Evolution of late proterozoic to early paleozoic Adelaide foldbelt, Australia: Comparisons with postpermian rifts and passive margins

A tectonic and sedimentary facies model is proposed to explain progressive evolution of the late Proterozoic to early Paleozoic Adelaide Rift (Geosyncline) of southern Australia. Tectonic and stratigraphic similarities are noted between the Adelaide Rift and many post Permian rifts and passive continental margins. Also the time span of the pre oceaniccrust accretion stage of the rifting process may be of the same order of magnitude, both in the Adelaide Rift and in post-Permian passive margins. These observations suggest that the underlying cause of the rifting process and the resultant crustal response have not changed significantly since late Precambrian times. More specifically the so-called “breakup unconformity”, observed in stratigraphic sequences beneath many present day passive continental margins, has been shown by various authors to correlate in time with earliest oceanic crust accretion, and it often separates underlying non-marine or paralic from fully marine shelf strata. In the Adelaide Rift, the unconformable Precambrian—Cambrian boundary is proposed as the analogue of this breakup unconformity, thereby explaining the apparently sudden influx of largely marine metazoans in Cambrian strata immediately above this unconformity.     

SiO2-Diagenese in Tiefseesedimenten

Zusammenfassung Im SiO₂-Kreislauf des Weltozeans ist Kieselsäure biogener Herkunft (Skelettopal) der wichtigste SiO₂-Lieferant, während vulkanogene und andere Quellen zurücktreten. Die Erhaltung von biogenem Opal und seine spätere Umbildung in authigenen Opal-CT und Klinoptilolith wird durch hohe Kieselplankton-Produktivität und Sedimentationsraten (z. B. in Auftriebsgebieten) begünstigt. Vulkanglas wird langsamer gelöst und führt zur Ausfällung von authigenem Smektit und Phillipsit, aber nicht zur Hornsteinbildung.Im allgemeinen verläuft die SiO₂-Diagense als ein diskontinuierlicher zeit-, teufen-, temperatur- und faziesabhängiger Reifungsprozeß von instabilem biogenem Opal (Opal-A) über metastabilen Opal-CT (fehlgeordneter Tief-Cristobalit/Tridymit) zu stabilem Quarz. Opal-CT ist also immer die erste (10–65 Ma nach der Ablagerung gefällte) SiO₂-Phase, aus der dann erst später (50–140 Ma nach Ablagerung der ursprünglichen Kieselsedimente) echte Quarzhornsteine entstehen. Unabhängig davon wird akzessorischer Quarz schon frühdiagenetisch in Porzellaniten ausgefällt, wo er Hohlräume füllt oder den Calcit von Fossilien verdrängt.Während die Opal-AOpal-CT-Umwandlung meist über einen Lösungsschritt geht, können Kieselskelette auchin-situ in Opal-CT umgewandelt werden. Das Opal-CT-Gitter erfährt einen teufen- und temperaturabhängige, röntgenographisch nachweisbare strukturelle Reifung. Diese führt später zur Opal-CTQuarz-Umwandlung, die möglicherweise ohne generelle Lösung und Wiederausfällung abläuft.Obwohl Alter/Versenkungstiefen-Diagramme ein weit überlappendes Vorkommen von Opal-A, Opal-CT und Quarz zeigen, läßt sich im allgemeinen eine positive Korrelation der Reife der SiO₂-Phasen mit diesen Parametern feststellen. Die Umwandlung von biogenem Opal in authigenen Opal-CT verläuft allerdings etwas rascher in karbonatischem als in tonigem Milieu, während tonige Fazies die Opal-CTQuarz-Umbildung beträchtlich verlangsamt. Die SiO₂-Transformationen werden allerdings nicht nur durch die Faktoren Zeit, Teufe (Temperatur) und Gastsedimentfazies gesteuert. Weitere, noch weitgehend unbekannte Parameter spielen vermutlich eine bedeutende Rolle.

