time scales of sedimentary transfer and weathering processes from u series nuclides clues from the himalayan rivers abstract in order to define time scales of erosion and sedimentary transfer in the himalaya 238 u 234 u 230 th disequilibria have been analysed in river bank sediments and in bedloads collected along the kali gandaki river one of the main nepalese rivers and in the ghaghara and gandak rivers two major plain tributaries of the ganges the th activity ratios and u th ratios in river sediments of the two ganges tributaries constantly decrease from upstream to downstream this is related to the maturation of sediments by weathering during their transfer to the plain the u series data allow to calculate a transfer time for the sediments in the alluvial gangetic plain from the chain front to the confluence with the ganges of about 100 kyr for both rivers the kali gandaki river sediment data highlight a decrease of both the th isotopic and u th ratios which is explained by a mixing between two sources with similar u th ratios but having suffered a different u th fractionation history interpretation of the u series data in the frame of this scenario gives long time scales of weathering of several 100 s kyr for the himalayan terranes the results imply that himalayan bedrocks are submitted to a long in situ stage of weathering before their erosion and transfer into the rivers in addition occurrence of similar u sr signatures in dissolved i e

chemistry of uranium thorium and radium isotopes in the ganga brahmaputra river system weathering processes and fluxes to the bay of bengal abstract the most comprehensive data set on uranium thorium and radium isotopes in the ganga brahmaputra one of the major river systems of the world is reported here the dissolved 238u concentration in these river waters ranges between 0 44 and 8 32 1 and it exhibits a positive correlation with major cations na k mg ca the 238 u cations ratio in waters is very similar to that measured in the suspended sediments indicating congruent weathering of uranium and major cations the regional variations observed in the 234 u 238 u activity ratio are consistent with the lithology of the drainage basins the lowland tributaries chambal betwa ken and son draining through the igneous and metamorphic rocks of the deccan traps and the vindhyan bundelkhand plateau have 234 u 238 u ratio in the range 1 16 to 1 84 this range is significantly higher than the near equilibrium ratio 1 05 observed in the highland rivers which drain through sedimentary terrains the dissolved 226ra concentration ranges between 0 03 and 0 22 dpm 1 the striking feature of the radium isotopes data is the distinct difference in the 228ra and 226ra abundances between the highland and lowland rivers the lowland waters are enriched in 228ra while the highland waters contain more 226ra this difference mainly results from the differences in their weathering regimes the discharge weighted mean concentration of dissolved 238u in the ganga at patna and in the brahmaputra at goalpara are 1 81 and 0 63 1 respectively the ganga brahmaputra river system constitutes the major source of dissolved uranium to the bay of bengal these rivers transport annually about 1000 tons of uranium to their estuaries about 10 of the estimated global supply of dissolved uranium to the oceans via rivers the transport of uranium by these rivers far exceeds that of the amazon although their water discharge is only about 20 of that of the amazon the high intensity of weathering of uranium in the ganga brahmapura river system can also be deduced from the 232 th 238 u and 230 th 238 u activity ratios measured in the suspended sediments 230th is enriched by about 19 in the suspended sediments relative to its parent 238u the flux of excess 230th supplied to the bay of bengal via these river sediments is 980 1012 dpm a about six times more than its in situ production from seawater in the entire bay of bengal

u th pb ages of single zircons in archaean supracrustals from nain province labrador canada ion probe u pb dating of igneous zircons from an acid metavolcanite belonging to the nulliak supracrustal association of the saglek area northern labrador suggests an original age of 3776 8 ma 2 interpreted as the deposition age of the volcanite in accordance with the field model this is slightly but significantly older than the previously obtained ion probe u pb age of igneous zircons from the main phase of the uivak gneisses which carries inclusions of the supracrustal association a secondary event of zircon growth recorded in the metavolcanite has a maximum age of 3065 8 ma 2 a metapelite belonging to the weekes amphibolite supracrustal association of the hopedale area south of nain contains rounded low u zircons of 3258 24 ma 2 age occasional textural evidence suggests that some of these zircons are most likely detrital grains of igneous origin in which case 3258 24 ma is a minimum age of the source from which the sediment was derived and a maximum age for the deposition of

u pb dating of monazite and its application to geological problems monazite is an underutilized mineral in u pb geochronological studies of crustal rocks it occurs as an accessory mineral in a wide variety of rocks including granite pegmatite felsic volcanic a

uranium infiltration from a river to shallow groundwater the infiltration of uranium from the polluted river glatt switzerland into a hydraulically connected saturated aquifer was investigated during a period of almost five years the uranium concentrations and the 234u238u activity ratios ars were analysed monthly in the water of the river and of four groundwater sampling wells the speciation of uranium and its relation to other aqueous and solid components were investigated experimentally and in model calculations the uranium concentration and the ars in the river varied seasonally with a maximum and a minimum respectively in summer processes such as photo reductive dissolution of iron oxyhydroxides or the enhanced decomposition of organic matter and calcite in the upstream eutrophic lake greifen may have caused these variations laboratory experiments confirmed a possible release of uranium by photochemical reactions the concentration maximum of uranium was also detected in the shallow groundwater but with a delay of about six months to the maximum in the river under the assumption that the maxima in the river and the groundwater were related an in situ distribution coefficient kd for uranium of 7 ml g 1 can be calculated for this quaternary gravel aquifer uranium was present predominantly as uo2 carbonate complexes whereas the formation of phosphate and organic complexes e g uo2 humates edta nta was negligible particles and colloids played a minor role for the transport of uranium in this aquifer in the course of this study we observed an ongoing general decrease of the uranium concentrations and a disappearance of its summerly maxima in the river glatt we relate this unexpected effect to a better control of the phosphate concentration in surface waters which diminished the growth of aquatic biota this in turn led to changes in the redox conditions of lake and river sediments and herewith to a reduced release of heavy metals including uranium the results of this case study can be applied to estimate the migration behavior of other actinide oxyions e g puo22 npo2 in shallow heterogeneous aquifers which abound in alpine and pre alpine locations

new relationships between vs thickness of sediments and resonance frequency calculated by the h v ratio of seismic noise for the cologne area germany noise measurements were carried out in the cologne area germany and the resonance frequency of each site was estimated from the main peak in the spectral ratio between the horizontal and vertical component for 32 of these sites the thickness of the sedimentary cover was known from boreholes and a clear correlation between resonance frequency and sediment thickness was observed a formula that correlates cover thickness with frequency of the main peak in the horizontal to vertical spectral ratio was derived in addition a best fitting shear wave velocity distribution with depth vs z as well as a relationship between average shear wave velocity vs and thickness of the sedimentary cover was calculated by using all of the noise measurements and applying the derived relationships we obtained a subsoil classification for the cologne area

time scale and conditions of weathering under tropical climate study of the amazon basin with u series the rio solimoes amazonas amazon river and its major tributaries have been analyzed for u series nuclides 238 u 234 u 230 th 226 ra disequilibria have been measured in the dissolved 0 2 lm as well as bed sands u series disequilibria are closely related to major and trace element compositions and therefore reflect elemental fractionation during chemical weathering moreover while the dissolved load records present day weathering suspended particles integrate the erosion his tory over much longer time scales 100 ka lowland rivers are characterized by long time scales of chemical erosion p100 ka result ing in a high weathering intensity moreover exchange between suspended particles and the dissolved load may explain the u series signature for these rivers by combining u series and pb isotopes in suspended particles we show that erosion in the rio madeira basin occurred as a multi step process whereby the pristine continental crust was eroded several hundreds of ma ago to produce sediments that have then been integrated in the cordillera by crustal shortening and are currently eroded in contrast recent erosion of a pristine crust is more likely for the rio solimoes amazonas 10 ka the suspended particles of the rivers draining the andes solimoes ama zonas madeira suggest time scales of weathering ranging between 4 and 20 ka this indicates that suspended particles transported by those rivers are not stored for long periods in the andean foreland basin and the tropical plain the sediments delivered to the ocean have resided only a few ka in the amazon basin 6 3 1 ka for the rio amazonas at obidos nevertheless a large fraction of the sediments coming out from the andes are trapped in the foreland basin and may never reach the ocean erosion in the andes is not operating in steady state u series systematics shows unambiguously that rivers are exporting a lot more sediments than predicted by steady state erosion and that is a consequence of soil destruction greater than production by relating this observation to the short time scales of weathering inferred for the andes a few ka it appears that the erosion regime has been recently perturbed resulting in high denudation rates a possible explanation would be the increase in precipitation less than 5 ka proposed by recent paleoclimatic studies our results indicate that erosion responds rapidly to high frequency climatic fluctuations

a record of late quaternary continental weathering in the sediment of the caspian sea evidence from u th sr isotopes trace element and palynological data abstract this study presents combined mineralogical chemical isotopic 87sr 86sr and u th disequilibria series and palynological analyses on bulk sediments and on distinct mineral phases carbonates and clays from a 10 m long core drilled in the southern caspian sea and containing a late pleistocene and early holocene record the data allowed identifying 1 the main variations in sedimentation 2 the processes causing these variations 3 the modification of erosion vs weathering and 4 the influence of climatic and or caspian sea level changes in the region since the late pleistocene the chemical and mineralogical results allowed the division of the sedimentary sequence into three main units and a transition zone the lower unit unit u1 primarily consists of silicate and carbonate rich detritus sedimentation characteristics including observation of detritus in secular equilibrium are relatively constant within this unit and reflect mechanical erosion in a cold climate unit u1 probably corresponds to a glacial period when the vegetation cover was sparse and wind and river transport of pollen were strong subsequently global increase in temperatures has greatly modified the sedimentation in the caspian sea south basin biogenic sedimentation is higher in units u2 and u3 and detrital inputs varied from unit u1 variations in detrital input are likely to be caused by decreasing aeolian contribution and by relative changes in river volumes and origins the study of the bulk sediments clays and carbonates reflects an increase in chemical weathering since about 10 14c ka bp ago base of unit u2 in line with an increase in the vegetation cover our results suggest an evolution of continental weathering conditions in the catchment area of the caspian sea from dominantly mechanical physical erosion during the cold period to a continuous increase in weathering since the lateglacial period as climate improved which illustrates the strong relation between climate vegetation cover and weathering processes this paper also highlights how the u th disequilibrium series proxy combined with other geochemical and palynological studies could be a useful tool to record and constrain the modification of weathering regime in response to climatic and environmental changes at regional scale

smnd isotopic and geochemical characterisation of the paleoproterozoic torngat orogen labrador canada abstract the torngat orogen is a paleoproterozoic granulite facies belt that welds the archean components of the nain and rae provinces in eastern labrador sm nd isotopic and supporting bulk rock major trace and rare earth element data help elucidate the sources of the main paleoproterozoic lithologies that comprise the orogen in the foreland paleoproterozoic ramah group metasediments intercalated with reworked nain province gneiss show variable trace element and nd 1 9 ga from 2 9 to 12 0 ranging between nain province crust and paleoproterozoic mugford group basalts compositions the ramah group data suggest derivation of ramah detritus from archean nain province gneisses and from the mugford group in the lac lomier complex rae province hinterland metasediments with variable trace element distribution patterns akin to rae province crust and nd 1 9 ga from 2 9 to 10 5 suggest derivation from rae province crust and from an unspecified juvenile component in the core of the orogen pelitic and psammitic protoliths of the tasiuyak gneiss nd 1 9 ga from 1 9 to 2 6 were derived from crustal sources unknown in both nain and rae provinces and may have been deposited in a trench environment starved of adjacent cratonic debris dioritic to granitic eastern and western metaplutonic suites intruding the tasiuyak gneiss and the lac lomier complex display contrasting geochemical and sm nd isotopic compositions the eastern metaplutonic suite has a tendency toward lower sio2 total alkalis less fractionated ree and higher mgo cao and tio2 relative to the western metaplutonic suite the eastern suite yields nd 1 9 ga from 3 8 to 6 7 and negative f sm nd suggesting igneous precursors from rae crust and a a lree enriched juvenile component the western suite yields nd 1 9 ga from 1 5 to 8 5 suggesting an important contribution from rae crustal sources in the petrogenesis of the igneous protoliths the presence of rae province nd isotopic compositions and the absence of nain province signatures in these intrusions favors the eastern rae province as the active margin during nain rae convergence

