a new estimate for present day cocos caribbean plate motion implications for slip along the central american volcanic arc velocities from 153 continuously operatinggps sites on the caribbean north american and pacic plates arecombinedwith61newlyestimatedpacic cocosseafloor spreading rates and additional marine geophysical data to deriveanewestimate of present daycocos caribbean plate motion acomparisonofthepredictedcocos caribbean di rectiontoslipdirectionsofnumerousshallow thrustsubduc tion earthquakes from the middle america trench between costa rica and guatemala shows the slip directions to be deflected 10 clockwise from the plate convergence direc tion supporting thehypothesisthatfrequentdextralstrike slip earthquakes along the central american volcanic arc result from partitioning of oblique cocos caribbean plate convergence linear velocity analysis for forearc locations in nicaragua and guatemala predicts 14 2m m yr 1 of northwestward trench parallel slip of the forearc relative to thecaribbean plate possibly decreasing inmagnitude inel salvador and guatemala where extension east of the vol canic arc complicates the tectonic setting

u pb and th pb dating of apatite by la icpms abstract apatite is a common u and th bearing accessory mineral in igneous and metamorphic rocks and a minor but widespread detrital component in clastic sedimentary rocks u pb and th pb dating of apatite has potential application in sedimentary provenance studies as it likely represents first cycle detritus compared to the polycyclic behavior of zircon however low u th and radiogenic pb concentrations elevated common pb and the lack of a u th pb apatite standard remain significant challenges in dating apatite by la icpms and consequently in developing the chronometer as a provenance tool this study has determined u pb and th pb ages for seven well known apatite occurrences durango emerald lake kovdor mineville mud tank otter lake and slyudyanka by la icpms analytical procedures involved rastering a 10 m spot over a 40 40 m square to a depth of 10 m using a geolas 193 nm arf excimer laser coupled to a thermo elementxr single collector icpms these raster conditions minimized laser induced inter element fractionation which was corrected for using the back calculated intercept of the time resolved signal a tl u bi np tracer solution was aspirated with the sample into the plasma to correct for instrument mass bias external standards plesovice and 91500 zircon nist srm 610 and 612 silicate glasses and stdp5 phosphate glass along with kovdor apatite were analyzed to monitor u pb th pb u th and pb pb ratios common pb correction employed the 207pb method and also a 208pb correction method for samples with low th u the 207pb and 208pb corrections employed either the initial pb isotopic composition or the stacey and kramers model and propagated conservative uncertainties in the initial pb isotopic composition common pb correction using the stacey and kramers 1975 model employed an initial pb isotopic composition calculated from either the estimated u pb age of the sample or an iterative approach the age difference between these two methods is typically less than 2 suggesting that the iterative approach works well for samples where there are no constraints on the initial pb composition such as a detrital sample no 204pb correction was undertaken because of low 204pb counts on single collector instruments and 204pb interference by 204hg in the argon gas supply age calculations employed between 11 and 33 analyses per sample and used a weighted average of the common pb corrected ages a tera wasserburg concordia intercept age and a tera wasserburg concordia intercept age anchored through common pb the samples in general yield ages consistent at the 2 level with independent estimates of the u pb apatite age which demonstrates the suitability of the analytical protocol employed weighted mean age uncertainties are as low as 1 2 for u and or th rich palaeozoic neoproterozoic samples the uncertainty on the youngest sample the cenozoic 31 44 ma durango apatite ranges from 3 7 7 6 according to the common pb correction method employed the accurate and relatively precise common pb corrected ages demonstrate the u pb and th pb apatite chronometers are suitable as sedimentary provenance tools the kovdor carbonatite apatite is recommended as a potential u pb and th pb apatite standard as it yields precise and reproducible 207pb corrected 232th 208pb and common pb anchored tera wasserburg concordia intercept ages

a diffusion adsorption model of uranium uptake by archaeological bone abstract an argument for the possibility of uranium uptake by buried bone taking place through the adsorption of uranyl species on bone mineral is advanced in the light of this a diffusion adsorption model for uranium uptake by buried bone is developed the necessary constants are evaluated from the literature and from laboratory measurements of the partition coefficient between solution and bone mineral the geochemical and hydrological parameters which control uptake are discussed the predictions of the model are shown to be in general accordance with the timescale magnitude and distribution of uranium uptake in archaeological bone using the model specific predictions of the variation of apparent uranium series ages in bone can be made and bone is shown clearly not to conform to the closed system assumption when the model is extended to tooth enamel it is found to be incompatible with the early uptake model used for esr dating but to fall between the early uptake and linear uptake models similarly it suggests that uranium series dates on enamel assuming a closed system are liable to underestimate the true age by at least one third

revised age of the late neogene terror bird titanis in north america during the great american interchange the giant flightless terror bird titanis walleri is known from florida and texas during the late neogene the age of t walleri is problematic because this taxon co occurs with temporally mixed i e time averaged faunas at two key sites thus prior to this study t walleri from the santa fe river florida type locality was either as old as late pliocene ca 2 2 ma or as young as latest pleistocene ca 15 ka likewise t walleri from the nueces river texas was either early pliocene ca 5 ma or latest pleistocene ca 15 ka in order to better resolve this age range the rare earth element ree patterns of t walleri from the santa fe river florida were compared to two biochronologically distinctive groups late pliocene versus late pleistocene of fossil mammals from the same locality similarly the ree patterns of t walleri from texas were compared to two groups early pliocene versus latest pleistocene of fossil mammals from the same locality the ree patterns of t walleri from florida are indistinguishable from those of the co occurring late pliocene mammals likewise the ree pattern of t walleri from texas is indistinguishable from those of the co occurring early pliocene mammals given these ree constraints the revised age of t walleri is early pliocene in texas ca 5 ma and late pliocene ca 2 2 1 8 ma in florida as such t walleri is interpreted as an early immigrant during the great american interchange prior to the formation of the isthmian land bridge no evidence currently exists for pleistocene t walleri in north america

models of diffusion limited uptake of trace elements in fossils and rates of fossilization abstract many fossils are assumed to take up trace elements by a process of combined diffusion plus adsorption da yet in principle composition profiles can be explained by several different diffusion limited processes including diffusion plus reaction or recrystallization dr and double medium diffusion dmd the da and dmd models are supported by ree and u composition profiles across fossil teeth measured by laser ablation icp ms that show error function like diffusion profiles into enamel from the dentine enamel interface and concentrations in the interior of enamel that are at original biogenic levels or higher published composition and age profiles in some pleistocene bones may be better explained by a dr model all three diffusion models imply linear behavior between age and distance squared vastly simplifying u series dating methods for pleistocene fossils modeled uptake rates for fossil teeth yield a strict minimum bound on durations of about one decade to one century the similarity of diffusion profiles in teeth irrespective of depositional ages ranging from 30 ka to 30 ma implies that uptake occurred quickly with a maximum duration of a few tens of kyr for typical fossil enamel faster uptake is implied for typical fossil bone and dentine disparities in these uptake estimates compared to some archeological bone may reflect sampling and preservation bias for paleontological vs archeological materials

lu hf and pbsl geochronology of apatites from proterozoic terranes a first look at lu hf isotopic closure in metamorphic apatite abstract the mineral apatite is characterized by elevated and highly variable lu hf ratios that in some cases allow for single crystal dating by the lu hf isotopic system apatites from the adirondack lowlands and otter lake area in the grenville province and from the black hills south dakota yield lu hf ages that are consistently older than their respective pb step leaching ages isotopic closure for the lu hf system therefore occurs before u pb system closure in this mineral in the adirondack lowlands where h2o activity was low lu hf systematics of cm sized apatite crystals remained undisturbed during upper amphibolite facies metamorphism 700 to 675 c at 1170 1130 ma the relatively old lu hf ages of 1270 and 1230 ma observed for these apatites correlate with decreasing crystal size in contrast apatite from the fluid rich otter lake area and black hills yields unrealistically low apparent lu hf closure temperatures implying that in these apatites fluids facilitated late exchange the lu hf ages for the metamorphic apatites were thus controlled either by the prevailing temperature and grain size or by fluid activity

early diagenesis of bone and tooth apatite in fluvial and marine settings constraints from combined oxygen isotope nitrogen and ree analysis abstract fossil bones and teeth of late pleistocene terrestrial mammals from rhine river gravels rs and the north sea ns that have been exposed to chemically and isotopically distinct diagenetic fluids fresh water versus seawater were investigated to study the effects of early diagenesis on biogenic apatite changes in phosphate oxygen isotopic composition 18opo4 nitrogen content wt n and rare earth element ree concentrations were measured along profiles within bones that have not been completely fossilized and in skeletal tissues bone dentine enamel with different susceptibilities to diagenetic alteration early diagenetic changes of elemental and isotopic compositions of apatite in fossil bone are related to the loss of the stabilizing collagen matrix the ree concentration is negatively correlated with the nitrogen content and therefore the amount of collagen provides a sensitive proxy for early diagenetic alteration ree patterns of rs and ns bones indicate initial fossilization in a fresh water fluid with similar ree compositions bones from both settings have nearly collagen free ree u f and sr enriched altered outer rims while the collagen bearing bone compacta in the central part often display early diagenetic pyrite void fillings however ns bones exposed to holocene seawater have outer rim 18opo4 values that are 1 1 to 2 6 higher compared to the central part of the same bones 18opo4 18 2 0 9 n 19 surprisingly even the collagen rich bone compacta with low ree contents and apatite crystallinity seems altered as ns tooth enamel 18opo4 15 0 0 3 n 4 has about 3 lower 18opo4 values values that are also similar to those of enamel from rs teeth therefore ree concentration n content and apatite crystallinity are in this case only poor proxies for the alteration of 18opo4 values seawater exposure of a few years up to 8 kyr can change the 18opo4 values of the bone apatite by 3 therefore bones fossilized in marine settings must be treated with caution for palaeoclimatic reconstructions however enamel seems to preserve pristine 18opo4 values on this time scale using species specific calibrations for modern mammals a mean 18oh2o value can be reconstructed for late pleistocene mammalian drinking water of around 9 2 0 5 which is similar to that of late pleistocene groundwater from central europe

estimation of source parameters of local earthquakes originated in shillong mikir plateau and its adjoining region of northeastern india abstract we estimate the source parameters seismic moment source radius stress drop and source displacement and scaling laws for local earthquakes that occurred in the shillong mikir plateau assam valley and arunachal himalaya in northeast india during 2001 2008 the source parameters were determined using the spectral analysis of p waves from the vertical component seismograms after correction for attenuation seismic moments are observed within the range from 9 51 10 12 to stress drop ranges from 4 10 5 to 9 10 7 pa for the brune model and 7 10 5 to 1 10 8 pa for the madariaga model seismic events in this study are prominent with an average stress drop of 0 1 10 mpa the effect of site geology may be a contributing factor for such a variation in stress drop source dimensions are however found to be smaller within the major part of the plateau it is suggested that local earthquakes in the region are associated with a brittle shear failure mechanism on fault segments and or the presence of weakened zones and earthquakes are triggered by low deviatoric stress empirical relations between m w m l and m 0 m l are developed leading to the future prediction of calibration coefficients for the local earthquakes in the shillong mikir plateau and its adjoining region online material tables of source parameters

direct ion microprobe u pb dating of fossil tooth of a permian shark abstract we report here direct ion microprobe dating of fossil tooth dentine of a permian fresh water shark orthacanthus senckenbergianus using the shrimp instrument recently installed at hiroshima university fifteen spots on the small sample approximately 2 mm 1 mm indicate a 238 u 206 pb isochron age of 266 18 ma and a tera wasserburg concordia intercept age of 266 24 ma in a three dimensional 238 u 206 pb 207 pb 206 pb 204 pb 206 pb diagram these permian ages are consistent with a 235 u 207 pb age of 453 170 ma and a 232 th 208 pb age of 235 310 ma suggesting indistinguishable depositional and early diagenetic ages of the fossil in its sedimentary sequences the success of the method depends on the chemical fractionation of uranium from lead in a specimen a few hundred microns in size and the consequent variations in lead isotopic compositions due to radioactive decay

