Primary and secondary processes constraining the noble gas isotopic signatures of carbonatites and silicate rocks from Brava Island: evidence for a lower mantle origin of the Cape Verde plume

We present and discuss noble gas compositions of minerals from silicate rocks (olivines) and carbonatites (apatites and calcites) from Brava Island. The presence of an almost ubiquitous atmosphere-derived fingerprint is explained as reflecting contamination by seawater. Because of the high U and Th content in apatites, which are responsible for ⁴He production by α-decay, the high measured ⁴He/³He ratios do not represent magmatic signatures. In contrast, low values of ⁴He/³He in calcites (≥61,223; R/R _a ≤ 11.80) and olivines (≥56,240; R/R _a ≤ 12.85) are considered to be representative of signatures trapped at the time of crystallization, given that there are no evidences for significant cosmogenic additions. These relatively low ⁴He/³He ratios depicted by silicate and carbonatite rocks imply the contribution of a reservoir that evolved under low (U + Th)/³He; this is considered a strong evidence for the genesis of Brava by a mantle plume deeply anchored in the lower mantle. The inferred low ⁴He/⁴⁰Ar* ratio (≈0.3), before degassing, is thought to reflect the contribution to the carbonatites source of a mantle domain evolving under high K/U, which cannot be explained by recycling of crustal components. The possible link between the low ⁴He/⁴⁰Ar* source and the “missing Ar reservoir” is discussed. The usually referred geochemical dichotomy between Northern and Southern Cape Verde islands, which is markedly evident from Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope signatures, is not apparent from Brava Island (Southern Cape Verde), where some samples present relatively unradiogenic ⁴He/³He signatures, similar to those reported for the Northern islands of the archipelago.     

Seasonal metal remobilization in the sediments of Great Bay,New Hampshire

Concentrations of dissolved iron, manganese, molybdenum, copper, and organic carbon (DOC) were measured in the pore waters from surficial sediments of a temperate estuary to delineate seasonal metal remobilization from 1978 through 1980. Iron and DOC data were collected for 31 months and covaried inversely and exponentially. Iron dissolution occurred during the spring and during periods of active bioturbation with concentrations as high as 18 mg 1^?1. Iron values were low during winter due to oxidation to ferric oxides. The lack of active bioturbation during the summer of 1978 allowed for the nearly complete removal of iron as a monosulfide precipitate. However, bioturbation resumed during the summer of 1979 and 1980 and dissolved iron concentrations as high as 10 mg 1^?1 were observed at those times. The iron and DOC data were a qualitative measure of bioturbation activity. Dissolved manganese, molybdenum, and copper data were collected for 18 months during 1978 and 1979. All three metals displayed spring maxima covariate with iron, suggesting that they behaved chemically like iron and/or were associated with iron- or manganese-rich phases during this time of the year. In general, manganese and molybdenum varied temporally with iron while copper concentrations mimicked iron variations only during the spring.     

A Global Inventory of Burned Areas at 1 Km Resolution for the Year 2000 Derived from Spot Vegetation Data

Biomass burning constitutes a major contribution to global emissions of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, greenhouse gases and aerosols. Furthermore, biomass burning has an impact on health, transport, the environment and land use. Vegetation fires are certainly not recent phenomena and the impacts are not always negative. However, evidence suggests that fires are becoming more frequent and there is a large increase in the number of fires being set by humans for a variety of reasons. Knowledge of the interactions and feedbacks between biomass burning, climate and carbon cycling is needed to help the prediction of climate change scenarios. To obtain this knowledge, the scientific community requires, in the first instance, information on the spatial and temporal distribution of biomass burning at the global scale. This paper presents an inventory of burned areas at monthly time periods for the year 2000 at a resolution of 1 kilometer (km) and is available to the scientific community at no cost. The burned area products have been derived from a single source of satellite-derived images, the SPOT VEGETATION S1 1 km product, using algorithms developed and calibrated at regional scales by a network of partners. In this paper, estimates of burned area, number of burn scars and average size of the burn scar are described for each month of the year 2000. The information is reported at the country level. This paper makes a significant contribution to understanding the effect of biomass burning on atmospheric chemistry and the storage and cycling of carbon by constraining one of the main parameters used in the calculation of gas emissions.     

