Scales and causes of heterogeneity in bars in a large multi‐channel river: Río Paraná, Argentina

To date, published studies of alluvial bar architecture in large rivers have been restricted mostly to case studies of individual bars and single locations. Relatively little is known about how the depositional processes and sedimentary architecture of kilometre‐scale bars vary within a multi‐kilometre reach or over several hundreds of kilometres downstream. This study presents Ground Penetrating Radar and core data from 11, kilometre‐scale bars from the Río Paraná, Argentina. The investigated bars are located between 30 km upstream and 540 km downstream of the Río Paraná – Río Paraguay confluence, where a significant volume of fine‐grained suspended sediment is introduced into the network. Bar‐scale cross‐stratified sets, with lengths and widths up to 600 m and thicknesses up to 12 m, enable the distinction of large river deposits from stacked deposits of smaller rivers, but are only present in half the surface area of the bars. Up to 90% of bar‐scale sets are found on top of finer‐grained ripple‐laminated bar‐trough deposits. Bar‐scale sets make up as much as 58% of the volume of the deposits in small, incipient mid‐channel bars, but this proportion decreases significantly with increasing age and size of the bars. Contrary to what might be expected, a significant proportion of the sedimentary structures found in the Río Paraná is similar in scale to those found in much smaller rivers. In other words, large river deposits are not always characterized by big structures that allow a simple interpretation of river scale. However, the large scale of the depositional units in big rivers causes small‐scale structures, such as ripple sets, to be grouped into thicker cosets, which indicate river scale even when no obvious large‐scale sets are present. The results also show that the composition of bars differs between the studied reaches upstream and downstream of the confluence with the Río Paraguay. Relative to other controls on downstream fining, the tributary input of fine‐grained suspended material from the Río Paraguay causes a marked change in the composition of the bar deposits. Compared to the upstream reaches, the sedimentary architecture of the downstream reaches in the top ca 5 m of mid‐channel bars shows: (i) an increase in the abundance and thickness (up to metre‐scale) of laterally extensive (hundreds of metres) fine‐grained layers; (ii) an increase in the percentage of deposits comprised of ripple sets (to >40% in the upper bar deposits); and (iii) an increase in bar‐trough deposits and a corresponding decrease in bar‐scale cross‐strata (<10%). The thalweg deposits of the Río Paraná are composed of dune sets, even directly downstream from the Río Paraguay where the upper channel deposits are dominantly fine‐grained. Thus, the change in sedimentary facies due to a tributary point‐source of fine‐grained sediment is primarily expressed in the composition of the upper bar deposits.     

Fossil localities of the Santa Cruz Formation (Early Miocene,Patagonia, Argentina) prospected by Carlos Ameghino in 1887 revisited and the location of the Notohippidian

Between January and September of 1887 Carlos Ameghino carried out his first geologic and paleontological expedition to the Río Santa Cruz, Patagonia. Based on the fossils and geologic information compiled, in 1887 and 1889, Florentino Ameghino named more than 120 new species of extinct mammals and his Formación Santacruceña and Piso Santacruceño (Santacrucian stage). Data published by both brothers state that the specimens were collected in outcrops by the Río Santa Cruz, between 90 and 200 km west of its mouth. However, information in the posthumously published letters and Travel Diary of C. Ameghino allows us to recognize a fourth locality, Río Bote, at about 50 km further southwest. In 1900, 1902, F. Ameghino divided the Piso Santacruceño in a younger étage Santacruzienne and older étage Notohippidéen, restricting the geographical distribution of the latter to Kar Aiken locality, northeast of Lago Argentino. However, 15 of the 54 species that F. Ameghino listed as exclusively Notohippidian stage already had been named on specimens collected South to the Río Santa Cruz in 1887, two year prior to C. Ameghino's first visit to Kar Aiken. Based on historical information and several expeditions to the Río Santa Cruz and its environs, in this contribution we establish the geographical locations of the 1887 localities, formalize their names, evaluate the stratigraphic position of the fossil-bearing levels, and analyze the geographic extension of the Notohippidian, inferring that Río Bote is where C. Ameghino first collected species that came to define the Notohippidian.     

