Bahamian carbonate platform development in response to sea-level changes and the closure of the Isthmus of Panama

In this paper we show that the development of the sediment architecture at the leeward toe-of-slope of Great Bahama Bank (Ocean Drilling Project Leg 166, Bahama Transect) during the last 6 Ma is not only a response to sea-level fluctuations, but also to major paleo-oceanographic and climatic changes. A major sequence boundary close to the Miocene/Pliocene boundary (dated at 5.6-5.4 Ma) is interpreted to reflect a major sea-level drop that was followed by a sea-level rise, which led to the re-flooding of the Mediterranean Sea at the end of the Messinian and increasing sea-surface temperatures at Great Bahama Bank. Distinct erosional horizons occurred during the Pliocene (dated at 4.6 and 3.3-3.6 Ma) related to sea-level change and the intensification of the Gulf Stream when the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama reached a critical threshold. The Gulf Stream brings warm, saline and nutrient-poor waters to the Bahamas. Starting at the Early-Late Pliocene boundary at 3.6 Ma this paleo-oceanographic reorganization in combination with enhanced sea-level fluctuations associated with the Late Pliocene main intensification in Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (since 3.2 Ma) led to (1) a gradual change from a ramp-type to a flat-topped type morphology, and (2) a change from a skeletal to a non-skeletal-dominated sedimentary system (mainly peloidal). Increased sea-level fluctuations during the second half of the Pleistocene led to an intensified high stand-shedding depositional pattern within the surrounding basins.     

考虑随机模型精化的精密GPS动态定位新方法

GPS动态定位要求建立函数模型和随机模型。函数模型描述的是观测值和待估参数之间的物理和几何关系，随机模型描述了GPS观测值的统计特征，并通过观测值的方差协方差给定了每个观测值对最后的定位结果的贡献。正确给定函数模型和随机模型对于GPS定位结果的估计和观测值的粗差探测均至关重要。由于有各种误差存在于伪距和载波相位观测值中，一般GPS动态定位模型均采用双差观测值来构建函数模型。有时候，仔细地使用单差观测值，较之双差观测值有更多的优点，给出了选用单差观测值的理由。但是单差观测值给函数模型带来了接收机钟差，如果直接使用单差观测方程，设计矩阵是奇异的。为了解决这个问题，将伪距观测值中接收机钟差项和接收机延迟项合并为一个新的未知参数。至于载波相位观测值，首先选定一个参考卫星，然后在观测方程的右端同时增加一正一负的参考卫星单差整周模糊度，将正项与接收机钟差项和接收机延迟项合并为一个新的未知参数，将负项和原观测方程中的单差整周模糊度项合并为双差整周模糊度，而参考卫星观测方程的模糊度项则为零，这样无须组建双差观测值，软件实现较容易，也可以直接使用LAMBDA法求整周模糊度，最终也解决了观测方程奇异的问题。准确理解观测值的统计特征是建立GPS随机模型的基础，长期以来GPS商业软件均采用简化模型。关于GPS随机模型的研究远没有函数模型那样受到广泛关注，静态GPS定位可以采用方差协方差分量估计等严密的方法，而动态定位无法承担方差协方差分量估计的计算负担。GPS观测值的信噪比(SNR)是GPS接收机观测过程中的副产品，影响SNR值的因素，如大气层、多路径、接收机内部电路等，也正好是GPS观测值的误差源，因此GPS观测值的方差与SNR存在一定的对应关系。利用这个对应关系来精化GPS随机模型。为了验证本文采用的函数模型的正确性和随机模型的有效性，我们对1999年的一次实测数据(包括零基线和短基线)进行了试算。与零基线的真值和GPSurvey 2．35处理的短基线静态结果比较，表明使用的函数模型是正确的。简化随机模型和精化随机模型处理的结果比较说明精化模型提高了基线处理的精度，同时说明了研究GPS随机模型精化的必要性。     

The importance of breaching as a mechanism of subaqueous slope failure in fine sand

