north atlantic current variability through marine isotope stage m2 circa 3 3 ma during the mid pliocene 1 the mid pliocene was an episode of prolonged global warmth and strong north atlantic thermohaline circulation interrupted briefly at circa 3 30 ma by a global cooling event corresponding to marine isotope stage mis m2 paleoceanographic changes in the eastern north atlantic have been reconstructed between circa 3 35 and 3 24 ma at deep sea drilling project site 610 and integrated ocean drilling program site 1308 mg ca ratios and 18o from globigerina bulloides are used to reconstruct the temperature and relative salinity of surface waters and dinoflagellate cyst assemblages are used to assess variability in the north atlantic current nac our sea surface temperature data indicate warm waters at both sites before and after mis m2 but a cooling of 2 3 c during mis m2 a dinoflagellate cyst assemblage overturn marked by a decline in operculodinium centrocarpum reflects a southward shift or slowdown of the nac between circa 3 330 and 3 283 ma reducing northward heat transport 23 35 ka before the global ice volume maximum of mis m2 this will have established conditions that ultimately allowed the greenland ice sheet to expand leading to the global cooling event at mis m2 comparison with an ice rafted debris record excludes fresh water input via icebergs in the northeast atlantic as a cause of nac decline the mechanism causing the temporary disruption of the nac may be related to a brief reopening of the panamanian gateway at about this time

observations on the role of the bernice coal field sullivan county pennsylvania anthracites in the development of coalification theories in the appalachians abstract the bernice coal field sullivan county pennsylvania contains anthracite rank coal in relatively unfolded strata that setting along with a misinterpretation of the significance of apparent rank anomalies led to examples from the bernice coal field being used in the development of coalification theories in the late 1800 s and early 1900 s the evidence available was used to justify both theories of thrust pressure coalification and rank variation due to original differences in the peat or peat accumulation processes as opposed to thermal metamorphism

the bering and okhotsk seas modern and past paleoceanographic changes and gateway impact abstract the high biological productivity and an efficient biological pumping in the subarctic pacific and adjacent seas make this region important to the modern carbon cycle and both modern and the past climate of the earth knowledge of the northern marginal seas of the pacific however is unsubstantial the bering sea is located between the pacific ocean and the arctic sea and plays an important role in ocean circulation involving balances of heat salt and various chemical properties thus it is necessary to unravel the geologic history of the bering sea as a gateway to the pacific and the arctic atlantic during the last 5 million years and beyond the okhotsk sea is considered a locus of north pacific intermediate water formation today the intermediate water formation is linked with seasonal sea ice cover diatom records from the okhotsk sea demonstrate that sea ice cover was distributed on the western side of the sea and the eastern part was open water during the last glacial maximum this configuration permitted a better ventilation of the glacial okhotsk sea through increased quantity of intermediate water presumably formed there at that time

oxygen isotope calibration of the onset of ice rafting and history of glaciation in the north atlantic region we report here that dsdp site 552a cored with the hydraulic piston corer on the west flank of rockall bank recovered an undisturbed sequence of alternating white deep sea carbonate oozes and dark coloured layers that are rich in glacial debris oxygen isotope analysis of the sequence together with detailed nannofossil and palaeomagnetic stratigraphy shows that the first major horizon of ice rafting occurred at about 2 4 myr and was preceded by a minor pulse of ice rafting at about 2 5 myr the carbon isotope record shows that the site has been bathed by a water mass of similar characteristics to present day north atlantic deep water at least since 3 5 myr

the progressive intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation as seen from the north pacific ocean drilling project odp site 882 50 22 n 167 36 e provides the first high resolution grape density magnetic susceptibility carbonate opal and foraminifera planktonic and benthic stable isotopes records between 3 2 and 2 4 ma in the northwest pacific we observed a dramatic increase in ice rafting debris at site 882 at 2 75 ma which is coeval with that found in the norwegian sea suggesting that the eurasian arctic and northeast asia were significantly glaciated from 2 75 ma onwards prior to 2 75 ma planktonic foraminifera 18o records indicate a warming or freshening trend of 4 c or 2 over 80 ka if this is interpreted as a warm pre glacial pliocene north pacific it may have provided the additional moisture required to initially build up the northern hemisphere continental ice sheet the dramatic drop in sea surface temperatures sst 7 5 c at 2 75 ma ended this suggested period of enhanced sst and thus the proposed moisture pump moreover at 2 79 and 2 73 ma opal mass accumulation rates mar decrease in two steps by five fold and is accompanied by a more gradual long term decrease in caco3 mars evidence from the southern ocean odp site 704 indicates that just prior to 2 6 ma there is a massive increase in opal mars the opposite to what is found in the north pacific this indicates that the intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation was accompanied by a major reorganisation of global oceanic chemical budget possibly caused by changes in deep ocean circulation the initiation of northern hemisphere glaciation occurred in the late miocene with a significant build up of ice on southern greenland however the progressive intensification did not occur until 3 5 3 ma when the greenland ice sheet expanded to include northern greenland following this stage we suggest that the eurasian arctic and northeast asia glaciated at 2 75 ma approximately 100 ka before the glaciation of alaska 2 65 ma and 200 ka before the glaciation of the north east american continent 2 54 ma

geologic controls on thermal maturity patterns in pennsylvanian coal bearing rocks in the appalachian basin thermal maturation patterns of pennsylvanian strata in the appalachian basin were determined by compiling and contouring published and unpublished vitrinite reflectance vr measurements vr isograd values range from 0 6 in eastern ohio and eastern kentucky western side of the east kentucky coal field to greater than 5 5 in eastern pennsylvania southern anthracite field schuylkill county corresponding to astm coal rank classes of high volatile c bituminous to meta anthracite vr isograds show that thermal maturity of pennsylvanian coals generally increases from west to east across the basin the isograds patterns which are indicative of maximum temperatures during burial can be explained by variations in paleodepth of burial paleogeothermal gradient or a combination of both however there are at least four areas of unusually high rank coal in the appalachian basin that depart from the regional trends and are difficult to explain by depth of burial alone 1 a west northwestward salient centered in southwestern pennsylvania 2 an elliptically shaped northeast trending area centered in southern west virginia and western virginia 3 the eastern part of black warrior coal field alabama and 4 the pennsylvania anthracite region in eastern pennsylvania high rank excursions in southwest pennsylvania the black warrior coal field and the pennsylvania anthracite region are interpreted here to represent areas of higher paleo heat flow related to syntectonic movement of hot fluids towards the foreland associated with alleghanian deformation in addition to higher heat flow from fluids the pennsylvania anthracite region also experienced greater depth of burial the high rank excursion in southwest virginia was probably primarily controlled by overburden thickness but may also have been influenced by higher geothermal gradients

