valanginian weissert oceanic anoxic event biotic changes in nannofossils and radiolarians associated with the valanginian 1 3 c anomaly are documented at ocean drilling program hole 1149b in the pacific ocean they are coeval and similar to those previously documented in the tethys suggesting a global perturbation of marine ecosystems a marked increase in abundance of diazomatolithus absence of nannoconids and a pantanellium peak characterize the valanginian 1 3 c excursion such changes are interpreted as being due to global enhanced fertility and a biocalcification crisis under conditions of excess co 2 the occurrence of organic c rich black shales in the southern alps and in the pacific in the interval corresponding to the 1 3 c excursion suggests a valanginian oceanic anoxic event oae volcanism of the parana etendeka large igneous province ca 132 ma was presumably responsible for an increase of co 2 triggering a climate change and accelerated hydrological cycling possibly causing an indirect fertilization of the oceans widespread nutrification via introduction of biolimiting metals at spreading ridges could have significantly increased during the gondwana breakup and simultaneous tectonic events in three separate oceans there is no paleontological or 1 8 o evidence of warming during the valanginian oae on the contrary both nannofossils and oxygen isotopes record a cooling event at the climax of the 1 3 c excursion weathering of basalts and burial of organic c rich black shales were presumably responsible for co 2 drawdown and establishment of reversed greenhouse conditions

physical oceanography of the western iberia ecosystem latest views and challenges the present review is focused on the mesoscale physical processes recognized in the western iberia ecosystem complementing earlier reviews dedicated to larger scales recent studies support the idea that the mesoscale processes superimposed on the larger scale variability are the major factor controlling the ecosystem functioning in the region a complex structure of interleaved alongshore slope shelf and coastal currents that interact with eddies buoyant plumes upwelling filaments and fronts surface layer expressions of the subsurface circulation and internal waves is revealed by the latest research all of these contribute in different ways to have an effect on the ecosystem the supposedly less variable winter circulation also exhibits significant mesoscale activity in the form of eddy shedding from the poleward slope current intermittent upwelling events and transient nearshore poleward flows the present incomplete knowledge of this complex system presents a number of challenges and questions that must be addressed if we are to arrive at a satisfactory understanding and predictive capability for the system as a whole 2007 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

dynamics of the eastern flank of mt etna volcano italy investigated by a dense gps network abstract mount etna has developed at the intersection of two regional tectonic lineaments the nnw sse trending hybleo maltese escarpment which separates the thick inland continental crust of the african platform from the ionian mesozoic oceanic crust and the ne sw messina fiumefreddo fault that marks a rift zone between south calabria and north eastern sicily extending as far as the mt etna area all tectonic features affect with outstanding surface features the eastern side of the volcano the eastern flank of the volcano is affected by a long term motion toward ese in 1997 in order to increase the detail of the ground deformation pattern on the lower eastern flank of mt etna a new gps network the ionica network was installed on this sector of the volcano this gps network consists of 24 stations and covers the lower eastern flank of the volcano from the town of catania to taormina and from the coastline up to an altitude of about 1300 m all the new stations consist in self centring benchmarks this kind of benchmark allows all station set up errors to be avoided before the merging of the ionica network to the frame of the global gps network of mt etna in june 2001 three surveys were carried out on this network in september 1997 august 1998 and january 2001 from the ground deformation pattern it is possible to distinguish two different sectors showing different characteristics of deformation the southern part of the network shows a more uniform distribution of the vertical motion with a mean se ward horizontal component while the northern one shows an heterogeneous vertical motion with a ese ward horizontal component furthermore a higher velocity is detected between 1997 and 1998 due to the additional stress induced by a shallow intrusion on the nw flank of the volcano the model resulting from data inversions defines a wide sliding plane beneath the entire eastern flank of the volcano with a low dip angle the expected velocity vectors fit well the observed ones even if the measured velocities are still quite higher than expected at lowermost stations the vertical inclination of the velocity vectors measured during the 1998 2001 period gradually decreases from west to east suggesting a sort of rotational movement of the south eastern flank interrupted by some anomalous vectors on the lower part that show higher vertical velocities these anomalies being located on a wedge defined by the intersection of the main nnw sse and ne sw fault systems and near the timpe faults are probably due to the activity of the vertical faults cutting the lower eastern flank of mt etna stations lying on the hanging wall and on the footwall of the timpe fault system are affected by similar horizontal displacements meaning that these structures are moving eastwards together with the sliding flank this evidence suggests that the timpe faults are probably second order structures with respect to the detachment surface these results depict a structural framework of the eastern flank of mt etna in which the low angle dislocation can be considered as a first order approximation of an actual listric plane and the current active part of the timpe fault system is confined above the detachment surface

north and south china collision along the eastern and southern north china margins abstract lithofacies distribution and petrography and intracontinental deformation in the north china block ncb and the south china block scb show an active continental margin flanked by the eastern ncb and a passive continental margin was present along the west side of the scb both margins initially trending n ne the tanlu fault possibly initiated as part of the subduction zone during paleozoic time along the eastern margin on the ncb the ncb and the scb were divided along the eastern southern north china margin by the qinling dabie tanlu sulu imjingang yanji zone from southwest to northeast these two continental blocks made contact first in the northeast during late early permian time finally in the southeast at late triassic time and the clockwise collision probably lasted to middle jurassic time the eastern suture the yanji imjingang sulu tanlu zone was dominated by contractional deformation the southern suture the qinling dabie zone was a transpression belt dominated by right lateral strike slip

facies analysis and sea level change at the guadalupian lopingian global stratotype laibin south china and its bearing on the end guadalupian mass extinction abstract the guadalupian lopingian boundary stratotype at penglaitan and the nearby tieqiao section near laibin south china record a series of major environmental changes within the jiangnan basin during a mid permian biotic crisis the sequence stratigraphic petrographic and palaeontological record of these sections has been studied and the associated strontium isotopic fluctuations have been assayed mass extinction of fusulinid foraminifers is most clearly associated in time with onset of volcanism and a relative sea level fall that led to the establishment of mid ramp conditions laibin limestone in settings that were previously dominated by radiolarian mudstones the regression also coincides with a low point of 87 sr 86 sr ratios the lowstand deposits contain mafic scoriaceous grains that record pyroclastic volcanism probably centred in the emeishan flood basalt province 800 km to the west of laibin thus unusually violent eruptions associated with flood basalts in this province may have contributed to the environmental stresses responsible for the extinction event subsequent environmental changes included transgression spread of dysoxic waters indicated by populations of small pyrite framboids and a major negative c isotope excursion all these phenomena have been previously related to the end guadalupian extinction but they in fact post date the crisis because a post extinction fauna of foraminifers is encountered at this time

