Neogene dextral transpression due to oblique convergence across the Andes of northwestern Patagonia, Argentina

Between Bariloche (41°S) and El Bolsón (42°S), Neogene sediments of the Ñirihuau foreland basin and Paleogene volcanoclastic rocks have been thrust westward beneath basement rocks of the Andean cordillera. North of Bariloche (40°–41°S), Paleogene volcanoclastic rocks within the main cordillera show Neogene deformation. The large-scale Neogene tectonics of the area are revealed by superimposing geological maps with digital topographic data. Fault-slip data provide information on the relative amount of crustal thickening and strike-slip faulting. Throughout the area, major reverse faults and thrusts trend northwest, forming the edges to Cenozoic basins of foreland or ramp styles. Some of these are inverted grabens of Mesozoic age. The dominant strike-slip faults are right-lateral and trend nearly north, parallel to the cordillera. Conjugate left-lateral faults trend nearly east. At a regional scale, based on the fault-slip data, the principal direction of shortening is northeast, in areas where thrusts predominate, but swings around to the north in areas where strike-slip faults predominate. Thus the results indicate a degree of strain partitioning, but they are broadly compatible with the oblique direction of convergence between the Nazca and South American plates. This tectonic style seems to have lasted throughout the Neogene.

Abstract

Entre las localidades de Bariloche (41°S) y El Bolsón (42°S), sedimentos Neógenos de la cuenca de antepaís Ñirihuau y volcanoclastitas Paleógenas han sido cabalgados desde el oeste por el basamento de la Cordillera de los Andes. Al norte de Bariloche (40°–41°S), volcanoclastitas Paleógenas de la Cordillera también muestran deformación. La tectónica neógena de gran escala se destaca por la superposición de mapas geológicos y topográficos digitalizados. A la escala de los afloramientos, los datos de deslizamientos de falla proveen información relativa a las relaciones entre el espesamiento cortical y el fallamiento de rumbo. En este sentido, a través de toda el área, las fallas inversas y los cabalgamientos mayores se disponen con rumbos noroeste, controlando las cuencas Cenozoicas de antepaís o de tipo rampa. Algunas de ellas invierten grábenes Mesozoicos. Por su parte, las fallas transcurrentes son dominantemente dextrales y se disponen submeridianalmente de modo paralelo a la Cordillera. Juegos conjugados senestrales se orientan sublatitudinalmente. A escala regional, la dirección principal de acortamiento, a partir de datos de desplazamiento de fallas, es noreste donde dominan los cabalgamientos, aunque se desvía hacia el norte donde predominan las fallas transcurrentes. Estos resultados indican un grado de particionamiento de la deformación, que resulta compatible con la dirección oblícua de convergencia entre las placas de Nazca y Sudamérica; estilo tectónico que parece haberse instalado a partir del Neógeno.     

Spatial gaps in arc volcanism: The effect of collision or subduction of oceanic plateaus

One of the major processes in the formation and deformation of continental lithosphere is the process of arc volcanism. The plate-tectonic theory predicts that a continuous chain of arc volcanoes lies parallel to any continuous subduction zone. However, the map pattern of active volcanoes shows at least 24 areas where there are major spatial gaps in the volcanic chains (> 200 km). A significant proportion (~ 30%) of oceanic crust is subducted at these gaps. All but three of these gaps coincide with the collision or subduction of a large aseismic plateau or ridge.The idea that the collision of such features may have a major tectonic impact on the arc lithosphere, including cessation of volcanism, is not new. However, it is not clear how the collision or subduction of an oceanic plateau perturbs the system to the extent of inhibiting arc volcanism. Three main factors necessary for arc volcanism are (1) source materials for the volcanics—either volatiles or melt from the subducting slab and/or melt from the overlying asthenospheric wedge, (2) a heat source, either for the dehydration or the melting of the slab, or the melting within the asthenosphere and (3) a favorable state of stress in the overlying lithosphere. The absence of any one of these features may cause a volcanic gap to form.There are several ways in which the collision or subduction of an oceanic plateau may affect arc volcanism. The clearest and most common cases considered are those where the feature completely resists subduction, causing local plate boundaries to reorganize. This includes the formation of new plate-bounding transform faults or a flip in subduction polarity. In these cases, subduction has slowed down or stopped and the lack of source material has created a volcanic gap.There are a few cases, most notably in Peru, Chile, and the Nankai trough, where the dip of subduction is so shallow that effectively no asthenospheric wedge exists to produce source material for volcanism. The shallow dip of the slab may be a buoyant effect of the plateau imbedded in the oceanic lithosphere.The cases which are the most enigmatic are those where subduction is continuous, the oceanic plateau is subducted along with the slab, and the dip of the slab is clearly steep enough to allow arc volcanism; yet a volcanic gap exists. In these areas, the subducted plateau may have a fundamental effect on the physical process of arc volcanism itself. The presence of a large topographic feature on the subducting plate may affect the stress state in the are by increasing the amount of decoupling between the two plates. Alternatively, the subduction of the plateau may change the chemical processes at depth if either the water-rich top of the plateau with accompanying sediments are scraped off during subduction or if the ridge is compositionally different.     

