relation between depositional environment and the elemental composition of early diagenetic siderite early diagenetic siderites from marine and fresh water depositional environments are characterized by distinctive compositional trends siderite from fresh water environments is often relatively pure i e greater than 90 mol feco sub 3 and commonly attains end member composition siderite from marine environments however is always extremely impure and has extensive substitution of mg up to 41 mol and to a lesser extent ca up to 15 mol for fe in the siderite lattice in addition marine siderite generally contains less mn and has a higher mg ca ratio than fresh water siderite this compositional variation appears to result from differences in the chemistry of early marine and meteoric pore waters inasmuch as early marine pore waters generally have a higher mg sup 2 ca sup 2 ratio and contain less mn sup 2 and fe sup 2 and more ca sup 2 and mg sup 2 than meteoric waters

late quaternary climate variability and vegetation response in ziro lake basin eastern himalaya a multiproxy approach abstract pollen phytolith and stable carbon isotopic records provide new insights into the palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic changes in ziro lake basin sub himalayan arunachal pradesh india since pre lgm time phytoliths record a minor change in grass woodland cover and appear to be more sensitive than pollen grains to climate fluctuations both pollen and non pollen palynomorph data suggest prevalence of a dense c3 species dominated moist semi evergreen forest in the area until the lgm which shows conformity with 13c data the phytolith assemblage indicates an alteration in forest cover with expansion of c4 grasses during the lgm the study further indicates a climatic amelioration with intensification of south west monsoon during 10 2 3 8 ka and an expansion of forest cover after 3 8 ka there was a rising trend of dryness shrinkage in forest cover and a slight increase in c4 species while c3 plants dominated ecosystem variability also points towards a hydrological transformation in the area since pre lgm time application of coexistence approach on pollen data reveals that prior to the lgm the mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation were approximately 19 3 0 001 c and 1925 15 mm respectively between 10 2 and 3 8 ka mat was about 19 4 0 5 c while map was 1901 41 3 mm between 3 8 and 1 2 ka and onwards a slight increase in mat 0 3c was observed with further decrease in map to 1861 33 4 mm during pre and post lgm times mat was more or less similar in the ziro lake basin which increased gradually after 3 8 ka and was 1 2 c higher than today prior to the lgm map was higher than the present day by 94 mm between 10 2 and 3 8 ka by 70 mm and since 3 8 ka onwards by 30 mm showing a tendency of gradual decline suggesting a consequent increase in dryness

quaternary glaciation of the himalayan tibetan orogen glacial geological evidence from throughout the himalayan tibetan orogen is examined to determine the timing and extent of late quaternary glaciation in this region and its relation to similar changes on a global scale the evidence summarised here supports the existence of expanded ice caps and extensive valley glacier systems throughout the region during the late quaternary however it cannot yet be determined whether the timing of the extent of maximum glaciation was synchronous throughout the entire region or whether the response was more varied the lack of organic material needed for radiocarbon dating has hindered past progress in glacial reconstruction however application of optically stimulated luminescence and terrestrial cosmogenic radionuclide methods has recently expanded the number of chronologies throughout the region limits to the precision and accuracy available with these methods and more importantly geological uncertainty imposed by processes of moraine formation and alteration both conspire to limit the time resolution on which correlations can be made to milankovitch timescales several ka in order to put all studies on a common scale well dated sites have been re evaluated and all the published terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide ages for moraine boulders and glacially eroded surfaces in the himalayan tibetan orogen have been recalculated locally detailed studies indicate that there are considerable variations in the extent of glaciation from one region to the next during a glaciation glaciers throughout monsoon influenced tibet the himalaya and the transhimalaya are likely synchronous both with climate change resulting from oscillations in the south asian monsoon and with northern hemisphere cooling cycles in contrast glaciers in pamir in the far western regions of the himalayan tibet orogen advanced asynchronously relative to the other regions that are monsoon influenced regions and appear to be mainly in phase with the northern hemisphere cooling cycles broad patterns of local and regional variability based on equilibrium line altitudes have yet to be fully assessed but have the potential to help define changes in climatic gradients over time copyright 2008 john wiley sons ltd

widespread oxidized and hydrated amorphous silicates in cr chondrites matrices implications for alteration conditions and h2 degassing of asteroids abstract the cr chondrites carry one of the most pristine records of the solar nebula materials that accreted to form planetesimals they have experienced very variable degrees of aqueous alteration ranging from incipient alteration in their matrices to the complete hydration of all of their components in order to constrain their chemical alteration pathways and the conditions of alteration we have investigated the mineralogy and fe oxidation state of silicates in the matrices of 8 cr chondrites from type 3 to type 1 fe l edge x ray absorption near edge structure xanes was performed on matrix fib sections using synchrotron based scanning transmission x ray microscopy stxm the fe 3 fe ratio of submicron silicate particles was obtained and coordinated with tem observations in all the least altered cr chondrites que 99177 eet 87770 eet 92042 lap 02342 gra 95229 and renazzo we find that the matrices consist of abundant submicron fe rich hydrated amorphous silicate grains mixed with nanometer sized phyllosilicates the fe 3 fe ratios of both amorphous and nanocrystalline regions are very high with values ranging from 68 to 78 in the most altered samples al rais and gro 95577 fine grained phyllosilicates also have a high fe 3 fe ratio around 70 whereas the coarse micrometer sized phyllosilicates are less oxidized down to 55 and have a lower iron content these observations suggest the following sequence submicron fe2 amorphous silicate particles were the building blocks of cr matrices after accretion they were quickly hydrated and oxidized leading to a metastable amorphous gel like phase nucleation and growth of crystalline phyllosilicates was kinetically limited in most type 3 and 2 crs but increased as alteration became more extensive in al rais and gro 95577 the decreasing fe 3 fe ratio is interpreted as a result of the transfer of fe3 from silicates to oxides during growth while aqueous alteration progressed higher temperature longer duration change of fluid composition in a fully closed system equilibrium thermodynamics suggest that the water to rock ratios typically assumed to be low fe 3 fe ratio such a high fe 3 fe value could be accounted for however if the system was partially open at least with respect to h2 and other gases as well rapid degassing of the fluid would have favored more oxidizing fluid conditions recently proposed scenarios involving some degree of water d h increase through rayleigh isotopic fractionation are supported by these results

climate a moist model monsoon received wisdom about the main driver of the south asian monsoon comes into question with a report that tests the idea that the himalayas not the tibetan plateau are the essential topographic ingredient heat emitted from the tibetan plateau as dry heat and water vapour has long been assumed to be the main driver of the south asian summer monsoon but new work suggests that in fact it is the neighbouring mountains that are the major influence william boos and zhiming kuang use an atmospheric model to show that flattening the tibetan plateau has little effect on the monsoon so long as the himalayas and surrounding mountain ranges remain the plateau does boost rainfall locally along its southern edge but it is the build up of hot moist air over india insulated from colder drier air by the himalayas that drives large scale monsoon circulation

conditions of rhodochrosite nodule formation in neogene pleistocene deep sea sediments evidence from o c and sr isotopes calcic rhodochrosite occurs as nodules around burrows in late neogene early pleistocene pelagic sediments of the galapagos ridge in the guatemala basin eastern equatorial pacific dsdp leg 68 site 503 growth was accomplished in the suboxic zone delta

chondrule fragments from comet wild2 evidence for high temperature processing in the outer solar system abstract terminal grains from c2063 1 154 1 0 track 154 and c2061 1 113 5 track 113 from the stardust collection of comet wild2 s coma have been studied by tem and nanosims terminal grain 2 of c2063 1 154 1 0 consists of an al rich diopside en 97 99 al 2 o 3 9 11 wt pigeonite en 85 wo 15 with tio 2 and al 2 o 3 contents of 0 5 and 5 2 wt and minor forsterite and enstatite the mineral assemblage and al rich ti poor composition of the grain are consistent with being a fragment of an al rich chondrule similar to those present in carbonaceous chondrites the oxygen isotopic composition of the c2063 1 154 1 0 grain was determined by nanosims analyses and found to be 17 o 10 6 5 7 18 o 7 5 2 5 and 17 o 1 4 4 3 18 o 6 5 1 6 1 errors for the two sections these figures are distinct from cais and consistent with an origin as al rich chondrule fragments terminal grain 5 of c2061 1 113 5 consists of low ca pyroxene en 86 87 fs 10 11 wo 3 4 and 2 wt al 2 o 3 and in one section 5 10 of a na rich silicate phase this assemblage may be a fragment of a low ca pyroxene bearing chondrule and mesostasis the original chondrule diameter for the c2063 1 154 1 0 and c2061 1 113 5 samples by analogy with carbonaceous chondrite chondrules might have been in the range 0 2 1 0 mm if they were of that size then the presence of large grains of high temperature material e g 1500 k for such refractory assemblages could be explained through commonly invoked models of radial drift from inner to outer solar system but only if the chondrules were first fragmented to dust within the inner solar system an alternative scenario is that some chondrule formation was associated with high temperature processing and planetesimals in the outer solar system

the role of the indian summer monsoon and the mid latitude westerlies in himalayan glaciation review and speculative discussion new dates for late quaternary glaciations in the himalayas show that during the last glacial cycle glaciations were not synchronous throughout the region rather in some areas glaciers reached their maxima at the global glacial maximum of c 18 20 ka bp whereas in others glaciers were most extensive at c 60 30 ka bp comparison of these data with palaeoclimatic records from adjacent regions suggest that on millennial timescales himalayan glacier fluctuations are controlled by variations in both the south asian monsoon and the mid latitude westerlies

mineralogical constraints on the thermal history of martian regolith breccia northwest africa 8114 abstract martian meteorite northwest africa nwa 8114 a paired stone to nwa 7034 provides an opportunity to examine the thermal history of a martian regolith and study near surface processes and ancient environmental conditions near an impact crater on mars our study reports petrographic and alteration textures and focuses on pyroxene and iron oxide grains some of the pyroxene clasts show exsolution lamellae indicating a high temperature magmatic origin and slow cooling however transmission electron microscopy reveals that other predominantly pyroxene clasts are porous and have partially re crystallised to form magnetite and a k bearing feldspathic glassy material together with relict pyroxene this breakdown event was associated with oxidation with up to 25 fe3 fe in the relict pyroxene measured using fe k xanes by comparison with previous studies this breakdown and oxidation of pyroxene is most likely to be a result of impact shock heating being held at a temperature above 700 c for at least 7 days in an oxidising regolith environment we report an approximate 40ar 39ar maximum age of 1 13 1 25 ga for an individual separated augite clast the disturbed nature of the spectra precludes precise age determination in section this clast is porous and contains iron oxide grains this shows that it has undergone the high temperature partial breakdown seen in other relict pyroxene clasts and has up to 25 fe3 fe we infer that the age corresponds to the impact shock heating event that led to the high temperature breakdown of many of the pyroxenes after consolidation of the impact ejecta blanket high temperatures above 700 c may have been maintained for long enough to remobilise and congruently partially melt some of the alkali feldspar clasts to produce the feldspar veins and aureoles that crosscut and in some cases surround the oxidised pyroxene however the veins could alternatively be the result of a hydrothermal event in the impact regolith a simple fourier cooling model suggests that a regolith of at least five metres depth would be sufficient to maintain temperatures associated with the pyroxene breakdown for over seven days low temperature hydrous alteration took place forming goethite identified via xrd xanes and ftir comparing with previous studies the goethite is likely to be terrestrial alteration pseudomorphing martian pyrite

microstructure modifications of silicates induced by the collection in aerogel experimental approach and comparison with stardust results abstract particles from comet 81p wild 2 were captured with silica aerogel during the flyby stardust mission a significant part of the collection was damaged during the impact at hypervelocity in the aerogel in this study we conducted impact experiments into aerogel of olivine and pyroxene powder using a light gas gun in similar conditions as that of the comet wild 2 particles collection the shot samples were investigated using transmission electron microscopy to characterize their microstructure both olivine and pyroxene samples show evidence of thermal alteration due to friction with the aerogel all the grains have rounded edges after collection whereas their shape was angular in the initial shot powder set this is probably associated with mass loss of particles the rims of the grains are clearly melted and mixed with aerogel the core of olivine grains is fairly well preserved but some grains contain dislocations in glide configuration we interpret these dislocations as generated by the thermal stresses that have emerged due to the high temperature gradients between the core and the rim of the grains most of the pyroxene grains have been fully melted their high silica concentration reflects a strong impregnation with melted aerogel the preferential melting of pyroxene compared with olivine is due to a difference in melting temperatures of 300 this melting point difference probably induces a bias in the measurements of the ratio olivine pyroxene in the wild 2 comet the proportion of pyroxene was probably higher on wild 2 than expected from the samples collected into aerogel

sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the shanxi formation lower permian in the northwestern ordos basin china an alternative sequence model for fluvial strata abstract the lower permian shanxi formation in the northwestern ordos basin was deposited in fluvial environments under warm and humid climatic conditions braided anastomosing and meandering fluvial facies associations can be recognized in the lower middle and upper parts of the shanxi formation respectively they form a complete type 1 fluvial sequence based on this sequence as well as on the analysis of base level changes and their effect on fluvial deposition an alternative sequence model for fluvial strata is proposed the lowstand systems tract in the model comprises braided river deposits the transgressive systems tract consists mainly of fine grained anastomosing river deposits and meandering river deposits dominate in the highstand systems tract braided sandstones in the lowstand systems tract seem to be widely distributed and have high lateral continuity anastomosing channel sand bodies in the transgressive systems tract appear to be isolated and display relative low lateral continuity

a late pleistocene holocene lacustrine record from lake manas zunggar northern xinjiang western china information on the late quaternary palaeoclimate in the zunggar desert northern xinjiang is deduced from the study of three 5 m long cores taken from lake manas analyses including the mineralogical composition of bulk sediments stable isotope contents of carbonates organic matter pollen and diatoms were performed to help reconstruct the environmental evolution of the area the chronology is provided by 9 ams 14c dates done on carbonates or organic matter the record suggests a late pleistocene humid episode radiocarbon dated at 37 000 32 000 yr b p this episode is followed by a period of extreme aridity attributed to the last glacial maximum the early mid holocene record indicates conditions generally wetter than today as previously established for western china however our results show that the holocene period is rather complex after a minor wet warm pulse estimated to be around 12 000 yr b p the most important environmental change is recorded at 10 000 yr b p it led to the establishment of a steppic vegetation cover in the catchment and of a permanent lake which lasted 4000 years fluvial sedimentation took place between about 6000 and 4500 yr b p and it coincided with a decrease in moisture availability for vegetation growth a second lacustrine episode is recorded from about 4500 to 2500 yr b p although the pollen record and a sudden influx in detrital organic matter suggest a short term dry event around 3800 3500 yr b p the last 2500 years show climate unstability and the step wise establishment of hypersaline conditions in lake manas the major post glacial environmental changes appear to be roughly in phase with those observed in tibet

early diagenetic pyrite morphology in a mudstone dominated succession the lower jurassic cleveland ironstone formation eastern england abstract diagenetic pyrite in the mudstones and ironstones of the lower jurassic cleveland ironstone formation of eastern england exhibits two distinct morphologies framboidal pyrite commonly associated with organic matter and euhedral pyrite associated with detrital clay pellets these two morphologies are mutually exclusive in occurrence framboidal pyrite is present in clay rich mudstones ooidal ironstones apatite rich units and some silt rich mudstones euhedral pyrite is present in silt rich and sand rich mudstones 34s isotopic analysis of six samples of pyrite suggests that both types of pyrite morphology precipitated during early diagenesis from porewaters with open access to overlying sea water although both probably acted as sites for continued pyrite precipitation during burial it is proposed that framboidal pyrite precipitated from iron dominated porewaters at sites of sulfide supply i e in the region of organic matter as a result of bacterial sulfate reduction where locally sulfide production rates were high enough for porewaters to reach supersaturation with respect to fes euhedral pyrite also precipitated from iron dominated porewaters but sulfide production rates from organic matter was such that fes saturation was not reached at the sites of sulfide production instead euhedral pyrite was precipitated directly from porewater when fes2 saturation was reached the control over pyrite morphology was probably the amount and reactivity of the organic matter within the deposited sediments the sand rich mudstones contained less reactive organic matter due to clastic dilution and deposition in shallower environments with o2 rich bottom waters the ironstones and apatite rich units were deposited under very low sedimentation rates and as a result organic matter contents were very low and iron reduction dominated early diagenesis which inhibited sulfate reduction the presence of minor framboidal pyrite within these units however suggests that sulfide reduction took place in micro environments during early diagenesis

the fall recovery orbit and composition of the tagish lake meteorite a new type of carbonaceous chondrite the preatmospheric mass of the tagish lake meteoroid was about 200 000 kilograms its calculated orbit indicates affinity to the apollo asteroids with a semimajor axis in the middle of the asteroid belt consistent with a linkage to low albedo c d and p type asteroids the mineralogy oxygen isotope and bulk chemical composition of recovered samples of the tagish lake meteorite are intermediate between cm and ci meteorites these data suggest that the tagish lake meteorite may be one of the most primitive solar system materials yet studied

evolution of ganges brahmaputra western delta plain clues from sedimentology and carbon isotopes abstract sedimentology carbon isotope and sequence stratigraphic analysis of subsurface sediments from western part of ganges brahmaputra gb delta plain shows that a late quaternary marine clay and fluvial channel overbank sediments of mis 5 and 3 highstands are traceable below the holocene strata during the last glacial maximum lgm sea level lowering of 100 m produced a regional unconformity type 1 represented by palaeosols and incised valley c4 vegetation expanded on exposed lowstand surface in an ambient dry glacial climate at 9 ka transgression inundated the lowstand surface pushing the coastline and mangrove front 100 km inland simultaneous intensification of monsoon and very high sediment discharge 4 8 times than modern caused a rapid aggradation of both floodplain and estuarine valley fill deposits between 8 and 7 ka the hoogli river remaining along its present drainage possibly acted as the main conduit for transgression and sediment discharge that was subsequently abandoned c3 vegetation dominated the delta plain during this time from 7 ka onward progradation of delta plain started and continued till recent this period experienced a mixed c3 c4 vegetation with localized mangroves in the mid holocene to dominant return of c4 vegetation in the late holocene period the study indicates that while the initiation of western part of gb delta occurred at least 1 ka earlier than the global mean delta formation age the progradation started at 7 ka at least 2 ka earlier than thought before the terrestrial vegetation change was modulated by changes in depositional environment specific ecological niches and climate rather than pco 2

weathering histories of chinese loess deposits based on uranium and thorium series nuclides and cosmogenic 10be the long continuous deposition of dust in the chinese loess plateau liu et al 1985 kukla and an 1989 ding et al 1991a offers an unique opportunity to study the nature of soil weathering in a wide range of climatic conditions in this paper we report on measurements of concentrations of u and th series nuclides and of major cations in 150 loess and paleosol samples from five sites going back 2 5 ma using the results for 10be concentrations in these soils gu et al 1996 we determined the absolute amounts of water added to several soil units and obtained 1 first order leaching constants for u and several cations and 2 the compositions of the soils contributing to the dust source regions and of the dust at deposition further based on analyses of 230th in soils deposited in the past ca 140 ka we determined when the soils weathered in the source regions we conclude that most of the weathering in the dust source regions may have occurred during the interglacials

variability of indian monsoonal rainfall over the past 100 ka and its implication for c 3 c 4 vegetational change abstract oxygen and carbon isotope ratios of soil carbonate and carbon isotope ratios of soil organic matter som separated from three cores kalpi iitk and firozpur of the ganga plain india are used to reconstruct past rainfall variations and their effect on ambient vegetation the 18o values of soil carbonate 18osc analyzed from the cores range from 8 2 to 4 1 using these variations in 18osc values we are able for the first time to show periodic change in rainfall amount between 100 and 18 ka with three peaks of higher monsoon at about 100 40 and 25 ka the estimation of rainfall variations using 18o value of rainwater amount effect suggests maximum decrease in rainfall intensity 20 during the last glacial maximum the 13c values of soil carbonate 13csc and som 13csom range from 6 3 to 1 6 and 28 9 to 19 4 respectively implying varying proportions of c3 and c4 vegetations over the ganga plain during the last 100 ka the comparison between monsoonal rainfall and atmospheric co2 with vegetation for the time period 84 to 18 ka indicate that relative abundances of c3 and c4 vegetations were mainly driven by variations in monsoonal rainfall

a late pleistocene long pollen record from lake urmia nw iran abstract a palynological study based on two 100 m long cores from lake urmia in northwestern iran provides a vegetation record spanning 200 ka the longest pollen record for the continental interior of the near east during both penultimate and last glaciations a steppe of artemisia and poaceae dominated the upland vegetation with a high proportion of chenopodiaceae in both upland and lowland saline ecosystems while juniperus and deciduous quercus trees were extremely rare and restricted to some refugia hippophae rhamnoides constituted an important phanerophyte particularly during the late last glacial period a pronounced expansion in ephedra shrub steppe occurred at the end of the penultimate late glacial period but was followed by extreme aridity that favoured an artemisia steppe very high lake levels registered by both pollen and sedimentary markers occurred during the middle of the last glaciation and late part of the penultimate glaciation the late glacial to early holocene transition is represented by a succession of hippophae ephedra betula pistacia and finally juniperus and quercus the last interglacial period eemian slightly warmer and moister than the holocene was followed by two interstadial phases similar in pattern to those recorded in the marine isotope record and southern european pollen sequences

a δ 13 c record of late quaternary climate change from tropical peats in southern india stable isotope ratios of carbon in soils or lake sediments1 3 and of oxygen and hydrogen in peats4 5 have been found to reflect past moisture variations and hence to provide valuable palaeoclimate records previous applications of the technique to peat have been restricted to temperate regions largely because tropical climate variations are less pronounced making them harder to resolve here we present a 13c record spanning the past 20 kyr from peats in the nilgiri hills southern india because the site is at high altitude 2 000 m above sea level it is possible to resolve a clear climate signal we observe the key climate shifts that are already known to have occurred during the last glacial maximum 18 kyr ago and the subsequent deglaciation in addition we observe an arid phase from 6 to 3 5 kyr ago and a short wet phase about 600 years ago the latter appears to correspond to the mediaeval warm period which previously was believed to be confined to europe and north america6 7 our results therefore suggest that this event may have extended over the entire northern hemisphere

vegetational responses to monsoon variability during late holocene inferences based on carbon isotope and pollen record from the sedimentary sequence in dzukou valley ne india abstract the study aims to identify regional vegetational changes during the late holocene from the dzukou valley in north eastern ne india and the potential relationship of these vegetation dynamics with climatic shifts the investigations utilize a combination of 13corg of organic matter lipid biomarker n alkane as well as pollen data derived from 1 4 m sedimentary profile spanning the last 3150 cal bp the 13corg values during late holocene range from 29 1 to 27 7 suggesting that organic carbon was derived exclusively from c3 vegetation the profile is characterized by a homologous series of n alkanes ranging in chain length from n c18 to n c35 with maxima at n c29 the generated proxy data reveal three phases of climatic and vegetation shifts with the first phase from 3150 cal bp to 2300 cal bp being characterised by relatively high 13corg values and occupied by pine oak forest indicating a comparatively dry climatic conditions subsequently the second phase from 2300 cal bp to 1000 cal bp shows an increase in arboreal pollen tree elements and gradually decreasing trend of 13corg with a total shift of 1 4 suggesting moist climatic conditions during the third phase from 1000 cal bp onwards the precipitation declined till date as suggested by increasing trend in 13corg values and good recovery of pinus oak forest pollens this study provides significant insights into the use of 13corg and biomarkers along with pollen data to understand the influence of fluctuating rainfall in a high rainfall zone in altering the floristic composition within a region thus the study has provided ground for further investigations to address issues related to biodiversity loss extent of endemism in high rainfall zones dominated by single types c3 and or c4 of vegetation

vegetation and climate during the last 30 000 years in ladakh abstract pollen analysis was carried out from a 23 m core dating from about 30 000 to 9000 yr b p from the alpine tsokar lake about 4572 m above sea level in ladakh trans himalayan region this study reveals the continuation of the alpine steppe with four periods of expansion of juniperus communities during 28 000 30 000 yr b p 21 000 18 375 yr b p slightly before 15 800 yr b p and at 10 000 yr b p these phases of juniperus expansion were interpreted as events of amelioration of climate within the alpine steppe during the later part of the last weichselian glaciation in the alpine trans himalayan region

modal mineralogy of carbonaceous chondrites by x ray diffraction and mossbauer spectroscopy carbonaceous chondrites are among the most analyzed geological materials on earth however despite this attention and unlike most terrestrial rocks little is known on the abundance of individual phases within them here we show how a combination of several novel x ray diffraction xrd techniques including a high brightness x ray microsource and mssbauer spectroscopy allows a complete modal mineralogy to be ascertained from even the most highly unequilibrated fine grained chondrites for all minerals of abundance 1 wt knowledge of the modal mineralogy of a sample also allows us to calculate grain density we analyzed allende murchison tagish lake and orgueil based on our modal data the grain density estimates for allende murchison and orgueil are close to literature values in the case of tagish lake there is no published grain density although a bulk density measurement does exist taking our estimate of grain density and the measured bulk density we calculate an exceptionally high porosity of 41 for this meteorite similar to some chondritic idps and in line with a porosity calculated from an entry model for the tagish lake fireball although it is an oxidized cv magnetite is present in allende at a level of 0 5 wt or 0 3 vol a result that is substantiated by several other instrumental studies this may be an oxidized meteorite but that oxidation is not manifested in abundant magnetite in addition we note appreciable fayalitic olivine in orgueil detected by both xrd and mossbauer we employed microsource xrd to look at heterogeneity in mineral abundance in orgueil and found substantial variation with phyllosilicates varying inversely with olivine the data suggest that orgueil was initially composed primarily of anhydrous materials which have been partially but not completely altered although the data are preliminary comparison between our xrd modal assessment bulk chemistry grain density and mossbauer data suggests that our estimates of mineral abundance are robust the advent of microsource xrd allows similar modal data to be acquired from samples as small as a few hundred micrograms

