Thiete Dioxides as Templates Towards Twisted Scaffolds and Macrocyclic Structures

Thiete dioxide units have been employed as a template for further functionalization through C−H activation strategies. Using simple thiete dioxide building blocks, a new library of axially chiral molecules has been synthesized that owe their stability to electrostatic interactions in the solid state. Similar starting materials were further engaged in the formation of cyclic trimeric structures, opening the pathway to unprecedented macrocyclic ring systems

Sandstones and Utah’s canyon country: Deposition, diagenesis, exhumation, and landscape evolution

South-central Utah’s prominent sandstones and deeply dissected landscapes are the focus of this four-day trip, which begins and ends in Grand Junction, Colorado. Studies of the apatite grains in sandstones adjacent to igneous intrusions are revealing new information on the timing and rate of Cenozoic erosion. Iron-oxide-cemented concretions in other rocks record how reduced-iron carbonates and subsurface microbes interacted when near-surface, oxygenated waters started to flush the reducing, CO2-rich waters from Colorado Plateau aquifers. New geochronologic techniques that are being applied to the plateau rocks have the potential to expand our knowledge of how diagenetic episodes relate to the evolving topography of this classic geologic setting

Thermochronology of the Miocene Arabia-Eurasia collision zone of southeastern Turkey

The Bitlis-Piitiirge collision zone of SE Turkey is the area of maximum indentation along the > 2400-km-long Assyrian-Zagros suture between Arabia and Eurasia. The integration of (1) fission-track analyses on apatites, (ii) (U-Th)/He analyses on zircons, (iii) field observations on stratigraphic and structural relationships, and (iv) preexisting U-Pb and Ar-Ar age determinations on zircons, amphiboles, and micas provides for the first time an overall picture of the thermochronometric evolution of this collisional orogen. The data set points to ubiquitous latest Cretaceous metamorphism of a passive margin sedimentary sequence and its igneous basement not only along the suture zone but across the entire width of the Anatolia-Tauride block north of the suture. During the early Paleogene the basement complex of the Bitlis and Piitiirge massifs along the suture was rapidly exhumed due to extensional tectonics in a back-arc setting and eventually overlain by Eocene shallow-marine sediments. The entire Oligocene is characterized by a rather flat thermochronometric evolution in the Bitlis orogenic wedge, contrary to the widely held belief that this epoch marked the inception of the Arabia-Eurasia collision and was characterized by widespread deformation. Deposition of a thick Oligocene sedimentary succession in the Mu-Hinis basin occurred in a retroarc foreland setting unrelated to continental collision. During the Middle Miocene, the Bitlis-Piitiirge orogenic wedge underwent a significant and discrete phase of rapid growth by both frontal accretion, as shown by cooling/exhumation of the foreland deposits on both sides of the orogenic prism, and underplating, as shown by cooling/exhumation of the central metamorphic core of the orogenic wedge. We conclude that continental collision started in the mid-Miocene, as also shown by coeval thick syntectonic clastic wedges deposited in flexural basins along the Arabian plate northern margin and contractional reactivation of a number of preexisting structures in the European foreland

Slab Window Migration and Terrane Accretion Preserved by Low‐Temperature Thermochronology of a Magmatic Arc, Northern Antarctic Peninsula

