Imposex still evident in eastern Australia 10 years after tributyltin restrictions

A survey of imposex in Thais orbita (Neogastropoda) along the New South Wales (NSW) coast, Australia, found imposex was still widespread 10 years after a partial ban on tributyltin (TBT) based antifouling paints. Transplant experiments also revealed that imposex was induced in T. orbita over a period of 9 weeks in Sydney Harbour, NSW. A comparison of the imposex data with that collected shortly after the introduction of restrictions on TBT revealed a general decline in imposex frequency occurring at open coast sites, an exception being the site at South West Rocks. Sites located within harbour/bay areas did not display a decline in imposex frequency but a decline in the severity of imposex was apparent. The observed decrease in imposex values in T. orbita may reflect a general decrease of butyltin contamination within the coastal environment. However, the persistence of contamination "hotspots" within harbours and bays remains a concern.     

Drainage spacing regularity on a fault-block: A case study from the eastern Ruahine Range

Abstract:  Recent research has indicated river basin outlets draining linear sections of large, uplifting mountain belts often show a regularity of spacing, transverse to the main structural trend. A morphometric analysis of part of the Ruahine Range, on the North Island was undertaken to test whether drainage regularity may exist in smaller, younger mountain ranges. The ratio, R , of the half-width of the mountain belt, W , and the outlet spacing, S , was used to characterize drainage networks on the eastern side of the range. The spacing ratio for the range of 1.31 is lower than R results from studies of larger mountain belts ( R  = 1.91–2.23). We suggest the cause of this lower ratio is related to eastward migration of the Ruahine drainage divide.     

Geology and Metal Contents of the Ruttan volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit, northern Manitoba, Canada

The Paleoproterozoic Ruttan Cu–Zn volcanogenic massive-sulfide (VMS) deposit is a large, relatively low grade, bimodal-siliciclastic type deposit in the Rusty Lake volcanic belt of northern Manitoba. The deposit contained over 82.8 million tonnes of massive sulfide, of which 55.7 million tonnes were mined from 1973 to 2002. The deposit consists of a series of moderately to steeply dipping, south-facing lenses that extend along strike at the surface for 1.1 km and to a depth of 1.0 km. These lenses occur within a steeply dipping, bimodal volcanic, volcaniclastic and siliciclastic sequence. In the immediate mine area, transitional calc-alkalic to high-silica (tholeiitic), felsic, and intermediate volcanic/volcaniclastic rocks of the Mine Sequence are host to, and intercalated with, the massive-sulfide lenses. Transitional tholeiitic to calc-alkalic basalt and andesite are present in the footwall sequence, approximately 500 m down-section from the ore horizon. The overlying rocks are predominantly fine-grained volcaniclastics and siliciclastics, but include polyfragmental agglomerate that contains mafic bombs and scoriaceous felsic fragments. Syn-depositional felsic and mafic dikes, sills, and apophyses are ubiquitous throughout the Mine Sequence, including the ore lenses, indicating continued, near-vent magmatism, and volcanism during ore formation. Fabrics in altered hostrocks have consistent, down-plunge stretching lineations to the SSE that suggest the deposit has been elongated by a factor of ~1.2–1.5; otherwise, the deposit is remarkably undeformed. Syn- and post-depositional faults in the mine area have relatively minor displacements up to tens of meters. Proximal (within 200 m) footwall rocks exhibit moderate to strong chloritization, characterized by the upper greenschist to lower amphibolite facies assemblages that include cordierite–almandine–andalusite–sillimanite–biotite ± staurolite ± anthophyllite ± talc, and local silicification. The proximal hanging wall rocks are characterized by sericite ± gahnite alteration, which is restricted to within approximately 75 m of the uppermost lenses. Additional gangue minerals are anhydrite and carbonate minerals (siderite, dolomite, ankerite, and calcite), as well as chlorite, sericite, biotite, talc, and quartz. Carbonate (excluding siderite), potassium feldspar, silicification and epidotization are common distal alteration zones in the footwall to the Mine Sequence several kilometers to the northeast. There are three principal groups of massive sulfide lenses; the East lenses, the West lenses, and the Western Anomaly lenses to the far west. In general, Cu is relatively enriched at the stratigraphic base and in the center of the deposit, whereas Zn is enriched upsection and at the outer margins. Some of the Zn-rich ore exhibits primary mineralogical layering. Parts of the West and Western Anomaly lenses show two layers with Cu-rich bases and Zn-rich tops. The massive sulfide is typically 10–40-m thick; one area along the margin of the main lenses is over 130-m thick and may represent deposition adjacent to a syn-depositional fault. The main sulfide phases are pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and galena, with tetrahedrite as the most abundant trace phase. Gahnite is ubiquitous in the chlorite-rich assemblages adjacent to the ore lenses. The average base, precious and trace metal contents estimated from Cu and Zn concentrates, and from millhead grades and recoveries. Metals easily transported as chloride and bisulfide complexes in hydrothermal fluids including: Pb, Ag, In, Cu, Cd, Au, and Zn are enriched by 1.5–2.5 orders of magnitude in comparison to the bulk continental crust. Other elements such as Sn, Mo, and As are at near-crustal concentrations, whereas Mn, Ga, and Co are significantly depleted in comparison to the crust. Calculated metal concentrations in the average hydrothermal fluid based on the average metal contents are comparable to, or higher than those measured at sediment covered ridge hydrothermal systems, which precipitate much of their metal budget in the subsurface. Average rare earth element contents for the sulfide are light rare earth element enriched (La_N/Yb_N=22) and range from 0.45 to 0.02x chondritic values, with a moderate negative Eu anomaly (Eu*=0.51). Metal and trace element contents in the Ruttan exhalite horizon, and in proximal (within 1–2 km) exhalites along strike from the 0.6 million tonne Dar-2 Cu–Zn deposit 12 km south of Ruttan, have positive Eu anomalies, whereas negative Eu anomalies are present at distance. The positive Eu anomalies reflect high temperature paleoseafloor hydrothermal venting and precipitation of Eu²⁺-enriched clays and possibly carbonates, and indicate proximity to base-metal deposits. Silver and lead are also enriched in the exhalites near the deposits, whereas Mn is enriched at ~1–3 km along strike, but not consistently. Editorial handling: B. Gemmel An erratum to this article is available at .     

