Use of fallout 137Cs for documenting the chronology of overbank sediments from the river Sava, Croatia, and interpreting their geochemical patterns

This paper attempts to determine the impact of former Pb-Zn-Ba mining activities in Slovenian drainage basin on overbank sediments of the Sava river (West Croatia). Among the four studied sequences (S7, S8, S9, S10), the most upstream profile S7 showed the most pronounced impact of ore mining. Mercury was enriched more than 100-fold; Pb and Zn had a strong positive correlation (r > 0.99). Two factor models clearly revealed the Pb-Ba-Hg association in the lower-lying carbonate (CA) population of all four profiles, but only in the overlying silicate (SI) population of profile S7. Factor analysis confirmed this association in the total sediment (90 samples) as well as separately in the CA (33 samples) and SI (57 samples) populations. Based on a comparison with an undisturbed soil profile, the vertical distribution of ¹³⁷Cs in profile S7 was interpreted to be the combination of caesium deposition caused by a flood in 1964 and by post-depositional redistribution.     

Water soluble components of PM10 Chongqing, China

The concentrations of water soluble ions (Na⁺, NH₄ ⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, NO₃ ^-, Cl^-, and SO ₄ ^2- ) in PM₁₀ samples collected on cellulose filters by a medium-volume cascade impactor were determined, which were obtained from three kinds of areas in Chongqing: industrial area (Jiulongpo district), commercial and residential area (Jiangbei district) and background area (Jinyun Mountain in the Beibei district). The results showed that except for the background site, the annual average values of PM₁₀ are 23% – 61% higher than the national air quality standard (GradeII) (0.1 mg/m³), even that the value of the control site is still 20% higher than American standard (0.05 mg/m³). This implied that serious pollution of fine particles occurred in Chongqing. Nine kinds of soluble ions in water of PM₁₀ were analyzed by ion chromatography (IC) and the annual average concentrations follow the order of [SO ₄ ^2- ] > [NO³ _-] > [Cl^-] > [F^-], and [Ca²⁺] > [NH₄ ⁺] > [K⁺] > [Na⁺] > [Mg²⁺]. Their values were different in these areas: the industrial area > the commercial and living area > the control area. As for NH_{4 +}, K⁺, Ca²⁺, NO₃ ^- and SO ₄ ^2- , their seasonal average concentrations show a similar variation trend: the values in spring and fall were higher than those in summer and winter. The seasonal average concentrations of [Cl^-], [F^-], [Na⁺] and [Mg²⁺] are much lower than those of other ions. However, the concentrations of [Na⁺] changed more greatly in different seasons than those of the other three ions. Correlation coefficients showed that the three areas have been polluted by coal smoke and dust to different extents, while some local resources of pollution should be taken into consideration as well.     

Provenance and Magmatic-Metamorphic Evolution of a Variscan Island-Arc Complex: Constraints from U-Pb Dating, Petrology, and Geospeedometry of the Kyffhauser Crystalline Complex, Central Germany

The Kyffhäuser Crystalline Complex, Central Germany, formspart of the Mid-German Crystalline Rise, which is assumed torepresent the Variscan collision zone between the East Avalonianterrane and the Armorican terrane assemblage. High-precisionU–Pb zircon and monazite dating indicates that sedimentaryrocks of the Kyffhäuser Crystalline Complex are youngerthan c. 470 Ma and were intruded by gabbros and diorites between345 ± 4 and 340 ± 1 Ma. These intrusions had magmatictemperatures between 850 and 900°C, and caused a contactmetamorphic overprint of the sediments at P–T conditionsof 690–750°C and 5–7 kbar, corresponding toan intrusion depth of 19–25 km. At 337 ± 1 Ma themagmatic–metamorphic suite was intruded by granites, syenitesand diorites at a shallow crustal level of some 7–11 km.This is inferred from a diorite, and conforms to P–T pathsobtained from the metasediments, indicating a nearly isothermaldecompression from 5–7 to 2–4 kbar at 690–750°C.Subsequently, the metamorphic–magmatic sequence underwentaccelerated cooling to below 400°C, as constrained by garnetgeospeedometry and a previously published K–Ar muscoviteage of 333 ± 7 Ma. With respect to P–T–D–tdata from surrounding units, rapid exhumation of the KCC canbe interpreted to result from NW-directed crustal shorteningduring the Viséan. KEY WORDS: contact metamorphism; U–Pb dating; hornblende; garnet; Mid-German Crystalline Rise; P–T pseudosection     

