Elemental Composition of Mnemiopsis leidyi A. Agassiz 1865 and Its Implications for Nutrient Recycling in a Long Island Estuary

The ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi is an ecologically important predator in temperate coastal environments. Their populations fluctuate seasonally, serving as sinks of nutrients during periodic blooms, but as sources via excretion and during population collapse. Ctenophores were analyzed for elemental composition (C, N, and P) during 2008 and 2009 in Great South Bay, NY, USA. Salt-free weight percent C, N, and P correlated positively with ctenophore sizes and zooplankton prey abundances. Nitrogen and P were higher at the onset of blooms than during collapse when prey were substantially fewer. Ctenophores collected during average to high zooplankton densities had atomic ratios averaging C/N ~6:1 and C/P ~66:1, but became C- and P-depleted (C/N ~5:1, C/P ~128:1) with decreasing zooplankton. Incubations demonstrated rapid remineralization of ctenophore biomass (as NH₄ ⁺, HPO₄ ^2?), following first order kinetics (e.g., k ~0.1–0.4 day^?1) with enriched stoichiometric N and P fractionation relative to biomass under both oxic and anoxic conditions. Based on reported excretion rates, nutrient regeneration from excretion by active populations greatly exceeds nutrients remineralized during population crashes. To our knowledge, this is the first study documenting natural seasonal patterns in ctenophore elemental stoichiometry as a function of ctenophore size and prey availability.     

Timescales of partial melting in the Himalayan middle crust: insight from the Leo Pargil dome, northwest India

The Leo Pargil dome (LPD) in northwest India exposes an interconnected network of pre-, syn-, and post-kinematic leucogranite dikes and sills that pervasively intrude amphibolite-facies metapelites of the mid-crustal Greater Himalayan sequence. Leucogranite bodies range from thin (5-cm-wide) locally derived sills to thick (2-m-wide) crosscutting dikes extending at least 100 m. Three-dimensional exposures elucidate crosscutting relations between different phases of melt injection and crystallization. Combined laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry U–Th/Pb geochronology and trace element analysis on well-characterized monazite grains from nineteen representative leucogranites yields a large, internally consistent data set of approximately 700 U–Th/Pb and 400 trace element analyses. Grain-scale variations in age correlate with trace element distributions and indicate semi-continuous crystallization of monazite from 30 to 18 Ma. The youngest U–Th/Pb ages in a given sample are consistent with the outcrop-scale crosscutting relations, whereas older ages within individual samples record inheritance from partially crystallized melt and source metapelites. U–Th/Pb isotopic and trace element data are incorporated into a model of melting within the LPD that involves (1) steady-state equilibrium batch melting of compositionally homogeneous metapelitic sources; (2) pulses of increased melt mobility lasting 1–2 m.y. resulting in segregation of melt from its source and amalgamation into mixed magmas; and (3) rapid emplacement and final crystallization of leucogranite bodies. Melt systems in the LPD evolved from locally derived, in situ melt in migmatitic source rocks into a vast network of dikes and sills in the overlying non-migmatitic host rocks.     

Mineralogical and Geochemical Constraints on the Sediment Sources of Late Stone Age Pottery from the Birimi Site,Northern Ghana

The mineralogy and bulk chemical compositions of 15 Kintampo (Late Stone Age) potsherds from the Birimi site on the Gambaga Escarpment and eight samples of local sediment were determined with the intent of characterizing these wares and identifying the material used in their manufacture. Sediment from clay pits still used by potters north of the escarpment contains iron‐rich laterite clasts (100 × XFeO_t = 100 × FeO_t/[FeO_t + Al₂O₃ + SiO₂] ≥10). Sedimentary clasts in stream sediments are relatively siliceous and iron‐poor (100 × XFeO_t < 10). Bulk geochemical data together with the compositions of lithic clasts (laterite, siltstone/sandstone) link the pottery to sediment sources, including escarpment sediments not presently used by Ghanaian potters. Fresh granite clasts found in some of the sherds were not found in the analyzed sediment samples, although some of their distinctive mineralogical constituents (e.g., variably barian alkali feldspar) are present. The analytical data suggest that pots found at Birimi were made locally by mixing escarpment sediment with clay and stream sediment brought in from below the escarpment. This contrasts with present‐day practice, whereby the pots themselves are imported. The place where Birimi pottery was made and the outcrop source of aluminous sediment (mudstone with an “escarpment” trace element signature) used in these wares, however, remain unidentified. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Mount Woolnough: the submerged volcano,SE of Sydney,NSW

Part of a larger investigation of the sea bed off Sydney was a study of the extinct submarine volcano Mount Woolnough. It is located approximately 41 km east of Kurnell, NSW, and protrudes 175 m above the sediment cover at depths of approximately ?550 to ?375 m. Volcanic rock, approximately 2.2 km in diameter, is exposed above the sediment sea floor and is much smaller than its magnetic expression (approximately 13 km in diameter). Samples dredged from Mount Woolnough were conglomerates with phosphatic nodules and volcanic fragments set in a fine foraminiferal sediment matrix. Zircons within the mafic fragments yielded a minimum age of 261 Ma.     

