the development of the central european continental crust since the early archaean based on conventional and ion microprobe dating of up to 3 84 b y old detrital zircons abstract archaean components up to 3 84 b y old have been detected by ion microprobe dating of zircon from various sediments and metasediments of the european hercynides moldanubian of northeastern bavaria and the massif central the early archaean age of 3 84 b y was obtained within the euhedral core of a detrital grain from a moldanubian paragneiss the same detrital zircon grain reveals at least three metamorphic overprints at 2 59 b y b p 1 94 b y b p and 460 m y b p and at least two cycles of mechanical abrasion during surface recycling in the early proterozoic and after the pan african cycle it is thus the crystal with the most complex geological history ever detected further archaean ages for the crystallization of primary magmatic zircons probably in the course of continental crust formation in the first cycle provenances of the two studied areas were found at 3 15 2 9 2 76 and 2 65 b y b p and in a few cases between 2 6 and 2 5 b y b p early proterozoic crust forming events between about 1 75 and 2 15 b y b p play an important role especially for the sediments and metasediments of the montagne noire at the southern rim of the massif central middle and late proterozoic ages cluster around 1 0 b y b p and 600 m y b p for all analysed samples therefore the deposition of the metasedimentary precursors took place after the pan african cycle which is in line with the rb sr whole rock systematics of central european metasediments the ages of metamorphism in the different source areas could be inferred in some cases by lower intercept ages obtained on single detrital grains the following sequence coinciding with times of magmatic events has been so far established 2 59 1 94 and 1 0 b y b p and 600 m y b p thus ion probe dating is also capable of defining secondary effects in the respective provenances which are typical for orogenic cycles the ubiquitous presence of pan african detrital zircons in european metasediments is a strong indication that the detrital material was derived from gondwana however from the presence of metamorphic units including eclogitefacies rocks which probably formed at different continental margins and at various times between about 500 m y and 330 m y ago it is probable that various gondwana derived microcontinental plates contributed to the different basin fillings the gondwana derived detritus is also supported by the observation of two periods of relative quiescence or non activity around 2 3 b y ago and especially around 1 5 b y ago which is a typical feature observed in gondwana cahen et al 1984 but not in laurasia the other possible source of the detritus the lack of zircons crystallized between 3 84 and 3 15 b y ago might have different causes thus the continental crust of the european hercynides probably developed since the early archaean and grew via many crustal accretion events to its present state

review of geochemical variation in lower palaeozoic metabasites from the ne bohemian massif intracratonic rifting and plume ridge interaction

physical properties of the lithosphere asthenosphere system in europe abstract all the geophysical fields considered evidence a clear structural difference between the adriatic sea ionian sea basin on one side and the tyrrhenian sea western mediterranean basin on the other the former displays continental type characteristics while the latter shows features definitely related to young ocean basins lateral variations in the thickness of the high velocity sub crustal layer the lid are clearly evidenced in the whole european area the lateral changes in the shear wave velocities of the lithosphere asthenosphere system are quite pronounced gravity data imply a positive density contrast 0 03 0 07 g cm 3 in the upper mantle related to almost aseismic high velocity lithospheric roots which seem to characterize many orogenic belts the analysis of a transect along the longitudinal axis of the alps seems to indicate that relevant lateral variations in density are present in the lithospheric part of the mantle

lithium behaviour and isotope fractionation during fluid rock interactions in variscan oceanic suture zones limousin ophiolite and ile de groix high pressure terrane france

synoptic systems interacting with the rocky mountain barrier observations and theories abstractusing a composite analysis for strong sea level pressure perturbations off the west coast of north america the evolution of large amplitude synoptic systems upstream of the rocky mountains is investigated for the winter season corresponding previous analyses are refined by avoiding multiple counting of events and extended by including potential vorticity vertical motion and deformation in the analysis cyclonic and anticyclonic anomalies behave similarly with weak local extrema forming in the lee of the mountain range southeast of the parent systems however neither the geopotential anomaly nor the associated potential vorticity anomaly cross the mountain range nevertheless these anomalies contribute to the sea level pressure anomaly in the lee for both positive and negative anomalies potential vorticity exhibits a bipolar structure with lobes over the reference point and over the cordillera respectively the relevance of several theories describing the interaction between synoptic syste

laser ablation coupled with icp ms applied to u pb zircon geochronology a review of recent advances abstract improvements in the technology of laser ablation and icp ms instruments make la mc icpms a rapid precise and accurate method for u pb zircon geochronology in this review we describe the main stages of the evolution of this in situ approach from the early 1990s to the present time some key points have been progressively improved the crater size has been reduced to achieve real in situ measurements the laser wavelength has been reduced as well as the duration of each pulse in order to lower inter element fractionation the blank from the gas has to be lowered as far as possible double focusing instruments and magnetic field sectors allow flat topped peaks required for precise isotope ratio measurement to be obtained the use of a multi ion counting system significantly improves the sensitivity of the method and the static mode of integration favours the precision of measurement of the transient signal originating from a noisy laser ablated particle beam combining the use of a 213 nm uv laser and a mc icpms equipped with a multi ion counting system operating in static mode the common precisions achieved for the key ratios 207 pb 206 pb and 206 pb 238 u are better than 1 and 3 2 respectively including error propagation associated with standard normalization until now the use of a zircon standard has remained necessary to ensure the accuracy of the calculated age a strategy for common pb correction is proposed according to the age of the zircon and according to the th u ratio of the grains after recording sixteen to twenty spot analyses the precision usually achieved on the age is about 1 and even significantly better for proterozoic samples in order to show the performance achieved by modern la mc icpms geochronology we tested four zircon samples covering a wide age range from 290 to 2440 ma these new age determinations can be compared in term of precision and accuracy since they have already been dated by reference methods id tims and shrimp further developments in the technology of ion counters equipping modern mc icpms and in laser systems will certainly be applied to a large field of geochronology studies in the near future as an alternative to sims for in situ age determination

stresses in the lithosphere and sedimentary basin formation abstract seven fundamental questions on the relationship of lithospheric stresses and sedimentary basin origin and evolution are posed and elaborated these are 1 1 how is the evolution of sedimentary basins tied to lithospheric dynamics 2 2 what are the sources of stress that lead to formation of sedimentary basins 3 3 how does the interaction between internally and externally applied stresses affect the formation and evolution of sedimentary basins 4 4 how do space and time variations of rheology and pore pressure affect stress transmission strain vertical motions and stratigraphy during basin evolution 5 5 what factors influence spatial and temporal variations of rheology in and around different kinds of sedimentary basins 6 6 what is the role of magmatism in basin formation and what deep seated processes does it reflect 7 7 what is the relationship between basin evolution thermal history and fluid flow these fundamental questions can be investigated by developing fully dynamic models of processes at the basin and sub basin scale models must incorporate or honour basin history and plate reconstructions the intregration of structural and sedimentological data direct observations of the physical state and the synthesis of geological and geophysical data including tectono dynamic stratigraphy petrological and geochemical data and geophysical data gravity magnetics heat flow deep and shallow seismics a number of type basins in passive margin foreland rift and strike slip tectonic settings suitable for modelling studies elucidating the fundamental questions are identified

u pb zircon and monazite dating of a mafic ultramafic complex and its country rocks u pb data on zircons from the largest mafic ultramafic body 6 2 km of the french central massif sauviat sur vige yield the following age results primary magmatic crystallization of the gabbroic and peridotitic protoliths took place in the cambro ordovician 496 25 17 m y variable transformation under eclogite facies conditions was hercynian 320 29 36 m y the same age pattern derived by u pb monazite analyses was found also for the immediate country rocks i e kyanite bearing coarse grained metagranites occurring to the w and n of the sauviat massif due to the fact that there is no regional hercynian high grade metamorphism in this part of the french central massif e g duthou 1977 bernard griffiths 1975 both mafic ultramafic complex as well as immediate felsic country rocks must have been emplaced tectonically into pre hercynian acadian caledonian crustal rocks the cause for such a hercynian tectonism is thought to be due to continent continent collision of the spanish with the armorican plate

rheological stratification of the lithosphere abstract the rheology of the lithosphere is estimated on the basis of pore pressure dependent frictional failure in the brittle regime and power law steady state creep in the ductile regime different petrological models of the continental and oceanic lithosphere combined with different geotherms and thicknesses are used to generate models covering a variety of geodynamic situations results show that the depth dependence of lithospheric rheology varies with the tectonic province and that in many instances the continental lithosphere has one at the bottom of the crust or two the previous one plus another at mid crustal levels soft ductile layers sandwiched between brittle layers the depth distribution of geophysical parameters seismicity seismic wave velocity and electrical conductivity matches the theological predictions well the lithospheric rheological profiles are used to analyze observed variations in the structural style of deformed continental margin and oceanic terranes in the southeastern canadian cordillera the large scale characteristics of the system show a satisfactory agreement with the inferred rheological structure sub horizontal decollements should be the rule rather than the exception where the lithospheric rheology is strongly stratified

early palaeozoic rift related magmatism in variscan europe fragmentation of the armorican terrane assemblage early palaeozoic bimodal rift related magmatism is widespread throughout much of the variscides of europe it is traceable from the polish sudetes to nw iberia granitic plutonism generally predates cambro ordovician bimodal magmatism in the n bohemian massif this early palaeozoic granitic plutonism was generated by partial melting of cadomian basement whereas contemporaneous alkali granites with a mantle component are typical of the nw iberian massif silurian devonian mafic magmatism in the n bohemian massif massif central and nw iberian massif is partly preserved as obducted ophiolites compositional diversity displayed by cambro ordovician mafic magmatism can be accounted for by interaction between a spreading centre and an upwelling mantle plume this indicates that combined tensional forces and mantle plume convection assisted the early palaeozoic dispersal of terranes from the n gondwana margin continued fragmentation resulted in development of an archipelago of related terranes separated by a network of seaways and formation of oceanic crust

tectonic variation in the dniepr donets basin from automated modelling of backstripped subsidence curves abstract the multiphase rift evolution of the dniepr donets dd basin is analysed by 1d backstripping and tectonic modelling of 66 stratigraphic sections mostly from well data distributed throughout the basin the backstripping results illustrate strong temporal and lateral variations in tectonic subsidence it is minor during an inceptive pre rift phase givetian early frasnian 380 8 370 ma and does not show clear spatial correlations within the dd basin framework the main rift phase frasnian famennian 370 362 5 ma corresponds to an acceleration in subsidence rates with tectonic subsidence up to 1500 m along the basin axis displaying a slight increase from the northwest to the southeast strong lateral variations perpendicular to the basin axis reflect the effects of major basin border faults a rift phase in the visean 345 340 ma is characterised by relatively minor subsidence up to about 500 m except for some wells in the southeast following a stage of extremely low rates of deposition in the earliest carboniferous the end of this rift phase can be taken to mark the onset of convex subsidence patterns in the later carboniferous and permian typical in shape of post rift thermal subsidence but significantly increasing in magnitude from northwest to southeast in the basin this trend shows no one to one relationship with late devonian syn rift subsidence the tectonic subsidence curves have been modelled using lithospheric stretching assumptions allowing different stretching factors for the crustal and sub crustal lithosphere and the incorporation of finite and multiple stretching phases a numerical technique was developed that automatically finds best fit stretching parameters for part or all of the tectonic subsidence data given the specification of onset and duration of the various rifting events maps of the 1d modelling results display intrabasinal variations in terms of timing and magnitude of rifting the results indicate that the observed spatial and temporal variations of tectonic subsidence in the dd basin specifically the increasing ratio of carboniferous to late devonian subsidence from northwest to southeast cannot be explained by either a uniform or depth dependent stretching model adopting only a single frasnian famennian rift phase a two phase model in which a significant part of carboniferous tectonic subsidence is related to visean rift activity strongly dominated by sub crustal lithospheric attenuation provides a satisfactory fit to the data although the tectonic implications of such a model are not easily reconcilable by independent constraints a semi quantitative investigation of the possible role of withdrawal of underlying devonian salt during the carboniferous to produce additional post devonian rift phase sediment accommodation space suggests that the effects of such a mechanism could be significant but that they are unlikely to preclude the necessity of the visean rifting event to explain the carboniferous basin evolution

