Using detrital zircon U‐Pb ages to calculate Late Cretaceous sedimentation rates in the Magallanes‐Austral basin,Patagonia

Determining both short‐ and long‐term sedimentation rates is becoming increasingly important in geomorphic (exhumation and sediment flux), structural (subsidence/flexure) and natural resource (predictive modelling) studies. Determining sedimentation rates for ancient sedimentary sequences is often hampered by poor understanding of stratigraphic architecture, long‐term variability in large‐scale sediment dispersal patterns and inconsistent availability of absolute age data. Uranium–Lead (U‐Pb) detrital zircon (DZ) geochronology is not only a popular method to determine the provenance of siliciclastic sedimentary rocks but also helps delimit the age of sedimentary sequences, especially in basins associated with protracted volcanism. This study assesses the reliability of U‐Pb DZ ages as proxies for depositional ages of Upper Cretaceous strata in the Magallanes‐Austral retroarc foreland basin of Patagonia. Progressive younging of maximum depositional ages (MDAs) calculated from young zircon populations in the Upper Cretaceous Dorotea Formation suggests that the MDAs are potential proxies for absolute age, and constrain the age of the Dorotea Formation to be ca. 82–69 Ma. Even if the MDAs do not truly represent ages of contemporaneous volcanic eruptions in the arc, they may still indicate progressive‐but‐lagged delivery of increasingly younger volcanogenic zircon to the basin. In this case, MDAs may still be a means to determine long‐term (≥1–2 Myr) average sedimentation rates. Burial history models built using the MDAs reveal high aggradation rates during an initial, deep‐marine phase of the basin. As the basin shoaled to shelfal depths, aggradation rates decreased significantly and were outpaced by progradation of the deposystem. This transition is likely linked to eastward propagation of the Magallanes fold‐thrust belt during Campanian‐Maastrichtian time, and demonstrates the influence of predecessor basin history on foreland basin dynamics.     

Modeling the attenuated total reflectance infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectrum of apatite

Attenuated total reflectance (ATR) infrared spectra were measured on a synthetic and a natural fluorapatite sample. A modeling approach based on the computation of the Fresnel reflection coefficient between the ATR crystal and the powder sample was used to analyze the line shape of the spectra. The dielectric properties of the samples were related to those of pure fluorapatite using an effective medium approach, based on Maxwell–Garnett and Bruggeman models. The Bruggeman effective medium model leads to a very good agreement with the experimental data recorded on the synthetic fluorapatite sample. The poorer agreement observed on the natural sample suggests a more significant heterogeneity of the sample at a characteristic length scale larger than the mid-infrared characteristic wavelength, i.e., about 10 micrometers. The results demonstrate the prominent role of macroscopic electrostatic effects over fine details of the microscopic structure in determining the line shape of strong ATR bands.     

Hypoxia in a Coastal Embayment of the Chesapeake Bay: A Model Diagnostic Study of Oxygen Dynamics

Two distinct hypoxic patterns were revealed from high-frequency dissolved oxygen (DO) data collected from North Branch of Onancock Creek, a shallow coastal estuary of the Chesapeake Bay, from July to October 2004. Diurnal hypoxia developed associated with large DO swings during fair weather and hypoxia/anoxia developed for prolonged 2–5-day periods following rainfall events. A simplified diagnostic DO-algae model was used to investigate DO dynamics in the creek. The model results show that the modeling approach enables important features of the DO dynamics in the creek to be captured and analyzed. Large anthropogenic inputs of nutrients to the creek stimulated macroalgae blooms in the embayment. High DO production resulted in supersaturated DO in daytime, whereas DO was depleted at night as the high respiration overwhelmed the DO supply, leading to hypoxia. Unlike deep-water environments, in this shallow-water system, biological processes dominate DO variations. High macroalgae biomass interacting with low light and high temperature trigger the development of prolonged hypoxic/anoxic postrainfall events.     

