Palaeomagnetism of the Tudor gabbro, Ontario: evidence for divergence between Grenvillia and interior Laurentia

Summary. After thermal and alternating field (AF) cleaning, the characteristic high blocking temperature A component of natural remanent magnetization (NRM) of the Tudor gabbro of southern Ontario has a mean direction D = 326°, I =–46° ( k = 132, α₉₅= 4.8°, N = 8 sites). The corresponding palaeopole, 133°E, 12°N ( dp = 4°, dm = 6°), confirms the palaeopole 137°E, 17°N (α₉₅= 8.4°) reported earlier by Palmer & Carmichael, based on AF cleaning only. The A NRM has unblocking temperatures > 515–525°C which exceed the estimated 500°C peak temperature reached locally during ∼ 1050 Ma Grenvillian regional metamorphism. The A NRM therefore predates metamorphism and is probably a primary thermoremanence (TRM). The age of the Tudor NRM has previously been taken to be about 675 Ma, but recent ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating by Baksi has shown that this is the time of post-metamorphic cooling to 200–250°C. Hornblendes record initial cooling of the intrusion to 590±20°C at 1110 Ma and this is the best estimate of the age of the A remanence. Successful Thellier-type palaeointensity determinations on 11 Tudor samples confirm that the A NRM is a TRM and indicate a palaeofield at this time of 18–27 μT, about 50–70 per cent of the present field intensity at 27° magnetic latitude. The anomalous Tudor A palaeopole, which lies well to the west of both 1000–800 Ma Grenvillian palaeopoles and 1100–1050 Ma poles from Interior Laurentia, is interpreted as recording divergence between Grenvillia and Interior Laurentia just before the Grenvillian orogeny, rather than a post-metamorphic extension of the apparent polar wander path as previously assumed.     

Sonar acoustic facies and sediment distribution on an area of the deep ocean floor

Long-range sidescan sonar can be used to map sediment distributions over wide expanses of deep ocean floor. Seven acoustic facies that arise from differing sediment or rock types have been mapped over the low-relief Saharan continental rise and Madeira abyssal plain. These have been calibrated with sampling, profiling and camera studies and the facies can be traced confidently on a regional scale using the sidescan data. The mapping of the sediment distribution shows that a complex interplay of turbidity current and debris flow processes can occur at a continental rise/abysaal plain transition over 1000 km from the nearest continental slope.     

Late Quaternary landscapes in Central Australia: sedimentary history and palaeoecology of Puritjarra rock shelter

Puritjarra rock shelter provides a long record of late Quaternary vegetation in the Australian arid zone. Analysis of the sedimentary history of this rock shelter is combined with reanalysis of charcoal and phytolith records to provide a first‐order picture of changing landscapes in western Central Australia. These show a landscape responding to increasing aridity from 45 ka with deflation of clay‐rich red palaeosols (<45 ka) and sharp declines in grassland and other vegetation at 40–36 ka, and at the beginning of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (24 ka). Vegetation in the catchment of the rock shelter recovered after 15 ka with expansion of both acacia woodland and spinifex grasslands, registering stronger summer rainfall in the interior of the continent. By 8.3 ka re‐vegetation of local palaeosols and dunes had choked off sediment supply to the rock shelter and the character of the sediments changed abruptly. Poaceae values peaked at 5.8 ka, suggesting the early–mid Holocene climatic optimum in Central Australia is bracketed between 8.3 and 5.8 ka. Local vegetation was disrupted in the late Holocene with a sharp decline in Poaceae at 3.8 ka, coinciding with an abrupt intensification of ENSO. Local grasslands recovered over the next two millennia and by 1.5 ka the modern vegetation appears to have become established. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Opening of the Fram Strait gateway: A review of plate tectonic constraints

We have revised the regional crustal structure, oceanic age distribution, and conjugate margin segmentation in and around the Lena Trough, the oceanic part of the Fram Strait between the Norwegian–Greenland Sea and the Eurasia Basin (Arctic Ocean). The Lena Trough started to open after Eurasia–Greenland relative plate motions changed from right-lateral shear to oblique divergence at Chron 13 times (33.3 Ma; earliest Oligocene). A new Bouguer gravity map, supported by existing seismic data and aeromagnetic profiles, has been applied to interpret the continent–ocean transition and the influence of Eocene shear structures on the timing of breakup and initial seafloor spreading. Assuming that the onset of deep-water exchange depended on the formation of a narrow, oceanic corridor, the gateway formed during early Miocene times (20–15 Ma). However, if the initial Lena Trough was blocked by terrigenous sediments or was insufficiently subsided to allow for deep-water circulation, the gateway probably formed with the first well developed magnetic seafloor spreading anomaly around Chron 5 times (9.8 Ma; Late Miocene). Paleoceanographic changes at ODP Site 909 (northern Hovgård Ridge) are consistent with both hypotheses of gateway formation. We cannot rule out that a minor gateway formed across stretched continental crust prior to the onset of seafloor spreading in the Lena Trough. The gravity, seismic and magnetic observations question the prevailing hypotheses on the Yermak Plateau and the Morris Jesup Rise as Eocene oceanic plateaus and the Hovgård Ridge as a microcontinent.     

