Middle Weichselian environments on western Yamal Peninsula, Kara Sea based on pollen records

Pollen data from two sections from a coastal cliff on the western Yamal Peninsula (69°43.27′N, 66°48.80′E) document the environmental history during the Karginsky (Middle Weichselian) interstadial. Low pollen concentrations, high amounts of redeposited pollen, and relatively high presence of Artemisia pollen characterize sediments deposited at about 33,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. Grass-sedge plant associations with few other herbs occupied the area during the late Karginsky interstadial. Artemisia pollen may indicate rather xerophytic vegetation and disturbed soils in the area. The dominance of redeposited pollen reflects scarce (disturbed) vegetation cover and low pollen productivity. The climate was relatively cold and dry. Sediments dated to 32,400 ¹⁴C yr B.P. contain fewer redeposited pollen and concentration of non-redeposited pollen is significantly higher. Pollen contents indicate the dominance of tundra-like grass-sedge vegetation and more humid conditions. Pollen records dated between 30,100 and 25,100 ¹⁴C yr B.P. also reflect scarce tundra-like vegetation during this interval. The presence of Betula nana and Salix pollen may reflect limited presence of shrub communities. This suggests that the climate was somewhat warmer during the latter part of the interstadial. However, generally the pollen records show that harsh environmental conditions prevailed on the Yamal Peninsula during the Karginsky interstadial.     

Geophysical constraints on deep weathering and water storage potential in the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory

The conversion of bedrock to regolith marks the inception of critical zone processes, but the factors that regulate it remain poorly understood. Although the thickness and degree of weathering of regolith are widely thought to be important regulators of the development of regolith and its water‐storage potential, the functional relationships between regolith properties and the processes that generate it remain poorly documented. This is due in part to the fact that regolith is difficult to characterize by direct observations over the broad scales needed for process‐based understanding of the critical zone. Here we use seismic refraction and resistivity imaging techniques to estimate variations in regolith thickness and porosity across a forested slope and swampy meadow in the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory (SSCZO). Inferred seismic velocities and electrical resistivities image a weathering zone ranging in thickness from 10 to 35 m (average = 23 m) along one intensively studied transect. The inferred weathering zone consists of roughly equal thicknesses of saprolite (P‐velocity < 2 km s^?1) and moderately weathered bedrock (P‐velocity = 2–4 km s^?1). A minimum‐porosity model assuming dry pore space shows porosities as high as 50% near the surface, decreasing to near zero at the base of weathered rock. Physical properties of saprolite samples from hand augering and push cores are consistent with our rock physics model when variations in pore saturation are taken into account. Our results indicate that saprolite is a crucial reservoir of water, potentially storing an average of 3 m³ m^?2 of water along a forested slope in the headwaters of the SSCZO. When coupled with published erosion rates from cosmogenic nuclides, our geophysical estimates of weathering zone thickness imply regolith residence times on the order of 10⁵ years. Thus, soils at the surface today may integrate weathering over glacial–interglacial fluctuations in climate. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Innovative Environmental Tracer Techniques for Evaluating Sources of Spring Discharge from a Carbonate Aquifer Bisected by a River

Littlefield Springs discharge about 1.6 m³/s along a 10‐km reach of the Virgin River in northwestern Arizona. Understanding their source is important for salinity control in the Colorado River Basin. Environmental tracers suggest that Littlefield Springs are a mixture of older groundwater from the regional Great Basin carbonate aquifer and modern (post‐1950s) seepage from the Virgin River. While corrected ¹⁴C apparent ages range from 1 to 9 ka, large amounts of nucleogenic ⁴He and low ³He/⁴He ratios suggest that the carbonate aquifer component is likely even older Pleistocene recharge. Modeled infiltration of precipitation, hydrogeologic cross sections, and hydraulic gradients all indicate recharge to the carbonate aquifer likely occurs in the Clover and Bull Valley Mountains along the northern part of the watershed, rather than in the nearby Virgin Mountains. This high‐altitude recharge is supported by relatively cool noble‐gas recharge temperatures and isotopically depleted δ²H and δ¹⁸O. Excess (crustal) SF₆ and ⁴He precluded dating of the modern component of water from Littlefield Springs using SF₆ and ³H/³He methods. Assuming a lumped‐parameter model with a binary mixture of two piston‐flow components, Cl^?/Br^?, Cl^?/F^?, δ²H, and CFCs indicate the mixture is about 60% Virgin River water and 40% groundwater from the carbonate aquifer, with an approximately 30‐year groundwater travel time for Virgin River seepage to re‐emerge at Littlefield Springs. This suggests that removal of high‐salinity sources upstream of the Virgin River Gorge would reduce the salinity of water discharging from Littlefield Springs into the Virgin River within a few decades.     