A decadal solar effect in the tropics in July–August

The availability of global gridded precipitation and outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR) data after 1978 makes possible an investigation of the influence of the decadal solar oscillation in the tropics during three solar maxima and two solar minima. The NCEP/NCAR reanalyses starting in the 1950s allows the inclusion of an additional two solar maxima and minima to look for consistency of response across a longer time period. In the northern summer (July–August), the major climatological tropical precipitation maxima are intensified in solar maxima compared to solar minima during the period 1979–2002. The regions of this enhanced climatological precipitation extend from the Indian monsoon to the West Pacific oceanic warm pool and farther eastwards in the Intertropical Convergence Zone of the North Pacific and North American Monsoon, to the tropical Atlantic and greater rainfall over the Sahel and central Africa. The differences between solar maxima and minima in the zonal mean temperature through the depth of the troposphere, OLR, tropospheric vertical motion, and tropopause temperature are consistent with the differences in the rainfall. The upward vertical motion is stronger in regions of enhanced tropical precipitation, tropospheric temperatures are higher, tropopause temperatures are lower, and the OLR is reduced due to higher, colder cloud tops over the areas of deeper convective rainfall in the solar maxima than in the minima. These differences between the extremes of the solar cycle suggest that an increase in solar forcing intensifies the Hadley and Walker circulations, with greater solar forcing resulting in strengthened regional climatological tropical precipitation regimes. These effects are as strong or even more pronounced when warm and cold extremes in the Southern Oscillation are removed from the analyses. Additionally, lower stratospheric temperatures and geopotential heights are higher with greater solar forcing suggesting ozone interactions with solar forcing in the upper stratosphere.     

Matching carbon pools and fluxes for the Southern Ocean Iron Release Experiment (SOIREE)

The Lagrangian Southern Ocean Iron Release Experiment (SOIREE) allowed study of a gradually evolving iron-mediated phytoplankton bloom in water labelled with the inert tracer sulfur hexafluoride, SF₆. This article describes a pelagic carbon budget for the mixed layer in SOIREE and assesses the extent to which closure of the budget is achieved. Net community production (NCP) converted 837 mmol m⁻² of inorganic carbon to organic carbon in 12.0 d after the first iron addition. A large fraction (41%) of NCP remained as particulate organic carbon in the mixed layer of the iron-enriched patch, while 23% was lost by horizontal dispersion and 0–29% was exported. The closure of the carbon budget is hampered by the lack of measurements of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), by a major uncertainty in carbon export, and by use of empirical conversion factors in estimates of carbon biomass and metabolic rates. Lagrangian carbon-budget studies may be improved by direct measurement of all major carbon parameters and conversion factors. Carbon cycling in the SOIREE bloom resembled that in ‘natural’ algal blooms in the open Southern Ocean in some respects, but not in all. Daily NCP in the SOIREE bloom (70 mmol m⁻² d⁻¹) was higher than in natural blooms, partly because other studies did not account for horizontal dispersion, were for longer periods or included less productive areas. The build-up of POC stock and carbon export as a fraction of NCP in SOIREE were in the lower range of observations elsewhere.     

Impact of urbanization on storm response of White Rock Creek,Dallas, TX

This study documents hydrological changes resulting from urbanization of the upper sub-basin of White Rock Creek watershed in Collin and Dallas counties, Texas. The 172-km² watershed was transformed from 87% rural in 1961 to 95% urban in 2002, following construction of the Dallas suburbs of Richardson, Addison, Plano and Frisco. The objective of the study was to investigate changes in the storm response of White Rock Creek in terms of peak storm flow, storm flow volume and lag time. The approach employed to compare pre- and post-urbanization hydrology was to develop average unit hydrographs for each time period and use them to generate the creek’s storm flow response to a set of six hypothetical precipitation events. The results suggest that substantial hydrological changes have occurred. The average infiltration capacity of the watershed was reduced by about 60% so that storm flow was generated at lower precipitation intensities in the post-urbanization period. Storm flow peak discharge and volume were more than doubled for a hypothetical 10-year precipitation event. Average lag time was about 49 min shorter in the post-urbanization period. Urbanization has significantly impacted the storm response of the creek and increased the potential for flooding. It is anticipated that similar hydrological changes will occur in other rapidly urbanizing watersheds in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan region. Watershed managers should take likely changes in storm response into account when planning future storm water management needs.     

Ceres,a wet planet: The view after Dawn

Ceres, a nearly 1000-km diameter body located in the Solar System’s main asteroid belt, has been classified under many categories: planet, comet, asteroid, minor planet and, presently, dwarf planet. No matter what the designation, Ceres has experienced major planetary processes. Its evolution has been controlled by water, making it a most unusual, interesting and accessible inner Solar System object that can inform the evolution of outer Solar System moons and other dwarf planets. Early telescopic observations suggested a hydroxylated mineralogy similar to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites and a size and mass indicating a bulk density that implied a water content of 17?27 wt%. Thermodynamic modeling of Ceres’ evolution indicated that thermal aqueous evolution likely occurred. The Dawn Mission produced a huge increase in our understanding of Ceres, confirming but vastly extending the early knowledge. Dawn, carrying multispectral cameras, a visible-infrared imaging spectrometer and a nuclear spectrometer, orbited Ceres between 2015–2018 (after orbiting Vesta) at a number of different altitudes, ultimately reaching 35 km from the surface at periapsis. Observations of almost the entire surface and gravity field mapping revealed multiple geological and internal features attributed to the effects of water. The surface displays cryovolcanic-like and flow structures, exposed phyllosilicates, carbonates, evaporites and water ice. The subsurface shows partial differentiation, decreasing viscosity with depth, and lateral density heterogeneity. Ceres appears to be geologically active today and possesses liquid water/brine pockets or even an extended liquid layer in the interior, confirming an “Ocean World” designation in today’s vernacular.     

