Luminescence dating of the top of a deep water core from the NESTOR site near the Hellenic Trench,east Mediterranean Sea

In the present study, the uppermost 3 cm of muddy, seabed sediment was collected from a deep-sea sediment core, drilled from a water depth of 4 km, near the deepest site of the Mediterranean Sea, outside Pylos, Greece. The core was divided into 7 layer samples, each 3–4 mm thick, in order to get an independent age assessment for each one using luminescence dating; from polymineral coarse grains in the range 30–60 μm. Between 11 and 22 aliquots were measured for each sample using the optically stimulated luminescence, single-aliquot regenerative-dose analysis. The estimated mean equivalent dose values had an uncertainty less than 3% and resulted in optical ages ranging from 3.5 to approximately 5 ka, with uncertainties lying between 5.5 and 7.4%. Multiple-aliquot, thermoluminescence-based, additive-dose, total bleaching approach provided equivalent doses with typical errors of 10–15% and ages in the range of 3.6 and 9.4 ka, with uncertainties up to 17%. Single-aliquot optical ages are shown to be relatively successful, due to their consistency with AMS ¹⁴C radiocarbon ages, obtained from Planktonic foraminifera from the same core. Luminescence dates for the topmost 1.5 cm indicate a substantial mix and post burial disturbance of the surface sediment. Below the topmost 1.5 cm, both luminescent approaches indicate ages which increase smoothly with depth. The concordant OSL and TL age estimates for the sample O5, in conjunction with specific luminescence properties and its major-element geochemical chemistry content, suggest that it was heated during the Santorini volcanic eruption. Deposition rates of 8.6–18.9 cm over 10 ka below the sample O5, provided by optical ages, exhibit an excellent level of agreement with the accumulation rate of 7–18 cm over 10 ka at the sea bottom, already reported for the site under study.     

Structure and emplacement of granite plutons in the Paleoproterozoic crust of Eastern Burkina Faso: rheological implications

The Fada N′Gourma area in Burkina Faso is underlain by Paleoproterozoic rocks that make the northeastern West-African Craton. This region is composed of NE-trending volcano-sedimentary belts and foliated tonalites, affected by several shear zones. A generation of younger, ∼2100 Ma-old, non-foliated biotite-bearing granites intrudes the former rock units. We have investigated the younger granite pluton of Kouare that was previously considered as forming a single body with the pluton of Satenga to the west, a pluton which likely belongs to the ∼20 Ma more recent Tenkodogo-Yamba batholith. Magnetic fabric measurements have been combined with microstructural observations and the analysis of field and aeromagnetic data. The granite encloses angular enclaves of the host tonalites. Magmatic microstructures are preserved inside the pluton and solid-state, high-temperature deformation features are ubiquitous at its periphery. The presence of steeply plunging lineations in the pluton of Kouare and its adjacent host-rocks suggests that large volumes of granitic magmas became crystallized while they were ascending through the crust that was softened and steepened close to the contact. Around Kouare, the foliation in the host tonalites conforms with a map-scale, Z-shaped fold in between NNE-trending shear zones, implying a bulk clockwise rotation of the material contained in-between the shear zones, including the emplacing pluton. Regionally, the Fada N′Gourma area is concluded to result from NW-shortening associated with transcurrent shearing and vertical transfer of granitic magmas. This study concludes that the ∼2200 Myears old juvenile crust of Burkina Faso was brittle before the intrusion of the biotite-granites, became softened close to them and that gravity-driven and regional scale wrench tectonics were active together.     

Progressive glacial retreat in the Southern Altiplano (Uturuncu volcano, 22°S) between 65 and 14 ka constrained by cosmogenic He dating

This work presents the first reconstruction of late Pleistocene glacier fluctuations on Uturuncu volcano, in the Southern Tropical Andes. Cosmogenic ³He dating of glacial landforms provides constraints on ancient glacier position between 65 and 14 ka. Despite important scatter in the exposure ages on the oldest moraines, probably resulting from pre-exposure, these ³He data constrain the timing of the moraine deposits and subsequent glacier recessions: the Uturuncu glacier may have reached its maximum extent much before the global LGM, maybe as early as 65 ka, with an equilibrium line altitude (ELA) at 5280 m. Then, the glacier remained close to its maximum position, with a main stillstand identified around 40 ka, and another one between 35 and 17 ka, followed by a limited recession at 17 ka. Then, another glacial stillstand is identified upstream during the late glacial period, probably between 16 and 14 ka, with an ELA standing at 5350 m. This stillstand is synchronous with the paleolake Tauca highstand. This result indicates that this regionally wet and cold episode, during the Heinrich 1 event, also impacted the Southern Altiplano. The ELA rose above 5450 m after 14 ka, synchronously with the Bolling–Allerod.