Early Paleozoic accretionary orogens along the Western Gondwana margin

Early Paleozoic accretionary orogens dominated the Western Gondwana margin and were characterized by nearly continuous subduction associated with crustal extension and back-arc basin development.The southwestern margin is represented by Famatinian and Pampean basement realms exposed in South America,both related to the protracted Paleozoic evolution of the Terra Australis Orogen,whereas the northwestern margin is mainly recorded in Cadomian domains of Europe and adjacent regions.However,no clear relationships between these regions were so far established.Based on a compilation and reevaluation of geological,paleomagnetic,petrological,geochronological and isotopic evidence,this contribution focuses on crustal-scale tectonic and geodynamic processes occurring in Western Gondwana accretionary orogens,aiming at disentangling their common Early Paleozoic evolution.Data show that accretionary orogens were dominated by high-temperature/lowpressure metamorphism and relatively high geothermal gradients,resulting from the development of extended/hyperextended margins and bulk transtensional deformation.In this sense,retreating-mode accretionary orogens characterized the Early Paleozoic Gondwana margin,though short-lived pulses of compression/transpression also occurred.The existence of retreating subduction zones favoured mantle-derived magmatism and mixing with relatively young(meta)sedimentary sources in a thin continental crust.Crustal reworking of previous forearc sequences due to trenchward arc migration thus took place through assimilation and anatexis in the arc/back-arc regions.Therefore,retreating-mode accretionary orogens were the locus of Early Paleozoic crustal growth in Western Gondwana,intimately associated with major flare-up events,such as those related to the Cadomian and Famatian arcs.Slab roll back,probably resulting from decreasing convergence rates and plate velocities after Gondwana assembly,was a key factor for orogen-scale geodynamic processes.Coupled with synchronous oblique subduction and crustal-scale dextral deformation,slab roll back might trigger toroidal mantle flow,thus accounting for bulk dextral transtension,back-arc extension/transtension and a large-scale anticlockwise rotation of Gondwana mainland.     

Compositional variations of zirconolite from the Evate apatite deposit (Mozambique) as an indicator of magmatic-hydrothermal conditions during post-orogenic collapse of Gondwana

Mineralogy and Petrology - Zirconolite is documented from the Evate apatite-magnetite-carbonate deposit in the circular Monapo Klippe (eastern Mozambique)—a relic of Neoproterozoic nappe...     

Bowing of marble slabs: can the phenomenon be arrested and prevented by inorganic treatments?

Bowing of thin marble slabs is a phenomenon affecting both historic monuments and modern buildings. In spite of the ubiquity and destructiveness of this phenomenon, no fully satisfactory treatment is currently available to arrest and/or prevent bowing. In this study, a treatment based on formation of hydroxyapatite (HAP) was investigated as a possible route to arrest and possibly prevent bowing of Carrara marble slabs. Four different formulations of the HAP treatment were tested and compared to ammonium oxalate and ethyl silicate (widely used in the practice of marble conservation). The treatments were applied onto pre-weathered and unweathered specimens to investigate their ability to arrest and prevent bowing, respectively. Marble behavior was studied in terms of residual strain and bowing after thermal cycles up to 90 °C in dry and wet conditions. Marble cohesion was assessed before and after the thermal cycles by ultrasound. The HAP treatments exhibited promising results, as the residual strain and the bowing after the cycles were always lower or equal to the untreated references, while marble cohesion was always higher. Surprisingly, ammonium oxalate caused marked worsening of marble thermal behavior. In the case of ethyl silicate, most of the initial benefit after consolidation was lost after the thermal cycles. In general, the results of the study point out the importance of evaluating marble thermal behavior to assess the suitability of any conservation treatment and suggest that treatments able to strengthen marble without causing excessive pore occlusion and stiffening are preferable to enhance durability to thermal cycles.     

