Biomonitoring of TBT contamination and imposex incidence along 4700 km of Argentinean shoreline (SW Atlantic: From 38S to 54S)

The imposex incidence and TBT pollution were investigated along 4,700 km of Argentinean coast, including city harbors and proximal zones without marine traffic. We analyzed 1805 individuals from 12 gastropod species, including families Volutidae, Muricidae, Nassariidea, Calyptraidae, Marginellidae, and Buccinidae, and found the imposex phenomenon for the first time in six species. In high marine traffic zones, TBT pollution was registered and the percentage of imposex was high, while these occurrences were null in areas without boat traffic. The species that best reflect the degree of imposex were those inhabiting sandy/muddy or mixed bottoms. TBT determination and imposex incidence indicate that pollution was focused only in ports with high marine traffic or in areas where ship hulls are painted. This is the first report of an imposex-sediment approach to evaluate organotin contamination along the coast of a South American country.     

One-dimensional modelling of mantle flow

A one-dimensional model of flow between a fixed boundary at the bottom and a moving one on top with no net flow through vertical sections is tested for geophysically interesting mantle viscosity-depth functions. Such a model, although simplistic, may help in answering the question to what depth the return flow extends, at least in the case of moving plates measuring many thousand kilometers across, such as the Pacific plate.It the viscosity in the asthenosphere is less than three orders of magnitude smaller than that of the mantle below, the return flow extends to great depth and the asthenosphere is a zone of concentrated shear. If the viscosity contrast is greater, the return flow is concentrated in the asthenosphere. For a wide range of model parameters typical flow velocities below the asthenosphere are about one-tenth of the plate velocity. The pressure gradient required by the mantle flow may be manifest in gravity trends across moving plates, but no excessive gravity anomalies are required by the model if the absolute viscosity values conform to those inferred from post-glacial rebound data. A thinner and lower-viscosity layer is favored over a thicker and more viscous layer if both fit glacial rebound evidence. The present model may not be applicable if down to the core the viscosity is as low as about 10²¹ N s m^–2 with a free-slip bottom boundary.     

Geophysical greenfield exploration in the permo‐carboniferous Saar–Nahe basin—The Wiesbaden Geothermal Project,Germany

Structurally bound upwelling and outflowing hot fluids in the city of Wiesbaden suggest an interesting geothermal potential at the northern margin of the permo‐carboniferous Saar–Nahe basin, Germany. The Saar–Nahe basin in the Wiesbaden area was previously not a target for intensive geophysical prospecting of the deep underground. We present an exploration concept to investigate potential geothermal reservoirs near Wiesbaden for heat and power production. The acquired geophysical exploration data give new insights into the local geometry and internal structure of the Saar–Nahe basin. The exploration combines a wide range of methods, including the analysis of data, a dense grid gravity survey, as well as two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional seismic surveys. The resulting data, which for the first time reveal the deep structure of the Mainz and Saar–Nahe basins near Wiesbaden down to a depth of c. 4,000 m, show that the Saar–Nahe basin is strongly segmented and contains deep‐reaching active faults. Combining these information with numerical models of the stresses in the fault system and of the temperature distribution in the exploration area, a promising drilling target has been identified, which promise high permeability at a low risk of induced or triggered seismicity.     

Technical Issues and Recommendations Related to the Installation of Continuous GPS Stations at Tide Gauges

Geodesists around the world have begun installing continuous GPS (CGPS) stations at tide gauges in order to determine the exact position of these tide gauges and, in particular, the vertical velocity of the land or the seafloor underlying each tide gauge. The goal is to make these measurements in a well-defined global reference frame. The scientific applications of these measurements include the calibration of satellite altimeters and the removal of crustal motion signals from long time series of sea level change. In this article we focus on the technical issues associated with this agenda, including site selection, instrumentation, monumentation, ancillary measurements, and the tide gauge leveling program. There is no universally best approach to building CGPS stations at tide gauges. Therefore we emphasize the various trade-offs that typically occur, and give general recommendations and rules of thumb based on recent installations and experience. Additional information can be found at the CGPS@TG website.     

