a whiff of oxygen before the great oxidation event high resolution chemostratigraphy reveals an episode of enrichment of the redox sensitive transition metals molybdenum and rhenium in the late archean mount mcrae shale in western australia correlations with organic carbon indicate that these metals were derived from contemporaneous seawater rhenium osmium geochronology demonstrates that the enrichment is a primary sedimentary feature dating to 2501 8 million years ago ma molybdenum and rhenium were probably supplied to archean oceans by oxidative weathering of crustal sulfide minerals these findings point to the presence of small amounts of o 2 in the environment more than 50 million years before the start of the great oxidation event

variations in trace metal concentrations and sr nd isotopic compositions in sediments from two contrasting settings in the eastern arabian shelf implications for provenance and paleoclimate reconstruction abstract major and trace elements concentrations as well as nd and sr isotopic ratios were measured in sediments from two gravity cores gc17 and gc19 deposited in the high sediment flux regime of the eastern arabian shelf eas the core sampling locations are close to the mouths of the geochemically and isotopically well characterized rivers mandovi and zuari and are overlain by water columns of contrasting redox conditions given the available knowledge of bottom water oxygen concentrations in the studied locations the compositions of the mandovi and zuari sediments as well as the lithology of the drainage basin the goal of this study was to test the efficacy of different paleo redox proxies and provenance indicators in a high sediment flux regime of the ocean the variations of immobile elements like al ti th and zr in the studied samples suggest lack of sediment reworking and sorting provenance proxies such as th co la sc ratios and variations in la th sc concentrations suggests a dominantly silicic source rock of granitic to granodioritic composition for these sediments which is consistent with the dominant lithology of the drainage basins of the mandovi and zuari rivers minor contributions from a mafic source basalt or metabasalt cannot be ruled out the chemical index of alteration cia and plagioclase index of alteration pia values of the samples suggest low to moderate weathering of the source rocks while the sr isotopic compositions of the gc17 and gc19 sediments overlap with that of the gneissic basement rocks from the mandovi and zuari drainage basins the end 0 of the sediments average 13 72 show significantly more radiogenic values compared to the gneissic basement rocks average 36 this difference in the nd isotopic compositions is explained by early selective weathering and removal of rock forming minerals like plagioclase in the source rocks which results in the supply of radiogenic nd isotopic composition bearing sediments to the ocean this argument is consistent with the overlapping end 0 of the gc17 and gc19 sediments and suspended particulate matter spm of the mandovi and zuari rivers although the nd isotopic compositions overlap the less radiogenic sr isotopic compositions of the gc17 and gc19 sediments compared to the spm of the mandovi and zuari rivers suggests the influence of organic matter formation of authigenic clay and carbonates as well as the contribution of sr from submarine groundwater discharge trace metal concentrations and ratios were measured in the bulk sediments as well as in the leached authigenic and residual detrital rich fractions of selected samples for the gc19 sediments overlain by oxygenated waters these geochemical proxies correctly infer their deposition under oxic conditions in contrast most of these proxies barring those involving u and mo erroneously infer oxic depositional conditions for the gc17 sediments which are overlain by an oxygen minimum zone omz of the eastern arabian sea we believe that the high sedimentation rate and large terrigenous flux possibly prohibits the equilibration of some of these trace metals in the sediments with the ambient seawater our study suggests that u and mo based proxies for inferring paleo redox conditions are robust even under high sedimentation conditions overall this study provides useful insights into the behaviour of redox sensitive elements and provenance indicators in a continental margin setting impinged by an omz

trace elemental derived paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic conditions for pleistocene eastern mediterranean sapropels abstract eastern mediterranean sediments are characterized by cyclic deposition of organic rich sediments known as sapropels enhanced primary productivity combined with bottom water oxygen depletion are thought to be the main drivers for sapropel deposition we selected sapropel layers from a suite of odp leg 160 cores and applied a set of geochemical proxies to determine paleo productivity variations redox conditions of the water column during deposition and provenance of detrital material high sedimentary ba al and corg contents indicate enhanced primary production whereas the sedimentary la lu ratio points to an enhanced contribution from a north african riverine source during sapropel formation these features are especially pronounced on sapropels s5 and s7 deposited during a particularly warm climatic interval this indicates a more intense north african drainage weathering and consequently run off for those sapropels that have the most enhanced expression of productivity too correspondingly the latter has also resulted in bottom water redox conditions that have been more severe during these sapropels than during others deepwater formation from adriatic and aegean areas thought to be mainly controlled by sustained cooling of preconditioned surface waters triggers the onset of bottomwater ventilation thus sapropel duration our data therefore suggest that the intensity of sapropel formation is determined by the north african monsoonal system whereas their duration is directed by northern borderlands climatic conditions

