styles of failure in late holocene highstand prodelta wedges on the adriatic shelf on the continental shelves of the northern mediterranean basin the late holocene highstand systems tract hst prograded un der the influence of major rivers after the attainment of the present sea level highstand about 5 5 cal kyr bp on the adriatic shelf the thickness distribution of the late holocene hst reflects the location of major deltas on the western side of the basin and the geostrophic cir culation which prevents a more uniform sediment dispersal toward the center of the basin very high sediment accumulation rates 1 to 10 cm year resulted in the construction of a hst depocenter up to 35 m thick this shore parallel depocenter is affected by failure of limited displacement over as much as 40 of its extent gas impregnation is common in the topset region and occurs at very shallow levels a few meters below the sea floor five areas are characterized by a variety of sea floor and subsurface crenulations although locally some of these crenulations have an intriguingly regular geometry sediment failure is the most plausible mechanism for their formation sediment failure better explains the large variety of geometries that characterizes the coastal mud prism of the late holocene hst furthermore we observe that these crenulations occur only where the downlap surface at the base of the hst is disrupted and affected by geometries that are con sistent with fluid escape processes this relationship suggests that the basal surface acts as a weak layer for sediment failure failure occurred in variable water depths from the northern slope of the modern po prodelta 10 20 m water depth to the narrow shelf offshore bari 40 110 m water depth in all these areas the proximal part of the hst prodelta wedge is intensely gas charged the thickness and age of the sediment sections affected by failure are slightly differ ent from place to place but appear everywhere younger than 5 5 cal kyr bp where failure affects the entire hst the detachment occurs on the downlap surface at its base failure geometries characterize the head region whereas compressional features such as pressure ridges and mud diapirs dominate in the toe region ranging in depth between 70 and 110 m where failure is limited to the upper few meters of the hst there is a clear lithologic change decrease in carbonate fraction and grain size across the basal surface this lithological change reflects a switch in sediment supply from local apennine rivers below to po derived mud this change occurred at the onset of the little ice age documenting the indirect control of short term climate change and hu man impact on sediment architecture the deformations affecting the late holocene hst in the various areas show differences in internal geometry but appear everywhere to be characterized by limited downward displacement and can be attri buted to shear dominated retrogressive failure it is suggested that some degree of consolidation occurred immediately after mobilization possibly induced by the escape of fluids nowhere has failure evolved into disintegration and flow likely because the type of cyclic loading that triggered it was not prolonged over a long enough interval short lived radionuclides in the uppermost stratigraphic layers which postdate the failure in the area offshore ortona allowed us to quantify systematic changes in sediment accumulation rates as a func tion of the underlying deformed sea floor in areas of wavy sea floor troughs show sediment accumulation rates of greater than 16 mm yr a figure that is fourfold the rate measured on the flanks of the troughs

bison and deer bone mineral densities comparisons and implications for the interpretation of archaeological faunas abstract volume bone mineral densities are derived for modern bison skeletal parts using dual energy x ray densitometry these density measurements are compared to those published by lyman 1984 journal of anthropological archaeology3 259 299 for small cervids differences that exist can be explained in terms of body size and patterns of locomotion density data then are compared to skeletal part frequencies from two great plains bison assemblages bison bone mineral densities provide a more appropriate model than do cervid densities for examining variability in large bovid bone assemblages and point to the need for constructing similar data bases for other taxa

role of depositional dynamics and riverine input in shaping microbial benthic community structure of po prodelta system nw adriatic italy abstract to understand to what extent depositional dynamics and riverine input contribute to shape the microbial benthic community structure in coastal systems surface sediments were collected along one nearshore and two land sea transects in the po river prodelta and analyzed for lithology sediment structures grain size short lived radioisotopes 7be and 137cs and organic matter om quantity and origin c n stable isotopes the most recent surface supply i e 5 6 mo sup layer and the underneath older sub surface deposits i e 6 mo sub layer were analyzed at six selected sampling sites and checked for possible differences in the microbial community abundance and structure according to different depositional dynamics three distinct groups of sites were detected nearshore muddy and sandy sites and offshore sites sedimentary records reflected the interplay of different elements and or processes acting in this complex and highly dynamic system river derived sediments as depicted by high contribution of silty particles and recent riverine om inputs were confined to nearshore locations in front of the main river mouth they resulted highly correlated to bacterial distribution and prokaryotic abundances in sup layer nevertheless in subsurface sediments affected by the delivery of high amount of mud potential burial phenomena and or the development of anoxic conditions occurred leading to a change in the bacterial community structure we speculated that the decrease of gamma and increase of delta proteobacteria in the sub layer could be related to their sulfur oxidizing and sulfate reducing activities respectively on the other hand at offshore sites the presence of a low and regular sedimentary input and less intense hydrodynamic conditions favored a more stable microbial structure across surface and subsurface sediments four discriminating proxies such as grain size representing the system energy total n as an indicator of land derived nutrient inputs 7be as a tracer of the freshness of riverine discharge and stable c isotope as an indicator of the type and age of om mainly summarize the complex relationships between sedimentary dynamics and bacterial community structure in the po river prodelta area

resolving sea ice dynamics in the north western ross sea during the last 2 6 ka from seasonal to millennial timescales abstract time series analyses of satellite images reveal that sea ice extent in the ross sea has experienced significant changes over the last 40 years likely triggered by large scale atmospheric anomalies however resolving how sea ice in the ross sea has changed over longer timeframes has until now remained more elusive here we used a laminated sediment piston core 14 6 m collected from the edisto inlet western ross sea to reconstruct fast ice dynamics over the last 2 6 ka our goal was to first understand the climate expression of selected well defined sediment laminae and then use these characteristics for reconstructing past sea ice behaviour across the whole sedimentary sequence we used the recently established sea ice diatom biomarker proxy ipso25 in combination with diatom census counts and bulk analyses analyses performed on a suite of discrete laminae revealed statistically significant differences between dark and light laminae reflecting different depositional conditions based on their respective biogeochemical fingerprints we infer that dark laminae accumulated during sea ice thaws in early summer under these conditions laminae contain relatively high concentrations of ipso25 and display an enriched 13c composition for the bulk organic matter om while diatom assemblages in dark laminae are relatively homogenous as the thaw continues later in the summer corethron pennatum becomes the dominant diatom species resulting in the formation of light laminae characterized by low ipso25 concentrations since c pennatum can migrate vertically through the water column to uptake nutrients and avoid competition in oligotrophic waters its high concentration likely reflects stratified and ice free surface waters typical of late summer down core trends show that the correlation between sediment brightness and geochemical fingerprint i e ipso25 and 13c holds throughout the record based on the knowledge gained at lamina level our down core high resolution reconstruction shows that the summer fast ice coverage changed dramatically during the late holocene specifically we conclude that the edisto inlet experienced regular early summer opening between 2 6 ka and ca 0 7 ka after which coastal fast ice persisted during summer months and ice free conditions became less frequent comparison with previous regional ice core data suggests that the sudden cooling recorded over the victoria land coast region since 0 7 ka might potentially explain our observation of persistent summer fast ice in the western ross sea our study has shown that multi proxy data derived from laminated sediments can provide hitherto unknown detail regarding past summer sea ice dynamics in coastal antarctic regions

chromium and nickel as indicators of source to sink sediment transfer in a holocene alluvial and coastal system po plain italy abstract a reliable quantitative estimate of changes in source to sink sediment transfer requires that high resolution stratigraphic studies be coupled with accurate reconstructions of spatial and temporal variability of the sediment routing system through time source to sink patterns from the contributing upland river catchments to the deltaic and coastal system are reconstructed from the holocene succession of the po plain on the basis of selected geochemical indicators sediment supplied to the delta area by the major trunk river the po exhibits naturally high cr and ni values which invariably exceed the maximum permissible concentrations for unpolluted sites this anomaly reflects remarkable sediment contribution from ultramafic ophiolitic parent rocks cropping out in the po drainage basin western alps and nw apennines in contrast alluvial and coastal plain deposits supplied by ophiolite free apenninic catchments invariably display lower cr and ni contents for constant sediment provenance domain cr and ni distribution is observed to be controlled primarily by hydraulic sorting clay silt deposits floodplain swamp and lagoon bay facies associations invariably show higher metal concentrations than their sandy counterparts fluvial channel distributary channel and beach ridge facies associations from a stratigraphic perspective in sedimentary basins characterized by strong differences in sediment composition geochemical fingerprinting of individual facies associations framed by surfaces of chronostratigraphic significance is proposed as an invaluable approach towards an accurate quantitative assessment of sediment storage in alluvial and coastal depositional systems as opposed to volumetric reconstructions based on lithologic or geometric criteria alone

particle transport in the bari canyon southern adriatic sea to define the sediment transport pathways along the southern adriatic shelf and slope two oceanographic cruises were carried out in the southern adriatic in july 2004 and in march april 2005 to study the role of the bari canyon system on sediment dispersal three moorings including sediment traps and current meters have been deployed near the bottom at depths of 600 m for one year march 2004 march 2005 two moorings were deployed within the canyon station b in the northern branch and station c in the southern branch and one on the adjacent open slope north of the canyon system station a total mass fluxes tmfs measured by sediment traps were always higher in the canyon than on the adjacent slope the highest values were measured at station c average 8 07 g m 2 d 1 roughly double those of station b 3 07 g m 2 d 1 and the lowest outside the canyon at station a 1 69 g m 2 d 1 the highest tmf were recorded in spring 2004 a period characterized by the lowest water temperatures and the highest current speeds up to 72 cm 1 which were associated with the highest across slope current component along the canyon axes the simultaneous variations of fluxes occurring at the three stations imply that similar processes are active along the entire southern adriatic margin and that they are amplified inside the canyon in spring a vein of southward flowing north adriatic dense water naddw was observed along the adriatic shelf this was related to an enhanced across slope current component which was responsible for the higher particle fluxes both on the open slope and at the canyon stations these data suggest that the bari canyon is an efficient conduit for sediment from the adriatic continental shelf to the deep basin downcore profiles of 210 pb in sediments collected below the traps have been used to estimate sediment mass accumulation rates mars on a century scale on the open slope the annual trap flux recorded in 2004 2005 was lower than mar on the contrary in the bari canyon the annual trap flux was higher than mar indicating that the lateral advection of particles becomes predominant and that a fraction of the particles intercepted by sediment traps was only in transit through the canyon 2007 elsevier b v all rights reserved

role of sedimentary environment in the development of hypoxia and anoxia in the nw adriatic shelf italy abstract in order to understand to what extent inner shelf sediments can feed or even induce bottom hypoxia and anoxia events frequently recorded in the nw adriatic nwad shelf we analyse sediment lithology water content oxidation and 7 be and 137 cs as well as differences as x values of grain size eh ph organic carbon oc total nitrogen tn c n and 13 c between surface sup and sub surface sub layers at 28 sampling sites south of the po delta the sup level represents the active sedimentation still mobile and 2 the sub level represents the already consolidated deposition essentially definitive in order to eventually identify the shelf areas with a predisposition to hypoxia environmental indicators are obtained by the differences between the two layers of grain size as of sub oc and tn as of sup concentrations as well as of eh ph c n and 13 c absolute values the results show a nw zone characterised by coarse sediments with sand concentrations of 46 90 dry weight d w low oc tn and fine sediment contents in presence of c n eh 200 mv a central area where we found a reactive bottom environment due to the accumulation and burial along the coast of fresh reactive organic matter om probably formed within the reno river and in the sacca di goro in the southern area the coastal stations are characterised by clay sediment 50 67 d w at shallow depths the distribution patterns of the two radioisotopes indicate that riverine material deposited close to the po delta has a relatively younger component whereas river derived sediments are relatively older on the se shelf the high activity of 7 be and 137 cs found along the er coast appears also to confirm that river derived organic rich fine sediments remain inshore we therefore argue that this material whose accumulation and burial is probably favoured by the presence of mussel farms as well as by local morphology and hydrodynamic conditions contribute to the lowering of redox potential of sup as well as sub sediments we conclude that the persistence or even the increase of anoxia in the nw shelf area could be due to the role of hypoxic reactive shelf sediments which favours the fast onset of anoxia even with limited inputs of new fresh om and or during short period of water stratification