far upstream precursors of heavy precipitation events on the alpine south side this study examines the upper level flow pattern that foreshadows the comparatively frequent co occurrence of heavy precipitation events on the alpine south side together with potential vorticity pv streamers aloft over western europe it is hypothesized that each streamer is itself preceded by a dynamically distinctive and a thermodynamically active flow associated with the space time development and the ultimate breaking over europe of synoptic scale rossby waves the ecmwf european centre for medium range weather forecasts era 40 dataset is used to examine the nature of a streamer s coherent precursor pattern by deriving seasonal composites of refined hovmoller diagrams the upper level pattern of the pv and its gradient and mid tropospheric diabatic heating for the autumn and winter seasons the composites reveal a significant and coherent wave packet precursor signal in the pv field that can be traced back 1 week to the central and eastern pacific contemporaneously the coherent signatures in the composite pv gradient field and diabatic heating fields are conducive to triggering and or supporting the wave signal and also contribute to subsequent downstream wave breaking in spring the composite precursor pv signal appears over and propagates eastward from the atlantic basin and its limited zonal extent is attributed to the lack of a coherent pv waveguide in summer the signal appears essentially in situ in the hovmoller analysis but extends across the atlantic basin in the pv composite results an indication is also provided of the extent to which the composite characteristics are evident in two individual events and note is made of the study s implications for medium range forecasting copyright 2008 royal meteorological society

dynamics of rossby wave packets in a quantitative potential vorticity potential temperature framework abstractrossby wave packets rwps have been associated with increased atmospheric predictability but also with the growth and propagation of forecast uncertainty to address the important question of under which conditions rwps imply high and low predictability a potential vorticity potential temperature pv framework is introduced to diagnose rwp dynamics finite amplitude rwps along the midlatitude waveguide are considered and are represented by the synoptic scale wavelike undulations of the tropopause the evolution of rwps is examined by the amplitude evolution of the individual troughs and ridges troughs and ridges are identified as pv anomalies on levels intersecting the midlatitude tropopause by partitioning the pv tendency equation individual contributions to the amplitude evolution are identified a novel aspect is that the important role of the divergent flow and the diabatic pv modification is quantified explicitly arguably prominent upper tropospheric divergent flow is associated

contrasting styles of rifting models and examples from the eastern canadian margin we present the results of a dynamical model of lithospheric rifting and rupture which show that a wide range of crustal thinning patterns across rifted passive margins can be produced by varying the steady state geotherm lithospheric composition dry versus wet materials and strain rate the basic mechanism of continental rupture is assumed to be passive rifting and necking we use a numerical thermomechanical model of lithosphere extension based on a finite element approach when plasticity is significant i e at lower temperatures or for harder materials deformation is unstable and thinning takes place abruptly over a narrow area conversely a progressive thinning across the margin is observed when creep is dominant i e in warm or ductile conditions cooling and associated hardening of the thinned area can occur during extension and cause the locus of extension to migrate laterally in these circumstances rupture is likely to take place asymmetrically along one edge of the thinned area producing a narrow margin and a very wide conjugate the eastern margins of canada and their conjugates across the north atlantic provide examples which cover this range of theoretical profiles the crustal thinning patterns inferred from deep seismic data and the duration of rifting compare well with model results we discuss also the constraints that these geodynamical models provide on such current issues as the seismic reflectivity of the lower crust or the location of the ocean continent boundary in wide areas supposedly underlain by 5 km thin continental crust

southern hemisphere summertime rossby waves and weather in the australian region motivated by recent studies on the significant summertime weather patterns in the australian region the life cycle of summertime transient rossby wave packets in the southern hemisphere is investigated the strength of the interaction between the wave packets and the jet i is defined by the advection of potential vorticity by the divergent part of the wind on the 350 k isentropic surface the magnitude of i is used as the basis for time lagged composites in distinct regions sw chile sw africa over the indian ocean sw australia and over the w pacific the interaction is strongest on the stratospheric side of the jet core although in each case cyclogenesis from a pre existing disturbance in the upper troposphere precedes the generation of the rossby wave packets there are two types of interaction with the jet in the sw chile sw africa and indian ocean cases extratropical cyclogenesis and the associated convection lies on the poleward side of the jet and hence i is positive in the sw australia and w pacific cases extratropical cyclogenesis occurs 3 days earlier than the others and i is negative as it describes the interaction of a downstream propagating rossby wave packet with the subtropical jet in all cases as the cyclones develop the wave activity propagates from low levels to the upper levels of the troposphere and then downstream and equatorwards towards higher values of refractive index the equatorward refraction of the sw australia and w pacific wave packets is accompanied by enhanced tropical convection in the warm conveyor belt of the advancing front

origin of the rheic ocean rifting along a neoproterozoic suture the rheic ocean is widely believed to have formed in the late cambrian early ordovician as a result of the drift of peri gondwanan terranes such as avalonia and carolina from the northern margin of gondwana and to have been consumed in the devonian carboniferous by continent continent collision during the formation of pangea other peri gondwanan terranes e g armorica ossa morena northwest iberia saxo thuringia moldanubia remained along the gondwanan margin at the time of rheic ocean formation differences in the neoproterozoic histories of these peri gondwanan terranes suggest the location of the rheic ocean rift may have been inherited from neoproterozoic lithospheric structures formed by the accretion and dispersal of peri gondwanan terranes along the northern gondwanan margin prior to rheic ocean opening avalonia and carolina have sm nd isotopic characteristics indicative of recycling of a juvenile ca 1 ga source and they were accreted to the northern gondwanan margin prior to voluminous late neoproterozoic arc magmatism in contrast sm nd isotopic characteristics of most other peri gondwanan terranes closely match those of eburnian basement suggesting they reflect recycling of ancient 2 ga west african crust the basements of terranes initially rifted from gondwana to form the rheic ocean were those that had previously accreted during neoproterozoic orogenesis suggesting the rift was located near the suture between the accreted terranes and cratonic northern gondwana opening of the rheic ocean coincided with the onset of subduction beneath the laurentian margin in its predecessor the iapetus ocean suggesting geodynamic linkages between the destruction of the iapetus ocean and the creation of the rheic ocean

geodynamic model for the palaeozoic crustal consolidation of western and central europe abstract the crystalline basement of western and central europe consists of a mosaic of crustal elements which were consolidated during pre grenvillian the grenvillian dalslandian morarian cadomian caledonian and hercynian orogenic cycles contemporaneous with the caledonian suturing of the precambrian laurentia greenland and fennosarmatian shields a number of gondwana derived cadomian micro cratons were accreted to the southern margin of laurasia following the late caledonian paroxysm the devonian and early carboniferous evolution of europe was dominated by continued northward subduction of the proto tethys plate at an arc trench system parallelling the southern margin of laurasia the accretion of additional gondwana derived continental fragments back arc rifting and a sinistral translation of major proportions between the laurentia greenland and the fennosarmatian sub plates the acadian and bretonian orogenies were of the pacific type the visean collision of gondwana with laurasia marked the onset of the himalayan type variscan orogeny during which collision related compressive stresses overpowered the devonian early carboniferous back arc rift systems and caused the development reactivation of a subduction zones the central armorican and saxothuringian successor basins became folded and destroyed during the latest visean whilst the variscan foredeep became scooped out in part by nappes involving the basement during the late westphalian major crustal shortening during the variscan diastrophism was accompanied by the anatectic remobilisation of subducted crustal and upper mantle material and a widespread syn and late orogenic magmatism the latest carboniferous early permian reorientation of the convergence direction between gondwana and laurasia induced the development of a complex wrench fault system transecting the variscan fold belt and an extensive post orogenic volcanism the hypotheses summarised here require confirmation by further palaeomagnetic and radiometric data and faunal analyses

long lived rossby wave trains as precursors to strong winter cyclones over europe the statistical connection between strong surface cyclones over europe and long lived upper tropospheric rossby wave trains is examined for the northern hemisphere winter season using 45 years of reanalysis data dates are selected for which the surface pressure anomaly over central europe is below a threshold yielding the 5 of lowest values composites of upper tropospheric meridional wind for these dates including a lead or lag in time display clear signs of a wave train the composite wave train lives for over two weeks and propagates eastward over more than 360 longitude the phase speed of individual lows and highs by contrast is close to zero and the same is true for the composite surface low there is a pronounced northward shift of the wave train as it propagates over the north american east coast although this composite wave train is statistically highly significant there is large scatter about the mean an index is defined that quantifies the similarity of the upper tropospheric meridional wind pattern for an arbitrary date with the composite wave train for a certain lead or lag given large positive values of the index there is an enhanced probability of a strong surface cyclone over central europe a few days later comparison with a previous study focusing on pacific cyclones shows noteworthy differences

la mc icpms and shrimp u pb dating of complex zircons from quaternary tephras from the french massif central magma residence time and geochemical implications abstract analyses of zircon grains from the queureuilh quaternary tephras pumice provide new information about their pre eruptive history u pb dating was performed in situ using two methods shrimp and la mc icpms equipped with a multi ion counting system both methods provided reliable 207pb 206pb and 206pb 238u ratios as well as u and th abundances required for u pb concordia intercept age determination after initial 230th disequilibrium correction the new la mc icpms method was validated by dating a reference zircon 61 308b and zircons from a phonolitic lava dated independently with the two techniques a time resolution of about 20 kyr for 1 ma zircon crystals was achieved for both methods the clear euhedral zircon population from queureuilh tephras is quite complex from several points of view 1 some grains are reddish or yellowish while others are colorless 2 the u and th composition changes by more than an order of magnitude and th u is generally high 1 2 3 there are three discrete ages recorded at 2 35 0 04 1 017 0 008 and 0 640 0 010 ma from the previously determined 40ar 39ar age at 0 571 0 060 ma duffell h 1999 contribution geochronologique a la stratigraphie volcanique du massif des monts dore par la methode 40ar 39ar d e a univ clermont ferrand 56 p the discontinuous zircon age populations the color of the grains and their composition we favor the following model as explanation the oldest less numerous group of reddish zircons represents xenocrystic grains resulting from assimilation of the local material during magma ascent a primitive magma chamber perhaps deep in crustal level was formed at 1 0 ma the related magma previously characterized by high th u ratio 2 2 1 1 underwent rejuvenation during ascent to a new chamber at shallow depth and or during injection of more mafic magmas during this stage at 0 64 ma the colorless zircon grains of lower th u ratio 1 3 0 5 crystallized this last stage defined the magma residence time of 70 kyr prior to eruption dated by the 40ar 39ar method however if the primitive magma is considered the magma residence time as a whole from this first stage reached 446 kyr in the light of the complex history of such magmas which commonly involves recycling of zircon grains that precipitated tens to hundreds of kyr earlier than eruptions the use of zr concentration in geochemical modeling of whole rock compositional data can be problematic

characteristics of wave packets in the upper troposphere part i northern hemisphere winter abstract gridded data produced by the ecmwf reanalysis project have been analyzed to document the properties of wave packets in the northern hemisphere winter midlatitude upper troposphere based on results from earlier investigations 300 hpa meridional wind variations were chosen for analysis wave packet envelopes were also defined by performing complex demodulation on the wind data the properties of the wave packets are mainly illustrated using time lagged one point correlation maps performed both on and wave packet envelopes the results show that over most regions in the northern hemisphere winter with the exception of the deep tropics and near the aleutian low medium scale waves dominant wavenumber 5 8 exhibit the characteristics of downstream development and occur within wave trains that propagate with eastward group velocities much faster than the phase speeds of individual phases of the waves their group velocity is highly correlated with the local time mean 200 400 hpa wind while the

