A map series of the Southern East Pacific Rise and its flanks, 15° S to 19° S

Four large-scale bathymetric maps of the Southern East Pacific Rise and its flanks between 15° S and 19° S display many of the unique features of this superfast spreading environment including abundant seamounts (the Rano Rahi Field), axial discontinuities, discontinuity migration, and abyssal hill variation. Along with a summary of the regional geology, these maps will provide a valuable reference for other sea-going programs on-and off-axis in this area, including the Mantle ELectromagnetic and Tomography (MELT) experiment.     

Interpretation of seismic and potential field data from western New York State and Lake Ontario

Lithoprobe and industry seismic profiles have furnished evidence of major zones of easterly dipping Grenville deformed crust extending southwest from exposed Grenville rocks north of Lake Ontario. Additional constraints on subsurface structure limited to the postulated Clarendon–Linden fault system south of Lake Ontario are provided by five east–west reflection lines recorded in 1976. Spatial correlations between seismic structure and magnetic anomalies are described from both Lake Ontario and the newly reprocessed New York lines.In the Paleozoic to Precambrian upper crust, the New York seismic sections show: (1) An easterly thickening wedge of subhorizontal Paleozoic strata unconformably overlying a Precambrian basement whose surface has an apparent regional easterly dip of 1–2°. Minor apparent normal offsets, possibly on the order of tens of meters, occur within the Paleozoic section. The generally poorly reflective unconformity may be locally characterized by topographic relief on the order of 100 m; (2) Apparent local displacement on the order of 90 m at the level of the Black River Group diminishes upward to little or no apparent offset of Queenston Shale; (3) Within the limited seismic sections, there appears to be no evidence that the complete upper crustal section is vertically or subvertically offset; (4) Dipping structure in the Paleozoic strata (15° to 35°) resembles some underlying Precambrian basement elements; (5) The surface continuity of inferred faults constituting the Clarendon–Linden system is not strongly supported by the seismic data.Beneath the Paleozoic strata, the seismic sections show both linear and arcuate reflector geometry with easterly apparent dips of 15° to 35° similar to the deep structures imaged on seismic lines from nearby Lake Ontario and on Lithoprobe lines to the north. The similarity supports an extension of easterly dipping Central Metasedimentary Belt structures of the Grenville orogen from southern Ontario to beneath western New York State.From a comparison of the magnetic and gravity fields with the New York seismic sections, we suggest: (1) The largely nonmagnetic Paleozoic strata appear to contribute negligibly to magnetic anomalies. Seismically imaged fractures in the New York Paleozoic strata appear to lie mainly west of a positive gravity anomaly. The relationship between magnetic and gravity anomalies and the changes in the geometry of interpreted Precambrian structures remains enigmatic; (2) North to northeast trending curvilinear magnetic and gravity anomalies parallel, but are not restricted to the principal trend of the postulated Clarendon–Linden fault system. Paleozoic fractures of the Clarendon–Linden system may partly overlie a southward extension of the Composite Arc Belt boundary zone.     

The 3-D Sun and heliosphere at solar maximum

Bob Forsyth and Andy Breen report from the RAS G Discussion Meeting at the Geological Society on 11 January 2002. Presentations came from both the solar and heliospheric communities, on the 3-D structure and dynamics of the solar corona and heliosphere and their inter-relation during the present maximum in the solar activity cycle.     

'Just sustainability': the emerging discourse of environmental justice in Britain?

Environmental justice is both a vocabulary for political opportunity, mobilization and action, and a policy principle to guide public decision making. It emerged initially in the US, and more recently in the UK, as a new vocabulary underpinning action by community organizations campaigning against environmental injustices. However, as the environmental justice discourse has matured, it has become increasingly evident that it should play a role in the wider agendas for sustainable development and social inclusion. The links between sustainability and environmental justice are becoming clearer and more widely understood in the UK by NGOs and government alike, and it is the potential synergy between these two discourses which is the focus of this paper. This paper argues that the concept of 'just sustainability' provides a discourse for policymakers and activists, which brings together the key dimensions of both environmental justice and sustainable development.     

Building deliberative public-private partnerships for waste management in Asia

Public-private partnerships in environmental policy should not simply be viewed in instrumental terms as means of providing environmental infrastructure and services, but also as sites where norms of environmental concern and political accountability are formulated and replicated. Deliberative public-private partnerships--or partnerships that allow greater public participation in the formulation of these norms--may therefore become an important new form of local environmental governance and help make partnerships more relevant to local environmental needs. This paper examines case studies of public-private partnerships in waste-to-energy projects in the Philippines and India to identify how principles of institutional design may enhance the deliberative nature of public-private partnerships in environmental policy. The paper argues that current approaches to deliberative, or cooperative environmental governance concerning public-private partnerships need to acknowledge insights from network theory concerning the communication of environmental and political norms before they can be successfully transferred to developing countries.     

Allocycles and Autocycles in the Upper Part of the Limestone Coal Group (Pendleian E1) in the Glasgow–Stirling Region of the Midland Valley of Scotland

The upper part of the Limestone Coal Group (Pendleian E₁), between the major marine transgressions of the Black Metals and the Index Limestone, represents an early example of ‘coal measures’ facies. It comprises a distal and a proximal facies association. The distal facies association, which was subject to relatively strong marine influences and included both deltaic and fluvial elements, is characterized by a regular ‘layer-cake’ succession with laterally-persistent lithological members. By contrast, the proximal association, which was more subject to fluvial influences and is typified by the variable Bannockburn Main Complex, is characterized by abrupt lateral changes in lithofacies. The distal facies association is dominant in the west of the Kilsyth Trough, but proximal facies intercalations increase eastwards, so that they constitute a fairly high proportion of the succession in the Kincardine Basin, particularly in areas of locally-increased tectonic subsidence that were frequently occupied by major channel belts. Some of the sheet sandstones within the distal association have a lower, upward-coarsening portion succeeded by a coarser-grained, erosive-based, upward-fining portion. The resulting ‘two-storey’ profile may reflect deltaic sand bodies having been suceeded by fluvial sand bodies, following a general fall in base level. Linear regression lines showing the relationship between the number of horizons colonized by vegetation and net subsidence, suggest that local autocyclic, tectonosedimentary processes, such as delta switching, channel migration, and avulsion, were superimposed upon a widespread allocyclic, probably glacial-eustatic, process. The former processes were most effective within the proximal facies association and in the Kincardine Basin and the latter in the distal association and the Kilsyth Trough.