Estimation of geological dip and reflector curvature from zero-offset seismic reflections in heterogeneous anisotropic media

Depth conversion of selected seismic reflections is a valuable procedure to position key reflectors in depth in a process of constructing or refining a depth-velocity model. The most widespread example of such procedure is the so-called map migration, in which normal-incidence, zero-offset (stacked) seismic data are employed. Since the late seventies and early eighties, under the assumption of an isotropic velocity model, map migration algorithms have been devised to convert traveltime and its first and second derivatives into reflector position, dip and curvatures in depth. In this work we revisit map migration to improve the existing algorithms in the following accounts: (a) We allow for fully anisotropic media; (b) In contrast to simple planar measurement surface, arbitrary topography is allowed, thus enlarging the algorithms applicability and (c) Derivations and results are much simplified upon the use of the methodology of surface-to-surface paraxial matrices.     

Flow banding in basaltic pillow lavas from the Early Archean Hooggenoeg Formation, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa

Well-preserved pillow lavas in the uppermost part of the Early Archean volcanic sequence of the Hooggenoeg Formation in the Barberton Greenstone Belt exhibit pronounced flow banding. The banding is defined by mm to several cm thick alternations of pale green and a dark green, conspicuously variolitic variety of aphyric metabasalt. Concentrations of relatively immobile TiO₂, Al₂O₃ and Cr in both varieties of lava are basaltic. Compositional differences between bands and variations in the lavas in general have been modified by alteration, but indicate mingling of two different basalts, one richer in TiO₂, Al₂O₃, MgO, FeO^t and probably Ni and Cr than the other, as the cause of the banding. The occurrence in certain pillows of blebs of dark metabasalt enclosed in pale green metabasalt, as well as cores of faintly banded or massive dark metabasalt, suggest that breakup into drops and slugs in the feeder channel to the lava flow initiated mingling. The inhomogeneous mixture was subsequently stretched and folded together during laminar shear flow through tubular pillows, while diffusion between bands led to partial homogenisation. The most common internal pattern defined by the flow banding in pillows is concentric. In some pillows the banding defines curious mushroom-like structures, commonly cored by dark, variolitic metabasalt, which we interpret as the result of secondary lateral flow due to counter-rotating, transverse (Dean) vortices induced by the axial flow of lava towards the flow front through bends, generally downward, in the tubular pillows. Other pillows exhibit weakly-banded or massive, dark, variolitic cores that are continuous with wedge-shaped apophyses and veins that intrude the flow banded carapace. These cores represent the flow of hotter and less viscous slugs of the dark lava type into cooled and stiffened pillows.     

Preservation of meandering river channels in uniformly aggrading channel belts

Channel belt deposits from meandering river systems commonly display an internal architecture of stacked depositional features with scoured basal contacts due to channel and bedform migration across a range of scales. Recognition and correct interpretation of these bounding surfaces is essential to reconstruction of palaeochannel dimensions and to flow modelling for hydrocarbon exploration. It is therefore crucial to understand the suite of processes that form and transfer these surfaces into the fluvial sedimentary record. Here, the numerical model ‘NAYS2D’ is used to simulate a highly sinuous meandering river with synthetic stratigraphic architectures that can be compared directly to the sedimentary record. Model results highlight the importance of spatial and temporal variations in channel depth and migration rate to the generation of channel and bar deposits. Addition of net uniform bed aggradation (due to excess sediment input) allows quantification of the preservation of meander morphology for a wide range of depositional conditions. The authors find that the effect of vertical variation in scouring due to channel migration is generally orders of magnitude larger than the effect of bed aggradation, which explains the limited impact bed aggradation has on preservation of meander morphology. Moreover, lateral differences in stratigraphy within the meander belt are much larger than the stratigraphic imprint of bed aggradation. Repeatedly produced alternations of point bar growth followed by cut‐off result in a vertical trend in channel and scour feature stacking. Importantly, this vertical stacking trend differs laterally within the meander belt. In the centre of the meander belt, the high reworking intensity results in many bounding surfaces and disturbed deposits. Closer to the margins, reworking is infrequent and thick deposits with a limited number of bounding surfaces are preserved. These marginal areas therefore have the highest preservation potential for complete channel deposits and are thus best suited for palaeochannel reconstruction.     

