A Petrologic Perspective of Kilauea Volcano's Summit Magma Reservoir

Two hundred years of magmatic history are documented by thelavas and tephra sampled from K     

Late Pleistocene glacial and lake history of northwestern Russia

Five regionally significant Weichselian glacial events, each separated by terrestrial and marine interstadial conditions, are described from northwestern Russia. The first glacial event took place in the Early Weichselian. An ice sheet centred in the Kara Sea area dammed up a large lake in the Pechora lowland. Water was discharged across a threshold on the Timan Ridge and via an ice-free corridor between the Scandinavian Ice Sheet and the Kara Sea Ice Sheet to the west and north into the Barents Sea. The next glaciation occurred around 75-70 kyr BP after an interstadial episode that lasted c. 15 kyr. A local ice cap developed over the Timan Ridge at the transition to the Middle Weichselian. Shortly after deglaciation of the Timan ice cap, an ice sheet centred in the Barents Sea reached the area. The configuration of this ice sheet suggests that it was confluent with the Scandinavian Ice Sheet. Consequently, around 70-65 kyr BP a huge ice-dammed lake formed in the White Sea basin (the 'White Sea Lake'), only now the outlet across the Timan Ridge discharged water eastward into the Pechora area. The Barents Sea Ice Sheet likely suffered marine down-draw that led to its rapid collapse. The White Sea Lake drained into the Barents Sea, and marine inundation and interstadial conditions followed between 65 and 55 kyr BP. The glaciation that followed was centred in the Kara Sea area around 55-45 kyr BP. Northward directed fluvial runoff in the Arkhangelsk region indicates that the Kara Sea Ice Sheet was independent of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet and that the Barents Sea remained ice free. This glaciation was succeeded by a c. 20-kyr-long ice-free and periglacial period before the Scandinavian Ice Sheet invaded from the west, and joined with the Barents Sea Ice Sheet in the northernmost areas of northwestern Russia. The study area seems to be the only region that was invaded by all three ice sheets during the Weichselian. A general increase in ice-sheet size and the westwards migrating ice-sheet dominance with time was reversed in Middle Weichselian time to an easterly dominated ice-sheet configuration. This sequence of events resulted in a complex lake history with spillways being re-used and ice-dammed lakes appearing at different places along the ice margins at different times.     

Development of sediment–landform associations at cold glacier margins,Dry Valleys,Antarctica

The impact of modern cold glaciers on arid periglacial landscapes has received little attention compared with other glacial regimes, and there is a widely held assumption that cold glaciers are not effective geomorphological agents, despite recent studies to the contrary. This paper focuses on the processes operating at the margins of a number of glaciers in the Dry Valleys of Victoria Land, notably the Wright Lower Glacier. The glaciers are entraining primarily older drift deposits and highly weathered regolith which texturally are sandy gravels, as well as well‐sorted sands of fluvial origin. Despite basal temperatures of the order of ?16°C, frozen layers and blocks of sand and gravel are being incorporated into the base of the glaciers by folding and thrusting. The sedimentary products are ridges and aprons several metres high within which the principal lithofacies are sand, gravel, foliated glacier ice, lake ice and snow. These facies are glaciotectonized strongly. Draped over these landforms is a veneer of well‐sorted aeolian sand up to half a metre thick. Supraglacial streams flowing off the glaciers incise these landforms and the sediment is redeposited as alluvial fans, lake deltas and lake‐bottomset deposits. Overall the sediment/landform association differs markedly from those of other glacial regimes, with sand and gravel being the dominant facies, while the usual indicators of glacier working (such as facets and striations on clasts) are lacking. The preservation potential for these landforms on a thousand‐year time scale is high, as modification in this arid regime by slope processes and running water is limited. Sublimation of buried ice is so slow that ridge features are likely to remain ice‐cored almost indefinitely, modified only by wind transport and weathering.     

