The chronology and tectonic style of landscape evolution along the elevated Atlantic continental margin of South Africa resolved by joint apatite fission track and (U-Th-Sm)/He thermochronology

Atlantic-type continental margins have long been considered “passive” tectonic settings throughout the entire postrift phase. Recent studies question the long-term stability of these margins and have shown that postrift uplift and reactivation of preexisting structures may be a common feature of a continental margin's evolution. The Namaqualand sector of the western continental margin of South Africa is characterized by a ubiquitously faulted basement but lacks preservation of younger geological strata to constrain postrift tectonic fault activity. Here we present the first systematic study using joint apatite fission track and apatite (U-Th-Sm)/He thermochronology to achieve a better understanding on the chronology and tectonic style of landscape evolution across this region. Apatite fission track ages range from 58.3 ± 2.6 to 132.2 ± 3.6 Ma, with mean track lengths between 10.9 ± 0.19 and 14.35 ± 0.22 µm, and mean (U-Th-Sm)/He sample ages range from 55.8 ± 31.3 to 120.6 ± 31.4 Ma. Joint inverse modeling of these data reveals two distinct episodes of cooling at approximately 150–130 Ma and 110–90 Ma with limited cooling during the Cenozoic. Estimates of denudation based on these thermal histories predict approximately 1–3 km of denudation coinciding with two major tectonic events. The first event, during the Early Cretaceous, was driven by continental rifting and the development and removal of synrift topography. The second event, during the Late Cretaceous, includes localized reactivation of basement structures as well as regional mantle-driven uplift. Relative tectonic stability prevailed during the Cenozoic, and regional denudation over this time is constrained to be less than 1 km

Intensive chemical weathering in the Arctic during the Miocene Climatic Optimum

The Arctic today has shallow, chemically immature, and frost-dominated weathering regimes. At Sokli, Finland (68°N), a 70 m deep palaeo-weathering profile is developed in a Devonian carbonatite pipe that represents fundamentally different past weathering environments. Formation of the apatite-francolite P-ore likely began under Palaeogene warm, humid climates. Later, cryptomelane (K-Mn oxide) crusts developed within the ore that have yielded peak 40Ar/39Ar ages of 16.20 ± 0.13 Ma (2σ)., The crusts formed at the redox front during the Miocene Climatic Optimum (∼16.9–14.7 Ma) under mean annual temperatures ∼12–14 °C warmer than today. The presence of the cryptomelane crust at shallow depth (15 m) indicates very low erosion rates since formation, consistent with its position on a tectonically stable Archaean craton and in the cold-based ice-divide zone of successive Fennoscandian ice sheets. The Miocene Climatic Optimum triggered a pulse of intensive weathering in mid- and low latitudes; the Sokli cryptomelane ages demonstrate that intensive chemical weathering extended into the Arctic

Natural age dispersion arising from the analysis of broken crystals, part II. Practical application to apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronometry

We describe a new numerical inversion approach to deriving thermal history information from a range of naturally dispersed single grain apatite (U-Th)/He ages. The approach explicitly exploits the information about the shape of the 4He diffusion profile within individual grains that is inherent in the pattern of dispersion that arises from the common and routine practice of analysing broken crystals. Additional dispersion arising from differences in grain size and in U and Th concentration of grains, and the resultant changes to helium diffusivity caused by differential accumulation and annealing of radiation damage, is explicitly included. In this approach we calculate the ingrowth and loss, due to both thermal diffusion and the effects of α-ejection, of helium over time using a finite cylinder geometry. Broken grains are treated explicitly as fragments of an initially larger crystal. The initial grain lengths, L0, can be treated as unknown parameters to be estimated, although this is computationally demanding. A practical solution to the problem of solving for the unknown initial grain lengths is to simply apply a constant and sufficiently long L0 value to each fragment. We found that a good value for L0 was given by the maximum fragment length plus two times the maximum radius of a given set of fragments. Currently whole crystals and fragments with one termination are taken into account. A set of numerical experiments using synthetic fragment ages generated for increasingly complex thermal histories, and including realistic amounts of random noise (5-15%), are presented and show that useful thermal history information can be extracted from datasets showing very large dispersion. These include experiments where dispersion arises only from fragmentation of a single grain (length 400μm and radius 75μm, c. 6-50% dispersion), including the effects of grain size variation (for spherical equivalent grain radii between 74-122 μm, c. 10-70% dispersion) and the combined effects of fragmentation, grain size and radiation damage (for eU between 5-150 ppm, c.10-107% dispersion). Additionally we show that if the spherical equivalent radius of a broken grain is used as a measure of the effective diffusion domain for thermal history inversions then this will likely lead to erroneous thermal histories being obtained in many cases. The viability of the new technique is demonstrated for a real data set of 25 single grain (U-Th)/He apatite ages obtained for a gabbro sample from the BK-1 (Bierkraal) borehole drilled through the Bushveld Complex in South Africa. The inversion produces a well constrained thermal history consistent with both the (U-Th)/He data and available fission track analysis data. The advantage of the new approach is that it can explicitly accommodate all the details of conventional schemes, such as the effects of temporally variable diffusivity, zonation of U and Th and arbitrary grain size variations, and it works equally effectively for whole or broken crystals, and for the most common situation where a mixture of both are analysed. For the routine application of the apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronometry technique with samples where whole apatite grains are rare our experiments indicate that 15-20 single grain analyses are typically required to characterise the age dispersion pattern of a sample. The experiments also suggest that picking very short crystal fragments as well as long fragments, or even deliberately breaking long crystals to maximise the age dispersion in some cases, would ensure the best constraints on the thermal history models. The inversion strategy described in this paper is likely also directly applicable to other thermochronometers, such as the apatite, rutile and titanite U-Pb systems, where the diffusion domain is approximated by the physical grain size

