Biotic effects of environmental catastrophes at the end of the Cretaceous and early Tertiary: Guembelitria and Heterohelix blooms

In this study we report similar biotic response patterns in planktic foraminiferal assemblages, whether in association with volcanism, impacts or climate change at the end of the Cretaceous and early Tertiary. During and after each type of catastrophe two groups dominate high stress assemblages: (1) the small Guembelitria species, which are interpreted as having thrived in eutrophic surface waters where other species rarely survived; and (2) the low oxygen tolerant small Heterohelix species, which thrived at times of an expanding oxygen minimum zone associated with high nutrients and a stratified water column. The ecosystem collapse appears to be primarily the result of high macro- and micronutrient influx (from impacts, volcanism and erosion) leading to eutrophication and phytoplankton blooms (i.e., primary producers) that result in toxic conditions for foraminifera. Once nutrients decrease due to consumption by phytoplankton, the first opportunistic foraminifera, the Guembelitria, appear and graze on phytoplankton, rapidly reproduce (heterochronic acceleration) and increase populations exponentially. With nutrient depletion Guembelitria populations rapidly decrease leading to ecologic niches for other generalists and ecosystem recovery. Small low O₂ tolerant heterohelicid populations mark this second stage, followed by small trochospiral and planispiral species. With further environmental recovery, increasing competition, niche development, and restoration of a well-stratified watermass, oligotrophic conditions are restored opening habitats for large, highly specialized species and a return to normal diverse assemblages. Such highly stressed ecological successions are observed in association with mantle plume volcanism in the Indian Ocean, Andean volcanism in Argentina and shallow inland seas in Egypt and Madagascar during the late Maastrichtian, the K-T impact, volcanism during the early Danian, and intense upwelling and climate extremes. We present a simple model to explain the ecological succession and recovery phases that follow major biotic perturbations.     

Geology,fluid inclusion and sulphur isotope characteristics of the El Cobre VHMS deposit,Southern Cuba

The El Cobre deposit is located in eastern Cuba within the volcanosedimentary sequence of the Sierra Maestra Paleogene arc. The deposit is hosted by tholeiitic basalts, andesites and tuffs and comprises thick stratiform barite and anhydrite bodies, three stratabound disseminated up to massive sulphide bodies produced by silicification and sulphidation of limestones or sulphates, an anhydrite stockwork and a siliceous stockwork, grading downwards to quartz veins. Sulphides are mainly pyrite, chalcopyrite and sphalerite; gold occurs in the stratabound ores. Fluid inclusions measured in sphalerite, quartz, anhydrite and calcite show salinities between 2.3 and 5.7 wt% NaCl eq. and homogenisation temperatures between 177 and 300°C. Sulphides from the stratabound mineralisation display δ ³⁴S values of 0‰ to +6.0‰, whilst those from the feeder zone lie between −1.4‰ and +7.3‰. Sulphides show an intra-grain sulphur isotope zonation of about 2‰; usually, δ ³⁴S values increase towards the rims. Sulphate sulphur has δ ³⁴S in the range of +17‰ to +21‰, except two samples with values of +5.9‰ and +7.7‰. Sulphur isotope data indicate that the thermochemical reduction of sulphate from a hydrothermal fluid of seawater origin was the main source of sulphide sulphur and that most of the sulphates precipitated by heating of seawater. The structure of the deposit, mineralogy, fluid inclusion and isotope data suggest that the deposit formed from seawater-derived fluids with probably minor supply of magmatic fluids.     

Marine protected areas in Puerto Rico: Historical and current perspectives

In Puerto Rico, the environmental legislation for establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) is complex due to its current political position with the United States (US) as not only local but also federal US laws affect designations. Historically, during the Spanish rule, mangrove forests were protected for extractive reasons (i.e., charcoal) and the first protected area was established by 1918 as an Insular Forest. Currently, of the 37 MPAs recognized and investigated in this work, the vast majority (73%) are Natural Reserves, followed by Commonwealth Forests (13.5%). Most MPAs in Puerto Rico were implemented using a top-down approach (i.e., government) which follows US federal guidelines for protecting endangered species, critical habitats, and natural and cultural resources. The development of management plans for MPAs on the island is increasingly adopting a public participatory process. However, this latter process is new for the government of Puerto Rico that has not incorporated a policy based on an Integrated Coastal Management.     

