Microstructural changes accompanying the opal-A to opal-CT transition: new evidence from the siliceous sinters of Geysir, Haukadalur, Iceland

Opaline silica (opal-A) has formed in marine, lacustrine and geothermal environments throughout geological time. During diagenesis opal-A normally changes to opal-CT, then opal-C, and finally to quartz. Such changes commonly destroy the original fabrics and any fossils that opal-A contained. The physical changes that accompany the opal-A to opal-CT transition, however, are known poorly. X-ray diffraction analyses, electron microprobe analyses and high-resolution, high-magnification scanning electron microscope imagery of siliceous sinters from the Geysir geothermal area in Iceland show that opal-A is formed of heterometric arrays of randomly packed microspheres (up to 5  μ m diameter) with neighbouring spheres commonly being joined by small connection pads. In contrast, enlarged spheres, lepispheres, inverse opal (two types) and spindle frameworks with hexagonal motifs characterize opal-CT. The textures in opal-CT, which vary on a microscale, reflect the complex interplay between dissolution (e.g. inverse opal) and precipitation (e.g. enlarged spheres, spindle frameworks) that probably was mediated by groundwater in a near-surface environment. The processes deciphered from these young rocks should, however, be applicable to sedimentary opal-A and opal-CT of all ages, irrespective of their origin.     

Tectono-sedimentary analysis of alternate-polarity half-graben basin-fill successions: Late Devonian-Early Carboniferous Horton Group, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Abstract The Devono-Carboniferous Horton Group of Cape Breton Island was mostly deposited in two fault-bounded asymmetric sub-basins which were part of a large intracontinental rift system. This system lay at a palaeolatitude of about 10–15^o S–a warm, semi-arid climate. The half-graben sub-basins had opposed polarity, were approximately 100 times 50 km in size and were separated by a narrow zone of elevated Acadian basement. These features are common to the adjacent structural segments of known rifts, and are unlike those of transtensive pull-apart systems. Sedimentation occurred in four successive depositional systems which reflect a tectonic evolution of increased and then decreased extensional subsidence through the 8–12 Myr interval represented. Post-Acadian sedimentation began with System 1 bimodal volcanics and grey distal braided fluvial sediments deposited in a slowly subsiding broad linear sag basin. System 2 consists of reddened braidplain sediments near fault-bounded margins and mudflat/playa sediments in sub-basin centres, deposited in two discrete asymmetric sub-basins with a general upward-fining trend. Gradual expansion of the mudflat setting and confinement of coarse marginal fades is interpreted as a response to increasingly rapid and deep fault-bounded subsidence. Depositional System 3, is a complex of grey lacustrine offshore, shoreline and fan delta facies deposited in two adjacent half-graben segments with opposed polarity of asymmetry. An increased rate of tectonic subsidence allowed a large standing body of water to accumulate lacustrine sediments along the axis of each sub-basin during this phase of maximum subsidence. System 4 consists of reddened proximal alluvial fan, medial fluvial and distal grey meandering fluvial/floodplain sediments which accumulated in sub-basins with fault-bounded margins and asymmetry identical to those of earlier systems, indicating a continuation of tectonic style. However, an overall coarsening-upward trend indicates waning of active fault-related subsidence and consequent progradation of marginal coarse wedges to fill the sub-basins. Rapid marine transgression and deposition of Windsor Group carbonates, evaporites and elastics continued within a more extensive rift basin during renewed fault-bounded subsidence.     

Relative dating of moraines using moraine morphometric and boulder weathering criteria, Kigluaik Mountains, Alaska

Six measurements of surface-boulder weathering and seven measures of moraine morphometrics were taken at 57 sites in the Kigluaik Mountains, Alaska, to test the morphostratigraphic division of five Quaternary glacial units, to test a threefold subdivision of the late Pleistocene glacial unit, and to estimate the timing of glacial advances. Group means from 70% of the relative-age measures exhibit a positive relationship with relative age of the glacial units. The measures most effective at differentiating between moraine groups were: boulder frequency, tall-boulder frequency, boulder height, distal slope, and boulder angularity. Results of dixriminant analysis indicate that moraine-morphometric measures provided slightly better classification results than those of boulder weathering. Discriminant analysis correctly classified 89% of the a priori grouped sites. Multivariate analysis supports the attempted threefold subdivision of the latest Pleistocene Mount Osborn moraines at the 0.056 level of significance. Estimated ages of 60,000 BP for the Salmon Lake and 165,000 BP for the Stewart River glacial units were interpolated by using the relative-age data and ages of 18,000 BP for the Mount Osborn and 810,000 BP for the Nome River units.     