testing provenance diagrams lessons from the well constrained cariaco basin abstract the fine grained sediments of the cariaco basin venezuela of the last 130 ky whose deposition history is well characterized were analyzed geochemically in order to test the validity of sediment bulk geochemistry as an indicator of detrital provenance several binary and ternary diagrams as well as the chemical index of alteration cia were tested for their capacity to discriminate the poorly contrasted detrital sources to the cariaco basin and to describe the temporal evolution of the contributions of these different sources most of the diagrams tested did not allow a good discrimination of sources or when sources were well discriminated did not allow an interpretation of the temporal variations consistent with the known history a relatively good discrimination of sources and a consistent interpretation of temporal variations were however obtained using hf vs th and la yb vs gd yb binary diagrams as well as ti zr th ti zr la and lu hf th ternary diagrams compared to the previous studies of the detrital content of the cariaco basin sediments the geochemical approach permitted the recognition of a sediment contribution eroded from the unare platform and gulf of cariaco during rapid sea level oscillations and the contribution of saharan eolian particles during the younger dryas preboreal and mis6 5 transition the choice of plotted elements was determined after considering carrier minerals so that different elements may be informative in different sedimentary contexts overall mineral sorting during transport appears as a major limit to quantitative estimation of the different contributions in particular mineral sorting leads to the selective enrichment of elements associated with clays al rb th and lree in sediments deposited in the basin unless the geochemical effect of mineral sorting can be measured it appears that quantitative provenance analysis should be performed on fractions of similar grain size instead of bulk sediment

molybdenum accumulation in cariaco basin sediment over the past 24 k y a record of water column anoxia and climate molybdenum mo concentrations in a sediment core from the cariaco basin on the venezuelan continental shelf can be partitioned between a marine fraction and a terrigenous fraction the accumulation rate of the marine fraction of mo increased abruptly 15 000 calendar years ago 15 ka from 2 yr 1 to 4 g cm 2 yr 1 and then decreased abruptly at 9 ka the accumulation rate remained high throughout this 6 k y period but exhibited maxima at 15 14 and 12 5 ka corresponding in time to meltwater pulse ia into the gulf of mexico and the onset of the younger dryas cold event respectively the marine fraction of mo is interpreted in terms of redox conditions of bottom water as dictated by both the flux of settling organic matter and bottom water residence time correspondence between geochemical extremes in this core with changes in sea level and global climate demonstrates the high degree to which this ocean margin basin has responded to the paleoceanographic regime throughout the past 24 k y

temporal variability in the northern arabian sea oxygen minimum zone omz during the last 225 000 years the northern arabian sea is one of the few regions in the open ocean where thermocline water is severely depleted in oxygen the intensity of this oxygen minimum zone omz has been reconstructed over the past 225 000 years using proxies for surface water productivity water column denitrification winter mixing and the aragonite compensation depth acd changes in omz intensity occurred on orbital and suborbital timescales lowest o2 levels correlate with productivity maxima and shallow winter mixing precession related productivity maxima lag early summer insolation maxima by 6 kyr which we attribute to a prolonged summer monsoon season related to higher insolation at the end of the summer periods with a weakened or even non existent omz are characterized by low productivity conditions and deep winter mixing attributed to strong and cold winter monsoonal winds the timing of deep winter mixing events corresponds with that of periods of climatic cooling in the north atlantic region

