Aminostratigraphy of European marine interglacial deposits

Molluscan fossils collected from shallow water marine sediment across NW Europe and nearby Arctic regions have been analysed for the extent of isoleucine epimerization ( ratio) in indigenous protein residues. The ratios confirm that essentially all ‘classical’ Eemian sites from NW Europe are of the same age, and are correlative with the type locality near Amersfoort in the Netherlands; shells from interglacial marine sediment beneath the type Weichselian till in Poland also correlate with the type Eemian site. ratios in Holsteinian marine shells (0.29) are substantially higher than in their Eemian counterparts (0.17); ‘Late Cromerian’ shells yield even higher ratios (0.46). ratios in late glacial shells (0.06) and Middle Weichselian shells (0.09) permit differentiation from modern (0.01) and last interglacial material. Based on the position of the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary and the differences in ratios, the Eemian must correlate with isotope substage 5e, whereas the Holsteinian is most likely substage 7c, possibly stage 9 but certainly younger than stage 11. Intra-Saalian warm periods may be terrestrial equivalents of the younger substages of stage 7. Extensive pre-Eemian marine sediments along the SW coast of Denmark previously correlated with the Holsteinian are shown to be of ‘Late Cromerian’ age. The underlying till there is the first widespread evidence of a pre-Elsterian till in NW Europe. ratios in molluscs from last interglacial sites along the Arctic coast of the USSR, the Arctic Islands and eastern Greenland are substantially lower than in their European counterparts due to their low thermal histories. The combined mid- and high-latitude data are used to develop a predictive model for the expected ratio in any of several moderate epimerization-rate taxa for last interglacial sites with mean temperatures between −20 and +15°C.Not all sites could be unambiguously assigned to an established interglacial. The Fjøsanger (Norway) and Margareteberg (Sweden) sites previously thought to be Eemian, yield ratios higher than in secure nearby Eemian material. It is yet unresolved whether these are aberrant sites or if they predate the last interglacial. In situ shoreline deposits encountered in borings in SW Belgium and in exposures on the Belgium coastal plain contain molluscs that yield ratios intermediate between secure Eemian and Late Weichselian ratios, raising the possibility that a late stage 5 high-sea-level event attained near-modern levels in the southern North Sea basin. Resolution of these uncertainties is the focus of future work.     

Fluid ascent through the solid lithosphere and its relation to earthquakes

The Earth is continuously expelling gases and liquids from great depths—juvenile volatiles from the mantle and recycled metamorphic products. Some of these fluids ascend through liquid rock in volcanic processes, but others utilize fractures and faults as conduits through the solid lithosphere. The latter process may have a major influence on earthquakes, since fluids at near lithostatic pressures appear to be required to activate deep faults that would otherwise remain locked.Fluids can be driven upward through solid rock by buoyancy, but only if present in sufficient concentration to form large-scale domains occupying interconnected fracture porosity. A growing fluid domain becomes so mobilized only when it attains the critical vertical dimension required for hydrostatic instability. This dimension, depending on the ultimate compressive yield strength of the rock, may be as much as several kilometers.Any column of fluid ascending through fractures in the solid lithosphere from a prolific deep source must become organized into a vertical sequence of discrete domains, separated by fluid-pressure discontinuities. This is required because a continuous hydrostatic-fluid-pressure profile extending from an arbitrarily deep source to the surface cannot be permitted by the finite strength of rock. A vertically stacked sequence of domains allows the internal fluid-pressure profile to approximate the external rock-stress profile in a stepwise fashion. The pressure discontinuity below the base of the uppermost hydrostatic domain may be responsible for some occurrences of so-called anomalous geopressures. An ascending stream of fluid that percolates upward from a deep source through a column of domains must encounter a sequence of abrupt pressure decreases at the transitions between successive domains. If supercritical gases act as solvents, the dissolved substances may drop out of solution at such pressure discontinuities, resulting in a local concentration of minerals and other substances.At great depths, brittle fracture would normally be prevented by high pressure and temperature, with all excessive stress discharged by ductile flow. Rock strata invaded by an ascending fluid domain are weakened, however, because cracks generated or reactivated by the high-pressure fluid can support the overburden, greatly reducing internal friction. This reduction of strength may cause a previously stressed rock to fail, resulting in hydraulic shear fracture. Thus, earthquakes may be triggered by the buoyant migration of deep-source fluids.The actual timing of the failure that leads to such an earthquake may be determined by the relatively rapid inflation of a fluid domain and not by any significant increase in the probably much slower rate of regional tectonic strain. Many earthquake precursory phenomena may be secondary symptoms of an increase in pore-fluid pressure, and certain coseismic phenomena may result from the venting of high-pressure fluids when faults break the surface. Instabilities in the migration of such fluid domains may also contribute to or cause the eruption of mud volcanoes, magma volcanoes, and kimberlite pipes.     

