The Rio Dell Formation: a Plio-Pleistocene basin slope deposit in Northern California

The Rio Dell Formation (Pleistocene and Pliocene), exposed south of Eureka, California, is a prograded sequence of basinal turbidites overlain by basin slope and shelf deposits. The slope deposits studied in the Centerville Beach section accumulated in a steadily shallowing environment delineated by analysis of palaeobathymetrically significant benthonic foraminiferal biofacies in turn suggesting deposition at depths of 1000–100 m. Lower slope deposits interfinger with basinal turbidites derived from the Eel River delta to the north. Slumped blocks of silty mudstone, and associated silt and mud beds, are common. The middle slope deposits are mudstones; coarser sediments bypassed this zone. Mudstones and muddy siltstones alternate on the upper slope. Shallow depressions, probably slump scars, that have been rapidly filled by upper slope sediment are common. The transition to shelf deposits is marked by an increase in sediment grain size, in the degree of oxidation, and in the abundance of megafossils. High percentages of benthonic foraminifera displaced from shelf depths indicate that resedimentation processes are most important on the upper slope.     

Petrology of Submarine Lavas from Kilauea's Puna Ridge, Hawaii

We have studied 30 quenched tholeiitic lava flows recoveredby 20 dredge hauls and one submersible dive along Puna Ridge,the submarine part of the East Rift Zone of Kilauea Volcano,Hawaii Glass grains from numerous additional flows were recoveredin turbidite sands cored in the Hawaiian Trough. These quenchedlavas document variable primary magma compositions; olivineand multiphase crystallization and fractionation; degassing;wall-rock stoping and assimilation; mixing in the crustal reservoirand the rift zone; entrainment of olivine xenocrysts from ahot, ductile, olivine cumulate body; and disruption of gabbrowallrocks in the rift zone. Glass grains in turbidite sands contain up to 15•0wt% MgO,in contrast to < 7•0wt% MgO for the sampled glass rindson lavas. The most forsteritic olivine phenocryst (F0₉₀₇) isin equilibrium with primary Kilauea liquid containing an average16•5 wt% MgO, but ranging from 13•4 to 18•4%.Lavas and glass grains have more restricted P₂O₅/K₂O and TiO₂/K₂Othan glass inclusions in olivine, because more diverse liquidstrapped as glass inclusions are mixed and homogenized beforeeruption. Variable trace element compositions in glass grainsand whole rocks indicate that the primary liquids form by partialmelting of mantle sources retaining clinopyroxene and garnet. Orthopyroxene xenocrysts formed at moderate pressures provideevidence for a sub-crustal staging zone. Chromite and olivinecrystallize in the crustal magma reservoir as the liquid coolsfrom an average 1346C to 1170C. Low viscosities of the primaryliquids (04 Pas) facilitate olivine settling, and the crystallizedolivine forms an olivine cumulate body at the base of the reservoir.Olivine is deformed as the hot ductile dunite body flows downand away from the summit. This flow drives instability of theHilina landslide on Kilauea. Dikes intrude the dunite, and magmaflowing through the dikes disaggregates and entrains olivinexenocrysts in Puna Ridge magmas. Primary liquids pond at or near the base of Kilauea's crustalreservoir because they are denser than more fractionated liquidsthat occupy the upper parts of the reservoir. The sulfur andwater contents of glass rinds indicate that fractionated liquidsnear the top of the reservoir degas at low pressure, a processthat increases their density and causes them to sink to levelswhere they mix with resident undegassed, near-primary liquid.The fractionated liquids near the top of the magma reservoiracquire excess Cl, owing to assimilation of hydrothermally alteredroofrocks. Magma flowing into the rift zone encounters and mixes with low-temperature,multiphase-fractionated melt. The mixed magmas typically containrare orthopyroxene, plagioclase as sodic as andesine, olivineas fayalitic as F0₇₅ and Fe-rich augite derived from the fractionatedmagma. Magma flowing through dikes also dislodged fragmentsof gabbroic wallrocks that occur as xenoliths. The interrelations in the Kilauean submarine lavas between hostglass and glass inclusion compositions, volatile contents andmineral chemistry reveal an extraordinarily complex sequenceof petrogenetic processes and events that are difficult or impossibleto determine in subaerial Kilauea lavas because of crystallization,reequilibration and degassing during or after their eruption. KEY WORDS: submarine lavas; petrology; Kilauea; Hawaii; magma mixing ^*Corresponding authorPresent address: Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Division of Marine Geology and Geophysics, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149-1098, USA     