the precision of porosity measurements effects of sample pre treatment on porosity measurements of modern and archaeological bone abstract bone porosity plays an important role in the taphonomic trajectory of bones porosity analysis of archaeological material can indicate diagenetic events in the bones taphonomic history furthermore measuring the porosity of modern bone material can potentially provide a method for assessing the relative likelihood of survival for different skeletal elements here we critically assess the use of nitrogen adsorption porosimetry and mercury intrusion porosimetry for analysing porosity of a range of bone preservation types from modern fresh material to highly degraded archaeological material in addition a number of sample preparation methods were assessed our results indicate that bone porosity measurements show large variation which may limit their usefulness when analysing modern material features observed in pore size distribution graphs are however consistent and thus this data would appear to be a useful indicator of diagenetic processes that have occurred in the bone the most effective method for preparation of the bone is lyophilisation which renders the bone dry enough for analysis and does not appear to cause a visible systematic error in the measurements

the dynamics of the coastal region of the northern adriatic sea abstract the northern half of the adriatic sea is constituted by the continental shelf with very shallow depths 20 m in the northernmost extremity in particular the new coastal region adjacent to the italian coastline forms a shallow strip with isobaths running parallel to the coast and a topography gently increasing towards the interior of the basin in the region immediately south of the po river delta the major source of fresh water input into the adriatic important eutrophication phenomena have recently occurred in summer the controversial question thus arises whether these eutrophication phenomena are to be ascribed to nutrient inputs from local sources or from the po river waters carried southward parallel to the italian coastline in the general cyclonic gyre characterizing the adriatic yearly average circulation the dynamically important question is then whether and how a localized source of freshwater drives the nearcoastal shelf circulation to answer this question a multi level hydrodyn

benthic ostracoda and foraminifera from the north adriatic sea italy mediterranean sea a proxy for the depositional characterisation of river influenced shelves abstract we investigated the distribution of ostracoda and benthic foraminifera from the shallow 20 m diversified meiofaunal assemblages occur with ostracoda discriminating sediment starved areas enriched in sand our results demonstrate that the combined use of ostracoda and benthic foraminifera represents a powerful tool for the depositional characterisation of river influenced shelves and to achieve detailed palaeogeographical reconstructions from shallow marine successions

changes in the composition of organic matter from prodeltaic sediments after a large flood event po river italy abstract the po river italy experienced a 100 year flood in october 2000 surface sediments 0 1 cm from cross shelf transects were collected in the po prodelta area adriatic sea in december 2000 in order to describe the distribution of organic matter om along the main sediment dispersal system immediately after the flood event stations were subsequently reoccupied in october 2001 and april 2002 this sampling program provided a special opportunity to characterize the initial surficial flood deposit and the evolution of its associated om over the course of 2 years cuo oxidation elemental 13 c 14 c and grain size analyses were carried out to characterize the source age and spatial variability of sedimentary om statistical analysis permanova was then applied to investigate temporal changes in different portions of the po prodelta area isotopic and biomarker data suggest that the sedimentary om in the flood deposit was initially dominated by aged 14 c dec 00 298 7 56 3 lignin poor om dec 00 1 96 0 33 mg 100 mg oc adsorbed on the fine material clay dec 00 72 1 4 8 delivered by the flood in the 2 years following the flood post depositional processes significantly increased the content of lignin oct 01 2 19 0 51 mg 100 mg oc apr 02 2 61 0 63 mg 100 mg oc and coarse material silt and sand while decreasing the contributions from aged oc 14 c oct 01 255 7 32 8 14 c apr 02 213 2 30 4 and fine fraction clay oct 01 54 8 9 5 clay apr 02 44 6 13 3 the major changes were observed in the northern and central portions of the prodelta

the late holocene gargano subaqueous delta adriatic shelf sediment pathways and supply fluctuations the gargano subaqueous delta formed on the eastern and southeastern sides of the gargano promontory in the western adriatic this subaqueous deposit represents the southernmost portion of the late holocene highstand systems tract hst growing along the western side of the adriatic as an extensive wedge of deltaic and shallow marine mud the late holocene hst rests above a regional downlap surface that marks the time of maximum landward shift of the shoreline attained around 5 5 cal kyr bp at the end of the late pleistocene holocene sea level rise high resolution seismic stratigraphic and tephra correlation indicate the presence of a thin basal unit recording condensed deposition between 5 5 and 3 7 cal kyr bp over much of the basin above this unit sediment accumulation rates increased to high values as much as 1 5 cm yr 1 reflecting the stabilisation of relative sea level and the forcing from high frequency climatic or anthropogenic changes affecting river dynamics the late holocene mud wedge of which the gargano subaqueous delta is a significant component reaches up to 35 m in thickness and has a volume of ca 180 km3 the shore parallel thickness distribution of the mud wedge reflects the dominant oceanographic regime of the basin and the asymmetric location of the mostly western sediment sources with a combined modern delivery of 51 7 106 t yr 1 of mean suspended load in sections perpendicular to the coast the late holocene mud wedge appears composed of forestepping clinoforms with gently dipping foresets typically 0 5 the gargano subaqueous delta is characterised by a submarine topset in water depths shallower than 25 28 m and accounts for about 1 7th of the total volume of the late holocene mud wedge despite the absence of direct river supply to the gargano area in the area of maximum interaction between shore parallel currents and basin morphology progradation occurs onto a flat and barren bedrock outcrop in about 50 80 m water depth the rapid transition from a thickness of 30 m of late holocene mud to nil is a good indication of the role of southward flowing bottom hugging shelf currents in causing the redistribution of sediment along the adriatic inner shelf additional evidence of this regime comes from 1 the most recent sigmoid defined at seismic stratigraphic scale deposited since the onset of the little ice age showing a shore parallel thickness distribution and a main depocentre to the southeast of the gargano promontory 2 the maximum values of sediment accumulation rates over the last century documented by 210pb measurements defining a narrow shore parallel belt immediately seaward of the depocentre of the most recent sigmoid the gargano subaqueous delta grows from the outbuilding of progressively younger progradational sigmoids that tend to parallel the previous ones the gargano subaqueous delta differs from other documented late holocene subaqueous deltas because its growth reflects 1 sediment transport dominated by bottom currents sub parallel to the strike of the composing clinoforms 2 a complex supply regime including the po delta 350 km to the north and several coalescing apennine rivers acting as line source 3 several alternating intervals of enhanced outbuilding and condensed deposition and 4 an in phase growth of the most recent sigmoid with the major progradation of the po delta during the little ice age

understanding fine grained river sediment dispersal on continental margins studies of fine grained sediment dispersal in the marine environment have documented diversity in the behavior of depositional systems on continental margins with different oceanographic conditions and morphologies based on the pattern and nature of sediment accumulation for twenty three case studies we propose there are five basic types of dispersal systems and these are related to river wave tide and margin characteristics data suggest that the type of dispersal system on any margin can be predicted with knowledge of sediment load mean significant wave height tidal range and continental shelf width at a river mouth and from these a hierarchical decision tree is developed analysis of the dispersal system type of more than 100 river mouths reveals that proximal accumulation dominated pad and marine dispersal dominated mdd systems are most abundant but estuarine accumulation dominated ead systems also are anticipated to be numerous globally research quantifying marine sediment dynamics in these system types is needed although less common the size and nature of subaqueous delta clinoform sdc and canyon captured cc systems also warrant future attention to their study strong correlations between physical characteristics i e significant wave height and tidal range and the depth and distance to the nearest maximum shelf depocenter provide evidence that in reality a continuum exists between the system types the process related partitioning of sediment in the five different types of marine dispersal systems has important implications for understanding the stratigraphic record and the cycling of carbon

revisiting the late permian coal from the huayingshan sichuan southwestern china enrichment and occurrence modes of minerals and trace elements abstract the late permian coals from the huayingshan coalfield of southwestern china are significantly enriched in zr 695 g g nb 75 9 g g se 6 99 g g hf 10 1 g g and rare earth elements and y 1423 g g previous studies showed that the sediment source region for these coals was the kangdian upland which was formed at an early stage of the late permian period the source rocks have a basalt composition and those studies attributed the enrichment of the above high field strength elements hfses to derivation from the kangdian upland geochemical and mineralogical data presented in this study show that the dominant sediment source regions for the coal and roof strata of the huayingshan coalfields are the dabashan uplift hannan upland and leshan longnvsi uplift the highly elevated concentrations of hfses in the coals are due to hydrothermal fluids three tonstein layers derived from alkali rhyolite were identified these tonsteins are characterized by highly enriched hfses and by strong negative eu anomalies in the rare earth element distribution patterns the major carriers of the rare earth elements in the coal are rhabdophane and silicorhabdophane the latter of which is also enriched in zr zirconium however mainly occurs in zircon rhabdophane and silicorhabdophane in the coal are mainly distributed along the bedding planes and occur as cell fillings zircon in the coal occurs as cell fillings and is of authigenic origin anatase in the partings and coals contains nb and occurs as fracture filling and colloidal forms the modes of occurrence of the above minerals indicate that they were derived from hydrothermal fluids mercury and se mainly occur in sulfide minerals pyrite and marcasite

chemical investigation of mineralisation categories used to assess taphonomy abstract a recent case study from the geelbek dunes archaeological site in western cape province south africa revealed that counter to prevailing notions long term bone survivorship is not always linked to estimates of bone density porosity differences between modern cancellous and compact bones of different animals and skeletal parts provided density estimates for fossil bones taphonomic history was inferred from the physical condition and mineral burden of the fossil bones and represented by five mineralisation categories bones in mineralisation category one had the lowest secondary mineral burden whereas samples with very high secondary mineral contents were considered category five here we examine the proposed link between mineralisation category and taphonomic history by analysing fossils with non destructive energy dispersive x ray fluorescence spectroscopy we hypothesised that higher mineralisation categories should be evident as higher concentrations of elements associated with secondary minerals however chemical measurements could not distinguish fossil bones in mineralisation category one from those in category three furthermore bones in categories four and five could not be distinguished from one another a control of modern bone specimens and fossils in mineralisation category two formed separate and distinct clusters of principal component score values spectra from the geelbek dunes specimens were subsequently used to predict mineralisation categories for fossils from a nearby archaeological locality named anyskop blowout based on the surface chemistry anyskop fossils clustered in two principal groups low mineralisation categories one two and three and high mineralisation categories four and five energy dispersive x ray fluorescence spectroscopy provided useful taphonomic information for fossils from both the geelbek dunes and anyskop blowout although this surface biased technique was not well correlated with the five mineralisation categories

application of geometric morphometrics to the analysis of cut mark morphology on different bones of differently sized animals does size really matter abstract recent techniques applied to taphonomy have made advances in our understanding of bone surface modifications for many years differences in bone density according to element and variations in animal size have been considered conditioning factors for many taphonomic processes while several studies highlight how animal size and density affect fracture patterns and bone preservation rates variations in cut mark morphology are yet to be confronted against these variables here we assess the effect of these variables and their potential effect on cut mark morphology by comparing a considerable amount of cut marks on different anatomical elements of both suids and bovids experimentally produced cut mark samples were then digitally reconstructed using a david laser scanner that allowed the statistical analysis of each cut mark s shape and form geometric morphometric analysis using 2d and 3d landmark models were unable to find substantial differences in cut mark morphologies caused by either element type of carcass size

late pleistocene and holocene paleoenvironmental reconstruction of a drowned karst isolation basin losinj channel ne adriatic sea abstract the results of a comprehensive study of submerged paleoenvironments developed along the karstified eastern adriatic coast during the late quaternary are presented in this study the losinj channel is a drowned karst basin filled with sediments a multi proxy analysis of two sediment cores lk 12 and lk 15 recovered from water depths of 62 and 64 m was conducted we used magnetic susceptibility grain size mineralogy xrf core scanning organic and inorganic carbon total nitrogen and paleontological data supplemented with ams 14c dating results and high resolution seismic data to reconstruct the infill history of the losinj basin during the late pleistocene and holocene our findings include the first detailed description of the presumed marine isotope stage mis 5a marine sediment succession along the eastern adriatic coast deposition in the brackish to freshwater lacustrine body losinj paleolake occurred during mis 3 sea level lowstand that followed caused the formation of environmental conditions typical of a karst polje the post last glacial maximum lgm sea level rise led to the establishment of a brackish marine lake with seawater seepage through the karstified sill at 13 7 cal kyr b p the transition to the present day marine conditions commenced at 10 5 cal kyr b p paleoenvironmental changes in the investigated area can be linked to the presence of a sill at 50 m depth that separates the losinj basin from the kvarneric bay the sill depth determines the isolation or inundation of the investigated basin in response to the changes in sea level paleoenvironments reacted sensitively to these changes and therefore the study area represents an ideal setting to track regional sea level and climate variabilty

