Human impacts and eutrophication patterns during the past ~200 years at Lago Grande di Avigliana (N. Italy)

A short sediment core from Lago Grande di Avigliana (Piedmont, Italy), the second most eutrophied lake in Italy, was analysed for pollen and diatoms to reconstruct land-use changes and to estimate baseline conditions for total phosphorus (TP) in the water column. Varve counts on sediment thin-sections and ²¹⁰Pb, ²²⁶Ra, and ¹³⁷Cs dating provided a reliable chronology for the past ~200 years. The main pollen-inferred land-use changes showed a sharp decrease of hemp retting around AD 1900, as well as a gradual change to less intensive agriculture and increasing abundance of exotic plants since AD ~1970. Diatom-inferred TP reconstructions indicated stable TP concentrations until AD ~1950, revealing baseline mesotrophic conditions (TP <25 μg l⁻¹). After AD ~1950, TP values increased distinctly and continuously, culminating in the late 1960s with concentrations of 150 μg l⁻¹. Subsequently, diatoms implied a linear decrease of TP, with an inferred value of 40 μg l⁻¹ in the surface sediment sample. Comparison with instrumental TP measurements from the water column since AD 1980 showed a rapid recovery and allowed a direct validation of the diatom TP inference. However, although the TP concentration has decreased considerably, baseline conditions have not yet been reached. When compared to the limnological effects of sewage discharges on inferred-TP concentration, our results indicated that agricultural land use played a minor role in the lake’s eutrophication.     

First alkaline magmatism during Iberia–Newfoundland rifting

The age and origin of alkaline rocks emplaced into the sediments of the rift‐related continental Lusitanian basin were investigated to constrain earliest magmatic activity occurring prior to oceanic plate formation between Iberia and Newfoundland. The U–Pb titanite ages are 146.5 ± 1.6 (2σSTERR), 145.3 ± 1.4 and 142.3 ± 1.0 Ma, and initial Pb isotopic ratios of feldspars lie at 18.418–18.978 for ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, at 15.594–15.925 for ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb and at 37.105–39.216 for ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb. Initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios measured in the same feldspar fractions lie at 0.705409–0.706462. This episode of magmatic activity lasting for at least 4.2 ± 2.6 Myr most likely marks a phase of maximum lithospheric thinning during which zones of weakness were created to allow deep magmas to reach the surface. Such zones are preferentially re‐activated Palaeozoic faults of the Iberian plate. The isotope data suggest that the dominant volume of alkaline magmas was generated by partial melting of the metasomatized subcontinental Iberian mantle.     

大别山的构造变形期次和超高压岩石折返的动力学

从构造关系上看,大别山可分为南部,中部和北部3个构造系统,大别山南部构造系统为一套（原地）构造堆叠系统（相对的）,从上到下依次为：（1）未变质的震旦纪一早三叠世沉积盖层,它被造山后的侏罗－白垩纪砂－砾岩不整合覆盖;（2）弱变质的新元古代板岩;（3）高压变质岩系（宿松群）,这些变质岩系大多退变质为绿片岩相;（4）含柯石英榴辉岩超高压变质单元的异地系统;（5）未经历超高压变质作用的原地（相对的）片麻岩系。北西－南东向的拉伸线理在各个地质单元均有表现。从动力学上看,上盘指向NW的剪切运动被后期的褶皱所改变,大别山中部为（混合岩）热穿窿改造系统,系经历了超高压变质作用的地体叠加了混合岩化作用的产物,它与超高压变质地体的界限为一拆离断层,而正是这个拆离断层使超高压变质地体向地表折返并经历了角闪岩相的退变质作用。大别山北部为构造堆叠系统,早期的面理和南北向的挤压线理被轴面北倾的褶皱所改造,这种褶皱对应于大别山中部同折返期的韧性变形的隆升构造。同时建立了地球运力学模型并讨论了逆冲作用和正断层的作用。     

GEM-Selektor geochemical modeling package: revised algorithm and GEMS3K numerical kernel for coupled simulation codes

Reactive mass transport (RMT) simulation is a powerful numerical tool to advance our understanding of complex geochemical processes and their feedbacks in relevant subsurface systems. Thermodynamic equilibrium defines the baseline for solubility, chemical kinetics, and RMT in general. Efficient RMT simulations can be based on the operator-splitting approach, where the solver of chemical equilibria is called by the mass transport part for each control volume whose composition, temperature, or pressure has changed. Modeling of complex natural systems requires consideration of multiphase–multicomponent geochemical models that include nonideal solutions (aqueous electrolytes, fluids, gases, solid solutions, and melts). Direct Gibbs energy minimization (GEM) methods have numerous advantages for the realistic geochemical modeling of such fluid–rock systems. Substantial improvements and extensions to the revised GEM interior point method algorithm based on Karpov’s convex programming approach are described, as implemented in the GEMS3K C/C+?+ code, which is also the numerical kernel of GEM-Selektor v.3 package (http://gems.web.psi.ch). GEMS3K is presented in the context of the essential criteria of chemical plausibility, robustness of results, mass balance accuracy, numerical stability, speed, and portability to high-performance computing systems. The stand-alone GEMS3K code can treat very complex chemical systems with many nonideal solution phases accurately. It is fast, delivering chemically plausible and accurate results with the same or better mass balance precision as that of conventional speciation codes. GEMS3K is already used in several coupled RMT codes (e.g., OpenGeoSys-GEMS) capable of high-performance computing.     

Zur Ökologie der planktischen BlaualgeAphanizomenon flosaquae in Alpenrandseen

With help of field data from several alpine lakes and results from culture studies [54] an attempt was made to describe the conditions necessary for the occurrence of the blue-green algaAphanizomenon flosaquae in a lake. Special attention was paid to temperature, phosphorus, nitrogen and light.      

Structural-permeability favorability in crystalline rocks and implications for groundwater flow paths: a case study from the Aar Massif (central Switzerland)

Groundwater flow in granitic bedrock is of major interest for underground projects such as radioactive waste disposal. It is generally accepted that granitic rocks of the upper crust are characterized as faulted low-porosity rocks showing fault-related permeability. In this study, the influence of existing faults on the present-day water flow in the Grimsel Test Site (Switzerland), an underground rock laboratory situated in granitoid rocks, was investigated by mapping water discharges. As a result, the link between water flow and faults considering slip-tendency analysis and fault intersections is evaluated. Water-conducting features were combined in a structural-permeability favorability map. Faults and dykes occur as three orientation groups, NE–SW, E–W, and NW–SE trending, all steeply dipping southwards with fault intersections also steeply plunging southwards. In total, 100 water discharges were mapped in summer 2014 and 85 in winter 2016, which are located along faults or fault intersections. A comparison of water discharges with structures showed that high-slip-tendency metabasic dykes and fault or dyke intersections represent the dominant flow paths. Further, it could be demonstrated that higher slip-tendency tends to lead to enhanced average hydraulic conductivity and therefore more constant water flow. Based on water fluxes, fault intersections are inferred to represent first-order locations of water percolation followed by high-slip-tendency metabasic dykes. The combination of all water-conducting features into a structural-permeability map results in covering all water discharges. Therefore, the structural-permeability favorability map can serve as suitable representation for constraining water inflow in fractured granitoid host rocks.