shear wave velocity structure of the izmit bay area turkey estimated from active passive array surface wave and single station microtremor methods summary to provide quantitative information on the shear wave velocity structure of the izmit bay area we conduct active passive array surface wave and single station microtremor measurements at 60 sites we process these array measurements to produce combined rayleigh wave dispersion curves that span a broad frequency range 0 5 20 hz we also make use of horizontal to vertical spectral ratio hvsr curves obtained from the single station microtremor measurements to benefit from their close relation to the ellipticity of rayleigh waves using the dispersion curve sensitivity to the absolute velocities and the shape of the hvsr curve sensitivity to the velocity contrasts of the velocity depth model we have applied a combined inversion technique to derive better constrained shear velocity models at each site the derived shear velocity models are used to provide a vs30 site classification map and information on the sediment bedrock structure for the izmit bay area the vs30 map shows that the entire shoreline regions including artificial infill areas of the izmit bay have vs30 values less than 200 m s 1 locally as low as 80 m s 1 the older sediment areas of the izmit basin have vs30 values ranging between 250 and 350 m s 1 the highest vs30 values are associated with rock sites reaching about 950 1300 m s 1 we also present a high correlation between the vs30 values and the phase velocity of rayleigh wave corresponding to the 40 m wavelength c40 the important implication of this correlation is that vs30 may be estimated from c40 without inverting the dispersion curve the inferred sediment bedrock interface along a cross section shows an antisymmetric v shaped basin with a sedimentary cover thickness reaching about 1200 m at the deepest part of the izmit basin this deepest part coincides in the map view where the north anatolian fault zone crosses the basin in the east west direction the sedimentary cover thickness is found to be 750 m in the golcuk derince basin

mapping the palaeo piniada valley central greece based on systematic microtremor analyses the application of seismic noise based techniques has become particularly popular in the last decades as they are not invasive and do not require large teams or expensive equipments the horizontal to vertical spectral ratio hvsr is commonly used not only in seismic microzoning studies as far as from noise recording constraining the fundamental resonant frequency but it is also possible to infer the depth of the bedrock knowing the average shear wave velocity of the overlying sedimentary cover or viceversa i e resonance equation for the purposes of the present research more than 300 single station noise measurements were carried out across the piniada valley central greece along and between several transects planned roughly perpendicular to the mean valley trend to understand the palaeogeographic and tectonic evolution of this area we needed an estimation of the geometry at depth of the bedrock underlying the fluvial deposits of the present day pinios river as a result for each measured site we calculated the depth of the bedrock and afterwards such values were opportunely interpolated for obtaining a 3d model of the palaeo piniada valley documenting for the first time the recent late quaternary inversion of the topographic gradient

transport of radionuclides in an unconfined chalk aquifer inferred from u series disequilibria abstract u series disequilibria measured in waters and rocks from a chalk aquifer in france have been used as an analog for long term radionuclide migration drill core samples from a range of depths in the vadose zone and in the saturated zone as well as groundwater samples were analyzed for 238 u 234 u 232 th and 230 th to determine transport mechanisms at the water rock interface and to quantify parameters controlling the migration of radionuclides isotope measurements in rocks were done by tims whereas 234 u 238 u and 230 th 232 th activity ratios in water samples were measured by multi collector icp ms both depletion and enrichment in 234 u relative to 238 u were observed in carbonate rock samples resulting from chemical weathering in the unsaturated zone and calcite precipitation in the zone of water table oscillation respectively the correlation between 230 th 232 th activity ratios and 87 sr 86 sr ratios found in the chalk samples indicates that thorium is mainly contained in a minor silicate phase whose abundance is variable in chalk samples water samples are all characterized by 234 u 238 u 1 resulting from recoil effect of 234 th groundwaters are characterized by a more radiogenic signature in 87 sr 86 sr than the rocks moreover 230 th 232 th activity ratios in the waters are lower than in the rocks and increase with distance from the water divide which suggests that th transport is controlled by colloids formed during water infiltration in the soil a 1 d transport model has been developed in order to constrain the u series nuclide transport considering a transient behavior of radionuclides in the aquifer and a time dependent composition for the solid phase this model permits a prediction of the time scale of equilibration of the system and an estimation of parameters such as weathering rate distribution coefficients and recoil fractions retardation factors of 10 35 and from 1 10 4 to 2 10 5 were predicted for u and th respectively and can be used to predict the migration of radionuclides released as contaminants in the environment at the scale of our watershed 32 km 2 a characteristic migration time from recharge to riverine discharge of 200 600 yr for u and 0 2 3 7 myr for th was obtained

the importance of colloids and mires for the transport of uranium isotopes through the kalix river watershed and baltic sea the importance of colloids and organic deposits for the transport of uranium isotopes from continental source regions and through the estuarine environment was investigated in the mire rich kalix river drainage basin in northern sweden and the baltic sea ultrafiltration techniques were used to separate uranium and other elements associated with colloids 10 kd and 3 kd from solute uranium and provided consistent results and high recovery rates for uranium as well as for other elements from large volume samples uranium concentrations in 0 45 m filtered kalix river water samples increased by a factor of 3 from near the headwaters in the caledonides to the river mouth while major cation concentrations were relatively constant 234 u 238 u ratios were high 234 u 770 1500 throughout the basin without showing any simple pattern and required a supply of 234 u rich water throughout the kalix river a large fraction 30 90 of the uranium is carried by 10 kd colloids which is compatible with uranium complexation with humic acids no isotopic differences were found between colloid associated and solute uranium within the baltic sea about half of the uranium is removed at low salinities the proportion that is lost is equivalent to that of river derived colloid bound uranium suggesting that while solute uranium behaves conservatively during estuarine mixing colloid bound uranium is lost due to rapid flocculation of colloidal material the association of uranium with colloids therefore may be an important parameter in determining uranium estuarine behavior mire peats in the kalix river highly concentrate uranium and are potentially a significant source of recoil 234 u to the mirewaters and river waters however mirewater data clearly demonstrate that only small 234 u 238 u shifts are generated relative to inflowing groundwater a simple box model of uranium accumulation in peat and transport through the mire that is compatible with the mire data demonstrates that with efficient removal of uranium from solution only small shifts in 234 u 238 u ratios can be generated in mirewater uranium the measurements and model calculations show that mirewaters are not the primary source of the uranium in the river bedrock groundwaters with high 234 u 238 u ratios and uranium concentrations must be the dominant source of riverine uranium

the application of uranium series disequilibrium concepts to sediment yield determination the determination of uranium series disequilibria in fluvial environments is proposed as a method of calculating catchment mass balances the technique is based on two main principles firstly 234u is more mobile than 238u especially during the early stages of weathering secondly uranium is far more mobile than either thorium or protactinium consequently teaching during weathering results in the loss of the uranium found in the fresh rock leaving the two immobile daughters behind the ratio of uranium carried by sediment to that dissolved us uw can therefore be determined from river water and sediment isotopic activity ratios fluxes of uranium can then be calculated from average concentrations in the water and the associated sediment from which a sediment yield can be inferred the witham catchment in lincolnshire has been used to test the proposed method a us uw ratio of between 5 and 7 is determined and a sediment yield of 2 51 2 12 tonnes yr 1 km 2 is proposed although some problems concerning environmental chemistry have arisen the validity of the approach is confirmed by the close correspondence between the results obtained and those inferred by earlier workers using more conventional methods

uranium colloidal transport and origin of the 234u 238u fractionation in surface waters new insights from mount cameroon in order to evaluate the spatial variability of the 234u 238u fractionation and its origin in surface waters 234u 238u activity ratios a r and trace element concentrations were measured in 34 streams and springs draining mount cameroon volcano in addition tangential ultrafiltration techniques were applied to 10 of the samples to assess the role of colloids on the transport of the uranium isotopes u concentration variations in the different ultrafiltered fractions indicate that inorganic colloids can significantly influence the transport of this chemical element even in diluted and organic poor waters such influence which may be related to the chemical and physical nature of colloids does induce fractionations between u and sr along with filter size 234u 238u a r variations among the different ultrafiltered fractions of a sample remain small or even negligible only two samples exhibit a significant isotopic difference between colloid associated and solute u colloids of these two samples seem to correspond to a phase which is distinct from the dissolved and particulate loads of the waters at the scale of the volcano the 234u 238u a r in surface waters is large ranging from 1 038 to 1 397 small 234u 238u fractionations between 1 038 and about 1 10 are attributed to surface and meteoric weathering of the bedrock by contrast the highest 234u 238u fractionations up to 1 397 are associated with groundwater contributions thus variations in the 234u 238u a r could correspond to the water source and not to the surface weathering processes consequently 234u 238u disequilibrium may represent a powerful tool for detecting and quantifying the influence of groundwater inputs on the chemical fluxes carried by surface waters

an overview of the upb geochronology of the paleoproterozoic torngat orogen northeastern canada abstract the paleoproterozoic torngat orogen northern labrador and northeastern quebec canada is the result of oblique collision between the nain north atlantic and rae cratons a comprehensive set of u pb ages allows the chronology of events to be closely bracketed subduction occurred below the nain craton from ca 1910 1870 ma and collision between the cratons may have occurred between 1869 and 1844 ma sinistral deformation continued along the intervening abloviak shear zone until ca 1824 ma and convergence was ultimately impeded by the partial subduction of the southern rae craton post collisional isostatic uplift of the southern rae craton initiated deformation in the komaktorvik zone ca 1798 ma a prominent bend in the abloviak shear zone may be the result of differential uplift of the western side of the orogen in the south sinistral strike slip and east as well as west side up deformation continued episodically in the komaktorvik zone until at least 1710 ma the tectonic development of the orogen can be explained in terms of modern plate tectonic processes

assessing the role of climate on uranium and lithium isotope behaviour in rivers draining a basaltic terrain this study presents uranium u and lithium li isotope and major and trace element data for the dissolved load suspended particles and bedload from rivers draining dominantly basaltic catchments on the island of sao miguel in the azores archipelago uranium activity ratios are at secular equilibrium in the bedload but are higher for suspended material suggesting sorption of uranium from the solution onto particle surfaces the 234u 238u of the riverine dissolved phase varies between 1 02 and 1 86 and lies on a mixing trend between the values expected from chemical weathering of basalt high u 234u 238u at secular equilibrium and an endmember with low u and high 234u 238u which probably reflects recoil effects associated with physical weathering and or soil formation lithium isotope ratios are consistently lighter in suspended material than the corresponding bedload suggesting preferential retention of 6li in the suspended load in turn the 7li of the dissolved load is always isotopically heavier ranging from 5 9 to 36 2 although the lightest values are affected by hydrothermal input the lithium isotopic composition of the dissolved load reflects the balance of primary mineral dissolution to secondary mineral formation comparison of the behaviour of u and li isotopes between sao miguel iceland and other basaltic terrains suggests that whilst u isotopes are dominated by weathering regimes dependent on factors such as weathering rates temperature runoff and climate neither weathering intensity nor climate exerts a direct influence on li isotope behaviour rather the formation of secondary minerals which is indirectly controlled by climate weathering primary mineralogy and biology appears to play the dominant role

u pb and lu hf isotopes of the archean orthogneiss complex on eastern hall peninsula southern baffin island nunavut identification of exotic paleo to mesoarchean crust beneath eastern hall peninsula abstract eastern hall peninsula on southeastern baffin island lies at the junction of a complex paleoproterozoic collision between the rae craton meta incognita microcontinent and the north atlantic craton from ca 1 88 to 1 80 ga several different interpretations of crustal correlations and the location of intervening sutures have been proposed based on reconnaissance scale geologic investigation therefore in this study complex zircon grains from archean orthogneiss units on eastern hall peninsula were analyzed in situ to elucidate the detailed magmatic history of the region and assess crustal provenance magmatic zircons yielded u pb crystallization ages between ca 2976 and 2720 ma and metamorphic zircons record tectonothermal disturbances between ca 2740 and 2700 ma a period coinciding with metamorphism documented in adjacent crustal blocks e g west greenland and northern labrador magmatic rocks older than ca 2740 ma generally have positive ehf t signatures between 0 and 7 2 and depleted mantle model ages of ca 3 1 3 0 ga indicating the time that protolith melt was extracted from the mantle the oldest granodioritic crust crystallized at ca 2976 ma and was then reworked periodically at ca 2 93 2 84 2 81 and 2 77 2 69 ma zircons from two orthogneiss samples with u pb crystallization ages younger than ca 2740 ma yielded negative ehf t values ranging from 4 to 12 and mean depleted mantle model ages of ca 3 4 and 3 3 ga respectively indicating derivation from an older potentially exotic crustal source yet to be identified in outcrop on hall peninsula synthesizing regional u pb data we propose a new regional correlation model that retains the essentials of previous models and incorporates new data from eastern hall peninsula and other recent studies this new tectonic correlation model groups eastern hall peninsula southern cumberland peninsula and the aasiaat domain into a core zone that shared a geologic history prior to 1 90 ga and potentially prior to 2 75 ga