Existing paleogeographic reconstructions indicate that the northern Antarctic Peninsula was central to several Mesozoic and Cenozoic tectonic events that have implications for ocean circulation and continental margin evolution. To evaluate the exhumational record of these processes, we collected new samples and measured fission track and (U‐Th)/He cooling ages of apatite and zircon from 13 Jurassic and Cretaceous granitoids in western Graham Land between the northern tip of the peninsula and the Antarctic Circle. Apatite He data reveal distinct ages and systematic age patterns north and south of Anvers Island, near the midpoint of the study area: To the south, apatite He ages range from 16 to 8 Ma and young northward, whereas to the north they range between 65 and 24 Ma (with one exception at 11 Ma) and young southward. Thermal histories inferred from the ages and closure temperatures of multiple thermochronometers in single samples indicate distinct histories for northern and southern Graham Land. Northern sites reveal a Late Cretaceous pulse of rapid cooling (\u3e7°C/Myr) followed by very slow cooling (∼1°C/Myr) to the Recent, whereas southern sites record either a pulse of rapid mid‐Miocene cooling (∼8°C/Myr) or steady and moderate cooling (∼3°C/Myr) from the Late Cretaceous to the Recent. We interpret the Late Cretaceous rapid cooling in the northern part of the study area as a possible manifestation of terrane accretion associated with the Palmer Land event. We interpret the systematic spatial trends in apatite He ages and contrasting thermal histories along the peninsula as recording progressive Late Cenozoic northward opening of a slab window south of Anvers Island. This is consistent with a time transgressive pulse of ∼2–3 km of rock uplift and exhumation in the upper plate following ridge‐trench collision, cessation of subduction, and opening of the slab window, presumably caused by increased asthenospheric upwelling beneath the overriding plate

Kupfer als Pflanzenschutzmittel unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Ökologischen Landbaus

In den vergangenen 15 bis 20 Jahren hat der Öko-Landbau erhebliche Anstrengungen sowohl bei der Suche nach Kupferalternativen im Pflanzenschutz als auch bei der Minimierung der eingesetzten Kupfermengen unternommen. Allerdings sind bislang und in naher Zukunft keine Präparate oder Verfahren in Sicht, die einen annährend gleichwertigen Ersatz für Kupfer darstellen könnten. Dabei ist darauf hinzuweisen, dass ein gleichwertiger Ersatz nicht durch einen einzelnen Wirkstoff zu schaffen ist, wenn nicht ausgeschlossen werden kann, dass die betreffenden Schaderreger innerhalb kurzer Zeit Resistenzen gegenüber einem solchen Wirkstoff bilden. Unbenommen von allen Schwierigkeiten muss aber die Erforschung von Kupferersatzstoffen und -verfahren forciert werden. In der Vergangenheit hat der Öko-Landbau gezeigt, dass neue Möglichkeiten zur Reduktion von Kupfer im Pflanzenschutz wie der Anbau pilzwiderstandsfähiger Sorten, der Einsatz von verbesserten Prognosemodellen, das Vorkeimen der Saatkartoffeln, die Sortenwahl, neue Applikationstechniken sowie der kombinierte Einsatz von Tonerdenpräparaten schnell und erfolgreich im Sinne einer Einsatzminimierung von der Öko-Praxis übernommen wurden. Die in den Untersuchungen und Modellen ermittelte akute und chronische Toxizität auf Bodenorganismen oder auf Vögel und Kleinsäuger deckt sich häufig nicht mit wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen und Beobachtungen in der Praxis. Auch wird beispielsweise im Öko-Hopfenanbau, aber nicht nur dort, beobachtet, dass eine Anreicherung bei den im Öko-Anbau üblichen Kupferaufwandmengen und begleitenden Maßnahmen wie die Kompostierung und Verteilung von Hopfenhäcksel auf anderen Flächen sich häufig nicht zeigt. Daraus leiten sich Fragen ab, die es unbedingt wissenschaftlich zu untersuchen gilt. Bei einem Verzicht auf Kupfer als Pflanzenschutzmittel im Öko-Anbau beim derzeitigen Stand der Technik und des Wissens sowie unter den hiesigen klimatischen Bedingungen wären, abhängig von der Kultur, hohe Ertragsund Qualitätsausfälle bis hin zum Totalausfall unvermeidbar. Beispielsweise würden die nachgewiesenen Ausfälle im ökologischen Gemüse- und Zierpflanzenbau bei 10 bis 15 %, bei Öko-Kartoffeln im Schnitt bei etwa 15 bis 20 % und im ökologischen Hopfen-, Wein- und Obstbau bei ca. 50 bis 100 % liegen. Damit kommt der Möglichkeit, Kupfer als Pflanzenschutzmittel im Öko-Anbau einzusetzen, eine ernorm große wirtschaftliche Bedeutung zu. Aber auch im konventionellen Anbau, ist die Bedeutung von Kupfer als Mittel zur Resistenzvermeidung sehr hoch

