evidence for multiple high t metamorphism and regional migmatization within the cadomian belt of northern brittany france the cadomian orogeny is characterized by two major tec tonometamorphic events one that pre dates 570 ma and another at c 540 ma until recently the majority of migmatites occurring within the cadomian belt of northern brittany were interpreted as having been formed during the second event the discovery of the jouguet migmatites which have been hornfelsed by the st brieuc diorite emplaced at 533 l2 ma suggests that a migmatitic event occurred before 540 ma these data demand a reinterpretation of the structural sketch of the cadomian orogeny

the tectonothermal evolution of the cadomian belt of northern brittany france a neoproterozoic volcanic arc abstract the neoproterozoic cadomian belt northern brittany france results from the accretion of crustal blocks that record distinctive p t deformation paths in addition abundant gabbro dioritic to granitic intrusions during and after deformation influence the thermal pattern and are used as time markers as a whole the deformation history of the cadomian belt is characterised by a migration in time of the active zones which become younger towards the southeast relics of eocadomian rocks reveal that arc development took place at about 660 640 ma abundant calc alkaline magmatism intruding strongly deformed palaeoproterozoic orthogneisses characterise the northernmost unit of the cadomian belt i e the tregor unit which cooled before 600 ma the lanvollon basin a short lived intra arc rift containing abundant mafic and felsic volcanics followed by greywackes opened at about 600 580 ma the subsequent tectonothermal history of the cadomian belt is divided into two major episodes the first episode is related to the shortening of the intra arc rift and its southwestward thrusting over the guingamp unit this led to crustal thickening inducing partial melting in the guingamp unit exhumation of the latter rocks is accommodated by late extensional shearing along the boundary between the saint brieuc and guingamp units cooling of the saint brieuc unit is dated at about 570 560 ma the second episode is dominated by sinistral wrenching mainly localised in the eastern part of the cadomian belt at the boundary between the domnonean i e the arc domain and mancellian possibly a fore arc basin domains several shear zones developed during this episode some of them being associated with minor granitic intrusions dated around 550 ma the sinistral shear located southeast of the arc domain is reworking or crosscutting earlier high temperature fabrics within the saint brieuc unit in addition the vertical component of this shearing episode contributes significantly to the exhumation of the saint malo migmatites near the proterozoic cambrian boundary cordierite biotite granitoids intruded at shallow depths the fougeres unit their emplacement outlasting deformation of the sedimentary sequences minor stocks of muscovite leucogranites of cambrian age are possible equivalents of the abundant volcanism in an adjacent nw se trending rift this marks a major change in the kinematic framework with predominance of extension finally minor reactivation of the cadomian structures occurred during the carboniferous associated with the variscan orogeny

scale dependent analysis of satellite imagery for characterization of glacier surfaces in the karakoram himalaya abstract information regarding process structure relationships and change in the karakoram himalaya is of great importance in studying glacier hydrollogy mass balance and dynamic environmental change such information is not readily available detailed spatio temporal assessment requires field investigation coupled with quantitative remote sensing studies we conducted an investigation of the large batura glacier in pakistan to determine if spectral variability can be quantified and used to characterize glacier surfaces specifically spot panchromatic satellite data were evaluated for differentiating features of glacier structure resulting from ice movement ablation and supraglacial fluvial action image semivariogram analysis was conducted for assessing spectral variability patterns and fractal analysis was used to examine scale dependent variation in the data results indicate that spectral variability from fields of ice seracs can exhibit fractal characteristics although most surface features on the glacier exhibit a change in the fractal dimension over different ranges in scale the fractal dimension was found to be useful for differentiating between glacier surfaces such as white ice and debris covered ice characteristics of the debris load and the scale dependent nature of calculating the fractal dimension ultimately determined the potential of class separability