Fossil chironomid δ<Superscript>13</Superscript>C as a proxy for past methanogenic contribution to benthic food webs in lakes?

We used a series of experiments to determine whether stable carbon isotope analysis of modern and fossil larval head capsules of chironomids allowed identification of their dietary carbon source. Our main focus was to assess whether carbon from naturally ¹³C-depleted methane-oxidizing bacteria (MOB) can be traced in chironomid cuticles using stable carbon isotope analysis. We first showed that a minimum sample weight of ~20 μg was required for our equipment to determine head capsule δ¹³C with a standard deviation of 0.5‰. Such a small minimum sample weight allows taxon-specific δ¹³C analyses at a precision sufficient to differentiate whether head capsules consist mainly of carbon derived from MOB or from other food sources commonly encountered in lake ecosystems. We then tested the effect of different chemical pre-treatments that are commonly used for sediment processing on δ¹³C measurements on head capsules. Processing with 10% KOH (2 h), 10% HCl (2 h), or 40% HF (18 h) showed no detectable effect on δ¹³C, whereas a combination of boiling, accelerated solvent extraction and heavy chemical oxidation resulted in a small (0.2‰) but statistically significant decrease in δ¹³C values. Using culturing experiments with MOB grown on ¹³C-labelled methane, we demonstrated that methanogenic carbon is transferred not only into the larval tissue, but also into chironomid head capsules. Taxon-specific δ¹³C of fossil chironomid head capsules from different lake sediments was analyzed. δ¹³C of head capsules generally ranged from −28 to −25.8‰, but in some instances we observed δ¹³C values as low as −36.9 to −31.5‰, suggesting that carbon from MOB is traceable in fossil and subfossil chironomid remains. We demonstrate that stable carbon isotope analyses of fossil chironomid head capsules can give insights into dietary links and carbon cycling in benthic food webs in the past and that the method has the potential to reconstruct the importance of MOB in the palaeo-diet of chironomid larvae and, indirectly, to infer past changes in methane flux at the sediment water interface in lakes.     

Linking source and sink: Evaluating the balance between onshore erosion and offshore sediment accumulation since Gondwana break-up, South Africa

The geomorphic origin and evolution of the tectonically unique interior highland of southern Africa, the Kalahari Plateau, and its flanking low-lying coastal planes, remain largely unresolved because of a lack of regional quantitative analyses of its uplift and erosion history. Here we focus on the southern Cape, South Africa and link onshore denudation, based on new apatite fission track thermochronology results, to offshore sediment accumulation, using abundant well data and a seismic reflection profile. We attempt to relate source and sink in order to resolve some first order issues concerning timing of the exhumation and development of the topographic features of southern Africa. The volume of sediment accumulated off South Africa's south coast is calculated using 173 wells and a seismic reflection profile. A total, uncompacted, sediment volume of 268,500 km³ accumulated off South Africa's south coasts since  136 Ma, in the Outeniqua and Southern Outeniqua Basins. Accumulation volumes and rates were highest in the early Cretaceous (48,800 × 10⁴ km³ at  8150 km³/Ma from  136 to 130 Ma, and 57,500 × 10⁴ km³ at 5750 km³/Ma from  130 to 120 Ma) and mid–late Cretaceous (83,700 × 10⁴ km³ at 3200 km³/Ma from  93 to 67 Ma). Volumes and accumulation rates were lowest for the early–mid-Cretaceous (47,400 × 10⁴ km³ at 1750 km³/Ma from  120 to 93 Ma) and the Cenozoic (31,200 × 10⁴ km³ at 450 km³/Ma from  67 to 0 Ma). Although our analysis shows that the accumulated volume of offshore sediments does not match the calculated volume of onshore erosion, as quantified through apatite fission track thermochronology (e.g. Tinker, J.H., de Wit, M.J., Brown, R., 2008. Mesozoic exhumation of the 439 southern Cape, South Africa, quantified using apatite fission track thermochronology. Tectonophysics, doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2007.10.009), the timing of increased sediment accumulation closely matches the timing of increased onshore denudation. This suggests that the greatest volumes of material were transported from source to sink during two distinct Cretaceous episodes, and that the processes driving onshore denudation decreased by an order of magnitude during the Cenozoic.     