the carbon isotope excursion on gssp candidate section of lopingian guadalupian boundary an isotopic stratigraphically well documented outcrop in penglaitan guangxi province south china has been proposed as a candidate gssp for the lopingian guadalupian boundary correlatable outcrops from the west wing tieqiao section and east wing penglaitan section of the laibin syncline exhibit synchronous excursions in carbon isotopes the isotopic excursions 13c show the best placement of the boundary may lie at the base of bed 6k which coincides with the clarkina postbitteri conodont zone and with eustatic change 13c increases during the uppermost guadalupian jinogondolella granti conodont zone from the top of 3c to the base of 6i a 13c peak value of 5 is located at the transition between these two conodont zones and is suggested as a proxy for the transition from transgression to regression a gradual depletion of carbon isotopes occurs in the c postbitteri zone from bed 6e to 7b and this gradual 13c excursion also suggests the sequences around the guadalupian lopingian boundary at the candidate section are conformable during the middle later c postbitteri zone a 3 5 dramatic 13c depletion is recorded at the tieqiao section but only a 2 depletion at the deeper facies penglaitan section synchronous with conodont zones that mark eustatic changes

independent component analysis as a tool for ground deformation analysis summary independent component analysis ica is a recent and well known technique used to separate mixtures of signals this technique has been applied to the ground deformation time series recorded at the permanent gps network of the osservatorio vesuviano ingv in order to characterize the deformation background level in the neapolitan volcanic area the analysis revealed the presence of five independent periodic signals common at all the gps stations some of them are interpreted as effects of earth tides the residual signal at each station represent the local ground deformation unfortunately the ica cannot provide the absolute amplitude of the components indeed we are not able to obtain a residual amplitude at each station then we used a stationarity analysis in order to investigate the eventual presence of local transient deformations the ica technique combined with the stationarity analysis has shown to be a very interesting tool for individuating ground deformation trends and could be very useful in volcanic areas monitoring

medium and long period ground oscillatory pattern inferred by borehole tiltmetric data new perspectives for the campi flegrei caldera crustal dynamics abstract we analyse tiltmetric time series recorded at borehole instruments recently installed at campi flegrei caldera italy a volcanic area subjected to the phenomenon of bradyseism which consists in fast ground uplift phases alternated to slow subsidence for the first time we evaluate the crustal response in terms of ground tilting of the entire caldera to external excitations such as long medium period tidal constituents by adopting independent component analysis indeed we recognize diurnal solar and long period fortnightly and monthly components superimposed to the normal deformation trend of the area they show well defined polarization directions and are associated with an oscillatory deformation pattern with the same periodicity of the corresponding tidal constituents the comparison with the local geology evidences that the tidal tilting is controlled by the local stress field distribution and the rheology thus inducing structural and thermoelastic site effects

did cooling oceans trigger ordovician biodiversification evidence from conodont thermometry the ordovician period long considered a supergreenhouse state saw one of the greatest radiations of life in earth9s history previous temperature estimates of up to 70 c have spawned controversial speculation that the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater must have evolved over geological time we present a very different global climate record determined by ion microprobe oxygen isotope analyses of early ordovician silurian conodonts this record shows a steady cooling trend through the early ordovician reaching modern equatorial temperatures that were sustained throughout the middle and late ordovician this favorable climate regime implies not only that the oxygen isotopic composition of ordovician seawater was similar to that of today but also that climate played an overarching role in promoting the unprecedented increases in biodiversity that characterized this period

constraints on pennsylvanian glacioeustatic sea level changes using oxygen isotopes of conodont apatite conodonts from u s midcontinent cyclothems were studied for oxygen isotopes in order to constrain pennsylvanian glacioeustatic sea level fluctuations pennsylvanian deposits of the midcontinent united states are composed of cyclic alternations of thin transgressive limestones offshore gray to black phosphatic shales and thick regressive limestones a sequence that is underlain and overlain by nearshore to terrestrial shales with paleosols and coal beds glacioeustatic sea level fluctuations are considered the primary cause for the formation of these cyclothems oxygen isotope analyses of conodont apatite from the black 20 1 0 5 vienna standard mean ocean water vsmow and gray shale units 20 5 0 5 vsmow show lowest average 18 o values whereas conodont elements from the regressive 21 0 0 3 vsmow and transgressive limestone units 21 1 0 6 vsmow are enriched in 18 o the maximum change in 18 o of conodonts from the black shale and carbonate units from individual cyclothems is 1 7 the 1 7 c difference in 18 o compares relatively well to pleistocene interglacial glacial changes in 18 o of equatorial surface dwelling foraminifers and suggests that pennsylvanian glacioeustatic sea level changes may have been of comparable amplitude however since the pennsylvanian glacial maxima are represented by terrestrial sediments and are not documented in the conodont oxygen isotope record pennsylvanian glacioeustatic sea level changes were probably larger than the 120 m fluctuations recorded for the pleistocene glaciations

a census of meddies tracked by floats recent subsurface float measurements in 27 mediterranean water eddies meddies in the atlantic are grouped together to reveal new information about the pathways of these energetic eddies and how they are often modified and possibly destroyed by collisions with seamounts twenty meddies were tracked in the iberian basin west of portugal seven in the canary basin during february 1994 14 meddies were simultaneously observed 11 of them in the iberian basin most 69 of the newly formed meddies in the iberian basin translated southwestward into the vicinity of the horseshoe seamounts and probably collided with them some meddies 31 passed around the northern side of the seamounts and translated southwestward at a typical velocity of 2 0 cm s into the canary basin some meddies observed there were estimated to be up to 5 yr old four meddies in the canary basin collided with the great meteor seamounts and three meddies were inferred to have been destroyed by the collision overall an estimated 90 of meddies collided with major seamounts the mean time from meddy formation to a collision with a major seamount was estimated to be around 1 7 yr combined with the estimated meddy formation rate of 17 meddies yr from previous work this suggests that around 29 meddies co exist in the north atlantic therefore during february 1994 we observed about half of the population of meddies