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Biogenic silica is the most important source for the global oceanic SiO₂ cycle, whereas volcanogenic and other sources are less significant. High silica plankton fertility and sedimentation rates (e. g. in upwelling areas) favour the preservation of skeletal opal and its later transformation into authigenic opal-CT and clinoptilolite. Volcanic glass is less easily dissolved and leads to the precipitation of authigenic smectite and phillipsite, but not to the formation of porcellanites and cherts.In general, silica diagenesis proceeds as a discontinuous age-, burial- and facies-dependant maturation from instable biogenic opal (opal-A) via metastable opal-CT (disordered low-temperature cristobalite/tridymite) to stable quartz. Opal-CT is always the precursor silica phase (precipitated 10–65 m.y. after deposition), followed by the formation of genuine quartz cherts (about 50–140 m.y. after deposition of the original siliceous oozes). Already during early diagenesis, accessory quartz is directly precipitated in porcellanites and fills voids or replaces calcitic fossils.Whereas the opal-Aopal-CT transformation usually involves a solution step, opaline skeletons can also be transformedin situ into opal-CT. A maturation of the opal-CT structure takes place with increasing burial depth, which later leads to an opal-CT quartz transformation, possibly without any major silica mobilization.Altough age/burial depth diagrams show a wide overlap for the distribution of opal-A, opal-CT, and quartz, a general positive correlation of the maturity of the silica phases with these parameters is evident. On the other hand, the rate of the opal-Aopal-CT transformation is slightly faster in calcareous than in clayey sediments, whereas clayey facies retards the opal-CTquartz transformation considerably. However, the silica transformations are not only controlled by the factors time, burial depth (temperature) and host rock facies, but also by additional, largely unknown parameters.

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Résumé Dans le cycle SiO₂ des océans les organismes siliceux sont les fournisseurs principaux de SiO₂. Les autres sources de silice, volcanogénes ou autres, sont de moindre importance. Une haute productivité de plancton siliceux alliée à un taux d'accumulation élevé (par exemple, dans les zones des upwellings) favorisent la conservation de l'opale biogène et sa transformation subséquente en opale-CT et en clinoptilolite. Les verres volcaniques se dissolvent plus lentement et donnent des smectites authigènes et des phillipsites, mais pas de cherts.En général, la diagénèse de la silice se poursuit comme un processus des maturation discontinu, dépendant des facteurs temps, profondeur, température et faciès: au cours de ce cycle, l'opale biogène instable (»opale-A«) se transforme en opale-CT métastable (-cristobalite/tridymite avec désordre unidimensionnel), puis en quartz stable. L'opale-CT est donc toujours la première phase SiO₂ (précipité 10–65 Ma après le dépÔt du sédiment), suivi plus tard (50–140 Ma après le dépÔt des sédiments biosiliceux originaux) par des cherts à quartz. Indépendamment, du quartz accessoire peut Être précipité au cours d'un stade précoce de la diagénèse dans les porcellanites, ou il remplit les vacoules ou remplace la calcite des fossiles.Alors que la transformation de l'opale-A en opale-CT s'opère, de manière générale, par l'intermédiaire d'une phase de dissolution, les restes des organismes siliceux peuvent Être transformésin situ en opale-CT. La grille de l'opale-CT subit un processus de maturation structurale en relation avec la profondeur et la température, visible par l'analyse aux rayons X. C'est cette maturation de la grille qui conduira plus tard à la transformation de l'opale-CT en quartz, cette étape pouvant avoir lieu sans dissolution totale ni reprécipitation.Bien que les diagrammes âges-profondeurs montrent des recouvrements importants de l'opale-A, de l'opale-CT et du quartz, on peut remarquer souvent une corrélation positive entre la maturité des phases de silice et ces paramètres. La transformation de l'opale biogène en opale-CT authigène se poursuit toutefois un peu plus rapidement en milieu carbonatique qu'en milieu argileux, alors que les faciès argileux freinent considérablement la transformation d'opale-CT en quartz. Cependant les transformations de SiO₂ ne sont pas uniquement dirigées par les facteurs temps, profondeur (température) et faciès du sédiment-hÔte. D'autres paramètres encore mal connus semblent jouer un rÔle important au cours de ces phénomènes.

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Geringfügig erweiterte Fassung eines auf der 69. Jahrestagung der Geologischen Vereinigung in Heidelberg gehaltenen übersichtsreferates.     