african provenance for the metasediments and metaigneous rocks of the cyclades aegean sea greece u pb geochronology on detrital and inherited zircons from metasediments as well as gneissic and metaigneous basement rocks of the cyclades aegean sea greece defines several periods of crustal growth prior to the carboniferous these ages are consistent with cycladic rocks being derived from the northern margin of gondwana there is a distinct mesoproterozoic age gap evident in zircons from the 25 samples considered this is characteristic of the west african craton and we suggest it will also prove characteristic of the aegean region this mesoproterozoic age gap may be used as a tool in terrane reconstruction to distinguish crustal material derived from different parts of gondwana

geodynamic models of fault controlled extension results from geodynamic models for lithospheric extension that includes one or two large scale upper crustal faults are presented the study does not address the origin of these faults but the consequences if they exist model components include a solid mechanical lithosphere composed of thermoelastic plastic material with viscous creep that is subject to extension buoyant supporting forces and sedimentary loads and a coincident but thicker thermal lithosphere that includes the effect of sediment blanketing and radiogenic heating we have chosen for comparison purposes a standard reference model which minimizes creep in the crust consequently our results depend strongly on plastic deformation our models show that large faults can control the position and growth history of the mantle instabilities that can lead to rupture we observe that these instabilities have secondary normal mode like character models with two faults show that the normal mode behavior can interact and create an enhancement to the necking process provided the faults are an ideal distance apart we compare models with two rates of extension 1 2 cm yr 1 fast and 0 038 cm yr 1 slow which show remarkably little difference we compare our reference model with models using wet and dry rheologies and observe that flow in the crust can attenuate the propagation effect created by the faults

tectonic subsidence modelling of the polish basin in the light of new data on crustal structure and magnitude of inversion abstract the polish basin pb is one of a set of basins developed on the paleozoic platform of western europe in the late paleozoic between the variscan orogen and the east european craton eec its main depocentral axis the mid polish trough mpt was active during most of the basin development as a maximum subsidence zone with almost uninterrupted sedimentation the present base of the permian in the mpt ranges in depth from ca 3000 to 3500 m near the baltic coast to up to 8000 m to the southeast the mpt lies parallel and adjacent to the edge of the eec and appears to be related to a distinct structural zone within the crust the tornquist teisseyre zone ttz subsidence of the mpt can be explained in terms of crustal extension transtension and related lithosphere cooling coupled with the structural predetermination of the underlying ttz tectonic subsidence analysis of the preserved and reconstructed stratigraphic record suggests the occurrence of a late permian early triassic rifting phase however there is a deficit of geologically observable extensional features faulting of this age implying an important relationship between this phase of apparent basin subsidence and earlier post variscan late carboniferous early permian tectonism the match between crustal structure implied by basin modelling studies and available deep seismic sounding dds data is not always clear this is probably related to the heterogeneous basement which comprises the outer zone of the variscan belt in the southwest eec crust in the northeast and a complex of caledonian reworked precambrian crustal blocks in the central part of the basin changes to crustal architecture as a result of alpine tectonics may also play a role increased tectonic subsidence rates during oxfordian kimmeridgian times late jurassic correlate with intensified rifting and wrench activity within the arctic north atlantic rift system and along the northern tethyan margin in contrast accelerating tectonic subsidence beginning in the cenomanian is a precursor of compressional deformations in the basin that culminated in alpine related basin inversion during the latest late cretaceous and earliest tertiary taking inversion into account the maximum depth of the base zechstein structural surface at the end of the cretaceous is estimated to have been as much as 5000 m near the baltic sea to more than 10 000 m in the southeasternmost part of the basin because of the erosion of these sediments however constraints on cretaceous subsidence and in turn the magnitude and exact timing of late cretaceous paleogene inversion are poor

dependence of the flexural rigidity of the continental lithosphere on rheology and temperature while the first order mechanical properties of oceanic and continental lithosphere are well defined and explain the observed increase in lithospheric flexural strength with thermal age the temporal variation of continental flexural rigidity following loading and its dependence on lithospheric composition and temperature structure is only just beginning to be appreciated we describe here the results of a quantitative theological model in which laboratory determined rock deformation data and transienttemperature distributions resulting from intra plate basin formation within continental interiors have been integrated continental flexural rigidity is shown to be controlled by crustal thickness lithospheric thickness through the temperature structure and the interaction of these factors during basin formation for thermally young lithosphere the flexural rigidity is dominated by the quartzo feldspathic theology of the crust while for the thermally older lithosphere it is dominated by the olivine rheology of the mantle flexural data through thermo mechanical models of lithospheric deformation provide a powerful constraint on both the transient and steady state temperature structure of the lithosphere

some consequences of compressional tectonics for extensional models of basin subsidence changes in intraplate stress levels have important consequences for the stratigraphy of rifted basins and provide a tectonic explanation for the generation of sequence boundaries late stage compressional phases during the post rift evolution of basins produce unconformities with offlap phases that increase in magnitude with the age of the rifted basin late stage compression has not only a strong bearing on the generation of unconformities but also induces significant downbending of the centre of a basin ignorance of the vertical motions of the lithosphere induced by late stage compression during post rift evolution can therefore give rise to substantial errors in the estimates of crustal extension derived from analysis of basement subsidence using stretching models consequently late stage compression can be of great significance in estimates of depth and timing of the hydrocarbon window inferred from extensional models of basin subsidence quantification of the subsidence induced by post rift compression has important implications for integrated models of basin subsidence and hydrocarbon generation

relation between salt diapirism and the tectonic history of the sverdrup basin arctic canada the sverdrup basin is a pericratonic sedimentary trough in northern canada containing up to 13 km of carboniferous to tertiary strata the basin formed by late paleozoic continental rifting and was subsequently affected by a series of alternating tectonic settings evaporite diapirs are well exposed at the present erosion level and occur mainly along the basin axis the diapiric source layer consists of about 400 m of anhydrite underlain by salt of unknown stratigraphic thickness deposited during the initial permo carboniferous synrift phase of basin subsidence large salt anhydrite diapirs rose into the sedimentary overburden when the overburden had reached a thickness of several kilometres they grew during a relatively long period of modest horizontal compression from the permo triassic to early cretaceous much smaller tabular anhydrite diapirs were rapidly emplaced during periods of high horizontal compression in the middle cretaceous when large flexural stresses were induced by sedimentary loadi

zircon u pb chronology of the nyingtri group southern lhasa terrane tibetan plateau implications for grenvillian and pan african provenance and mesozoic cenozoic metamorphism abstract the nyingtri group of the lhasa terrane in southern tibet consists dominantly of metasedimentary rocks and orthogneiss these rocks have a similar mineral paragenesis of plagioclase k feldspar biotite quartz sillimanite garnet staurolite muscovite amphibole indicating amphibolite facies metamorphic conditions inherited detrital zircons from the metasedimentary rocks show magmatic features and yield widely variable 206pb 238u ages ranging from 3300 to 50 ma the data define two prominent age populations 1200 1000 and 600 500 ma indicating that the source of the nyingtri group preserves the records of both grenville and pan african magmatic thermal events inherited magmatic zircon cores from the orthogneiss yield a crystallization age of 496 ma limiting the depositional age of the metasedimentary sequence to cambrian or older overgrowth rims on the detrital zircons from one metasedimentary rock yield a metamorphic age of 32 ma on the basis of these results together with the

contrasting chemical and isotopic signatures from neoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks in the central iberian zone spain of pre variscan europe implications for terrane analysis and early ordovician magmatic belts neoproterozoic metasedimentary units from central spain and the northern central iberian zone ciz show distinctive geochemical signatures with respect to the schist greywacke complex which is dominant in the southwestern part of the ciz significant differences occur in major and trace element composition and initial nd isotope ratios which cannot be explained in terms of metamorphic grade and or anatexis in some layers of these metasedimentary sequences nd540 values from metapelites of central spain range from 5 6 to 10 4 whereas those from the schist greywacke complex span a narrower and higher range of 0 8 to 3 1 this difference suggests different source regions the presence of two contrasting early ordovician magmatic belts in both subzones reinforces the idea of different precambrian basement terranes in the ciz these data are crucial for pre variscan paleogeographic reconstructions of the westernmost european terranes and for checking the validity of current subdivisions of the iberian massif

on the dynamics of a storm track abstract an idealized primitive equation model is used to determine the factors controlling the dynamics and maintenance of eddy activity in a storm track the results show that localized regions of enhanced baroclinicity do not necessarily lead to localization of eddy activity by studying the energetics of the storm track it is shown that while baroclinic conversion does indeed correlate with the region of maximum baroclinicity it is the downstream radiation of energy through the ageostrophic geopotential fluxes which acts as a trigger for the development and maintenance of eddy activity over less baroclinic regions extending the region of eddy activity much further downstream from the region of high baroclinicity examples of eddy life cycles are given that show that convergence and divergence of ageostrophic fluxes can dominate baroclinic and barotropic conversion especially in regions with weak baroclinicity factors that may limit the zonal extent of a storm track are discussed evidence of down

a dynamical model of lithosphere extension and sedimentary basin formation convection in the upper mantle can give rise to normal stresses on the base of the continental lithosphere that may cause localized elevation of its surface and extensional deviatoric stresses this possibility is investigated assuming homogeneous biaxial strain in a continental lithosphere whose strength is governed by a combination of brittle failure and power law creep in the crust and by brittle power law or dorn law behavior in the mantle for a given geotherm and for rheologies based on current laboratory data the lithosphere responds to convection induced uplift in one of three ways depending primarily on the magnitude of the driving stresses these regimes are as follows 1 when the driving stress exceeds a threshold value the resulting strain rates are high enough greater than about 3 10 16 s 1 that the lithosphere strains almost isothermally its effective rheology is strain thinning and it undergoes accelerating extension the magnitude of the dynamic uplift required to produce the threshold value of the driving stress depends on the geotherm characterized here by the moho temperature and varies from about 1 km for a moho temperature of 700 c to around 3 km for a moho temperature of 550 c an uncertainty of at least 100 c is attached to these temperatures owing to the inaccuracies in extrapolating laboratory data to geological strain rates 2 at stress levels due to less than about half of the critical uplift extensional strain is negligible 3 at intermediate stress levels moderate uplift produces extension that is bounded by strength increases due to cooling of the ductile portion of the lithosphere during extension

radiative heat transfer in lithospheric geodynamics implications for asthenospheric partial melting and basin modelling concepts abstract in geodynamic models describing basin formation by stretching the base of the lithosphere is commonly defined by a fixed temperature an alternative definition is proposed where the base of the lithosphere is determined by the solidus of mantle rocks some consequences of this definition are illustrated in a one dimensional model the model applies the finite difference method and approximates the temperature regime in the upper 400 km of the earth the model uses temperature dependent thermal conductivity and includes effects from heat storage by partial melting in the mantle low velocity layer mlv radiative heat transfer contributes significantly at elevated temperatures giving rise to a steepening of the thermal gradient below the lithosphere this change in gradient allows the perturbed geotherm to exceed the mantle solidus in a limited depth interval which accounts for the mlv and thus defines the base of the lithosphere in the model variations in thickness of and degree of partial melting in the mlv results from thinning of the overlying lithospheric plate thus the thickness of the mlv is roughly inversely proportional to the thickness of the lithosphere whereas the base of the mlv is almost flat temperature dependent variations in the carrying capacity of the mlv where the main isostatic compensation occurs is proposed as an epeirogenetic agent this effect may be significant and is expressed as an enhancement of the initial subsidence if no preexisting mlv is available a secondary effect occurs as solidification of the mlv ceases a long time 300 ma after stretching and causes slow uplift

