Do Diatoms beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet Indicate Interglacials Warmer than Present?

Basal sediment debris from the Greenland ice sheet was examined with the hope of recovering microfossils that could be used to determine and date changes in ice sheet size through time. Basal debris and debris-laden ice from the lower 18 m of the Camp Century ice core, northwest Greenland, revealed the presence of common freshwater and rare marine diatoms. These diatoms may have lived in the vicinity of the Camp Century site in the Late Neogene prior to development of the Greenland ice sheet. More likely, they lived during a Pleistocene interglacial period, when the volume of ice in the Greenland ice sheet was smaller than it is today and the site was ice free. A warmer and/or longer interglacial period than the present Holocene "interglacial" is suggested to explain the large decrease in ice sheet volume.Key words: diatoms, interglacial, Pleistocene, Camp Century ice core, GreenlandMots clés: diatomées, interglaciaire, Pléistocène, carotte de glace du Camp Century, Groenlan

Formal total synthesis of (±)-conduramine E utilising the Bryce-Smith-Gilbert photoamination reaction

Utilising a Bryce-Smith-Gilbert photoamination of benzene as a key step, a synthesis of ()-conduramine E was carried out. A highly regioselective dihydroxylation of a cyclic diene was effected utilising Sharpless AD-mix-b

Observations on Late Cretaceous \u3ci\u3eMicrampulla\u3c/i\u3e (Corethrales, Bacillariophyceae) from the Campbell Plateau (Zealandia), southwest Pacific Ocean

Late Cretaceous (late Campanian) diatom assemblages from the Campbell Plateau (Zealandia), southwest Pacific Ocean, obtained from Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Leg 29 Site 275, contain well-preserved specimens of two enigmatic diatom species currently assigned to the genus Ktenodiscus; Micrampulla parvula originally described from the Maastrichtian-age Moreno Shale, California, and Pterotheca cretacea from DSDP Site 275. In general, the two species share a number of common features with modern Corethron (domed valves, probable heterovalvate frustules, T-shaped serrated articulated spines, marginal sockets), but differ in the location of the sockets (i.e. vertically at the base of the valve dome and not on the rim), the design of the spines and sockets, and the hollow structure extending from the valve center. Although hooked spines are absent, equivalent 1-spine and 2-spine valves can be recognized in these two species. The recently described genus Praecorethron from the same late Campanian sediments shares many features with Micrampulla, but lacks the inflated central valve structure. As a result of our studies, the relevant subclass, order and family definitions are emended, as well as those of Micrampulla, M. parvula and M. cretacea comb. nov., and a new family, Micrampullaceae fam. nov., is erected to distinguish the ancient genera (Micrampulla and Praecorethron) from modern Corethron

A qualitative synthesis of research into social motivational influences across the athletic career span

This study represents a qualitative synthesis of research examining the socio-environmental influences of coaches, parents and peers on athlete motivation, across the athletic career-span. Using a critical-realist perspective, meta-interpretation methodology was deployed to search and analyse the literature. On-going, iterative analysis generated new areas of enquiry and new search terms, until the emerging analysis reached the points of saturation. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were developed during this process to produce a clear statement of applicability for the study. In the final analysis, a developmental structure was specified to describe the athletic career trajectory, together with a horizontal structure capturing seven domains of the motivational atmosphere surrounding athletes (competition, training, evaluation, emotion, authority, social-support, and relatedness), and a vertical structure varying in terms of level-of-abstraction: The global/broad ‘motivational atmosphere’ containing contextual ‘climates’, built from immediate/situational ‘motivational conditions’. A model of the overall ‘motivational atmosphere’ in sport, based on a meteorological analogy, is offered with a view to stimulating critical debate and new research directions that reflect the complexity of interpersonal motivation in sport

A Novel Over-Sea-Ice Seismic Reflection Survey in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

During the austral spring of 2005, approximately 28 km of over-sea-ice seismic reflection data were recorded over McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, in support of the ANtarctic geological DRILLing Program (ANDRILL). The 2005 ANDRILL Southern McMurdo Sound Project (SMS) seismic survey incorporated techniques that improved the quality of over-sea-ice seismic data. Previous over-sea-ice seismic experiments have had limited success because of poor source coupling caused by thin sea ice and source bubble-pulse effects caused by explosive seismic sources placed in the water column. To mitigate these problems, a Generator-Injector (GI) air gun was used as the seismic source. The GI air gun was lowered into the water column through holes drilled through the sea ice. The GI air gun minimized the source bubble effects that had plagued previous over-sea-ice experiments in the Antarctic. A 60-channel seismic snow streamer consisting of vertically oriented gimbaled geophones with 25-m takeout spacing was employed to aid rapid data collection. The 2005 SMS seismic survey produced data that accurately tied into existing single-channel marine seismic data and demonstrated the value of the air-gun/snow-streamer system for future over-sea-ice seismic surveys in the Antarctic