The physical volcanology of the 1600 eruption of Huaynaputina, southern Peru

Volcán Huaynaputina is a group of four vents located at 16°36'S, 70°51'W in southern Peru that produced one of the largest eruptions of historical times when ~11 km³ of magma was erupted during the period 19 February to 6 March 1600. The main eruptive vents are located at 4200 m within an erosion-modified amphitheater of a significantly older stratovolcano. The eruption proceeded in three stages. Stage I was an ~20-h sustained plinian eruption on 19-20 February that produced an extensive dacite pumice fall deposit (magma volume ~2.6 km³). Throughout medial-distal and distal parts of the dispersal area, a fine-grained plinian ashfall unit overlies the pumice fall deposit. This very widespread ash (magma volume ~6.2 km³) has been recognized in Antarctic ice cores. A short period of quiescence allowed local erosion of the uppermost stage-I deposits and was followed by renewed but intermittent explosive activity between 22 and 26 February (stage II). This activity resulted in intercalated pyroclastic flow and pumice fall deposits (~1 km³). The flow deposits are valley confined, whereas associated co-ignimbrite ash fall is found overlying the plinian ash deposit. Following another period of quiescence, vulcanian-type explosions of stage III commenced on 28 February and produced crudely bedded ash, lapilli, and bombs of dense dacite (~1 km³). Activity ceased on 6 March. Compositions erupted are predominantly high-K dacites with a phenocryst assemblage of plagioclase>hornblende>biotite>Fe-Ti oxides-apatite. Major elements are broadly similar in all three stages, but there are a few important differences. Stage-I pumice has less evolved glass compositions (~73% SiO₂), lower crystal contents (17-20%), lower density (1.0-1.3 g/cm³), and phase equilibria suggest higher temperature and volatile contents. Stage-II and stage-III juvenile clasts have more evolved glass (~76% SiO₂) compositions, higher crystal contents (25-35%), higher densities (up to 2.2 g/cm³), and lower temperature and volatile contents. All juvenile clasts show mineralogical evidence for thermal disequilibrium. Inflections on a plot of log thickness vs area^1/2 for the fall deposits suggest that the pumice fall and the plinian ash fall were dispersed under different conditions and may have been derived from different parts of the eruption column system. The ash appears to have been dispersed mainly from the uppermost parts of the umbrella cloud by upper-level winds, whereas the pumice fall may have been derived from the lower parts of the umbrella cloud and vertical part of the eruption column and transported by a lower-altitude wind field. Thickness half distances and clast half distances for the pumice fall deposit suggests a column neutral buoyancy height of 24-32 km and a total column height of 34-46 km. The estimated mass discharge rate for the ~20-h-long stage-I eruption is 2.4᎒⁸ kg/s and the volumetric discharge rate is ~3.6᎒⁵ m³/s. The pumice fall deposit has a dispersal index (Hildreth and Drake 1992) of 4.4, and its index of fragmentation is at least 89%, reflecting the dominant volume of fines produced. Of the 11 km³ total volume of dacite magma erupted in 1600, approximately 85% was evacuated during stage 1. The three main vents range in size from ~70 to ~400 m. Alignment of these vents and a late-stage dyke parallel to the NNW-SSE trend defined by older volcanics suggest that the eruption initiated along a fissure that developed along pre-existing weaknesses. During stage I this fissure evolved into a large flared vent, vent 2, with a diameter of approximately 400 m. This vent was active throughout stage II, at the end of which a dome was emplaced within it. During stage III this dome was eviscerated forming the youngest vent in the group, vent 3. A minor extra-amphitheater vent was produced during the final event of the eruptive sequence. Recharge may have induced magma to rise away from a deep zone of magma generation and storage. Subsequently, vesiculation in the rising magma batch, possibly enhanced by interaction with an ancient hydrothermal system, triggered and fueled the sustained Plinian eruption of stage I. A lower volatile content in the stage-II and stage-III magma led to transitional column behavior and pyroclastic flow generation in stage II. Continued magma uprise led to emplacement of a dome which was subsequently destroyed during stage III. No caldera collapse occurred because no shallow magma chamber developed beneath this volcano.     