the late neoproterozoic magmatism in the ediacaran series of the eastern pyrenees new ages and isotope geochemistry geochronological u pb la icp ms geochemical and isotopic data from metavolcanic felsic rocks of the canigo and cap de creus massifs in the eastern pyrenees provide evidence of an ediacaran magmatic event lasting 30 ma in ne iberia these data also constrain the age of the late neoproterozoic succession in the cap de creus massif where depositional ages range from 577 to 558 ma and in the canigo massif where the data 575 568 ma represent minimum ages the geochemistry of the felsic rocks indicates that they were formed in a back arc environment and they record a fragment of a long lived subduction related magmatic arc 620 520 ma in the active northern gondwana margin the homogeneity shown by all these crustal fragments along this margin suggests that the individualization of the pyrenean basement from the iberian massif started later probably during its transition from an active to a passive margin in cambro ordovician times

role of the ollo de sapo massive felsic volcanism of nw iberia in the early ordovician dynamics of northern gondwana abstract the ollo de sapo fm in the sanabria region of nw iberia consists of subvolcanic volcanic and volcano sedimentary rocks underlying and partly intercalated with early ordovician platform facies sediments granitic plutons of the same age presently transformed into orthogneisses are genetically related the metavolcanic rocks are dacites and rhyolites with potassic and peraluminous character and volcanic arc signature possibly inherited from the melting of calc alkaline crustal material in the study area the ollo de sapo fm is made up of two large superposed volcanic domes separated by a thin screen of contemporaneous metapelites and sandstones the domes underwent endogenous growth with subvolcanic phenocryst rich magma intruding and cooling under a volcanic and volcaniclastic shield the western dome tapers to the east and underlies the younger eastern dome suggesting that the whole formation consists of several volcanic edifices replacing each other along the 570 km outcrop belt of the ollo de sapo fm two new u pb protolith ages of 488 6 ma and 472 12 ma match within error the known age span for the ollo de sapo fm in iberia 495 483 ma the younger age dates an augen gneiss at the core of the eastern volcanic dome whereas the older date comes from the overlying volcanic sequence suggesting intrusion of the augen gneiss protolith into the overlying volcanic rocks an incipient rift involving necking of crustal scale boudinage a few hundred km landward of the edge but still within the wide passive margin of northern gondwana may explain the linear distribution of the ollo de sapo fm and the limited time span of massive volcanism the heat for crustal melting was probably supplied by mafic magmas intruding or underplatting the lower crust the early ordovician felsic magmatism of nw and central iberia seems to form part of a large siliceous province linked to break up and terrane dispersion of the northern gondwana realm

relative importance of strain rate and rheology for the mode of continental extension summary both extension rate and rheology have been shown to influence the style of continental rifting so far their effect on the dynamics of extension has been discussed separately in the literature leading to diverging conclusions the rate of extension mostly affects the dynamics of rifting through the occurrence of syn rift cooling at low extension rates this cooling results in an increase of strength if the lithosphere has a temperature dependent rheology england 1983 first suggested that this effect will limit the amount of extension that an area may undergo kusznir park 1987 argued more generally that it will induce a widening of the rift and concluded that extension rate is the major control on wide versus narrow rifting later studies bassi 1991 bassi keen potter 1993 however have demonstrated the importance of rheological layering within the lithosphere for the mode of continental extension by showing that a plasticity dominated rheology will lead to rapid and narrow necking while a creep dominated rheology results in wider rifts and margins gravitational stresses arising from density anomalies due to lithosphere thinning also affect the style of rifting buck 1991 in this paper we examine the combined effect of these different parameters in order to reconcile earlier studies and assess the importance of syn rift cooling for the process of lithospheric necking the approach introduced in a previous study bassi 1991 uses a finite element technique to simulate extension of a vertical cross section of the lithosphere the effect of cooling on the necking pattern depends strongly on the rheology of the thinned lithosphere when it starts to cool if heat diffusion always induces strengthening and delays rupture in time it only modifies significantly the geometry of the rift when the upper mantle is weak and viscous in this case the locus of maximum strain rate migrates laterally once the central area starts to cool and harden as hypothesized by kusznir park 1987 eventually strain concentrates at the transition between deformed and undeformed lithosphere we predict that this pattern will induce asymmetric breakup and produce a very narrow margin and a wide uniformly thinned conjugate margin in all other cases i e when the upper mantle is initially in the low plasticity regime or if it reaches the yield stress during extension the rate of extension appears to have little effect on the rifting pattern

accretionary history and crustal evolution of the variscan belt in western europe abstract the variscan belt of western europe is part of a large intra paleozoic belt extending on both sides of the atlantic from the ouachitas in the us and the mauritanides in west africa to the bohemian massif in czechoslovakia and poland the belt was constructed between 500 and 250 ma as a result of convergence and collision between two main continents laurentia baltica and africa after the closure of various oceanic basins iapetus rheic and galicia massif central now recorded as discrete in part cryptic sutures which form the roots of large crystalline nappes in which are found dismembered remnants of oceanic crust and mantle the accretionary history of the variscan belt in western europe is related to the progressive closure of probably two oceanic basins the rheic in the north and another the galicia massif central in the south by respectively southward and northward intraoceanic subduction followed by obduction and intracontinental lithospheric subduction the result is a broad 700 800 km fan like divergent belt which must be considered as a classical obduction collision orogen with a long intracontinental history of about 100 150 ma its arcuate shape is probably due to the northwestward impingement of a promontory of the african continent into laurentia baltica

dynamical aspects of the life cycle of the winter storm lothar 24 26 december 1999 dynamical aspects of the life cycle of the winter storm lothar 24 26 december 1999 are investigated with the aid of the european centre for medium range weather forecasts analysis data and mesoscale model simulations neither of these datasets capture the full amplitude of the observed extreme pressure fall and surface wind speeds but they do help identify a range of key dynamical and physical features that characterize the development of this unusual event the analysis and interpretation is primarily based upon the evolution of the lower and upper level potential vorticity pv field complemented by three dimensional trajectory calculations lothar originated in the western atlantic and travelled as a shallow low level cyclone of moderate intensity towards europe this translation took place below and slightly to the south of a very intense upper level jet and was accompanied by continuous and intense condensational heating that sustained a pronounced positive low level pv anomaly not unlike the concept of a diabatic rossby wave no significant pv anomalies were evident at the tropopause level during this early phase of the life cycle the surface cyclone intensified rapidly when the shallow cyclone approached the jet stream axis the circulation induced by the diabatically produced low tropospheric pv anomaly on steeply sloping isentropic surfaces that transect the intense upper level jet contributed significantly to the rapid formation of a narrow and deep tropopause fold this stratospheric pv anomaly virtually merged with the diabatically produced ephemeral pv feature to form a vertically aligned tower of positive pv at the time of maximum storm intensity a sensitivity study with a dry adiabatic hindcast simulation shows no pv tower configuration and only a very weak surface development and confirms the primary importance of the cloud diabatic heating for the tropopause fold formation and the rapid bottom up intensification of lothar a comparison of the anomalously high atlantic sea surface temperatures in december 1999 with the water vapour source regions for the latent heat release that accompanied the rapid intensification phase of lothar shows a close relationship this is of importance when discussing the possible implications of climate variability and change on the development of north atlantic winter storms copyright 2002 royal meteorological society

evolution of the west greenland margin offshore thermostratigraphic data and modelling the origin and age of topography along the west greenland margin is a matter of continued debate evidence for tectonically driven neogene uplift has been argued from interpretations of offshore seismic surveys onshore fission track data and inferred episodes of cooling here analysis of seismic reflection profiles and 1d modelling of exploration wells along the greenland margin of davis strait demonstrate that the data are consistent with a model of ancient continental topography affected by late cretaceous early palaeocene rifting followed by thermal subsidence where offshore neogene tectonic uplift is not required this interpretation for the offshore evolution of the west greenland margin has implications for the adjacent onshore evolution and for other continental margins developed throughout the atlantic arctic rift system

origin of the atypical puy les vignes w breccia pipe massif central france constrained by trace element and boron isotopic composition of tourmaline abstract the puy les vignes w deposit is an atypical wolframite bearing hydrothermal breccia pipe hosted in migmatitic biotite sillimanite gneisses in the northwestern french massif central the deposit is characterized by volumetrically important tourmaline alteration allowing to investigate the fluid evolution of the ore forming hydrothermal system four generations of hydrothermal tourmaline tur 1 tur 4 formed during pre syn and post mineralization stages were identified based on detailed petrographic observations and were analyzed in situ for their chemical and boron isotopic compositions at the grain scale tourmaline commonly shows oscillatory zoning and dissolution textures resulting from a multi stage crystallization in a fluid dominated system the different generations of hydrothermal tourmaline have dravite schorl compositions and show similar major and trace element contents falling into the field of metamorphic rocks high concentrations of v cr sr and low concentrations of li sn in tourmaline suggest a metamorphic dominated origin of these elements the boron isotopic compositions of tourmaline range between 13 3 and 7 8 and cannot unambiguously distinguish between a magmatic and a metamorphic fluid origin our data indicate that the chemical and boron isotopic composition of tourmaline was dominantly controlled by high temperature fluid rock interactions between the metamorphic basement and boron rich reduced and low salinity hydrothermal fluids based on these results we propose a fluid evolution scenario for the puy les vignes ore forming hydrothermal system release of magmatic hydrothermal fluids from an unexposed peraluminous leucogranite at ca 324 ma is proposed as the main mechanism responsible for early greisenization and formation of disseminated tur 1 this episode was followed by massive tourmalinization and hydraulic brecciation of the overlying gneisses producing a tourmaline rich tur 2 crackle breccia by interactions with boron rich hydrothermal fluids fluid assisted reopening and collapse of the former tourmalinite at ca 318 ma yielded a matrix supported quartz tourmaline breccia pipe and formation of wolframite bearing quartz veins accompanied by deposition of tur 3 finally post ore hydraulic fracturing at ca 300 ma led to formation of tourmaline rich microbreccias tur 4 possibly from metamorphic fluids

continental crust formation seen through the sr and nd isotope systematics of s type granites in the hercynian belt of western france the isotopic compositions of sr nd and pb in leucogranites which are intercorrelated bernard griffiths et al 1985 1 may be explained by the mixing of ancient basement 1800 ma with juvenile crust late precambrian or early palaeozoic this hypothesis does not involve the existence of mid proterozoic crust as apparently indicated by thetdm model ages of the leucogranites ranging between 1600 and 1100 ma the nd isotopes reveal the crustal reworking while sr isotopes mainly record juvenile crust formation this paradox is explained by the geochemical heterogeneity of the sources involved

zircon u pb geochronology of ordovician magmatism in the polycyclic ruitor massif internal w alps among the middle penninic basements of the internal nw alps the ruitor massif shows the best preserved remnants of pre permian metamorphic rocks their barrovian type mineral associations are somewhat masked by the greenschist to blueschist alpine metamorphism of tertiary age four ruitor gneisses have been analysed showing geochemical characters of granitoids from orogenic zones zircon morphology also suggests magmatic protoliths and a crustal source some of the morphological zircon types suggest anatectic granites the first u pb ages on zircon for this massif have been obtained concurrently through conventional multigrain and ion microprobe dating two metavolcanic rocks at 471 5 and 468 22 ma could be slightly older than the porphyritic augen gneisses at 465 11 and 460 7 ma regional data from the other internal basement massifs suggest that the variscan event is poorly recorded except in ruitor type units ruitor and sapey gneisses belonged to the same unit nappe des pontis which was affected by a 480 450 ma event including volcanism and anatexis and ended with a late calc alkaline granite emplacement at 460 450 ma the distribution of variscan basement units roughly parallels alpine zonation

