The 'long' 16th century : a key period of animal husbandry change in England

Although many historians have extensively discussed the agricultural history of England between the Late Middle Ages and the Modern Era, this period of crucial changes has received less attention by archaeologists. In this paper, zooarchaeological evidence dated between the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period is analysed to investigate changes in animal husbandry during the ‘long’ sixteenth century. The size and shape of the main domestic animals (cattle, sheep, pig and chicken) is explored through biometrical data and discussed in line with evidence of taxonomic frequencies, ageing and sex ratios. Data from 12 sites with relevant chronologies and located in different areas of the country are considered. The results show that, although a remarkable size increase of animals occurred in England throughout the post-medieval period, much of this improvement occurred as early as the sixteenth century. The nature and causes of such improvement are discussed, with the aim of understanding the development of Early Modern farming and the foundations of the so-called Agricultural Revolution

Numerical modeling of hydrothermal zinc silicate and sulfide mineralization in the Vazante deposit, Brazil

The Vazante zinc deposit in central Brazil is currently the world's largest known example of a hypogene nonsulfide (i.e. willemite-dominant) zinc deposit. The mineralization is hypothesized to have formed as a result of mixing between a hot, acidic, reducing, metal-rich brine and a cool, more basic and dilute, metal-poor meteoric fluid. The present study sought to investigate this scenario by quantifying the individual effects of temperature, pH, salinity, and oxidation state on willemite and sphalerite solubility, and modeling their combined effects during mixing through reaction path and reactive transport modeling. Solubility calculations showed that in an initially hot, moderately acidic, reducing, metal-rich ore fluid saturated with respect to silica, willemite solubility is relatively insensitive to changes in temperature and log(02) , but highly sensitive to changes in pH and salinity. In contrast, sphalerite solubility was highly sensitive to changes in temperature and log(02), as well as salinity, and was less sensitive than willemite to changes in pH. Reaction path models sought to extend these observations by modeling the geochemistry of mixing. The results show that mixing is able to produce most of the major zinc ore and gangue minerals observed in the field, though not necessarily at the same paragenetic stages, and that both compositional and temperature changes from mixing are needed. Reactive transport models were formulated to investigate spatial patterns of mineralization. The results showed that sphalerite deposition was strongly controlled by temperature and concentrated in the regions of greatest temperature change. Willemite deposition was concentrated along the interface between the metal-rich ore fluid and the surrounding meteoric fluid. The more rapid transport of solute than heat, in conjunction with the higher concentration of silica than sulfide in both fluids meant that willemite mineralization developed over a broader region and in greater concentrations compared with sphalerite.9296115American Philosophical SocietyVotorantim Metais mining compan

Hydrogeologic modeling of the genesis of carbonate-hosted lead-zinc ores

Carbonate-hosted lead-zinc ore deposits in the Mississippi Valley region of North America and in the central midlands region of Ireland provide good examples where ancient groundwater migration controlled ore formation deep within sedimentary basins. Hydrogeologic and geochemical theories for ore genesis are explored in this paper with mathematical models that allow for complex permeability fields in two or three dimensions, hydrothermal flows in fault systems, and coupled effects of geochemical reactions. The hydrogeologic framework of carbonate-hosted ores is analyzed with the aim of developing a quantitative understanding of the necessary and sufficient processes required to form large ore deposits. Numerical simulations of basin-scale hydrodynamics and of deposit-scale reactive flow are presented to demonstrate the processes controlling low-temperature Pb-Zn ore genesis in two world-class ore districts, in southeast Missouri, USA, and central Ireland. The numerical models presented here provide a theoretical basis for the following observations: (1) topography-driven brine migration was the most effective mechanism for forming the large ore districts of the Mississippi Valley, such as the Viburnum Trend of southeast Missouri, during the uplift of the Appalachian-Ouachita mountain belt in late Paleozoic time; (2) three-dimensional flow fields were created by a dolomite facies of the Viburnum Trend, which acted as a giant lens for focusing metal and heat in southeast Missouri to produce the largest known concentration of lead in the Earth's crust; (3) ore-mineralization patterns were controlled locally by basement relief, permeability structure, and sandstone pinchouts, because of their effects on cooling and fluid-flow rates along the Viburnum Trend; (4) both density-driven and topography-driven fluid flow were important for ore genesis in the Irish midlands, where brines moved northward away from the Variscan orogen, leaked into the Hercynian basement, and discharged along normal faults up into the sedimentary cover; and (5) mixed convection within northeast-southwest fault planes elevated heat flow and flow rates that fed ore deposition by fluid mixing, in some cases near the Carboniferous seafloor in Ireland

Anomalously metal-rich fluids form hydrothermal ore deposits

Hydrothermal ore deposits form when metals, often as sulfides, precipitate in abundance from aqueous solutions in Earth's crust. Much of our knowledge of the fluids involved comes from studies of fluid inclusions trapped in silicates or carbonates that are believed to represent aliquots of the same solutions that precipitated the ores. We used laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to test this paradigm by analysis of fluid inclusions in sphalerite from two contrasting zinc- lead ore systems. Metal contents in these inclusions are up to two orders of magnitude greater than those in quartz- hosted inclusions and are much higher than previously thought, suggesting that ore formation is linked to influx of anomalously metal- rich fluids into systems dominated by barren fluids for much of their life