20th-CENTURY CHANGES OF TEMPERATURE IN THE MOUNTAIN REGIONS OF CENTRAL EUROPE

Daily maximum and minimum temperatures from 29 low-lying and mountain stations of 7 countries in Central Europe were analyzed. The analysis of the annual variation of diurnal temperature range helps to distinguish unique climatic characteristics of high and low altitude stations. A comparison of the time series of extreme daily temperatures as well as mean temperature shows a good agreement between the low-lying stations and the mountain stations. Many of the pronounced warm and cold periods are present in all time series and are therefore representative for the whole region. A linear trend analysis of the station data for the period 1901–1990 (19 stations) and 1951–1990 (all 29 stations) shows spatial patterns of similar changes in maximum and minimum daily temperatures and diurnal temperature range. Mountain stations show only small changes of the diurnal temperature range over the 1901–1990 period, whereas the low-lying stations in the western part of the Alps show a significant decrease of diurnal temperature range, caused by strong increase of the minimum temperature. For the shorter period 1951–1990, the diurnal temperature range decreases at the western low-lying stations, mainly in spring, whereas it remains roughly constant at the mountain stations. The decrease of diurnal temperature range is stronger in the western part than in the eastern part of the Alps.     

REE Variations Across the Peninsular Ranges Batholith: Implications for Batholithic Petrogenesis and Crustal Growth in Magmatic Arcs

Rare earth element (REE) patterns of plutonic rocks across theCretaceous Peninsular Ranges batholith vary systematically westto east, transverse to its long axis and structural trends andgenerally parallel to asymmetries in petrologic, geochronologicand isotopic properties. The batholith can be ivided into threedistinct parallel longitudinal regions, each defined by distinctREE pattern types. An abrupt transition occurs between rockswith slightly fractionated REE patterns in the western (coastal)region and rocks with middle to heavy REE fractionated and depletedpatterns in the central region. Further to the east a secondtransition to strongly light REE enriched rocks occurs. Theslopes of the REE patterns within each of these regions arelargely independent of rock type. The first REE transition isclosely coupled to regional discontinuities in other parameters:elimination of negative Eu anomalies, an increase in Sr content,and a marked restriction in petrologic diversity. This transitionoccurs over a range of initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios and ¹⁸O values,but approximately correlates to a major shift in the emplacementstyle of the batholith from a stationary arc to a rapidly eastward-migrating(cratonward) arc. The sense of the regionally consistent REE trends cannot beexplained by crystallization, assimilation, combined crystallization-assimilation,or mixing processes. The consequences of assimilation and high-leveldifferentiation are not observed generally, despite the sensitivityof the REE to these processes. Geochemical and petrologicalfeatures argue that the partial melting of mafic source rocksin which plagioclase-rich (gabbroic) residual assemblages abruptlygave way laterally and downward to garnet-bearing (eclogitic)residual assemblages produced all the changes associated withthe first REE transition. The change in residual assemblagesfrom gabbroic to eclogitic was superimposed on source regionsalready zoned in light REE abundances, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and ¹⁸O. Temperatureand pressure constraints on the source regions place them ina subcrustal location. The calcic nature of the batholith andthe dominance of tonalite and low-K²O granodiorite in all itsregions argue that the source materials are broadly basalticin composition. Experimental studies are consistent with thegeneration of the abundant tonalitic magmas by the partial meltingof basalt under both low and high pressure conditions. Arc basaltssuch as those commonly erupted in modern island arcs and continentalmargins are inferred to have provided much of the source materialand the heat. Additional high-¹⁸O components are needed in themore easterly source regions. These materials must be distributedso as to contribute equally to the range of magmas that occurin a given local region, and must preserve the calcic natureof batholithic sources. Altered basalts of ancient oceanic crustand possibly their associated metasediments, previously incorporatedinto the lithosphere beneath the continental margin during earliercycles of subduction, most readily satisfy these constraints. The REE geochemistry of the central and eastern regions of thebatholith differs from that of oceanic island arcs in the presenceof strongly heavy REE depleted and fractionated magmas. A modelis proposed in which arc basalts accumulate beneath a crustallayer. Melting of accumulated material at low pressure producesmagmas of the western region. Where thickening of the basalticunderplate is sufficient to form eclogitic assemblages, eclogite-derivedmagmas of the central and eastern region are produced. The abrupttransition to eclogite-derived magmas that suggests a processdriven by a density instability is responsible for their origin. The Peninsular Ranges batholith appears to be representativeof a major differentiation process in which mantle-derived basaltis remelted, contributing its more sialic fractions to the continentalcrust and leaving its mafic to ultramafic residues in the mantle.This process preserves the sialic character of the continentalcrust and may play a significant role in its growth and evolution.The batholith and the processes that produced it may be a moreappropriate basis than immature oceanic island arcs on whichto construct models of continental growth and evolution.     