Large bank failures, comprising up to 10⁶ m³ of sediment, are common features along steep channel banks in estuaries and large rivers that consist of clean, fine sands, and are mostly assumed to be generated by sudden liquefaction of large masses of very loosely packed sand. Another less commonly recognized type of failure is manifested by the gradual retrogression of a very steep wall, steeper than the angle-of-repose. Instead of the voluminous surging plastic sediment-water flow, or hyperconcentrated density flow (sensu Mulder & Alexander, 2001 ) generated by liquefaction, this type of failure, known as breaching by dredging companies and hydraulic engineers, produces a sustained quasi-steady, turbidity current. To date, sedimentologists have not recognized the process of breaching as such. In this paper, it is suggested that breaching may be the origin of many thick, massive sand layers known from ancient deposits from various environments, notably in some turbidite successions. Possible differences in the sedimentary structure of the deposits produced by breach failures vs. liquefaction slope failures (=liquefaction flow slides) can be deduced from a knowledge of the sediment transport processes initiated by the failure. A field study is presented on some poorly structured beds in the Eocene Vlierzele Sands in Belgium, which are supposed to have originated from liquefaction failures, but are reinterpreted to be the products of breaching. It is postulated that the local steep slope disturbance required to initiate an active breach can be produced by a small liquefaction slope failure (=liquefaction flow slide failure) or local erosion by river or tidal channel flow at the initial stage of the failure event.     

Effects of open gaps on particle velocity measurements

Summary Joints and bedding planes are present in nearly all geologic media. These discontinuities vary in the extent to which they are open and the material with which they are filled. The presence of such discontinuities affect the ground motions that result from the detonation of an explosive source. The effects of these discontinuities are especially important if it is desired to predict the size of the explosive source from measurements of ground motion — such as particle velocity or stress. In this paper we present results from a series of model tests conducted to investigate the effect of open gaps on the particle velocity that can be transmitted across them. Electromagnetic velocity gages were used to record particle velocities at several locations on either side of an open gap of known width. The study was restricted to the transmission of particle velocities normal to the gap and to the case where the gap was located in a region for which the stress was high but not greatly above the elastic limit of the material. The experimental results were compared qualitatively to results obtained from WONDY — a one dimensional Lagrangian finite difference code. Although the tests were conducted in laboratory models, the results can be scaled to compare to the full scale situation.     

Sea-Surface Temperatures and the History of Monsoon Upwelling in the Northwest Arabian Sea during the Last 500,000 Years

Arabian Sea sediments record changes in the upwelling system off Arabia, which is driven by the monsoon circulation system over the NW Indian Ocean. In accordance with climate models, and differing from other large upwelling areas of the tropical ocean, a 500,000-yr record of productivity at ODP Site 723 shows consistently stronger upwelling during interglaciations than during glaciations. Sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) reconstructed from the alkenone unsaturation index (U^K′₃₇) are high (up to 27°C) during interglaciations and low (22-24°C) during glaciations, indicating a glacial-interglacial temperature change of >3°C in spite of the dampening effect of enhanced or weakened upwelling. The increased productivity is attributed to stronger monsoon winds during interglacial times relative to glacial times, whereas the difference in SSTs must be unrelated to upwelling and to the summer monsoon intensity. The winter (NE) monsoon was more effective in cooling the Arabian Sea during glaciations then it is now.     

A simple model for air/snow fractionation of aerosol components over the Antarctic Peninsula

A model has been set up to investigate the wet and dry aerosol removal processes which occur in clean air over the Antarctic Peninsula. Input for the model was obtained from bulk chemical analysis and scanning electron microscopy of aerosol and snow samples collected simultaneously at remote sites around the Peninsula. The model predicts that sulphate and sea-salt aerosol will be removed mainly in-cloud by riming of falling snow and ice crystals. Crustal aerosol is principally removed by acting as nuclei for these crystals and by impaction on falling snow. For the largest, locally-generated aerosol dry deposition is indicated as the major removal process. These findings suggest a possible mechanism for the observed air/snow fractionation.     