progressive aqueous alteration of cm carbonaceous chondrites abstract cm chondrites are aqueously altered rocks that contain 9 wt h 2 o i e indigenous water bound in phyllosilicates also present are clumps of serpentine tochilinite intergrowths previously called poorly characterized phases or pcp pentlandite and ni bearing pyrrhotite we studied 11 cm chondrites that span the known range from least altered to most altered we used various petrologic properties many previously identified that provide information regarding the degree of aqueous alteration there are no known unaltered or slightly altered cm chondrites e g rocks containing numerous chondrules with primary igneous glass some cm properties result from processes associated with early and intermediate stages of the alteration sequence i e hydration of matrix alteration of chondrule glass and production of large pcp clumps other petrologic properties reflect processes active throughout the alteration sequence these include oxidation of metallic fe ni alteration of chondrule phenocrysts changes in pcp composition reflecting an increase in the phyllosilicate sulfide ratio and changes in carbonate mineralogy reflecting the development of dolomite and complex carbonates at the expense of ca carbonate on the basis of these parameters we propose a numerical alteration sequence for cm chondrites because there are no known cm samples that display only incipient alteration the least altered sample was arbitrarily assigned to subtype 2 6 the most altered cm chondrites currently classified cm1 are assigned to subtype 2 0 these highly altered rocks have essentially no mafic silicates they contain chondrule pseudomorphs composed mainly of phyllosilicate however their bulk compositions are cm like and they are closer in texture to other c2 chondrites than to ci1 chondrites which lack chondrule pseudomorphs using several diagnostic criteria we assigned petrologic subtypes 0 1 to every cm chondrite in our study que 97990 cm2 6 murchison cm2 5 kivesvaara cm2 5 murray cm2 4 2 5 y 791198 cm2 4 que 99355 cm2 3 nogoya cm2 2 cold bokkeveld cm2 2 que 93005 cm2 1 lap 02277 cm2 0 met 01070 cm2 0 the proposed cm numerical alteration sequence improves upon the existing scheme of browning et al 1996 in that it does not require a complicated algorithm applied to electron microprobe data to determine the average matrix phyllosilicate composition the new sequence is more comprehensive and employs petrologic subtypes that are easier to use and remember than mineralogic alteration index values new neutron activation analyses of que 97990 que 93005 met 01070 murchison and crescent together with literature data confirm the compositional uniformity of the cm group different degrees of alteration among cm chondrites do not lead to resolvable bulk compositional differences this suggests that the textural differences among individual cm chondrites reflect progressive alteration of similar hypothetical cm3 0 starting materials in different regions of the same parent body with minimal aqueous transport of materials over appreciable e g meters distances

progressive alteration in cv3 chondrites more evidence for asteroidal alteration abstract the oxidized cv3 chondrites can be divided into two major subgroups or lithologies bali like cv3oxb and allende like cv3oxa in which chondrules calcium aluminum rich inclusions cais and matrices show characteristic alteration features weisberg et al 1997 krot et al 1997d kimura and ikeda 1997 the cv3oxb lithology is present in bali kaba parts of the mokoia breccia and possibly in grosnaja and allan hills alh 85006 it is characterized by the presence of the secondary low ca phyllosilicates saponite and sodium phlogopite magnetite ni rich sulfides fayalite fa 90 ca fe rich pyroxenes fs10 50wo45 50 and andradite phyllosilicates replace primary ca rich minerals in chondrules and cais which suggests mobilization of ca during aqueous alteration magnetite nodules are replaced to various degrees by fayalite ca fe rich pyroxenes and minor andradite fayalite veins crosscut fine grained rims around chondrules and extend into the matrix thermodynamic analysis of the observed reactions indicates that they could have occurred at relatively low temperatures 300 c in the presence of aqueous solutions oxygen isotopic compositions of the coexisting magnetite and fayalite plot close to the terrestrial fractionation line with large 18ofayalite magnetite fractionation 20 we infer that phyllosilicates magnetite fayalite ca fe rich pyroxenes and andradite formed at relatively low temperatures 300 c by fluid rock interaction in an asteroidal environment secondary fayalite and phyllosilicates are virtually absent in chondrules and cais in the cv3oxa lithology which is present in allende and its dark inclusions axtell alha81258 alh 84028 lewis cliff lew 86006 and parts of the mokoia and vigarano breccias instead secondary nepheline sodalite and fayalitic olivine are common fayalitic olivine in chondrules replaces low ca pyroxenes and rims and veins forsterite grains it also forms coarse lath shaped grains in matrix secondary ca fe rich pyroxenes are abundant we infer that the cv3oxa lithology experienced alteration at higher temperatures than the cv3oxb lithology the presence of the reduced and cv3oxa lithologies in the vigarano breccia and cv3oxa and cv3oxb lithologies in the mokoia breccia indicates that all cv3 chondrites came from one heterogeneously altered asteroid the metamorphosed clasts in mokoia krot and hutcheon 1997 may be rare samples of the hotter interior of the cv asteroid we conclude that the alteration features observed in the oxidized cv3 chondrites resulted from the fluid rock interaction in an asteroid during progressive metamorphism of a heterogeneous mixture of ices and anhydrous materials mineralogically similar to the reduced cv3 chondrites

a new geochemical classification of sedimentary environments because of the relative constancy of ph in most subaqueous sediments and the general lack of measurability of eh these parameters are not practically useful for classifying sedimentary environments in their place a new classification is offered which derived from studies of modern sediments is based on the presence or absence of dissolved oxygen and dissolved sulfide in the sediments at the time of authigenic mineral formation sedimentary environments are first of all divided into oxic and anoxic depending upon the presence or absence of measurable dissolved oxygen anoxic environments in turn are divided into sulfidic and non sulfidic depending upon the presence of measurable dissolved sulfide anoxic nonsulfidic environments are further divided into postoxic or resulting from oxygen removal without sulfate reduction weakly reducing and methanic or resulting from complete sulfate reduction with consequent methane formation strongly reducing the environments are shown to succeed one another during early diagenesis in the order oxic post oxic sulfidic methanic iron and manganese minerals characteristic and stable in each environment are listed and discussed so that they may be used to distinguish the environments when studying the ancient geological record

c4 plants decline in the himalayan basin since the last glacial maximum abstract the bengal fan turbiditic system supplied by the ganga brahmaputra river system provides an integrated record of himalayan system erosion thanks to minor inputs of marine organic matter and almost complete preservation of riverine organic carbon organic matter buried in bengal fan sediments is a proxy of himalayan basin paleo vegetation the active channel levee system of the middle fan documents the last 19 ka and allows the reconstruction of vegetation change in the himalayan basin since the last glacial maximum lgm we measured 13 c of organic carbon c org in order to track changes in the proportions of c3 and c4 plants in the himalayan basin from lgm to mid holocene 13 c of bulk c org shifts of 3 4 towards more negative values relative abundance of individual n alkanes reveals that terrestrial higher plant inputs represent a dominant fraction of c org buried in bengal fan sediments 13 c of higher plants biomarkers mimic that of bulk c org showing that the later can be used as continental paleo vegetation proxy 13 c negative shift from lgm to mid holocene mostly indicates the transition from a dominant input of c4 plants to a dominant input of c3 plants and therefore reveals that c4 plants were more abundant in the basin under glacial conditions vegetation repartition in the basin simulated using the caraib dynamic vegetation model is consistent with c org data the model indicates a dominance of c4 plants in the gangetic plain during the lgm while eastern part of the basin remains dominated by c3 plants the comparison between our data and proxies of regional paleo climate suggests that the large decline of c4 plants after the lgm was due to combined increase of atmospheric co 2 and humidity levels integrated record of himalayan basin paleo vegetation suggests more arid conditions during the lgm than during the mid holocene and agrees with reconstructions of the monsoon indicating stronger sw monsoon during interglacial and stronger ne monsoon during glacial periods

palaeoclimatic conditions in the upper pleistocene and holocene bhimtal naukuchiatal lake basin in south central kumaun north india abstract a 52 m thick upper pleistocene and holocene terrestrial succession in the bhimtal naukuchiatal basin south central kumaun himalaya india was studied using chronological palaeontological palynological and 13c measurements the section recorded evidence for climatic changes at least two phases of arid climate and one phase of humid climate were recognised preliminary palaeomagnetic studies revealed a reversal of polarity presumably correlatable with the mono lake excursion prior to this no reversal event in the upper pleistocene holocene terrestrial sediments of indian subcontinent is known a fossiliferous horizon discovered in the lower part of the section consisted of sorex and mus this is the only report of a late pleistocene micromammalian assemblage in the kumaun himalaya

terminal particle from stardust track 130 probable al rich chondrule fragment from comet wild 2 abstract a 4 6 m terminal particle from stardust track 130 named bidi is composed of a refractory assemblage of fo 97 olivine al and ti bearing clinopyroxene and anorthite feldspar an 97 mineralogically bidi resembles a number of components found in primitive chondritic meteorites including al rich chondrules plagioclase bearing type i ferromagnesian chondrules and amoeboid olivine aggregates aoas measured widths of augite pigeonite lamellae in the clinopyroxene indicate fast cooling rates suggesting that bidi is more likely to be a chondrule fragment than an aoa bulk element concentrations including an al 2 o 3 content of 10 2 wt further suggests that bidi is more akin to al rich rather than ferromagnesian chondrules this is supported by high anorthite content of the plagioclase feldspar overall bulk composition and petrogenetic analysis using a cosmochemical al 2 o 3 ca 2 sio 4 mg 2 sio 4 phase diagram measured minor element abundances of individual minerals in bidi generally support an al rich chondrule origin but are not definitive between any of the object types oxygen isotope ratios obtained from olivine minor high ca pyroxene fall between the tf and ccam lines and overlap similar minerals from chondrules in primitive chondrites but are generally distinct from pristine aoa minerals oxygen isotope ratios are similar to some minerals from both al rich and type i ferromagnesian chondrules in unequilibrated carbonaceous enstatite and ordinary chondrites although no single piece of evidence uniquely identifies bidi as a particular object type the preponderance of data including mineral assemblage bulk composition mineral chemistry inferred cooling rates and oxygen isotope ratios suggest that bidi is more closely matched to al rich chondrules than aoas or plagioclase bearing type i ferromagnesian chondrules and likely originated in a chondrule forming region in the inner solar system

oxygen and carbon isotopic composition of marine carbonate concretions an overview abstract compilation of stable isotope data 18o and 13c for marine calcite siderite and dolomite concretions from a large number of studies reveals consistent and unanticipated isotopic trends although many of the dolomites have 18o values that are compatible with precipitation from unaltered seawater at low temperatures most of the calcites and siderites are far too depleted in 12o for such an origin this is surprising as most of the concretions appear to have formed very early in the diagenetic history of the sediments often within several meters of the sediment water interface the most likely cause of the anomalously depleted oxygen values is a decrease in pore water 18o values during early diagenesis a result perhaps of a significant influx of meteoric water into the marine shelf environment or water mineral interaction e g precipitation of 18o enriched minerals the carbon isotopic field for dolomite is quite different from that for calcite and siderite highly positive 13c values are fairly common only for dolomites this indicates that while dolomite concretions often form in sediments where methanogenesis is rapid precipitation of calcite and siderite concretions is restricted to sediments where either n methanogenesis takes place or where methanogenesis is not extensive enough to generate highly positive pore fluid 13c values this variation in carbon isotopic composition among the different minerals suggests that the rates of organic carbon oxidation and sedimentation may control the mineralogy of carbonate concretions high organic carbon oxidation rates favor dolomite and lower oxidation rates favor calcite or siderite

