Triassic pegmatites in the Mesozoic middle crust of the Southern Alps (Italy): Fluid inclusions, radiometric dating and tectonic implications

The schists in the northern part of the South-Alpine crystalline basement along Lake Como record Barrovian syn-kinematic metamorphism of Variscan age. They cooled below the Rb-Sr whole rock closing temperature at ca. 300 Ma and were exhumed by ca. 6-7 km before the Late Permian. In the Middle Triassic a thermal perturbation affected the South-Alpine middle crust leading to the widespread transformation of garnets into biotite + sillimanite aggregates under static conditions. Anatectic pegmatites were emplaced roughly contemporaneous with the peak temperature conditions. Rb-Sr mineral ages on pegmatites, schists and marbles between 229 and 194 Ma show the crust was again cooling during the Late Triassic, when continental rifting started. Stretching leading eventually to the opening of the Ligurian-Piemont ocean continued until Middle Jurassic times. Fluid inclusion data from the pegmatites establish that only limited decompression took place during Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous cooling. As a result of Alpine shortening, the rocks were eventually exhumed to the surface

Large scale pantelleritic ash flow eruptions during the Late Miocene in central Kenya and evidence for significant environmental impact

In the area south-east of Mount Kenya, four previously unrecorded peralkaline rhyolitic (pantelleritic) ash flow tuffs have been located. These predominantly greyish welded and non-welded tuffs form up to 12 m thick units, which are sometimes characterized by a basal vitrophyre. The four flow units yielded 40Ar/39Ar ages ranging from 6.36 to 8.13 Ma, indicating a period of ~ 1.8 Ma of pantelleritic volcanic activity during the Late Miocene in central Kenya. Tentative compositional and age correlations with other known tuff deposits suggest that the pantelleritic tuffs originally covered 40,000 km2 in central Kenya, extending much further than earlier recorded Pliocene tuffs. This newly identified magmatic phase occurred between the phonolitic flood eruptions (16–8 Ma) and the Pliocene tuff eruptions (6–4 Ma). The occurrence of multiple ash flow tuff deposits up to 150 km away from the inferred eruptive center(s) in the central sector of the Kenya Rift, indicates multi-cyclic peralkaline supereruptions during the Late Miocene. By analogy with more recent pantelleritic eruptions, the tuffs are thought to have been sulfur-rich; during eruption, they formed stratospheric aerosols, with significant environmental impact. The timing of the eruptions coincides with the shift towards more savannah-dominated environments in East Africa

40Ar/39Ar geochronology of Holocene basalts; examples from Stromboli, Italy

Absolute chronologies of active volcanoes and consequently timescales for eruptive behaviour and magma production form a quantitative basis for understanding the risk of volcanoes. Surprisingly, the youngest records in the geological timescale often prove to be the most elusive when it comes to isotopic dating. Absolute Holocene volcanic records almost exclusively rely on 14C ages measured on fossil wood or other forms of biogenic carbon. However, on volcanic flanks, fossil carbon is often not preserved, and of uncertain origin when present in paleosols. Also, low 14C-volcanic CO2 may have mixed with atmospheric and soil 14C-CO2, potentially causing biased ages. Even when reliable data are available, it is important to have independent corroboration of inferred chronologies as can be obtained in principle using the 40K/40Ar decay system. Here we present results of a 40Ar/39Ar dating study of basaltic groundmass in the products from the Pleistocene – Holocene boundary until the beginning of the historic era for the north-northeastern flank of Stromboli, Aeolian Islands, Italy, identifying a short phase of intensified flank effusive activity 7500±500 yrs ago, and a maximum age of 4000±900 yr for the last flank collapse event that might have caused the formation of the Sciara del Fuoco depression. We expect that under optimum conditions 40Ar/39Ar dating of basaltic groundmass samples can be used more widely for dating Holocene volcanic events

Deformation-related volcanism in the Pacific Ocean linked to the Hawaiian-Emperor bend

