Pre-collisional high pressure metamorphism and nappe tectonics at active continental margins: a numerical simulation

The evolution of a subduction channel and orogenic wedge is simulated in 2D for an active continental margin, with P-T paths being displayed for selected markers. In our simulation, subduction erosion affects the active margin and a structural pattern develops within a few tens of millions of years, with four zones from the trench into the forearc: (i) an accretionary complex of low grade metamorphic sedimentary material, (ii) a wedge of nappes with alternating upper and lower crustal provenance, and minor interleaving of oceanic or hydrated mantle material, (iii) a megascale melange composed of high pressure (HP) and ultra-high pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks extruded from the subduction channel, and (iv) the upward tilted frontal part of the remaining lid. The P–T paths and time scales correspond to those typically recorded in orogenic belts. The simulation shows that HP/UHP metamorphism of continental crust does not necessarily indicate collision, but that the material can be derived from the active margin by subduction erosion and extruded from the subduction channel beneath the forearc during ongoing subduction.     

Offshore granulites from the Bay of Biscay margins: fission tracks constrain a Proterozoic to Tertiary thermal history

Zircon and apatite fission track ages were determined on granulites dredged along the Bay of Biscay margins. A sample from Ortegal Spur (Iberia margin) yielded 725 ± 67 Ma (zircon). A sample from Le Danois Bank (Iberia margin) yielded 284 ± 58 Ma (zircon), indicating post‐Variscan cooling. Apatite from this sample gave 52 ± 2 Ma, interpreted as final cooling after ‘Pyrenean’ thrust imbrication. Two other samples from Le Danois Bank have Early Cretaceous apatite ages (138 ± 7 and 120 ± 8 Ma), interpreted to result from exhumation during rifting. Finally, a granulite from Goban Spur (Armorican margin) gave 212 ± 10 Ma (apatite), coinciding with a precursory rifting phase. Together with published radiometric results, these data indicate a Precambrian high‐grade terrane at the site of the current margins. The distribution of the granulites on the seafloor reflects tectonic and erosional processes related to (a) Mesozoic rifting and (b) Early Tertiary incipient subduction of the Bay of Biscay beneath Iberia.     

Plastic flow strength of jadeite and diopside investigated by microindentation hardness tests

Microindentation hardness tests were performed on jadeite and diopside, being end members of the omphacite solid solution series. At temperatures between 300 and 750 °C, the hardness of jadeite ranges from 7.4 to 8.5 GPa, that of diopside from 4.9 to 6.1 GPa. Jadeite is significantly stronger than diopside in the low-temperature plasticity regime. Normalization of the hardness-derived yield stress with respect to the shear modulus considerably reduces the strength contrast. The normalized Peierls stress is identical for jadeite and diopside. This indicates that jadeite and diopside belong to the same isomechanical group. The hardness-derived yield stress for jadeite as well as for diopside is used to estimate flow law parameters for the low-temperature plasticity regime.     

A longer-term perspective on soil moisture,groundwater and stream flow response to the 2018 drought in an experimental catchment in the Scottish Highlands

The drought of summer 2018, which affected much of Northern Europe, resulted in low river flows, biodiversity loss and threats to water supplies. In some regions, like the Scottish Highlands, the summer drought followed two consecutive, anomalously dry, winter periods. Here, we examine how the drought, and its antecedent conditions, affected soil moisture, groundwater storage, and low flows in the Bruntland Burn; a sub-catchment of the Girnock Burn long-term observatory in the Scottish Cairngorm Mountains. Fifty years of rainfall-runoff observations and long-term modelling studies in the Girnock provided unique contextualisation of this extreme event in relation to more usual summer storage dynamics. Whilst summer precipitation in 2018 was only 63% of the long-term mean, soil moisture storage across much of the catchment were less than half of their summer average and seasonal groundwater levels were 0.5 m lower than normal. Hydrometric and isotopic observations showed that ~100 mm of river flows during the summer (May-Sept) were sustained almost entirely by groundwater drainage, representing ~30% of evapotranspiration that occurred over the same period. A key reason that the summer drought was so severe was because the preceding two winters were also dry and failed to adequately replenish catchment soil moisture and groundwater stores. As a result, the drought had the biggest catchment storage deficits for over a decade, and likely since 1975–1976. Despite this, recovery was rapid in autumn/winter 2018, with soil and groundwater stores returning to normal winter values, along with stream flows. The study emphasizes how long-term data from experimental sites are key to understanding the non-linear flux-storage interactions in catchments and the “memory effects” that govern the evolution of, and recovery from, droughts. This is invaluable both in terms of (a) giving insights into hydrological behaviours that will become more common water resource management problems in the future under climate change and (b) providing extreme data to challenge hydrological models.     

