The influence of subtropical cold fronts on the surface energy balance of a semi-arid site

The passage of subtropical cold fronts through central Australia produces the only significant mesoscale meteorological features in the region. The interaction of these cold fronts with the surface energy balance strongly affects the local weather and climate. The surface energy balance was measured at a semi-arid site in Alice Springs, central Australia, to determine how it was influenced by the passage of subtropical cold fronts. Both Bowen ratio and eddy correlation methods were used. The daytime energy balance of the site showed high net radiation that was partitioned into 75% sensible heat flux and 25% soil heat flux with little or no latent heat flux. At night there was a large net radiative loss that was balanced primarily by a loss of heat from the soil. The cold fronts predominately passed through Alice Springs at night and showed a strong surface signature. The fronts brought moister air resulting in higher water vapour pressures during their passage. The nocturnal boundary layer was often disturbed as the front passed, resulting in warm, moist air being mixed down toward the land surface. Mixing decreased the soil heat flux and increased latent heat fluxes toward the surface. Moisture that accumulated at the surface at these times was often evaporated after a return to drier conditions. During the daytime, surface signatures in soil and sensible heat fluxes were less distinct due to the strong convective mixing. Latent heat fluxes followed a similar trend to the nocturnal case.     

Alice Springs age shear zones from the southeastern Reynolds Range,central Australia

The southeast Reynolds Range, central Australia, is cut by steep northwest‐trending shear zones that are up to hundreds of metres wide and several kilometres long. Amphibolite‐facies shear zones cut metapelites, while greenschist‐facies shear zones cut metagranites. Rb–Sr and ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar data suggest that both sets of shear zones formed in the 400–300 Ma Alice Springs Orogeny, with the sheared granites yielding well‐constrained ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar ages of ca 334 Ma. These data imply that the shear zones represent a distinct tectonic episode in this terrain, and were not formed during cooling from the ca 1.6 Ga regional metamorphism. A general correlation between regional metamorphic grade and the grade of Alice Springs structures implies a similar distribution of heat sources for the two events. This may be most consistent with both phases of metamorphism being caused by the burial of anomalously radiogenic heat‐producing granites. The sheared rocks commonly have undergone metasomatism implying that the shear zones were conduits of fluid flow during Alice Springs times.     

Exhumation of the lower crust during crustal shortening: an Alice Springs (380 Ma) age for a prograde amphibolite facies shear zone in the Strangways Metamorphic Complex (central Australia)

Foliated garnet-bearing amphibolites occur within the West Bore Shear Zone, cutting through granulite facies gneisses of the Strangways Metamorphic Complex. In the amphibolites, large euhedral garnet (up to 3 cm) occurs within fine-grained recrystallized leucocratic diffusion haloes of plagioclase–quartz. The garnet and their haloes include a well-developed vertical foliation, also present in the matrix. This foliation is the same as that cutting through the unconformably overlying Neoproterozoic Heavitree Quartzite. The textures indicate syn- to late kinematic growth of the amphibolite facies mineral assemblages.
All mineral assemblages record an arrested prograde reaction history. Noteworthy is the growth of garnet at the expense of hornblende and plagioclase, and the breakdown of staurolite–hornblende to give plagioclase–gedrite. These dehydration reactions indicate increasing P – T  conditions during metamorphism, and suggest heating towards the end of a period of intense deformation. Temperature estimates for the garnet–amphibolite and related staurolite–hornblende assemblages from the shear zone are about 600 °C. Pressure is estimated at about 5 kbar.
An Sm–Nd isochron gives an age of 381±7 Ma for the peak metamorphism and associated deformation. This age determination confirms that amphibolite facies conditions prevailed during shear zone development within the Strangways Metamorphic Complex during the Alice Springs Orogeny. These temperature conditions are significantly higher than those expected at this depth assuming a normal geothermal gradient. The Alice Springs Orogeny was associated with significant crustal thickening, allowing exhumation of the granulite facies, Palaeoproterozoic, lower crust. Along-strike variations of the tectonic style suggest a larger amount of crustal shortening in the eastern part of the Alice Springs Orogeny.     

