained dominant until the end of the Cretaceous, suggesting that exposed remnants of the same ophiolite belt persisted through the Cretaceous and/or that recycling was significant. Similarities with data reported from the Northern Calcareous Alps and the Transdanubian Central Range imply that a rather extensive harzburgitic ophiolite belt probably extended along the Adriatic margin during the Early Cretaceous. A slight trend of increasing variation in the Cr# is observed from the Early to the latest Cretaceous, suggesting that the source areas became more heterogeneous with the ongoing Cretaceous tectonic evolution. Differences in Cr-spinel compositions in two contemporaneous latest Cretaceous formations are well in line with existing data on heavy mineral proportions, which together identify contrasting hinterland geology for these formations and strongly suggest the coeval existence of two separate basins. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Provenance of the Upper Triassic siliciclastics of the Mecsek Mountains and Villány Hills (Pannonian Basin,Hungary): constraints to the Early Mesozoic paleogeography of the Tisza Megaunit

International Journal of Earth Sciences - The Tisza Megaunit in the Southern Pannonian Basin formed part of the southern margin of the European Plate in the Early Mesozoic era. Its exact...     

Seismic hazard assessment for Guatemala City

Guatemala is one of the Central American countries that for some years now have been participating in a regional program for natural hazard assessment and disaster reduction, funded by the Nordic countries and coordinated by a regional institution (CEPREDENAC). Recent work related to seismic hazard has included the standardization, reporting and processing of seismicity data across the borders, followed by regional hazard modeling. The work presented here for Guatemala City represents a step from a regional to a more local level, based on reevaluation of historical seismicity, geological data related to active faults, and attenuation relations recently derived from analysis of strong motion records from the region. The site specific hazard calculations indicate that expected values of peak ground acceleration are ranging from less than 2 to more than 6 m s^–2, corresponding to annual exceedence probabilities ranging from 0.1 to 0.001, respectively.

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Two focal-mechanism solutions for earthquakes from Iceland and Svalbard

Strike-slip solutions have been obtained and are presented here for the focal mechanisms of one earthquake from Iceland and one from Svalbard, on 13 and 18 January 1976, respectively. A fault plane is suggested for the Iceland earthquake.     

Die rnikroskopische Unterseheidung von Mineralen der Karbonatgruppe

Zusammenfassung Um die petrographisch wichtigen Karbonate : Kalkspat, Dolomit, Ankerit. Siderit usw. voneinander im Dünnschliff zu trennen, hat man seit langem Färbe-methoden verwendet. Besonders hat sick die Farbung des Kalkspates auf Grund der Aluminiumchloridreaktion von LEMBERG and die Farbung der eisenhaltigen Karbonate durch Oxydation nachHallimond andSutcliffe bewahrt. Die verschiedenen Magnesiumreaktionen sind für die Dünnschliffbeobachtung noch nicht ausgearbeitet and erweisen sick (wie auch dieLembergschen Reaktionen) von der Korngröße abhängig. Durch Messung der Neigung derc-Achse and des Gangunterschiedes mehrerer gleichartiger Korner läßt sick ebenfalls grundsätzlich feststellen, um welches Karbonat es sich handelt. Praktisch entstehen dadurch Schwierigkeiten, daß nur Körner verwendbar sind., bei welchenc eine sehr große Neigung hat (> 60°) and daß die maximale Doppelbrechung der Karbonate teilweise nicht sehr verschieden ist. Durch das Ausmessen der Interferenzringe im Schnitt c bei einachsigen Kristallen gelang esBorgström, mit Hilfe einer Näherungsformel die Hauptdoppelbrechung der betreffenden Substanz zu bestimmen. Für Dünnschliffe wind das Verfahren dadurch ungenau, daß dafür die Kenntnis der Schliffdicke notwendig ist, wofür es leider noch keine scharfe Methode gibt. Bei Kenntnis des Karbonates erweist es sich aber umgekehrt zur Bestimmung der Schliffdicke als wertvoll. Die Messung der Dispersion der Doppelbrechung scheint bei dem derzeitigen instrumentellen Stand unserer mikroskopischen Einrichtungen fur die petrographische Bestimmung der Karbonate nicht verwertbar zu sein. In Lockerprodukten lassen sich die Karbonate sehr genau auf Grund ihrer Lichtbrechung — bestimmbar mit Hilfe der Immersionsmethode — trennen. Kalkspatkörner sind sofort kenntlich an der Überein-stimmung ihres -Wertes mit -Monobromnaphthalin. Es werden für weitere Einbettungsbestimmungen die der Spaltblättchen der einzelnen Glieder der Karbonatreihe aufgeführt. In Dünuschliffen kann der Umstand benutzt werden, daß durch Neigen des Präparates auf einem Drehtisch jene Stellung gefunden werden kann, bei welcher ein mit dem Brechungsquotienten des Kanadabalsams (1.537) übereinstimmt. (Nur bei Karbonaten möglich, deren Kleiner als 1.537 ist.) Der Winkel gegen die c-Achse (₀) ist ein für die verschiedenen Glieder der Karbonatgruppe typischer. Die Übereinstimmung mit dem Balsam erkennt man am Verschwinden des Chagrin and derBeckeschen Linie.c läßt sich gut mit dem Drehkonoskop einmessen. Die Einstellung der Brechungsquotientengleichheit ist dagegen ziemlich ungenau. Sie schwankt um mehrere Grade. Da die verschiedenen ₀-Werte der einzelnen Glieder der Karbonatreihe sich von demjenigen des Kalkspates jedoch um 7. 13. 24 and mehr Grade unterscheiden, läßt sich aus dem Mittel mehrerer Messungen dock annährend sagen, um welches Glied es sich handelt. Die Methode ließe sich erweitern durch Einführung von Einbettungsmedien höherer Lichtbrechung. Auch auf die rhombischen Karbonate läßt sich das Verfahren anwenden. In Schnitten senkrecht zur Achsenebene kann ein ₀-Wert bestimmt werden. Dadurch ergibt sich auch bei diesen Mineralien, für welche bisher im Diinnschliff nur die Messung des Achsenwinkels eine Bestimmung ermöglichte, ein weiteres diagnostisches Merkmal.