Fe isotope systematics of coexisting amphibole and pyroxene in the alkaline igneous rock suite of the Ilímaussaq Complex,South Greenland

The Ilímaussaq intrusion, South Greenland, provides an exceptional test case for investigating the changes of stable Fe isotope fractionation of solidus phases with changes in the Fe³⁺/∑Fe ratio of an evolving melt. The intrusion comprises a sequence of four melt batches that were fed from the same parental alkali basaltic magma. Differentiation produced cumulate rocks that range from augite syenite (phase I) over peralkaline granite (phase II) to agpaitic syenites (phases IIIa and IIIb). Fe³⁺/∑Fe ratios in amphiboles increase substantially from phase I to phase II and III rocks and mark a major change in the parental magma composition from augite syenites to peralkaline granites and agpaitic syenites. Before this transition, olivine, clinopyroxene, and amphibole in augite syenite, the most primitive rock type in the Ilímaussaq Complex, have a uniform Fe isotope composition that is identical to that of the bulk of igneous crustal rocks and approximated by the average isotopic composition of basalts (δ^56/54Fe_IRMM-014 = 0.072 ± 0.046‰). After the transition, amphiboles in the peralkaline granites and agpaitic syenites yield significantly heavier Fe isotope compositions with δ^56/54Fe_IRMM-014 values ranging from 0.123 to 0.237‰. Contamination of the Ilímaussaq magma by ongoing crustal assimilation as cause for this increase can be excluded on the grounds of Nd isotope data. Large-scale metasomatic overprint with an external fluid can also be dismissed based on amphibole O and Li isotope systematics. Rather, the increase towards heavy Fe isotope compositions most likely reflects the change in chemical compositions of amphiboles (calcic in augite syenite to sodic in the agpaitic syenites) and their Fe³⁺/ΣFe ratios that mirror changes in the chemical composition of the melt and its oxygen fugacity. A sensitive adjustment of equilibrium Fe isotope fractionation factors to amphibole ferric/ferrous ratios is also supported by beta-factors calculated from Mössbauer spetroscopy data. Comparison of the measured isotope fractionation between clinopyroxene and amphibole with that predicted from Mössbauer data reveal Fe isotope systematics close to equilibrium in augite syenites but Fe isotopic disequilibrium between these two phases in phase IIIa agpaitic syenites. These results are in agreement with O and Li isotope systematics. While amphiboles in all Ilímaussaq lithologies crystallized at temperatures between 650 and 850 °C, textural evidence reveals later clinopyroxene crystallization at temperatures as low as 300–400 °C. Therefore, isotopic equilibrium at crystallization conditions between these two phases can not be expected, but importantly, subsolidus reequilibration can also be dismissed.     

Simulating Piecewise-Linear Surface Water and Ground Water Interactions with MODFLOW

The standard MODFLOW packages offer limited capabilities to model piecewise-linear boundary conditions to describe ground water–surface water interaction. Specifically, MODFLOW is incapable of representing a Cauchy-type boundary with different resistances for discharge or recharge conditions. Such a more sophisticated Cauchy boundary condition is needed to properly represent surface waters alternatively losing water through the bottom (high resistance) or gaining water mostly near the water surface (low resistance). One solution would be to create a new package for MODFLOW to accomplish this. However, it is also possible to combine multiple instances of standard packages in a single cell to the same effect. In this specific example, the general head boundary package is combined with the drain package to arrive at the desired piecewise-linear behavior. In doing so, the standard USGS MODFLOW version can be used without any modifications at the expense of a minor increase in preprocessing and postprocessing and computational effort. The extra preprocessing for creating the input and extra postprocessing to determine the water balance in terms of the physical entities from the MODFLOW cell fluxes per package can be taken care of by a user interface.     

Ground Surface Warming History in Northern Canada Inferred from Inversions of Temperature Logs and Comparison with Other Proxy Climate Reconstructions

— Well temperature logs from 61 sites located in discontinuous and continuous permafrost regions of northern Canada are analyzed. The method of functional space inversion (FSI) is applied to the set of precise temperature logs from wells located between 60 ° and 82 °N. There is strong evidence of extensive ground surface temperature (GST) warming beginning in the late 18^th century and lasting until the 20^th century. This was preceded by a lengthy period of cooling. The approximate average increase of the surface temperature of Canadian Arctic, based on all individual GST histories, is > 1.3 °C for the last 200 years. Simultaneous inversion of all well temperature data suggests an even higher warming (approximately 2 °C). There has been no strong south-to-north gradient in the ground warming magnitude when northern Canadian data are compared with eastern and central Canadian data south of 60 °N which also shows warming close to 2 °C. In Alaska, warming of some 2 °C has been restricted mainly to the 20^th century. In general, however, a high warming magnitude is common for most of Canada and Alaska for the previous century. The averaged GST history (GSTH) for the Canadian Arctic is calibrated with and compares visually with a variety of recently published regional and hemispheric proxy climate reconstructions. These show that GST warming derived from well temperature logs is generally higher than one shown by other proxy (mainly tree-ring reconstructions).Received April, 2003     

On the possibility of long-range forecasts of geomagnetic activity

Summary The relation between geomagnetic activity and solar activity is studied in long intervals and in individual 11-year cycles, characterized by certain basic parameters, in connection with investigating the prognostic significance of long-term fluctuations of geomagnetic activity [1, 2]. A number of properties as well as sufficiently close relations with a prognostic significance have been found, such as the secular variation of geomagnetic activity, the 22-year cycle of change in the form of the behaviour of geomagnetic activity in 11-year cycles, long-term concurrence of solar and geomagnetic activity and its changes within the 11-year cycle, relations between solar and geomagnetic parameters characterizing the 11-year cycle.