The application of noble gases and carbon stable isotopes in tracing the fate, migration and storage of CO2

The noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe) are present in trace quantities in all natural and engineered CO2. They have proved to be extremely powerful tracers of both the CO2 source, and when combined with carbon stable isotopes, the subsurface processes that control the fate of CO2. Here we present a summary of the progress made over the past decade in using noble gases and stable carbon isotope tracing techniques in CO2 storage studies. We outline the initial lessons which were learnt from the study of natural CO2 reservoirs, then show the recent progress that has been made in tracing CO2 injected into a CO2-EOR field. We show the application of noble gases in determining natural CO2 leakage to the shallow groundwater and their use in successfully refuting the allegations of CO2 leakage made at the Weyburn CO2-EOR project. Our results illustrate that good progress has been made in using noble gases to determine both the short-term and long-term fate of CO2 in the subsurface and in the determination of the extent of groundwater interaction that the injected CO2 has undergone. However, there are still outstanding questions, particularly regarding the exact behaviour of the noble gases compared to CO2 and we show preliminary results from a laboratory study to investigate how noble gas transport through real rock compares to that of CO2

Multiancestry analysis of the HLA locus in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases uncovers a shared adaptive immune response mediated by HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes

Across multiancestry groups, we analyzed Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) associations in over 176,000 individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus controls. We demonstrate that the two diseases share the same protective association at the HLA locus. HLA-specific fine-mapping showed that hierarchical protective effects of HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes best accounted for the association, strongest with HLA-DRB1*04:04 and HLA-DRB1*04:07, and intermediary with HLA-DRB1*04:01 and HLA-DRB1*04:03. The same signal was associated with decreased neurofibrillary tangles in postmortem brains and was associated with reduced tau levels in cerebrospinal fluid and to a lower extent with increased Aβ42. Protective HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes strongly bound the aggregation-prone tau PHF6 sequence, however only when acetylated at a lysine (K311), a common posttranslational modification central to tau aggregation. An HLA-DRB1*04-mediated adaptive immune response decreases PD and AD risks, potentially by acting against tau, offering the possibility of therapeutic avenues

Determining static reservoir connectivity using noble gases

Determining the connectivity of fluids in hydrocarbon reservoirs is a key challenge during the appraisal stage. Such information is critical for assessing the economic viability and planning its development. Although several tools exist to determine static connectivity and the fluid column organisation post-hydrocarbon emplacement, it is extremely difficult to determine the extent of the connectivity between fluids of different phases. Conventional connectivity studies on the Tormore field, West of Shetland Basin, UK have resolved the vertical connectivity of one well (T2) but have been unable to resolve further vertical or lateral connectivity. Here, we outline a new tool for assessing hydrocarbon connectivity by completing the first intra-field connectivity study of the noble gas composition (He, Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe) of fluids from individual reservoir units, allowing the resolution of both the vertical and lateral connectivity within the Tormore field. To achieve this, we obtain fluid samples from archived PVT vessels rather than from the wellhead or platform separators, allowing sampling of the individual reservoir units obtained during drilling. Our findings corroborate previous connectivity studies undertaken on the oil well, T2, confirming that the reservoir unit of T2-A is isolated from the lower reservoir units. We apply the same method to the gas well, T3, finding that unit T3-A is isolated from the lower reservoir units. In addition, we identify a previously unknown connection between the gas and oil phase that is separated by a poorly constrained fault. These findings confirm the effectiveness of using noble gas fingerprints to assess the connectivity of fluids in different phases, providing a new tool for understanding connectivity in hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon settings (Carbon, Capture and Storage)

Understanding complex exposure history of Mount Hampton, West Antarctica using cosmogenic 3He, 21Ne and 10Be in olivine