the bering sea and paleoceanography abstract this paper serves as an introduction to the bering sea preceding the 14 contributed papers contained in this volume several parts of the paper are allocated for current reviews of the bering sea included in the review topics are geomorphology surface water circulation and the importance of the formation of intermediate waters representative results of previous paleoceanographic studies are also presented in particular focusing on spatial and temporal distributions of biosiliceous microfossils as well as isotopic analyses of carbon and nitrogen concerning changes in productivity and nutrients motivations behind the scientific expeditions conducted which resulted in the many papers included here are briefly discussed in order to illustrate the recent trend in paleoceanography in the bering sea and the adjacent regions brief summaries or highlights of each of the contributed papers are given in order to provide an overview of the volume

diatom evidence on wisconsin and holocene events in the bering sea abstract previous work on surface modern sediments has defined diatom species which appear to be good indicators of various oceanographic ecologic conditions in the north pacific ocean and marginal seas three long cores from the eastern and northern sides of the aleutian basin show changes in species assemblage which can be interpreted in terms of changes in the ocean environment during the last glaciation wisconsin and the holocene the early and late wisconsin maxima were times of prolonged annual sea ice cover and a short cool period of phytoplankton productivity during the ice free season the middle wisconsin interstade at least in the southern bering sea had greater seasonal contrast than today with some winter sea ice cover an intensified temperature minimum and high spring productivity variations in clastic and reworked fossil material imply varying degrees of transport to the basin by alaskan rivers the results of jouse from the central bering sea generally correspond with those presented here although there are problems with direct comparison

correlation between optical chemical and micro structural parameters of high rank coals and graphite abstract in order to identify the parameters that best characterize the chemical and structural evolution of organic matter during coalification the relationships between optical chemical and micro structural parameters in high rank coals and natural graphite were studied the samples include anthracites from penarroya belmez espiel basin spain douro basin portugal and alto chicama basin peru and natural graphite from canada mozambique and austria correlations between the following optical parameters were assessed vitrinite random reflectance rr reflectance indicating surfaces ris axis rmax rint and rmin and ris parameters ram rev and rst as well as bw and ai anisotropy parameters furthermore the chemical parameters used were chosen according to their significant variation in coals namely volatile matter carbon and hydrogen contents calculated in dry ash free basis vmdaf cdaf hdaf as well as the h c atomic ratio structural organization was characterized by micro raman spectroscopy and xrd raman parameters used were the full width at half maximum fwhm and position of g and d1 bands on the first order raman spectrum and the id1 ig intensity area ratio the selected xrd parameters were interlayer spacing d002 and crystallite sizes la and lc results show that i rmax ris axis seems to correlate best with chemical and micro structural parameters ii for the majority of studied samples hdaf and h c atomic ratio are the only chemical parameters with significant correlations with rmax iii the fwhm of the g band of raman spectrum shows good linear correlation with the xrd parameter d002 and iv structural organization of carbon materials as measured by trends in their optical and crystalline parameters is influenced by their hydrogen content daf basis and therefore by the h c atomic ratio

the younger dryas and the sea of ancient ice we propose that prior to the younger dryas period the arctic ocean supported extremely thick multi year fast ice overlain by superimposed ice and firn we re introduce the historical term paleocrystic ice to describe this the ice was independent of continental glacier ice and formed a massive floating body trapped within the almost closed arctic basin when sea level was lower during the last glacial maximum as sea level rose and the barents sea shelf became deglaciated the volume of warm atlantic water entering the arctic ocean increased as did the corresponding egress driving the paleocrystic ice towards fram strait new evidence shows that bering strait was resubmerged around the same time providing further dynamical forcing of the ice as the transpolar drift became established additional freshwater entered the arctic basin from siberia and north america from proglacial lakes and meltwater derived from the laurentide ice sheet collectively these forces drove large volumes of thick paleocrystic ice and relatively fresh water from the arctic ocean into the greenland sea shutting down deepwater formation and creating conditions conducive for extensive sea ice to form and persist as far south as 60 n we propose that the forcing responsible for the younger dryas cold episode was thus the result of extremely thick sea ice being driven from the arctic ocean dampening or shutting off the thermohaline circulation as sea level rose and atlantic and pacific waters entered the arctic basin this hypothesis focuses attention on the potential role of arctic sea ice in causing the younger dryas episode but does not preclude other factors that may also have played a role

paleoglaciology s grand unsolved problem the paleoglaciological concept that during the pleistocene glacial hemi cycles a super large structurally complex ice sheet developed in the arctic and behaved as a single dynamic system as the antarctic ice sheet does today has not yet been subjected to concerted studies designed to test the predictions of this concept yet it may hold the keys to solutions of major problems of paleoglaciology to understanding climate and sea level changes the russian arctic is the least known region exposed to paleoglaciation by a hypothetical arctic ice sheet but now it is more open to testing the concept implementation of these tests is a chaillenging task as the region is extensive and the available data are controversial well planned and coordinated field projects are needed today as well as broad discussion of the known evidence existing interpretations and new field results here we present the known evidence for paleoglaciation of the russian arctic continental shelf and reconstruct possible marine ice sheets that could have produced that evidence

diatoms silicoflagellates and ebridians at site u1341 on the western slope of bowers ridge iodp expedition 323 abstract the biostratigraphy and datum levels of diatoms silicoflagellates and ebridians are presented at site u1341 drilled by the iodp expedition 323 on the western slope of bowers ridge in the bering sea identified biostratigraphic diatom zones were from the neodenticula seminae zone to the thalassiosira oestrupii subzone silicoflagellate and ebridian zones were from the distephanus octangulatus zone to the distephanus jimlingii zone the bottom age in the deepest hole u1341b is estimated between 4 1 ma and 5 0 ma based on the succession of microfossil assemblages throughout the studied holes the changes in paleoceanographic conditions are outlined

