Tephra stratigraphy on the North Icelandic shelf: extending tephrochronology into marine sediments off North Iceland

Tephra stratigraphical and tephrochronological studies of marine core MD99‐2275 on the North Icelandic shelf have revealed 58 new tephra horizons within the last 7050 cal. a BP, bringing the total number of identified tephra layers to 76. So far, over 100 tephra layers have been identified in the entire core spanning the last 15 000 years. The majority of the newly identified tephra layers are basaltic in composition and originate from the most active volcanic systems in Iceland, namely Grímsvötn, Veidivötn‐Bárdarbunga and Katla. A total of 40 tephra layer land–sea correlations have been made within this time period, of which 16 represent absolutely dated tephra markers. In addition, two tephra marker series are revealed in the marine sediments and in the terrestrial tephra stratigraphy, located between c. 2300–2600 and between 5700–5900 years. For the last 15 000 years, 21 tephra markers have been recognized. The marine tephra layer frequency (TLF) reveals two peaks, within the last 2000 years, and between 5000 and 7000 years ago. It shows the same general characteristics as the terrestrial TLF curve in Iceland, which indicates that marine sediments can yield important information about volcanism in Iceland. This is useful in time segments in which terrestrial records are poor or non‐existent. The study contributes to a high‐resolution tephrochronological framework on the North Icelandic shelf, with core MD99‐2275 representing a potential stratotype section in the area, and for the northern North Atlantic–Nordic Seas region, as well as being an important contribution to the Lateglacial–early Holocene volcanic history of Iceland.     

Swedish coastal fisheries—From conflict mitigation to participatory management

Several research projects have studied Swedish coastal fishery to investigate the conflict between seals and fishery. In recent years, a strategy of participation by means of co-management has been unfolding. Realising that maintaining the coastal fishery requires societal support and knowledge integration, attempts have been made to introduce the principle of participatory management into the centralised Swedish fisheries management system. However, this co-management approach, presently implemented in six pilot projects, will take a long time to develop through a sustained process of experimentation and improvement.     

Towards a 4D topographic view of the Norwegian sea margin

The present-day topography/bathymetry of the Norwegian mainland and passive margin is a product of complex interactions between large-scale tectonomagmatic and climatic processes that can be traced back in time to the Late Silurian Caledonian Orogeny. The isostatic balance of the crust and lithosphere was clearly influenced by orogenic thickening during the Caledonian Orogeny, but was soon affected by post-orogenic collapse including overprinting of the mountain root, and was subsequently affected by a number of discrete extensional events eventually leading to continental break-up in Early Eocene time. In the mid-Jurassic the land areas experienced deep erosion in the warm and humid climate, forming a regional paleic surface. Rift episodes in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, with differential uplift along major fault zones, led to more pronounced topographic contrasts during the Cretaceous, and thick sequences of clastic sediments accumulated in the subsiding basins on the shelf. Following renewed extension in the Late Cretaceous, a new paleic surface developed in the Paleocene. Following break-up the margin has largely subsided thermally, but several Cenozoic shortening events have generated positive contraction structures. On the western side of the on-shore drainage divide, deeper erosion took place along pre-existing weakness zones, creating the template of the present day valleys and fjords. In the Neogene the mainland and large portions of the Barents Sea were uplifted. It appears that this uplift permitted ice caps to nucleate and accumulate during the Late Pliocene northern hemisphere climatic deterioration. The Late Pliocene to Pleistocene glacial erosion caused huge sediment aprons to be shed on to the Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea margins. Upon removal of the ice load the landmass adjusted isostatically, and this still continues today.     

The Plio-Pleistocene glaciation of the Barents Sea–Svalbard region: a new model based on revised chronostratigraphy

Based on a revised chronostratigraphy, and compilation of borehole data from the Barents Sea continental margin, a coherent glaciation model is proposed for the Barents Sea ice sheet over the past 3.5 million years (Ma). Three phases of ice growth are suggested: (1) The initial build-up phase, covering mountainous regions and reaching the coastline/shelf edge in the northern Barents Sea during short-term glacial intensification, is concomitant with the onset of the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (3.6–2.4 Ma). (2) A transitional growth phase (2.4–1.0 Ma), during which the ice sheet expanded towards the southern Barents Sea and reached the northwestern Kara Sea. This is inferred from step-wise decrease of Siberian river-supplied smectite-rich sediments, likely caused by ice sheet blockade and possibly reduced sea ice formation in the Kara Sea as well as glacigenic wedge growth along the northwestern Barents Sea margin hampering entrainment and transport of sea ice sediments to the Arctic–Atlantic gateway. (3) Finally, large-scale glaciation in the Barents Sea occurred after 1 Ma with repeated advances to the shelf edge. The timing is inferred from ice grounding on the Yermak Plateau at about 0.95 Ma, and higher frequencies of gravity-driven mass movements along the western Barents Sea margin associated with expansive glacial growth.     

Late Pliocene sand ridges at the western margin of the Barents Sea—do they monitor Late Pliocene glaciations?

Seismic data combined with core analysis of the northwesternmost exploration well on the Norwegian continental margin, well 7316/5-1, has been used to map and discuss the genesis of three well-defined sand ridges. The sand ridges have a NE-SW to N-S orientation and are of Late Pliocene age. The dimensions of the ridges are: height 40 m, length 2–4 km and width 0.5–1 km.In relation to the glaciation models of the Barents Sea, the position of well 7316/5-1, and especially information from a core that penetrated one of the sand ridges, provide important information. The ridges are not, in themselves, diagnostic for grounded glaciers at the margin of the Barents Sea shelf during the Late Pliocene, although the presence of pebbles in a cored section of the ridges may represent ice-dropped material. Whether the possible influx of glaciogenic material is related to local or regional glaciations on the Barents Shelf remains to be evaluated.     

Time Variability of Rotation in Solar Convection Zone From soi-mdi

The variation of rotation in the convection zone over a period of two years from mid-1996 is studied using inversions of SOI–MDI data. We confirm the existence of near-surface banded zonal flows migrating towards the equator from higher latitudes, and reveal that these banded flows extend substantially beneath the surface, possibly to depths as great as 70 Mm (10% of the solar radius). Our results also reveal apparently significant temporal variations in the rotation rate at high latitudes and in the vicinity of the tachocline over the period of study.     

Hubble Space Telescope photometry of globular clusters in the Sombrero galaxy

We explore the rich globular cluster (GC) system of the nearby Sa galaxy M104, the 'Sombrero' (NGC 4594), using archive Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 data. The GC colour distribution is found to be bimodal at the >99 per cent confidence level, with peaks at     and     . The inferred metallicities are very similar to those of GCs in our Galaxy and M31. However, the Sombrero reveals a much enhanced number of red (metal-rich) GCs compared to other well-studied spirals. Because the Sombrero is dominated by a huge bulge and only has a modest disc, we associate the two subpopulations with the halo and bulge components, respectively. Thus our analysis supports the view that the metal-rich GCs in spirals are associated with the bulge rather than with the disc. The Sombrero GCs have typical effective (half-light) radii of ∼2 pc with the red ones being ∼30 per cent smaller than the blue ones. We identify many similarities between the GC system of the Sombrero and those of both late-type spirals and early-type galaxies. Thus both the GC system and the Hubble type of the Sombrero galaxy appear to be intermediate in their nature.