postapocalyptic greenhouse paleoclimate revealed by earliest triassic paleosols in the sydney basin australia the permian triassic boundary in the sydney basin of australia is coincident with a pronounced decrease in 13 c isotopic values of organic carbon the last coals anywhere in the world for all of the early triassic ca 6 m y time and extirpation of the glossopteris flora at the top of the illawarra and newcastle coal measures coal bearing paleosols of the latest permian represent extensive swamplands of the seasonally deciduous glossopteris flora in a humid cold temperate lowland southwest of an andean style volcanic arc stone rolls large ribs of floor rock up into the coal within some of the uppermost coals of the permian coal measures can be interpreted as string bogs of a kind now found in cold climates at latitudes of 68 70 which is compatible with a paleomagnetically estimated paleolatitude of 65 85 s for the sydney basin paleolatitude was not much different for earliest triassic time but paleosols of that age include inceptisols and entisols showing substantial chemical and textural weathering more like soils now forming at latitudes of 40 58 than those within polar circles this anomalous high latitude warmth set in at the permian triassic boundary sedimentation rates increased at the boundary marked by geochemically unusual acidification of clay and a dramatic carbon isotopic excursion these changes in environments and ecosystems can be explained by soil erosion following deforestation implied by the plant extinctions and abundant fungal remains at the permian triassic boundary evidence from paleosols can now be added to that from paleontological and isotopic studies showing that disruption of the carbon cycle at the permian triassic boundary resulted in a co 2 or ch 4 post apocalyptic greenhouse paleoclimate

the pre quaternary history of fire abstract although evidence for land vegetation comes from the silurian and maybe even earlier the first record of fossil charcoal fusain is from the late devonian for this period there are only one or two isolated records not until the early carboniferous is there a record of extensive charcoal deposits mainly preserved in near shore clastic sediments which provide evidence of significant and widespread wildfires by the late carboniferous charcoal was common or abundant in a wide range of facies including tropical wetland peats wildfire played an important role in shaping the environment at this time the latest palaeozoic and early mesozoic records of charcoal are fewer whereas important deposits of late mesozoic age are found worldwide the occurrence of charcoal at the cretaceous tertiary boundary has been highlighted as evidence for a global fire following a meteorite impact but this interpretation is questionable charcoal has been widely reported from tertiary sediments and its appearance in the quaternary and recent is not solely as a result of human impact through the past 400 million years there have been major changes in atmospheric oxygen levels that affected fire intensity and frequency fire systems thus have a long history and their impact on shaping the environment is assessed

palaeoenvironments and faunal recovery after the end permian mass extinction abstract strata of the lower triassic werfen formation dolomites northern italy record deposition in a wide range of palaeoenvironments from peritidal to outer ramp settings this enables accurate assessment of faunal recovery following the end permian mass extinction by eliminating facies related effects extinction of the shelly taxa appears to be rapid and occurs in the latest permian tesero oolite horizon disappearance of the various trace fossil taxa appears to be more gradual following the extinction the lower and middle griesbachian are characterised by laminated sediments containing low diversity bedding plane assemblages ichnological geochemical and sedimentological data show evidence of widespread low oxygen conditions normally oxygenated waters return in the late griesbachian and there is a moderate increase in tiering above and below the surface macrofaunal and ichnofossil diversity decrease markedly during the smithian with the appearance of more terrigenous strata possibly reflecting an increased run off and more brackish conditions complete recovery begins in the basal spathian with an increase in tiering above and below the substrate crinoids and ammonoids appear for the first time in the werfen formation and the ichnogenus rhizocorallium re appears global correlation is hindered by poor biostratigraphy in the dolomites region however on a broad scale it appears as though many of the palaeoenvironmental changes are repeated worldwide current available data suggest that the re appearance of some trace fossil taxa e g diplocraterion rhizocorallium may be globally synchronous

formation processes of framboidal pyrite abstract pyrite framboid formation may be the result of four consecutive processes 1 nucleation and growth of initial iron monosulfide microcrystals 2 reaction of the microcrystals to greigite fe 3 s 4 3 aggregation of uniformly sized greigite microcrystals i e framboid growth and 4 replacement of greigite framboids by pyrite the uniform morphology uniform size range and ordering of the microcrystals in individual framboids as well as the range of observed framboid structures from irregular aggregates to densely packed spherical aggregates and polyframboids are consequences of these processes using dlvo theory derjaguin landau verwey and overbeek we have evaluated the stability of colloidal iron monosulfide suspensions with ionic strengths typical of marine and lacustrine waters in addition to van der waals attractive and double layer repulsive forces a term is included to account for the ferrimagnetic properties of greigite numerical models predict that magnetically saturated greigite particles 0 1 m in diameter will rapidly aggregate in either marine or fresh water the aggregation model is in agreement with the sequence of greigite formation followed by pyrite framboid formation established in a previous experimental study sweeney and kaplan 1973 and is consistent with the occurrence of framboids composed of other magnetic minerals e g greigite magnetite and magnesioferrite based on the temperature dependent magnetic properties of greigite and aging experiments in hydrothermal solutions this mechanism for framboid formation via precursor greigite could operate to temperatures of 200 c consistent with the occasional occurrence of pyrite framboids in the paragenesis of metalliferous ore deposits

proterozoic sedimentation and volcanism in the singhbhum crustal province india and their implications abstract the proterozoic volcano sedimentary succession comprising successively younger dhanjori chaibasa dhalbhum dalma and chandil formations of the singhbhum crustal province india records sedimentation and volcanism in a rapidly changing tectonic scenario cooling of the vast volume of archaean singhbhum granite possibly induced an isostatic readjustment the associated tensional regime and deep seated fractures controlled the formation of the proterozoic singhbhum basin the dhanjori formation unconformably overlies the singhbhum granite and is entirely terrestrial dominantly fluvial at the base the conglomerate deposits coarse grained sandstone and shale represent the distal fringe of an alluvial fan complex the rest of the formation including the volcaniclastic rocks consists almost entirely of fining upward fluvial cycles the base of the dhanjori formation is a sequence boundary and the formation itself represents a lowstand systems tract the dhanjori volcano sedimentary succession displays evidence of having passed through passive as well as active phases of continental rifting with an increasingly important influence of volcanism on the sedimentation through time the chaibasa formation sharply overlies the dhanjori formation and a transgressive lag demarcates their contact the basal part of the chaibasa formation immediately overlying the transgressive lag deposit represents a transgressive systems tract while offshore shales that sharply overlie the shallow marine sandstones up section represent marine flooding surfaces the shallow marine subtidal sandstones bear an excellent record of sandwave migration and provide a rare opportunity to unlock the late palaeoproterozoic lunar orbital periodicities unlike the chaibasa the overlying dhalbhum formation is entirely terrestrial fluvial aeolian indicating that the chaibasa dhalbhum contact is a sequence boundary the dalmas overlying the dhalbhum formation represents concordant lava outpourings without any break in sedimentation these lavas are genetically related to mantle plume upwelling in an intracontinental rift setting the volcano sedimentary package lying north of the dalma volcanic belt chandil formation is of mesoproterozoic age the entire late palaeoproterozoic volcano sedimentary package displays post depositional compressional deformation and greenschist to amphibolite facies metamorphism dated at ca 1600 ma forming the so called north singhbhum fold belt the volcano sedimentary package lying south of the dalma volcanic belt was pushed further south towards the singhbhum granite batholith complex as a result of uplift related to the dalma plume the singhbhum granite batholith acted as a rigid body this gave rise to a compressional stress regime that induced shearing thrusting at ca 1600 ma along the singhbhum shear zone the dalma plume magmatism was possibly part of a 1600 ma global tectono thermal event

trace element composition of iron oxides from iocg and ioa deposits relationship to hydrothermal alteration and deposit subtypes trace element compositions of magnetite and hematite from 16 well studied iron oxide copper gold iocg and iron oxide apatite ioa deposits combined with partial least squares discriminant analysis pls da were used to investigate the factors controlling the iron oxide chemistry and the links between the chemical composition of iron oxides and hydrothermal processes as divided by alteration types and iocg and ioa deposit subtypes chemical compositions of iron oxides are controlled by oxygen fugacity temperature co precipitating sulfides and host rocks iron oxides from hematite iocg deposits show relatively high nb cu mo w and sn contents and can be discriminated from those from magnetite hematite and magnetite ioa deposits magnetite iocg deposits show a compositional diversity and overlap with the three other types which may be due to the incremental development of high temperature ca fe and k fe alteration iron oxides from the high temperature ca fe alteration can be discriminated from those from high and low temperature k fe alteration by higher mg and v contents iron oxides from low temperature k fe alteration can be discriminated from those from high temperature k fe alteration by higher si ca zr w nb and mo contents iron oxides from ioa deposits can be discriminated from those from iocg deposits by higher mg ti v pb and sc contents the composition of iocg and ioa iron oxides can be discriminated from those from porphyry cu ni cu and volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits

u pb zircon geochronology and tempo of the end permian mass extinction the mass extinction at the end of the permian was the most profound in the history of life fundamental to understanding its cause is determining the tempo and duration of the extinction uranium lead zircon data from late permian and early triassic rocks from south china place the permian triassic boundary at 251 4 0 3 million years ago biostratigraphic controls from strata intercalated with ash beds below the boundary indicate that the changhsingian pulse of the end permian extinction corresponding to the disappearance of about 85 percent of marine species lasted less than 1 million years at meishan a negative excursion in 13 c at the boundary had a duration of 165 000 years or less suggesting a catastrophic addition of light carbon