dominant control of the south asian monsoon by orographic insulation versus plateau heating heat emitted from the tibetan plateau as dry heat and water vapour has long been assumed to be the main driver of the south asian summer monsoon but new work suggests that in fact it is the neighbouring mountains that are the major influence william boos and zhiming kuang use an atmospheric model to show that flattening the tibetan plateau has little effect on the monsoon so long as the himalayas and surrounding mountain ranges remain the plateau does boost rainfall locally along its southern edge but it is the build up of hot moist air over india insulated from colder drier air by the himalayas that drives large scale monsoon circulation the elevation of the tibetan plateau is thought to cause its surface to serve as a heat source that drives the south asian summer monsoon potentially coupling uplift of the plateau to climate changes on geologic timescales here however an atmospheric model is used to show that flattening of the tibetan plateau has little effect on the monsoon provided that the narrow orography of the himalayas and adjacent mountain ranges is preserved the tibetan plateau like any landmass emits energy into the atmosphere in the form of dry heat and water vapour but its mean surface elevation is more than 5 km above sea level this elevation is widely held to cause the plateau to serve as a heat source that drives the south asian summer monsoon potentially coupling uplift of the plateau to climate changes on geologic timescales1 2 3 4 5 observations of the present climate however do not clearly establish the tibetan plateau as the dominant thermal forcing in the region peak upper tropospheric temperatures during boreal summer are located over continental india south of the plateau here we show that although tibetan plateau heating locally enhances rainfall along its southern edge in an atmospheric model the large scale south asian summer monsoon circulation is otherwise unaffected by removal of the plateau provided that the narrow orography of the himalayas and adjacent mountain ranges is preserved additional observational and model results suggest that these mountains produce a strong monsoon by insulating warm moist air over continental india from the cold and dry extratropics these results call for both a reinterpretation of how south asian climate may have responded to orographic uplift and a re evaluation of how this climate may respond to modified land surface and radiative forcings in coming decades

sulphur isotope geochemistry of pyrite from the upper cretaceous marshybank formation western interior basin abstract variations in the texture and sulphur isotopic composition of pyrite in the upper cretaceous marshybank formation are linked to depositional environment abundant framboidal and lesser euhedral pyrite precipitated in offshore marine rocks moderate quantities of pyrite also crystallized in brackish coastal plain rocks however in contrast to marine pyrite coastal plain pyrite is dominantly euhedral in texture reflecting direct precipitation from a porewater with a relatively low dissolved sulphide concentration in the marine rocks pyrite 34s values range from 35 7 to 27 4 avg 4 8 canyon diablo troilite cdt pyrite within carbonate concretions hosted in these marine rocks has a similar isotopic composition 49 8 to 10 6 cdt however isotopic values are often highly variable within individual concretions as a result of the heterogeneous nature of sulphate reduction and pyrite formation within marine sediments pyrite in coastal plain rocks is characterized by relatively high 34s values 4 2 to 35 5 avg 13 2 cdt while the overlying sideritized conglomerates have the lowest 34s values reported for cretaceous rocks from the western interior basin of north america 49 8 to 41 7 cdt very low 34s values which are only observed in the marine rocks are indicative of microbial sulphate reduction and pyrite formation in a sulphate replete i e open system higher 34s values up to 18 which were obtained for both the marine and coastal plain rocks are indicative of progressive pyrite crystallization in a sulphate limited i e closed system such conditions are expected in marine sediments as burial occurs and in brackish i e low sulphate sediments pyrite with very high 34s values 18 is common in the coastal plain rocks these high values are the result of influx of 34s enriched residual sulphide derived from overlying marine units a minor amount of 34s enriched pyrite is also present within and proximal to marine sedimentary unit h which was deposited at the same time as the coastal plain rocks we hypothesize that porewater containing 34s enriched residual sulphide flowed from the coastal plain and along unit h into the marine sediments thus producing anomalously high 34s pyrite

isotope evidence for pleistocene climatic changes in kashmir india stable carbon isotope ratios of organic carbon from palaeosols in loess and oxygen isotope ratios of pedogenic and lacustrine carbonates reveal significant pleistocene climatic changes in the kashmir basin the extreme 13c values of 16 and 25 reported here indicate a shift from arid to sub humid conditions the 18o values of pedogenic carbonates is 2 higher than that of the underlying lacustrine carbonates suggesting that they were deposited in different climatic conditions

analysis of vegetation and climate change during late pleistocene from ziro valley arunachal pradesh eastern himalaya region abstract vegetation and climate during later part of late pleistocene have been reconstructed from ziro valley arunachal pradesh eastern himalaya based on pollen data along with carbon isotope and magnetic susceptibility data the study reveals that the area and the vicinity is occupied by mixed broad leaved conifer forest and pine grass savanah at variable densities at least since 66 000yr bp the phases of expansions and declines of oaks with decline and increase of pines and grasses probably occurred under increase warm moist and decrease cool dry of s w monsoon precipitation respectively the increasing trend of s w monsoon and temperature is recorded during 44 000 to 34 000 cal yr bp synchronizing with the peat development and which peaked at around 35 000 cal yr bp this may link to the interstadial phase during the last major glacial cycle in the himalayan region it is also reflected in the decline of 13c value indicating dominance of c 3 type of vegetation the increased values of fd and lower values lf magnetic susceptibility recorded during the phase of the peat deposit further advocate s higher monsoon intensity impact of expansion of glacier felt with peak lgm around 20 000 cal yr bp is perceived tree line had moved to lower altitudes due to increased aridity and low temperature during this time existence of savannah type of vegetation is also evident by the increase of c4 taxa decreased fd and increased lf susceptibility also indicate reduced s w monsoon intensity

ferric saponite and serpentine in the nakhlite martian meteorites abstract transmission electron microscopy and fe k x ray absorption spectroscopy have been used to determine structure and ferric content of the secondary phase mineral assemblages in the nakhlite martian meteorites nwa 998 lafayette nakhla gv y 000593 y 000749 mil 03346 nwa 817 and nwa 5790 the secondary phases are a rapidly cooled metastable assemblage that has preserved mg and ca fractionation related to distance from the fluid source for most of the nakhlites though one nwa 5790 appears not to have experienced a fluid pathway all nine nakhlite samples have also been analysed with scanning electron microscopy electron probe micro analysis bright field high resolution transmission electron microscopy hrtem and selected area electron diffraction by measuring the energy position of the fe k xanes 1 s 3 d pre edge transition centroid we calculate the ferric content of the minerals within the nakhlite meteorites the crystalline phyllosilicates and amorphous silicate of the hydrothermal deposits filling the olivine fractures are found to have variable fe 3 fe values ranging from 0 4 to 0 9 in lafayette the central silicate gel parts of the veins are more ferric than the phyllosilicates around it showing that the fluid became increasingly oxidised the mesostasis of lafayette and nwa 817 also have phyllosilicate which have a higher ferric content than the olivine fracture deposits with fe 3 fe values of up to 1 0 further study via tem analyses reveal the lafayette and nwa 817 olivine phyllosilicates to have 2 1 t o t lattice structure with a the d 001 spacing of 0 96 nm whereas the lafayette mesostasis phyllosilicates have 1 1 t o structure with d 001 spacings of 0 7 nm based on our analyses the phyllosilicate found within the lafayette olivine fractures is trioctahedral ferric saponite ca 0 2 k 0 1 0 3 mg 2 6 fe 2 1 3 fe 3 1 7 mn 0 1 5 7 si 6 7 al iv 0 9 fe 3 0 4 8 0 o 20 oh 4 n h 2 o and that found in the mesostasis fractures is an fe serpentine ca 0 1 mg 0 7 fe 3 1 0 al vi 0 4 2 2 si 2 o 5 oh 4 with a ferric gel of similar composition in lafayette and found as fracture fills throughout the other nakhlites

reflection of scandinavian ice sheet fluctuations in norwegian sea sediments during the past 150 000 years the record of glacier fluctuations in western scandinavia as reconstructed from continental data has been correlated with records of ice rafted detritus ird from well dated sediment cores from the norwegian sea covering the past 150 000 yr b p the input of ird into the ocean is used as a proxy for ice sheet advances onto the shelf and thus for the calibration of a glaciation curve the marine results generally support land based reconstructions of glacier fluctuations and improve the time control on glacial advances the saalian ice sheet decayed very rapidly approximately 125 000 yr b p in the early weichselian a minor but significant ird maximum indicates the presence of icebergs in isotope substage 5b especially between 95 000 and 83 000 yr b p reduced amounts of calcareous nannofossils indicate that surface waters were influenced by meltwater discharges during isotope substages 5d and 5b an extensive build up of inland ice began again during isotope stage 4 but maximum glaciation was reached only in early stage 3 58 000 53 000 yr b p marine sediments have minimum carbonate content indicating strong dilution by lithogenic ice rafted material generally the ird accumulation rate was considerably higher in stages 4 2 than in stage 5 a marked peak in ird accumulation rates from 47 000 to 43 000 yr b p correlates well with a second middle weichselian ice sheet advance dated by the laschamp olby paleomagnetic event minimum ice extent during the alesund interstade 38 500 32 500 yr b p and several glacial oscillations during the late weichselian are also seen in the ird record of several late weichselian glacial oscillations on the shelf at least four correspond to the north atlantic heinrich events ice sheet behavior was either coupled or linked by external forcing during these events whereas internal ice sheet mechanisms may account for the noncoherent fluctuations

the microstructure of semarkona and bishunpur abstract the ordinary chondrites semarkona and bishunpur appear to have experienced in situ hydrous alteration here we report the results of the first detailed tem examination of them which supports this conclusion in semarkona all but the most magnesian mafic minerals have been destroyed and primary sulphides most likely troilite have been partially altered to phyllosilicates and ni rich pyrrhotite in bishunpur alteration is confined to the production of smectite from an amorphous feldspathic material in the chondrule rims and interchondrule matrix during hydrous alteration of both meteorites the temperature probably did not exceed 260 c the equilibrium composition of the gas present during the alteration of semarkona was not solar but was dominated by h2o the formation of smectite does not require the presence of liquid water however evidence for the redistribution of elements such as ca zn and si over tens of microns or more implies that there was at least some transient grain boundary fluid present the alteration in semarkona and bishunpur is far from complete thermodynamic modelling suggests that more altered ordinary chondrites would be mineralogically similar to the cm and ci carbonaceous chondrites superficially the mineralogy mineral chemistry and bulk chemistry of semarkona matrix rims resemble those of some chondritic interplanetary dust particles cidps the ordinary chondrite parent bodies may therefore be a source of some cidps

evidence for aqueous activity on comet 81p wild 2 from sulfide mineral assemblages in stardust samples and ci chondrites abstract the discovery of nickel copper and zinc bearing iron sulfides from comet 81p wild 2 wild 2 represents the strongest evidence in the stardust collection of grains that formed in an aqueous environment we investigated three microtomed tem sections which contain crystalline sulfide assemblages from wild 2 and twelve thin sections of the hydrothermally altered ci chondrite orgueil detailed structural and compositional characterizations of the sulfide grains from both collections reveal striking similarities the stardust samples include a cubanite cufe 2 s 3 grain a pyrrhotite fe ni 1 x s pentlandite fe ni 9 s 8 assemblage and a pyrrhotite sphalerite fe zn s assemblage similarly the ci chondrite sulfides include individual cubanite and pyrrhotite grains cubanite pyrrhotite assemblages pyrrhotite pentlandite assemblages as well as possible sphalerite inclusions within pyrrhotite grains the cubanite is the low temperature orthorhombic form which constrains temperature to a maximum of 210 c the stardust and orgueil pyrrhotites are the 4c monoclinic polytype which is not stable above 250 c the combinations of cubanite and pyrrhotite as well as pyrrhotite and pentlandite signify even lower temperatures the crystal structures compositions and petrographic relationships of these sulfides constrain formation and alteration conditions taken together these constraints attest to low temperature hydrothermal processing our analyses of these minerals provide constraints on large scale issues such as heat sources in the comet forming region aqueous activity on cometary bodies and the extent and mechanisms of radial mixing of material in the early nebula the sulfides in the wild 2 collection are most likely the products of low temperature aqueous alteration they provide evidence of radial mixing of material e g cubanite troilite from the inner solar system to the comet forming region and possible secondary aqueous processing on the cometary body

the history and variability of the east asian paleomonsoon climate abstract changes in the east asian paleomonsoon reflect interactions between the global atmosphere ocean land and ice systems and are also an expression of their combined effect within the boundary conditions imposed by the east asian continent and solar radiation the history of the east asian monsoon is an alternation between dominance by the dry cold winter and warm humid summer monsoons high resolution eolian sequences preserved in the chinese loess plateau reveal that the east asian monsoon may have commenced at least 7 2 ma ago they also provide evidence indicating that the pulsed uplift of the tibetan plateau at about 3 4 and 7 2 ma may have played an important role in inducing climate change the palaeoclimatic records of the last glacial cycle show high frequency variability on time scales of 1000 year or even shorter and instability of the east asian paleomonsoon system the high frequency variability could be due to a non linear response to orbital forcing or a result of the coupling processes between different components of the global system cold air activity in northern high latitudes the trans equatorial air streams from the southern hemisphere and possibly enso may have played an important role in east asian monsoon variability the synchroneity of all the palaeoclimatic events along the polar equator polar pep transect is still an open question correlation of limited palaeoclimatic records for the last 30 kyr obtained from east asia and australia suggests that the trans equatorial air streams driven by the monsoon and trade winds may have had an influence on opposite hemispheres