Zur Geologie des Ortsteins

Zusammenfassung WährendBeijerinck in seinem Schlußsatz aus den zehn Beweispunkten das im Titel seiner Arbeit ausgesprochene Ergebnis ableitet und in Humusortstein und Bleichsand zwei sehr prägnante und dauerhafte Farbspuren des Klimawechsels erkennt, möchte ich folgern:Beijerincks Beweisführung ist in keinem einzigen Punkte wirklich schlüssig, im ganzen sogar abwegig. Ein stichhaltiger Beweis für diese Auffassung wurde, soweit mir bekannt, nie geliefert — um ein Wort B.s anzuwenden (1934).Bleichsand kann wohl ohne Ortstein entstehen, Ort aber nicht ohne Bleichung der hangenden Schicht. Wo beide zusammen — im Ortsteinprofil — auftreten, sind sie deutlich als Funktion einer bestimmten Pflanzendecke zu erkennen. Ortprofile und reine Bleichungen entstanden und entstehen zu jeder Zeit und unter Umständen in kurzer Zeit, sobald Heide oder ein entsprechender Pflanzenverein vorhanden ist. Stratigraphischer Wert kommt demnach solchen Profilen im allgemeinen nicht zu, ein paläoklimatologischer nur insofern, als das Gesamtprofil etwas über die Daseinsmöglichkeit atlantischer Heidevegetation aussagt.Die einzelnen Horizonte des Profiles jedoch, jeden für sich, für ein bestimmtes Klima in Anspruch zu nehmen, ist vorläufig durch nichts gerechtfertigt.Humusortstein ist keine Tundrabank bzw. arktische Hinterlassenschaft und Bleichsand kein Erzeugnis milderer, feuchterer Klimate, wieBeijerinck will; wohl aber sind beide zusammen, Ort+Bleichsand, im weiteren Mitteleuropa — und wahrscheinlich weit darüber hinaus — das Zeichen eines der Heide günstigen, feuchtmilden Klimas, bzw. der Beweis für das ehemalige Vorhandensein von Heide.     

Earth resources,time, and man — A geoscience perspective

The earth with all its inhabitants, including man, has had a long history as a slowly evolving complex system which normally exists in a state of stable dynamic equilibrium. Explosive growth in the human population, in the per capita use of nonrenewable resources, and in the degree of human disruption of established ecosystems — the hallmark of man's recent and rapid emergence as the dominant species on the face of the earth — represents a major departure from this state of equilibrium and an ecological crisis of global dimensions. This growth, and the rapid changes that arise from it, have had such a pervasive influence on the collective experience of man that they have come to be regarded as the normal course of events on a stable earth. This has fostered the notion that growth will always be essential for further improvements in the quality of human life. The emergence of a global technological civilization results from man's ingenuity in devising ways of using an ever increasing proportion of energy available at the earth's surface. Rapid growth began only two hundred years ago when the developing technology of the industrial revolution made possible the large-scale exploitation of the earth's fossil-fuel resources and the creation of positive feedback between growth in technology and growth in fossil-fuel production. Annual growth rates in world production of fossil fuels and ores of representative industrial metals, when compared with the nature and finite magnitude of the earth's resources, lead to the inescapable conclusion that the present episode of exponential growth can only be a transitory epoch of a few centuries duration within the totality of human history. Solar radiation offers the prospect of large supplies of energy with minimal environmental impact. However, constraints on growth due to the finite nature of food and mineral resources and the effects of environmental degradation can only be loosened in this way, not removed. Mankind faces an inevitable transition from a brief interlude of exponential growth to a stable condition characterized by rates of growth so slow as to be regarded essentially as a state of no growth. Failure to respond rationally and promptly to this situation could be disastrous.     

Indications of fluid immiscibility in glass from West Clearwater Lake impact crater,Quebec, Canada

Glass from the West Clearwater Lake hypervelocity impact crater contains numerous spheroids, 10 to 500 μm across, which appear to have formed at high temperatures as fluids immiscible in the enclosing melt. The spheroids are distinguished from small, normal, largely void gas vesicles, which are also present, by being completely filled in all cases; by having fillings which vary in composition from spheroid to spheroid, even between spheroids in close association; and by indications that the present fillings are representative of the contents present before the matrix melt chilled. Most of the spheroids are classified petrographically into three types. Type I, the most numerous, includes all spheroids>100 μm and are filled with uncommon pale brown to yellow montmorillonites with an unusual structure intermediate between dioctahedral montmorillonite and saponite. Type II, brown and green, are filled with Fe-rich montmorillonites, while Type III are aluminia-rich montmorillonites crystallized into mica-like sheaves. Rare, small spheroids are filled with calcite or silica. In a few cases one spheroid encloses another of similar or different type. Electron microprobe analyses indicate that with few exceptions Types I and III spheroids belong to a Mg series of montmorillonites in which the main chemical variation is the substitution of Mg for Al. A second Fe-K series includes Type II and a few Type I spheroids and shows substitution of Fe by Al, relatively high K₂O and, in the alumina-rich members, low SiO₂. The close association of spheroids with deformed, embayed lechatelierite inclusions indicates that they formed while the latter were liquid, i.e. at temperatures above 1700°C, as rapidly moving impact melt engulfed highly shocked inclusions of quartz-bearing country rock. The preservation of spheroids in the West Clearwater Lake glass is attributed mainly to the position of the glass masses within the breccias lining the crater floor. It is considered that the glass in this location did not achieve free flight but, as part of a large mass, cooled relatively slowly through the high temperature regime in which the spheroids were generated, and then, when detached, chilled rapidly to preserve a record of this transient stage in their history.     