chemical and strontium oxygen and carbon isotopic compositions of carbonates from the lesser himalaya implications to the strontium isotope composition of the source waters of the ganga ghaghara and the indus rivers samples of precambrian carbonate mostly dolomite outcrops collected across the lesser himalaya have been analysed for their mineralogy chemical composition and isotope ratios of sr o and c to assess the extent of their preservation and their role in contributing to the high radiogenic strontium isotope composition of the source waters of the ganga ghaghara and the indus their sr concentrations range from 20 to 363 ppm 18opdb 1 4 to 12 8 and mn 11 2036 ppm the petrography of the samples their low sr concentrations and wide range of 18o values are suggestive of their postdepositional alteration the 87sr 86sr of the bulk samples and their carbonate fractions are similar to one another with values ranging from 0 7064 to 0 8935 and are generally more radiogenic than that of contemporaneous seawater comparison of the 87sr 86sr and sr ca ratios among the carbonates and silicates from the lesser himalaya and the source waters of the ganga ghaghara and the indus shows that the values for the source waters overlap with those of the silicates but are much higher than those in carbonates an upper limit of carbonate sr in the various source waters is calculated to be between 6 and 43 assuming that all the ca in the rivers is of carbonate origin the results show that on the average weathering of the precambrian carbonates is unlikely to be a major contributor to the highly radiogenic strontium isotope composition of these source waters however they can be a dominant supplier of radiogenic sr to some rivers on a regional scale the silicate sr component in some of the source waters of the ganga bhagirathi bhilangna alaknanda and ganga ghaghara kali and sarju and the indus sutlej was calculated from the ca na sr na ratios and strontium isotope compositions of these rivers and the silicate endmember these calculations suggest that 33 89 of sr in the bhagirathi bhilangna alaknanda ganga and sarju rivers is of silicate origin whereas in the kali and the sutlej it is much lower only 8 the remaining sr to all these waters has to be supplied from other sources such as weathering of carbonates and evaporites this study underscores the importance of weathering of silicates carbonates and evaporites in contributing to the sr mass balance and 87sr 86sr of the source waters of the ganga ghaghara and the indus the present day silicate and carbonate sr contributions to the sr budget of the rivers vary considerably but among the major source waters of the ganga silicate sr exerts a more dominant control on their sr abundance and 87sr 86sr

intensification of the oxygen minimum zone in the northeast pacific off vancouver island during the last deglaciation ventilation and or export production 1 the oxygen minimum zone omz off vancouver island was more oxygen depleted relative to modern conditions during the allerod 13 5 to 12 6 calendar kyr and again from 11 to 10 kyr the timing of omz intensification is similar to that seen throughout the north pacific although the onset appears to have been delayed by 1500 years off vancouver island radiocarbon dating of coeval benthic and planktonic foraminifera shows that between 16 0 and 12 6 kyr the age contrast between surface and intermediate waters 920 m depth off vancouver island was similar to or slightly less than that today there is no evidence of an increased age difference i e decreased ventilation during the deglaciation particularly during the allerod however sedimentary marine organic carbon concentration and mass accumulation rate increased substantially in the allerod suggesting that increased organic matter export was the principal cause of late pleistocene omz intensification off vancouver island

weathering and global denudation a negative correlation between sediment yield and weathering history as measured by the chemical alteration cia of the suspended sediment is observed for many of the world s major rivers and other regions of denudation the weathering history is a first order control on the sediment yield of such areas termed equilibrium denudation regions for other areas data scatter with either apparent increases or decreases of sediment yield for given cia values these areas are termed nonequilibrium denudation regions low sediment yields can be attributed to moderated erosion either natural or human induced and or the incorporation of unweathered glacial debris accelerated erosion resulting in high sediment yield is primarily human induced and results from cultivation and other land use each of these effects has a profound influence on global sediment discharge from the continents pre human suspended sediment discharge from the continents is estimated to be 12 6 times 10 15 g yr or about 0 6 the

mo total organic carbon covariation in modern anoxic marine environments implications for analysis of paleoredox and paleohydrographic conditions 1 sedimentary molybdenum mo s has been widely used as a proxy for benthic redox potential owing to its generally strong enrichment in organic rich marine facies deposited under oxygen depleted conditions a detailed analysis of mo s total organic carbon toc covariation in modern anoxic marine environments and its relationship to ambient water chemistry suggests that 1 mo s while useful in distinguishing oxic from anoxic facies is not related in a simple manner to dissolved sulfide concentrations within euxinic environments and 2 patterns of mo s toc covariation can provide information about paleohydrographic conditions especially the degree of restriction of the subchemoclinal water mass and temporal changes thereof related to deepwater renewal these inferences are based on data from four anoxic silled basins the black sea framvaren fjord cariaco basin and saanich inlet and one upwelling zone the namibian shelf representing a spectrum of aqueous chemical conditions related to water mass restriction in the silled basin environments increasing restriction is correlated with a systematic decrease in mo s toc ratios from 45 5 for saanich inlet to 4 5 1 for the black sea this variation reflects control of mo s by mo aq which becomes depleted in stagnant basins through removal to the sediment without adequate resupply by deepwater renewal the basin reservoir effect the temporal dynamics of this process are revealed by high resolution chemostratigraphic data from framvaren fjord and cariaco basin sediment cores which exhibit long term trends toward lower mo s toc ratios following development of water column stratification and deepwater anoxia mo burial fluxes peak in weakly sulfidic environments such as saanich inlet owing to a combination of greater mo aq availability and enhanced mo transport to the sediment water interface via fe mn redox cycling and are lower in strongly sulfidic environments such as the black sea and framvaren fjord these observations demonstrate that at timescales associated with deepwater renewal in anoxic silled basins decreased sedimentary mo concentrations and burial fluxes are associated with lower benthic redox potentials i e more sulfidic conditions these conclusions apply only to anoxic marine environments exhibiting some degree of water mass restriction e g silled basins and are not valid for low oxygen facies in open marine settings such as continent margin upwelling systems

