Sedimentation in a synclinal shallow‐marine embayment : Coniacian of the North Sudetic Synclinorium, SW Poland

This study is a reconstruction of the Coniacian palaeogeographic and palaeoenvironmental development in the North Sudetic Basin, a synclinal trough within the Late Cretaceous Central European seaway linking the Boreal and Tethyan marine provinces. The basin formed as an early side effect of the Alpine orogeny combined with the mid‐Cretaceous eustasy, and crucial stages of its evolution occurred during the Coniacian. The basin in the early Coniacian was a long and narrow shallow‐marine embayment with a hypothetical (non‐preserved) bayhead strait funnelling tidal currents. Coalescing tidal sand ridges formed a littoral platform that prograded from the bayhead zone along the basin axis, impinged on laterally by the basin‐margin shoreface and local river deltas. A mid‐Coniacian forced marine regression and closure of the bayhead strait, attributed to the Alpine tectonism combined with eustasy, brought about a dramatic change in the basin, whereby the basin‐wide littoral sand platform emerged and turned briefly into a denudated coastal plain. The late Coniacian eustatic marine transgression formed an in‐place growing coastal sand barrier at the outer edge of the former littoral platform, sheltering a paralic limno‐lagoonal plain with peat‐forming mires. The coastal barrier was eventually drowned by the sea and maximum marine flooding occurred, followed by a normal regression recorded as a rapidly upwards‐shallowing succession of offshore‐transition to fluvio‐deltaic deposits. This case study of the sedimentation pattern in an evolving, tectonically controlled marine embayment contributes to the existing facies models for estuarine embayments formed by a passive marine drowning of large fluvial or glacial valleys

Sedimentary deposits and bioturbation in an Early Cretaceous subarctic stormy greenhouse shelf environment

This study of the Aptian lower part of the Carolinefjellet Formation in Svalbard, Norwegian high Arctic, is based on well cores and outcrop section in the Adventdalen area of Spitsbergen and reports on the deposits and bioturbation structures of an ancient subpolar marine shelf from a well-known period of global greenhouse climate. The study documents the sedimentation conditions and benthic fauna activity on a warm-water aggrading shelf subject to harsh Arctic wave climate and eurybatic base-level changes, with episodic bottom incursions of cold polar water. Lithofacies associations and 38 observed ichnotaxa represent subenvironments ranging from offshore to lower shoreface and hosting the Cruziana ichnofacies in its distal to proximal expression, with a brief mid-Aptian encroachment of middle shoreface zone with a distal expression of the Skolithos ichnofacies. The ichnofacies are variously impoverished compared to their archetypes. The sediment bioturbation intensity varies, but similar lithofacies associations show a comparable intensity throughout the stratigraphic succession, which indicates an ichnofauna ecology controlled by the seafloor hydraulic regime and oxygenation, and thus mainly by the wave climate and relative sea-level changes. Sandstone tempestites indicate high-frequency storms, commonly exceeding the magnitude of largest modern hurricane events. The study confirms that a change in global climate mode, such as the Early Cretaceous warming, entails extreme weather conditions.publishedVersio

Trace fossils in the Cretaceous-Eocene flysch of the Sinop-Boyabat Basin, Central Pontides, Turkey

Sixty six ichnotaxa have been recognized in Barremian-Lutetian deep-marine deposits of the Sinop- Boyabat Basin, north-central Turkey, which evolved from a backarc rift into a retroarc foreland, with two episodes of major shallowing. The blackish-grey shales of the Çađlayan Fm (Barremian-Cenomanian) contain low- diversity traces fossils of mobile sediment feeders influenced by low oxygenation. One of the oldest occurrences of Scolicia indicates early adaptation to burrowing in organic-rich mud. The "normal" flysch of the Coniacian- Campanian Yemişliçay Fm bears a low-diversity Nereites ichnofacies influenced by volcanic activity. The Maastrichtian-Late Palaeocene carbonate flysch of the Akveren Fm contains a Nereites ichnofacies of moderate diversity, which is impoverished in the uppermost part, where tempestites indicate marked shallowing. The overlying variegated muddy flysch of the Atbaşý Fm (latest Palaeocene-earliest Eocene) bears an impoverished Nereites ichnofacies, which is attributed to oligotrophy and reduced preservation potential. The sand-rich silici-clastic flysch of the Kusuri Fm (Early-Middle Eocene) bears a high-diversity Nereites ichnofacies, except for the topmost part, where tempestites and littoral bioclastic limestone reflect rapid shallowing due to the tectonic closure of the basin. The turbiditic channel-fill and proximal lobe facies show a reduced trace-fossil diversity, but abundant Ophiomorpha , which is typical of the Ophiomorpha rudis sub-ichnofacies of the Nereites ichnofacies. The high abundance of Ophiomorpha in the Kusuri Fm and its low abundance in the Akveren Fm are related to plant detritus supply. The Kusuri turbiditic system was fed by a large delta, supplying rich plant detritus, whereas the Akveren system was fed by a carbonate ramp that supplied little or no such material. The extension of the Nereites ichnofacies into the tempestite-bearing neritic deposits at the top of both the Akveren and Kusuri formations indicates the capacity of the deep-water ichnofauna to survive in a rapidly-shoaling restricted basin. Only the topmost shoreface sandstones of the Akveren Fm show sporadic Ophiomorpha ? nodosa, a typical shallow-marine trace fossil