The barometric tides at Zürich and on the summit of Säntis

Summary Lunar barometric tidal determinations (L ₂) have been made by the Chapman-Miller method for Zürich (493 m) and Säntis (2000 m) based on 49 years' data. The seasonal variations ofL ₂ are much larger at Zürich than on the Säntis summit. However, a comparison with the five other pairs of stations for which tidal determinations at different altitudes, but short horizontal distances, are available do not indicate that this result is as an altitude effect, nor do they show any other systematic differences betweenL ₂ at the lower and the higher station. The solar tidal determinations agree well with those made byEggenberger (1944) and fit in with those obtained for other stations. From the difference between the pressure oscillations at Zürich and on Säntis the corresponding meantemperature oscillations of the air column between the two stations has been computed.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Appraisal of a new 1D weighted joint inversion of ground based and helicopter‐borne electromagnetic data

In order to couple spatial data from frequency‐domain helicopter‐borne electromagnetics with electromagnetic measurements from ground geophysics (transient electromagnetics and radiomagnetotellurics), a common 1D weighted joint inversion algorithm for helicopter‐borne electromagnetics, transient electromagnetics and radiomagnetotellurics data has been developed. The depth of investigation of helicopter‐borne electromagnetics data is rather limited compared to time‐domain electromagnetics sounding methods on the ground. In order to improve the accuracy of model parameters of shallow depth as well as of greater depth, the helicopter‐borne electromagnetics, transient electromagnetics, and radiomagnetotellurics measurements can be combined by using a joint inversion methodology. The 1D joint inversion algorithm is tested for synthetic data of helicopter‐borne electromagnetics, transient electromagnetics and radiomagnetotellurics. The proposed concept of the joint inversion takes advantage of each method, thus providing the capability to resolve near surface (radiomagnetotellurics) and deeper electrical conductivity structures (transient electromagnetics) in combination with valuable spatial information (helicopter‐borne electromagnetics). Furthermore, the joint inversion has been applied on the field data (helicopter‐borne electromagnetics and transient electromagnetics) measured in the Cuxhaven area, Germany. In order to avoid the lessening of the resolution capacities of one data type, and thus balancing the use of inherent and ideally complementary information content, a parameter reweighting scheme that is based on the exploration depth ranges of the specific methods is proposed. A comparison of the conventional joint inversion algorithm, proposed by Jupp and Vozoff ( 1975 ), and of the newly developed algorithm is presented. The new algorithm employs the weighting on different model parameters differently. It is inferred from the synthetic and field data examples that the weighted joint inversion is more successful in explaining the subsurface than the classical joint inversion approach. In addition to this, the data fittings in weighted joint inversion are also improved.     

The dynamics of phytoplankton, bacteria and heterotrophic flagellates at two Banks near Magdeburg in the River Elbe (Germany)