distribution and stable isotopes of plant wax derived n alkanes in lacustrine fluvial and marine surface sediments along an eastern italian transect and their potential to reconstruct the hydrological cycle reconstructing terrestrial water budgets is of prime importance for understanding past climate and environment to shed more light on how plant wax derived n alkanes may be used for this purpose we investigated the distribution and stable isotopic compositions of hydrogen d and carbon 13c of plant wax derived n c29 and c31 alkanes in terrestrial coastal and offshore surface sediments in relation to hydrology along a nw se transect east of the italian apennines from the po river to the eastern gulf of taranto the plant wax average chain length increases southward and may relate to increasing temperature and or aridity the plant wax d of the terrestrial and coastal samples also increases southward and mainly reflects changes in the d of precipitation the 13c of plant waxes is primarily interpreted in terms of c3 vegetation changes rather than varying contributions by c4 plants the plant wax 13c d composition of the po river and apennine rivers differs considerably from that in southern italy and suggests a mainly southern source for plant waxes in marine sediments of the gulf of taranto this calibration provides a basis for the reconstruction of past changes in the italian water balance and n alkane source areas

organic and inorganic associations of rare earth elements in central appalachian coal abstract coal contains trace amounts of rare earth elements ree they are either in the form of discrete minerals or chemically bound to organic matter methods of distinguishing the organic and inorganic associations of ree in coal have been mostly based on the correlations between the ree concentrations and the ash yields quantitative characterization of organically associated ree is still very challenging in this work we confirm the existence of organically associated ree in coal and present an approach to quantifying its mass fraction the coal sample used in this study was a cleaned low ash coal collected from a coal preparation plant in kentucky usa and originally from the central appalachian basin coal region the results from particle size and density separations of the coal suggested that the ree are associated with both organic and inorganic matters it was found that as the ash yield increases both the total ree concentration on the whole coal basis and the lree hree ratio increase while the total ree concentration on the ash basis reduces dramatically the results also suggested that the organic matter is relatively enriched in hree based on these observation and findings a method was developed to quantitatively determine the distribution of ree in the organic and inorganic phases of the coal it was found that the total ree concentrations in the organic and inorganic phases are 31 ppm and 1141 ppm respectively the results also showed that in the low ash appalachian coal sample used in this work 25 of the ree is associated with the organic matter the method developed in this work for quantitative evaluation of the organic inorganic mode of occurrence may be applied to other coal samples and for many other trace elements in coals

how heating and cooling and wetting and drying can destroy dense faunal elements and lead to differential preservation abstract recent taphonomic research has demonstrated that bulk bone density significantly determines survivability in many archaeological and paleontological contexts researchers often assume that higher density skeletal elements invariably preserve better than lower density skeletal elements this assumption however is not universally valid here we present data on the taphonomy and preservation of assemblages from the geelbek dunes of the western cape province south africa these data indicate that skeletal preservation of fossil assemblages from deflation hollows can reflect an unexpectedly high proportion of porous low density skeletal parts high density skeletal parts including teeth and the shafts of long bones often shatter as a result of the repeated thermal shock and wetting and drying of the kind observed at geelbek this effect is greatest for highly mineralized bones from large mammals the data from geelbek demonstrate that survivability is affected by the size of the animal small mammals are represented by high proportions of non mineralized dense skeletal parts especially long bones

analysis origin and significance of mineral matter in coal an updated review abstract the material classed as mineral matter in coal embraces crystalline mineral materials as well as a range of inorganic elements that occur in non crystalline form this review outlines the methods that may be used to evaluate the percentage of mineral matter for a coal sample as opposed to the ash yield and to identify the minerals their individual percentages and their modes of occurrence within the coal the principal techniques include low temperature oxygen plasma ashing quantitative evaluation of x ray diffraction data observation using optical microscopy and a combination of observation chemical analysis and in some cases mapping based on scanning electron microscopy and related methods a range of other techniques may also be used to provide additional information on particular mineral matter components processes responsible for mineral matter formation include detrital input biogenic activity and authigenic precipitation at different stages of the coal s depositional and post depositional history differential migration of non mineral inorganic elements may also occur in lower rank coals and expulsion of non mineral inorganics may take place with rank advance knowledge of the mineral matter may be of assistance in understanding the modes of trace element occurrence with implications for assessing possible environmental impacts and also the potential for recovery of economic products from coal the behaviour of different mineral matter components at high temperatures is also discussed as well as methods for mineralogical analysis of ashes and other coal utilization products information from mineral matter studies may provide an improved basis for understanding coal formation and for evaluating the response of particular coals to different combustion gasification and coking processes

flocculation and sedimentation on the po river delta with the goal of improving understanding of the effect of flocculation on the formation of fine grained deposits on continental shelves hydrographic profiling in situ imaging of suspended matter and collection of surficial sediment samples were conducted at the po river delta in june 2001 these data show that during medium flow conditions 1920 m3 s sedimentation occurs rapidly immediately offshore of the main distributary po della pila rapid sedimentation is promoted by large rapidly sinking flocs forming in the river well upstream of the mouth the delivery of fine sediment to the seabed at the mouth of the po is sufficient to overwhelm the erosive effects of waves and currents leading to accumulation of mud in water depths as shallow as 4 m on cross shelf transects 2 km north and south of the mouth however suspended sediment supply from the river is reduced to the point that mud accumulates only seaward of the 8 m isobath along the central transect suspended sediment concentration decreases rapidly seaward of the 6 m isobath where the emergence of a more organic rich population of flocs along a mid water density interface is suggested energetic activity along the 15 m isobath likely promotes resuspension with the potential for removal of material from the delta further investigation of floc properties namely the relationship of floc size to settling velocity is necessary to establish the degree to which the suspension is flocculated during transport and deposition

neotaphonomic measures of carnivore serial predation at ngamo pan as an analog for interpreting open air faunal assemblages abstract here i present a neotaphonomic account of natural bone accumulations that have resulted from carnivore serial predation at ngamo pan a vast complex of seasonal water holes located in hwange national park zimbabwe reconstructing the taphonomic histories of faunal assemblages from open air archaeological sites is burdened with a host of interpretive complications and this study is offered as a referential means for evaluating instances where stone tools and bone accumulations are associated in apparent archaeological contexts while the presence of stone tools implies some involvement on the part of humans open air sites near water would also have served as prime locations for serial predation by large carnivores to ambush prey a situation that over time can mimic archaeological bone accumulations the taphonomic and zooarchaeological signatures of carnivore serial predation at ngamo pan show marked similarities with the open air faunal accumulation from kalkbank a late pleistocene site in limpopo province south africa located along the margins of a relict pan many potential archaeological sites within the interior of southern africa dating to the middle stone age are known from open air settings near permanent or ephemeral bodies of water and the ability to decipher between hominin and non hominin carnivore involvement with bone accumulations is paramount in determining the hunting and scavenging behaviors of our early ancestors as much of our understanding of hominin subsistence during the middle stone age is drawn from coastal cave locations this study is intended to encourage a broadening of our perspective on the taphonomic histories of faunal accumulations dating to the middle stone age by incorporating supplementary evidence provided by these open air sites

reconstruction of sediment supply from mass accumulation rates in the northern adriatic basin italy over the past 19 000 years reconstruction of sediment supply is hampered by the incompleteness of the stratigraphic record this problem may be partly circumvented by studying mass accumulation rates in closed systems i e basins in which no sediment has bypassed the site of deposition over the time interval of interest we present time averaged basin wide mass accumulation rates and their associated uncertainties from a well documented closed basin the northern adriatic basin italy spanning the time interval from 19 ka b p to the present the sediment masses of five basin wide lithosomes and their associated uncertainties are derived by means of stochastic simulation using highresolution seismic data porosity profiles and radiocarbon datings this study demonstrates that inferring rates of sediment supply from conformity bounded stratigraphic units is feasible as indicated by the excellent agreement of our results of mass accumulation over the past 400 years with two independently derived estimates formation of the stratigraphic record is not an instantaneous process by comparing spatial patterns of mass accumulation rates on three different timescales decadal centennial and millennial we demonstrate a low preservation potential of sediments presently accumulating near the coast and a continuous cross shore and alongshore sediment transport regime the change from transient to persistent accumulation patterns in the highstand systems tract of the northern adriatic basin occurs at the centennial to millennial timescale intrabasinal erosion and recycling of sediments obscure the relation between rates of sediment supply and net basin wide mass accumulation which limits the amount of information that can be extracted from the stratigraphic record hence a mismatch between rates of sediment supply and accumulation rates is expected for unconformity bounded sequence stratigraphic units given the uncertainties associated with our estimates we are unable to reject the hypothesis that net basin wide mass accumulation rates have been constant over the time interval of 19 000 years at a 10 significance level

mineralogical and geochemical anomalies of late permian coals from the fusui coalfield guangxi province southern china influences of terrigenous materials and hydrothermal fluids abstract the late permian coal in the fusui coalfield of southern china is characterized by high fe sulfide and organic sulfur contents 2 60 and 2 94 respectively trace elements including zr 354 g g on average hf 9 18 g g y and rare earth elements rey 302 g g li 97 9 g g and cs 7 02 g g are significantly enriched in these coals in addition to hg and se enrichment in the roof and floor of the coal fluorine mo and u are enriched in the roof the floor is rich in cl s fe pb and cd compared to the upper continental crust rey in the parting and coal bench samples are characterized by heavy rey and light rey enrichment respectively the coals partings and host rocks roof and floor have negative eu anomalies the coal benches have higher ratios of u th yb la nb ta and zr hf and more abundant heavy rare earth elements than their adjacent partings these geochemical anomalies are attributed to the composition of terrigenous materials derived from the yunkai upland multi stage syngenetic and epigenetic hydrothermal fluid activities and intensive leaching and re distribution of lithophile elements from partings to the underlying coal benches both the organic and sulfide sulfur are also derived mainly from the hydrothermal fluids rather than the marine influence the minerals in the samples studied including kaolinite quartz and ree bearing minerals are of both terrigenous and hydrothermal origin al oxyhydroxides crystalline feso 4 oh water bearing fe oxysulfate and goyazite were derived from the hydrothermal activity kaolinite quartz ree bearing minerals and apatite from the sediment source region were also subjected to destruction by hydrothermal fluid leaching

late holocene climate variability in the adriatic sea central mediterranean planktic and benthic foraminifera assemblages from a set of sediment cores collected on the adriatic shelf and the southern adriatic deep basin provide compelling evidence of submillennial scale environmental changes during the last 6000 years repeated peaks in globigerinoides sacculifer represent warm dry intervals including the mediaeval warm period the roman age the late bronze age and the copper age the last occurrence lo of g sacculifer 550 years bp approximates the base of the little ice age lia significant turnovers in the structure of the water column reflect changes in the rate of formation and depth of flow of the north adriatic dense water naddw and the levantine intermediate water liw about 7500 years bp the benthic oxygen isotope records mark the timing when the naddw formation intensified on the slope and shifted to its modern route about 5500 years bp when sea level reached its modern high stand oxygen isotope records of intermediate planktic dwellers indicate a northward intrusion of the liw on the slope the oscillating isotope trends during the last five millennia document a discontinuous invasion of liw into the central adriatic possibly reflecting short term climate changes with weakened liw production during colder and wetter intervals