formation of internally drained contractional basins by aridity limited bedrock incision 1 low internal relief aridity and internal drainage characterize the puna altiplano plateau and the tibetan plateau and the tarim basin structurally these areas are reverse fault bounded terrains with intervening wedge top basins that store thick accumulations of sediment for millions of years orographic barriers along the margins of these basins are oriented normal to moisture bearing winds resulting in regional aridity the combination of this aridity rapid shortening and uplift rates and resistant exposed lithologies coincides with the location of these internally drained basins we hypothesize that these large internally drained areas persist indefinitely when uplift overwhelms the fluvial systems and defeats the channel network to test this hypothesis we developed models of channel defeat to examine the threshold conditions required to fragment the channel network the results of these models suggest that low erodibility rocks moderate to high uplift rates and low precipitation favor defeat of orogen traversing channels most coupled tectonic landscape development models prevent the development of internal drainage and so may overestimate the voracity of erosion in regimes that favor internal drainage profoundly influencing predicted orogenic growth patterns

orbital scale benthic foraminiferal oxygen isotope stratigraphy at the northern bering sea slope site u1343 iodp expedition 323 and its pleistocene paleoceanographic significance abstract a continuous composite oxygen isotope 18o stratigraphy from benthic foraminifera in the bering sea was reconstructed in order to provide insight into understanding sea ice evolution in response to northern hemisphere glaciation oxygen isotope records from multiple species of benthic foraminifera at integrated ocean drilling program iodp expedition 323 site u1343 54 33 4 n 176 49 0 e water depth 1950 m yield a highly refined orbital scale age model spanning the last 1 2 ma and a refined age model between 1 2 and 2 4 ma an inter species calibration was used to define species offsets and to successfully obtain a continuous composite benthic 18o record correlated with the global composite benthic 18o stack curve lr04 to construct an orbital scale age model the consistency of the benthic 18o stratigraphy with biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy confirms the reliability of both methods for constraining age the time difference between cyclic changes in sedimentary physical properties and glacial interglacial cycles since 0 8 ma is notable and suggests that physical properties alone cannot be used to construct an orbital scale age model amplitude changes in physical properties and a significant drop in the linear sedimentation rate during glacials after 0 9 ma indicate that the glacial sea ice edge extended beyond the bering sea slope site u1343 at this time

last glacial maximum to holocene sea surface conditions at umnak plateau bering sea as inferred from diatom alkenone and stable isotope records 1 the bering sea gateway between the pacific and arctic oceans impacts global climate when glacial interglacial shifts in shore line position and ice coverage change regional albedo previous work has shown that during the last glacial termination and into the holocene sea level rises and sea ice coverage diminishes from perennial to absent yet existing work has not quantified sea ice duration or sea surface temperatures sst during this transition here we combine diatom assemblages with the first alkenone record from the bering sea to provide a semiquantitative record of sea ice duration sst and productivity change since the last glacial maximum lgm during the lgm diatom assemblages indicate that sea ice covered the southeastern bering sea perennially at 15 1 cal ka b p the diatom assemblage shifts to one more characteristic of seasonal sea ice and alkenones occur in the sediments in low concentrations deglaciation is characterized by laminated intervals with highly productive and diverse diatom assemblages and inferred high coccolithophorid production at 11 3 cal ka b p the diatom assemblage shifts from one dominated by sea ice species to one dominated by a warmer water north pacific species simultaneously the sst increases by 3 c and the southeastern bering sea becomes ice free year round productivity and temperature proxies are positively correlated with independently dated records from elsewhere in the bering sea the sea of okhotsk and the north pacific indicating that productivity and sst changes are coeval across the region

tectonics and climate of the southern central andes the history of the southern central andes including the world s second largest plateau and adjacent intermontane basins and ranges of the eastern cordillera and the northern sierras pampeanas of argentina and bolivia impressively documents the effects of tectonics and topography on atmospheric circulation patterns the development of orographic barriers and their influence on erosion and landscape evolution at various timescales protracted aridity in the orogen interior has facilitated the creation and maintenance of the puna altiplano plateau contraction and range uplift filling of basins and possibly wholesale uplift of the plateau increased gravitational stresses in the orogen interior which caused the eastward migration of deformation into the foreland and successive aridification the uplift of the andean orogen has also had a far reaching influence on atmospheric and moisture transport patterns in south america this is documented by the onset of humid climate conditions on the eastern side of the andes in late miocene time which was coupled with the establishment of dramatic precipitation gradients perpendicular to the orogen and changes in tectonic processes in the andean orogenic wedge

sediment transport by sea ice in the chukchi and beaufort seas increasing importance due to changing ice conditions abstract sediment laden sea ice is widespread over the shallow wide siberian arctic shelves with off shelf export from the laptev and east siberian seas contributing substantially to the arctic ocean s sediment budget by contrast the north american shelves owing to their narrow width and greater water depths have not been deemed as important for basin wide sediment transport by sea ice observations over the chukchi and beaufort shelves in 2001 02 revealed the widespread occurrence of sediment laden ice over an area of more than 100 000 km2 between 68 and 74 n and 155 and 170 w ice stratigraphic studies indicate that sediment inclusions were associated with entrainment of frazil ice into deformed multiple layers of rafted nilas indicative of a flaw lead environment adjacent to the landfast ice of the chukchi and beaufort seas this is corroborated by buoy trajectories and satellite imagery indicating entrainment in a coastal polynya in the eastern chukchi sea in february of 2002 as well as formation of sediment laden ice along the beaufort sea coast as far eastward as the mackenzie shelf moored upward looking sonar on the mackenzie shelf provides further insight into the ice growth and deformation regime governing sediment entrainment analysis of radarsat synthetic aperture sar imagery in conjunction with bathymetric data help constrain the water depth of sediment resuspension and subsequent ice entrainment 20 m for the chukchi sea sediment loads averaged at 128 t km 2 with sediment occurring in layers of roughly 0 5 m thickness mostly in the lower ice layers the total amount of sediment transported by sea ice mostly out of the narrow zone between the landfast ice edge and waters too deep for resuspension and entrainment is at minimum 4 106 t in the sampling area and is estimated at 5 8 106 t over the entire chukchi and beaufort shelves in 2001 02 representing a significant term in the sediment budget of the western arctic ocean recent changes in the chukchi and beaufort sea ice regimes reduced summer minimum ice extent ice thinning reduction in multi year ice extent altered drift paths and mid winter landfast ice break out events have likely resulted in an increase of sediment laden ice in the area apart from contributing substantially to along and across shelf particulate flow an increase in the amount of dirty ice significantly impacts sub ice algal production and may enhance the dispersal of pollutants