Detection and Analysis of Near-Surface Explosions on the Kola Peninsula

Seismic and infrasonic observations of signals from a sequence of near-surface explosions at a site on the Kola Peninsula have been analyzed. NORSAR’s automatic network processing of these events shows a significant scatter in the location estimates and, to improve the automatic classification of the events, we have performed full waveform cross-correlation on the data set. Although the signals from the different events share many characteristics, the waveforms do not exhibit a ripple-for-ripple correspondence and cross-correlation does not result in the classic delta-function indicative of repeating signals. Using recordings from the ARCES seismic array (250 km W of the events), we find that a correlation detector on a single channel or three-component station would not be able to detect subsequent events from this source without an unacceptable false alarm rate. However, performing the correlation on each channel of the full ARCES array, and stacking the resulting traces, generates a correlation detection statistic with a suppressed background level which is exceeded by many times its standard deviation on only very few occasions. Performing f-k analysis on the individual correlation coefficient traces, and rejecting detections indicating a non-zero slowness vector, results in a detection list with essentially no false alarms. Applying the algorithm to 8 years of continuous ARCES data identified over 350 events which we confidently assign to this sequence. The large event population provides additional confidence in relative travel-time estimates and this, together with the occurrence of many events between 2002 and 2004 when a temporary network was deployed in the region, reduces the variability in location estimates. The best seismic location estimate, incorporating phase information for many hundreds of events, is consistent with backazimuth measurements for infrasound arrivals at several stations at regional distances. At Lycksele, 800 km SW of the events, as well as at ARCES, infrasound is detected for most of the events in the summer and for few in the winter. At Apatity, some 230 km S of the estimated source location, infrasound is detected for most events. As a first step to providing a Ground Truth database for this useful source of infrasound, we provide the times of explosions for over 50 events spanning 1 year.     

Association of phosphate with rhyolite glass in marine Neogene tuffs from Patagonia,Argentina

The precipitation/replacement of Ca‐phosphate is a complex process that commonly takes place during the early diagenesis in marine sediments. The unusual occurrence of shallow marine, early diagenetic phosphatic deposits associated with glassy tuffs in the Neogene Gaiman Formation, in the Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina, constitutes a good case example for the study of replacement and precipitation of Ca‐phosphate on an unstable substrate. Isocon diagrams illustrate that chemical changes during glass diagenesis include gains in loss on ignition and Ca, and losses of K. These changes are the result of glass hydration during sea water–glass interaction, together with adsorption and diffusion of ions into the bulk shard; combined, these represent an incipient process of volcanic glass replacement by Ca‐phosphate. Subsequent early diagenetic P enrichment in the pore solutions led to phosphate precipitation, associated with pitting on the glass shards and pumice. The associated development of a reactive surface promoted the incorporation of P and Ca into their margins. Lastly, precipitation of calcium phosphate filled the vesicles and other open cavities, inhibiting further glass dissolution. The high porosity and reactivity of the volcanic glass provided an appropriate substrate for phosphate precipitation, leading to the development of authigenic apatite concretions in the volcanic‐glass bearing strata of the Gaiman Formation. This research is of significance for those concerned with marine phosphatic deposits and sheds light on the processes of early diagenetic phosphate precipitation by replacement of an atypical, unstable substrate like hydrated volcanic glass.     