Das Zusammenwirken von Sedimentation und Bruchtektonik in den triadischen Hallstätterkalken der Ostalpen

Zusammenfassung Die Hallstätterkalke der Ostalpen verdienen als Träger der Obertriasstratigraphie der Tethys allgemeines Interesse. Ihre Lithologie wird bestimmt durch Ablagerung in einem von Flachwasserkarbonaten umgebenen Hungerbecken mit fast stagnierender Sedimentation einerseits und durch die Wirkung synsedimentärer Tektonik andererseits.Die vertikale Abfolge und ihr horizontaler Wechsel innerhalb der Hallstätterkalke sind in der klassischen Region des Salzkammergutes auffallend konstant, so daß ein schematisches Normalprofil aufgestellt werden konnte. Neben der Hallstätterkalk-Fazies gibt es eine solche mit tonreicheren Grausedimenten, die im einzelnen deutlich davon differiert, aber im Großrhythmus der Kalk-TonSedimentation ähnlich ist.Die synsedimentäre Tektonik wird beherrscht von brechender Verformung der weitgehend festen Sedimente. Es bildet sich ein Netz von Zugklüften mit stellenweise meterbreiten, offenen Spalten, die allmählich verfüllt werden. Tektonische Einengung wurde nur selten beobachtet, häufiger Versetzung und Kippung von Schollen im Meterbereich. Die Interferenz der Sedimentation mit den tektonischen Bewegungen beweist, daß letztere im kleinen ruckartig verliefen, im großen aber während des Karn und Nor ziemlich gleichmäßig andauerten. Sie stehen möglicherweise in Zusammenhang mit der relativen Hebung des gesamten Hallstätter Beckens gegenüber den rasch absinkenden Dachsteinkalk-Plattformen.In stratigraphischer Hinsicht wirken die Spalten als Fossilfallen und lagern oft sehr fossilreiche Sedimente unter Durchbrechung des Lagerungsgesetzes in stratigraphisch älteres Gestein ein. Die Unterscheidung von Spalten- und Schichtlagern im Hallstätterkalk ist jedoch im allgemeinen gut durchführbar.

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As they bear classical stratigraphic localities of the Upper Triassic, the East Alpine Hallstätterkalke are of general interest. Their area of deposition was a starved basin between shallow water carbonate platforms with reduced sedimentation and subsolution on one side and influence of syngenetic tectonics on the other.The vertical successions and their lateral changes within the Hallstätterkalk are remarkably constant. A schematical standard succesion can be given. Besides the facies of Hallstätterkalk with generally red sediments there exists another with more argillaceous gray deposits, differing in details of lithology but not in the general rhythm of lime and clay sedimentation.Syngenetic tectonic activity causes fracturing in the highly consolidated sediments. Among the joints most frequently tension cracks occur, some meters wide and filled with younger sediment. Tilted blocks and displacements are common, but shearing and tectonic compression are rare. The tectonic activity consisted of many small jerks, but was continuous during a long period, i. e. the Carnian an the Norian. This is shown by the interference with sedimentation.From the stratigraphic point of view the cracks are important as they act as traps for fossils and as these fossil-rich fillings are deposited in older rocks, breaking the law of stratigraphic succession. But in most cases deposits in cracks can easily be distinguished from those in normal sediment.

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Résumé Les calcaires de Hallstatt des Alpes Orientales contiennent les profils classiques du Triassique supérieur et sont donc d'un grand interêt. Leur lithologie est déterminée par une sédimentation réduite dans un «starved basin» d'une part et par l'effet d'une tectonique syngénétique d'autre part.Leur succession verticale et leur variation latérale particulièrement constantes dans la région classique du Salzkammergut permettent de dresser un profil typique schématique. A part le faciès des calcaires rouges il existe un autre à sédiments gris plus colloidal dont les détails se distinguent du premier mais leur rhythme principal calcaire-colloide est analogue.La tectonique synsédimentaire est caractérisée par une déformation rupturelle des sédiments largement consolidés. Il se forme un système de diaclases ouvertes qui sont remplies peu à peu. Des phénomènes de cisaillement et de resserrement sont assez rares, des diaclases d'extension et des basculements de blocs sont observés plus souvent à l'échelle de quelques mètres. Pour des périodes limitées les mouvements tectoniques ont eu lieu par secousses, mais vu l'ensemble des périodes du Carnien et du Norien on se rend compte de la continuité de leur activité.Du point de vue stratigraphique les diaclases ont la fonction de pièges à fossiles. Des sédiments fossilifères se trouvent souvent dans des roches plus anciennes. Mais ce dépôts à fossiles peuvent être distingués nettement des couches stratifiées dans les calcaires de Hallstatt.

