Lithostratigraphy, sedimentation and evolution of the Volta Basin in Ghana

We present a revised lithostratigraphy for the Voltaian Supergroup of Ghana, based on a review of existing literature, interpretations of remotely sensed data and reconnaissance field survey of the Volta Basin. These strata thicken eastwards, to a maximum of between 5 and 6 km adjacent to the Pan-African Dahomeyide orogen. They began to accumulate some time after about 1000 Ma, along the margin of an epicontinental sea. Initial sedimentation, comprising the age-equivalent Kwahu and Bombouaka Groups, shows a cyclical mode of deposition controlled by eustatic changes in sea-level that produced a range of nearshore marine, littoral and terrestrial environments. A major erosional interval was followed by deposition of the 3–4 km thick Oti-Pendjari Group. Basal tillites and associated sandy diamictons are correlated with the Marinoan (end-Cryogenian) glaciation, indicating a maximum depositional age of about 635 Ma. The overlying cap carbonates and tuffs were deposited within a shallow epeiric sea bordered by a volcanically active rift system. The main part of the group records the transition from a rifted passive margin to a fully developed foreland basin receiving marine flysch in the form of argillaceous strata interbedded with highly immature wacke-type sandstones and conglomerates. Maximum accommodation space was developed within a foredeep adjacent to the Dahomeyide belt. Towards the end of the orogenic phase, the foredeep succession became partially inverted and then was buried under coarse terrestrial, red-bed molasse of the Obosum Group

The Clay Minerals Group (CMG): 1947–2022

The Clay Minerals Group (CMG), the first of the Special Interest Groups of the Mineralogical Society of the UK and Ireland, was inaugurated in January 1947. The CMG, together with its Belgian equivalent (originally the Comité Belge pour l'Etude des Argiles, later the Belgian Clay Group, now defunct), formed the world's first organizations dedicated to clay mineral research. The CMG celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2022. The Group's aims are to stimulate interest in clay mineralogy, to facilitate an exchange of information between members by providing facilities for reading and discussing papers on research on clay minerals (and allied topics) and to expedite their publication and to encourage practical applications of such research, and these have remained reassuringly the same throughout its history. A founder and active member of both the European Clay Groups Association and the Association Internationale Pour L'Etude des Argiles, the CMG has promoted clay science through the publication of the highly regarded journal Clay Minerals and a series of influential book titles, organizing international and national scientific conferences and meetings, the George Brown Lecture series, providing bursaries and grants to assist researchers and hosting the Images of Clay archive. The initial and sustained success of the CMG has been largely due to the labours of many officers and committee members, some of whom have been recognized for their science and service with awards from the Mineralogical Society of the UK and Ireland and elsewhere. By maintaining this effort, the evident, continuing demand for clay mineral research to assist with changing societal needs should ensure the relevance and health of the CMG for the foreseeable future

Inductive reasoning in humans and large language models

The impressive recent performance of large language models has led many to wonder to what extent they can serve as models of general intelligence or are similar to human cognition. We address this issue by applying GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 to a classic problem in human inductive reasoning known as property induction. Over two experiments, we elicit human judgments on a range of property induction tasks spanning multiple domains. Although GPT-3.5 struggles to capture many aspects of human behaviour, GPT-4 is much more successful: for the most part, its performance qualitatively matches that of humans, and the only notable exception is its failure to capture the phenomenon of premise non-monotonicity. Our work demonstrates that property induction allows for interesting comparisons between human and machine intelligence and provides two large datasets that can serve as benchmarks for future work in this vein.Comment: 61 pages, 5 figure

Palaeoclimatic implications of high-resolution clay mineral assemblages preceding and across the onset of the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, North Sea Basin

Understanding the composition of clay-rich sediments and their transportation into proximal marine basins allows us to better decipher hydroclimatic changes before and within the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Only a limited number of such studies exists from the North Sea Basin, which was proximal to the volcanic activity and early rifting hypothesized to have triggered the PETM. The present study examines core material from well 22/10a-4, UK North Sea, as it exhibits an exceptionally expanded and almost stratigraphically complete fine-grained sedimentary sequence suitable for high-resolution analysis. Quantitative Newmod-for-Windows™-modelled clay mineral assemblages, rather than traditional semi-quantitative estimates, are dominated by smectite-rich, interlayered illite-smectite that probably developed from volcanogenic deposits on continental landmasses. Soil development before the PETM is consistent with the existence of a seasonal tropical climate with a prolonged dry season. A striking rise and fall of kaolinite content within the PETM onset, prior to the principal carbon-isotope excursion, is reported here. This variation is interpreted as a signal of an enhanced hydrologic cycle producing an increase in erosionally derived kaolinite, followed by a dampening of this detrital source as sea-levels rose. Global variations in PETM kaolinite concentrations are consistent with a latitudinal shift in patterns of precipitation in models of global warming

