influence of late cenozoic mountain building on ocean geochemical cycles in a steady state ocean input fluxes of dissolved salts to the sea must be balanced in mass and isotopic value by output fluxes for the elements strontium calcium and carbon rivers provide the primary input whereas marine biogenic sedimentation dominates removal dissolved fluxes in rivers are related to rates of continental weathering which in turn are strongly dependent on rates of uplift the largest dissolved fluxes today arise in the himalayan and andean mountain ranges and the tibetan plateau during the past 5 m y uplift rates in these areas have increased significantly this suggests that weathering rates and river fluxes may have increased also the oceanic records of carbonate sedimentation level of the calcite compensation depth and delta sup 13 c and delta sup 87 sr in biogenic sediments are consistent with a global increase in river fluxes since the late miocene the cooling of global climate over the past few million years may be linked to a decrease in atmospheric co sub 2 driven by enhanced continental weathering in these tectonically active regions

rapid change in strontium isotopic composition of sea water before the cretaceous tertiary boundary a critical aspect of the debate over the origin of the chemical biological and climatological perturbations that characterize the cretaceous tertiary boundary k t boundary is the timescale and detailed pattern of the extinctions and geochemical changes whether the development of the anomalies was catastrophic over tens to hundreds of years or more gradual 103 to 106 years whether the anomalies occur exactly at the boundary or precede it and whether the chemical and biological signatures represent one event or can be resolved into several discrete events are issues fundamental to identifying the cause of the marked changes to determine the timing and rate of change of strontium isotope evolution of sea water during the five million years preceding the k t boundary we analysed foraminifera from an exceptionally thick palaeontologically well characterized marine k t section exposed at bidart southwest france we found a rapid increase in 87sr 86sr of ocean water 1 5 to 2 3 myr before the boundary the increase may be explained by a 10 increase in continental strontium flux to the oceans over a period of about 1 myr

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

subglacial drainage eskers and deforming beds beneath the laurentide and eurasian ice sheets glaciological theory predicts that the subglacial drainage network at the base of gently sloping ice sheets resting on deforming sediment should consist of many wide shallow probably braided canals distributed along the ice sediment interface rather than an arborescent network of relatively few large tunnels as would develop over a rigid substrate a corollary prediction examined here is that eskers which form in large subglacial tunnels should be rare where subglacial bed deformation occurred but they may be relatively common where the bed was rigid bed deformation would be most likely where subglacial till was relatively continuous fine grained and of low permeability that is in regions where till is derived primarily from underlying sedimentary bedrock but unlikely where discontinuous coarse grained high permeability till was derived from underlying crystalline bedrock the observed distribution of eskers in areas covered by the laurentide and eurasian british scandinavian and barents sea ice sheets during the last glaciation shows that most eskers occur over crystalline bedrock overlain by discontinuous high permeability till but are rare or absent over sedimentary bedrock overlain by fine grained low permeability till thus matching reasonably well our prediction glaciological theory and geologic evidence indicate that esker systems on a subcontinental scale are time transgressive sedimentological evidence for a canal drainage system appears to be present in fine grained tills where eskers are largely absent

volcanism and vertical tectonics in the pacific basin related to global cretaceous transgressions abstract the dominance of volcanic processes and the importance of vertical tectonics in the geological evolution of the pacific basin has been recognised since the time of charles darwin data gathered on several legs of the deep sea drilling project dsdp and numerous marine expeditions in the past decade have confirmed menard s postulate that the pacific basin was the scene of volcanism on an enormous scale in mesozoic time widespread mid plate volcanism between 110 and 70 m y b p characterised the area bounded by the line islands the mid pacific mountains and the nauru basin marshall islands heating of the pacific lithospheric plate during this period of volcanism resulted in regional uplift and the bathymetric evolution of the area diverged significantly from a normal parsons sclater subsidence curve the farallon plate now almost entirely subducted was also the scene of mid plate volcanism that produced such features as the nicoya plateau now found as an allochthonous ophiolitic terrain landward of the middle america trench large benthonic reef associated foraminifera comprising a pseudorbitoid fauna hitherto considered to be largely restricted to central america have now been additionally recorded from dsdp sites 165 315 and 316 in the line islands site 462 in the nauru basin and in new guinea the distribution of this fauna of campanian maastrichtian age is interpreted as indicating stepping stone connections aseismic ridges plateaus and seamounts between the caribbean farallon and pacific plates 70 80 m y b p similarities between the geology of the nauru basin and the caribbean ocean crust reinforce the interpretation of the latter as a former part of the farallon plate estimates of the sea level and continental freeboard change caused by the thermally induced uplift of the pacific and farallon plates as well as substantial areas in the atlantic and indian ocean basins indicate that such shallowing of the sea floor could have been the major factor in causing global cretaceous transgressions