origin of rhyolitic lavas in the mesa central mexico by crustal melting related to extension the emplacement of a voluminous sequence of rhyolitic lava flows and domes characterizes oligocene volcanism in the mesa central mc of mexico its dominant effusive style of emplacement contrasts deeply with the predominantly explosive volcanism of the sierra madre occidental volcanic province toward the west whole rock geochemical major and trace elements and sr nd isotopic data of the mc oligocene rhyolitic lavas document a marked change in magma composition at around 30 ma allowing us to distinguish between a lower and an upper sequence lavas from the lower sequence are geochemically similar to the high k rhyolitic rocks of the eastern sierra madre occidental major and trace element variations are characteristic of mantle derived magmas evolving through fractional crystallization the initial 87 sr 86 sr and e nd values are nearly constant 0 70644 0 70770 and 1 2 to 2 1 respectively and indicate some contribution from crustal material lavas from the upper sequence are high silica peraluminous rhyolites with strong enrichment in fluorine and in some incompatible lithophile elements rb la sm yb y th u nb ta and strong depletion in the feldspar compatible elements sr ba eu initial 87 sr 86 sr ratios of the upper sequence lavas are high and variable 0 70812 0 72190 and decrease as silica content increases whereas the e nd values are relatively constant 1 4 to 2 8 the trace element behavior indicates an origin by variable degrees of non modal partial melting of granulitic low crustal rocks and chemical disequilibrium during melting processes the high and variable sr isotopic ratios could also be related to isotope disequilibrium melting processes if the isotopic heterogeneities between individual mineral phases were preserved during heating of the source rocks the changes in geochemical compositions are related to the onset of crustal extension at high strain rates documented for the mc crustal extension promoted crustal melting at high melting rates high melt segregation rates rapid ascent of low viscosity fluorine rich magmas and inhibited melt stagnation in magma chambers such conditions favored the effusive volcanic style and support the possibility of melting under disequilibrium conditions

multiple controls on the preservation of organic matter in devonian mississippian marine black shales geochemical and petrographic evidence geochemical and petrographic analysis of an interval of black shales between the huron shale member of the new albany shale upper devonian famennian and the sunbury shale lower mississippian tournaisian suggests that multiple controls influenced the accumulation of organic matter stratigraphic trends were determined following detailed analysis of a core from the central appalachian basin d6 montgomery county ky specifically c s fe relationships mo v v ni ni co and v cr were used to assess paleo redox conditions during sediment accumulation the role of clastic input was evaluated using ti al k al and si al and c p was used as a proxy for paleoproductivity the terrestrial to marine maceral ratio t m vitrinite plus inertinite alginite plus bituminite was used to evaluate changes in om source c s fe relationships and trace element ratios suggest anoxic conditions prevailed during deposition of much of the upper part of this interval however bottom water conditions were intermittently dysoxic during accumulation of the huron shale member and possibly dysoxic to marginally oxic during accumulation of the lowermost huron shale member productivity appears to have been an important factor in the accumulation of corg and high c p ratios are consistent with a productivity anoxia feedback mechanism in addition nutrients from increased terrestrial weathering may have contributed to enhanced productivity variations in sediment influx may also have influenced corg concentrations through sediment starvation one of the more significant observations in this work is an increase in terrestrial om inertinite and vitrinite up section which may reflect vegetative changes occurring on land during this time interval most of this increase is due to inertinite much of which appears to be fusinitic in origin and hence may be fossil charcoal this latter observation has implications for the expansion of land plants into drier niches and for late devonian atmospheric oxygen levels introduction of more resistant terrestrial om to anoxic basins may have been an important factor in the preservation of high carbon 10 intervals especially in the cleveland member of the new albany shale upper devonian famennian and the sunbury shale lower mississippian tournaisian

