Occurrence of hypogenic caves in a karst region: Examples from central Italy

The caves of the Umbria and Marche regions in central Italy are made up of three-dimensional maze systems that display different general morphologies due to the various geological and structural contexts. At the same time, the internal morphologies of the passages, galleries, and shafts present some similarity, with solutional galleries characterized by cupolas and blind pits, anastamotic passages, roof pendants, and phreatic passages situated at different levels. Some of these caves are still active, as is the case for Frassassi Gorge, Parrano Gorge, and Acquasanta Terme, with galleries that reach the phreatic zone, where there is a rising of highly mineralized water, rich in hydrosulfydric acid, and with erosion of limestone walls and the formation of gypsum. Elsewhere there are fossil caves, such as Monte Cucco and Pozzi della Piana, where large speleothems of gypsum are present 500 m or more above the regional water table. In all of these important karst systems it is possible to recognize basal input points through fracture and intergranular porosity networks at the base of the oxidizing zone in the core of the anticline, where mineralized water rises up from the Triassic evaporitic layers in small hydrogeological circuits. Different underground morphologies can derive from the presence of a water table related to an external stream or from the confined setting of the carbonate rocks, underlying low permeable sedimentary cover, where artesian conditions can occur.     

Border effects on household dissolution in the Banat Region,Yugoslavia

Abstarct The article recognizes two border effects on average size of households: the past and the present one.Both the incidence and the long-standing tradition of the multifamily and multigenerational households in the past time have been attributed to the influence of Turkish and Austrian state regulations in the period when the area was a part of the Military Border.An attempt is made to estimate the share of vital and spatial mobility factors. In the contemporary process of household dissolution the impact of vital mobility decreases and the impact of spatial mobility increases going from the center towards the periphery.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Regional Conference of the International Geographical Union, held in Prague in 1994.     

Lamprophyric lavas in the Colima graben,SW Mexico

The Colima graben, located in SW Mexico, is one of three grabens which intersect about 50 km SSW of Guadalajara, forming a triple junction. The 90 km long, 20–60 km wide Colima graben represents a N-S rift of the E-W trending Mexican Volcanic Belt. Since the Early Pliocene, the Colima graben has served as a locus for the eruption of alkaline lavas, the most recent of which are basanites and minettes erupted from Late Pleistocene cinder cones (Luhr and Carmichael 1981). In this paper, we report on older alkaline lavas which crop out in the graben's walls. These rocks include phlogopite- and hornblende-bearing lamprophyres, a phlogopite-kalsilite-ankaratrite, and high-K andesites. These lavas crop out throughout the Colima graben area, and are intimately associated with calc-alkaline lavas in the field. Compared to these, the alkaline rocks are strikingly enriched in the incompatible elements, particularly Ba, Sr, P, and the LREE. Unlike the younger Late Pleistocene alkaline cinder cone lavas, most of the graben wall lamprophyres and the high-K andesites represent magmas that appear to have undergone significant evolution since their generation, including fractionation, crustal contamination, and possible magma mixing. Least-squares modeling indicates that the cinder cone minettes represent reasonable parental magmas for the graben lamprophyres. The occurrence of these alkaline lavas in an active calc-alkaline volcanic arc is unusual, and we suggest that they are a manifestation of the rifting processes which produced the Colima graben.     

La tectogenèse hercynienne dans la partie occidentale du bassin de l'Ahnet et la région de Bled El-Mass, Sahara Algérien: un continuum de déformation

The study area is located in the north of the Hoggar Basement. It is bounded to the east by the Idjerane-Azaz north-south-trending structural system, the Azzel-Matti Ridge to the south and to the north by the Timimoun Basin. Distribution of the structural elements and the determination of deviatoric stress tensors indicate two main directions for major stress (σ1), one striking northeast-southwest and the other west-northwest-east-southeast. Structural evolution during the Hercynian Orogeny can be considered as a continuous strain rather than as two contrasting tectonic events. The structural features can be attributed to the association of wrench faulting and thrusting, which is compatible with a strain regime of combined pure and simple shear. The basement fabric features exerted a very strong control on the structural evolution during the Hercynian deformation.     

