Cl,Br and I analyses of metamorphic and sedimentary rocks by isotope dilution mass spectrometry

Isotope dilution mass spectrometry with negative thermal ions was applied to determine Cl, Br and I in rocks which, in part, contained less than 100 ppb of Br and I. Two sets of samples have been investigated: a) a series of Al-rich metapelites of increasing metamorphic grade from the Damara Orogen, Namibia and b) fresh and hydrothermally altered greywackes from the Pb−Zn deposit Bad Grund in Germany. It was found that regional metamorphism of Al-rich metapelites causes no strong fractionation of the halides. The Br/Cl ratios in the metapelites are similar to those of sea water. The I/Cl and I/Br ratios, however, are 500 times higher. The I depleted in the ocean most probably is associated with organic matter stored in sediments. The unaltered greywackes from near the Pb−Zn vein have about the same concentrations of halides as the metamorphic Al-rich pelites. By contrast, the hydrothemally altered greywackes contain about twice as much Cl and I, and about 2–5 times as much Br as the unaltered samples. The element ratios, however, are similar for all three categories of rocks, thereby indicating that sea water played no role in the hydrothermal system.     

Randpazifische Tektonik und Vulkanismus im südlichen Chile

Zusammenfassung Die Struktur des südlichen Chile zwischen 37° und 42° S wird beschrieben. Die Anden gingen teils aus einer jurassisch-unterkretazischen Eugeosynklinale, teils aus magmatischer Regeneration gondwanischer Relikte hervor. Es überwiegt E-vergenter Falten- und Schuppenbau. In den Längstalbecken begann die Senkung im Eozän auf vorwiegend präkambrischem Sockel. Die Küstenkordillere besteht großenteils aus präkambrischen Para-Serien, welche seit der Oberkreide in die randpazifische Tektonik einbezogen wurden. Im Schelfgürtel herrscht seit der Oberkreide Sedimentation auf instabilem, antithetisch brechendem Sockel. Die Andesit-Förderung erfolgte längs geradliniger Fronten, welche sich mehrfach verlagerten. Beim Erdbeben von 1960 wurde der Krustenblock zwischen Kontinentalrand und Anden als Ganzes westwärts bewegt und gekippt. Ein Krustenmodell wird entworfen und dessen Entwicklung unter dem Aspekt der Kontinentaldrift Südamerikas diskutiert.

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The structure of Southern Chile between 37° and 42° S is described. The Andean cordillera is the result partly of a Jurassic-lower cretaceous eugeosyncline and partly of magmatic regeneration of gondwanian residues. Eastoverturned fold and imbricate structure predominates. In the basins within the longitudinal valley subsidence started in the Eocene mainly on a precambrian basement. The coast range consists mostly of precambrian para-series, which were included in the marginal pacific tectonics since the Upper Cretaceous. In the shelf region sedimentation takes place since the Upper Cretaceous on an unstable, antithetic breaking basement. Andesites erupted along straight fronts, which changed position several times. During the earthquake in 1960 the crustblock between the continental margin and the main cordillera moved westwards and tilted as a whole. A crust-model is traced out; its development is discussed under the aspect of the continental drift of South America.

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Résumé Ce traité comprend la structure du Chili méridional entre 37° et 42° S. La cordillère des Andes résulte d'une part d'un eugéosynclinal jurassique-crétassique inférieur, d'autre part d'une régénération magmatique des restes gondwaniens. Dans cette cordillère une structure plissée et écailleuse prédomine qui est déversée vers l'Est. Dans les bassins de la vallée longitudinale le sous-sol dont le socle était surtout précambrien, avait commencé à se tasser pendant l'époque de l'Eocène. La cordillère côtière se compose en grande partie de para-séries précambriennes, qui furent comprises dans la tectonique pacifique marginale depuis le Crétacé supérieur. Dans la région de la plate-forme continentale il y a une sédimentation depuis le Crétacé supérieur; le socle y était instable et se cassait antithétiquement. Les points d'éruptions des andésites s'alignaient; ces fronts tout droits changeaient de places plusieurs fois. Pendant le tremblement de terre en 1960 tout le bloc crustal qui se trouvait entre le talus continental et la cordillère des Andes fut mis en mouvement vers l'Ouest et basculé entièrement. Un modèle de l'écorce est tracé dont le développement est discuté sous l'aspect de la translation continentale de l'Amérique du Sud.