A Simple Mixing Length Formulation for the Eddy-Diffusivity Parameterization of Dry Convection

In this paper a simple mixing length formulation for the eddy-diffusivityparameterization of dry convection is suggested. The new formulation relates the mixinglength to the square root of the turbulent kinetic energy (e) and a time scale ( ):l = e. To close the parameterization the time scale is calculated as a functionof the boundary-layer height (h) and the convective velocity scale (w_*), h/w_*. Thesimpler approach of a constant time scale is also studied. The simulation of a case of dry atmosphericconvection with a one-dimensional boundary-layer model shows that the model with the new formulationreproduces quite well the main properties of the convective boundary layer. In particular,the entrainment is realistically represented by the new mixing length, which has the advantage of naturallydecreasing with the turbulent kinetic energy. Sensitivity studies to the surface flux and the lapserate, in the context of a simplified situation, show the robustness of the new formulation.     

Ecosystem metabolism and carbon fluxes of a tidally-dominated coastal lagoon

The metabolism and carbon flux in the western sector of the highly dynamic coastal lagoon Ria Formosa (south Portugal) were assessed to elucidate the relative importance of the contribution of the main communities, the treated sewage inputs from the adjacent city of Faro, and the exchange with the adjacent coastal waters to the ecosystem metabolism. The results depict the Ria Formosa as being a highly productive ecosystem dominated by the seagrassZostera noltii. The community dominated by the seagrassCymodocea nodosa had half of the gross production ofZ. noltii, followed by bare sediments and phytoplankton. The net contribution of seagrasses to community metabolism was negligible, as bothZ. noltii andC. nodosa showed a production: respiration ratio close to 1. Benthic microalgae emerge as the most important components of the net metabolism. The western sector of Ria Formosa was in metabolic balance during the summer when the study was done. Even though the total net ecosystem production was 7.22 Kmol C d⁻¹, the error associated with this estimate was 8.38 Kmol C d⁻¹, so ecosystem net production was not significantly different from zero. The Ria Formosa ecosystem is shallow and rapidly flushed by the tides, which force an important exchange of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) with the adjacent coastal waters. The daily net export rate to the adjacent coastal waters, 0.98 Kmol d⁻¹, represented 7.6% of the net ecosystem production, suggesting that the bulk of the net ecosystem production accumulates within the ecosystem. The organic carbon retention in the western sector of the Ria Formosa is higher than net production, because the allochthonous carbon inputs from urban sewage enter the carbon mass balance with about 40% of the autochthonous processes, at about 1.6 Kmol d⁻¹ of DOC and 2.8 Kmol d⁻¹ of POC. The western sector of Ria Formosa has an organic carbon sink of about 46.4 tons per year. Most of this is harvested in the form of molluscs (clams, cuttlefish, etc.) and fish (sea bream, sea bass, etc.). The total carbon harvested every year in the form of bivalves is about 40 tons, rendering the Ria Formosa the most productive seafood area in Portugal.     

Fammenian–Tournaisian dextral ductile shear in the French Variscan belt

The South Armorican Shear Zone consists of a set of faults that runs across the southern Armorican Massif and extends eastwards to the Massif Central. One of its branches, the Cholet Shear Zone of South Brittany, can be correlated with the North-Millevaches–La Courtine Shear Zone in the Massif Central. It was active immediately after the regional Frasnian anatexis (372–368 Ma) as a right-lateral strike-slip fault. The horizontal offset, which can be estimated between 110 and 170 km, was achieved before the emplacement of non-deformed Late Tournaisian calc-alkaline and peraluminous granites (355–350 Ma). This newly established age of activity (Fammenian–Tournaisian) of the Cholet–La Courtine Shear Zone (CCSZ) has to be taken into account in geodynamical reconstructions of the Variscan belt of western Europe. To cite this article: C. Cartannaz et al., C. R. Geoscience 338 (2006).     