A Numerical Simulation of Residual Circulation in Tampa Bay. Part II: Lagrangian Residence Time

Lagrangian retention and flushing are examined by advecting neutrally buoyant point particles within a circulation field generated by a numerical ocean model of Tampa Bay. Large temporal variations in Lagrangian residence time are found under realistic changes in boundary conditions. Two 90-day time periods are examined. The first (P1) is characterized by low freshwater inflow and weak baroclinic circulation. The second (P2) has high freshwater inflow and strong baroclinic circulation. At the beginning of both time periods, 686,400 particles are released uniformly throughout the bay. Issues relating to particle distribution and flushing are examined at three different spatial scales: (1) at the scale of the entire bay, (2) the four major regions within the bay, and (3) at the scale of individual model grid cells. Two simple theoretical models for the particle number over time, N(t), are fit to the particle counts from the ocean model. The theoretical models are shown to represent N(t) reasonably well when considering the entire bay, allowing for straightforward calculation of baywide residence times: 156 days for P1 and 36 days for P2. However, the accuracy of these simple models decreases with decreasing spatial scale. This is likely due to the fact that particles may exit, reenter, or redistribute from one region to another in any sequence. The smaller the domain under consideration, the more this exchange process dominates. Therefore, definitions of residence time need to be modified for “non-local” situations. After choosing a reasonable definition, and removal of the tidal and synoptic signals, the residence times at each grid cell in P1 is found to vary spatially from a few days to 90 days, the limit of the calculation, with an average residence time of 53 days. For P2, the overall spatial pattern is more homogeneous, and the residence times have an average value of 26 days.     

The age of the martian meteorite Northwest Africa 1195 and the differentiation history of the shergottites

Samarium-neodymium isotopic analyses of unleached and acid-leached mineral fractions from the recently identified olivine-bearing shergottite Northwest Africa 1195 yield a crystallization age of 347 ± 13 Ma and an value of +40.1 ± 0.9. Maskelynite fractions do not lie on the Sm-Nd isochron and appear to contain a martian surface component with low ¹⁴⁷Sm/¹⁴⁴Nd and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd ratios that was added during shock. The Rb-Sr system is disturbed and does not yield an isochron. Terrestrial Sr appears to have affected all of the mineral fractions, although a maximum initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of 0.7016 is estimated by passing a 347 Ma reference line through the maskelynite fraction that is least affected by contamination. The high initial value and the low initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio, combined with the geologically young crystallization age, indicate that Northwest Africa 1195 is derived from a source region characterized by a long-term incompatible-element depletion.The age and initial Sr and Nd isotopic compositions of Northwest Africa 1195 are very similar to those of Queen Alexandra Range 94201, indicating these samples were derived from source regions with similar Sr-Nd isotopic systematics. These similarities suggest that these two meteorites share a close petrogenetic relationship and might have been erupted from a common volcano. The meteorites Yamato 980459, Dar al Gani 476, Sayh al Uhaymir 005/008, and Dhofar 019 also have relatively old ages between 474 and 575 Ma and trace element and/or isotopic systematics that are indicative of derivation from incompatible-element-depleted sources. This suggests that the oldest group of meteorites is more closely related to one another than they are to the younger meteorites that are derived from less incompatible-element-depleted sources. Closed-system fractional crystallization of this suite of meteorites is modeled with the MELTS algorithm using the bulk composition of Yamato 980459 as a parent. These models reproduce many of the major element and mineralogical variations observed in the suite. In addition, the rare earth element systematics of these meteorites are reproduced by fractional crystallization using the proportions of phases and extents of crystallization that are calculated by MELTS. Other shergottites that demonstrate enrichments in incompatible-elements and have evolved Sr and Nd isotopic systematics have some geochemical systematics that are similar to those observed in the depleted group. Most notably, although they exhibit a very limited range of incompatible trace element and isotopic compositions, they have highly variable major element compositions. This is also consistent with evolution from a common mantle source region by variable amounts of fractional crystallization. If this scenario is correct, it suggests that the combined effects of source composition and fractional crystallization are likely to account for the major element, trace element, and isotopic diversity of all shergottites.