Wetlands and low-gradient topography are associated with longer hydrologic transit times in Precambrian Shield headwater catchments

The estimation of hydrologic transit times in a catchment provides insights into the integrated effects of water storage, mixing dynamics, and runoff generation processes. There has been limited effort to estimate transit times in southern boreal Precambrian Shield landscapes, which are characteristically heterogeneous with surface cover including till, thin soils, bedrock outcrops, and depressional wetland features that play contrasting hydrologic roles. This study presents approximately 3.5 years of precipitation and streamflow water isotope data and estimates mean transit times (MTTs) and the young water fraction (p_y) across six small catchments in the Muskoka-Haliburton region of south-central Ontario. The main objectives were to define a typical range of MTTs for headwater catchments in this region and to identify landscape variables that best explain differences in MTTs/p_y using airborne light detection and ranging and digital terrain analysis. Of the transit time distributions, the two parallel linear reservoir and gamma distributions best describe the hydrology of these catchments, particularly because of their ability to capture more extreme changes related to events such as snowmelt. The estimated MTTs, regardless of the modelling approach or distribution used, are positively associated with the percent wetland area and negatively with mean slope in the catchments. In this landscape, low-gradient features such as wetlands increase catchment scale water storage when antecedent conditions are dryer and decrease transit times when there is a moisture surplus, which plausibly explains the increases in MTTs and mean annual runoff from catchments with significant coverage of these landscape features.     

SHRIMP zircon dating and Sm/Nd isotopic investigations of Neoproterozoic granitoids, Eastern Desert, Egypt

There is an increasing evidence for the involvement of pre-Neoproterozoic zircons in the Arabian–Nubian Shield, a Neoproterozoic crustal tract that is generally regarded to be juvenile. The source and significance of these xenocrystic zircons are not clear. In an effort to better understand this problem, older and younger granitoids from the Egyptian basement complex were analyzed for chemical composition, SHRIMP U–Pb zircon ages, and Sm–Nd isotopic compositions. Geochemically, the older granitoids are metaluminous and exhibit characteristics of I-type granites and most likely formed in a convergent margin (arc) tectonic environment. On the other hand, the younger granites are peraluminous and exhibit the characteristics of A-type granites; these are post-collisional granites. The U–Pb SHRIMP dating of zircons revealed the ages of magmatic crystallization as well as the presence of slightly older, presumably inherited zircon grains. The age determined for the older granodiorite is 652.5 ± 2.6 Ma, whereas the younger granitoids are 595–605 Ma. Xenocrystic zircons are found in most of the younger granitoid samples; the xenocrystic grains are all Neoproterozoic, but fall into three age ranges that correspond to the ages of other Eastern Desert igneous rocks, viz. 710–690, 675–650 and 635–610 Ma. The analyzed granitoids have (+3.8 to +6.5) and crystallization ages, which confirm previous indications that the Arabian–Nubian Shield is juvenile Neoproterozoic crust. These results nevertheless indicate that older Neoproterozoic crust contributed to the formation of especially the younger granite magmas.     

Geology of the Grove Mountains in East Antarctica——New evidence for the final suture of Gondwana Land

As the core block of the East Gondwana Land, the East Antarctic Shield was traditionally thought, before 1992, as an amalgamation of a number of Archaean-Paleoproterozoic nuclei, be-ing welded by Grenville aged mobile belts during 1400—900 Ma, while the …     

The electrical structure of the Slave craton

The Slave craton in northwestern Canada, a relatively small Archean craton (600×400 km), is ideal as a natural laboratory for investigating the formation and evolution of Mesoarchean and Neoarchean sub-continental lithospheric mantle (SCLM). Excellent outcrop and the discovery of economic diamondiferous kimberlite pipes in the centre of the craton during the early 1990s have led to an unparalleled amount of geoscientific information becoming available.

Over the last 5 years deep-probing electromagnetic surveys were conducted on the Slave, using the natural-source magnetotelluric (MT) technique, as part of a variety of programs to study the craton and determine its regional-scale electrical structure. Two of the four types of surveys involved novel MT data acquisition; one through frozen lakes along ice roads during winter, and the second using ocean-bottom MT instrumentation deployed from float planes.