the isotopic composition of yb and the precise and accurate determination of lu concentrations and lu hf ratios by isotope dilution using mc icpms 1 we report yb isotopic data for the purpose of accurately correcting measurements of lu and lu hf ratios during multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer mc icpms analysis the yb isotopic ratios agree with recent results of chu et al 2002 and amelin and davis 2004 when corrected for mass fractionation to the same reference values protocols for lu measurement involving simultaneous subtraction of yb interference and application of a fractionation correction based on yb are described it is shown that lu concentrations and lu hf ratios determined by mc icpms using this methodology are more precise and potentially more accurate than results based on analysis of lu by thermal ionization mass spectrometry tims a number of mc icpms lu hf isotopic analyses of standard rocks and other geological samples previously analyzed by tims are presented these document reproducibility of lu hf within 0 2 where most discrepancies can be assigned to the unknown lu mass fractionation during tims analysis

geology of los azufres caldera mexico and its relationships with regional tectonics ferrari l gardufio v h pasquar6 g and tibaldi a 1991 geology of los azufres caldera mexico and its relationships with regional tectonics in s p verma editor calderas genesis structure and unrest j volcanol geotherm res 47 129 148 the los azufres geothermal field is one of several silicic centres of the mexican volcanic belt mvb for which a caldera structure was suggested geological and structural surveys in a wide area surrounding los azufres reveal that this complex is situated in an area of unusual concentration of acid volcanism consisting of four pyroclastic units and several dome complexes although a complete caldera structure is not morphologically evident several facts suggest a long collapse history at los a zufres the geothermal field lies at the centre of a subcircular depressed area 27 26 km in size filled by a distinctive fluviolaeustrine sequence middle to late miocene rocks bound to the south and to the north of this depression and are encountered only at depth inside it four large ignimbritic suites of latest miocene and pliocenc age outcrop outside the depression volume estimations of these pyroclastic products are comparable with the missing volume of the depressed area no alternative caldera structures exist in a radius of 200 km from los azufres dacitic to rhyolitic lavas principally extruded as dome complexes were emplaced inside this depression during the pleistocene los azufres is therefore interpreted as a nested caldera of latest miocene and pliocene age the recent regional tectonic evolution of the central sector of mvb comprises a late miocene early pliocene left lateral transcurrent phase followed by a late pliocene quatern ary transtensional one the silicic volcanism occurring between 6 1 and 2 8 ma can be linked to the first phase while in the adjacent areas of mvb a volcanic hiatus can be recognized the following transtensional phase reached the los azufres area only during the pleistocene and disrupted the caldera structure normal faults developed during this period controlled the uprising of basic magma which partly interacted with the remaining differentiated one and produced part of the recent intracaldera cycle

heterogeneous rare earth element ree patterns and concentrations in a fossil bone implications for the use of ree in vertebrate taphonomy and fossilization history abstract a bone fragment cgdq 3 of falcarius utahensis a therizinosaur from the early cretaceous cedar mountain formation utah contained within a carbonate nodule was analyzed by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry la icp ms in order to investigate ree variability within a thin walled phalanx previous studies have found depth related ree pattern variations however in cgdq 3 variation occurs along the circumference of the bone nasc normalized ree patterns and concentrations vary between two apparent end members a light ree enriched lree pattern similar to solution icp ms analysis of this bone characterizes approximately two thirds of the bone fragment total ree concentrations are high and do not vary significantly from the periosteal surface to the medullar surface conversely the remaining one third of the bone has ree patterns that are mree depleted and low in total ree concentrations ree concentrations in this part of the bone do not vary significantly from the periosteal to the medullar surface a positive ce anomaly is found throughout the entire bone and is greatest within the lree enriched portion of the bone this in combination with the lree enrichment suggests that the bone fossilized under reducing conditions the distance between the lree enriched and mree depleted regions is less than 1 mm isotopic and petrographic analyses of the bone and surrounding carbonate matrix suggest the ree patterns in the bone were the result of partial fossilization incomplete filling of micro pore spaces around bone crystallites in an environment with changing redox conditions the lower mree depleted part of the bone fossilized contemporaneously with a pendant cement that formed on the underside of the bone in the vadose zone formation of the pendant cement restricted water flow through the bone isolating the lower portion which incorporated a mree depleted pattern the upper part of the bone lree enriched side fossilized under more reducing conditions than the lower part this resulted in reductive dissolution of minerals such as hydrous ferric oxides and manganese oxides which were lree enriched with positive ce anomalies these ree were then incorporated into the upper part of the bone this likely occurred after the bone entered the saturated zone below the water table the thinness of the bone and presence of a pendant cement helped facilitate partial fossilization of the bone preserving the ree signature of an earlier fluid as demonstrated by this case study differences in ree patterns within a fossil may record changes in geochemical conditions during fossilization particularly when bones are encased in a material that reduces fluid permeability such as micritic vadose calcite analysis of such bones may offer the opportunity to decipher complex fluid histories that occur during fossilization la icp ms should be utilized to confirm solution icp ms analysis if it yields high ree variability prior to an interpretation of reworking or time averaging

can fossil bones and teeth be dated using fission track analysis the high proportion of crystallized apatite forming the bones and teeth should theoretically allow the use of fission track analysis to date vertebrate fossils when burying of the fossiliferous series did not subject them to temperatures exceeding 60 degrees c however several major obstacles arise such as the complexity of fossils internal structures diagenetic modifications and substitutions of the hydroxyapatite by other minerals and massive u uptake or loss during diagenesis in this work those various problems are addressed combining optical microscope observation of the fossils a systematic fission track analysis of the best samples alpha and gamma spectrometry and secondary ion mass spectrometry even if the problems caused by internal structures and mineral substitutions can be solved u movements in and out of the fossils are generally too complex to allow fission track analysis dating of the fossils

the environment of deposition indicated by the distribution of rare earth elements in fossil bones from olduvai gorge tanzania fossil bones of pleistocene age from olduvai gorge tanzania incorporated relatively high concentrations up to several thousands ppm of rare earth elements during their fossilization the data indicate that these elements were mobile during the diagenetic processes involved in the fossilization of the bones it is suggested that the high concentrations arose through interaction of the bone with groundwaters enriched in these and other elements introduced by contemporaneous carbonatitic or alkalic volcanism the distributions of the rare earth elements within both the fossil bone and enclosing sediment are heterogeneous but spatially systematic with concentration profiles showing a maximum in the bone at its sediment interface despite the relative porous nature of bone the steepness and variability of the rare earth element profiles indicate chemical equilibrium has not been reached of the individual rare earth elements ce behaved differently from the others systematic variations in and magnitudes of the ce anomaly within the bone cortices from different depositional environments indicate that the redox potential of the environment during fossilization was the principal factor affecting the distribution of this element

chemistry microstructure petrology and diagenetic model of jurassic dinosaur bones dinosaur national monument utah abstract the fossil bone mineral in dinosaurs from the morrison formation is well crystallized stoichiometric francolite the closely packed subparallel francolite crystals have equidimensional cross sections mostly 10 40 nm wide in contrast crystallites in unaltered mammal bone tissue are poorly crystallized nonstoichiometric carbonate hydroxyapatite a few nanometers thick and plate rod or needle shaped the diagenetic francolite crystals are elongated in the c axis direction as are bone tissue crystallites along permeable cracks francolite crystals grew to 250 nm wide compared to unaltered crystallites in mammal bones the francolite has higher concentrations of ba ce cr f la mn ni pb rb sr th u v and y and perhaps zr na and mg are lower in concentration diagene ic francolite grew from groundwater enriched in ions from silicic ashes in the brushy basin member and from dissolution of bone tissue crystallites after burial francolite grew on crystallite seeds filling the space formerly occupied by collagen perhaps half the tissue volume and dissolved crystallites the micron scale structures such as haversian canals and laminae are preserved because the diagenetic francolite retains the orientations of the seeds the laminae 1 10 m thick commonly preserve an orthogonal plywood structure the diagenetic growth of francolite during this type of bone fossilization implies that oxygen isotopic ratios measured in dinosaur bones even those that appear fresh and unaltered may dominantly reflect groundwater temperature rather than dinosaur body temperature trace element concentrations in the francolite may reflect groundwater composition rather than dinosaur diet pore filling cements precipitated in the sands and bones at shallow burial depths as evidenced by the 35 52 minus cement porosities of the sandstones and numerous uncompacted oversize pores filled by cements gypsum and calcite were precipitated from shallow alkaline groundwater as the groundwater became increasingly dominated by ions from silicic ash argentite chalcopyrite native gold native silver tiemannite and uraninite replaced areas of bone a few microns to tens of microns in size along cracks a thin chlorite crust commonly mantled francolite crystals along bone cracks and lined openings in bones and sandstones pervasive precipitation of a chalcedony crust followed with pseudomorphs of chalcedony after gypsum in larger cancellous openings the remaining space was fi led by the various forms of silica the bones are brown due to goethite filled cracks that cut pore filling minerals

u series dating of bone using the diffusion adsorption model abstract u series dating of bone has suffered problems of reliability since its inception because bone remains an open system with respect to uranium commonly applied a priori assumptions of u uptake such as early uptake or linear uptake are inadequate because they have no physical or chemical bases no means of demonstrating which model is suitable for a particular bone and no intrinsic tests of reliability despite this and numerous examples of anomalous u series dates such assumptions are still routinely applied we address this problem using the diffusion adsorption d a model of u uptake millard and hedges 1996 which incorporates a physicochemical description of u uptake using this model we show how the u uptake of a bone responds to geochemical changes in the burial environment which can lead to phenomena such as the removal of u from bones leaching or u uptake late in their burial history recent uptake and we show how the overall uptake history is reflected in distributions profiles of u and u series isotopes across a bone section we present measurements of u concentration profiles and 230 th 234 u profiles on archeological bone from a number of different sites and burial environments and compare the results to profiles predicted by the d a model bones that have undergone complex uptake histories which include u leaching or recent uptake are identified on the basis of these profiles and rejected as unsuitable for dating for bones that appear to have undergone uptake under constant geochemical conditions the d a model is applied to calculate u series dates with much improved reliability

loss of primary texture and geochemical signatures in speleothems due to diagenesis evidences from castanar cave spain geochemical signals from speleothems are commonly used in the investigation of palaeoenvironments in most cases however little attention is paid to whether or not these signals are primary or altered by diagenesis the speleothems of the castanar cave caceres spain which are initially formed of calcite or aragonite have undergone a variety of meteoric diagenetic processes such as micritization and neomorphism inversion that collectively modify their primary features textures mineralogy geochemical signals the mean 13c and 18o values of the aragonites in the cave are 8 66 and 4 64 respectively whereas the primary calcites have mean 13c and 18o values of 9 99 and 5 77 respectively following the diagenetic process of micritization the aragonite isotopic signals averaged 7 63 13c and 4 74 18o and the calcite micrite signals 9 53 13c and 5 21 18o where inversion took place some secondary calcites after the aragonite show preserved aragonite whereas others do not the secondary calcites without aragonite relics show isotopic values slightly higher than those of the primary calcite due to the inheritance of the aragonite signal where aragonite relics are preserved the isotopic signatures are very similar to those of the aragonite micrite in addition the stable isotopic values and sr and mg contents of the speleothems became also modified by micritization and or inversion these diagenetic processes were driven by the changes in composition of the cave waters over time and space but also in the case of aragonite by its initial unstable mineralogy the present results highlight how important diagenesis is in caves and how the initial features of cave minerals may be lost these changes alter the geochemical signals shown by speleothems which may have an impact on the interpretation of the results obtained in palaeoenvironmental studies

focal mechanism solutions and dynamic parameters of earthquakes in the eastern himalayas and northern burma abstract focal mechanism solutions of four earthquakes in the eastern himalayas and northern burma are determined using the first motion of compressional waves two possible solutions thus obtained for each event reveal steeply dipping fault with predominantly strike slip motion the stress directions inferred from the focal mechanism solutions are interpreted in the light of predictions of the plate tectonics theory viz the underthrusting of the indian plate in the burma region in an easterly direction dynamic parameters seismic moment apparent stress and average dislocations are obtained using the corrected spectra of love waves the earthquakes are found to possess low seismic moment and apparent stress values a comparison of these estimates with values for intraplate earthquakes is given it is suggested that these earthquake might be a consequence of a nonhomogeneous rupture process