The Cretaceous (Cenomanian) continental record of the Laje do Coringa flagstone (Alcântara Formation), northeastern South America

The fossil taxa of the Cenomanian continental flora and fauna of São Luís Basin are observed primarily in the bone bed of the Laje do Coringa, Alcântara Formation. Many of the disarticulated fish and tetrapod skeletal and dental elements are remarkably similar to the chronocorrelate fauna of Northern Africa. In this study, we present a summary of the continental flora and fauna of the Laje do Coringa bone-bed. The record emphasizes the existence of a trans-oceanic typical fauna, at least until the early Cenomanian, which may be interpreted as minor evolutionary changes after a major vicariant event or as a result of a land bridge across the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, thereby allowing interchanges between South America and Africa. The paleoenvironmental conditions in the northern Maranhão State coast during that time were inferred as forested humid areas surrounded by an arid to semi-arid landscape.     

Paleoenvironmental setting and description of an estuarine oyster reef in the Eocene of Patagonia,southern Argentina

A middle Eocene Crassostrea sp. reef near Río Turbio, southwestern Patagonia (Argentina), represents the earliest record of an oyster reef associated with estuarine facies in the southern hemisphere, and also one of the few known worldwide occurring in Paleogene rocks. The reef grew in an outer estuary environment subject to periodic changes in salinity and may have reached a maturing phase. The Río Turbio reef – by its dimensions, geometry, and substrate lithology– would have been located in a tidal channel convergence area. This reef provides new evidence suggesting that estuaries served as refuges for Crassostrea populations allowing them to disperse into fully marine environments many times throughout the Cenozoic.     

中国大陆地区GNSS ZTD对超强东部型厄尔尼诺事件的响应

利用CMONOC提供的GNSS连续观测数据分析天顶对流层延迟（ZTD）代替水汽的可行性,并利用快速傅里叶变换（FFT）和小波变换(WT)开展GNSS ZTD对超强东部型厄尔尼诺事件的响应分析。结果表明,超强东部型厄尔尼诺事件会增加中国大陆地区水汽含量,在热带及亚热带地区响应更为显著;同时该事件会影响GNSS ZTD 的显著变化周期,使9个月的变化周期减弱,0.8~3个月内的变化周期增强。     

P–T–t evidence for mechanisms of vertical tectonic motion in a contractional orogen: north-western US and Canadian Cordillera

The >1800 km long Coast Mountains–North Cascades orogen of the Canadian Cordillera and north-western US developed as a continental magmatic arc. Metamorphic rocks in the orogen contain widespread evidence for burial of supracrustal rocks to depths of c. 40 km, followed by nearly isothermal decompression to depths of <10 km. Near many shallowly-emplaced, mid-Cretaceous plutons, low-pressure contact metamorphic effects were overprinted by high-pressure regional metamorphic minerals and textures, as evidenced by kyanite±staurolite pseudomorphs after andalusite in metapelitic rocks. Therefore, near-pluton rocks record the loading history of the orogen. Metapelitic rocks not associated with plutons only preserve evidence for high-pressure conditions and/or high-temperature decompression, as indicated, for example, by sillimanite and cordierite after kyanite and garnet, respectively. Petrological evidence for burial and decompression is therefore recorded in different rocks. Various regions of the orogen differ in timing of metamorphism, the overall shape of P–T paths and the relative timing and regional extent of the high-pressure event, but most of these data and observations are consistent with thrusting and/or pure shear thickening as primary loading mechanisms throughout the orogen, as opposed to magma-dominated loading. This interpretation is further supported by comparison with thermal models, which demonstrate that the P–T paths are consistent with simultaneous thrusting and folding at a high initial geothermal gradient (35–40 °C km^?1) in much of the orogen. A high geothermal gradient supports tectonic models invoking intra-arc contraction and suggests that magmatism played an important role in regional temperature-time paths. This tectonic-thermal history may be typical of other contractional orogens and illustrates the importance of large vertical displacement of crust in magmatic arcs.     

Putative Meteoritic Craters in Río Cuarto (Central Argentina) Interpreted as Eolian Structures

Ten oblong aligned depressions in the Río Cuarto area (provincia de Córdoba, Argentina) were supposed to be the result of very-low-angle Holocene meteoroid impacts. However, we consider that authors that studied the structures did not demonstrated their extraterrestrial origin. We suggest that an eolian origin for the structures of Río Cuarto is more likely. Actually, these landforms integrate large systems of similar deflation/accumulation geoforms aligned according to predominant winds during different periods.     