geologic control of sr and major element chemistry in himalayan rivers nepal our study of the seti river in far western nepal shows that the solute chemistry of the river and its tributaries is strongly controlled by geology the seti flows through four distinct terranes starting with the tethyan sedimentary series tss and greater himalayan series ghs tss ghs waters display 87 sr 86 sr ratios of 0 73 and high sr and ca consistent with the composition of limestone and marble common in these terranes the 87 sr 86 sr ratio and mg increase markedly as the river passes into the lesser himalayan series lhs where tributaries have 87 sr 86 sr ratios from 0 75 to 1 02 and high sr ca and mg the high mg in lhs waters correlate with high 87 sr 86 sr ratios which we attribute to weathering of highly radiogenic 0 71 0 82 dolostones tributaries to the seti river draining the largely carbonate free dadeldhura thrust sheet dts have ratios near 0 74 but low sr ca and mg and therefore have little impact on seti mainstem chemistry mass balance calculations and camg weathering indices show that carbonate weathering accounts for 70 of total dissolved solids to the seti river sr ca ratios of river waters provide a minimum estimate of the carbonate weathering contribution to sr due to partitioning of sr and ca during incongruent dissolution and reprecipitation of calcite overall we attribute high 87 sr 86 sr ratios in the seti river and its tributaries to the weathering of metacarbonates especially dolostones in the upper nawakhot group which have exchanged sr with silicates during metamorphism our modeling of sr fluxes in the seti river indicates that the tss ghs accounts for 36 39 of the sr the lhs for 40 53 and 8 23 for the dts prior to exposure of lhs rocks at 12 ma tss and ghs carbonates with low 87 sr 86 sr ratios dominated himalayan rivers we attribute the elevated 87 sr 86 sr ratios of himalayan paleorivers during the late miocene and pliocene to exposure and weathering of lhs metacarbonates copyright 2000 elsevier science ltd

authigenic cadmium enrichments in suboxic sediments precipitation and postdepositional mobility the postdepositional mobility of cd and u has been investigated in north atlantic turbidites in order to validate their utility as proxies of paleo organic carbon fluxes in this region pelagic sediments are interspersed with relatively organic rich turbidites following instantaneous emplacement of turbidite units an oxidation front progressively migrated downwards into the suboxic turbidite thereby leading to redistribution of authigenic phases according to their affinity to different redox conditions authigenic cd concentrations show a large peak at the redox boundary and are significantly lower in the oxidized portion than in the deeper unoxidized part of the turbidite this distribution indicates that cd has been continuously remobilized by the oxidation front thereby suggesting high sensitivity of the cd species to the redox state and an efficient immobilization mechanism for cd under reducing conditions we propose the precipitation of cds as a plausible mechanism for removal of cd in reducing sediments rather than adsorption onto mineral surfaces this proposal is consistent with porewater data indicating diffusion of cd toward and uptake by suboxic sediments solubility calculations suggest that precipitation of cds may occur in suboxic sediments in the presence of trace levels of h2s below routine detection limits there is no evidence for release of cd or u back into seawater upon oxidation of reducing sediments the strong coupling between precipitation of authigenic cd and u and the early diagenetic degradation of organic carbon offers the potential of reconstructing paleo productivity using records of cd and u however postdepositional redistribution of authigenic cd and u may significantly alter records of authigenic cd and u thereby rendering paleo productivity reconstructions uncertain we propose that the cd u authigenic ratio may provide a qualitative indicator to assess the relative role of steady state incorporation relative to transient burn down enrichments

