Using Diurnal Temperature Signals to Infer Vertical Groundwater‐Surface Water Exchange

Heat is a powerful tracer to quantify fluid exchange between surface water and groundwater. Temperature time series can be used to estimate pore water fluid flux, and techniques can be employed to extend these estimates to produce detailed plan‐view flux maps. Key advantages of heat tracing include cost‐effective sensors and ease of data collection and interpretation, without the need for expensive and time‐consuming laboratory analyses or induced tracers. While the collection of temperature data in saturated sediments is relatively straightforward, several factors influence the reliability of flux estimates that are based on time series analysis (diurnal signals) of recorded temperatures. Sensor resolution and deployment are particularly important in obtaining robust flux estimates in upwelling conditions. Also, processing temperature time series data involves a sequence of complex steps, including filtering temperature signals, selection of appropriate thermal parameters, and selection of the optimal analytical solution for modeling. This review provides a synthesis of heat tracing using diurnal temperature oscillations, including details on optimal sensor selection and deployment, data processing, model parameterization, and an overview of computing tools available. Recent advances in diurnal temperature methods also provide the opportunity to determine local saturated thermal diffusivity, which can improve the accuracy of fluid flux modeling and sensor spacing, which is related to streambed scour and deposition. These parameters can also be used to determine the reliability of flux estimates from the use of heat as a tracer.     

Mutual replacement reactions in alkali feldspars I: microtextures and mechanisms

Intracrystal microtextures formed by a process of mutual replacement in alkali feldspars record fluid–rock reactions that have affected large volumes of the Earth’s crust. Regular, ≤1 μm-scale ‘strain-controlled’ perthitic microtextures coarsen, by up to 10³, by a dissolution–reprecipitation process, producing microporous patch or vein perthites on scales >100 μm. We have developed earlier studies of such reactions in alkali feldspar cm-scale primocrysts in layered syenites from the Klokken intrusion, South Greenland. We present new hyperspectral CL, SEM images, and laser ICPMS analytical data, and discuss the mechanism of such replacement reactions. The feldspars grew as homogeneous sodic sanidines which unmixed and ordered by volume diffusion during cooling into the microcline field at ~450°C, giving regular, fully coherent ‘braid’ cryptoperthite. At ≤450°C the crystals reacted with a circulating post-magmatic aqueous fluid. The braid perthite behaved as a single reactant ‘phase’ which was replaced by two product phases, incoherent subgrains of low albite and microcline, with micropores at their boundaries. The driving force for the reactions was coherency strain energy, which was greater than the surface energy in the subgrain mosaic. The external euhedral crystal shapes and bulk major element composition of the primocrysts were unchanged but they became largely pseudomorphs composed of subgrains usually with the ‘pericline’ and ‘adularia’ habits (dominant {110} and subordinate {010} morphology) characteristic of low T growth. The subgrains have an epitactic relationship with parent braid perthite. Individual subgrains show oscillatory zoning in CL intensity, mainly at blue wavelengths, which correlates with tetrahedral Ti. Regular zoning is sometimes truncated by irregular, discordant surfaces suggesting dissolution, followed by resumption of growth giving regular zoning. Zones can be traced through touching subgrains, of both albite and microcline, for distances up to ~500 μm. At ≤340°C, the microcline subgrains underwent a third stage of unmixing to give straight lamellar film perthites with periodicities of ~1 μm, which with further cooling became semicoherent by the development of spaced misfit dislocations. Sub-grain growth occurred in fluid films that advanced through the elastically strained braid perthite crystals, which dissolved irreversibly. Braid perthite was more soluble than the strain-free subgrain mosaics which precipitated from the supersaturated solution. Some volumes of braid texture have sharp surfaces that suggest rapid dissolution along planes with low surface energies. Others have complex, diffuse boundaries that indicate a phase of coherent lamellar straightening by volume diffusion in response to strain relief close to a slowly advancing interface. Nucleation of strain-free subgrains was the overall rate-limiting step. To minimise surface energy subgrains grew with low energy morphologies and coarsened by grain growth, in fluid films whose trace element load (reflected in the oscillatory zoning) was dictated by the competitive advance of subgrains over a range of a few tens of mm. The cross-cutting dissolution surfaces suggest influxes of fresh fluid. Removal of feldspar to give 2 vol% porosity would require a feldspar:fluid ratio of ~1:26 (by wt). The late reversion to strain-controlled exsolution in microcline subgrains is consistent with loss of fluid above 340°C following depressurization of the intrusion. A second paper (Part II) describes trace element partitioning between the albite and microcline subgrains, and discusses the potential of trace elements as a low-T geothermometer. This paper and the Part II are dedicated in memory of J.V. Smith and W.L. Brown, both of whom died in 2007, in acknowledgement of their unrivalled contributions to the study of the feldspar minerals over more than half a century.     