palaeoenvironments of vertebrates on the southern shore of tethys the nonmarine early cretaceous of tunisia abstract through the late jurassic and early cretaceous the southern shore of the tethys ocean migrated north and south over short distances these vicissitudes are documented in the continental intercalaire a long series of mainly non marine sediments deposited across north africa a combined taxonomic physical and chemical taphonomic study provides independent lines of evidence for reconstruction of palaeoenvironments within this marginal marine setting the douiret chenini and oum ed diab formations from the tataouine basin of southern tunisia span the later part of the early cretaceous microvertebrates from four sites in these formations show different modes of physical abrasion time averaging and mixing based on a taphonomic analysis using a combination of physical and chemical methods the taxonomic composition of each assemblage and trends in rare earth element ree compositions of bones from each locality were used as independent lines of evidence to indicate differences in early depositional environments the jebel boulouha assemblage douiret formation is interpreted as a terrestrial carbonate rich environment with relatively little mixing the touil el mra assemblage oum ed diab formation suggests a marginal marine environment with some mixing of previously interred bones the oued el khil assemblage chenini formation and the oum ed diab assemblage oum ed diab formation are more equivocal suggesting mixed freshwater and marine influences interpreting salinity in marginal marine settings is difficult and best attempted from multiple independent lines of evidence we suggest that ree geochemistry can contribute to palaeoenvironmental reconstruction when used in combination with other independent physical palaeontological and or geochemical methods

the retention of primary oxygen isotope compositions of fossil elephant skeletal phosphate fossil elephant remains from sediments of plio pleistocene age in the vicinity of lake turkana kenya provide insights into the ability of the phosphate oxygen system to preserve original 18o values 18op in the depositional environment individual fossil specimens exhibit systematic variations in the 18op values of their various tooth and bone components differences in 18op values between these skeletal components can be as high as 3 6 despite the fact that equivalent phases for individual modern elephants have 18op values which vary by less than 0 6 xrd traces of the different skeletal phases of modern and fossil samples also infer differential preservation of primary apatite crystallinities among the various fossil phases fossil samples of dentine cementum and bone have x ray spectra with sharper and more intense peaks compared to their modern counterparts but little change in crystallinity is observed for fossil enamel samples a model based on the premise that the enamel phase preserves primary isotope signatures and that the accompanying skeletal phases are partially re equilibrated with the fluids associated with the microbial decomposition of the elephant s carcass is consistent with the features of the 18op dataset this isotopic evidence in conjunction with the physical and chemical attributes of enamel has led us to postulate that enamel could be preserving primary isotope signatures while other skeletal components are affected to varying degrees by alteration processes in the burial environment

isotopic composition of recent shark teeth as a proxy for environmental conditions abstract the o c and sr isotope compositions of teeth from ten species belonging to five families and three orders of sharks were measured to determine the influence of habitat diet and possible species specific fractionation effects on the isotopic composition of biogenic phosphate from fish the sharks were recently caught in subtropical waters off the kwazulu natal kzn coast of south africa as well as from cold waters in prince william sound pws alaska and victor bay vb nunavut canada 18 o values of tooth phosphate 18 o p range from 20 9 to 23 5 for the kzn sharks for most species the range in measured 18 o p values is about 0 6 but it may be as high as 1 1 for different teeth from a single shark dentine and enameloid within individual teeth have no apparent differences in 18 o p values the 18 o p values of the kzn shark teeth reflect the typical habitat of the studied species primarily the thermal structure of the water column off kzn at depths between 20 and 280 m the 18 o p values of teeth from different greenland sharks from vb and pacific sleeper sharks from pws are very homogeneous averaging 25 8 and 24 7 respectively these values appear to be in equilibrium with deep 500 m ocean waters in each case at temperatures of about 0 3 c or less there is little discernable evidence for species specific fractionation effects for the oxygen isotope composition of phosphate in the studied marine fish the oxygen isotope composition of carbonate in apatite averages about 9 1 higher than corresponding 18 o p values in agreement with equilibrium fractionation between carbonate and phosphate but with a large variance 1 1 5 18 o c values also vary by up to 1 between enameloid and dentine within single teeth but in a non systematic way differences in 13 c values between carbonate in enameloid and dentine is also large up to 8 but the 13 c values vary systematically enameloid is always enriched in 13 c compared to dentine and the 13 c content increases with developmental stage of the teeth 13 c values measured for enameloid 1 6 to 4 8 appear to approach equilibrium with dissolved inorganic carbon in seawater in contrast 13 c values for dentine range from 6 4 to 2 3 for kzn sharks and 9 0 to 10 8 for the cold water sleeper sharks and are compatible with a predominantly dietary carbon source the 87 sr 86 sr ratios of teeth from kzn sharks as well as those from pws and vb are uniform averaging 0 709167 sr content varies from 1270 to 2100 ppm a range that is similar to that in well preserved fossilized teeth seawater sr is thus clearly incorporated in vivo concentrations of sm and nd are in the ppb range and contrast the ppm range in fossilized teeth indicating a postmortem incorporation of rare earth elements in apatite of the teeth

the new worldwide collapse caldera database ccdb a tool for studying and understanding caldera processes collapse calderas are one of the most important volcanic structures not only because of their hazard implications but also because of their high geothermal energy potential and their association with mineral deposits of economic interest the objective of this work is to describe a new general worldwide collapse caldera database ccdb in order to provide a useful and accessible tool for studying and understanding caldera collapse processes the principal aim of the ccdb is to update the current field based knowledge on calderas merging together the existing databases and complementing them with new examples found in the bibliography and leaving it open for the incorporation of new data from future studies this database does not include all the calderas of the world but it tries to be representative enough to promote further studies and analyses we have performed a comprehensive compilation of published field studies of collapse calderas including more than 200 references and their information has been summarized in a database linked to a geographical information system gis application thus it is possible to visualize the selected calderas on a world map and to filter them according to different features recorded in the database e g age structure the information recorded in the ccdb can be grouped in seven main information classes caldera features properties of the caldera forming deposits magmatic system geodynamic setting pre caldera volcanism caldera forming eruption sequence and post caldera activity additionally we have added two extra classes the first records the references consulted for each caldera the second allows users to introduce comments on the caldera sample such as possible controversies concerning the caldera origin a further purpose of this work is to construct the ccdb web page in this web page where registered users can acquire the current database version as well as to propose corrections or updates and to exchange information with other registered members also involved in the study of caldera collapse processes additionally the ccdb includes a formulary that will facilitate the incorporation of new calderas into the database

origin of distinct silicic magma types from the guachipelin caldera nw costa rica evidence for magma mixing and protracted subvolcanic residence abstract lower pleistocene pyroclastic deposits in nw costa rica represent sequential eruptions of distinct dacitic rhyolitic 69 79 sio2 magmas from the guachipelin caldera that were emplaced in a period of 0 75 myr this southern segment of the central american arc the chorotega block evolved on the modified caribbean large igneous province an overthickened oceanic plateau silicic magmatism is uncommon in settings such as this void of continental crust previously models have proposed the generation of silicic magmas in this type of setting by the partial melting or extreme crystal fractionation of intermediate source rocks e g tamura y tatsumi y 2002 remelting of an andesitic crust as a possible origin for rhyolite magma in oceanic arcs an example from the izu bonin arc journal of petrology 43 1029 1047 in fact recent melting experiments performed by sisson et al sisson t w ratajeski k hankins w b glazner a f 2005 voluminous granitic magmas from common basaltic sources contributions to mineralogy and petrology 148 5 542 565 suggest that melting of andesite or high k basalts common along the central american volcanic arc could produce silicic melts with the characteristic alkali content of these types of eruptives geochemical evaluation of the pumice clasts through the complete sequence of guachipelin eruptive products allows for subdivision into two major silica groups first the dacites are 66 72 wt sio2 pumice clast 75 2 76 5 wt sio2 glass orthopyroxene bearing with plagioclase an36 65 magnesiohornblende which are found intermittently from the base of the sequence through the uppermost ash flow deposit second the rhyolites are 72 79 wt sio2 pumice clast 74 5 78 6 wt sio2 glass biotite and quartz bearing with plagioclase an24 51 and magnesiohornblende chemical heterogeneities were discovered within each of these groups through evaluation of incompatible trace element ratios consequently seven units were defined using the nb ta ratio which has a significantly wide range from 3 8 to 29 4 and is interpreted to reflect contributions from more than one intermediate source most of these units also display extensive geochemical and petrological evidence of mixing oxygen isotopes phenocryst composition banded pumice clasts and different glass compositions in single pumice fragments the distinct geochemical characteristics of these deposits and the stratigraphic occurrence of each flow unit require both limited fractional crystallization within units coupled with melt extractions and extensive mixing hence individual melts would reside in relatively close proximity in subvolcanic zones for extended periods prior to the inception of a particular eruptive event considering the temporal

high resolution records of location and stratigraphic provenance from the rare earth element composition of fossil bones abstract bone apatite acts as a natural timed sampling device scavenging trace elements from local pore waters over timescales of ca 1 50 ka the rare earth element ree and u th composition of fossil bones reflects associated pore water compositions during the period of recrystallisation the ree composition of fossil bones is controlled by partitioning of ree between pore waters and particle surfaces and the ree composition of fossil bones reflects the ree composition of pore waters which vary spatially and temporally light ree are preferentially sorped onto particle surfaces thus the high la yb values seen in many bones from coastal marine and aeolian environments are best explained by release of ree from light ree enriched particles to local pore waters and subsequent immobilisation in recrystallising bones the ree compositions of bones recovered from pedogenically altered diatomite sediments of the olorgesailie formation of southern kenya vary over spatial scales of less than 10 m location accounts for 48 of the observed variation in bone chemistry and bones recovered from eight discrete excavations within the same time equivalent stratigraphic layer can be assigned to their excavation location with 70 accuracy based on a discriminant analysis of ree u and th composition despite this within layer variation bones recovered from different stratigraphic horizons within the olorgesailie formation can also be distinguished on the basis of their trace element composition bones recovered from four stratigraphic horizons spanning ca 0 5 million years were assigned to their correct stratigraphic layer with 90 accuracy where sedimentological conditions are favourable the trace element composition of fossil bone may be used to test stratigraphic provenance and burial location in excavated bone with a temporal resolution of

solubilities of bone mineral from archaeological sites the recrystallization window abstract bone mineral solubility is an important parameter for understanding the preservation of bones in the archaeological and palaeontological records in this study we have measured the solubility of the carbonated hydroxyl apatite of sub recent and fossil bones as well as synthetic hydroxyl apatite in deionized water and in ph buffered solutions the solutions were open to the atmosphere and the ph values were around neutral measurement conditions that are relevant to bone mineral preservation in nature but that were absent from most previous studies we obtained internally consistent results from both the water and the buffered experiments supporting the notion that we are measuring an inherent property of the mineral phase we found that bone mineral is much more soluble than synthetic hydroxyl apatite we measured the ionic activity products at steady state conditions and we identify a recrystallization window between ph 7 6 and 8 1 which defines the conditions under which bone crystals dissolve and reprecipitate as a more insoluble form of carbonated hydroxyl apatite as these conditions are common in nature most fossil bones will not maintain their original crystals with time we also found that bones that contained small amounts of calcite did not dissolve at all during our experiments these results provide a basis for better understanding the conditions in sediments under which bones are preserved and the relative states of preservation of bone they also have important implications for the selection of the most appropriate bone samples for paleoenvironmental and paleodiet analyses and dating

early history of earth s crust mantle system inferred from hafnium isotopes in chondrites the 176lu to 176hf decay series has been widely used to understand the nature of earth s early crust mantle system1 2 3 4 5 6 the interpretation however of lu hf isotope data requires accurate knowledge of the radioactive decay constant of 176lu as well as bulk earth reference parameters a recent calibration of the value calls for the presence of highly unradiogenic hafnium in terrestrial zircons with ages greater than 3 9 gyr implying widespread continental crust extraction from an isotopically enriched mantle source more than 4 3 gyr ago7 but does not provide evidence for a complementary depleted mantle reservoir here we report lu hf isotope measurements of different solar system objects including chondrites and basaltic eucrites the chondrites define a lu hf isochron with an initial 176hf 177hf ratio of 0 279628 0 000047 corresponding to 1 983 0 033 10 11 yr 1 using an age of 4 56 gyr for the chondrite forming event this value indicates that earth s oldest minerals were derived from melts of a mantle source with a time integrated history of depletion rather than enrichment7 the depletion event must have occurred no later than 320 myr after planetary accretion consistent with timing inferred from extinct radionuclides8 9 10