taphonomy of a south african cave geological and hydrological influences on the gd 1 fossil assemblage at gondolin a plio pleistocene paleocave system in the northwest province south africa abstract occasional excavation of in situ and ex situ deposits at the formerly mined gondolin paleocave system has yielded large and diverse samples of plio pleistocene faunas including isolated hominin and non hominin primate remains in 2003 new excavations into naturally decalcified in situ sediments near the gd 1 datum point near the northwest corner of the cave system were undertaken this paper describes the recovered faunal remains taphonomy of the assemblage and the geological and paleomagnetic context of the gd 1 deposits the deposits represent a series of inter stratified speleothem in washed sediments and talus deposits we suggest date to a time period prior to and just after the olduvai normal polarity event at around 1 7 1 8 ma surface sediments and clasts were introduced into the cave by rain water runoff entering a vertically oriented entrance that had formed along a rift in the area of gd 1 the faunal assemblage consists primarily of fragmentary diaphyseal fragments and isolated teeth taxonomically the small collection of specifically identifiable bovid and equid fossils is generally consistent with remains previously excavated from in situ deposits in the gondolin paleocave system gd 2 and dated to around 1 8 ma however the depositional histories of these two assemblages from gondolin are remarkably different the preservation and relative proportions of recovered skeletal elements at gd 1 is consistent with these materials having been initially accumulated outside the karstic system near the vertical cave entrance and then later hydrologically sorted and deposited inside the cave the sporadic to continuous water flow into the northwest corner of the cave system during the pleistocene gradually decalcified the excavated fossilbearing breccias and further modified the composition and spatial distribution of the fossil assemblage by introducing potentially younger deposits and skeletal materials this study highlights the variation in taphonomic processes that can occur within a single cave system and the complex pre and postdepositional geological and hydrological processes that can influence the taphonomic history of south african plio pleistocene karstic fossil assemblages

actualistic research into dynamic impact and its implications for understanding differential bone fragmentation and survivorship abstract the relationship between bone mineral density and archaeological bone survivorship has played a critical role in zooarchaeological and taphonomic studies in recent decades numerous studies have suggested that higher density skeletal element portions survive more frequently than lower density element portions when archaeological assemblages are affected by some taphonomic processes interpretations of density mediated destruction have become commonplace in the archaeological literature and are often used to explain the absence of certain bone elements and element parts in zooarchaeological assemblages this study explores the effects of rockfall on bovid elements in varied environmental conditions and the differential survivorship of their element parts and has implications for understanding the taphonomic processes through which bones are subjected to dynamic loading actualistic rockfall experiments conducted on twelve samples of frozen fresh and semi dried bovid bones reveal that the generally low density epiphyseal ends of bone elements resist fracture and analytical deletion with more frequency than the higher density diaphyses this evidence suggests that bone density does not correlate with likelihood of breakage or effective archaeological destruction when rockfall and other processes that result in dynamic impact are in action while this research does not question the relationship between bone mineral density and the likelihood for archaeological survivorship as the result of some taphonomic processes it presents one specific set of taphonomic processes that result in the differential survivorship of low density bone elements parts and the fragmentation and destruction of higher density element parts this research presents evidence that shows that dynamic impact is a process capable of fragmenting and sometimes destroying high density elements while low density elements survive

stratigraphic architecture of the montenegro n albania continental margin adriatic sea central mediterranean abstract the montenegro northern albania continental margin macm in the eastern adriatic sea is a convergent margin at the dinarides chain front supplied by major fluvial systems such as the buna bojana and drini rivers analysis of high resolution seismic reflection profiles and core samples which included paleobiologic legacy of macrofossil assemblages and radiometric dating shows that the post last glacial maximum lgm deposits are confined into mid shelf basins partially bounded toward the sea by tectonic highs such as the kotor and bar ridges while the outer shelf exposes lowstand deposits locally covered by a thin veneer of holocene mud pre lgm units consist of four depositional sequences bounded by erosional surfaces of regional extent related to sea level lowstands during marine isotopic stages mis 10 8 6 and 2 this pattern is observed close to the shelf break at water depths of 200 220 m where a stack of sedimentary sequences records sea level changes at the scale of 100 kyr position and estimated ages of buried shorelines indicate that the outer shelf subsidence rate has been about 1 12 mm yr during the last 350 kyr while a morphological analysis carried out along the lgm paleoshoreline suggests that the northern sector of the macm has been uplifted of up to several tens of meters during the last 20 kyr

geochemistry of rare earth elements in permian coals from the huaibei coalfield china abstract the rare earth elements rees in coals are important because of a ree patterns can be an indicator of the nature of source rocks of the mineral matter as well as sedimentary environments b rees abundance in coal may have industrial significance in this study a total of thirty four samples of permian coal partings roof and floor were collected from the huaibei coalfield anhui province china abundances of rare earth elements rees and other elements in the samples were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry icp ms and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry icp aes the results show that the rees are enriched in coals in the huaibei coalfield as compared with chinese and u s coals and the world coal average coals in the lower shihezi formation no 7 5 and 4 coals and upper shihezi formation no 3 have higher ree abundances than the coals in shanxi formation no 10 magmatic intrusion resulted in high enrichment of rees concentrations in no 5 and 7 coals the ree abundances are positively correlated with the ash content the mineral matter in these coals is mainly made up of clay minerals and carbonates the rees are positively correlated with lithophile elements including si al ti fe and na which are mainly distributed in clay minerals indicating that rees are contained mainly in clay minerals the ree abundances in coals normalized by the ash are higher than that in partings rees abundances of coals cannot be accounted for by the ree content in the mineral matter and some rees associated with organic matter in coals

rare earth elements in bituminous coals and underclays of the sydney basin nova scotia element sites distribution mineralogy abstract bituminous coals of the sydney basin nova scotia canada contain some 30 ppm of rare earth elements ree dispersed in illite clay and macerals or concentrated in fossil apatite and resistate minerals monazite florencite xenotime zircon for high ash coals the bulk of ree are derived from suspended river sediments low ash bituminous coals contain some heavy ree complexed with the organic phase or adsorbed by authigenic clays and derived largely from dissolved river load the concentration of ree in coal ash 72 to 483 ppm is similar to that of roof and seat clays except for slight local enrichments in heavy ree individual seams have diverse ree distribution patterns that reflect the depositional and diagenetic mineralogy or reveal enrichment at seam margins by organic complexing or fossil apatite uptake chondrite normalized profiles range from light ree enriched to heavy ree enriched highly pyritized bands yield ash low in ree with flat profiles clay rich bands yield ash with distribution patterns similar to shales with light ree enrichment a weak negative eu anomaly and a profile slope correlated to al content rare earth element partitioning between organic and mineral phases or between coals and associated strata differs over the coalfield reflecting the combined effects of sedimentation water chemistry ion exchange and chelation coal seam correlation using ree distribution is limited by geochemical facies distribution patterns must be interpreted with caution because of analytical problems inherent to coal

geomorphic tectonic control of sediment discharge to the ocean the importance of small mountainous rivers analysis of data from 280 rivers discharging to the ocean indicates that sediment loads yields are a log linear function of basin area and maximum elevation of the river basin other factors controlling sediment discharge e g climate runoff appear to have secondary importance a notable exception is the influence of human activity climate and geology on the rivers draining southern asia and oceania sediment fluxes from small mountainous rivers many of which discharge directly onto active margins e g western south and north america and most high standing oceanic islands have been greatly underestimated in previous global sediment budgets perhaps by as much as a factor of three in contrast sediment fluxes to the ocean from large rivers nearly all of which discharge onto passive margins or marginal seas have been overestimated as some of the sediment load is subaerially sequestered in subsiding deltas before the proliferation of dam construction in the latter half of this century rivers

source diagenesis and fluxes of particulate organic carbon along the western adriatic sea mediterranean sea article i nfo in this study we investigated the modern organic carbon oc cycling along the clinoform shaped deposit that developed after the attainment of the modern sea level in the adriatic sea 5 5 kyr cal bp newly acquired data were combined with published results to characterize the i origin ii diagenesis and iii fluxes of oc along the adriatic clinoform 13 c 14 c and lignin phenols were used to constrain the composition of oc accumulating in surface sediments sediment cores collected at different water depths were used to describe the early diagenesis during burial in different regions in addition on the basis of an extensive number of accumulation rates and oc data we assessed the flux of oc to the seabed and its burial our results showed that terrigenous oc is the dominant oc source in the po prodelta mainly in the form of pre aged soil derived oc and vascular plant fragments along the clinoform both 14c and the concentration of lignin derived phenols decreased with increasing distance from the po prodelta indicating the influence of an additional pool of aged oc that gradually becomes more important because of its selective preservation during the sediment transport as a result degradation rates k decreased along the clinoform as a function of the sediment oxidative history the calculated half life of reactive oc t1 2 was 14 6 yrs in the po prodelta whereas topset forest deposits south of this region exhibited higher values 100 yrs indicating the presence of refractory material in the distal bottomset region the t1 2 was particularly high ranging from 255 to 912 yrs because of the significant southward component of the sediment transport the oc deposition in the southern surface sediments exceeded the local oc input via rivers ratio deposition input 1 2 conversely the northern adriatic was characterized by a marked imbalance ratio deposition input 0 3 0 5 according to our calculations the oc flux to the seabed along the clinoform was 309 gg of c per year whereas the oc burial was 180 gg of c per year corresponding to an overall burial efficiency of 59

fine sediment mass balance in the western adriatic continental shelf over a century time scale abstract to obtain a quantitative estimate of the sediment accumulating on the muddy belt extending along the western adriatic continental shelf a budget was calculated based on the mass accumulation rates measured from more than one hundred activity depth profiles of 210 pb 137 cs depth distributions were used when possible to support 210 pb results 210 pb profiles show quasi monotonic declines in the foreset region of the central adriatic clinoform in the prodelta of the rivers po and isonzo 210 pb profiles are characterized by intervals of low and uniform activity which are thought to be produced by flood deposition since the north adriatic is shallow and occasionally affected by storms from bora wind sediments are not in steady state and their accumulation is the net result of recurring deposition resuspension and winnowing events in the western adriatic mass accumulation rates range between 0 04 and 6 6 g cm 2 yr 1 peak values were recorded in the po and isonzo prodeltas and along a narrow belt between pescara and the gargano promontory furthermore the latter depocentre is located immediately seaward of the offlap break 40 50 m water depth and parallels that of the most recent sigmoid of the hst the integration of mass accumulation rates throughout the mud wedge of the north and central adriatic gave a value of 42 0 tg yr 1 of sediment accumulating along the italian coast the balance between sediment accumulation and riverine sediment supply 46 6 tg yr 1 suggests an export of 4 6 tg yr 1 to the south adriatic basin and or the mediterranean sea the along shore sediment transport is very effective and in particular 16 2 tg yr 1 of sedimentary material 35 of the riverine supply is transferred from north to central adriatic through the ancona section

rare earth elements in a sampled coal from the pirin deposit bulgaria abstract rare earth elements la ce sm eu tb yb and lu in a columnar section of the coal of the pirin deposit bulgaria have been determined by neutron activation analyses the ree content in the coals is lower than the average ree content of shales from north america europe and the soviet union the ree abundances increase with the increasing ash content of the coals the bottom of the seam is slightly enriched in ree the trend being more pronounced in hree tb yb lu the ree content depends on the thickness of the coal layers the thin coal layers are enriched in ree as compared to the thick ones the chondrite normalized distribution patterns are very uniform they are characterized by a negative eu anomaly whose mean value is 0 30 varying in the individual samples from 0 21 to 0 49 and a positive lu anomaly it is supposed that the eu anomaly is inherited from the source rocks the shale normalized distribution patterns show a distinct relative enrichment in hree and a negative eu anomaly the relative enrichment in hree is a specific feature of the ree geochemistry in the pirin deposit the lree hree ratio is lower than that of composite shale it increases with the increasing ash content of the coals and from the bottom to the top of the coal bed ree are bound predominantly to the aluminosilicates of the mineral matter in the coals all ree are positively correlated to the ash si al fe and na the source of ree in coals is mainly the suspended terrigenous material the specific enrichment of ree in the ash of low ash coals is a result of the interaction between the dissolved ree and the products of disintegration and decay of organic substances mainly the humic acids