a census of meddies in a long term high resolution simulation the output from a high resolution two decade long mediterranean outflow simulation is analysed here to provide a census of mediterranean water eddies aka meddies both anticyclones and cyclones the formation rate of meddies that survive for at least 90 days is of 12 meddies yr 1 of which 12 are cyclones the rate of formation reaches 40 meddies yr 1 30 cyclones when considering all the meddies living over 15 days about 70 of the population is born along the southwestern iberian slope but several robust meddies also originate in points of convergence of the main pathways into the open ocean the longest lived meddies propagate northwestwards but most of the anticyclones veer southwestwards after a while as the meddies drift away from their birthplace their radius tends to increase gradually from 15 to 30 km the thickness depth difference between isopycnals 27 2 and 27 5 of anticyclones born near cape st vincent contracts by approximately 100 m after travelling 1000 km from their source their mean swirl velocities range from about 21 cm s 1 at z 1000 m up to 27 cm s 1 at z 600 m mean salinity and temperature anomalies are significantly lower for cyclones which in general are also more slowly rotating shallower and thinner than anticyclones cyclones are more easily tracked at 600 m depth where longer trajectories are recorded in the vicinity of portimao canyon cyclones outnumber anticyclones while the reverse happens downstream of cape st vincent

gps monitoring in the n w part of the volcanic island of tenerife canaries spain strategy and results this paper describes design observation methodology results and interpretation of the gps surveys conducted in the areas of the n w of tenerife where deformation was detected using insar to avoid undesirable antenna positioning errors in the stations built using nails we designed and used calibrated fixed length metal poles allowing us to guarantee that the gps antenna was stationed with a height repeatability of the order of 1 mm and of less than 3 millimeters on the horizontal plane the results demonstrate that this system is ideal for field observation especially to detect small displacements that might be masked by accidental errors in height measurements or centering when observed with a tripod when observations were processed we found that using different antenna models in the same session sometimes causes errors that can lead to rather inaccurate results we also found that it is advisable to observe one or two stations in all the sessions the results have reconfirmed the displacement in the chio deformation zone for the period 1995 2000 and indicate a vertical rebound from 2000 to 2002 they also confirm that the subsidence detected by insar to the south of the garachico village has continued since 2000 although the magnitude of the vertical deformation has increased from around 1 cm to more than 3 cm a year detected displacements could be due to groundwater level variation throughout the island a first attempt of modelling has been made using a simple model the results indicate that the observed deformation and the groundwater level variation are related in some way the obtained results are very important because they might affect the design of the geodetic monitoring of volcanic reactivation on the island which will only be actually useful if it is capable of distinguishing between displacements that might be linked to volcanic activity and those produced by other causes even though the study was limited to a given area of tenerife in the canary islands some conclusions apply to and are of general interest in similar geodynamic studies

a temporal link between the emeishan large igneous province sw china and the end guadalupian mass extinction abstract previous studies have suggested that there were two mass extinction events in the late permian one that occurred at the permo triassic p t boundary 251 ma and a second smaller mass extinction that occurred 5 8 myr earlier at the end of the guadalupian many workers have argued that there is a causal relationship between large scale volcanic activity and mass extinctions the major mass extinction event at the p t boundary coincides with the outpouring of huge quantities of lava that formed the siberian flood basalt province in russia courtillot et al earth planet sci lett 166 1999 177 195 and wignall earth sci rev 53 2001 1 33 suggested that the earlier late permian mass extinction coincided with the eruption of the lavas that formed the emeishan flood basalt efb province in sw china however the age of eruption of the efb lavas is poorly constrained using the sensitive high resolution ion microprobe to analyze zircons we have established the age of the xinjie intrusion believed to be a feeder to the main phase of efb volcanism to be 259 3 ma hence the formation of the efb is coincident with a proposed extinction event at 256 259 ma this result supports a temporal link between the emeishan large igneous province and the end guadalupian mass extinction

permian palaeogeographic evolution of the jiangnan basin south china abstract the most striking geographic feature of the permian of south china is the jiangnan basin which intimately reflects the interplay between the yangtze and cathaysia blocks geographic and sedimentological evolution suggests that the jiangnan basin superposed on a precambrian collisonial megasuture and a folded early paleozoic deep basin was an extensional intracratonic basin it opened in the longlinian and became more passive and restricted in the latest maokouan the remarkably similar geographic patterns of the jiangnan basin in the early and late palaeozoic suggest that the yangtze and cathaysia blocks were coherent during the paleozoic

carbon and conodont apatite oxygen isotope records of guadalupian lopingian boundary sections climatic or sea level signal abstract the guadalupian lopingian g l boundary 260 4 ma is one of the major extinction events in earth history that coincides with the emeishan large igneous province and palaeoclimatic changes carbon isotopes of whole rock samples were studied in order to document changes in the global carbon cycle in contrast to earlier studies we observe no major negative excursion in 13 c in the middle capitanian a positive 13 c excursion is observed in the latest capitanian with a 1 5 increase registered in the j xuanhanensis zone to c postbitteri hongshuiensis subzone followed by a decrease of 1 within the c postbitteri postbitteri subzone and a 2 decrease in the c dukouensis to c asymmetrica zone oxygen isotopes of conodonts from two g l boundary sections were measured in order to reconstruct conodont habitat and potential changes in water temperature oxygen isotope ratios of gondolellid conodonts are higher in comparison to oxygen isotope ratios measured on hindeodid conodonts suggesting that gondollelids lived in cooler and thus deeper waters compared with hindeodids the oxygen isotope record reconstructed from gondollelid conodonts suggests warming of water temperatures of about 4 c in the late capitanian j postserrata to j granti zone cooling of about 6 to 8 c across the g l boundary and in the earliest wuchiapingian and again significant warming in the wuchiapingian c dukouensis to c liangshanensis zone the temperature increase can be correlated with the main phase of emeishan volcanism suggesting that climatic warming may have resulted in an intensified hydrological cycle fertilisation of the oceans and enhanced primary productivity the latter documented in the positive late capitanian carbon isotope excursion however changes in sea level seem to parallel reconstructed water temperatures suggesting that changes in water depth in combination with superimposed climatic changes may be responsible for the observed temperature changes this study documents that oxygen isotope studies on permian conodonts should be performed on mono generic conodont samples and that oxygen isotopes not only provide valuable palaeoclimatic information but also may help to constrain the life habitat of conodonts

