Proximal stratigraphy and syn-eruptive faulting in rhyolitic Grants Ridge Tuff, New Mexico, USA

Proximal deposits of the 3.3 Ma Grants Ridge Tuff, part of a 5-km³ topaz rhyolite sequence, are composed of basal pyroclastic flow, surge, and fallout deposits, a thick central ignimbrite, and upper surge and fallout deposits. Large lithic blocks (≤2 m) of underlying sedimentary and granitic bedrock that are present in lower pyroclastic flow and fallout deposits indicate that the eruptive sequence began with explosive, conduit-excavating eruptions. The massive, nonwelded central ignimbrite displays evidence for postemplacement deformation. The upper pyroclastic surge deposits are dominated by fine ash, some beds containing accretionary lapilli, soft-sediment deformation features, and mud-coated lithic lapilli, indicating an explosive, hydromagmatic component to these later eruptions. The upper fall and surge deposits are overlain by fluvially reworked volcaniclastic deposits that truncate the primary section with a relatively planar surface. The proximal, upper pyroclastic surge and Plinian fall deposits are preserved only in small grabens (5–8 m deep and wide), where they subsided into the ignimbrite and were protected from reworking. The pyroclastic surge and fall deposits within the grabens are offset by numerous small normal faults. The offset on some faults decreases upward through the section, indicating that the faulting process may have been syn-eruptive. Several graben-bounding faults extend downward into the ignimbrite, but the uppermost, fluvially reworked tephra layers are not cut by these faults. The faulting mechanism may have been related to settling and compaction of the 60 m thick, valley-filling ignimbrite along the axis of the paleovalley. Draping surge contacts against the graben faults and brittle and soft-style disruption of the upper pyroclastic surge beds indicate that subsidence was ongoing during the emplacement of the upper eruptive sequence. Seismicity accompanying the late-stage hydromagmatic explosions may have contributed to the abrupt settling and compaction of the ignimbrite.     

The favelas of Rio de Janeiro: A temporal and spatial analysis

A spatial and temporal analysis, at a city wide scale, is given of the main type of informal housing (favelas) in Rio de Janeiro. Rapid change in the number and distribution of favelas and their inhabitants (favelados) over time is seen as the outcome of two opposing sets of factors. Demand-led housing factors, including population growth and variations in levels of poverty in the city, have constantly outstripped the supply side of the housing equation where inadequate housing policies and investment, together with restricted building land have been characteristic. Added to these factors are a set of more specific developments which shape the favela geography, including the timing and location of urban redevelopment, favela eradication and recognition, transport development and access by the favelados to employment sources. Evidence shows that the contemporary distribution of favelas in the city does not conform to spatial models of this urban form, and that any interpretation of the Rio favelas, including their growth, development and diversity, needs to be space and time specific. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Grain growth and inclusion formation in partially molten carbonate rocks

To learn more about the kinetics and mechanisms of coarsening and melt inclusion formation, we investigated the effects of melt content, viscosity, and topology on the microstructural evolution of partially molten and melt-free calcite aggregates. Synthetic marbles with eutectic melts were produced by annealing mixtures of calcite and either calcium hydroxide or lithium carbonate for up to 80 h at a confining pressure of 300 MPa and temperatures of 973-1,023 K. The melts produced in the two systems are expected to differ significantly in viscosity. Generally, coarsening rates decrease with increasing melt fraction, probably because the diffusion length across melt pockets increases. Analysis of grain shapes in the samples with about 40% melt indicated that coarsening was accommodated by agglomeration in the samples of the calcium/lithium carbonate system. In the calcium carbonate/hydroxide system, classical Ostwald ripening occurred. For melt contents about 10% and below, melt-filled pores are either dropped from or dragged along with migrating grain boundaries, depending on the pore size and the grain boundary curvature. These data can be used to constrain the conditions where fluid or melt inclusions form under natural conditions. Combining our results and previous studies illustrates a systematic relation between the grain boundary mobility in calcite aggregates and the diffusion kinetics associated with second phases residing on the grain boundaries. In particular, boundaries with no porosity are most mobile, those boundaries dragging melt-filled pores are slower, those with gas-filled pores are slower yet, and those containing solid phases are slowest or may even be motionless.     