vs30 estimates using constrained h v measurements abstract most seismic codes adopt the average shear wave velocity as a key parameter in the first 30 m of subsoil v s 30 estimates of v s 30 are therefore required for both large and small scale seismic microzonation we propose a technique to measure the v s 30 based on the horizontal to vertical spectral ratio h v of microtremor recorded at a single station the h v is fitted with a synthetic curve using the independently known thickness of a superficial layer of the subsoil as a constraint the proposed procedure consists of three steps 1 identify the depth of a shallow stratigraphic horizon from independent geotechnical data 2 identify its corresponding h v marker and 3 use it as a constraint to fit the experimental h v curve with the theoretical one the synthetic h v curve is calculated by assuming a stratified one dimensional 1d soil model and a tremor wave field from distant random sources that are composed of rayleigh and love waves this technique has been validated on different geological settings following a triple check procedure 1 the theoretical rayleigh wave phase velocity dispersion curves calculated for the model derived from the h v fit were compared to the experimental curves measured with the 2d extended spatial autocorrelation esac method and the 1d refraction microtremor remi array surveys 2 the v s profiles and 3 the v s 30 estimates obtained by the proposed technique were compared to those obtained by using the latter array techniques finally the inferred stratigraphy was compared to the geological model the proposed technique is not meant to provide accurate v s profiles but has the potential to provide v s 30 estimates that are coherent with those measured through esac and remi and to satisfy law requirements furthermore the h v is found to be capable in detecting deviations from 1d subsoil geometry over the length of a few meters the correctness of which was confirmed by direct drilling

reproduction of microseism h v spectral features using a three dimensional complex topographical model of the sediment bedrock interface in the osaka sedimentary basin summary estimating the velocity structure of microseisms based on the horizontal to vertical spectral ratio hvsr is an extremely practical means of modelling the subsurface structure necessary for strong ground motion predictions thus beyond the traditional framework of the 1 d velocity structure the hvsr derived from observation records of microseisms microtremors with a frequency of about 1 hz or lower originating from ocean waves in areas where the sediment bedrock interface has irregular topographies was reproduced by finite differential method fdm based simulation this study was conducted for the osaka sedimentary basin the sediment bedrock interface of which is three dimensionally complicated and contains grabens steps and ramps because high precision models for this basin have been constructed based on a wide range of existing exploration information the hvsrs of two components the east west direction and the north south direction to the vertical direction derived from the fdm simulations were both well reproduced in terms of not only the peak frequency hvfp but also the spectral curves for a number of observation sites above the sediment bedrock interface with complex geological features these results suggest that with a sufficient number of observation sites for microtremors and highly accurate a priori information on geophysical constants in the sedimentary layer that spatially serves as the reference the irregular shaped sediment bedrock interface may be estimated based on how well the hvsr curves and the hvfp agree between the observations and simulations furthermore the fdm simulations confirmed observed phenomena such as the polarization of the amplitude of horizontal motions and broad or plateau like hvsr peaks of microseisms in grabens and step structures it was determined that the hvfps in areas with these strong irregularities are higher than the peak frequency of rayleigh wave ellipticity for the fundamental mode rhvfp based on the 1 d velocity structure in addition there was a difference of about 20 per cent at most between the hvfp derived from fdm simulations and the rhvfp in areas where the depth of the sediment bedrock interface varies only slightly

ion probe u th pb zircon dating of polymetamorphic orthogneisses from northern labrador canada rounded zircons included within igneous zircons from the uivak i gneisses northern labrador have ages of up to 3863 12 ma 2 showing the former existence of rocks that predate the uivak gneisses by more than 100 ma the igneous zircons themselves have experienced varying amounts of early pb loss but age estimates based on maximum 207pb 206pb from three separate gneiss samples agree to within error at 3732 6 ma 2 which is taken as the age of emplacement of the igneous precursor to the dominant component of the uivak gneisses a new generation of zircons was formed during migmatization at ca 3620 ma the volumetrically less important lister gneiss was emplaced at 3235 8 ma 2 in the late archaean different parts of the gneiss complex were subjected to different grades of metamorphic overprinting the zircon chronology of gneisses affected by granulite facies metamorphism suggests a rapid sequence of events with simultaneous recrystallization of old zircons and growth of new u poor zi

a new explanation for extreme 234u238u disequilibria in a dolomitic aquifer high 234u238u activity ratios are found in the shallow groundwater of the phreatic transvaal dolomite aquifer the aquifer is uranium poor while the waters are oxygen rich and young tritium and 14c are used to show that the disequilibrium increases the longer the water resides in contact with the dolomite host the 228ra and 222rn isotopes were used as supporting evidence that ion exchange between the 238u series nuclides in the water and the carbonate wall rock is necessary in assisting in the fractionation process the wolkberg cave speleothems preserve a record of the uranium isotopic fractionations that evolved as water flowed through the aquifer extremely variable and elevated 234u238u ratios of 2 12 are characteristic individual caverns may exhibit very large 234u238u variability in their drip water and in derivative carbonate precipitates speleothems deeper chambers where water has spent a longer time in contact with the aquifer tend to exhibit a greater degree of uranium isotopic fractionation in their speleothems the recorded fractionation process has been an ongoing one from at least the middle late pleistocene to the present the speleothem study supports the contention that ion exchange processes that produce sufficient enrichment of uranium on carbonate can provide ideal conditions for generating uranium isotopic fractionation in the water of carbonate aquifers in the absence of redox changes and within a uranium poor environment

uranium series disequilibrium in river sediments and waters the significance of anomalous activity ratios abstract samples of river water suspended and bottom sediments from the fenland catchment system draining into the wash u k have been analysed for the longer lived u th series radionuclides 238u 234u 230th and 232th the aim of this work was to assess the effects of open system phase transfer on the u series disequilibria observed in the river waters and sediments and to investigate the controls exerted on this phase transfer by the hydrological regime two important aspects of the u series radionuclide mobilisation in this modern river system have been observed 1 u series radionuclides are in a continuous state of flux between river sediments and river water and 2 u sorption on sediment particles is seasonably variable sequential extraction of whole sediments revealed that the u series isotopic characteristics of the ion exchangeable organic bound carbonate amorphous fe mn oxyhydroxides and crystalline fe mn oxides are controlled to a significant degree by the acquisition of u isotopes from the aqueous phase during summer when surface run off and river discharges are generally low the u isotope acquisition by sediment particles results in anomalously high234u 238u activity ratios 1 this is of importance for studies which rely upon the isotopic and elemental separation of u series radionuclides in the weathering system i e mass balance weathering rate and sediment yield assessments

234u 238u activity ratios in freshwaters as tracers of hydrological processes the strengbach watershed vosges france abstract 234u 238u and 87sr 86sr isotopic ratios as well as major and trace u ba sr rb element concentrations were analyzed in dissolved loads of the strengbach stream vosges france in order to constrain the sources of u isotopes 234u 238u to river waters the variations of the 234u 238u activity ratios along the stream indicate a clear dependence between the 234u 238u activity ratios of the surface waters and the different types of rocks forming the watershed with near equilibrium values for the waters draining granites and high 234u 238u disequilibria 1 4 for those flowing over carbonates the high 234u 238u disequilibria are related to a supply of 234u enriched groundwaters located within the carbonate rocks the 234u 238u activity ratios of the waters at the outlet of the catchment collecting the sources of the stream on the granitic lithology decrease from 1 02 to 0 96 when the discharge of the stream increases such a tendency requires mixing between a water body enriched in 234u which weathered the granitic bed rock at secular equilibrium and a water with a 234u 238u activity ratio below unity representing a mobilization of u from material that has already been weathered comparison of the geochemical characteristics of waters collected during the year and those collected during a flood event reveals the involvement of two different weathered end members depending on the hydrological conditions during the year the dissolved u transported by the river originates from bed rock and deep horizons of the weathering profile whereas a significant part of u during the flood event is supplied by superficial horizons of soils probably complexed by organic colloids these results outline the potential of 234u 238u activity ratios to investigate hydrological processes and emphasize that their use as tracers of rock weathering should be made cautiously

major and trace elements of river borne material the congo basin the congo river basin is the second largest drainage basin in the world after the amazon the materials carried by its main rivers provide the opportunity to study the products of denudation of a large fraction of the upper continental crust of the african continent this paper presents the chemical composition of the different phases carried in the congo rivers and is followed by a companion paper devoted to the modelling of major and trace elements the congo river between bangui and brazzaville as well as its main tributaries including a few organic rich rivers also called black rivers were sampled during the 1989 high water stage the three main phases suspended load dissolved load and bedload were analysed for twenty five major and trace elements concentrations normalized to the upper continental crust show that in each river suspended sediments and dissolved load are chemical complements for the most soluble elements ca na sr k ba rb and u while these elements are enriched in the dissolved loads they are considerably depleted in the corresponding suspended sediments this is consistent with their high mobility during weathering another type of complementarity is observed for zr and hf between suspended sediments and bedload related to the differential velocity of suspended sediments and zircons which are concentrated in bedloads compared to other rivers absolute dissolved concentrations of ca na sr k ba rb and u are remarkably low surprisingly high dissolved concentrations are found in the congo waters for other trace elements e g rees especially in the black rivers on a world scale these concentrations are among the highest measured in rivers and are shown to be ph dependent for a number of dissolved trace elements the dissolved loads are systematically normalized to the suspended loads for each river in order to remove the variations of the element abundances owing to source rock variations normalized diagrams for rees are presented and extended to the other elements they strongly support the argument that the apparent higher solubility of trace elements in the congo waters is due to the presence in the dissolved load of a colloidal phase as a result of 0 2 m filtration an important result is that these colloids are strongly depleted in fe and al with respect to the other elements finally the comparison of the dissolved suspended and sandy transport fluxes of each element in the congo basin rivers shows that although the proportions of for example the rees in the dissolved loads of the majority of the congo basin rivers is close to 10 of the total transport flux up to 80 of the rees are transported by the so called dissolved load in the black rivers

influence of acid atmospheric inputs on surface water chemistry and mineral fluxes in a declining spruce stand within a small granitic catchment vosges massif france abstract the characteristics of surface and soil waters draining an old declining spruce stand and their chemical behaviour under acid input influence within a small catchment are described using open field precipitations throughfalls soil solutions spring and streamwater data element fluxes are calculated in the different ecosystem compartments and the proton mass balance has been assessed the results show the importance of acid occult deposits and more generally of acid atmospheric inputs in explaining present soil acidification this acidification is characterized by the base cation deficiencies observed in spruce thereby showing symptoms of decline however stream waters and spring waters are not yet acidified owing to the neutralization of acid inputs by weathering in the regolith nevertheless streamwater chemistry is dominated by strong acid anions which are not characteristic of waters draining granitic bedrock in pristine areas

u pb geochronology of a paleoproterozoic continental magmatic arc on the western margin of the archean nain craton northern labrador canada the paleoproterozoic torngat orogen in northernmost labrador and northeastern quebec records the collision between the western margin of the nain province and the eastern margin of the rae province six samples from a suite of calc alkaline plutonic rocks that intrude the nain craton have been dated using the u pb method at 1895 2 1888 2 1885 2 two samples and 1859 ma and support the interpretation that east dipping subduction occurred below the nain craton during this interval a granitic dyke that truncates the sinistral shear fabric in the abloviak shear zone is 1824 2 ma placing a younger limit on the timing of this deformation in the area a second granitic dyke emplaced synchronously with dextral deformation in the bend in the abloviak shear zone is 1798 3 ma a model is proposed in which subduction occurred beneath the nain craton along its entire exposed length from 1 91 to 1 86 ga and collision occurred between 1 86 and 1 84 ga followed by oblique uplift of the southern