oxygen isotope variations in phosphate of biogenic apatites i fish bone apatite rechecking the rules of the game abstract the major advantage of the oxygen in phosphate isotope paleothermometry is that it is a system which records temperatures with great sensitivity while bone and teeth building organisms are alive and the record is nearly perfectly preserved after death fish from seven water bodies of different temperatures 3 23 c and different 18 o values 16 to 3 of the water were analysed the 18 o values of the analysed po 4 vary from 6 to 25 the system passed the following tests a the temperatures deduced from isotopic analyses of the sequence of fish from lake baikal are in good agreement with the temperatures measured in the thermally stratified lake b the isotopic composition of fish bone phosphate is not influenced by the isotopic composition of the phosphate which is fed to the fish but only by temperature and water composition isotopic analysis of fossil fish in combination with analysis of mammal bones should be a useful tool in deciphering continental paleoclimates

evolution of permian conodont provincialism and its significance in global correlation and paleoclimate implication the main components of asselian through artinskian conodont faunas found around the world are basically the same and the provincialism is indicated only by less common endemic elements such as gondolelloides and new genus a henderson in north pangea sweetognathus bucaramangus around the equator and vjalovognathus in eastern gondwana provincialism is marked by differences at the species level of mesogondolella neostreptognathodus and sweetognathus during the kungurian and becomes very distinct with differences at the genus level during the guadalupian and lopingian three provinces of permian conodonts referred to as the north cool water province ncwp the equatorial warm water province ewwp and the peri gondwana cool water province gcwp are recognized the ncwp is marked by gondolelloides in the early cisuralian dominance of neostreptognathodus and no or rare sweetognathus in the late cisuralian dominance of merrillina and mesogondolella and absence of sweetognathus in the guadalupian and dominance of merrillina and mesogondolella and absence of iranognathus in the lopingian the ewwp is characterized by the absence of gondolelloides and vjalovognathus in the cisuralian abundance of sweetognathus and pseudosweetognathus in the kungurian late cisuralian jinogondolella and sweetognathus in the guadalupian and clarkina and iranognathus in the lopingian the gcwp is marked by vjalovognathus merrillina in the cisuralian vjalovognathus merrillina and mesogondolella in the guadalupian and vjalovognathus and merrillina in the lopingian mixed faunas are recognized in regions bordering between the ewwp and gcwp including western timor during the artinskian pamirs during the kungurian and the salt range during the guadalupian and lopingian three different conodont zonations are proposed one for each of the three conodont provinces four potential horizons for inter provincial correlation of permian conodonts are recognized they are in ascending order 1 the first appearance of sweetognathus whitei which is closely related to the last occurrence of carboniferous type conodonts such as streptognathodus and adetognathus 2 the first appearance of neostreptognathodus pequopensis 3 the base of the jinogondolella nankingensis zone and 4 the base of the clarkina postbitteri iranognathus erwini zone the spatial and temporal distribution pattern of permian conodonts suggests that temperature is the primary controlling factor evolution of permian conodont provincialism reveals a glaciation during the asselian and sakmarian a global warming during the artinskian a climate cooling in north pangea during the kungurian a continuation of kungurian climate trends in the guadalupian a relatively minor warming during the wuchiapingian a returned cooling in the changhsingian and lower and middle griesbachian and a global warming in the late griesbachian which ended the permian conodont lineage

meddy dynamics and interaction with neighboring eddies southwest of portugal observations and modeling 1 during the semane 2000 experiment southwest of portugal two meddies were found in near contact these meddies had hydrological radii of about 20 and 30 km thickness of 900 m maximum temperatures of 12 45 c and 13 45 c and maximum salinities of 36 52 and 36 78 the smaller meddy with more pronounced thermohaline anomalies was clearly double cored at 750 and 1300 m depths while the wider one was more diffuse and more homogeneous the associated geostrophic velocities referenced at 2000 m locally reached 0 5 m s in the smaller meddy and 0 2 m s in the wider one three rafos floats and two deep drogued surface drifters seeded in the two meddies rapidly gathered in the more intense meddy this meddy trajectory revealed by the float motion was first eastward then southward maps of sea level anomaly indicate that this motion did not correspond to the long term evolution of the initial positive sea level anomaly signature of the meddies and that neighboring cyclones must have played a role in the meddy evolution to determine the role of each eddy in the observed evolution several scenarios were studied with a three layer quasi geostrophic numerical model the interaction of two meddies in isolation did not result in the observed meddy trajectories on the long term the interaction of these two meddies with successive neighboring cyclones provided a more realistic trajectory of the meddy containing the floats

real time tracking of a galician meddy we describe the properties and displacement of the northernmost meddy that has ever been studied this meddy was found to the northwest of the iberian peninsula in april 1997 its hydrological properties suggest that it was born offshore galicia the northwestern corner of spain it was tracked in real time for more than one year using recent types of deep drogued buoys and lagrangian floats and remained quasi stationary for an unusually long period of 11 months around 45 n 12 w

the mid capitanian middle permian mass extinction and carbon isotope record of south china abstract conodont c isotope and fossil and facies data are presented for the capitanian middle permian mass extinction record seen in platform carbonates maokou and wuchiaping formations of south china where limestones interdigitate with the volcanic succession of the emeishan large igneous province the maokou formation provides an extinction record marked by the loss of keriothecal walled fusulinaceans and a turnover in calcareous algae in sections within the emeishan province this crisis occurs at the base of the oldest record of volcanism from the jinogondolella altudaensis conodont zone of mid capitanian age around the periphery of the emeishan province this extinction level lies within the upper part of the maokou formation at a level where platform carbonate deposition was frequently interrupted by thick volcanic ash depositional events the assemblages of the uppermost maokou formation are characterised by typical late permian taxa although these levels still lie within the middle permian guadalupian series disaster taxa such as earlandia and diplosphaerina are locally prolifically abundant in the aftermath of the mass extinction the crisis is particularly noteworthy amongst photosynthetic taxa such as calcareous algae and fusulinaceans that probably harboured photosymbionts therefore a kill mechanism involving cooling from explosive volcanism and potentially acid rain from sulphate aerosols appears appropriate a composite 13ccarb curve calibrated against a high resolution conodont biostratigraphy reveals a major intra capitanian negative excursion of 5 superimposed on typically heavy 4 5 middle permian values this curve can also be recognised in panthalassan seamount carbonates of japan although this requires reassignment of apparently upper permian limestones to the middle permian in both china and japan the capitanian mass extinction occurs during the early stage of this major intra capitanian negative excursion assuming typical platform carbonate accumulation rates the records of the maokou formation suggest 13ccarb values fell at 0 01 kyr suggesting a catastrophic origin such as gas hydrate destabilisation is unlikely although a volcanic source is possible

