Geomorphology,sedimentology and minimum exposure ages of streamlined subglacial landforms in the NW Himalaya,India

Streamlined subglacial landforms that include drumlins in three study areas, the upper Chandra valley around Chandra Tal, the upper Spiti Valley and the middle Yunam Valley of the NW Himalaya of India were mapped and studied using geomorphic, sedimentological and geochronological methods. These streamlined subglacial landforms include a variety of morphological types, including: (i) half egg‐shaped forms; (ii) complex superimposed forms; (iii) dome‐shaped forms; (iv) inverse forms; and (v) flat‐topped symmetrical forms. Sedimentological data indicate that subglacial deformational processes are responsible for the formation of the streamlined subglacial landforms in the Chandra Tal and upper Spiti Valley study areas. In contrast, streamlined landforms in the middle Yunam Valley are the result of melt‐out and subglacial erosional processes. In the Yunam Valley study area, 11 new cosmogenic ¹⁰Be surface exposure ages were obtained for boulders inset into the crests of streamlined subglacial landforms and moraines, and also for a bedrock surface. The streamlined landforms date to 8–7 ka, providing evidence of an early Holocene valley glaciation, and older moraines date to ～17–15 and 79–52 ka, representing other significant valley glacial advances in the middle Yunam Valley. The subglacial landforms in the Chandra Valley provide evidence for a ≥300‐m‐thick Lateglacial glacier that advanced southeast, overtopping the Kunzum Range, and advancing into the upper Spiti Valley. The streamlined subglacial landforms in these study areas of the NW Himalaya highlight the usefulness of such landforms in developing glacial chronostratigraphy and for understanding the dynamics of Himalayan glaciation.     

The last millennia history of detrital sedimentation in the Lower Seine Valley (Normandy,NW France): review

Post‐glacial climate changes and sea‐level fluctuations have strongly influenced N‐W European environments and sedimentation. To these natural events, increasing anthropogenic pressure has to be added. Forest clearance and agricultural development are the main factors responsible for the erosional processes in Northwest Europe. This article analyses Holocene sequences of the Lower Seine Valley (LSV) (Paris Basin) to understand better the origin of detrital and terrigenous input and how much humans have contributed to it. Three main sectors of the LSV are analysed: estuarine, fluvial and tributaries. Since Neolithic times, there are seven erosional phases that can be identified and essentially linked to human pressure. Terra Nova, 00, 000–000, 2010     

Study of Cosmic-Ray Intensity Variations Associated with Anomalous,Long-Duration High-Speed Solar Wind Streams in 2003

High-speed solar wind streams (HSWS) were identified for solar cycles 22 and 23 (up to 2004). Preliminarily, HSWS were classified in three groups according to their continuous period of occurrence. In the declining phase of solar cycle 23, 2003 is found to be anomalous, showing a very large number of HSWS events of long duration (> ten days). We have studied the effect of HSWS on the cosmic-ray intensity as well as their relationship with geomagnetic disturbance index Ap on yearly, daily, and hourly bases. The yearly average of solar-wind speed was also found to be maximum in 2003. Being within the declining phase of solar activity, the occurrence of solar flares in 2003 is quite low. In particular during HSWS, no solar flares have been observed. Associations with cosmic-ray changes do not support the notion that the HSWS are usually effective in producing significant cosmic-ray decreases. Out of 12 HSWS events observed during the period 2002 (December) to 2003, four events of significant cosmic-ray decreases at all the stations have been selected for further analysis. The cosmic-ray intensity has been found to decrease during the first phase of the event (first five days of HSWS) at all three neutron-monitor stations situated at different latitudes with different cutoff rigidities. The rigidity spectra of observed decreases in cosmic-ray intensity for these four cases have been found to be significantly different than that of Fds (Forbush decrease). In two cases the spectra are softer, whereas in the other two they are harder than that of Fds. However, if the average of all four events is considered together then the spectra of the decrease in cosmic rays during HSWS exactly match that of Fds. Such a result implies that initially individual events should be considered, instead of combining them together, as was done earlier. The Ap index is also found to generally increase in the first phase of the event. However, the four events selected on the basis of cosmic-ray decrease are not always associated with enhanced values of the Ap index. As such, the significance of our study is that further detailed investigations for much longer periods and on an event-by-event basis is required to understand the effect of coronal-hole-associated HSWS.     