fossil isotope records of seasonal climate and ecology straight from the horse s mouth isotope analysis of a bulk fossil tooth gives a snapshot impression of paleoclimatic conditions a single point in time however hypsodont teeth grow over a period of a year or more so that stable carbon and oxygen isotope variations along their length are a tape recorder of short term seasonal variations from the distant past we have used a new in situ micro laser sampling method to determine submillimeter carbon and oxygen isotope variations in the enamel of individual fossil horse teeth to assess ancient annual meteoric water variations and feeding patterns the 18o values from a 6 8 ma fossil horse tooth astrohippus ansae from texas vary cyclically along the 6 cm length of the tooth with a smoothed amplitude of 4 similar to the monthly averaged amplitude measured in modern meteoric waters from the region the seasonal 18o values are 3 to 4 higher than those calculated from modern meteoric water data suggesting either a higher local meteoric water value in the miocene of texas or that the animal received a high proportion of its dietary water from plants or highly evaporated water a holocene horse tooth from the shores of glacial lake agassiz north dakota equus sp also has isotopic variations with the same 35 mm periodicity but a smoothed amplitude of only 2 this horse most likely had a buffered drinking supply the calculated 18o of the water in equilibrium with this tooth is the same as the modern measured annual average the variations within a single tooth can be as large as those generally observed in entire stratigraphic sections of fossil teeth analyzed by bulk methods the new method provides an important technique for evaluating fossil diagenesis conventional bulk analyses of teeth fragments may not be representative of the whole tooth thus explaining analytical scatter that has been previously attributed to diagenesis

protracted diagenetic alteration of ree contents in fossil bioapatites direct evidence from lu hf isotope systematics abstract fossil bones and teeth are potentially important repository for geochemical proxy data and a target for radiometric dating the concentration of many trace elements in bones and teeth increases by orders of magnitude after death and it is this diagenetic incorporation that forms the basis for several areas of geochemical study the use of bones and teeth in this context relies on two assumptions first that target metal ions are incorporated rapidly after death reflecting a known environmental signal and second that after early incorporation the bone or tooth remains as an essentially closed system resistant to later diagenetic change a wide literature has developed exploring these assumptions but relatively little direct evidence has been used to assess the long term diagenetic stability of trace elements within bones and teeth in this study we use the lu hf isotope system to show that bones and teeth of cretaceous and triassic age from both terrestrial and marine settings experience continued long term diagenetic change most likely through gradual addition of trace elements modelling suggests that diagenetic addition after initial recrystallisation may account for 50 of the total ree content in the sampled bones the extent depending on initial uptake conditions tooth enamel and enameloid may be more resistant to late diagenetic changes but dentine is probably altered to the same extent as bone these results have significant implications for the use of bones and teeth as hosts of chronological palaeoceanographic palaeoenvironmental and taphonomic information particularly in mesozoic and palaeozoic contexts

dinosaur bones fossils or pseudomorphs the pitfalls of physiology reconstruction from apatitic fossils abstract a prerequisite to any attempt to reconstruct thermophysiology of ancient animals through analysis of stable isotopes of oxygen is the assumption that apatitic fossils are isotopically unaltered parts of their original skeletons we suggest that sufficient evidence is available to seriously question this assumption because living bones contain about 1 3 by weight of organic matrix mass balance considerations show that at least half of an apatitic fossil must be new material added post mortem furthermore living apatitic skeletons contain almost no rare earth elements and uranium whereas apatitic fossils bear high concentrations of these elements additionally we found that while in living fish correlation between 18o of oxygen in the phosphate and that in the carbonate of apatite is poor these two values are linearly correlated in fossil fish this suggests diagenetic recrystallization has taken place perfect preservation of micro textures such as haversian canals does not prove the pristine condition of a fossil some of the most beautifully preserved fossils are highly silicified most apatitic fossils probably are pseudomorphs replacing original skeletal elements whereas distribution of stable isotopes of oxygen in fossils might provide information about their burial environment it could be misleading in attempts to interpret the organisms physiology this cautionary note is supported by the similarity of 18op in bones of coexisting fossil fish dinosaurs and various other reptiles at different latitudes the overlap of predicted 18op values in fish and mammals living in contact with the same environmental water also weakens the hope that ectotherms can be distinguished from endotherms by the isotopic composition of oxygen in their bones and teeth

stratigraphy and structure of the canas dulces caldera costa rica marti and aguirre were funded by spanish ministry of science and innovation micinn grant cgl2010 22022 c02 02 and by universidan nacional autonoma de mexico unam grant in 112312

conodont u th he thermochronology initial results potential and problems abstract we performed he diffusion experiments and u th he age determinations on conodonts from a variety of locations to explore the potential of conodont u th he thermochronology to constrain thermal and exhumation histories of some sedimentary rock dominated terrains based on two diffusion experiments and age results from some specimens he diffusion in conodont elements appears to be similar to that in durango apatite fragments of similar size and closure temperatures are approximately 60 70 c for cooling rates of 10 c m y u th he ages of conodonts from some locations yield reproducible ages consistent with regional thermal history constraints and in at least two cases require a closure temperature lower than 80 c other samples however yield irreproducible ages and in one case yield ages much younger than expected based on regional geologic considerations these irreproducible samples show inverse correlations between parent nuclides and age consistent with late stage open system u th behavior

patterns of chemical change during bone fossilization the uptake of elements by bone during fossilization is a well recognized phenomenon but the nature of and the factors leading to chemical heterogeneity in fossil bone are only just starting to be elucidated indeed in the recent past the assumption that fossil bone is chemically homogeneous has been commonly used in several investigations including those of bone dating and dietary studies in an attempt to understand the processes of element uptake we have investigated some chemical heterogeneities in a fossil bone and have assessed the potential use of bone composition as an indicator of the trace element contents of associated groundwater our study extends other work1 2 by giving the first analysis of rare earth element ree distribution in a fossil bone and by showing that information on the redox state and ree abundance pattern of the groundwater can be obtained the results contribute to the interpretation of bone analyses in studies on provenance and age determination as well as in the diet and health of past populations

phosphate lu hf geochronology abstract igneous metamorphic and biogenic apatite contains lu and hf in proportions that make this mineral suitable for dating by the 176lu 176hf method we present a new method for separation of lu and hf from apatite that involves a single extraction column step for hf and a second exchange column step for lu this procedure allows rapid sample processing prior to analysis by mc icp ms results from the igneous gardiner skaergaard and khibina intrusions indicate that the closure temperature for the lu hf isotopic system in apatite is relatively high the lu hf isochron age of 60 ma for the skaergaard intrusion east greenland is older than the generally accepted emplacement age but does not appear to be a product of mixing a centimeter sized apatite from the otter lake area grenvillian province yields high and variable 176lu 177hf ratios showing that metamorphic apatite may in some cases allow for mono mineral dating the most important application of the method is undoubtedly its potential use for dating sedimentary formations although we find biogenic apatite in porous matrix highly susceptible to post depositional resetting of the lu hf isotopic system the preservation of a near depositional age for a shark tooth from the impermeable london clay and recent work on crystalline authigenic phosphorites earth planet sci lett 201 2002 203 show the lu hf system to be a promising tool for direct dating of sedimentary formations

seismic tomography and earthquake locations in the nicaraguan and costa rican upper mantle the central american subduction zone exhibits large variations in geochemistry downgoing plate roughness and dip and volcano locations over a short distance along the arc results from joint inversions for vp vp vs and hypocenters from the tomography under costa rica and nicaragua tucan experiment give insight into its geometry and structure in both costa rica and nicaragua the intermediate depth seismic zone is a single layer no more than 10 to 20 km thick tomographic images show that throughout nicaragua and costa rica the slowest mantle p wave velocities appear below and behind the volcanic front indicating likely zones of highest temperature extending 80 to 120 km depth a sheet of high vp vs thought to be caused by melt is imaged directly beneath the nicaraguan volcanoes whereas a weaker broader anomaly is imaged beneath the costa rican volcanoes potentially indicating a greater extent of melting beneath nicaragua within the downgoing plate anomalously low velocities occur at least 20 30 km below wadati benioff zone seismicity to depths of 140 km beneath nicaragua and to 60 km depth beneath costa rica they indicate 10 20 serpentinized upper mantle of the downgoing plate beneath nicaragua similar to that inferred from refraction seaward of the trench but continuing to subarc depths this unusually hydrated lithosphere may introduce more water into the nicaraguan mantle initiating increased amount of melting and fluid flux to the arc

source parameters of earthquakes in northeast india from spectra of rayleigh waves abstract a quantitative description of eight earthquakes in northeast india in terms of seismic moment dislocation apparent stress and apparent average strain is sought the analysis is based on the theory of radiation pattern of surface waves from buried seismic sources proposed by ben menahem and harkrider 1964 further it makes use of the amplitude spectra of digitally recorded rayleigh waves at the central seismological observatory in erlangen grf f r germany the amplitude spectra of rayleigh waves are corrected for instrument response path propagation effects and effects of the radiation pattern published results on attenuation and focal mechanism solutions are utilized to arrive at reasonable estimates of the quantities under investigation comparison of the calculated values is also made with the estimates based on body wave spectra it is concluded that the earthquakes in northeast india are of low moment type the faulting process is supposed to be non homogeneous which results in low estimates of seismic source parameters and a characteristic source time function upadhyay and duda 1980 comparison of source parameter values with known estimates for intraplate earthquake is made for equal magnitude earthquakes intraplate earthquakes are characterized by higher seismic moment two of the earthquakes m s 6 3 considered here are compared with the koyna earthquake of dec 10 1967 emphasis is laid on development of theoretical models to account for the strain build up rates in inter and intraplate earthquakes

age mapping and dating of monazite on the electron microprobe deconvoluting multistage tectonic histories high resolution x ray mapping and dating of monazite on the electron microprobe are powerful geochronological tools for structural metamorphic and tectonic analysis x ray maps commonly show complex th u and pb zoning that reflects monazite growth and overgrowth events age maps constructed from the x ray maps simplify the zoning and highlight age domains microprobe dating offers a rapid in situ method for estimating ages of mapped domains application of these techniques has placed new constraints on the tectonic history of three areas in western canada age mapping has revealed multiphase monazite with older cores and younger rims included in syntectonic garnet microprobe ages show that tectonism occurred ca 1 9 ga 700 m y later than mylonitization in the adjacent snowbird tectonic zone in new mexico age mapping and dating show that the dominant fabric and triple point metamorphism occurred during a 1 4 ga reactivation not during the 1 7 ga yavapai mazatzal orogeny in norway monazite inclusions in garnet constrain high pressure metamorphism to ca 405 ma and older cores indicate a previously unrecognized component of ca 1 0 ga monazite in all three areas microprobe dating and age mapping have provided a critical textural context for geochronologic data and a better understanding of the complex age spectra of these multistage orogenic belts

estuarine distributions of zr hf and ag in the hudson river and the implications for their continental and anthropogenic sources to seawater 1 zirconium and hf in seawater are derived from continental weathering and are transported to the oceans by rivers but the modification of this flux with estuaries is largely unknown furthermore there is no information as to whether there is a pollutant source of these metals that might affect their budget calculations in the modern ocean to address the riverine flux and potential anthropogenic sources the distributions of dissolved zr and hf have been measured in surface and bottom water through the hudson river estuary the distribution of ag is included because it is sensitive to urban sources and has partial similarities in its distribution to those of zr and hf there is about 50 removal of zr and hf in surface water relative to their freshwater end member concentrations of 243 and 3 1 pmol kg as salinity starts to increase but an urban source of these metals midestuary may obscure greater removal silver concentrations in surface water are below the detection limit until salinity of 3 5 is reached the concentrations of zr and hf 0 5 m above the bottom are 1 5 to 3 times higher than their surface water concentrations throughout the estuary and may result from input of groundwater diffusion from pore fluids or inclusion of colloidal phases in our analyses downstream of the turbidity maximum bottom water ag concentrations are high due to release from particles that originally formed within the estuary and were moved inland following the spring freshet this process may also affect zr and hf the increase in the freshwater atomic zr hf ratio from 70 to 80 characteristic of terrestrial rocks to the elevated zr hf 110 ratio of seawater takes place at middle to high salinity due to enhanced release of zr from resuspended particles and slower removal rates compared to hf a main implication of this study is that estuaries are a sink for zr and hf the reduction of the predicted export of continental zr and hf to the oceans increases their previously calculated seawater residence by as much as 2 to 4 times assuming rivers dominate the supply of zr and hf to seawater