evidence of mediterranean water dipole collision in the gulf of cadiz a collision of mediterranean water dipoles in the gulf of cadiz is studied here using data from the medtop and semane experiments first a mediterranean water eddy meddy was surveyed hydrologically in november 2000 southwest of cape saint vincent then this meddy drifted northeastward from this position accompanied by a cyclone detected only via altimetry thus forming a first dipole in february 2001 a dipole of mediterranean water was measured hydrologically just after its formation near portimao canyon this second dipole drifted southwestward the western and eastern meddies had hydrological radii of about 22 and 25 km respectively with corresponding temperature and salinity maxima of 13 45 c 36 78 and 11 40 c 36 40 rafos float trajectories and satellite altimetry indicate that these two dipoles collided early april 2001 south of cape saint vincent near 35 30 n 10 15 w more precisely the eastern meddy wrapped around the western one this merger resulted in an anticyclone a meddy which drifted southeastward coupled with the eastern cyclone hydrological sections across this final third resulting dipole performed in july 2001 in the southern gulf of cadiz confirm this interaction the thermohaline characteristics of the final meddy can be tracked back to the original structures the subsequent evolution of this dipole was analyzed with rafos float trajectories a numerical simulation of the interaction between the two earlier dipoles is also presented we suggest that these dipole collisions at the mediterranean water level may represent a mechanism of generation of the larger meddies that finally leave the gulf of cadiz

volatile fluxes during flood basalt eruptions and potential effects on the global environment a deccan perspective abstract we examine the role that flood basalt eruptions may have played during times of mass extinction through the release of volcanic gases continental flood basalt provinces have formed by numerous eruptions over a short period of geologic time characteristically a few million years within this period a short lived climactic phase that lasts about 1 ma typically emplaces a large proportion of the lava volume this phase consists of a series of huge eruptions each yielding 10 3 10 4 km 3 of magma each eruption lasted on the order of a decade or more and built an immense p hoehoe dominated lava flow field by eruptive activity along fissures tens to hundreds of km long high fire fountains emanating from vents along the fissures at times sustained eruption columns that lofted gas and ash into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere while the lava flows covered huge areas the combination of large eruption magnitudes maintained high effusion rates during eruptions and the repeated nature of the characteristic large scale eruptive activity occurs in earth history only during periods of flood basalt volcanism based on recent analogs and determination of volatile contents of ancient flood basalt lavas we estimate that individual eruptions were capable of releasing 10 000 tg of so 2 resulting in atmospheric loadings of 1000 tg a 1 during a sustained decade long eruptive event we apply this model of flood basalt volcanism to estimate the potential mass of co 2 and so 2 released during formation of the 65 ma deccan province the deccan lava pile contains the record of hundreds of enormous p hoehoe flow fields erupted within a period of about 1 ma consequently atmospheric perturbations associated with so 2 emissions from just one of these long lasting eruptions were likely to have been severe and constantly augmented over a decade or longer by contrast the amounts of co 2 released would have been small compared with the mass already present in the atmosphere and thus much more limited in effect individual eruptions were followed by hiatuses of hundreds to thousands of years during which the gas contributions to the atmosphere would be recycled it is clear that the nature and potential atmospheric impact of a series of huge volume repeated long term degassing events requires further investigation in conjunction with appropriate climate models

mediterranean outflow mixing and dynamics the mediterranean sea produces a salty dense outflow that is strongly modified by entrainment as it first begins to descend the continental slope in the eastern gulf of cadiz the current accelerates to 1 3 meters per second which raises the internal froude number above 1 and is intensely turbulent through its full thickness the outflow loses about half of its density anomaly and roughly doubles its volume transport as it entrains less saline north atlantic central water within 100 kilometers downstream the current is turned by the coriolis force until it flows nearly parallel to topography in a damped geostrophic balance the mixed mediterranean outflow continues westward slowly descending the continental slope until it becomes neutrally buoyant in the thermocline where it becomes an important water mass

eddy generation in the mediterranean undercurrent abstract in the framework of the european union mast iii project canary islands gibraltar azores observations 24 rafos floats were deployed in the mediterranean water mw undercurrent off south portugal between september 1997 and september 1998 a preliminary analysis of this lagrangian approach complemented with xbt and current meter data show some of the major aspects of the flow associated with the undercurrent as well as associated eddy activity floats that stayed in the undercurrent featured a downstream deceleration and a steering by bottom topography three meddy formations at cape st vincent could be isolated from the float data the dynamical coupling of meddies and cyclones was observed for a considerable period of time the generation of two dipolar structures in the portimao canyon region also was observed with the float data a major bathymetric relief gorringe bank was not only an important constraint to the eddy trajectories and of the flow at the mw levels but also a site for meddy formation

dynamics and evolution of a northern meddy abstract a meddy was discovered in april 1997 off the northwestern corner of spain near 45 n 11 30 w it was tracked during 18 months with lagrangian floats and deep drogued buoys and several cruises were set to collect further hydrological and lowered adcp measurements on it the meddy named ulla was a one core lens with maximum values of temperature and salinity of 11 5 c and 36 17 psu near 1000 m depth yielding anomalies above 2 5 c and 0 5 psu compared to its environment its rotation frequency was close to 1 loop every 5 days the maximum azimuthal velocities of 15 20 cm s 1 were reached near a 15 km radius the meddy had a wide remote influence notably up to the surface and was associated with a total azimuthal volume transport of around 10 sv sv 106 m3 s 1 of which around 2 sv was trapped in the core a widening of the radial structure with decreasing depth was notable in august 1997 meddy ulla was significantly elliptic for most of the time and depending on the periods the main el