Lacustrine trace fossils and environmental conditions in the Early Miocene Ermenek Basin, southern Turkey

The Early Miocene lacustrine succession of the Ermenek Basin, an intramontane graben in southern Anatolia, consists of hemipelagic, variably calcareous mudstones and pelagic marlstones densely interspersed with tempestite sandstone sheets, subordinate turbidite sandstone sheets and sporadic layers of evaporitic limestone. The marly lake was hydrologically closed and mainly no deeper than 10 m, with the mean fairweather wave base at 1.5 m and storm wave base around 5 m. The deposits abound in trace fossils, including Vagorichnus cf. anyao (its second recognized occurrence), endichnial ferruginous ribbons, large tubular structures, oblique cylinders, small discontinuous ridges, undulating ridges, planar wall structures and a range of other bioturbational features. The tempestites and turbidites show both pre-and post-event trace fossils, with recognizable mixed and transitional layers similar as reported from marine tempestites and turbidites. The trace fossils constitute an impoverished Mermia ichnofacies indicating a considerable environmental stress. The lake salinity fluctuated, and the stress factor is attributed to the extreme environmental conditions (increased salinity and unusual water chemistry) caused by episodes of brackishness due to decreases in rainfall and increases in evaporation. Freshwater conditions are indicated by benthic ostracods and mollusc shells in offshore mudstones and by gastropod shells in coastal coal deposits, whereas marly layers contain only the ostracod species Miocyprideis glabra asulcata, implying mesohaline to polyhaline conditions

How is a turbidite actually deposited?

The deposition of a classic turbidite by a surge-type turbidity current, as envisaged by conceptual models, is widely considered a discrete event of continuous sediment accumulation at a falling rate by the gradually waning density flow. Here, we demonstrate, on the basis of a high-resolution advanced numerical CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulation and rock-record examples, that the depositional event in reality involves many brief episodes of nondeposition. The reason is inherent hydraulic fluctuations of turbidity current energy driven by interfacial Kelvin-Helmholtz waves. The experimental turbidity current, with realistic grain-size composition of a natural turbidite, used only 26 to 33% of its in-place flow time for deposition, while the remaining time went to the numerous episodes of sediment bypass and transient erosion. The general stratigraphic notion of a gross incompleteness of sedimentary record may then extend down to the deposition time scale of a single turbidite.publishedVersio

Laryngeal embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in an adult - A case presentation in the eyes of geneticists and clinicians

<p>1. Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rhabdomyosarcoma is a solid tumor, resulting from dysregulation of the skeletal myogenesis program. For rhabdomyosarcomas (RMS) with a predilection for the head and neck, genitourinary tract, extremities, trunk, retroperitoneum, the larynx is still an unusual site. Till now only several cases of this laryngeal tumor have been described in world literature in the adult population. The entire spectrum of genetic factors underlying RMS development and progression is unclear until today. Multiple signaling pathways seem to be involved in ERMS development and progression.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>In this paper we report an interesting RMS case in which the disease was located within the glottic region. We report an embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma of the larynx in 33 year-old man. After unsuccessful chemotherapy hemilaryngectomy was performed. In follow up CT no signs of recurrence were found. Recently patient is recurrence free for 62 months.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Considering the histological diagnosis and the highly aggressive nature of the lesion for optimal diagnosis positron electron tomography (PET) and computerized tomography (CT) of the neck and thorax should be performed. At this time surgical treatment with adjuvant radiotherapy seems to be the treatment of choice for this disease. Rhabdomyosarcoma of the larynx has a better prognosis than elsewhere in the body, probably because of its earlier recognition and accessibility to radical surgery.</p