The Cenozoic Basaltic Rocks of Eastern China: Petrology and Chemical Composition

The Cenozoic volcanicity of eastern China is entirely basalticand occurred as relatively small eruptions widely dispersedin space and time, closely associated with graben basins andtheir regional bounding faults. Samples (157) from over 30 sitesin eastern China have been studied. They are predominantly alkalinebasalts, but vary in composition from olivine nephelinites andleucitites to quartz tholeiites. The majority are aphyric butsome contain olivine and clinopyroxene phenocrysts. Whole-rockanalyses (X-ray fluorescence) of all samples for the major and13 trace elements are used, as are the compositions of all themajor mineral phases determined by electron microprobe. It is argued that the most primitive basanites, alkali olivinebasalts, and olivine tholeiites represent primary or near-primarymagmas which were formed by different degrees of partial meltingof the upper mantle at different depths. The olivine tholeiitesrepresent larger degrees of partial melting (8–9%) ofa spinel peridotite at depths of <66 km. The alkalic basaltscarry xenoliths of spinel and garnet peridotite and appear tohave been derived by 1–7% partial melting of a garnetlherzolite (50% ol, 25% opx, 15% cpx, 10% garnet) at depths> 79 km. The olivine nephelinite may have formed by evensmaller degrees of partial melting. Most flows are not primary; the variations in their compositionsare consistent with fractional crystallization from the spectrumof primary parents created by varying degrees of partial meltingof a mineralogically heterogeneous source. The tholeiites havefractionated by the removal of clinopyroxene and some olivine;the alkali basalts by the removal of clinopyroxene with a smallerproportion of olivine. The incompatible behavior of Sr impliesthe absence of plagioclase from any of the fractionating assemblagesand, together with the high Al content of the pyroxene phenocrysts,suggests that much of the fractionation occurred at mantle depthsand pressures. The Cenozoic magmatism of eastern China is seen as a typicalexample of volcanism associated with continental extension.That is, small volumes of predominantly alkalic basalts andolivine tholeiites erupted over a prolonged period and associatedwith extensional basins and their bounding faults. As such,the province is distinct from continental flood basalt provinces.     

Metasomatic Mantle Xenoliths from the Bismarck Microplate (Papua New Guinea)--Thermal Evolution, Geochemistry and Extent of Slab-induced Metasomatism

A suite of ultramafic mantle xenoliths from the TUBAF and EDISONseamounts in the Bismarck Archipelago NE of Papua New Guineawas sampled by video-guided grab. The xenoliths, which weretransported to the sea floor by rift-related, Quaternary trachybasalts,mainly represent part of the oceanic mantle. Mineral zoningin peridotite xenoliths testifies to slow cooling after mantleformation at a mid-ocean ridge. Cooling rates in the range of1°C/Ma were calculated from zoning of Ca in olivine usingthe Lasaga algorithm. Subsequent to this cooling, a strong metasomatismaffected the mantle peridotites when metasomatic agents emergedfrom the underlying slab of a subduction zone, which was stalledabout 15 my ago. This resulted in the formation of orthopyroxene-,clinopyroxene-, phlogopite- and hornblende-bearing veins crosscuttingspinel peridotites and olivine clinopyroxenites, as well aspervasively metasomatized plagioclase lherzolites. The metasomaticxenoliths reveal strong chemical disequilibria between the metasomaticminerals and the adjacent, unaltered host rock minerals, whichare especially prominent in the veined samples. Temperaturesduring the metasomatic overprint, estimated using spinel–olivinethermometry, range between 660 and 950°C. Oxygen barometryreveals an elevated oxygen fugacity, with