Nature and timing of large landslides in the Himalaya and Transhimalaya of northern India

Four large landslides, each with a debris volume >10⁶ m³, in the Himalaya and Transhimalaya of northern India were examined, mapped, and dated using ¹⁰Be terrestrial cosmogenic radionuclide surface exposure dating. The landslides date to 7.7±1.0 ka (Darcha), 7.9±0.8 ka (Patseo), 6.6±0.4 ka (Kelang Serai), and 8.5±0.5 ka (Chilam). Comparison of slip surface dips and physically reasonable angles of internal friction suggests that the landslides may have been triggered by increased pore water pressure, seismic shaking, or a combination of these two processes. However, the steepness of discontinuities in the Darcha rock-slope, suggests that it was more likely to have started as a consequence of gravitationally-induced buckling of planar slabs. Deglaciation of the region occurred more than 2000 years before the Darcha, Patseo, and Kelang Serai landslides; it is unlikely that glacial debuttressing was responsible for triggering the landslides. The four landslides, their causes, potential triggers and mechanisms, and their ages are compared to 12 previously dated large landslides in the region. Fourteen of the 16 dated landslides occurred during periods of intensified monsoons. Seismic shaking, however, cannot be ruled out as a mechanism for landslide initiation, because the Himalaya has experienced great earthquakes on centennial to millennial timescales. The average Holocene landscape lowering due to large landslides for the Lahul region, which contains the Darcha, Patseo, and Kelang Serai landslides, is ～0.12 mm/yr. Previously published large-landslide landscape-lowering rates for the Himalaya differ significantly. Furthermore, regional glacial and fluvial denudation rates for the Himalaya are more than an order of magnitude greater. This difference highlights the lack of large-landslide data, lack of chronology, problems associated with single catchment/large landslide-based calculations, and the need for regional landscape-lowering determinations over a standardized time period.     

Practical versus absolute salinity measurements: New advances in high performance seawater salinity sensors

Optical salinity sensors described here measure directly the seawater refractive index and thus enable a measurement of the seawater density and composition variation. We detail the measurement dependence to environmental parameters (in particular temperature and pressure) compared to conductivity sensors, and demonstrate that it may be advantageous to directly measure refractive index rather than electrical conductivity and so obtain a more direct route to density and absolute salinity.     

Pleistocene Rhine–Thames landscapes: geological background for hominin occupation of the southern North Sea region

This paper links research questions in Quaternary geology with those in Palaeolithic archaeology. A detailed geological reconstruction of The Netherlands' south‐west offshore area provides a stratigraphical context for archaeological and palaeontological finds. Progressive environmental developments have left a strong imprint on the area's Palaeolithic record. We highlight aspects of landscape evolution and related taphonomical changes, visualized in maps for critical periods of the Pleistocene in the wider southern North Sea region. The Middle Pleistocene record is divided into two palaeogeographical stages: the pre‐Anglian/Elsterian stage, during which a wide land bridge existed between England and Belgium even during marine highstands; and the Anglian/Elsterian to Saalian interglacial, with a narrower land bridge, lowered by proglacial erosion but not yet fully eroded. The Late Pleistocene landscape was very different, with the land bridge fully dissected by an axial Rhine–Thames valley, eroded deep enough to fully connect the English Channel and the North Sea during periods of highstand. This tripartite staging implies great differences in (i) possible migration routes of herds of herbivores as well as hominins preying upon them, (ii) the erosion base of axial and tributary rivers causing an increase in the availability of flint raw materials and (iii) conditions for loess accumulation in northern France and Belgium and the resulting preservation of Middle Palaeolithic sites. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Segmental closure of the Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean: Insight from detrital geochronology in the East Transbaikalia Basin

The Late Paleozoic–Early Mesozoic Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean extended between the Siberian and Amur–North China continents.The timing and modalities of the oceanic closure are widely discussed.It is largely accepted that the ocean closed in a scissor-like manner from southwest to northeast(in modern coordinates),though the timing of this process remains uncertain.Recent studies have shown that both western(West Transbaikalia)and eastern(Dzhagda)parts of the ocean closed almost simultaneously at the Early–Middle Jurassic boundary.However,little information on the key central part of the oceanic suture zone is available.We performed U-Pb(LA-ICP-MS)dating of detrital zircon from wellcharacterized stratigraphic sections of the central part of the Mongol-Okhotsk suture zone.These include the initial marine and final continental sequences of the East Transbaikalia Basin,deposited on the northern Argun-Idemeg terrane basement.We provide new stratigraphic ages for the marine and continental deposits.This revised chronostratigraphy allows assigning an age of~165–155 Ma,to the collisionrelated flexure of the northern Argun-Idemeg terrane and the development of a peripheral foreland basin.This collisional process took place 5 to10 million years later than in the western and eastern parts of the ocean.We demonstrate that the northern Argun-Idemeg terrane was the last block to collide with the Siberian continent,challenging the widely supported scissor-like model of closure of the MongolOkhotsk Ocean.Different segments of the ocean closed independently,depending on the initial shape of the paleo continental margins.