distribution of diagenetic alterations in glaciogenic sandstones within a depositional facies and sequence stratigraphic framework evidence from the upper ordovician of the murzuq basin sw libya abstract the spatial and temporal distribution of diagenetic alterations has been constrained in relationship to depositional facies and sequence stratigraphy of the upper ordovician glaciogenic quartzarenite sandstones in the murzuq basin sw libya which were deposited during the haritanian glaciation when the basin was laying along the continental margin of gondwana eogenetic alterations encountered include i replacement of detrital silicates mud matrix and pseudomatrix by kaolinite in paraglacial tide dominated deltaic in foreshore to shoreface highstand systems tract hst and in post glacial gilbert type deltaic lowstand systems tract lst sandstones particularly below the sequence boundaries sb kaolinite formation is attributed to the influx of meteoric water during relative sea level fall and basinward shift of the shoreline ii cementation by calcite 18 o vpdb 3 1 to 1 1 and 13 c vpdb 1 7 to 3 5 and mg rich siderite in the paraglacial tide dominated deltaic and foreshore to shoreface hst sandstones in the glacial tide dominated estuarine transgressive systems tract tst sandstones and in the post glacial shoreface tst sandstones is interpreted to have occurred from marine pore waters iii cementation by mg poor siderite which occurs in the post glacial gilbert type deltaic lst sandstones and in the paraglacial tide dominated deltaic and foreshore to shoreface hst sandstones is interpreted to have occurred from meteoric waters during relative sea level fall and basinward shift of the shoreline iv pervasive cementation by iron oxides has occurred in the glacial shoreface offshore tst sandstones and post glacial shoreface tst sandstones immediately below the maximum flooding surfaces mfs which was presumably enhanced by prolonged residence time of the sediments under oxic diagenetic conditions at the seafloor v formation of grain coating infiltrated clays mainly in the glacial fluvial incised valley lst sandstones and in the post glacial gilbert type deltaic lst sandstones as well as less commonly in the paraglacial foreshore to shoreface hst sandstones and in the tide dominated deltaic hst sandstones below the sbs mesogenetic alterations include mainly the formation of abundant quartz overgrowths in the glacial fluvial incised valley lst sandstones post glacial gilbert type deltaic lst sandstones and glacial shoreface tst sandstones in which early carbonate cements are lacking illite chlorite and albitized feldspars which occur in small amounts are most common in the glacial tide dominated estuarine tst sandstones and paraglacial shoreface hst sandstones this study demonstrates that the spatial and temporal distribution of diagenetic alterations and their impact on reservoir quality evolution in glacial paraglacial and post glacial sandstones can be better elucidated when linked to the depositional facies and sequence stratigraphic framework

a 20 ka climate record from central himalayan loess deposits the southwest monsoon that dominated central himalaya has preserved loessic silt deposits preserved in patches that are proximal to periglacial areas the occurrence of such silts suggests contemporary prevalence of cold and dry northwesterly winds field stratigraphy geochemistry mineral magnetism infrared stimulated luminescence irsl and radiocarbon dating has enabled reconstruction of an event chronology during the past 20 ka three events of loess accretion could be identified the first two events of loess deposition occurred betweem 20 and 9 ka and were separated by a phase of moderate weathering pedogenesis at the end of this event gave rise to a well developed soil that was bracketed around 9 to 4 ka this was followed by the third phase of loess accretion that occurred around 4 to 1 ka episodes of loess deposition and soil formation are interpreted in terms of changes in the strength of the indian southwest monsoon copyright 2005 john wiley sons ltd

abrupt changes in the asian southwest monsoon during the holocene and their links to the north atlantic ocean during the last ice age the indian ocean southwest monsoon exhibited abrupt changes that were closely correlated with millennial scale climate events in the north atlantic region1 2 3 suggesting a mechanistic link in the holocene epoch which had a more stable climate the amplitude of abrupt changes in north atlantic climate was much smaller and it has been unclear whether these changes are related to monsoon variability here we present a continuous record of centennial scale monsoon variability throughout the holocene from rapidly accumulating and minimally bioturbated sediments in the anoxic arabian sea our monsoon proxy record reveals several intervals of weak summer monsoon that coincide with cold periods documented in the north atlantic region4 including the most recent climate changes from the medieval warm period to the little ice age and then to the present we therefore suggest that the link between north atlantic climate and the asian monsoon is a persistent aspect of global climate

reconstruction of the 30 40 ka bp enhanced indian monsoon climate based on geological records from the tibetan plateau abstract multi proxy records from ice caps lakes and pollen records from the tibetan plateau are used to reconstruct the palaeoclimate during the period 30 40 ka bp lake geomorphological and lacustrine sedimentological studies show that numerous high lake level stands and or freshwater lakes occurred in large areas of western china at this time including over the tibetan plateau where the area contains mostly shallow water and saline hypersaline water lakes under extremely dry conditions of today pollen based reconstruction of tibetan vegetation shows systematic differences from the present alpine steppe forests were shifted ca 400 km further north and the alpine conifer forest extended ca 400 800 km beyond their present western limits variations in 18 o curves from ice cores from the plateau suggest that the temperature was 2 4 c higher and precipitation was 40 to over 100 higher than today all of the evidence consistently suggests the existence of an exceedingly strong summer monsoon climate over the plateau the vigorous evaporation of the tropical ocean surface would also play an important role in promoting the penetration of moisture rich southwest monsoon over the tibetan plateau these climate patterns with strong summer monsoon circulation during the period 30 40 ka bp reflect the 20 ka earth orbital precessional cycle when the tibetan plateau region received greater solar radiation which thus enlarged the thermodynamical contrast between the plateau and the mid south portion of the indian ocean

a refractory inclusion returned by stardust from comet 81p wild 2 among the samples returned from comet 81p wild 2 by the stardust spacecraft is a suite of particles from one impact track track 25 that are ca al rich and feo free we studied three particles from this track that range in size from 5 3 x 3 2 m to 15 x 10 m scanning and transmission electron microscopy show that they consist of very fine grained typically from 0 5 to 2 m al rich ti bearing and ti free clinopyroxene mg al spinel and anorthite with trace amounts of fine perovskite feni metal and osbornite tin grains in addition to these phases the terminal particle named inti also contains melilite all of these phases with the exception of osbornite are common in refractory inclusions and are predicted to condense at high temperature from a gas of solar composition osbornite though very rare has also been found in meteoritic refractory inclusions and could have formed in a region of the nebula where carbon became enriched relative to oxygen compared to solar composition compositions of ti pyroxene in inti are similar but not identical to those of fassaite from allende inclusions electron energy loss spectroscopy shows that ti rich pyroxene in inti has ti3 ti4 within the range of typical meteoritic fassaite consistent with formation under reducing conditions comparable to those of a system of solar composition inti is 16o rich with 18o 17o 40 like unaltered phases in refractory inclusions and refractory idps with grain sizes mineralogy mineral chemistry and an oxygen isotopic composition like those of refractory inclusions we conclude that inti is a refractory inclusion that formed in the inner solar nebula identification of a particle that formed in the inner solar system among the comet samples demonstrates that there was transport of materials from the inner to the outer nebula probably either in a bipolar outflow or by turbulence

late quaternary climatic changes in the eastern kumaun himalaya india as deduced from multi proxy studies abstract an event of neotectonic activity on an ne sw trending subsidiary fault in the zone of e w running intracrustal boundary thrust south almora thrust in the champawat district of eastern kumaun himalaya resulted in creation of a lake at ca 21 5 bp the lake drained in the late holocene leaving behind a 5 0 m thick sedimentary sequence of mostly black and carbonaceous mud with a minor magnetic reversal between 20 5 and 19 7 ka bp at the base the profile studied by using multi proxies e g carbon isotopes pollen analysis palaeo and mineral magnetism and clay minerals has recorded globally well established abrupt climatic events in the last 20 000 years such as the lgm older dryas od younger dryas yd holocene warming 8 2 ka and 4 2 ka events most events estimated assuming a constant rate of sediment accumulation for similar lithologies may be related to the rapid changes in the local climate and albedo structure the itcz may have played a key role in controlling the behavior of the southwest monsoon from the lgm

the sequence stratigraphy of fluvial depositional systems the role of floodplain sediment storage abstract the currently used model for alluvial sequence stratigraphy has been criticised miall 1991 and an alternative model is offered here in this model alluviation mainly takes place during transgressive and not highstand phases when accommodation space allows sediment storage the high capacity for some river systems to store floodplain sediments is a critical consideration the effects of climatic and intrinsic geomorphic changes during fluvial deposition are likely to greatly complicate simple base level controlled sequence models and recognising higher order fourth and fifth order cycles will be particularly difficult

mineralogy and petrology of stardust particles encased in the bulb of track 80 tem investigation of the wild 2 fine grained material abstract we have characterized by transmission electron microscopy the mineralogy of samples extracted from the walls of the stardust track 80 more than 500 fragments were studied using conventional imaging electron diffraction and edx microanalysis two categories of particles are distinguishable in equal proportions wt the first one is comprised of relatively large crystalline grains 1 m on average dominated by silicates olivine and pyroxene they display a wide range of compositions and microstructures comparable to those found in terminal particles minor phases including magnetite and apatite are also present their occurrence suggests that the wild 2 material underwent aqueous alteration to some extent the second type of particle called gems like material is made of silica rich glassy clumps embedding iron sulfide beads and vesicles their microstructure is characteristic of thermally modified particles that have suffered strong interaction with the silica aerogel during the hypervelocity impact this melted material may form by shedding of melted and vaporized material but given the shape of the impact track and high diversity of surviving mineral compositions much of it originated from fine grained aggregates that disaggregated during the collection chemical mapping at the nano scale allowed the localization of individual components within the silica rich glass they are dominated by mg rich components with a size less than 300 nm the average composition of this thermally modified material is close to the solar abundance for the major elements fe mg and s the fine grained material has probably not been chemically fractionated in the protoplanetary disk before its incorporation in comet wild 2 unlike the sulfur depleted matrix of chondrites from these two categories of particles we deduce that wild 2 is likely made of an assemblage of relatively large evolved grains first category cemented by a fine grained material with primitive chemistry second category the pre impact configuration of the incident material deduced from this study seems comparable to the matrix of the most primitive chondrites 3 0 or to chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles

environmental magnetism past present and future environmental magnetism involves the application of rock and mineral magnetic techniques to situations in which the transport deposition or transformation of magnetic grains is influenced by environmental processes in the atmosphere hydrosphere and lithosphere the first explicit description of environmental magnetism as a distinct field was in 1980 since that time environmental magnetism has become a broad field that is finding application in an ever increasing array of scientific disciplines in this review of the present state of environmental magnetic studies we divide the field into three broad but arbitrary categories the first involves the use of mineral magnetic assemblages in the geological record to study physical processes in depositional environments this category includes the correlation of sediment cores using magnetic susceptibility measurements studies of geomagnetic field behavior the analysis of depositional and postdepositional mechanical processes that affect sediments and the examination of magnetic parameters that might represent proxies for paleoclimatic variation the second category encompasses studies of the processes responsible for variations in the magnetic minerals brought into a sedimentary environment these provenance investigations include studies of changes in catchment derived sediment in lakes fluctuations in contributions from terrigenous aeolian and glaciogenic components in deep sea sediments and the origin of atmospheric particulates the final category addresses in situ changes and transformations of magnetic minerals in sedimentary environments including pedogenesis authigenetic diagenetic formation of ferrimagnetic phases dissolution of magnetic minerals due to reductive diagenesis and contributions of biomagnetism to sedimentary magnetism because environmental magnetism can address problems in so many disciplines and because many of these problems may be inaccessible to other techniques it is likely that the scope of environmental magnetism will continue to expand rapidly environmental magnetism is capable of providing important data for studies of global environmental change climatic processes and the impact of humans on the environment all of which are major research initiatives in the international scientific community these factors suggest that environmental magnetism has a bright and diverse future

mn cr ages of dolomites in ci chondrites and the tagish lake ungrouped carbonaceous chondrite abstract 53 mn 53 cr ages have been measured for dolomites in three ci chondrites and an ungrouped c2 chondrite tagish lake for an accurate age determination we utilized in contrast to previous works a matrix matched carbonate standard to appropriately correct the observed mn cr ratios the mn cr data of the dolomites most likely represent isochrons with chronological significances and the obtained ages are concentrated in 4563 8 4562 5 million years ago 4 4 5 7 million years after the birth of the solar system the ages of the ci and tagish lake dolomites are very similar to those of carbonates in cm chondrites although ci and cm chondrites are likely to have different alteration histories the similar carbonate ages in various carbonaceous chondrites suggest that the aqueous activities in hydrous asteroids initiated almost concurrently if this is the case the most plausible heat source for the aqueous alteration is the decay energy of short lived radionuclides especially 26 al we carried out a model calculation for the thermal history of the ci chondrite parent body assuming that 26 al is the dominant heat source by two different approaches to estimate the accretion time of the ci chondrite parent body we conclude that it accreted 3 0 3 9 million years after the birth of the solar system this is also likely to be the case for the cm chondrite and tagish lake parent bodies because the result of the calculation is not sensitive to the ice abundance therefore we stress that near the condensation front of water ice meteorite parent bodies with abundant ice accreted almost simultaneously at 3 4 million years after cai formation combining our mn cr ages of the dolomites with those of breunnerites reported previously the youngest one is 4554 6 million years ago we found that the aqueous alteration in the ci chondrite parent body lasted for at least 9 million years therefore the parent body should be large enough 50 km in radius so that the internal heat had been kept for 9 million years

