Fault‐controlled fluid flow inferred from hydrothermal vents imaged in 3D seismic reflection data,offshore NW Australia

Fluid migration pathways in the subsurface are heavily influenced by pre‐existing faults. Although studies of active fluid‐escape structures can provide insights into the relationships between faults and fluid flow, they cannot fully constrain the geometry of and controls on the contemporaneous subsurface fluid flow pathways. We use 3D seismic reflection data from offshore NW Australia to map 121 ancient hydrothermal vents, likely related to magmatic activity, and a normal fault array considered to form fluid pathways. The buried vents consist of craters up to 264 m deep, which host a mound of disaggregated sedimentary material up to 518 m thick. There is a correlation between vent alignment and underlying fault traces. Seismic‐stratigraphic observations and fault kinematic analyses reveal that the vents were emplaced on an intra‐Tithonian seabed in response to the explosive release of fluids hosted within the fault array. We speculate that during the Late Jurassic the convex‐upwards morphology of the upper tip‐lines of individual faults acted to channelize ascending fluids and control where fluid expulsion and vent formation occurred. This contribution highlights the usefulness of 3D seismic reflection data to constraining normal fault‐controlled subsurface fluid flow.     

Thermal evolution and shale gas potential estimation of the Wealden and Posidonia Shale in NW‐Germany and the Netherlands: a 3D basin modelling study

Sedimentary basins in NW‐Germany and the Netherlands represent potential targets for shale gas exploration in Europe due to the presence of Cretaceous (Wealden) and Jurassic (Posidonia) marlstones/shales as well as various Carboniferous black shales. In order to assess the regional shale gas prospectivity of this area, a 3D high‐resolution petroleum system model has been compiled and used to reconstruct the source‐rock maturation based on calibrated burial and thermal histories. Different basal heat flow scenarios and accordingly, different high‐resolution scenarios of erosional amount distribution were constructed, incorporating all major uplift events that affected the study area. The model delivers an independent 3D reappraisal of the tectonic and thermal history that controlled the differential geodynamic evolution and provides a high‐resolution image of the maturity distribution and evolution throughout the study area and the different basins. Pressure, temperature and TOC‐dependent gas storage capacity and gas contents of the Posidonia Shale and Wealden were calculated based on experimentally derived Langmuir sorption parameters and newly compiled source‐rock thickness maps indicating shale gas potential of the Lower Saxony Basin, southern Gifhorn Trough and West Netherlands Basin.     

Does carbon finance make a sustainable difference? Hydropower expansion and livelihood trade‐offs in the Red River valley,Yunnan Province,China

The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a carbon credit trading scheme intended to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and promote ‘sustainable development’. Hundreds of CDM‐sponsored hydroelectric dams have been constructed in southwest China's Yunnan Province, where carbon finance contributes substantial financial incentives to hydropower expansion. This article investigates whether riparian Handai farmers settled near the Madushan hydropower plant on the Chinese section of Red River have experienced positive outcomes from this project's participation in the CDM. I assess how Handai individuals' access to core livelihood assets has been modified following dam completion and probe how the CDM reconfigures scalar relations among the various stakeholders involved in hydropower governance in Yunnan. Though the CDM facilitates hydropower expansion, it fails to produce development that is more sustainable than ‘business as usual’ from a local perspective. Rather, the CDM consolidates hydropower governance in the same way as it unfolded in Yunnan before the province became an active participant in this scheme. The CDM also facilitates a national development campaign fostering specific socio‐economic modernization patterns in China's western provinces.     

It's not all about wealth and beauty: Changing perceptions of fatness among Makola market women of Accra,Ghana

Within the African context, body shape preferences may be influenced by culture without necessarily taking into consideration health implications. Thus, fatness is culturally associated with beauty, prosperity, and prestige while thinness is perceived as a sign of ill‐health or poverty. Using a cross section of Makola market women, who traditionally are perceived as fat and affluent, our findings revealed that the perception of fatness as a sign of richness and beauty is changing due to women's access to knowledge and information on the health implications of fatness. The challenge for these women however, is adhering to healthy lifestyles despite living sedentary lives in the market place which is a conducive environment for one to become fat. We recommend that qualified professionals should encourage these women through continuous programmes on regenerative health and nutrition aimed at healthy lifestyle behaviour at the market places. The social groups that women belong to should be targeted, trained and equipped with the right information on healthy living so that they can disseminate this information to other members of their networks.     