middle late triassic 230 5 ma singularity in the stratigraphic and magmatic history of the pangean heat anomaly the phanerozoic history of continental dispersal and coalescence contains an epoch of radical change at about the middle late triassic boundary 230 5 ma marked by 1 the final coalescence of pangea by the contact of south china and cimmeria with laurasia and terminal compressive deformation in australia and southern africa and 2 the incipient dispersal of pangea by the onset of continental rifting in eastern north america and northwest africa argentina east africa and western australia this epoch of coalescence and incipient dispersal correlates with a change from 1 an icehouse state to a greenhouse state and 2 changes from a fall to a rise in the sea level curve in the emplacement of north american granite and in the cumulative curve of reversed to normal magnetic polarity these changes are interpreted as indicating the first major loss from the heat accumulated beneath pangea now represented by the atlantic african geoid high

permian phytogeographic patterns and climate data model comparisons abstract the most recent global icehouse hothouse climate transition in earth history began during the permian warmer polar conditions relative to today then persisted through the mesozoic and into the cenozoic we focus here on two permian stages the sakmarian 285 280 ma and the wordian 267 264 ma also known as the kazanian integrating floral with lithological data to determine their climates globally these stages postdate the permo carboniferous glaciation but retain a moderately steep equator to pole gradient judging by the level of floral and faunal differentiation floral data provide a particularly useful means of interpreting terrestrial paleoclimates often revealing information about climate gradations between dry and wet end member lithological indicators such as evaporites and coals we applied multivariate statistical analyses to the permian floral data to calibrate the nature of floral and geographical transitions as an aid to climate interpretation we then classified sakma

sr isotope evolution of seawater the role of tectonics we use a high resolution seawater sr isotopic evolution curve for the last 100 m y in conjunction with modern riverine sr flux measurements and also geologic tectonic and geochronological data to make the case for a close relationship between seawater sr isotopic composition and the india asia continental collision using a simple seawater sr budget model we begin by showing that the sr flux associated with alteration of seafloor basalts is too small and does not have the right time evolution to account for much of the seawater sr isotopic curve of the last 100 m y the flux of dissolved sr carried by rivers originating in the himalaya tibet region on the other hand is presently a significant fraction of the global sr budget we calculate how this riverine flux would have had to change with time in order to match the observed seawater sr isotopic curve and find that the riverine flux remains relatively constant prior to the collision of india with asia but then increases very significantly after collision we note that the period of most rapid change in seawater sr isotopic ratio from 20 ma to 15 ma is also a period of exceptionally high erosion in parts of the himalayas and the tibetan plateau as further evidence that sr derived from the collision of india with asia plays a major role in the sr isotopic evolution of seawater we show that the total amount erosion of the himalaya tibetan plateau since collision which we calculate separately represents a total amount of sr that is very nearly the same as the cumulative amount required by the sr isotopic change of seawater since collision the relationship between erosion and riverine sr flux allows us to use the sr isotopic evolution of seawater to reconstruct a history of erosion since collision and we find that the erosion rate accelerates with time since collision with the present having the largest rate when we apply the sr budget model to the entire phanerozoic using a new compilation of deformed continental area versus time we find that we can account for the large scale structure of the seawater sr isotopic curve but fail to reproduce several local maxima and minima especially in the period 100 300 ma the present high s7sr s6sr of seawater and similar highs in the devonian and cambrian do correlate with extensive deformation on the continents

trace elements in magnetite as petrogenetic indicators we have characterized the distribution of 25 trace elements in magnetite mg al si p ca sc ti v cr mn co ni cu zn ga ge y zr nb mo sn hf ta w and pb using laser ablation icp ms and electron microprobe from a variety of magmatic and hydrothermal ore forming environments and compared them with data from the literature we propose a new multielement diagram normalized to bulk continental crust designed to emphasize the partitioning behavior of trace elements between magnetite the melt fluid and co crystallizing phases the normalized pattern of magnetite reflects the composition of the melt fluid which in both magmatic and hydrothermal systems varies with temperature thus it is possible to distinguish magnetite formed at different degrees of crystal fractionation in both silicate and sulfide melts the crystallization of ilmenite or sulfide before magnetite is recorded as a marked depletion in ti or cu respectively the chemical signature of hydrothermal magnetite is distinct being depleted in elements that are relatively immobile during alteration and commonly enriched in elements that are highly incompatible into magnetite e g si and ca magnetite formed from low temperature fluids has the lowest overall abundance of trace elements due to their lower solubility chemical zonation of magnetite is rare but occurs in some hydrothermal deposits where laser mapping reveals oscillatory zoning which records the changing conditions and composition of the fluid during magnetite growth this new way of plotting all 25 trace elements on 1 diagram normalized to bulk continental crust and elements in order of compatibility into magnetite provides a tool to help understand the processes that control partitioning of a full suit of trace elements in magnetite and aid discrimination of magnetite formed in different environments it has applications in both petrogenetic and provenance studies such as in the exploration of ore deposits and in sedimentology

development of a largely anoxic stratified ocean and its temporary massive mixing at the permian triassic boundary supported by the sulfur isotopic record systematic sulfur isotope data for whole rock sulfides have been obtained from the chert dominated continuous pelagic sedimentary sequences spanning the permian triassic p tr boundary at tenjinmaru in the chichibu terrane and at sasayama in the tanba terrane in japan the p tr boundary is characterized by the occurrence of siliceous shales in association with a carbonaceous black mudstone which is similar in appearance to the worldwide distributed cretaceous tertiary k t boundary claystone the observed data clearly demonstrate a significant bimodalism the 34s 32s ratios with respect to cdt are generally low throughout the middle permian ca 39 to 25 0 and show a remarkable increase beginning in the lower upper permian and persisting into the lower triassic ca 20 to 2 0 with a temporary and drastic negative shift down to roughly the same isotopic level as in the middle permian just at the suspected p tr boundary ca 41 to 23 0 interestingly the mode of isotopic excursion across the p tr boundary is in striking contrast to that across the k t boundary which was recently described at kawaruppu in hokkado japan the apparent extent of fractionation with respect to contemporaneous seawater sulfate in the high 34s 32s group lies within the range of 25 10 0 which is quantitatively equivalent to the currently confirmed range of kinetic isotope effect during bacterial dissimilatory sulfate reduction and that in the low 34s 32s group mostly exceeds this range giving the values typically in the range of 45 10 0 which is similar to what is generally observed in the present day oceanic sediments the present data would provide strong evidence for the development of a largely stagnant anoxic stratified ocean which presumably began to form in the lower upper permian and persisted into the lower triassic and for a brief episode of its temporary massive mixing just at the suspected p tr boundary such an oceanic oxic anoxic history may account to some extent for the relatively high enrichments of chalcophile elements in basal triassic sediments in the world and add a significant constraint to the current arguments on the cause and consequence of the terminal permian mass extinction

a brachiopod calcite record of the oceanic carbon and oxygen isotope shifts at the permian triassic transition the permian triassic p t mass extinction was the most dramatic of all such events but its cause has thus far remained elusive1 3 carbon and oxygen isotope analyses may offer clues to this puzzle because their results identify major changes in the earth s exosystem4 5 several studies have already dealt with carbon and oxygen isotope records at the p t transition2 6 11 but we present here empirical data derived from the brachiopod shell calcite whose isotope composition generally corresponds to that of the sea water in which the animals lived originally12 15 these data allow us to assess quantitatively the magnitude of changes in the earth s exosystem during that critical time interval

the permo triassic extinction the end permian mass extinction brought the palaeozoic great experiment in marine life to a close during an interval of intense climatic tectonic and geochemical change improved knowledge of latest permian faunas coupled with recent advances in isotopic studies and biostratigraphy have greatly enhanced our understanding of the events of 250 million years ago and have begun to provide answers to many questions about the causes of extinction

radiolarian palaeoecology and radiolarites is the present the key to the past abstract radiolarian productivity pulses and related radiolarite deposition are phenomena difficult to understand from an exclusively actualistic viewpoint evolutionary selection pressure among silica secreting marine plankton both radiolarians and diatoms has led toward more economic usage of rapidly shrinking nutrient resources including dissolved silica of the photic zone in the late cenozoic oceans and in particular a substantial modification of oceanic cycle by the diatom explosive radiation even if there is a proved link between biomineralization and dissolved silica loading among the phytoplankton only the relative independence of modern siliceous planktic biotas from the available silica pool reflects mainly their progressive physiological specialisation during evolutionary history oceanic chemistry and productivity as well as patterns of circulation upwelling have changed radically during the phanerozoic radiolarites apparently represent an anachronistic facies as exemplified by their long lived and ocean wide distribution in palaeo pacific and hitherto highlighted actualistic models of localized intra oceanic wind driven upwelling loci are of largely questionable applicability in addition to plate drift hypersiliceous domains and intervals are explainable mostly by a large scale volcano hydrothermal activity during major plate boundary reconfigurations which in many ways favoured siliceous biotas acme and their skeletal remains accumulation and preservation factors tied to rapid voluminous submarine eruptions such as thermal buoyant megaplumes and basin overturns offer a viable alternative for traditional climatic circulation scenarios in case of hypersiliceous high productivity events irrelevant to greenhouse to icehouse climatic change the evolving carbon and silica cycles were coupled through the greenhouse effect and enhanced chemical weathering volcano hydrothermal and tectonic uplift events related mostly to extensive rifting and or accelerated oceanic spreading were the endogenous driving force that created this perturbation of the exogenous system the present biogeochemical cycle is representative only for the overall silica depleted post eocene oceanic ecosystems which broadly correlates with a major expansion of diatoms groups extremely efficient in silica removal and closely linking the silica budget with phosphorus and nitrogen cycles thus an orthodox uniformitarian approach to biosiliceous sedimentation based on a silica starved vigorous ocean is of limited significance when applied to the pre neogene settings especially in the peculiar planktic habitats of epeiric seas as well as during biotic crises marked by strong geotectonic overprint the major turnovers in marine siliceous biota composition in particular after the end permian radiolarite gap may have been coupled with discernible changes in an increasing biological control on the long term oceanic silica cycling punctuated equilibrium the evolutionary turnovers have induced a stepdown decrease of dissolved silica levels through the phanerozoic contemporaneously with the general secular trend of upward scaling of nutrient related ecological processes and increased effectiveness of resource utilization