mass balance of himalayan glaciers using aar and ela methods the accumulation area ratio aar for himalayan glaciers representing zero mass balance is substantially lower than for north america and europe regression analysis suggests 0 44 for the aar representing zero mass balance in the western himalaya a good correlation was observed when this method was applied to individual glaciers such as gara and gor garang in himachal pradesh india the correlation coefficients r using 6 and 7 years of data respectively were 0 88 and 0 96 for gara and gor garang glaciers respectively however when data from six western himalayan glaciers were correlated the correlation was 0 74 the aar was also estimated by using landsat images which can be useful in obtaining a trend in mass balance for a large number of himalayan glaciers for which very little information exists a higher correlation was observed between equilibrium line altitude ela and mass balance the field data from gara and gor garang glaciers shows a high correlation coefficient i e 0 92 and 0 94 respectively the ela values obtained from the landsat satellite images combined with topographic maps suggest positive mass balance for the year 1986 87 and negative for 1987 88

granite magma generation ascent and emplacement within a transpressional orogen crustal thickening during transpressive orogenesis may produce anatectic granites which may then localize deformation leading to transcurrent movement granites may be transported from sites of generation through the mid crust in dyke like channelways within relatively narrow strike slip shear zones which link to major fault zones in the upper crust extensional jogs within fault systems provide developing sites for the assembly of plutons from magma arriving from below the model is based upon observations from the cadomian belt of nw france which exposes sections through middle and upper levels of the late precambrian crust within different elements of the orogen the mechanism provides a favourable alternative to diapirism and explains the common collocation of granites and shear zone fault systems within orogenic belts

behaviour of rb sr whole rock and u pb zircon systems during partial melting as shown in migmatitic gneisses from the st malo massif ne brittany france the age of regional metamorphism and partial melting in the late proterozoic succession of the st malo area has been established at around 540 ma whole rock homogenization of the sr isotope systems has been achieved only in the anatectic granites whereas the associated metatexitic and diatexitic gneisses remain highly heterogeneous at lower grade than the sillimanite isograd metasedimentary gneisses contain detrital zircons which record the regional metamorphic event as a u pb lower intercept age 536 14 ma in the sillimanite zone u pb zircon lower intercept ages are around 500 10 ma and suggest a recent loss of radiogenic pb from the observed overgrowths zircons from the anatectic granites do not yield u pb intercept ages due to the presence of inherited radiogenic pb but the finer fractions define a discordant array whose upper intercept on concordia yields 555 13 ma an age significantly older than the partial melting event indicated by the lower grade zircon ages the lower intercept defined by the fine grained anatectic zircons yields a date in the future negative ordinate value in their regional context the st malo migmatites can be considered as resulting from late stage crustal melting in the cadomian orogenic belt following genesis of calc alkaline magma at an active margin around 600 ma ago an age of 540 ma for partial melting in the st malo migmatites places the end of the cadomian orogeny near the precambrian cambrian boundary

trace element behaviour during migmatization evidence for a complex melt residuum fluid interaction in the st malo migmatitic dome france the st malo migmatitic dome represents an interesting example wherein migmatites arise from the anatexis of the surrounding gneisses petrographical and chemical data suggest that leucosome compositions are compatible with partial melting of the quartzo feldsphathic fraction of the parent gneiss the contribution of the incongruent melting of biotite to the melt does not exceed 5 of the parent rock

the new remote sensing derived swiss glacier inventory i methods a new swiss glacier inventory is to be compiled from satellite data for the year 2000 the study presented here describes two major tasks 1 an accuracy assessment of different methods for glacier classification with landsat thematic mapper tm data and a digital elevation model dem 2 the geographical information system gis based methods for automatic extraction of individual glaciers from classified satellite data and the computation of three dimensional glacier parameters such as minimum maximum and median elevation or slope and orientation by fusion with a dem first results obtained by these methods are presented in part ii of this paper kaab and others 2002 thresholding of a ratio image from tm4 and tm5 reveals the best suited glacier map the computation of glacier parameters in a gis environment is efficient and suitable for worldwide application the methods developed contribute to the u s geological survey led global land ice measurements from space glims project which is currently compiling a global inventory of land ice masses within the framework of global glacier monitoring haeberli and others 2000

