Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Early to Middle Miocene Central Paratethys using stable isotopes from bryozoan skeletons

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope values from single bryozoan colonies were used to reconstruct the paleoenvironments of the Early to Middle Miocene (Ottnangian to Badenian) sediments of the Central Paratethys. This approach utilizes a locally abundant allochem while avoiding matrix and multiple allochem contamination from bulk rock samples. Bryozoan colonies (and a few foraminifera and rock matrix samples) from 14 localities yielded 399 carbon and oxygen isotope values. Data from six of the localities (15 % of the total number of samples) were interpreted as having been diagenetically altered and were rejected. The remaining data indicate a primarily localized upwelling signal with lesser variation caused by global climatic and regional tectonic forcing of sea level, salinity, and temperature. Paleotemperatures were calculated to range from 12 to 21 °C. Despite potential taxonomic and diagenetic problems, bryozoan colonies are a powerful, underutilized source of paleoenvironmental carbon and oxygen isotope data.     

Geophysical anomalies associated with uranium mineralization from Beldih mine, South Purulia Shear Zone, India

Beldih mine at the central part of the South Purulia Shear Zone (SPSZ) has been reported with low grade uranium-bearing formation within quartz-magnetite-apatite host in kaolinized formation. Therefore, the present integrated geophysical study with gravity, magnetic, radiometric, very low frequency electromagnetic (VLF) and gradient resistivity profiling methods around the known mineralized zones aimed at identifying the exact geophysical signatures and lateral extent of these uranium mineralization bands. The closely spaced gravity-magnetic contours over the low to high anomaly transition zones of Bouguer, reduced-to-pole magnetic, and trend surface separated residual gravity-magnetic anomaly maps indicate the possibility of high altered zone(s) along NW-SE direction at the central part of the study area. High current density plots of VLF method and the low resistive zones in gradient resistivity study depict the coincidence with low gravity, moderately high magnetic and low resistivity anomalies at the same locations. Moderate high radioactive zones have also been observed over these locations. This also suggests the existence of radioactive mineralization over this region. Along profile P2, drilled borehole data revealed the presence of uranium mineralization at a depth of ～100 m. The vertical projection of this mineralization band also identified as low gravity, low resistivity and high magnetic anomaly zone. Thus, the application of integrated geophysical techniques supported by geological information successfully recognized the nature of geophysical signatures associated with the uranium mineralization of this region. This enhances the scope of further integrated geophysical investigations in the unexplored regions of SPSZ.     

Late Cretaceous ophiolite obduction and Paleocene India-Asia collision in the westernmost Himalaya

Abstract

Collision of the Kohistan island arc with Asia at ~100 Ma resulted in N-S compression within the Neo-Tethys at a spreading center north of the Indo-Pakistani craton. Subsequent India-Asia convergence converted the Neo-Tethyan spreading center into a short-lived subduction zone. The hanging wall of the subduction zone became the Waziristan, Khost and Jalalabad igneous complexes. During the Santonian- Campanian (late Cretaceous), thrusting of the NW IndoPakistani craton beneath Albian oceanic crust and a Cenomanian volcano-sedimentary complex, generated an ophiolite-radiolarite belt. Ophiolite obduction resulted in tectonic loading and flexural subsidence of the NW Indian margin and sub-CCD deposition of shelf-derived olistostromes and turbidites in the foredeep. Campanian-Maastriehtian calci- clastic and siliciclastic sediment gravity flows derived from both margins filled the foredeep as a huge allochthon of Triassic-Jurassic rise and slope strata was thrust ahead of the ophiolites onto the Indo-Pakistani craton. Shallow to intermediate marine strata covered the foredeep during the late Maastrichtian. As ophiolite obduction neared completion during the Maastrichtian, the majority of India-Asia convergence was accommodated along the southern margin of Asia. During the Paleocene, India was thrust beneath a second allochthon that included open marine middle Maastrichtian colored mélange which represents the Asian Makran-Indus-Tsangpo accretionary prism. Latérites that formed on the eroded ophiolites and structurally higher colored mélange during the Paleocene wei’e unconformably overlapped by upper Paleocene and Middle Eocene shallow marine limestone and shale that delineate distinct episodes of Paleocene collisional and Early Eocene post-collisional deformation.     