Structure and metamorphism of the Calliope Volcanic Assemblage: Implications for middle to Late Devonian orogeny in the northern New England Fold Belt

The Late Silurian to Middle Devonian Calliope Volcanic Assemblage in the Rockhampton region is deformed into a set of northwest‐trending gently plunging folds with steep axial plane cleavage. Folds become tighter and cleavage intensifies towards the bounding Yarrol Fault to the east. These folds and associated cleavage also deformed Carboniferous and Permian rocks, and the age of this deformation is Middle to Late Permian (Hunter‐Bowen Orogeny). In the Stanage Bay area, both the Calliope Volcanic Assemblage and younger strata generally have one cleavage, although here it strikes north to northeast. This cleavage is also considered to be of Hunter‐Bowen age. Metamorphic grade in the Calliope Volcanic Assemblage ranges from prehnite‐pumpellyite to greenschist facies, with higher grades in the more strongly cleaved rocks. In the Rockhampton region the Calliope Volcanic Assemblage is part of a west‐vergent fold and thrust belt, the Yarrol Fault representing a major thrust within this system.

A Late Devonian unconformity followed minor folding of the Calliope Volcanic Assemblage, but no cleavage was formed. The unconformity does not represent a collision between an exotic island arc and continental Australia as previously suggested.     

Lithostratigraphy and depositional environment of the Permian Nowra Sandstone in the southwestern Sydney Basin,Australia

Lithofacies in the mid‐Permian Nowra Sandstone indicate a middle/upper shoreface to foreshore environment of deposition under the influence of storm‐generated waves and north‐northeasterly directed longshore currents. Palaeogeographic reconstruction for the Nowra Sandstone portrays a sand‐dominated high energy shelf and offshore shoal forming a sequence thickening seaward away from the western shore of the Sydney Basin. The shoal‐crest at the outer edge of the shelf trends north‐northeast. It is characterized by fine‐ to medium‐grained sandstone with upper flow regime structures and a high proportion of conglomerate, whereas coarser sandstone with lower energy bedforms occurs along the seaward side of the shoal. In the deeper water to the east, the lower Nowra Sandstone becomes rapidly thinner as it passes seaward, via bioturbated storm redeposited sandstone beds, into the shelf deposits of the Wandrawandian Siltstone. This sequence accumulated during a regressive event and the base of the formation becomes progressively younger eastward. The sand may have been supplied by rivers along the western coast but the major source was south of the study area. The lower Nowra Sandstone is separated from the upper part of the formation by an extensive ravinement surface overlain by the Purnoo Conglomerate Member. In contrast to the lower unit, the upper Nowra Sandstone forms a westward thickening wedge that represents a backstepping nearshore sand facies that accumulated during a transgression. The upper Nowra Sandstone passes vertically and laterally eastward into the Berry Siltstone. Thus both boundaries of the Nowra Sandstone are diachronous, first younging eastward and then westward as a response to a regressive‐transgressive episode.     

Late Cretaceous ophiolite obduction and Paleocene India-Asia collision in the westernmost Himalaya

Abstract

Collision of the Kohistan island arc with Asia at ~100 Ma resulted in N-S compression within the Neo-Tethys at a spreading center north of the Indo-Pakistani craton. Subsequent India-Asia convergence converted the Neo-Tethyan spreading center into a short-lived subduction zone. The hanging wall of the subduction zone became the Waziristan, Khost and Jalalabad igneous complexes. During the Santonian- Campanian (late Cretaceous), thrusting of the NW IndoPakistani craton beneath Albian oceanic crust and a Cenomanian volcano-sedimentary complex, generated an ophiolite-radiolarite belt. Ophiolite obduction resulted in tectonic loading and flexural subsidence of the NW Indian margin and sub-CCD deposition of shelf-derived olistostromes and turbidites in the foredeep. Campanian-Maastriehtian calci- clastic and siliciclastic sediment gravity flows derived from both margins filled the foredeep as a huge allochthon of Triassic-Jurassic rise and slope strata was thrust ahead of the ophiolites onto the Indo-Pakistani craton. Shallow to intermediate marine strata covered the foredeep during the late Maastrichtian. As ophiolite obduction neared completion during the Maastrichtian, the majority of India-Asia convergence was accommodated along the southern margin of Asia. During the Paleocene, India was thrust beneath a second allochthon that included open marine middle Maastrichtian colored mélange which represents the Asian Makran-Indus-Tsangpo accretionary prism. Latérites that formed on the eroded ophiolites and structurally higher colored mélange during the Paleocene wei’e unconformably overlapped by upper Paleocene and Middle Eocene shallow marine limestone and shale that delineate distinct episodes of Paleocene collisional and Early Eocene post-collisional deformation.     

