Relict Majoritic Garnet Microstructures from Ultra-Deep Orogenic Peridotites in Western Norway

Protogranular, porphyroclastic and equigranular (or equant-polygonal)garnet microstructures from Mg–Cr type orogenic garnetperidotites, Otrøy, Western Gneiss Region, Norway, havebeen studied using naked eye, light-optical, electron-opticaland confocal laser (fluorescence) microscopy techniques. Protogranularand porphyroclastic garnets contain microstructural evidencefor the former existence of majoritic (or super-silicic) garnet.The microstructural evidence consists of exsolution texturesinvolving pyroxene. Two types of exsolution microstructuresoccur—needles parallel to <111>_grt and interstitialgrains. The maximum volume percentage for intra-crystallinepyroxene exsolution is 2·7, and 3·6 for inter-crystallinepyroxene exsolution. The maximum pyroxene total volume percentagemeasured in one single protogranular or porphyroclastic garnetis 4·0. This value, at 1200°C, corresponds to minimumpressures of 6·4 GPa (     

Mudslides Developed on Waitemata Group Rocks, Tawharanui Peninsula, North Auckland

On Tawharanui Peninsula mudslides occur in soils developed on Waitemata Group flysch similar to that underlying much of the Auckland metropolitan area. Mudslides are shallow soil failures with a bowlshaped source area, an elongated track, and an accumulation zone. Movement may continue for decades to centuries. Modelling suggests that failure of saturated soils occurs along a basal surface defined by the regolith / bedrock contact; rates of movement and time of initiation have not been established. Reactivation or increased mobility of mudslides due to climatic change represents an increased hazard for infrastructure in Auckland City.     

ON THE NECESSITY OF APPLYING A ROTATION TO INSTANTANEOUS VELOCITY MEASUREMENTS IN RIVER FLOWS

In studies on river channel flow turbulence, it is often the case that the measured mean vertical velocity is different from zero, indicating that the frame of reference of the current meter is not parallel to the flow streamline. This situation affects the estimate of Reynolds shear stress in the streamwise and vertical planes and consequently the analysis of the flow turbulent structure. One way to solve this problem is to correct data by applying a rotation and this is reviewed in the first part of the paper. However, in fluvial geomorphology, the studied flow is often complex and streamlines may exhibit significant changes from one point of measurement to the other. In this context, applying a rotation complicates the situation more than it simplifies it. The second part of this paper examines the question of velocity data correction in complex flows using a field example of the turbulent boundary layer over a very rough gravel bed and a laboratory example taken from flow at a river channel confluence. In both cases, velocity vectors are spatially variable. In the first case, errors in the Reynolds shear stress estimates are relatively low (ranging from −13 to 7 per cent/deg) while in the second case, they are much larger (−200 to 164 per cent/deg). The significance of these errors on the interpretation of turbulence statistics in river channel flows is discussed. We propose that corrections should be applied in all clear cases of sensor misalignment and when the frame of reference changes spatially and temporally. However, no corrections should be used where different flow velocity vector orientations, not sensor misalignment, are responsible for the mean vertical velocity differing from zero.     

Mass transfer and preferred orientation development during extensional microcracking in slate-belt folds, Elura Mine, Australia

Microstructures in slate belt rocks at the Elura Mine, near Cobar, south-eastern Australia, indicate that volume loss by syntectonic dissolution is coupled with mass accretion by reprecipitation of the dissolved material in dilational sites. The mass accretion is sustained primarily by repetitive tensile microfracturing at high pore-fluid pressures. Oriented growth in the inter- and intragranular microcracks is locally host-controlled, creating lattice- and shape-preferred orientations. The grain-scale crack-seal features throughout the rock reflect rhythmic fluid pressure fluctuations; a balance is achieved between the fracture-induced permeability (and consequent flushing rates), and the rate of fluid build-up in a relatively sealed environment.
Instability in the balancing factors can lead to localization and intensification of tensile failure (and hence, tension vein formation) in the grain aggregate. Growth of veins by crack-seal also reflects a steady state, but with more localized fluctuations of fluid flow on the aggregate scale. Still larger imbalances between flushing and fluid accumulation (i.e. pressure variations) induce breccia veining. The larger pressure gradients over greater distances, associated with dilation localization (from pervasive microfracturing to spaced breccia domains), allow fluid channelling with an increased potential for chemical fluid/rock disequilibrium. Therefore, large breccia vein systems tend to be sites of extensive fluid/rock interaction and replacement, as spectacularly illustrated by the syntectonic sulphide orebodies at Elura. The huge amounts of silicate, carbonate and sulphide accumulated during folding at Elura illustrate the large scale of source and sink couples possible in solute mass transfer.     