Combining stable and radioactive cosmogenic nuclides is an established tool for revealing the complexities of long-term landscape development. To date most studies have concentrated on 21Ne and 10Be in quartz. We have combined different chemical protocols for extraction of cosmogenic 10Be from olivine, and measured concentrations in olivine from lherzolite xenoliths from the peak of Mount Hampton (~3,200 m), an 11 Ma shield volcano on the West Antarctic rift flank. We combine this data with cosmogenic 3He (and 21Ne) in the olivines in order to unravel the long-term environmental history of the region. The mean 3He/21Ne ratio (1.98 ± 0.22) is consistent with the theoretical value and previous determinations. 10Be/3He ratios (0.012 to 0.018) are significantly lower than the instantaneous production ratio (~0.045). The data are consistent with 1-3 Ma of burial. The altitude of the volcano rules out over-topping of the peak by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet only possible burial could be generated by the growth of an ice cap although this contradicts the absence of evidence for ice cover. The 3He-10Be data can also be generated during episodic erosion of the volcanic ash over the last few million years. The data requires a minimum depth of 1 to 2.5 m for the samples during a minimum age of 5 Ma and maximum long-term erosion rate of ~0.5 m/Ma with at least one erosive episode reflecting short-term erosion rate of ~7 m/Ma that would have brought the samples into the surface during the last ~350 ka. Erosion in this type of landscape could be related to interglacial periods where cryostatic erosion can occur generating an increase in the erosion rate. This study shows that episodic erosion can produce stable-radioactive cosmogenic isotope systematics that are similar to those generated by exposure-burial cycles

Dating the topography through thermochronology: Application of Pecube code to inverted vertical profile in the eastern Sila Massif, southern Italy

none4noneOlivetti, Valerio; Balestrieri, Maria Laura; Faccenna, Claudio; Stuart, Fin M.Olivetti, Valerio; Balestrieri, Maria Laura; Faccenna, Claudio; Stuart, Fin M

Evolution of the Earth's mantle-crust-atmosphere system from the trace element and isotope geochemistry of the plume-mantle reservoir

The 62 million year old lava flows of Baffin Island and West Greenland represent the earliest phase of magmatism in the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP). These picritic lavas are characterised by high magnesium contents owing to their high proportion of olivine crystals. The parental magmas for the picrites are likely to have accumulated olivine crystals on their transit through the lithosphere and crust. Debate over the origin of accumulated crystals in the lavas results in uncertainty in the temperature and composition of the parental magmas for the early NAIP. The magnesium-rich olivine crystals (up to Fo93) in the picrites of this study are shown not to have a xenocrystic origin. The samples, therefore, support the inference of high potential temperatures for the Baffin Island-West Greenland magmas, ~200oC above ambient mantle. The picrites of Baffin Island and West Greenland display the highest terrestrial magmatic 3He/4He (up to 50 Ra, where Ra is the atmospheric value 1.39 x 10-6), values that are considerably higher than the highest 3He/4He in contemporary ocean island basalts, which reach a maximum of ~30 Ra. High 3He/4He in Baffin Island and West Greenland are associated with a wide range of incompatible trace element and lithophile radiogenic isotopic compositions, not dissimilar to the range of compositions displayed by lavas at mid-ocean ridges, and overlapping the range displayed by most northern hemisphere ocean island basalts. Crustal contamination modelling in which high-grade Proterozoic crustal basement rocks are mixed with depleted parents cannot account for the compositional trends displayed by the picrites. Major and trace element compositions were determined on melt inclusions in high- 3He/4He picrites that span a wide range of whole-rock incompatible trace element and radiogenic isotopic compositions. The melt inclusions support the findings from the whole-rock study since melt inclusion compositions reflect the composition of their associated whole-rock, with no anomalous compositions present. In addition, there is no evidence for a contribution of a proportion of depleted melts to the source of the relatively enriched whole-rock samples. Therefore, since all melt inclusions were contained within high-3He/4He samples, it is shown that high 3He/4He is a feature of both depleted and relatively enriched melt compositions. The wide range in whole-rock compositions of the Baffin Island and West Greenland picrites represents that of the sub-lithospheric mantle source region and is inconsistent with derivation of the picrites from residues of ancient mantle depletion. The apparent decoupling of helium from trace elements and radiogenic isotopes is hard to reconcile with simple mixing of a high-helium concentration, high-3He/4He reservoir with various depleted and enriched helium-poor mantle reservoirs. It is possible that primordial helium has diffused into a reservoir with a composition similar to that of the convecting upper mantle. However, this must have occurred after the development of existing mantle heterogeneity. The high-3He/4He picrites require the existence of a deep, primordial helium-rich reservoir. Whether this reservoir is present in the upper or deep mantle, or even the core, remains uncertain.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo