Fracture sealing of quartzite under a temperature gradient: experimental results

Veined lithologies are formed by fracturing and sealing processes, with the veins representing former fluid conduits through the rock. Although detailed fieldwork and numerical simulations have provided a better understanding of vein growth, few studies have attempted to seal fractures and generate veins experimentally. In this pilot study, we subjected fractured quartzite to temperature gradients of 45–125 °C under hydrothermal conditions in a static fluid, with the aim of precipitating secondary quartz in the cooler portions of the fracture. Results show that secondary quartz precipitates due to the imposed temperature gradient, causing the initial fracture to seal locally. Although no systematic sealing pattern was observed along the fracture, samples subjected to higher temperatures exhibit a smaller fracture width and appear to have reacted more extensively. Electron microprobe mapping visualizes the spatial distribution of secondary quartz, which contains elevated concentrations of aluminium.     

Exposure dating and reinterpretation of coarse debris accumulations (‘rock glaciers’) in the Cairngorm Mountains,Scotland

Relict rock glaciers have considerable potential for contributing to palaeoclimatic reconstruction, but this potential is often undermined by lack of dating control and problems of interpretation. Here we reinvestigate and date four proposed ‘rock glaciers’ in the Cairngorm Mountains and show that the morphology of only one of these appears consistent with that of a true rock glacier produced by creep of underlying ice or ice‐rich sediment. All four features comprise rockslide or rock avalanche runout debris, and the possibility that all four represent unmodified runout accumulations cannot be discounted. Surface exposure dating of the four debris accumulations using cosmogenic ¹⁰Be produced uncertainty‐weighted mean ages of 15.4 ± 0.8 ka, 16.2 ± 1.0 ka, 12.1 ± 0.6 ka and 12.7 ± 0.8 ka. All four ages imply emplacement under cold stadial conditions, two prior to the Windermere Interstade of ca. 14.5–12.9 cal. ka BP and two during the Loch Lomond Stade of ca. 12.9–11.5 cal. ka BP. The above ages indicate that paraglacial rock‐slope failure on granite rockwalls occurred within a few millennia after deglaciation. The mean exposure ages obtained for runout debris at two sites – Strath Nethy (16.2 ± 1.0 ka) and Lairig Ghru (15.4 ± 0.8 ka) – are consistent with basal radiocarbon ages from Loch Etteridge, 22 km to the southwest (mean = 15.6 ± 0.3 cal. ka BP) and imply widespread deglaciation of the Cairngorms and adjacent valleys before 15 ka and possibly 16 ka. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

One hundred years of mountain hydrology in Switzerland by the WSL

In 1903 the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL started its first forest hydrology measurements with the aim to deliver a sound scientific basis for the implementation of new forest legislation introduced in Switzerland in 1876. This legislation was triggered by several large floods that occurred in Switzerland, for which a major cause was widely seen as the poor condition of forests at that time. Consequently, hydrologic research at WSL first focused on the influence of forests on floods. In the second half of the 20th century, other hydrological issues such as water quality, snow hydrology and sediment transport complemented the hydrologic research at WSL. Some recent results of this work are presented in three papers joining this introductory paper to mark the 100th anniversary of hydrologic research at WSL. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shale basins,sulfur-deficient ore brines and the formation of exhalative base metal deposits

The massive sulfide deposits of the Iberian Pyrite Belt are interbedded with felsic volcanic rocks and shale, and underlain by several thousand meters of siliciclastic sedimentary rocks known as the PQ Group. Isotope geochemistry and regional geology are both consistent with equilibration of the ore-forming fluids with the PQ Group, prior to ore deposition near the former seafloor. The average Cu:Zn:Pb ratio of the PQ Group rocks (ca. 26:55:19) is similar to the weighted average of all the massive sulfide orebodies combined (ca. 25:52:23).The genetic relationship between massive sulfide deposits and a siliciclastic sedimentary metal source is explained here by a thermodynamic model, proposing that mildly reducing redox conditions imposed by equilibration with the sedimentary rocks are most critical for the formation of an effective ore-forming fluid. Relatively metal-rich but organic-poor pyrite-bearing shale undergoing dewatering of saline pore fluids is an effective source for the generation of sulfur-deficient but relatively iron and base metal-rich brines. Thus, we propose that the giant deposits of the Iberian Pyrite Belt owe their existence not to exceptionally metal-enriched (e.g., magmatic) fluids, but to the existence of a fairly ordinary but large metal source in reactive siliciclastic sediments, combined with an underlying igneous heat source and a particularly efficient mechanism of sulfide precipitation by mixing with H₂S-rich fluids at or near the seafloor.Essentially similar mineral equilibria are imposed when saline fluids are buffered by typical continental basement rocks. Leaching of retrograde minerals and possibly residual salts from their magmatic or metamorphic prehistory is expected to generate similar, variably metal-rich but relatively sulfide-deficient fluids. Thus, the existence of mildly reducing rocks can be the dominant chemical control in the source of fluids generating many volcanogenic, Irish-type or sedex deposits, many of which are known to precipitate their metal load in response to biogenic sulfide addition at the ore deposition site.     

