Iodine-xenon analysis of ordinary chondrite halide: implications for early solar system water

We report the results of iodine-xenon analyses of irradiated halide grains extracted from the H-chondrite Monahans (1998) and compare them with those from Zag (Whitby et al., 2000) to address the timing of aqueous processing on the H-chondrite parent body. Xe isotopic analyses were carried out using the RELAX mass spectrometer with laser stepped heating. The initial ¹²⁹I/¹²⁷I ratio in the Monahans halide was determined to be (9.37 ± 0.06) × 10⁻⁵ with an iodine concentration of ∼400 ppb. Significant scatter, especially in the Zag data, indicates that a simple interpretation as a formation age is unreliable. Instead we propose a model whereby halide minerals in both meteorites formed ∼5 Ma after the enstatite achondrite Shallowater (at an absolute age of 4559 Ma). This age is in agreement with the timing of aqueous alteration on the carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies and ordinary chondrite metamorphism and is consistent with the decay of ²⁶Al as a heat source for heating and mobilisation of brines on the H-chondrite parent body. Post accretion surface impact events may have also contributed to the heat source.     

Deep seismic reflection profiling in the Archaean northeastern Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia: implications for crustal architecture and mineral potential

Deep seismic reflection data across the Archaean Eastern Goldfields Province, northeastern Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, have provided information on its crustal architecture and on several of its highly mineralised belts. The seismic reflection data allow interpretation of several prominent crustal scale features, including an eastward thickening of the crust, subdivision of the crust into three broad layers, the presence of a prominent east dip to the majority of the reflections and the interpretation of three east-dipping crustal-penetrating shear zones. These east-dipping shear zones are major structures that subdivide the region into four terranes. Major orogenic gold deposits in the Eastern Goldfields Province are spatially associated with these major structures. The Laverton Tectonic Zone, for example, is a highly mineralised corridor that contains several world-class gold deposits plus many smaller deposits. Other non crustal-penetrating structures within the area do not appear to be as well endowed metallogenically as the Laverton structure. The seismic reflection data have also imaged a series of low-angle shear zones within and beneath the granite–greenstone terranes. Where the low-angle shear zones intersect the major crustal-penetrating structures, a wedge shaped geometry is formed. This geometry forms a suitable fluid focusing wedge in which upward to subhorizontal moving fluids are focused and then distributed into the nearby complexly deformed greenstones.     

Transtensional deformation in the Lake Tahoe region, California and Nevada, USA

Dextral transtensional deformation is occurring along the Sierra Nevada–Great Basin boundary zone (SNGBBZ) at the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada microplate. In the Lake Tahoe region of the SNGBBZ, transtension is partitioned spatially and temporally into domains of north–south striking normal faults and transitional domains with conjugate strike-slip faults. The normal fault domains, which have had large Holocene earthquakes but account only for background seismicity in the historic period, primarily accommodate east–west extension, while the transitional domains, which have had moderate Holocene and historic earthquakes and are currently seismically active, primarily record north–south shortening. Through partitioned slip, the upper crust in this region undergoes overall constrictional strain.Major fault zones within the Lake Tahoe basin include two normal fault zones: the northwest-trending Tahoe–Sierra frontal fault zone (TSFFZ) and the north-trending West Tahoe–Dollar Point fault zone. Most faults in these zones show eastside down displacements. Both of these fault zones show evidence of Holocene earthquakes but are relatively quiet seismically through the historic record. The northeast-trending North Tahoe–Incline Village fault zone is a major normal to sinistral-oblique fault zone. This fault zone shows evidence for large Holocene earthquakes and based on the historic record is seismically active at the microearthquake level. The zone forms the boundary between the Lake Tahoe normal fault domain to the south and the Truckee transition zone to the north.Several lines of evidence, including both geology and historic seismicity, indicate that the seismically active Truckee and Gardnerville transition zones, north and southeast of Lake Tahoe basin, respectively, are undergoing north–south shortening. In addition, the central Carson Range, a major north-trending range block between two large normal fault zones, shows internal fault patterns that suggest the range is undergoing north–south shortening in addition to east–west extension.A model capable of explaining the spatial and temporal partitioning of slip suggests that seismic behavior in the region alternates between two modes, one mode characterized by an east–west minimum principal stress and a north–south maximum principal stress as at present. In this mode, seismicity and small-scale faulting reflecting north–south shortening concentrate in mechanically weak transition zones with primarily strike-slip faulting in relatively small-magnitude events, and domains with major normal faults are relatively quiet. A second mode occurs after sufficient north–south shortening reduces the north–south S_hmax in magnitude until it is less than S_v, at which point S_v becomes the maximum principal stress. This second mode is then characterized by large earthquakes on major normal faults in the large normal fault domains, which dominate the overall moment release in the region, producing significant east–west extension.     

