A subsurface Middle Wisconsinan interstadial site at Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Commercial borings to a depth of 36 m encountered organic sediments under till. A continuously cored borehole was subsequently put down to 42 m and revealed a succession of sand and silt, over clayey Maryhill hill, over sandy Catfish Creek Till, over fossiliferous sand. Pollen, plant macrofossils, and a few ostracodes, molluscs, and insects provide a coherent picture of interstadial conditions. Two pollen zones are represented. The older zone is characterized by Picea and ThujalJuniperus pollen, and Dryopteris- type and Sphagnum spores, which suggest a lowland, forested peatland. Reduction of peatland, and transition to a wetland with more open water associated with a stream is indicated by an increase in Cyperaceae pollen, Pediastrum algae, and a diversity of aquatic plant macrofossils during the later zone. Fossil plant assemblages are similar to modern southern boreal associations in Ontario, which implies that the climate was cooler and possibly drier than the present. Phytogeographically, Picea needles and wood, and seeds of Brasenia schreberi and Potamogetan spirillus are noteworthy among the plant macrofossils. The sequence of Late Wisconsinan tills overlying the fossiliferous zone implies a Middle Wisconsinan age for the interstadial. This is supported by an accelerator radiocarbon date on small wood pieces of 40,080 + 1,200 years B.P.     

Nature and composition of interbedded marine basaltic pumice in the ∼52–50 Ma Vastan lignite sequence,western India: Implication for Early Eocene MORB volcanism offshore Arabian Sea

The recognition of pyroclasts preserved in sedimentary environments far from its source is uncommon. We here describe occurrences of several centimetres-thick discontinuous basaltic pumice lenses occurring within the Early Eocene Vastan lignite mine sedimentary sequence, western India at two different levels – one at ～5 m and the other at 10 m above a biostratigraphically constrained 52 Ma old marker level postdating the Deccan Volcanism. These sections have received global attention as they record mammalian and plant radiations. We infer the repetitive occurrence of pumice have been sourced from a ～52–50 Ma MORB related to sea-floor spreading in the western Arabian Sea, most plausibly along the Carlsberg Ridge. Pyroclasts have skeletal plagioclase with horsetail morphologies ± pyroxene ± Fe–Ti oxide euhedral crystals, and typically comprise of circular polymodal (radii ≤10 to ≥30 μm), non-coalescing microvesicles (>40–60%). The pumice have undergone considerable syngenetic alteration during oceanic transport and post-burial digenesis, and are a composite mixture of Fe–Mn-rich clay and hydrated altered basaltic glass (palagonite). The Fe–Mn-rich clay is extremely low in SiO ₂, Al ₂ O ₃, TiO ₂, MgO, alkalies and REE, but very high in Fe ₂ O ₃, MnO, P, Ba, Sr contents, and palagonitization involved significant loss of SiO ₂, Al ₂ O ₃, MgO and variable gain in Fe ₂ O ₃, TiO ₂, Ni, V, Zr, Zn and REE. Bubble initiation to growth in the ascending basaltic magma (liquidus ～1200–1250 ^°C) may have occured in ～3 hr. Short-distance transport, non-connected vesicles, deposition in inner shelf to more confined lagoonal condition in the Early Eocene and quick burial helped preservation of the pumice in Vastan. Early Eocene Arabian Sea volcanism thus might have been an additional source to marginal sediments along the passive margin of western India.     

UTOPIA,DYSTOPIA, AND SUBLIME APOCALYPSE IN MONTANA'S CHURCH UNIVERSAL AND TRIUMPHANT

ABSTRACT. The search for a perfected place on earth is rarely easy or forgiving. Utopias and dystopias demonstrate the practical frailties of attempts to build better human associations, whether as literary efforts or in actual, on‐the‐ground experiments. With a proprietary interest in evaluating the dimensions of place making, geographers can lay claim to be frontline critics of efforts that attempt to craft a better world. The catalog of personality cultists, charismatically murderous leaders, and apocalyptic mass death is long. The Church Universal and Triumphant, currently of Paradise Valley, Montana, is examined as the home for twenty‐five years of an ongoing effort to “improve” lives. If its dilemmas and apparent failures are in keeping with the history of past utopian ventures, geographical lessons remain to be learned about the costs of planning for perfection.     

