159 research outputs found
Neogene to Quaternary evolution of carbonate and mixed carbonate-siliciclastic systems along New Caledonia's eastern margin (SW Pacific)
Neogene and Quaternary shallow-water carbonate records surrounding New Caledonia main island, Grande Terre, provide a good example for understanding the stratigraphic architecture of tropical mixed carbonate-siliciclastic systems. Due to a southeastern tilt of the eastern margin, the eastern shelf of Grande Terre has been better preserved from erosion than the western part, favouring the development and preservation of shallow-water carbonates. Based on the integration of bathymetric and seismic data, along with paleoenvironmental and biostratigraphic constraints derived from dredged carbonate rocks, a comprehensive geomorphological and architectural characterization of the offshore eastern margin of Grande Terre has been made. During the Mio-Pliocene, a wide, up to 750 m-thick carbonate build-up developed and extended over at least 350 km from north to south. This Mio-Pliocene build-up, currently lying at 300 to 600 m water depths, is overlain by a Pleistocene-Holocene barrier reef-lagoon complex and associated slope deposits. The switch from aggrading Neogene carbonate banks to backstepping Quaternary platforms likely reflects an increase in accommodation due to a high subsidence rate or to relative sea-level rise, and/or results from a switch in carbonate producers associated with global environmental changes. The internal architecture of the Quaternary barrier reef-lagoon complex is highlighted, especially the development of lowstand siliciclastic prisms alternating with transgressive shallow-water carbonate sequences. This pattern agrees with the reciprocal sedimentation model typically invoked for mixed sedimentary systems. This stratigraphic pattern is well developed in front of the Cap Bayes inlet in the north of our study area, yet it is not observed southward along the eastern margin. This difference suggests that other factors than relative sea-level variations directed the architecture of the margin, such as low terrigenous inputs, lagoon paleo-drainage networks or sediment by-pass towards deep basins
EFFICACY OF PLANT EXTRACT ON PERFORMANCE AND MORPHOLOGICAL AND HISTOCHEMICAL PATTERNS OF DIGESTIVE TRACT WALL IN CHICKENS
On-axis deep tow side scan sonar data are used together with off-axis bathymetric data to investigate the temporal variations of the accretion processes at the ultra-slow spreading Southwest Indian Ridge. Differences in the length and height of the axial volcanic ridges and various degrees of deformation of these volcanic constructions are observed in side scan sonar images of the ridge segments. We interpret these differences as stages in an evolutionary life cycle of axial volcanic ridge development, including periods of volcanic construction and periods of tectonic dismemberment. Using off-axis bathymetric data, we identify numerous abyssal hills with a homogeneous size for each segment. These abyssal hills all display an asymmetric shape, with a steep faulted scarp facing toward the axis and a gentle dipping volcanic slope facing away. We suggest that these hills are remnants of old split axial volcanic ridges that have been transported onto the flanks and that they result from successive periods of magmatic construction and tectonic dismemberment, i.e., a magmato-tectonic cycle. We observe that large abyssal hills are in ridge sections of thicker crust, whereas smaller abyssal hills are in ridge sections of thinner crust. This suggests that the magma supply controls the size of abyssal hills. The abyssal hills in ridge sections of thinner crust are regularly spaced, indicating that the magmato-tectonic cycle is a pseudoperiodic process that lasts ~0.4 m.y., about 4 to 6 times shorter than in ridge sections of thicker crust. We suggest that the regularity of the abyssal hills pattern is related to the persistence of a nearly constant magma supply beneath long-lived segments. By contrast, when magma supply strongly decreases and becomes highly discontinuous, regular abyssal hills patterns are no longer observed
Late Cretaceous Vicariance in Gondwanan Amphibians
