Dissolved organic matter in pore water of carbonate sediments from Bermuda

Pore water samples from seven nearshore areas in Bermuda were obtained under in situ conditions and analyzed for dissolved organic carbon, dissolved carbohydrates, dissolved free amino acids and dissolved humic substances. The concentration of dissolved organic carbon is higher than in the overlying nearshore waters indicating significant diagenetic remobilization of carbon in these recently deposited carbonate sediments. Dissolved carbohydrates decrease with depth due to microbial utilization.     

Aspects of the mineralogy and hydrometallurgy of chrysocolla,with special reference to the Cuajone,Peru, ores

Chrysocolla in the Cuajone ores appears to be microcrystalline and to exhibit a fibrous structure.Sulphuric acid leaching of the chrysocolla is facilitated by a microcracked surface structure. A marked surface structural change is evidenced as hydrogen ions replace the copper. The end result is a noncontinuous surface layer of silica from which the copper has been essentially completely removed.The results of this study provide confirmatory evidence for the structure and hydrometallurgy of chrysocolla.     

Interstadial proboscidean from south-central Alaska: Implications for biogeography, geology, and archeology

In 1980 a large proboscidean femur, probably Mammuthus sp., was found in situ in a bluff exposure at the mouth of the Tyone River in the northwestern part of the Copper River Basin, Alaska. The regional setting, stratigraphy, radiocarbon chronology, flora, and implications of the fossil locality, which represents the first documented occurrence of Pleistocene terrestrial mammalian fauna in southern Alaska, are described. Radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic relations at the site indicate that the sediments containing the fossil accumulated during the transition from interstadial to glacial conditions during terminal middle Wisconsin time. During this interval the immediate vicinity was unforested and large areas of south-central Alaska may have been available for faunal and possibly human habitation. This documented find, dated at 29,450 ± 610 ¹⁴C yr B.P., extends the known range for Pleistocene mammals and possibly steppe-tundra conditions south-ward at least 150 km, and suggests that mountain passes through the Alaska Range to the north were ice free during the last part of the middle Wisconsin interstadial.     

Rb-Sr ages of Precambrian dolerite and alkaline dikes,southeast Mysore state,India

Rb-Sr isochron ages have been determined for two suites of Precambrian dikes in the Bidadi-Harohalli area of southeast Mysore State. Whole-rock samples of unmetamorphosed dolerites yield an age of 2420±246 (2σ) m.y., which is a minimum value for the intruded Peninsular Gneiss and Closepet Granite. The dolerite magma originated in the mantle, as indicated by the initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of 0.7012±0.0010 (2σ). A suite of alkaline dikes, also referred to as felsite and feldspar porphyry dikes, has an age of 832±40 (2σ) m.y., which correlates with the intrusion of the Chamundi Hill Granite and the feldspar porphyry dikes near Srirangapatnam. One of the alkaline dikes has a K-Ar age of 810±25 m.y., indicating an absence of subsequent thermal events in the area.     

Palaeozoic radiometric age provinces in the Andean basement,latitudes 25°–30°S

More than fifty new K-Ar age determinations are reported for mineral separates and whole-rock samples from igneous and metamorphic basement rocks of northwestern Argentina and contiguous Chile between 25° and 30°S. The age data define three thermal events, occurring in the late Ordovician-Silurian (400–450 m.y.), mid-Carboniferous (310–340 m.y.) and Permian (225–270 m.y.), and confirm deductions of previous workers that the crystalline basement rocks of the Pampean Ranges of northwestern Argentina are not of Precambrian age, but rather evolved predominantly during the Palaeozoic. The proposed radiometric age provinces and the inferred orogenic history of the area are compared with those for the rest of South America, and it is confirmed that, by the late Ordovician, the focus of major orogenic activity in South America was located along the present western and southern margins of the craton, and tended to migrate westwards during the Palaeozoic.     

‘Total’ fabric of some till landforms

The distinction between clast-dominant, matrix-dominant and well-graded tills is important in view of the influence of texture on the definition and function of till fines. Till fabric includes a wide range of features of both primary and secondary origin including folds, thrusts, fissures (the macrofabric), disposition of clasts (the mesofabric) and organization of the matrix (the microfabric). The results of fabric analysis of pebble, granule, sand, silt and clay in small depositional landforms beneath currently-active glaciers are described. Deformation fabrics are distinguished in freshly deposited end moraines and flutes. The sand-size material in deformed till may or may not behave in the same way as larger clasts, depending on the degree to which the till is matrix-dominant. While clasts in saturated subglacial till tend to align themselves sub-parallel to the depositional surface, the matrix usually retains abundant pore spaces. With slow, unloaded drainage, clast fabrics appear to be little modified. Such material is potentially unstable and any subsequent increase in overburden and hydraulic pressures may cause slope collapse and flowtill development. It is concluded that examination of a wide range of fabric parameters provides a means of distinguishing tills of diverse origins and of assessing their potential instability.     