Provenance of Eocene river sediments from the central northern Sierra Nevada and implications for paleotopography

Geochronology of fluvial deposits can be used to characterize provenance, the paleotopography of sediment source regions, and the development of regional drainage systems. We present U-Pb and (U-Th)/He ages of detrital zircon grains from Eocene gravels preserved in several paleoriver systems along the western flank of the central and northern Sierra Nevada. These ages allow us to trace the sourcing of detritus in paleorivers and to constrain the evolution of the Sierra Nevada range front. U-Pb zircon age distributions are bimodal, with a dominant peak between 110 and 95 Ma and smaller but significant peaks in the Middle to Late Jurassic, matching the predominant ages of the Sierra Nevada batholith. A small fraction (<6%) of grains has pre-Mesozoic ages, which consistently match ages from prebatholithic assemblages within the northern part of the range. (U-Th)/He ages of a subset of double-dated zircons cluster between 114 and 74 Ma and are consistent with batholithic (U-Th)/He cooling ages in the northern Sierra. Our results indicate that the Eocene river systems in the central northern Sierra Nevada likely had proximal headwaters and had relatively steep axial gradients, draining smaller areas than was commonly thought. This also suggests that the northern Sierra Nevada would have had an established drainage divide and would have acted as a major topographic barrier during the early to mid-Cenozoic. The data presented here support a model of the Eocene northern Sierra Nevada characterized by a western slope with a gradient broadly similar to that of today

Bayesian Markov-Chain Monte Carlo Inversion of Low-Temperature Thermochronology Around Two 8 − 10 m Wide Columbia River Flood Basalt Dikes

Flood basalt volcanism involves large volumes of magma emplaced into the crust and surface environment on geologically short timescales. The mechanics of flood basalt emplacement, including dynamics of the crustal magma transport system and the tempo of individual eruptions, are not well-constrained. Here we study two exhumed dikes from the Columbia River Flood Basalt province in northeast Oregon, USA, using apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He thermochronology to constrain dike emplacement histories. Sample transects perpendicular to the dike margins document transient heating of granitic host rocks. We model heating as due to dike emplacement, considering a thermal model with distinct melt-fraction temperature relationships for basaltic magma and granitic wallrock, and a parameterization of unsteady flow within the dike. We model partial resetting of thermochronometers by considering He diffusion in spherical grains as a response to dike heating. A Bayesian Markov-Chain Monte Carlo framework is used to jointly invert for six parameters related to dike emplacement and grain-scale He diffusion. We find that the two dikes, despite similar dimensions on an outcrop scale, exhibit different spatial patterns of thermochronometer partial resetting away from the dike. These patterns predict distinct emplacement histories. We extend previous modeling of a presumed feeder dike at Maxwell Lake in the Wallowa Mountains of northeastern Oregon, finding posterior probability distribution functions (PDFs) that predict steady heating from sustained magma flow over 1–6 years and elevated farfield host rock temperatures. This suggests regional-scale heating in the vicinity of Maxwell Lake, which might arise from nearby intrusions. The other dike, within the Cornucopia subswarm, is predicted to have a 1–4 year thermally active lifespan with an unsteady heating rate suggestive of low magma flow rate compared to Maxwell Lake, in a cool near-surface thermal environment. In both cases, misfit of near-dike partial resetting of thermochronometers by models suggests either heat transfer via fluid advection in host rocks or pulsed magma flow in the dikes. Our results highlight the diversity of dike emplacement histories within the Columbia River Flood Basalt province and the power of Bayesian inversion methods for quantifying parameter trade-offs and uncertainty in thermal models