Rb-Sr geochronology in favour of polymetamorphism in the Pan African Damara belt of Namibia (South West Africa)

New Rb-Sr whole rock age data are reported from two metasedimentary sequences of the Damara Supergroup in the central Pan African Damara belt of Namibia (South West Africa).Calc-granofels rocks of the Karibib Formation (Swakop Group) near Usakos are dated at 665±34 Ma (⁸⁷Rb=1.39×10^–11 a^–1) which is interpreted as reflecting a high-grade metamorphic event predating widespread granite intrusion.Pyroxene-bearing feldspathic gneisses of the Khan Formation (Nosib Group) from the Khan-Swakop River area east of Swakopmund show incomplete homogenization at 474±16 Ma. In view of similar ages obtained on the nearby Rössing alaskite granite and on biotites from a variety of rock assemblages this age is interpreted as reflecting a second Damaran metamorphic event rather than a specific stage in a long cooling history as previously thought.It is probable that the new ages characterize two distinct Pan-African tectono-metamorphic events previously named Katangan and Damaran episodes respectively (Clifford, 1967). The younger of these has affected large areas of south western Africa both within orogenic zones and on the neighbouring Kalahari Craton and may reflect crustal processes of sub-continental proportion during the closing stages of the Pan-African tectogenesis.

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Zusammenfassung Neue Rb-Sr-Gesamtgesteins-Isochronenalter von zwei sedimentären Abfolgen der spätpräkambrischen Damara-Supergruppe in der Zentralzone des Pan-Afrikanischen Damara-Orogens von Namibia (Südwest-Afrika) deuten auf eine mehrphasige metamorphe Geschichte hin.Kalk-Granofels-Gesteine der Karibib-Formation (Swakop-Gruppe) südöstlich von Usakos ergaben ein Alter von 665±34 M. J. (⁸⁷Rb=1,39×10^–11 a^–1) und wir interpretieren dieses Alter als das Resultat isotoper Homogenisierung während einer intensiven Regionalmetamorphose, die vor dem Eindringen weitverbreiteter Granite stattfand.Pyroxenführende und feldspathaltige Gneise der Khan-Formation (Nosib-Gruppe) aus dem Gebiet der Khan- und Swakop-Flüsse östlich von Swakopmund zeigen unvollständige Homogenisierung ihrer Sr-Isotope um 474±16 M. J. In Anbetracht ähnlicher Alter für den benachbarten Rössing-Alaskitgranit und für Biotite verschiedener Gesteinstypen aus dem gesamten Zentralbereich des Orogens interpretieren wir obiges Alter eher als den Höhepunkt einer zweiten Regionalmetamorphose als ein bestimmtes Stadium in der post-orogenen Abkühlungsgeschichte.Es ist wahrscheinlich, daß unsere Altersbestimmungen zwei deutlich voneinander getrennte pan-afrikanische tektono-metamorphe Phasen charakterisieren, vor allem wenn man sie in Zusammenhang mit publizierten Daten betrachtet, und wir nehmen an, daß diese den vonClifford (1967) postulierten Katanga- und Damara-Episoden entsprechen. Die jüngere dieser Episoden hat nicht nur die pan-afrikanischen orogenen Bereiche im südwestlichen Afrika, sondern auch weite Teile des Kalahari-Kratons erfaßt und mag auf tektogenetische Prozesse von nahezu kontinentalen Ausmaßen in und unter der Kruste im frühen Paläozoikum zurückzuführen sein.

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Résumé Deux séquences métasédimentaires du supergroupe du Damara ont été datées par la méthode Rb/Sr.Des gneiss calciques («granofels») de la formation de Karibib (groupe de Swakop), récoltés près d'Usakos ont été datés à 665±34 Ma (avec⁸⁷Rb=1.39× 10^–11 a^–1). Cet âge est interprété comme le résultat d'un événement métamorphique de degré é levé antérieur à la mise en place des grandes masses de granite.Des gneiss feldspathiques à pryoxène de la Formation de Khan (Groupe de Nosib), échantillonnés dans la région de la Khan River — Swakop à l'Est de Swakopmund, montrent une homogénéisation isotopique incomplète à 474±16 Ma. Des âges voisins ayant été obtenus pour l'Alaskite de Rössing qui affleure dans la même zone et pour les biotites de différentes roches, cet âge est interprété comme le résultat d'un second métamorphisme damarien plutôt que comme un stade de la longue histoire de refroidissement comme cela avait été imaginé auparavant.Ces nouveaux âges caractériseraient les deux épisodes tectonométamorphiques distincts de l'orogénie Pan-Africaine, qui avaient été appelés respectivement épisode katangien et épisode demarien parClifford (1967). Le plus récent de ces événements a affecté une grande partie de l'Afrique du S.W. aussi bien dans les zones orogéniques que dans le craton voisin du Kalahari; il peut refléter une évolution crustale d'échelle subcontinentale se produisant pendant les derniers stades du tectogène Pan-Africain.

