‘You can get away with loads because there’s no one here’: Discourses of regulation and non-regulation in English rural spaces

Using qualitative data from a research project investigating contemporary rural identities in England this paper examines the apparently contradictory discursive claims that are made on rural spaces. It looks in particular at the ways in which these are narrated - through the notions of rural space as a site of safety, orderliness and community on the one hand and as a site of freedom, anti-order and non-regulation on the other. While the former is a familiar, entrenched and critiqued representation of rurality, the latter narrative has a more marginal and ambivalent place in the dominant rural imaginary. Drawing on Foucault’s concepts of panopticism and heterotopia the paper demonstrates the ways in which the rural is a highly labile concept and emphasises its continual ‘unfinishedness’. However, alongside this, the paper suggests that the tensions and contradictions of the orderly and anti-orderly discourses are underpinned by a particular coherency that is driven by senses of community, belonging and self-regulation. While these do not resolve the contradictions of the discursive claims the potency of such drivers are sufficient to produce a particular inclusive spatiality which is able to accommodate and incorporate the different discursive positions and the practices that are associated with each.     

The persistence of memory: the fate of ancient sedimentary organic carbon in a modern sedimentary system

The cycle of organic carbon burial and exhumation moderates atmospheric chemistry and global climate over geologic timescales. The burial of organic carbon occurs predominantly at sea in association with clay-sized particles derived from the erosion of uplifted continental rocks. It follows that the history of the fine-grained particles on land may bear on the nature of the organic carbon buried. In this study, the evolution of clay-associated organic matter was followed from bedrock source to the seabed in the Eel River sedimentary system of northern California using natural abundance ¹³C and ¹⁴C tracers. Approximately half of the fine-grained organic carbon delivered to the shelf is derived from ancient sedimentary organic carbon found in the uplifted Mesozoic-Tertiary Franciscan Complex of the watershed. The short residence time of friable soils on steep hill slopes, coupled with rapid sediment accumulation rates on the shelf-slope, act to preserve the ancient organic carbon. A comparable quantity of modern organic carbon is added to particles in the watershed and on the shelf and slope. The bimodal mixture of ancient and modern C in soils and sediments may be characteristic of many short, mountainous rivers. If the Eel River chemistry is typical of such rivers, more than 40 Tg of ancient organic C may be delivered to the world’s oceans each year. A flux of that magnitude would have a significant influence on marine and global C-cycles.     

Age constraints on Tarkwaian palaeoplacer and lode-gold formation in the Tarkwa-Damang district, SW Ghana

Two major epigenetic gold-forming events are recorded in the world-class gold province of southwest Ghana. A pre-Tarkwaian event was the source of the world-class Tarkwa palaeoplacers whereas post-Birimian and Tarkwaian deformation, which was related to the Eburnean orogeny, gave rise to the world-class (e.g. Prestea) to giant (e.g. Obuasi) orogenic gold deposits which have made the region famous for more than 2,500 years. A maximum age of 2133±4 Ma for Tarkwaian sedimentation is provided by 71 of 111 concordant SHRIMP II U–Pb dates from detrital zircons in Tarkwaian clastic rocks from Damang and Bippo Bin, northeast of Tarkwa. The overall data distribution broadly overlaps the relatively poorly constrained ages of Birimian volcanism and associated Dixcove-type granitoid emplacement, indicating syntectonic development of the Tarkwaian sedimentary basin. These zircon ages argue against derivation of the palaeoplacer gold from an orogenic gold source related to the compressional phase of an orogeny significantly older than the Eburnean orogeny. Instead, they suggest that the gold source was either orogenic gold lodes related to an earlier compressional phase of a diachronous Eburnean orogeny or ca. 2200–2100 Ma intrusion-related gold lode. The CO₂-rich fluid inclusions in associated vein-quartz pebbles are permissive of either source. At the Damang deposit, an epigenetic, orogenic lode-gold system clearly overprinted, and sulphidised low-grade palaeoplacer hematite–magnetite gold occurrences in the Banket Series conglomerate within the Tarkwaian sedimentary sequence. Gold mineralisation is demonstrably post-peak metamorphism, as gold-related alteration assemblages overprint metamorphic assemblages in host rocks. In alteration zones surrounding the dominant, subhorizontal auriferous quartz veins, there are rare occurrences of hydrothermal xenotime which give a SHRIMP U–Pb age of 2063±9 Ma for gold mineralisation. The similar structural timing of epigenetic gold mineralisation in Tarkwaian host rocks at Damang to that in mainly Birimian host rocks elsewhere in southwest Ghana, particularly at Obuasi, suggests that 2063±9 Ma is the best available age estimate for widespread orogenic gold mineralisation in the region. Argon–argon ages of 2029±4 and 2034±4 Ma for hydrothermal biotite from auriferous quartz veins appear to represent uplift and cooling of the region below about 300 °C, as estimates of the temperature of gold mineralisation are higher, at around 400 °C. If peak metamorphism, with temperatures of about 550 °C, is assumed to have occurred at about 2100 Ma, the biotite ages, in combination with the xenotime age, suggest a broadly constant uplift rate for the region of about 1 km per 10 million years from about 2100 to 2025 Ma.     