Field-seismic investigation of the August 1975 Oroville, California, earthquake sequence

Several thousand aftershocks of the August 1, 1975 Oroville, California, earthquake (M_L = 5.7) were recorded by an 8-station field-seismic network. Focal coordinates of 104 of these events were fitted by least-squares to a plane striking N07°W and dipping 59°W; the strike (but not the dip) of this plane is in good agreement with that (N09°W) obtained from a fault-plane solution for a large foreshock 8 sec before the main shock, and it agrees fairly well with the trend (N15°W) of structural lineaments in the vicinity of Lake Oroville. The surface trace of the plane of foci passes through the Oroville Dam, as well as through surface cracking 12 km south of the dam. The main shock occurred 7 years after the filling of Lake Oroville, but only a month after the most rapid filling since 1968. The rate of aftershock occurrence during the first month decayed approximately as1/t. Event duration was measured for more than 2,000 aftershocks during August and September; average log-duration, taken over samples of 100 events, decreased gradually during this period. Close-in spectra obtained from strong-motion recordings of several of the larger aftershocks have corner frequencies that are quite high compared to other western U.S. earthquakes of similar magnitude. The Oroville earthquakes had several features in common with another Sierra Nevada earthquake sequence, near Truckee, California, in September, 1966.     

Palaeomagnetic investigations of the tertiary and quaternary igneous rocks: VIII a palaeomagnetic and petrologic study of volcanics of the valley of Mexico

The basin of Mexico lies in the center of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, an east-west structure which dissects the North American Continent along the 19th parallel. Paleomagnetic measurements suggest that two of the seven eruptive phases —Guadalupe Group and Chichinautzin Group — that formed the basin, probably were of short duration; the Chichinautzin Group, which finally closed the basin to the south, must have been formed principally in the last 700,000 years.The volcanic activity which began in Oligocene time and has continued until the present, has been proved to be essentially andesitic in composition.

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Zusammenfassung Das Becken von Mexiko befindet sich im Zentrum des Transmexikanischen Vulkangürtels, einer Ost-West-Struktur, die den nordamerikanischen Kontinent entlang des 19. Breitengrades durchschneidet.Paläomagnetische Messungen legen die Vermutung nahe, daß 2 (Guadalupe- und Chichinautzin-Gruppe) der 7 vulkanischen Phasen, die das Becken formten, von wahrscheinlich kurzer Dauer waren. Die Chichinautzin-Gruppe, die das Becken im Süden abschnürte, muß sich grundsätzlich in den letzten 700 000 Jahren gebildet haben.Die vulkanische Tätigkeit, die im Oligozän begann und sich kontinuierlich bis in dic heutige Zeit fortsetzte, förderte nachweislich im wesentlichen andesitische Produkte.

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Résumé Le bassin de Mexico se trouve au centre de la ceinture volcanique de Mexico, une structure est-ouest qui recoupe le continent nord-Americain près du 19^e parallèle. Les mesures paléomagnétiques conduisent à supposer que deux des sept phases d'activités volcaniques, celles de la Guadaloupe et du Chichinautzin, étaient courtes. Les roches du Groupe de Chichinautzin, fermant le bassin au sud, ont été formées pendant les derniers 700,000 ans.L'activité volcanique, qui a débuté à l'Oligocène et se continue encore actuellement a une charactère essentiellement andésitique.

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— , - 19- . , , Guadalupe Chichinautzin, , , . Chichinautzin, , 700000 . , , .

     

The use of atmospheric dispersion in optical distance measurement

The development of lasers, new electro-optic light modulation methods, and improved electronic techniques have made possible significant improvements in the range and accuracy of optical distance measurements, thus providing not only improved geodetic tools but also useful techniques for the study of other geophysical, meteorological, and astronomical problems. One of the main limitations, at present, to the accuracy of geodetic measurements is the uncertainty in the average propagation velocity of the radiation due to inhomogeneity of the atmosphere. Accuracies of a few parts in ten million or even better now appear feasible, however, through the use of the dispersion method, in which simultaneous measurements of optical path length at two widely separated wavelengths are used to determine the average refractive index over the path and hence the true geodetic distance. The design of a new instrument based on this method, which utilizes wavelengths of6328 ? and3681 ? and3 GHz polarization modulation of the light, is summarized. Preliminary measurements over a5.3 km path with this instrument have demonstrated a sensitivity of3×10 ⁻⁹ in detecting changes in optical path length for either wavelength using1-second averaging, and a standard deviation of3×10 ⁻⁷ in corrected length. The principal remaining sources of error are summarized, as is progress in other laboratories using the dispersion method or other approaches to the problem of refractivity correction.