temperature and biotic crises in the marine realm climatic change has been a prominent cause of marine mass extinction but areal restriction of seafloor during global regression has not late eocene and pliocene pleistocene cooling for example caused major extinctions but profound global oligocene and pleistocene regressions had little or no direct effect on benthic diversity recurrent themes of pre cenozoic marine crises suggest that global temperature change also served as a major and perhaps dominant agent of extinction in these events 1 mass extinctions have frequently been concentrated in the tropics which seem to have become a refrigerated trap from which there has been no escape biotas previously occupying high latitudes have shifted equatorward to replace disappearing tropical biotas 2 some crises were not instantaneous but followed protracted and pulsatile temporal patterns as would be predicted for complex global climatic crises 3 several mass extinctions coincided with recognized intervals of climatic cooling

sedimentation pattern and tectonic evolution of the proterozoic singhbhum basin in the eastern indian shield abstract the proterozoic singhbhum basin psb located on the flank of an archaean platform ca 3400 ma is a distinct lithotectonic unit of the singhbhum crustal province of the eastern indian shield the present contribution traces the evolution of this basin filled by volcanics dominated submarine supracrustals and sedimentary formations the proterozoic singhbhum basin has been identified to be a marginal basin evolved in a back arc setting an axial volcanic belt manifesting mor like basaltic eruptions divided the basin into two domains with parallel but distinct sedimentation patterns an asymmetry in sedimentation pattern and source polarity are documented in litho as semblages and ree distribution patterns of cover rocks in the basinal domain flanking the southern platform prevailing tectonics strongly controlled the mechanism of sedimentation which coupled with the volcanic history of the basin indicates its riftogenic character progressive lithospheric stretching successively produced picritic volcanics and mor type basalts along the axial zone of the basin being related to a stretching factor of 2 continental margin rifting ultimately resulted in an oceanic transition as supported also by available geophysical data the evolution of the proterozoic singhbhum basin in its broad perspective was controlled by subduction related processes

the terminal paleozoic fungal event evidence of terrestrial ecosystem destabilization and collapse because of its prominent role in global biomass storage land vegetation is the most obvious biota to be investigated for records of dramatic ecologic crisis in earth history there is accumulating evidence that throughout the world sedimentary organic matter preserved in latest permian deposits is characterized by unparalleled abundances of fungal remains irrespective of depositional environment marine lacustrine fluviatile floral provinciality and climatic zonation this fungal event can be considered to reflect excessive dieback of arboreous vegetation effecting destabilization and subsequent collapse of terrestrial ecosystems with concomitant loss of standing biomass such a scenario is in harmony with predictions that the permian triassic ecologic crisis was triggered by the effects of severe changes in atmospheric chemistry arising from the rapid eruption of the siberian traps flood basalts

the paleogeography of paleozoic and mesozoic storm depositional systems present day hurricane belts are confined to 5 45 latitude along the western edges of oceans whereas winter storms occur ubiquitously above 25 latitude both hurricanes and winter storms occur between 25 and 45 latitude in some areas storm zones can be identified on global paleogeographic maps with the assumption that this latitudinal zonation of storm systems existed in the geological past evaluation of 69 previously recognized paleozoic and mesozoic storm depositional systems on such maps showed that only 70 of them occur in ancient hurricane mixed hurricane and winter storm and winter storm belts the remainder occur on the western sides of continents and or at low paleolatitudes and therefore well may be of different origin mesozoic storm depositional systems containing hummocky stratification tend to occur in counterpart paleo winter storm belts whereas hummocky stratification in suggested paleozoic examples occur in both winter storm and hurricane belts and in paleolatitudes where we in

zoned chromites with high mn contents in the fe ni cr laterite ore deposits from the edessa area in northern greece the mineralogy of the transported fe ni cr laterite ore bodies from the edessa area in northern greece was studied the special emphasis was on the textural features and chemistry of chromite the chromite was residually inherited in laterites from weathered ultramafic rocks and it displays zonation three main zones were optically distinguished an inner chromite zone an intermediate ferritechromite zone and a magnetite rim these three zones have distinct compositions the major oxides mgo and al2o3 decrease from the chromite core to the ferritechromite zone while feot increases and cr2o3 either increases or decreases a characteristic chemical feature of the chromite is the very high mn content in the ferritechromite zone up to 20 wt mno chemical zonation has however been detected in optically unzoned chromite cores rimmed by magnetite the zoning and the high mn content of the chromite is a result of serpentinization in the presence of mn rich fluids following lateritic weathering and finally alpine low grade metamorphism

invisible gold occurrence within the quartz reef pyrite of babaikundi area north singhbhum fold and thrust belt eastern indian shield evidence from petrographic sem and epma studies abstract the mesoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks of chandil formation belong to the northern part of singhbhum crustal province eastern india the chandil formation lies within the north singhbhum fold and thrust belt and is demarcated at its southern margin by the dalma volcano sedimentary belt tamar porapahar shear zone tpsz separates the chandil formation from the meso neoproterozoic chhotanagpur granite gneissic complex cggc at its northern boundary the area is characterized by quartz mica sericite schist quartzite amphibolites and carbonaceous phyllites and is ubiquitously traversed by mineralized quartz reefs veins the field relationships and the petrographic characteristics of the lithounits of chandil formation indicate evidence of multi phase deformations exhibited by the presence of s c fabric s1 s2 planes of schistosity alternate layers of coarse and thin quartz veins the gold mineralization in the study area occurs along the east west oriented babaikundi birgaon axis which has been established as a sheared fractured contact running parallel to the tamar porapahar shear zone lying to the north gravity magnetic resistivity and induced polarization ip survey across the babaikundi birgaon axis indicates the presence of sheared fractured contact and sulfide mineralization the gold mineralization within the area is confined to the quartz reef along the contact of mica schist and ambhibolites ore minerals observed in the area are chalcopyrite pyrite pyrrhotite arsenopyrite and sphalerite the majority of the sulfide mineralization is associated with the ferruginous quartz veins gold occurs in two distinct forms as lodes nuggets and as invisible gold within the pyrite mineralization field observations reflected and transmitted light microscopic study sem analysis and electron probe micro analyzer epma were used to give a brief account of the mineral chemistry and presence of different forms of gold including the first report of invisible gold within north singhbhum fold and thrust belt the occurrence of gold in the crystal lattice of the pyrite may be attributed to the substitution and replacement of fe ion within the pyrite aided by the hydrothermal activity

mass extinctions and sea level changes abstract review of sea level changes during the big five mass extinctions and several lesser extinction events reveals that the majority coincide with large eustatic inflexions the degree of certainty with which these eustatic oscillations are known varies considerably thus the late ordovician and end cretaceous extinctions are associated with unequivocal major regressions demonstrated from numerous widespread regions in contrast the multiple high frequency sea level changes reported for the frasnian famennian crisis based on the supposed depth preferences of conodont taxa have little support from sequence stratigraphic analyses which reveals the interval to be one of highstand the end permian mass extinction has long been related to a severe first order lowstand of sea level newell n d 1967 revolutions in the history of life geol soc am spec pap 89 63 91 based primarily on the widespread absence of latest permian ammonoid markers but field evidence reveals that the interval coincides with a major transgression newell s hypothesis that marine extinctions are related to shelf habitat loss during severe regression remains tenable for the end guadalupian and end triassic extinction events but not for other crises rapid high amplitude regressive transgressive couplets are the most frequently observed eustatic changes at times of mass extinction with the majority of extinctions occurring during the transgressive pulse when anoxic bottom waters often became extensive the ultimate cause of the sea level changes is generally unclear a glacioeustatic driving mechanism can only be convincingly demonstrated for the end ordovician and end devonian events at other times it is speculated that they may relate to the widespread regional doming and subsequent collapse caused by the impingement of superplumes and ultimate eruption on the base of the lithosphere

altered river morphology in south africa related to the permian triassic extinction the permian triassic transition in the karoo basin of south africa was characterized by a rapid and apparently basin wide change from meandering to braided river systems as evidenced by preserved sedimentary facies this radical changeover in river morphology is consistent with geomorphic consequences stemming from a rapid and major die off of rooted plant life in the basin evidence from correlative nonmarine strata elsewhere in the world containing fluvial permian triassic boundary sections suggests that a catastrophic terrestrial die off of vegetation was a global event producing a marked increase in sediment yield as well as contributing to the global 13 c excursion across the permian triassic boundary