on the fundamental difference between coal rank and coal type abstract this article addresses the fundamental difference between coal rank and coal type while theoretically settled long ago as being different aspects of coal systems science the two concepts are still often confounded in recent years this has resulted in the publication of several works stating that coal type changes with coal rank coal type refers solely to coals depositional origin and the maceral mineral admixture resulting from that origin coal types typically fall in to two categories humic coals developed from peat and sapropelic coals developed from organic mud either type may be allocthonous or autochthonous and within types further refinement of depositional environment can be made coal rank refers to the changes in geochemistry and resultant changes in reflectance caused by increasing thermal maturity of the coal thus it provides an overprint of maturity on existing coal types with proper techniques such as use of crossed polars and etching maceral forms can be differentiated even at high ranks and the original coal type determined

orbital and suborbital environmental changes in the southern bering sea during the last 50 kyr abstract high resolution geochemical paleontological and lithological records of two sediment cores in the southern bering sea manifest regional environmental changes over the last 50 kyr on orbital and millennial time scales high ice rafted debris ird content and percentages of radiolarian species cycladophora davisiana ehrenberg during marine isotope stages miss 3 and 2 indicate active intermediate water ventilation driven by intensive winter sea ice formation in the southern bering sea although the total abundance of siliceous microfossils in glacial sediments is relatively low glacial productivity is higher than in the late holocene on the millennial time scale decreases in the abundance of calcareous and siliceous microfossils and in c davisiana at studied core may imply enhancement of sea ice influence synchronous with heinrich events h 5 to 2 changes in the 18o of fossil benthic and planktonic foraminifera during h 5 3 are inferred to be related to variability in ice sheet volume similar to the pattern from antarctica accompanied by glacioeustatic sea level fluctuations up to 20 30 m in amplitude the maximum benthic and planktonic 18o values in the studied cores occur during the lgm when sea level was at the lowest stand and sea bottom water temperature was around 0 4 c strong environmental changes during the heinrich event 1 and b a warming in the southern bering sea provide evidence of deglacial injection of very old water and the subsequent increase in productivity due to surface and intermediate water mixing from the lgm to the mid holocene the 18obenth foram changes corresponded to changes in the global deep water 18o and a rise in the deep water temperature to 1 0 c at 8 5 6 5 kyr bp the subsequent environmental changes in late holocene helped establishment of near modern day hydrological and environmental conditions featuring strong surface water stratification and weakened deep water ventilation

tectonic inversion in the santa barbara system of the central andean foreland thrust belt northwestern argentina 1 the santa barbara system sbs of northern argentina is a 400 km long segment of the subandean foreland thrust belt it is characterized by predominantly west verging relatively high angle thrust faults many of these faults are reactivated normal faults from one branch of a complex cretaceous to paleogene rift system heteroaxial folding in parts of the sbs is probably due to a slight component of range parallel dextral strike slip motion acting on preexisting faults striking north and ne during inversion regional balanced cross sections along two transects across the northern sbs indicate that the major faults flatten into a detachment in the basement at about 10 km depth neogene e w contraction in the sbs is of the order of 21 26 km rift extension is not very well constrained but was probably less than 10 km the structural style of the sbs differs from the thin skinned subandean thrust belt to the north and from the large wavelength sierras pampeanas basement uplifts to the south the changes between the different styles are sharp and coincide with the northern and southern boundaries of the rift in the foreland suggesting that crustal or lithospheric heterogeneities exert an overriding control on foreland structural style

anchor ice seabed freezing and sediment dynamics in shallow arctic seas diving investigations confirm previous circumstantial evidence of seafloor freezing and anchor ice accretion during freeze up storms in the alaskan beaufort sea these related bottom types were found to be continuous from shore to 2 m depth and spotty to 4 5 m depth spotty anchor ice occurred as pillow shaped crystal aggregates on buried slabs of frozen sand surrounded by unfrozen sand considerations of required conditions for ice bonding and anchor ice growth allows regional extrapolation and suggests the possibility of anchor ice growth out to 20 m depth the estimated maximum depth of supercooling during fall storms anchor ice and seabed freezing apparently do not develop during a calm freeze up because of the abrupt growth of anchor ice during a freezing storm and its release soon after formation of a surface ice cover this ice type has not been documented before the concretelike nature of frozen bottom where present should prohibit sediment transport by any conceivable wave or current regime during the freezing storm but elsewhere particularly where the bonded crust is broken by grounded ice anchor ice lifts coarse material off the bottom and incorporates it into the ice canopy thereby leading to significant ice rafting of shallow shelf sediment and likely sediment loss to the deep sea

character of clasts in glaciomarine sediments as an indicator of transport and depositional processes weddell and lazarev seas antarctica abstract the gravel component in marine sediments on the continental margin of antarctica is almost entirely from transport by grounded ice ice shelves ice tongues and icebergs about 2000 gravel clasts from about 40 sites were examined for roundness zingg shape and krumbein sphericity surface characteristics like faceting striations and other specific glacigenic shapes were recorded as well as lithology the samples were from both shallow and deep waters along 1500 km of the antarctic margin bordering the eastern weddell sea and lazarev sea in addition onshore observations were made in ice marginal areas at schirmacher oasis few systematic differences in clasts shape in modern sediments could be detected among the various glaciological environments variation in shape within a given environment is greater than that between different environments abrasion of clasts at the interface between glacier and bedrock before transport into the ocean is less important than in temperate regions this reflects the cold thermal regime of antarctic glaciers a view confirmed by the similarity in shape of debris from basal ice and from sandy basal tills at schirmacher oasis more angular debris was recovered off grounded ice margins in coats land but given the absence of supraglacial sources this debris seems to be the product of rock fracturing at a relatively dry frozen ice bed more than half and sometimes nearl all the clasts are faceted faceting roundness and sphericity are independent of lithology in contrast striae on clasts are strongly dependent on lithology few gneissic clasts have striae but nearly half the clasts of fine grained basic igneous or metavolcanic rocks are striated each area studied has a distinct population of rock types of limited variety suggesting that deposition is predominantly from the nearest land ice source and that mixing of sediment with that from far traveled icebergs is unimportant

