The structural and diagenetic evolution of injected sandstones: examples from the Kimmeridgian of NE Scotland

Abstract: Injected sandstones occurring in the Kimmeridgian of NE Scotland along the bounding Great Glen and Helmsdale faults formed when basinal fluids moved upward along the fault zones, fluidizing Oxfordian sands encountered at shallow depth and injecting them into overlying Kimmeridgian strata. The orientation of dykes, in addition to coeval faults and fractures, was controlled by a stress state related to dextral strike-slip along the bounding fault zones. Diagenetic studies of cements allow the reconstruction of the fluid flow history. The origin of deformation bands in sandstone dykes and sills was related to the contraction of the host-rocks against dyke and sill walls following the initial stage of fluidized flow, and these deformation bands are the earliest diagenetic imprint. Early non-ferroan calcite precipitated in injection structures at temperatures between 70 and 100 8C, indicating that it precipitated from relatively hot basinal fluids that drove injection. Coeval calcite-filled fractures show similar temperatures, suggesting that relatively hot fluids were responsible for calcite precipitation in any permeable pathway created by dextral simple shear along the faults. During progressive burial, percolating sea water was responsible for completely cementing the still relatively porous injected sandstones with a second generation of ferroan calcite, which contains fluid inclusions with homogenization temperatures below 50 8C. During this phase, depositional host sandstones were also cemented

Missense variant contribution to USP9X-female syndrome

USP9X is an X-chromosome gene that escapes X-inactivation. Loss or compromised function of USP9X leads to neurodevelopmental disorders in males and females. While males are impacted primarily by hemizygous partial loss-of-function missense variants, in females de novo heterozygous complete loss-of-function mutations predominate, and give rise to the clinically recognisable USP9X-female syndrome. Here we provide evidence of the contribution of USP9X missense and small in-frame deletion variants in USP9X-female syndrome also. We scrutinise the pathogenicity of eleven such variants, ten of which were novel. Combined application of variant prediction algorithms, protein structure modelling, and assessment under clinically relevant guidelines universally support their pathogenicity. The core phenotype of this cohort overlapped with previous descriptions of USP9X-female syndrome, but exposed heightened variability. Aggregate phenotypic information of 35 currently known females with predicted pathogenic variation in USP9X reaffirms the clinically recognisable USP9X-female syndrome, and highlights major differences when compared to USP9X-male associated neurodevelopmental disorders.Lachlan A. Jolly … Alison E. Gardner, Mark A. Corbett, Luis A. Pérez-Jurado, Marie Shaw … Jozef Gec

A century of trends in adult human height

Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5-22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3-19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8-144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities 1,2 . This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity 3�6 . Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55 of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017�and more than 80 in some low- and middle-income regions�was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing�and in some countries reversal�of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories. © 2019, The Author(s)

Shoreline effects of vessel wakes, Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand

The science of vessel wake generation and propagation is well advanced, but the environmental effects of wakes are less well understood. The introduction of large vehicle and passenger-carrying fast ferries (HSC) in the 1990s resulted in numerous reports of environmental damage worldwide. In the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand, regulatory agencies have struggled with the management of vessel wakes from both HSC and conventional vessels operating between the North Island and South Island. Gravel beaches along the route responded very quickly to the higher energy levels associated with the introduction of HSC, and there has been little change since that time, except in situations associated with geological instability. There has been no recovery of beaches towards pre high-energy conditions following HSC speed restrictions in 2000. Evidence of wake influences on very low-energy beaches in the far-field, over 7 km from the vessel path shows that long wave lengths associated with HSC can result in geomorphically significant waves and sediment transport. These findings are in\ud accordance with other recently published results reported by other authors in the Baltic Sea

The identification and role of three fluids in the genesis of a mesozonal gold deposit at Curraghinalt, Northern Ireland

No abstract available

Regional fluid flow and gold mineralization in the Dalradian of the Sperrin Mountains, northern Ireland

Gold vein mineralization occurs in the metamorphosed and deformed Dalradian (Neoproterozoic) rocks of the Sperrin Mountains, Northern Ireland. Two structures exerted a control on the location of the mineralization; the north-south Omagh lineament and the west-northwest-east-southeast Curraghinalt lateral ramp in the footwall of the northeast-southwest Omagh thrust. These are Caledonian structures resulting from the thrusting of Dalradian rocks over a possibly still active Ordovician arc. Cathodoluminescence microscopy distinguishes four phases of vein quartz in the Curraghinalt gold prospect. Fluid inclusion studies and stable isotope geochemistry have defined the probable fluids responsible for the precipitation of each quartz phase and associated sulfide and precious metal mineralization. The initial phase (QI) appears to have been associated with the main Caledonian metamorphic event (ca. 470 Ma) and is nonauriferous. The second phase (Q2) forms an extensive cement to brecciated early quartz and is believed to have involved a fluid (similar to 15 wt % CO2 10 wt % NaCl + KCl equiv) with a significant magmatic component of 470 to 400 Ma, which underwent phase separation and dilution with a cooler formation water. This process resulted in precipitation of the main phase of gold mineralization characterized by an assemblage of electrum, pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, tennantite-tetrahedrite, and Various tellurides. Similar fluids are observed on a regional scale, concentrated within the hanging wall of the Omagh thrust, indicating an extensive fluid-flow event. The relative abundance of gold at the Curraghinalt and Cavanacaw prospects is thought to be due to higher fluid fluxes in favorable zones of dilation and closer proximity to the fluid source. The deposit was subsequently reactivated with the precipitation of later quartz (Q3-Q4) from a formation water believed to be resident in the Dalradian metasediments, which mixed with a low-temperature, high- salinity basinal brine, probably during Carboniferous basin inversion. Brine flow resulted in the remobilization of earlier electrum, reducing its fineness, and also introduced base metal sulfides, carbonates, and barite. Again, brine flow is localized by the Omagh thrust, indicating the long-lived role of this structure in controlling regional fluid migration