Dating the Kawakawa/Oruanui eruption: Comment on "Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon, SW North Island of New Zealand" by R. Grapes et al.

An IRSL age of 17.0 ± 2.2 ka (and a “mean age” of ca. 19 ka) reported by Grapes et al. [Grapes, R., Rieser, U., Wang, N. Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon, SW North Island of New Zealand. Quaternary Geochronology 5(2-3), 164–169.] for the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra, and other ages associated with a loess section in New Zealand are untenable: age data presented are inconsistent, no formal statistical treatments or error determinations were undertaken in age analysis, and the ages proposed are seriously at odds with multiple radiocarbon age determinations on tephra sequences bracketing the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra and with palaeoenvironmental evidence elsewhere for the time period concerned. We suggest that the bulk polymineral IRSL ages on the tephra and encapsulating loess deposits were underestimated in part because of contamination of the loess by the integration of younger materials during slow deposition and continuous modification by upbuilding pedogenesis. Single-grain luminescence assays may reveal such contamination. A 14C-based age of ca. 27 ± 1 ka cal BP (2σ), reported in 2008, currently remains the best estimate for the age of eruption of the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra

Rapid assembly and rejuvenation of a large silicic magmatic system : insights from mineral diffusive profiles in the Kidnappers and Rocky Hill deposits, New Zealand.

The timescales over which magmas in large silicic systems are reactivated, assembled and stored remains a fundamental question in volcanology. To address this question, we study timescales from Fe–Mg interdiffusion in orthopyroxenes and Ti diffusion in quartz from the caldera-forming 1200 km3 Kidnappers and 200 km3 Rocky Hill eruptions from the Mangakino volcanic centre (Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand). The two eruptions came from the same source area, have indistinguishable 40Ar/39Ar ages (∼1.0 Ma) and zircon U–Pb age spectra, but their respective deposits are separated by a short period of erosion. Compositions of pumice, glass and mineral species in the collective eruption deposits define multiple melt dominant bodies but indicate that these shared a common magmatic mush zone. Diffusion timescales from both eruptions are used to build on chemical and textural crystal signatures and interpret both the crystal growth histories and the timing of magma accumulation. Fe–Mg interdiffusion profiles in orthopyroxenes imply that the three melt-dominant bodies, established through extraction of melt and crystals from the common source, were generated within 600 years and with peak accumulation rates within 100 years of each eruption. In addition, a less-evolved melt interacted with the Kidnappers magma, beginning ∼30 years prior to and peaking within 3 years of the eruption. This interaction did not directly trigger the eruption, but may have primed the magmatic system. Orthopyroxene crystals with the same zoning patterns from the Kidnappers and Rocky Hill pumices yield consistently different diffusion timescales, suggesting a time break between the eruptions of ∼20 years (from core–rim zones) to ∼10 years (outer rim zones). Diffusion of Ti in quartz reveals similarly short timescales and magmatic residence times of <30 years, suggesting quartz is only recording the last period of crystallization within the final eruptible melt. Accumulation of the eruptible magma for these two, closely successive eruptions was accomplished over centuries to decades, in contrast to the gestation time of the magmatic system of ∼200 kyr, as indicated by zircon age patterns. The magmatic system was able to recover after the Kidnappers eruption in only ∼10–20 years to accumulate enough eruptible melt and crystals for a second ∼200 km3 eruption. Our data support concepts of large silicic systems being stored as long-lived crystal mushes, with eruptible melts generated over extraordinarily short timescales prior to eruption

Os isotopic constraints on crustal contamination in Auckland Volcanic Field basalts, New Zealand

The Auckland Volcanic Field (AVF) represents the youngest and northernmost of three subjacent Quaternary intraplate basaltic volcanic fields in the North Island, New Zealand. Previous studies on AVF eruptive products suggested that their major- and trace-element, and Sr-, Nd- and Pb-isotopic signatures primarily reflect their derivation from the underlying asthenospheric and lithospheric mantle. All AVF lavas however ascend through a ca. 20–30 km thick continental crust, and some do carry crustal xenoliths, posing the question whether or not crustal contamination plays a role in their formation. Here we present new Os and Pb isotopic data, and Os and Re concentrations for 15 rock samples from 7 AVF volcanic centres to investigate mantle and crustal petrogenetic processes. The samples include the most primitive lavas from the field (Mg# 59–69) and span a range of eruption sizes, ages, locations, and geochemical signatures. The data show a large range in Os concentrations (6–579 ppt) and 187Os/188Os isotope ratios from mantle-like (0.123) to highly radiogenic (0.547). Highly radiogenic Os signatures together with relatively low Os contents in most samples suggest that ascending melts experienced contamination primarily from metasedimentary crustal rocks with high 187Os/188Os ratios (e.g., greywacke). We further demonstrate that < 1% metasedimentary crustal input into the ascending melt can produce the radiogenic Os isotope signatures observed in the AVF data. This low level of crustal contamination has no measurable effect on the corresponding trace element ratios and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic compositions. In addition, high Os contents (195–578 ppt) at slightly elevated but mantle-like Os isotopic compositions (187Os/188Os = 0.1374–0.1377) in some samples suggest accumulation of xenocrystic olivine-hosted mantle sulphides from the Permian-Triassic ultramafic Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt, which traverses the crust beneath the Auckland Volcanic Field. We therefore infer that the AVF Os isotopic compositions and Os contents reflect contamination from varying proportions of heterogeneous crustal components, composed of Waipapa and Murihiku terrane metasediments, and ultramafic rocks of the Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt. This demonstrates, contrary to previous models that primitive lavas from the Auckland Volcanic Field do show evidence for variable interaction with the crust