el nino s tropical climate and teleconnections as a blueprint for pre ice age climates 1 at 2 7 million years ago the warm equable climates of early and middle pliocene time used here to mean from 5 to 2 7 ma were replaced by recurring ice ages most attempts to explain the change appeal either to changes in co2 in the atmosphere or reduced heat transport by the atlantic ocean the sources of the strongest teleconnections in the current climate however lie in the tropics and such connections occur by transport of heat and moisture by the atmosphere the most prominent of these teleconnections link aberrations in sea surface temperatures in the equatorial pacific el nino southern oscillation enso variations with warm and dry or cool and wet anomalies in extratropical climates we show that in most cases early and middle pliocene climate both in equatorial regions and in the extratropics differ from present day climates with the same spatial pattern as that associated with enso for instance not only was canada warmer during early pliocene time than at present as it is during el nino but the region surrounding the gulf of mexico appears to have been cooler and a bit wetter as it commonly is during el nino a virtually permanent el nino like state appears to have characterized pre ice age climates suggesting that transport of heat by the atmosphere was the principal mechanism that maintained extratropical warmth accordingly cooling and the growth of recurring ice sheets in the northern hemisphere resulted from the development of a strong walker circulation and a weakening of the hadley circulation

exhumation history of the southern altiplano plateau southern bolivia constrained by apatite fission track thermochronology 1 although the structural geometry of the cenozoic altiplano puna plateau in the central andes is well defined the temporal evolution of this contractile deformation is poorly constrained to address this shortcoming we used apatite fission track thermochronology aft to quantify the cooling and exhumation history along a transect at 21 s in southern bolivia through the deformed intermontane altiplano basin the doubly vergent thrust belt of the eastern cordillera and the inner foreland thrust belt east of the plateau interandean zone thermal history modeling combined with published balanced cross sections and stratigraphic data constrain exhumation histories exhumation started during the late eocene 40 36 ma in the central eastern cordillera possibly due to bivergent thrusting and cretaceous rift structure inversion during the early oligocene 33 27 ma exhumation spread across the study area as the current boundary thrusts of the eastern cordillera were activated the inner west vergent thrust system became active in irregular order until circa 20 ma whereas the east vergent interandean thrust belt formed by eastward propagating deformation since circa 30 ma plateau exhumation continued at 0 2 mm yr until shortening terminated by 11 7 ma shortening within the plateau since circa 30 ma did not evolve by lateral accretion of thrust wedges the propagating deformation style is spatially confined to the foreland thrust belt which initiated coeval to plateau deformation interandean zone but propagated mainly after circa 10 ma subandean zone early oligocene plateau wide tectonically driven exhumation suggests that subduction related processes had already thermally weakened the continental lithosphere prior to the 27 25 ma onset of volcanic activity

a role for north pacific salinity in stabilizing north atlantic climate 1 a simple ocean atmosphere feedback may reduce the amplitude of climate variability in around the north atlantic during interglacial compared to glacial states when climate is warm in the north atlantic region the intertropical convergence zone has a relatively northward position and moisture is exported from the tropical atlantic to the tropical pacific at the same time the east asian summer monsoon is strong which helps maintain a positive balance of precipitation over evaporation in the subpolar north pacific this is thought to account for lower salinity in the north pacific relative to the north atlantic which in turn drives northward flow through the bering strait to the northern north atlantic freshening in the north atlantic by water of pacific origin suppresses the meridional overturning circulation and reduces the heat flux the opposite situation exists during cold climate thus the combination of atmospheric vapor transport and flow through bering strait tends to cool the north atlantic region when warm and warm the region when cool

oligocene range uplift and development of plateau morphology in the southern central andes 1 the puna altiplano plateau in south america is a high elevation low internal relief landform that is characterized by internal drainage and hyperaridity thermochronologic and sedimentologic observations from the sierra de calalaste region in the southwestern puna plateau argentina place new constraints on early plateau evolution by resolving the timing of uplift of mountain ranges that bound present day basins and the filling pattern of these basins during late eocene miocene time paleocurrent indicators sedimentary provenance analyses and apatite fission track thermochronology indicate that the original paleodrainage setting was disrupted by exhumation and uplift of the sierra de calalaste range between 24 and 29 ma this event was responsible for basin reorganization and the disruption of the regional fluvial system that has ultimately led to the formation of internal drainage conditions which in the salar de antofalla were established not later than late miocene upper eocene oligocene sedimentary rocks flanking the range contain features that suggest an arid environment existed prior to and during its uplift provenance data indicate a common similar source located to the west for both the southern puna and the altiplano of bolivia during the late eoceneoligocene with sporadic local sources this suggests the existence of an extensive longitudinally oriented foreland basin along the central andes during this time citation carrapa b d adelmann g e hilley e mortimer e r sobel and m r strecker 2005 oligocene range uplift and development of plateau morphology in the southern central andes tectonics 24 tc4011 doi 10 1029 2004tc001762

revised age of aleutian island arc formation implies high rate of magma production radioisotopic dating of subaerial and submarine volcanic and plutonic rocks from the aleutian island arc provides insight into the timing of arc formation in the middle eocene twenty eight 40 ar 39 ar ages constrain the duration of arc magmatism to the last 46 m y basaltic lavas from the finger bay volcanics the oldest exposed rocks in the arc gave an isochron age of 37 4 0 6 ma which is 12 17 m y younger than a widely cited age of 55 50 ma three main pulses of arc wide magmatism occurred at 38 29 16 11 and 6 0 ma which coincide with periods of intense magmatism in other western pacific island arcs using the geochronology and volumetric estimates of crust generated and eroded over the last 46 m y we calculate a time averaged magma production rate for the entire arc that exceeds previous estimates by almost an order of magnitude