太平洋凸缘微玻璃陨石的研究

于1985年,一颗独特的凸缘微玻璃陨石被发现于采自北太平洋(9°33′N,167°00′W;水深4928m)深海沉积物中。使用各种分析方法对它的显微特征、微结构和化学成分进行了研究。结果表明,太平洋凸缘微玻璃陨石的形态和结构与达尔文的凸缘澳大利亚石(或玻璃陨石)和查普曼的人造凸缘玻璃陨石相似,从而揭示了玻璃陨石和微玻璃陨石的凸缘结构是由空气动力消融作用的产物。这一研究具有重要的理论和实际意义。     

The Levant Slumps and the Phoenician Structures: collapse features along the continental margin of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea

Two distinct series of slumps deform the upper part of the sedimentary sequence along the continental margin of the Levant. One series is found along the base of the continental slope, where it overlies the disrupted eastern edge of the Messinian evaporites. The second series of slumps transects the continental margin from the shelf break to the Levant Basin. It seemed that the two series were triggered by two unrelated, though contemporaneous, processes. The shore-parallel slumps were initiated by basinwards flow of the Messinian salt, that carried along the overlying Plio-Quaternary sediments. Seawater that percolated along the detachment faults dissolved the underlying salt to form distinctly disrupted structures. The slope-normal slumps are located on top of large canyons that cut into the pre-Messinian sedimentary rocks. A layer of salt is found in the canyons, and the Plio-Quaternary sediments were deposited on that layer. The slumps are bounded by large, NW-trending faults where post-Messinian faulted offset was measured. We presume that the flow of the salt in the canyons also drives the slope-normal slumps. Thus thin-skinned halokynetic processes generated the composite post-Tortonian structural patterns of the Levant margin. The Phoenician Structures are a prime example of the collapse of a distal continental margin due to the dissolution of a massive salt layer.     

Interstitial water chemistry of the inner continental shelf sediments off the gironde estuary

The interstitial water composition ( , alkalinity, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Sr²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺) and the cation exchange capacity (CEC) were determined for the muddy sediments of the continental shelf off the Gironde Estuary (France), in the area where the sediment represents the deposit of the muddy suspension of the river. In comparison with seawater concentrations, the pore waters below 10 cm depth, show depletions of and Ca²⁺ and below a 30 cm depth show depletions of Mg²⁺. Inversely, the upper 10 cm an enrichment of Ca²⁺ concentration, and an increase of K⁺ concentration to a 40 cm depth. High values of are observed at the top 4 cm. Alkalinity enrichment is observed along the length of the core. Applying the alkalinity models for the sediment below a 10 cm depth demonstrates generally that calculated alkalinities are higher than the measured ones. Ca²⁺ dissolution occurs at the first 10 cm and authigenic carbonate precipitation starts beneath that level. Mg²⁺ depletion is accompanied by bicarbonate loss. This proves that Mg²⁺ depletion is due to a Mg-silicate reaction. The result of the CEC does not confirm the Mg²⁺ uptake by clay minerals in exchangeable site, under reducing conditions. Diffusion and bioturbation play an important role in the pore water concentration at the top of the core.     

末次盛冰期以来渤、黄、东海陆架底质分布演变过程模拟研究

渤、黄、东海陆架底质的形成分布与末次盛冰期之后的海侵密切相关。末次盛冰期结束、海侵开始以来 ,潮流是渤、黄、东海陆架上的永久性主导作用应力。为从长期沉积动力演变过程的角度 ,探讨渤、黄、东海陆架底质形成分布的有关成因问题 ,利用数值模拟手段 ,再现了末次盛冰期以来 6个时期渤、黄、东海陆架潮流作用下海底的冲淤格局及底质分布。结果表明 ,扬子浅滩南侧东海外陆架的砂质沉积基本上是自 - 80 m海面以来形成的。扬子浅滩形成于 -5 2 m海面之后 ,至 - 3 0 m海面时已有一定规模 ,全新世最大海侵之后 ,逐渐形成现在规模的扬子浅滩。南黄海中部泥自 - 5 2 m海面时就已开始形成 ,- 3 0 m海面时范围很大 ,侵入北黄海 ,全新世最大海侵以来 ,逐渐调整到现在的范围。渤海中央泥、北黄海西部泥、浙闽岸外泥、辽东半岛西侧与北侧的砂质沉积、西朝鲜湾与江华湾中的砂质沉积以及苏北浅滩是自全新世最大海侵以来逐渐形成的。海州湾中砂质沉积形成的盛期在公元 8世纪之后。济洲岛西南泥、南黄海东部泥很可能分别形成于 - 3 0 m海面、- 5 2 m海面以来。全新世渤、黄、东海陆架底质分布的演变过程大致分为 2个阶段 :全新世最大海侵之前为渤、黄、东海陆架底质分布宏观格局的形成阶段 ;全新世最大海侵至今为渤