A Critical Note on ‘Eco‐Civic Regionalisation’ as the Basis for Local Government Boundaries in Australia

The notion of ‘eco‐civic regionalisation’ has been applied recently to New South Wales by Brunckhorst, Coop and Reeve (2004 Brunckhorst D Coop P Reeve I 2004 An eco‐civic regionalisation for rural New South Wales: final report to the NSW government Institute for Rural Futures and Centre for Bioregional Resource Management, University of New England, Armidale  [Google Scholar]) in order to identify the appropriate administrative boundaries for ‘socio‐civic’ regions and ‘biophysical’ regions. On the basis of this analysis, they recommended inter alia that 49 future non‐metropolitan ‘local government areas’ be established. This proposal was adopted with alacrity by advocates of the NSW government's program of compulsory council amalgamation, including official ‘Facilitators’ appointed by the State government to draft formal consolidation proposals. This paper disputes the applicability of ‘eco‐civic regionalisation’ as the foundation for local government boundaries in Australia.     

THE DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGICAL-BIOLOGICAL FEATURES OF CREPIDULA ONYX IN HONG KONG

C. onyx, originally distributed in California, was found in great quantities in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong in 1982 and was identified according to the study of its morphology and the radula teeth. Lots of the individuals of the species lived in overlapping colony, with the female at the lower, and the male in the upper while the sex-transforming individual at the middle. They attached on the shells of Perna viridis in a high density of 715 ind./m2. Studies have been carried out on its population structure, individual size, age and sex composition and on reproductive biology, such as sex transformation, change of the length of penis and fecundity.     

Structure of gravel beaches and their relationship to tidal range

The height of accretionary gravel beaches, determined by the vertical distance between the large sphere zone at the seaward margin and the large disc zone at the landward margin, is determined mainly by tidal range. As the beach builds seaward, this height translates into thickness and so the complete thickness of gravel beach accumulations is a good indicator, in the geological record, of tidal range. Beaches with a small tidal range have the zone between the large discs and the large spheres compressed and sometimes steepened. These beaches are characterized mainly by cusps and berms, both of which yield steeply dipping, seaward building, cross‐strata. Beaches built by large, persistent waves generally have a steep profile, whereas those with small wave height appear to have a shallow profile. Cusps generally have extremely well‐sorted gravels, often in an openwork fabric and with a landward crown of coarse gravel that may grade seaward into shape‐sorted, gently dipping gravels. Berms, which may extend for hundreds of metres along the coast, comprise, in section, very well‐sorted cross‐stratified gravels that may intermittently build seaward for a distance >15 m. Extensive selection pavements typify beaches with a high tidal range and comprise sheets of gravel which are well‐sorted and dip at comparatively low angles towards the sea. These selection pavements form beds that, in section, can be >50 m in seaward length; they grow from clasts, supplied to them from swash or backwash, and which are selected by the fabric of the existing sheet. In some cases, the selection pavements can be very mature having only a specific clast shape and size remaining. Total preservation of the beach sequence in the geological record is more likely to take place in areas of rapid deposition of sediments, such as the marine fringes to a fan delta.     

Fine particle deposition to initially starved,stationary, planar beds

Reported here are results from new flume experiments examining deposition and entrainment of inert, silt‐sized particles (with spherical diameters in the range from 20 to 60 μm) to and from planar, impermeable and initially starved beds underlying channel flows. Bed surfaces comprised smooth or fixed sand‐size granular roughness and provided hydraulically smooth to transitionally rough boundaries. Results of these experiments were analysed with a simple model that describes the evolution of vertically averaged concentration of suspended sediment and accommodates the simultaneous delivery to and entrainment of grains from the bed. The rate of particle arrival to a bed diminishes linearly, and the rate of particle entrainment increases by the 5/2 power, as the value of the dimensionless Saffman parameter S = u_*³/g’ν approaches a threshold value of order unity, where u is the conventional friction velocity of the turbulent channel flow, g’ is the acceleration due to gravity adjusted for the submerged buoyancy of individual particles and ν is the kinematic viscosity of the transporting fluid. This transport behaviour is consistent with the notion that non‐cohesive, silt‐sized particles can neither reach nor remain on an impermeable bed under flow conditions where mean lift imposed on stationary particles in the viscous sublayer equals or exceeds the submerged weight of individual particles. Within the size range of particles used in these experiments, particle size and the characteristic size of granular roughness, up to that of medium sand, did not affect rates of dimensionless arrival or entrainment to a significant degree. Instead, a new but consistent picture of fine‐particle transport is emerging. Silt‐sized material, at least, is subject to potentially significant interaction with the bed during intermittent suspension transport at intermediate flow speeds greater than the value required for initiation of transport (ca 20 cm sec^?1) but less than the value (ca 50 cm sec^?1) required by the Saffman criterion ensuring transport in fully passive suspension or, equivalently, ‘wash‐load’.