River sections at the Byzovaya Palaeolithic site – keyholes into the late Quaternary of northern European Russia

Heggen, H. P., Svendsen, J. I. & Mangerud, J. 2009: River sections at the Byzovaya Palaeolithic site – keyholes into the late Quaternary of northern European Russia. Boreas, 10.1111/j.1502‐3885.2009.00109.x. ISSN 0300‐9483. The geological history of northern European Russia over the past two glacial cycles is reconstructed from the stratigraphy in river bluffs along the upper reaches of the Pechora River. From a till bed near the base of the sections it is inferred that the Barents–Kara Ice Sheet covered the area during the late Saalian (MIS 6). After deglaciation, and prior to the last interglacial, the area was flooded by an ice‐dammed lake, suggesting that the Pechora Basin was blocked by a subsequent ice advance at the very end of the Saalian. Ice‐wedge casts and periglacial sediments reflect a pronounced cooling with formation of permafrost during the Early Weichselian (MIS 5d). An overlying thick sequence of shallow lacustrine sediments accumulated in the ice‐dammed Lake Komi, formed by the advancing Barents–Kara Ice Sheet 80–100 kyr BP (MIS 5b?). Following drainage of the lake, many of the older formations were eroded by fluvial activity. Animal remains found together with palaeolithic artefacts within debrisflow sediments at the base of one of the incised gullies yielded radiocarbon ages around 28 000–30 000 ¹⁴C yr BP (33–34 cal. kyr BP). The surface with traces of human activities was subsequently covered by aeolian sediments representing the northern extension of the European belt of periglacial coversand that accumulated in the cold and dry climate during the late Weichselian (MIS 2). The results of this work confirm the assumption that the last shelf‐centred ice sheet that covered this part of Russia occurred during the late Saalian (MIS 6), but that this glaciation was followed by a younger and less extensive ice advance that has not been described before. There are no indications that local glaciers originating in the Ural Mountains reached the Pechora River valley throughout the last two glacial cycles.     

Adenine oxidation by pyrite-generated hydroxyl radicals

Cellular exposure to particulate matter with concomitant formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidization of biomolecules may lead to negative health outcomes. Evaluating the particle-induced formation of ROS and the oxidation products from reaction of ROS with biomolecules is useful for gaining a mechanistic understanding of particle-induced oxidative stress. Aqueous suspensions of pyrite particles have been shown to form hydroxyl radicals and degrade nucleic acids. Reactions between pyrite-induced hydroxyl radicals and nucleic acid bases, however, remain to be determined. Here, we compared the oxidation of adenine by Fenton-generated (i.e., ferrous iron and hydrogen peroxide) hydroxyl radicals to adenine oxidation by hydroxyl radicals generated in pyrite aqueous suspensions. Results show that adenine oxidizes in the presence of pyrite (without the addition of hydrogen peroxide) and that the rate of oxidation is dependent on the pyrite loading. Adenine oxidation was prevented by addition of either catalase or ethanol to the pyrite/adenine suspensions, which implies that hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals are causing the adenine oxidation. The adenine oxidation products, 8-oxoadenine and 2-hydroxyadenine, were the same whether hydroxyl radicals were generated by Fenton or pyrite-initiated reactions. Although nucleic acid bases are unlikely to be directly exposed to pyrite particles, the formation of ROS in the vicinity of cells may lead to oxidative stress.     

Radiocarbon deglaciation chronology of the Thunder Bay,Ontario area and implications for ice sheet retreat patterns

