Towards a climate event stratigraphy for New Zealand over the past 30 000 years (NZ‐INTIMATE project)

It is widely recognised that the acquisition of high‐resolution palaeoclimate records from southern mid‐latitude sites is essential for establishing a coherent picture of inter‐hemispheric climate change and for better understanding of the role of Antarctic climate dynamics in the global climate system. New Zealand is considered to be a sensitive monitor of climate change because it is one of a few sizeable landmasses in the Southern Hemisphere westerly circulation zone, a critical transition zone between subtropical and Antarctic influences. New Zealand has mountainous axial ranges that amplify the climate signals and, consequently, the environmental gradients are highly sensitive to subtle changes in atmospheric and oceanic conditions. Since 1995, INTIMATE has, through a series of international workshops, sought ways to improve procedures for establishing the precise ages of climate events, and to correlate them with high precision, for the last 30 000 calendar years. The NZ‐INTIMATE project commenced in late 2003, and has involved virtually the entire New Zealand palaeoclimate community. Its aim is to develop an event stratigraphy for the New Zealand region over the past 30 000 years, and to reconcile these events against the established climatostratigraphy of the last glacial cycle which has largely been developed from Northern Hemisphere records (e.g. Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Termination I, Younger Dryas). An initial outcome of NZ‐INTIMATE has been the identification of a series of well‐dated, high‐resolution onshore and offshore proxy records from a variety of latitudes and elevations on a common calendar timescale from 30 000 cal. yr BP to the present day. High‐resolution records for the last glacial coldest period (LGCP) (including the LGM sensu stricto) and last glacial–interglacial transition (LGIT) from Auckland maars, Kaipo and Otamangakau wetlands on eastern and central North Island, marine core MD97‐2121 east of southern North Island, speleothems on northwest South Island, Okarito wetland on southwestern South Island, are presented. Discontinuous (fragmentary) records comprising compilations of glacial sequences, fluvial sequences, loess accumulation, and aeolian quartz accumulation in an andesitic terrain are described. Comparisons with ice‐core records from Antarctica (EPICA Dome C) and Greenland (GISP2) are discussed. A major advantage immediately evident from these records apart from the speleothem record, is that they are linked precisely by one or more tephra layers. Based on these New Zealand terrestrial and marine records, a reasonably coherent, regionally applicable, sequence of climatically linked stratigraphic events over the past 30 000 cal. yr is emerging. Three major climate events are recognised: (1) LGCP beginning at ca. 28 000 cal. yr BP, ending at Termination I, ca. 18 000 cal. yr BP, and including a warmer and more variable phase between ca. 27 000 and 21 000 cal. yr BP, (2) LGIT between ca. 18 000 and 11 600 cal. yr BP, including a Lateglacial warm period from ca. 14 800 to 13 500 cal. yr BP and a Lateglacial climate reversal between ca. 13 500 and 11 600 cal. yr BP, and (3) Holocene interglacial conditions, with two phases of greatest warmth between ca. 11 600 and 10 800 cal. yr BP and from ca. 6 800 to 6 500 cal. yr BP. Some key boundaries coincide with volcanic tephras. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

西藏恰功铁矿岩浆演化序列及斑岩出溶流体特征

冈底斯成矿带是碰撞造山过程形成的最重要的成矿带,恰功矽卡岩铁(铜)矿床即位于冈底斯成矿带中部.本文在详细的野外地质填图和室内研究基础上确定了恰功铁矿与成矿有关的斑岩体为二长花岗斑岩,锆石的U-Pb定年结果为68.8±2.2 Ma,明显早于冈底斯东部与后碰撞伸展有关的斑岩型矿床和主碰撞期形成的矽卡岩型矿床,其应代表了冈底斯一次尚未被充分认识到的成矿事件.通过对成矿斑岩的岩石学、岩石化学、岩浆出溶流体的包裹体岩相学、显微测温分析及包裹体成分的LRM、LA-ICP-MS和PIXE分析,本文探讨了与该矽卡岩矿床有关的斑岩的岩浆起源、斑岩侵位机制及出溶流体特征.结果表明,成矿斑岩为矿区最早的侵入岩单元,具有壳幔源混源特征,其常量元素组成与冈底斯东部斑岩铜矿带的埃达克质岩相近,但稀土和微量元素组成与东部斑岩明显不同,为地幔物质上涌并诱发角闪岩相下地壳熔融的产物,岩体侵位深度大(>7 km)、剥蚀程度高.早期岩浆出溶的流体为高温、高压、高盐度流体,其中富含Fe、Pb、Zn、Cu等成矿金属,与世界其他斑岩铜矿床相比,相对富铁、铅而贫铜.流体的沸腾作用发生于钾硅化阶段,形成了一套富气、高盐、高固相和气液包裹体组合,不同于早期出溶流体的包裹体组合.从岩浆起源和出溶流体性质可以看出,该斑岩具有形成与斑岩有关的铁铅多金属矿床的成矿潜力,但从该矿区地表出露的蚀变和包裹体测压结果可以看出,该斑岩体目前剥蚀深度较大,对斑岩型矿床保存不利,对该斑岩体及与成矿关系的认识对理解该区内的矿床成因和指导区域找矿具有重要的指示意义.     

