Anatomy of a subaqueous ice-contact fan and delta complex, Middle Pleistocene, North-west Germany

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the high‐resolution facies architecture of the Middle Pleistocene Porta subaqueous ice‐contact fan and delta complex, deposited on the northern margin of glacial Lake Weser (North‐west Germany). A total of 10 sand and gravel pits and more than 100 wells were examined to document the complex facies architecture. The field study was supplemented with a ground‐penetrating radar survey and a shear‐wave seismic survey. All collected sedimentological and geophysical data were integrated into a high‐resolution three‐dimensional geological model for reconstructing the spatial distribution of facies associations. The Porta subaqueous fan and delta complex consist of three fan bodies deposited on a flat lake‐bottom surface at the margin of a retreating ice lobe. The northernmost fan complex is up to 55 m thick, 6·2 km wide and 6·5 km long. The incipient fan deposition is characterized by high‐energy flows of a plane‐wall jet. Very coarse‐grained, highly scoured jet‐efflux deposits with an elongate plan shape indicate a high Froude number, probably >5. These jet‐efflux sediments are deposited in front of a large ～3·2 km long, up to 1·2 km wide, and up to 25 m deep flute‐like scour, indicating the most proximal erosion and bypass area of the jet that widens and deepens with distance downstream to the region of maximum turbulence (approximately five times the conduit diameter). Evidence for subsequent flow splitting is given by the presence of two marginal gravel fan lobes, deposited in front of 1·3 to 2·5 km long flute‐like scours, that are 0·8 to 1 km wide and 7 to 20 m deep. In response to continued aggradation, small jets developed at the periphery of these bar‐like deposits and filled in the low areas adjacent to the original superelevated regions, locally raising the depositional surface and characterized by large‐scale trough cross‐stratified sand and pebbly sand. The incision of an up to 1·2 km wide and up to 35 m deep channel into the evolving fan is attributed to a catastrophic drainage event, probably related to a lake outburst and lake‐level fall in the range of 40 to 60 m. At the mouth of this channel, highly scoured jet‐efflux deposits formed under hydraulic‐jump conditions during flow expansion. Subsequently, Gilbert‐type deltas formed on the truncated fan margin, recording a second lake‐level drop in the range of 30 to 40 m. These catastrophic lake‐level falls were probably caused by rapid ice‐lobe retreat controlled by the convex‐up bottom topography of the ice valley.     

Quaternary vegetation changes derived from a loess‐like permafrost palaeosol sequence in northeast Siberia using alkane biomarker and pollen analyses

Zech, M., Andreev, A., Zech, R., Müller, S., Hambach, U., Frechen, M. & Zech, W.: Quaternary vegetation changes derived from a loess‐like permafrost palaeosol sequence in northeast Siberia using alkane biomarker and pollen analyses. Boreas, Vol. 39, pp. 540–550. 10.1111/j.1502‐3885.2009.00132.x. ISSN 0300‐9483 Alkane biomarker and pollen data were obtained from a 15‐m‐high and probably c. 240‐kyr‐old loess‐like permafrost palaeosol sequence (‘Tumara Palaeosol Sequence’, TPS) in northeast Siberia. The alkane results were corrected for degradation effects by applying an end‐member model and were evaluated by comparing them with the palynological results. The two data sets are generally in good agreement and suggest that the lower part of the TPS developed mainly under larch forests, whereas the upper part of the sequence reflects the expansion of mammoth steppes during the Weichselian glaciation and finally reforestation during the Lateglacial and the early Holocene. For the lower part of the TPS, the palaeoclimatic interpretation according to modern analogue methods would indicate warm, interglacial conditions, but this is at odds with the climate chronostratigraphy based on a multi‐proxy palaeopedological approach and numeric dating. Provided that the correlation of the discussed stratigraphic unit with the Late Saalian glaciation and the Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 6 is correct, our results suggest that temperature was not a limiting factor for tree growth at that time. Furthermore, it seems very likely that it was not mainly temperature changes but rather increasing aridity and continentality during the course of the last glacial that favoured the expansion of the mammoth steppe.     