an evaluation of shape indices as palaeoenvironmental indicators using quartzite and metavolcanic clasts in upper cretaceous to palaeogene beach river and submarine fan conglomerates the feasibility of using quantitative shape measurements to discriminate between clast populations from different depositional settings was evaluated using samples from 11 fluvial six submarine fan and four beach conglomerates from south west california these origins had been established previously by facies analysis quartzite and metavolcanic clasts were characterized by the following indices modified wentworth roundness rw maximum projection sphericity p oblate prolate index opi and long l intermediate i and short s axial ratios these indices were compared with those documented previously for modern gravels the results show that certain indices are useful palaeoenvironmental indicators despite inherited differences in shape due to texture provided that multiple sites are sampled and a statistical approach is used statistically the most effective shape indices are p and s l which give good results with the zingg classification i l vs s i better results are also obtained using quartzite clasts the opi is useful for discriminating between beach and river conglomerates which consist largely of oblate and prolate clasts respectively the relative abundance of blade shaped clasts is a useful index of sediment maturity being greatest for river clast samples and smallest for submarine fan clast samples the latter are dominated by spherical particles no correlation between palaeoenvironment and rw is observed hence the abundance of disc shaped clasts in the beach conglomerates studied is attributed to selective transport in suspension and sediment by passing during fluvial transport prior to deposition in the surf zone selective transport of rollers spheres and rods by traction in a shallow marine setting prior to redeposition by mass transport may be responsible for the dominance of spherical particles in submarine fan conglomerates

plateau style accumulation of deformation southern altiplano 1 employing surface mapping of syntectonic sediments interpretation of industry reflection seismic profiles gravity data and isotopic age dating we reconstruct the tectonic evolution of the southern altiplano 20 22 s between the cordilleras defining its margins the southern altiplano crust was deformed between the late oligocene and the late miocene with two main shortening stages in the oligocene 33 27 ma and middle late miocene 19 8 ma that succeeded eocene onset of shortening at the protoplateau margins shortening rates in the southern altiplano ranged between 1 and 4 7 mm yr with maximum rates in the late miocene summing rates for the southern altiplano and the eastern cordillera we observe an increase from eocene times to the late oligocene to some 8 mm yr followed by fluctuation around this value during the miocene prior to shutoff of deformation at 7 8 ma and transfer of active shortening to the sub andean fold and thrust belt shortening inverted early tertiary graben and half graben systems and was partitioned in three fault systems in the western central and eastern altiplano respectively the east vergent fault systems of the western and central altiplano were synchronously active with the west vergent altiplano west flank fault system from these data and from section balancing we infer a kinematically linked western altiplano thrust belt that accumulated a minimum of 65 km shortening evolution of this belt contrasts with the eastern cordillera which reached peak shortening rates 8 mm yr in between the above two stages hence local shortening rates fluctuated across the plateau superimposed on a general trend of increasing bulk rate with no trend of lateral propagation this observation is repeated at the shorter length and time scales of individual growth structures that show evidence for periods of enhanced local rates at a timescale of 1 3 myr we interpret this irregular pattern of deformation to reflect a plateau style of shortening related to a self organized state of a weak crust in the central south american back arc with a fault network that fluctuated around the critical state of mechanical failure tuning of this state may have occurred by changes in plate kinematics during the paleogene initially reactivating crustal weak zones and by thermal weakening of the crust with active magmatism mainly in the neogene stage

glacial interglacial sediment transport to the meiji drift northwest pacific ocean evidence for timing of beringian outwashing abstract a large sediment deposit known as the meiji drift located in the northwestern pacific ocean is thought to have formed from deep water exiting the bering sea although no notable deep water forms there presently we determine the terrigenous sources since 140 ka to the drift using bulk sediment 40ar 39ar and nd isotopic analyses on the silt sized 20 63 m terrigenous fraction from ocean drilling program odp site 884 to reconstruct paleo circulation patterns there are large changes in both isotopic tracers varying on glacial interglacial cycles during glacial intervals bulk sediment 40ar 39ar ages range between 40 and 80 ma while nd isotopic values range from end 1 to 2 during interglacial intervals sediments become much younger and more radiogenic with bulk sediment ages falling to 2 15 ma and nd isotopic values ranging between end 5 and 9 these data and quantitative comparison to potential source rocks indicate that the young kamchatkan and aleutian arcs lying nw and ne of the meiji drift contribute the majority of sediment during interglacials conversely older source rocks such as those drained by the yukon river and northeast russia are the dominant origin of sediments during glacials mixing model calculations suggest that as much as 35 45 of the sediment deposited in the meiji drift during glacials is from the bering sea it remains unclear whether thermohaline type circulation or focussing of bering sea flow lead to the glacial interglacial sediment source changes observed here

mechanisms of coal metamorphism case studies from paleozoic coalfields controls on coal metamorphism can be complex in this paper we examine four paleozoic coalfields the western kentucky portion of the illinois basin the pennsylvania anthracite fields the south wales coalfield and the bowen basin an increase in temperature with depth of burial is certainly a factor in coal metamorphism in many coalfields however including the coalfields reviewed here it has become apparent that such a simple mechanism does not explain the coal rank patterns observed the flow of hydrothermal fluids through the coals has been proposed as a cause of coal metamorphism evidence includes inverted rank gradients elevated cfl as an indicator of brine fluids isotopic evidence for hydrothermal fluids and vein and cleat mineral assemblages in any case multiple hypotheses must often be evaluated in the examination of any coalfield since the simple paradigm of coal rank increases with a simple increase in temperature with increasing depth does not fit the evidence observed in many cases

on the optically biaxial character and heterogeneity of anthracites abstract the results of the study of optical properties of 13 anthracites from different parts of the world are presented in this paper measurements of reflectance values were made on non oriented vitrinite grains for a minimum of 300 points per sample the reconstruction of reflectance indicating surfaces ris were made by kilby s method kilby w e 1988 recognition of vitrinite with non uniaxial negative reflectance characteristics int j coal geol 9 267 285 kilby w e 1991 vitrinite reflectance measurement some technique enhancements and relationships int j coal geol 19 201 218 it was found that the use of kilby s method for strongly anisotropic materials like anthracites did not give unambiguous results some improvement in kilby s method consisting of the division of the cumulative cross plot into several elemental components is suggested each elemental cross plot corresponds to a textural class of anthracite which is characterized by the values of ris main axes rmax k rint k and rmin k k 1 2 n n number of classes the global texture of anthracite is characterized as a ris with main axes calculated as the weighted means of r max r int and r min for each class of this anthracite the division of cumulative kilby s cross plot on elemental components makes possible the calculation of new coefficients ht and h10 characterizing the heterogeneity of the structure and texture of anthracites the results of our study show that all anthracites have biaxial negative textures but their heterogeneity varies in a wide range of ht and h10 coefficients depending upon the individual coal basin