Distribution and occurrence of some naturally‐occurring polytypes of molybdenite in Australia and Papua New Guinea

156 samples of naturally‐occurring molybdenite from 87 localities in Australia have been examined to determine the distribution of the hexagonal (2H₁) and rhombohedral (3R) polytypes. 90% of the specimens examined are 2H₁ polytypes, the remainder being 3R and mixtures of 2H₁ and 3R polytypes. The 3R and mixed polytypes are more abundant in porphyry copper deposits or as disseminations, in veins, and in garnet‐quartz pipes in granite. 2H₁ polytypes are the sole modification observed in pegmatites, quart‐pegmatite pipes, simple quartz veins, and skarns.

The highest average concentrations of rhenium are in molybdenite from porphyry copper deposits, quartz porphyry pipes, skarn deposits, garnet‐quartz pipes, and pegmatites. Low concentrations occur in molybdenite which is disseminated or in quartz veins in granite and in quartz or pegmatitic pipes. Molybdenites in which the 2H₁ polytype is dominant have a lower average rhenium content than those with dominant 3R polytype.     

Palaeozoic synorogenic sedimentation in central and northern Australia: A review of distribution and timing with implications for the evolution of intracontinental orogens

The Palaeozoic Alice Springs Orogeny was a major intraplate tectonic event in central and northern Australia. The sedimentological, structural and isotopic effects of the Alice Springs Orogeny have been well documented in the northern Amadeus Basin and adjacent exhumed Arunta Inlier, although the full regional extent of the event, as well as lateral variations in timing and intensity are less well known. Because of the lack of regional isotopic data, we take a sedimentological approach towards constraining these parameters, compiling the location and age constraints of inferred synorogenic sedimentation across a number of central and northern Australian basins. Such deposits are recorded from the Amadeus, Ngalia, Georgina, Wiso, eastern Officer and, possibly, Warburton Basins. Deposits are commonly located adjacent to areas of significant basement uplift related to north‐south shortening. In addition, similar aged orogenic deposits occur in association with strike‐slip tectonism in the Ord and southern Bonaparte Basins of northwest Australia. From a combination of sedimentological and isotopic evidence it appears that localised convergent deformation started in the Late Ordovician in the eastern Arunta Inlier and adjacent Amadeus Basin. Synorogenic style sedimentation becomes synchronously widespread in the late Early Devonian and in most areas the record terminates abruptly close to the end of the Devonian. A notable exception is the Ngalia Basin in which such sedimentation continued until the mid‐Carboniferous. In the Ord and Bonaparte Basins there is evidence of two discrete pulses of transcurrent activity in the Late Devonian and Carboniferous. The sedimentological story contrasts with the isotopic record from the southern Arunta Inlier, which has generally been interpreted in terms of continuous convergent orogenic activity spanning most of the Devonian and Carboniferous, with a suggestion that rates of deformation increased in the mid‐Carboniferous. Either Carboniferous sediments have been stripped off by subsequent erosion, or sedimentation outpaced accommodation space and detritus was transported elsewhere.     

Geological and palaeomagnetic significance of the Kulgera Dyke Swarm, Musgrave Block, NT, Australia

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The Kulgera Dyke Swarm consists of olivine tholeiites which have intruded late Proterozoic transitional-granulite gneisses and granites of the eastern Musgrave Block, in central Australia. Preliminary Rb/Sr results suggest that the dolerites were emplaced at 1054 ± 14 Ma. In addition, a Rb/Sr age of 1060 ± 10 Ma on a biotite from a pegmatite indicates thermal resetting of the country rock minerals during dyke emplacement. Palaeomagnetic investigations of the dykes yield a primary thermoremanent magnetization direction corresponding to a palaeomagnetic pole at 17S, 266E ( A ₉₅= 12). In addition to this primary magnetization, an overprint component was present in many of the samples, providing a palaeomagnetic pole at 30S, 138E ( A ₉₅= 24), which is similar to previous results from other central Australian rocks affected by the Alice Springs Orogeny. The results extend the area of influence of the Carboniferous Alice Springs Orogeny southward into the Musgrave Block. Further, the results provide no evidence for an earlier, Late Proterozoic, Petermann Orogeny affecting the Musgrave Block in the Kulgera region. However, the possibility that a Petermann Orogeny thermal overprint has been erased by the Alice Springs Orogeny cannot be dismissed.     

