Origin, age, and significance of deep-seated granulite-facies migmatites in the Barrow zones of Scotland, Cairn Leuchan, Glen Muick area

Funding for this work was provided by the Johannes-Gutenberg University of Mainz.Petrological modelling of granulite‐facies mafic and semipelitic migmatites from Cairn Leuchan, northeast Scotland, has provided new constraints on the pressure (P) and temperature (T) conditions of high‐grade metamorphism in the type‐locality Barrow zones.Phase diagrams constructed in the Na2O–CaO–K2O–FeO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O–TiO2–O2 system have constrained the P–T conditions of peak metamorphism in the Glen Muick region of the upper‐sillimanite zone (Sill+Kfs) to have been at least ~840 ◦C at ~9 kbar (high‐pressure granulite facies). These conditions are approximately ~120 ◦C and ~3 kbar higher than those recorded by lower‐sillimanite zone (Sill+Ms) units located only a few kilometres away to the southeast at Glen Girnock, indicating the presence of a significant thermal and barometric high exposed within the Scottish Dalradian and supporting previous suppositions of a potential tectonic break between the two regions. U–Pb zircon geochronology performed on these mafic migmatites produced ages of c. 540–470 Ma from grains with both igneous and metamorphic morphological characteristics. Their basaltic protoliths likely formed during a period of volcanism dated at ~570 Ma, associated with passive‐margin extension prior to the onset of Iapetus Ocean closure, and high‐grade metamorphism and partial melting is interpreted to have taken place at around 470 Ma, synchronous with sillimanite‐grade metamorphism recorded elsewhere in the Dalradian. These high‐grade Cairn Leuchan lithologies are interpreted as representing a fragment of Grampian Terrane lower crust that was exhumed via displacement along a steeply dipping tectonic discontinuity related to the Portsoy–Duchray Hill Lineament, and are not pre‐Caledonian Mesoproterozoic basement, as suggested by some previous studies. Veins within some mafic migmatites in the Cairn Leuchan area, composed almost entirely (>80%) of garnet, with minor quartz, plagioclase, amphibole, and clinopyroxene, are interconnected with leucosomes and are interpreted to represent former garnet‐bearing melt segregations that have been locally drained of almost all melt. Thus, mafic components of the lower crust, currently underlying relatively lower‐grade metasediments exposed to the southeast, may represent a potential source rock for widely documented, post‐orogenic felsic plutons, sills, and dykes that occur throughout the Grampian Terrane.PostprintPeer reviewe

Atomic spectrometry update: a review of advances in environmental analysis

This is the 33th annual review of the application of atomic spectrometry to the chemical analysis of environmental samples. This update refers to papers published approximately between August 2016 and June 2017 and continues the series of Atomic Spectrometry Updates (ASUs) in environmental analysis that should be read in conjunction with other related ASUs in the series, namely: clinical and biological materials, foods and beverages; advances in atomic spectrometry and related techniques; elemental speciation; X-ray spectrometry; and metals, chemicals and functional materials. In the field of air analysis, highlights within this review period included the fabrication of new air samplers using 3D printer technology, development of a portable aerosol concentrator unit based upon electrostatic precipitation and instrumental developments such as a prototype portable spark emission spectrometer to quantify metal particles in workplace air. The advent of ICP-MS/MS systems has enabled analysts to develop improved methods for the determination of PGEs and radioactive elements present in airborne particles. With such instruments, the capacity to eliminate or minimise many isobaric interferences now enables analysts to forego the use of many onerous sample clean-up procedures. Improvements in the capabilities of aerosol mass spectrometers were noted as were developments in other complimentary measurement techniques such as Raman. In the arena of water analysis there are growing concerns regarding engineered NPs e.g. Ag NPs, entering water courses resulting in the development and optimisation of new methods based upon FFF and sp-ICP-MS techniques to measure such inputs. Similar concerns exist for MRI contrasting agents e.g. Gd-based compounds and here improved methodologies that involve the use of sample preconcentration using chelating columns and ICP-MS analysis have been proposed. In the field of plant and soil analysis, similar to developments in the water sector, there has been increased interest in the measurement of NPs. Many comparisons of sample digestion or extraction methods have been reported but a key issue rarely addressed is transferability, i.e. whether methods preferred by one group of researchers using particular apparatus are also optimal in a different laboratory using different apparatus. New sample preconcentration methods continued to appear although – as in previous years – the CRMs selected for method validation often failed to reflect the nature of the intended sample(s). A noteworthy advance is the use of HR-CS-ETMAS for elemental analysis. Developments in LIBS included greater use of TEA CO2 lasers in place of Nd:YAG lasers and increased use of stand-off measurement. The past year has also seen a rise in proximal sensing using LIBS and pXRFS. In the field of geological analysis, the quest continues for well-characterised matrix-matched materials suitable for the calibration of elemental and, particularly, isotopic measurements by microanalytical techniques. Increasing interest in stable isotope analysis by SIMS is reflected by the number of matrix-matched RMs developed specifically for this technique. Much work continues on ways of improving isotope ratio measurements by ICP-MS and TIMS for a wide range of different isotope systems relevant to geochemical studies. High spatial resolution analysis by LIBS, LA-ICP-MS and SIMS to obtain data on chemical and isotopic variations in minerals and biogenic materials in two and three dimensions are the foundation for many new insights in geoscientific research. In XRFS and LIBS, the advantages and limitations of portable instrumentation continue to be major focus of activity

