Temporal stability of the neodymium isotope signature of the Holocene to glacial North Atlantic

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Paleoceanography 21 (2006): PA4102, doi:10.1029/2006PA001294.The neodymium isotopic composition of marine precipitates is increasingly recognized as a powerful tool for identifying changes in ocean circulation and mixing on million year to millennial time-scales. Unlike nutrient proxies such as δ13C or Cd/Ca, Nd isotopes are not thought to be altered in any significant way by biological processes, and thus can serve as a quasi-conservative water mass tracer. However, the application of Nd isotopes in understanding the role of thermohaline circulation in rapid climate change is currently hindered by the lack of direct constraints on the signature of the North Atlantic end-member through time. Here we present the first results of Nd isotopes measured in U-Th dated deep-sea corals from the New England seamounts in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. Our data are consistent with the conclusion that the Nd isotopic composition of North Atlantic deep and intermediate water has remained nearly constant through the last glacial cycle. The results address longstanding concerns that there may have been significant changes in the Nd isotopic composition of the North Atlantic end member during this interval, and substantiate the applicability of this novel tracer on millennial time-scales for palaeoceanography research.This study was supported by the Comer Science and Education Foundation and the Vetlesen Foundation Climate Center at L-DEO

Modelling gravitational instabilities: slab break-off and Rayleigh-Taylor diapirism

A non-standard new code to solve multiphase viscous thermo–mechanical problems applied to geophysics is presented. Two numerical methodologies employed in the code are described: A level set technique to track the position of the materials and an enrichment of the solution to allow the strain rate to be discontinuous across the interface. These techniques have low computational cost and can be used in standard desktop PCs. Examples of phase tracking with level set are presented in two and three dimensions to study slab detachment in subduction processes and Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities, respectively. The modelling of slab detachment processes includes realistic rheology with viscosity depending on temperature, pressure and strain rate; shear and adiabatic heating mechanisms; density including mineral phase changes and varying thermal conductivity. Detachment models show a first prolonged period of thermal diffusion until a fast necking of the subducting slab results in the break–off. The influence of several numerical and physical parameters on the detachment process is analyzed: The shear heating exerts a major influence accelerating the detachment process, reducing the onset time to one half and lubricating the sinking of the detached slab. The adiabatic heating term acts as a thermal stabilizer. If the mantle temperature follows an adiabatic gradient, neglecting this heating term must be included, otherwise all temperature contrasts are overestimated. As expected, the phase change at 410 km depth (olivine–spinel transition) facilitates the detachment process due to the increase in negative buoyancy. Finally, simple plume simulations are used to show how the presented numerical methodologies can be extended to three dimensions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Current transport versus continental inputs in the eastern Indian Ocean: Radiogenic isotope signatures of clay size sediments

Analyses of radiogenic neodymium (Nd), strontium (Sr), and lead (Pb) isotope compositions of clay-sized detrital sediments allow detailed tracing of source areas of sediment supply and present and past transport of particles by water masses in the eastern Indian Ocean. Isotope signatures in surface sediments range from −21.5 (ɛNd), 0.8299 (87Sr/86Sr), and 19.89 (206Pb/204Pb) off northwest Australia to +0.7 (ɛNd), 0.7069 (87Sr/86Sr), and 17.44 (206Pb/204Pb) southwest of Java. The radiogenic isotope signatures primarily reflect petrographic characteristics of the surrounding continental bedrocks but are also influenced by weathering-induced grain size effects of Pb and Sr isotope systems with superimposed features that are caused by current transport of clay-sized particles, as evidenced off Australia where a peculiar isotopic signature characterizes sediments underlying the southward flowing Leeuwin Current and the northward flowing West Australian Current (WAC). Gravity core FR10/95-GC17 off west Australia recorded a major isotopic change from Last Glacial Maximum values of −10 (ɛNd), 0.745 (87Sr/86Sr), and 18.8 (206Pb/204Pb) to Holocene values of −22 (ɛNd), 0.8 (87Sr/86Sr), and 19.3 (206Pb/204Pb), which documents major climatically driven changes of the WAC and in local riverine particle supply from Australia during the past 20 kyr. In contrast, gravity core FR10/95-GC5 located below the present-day pathway of the Indonesian throughflow (ITF) shows a much smaller isotopic variability, indicating a relatively stable ITF hydrography over most of the past 92 kyr. Only the surface sediments differ significantly in their isotopic composition, indicating substantial changes in erosional sources attributed to a change of the current regime during the past 5 kyr