strontium isotopic variations in jurassic and cretaceous seawater a high resolution seawater strontium isotope curve has been generated through the analysis of well dated and well preserved belemnites and oysters from the middle and upper jurassic and the lower cretaceous of great britain analysis of fe and mn concentrations in these fossils has yielded criteria for eliminating samples that are diagenetically altered the strontium isotope curve remains relatively flat through the aalenian and early bajocian rapidly descends through the late bajocian and bathonian and reaches a minimum in the callovian and oxfordian it then begins a rapid increase in the kimmeridgian and portlandian that continues through much of the early cretaceous the curve levels off in the barremian suddenly dips downwards in the aptian and recovers gradually through the albian the strontium isotopic variations are sufficiently large and the data are presented with sufficient stratigraphic detail to allow precise correlation to the classic ammonite zones and lithologic sections of great britain using the techniques of strontium isotope stratigraphy model results indicate that much of the variation in seawater 87sr86sr between 120 and 40 ma can be explained by changing the intensity of mid ocean ridge hydrothermal fluxes proportionally to estimated mid ocean ridge crustal generation rates it is also possible that the variations during the rest of the mesozoic and the permian are primarily reflections of changing hydrothermal inputs the model results have several important implications first they provide an example in which the variations in the strontium isotope curve are not necessarily driven by changes in fluvial inputs second they suggest that from at least the aptian through the eocene variations in continental weathering were minimal this heightens the importance of the rapid rise in seawater 87sr86sr beginning 40 ma as a significant transition to an extended period of increasing fluvial 87sr fluxes continuing to the present finally the results suggest that several documented short term excursions towards lower 87sr86sr in the latest triassic pliensbachian toarcian callovian oxfordian aptian albian and cenomanian turonian are interpretable as pulses of seafloor hydrothermal activity if so the strontium isotope record offers a means of constraining the timing duration and magnitude of known or proposed hydrothermal events in the geological record

strontium isotopes and rubidium in the ganga brahmaputra river system weathering in the himalaya fluxes to the bay of bengal and contributions to the evolution of oceanic87sr 86sr the concentrations of rb and sr and87sr 86sr isotopic ratios have been measured in the dissolved load of the ganga brahmaputra g b river system the ganga was sampled extensively from its source at gangotri in the higher himalaya to patna on the alluvial plains the brahmaputra was sampled in its stretch in assam in india the average sr concentration in the ganga at patna is 1 2 mol l and that in the brahmaputra at goalpara is 0 73 mol l the mean87sr 86sr ratios are 0 7239 and 0 7192 respectively the87sr 86sr in the ganga source waters the alaknanda the bhagirathi and their tributaries range between 0 7300 and 0 7986 considerably higher than the global average runoff value of 0 7119 the high87sr 86sr in the ganga source waters result from the intense weathering of precambrian granites and gneisses enriched in radiogenic sr the sr isotope systematics of the ganga waters is dominated by silicate weathering whereas carbonate weathering plays a significant role in their major ion chemistry the g b system transports about 910 million moles of dissolved sr annually to the bay of bengal with an average87sr 86sr of 0 7213 the sr transported by the g b system is about 2 7 of the global dissolved sr flux to the oceans via rivers model calculations reveal that the g b system has contributed significantly to the sr isotope evolution of seawater during the past 20 ma the flux of rb through the g b system is 24 million moles per year this is about 5 of the global river supply of rb to the oceans nearly twice the contribution of water via the g b system to the oceans our study suggests that the marine geochemistries of sr and rb and possibly u may have been influenced considerably by the himalayan orogeny

high resolution stratigraphy with strontium isotopes the isotopic ratio of strontium 87 to strontium 86 shows no detectable variation in present day ocean water but changes slowly over millions of years the strontium contained in carbonate shells of marine organisms records the ratio of strontium 87 to strontium 86 of the oceans at the time that the shells form sedimentary rocks composed of accumulated fossil carbonate shells can be dated and correlated with the use of high precision measurements of the ratio of strontium 87 to strontium 86 with a resolution that is similar to that of other techniques used in age correlation this method may prove valuable for many geological paleontological paleooceanographic and geochemical problems