paleoredox variations in ancient oceans recorded by rare earth elements in fossil apatite abstract rare earth element concentrations in biogenic apatite of conodonts fish debris and inarticulate brachiopods were determined in over 200 samples from cambrian to modern sediments tests for experimental bias caused by the chemicals used to separate fossils from the rock matrix and for interlaboratory interexperiment or interspecies related variations clearly show that no resolvable fractionation of ree occurs incorporation of ree in biogenic apatite of recent fish debris occurs near the sediment water interface soon after deposition and reflects characteristics of seawater the original ree signature apparently survives subsequent burial and diagenesis cerium variations in fish debris from modern environments are controlled by redox potential ce is fractionated by co precipitation with metallic oxides under oxidizing conditions this fractionation produces a negative ce anomaly ce anom in seawater that is reflected in the sedimented fish debris conversely no fractionation of ce occurs under reducing conditions resulting in ce concentrations that are normal to enriched in anoxic seawater and fish debris deposited under local or basinwide anoxic conditions extrapolation of observations of the redox control of ce anom in modern oceans to fossil apatite indicates that anoxic conditions were prevalent in lower paleozoic and lower triassic oceans whereas in the upper paleozoic the world ocean was generally oxidizing

paleobiology and skeletochronology of jurassic dinosaurs implications from the histology and oxygen isotope compositions of bones fossil biogenic phosphate of fast growing primary bone tissue of dinosaurs can preserve a histologic and isotopic time series of annual seasonality in temperature variations similar to tooth enamel and other accretionary skeletal phases such as corals or wood on two bone fragments from sympatric dinosaurs with different histologic patterns of bone growth high resolution oxygen isotope profiles were analyzed along the radial direction of bone growth the investigated specimens are from the jurassic shishugou formation in the junggar basin nw china and have distinct patterns of compositional variation a fibrolamellar dinosaur bone with multiple lines of arrested growth lags and periodic growth cycles of decreasing bone laminae thickness displays a cyclic intra bone variation in 18o values of about 2 corresponding with the lags these growth cycles in fast growing fibrolamellar bone provide evidence for seasonal growth of dinosaurs in lower latitudes 45 n possibly influenced by a monsoon type paleoclimate seasonal changes in temperature and water supply are consistent with the oxygen isotope composition measured in dinosaur bone phosphate as well as with growth rings in contemporaneous fossil conifer wood from the same locality in contrast a plexiform sympatric sauropod bone displays continuous growth free of lags and has a lower intra bone variation of 0 8 differences in bone histology are also reflected in the oxygen isotopic composition and its intra bone variability indicating different physiological responses to external climatic stress between sympatric dinosaur species seasonal intra bone oxygen isotope variations combined with bone histology may thus yield new insights into species specific response to climatic stress and its influence on dinosaur growth formation of growth marks growth rates as well as dinosaur thermophysiology

crystal chemical controls on rare earth element concentrations in fossil biogenic apatites and implications for paleoenvironmental reconstructions abstract fossil biogenic apatites display rare earth element ree patterns which have been proposed to reflect environmental and biological controls on past seawater composition these patterns can be separated in two groups 1 patterns that are similar to those of open ocean and epicontinental waters and 2 patterns that exhibit a strong enrichment in intermediate ree bell shaped patterns because ree trapping in biogenic apatites occurs mostly post mortem it is essential to understand the crystal chemical inorganic factors that can influence the fractionation of ree between apatite and water a model is proposed by which partition coefficients of ree between apatite and water for a substitution mechanism can be extrapolated from mineral melt partition data to seawater or sedimentary basin conditions these are compared with available experimental partition coefficients for ree adsorption mechanism and used to discuss ree patterns in fossil biogenic apatites calculations of ree patterns for apatites at equilibrium with water show that the bell shaped patterns in fossil apatites can be explained by fractionation with seawater or continental fluids at low temperature under crystal chemical control involving a substitution mechanism and in the context of extensive or late diagenesis in that case the equilibrium composition of the fluid cannot be unequivocally determined from observed ree concentrations in fossil apatites this type of sample is inappropriate to discuss the past environmental or biological controls on ree concentrations in the ocean other sample compositions suggest little to moderate alteration of the original oceanic to freshwater pattern through the adsorption mechanism in the context of weak or early diagenesis and may be used with caution for that purpose

isotopic reconstruction of past continental environments abstract vertebrate fossils and continental sediments provide a rich record of variations in the isotopic composition of surface environments to interpret these records a greater understanding of isotopic sources as well as fractionations associated with animal physiology soil geochemistry and diagenesis has been essential tooth enamel and fish otoliths yield subannual records of surface environments whereas soil minerals may integrate signals over many thousands of years carbon isotope variations in fossil vertebrates and soils record changes in the structure of vegetation and the isotope composition and concentration of atmospheric co2 oxygen isotope variations may be indirectly related to climate through reconstruction of the oxygen isotope composition of meteoric water or directly related to temperature through application of oxygen isotope paleothermometry to soil minerals or otoliths in africa nitrogen isotope variations show promise as a proxy for rainfall abundance though the gen

a geochemical method to trace the taphonomic history of reworked bones in sedimentary settings rare earth element ree signatures can be used to identify the original mode of deposition of fossil bones and teeth that have been reworked this new technique may resolve the notoriously difficult problem of assessing the amount of transport or reworking undergone by fossil bones and teeth on the basis of physical parameters such as degree of abrasion different ree signals characterize different pore water environments bones and teeth composed of apatite incorporate rees rapidly during early diagenesis and the ree signature in the bone is controlled by that of the surrounding pore waters reworked bones and teeth may show ree traces suggesting early diagenetic pore water conditions different from those indicated by in situ sedimentary or geochemical evidence this situation is demonstrated in a case study from the rhaetian latest triassic of southwest england where different bone beds are compared in one case the original environmental setting of reworked bone is traced by matching ree traces with contemporaneous unreworked bone assemblages in neighboring areas

late cenozoic tephrostratigraphy offshore the southern central american volcanic arc 2 implications for magma production rates and subduction erosion pacific drill sites offshore central america provide the unique opportunity to study the evolution of large explosive volcanism and the geotectonic evolution of the continental margin back into the neogene the temporal distribution of tephra layers established by tephrochonostratigraphy in part 1 indicates a nearly continuous highly explosive eruption record for the costa rican and the nicaraguan volcanic arc within the last 8 m y the widely distributed marine tephra layers comprise the major fraction of the respective erupted tephra volumes and masses thus providing insights into regional and temporal variations of large magnitude explosive eruptions along the southern central american volcanic arc cava we observe three pulses of enhanced explosive magmatism between 0 1 ma at the cordillera central between 1 2 ma at the guanacaste and at 3 ma at the western nicaragua segments averaged over the long term the minimum erupted magma flux per unit arc length is 0 017 g ms tephra ages constrained by ar ar dating and by correlation with dated terrestrial tephras yield time variable accumulation rates of the intercalated pelagic sediments with four prominent phases of peak sedimentation rates that relate to tectonic processes of subduction erosion the peak rate at 2 3 ma near osa particularly relates to initial cocos ridge subduction which began at 2 91 0 23 ma as inferred by the 1 5 m y delayed appearance of the oib geochemical signal in tephras from barva volcano at 1 42 ma subsequent tectonic re arrangements probably involved crustal extension on the guanacaste segment that favored the 2 1 ma period of unusually massive rhyolite production

detailed mass spectrometric u series analyses of two teeth from the archaeological site of pech de l aze ii implications for uranium migration and dating abstract we report th u ages obtained by thermal ionization mass spectrometry of cross sections of two teeth from the archaeological site of pech de l aze ii the aim of this study is to reconstruct the pathways and time dependency of uranium uptake into different constituents of the two teeth a previous esr dating study of the two teeth yielded age estimates in the range of about 130 000 to 200 000 years which was in agreement with the geological assignment of riss for layers from which the specimens were recovered the closed system u series ages of all analyses range from 48 to 137 ka thus yielding age estimates which are between 30 and 90 ka too young the apparent closed system u series ages of the dentine and cement fractions at the top of the teeth are the oldest becoming gradually younger towards the interior of the two teeth the difference between apparent u series ages of dentine at the outer and inner parts of the two teeth is about 35 ka the enamel sections show the same patterns in u concentration and progression of apparent th u ages as the adjacent dentine samples but with generally younger ages our results indicate that uranium migrates both from the top and the base into the dentine of the teeth and from there into the adjacent enamel depending on the position of the sample significant uranium uptake appears to have taken place over many tens of thousands of years modelling the u uptake histories using a parametric model shows that for the cement and dentine components uptake is intermediate between linear uptake lu and early uptake eu closed system the enamel although often assumed to approximate more closely a closed system shows evidence of more recent u uptake these results also imply that it is not possible to use a simple single parameter u uptake model for all components of a given tooth either for u series or esr dating

in situ ion microprobe u pb dating and ree abundances of a carboniferous conodont we report here in situ ion microprobe u pb dating of a conodont micro fossil using an ion microprobe method thirteen spots on the single fragment of the carboniferous conodont size approximately 800 m 100 m yield a 238u 206pb isochron age of 323 36 ma and a tera wasserburg concordia intercept age of 332 44 ma in a three dimensional 238u 206pb 207pb 206 pb 204pb 206pb diagram these ages are consistent with the depositional and early diagenetic ages of the fossil in its host mississippian sedimentary sequence within experimental error the success of the method depends on the chemical fractionation of u from pb within a hundred m length scale and the consequent variations in pb isotopic compositions due to radioactive decay shale normalized rare earth element ree abundances of two spots on the same sample show flat patterns from light ree to middle ree and decreases from middle ree to heavy ree with negative anomalies of both ce and eu the ree characteristics are significantly different from those of devonian conodonts reported by other workers suggesting discrepant redox states and or formation environments

a routine high precision method for lu hf isotope geochemistry and chronology a method for chemical separation of lu and hf from rock meteorite and mineral samples is described together with a much improved mass spectrometric running technique for hf this allows i geo and cosmochronology using the176lu 176hf decay scheme and ii geochemical studies of planetary processes in the earth and moon chemical yields for the three stage ion exchange column procedure average 90 for hf chemical blanks are 0 2 ng for lu and hf from 1 g of hf a total ion current of 0 5 10 11 ampere can be maintained for 3 5 h yielding 0 01 0 03 precision on the ratio176hf 177hf normalisation to179hf 177hf 0 7325 is used extensive results for the johnson matthey hf standard jmc 475 are presented and this sample is urged as an international mass spectrometric standard suitable aliquots prepared from a single batch of jmc 475 are available from denver lu hf analyses of the standard rocks bcr 1 and jb 1 are given the potential of the lu hf method in isotope geochemistry is assessed

a plate tectonic model for the mesozoic and early cenozoic history of the caribbean plate abstract we present a model in which the caribbean plate is an intra american feature formed along the caribbean spreading center as opposed to the current model that considers the caribbean plate as a far travelled crustal segment that formed in the pacific region paleomagnetic data which cover an age range from jurassic through paleocene indicate the ophiolite complexes in costa rica and panama formed in an equatorial position the ophiolites did not fundamentally change their position relative to south america since their origin basaltic rocks of the lower part of the ophiolites are of mid ocean ridge type suggesting formation at a spreading center they are interpreted to have formed as part of the proto caribbean crust at a spreading axis in an intra american position during jurassic and early cretaceous times the upper part of the ophiolites is mainly built up by island arc and intraplate basalts the island arc basalts evolved at the central american landbridge which started in the middle cretaceous the intraplate basalts are related to the caribbean plateau basalt which thickened and stiffened the caribbean crust in middle cretaceous to probably campanian times changes in relative plate motions along the middle american convergent plate margin are reflected by orientations and time sequences of paleostress tensors calculated from fault slip data in southern mexico and costa rica kinematic indicators from mylonite zones display sinistral movement along secondary shear zones within the southern mexican crustal complexes and along the northern boundary of the chortis block in the motagua polochic fault system this reflects the eastward drift of the chortis block since the beginning of the cenozoic at this time the chortis block became part of the caribbean plate which moved more than 1000 km towards the east relative to the north and south american plates during the cenozoic

