Podzol development, vegetation change and glacier variations at Haugabreen, southern Norway

¹⁴C dating and pollen analysis of the surface organic (LFH) horizons of several humo-ferric podzol profiles forming a soil catena close to the 'Little Ice Agc' outer moraine ridge of Haugabreen, southern Norway, are used to examine the timing and nature of podzol development at the low-/sub-alpine margin of the Jostedalsbreen area. Comparison with results from a palaeosol buried beneath the outer moraine shows that FH horizon development began as early as 5,265 ± 65 B.P., but that it was not synehronous across the profiles, the latest profile having a date of 3,590 ± 65 B.P. It is argued that surface organic horizons developed as a response to a deterioration of climate and possibly the recrudescence of the Myklebustbreen ice cap at c . 5,000 B.P., and that the dates for horizon initiation vary according to local topographic and soil-hydrologic conditions. It is still uncertain whether the hump-ferric podzols were preceded by brown earths or weakly podzolised sub-alpine podzolic soils, but at all sites where pollen evidence is available it appears that FH initiation took place beneath Betula woodland.     

Surging of the southwestern part of the Laurentide Ice Sheet

The southwestern part of the Laurentidc Ice Sheet, in central North America, repeatedly surged during the last part of the Wisconsin Glaciation. Evidence includes the extreme lobation of the ice margin, the gentle slopes of lateral moraines and other marginal features, a radiocarbon chronology indicating extremely rapid marginal advance and retreat, and the abundance of supraglacial flow till. Rapid ice movement was caused by subglacial water and was probably limited to areas of slowly permeable substrate, which slowed the escape of the water.     

Stylolite-controlled layering in an homogeneous limestone: pseudo-bedding produced by burial diagenesis

It is often assumed that layering in many shelf and platform limestones at weathered outcrop is always bedding: the layers always beds, and the surfaces always bedding planes. Recognition of bedding is fundamental to facies and basin analysis. Examination of part of the Lower Carboniferous High Tor Limestone of the Gower, South Wales, shows that a totally diagenetic layering (pseudo-bedding) resembling, and parallel to primary depositional layering (true bedding), has been produced by the generation of parallel, more or less evenly-spaced stylolite surfaces during burial diagenesis. These stylolite surfaces are picked out by weathering at outcrop and resemble bedding planes. Evidence that the stylolite surfaces do not mark original bedding planes includes: a cross-cutting relationship of a stylolite surface to a primary bedding surface; lack of lithological change across, or sedimentary structures associated with, a stylolite surface; original bedding that is not coincident with stylolite surfaces and has not suffered pressure-dissolution; and lack of sedimentological evidence that the layers defined by the stylolite surfaces are true primary depositional beds. The generation of parallel and more or less evenly-spaced stylolite surfaces could be explained by a mathematical-kinetic model based on the relationship between pressure-dissolution, diffusion, and reprecipitation. Recognition of true bedding depends upon presence of lithological changes and/or sedimentary structures. It is suggested that pseudo-bedding could be confused with true bedding in some open platform/shelf lagoon facies where lithological changes or sedimentary structures are scarce or absent.     

A Mainly Crustal Origin for Tonalitic Granitoid Rocks, Superior Province, Canada: Implications for Late Archean Tectonomagmatic Processes

The central Wabigoon subprovince of the Superior Province, likemost plutonic domains within Archean cratons, is dominated bygranitoid rocks of the tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite(TTG) series. Heterogeneous <2·83–2·74Ga tonalite gneisses and foliated tonalite to granodiorite units,emplaced at 2·722–2·709 Ga, exhibit initial     

MUEBLES RÚSTICOS IN MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT. Sales of muebles rústicos, or rustic wooden furniture made in Mexico, have grown rapidly in the United States since 1994. Analysis of the recent rise of the industry tracks manufacturing and marketing methods in major production areas of Mexico. Consumer taste for “authentic” handmade goods of simple design and the vogue of the “Santa Fe” style across the American Southwest mesh with Mexican producers' need to seek foreign markets during an economic crisis. Changing style preferences, along with the furniture's handcrafted appearance, its competitive cost, and the makers' flexible production methods, are reasons for the increased popularity of this folk commodity.     

ALLUVIAL CHARACTERISTICS,GROUNDWATER–SURFACE WATER EXCHANGE AND HYDROLOGICAL RETENTION IN HEADWATER STREAMS

Conservative solute injections were conducted in three first-order montane streams of different geological composition to assess the influence of parent lithology and alluvial characteristics on the hydrological retention of nutrients. Three study sites were established: (1) Aspen Creek, in a sandstone–siltstone catchment with a fine-grained alluvium of low hydraulic conductivity (1·3×10⁻⁴ cm/s), (2) Rio Calaveras, which flows through volcanic tuff with alluvium of intermediate grain size and hydraulic conductivity (1·2×10⁻³ cm/s), and (3) Gallina Creek, located in a granite/gneiss catchment of coarse, poorly sorted alluvium with high hydraulic conductivity (4·1×10⁻³ cm/s). All sites were instrumented with networks of shallow groundwater wells to monitor interstitial solute transport. The rate and extent of groundwater–surface water exchange, determined by the solute response in wells, increased with increasing hydraulic conductivity. The direction of surface water–groundwater interaction within a stream was related to local variation in vertical and horizontal hydraulic gradients. Experimental tracer responses in the surface stream were simulated with a one-dimensional solute transport model with inflow and storage components (OTIS). Model-derived measures of hydrological retention showed a corresponding increase with increasing hydraulic conductivity. To assess the temporal variability of hydrological retention, solute injection experiments were conducted in Gallina Creek under four seasonal flow regimes during which surface discharge ranged from baseflow (0·75 l/s in October) to high (75 l/s during spring snowmelt). Model-derived hydrological retention decreased with increasing discharge. The results of our intersite comparison suggest that hydrological retention is strongly influenced by the geologic setting and alluvial characteristics of the stream catchment. Temporal variation in hydrological retention at Gallina Creek is related to seasonal changes in discharge, highlighting the need for temporal resolution in studies of the dynamics of surface water–groundwater interactions in stream ecosystems. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A preliminary history of Holocene colluvial (debris-flow) activity,Leirdalen, Jotunheimen,Norway

