The Geochemistry and Experimental Petrology of Sodic Alkaline Basalts from Oatlands, Tasmania

Sodic basalts of Oligocene-Early Micene age occur within anEarly Tertiary graben in the Oatlands district of Tasmania.They include olivine tholeiites, alkali olivine basalts, basanites,transitional nephelinites, nepheline hawaiites, and nephelinemugearites. They have compositional characteristics in commonwith sodic alkaline basalt suites from other parts of the world.With decreasing SiO₂, concentrations of CaO, alkalis, P₂O₅,and incompatible trace elements increase. Compositional and experimental data for the basalts are consistentwith their derivation by polybaric partial melting of a garnetlherzolite source enriched in P₂O₅, light rare earths, Nb, andother incompatible trace elements. Experimental data for a primitivenepheline basanite from the Oatlands district indicate thatconcentrations of H₂O+CO₂ need not have been more than 6?5 wt.%for the original basanite magma to have derived from an amphibole-bearinggarnet lherzolite source. In the case of more SiO₂-undersaturatedolivine melilitites from the neighbouring Central Plateau, theexperimental evidence is consistent with either higher concentrationsof H₂O+CO₂ (approaching 14 wt.%), or higher pressures of origin(>35 kb). Petrographic and geochemical evidence suggeststhat the latter is the more probable of the alternatives.     

A large-scale meandering submarine canyon: outcrop example from the late Proterozoic Adelaide Geosyncline, South Australia

The late Proterozoic Adelaide Geosyncline, along with overlying Cambrian strata, comprises a thick sequence of sediments and sparse volcanics which accumulated in a major rift and passive margin setting. During late syn-rift or early post-rift phases, large volumes of terrigenous and carbonate sediments of the late Proterozoic Umberatana and Wilpena Groups and Cambrian Hawker Group filled the rift. Submarine canyon development was related to at least four of these depositional cycles, the most notable of which resulted in incision and subsequent filling of the major (several kilometres in width and up to 1.5 km deep) submarine canyons by the Wonoka Formation. The Wonoka Formation canyons are not obviously fault controlled. They are interpreted to have been eroded by turbidity currents during a relative low-stand of sea-level. They were subsequently filled by a fining-upwards suite of sediments which reflects subsequent relative rise of sea-level and carbonate platform development. Ultimately the canyon complex was buried by north-westerly progradation of overlying fluvial and slope sequences (Billy Springs Beds and possibly correlative upper Pound Subgroup). It is considered likely that more distal elements of this prograding clastic wedge provided the necessary material for canyon erosion, prior to canyon filling and ultimate burial by what may have been elements of the same depositional cycle. It is considered possible that the series of isolated outcrops of canyon cross-sections within the Wonoka Formation are sections of a single canyon thalweg developed within a considerably broader zone of slope degradation. If this interpretation is correct, then the gorge-like Patsy Springs Canyon lies in more proximal regions of the basin-slope, whereas 40 km to the north-east the lower slope is cut by the Fortress Hill Canyon Complex. Palaeocurrent analyses of channel-fill turbidites within the canyons imply that the Fortress Hill Complex is in fact the outcropping western edge of a sinuous, incised canyon thalweg. The Wonoka Formation canyons, containing basal sedimentary breccias but only minor conglomerates, are considered typical of passive margin canyon development. They are contrasted with the generally highly conglomeratic channel-fills observed in outcropping Tertiary and Cretaceous examples of active margin canyons and upper fan valleys.     