Holocene climate variability in Sicily from a discontinuous stalagmite record and the Mesolithic to Neolithic transition

Fabric and stable isotopic composition of a Holocene stalagmite (CR1) from a cave in northern Sicily record changes in paleorainfall in the early Holocene. High δ¹³C stable isotope values in the calcite deposited from ca. 8500 to ca. 7500 yr ago are interpreted as reflecting periods of high rainfall. The wet phase was interrupted by two periods of multi-century duration characterized by relatively cool and dry winters centered at ca. 8200 and ca. 7500 yr ago, highlighted by low δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values. A high variability of δ¹³C values is recorded from ca. 7500 to ca. 6500 yr ago and indicates that the transition from a pluvial early Holocene to the present-day climate conditions was punctuated by decadal-scale periods of relatively dry winters. In northern Sicily, the traditional elements of the Neolithic appear at ca. 7700 yr ago. It is possible that changes in rainfall influenced the passage from hunter-gathering to farming and sheep-herding economies.     

Microstructural observations on natural syntectonic fibrous veins: implications for the growth process

Syntectonic antitaxial and ataxial fibrous veins were investigated using SEM, microprobe, cathodoluminescence (CL) and optical microscopy. In antitaxial calcite veins, fibres and surrounding selvage grew simultaneously, with similar growth rates of crystallographically differently oriented grains. New material precipitated at the vein margin in antitaxial and bi-mineralic ataxial microstructures. Bridges of country rock material formed during vein growth in an initial en-echelon vein system. In our antitaxial and bi-mineralic ataxial samples, the spacing of solid inclusions does not reflect individual crack-seal openings.     

Crystal-rich mass flow deposits related to the eruption of a sublacustrine silicic cryptodome (Early Permian Collio Basin, Italian Alps)

Sedimentological, granulometric and petrographic data are presented from a detailed study on a crystal-rich mass flow deposit, which is presumably related to the eruption of a sublacustrine cryptodome. The deposit forms a prominent intercalation in the Lower Permian Collio Formation in the Italian Alps north of Brescia. Outcrops of the 10–20-m-thick volcaniclastic deposit (Dasdana I Beds, DB) can be traced over 12 km from east to west. The DB consists of a thick, crystal-rich, sandy–gravelly lower subunit representing a sequence of amalgamated Bouma-a(b) divisions overlain by a thin, well-bedded, sandy–muddy subunit that is rich in outsize porphyritic silicic fragments. Modal and computer-aided image analyses reveal that the crystal-rich lower subunit contains up to 80% of volcanogenic crystals. Some samples contain up to 60% of porphyritic fragments, which have a phenocryst content of about 20%. The wide textural range from cryptocrystalline, poikilomosaic, to rarer medium-grained granophyric groundmass, the irregular to lensoid shapes of the porphyritic fragments, and the presence of basement and sedimentary clasts suggest that the DB originated from a sublacustrine eruption of a partially extrusive cryptodome (ca. 1.6 km³). Two other porphyritic felsic cryptodomes (Dosso dei Lupi, Dosso del Bue), described briefly here, emplaced into the Collio Formation sometime after the DB event, and expose flat bases and tilted sediments at their sides. Textures observed in these domes are comparable to those found in the DB porphyritic fragments.     

Magmatic-to-hydrothermal crystallization in the W–Sn mineralized Mole Granite (NSW, Australia): Part I: Crystallization of zircon and REE-phosphates over three million years—a geochemical and U–Pb geochronological study

Zircon, monazite and xenotime crystallized over a temperature interval of several hundred degrees at the magmatic to hydrothermal transition of the Sn and W mineralized Mole Granite. Magmatic zircon and monazite, thought to have crystallized from hydrous silicate melt, were dated by conventional U–Pb techniques at an age of 247.6 ± 0.4 and 247.7 ± 0.5 Ma, respectively. Xenotime occurring in hydrothermal quartz is found to be significantly younger at 246.2 ± 0.5 Ma and is interpreted to represent hydrothermal growth. From associated fluid inclusions it is concluded that it precipitated from a hydrothermal brine ≤ 600 °C, which is below the accepted closure temperature for U–Pb in this mineral. These data are compatible with a two-stage crystallization process: precipitation of zircon and monazite as magmatic liquidus phases in deep crustal magma followed by complete crystallization and intimately associated Sn–W mineralization after intrusion of the shallow, sill-like body of the Mole Granite. Later hydrothermal formation of monazite in a biotite–fluorite–topaz reaction rim around a mineralized vein was dated at 244.4 ± 1.4 Ma, which distinctly postdates the Mole Granite and is possibly related to a younger hidden intrusion and its hydrothermal fluid system.

Obtaining precise age data for magmatic and hydrothermal minerals of the Mole Granite is hampered by uncertainties introduced by different corrections required for multiple highly radiogenic minerals crystallising from evolved hydrous granites, including ²³⁰Th disequilibrium due to Th/U fractionation during monazite and possibly xenotime crystallization, variable Th/U ratios of the fluids from which xenotime was precipitating, elevated contents of common lead, and post-crystallization lead loss in zircon, enhanced by the fluid-saturated environment. The data imply that monazite can also survive as a liquidus phase in protracted magmatic systems over periods of 10⁶ years. The outlined model is in agreement with prominent chemical core-rim variation of the zircon.