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Rb/Sr - , - ; , .- , , 665±34 (⁸⁷Rb=1,39 10^–1a^–1); , . , , , , 474 ± 16 . - ; , , . , - - , , . , 1967 , . - - , ; , , .

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Contribution No. 27 of the South African Geodynamics Project, presented at the 9th Colloquium on African Geology, Göttingen, April 1977.     

Kyanite eclogites from the Rietfontein kimberlite pipe,mier coloured reserve,Gordonia, Cape Province,South Africa

The kimberlite pipe at Rietfontein has been found to contain a suite of ultrabasic xenoliths, amongst which are kyanite eclogites of unusual freshness. The kyanite crystals are of varying shades of blue. Physical properties of some of the primary minerals together with the chemical composition of four kyanite eclogites and of a light and a dark blue kyanite crystal are presented.The xenoliths found in the Rietfontein Pipe are compared with those found in the Zagadochnaya Pipe and certain similarities and differences noted.     

Parameterization of snow-free land surface albedo as a function of vegetation phenology based on MODIS data and applied in climate modelling

The aim of this study was to develop an advanced parameterization of the snow-free land surface albedo for climate modelling describing the temporal variation of surface albedo as a function of vegetation phenology on a monthly time scale. To estimate the effect of vegetation phenology on snow-free land surface albedo, remotely sensed data products from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board the NASA Terra platform measured during 2001 to 2004 are used. The snow-free surface albedo variability is determined by the optical contrast between the vegetation canopy and the underlying soil surface. The MODIS products of the white-sky albedo for total shortwave broad bands and the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR) are analysed to separate the vegetation canopy albedo from the underlying soil albedo. Global maps of pure soil albedo and pure vegetation albedo are derived on a 0.5° regular latitude/longitude grid, re-sampling the high-resolution information from remote sensing-measured pixel level to the model grid scale and filling up gaps from the satellite data. These global maps show that in the northern and mid-latitudes soils are mostly darker than vegetation, whereas in the lower latitudes, especially in semi-deserts, soil albedo is mostly higher than vegetation albedo. The separated soil and vegetation albedo can be applied to compute the annual surface albedo cycle from monthly varying leaf area index. This parameterization is especially designed for the land surface scheme of the regional climate model REMO and the global climate model ECHAM5, but can easily be integrated into the land surface schemes of other regional and global climate models.     

Improved regional scale processes reflected in projected hydrological changes over large European catchments

For the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the recent version of the coupled atmosphere/ocean general circulation model (GCM) of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology has been used to conduct an ensemble of transient climate simulations These simulations comprise three control simulations for the past century covering the period 1860–2000, and nine simulations for the future climate (2001–2100) using greenhouse gas (GHG) and aerosol concentrations according to the three IPCC scenarios B1, A1B and A2. For each scenario three simulations were performed. The global simulations were dynamically downscaled over Europe using the regional climate model (RCM) REMO at 0.44° horizontal resolution (about 50 km), whereas the physics packages of the GCM and RCM largely agree. The regional simulations comprise the three control simulations (1950–2000), the three A1B simulations and one simulation for B1 as well as for A2 (2001–2100). In our study we concentrate on the climate change signals in the hydrological cycle and the 2 m temperature by comparing the mean projected climate at the end of the twenty-first century (2071–2100) to a control period representing current climate (1961–1990). The robustness of the climate change signal projected by the GCM and RCM is analysed focussing on the large European catchments of Baltic Sea (land only), Danube and Rhine. In this respect, a robust climate change signal designates a projected change that sticks out of the noise of natural climate variability. Catchments and seasons are identified where the climate change signal in the components of the hydrological cycle is robust, and where this signal has a larger uncertainty. Notable differences in the robustness of the climate change signals between the GCM and RCM simulations are related to a stronger warming projected by the GCM in the winter over the Baltic Sea catchment and in the summer over the Danube and Rhine catchments. Our results indicate that the main explanation for these differences is that the finer resolution of the RCM leads to a better representation of local scale processes at the surface that feed back to the atmosphere, i.e. an improved representation of the land sea contrast and related moisture transport processes over the Baltic Sea catchment, and an improved representation of soil moisture feedbacks to the atmosphere over the Danube and Rhine catchments.     