Overseas dispersals are often invoked when Southern Hemisphere terrestrial and freshwater organism phylogenies do not fit the sequence or timing of Gondwana fragmentation. We used dispersal-vicariance analyses and molecular timetrees to show that two species-rich frog groups, Microhylidae and Natatanura, display congruent patterns of spatial and temporal diversification among Gondwanan plates in the Late Cretaceous, long after the presumed major tectonic break-up events. Because amphibians are notoriously salt-intolerant, these analogies are best explained by simultaneous vicariance, rather than by oceanic dispersal. Hence our results imply Late Cretaceous connections between most adjacent Gondwanan landmasses, an essential concept for biogeographic and palaeomap reconstructions
Neotectonics of the Owen Fracture Zone (NW Indian Ocean): structural evolution of an oceanic strike-slip plate boundary
International audienceThe Owen Fracture Zone is a 800 km-long fault system that accommodates the dextral strike-slip motion between India and Arabia plates. Because of slow pelagic sedimentation rates that preserve the seafloor expression of the fault since the Early Pliocene, the fault is clearly observed on bathymetric data. It is made up of a series of fault segments separated by releasing and restraining bends, including a major pull-apart basin at latitude 20°N. Some distal turbiditic channels from the Indus deep-sea fan overlap the fault system and are disturbed by its activity, thus providing landmarks to date successive stages of fault activity and structural evolution of the Owen Fracture Zone from Pliocene to Present. We determine the durability of relay structures and the timing of their evolution along the principal displacement zone, from their inception to their extinction. We observe subsidence migration in the 20°N basin, and alternate activation of fault splays in the vicinity of the Qalhat seamount. The present-day Owen Fracture Zone is the latest stage of structural evolution of the 20-Myr-old strike-slip fault system buried under Indus turbiditic deposits whose activity started at the eastern foot of the Owen Ridge when the Gulf of Aden opened. The evolution of the Owen Fracture Zone since 3-6 Myr reflects a steady state plate motion between Arabia and India, such as inferred by kinematics for the last 20 Myr period. The structural evolution of the Owen Fracture Zone since 20 Myr- including fault segments propagation and migration, pull-apart basin opening and extinction - seems to be characterized by a progressive reorganisation of the fault system, and does not require any major kinematics change
Young off-axis volcanism along the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge
Author Posting. © The Authors, 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature Geoscience 3 (2010): 286-292, doi:10.1038/ngeo824.Mid-ocean ridge crustal accretion occurs continuously at all spreading rates
through a combination of magmatic and tectonic processes. Fast to slow spreading
ridges are largely built by adding magma to narrowly focused neovolcanic zones. In
contrast, ultraslow spreading ridge construction significantly relies on tectonic
accretion, which is characterized by thin volcanic crust, emplacement of mantle
peridotite directly to the seafloor, and unique seafloor fabrics with variable
segmentation patterns. While advances in remote imaging have enhanced our
observational understanding of crustal accretion at all spreading rates, temporal
information is required in order to quantitatively understand mid-ocean ridge
construction. However, temporal information does not exist for ultraslow spreading
environments. Here, we utilize U-series eruption ages to investigate crustal
accretion at an ultraslow spreading ridge for the first time. Unexpectedly young
eruption ages throughout the Southwest Indian ridge rift valley indicate that
neovolcanic activity is not confined to the spreading axis, and that magmatic crustal
accretion occurs over a wider zone than at faster spreading ridges. These
observations not only suggest that crustal accretion at ultraslow spreading ridges is
distinct from faster spreading ridges, but also that the magma transport
mechanisms may differ as a function of spreading rate.This work was supported by
the following NSF grants: NSF-OCE 0137325; NSF-OCE 060383800; and NSF-OCE
062705300
Paleoclimate Implications for Human-Made Climate Change
Paleoclimate data help us assess climate sensitivity and potential human-made
climate effects. We conclude that Earth in the warmest interglacial periods of
the past million years was less than 1{\deg}C warmer than in the Holocene.