uranium isotopes as a tracer of sources of dissolved solutes in the han river south korea abstract the uranium u content and 234u 238u activity ratio were determined for water samples collected from korea s han river in spring summer and winter 2006 to provide data that might constrain the origin of u isotope fractionation in river water and the link between u isotope systematics in river waters and the lithological nature of the corresponding bedrock the large difference in the major dissolved loads between the two major branches of the han river the north han river nhr and south han river shr is reflected in the contrasting u content and 234u 238u activity ratio between the tributaries low u content 0 08 0 75 nm average 0 34 nm and small 234u 238u activity ratio 1 03 1 22 average 1 09 in the nhr and high u content 0 65 1 98 nm average 1 44 nm and large 234u 238u activity ratio 1 05 1 45 average 1 24 in the shr the large spatial differences in u content and 234u 238u activity ratio are closely related to both lithological differences between the two tributaries and groundwater input the low u content and small 234u 238u activity ratio in the nhr arise mainly from a combination of surface and meteoric weathering of the dominant silicate rocks in this branch and congruent dissolution of already weathered secular equilibrium materials in contrast the high u content and large 234u 238u activity ratio in the shr are ascribed to the dissolution of carbonates and black shales along with significant inputs of deep groundwater

sr_nd_pb isotope systematics in amazon and congo river systems constraints about erosion processes abstract 87 sr 86 sr 143 nd 144 nd 206 pb 204 pb 207 pb 204 pb and 208 pb 204 pb isotopic ratios and rb sr sm nd u pb and th concentrations have been measured in the suspended loads of the congo and amazon rivers and their tributaries in the dissolved load 87 sr 86 sr rb sr nd sm u pb and th concentrations are also reported these results show that nd sm th and pb are almost insoluble and that their mass balance is controlled by particulates whereas rb sr and u are fractionated between soluble and particulate phases the 87 sr 86 sr ratios can only be interpreted after computing the amount of carbonate recycling and the partitioning for silicates between soluble and insoluble this paper presents a method based on the lead isotopic system that can be used to test the steady state of erosion which is tacitly assumed in many river and erosion studies the results presented show that the steady state is validated in each river of the congo basin and in the lowland rivers of the amazon basin but in not verified in the rivers from the andes rio solimoes and rio madeira 87 sr 86 sr 206 pb 204 pb and 208 pb 204 pb ratios are positively correlated and negatively correlated with 143 nd 144 nd ratios a number of arguments indicate that these correlations are mixing lines the end members being orogenic and shield components respectively for the amazon basin analysis of the river loads shows that the orogenic zone is favoured some 5 times more than the shield on an equal area basis this leads to a reinterpretation of sm nd data for shales and casts some doubts upon the proposition of secular variations in the sm nd ratio of the continental crust

u pb geochronology of the eastern hall peninsula southern baffin island canada a northern link between the archean of west greenland and the paleoproterozoic torngat orogen of northern labrador abstract a corridor east of iqaluit that crosses several regionally significant lithologic boundaries has been mapped and sampled for geochronology zircon monazite and titanite were analysed by the isotope dilution u pb method to characterize igneous and metamorphic events and pb pb ages of detrital zircons were determined by laser ablation microprobe icp ms tonalitic gneisses at the eastern end of the corridor are archean with emplacement ages of 2920 8 6 2848 3 2844 6 5 and 2797 27 15 ma these samples record variable tectonothermal overprints at ca 2 77 ga and between 1844 and 1736 ma and may be related to similar rocks in west greenland a sequence of quartzites and semipelites associated with the archean gneisses contains exclusively archean detrital zircons and was metamorphosed at 1 88 ga in the central part of the corridor semipelitic and psammitic rocks contain almost exclusively paleoproterozoic detritus deposited after 1 93 0 05 ga and are interpreted as the northern continuation of the tasiuyak gneiss of the torngat orogen at the western end of the corridor monzogranites of the cumberland batholith intruded at 1869 9 3 1857 5 3 and 1850 3 2 ma the present data suggest that the north south nagssugtoqidian collision

geochemical and isotopic sr u monitoring of soil solutions from the strengbach catchment vosges mountains france evidence for recent weathering evolution abstract this study presents the results of a geochemical and isotope u and sr study of soil solutions from two experimental sites in the strengbach catchment one under spruce trees and the other under beech trees the soil solution data combined with the data from soil and vegetation samples indicate that the dissolved u filtered to 0 45 m in the soil solutions is primarily of lithogenic origin implying that the colloidal u is secondarily associated with organic matter or organo metallic complexes present in the soil solutions the uranium activity ratios and sr isotope ratios of soil solutions are used to decipher the nature of the minerals that control the lithogenic contribution to the soil solutions a comparison of soil solution data collected over the period 2004 2006 with those collected over the period 1993 2010 indicates a decrease in the ca and k exported by the soil solutions between 1998 and 2004 at the spruce site and a significantly smaller decrease at the beech site in addition the sr isotope ratios of the soil solutions vary significantly between these two periods at the spruce site but not or much less at the beech site such observations suggest that the forest ecosystem at the spruce site is in a transient state associated with recent changes in weathering reactions the data also suggest that the comparison of u and sr isotopes in soil solutions and plant samples could be a relevant method for determining whether a forest ecosystem is in a steady or transient state

a global geochemical mass budget applied to the congo basin rivers erosion rates and continental crust composition rivers carry the products of continental denudation either in a dissolved form chemical erosion or in a solid form physical erosion we focus in this paper on the relationship between physical erosion and chemical erosion we establish the mass budget of the congo basin rivers using chemical complementarities between river suspended sediments sandy bedload and dissolved load of the congo basin rivers reported in a previous paper dupre et al 1995 a series of equations are presented assuming that the physical and chemical erosion processes are in a steady state during one year the total mass of river borne material dissolved and particulate transported in the river over a given period of time should balance the mass of upper continental crust eroded during this time we show that the local continental crust on each drainage basin can be estimated and solve our steady state weathering model using an inversion procedure the very good agreement between modelled and measured values of the river suspended sediment concentrations validates the steady state hypothesis in this wet tropical area consequently in this area the sediment yield provide a good estimate of the rates of mechanical denudation this result also validates the calculation of the chemical and isotopic composition of the local continental upper crust using the bulk river load erosion rates for the silicate upper crust and thus independent of the lithological variability silicates evaporites and carbonates of the drainage basins are calculated mechanical erosion rates and chemical erosion rates for the congo basin at brazzaville are 8 t km2 y and 5 t km2 y the corresponding consumption of atmospheric co2 by weathering process is estimated to 51 103 mol km2 an these weathering and consumption rates are low in spite of the severity of the weathering conditions of the high soil temperature and of the intensity of precipitations these conclusions indicate the limiting influence the dynamic equilibrium of soils for silicate weathering finally by estimating the local continental crust chemical composition before the onset of erosion processes especially for the most soluble elements we can test the model of taylor and mclennan

identifying 2d resonance in microtremor wave fields to predict local site effects during earthquakes we must know the geometrical and mechanical properties of local sedimentary structures and their resonance behavior we present a concept to identify resonance modes for 2d structures this is done for synthetic as well as measured microtremor wave fields the microtremor data were investigated by using the reference station and horizontal to vertical h v methods analyzing the synthetic microtremor data in profiles across 2d structures the reference station method rsm turned out to be much more suitable for the detection of 2d resonances than the h v method we therefore focused on rsm when analyzing the measurement data from two test sites in switzerland the st jakob tullingen trough near basel in the north and a site in the rhone valley near the village vetroz in the south the results of these two test sites led to different conclusions whereas the spectral peaks in data of the st jakob tullingen trough were not well developed and could only tentatively be interpreted those from the rhone valley clearly exhibited 2d resonance effects the sh 00 and the sv fundamental mode could be successfully identified at 0 32 0 03 and 0 35 0 03 hz respectively

lithologic and climatologic controls of river chemistry abstract the chemistries of rivers draining a variety of lithologic and climatic regions have been surveyed for the purpose of quantifying the fluxes of bicarbonate and silica from rivers with respect to bedrock lithology and runoff in all 101 different rivers each draining a primary lithology were examined across the united states puerto rico and iceland to minimize seasonal effects only rivers with at least two years of data were used basaltic catchments were examined in the greatest detail in a survey of hawaiian island watersheds the average river chemistries could be related to the distribution of soil associations within each catchment an analysis of cation activity relationships among rivers draining basaltic catchments shows that the river compositions define slopes which are consistent with an equilibrium ion exchange control on cation ratios among different lithologies unique weathering rate relationships were developed with yields at typical present day runoff rates 1 100 cm y increasing in the order sandstones granites basalts shales and carbonates the bicarbonate and silica fluxes for each of these lithologies have been quantified for use in global studies of chemical denudation our study confirms that the dissolved yield of a given drainage basin is determined by a balance between physical and chemical weathering thus a warm wet climate or the presence of abundant vegetation cannot guarantee high rates of chemical denudation unless accompanied by high rates of physical removal

upb geochronology of the northern torngat orogen labrador canada a record of palaeoproterozoic magmatism and deformation abstract the palaeoproterozoic torngat orogen located in northeastern quebec and northern labrador canada records the sinistral transpressional collision of the western margin of the archaean nain province and the eastern margin of the rae province u pb age determinations are presented for twelve samples from the northern part of the orogen and used to evaluate models for its tectonic evolution voluminous granitoid plutonic rocks which in part intrude gneisses interpreted as the northern extension of the nain province and are possibly related to subduction below it have zircon ages of 1910 2 ma 1895 3 ma 1891 2 ma 1890 2 ma 1869 3 2 ma and 1864 2 ma suggesting at least 45 m y of convergence between the rae and nain provinces granulite facies conditions may have existed in the northern part of the area at 1 84 ga these plutonic rocks as well as tonalitic gneisses of the nain province were reworked at amphibolite facies conditions within a north south corridor referred to as the komaktorvik zone zircon age determinations of two granitic veins which were intruded synchronously with ongoing deformation in the komaktorvik zone are 1789 2 ma and 1719 2 ma suggesting that deformation within the zone may have lasted for up to 70 m y metamorphic titanite from samples within the komaktorvik zone have ages of 1776 4 ma 1774 4 ma 1767 4 ma 1710 4 ma and 1632 4 ma and support the interpretation of long lived deformation in the komaktorvik zone palaeoproterozoic subduction beneath the nain province has not been widely recognized in southern parts of the orogen suggesting that a distinct tectonic regime existed in the study area

seismic soil effect in an embanked deep alpine valley a numerical investigation of two dimensional resonance this paper presents a 2d numerical study of the seismic response of a deep embanked sediment filled valley rhone valley switzerland to incident sh and sv waves the 2d modeling is performed with a program developed by pedersen et al 1995 based on the ibem technique this valley exhibits variation in subsurface geometry therefore three representative cross sections are considered in order to investigate the influence of symmetric and asymmetric morphology on the seismic response comparison between 1d and 2d modeling shows that both resonant frequencies and amplification values differ to a large extent looking in the central part of the valley the 2d predicted amplification value is about twice higher than in the 1d case whereas the fundamental resonant frequency value is higher by a factor of 1 7 moreover 2d modeling results show that this valley presents a twodimensional resonance due to its shape ratio and shear wave velocity contrast the main characteristic is the unchanged position of the fundamental resonance frequency regardless of the surface site along the cross section under consideration and the incidence angle however the asymmetric cross section induces a specific spectral amplification pattern at the surface site and along the cross section which is also a function of the direction of incidence of the seismic wave such results show the importance of considering the morphology of a deep and narrow valley when investigating the local seismic response

