Oblique rifting and segmentation of the NE Gulf of Aden passive margin

The Gulf of Aden is a young, obliquely opening, oceanic basin where tectonic structures can easily be followed and correlated from the passive margins to the active mid-oceanic ridge. It is an ideal laboratory for studies of continental lithosphere breakup from rifting to spreading. The northeastern margin of the Gulf of Aden offers the opportunity to study on land the deformation associated with oblique rifting over a wide area encompassing two segments of the passive margin, on either side of the Socotra fracture zone, exhibiting distinct morphologic, stratigraphic, and structural features. The western segment is characterized by an elevated rift shoulder and large grabens filled with thick synrift series, whereas the eastern segment exhibits low elevation and is devoid of major extensional structures and typical synrift deposits. Though the morphostructural features of the margin segments are different, the stress field analysis provides coherent results all along the margin. Four directions of extension have been recognized and are considered to be representative of two tensional stress fields with permutations of the horizontal principal stresses s2 and s3. The two dominant directions of extension, N150 E and N20 E, are perpendicular to the mean trend of the Gulf of Aden (N75 E) and parallel to its opening direction (N20 E-N30 E), respectively. Unlike another study in the western part of the gulf, our data suggest that the N150 E extension stage is older than the N20 E extension stage. These conflicting chronologies, which are nowhere unambiguously established, suggest that the two extensions coexisted during the rifting. On-land data are compared with offshore data and are interpreted with reference to oblique rifting. The passive margin segmentation represents a local accommodation of the extensional deformation in a homogeneous regional stress field, which reveals the asymmetry of the rifting process. The first-order segmentation of the Sheba Ridge is inherited from the prior segmentation of the passive margin

Accretion, structure and hydrology of intermediate spreading-rate oceanic crust from drillhole experiments and seafloor observations

Downhole measurements recorded in the context of the Ocean Drilling Program in Hole 504B, the deepest hole drilled yet into the oceanic crust, are analyzed in terms of accretion processes of the upper oceanic crust at intermediate spreading-rate. The upper part of the crust is found to support the non steady-state models of crustal accretion developed from seafloor observations (Kappel and Ryan, 1986; Gente, 1987). The continuous and vertical nature of borehole measurements provides stratigraphic and structural data that cannot be obtained solely from seafloor studies and, in turn, these models define a framework to analyze the structural, hydrological, and mineralogical observations made in the hole over the past decade.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43190/1/11001_2005_Article_BF01204282.pd

Developing Corporate Leadership Skills in a Cross-Cultural Setting: The Contribution of Action Research

The development of corporate leadership skills is seen as a crucial ingredient of management education programmes in higher education. Moreover, with the increasing globalisation of business activity, the education of those who will ultimately occupy positions of authority within organisations must take into account cross-cultural differences in the interpretation and conceptualisation of leadership. A key task for educators in this respect is to design and deliver programmes that facilitate an understanding and enhanced competence in the exercise of relevant skills that are sensitive to the complexity of the notion of leadership in a cross-cultural environment. The manner in which such objectives have been pursued on the full-time MSc in International Business and Management course, jointly run by Sheffield Business School, United Kingdom, and the International Business School at Groningen in the Netherlands, is the theme of this article. Working within an action research paradigm, the tutor responsible for the International Management Competencies module has sought, through three cycles, to plan and hone an approach designed to help students develop a cross-cultural perspective on corporate leadership. The nature of the challenge is analysed – specifically the generic nature of the treatment of leadership skills in much of the literature and the difficulties students face in relating what they learn to their own experiences. The three cycles are described. Consideration is also given to the lessons learnt both in terms of the treatment of leadership as a concept and as an international management competence and of further potential refinements in the learning and teaching process