high precision lu hf geochronology of eocene eclogite facies rocks from syros cyclades greece abstract garnet bearing high pressure low temperature hp lt metamorphic rocks of the cycladic blueschist unit have been investigated by lu hf geochronology eclogites from syros island yield precise ages of 52 2 0 3 ma 51 4 0 4 ma and 50 2 ma preserved major and trace element growth zoning in garnet suggests that the closure temperature of the lu hf system in garnet was higher than the estimated peak metamorphic temperature of 500 c hence lu hf ages most likely reflect garnet growth in the studied samples our new lu hf grt ages are in excellent agreement with previously published u pb shrimp ages of metamorphic zircon and the maximum reported white mica rb sr and ar ar ages from syros garnet growth in all samples apparently took place over a narrow time interval because the lu hf ages cluster tightly even though the distribution of lu between cores and rims varies among samples we find no evidence for garnet generations that are significantly older or younger than the given isochron ages this in conjunction with the agreement among the ages of metamorphic zircon the maximum white mica ages and the lu hf ages strongly suggests that the 52 ma age dates a single hp event that affected these rocks

visualizing fossilization using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry maps of trace elements in late cretaceous bones elemental maps generated by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry la icp ms provide a previously unavailable high resolution visualization of the complex physicochemical conditions operating within individual bones during the early stages of diagenesis and fossilization a selection of la icp ms maps of bones collected from the late cretaceous of montana united states and madagascar graphically illustrate diverse paths to recrystallization and reveal unique insights into geochemical aspects of taphonomic history some bones show distinct gradients in concentrations of rare earth elements and uranium with highest concentrations at external bone margins others exhibit more intricate patterns of trace element uptake related to bone histology and its control on the flow paths of pore waters patterns of element uptake as revealed by la icp ms maps can be used to guide sampling strategies and call into question previous studies that hinge upon localized bulk samples of fossilized bone tissue la icp ms maps also allow for comparison of recrystallization rates among fossil bones and afford a novel approach to identifying bones or regions of bones potentially suitable for extracting intact biogeochemical signals

direct u pb dating of cretaceous and paleocene dinosaur bones san juan basin new mexico comment based on u pb dating of two dinosaur bones from the san juan basin of new mexico united states fassett et al 2011 1 claim to provide the first successful direct dating of fossil bones and to establish the presence of paleocene dinosaurs fassett et al ignore previously published work that

rare earth element composition of paleogene vertebrate fossils from toadstool geologic park nebraska usa fossil bones and teeth from terrestrial environments encode unique rare earth and trace element ree and te signatures as a function of redox conditions ph concentrations of complexing ligands and water colloid interactions this signature is set early in the fossilization process and serves as a paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic proxy these signatures can also be used to interpret temporal and spatial averaging within vertebrate accumulations and can help relocate displaced fossil bones back into stratigraphic context rare earth elements in vertebrate fossils from upper eocene and oligocene strata of toadstool geologic park northwestern nebraska record mixing and evolution of paleogene vadose or groundwaters and variations in paleoenvironments ree signatures indicate that hree enriched alkaline groundwater reacted with lree and mree enriched sediments to produce 3 component mixtures ree signatures become increasingly lree and mree enriched toward the top of the studied section as the paleoenvironment became cooler and drier suggesting that ree signatures may be climate proxies time series analysis suggests that ree ratios are influenced by cycles of ca 1050 800 570 440 and 225 ka similar to some previously determined milankovitch astronomical and climate periodicities

silicic ignimbrites within the costa rican volcanic front evidence for the formation of continental crust abstract the origin of silicic magmas greater than 65 silica in areas without old evolved continental crust has long been an enigma in oceanic arcs silicic volcanic deposits are not common which has generally been attributed to subduction related magmas rising without stalling or fractionating through a relatively thin mafic oceanic crust the volcanic arc in costa rica is built on a thick 40 km oceanic plateau and extensive silicic magmatism dominated by silicic ignimbrites has occurred in the region in the absence of old evolved continental crust the silicic deposits display the common large ion lithophile element lile enrichment and high field strength element hfse depletion observed in magmas generated by subduction processes which are not characteristic of melts generated from oceanic plateaus key trace element ratios in the ignimbrites vary with position along the volcanic front and this variation is similar to that of the volcanic front lavas ignimbrites contain unique cumulative frequency distributions of incompatible trace element ratios that demonstrate different magma batches for each unit we propose that the caribbean oceanic plateau in costa rica is being converted to continental crust in large part by the emplacement of silicic magmas in this area the origin of these silicic magmas is due to reprocessing juvenile mantle derived subduction related magmas that have ponded in the crust

large temperature drop across the eocene oligocene transition in central north america the eocene oligocene transition about 33 5 million years ago was a major global climate event the end of the eocene was unusually warm with no significant ice on antarctica but the oligocene saw the arrival of a permanent antarctic ice sheet two papers this week relate to the continental effects of this global change dupont nivet et al examined sedimentary records from the tibetan plateau and find a drop in atmospheric water which caused cooling and aridification coincident with antarctic cooling previous studies attributed this phenomenon to the rapid uplift of the tibetan plateau but this new work suggests that regional tibetan climate was influenced by global events in an unrelated paper on the same climate transition zanazzi et al explore the cooling in north america at the time using stable isotope measurements from fossil teeth and bones to create a proxy temperature record they find a large drop in mean annual temperature of 8 2 c a greater fall than seen in the oceans this continental transition may explain why many cold blooded reptiles and amphibians became extinct whereas mammals able to regulate their body temperature escaped relatively unscathed an analysis of fossil tooth enamel and fossil bones is used to derive a continental temperature record for the eocene oligocene transition and reports a large drop in mean annual temperature over roughly 400 000 years this cooling explains the decline in cold blooded terrestrial animals whereas most mammals in the region were unaffected the eocene oligocene transition towards a cool climate 33 5 million years ago was one of the most pronounced climate events during the cenozoic era1 the marine record of this transition has been extensively studied however significantly less research has focused on continental climate change at the time yielding partly inconsistent results on the magnitude and timing of the changes2 3 4 5 6 7 8 here we use a combination of in vivo stable isotope compositions of fossil tooth enamel with diagenetic stable isotope compositions of fossil bone to derive a high resolution about 40 000 years continental temperature record for the eocene oligocene transition we find a large drop in mean annual temperature of 8 2 3 1 c over about 400 000 years the possibility of a small increase in temperature seasonality and no resolvable change in aridity across the transition the large change in mean annual temperature exceeding changes in sea surface temperatures at comparable latitudes9 10 and possibly delayed in time with respect to marine changes by up to 400 000 years explains the faunal turnover for gastropods amphibians and reptiles whereas most mammals in the region were unaffected our results are in agreement with modelling studies that attribute the climate cooling at the eocene oligocene transition to a significant drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations

late cenozoic tephrostratigraphy offshore the southern central american volcanic arc 1 tephra ages and provenance we studied the tephra inventory of 18 deep sea drill sites from six dsdp odp legs legs 84 138 170 202 205 206 and two iodp legs legs 334 and 344 offshore the southern central american volcanic arc cava eight drill sites are located on the incoming cocos plate and ten drill sites on the continental slope of the caribbean plate in total we examined 840 ash bearing horizons and identified 650 of these as primary ash beds of which 430 originated from the cava correlations of ash beds were established between marine cores and with terrestrial tephra deposits using major and trace element glass compositions with respect to relative stratigraphic order as a prerequisite for marine terrestrial correlations we present a new geochemical data set for significant neogene and quaternary costa rican tephras moreover new ar ar ages for marine tephras have been determined and marine ash beds are also dated using the pelagic sedimentation rates the resulting correlations and provenance analyses build a tephrochronostratigraphic framework for costa rica and nicaragua that covers the last 8 myr we define 39 correlations of marine ash beds to specific tephra formations in costa rica and nicaragua from the 4 15 ma lower sandillal ignimbrite to the 3 5 ka rincon de la vieja tephra from costa rica as well as another 32 widely distributed tephra layers for which their specific region of origin along costa rica and nicaragua can be constrained this article is protected by copyright all rights reserved

diffusion of rare earth elements in fish teeth from deep sea sediments the distribution of rare earth elements rees in biogenic phosphate phases in sediments such as the remains of fish teeth has been proposed as an indicator of the depositional environment in the water column recording for example palaeo redox conditions1 and isotope geochemical2 5 and hydrothermal6 7 processes enrichment of these phases in rees takes place only during early diagenesis8 9 for which reason the ree signal has often been assumed to represent the unfractionated record of ree distribution in the water column overlying the sediment surface1 4 5 10 here we report on studies of ree zoning in fish teeth from pacific sediments from which we extract a ree diffusion coefficient of 70 mm2 myr 1 this value suggests that diffusion of rees from sea water into the fish teeth before burial is too slow to produce the enrichments observed instead the ree distributions must derive from the surrounding sediment pore fluids the use of these distributions as palaeoceanographic indicators is therefore called into question

effect of paleosol formation on rare earth element signatures in fossil bone the rare earth element ree content of fossil bones was analyzed and compared with the degree of ancient pedogenic development and depositional environments from several locations in the orellan scenic member of the oligocene brule formation in badlands national park south dakota paleosols ranged from weakly developed entisols to more strongly developed inceptisols all typical of fluvial environments and possible paleocatena variation paleosols were alkaline and well drained sediments with sparse soil features from an oxbow lake system suggest that conditions were too waterlogged and sedimentation rates too rapid for significant pedogenesis the variance of ree signatures in fossil bones from the paleosol sites was significantly greater than that of fossils from minimally altered sediments of the former oxbow lake positive ce anomalies were associated with low u concentrations and indicate paleoredox conditions greater degrees of pedogenesis regardless of the horizon in which the bone was found systematically correlated with increased heavy ree enrichment in fossil bones the fossil bone ree signatures from the different paleosols and depositional environments were significantly different and distinguishable

why do crystallinity values fail to predict the extent of diagenetic alteration of bone mineral spectroscopic indicators of bone crystallinity such as the infrared splitting factor irsf are commonly used to determine the general state of preservation of ancient bone in principle such indices might be expected to act as a proxy for alteration of bone mineral and thus could be used to screen bones or portions of bones for likely preservation of in vivo biogenic trace element and stable isotope signals we tested the relationship between irsf and bone mineral composition in two suites of well characterised recent and pleistocene bones initially crystallinity change and trace element uptake are correlated apparently both controlled by decomposition of the organic phase and exposure of bone crystal surfaces this relationship breaks down in older bones where authigenic phosphate growth and mineral pore water interactions are no longer rate limited by the breakdown of collagen and exposure of crystal surfaces in these conditions the extent of chemical alteration of bone will be controlled by site specific conditions and thus while ftir spectra of bone provide a broad indication of organic content and apatite recrystallisation they are not reliable proxies for the degree of diagenetic alteration in terms of biogenic geochemical signals

paleoenvironmental interpretations of rare earth element signatures in mosasaurs reptilia from the upper cretaceous pierre shale central south dakota usa abstract rare earth elements were analyzed from fossil marine reptile mosasauridae bones collected from five superposed members sharon springs gregory crow creek degrey and verendrye of the upper cretaceous pierre shale at localities along the missouri river in brule buffalo hughes and hyde counties in central south dakota fossil bones from each member of the pierre shale have different rare earth element ree signatures that may be distinctive over wide geographic areas fossils from the sharon springs member have distinctive ree signatures that may be further subdivided into three superposed groups that correspond with the upper middle and lower sharon springs member ree signatures are distinctive from each stratigraphic unit therefore fossils eroded from their stratigraphic context may be assigned to their proper depositional unit based on ree signature comparisons differences in ree compositions of bones among members appear to result from differential mixing of oxygenated and anoxic seawaters if differences in mixing are interpreted as depth differences the lower sharon springs member was deposited in deep anoxic water water depths decrease in the middle and upper sharon springs and the overlying gregory and crow creek members were deposited in even more shallow water finally according to this interpretation the overlying degrey and verendrye members were deposited in progressively deeper marine waters but not as deep as the lower sharon springs these interpretations are generally consistent with those based on faunal diversity and eustatic sea level curves