synergistic approach for mapping debris covered glaciers using optical thermal remote sensing data with inputs from geomorphometric parameters abstract debris cover on glacier boundaries critically impedes the global inventorying of glaciers and confounds most of the techniques developed for semi automated mapping of glaciers debris on the glacier referred as supraglacial debris and that occurring outside the glacier boundaries referred as periglacial debris being derived from a common source i e the valley rock tend to have a similar spectral response in the reflection region which renders them mutually indistinguishable however there exist temperature differences between them this aspect has been considered in this remote sensing based study to distinguish between the supraglacial and periglacial debris in a test area in the chenab basin himalayas by inclusion of thermal infrared tir bands in remote sensing data processing a synergistic multisensor approach for the delineation of debris covered glacier boundaries is used here which integrates the inputs from thermal terra aster sensor and optical irs p6 awifs sensor remote sensing data multispectral classification techniques and the dem derived geomorphometric parameters the results of this study corroborate earlier findings on utilization of temperature differences as one of the parameters in glacial studies the proposed synergistic approach therefore appears useful in accurate mapping of debris covered glaciers in the himalayan region

chronology of cadomian tectonothermal activity in the baie de saint brieuc north brittany france evidence from 40ar 39ar mineral ages the late precambrian cadomian orogen exposed in the north armorican massif northwest france is a collage of displaced terranes that in part developed during amalgamation of continental arc and marginal basin complexes 40ar 39ar mineral ages reported here place new constraints on the timing of cadomian tectonothermal activity in the southern part of the st brieuc terrane in the baie de saint brieuc area brioverian supracrustal units were deformed metamorphosed and intruded by calc alkaline plutonic complexes metamorphic hornblende from a metabasic amphibolite sheet within brioverian rocks records an isotope correlation age of 568 4 2 6 ma interpreted to date postmetamorphic cooling through appropriate argon closure temperatures similar isotope correlation cooling ages are recorded by metamorphic hornblende within both an amphibolite sheet intrusive into the penthievre complex 567 5 1 2 ma and the la croix gibat amphibolite 574 8 2 1 ma igneous hornblende from the late tectonic to pos

four years of mass balance on chhota shigri glacier himachal pradesh india a new benchmark glacier in the western himalaya little is known about the himalayan glaciers although they are of particular interest in terms of future water supply regional climate change and sea level rise in 2002 a long term monitoring programme was started on chhota shigri glacier 32 2 n 77 5 e 15 7 km2 6263 4050 m a s l 9 km long located in lahaul and spiti valley himachal pradesh india this glacier lies in the monsoon arid transition zone western himalaya which is alternately influenced by asian monsoon in summer and the mid latitude westerlies in winter here we present the results of a 4 year study of mass balance and surface velocity overall specific mass balances are mostly negative during the study period and vary from a minimum value of 1 4 m w e in 2002 03 and 2005 06 equilibrium line altitude ela 5180 m a s l to a maximum value of 0 1 m w e in 2004 05 ela 4855 m a s l chhota shigri glacier seems similar to mid latitude glaciers with an ablation season limited to the summer months and a mean vertical gradient of mass balance in the ablation zone debris free part of 0 7 m w e 100 m 1 similar to those reported in the alps mass balance is strongly dependent on debris cover exposure and the shading effect of surrounding steep slopes