diatoms as paleoenvironmental proxies for seasonal productivity sea ice and surface circulation in the bering sea during the late quaternary abstract diatom assemblages in suspended particulate matter spm surface sediments and piston core samples in the southern bering sea and the western subarctic pacific were examined the distribution of diatom assemblages in the southern bering sea shows not only differences in species composition between the spm and surface sediment samples but also preferential dissolution of different species in the upper water column or surface sediments furthermore we present the downcore profiles of selected diatom taxa for four piston cores to indicate changes in paleoceanographic conditions e g seasonal productivity sea ice and surface water circulation of the glacial and deglaciation periods during the late quaternary in particular we propose five models for the annual cycling of the water masses in the western subarctic pacific and the southern bering sea during the late quaternary significant regional differences in diatom accumulation rates and taxonomic composition between the southern bering sea and the western subarctic pacific reflect spatial shifts in water masses caused by the variable extent of sea ice cover and cold low salinity surface waters in these regions

coal more than a resource critical data for understanding a variety of earth science concepts abstract coal is one of the world s primary energy sources and it is critical for making coke used in steel making and is used for a multitude of chemical products aside from its significance as a fuel or product however coal and data derived from the exploration or mining of coal have also provided the foundation and testing ground for diverse geologic concepts because of coal s economic importance and common variability in thickness distribution and quality it has been critical to collect and correlate a wide variety of surface and subsurface data sets at relatively high spatial frequency which varies from the mine to basinal scale also because many coal beds occur in most coal basins the collection of coal data from multiple beds creates relatively high temporal frequency data sets at scales from laminae to bed to larger unit scale these data have been important for the development and expansion of many earth science concepts including aspects of basin analyses paleogeography paleoclimatology paleontology stratigraphy sedimentology structural geology and tectonics

deformation metamorphism of bituminous and anthracite coals from china abstract tectonic displacement of coal seams in china has resulted in faulting parallel to coal bedding displacement along these faults caused significant comminution of the coal on the footwall contributing to various mining problems the worst of which is catastrophic failure or outbursting of the working face during mining the granular texture and mostly unconsolidated nature of the coal suggests that faulting occurred relatively late in the coalification sequence at a time of maximum tectonic stress coal samples taken on either side of the fault plane normal and deformed coal layers were obtained in an effort to establish what influence these tectonic stresses might have had on coal properties as well as what they might reveal about the influence of tectonic pressure on organic maturity sample sets were collected within coal beds from undisturbed and adjacent deformed layers including 21 bituminous samples from the pingdingshan coal field and nine anthracite samples from the jiaozuo coal field the tieshenggou coal mine of the yuxi coal field in henan province the beijing xishan coal field the baijiao mine of the furong coal field in sichuang province and the baisha coal field in hunan province china results from vitrinite reflectance proximate and ultimate analyses show some differences in reflectance hydrogen content and nitrogen content of anthracite coal no significant difference was found between volatile matter yields of normal and deformed coal specimens gc measurements of the saturated hydrocarbon fraction of chloroform extracts from bituminous coals showed that lower molecular weight carbon fragments were concentrated in the deformed samples therefore although changes in the gross chemical properties of the deformed coal were insignificant some modification of the chemical structure is seen to have occurred as a result of exposure to tectonic pressure

the great atacama flood of 2001 and its implications for andean hydrology in february 2001 widespread flooding occurred throughout the atacama desert of northern chile and southern peru it was particularly severe in the rio loa basin where roads and bridges were disrupted and the town of calama inundated the instantaneous peak flow in the rio salado a tributary of the rio loa reached 310 m3 s 1 an order of magnitude higher than any previously recorded event the flood is estimated to have a return period of 100 200 years and is shown to have been caused by intense long duration rainfall in the western cordillera associated with la nina the surface water response is typical of arid areas and highly dependent on antecedent conditions but is quite different in perennial and ephemeral catchments ephemeral flood flows suffer high transmission losses recharging phreatic aquifers perennial rivers have lower runoff coefficients but baseflow levels remained high after the event for several months due to bank storage rebound and interflow extremely high energies of 3000 w m 2 were generated by the floods in the cordillera becoming less in the precordillera and downstream erosion and sediment transport were consequently highest in the upper and middle reaches of the rivers with mixed erosion deposition in the lowest reach the new insights gained from the interpretation and quantification of this event have important implications for palaeoenvironmental analysis hazard management water resource evaluation and the palaeohydrological evolution of the andes copyright 2005 john wiley sons ltd

tropical climate changes at millennial and orbital timescales on the bolivian altiplano tropical south america is one of the three main centres of the global zonal overturning circulation of the equatorial atmosphere generally termed the walker circulation1 although this area plays a key role in global climate cycles little is known about south american climate history here we describe sediment cores and down hole logging results of deep drilling in the salar de uyuni on the bolivian altiplano located in the tropical andes we demonstrate that during the past 50 000 years the altiplano underwent important changes in effective moisture at both orbital 20 000 year and millennial timescales long duration wet periods such as the last glacial maximum marked in the drill core by continuous deposition of lacustrine sediments appear to have occurred in phase with summer insolation maxima produced by the earth s precessional cycle short duration millennial events correlate well with north atlantic cold events including heinrich events 1 and 2 as well as the younger dryas episode at both millennial and orbital timescales cold sea surface temperatures in the high latitude north atlantic were coeval with wet conditions in tropical south america suggesting a common forcing