salinity stratification in the permian phosphoria sea a proposed paleoceanographic model the late permian phosphoria formation of the western united states contains 1 7 10 12 t of phosphate and locally as much as 32 9 total organic carbon the mineral wealth of the phosphoria formation is generally attributed to late permian upwelling along the western margin of the continent unlike in most modern environments upwelling in the late permian occurred proximal to a broad shallow evaporative sea rather than an abrupt continental margin evaporite deposits that are contemporaneous with the organic and phosphate rich strata are present within the phosphoria and adjacent basins elevated concentrations of the biomarker gammacerane are ubiquitous in the organic rich facies of the phosphoria formation which suggests that the basin was salinity stratified depositional environments incorporating both upwelling and salinity stratification are unusual and poorly documented in modern settings we infer the presence of salinity stratification in the phosphoria basin and propose a paleoceanographic model of the phosphoria sea during the deposition of organic and phosphate rich sediment from the western margin of the continent upwelling water flowed into the evaporative phosphoria sea replacing and overriding hypersaline bottom water that drained westward this paleoceanographic model of the phosphoria sea may help to explain the distribution and preservation of organic and phosphate rich strata in the phosphoria formation

the himalayas organic carbon burial and climate in the miocene cooling ages of rock in the himalayas imply that rapid exhumation between the main central thrust system and the south tibetan detachment system occurred between 21 and 17 ma the generation of relief and enhanced weathering which followed this event may have resulted in a pronounced increase in the delivery of dissolved strontium carbon phosphorus and other chemical weathering products to the ocean richter et al 1992 the increased supply of nutrients stimulated productivity in oceanic upwelling zones and expansion of the oxygen minimum zone leading to enhanced burial and preservation of organic matter in the monterey formation and other deposits from this interval a downdraw of atmospheric co2 associated with enhanced chemical weathering rates and organic matter burial may have led to global cooling and the expansion of the antarctic ice sheet by 15 ma the above scenario differs from the monterey hypothesis of vincent and berger in that co2 downdraw is primarily via silicate weathering rather than organic carbon burial and that organic carbon burial is driven by increased delivery of nutrients to the ocean rather than by stronger upwelling a carbon mass balance calculation which assumes that river fluxes have been increasing over the last 40 ma predicts that absolute organic carbon burial increased over this interval while at the same time the fraction of carbon buried as organic matter versus carbonate decreased this implies that the organic carbon cycle has acted as a net source of co2 to the atmosphere over the late cenozoic

genesis of metasomatic gold mineralization in the pahardiha rungikocha gold deposit eastern india constraints from trace element signatures in chromite cored magnetite and bulk rock geochemistry abstract the pahardiha rungikocha gold deposit is located south of the dalma volcano sedimentary belt within the north singhbhum mobile belt nsmb in the eastern part of india the rocks of this area have undergone three phases of deformation viz d1 d2 d3 while the d1 and d2 events signify progressive regional metamorphism the d3 stage was a consequence of continued n s compression resulting in e w trending displacement fractures this d3 deformation event was responsible for the mobilization of auriferous fluids within the host quartz chlorite schist and subsequent gold precipitation here gold occurs as native grains either within the cracks or along grain boundaries of euhedral pyrite detailed mineral paragenesis reveals that euhedral pyrite associated with gold is coeval with abundant chromite cored magnetite the chromite cored magnetite shows a complex paragenetic history i e an initial chromite alteration event followed by epitaxial growth of magnetite rims on the chromite cores as revealed by la icp ms trace element data and epma x ray compositional maps the paragenetic stages of the chromite cored magnetite is synchronous with the successive deformation events of the host rock the final phase of deformation is responsible for the formation of the chromite cored magnetite rims which is coeval with the gold mineralizing event these magnetite rims formed as a result of metasomatism brought about by the interaction of hydrothermal fluids with the wall rock the chromite cored magnetite trace element signatures resemble the high temperature ca fe alteration and high temperature k fe alteration facies reported from various iocg and ioa type deposits there is a distinct enrichment of mafic elements such as ni cr v mg v cu within magnetite rims a similar pattern of enrichment in mafic elements is also seen in the bulk rock geochemical data major element discrimination diagrams reveal that the chlorite schists evolved from a mixed provenance of felsic and mafic ultramafic rocks consequently the d3 induced metasomatism most likely resulted in preferential stripping of the mafic elements which is well reflected in the analyzed magnetite rims thus we propound that the bulk rock chemical composition of the host chlorite schist had a first order control on the chemistry of the chromite cored magnetite coeval with the gold mineralizing event given the fact that there are no causative igneous intrusions underlying the host chlorite schists we infer that the gold mineralizing fluids were intrabasinal in nature and were mobilized due to reactivation of pre existing faults and fractures during the d3 deformation event

abrupt climate change and transient climates during the paleogene a marine perspective detailed investigations of high latitude sequences recently collected by the ocean drilling program odp indicate that periods of rapid climate change often culminated in brief transient climates with more extreme conditions than subsequent long term climates two examples of such events have been identified in the paleogene the first in latest paleocene time in the middle of a warming trend that began several million years earlier the second in earliest oligocene time near the end of a middle eocene to late oligocene global cooling trend superimposed on the earlier event was a sudden and extreme warming of both high latitude sea surface and deep ocean waters imbedded in the latter transition was an abrupt decline in high latitude temperatures and the brief appearance of a full size continental ice sheet on antarctica in both cases the climate extremes were not stable lasting for less than a few hundred thousand years indicating a temporary or transient climate state geochemical and sedimentolog

rapid and synchronous collapse of marine and terrestrial ecosystems during the end permian biotic crisis a newly studied permian triassic p tr boundary section in jameson land east greenland contains an abundant and well preserved marine fauna as well as terrestrial palynomorphs for the first time it is possible to compare the biotic crises of the marine and terrestrial realms using the same samples from the same section the sediments record a negative excursion in 13 c carb values of 8 9 and in 13 c org values of 10 11 the presence of the conodont hindeodus parvus combined with the 13 c carb record enables correlation with the proposed global stratotype section at meishan this shows that the greenland section is the most expanded p tr section known collapse of the marine and terrestrial ecosystems took between 10 and 60 k y it took a further few hundred thousand years for the final disappearance of permian floral elements collapse of the terrestrial and marine ecosystems began at the same stratigraphic level and preceded the sharp negative excursion in the 13 c record

ocean stagnation and end permian anoxia ocean stagnation has been invoked to explain the widespread occurrence of organic carbon rich laminated sediments interpreted to have been deposited under anoxic bottom waters at the time of the end permian mass extinction however to a first approximation stagnation would severely reduce the upwelling supply of nutrients to the photic zone reducing productivity moreover it is not obvious that ocean stagnation can be achieved numerical experiments performed with a three dimensional global ocean model linked to a biogeochemical model of phosphate and oxygen cycling indicate that a low equator to pole temperature gradient could have produced weak oceanic circulation and widespread anoxia in the late permian ocean we find that polar warming and tropical cooling of sea surface temperatures cause anoxia throughout the deep ocean as a result of both lower dissolved oxygen in bottom source waters and increased nutrient utilization buildup of quantities of h2s and co2 in the late permian ocean sufficient to directly cause a mass extinction however would have required large increases in the oceanic nutrient inventory

field scale assessment of effective dilation angle and peak shear displacement for a footwall slab failure surface abstract when designing high steep footwall slopes an accurate assessment of the dilational shear strength component is necessary bedding surface profiles taken from a detailed digital terrain model of a slip surface exposed by a large slab type footwall failure were used to characterize the geometric roughness and dilation angles in the sliding direction the dilation angles predicted from best fit dilatancy curves are sensitive to the base distance or shear displacement the dilation angle for a given shear displacement or base distance is not sensitive to the profile length if it exceeds the typical in situ block size for the case history a 2d finite element analysis was performed to back calculate the effective dilation angle assuming no cohesion was present and the basic friction angle was 25 this analysis suggested that a dilation angle of 12 was required to create a condition of incipient slab failure using dilatancy curve equations it is possible to convert dilation angles back calculated from finite element stability analyses into shear displacements required to mobilize the peak strength the shear displacement required to mobilize a dilation angle of 12 is estimated to be 0 02 0 15 m for the slab failure that was studied analysis of profile geometries to estimate the shear displacement needed to reach peak shear strength will improve the interpretation of slope displacement monitoring data