Regional three-dimensional gravity modelling of the NE Atlantic margin

A series of three‐dimensional models has been constructed for the structure of the crust and upper mantle over a large region spanning the NE Atlantic passive margin. These incorporate isostatic and flexural principles, together with gravity modelling and integration with seismic interpretations. An initial isostatic model was based on known bathymetric/topographic variations, an estimate of the thickness and density of the sedimentary cover, and upper mantle densities based on thermal modelling. The thickness of the crystalline crust in this model was adjusted to equalise the load at a compensation depth lying below the zone of lateral mantle density variations. Flexural backstripping was used to derive alternative models which tested the effect of varying the strength of the lithosphere during sediment loading. The models were analysed by comparing calculated and observed gravity fields and by calibrating the predicted geometries against independent (primarily seismic) evidence. Further models were generated in which the thickness of the sedimentary layer and the crystalline crust were modified in order to improve the fit to observed gravity anomalies. The potential effects of igneous underplating and variable upper mantle depletion were explored by a series of sensitivity trials. The results provide a new regional lithospheric framework for the margin and a means of setting more detailed, local investigations in their regional context. The flexural modelling suggests lateral variations in the strength of the lithosphere, with much of the margin being relatively weak but areas such as the Porcupine Basin and parts of the Rockall Basin having greater strength. Observed differences between the model Moho and seismic Moho along the continental margin can be interpreted in terms of underplating. A Moho discrepancy to the northwest of Scotland is ascribed to uplift caused by a region of upper mantle with anomalously low density, which may be associated with depletion or with a temperature anomaly.     

Detrital thermochronology – a new perspective on hinterland tectonics, an example from the Andean Amazon Basin, Ecuador

In order to understand the significance of detrital grain ages in sedimentary basins, a new approach is presented. Five characteristic paths, identified by the change in age of detrital grain populations combined with the change in lagtime over time, can be related to different geodynamic settings in the source regions. When lagtime and grain age increase over time, a change in source must be invoked – this is usually a direct response to a geological event. A constant cooling age, a vertical path, associated implicitly with increasing lagtime, implies erosion of materials that had passed through the closure temperature rapidly – exhuming sufficient rock to supply detritus over the time of the path. Constant lagtimes, regardless of the lagtime itself, are indicative of thermochronological stability in the source region. This can involve fast or slow cooling. Finally, decreasing lagtimes support the notion of increasing cooling rates in the source regions over time. A test study is presented from sediments of the northern Ecuadorian Sub‐Andean Zone where geological events had previously been identified using alternative methods. The addition of heavy‐mineral studies increased the precision in the interpretation. At 90 Ma, rapidly decreasing lagtimes point to a phase of tectonic activity. From about 85 Ma until about 60 Ma the lagtimes were approximately zero. This represents a phase of rapid exhumation of the source regions correlating with the previously identified Pallatanga event. An associated increase of metamorphic minerals occurs over this time span, pointing to increased erosion from deeper horizons. At about 70 Ma, the oldest source region, the shield to the east, was switched off. This timing correlates with a change from marine to continental conditions in the basin, a change in palaeocurrent directions from the east to the west, as well as an associated influx of material from the growing Cordillera Real. At about 55 Ma, a change in source is identified by a change in slope of the lagtime curve together with a change in heavy minerals. From 50 to 35 Ma a renewed period of tectonism in the source region is correlated with the docking of the Macuchi terrane which clearly had an effect of increased erosion in the Cordillera Real bringing in higher grade metamorphic minerals. From about 32 Ma onwards the lagtime has been somewhat constant at about 30 Myr. This does not imply, however, a steady‐state environment as it is well known from other geological evidence that there have been other events within this time frame. One must be cautious about over‐interpreting the lagtime as a method to determine steady state in any region. It is a matter of scale.     

Effects of peat on the shapes of alluvial channels: examples from the Cumberland Marshes, Saskatchewan, Canada

An avulsion of the lower Saskatchewan River in the 1870s inundated a large segment of peat-covered floodplain that subsequently has become aggraded with a broad (500 km²) belt of alluvium deposited by the redirected flow. Routing of water and sediment discharge through the avulsion-affected area has been accomplished mainly by networks of sandy bedded anastomosed channels that have formed, evolved, and abandoned as the alluvial belt prograded down the floodplain slope. These processes continue today, though at a much-reduced rate. New channels, formed by crevassing and basinward extension of distributaries, are initially small and shallow, with bottom elevations situated within the avulsive alluvium but above the pre-avulsion peat (floodplain) surface. Subsequent enlargement and downcutting of many of these channels eventually uncovers the underlying peat layer whose resistance to erosion exerts significant influence on cross-sectional shape and further channel development. Peat-floored channels tend to have rectangular cross-sections, high ratios of average to maximum depth (D/D_max), and a large range of width-to-depth ratios. If the channel continues to enlarge, the peat layer eventually becomes breached, commonly leading to temporarily irregular cross-sections caused by localized scouring at the breach sites. Eventually, the peat layer is completely eroded from the channel floor by undercutting and slumping, after which channel shape becomes governed mainly by other perimeter characteristics. Channels unaffected by peat, either before the peat layer is encountered during early channel development or after it is entirely removed, tend to have low width/depth ratios and a large range of D/D_max values.