Intra- and extrabasinal controls on fluvial deposition in the Miocene Indo-Gangetic foreland basin, northern Pakistan

The Miocene Siwalik Group (upsection, the Chinji, Nagri, and Dhok Pathan Formations) in northern Pakistan records evolving fluvial systems within the Himalayan foreland basin. Sedimentological variations are evaluated with respect to local, regional, and global controls on fluvial deposition and basin filling. Thick (5 m to tens of metres) sandstones are composed of channel bar and fill deposits of low-sinuosity, meandering and braided rivers which formed large, low-gradient sediment fans (or ‘megafans'). River flow was dominantly toward the south-east. The proportion of thick sandstones varies in all Siwalik sections on three scales, and reflects similar variations in palaeochannel size and grain size: (1) small-scale variations are generally tens of metres thick, and reflect the alternation of thick sandstones (channel-belt deposits) and mudstone-dominated strata (overbank deposits) through the section; (2) medium-scale variations are roughly one-hundred to a few hundreds of metres thick, and primarily correspond to changes in channel-deposit thickness, but also to the degree of superposition of channel deposits and/or to changes in the number of channel-belt deposits per unit of section; and (3) large-scale variations (formation-scale) are greater than one km thick, and primarily correspond to changes in channel-deposit thickness. Time-scales of small-, medium-, and large-scale variations appear to be on the order of 10⁴, 10⁵ and 10⁶ years, respectively. The Chinji-Nagri transition is characterized by increases in channel-deposit proportion, sandstone thickness, palaeochannel size and discharge, mean grain size of sandstones, and sediment accumulation rates; and a decrease in avulsion period. The Nagri-Dhok Pathan transition is characterized by decreases in channel-deposit proportion, sandstone thickness, palaeochannel size and discharge, mean grain size of sandstones, and avulsion period; and a further increase in sediment accumulation rates. Formation boundaries across the Potwar Plateau decrease in age toward the west. The Chinji-Nagri transition ranges in age from ～ 10·9–12·7 Ma, and the Nagri-Dhok Pathan transition ranges in age from ～9·3–10·1 Ma. Small-scale variations are attributable to repeated river avulsions triggered by autocyclic processes and/or mountain-front tectonism (e.g. faulting, earthquakes). Medium-scale variations are attributable to local changes in the position of large sediment fans, also triggered by autocyclic processes and/or mountain-front tectonism. The Chinji-Nagri transition records the diversion or establishment (possibly due to river piracy) of a larger river system in the area. River diversion or piracy probably took place within the mountain belt and is attributable to increasing and spatially variable mountain-belt uplift rates, and possibly the development of associated mountain-front deformational structures. The Nagri-Dhok Pathan transition records the diversion of the larger river system out of the area and the establishment of a smaller river system. This diversion is attributable to progressively increasing rates of mountain-belt uplift and basin subsidence. The regional palaeoclimate throughout the time interval studied was apparently constant, and eustatic sea level changes apparently had no effect on deposition in the area.     

Rapid Variscan exhumation and the role of magma in core complex formation: southern Brittany metamorphic belt, France

ABSTRACT The high-grade migmatitic core to the southern Brittany metamorphic belt has mineralogical and textural features that suggest high-temperature decompression. The chronology of this decompression and subsequent cooling history have been constrained with ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹ Ar ages determined for multigrain concentrates of hornblende and muscovite prepared from amphibolite and late-orogenic granite sheets within the migmatitic core, and from amphibolite of the structurally overlying unit. Three hornblende concentrates yield plateau isotope correlation ages of c. 303–298 Ma. Two muscovite concentrates record well-defined plateau ages of c. 306–305 Ma. These ages are geologically significant and date the last cooling through temperatures required for intracrystalline retention of radiogenic argon. The concordancy of the hornblende and muscovite ages suggest rapid post-metamorphic cooling. Extant geochronology and the new ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data suggest a minimum time-integrated average cooling rate between c. 725 °C and c. 125 °C of c. 14 ± 4°C Ma^-1, although below 600 °C the data permit an infinitely fast rate of cooling. Mineral assemblages and reaction textures in diatexite migmatites suggest c. 4 kbar decompression at 800–750 °C. This must have pre-dated the rapid cooling. Emplacement of two-mica granites into the metamorphic belt occurred between 345 and 300 Ma. The youngest plutons were emplaced synkinematically along shallow-dipping normal faults interpreted to be reactivated Eo-Variscan thrusts. A penetrative, west-plunging stretching lineation developed in these granites suggests that extension was orogen-parallel. Extension was probably related to regional uplift and gravitational collapse of thermally weakened crust during constrictional (escape) tectonics in this narrow part of the Variscan orogen. This followed slab breakoff during the terminal stages of convergence between Gondwana and Laurasia; detachment may have been consequent upon a change in kinematics leading to dextral displacement within the orogen. Dextral ductile strike-slip displacement was concentrated in granites emplaced synkinematically along the South Armorican Shear Zone. Rapid cooling is interpreted to have resulted from tectonic unroofing with emplacement of granite along decollement surfaces. The high-grade migmatitic core of the southern Brittany metamorphic belt represents a type of metamorphic core complex formed during orogen-parallel extensional unroofing and regional-scale ductile flow.     