Effects of Dredging Activities on Growth of Laminaria saccharina

Abstract. The possible effects of fine-grained deposits on the photosynthesis, growth, and nutrient uptake of Laminaria have been studied in field and laboratory experiments. Some of the plants were treated with fine-grained material for two hours and then transplanted in rows together with untreated plants. At two-week intervals the treatment was repeated and samples collected. The macroalgae were analyzed for growth as well as chlorophyll a , nitrogen, and phosphorus content. In the laboratory experiments, plants of a uniform size were incubated in Plexiglas containers after leaf-marking and treatment in a sediment suspension. At weekly intervals, photosynthesis, growth, chlorophyll a , and nutrients were analyzed.
The field study showed that Laminaria growth was significantly affected by the fine-grained material. The growth in the control experiment was 20% higher than in the treated plants. The chlorophyll a concentrations in the treated plants were significantly lower than in the control experiment, and the results indicated a reduced nutrient uptake in the treated plants. In the laboratory experiments the growth of the treated plants was only 30% of the controls, but no differences in photosynthetic capacities were detected. Nitrogen uptake was reduced in the treated plants, but no effects were observed on phosphorus uptake. Thick layers of fine-grained material caused direct harmful effects and rotting.
The results are discussed in relation to dredging activities; it is concluded that in heavy sedimentation areas, Laminaria growth may be significantly reduced beyond the indirect effect of shading from suspended material in the water.     

Petrology,phase equilibria modelling and zircon U–Pb geochronology of Paleoproterozoic mafic granulites from the Fuping Complex,North China Craton

The Fuping Complex is one of the important basement terranes within the central segment of the Trans‐North China Orogen (TNCO) where mafic granulites are exposed as boudins within tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite (TTG) gneisses. Garnet in these granulites shows compositional zoning with homogeneous cores formed in the peak metamorphic stage, surrounded by thin rims with an increase in almandine and decrease in grossular contents suggesting retrograde decompression and cooling. Petrological and phase equilibria studies including pseudosection calculation using thermocalc define a clockwise P–T path. The peak mineral assemblages comprise garnet+clinopyroxene+amphibole+quartz+plagioclase+K‐feldspar+ilmenite±orthopyroxene±magnetite, with metamorphic P–T conditions estimated at 8.2–9.2 kbar, 870–882 °C (15FP‐02), 9.6–11.3 kbar, 855–870 °C (15FP‐03) and 9.7–10.5 kbar, 880–900 °C (15FP‐06) respectively. The pseudosections for the subsequent retrograde stages based on relatively higher H₂O contents from P/T–M(H₂O) diagrams define the retrograde P–T conditions of <6.1 kbar, <795 °C (15FP‐02), 5.6–5.8 kbar, <795 °C (15FP‐03), and <9 kbar, <865 °C (15FP‐06) respectively. Data from LA‐ICP‐MS zircon U–Pb dating show that the mafic dyke protoliths of the granulite were emplaced at c. 2327 Ma. The metamorphic zircon shows two groups of ages at 1.96–1.90 Ga (peak at 1.93–1.92 Ga) and 1.89–1.80 Ga (peak at 1.86–1.83 Ga), consistent with the two metamorphic events widely reported from different segments of the TNCO. The 1.93–1.92 Ga ages are considered to date the peak granulite facies metamorphism, whereas the 1.86–1.83 Ga ages are correlated with the retrograde event. Thus, the collisional assembly of the major crustal blocks in the North China Craton (NCC) might have occurred during 1.93–1.90 Ga, marking the final cratonization of the NCC.     

Formation and preservation of fresh lawsonite: Geothermobarometry of the North Makran Blueschists,southeast Iran

A low‐grade metamorphic “Coloured Mélange” in North Makran (SE Iran) contains lenses and a large klippe of low temperature, lawsonite‐bearing blueschists formed during the Cretaceous closure of the Tethys Ocean. The largest blueschist outcrop is a >1,000 m thick coherent unit with metagabbros overlain by interlayered metabasalts and metavolcanoclastic rocks. Blueschist metamorphism is only incipient in coarse‐grained rocks, whereas finer grained, foliated samples show thorough metamorphic recrystallization. The low‐variance blueschist peak assemblage is glaucophane, lawsonite, titanite, jadeite±phengitic mica. Investigated phase diagram sections of three blueschists with different protoliths yield peak conditions of ~300–380°C at 9–14 kbar. Magnesio‐hornblende and rutile cores indicate early amphibolite facies metamorphism at >460°C and 2–4 kbar. Later conditions at slightly higher pressures of 6–9 kbar at 350–450°C are recorded by barroisite, omphacite and rutile assemblages before entering into the blueschist facies and finally following a retrograde path through the pumpellyite–actinolite facies across the lawsonite stability field. Assuming that metamorphic pressure is lithostatic pressure, the corresponding counterclockwise P–T path is explained by burial along a warm geothermal gradient (~15°C/km) in a young subduction system, followed by exhumation along a cold gradient (~8°C/km); a specific setting that allows preservation of fresh undecomposed lawsonite in glaucophane‐bearing rocks.