late glacial and holocene vegetation indian monsoon and westerly circulation in the trans himalaya recorded in the lacustrine pollen sequence from tso kar ladakh nw india abstract palynological investigation of a 410 cm long core section from tso kar 33 10 n 78 00 e 4527 m a s l an alpine lake situated in the arid ladakh area of nw india at the limit of the present day indian summer monsoon was performed in order to reconstruct post glacial regional vegetation and climate dynamics the area was covered with alpine desert vegetation from ca 15 2 to 14 kyr bp 1 kyr 1000 cal years reflecting dry and cold conditions high influx values of long distance transported pinus sylvestris type pollen suggest prevailing air flow from the west and northwest the spread of alpine meadow communities and local aquatic vegetation is a weak sign of climate amelioration after ca 14 kyr bp pollen data e g influx values of pinus roxburghii type and quercus suggest that this was due to a strengthening of the summer monsoon and the reduced activity of westerly winds the further spread of artemisia and species rich meadows occurred in response to improved moisture conditions between ca 12 9 and 12 5 kyr bp the subsequent change towards drier desert steppe vegetation likely indicates more frequent westerly disturbances and associated snowfalls which favoured the persistence of alpine meadows on edaphically moist sites the spread of chenopodiaceae dominated vegetation associated with an extremely weak monsoon occurred at ca 12 2 11 8 kyr bp during the younger dryas interstadial a major increase in humidity is inferred from the development of artemisia dominated steppe and wet alpine meadows with gentianaceae after the late glacial early holocene transition in response to the strengthening of the summer monsoon monsoonal influence reached maximum activity in the tso kar region between ca 10 9 and 9 2 kyr bp the subsequent development of the alpine meadow steppe and desert steppe vegetation points to a moderate reduction in the moisture supply which can be linked to the weaker summer monsoon and the accompanying enhancement of the winter westerly flow from ca 9 2 to 4 8 kyr bp the highest water levels of tso kar around 8 kyr bp probably reflect combined effect of both monsoonal and westerly influence in the region an abrupt shift towards aridity in the tso kar region occurred after ca 4 8 kyr bp as evidenced by an expansion of chenopodiaceae dominated desert steppe low pollen influx values registered ca 2 8 1 3 kyr bp suggest scarce vegetation cover and unfavourable growing conditions likely associated with a further weakening of the indian monsoon

the magnitude and proximate cause of ice sheet growth since 35 000 yr b p the magnitude of late wisconsinan post 35 000 yr b p ice sheet growth in the northern hemisphere is not well known ice volume at 35 000 yr b p may have been as little as 20 or as much as 70 of the volume present at the last glacial maximum lgm a conservative evaluation of glacial geologic sea level and benthic 18o data indicates that ice volume at 35 000 yr b p was approximately 50 of that extant at the lgm 20 000 yr b p that is it doubled in about 15 000 yr on the basis of literature for the north atlantic and a sea surface temperature sst data compilation it appears that this rapid growth may have been forced by low to mid latitude sst warming in both the atlantic and pacific oceans with attendant increased moisture transport to high latitudes the sst ice sheet growth notion also explains the apparent synchroneity of late wisconsinan mountain glaciation in both hemispheres

late pleistocene record of cyclic eolian activity from tropical australia suggesting the younger dryas is not an unusual climatic event in the gulf of carpentaria northeastern australia 30 ka of lacustrine sedimentation provides a record of cyclic deposition of eolian dust 60 m just preceding the holocene adjacent layers containing eolian particles 60 m in a core from carpentaria relate to perhaps intermittent periods of eolian activity involving sediment deflation and thus aridity in northern australia each spanning at least 600 yr major peaks of dust deposition occurred about every 2 25 ka such amplitude of cyclicity has already been recognized elsewhere on the globe for other phenomena including waxing and waning of north american and european mountain glaciers oxygen isotope records from greenland and antarctic ice cores changes in deep sea benthic foraminiferal composition oxygen isotope records of deep sea foraminifera and atmospheric 14 c variations we propose that the cold younger dryas event that affected the northern hemisphere is matched by a significant dry event in the tropical region of northern australia and that the timing of this event fits well into the 2 25 ka cyclic pattern described here thus the younger dryas is a phenomenon of global significance and is not an odd event contrary to current belief in addition we propose that activation of dunes in northeastern australia over periods of 600 yr corresponds to perhaps intermittently stronger easterly trade winds during such periods the intertropical convergence zone may not have extended as far south as it does today

multiproxy records of vegetation and monsoon variability from the lacustrine sediments of eastern ganga plain since 1350 a d abstract the lacustrine sediments of 90 cm thick profile of nikahari tal lake deoria district in the ganga plain were analyzed for multiproxy study using pollen analysis sedimentology and ams radiocarbon date to deduce short term climate and vegetational changes since about 1350 a d 600 bp the presence of arboreal and dominance of herbaceous vegetation along with aquatic elements and fresh water alga botryococcus from the basal part suggests the prior existence of lake and open grass land vegetation in the region however the scantiness of tree and shrubby taxa along with higher percentage of clay in the beginning indicates relatively warm and less humid climate than today the presence of cerealia with other culture pollen taxa indicates prevalence of agrarian practice in the region substantial increase in the tree taxa of holoptelea integrifolia madhuca indica acacia emblica officinalis syzygium cumini and myrtaceae along with the increase in shrubs marshy and aquatic elements suggest the expansion of forest grove within the grassland as a consequence of enhanced precipitation during 1420 1620 a d similar trends are observed by higher percentage of silt content owing to increased surface runoff in response to enhanced precipitation and high water budget under strong indian summer monsoon ism during above period a highly variable vegetation scenario existed during 1620 1900 a d as a consequence of fluctuating climatic conditions the variable percentages of silt and clay indicate the increase and decrease in the surface runoff so as the water column and energy in the lake in direct response to enhanced and weak ism respectively during 1620 1700 a d the arboreals became less diversified and a decline in the diversity of terrestrial herbs is also witnessed which is also corroborated by exceptionally high percentages of clay elucidating stagnant low energy ponding condition under weak ism during the little ice age lia during the time interval of 1700 1800 a d considerable improvement in the floristics has been noticed due to climate amelioration from 1800 a d onwards the increasing frequency trends of arboreal and aquatic taxa along with relatively increased silt content suggests moderately warm and humid climate the well sorted sediment explains the consistency in the water level and energy of the lake pollen analysis coupled with sediment grain parameters indicate intense ism from 1400 to 1600 a d and 1850 a d onwards and weak monsoon around 1600 1750 a d the signals of weak monsoon around 1650 1770 and 1850 a d are synchronous with the little ice age

hydrological and climatic changes in deserts of china since the late pleistocene article i nfo article history large areas in western china were wetlands or less arid between 40 and 30 ka corresponding to the greatest lake period on the adjacent tibetan plateau during the last glacial maximum some of these western chinese deserts again experienced wetter conditions however at the same time the sandy lands in the eastern chinese desert belt experienced an activation of aeolian dunes while interpretations of the mid holocene environment in the deserts of china are controversial it is quite likely that it was more humid not only in the eastern areas influenced by monsoon climate systems but also in the western deserts where moisture is currently associated with westerlies evaluation of lacustrine records in the lakes recharged by dryland rivers and the complex interactions of these systems as well as other paleoenvironmental proxies such as the artemisia chenopodiaceae ratio should be interpreted with greater caution facing the highlighted uncertainties in our understanding of climate changes in chinese deserts it is hoped that this special issue will improve our knowledge considerably

evidence for low temperature growth of fayalite and hedenbergite in macalpine hills 88107 an ungrouped carbonaceous chondrite related to the cm co clan the carbonaceous chondrite macalpine hills mac 88107 has bulk composition and mineralogy that are intermediate between those of co and cm chondrites this meteorite experienced minor alteration and a low degree of thermal metamorphism petrologic type 3 1 and escaped post accretional brecciation the alteration resulted in the formation of fayalite fa90 100 al free hedenbergite fs50wo50 phyllosilicates saponite serpentine intergrowths magnetite and ni bearing sulfides pyrrhotite and pentlandite fayalite and hedenbergite typically occur as veins which start at the opaque nodules in the chondrule peripheries crosscut fine grained rims and either terminate at the boundaries with the neighboring fine grained rims or continue as layers between these rims these observations suggest that fayalite and hedenbergite crystallized after accretion and compaction of the fine grained rims fayalite also overgrows isolated forsteritic fa1 5 and fayalitic fa20 40 olivine grains without any evidence for fe mg interdiffusion it also replaces massive magnetite sulfide grains the initial 53mn 55mn ratio of 1 58 0 26 10 6 in the mac 88107 fayalite corresponds to an age difference between the formation of fayalite and refractory inclusions in allende of either 9 or 18 ma depending upon the value of the solar system initial abundance of 53mn used in age calculations formation of secondary fayalite and hedenbergite requires mobilization and transport of ca si and fe either through a high temperature gaseous phase hua and buseck 1995 or low temperature aqueous solution krot et al 1998a b the high temperature nebular model for the origin of fayalite hua and buseck 1995 fails to explain a formation of fayalite hedenbergite assemblages after accretion of fine grained rims that lack any evidence for high temperature processing b extreme fractionation of refractory lithophile elements of similar volatility ca and al in hedenbergite and c absence of fe mg interdiffusion along fayalite forsterite boundaries we conclude that fayalite and hedenbergite in mac 88107 formed during late stage low temperature approximately 150 200 c aqueous alteration the data for mac 88107 extend the evidence for an early onset of aqueous activity on chondrite parent bodies and reinforce the conclusion that liquid water played an important role in the chemical and mineralogical evolution of the first chondritic planetesimals

stable isotopic characterisation of francolite formation stable isotopic data are presented for 112 samples of francolite from 18 separate phosphate deposits values of 13c and 34s in most offshore deposits suggest formation within oxic or suboxic environments either by carbonate replacement or direct precipitation of francolite from water of normal marine compositions the exceptions are concretionary francolite from namibia which has an isotopic composition in keeping with its formation within organic rich sediments and that from offshore morocco which has an isotopic signature of the anoxic suboxic interface onshore deposits from jordan mexico south africa and possibly the permian phosphoria formation in the western u s a are substantially depleted in18o they appear to be too altered for deductions to be made about their environments of formation in other onshore deposits which are unaltered or minimally altered the isotopic composition suggests that some formed within sulphate reducing sediments sedhura morocco whilst francolite from the georgina basin of australia formed at the oxic anoxic boundary where oxidation of biogenic h2s decreases the 34s of pore water in general pelletal samples show non oxic isotopic signatures whilst non pelletal samples show oxic isotopic signatures but samples from namibia peru ica plateau and the californian and moroccan margins are exceptions to this rule morphology may therefore be a misleading indicator of francolite genesis as no definitive relation exists between phosphorite type and isotopic signature

geochemistry and diagenesis of stratabound calcite cement layers within the rannoch formation of the brent group murchison field north viking graben northern north sea abstract up to four calcite cemented horizons doggers form impermeable barriers to fluid flow within the middle jurassic rannoch formation and are correlatable across the murchison field calcite precipitated during early diagenesis within high porosity permeability sandstones at the top of coarsening shoaling upward shoreface cycles calcite 13c and 18o compositions range from 4 1 to 13 4 pdb and 6 6 to 16 7 pdb respectively sr concentrations of up to 1334 ppm are consistent with marine carbonate sources probably shell fragments but no viable intraformational carbonate source has been identified in the murchison field area initial 87sr 86sr compositions 0 71109 0 71266 are higher than middle jurassic seawater 0 7073 and consistent with precipitation from modified porewaters containing significant proportions of continentally derived meteoric fluids enriched in 87sr as a result of basement weathering or percolation through hinterland soils unconsolidated detritus an internal source of 87sr is not considered viable in view of the high proportion up to 25 clastic constituents of unaltered detrital alkali feldspar and mica within the rannoch formation geochemical and isotope data indicate correlations between increasing 18o composition and increasing iron and magnesium content within calcite calcium concentrations decrease with increasing 18o for calcites geochemical data trends can be interpreted differently in terms of either static or evolving 18o porewater models static 18o porewater models using jurassic early cretaceous meteoric water 18 o 6 smow predict cement precipitation temperatures of 17 77 c however 13c compositions are more depleted than those typical of carbon derived from shell debris and correlation between decreasing 18o and decreasing 13c suggests modification of a meteoric derived porewater system during burial via contribution of low 13c carbon derived from a deep basinal source however it is difficult to constrain accurately the degree to which porewater 18o may have evolved during burial the degree to which porewater 18o could have evolved from that of a jurassic early cretaceous meteoric water can be loosely constrained as from 18 o 6 smow to 18 o 2 smow if the temperature at which the most 18o depleted cements precipitated is limited by present day bottom hole temperatures 110 c for wells currently at maximum burial depth