Stable isotope study of carbonate sediments from the Coorong Area, South Australia

ABSTRACT
The mineralogy and isotope geochemistry of carbonate minerals in the Coorong area are determined by the water chemistry of different depositional environments ranging from seawater to evaporitically modified continental water. The different isotopic compositions of coexisting calcite and dolomite suggest that each of the above two minerals was formed from water of composition and origin unique to that specific mineral. In addition, the dolomite was not formed by simple solid state cation exchange.
The occurrence of two types of dolomite was shown by isotope analysis and SEM observations. The dolomite, which is isotopically light (δ¹³C = -1 to -2% 0 ; δ¹⁸O=+3 to +5%₀) and of fine grain size (˜ 0·5 μm) probably precipitated under the influence of evaporitically modified continental water. Coarser grained dolomite (up to 4 μm) is isotopically heavier (δ¹³C=+3 to +4%₀; δ¹⁸O=+5 to + 6%₀) contains Mg in excess of Ca and was formed in or close to equilibrium with atmospheric CO² probably by the dolomitization of aragonite.     

The Zircon-Bearing Chromitites of the Phlogopite Peridotite of Finero (Ivrea Zone, Southern Alps): Evidence and Geochronology of a Metasomatized Mantle Slab

The phlogopite peridotite unit of the Finero Complex is a restiticharzburgite that records two metasomatic events. The first eventis related to the intrusion of basaltic magma, which reactedwith the pyroxene of the host harzburgite to produce chromititepods with dunite haloes. It also produced secondary clinopyroxeneand amphibole in the harzburgite and enriched harzburgite inNa and the light rare earth elements. The second metasomaticevent is related to the later intrusion of clinopyroxeniticdykes. During this event, water-rich vapour penetrated the harzburgitealong fractures and reacted with it to form phlogopite, thusenriching the rock in K. Chromitites host zircons that yieldan age for the first metasomatic event of 207·9 + 1·7/-1·3Ma, during which time extensional tectonics prevailed in theSouthern Alps. KEY WORDS: metasomatism; chromitite; zircon; geochronology; Finero     

Bioclastic sediment lobes on a supply dominated Upper Cretaceous carbonate platform margin, Montagna della Maiella, Italy

A thick bioclastic sediment wedge was deposited on the slope of the Maiella carbonate platform margin in the Late Campanian to Late Maastrichtian. The wedge consists of lobate depositional units (laterally and vertically convex structures). The complex internal geometries of the lobes combine characteristics of unidirectional sandwaves and the alternating point-sources of deltas. Excellent outcrop permits a detailed documentation and discussion of the depositional processes.
The sediment wedge constitutes a supersequence, which prograded along the platform margin as a result of high sediment supply and forced regression. Within the supersequence, a hierarchy of higher-order stratigraphic units (sequence sets and sequences) are developed. The individual bioclastic sediment lobes are interpreted as systems tracts and parasequences of the sequences within the sequence sets.     

Spherular modern dolomite from the Coorong area, South Australia

Scanning electron micrographs show that the youngest and apparently least altered of the Coorong dolomite is in the form of spherular bodies about 0.2–1.0 μm in size which themselves are composed of spherules about 100 nm in diameter. Older and more lithified sediments show sharply defined dolomite crystals suggesting an origin as primary dolomite spherules followed by aggregation and diagenetic alteration to well crystallized dolomites.     

Auto-correlation analysis in search of short-term patterns in varve data from sediments of Lake Gościā, Poland

The annually laminated, or varved, sediments of Lake Gościź, Poland, cover the last c. 12900 years, from Late Allerød up to the present. We have analysed the thickness of 1912 varves in this time-series by means of auto-correlation analysis, in the hope of obtaining information on patterns in past climate, for example patterns of 11 years, which might indicate a relation with solar activity. We analysed the total varve thickness and the thickness of the summer and the winter layer. Two single-bootstrap experiments confirmed the validity of the methods in general, but they indicated that the moving-window technique with overlapping windows hampered the assessment of statistical significance. Three global significance assessment procedures, taking into account the total number of auto-correlation coefficients (ACs) that is tested, showed significance of the ACs only at a lag of one year and only for the winter layer and the total varve. This auto-correlation with the preceding year may be explained by a factor internal to the lake, for instance some depositional mechanism. We found no indication of a relation between varve formation and the sun-spot cycle.