A stratigraphic succession of alternating peat and minerogenic sediments at the foot of a steep mountain slope provides the basis for the reconstruction of a preliminary colluvial history from the alpine zone of Jotunheimen, southern Norway. Layers of silty sand and sandy silt, typically 5–10 cm thick and interpreted as distal debris-flow facies, are separated by layers of peat that have been radiocarbon dated. Deposition from at least 7500 to about 3800 ¹⁴C yr BP of predominantly minerogenic material suggests relatively infrequent but large-magnitude debris-flow events in an environment warmer and/or drier than today. Particularly low colluvial activity between about 6500 and 3900 ¹⁴C yr BP was terminated by a succession of major debris-flow events between about 3800 and 3400 ¹⁴C yr BP. Unhumified peats indicative of higher water tables, separate six debris-flows that occurred between about 3300 and 2300 ¹⁴C yr BP and signify a continuing high frequency of colluvial activity. Uninterrupted peat accumulation between about 2400 and 1600 ¹⁴C yr BP indicates reduced debris-flow activity; subsequent renewed activity appears to have culuminated in the ‘Little Ice Age’ after about 600 ¹⁴C yr BP. This pattern of colluvial deposition demonstrates a long history of natural Holocene low-alpine landscape instability, suggests an increase first in the magnitude and then in the frequency of debris-flow activity coincident with late Holocene climatic deterioration, and points to the potential of debris-flow records as a unique source of palaeoclimatic information related to extreme rainfall events. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chironomid-based Lateglacial climatic reconstruction for southeast Scotland

This paper presents the first chironomid-based climatic reconstruction for the UK Lateglacial, obtained from a lake basin in southeast Scotland, Whitrig Bog. Comparison of chironomid, lithological, geochemical, and pollen data reveals a marked vegetation lag behind the warming following deglaciation; warm-water chironomid taxa (e.g. chironomus) had replaced cold-water chironomid taxa (e.g. Paracladius) prior to the arrival of shrubs and trees and when local soils were still poorly developed. In addition to clear evidence for the Younger Dryas Stadial, chironomid data also reveal two short-term cold episodes that punctuate the Lateglacial Interstadial, both of which are also reflected in pollen and lithological data as reversals from open birch scrub/woodland to open herbaceous tundra coinciding with inwash of minerogenic matter into the basin. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interplay of tectonics and sea-level changes in basin evolution: an example from the intracratonic Amadeus Basin, central Australia

Abstract The Amadeus Basin, a broad intracratonic depression (800 times 300 km) in central Australia, contains a complex Late Proterozoic to mid-Palaeozoic depositional succession which locally reaches 14 km in thickness. The application of sequence stratigraphy to this succession has provided an effective framework in which to evaluate its evolution. Analysis of major depositional sequences shows that the Amadeus Basin evolved in three stages. Stage 1 began at about 900 Myr with extensional thinning of the crust and formation of half-grabens. Thermal recovery following extension was well advanced when a second less intense crustal extension (stage 2) occurred towards the end of the Late Proterozoic. Stage 2 thermal recovery was followed by a major compressional event (stage 3) in which major southward-directed thrust sheets caused progressive downward flexing of the northern margin of the basin, and sediment was shed from the thrust sheets into the downwarps forming a foreland basin. This event shortened the basin by 50–100 km and effectively concluded sedimentation. The two stages of crustal extension and thermal recovery produced large-scale apparent sea-level effects upon which eustatic sea-level cycles are superimposed. Since the style of sedimentation and major sequence boundaries were controlled to a large degree by basin dynamics, depositional patterns within the Amadeus and associated basin are, to a large degree, predictable. This suggests that an understanding of major variables associated with basin dynamics and their relationship to depositional sequences may allow the development of generalized depositional models on a basinal scale. The Amadeus Basin is only one of a number of broad, shallow, intracratonic depressions that appeared on the Australian craton during the Late Proterozoic. The development of these basins almost certainly relates to the breakup of a Proterozoic supercontinent and in large part, basin dynamics appears to be tied to this global tectonic event. Onlap and apparent sea-level curves derived from the sequence analysis appear to be composite curves resulting from both basin dynamics and eustatic sea-level effects. It thus appears likely that sequence stratigraphy could be used as a basis for inter-regional correlation; a possibility that has considerable significance in Archaean and Proterozoic basins.     

Early development of the glacial theory: Louis Agassiz and the Scottish connection

Britain's landscape reflects the imprint of glaciation and the dramatic fluctuations in climate that have characterized the Quaternary. There was an important Scottish connection in the early development of the glacial theory during the nineteenth century, in particular through the work of Louis Agassiz.