Alpine paleostress reconstruction and active faulting in Western Iberia

The study of intraplate tectonics is crucial for understanding the deformation within plates, far from active plate boundaries and associated stress transmission to the plate interiors. This paper examines the tectonic evolution of the Variscan basement at the western margin of the Cenozoic Duero basin. Located east of the Vilariça Fault System in NW Iberia, this intraplate zone is a relatively flat but elevated area with an intense NNE-SSW trending fault system and associated moderate seismicity. Although the area has played an important role in the Duero basin configuration, its Alpine to present-day tectonic evolution has not been well constrained. In order to characterize the successive paleostress fields, 1428 pairs of fault-striae were measured at 56 sites and two focal mechanisms were used. Stress inversion methods have been applied to analyze paleostress regimes. Results show the existence of three dominant maximum horizontal stress (Shmax) trends: N-S, NE-SW and E-W. Relative and absolute dating of the activated faults for each Shmax shows that the clearly predominant N-S paleostress field in the zone has been active since the Oligocene up to the present day; while a NE-SW stress field is found to have been active during the Cretaceous and an older E-W paleostress field was active in the earlier Alpine cycle (Late Triassic).     

Estimating Intrinsic Formation Constants of Mineral Surface Species Using a Genetic Algorithm

The application of a powerful evolutionary optimization technique for the estimation of intrinsic formation constants describing geologically relevant adsorption reactions at mineral surfaces is introduced. We illustrate the optimization power of a simple Genetic Algorithm (GA) for forward (aqueous chemical speciation calculations) and inverse (calibration of Surface Complexation Models, SCMs) modeling problems of varying degrees of complexity, including problems where conventional deterministic derivative-based root-finding techniques such as Newton–Raphson, implemented in popular programs such as FITEQL, fail to converge or yield poor data fits upon convergence. Subject to sound a priori physical–chemical constraints, adequate solution encoding schemes, and simple GA operators, the GA conducts an exhaustive probabilistic search in a broad solution space and finds a suitable solution regardless of the input values and without requiring sophisticated GA implementations (e.g., advanced GA operators, parallel genetic programming). The drawback of the GA approach is the large number of iterations that must be performed to obtain a satisfactory solution. Nevertheless, for computationally demanding problems, the efficiency of the optimization can be greatly improved by combining heuristic GA optimization with the Newton–Raphson approach to exploit the power of deterministic techniques after the evolutionary-driven set of potential solutions has reached a suitable level of numerical viability. Despite the computational requirements of the GA, its robustness, flexibility, and simplicity make it a very powerful, alternative tool for the calibration of SCMs, a critical step in the generation of a reliable thermodynamic database describing adsorption equilibria. The latter is fundamental to the forward modeling of the adsorption behavior of minerals and geologically based adsorbents in hydro-geological settings (e.g., aquifers, pore waters, water basins) and/or in engineered reactors (e.g., mining, hazardous waste disposal industries).     

Hydrological and geomorphological criteria to evaluate the dispersion risk of waste sludge generated by the Aznalcollar mine spill (SW Spain)

Following the Aznalcóllar pyrite mine disaster (Seville, Spain) which caused the spilling of some 4.5?hm³ of acid water, the floodplains of the rivers Agrio and Guadiamar were rapidly cleaned of waste sludge. However, despite the efficiency of cleaning activities, there is still evidence of a fine superficial layer of sludge and some soil contamination, with the consequent risk of remobilisation of the pollutants by water erosion. There is much concern that these contaminated sediments may affect the precious ecosystems of the Doñana National Park and the Guadalquivir marshlands. This report describes the evaluation of the risk of mobilisation of the waste sludge through (1) detailed geomorphological analysis, indicating potential areas of erosion-sedimentation on the floodplains of the rivers Agrio and Guadiamar, and predicted dynamics of the waste sludge, and (2) evaluation of the potential dispersion of the waste sludge provoked by future flood events, including hydraulic calculations to model channel flow and the analysis of the texture of the sludge to obtain critical transport and sedimentation values. Findings suggest that the waste sludge is likely to be transported and deposited within the Doñana National Park during future flood events.     