Latitudinally different responses of Tethyan shoal‐water carbonate systems to the Early Aptian oceanic anoxic event (OAE 1a)

Ocean‐wide anoxic events represent intensively investigated anomalies in the global carbon cycle. Most previous research has focussed on hemipelagic and pelagic settings and on the relationship between black‐shale deposition and carbon‐isotope excursions. The study of ocean‐wide anoxic events and coeval shallow‐water settings is now increasingly seen as an interesting complementary approach, but one that is not without problems. Whereas platform drowning characterizes the Early Aptian of the northern Tethyan margin, Lithocodium–Bacinella‐rich facies and ongoing shoal‐water sedimentation at the southern Tethyan margin (Oman) bears important information on potential causes of carbon‐cycle perturbations. The present paper seeks to test the supra‐regional relevance of the Oman data by investigating coeval central Tethyan limestones. Three Lower Aptian shoal‐water sections in Istria (Croatia), deposited on the isolated Adriatic Carbonate Platform, are investigated applying chemostratigraphy (carbon and strontium) and detailed sedimentological analysis. The focus is on peritidal to lagoonal facies characterized by mass occurrences of Lithocodium–Bacinella, an enigmatic microencruster community. Lithocodium–Bacinella facies occurs predominantly in layers ranging from one to several centimetres in stratigraphic thickness, with several layers merging to metre‐thick packages. Growth fabrics within the layers include oncoidal morphotypes, lumps, interconnected patches and columns, layers and rare nodular to massive bindstone facies. These growth patterns show a remarkable regional extent and consistency over study sites distributed several kilometres apart. This widespread distribution suggests that specific Lithocodium–Bacinella morphotypes might serve as regional stratigraphic markers. The high‐resolution carbon‐isotope chemostratigraphy presented here is based on pristine rudist shells and matrix micrite samples and calibrated against strontium‐isotope data obtained from screened rudist low‐Mg calcite. The chemostratigraphic data are consistent with existing biostratigraphic data and place the studied strata at the onset of Early Aptian oceanic anoxic event 1a. Moreover, results indicate the near‐coeval nature of Lithocodium–Bacinella bloom facies in Istria and Oman. The outcomes of this study point to latitudinally different responses of Tethyan shoal‐water carbonate systems (platform drowning versus Lithocodium–Bacinella blooms) to the ocean‐wide anoxic event 1a.     

Evidence of iceberg-ploughing in a subaqueous ice-contact fan, glacial Lake Rinteln, NW Germany

The Coppenbrügge subaqueous ice‐contact fan complex of early Saalian age is about 10 km long and up to 10 km wide and is composed of offset‐stacked fan clinothems that are transgressive‐regressive sequences formed during an overall lake level rise. The individual fan bodies consist of coarse gravel in the ice‐proximal part, passing distally into sandy facies and showing large‐scale foreset bedding. The iceberg scour recognized in an open‐pit outcrop is up to 1.5m deep, up to 2m wide and cut in undisturbed mid‐fan deposits. The scour‐fill can be traced laterally for about 15m and consists of sheared sand and, in the frontal zone, of downbent overlying strata surrounded by a zone of deformed sediments. The deformed sediment produced by the iceberg keel's shearing of the trough walls is a sand mass containing angular soft‐sediment clasts that show internal folds and fractures. The basal surface of the deformed sediment is a nearly horizontal shear plane, steepening up laterally as a discrete thrust and showing a flat‐ramp‐flat geometry. The scour was formed by the iceberg keel's ploughing the substrate and pushing the sediment sideways and frontally, forming a ridge of deformed sediments at the trough end. This ridge was concurrently eroded by an accompanying meltwater underflow which apparently developed a horseshoe system of scouring vortices around the grounded iceberg. The current's scour was filled with massive, non‐stratified sand deposited rapidly from turbulent suspension. The iceberg eventually broke up and its keel part was buried. As these ice fragments gradually melted, the space was closed by normal faulting and downbending of overlying strata. The collapsing scour‐fill became partly liquified, and the resulting water‐escape structures cut the normal faults and the overlying deposits. Though produced chiefly by tangential shear strain, iceberg‐ploughing features are readily distinguishable from other glaciotectonic deformations. They can serve as a diagnostic criterion for glaciolacustrine or glaciomarine environments and the distinguishing of ice‐contact subaqueous fans from ice‐contact deltas in the stratigraphic record.     

TEST OF A PARAMETERIZATION FOR NOCTURNAL OZONE REDUCTION IN THE RESIDUAL LAYER BY DOWNWARD MIXING DURING SUMMER SMOG SITUATIONS

A simple parameterization describing the ozone depletion in thenocturnal residual layer by a parameter related to the mixing potential ofthe boundary layer was tested over homogeneous terrain in EasternGermany, on the basis of continuous SODAR and near-surface ozonemeasurements. For a summer smog episode in July 1994 the proposedrelationship could not be confirmed. This is attributed to the meteorologicaland transport situation as well as to the site-dependent characteristics.     