Anisotropy in the Ironton and Galesville Sandstones Near a Thermal-Energy-Storage Well, St. Paul, Minnesota

The U.S. Geological Survey is studying the potential for storage of heated water in a sandstone aquifer in St. Paul, Minnesota. The efficiency of the aquifer to store thermal energy is related, in part, to the hydrogeologic characteristics of the aquifer. The movement of heat away from the injection well is directly related to the anisotropy. Aquifer tests were conducted to determine the anisotropy near the heated-water injection well. The maximum and minimum values of transmissivity along the principal directions of the hydraulic conductivity tensors of the Ironton and Galesville Sandstones in St. Paul, Minnesota are approximately 1,090 and 480 feet squared per day. The storage coefficient is 4.5 × 10⁻⁵. These values represent the average of four determinations of nonsteady flow to a well in an idealized infinite anisotropic aquifer. Analysis of the values of transmissivity and storage coefficient for hypothetical changes in location of two of the monitoring wells where depth-deviation surveys were not available indicates that computed transmissivities vary less than 5 percent and storage coefficients vary less than ±6 percent.     

The mid-ocean ridge axial valley as a steady-state neck

In this paper the mid-ocean ridge axial valley is modelled as a steady-state lithospheric neck in which lithospheric stretching balances lithospheric accretion. Conversely, the axial high is a steady-state lithospheric bulge. The lithosphere is modelled as a thin plate with a Newtonian rheology. It is shown that an axial valley will occur if the rate of viscosity increase away from the ridge axis is faster than the rate at which accretion decreases. An axial high will occur if the opposite condition holds. This is consistent with the observation that axial valleys occur at low spreading rates and axial highs at high spreading rates. By fitting our model to profiles across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the East Pacific Rise and assuming the lithospheric thickness at the ridge axis to be 5 km, we find accretion widths of 6–8 km. We find the width over which there is a significant increase in lithospheric viscosity to be also 6–8 km.     

The 1982 eruptions of El Chichon volcano,Mexico (2): Observations and numerical modelling of tephra-fall distribution

Tephra fallout from the A-1 (March 29, 0532 UT), B (April 4, 0135 UT), and C (April 4, 1122 UT) 1982 explosive eruptions of El Chichon produced three tephra fall deposits over southeastern Mexico. Bidirectional spreading of eruption plumes, as documented by satellite images, was due to a combination of tropospheric and stratospheric transport, with heaviest deposition of tephra from the ENE tropospheric lobes. Maximum column heights for the eruptions of 27, 32, and 29 km, respectively, have been determined by comparing maximum lithic-clast dispersal in the deposits with predicted lithic isopleths based on a theoretical model of pyroclast fallout from eruption columns. These column heights suggest peak mass eruption rates of 1.1 × 10⁸, 1.9 × 10⁸, and 1.3 × 10⁸ kg/s. Maximum column heights and mass eruption rates occured early in each event based on the normal size grading of the fall deposits. Sequential satellite images of plume transport and the production of a large stratospheric aerosol plume indicate that the eruption columns were sustained at stratospheric altitudes for a significant portion of their duration. New estimates of tephra fall volume based on integration of isopach area and thickness yield a total volume of 2.19 km³ (1.09 km³ DRE, dense rock equivalent) or roughly twice the amount of the deposit mapped on the ground. Up to one-half of the erupted mass was therefore deposited elsewhere as highly dispersed tephra.     