How to improve attribution of changes in drought and flood impacts

ABSTRACT

For the development of sustainable, efficient risk management strategies for the hydrological extremes of droughts and floods, it is essential to understand the temporal changes of impacts, and their respective causes and interactions. In particular, little is known about changes in vulnerability and their influence on drought and flood impacts. We present a fictitious dialogue between two experts, one in droughts and the other in floods, showing that the main obstacles to scientific advancement in this area are both a lack of data and a lack of commonly accepted approaches. The drought and flood experts “discuss” available data and methods and we suggest a complementary approach. This approach consists of collecting a large number of single or multiple paired-event case studies from catchments around the world, undertaking detailed analyses of changes in impacts and drivers, and carrying out a comparative analysis. The advantages of this approach are that it allows detailed context- and location-specific assessments based on the paired-event analyses, and reveals general, transferable conclusions based on the comparative analysis of various case studies. Additionally, it is quite flexible in terms of data and can accommodate differences between floods and droughts.     

A tertiary fold and thrust belt in the Valle del Cauca Basin, Colombian Andes

Surface geology and heophysical data, supplemented by regional structural interpretations, indicate that the Valle del Cauca basin and adjacent areas in west-central Colombia form a west-vergent, basement-involved fold and thrust belt. This belt is part of a Cenozoic orogen developed along the west side of the Romeral fault system. Structural analysis and geometrical constraints show that the Mesozoic ophiolitic basement and its Cenozoic sedimentary cover are involved in a “thick-skinned” west-vergent foreland style deformation. The rocks are transported and shortened by deeply rooted thrust faults and stacked in imbricate fashion. The faults have a NE---SW regional trend, are listric in shape, developed as splay faults which are interpreted as joining a common detachment at over 10 km depth. The faults carry Paleogene sedimentary strata and Cretaceous basement rocks westward over Miocene strata of the Valle del Cauca Basin. Fold axes trend parallel or sub parallel to the thrust faults. The folds are westwardly asymmetrical with parallel to kink geometry, and are interpreted to be fault-propagation folds stacked in an imbricate thrust system. Stratigraphic evidence suggests that the Valle del Cauca basin was deformed between Oligocene and upper Miocene time. The kinematic history outlined above is consistent with an oblique convergence between the Panama and South American plates during the Cenozoic.A negative residual Bouguer anomaly of 20–70 mgls in the central part of the Valle del Cauca basin indicates that a substantial volume of low density sedimentary rocks is concealed beneath the thrust sheets exposed at the land surface. The hydrocarbon potential of the Valle del Cauca should be reevaluated in light of the structural interpretations presented in this paper.     

The incorporation of Mg2+ and Sr2+ into calcite overgrowths: influences of growth rate and solution composition

The concentrations of Mg²⁺ and Sr²⁺ incorporated within calcite overgrowths precipitated from seawater and related solutions, determined at 25°C, were independent of the precipitation rate over approximately an order of magnitude. The saturation states used to produce this range of precipitation rates varied from 3 to 17 depending on the composition of the solution.The amount of Mg²⁺ incorporated in the overgrowths was not directly proportional to $\text{Mg}{}^{\mathrm{2+}}\text{Ca}{}^{\mathrm{2+}}$ in solution over the entire range (1–20) of ratios studied. Below a ratio of 7.5, the overgrowth was enriched in MgCO₃ relative to what is predicted by the constant distribution coefficient measured above a ratio of 7.5. This increased MgCO₃ correlates with the relative enrichment of adsorbed Mg²⁺. Above a ratio of 7.5 the concentration of MgCO₃ in the calcite overgrowths followed a classical thermodynamic behavior characterized by a constant distribution coefficient of 0.0123 (±0.008 std dev).The concentration of SrCO₃ incorporated in the overgrowths was linearly related to the MgCO₃ content of the overgrowths, and is attributed to increased solubility of SrCO₃ in calcite due to the incorporation of the smaller Mg²⁺ ions.The kinetic data indicate that the growth mechanism involves the adsorption of the cations on the surface of the calcite prior to dehydration and final incorporation. It is suggested that dehydration of cations at the surface is the rate controlling step.