surficial sediments of the arabian sea abstract coarse grained low carbonate sediments with high abundances of quartz and feldspar in the northerly areas of the arabian sea close to land reflect significant terrigenous sediment in fluxes primarily from the indus river and to some extent from other sources carbonate content of sediments increases gradually from the northernmost areas to about 18 21 n and reflects the waning influence of terrigenous sediment supply southward in areas farther from significant terrigenous influences the carbonate distribution also clearly reflects bathymetric control thus whereas the caco3 content is high on ridges it becomes less than 10 at about 4800 m ccd in the arabian basin a low carbonate band extends from the areas opposite the indus river to the deep areas 2000 3000 m southward and is confined to the easternmost indus fan valley relatively high bottomwater turbidities in this valley suggest that the low carbonate band may result in part from dilutions due to the influxes of terrigenous sediments transported and deposited by deep turbid water flows although high amounts of organic matter occur in the sediments of westerly northerly and easterly areas close to land it is along the indian continental margin at 200 1500 m water depths that the highest organic carbon values 5 10 are observed however high nutrient abundances in the surface waters and high contents of opal and siliceous fossil remains in the sediments off the arabian peninsula gulf of aden clearly reflect higher biogenic productivities in this region than along the indian margin the high organic matter content in the sediments of the indian margin is primarily due to its preservation which results from the impingement of low oxygenated waters on the sea floor at 200 1500 m water depths and from the high sedimentation rates calculations suggest that the degree of preservation of organic matter along the indian margin is about 15 80 times higher than that in the region off the arabian peninsula

changes in surface productivity and subsurface denitrification during the holocene a multiproxy study from the eastern arabian sea spatial and temporal variations in the intensity of subsurface denitrification in the water column of the eastem arabian sea have been investigated using chemical and isotopic proxies the data show a steady increase in the denitrification intensity from 10 ka to 2 ka bp probably caused by changes in surface productivity fuelled by strengthening of upwelling monsoonal intensity in addition changes in redox conditions and detrital material input are assessed using abundances of a suite of major and trace elements the temporal variations in some of the monsoonal proxies are characterized by periodicities of 1400 and 700 years similar to those reported in the south asian chinese monsoon and high latitude climate north atlantic region

early diagenesis of redox sensitive trace metals in the peru upwelling area response to enso related oxygen fluctuations in the water column pore water and solid phase data for redox sensitive metals mn fe v mo and u were collected on a transect across the peru upwelling area 11 s at water depths between 78 and 2025 m and bottom water oxygen concentrations ranging from 0 to 93 m by comparing authigenic mass accumulation rates and diffusive benthic fluxes we evaluate the respective mechanisms of trace metal accumulation retention and remobilization across the oxygen minimum zone omz and with respect to oxygen fluctuations in the water column related to the el nino southern oscillation enso sediments within the permanent omz are characterized by diffusive uptake and authigenic fixation of u v and mo as well as diffusive loss of mn and fe across the benthic boundary some of the dissolved mn and fe in the water column re precipitate at the oxycline and shuttle particle reactive trace metals to the sediment surface at the lower and upper boundary of the omz at the lower boundary pore waters are not sufficiently sulfidic as to enable an efficient authigenic v and mo fixation as a consequence sediments below the omz are preferentially enriched in u which is delivered via both in situ pre cipitation and lateral supply of u rich phosphorites from further upslope trace metal cycling on the peruvian shelf is strongly affected by enso related oxygen fluctuations in bottom water during periods of shelf oxygenation surface sediments receive particulate v and mo with metal oxyhydr oxides that derive from both terrigenous sources and precipitation at the retreating oxycline after the recurrence of anoxic conditions metal oxyhydr oxides are reductively dissolved and the hereby liberated v and mo are authigenically removed this alternation between supply of particle reactive trace metals during oxic periods and fixation during anoxic periods leads to a preferential accumulation of v and mo compared to u on the peruvian shelf the decoupling of v mo and u accumulation is further accentuated by the varying susceptibility to re oxidation of the different authigenic metal phases while authigenic u and v are readily re oxidized and recycled during periods of shelf oxygenation the sequestration of mo by authigenic pyrite is favored by the transient occurrence of oxidizing conditions our findings reveal that redox sensitive trace metals respond in specific manner to short term oxygen fluctuations in the water column the relative enrichment patterns identified might be useful for the reconstruction of past omz extension and large scale redox oscillations in the geological record