238u234u230th chronometry of femn crusts growth processes and recovery of thorium isotopic ratios of seawater abstract comparison of 234 u excess 238 u and 230 th 232 th activity ratios in oceanic fe mn deposits provides a method for assessing the closed system behaviour of 238u 234u 230th as well as variations in the initial uranium and thorium isotopic ratios of the precipitated metal oxides this approach is illustrated using a fe mn crust from lotab seamount marshall islands west equatorial pacific here we report uranium and thorium isotopic compositions in five subsamples from the surface of one large 5 cm diameter botryoid of this crust and from two depth profiles of the outermost rim of the same botryoid the decrease of 234 u excess 238 u and 230 th 232 th activity ratio with depth in the two profiles gives mean growth rates for the last 238u 212th 150 ka of 7 8 2 mm ma and 6 6 1 mm ma respectively all data points surface and core samples but one define a linear correlation in the ln 230 th 232 th ln 234 u excess 238 u diagram this correlation indicates that for all points the u th system remained closed after the fe mn layer precipitated and that the different samples possessed the same initial uranium and thorium isotope ratios furthermore these results show that the preserved surface of this fe mn crust may not be the present day growth surface and that the thorium and uranium isotopic ratios of seawater in west equatorial pacific have not changed during the past 150 ka the initial thorium activity ratio is estimated from the correlation obtained between ln 230 th 232 th ln 234 u excess 238 u

geochemistry and water dynamics ii trace metals and pb sr isotopes as tracers of water movements and erosion processes abstract a dynamic scheme for water movements over a flood in a small watershed was proposed in a previous paper ben othman d luck j m tournoud m g 1997 geochemistry and water dynamics application to short time scale flood phenomena in a small mediterranean catchment i alkalis alkali earths and sr isotopes chem geol 140 9 28 based on major alkali alkali earth trace elements and sr isotopes in the present paper metal contents and pb isotope data are reported for the same samples and compared to natural and anthropogenic local sources analysed for this purpose water treatment plants have stable 206 pb 204 pb but show relatively large 207 pb 204 pb variations presumably related to yet unidentified industrial pb sources some cu zn rich chemicals used extensively on vineyards have unradiogenic 206 pb 204 pb around 17 7 local rains sampled over two years show roughly similar low values pb from rocks is variable and more radiogenic 206 pb 204 pb 18 8 22 8 except for the first hours trace element concentrations in the dissolved load are similar to or slightly higher than those observed over the year and similar to other moderately anthropogenic areas shiller a m boyle e a 1987 variability of dissolved trace metals in the mississippi river geochim cosmochim acta 51 3273 3277 for pb 0 05 0 45 nm zn 10 75 nm and cd 0 03 0 18 nm dissolved u and co show simple variations correlated to carbonate related to local natural sources most trace elements in the particulate load are strongly correlated lead isotopes in the dissolved and particulate loads show ranges over the flood again similar to those observed over the year 206 pb 204 pb 17 9 18 3 implying the same sources the very good alignments observed in 207 pb 204 pb and 208 pb 204 pb vs 206 pb 204 pb diagrams especially for the particulate are interpreted as mixing phenomena generally pb isotopic signature of the dissolved load is less radiogenic than the particulate indicating differences in sources or proportions and absence of isotopic equilibration with respect to the time of transfer pb isotopes shift regularly with time away from the road runoff endmember towards more radiogenic values the strong negative correlation between pb isotopes in the particulate load and sr isotopes in the dissolved load observed for the first time in a small watershed probably reflects the local coupling between mechanical and chemical erosion respectively

rare earth elements and sr and nd isotopic compositions of dissolved and suspended loads from small river systems in the vosges mountains france the river rhine and groundwater abstract the aim of this study is to characterize the evolution of the rare earth elements ree in non mature streams from small catchment areas in the vosges mountains downstream to more mature plain rivers including the river rhine the dissolved load ree distribution patterns of the low ph vosges streams are very different from those of high ph plain rivers indicating that different physico chemical parameters control ree transport in these different water systems the plain rivers and groundwater show similar ree distribution patterns with a strong negative ce anomaly and heavy rare earth element hree enrichment in addition the river rhine has a positive gd anomaly which is of anthropogenic origin similar to the world s major rivers the light rare earth element lree enrichment in the plain rivers is mainly ph controlled their sm nd and 143 nd 144 nd isotope ratios are close to average continental crust values this is not the case for the less evolved non mature and low ph vosges streams their high sm nd and 143 nd 144 nd ratios but low 87 sr 86 sr ratios suggest that chemical alteration of accessory middle rare earth element mree enriched minerals such as apatites from rocks in the catchment area control the ree abundances of these waters a comparison of the dissolved load ree distribution patterns with those of the principal lithologies in the corresponding drainage basins illustrates that especially the eu anomalies of the vosges streamlets are strongly lithology dependent leaching experiments indicate that the suspended load is isotopically very inhomogeneous the ree distribution patterns of the suspended load leachates have no similarities with those of the corresponding dissolved load indicating that the leachable reservoir not only contains adsorbed ree but also ree from leachable mineral phases their 143 nd 144 nd sm nd and 87 sr 86 sr ratios support this suggestion being always higher and lower respectively than those of their corresponding dissolved loads they rather point to the presence of relic primary apatite in the leachable portion of the suspended load the flat paas normalized ree distribution patterns the high 87 sr 86 sr and low 143 nd 144 nd isotopic ratios of the corresponding residues suggest secondary silicate phases such as clay minerals in the residual phase of the suspended load leachates and corresponding residual phases define alignments in the sm nd isochron diagram whose slopes define ages ranging between 200 and 390 ma indicating that the mineral phases in the suspended load retain some memory of their primary precursor minerals in the hercynian granitic source rocks

ree fractionation during granite weathering and removal by waters and suspended loads sr and nd isotopic evidence very few studies deal with ree rare earth element mobility within the system soil soil solution streamwater in this article we try to characterize the fractionation and the migration of the ree in a granite derived soil system located in a small catchment of the vosges mountains icp ms and tims measurements were performed on both solid samples fresh granite soil and suspended load of the stream and waters soil solutions springwater and streamwater to determine their respective ree concentrations and sr and nd isotopic compositions the paas normalized ree pattern of the bedrock is characterized by a strong depletion in hree heavy ree and a negative eu anomaly 0 46 similarly the granite normalized ree distribution patterns of the soil samples show hree depletions that become more important with decreasing depth the correlative behavior between p2o5 th and ree with depth indicates that besides apatite other phosphate minerals such as monazite are the most important phases controlling the th and ree budget in the soil profile on the other hand at greater depth zircon seems to be another important mineral phase controlling especially the hree enrichment as shown by the positive relationship between zr content and the yb ho ratio different grain size fractions show similar ree distribution patterns and are only weakly fractionated compared with bulk soil sample however the finest fraction 0 20 m is more enriched in sr and ree suggesting a stronger concentration of ree carrying minerals in this fraction the suspended and dissolved load of the stream show as a whole an enrichment in hree if compared with the granite or with the different soil samples however compared with the uppermost soil samples the suspended load is significantly more enriched in hree its ree distribution pattern is more similar to that of the finest fraction of the deeper soil sample and to the fresh granite thus most probably the ree of the suspended load originated from a source with ree characteristics found in the deep soil horizons this source might have been situated in the uppermost soil profile which is actually ree depleted the weathering process can be compared with a leaching experiment where the waters correspond to the leachate and the soil to the residual phase of the granite the sr isotope data indicate that the suspended load originates from the finest soil fraction the sr and nd isotopic data of the suspended load suggest that it contains up to 3 sr and nd from apatite and up to 97 from feldspar most of the sr and nd in the waters originate from apatite leaching or dissolution

on the limitation of the h v spectral ratio using seismic noise as an exploration tool application to the grenoble valley france a small apex ratio basin the h v spectral ratio method based on seismic noise hvsrn was used in the grenoble basin france an alpine valley characterized by a small apex ratio the resonance frequencies obtained in the experiments were compared to the thickness of the sediments deduced from a microgravimetric survey and to the 1 d theoretical assessment of site responses given the abundance of data on the sediments and depth of the basin the values of the theoretical resonance frequency fo can be determined quite accurately however it has been observed that the effects of basin geometry can disturb fo measurements using the hvsr method in particular for a case like the grenoble basin which has a small apex ratio w h and strong suspected 2 d and or 3 d effects interpretation of fo values in terms of bedrock depth gives rise to estimation errors of about 10 in certain cases with the most significant errors 50 occurring on the edges of the basin where subsurface layers are characterised by larger heterogeneities and where the basin topography is accentuated this study suggests that great care must be taken when using the hvsrn method as an exploration tool at least in valleys with a small apex ratio

lithium isotope systematics in a forested granitic catchment strengbach vosges mountains france abstract over the last decade it has become apparent that li isotopes may be a good proxy to trace silicate weathering however the exact mechanisms which drive the behaviour of li isotopes in surface environments are not totally understood and there is a need to better calibrate and characterize this proxy in this study we analysed the li concentrations and isotopic compositions in the various surface reservoirs soils rocks waters and plants of a small forested granitic catchment located in the vosges mountains strengbach catchment france ohge http ohge u strasbg fr li fluxes were calculated in both soil profiles and at the basin scale and it was found that even in this forested basin atmospheric inputs and litter fall represented a minor flux compared to input derived from the weathering of rocks and soil minerals which together represent a minimum of 70 of dissolved li li isotope ratios in soil pore waters show large depth dependent variations average dissolved 7 li decreases from 1 1 to 14 4 between 0 and 30 cm but is 30 7 at 60 cm this range of li isotopic compositions is very large and it encompasses almost the entire range of terrestrial li isotope compositions that have been previously reported we interpret these variations to result from both the dissolution and precipitation of secondary phases large isotopic variations were also measured in the springs and stream waters with 7 li varying from 5 3 to 19 6 7 li increases from the top to the bottom of the basin and also covaries with discharge at the outlet these variations are interpreted to reflect isotopic fractionations occurring during secondary phase precipitation along the water pathway through the rocks we suggest that the dissolved 7 li increases with increasing residence time of waters through the rocks and so with increasing time of interaction between waters and solids a dissolution precipitation model was used to fit the dissolved li isotopic compositions it was found that the isotopic compositions of springs and stream waters are explicable by an isotopic fractionation of 5 to 14 best fit 10 8 in agreement with li incorporation into clay in soil solutions it was found that isotopic fractionation during secondary precipitation is larger at least 23 suggesting a major role for different secondary phases such as iron oxides that maybe incorporate li with a higher isotope fractionation

uranium isotopes in rivers estuaries and adjacent coastal sediments of western india their weathering transport and oceanic budget the two major river systems on the west coast of india narbada and tapti their estuaries and the coastal arabian sea sediments have been extensively studied for their uranium concentrations and 238u238u activity ratios the 238u concentrations in the aqueous phase of these river systems exhibit a strong positive correlation with the sum of the major cations na k mg ca and with the hco3 ion contents the abundance ratio of dissolved u to the sum of the major cations in these waters is similar to their ratio in typical crustal rocks these findings lead us to conclude that 238u is brought into the aqueous phase along with major cations and bicarbonate the strong positive correlation between 238u and total dissolved salts for selected rivers of the world yield an annual dissolved 238u flux of 0 88 1010g yr to the oceans a value very similar to its removal rate from the oceans 1 05 1010g yr estimated based on its correlation with hco3 contents of rivers in the estuaries both 238u and its great grand daughter 234u behave conservatively beyond chlorosities 0 14 g l these data confirm our earlier findings in other indian estuaries the behavior of uranium isotopes in the chlorosity zone 0 02 0 14 g l was studied in the narbada estuary in some detail the results though not conclusive seem to indicate a minor removal of these isotopes in this region reexamination of the results for the gironde and zaire estuaries martin et al 1978a and b also appear to confirm the conservative behavior of u isotopes in unpolluted estuaries it is borne out from all the available data that estuaries beyond 0 14 g l chlorosities act neither as a sink nor as a source for uranium isotopes the behavior in the low chlorosity zones warrants further detailed investigation a review of the uranium isotope measurements in river waters yield a discharge weighted average 238u concentration of 0 22 g l with a 234u238u activity ratio of 1 20 0 06ismissing the residence time of uranium isotopes in the oceans estimated from the 238u concentration and the 234u238u a r of the rivers yield conflicting results the material balance of uranium isotopes in the marine environment still remains a paradox if the disparity between the results is real then an additional 234u flux of about 0 25 dpm cm2 103 yr into the oceans about 20 of its river supply is necessitated

u pb geochronology of the nain craton on the eastern margin of the torngat orogen labrador new u pb geochronological results provide insight into the geological evolution of the northernmost nain craton a tonalitic orthogneiss retrogressed from granulite to amphibolite facies is interpreted to have crystallized at 2832 3 ma zircon overgrowths dated at 2769 5 ma are interpreted as metamorphic in origin whereas metamorphic monazite crystallized at 2692 2 ma the crystallization age of this sample suggests it may be correlative with similar rocks of the kanairiktok plutonic suite of the hopedale block whereas the age of the zircon overgrowths is synchronous with metamorphism in the saglek block and may indicate a link at this time a foliated tonalite crystallized at 2802 2 ma titanite in this sample records deformation at 1745 4 ma the emplacement age suggests a link with hopedale block whereas the titanite growth is clearly related to torngat orogeny two foliated granites crystallized at 2587 3 and 2564 2 ma respectively synchronous with late magmatic events recognize