Use of rhodamine WT with XAD-7 resin for determining groundwater flow paths

A passive sampling system for use with rhodamine WT (RWT) in groundwater tracing experiments was developed to assist in the characterisation of groundwater flow paths. Amberlite XAD-7 resin was found to be suitable for adsorption of RWT, which can then be extracted using an ethanol/water mix and analysed fluorometrically. Batch and column experiments showed that XAD-7 resin has a high RWT capacity. The adsorption was slightly dependent on pH, but was always above 75% under batch conditions. The resin had a high percentage mass recovery at flow velocities around 1.5 m/day, but this decreased with increasing flow velocities. Desorption of RWT off the resin in water is dependent on the flow velocity of water and the time after the peak RWT has passed. The mass of RWT extracted from the resin bags correlated very well with both the RWT mass flux in the water and the peak concentrations observed in the monitoring wells in a field experiment. The results of resin bags were reproducible in the field with a mean coefficient of variation equal to 16%. This method has been successfully applied to two field situations with different flow velocities to indicate groundwater flow paths. Electronic Publication     

The origin of the acidic and basic rocks of the Tichka Massif,Morocco, based on rare earth elements

The Tichka Massif is one of many late-Paleozoic massifs emplaced in northwestern Africa. It consists of granitic pods surrounded by a complex assemblage of dioritic and gabbroic rocks. Previous workers have suggested an independent origin for the granitic and gabbroic rocks and this study evaluates this suggestion using REE data.The Ce/Yb ratio versus Ce plot for the gabbro shows a large Ce/Yb variation for small changes in Ce, whereas the granites show a linear increase of Ce/Yb with Ce. In the granites, the samples with the highest Ce/Yb ratio have the lowest SiO₂, whereas in the gabbros the Ce/Yb ratio is lowest in the low SiO₂ rocks. The diorites show a tightly clustered pattern.Based on the REE data the granite-diorite-gabbro sequence cannot be related by fractional crystallization. Partial melting of a garnet bearing mantle is consistent with the gabbroic trends. Partial melting of a crustal source with small amounts of apatite and abundant hornblende can produce the granitic rocks.     

Cottagers in an Urban Field

The use of rural areas by the urban population is an important organizing principle in the study of the rural hinterland of urban centers. One of the important land uses identified within the urban field is recreation. This paper focuses on cottage property ownership in one part of the urban field, the rural-recreational countryside. Using three case studies from Canada, it was found that cottage properties account for a large proportion of local residential property. Although most cottage properties are owned by urban residents, up to one-quarter are owned by local residents. Using a questionnaire survey, it was also found that cottage owners are more likely to be older, better educated, and have higher incomes than rural residents.     

An upper‐ocean general circulation model for the north pacific: Preliminary experiments

Abstract

A model with two active layers, a mixed layer and a pycnocline layer, over a semipassive deep ocean is described. The model is used to simulate a climatological seasonal cycle in the upper North Pacific. The formulation is similar to that in Cherniawsky et al. (1990). The model resolution is 1° latitude by 1.5° longitude, extending from 62°N to the equator. It is driven with monthly wind stress (Hellerman and Rosenstein, 1983) and with Newtonian heat and freshwater fluxes, which were inferred from climatological (Levitus, 1982) sea‐surface monthly temperatures and annual mean salinities. The monthly temperature anomalies (without the annual mean) are multiplied by a prescribed gain factor and advanced in time, compensating for time delay in the response of the mixed layer. No‐slip and no‐flux constraints are applied on north, east, west and land boundaries, while the following open boundary conditions are used at the equator: (a) free‐slip on zonal velocities in the two layers; (b) a prescribed meridional transport, due to local curl of the wind stress, in the mixed layer; (c) an antisymmetric meridional velocity plus a small flux‐balancing term in the second layer; and (d) across‐equator symmetry for layer depths, temperatures and salinities. Sensitivity to two aspects of parametrization is investigated: (1) the change to horizontal diffusion/viscosity coefficients that depend on the velocity deformation field (as in Smagorinsky, 1963), and (2) the use of idealized piecewise‐linear profiles for second‐layer temperatures and salinities for calculating mixed layer entrainment fluxes.     

Geology and geochemistry of D–O–C isotope systematics of the Qolqoleh gold deposit, Northwestern Iran: Implications for ore genesis

