Field Measurement of Light Penetration Through Sea Ice

In connection with phytoplankton studies, a non-optical, non-electric instrument has been devised for the measurement of relative light intensity in sea-ice bore holes. When used with a sensitive photometer, absolute values for the ambient light field can be determined within and immediately under the ice. As anticipated, attenuation is greatest at the ice-air interface; values just below the ice surface were 3 to 20% of incident. Another 70 to 100 cm of ice was required to effect a further 50% decrease in illumination. Extinction values were also measured on the ice cores in the laboratory, but scattering greatly complicates the interpretation of laboratory results

Tectonic and climatic controls on fan systems: The Kohrud mountain belt, Central Iran

Late Pleistocene to Holocene fans of the Kohrud mountain belt (Central Iran) illustrate the problems of differentiating tectonic and climatic drivers for the sedimentary signatures of alluvial fan successions. It is widely recognised that tectonic processes create the topography that causes fan development. The existence and position of fans along the Kohrud mountain belt, NE of Esfahan, are controlled by faulting along the Qom-Zefreh fault system and associated fault zones. These faults display moderate amounts of historical and instrumental seismicity, and so may be considered to be tectonically active. However, fluvial systems on the fans are currently incising in response to low Gavkhoni playa lake levels since the mid-Holocene, producing incised gullies on the fans up to 30 m deep. These gullies expose an interdigitation of lake deposits (dominated by fine-grained silts and clays with evaporites) and coarse gravels that characterise the alluvial fan sediments. The boundaries of each facies are mostly sharp, with fan sediments superimposed on lake sediments with little to no evidence of reworking. In turn, anhydrite–glauberite, mirabilite and halite crusts drape over the gravels, recording a rapid return to still water, shallow ephemeral saline lake sedimentation. Neither transition can be explained by adjustment of the hinterland drainage system after tectonic uplift. The potential influence in Central Iran of enhanced monsoons, the northward drift of the Intertopical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and Mediterranean climates for the early Holocene (~ 6–10 ka) point to episodic rainfall (during winter months) associated with discrete high magnitude floods on the fan surfaces. The fan sediments were deposited under the general influence of a highstand playa lake whose level was fluctuating in response to climate. This study demonstrates that although tectonism can induce fan development, it is the sensitive balance between aridity and humidity resulting from changes in the climate regime of Central Iran that influences the nature of fan sequences and how they interrelate to associated facies

Quaternary syn-collision magmatism from the Iran/Turkey borderlands

Quaternary basaltic and andesitic lavas from the NW Iran/eastern Turkey border area are related to the active Arabia–Eurasia collision. The lavas occur within the Turkish–Iranian plateau, which ceased crustal thickening before the establishment of a number of volcanic centres within Iran and eastern Turkey, beginning at ~ 10 Ma. Models for generating syn-collision magmatism in eastern Anatolia have invoked slab-break-off beneath the thick crust and thin mantle lithosphere of the Cenozoic East Anatolia Accretionary Complex and/or partial loss of the lower lithosphere. Here we report geochemical and Sm–Nd/Rb–Sr data from a ~ 200 km long, N–S traverse that samples volcanic flows in NW Iran, many of which originate from centres in Turkey such as Ararat and Tendürek. Samples are transitional alkali/tholeiitic basalts and andesites. Ararat samples have lower Nb, lower large ion lithophile element (LILE) concentrations with 143Nd/144Nd ~ 0.51290. Other, volumetrically smaller, centres have higher Nb, higher LILE, with 143Nd/144Nd ~ 0.51265. Abundances of LILE and Nb increase from north to south. The presumed degree of partial melting increases in the opposite direction, away from the Arabia–Eurasia suture. Melting is inferred to have taken place in the spinel lherzolite field, largely from a continental lithosphere source influenced by Mesozoic and early Cenozoic Neo-Tethyan subduction, but a separate source with long-term enrichment is needed to explain the high Nb, lower 143Nd/144Nd compositions

Subsidence of the West Siberian Basin: Effects of a mantle plume impact

Comparison of modeling results with observed subsidence patterns from the West Siberian Basin provides new insight into the origin of the Siberian Traps, and constrains the temperature, size, and depth of an impacting mantle plume head during and after the eruption of the Siberian Traps at the Permian-Triassic boundary (250 Ma). We compare subsidence patterns from one-dimensional conductive heat flow models to observed subsidence from backstripping studies of wells in the basin. This results in a best-fit scenario with a 50-km-thick initial plume head with a temperature of 1500 °C situated 50 km below the surface, and an initial regional crustal thickness of 34 km, in agreement with published values. Backstripping and modeling results agree very well, including a 60–90 m.y. delay between the rifting phase and the first regional sedimentation. Regional subsidence patterns indicate that the plume head was present across a minimum area of ∼2.5 × 106 km2. These results re-emphasize the viability of a mantle plume origin for the Siberian Traps, provide important constraints on the dynamics of mantle plume heads, and suggest a thermal control for the subsidence of the West Siberian Basin

Cenozoic exhumation history of the Alborz Mountains, Iran: New constraints from low-temperature chronometry