geochemical tracing and hydrogeochemical modelling of water rock interactions during salinization of alluvial groundwater upper rhine valley france in the southern upper rhine valley groundwater has undergone intensive saline pollution caused by the infiltration of mining brines a consequence of potash extraction carried out during the 20th century major and trace elements along with sr and u isotopic ratios show that groundwater geochemical characteristics along the saline plumes cannot reflect conservative mixing between saline waters resulting from the dissolution of waste heaps and one or more unpolluted end members the results imply the occurrence of interactions between host rocks and polluted waters and they suggest that cationic exchange mechanisms are the primary controlling process a coupled hydrogeochemical model has been developed with the numerical code kirmat which demonstrates that cationic exchange between alkalis from polluted waters and alkaline earth elements from montmorillonite present in the host rock of the aquifer is the primary process controlling the geochemical evolution of the groundwater the model requires only a small amount of montmorillonite between 0 75 and 2 25 which is in agreement with the observed mineralogical composition of the aquifer the model also proves that a small contribution of calcite precipitation dissolution takes places whereas other secondary mineral precipitation or host rock mineral dissolution do not play a significant role in the geochemical signature of the studied groundwater samples application of the model demonstrates that it is necessary to consider the pollution history to explain the important cl na and ca concentration modifications in groundwater samples taken over 2 km downstream of waste heaps additionally the model shows that the rapidity of the cationic exchange reactions insures a reversibility of the cation fixation on clays in the aquifer

uranium isotopes as tracers of groundwater evolution in the complexe terminal aquifer of southern tunisia abstract the complexe terminal ct multi layer aquifer is formed by neogene paleogene sand deposits upper senonian campanian maastrichtian limestones and turonian carbonates the chemical composition and isotopes of carbon and uranium were investigated in groundwater sampled from the main hydrogeological units of the ct aquifer in southern tunisia we paid special attention to the variability of uranium contents and isotopes ratio 234u 238u to provide a better understanding of the evolution of the groundwater system uranium concentrations range from 1 5 to 19 5 ppb typical of oxic or mildly reducing conditions in groundwaters the lowest concentrations are found southeast of the study area where active recharge is supposed to take place when looking at the isotope composition it appears that all the samples including those from carbonate levels are in radioactive disequilibrium with significant 234u excess a clear cut distinction is observed between turonian and senonian carbonate aquifers on the one hand with 234u 238u activity ratios between 1 1 and 1 8 and the sandy aquifer on the other hand showing higher ratios from 1 8 to 3 2 the distribution of uranium in this complex aquifer system seems to be in agreement with the lithological variability and are ultimately a function of a number of physical and chemical factors including the uranium content of the hosting geological formation water rock interaction and mixing between waters having different isotopic signatures significant relationships also appear when comparing the uranium distribution with the major ions composition it is noticeable that uranium is better correlated with sulfate calcium and magnesium than with other major ions as chloride or bicarbonate the 14c activities and 13c values of dic cover a wide range of values from 1 1 pmc to 30 2 pmc and from 3 6 to 10 7 respectively 14c model ages estimated by the fontes and garnier model are all younger than 22 ka and indicate that the recharge of ct groundwater occurred mainly during the end of the last glacial and throughout the holocene

the indus river system india pakistan major ion chemistry uranium and strontium isotopes the indus river is one of the large river systems draining the himalaya we report in this paper the major ion chemistry sr and u isotope systematics of the indus system particularly its headwaters the results show that 1 on an average about a third of the cations in the waters can be from silicate weathering however most of the ca mg is likely to be from the weathering of carbonates and evaporites 2 the 87sr86sr of the waters ranges between 0 7085 and 0 7595 the higher values 0 72 are typical of the tributaries draining the precambrian granite gneissic terrains the 87sr86sr of the indus main channel throughout its entire stretch shows only minor variations 0 7104 0 7116 the indus transports 8 8 106 mol sr to the arabian sea annually with a 87sr86sr of 0 7111 if our results of sr concentration and 87sr86sr measured at thatta can be considered typical of the indus throughout the year and 3 the u concentration in the indus and its tributaries is generally high 0 37 10 3 g 1 1 the source for the high uranium can be the weathering of granites zones of uranium mineralisation and black shales the indus results when compared with our earlier data on the ganga brahmaputra show that in all these three river systems carbonate weathering is the dominant source of ca mg and hco3 and that u concentrations are high in the case of 87sr86sr the indus waters are less radiogenic however its tributaries draining the precambrian granites gneisses have 87sr86sr in excess of 0 72 similar to that in the rivers of the ganga system the low 87sr86sr of the indus 0 7111 suggests that its contribution to the sr isotope evolution of oceans since the cenozoic is less significant than that of the ganga brahmaputra

site effect evaluation using spectral ratios with only one station the spectral ratio technique is a common useful way to estimate empirical transfer function to evaluate site effects in regions of moderate to high seismicity the purpose of this paper is to show that it is possible to estimate empirical transfer function using spectral ratios between horizontal and vertical components of motion without a reference station the technique originally proposed by nakamura to analyze rayleigh waves in the microtremor records is presented briefly and it is discussed why it may be applicable to study the intense s wave part in earthquake records results are presented for three different cities in mexico oaxaca oax acapulco gro and mexico city these cities are very different by their geological and tectonic contexts and also by the very different epicentral distances to the main seismogenic zones affecting each city each time we compare the results of nakamura s technique with standard spectral ratios in all three cases the results are very encouraging we conclude that if site effects are caused by simple geology a first estimate of dominant period and local amplification level can be obtained using records of only one station

site effects and microzonation in the city of thessaloniki greece comparison of different approaches ten seismological stations were installed for 3 months in the city of thessaloniki greece to record earthquakes and ambient noise over areas of different geotechnical characteristics about 40 local earthquakes were recorded with a good signal to noise ratio in more than two stations we analyze the records with three different techniques a the classical spectral ratios to a reference station b the receiver functions and c the horizontal to vertical h v spectral ratios on noise recordings the results are compared in terms of predominant frequencies and amplification levels the three methods are found equally able to reveal the fundamental frequency regarding local site amplification they provide significantly different results with a general trend of the two h v ratio methods b and c to underestimate the amplification levels compared to that inferred from the classical spectral ratio technique a the results are then used in relation with the microzonation of the city of thessaloniki a good correlation is found between the local site amplification and the type and age of the local geological formation as well as with the depth of bedrock finally we compare our observations with the damage distribution in the city which was hit by a magnitude 6 5 earthquake in 1978 the amplification levels from spectral ratios obtained at each site exhibit a good agreement with the map of damage intensity

u pb geochronology of deformation and metamorphism across a central transect of the early proterozoic torngat orogen north river map area labrador1 the early proterozoic torngat orogen resulted from the oblique collision of the archean nain and southeastern rae provinces and evolved in four stages 0 deposition of platformal supracrustal assemblages followed by subduction related arc magmatism in the margin of the rae province i crustal thickening and nappe tectonics ii sinistral transpression and formation of the abloviak shear zone iii uplift on steeply dipping east verging mylonites along the eastern orogenic front u pb geochronology on zircon and monazite from major rock units and syntectonic intrusions indicates that arc magmatism at ca 1880 ma was followed by 40 ma of deformation and high grade metamorphism from ca 1860 to 1820 subsequent uplift and final cooling occurred ca 1795 1770 ma several ages of mineral growth that correspond to distinct structural and metamorphic events have been recognized 1 1858 1853 ma zircon and monazite dates are interpreted as the minimum age of stage i and peak metamorphic conditions 2

1 d and 2 d resonances in an alpine valley identified from ambient noise measurements and 3 d modelling summary h v spectral ratios are regularly used for estimating the bedrock depth in 1 d like basins exhibiting smooth lateral variations in the case of 2 d or 3 d pronounced geometries observational and numerical studies have shown that h v curves exhibit peculiar shapes and that the h v frequency generally overestimates 1 d theoretical resonance frequency to investigate the capabilities of the h v method in complex structures a detailed comparison between measured and 3 d simulated ambient vibrations was performed in the small size lower romanche valley french alps which shows significant variations in geometry downstream and upstream the sechilienne basin analysing the h v curve characteristics two different wave propagation modes were identified along the valley relying on previous geophysical investigation a power law relationship was derived between the bedrock depth and the h v peak frequency which was used for building a 3 d model of the valley geometry simulated and experimental h v curves were found to exhibit quite similar features in terms of curve shape and peak frequency values validating the 3 d structure this good agreement also evidenced two different propagation modes in the valley 2 d resonance in the sechilienne basin and 1 d resonance in the external parts this study underlines the interest of h v curves for investigating complex basin structures

chemical weathering in the drainage basin of a tropical watershed nsimi zoetele site cameroon comparison between organic poor and organic rich waters abstract this study deals with the weathering processes operating at the scale of a small catchment nsimi zoetele cameroon and is focused on the role of organic colloids on mineral weathering and transport of elements in natural waters samples of river spring and groundwaters from nsimi zoetele were filtered through membranes of decreasing pore size 0 22 m 0 025 m or 300 000 da 5000 da to separate colloidal fractions from the truly dissolved one major and trace elements and dissolved organic carbon doc were analysed in each fraction two kinds of waters can be distinguished in the catchment clear and coloured waters clear waters exhibit low concentrations of major and trace elements and doc elements are carried in these solutions in a true dissolved form except al and rare earth elements rees by contrast the higher abundances of al fe and trace elements in coloured waters are controlled by the colloidal fraction thermodynamic equilibrium calculations show that clear waters are in equilibrium with kaolinite and iron oxi hydroxide which are major minerals in the weathered soil for coloured waters the aqueous speciation of ca mg cu fe al la and th was calculated taking into account the complexes with humic acids speciation calculations for cu fe al la th show a strong complexation with humic acids in good agreement with the results of the filtration experiments by contrast although filtration experiments show a strong control of major cations by organic matter for example 75 for ca speciation calculations reveal that their complexes with humic ligands do not exceed a few percent of total dissolved elements this discrepancy is explained as an artefact induced by the organic colloids and occurring during the filtration procedure finally both filtration experiments and speciation calculations show that organic matter plays an important role in natural doc rich waters organic acids increase significantly the dissolution rates of silicates and oxi hydroxides and thus the amounts of solutes and of complexed elements leaving the catchment

uranium geochemistry on the amazon shelf evidence for uranium release from bottom sediments in amazon shelf waters as salinity increases to 36 5 10 3 dissolved uranium activities increase to a maximum of 4 60 dpm 1 1 this value is much higher than the open ocean value 2 50 dpm 1 1 indicating a source of dissolved uranium to shelf waters in addition to that supplied from open ocean and riverine waters uranium activities are much lower for surface sediments in the amazon shelf seabed mean 0 69 09 dpm g 1 than for suspended sediments in the amazon river 1 82 dpm g 1 data suggest that the loss of particulate uranium from riverine sediments and the consequent input of dissolved uranium to shelf waters is probably the result of uranium desorption from the ferric oxyhydroxide coatings on sediment particles and or uranium release by mobilization of the ferric oxyhydroxides the total flux i e riverine flux plus desorbed remobilized particulate flux of dissolved 238u from the amazon shelf about 1 2 1015 dpm yr 1 constitutes about 15 of uranium input to the world ocean commensurate to the amazon river s contribution to world river water discharge approximately 18 measurement of only the riverine flux of dissolved 238u underestimates by a factor of about 5 the flux of dissolved238u from the amazon shelf to the open ocean