Thermal expansion on volcanic tuff rocks used as building stones: examples from Mexico

Three cities in the center of Mexico, declared as cultural heritage, were erected mainly of volcanic tuffs as main construction element. Many of the historic buildings of these cities show significant damage and deterioration. One of the causes of these damages can be attributed to a phenomenon poorly studied in volcanic tuffs, the thermal expansion. To understand the response of volcanic tuffs to thermal expansion, as well as to know their thermal expansion coefficient, thermal expansion test was performed on 12 representative tuffs of these localities. In the same way and to know which of their petrographic, petrophysical, mineralogical, and geochemical properties influence this phenomenon, several laboratory studies were carried out to determine which of these plays an important role in the expansion. The results of our tests showed that volcanic tuffs rocks have very varied thermal expansion values, ranging from 0.7 mm/m at their maximum expansion to even contraction in the order of ??0.5 mm/m. Equally varied were the thermal expansion coefficient values ranging from 10.1 to ??7.2 10^?6/K. The most dominant behavior type is the “anisotropic no residual strain behavior”. In general, the behavior of the tuffs in practically all the tests carried out showed a very important heterogeneity in the rocks; however, in spite of the non-homogeneous behavior of the tuffs, three main factors could be identified that play an important role in the thermal expansion of the studied rocks, the chemical composition, e.g., acid volcanic tuff rocks (rhyolitic composition) had greater expansions, while the more basic rocks (basaltic composition) expanded less, the textural and fabrics homogeneity, e.g., the most homogeneous rocks texturally have higher expansion values and the degree of crystallinity, and, e.g., the tuff rocks with the largest amount of glass showed smaller thermal expansions than the tuffs composed of microcrystals.     

The Effect of Surface Heterogeneity on the Structure Parameters of Temperature and Specific Humidity: A Large-Eddy Simulation Case Study for the LITFASS-2003 Experiment

We conduct a high-resolution large-eddy simulation (LES) case study in order to investigate the effects of surface heterogeneity on the (local) structure parameters of potential temperature \(C_T^2\) and specific humidity \(C_q^2\) in the convective boundary layer (CBL). The kilometre-scale heterogeneous land-use distribution as observed during the LITFASS-2003 experiment was prescribed at the surface of the LES model in order to simulate a realistic CBL development from the early morning until early afternoon. The surface patches are irregularly distributed and represent different land-use types that exhibit different roughness conditions as well as near-surface fluxes of sensible and latent heat. In the analysis, particular attention is given to the Monin–Obukhov similarity theory (MOST) relationships and local free convection (LFC) scaling for structure parameters in the surface layer, relating \(C_T^2\) and \(C_q^2\) to the surface fluxes of sensible and latent heat, respectively. Moreover we study possible effects of surface heterogeneity on scintillometer measurements that are usually performed in the surface layer. The LES data show that the local structure parameters reflect the surface heterogeneity pattern up to heights of 100–200 m. The assumption of a blending height, i.e. the height above the surface where the surface heterogeneity pattern is no longer visible in the structure parameters, is studied by means of a two-dimensional correlation analysis. We show that no such blending height is found at typical heights of scintillometer measurements for the studied case. Moreover, \(C_q^2\) does not follow MOST, which is ascribed to the entrainment of dry air at the top of the boundary layer. The application of MOST and LFC scaling to elevated \(C_T^2\) data still gives reliable estimates of the surface sensible heat flux. We show, however, that this flux, derived from scintillometer data, is only representative of the footprint area of the scintillometer, whose size depends strongly on the synoptic conditions.     

The year-long unprecedented European heat and drought of 1540 – a worst case

The heat waves of 2003 in Western Europe and 2010 in Russia, commonly labelled as rare climatic anomalies outside of previous experience, are often taken as harbingers of more frequent extremes in the global warming-influenced future. However, a recent reconstruction of spring–summer temperatures for WE resulted in the likelihood of significantly higher temperatures in 1540. In order to check the plausibility of this result we investigated the severity of the 1540 drought by putting forward the argument of the known soil desiccation-temperature feedback. Based on more than 300 first-hand documentary weather report sources originating from an area of 2 to 3 million km², we show that Europe was affected by an unprecedented 11-month-long Megadrought. The estimated number of precipitation days and precipitation amount for Central and Western Europe in 1540 is significantly lower than the 100-year minima of the instrumental measurement period for spring, summer and autumn. This result is supported by independent documentary evidence about extremely low river flows and Europe-wide wild-, forest- and settlement fires. We found that an event of this severity cannot be simulated by state-of-the-art climate models.