The transition from passive to active margin tectonics: a case study from the zone of Samedan (eastern Switzerland)

The Zone of Samedan is part of a fossil, early Mesozoic rift system originally situated in the distal, Lower Austro-Alpine domain of the Adriatic passive continental margin. An early Mesozoic configuration of asymmetrical rift basins bounded by relative structural highs compartmentalized Late Cretaceous active margin tectonics; Jurassic half-grabens were folded into arcuate synclines, whereas relative structural highs engendered thin, imbricated thrust sheets. West-directed thrusting and folding initiated at the surface and continued to depths favoring mylonitization under lower greenschist-facies conditions. At this time Liguria-Piemontese ophiolites were accreted to Lower Austro-Alpine units directly underlying the Zone of Samedan. Late Cretaceous orogenic collapse of the Adriatic active margin involved the reactivation of west-directed thrusts as low-angle, top-to-the-east, normal faults. These faults accommodated extensional uplift of Liguria-Piemontese ophiolites and Lower Austro-Alpine units beneath and within the Zone of Samedan. During Paleogene collision, some Late Cretaceous faults in the Zone of Samedan were reactivated under lower anchizonal conditions as north-directed thrusts. The latter stages of this early Tertiary thickening were transitional to brittle, high-angle normal faulting associated with top-to-the-east extension and spreading above the warm, uplifting Lepontine dome.     

Effects and removal of systematic errors in crosshole georadar attenuation tomography

We have developed an algorithm that allows crosshole georadar amplitude data contaminated with systematic errors to be tomographically inverted. The effects of the errors, which may due to variable antenna-borehole coupling, the groundwater table, and 3-D heterogeneities in the vicinity of one or more boreholes, are included in a series of transmitter and receiver amplitude-correction factors. Tests with synthetic georadar sections demonstrate that the new approach is capable of producing reliable attenuation information, even when large systematic errors are present in the amplitude data. Standard inversions of crosshole georadar data acquired within a highly complex alpine rock glacier yield distorted tomograms. In contrast the new approach results in geologically useful images.     

The lower marine to lower freshwater Molasse transition in the northern Alpine foreland basin (Oligocene; central Switzerland–south Germany): age and geodynamic implications

The Wilhelmine Alpe section near Immenstadt (Allgäu, south Germany), which represents one of the best continuously exposed outcrops within the northern Alpine foreland basin, has been analyzed for magnetostratigraphic and palynostratigraphic signals. The section comprises the marine-to-terrestrial transition from Lower Marine (UMM) to Lower Freshwater Molasse (USM) sediments. Based on the correlation of the local magnetic pattern with the geomagnetic polarity timescale (GPTS) and palynostratigraphic data, an age of about 31 Ma is suggested for the UMM–USM transition in the Wilhelmine Alpe section. A comparison with coeval magnetostratigraphic sections from central and eastern Switzerland indicates that the regression of the UMM sea along the southern margin of the Molasse basin occurred strongly heterochronously between 31.5 and 30 Ma. The heterochroneity is attributed to the deposition of fan-delta and alluvial fan sediments which document that the overall marine conditions during the UMM were accompanied by strong clastic input derived from the rising Alps. This clastic contribution had a much stronger influence on the depositional pattern than previously thought.     

Intraplate deformation and 3D rheological structure of the Rhine Rift System and adjacent areas of the northern Alpine foreland

The lithosphere of the Northern Alpine foreland has undergone a polyphase evolution during which interacting stress-induced intraplate deformation and upper mantle thermal perturbations controlled folding of the thermally weakened lithosphere. In this paper we address relationships among deeper lithospheric processes, neotectonics and surface processes in the Northern Alpine foreland with special emphasis on tectonically induced topography. We focus on lithosphere memory and neotectonics, paying special attention to the thermo-mechanical structure of the Rhine Graben System and adjacent areas of the northern Alpine foreland lithosphere. We discuss implications for mechanisms of large-scale intraplate deformation and links with surface processes and topography evolution.     

高山气候对自动气象站运行的影响分析

本文对地处我国南方高山的峨眉山自动气象站自2002年10月运行8年来出现或遇到的各种因雷暴、雨雾凇冻结、连续高湿等天气引起的问题进行分析,提出保证高山自动气象站正常运行的一些方法和思路。     

Granitoid emplacement by multiple sheeting during Variscan dextral transpression: The Saint-Laurent – La Jonquera pluton (Eastern Pyrenees)

The structural study of the Saint-Laurent – La Jonquera pluton (Eastern Pyrenees), a Variscan composite laccolithic intrusion emplaced in metasedimentary and gneissic rocks of the Roc de Frausa dome, by means of the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) technique has allowed the determination of the nature and orientation of its magmatic fabrics. The magmatic foliation has a predominant NE–SW strike and the mean lineation is also NE–SW trending with a shallow plunge. A strain gradient is measured so that the tonalites to granodiorites that form the basal parts of the pluton, and are intruded into amphibolite-facies metamorphic rocks, recorded the highest anisotropies, whereas the monzogranites and leucogranites, emplaced into upper crustal, low-grade metamorphic rocks, are weakly deformed. These results point to the synkinematic sequential emplacement of multiple granitoid sheets, from less to more differentiated magmatic stages, during the Late Carboniferous D₂ event characterized by an E–W-trending dextral transpression. The magmatic foliation appears locally disturbed by the effects of two tectonic events. The first of them (D₃) produced mylonitization of granitoids along NW–SE retrograding shear zones and open folds in the host Ediacaran metasediments of the Roc de Frausa massif, likely during late Variscan times. Interference between D₂ and D₃ structures was responsible for the dome geometry of the whole Roc de Frausa massif. The second and last perturbation consisted of local southward tilting of the granitoids coupled to the Mesozoic–Cenozoic cover during the Alpine.     