Polar warmth in these interglacials and in the Pliocene does not imply that a
substantial cushion remains between today's climate and dangerous warming, but
rather that Earth is poised to experience strong amplifying polar feedbacks in
response to moderate global warming. Thus goals to limit human-made warming to
2{\deg}C are not sufficient - they are prescriptions for disaster. Ice sheet
disintegration is nonlinear, spurred by amplifying feedbacks. We suggest that
ice sheet mass loss, if warming continues unabated, will be characterized
better by a doubling time for mass loss rate than by a linear trend. Satellite
gravity data, though too brief to be conclusive, are consistent with a doubling
time of 10 years or less, implying the possibility of multi-meter sea level
rise this century. Observed accelerating ice sheet mass loss supports our
conclusion that Earth's temperature now exceeds the mean Holocene value. Rapid
reduction of fossil fuel emissions is required for humanity to succeed in
preserving a planet resembling the one on which civilization developed.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures; final version accepted for publication in
"Climate Change at the Eve of the Second Decade of the Century: Inferences
from Paleoclimate and Regional Aspects: Proceedings of Milutin Milankovitch
130th Anniversary Symposium" (eds. Berger, Mesinger and Sijaci
Molecular Phylogeny and Biogeography of the Native Rodents of Madagascar (Muridae: Nesomyinae): A Test of the Single-Origin Hypothesis
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72349/1/j.1096-0031.1999.tb00267.x.pd
Lineage diversification and historical demography of a montane bird Garrulax elliotii - implications for the Pleistocene evolutionary history of the eastern Himalayas
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pleistocene climate fluctuations have shaped the patterns of genetic diversity observed in many extant species. In montane habitats, species' ranges may have expanded and contracted along an altitudinal gradient in response to environmental fluctuations leading to alternating periods of genetic isolation and connectivity. Because species' responses to climate change are influenced by interactions between species-specific characteristics and local topography, diversification pattern differs between species and locations. The eastern Himalayas is one of the world's most prominent mountain ranges. Its complex topography and environmental heterogeneity present an ideal system in which to study how climatic changes during Pleistocene have influenced species distributions, genetic diversification, and demography. The Elliot's laughing thrush (<it>Garrulax elliotii</it>) is largely restricted to high-elevation shrublands in eastern Himalayas. We used mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites to investigate how genetic diversity in this species was affected by Pleistocene glaciations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mitochondrial data detected two partially sympatric north-eastern and southern lineages. Microsatellite data, however, identified three distinct lineages congruent with the geographically separated southern, northern and eastern eco-subregions of the eastern Himalayas. Geographic breaks occur in steep mountains and deep valleys of the Kangding-Muli-Baoxin Divide. Divergence time estimates and coalescent simulations indicate that lineage diversification occurred on two different geographic and temporal scales; recent divergence, associated with geographic isolation into individual subregions, and historical divergence, associated with displacement into multiple refugia. Despite long-term isolation, genetic admixture among these subregional populations was observed, indicating historic periods of connectivity. The demographic history of <it>Garrulax elliotii </it>shows continuous population growth since late Pleistocene (about 0.125 mya).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>While altitude-associated isolation is typical of many species in other montane regions, our results suggest that eco-subregions in the eastern Himalayas exhibiting island-like characteristics appear to have determined the diversification of <it>Garrulax elliotii</it>. During the Pleistocene, these populations became isolated on subregions during interglacial periods but were connected when these expanded to low altitude during cooler periods. The resultant genetic admixture of lineages might obscure pattern of genetic variation. Our results provide new insights into sky island diversification in a previously unstudied region, and further demonstrate that Pleistocene climatic changes can have profound effects on lineage diversification and demography in montane species.</p
A BATHYMETRY AND ALTIMETRY PROFILE ACROSS THE SOUTHWEST INDIAN RIDGE CREST AT 31-DEGREES-S LATITUDE
During March 1983 the M/V "Marion Dufresne" obtained a bathymetry profile along more than 1500 km of a SEASAT altimeter sub-track across the Southwest Indian Ridge crest at 31°S latitude. We have used these data to estimate the thermal and elastic thickness of the oceanic lithosphere in the vicinity of the ridge and to evaluate the performance of the SEASAT altimeter. The thermal thickness appears to be in the range 72-109 km while the elastic thickness is about 2-5 km. There is a good correlation between the geoid calculated from the bathymetry and its compensation and the observed geoid derived from SEASAT data. The correlation is strongest for wavelengths greater than 45 km and poorest for shorter wavelengths. We attribute the poor resolution at short-wavelengths to instrument and oceanographic noise in the altimeter data combined with the reduced sensitivity of the geoid to bathymetric relief at very short wavelengths. © 1985
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