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Paleomagnetic evidence for large en-bloc rotations in the Eastern Alps during Neogene orogeny

We present new paleomagnetic data from the Northern Calcareous Alps and the Central Alps of Austria. All new data are overprint magnetizations and can be subdivided into two groups: In rocks older than earliest Rupelian, two remagnetizations reflecting both clockwise and counter-clockwise rotation were detected. In rocks of late Rupelian and younger ages, only a counter-clockwise rotated remagnetization was found. Our results together with results from previous paleomagnetic studies from the Eastern and Southern Alps suggest two main phases of vertical axis rotation. The first, clockwise rotation affecting the Northern Calcareous Alps was active between earliest to Late Rupelian. We propose a model where the Northern Calcareous Alps are segmented into individual blocks. Within a dextral shear corridor these blocks rotated clockwise due to the counter-clockwise rotation of the Southern Alps and Central Alps. The second, counter-clockwise rotation occurred in the Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene, affecting Eastern and Southern Alps. In this stage of orogeny, the internal massifs of the Western Alps were already accreted to the upper plate and therefore included in counter-clockwise rotation. This rotation is contemporaneous with counter-clockwise rotation in the Apennines and opening of the Balearic basin, and a genetic relationship is suggested. A second step of counter-clockwise rotation, reconstructed from published data, is observed in the sedimentary basins at the southeastern margin of the Eastern Alps, where counter-clockwise rotated Miocene and Pliocene sedimentary rocks are present. This rotation is seen in connection to a young counter-clockwise rotation of the Adriatic plate.     

Origin of phlogopite-orthopyroxene inclusions in chromites from the Merensky Reef of the Bushveld Complex,South Africa

About 30% of the chromite grains of variable sizes in a chromitite seam at the base of the Merensky Reef of the Bushveld Complex on the farm Vlakfontein contain abundant composite mineral inclusions. The inclusions are polygonal to circular with radial cracks that protrude into the enclosing chromite. They vary from a few microns to several millimeters in diameter and are concentrated in the cores and mantles of chromite crystals. Electron backscattered patterns indicate that the host chromites are single crystals and not amalgamations of multiple grains. Na-phlogopite and orthopyroxene are most abundant in the inclusions. Edenitic hornblende, K-phlogopite, oligoclase and quartz are less abundant. Cl-rich apatite, rutile, zircon and chalcopyrite are present at trace levels. Na-phlogopite is unique to the inclusions; it has not been found elsewhere in the Bushveld Complex. Other minerals in the inclusions are also present in the matrix of the chromitite seam, but their compositions are different. The Mg/(Mg+Fe²⁺) ratios of orthopyroxene in the inclusions are slightly higher than those of orthopyroxene in the matrix. K-phlogopite in the inclusions contains more Na than in the matrix. The average compositions of the inclusions are characterized by high MgO (26 wt%), Na₂O (2.4 wt%) and H₂O (2.6 wt%), and low CaO (1.1 wt%) and FeO (4.4 wt%). The δ¹⁸O value of the trapped melt, estimated by analysis of inclusion-rich and inclusion-poor chromites, is ∼7‰. This value is consistent with the previous estimates for the Bushveld magma and with the δ¹⁸O values of silicate minerals throughout the reef. The textural features and peculiar chemical compositions are consistent with entrapment of orthopyroxene with variable amounts of volatile-rich melts during chromite crystallization. The volatile-rich melts are thought to have resulted from variable degrees of mixing between the magma on the floor of the chamber and Na-K-rich fluids expelled from the underlying crystal pile. The addition of fluid to the magma is thought to have caused dissolution of orthpyroxene, leaving the system saturated only in chromite. Both oxygen and hydrogen isotopic values are consistent with the involvement of a magmatic fluid in the process of fluid addition and orthopyroxene dissolution. Most of the Cr and Al in the inclusions was contributed through wall dissolution of the host chromite. Dissolution of minor rutile trapped along with orthopyroxene provided most of the Ti in the inclusions. The Na- and K-rich hydrous silicate minerals in the inclusions were formed during cooling by reaction between pyroxene and the trapped volatile-rich melts.     

A transmission electron microscope study of exsolution and coarsening in iron‐bearing clinopyroxene from synthetic analogues of chondrules

Abstract— The microstructure of Fe‐rich clinopyroxene from synthetic analogues of chondrules was studied by transmission electron microscopy. The samples were cooled at various rates from 1455 °C to the quench temperature of 1000 °C. Slow cooling at rates below approximately 50–60 °C/h leads to the development of coherent pigeonite/augite exsolution lamallae on (001). A final wavelength of 19.6 ± 1.1 nm was obtained at a cooling rate of 10 °C/h, and 17.4 ± 2.4 ran at a cooling rate of 50 °C/h. Faster cooling at rates between approximately 50 and 450 °C/h yields only modulated structures with a wavelength on the order of 17–19 nm for the (001) orientation. Coherent exsolution lamellae on (001) in clinopyroxene occur in chondrules of H, L, LL, and CV chondrites, indicating that slow cooling of chondrules at subsolidus temperatures is a widespread phenomenon. The variation of the lamellar wavelength observed in natural chondrules corresponds to a variation of the subsolidus cooling rates between ～0.1 and 50 °C/h. The low cooling rates at subsolidus temperatures deduced from the microstructure of Fe‐rich clinopyroxene point to nonlinear cooling, with cooling rates decreasing with decreasing temperature.