The Neogene and Quaternary of England: landscape evolution,tectonics, climate change and their expression in the geological record

During the Neogene and Quaternary, tectonic and climatic processes have had a profound impact upon landscape evolution in England and, perhaps as far back as 0.9 Ma, patterns of early human occupation. Until the Late Miocene, large-scale plate tectonic processes were the principal drivers of landscape evolution causing localised basin inversion and widespread exhumation. This drove, in places, the erosion of several kilometres of Mesozoic cover rocks and the development of a regional unconformity across England and the North Sea Basin. By the Pliocene, the relative influence of tectonics on landscape evolution waned as the background tectonic stress regime evolved and climatic influences became more prominent. Global-scale climate-forcing increased step-wise during the Plio-Pleistocene amplifying erosional and depositional processes that operated within the landscape. These processes caused differential unloading (uplift) and loading (subsidence) of the crust (‘denudational isostasy’) in areas undergoing net erosion (upland areas and slopes) and deposition (basins). Denudational isostasy amplified during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (c.0.9 Ma) as landscapes become progressively synchronised to large-scale 100 ka ‘eccentricity’ climate forcing. Over the past 0.5 Ma, this has led to the establishment of a robust climate record of individual glacial/interglacial cycles enabling comparison to other regional and global records. During the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition and early Holocene (c.16–7 ka), evidence for more abrupt (millennial/centennial) scale climatic events has been discovered. This indicates that superimposed upon the longer-term pattern of landscape evolution is a more dynamic response of the landscape to local and regional drivers.     

Holocene alpine glaciation inferred from lacustrine sediments on northeastern Baffin Island,Arctic Canada

With accelerated melting of alpine glaciers, understanding the future state of the cryosphere is critical. Because the observational record of glacier response to climate change is short, palaeo‐records of glacier change are needed. Using proglacial lake sediments, which contain continuous and datable records of past glacier activity, we investigate Holocene glacier fluctuations on northeastern Baffin Island. Basal radiocarbon ages from three lakes constrain Laurentide Ice Sheet retreat by ca. 10.5 ka. High sedimentation rates (0.03 cm a^?1) and continuous minerogenic sedimentation throughout the Holocene in proglacial lakes, in contrast to organic‐rich sediments and low sedimentation rates (0.005 cm a^?1) in neighbouring non‐glacial lakes, suggest that glaciers may have persisted in proglacial lake catchments since regional deglaciation. The presence of varves and relatively high magnetic susceptibility from 10 to 6 ka and since 2 ka in one proglacial lake suggest minimum Holocene glacier extent ca. 6–2 ka. Moraine evidence and proglacial and threshold lake sediments indicate that the maximum Holocene glacier extent occurred during the Little Ice Age. The finding that glaciers likely persisted through the Holocene is surprising, given that regional proxy records reveal summer temperatures several degrees warmer than today, and may be due to shorter ablation seasons and greater accumulation‐season precipitation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

North Atlantic climate impact on early late‐glacial climate oscillations in the south‐eastern Alps inferred from a multi‐proxy lake sediment record

High‐resolution multi‐proxy analyses of a sediment core section from Lake Jeserzersee (Saissersee) in the piedmont lobe of the Würmian Drau glacier (Carinthia, Austria) reveal pronounced climatic oscillations during the early late glacial (ca. 18.5–16.0k cal a BP). Diatom‐inferred epilimnetic summer water temperatures show a close correspondence with temperature reconstructions from the adjacent Lake Längsee record and, on a hemispheric scale, with fluctuations of ice‐rafted debris in the North Atlantic. This suggests that North Atlantic climate triggered summer climate variability in the Alps during the early late glacial. The expansion of pine (mainly dwarf pine) between ca. 18.5 and 18.1k cal a BP indicates warming during the so‐called ‘Längsee oscillation’. The subsequent stepwise climate deterioration between ca. 18.1 and 17.6k cal a BP culminated in a tripartite cold period between ca. 17.6 and 16.9k cal a BP with diatom‐inferred summer water temperatures 8.5–10 °C below modern values and a shift from wet to dry conditions. This period probably coincides with a major Alpine glacier advance termed the Gschnitz stadial. A warmer interval between ca. 16.9 and 16.4k cal a BP separates this cold phase from a second, shorter and less pronounced cold phase between ca. 16.4 and 16.0k cal a BP, which is thought to correlate with the Clavadel/Senders glacier advance in the Alps. The following temperature increase, coupled with wet (probably snow‐rich) conditions, caused the expansion of birch during the transition period to the late glacial interstadial. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mineral composition variation in Alpine Schist, Southern Alps, New Zealand: Implications for recrystallization and exhumation

Abstract Compositional variation of silicates (plagioclase, K-feldspar, epidote, titanite, garnet, white mica, biotite, chlorite), ilmenite, carbonates (calcite, ankerite) and apatite, in quartzofeldspathic lithologies of the Alpine Schist, New Zealand, is discussed in terms of increasing metamorphic grade and possible isograd-producing reactions. The mineral data, in conjunction with geological considerations, are used to determine polychronous P-T arrays of an early high P/T event (c. 16°C/kb; 5°C/km) overprinted by a lower P/T event (c. 50°C/kb; 15°C/km) that provides an estimation of Mesozoic and Cenozoic exhumation of schist of 11 to 13 km and 19 to 22 km respectively. The effects of possible shear heating and recrystallization to form K-feldspar zone schist near the Alpine Fault is consistent with movement along a mid to lower crustal detachment surface during Cenozoic shortening, and near isothermal exhumation of the schists to form the Southern Alps.