A statistical model of the geomagnetic field

Summary A statistical model of the geomagnetic field is derived, based on the assumption of an axial geocentric dipole field of strengthH _e at the equator perturbed by randomly directed components of constant magnitudeh. The model fits the dispersions found from an analysis of the 1945 field, and the ratioh/H _e obtained for this field and from the palaeomagnetic data both average to about 0.4. The model predicts that during reversal of the dipole field, the field intensity falls to between 0.2 and 0.4 of the steady field intensity, and this agrees with estimates made from the palaeomagnetic observations.     

Three-dimensional model and late stage warping of the Plattengneis Shear Zone in the Eastern Alps

The Plattengneis shear zone is a 250–600 m thick, flat lying, Cretaceous, eclogite facies, mylonitic shear zone, with north-over-south transport direction, that is exposed over almost 1000 km² in the Koralpe region along the eastern margin of the Alps. Although the shear zone is one of the largest in the Alps, its role in the Eoalpine metamorphic evolution and the subsequent exhumation of the region, remain enigmatic and its large-scale geometry is not well understood. The outcrop pattern suggests that the shear zone is made up of a single sheet that is folded into a series of open syn- and antiforms with wavelengths of about 10 km. Eclogite bodies occur above, within and below the shear zone and there is no metamorphic grade change across the shear zone. In the south, the fold axes strike east–west and plunge shallowly to the east. In the north, the fold axes are oriented in north–south direction and form a dome shaped structure of the shear zone. Total shortening during this late stage warping event was of the order of 5%. Indirect evidence constrains this folding event to have occurred between 80 and 50 Ma and the fold geometry implies that the final exhumation in the Koralpe occurred somewhat later than further north. Interestingly, the shear zone appears to strike out of the topography in the south and dip into the topography in the north, so that north of the shear zone only hanging-wall rocks are exposed and south of it only foot-wall rocks. Possibilities for the geometric relationship of the Plattengneis shear zone with the surrounding south dipping detachments are discussed.     

3-D assessment of peak-metamorphic conditions by Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous material: an example from the margin of the Lepontine dome (Swiss Central Alps)

This study monitors regional changes in the crystallinity of carbonaceous matter (CM) by applying Micro-Raman spectroscopy to a total of 214 metasediment samples (largely so-called Bündnerschiefer) dominantly metamorphosed under blueschist- to amphibolite-facies conditions. They were collected within the northeastern margin of the Lepontine dome and easterly adjacent areas of the Swiss Central Alps. Three-dimensional mapping of isotemperature contours in map and profile views shows that the isotemperature contours associated with the Miocene Barrow-type Lepontine metamorphic event cut across refolded nappe contacts, both along and across strike within the northeastern margin of the Lepontine dome and adjacent areas. Further to the northeast, the isotemperature contours reflect temperatures reached during the Late Eocene subduction-related blueschist-facies event and/or during subsequent near-isothermal decompression; these contours appear folded by younger, large-scale post-nappe-stacking folds. A substantial jump in the recorded maximum temperatures across the tectonic contact between the frontal Adula nappe complex and surrounding metasediments indicates that this contact accommodated differential tectonic movement of the Adula nappe with respect to the enveloping Bündnerschiefer after maximum temperatures were reached within the northern Adula nappe, i.e. after Late Eocene time.     

Element budgets of pine stands on lignite and pyrite containing mine soils

To analyze the development of pine ecosystems on lignite and pyrite containing mine soils, four pine stands with ages of 3–35 years were investigated in a chronosequence approach. Bulk precipitation, throughfall and soil solution in depths of 20, 40, 70 and 100 cm were studied over a three-year period to determine element fluxes in these forest ecosystems on extreme acidic and saline soils.Element budgets are controlled by the processes induced by pyrite oxidation such as intensive weathering of primary minerals, precipitation and leaching of secondary phases.Despite low water fluxes, element outputs can reach extraordinary high values due to very high concentrations in the soil solution. Although element outputs decrease drastically with stand age, respectively, site age, they exceed those of comparable pine stands on non-mine sites. Nitrogen release from the lignite fraction represents a special characteristic of the examined substrates. Nitrogen losses beneath the rooted zone can be 34 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ in 100 cm depth. Element input and output in the examined ecosystems are far from balance. Closed cycling of nutrients seems to be recognizable in the case of potassium.     