Petrological and Chemical Evolution of the Northeastern Troodos Extrusive Series, Cyprus

Four magma series are distinguished in the northeastern TroodosExtrusive Series: (A) a Lower Low-Ti Series (Lo-LTS) of basalticandesites, (B) a High-Ti Series (HTS) of basaltic andesitesto rhyodacites, (C) a Low-Ti Series(DLTS), the last two beingof basaltic andesite. Trace-element characteristics vary systematicallyfrom Series A to D and are interpreted in terms of a variablecontribution of three major source components (SCs). LILE-enrichedwater-rich fluids (SCI) derived from dehydration of a subductedlithosphere slab were continuously added to the overlying mantlewedge. Increasing LILE/HFSE and LILE/REE ratios and decreasingabsolute HFSE and REE concentrations from Series A to Dindicateprogressive depletion of the actual mantle source (SCII). Anegative Ta anomaly in the lavas decreases from Series A toD and is interpreted to have resulted from partial melting ofthe lower crust (SCII) where Ta-Nb-Ti may be fractionated byTi-rich accessory phases. The contribution of SCIII decreaseswhen the eruptive sites successively move away from the centralaxial zone and the temperature of the lower crust decreases,preventing partial melting of the lower crust. Chemical compositionsof fresh glass separates and phenocrysts indicate a change ofmajor petrogenetic processes from series A to D. Lo-LTS andIITS lavas are intrepreted to be directly related by open-systemfractional crystallization in crustal magma chambers. Removalof observed phenocryst phases clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene,plagioclase, and magnetite, and repeated subsequent mixing ofdacitc to rhyodacitic magmas with batches of replenshing basalticandesites are the major processes, possibly induced by vesicleformation in the mafic layer after a period of some crystallization.LTS and DLTS magmas were directly fed to the surface withoutstagnating at crustal levels, with feeder dykes positioned marginalto the central rift zone and thus by-passing the central magmachambers. These magmas apparently experienced only limited fractionalcrystallization of 10–15 wt.% olivine+clinopyroxene+chromite,probably at the mantle-crust boundary.     

INTEGRATED EXPLORATION FOR LOW-TEMPERATURE GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES IN THE HONEY LAKE BASIN,CALIFORNIA1

An integrated exploration study is presented to locate low-temperature geothermal reservoirs in the Honey Lake area of northern California. Regional studies to locate the geothermal resources included gravity, infra-red, water-temperature, and water-quality analyses. Five anomalies were mapped from resistivity surveys. Additional study of three anomalies by temperature-gradient and seismic methods was undertaken to define structure and potential of the geothermal resource. The gravity data show a graben structure in the area. Seismic reflection data indicate faults associated with surface-resistivity and temperature-gradient data. The data support the interpretation that the shallow reservoirs are replenished along the fault zones by deeply circulating heated meteoric waters.     

湖南会同寒武纪早期有机碳同位素地层学研究

寒武纪早期是地球海洋环境与生命演化的关键时期,但目前扬子东南缘深水相区的早寒武纪地层尚缺乏系统、精确 的地层对比工作。该文选取湖南省怀化地区会同钻孔剖面（深水相区） 的留茶坡组硅质岩、小烟溪组黑色页岩为研究对 象,进行了高分辨的有机碳同位素（δ13Corg） 地层对比,结果在会同剖面自下而上识别出四个正漂移（P1、P2、P3和P4） 与两个负漂移（N1和N2）,结合其他剖面的生物化石记录和锆石U-Pb年龄资料,将会同剖面有机碳同位素与湖南其他 剖面,以及和云南和三峡等地浅水相区剖面的有机碳、无机碳同位素曲线进行对比,认为扬子东南缘埃迪卡拉系-寒武 系界线在湖南深水相区可放置于留茶坡组上部较大的有机碳同位素负漂移（Basal Cambrian Carbon isotope Excursion, BACE） 出现的位置,但由于钻孔深度不够,所以该负漂移未在会同剖面获得,而P1、P2和P3分别对应于寒武系的ZHUCE （ZHUjiaqing Carbon isotope Excursion,第二阶）、CARE （Cambrian Arthropod Radiation isotope Excursion,第三阶） 和MICE（MIngxinsi Carbon Isotope Excursion,第四阶） 正漂移,N1 和N2 分别对应于寒武系的SHICE （SHIyantou Carbon isotope Excursion,第二阶） 和AECE（Archaeocyathid Extinction Carbon isotope Excursion,第四阶） 负漂移,因此会同剖面留茶坡组顶部至小烟溪组底部属于寒武系第二阶,小烟溪组下部属于寒武系第三阶,而小烟溪组中-上部属于寒武系第四阶,而顶 部是否达到第四阶顶部尚无法确认。碳同位素的负漂移可能是海侵时期上升流水体将底层富含12C还原水体带至浅水地区所 致,并分别与埃迪卡拉动物群、小壳化石动物群和古杯动物的灭绝密切相关;而在生物繁盛时期,海洋初级生产力升高, 有机质埋藏增加,导致碳同位素的正漂移。