archean protoliths within early proterozoic granulitic crust of the west european hercynian belt possible relics of the west african craton granulites from the bay of biscay area have been studied by using u pb and sm nd methods results on four granulites suggest two major events of crustal growth and high grade metamorphism the first is archean 2 7 ga and the second is early proterozoic 1 9 ga in the hercynian belt the oldest basement remnants known so far are about 2 0 ga and are located in the northern armorican massif the 2 7 ga orthogneiss protolith age from the bay of biscay is the first direct evidence of archean crust involved in the hercynian belt major events at 2 7 1 8 and 0 6 ga in the hercynian belt suggest that european precambrian microplate s were part of the west african craton where the same sequence of events is observed

factors controlling the style of continental rifting insights from numerical modelling passive continental margins similarly formed by lithospheric stretching and rifting can differ significantly in terms of width ranging from 50 to 400 km or subsidence history our interest lies in determining what properties of the lithosphere and what stress and strain boundary conditions control this regional variability and the siting of rupture continental breakup occurs probably as the result of a stretching instability which develops in a zone of material or geometrical heterogeneity to analyze the factors controlling these instabilities we use a numerical thermo mechanical model of lithosphere extension based on a finite element program the particular program was chosen because it combines constitutive models appropriate to our knowledge of lithosphere rheology elasticity plasticity and nonlinear temperature dependent creep with a kinematic formulation for large inelastic strain we choose to weaken the plate by locally increasing the crustal thickness by a very small amount and examine how this defect or perturbation acts to localize the deformation we compare the geometry and timing of necking for relatively wet versus dry rheology cold versus warm geotherm and fast versus slow strain rate we examine as well how the width and amplitude of the perturbation itself affects the deformation history since a velocity boundary condition is applied the required extensional forces are evaluated and compared to estimates of plate driving forces conditions that favor deformation by plasticity rather than creep cold geotherms dry rheologies lead to a more localized extension and rapid rupture but the forces involved 1013 n m are larger than typical plate driving forces increasing the amplitude of the defect i e crustal thickness contrasts accelerates necking as well cooling of the thinned area becomes significant at low extension rates depending on the initial rheology cooling simply delays the moment when deformation becomes unstable or conversely inhibits necking

precambrian protoliths and early paleozoic magmatism in the french massif central u pb data and the north gondwana connection in the west european variscan belt abstract u pb geochronological data were collected on zircon by la mc icp ms on orthogneiss and paragneiss from the limousin area in the french massif central fmc in order to investigate the connection between the west european variscan belt and the northern margin of gondwana fifteen samples were collected in the four main tectonostratigraphic units of the fmc namely the para autochthonous unit the lower gneiss unit lgu the upper gneiss unit ugu and the thiviers payzac unit orthogneiss yield intrusion age between 521 7 and 446 6 ma considering all the results from both magmatic and metasedimentary samples two peaks at 531 and 473 ma are recognized rifting processes taking place along the north gondwana margin during the lower paleozoic went on until the end of the ordovician as suggested by the magmatic event recorded around 450 ma several maximum depositional ages were ascertained in the metasedimentary formations of the fmc as determined by the youngest detected detrital zircon crystal ranging from 604 16 ma for metasediments of the para autochthonous unit 573 12 ma for the lgu 564 9 ma for the thiviers payzac unit and 523 4 ma in the ugu minimum depositional ages are given by magmatic emplacement ages obtained in the crosscutting orthogneiss there is some evidence for a decrease of this maximum age upwards in the tectonostratigraphy detrital zircon in metasedimentary formations and inherited zircon in orthogneiss display a wide spectrum of ages with significant peaks at around 590 ma and 560 ma archean paleoproterozoic and neoproterozoic detrital zircons suggest a west african craton source of the sedimentation the large amount of neoproterozoic and lower paleozoic ages obtained in this study suggests that these periods played a significant role in the continental crustal growth history of western europe

arc related ediacaran magmatism along the northern margin of gondwana geochronology and isotopic geochemistry from northern iberia abstract field petrographic geochemical and geochronological studies carried out in northwest iberia constrain the nature and origin of the ediacaran magmatic rocks cropping out in the narcea antiform the results indicate the presence of a long lived subduction related magmatic arc between ca 580 and ca 560 ma in two tectonic units magmatic rocks in the allande group are major intrusive calc alkaline bodies and limited volcanic rocks in the eastern navelgas group there are no intrusive bodies and volcanic rocks are widespread and represent large edifices exposed over tens of square km sm nd and rb sr geochemical isotopic data indicate derivation of the magmatic rocks of both units from a ca 1 1 ga lithospheric mantle as well as varying degrees of crustal contamination geocronological u pb la icp ms and id tims data constrain the magmatic activity to 575 565 ma in the allande group and to ca 560 ma in the navelgas group further constraints on the evolution of the magmatic arc have been obtained from the study of pebbles in early cambrian conglomerates that were derived from the magmatic rocks of these ediacaran units we interpret these ediacaran units to have been formed in a back arc environment in the narcea antiform and to record a multi stage evolution along this segment of the northern gondwana magmatic arc as revealed by their isotopic and geochronological differences

deducing the ancestry of terranes shrimp evidence for south america derived gondwana fragments in central europe we present here an example of how the sensitive high resolution ion microprobe shrimp zircon dating method can provide a terrane specific geochronological fingerprint for a rock and thus help to reveal major tectonic boundaries within orogens this method applied to inherited zircons in a ca 580 ma metagranitoid rock from the eastern bohemian massif has provided for the first time in the central european variscan basement unequivocal evidence for mesoproterozoic and late paleoproterozoic geologic events ca 1 2 ga 1 5 ga and 1 65 1 8 ga the recognition of such zircon ages has important consequences because it implies that parts of the precambrian section of variscan central europe were originally derived from a grenvillian cratonic province as opposed to the common assumption of an african connection a comparison with previously published shrimp data suggests however that these mesoproterozoic and late paleoproterozoic zircon ages may be restricted to the moravo silesian unit in the eastern variscides whereas the saxothuringian and moldanubian zones appear to contain a typical north african i e neoproterozoic plus eburnian inherited zircon age spectrum this finding supports new tectonic concepts according to which variscan europe is composed of a number of completely unrelated terranes with extremely different paleogeographic origins the moravo silesian unit can be best interpreted as a peri gondwana terrane which was situated in the realm of the amazonian cratonic province by the late precambrian comparable to the avalonian terranes of north america and the united kingdom

the impact of wave packets propagating across asia on pacific cyclone development abstract in this paper ecmwf 40 yr reanalysis data have been examined to study the influence of upper level wave packets propagating across asia into the pacific on surface cyclone development over the pacific previous studies have shown that in winter wave packets propagate across asia over two branches a northern branch over siberia and a southern branch along the subtropical jet across southern asia results presented here show that subsequent to the presence of wave packets on either branch the frequency of occurrence of deep cyclones defined as cyclones with central pressure below 960 hpa as well as explosively deepening cyclones those with a deepening rate of 1 bergeron or more are significantly enhanced this enhancement also clearly follows the wave packet eastward as it propagates across the pacific wave packets from the two branches are found to interfere with each other such that if wave packets of the appropriate configuration are present on both the northern and southern branch s

the east variscan shear zone geochronological constraints from the capo ferro area ne sardinia italy abstract the exhumation of the variscan high grade metamorphic complex of sardinia was driven by large scale asymmetric shear zones which reached middle crustal levels at 325 1 3 u pb monazite ma exhumation was accompanied by heating and partial melting the migmatization process was followed by the emplacement of syntectonic granites dated with u pb on zircon at 318 3 ma and 317 2 ma which produced contact metamorphism at 315 1 3 ma u pb monazite in mylonitic silurian orthogneisses the nw se dextral shear zone of the capo ferro area ne sardinia is affected by partial melting by granite emplacement and shows remarkable petrotectonic analogies to and can thus be related to the east variscan shear zone a major intra continental shear zone which was active in the southern european variscides from 325 ma to 315 ma and that has been precisely dated with the u pb monazite system the emplacement of migmatitic gneisses along large shear zones within this time interval is not restricted to sardinia but has also been observed in southern corsica in the french massif central in the western alps and in central spain this pattern of shear zones is related to a complex geodynamic scenario linked to the oblique convergence of the gondwana and laurussia plates during the middle upper carboniferous

the origin of sedimentary basins a status report from the task force of the international lithosphere program abstract better insights into the mechanisms of basin formation have a direct bearing on the predictive power of forward models for basin fill models that link flexure normal faulting and thrusting on a subbasin scale provide important constraints on the tectonic control of the sedimentary record enabling a quantitative comparsion with eustatic contributions to the basin architecture thus of special importance is the need to link processes with different spatial and temporal scales involved in the evolution of extensional and compressional basins by numerical modelling a new generation of basin modelling concepts and techniques is one of the main objectives of the task force origin of sedimentary basins of the international lithosphere program the focus of this work is on the quantification of the effects of the thermomechanical structure of the lithosphere and its interplay with regional and local stress changes other important developments include the step towards three dimensional modelling and the full integration of rapidly expanding fission track and other data sets to constrain vertical motions in basins as natural laboratories for the interactive testing and development of new basin modelling techniques a number of basins with high quality data from industry government and academia have been selected on the basis of specific testable problems

gondwana derived microcontinents the constituents of the variscan and alpine collisional orogens abstract the european variscan and alpine mountain chains are collisional orogens and are built up of pre variscan building blocks which in most cases originated at the gondwana margin such pre variscan elements were part of a pre ordovician archipelago like continental ribbon in the former eastern prolongation of avalonia and their present day distribution resulted from juxtaposition through variscan and or alpine tectonic evolution the well known nomenclatures applied to these mountain chains are the mirror of variscan resp alpine organization it is the aim of this paper to present a terminology taking into account their pre variscan evolution at the gondwana margin they may contain relics of volcanic islands with pieces of cadomian crust relics of volcanic arc settings and accretionary wedges which were separated from gondwana by initial stages of rheic ocean opening after a short lived ordovician orogenic event and amalgamation of these elements at the gondwanan margin the still continuing gondwana directed subduction triggered the formation of ordovician al rich granitoids and the latest ordovician opening of palaeo tethys an example from the alps external massifs illustrates the gradual reworking of gondwana derived pre variscan elements during the variscan and alpine tertiary orogenic cycles

in situ chemical dating of tectonothermal events in the french variscan belt in situ u th pb geochronology on monazite using electron probe micro analyser has been performed on migmatite in the southern french variscan massif central in order to decipher its complex history after the early visean 340 ma nappe stacking the cevennes area experienced a regional migmatization already dated 330 325 ma in northern cevennes in these rocks two monazite populations are recognized on the basis of petrology texture and geochemistry the oldest monazite generation that appears as inclusion in k feldspar is dated at 331 4 ma this age complies with that of the crustal melting experienced by the cevennes metamorphic series the youngest monazite generation is interstitial and gives an age of 320 5 ma a hydrothermal origin coeval with the peraluminous magmatism that predates the formation of the late carboniferous velay dome is proposed as a working hypothesis to account for the formation of this second monazite generation