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Downward migration of Chernobyl-derived radionuclides in soils in Poland and Sweden

Vertical profiles of ¹³⁷Cs and ^239,240Pu were measured in soils collected from two sites in southern Sweden and three sites in southern Poland and were modeled using both a solute transport model and a bioturbation model to better understand their downward migration. A time series of measured ¹³⁷Cs profiles indicates that ¹³⁷Cs from Chernobyl was found at the soil surface in 1986 but it has migrated progressively downward into the soil 4.5-25.5 cm since. However, because of dispersion during the migration and mixing following Chernobyl deposition and the much higher activities of ¹³⁷Cs from Chernobyl, stratospheric fallout of ¹³⁷Cs from the 1960s cannot be identified as a second ¹³⁷Cs activity maximum lower in the soil column at any of the sites. Conversely, the ²⁴⁰Pu/²³⁹Pu ratio indicates that no Chernobyl-derived Pu is present in any of the cores with the exception of one sample in Sweden. This difference may be attributed to the nature of the release from Chernobyl. Cesium volatilized at the reactor temperature during the accident, and was released as a vapor whereas Pu was not volatile and was only released in the form of minute fuel particles that traveled regionally. Both the solute diffusion and the bioturbation models accurately simulate the downward migration of the radionuclides at some sites but poorly describe the distributions at other sites. The distribution coefficients required by the solute transport model are about 100 times lower than reported values from the literature indicating that even though the solute transport model can simulate the profile shapes, transport as a solute is not the primary mechanism governing the downward migration of either Cs or Pu. The bioturbation model uses reported values from the literature of the distribution coefficients and can simulate the downward migration because that model buries the fallout by placing soil from depth on top and mixing it slightly throughout the mixing zone (0.6-2% per year of mixing). However, mixing in that model predicts concentrations in the top parts of the soil profiles which are too high in many cases. Future progress at understanding the downward migration of radionuclides and other tracers will require a more comprehensive approach, combining solute transport with bioturbation and including other important soil processes.     

Geology of the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago and the North Kara Terrane in the Russian high Arctic

The Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago is located at 80°N near the continental shelf break, between the Kara and Laptev seas. Sedimentary successions of Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic age dominate the bedrock geology. Together with Northern Tajmyr, Severnaya Zemlya constitutes the main land areas of the North Kara Terrane (NKT), which is inferred here to have been a part of the Timanide margin of Baltica, i.e. an integral part of Baltica at least since the Vendian. Vendian turbidites derived from the Timanide Orogen are inferred to have been deposited on Neoproterozoic greenschist facies, granite-intruded basement. Shallow-water siliclastic deposition in the Early to Mid-Cambrian was followed by highly organic-rich shales in the Late Cambrian and influx of more turbidites. An episode of folding, the Kan’on River deformation, separates these formations from the overlying Tremadocian conglomerates and sandstones. In the Early Ordovician, rift-related magmatic rocks accompanied the deposition of variegated marls, sandstones, carbonates and evaporites. Dark shales and gypsiferous limestones characterise the Mid-Ordovician. Late Ordovician quartz-sandstones mark a hiatus, followed by carbonate rocks that extend up into and through most of the Silurian. The latter give way upwards into Old Red Sandstones, which are inferred to have been deposited in a Caledonian foreland basin. Deformation, reaching the area in the latest Devonian or earliest Carboniferous and referred to as the Severnaya Zemlya episode, is thought to be Caledonian-related. The dominating E-vergent structure was controlled by décollement zones in Ordovician evaporite-bearing strata; detachment folds and thrusts developed in the west and were apparently impeded by a barrier of Ordovician igneous rocks in the east. Below the décollement zones, the Neoproterozoic to Early Ordovician succession was deformed into open to close folds. The exposed strata in the lower structural level have been juxtaposed with those in the upper structural level along the major N-trending Fiordovoe Lake Fault Zone, which involved several kilometres of dextral strike-slip movement and downthrow to the west. A major Early Carboniferous unconformity separates the folded Mid-Palaeozoic and older rocks from overlying Carboniferous formations, as on Franz Joseph Land and Svalbard. Subsequent latest Palaeozoic to Early Mesozoic orogeny, as on Taimyr, apparently had little influence on the Severnaya Zemlya successions.     