modal mineralogy of ci and ci like chondrites by x ray diffraction the ci chondrites are some of the most hydrated meteorites available to study making them ideal samples with which to investigate aqueous processes in the early solar system here we have used position sensitive detector x ray diffraction psd xrd to quantify the abundance of minerals in bulk samples of the ci chondrite falls alais orgueil and ivuna and the antarctic ci like chondrites y 82162 and y 980115 we find that alais orgueil and ivuna are dominated by a mixed serpentine saponite phyllosilicate 81 84 vol plus minor magnetite 6 10 sulphides 4 7 and carbonates 3 this reflects an extended period of aqueous alteration and the near complete transformation of anhydrous phases into a secondary mineral assemblage the similarity in total abundance of phyllosilicate suggests that the ci chondrites all experienced the same degree of aqueous alteration on the parent body in contrast y 82162 contains a highly disordered serpentine saponite phyllosilicate 68 vol sulphide 19 olivine 11 and magnetite 2 this mineralogy is distinct from that of the ci chondrites attesting to both a different starting mineralogy and alteration history the structure and relatively low abundance of the phyllosilicate and the high abundance of olivine are consistent with previous observations that y 82162 represents ci like material that following aqueous alteration suffered thermal metamorphism at temperatures 500 c similarly y 980115 contains disordered serpentine saponite 71 vol sulphide 19 olivine 8 and magnetite 2 confirming that it too is a thermally metamorphosed ci like chondrite we suggest that the ci like chondrites are derived from a different parent body than the ci chondrites which underwent short lived thermal metamorphism due to impacts and or solar radiation

constraints on the formation age of cometary material from the nasa stardust mission we measured the 26 al 26 mg isotope systematics of a 5 m refractory particle coki returned from comet 81p wild 2 in order to relate the time scales of formation of cometary inclusions to their meteoritic counterparts the data show no evidence of radiogenic 26 mg and define an upper limit to the abundance of 26 al at the time of particle formation of 26 al 27 al 5 the absence of 26 al indicates coki formed 1 7 ma after the oldest solar system solids ca al rich inclusions cais the data presented here suggest that high temperature inner solar system material formed was subsequently transferred to the kuiper belt and incorporated into comets several million years following cai formation

carbonaceous xenoliths in the krymka ll3 1 chondrite mysteries and established facts abstract the results of a detailed study on mineralogy chemistry and the carbon and oxygen isotopes of two exotic krymka carbonaceous xenoliths are presented in this article the investigated xenoliths are metamorphosed and shocked and have the following characteristics which distinguish them from the krymka host 1 resemblance of their sio 2 mgo ratio to that of carbonaceous chondrites 2 higher fe content and feo feo mgo ratio 3 lower concentration of si ca al and an enrichment of s and probably of ag 4 smaller sizes and lower content 10 vol of chondrules and their clasts and correspondingly higher content of matrix 5 dominance of porphyritic chondrules and lack of nonporphyritic chondrules 6 occurrence of an amoeboid olivine grain with 16 o rich composition 7 existence of carbon in three different forms graphite carbon rich material and organic compounds the bulk chemistry of the xenoliths is similar but not identical to that of carbonaceous chondrites suggesting that they represent a chondrite parent body that has not been previously sampled among any known type of meteoritic material the mineralogy of the xenoliths corresponds only to that of other krymka graphite containing xenoliths it differs however from the latter by having a lower grade of metamorphism we infer that metamorphism of the primary carbonaceous body of the xenoliths and or shock of the krymka parent body are responsible for the major metamorphic alteration of the xenoliths including the crystallization of graphite from primary organic compounds a comparison of the features of the krymka xenoliths with the inferred characteristics of cometary meteorites attests that their genetic relationship to cometary material remains highly inconclusive

origin of magnetite in oxidized cv chondrites in situ measurement of oxygen isotope compositions of allende magnetite and olivine magnetite in the oxidized cv chondrite allende mainly occurs as spherical nodules in porphyritic olivine po chondrules where it is associated with ni rich metal and or sulfides to help constrain the origin of the magnetite we measured oxygen isotopic compositions of magnetite and coexisting olivine grains in po chondrules of allende by an in situ ion microprobe technique five magnetite nodules form a relatively tight cluster in oxygen isotopic composition with delta 18o values from 4 8 to 7 1 and delta 17o values from 2 9 to 6 3 seven coexisting olivine grains have oxygen isotopic compositions from 0 9 to 6 3 in delta 18o and from 4 6 to 7 9 in delta 17o the delta 17o values of the magnetite and coexisting olivine do not overlap they range from 0 4 to 2 6 and from 4 0 to 5 7 respectively thus the magnetite is not in isotopic equilibrium with the olivine in po chondrules implying that it formed after the chondrule formation the delta 17o of the magnetite is somewhat more negative than estimates for the ambient solar nebula gas we infer that the magnetite formed on the parent asteroid by oxidation of metal by h2o which had previously experienced minor o isotope exchange with fine grained silicates

a holocene climatic record from arid northwestern china abstract the history of climatic changes during the interval 8500 3000 cal yr b p has been reconstructed from stratigraphical and chronological studies and the results of total organic carbon toc total inorganic carbon tic element composition pollen and stable isotope analyses of a section along the hongshui river in the southern tengger desert nw china the record suggests that from 8450 bottom of the studied section to 7500 yr b p the climate was characterized by instability from 7500 to 5070 yr b p the climatic conditions improved and can be divided into two parts a warm humid spell between 7290 and 6380 yr b p during which the average temperature was 3 4 c higher than that of today and a warm dry spell lasting from 5950 to 5720 yr b p the climate deteriorated between 6380 and 5950 yr b p from 5720 to 5070 yr b p the temperature decreased but humidity increased an abrupt temperature drop occurred between 5340 and 5290 yr b p that indicated the decline of the warmer and humid mid holocene climate from 5070 yr b p onward the climate oscillated significantly and there were three large temperature decreases coinciding with high mountain glacier advances between 5070 4670 yr b p 4300 3740 yr b p and 3410 3230 yr b p top of the section respectively the climatic fluctuations recorded in the southern tengger desert appear in phase with climatic changes recognized in the tibetan plateau suggesting that the period between 7290 and 6380 yr b p was the most warm humid spell one extremely dry event occurred at ca 3000 yr b p and subsequently the fluvial lacustrine depositional process terminated and wind action prevailed in the area both of these features can be attributed to the rapid strengthening and weakening of the summer monsoon circulation which are closely connected with global changes

secondary calcium iron rich minerals in the bali like and allende like oxidized cv3 chondrites and allende dark inclusions we have characterized ca fe rich silicates salite hedenbergite pyroxenes fs10 50wo45 50 andradite ca3fe2si3o12 kirschsteinite cafesio4 and wollastonite ca3si3o9 in the type i chondrules and matrices in the bali like and allende like oxidized cv3 chondrites and allende dark inclusions in type i chondrules in the bali like cv3 chondrites metal is oxidized to magnetite magnetite sulfide nodules are replaced by ca fe rich pyroxenes with minor andradite and pure fayalite we infer that ca fe rich pyroxenes andradite fayalite magnetite and phyllosilicates which occur in mesostases formed at relatively low temperatures 300 c in the presence of aqueous solutions thermodynamic analysis of phase relations in the si fe ca o h system and large o isotopic fractionation of the coexisting magnetite and fayalite 20 krot et al 1998 are consistent with this interpretation in type i chondrules in the allende like cv3 chondrites and dark inclusions magnetite sulfide nodules are replaced by ca fe rich pyroxenes and ferrous olivine low ca pyroxene and forsterite phenocrysts are rimmed and veined by ferrous olivine it appear that the ca fe rich pyroxenes predate formation of ferrous olivine the latter postdates formation of talc and biopyriboles brearley 1997 the allende dark inclusions are crosscut by ca fe pyroxene andradite veins and surrounded by ca rich rims that consist of ca fe rich pyroxenes andradite wollastonite and kirschsteinite calcium rich veins and rims formed after aggregation and lithification of the dark inclusions the rimmed dark inclusions show zoned depletion in ca which is due to a lower abundance of ca fe rich pyroxenes close to the rim calcium was probably leached from the inclusions and redeposited along their edges we infer that the allende like chondrites and dark inclusions experienced similar aqueous alteration to the bali like chondrites and were metamorphosed subsequently which resulted in loss of aqueous solutions and dehydration of phyllosilicates we conclude that ca fe rich silicates in the oxidized cv3 chondrites and allende dark inclusions are secondary and resulted from aqueous fluid rock interactions during progressive metamorphism of a heterogeneous mixture of hydrous ices and anhydrous materials the latter were possibly mineralogically similar to the reduced cv3 chondrites

factors governing the pattern of glacier advances since the last glacial maxima in the transitional climate zone of the southern zanskar ranges nw himalaya abstract the present study investigates the relics of glacier advances and retreats in the transitional climatic zone of the southern zanskar range nw himalaya in response to the temporal changes in the indian summer monsoon ism and mid latitude westerlies the study identifies four glacier advances which are named from the oldest to youngest as the southern zanskar glacier stage 4 szs 4 to szs 1 the szs 4 remains undated however based on the existing chronology of the stratigraphically equivalent moraines trimlines in the region it is conjectured to the marine isotope stage 4 mis 4 the optical chronology obtained during the present study dates the szs 3 to 22 8 1 9 19 1 1 9 ka which corresponds to the last glacial maxima lgm the szs 2 is dated to 15 7 1 3 14 3 1 3 ka late glacial period whereas based on the chronology of the recessional moraines 4 9 0 4 4 5 0 3 ka the youngest szs 1 is assigned to 6 ka mid holocene the snout proximal moraines are attributed to the little ice age lia historical times the pulsating deglaciation associated with each advance since the lgm is represented by the recessional moraines and outwash gravel terraces the older gravel terrace is dated between 10 8 0 9 and 6 5 0 5 ka and is attributed to szs 2 deglaciation which is also manifested by the deposition of sandy facies in a relict lake sequence 6 7 0 6 ka and development of palaeosol 5 6 0 5 ka we propose that the glacial advances were triggered by the millennial scale cooling events during the periods of strengthened westerlies and thus suggest a synoptic scale coupling with the northern atlantic the deglaciation is suggested to occur during the warmer ism dominated phases the late holocene climatic instability that followed the recession of szs 1 is manifested by the development of rhythmites 3 8 0 5 ka loess 2 5 0 2 ka and palaeosol 2189 296 cal yr bp

palaeoclimatic conditions in the late pleistocene wadda lake eastern kumaun himalaya india abstract an episode of neotectonic activity on an east west trending fault in the zone of active intracrustal north almora thrust in the eastern kumaun himalaya resulted in the formation of a lake around 36 000 yr b p a 13 m continuous sequence made up largely of carbonaceous mud represents the lake that disappeared around 10 000 yr b p due to the revival of neotectonic activity on the basis of radiocarbon dating it appears that the rate of sedimentation varied from time to time during the existence of the lake palaeomagnetic studies show normal polarity except for a major deviation in the upper part of the section palynological investigations testify to the occurrence of three temperate humid and at least two well defined arid climatic phases which are correlated with previously documented late quaternary climatic changes as recorded in the himalaya as well as in tibet around 10 000 yr b p widespread deposition of a tectonically induced debris flow occurred in the lake basin at the terminal stage of the lake s life the two events ca 36 000 and 10 000 yr b p thus seem to represent two major neotectonic events in the kumaun lesser himalaya

a study of clay pore water and sporopollens for characterizing paleoenvironments in the hebei plain northern china abstract we developed a clay pore water cpw isotopic method for tracing paleoenvironments characterized by sporopollens the thick clayey layers have the advantage of preserving pore water regardless of whether the water is inherent in the clayey layers or not therefore the clayey layers are a suitable target from which paleoenvironmental information can be extracted sediment sporopollens as well as cpw deuterium and oxygen isotopes were investigated in drilling cores obtained from a 130 m borehole at a field site in hengshui in the north china plain our interpretation of 18 o in cpw was consistent with sporopollens climate indices indicating that cpw was an effective proxy for obtaining paleoenvironmental information sporopollens species were abundant in the cores but the quantity of each species was low furthermore mean annual temperature and precipitation curves were established using a pollen climatic response surface model the results indicated two warm humid periods 5 2 0 m 22 6 11 m and one cold dry period 8 8 6 4 m in the holocene as well as two warm humid periods 90 6 83 m 110 6 108 2 m and three cold dry periods approximately 40 m 66 4 56 8 m approximately 100 m in the late pleistocene data derived from the sporopollens and cpw cumulatively elucidate the environmental change in northern china