Nourishment of perched sand dunes and the issue of erosion control in the Great Lakes

Although limited in coverage, perched sand dunes situated on high coastal bluffs are considered the most prized of Great Lakes dunes. Grand Sable Dunes on Lake Superior and Sleeping Bear Dunes on Lake Michigan are featured attractions of national lakeshores under National Park Service management. The source of sand for perched dunes is the high bluff along their lakeward edge. As onshore wind crosses the bluff, flow is accelerated upslope, resulting in greatly elevated levels of wind stress over the slope brow. On barren, sandy bluffs, wind erosion is concentrated in the brow zone, and for the Grand Sable Bluff, it averaged 1 m³/yr per linear meter along the highest sections for the period 1973–1983. This mechanism accounts for about 6,500 m³ of sand nourishment to the dunefield annually and clearly has been the predominant mechanism for the long-term development of the dunefield. However, wind erosion and dune nourishment are possible only where the bluff is denuded of plant cover by mass movements and related processes induced by wave erosion. In the Great Lakes, wave erosion and bluff retreat vary with lake levels; the nourishment of perched dunes is favored by high levels. Lake levels have been relatively high for the past 50 years, and shore erosion has become a major environmental issue leading property owners and politicians to support lake-level regulation. Trimming high water levels could reduce geomorphic activity on high bluffs and affect dune nourishment rates. Locally, nourishment also may be influenced by sediment accumulation associated with harbor protection facilities and by planting programs aimed at stabilizing dunes.     

Some approaches for location of centroids of quartz grain outlines to increase homology between Fourier amplitude spectra

The ability to test for similarities and differences among families of shapes by closed-form Fourier expansion is greatly enhanced by the concept of homology. Underlying this concept is the assumption that each term of a Fourier series, when compared to the same term in another series, represents the same thing. A method that ensures homology is one which minimizes the centering error, as reflected in the first harmonic term of the Fourier expansion. The problem is to chose a set of edge points derived from a much larger, but variable, number of edge points such that a valid homologous Fourier series can be calculated. Methods are reviewed and criteria given to define a proper solution. An algorithm is presented which takes advantage of the fact that minimization of the error term can be accomplished by minimizing the distance between the origin of the polar coordinate system in the calculation of the Fourier series and the shape centroid. The use of this algorithm has produced higher quality solutions for quartz grain provenance studies.     

GEOCHRONOLOGICAL LIMITATIONS FOR INTERPRETING THE PALEOCLIMATIC HISTORY OF THE TIBETAN PLATEAU

在当前全球变化背景下,青藏高原冰川急剧退缩严重影响着东亚地区水资源.为了有效地规划水资源,需要对高原气候变化及其机制有深入的理解.尽管在青藏高原及周边地区有大量的古气候记录,但是目前对高原气候的时空变化及其机制仍缺乏深入一致的认识.青藏高原冰川、树轮和石笋记录可以提供过去气候变化的框架,但是这些记录的分布局限于一些特定的地理区域.青藏高原上广泛分布的湖泊沉积物是研究高原气候的时空变化及其机制的优良介质.湖泊沉积物岩芯的年龄控制主要依赖于放射性碳同位素定年,但大多数高原湖泊具有碳库效应,为建立沉积岩芯年代控制需要进行碳库年龄校正所带来的年龄误差目前未有深入研究,这在某种程度上制约了利用湖泊沉积物记录研究高原气候时空变化及其机制.本文比较了目前确定高原湖泊碳库年龄的方法并提出建议采用的方法,汇总目前己发表的高原湖泊碳库年龄,讨论湖泊现代碳库年龄的空间分布及其影响因素,讨论湖泊碳库过去变化及其可能造成的岩芯年代控制误差;以青海湖和班公错两个高原湖泊已发表的记录为例讨论过去碳库年龄变化可能造成对记录完全不同的解释;还讨论了由碳库效应校正而带来的湖泊沉积物岩芯年龄控制误差对青藏高原湖泊记录的末次盛冰期终止年代的空间分布及其对变化机制解释的影响.如果考虑碳库效应的过去变化,目前所观测到的高原气候时空变化及其机制需要重新解释.因此,为了更好地理解青藏高原气候时空变化及其机制,我们需要更多有良好定年、高分辨率和定量化的湖泊记录,本文也建议在解释目前湖泊记录时需要应对年龄控制极大重视.     