Isotopic and trace element evidence for submarine lithification of hardgrounds in the Jurassic of eastern England

Geochemical and petrographic data suggest early submarine cementation of hardgrounds from the Lincolnshire Limestone Formation, Middle Jurassic, England. The three hardgrounds, from Cowthick, Castle Bytham and Leadenham quarries, developed in tidal-inlet, on-barrier and lagoonal sub-environments of a carbonate barrier-island complex. At Cowthick early composite (acicular-bladed) radial-fibrous cements, which pre-date aragonite dissolution, completely fill intergranular pore-space at the hardground surface; away from it isopachous fringing cements decrease in thickness. Microprobe analyses demonstrate zoning within the fringes with magnesium concentrations (> 2 wt % MgCO₃) higher than those in allochems or later, ferroan cement (?0.5 wt % MgCO₃, 1.7 wt % FeCO₃). At Castle Bytham early granular isopachous cements, which post-date aragonite dissolution, occur within 5 cm of the surface. At Leadenham early lithification is superficial and represented by ferruginous crusts and micritic internal sediment. Late blocky cement fills residual pore-space in all three examples. Carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of whole-rock samples taken at intervals away from each hardground surface demonstrate the increasing proportion of late ¹⁸O depleted cements (δ¹⁸O – 8 to – 10). Early cements must have a marine isotopic composition; different δ¹⁸O values from each hardground reflect the intensity of early lithification and exclusion of late cements at the hardened surface. There is no isotopic evidence for subaerial cement precipitation during possible emergence at Castle Bytham. Oyster samples (with δ¹⁸O, – 2.9 and δ¹³C, 2.4) give estimated palaeotemperatures of 22–25°C. Early cements from Cowthick are enriched in ¹⁸O and ¹³C (δ¹⁸O = 0 δ¹³C ? 3‰) compared to the oyster values. In conjunction with trace element data this is interpreted as evidence for high-magnesium calcite precursor cements which underwent replacement in a system with a low water: rock ratio. The intensity of early lithification is related to depositional environment: maximum circulation of sea-water producing the most lithified hardground (Cowthick). This is directly analogous to the formation of Recent hardgrounds.     

Carbonate tidal rhythmites from the Middle Jurassic of Britain

Newly discovered carbonate laminites are described from the Lincolnshire Limestone Formation (Middle Jurassic, Britain). These occur in the upper peloidal unit of fining-upward rhythms which comprise much of the lagoonal lower Lincolnshire Limestone in south Lincolnshire. The flat, millimetre-scale laminations are of three types: (1) alternating peloid-rich, peloid-poor laminae; (2) alternating bioclastic and peloidal laminae; (3) alternating bioclastic and micritic laminae. In all three types, small-scale cross-laminated sets (usually < 40 mm thick) also occur. The laminite horizons are usually < 150 mm thick and have, in some cases, been traced laterally for ～100 m. The close analogy of these carbonate laminites with siliciclastic counterparts favours their interpretation as tidal rhythmites, mechanically deposited in a low intertidal/shallow subtidal setting. The associated sedimentary features and overall stratigraphic-sedimentologic position of the deposits support this conclusion. According to the literature, mechanically deposited as opposed to algally induced carbonate laminites are rare outside the supratidal realm. Possible reasons for the real or imagined scarcity of intertidal/ subtidal carbonate laminites in ancient sedimentary regimes are discussed.     