Anoxic carbon degradation in Arctic sediments: Microbial transformations of complex substrates

Complex substrates are degraded in anoxic sediments by the concerted activities of diverse microbial communities. To explore the effects of substrate complexity on carbon transformations in permanently cold anoxic sediments, four substrates—Spirulina cells, Isochrysis cells, and soluble high molecular weight carbohydrate-rich extracts of these cells (Spir-Ex and Iso-Ex)—were added to sediments collected from Svalbard. The sediments were homogenized, incubated anaerobically in gas-tight bags at 0°C, and enzyme activities, fermentation, and terminal respiration were monitored over a 1134 h time course. All substrate additions yielded a fraction (8%-13%) of carbon that was metabolized to CO₂ over the first 384 h of incubation. The timecourse of VFA (volatile fatty acid) production and consumption, as well as the suite of VFAs produced, was similar for all substrates. After this phase, pathways of carbon degradation diverged, with an additional 43%, 32%, 33%, and 8% of Isochrysis, Iso-Ex, Spirulina, and Spir-Ex carbon respired to CO₂ over the next 750 h of incubation. Somewhat surprisingly, the soluble, carbohydrate-rich extracts did not prove to be more labile substrates than the whole cells from which they were derived. Although Spirulina and Iso-Ex differed in physical and chemical characteristics (solid/soluble, C/N ratio, lipid and carbohydrate content), nearly identical quantities of carbon were respired to CO₂. In contrast, only 15% of Spir-Ex carbon was respired, despite the initial burst of activity that it fueled, its soluble nature, and its relatively high (50%) carbohydrate content. The microbial community in these cold anoxic sediments clearly has the capacity to react rapidly to carbon input; extent and timecourse of remineralization of added carbon is similar to observations made at much higher temperatures in temperate sediments. The extent of carbon remineralization from these specific substrates, however, would not likely have been predicted on the basis of general substrate characteristics.     

A study of the net flux of nitrates from estuaries of the eThekwini Municipality of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Estuaries, the interface of interaction of fluvial discharge and marine action serve as temporary repositories of materials (solid and dissolved) before finally exporting them to sea. This interchange of material is dependant on a range of factors such as those due to tidal variation, fluvial flows and estuarine morphodynamics. The efficacy of transfer of materials to the marine environment is important for estuarine health particularly in estuaries located in highly developed areas such as the major coastal metropolitan areas of many countries. This study assesses this efficacy for three estuaries of the eThekwini Municipality (TM) of the city of Durban, South Africa which maintains an open mouth status, ensuring tidal exchange through the year. The net flux of nitrates was measured for these estuaries on a seasonal basis for both spring and neap tides. Results indicate that although there is a net export of nitrates to the nearshore, there were instances, particularly on the spring tide, when a net import of nitrates into the estuary occurred. Data analysis reveal summer and neap tide flux dominance for the Tongati and Mgeni estuaries whilst the Isipingo Estuary exhibited larger flux variance for spring tides and the spring season. The origin of the latter is likely derived from unusually high biotic decomposition at sea and/or the longshore transport of decomposing sewage outfall. This creates an added dimension for consideration in estuarine management plans. Taking all three estuaries studied into consideration, a net export of nitrates for all seasons for the TM was measured with a clear seasonal influence detected where high rainfall seasons led to greater export as a consequence of greater fluvial flows, erosion and leaching of agricultural lands and, longer ebb duration and flows.     

Assessment of cement’s dust impact on the soil using principal component analysis and GIS

To evaluate the impact of the cement’s dust emitted by the eastern Moroccan cement factory (Oujda Holcim) and deposited on the soil of the Ain Lahjar commune, 58 samples of soil were collected around the factory on a radius of 3 km approximately. The physicochemical analyses of the upper 3 cm of the soil surface samples correspond to the pH, electrical conductivity, the chlorides and the oxides of Ca, Al, Fe, K, Mn, S and Si which were analyzed by the fluorescence of X-rays. The preliminary results demonstrate that this dust are especially basic and contain a high free lime (43% CaO). The principal component analysis (applied on the 58 samples of soil) allows deducting that the free lime and the sulfur oxide are the tracer elements of this form of pollution. Furthermore, the spatial projection of the factor scores of the principal component analysis using the geographical information system permits to determine the spatial distribution of more polluted areas of soils as well as to estimate their surface (63.3% of the survey zone).     

Geology, geochemistry, and age of volcanites of the Tunguda Volcanic Formation: The problem of the Archean-Proterozoic boundary in North Karelia

The geological, geochemical, and isotopic-geochronological data obtained for Sumian moderate-basic metavolcanites of Shombozero and Lekhta structures of the Panayarvi-Vygozero belt shows that the Tunguda Formation is confined to the Paleoproterozoic structural and material complex. This formation is represented by the complex of weakly differentiated andesitobasalts and andesites of calc-alkaline series with higher contents of MgO and moderate contents of Al₂O₃ and rare earth elements. The rocks of the Tunguda Formation are different from the Late Archean basic rocks of the Hiziyarvi Formation represented mainly by tholeiitic basalts with low REE contents and undifferentiated spectrum of REE distribution. The age of volcanites of the Tunguda Formation was determined to be 2439 ± 21 Ma. The xenogenic zircons from metaandesites of the Tunguda Formation have Neoarchean age according to the ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb ratio (from 2536 ± 4 to 2825 ± 7 Ma). The Neoarchean zircons, a negative value of ?_Nd (?3.8), and indicative geochemical parameters are evidence that the crustal component took part in formation of the protolith of the studied rocks.