The Budget of Turbulent Kinetic Energy in the Urban Roughness Sublayer

Full-scale observations from two urban sites in Basel, Switzerland were analysed to identify the magnitude of different processes that create, relocate, and dissipate turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in the urban atmosphere. Two towers equipped with a profile of six ultrasonic anemometers each sampled the flow in the urban roughness sublayer, i.e. from street canyon base up to roughly 2.5 times the mean building height. This observational study suggests a conceptual division of the urban roughness sublayer into three layers: (1) the layer above the highest roofs, where local buoyancy production and local shear production of TKE are counterbalanced by local viscous dissipation rate and scaled turbulence statistics are close to to surface-layer values; (2) the layer around mean building height with a distinct inflexional mean wind profile, a strong shear and wake production of TKE, a more efficient turbulent exchange of momentum, and a notable export of TKE by transport processes; (3) the lower street canyon with imported TKE by transport processes and negligible local production. Averaged integral velocity variances vary significantly with height in the urban roughness sublayer and reflect the driving processes that create or relocate TKE at a particular height. The observed profiles of the terms of the TKE budget and the velocity variances show many similarities to observations within and above vegetation canopies.     

The simulation of European heat waves from an ensemble of regional climate models within the EURO-CORDEX project

The ability of a large ensemble of regional climate models to accurately simulate heat waves at the regional scale of Europe was evaluated. Within the EURO-CORDEX project, several state-of-the art models, including non-hydrostatic meso-scale models, were run for an extended time period (20 years) at high resolution (12 km), over a large domain allowing for the first time the simultaneous representation of atmospheric phenomena over a large range of spatial scales. Eight models were run in this configuration, and thirteen models were run at a classical resolution of 50 km. The models were driven with the same boundary conditions, the ERA-Interim re-analysis, and except for one simulation, no observations were assimilated in the inner domain. Results, which are compared with daily temperature and precipitation observations (ECA&D and E-OBS data sets) show that, even forced by the same re-analysis, the ensemble exhibits a large spread. A preliminary analysis of the sources of spread, using in particular simulations of the same model with different parameterizations, shows that the simulation of hot temperature is primarily sensitive to the convection and the microphysics schemes, which affect incoming energy and the Bowen ratio. Further, most models exhibit an overestimation of summertime temperature extremes in Mediterranean regions and an underestimation over Scandinavia. Even after bias removal, the simulated heat wave events were found to be too persistent, but a higher resolution reduced this deficiency. The amplitude of events as well as the variability beyond the 90th percentile threshold were found to be too strong in almost all simulations and increasing resolution did not generally improve this deficiency. Resolution increase was also shown to induce large-scale 90th percentile warming or cooling for some models, with beneficial or detrimental effects on the overall biases. Even though full causality cannot be established on the basis of this evaluation work, the drivers of such regional differences were shown to be linked to changes in precipitation due to resolution changes, affecting the energy partitioning. Finally, the inter-annual sequence of hot summers over central/southern Europe was found to be fairly well simulated in most experiments despite an overestimation of the number of hot days and of the variability. The accurate simulation of inter-annual variability for a few models is independent of the model bias. This indicates that internal variability of high summer temperatures should not play a major role in controlling inter-annual variability. Despite some improvements, especially along coastlines, the analyses conducted here did not allow us to generally conclude that a higher resolution is clearly beneficial for a correct representation of heat waves by regional climate models. Even though local-scale feedbacks should be better represented at high resolution, combinations of parameterizations have to be improved or adapted accordingly.