From intrabasinal volcanism to far-field tectonics: causes of abrupt shifts in sediment provenance in the Devonian–Carboniferous Drummond Basin,Queensland

The Drummond Basin of central Queensland preserves a large-volume succession of little studied, predominantly fluviatile, coarse-grained sedimentary rocks of mid-Mississippian age. The stratigraphy of the basin has been subdivided into three sedimentary cycles. The Cycle 1/Cycle 2 boundary records a distinct, but poorly understood change in provenance from a volcanic-dominated succession related to initial basin rifting (Cycle 1) to a quartz-rich, craton-derived succession (Cycle 2). Cycle 3 has been thought to mark a resumption of intrabasinal volcanism and related sedimentation. The purpose of this study was to enhance the understanding of the basin-wide siliciclastic sedimentation of Cycles 2 and 3, and causes for the changes in sediment provenance. This objective was achieved by constraining large-scale spatial and temporal depositional trends and investigating sediment transport pathways into and through the basin. Petrographic, QFL, paleocurrent and conglomerate clast analyses were undertaken. The observations presented here have several implications relevant to understanding the stratigraphy of the Drummond Basin and regional tectonic events at this time. Cycle 3 is revised here primarily to be a continuation of Cycle 2-style basement-derived sedimentation, rather than recording a resumption of volcanism in the area, as per prevailing models. Quartz-rich sedimentation in the Drummond Basin was, therefore, more long-lived than previously envisaged, and once established, was not significantly disrupted by volcanism. Cycle 2 formation thicknesses appear highly variable across the basin. This is unlikely to be a result of pre-existing rift-related topography as suggested in previous models. The thickness variations are more likely related to sediment bypassing and post-depositional deformation in the area. The distinctive coarse-grained, relatively quartz-rich sedimentation of Cycles 2 and 3 is unusual in its volume and extent. The sediment was transported into the basin from its southern/southwestern margin, implying long-distance transport and extrabasinal sediment supply. While the specific source terrain(s) remain unknown, one plausible tectonic driver was far-field influence of the intraplate Alice Springs Orogeny.     

白杨河——艾里克湖湿地及周边植物群落与环境因子的关系

应用数量分类和排序方法,对新疆白杨河-艾里克湖湿地植被进行了多元统计分析。结果表明,该研究区域主要植被类型中共有植物18种,隶属10科,17个属。其中,多数植物种类在样方中出现的频次较低,说明该地区植物物种丰富度较低。TWINSPAN结果表明,该地区植物可以分9个种类组,与实际调查结果一致。CCA排序结果同TWINSPAN分类结果基本一致,反映出植物群落分布格局随环境因子梯度变化的趋势。分析了不同环境因子的关系,并从定量的角度,以CCA排序图直观的揭示了决定艾里克湖湿地植物群落分布的环境因子主要是地下水位、土壤有机质,其回归模型分别为:X_1=-0．6037L 0．6824(R~2=0．6024);X_2=0．74530M 0．1142(R~2 =0．6004)。     

Fish persistence and fluvial geomorphology in central Australia

The purposes of this paper are to document the composition and distribution of fishes in the Alice Springs region of Australia, and discuss constraints on fish persistence in this arid region. Nine native and six exotic species were recorded; most exotics no longer exist. Except in Finke River, only one or no native species were found. Fish survival in the area is ameliorated by the exceptionally broad environmental tolerances and migratory abilities of many species, but ultimately depends upon the effects of geology, geomorphology, and the vagaries in pattern of sediment transport on water persistence.