the cadomian active margin north armorican massif france a segment of the north atlantic panafrican belt abstract within the european variscan belt the armorican massif northwestern france contains an isolated fragment of the north atlantic panafrican belt the cadomian block mostly unaffected by variscan deformation this block is composed of neoproterozoic rocks ranging in age from 620 to 540 ma brioverian locally overlying a composite basement of icartian 2000 ma or pentevrian 750 ma age the cadomian tectonics the last magmatic manifestations of which are dated at around 540 ma were sealed by a cover of early cambrian rocks in normandy and early ordovician rocks in brittany five units are distinguished in this cadomian block tregor saint brieuc guingamp saint malo and fougeres although the units are bound by major faults the overall coherence of their different protolithic characteristics suggests that they can be fitted into a simple geodynamic model the tregor unit represented by the north tregor batholith of crustal affinity and its icartian host rock probably reflects an early cadomian evolution the saint brieuc unit essentially made up of magmatic rocks of juvenile affinity includes two assemblages juxtaposed by the cadomian tectonics 1 a volcanosedimentary succession formed in a typical island arc setting reflecting subduction around 610 ma and 2 a volcanic plutonic complex emplaced around 590 ma in an extensional active continental margin of pentevrian age the guingamp unit predominantly migmatitic includes a tectonic slice of deep origin the extrusion of which accompanied the exhumation of the migmatites it may represent the trace of a possible suture the saint malo unit is composed of brioverian detrital rocks the significance of which is uncertain passive continental margin or accretionary prism it is structured around a late migmatitic dome 540 ma the fougeres unit corresponds to the outer domain of the cadomian orogeny it was only weakly deformed by cadomian tectonics and is intruded by the large mancellian batholith of crustal origin dated at 540 ma together the structural units are interpreted in the framework of an evolving active margin juxtaposing continental margin marginal basin and volcanic arc before being shortened during the cadomian convergent tectonics

remote sensing science and technology for studying glacier processes in high asia a large number of multispectral and stereo image data are expected to become available as part of the global land ice measurements from space project we investigate digital elevation model extraction anisotropic reflectance correction and selected glacier analysis tasks that must be developed to achieve full utility of these new data results indicate that glaciers in the karakoram and nanga parbat himalaya northern pakistan exhibit unique spectral spatial and geomorphometric patterns that can be exploited by various models and algorithms to produce accurate information regarding glacier extent supraglacial features and glacier geomorphology the integration of spectral spatial and geomorphometric features coupled with approaches for advanced pattern recognition can help geoscientists study glacier mass balance glacier erosion sediment transfer efficiency and landscape evolution

geochemistry of the upper neoproterozoic and lower cambrian siliciclastic rocks and u pb dating on detrital zircons in the central iberian zone spain sandstones and shales from the upper neoproterozoic un succession in the central iberian zone ciz show parallel ree patterns and relatively restricted and similar ranges and average values of some element ratios such as al2o3 tio2 ti nb eu eu la yb n gd yb n and th u this remarkable geochemical homogeneity for related medium and fine grained rocks is unusual and strongly suggests a recycled source area however the lower cambrian lc equivalent rocks are in general terms geochemically less mature more heterogeneous and more fractionated their average ree patterns are practically coincident probably as a consequence of ree redistribution related to the reworking of sediments during a stage of sea level fall in lower cambrian times ti and zr abundances chemical index of alteration cia values and element ratios such as al2o3 tio2 k rb ti nb and rb zr can be used for discriminating purposes between the un and lc siliciclastic rocks detrital zircons from a un and a lc sandstone display morphological differences however u pb data are discordant and cannot be interpreted in a straightforward manner nevertheless age data are compatible with a model in which the continent of gondwana would have supplied zircons showing a bimodal age distribution in variable proportions to the respective sandstone units

pacific freshwater river water and sea ice meltwater across arctic ocean basins results from the 2005 beringia expedition 1 pacific water sea ice meltwater and river water are the primary sources of freshwater in the arctic ocean we have determined their relative fractions on a transect across the arctic ocean section 2005 expedition onboard ib oden which took place from 21 august to 23 september 2005 the transect began north of alaska continued through the central canada basin to the alpha ridge and into the makarov basin and ended in amundsen basin pacific freshwater and river water were the major sources of freshwater throughout the central canada basin and into makarov basin with river water fractions sometimes considerably higher than pacific water in the top 50 m pacific freshwater extended to depths of about 200 m pacific water found over the alpha ridge and in the amundsen basin is suggested to have been transported there in the transpolar drift the inventories of pacific freshwater and river water were roughly constant along the section through most of the canada and makarov basins river water fractions were greater than those of pacific freshwater in the amundsen basin sea ice meltwater fractions were negative reflecting net ice formation or near zero throughout most of the section a comparison of freshwater inventories with those at stations occupied during expeditions in 1991 1994 and 1996 indicated an increase in river water inventories in the makarov and amundsen basins on the eurasian side of the arctic ocean