Zircon M257 ‐ a Homogeneous Natural Reference Material for the Ion Microprobe U‐Pb Analysis of Zircon

We introduce and propose zircon M257 as a future reference material for the determination of zircon U‐Pb ages by means of secondary ion mass spectrometry. This light brownish, flawless, cut gemstone specimen from Sri Lanka weighed 5.14 g (25.7 carats). Zircon M257 has TIMS‐determined, mean isotopic ratios (2s uncertainties) of 0.09100 ± 0.00003 for ²⁰⁶pb/²³⁸U and 0.7392 ± 0.0003 for ²⁰⁷pb/²³⁵U. Its ²⁰⁶pb/²³⁸U age is 561.3 ± 0.3 Ma (unweighted mean, uncertainty quoted at the 95% confidence level); the U‐Pb system is concordant within uncertainty of decay constants. Zircon M257 contains ～ 840 μg g^?1 U (Th/U ～ 0.27). The material exhibits remarkably low heterogeneity, with a virtual absence of any internal textures even in cathodoluminescence images. The uniform, moderate degree of radiation damage (estimated from the expansion of unit‐cell parameters, broadening of Raman spectral parameters and density) corresponds well, within the “Sri Lankan trends”, with actinide concentrations, U‐Pb age, and the calculated alpha fluence of 1.66 × 10¹⁸ g^?1. This, and a (U+Th)/He age of 419 ± 9 Ma (2s), enables us to exclude any unusual thermal history or heat treatment, which could potentially have affected the retention of radiogenic Pb. The oxygen isotope ratio of this zircon is 13.9%o VSMOW suggesting a metamorphic genesis in a marble or calc‐silicate skarn.     

Experimental study of a jotunite (hypersthene monzodiorite): constraints on the parent magma composition and crystallization conditions (P,T, f O 2) of the Bjerkreim-Sokndal layered intrusion (Norway)

The Bjerkreim-Sokndal layered intrusion is part of the Rogaland anorthosite Province of southern Norway and is made of cumulates of the anorthositemangerite-charnockite suite. This study presents experimental phase equilibrium data for one of the finegrained jotunite (Tjörn locality) occurring along its northwestern lobe. These experimental data show that a jotunitic liquid similar in composition to the Tjörn jotunite, but slightly more magnesian and with a higher plagioclase component is the likely parent of macrocyclic units (MCU)III and IV of the intrusion. The limit of the olivine stability field in the experimentally determined phase diagram as well as comparison of the Al₂O₃ content of low-Ca pyroxenes from experiments and cumulates (1.5%) yields a pressure of emplacement 5 kbar. Experimentally determined Fe-Ti oxide equilibria compared to the order of cumulus arrival in the intrusion show that the oxygen fugacity was close to FMQ (fayalite-magnetite-quartz) during the early crystallization. It subsequently decreased relative to this buffer when magnetite disappeared from the cumulus assemblage and then increased until the reentry of this mineral. Calculated densities of experimental liquids show a density increase with fractionation at 7, 10 and 13 kbar due to the predominance of plagioclase in the crystallizing assemblage. At 5 kbar and 1 atm (FMQ-1), where plagioclase is the liquidus phase, density first increases and then drops when olivine (5 kbar) or olivine+ilmenite (1 atm: FMQ-1) precipitate. At 1 atm and NNO (nickel-nickel oxide), the presence of both magnetite and ilmenite as near liquidus phases induces a density decrease. In the Bjerkreim magma chamber, oxides are early cumulus phases and liquid density is then supposed to have decreased during fractionation. This density path implies that new influxes of magma emplaced in the chamber were both hotter and denser than the resident magma. The density contrast inferred between plagioclase and the parent magma shows that this mineral was not able to sink in the magma, suggesting anin situ crystallization process.     

Evaluation of spatially clustered ordnance when using compliance sampling surveys after clean-up at military training sites

After site clean-up teams have removed all of what they believe to be UXO within a specific impact area, statistical compliance sampling is a possible method for verifying with a specified probability that this area has been cleaned to specifications. Schilling [J Qual Technol 10(2):47–51, 1978, Acceptance sampling in quality control. Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1982] developed a compliance sampling methodology based on the hypergeometric distribution. Bowen and Bennett (1987) also use compliance sampling where they provide an approximation for estimating the number of samples (n) required to state with desired probability that the entire population of sample units (N, where n < N) are in compliance with cleanup goals. This article describes two methods (anomaly and transect) for applying the Schilling [J Qual Technol 10(2):47–51, 1978, Acceptance sampling in quality control. Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1982] compliance sampling method to military training sites. After describing these methods, a simulation study is presented which demonstrates the performance of transect compliance sampling calculations based on varied degrees of clustered UXO within a specific impact area and different types of sampling routines.     

Freezing as a method of sample preservation for the analysis of dissolved inorganic nutrients in seawater

It is often desirable or necessary to store collected seawater samples prior to analysis for dissolved inorganic nutrients. It is therefore important to establish preservation and storage techniques that will ensure sample integrity and will not alter the precision or accuracy of analysis. We have performed a series of experiments on the storage of nutrient samples collected at the oligotrophic North Pacific benchmark Station ALOHA, using both standard autoanalyses and low-level techniques. Our results reveal that for oligotrophic oceanic waters, the immediate freezing of an unfiltered water sample in a clean polyethylene bottle is a suitable preservation method. This procedure is simple, it avoids potentially contaminating sample manipulations and chemical additions, and it adequately preserves the concentrations of nitrate + nitrite, soluble reactive phosphate, and soluble reactive silicate within a single water sample.     