The surface area and reactivity of granitic soils: I. Dissolution rates of primary minerals as a function of depth and age deduced from field observations

Surface area-normalised dissolution rates of the primary minerals in two distinct granitic soils located in 1) the Dartmoor National Park, England and 2) Glen Dye, Scotland were determined as a function of depth. Each soil was sampled to a depth of ~ 1 m. The maximum soil ages based on 14C analysis of the humin fraction of the soil are 15,600 and 4400 years for the Dartmoor and Glen Dye soil profiles, respectively. The measured BET surface areas of the soil minerals are close to 5 m2/g in the B and C horizons, but decrease to less than 1 m2/g close to the surface. Retrieved geometric surface area normalised mineral dissolution rates are most rapid at the surface and at the bedrock–soil interface; this behaviour is interpreted to stem from a combination of the approach to equilibrium of the soil waters with depth and more rapid dissolution rates of fresh versus weathered surfaces. At the soil surface, the relative mineral dissolution rate order is found to be quartz > feldspar > mica, with quartz geometric surface area dissolution rates as fast as 2.6 to 4.1 × 10− 13 mol/m2/s. As observed in a number of past studies, field based rates obtained in this study are significantly slower than corresponding rates obtained from laboratory studies, suggesting that these latter rates may not accurately describe the reactivity of primary minerals in soils

Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic paleoceanography from north-east Atlantic ferromanganese crust microstratigraphy

Oceanic hydrogenetic ferromanganese (Fe-Mn) crusts precipitate directly from ambient seawater over millions of years. Their very slow growth rates and physio-chemical properties mean that they adsorb numerous elements from seawater. As such, they provide condensed records of seawater evolution through time that can be used for paleoceanographic reconstruction. Here, we present the results of a high-resolution, stratigraphic, textural and geochemical investigation of a core sample, obtained from a Fe-Mn crust pavement, located on the summit of Tropic Seamount in the tropical north-east Atlantic Ocean. A number of observations and interpretations are proposed, within the context of a well-constrained age model, spanning the last 75 ± 2 Myr. This core has textural stratigraphic coherence with Pacific Fe-Mn crusts formed since the Late Cretaceous, highlighting that global oceanic and climatic phenomena exert first-order controls on Fe-Mn crust development. All major hiatuses observed in the Fe-Mn crusts are contemporaneous with erosion events occurring throughout the Atlantic Ocean. High-resolution geochemical data indicate that there is variability in the composition of Fe-Mn crusts at the cm to μm scale. The dominant factors controlling this include major oceanographic events, mineral textures and micro-topography

Perinatal Flavour Learning and Adaptation to Being Weaned: All the Pig Needs Is Smell

Perinatal flavour learning through the maternal diet is known to enhance flavour preference and acceptance of flavoured food in many species, yet still little is known about the mechanism underlying perinatal flavour learning. Previously we found positive effects of perinatal flavour learning on food intake, growth and behaviour of piglets postweaning, but no increased preference for the flavour. This suggests that flavour learning in pigs works through a reduction of weaning stress by the presence of the familiar flavour instead. The aim of this study was to investigate whether perinatal flavour learning reduces stress at weaning, and whether the effect is stronger when the familiar flavour is present in the food. Sows were offered an anethol-flavoured diet (Flavour treatment) or control diet (Control treatment) during late gestation and lactation. Flavour and Control piglets were provided with anethol either in their food (Food treatment) or in the air (Air treatment) after weaning. Preweaning and postweaning treatments did not affect food intake, preference or growth in the first two weeks postweaning but flavour treatment reduced the latency to eat (24 versus 35 hours, P = 0.02) and within-pen variation in growth (SD within-pen: 0.7 versus 1.2 kg, P<0.001). Salivary cortisol levels tended to be lower four and seven hours postweaning for Flavour piglets compared to Control piglets (4 hours: 2.5 versus 3.0 ng/ml, P = 0.05, 7 hours: 3.1 versus 3.4 ng/ml, P = 0.08). Flavour piglets played more and showed less damaging behaviours than Control piglets, indicating that the familiar flavour reduced stress around weaning. Few interaction effects were found between preweaning and postweaning treatment, and no effects of postweaning treatment. We conclude that in the newly weaned pig, perinatal flavour learning results in a reduction of stress when the familiar flavour is present, regardless of providing the flavour in the food or in the air