numerical modelling of salt diapirism influence of the tectonic regime abstract in the context of sedimentary basin mechanics salt diapirism has usually been described as a phenomenon initiated and driven by gravity instabilities associated with buoyant forces or differential loading this result holds essentially for an approximation of linear rheologies of both salt and overburden this has been contested by recent analog models and analytical studies buoyancy alone cannot drive salt diapirism through a brittle overburden regional extension or compression could be a necessary mechanism likely to promote salt diapirism numerical models are presented here to describe the relative effects of gravity and lateral forces on the dynamics of salt diapirism the numerical scheme is based on a viscoplastic approximation of deformations and an updated lagrangian description of kinematics which allows a study of large non linear deformations of salt bodies and the evolution of material interfaces this scheme takes into account brittle and ductile deformations of sediments moreover it describes the initiation and evolution of shear bands which play a crucial role in basin mechanics and especially in the dynamics of salt diapirism we show why extension is the most propitious driving mechanism of diapirism necking and faulting induced by extension promote and drive salt diapirism in the case of a brittle overburden this result holds with or without buoyancy forces this demonstrates that buoyancy which alone is not sufficient to break a brittle overburden is not a necessary mechanism either buoyancy however enhances diapirism induced by lateral forces in contrast with extension salt diapirism during compression is strongly constrained by the rheology of the overburden a brittle mode of deformation favours faulting rather than buckling induced thrusting and thickening of the overburden inhibit massive diapirism and favour the confinement of small salt plugs finally the post extension stability of a mature diapir produced by extension is presented

rossby wave packets on the midlatitude waveguide a review abstractrossby wave packets rwps are rossby waves for which the amplitude has a local maximum and decays to smaller values at larger distances this review focuses on upper tropospheric transient rwps along the midlatitude jet stream their central characteristic is the propagation in the zonal direction as well as the transfer of wave energy from one individual trough or ridge to its downstream neighbor a process called downstream development these rwps sometimes act as long range precursors to extreme weather and presumably have an influence on the predictability of midlatitude weather systems the paper reviews research progress in this area with an emphasis on developments during the last 15 years the current state of knowledge is summarized including a discussion of the rwp life cycle as well as rossby waveguides recent progress in the dynamical understanding of rwps has been based in part on the development of diagnostic methods these methods include algorithms to identify and track rwps

evolution of late neoproterozoic to early paleozoic tectonic elements in central and southeast european alpine mountain belts review and synthesis abstract late neoproterozoic to early paleozoic cadomian tectonic elements are widespread in the southeastern alpine mediterranean mountain belts with discontinuous exposure extending from the alps to the menderes massif in turkey the sequences include voluminous plutonic island and continental arc successions some ophiolites of variable late neoproterozoic and cambrian to early ordovician ages high to medium grade metamorphic sequences and subordinate metasediments geological and geochronological data suggest that these cadomian elements partly experienced tectonothermal activity including metamorphism and magmatism between ca 650 and 600 ma followed by further i and s type plutonism in an andean type continental margin setting ca between 570 and 520 ma subsequently a major rift zone developed which resulted in continental stretching and subsequent formation of a back arc basin which is dated as late cambrian rifting is followed by oceanic spreading which commenced ca at the cambrian ordovician boundary possibly in a back arc setting this tectonic scenario suggests that alpine mediterranean cadomian tectonic elements were accreted to gondwana during early cadomian events ca 600 650 ma subsequently they were likely part of a long lasting outer subduction zone of gondwana at the margin of a panthalassa type ocean during late neoproterozoic iii and cambrian due to back arc spreading continental pieces started to split off from gondwana ca at the cambrian ordovician boundary

zircon ages of the metavolcanic rocks and metagranites of the ollo de sapo domain in central spain implications for the neoproterozoic to early palaeozoic evolution of iberia dating the pre middle ordovician metavolcanic rocks and metagranites of the ollo de sapo domain has historically been difficult because of the small compositional variation the effects of the variscan orogeny and as revealed in this paper the unusually high fraction of inherited zircon components the first reliable zircon data u pb ion microprobe and pb pb stepwise evaporation indicate that the ollo de sapo volcanism spanned 495 5 ma to 483 3 ma and was followed by the intrusion of high level granites from 483 3 ma to 474 4 ma in both metavolcanic rocks and metagranites no less than 70 80 of zircon grains are either totally precambrian or contain a precambrian core overgrown by a cambro ordovician rim about 80 90 of inherited zircons are early ediacaran 602 614 ma and derived from calc alkaline intermediate to felsic igneous rocks generated at the end of the pan african arc continent collision in the villadepera region located to the west both the metagranites and metavolcanic rocks also contain meso archaean zircons 3 0 3 2 ga which ultimately originated from the west african craton in the hiendelaencina region located to the east both the metagranites and metavolcanic rocks lack meso archaean zircons but they have two different inherited zircon populations one cryogenian 650 700 ma and the other tonian 850 900 ma which suggest older than ediacaran additional island arc components the different proportion of source components and the marked variation of the 87 sr 86 sr init suggest at least tentatively that the across arc polarity of the remnants of the pan african arc of iberia trended east west with respect to the current coordinates during cambro ordovician times and that the passive margin was situated to the west

tectonic evolution of the north sea basin crustal stretching and subsidence summary the lithospheric stretching model for the formation of sedimentary basins was tested in the central north sea by a combined study of crustal thinning and basement subsidence patterns a profile of crustal structure was obtained by shooting a long range seismic experiment across the central graben the main axis of subsidence a seabed array of 12 seismometers in the graben was used to record shots fired in a line 530 km long across the basin the data collected during the experiment were interpreted by modelling synthetic seismograms from a laterally varying structure and the final model showed substantial crustal thinning beneath the graben subsidence data from 19 exploration wells were analysed to obtain subsidence patterns in the central north sea since jurassic times changes in water depth were quantified using foraminiferal assemblages where possible and observed basement subsidence paths were corrected for sediment loading compaction and changes in water depth through time the seismic model is shown to be compatible with the observed gravity field and the small size of observed gravity anomalies is used to argue that the basin is in local isostatic equilibrium both crustal thinning and basement subsidence studies indicate about 70 km of stretching across the central graben during the mid jurassic to early cretaceous extensional event this extension appears to have occurred over crust already slightly thinned beneath the graben and the seismic data suggest that total extension since the early permian may have been more than 100km the data presented here may all be explained using a simple model of uniform extension of the lithosphere

subduction platform subsidence and foreland thrust loading the late tertiary development of taranaki basin new zealand borehole seismic and gravity data are used to investigate deformation of continental lithosphere at a miocene collisional zone deformation is manifested in the three following principal forms a long wavelength 500 km platform subsidence ascribed to mantle convection flexural deformation on a scale of 100 200 km due to crustal thrusting at the eastern boundary of the taranaki basin and a ductile thickening evident on the deep seismic section of taranaki basin that occurs on a scale of 10 km evidence for flexural deformation principally comes from the deep seismic section that shows a 150 km wavelength bending of the moho down toward the major zone of thrusting within the taranaki fault zone paleowater depths however provide evidence for an initial early miocene regional subsidence that is too long in wavelength to be explained by flexure induced from thrust sheet loading instead we propose that this broad platform subsidence was driven by loading from a deep source probably subduction induced flow in the mantle by 22 19 ma 1 2 km of water existed over most of the area now occupied by south taranaki basin by 19 17 ma the water depth in the zone east of the taranaki basin the taranaki fault zone had been replaced by rock due to submarine thrusting and crustal thickening this build up of submarine topography in the taranaki fault zone constitutes part of the load 25 8 mpa that created and maintains south taranaki basin gravity data place further constraints on loading at the thrust front and point to an additional intracrustal loading equivalent to 15 7 mpa over a 50 km wide zone this intracrustal load is explained as being due to thick skinned thrusting bringing denser lower crustal rocks nearer to the surface in the thrust zone the complete load on the taranaki foreland is therefore in three parts the submarine topographic load the intracrustal load and the loading of infilling sediments

a new multilayered model for intraplate stress induced differential subsidence of faulted lithosphere applied to rifted basins in plane horizontal stresses acting on predeformed lithosphere induce differential flexural vertical motions a high precision record of these motions can be found in the sedimentary record of rifted basins originally it was proposed that rifted basins experience flank uplift and basin center subsidence in response to a compressive change of in plane stress which agrees well with observed differential motions subsequently published models predicted that the vertical motions may be opposite because of the flexural state of the lithosphere induced by necking during extension however the total flexural and permanent geometry of the lithosphere underlying the rifted basin is the controlling parameter for the in plane stress caused vertical motions the largest part of this preexisting geometry is caused by faulting in the uppermost brittle part of the crust and ductile deformation in the underlying parts of the lithosphere we present a new multilayered model for stress induced differential subsidence taking into account the technically induced preexisting geometry of the lithosphere including faults in the upper crust as continental lithosphere may exhibit flexural decoupling due to a weak lower crustal layer the new multilayer in plane stress model discriminates the geometries of the separate competent layers at a basin wide scale the new model predicts that a compressive change of in plane force results in basin center subsidence and flank uplift confirming the original hypothesis compared to all previous models the new model requires a lower horizontal stress level change to explain observed differential vertical motions

geochemical characterization and isotopic age of caradocian magmatism in the northeastern iberian peninsula insights into the late ordovician evolution of the northern gondwana margin this paper presents new geochronological geochemical and isotopic data for late ordovician magmatism 455 2 ma from the variscan massifs in the northeastern iberian peninsula this magmatism is mainly composed of aluminous and metaluminous plutonic rocks and a sequence of calc alkaline ignimbrites and epiclastic volcanic rocks which were deformed and metamorphosed during the variscan orogeny the metaplutonic rocks are located in the lower part of a neoproterozoic early cambrian metasedimentary sequence in the canigo massif eastern pyrenees aluminous orthogneisses have isotopic signatures that indicate a crustal origin whereas metaluminous orthogneisses originate from a mixture of juvenile and crustal melts the metavolcanic rocks define a calc alkaline ignimbritic sequence of crustal origin located in the lower part of the late ordovician sequence in the les gavarres massif catalan coastal ranges tdm ages for all the studied late ordovician rocks range from mesoproterozoic to paleoproterozoic 1 3 ga 1 5 ga 1 7 ga and 2 2 ga suggesting a neoproterozoic crust with paleoproterozoic components and an arc signature as the most probable source for the crustal melts the isotopic similarities between the studied samples and other early ordovician magmatic rocks of the central and western iberian massif suggest repeated melt extractions from a common basement as the source for the early and late ordovician magmatism in the iberian realm however the studied massifs are more closely linked to other massifs from the mediterranean realm the most probable tectonic setting for the emplacement of the late ordovician volcanic and plutonic bodies is that of an extensional regime which postdates a previous ordovician contractional event and the opening of the rheic ocean

early ordovician continental break up in variscan europe ndsr isotope and trace element evidence from bimodal igneous associations of the southern massif central france abstract the high grade marvejols group and the low grade albigeois cevennes sedimentary sequence contain bimodal igneous rocks of early ordovician age which are representative of a widespread thermal event in the european variscides comparison of their nd sr isotope and trace element characteristics provides additional evidence for their origin in an ensialic extensional setting as an alternative to the back arc model proposed by previous authors we propose that these associations record a continental break up episode unrelated to contemporaneous subduction in this model the widespread early paleozoic bimodal magmatism marks the birth of a mid european oceanic arm we propose that the break up was controlled by both transtensional processes and mantle plume activity high grade associations such as the marvejols group and low grade bimodal associations such as the albigeois cevennes might be regarded as representing opposite rifted passive margins the northern marvejols type margin was involved in a late ordovician silurian subduction like process with hp ht metamorphism in contrast the southern albigeois cevennes margin remained largely unaffected possibly as part of the overriding plate of the subduction zone pseudo calc alkaline signatures unrelated to subduction processes may occur in magmatic rocks associated with continental break up episodes in this case negative nb anomalies are produced by the addition of crustal components enriched in th and lree relative to nb this inferred alternative origin of nb anomalies has important bearing on the paleogeodynamic settings based on geochemical data