Evidence for Marine Influence on a Low-Gradient Coastal Plain: Ichnology and Invertebrate Paleontology of the Lower Tongue River Member (Fort Union Formation, Middle Paleocene), Western Williston Basin, U.S.A.

The Paleocene Tongue River Member of the Fort Union Formation contains trace-fossil associations indicative of marine influence in otherwise freshwater facies. The identified ichnogenera include: Arenicolites, Diplocraterion, Monocraterion, Ophiomorpha, Rhizocorallium, Skolithos linearis, Teichichnus, Thalassinoides, and one form of uncertain affinity. Two species of the marine diatom Coscinodiscus occur a few meters above the base of the member. The burrows occur in at least five discrete, thin, rippled, fine-grained sandstone beds within the lower 85 m of the member west of the Cedar Creek anticline (CCA) in the Signal Butte, Terry Badlands, and Pine Hills areas. Two discrete burrowed beds are found in the lower 10 m of the member east of the CCA in the little Missouri River area. Abundant freshwater ostracodes include Bisulcocypridea arvadensis, Candona, and Cypridopsis. Freshwater bivalves include Plesielliptio and Pachydon mactriformis. We recognize four fossil assemblages that represent fluvio-lacustrine, proximal estuarine, central estuarine, and distal estuarine environments. Biostratal alternations between fresh- and brackish-water assemblages indicate that the Tongue River Member was deposited along a low-gradient coastal plain that was repeatedly inundated from the east by the Cannonball Sea. The existence of marine-influenced beds in the Tongue River Member invalidates the basis for the Slope Formation

A Sedimentological Record of Early Miocene Ice Advance and Retreat, AND-2A drill hole, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

The lowest 501 m (∼1139–638 m) of the AND-2A core from southern McMurdo Sound is the most detailed and complete record of early Miocene sediments in Antarctica and indicates substantial variability in Antarctic ice sheet activity during early Miocene time. There are two main pulses of diamictite accumulation recorded in the core, and three significant intervals with almost no coarse clasts. Each diamictite package comprises several sequences consistent with ice advance-retreat episodes. The oldest phase of diamictite deposition, Composite Sequence 1 (CS1), has evidence for grounded ice at the drill site and has been dated around 20.2–20.1 Ma. It likely coincides with cooling associated with isotope event Mi1aa. This is overlain by a diamictite-free, sandstone-dominated interval, CS2 that includes three coarsening-upward deltaic cycles, is inferred to mark substantial warming, and has an inferred age range between 20.1 and 20.05 Ma. Above this is an interval with variable amounts of diamictite (CS3), with indicators of ice grounding, that is inferred to record ice advance relative to CS2, and is overlain by an ∼100-m-thick mud-rich interval (CS4) with no sedimentological evidence for direct glacial influence at the drill site (ca. 19.4–18.7 Ma). A third overlying diamictite-rich interval (CS5) overlies an unconformity spanning 18.7–17.8 Ma (coinciding with isotope event Mi1b), and records a return to more ice-influenced conditions at the drill site in late early Miocene time. The overall picture for the early Miocene (spanning the period 20.2–17.35 Ma) is one of ice advance alternating with periods of ice retreat and hence significant global climate fluctuations after the permanent establishment of the Antarctic ice sheet at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary, and preceding the relative warmth of the middle Miocene climatic optimum (ca. 17.5–14.5 Ma). Sedimentary cyclicity in CS1 and CS2 is consistent with ∼21 k.y. precession but in CS3 the frequency is closer to 100 k.y. (consistent with eccentricity), with a possible change to 20 k.y. precession in CS4. CS5 cyclicity is consistent with obliquity forcing. Provenance data are consistent with local Transantarctic Mountains glacial activity under precessional control in CS1 and more southerly ice-cap build up under 100 k.y. eccentricity and obliquity control during CS3 and CS5, respectively