Oceanic mafic rocks in the Eastern Alps

The Eastern Alps in Austria have been interpreted as a pile of thrust sheets resulting from the collision of two continental masses. The only remains of the ocean-floor which may once have separated these continents could be the highly deformed greenschists, metasediments and serpentinites found in the lower thrust sheets. To test this hypothesis, a total of sixty mafic rocks from the Großglockner, Mooserboden, Fusch, Hochtor, Matrei Zone and Strobl localities have been analysed for the stable trace elements, Ti, Zr, Y, Nb and Cr, and the less stable elements K, Rb, and Sr. Visual and statistical comparison of the stable elements with known magma types reveals that five of the sample groups classify clearly as tholeiitic ocean-floor basalts, while one group, the Fusch locality, classifies as within-plate (probably ocean island) basalts. It is suggested that the tectonic units containing such rocks comprise a mélange of disrupted oceanic crust, upper mantle and seamounts, pelagic sediments and continental margin sediments. The rocks may have formed in a large ocean basin, rather than a marginal basin behind an island arc.     

Community collaboration and climate change research in the Canadian Arctic

Research on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation, particularly projects aiming to contribute to practical adaptation initiatives, requires active involvement and collaboration with community members and local, regional and national organizations that use this research for policy-making. Arctic communities are already experiencing and adapting to environmental and socio-cultural changes, and researchers have a practical and ethical responsibility to engage with communities that are the focus of the research. This paper draws on the experiences of researchers working with communities across the Canadian Arctic, together with the expertise of Inuit organizations, Northern research institutes and community partners, to outline key considerations for effectively engaging Arctic communities in collaborative research. These considerations include: initiating early and ongoing communication with communities, and regional and national contacts; involving communities in research design and development; facilitating opportunities for local employment; and disseminating research findings. Examples of each consideration are drawn from climate change research conducted with communities in the Canadian Arctic.     

Medium-term effects of two landsliding episodes on channel storage of sediment

Two landsliding episodes between late 1973 and early 1975 delivered about 60000 m³ of sediment to six small deeply incised streams draining a 2·7 km² area. About 4700 m³ of logs in the landslide debris formed major log jams in five streams, which impounded large volumes of landslide-derived sediment. Five years after the landsliding, 42 per cent (25000 m³) of sediment was still in storage behind 35 log jams ranging from 1·4–8·2 m high. The landsliding episodes have produced multi-stepped stream profiles, aggradation of channel reaches up to 150 m long to mean depths between 1·2 and 4·1 m, reductions in gradient, fining of bed material size, and related changes in bedforms and channel width:depth ratios that seem likely to persist for at least several decades. Sediment presently stored behind log jams is equivalent to between 50 and 220 years normal supply of sediment from hillslopes to stream channels. Long-delayed, large magnitude impacts on higher-order channels may occur if sudden failure of log jams is induced by a large storm at some future date.     

Grain boundaries as microreactors during reactive fluid flow: experimental dolomitization of a calcite marble

Limestone dolomitization is an example of a fluid-induced mineralogical transformation that commonly affects extensive rock volumes. To understand the mechanisms enabling these efficient replacement reactions, we investigated experimentally the dolomitization of a fractured calcite marble under flow-through conditions at mild hydrothermal conditions. Contrary to most earlier studies of coupled dissolution reprecipitation reactions that were conducted using small, individual grains, in this study, the integrity of the rock was preserved, so that the experiment explored the links between flow in a fracture and fluid–rock interaction. In these experiments, grain boundaries acted as microreactors, in which a Mg-poor ‘protodolomite’ formed initially, and then transformed into dolomite. The difficulty in nucleating dolomite played a key role in controlling the evolution of the porosity, by allowing for (1) initial dissolution along grain boundaries, and (2) formation of coarse porosity at the reaction interface. This porosity evolution not only enabled the reaction to progress efficiently, but also controlled the mineralogy of the system, as shown by brucite replacing calcite near the fracture once the fluid along calcite grain boundaries became sufficiently connected to the fluid flowing through the fracture. This study illustrates the role of grain boundaries, porosity evolution and nucleation in controlling reaction progress as well as the nature and textures of the products in pervasive mineralogical transformations.     

