Does stress transmission in forelands depend on structural style? Distinctive stress magnitudes during Sevier thin‐skinned and Laramide thick‐skinned layer‐parallel shortening in the Bighorn Basin (USA) revealed by stylolite and calcite twinning paleopiezometry

The Sheep Mountain‐Little Sheep Mountain Anticlines, Bighorn Basin (USA) formed as basement‐cored Laramide structures in the formerly undeformed foreland of the thin‐skinned Sevier orogen. We take advantage of the well‐constrained microstructural network there to reconstruct differential stress magnitudes that prevailed during both Sevier and Laramide layer‐parallel shortening (LPS), before the onset of large‐scale folding. Differential stress magnitudes determined from tectonic stylolites are compared and combined to previous stress estimates from calcite twinning paleopiezometry in the same formations. During stress loading related to LPS, differential stress magnitudes transmitted from the distant Sevier thin‐skinned orogen into the sedimentary cover of the Bighorn basin (11–43 MPa) are higher than the differential stress magnitudes accompanying the early stage of LPS related to the thick‐skinned Laramide deformation (2–19 MPa). This study illustrates that the tectonic style of an orogen affects the transmission of early orogenic stress into the stable continental interior.     

The spectacular fossils of the ‘water margin’: the Cambrian biota of Chengjiang,Yunnan, China

Shi Nai'an's fourteenth century Chinese epic ‘Water Margin’ tells of the release of 36 heavenly spirits and 72 baleful stars from their captivity beneath a tablet of stone at Mount Longhu in Jiangxi Province. They are reincarnated as the 108 heroes of the Liangshan marsh in Shandong Province, who rise against an unjust world. The virtuous exploits of the ‘108’ were brought to life through the cathode‐ray screens of 1970s television sets, as the TV series The Water Margin introduced heroes like Lin Chong battling his evil nemesis Gao Qiu. Far to the west of Jiangxi Province and several hundred years after the Water Margin during the summer of 1984, a young scientist from Nanjing was working amongst the hills and lakes of southern Yunnan Province. He too overturned a stone slab, releasing from their half‐billion year captivity a cornucopia of new Chinese legends. His name was Xianguang Hou and he had made one of the most momentous fossil discoveries in history, uncovering the exceptionally preserved marine fossils of the Chengjiang biota from the ancient water margin of Cambrian seas.     

The role of baseflow in dissolved solids delivery to streams in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Salinity has a major effect on water users in the Colorado River Basin, estimated to cause almost $300 million per year in economic damages. The Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program implements and manages projects to reduce salinity loads, investing millions of dollars per year in irrigation upgrades, canal projects, and other mitigation strategies. To inform and improve mitigation efforts, there is a need to better understand sources of salinity to streams and how salinity has changed over time. This study explores salinity in the baseflow fraction of streamflow, assessing whether groundwater is a significant contributor of dissolved solids to streams in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB). Chemical hydrograph separation was used to estimate baseflow discharge and baseflow dissolved solids loads at stream gages (n = 69) across the UCRB. On average, it is estimated that 89% of dissolved solids loads originate from the baseflow fraction of streamflow, indicating that subsurface transport processes play a dominant role in delivering dissolved solids to streams in the UCRB. A statistical trend analysis using weighted regressions on time, discharge, and season was used to evaluate changes in baseflow dissolved solids loads in streams (n = 27) from 1986 to 2011. Decreasing trends in baseflow dissolved solids loads were observed at 63% of streams. At the three most downstream sites, Green River at Green River, UT, Colorado River at Cisco, UT, and the San Juan River near Bluff, UT, baseflow dissolved solids loads decreased by a combined 823,000 metric tons (mT), which is approximately 69% of projected basin‐scale decreases in total dissolved solids loads as a result of salinity control efforts. Decreasing trends in baseflow dissolved solids loads suggest that salinity mitigation projects, landscape changes, and/or climate are reducing dissolved solids transported to streams through the subsurface. Notably, the pace and extent of decreases in baseflow dissolved solids loads declined during the most recent decade; average decreasing loads during the 2000s (28,200 mT) were only 54% of average decreasing loads in the 1990s (51,700 mT).     