δ13c depth profiles from paleosols across the permian triassic boundary evidence for methane release stable carbon isotopic analyses of organic carbon 13 c in individual paleosol profiles from permian triassic sequences of antarctica reveal systematic isotopic variations with profile depth these variations are in many cases analogous to those in modern soils which are functions of redox conditions soil development and degree and type of microbial decay in modern soils these isotopic depth functions develop independently from vegetation changes c 3 versus c 4 vegetation and can be diagnostic of soil orders this study shows that soil intrinsic functions can be preserved in the 13 c values of paleosols as old as 260 ma and constitute valuable data for paleoecological interpretations a large carbon isotopic offset of as much as 10 in whole paleosol profiles across the permian triassic boundary indicates significant changes in the soil biogeochemistry and the soil atmosphere system early triassic paleosols are distinctive in their extremely low 13 c values to 42 and often show an anomalous 13 c depth distribution compared to both permian paleosols and modern soils highly depleted 13 c values as the ones in early triassic paleosols are suggested to be associated with microbial methane oxidation methanotrophy this hypothesis implies increased methane concentrations in the early triassic soil atmosphere system increased atmospheric methane was probably partly responsible for the global carbon isotopic shift documented in marine and terrestrial sediments across the permian triassic boundary

a carbonaceous sedimentary source rock model for carlin type and orogenic gold deposits this paper presents evidence and arguments that carbonaceous sedimentary rocks were a source for au and as in sediment hosted orogenic and carlin type gold deposits and develops a corresponding genetic model in this two stage basin scale model gold and arsenic are introduced early into black shale and turbidite basins during sedimentation and diagenesis stage 1 and concentrated to ore grades by later hydrothermal structural or magmatic processes stage 2 in reduced continental margin basin settings organic matter sedimented under anoxic to euxinic conditions immobilizes and concentrates gold arsenic and a range of trace elements particularly v ni se ag zn mo cu u present in marine bottom waters into fine grained black mudstone and siltstone of slope and basin facies during early diagenesis gold and certain other trace elements ni se te ag mo cu pge are preferentially partitioned into arsenian pyrite that grows in the muds these processes produce regionally extensive black shale and turbidite sequences enriched in syngenetic gold and arsenic commonly from 5 to 100 ppb au and 10 to 200 ppm as rare organic and sulfide rich metalliferous black shales may contain up to 1 to 2 ppm au and over 1 000 ppm as present as refractory gold in arsenian pyrite and nanoparticles of free gold during late diagenesis and early metamorphism stage 2 the diagenetic arsenian pyrite is recrystallized to form coarser grained pyrite generations and the organic matter is cooked to bitumen under higher grade metamorphism lower greenschist facies and above arsenian pyrite in carbonaceous shales is converted to pyrrhotite these processes release gold arsenic sulfur and other elements sb te cu zn mo bi tl and pb from the source rocks to become concentrated by hydrothermal processes locally to produce gold ores in structural sites such as fold hinge zones shear or breccia zones within or above the black shale sequence la icp ms analyses of diagenetic pyrite in carbonaceous sediments both associated and not associated with gold deposits suggests that invisible gold contents of greater than 250 ppb in diagenetic pyrite are indicative of carbonaceous shale source rocks with the potential to produce economic gold deposits application of this sedimentary source rock model enables a systematic exploration approach for sediment hosted gold deposits based on the distribution composition and structure of carbonaceous shale sequences and their contained diagenetic pyrite

a new model for atmospheric oxygen over phanerozoic time a mathematical model has been constructed that enables calculation of the level of atmospheric o2 over the past 570 my from rates of burial and weathering of organic carbon c and pyrite sulfur s burial rates as a function of time are calculated from an assumed constant worldwide clastic sedimentation rate and the relative abundance and c and s contents of the three rock types marine sandstones and shales coal basin sediments and other non marine clastics red beds arkoses by our model values of o2 versus time using a constant total sedimentation rate agree with those for variable sedimentation derived from present day rock abundances and estimates of erosional losses since deposition this agreement is the result of our reliance on the idea that any increase in total worldwide sediment burial with consequently faster burial of c and s and greater o2 production must be accompanied by a corresponding increase in erosion and increased exposure of c and s on the continents to o2 consumption via weathering it is the redistribution of sediment between the three different rock types and not total sedimentation rate that is important in o2 control to add stability to the system negative feedback against excessive o2 fluctuation was provided in the modeling by the geologically reasonable assignment of higher weathering rates to younger rocks resulting in rapid recycling of c and s we did not use direct o2 negative feedback on either weathering of c and s or burial of c because weathering rates are assumed to be limited by uplift and erosion and the burial rate of c limited by the rate of sediment deposition the latter assumption is the result of modern sediment studies which show that marine organic matter burial occurs mainly in oxygenated shallow water and is limited by the rate of supply of nutrients to the oceans by rivers results of the modeling indicate that atmospheric o2 probably has varied appreciably over phanerozoic time during the late carboniferous and permian periods o2 was higher than previously because of the rise of vascular land plants and the widespread burial of organic matter in vast coal swamps a large decrease in o2 during the late permian was due probably to the drying up of the coal swamps and deposition of a large proportion of total sediment in c and s free continental red beds sensitivity study shows that major parameters affecting results are the mean c concentration in coal basins and the relative sizes of the reservoirs of young rapidly recycled versus old rocks less sensitivity was found for changes over time in total land area undergoing weathering and the use of direct o2 negative feedback on marine carbon burial good agreement for rates of c burial calculated via our model and via independent models which are based on the use of stable carbon isotopes indicates that the dominant factor that has brought about changes in atmospheric o2 level and the isotopic composition of dissolved inorganic carbon in seawater over phanerozoic time is sedimentation and not weathering or higher temperature phenomena such as basalt seawater reaction

petrogenesis and geochronology of the arkasani granophyre and felsic dalma volcanic rocks implications for the evolution of the proterozoic north singhbhum mobile belt east india the north singhbhum mobile belt nsmb is a 200 km long curved proterozoic fold thrust belt that skirts the northern margin of the archean singhbhum craton of ne india the singhbhum shear zone ssz developed between the dhanjori and chaibasa formations near the southern margin of the nsmb and represents an important cu u p metallotect a shrimp u pb zircon date of 1861 6 ma obtained for the syn to post kinematic arkasani granophyre that has intruded the ssz provides a minimum age for the prolonged tectonic activity and mineralization along the ssz and for the time of closure of the chaibasa and dhanjori sub basins the dalma volcanic belt a submarine rift related bimodal mafic felsic volcanic suite forms the spine of the nsmb a shrimp u pb zircon igneous crystallization date of 1631 6 ma was obtained for an unfoliated felsic volcanic rock from the base of the dalma volcanic sequence these new findings suggest that the different sub basins in the nsmb evolved diachronously under contrasting tectonic environments and were juxtaposed during a later orogenic movement

breakouts in alberta and stress in the north american plate the paper reports a detailed statistical study of breakout azimuths in 48 oil wells widely distributed in the alberta sedimentary basin bringing the number of oil wells contributing azimuths to 94 for the western canadian basin the azimuths show significant regional variation between the northern central and southern parts of the basin twenty one wells in which breakouts cover depth ranges greater than 600 m were used to investigate regression of breakout azimuths on depth ten wells give positive regression coefficients 11 are negative and no coefficient is significant at 95 confidence level if the dominant northwest southeast orientation of the long axes of breakouts gives the orientation of the lesser horizontal principal stress sh following the hypothesis of bell and gough the inferred stress orientations indicate that throughout the whole basin the direction of the maximum horizontal stress sh is northeast southwest stress measurements by strain relief techniques in a mine and from hyd

stress induced response from both natural and construction related processes in the deepening of the peace river valley b c the peace river rises in the rocky mountain trench and flows easterly through the rocky mountains before flowing onto the plains in northeastern british columbia near the alberta border stress measurements conducted at two of three damsites near the boundary of the foothills and the plains reveal high remnant lateral stresses and a k0 of about 2 in proceeding 90 km downriver from the w a c bennett dam past the peace canyon dam to the proposed site c dam near fort st john the stratigraphic section changes from competent massive sandstones of lower cretaceous age to soft weak shales at the top of the lower cretaceous section valley downcutting by the peace river through these highly stressed rocks has led to valley rebound features that have both similarities and differences where observed at each of the three damsites differences in rock strength at each site contribute to the variations in features noted these valley rebound features include vertical relief joints horizontal bedding plane join

alteration facies linkages among iron oxide copper gold iron oxide apatite and affiliated deposits in the great bear magmatic zone northwest territories canada high temperature metasomatism driven by ascent of voluminous saline fluid columns in the upper crust plays a major role in the genesis of iron oxide alkali alteration ore systems but fundamental questions remain on genetic linkages among iron oxide copper gold iocg iron oxide apatite ioa albitite hosted uranium and skarn deposits that they produce excellent surface exposures of such systems in the great bear magmatic zone of northernwestern canada record the depth to paleosurface prograde evolution of iron oxide alkali alteration facies and mineralization across the belt albitite corridors that are tens of kilometers in length record the earliest reactions between highly saline fluids and host rocks along fault zones and subvolcanic intrusions pervasive albitization partitioned metals from the host rocks into the ascending fluid column leaving behind structurally weakened corridors of porous albitite these corridors were cut replaced and overprinted by amphibole and magnetite bearing calcic iron alteration assemblages in extreme cases the discharge of calcium iron and specialized metals formed iron oxide apatite deposits vanadium rare earth elements while recharging the outgoing fluids in sodium potassium and base and precious metals as temperatures declined and fluid chemistry evolved through fluid rock reactions the formation of potassic iron alteration assemblages breccias and sulfides resulted in magnetite and hematite group iocg mineralization within carbonate units skarns formed prior to are replaced by and evolved to calcic iron alteration facies skarns can locally host base metal mineralization tectonically uplifted albitite breccias replaced by potassic iron alteration assemblages became a preferential host for uranium mineralization the results of this study also illustrate that permutations and cyclical build up of alteration products can arise from a combination of faulting differential uplift and renewed magmatism framed within an alteration facies deposit model alteration zones and mineral occurrences play a pivotal role in predicting the mineral potential of iron oxide and alkali altered systems at district to deposit scales