Petrology and geochemistry of basalts from the American-Antarctic Ridge,Southern Ocean: implications for the westward influence of the Bouvet mantle plume

Ridge segments and fracture zones from the American-Antarctic Ridge have been systematically dredge sampled from 4° W to 18° W. Petrographic studies of the dredged basalts show that the dominant basalt variety is olivine-plagioclase basalt, although olivine-plagioclase-clinopyroxene basalt is relatively common at some localities. Selected samples have been analysed for major and trace elements, rare earth elements and Sr and Nd isotopes. These data show that the majority of samples are slightly evolved (Mg#=69-35) N-type MORB, although a small group of samples from a number of localities have enriched geochemical characteristics (T- and P-type MORB).These different types of MORB are readily distinguished in terms of their incompatible trace element and isotopic characteristics: N-type MORB have high Zr/Nb (17–78), Y/Nb (4.6–23) and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd (0.51303–0.51308) ratios, low Zr/Y (2.2–4.2) and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr (0.70263–0.70295) ratios and have (La/Sm)_N<1.0; T-type MORB have lower than chondritic Zr/Nb ratios (8.8–15.5), relatively low Y/Nb (1.9–4.3) and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd (0.51296–0.51288) ratios and relatively high Zr/Y (3.1–4.7), ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr (0.70307–0.70334) and (La/Sm)_N (1.1–1.5) ratios; the single sample of P-type MORB has low Zr/Nb (6.3), Y/Nb (0.9) and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd (0.51287) ratios and high Zr/Y (7.1), ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr (0.70351) and (La/Sm)_N (2.4) ratios. The geochemical characteristics of this sample are essentially identical to those of the Bouvet Island lavas.Geochemically enriched MORB are less abundant on the American-Antarctic Ridge than on the Southwest Indian Ridge but their geochemical characteristics are identical. The compositions of T- and P-type MORB are consistent with a regional mixing model involving normal depleted mantle and Bouvet plume type magma. On a local scale the composition of T-type MORB is consistent with derivation from depleted mantle which contains 4% veins of P-type melt.We propose a model for the evolution of the American-Antarctic Ridge lavas in which N-type MORB is derived from mantle with negligible to low vein/mantle ratios, T-type MORB is derived from domains with moderate and variable vein/mantle ratios and P-type MORB from regions with very high vein/mantle ratios where vein material comprises the major portion of the melt. The sparse occurrence of enriched lavas and by implication enriched mantle beneath the American-Antarctic Ridge, some distance (500–1,200 km) from the Bouvet plume location, is interpreted to be the result of lateral dispersion of enriched mantle domains by asthenospheric flow away from the Bouvet mantle plume towards the American-Antarctic Ridge.     

Tectonics of ridge-transform intersections at the Kane fracture zone

The Kane Transform offsets spreading-center segments of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge by about 150 km at 24° N latitude. In terms of its first-order morphological, geological, and geophysical characteristics it appears to be typical of long-offset (>100 km), slow-slipping (2 cm yr^-1) ridge-ridge transform faults. High-resolution geological observations were made from deep-towed ANGUS photographs and the manned submersible ALVIN at the ridge-transform intersections and indicate similar relationships in these two regions. These data indicate that over a distance of about 20 km as the spreading axes approach the fracture zone, the two flanks of each ridge axis behave in very different ways. Along the flanks that intersect the active transform zone the rift valley floor deepens and the surface expression of volcanism becomes increasingly narrow and eventually absent at the intersection where only a sediment-covered ‘nodal basin’ exists. The adjacent median valley walls have structural trends that are oblique to both the ridge and the transform and have as much as 4 km of relief. These are tectonically active regions that have only a thin (<200 m), highly fractured, and discontinuous carapace of volcanic rocks overlying a variably deformed and metamorphosed assemblage of gabbroic rocks. Overprinting relationships reveal a complex history of crustal extension and rapid vertical uplift. In contrast, the opposing flanks of the ridge axes, that intersect the non-transform zones appear to be similar in many respects to those examined elsewhere along slow-spreading ridges. In general, a near-axial horst and graben terrain floored by relatively young volcanics passes laterally into median valley walls with a simple block-faulted character where only volcanic rocks have been found. Along strike toward the fracture zone, the youngest volcanics form linear constructional volcanic ridges that transect the entire width of the fracture zone valley. These volcanics are continuous with the older-looking, slightly faulted volcanic terrain that floors the non-transform fracture zone valleys. These observations document the asymmetric nature of seafloor spreading near ridge-transform intersections. An important implication is that the crust and lithosphere across different portions of the fracture zone will have different geological characteristics. Across the active transform zone two lithosphere plate edges formed at ridge-transform corners are faulted against one another. In the non-transform zones a relatively younger section of lithosphere that formed at a ridge-non-transform corner is welded to an older, deformed section that initially formed at a ridge-transform corner.