Dynamics of deep submarine silicic explosive eruptions in the Kermadec arc, as reflected in pumice vesicularity textures

Despite increasing recognition of silicic pumice-bearing deposits in the deep marine environment, the processes involved in explosive silicic submarine eruptions remain in question. Here we present data on bubble sizes and number densities (number of bubbles per unit of melt matrix) for deep submarine-erupted pumices from three volcanoes (Healy, Raoul SW and Havre) along the Kermadec arc (SW Pacific) to investigate the effects of a significant (>~1 km) overlying water column and the associated increased hydrostatic pressure on magma vesiculation and fragmentation. We compare these textural data with those from chemically similar, subaerially erupted pyroclasts from nearby Raoul volcano as well as submarine-erupted ‘Tangaroan’ fragments derived by non-explosive, buoyant detachment of foaming magma from Macauley volcano, also along the Kermadec arc. Deep submarine-erupted pumices are macroscopically similar (colour, density, texture) to subaerial or shallow submarine-erupted pumices, but show contrasting microscopic bubble textures. Deep submarine-erupted pyroclasts have fewer small (<10 μm diameter) bubbles and narrower bubble size distributions (BSDs) when compared to subaerially erupted pyroclasts from Raoul (35-55 μm vs. 20-70 μm range in volume based median bubble size, respectively). Bubble number density (BND) values are consistently lower than subaerial-erupted pyroclasts and do not display the same trends of decreasing BND with increasing vesicularity. We interpret these textural differences to result from deep submarine eruptions entering the water column at higher pressures than subaerial eruptions entering the atmosphere (~10 MPa vs. 0.1 MPa for a vent at 1000 mbsl). The presence of an overlying water column acts to suppress rapid acceleration of magma, as occurs in the upper conduit of subaerial eruptions, therefore suppressing coalescence, permeability development and gas loss, amounting to closed-system degassing conditions. The higher confining pressure environment of deep submarine settings hinders extensive post-fragmentation clast expansion, coalescence of bubbles, and thinning of bubble walls, causing clasts to have similar BND values regardless of their vesicularity. Although deep submarine-erupted pyroclasts are closely similar to their subaerial counterparts on the basis of bulk vesicularities and macroscopic appearance, they differ markedly in their microscopic textures, allowing them to be fingerprinted in modern and ancient pumiceous marine sediments

Wiggle-match radiocarbon dating of the Taupo eruption

The Taupo eruption deposit is an isochronous marker bed that spans much of New Zealand’s North Island and pre-dates human arrival. Holdaway et al. (2018, Nature Comms 9, 4110) propose that the current Taupo eruption date is inaccurate and that the eruption occurred “…decades to two centuries…” after the published wiggle-match estimate of 232 ± 10 CE (2 s.d.) derived from a tanekaha (Phyllocladus trichomanoides) tree at the Pureora buried forest site (Hogg et al. 2012, The Holocene 22, 439-449). Holdaway et al. (2018) propose that trees growing at Pureora (and other near-source areas) that were killed and buried by the climactic ignimbrite event were affected by ¹⁴C-depleted (magmatic) CO₂. Holdaway et al.'s (2018) proposal utilises a wide range of published ¹⁴C data, but their work results in assertions that are implausible. Four parts to their hypothesis are considered here

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

A História da Alimentação: balizas historiográficas

Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da História da Alimentação, não como um novo ramo epistemológico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de práticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicações, associações, encontros acadêmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condições em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biológica, a econômica, a social, a cultural e a filosófica!, assim como da identificação das contribuições mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histórica, foi ela organizada segundo critérios morfológicos. A seguir, alguns tópicos importantes mereceram tratamento à parte: a fome, o alimento e o domínio religioso, as descobertas européias e a difusão mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rápido balanço crítico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema

Development, mobilisation and eruption of a large crystal-rich rhyolite: the ongatiti ignimbrite, new zealand

The Ongatiti ignimbrite (> ~ 500 km3 DRE) was erupted at 1.21 ± 0.04 Ma from the Mangakino volcanic centre (Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand). The ignimbrite is crystal rich (20–30%), of rhyodacite to low-silica rhyolite composition and lacks any consistent compositional zonation. Pumice whole-rock and glass compositions and crystal rim chemistries imply that the final erupted magma body was, to a first order, homogeneous, with the only variations reflecting crystal:glass proportions in analysed clasts. Crystals from pumices can be divided into two populations based on textural and chemical signatures: those that are inferred to have grown within the final erupted magma body (82% of plagioclase, 88% of orthopyroxene, 17% of amphibole), and those that originated in a chemically heterogeneous mush zone (18% of plagioclase, 12% of orthopyroxene, 83% of amphibole). Crystal-rich microcrystalline clasts, and clots within pumices, provide direct samples of parts of this heterogeneous source region. Amphibole model temperatures and pressures, coupled with in-situ trace element concentrations suggest that the mush region extended to ~ 15 km depth, near the base of the quartzofeldspathic crust and was rich in amphibole. Amphibole plus subordinate plagioclase and orthopyroxene, as well as antecrystic zircon were extracted from the crystal mush and ascended to a final storage region. Model temperatures and pressures from amphibole rims and Fe–Ti oxide model temperatures imply that the final erupted magma body was stored between 770 and 840 °C at 4–6 km depths. Homogenisation of the magma body occurred through convective stirring accompanying gradually rising temperatures induced by less-evolved magma(s) emplaced at deeper levels. Plagioclase records a steady core-to-rim increase in An content, implying that a gradual heating and/or increase in H2O in the final erupted magma body occurred over some significant period prior to the eruption. No signals of a rapid defrosting or rejuvenation event that could be considered as an eruption trigger are recorded by the crystal phases. The Ongatiti ignimbrite has features both common to, and distinct from crystal rich ‘monotonous intermediates’ and crystal-poor compositionally zoned rhyolites. As such, the Ongatiti ignimbrite demonstrates that ‘monotonous rhyolites’ can also be developed on a large scale

Rapid assembly and rejuvenation of a large silicic magmatic system: Insights from mineral diffusive profiles in the Kidnappers and Rocky Hill deposits, New Zealand

The timescales over which magmas in large silicic systems are reactivated, assembled and stored remains a fundamental question in volcanology. To address this question, we study timescales from Fe–Mg interdiffusion in orthopyroxenes and Ti diffusion in quartz from the caldera-forming 1200 km3 Kidnappers and 200 km3 Rocky Hill eruptions from the Mangakino volcanic centre (Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand). The two eruptions came from the same source area, have indistinguishable 40Ar/39Ar ages (∼1.0 Ma) and zircon U–Pb age spectra, but their respective deposits are separated by a short period of erosion. Compositions of pumice, glass and mineral species in the collective eruption deposits define multiple melt dominant bodies but indicate that these shared a common magmatic mush zone. Diffusion timescales from both eruptions are used to build on chemical and textural crystal signatures and interpret both the crystal growth histories and the timing of magma accumulation. Fe–Mg interdiffusion profiles in orthopyroxenes imply that the three melt-dominant bodies, established through extraction of melt and crystals from the common source, were generated within 600 years and with peak accumulation rates within 100 years of each eruption. In addition, a less-evolved melt interacted with the Kidnappers magma, beginning ∼30 years prior to and peaking within 3 years of the eruption. This interaction did not directly trigger the eruption, but may have primed the magmatic system. Orthopyroxene crystals with the same zoning patterns from the Kidnappers and Rocky Hill pumices yield consistently different diffusion timescales, suggesting a time break between the eruptions of ∼20 years (from core–rim zones) to ∼10 years (outer rim zones). Diffusion of Ti in quartz reveals similarly short timescales and magmatic residence times of <30 years, suggesting quartz is only recording the last period of crystallization within the final eruptible melt. Accumulation of the eruptible magma for these two, closely successive eruptions was accomplished over centuries to decades, in contrast to the gestation time of the magmatic system of ∼200 kyr, as indicated by zircon age patterns. The magmatic system was able to recover after the Kidnappers eruption in only ∼10–20 years to accumulate enough eruptible melt and crystals for a second ∼200 km3 eruption. Our data support concepts of large silicic systems being stored as long-lived crystal mushes, with eruptible melts generated over extraordinarily short timescales prior to eruption