mineralogical and geochemical compositions of the pennsylvanian coal in the adaohai mine daqingshan coalfield inner mongolia china modes of occurrence and origin of diaspore gorceixite and ammonian illite abstract aluminum hydroxide boehmite rich pennsylvanian coals of high volatile a bituminous rank were found previously in the jungar coalfield inner mongolia china this paper reports new results on 48 bench samples of the cp2 coal from the adjacent adaohai mine daqingshan coalfield inner mongolia and provides new insights into the origin and modes of occurrence of the minerals and elements present in the cp2 coal compared to the same coal in the adjacent mines the cp2 coal in the adaohai mine has a higher rank ro ran 1 58 which is attributed to igneous intrusions during the late jurassic and early cretaceous epochs the proportion of inertinite 35 3 in the coal is higher than that in other late paleozoic coals in northern china but lower than that in the jungar coals minerals in the cp2 coal include diaspore boehmite gorceixite calcite dolomite siderite clay minerals kaolinite and ammonian illite and trace amounts of anatase fluorapatite quartz and pyrite based on mineral proportions in the coal bench samples the cp2 coal may be divided into four zones i to iv from bottom to top the major mineral in zones i and iv is kaolinite zones ii and iii are mainly composed of ammonian illite diaspore boehmite gorceixite calcite dolomite and siderite diaspore boehmite and gorceixite forming materials were derived from oxidized bauxite in the weathered crust of the benxi formation in the sediment source region during peat accumulation however gorceixite may have formed earlier than diaspore the diaspore was derived from gibbsite that was subjected to dehydration by the heat of the igneous intrusions the ammonian illite may have been formed at a relatively high temperature by interaction of kaolinite with nitrogen released from the organic matter in the coal during metamorphism caused by the igneous intrusion the calcite and dolomite occur as epigenetic cell and fracture fillings and were probably derived from the igneous fluids compared to the common chinese and world coals the cp2 coal is enriched in cao 1 69 mgo 0 32 p2o5 0 214 f 207 g g ga 16 3 g g zr 446 g g ba 276 g g hg 0 33 g g and th 12 4 g g but has a lower sio2 al2o3 ratio due to the higher proportions of diaspore boehmite and gorceixite in the coal the f occurs mainly in gorceixite and fluorapatite the major carriers of ga are diaspore and kaolinite but not gorceixite barium mainly occurs in gorceixite and barite mercury was probably derived from the igneous intrusion and is distributed in both the organic matter and the minerals the elements are classified into five associations by cluster analysis groups a b c d and e group a represents a ree be y se ga ge sc in pb bi nb ta tio2 w hg sb zr hf th u association most of the elements in group a are lithophile elements that occur in aluminosilicate minerals group b sn te zn cd v as cr cu mo ni re is weakly correlated with ash yield and is associated with unidentified trace sulfide minerals elements in group c ad na2o al2o3 sio2 li k2o rb cs tl association probably occur in the clay minerals and diaspore group d consists of p2o5 ba f sr s and cl and with the exception of s they occur in minerals gorceixite and fluorapatite oxides of fe2o3 mno cao mgo make up group e and mainly occur in the carbonate minerals the coals are enriched in light rees and the lrees hrees have been highly fractionated with an average la yb n of 8 71 the heavy rees in the coals have a stronger organic affinity than the lrees

quantitative coal mineralogy of the sydney coalfield nova scotia canada by scanning electron microscopy computerized image analysis and energy dispersive x ray spectrometry automated image and x ray analysis with a scanning electron microscope has been used to fingerprint mineral particles in bituminous coals of the sydney coalfield and catalogue their chemical class and size distribution four seams hub harbour phalen and gardiner were analyzed quantitatively for some 32 000 mineral particles these analyses revealed particle size and weight distributions for 27 chemical classes manual searches augmented the computer automated scans covering eight seams and recording a total of 35 mineral species their paragenesis and sites for 28 elements sydney seam mineralogy is dominated by pyrite and kaolinite but illite chlorite siderite ankerite and quartz are locally prominent these are accompanied by a large variety of accessory minerals zircon rutile apatite barite gypsum rare earth phosphates and ore minerals and alteration products goethite and hydrated sulphates individual column benches show geochemical fades with different mineral suites resultin

recent deposits and suspended sediments off the po della pila po river main mouth italy abstract present sedimentary conditions in the prodeltaic marine area immediately in front of the po della pila po river main mouth are characterized by a maximum thickness of holocene muds of 10 12 m at a depth of 20 25 m and by two different sedimentary cycles with the more recent lens shaped unit 2 5 4 0 m thick probably deposited in the last 300 yrs the nearshore prodelta area is characterized by rapidly accumulating deposits 2 4 cm yr enriched in smectite gas organic material 1 2 and trace metals the water system presented well marked vertical stratification during the summer of 1985 revealing three distinct water bodies 1 riverine and diluted waters average depth of 3 m 2 middle depth waters 10 20 m and 3 bottom waters temperature oxygen and particulate organic carbon decrease with depth whilst total suspended matter yellow substances and total particulate carbon show maxima at the surface and in the bottom layers and minima in the intermediate waters where the organic fraction comprises 42 of the total

coal deposits as potential alternative sources for lanthanides and yttrium abstract this paper presents data on widespread abnormal accumulations of lanthanides and yttrium rey in many coal deposits worldwide high rey contents 0 1 have been found in coal seams and coal ashes as well as in the host and basement rocks of some coal basins for a preliminary evaluation of coal ashes as an rey raw material not only the abundance but also the individual rey compositions were taken into account in this paper three rey distribution patterns for high rey coal ashes are fixed with lrey lan lun 1 mrey lan smn 1 and hrey lan lun

enrichment of u re v cr se and rare earth elements in the late permian coals of the moxinpo coalfield chongqing china genetic implications from geochemical and mineralogical data abstract rare metals in coal deposits have attracted much attention in recent years because of their potential economic significance this paper reports the abundance and enrichment origin of rare metals in the late permian coals k1 and k2 coals of the moxinpo coalfield chongqing southwestern china the k1 coal is characterized by highly elevated concentrations of u re v cr se and nb ta zr hf ree assemblages the latter assemblage is also enriched in the k2 coal the high temperature ash 815 c of the k1 coal is enriched in v cr se re u and ree the ash of the k2 coal and also the floor strata of each seam are enriched in ree potentially making all of the units economically viable sources for these elements the minerals in the k1 coal are mainly represented by kaolinite illite and mixed layer illite smectite and pyrite while the minerals in the k2 coal consist mainly of kaolinite and tobelite nh 4 k al 2 alsi 3 o 10 oh 2 authigenic roscoelite k v 3 al 2 alsi 3 o 10 oh 2 is commonly observed in the k1 coal under the sem and was probably formed by interaction of kaolinite with v derived from permeating u re v cr se rich solutions during early diagenesis the tobelite enriched in the k2 coal was formed by reaction between kaolinite already present in the coal and nh 4 derived from decomposition of the organic matter during hydrothermal alteration at a relatively high temperature the mafic tuffs directly underlying the k1 coal and containing limestone residual breccias not only served as the substrate for coal accumulation but also as the source of sediment from the uplifted areas around the coal basin the latter is indicated by low al 2 o 3 tio 2 ratios from 10 09 to 14 24 positive eu anomalies enrichment of medium rare earths relative to upper continental crust and detrital calcite of terrigenous origin the highly elevated concentrations of u re v cr se assemblages in the coal were derived from exfiltrational hydrothermal solutions and were then deposited in a euxinic environment the terrigenous materials in the k2 coal however were derived from felsic intermediate rocks at the top of the kangdian upland although the elevated concentrations of nb ta zr hf ree assemblages are attributed to the input of hydrothermal solutions

mineralogical and geochemical compositions of late permian coals and host rocks from the guxu coalfield sichuan province china with emphasis on enrichment of rare metals abstract this paper reports the geochemical and mineralogical compositions of the late permian no 25 coal semi anthracite and its host rocks roof and floor strata from the guxu gulin xuyong coalfield sichuan province china the coal is characterized by medium sulfur content average 2 73 and has an average ash yield of 20 95 in contrast to other late permian coals from southwestern china that are enriched in sc v cr co ni and cu the no 25 coal does not contain an abundance of these transition elements but is rich in lithophile elements be y nb zr hf and u the elevated concentrations of trace elements in the no 25 coal were probably derived from the felsic intermediate rocks at the top of the emeishan basalt sequence rather than from the emeishan mafic basalts the floor strata of the no 25 coal can be divided into two sub sections the upper sub section of the sequence immediately below the no 25 coal consists of material with a felsic intermediate composition probably derived from terrigenous sources and the lower sub section is composed of mafic tuff the terrigenous mineral matter in the no 25 coal appears to have the same sediment source region as the upper sub section of the floor strata based on their similar geochemical compositions the roof strata of the no 25 coal are more quartzose and were probably derived from a different sediment source region the mineral matter in the coal is dominated by kaolinite and to a lesser extent calcite and pyrite the roof and floor strata each have quite different mineralogy with kaolinite dominant in the latter and illite kaolinite and quartz in the former pyrite contents are variable both in the coal and in the host rocks the floor strata and the coal have been affected by hydrothermal solutions leading to the enrichment of rare earth elements and yttrium rey nb ta zr hf and u the rey in the coal and floor strata as well as the nb ta zr hf and u in the floor strata represent potentially economic rare metal resources

a high resolution late holocene palaeo environmental record from the central adriatic sea a multi proxy study of a holocene sediment core rf 93 30 from the western flank of the central adriatic in 77 m of water reveals a sequence of changes in terrestrial vegetation terrigenous sediment input and benthic fauna as well as evidence for variations in sea surface temperature spanning most of the last 7000 yr the chronology of sedimentation is based on several lines of evidence including ams 14c dates of foraminifera extracted from the core palaeomagnetic secular variation pollen indicators and dated tephra the temporal resolution increases towards the surface and for some of the properties measured is sub decadal for the last few centuries the main changes recorded in vegetation sedimentation and benthic foraminiferal assemblages appear to be directly related to human activity in the sediment source area which includes the po valley and the eastern flanks of the central and northern appenines the most striking episodes of deforestation and expanding human impact begin around 3600 bp late bronze age and 700 bp medieval and each leads to an acceleration in mass sedimentation and an increase in the proportion of terrigenous material reflecting the response of surface processes to widespread forest clearance and cultivation although human impact appears to be the proximal cause of these changes climatic effects may also have been important during these periods signs of stress are detectable in the benthic foram morphotype assemblages between these two periods of increased terrigeneous sedimentation there is smaller peak in sedimentation rate around 2400bp which is not associated with evidence for deforestation shifts in the balance between terrigenous and authigenic sedimentation or changes in benthic foraminifera the mineral magnetic record provides a sensitive indicator of changing sediment sources during forested periods of reduced terrigenous input it is dominated by authigenic bacterial magnetite whereas during periods of increased erosion anti ferromagetic minerals haematite and or goethite become more important as well as both paramagnetic minerals and super paramagnetic magnetite analysis of the alkenone u37k record provides an indication of possible changes in sea surface temperature during the period but it is premature to place too much reliance on these inferred changes until the indirect effects of past changes in the depth of the halocline and in circulation have been more fully evaluated the combination of methods used and the results obtained illustrate the potential value of such high resolution near shore marine sedimentary sequences for recording wide scale human impact documenting the effects of this on marine sedimentation and fauna and potentially disentangling evidence for human activities from that for past changes in climate

