Provenance of the Upper Cretaceous to upper Eocene clastic sediments of the Western Cordillera of Ecuador: Geodynamic implications

The Late Cretaceous–Eocene clastic deposits of the Western Cordillera of Ecuador record significant changes in the source areas, grain size, and location of the depocenters, related to the accretion of oceanic terranes that constitute the present-day Western Cordillera and Coast. Major changes in the source areas occurred in the ?late Maastrichtian and ?late middle Eocene. They are interpreted as corresponding to the accretion of the Guaranda and Macuchi oceanic terranes, respectively. Major increases in the grain sizes occurred in the ?late Maastrichtian, late Paleocene(?), and ?late middle Eocene, and seem to coincide with the accretion of the Guaranda, Piñón, and Macuchi terranes, respectively. The increasing occurrence of plutonic or metamorphic fragments and the westward shift of the depositional areas through the Paleocene–upper Eocene interval indicate an increasing uplift and erosion of the Cordillera Real. Continuous, although jerky, uplift of the latter during the Maastrichtian–Eocene period, supports the idea that the accreted oceanic material contributed to the crustal thickening and relief creation of the Ecuadorian Andes.     

Uberabasuchus terrificus sp. nov., a New Crocodylomorpha from the Bauru Basin (Upper Cretaceous), Brazil

A new fairly complete and articulated skull of a Peirosauridae crocodylomorph from Bauru Basin (Late Cretaceous), Brazil, is described. The fossil is from a level of clayish sandstone within Serra do Veadinho sequence, Peirópolis, Uberaba County, Minas Gerais State. The sedimentary strata of Serra do Veadinho belong to the Marília Formation (Serra da Galga Member), Bauru Group, considered to be Campanian-Maastrichtian in age. The species -Uberabasuchus terrificus sp. nov. - is a peirosaurid with moderately narrow snout, large round orbits protected by supraorbital bones of triangular shape and an antorbital fenestra bounded posteriorly by a deep groove. This fossil resembles Peirosaurus tormini Price, 1955 in the size pattern of premaxillary teeth and by showing a similar wedge-like maxillary process in the premaxilla. It also shares some morphological features with the other species of the Peirosauridae, namely the crocodylomorph Lomasuchus palpebrosus Gasparini, Chiappe and Fernandez, 1991 from Argentina. Their common features comprise a moderately narrow snout and the deep lateral groove at the premaxilla and maxilla articulation for the reception of a large mandibular tooth. However, the nasal participates in the external nares and does not divide the nasal aperture, producing a “beak-like” structure at the extremity of the snout which is unique among peirosaurids. The stratigraphic setting suggests that the specimen was buried when a flash flood overflowed the shallow channels of a braided fluvial system.

Parsimony analysis of 183 morphological characters is performed for 23 crocodylomorphs. Analysis of the morphological data matrix resulted in three most parsimonious trees (374 steps, CI = 0.679; RI = 0.826). The new species is closely related to Mahajangasuchus and both, in addition to Peirosaurus and Lomasuchus, compose the Peirosauridae.     

Hydrothermal fluid evolution and structural control of the Guarim gold mineralisation, Tapajós Province, Amazonian Craton, Brazil

Fluid inclusion and structural studies were carried out at the Guarim gold deposit in the Palaeoproterozoic Tapajós province of the Amazonian craton. Guarim is a fault-hosted gold deposit cutting basement granitoids. It consists of a quartz vein, which is massive in its inner portions, grading laterally either to a massive or to cavity-bearing quartz vein associated with hydrothermal breccias. The wallrock alteration comprises chlorite, carbonate, white mica and sulphide minerals, with free gold occurring within quartz grains and spatially associated with sulphide mineral grains. Petrographic, microthermometric and Laser Raman investigations recognised CO₂-rich, mixed H₂O–CO₂, and H₂O fluid inclusions. The coexisting CO₂ and H₂O–CO₂ inclusions were interpreted as primary immiscible fluids that formed the gold-bearing vein. The H₂O inclusions were considered a product of later infiltration of fluids unrelated to the mineralising episode. The mineralising fluid has CO₂ ranging typically from 5–10 mol%, contains traces of N₂, has salinities of ∼5 wt% NaCl equiv., and densities varying between 0.85 and 0.95 g/cm³. The P–T estimations bracket gold deposition between 270–320 °C and 0.86–2.9 kb; ƒ_O2–ƒ_S2–pH estimates suggest a reduced, near-neutral character for the fluid. Variations in the physico-chemical properties, as demonstrated by the fluid inclusion study, resulted from a combination of fluid immiscibility and pressure fluctuation. This interpretation, combined with textural and structural evidence, suggests the emplacement of the mineralised vein in an active fault and at a rather shallow level (4–7 km). The geological and structural setting, deposit-scale textures and structures, wallrock alteration and physico-chemical fluid properties are compatible with those of epizonal to mesozonal orogenic lode gold deposits. Received: 3 March 2000 / Accepted: 21 October 2000     

Third world cities and the environment of poverty

This paper examines environmental problems associated with Third World cities. It concentrates on environmental problems as they relate to health and living conditions, especially for lower income groups. After an outline of urban growth trends, these problems are discussed on three different geographic scales. At the regional level, the paper discusses how cities draw on a wider area for natural resources (and usually for labour) and have environmental impacts which stretch far beyond their boundaries, although the most pressing impacts tend to be on their immediate hinterland. At the city-wide level there are problems of disposing of household, human and industrial wastes and of associated problems of air and water pollution. At the level of the home or workplace there are problems of inadequate space and ventilation, inadequate infrastructure and basic services, and lack of provision for the safeguarding of human health. The final section discusses how governments might tackle the causes of these environmental problems on each of these scales.     

Nitrate depuration of secondary sewage effluents in mangrove sediments

The sewage treatment plant (STP) at La Parguera, on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico, discharges an average of 228,000 dm³ of secondary sewage effluents per day into percolation ponds located at the landward margin of the coastal mangrove fringe. Effluents flowing from the STP percolation ponds to the adjacent mangrove fringe typically exhibited nitrate levels between 0.2 mM and 1.0 mM. Experimental determination of actual and potential denitrification using acetylene block and substrate disappearance techniques indicate that mangrove sediment microbial communities are capable of depurating 10 to 15 times the nitrate added in the STP effluent. Plots of porewater salinities vs nitrate concentrations show exponential decay of nitrate concentration. Our observations confirm the potential of mangrove sediment-microbial communities for nitrate depuration of secondary sewage effluents.     

Geochronological and isotopical review of pre-Devonian crustal basement of the Colombian Andes

Under the flatlands east of the Andes, the crustal basement is exposed in a few places, composed mainly of the Mitú migmatitic complex and the Parguaza granite, whose ages range between 1.78 and 1.45 Ga. Extensive outcrops of high-grade metamorphic rocks are found in several places. Two metamorphisms are dated between 1.2–1.1 and 1.0–0.9 Ga. They are considered blocks that formed during the Grenville orogeny and have Sm–Nd T_DM model ages of 1.87–1.47. The Andaquí terrane is formed mainly by the Garzón Massif, composed of granulites, migmatites, and granites, and the metamorphic rocks of the Sierra de la Macarena, which are covered by undeformed Cambrian sediments. It is believed that after the Grenville orogeny, this unit remained attached to the Amazonic Craton. All the other areas grouped in the Chibcha terrane, though they formed during the Grenville orogeny, are believed to have remained either as part of another continental block or dispersed islands to be amalgamated to the Amazonic Craton during the Lower Paleozoic orogeny, which in the Quetame Massif is dated between the Silurian and Devonian and is named the Quetame orogenic event.