Ocean islands, seamounts and volcanic ridges are thought to form above mantle plumes. Yet, this mechanism cannot explain many volcanic features on the Pacific Ocean floor and some might instead be caused by cracks in the oceanic crust linked to the reorganization of plate motions. A distinctive bend in the Hawaiian–Emperor volcanic chain has been linked to changes in the direction of motion of the Pacific Plate, movement of the Hawaiian plume, or a combination of both. However, these links are uncertain because there is no independent record that precisely dates tectonic events that affected the Pacific Plate. Here we analyse the geochemical characteristics of lava samples collected from the Musicians Ridges, lines of volcanic seamounts formed close to the Hawaiian–Emperor bend. We find that the geochemical signature of these lavas is unlike typical ocean island basalts and instead resembles mid-ocean ridge basalts. We infer that the seamounts are unrelated to mantle plume activity and instead formed in an extensional setting, due to deformation of the Pacific Plate. 40Ar/39Ar dating reveals that the Musicians Ridges formed during two time windows that bracket the time of formation of the Hawaiian–Emperor bend, 53–52 and 48–47 million years ago. We conclude that the Hawaiian–Emperor bend was formed by plate–mantle reorganization, potentially triggered by a series of subduction events at the Pacific Plate margins

Thermodynamic controls on element partitioning between titanomagnetite and andesitic–dacitic silicate melts

Titanomagnetite–melt partitioning of Mg, Mn, Al, Ti, Sc, V, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Zr, Nb, Mo, Hf and Ta was investigated experimentally as a function of oxygen fugacity (fO2) and temperature (T) in an andesitic–dacitic bulk-chemical compositional range. In these bulk systems, at constant T, there are strong increases in the titanomagnetite–melt partitioning of the divalent cations (Mg2+, Mn2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Zn2+) and Cu2+/Cu+ with increasing fO2 between 0.2 and 3.7 log units above the fayalite–magnetite–quartz buffer. This is attributed to a coupling between magnetite crystallisation and melt composition. Although melt structure has been invoked to explain the patterns of mineral–melt partitioning of divalent cations, a more rigorous justification of magnetite–melt partitioning can be derived from thermodynamic principles, which accounts for much of the supposed influence ascribed to melt structure. The presence of magnetite-rich spinel in equilibrium with melt over a range of fO2 implies a reciprocal relationship between a(Fe2+O) and a(Fe3+O1.5) in the melt. We show that this relationship accounts for the observed dependence of titanomagnetite–melt partitioning of divalent cations with fO2 in magnetite-rich spinel. As a result of this, titanomagnetite–melt partitioning of divalent cations is indirectly sensitive to changes in fO2 in silicic, but less so in mafic bulk systems.Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The attached file is the published pdf

The South Armenian Block: Gondwanan origin and Tethyan evolution in space and time

The geodynamic evolution of the South Armenian Block (SAB) within the Tethyan realm during the Palaeozoic to present-day is poorly constrained. Much of the SAB is covered by Cenozoic sediments so that the relationships between the SAB and the neighbouring terranes of Central Iran, the Pontides and Taurides are unclear. Here we present new geochronological, palaeomagnetic, and geochemical constraints to shed light on the Gondwanan and Cimmerian provenance of the SAB, timing of its rifting, and geodynamic evolution since the Permian. We report new 40Ar/39Ar and zircon U-Pb ages and compositional data on magmatic sills and dykes in the Late Devonian sedimentary cover, as well as metamorphic rocks that constitute part of the SAB basement. Zircon age distributions, ranging from ∼3.6 Ga to 100 Ma, firmly establish a Gondwanan origin for the SAB. Trondhjemite intrusions into the basement at ∼263 Ma are consistent with a SW-dipping active continental margin. Mafic intraplate intrusions at ∼246 Ma (OIB) and ∼234 Ma (P-MORB) in the sedimentary cover likely represent the incipient stages of breakup of the NE Gondwanan margin and opening of the Neotethys. Andesitic dykes at ∼117 Ma testify to the melting of subduction-modified lithosphere. In contrast to current interpretations, we show that the SAB should be considered separate from the Taurides, and that the Armenian ophiolite complexes formed chiefly in the Eurasian forearc. Based on the new constraints, we provide a geodynamic reconstruction of the SAB since the Permian, in which it started rifting from Gondwana alongside the Pontides, likely reached the Iranian margin in Early Jurassic times, and was subject to episodes of intraplate (∼189 Ma) and NE-dipping subduction-related (∼117 Ma) magmatism

Метод интегрирования дифференциальных уравнений динамики электрических машин с вращающимся ротором

Для исследования переходных процессов в электротехнических системах, содержащих статические электромагнитные устройства, включенные в сложные электрические схемы, разработан программный комплекс Colo, функционирующий на основе магнитоэлектрических схем замещения в матричной форме. Главная матрица комплекса Colo содержит коэффициенты при искомых токах или магнитных потоках. Моделирование динамических процессов в электрических машинах с вращающимся ротором связано с интегрированием дифференциальных уравнений, в которые входят произведения искомых величин, поэтому непосредственно эти уравнения не могут решаться в программном комплексе Colo