sedimentation history of the palaeoproterozoic dhanjori formation singhbhum eastern india abstract the palaeoproterozoic dhanjori formation eastern india is a terrestrial dominantly fluvial volcano sedimentary succession basal conglomerate coarse grained sandstone and shale rests directly on the granite basement and represents the distal fringe of an alluvial fan complex sieve sheet flood mass flow and alluvial channel and overbank deposits comprise the fan segment the rest of the formation is entirely constituted by fining upward fluvial cycles an event of basin tilting and volcanic eruption intervened and resulted a second phase of dhanjori sedimentation although the general fluvial depositional framework remained unaltered the two members of the dhanjori formation display different paleocurrent trends related to fluvial response to basin tilting in the lower member spatial variability in paleocurrent directions occurs as a consequence of fan development unlike the first phase the second phase of fluvial deposition incorporates profuse volcanics and accompanying volcaniclastic deposits these volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks might have locally blocked the river courses resulting in short lived lacustrine deposition composition of the volcanics varies upward from ultramafic to mafic the dhanjori volcanism took place in an intracontinental rift setting as is evident from the interbedded terrestrial deposits interbedded volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks in different stratigraphic levels suggest episodic volcanic eruption a semiarid paleoclimate is proposed and is consistent with development of an alluvial fan comprised of coarse clastic deposits

geochemical evidence supporting t c chamberlin s theory of glaciation in 1899 t c chamberlin proposed that the co sub 2 content of the atomsphere decreased during times of enhanced continental erosion ultimately resulting in glacial epochs he ascribed the increase in the rate of chemical weathering relative to the rate of supply of co sub 2 from earth s interior to increased orogenic activity and globally higher average elevations which promoted rapid chemical erosion of silicates the oceanic record of strontium isotopes preserved in marine sediment supports his suggestion that glacial climates during the phanerozoic are in part linked to increases in the rate of global chemical erosion relative to outgassing from earth s interior further the close correspondence of the major tectonic episodes of the late cenozoic to times of increased continental erosion and glaciation suggests that chamberlin s hypothesis of the cause of glacial periods should be revived

the composition of permian seawater forty nine brine inclusions in marine halite from the ochoan salado formation in the delaware basin and fifteen inclusions in halite from the leonardian wellington formation in the kansas basin were extracted and their chemical compositions were determined the brines are of the na k mg cl so4 type their compositions resemble those of evaporated modern seawater the values of mcl mna mbr and mmg2 mca2 mso42 12 mmhco3 mbr of the inclusion brine from the two formations are equal to or slightly higher than those of modern seawater the original mna mbr and mcl mbr ratios of the inclusion brines were probably equal to or slightly larger than those of modern seawater the values of mmg2 mbr of the inclusion brines from the salado formation are very close to that of modern seawater the ratios of inclusion brines from the wellington formation are slightly lower probably due to the formation of dolomite magnesite the mmg2 mbr ratio in the initial seawater was probably close to the parent seawater of the salado brines the values of mso42 mca2 12mhco3 mbr of the inclusion brines appear to be reduced by the formation of dolomite magnesite and the value of this ratio in permian seawater was probably similar to that of modern seawater the mk mbr ratios of the inclusion brines are variable but the original ratios are probably close to or slightly larger than that of modern seawater if the br concentration of permian seawater was equal to that of modern seawater the composition of permian seawater can be narrowly constrained in mmol kg h2o 460 mna 630 550 mcl 730 mmg2 54 6 mk 11 mso2 4 mca2 12mmhco3 17 20 mso42 45 5 mca2 20 and 0 15 mhco3 5 the composition of permian seawater was therefore quite similar to that of modern seawater

a model for atmospheric co 2 over phanerozoic time a new model has been constructed for calculating the level of atmospheric co sub 2 over phanerozoic time which is much simpler mathematically than the blag model but more complex geologically and biologically results suggest that there has been a notable pattern of varying atmospheric co sub 2 level over the past 570 my with high levels during the mesozoic and early paleozoic and low levels during the permo carboniferous and late cenozoic sensitivity analysis shows that within reasonable limits of the principal governing parameters this qualitative trend of varying co sub 2 is relatively insensitive to the actual values chosen for these parameters causes of the co sub 2 variation are multiple and no single geological or biological process can be called upon to explain all co sub 2 variation for all time the calculated trend of co sub 2 over time agrees well with independent estimations of paleoclimates thus the greenhouse theory of paleoclimate on a long geological time scale is supported by the results of the present study

chromite in komatiites ii modification during greenschist to mid amphibolite facies metamorphism chromite compositions in komatiites are influenced by metamorphic chromite is highly susceptible to modification during processes particularly above 500 c metamorphosed chromite is early hydrous alteration and subsequent prograde metasubstantially more iron rich than igneous precursors as a result of morphism of host rocks this modification is the subject mg fe exchange with silicates and carbonates chromite metaof this paper morphosed to amphibolite facies is enriched in zn and fe and metamorphic modification of chromite has been disdepleted in ni relative to lower metamorphic grades relative cussed extensively in the literature in the context mainly of proportions of the trivalent ions cr al and fe are not ophiolitic or alpine ultramafic complexes onyeagocha greatly modified by metamorphism up to lower amphibolite facies 1974 ulmer 1974 evans frost 1975 hoffman although minor fe depletion occurs during talc carbonate alwalker 1978 loferski lipin 1983 kimball 1990 teration at low temperature significant al is lost from chromite burkhard 1993 and in a few studies of komatiitic rocks cores above 550 c as a result of equilibration with fluids in bliss maclean 1975 donaldson 1983 gole hill equilibrium with chlorite elevated zn content in chromite is 1990 and in a detailed study of the pechenga intrusions restricted to rocks with low metamorphic mg fe ratios and is abzalov 1998 these studies have highlighted two the result of introduction of zn during low temperature alteration important effects first chromites become rimmed and with further concentration and homogenization during prograde progressively replaced by chromian magnetite or fermetamorphism cobalt and mn also behave similarly except where ritchromit second chromite core compositions become carbonate minerals are predominant in the metamorphic assemblage progressively modified during prograde metamorphism chromite at amphibolite facies is typically extensively replaced by as a result of exchange of components with surrounding magnetite this is the result of incomplete metamorphic reaction silicate minerals evans frost 1975 abzalov 1998 between chromite and chlorite bearing silicate assemblages magthis paper examines the nature and magnitude of these netite compositions at the inner chromite magnetite boundary are effects in komatiites from a variety of localities in the indicators of metamorphic grade eastern goldfields province of the archaean yilgarn block in western australia fig 1 brief locality descriptions are given in appendix b

growth and demise of permian biogenic chert along northwest pangea evidence for end permian collapse of thermohaline circulation abstract the permian chert event pce was a 30 ma long episode of unusual chert accumulation along the northwest margin of pangea and possibly worldwide the onset of the pce occurred at about the sakmarian artinskian boundary in the sverdrup basin canadian arctic where it coincides with a maximum flooding event the ending of high frequency high amplitude shelf cyclicity the onset of massive biogenic chert deposition in deep water distal areas and a long term shift from warm to cool water carbonate sedimentation in shallow water proximal areas a similar and coeval shift is observed from the barents sea to the northwestern usa a landward and southward expansion of silica factories occurred during the middle and late permian at which time warm water carbonate producers disappeared completely from the northwest margin of pangea biotically impoverished and increasingly narrow cold water carbonate factories characterised by non cemented bioclasts of sponges bryozoans echinoderms and brachiopods were then progressively replaced by silica factories by late permian time little carbonate sediments accumulated in the barents sea and in the sverdrup basin where the deep to shallow water sedimentary spectrum was occupied by siliceous sponge spicules by that time biogenic silica sedimentation was common throughout the world silica factories collapsed in the late permian abruptly bringing the pce to an end in northwest pangea the end permian collapse of the pce was associated with a major transgression and with a return to much warmer oceanic and continental climatic conditions chert deposition resumed in the distal oceanic areas during the early middle triassic anisian after a 8 10 ma interruption early triassic chert gap the conditions necessary for the onset expansion and zenith of the pce were provided by the thermohaline circulation of nutrient rich cold waters along the northwestern and western margin of pangea and possibly throughout the world oceans these conditions provided an efficient transportation mechanism that constantly replenished the supply of silica in the area created a nutrient and oxygen rich environment favouring siliceous biogenic productivity established cold sea floor conditions hindering silica dissolution while increasing calcium carbonate solubility and provided conditions adverse to organic and inorganic carbonate production the northwest margin of pangea was for nearly 30 ma bathed by cold waters presumably derived from the seasonal melting of northern sea ice the assumed engine for thermohaline circulation this process started near the sakmarian artinskian boundary intensified throughout middle and late permian time and ceased suddenly in latest permian time it led to oceanic conditions much colder than normally expected from the palaeolatitudes and the influence of cold northerly derived water was felt as far south southern nevada the demise of silica factories was caused by the rapid breakdown of these conditions and the establishment of a much warmer marine environment accompanied by sluggish circulation and perhaps a reduced input of dissolved silica to the ocean complete thawing of northern sea ice would have ended thermohaline circulation and led to warm and sluggish oceanic conditions inimical to the production accumulation and preservation of biogenic silica

warm saline bottom water in the ancient ocean considerable isotopic evidence indicates that oceanic bottom water was much warmer in the geological past a simple convection model driven by multiple turbulent buoyant plumes and observations of present deep water formation have led to the development of a theory for the formation of warm saline bottom water it is suggested that changes in the size and configuration of marginal seas in net evaporation zones due to lithospheric plate motions and eustatic sea level change caused these seas to become sources of warm saline bottom water evidence from the palaeotemperature record and palaeogeography during the late cretaceous is used to reinforce the hypothesis climatic and chemical consequences of the formation of warm saline bottom water are discussed