rhenium in the black sea comparison with molybdenum and uranium rhenium concentrations were measured in the black sea to determine the behavior of this redox sensitive element in an anoxic basin under reducing conditions re is removed from solution leading to its depletion from black sea deep waters compared with uranium water column re and mo profiles show evidence of removal from mid depths suggesting that these elements are scavenged either in the water column or slope sediments to a greater degree than u black sea surface waters are enriched in re reflecting re in rivers draining into the northern black sea that are enhanced up to 80 fold over other large world rivers this enrichment is most likely anthropogenic and may be due to coal burning in the region a simple two box model is used to demonstrate that re concentrations in the black sea are not in steady state with respect to current riverine inputs and authigenic fluxes riverine inputs of u and mo are not as significant perhaps reflecting the fractionation of re from the other elements during a high temperature combustion process re2o7 is volatile above 270 c

early miocene continental extension related basaltic magmatism at walton peak northwest colorado further evidence on continental basalt genesis the walton peak lavas erupted directly onto c 1 8 ga basement and were interbedded with subaerial sediments four new k ar dates for the lavas average 22 8 0 3 ma associating them unambiguously with the earliest large scale extension related magmatism in nw colorado the lavas are basalts trachybasalts and shoshonites there is also one 100 m thick composite flow of trachydacite containing pillow like basic masses up to tens of metres in size with chilled margins elemental data and sr and nd isotopic ratios suggest that the trachydacite evolved from the basalt type forming most of the pillows by a combination of fractional crystallization and crustal assimilation nevertheless post evolution magma mixing during and immediately before extrusion of the flow has obscured the details of this process a proportion of the pillow like basic masses in the composite flow are shoshonites that did not take part in the magma mixing they are relatively rich in incompatible minor and trace elements e g nb 41 46 ppm in the shoshonites and 20 25 ppm in all other walton peak basic lavas the sr and nd isotopic ratios of the nb rich and nb poor compositions overlap open system processes in a long lived pre existing magma chamber are considered unlikely to be the main cause of the diverse basic magmas because the walton peak lavas directly overlie precambrian basement likewise crustal contamination models using either upper or lower crustal rock types of this region do not give satisfactory mechanisms to relate the nb rich and nb poor mafic liquids a genetic model invoking variable degrees of partial melting of lithospheric mantle containing hydrous minerals does not explain why the nb rich and nb poor compositions are bimodal and not a range a variety of sparse ultrapotassic magmas minettes to lamproites accompanied the basalt dominated neogene volcanism of nw colorado and surrounding area their elemental and isotopic compositions support the view that the ultrapotassic liquids originated by fusion of hydrous and halogen rich metasomatized zones within the subcontinental lithospheric mantle addition of about 15 of lamproitic melt to the low nb walton peak basic magmas reproduces the main geochemical and isotopic characteristics of the high nb magmas such a process seems to have been widespread throughout nw colorado neogene igneous activity although wholly lithospheric mantle sources for all the mafic magmas cannot be ruled out there is evidence that both subduction related calcalkaline and ocean island basanitic melts of asthenospheric origin formed the dominant components of the nw colorado volcanics addition of as little as 10 of lamproitic melt during their uprise through the subcontinental lithospheric mantle was sufficient to imprint on them continental incompatible element and radiogenic isotope characteristics

reconstruction of late quaternary monsoon oscillations based on clay mineral proxies using sediment cores from the western margin of india abstract in order to reconstruct the variations in the intensity of summer monsoon precipitation during the late quaternary two sediment cores from the southwestern continental margin of india were studied for their clay mineral composition and grain size parameters kaolinite illite and gibbsite were dominant in a core off cochin illite with increasing kaolinite content towards the core top was found to dominate in a core from the continental slope off goa major sources of clays at both the core sites were from the hinterland rocks and soils careful evaluations of several factors that could complicate the clay distribution in marine environment indicate that the clay mineral parameters can be used as proxies for the intensity of summer monsoon precipitation in the past the relatively low values of humidity proxies kaolinite content k c and k i ratios and higher illite crystallinity with significant variations indicate that the summer monsoons in general were weaker during the late glaciation with distinct events of intensification at 28 000 and 22 000 yr bp the last deglaciation was characterised by an increased terrigenous input with high values of humidity proxies during 15 700 14 800 cal yr bp indicating an early strengthening of summer monsoon activity in the region the most remarkable increase in kaolinite content k c and k i ratios associated with much reduced values of chlorite and illite and illite crystallinity however occur between 8800 and 6400 cal yr bp it appears that the holocene precipitation maxima occurred after 9000 cal yr bp and lagged behind the precessional forcing the late holocene witnessed reduced rainfall activity and resultant decrease in hydrolysis starting at 5600 cal yr bp