Active hydrate destabilization in Lake Baikal,Siberia?

ABSTRACT In this paper, we present new seismic and heat-flow data that show the base of the hydrate stability zone (BHSZ) in Lake Baikal to be locally characterized by abnormal variations in depth, with distinct regions of deeper-than-normal and regions of shallower-than-normal BHSZ. These variations are related to strong lateral variations in heat flow, and occur in close association with important rift-basin faults. Areas of shallow BHSZ are also characterized by the presence of several methane seeps and mud volcanoes at the lake floor. We infer that the seeps are the surface expression of escape pathways for overpressured fluids generated by the dissociation of pre-existing hydrates, in response to a thermal pulse caused by an upward flow of hydrothermal fluids towards the BHSZ. It thus seems that present-day hydrate dissociation in Lake Baikal is modulated by the tectonic activity in the rift rather than by – climatically controlled – changes in lake level or water temperature.     

Fisher regulations along the Coromandel coast: a case of collective control of common pool resources

A string of fishing communities along the east coast of India recently decided to ban the use of a new kind of fishing gear, a snail net, in spite of its obvious profitability. The logistics of this measure as well as the reasons which inspired it are investigated in this article. It is argued that the banning of gear is part of a customary system of fisheries regulation and is rooted in local perceptions of ecological interdependency as well as conceptions of social justice. The case demonstrates, for an old and important fishery, that decision-making structures within a community of common property users are suited for taking action towards what is perceived to be a collective good.     

Pb isotopic constraints on the formation of the Dikulushi Cu–Pb–Zn–Ag mineralisation, Kundelungu Plateau (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Base metal–Ag mineralisation at Dikulushi and in other deposits on the Kundelungu Plateau (Democratic Republic of Congo) developed during two episodes. Subeconomic Cu–Pb–Zn–Fe polysulphide ores were generated during the Lufilian Orogeny (c. 520 Ma ago) in a set of E–W- and NE–SW-oriented faults. Their lead has a relatively unradiogenic and internally inhomogeneous isotopic composition (²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 18.07–18.49), most likely generated by mixing of Pb from isotopically heterogeneous clastic sources. These sulphides were remobilised and enriched after the Lufilian Orogeny, along reactivated and newly formed NE–SW-oriented faults into a chalcocite-dominated Cu–Ag mineralisation of high economic interest. The chalcocite samples contain only trace amounts of lead and show mostly radiogenic Pb isotope signatures that fall along a linear trend in the ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb vs. ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb diagram (²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 18.66–23.65; ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 15.72–16.02). These anomalous characteristics reflect a two-stage evolution involving admixture of both radiogenic lead and uranium during a young fluid event possibly c. 100 Ma ago. The Pb isotope systematics of local host rocks to mineralisation also indicate some comparable young disturbance of their U–Th–Pb systems, related to the same event. They could have provided Pb with sufficiently radiogenic compositions that was added to less radiogenic Pb remobilised from precursor Cu–Pb–Zn–Fe polysulphides, whereas the U most likely originated from external sources. Local metal sources are also suggested by the ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb–²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb systematics of combined ore and rock lead, which indicate a pronounced and diversified lithological control of the immediate host rocks on the chalcocite-dominated Cu–Ag ores. The Pb isotope systematics of polysulphide mineralisation on the Kundelungu Plateau clearly record a diachronous evolution.