new perspectives on beringian quaternary paleogeography stratigraphy and glacial history abstract aspects of the paleogeography stratigraphy and glacial history of beringia have been greatly revised over the past 15 20 yr access to north east russia in particular has provided the opportunity to evaluate the beringia landscape as a contiguous subcontinent during the quaternary for the first time new research has made clearer the connection between tectonic forces and the submergence of the bering strait during the middle pliocene revisions in the regional stratigraphy of glacial and interglacial deposits in northwest alaska and northeast russia provide a new foundation for assessing the causes for differences in glacial ice extent through time the consensus of all field workers verifies that glacial ice throughout most of beringia was of very limited extent during the last glacial maximum the onset of regional glaciation during the waning stages of the last interglaciation is clearly out of phase with glaciation at lower latitudes despite the lack of much glacial activity during the early holocene alaska contains a rich record of late holocene glacial response to neoglacial cooling changes in the holocene environment of beringia likely had a profound affect on early inhabitants the curiosity driven vision and spirit of both david hopkins and the late troy pewe have had a profound influence on arctic paleoenvironmental research

ice rafted debris ird based sea ice expansion events during the past 100 kyrs in the okhotsk sea abstract ice rafted debris ird from sediment traps surficial sediments and sediment cores were investigated in order to reconstruct the extent history of sea ice cover during the last 100 kyrs in the okhotsk sea the seasonal ird buried into the sediments during and just after sea ice melting in spring consists of silt and sand size terrigenous particles the spatial distribution of ird within surficial sediments clearly corresponds to the extent of sea ice coverage sea ice expanded to a maximum extent during the glacial periods although sea ice cover was not perennial the okhotsk sea sea ice expansion osie events which are recognized by millennial scale abrupt peaks of ird content have occurred 13 times during the past 100 kyrs these events were amplified during the glacial periods a significant modification of the polar atmospheric circulation in the northern hemisphere is a key process in explaining these osie events

sea ice and marine climate variability for nw iceland denmark strait over the last 2000 cal yr bp md99 2263 is a 46 cm box core collected from djupall a trough that cuts across the nw iceland shelf and ends above denmark strait we provide a multiproxy record that documents changes in the regional marine climate over the last 1700 yr the depth age model is based on seven calibrated radiocarbon dates on mollusk shells and on 210pb and 137cs sediment accumulation rates were variable 0 2 0 8 mm yr but increased dramatically ad 1500 grain size magnetic properties quantitative mineral composition of the 2 mm sediment fraction benthic foraminiferal composition benthic and planktic 18o ratios and abundances fluxes of the sea ice biomarker ip25 were determined to better compare the various proxies 12 of the critical climate proxies were co ordinated into 100 yr sample time series which were examined by principal component analysis the 1st axis explained 49 of the variance and the 2nd axis explained an additional 17 the variables most strongly associated with the 1st axis were sediment pr

notes on the mechanisms of coal metamorphism in the pennsylvania anthracite fields abstract charred devolatilized megasporinite and featureless vitrinite with devolatilization pores filled with pyrolytic carbon suggest that eastern pennsylvania anthracites may have been altered by to localized episodes of metamorphism from superheated steam co2 co hydrocarbons in addition to the pervasive regional metamorphism based on the extant vitrinite textures the lack of mesophase anisotropic textures and on comparisons to laboratory studies of the thermoplasticity of bituminous coals the rank at the time of metamorphism would have been high volatile c or lowermost high volatile b bituminous the temperature of alteration would have been in the 350 400 c range corresponding to the critical point of steam 374 15 c and 22 1 mpa about 1 km depth it is speculated that while increased pressure would have prolonged the duration of fluid properties fluidity is still a transient property and the vitrinite would have returned to a solid state after a few hours the heat would have persisted dissipating over the course of days to months to years depending upon the depth and ambient pre heating geothermal gradient but contributing to the coal metamorphism long after the vitroplast solidified

chlorine 36 and 14c chronology support a limited last glacial maximum across central chukotka northeastern siberia and no beringian ice sheet abstract the pekulney mountains and adjacent tanyurer river valley are key regions for examining the nature of glaciation across much of northeast russia twelve new cosmogenic isotope ages and 14 new radiocarbon ages in concert with morphometric analyses and terrace stratigraphy constrain the timing of glaciation in this region of central chukotka the sartan glaciation last glacial maximum was limited in extent in the pekulney mountains and dates to 20 000 yr ago cosmogenic isotope ages 30 000 yr as well as non finite radiocarbon ages imply an estimated age no younger than the zyryan glaciation early wisconsinan for large sets of moraines found in the central tanyurer valley slope angles on these loess mantled ridges are less than a few degrees and crest widths are an order of magnitude greater than those found on the younger sartan moraines the most extensive moraines in the lower tanyurer valley are most subdued implying an even older probable middle pleistocene age this research provides direct field evidence against grosswald s beringian ice sheet hypothesis

a shape and compositional analysis of ice rafted debris in cores from iodp expedition 323 in the bering sea abstract sediment cores recovered during iodp expedition 323 in the bering sea northern pacific contained numerous ice rafted debris ird clasts up to 85 mm in length the physical properties including roundness and sphericity of 136 clasts from the working half of the cores a subsample of the total clast number were analysed and their composition determined using standard petrographic techniques after removal of pumice and possible fall in derived material from the clast population a total of 86 clasts from the original collection were considered to be ird while roundness and sphericity vary greatly in the clast population the ird are predominately discoid in shape with oblate prolate indices typically between 5 and 5 there are four time periods over the approximately 4 5 ma sample interval 0 36 0 67 ma 0 82 1 06 ma 1 54 1 77 ma and 3 28 ma where there are no ird in the sample set for sites of the bering slope suggesting that these times may have been ice free most clasts show some rounding and are likely to have spent time on beaches with wave action wave action on beaches suggests periods of no ice or only seasonal sea ice the low roundness values of other clasts however suggest they underwent little working and therefore the presence of glaciers or more permanent sea ice at times in those locations the abundance of rounded and unfaceted clasts as ird suggests a lack of large ice sheets in the area during cool periods clast composition of the ird is divided into four broad groups basalt and andesite granite and metamorphic sedimentary and felsic volcanic the granite and metamorphic and more mature sedimentary lithologies are most likely derived from the alaskan continental margin while the extrusive igneous clasts could be derived from a variety of volcanic sources surrounding the bering sea both emergent now or emergent at times of lower sea level there is only a poor correlation with ird abundance and marine isotope stages mis for the time period 2 mm transported by sea ice may not be a good indicator of past climate conditions