Magmatic processes that generated the rhyolite of Glass Mountain, Medicine Lake volcano, N. California

Glass Mountain consists of a 1 km³, compositionally zoned rhyolite to dacite glass flow containing magmatic inclusions and xenoliths of underlying shallow crust. Mixing of magmas produced by fractional crystallization of andesite and crustal melting generated the rhyolite of Glass Mountain. Melting experiments were carried out on basaltic andesite and andesite magmatic inclusions at 100, 150 and 200 MPa, H₂O-saturated with oxygen fugacity controlled at the nickel-nickel oxide buffer to provide evidence of the role of fractional crystallization in the origin of the rhyolite of Glass Mountain. Isotopic evidence indicates that the crustal component assimilated at Glass Mountain constitutes at least 55 to 60% of the mass of erupted rhyolite. A large volume of mafic andesite (2 to 2.5 km³) periodically replenished the magma reservoir(s) beneath Glass Mountain, underwent extensive fractional crystallization and provided the heat necessary to melt the crust. The crystalline residues of fractionation as well as residual liquids expelled from the cumulate residues are preserved as magmatic inclusions and indicate that this fractionation process occurred at two distinct depths. The presence and composition of amphibole in magmatic inclusions preserve evidence for crystallization of the andesite at pressures of at least 200 MPa (6 km depth) under near H₂O-saturated conditions. Mineralogical evidence preserved in olivine-plagioclase and olivine-plagioclase-high-Ca clinopyroxene-bearing magmatic inclusions indicates that crystallization under near H₂O-saturated conditions also occurred at pressures of 100 MPa (3 km depth) or less. Petrologic, isotopic and geochemical evidence indicate that the andesite underwent fractional crystallization to form the differentiated melts but had no chemical interaction with the melted crustal component. Heat released by the fractionation process was responsible for heating and melting the crust. Received: 26 March 1996 / Accepted: 14 November 1996     

Evidence for freeze–thaw events and their implications for rock weathering in northern Canada

Discussions regarding weathering in cold environments generally centre on mechanical processes and on the freeze–thaw mechanism in particular. Despite the almost ubiquitous assumption of freeze–thaw weathering, unequivocal proof of interstitial rock water actually freezing and thawing is singularly lacking. Equally, many studies have used the crossing of 0 °C, or values close to that, as the basis for determining the number of ‘freeze–thaw events’. In order to assess the weathering regime at a site in northern Canada, temperatures were collected at the surface, 1 cm and 3 cm depth for sets of paving bricks, with exposures both vertical and at 45°, orientated to the four cardinal directions. Temperature data were collected at 1 min intervals for 1 year. These data provide unequivocal proof for the occurrence of the freezing and thawing of water on and within the rock (freeze–thaw events). The freeze event is evidenced by the exotherm associated with the release of latent heat as the water actually freezes. This is thought to be the ?rst record of such events from a ?eld situation. More signi?cantly, it was found that the temperature at which freezing occurred varied signi?cantly through the year and that on occasion the 1 cm depth froze prior to the rock surface. The change in freeze temperature is thought to be due to the chemical weathering of the material (coupled with on‐going salt inputs via the melting of snowfall), which, it is shown, could occur throughout the winter despite air temperatures down to ?30 °C. This ?nding regarding chemical weathering is also considered to be highly signi?cant. A number of thermal stress events were also recorded, suggesting that rock weathering in cold regions is a synergistic combination of various chemical and mechanical weathering mechanisms. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

L'archivage des activités humaines par les neiges et glaces polaires : le cas du plomb