upb geochronology of the western cape smith belt canada new insights on the age of initial rifting and arc magmatism abstract the cape smith belt of northern quebec is the foreland to hinterland transition of the ungava orogen a component of the paleoproterozoic trans hudson orogen of north america u pb ages for rift and volcanic arc related units from the cape smith belt are presented and used to evaluate models of its tectonic evolution a gabbroic sill intrusive into the rift related sediments near the base of the povungnituk group is 2038 2 4 ma old indicating that rifting of the superior province was initiated prior to that time 80 m y earlier than previously reported a granodiorite intrusive into the volcanic rocks of the povungnituk group is dated at 1991 2 ma indicating that magmatism associated with the rifting event was active at that time 30 m y earlier than formerly thought the age of parent group arc related magmatism ranges from 1874 3 4 ma the age of a diorite intrusion to 1860 2 ma the age of another diorite intrusion and of a rhyolite a granodiorite intrusive in the parent group yields an age of 1845 6 ma magmatism of the parent group is thought to be related to northward dipping subduction of the superior province margin below the watts group a gabbroic intrusion in the 2000 ma old watts group is dated at 1858 2 ma these ages are consistent with a tectonic model in which the rocks of the cape smith belt formed in a single continental rift to oceanic progression followed by subduction which led to an arc continent collision a comparison of u pb ages for similar events in different sectors of the trans hudson orogen in canada reveals that early events are diachronous and range from 2169 ma to 2038 ma the main collisional events are coeval in the ungava and new quebec orogens and in some of the western sectors at 1830 1860 ma younger ages of 1800 1820 ma are obtained for the late collisional stages throughout the trans hudson orogen

chemical mobilizations in laterites evidence from trace elements and 238u 234u 230th disequilibria geochemical and mineralogical investigations including measurements of major and trace elements sr isotope ratios and 238u 234u 230th activity ratios were made on an old african laterite to reconstruct its formation steps and assess recent chemical mobilization the present data support a scenario of discontinuous formation for the laterite with different bedrock weathering conditions during the formation of each unit rather than a scenario of continuous formation absolute accumulation of fe u and lanthanides in the uppermost ferruginous unit suggests an autochthonous origin of this iron cap by leaching of an older overlying profile present chemical distributions of lanthanides as well as of rb k ba and sr within the profile cannot be linked to the mineralogical distribution of both relictual primary and authigenic secondary phases complementary lanthanide patterns indicate that these elements were primarily accumulated in the uppermost ferruginous unit before further remobilization and accumulation in the underlying horizons these redistribution processes may be related to the chemical instability of the ferruginous cap the 238u 234u 230th disequilibria indicate that recent u mobilization occurs in the whole profile and that as for lanthanides there is a vertical redistribution of u from the uppermost ferruginous unit to the underlying horizons moreover these data show that both u losses and gains exist at each level of the profile a simple modeling of this double u mobilization process is proposed to interpret the 238u 234u 230th data differences in the mobilization and fractionation intensities of the u input and removal processes can account for the two evolution trends which distinguish the ferruginous unit from the underlying ones furthermore on the basis of this modeling the profile appears to be in a transient state because of recent changes in the u mobilization conditions which could correspond to major pleistocene climatic variations

amplification and differential motion due to an antiplane 2d resonance in the sediment valleys embedded in a layer over the half space abstract we investigate an antiplane 2d resonance in a certain class of the sedimentary structures using the finite difference modeling our models are derived from the realistic local geologic conditions beneath the colosseum in rome and are significantly different from those investigated in the previous theoretical articles on a 2d resonance they include a trough at the bottom of the horizontal surface layer as well as relatively deep sediment valleys embedded in a single layer over the halfspace we present the finite difference algorithm for sh waves on a combined h h and 2 h 2 h rectangular grid although being simple the algorithm allowed us to save up to 75 of the grid points compared with the regular grid h h that would cover the same computational region a 2d resonance may develop in the valleys that do not satisfy bard and bouchon9s existence condition a simple trough at the bottom of the horizontal surface layer can give rise to the fundamental mode of a 2d resonance whose frequency spectral amplification and the maximum time domain differential motion are very close to those in the closed sediment valley our results confirm that the resonance phenomenon is quite robust and that it is to be expected in many configurations of sediment valleys or basins

extrapolation of tectonic boundaries across the labrador shelf u pb geochronology of well samples near saglek fiord a northerly trending boundary between the early archean saglek block and the middle archean hopedale block extends between drill sites which respectively sampled uivak amphibolite gneiss with u pb zircon intercept ages of 3742 12 and 2752 42 ma and migmatitic lister gneiss with concordant ages of for restite and for leucosome titanite ages of ca 2508 ma are common to both rocks a nearby metapsammitic gneiss has detrital zircon and monazite ages of 2681 5 2700 4 ca 2730 and 2750 2 ma representing high grade metamorphism related to the hopedale saglek collision and metamorphic monazite of ca 2560 ma age representing metamorphism of the sediment during reactivation of the saglek hopedale suture two hundred kilometres southeast a gneissic granite records a protolith age of 3170 ma and late proterozoic pb loss near the nain makkovik boundary 1269 4 ma zircons indicate a significant extension of the nain platonic suite south of the makkovik boundary a foliated g

importance of atmospheric inputs and fe oxides in controlling soil uranium budgets and behavior along a hawaiian chronosequence abstract a long term budget of uranium calculated for a chronosequence of hawaiian soils demonstrates the importance of mineral aerosol deposition as a geochemical pathway a series of sequential extractions on the same soils shows a strong association between fe oxides and uranium especially the amorphous and poorly crystalline fe oxides present in intermediate age soils 20 and 150 ka despite intense leaching conditions soil u contents were found to increase between 20 fold and 60 fold with age along the chronosequence from 9 to 17 g cm 2 at 0 3 ka sites to 344 543 g cm 2 at the 4100 ka site an open system transport function comparing u to an index least mobile element nb was used to calculate u gains or losses from the soils relative to the input from parent material weathering results show small losses or small gains 25 of u occurred in soils 150 ka and younger while gains of up to 531 u occurred in soils older than 150 ka highlighting the importance of mineral aerosol dust deposition at the older sites in the 4100 ka soil the ratio of dust derived u inputs to parent material derived u inputs is approximately 6 sequential extractions show that between 0 1 and 1 2 of the total u in the soils was extracted with ammonium acetate indicating that very little u exists as exchangeable cations a second extraction employing citrate dithionate and hydroxylamine hydrochloride was performed to extract u associated with fe oxides average percent occurrences for u in the fe oxide extraction for each profile are 7 at 0 3 ka 53 at 20 ka 40 at 150 ka and 17 at 4100 ka illustrating an increase with age to 20 ka followed by a subsequent decline this parallels the trend observed in amorphous fe oxide content suggesting that adsorption on amorphous fe oxides is the dominant control on u in the intermediate age soils

constraints on pb closure temperature in titanite based on rocks from the ungava orogen canada implications for u pb geochronology and p t t path determinations on the basis of multiequilibrium metamorphic pressure temperature p t estimates we have determined that 660 700 c is a reasonable minimum estimate of the closure t of pb diffusion in titanite a temperature significantly higher than previously suggested activity corrected reactions that produce titanite define narrow t stability fields 40 c that correspond closely to metamorphic p t determinations derived for coronitic garnet clinopyroxene hornblende samples growth of titanite occurring between 1789 and 1814 ma in the underthrust archean basement of the paleoproterozoic ungava orogen northern quebec is associated with retrograde metamorphism during underthrusting of the archean basement approx 1 b y after formation of the original granulitic assemblages

experimental evidence for 234u 238u fractionation during granite weathering with implications for 234u 238u in natural waters abstract the daughter to parent 234u 238u activity ratio in natural waters is often out of secular radioactive equilibrium the major reason for this disequilibrium is related to the energetic decay of 238u and differential release of 234u relative to 238u this disequilibrium originates from 1 preferential release of more loosely bound 234u from damaged mineral lattice sites or 2 direct recoil of 234th into surrounding media from near mineral surface boundaries however it is unclear which of the two mechanisms is most important in nature to better quantify the effects of preferential release of 234u two continuous laboratory granite leaching experiments conducted over 1100 h were performed the leachates were characterized by declining u concentrations with time and 234u 238u initially greater than unity up to 1 15 which changed to below unity during leaching 0 95 the early elevated 234u 238u suggests that additional 234u is released into solution by preferential release of 234u from mineral phases however the excess 234u constitutes a finite pool of easy leachable 234u and the 234u 238u values become lower than unity when this pool is used up a model based on first order kinetics dissolution rates and preferential release of 234u from damaged lattice sites was developed and is able to quantitatively predict the observed pattern of 234u 238u values and u concentrations for the two granite leaching experiments extending the modeling to longer time scales more comparable to natural systems shows that the production of waters with high 234u 238u ratios can be achieved in two distinct regimes 1 slow weathering where the rate of directly recoiled 234u near mineral surfaces into waters is high 2 fast weathering where the role of incipient chemical weathering and preferential release of loosely bound 234u are important the model is able to explain apparent opposite correlations between physical erosion rates and 234u 238u in waters and it provides a new framework that will be useful for examining weathering regimes their timescales and their coupling with physical erosion

geochemistry and water dynamics application to short time scale flood phenomena in a small mediterranean catchment we report major trace elements and sr isotope data for water samples taken regularly during a four day long september flood of a mediterranean river the vene herault s france the objective is to combine all these data into a dynamic model that describes the origin s and movements of waters and their loads this river drains the runoff from a small mainly carbonate partly karstified watershed with miocene and jurassic lithologies the watershed is also impacted by both agricultural and urban activities both the dissolved and the particulate loads were analyzed concentrations of the dissolved components show major remobilization of almost all elements during the first few hours of the flood water treatment plants and aerosol scavenging followed by a sharp concentration decrease some major species return to their previous summer values ca hco3 while others reach low background levels na k cl s04 some trace elements rb sr cs show similar behaviour but ba appears somewhat unaffected trace element concentrations and ratios define two main periods three in the suspended particulate matter ratios do not allow distinguishing between the three main sources for the dissolved load in the first period miocene jurassic water treatment plants but clearly show the jurassic karst influence later on the 87sr 86sr of the suspended particulate matter is more variable and more radiogenic than in the dissolved phase variations in concentration ratios and sr isotope composition in particulates indicate the large and variable contribution of miocene silicates with some carbonate however there is a need for another component with rb sr higher than bedrocks internal or external to the watershed possibly due to differential erosion dissolved ca and mg fluxes during the flood were calculated at 0 26 ton and 0 029 ton km2 respectively even though the carbonate nature of the watershed restricts variability in sr isotope composition in the dissolved load we distinguish several endmembers seawater marine rain miocene marls jurassic limestones water treatment plants and possibly another attributable to fertilizers combined with major and trace element variations sr isotope fluctuations indicate time varying proportions of different water endmembers at the outflow and suggest a general dynamic model based on pca principal component analysis a 3d representation allows to visualize the geochemical evolution of the vene waters in particular sr isotopes clearly indicate that the inflow of karstic waters during the flood was not continuous but occurred as a series of marked oscillations between flowing waters with chemical signature of miocene lithologies and increasing flushes of deeper waters that interacted with jurassic lithologies

are microtremors useful in site response evaluation we have reviewed the applicability of microtremor measurements to evaluate site response of soft soils to this end we evaluated three different techniques commonly used to estimate site effects from microtremor measurements interpretation of fourier amplitude spectra computation of spectral ratios relative to a firm reference station and finally computation of spectral ratios of horizontal components relative to the vertical component of ground motion nakamura s technique these techniques are applied to microtremor records obtained in three cities in mexico mexico city oaxaca and acapulco these cities differ in their local geological conditions and in their seismotectonic environment in order to evaluate the results obtained from microtremor measurements we compare them with standard spectral ratios of the intense s wave part of weak or strong motion records obtained at the same sites our results showed that microtremor measurements can be used to estimate the dominant period of a site with very acceptable reliability in the range 0 3 to 5 hz the best results were obtained with nakamura s technique which also gives a rough estimate of amplification of seismic waves when the local geology is relatively simple simple numerical simulations indicate that the underlying assumptions of nakamura s technique are consistent with the propagation of rayleigh waves these simple numerical simulations also explain why different researchers have been able to successfully characterize 1d site effects using microtremor records regardless of whether they consider microtremors to consist of surface or body waves our results strongly suggest that the technique by nakamura effectively compensates for source effects in microtremor measurements which eliminates a major limitation to their application in earthquake engineering