an ecologic explanation for the permo triassic carbon and sulfur isotope shifts the boundary between late permian and early triassic stratigraphic sequences is characterized by the onset of a marked shift in the isotopic composition of both marine carbonates and sulfates the abrupt 3 decrease in the carbon isotope ratio of carbonates and the more gradual 5 increase in the sulfur isotope ratio of sulfates can be explained by changes in the nature of the earth s ecosystems induced by the massive permo triassic extinctions we propose that the continental ecosystem responsible for the preservation and burial of organic matter during permian time was disrupted and that the relatively efficient marine food web of permian time was replaced by a less efficient system which allowed for a greater fraction of the marine organic matter to reach the seafloor these changes were reflected by a major shift in the depositional environment for the reduced component of material accumulating in sediments during the permian organic carbon burial on the continents dominated whereas during the triassic deposition of organic carbon on the seafloor dominated allowing sulfides to become an important component of the reduced phase

some aspects of the permian triassic boundary ptb and of the possible causes for the biotic crisis around this boundary abstract the first appearance datum fad of hindeodus parvus is an excellent datum very close to the base of the otoceras woodwardi zone priority base of the triassic for the first time it allows an exact correlation of the ptb in all marine facies and faunal realms the following features of the extinction and recovery patterns near the ptb are most important for the search for causes of the ptb biotic crisis 1 most strongly affected were the siliceous plankton radiolarians and the warm water benthos and nekton 2 most of the cold water faunas were not significantly affected 3 the recovery of the warm water benthos and siliceous plankton occurred only after an unusually long time during the late olenekian and middle triassic 4 the productivity of the terrestrial plants dropped strongly and the recovery was mainly in the upper olenekian and in the middle triassic 5 several terrestrial extinction events occurred at different levels within the upper permian considerable before the marine ptb at or close to the fad of lystrosaurus no extinction event in the terrestrial faunas can be observed 6 terrestrial faunal elements that survived the dzhulfian dorashamian extinctions were able to survive some months of extreme climatic conditions by hibernation like life stages vertebrates or by dry and freezing resistant eggs conchostracans 7 about 50 of the genera that disappeared at the ptb re appeared in the olenekian middle triassic interval lazarus taxa or in this time interval genera appeared that had undoubtedly evolved from genera that had disappeared at the ptb and 8 the ptb is preceded by mass occurrences of marine and continental fungi and the fungal spike ends abruptly a little before the ptb a scenario for the ptb biotic crisis is elaborated that takes into consideration the real not interpolated diversity patterns of different marine and continental fossil groups the exact correlation of bioevents in different faunal realms and facies the strong biotic crisis in the tethyan warm water faunas in contrast to the much weaker biotic event in cold water faunas the severe dzhulfian dorashamian climate in many parts of the world caused by the continent ocean configuration and by siberian trap volcanism the cooling of the boreal area by the northward drift of pangaea that interrupted the exchange of warm water benthos between the tethys and western north america during the guadalupian the extinction event at the guadalupian lopingian boundary that restricted most of the affected warm water faunas to the tethys the importance of lower scythian anoxia that reached an unusually shallow level and above all the effects of the contemporaneous huge volcanic events about 250 m y ago on the siberian platform and in the eastern tethys that caused a 3 6 months lasting volcanic winter with strong cooling in low latitudes followed by a strong global warming

a unique geochemical record at the permian triassic boundary a 330 metre core drilled through the marine permian triassic boundary in the carnic alps of austria allows closely correlated studies of geochemistry petrography and palaeontology across the boundary the isotope shifts and metal concentrations are extended multiple and complex and do not resemble those seen at the cretaceous tertiary boundary both the carbon isotope shifts and the chemical events including an indium anomaly may have causes related to a major regression of the sea

evolution of the proterozoic rift margin sediments north singhbhum mobile belt jharkhand orissa india abstract the proterozoic north singhbhum mobile belt nsmb a proterozoic rift basin registered a complex interplay of tectonism and sedimentation the siliciclastic sedimentary succession developed along the southern margin of the nsmb offers a deep insight into the changing pattern of sedimentation in response to crustal dynamism along a rift margin stratigraphic sedimentologic structural and tectonic studies of the proterozoic sedimentary succession bisrampur formation indicate deposition in a series of half grabens developed successively along the margin of the rift basin under the influence of lithospheric stretching analyses of the sedimentary facies attributes and the architecture of the studied sedimentary succession and paleocurrent patterns indicate filling of the half grabens by archean basement derived siliciclastic sediments in an alluvial fan fan delta environment the structural elements developed in these sediments and neighboring rock units suggest that deformation and final collapse of the half graben basins took place during a terminal orogeny on the basis of an integrated analysis of the dataset generated in the present study and the database available in published work a comprehensive evolutionary model of the north singhbhum mobile belt is reconstructed

parallel trends in organic and inorganic carbon isotopes across the permian triassic boundary stable carbon isotope ratios in both inorganic and organic reservoirs have been widely applied to model environmental and sedimentological changes on a global scale most studies dealing with major extinction events have used the record of inorganic carbon in this paper the authors report the relation between shifts in carbon 13 content of organic matter and coexisting carbonate fractions at a major extinction event the permian triassic boundary they found that both delta sup 13 c sub carb and delta sup 13 c sub org of the surface ocean varied dramatically across the boundary but the fractionation delta sup 13 c between organic matter and carbonate remained constant this result appreciably restricts the interpretation of changes in the carbon cycle during this critical interval the new data are best explained by a combination of two mechanisms for variation in delta sup 13 c sub carb 1 burial and erosion of organic carbon with a long time constant and 2 sequestration of organic carbon into shallow and deep oceanic reservoirs with a shorter time constant for application to their case the first mechanism is limited by possible buildup of marine pco sub 2 which would increase the isotopic fractionation factor the second mechanism is limited in application to short term transient variations in delta sup 13 c modelingmore of the carbon cycle and its variations of delta sup 13 c must take both mechanisms into account less

evaluation of the tectonic setting of precambrian dalma volcanic belt eastern india using major and trace element characters geochemical characterisation of dalma basalt the upper member of a volcanic belt occupying the spine of a precambrian basin has been used to elucidate the eruptive environment dalma basalt in general is high magnesian in character as well as depleted in incompatible elements the major and trace element distributions are strongly indicative of ocean ridge magmatism with a feeble impression of arc volcanism such a transitional tectonic environment corroborated by the overall geologic setting of the volcanic belt is strongly indicative of a marginal basin situation during proterozoic time in this part of the indian shield

causes and consequences of extreme permo triassic warming to globally equable climate and relation to the permo triassic extinction and recovery permian waning of the low latitude alleghenian variscan hercynian orogenesis led to a long collisional orogeny gap that cut down the availability of chemically weatherable fresh silicate rock resulting in a high co2 atmosphere and global warming the correspondingly reduced delivery of nutrients to the biosphere caused further increases in co2 and warming melting of polar ice curtailed sinking of o2 and nutrient rich cold brines while pole to equator thermal gradients weakened wind shear and associated wind driven upwelling lessened further diminishing productivity and carbon burial as the earth warmed dry climates expanded to mid latitudes causing latitudinal expansion of the ferrel circulation cell at the expense of the polar cell increased coastal evaporation generated o2 and nutrient deficient warm saline bottom water wsbw and delivered it to a weakly circulating deep ocean warm deep currents delivered ever more heat to high latitudes until polar sinking of cold water was replaced by upwelling wsbw with the loss of polar sinking the ocean was rapidly filled with wsbw that became increasingly anoxic and finally euxinic by the end of the permian rapid incursion of wsbw could have produced 20 m of thermal expansion of the oceans generating the well documented marine transgression that flooded embayments in dry hot pangaean mid latitudes the flooding further increased wsbw production and anoxia and brought that anoxic water onto the shelves release of co2 from the siberian traps and methane from clathrates below the warming ocean bottom sharply enhanced the already strong greenhouse increasingly frequent and powerful cyclonic storms mined upwelling high latitude heat and released it to the atmosphere that heat trapped by overlying clouds of its own making suggests complete breakdown of the dry polar cell resulting rapid and intense polar warming caused or contributed to extinction of the remaining latest permian coal forests that could not migrate any farther poleward because of light limitations loss of water stored by the forests led to aquifer drainage adding another 5 m to the transgression non peat forming vegetation survived at the newly moist poles climate feedback from the coal forest extinction further intensified warmth contributing to delayed biotic recovery that generally did not begin until mid triassic but appears to have resumed first at high latitudes late in the early triassic current quantitative models fail to generate high latitude warmth and so do not produce the chain of events we outline in this paper future quantitative modeling addressing factors such as polar cloudiness increased poleward heat transport by deep water and its upwelling by cyclonic storms and sustainable mid latitude sinking of warm brines to promote anoxia warming and thermal expansion of deep water may more closely simulate conditions indicated by geological and paleontological data