principal component analysis of geodetically measured deformation in long valley caldera eastern california 1983 1987 typical geodetic measurements of deformation consist of repeated surveys of a particular geodetic network such deformation data can be interpreted as a consequence of one or more self coherent sources by means of principal component analysis a self coherent source is defined as any source that produces deformation that is time and space separable principal component analysis then gives the time and space factors that characterize the deformation attributed to each self coherent source geodetic measurements of deformation at long valley caldera provide two examples of the application of principal component analysis a 40 line trilateration network surrounding the caldera was surveyed in midsummer 1983 1984 1985 1986 and 1987 principal component analysis indicates that the observed deformation can be represented by a single coherent source the time dependence for that source displays a rapid rate of deformation in 1983 1984 followed by less rapid but uniform rate in the 1984 1987 interval the spatial factor seems consistent with expansion of a magma chamber beneath the caldera plus some shallow right lateral slip on a vertical fault in the south moat of the caldera an independent principal component analysis of the 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 and 1987 leveling across the caldera requires two self coherent sources to explain the deformation the deformation pattern produced by the larger of these two sources appears to be roughly consistent with that found from the trilateration data the deformation due to the second source is a nearly uniform tilt in the uplift profile presumably that tilt is simply an artifact of systematic error in the leveling

the influence of an upper thermocline current on intrathermocline eddies abstract in this study the effect of an upper layer current on the propagation of intermediate vortices such as mediterranean water eddies is investigated the author discusses the advection mechanism proposed by hogg and stommel and shows how the vertical shear of the mean current can also modify the dynamics of an eddy acting as a gradient source of background potential vorticity

a chronology of paleozoic sea level changes sea levels have been determined for most of the paleozoic era 542 to 251 million years ago but an integrated history of sea levels has remained unrealized we reconstructed a history of sea level fluctuations for the entire paleozoic by using stratigraphic sections from pericratonic and cratonic basins evaluation of the timing and amplitude of individual sea level events reveals that the magnitude of change is the most problematic to estimate accurately the long term sea level shows a gradual rise through the cambrian reaching a zenith in the late ordovician then a short lived but prominent withdrawal in response to hirnantian glaciation subsequent but decreasingly substantial eustatic highs occurred in the mid silurian near the middle late devonian boundary and in the latest carboniferous eustatic lows are recorded in the early devonian near the mississippian pennsylvanian boundary and in the late permian one hundred and seventy two eustatic events are documented for the paleozoic varying in magnitude from a few tens of meters to 125 meters

characterization of gps time series at the neapolitan volcanic area by statistical analysis 1 the gps time series recorded at the neapolitan volcanic area reveals a very peculiar behavior when a clear deformation is observed the amplitude distribution evolves from a super gaussian to a broader distribution this behavior can be characterized by evaluating the kurtosis spurious periodic components were evidenced by independent component analysis and then removed by filtering the original signal the time series for all stations was modeled with a fifth order polynomial fit which represents the deformation history at that place indeed when this polynomial is subtracted from the time series the distributions again become super gaussian a simulation of the deformation time evolution was performed by superposing a laplacian noise and a synthetic deformation history the kurtosis of the obtained signals decreases as the superposition increases enlightening the insurgence of the deformation the presented approach represents a contribution aimed at adding further information to the studies about the deformation at the neapolitan volcanic area by revealing geologically relevant data

methane release from igneous intrusion of coal during late permian extinction events abstract unusually large and locally variable carbon isotope excursions coincident with mass extinctions at the end of the permian period 253 ma and guadalupian epoch 260 ma can be attributed to methane outbursts to the atmosphere methane has isotopic values 13c low enough to reduce to feasible amounts the carbon required for isotopic mass balance the duration of the carbon isotopic excursions and inferred methane releases are here constrained to 10 000 yr by counting annual varves in lake deposits and by estimating peat accumulation rates on paleogeographic maps the most marked carbon isotope excursions form linear arrays back to plausible methane sources end permian siberian traps and longwood bluff intrusions of new zealand and end guadalupian emeishan traps of china intrusion of coal seams by feeder dikes to flood basalts could create successive thermogenic methane outbursts of the observed timing and magnitude but these are unreasonably short times for replenishment of marine or permaf

coupled carbon isotopic and sedimentological records from the permian system of eastern australia reveal the response of atmospheric carbon dioxide to glacial growth and decay during the late palaeozoic ice age abstract proxy geochemical records from high latitude ice proximal deposits have the potential to provide key insights into past icehouse climates but such records are rare the permian system of eastern australia contains a rich record of environmental and climatic changes that occurred in areas proximal to glaciation during the acme and waning stages of the late palaeozoic ice age within this succession a wealth of fine grained organic matter rich facies provides an opportunity to construct a bulk 13corg record that records changes in atmospheric co2 through the permian fluctuations in 13corg track changes in climate determined independently on the basis of sedimentological criteria in the same strata these patterns are also broadly consistent with multiple proxy records derived from palaeoequatorial sites the results of this geochemical investigation 1 support recent studies using the high latitude ice proximal sedimentologic and stratigraphic record and palaeoequatorial geochemical proxies that document highly variable climatic conditions within the overall permian icehouse to greenhouse transition and 2 confirms that the sedimentary record of glaciation from eastern australia reflects global changes in atmospheric co2 on several m y order timescales

tracking three meddies with sofar floats abstract three meddies were tracked for up to two years in the canary basin using neutrally buoyant sofar floats these meddies have cores of warm salty mediterranean water and are approximately 100 km in diameter 800 m thick and are centered at a depth of 1100 m meddy 1 was tracked for two years 1984 86 with five floats as it drifted 1090 km southward with a mean velocity of 1 8 cm s 1 four shipboard surveys made during these two years revealed the nearly total decay of meddy 1 by gradual mixing processes meddy 2 drifted 530 km southwestward over 8 5 months with a mean velocity of 2 3 cm s 1 until it collided with hyeres seamount near 31 n 29 w the floats trapped in this meddy then stopped looping abruptly implying a major disruption of this meddy meddy 3 drifted 500 km southwestward for a year and a half with a mean translation velocity of 1 1 cm s 1 a comparison of the velocity of meddies to the velocity of nearby floats at 1100 m depth outside of the meddies shows clearly that all three m

large lenses of highly saline mediterranean water isolated compact anticyclonic eddies or salt lenses were found in the canary basin hydrographic surveys of three such lenses show large anomalies of salinity and temperature 0 8 2 5 c they are centered at 1100 m have a vertical extent of up to 900 m and radii of 50 km current meter records indicate anticyclonic velocities up to 29 cm s 1 fine structure with vertical scales of 20 m and less possibly due to intrusive decay appears at the outer edges of the lenses whereas the centers are free of such structure the probability of finding a salt lens at any station in the canary basin is fairly high 0 08

