Stratigraphic evaluation of a Holocene clay-slide in Northern Norway

An almost 6,000 years old slide in marine clay at Fossmoen, Northern Norway is studied to: characterize the scar, the slide deposits and the slide event; evaluate the role that stratigraphic variations played for failure; and view the slide event within long-term landscape development. A geological model for the area is based on drilling, outcrops and ground-penetrating radar with emphasis on the stratigraphic variations of fjord deposits. The slide’s age implies that the deposits were sensitive already shortly after emergence above sea level, and layers are still sensitive. River incision was probably responsible for the initial slide, whereas stratigraphy and groundwater movement controlled the location and shape of the scar. Laminated, inclined and discontinuous bedding are suggested as playing different roles for ground-water flow and pore pressures, adding to existing models on the development of soft and sensitive layers prone to sliding.     

AGE STRUCTURES OF MODULES OF CLONAL PEATLAND SEDGE Carex middendorffii

Age structure of a plant population carries important information on population dynamics. The traditional age classification of individuals by development phases could not explain the generation relationship neither between individuals nor between modules, and it could not accurately predict the future of population or the tendency of peatland evolution. In a peatland of the Xiao Hinggan Mountains, China, at the middle of the growth season, the age structures of 3 modules, ramets, active buds and rhizomes of a Carex middendorffii clonal population were investigated, with the method of classifying age classes of ramets and active buds by counting generation quantity of tiller nodes, and classifying age classes of rhizomes by their real survival time. The quantity of vegetative ramets was dominant. Tiller nodes of ramets can propagate vegetatively for a maximum of 3 generations. The population of ramets consisted of 3 age classes of ramets at the middle of the growth season, and showed a stable age structure. In the two sampling events, there was no significant difference between quantities and age structure of the population. The maximum age of an excavated rhizome was 12 years old. Rhizomes were classified in 8 age classes, and age classes 4-6 contributed most to the total biomass. There was no significant difference in total length and total biomass per unit area, or in biomass per unit length in rhizomes between the two samplings. Four age classes of active buds were recognized, and their number increased from July to August. The Carex middendorffii clonal population achieved regeneration by budding from the tiller nodes of ramets. The age structures of the 3 modules suggested that the Carex middendorffii clonal population could persist in the early development phase of the oligotrophic peatland in the Xiao Hinggan Mountains, but it could not be dominant. It also faces the risk to disappear from the community as the peatland develops further.     

A synthesis: Late Cenozoic stress field distribution at northeastern corner of the Eastern Mediterranean,SE Turkey

Fault kinematic analysis and inversion of focal mechanisms of shallow earthquakes reveal significant evolution of the regional stress regime in the northeastern most corner of the Eastern Mediterranean region since the Mio-Pliocene to the present time. This study was carried out in the interaction area between the Arabian/African plates and the Anatolian block. The evolution of stress regimes consists of a change from older transpression to younger transtension. Both strike-slip stress regimes having a NNW- to northwest-trending σ_Hmax (σ₁) and ENE- to northeast-trending σ_Hmin (σ₃) axes induce a sinistral component of displacement on the major intra-continental Karatas–Osmaniye and Misis–Ceyhan faults elongated with the northeast-trending Misis Range between Adana and Osmaniye provinces (sub-area i) and by a NNE-trending plate boundary Amanos fault running along Amanos Range between Antakya and Kahramanmaras provinces (sub-area ii). The inversion results show that the transtensional stress regime is dominantly strike-slip to extension, with an ENE- to northeast-trending σ_Hmin (σ₃) axis for sub-areas (i) and (ii), respectively. The inversions of earthquake focal mechanisms indicate that the transtensional stress regime is still active in the whole study area since probably recent Quaternary time. To cite this article: S. Over et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).     

Doppler-shifted auroral H <beta> emission: a comparison between observations and calculations

Two sounding rockets equipped with photometers and particle detectors have been flown into proton auroras. The measured altitude dependence of the proton flux is compared with calculations based upon known energy-range relations for protons in air. Expressions suitable for numerical calculations of Doppler profiles at arbitrary angles to the geomagnetic field and at different heights within an aurora are developed. Profiles due to some typical proton spectra have been calculated and it is shown that altitude profiles at some wavelengths are more sensitive to the shape of the proton spectrum than are profiles at other wavelengths. Variations in the H <beta> Doppler profile versus height for several angles with the magnetic field is studied. Profiles, as generated by the actually measured protons in the energy range 1 keV to 1 MeV, have been calculated and are compared with direct optical measurements made by ground and rocket photometers. The rocket photometers took measurements at different wavelengths within the Doppler profile. The correspondence between calculations and measurements is generally good. The total H <beta> is calculated and fair agreement with the measured intensity is found.     