Petrochemistry of the silicic-mafic complexes at Vesturhorn and Austurhorn, Iceland: evidence for zoned/stratified magma

Within the Austurhorn and Vesturhorn silicic intrusions of southeastern Iceland are composite complexes that consist of pillow-like bodies of mafic and intermediate rock entirely surrounded by silicic rock. The pillows with cuspate and chilled boundaries are interpreted to indicate a liquid-liquid relationship with a silicic magma. Some pillow-like bodies have a chilled and sharp cuspate boundary, whereas others have a distinct chemical and visible gradational contact with the silicic rock. The visible scale of mixing is of the same order of magnitude as the size of the pillows enclosed in the silicic rock (mm to meters).Two important types of chemical variation in the pillows are recognized. The first type of variation occurs from mafic pillow interiors to margins and into the surrounding silicic rock. These variations are due to mechanical mixing between mafic magma and the silicic magma. The second type of chemical variation occurs between individual pillows. Large variations occur between pillows in P and Ti at nearly constant silica. These variations cannot have resulted from in situ simple magma mixing or crystal fractionation, and must have originated at depth below the present level of exposure. These compositions could have been derived from separate mafic (or intermediate) magma bodies or from a single zoned and/or stratified magma body. Because the Austurhorn, Vesturhorn, and Ardnamurchan composite complexes all exhibit similar variations in P and Ti and because these occurrences are separated in space and time, they are thought to have had similar processes occur during their evolution. The chemical variations are interpreted to have resulted from mafic magma that has underplated silicic magma and become zoned/stratified due to the effects of magma mixing and cooling-crystallization.     

High latitude river runoff in a doubled CO2 climate

A global atmospheric model is used to calculate the monthly river flow for nine of the world's major high latitude rivers for the present climate and for a doubled CO₂ climate. The model has a horizontal resolution of 4° × 5°, but the model's runoff from each grid box is quartered and added to the appropriate river drainage basin on a 2° × 2.5° resolution. A routing scheme is used to move runoff from a grid box to its neighboring downstream grid box and ultimately to the mouth of the river. In a model simulation in which atmospheric carbon dioxide is doubled, mean annual precipitation and river flow increase for all of these rivers, increased outflow at the river mouths begins earlier in the spring, and the maximum outflow occurs approximately one month sooner due to an earlier snow melt season. In the doubled CO₂ climate, snow mass decreases for the Yukon and Mackenzie rivers in North America and for rivers in northwestern Asia, but snow mass increases for rivers in northeastern Asia.     

A chemical survey of the Mississippi estuary

A “snap shot” survey of the Mississippi estuary was made during a period of low river discharge, when the estuarine mixing zone was within the deltaic channels. Concentrations of H⁺, Ca²⁺, inorganic phosphorus and inorganic carbon suggest that the waters of the river and the low salinity (<5‰) portion of the estuary are near saturation with respect to calcite and sedimentary calcium phosphate. An input of oxidized nitrogen species and N₂O was observed in the estuary between 0 and 4‰ salinity. The concentrations of dissolved NH₄ ⁺ and O₂, over most of the estuary, appeared to be influenced by decomposition of terrestrial organic matter in bottom sediments. The estuarine bottom also appears to be a source of CH₄ which has been suggested to originate from petroleum shipping and refining operations. Estuarine mixing with offshore Gulf waters was the dominant influence on distributions of dissolved species over most of the estuary (i.e., from salinities >5‰). The phytoplankton abundance (measured as chlorophylla) increased as the depth of the mixed layer decreased in a manner consistent with that expected for a light-limited ecosystem. Fluxes of NO₃ ^?+NO₂ ^? and soluble inorganic phosphorus to the Gulf of Mexico were estimated to be 3.4±0.2×10³ g N s^?1 and 1.9±0.2 g P s^?1 respectively, at the time of this study.