Survey of garnets for fossil fission tracks

Andradites and spessartines contain enough uranium to make these minerals interesting for fission track dating. Almandines and pyropes usually are not favourable.     

Experiments on the photophoretic motion of chondrules and dust aggregates—Indications for the transport of matter in protoplanetary disks

In a set of 16 drop tower experiments the motion of sub-millimeter to millimeter-sized particles under microgravity was observed. Illumination by a halogen lamp induced acceleration of the particles due to photophoresis. Photophoresis on dust-free chondrules, on chondrules, glass spheres and metal spheres covered with SiC dust and on pure SiC dust aggregates was studied. This is the first time that photophoretic motion of millimeter-sized particles has been studied experimentally. The absolute values for the photophoretic force are consistent with theoretical expectations for spherical particles. The strength of the photophoretic force varies for chondrules, dust covered particles and pure dust from low to strong, respectively. The measurements support the idea that photophoresis in the early Solar System can be efficient to transport solid particles outward.     

Radar speckle reduction and derived texture measures for land cover/use classification: a case study

This study examined the appropriateness of radar speckle reduction for deriving texture measures for land cover/use classifications. Radarsat-2 C-band quad-polarised data were obtained for Washington, DC, USA. Polarisation signatures were extracted for multiple image components, classified with a maximum-likelihood decision rule and thematic accuracies determined. Initial classifications using original and despeckled scenes showed despeckled radar to have better overall thematic accuracies. However, when variance texture measures were extracted for several window sizes from the original and despeckled imagery and classified, the accuracy for the radar data was decreased when despeckled prior to texture extraction. The highest classification accuracy obtained for the extracted variance texture measure from the original radar was 72%, which was reduced to 69% when this measure was extracted from a 5 × 5 despeckled image. These results suggest that it may be better to use despeckled radar as original data and extract texture measures from the original imagery.     

Composition and Flux of Holocene Sediments on the Eastern Laptev Sea Shelf, Arctic Siberia

A 467-cm-long core from the inner shelf of the eastern Laptev Sea provides a depositional history since 9400 cal yr. B.P. The history involves temporal changes in the fluvial runoff as well as postglacial sea-level rise and southward retreat of the coastline. Although the core contains marine fossils back to 8900 cal yr B.P., abundant plant debris in a sandy facies low in the core shows that a river influenced the study site until 8100 cal yr B.P. As sea level rose and the distance to the coast increased, this riverine influence diminished gradually and the sediment type changed, by 7400 cal yr B.P., from sandy silt to clayey silt. Although total sediment input decreased in a step-like fashion from 7600 to 4000 cal yr B.P., this interval had the highest average sedimentation rates and the greatest fluxes in most sedimentary components. While this maximum probably resulted from middle Holocene climate warming, the low input of sand to the site after 7400 cal yr B.P. probably resulted from further southward retreat of the coastline and river mouth. Since about 4000 cal yr B.P., total sediment flux has remained rather constant in this part of the Laptev Sea shelf due to a gradual stabilization of the depositional regime after completion of the Holocene sea-level rise.