兰州市2001年沙尘气溶胶质量浓度的特征分析

 分析了2001年沙尘暴期间兰州与靠近沙尘源区的武威的沙尘浓度和粒径分布特征,并运用对数正态分布规律拟合了沙尘粒径的分布。通过对比武威、皋兰和兰州沙尘暴期间沙尘浓度的变化以及武威与兰州的沙尘粒径分布特征,揭示了河西走廊沙漠对兰州市沙尘暴的影响。     

江苏王港盐沼的现代沉积速率

江苏海岸湿地总面积超过5000km^2，但围垦活动的加剧使盐沼湿地面积迅速减少；为了达到海岸防护、保滩促淤的目的，先后引种了大米草和互花米草。通过采集江苏王港潮滩盐沼湿地9处柱状样和挖取探槽剖面，以及对沉积剖面样品进行^210Pb和^137Cs测年分析，探讨了^210Pb的本底及影响^210Pb富集的因素，估算了王港盐沼湿地的现代沉积速率。王港潮滩盐沼沉积物对^210Pb的吸附作用较弱；受风暴潮、生物扰动、物源变化及实验误差等因素的影响，在^210Pbex剖面上出现了数据异常点，将这些数据点剔除后计算得到的沉积速率为33cm yr^-1，^137Cs测年显示，该地区1963年以来的平均沉积速率3．1cm yr^-1，与^210Pb法及前人研究结果相一致。根据一个典型剖面的^137Cs测年数据分析，王港潮滩盐沼的沉积过程根据地貌特征的不同可分3个阶段，大米草覆盖阶段滩面高程迅速增加，互花米草的生长提高了滩面淤积速率。     

Age of Gimli beach of Lake Agassiz based on new OSL dating

Gimli beach in Manitoba is one of the lowest elevation beaches in the southern Lake Agassiz basin, and is a distinct ridge composed of bedded sand and gravel that rises above the lake plain and extends for more than 40 km. Ten new optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages from Gimli beach yield ages mostly ranging from 9.7 ± 0.7 to 10.5 ± 0.8 ka (average 10.3 ± 0.5 ka), which is older by 0.6 to >1.0 ka than age estimates of previous researchers. Two of our new OSL ages are notably older than the others, dating to ~11.3 ± 0.8 and 13.9 ± 1.0 ka, which we attribute to poorly bleached sands. We ascribe an age of about 10 ka to Gimli beach, which is several centuries before overflow from Lake Agassiz and its vast drainage basin shifted from the western Great Lakes to glacial Lake Ojibway and the St. Lawrence Valley.     

An Eocene/Oligocene blueschist‐/greenschist facies P–T loop from the Cycladic Blueschist Unit on Naxos Island,Greece: Deformation‐related re‐equilibration vs. thermal relaxation

Geothermobarometric and geochronological work indicates a complete Eocene/early Oligocene blueschist/greenschist facies metamorphic cycle of the Cycladic Blueschist Unit on Naxos Island in the Aegean Sea region. Using the average pressure–temperature (P–T) method of thermocalc coupled with detailed textural work, we separate an early blueschist facies event at 576 ± 16 to 619 ± 32°C and 15.5 ± 0.5 to 16.3 ± 0.9 kbar from a subsequent greenschist facies overprint at 384 ± 30°C and 3.8 ± 1.1 kbar. Multi‐mineral Rb–Sr isochron dating yields crystallization ages for near peak‐pressure blueschist facies assemblages between 40.5 ± 1.0 and 38.3 ± 0.5 Ma. The greenschist facies overprint commonly did not result in complete resetting of age signatures. Maximum ages for the end of greenschist facies reworking, obtained from disequilibrium patterns, cluster near c. 32 Ma, with one sample showing rejuvenation at c. 27 Ma. We conclude that the high‐P rocks from south Naxos were exhumed to upper mid‐crustal levels in the late Eocene and early Oligocene at rates of 7.4 ± 4.6 km/Ma, completing a full blueschist‐/greenschist facies metamorphic cycle soon after subduction within c. 8 Ma. The greenschist facies overprint of the blueschist facies rocks from south Naxos resulted from rapid exhumation and associated deformation/fluid‐controlled metamorphic re‐equilibration, and is unrelated to the strong high‐T metamorphism associated with the Miocene formation of the Naxos migmatite dome. It follows that the Miocene thermal overprint had no impact on rock textures or Sr isotopic signatures, and that the rocks of south Naxos underwent three metamorphic events, one more than hitherto envisaged.