mineralogical and geochemical compositions of the coal in the guanbanwusu mine inner mongolia china further evidence for the existence of an al ga and ree ore deposit in the jungar coalfield abstract aluminum hydroxide boehmite and diaspore ga rey rare earth elements and y and al rich pennsylvanian taiyuan formation coals have previously been found in the jungar and daqingshan coalfields inner mongolia china gallium rey and al are potentially extractable and usable elements in combustion residues derived from these coals this paper reports new results on 50 bench samples of the no 6 coal from the guanbanwusu mine jungar coalfield inner mongolia and provides new data and evidence for the existence of an al ga rey ore deposit in the unique jungar coalfield the no 6 coal in the guanbanwusu mine has a low rank ro ran 0 56 and a low sulfur content st d 0 58 the proportion of inertinite in the coal 56 7 mineral free basis is higher than that of vitrinite 31 the minerals in the coal are mainly represented by kaolinite boehmite and chlorite along with variable proportions in some samples of calcite ankerite siderite and goyazite boehmite goyazite and part of the kaolinite were derived from bauxite in the weathered surface of the sediment source region ankerite calcite and siderite in the coal are of authigenic origin the chlorite in the guanbanwusu coals appears to have a chemical composition intermediate between cookeite and chamosite this mineral mainly occurs as cell fillings also indicating an authigenic origin and was probably derived from hydrothermal fluids a new mineral phase mainly composed of ti cl and fe is probably a ti bearing oxychloride or hydroxychloride compared to other chinese coals and to world hard coals the coal from the guanbanwusu mine is enriched in al2o3 9 34 p2o5 0 126 li 175 g g f 434 g g cl 1542 g g ga 12 9 g g sr 703 g g and th 12 9 g g but has a lower sio2 al2o3 ratio 0 74 due to the higher proportions of boehmite and goyazite in the coal the major carrier of p2o5 and sr is goyazite lithium mainly occurs in the chlorite cf cookeite kaolinite and possibly to a lesser extent illite fluorine in the coal has a major boehmite affinity but a small proportion may also occur in the organic matter and chlorite gallium in the coal largely occurs in goyazite chlorine is independent of other elements in the coal associated neither with moisture nor with organic matter but possibly occurring in molecular form cl2 and in the ti bearing oxychloride or hydroxychloride thorium in the coal occurs in the clay and accessory minerals and was mainly derived from detrital materials of the source region rare earth elements and y have a mixed organic and inorganic affinity largely occurring in goyazite group minerals and to a lesser extent boehmite and organic matter most coal benches and partings have either an l type or h type of rey enrichment owing respectively to the weathered bauxite source region and groundwater effects the al2o3 ga rey and possibly li in the guanbanwusu coals like those in coals from the jungar and adjacent daqingshan coalfields are industrially useful metals that could potentially be recovered from the relevant coal combustion residues it is suggested that if ga in ash 50 g g rey 800 900 g g sio2 al2o3 40 in ash and coal thickness 5 m the coal combustion residues would be expected to be suitably enriched in al2o3 and can be considered for al2o3 ga and rey recovery

observations of event scale sedimentary dynamics with an instrumented bottom boundary layer tripod abstract a new approach to examine event scale sedimentation is described that establishes a direct connection between water column signals and changes in the seabed the po river italy shelf is a good case study due to the dominant impact of winter storm events on sediment transport and the availability of coincident measurements necessary for the analysis repeated deployments of an instrumented bottom boundary layer tripod at this site have produced a nearly continuous record of sediment transport over 2 5 y sediment cores were collected every 3 mo during this time and seabed inventories of 7 be half life 53 3 d were used to determine net sediment deposition or erosion during each deployment comparison of these values with the net elevation change obtained from the tripod altimeter shows good agreement varying from 2 cm deposition to 1 cm erosion the altimeter s use is extended to quantify the net seabed change that results from individual storm induced sediment resuspension events lasting from days to weeks within each event analysis of the altimeter record has proved challenging likely due to changes in sediment porosity that occur during a storm event however net erosion and deposition that occurs over an event can be evaluated and was found to be

rare earth element bearing coals from the russian far east deposits abstract coal seams up to 10 m in thickness with high rare earth element ree concentrations 300 1000 ppm were detected in some of the russian far east deposits this paper reports on the ree composition of the coals from a number of deposits the ree bearing coals are subdivided into three geochemical types studies of ree distributions across the coal seams examination of gravitation fractions and sem edx studies have revealed that the enriched coals seams contain ree mainly as sorbed forms by organic matter and clay particles and fine grained authigenic minerals the ree coals formed in 1 erosion tectonic depressions with wide spread weathering crusts in their basins and 2 volcano tectonic grabens in which coal accumulation occurred simultaneously with bimodal volcanism in the former case ree are thought to originate from the borderland in the second case from chambers of subalkaline magma the ree accumulation in the organic material occurred mostly during the peat stage due to mineralized ree bearing water coming to the basins the high ree contents up to 1 0 and even more of the combustion wastes their low lree hree ratios and the considerable estimated resources all place the ree bearing coals of the russian far east among new and very promising mineral resources for y and heavy lanthanoids as by products

developing sediment geochronologies for high latitude continental shelf deposits a radiochemical approach during january and february of 1986 47 box cores and 55 piston cores were collected from the bransfield strait gerlache strait and marguerite bay antarctica apparent sediment accumulation rates established for 100 yr time scales with excess 210pb chronologies range from 0 08 to 0 34 cm yr in the bransfield strait 0 15 to 0 51 cm yr in gerlache strait and from 0 10 to 0 27 cm yr in marguerite bay for the antarctic peninsula continental shelf 137cs appears to have a limited usefulness in assessing the effects of deep sediment mixing by benthic fauna on seabed excess 210pb profiles because the observed activities for the regions examined are close to counter detection limits conventional 14c ages of surface sediments from the peninsula region range from 1370 to 2820 yr the spatial variations in the conventional 14c surface ages are thought to be influenced predominantly by inputs of older eroded sediment from lateral transport current winnowing mass wasting and or a variable carbon source on a 1000 yr time scale 14c measurements of five piston cores from the bransfield strait yielded sediment accumulation rates ranging from 0 06 to 0 49 cm yr these data support the assertion by nelson 1988 that the excess 210pb sediment accumulation rates range of 0 08 to 0 34 cm yr for this region represent true rates the two sediment accumulation rates of 0 01 and 0 08 cm yr for the gerlache strait are significantly lower than the observed apparent 210pb accumulation rates mean 0 27 0 12 cm yr for this region likewise two piston cores from marguerite bay yielded 14c sediment accumulation rates of 0 02 and 0 05 cm yr which also are considerably lower than the excess 210pb apparent accumulation rates mean 0 17 0 06 cm yr for this area the one dimensional advection diffusion equation of goldberg and koide geochim cosmochim acta vol 51 1962 was solved simulatneously with 210pb and 14c data for bc18 and bc113 to resolved the effects of sediment mixing and accumulation in bransfield strait and marguerite bay box core samples respectively this model indicates that 210pb and 14c sediment accumulation rates agree within a factor of 2 in the bransfield strait whereas in marguerite bay the apparent 210pb accumulation rates may be as much as an order of magnitude too high in the southern high latitude environments of the antarctic peninsula radiocarbon measurements in the seabed are a better approach than 210pb for establishing accurate rates of sediment accumulation the 14c chronologies when coupled with 210pb data provide more reliable assessments of biological deep mixing and sediment accumulation rates than do excess 210pb data coupled with measurements of bomb produced 137cs the sediment accumulation rates for both 100 yr and 1000 yr time scales tend to decrease southward from the bransfield strait to marguerite bay which is consistent with glacial marine sedimentation processes as modulated by climate for the western antarctic peninsula seabed measurements of 210pb 137cs and 14c also provides valuable insights on water circulation and upwelling atmospheric inputs and sediment depositional processes for the antarctic peninsula region

bone density and long bone representation in archaeological faunas comparing results from ct and photon densitometry abstract research into animal bone density has provided the foundation for the assessment of post depositional destruction of archaeological faunal assemblages this paper presents bone mineral density values for caprid long bones as determined by computed tomography ct unlike photon densitometry the technique employed in previous archaeological studies of bone density ct provides precise assessments of the cross sectional area of scan sites researchers using photon densitometry have been unable to factor out the marrow cavity in their determination of cross sectional area thereby significantly underestimating the density of long bone shafts the density values obtained by ct are much higher particularly for middle shaft portions than those presented in previous studies and are more consistent with existing data on the material properties of bone for two archaeological faunal assemblages that have been subject to post depositional attrition the ct density values show a much stronger correlation with long bone portion survival than those provided by photon densitometry given such advantages over photon densitometry ct is a promising method for future archaeological investigations into bone density

bone frequencies differential transport in situ destruction and the mgui abstract human transport of bones with high food values and destruction of bones with low density values are the traditionally invoked explanations of the frequencies of bones in archeological contexts the manner in which these two explanations have been used suggests archaeologists assume the explanations to be independent of one another the transport explanation is operationalized as the modified general utility index mgui of binford and the destruction explanation is operationalized with measures of bone density statistical correlation of the mgui with bone density while weak indicates that many high utility bones have low density values while many low utility bones have high density values because low density bones tend to be destroyed more readily than high density bones inferences of human utility strategies derived from bone frequencies and based on the mgui may be inaccurate the utility strategies suggested by three archaeofaunas are compared to bone density and two of these faunas are shown to potentially be the result of differential destruction and not human transport as measured by the mgui

aspects of the geochemistry of rare earth elements in coal an experimental approach abstract many coals worldwide are slightly enriched in heavy rare earth elements hree relative to light rare earth elements lree as compared with chondrites and shales a factor contributing to this fractionation could be the ability of the hree to form complexes with organic compounds which are more stable than those of the lree in order to test this hypothesis experiments on the sorption of several light and heavy rare earth elements la ce sm eu gd ho er lu on xylain and humic acids were performed the sorption on xylain was found to be ph and time dependent maximum quantity was sorbed in the range of ph 3 to 5 sorption equilibrium was reached in 5 to 7 days the shape of the sorption isotherms for all ree studied were similar the maximum content sorbed for each ree was about 0 2 meq 0 5 g xylain when all ree were present in equal concentration in the initial solution the quantity sorbed was also 0 2 meqv 0 5 g xylain nearly the same quantity of na k ca and mg were displaced from the sorbent these results suggest a cation exchange mechanism in which na k ca and mg bound to cooh and oh groups were replaced by the ree cations the capacity of humic acids leached from xylain was found to be about 0 05 meq ree on 0 250 mg humic acids ha the individual ree were sorbed in nearly equal quantities

geochemistry of rare earth elements in a marine influenced coal and its organic solvent extracts from the antaibao mining district shanxi china twenty six samples including roof bottom and coal plies of a marine influenced coal bed were collected from the antaibao mining district shanxi china the rare earth elements rees were determined in solids and organic solvent extracts the distribution pattern showed three distinct patterns shale like lree rich and hree rich this is attributed to the variable microenvironment of peat forming swamp the degree of marine influences and different ree sources rees in the coal are mainly controlled by detrital minerals but also affected by seawater the chondrite normalized ree patterns of the organic solvent extracts are distinctly different from those of corresponding original coal samples which show a negative eu anomaly a depletion of middle rees and an enrichment of hrees the lrees in coal extracts are likely adsorbed by hydrogen containing functional groups and hrees are likely bonded to carbon atoms

bone density studies in zooarchaeology abstract accurate bone density data are essential for assessing the influence of destructive processes in archaeological faunal assemblages unfortunately the diversity of methods employed by different researchers to derive density values has resulted in recent confusion two recent publications in this journal j archaeol sci 29 2002 883 j archaeol sci 29 2002 979 exemplify this state of misunderstanding both studies argued that the role of bone density in shaping archaeological faunal assemblages has been largely overrated but both based their conclusions on density values that were inaccurately derived the former employed a method of calculating bone density that has been largely discredited over the past decade j archaeol sci 29 2002 883 within a larger discussion of zooarchaeological methodology the latter provided an assessment of the current state of bone density research that inappropriately characterized the discrepancies between available sets of density data as a reflection of the differences between two technologies photon densitometry and computed tomography j archaeol sci 29 2002 979 the actual dichotomy exists irrespective of the technology employed between studies that account for variation in the shape of bone cross sections and those that do not the different sets of density data currently available to zooarchaeologists vary tremendously in their accuracy we review and evaluate the different techniques employed in the research of bone density patterns of mammalian fauna computed tomography produces the most accurate density data for elements without medullary cavities photon densitometry may provide density values of similar accuracy but only if a method of cross sectional shape adjustment is applied

anatomy of a compound delta from the post glacial transgressive record in the adriatic sea abstract on the mediterranean continental shelves the post glacial transgressive succession is a complex picture composed of seaward progradations related to sea level stillstands and or increased sediment supply to the coasts and minor flooding surfaces associated with phases of enhanced rates of sea level rise among late pleistocene examples major mid shelf progradations have been related to the short term climatic reversal of the younger dryas event a period during which the combination of increased sediment supply from rivers and reduced rates of sea level rise promoted the formation of progradations up to tens meter thick while the documentation of coastal and subaqueous progradations recording the younger dryas interval is widely reported in literature the model of compound progradation within transgressive deposits has not yet been proposed here we present the documentation of a deltaic system where both delta front sands and related fine grained subaqueous progradations prodeltaic to shallow marine have been preserved the paleo gargano compound delta pgcd formed offshore the modern gargano promontory southern adriatic sea and is composed of a coastal coarse grained delta of reduced thickness and a muddy subaqueous clinoform up to 30 m thick the pgcd probably the first worldwide documentation of a compound delta within the transgressive record provides the opportunity to investigate the processes controlling the formation of a compound delta system during an overall sea level rise and the factors that allowed its preservation the finding of the pgcd provides the opportunity for a comparison with modern worldwide compound systems