U-series disequilibria in Kick’em Jenny submarine volcano lavas: A new view of time-scales of magmatism in convergent margins

We present data for U and its decay series nuclides ²³⁰Th, ²²⁶Ra, ²³¹Pa, and ²¹⁰Po for 14 lavas from Kick’em Jenny (KEJ) submarine volcano to constrain the time-scales and processes of magmatism in the Southern Lesser Antilles, the arc having the globally lowest plate convergence rate. Although these samples are thought to have been erupted in the last century, most have (²²⁶Ra)/(²¹⁰Po) within ±15% of unity. Ten out of 14 samples have significant ²²⁶Ra excesses over ²³⁰Th, with (²²⁶Ra)/(²³⁰Th) up to 2.97, while four samples are in ²²⁶Ra-²³⁰Th equilibrium within error. All KEJ samples have high (²³¹Pa)/(²³⁵U), ranging from 1.56 to 2.64 and high ²³⁸U excesses (up to 43%), providing a global end-member of high ²³⁸U and high ²³¹Pa excesses. Negative correlations between Sr, sensitive to plagioclase fractionation, and Ho/Sm, sensitive to amphibole fractionation, or K/Rb, sensitive to open system behavior, indicate that differentiation at KEJ lavas was dominated by amphibole fractionation and open-system assimilation. While (²³¹Pa)/(²³⁵U) does not correlate with differentiation indices such as Ho/Sm, (²³⁰Th)/(²³⁸U) shows a slight negative correlation, likely due to assimilation of materials with slightly higher (²³⁰Th)/(²³⁸U). Samples with ²²⁶Ra excess have higher Sr/Th and Ba/Th than those in ²²⁶Ra-²³⁰Th equilibrium, forming rough positive correlations of (²²⁶Ra)/(²³⁰Th) with Sr/Th and Ba/Th similar to those observed in many arc settings. We interpret these correlations to reflect a time-dependent magma differentiation process at shallow crustal levels and not the process of recent fluid addition at the slab-wedge interface.The high ²³¹Pa excesses require an in-growth melting process operating at low melting rates and small residual porosity; such a model will also produce significant ²³⁸U-²³⁰Th and ²²⁶Ra-²³⁰Th disequilibrium in erupted lavas, meaning that signatures of recent fluid addition from the slab are unlikely to be preserved in KEJ lavas. We instead propose that most of the ²³⁸U-²³⁰Th, ²²⁶Ra-²³⁰Th, and ²³⁵U-²³¹Pa disequilibria in erupted KEJ lavas reflect the in-growth melting process in the mantle wedge (reflecting variations in U/Th, daughter-parent ratios, fO₂, and thermal structure), followed by modification by magma differentiation at crustal depths. Such a conclusion reconciles the different temporal implications from different U-series parent-daughter pairs and relaxes the time constraint on mass transfer from slab to eruption occurring in less than a few thousand years imposed by models whereby ²²⁶Ra excess is derived from the slab.