Experimental Study of the Composition Join NaAlSiO4-CaCO3-H2O and the Genesis of Alkalic Rock--Carbonatite Complexes

Phase equilibrium studies have been carried out on the compositionjoin NaAlSiO₄-CaCO₃-H₂O with 25 wt per cent H₂O at 1 kb pressurein the temperature range 600–960 °C. Liquid, in equilibriumwith crystalline phases and a sodic, aqueous vapor phase persistsacross the join down to temperatures of about 600 °C. Fractionalcrystallization of a carbonated nepheline-rich liquid in equilibriumwith vapor is capable of generating successively the crystallineassemblages (1) nepheline, (2) melilite+nepheline, (3) hydroxyhaüyne+melilite,(4) cancrinite+melilite, and (5) calcite+cancrinite+melilite.Late-stage liquid fractions are rich in CaCO₃, whereas the vaporphase is enriched in Na. The experimental assemblages are strikinglysimilar to rocks in alkalic rock-carbonatite complexes in generaland in the Oka, Quebec, complex in particular. The successionof assemblages at Oka and at other melilite rock-bearing complexesmay be interpreted as the products of fractionation of a carbonatednephelinite magma by analogy with the experimental results.The sodium-bearing vapor phase of the experiments may be analogousto the fenitizing agent of some carbonatite complexes.     

Contradictory socio-economic consequences of structural adjustment in Kingston, Jamaica

Since the early 1980s, the introduction of International Monetary Fund-directed structural adjustment packages to stabilize the Jamaican economy has reduced the scope of the government, cut back its capacity to intervene in the housing market, opened the economy to foreign goods (but limited capital), and re-produced the colonial version of a non-dynamic, labour-surplus urban economy in Kingston. This paper traces the impact of structural adjustment on unemployment and class formation in Kingston, and the relationship of these issues to housing problems. Rented, poor-quality housing, underpinned by low socio-economic status and historically high rates of unemployment, has created an overt spatial concentration of poverty, located in West and East Kingston. Nevertheless, overall unemployment is currently lower than at independence in 1962, and virtually all housing indicators have recorded improvements over the same time period. These improvements have been due to a deceleration in the growth of Kingston's population since the mid-1960s; government commitment, despite structural adjustment, to improve the quality of collective consumption; and the determination of Kingston's citizens to build better homes for themselves, often aided by loans from local building societies and remittances from family members resident overseas. However, at least a quarter of Kingston's population remains both unemployed and concentrated into areas of poor quality housing. These circumstances in Kingston are compared with those in adjacent Latin American cites under structural adjustment.     

The role and impact of freshwater–seawater mixing zones in the maturation of regional dolomite bodies within the proto Floridan Aquifer, USA

Palaeogene dolostones from the sub‐surface of Florida are ideal for the study of dolomite maturation because they record the early stages of a secondary dolomite overprint without destruction by later diagenetic overprints. Two distinct dolomite textures occur in the dolostones of the Upper Eocene Ocala and Lower Oligocene Suwannee limestones in west‐central Florida: a porous and permeable sucrosic dolomite and a less porous and relatively impermeable indurated non‐sucrosic dolomite. In both textures, the initial matrix dolomite is dully luminescent, whereas the secondary overprint is dominantly luminescent cement in the Suwannee and only neomorphic luminescent dolomite in the Ocala. The abundance of luminescent dolomite ranges from 2% to 38%, which translates to 1·6 km³ of material in the Suwannee and 13·5 km³ in the Ocala. Extrapolated trace‐element contents (Sr and Na) and δ¹⁸O values for the matrix and luminescent end‐members indicate a marine origin for the matrix dolomite in both units, and a freshwater–seawater mixing‐zone origin for the secondary luminescent dolomites. The δ¹⁸O values indicate that a saline, middle mixing‐zone environment overprinted the Suwannee but a more dilute mixing zone affected the Ocala. Fluid–fluid mixing models constrained by modern Floridan aquifer hydrochemistry and extrapolated ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values of the luminescent phases indicate that the mixing zones operated during the Late Miocene to Pliocene in the Ocala and affected the Suwannee in the Pliocene. The luminescent Suwannee mixing‐zone cement reduced porosity up to threefold and permeability up to 100‐fold, which converted many sucrosic dolomites to indurated dolomites. By contrast, the neomorphic luminescent Ocala dolomite did not have an appreciable impact on the maturations. Although freshwater–seawater mixing zones were not the sites of the initial dolomitization, the mixing‐zone environment did dramatically overprint and mature the regionally widespread dolomites of the Ocala and Suwannee limestones. This maturation occurred shortly after formation of the proto‐Floridan aquifer; the timing suggests the matrix dolomites were ‘ripe’ for alteration and that the only prerequisite for mixing‐zone dolomite is pre‐existing dolomite substrates to reduce kinetic barriers. In contrast to recent claims, the results of this study demonstrate that mixing zones can be effective in forming regionally significant amounts of secondary dolomite and influencing the petrophysical maturation of dolomite bodies.     