Tephra-fall deposits from the 1992 eruption of Crater Peak, Alaska: implications of clast textures for eruptive processes

 The 1992 eruption of Crater Peak, Mount Spurr, Alaska, involved three subplinian tephra-producing events of similar volume and duration. The tephra consists of two dense juvenile clast types that are identified by color, one tan and one gray, of similar chemistry, mineral assemblage, and glass composition. In two of the eruptive events, the clast types are strongly stratified with tan clasts dominating the basal two thirds of the deposits and gray clasts the upper one third. Tan clasts have average densities between 1.5 and 1.7 g/cc and vesicularities (phenocryst free) of approximately 42%. Gray clasts have average densities between 2.1 and 2.3 g/cc, and vesicularities of approximately 20%; both contain abundant microlites. Average maximum plagioclase microlite lengths (13–15 μm) in gray clasts in the upper layer are similar regardless of eruptive event (and therefore the repose time between them) and are larger than average maximum plagioclase microlite lengths (9–11 μm) in the tan clasts in the lower layer. This suggests that microlite growth is a response to eruptive processes and not to magma reservoir heterogeneity or dynamics. Furthermore, we suggest that the low vesicularities of the clasts are due to syneruptive magmatic degassing resulting in microlitic growth prior to fragmentation and not to quenching of clasts by external groundwater. Received: 5 September 1997 / Accepted: 1 February 1998     

Long‐term growth of a valley‐bottom gully,western Iowa

Growth of a permanent, valley‐bottom gully from 1964 to 2000 was determined annually from survey and sediment‐discharge data and compared with runoff and base?ow discharges. Data were analysed to test the hypothesis that rates of gully growth decay exponentially with time in response to shrinking catchment area caused by gully enlargement. Also, monthly values of growth rates and runoff, averaged over the 36‐year record, were analysed with mass‐wasting data to determine the extent to which colluvium availability affected growth rates seasonally. From 1964 to 2000, the gully volume increased by 9200 m³, accounting for 34 per cent of sediment yield from the watershed. There were tight power‐law relationships between annual growth rates and annual runoff, with runoff exponents of 1·57 and 1·30 for headward and volumetric growth, respectively. Increases in gully length, area, and volume were ?tted successfully assuming an exponential decay in growth rate with time. Rather than being due to a decrease in catchment area, however, the decline in growth rate was caused by a 77 per cent decrease in the ratio of runoff to base?ow, which also widened the gully and reduced the mean slope of its banks. Order‐of‐magnitude seasonal changes in erosion ef?ciency, de?ned as the fraction of stream power used to evacuate sediment from the gully, were roughly correlated with colluvium availability, as indicated by seasonal changes in the number of bank mass‐wasting events. No more than 2·2 per cent of stream power was used to evacuate sediment during any month. This study demonstrates the danger of attributing declining rates of gully growth to a shrinking catchment area if corroborative runoff and base?ow data are not available. Moreover, it illustrates that stream power alone provides only a rough and physically indirect measure of erosion potential. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A benthic chamber for intensely metabolic lotic systems

We have designed a flow-through benthic chamber that has the desirable characteristics of: simulation of tidal currents, continuous operation, ability to measure photosynthesis, respiration and nutrient exchanges, and maintenance of near-ambient oxygen conditions in a highly metabolic environment. The apparatus is based on a 1.3 m long Plexiglas tunnel, closed at bith ends, with both constant circulation and periodic flushing. The results of a 9-month study at one location in Flax Pond, a Long Island, New York, tidal pond, show large seasonal variations, influences of both sunlight intensity and seasonality, and a P/R ratio of less than one.     

The Petrography and composition of phlogopite micas from the Blue Ball Kimberlite,Arkansas: A record of chemical evolution during crystallization

Summary The Blue Ball kimberlite, Scott County, Arkansas, contains between 23 and 36 modal % phlogopite. Phlogopite is present as phenocrysts, a groundmass phase, and as coronas around serpentinized olivine phenocrysts. Intermediate and reverse pleochroism, seen in phenocryst cores and the majority of groundmass phlogopites, can be correlated with the mineral chemistry. Reverse pleochroism, exhibited by phenocryst rims, rare groundmass grains, and phlogopites forming coronas around olivine, is generally accompanied by an increase in total Fe (as FeO) and a decrease in Al₂ O₃. Analyses of those phlogopites whoch exhibit reverse pleochroism have high cation totals, indicative of the presence of Fe³⁺. We suggest that these pleochroic schemes are a function of Fe³⁺ in the tetrahedral site, which is expressed in terms of T = [8 - (Si + Al)]. All Blue Ball phlogopites have positive values for T, but reverse pleochroism is found only when T > 0.6, indicative of increased Fe³⁺ in the residual magma. It is concluded that phlogopite was on the liquidus throughout practically all of the kimberlite crystallization, because of the wide range in phlogopite compositions and the general decrease in Ba from micas exhibiting intermediate to reverse pleochroism. Variations of MG #, Ti, Ba, Si, and Al within the phlogopites have been used to trace the crystallization of other phases present in the kimberlite, namely olivine and spinel (chromite and titanomagnetite). Olivine was an early crystallizing phase, causing a decrease in MG # and Si, and an increase in Ti and Al in the phlogopites, a reflection of residual magma composition. Minor chromite also crystallized at this time, but was not of sufficient quantity to override the effect of olivine fractionation on the residual magma. Widespread Titano-magnetite crystallization occurred as olivine fractionation ceased, causing an increase in MG # and Si, and a decrease in Ti and Al. By examining these chemical variations with T, the evolution of the Blue Ball kimberlite has been determined.