the source and fate of massive carbon input during the latest paleocene thermal maximum lithologic faunal seismic and isotopic evidence from the blake nose subtropical western north atlantic links a massive release of biogenic methane 55 5 million years ago to a warming of deep ocean and high latitude surface waters a large perturbation in the combined ocean atmosphere carbon cycle the largest of the past 90 million years a mass extinction event in benthic faunas and a radiation of mammalian orders the deposition of a mud clast interval and seismic evidence for slope disturbance are associated with intermediate water warming massive carbon input to the global exogenic carbon cycle pelagic carbonate dissolution a decrease in dissolved oxygen and a benthic foraminiferal extinction event these events provide evidence to confirm the gas hydrate dissociation hypothesis and identify the blake nose as a site of methane release

benthic phosphorus regeneration net primary production and ocean anoxia a model of the coupled marine biogeochemical cycles of carbon and phosphorus we examine the relationships between ocean ventilation primary production water column anoxia and benthic regeneration of phosphorus using a mass balance model of the coupled marine biogeochemical cycles of carbon c and phosphorus p the elemental cycles are coupled via the redfield c p ratio of marine phytoplankton and the c p ratio of organic matter preserved in marine sediments the model assumes that on geologic timescales net primary production in the oceans is limited by the upwelling of dissolved phosphorus to the photic zone the model incorporates the dependence on bottom water oxygenation of the regeneration of nutrient phosphorus from particulate matter deposited at the water sediment interface evidence from marine and lacustrine settings modern and ancient demonstrates that sedimentary burial of phosphorus associated with organic matter and ferric oxyhydroxides decreases when bottom water anoxia dysoxia expands steady state simulations show that a reduction in the rate of thermohaline circulation or a decrease of the oxygen content of downwelling water masses intensifies water column anoxia dysoxia and at the same time increases surface water productivity the first effect reflects the declining supply of oxygen to the deeper parts of the ocean the second effect is caused by the enhanced benthic regeneration of phosphorus from organic matter and ferric oxyhydroxides sedimentary burial of organic carbon and authigenic calcium phosphate mineral francolite on the other hand is promoted by reduced ocean ventilation according to the model global scale anoxia dysoxia leads to a more efficient recycling of reactive phosphorus within the ocean system consequently higher rates of primary production and organic carbon burial can be achieved even when the continental supply of reactive phosphorus to the oceans remains unchanged

sedimentation history of the paleoproterozoic singhbhum group of rocks eastern india and its implications abstract this paper reviews the sedimentological geochemical and stratigraphic characteristics of the paleoproterozoic chaibasa and dhalbhum formations the singhbhum group of eastern india and presents a comparative study with other paleoproterozoic lithostratigraphic units of india both the formations are entirely siliciclastic and deformed and metamorphosed generally at greenschist to upper amphibolite facies the older chaibasa formation consists of sandstone shale and sandstone shale interbanded heterolithic facies it conformably overlies the late archean paleoproterozoic dhanjori formation of terrestrial alluvial fan fluvial origin the lower chaibasa member formed in a marine setting the shale and heterolithic facies formed in a continental shelf setting below and above the storm wave base respectively the sandstone facies formed in a subtidal setting during sea level fall in contrast the upper chaibasa member formed in a shallow marine setting both the shale and heterolithic facies formed above the storm wave base in significant contrast the overlying dhalbhum formation is dominated by finer clastics with much lower proportion of sandstones the base of the terrestrial dhalbhum formation is a sequence boundary unconformity sedimentary facies analysis clearly shows two broad facies association of terrestrial origin fluvial and aeolian the aeolian facies association overlies the fluvial facies association the dhalbhum sandstones show typical ree pattern of quartz dilution with lower concentrations compared to the mudstones the dhalbhum finer clastics mimic typical ree patterns resembling abundances in the continental crust rare earth element plots display a good match with post archean australian shales paas including similar concentrations steep negative slope for lrees negative eu anomaly and nearly flat hrees the singhbhum paleoproterozoic succession is devoid of both chemical sediments and paleoproterozoic glacial deposits in contrast to neighboring cratons

application of a new in situ 3d laser scanner to study the scale effect on the rock joint surface roughness application of a new in situ 3d laser scanner to study the scale effect on the rock joint surface roughness

could changing ocean circulation have destabilized methane hydrate at the paleocene eocene boundary 1 during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm 55 ma marine and terrestrial carbon isotope values exhibit a negative shift of at least 2 5 indicative of massive destabilization of marine methane hydrates releasing 2000 gigatons of methane carbon the cause of the hydrate destabilization is unknown but has been speculated to be warming due to a change from high latitude to low latitude deepwater formation here we present results from a numerical ocean model indicating that a sudden switch of deepwater formation from southern to northern high latitudes caused middepth and deep ocean warming of 3 5 c the switch is caused by a slow increase in the intensity of the atmospheric hydrologic cycle as expected under increasing temperatures and consistent with petm sedimentary evidence deepened subtropical subduction prior to the thermohaline circulation switch causes warming of 1 4 c in limited areas at thermocline through upper intermediate depths which could destabilize methane hydrates gradually and at progressively greater depths warming accompanying a south to north switch in deepwater formation would produce sufficient warming to destabilize seafloor gas hydrates over most of the world ocean to a water depth of at least 1900 m

characterization of bi planar and ploughing failure mechanisms in footwall slopes using numerical modelling abstract footwall slopes refer to unbenched rock slopes in which the slope face is parallel to a set of persistent discontinuities e g bedding planes foliation faults these are commonly encountered in weak thinly bedded orthogonally jointed sedimentary rock sequences common failure mechanisms include bi planar failures where shallow dipping crosscutting structures daylight near the slope toe enabling sliding to occur along steep dipping bedding planes in the absence of crosscutting structures failure occurs through deformation and rock mass yielding involving the formation of inter block shear and toe breakout surfaces because of the complexity of the toe breakout mechanism evaluation methods are not well understood an improved understanding of the failure mechanism the role of adverse discontinuities and characterization of the discontinuity intact rock and rock mass strength properties are key for a successful footwall stability analysis this paper investigates the development of the inter block shear and toe breakout surfaces with three approaches i continuum based frictional plasticity theory ii discontinuum based distinct element modelling with voronoi tessellation using the commercial software udec and iii hybrid continuum discontinuum finite discrete element brittle fracture modelling using the commercial software elfen numerical simulations using elfen and udec demonstrated a good agreement with frictional plasticity theory ploughing failure of footwall slopes is also evaluated specifically the influence of cross cutting discontinuity dip angle relative to the slope face the effects of different geometrical parameters e g slope angle and depth height ratio on bi planar and ploughing failure are assessed using a sensitivity analysis approach a damage intensity parameter is introduced and used to quantify damage in the numerical simulations using elfen

secular distribution of biogenic silica through the phanerozoic comparison of silica replaced fossils and bedded cherts at the series level abstract the modern marine silica cycle is dominated by silica secreting phytoplankton principally diatoms but this cycle has evolved considerably during the phanerozoic we analyzed the temporal distribution of silica replaced fossils and bedded chert to determine the influence of factors such as extinctions and climate change on siliceous facies trends in silica replacement of fossils match faunal radiations during the ordovician and siluro devonian with peaks in silica replacement in the late ordovician and middle devonian corresponding to peaks in the abundance and diversity of siliceous sponges sharp drops in the abundance of silica replaced fossils and or bedded cherts coincide with four of the five major mass extinctions no discernible decrease marks the extinction at the end of the triassic we expected peaks in bedded chert deposition during glacial episodes because enhanced ocean circulation should favor more and stronger upwelling orogenic episodes which may trigger continental glaciati

geochemical and sm nd isotopic characteristics of the late archaean palaeoproterozoic dhanjori and chaibasa metasedimentary rocks singhbhum craton e india implications for provenance and contemporary basin tectonics abstract in significant contrast to other cratonic blocks of india the singhbhum cratonic successions record continuous depositional record from the palaeoarchaean to mesoproterozoic although the sedimentary facies characteristics and mode of stratigraphic sequence building of the dhanjori and chaibasa formations are well known sedimentary geochemistry provenance and tectonic milieu of deposition of these two formations are hitherto unknown the current manuscript presents geochemical and sm nd isotopic data from the dhanjori and chaibasa formations for the first time and combine previous sedimentological data with the goal to expand the framework for understanding the depositional and tectonic setting of these two formations the sm nd isotopic data for the chaibasa clastics is unambiguous with respect to provenance average nd t 2 2 ga 0 8 1 0 and average nd model age tdm 2 51 0 08 ga with average 147 sm 144 nd ratios 0 1114 0 0041 for phyllites and quartzites indicate an extremely homogeneous source signature consistent with a late archaean juvenile crustal provenance possibly a dominantly upper crustal provenance the sm nd isotopic data from the older dhanjori formation also indicate broadly similar provenance as comparable lithologies in the younger chaibasa formation our sm nd isotopic data is entirely consistent with the previous sedimentological data and confirms a terrestrial rift dominated tectonic setting for the dhanjori formation proximal sources poorly mixed provenance and a marginal marine to offshore setting for the more homogeneous nd isotopic signature of the chaibasa formation distal sources well mixed provenance

empirical estimation of rock mass modulus the deformation modulus of a rock mass is an important input parameter in any analysis of rock mass behaviour that includes deformations field tests to determine this parameter directly are time consuming expensive and the reliability of the results of these tests is sometimes questionable consequently several authors have proposed empirical relationships for estimating the value of rock mass deformation modulus on the basis of classification schemes these relationships are reviewed and their limitations are discussed based on data from a large number of in situ measurements from china and taiwan a new relationship based upon a sigmoid function is proposed the properties of the intact rock as well as the effects of disturbance due to blast damage and or stress relaxation are also included in this new relationship