Archean–Ediacaran evolution of the Campos Gerais Domain — A reworked margin of the São Francisco paleocontinent (SE Brazil): Constraints from metamafic–ultramafic rocks

The Campos Gerais Domain (CGD) in southeastern Brazil is an approximately 180 km × 35 km area of Archean–Proterozoic rocks located southwest of the São Francisco Craton (SFC). The Archean–Paleoproterozoic evolution of the CGD — alongside its potential correlation with the SFC or other cratonic blocks in the region — is currently poorly-constrained. We present the results of systematic petrography, bulk-rock geochemistry, mineral chemistry and geochronology for a suite of scarcely studied mafic–ultramafic rocks from the CGD. We also provide a compilation of previously reported bulk-rock geochemical and spinel group mineral chemical data for mafic–ultramafic rocks throughout the CGD, and geochronological information for various lithotypes in the region. The CGD records a protracted Mesoarchean to Statherian (3.1–1.7 Ga) crustal evolution, which we interpret to share a common history with the southern SFC and their related reworked segments, suggesting that it is a westward extension of this cratonic terrain. The metavolcano-sedimentary rocks of the Fortaleza de Minas and Alpinópolis segments represent a Mesoarchean greenstone belt that is stratigraphically and chemically comparable to Archean greenstone belts worldwide, and that is broadly coeval with a local suite of tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) gneisses and migmatites. U-Pb SHRIMP zircon data from a subalkaline metagabbro yielded a concordia age of ca. 2.96 Ga, revealing a previously unrecognized phase of Archean magmatism in the CGD that can be chrono-correlated with metakomatiite and TTG generation elsewhere in the São Francisco paleocontinent. Our data contradict a hypothesis whereby the metavolcano-sedimentary rocks of the Jacuí-Bom Jesus da Penha and Petúnia segments represent an ophiolite, as previously suggested, instead presenting features that point to formation in association with a continental arc. Coupled with a U-Pb (SHRIMP) crystallization age of ca. 2.13 Ga recorded by zircon grains from a metaultramafic rock, these data highlight that a magmatic event was chrono-correlated with the main accretionary phase of the Minas Orogeny, and with the Pouso Alegre/Amparo and São Vicente complexes. Finally, a U-Pb (SHRIMP) concordia age of ca. 590 Ma — obtained from metamorphic-textured zircon grains from a metaultramafic rock — points to a late metamorphic overprint related to upper amphibolite conditions, brittle fault activation and the juxtaposition of crustal blocks in association with the latest stages of western Gondwana’s assembly in the southern SFC, with later retrogression to greenschist-facies.     

Old Chico’s new tricks: Neoliberalization and water sector reform in Brazil’s São Francisco River Basin

This article examines changing water governance modalities in the context of the neoliberalization of nature. Specifically, it focuses on Brazilian water sector reforms passed in 1997 that mandate decentralized and participatory decision-making at the river basin scale. Critics have suggested that rescaling, decentralization, and participatory governance mechanisms – supposedly intended to render decision-making more equitable, accessible, and relevant – can serve to legitimate, facilitate, and thus further embed processes of neoliberalization. Examining the impact of Brazil’s water sector reforms on the state–society relationship, this article presents a case study of water governance in the São Francisco River Basin and finds that the reforms – despite their neoliberalizing potential – have not significantly contributed to the neoliberalization of governance therein. Instead, water governance continues to be characterized by longstanding patterns of traditional elite control. Through an institutional and socio-natural analysis, this article describes and accounts for the continued dominance of these patterns relative to neoliberalization and explores activists’ efforts to use water sector reforms to pursue more progressive possibilities. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for variegation and contestation in ongoing debates over neoliberal natures.     

VARIATIONAL ITERATION SOLVING METHOD FOR SEA-AIR OSCILLATOR MODEL OF INTERDECADAL CLIMATE FLUCTUATIONS

1IN T R O D U C T IO NInteractionsbetween the ocean and atmosphere con-tributeto climatefluctuationosver a broad spectrum oftime scales.Studiesof those interactionhsave farfo-cused on El Ni o-SouthernOscillation(ENSO)phe-nomenon thathas a period of3to4yea…