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Petrographie und zusammensetzung phlogopitischer Glimmer aus dem Blue Ball Kimberlit, Arkansas: chemische evolution während der kristallisation

Zusammenfassung Der Blue Ball Kimberlit, Scott County, Arkansas, enthält zwischen 23 und 36% Phlogopit (modal). Dieser kommt in idiomorphen Kristallen, als Grundmasse, und als Coronas um serpentinisierte Olivinkristalle vor. Verschiedene Arten von Pleochroismus, die man in den Kernen von Kristallen und in der Mehrzahl der Phlogopite in der Grundmasse erkennen kann, lassen sich mit der Mineralehemie korrelieren. Reverser Pleochroismus ist an den Rändern von Kristallen, selten in Grundkörnern der Grundmasse, und in Phlogopiten die Coronas in Olivin bilden, zu beobachten. Diese Erscheinung wird im allgemeinen von einer Zunahme des Gesamt-Eisens (als FeO) und einer Abnahme der Al₂ O₃-Gehalte begleitet. Analysen jener Phlogopite, die reversen Pleochroismus zeigen, haben hohe Gesamtwerte an Kationen und dies weist auf die Anwesenheit von Fe³⁺ hin. Wir interpretieren diesen Pleochroismus als eine Funktion des Fe³⁺ in der Tetraeder-Position, die sich als T = 8 - (Si + Al) ausdrücken läßt. Alle Phlogopite von Blue Ball haben positive Werte für T, aber reverser Pleochroismus tritt nur dort auf, wo T > 0.6, was widerum auf eine Zunahme von Fe³⁺ im residualen Magma hinweist. Phlogopit war praktisch während der gesamten Kristallisation des Kimberlits am Liquidus, und diese Annahme wird auch durch das weite Feld der PhlogopitZusammensetzungen und durch die allgemeine Abahme der Ba-Gehalte in Glimmern mit intermediärem bis reversem Pleochroismus unterstützt. Variationen von MG #, Ti, Ba, Si und Al in den Phlogopiten wurden benutzt, um die Kristallisation von Olivin und Spinellen (Chromit und Titanomagnetit) zu verfolgen. Olivin hat früh kristallisiert und führte zu einer Abnahme von MG# und Si und einer Zunahme von Ti und Al in den Phlogopiten. Auch kleinere Mengen von Chromit kristallisierten zu dieser Zeit, dies war jedoch nicht ausreichend, um den Effekt der Olivin-Fraktionierung auf die Restschmelze aufzuheben. Titanomagnetit-Kristallisation setzte mit aufhörender Olivinfraktionierung ein und führte zu einer Zunahme von Mg und Si und einer Abnahme von Ti und Al. Eine Überprüfung der chemischen Variationen und Vergleich mit T Werten tragen wesentlich zur Kenntnis der Evolution des Blue Ball Kimberlites bei.

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With 8 Figures     

Hydrogeologic assessment—Figeh Spring,Damascus, Syria

Hydrogeological studies at Figeh Springs were directed to determine groundwater flow paths, research, storage and discharge units, and the maximum reliable yield. The project was designed to provide information upon which to base pumpage to augment low-season flows from the spring which is the major water supply for the city of Damascus, Syria.As a basis for conclusions and recommendations, work included extensive surface geologic mapping, air photographic interpretation, a detailed well and spring inventory, and a quality of water sampling program. Geologic structural work included mapping and jointing, faulting, and folding, and an analysis of their impact on groundwater movement.     

Anthropogenic and natural contributions to the rainfall chemistry of a mountainous area in the Cevennes National Park (Mont-Lozere, southern France)

Nine years of bulk precipitation chemistry data for a mountainous site in southern France are presented. The mean rainwater is of moderate acidity (pH 4.63, alkalinity −4 μEql⁻¹) even though there is high, non-marine, deposition of sulphur (near 20 kg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹). Based on the statistical characteristics of the data set, three major sources of elements are identified: long range pollution, Mediterranean sea salt aerosols and aeolian erosion dust, mainly from the Sahara. Most of the sulphur in the rainfall is present as neutral sulphate salts, owing to the latter being rich in alkaline minerals; this counteracts the strong acid input.