The Quaternary： its character and definition

The Quaternary, is characterised by the development of widespread glaciations in mid-northern latitudes. As a chronostratigraphic term it has attracted vigorous debate. The Quaternao; as accepted by the International Union for Quaternary Research and proposed by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, begins at 2.6 Ma within a 2.8-2.4 Ma interval of profound change in Earth＇s climate system.     

Phytolith indices as proxies of grass subfamilies on East African tropical mountains

The main objective of this paper is to provide researchers that investigate fossil phytolith assemblages and model/data comparisons a new tool for estimating C₃/C₄ grass composition over time. We tested the reliability of modern soil phytolith assemblages and phytolith indices for tracing the dominance of different grass subfamilies and tree cover density. We analyzed modern soil phytolith assemblages from sites over elevation gradients on Mount Kenya (Kenya), Mount Rungwe and around Lake Masoko (southern Tanzania). These data were compared with available botanical data. A phytolith index named Ic, proved to be an effective proxy of the proportions of Pooideae, Arundinoideae and Bambusoideae grasses (mainly C₃ grasses) versus Panicoideae grasses (mainly C₄ grasses), increasing with elevation in East-Africa. When tropical mountains are covered by open habitats (e.g. grasses and shrublands), Ic should be a reliable proxy of the C₃/C₄ grass composition. These results highlight the value of the phytolith index Ic, when interpreting paleo-environmental records from tropical mountains, to: 1) better understand past local and regional C₃/C₄ grass distributions and associated climatic changes and 2) increase the set of C₃/C₄ data available for model/data comparisons.     

The application of caesium‐137 measurements to investigate floodplain deposition in a large semi‐arid catchment in Queensland,Australia: a low‐fallout environment

Floodplains comprise geomorphologically important sources and sinks for sediments and associated pollutants, yet the sedimentology of large dryland floodplains is not well understood. Processes occurring on such floodplains are often difficult to observe, and techniques used to investigate smaller perennial floodplains are often not practical in these environments. This study assesses the utility of ¹³⁷Cs inventory and depth‐profile techniques for determining relative amounts of floodplain sedimentation in the Fitzroy River, northeastern Australia; a 143 000 km² semi‐arid river system. Caesium‐137 inventories were calculated for floodplain and reference location bulk soil cores collected from four sites. Depth profiles of ¹³⁷Cs concentration from each floodplain site and a reference location were recorded. The areal density of ¹³⁷Cs at reference locations ranged from 13 to 978 Bq m^–2 (0–1367 Bq m^–2 at the 95% confidence interval), and the mean value ± 2 (standard error of the mean) was 436 ± 264 Bq m^–2, similar to published data from other Southern Hemisphere locations. Floodplain inventories ranged from 68 to 1142 Bq m^–2 (0–1692 Bq m^–2 at the 95% confidence interval), essentially falling within the range of reference inventory values, thus preventing calculation of erosion or deposition. Depth‐profiles of ¹³⁷Cs concentration indicate erosion at one site and over 66 cm of deposition at another since 1954. Analysis of ^239+240Pu concentrations in a depositional core substantiated the interpretation made from ¹³⁷Cs data, and depict a more tightly constrained peak in concentration. Average annual deposition rates range from 0 to 15 mm. The similarity between floodplain and reference bulk inventories does not necessarily indicate a lack of erosion or deposition, due to low ¹³⁷Cs fallout in the region and associated high measurement uncertainties, and a likely influence of gully and bank eroded sediments with no or limited adsorbed ¹³⁷Cs. In this low‐fallout environment, detailed depth‐profile data are necessary for investigating sedimentation using ¹³⁷Cs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Patterns of seismic sequences in the Levant—interpretation of historical seismicity