Linking magmatism with collision in an accretionary orogen

A compilation of U-Pb age, geochemical and isotopic data for granitoid plutons in the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), enables evaluation of the interaction between magmatism and orogenesis in the context of Paleo-Asian oceanic closure and continental amalgamation. These constraints, in conjunction with other geological evidence, indicate that following consumption of the ocean, collision-related calc-alkaline granitoid and mafic magmatism occurred from 255 ± 2 Ma to 251 ± 2 Ma along the Solonker-Xar Moron suture zone. The linear or belt distribution of end-Permian magmatism is interpreted to have taken place in a setting of final orogenic contraction and weak crustal thickening, probably as a result of slab break-off. Crustal anatexis slightly post-dated the early phase of collision, producing adakite-like granitoids with some S-type granites during the Early-Middle Triassic (ca. 251-245 Ma). Between 235 and 220 Ma, the local tectonic regime switched from compression to extension, most likely caused by regional lithospheric extension and orogenic collapse. Collision-related magmatism from the southern CAOB is thus a prime example of the minor, yet tell-tale linking of magmatism with orogenic contraction and collision in an archipelago-type accretionary orogen

Cosmogenic ¹⁰Be in river sediment: where grain size matters and why

Concentrations of in-situ-produced cosmogenic 10Be in river sediment are widely used to estimate catchment-average denudation rates. Typically, the 10Be concentrations are measured in the sand fraction of river sediment. However, the grain size of bedload sediment in most bedrock rivers covers a much wider range. Where 10Be concentrations depend on grain size, denudation rate estimates based on the sand fraction alone are potentially biased. To date, knowledge about catchment attributes that may induce grain-size-dependent 10Be concentrations is incomplete or has only been investigated in modelling studies. Here we present an empirical study on the occurrence of grain-size-dependent 10Be concentrations and the potential controls of hillslope angle, precipitation, lithology, and abrasion. We first conducted a study focusing on the sole effect of precipitation in four granitic catchments located on a climate gradient in the Chilean Coastal Cordillera. We found that observed grain size dependencies of 10Be concentrations in the most-arid and most-humid catchments could be explained by the effect of precipitation on both the scouring depth of erosion processes and the depth of the mixed soil layer. Analysis of a global dataset of published 10Be concentrations in different grain sizes (n=73 catchments) – comprising catchments with contrasting hillslope angles, climate, lithology, and catchment size – revealed a similar pattern. Lower 10Be concentrations in coarse grains (defined as “negative grain size dependency”) emerge frequently in catchments which likely have thin soil and where deep-seated erosion processes (e.g. landslides) excavate grains over a larger depth interval. These catchments include steep (&gt;&thinsp;25∘) and humid catchments (&gt;&thinsp;2000&thinsp;mm&thinsp;yr−1). Furthermore, we found that an additional cause of negative grain size dependencies may emerge in large catchments with weak lithologies and long sediment travel distances (&gt;&thinsp;2300–7000&thinsp;m, depending on lithology) where abrasion may lead to a grain size distribution that is not representative for the entire catchment. The results of this study can be used to evaluate whether catchment-average denudation rates are likely to be biased in particular catchments.</p

Paleoerosion rates from cosmogenic 10be in a 1.3 Ma terrace sequence: response of the Meuse to changes in climate and rock uplift

River-borne quartz carries a cosmogenic nuclide memory that is a function of the catchment-wide erosion rate. This record may be preserved in fluvial deposits such as river terraces. If the age of a terrace is independently known and transport time in the river system is relatively short, then the upstream erosion rate at the time of terrace deposition can be determined. We have used cosmogenic nuclides to date river terraces in the lower Meuse catchment, the Netherlands, and to obtain a 1.3 Ma record of paleoerosion rates in a 10(4)-km(2) drainage basin comprising the Ardennes Mountains. Paleoerosion rates were uniform within the range of 25-35 mm/ka from 1.3 to 0.7 Ma. After 0.7 Ma, erosion rates have increased progressively to Late Pleistocene values of around 80 mm/ka. Around 0.7 Ma, both climatic and tectonic boundary conditions changed. The amplitude and duration of climate cycles increased significantly, resulting in long periods of sustained low temperatures in the Meuse catchment. In addition, an episode of magmatic underplating and mafic volcanism in the nearby Eifel caused up to 250 m of surface uplift in the Meuse catchment. The main streams in the region have responded to the perturbation at 0.7 Ma within a few 10(5) yr. Our data indicate that the catchment-wide response time is much longer. Further investigations are required to attribute the observed increase in paleoerosion rates to one or the other mechanism discussed