Ancient xenocrystic zircon in young volcanic rocks of the southern Lesser Antilles island arc

The Lesser Antilles arc is one of the best global examples in which to examine the effects of the involvement of subducted sediment and crustal assimilation in the generation of arc crust. Most of the zircon recovered in our study of igneous and volcaniclastic rocks from Grenada and Carriacou (part of the Grenadines chain) is younger than 2 Ma. Within some late Paleogene to Neogene (~ 34–0.2 Ma) lavas and volcaniclastic sediments however, there are Paleozoic to Paleoarchean (~ 250–3469 Ma) xenocrysts, and Late Jurassic to Precambrian zircon (~ 158–2667 Ma) are found in beach and river sands. The trace element characteristics of zircon clearly differentiate between different types of magmas generated in the southern Lesser Antilles through time. The zircon population from the younger arc (Miocene, ~ 22–19 Ma, to Present) has minor negative Eu anomalies, well-defined positive Ce anomalies, and a marked enrichment in heavy rare earth elements (HREE), consistent with crystallization from very oxidized magmas in which Eu2 + was in low abundance. In contrast, zircon from the older arc (Eocene to mid-Oligocene, ~ 30–28 Ma) has two different REE patterns: 1) slight enrichment in the light (L)REE, small to absent Ce anomalies, and negative Eu anomalies and 2) enriched High (H)REE, positive Ce anomalies and negative Eu anomalies (a similar pattern is observed in the xenocrystic zircon population). The combination of positive Ce and negative Eu anomalies in the zircon population of the older arc indicates crystallization from magmas that were variably, but considerably less oxidized than those of the younger arc. All the igneous zircon has positive εHf(t), reflecting derivation from a predominantly juvenile mantle source. However, the εHf(t) values vary significantly within samples, reflecting considerable Hf isotopic heterogeneity in the source. The presence of xenocrystic zircon in the southern Lesser Antilles is evidence for the assimilation of intra-arc crustal sediments and/or the recycling and incorporation of sediments into the magma sources in the mantle wedge. Most likely however, primitive magmas stalling and fractionating during their ascent through the Antilles crust entrained ancient zircon. This is evidence by the geochemistry of the study samples, which is inconsistent with any involvement of partially melted subducted sediment. Paleogeographic reconstructions show that the old zircon could derive from distant regions such as the Eastern Andean Cordillera of Colombia, the Merida Andes, and the northern Venezuela coastal ranges, transported for example by the Proto-Maracaibo River precursor of the Orinoco River.This study was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grants KR590/85-1 to AK and RO4174/2-1 to YRA, and Spanish MINECO grants CGL2015-65824 and CGL2012-36263 and University of Granada research program (CIC) to AGC and CLC. This research also received support from the SYNTHESYS Project (http://www.synthesys.info/) which is financed by the European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 “Capacities” Program, the Intra-University Research Support Program of Mainz University (Universitätsinterne Forschungsförderung (FoFö)

Western Mediterranean Climate Response to Dansgaard/Oeschger Events: New Insights From Speleothem Records

