Paragenetic relations in gedrite — cordierite — staurolite — biotite sillimanite — kyanite gneisses at Ajitpura,Rajasthan, India

Aluminous parageneses containing gedrite, cordierite, garnet, staurolite, biotite, sillimanite, kyanite, quartz or spinel plus corundum are found as dark colored lenses in the polymetamorphic, multideformed Archean complex at Ajitpura in northwest peninsular India. Staurolite, like kyanite, is a relict phase of earlier metamorphism and is excluded as a paragenetic mineral in view of its incompatibility with quartz and gedrite and its lower X _Mg values than for garnet of the assemblage. Its stability here is attributed to zinc content of up to 3 wt%. The XMg in other ferromagnesian minerals decreases in the order: cordierite, biotite, gedrite, garnet, as found elsewhere in high grade rocks.The textural criteria and systematic partitioning of Fe and Mg in the ferromagnesian phases, excluding staurolite, indicate attainment of equilibrium during the second metamorphism. From tie line configurations in the phase diagrams, X _Mg ratios in the constituent minerals, and other petrographic criteria, it is suggested that gedrite — cordierite-garnet — sillimanite — biotite assemblage has been produced by the reactions: Biotite+Sillimanite+Quartz = Cordierite+Garnet+K-feldspar+Vapor (1) and Biotite+Sillimanite+Quartz = Cordierite +Gedrite+K-feldspar+Vapor (2) which occurred during partial melting of the rocks at fixed P and T conditions.By isothermal P-X(Fe-Mg) sections it has been demonstrated that release of FeO, SiO₂ and other components modified the composition of the reactant biotite presumably by the substitution FeSi2 Al, whereby reaction 1 was replaced by reaction 2. Cordierite with higher X _Mg was produced with gedrite instead of with garnet, whose X _Mg is less than X _Mg of gedrite. Reaction 2 has been tentatively located in T-P space from the intersection of some continuous loops in the P-X(Fe-Mg) diagram at 700°C and also by other constraints. The discontinuous reaction 2 is located about 1–2 kilobars higher than reaction 1, which implies that it is difficult to distinguish between effects of pressure and those of melting on the X _Mg ratios of the reaction phases.The P-T calibrations of garnet — cordierite, garnet — biotite and garnet — plagioclase equilibria and the calibrations from other dehydration curves give temperatures near 700°C and pressure (assuming ) about 6 kilobars.     

The Los Chocoyos Ash, guatemala: A major stratigraphic marker in middle America and in three ocean basins

The Los Chocoyos Ash, having erupted from vents near the Lake Atitlán caldera, Guatemala, is perhaps the largest Quaternary silicic pyroclastic unit in Central America. It consists of an underlying H-tephra member and an overlying ash-flow member. One-hundred-and-five samples of ash from the Guatemalan Highlands and deep-sea cores in the equatorial Pacific and Gulf of Mexico were analyzed by neutron activation and/or electron microprobe. Glass shard chemistry, determined by microprobe, is useful for distinguishing several very widespread, distinct, deep-sea ash layers, but needs support from trace-element data when applied on land to distinguish between many individual eruptions from the same province. Data from this study support the correlation of the Worzel ‘D’ layer and the Los Chocoyos Ash proposed by Hahn et al. (1979) and Bowles et al. (1973). Chemical data from this study are used to correlate the Y-8 ash layer of the Gulf of Mexico with the Los Chocoyos Ash. The recognition of the Los Chocoyos Ash in the Gulf of Mexico and equatorial Pacific increases the known areal extent of the unit to more than 6 × 10⁶ km² and allows an age of 84,000 yr B.P. to be assigned to the formation on the basis of oxygen-isotope stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and Pa-Th-isotope data. Trace-element data obtained from seven other ash layers in the Gulf of Mexico and the equatorial Pacific, when combined with new land-based data, should allow further correlation and dating of ash units in Central America.     

Magnetic polarity stratigraphy of the Upper Siwalik deposits,Pabbi Hills,Pakistan

Over 1000 m of fluvial molasse, exhibiting a stable detrital remanent magnetization, is exposed in a mammal-bearing sequence in the Upper Siwalik Group of the Pabbi Hills, Pakistan. The magnetic polarity chronology reveals that the sequence records a time period of 2.6 m.y., extending from the early Gauss Normal Epoch into the Brunhes Normal Epoch. During this period, sedimentation rates increased upward in time from 0.25 m/1000 yr to 0.45 m/1000 yr. The sudden disappearance of red beds and a change in the lithoclastic composition of basal channel sands suggests that about 800,000 years ago the primary source area began shifting from the metamorphic terrane of the Himalayan Orogen to a more local sedimentary terrane on the folded margins of the Himalayan foredeep. About 500,000 years ago the anticlinal Pabbi Hills attained surface expression. Uplift continued at a minimum rate of 1 m/1000 yr.A local Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary based on the Olduvai Normal Event is clearly recognized. Local fossil finds reveal thatEquus, diagnostic element of the Pinjor faunal zone, appeared locally about 1.8 m.y. ago and thatHipparion, a faunal element of the Tatrot and earlier faunal zones, persisted locally until at least 3.0 m.y. ago.     