Observations of SN1985G and SN1985H with the new faint-object spectrograph

Spectra of the supernovae SN1985G and SN1985H obtained with the Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) on the 2.5 m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos are presented in the wavelength range 4600 to 10 000 Å.     

Intracellular mineral grains in the xenophyophore Nazareammina tenera (Rhizaria, Foraminifera) from the Nazaré Canyon (Portuguese margin, NE Atlantic)

Xenophyophores, a group of large agglutinated foraminifera, are characterized by the presence of numerous intracellular barite grains, termed granellae, the function and origin of which is unclear. The recently described xenophyophore Nazareammina tenera (Gooday et al., in press), from abyssal depth (4300 m) in the Nazaré Canyon contains an unusually dense concentration of mineral grains in its cytoplasm. Uniquely among known xenophyophores, the intracellular grains in this species comprise a variety of different mineral types in addition to barite. They exhibit a wide range of morphologies and energy dispersive X-ray analysis indicated that they include Ti-bearing minerals, many of them rod-shaped (probably rutile), as well as those containing Fe and Ti (possibly ilmenite and anatase), and Al and Si (probably clay minerals). While the function of intracellular particles in xenophyophores remains unclear, the presence of numerous particles of various types in the cytoplasm suggests that they originate from the sediment. This suite of intracellular mineral grains is completely different from that used to construct the agglutinated test of N. tenera, suggesting that this species is able to discriminate between different kinds of particles. A second xenophyophore species, Reticulammina cerebreformis (Gooday et al., in press), which is abundant at the same site as N. tenera, is devoid of intracellular particles, suggesting that their presence in N. tenera is a species-specific characteristic.     

Old Crow tephra across eastern Beringia: a single cataclysmic eruption at the close of Marine Isotope Stage 6

Old Crow tephra is the largest and most widespread Quaternary eruption presently known in eastern Beringia. Its major- and trace-element geochemistry, Fe-Ti oxides, and stratigraphic and paleoecological context indicate that it is the result of a single cataclysmic eruption. The proximal region may well have experienced tephra fallout from small eruptions just prior to or after the Old Crow event, but there is no evidence to indicate that the distal area was affected. We recalculate the glass fission-track age at 124 ± 10 ka, which, coupled with stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions, indicates that deposition occurred prior to development of the last interglacial boreal forest, which suggests a latest Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 age. The bulk tephra volume erupted is estimated by three different approaches, that are in broad agreement at ～200 km³, but this result must be considered as tentative given the poor controls on definition of isopachs over such a large area. The source caldera, although presently unrecognized, is located in the eastern Aleutian arc, possibly at or near the Emmons Lake volcanic center.     

Combined hillslope diffusion and sediment transport simulation applied to landscape dynamics modelling

We present a new numerical approach for simulating geomorphic and stratigraphic processes that combines open‐channel flow with non‐uniform sediment transport law and semi‐empirical diffusive mass wasting. It is designed to facilitate modelling of surface processes across multiple space‐ and time‐scales, and under a variety of environmental and tectonic conditions. The physics of open‐channel flow is primarily based on an adapted Lagrangian formulation of shallow‐water equations. The interaction between flow and surface geology is performed by a non‐uniform total‐load sediment transport law. Additional hillslope processes are simulated using a semi‐empirical method based on a diffusion approach. In the implementation, the resolution of flow dynamics is made on a triangulated grid automatically mapped and adaptively remeshed over a regular orthogonal stratigraphic mesh. These new methods reduce computational time while preserving stability and accuracy of the physical solutions. In order to illustrate the potential of this method for landscape and sedimentary system modelling, we present a set of three generic experiments focusing on assessing the influence of contrasting erodibilities on the evolution of an active bedrock landscape. The modelled ridges morphometrics satisfy established relationships for drainage network geometry and slope distribution, and provide quantitative information on the relative impact of hillslope and channel processes, sediment discharge and alluviation. Our results suggest that contrasting erodibility can stimulate autogenic changes in erosion rate and influence the landscape morphology and preservation. This approach offers new opportunities to investigate joint landscape and sedimentary systems response to external perturbations. The possibility to define and track a large number of materials makes the implementation highly suited to model source‐to‐sink problems where material dispersion is the key question that needs to be addressed, such as natural resources exploration and basin analysis. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.