Differential unroofing within the central metasedimentary Belt of the Grenville Orogen: constraints from 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology

An ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar thermochronological investigation of upper greenschist to granulite facies gneiss, amphibolite and marble was conducted in the Central Metasedimentary Belt (CMB), Ontario, to constrain its cooling history. Incremental ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar release spectra indicate that substantial differential unroofing occurred in the CMB between 1000 and 600 Ma. A consistent pattern of significantly older hornblende and phlogopite ⁴⁰Ar/³Ar cooling ages on the southeast sides of major northeast striking shear zones is interpreted to reflect late displacement due to extensional deformation. Variations in hornblende ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age plateaus exceeding 200 Ma occur over distances less than 50 km with major age discontinuities occurring across the Robertson Lake shear zone and the Sharbot Lake mylonite zone which separate the Sharbot Lake terrane from the Elzevir and Frontenac terranes. Extensional displacements of up to 14 km are inferred between the Frontenac and Elzevir terranes of the CMB. No evidence for significant post argon-closure vertical displacement is indicated in the vicinity of the Perth Road mylonite within the Frontenac terrane. Variations of nearly 100 Ma in phlogopite ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar plateau ages occur in undeformed marble on either side of the Bancroft Shear Zone. Phlogopites from sheared and mylonitized marble within the shear zone yield ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar diffusional loss profiles, but have older geologically meaningless ages thought to reflect incorporation of excess argon. By 900 Ma, southeast directed extension was occurring throughout the CMB, possibly initiated along previous zones of compressional shearing. An easterly migration of active zones of extension is inferred, possibly related to an earlier, overall easterly migration of active zones of regional thrusting and easterly migration of an ancient subduction zone. The duration of extensional shearing is not well constrained, but must have ceased before 600 Ma as required by the deposition of overlying undeformed Cambrian and/or Ordovician sedimentary rocks.Contribution No. 481 from the Mineralogical Laboratory, University of Michigan     

Ice caps existed throughout the Lateglacial Interstadial in northern Scotland

We constrain, in detail, fluctuations of two former ice caps in NW Scotland with multibeam seabed surveys, geomorphological mapping and cosmogenic ¹⁰Be isotope analyses. We map a continuous sequence of 40 recessional moraines stretching from ～10 km offshore to the Wester Ross mountains. Surface‐exposure ages from boulders on moraine ridges in Assynt and the Summer Isles region show that substantial, dynamic, ice caps existed in NW Scotland between 13 and 14 ka BP. We interpret this as strong evidence that large active glaciers probably survived throughout the Lateglacial Interstadial, and that during the Older Dryas period (ca. 14 ka BP) ice caps in NW Scotland were thicker and considerably more extensive than in the subsequent Younger Dryas Stadial. By inference, we suggest that Lateglacial ice‐cap oscillations in Scotland reflect the complex interplay between changing temperature and precipitation regimes during this climatically unstable period (ca. 15–11 ka BP). © Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) copyright 2008. Reproduced with the permission of NERC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ACE‐2 multiple angle micro‐pulse lidar observations from Las Galletas, Tenerife, Canary Islands

Multiple‐angle micro‐pulse lidar (MPL) observations were made at Las Galletas on Tenerife, Canary Islands during the Aerosol Characterization Experiment‐2 (ACE‐2) conducted June–July, 1997. A principal objective of the MPL observations was to characterize the temporal/spatial distributions of aerosols in the region, particularly to identify and profile elevated Saharan dust layers which occur intermittently during the June–July time period. Vertical and slant angle measurements taken 16 and 17 July characterize such an occurrence, providing aerosol backscatter, extinction, and optical depth profiles of the dust layer between 1 and 5 km above mean sea level (MSL). Additionally, horizontal measurements taken in Las Galletas throughout the 6‐week period provide a time profile of the varying aerosol extinction at the surface. This profile exhibits the alternating periods of clean maritime air and pollution outbreaks that typified the region. Horizontal measurements also provide some evidence suggesting the possible influx of Saharan dust from the free troposphere to the surface. This paper presents estimates of aerosol optical properties retrieved from the multi‐angle MPL measurements in addition to an outline of the methodologies employed to obtain these results.     

Petroleum geoscience in Norden - exploration, production and organization

Offshore exploration in Norway and Denmark-in the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea-has involved drilling about 850 wildcat wells, resulting in about 300 oil and gas finds, of which 84 are fields with production. The recoverable resources of all these finds total about 65 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Almost all these hydrocarbons come from a Jurassic source and the main reservoirs and traps are Jurassic sandstones in fault blocks and Paleocene sandstones or Cretaceous chalks in gentle domes. The article describes four major fields-Ekofisk, Gullfaks, Ormen Lange and SnФhvitto illustrate some of the many challenges in developing and producing the hydrocarbons.
Elsewhere in Norden, there has been much less exploration. Drilling results have mostly been negative in mainland Sweden, onshore Denmark, onshore Svalbard and on- and offshore West Greenland. Minor oil finds have been made in Palaeozoic rocks in the Baltic Sea. The first wells have recently been drilled off the Faroe Islands, resulting in one discovery. No drilling has taken place on- or offshore East Greenland.
As a result of the hydrocarbon activities in Norway and Denmark, petroleum geoscience there has flourished, with 2000 geoscientists currently employed in the industry, many technical innovations made, a wealth of publically available information and a great increase in the understanding of the geology.