The primary initial objective of the MT surveys was to determine the geometry of the topography of the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB) across the Slave craton. However, the MT responses revealed, completely serendipitously, a remarkable anomaly in electrical conductivity in the SCLM of the central Slave craton. This Central Slave Mantle Conductor (CSMC) anomaly is modelled as a localized region of low resistivity (10–15 Ω m) beginning at depths of 80–120 km and striking NE–SW. Where precisely located, it is spatially coincident with the Eocene-aged kimberlite field in the central part of the craton (the so-called “Corridor of Hope”), and also with a geochemically defined ultra-depleted harzburgitic layer interpreted as oceanic or arc-related lithosphere emplaced during early tectonism. The CSMC lies wholly within the NE–SW striking central zone defined by Grütter et al. [Grütter, H.S., Apter, D.B., Kong, J., 1999. Crust–mantle coupling; evidence from mantle-derived xenocrystic garnets. Contributed paper at: The 7th International Kimberlite Conference Proceeding, J.B. Dawson Volume, 1, 307–313] on the basis of garnet geochemistry (G10 vs. G9) populations.

Deep-probing MT data from the lake bottom instruments infer that the conductor has a total depth-integrated conductivity (conductance) of the order of 2000 Siemens, which, given an internal resistivity of 10–15 Ω m, implies a thickness of 20–30 km. Below the CSMC the electrical resistivity of the lithosphere increases by a factor of 3–5 to values of around 50 Ω m. This change occurs at depths consistent with the graphite–diamond transition, which is taken as consistent with a carbon interpretation for the CSMC.

Preliminary three-dimensional MT modelling supports the NE–SW striking geometry for the conductor, and also suggests a NW dip. This geometry is taken as implying that the tectonic processes that emplaced this geophysical–geochemical body are likely related to the subduction of a craton of unknown provenance from the SE (present-day coordinates) during 2630–2620 Ma. It suggests that the lithospheric stacking model of Helmstaedt and Schulze [Helmstaedt, H.H., Schulze, D.J., 1989. Southern African kimberlites and their mantle sample: implications for Archean tectonics and lithosphere evolution. In Ross, J. (Ed.), Kimberlites and Related Rocks, Vol. 1: Their Composition, Occurrence, Origin, and Emplacement. Geological Society of Australia Special Publication, vol. 14, 358–368] is likely correct for the formation of the Slave's current SCLM.     

The 1.80–1.74-Ga gabbro–anorthosite–rapakivi Korosten Pluton in the Ukrainian Shield: a 3-D geophysical reconstruction of deep structure

The deep structure of the gabbro–anorthosite–rapakivi granite (“AMCG-type”) Korosten Pluton (KP) in the northwestern Ukrainian Shield was studied by 3-D modelling of the gravity and magnetic fields together with previous seismic data. The KP occupies an area of ca. 12,500 km² and comprises several layered gabbro-anorthositic intrusions enveloped by large volumes of rapakivi-type granitoids. Between 1.80 and 1.74 Ga, the emplacement of mafic and associated granitoid melts took place in several pulses. The 3-D geophysical reconstruction included: (a) modelling of the density distribution in the crust using the observed Bouguer anomaly field constrained by seismic data on Moho depth, and (b) modelling of the magnetic anomaly field in order to outline rock domains of various magnetisation, size and shape in the upper and lower crust. The density modelling was referred to three depth levels of 0 to 5, 5 to 18, and 18 km to Moho, respectively. The 3-D reconstruction demonstrates close links between the subsurface geology of the KP and the structure of the lower crust. The existence of a non-magnetic body with anomalously high seismic velocity and density is documented. Most plausibly, it represents a gabbroic stock (a parent magma chamber) with a vertical extent of ca. 20 km, penetrating the entire lower crust. This stock has a half-cylindrical shape and a diameter of ca. 90 km. It appears to be connected with a crust–mantle transitional lens previously discovered by EUROBRIDGE seismic profiling. The position of the stock relative to the subsurface outlines of the KP is somewhat asymmetric. This may be due to a connection between the magmatism and sets of opposite-dipping faults initially developed during late Palaeoproterozoic collisional deformation in the Sarmatian crustal segment. Continuing movements and disturbances of the upper mantle and the lower crust during post-collisional tectonic events between 1.80 and 1.74 Ga may account for the long-lived, recurrent AMCG magmatism.     