The investigation of the occurrence of lead in dated snow and ice from Greenland and Antarctica has played a major role in our understanding of the history of the pollution of the atmosphere of our planet by this metal. Such studies have however proved to be very demanding, mainly because of the extreme purity of polar snow and ice. Reliable measurements can be obtained only if ultra-clean and highly sensitive procedures are used, as pioneered by Clair Patterson. The Greenland data show evidence of large-scale pollution of the atmosphere of the Northern Hemisphere for lead as early as two millennia ago during Greco–Roman times, especially because of mining and smelting activities in southern Spain. It peaked at the end of the 1960s, with lead concentrations in snow about 200 times higher than natural values, before declining during recent times because of the fall in the use of leaded gasoline. Lead pollution in Antarctica was already significant at the end of the 19th century as a consequence of whaling activities, the traffic of coal-powered ships crossing the Cape Horn, and mining activities in South America, South Africa and Australia. After declining because of the opening of the Panama Canal, the great economic depression and World War II, it reached a maximum during the 1980s, with lead concentrations 20 times higher than natural values. Other studies focus on past natural variations of lead in ancient ice dated from the last climatic cycles. To cite this article: C. Boutron et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).     

Dust production and the release of iron oxides resulting from the aeolian abrasion of natural dune sands

Global dust trajectories indicate that signi?cant quantities of aeolian‐transported iron oxides originate in contemporary dryland areas. One potential source is the iron‐rich clay coatings that characterize many sand‐sized particles in desert dune?elds. This paper uses laboratory experiments to determine the rate at which these coatings can be removed from dune sands by aeolian abrasion. The coatings impart a red colour to the grains to which previous researchers have assigned variable geomorphological signi?cance. The quantities of iron removed during a 120 hour abrasion experiment are small (99 mg kg^?1) and dif?cult to detect by eye; however, high resolution spectroscopy clearly indicates that ferric oxides are released during abrasion and the re?ectance of the particles alters. One of the products of aeolian abrasion is ?ne particles (<10 µm diameter) with the potential for long distance transport. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rock albedo and monitoring of thermal conditions in respect of weathering: some expected and some unexpected results

Broadly speaking, there is, at least within geomorphic circles, a general acceptance that rocks with low albedos will warm both faster and to higher temperatures than rocks with high albedos, reflectivity influencing radiative warming. Upon this foundation are built notions of weathering in respect of the resulting thermal differences, both at the grain scale and at the scale of rock masses. Here, a series of paving bricks painted in 20 per cent reflectivity intervals from black through to white were used to monitor albedo‐influenced temperatures at a site in northern Canada in an attempt to test this premise. Temperatures were collected, for five months, for the rock surface and the base of the rock, the blocks being set within a mass of local sediment. Resulting thermal data did indeed show that the dark bricks were warmer than the white but only when their temperatures were equal to or cooler than the air temperature. As brick temperature exceeded that of the air, so the dark and light bricks moved to parity; indeed, the white bricks frequently became warmer than the dark. It is argued that this ‘negating’ of the albedo influence on heating is a result of the necessity of the bricks, both white and black, to convect heat away to the surrounding cooler air; the darker brick, being hotter, initially convects faster than the white as a product of the temperature difference between the two media. Thus, where the bricks become significantly hotter than the air, they lose energy to that air and so their respective temperatures become closer, the albedo influence being superceded by the requirement to equilibrate with the surrounding air. It is argued that this finding will have importance to our understanding of weathering in general and to our perceptions of weathering differences between different lithologies. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Groundwater control of mangrove surface elevation: Shrink and swell varies with soil depth

We measured monthly soil surface elevation change and determined its relationship to groundwater changes at a mangrove forest site along Shark River, Everglades National Park, Florida. We combined the use of an original design, surface elevation table with new rod-surface elevation tables to separately track changes in the mid zone (0–4 m), the shallow root zone (0–0.35 m), and the full sediment profile (0–6 m) in response to site hydrology (daily river stage and daily groundwater piezometric pressure). We calculated expansion and contraction for each of the four constituent soil zones (surface [accretion and erosion; above 0 m], shallow zone [0–0.35 m], middle zone [0.35–4 m], and bottom zone [4–6]) that comprise the entire soil column. Changes in groundwater pressure correlated strongly, with changes in soil elevation for the entire profile (Adjusted R² = 0.90); this relationship was not proportional to the depth of the soil profile sampled. The change in thickness of the bottom soil zone accounted for the majority (R² = 0.63) of the entire soil profile expansion and contraction. The influence of hydrology on specific soil zones and absolute elevation change must be considered when evaluating the effect of disturbances, sea level rise, and water management decisions on coastal wetland systems.     