Die tektonische Fazies als ein Mittel zur Darstellung der Tektonik auf Übersichtskarten

Zusammenfassung Es wird die Darstellung der Fazies in einer Auswahl auf tektonischen Karten angeregt. Die Auswahl sollte nach der tektonischen Bedeutung der Fazies erfolgen. Labiler Schelf = faltbare Schichten, mächtige Kalkklötze sind solche lithotektonischen Komplexe. Molasse und Flysch, die bestimmte Entwicklungsstadien der Geosynklinale wiederspiegeln, gehören hierher. Besonders wichtig erscheint die Heraushebung der langanhaltenden Räume mit Schwellenfazies (Geantiklinalen) und der Kordilleren-Zonen.

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It is proposed to represent selectively the facies on tectonic maps. Selection should be governed by the tectonic significance of the facies. Such lithotectonic complexes are labile shelfs = foldable layers and thick limestones blocks. Also molasse and flysch reflecting certain stages of development of the geosyncline belong to this complex. The distinction of areas with long time swell facies (geoanticlines) and of Cordilleran zones, seems to be of particular importance.

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Résumé L'auteur suggère de représenter en partie les faciès dans des cartes tectoniques. La sélection doit s'effectuer selon l'importance tectonique des faciès. Les plateformes continentales mobiles = couches pliables et de grands blocs calcaires constituent de tels complexes litho-tectoniques. De même en font partie la molasse et le flysch qui reflètent de certaines phases de développement des géosynclinaux. Il semble particulièrement important de mettre en valeur les régions à faciès de bombement (geanticlines) persistant et les zones de cordillères.

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Etwas abgeänderter Vortrag, gehalten Februar 1966 auf der Hauptversammlung der Geologischen Vereinigung in Wien.     

Die Technik der Belüftung in Belebtschlammanlagen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Gondwana-derived microcontinents — the constituents of the Variscan and Alpine collisional orogens

The European Variscan and Alpine mountain chains are collisional orogens, and are built up of pre-Variscan “building blocks” which, in most cases, originated at the Gondwana margin. Such pre-Variscan elements were part of a pre-Ordovician archipelago-like continental ribbon in the former eastern prolongation of Avalonia, and their present-day distribution resulted from juxtaposition through Variscan and/or Alpine tectonic evolution. The well-known nomenclatures applied to these mountain chains are the mirror of Variscan resp. Alpine organization. It is the aim of this paper to present a terminology taking into account their pre-Variscan evolution at the Gondwana margin. They may contain relics of volcanic islands with pieces of Cadomian crust, relics of volcanic arc settings, and accretionary wedges, which were separated from Gondwana by initial stages of Rheic ocean opening. After a short-lived Ordovician orogenic event and amalgamation of these elements at the Gondwanan margin, the still continuing Gondwana-directed subduction triggered the formation of Ordovician Al-rich granitoids and the latest Ordovician opening of Palaeo-Tethys. An example from the Alps (External Massifs) illustrates the gradual reworking of Gondwana-derived, pre-Variscan elements during the Variscan and Alpine/Tertiary orogenic cycles.     

Palynological and sequence stratigraphic analysis of the Napo Group in the Pungarayacu 30 well, Sub-Andean Zone, Ecuador

The study of palynomorphs and calcareous nannofossils from the Albian–Campanian Napo Group in the Pungarayacu 30 well in the Subandean Zone of Ecuador has led to a new biostratigraphic framework revealing the existence of several hiatuses for this area. The palynological and palynofacies data are used together with other fossils and lithological evidence to define a sequence stratigraphic framework. The distribution of palynomorphs and palynofacies indicates a strong terrestrial input for the lower part of the Napo Group (Napo Basal and Lower Napo formations). In the upper part (Middle and Upper Napo formations), terrestrial input is reduced and a restricted marine environment with several dysoxic–anoxic intervals can be inferred. The hydrocarbons present in the well studied have traditionally been regarded as locally sourced. However, several lines of evidence (TAS, Tmax and VR) prove the immature stage of the source rock in this borehole as well as in a larger area.