Alkylation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in carbonaceous chondrites

Using microprobe laser-desorption, laser-ionization mass spectrometry (μL²MS), we measured the distributions of alkylated and unalkylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the free organic material of 20 carbonaceous chondrites. These meteorites represent a variety of meteorite classes and alteration histories, including CI, CK, CM, CO, CR, CV, and Tagish Lake. This work provides information on free organic compounds that is complementary to studies of the structure and composition of meteoritic macromolecular content.For the nine CM2 meteorites analyzed, we observe that higher relative abundances of alkylated PAHs correlate with more intense aqueous activity. We attribute this correlation to the differences in solubility and volatility between unalkylated and alkylated PAHs. Naphthalene and its alkylation series are more susceptible to the effects of aqueous exposure than the less-soluble PAH phenanthrene and its alkylated derivatives. These observations are consistent with the possibility of chromatographic separations on the meteorite parent bodies. We identify six CM2 meteorites with similar PAH distributions that may represent the original, unaltered organic composition of the parent body.Increased metamorphic intensity reduces the abundance of all PAHs. The thermally metamorphosed CK chondrites had no detectable levels of typical meteoritic PAHs. This observation might be explained either by a loss of PAHs caused by volatilization or by a significantly different organic content of the CK parent body.     

Current velocity measurements using acoustic Doppler backscatter: A review

Acoustic Doppler backscattering techniques have been exploited for measuring water velocity for nearly 40 years. Although most early applications centered on measuring ship speed, much work has been done during the last 20 years to adapt the techniques to measure oceanic velocity fields. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the work that has been done and to discuss the state of acoustic Doppler technology.     

A fungal epizootic in mussels at a deep-sea hydrothermal vent

Mass mortalities due to disease are important determinants of population and community structure in marine ecosystems, but the speed at which an epizootic may sweep through a population, combined with rapid selection for disease‐resistant stocks, can mask the ecological impact of disease in all but the most closely monitored populations. We document an emergent epizootic event in the deep sea that is occurring in mussels (Bathymodiolus brevior) at the Mussel Hill hydrothermal vent in Fiji Basin and we identify the causal agent as a black yeast (order Chaetothyriales) that elicits a pronounced host immune response and is associated with tissue deterioration. The yeast was not observed in other invertebrate taxa (the gastropods Ifremeria nautilei, Alviniconcha aff. hessleri; the limpets Lepetodrilus schrolli, Symmetromphalus aff. hageni; the polychaetes Branchipolynoe pettiboneae, Amphisamytha cf. galapagensis) associated with the mussel bed, nor in mussels (Bathymodiolus brevior) collected from adjacent Lau Basin mussel beds. Massive mussel mortality resulting from the fungal infection is anticipated at the Mussel Hill site in Fiji Basin; we expect that epizootic outbreaks in dense invertebrate communities have the potential to be major determinants of community structure in deep‐sea chemosynthetic ecosystems. The possibility that submersible assets may serve as vectors for transport of the fungus warrants further attention.     

Verifying Inventory Predictions of Animal Methane Emissions with Meteorological Measurements

The paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of a rangeof meteorological flux measurement techniques that mightbe used to verify predictions of greenhouse gas inventories.Recent research into emissions of methane (CH₄)produced by enteric fermentation in grazing cattle and sheepis used to illustrate various methodologies. Quantifying thisimportant source presents special difficulties because the animalsconstitute moving, heterogeneously distributed, intermittent, pointsources. There are two general approaches: one, from the bottom up,involves direct measurements of emissions from a known number ofanimals, and the other, from the top down, infers areal emissions ofCH₄ from its atmospheric signature. A mass-balance methodproved successful for bottom-up verification. It permits undisturbedgrazing, has a simple theoretical basis and is appropriate for fluxmeasurements on small plots and where there are scattered pointsources. The top-down methodologies include conventional flux-gradientapproaches and convective and nocturnal boundary-layer (CBL and NBL)budgeting schemes. Particular attention is given to CBL budget methods inboth differential and integral form. All top-down methodologies require ideal weather conditions for their application, and they suffer from the scattered nature of the source, varying wind directions and low instrument resolution. As for mass-balance, flux-gradient micrometeorological measurements were in good agreement with inventory predictions of CH₄ production by livestock, but the standard errors associated with both methods were too large to permit detection of changes of a few per cent in emission rate, which might be important for inventory, regulatory or research purposes. Fluxes calculated by CBL and NBL methods were of the same order of magnitude as inventory predictions, but more improvement is needed before their use can be endorsed. Opportunities for improving the precision of both bottom-up and top-down methodologies are discussed.