Pronounced occurrence of long-chain alkenones and dinosterol in a 25,000-year lipid molecular fossil record from Lake Titicaca, South America

Our analysis of lipid molecular fossils from a Lake Titicaca (16° S, 69° W) sediment core reveals distinct changes in the ecology of the lake over an ∼25,000-yr period spanning latest Pleistocene to late Holocene time. Previous investigations have shown that over this time period Lake Titicaca was subject to large changes in lake level in response to regional climatic variability. Our results indicate that lake algal populations were greatly affected by the changing physical and chemical conditions in Lake Titicaca. Hydrocarbons are characterized by a combination of odd-numbered, mid- to long-chain (C₂₁-C₃₁) normal alkanes and alkenes. During periods when lake level was higher (latest Pleistocene, early Holocene, and late Holocene), the C₂₁n-alkane, and the C₂₅ and C₂₇ alkenes dominate hydrocarbon distributions and indicate contribution from an algal source, potentially the freshwater alga Botryococcus braunii. The C₃₀ 4 α-methyl sterol (dinosterol) increases sharply during the mid-Holocene, suggesting a greatly increased dinoflagellate presence at that time. Long-chain alkenones (LCAs) become significant during the early Holocene and are highly abundant in mid-Holocene samples. There are relatively few published records of LCA detection in lake sediments but their occurrence is geographically widespread (Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America). Lake Titicaca represents the first South American lake and the first low-latitude lake in which LCAs have been reported. LCA abundance and distribution may be related to the temperature-dependent response of an unidentified algal precursor. Although the LCA unsaturation indices cannot be used to determine absolute Lake Titicaca temperatures, we suspect that the published LCA U₃₇^K unsaturation calibrations can be applied to infer relative temperatures for early to mid-Holocene time when LCA concentrations are high. Using these criteria, the U₃₇^K unsaturation indices suggest relatively warmer temperatures in the mid-Holocene. In contrast to previous speculation, lipid analysis provides little evidence of a greatly increased presence of aquatic plants during the mid-Holocene. Instead, it appears that a few algal species were dominant in the lake. Based on the dramatic rise in abundances of LCAs and dinosterol during the early to mid-Holocene, we suspect that the algal producers of these compounds rose in response to a combination of physical and chemical changes in the lake. These include temperature, salinity, and alkalinity changes that occurred as lake level dropped sharply during a multi-millennial drought affecting the Central Andean Altiplano.     

Isotopic compositions of oxygen, iron, chromium, and nickel in cosmic spherules: Toward a better comprehension of atmospheric entry heating effects

