Crustacean species new to Spitsbergen with notes on the polymorphism and the subfossil preservation of Cytherissa lacustris (G. O. Sars)

The copepods Limnocalanus macrurus G. O. Sars and Eucyclops serrulatus (Fisch.) and the ostracode Cytherissa lacustris (G. O. Sars), hitherto unknown on Spitsbergen, were found in Lake Rewatnet, the last species also in Lake Svartvatnet. Samples from parthenogenetic populations of C. lacustris showed a complete lack of electrophoretically detectable variability at four enzyme-encoding loci, two of which are highly variable in mainland populations. However, morphological variation in the carapace length and nodation was no less than in the mainland populations. The carapace valves of C. lacustris do not preserve well in the sediments of Rewatnet.     

Earthquake-induced resedimentation in the Badenian (middle Miocene) gypsum of southern Poland

In the Badenian (middle Miocene) basin of the Carpathian foreland of southern Poland, gypsum breccias occur associated with laminated gypsum deposits. These breccias consist of large clasts of gypsum, carbonates, marls and clay chips of variable size embedded in a gypsarenitic matrix. Constituent gypsum grains and clasts commonly appear to be mechanically abraded and chemically corroded crystals or fragments of selenitic, laminated and alabastrine gypsum. Gypsorudites are commonly accompanied by laminated gypsarenites and gypsolutites which show graded bedding; a vertical sequence of graded gypsum beds showing Bouma sequences may be recognized in borehole sections. Microfolding is common within the folded laminated gypsum, and is closely associated with expressions of extensional strain. Both are accompanied by pervasive microfaulting, suggesting a semi-coherent downslope mass movement. The stratiform geometry of the breccias, together with the intensity of slumping relatively independent of the palaeoslope, suggest earthquake shocks as the initial, main cause. Gypsum deposits form a constant, laterally extensive sequence of different lithofacies. The occurrence of the same lithologies and shallowing-up cycles over a wide area reflects thrusting of the Carpathians over the Carpathian foredeep. Local tectonism has also played a significant role. The tectonic framework favoured activation of dip-slip faults promoting shallow-focus earthquakes. These in turn resulted in the resedimentation of gypsum by slumps, debris flows and turbidites. A similar basinward resedimentation of clastic material by gravity flows initiated by fault-induced earthquakes could be of great importance in the foreland geological setting, and may explain some phenomena observed in other evaporite formations from different geological settings, especially of rift type.     

Interactions of Arctic and Atlantic water-masses and associated environmental changes during the last millennium, Hornsund (SW Svalbard)

The fjords of southwestern Spitsbergen (European Arctic) are a climatically sensitive area neighbouring the mixing zone of warm northward-flowing Atlantic water-masses and cold Arctic Water. Owing to reasonably high accumulation rates, these settings are especially suitable for providing high-resolution sedimentary records of regional hydrological and environmental changes. A sediment core spanning the last millennium was retrieved from the outer Hornsund fjord basin, ¹⁴C dated and analysed for sediment grain size, ice-rafted debris (IRD), the distribution of benthic foraminifera and their oxygen and carbon stable isotope composition. The record of sub-centennial resolution reveals three distinctive periods: the Medieval Warm Period, the Little Ice Age (∼AD 1600–1900) and 20th-century warming. The marine record obtained is well correlated with regional high-resolution ice-core records as well as with atmospheric palaeotemperature reconstructions and sea-ice data. The colder periods stay in phase with the greater influence of less saline, cold Arctic Water indicated by subtle changes in benthic foraminifera assemblages and the δ¹⁸O signal, which is dominated by changes in salinity. The IRD record clearly indicates that tidewater glaciers were present in SW Spitsbergen throughout the last millennium, and most actively from the late 16th century until the end of the 19th century.     

Multi‐proxy evidence for early to mid‐Holocene environmental and climatic changes in northeastern Poland

Lauterbach, S., Brauer, A., Andersen, N., Danielopol, D. L., Dulski, P., Hüls, M., Milecka, K., Namiotko, T., Plessen, B., von Grafenstein, U. & DecLakes participants 2010: Multi‐proxy evidence for early to mid‐Holocene environmental and climatic changes in northeastern Poland. Boreas, 10.1111/j.1502‐3885.2010.00159.x. ISSN 0300‐9483. We investigated the sedimentary record of Lake Hańcza (northeastern Poland) using a multi‐proxy approach, focusing on early to mid‐Holocene climatic and environmental changes. AMS ¹⁴C dating of terrestrial macrofossils and sedimentation rate estimates from occasional varve thickness measurements were used to establish a chronology. The onset of the Holocene at c. 11 600 cal. a BP is marked by the decline of Lateglacial shrub vegetation and a shift from clastic‐detrital deposition to an autochthonous sedimentation dominated by biochemical calcite precipitation. Between 10 000 and 9000 cal. a BP, a further environmental and climatic improvement is indicated by the spread of deciduous forests, an increase in lake organic matter and a 1.7‰ rise in the oxygen isotope ratios of both endogenic calcite and ostracod valves. Rising δ¹⁸O values were probably caused by a combination of hydrological and climatic factors. The persistence of relatively cold and dry climate conditions in northeastern Poland during the first one and a half millennia of the Holocene could be related to a regional eastern European atmospheric circulation pattern. Prevailing anticyclonic circulation linked to a high‐pressure cell above the retreating Scandinavian Ice Sheet might have blocked the influence of warm and moist Westerlies and attenuated the early Holocene climatic amelioration in the Lake Hańcza region until the final decay of the ice sheet.     