A well‐established Early–Middle Pleistocene marine sequence on south‐east Zakynthos island,western Greece: Magneto‐biostratigraphic constraints and palaeoclimatic implications

The chronostratigraphy of a long, onshore Early–Middle Pleistocene marine sedimentary sequence on the south‐east part of Zakynthos island, Greece, is presented. Correlation of the succession with the isotope record of Ocean Drilling Program Site 963 reveals the combined influence of tectonics and eustacy in this area. The sequence is divided into three formations by two main unconformities that apparently relate to sea‐level lowstands associated with two major northern hemisphere glaciations, those of marine isotope stages (MIS) 22 and 12. The Zakynthos sequence in many ways is comparable with the Italian Valle di Manche section. Magnetostratigraphic and rock magnetic analyses, supported by biostratigraphy, document the position of the Matuyama/Brunhes Chron boundary (0.77 Ma), the top and base of the Jaramillo Subchron (0.99–1.07 Ma), the Cobb Mountain Subchron (1.173–1.185 Ma) and the top of the Olduvai Subchron (1.78 Ma). The underlying strata are constrained exclusively by detailed nannofossil biostratigraphy extending at least to the lowermost Pleistocene at around 2.54 Ma and therefore certainly incorporating the base of the Olduvai Subchron (1.95 Ma) and possibly the Gauss/Matuyama Chron boundary (2.58 Ma). In addition, a remarkable increase in sedimentation rate (from 3.2 and 28 cm ka^?1 to 167 cm ka^?1) and hence resolution above the Matuyama/Brunhes boundary (Middle Pleistocene) reveals one short‐lived magnetic excursion, possibly 17a (0.66 Ma), within the normal polarity Brunhes Chron. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Metamorphic alteration,mineral paragenesis and geochemical re-equilibration of early Archean quartz–amphibole–pyroxene gneiss from Akilia,Southwest Greenland

Quartz–amphibole–pyroxene gneiss from the island of Akilia, Southwest Greenland has been claimed to contain the earliest traces of life on Earth in the form of biogenic carbonaceous matter encapsulated as inclusions in apatite crystals. Various lines of evidence, including petrography, geochronology, field relations, and geochemistry, have, however, been presented that challenge this interpretation. Textural relationships and geochemical signatures in this controversial gneiss presented here manifest a complex, spatially variable metamorphic history that includes granulite- and amphibolite-facies overprints and metasomatism. A peak metamorphic, granulite-facies, quartz–orthopyroxene–clinopyroxene–amphibole–magnetite assemblage is preserved in only a few centimeter-scale layers within the 5-m-thick, quartz–amphibole–pyroxene gneiss unit. Calcite veinlets that appear to postdate the peak metamorphism occur in pyroxene. The quartz–amphibole–pyroxene gneiss unit has subsequently experienced isochemical (except hydration) amphibolite-facies alteration during which pyroxenes were retrogressed to amphiboles and magnetite, and calcite was consumed. Parts of the quartz–amphibole–pyroxene gneiss that contain texturally late hornblende have experienced metasomatic alteration by Al-carrying fluids. These fluids controlled the alteration of pyroxenes and amphiboles to hornblende, and modified the trace-element composition by remobilizing LREE and Eu. Apatite has variable REE composition and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr in the quartz–amphibole–pyroxene gneiss, but on the local scale (cm) is in equilibrium with co-existing silicates. Effective recrystallization of apatite crystals as well as co-existing silicates during several stages of the metamorphic history makes the intact preservation of diagenetic apatite with encapsulated primary carbonaceous matter implausible. Hence, it is highly unlikely that Akilia apatite could serve as repository of the earliest traces of life on Earth.     

A depth average SPH model including μ(I) rheology and crushing for rock avalanches

Classical depth-integrated smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) models for avalanches are extended in the present work to include a μ(I)− rheological model enriched with a fragmentation law. With this improvement, the basal friction becomes grain distribution dependent. Rock avalanches, where grain distribution tends to change with time while propagating, are the appropriate type of landslide to apply the new numerical proposal. The μ(I)− rheological models considered in the present work are those of Hatano and Gray, combined with two different fragmentation laws, a hyperbolic and a fractal-based law. As an application, Frank avalanche, which took place in Canada in 1903, is analyzed under the scope of the present approach, focusing in the influence of the rheological and fragmentation laws in the evolution of the avalanche.