Why Nations Fail: 2012 International Law Weekend panel Addesses Law And Development Movement, Underlying Assumptions, And Challenges

On October 27, 2012, at International Law Weekend\u27 at Fordham Law School, a panel entitled Rule of Law and Developmen

The Pacific Equatorial Age Transect, IODP Expeditions 320 and 321: Building a 50-Million-Year-Long Environmental Record of the Equatorial Pacific

In March 2009, the R/V JOIDES Resolution returned to operations after its extended refit and began with a drilling program ideally suited to its drilling strengths, the Pacific Equatorial Age Transect (PEAT, IODP Exp 320/321; Fig. 1A). The PEAT drilling program was developed to understand how a major oceanic region evolved over the Cenozoic Era(65–0 Ma) and how it interacted with global climate. It specifically targeted the interval between 52 Ma and 0 Ma and drilled a series of sites that originated on the paleoequator. These sites have since been moved to the northwest by plate tectonics.The equatorial Pacific is an important target for paleocean ographic study because it is a significant ‘cog’ in the Earth’s climate machine, representing roughly half of the total tropical oceans that in turn represent roughly half of the total global ocean area. Prior drilling in both the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) outlined the changes that have occurred through the Cenozoic (e.g., van Andel et al., 1975; Pisias et al., 1995). Not only did the earlier work fail to cover sufficient timeintervals but also many of the sites were cored with ‘first-generation’ scientific drilling technology with incomplete and disturbed sediment recovery and thus cannot be used for detailed studies

Miocene-Oligocene magnetostratigraphy from Equatorial Pacific sediments (ODP Site 1218, Leg 199) (abstract of paper presented at AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, 6-10 Dec 2002)

ODP Site 1218 was cored in the equatorial Pacific Ocean during Leg199. The 270 m of sediments from the site yielded an excellent record of the geomagnetic polarity reversals for the entire Miocene and most of the Oligocene. Nannofossils and radiolarians indicate that the section is biostratigraphically complete with no apparent hiatuses. The top 165 m of Site 1218 was cored using the Advanced Piston Corer and sediment cores could be azimuthally oriented preserving the declination information. The high-resolution magnetostratigraphic record has been obtained by measurements made on u-channel samples, augmented by about 300 discrete samples. U-channel samples were measured at 1cm interval and stepwise demagnetized in alternating field up to a maximum peak field of 80 mT. The Characteristic Remanent Magnetization directions were determined each 1 cm by principal component analysis for demagnetization steps in the 20 mT to 50mT peak field range. A similar treatment was carried out on the discrete samples, that gave results compatible with u-channel measurements. . Magnetostratigraphy from u-channel samples are compared with shipboard data that was based on blanket demagnetization at peak AF fields of 20 mT. U-channel measurements add more detail to the magnetostratigraphic record and allow identification of short polarity zones especially in the upper part of the section were the sedimentation rates are very low (~2m/Ma) The component magnetization directions determined from u-channel measurements also gave more reliable and precise estimates of inclination (paleolatitude). Although the calculation of the paleomagnetic pole is hindered by the low precision of the cores' azimuth orientation, the excellent data from both u-channel and discrete samples allow determining of the paleolatitude of the Site for different ages with relatively high precision. Paleomagnetic data indicate that the paleolatitude of Site 1218 is increasing with time form nearly equatorial in the Oligocene to its present latitude. Within the precision given by the paleomagnetic method, this is in agreement with current predictions of plate motion

Post-impact event bed (tsunamite) at the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary deposited on a distal carbonate platform interior

We show crucial evidence for the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) boundary event recorded within a rare succession deposited in an inner-platform lagoon on top of a Mesozoic, tropical, intra-oceanic (western Tethys) Adriatic carbonate platform, which is exposed at Likva cove on the island of Brač (Croatia). The last terminal Maastrichtian fossils appear within a distinct 10–12 cm thick event bed that is characterized by soft-sediment bioturbation and rare shocked-quartz grains, and is interpreted as a distal tsunamite. Directly overlying this is a 2 cm thick reddish-brown clayey mudstone containing planktonic foraminifera typical of the basal Danian, and with elevated platinum-group elements in chondritic proportions indicating a clear link to the Chicxulub asteroid impact. These results strongly support the first discovery of a “potential” K–Pg boundary tsunamite on the neighboring island of Hvar, and these two complementary sections represent probably the most complete record of the event among known distal shallow-marine successions

Chronostratigraphy

Chronostratigraphy is both a set of stratigraphic concepts, and a set of guiding principles by which time represented in rocks, subdivides Earth’s geological history. Chronostratigraphy is composed of a set of hierarchical stratigraphic units (i.e. System, Series, Stage, Substage and Chronozone for chronostratigraphic units) that are used to subdivide time since Earth’s formation. Most Stage divisions in the Phanerozoic rock record are now formally defined by rock characteristics (e.g. fossil content, geomagnetic polarity, isotopic events, etc.) at their lower boundary in Global Stratotype Section and Point’s (GSSP). A GSSP ’point’ is at a specific level in a sedimentary section, although Holocene GSSP’s are in ice cores and cave speleothems. For some parts of the Proterozoic and Archean, Systems are currently defined by Global Standard Stratigraphic Ages (e.g. 2500 Ma for the base of the Siderian, base Proterozoic). The application of chronostratigraphy is principally assigning rocks to chronostratigraphic divisions by a process of stratigraphic correlation, that may involve co-relating one or more sets of stratigraphic data (i.e. fossil content, chemical, magnetic, physical attributes of rocks or chronometric dating) from different section locations. Chronostratigraphic correlation is focussed on the correlation of time planes, defined by the bases of chronostratigraphic units. Chronostratigraphic divisions at a finer division than Stages, currently have no formal ratification process, so the various geological communities focussed on specific stratigraphic tools are in a process of stabilisation of the nomenclature and procedures in using these finer scale means of chronostratigraphic correlation