Detrital thermochronologic record of burial heating and sediment recycling in the Magallanes foreland basin,Patagonian Andes

The Patagonian Magallanes retroarc foreland basin affords an excellent case study of sediment burial recycling within a thrust belt setting. We report combined detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology and (U–Th)/He thermochronology data and thermal modelling results that confirm delivery of both rapidly cooled, first‐cycle volcanogenic sediments from the Patagonian magmatic arc and recycled sediment from deeply buried and exhumed Cretaceous foredeep strata to the Cenozoic depocentre of the Patagonian Magallanes basin. We have quantified the magnitude of Eocene heating with thermal models that simultaneously forward model detrital zircon (U–Th)/He dates for best‐fit thermal histories. Our results indicate that 54–45 Ma burial of the Maastrichtian Dorotea Formation produced 164–180 °C conditions and heating to within the zircon He partial retention zone. Such deep burial is unusual for Andean foreland basins and may have resulted from combined effects of high basal heat flow and high sediment accumulation within a rapidly subsiding foredeep that was floored by basement weakened by previous Late Jurassic rifting. In this interpretation, Cenozoic thrust‐related deformation deeply eroded the Dorotea Formation from ca. 5 km burial depths and may be responsible for the development of a basin‐wide Palaeogene unconformity. Results from the Cenozoic Río Turbio and Santa Cruz formations confirm that they contain both Cenozoic first‐cycle zircon from the Patagonian magmatic arc and highly outgassed zircon recycled from older basin strata that experienced burial histories similar to those of the Dorotea Formation.     

Ion Implants as Matrix‐Appropriate Calibrators for Geochemical Ion Probe Analyses

Ion microprobe elemental and isotopic determinations can be precise but difficult to quantify. Error is introduced when the reference material and the sample to be analysed have different compositions. Mitigation of such ‘matrix effects’ is possible using ion implants. If a compositionally homogeneous reference material is available which is ‘matrix‐appropriate’ (i.e., close in major element composition to the sample to be analysed, but having an unknown concentration of the element, E, to be determined) then ion implantation can be used to introduce a known amount of an E isotope, calibrating the E concentration and producing a matrix‐appropriate calibrator. Nominal implant fluences (ions cm^?2) are inaccurate by amounts up to approximately 30%. However, ion implantation gives uniform fluences over large areas; thus, it is possible to ‘co‐implant’ an additional reference material of any bulk composition having known amounts of E, independently calibrating the implant fluence. Isotope ratio measurement standards can be produced by implanting two different isotopes, but permil level precision requires postimplant calibration of the implant isotopic ratio. Examples discussed include (a) standardising Li in melilite; (b) calibrating a ²⁵Mg implant fluence using NIST SRM 617 glass and (c) using Si co‐implanted with ²⁵Mg alongside NIST SRM 617 to produce a calibrated measurement of Mg in Si.     

Use of drones to analyse sedimentary successions exposed in the foreshore

Drones have revolutionised the gathering of geoenvironmental data over the last decade. To date, the majority of drone studies of sedimentary rock successions have focussed on well-exposed vertical to subvertical cliff sections. Here, we describe a fundamental method to obtain new data and perspectives on sedimentary successions exposed in partially-obscured foreshore or other horizontal to subhorizontal outcrop surfaces using drones. We illustrate the technique using an example from foreshore exposures of Jurassic strata near Helmsdale, Scotland, UK. Our method aims to make the process of safely collecting drone footage accessible and covers practical considerations from pre-field preparation to data processing. Capturing drone imagery in a foreshore setting involves trade-offs between the time of day which constrains the lighting, the time of year which determines algal cover and tidal range, and the flight time available which indirectly governs image resolution. We show how: (1) orthomosaic images can be used to view sedimentary deposits at different scales and angles enabling identification of large-scale sedimentary features marked by small-scale changes in orientation and lateral variability; (2) production of digital elevation models permits differentially weathered features covered by water or algae to be distinguished, and (3) drones can be used for close up photography of inaccessible features.