Observations of teleseismicPn phases

Summary Numerous observations of teleseismicPn phases have been made on short-period seismograph records in Sweden. The observations now cover the distance range of 2360 to 4670 km, that is about six times the distance range reported in an earlier paper. The propagation paths are exclusively confined to the Russian platform, which means that a very homogeneous structure is required for the propagation ofPn to large distances. The relation between travel-timet (sec) and distance along the earth's surface (km) ist=: (8.20±0.12)+(0±6), based on 30 observations. The real velocity ofPn (underneath Moho) is 8.15±0.12 km/sec and the corresponding Poisson's ratio, obtained by combination with the teleseismicSn velocity (4.72 km/sec), is 0.248. These are averages for the Russian platform. The problem of the relative occurrence ofPn andSn in teleseismic records is briefly discussed.     

Mercury levels in fish,invertebrates and sediment in a recently recorded polluted area (Nissum Broad,western Limfjord,Denmark)

High concentrations of mercury were measured in sediment and animals collected in the immediate vicinity of a closed-down chemical factory. Sediment contained up to 22 ppm (dry wt) of mercury, deposit-feeding bivalves between 1.4 and 4.4 ppm (wet wt), suspension-feeding bivalves between 0.9 and 1.9 ppm and predatory fish between 0.3 and 0.8 ppm. Outside the ‘hot spot’ area, the mercury concentration in sediment and mussels (Mytilus edulis) rapidly decreased with increasing distance from the former factory. Mercury concentration in flounders (Platichthys flesus) also decreased with distance from the source; the decline was, however, much less marked.     

Monoclinic chloritoid: Calculations of unit cell volumes and densities in the pseudo-ternary system Fe-Ctd-Mn-Ctd-Mg-Ctd

Linear regression analysis of chemical and X-ray data on natural monoclinic chloritoids yields a general formula for the unit cell volume of the mineral: V = 337.2 ($\text{r}\text{¯}$)³ + 814.1 (ų), where r? is the mean ionic radius of the cations in the brucite-type layer. With this function as a basis, the unit cell volumes (V) and the densities (D) of the members of the pseudo-ternary system Fe-Ctd-Mn-Ctd-Mg-Ctd can be calculated. The V-D surface for reported compositions of natural chloritoids has also been defined.     

Geochemistry of Caledonian metabasalts from some Norwegian ophiolite fragments

Major and trace element analyses of metabasalts from five of the Lower Palaeozoic Caledonian ophiolite fragments along a strike distance of some 800 km of the west Norwegian coast are presented. Characteristically the REE patterns show depletion of both LREE and HREE relative to intermediate REE, giving an upward convex shape, but nearly flat, LREE depleted or enriched patterns occur. The REE patterns of the metabasalts from three of these sequences, i.e. the Lykling, Solund and Stavfjorden ophiolite fragments show little within-sequence but large between-sequence variation. The REE patterns of the metabasalts from the Gullfjellet (Major Bergen Arc) and Skålvær ophiolite fragments, however, show significant within-sequence variations, indicative of local source heterogeneties.When incompatible trace elements such as Ta, Nb, Ce, P, Zr, Hf, Sm, Ti, Y and Yb are normalized against average MORB, the metabasalts can be subdivided into two major groups. One group, geographically comprising the ophiolite fragments north of Bergen (i.e. Solund, Stavfjorden og Skålvær) show trace element ratios similar to average MORB, whereas the other group, defined by the Gullfjellet and Lykling ophiolite fragments (from Bergen southwards) differ significantly with respect to Yb/Y, Ti/Y and Nb/Ce ratios. These features are discussed in terms of trace element patterns in basalts from oceanic islands, island arcs and back-arc basins, and it is tentatively concluded that they reflect partial melts from a mid-oceanic mantle, or probably a back-arc basin mantle, which differed chemically from that of the northwestern Norwegian ophiolite fragments.