The climate of the western Mediterranean was characterized by a strong precipitation gradient during the Holocene driven by atmospheric circulation patterns. The scarcity of terrestrial paleoclimate archives has precluded exploring this hydroclimate pattern during Marine Isotope Stages 5 to 3. Here we present stable carbon and oxygen isotope records from three flowstones from southeast Iberia, which show that Dansgaard/Oeschger events were associated with more humid conditions. This is in agreement with other records from the Iberian Peninsula, the Mediterranean, and western Europe, which all responded in a similar way to millennial-scale climate variability in Greenland. This general increase in precipitation during Dansgaard/Oeschger events cannot be explained by any present-day or Holocene winter atmospheric circulation pattern. Instead, we suggest that changes in sea surface temperature played a dominant role in determining precipitation amounts in the western Mediterranean

Paleoclimate variability during the Blake geomagnetic excursion (MIS 5d) deduced from a speleothem record

To evaluate possible connections between climate and the Earth's magnetic field, we examine paleoclimate proxies in a stalagmite (PA-8) recording the Blake excursion (∼112–∼116.4 ka) from Cobre cave (N Spain). Trace element, δ13C, δ18O, δ234U, fluorescent lamination, growth rate, and paleomagnetic records were synchronized using a floating lamina-counted chronology constrained by U–Th dates, providing a high-resolution multi-proxy paleoclimate record for MIS 5d. The alpine cave setting and the combination of proxies contributed to improve the confidence of the paleoclimatic interpretation. Periods of relatively warm and humid climate likely favored forest development and resulted in high speleothem growth rates, arguably annual fluorescent laminae, low δ13C and [Mg], and increased [Sr] and [Ba]. Colder periods limited soil activity and drip water availability, leading to reduced speleothem growth, poor development of fluorescent lamination, enhanced water–rock interaction leading to increased [Mg], δ13C, and δ234U, and episodic flooding. In the coldest and driest period recorded, evaporation caused simultaneous 18O and 13C enrichments and perturbed the trace element patterns. The Blake took place in a relatively warm interestadial at the inception of the Last Glacial period, but during a global cooling trend recorded in PA-8 by an overall decrease of δ18O and growth rate and increasing [Mg]. That trend culminated in the cessation of growth between ∼112 and ∼101 ka likely due to the onset of local glaciation correlated with Greenland stadial 25. That trend is consistent with a link between low geomagnetic intensity and climate cooling, but it does not prove it. Shorter term changes in relative paleointensity (RPI) relate to climate changes recorded in PA-8, particularly a prominent RPI low from ∼114.5 to ∼113 ka coincident with a significant cooling indicated by all proxy records, suggesting a link between geomagnetic intensity and climate at millennial time scales. Although the reliability of such inference is limited by the inferior resolution of the paleomagnetic data and a possible contamination of the RPI data by unaccounted changes in magnetite concentration, the agreement of those data with the marine record of cosmogenic Be suggests that the RPI record of PA-8 may reflect truly geomagnetic intensity variations

U-Pb dating of arc to post-collisional magmatic events in northwestern Anatolia: The Eocene Granitoids in NW Anatolia revisited

Northwestern Anatolia contains voluminous Cenozoic magmatic rocks which were emplaced during syn- to-post collisional stages of long-term crustal accretion and extensional stages since the late Paleocene. The Eocene to Late Miocene plutonic and volcanic rocks that are located throughout the Rhodopes, northern Aegean, and the western part of Western Anatolia show generally southward decreasing ages, coupled with an increasing crustal recycling component in their genesis. However, the early Eocene, ∼SW–NE-trending, mafic volcanic and the early Eocene, ∼NW-SE-trending, granitoid belts in the northeastern parts of Western Anatolia do not share these features. We present here new U-Pb zircon ages, whole-rock geochemical analyses, and Sr-Nd isotopic data from the early Eocene NW-SE-trending granitoid belt, together with age data from arc-related pyroclastics in the region, in an effort to resolve these uncertainties.The age data reveal that the post-collisional magmatism along the ∼ NW–SE-trending granitoid belt occurred ∼ 58–41 Ma; i.e. ∼ 30 Myr after the Pontide arc magmatism that was active from ∼ 92–74 Ma. We suggest that the ∼ SW–NE-trending mafic volcanic and the ∼ NW-SE-trending granitoid belts developed in response to break-off of two subducted slabs in the northern Neotethys. In addition, emplacement of the ∼ NW-SE trending granitoid belt may also have been influenced by a zone of weakness related to a series of NW–SE-trending dextral strike-slip shear zones lying from the Kapıdağ shear zone close to the Rhodopes in the NW to the Uludağ shear zone in the SE