processes controlling 234u and 238u isotope fractionation and helium in the groundwater of the st lawrence lowlands quebec the potential role of natural rock fracturing abstract the goal of this study is to explain the origin of 234 u 238 u fractionation in groundwater from sedimentary aquifers of the st lawrence lowlands quebec canada and its relationship with 3 he 4 he ratios to gain insight regarding the evolution of groundwater in the region 234 u 238 u activity ratios or 234 u 238 u act were measured in 23 groundwater samples from shallow quaternary unconsolidated sediments and from the deeper fractured regional aquifer of the becancour river watershed the lowest 234 u 238 u act 1 14 0 01 was measured in ca hco 3 type freshwater from the quaternary shallower aquifer where bulk dissolution of the carbonate allows u to migrate into water with little 234 u 238 u isotopic fractionation the 234 u 238 u act increases to 6 07 0 14 in na hco 3 cl type groundwater preferential migration of 234 u into water by recoil is the underlying process responsible for this isotopic fractionation an inverse relationship between 234 u 238 u act and 3 he 4 he ratios has been observed this relationship reflects the mixing of newly recharged water with 234 u 238 u act close to the secular equilibrium and containing atmospheric tritiogenic helium and mildly mineralized older water 14 c ages of 6 6 kyrs with 234 u 238 u act of 6 07 and large amounts of radiogenic 4 he in excess of the steady state amount produced in situ the simultaneous fractionation of 234 u 238 u act and the addition of excess 4 he could be locally controlled by stress induced rock fracturing this process increases the surface area of the aquifer matrix exposed to pore water from which produced 4 he and 234 u can be released by recoil and diffusion this process would also facilitate the release of radiogenic helium at rates greater than those supported by steady state u th production in the rock consequently sources internal to the aquifers could cause the radiogenic 4 he excesses measured in groundwater

microtremor measurements used to map thickness of soft sediments the observations about the behavior of microtremor spectra presented here show that noise measurements can be used as a powerful tool to determine the thickness of soft cover layers the most suitable method for this determination is nakamura s technique which is the ratio of the horizontal component noise spectrum and that of the vertical component i i v spectrum the frequency of the main peak in these spectral ratios correlates well with the sediment thickness at the site using an extensive database of microtremor measurements carried out in the western lower rhine embayment germany it was possible to show that this correlation is clearly valid for a wide range of thickness namely from tens of meters to more than 1000 m a simple formula was derived that for the sediments to be found in the area investigated directly calculates the cover thickness from the frequency of the main peak in the h v spectrum a comparison with calculated resonant frequencies sug gests the relation derived from the noise measurements depending on the velocity depth function of the shear wave classical spectral ratios are shown to be strongly influenced by the noise level and are therefore less reliable in determining the res onant frequency of the subsoil the practical relevance of the investigation is illus trated by means of cross sections constructed from results of the microtremor anal yses which provide a convincing image of the surficial structure of the areas investigated

uranium removal during low discharge in the ganges brahmaputra mixing zone abstract the ganges brahmaputra river system supplies more dissolved uranium to the ocean than any other system in the world s arin et al 1990 s ackett et al 1973 however there have been no investigations to determine whether riverine supplies of uranium are altered by geochemical reactions in the river ocean mixing zone in this study uranium and salinity data were collected in the ganges brahmaputra mixing zone during a period of low river discharge the uranium distribution with salinity shows that in waters the behavior of uranium in the ganges brahmaputra is in sharp contrast to its in teh amazon mixing zone where mckee et at 1978 found uranium activities significantly higher than predicted from conservative micxing the contrasting behaviours for uranium in theses systems are due to the different locatons where mixing between river and seawater occurs for the amzon mixing takes place on the continental shelf whereas for the ganges brahamputra mixing occurs within shoreline sedimentary environments the physiochimical processes controlling uranium removal to sediment deposits in the amazon are partly known we discuss mechanisms which may be removing uranium to suspended and mangrove sediments in the ganges brahmaputra

uranium isotopes in soils as a proxy for past infiltration and precipitation across the western united states the intermittent presence of large pleistocene lakes in the southwestern interior of north america a region that is now a semi arid desert suggests repeated oscillations between profoundly different climatic conditions the origin of these shifts is still unresolved due to inconsistencies in existing climate proxy data for example pollen lake levels and oxygen isotopes in speleothems to resolve the inconsistencies in the water balance over the last 10 to 60 kyr we use uranium isotopic variations in secondary soil minerals to quantify net infiltration and precipitation along a north south transect in western north america we show that winter infiltration increased by 30 to 100 percent and precipitation by a lesser amount in the valleys of the great basin and mojave deserts between 60 and 26 ka this increase in infiltration and precipitation preceded the last glacial maximum lgm and the timing of most lake highstands in the region by 5 to 10 kyr respectively suggesting a possible last precipitation maximum lpm that coincided with a minimum in winter insolation subsequent decreases in infiltration and precipitation after the lgm can be reconciled with the timing of lake highstands if colder summer temperatures due to a minimum in summer insolation reduced lake evaporation the soil records combined with a range of proxy data suggest that seasonal insolation is the long term driver for large shifts in both precipitation and surface water variability in the region

the origin of sh wave resonance frequencies in sedimentary layers summary resonance frequencies are often analysed in geo engineering studies to evaluate seismic risk and microzonation in urban areas the nakamura technique constitutes a popular approach that computes the spectral ratio of horizontal to vertical ground motion in ambient noise recordings to reveal the existence of any site resonance frequencies its theoretical basis remains however unclear with some authors arguing that the method de emphasizes any rayleigh wave contributions and that the resonance frequencies are solely caused by vertically incident sh waves other authors explain the same resonance frequencies by the ellipticity of the fundamental rayleigh wave recent numerical simulations reveal that the magnitude of the peak frequency is proportional to the relative portion of love waves present this study demonstrates that love waves alone can be responsible for any observed resonance frequencies in sedimentary layers yet sharp sh wave resonance frequencies are only excited by a source in the bedrock these resonance frequencies are caused by inhomogeneous waves excited by the bedrock source that tunnel through the high velocity bedrock to emerge in the low velocity sediments with a very reduced range of slownesses the resulting sh waves are then free to interfere constructively thereby creating the observed resonance frequencies this general trigger mechanism leads to resonances that are almost offset independent the resulting resonance frequencies map onto points of maximum curvature in the lovewave phase velocity dispersion curves at or just beyond the critical horizontal slowness they can be analysed with the quarter wavelength law if a large velocity contrast exists between the unconsolidated sediments and the bedrock a minor modification of the quarter wavelength law provides more accurate predictions also for smaller velocity contrasts multisource simulations show that site amplification factors as determined by horizontalover vertical h v spectral ratios would not only depend on the relative portion of love waves in the total wavefield but also on the depth distribution and the relative strength of the sh sources inside the bedrock compared with those in the sediments an accurate interpretation of site amplification factors by means of h v peak frequencies would thus require in depth knowledge of the causes and origins of the local microseismic noise field

238u234u and232th230th in the baltic sea and in river water the concentration c of dissolved238u 234u 232th and230th in fresh and brackish waters from the baltic sea were determined using tims the brackish waters range in salinity from that of sea water sw to 2 5 c238u in oxygen saturated surface waters is well correlated with salinity and shows quasi conservative behavior as does sr samples from the redox water interface show depletion in c238u demonstrating that dissolved u is being removed by femn oxyhydroxides from a simple mixing relationship for the brackish water 234u 1000 was calculated for the fresh water source in the northern baltic a study of the kalixalven river over an annual cycle yields high 234u during spring and summer discharge and lower values during fall and winter showing that different sources contribute to the u load in the river during different seasons c232th and c230th in river water are governed by the discharge reflecting the importance of the increased abundance of small particles 0 45 m for the232th230th load at high discharge 232th 238u in river water is about 40 times less than in detrital material in the brackish water c232th drops 2 orders of magnitude in the low salinity region 5 reaching a value close to that of sea water at a salinity of 7 5 almost all of the riverine232th must be deposited in the low salinity regions of the estuary the230th 232th in river waters is about twice the equilibrium value for232th 238u 3 8 in the brackish waters 230th 232th is greater by a factor of 10 100 than both river water and sw the big increase in230th 232th in the baltic sea waters over the riverine input indicates that the th isotopes enter the estuary as a mixture of two carrier phases we infer that about 96 of232th in river water is carried by detrital particles whereas the other phase solution colloidal has a much higher232th 232th entering the estuary the detrital particles sediment out rapidly whereas the non detrital phase is removed more slowly causing a marked increase in230th 232th in the brackish water in sw 230th 232th is closer to river input and detrital material than in brackish water we conclude that in the deep sea 232th is almost exclusively dominated by windblown dust and can be used to monitor dust flux the230th excess in baltic rivers is produced in u rich 232th poor peatlands and trapped in authigenic particles and transported with the particles time scales for producing the230th excess are 2000 8000 yr this is younger than but comparable to the time of the latest deglaciation which ended some 9000 yr ago when the mires were forming these results have implications for the possible mobility of actinides stored in repositories

u pb ages of single zircons within upernavik metasedimentary rocks and regional implications for the tectonic evolution of the archaean nain province labrador detrital zircons and their postdepositional overgrowths from three units of the upernavik supracrustal association in the northern saglek block of the archaean nain province have been dated with the ion microprobe shrimp in one unit from the granulite facies area in inner saglek fiord the zircon population is dominated by early archaean grains thought to be derived from the uivak gneisses recrystallization and growth of new zircon within this metasediment took place during granulite facies metamorphism at 2761 12 ma 2 which is also a younger limit on the age of deposition in a second unit from the amphibolite facies area in outer saglek fiord detrital zircons have predominantly mid and late archaean ages the mid archaean zircons are comparable in age to the 3235 ma lister gneisses the ages of the late archaean detrital zircons 2800 2960 ma do not correspond to any known rock complex in the saglek block but plutonic rocks associated or correlative with the ca 2840 ma kanairiktok plut

impact of atmospheric deposition biogeochemical cycling and water mineral interaction on ree fractionation in acidic surface soils and soil water the strengbach case leaf litter contains not only important quantities of elements derived from decomposition of organic matter but also atmospheric compounds this is illustrated by sr and nd isotope data from soils of the strengbach catchment which show that soil litter contains more than 50 of atmospheric sr and nd downward migrating soil water becomes strongly acidic during flow through litter and humus layers ph 3 8 4 at 5 10 cm depth causing not only intense mobilization of elements in the underlying acid brown and podzolic soils at depths between 10 and 50 cm but also the downward transfer of some litter derived compounds the sr and nd isotope data allow to quantify that soil water from 10 to 70 cm depth contains 45 to 65 of litter derived nd and sr sequential leaching experiments have been performed on soil samples in order to recover adsorbed trace elements or those fixed in acid soluble mineral phases such as fe mn oxyhydroxides and phosphate minerals the isotope data of these leachates of the uppermost soil horizons point similarly to the presence of important quantities of litter derived sr and nd in the uppermost 30 cm of the soils with the exception of the litter layer the soil profiles are substantially depleted in ca and p down to 50 cm depth which can be related to low apatite and plagioclase contents these minerals have probably been preferentially weathered and ca and p have been removed by percolating soil water and plant uptake leaching of primary granite derived apatite controls rare earth element ree fractionation only below 50 cm depth rhabdophane ree po4 has been observed as secondary replacement mineral of apatite this replacement is reflected by ca p ratios that are low at the surface and which increase regularly with depth implying that some of the apatite derived p has been integrated into newly formed rhabdophane and some of the p and ca have been exported either by soil solutions or plant uptake during downward transport litter derived elements are adsorbed on soil particles and or coprecipitate with authigenic minerals such as fe mn oxyhydroxide or rhabdophane alternatively litter derived elements may remain in solution or like ca be absorbed by vegetation the soil solutions from the uppermost 30 cm of the soil profiles and the corresponding soil leachates show very similar ree distribution patterns and are compared to the waters of the strengbach stream which drains the forested catchment strongly enriched in light rare earth elements lree however soil solutions from 60 to 70 cm depth are compared to litter strongly lree depleted and show stream water like ree distribution patterns it is suggested that this evolution of the ree in the soil solutions is due to the following processes taking place above 50 cm depth 1 precipitation of lree rich phosphate minerals like rhabdophane 2 diminution of the formation of organic dissolved or colloidal phases in association with fe mn and al oxyhydroxides and 3 preferential lree uptake by vegetation below 50 cm the ree distribution patterns are further modified by dissolution precipitation reactions and adsorption the combination of all these fractionation processes finally leads to the ree patterns of the strengbach stream at the catchment outlet