onshore to offshore anatomy of a late quaternary source to sink system po plain adriatic sea italy abstract in understanding the evolution of siliciclastic systems late quaternary analogs may enable reliable predictive models of facies tract architecture the po plain adriatic sea system where a wealth of research has been conducted during the last 20 years represents one of the most intensively investigated late quaternary successions with the aid of a chronologically well constrained stratigraphy paleoenvironmental evolution is tracked for the first time from fluvial to deep marine realms over 1000 km in length vertical stacking trends onshore and stratal terminations offshore are the key observations that allow identification of surfaces with sequence stratigraphic significance systems tract boundaries in the distinct segments of the system recurring motifs in stratigraphic architecture showing tight coupling of sedimentary responses among source area catchment basin and coastal and marine depocenters reveal a cyclicity driven by glacio eustatic fluctuations in the milankovitch band due to high rates of subsidence middle pleistocene forced regressive systems tracts are exceptionally expanded and the mis5e mis2 interval late pleistocene preserves a nearly continuous record of fourth order 100 kyr stepwise sea level fall the stratigraphic architecture of last glacial maximum deposits highlights the genetic relations between channel belt development pedogenesis and sediment delivery to the lowstand delta through narrow incised valley conduits the late glacial holocene succession records the last episode of sea level rise and stabilization through well developed patterns of shoreline transgression regression tst hst that can be readily traced updip from offshore to onshore locations architectural styles across the whole system reflect a dominance of allogenic forcing in the tst as opposed to a predominantly autogenic control on stratigraphic development in the hst external drivers of facies architecture were also effective on millennial timescales the younger dryas cold reversal which marks the transgressive surface on land records a short lived episode of subaqueous progradation that is correlative onshore with widespread immature paleosol development and small sized channel belt formation quantitative assessment of sediment budgets over different time intervals requires precise positioning of the key bounding surfaces based on this approach we outline for the first time over the entire po adriatic basin an estimate of the sediment volumes stored in each systems tract

quantification of the modes of occurrence of 42 elements in coal abstract a series of 20 coal samples were subjected to sequential leaching with ammonium acetate hydrochloric acid hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid to quantify the modes of occurrence of about 42 elements the results indicate that within a coal rank the leaching behavior of many elements are broadly similar however the behavior of many elements varies between bituminous and subbituminous coals while the leaching behavior of most elements is consistent with previous mode of occurrence interpretations there were a number of unanticipated results about 75 of the arsenic in bituminous coals appears to be associated with sulfides probably pyrite however only 40 of the arsenic in the low rank coals appears to be associated with pyrite in the bituminous coals we interpret that about 60 of the beryllium is associated with silicates but in the low rank coals only 30 is silicate associated in the bituminous coals 25 of the magnesium is associated with carbonates but in the low rank coals 75 of the magnesium is in the carbonates fifty five percent of the molybdenum was associated with the sulfides in the bituminous coals and in the low rank coals 65 was in the silicates in the bituminous coals the rare earth elements ree are predominantly in the phosphate minerals 70 for the light ree and 50 for the heavy ree but in the low rank coals the ree 50 60 are associated with the clays sodium is predominantly 80 associated with silicates in the bituminous coals and with the organics 65 in the low rank coals titanium appears to occur more in the clays 65 bituminous 70 low rank than in oxides 35 bituminous 15 low rank tungsten is in the sulfides 50 in the bituminous coals but in the clays 60 in the low rank coals uranium is associated with the silicates 40 and insoluble phases such as zircon 30 in the bituminous coals but is associated with the organics 55 in the low rank coals many of these rank differences reflect a higher detrital input and greater sulfide mineralization of the bituminous coals

preservation efficiencies and accumulation rates for biogenic silica and organic c n and p in high latitude sediments the ross sea rates of biogenic sediment accumulation biogenic silica and organic c n and p and pore water flux have been established for a variety of depositional environments in the ross sea on the basis of 14c measurements in kasten cores sediment accumulation rates ranged from 250 cm kyr 1 in the coastal basin of granite harbor to 1 2 cm kyr 1 in the shelf and slope environments of the northern and eastern ross sea burial of biogenic material was most rapid in the southwestern ross sea where biogenic silica accumulation rates ranged from 2 to 31 g cm 2 kyr 1 and organic carbon accumulation rates ranged from 0 05 to 1 4 g cm 2 kyr 1 in the northern and eastern ross sea biogenic silica and organic carbon accumulation rates typically equaled 0 02 0 03 g sio2 cm 2 kyr 1 and 0 002 0 004 g c cm 2 kyr 1 flux core measurements were used to estimate seabed regeneration rates for biogenic silica organic carbon and phosphorus pore water fluxes in general showed much less variability across the ross sea than did the biogenic accumulation rates pore water silicate fluxes in the study area ranged from 0 6 to 5 3 g sio2 cm 2 kyr 1 whereas carbon fluxes ranged from 0 1 to 1 2 g c cm 2 kyr 1 and phosphate fluxes varied from 0 006 to 0 012 g p cm 2 kyr 1 seabed preservation efficiencies were calculated for biogenic silica organic carbon and phosphorus by combining the solid phase and pore water data the seabed preservation efficiencies for biogenic silica 1 86 were greater than for organic carbon 1 71 at all nine stations examined the preferential preservation of biogenic silica relative to organic carbon also was apparent in ross sea sediments because the biogenic silica organic carbon ratio in the material buried in the seabed generally was 2 times greater than the ratio in sediment particles arriving at the sediment water interface sediment accumulation rate correlated strongly with both the biogenic silica and the organic carbon preservation efficiency data p preservation efficiencies remained relatively high 24 65 even when the accumulation rates were low 1 2 cm kyr 1 because of the near zero phosphate fluxes out of the seabed of the total p in the seabed 0 04 0 09 wt approximately 25 existed in the form of organic p the total amount of biogenic silica accumulating on the ross sea shelf is 2 3 1012 g sio2 yr 1 which is approximately an order of magnitude less than the ledford hoffman et al 1986 estimate that was based on 210pb chronologies biogenic silica accumulation rates in the southern central and western ross sea increased during the mid and late holocene reaching their maximum values during the past 500 to 1000 years

humic acids contribution to sedimentary organic matter on a shallow continental shelf northern adriatic sea the shallow northern adriatic sea receives large river runoff predominantly from the po river which is the main allochthonous source of nutrients and organic matter the origin and quality of organic matter deposited in the sediments can influence the degradation processes and oxygen consumption in the bottom waters as well as the fate of many pollutants therefore the humic acids ha were quantified in surface and sub surface sediments collected in an area of the north western adriatic platform south of po river ha showed to have a relevant contribution to sedimentary organic matter ha content in sediments were positively correlated with the organic carbon concentration and negatively with redox potential and ph particularly in sub surface reduced sediments suggesting their important role in the diagenetic processes taking place in anoxic conditions elemental composition of ha extracted from surface and sub surface sediments showed a wide range of variation of the corg n ratios which could be due to a mixed terrestrial and marine origin and or an elevated bacteria degradation of nitrogen during diagenesis processes in sediments the spectroscopic ratios a2 a4 and a4 a6 of ha confirmed a mixed origin with a high degree of condensation of the ha extracted from sediments

the use of 7be to identify event and seasonal sedimentation near the po river delta adriatic sea in october 2000 a major flood event of the po river occurred the resulting seabed deposit was initially sampled in december 2000 and most sites were reoccupied on subsequent cruises over a 3 yr period using the maximum penetration depth of the short lived radioisotope 7be half life 53 3 d the flood deposit was found to be up to 15 cm thick individual depocenters of thick strata were located immediately adjacent to the distributaries at the river mouth in relatively shallow water 30 m these flood deposit thicknesses are minimum estimates because the depth of 234th half life 24 1 d exceeds that of 7be in physically stratified flood sediment indicating that the first sediment deposited during the flood event likely originated from the river channel 30 55 of the estimated sediment load delivered to the shelf during the flood event can be accounted for using 7be penetration depths seasonal deposition also can be quantified using 7be after removing the effects of biological mixing seasonal deposition rates are a maximum of 6 cm yr 1 near the pila distributary decreasing to 2 cm yr 1 in the southern portions of the dispersal system

sediment dispersal in the northwestern adriatic sea 1 sediment dispersal in the adriatic sea was evaluated using coupled three dimensional circulation and sediment transport models representing conditions from autumn 2002 through spring 2003 the calculations accounted for fluvial sources resuspension by waves and currents and suspended transport sediment fluxes peaked during southwestward bora wind conditions that produced energetic waves and strengthened the western adriatic coastal current transport along the western adriatic continental shelf was nearly always to the south except during brief periods when northward sirocco winds reduced the coastal current much of the modeled fluvial sediment deposition was near river mouths such as the po subaqueous delta nearly all po sediment remained in the northern adriatic material from rivers that drain the apennine mountains traveled farther before deposition than po sediment because it was modeled with a lower settling velocity fluvial sediment delivered to areas with high average bed shear stress was more highly dispersed than material delivered to more quiescent areas modeled depositional patterns were similar to observed patterns that have developed over longer timescales specifically modeled po sediment accumulation was thickest near the river mouth with a very thin deposit extending to the northeast consistent with patterns of modern sediment texture in the northern adriatic sediment resuspended from the bed and delivered by apennine rivers was preferentially deposited on the northern side of the gargano peninsula in the location of thick holocene accumulation deposition here was highest during bora winds when convergences in current velocities and off shelf flux enhanced delivery of material to the midshelf

provenance of surface sediments along the southeastern adriatic coast off italy an overview multi proxy studies are necessary to understand sediment composition and related provenance on continental shelfs here it is shown that the spatial distribution of geochemical composition and grain size for surface sediments along the southeastern italian coast is related to provenance and mechanisms influencing sediment pathways a northern adriatic italian provenance can be distinguished from a southern apennine river source this is done independent of grain size using the element ratios ce ni and zr cr furthermore the origin of organic matter is determined using bulk carbon isotopes and the c n ratio integrating these results with those from complementary studies on 18o and 13c of globigerinoides ruber white the bit index stable isotopes of plant waxes and dinoflagellate cyst distribution from the same set of samples reveals that sediments from the northwestern adriatic are transported as far southward as the gallipoli shelf eastern gulf of taranto by the western adriatic current wac along the wac there is a consistent southward decrease in po river northern apennines provenance and a concomitant decrease in terrestrial soil organic matter om whereas the percentage of marine om increases the provenance for gallipoli shelf sediments is for 80 attributed to po river northern apennines sources and for 20 to southern italian sources om in the eastern gulf of taranto contains more marine om than other areas within the wac whereas om and sediments from the western part of the gulf of taranto have a more local riverine provenanc

organic matter origin and distribution in suspended particulate materials and surficial sediments from the western adriatic sea italy abstract in this study organic carbon oc total nitrogen tn stable carbon isotopic 13 c oc and cuo reaction product compositions were used to identify the sources of organic matter om and to quantify the relative importance of allochthonous and autochthonous contributions to the western adriatic sea italy suspended particulate material 195 samples and surficial sediments 0 1 cm 70 samples from shallow cross shelf transects were collected in february and may 2003 respectively vertical water column profiles were acquired along the same transects data include depth potential temperature salinity density and chlorophyll fluorimetry along the western adriatic shelf in the near shore region the phytoplankton growth was influenced by dynamics of the buoyant plumes from the po and appennine rivers a small amount of very fine terrigenous material remained suspended within the coastal current and was exported southward along the shelf to the slope high variability in the bulk composition was detected in the po prodelta surficial sediments whereas the western adriatic shelf although a larger area exhibited a narrower range of values a significant decoupling was observed between suspended particles in the water column and surficial deposits the organic material collected in the water column was compositionally heterogeneous with contributions from marine phytoplankton riverine estuarine phytoplankton and soil derived om frequent physical reworking of surficial sediments likely leads to the efficient oxidation of marine oc resulting in the observed accumulation and preservation of refractory soil derived oc delivered by the po and appennine rivers

