From the green color of eskolaite to the red color of ruby: an X-ray absorption spectroscopy study

The best known cause for colors in insulating minerals is due to transition metal ions as impurities. As an example, Cr³⁺ is responsible for the red color of ruby (α-Al₂O₃:Cr³⁺) and the green color of eskolaite (α-Cr₂O₃). Using X-ray absorption measurements, we connect the colors of the Cr _x Al_2−x O₃ series with the structural and electronic local environment around Cr. UV–VIS electronic parameters, such as the crystal field and the Racah parameter B, are related to those deduced from the analysis of the isotropic and XMCD spectra at the Cr L_2,3-edges in Cr_0.07Al_1.93O₃ and eskolaite. The Cr–O bond lengths are extracted by EXAFS at the Cr K-edge in the whole Cr _x Al_2−x O₃ (0.07≤x< 2) solid solution series. The variation of the mean Cr–O distance between Cr_0.07Al_1.93O₃ and α-Cr₂O₃ is evaluated to be 0.01₅ Å (≈1%). The variation of the crystal field in the Cr _x Al_2−x O₃ series is discussed in relation with the variation of the averaged Cr–O distances.     

Water quality in New Zealand rivers: current state and trends

River water quality, particularly in lowland catchments, is a matter of concern to the New Zealand public. We assessed river water quality and biological state and trends using data from more than 900 monitoring sites. Parallel state and trend analyses were carried out using all sites and a subset of lowland river sites. Median water-quality state in urban and pastoral land-cover classes was poorer than in exotic forest and natural land-cover classes, and lowland sites in the urban and pastoral classes had the poorest water quality. Nutrient and Escherichia coli concentrations increased and visual clarity and Macroinvertebrate Community Index scores decreased as proportions of catchments in high-intensity agricultural and urban land cover increased. Ten-year trends (2004–2013) indicated recent improvements in ammoniacal nitrogen, dissolved reactive phosphorus and total phosphorus in the pastoral and urban classes, possibly reflecting improved land management. In contrast, trends in nitrate-nitrogen in the exotic forest and cool-dry/pastoral classes indicated worsening conditions.     

Integration of sedimentology and ground‐penetrating radar for high‐resolution imaging of a carbonate platform

Ground‐penetrating radar has not been applied widely to the recognition of ancient carbonate platform geometries. This article reports the results of an integrated study performed on an Upper Jurassic outcrop from the south‐east Paris basin, where coral bioherms laterally change into prograding depositional sequences. Ground‐penetrating radar profiles illustrate the different bedding planes and major erosional unconformities visible at outcrop. A ground‐penetrating radar profile conducted at the base of the cliff displays a palaeotopographic surface on which the outcropping bioherms settled. The excellent penetration depths of the ground‐penetrating radar (20 m with a monostatic 200 MHz antenna) images the carbonate platform geometries, ranging between outcrop workscale (a few metres) and seismic scale (several hundreds of metres). This study supports recent evidence of icehouse conditions and induced sea‐level fluctuations controlling the Upper Jurassic carbonate production.     

Molar microwear pattern and palaeoecology of ungulates from La Berbie (Dordogne, France): environment of Neanderthals and modern human populations of the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic

This study contributes to the characterization of the environment of the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic transition in southwestern France through the reconstruction of ungulate diets. Molar microwear analysis is used to characterize the diets of herbivorous mammals from La Berbie. The data for this study were collected through examination of molar facets using white-light confocal microscopy. The results for 22 fossil specimens (representing four species) are compared with those of 59 living ruminants. Microwear variables of living specimens are used in a principal components analysis. Extinct species are then added to the analysis. Results show that Bison priscus has a microwear signature similar to that of grazers, whereas Rangifer tarandus shares characteristics with both browsers and grazers. The specimens of Equus caballus and Rupicapra rupicapra also display microwear patterns similar to those of grazers. While previous studies have shown an abundance of both C3 plants and herbaceous dicots, the present microwear analysis of fossil herbivores indicates that their last meals contained abrasive graminoids. The results suggest that during the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic transition the habitat of Neanderthals and modern human populations in southwestern France was an open environment dominated by a rich C3-monocot herbaceous layer.     

Métabasites de la cordillère occidentale d'Équateur,témoins du soubassement océanique des Andes d'Équateur

The building-up of the Andean Range is linked to the subduction of the Pacific lithosphere beneath the South American plate. However, the formation of the Central Andes is marked by continental crustal shortening, whereas accretion and underplating of exotic oceanic terranes occurred in the northern Andes. The study of various magmatic and metamorphic rocks exhumed in the Western Cordillera of Ecuador by Miocene transpressive faults enables us to constrain the nature and thermal evolution of the crustal root of this part of Ecuador. These rocks are geochemically similar to oceanic plateau basalts. The thermobarometric peak conditions of a granulite and an amphibolite indicate temperatures of 800–850?°C and pressures less than 6–9 kbar (lack of garnet). The abnormally high geothermal gradient (≈40?°C?km^?1) is probably due to the activity of the magmatic arc, which developed on the accreted oceanic terranes after Late Eocene times, and may have provoked the re-mobilisation of deeply underplated oceanic material during the genesis of the Neogene to Recent arc. To cite this article: É. Beaudon et al., C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).