Characteristics of tropical cyclones making landfall on the Pacific coast of Mexico: 1970-2010

This study evaluates impacts from tropical cyclone (TC) landfalls on populated areas located along the Pacific Ocean coast of Mexico. The period of interest is from 1970 through 2010 and an international disaster database is used to identify the impact from the landfalling TCs. More than 30 landfall events occurred during the period; we examined the top 25 TCs based on rainfall accumulation, as well as the top 10 TC-related disasters based on the affected population. Each event resulted in affected population from 20 000 to more than 800 000. Strong winds and heavy rainfall, during periods of one to three days, are associated with property damage and loss of lives. Our results indicate that excessive rainfall accumulations and daily rates, over highly populated areas, are important elements associated with the occurrence of disasters. Six of the top 10 TC-related disasters occurred during El Niño and three during neutral conditions; however, looking at the top 25 events, 10 occurred during El Niño and 10 during neutral conditions. Three case studies that occurred during El Niño events (Liza in 1976, Pauline in 1997, and Lane in 2006) are documented in more detail as they affected areas with different population densities in the southern and northwestern coasts of Mexico.     

Heavitree Quartzite,a Neoproterozoic (ca 800–760 Ma), high‐energy,tidally influenced,ramp association,Amadeus Basin,central Australia

The Neoproterozoic Heavitree Quartzite is widespread in the Amadeus Basin and has correlatives in all of the major central Australian intracratonic basins. The origin of the formation is enigmatic, not only because of its widespread sheet‐like distribution and uniformity of composition, but also because intense silicification makes facies studies difficult. Recently discovered exposures at the eastern end of the basin are relatively free of diagenetic quartz allowing a detailed study of sedimentary structures and an understanding of the depositional architecture of the formation. The formation, which consists largely of pale‐tan or white quartzose sandstone interbedded with rare laminated mudstone and conglomerate intervals, was deposited in at least four depositional sequences. The sheet‐like nature of the sandstone results from an abundant supply of sediments deposited in a high‐energy, open, shelf‐like environment on a regionally subsiding, low‐gradient ramp. Environmental settings switched both laterally and temporally between sand waves deposited by reversing tidal flow and higher velocity unidirectional currents involving dunes and plane beds. In the early stages of deposition, mud‐dominated, tidal‐flat environments alternated with higher energy, sand‐dominated, tidally influenced settings. However, in the later stages of deposition a major eustatic sea‐level fall moved base‐level basinwards, earlier sediments were reworked by streams to form a ravinement surface, gravel was carried well into the basin and fines largely disappeared from the environment. Gravel deposition was followed by a return to high‐energy, tidally influenced deposits involving large sand waves or dunes. Towards the top of the formation sand waves deposited by reversing tidal currents gradually decline and are eventually replaced by dunes deposited by unidirectional current flow. The transition to the shallow‐marine, anoxic rocks of the Bitter Springs Formation is gradational in response to increased accommodation in a ramp setting which lacked a clearly defined shelf break. The Heavitree Quartzite was probably deposited as a direct response to the events surrounding the assembly and breakup of Rodinia, in particular peneplanation during regional uplift in response to a rising mantle plume followed by broad regional subsidence as the plume decayed prior to the breakup of the supercontinent. The large supply of quartz sand resulted from peneplanation associated with the rising plume and the lack of soil‐stabilising vascular plants, an environmental setting with no modern analogue. The ultimate disposition of fines is not known but, given the environment of deposition, it is likely that they were removed during peneplanation and bypassed the sag basin completely.     

Isotope geochemistry of Paleoproterozoic metacarbonates from Itatuba,Borborema Province,Northeastern Brazil: Evidence of marble melting within a collisional suture

Strongly-deformed marbles may be easily confused with linear and elongated carbonatite intrusions. Both rocks may present similar texture and foliation to the host rock, or even cross cutting field relationships, which could be interpreted either as igneous or high-grade metamorphosed marble. Diagnostic criteria are even more complex when there is evidence of melting of the metasedimentary carbonate rock, such as has been described in the Himalayas and in the Eastern Ghats, India.In the Alto Moxotó Terrane, a high-grade gneissic domain of the Borborema Province, Northeastern Brazil, there are metacarbonates associated with banded gneisses and different metaplutonic rocks. Field evidence indicates the absence of other metasedimentary rocks associated with these marbles, thus suggesting that these carbonates were separated from other siliciclastic metasedimentary rocks. The presence of marble also suggests that it may represent the initial stage of a crustal carbon recycling into the mantle. These marbles present many field similarities to carbonatites (e.g., fluid-flow structure) and, together with metagranites and metamafic intrusions, may represent a major collisional tectonic suture.A detailed study of the carbon, oxygen and strontium isotopic composition of these marbles is presented. This study aims to identify the origin of the different isotopic components. It is argued that these rocks were subjected to temperature and pressure conditions that were sufficiently high to have melted them. The isotopic data presented here support this interpretation and indicate the mixing of two components: (i) one characterized by radiogenic Sr isotopes and mantle-like carbon isotopes, which is associated with the gneissic and mafic rocks, and (ii) another characterized by low ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios and highly positive δ¹³C values. Available geochemical data for the upper Paleoproterozoic indicate that the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of ocean water, varying between 0.7050 (2.25 ± 0.25 Ga) and 0.7047 (1.91 Ga), falls within the lower range of the samples from Itatuba and thus reinforces the interpretation that these marbles are sedimentary-derived and were partially contaminated by interaction with the host gneissic and mafic rocks.