the post mortem history of a bone revealed by its trace element signature the case of a fossil whale rostrum abstract studies dedicated to palaeoenvironments and taphonomy have made wide use of rare earth elements ree contents of fossil bones as proxies however the complex diagenetic history of individual specimens combined with intra bone ree fractionation and the uncertain timing of ree uptake generally prevents the robust interpretation of ree patterns in this case study we show that combining ree analysis with on the one hand histology and microstructural observations and on the other hand additional analyses of other trace elements allows deciphering at least three distinct trace element uptake stages as well as one leaching event more than 35 trace elements including the ree are analysed using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry la icpms within compact rostrum bones of the miocene pliocene beaked whale globicetus hiberus from deep sea deposits and a comparable extant specimen blainville s beaked whale mesoplodon densirostris comparison of the extinct and the extant bones allows a better quantification of the diagenetic trace element content this study highlights the crucial role played by diagenetic minerals such as the fe mn oxyhydroxides in the uptake and release of trace elements co ni ti v zr hf and nb and ree by bones in response to changes of the diagenetic fluid redox conditions over time such changes of the geochemical environment help constraining the post mortem history of the bone and its interaction with diagenetic fluids we conclude that the unique interpretation of geochemical proxies within individual fossil bones requires a thorough investigation of each individual specimen

application of ostracoda and charophyta from the late jurassic to early cretaceous tendaguru formation at tendaguru tanzania east africa biostratigraphy palaeobiogeography and palaeoecology abstract revisitation of the famous late jurassic early cretaceous dinosaur locality of tendaguru by a german tanzanian expedition in summer 2000 resulted in a new standard section micropalaeontologic samples from this section yielded a marine and nonmarine partially mixed ostracod fauna consisting of 40 taxa and some charophyte gyrogonites and utriculi a few marine taxa provided biostratigraphic information although comparable faunas from the west indian madagascan east african faunal province are stratigraphically older middle late jurassic fully marine and strongly endemic an middle oxfordian age is suggested for the lower part of the tendaguru formation nodosoclavatoroid utriculi charophyta suggest that the jurassic cretaceous boundary may be located lower in the section than supposed previously i e in the trigonia smeei member rather than in the upper saurian member in biogeographical terms the marine ostracod fauna is relatively endemic and has most similarities with that known from eastern tanzania only a few faunal links to madagascar northwest india and somalia exist and there are no links to south africa ostracods and charophytes also provided palaeoecological data for specific horizons in the lower part of the middle saurian member a regression is documented while the nonmarine late jurassic early cretaceous ostracods of tendaguru are not applicable to biostratigraphy so far they are important because the nonmarine setting is unique in this area of the tethys

147sm 143nd and 176lu 176hf in eucrites and the differentiation of the hed parent body the 147sm 143nd and 176lu 176hf systematics of 21 whole rock eucrites including five cumulates have been investigated by mc icp ms a statistically significant sm nd isochron was obtained on 18 samples with an age of 4464 75 ma mswd 1 26 and an intercept of 0 50680 0 00010 this age clearly is controlled by the cumulate eucrites the 21 basaltic and cumulate eucrites together do not form a statistically significant lu hf isochron basaltic eucrites however form an errorchron with an age of 4604 39 ma mswd 4 52 which becomes an acceptable isochron if the error on the lu hf ratio is doubled with respect to the laboratory estimate the initial 176hf 177hf is 0 27966 0 00002 three of the cumulate eucrites regressed together further yield a statistically significant age of 4470 22 ma indistinguishable from their sm nd age we therefore conclude that cumulate eucrites are 100 myr younger than basaltic eucrites and basaltic eucrites are close in age to the solar system there is no evidence in the present data to support a decay constant of 176lu significantly different from 1 93 10 11 yr 1 sguigna can j phys 60 1982 361 364 the broad range of variation and strong correlation of lu hf and sm nd ratios require that eucrites are partial melts and not residual magmas the relative lu hf and sm nd fractionation is controlled by the plagioclase to mafic mineral ratio in the residue the steep correlation between these two ratios is explained by the enhancement of plagioclase saturation in the low gravity field of the eucrite parent body basaltic eucrites probably formed as large degree melts of a chondritic source the strong lu hf and sm hf fractionation observed in cumulates clearly reflects the presence of residual ilmenite during melting our preferred interpretation is that cumulates were impregnated by small degree melts of ilmenite bearing gabbros since pressure on the eucrite parent body never reaches the garnet stability field this observation questions the ubiquitous presence of residual garnet in the mantle sources of magmas formed on larger planets such as the moon mars and possibly earth

dissolution reprecipitation of zircon at low temperature high pressure conditions lanzo massif italy abst r a c t an eclogite facies meta plagiogranite from the lanzo massif western alps italy contains crystals of zircon intimately associated with allanite zircon displays different microtextures ranging from pristine euhedral and magmatic to fractured porous varieties with mosaic zoning and pervasive recrystallization into euhedral microcrystals fractures and voids in the recrystallized zircon microcrystals are mainly filled by high pressure na rich pyroxene electron backscattered diffraction analysis revealed a similar crystallographic orientation for primary magmatic zircon crystals and microcrystals with less than 2 misorientation among neighboring microdomains the textural change is coupled with chemical and isotopic modifications recrystallized zircon domains contain significantly less th and light to mid ree but are richer in sr than magmatic zircon crystals magmatic zircon preserves the protolith u pb age of 163 5 1 7 ma whereas zircon microcrystals have a mean age of 55 1 ma the coexisting allanite also contains inclusions of na rich pyroxene and has chemical features elevated sr and ni contents and lack of eu anomaly indicating formation at high pressure despite being associated texturally with zircon allanite yields a younger th pb age of 46 5 3 0 ma suggesting that the lanzo unit remained at relatively high pressure conditions for 8 m y zircon recrystallization proceeded with volume reduction and loss of material to an alkaline metamorphic fluid that acted as the agent for a coupled dissolution reprecipitation process recrystallization occurred with minimum transport in a low strain environment and was not significantly enhanced by metamictization the source of the fluid for zircon recrystallization is most probably related to prograde devolatilization reactions in the surrounding serpentinite

hafnium and neodymium isotope variations in ne atlantic seawater the 176hf 177hf ratio of seawater is measured directly with 143nd 144nd in a composite vertical profile in the ne atlantic the value of hf of intermediate and deep water exhibits little variation and averages 1 0 0 8 surface water shows a wider range 5 7 to 3 3 while intermediate and deep water samples plot on or close to the seawater hf nd isotope array defined by ferromanganese deposits near surface seawater samples plot between the seawater and terrestrial rock hf nd arrays it is likely that the shallow water variability in hf arises from a short residence time of hf in surface water and isotopically heterogeneous inputs the difference between surface and intermediate deep water hf may be maintained by the release of surface scavenged hf at depth from a subset of sinking particles the composition of end at middepths reflects overlying surface water and water advected along isopycnals from areas where they outcrop in winter uniform hf values below 1000 m suggest the residence time of hf may be longer than that of nd the radiogenic isotopic composition of seawater hf relative to nd and terrestrial rocks suggests that minerals with high lu hf ratios may be preferentially weathered providing a source of radiogenic hf to the oceans

the first radiometric ages from the judith river formation upper cretaceous hill county montana a new isotopic age of ca 78 ma was obtained by the conventional k ar method and by laser fusion 40ar 39ar analysis of biotite and sanidine crystals from two bentonites in the judith river formation of kennedy coulee hill county montana the 40ar 39ar analyses yielded weighted mean ages of 78 2 0 2 ma biotite and 78 2 0 2 ma sanidine for sample 84mg8 3 4 and 79 5 0 2 ma biotite and 78 5 0 2 ma sanidine for sample 85mg7 16 1 these are the first isotopic age determinations from the judith river formation the dated bentonites in kennedy coulee bracket two significant judithian age mammal localities ucmp v77083 and v81234 the radioisotopic age of ca 78 ma for the hill county local faunas and correlations of other judithian local faunas with marine units suggest that the duration of the judithian was at least 5 ma judithian local faunas are probably correlative with the late campanian of the western interior similarities in the principal judithian mammalian faunas from alberta monta

early diagenetic stabilization of trace elements in reptile bone remains as an indicator of maastrichtian late paleocene climatic changes evidence from the naran bulak locality the gobi desert south mongolia abstract maastrichtian dinosaur bone remains from the naran bulak locality the gobi desert with well preserved bone textural features are enriched in some trace elements primarily in ree these features of vertebrate fossils were formed during diagenesis following rapid burial in mudflow sediments and prior to postfossilization epigenetic changes trace elements are mainly concentrated in diagenetic apatite their contents in the bones correlate with that in their enclosing sediments for both maxima and minima fossil and sediment compositions were established under the influence of paleoclimate they are correlated with long term climatic changes with the aridity maximum at the k t boundary climatic changes were recorded via the change of salinity of waters interacting with the buried vertebrate remains

direct u pb dating of cretaceous and paleocene dinosaur bones san juan basin new mexico vertebrate fossils have been important for relative dating of terrestrial rocks for decades but direct dating of these fossils has heretofore been unsuccessful in this study we employ recent advances in laser ablation in situ u pb dating techniques to directly date two dinosaur fossils from the san juan basin of northwestern new mexico and southwestern colorado united states a cretaceous dinosaur bone collected from just below the cretaceous paleogene interface yielded a u pb date of 73 6 0 9 ma in excellent agreement with a previously determined 40 ar 39 ar date of 73 04 0 25 ma for an ash bed near this site the second dinosaur bone sample from paleocene strata just above the cretaceous paleogene interface yielded a paleocene u pb date of 64 8 0 9 ma consistent with palynologic paleomagnetic and fossil mammal biochronologic data this first successful direct dating of fossil vertebrate bone provides a new methodology with the potential to directly obtain accurate dates for any vertebrate fossil

lithostratigraphy tephrochronology and rare earth element geochemistry of fossils at the classical pleistocene fossil lake area south central oregon abstract one of the most famous fossiliferous pleistocene sites in the pacific northwest is fossil lake oregon until recently fossil collections from the area were not stratigraphically controlled owing to the lack of a detailed stratigraphic and chronologic framework our field studies reveal at least nine exposed thin rhythmic fining upward depositional packages most separated by disconformities analysis of interbedded tephras reveals that the rye patch dam 646 ka dibekulewe 610 ka tulelake t64 95 ka marble bluff 47 ka and trego hot springs 23 2 ka tephra layers are present in the section indicating deposition from more than 646 ka to less than 23 ka which includes both the late irvingtonian and rancholabrean north american land mammal ages a much longer time span than previously believed bones analyzed from eight of the defined units have distinctly different rare earth element ree signatures fossils obtain ree during early diagenesis and signatures are probably closely

isotopically heterogeneous initial pb and continuous 222 rn loss in fossils the u pb systematics of brachiosaurus brancai abstract diagenetic incorporation of uranium into bone material establishes a u pb system that provides a minimum age for the fossil loss of rn and ra from the 238u decay series recent mobility of u and pb and incorporation of radiogenic pb from an old basement which was available during diagenesis disturbed the u pb system all data fall in a 206pb 238u 207pb 235u concordia diagram to the right of the concordia while samples that do not experience redistribution of u pb 222rn and 226ra should define a linear array that intersects the concordia curve at the age of diagenesis and at the age of the source of inherited radiogenic pb loss of 222rn and 226ra has led to displacement of the present data set to lower 206pb 238u and therefore to younger intercept ages and to older 207pb 206pb ages the 207pb 204pb 208pb 204pb systematics demonstrates that 1 three out of 19 samples experienced significant postdiagenetic fractionation of u and pb and that 2 the diagenetic pb addition was isotopically heterogeneous the 235u 207pb 206pb 207pb and 206pb 238u 207pb 235u systematics combined demonstrate that 3 the samples experienced 5 to 18 222rn loss for a 1 9 ga old source of the diagenetically introduced pb and correspondingly more for a younger pb source and that 4 there is no unique solution for the age of the source of diagenetic pb since pb from a younger source appears in the 235u 207pb 206pb 207pb diagram in the same way as higher 222rn loss no precise age can be determined from the data although the most consistent solution falls in the range of 140 to 150 ma addition of radiogenic pb to the fossil bone is obvious only through its anomalous highly radiogenic character and the isotopic heterogeneity in 208pb 204pb no th i e no in situ 208pb growth the effect of unrecognized diagenetic additions of radiogenic pb is an overestimation of the age whereas unrecognized 222rn loss results in a too young discordant age since fossil material formed at times for which the discordia only shows a small curvature anomalies originating from diagenetic pb additions and 222rn loss may not always be recognized