Sedimentology of Badenian (middle Miocene) gypsum in eastern Galicia, Podolia and Bukovina (West Ukraine)

Primary gypsum is the main evaporite mineral in the middle Miocene (Badenian) of the West Ukraine. The lower part of the gypsum sequence is built of autochthonous gypsum while the upper part is composed of allochthonous gypsum that formed following a major, tectonically induced, change in basin morphology. This change resulted in the destruction of the gypsum deposited on the margins of the basin and formation of redeposition features. Autochthonous gypsum facies were deposited in two main environments: (1) giant gypsum intergrowths precipitated from highly concentrated brines; (2) very shallow subaqueous gypsum deposited in a vast brine pan. The brine pan was characterized by a facies mosaic that reflects an interplay of concentrated brines from the central part of the evaporite basin and diluted brines due to the influx of continental meteoric waters. The facies continuum, microbial gypsum - bedded selenite - massive selenite - sabre gypsum, indicates increasing salinity of the brine with time. This type of facies pattern has been established in recent salinas that are analogous to Badenian gypsum in their lateral facies changes. However, the pattern of facies distribution with respect to the open sea in the Badenian basin is opposite to that found in recent salinas. The pattern of the Badenian gypsum facies in the Ukraine indicates that facies repetition may have been related to climatically controlled salinity changes and not to depth changes, as is commonly used to explain the repetition of sulphate facies in a vertical succession.     

Origin of polyhalite deposits in the Zechstein (Upper Permian) Zdrada platform (northern Poland)

Polyhalite deposits in the Zechstein (Upper Permian) of northern Poland occur in the Lower Werra Anhydrite. In the Zdrada Sulphate Platform, the polyhalite appears to be a very early replacement of anhydrite. The replacement was caused by the halite-precipitating brines which contained potassium and magnesium ions. The formation of polyhalite was preceded by the syndepositional anhydritization of the original gypsum deposit which has often preserved its primary textures. This anhydritization on the platform and its slopes was a reaction of the precipitated gypsum in a hydrologically open evaporite basin, with brines of salt basins adjacent to the sulphate platform. These brines, when nearly saturated with respect to halite, and potassium and magnesium rich, reacted with anhydrite to precipitate polyhalite along the slopes of the Zdrada Platform. The oxygen and sulphur isotopic compositions of sulphate evaporites indicate that marine solutions were the only source of sulphate ions supplied to the Zechstein basin, and that anhydrite was transformed to polyhalite by reaction with marine brines more concentrated than those that precipitated precursor calcium sulphate minerals.     

Regional setting and role of meteoric water in dolomite formation and diagenesis in an evaporite basin: studies in the Zechstein (Permian) deposits of Poland

The Zechstein Basin of Poland was an area of widespread cyclical deposition of carbonates and evaporites during Late Permian time. The Zechstein shelves, along both the northern and the southern margins of the basin, were sites of shallow-water sedimentation during the formation of the Main Dolomite and Platy Dolomite, two widespread carbonate units. These units consist of oolitic, peloidal, skeletal, micritic and evaporitic carbonates formed in depositional settings ranging from open marine to coastal (lagoonal, sabkha and salina). Although originally deposited as limestones, the Main Dolomite and Platy Dolomite are inferred to have been completely replaced by dolomite through very early stage (essentially penecontemporaneous) reflux of hypersaline brines. The dolomites of the two basin margins, however, have very different petrographic and isotopic characteristics. Many northern shelf dolomites show early stage calcitization (dedolomitization) and even, in some cases, evidence of a subsequent redolomitization event. These northern shelf samples also have a broad range of carbon and oxygen isotopic ratios (up to 12%⁰ for oxygen). Samples from the southern shelf, on the other hand, are petrographically much simpler; they do not show complex calcitization and redolomitization patterns. Likewise, their isotopic values are much more tightly clustered, with only about a 5%⁰ range of oxygen isotopic ratios. The differences between dolomites of the same age from the northern and southern margins are best explained by regional variations in river water influx during episodic exposure events associated with regional or global sea-level fluctuations. The distribution of clastic terrigenous materials and palaeokarstic features indicate that areas of the northern shelf had extensive river input, an influx largely lacking on the southern shelf. Early formed dolomites appear to have been calcitized during sea-level lowstands through the infiltration of meteoric fluids into the evaporitic dolomites created during the previous highstand. In some cases, redolomitization occurred when meteoric fluids were again replaced by hypersaline brines during subsequent sea-level highstands. Although repeated sea-level fluctuations are clearly evident in these strata, it is likely that associated climatic changes (rainfall variations) also played a role in forming these complex diagenetic patterns. Age-equivalent strata from Texas and New Mexico (from sites at much lower palaeolatitudes) show no such alteration patterns; samples from Greenland (slightly higher palaeolatitudes) show even more intense diagenetic alteration during depositional cycles. Thus, the examination of patterns of diagenesis may be useful in interpreting ancient, palaeolatitudinally sensitive climate patterns.     

Late Proterozoic aragonitic cement crusts, Bambuí Group, Minas Gerais, Brazil

The Late Proterozoic Pedro Leopoldo facies (Bambuí Group) in the vicinity of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, comprises alternating laminated microsparitic limestones (10–35 mm thick beds) and fibrous limestones (10–55 mm thick). The latter are composed of a mosaic of sparry calcite crystals. These irregularly crosscut rays and fans are composed of feathery precursor crystal bundles with squared-off growth zones. Ghosts of an original fibrous mineral, hexagonal in cross-section, are visible. The petrographic characteristics, very high strontium content and low magnesium content of the fibrous beds, as well as microspar beds, strongly argue for an original aragonitic mineralogy. The rays are interpreted as having formed by precipitation at the sediment-water interface, whereas the micrite was precipitated from the water column prior to deposition on the sea floor. The lack of emergence features suggests widespread aragonite precipitation under persistently subtidal conditions.