Determining the trophic guilds of fishes and macroinvertebrates in a seagrass food web

We established trophic guilds of macroinvertebrate and fish taxa using correspondence analysis and a hierarchical clustering strategy for a seagrass food web in winter in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. To create the diet matrix, we characterized the trophic linkages of macroinvertebrate and fish taxa present inHalodule wrightii seagrass habitat areas within the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (Florida) using binary data, combining dietary links obtained from relevant literature for macroinvertebrates with stomach analysis of common fishes collected during January and February of 1994. Heirarchical average-linkage cluster analysis of the 73 taxa of fishes and macroinvertebrates in the diet matrix yielded 14 clusters with diet similarity ≥ 0.60. We then used correspondence analysis with three factors to jointly plot the coordinates of the consumers (identified by cluster membership) and of the 33 food sources. Correspondence analysis served as a visualization tool for assigning each taxon to one of eight trophic guilds: herbivores, detritivores, suspension feeders, omnivores, molluscivores, meiobenthos consumers, macrobenthos consumers and piscivores. These trophic groups, corss-classified with major taxonomic groups, were further used to develop consumer compartments in a network analysis model of carbon flow in this seagrass ecosystem. The method presented here should greatly improve the development of future network models of food webs by providing an objective procedure for aggregating trophic groups.     

Sources of sandstone artifacts and pottery from Lost Dune,a late prehistoric site in Harney County,southeastern Oregon,U.S.A.

Granitic constituents suggest distant plutonic sources for sherds representing four of six low‐fired brown ware pots and for eight of ten sandstone artifacts from Lost Dune (35HA792), a Late Prehistoric bison processing camp in Harney Basin of southeastern Oregon, a Tertiary volcanic and sedimentary region. Eight sandstone artifacts match granite‐derived sandstone near Oregon's Owyhee River, and three former pots match altered granite and rhyolite in Idaho's Owyhee Mountains. A fourth corresponds to mixed hydrovolcanic basalts near the sandstone abrader source. The sources delineate a 30 × 70 km area > 100 km from Lost Dune. Two other pots and two milling stones match deposits near this area and elsewhere. The determined sources suggest people who used Shoshoni pots and knives at Lost Dune resided in southeastern Oregon. Pots with temper from elevations above 1500 m or recovered as sherds above 1500 m might be made in summer root‐digging camps. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

El Chichón volcano, April 4, 1982: volcanic cloud history and fine ash fallout

This retrospective study focuses on the fine silicate particles (<62 µm in diameter) produced in a large eruption that was otherwise well studied. Fine particles represent a potential hazard to aircraft, because as simple particles they have very low terminal velocities and could potentially stay aloft for weeks. New data were collected to describe the fine particle size distributions of distal fallout samples collected soon after eruption. Although, about half of the mass of silicate particles produced in this eruption of ~1 km³ dense rock equivalent magma were finer than 62 µm in diameter, and although these particles were in a stratospheric cloud after eruption, almost all of these fine particles fell to the ground near (<300 km) the volcano in a day or two. Particles falling out from 70 to 300 km from the volcano are mostly <62 µm in diameter. The most plausible explanation for rapid fallout is that the fine ash nucleates ice in the convective cloud and initiates a process of meteorological precipitation that efficiently removes fine silicates. These observations are similar to other eruptions and we conclude that ice formation in convective volcanic clouds is part of an effective fine ash removal process that affects all or most volcanic clouds. The existence of pyroclastic flows and surges in the El Chichón eruption increased the overall proportion of fine silicates, probably by milling larger glassy pyroclasts.     

Basement-controlled faulting of Paleozoic strata in southern Ontario, Canada: new evidence from geophysical lineament mapping

Basement fault reactivation is now recognized as an important control on sedimentation and fault propagation in intracratonic basins. In southern Ontario, the basement consists of complexly structured mid-Proterozoic (ca. 1.2 Ga) crystalline rocks and metasedimentary rocks that are overlain by up to 1500 m of Paleozoic sedimentary strata. Reactivation of basement structures is suspected to control the location of Paleozoic fault and fracture systems, but evaluation has been hindered by a limited understanding of the regional structural characteristics of the buried basement. New aeromagnetic- and gravimetric-lineament mapping presented in this paper better resolves the location of basement discontinuities and provides further evidence for basement controls on the distribution of Paleozoic fault and fracture systems. Lineament mapping was facilitated by reprocessing and digital image enhancement (micro-levelling, regional residual separation, derivative filtering) of existing regional gravity and aeromagnetic datasets. Reprocessed images identify new details of the structural fabric of the basement below southern Ontario and delineate several previously unrecognized aeromagnetic and gravity lineaments and linear zones. Linear zones parallel the projected trends of mid-Proterozoic terrane boundaries identified by field mapping on the exposed shield to the north of the study area, and are interpreted as zones of shearing and basement faulting. Mapped aeromagnetic and gravity lineaments show similar trends to Paleozoic faults and fracture networks and broad zones of seismicity in southern Ontario. These new data support an ‘inheritance model’ for Paleozoic faulting, involving repeated reactivation and upward propagation of basement faults and fractures into overlying cover strata.