[1] The Alborz Mountains in the north of the Turkish-Iranian Plateau mainly developed in the Cenozoic as a consequence of the closure of Neo-Tethys and continental collision between Arabia and Eurasia. Cenozoic growth of the fold-and-thrust belt exploited an older Palaezoic-Mesozoic crustal fabric but the extent to which this governed the overall form of the mountain belt is unclear. To determine when and how the Alborz mountain belt has grown, apatite fission track (AFT) and (U-Th)/He (AHe) thermochronometry were performed on 46 bedrock samples collected along 8 transects across the range. AFT central ages range from 157 ± 24 Ma to 10 ± 1 Ma with most ages falling between 40 Ma and 10 Ma. AHe ages range from 17 ± 2 Ma to 6 ± 1 Ma. The data revealed enhanced exhumation ca. 35 ± 5 Ma, minor exhumation between ca. 30–20 Ma and an increase in exhumation thereafter. This pattern matches the tripartite Mid-Cenozoic stratigraphy of Central Iran, where Upper Oligocene-Lower Miocene carbonates are sandwiched between terrestrial clastic formations. The most intriguing thermochronometric signal found is a major acceleration of exhumation that initiated in the late Miocene to early Pliocene, recorded by the AHe data. There does not appear to be a direct tectonic cause for Pliocene intensified erosion, as convergence rates between Arabia and Eurasia have remained relatively constant. Enhanced exhumation at this time may reflect a climatically induced intensification of erosion during Caspian isolation and base level fall, or a regional tectonic re-organization of the Arabia-Eurasia collision, or both

Plate rotation during continental collision and its relationship with the exhumation of UHP metamorphic terranes: Application to the Norwegian Caledonides

Lateral variation and asynchronous onset of collision during the convergence of continents can significantly affect the burial and exhumation of subducted continental crust. Here we use 3-D numerical models for continental collision to discuss how deep burial and exhumation of high and ultrahigh pressure metamorphic (HP/UHP) rocks are enhanced by diachronous collision and the resulting rotation of the colliding plates. Rotation during collision locally favors eduction, the inversion of the subduction, and may explain the discontinuous distribution of ultra-high pressure (UHP) terranes along collision zones. For example, the terminal (Scandian) collision of Baltica and Laurentia, which formed the Scandinavian Caledonides, resulted in the exhumation of only one large HP/UHP terrane, the Western Gneiss Complex (WGC), near the southern end of the collision zone. Rotation of the subducting Baltica plate during collision may provide an explanation for this distribution. We explore this hypothesis by comparing orthogonal and diachronous collision models and conclude that a diachronous collision can transport continental material up to 60 km deeper, and heat material up to 300°C hotter, than an orthogonal collision. Our diachronous collision model predicts that subducted continental margin material returns to the surface only in the region where collision initiated. The diachronous collision model is consistent with petrological and geochonological observations from the WGC and makes predictions for the general evolution of the Scandinavian Caledonides. We propose the collision between Laurentia and Baltica started at the southern end of the collisional zone, and propagated northward. This asymmetric geometry resulted in the counter clockwise rotation of Baltica with respect to Laurentia, consistent with paleomagnetic data from other studies. Our model may have applications to other orogens with regional UHP terranes, such as the Dabie Shan and Papua New Guinea cases, where block rotation during exhumation has also been recorded

Zoledronate treatment has different effects in mouse strains with contrasting baseline bone mechanical phenotypes

Aref, M. W., McNerny, E. M. B., Brown, D., Jepsen, K. J., & Allen, M. R. (2016). Zoledronate treatment has different effects in mouse strains with contrasting baseline bone mechanical phenotypes. Osteoporosis International : A Journal Established as Result of Cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA, 27(12), 3637–3643. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-016-3701-

Ophiolites in the Xing’an-Inner Mongolia accretionary belt of the CAOB: Implications for two cycles of seafloor spreading and accretionary orogenic events

The Xing'an-Inner Mongolia accretionary belt in the southeastern segment of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) was produced by the long-lived subduction and eventual closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean and by the convergence between the North China Craton and the Mongolian microcontinent. Two ophiolite belts have been recognized: the northern Erenhot-Hegenshan-Xi-Ujimqin ophiolite belt and the southern Solonker-Linxi ophiolite belt. Most basalts in the northern ophiolite belt exhibit characteristics of normal-type to enriched-type mid-ocean ridge basalt affinities with depleted Nd isotopic composition (εNd(t) > +5), comparable to modern Eastern Pacific mid-ocean ridge basalts. Most basaltic rocks in the southern belt show clear geochemical features of suprasubduction zone-type oceanic crust, probably formed in an arc/back-arc environment. The inferred back-arc extension along the Solonker-Linxi belt started at circa 280 Ma. Statistics of all the available age data for the ophiolites indicates two cycles of seafloor spreading/subduction, which gave rise to two main epochs of magmatic activity at 500–410 Ma and 360–220 Ma, respectively, with a gap of ~50 million years (Myr). The spatial and temporal distribution of the ophiolites and concurrent igneous rocks favor bilateral subduction toward the two continental margins in the convergence history, with final collision at ~230–220 Ma. In the whole belt, signals of continental collision and Himalayan-style mountain building are lacking. We thus conclude that the Xing'an-Inner Mongolia segment of the CAOB experienced two cycles of seafloor subduction, back-arc extension, and final “Appalachian-type” soft collision

Direct experimental verification of applicability of single-site model for angle integrated photoemission of small TKT_{K} concentrated Ce compounds

Bulk-sensitive high-resolution Ce 4f spectra have been obtained from 3d $\to$ 4f resonance photoemission measurements on La$_{1-x}$Ce$_x$Al$_2$ and La$_{1-x}$Ce$_x$Ru$_2$ for $x = 0.0, 0.04, 1.0$. The 4f spectra of low-Kondo-temperature ($T_{K}$) (La,Ce)Al$_2$ are essentially identical except for a slight increase of the Kondo peak with $x$, which is consistent with a known increase of $T_{K}$ with $x$. In contrast, the 4f spectra of high-$T_{K}$ (La,Ce)Ru$_2$ show a Kondo-like peak and also a 0.5 eV structure which increases strongly with $x$. The resonance photon-energy dependences of the two contributions are different and the origin of the 0.5 eV structure is still uncertain.Comment: submitted to SCES 2001, two-columnn format, modified tex