three dimensional observation of carbonaceous chondrites by synchrotron radiation x ray ct quantitative analysis and developments for the future sample return missions abstract carbonaceous chondrites were observed by synchrotron radiation x ray computed tomography sr ct three dimensionally we analyzed the chemical composition of the components of the carbonaceous chondrites such as chondrules matrix and iron inclusions from the linear attenuation coefficient lac of x rays histograms of the lac were used for the analysis of chemical composition of the internal material and we could find a clear relation of the compositions between the chondrules and matrix we also analyzed the size distribution of low fe inclusions chondrules using image processing of ct images cumulative size distribution of chondrules shows power law distribution and slopes of the distribution changed for different chondrite classes results of these analyses show that the chondrule and matrix would have formed from the same precursor and were incorporated into the parent bodies without large scale mixing in the solar nebula the method will also provide important information for the analysis of future sample return missions our examinations demonstrate great potential of the quantitative determination of chondrite class nondestructively by sr ct

late quaternary paleoceanography of the south china sea surface circulation and carbonate cycles paleoceanographic information from 34 sediment cores is summarized to investigate the glacial interglacial variations in sea surface circulation and late quaternary carbonate cycles in the south china sea judging from the distribution pattern of deposition rates the enormous terrigenous supply by rivers is responsible for the high rate of hemipelagic sedimentation which was even higher during glacial periods paleotemperature maps based on transfer function temperature estimates have revealed a e w gradient of sst for glacial summer and a s n gradient for glacial winter and this agrees well with the clockwise surface circulation in summer and counterclockwise in winter during glacials as shown by a preliminary computer modelling the high resolution paleotemperature curves of core v36 3 from the northern slope show an abrupt cooling event which may belong to the younger dryas carbonate percentage in sediments and preservation of foraminifers and pteropods are used to study the carbonate cycles in the marginal sea it turns out that two mechanisms are functioning there being a basin with large drainage areas vast amount of river borne terrigenous input dilutes carbonate and its intensification during glacial decreases the glacial cac03 being a basin connected with the pacific the fluctuations of lysocline ccd and acd in the scs are related to those in the pacific ocean and dissolution is strengthened at interglacial thus above the present ccd the dilution factor predominates and the atlantic cycles are produced below the present ccd the dissolution factor prevails resulting in the pacific pattern of carbonate cycles

sequence stratigraphic distribution of diagenetic alterations in coal bearing paralic sandstones evidence from the rio bonito formation early permian southern brazil linking siliciclastic diagenesis to sequence stratigraphy allows a better understanding of the parameters controlling the spatial and temporal distribution of diagenetic alterations and hence of reservoir quality a study of the coal bearing alluvial deltaic estuarine and shallow marine sandstones of the rio bonito formation early permian parana basin southern brazil reveals that the distribution of diagenetic alterations and of related reservoir quality evolution can be constrained within a sequence stratigraphic framework calcite dolomite siderite kaolinite and pyrite cementation is consistently linked to sequence and parasequence boundaries transgressive and maximum flooding surfaces and is systematically distributed within lowstand transgressive and highstand systems tracts diagenesis of coal layers at parasequence boundaries has promoted the formation of stratabound calcite detectable in resistivity wire line logs concretionary pyrite and kaolinite and of silicate grain dissolution in sandstones located above and below these boundaries particularly in the transgressive systems tract meteoric water diagenesis caused grain dissolution and the formation of kaolinite in sandstones below sequence boundaries and in lowstand systems tract sandstones carbonate bioclasts and low sedimentation rates in lag deposits at parasequence boundaries transgressive and maximum flooding surfaces favoured the formation of grain rimming siderite the results of this study are relevant to the exploration of coal bed methane and other coal bearing reservoirs where it is crucial to unravel and predict the distribution and quality of reservoirs and compartments

a thermal model for the differentiation of asteroid 4 vesta based on radiogenic heating a finite element code has been developed to model the thermal history of asteroid 4 vesta this is the first attempt to model the thermal history of a differentiated asteroid through core and crust formation and subsequent cooling until geochemical closure is attained the results of the simulation are consistent with chronological measurements and other constraints provided by cumulate and noncumulate eucrites believed to have been derived from vesta the work solves two major problems with the hypothesis of heating by decay of26al an extinct radionuclide postulated to be a plausible heat source in the early solar system first the model demonstrates that it is possible to keep the mantle of vesta hot for 100 ma thereby explaining the observed difference in ages between cumulate and noncumulate eucrites second the simulation offers a possible explanation of why detectable excesses of26mg the decay product of26al are not observed in noncumulate eucrites the simulation draws a model chronology of vesta and predicts times relative to cai formation for accretion at 2 85 myr core formation at 4 58 myr crust formation at 6 58 myr and geochemical closure at 100 myr for a h chondrite asteroidal bulk composition decay of60fe is found to cause no perceptible difference in the thermal history of vesta even when sequestered into a central core although chondritic xenoliths have not been described in hed igneous lithologies the thermal model suggests the possibility that a veneer of unmelted near surface material should remain

magnetite in comet wild 2 evidence for parent body aqueous alteration the mineralogy of comet 81p wild 2 particles collected in aerogel by the stardust mission has been determined using synchrotron fe k x ray absorption spectroscopy with in situ transmission xrd and x ray fluorescence plus complementary microraman analyses our investigation focuses on the terminal grains of eight stardust tracks c2112 4 170 0 0 c2045 2 176 0 0 c2045 3 177 0 0 c2045 4 178 0 0 c2065 4 187 0 0 c2098 4 188 0 0 c2119 4 189 0 0 and c2119 5 190 0 0 three terminal grains have been identified as near pure magnetite fe3o4 the presence of magnetite shows affinities between the wild 2 mineral assemblage and carbonaceous chondrites and probably resulted from hydrothermal alteration of the coexisting feni and ferromagnesian silicates in the cometary parent body in order to further explore this hypothesis powdered material from a cr2 meteorite nwa 10256 was shot into the aerogel at 6 1 km s 1 using a light gas gun and keystones were then prepared in the same way as the stardust keystones using similar analysis techniques to the eight stardust tracks a cr2 magnetite terminal grain establishes the likelihood of preserving magnetite during capture in silica aerogel

microbial influence on the oxygen isotopic composition of diagenetic siderite abstract numerous early diagenetic siderite concretions previously described have been interpreted as the results of microbially mediated reactions interpretation of oxygen isotope data for such material requires an understanding of the effect of temperature on fractionation processes however whilst equilibrium fractionation of oxygen isotopes between siderite and water has been measured down to 33 c extrapolation to lower temperatures may be invalid furthermore inorganic measurements may not be applicable to microbial systems the specific iron reducing microorganism geobacter metallireducens has been cultured anaerobically in the laboratory using acetate as an organic substrate and amorphous feooh as an electron acceptor the acetate is oxidised to co2 with concurrent iron reduction and extracellular siderite precipitation rhombohedral siderite crystals up to 25 m in size have been precipitated over a range of temperatures 18 40 c stable isotopic analysis of these crystals and the solutions from which they precipitate shows that this microbial precipitation of siderite has an associated isotopic fractionation different from the published equilibrium and which is not simply a function of temperature in all cases 18o values of siderite are lower than predicted by inorganic equilibrium fractionation data this may explain the numerous anomalously low 18o values reported for early diagenetic marine siderites and previously attributed to mechanisms such as mixing with meteoric water sediment water interaction recrystallisation or variable isotopic fractionation despite a lack of supporting evidence

distribution of diagenetic alterations in fluvial and paralic deposits within sequence stratigraphic framework evidence from the petrohan terrigenous group and the svidol formation lower triassic nw bulgaria abstract elucidation of diagenetic alterations in the petrohan terrigenous group fluvial highstand systems tract hst sandstones and svidol formation tide dominated deltaic and tidal flat transgressive systems tract tst and highstand systems tract hst respectively sandstones and calcarenite lower triassic nw bulgaria was constrained within a sequence stratigraphic framework eogenetic alterations in the fluvial hst sandstones include i formation of grain coating infiltrated clays as a result of percolation of mud rich surface waters into underlying coarse grained and permeable channel fills and crevasse splay sandstones ii formation of pseudomatrix by mechanical compaction of mud intraclasts that were incorporated into the coarse grained channel sandstones during their lateral avulsion and iii cementation by calcite 18 o vpdb 6 5 to 3 13 c vpdb 5 1 to 0 6 and dolomite 18 o vpdb 6 1 to 0 3 13 c vpdb 7 2 to 5 8 in the crevasse splay and floodplain sediments mesogenetic alterations that are encountered in the fluvial hst sandstones include i illitization of grain coating clays mud intraclasts and mica possibly because of simultaneous albitization of feldspars ii cementation by calcite 18 o vpdb 14 5 to 8 4 13 c vpdb 7 7 to 0 6 and dolomite 18 o vpdb 15 8 to 5 13 c vpdb 7 9 to 1 5 and iii limited amounts of quartz overgrowths in the channel sandstones owing to occurrence of thick grain coating clays conversely the tide dominated deltaic tst sandstones and the tidal flat hst calcarenite were pervasively cemented by calcite 18 o vpdb 6 6 to 3 1 13 c vpdb 5 1 to 0 6 and siderite 18 o vpdb 7 2 to 5 7 13 c vpdb 0 3 to 0 9 particularly below marine and maximum flooding surfaces due to the presence of abundant bioclasts and prolonged residence time of the sediments under certain geochemical conditions along these surfaces the remaining open pores were cemented during mesodiagenesis by calcite 18 o vpdb 6 6 to 3 1 and 13 c vpdb 5 1 to 0 6 and dolomite 18 o vpdb 6 6 to 3 1 and 13 c vpdb 5 1 to 0 6 this study shows that constructing a conceptual model for the distribution of diagenetic alterations is possible by integration of diagenesis with sequence stratigraphy the model shows that tide dominated deltaic tst sandstones and tidal flat hst calcarenite were pervasively cemented by carbonates during near surface eodiagenesis owing to the presence of abundant bioclasts conversely fluvial lst sandstones remained poorly cemented during near surface eodiagenesis due to the lack of bioclasts but were cemented by mesogenetic calcite dolomite and quartz overgrowths instead

the semarkona meteorite first recorded occurrence of smectite in an ordinary chondrite and its implications abstract semarkona is an unshocked unequilibrated ordinary chondrite much of the interchondrule matrix and the mesostases of some chondrules and clasts have been hydrothermally altered analyses of altered materials and opaque matrix are presented ca and fe have been redistributed from primary anhydrous phases into calcite and na fe smectite respectively in semarkona the process possibly requires open system behavior inconsistent with the conventional view of metamorphism of the ordinary chondrites the low petrologic type previously assigned to semarkona is the result of retrograde metamorphism under aqueous conditions of a higher temperature mineral assemblage semarkona and possibly bishunpur should be assigned to petrologic type 2

a 15 000 year record of vegetation and climate change from a treeline lake in the rocky mountains wyoming usa future climate projections predict warming at high elevations that will impact treeline species but complex topographic relief in mountains complicates ecologic response and we have a limited number of long term studies examining vegetation change related to climate in this study pollen and conifer stomata were analyzed from a 2 3 m sediment core extending to 15 330 cal yr bp recovered from a treeline lake in the rocky mountains of wyoming both pollen and stomata record a sequence of vegetation and climate change similar in most respects to other regional studies with sagebrush steppe and lowered treeline during the late pleistocene rapid upward movement of treeline beginning about 11 500 cal yr bp treeline above modern between 9000 and 6000 cal yr bp and then moving downslope 5000 cal yr bp reaching modern limits by 3000 cal yr bp between 6000 and 5000 cal yr bp sediments become increasingly organic and sedimentation rates increase we interpret this as evidence for lower lake levels

deposition models for chronological records abstract long term sedimentary sequences provide a wealth of useful information for research into the palaeo environment especially in relation to past climate change shorter records provide similar information in many archaeological contexts however if such records are to be used to provide precise timing of events and more critically the relative timing between different records methods are needed to provide accurate and precise age depth models for these sequences given the imprecision of individual calibrated radiocarbon determinations it is necessary to use the information we have about the deposition process to refine our chronologies and also to provide interpolation between dated levels in any sequence even with layer counted chronologies the uncertainties are sometimes hard to quantify this paper outlines a range of bayesian models for deposition which have been implemented in the computer programme oxcal these models can be used to combine information from the sediments themselves with radiocarbon or other direct dating information such models have the potential to integrate information between different records and provide a coherent chronology on which to base environmental or archaeological research