Technologies of measurements of the sea level

We analyze the contemporary methods and means of measurements of the sea level and inland waters, describe a CTD-meter designed at the Marine Hydrophysical Institute of the Ukrainian National of Science for the determination of the sea level, formulate the requirements to the perfect meter of the water level, and demonstrate that an electronic sounding stick based on the distributed Walsh thermoprofilometers can play the role of a device of this kind.     

Der Deutsche Ausschuß und die Geologische Vereinigung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

A late pleistocene marine molluscan fauna from the Drifts of the Cheshire plain

Some recent finds from two working pits in the outwash sands of the Cheshire Plain are recorded. The opportunity is taken to discuss the dating and ecology of the fauna in relation to past and present theories of environment in the late Pleistocene, and their relationship to the fauna of the Macclesfield New Cemetery Beds.     

Fold development in the Jura

The term “folding” encompasses a wide range of processes, most of which are poorly understood. Jura folds, though comparatively simple, have developed by a superposition of different types of instabilities both in space and time. They are never periodic and sinusoidal and are more realistically approximated by kink bands with rounded hinges. Thrusting and kinking instabilities had closely similar thresholds, with kinks usually following and deforming thrusts. An analysis of embryonic folds shows that instabilities in the sedimentary cover were initiated primarily at inherited flaws of the basal décollement layer. They thence spread upward, often following stratigraphically higher incompetent layers in secondary décollement and there nucleating secondary instabilities before reaching the surface (disharmonic folding). Embryonic folds thus are usually narrow, emanating from secondary décollement layers that are connected with the basal décollement zone by thrusts nucleated at inherited obstacles. These are eventually overcome, permitting basal décollement to coalesce with kinking instabilities that grow downward from nuclei in higher décollement intervals. In this way folds centered in the basal décollement layer, and consequently of normal width, may be superposed on the narrow embryonic folds. The sequence and importance of the different elements may vary from place to place to result in a vast catalog of fold shapes.     

The northern limits of glacial lake Algonquin in upper Michigan

A number of ancient shorelines formed by late-Pleistocene proglacial lakes have been found in eastern upper Michigan. These shorelines delimit several water planes, the uppermost of which is correlated with the Main Lake Algonquin stage. This correlation is based on the continuity of the highest water plane with Main Algonquin shorelines in Wisconsin and Ontario, the strength of the shoreline features, its altitudinal relationship with lower water planes, and a reinterpretation of radiocarbon dates from the Sault Ste. Maria area. The isobases of this water plane have a bearing of S75°E. At the time of the maximum extent of Lake Algonquin, ca. 10,600 yr B.P., its northern, ice-limited border lay along the Munising moraine, the northernmost of the two main morainic systems of eastern upper Michigan. This interpretation lends support to the idea of a period of slow deglaciation from ca. 11,000 to 10,000 yr B.P. An ice lobe occupied the central Lake Superior basin until early Holocene time. Radiocarbon dates on wood found beneath till or outwash at several sites indicate a minor ice readvance from the central Lake Superior basin ca. 10,000 yr B.P. If true, this would have prevented the development of the post-Duluth series of glacial lakes in the western Lake Superior basin until ca. 9900 yr B.P., well after the end of the main Lake Algonquin stage.     

The major‐ and trace‐element whole‐rock fingerprints of Egyptian basalts and the provenance of Egyptian artefacts

Discrimination diagrams have been developed that source Egyptian basaltic artefacts using whole‐rock major element geochemistry. These include K₂O versus SiO₂, TiO₂ and P₂O₅ against MgO/Fe₂O₃^t (total Fe as Fe₂O₃), and a discriminant analysis diagram using SiO₂, Fe₂O₃^t, CaO, and MnO. A complementary set of diagrams uses easily obtained trace element data (Nb/Y versus Zr/Nb; Zr [ppm] versus Rb/Sr; TiO₂ [wt % volatile free] versus V; and Cr [ppm] versus Zr/Y) to determine the bedrock sources. These diagrams have been applied to seven First Dynasty basalt vessels (Abydos), two Fourth Dynasty basalt paving stones (Khufu's funerary temple, Giza), and two Fifth Dynasty paving stones (Sahure's complex, Abu Sir). They show that the bedrock source for all the artefacts was the Haddadin flow in northern Egypt. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis applied to the whole‐rock data (major elements and trace elements together) and previously published mineral fingerprinting studies confirm these results. Comparing mineral versus whole‐rock fingerprinting techniques, a major advantage of the former is the small sample size required (0.001 g compared to ≥ 0.1 g). Analytical costs are similar for both methods assuming that a comparison (bedrock) database can be assembled from the literature. For most archaeological problems, a whole‐rock bedrock database is more likely to exist than a mineral database, and whole‐rock analyses on artefacts will generally be easier to obtain than mineral analyses. Whole‐rock fingerprinting may be more sensitive than mineral‐based fingerprinting. Thus, if sample quantity is not an issue, whole‐rock analysis may have a slight cost, convenience, and technical advantage over mineral‐based methods. Our results also emphasize that the Egyptians cherished their Haddadin basalt flow and used it extensively and exclusively for manufacturing basalt vessels and paving stones for at least 600 years (∼3150 B.C. to 2500 B.C., approximate ages of the vessels and Abu Sir paving stones, respectively). © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Significance of Europium anomalies in silicate melts and crystal-melt equilibria: a re-evaluation

Although europium speciation in silicate melts partly reflects prevailing oxygen fugacities, melt composition and structure play the major role in determining Eu²⁺/ Eu³⁺ ratios and europium partitioning into mineral phases. Experimental evidence by different investigators on the magnitude of the compositional effect on Eu²⁺/Eu³⁺ provides consistent results only if account is taken of the oxygen buffer system employed in the experiments. The medium-dependent reduction of europium can be understood in terms of the preferential stabilization of Eu²⁺ by a strong aluminosilicate complex in the melt phase, and to a much lesser degree by metasilicate complexes. The stability of these complexes increases as the field strength of the associated cation species decreases. Hence Eu²⁺-aluminosilicate complexes are preferentially stabilized relative to trivalent lanthanides in melts of appropriate composition and their presence minimizes the enthalpy of the melt. The influence of these complexes is particularly pronounced in melts with a high feldspathic component and a strongly polymerized structure. Their petrogenetic influence is best documented through the behaviour of europium relative to the other lanthanides during anhydrous anatexis in high-grade metamorphic terrains and in the anomalous europium partition coefficients of phenocryst phases which formed during the crystallization of highly silicic magmas.