Possible Non-melted Remnants of Subducted Lithosphere: Experimental and Geochemical Evidence from Corundum-Bearing Mafic Rocks in the Horoman Peridotite Complex, Japan

We report experimental results and whole-rock trace-elementcharacteristics of a corundum-bearing mafic rock from the Horomanperidotite complex, Japan. Coronitic textures around corundumin the sample suggest that corundum was not stable in maficrock compositions during the late-stage P–T conditionsrecorded in the complex (P < 1 GPa, T < 800°C). Basedon the experimental results, corundum is stable in aluminousmafic compositions at pressures of 2–3 GPa under dry conditions,suggesting that the corundum-bearing mineral assemblages developedunder upper-mantle conditions, probably within the surroundingperidotite. Variations in the trace-element compositions ofthe corundum-bearing mafic rock and related rocks can be controlledby modal variations of plagioclase, clinopyroxene and olivine,suggesting that they formed as gabbroic rocks at low-pressureconditions, and that the corundum-bearing mafic rock was derivedfrom a plagioclase-rich protolith. A complex P–T trajectory,involving metamorphism of the plagioclase-rich protolith ata pressure higher than that at which it was first formed, isneeded to explain the origin of the corundum-bearing mafic rocks.They show no evidence for partial melting after their formationas low-pressure cumulates. The Horoman complex is an exampleof a large peridotite body containing possible remnants of subductedoceanic lithosphere still retaining their original geochemicalsignatures without chemical modification during subduction andexhumation. KEY WORDS: Horoman; mafic rock; corundum; experiment; P–T history; recycling     

Ultra-calcic Magmas Generated from Ca-depleted Mantle: an Experimental Study on the Origin of Ankaramites

Ultra-calcic ankaramitic magmas or melt inclusions are ubiquitousin arc, ocean-island and mid-ocean ridge settings. They areprimitive in character (X_Mg > 0·65) and have highCaO contents (>14 wt %) and CaO/Al₂O₃ (>1·1). Experimentson an ankaramite from Epi, Vanuatu arc, demonstrate that itsliquidus surface has only clinopyroxene at pressures of 15 and20 kbar, with X_CO2 in the volatile component from 0 to 0·86.The parental Epi ankaramite is thus not an unfractionated magma.However, forcing the ankaramite experimentally into saturationwith olivine, orthopyroxene and spinel results in more magnesian,ultra-calcic melts with CaO/Al₂O₃ of 1·21–1·58.The experimental melts are not extremely Ca-rich but high inCaO/Al₂O₃ and in MgO (up to 18.5 wt %), and would evolve tohigh-CaO melts through olivine fractionation. Fractionationmodels show that the Epi parent magma can be derived from suchultra-calcic experimental melts through mainly olivine fractionation.We show that the experimental ultra-calcic melts could formthrough low-degree melting of somewhat refractory mantle. Thelatter would have been depleted by previous melt extraction,which increases the CaO/Al₂O₃ in the residue as long as someclinopyroxene remains residual. This finding corrects the commonassumption that ultra-calcic magmas must come from a Ca-richpyroxenite-type source. The temperatures necessary for the generationof ultra-calcic magmas are