Seismic signature of a phreatic explosion: hydrofracturing damage at Karthala volcano, Grande Comore Island, Indian Ocean

Karthala volcano is a basaltic shield volcano with an active hydrothermal system that forms the southern two-thirds of the Grande Comore Island, off the east coat of Africa, northwest of Madagascar. Since the start of volcano monitoring by the local volcano observatory in 1988, the July 11th, 1991 phreatic eruption was the first volcanic event seismically recorded on this volcano, and a rare example of a monitored basaltic shield. From 1991 to 1995 the VT locations, 0.5<M_l<4.3, show a crack shaped pattern (3 km long, 1 km wide) within the summit caldera extending at depth from –2 km to +2 km relative to sea level. This N-S elongated pattern coincides with the direction of the regional maximum horizontal stress as deduced from regional focal mechanism solutions. This brittle signature of the damage associated with the 1991 phreatic eruption is a typical pattern of the seismicity induced by controlled fluid injections such as those applied at geothermal fields, in oil and gas recovery, or for stress measurements. It suggests the 1991 phreatic eruption was driven by hydraulic fracturing induced by forced fluid flow. We propose that the extremely high LP and VT seismicity rates, relative to other effusive volcanoes, during the climax of the 1991 phreatic explosion, are due to the activation of the whole hydrothermal system, as roughly sized by the distribution of VT hypocenters. The seismicity rate in 1995 was still higher than the pre-eruption seismicity rate, and disagrees with the time pattern of thermo-elastic stress readjustment induced by single magma intrusions at basaltic volcanoes. We propose that it corresponds to the still ongoing relaxation of pressure heterogeneity within the hydrothermal system as suggested by the few LP events that still occurred in 1995.Editorial responsibility: H Shinohara     

First estimate for the age of a mesoproterozoic palaeomagnetic pole from the Volodarsk-Volynsky Massif,the Ukrainian Shield

Palaeomagnetic data are presented from the southern Volodarsk-Volynsky Massif (VVM) of the Korosten Pluton, the Ukrainian Shield. Laboratory experiments (AF and thermal demagnetization, IRM acquisition, thermal separation), field tests (consistency and secular variation methods) and optical observations indicate that single domain and nearly single domain magnetite is the dominant carrier of a primary TRM in the anorthosites. Palaeomagnetic poles from the three sampling sites (Golovino and Turchinka quarries) are indistinguishable at the 95% confidence level and have been combined to yield a mean pole at P_lat = 30 °N, P_lon = 178 °E, a₉₅ = 3.4 °.In the large slow cooling Korosten Pluton the U-Pb zircon/baddeleyite (U_zb) technique gives an age for the anorthosites, which are not equivalent to the time of magnetic blocking. Based on integrated analysis of geochronologic information and blocking-temperature data for magnetic minerals proposed by Briden et al. (1993), a first attempt has been undertaken to estimate the palaeomagnetic pole age from the Mesoproterozoic anorthosites. The Korosten Pluton has cooled from 850 °C (the closure temperature of U-Pb systematics in zircon/baddeleyite) to 350 °C (the closure temperature of K-Ar systematics in biotite) during 150 Ma after the emplacement of the anorthosites. Assuming a uniform cooling of the intrusion yields a rate of 3.3 °C/Ma. The cooling rate for the granites is 3.1 °C/Ma. The mafic and acid rocks have an average rate of 3.2 °C/Ma. Using the cooling gradient for the VVM (3.2 °C/Ma) and the mean natural blocking temperature of magnetite (520 °C) can be determined a remanence age. The estimate for TRM acquisition is 1656 ± 10.0 Ma.The magnetic pole for the VVM is in good agreement with the mean pole from the Baltic quartz porphyry dykes with an age of 1630 – 1648 Ma. The VVM pole is best dated and requires a revision of the latest paleogeographic reconstructions for the Fennoscandian and Ukrainian Shields at 1770 and 1650 Ma. (Pesonen et al., 2003).     

Constraints of Mantle and Crustal Sources Interaction during Orogenesis of Pre- and Post-collision Granitoids from the Northern Arabian-Nubian Shield: A Case Study from Wadi El-Akhder Granitoids,Southern Sinai,Egypt