lithospheric dynamics and the rapid pliocene quaternary subsidence phase in the southern north sea basin abstract we present stratigraphic modeling and quantitative analysis of the pliocene and quaternary subsidence of the southern north sea basin during the late pliocene well before the onset of quaternary glaciation the subsidence rate in the southern part of the north sea basin showed a ten fold increase relative to previous tertiary rates the high pliocene quaternary subsidence rate is consistent with the direction and state of the present intraplate stress field in northwest europe one possible consequence of the modern compressional stress field in northwest europe is reactivation of faulting in the central graben resulting in localized stretching and the development of pull apart basins alternatively the acceleration in late pliocene subsidence rates could be due to localized flexural downwarping of the lithosphere in the central graben caused by an increase in the level of intraplate compression both mechanisms succesfully predict the major characteristics of the overall quaternary subsidence history and stratigraphy gravity modeling suggests that the mechanism of localized stretching dominates the recent tectonostratigraphic evolution of the southern north sea

an eulerian technique for thermomechanical modeling of lithospheric extension a two dimensional eulerian spline function finite element method for modeling the coupled thermomechanical processes which control lithospheric extension is presented the model domain comprises a cross section through the lithosphere and part of the asthenosphere material may enter or leave through the bottom and side boundaries on the side boundary a fixed velocity or a fixed force condition can be applied highly nonlinear and thermally activated creep laws are used for the brittle and ductile rheologies of the lithosphere compositional differences between crust and mantle are described by a continuous function which is advected and which affects density rheology and heat production an approximate topography is calculated from the normal stress at a free slip surface boundary a set of sample case studies is presented which highlights the capabilities and possible applications of the method it also serves to study the influence of numerical parameters and of conceptual assumptions in various nontrivial applications the examples comprise narrow rifting continuing into the stage of seafloor spreading formation of a wide basin formation of a metamorphic core complex and impact of a mantle plume onto the bottom of the lithosphere in the last case the entire upper mantle is modeled and the instability of a thermal bottom boundary layer gives rise to a diapiric mantle plume the main weakness of the eulerian approach as compared to the lagrangian technique was found to be the effective blurring of material discontinuities like the moho this is of little consequence in pure shear deformation but when strong simple shear occurs it impairs the resolution the main advantage of the eulerian technique is that very large deformation poses no problem as it does for the lagrangian method the new approach is especially suited to study processes where strong differential flow occurs in part of the modeled system a further possible advantage of the method is its efficiency in terms of computer time

response of the lithosphere to in plane force variations the earth s lithosphere deforms when subjected to vertical and horizontal tectonic forces because it is not perfectly rigid the deformation has both elastic flexural and inelastic brittle and ductile creep components we use the yield strength envelope formulation of a depth dependent rheology to predict how the lithosphere will deform in response to applied in plane force brittle deformation of the upper lithosphere is influenced by the distribution of existing faults and fractures in the crust and their orientation with respect to the applied tectonic force the sense of fault reactivation indicates the sign of the applied in plane force the induced flexural deformation is governed by the pre existing lithospheric deflection the effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere when the force was applied and the magnitude of the applied force using this framework we compare the predicted response of the lithosphere to in plane force variations with that observed in the central indian ocean and the jeanne d arc basin offshore newfoundland the brittle deformation in both regions is readily observed in seismic reflection data the upper oceanic crust in the central indian ocean is broken into blocks bounded by high angle reverse faults the dip of these basement faults and their orientation parallel to the marine magnetic lineations suggest that they represent a reactivated crustal fabric imparted during the formation of oceanic crust the reverse sense of fault reactivation is consistent with the north south compression determined from earthquake focal mechanisms in the jeanne d arc basin episodes of northwest southeast extension reactivated the basin bounding faults in a normal sense during late barremian early aptian and late aptian time in the late albian the same crustal blocks were reactivated and uplifted in response to north northeast in plane compression flexural deformation due to applied in plane force is observed only in the central indian ocean case where the oceanic crust and most of the overlying bengal fan sediments were deformed into broad east west trending undulations with wavelengths of 100 300 km and amplitudes up to 2 km in the jeanne d arc basin the flexural deformation which should accompany the fault reactivation is difficult to recognize from the preserved stratigraphy consequently brittle deformation within extensional basins which appears to be the most recognizable response of the lithosphere to in plane force variations obscures the effects of the flexural deformation however it is this flexural deformation that has been postulated as a tectonic alternative to glacial eustasy in explaining the 3rd order sea level cycles because it is difficult to recognize the effects of the flexural deformation in the preserved stratigraphy we surmise that it is not a viable alternative to glacial eustasy in generating either regional or global unconformities instead we propose that the flexural and brittle deformation due to applied in plane force may locally enhance or diminish the effects of other processes responsible for unconformity generation

tracing metal sources in peribatholitic hydrothermal w deposits based on the chemical composition of wolframite the example of the variscan french massif central abstract we present a complete dataset for major minor and trace elements in wolframite fe mn wo4 based on the example of several peribatholitic hydrothermal w deposits located in the variscan french massif central fmc the wolframite samples were characterized down to the micrometer scale by combining scanning electron microscopy observations and in situ chemical analysis by electron probe microanalyzer and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry most samples are fe dominated wolframites and are characterized by variable fe fe mn values for the studied deposits from 0 36 to 0 86 without significant alteration features wolframites present intracrystalline variations for concentrations of several minor and trace elements principally for nb ta and sn which reflect growth zoning the minor and trace element compositions of the different wolframite samples show at first order similar enrichments in ta nb sn zn and in as well as depletions in lree li th ti zr hf pb v co and mg compared to the upper continental crust second order compositional variations are observed between the studied deposits which can be separated in four main regional geochemical groups this work highlights that the chemical composition of wolframite is controlled by both the crystallochemical parameters and the composition of the primary hydrothermal fluid the regional variations observed in the geochemical signatures of wolframite reflect local variations in the composition of the hydrothermal fluid i e variable metal sources therefore this suggests that the minor and trace element contents in wolframite likely represent direct markers of the source of the hydrothermal fluid and ultimately of the metals the comparison between the trace element compositions of wolframite with the compositions of regional granitic rocks and worldwide shales suggests that evolved peraluminous granites represent the main source of metals in peribatholitic hydrothermal w deposits from the fmc whereas metasedimentary rocks have a limited to no influence on the metal budget

baltica and gondwana derived sediments in the mid german crystalline rise central europe implications for the closure of the rheic ocean abstract combined u pb and lu hf isotope analysis of detrital zircons reveals that the mid german crystalline rise mgcr contains palaeozoic sediments of distinct provenance in close proximity zircons from a metapelite of the brotterode group were derived from a gondwanan source whereas zircons from the rogis quartzite of the ruhla group point to provenance from baltica brotterode zircons mostly yield ages of 500 720 ma and 2 0 2 1 ga and show an age gap between 1 0 and 1 7 ga which is characteristic of gondwana peri gondwanan detrital zircon populations combined u pb and hf isotope data suggest intense crustal recycling at 2 6 2 9 ga 1 8 2 1 ga and 570 720 ma as well as formation of juvenile crust during the latter two periods in contrast zircons of the rogis quartzite mostly yield ages between 0 9 and 1 8 ga which are typical of southwestern baltica minor age populations at 435 466 and 550 660 ma indicate that the quartzite is younger than late ordovician early silurian and that the baltica derived sediment is contaminated by minor peri gondwanan perhaps avalonia derived detritus minor age populations at 2 0 2 56 2 67 and 2 86 ga additionally point to a svecofennian and or karelian source u pb and hf isotope data imply that the baltica derived zircons were produced mainly through melting of juvenile palaeo to mesoproterozoic crust the data presented here indicate that the mgcr hosts the rheic suture between gondwana and balonia and that this suture zone was closed in a complex sequence of stages from the late silurian onwards

tectonic evolution of the mid polish trough modelling implications and significance for central european geology abstract the polish basin forms the easternmost part of the permian mesozoic northwest european basin the depocentral axis of the polish basin the mid polish trough mpt is superimposed on the boundary between the west european phanerozoic and east european proterozoic crustal domains within the trans european suture zone the presence of this fundamental crustal boundary may be paramount in structurally controlling the position of the mpt concentrating stresses during post variscan wrench and extensional tectonics in central europe tectonic subsidence analysis of the preserved and reconstructed stratigraphic record of the polish basin indicates the occurrence of an initial late permian early triassic 255 241 ma rifting phase that was followed by subsequent episodes of increased tectonic subsidence during the oxfordian kimmeridgian 157 152 ma and beginning in the cenomanian 97 ma the oxfordian kimmeridgian episode is interpreted as corresponding to a second extensional event which correlated with intersified rifting and wrench activity within the arctic north atlantic rift system and along the northern tethyan margin while the cenomanian may be considered a precursor of compressional deformations in the basin which culminated in basin inversion in the latest cretaceous and paleocene forward modelling results in view of existing geophysical interpretations which show the presence of a deep moho and a very velocity lower crustal layer beneath thempt suggest that permo mesozoic basic development may be related at least in part to the intrusion of mantle material into and densification of the lower crust rather than exclusively to crustal extension and thinning

the role of large scale atmospheric flow and rossby wave breaking in the evolution of extreme windstorms over europe we investigate the relationship between large scale atmospheric flow and the evolution of the most extreme windstorms affecting western continental europe the 25 most destructive western continent

pre variscan geological events in the austrian part of the bohemian massif deduced from u pb zircon ages in an attempt to elucidate the pre variscan evolution history of the various geological units in the austrian part of the bohemian massif we have analysed zircons from 12 rocks mainly orthogneisses by means of shrimp conventional multi grain and single grain u pb isotope dilution mass spectrometry two of the orthogneisses studied represent cadomian metagranitoids that formed at ca 610 ma spitz gneiss and ca 580 ma bittesch gneiss a metagranite from the thaya batholith also gave a cadomian zircon age 567 5 ma traces of neoproterozoic zircon growth were also identified in several other samples underlining the great importance of the cadomian orogeny for the evolution of crust in the southern bohemian massif however important magmatic events also occurred in the early palaeozoic a sample of the gfohl gneiss was recognised as a 488 6 ma old granite a tonalite gneiss from the realm of the south bohemian batholith was dated at 456 3 ma and zircon cores in a moldanubian metagranitic granulite gave similar ages of 440 450 ma this ordovician phase of magmatism in the moldanubian unit is tentatively interpreted as related to the rifting and drift of south armorica from the african gondwana margin the oldest inherited zircons in a migmatite from the south bohemian batholith yielded an age of ca 2 6 ga and many zircon cores in both moravian and moldanubian meta granitoid rocks gave ages around 2 0 ga however rocks from the moldanubian unit show a striking lack of zircon ages between 1 8 and 1 0 ga reflecting an ancestry from armorica and the north african part of gondwana respectively whereas the moravian bittesch gneiss contains many inherited zircons with mesoproterozoic and early palaeoproterozoic ages of ca 1 2 1 5 and 1 65 1 8 ga indicating a derivation from the south american part of gondwana

isostatic response of the lithosphere with in plane stress application to central australia the relation between gravity and topography in central australia cannot be described by a conventional isostatic response function whether it assumes local or regional compensation or whether the crust behaves as an elastic or viscoelastic medium in particular the response function exhibits considerable anisotropy hence a theory for isostatic response has been developed for a crust in mechanical equilibrium of surface loads buoyancy and in plane forces and subject to erosion sedimentation and stress relaxation the observed north south response function exhibits extreme isostatic overcompensation at some wavelengths and this can be fully explained by the viscoelastic plate model with in plane compression the observed east west response function is consistent with models of regional or local isostatic compensation the response function implies an effective flexural rigidity of 5 10 1022 n m an effective maxwell relaxation time of 25 50 m y an in plane compression of 125 150 mpa and an erosion time constant of about 200 m y these parameters assume that the model evolved over a period of about 700 m y and are wholly consistent with the evolutionary model developed from geological observations