---

a auu uu u ¶rt; uaum amum ¶rt;u nma u u m¶rt; 11-mu ua am mu ¶rt; ¶rt;m nuauaum amumu.

     

Mean Earth'S Equipotential Surface From Topex/Poseidon Altimetry

The geopotential value of W ₀ = (62 636 855.611 ± 0.008) m ² s ^–2 which specifies the equipotential surface fitting the mean ocean surface best, was obtained from four years (1993 - 1996) of TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter data (AVISO, 1995). The altimeter calibration error limits the actual accuracy of W ₀ to about (0.2 - 0.5) m ² s ^–2 (2 - 5) cm. The same accuracy limits also apply to the corresponding semimajor axis of the mean Earth's level ellipsoid a = 6 378 136.72 m (mean tide system), a = 6 378 136.62 m (zero tide system), a = 6 378 136.59 m (tide-free). The variations in the yearly mean values of the geopotential did not exceed ±0.025 m ² s ^–2 (±2.5 mm).     

Flow behaviour of the submarine glacigenic debris flows on the Bear Island Trough Mouth Fan, western Barents Sea

Using 3·5 kHz high-resolution seismic data, gravity cores and side-scan sonar imagery, the flow behaviour of submarine, glacigenic debris flows on the Bear Island Trough Mouth Fan, western Barents Sea was studied. During their downslope movement, the sediments within the uppermost part of the debris flows (<3 m) are inferred to have been deformed as a result of the shear stress at the debris–water interface. Thus, the uppermost part of the flow did not move downslope as a rigid plug. If present, a rigid part of the flow was located at least some metres below the surface. At c . 1000 to at least 1600 m water depth, the debris flows eroded and probably incorporated substrate debris. Further downslope, the debris flows moved passively over substrate sediments. The hypothesis of hydroplaning of the debris flow front may explain why the debris flows moved across the lower fan without affecting the underlying sediments. Detailed morphological information from the surface of one of the debris flow deposits reveals arcuate ridges. These features were probably formed by flow surge. Hydroplaning of the debris flow front may also explain the formation of flow surge. The long runout distance of some of the large debris flows could be due to accretion of material to the base of the debris flow, thereby increasing in volume during flow, and/or to hydroplaning suppressing deceleration of the flow.     

Determination of the gravitational effect of extensive spherical laminae (platforms) using generalized Talwani's method

u uuuuaumau uu u m, ¶rt;u a mumau nmu a u nmu mau u nmmu. au n¶rt; nuau ¶rt;mam u u m. nua m¶rt; m u m¶rt;a aau (1960) ¶rt; uu .     

Gravity ideal-body analysis

Summary This short note contributes to the methods of computing the bounds on some properties of the source of measured data.     

Ancient charcoal as a natural archive for paleofire regime and vegetation change in the Mayumbe,Democratic Republic of the Congo

Charcoal was sampled in four soil profiles at the Mayumbe forest boundary (DRC). Five fire events were recorded and 44 charcoal types were identified. One stratified profile yielded charcoal assemblages around 530 cal yr BP and > 43.5 cal ka BP in age. The oldest assemblage precedes the period of recorded anthropogenic burning, illustrating occasional long-term absence of fire but also natural wildfire occurrences within tropical rainforest. No other charcoal assemblages older than 2500 cal yr BP were recorded, perhaps due to bioturbation and colluvial reworking. The recorded paleofires were possibly associated with short-lived climate anomalies. Progressively dry climatic conditions since ca. 4000 cal yr BP onward did not promote paleofire occurrence until increasing seasonality affected vegetation at the end of the third millennium BP, as illustrated by a fire occurring in mature rainforest that persisted until around 2050 cal yr BP. During a drought episode coinciding with the ‘Medieval Climate Anomaly’, mature rainforest was locally replaced by woodland savanna. Charcoal remains from pioneer forest indicate that fire hampered forest regeneration after climatic drought episodes. The presence of pottery shards and oil-palm endocarps associated with two relatively recent paleofires suggests that the effects of climate variability were amplified by human activities.     

Supracrustal suite of the Precambrian crystalline crust in the Ghor Province of Central Afghanistan

The Proterozoic pre-Ediacaran metamorphic basement of the southern Tajik (North Afghanistan) continental block and the adjacent Band-e-Bayan zone is exposed in the Ghor Province of Central Afghanistan. It is predominantly composed of the EW-striking supracrustal succession consisting of interbedded felsic schists and gneisses (metapsammites), amphibolites (metabasalts), calcite and dolomite marbles. The metamorphic facies changes from greenschist in the Band-e-Bayan zone to amphibolite facies in the Tajik block. The supracrustal rocks of the Band-e-Bayan zone and Tajik block possess common features suggesting that the former represents a tectonized part of the latter. The geochemical characteristics of metapsammites indicate derivation of the clastic material from a continental arc and, partly from a passive continental margin, whereas the composition of metabasalts suggests their possible formation in a continental rift basin. The tectonic setting of supracrustal unit could be interpreted as a back-arc type basin. We presume that the Tajik microcontinent split off the Gondwana supercontinent along an ancient rift zone during the late Paleozoic.