The Egyptian older and younger granitic rocks emplaced during pre- and post-collision stages of Neoproterozoic Pan-African orogeny, respectively, are widely distributed in the southern Sinai Peninsula, constituting 70% of the basement outcrops. The Wadi El-Akhder, southwestern Sinai, is a mountainous terrain exposing two granitoid suites, namely the Wadi El-Akhder Older Granites (AOG) and the Homra Younger Granites (HYG). The AOG (granodiorites with subordinate tonalite compositions) have geochemical characteristics of medium-K calc-alkaline, metaluminous to mildly peraluminous granitoids formed in an island-arc environment, which are conformable with well-known Egyptian older granitoids rocks, whereas the HYG display calc-alkaline to slightly alkaline nature, peraluminous syeno-, monzogranites and alkali feldspar granites matching well those of the Egyptian younger granites. With respect to the AOG granitoids, the HYG granites contain lower Al2O3, FeO*, MgO, MnO, CaO, TiO2, Sr, Ba, and V, but higher Na2O, K2O, Nb, Zr, Th, and Rb. The AOG are generally characterized by enrichment in LILE and LREE and depletion in HFSE relative to N-MORB values (e.g., negative Nb and Ta anomalies). The geochemical features of the AOG follow assimilation-fractional crystallization (AFC) trends indicative of extensive crustal contamination of magma derived from a mantle source. The chemical characteristics of the AOG are remarkably similar to those of subduction-related granitoids from the Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS). The compositional variations from monzogranites through syenogranites to alkali feldspar granite within HYG could not be explained by fractional crystallization solely. Correlating the whole-rock composition of the HYG to melts generated by experimental dehydration melting of meta-sedimentary and magmatic rocks reveals that they appear to be derived by extended melting of psammitic and pelitic metasediments, which is similar to the most of younger granitic suites in the ANS.     

Structural Setting and Kinematic Analysis of the Halaban Region,Eastern Arabian Shield,Saudi Arabia

The vorticity analysis technique was applied to measure the different lithological units,such as schist,metagranite and metavolcano-sedimentary rocks,which are present in the Halaban region.This work aims to interpret the relationship between the different lithologies and the tectonic setting,in order to elucidate the nature of kinematic analysis in the Halaban region.The kinematic analyses were applied to feldspar porphyroclasts,quartz and hornblende for twentysix samples.The kinematic vorticity number (W_m) for deformed rocks in the study area ranged from～0.6 to 0.9.The direction of the long axes for finite strain data (X axes) revealed a WNW trend with shallow dipping.The direction of the short axes for finite strain data (Z axes) were represented by vertical with associated horizontal foliation.The results of the kinematic vorticity and strain analyses are characterized by simple shear with different degrees of deformation in the Halaban region.Furthermore,our finite strain data shows no significant volume change during deformation.The subhorizontal foliation was synchronized with thrusting and deformation.Furthermore,throughout the overlying nappes,the same attitudes of tectonic contacts are observable,the nappes in the orogens being formed from simple shear deformation.     

Geochemistry and Petrogenesis of Late Ediacaran Rare-metalAlbite Granites of the Arabian-Nubian Shield

The Abu Dabbab albite granite(ADAG), in the central Eastern Desert of Egypt, hosts the most significant rare metal ore deposit in the northern part of the Neoproterozoic Arabian-Nubian Shield. Here, we report detailed field,petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical investigation of the ADAG, an isolated stock-like granitic body with sharp intrusive contacts against metamorphic country rocks, probably emplaced at about 600 Ma. The fine-grained porphyritic upper unit is a preserved remnant of the shallowly-emplaced apex of the magma chamber, whereas the medium-grained lower unit crystallized at deeper levels under subvolcanic conditions. The peraluminous leucocratic ADAG shares common geochemical characteristics with post-collisional intraplate A-type magmas. In addition to the conspicuous enrichment in Na2 O, the ADAG is remarkable for its anomalous concentrations of Ta, Nb, Li, Hf, Ga, Sn, Zn and heavy rare-earth elements. Nb-Ta minerals in the ADAG are mixed with Fe-Mn oxides, forming black patches that increase in abundance toward of the base of the intrusion. Columbite-tantalite, cassiterite and wolframite are the most important ore minerals.Pronounced negative Eu anomalies(Eu/Eu* = 0.10–0.24) reflect extreme magmatic fractionation and perhaps the effects of late fluid-rock interaction. The ADAG was most likely generated by partial melting of the juvenile middle crust of the ANS as the geotherm was elevated by erosional uplift following lithospheric delamination and it was emplaced at the intersection of lineations of structural weakness. Although formation of the ADAG and its primary enrichment in rare metals are essentially due to magmatic processes, late-stage metasomatism caused limited redistribution of rare metals. Fluid-driven subsolidus modification was limited to the apex of the magma chamber and drove development of greisen, amazonite, and quartz veins along fracture systems.