Large, correlated, mass-dependent enrichments in the heavier isotopes of O, Cr, Fe, and Ni are observed in type-I (metal/metal oxide) cosmic spherules collected from the deep sea. Limited intraparticle variability of oxygen isotope abundances, typically <5‰ in δ¹⁸O, indicates good mixing of the melts and supports the application of the Rayleigh equation for the calculation of fractional evaporative losses during atmospheric entry. Fractional losses for oxygen evaporation from wüstite, assuming a starting isotopic composition equal to that of air (δ¹⁸O = 23.5‰; δ¹⁷O = 11.8‰), are in the range 55%-77%, and are systematically smaller than evaporative losses calculated for Fe (69%-85%), Cr (81%-95%), and especially Ni (45%-99%). However, as δ¹⁸O values increase, fractional losses for oxygen approach those of Fe, Cr, and Ni indicating a shift in the evaporating species from metallic to oxidized forms as the spherules are progressively oxidized during entry heating. The observed unequal fractional losses of O and Fe can be reconciled by allowing for a kinetic isotope mass-dependent fractionation of atmospheric oxygen during the oxidation process and/or that some metallic Fe may have undergone Rayleigh evaporation before oxidation began.In situ measurements of oxygen isotopic abundances were also performed in 14 type-S (silicate) cosmic spherules, 13 from the Antarctic ice and one from the deep sea. Additional bulk Fe and Cr isotopic abundances were determined for two type-S deep-sea spherules. The isotopic fractionation of Cr isotopes suggest appreciable evaporative loss of Cr, perhaps as a sulfide. The oxygen isotopic compositions for the type-S spherules range from δ¹⁸O = −2‰ to + 27‰. The intraspherule isotopic variations are typically small, ∼5% relative, except for the less-heated porphyritic spherules which have preserved large isotopic heterogeneities in at least one case. A plot of δ¹⁷O vs. δ¹⁸O values for these spherules defines a broad parallelogram bounded at higher values of δ¹⁷O by the terrestrial fractionation line, and at lower values of δ¹⁷O by a line parallel to it and anchored near the isotopic composition of δ¹⁸O = −2.5‰ and δ¹⁷O = −5‰. Lack of independent evidence for substantial evaporative losses suggests that much of this variation reflects the starting isotopic composition of the precursor materials, which likely resembled CO, CM, or CI chondrites. However, the enrichments in heavy isotopes indicate that some mixing with atmospheric oxygen was probably involved during atmospheric entry for some of the spherules. Isotopic fractionation due to evaporation of incoming grain is not required to explain most of the oxygen isotopic data for type-S spherules. However spherules with barred olivine textures that are thought to have experienced a more intense heating than the porphyritic ones might have undergone some distillation. Two cosmic spherules, one classified as a radial pyroxene type and the other showing a glassy texture, show unfractionated oxygen isotopic abundances. They are probably chondrule fragments that survived atmospheric entry unmelted.Possible reasons type-I spherules show larger degrees of isotopic fractionation than type-S spherules include: a) the short duration of the heating pulse associated with the high volatile content of the type-S spherule precursors compared to type-I spherules; b) higher evaporation temperatures for at least a refractory portion of the silicates compared to that of iron metal or oxide; c) lower duration of heating of type-S spherules compared to type-I spherules as a consequence of their lower densities.     

Landscape controls on long‐term runoff in subhumid heterogeneous Boreal Plains catchments

We compared median runoff (R) and precipitation (P) relationships over 25 years from 20 mesoscale (50 to 5,000 km²) catchments on the Boreal Plains, Alberta, Canada, to understand controls on water sink and source dynamics in water‐limited, low‐relief northern environments. Long‐term catchment R and runoff efficiency (RP^?1) were low and varied spatially by over an order of magnitude (3 to 119 mm/year, 1 to 27%). Intercatchment differences were not associated with small variations in climate. The partitioning of P into evapotranspiration (ET) and R instead reflected the interplay between underlying glacial deposit texture, overlying soil‐vegetation land cover, and regional slope. Correlation and principal component analyses results show that peatland‐swamp wetlands were the major source areas of water. The lowest estimates of median annual catchment ET (321 to 395 mm) and greatest R (60 to 119 mm, 13 to 27% of P) were observed in low‐relief, peatland‐swamp dominated catchments, within both fine‐textured clay‐plain and coarse‐textured glacial deposits. In contrast, open‐water wetlands and deciduous‐mixedwood forest land covers acted as water sinks, and less catchment R was observed with increases in proportional coverage of these land covers. In catchments dominated by hummocky moraines, long‐term runoff was restricted to 10 mm/year, or 2% of P. This reflects the poor surface‐drainage networks and slightly greater regional slope of the fine‐textured glacial deposit, coupled with the large soil‐water and depression storage and higher actual ET of associated shallow open‐water marsh wetland and deciduous‐forest land covers. This intercatchment study enhances current conceptual frameworks for predicting water yield in the Boreal Plains based on the sink and source functions of glacial landforms and soil‐vegetation land covers. It offers the capability within this hydro‐geoclimatic region to design reclaimed catchments with desired hydrological functionality and associated tolerances to climate or land‐use changes and inform land management decisions based on effective catchment‐scale conceptual understanding.