Short‐term volume changes of the Greenland ice sheet in response to doubled CO2 conditions

This paper focuses on the rôle of accumulation and cloudiness changes in the response of the Greenland ice sheet to global warming. Changes in accumulation or cloudiness were often neglected, or coupled to temperature changes. We used model output on temperature, precipitation and cloudiness from a GCM (ECHAM4 T106). The GCM output was used to drive the Greenland model that exists of a vertically averaged ice flow model, coupled to a 1D surface energy balance model that calculates the ablation. Variables are temperature, accumulation and cloudiness. Sensitivity experiments with this model show that changes in accumulation are very important for the ice sheet mass balance, whereas cloudiness is of secondary importance. If the Greenland model is forced by the GCM output, the Greenland model is found to contribute 70% less to sea level rise after 70 years than is indicated by the results presented in the IPCC report. This large discrepancy is mainly due to the fact that the enhanced ablation is strongly compensated by increased accumulation. Comparing the result obtained here with changes in mass balance derived directly from the same general circulation model, indicates a 20% larger contribution to sea level. This increase is due to changes in ice flow, and a different method for the ablation calculation.     

Ice-marginal debris-flow deposits in western Allgau, southern West Germany

Ice-marginal debris-flow deposits (comparable to deposits elsewhere described as flow tills) are described from glacier-proximal sediments in an Alpine foreland area. Debris-flow deposits are characteristically interstratified with subaeric or subaquatie meltwater deposits, and occur in a wide variety of geomorpho-logical settings. The granulomctric composition of debris-flow deposits is more variable than that of subglacial tills. Within-flow variability may occur as a result of the formation of graded bedding, lateral as well as vertical. Clast fabrics show both random and preferred orientations; unequivocal interpretation of these is not possible. Debris-flow deposits are composed of material derived from various sources: sources from subglaeially-derived debris as well as from previously deposited tills and walerlain sediments can be demonstrated.     

Definition and character of the Regency Interglacial and Early-Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy in the King Valley, western Tasmania, Australia

Interpretation of weathered glacial and interglacial deposits in the lower King Valley suggests that the Early Pleistocene Thureau Formation is conformably overlain by the Regency Formation. Pollen analysis of the Regency Formation provides evidence of a new climatic stage, the Regency Interglacial. The interglacial deposit consists of humified peat overlain by drifted wood and leaves. The pollen analysis shows a transition from montane scrub rainforest to lowland temperate rainforest dominated by Lagarostrobos franklinii, Nothofagus cunninghamii and Phyllocladus aspleniifolius. Trace quantities of the species Quintinia psi-latispora and Gothanipollis perplexus , now both extinct in Tasmania, were also recorded. On the basis of intense chemical weathering and correlation with sediments that have a reversed magnetization the weathered glacial deposits of the Thureau Formation are thought to be older than 730,000 B.P. The eroded interglacial deposit rests on the weathered deposits and is buried by outwash gravels of the David Formation, which was deposited during an ice advance of the Middle Pleistocene Henty Glaciation (c. 150,000 B.P.). Comparison of the Regency site with a site 2 km to the south at Baxter Rivulet shows that the unconformity between the interglacial deposit and the overlying outwash gravel represents the erosion of the evidence for the Middle Pleistocene Moore Glaciation.