an x ray diffraction xrd and x ray fluorescence xrf investigation in human and animal fossil bones from holocene to middle triassic we examined by rietveld refinement of x ray diffraction patterns a series of 61 human and animal fossil bones in an age range from present time to middle triassic around 245 ma this approach supplemented by elemental analysis according to x ray fluorescence has permitted to obtain a quantitative evaluation of the mineralogical phases in the specimens thus allowing to reconstruct the mineralization process involved concerning the apatite phase after adopting a monoclinic geometry for the unit cell the method permits to determine with fair degree of precision the unit cell volume which is found to decrease in relatively short geological times as a function of the fluorine substitution process for the hydroxyl group oh after excluding the role of a high temperature fire treatment to the bones it is found that a certain linear correlation may exist over the geological time scale involved between the age of the specimen and the average crystallite size this observation permits to use the xrd pattern as an evaluation of the age of the fossil although the stratigraphic observations where available remain as the main reliable source for dating such biomaterials the uncertainty related to this age estimation may be hardly better than 15 20 in absolute because of various assumptions involved in the xrd methodology used and in the variability of the burial environment that may be subjected to discontinuous changes over the very long time of deposition

mineralogical and compositional changes in bones exposed on soil surfaces in amboseli national park kenya diagenetic mechanisms and the role of sediment pore fluids abstract bones exposed on tropical savannah grasslands of amboseli national park kenya undergo extensive post mortem alteration within 40 years a combined analytical approach involving tem microscopy trace metal analysis ftir spectroscopy and petrographic analysis has revealed a complex dynamic diagenetic environment operating within exposed bones driven by evaporative transport of soil water from the bone soil interface to the upper exposed surface of the bone this process results in extensive bone soil water interaction and is responsible for increases in the concentrations of trace elements such as ba and la of 100 1000 within 15 years the maximum and mean size of bone crystallites increases with continued exposure this change in mean crystallite length is correlated positively with increases in bone crystallinity which in turn is associated with degradation of the bone protein microbial decomposition is rarely observed in the amboseli bones but where present resulted in severe dissolution reprecipitation of bone mineral many bones showed extensive permineralization of the larger vascular spaces with calcite and barite and to a lesser extent crandallite permineralization of unburied bones may account for 95 reduction in macro micron millimeter scale porosity in the bone within 2 years of death we produce a model for pre burial diagenesis of bone in arid tropical environments that highlights extensive alteration of bone chemistry within 1 40 years post mortem

preservation of seawater sr and nd isotopes in fossil fish teeth bad news and good news abstract we analyzed 87sr 86sr ratios in foraminifera pore fluids and fish teeth for samples ranging in age from eocene to pleistocene from four ocean drilling program sites distributed around the globe site 1090 in the cape basin of the southern ocean site 757 on the ninetyeast ridge in the indian ocean site 807 on the ontong java plateau in the western equatorial pacific and site 689 on the maud rise in the southern ocean sr isotopic ratios for dated foraminifera consistently plot on the global seawater sr isotope curve for sites 1090 757 and 807 sr isotopic values of the pore fluids are generally less radiogenic than contemporaneous seawater values as are values for fossil fish teeth in contrast pore fluid 87sr 86sr values at site 689 are more radiogenic than contemporaneous seawater and the corresponding fish teeth also record more radiogenic values thus sr isotopic values preserved in fossil fish teeth are consistently altered in the direction of the pore fluid values furthermore there is a correlation between the magnitude of the offset between the pore fluids and the seawater curve and the associated offset between the fish teeth and the seawater curve these data suggest that the hydroxyfluorapatite of the fossil fish teeth continues to recrystallize and exchange sr with its surroundings during burial and diagenesis therefore sr chemostratigraphy can be used to determine rough ages for fossil fish teeth in these cores but cannot be used to fine tune age models in contrast to the sr isotopic system our nd concentration data combined with published isotopic and rare earth element data suggest that fish teeth acquire nd during early diagenesis while they are still in direct contact with seawater the concentrations of nd acquired at this stage are extremely high relative to the concentrations in surrounding pore fluids as a result nd isotopes are not altered during burial and later diagenesis therefore fossil fish teeth from a variety of marine environments preserve a reliable and robust record of deep seawater nd isotopic compositions from the time of deposition

sm nd in marine carbonates and phosphates implications for nd isotopes in seawater and crustal ages this study explores the possibility of establishing nd isotopic variations in seawater over geologic time calcite aragonite and apatite are examined as possible phases recording seawater values of nd modern biogenic and inorganically precipitated calcite and aragonite from marine environments were found to have nd concentrations of from 0 2 to 70 ppb showing that primary marine caco 3 contains little ree and that nd ca is not greatly enhanced relative to seawater during carbonate precipitation very young marine limestone and dolomite containing no continental detritus have 200 ppb nd all the carbonates are lree enriched 0 16 sm nd 0 45 modern and very young atlantic and pacific carbonates have nd in the range of shallow atlantic and pacific seawater respectively implying that they derive their ree from local seawater the nd in well preserved carbonate fossils is 4 10 4 ppb much greater than in their modern counterparts but like the high values found for carbonates in other studies we believe the high ree contents at the 500 ppb level in some detritusfree carbonates are due to ree rich fe hydroxide in on the carbonate in favorable cases such material may record seawater nd values however introduction of extraneous ree may obscure the original isotopic composition of pure caco 3 because of its very low intrinsic primary ree abundance modern biogenic apatite is also shown to have very low ree content 150 ppb nd but appears to quickly scavenge ree from seawater inorganically precipitated apatite from phosphorites has high concentrations of seawater derived ree young phosphorite apatite from the atlantic and pacific oceans has nd in the range of the seawater from these oceans older apatite samples of similar age from different localities bordering common oceans record similar values of nd t sedimentary apatite has sr t values in good agreement with the curves for 87 sr 86 sr of seawater as a function of time individual conodonts from a single formation yield the same sr t and nd t other workers have shown that sedimentary apatite preserves seawater ree patterns these characteristics suggest that sedimentary apatite can be used to determine nd t in ancient seawater the seawater values so inferred range between 1 7 and 8 9 over the last 700 my and lie in the range of modern seawater showing no evidence for drastic changes high values of seawater nd t in the triassic and latest precambrian may correlate with the breakup of large continental landmasses the initial nd t 15 0 of a 2 ae old phosphorite implies the presence of 1 5 ae old continental crust at 2 ae ago the approach outlined here can be used to constrain the age of the exposed crust as a function of time

timescales and mechanisms of ree and hf uptake in fossil bones abstract rare earth element ree patterns of fossil bones and teeth are widely used as proxies for provenance taphonomy and palaeoenvironment in order to investigate if fossil bones behave as closed systems over geologic time ree profiles were analysed by la icpms along cross sections of 54 bones from various well characterised and well dated settings these include terrestrial and marine diagenetic environments covering early triassic to holocene ages in general all fossil bones exhibit the highest ree concentrations at the outer rim gradually decreasing by up to four orders of magnitude toward the inner bone cortex intra bone ree concentration gradients decrease significantly from quaternary via tertiary to mesozoic specimens suggesting long term ree uptake and open system behaviour of fossil bone this view is further corroborated by 176lu 176hf dating of selected samples all yielding significantly younger ages than the known chronostratigraphic ages hence there is clear evidence for long term open system behaviour of fossil bones with respect to ree which is in marked contrast to currently accepted models suggesting that ree uptake is only early diagenetic although unexpected statistically significant four to seven point isochrons are observed for four fossil dinosaur bone samples and one upper triassic mastodonsaurus tooth with mswds ranging from 0 083 to 4 5 notably mobility of lu alone cannot account for the observed age patterns assuming constant lu uptake rates over time the radiometric ages should only be as low as half of the chronostratigraphic age however a six point isochron defined by subsamples of a single upper triassic mastodonsaurus tooth yields an age of 65 2 1 1 ma mswd 0 68 much younger than half of the stratigraphic age ca 234 ma hence hf must also undergo late diagenetic exchange likely mechanisms to account for the presence of statistically meaningful isochrons as well as for the late diagenetic exchange of both ree and hf are diffusion adsorption and dissolution reprecipitation processes

u pb dating of fossil enamel from the swartkrans pleistocene hominid site south africa abstract we demonstrate that young fossil enamel older than the range of the u series 300 ka can be dated by the u pb methods using new models of u and pb loss and uptake contrary to the current hypothesis of u uptake that only considers the adsorption diffusion mechanism we here develop a complete time dependent model which takes gains and losses of the most critical nuclides 238u 234u and 230th into account both during chemical dissolved u and physical th and u recoil processes lead is assumed to be a mixture between two components of common pb and a radiogenic component the proportions of these components are calculated from the pb isotope abundances and u pb ratios we apply this new u pb method to bovid enamel from the swartkrans cave gauteng province south africa this cave has yielded abundant early pleistocene hominid remains attributed to paranthropus and homo as well as various associated archaeological vestiges biochronological comparisons with east africa have provided age estimates ranging between 1 8 and 1 0 ma which however remain poorly constrained after correction for initial 234u disequilibrium and further 238u loss the u and pb isotope data yield ages of 1 83 1 38 1 36 0 29 and 0 83 0 21 ma for the three stratigraphic units members 1 2 and 3 respectively we discuss the consequences of these radiometric results for hominid evolution in south africa

seismic moment tensor components of an earthquake source in the eastern himalayas 26 61 n 97 03 e abstract an earthquake with epicentre located at 26 61 n 97 03 e is studied for its moment tensor components using vertical component rayleigh wave records from a number of stations as the moment components are sensitive to source geometry and earth model determination of focal parameters on the basis of first motion p wave data forms the first step in the analysis further as an idealization values of the phase and group velocities are assumed for a standard gutenberg layered earth model rayleigh wave spectra corrected for instrument response and attenuation effects of the medium are used for the calculation of moment tensor components the basis of this analysis is the theoretical relationship between spectra of the vertical component of displacement of rayleigh waves with the space derivatives of the green s function and seismic moment tensor components this is discussed briefly in the text least square linear inversion is adopted to optimize the solution for moment tensor components and then to calculate the most likely focal depth total seismic moment stress drop and average dislocation on the fault are calculated using spectra of body waves after applying the necessary corrections it is concluded that the total moment and its components have characteristic lower values interpretation of the result is included

geo and cosmochemistry of the twin elements yttrium and holmium we have analyzed the y ho ratios in bulk chondrites chondrules and four ca and al rich inclusions cais from carbonaceous and unequilibrated ordinary and enstatite chondrites ec by laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry la icpms we demonstrate that bulk rock sample preparation by containerless melting is a suitable method for preparation of bulk rock samples for high precision la icpms bulk chondrites have variable y ho ratios carbonaceous chondrites ci1 cm2 cv3 and ck4 have a common y ho ratio 25 94 0 08 2 that is regarded as the solar system y ho ratio the y ho ratio increases from carbonaceous through ordinary ll l h to enstatite chondrites el6 which show the highest y ho ratio of 27 25 we discuss the result with respect to the origin of fractionation of re and os between chondrite groups within analytical error y and ho show a good correlation in oc and cv3 chondrules and define an y ho ratio of 26 22 0 40 2 y ho fractionation in ca and al rich inclusions is related to differences in volatility the bulk silicate earth is suggested to have a solar y ho ratio and links the earth with carbonaceous chondrites y ho variations in primitive and differentiated terrestrial igneous rocks are discussed in framework of incompatibility of y and ho during partial melting applicability of y ho as tracer for or against a sedimentary origin of the putative host rock of the earth s oldest traces of life from the island of akilia is briefly discussed