There are historical accounts of about a hundred damaging earthquakes that occurred during the last two millennia in the Levant, in and around the Dead Sea fault system, and about half of which were associated with additional felt shocks. Several modes of earthquake sequences can be distinguished in them: (a) In 46 accounts, only one single event is noted. These are not known from tectonic settings similar to that of the Levant, and may just be a result of incomplete reporting. (b) In four cases, quakes preceded the mainshock by minutes, hours, and up to several weeks—possibly foreshocks. (c) Thirty-five mainshock–aftershock sequences were noted, lasting hours, days, weeks, months, and even more than a year; four of these also have foreshocks. No typical delay time was recognized for the largest or most significant aftershocks: they appeared up to several months later. (d) Six of the reported mainshock–aftershock sequences appeared in a “storm.” Another 13 sequences are insufficient to specify further.     

A model of a heterogeneous neighborhood

Tel Aviv is a highly ethnic city in which ethnicity is deeply embedded in people’s perceptions of their social milieus. Shapira, as one of the most heterogeneous neighborhoods in Tel Aviv, supplies a unique demonstration of the inadequacy of the Chicago model, which assumes the emergence of homogeneous neighborhoods. The study shows that ethnicity is exercised as a major force in determining social life in Shapira. Interactive segregation indices reveal that residents of Shapira tend to prefer intra-ethnic social networks although two-thirds of them maintain inter-ethnic networks as well. Despite this, residential and activity spaces are highly heterogeneous. Residential spaces are heterogeneous on all scales from residents’ immediate surroundings to the block and the neighborhood as a whole. In most buildings one may find neighbors from two or three different ethnic groups with only non-Jewish residents excluded from publicly owned buildings. Most residents perform large part of their everyday life outside the neighborhoods in ethnically heterogeneous surroundings, but nonetheless in choosing their more meaningful partners for social networks they choose them from their ethnic groups. The fact that residents tend to perform a large part of their activities out of their neighborhood, and to live in heterogeneous surroundings in social categories that are perceived by them salient to their daily life, does not undermine the relevance of the neighborhood as a socially constituted entity in the urban field. People organize and act in order to improve life conditions in the neighborhood, they feel sense of attachment to the neighborhood and they develop some local social networks in the neighborhood.     

PHYSIOLOGICAL INHIBITORY EFFECT OF OCS IN ARACHIDONIC ACID-RICH PARIETOCHLORIS INCISA （TREBOUXIOPHYCEAE, CHLOROPHYTA）

Parietochloris incisa is an arachidonic acid-rich snow green alga. The main physiological profiles, such as ash free dry weight (AFDW), chlorophyll, carotenoid, protein and total fatty acids (TFA), in this alga exposed to old culture supernatant (OCS) at the decline phase or its crude ethyl acetate extracts (CEAE) were investigated by using tubular photobioreactors of different diameters. Results showed that both OCS and CEAE had strong inhibitory effect on the above physiological parameters. The longer the culture was exposed to OCS and the more CEAE were added into the algal culture, the more the above physiological properties were inhibited. Arachidonic acid (AA), the dominant component of fatty acids in this alga, was also seriously inhibited with respect to total TFA, AFDW of cell mass, or culture volume, due to a prebable reduction of enzymes activities catalyzing chain elongation from C18:1ω9 to AA. These results incontestably evidenced that some CEAE dissolving substances existing in OCS, like auto-inhibitors, inhibited P. incisa growth through feedback. Hence, any efficient removal of auto-inhibitors from algal culture to decrease their bioactivity could be good for maximal production of desired products like AA.