the birth of the rheic ocean early palaeozoic subsidence patterns and subsequent tectonic plate scenarios abstract new plate tectonic reconstructions of the gondwana margin suggest that the location of gondwana derived terranes should not only be guided by the models but should also consider the possible detrital input from some asian blocks hunia supposed to have been located along the cambrian gondwana margin and accreted in the silurian to the north chinese block consequently the gondwana margin has to be subdivided into a more western domain where the future avalonian blocks will be separated from gondwana by the opening rheic ocean whereas in its eastern continuation hosting the future basement areas of central europe different periods of crustal extension should be distinguished instead of applying a rather cylindrical model it is supposed that crustal extension follows a much more complex pattern where local back arcs or intra continental rifts are involved guided by the age data of magmatic rocks and the pattern of subsidence curves the following extensional events can be distinguished during the early to middle cambrian a back arc setting guided the evolution at the gondwana margin contemporaneous intra continental rift basins developed at other places related to a general post pan african extensional phase affecting africa upper cambrian formation of oceanic crust is manifested in the chamrousse area and may have lateral cryptic relics preserved in other places this is regarded as the oceanisation of some marginal basins in a context of back arc rifting these basins were closed in a mid ordovician tectonic phase related to the subduction of buoyant material mid ocean ridge since the early ordovician a new phase of extension is observed accompanied by a large scale volcanic activity erosion of the rift shoulders generated detritus armorican quartzite and the rift basins collected detrital zircons from a wide hinterland this phase heralded the opening of palaeotethys but it failed due to the silurian collision eo variscan phase of an intra oceanic arc with the gondwana margin during this time period at the eastern wing of the gondwana margin begins the drift of the future hunia microcontinents through the opening of an eastern prolongation of the already existing rheic ocean the passive margin of the remaining gondwana was composed of the galatian superterranes constituents of the future variscan basement areas remaining under the influence of crustal extension they will start their drift to laurussia since the earliest devonian during the opening of the palaeotethys ocean

rift related volcanism predating the birth of the rheic ocean ossa morena zone sw iberia abstract two very different periods of magma emplacement in the crust of the ossa morena zone early and main events in sw iberia have been previously interpreted to record a cambrian early ordovician rifting event that is thought to have culminated in the opening of the rheic ocean during the early ordovician new stratigraphic petrographic geochemical and sm nd isotope data from cambrian volcanic rocks included in six key low grade sections in both portugal and spain considerably improve our understanding of these events these data 1 confirm the existence of two rift related magmatic events in the cambrian of the ossa morena zone 2 demonstrate that the early rift related event was associated with migmatite and core complex formation in the mid upper crust and is represented by felsic peraluminous rocks the parent magmas of which were derived mainly from crustal sources and 3 show the main rift related event to be represented by a bimodal association of felsic and mafic rocks with minor amounts of intermediate rocks some of the mafic rocks show n morb affinity whereas others have oib or e morb affinities suggesting different heterogeneous mantle sources depleted and enriched asthenospheric and lithospheric plume like and non plume like the acid and intermediate rocks appear to represent hybrid mixtures of crust and mantle derived magmas this new data supports the hypothesis that the onset of rifting was associated with a process of oblique ridge trench collision we interpret the significant differences between the early and main events as reflecting the evolution from a wide rift stage with passive extension mainly accommodated by lower crust flow in a high heat flow setting to a narrow rift stage with active extension characterized by extension rates that outpaced thermal diffusion rates

dynamical models of the role of crustal shear zones in asymmetric continental extension abstract this paper presents a simple quantitative model for the transfer of lithospheric extension along deep crustal shear zones during rifting of continents these shear zones are interpreted to connect laterally offset pre existing weaknesses in the crust to the centre of mantle lithospheric thinning the rift axis for quartz and quartz over feldspar dominated crustal models we predict the formation of major crustal shear zones which transfer extension to offset crustal weak zones as much as several hundreds of kilometres from the rift axis the length scale of this transfer depends on the initial thermal regime of the lithosphere the composition and thickness of the crust and the relative strengths of the crust at the rift axis and in the offset weak zones when rifting results from a combination of in plane tensile stress and active heating of the mantle lithosphere from below the lateral transfer of strain occurs for a period of time early in the rifting process later crustal thinning switches to the rift axis because heat diffusing from below weakens the crust at this location and it is no longer energetically preferable to transfer strain to offset weak zones for the parameter values used in our models the sedimentary basins formed by extension at the offset weak zones remain tectonically active for no more than 10 my transfer of strain to the offset or rift flank basins is most efficient when the rate of active heating of the lithosphere is similar to the rate of deformation along the crustal shear zone results from a more complete plane strain finite element model agree with the basic predictions of the simple quantitative model they do however indicate that effects ignored in the simple model will reduce our estimates of the maximum distance of shear transfer this is particularly true when the deformation is large we interpret sedimentary basins located on the flanks of rifts or atlantic type margins to be the products of this process of strain partitioning in an inhomogeneous lithosphere the models provide an explanation for flank or offset basins that were active for a short interval early in a rift phase that have no thermal subsidence phase and that cannot be attributed to the gravitationally driven extension and collapse of orogenically overthickened crust

evolution of the middle crust of the pyrenees during the paleozoic new data on the plutonic rocks from the north pyrenean agly massif the variscan middle crust of the eastern pyrenees is represented by the belesta and caramany gneissic units of the north pyrenean agly massif in this study we date and reinterpret the orthogneisses and granites composing these units we characterize a recurrent plutonic activity spanning all the paleozoic in this part of the pyrenean crust the belesta unit amphibolite facies is mainly composed of sills of latest ediacaran earliest cambrian 542 4 and 540 4 ma orthogneisses 70 of the series almost unknown in the pyrenees until now and latest carboniferous earliest permian 307 3 298 3 ma time span granites 15 of the series these plutonic rocks were emplaced in probably ediacaran aluminous pelites later transformed into paragneisses 15 of the series the caramany unit granulite facies is mainly composed of precambrian aluminous paragneisses migmatized during the latest carboniferous earliest permian 299 4 ma sills of earliest cambrian 529 5 ma orthogneisses and sills about 30 of the series of late carboniferous 308 3 299 3 ma opxbearing and opx free granodiorites grt bearing leucogranites and norites among these last rocks the ansignan charnockite forming a 800 m thick laccolith near the base of the caramany unit and previously dated at 314 6 7 ma respaut lancelot neues jahrbuch miner abh 147 1 21 34 1983 is refined at 307 3 ma our results confirm the importance of the late carboniferous plutonism in deep levels of the pyrenean crust which largely resulted from recycling of older para and orthoderived rocks of this crust the emplacement of hundreds of metres in thickness of granites and other plutonic rocks in the variscan pyrenees occurred in a rather short time both as sills in these deep levels and as large plutons in shallower levels a fact which necessarily had consequences on the ht lp carboniferous metamorphism

u pb geochronology and sm nd isotopic composition of proterozoic gneisses channel islands uk gneissic units of the channel islands united kingdom have traditionally been considered to be palaeoproterozoic basement to the late neoproterozoic cadomia terrane based on lithological correlations and imprecise or ambiguous isotopic data a new precise u pb date of 2061 2 ma based on analyses of single zircons for the icart granitic orthogneiss of guernsey confirms a palaeoproterozoic age of its igneous protolith the nd depleted mantle model age t dm of this gneiss is 2220 ma only slightly older than its crystallization age indicating that it represents juvenile crust other gneisses from guernsey have similar t dm ages ranging from 2210 to 2370 ma suggesting that they are also exposures of juvenile palaeoproterozoic crust a component from a penetratively deformed orthogneiss from sark previously correlated with icartian gneisses on guernsey yields a u pb zircon date of 616 4 2 ma this crystallization age demonstrates that the protolith was a cadomian intrusion and that penetrative deformation and amphibolite facies metamorphism in the northern channel islands were cadomian in age the use of gneissic features as a means of invoking the antiquity of many other undated gneissic units in the region is thus considered unreliable the presence of 2170 7 ma zircon xenocrysts within the sark orthogneiss combined with its initial e nd 615 9 5 are strong evidence that pre cadomian basement was a significant source component and that documenting the extent and age of pre cadomian basement may be possible by indirect geochemical methods

large scale wind and precipitation extremes in the mediterranean a climatological analysis for 1979 2012 a new method for identifying high impact large scale wind and precipitation events in the extended mediterranean region is outlined and applied to the european centre for medium range weather forecasts ecmwf reanalysis dataset era interim for the years 1979 2012 the method highlights large scale 10 m gust and precipitation events that classify as extreme if integrated over a spatial scale of 1000 km and a temporal scale of 3 days the method detects successfully high impact events and reveals clear seasonal differences among the subregions of the mediterranean western mediterranean precipitation extremes are more intense and occur mainly in autumn while eastern mediterranean events occur in winter composite dynamical analyses of large scale wind and precipitation extremes and a combination of them highlight coherent dynamical flow structures associated with the extremes in the different subregions of the mediterranean precipitation events are preceded by an upper level trough and strong jet on its western flank followed by cyclogenesis mainly in the western mediterranean and or a merging of the polar with the subtropical jet over northeastern africa in the eastern mediterranean strong surface wind extremes develop around cyclones that intensify south of a deep parent cyclone near the exit of a strong anticyclonically curved jet propagate eastwards and create a cold and dry northerly wind anomaly at the surface furthermore combined large scale wind and precipitation extremes often occur simultaneously near cyclones either north atlantic cyclones which project the wind and precipitation into the western mediterranean or mediterranean cyclones the latter produce wind extremes over a localized area which often overlaps entirely with the region that receives extreme precipitation

electron microprobe monazite geochronology of magmatic events examples from variscan migmatites and granitoids massif central france u th pb dating of monazite with the electron probe microanalyser epma is increasingly documented as a reliable geochronological method offering high spatial resolution this method has been applied on monazite from the cevennes migmatites and granitoids from the southeast of the french massif central measurements were performed on separated grains after systematic back scattered electron bse imaging monazites from migmatites record two main ages i a protolith age of about 550 543 ma obtained on inherited cores and ii a migmatization event between 329 5 and 323 3 ma recorded by monazite rims and all other monogenetic grains monazite from the peraluminous rocles pluton yields a 318 3 ma age finally three granite dykes are dated at 333 6 318 5 and 311 5 ma the older dyke is the most deformed of them and is interpreted as linked to the migmatization event the two other dykes are geochronologically petrologically and structurally coeval with the rocles pluton the data constrain the timing of crustal melting following variscan thickening in the northern cevennes area migmatization of ordovician protoliths took place at 329 323 ma and was shortly followed by intrusion of leucogranite at 318 311 ma the study shows that epma dating of monazite can be successfully used to resolve a close succession of regional melting events

assumptions and observations in tectonic modelling of rift basins some implications of thermo isostasy stress and rheology for intrabasinal structure abstract there has been a multitude of studies showing to what extent alterations in fundamental tectonic assumptions and or modelling parameters can affect predictions on how extensional sedimentary basins evolve however that little is known about how mantle processes initiate lithospheric rifting extension and affect basin evolution limits the extent to which improvements in tectonic modelling assumptions and parameter resolution can lead to a better understanding of intrabasinal or reservoir development processes the tectonic heat budget appears to be constrained by empirical means with the aid of kinematic models without the necessity of a thorough understanding of the dynamic processes involved in basin formation nevertheless the thermal coupling of tectonic model with intrabasinal development is sensitive to the choice of sediment thermal conductivities an important but often neglected tectonic modelling parameter to resolve is when the state of stress changes through time as a result of the interaction of all the known and unknown tectonic processes actively affecting the basin lithosphere system the occurrence of geologically short lived episodes of rapid basin subsidence may be a response to a change in the tectonic setting regardless of the relative sense of change of the ambient stress field recent theoretical studies suggest the same may be true for the evolution of salt diapirs