The main objectives of this study were to describe the seasonal standing stock dynamics of phytoplankton, bacterioplankton and heterotrophic flagellates in the highly eutrophic River Elbe (Germany), and to compare the seasonal patterns observed with other streams. Emphasis was placed on examining and assessing abiotic and biotic controlling factors influencing the structure and dynamics of the riverine plankton. All the physico-chemical and biological parameters determined were within the range or somewhat higher (in the case of phytoplankton abundance and biomass) than reported for other large streams. The underwater light conditions resulting from atypically short phytoplankton growth periods of about 6 months per year and the low phytoplankton carbon to chl a ratio of 23 were identified as a major limiting factor for phytoplankton development in the River Elbe. The seasonal distribution pattern of bacterioplankton indicated probable tight trophodynamical coupling both with phytoplankton and with heterotrophic flagellates, whereas heterotrophic flagellates showed a more trophic link with bacterial densities. Although approximately constant DOC and DON levels throughout the year sustained bacterial growth rates, during the phytoplankton growing season an increase of bacterial standing stocks was observed. Although the left-bank sampling site of the Elbe is strongly influenced by the tributaries Mulde and Saale containing higher concentrations of chloride, nitrogen nutrients, heavy metals and organic pollutants, no clear differences were observed between the two sides of the river concerning the biological parameters measured. Possible reasons and the slightly higher phytoplankton abundance and diversity at the right bank are discussed.     

Cracking risk of partially saturated porous media—Part I: Microporoelasticity model

Drying of deformable porous media results in their shrinkage, and it may cause cracking provided that shrinkage deformations are hindered by kinematic constraints. This is the motivation to develop a thermodynamics‐based microporoelasticity model for the assessment of cracking risk in partially saturated porous geomaterials. The study refers to 3D representative volume elements of porous media, including a two‐scale double‐porosity material with a pore network comprising (at the mesoscale) 3D mesocracks in the form of oblate spheroids, and (at the microscale) spherical micropores of different sizes. Surface tensions prevailing in all interfaces between solid, liquid, and gaseous matters are taken into account. To establish a thermodynamics‐based crack propagation criterion for a two‐scale double‐porosity material, the potential energy of the solid is derived, accounting—in particular—for mesocrack geometry changes (main original contribution) and for effective micropore pressures, which depend (due to surface tensions) on the pore radius. Differentiating the potential energy with respect to crack density parameter yields the thermodynamical driving force for crack propagation, which is shown to be governed by an effective macrostrain. It is found that drying‐related stresses in partially saturated mesocracks reduce the cracking risk. The drying‐related effective underpressures in spherical micropores, in turn, result in a tensile eigenstress of the matrix in which the mesocracks are embedded. This way, micropores increase the mesocracking risk. Model application to the assessment of cracking risk during drying of argillite is the topic of the companion paper (Part II). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modern modes of provenance and dispersal of terrigenous sediments in the North Pacific and Bering Sea: implications and perspectives for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions

During expedition 202 aboard the RV Sonne in 2009, 39 seafloor surface sediment sites were sampled over a wide sector of the North Pacific and adjoining Bering Sea. The data served to infer land–ocean linkages of terrigenous sediment supply in terms of major sources and modes of sediment transport within an over-regional context. This is based on an integrated approach dealing with grain-size analysis, bulk mineralogy and clay mineralogy in combination with statistical data evaluation (end-member modelling of grain-size data, fuzzy cluster analysis of mineralogical data). The findings on clay mineralogy served to update those of earlier work extracted from the literature. Today, two processes of terrigenous sediment supply prevail in the study area: far-distance aeolian sediment supply to the pelagic North Pacific, and hemipelagic sediment dispersal from nearby land sources via ocean currents along the continental margins and island arcs. Aeolian particles show the finest grain sizes (clay and fine silt), whereas hemipelagic sediments have high abundances of coarse silt. Exposed sites on seamounts and the continental slope are partly swept by strong currents, leading to residual enrichment of fine sand. Four sediment sources can be distinguished on the basis of distinct index minerals revealed by statistical data analysis: dust plumes from central Asia (quartz, illite), altered materials from the volcanic regions of Kamchatka and the Aleutian Arc (smectite), detritus from the Alaskan Cordillera (chlorite, hornblende), and fluvial detritus from far-eastern Siberia and the Alaska mainland (quartz, feldspar, illite). These findings confirm those of former studies but considerably expand the geographic range of this suite of proxies as far south as 39°N in the open North Pacific. The present integrated methodological approach proved useful in identifying the major modern processes of terrigenous sediment supply to the study region. This aspect deserves attention in the selection of sediment core sites for future palaeoenvironmental reconstructions related to aeolian and glacial dynamics, as well as the recognition of palaeo-ocean circulation patterns in general.