The Qolqoleh gold deposit is located in northwestern part of the Sanandaj–Sirjan metamorphic belt, northwestern Iran. Igneous and sedimentary units exposed in the area have undergone greenschist metamorphism. The area was affected by a NE–SW trending shear zone and subsequent deformation. Two different types of mineralization are distinguished in the Qolqoleh gold deposit based on geological–structural conditions indicated by microtextural analysis: ductile and then brittle. Ore-forming processes are divided into three stages: Early (I), Middle (II) and Late (III), which include quartz–pyrite (I), sulfides and gold (II) and carbonate veinlets (III), respectively. The stage I fluids are characterized by δ¹⁸O = 15.5‰ at 440 ºC, and are thought to be deep-sourced metamorphic waters; the stage III fluids, with δ¹⁸O = 1.6‰, are shallow-sourced meteoric waters; whereas, the stage II fluids, with δ¹⁸O = 13.1‰, are a mixture of deep-sourced metamorphic and shallow-sourced meteoric fluids. Based on comparisons of the D–O–C isotopic systematics, the ore-forming fluids with characteristic high δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C and low δD originated from metamorphic devolatilization of Cretaceous volcano-sedimentary (felsic to mafic metavolcanic rocks–shale–carbonate–carbonaceous chert) sequences, locally rich in organic matter. During late Cretaceous continental collision of the Afro-Arabian continent and the Iranian microcontinent, a crustal slab consisting of felsic to mafic metavolcanic rocks, carbonate, shale and carbonaceous chert was underthrust northwards beneath the central Iranian microcontinent along the Zagros fault. During further contraction, deformation was localized in reverse oblique-slip structures with vergence toward south; shear zones generally follow contacts between more competent and less competent rock units. Metamorphic devolatilization of this underthrust slab is the source of the ore-forming fluids that generated the Au ore belt, which includes the Qolqoleh gold deposit.     

Field scale remediation of mine wastes at an abandoned gold mine,Australia II: Effects on plant growth and groundwater

This second paper reports the results of plant growth, plant mortality, plant leaf tissue metal and salt concentrations and leachate quality monitoring from lysimeters in four large field trial treatments established on sulfidic waste rock/soil that was used for haul road construction at a closed gold mine in Australia. The TerraB™, lime and clay treatments allowed good tree growth of four Eucalypt species, compared to the control. There was no statistical difference in tree growth between the TerraB™, lime or clay treatments over the 2 years of monitoring in this paper. However, the growth of one tree species was poor in the TerraB™ treatment. Leaf tissue metal and major ion data are also presented. Leachate pH in the control became increasingly acidic (pH 4.57–3.95). The addition of Ca(OH)₂ and biosolids led to an initial increase in leachate pH, compared to the control; however, this has decreased over the duration of the study (pH 5.37–4.89) and may affect the sustainable growth of plants in the future. In the TerraB™ and biosolids treatment leachate pH increased to 6.92 after the first rainfall event and continued to increase over the duration of the study to pH 7.4 after 24 months. After 24 months average heavy metal leachate concentrations (mg/L) in the lysimeters for Al, Cd, Cu, Mn and Zn were, control: 32.55, 5.67, 12.71, 39.29, 121.80, TerraB™: 0.07, 0.02, 0.07, 0.57, 0.23, and lime: 2.19, 1.19, 2.33, 3.6, 28.4. No leachate was available for collection from the clay treatment indicating that this technique was functioning in terms of minimizing the infiltration of water into the mine soil.     

K‐Ar age determination,whole‐rock and oxygen isotope geochemistry of the post‐collisional Bizmişen and Çaltı plutons,SW Erzincan,eastern Central Anatolia,Turkey

Post‐collisional granitoid plutons intrude obducted Neo‐Tethyan ophiolitic rocks in central and eastern Central Anatolia. The Bizmişen and Çaltı plutons and the ophiolitic rocks that they intrude are overlain by fossiliferous and flyschoidal sedimentary rocks of the early Miocene Kemah Formation. These sedimentary rocks were deposited in basins that developed at the same time as tectonic unroofing of the plutons along E–W and NW–SE trending faults in Oligo‐Miocene time. Mineral separates from the Bizmişen and Çaltı plutons yield K‐Ar ages ranging from 42 to 46 Ma, and from 40 to 49 Ma, respectively. Major, trace, and rare‐earth element geochemistry as well as mineralogical and textural evidence reveals that the Bizmişen pluton crystallized first, followed at shallower depth by the Çaltı pluton from a medium‐K calcalkaline, I‐type hybrid magma which was generated by magma mixing of coeval mafic and felsic magmas. Delta ¹⁸O values of both plutons fall in the field of I‐type granitoids, although those of the Çaltı pluton are consistently higher than those of the Bizmişen pluton. This is in agreement with field observations, petrographic and whole‐rock geochemical data, which indicate that the Bizmişen pluton represents relatively uncontaminated mantle material, whereas the Çaltı pluton has a significant crustal component. Structural data indicating the middle Eocene emplacement age and intrusion into already obducted ophiolitic rocks, suggest a post‐collisional extensional origin. However, the pure geochemical discrimination diagrams indicate an arc origin which can be inherited either from the source material or from an upper mantle material modified by an early subduction process during the evolution of the Neo‐Tethyan ocean. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.