Climatic changes in Eurasia and Africa at the last glacial maximum and mid-Holocene: reconstruction from pollen data using inverse vegetation modelling

In order to improve the reliability of climate reconstruction, especially the climatologies outside the modern observed climate space, an improved inverse vegetation model using a recent version of BIOME4 has been designed to quantitatively reconstruct past climates, based on pollen biome scores from the BIOME6000 project. The method has been validated with surface pollen spectra from Eurasia and Africa, and applied to palaeoclimate reconstruction. At 6 cal ka BP (calendar years), the climate was generally wetter than today in southern Europe and northern Africa, especially in the summer. Winter temperatures were higher (1–5°C) than present in southern Scandinavia, northeastern Europe, and southern Africa, but cooler in southern Eurasia and in tropical Africa, especially in Mediterranean regions. Summer temperatures were generally higher than today in most of Eurasia and Africa, with a significant warming from ∼3 to 5°C over northwestern and southern Europe, southern Africa, and eastern Africa. In contrast, summers were 1–3°C cooler than present in the Mediterranean lowlands and in a band from the eastern Black Sea to Siberia. At 21 cal ka BP, a marked hydrological change can be seen in the tropical zone, where annual precipitation was ∼200–1,000 mm/year lower than today in equatorial East Africa compared to the present. A robust inverse relationship is shown between precipitation change and elevation in Africa. This relationship indicates that precipitation likely had an important role in controlling equilibrium-line altitudes (ELA) changes in the tropics during the LGM period. In Eurasia, hydrological decreases follow a longitudinal gradient from Europe to Siberia. Winter temperatures were ∼10–17°C lower than today in Eurasia with a more significant decrease in northern regions. In Africa, winter temperature was ∼10–15°C lower than present in the south, while it was only reduced by ∼0–3°C in the tropical zone. Comparison of palaeoclimate reconstructions using LGM and modern CO₂ concentrations reveals that the effect of CO₂ on pollen-based LGM reconstructions differs by vegetation type. Reconstructions for pollen sites in steppic vegetation in Europe show warmer winter temperatures under LGM CO₂ concentrations than under modern concentrations, and reconstructions for sites in xerophytic woods/scrub in tropical high altitude regions of Africa are wetter for LGM CO₂ concentrations than for modern concentrations, because our reconstructions account for decreased plant water use efficiency.     

Chronology and depositional processes of the laminated sediment record from Lac d'Annecy, French Alps

A high resolution sediment record spanning the entire time since the ice retreat after the Last Glacial Maximum has been recovered from Lac d'Annecy. The main focus of this study is to develop a reliable chronology of the record and to evaluate the environmental variability during the period of Late Würmian ice retreat. Most of the record is laminated. These laminations are of different structure, composition, and thickness. On the basis of varve stratigraphy five sedimentation units were identified which correspond to particular stages in the deglaciation of the region. Except for one each facies type has been related to an annual cycle of deposition. Varve counting in combination with radiocarbon dating provides the time control of the record and dates the base of lacustrine deposits to 16,600 varve yrs BP. The beginning of the Late Glacial is marked by a shift from clastic to endogenic carbonate varves caused by the climatic warming. Clastic varves have been further subdivided into a succession of complex and standard varve types. These variations of clastic varve formation are triggered by the ice retreat and related hydrological variations in the watershed of the lake. Sedimentological, mineralogical and isotopic data help identify different sediment sources of the sub-layers. Proximal sediments originate from local carbonaceous bedrock whereas distal sediments have characteristics of the molassic complex of the outer Alps. The alternation of proximal and distal sediments in the varve sequence reflects the deglaciation of the Annecy area with a changing influence of local and regional glaciers. The melting of the Alpine ice sheet is the driving force for regional environmental changes which in turn control the sediment transport and deposition processes in Lac d'Annecy.     

Gamma-Ray Data Processing and Integration for Lode-Au Deposits Exploration

A large number of mineral deposits are associated with hydrothermal processes, especially auriferous deposits. In such processes, studies on percolating fluids may indicate the presence of potash (K), among other elements. In this study, aerogammaspectrometric data-processing methodologies are evaluated, especially those methods based on the suppression of the primary contribution of potassium, the result of lithological and soil variations, and to environmental conditions. Resulting maps point out the contribution of hydrothermal K. This processing procedure was used because of the association of hydrothermal K and auriferous mineralizations according to the deposit model defined for the studied region. Intensity maps locate the areas with great influence of hydrothermal K. Data integration required to improve a change in the gammaspectrometric data processing in order to positively correlate hydrothermalised areas. Data integration could distinguish high and medium favorable targets for mineral exploration of lode-Au deposits in the studied region.