The Upper Pliocene Bowden shell beds,southeast Jamaica

The Neogene fossil record of the Antilles is particularly rich and can satisfy the interests of most collectors, from foraminifers to vertebrates. The molluscs are among the commonest and most diverse groups, being found in both terrestrial and marine deposits. The Pliocene Bowden shell beds of southeast Jamaica, best known for its hundreds of species of molluscs, also yields diverse members of other groups, the total exceeding 800 species from a mere 5 m of stratigraphical section.     

Fluvial archives as a framework for the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic: patterns of British artefact distribution and potential chronological implications

With the adoption of an ‘expanded chronology’ for the Middle Pleistocene, based on the greater number of warm and cold episodes evident in the marine oxygen isotope record from deep ocean cores, has come the recognition of a meaningful progression of artefact types, something that could not be achieved with reference to the previous ‘compressed chronology’. In Britain, at least, it has been established that Levallois knapping techniques appeared in MIS 9–8, that bout coupé handaxes are indicative of MIS 3 and, rather more tentatively, that assemblages with twisted ovate handaxes in significant numbers represent MIS 11 occupation. Added to these key markers, it is now possible to suggest that further tool types occur preferentially in deposits of particular age: assemblages with significant proportions of cleavers and ‘ficron’ handaxes appear to be correlated with deposits formed at around the time of the MIS 9 interglacial. This newly recognized patterning within the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic record differs markedly from the previous use, in the mid‐20th century, of archaeological typology as a means of dating Pleistocene sequences, which was based on a relative refinement of tool making that is now recognized to be unrelated to age. Indeed, the authors would wish to emphasize that, even with reference to the new scheme presented here, the archaeological record should only be seen as dating evidence ‘of last resort’.     

Recent progress on combining geomorphological and geochronological data with ice sheet modelling,demonstrated using the last British–Irish Ice Sheet

Palaeo-ice sheets are important analogues for understanding contemporary ice sheets, offering a record of ice sheet behaviour that spans millennia. There are two main approaches to reconstructing palaeo-ice sheets. Empirical reconstructions use the available glacial geological and chronological evidence to estimate ice sheet extent and dynamics but lack direct consideration of ice physics. In contrast, numerically modelled simulations implement ice physics, but often lack direct quantitative comparison with empirical evidence. Despite being long identified as a fruitful scientific endeavour, few ice sheet reconstructions attempt to reconcile the empirical and model-based approaches. To achieve this goal, model-data comparison procedures are required. Here, we compare three numerically modelled simulations of the former British–Irish Ice Sheet with the following lines of evidence: (a) position and shape of former margin positions, recorded by moraines; (b) former ice-flow direction and flow-switching, recorded by flowsets of subglacial bedforms; and (c) the timing of ice-free conditions, recorded by geochronological data. These model–data comparisons provide a useful framework for quantifying the degree of fit between numerical model simulations and empirical constraints. Such tools are vital for reconciling numerical modelling and empirical evidence, the combination of which will lead to more robust palaeo-ice sheet reconstructions with greater explicative and ultimately predictive power.     

Water source dynamics of high Arctic river basins

Arctic river basins are amongst the most vulnerable to climate change. However, there is currently limited knowledge of the hydrological processes that govern flow dynamics in Arctic river basins. We address this research gap using natural hydrochemical and isotopic tracers to identify water sources that contributed to runoff in river basins spanning a gradient of glacierization (0–61%) in Svalbard during summer 2010 and 2011. Spatially distinct hydrological processes operating over diurnal, weekly and seasonal timescales were characterized by river hydrochemistry and isotopic composition. Two conceptual water sources (‘meltwater’ and ‘groundwater’) were identified and used as a basis for end‐member mixing analyses to assess seasonal and year‐to‐year variability in water source dynamics. In glacier‐fed rivers, meltwater dominated flows at all sites (typically >80%) with the highest contributions observed at the beginning of each study period in early July when snow cover was most extensive. Rivers in non‐glacierized basins were sourced initially from snowmelt but became increasingly dependent on groundwater inputs (up to 100% of total flow volume) by late summer. These hydrological changes were attributed to the depletion of snowpacks and enhanced soil water storage capacity as the active layer expanded throughout each melt season. These findings provide insight into the processes that underpin water source dynamics in Arctic river systems and potential future changes in Arctic hydrology that might be expected under a changing climate. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A middle–late Ediacaran volcano‐sedimentary record from the eastern Arabian‐Nubian shield