The sensitivity of ice sheets to climate change influences the return of meltwater to the oceans. Here we track the Laurentide Ice Sheet along a ～400 km long transect spanning about 6000 yr of retreat during the major climate oscillations of the lateglacial. Thunder Bay, Ontario is near a major topographic drainage divide, thus terrestrial ablation processes are the primary forcers of ice margin recession in the study area. During deglaciation three major moraine sets were produced, and have been assigned minimum ages of 13.9 ± 0.2, 12.3 ± 0.2–12.1 ± 0.1, and 11.2 ± 0.2 cal ka BP from south to north. These define a slow retreat (～10–50 m/a) prior to major climate oscillations which was then followed by a factor of ～2 increase during the Bölling–Alleröd, and an additional increase during the early Holocene. When compared to retreat rates in other terrestrial settings of the ice sheet, nearly identical patterns emerge. However this becomes problematic because a key control on retreat rates is the surface slope of the ice sheet and this should vary considerably over areas of so-called hard and soft beds. Further these ice margin reconstructions would not allow meltwater sourced in the Hudson Basin to drain into the Atlantic basin until after Younger Dryas time.     

Carbon-14 production compared to oxygen isotope records from Camp Century,Greenland and Devon Island,Canada

Carbon-14 production rate variations that are not explainable by geomagnetic changes are thought to be in antiphase with solar activity and as such should be in antiphase with paleotemperature records or proxy temperature histories such as those obtainable from oxygen isotope analyses of ice cores. Oxygen isotope records from Camp Century, Greenland and Devon Island Ice Cap are in phase with each other over thousands of years and in antiphase to the ¹⁴C production rate residuals.     

SEISMIC VELOCITY ESTIMATION*

The accuracy of the two most common arrival time functions used in seismic velocity estimation is investigated. It is shown that the hyperbolic arrival time function is more accurate than the parabolic arrival time function for a horizontally layered elastic medium. An upper bound on the difference between the two arrival time functions is given. A maximum-likehood detector for estimating the arrival time of the signals is given. For the signal-in-noise model that is used the maximum-likelihood detector is equivalent to a least-squares detector which corresponds to using the signal energy as coherency measure. The semblance coefficient corresponds to a normalized least-squares detector. The semblance coefficient is very similar to a filter performance measure that is used in least-squares filter design.     

Uranium abundance of the oceanic crust

Uranium contents of 67 oceanic basalts have been measured by fission track analysis. Average value for ridge and intraplate basalts is ~ 78 ppb, for the Easter Hot Line it is ~1600 ppb. Estimates of mantle concentrations derived from the ridge and intraplate samples are insufficient to account for the observed surface heat flow. The whole-Earth concentration of U is > 8 ppb. and < 33 ppb if all heat generated within the Earth reaches the surface.     

Comparison of 105 years of oxygen isotope and insoluble impurity profiles from the Devon Island and Camp Century ice cores

Oxygen-isotope profiles for the Devon Island ice cap and Camp Century Greenland are affected by a number of variables, some of which must have been the same for both sites. The two δ(¹⁸O) records spanning about 120,000 years are brought into relative alignment by comparison of major δ features, and subsequent verification that the insoluble particulate concentration records were also in phase for this alignment. The difference between the δ profiles is shown to be mainly a function of the altitude of the accumulation area for Camp Century. This altitude seems to have been higher than present for the last 100,000 years, suggesting the present flow line through the site has never been shorter. The maximum altitude for the Camp Century accumulation area is 1500 m above the present site and is almost synchronous with the maximum in particulate concentration that occurs at 16,000 yr B.P. The synchronism is likely due to the maximum sea-level lowering that exposed vast areas of continental shelf to wind erosion.     

Olivine-matrix reactions in thermally metamorphosed Apollo 14 breccias

Olivine clasts, which have mantles formed by reaction of the olivine with the breccia matrix, are present in the high-grade thermally metamorphosed Apollo 14 breccias. The mantled olivine clasts are most abundant in 14311, but they are also present in 14304 and 14319. Typically the mantles consist of two zones: an inner corona containing pyroxene, ilmenite and commonly plagioclase, and an outer light-colored halo where the matrix is depleted in ilmenite. The growth of the coronas involved matrix-to-corona diffusion of TiO₂ and corona-to-matrix diffusion of MgO and FeO. These diffusive fluxes can be attributed to chemical potential gradients developed between mineral assemblages in local equilibrium at the olivine-corona boundary and the matrix.