emeishan basalts sw china and the end guadalupian crisis magnetobiostratigraphic constraints abstract a magnetostratigraphic investigation of the permian emeishan lip large igneous province was carried out on a composite section in ebian county close to the type area in sichuan sw china the main succession of twelve flows 175 m thick carries a normal polarity whilst the one reliable site from the overlying 30 m thick volcanic waning sequence is marked by a reverse polarity the data enable a correlation to be proposed with an emeishan basalt sequence in western guizhou c 400 km to the se from our knowledge of the geomagnetic field9s reversal behaviour during the permian it suggests that the main lava pile along the eastern half of the emeishan basalt outcrop belt was erupted within a half to one million years using magnetobiostratigraphic data from the adjacent south china platform the normal polarity magnetozone is correlated with the normal polarity chron associated with the upper part of the maokou limestones constrained by conodont data the main emei basalts appear to be at least two biozones older 1 1 5 ma than the mid late permian boundary it is possible however that the emei basalt waning zone sequence which represents an explosive volcanic phase might be coeval with the end guadalupian biotic crisis thus arguments implicating emei basalt volcanism as the causal mechanism behind this major global event have to accommodate the new relative age constraints

volcanism mass extinction and carbon isotope fluctuations in the middle permian of china the 260 million year old emeishan volcanic province of southwest china overlies and is interbedded with middle permian carbonates that contain a record of the guadalupian mass extinction sections in the region thus provide an opportunity to directly monitor the relative timing of extinction and volcanism within the same locations these show that the onset of volcanism was marked by both large phreatomagmatic eruptions and extinctions amongst fusulinacean foraminifers and calcareous algae the temporal coincidence of these two phenomena supports the idea of a cause and effect relationship the crisis predates the onset of a major negative carbon isotope excursion that points to subsequent severe disturbance of the ocean atmosphere carbon cycle

observations and laboratory modeling of meddy generation at cape st vincent abstract the amuse canigo and ampor observations provided a large amount of subsurface float data showing evidence of several distinctly different flow behaviors within the mediterranean water layers in the vicinity of cape st vincent southwest portugal some of the floats followed the coastline and moved northward and some were trapped either in anticyclonic lenses of mediterranean water meddies generated at cape st vincent or in cyclonic structures these observations clearly indicated that the anticyclones were accompanied by cyclones at least during their early stages as the dipolar structure moves away from the cape the cyclone tends to shift slowly away from the anticyclone while decaying so that after some time only the meddy persists these in situ observations are compared with large scale laboratory experiments and the agreement between the two sets of observations is remarkably good near the cape and shortly after the generation the nondimensional radius relative vorticity and r

short term sediment dynamics on a meso scale contourite drift off nw iberia impacts of multi scale oceanographic processes deduced from the analysis of mooring data and numerical modelling abstract possible driving mechanisms of sediment dynamics in a contourite drift moat obstacle system on the continental slope off the nw iberian peninsula are investigated in this study based on a statistical analysis of an 18 month long mooring record in combination with a 3 dimensional process based numerical modelling analysis of the mooring data indicates that the modern hydrodynamic regime in the study area is non linear with a significant impact of internal tides and a non negligible influence by the earth s rotation a consistent counteraction between barotropic and baroclinic tidal currents mainly at m2 frequency results in a weak bottom flow that rarely exceeds the threshold velocity for resuspension of sandy silts in the system this observation explains a late holocene hemipelagic vertical settling deposition of a fine grained 8 10 m sediment surface layer over the entire drift as well as inside the moat in order to unravel possible driving forces for active sediment remobilization during the deglacial early holocene interval between 17 000 and 4000 cal yr bp that is consistent with the sedimentary record different oceanographic scenarios were designed for a numerical study simulation results demonstrate that pulse like oceanic density fronts and associated km scale eddies which originate from instability in the transition zone of two water masses labrador sea water mediterranean outflow water being aided by tidal and geostrophic currents and locally strengthened by topography are the most reasonable mechanisms inducing contouritic sediment transport and deposition that are observed in the sediment core transect these density fronts are of subordinate impact for the modern contourite drift which is bathed by labrador sea water nowadays however a vertical downward migration or expansion of the overlying mediterranean outflow water by 300 m between 17 000 and 4000 cal yr bp would facilitate a generation of significant density fronts at the depth of the contourite drift this mow migration is believed to leave imprints on other contourite systems located at similar depth in the region

the mediterranean water tongue and its chlorofluoromethane signal in the iberian basin in early summer 1989 hydrographic observations from the iberian basin demonstrate the variability of water masses in upper and intermediate layers the surveyed area embraces the internal front between water masses from higher latitudes and the mediterranean outflow exhibits several isolated mediterranean eddy meddy structures at middepth and displays the virtual source region for the mediterranean water mw tongue off the portuguese continental slope the description is enhanced by additional chlorofluoromethane measurements which show anomalously high concentrations at middepth due to mixing of mw with the overlying atlantic waters in the gulf of cadiz the geostrophic stream function shows several meddylike features that not only are remarkably extended in the depth range of the mw but are also correlated with surface height anomalies

permo triassic boundary superanoxia and stratified superocean records from lost deep sea pelagic cherts of japan and british columbia canada recorded a long term and worldwide deep sea anoxic oxygen depleted event across the permo triassic or paleozoic and mesozoic boundary 251 2 million years ago the symmetry in lithostratigraphy and redox condition of the boundary sections suggest that the superocean panthalassa became totally stratified for nearly 20 million years across the boundary the timing of onset climax and termination of the oceanic stratification correspond to global biotic events including the end guadalupian decline the end permian extinction and mid triassic recovery

oxygen isotope evolution of biogenic calcite and apatite during the middle and late devonian oxygen isotope ratios of well preserved brachiopod calcite and conodont apatite were used to reconstruct the palaeotemperature history of the middle and late devonian by assuming an oxygen isotopic composition of 1 v smow for devonian seawater the oxygen isotope values of eifelian and early givetian brachiopods and conodonts give average palaeotemperatures ranging from 22 to 25 c late givetian and frasnian palaeotemperatures calculated from 18o values of conodont apatite are close to 25 c in the early frasnian and increase to 32 c in the latest frasnian and early famennian oxygen isotope ratios of late givetian and frasnian brachiopods are significantly lower than equilibrium values calculated from conodont apatite 18o values and give unrealistically warm temperatures ranging from 30 to 40 c diagenetic recrystallization of shell calcite different habitats of conodonts and brachiopods as well as non equilibrium fractionation processes during the precipitation of brachiopod calcite cannot explain the 18o depletion of brachiopod calcite moreover the 18o depletion of brachiopod calcite with respect to equilibrium 18o values calculated from conodont apatite is too large to be explained by a change in seawater ph that might have influenced the oxygen isotopic composition of brachiopod calcite the realistic palaeotemperatures derived from 18o apatite may suggest that biogenic apatite records the oxygen isotopic composition and palaeotemperature of palaeozoic oceans more faithfully than brachiopod calcite and do not support the hypothesis that the 18o 16o ratio of devonian seawater was significantly different from that of the modern ocean