High roads and low roads

One of the joys in working as an engineering geologist on Scottish road schemes is the variety of geology that has to be dealt with, from soft silts to hard metamorphics. The properties of these materials must be assessed, cuttings and embankments designed, and site work monitored carefully to ensure safe and economic construction.     

Sandwiched fossils

A little-known mode of fossil preservation-bioimmuration-is responsible for exciting new findings of soft-bodied organisms. Bioimmuration results from organic overgrowth by animals such as serpulid worms and oysters which form natural moulds of the organisms they have overgrown on their undersurfaces or sandwich overgrown organisms between themselves and their substrate. Overgrowth is a routine occurrence among the many marine organisms lacking mobility, and bioimmured fossils can be extremely common. Discoveries of bioimmured ctenostome bryozoans, hydroids and other soft-bodied animals that lived attached to hard surfaces are providing important new palaeontological perspectives, especially in the Mesozoic.     

The greenschist metamorphism of Archaean synvolcanic stocks near Wawa, Ontario, Canada

Abstract Two Archaean synvolcanic stocks with contact aureoles occur in the Wawa greenstone belt near Wawa, Ontario, Canada. The Gutcher Lake and Jubilee stocks consist mainly of granitoid trondhjemite with feldspar laths mottled by white mica + calcite + epidote and rimmed by clear albite. Biotite is partly or wholly pseudomorphosed by chlorite + sphene; some epidote is partly altered to calcite + chlorite. The granitoid phase grades into a foliated phase of quartz + albite + white mica + calcite + chlorite near fracture zones traversing the stocks.
The alteration of the Gutcher Lake stock along its foliated margin involved addition of K₂O, H₂O + CO₂, MnO, plus Rb; loss of CaO plus Sr; and a shift in Fe⁺²/Fe_t from 0.66 to 0.81. The alteration of the Jubilee stock along the Darwin Shear involved addition of H₂O + CO₂; loss of Sr; and no significant shift in Fe⁺²/Fe_t. The greenschist alteration also modified the contact aureoles bordering both stocks.
One interpretation is that regional metamorphism in the Archaean overprinted a greenschist assemblage on both stocks. The alteration was intense near fracture zones and sporadic remote from fractures. Lower integrated water to rock ratios along the Darwin Shear compared to the margin of the Gutcher Lake stock may explain the comparatively lower perturbation of the element abundances and redox state of iron.     

REGRESSION ON MULTIVARIATE IMAGES:PRINCIPAL COMPONENT REGRESSION FOR MODELING,PREDICTION AND VISUAL DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS

Regression between two blocks(usually called‘dependent’or Y and‘independent’or X)of data is a veryimportant scientific and data-analytical tool.Regression on multivariate images is possible and constitutesa meaningful addition to existing univariate and multivariate techniques of image analysis.The regressioncan be used as a modeling tool or for prediction.The form of the regression equation chosen is dependentupon problem specification and information at hand.This paper describes the use of principal componentregression(PCR).Both model building and prediction are presented for continuous Y-variables.The finalgoal is to supply new image material that can be used for visual inspection on a screen.Also,visual toolsfor diagnosis of model and prediction are provided,often based on derived image material.Examplesof modeling and prediction are given for six channels in a seven-channel satellite image     

THE USE OF A RATIO METHOD AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO CONSTRAINED DECONVOLUTION

This paper will consider the use of an iterative ratio technique called Gold's ratio method as an alternativeto iterative constrained deconvolution methods for the restoration of overlapped and noisychromatograpic peaks.The study will consist of first describing the technique and then evaluating itsperformance with respect to Jansson's deconvolution procedure.A Hewlett-Packard 5890A gaschromatograph will be used to generate most of the test data.The evaluation criteria will includeconvergence rates,peak area errors and variances,retention time variances and noise performance.