The Ediacaran Jibalah Group comprises volcano‐sedimentary successions that filled small fault‐bound basins along the NW–SE‐trending Najd fault system in the eastern Arabian‐Nubian Shield. Like several other Jibalah basins, the Antaq basin contains exquisitely preserved sedimentary structures and felsic tuffs, and hence is an excellent candidate for calibrating late Ediacaran Earth history. Shallow‐marine strata from the upper Jibalah Group (Muraykhah Formation) contain a diversity of load structures and intimately related textured organic (microbial) surfaces, along with a fragment of a structure closely resembling an Ediacaran frond fossil and a possible specimen of Aspidella. Interspersed carbonate beds through the Muraykhah Formation record a positive δ¹³C shift from ?6 to 0‰. U‐Pb zircon geochronology indicates a maximum depositional age of ~570 Ma for the upper Jibalah Group, consistent with previous age estimates. Although this age overlaps with that of the upper Huqf Supergroup in nearby Oman, these sequences were deposited in contrasting tectonic settings on opposite sides of the final suture of the East African Orogen.     

Alteration of hydrological processes and streamflow with juniper (Juniperus virginiana) encroachment in a mesic grassland catchment

To understand the effect of woody plant encroachment on hydrological processes of mesic grasslands, we quantified infiltration capacity in situ, the temporal changes in soil water storage, and streamflow of a grassland catchment and a catchment heavily encroached by juniper (Juniperus virginiana, eastern redcedar) in previously cultivated, non‐karst substrate grasslands in north‐central Oklahoma for 3 years. The initial and steady‐state infiltration rates under the juniper canopy were nearly triple to that of the grassland catchment and were intermediate in the intercanopy spaces within the encroached catchment. Soil water content and soil water storage on the encroached catchment were generally lower than on the grassland catchment, especially when preceding the seasons of peak rainfall in spring and fall. Frequency and magnitude of streamflow events were reduced in the encroached catchment. Annual runoff coefficients for the encroached catchment averaged 2.1%, in contrast to 10.6% for the grassland catchment. Annual streamflow duration ranged from 80 to 250 h for the encroached catchment compared with 600 to 800 h for the grassland catchment. Our results showed that the encroachment of juniper into previously cultivated mesic grasslands fundamentally alters catchment hydrological function. Rapid transformation of mesic grassland to a woodland state with juniper encroachment, if not confined, has the potential to drastically reduce soil water, streamflow and flow duration of ephemeral streams in the Southern Great Plains. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preservation of Re‐Os isotope signatures in pyrite throughout low‐T,high‐P eclogite facies metamorphism

Pyrite in LT–HP eclogites from the western Tianshan orogenic belt yields a Re‐Os age of 378.1 ± 8.9 Ma, which is 30–70 Ma older than ages previously obtained for the same rocks using the Rb–Sr, Sm–Nd, Ar–Ar, U–Pb, and Lu–Hf isotope systems. The Tianshan LT–HP eclogite experienced temperatures of up to ~570 °C combined with pressures of up to 2.1 GPa during metamorphism. These conditions are below the transition of pyrite to pyrrhotite, which defines both pyrite stability and possibly its closure temperature for Re‐Os. Pyrite can preserve Re‐Os signatures through eclogite facies peak metamorphic conditions, and thus allow determination of the formation age of pyrite in the protolith.