the whisper of the hydrothermal seismic noise at ischia island abstract this work is devoted to the study of the background seismic noise at ischia island we highlight two persistent independent signals with dominant frequency peaks in the range 1 2 hz and 3 4 hz respectively the first signal is the most energetic and persistent and its polarization properties are well defined revealing a shallow propagation likely controlled by both tectonic volcanic structures and morphological features this signal is well correlated at all the stations in the casamicciola area and its group velocity is estimated as 500 600 m s the second signal shows similar polarization properties but the temporal pattern of its amplitude is strongly affected by anthropogenic noise revealing a modulation on a diurnal scale on the investigated spatial scales any clearly correlated signal is not evidenced we interpret the 1 2 hz correlated wave packets as the persistent whisper of the shallow circulation of fluids which are a mixing of sea and meteoric water and thermal fluids of the hydrothermal reservoir in the conceptual scheme of the self sustained musical instruments we hypothesize that the solid structure of the shallow hydrothermal system of ischia is formed by a network of channels continuously excited by the circulating hydrothermal fluids which produce a whispered sound i e the seismic noise this mechanism is able to produce persistent self sustained oscillations that we observe as the 1 2 hz seismic signal and eventually higher modes

lagrangian observations of meddy formation during a mediterranean undercurrent seeding experiment mediterranean eddies meddies play an important role in maintaining the temperature and salinity distributions in the north atlantic but relatively little is known about their early life histories including where how often and by what mechanism they form a major field program called a mediterranean undercurrent seeding experiment has been carried out to directly observe meddy formation and the spreading pathways of mediterranean water into the north atlantic between may 1993 and march 1994 49 rafos floats were deployed sequentially in the mediterranean undercurrent south of portugal and tracked acoustically for up to 11 months the float deployments were accompanied by high resolution xbt sections across the undercurrent nine meddy formation events were observed in the float trajectories six near cape st vincent at the southwestern corner of the iberian peninsula and three near the estremadura promontory along the western portuguese continental slope meddy formation thus occurs where the continental slope turns sharply to the right when facing in the downstream direction of the undercurrent after conditionally sampling the float dataset to identify floats that were well seeded in the undercurrent the authors have estimated a meddy formation rate of 15 20 meddies per year the timescale for meddy formation at cape st vincent was found to be 3 7 days shorter than previous estimates based on the volume of larger meddies meddies were observed to form most frequently when the speed of the mediterranean undercurrent was relatively fast the meddy formation process at cape st vincent resembles the conceptual model of e a d asaro whereby anticyclonically rotating eddies are formed by separation of a frictional boundary layer with negative relative vorticity at a sharp corner comparison of the relative vorticity in the anticyclonic shear zone of the undercurrent and that of the newly formed meddies shows that much of the anticyclonic relative vorticity in meddies can be accounted for by the horizontal shear in the undercurrent this confirms earlier work suggesting that the classical mechanism for the generation of submesoscale coherent vortices by collapse and geostrophic adjustment of a weakly stratified fluid injected into a stratified ocean may not be the principle mechanism at work in the formation of meddies at cape st vincent

permian tectonic framework and palaeogeography of se asia abstract the principal continental lithospheric terranes now comprising se asia and that existed in the permian are the south china indochina super terrane and the sibumasu simao west burma and sw borneo semitau terranes the simao terrane is here regarded a separate terrane derived from south china by back arc spreading in the lower carboniferous rather than as an extension of indochina the main palaeo tethys ocean in thailand is identified as being represented by the chiang mai and sra kaeo sutures and the eastern boundary of the sibumasu terrane is thus interpreted to lie farther west in thailand than previously inferred the nan uttaradit suture is interpreted as representing a marginal back arc basin and contiguous with the ailaoshan and jinshajiang sutures in sw china the south china indochina super terrane and the simao terrane were located within the palaeo tethys in equatorial latitudes during the permian where they together with north china exhibit cathaysian floras and faunas the sibumasu terrane was located on the nw australian margin of gondwana until the sakmarian major shifts in faunal affinities from gondwana province faunas to an independent sibumasu province and then to assimilation into the cathaysian province records the separation and rapid northward drift of sibumasu after the late sakmarian the principal permian palaeogeographic models for the region are assessed for internal consistencies and conflicts

a syn eruptive ground deformation episode measured by gps during the 2001 eruption on the upper southern flank of mt etna ground deformation occurring on the southern flank of mt etna volcano during the july august 2001 eruption was monitored by gps measurements along an e w profile crossing the fissure system this profile was measured eight times during the eruption using the stop and go semi kinematic technique horizontal and vertical displacements between gps surveys are reported for each station the most significant event is a deformation episode occurring during the first week of the eruption between 25 27 july displacements were measured on benchmarks close to the eruptive fissure and the tensile 1989 fracture data inversions for measured displacements were performed using the okada model the model shows the narrowing of the 2001 dyke accompanied by a dextral dislocation along an east dipping fault parallel to the 1989 fracture

meddy trajectories in the canary basin measured during the semaphore experiment 1993 1995 as part of the structures des echanges mer atmosphere proprietes des heterogeneites oceaniques recherche experimentale semaphore experiment four mediterranean water eddies meddies were identified in the canary basin and tracked with freely drifting rafos floats one large and energetic meddy discovered 1700 km west of cape saint vincent portugal set a distance and speed record as it translated another 1700 km southwestward at 3 9 cm s during 1 5 years this meddy traveled 57 of the distance from cape saint vincent toward the spot mcdowell and rossby 1978 found a possible meddy north of the dominican republic two meddies were observed to interact with the azores current as they passed underneath or through it three meddies collided with tall seamounts which seemed to disrupt the normal swirl velocity perhaps fatally in two cases one meddy appeared to bifurcate when it collided with seamounts