A simulation model of alluvial stratigraphy

The quantitative model presented simulates the development of a two-dimensional alluvial sedimentary succession beneath a floodplain traversed by a single major river. Several inter-related effects which influence the distribution of channel-belt sand and gravel bodies within overbank fines are accounted for. These are (a) laterally variable aggradation, (b) compaction of fine sediment, (c) tectonic movement at floodplain margins, and (d) channel avulsion. Selected experiments with the model show how the interconnectedness and areal density of channel-belt deposits decrease with increasing floodplain width/channel-belt size, mean avulsion period, and channel-belt aggradation rate. Separation of stream patterns based on interconnectedness and channel deposit density is difficult. Tectonic movements do not have a significant influence upon the successions unless a preferred direction of tilting is maintained (half-graben). Then channel-belt deposits showing offlap tendencies tend to cluster adjacent to the active floodplain margin, leaving dominantly fine-grained alluvium to accumulate on the inactive side. Individual channel-belt deposits thicken during aggradation, although a self-regulating limit to such thickening is likely to operate. ‘Multistorey’features resulting from aggradation may be difficult to tell apart from those arising through superposition of distinct channel-belt deposits of avulsive origin.     

Beryllium and Other Trace Elements in Paragneisses and Anatectic Veins of the Ultrahigh-Temperature Napier Complex, Enderby Land, East Antarctica: the Role of Sapphirine

Anatectic veins containing the Be minerals khmaralite and berylliansapphirine as primary phases (or surinamite derived therefrom)are associated with Mg–Al-rich paragneisses at three localitiesin the ultrahigh-temperature Napier complex, Antarctica, a uniqueBe mineralization in the granulite facies. Likely precursorsof the paragneisses are volcaniclastic deposits that were hydrothermallyaltered by heated seawater prior to metamorphism. Regular distributionof Be among minerals in the paragneisses suggests an approachto equilibrium with Be greatly concentrated in sapphirine (25–3430ppm Be) or cordierite (560–930 ppm Be) relative to plagioclaseAn53–66 (14–43 ppm Be) > cores of coarse-grainedorthopyroxene (0·7–29 ppm Be) > coronitic orthopyroxene(0·4–14 ppm Be) sillimanite (0·1–26ppm Be) plagioclase An18–33 (0·6–15 ppmBe) > biotite (0·06–8 ppm Be) > K-feldspar,quartz, garnet (0·05–0·7 ppm Be). Sapphirine-bearingparagneisses have average Be concentrations, 4·9 ±2·4 ppm (13 samples), about twice that of typical pelites,whereas paragneisses lacking sapphirine and primary cordieritehave only 2·9 ± 2·1 ppm Be (12 samples),implying some loss of Be during metamorphism. The likely sourcerocks for the Be-rich melts were biotitic rocks lacking theBe sinks sapphirine and cordierite. These gneisses were probablyless competent than the sapphirine-bearing gneisses, so themelts were drawn to the latter and collected in spaces openedduring deformation and boudinage of the more competent paragneisses.Fractionation of the melts concentrated Be to the extent thatBe minerals could crystallize. The final result was Be-mineralizedanatectic veins hosted by relatively Be-rich sapphirine-bearingparagneisses. KEY WORDS: Antarctica; beryllium; granulite facies; microprobe; sapphirine     

Faceted garnets from sandstones of the Munising Formation (Cambrian), northern Michigan: petrographic evidence for their origin by intrastratal dissolution

Imbricate wedge marks (facets) on garnets in sandstones of the Cambrian Munising Formation of northern Michigan are associated with mouldic secondary porosity developed at the expense of garnet. Mouldic pores surrounding faceted garnets indicate that garnets in these sandstones have been affected by intrastratal dissolution (retreat of the mineral surface from its original boundaries) rather than by grain enlargement, which would be expected if garnet overgrowths had formed. The association of garnet facets with textural evidence of garnet dissolution proves that garnet facets form by intrastratal dissolution. These results confirm similar findings in other recent studies, and extend the geographic and stratigraphic range of proven occurrences of facet formation by intrastratal dissolution.