40Ar/39Ar age and thermal history of the Kirin chondrite

The Kirin meteorite, a large (2800kg) H5 chondrite, fell in Kirin Province, China in 1976. A sample from each of the two largest fragments (K-1, K-2) yield⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar total fusion ages of 3.63 ± 0.02b.y. and 2.78 ± 0.02b.y. respectively.⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age spectra show typical diffusional argon loss profiles. Maximum apparent ages of 4.36 b.y. (K-1) and ～4.0 b.y. (K-2) are interpreted as possible minimum estimates for the age of crystallization of the parent body.The⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages found for gas released at low temperature are about 2.2 b.y. for K-1 and about 0.5 b.y. for K-2, suggesting that this meteorite may have suffered two discrete collisional events that caused degassing of radiogenic argon. Modelling of possible thermal events in the parent body indicates that samples K-1 and K-2 were at a depth of less than 3 m from the base of an impact melt of a thickness less than 7 m and separated by no more than ～2 m from one another at the time of the heating event about 0.5 b.y. ago. Further, the duration of heating was probably less than a few years.Calculations from³⁸Ar data yield exposure ages for samples K-1 and K-2 of about 5 m.y., similar to that found for many other H chondrites.     

The Early Carboniferous paleomagnetic field of North America and its bearing on tectonics of the Northern Appalachians

We have obtained additional evidence for the Early Carboniferous paleomagnetic field for cratonic North America from study of the Barnett Formation of central Texas. A characteristic magnetization of this unit was isolated after thermal demagnetization at four sites (36 samples) out of eight sites (65 samples) collected. The mean direction of declination = 156.3°, inclination = 5.8° (N = 4 ,k = 905 , α₉₅ = 3.0°), corresponds to a paleomagnetic pole position at lat. = 49.1°N,long. = 119.3°E (dp = 1.5° , dm = 3.0°). Field evidence suggests that characteristic magnetization was acquired very early in the history of the rock unit whereas the rejected sites are comprised of weakly magnetized limestones dominated by secondary components near the present-day field direction. Comparison of the Barnett pole with other Early Carboniferous (Mississippian) paleopoles from North America shows that it lies close to the apparent polar wander path for stable North America and that the divergence of paleopoles from the Northern Appalachians noted previously for the Devonian persisted into the Early Carboniferous. We interpret this difference in paleopoles as further evidence for the Northern Appalachian displaced terrain which we refer to here as Acadia, and the apparent coherence of Late Carboniferous paleopoles as indicating a large (～1500 km) motion of Acadia with respect to stable North America over a rather short time interval in the Carboniferous.     

Rare-gas-rich separates from carbonaceous chondrites

Samples studied were residual, carbonaceous /Alates—a coined word to designate colloids prepared sometimes before and sometimes after acid demineralization—from Murray, Murchison, Cold Bokkeveld (type C2s) and Allende (type CV3) meteorites. Characterization: C2 /Alates, comprising 0.5% of the bulk meteorite are fine-grained (< 100 Å), amorphous, sulfide-free, oxidizable, 95% carbonaceous materials which pyrolyze bimodally at 200–700 and 800–1200°C. Allende /Alates are similar but with traces of inferred spinel and chromite and of sulfur, Rare gas results: Elemental: Release from stepwise heated Murray is bimodal with maximum release and upper temperature peak at 1000°C, probably accompanying chemical reaction. All /Alates studied had very nearly the same elemental concentrations, distinctly planetary in pattern. Isotopic: Trapped neon compositions are unprecedentedly close to Pepin's neon-A corner but nevertheless show signs of complexity, as if accompanied by neon-E. The trapped ³He/⁴He ratio is essentially constant at (1.42 ± 0.2 × 10^?4. The isotopically anomalous heavy noble gases, easily detected in the residues of oxidized /Alates, were not conspicuous in this particular study. Comparison and Chicago results: Concentrations of heavy rare gases in our /Alates agree with concentrations measured directly (as opposed to inferred by difference) in acid resistant residues at Chicago. Alone, our results support the idea of a carbonaceous gas-carrier uniformly present in meteorites of various types, but Chicago characterizations of the samples can apply to both their samples and ours provided that the right amount of gas was lost in the Berkeley procedures to make the uniform gas contents in various samples a coincidence.     

Notes on the 1902 eruption of Santa María volcano,Guatemala

The first historic activity of Santa María volcano, Guatemala constituted one of the ten largest historic eruptions in the world, producing 5.5 km³ of debris. In hindsight, the six-month period before the October 1902 eruption was one of extremely abnormal seismicity in all of western Guatemala. The pyroclastis from the eruption were scattered widely over Western Guatemala and Southern Mexico and also caused world-wide atmospheric effects. The volcanics produced were of andesitic-dacitic composition, but there was wide variation from place to place in the sampled material — a fact apparently chiefly attributable to atmospheric-fractionation. There was apparently a change in chemistry of ash during the two-day eruption as well, the first, most voluminous ash was pumicious and white; later ash was finer, denser, darker, and slightly less silicious. The kinetic energy/thermal energy partition is determined to be similar to the value derived for Krakatoa,E _k/E _th ? 5.0 %. The thermal energy of the eruption was estimated at 4.2×10²⁵ ergs. The explosion crater left on Santa María’s southwest flank after the eruption had a volume equal to less than 0.5 km³, a small fraction of the volume of material erupted. The two-day 1902 blast has greatly overshadowed subsequent activity; extrusion of the Santiaguito dome, which has occurred since 1922 in the explosion crater, has produced about 0.7 km³ of dacite lava and 1.6×10²⁵ ergs of thermal energy in 48 years of activity.