the role of atmospheric deposition in the biogeochemistry of the mediterranean sea abstract estimates of atmospheric inputs to the mediterranean and some coastal areas are reviewed and uncertainities in these estimates considered both the magnitude and the mineralogical composition of atmospheric dust inputs indicate that eolian deposition is an important 50 or even dominant 80 contribution to sediments in the offshore waters of the entire mediterranean basin model data for trace metals and nutrients indicate that the atmosphere delivers more than half the lead and nitrogen one third of total phosphorus and 10 of the zinc entering the entire basin measured data in sub basins such as the north western mediterranean and northern adriatic indicate an even greater proportions of atmospheric versus riverine inputs when dissolved fluxes are compared the form most likely to impinge on surface water biogeochemical cycles the atmosphere is found to be 5 to 50 times more important than rivers for dissolved zinc and 15 to 30 times more important for lead fluxes neglecting co limitation by other nutrients new production supported by atmospheric nitrogen deposition ranges from 2 4 g c m 2 yr 1 whereas atmospheric phosphorus deposition appears to support less than 1 g c m 2 yr 1 in spite of the apparently small contribution of atmospheric deposition to overall production in the basin it has been suggested that certain episodic phytoplankton blooms are triggered by atmospheric deposition of n p or fe future studies are needed to clarify the extent and causal links between these episodic blooms and atmospheric oceanographic forcing functions a scientific program aimed at elucidating the possible biogeochemical effects of saharan outbreaks in the mediterranean through direct sampling of the ocean and atmosphere before and after such events is therefore highly recommended

a review of anomalous rare earth elements and yttrium in coal abstract coal deposits have attracted much attention in recent years as promising alternative raw sources for rare earth elements and yttrium rey not only because the rey concentrations in many coals or coal ashes are equal to or higher than those found in conventional types of rey ores but also because of the world wide demand for rey in recent years has been greater than supply in addition to anomalies of enrichment or depletion of light medium and heavy rey in coal deposits normalized to upper continental crust post archean australian shale or north american shale composite anomalies of redox sensitive ce and eu and in some cases of non redox sensitive la gd and y could be used as geochemical indicators of the sediment source region sedimentary environment tectonic evolution and post depositional history of coal deposits factors controlling rey anomalies in coal deposits include the geochemistry of terrigenous source rocks ingress of hydrothermal fluids influence of marine environments percolating natural waters volcanic ashes and sedimentary environments of peat formation additionally the smoothness of a normalized rey distribution pattern provides a simple but reliable basis for testing the quality of rey chemical analyses for coal and other sedimentary rocks

shelf sedimentation on a tectonically active margin a modern sediment budget for poverty continental shelf new zealand abstract the combination of high sediment yields and the prevalence of tectonically controlled accommodation on collision margins such as that adjacent to the waipaoa river nz create the potential for these areas to contain high resolution records of natural and anthropogenic signals this study describes modern 100 yr sedimentation patterns off the waipaoa and quantifies a sediment budget for the continental shelf which is compared to long term holocene trends 210 pb and 239 240 pu geochronologies reveal three main shelf depocenters two of these depocenters are located in subsiding synclinal basins on the mid shelf landward of the actively deforming ariel and lachlan anticlines the depocenters exhibit accumulation rates ranging from 0 75 to 1 5 cm yr 1 and display both steady state and non steady state 210 pb activity profiles textural characteristics of the non steady state cores indicate the possible preservation of flood event layers the third depocenter is located near the shelf break and has accumulation rates as high as 1 0 cm yr 1 the inner shelf and central mid shelf are characterized by low uniform 210 pb activity profiles and low accumulation rates indicating that sediment is bypassing the inner shelf region and being deposited on the mid to outer shelf the modern sedimentation patterns seen in this study are similar to those for the holocene suggesting that regional tectonics are the major influence on poverty shelf sedimentation a modern bulk sediment budget estimates that 3 6 0 9 10 6 t yr 1 of sediments remains on the shelf amounting to only 25 of the 15 mt of sediments discharged from the river per year this indicates massive export of sediments from the study area to the adjacent slope or along the shelf in contrast studies of the mid late holocene sediment budget in the same area indicate that the sediment input and shelf trapping have been roughly in balance when compared with the modern budget this suggests an extraordinarily rapid shift from shelf trapping to shelf bypassing most likely driven by increasing sediment discharge in response to deforestation

the effect of structural density on marmot skeletal part representation in archaeological sites abstract volume bone mineral densities for two species of marmota are more similar to each other than their average is to previously published volume densities for small cervids and large bovids marmot bone density values do not correlate with frequencies of marmot bones reported by grayson journal of archaeological science 1989 16 643 652 for the white mountains of california suggesting that bone assemblage has not undergone density mediated attrition marmot bone density values are correlated with frequencies of marmot bones recovered from the salishan mesa site in washington and those specimens appear to be relatively larger and less fragmented than those from the white mountains these multiple lines of evidence suggest frequencies of salishan mesa marmot remains are the result of density mediated attrition and frequencies of white mountains marmot remains may be either the result of differential recovery or the influence of differential fragmentation on identifiability

occurrence modes and cleaning potential of sulfur and some trace elements in a high sulfur coal from pu an coalfield sw guizhou china in this research a float sink test was applied to a late permian high sulfur coal collected from pu an coalfield southwest in guizhou china to investigate the occurrence modes and the mobility of various trace elements as well as the cleaning potential of some harmful elements in density separation coal quality parameters and concentrations of 46 elements of 7 density fractionated samples were determined and statistically analyzed results show that larger size and higher density fractions have higher total sulfur content and ash yield than the smaller and lower ones in fact most 74 39 of the total sulfur occurs in the inorganic matter affinity and correlation analysis show that mo and ni have apparently strong organic affinity whereas rh cs sr co nb zr v ga sc be ge hf th u ag as in cu cd ta li ti and ba are mostly in the heavy fractions rare earth element ree patterns for the seven density fractions present good uniformity and show that they are of right inclined pattern type characterized by light ree lree la eu enrichment relative to heavy ree hree gd lu and pronounced negative eu anomalies this suggests that ree was mainly derived from basalt weathered materials lrree hree ratio variations reveal that lree has stronger affinity with the organic matter relative to the hree while high lrree hree in heavy fractions may be related to pyrite supposing the maximum sulfur content of the cleaned coal is 1 00 the theoretical removal ratios of co ti and ba are as high as 90 94 93 73 and 92 29 respectively while those of as ni and mo are only 56 33 48 85 and 45 05 respectively as these figures change with different maximum sulfur contents required for the cleaned coal not only the decrease of sulfur and ash in coal washing but also the mobility of some harmful trace elements should be taken into consideration

palaeomagnetic and rock magnetic analysis of holocene deposits from the adriatic sea detecting and dating short term fluctuations in sediment supply we present palaeomagnetic and rock magnetic results from five cores collected in the basin of the adriatic sea four cores prad2 4 ks02 246 css00 23 and css00 07 were collected along a shore parallel transect whereas the fifth core amc99 01 was retrieved in the central adriatic in 250 m water depth on the floor of the meso adriatic depression after alternating field demagnetization the natural remanent magnetization nrm directions show a characteristic and primary magnetization of the sediments that is representative of secular variation of the geomagnetic field by combining 14c dating and the ages of magnetic inclination features it has been possible to establish an age depth model for all of the cores precise identification of the secular variation features provides a refined chronology that allows us to quantify short term changes in sediment flux from the adriatic catchment as well as changes in sediment routing within the basin rock magnetic parameters indicate a homogeneous magnetic mineralogy dominated by fine grained magnetite variations in both concentration and grain size related magnetic parameters reflect changes in sediment supply between glacial and interglacial stages as well as changes in environmental conditions selective dissolution of magnetic grains is associated with the formation of sapropel s1 during the first part of the holocene although the duration of the anoxic interval varies between cores a significant modification in sediment supply characterizes the late holocene deposits with a marked increase in sedimentation rate occurring during the last few centuries we interpret this as a far reaching response to the rapid construction of the modern po delta under increasing anthropogenic impact

pliocene quaternary sedimentation in the northern apennine foredeep and related denudation the deposits of the pliocene quaternary foredeep of the northern apennine cover at present an area of 103000 km2 the original boundaries of the basin are not known since marginal deposits have been eroded in particular those of the inner southwestern border during pliocene times the basin area was reduced by thrust tectonics and the amount of shortening may be tentatively estimated the present volume of pliocene and quaternary sediments may be inferred with good approximation from the maps of the base of the pliocene and of the quaternary base of the hyalinea balthica zone successions the pliocene volume has been corrected adding the estimate of the underthrust sediments while no correction has been attempted for the eroded marginal deposits the estimates of 97000 and 95000km3 reflecting the present volume of the pliocene and quaternary deposits are therefore significantly less than the volumes originally deposited present volumes have been transformed in net 0 porosity volumes in order to obtain the relative net supply rates 0 021 pliocene and 0 047 quaternary km3 a other unmeasurable factors volume variations due to the weathering of silicates loss of leached carbonates may induce a probably unimportant underestimate of the supply rates available data allow an approximate estimate of the range of the net volume of the holocene sediments deposited during the last 6000 a bp 221 276km3 and of the relative net supply rate 0 037 0 046km3 a that is not significantly different from the quaternary one applying a porosity correction these supply rates may be related to the quaternary source area 128000km2 to obtain the relative denudation rates 0 41 0 46mm a quaternary and 0 36 0 51 mm a holocene present supply and denudation rates deduced from the direct measurements of the bed load and suspended load of the apenninic and alpine rivers do not differ significantly from the quaternary and holocene ones available data do not allow a reliable estimate of the pliocene source area and consequently of the pliocene denudation rate however a minimum of 160000 177 000 km3 has been eroded during pliocene and quaternary times assuming as a working hypothesis that the pliocene source area did not significantly differ from the present one an average thickness of 1240 1390 m could have been eroded since the beginning of pliocene this estimate is in agreement with the values obtained from the measurements of coalification of vegetal organic matter in the outcrops and suggests that post orogenic successions and higher thrust sheets may have been completely removed in vast areas

mineralogy and geochemistry of boehmite rich coals new insights from the haerwusu surface mine jungar coalfield inner mongolia china abstract boehmite rich coal of pennsylvanian age was discovered earlier at the heidaigou surface mine jungar coalfield inner mongolia china this paper reports new results on 29 bench samples of the no 6 coal from a drill core from the adjacent haerwusu surface mine and provides new insights into the origin of the minerals and elements present the results show that the proportion of inertinite in the no 6 coal is higher than in other late paleozoic coals in northern china based on mineral proportions boehmite to kaolinite ratio and major element concentrations in the coal benches of the drill core the no 6 coal may be divided into five sections i to v major minerals in sections i and v are kaolinite sections ii and iv are mainly kaolinite with a trace of boehmite and section iii is high in boehmite the boehmite is derived from bauxite in the weathered surface benxi formation in the sediment source region the no 6 coal is rich in al2o3 8 89 tio2 0 47 li 116 g g f 286 g g ga 18 g g se 6 1 g g sr 350 g g zr 268 g g rees 172 g g pb 30 g g and th 17 g g the elements are classified into five associations by cluster analysis i e groups a b c d and e group a ash sio2 al2o3 na2o li and group b ree sc in y k2o rb zr hf cs u p2o5 sr ba ge are strongly correlated with ash yield and mainly have an inorganic affinity the elements that are negatively or less strongly correlated with ash yield with exceptions of fe2o3 be v and ni are grouped in the remaining three associations group c se pb hg th tio2 bi nb ta cd sn group d co mo tl be ni sb mgo re ga w zn v cr f cu and group e s as cao mno fe2o3 aluminum is mainly distributed in boehmite followed by kaolinite the high correlation coefficients of the li ash li al2o3 and li sio2 pairs indicate that li is related to the aluminosilicates in the coal the boehmite rich coal is high in gallium and f which occur in boehmite and the organic matter selenium and pb are mainly in epigenetic clausthalite fillings in fractures the abundant rare earth elements in the coal benches were supplied from two sources the bauxite on the weathered surface of the benxi formation and from adjacent partings by groundwater leaching during diagenesis the light rare earth elements lrees are more easily leached from the partings and incorporated into the organic matter than the heavy rees leading to a higher ratio of lrees to hrees in the coal benches than in the overlying partings