87sr 86sr ratios in permo carboniferous sea water from the analyses of well preserved brachiopod shells abstract sr isotopic analyses of well preserved portions of permo carboniferous brachiopods distributed globally confirm the general shape of the sr isotope age curve established by previous workers for this time interval there is little variation between the sr isotopic composition of unaltered portions of brachiopods and that of portions of the same shell interpreted to be diagenetically altered based on cathodoluminescence elemental and stable isotopic data however the sr isotopic composition in diagenetically altered micritic matrix adjacent to the shell is more radiogenic the sr isotopic composition in the unaltered portions of calcitic megafossils has potential as a stratigraphie tool

himalayan tectonics weathering processes and the strontium isotope record in marine limestones the time evolution of the isotopic composition of seawater strontium the ratio of strontium 87 to strontium 86 over the last 500 million years has the form of an asymmetric trough the values are highest in the cambrian and recent 0 7091 and lowest in the jurassic 0 7067 superimposed on this trend are a number of smaller oscillations consideration of the geochemical cycle of strontium and the dynamics of weathering shows that only himalayan style continental collisions can influence the isotope ratio on the scale observed the contemporary himalayan orogeny is by far the largest since the late precambrian pan african event that produced the high in the cambrian

global change at the paleocene eocene boundary climatic and evolutionary consequences of tectonic events rea d k zachos j c owen r m and gingerich p d 1990 global change at the paleocene eocene boundary climatic and evolutionary consequences of tectonic events palaeogeogr palaeoclimatol palaeoecol 79 117 128 events of the paleocene eocene boundary provide the clearest example to date of how a tectonic event may have global climatic consequences recent advances permit well constrained stratigraphic determination of several events that occurred at that boundary in chron c24r a many fold increase in sea floor hydrothermal activity a global warming a reduction in the intensity of atmospheric circulation a conversion to salinity driven deep ocean circulation a marked lightening of oceanic 313c values extinction and evolution of both benthic foraminifera and land mammals and important plate boundary reorganizations including the outpouring of the east greenland volcanics and the initiation of the oceanic rift between norway and greenland we hypothesize that enhanced sea floor hydrothermal activity occasioned by global tectonism resulted in a flooding of the atmosphere with coz causing a reduced pole to equator temperature gradient and increased evaporation at low latitudes increased formation of warm salty probably low nutrient waters coupled with the warm temperatures at high latitudes occasioned a salinity driven rather than temperature driven deep water circulation this newly evolved ocean circulation pattern changed the apportionment of global heat transport from the atmosphere to the ocean with concomitant changes in the circulation intensity of both reduced intensity of atmospheric circulation resulted in lower oceanic biological productivity and enhanced seasonality of climate on the continents a major extinction event among benthic foraminifera was probably a response to the new low nutrient and chemically changed bottom waters and endemism following rapid evolution and dispersal of mammalian orders may have been in response to the new continental climate regime

strontium isotopes in early jurassic seawater abstract the analysis of well preserved well dated belemnites and oysters from the jurassic of great britain has resulted in a well constrained detailed seawater strontium isotope curve for the early jurassic the preservation of fossil low mg calcite was monitored using mn fe 13 c and 18 o iron was the most useful indicator with about 75 of the samples containing more than 150 ppm fe showing 87 sr 86 sr ratios elevated relative to adjacent points on the curve high mn concentrations less often correlated with elevated 87 sr 86 sr ratios however low mn concentrations 87 sr 86 sr 13 c and 18 o proved to be insensitive to diagenesis as it affects 87 sr 86 sr the principal features of the strontium isotope curve include a rise to about 0 70772 in the latest triassic and earliest jurassic hettangian from the hettangian the curve begins a roughly linear descent through the sinemurian and pliensbachian following a small levelling off and increase in the late pliensbachian the curve falls rapidly to its early jurassic minimum of 0 70706 it then gently increases through the toarcian until the falciferum zone where it shows an apparently abrupt increase to 0 70719 before continuing its slow increase to 0 70728 in the aalenian bajocian middle jurassic this reversal of the downwards trend established in the sinemurian and pliensbachian had not been previously identified the sinemurian and pliensbachian section of the curve potentially allows correlation and dating to within 1 or 2 ammonite subzones 0 5 to 1 ma

moment tensor solutions estimated using optimal filter theory global seismicity 1993 abstract moment tensor solutions estimated using optimal filter theory are listed for 130 moderate to large size earthquakes occurring during 1993

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

detailed record of the neogene sr isotopic evolution of seawater from dsdp site 590b a detailed study of strontium isotope variations in neogene marine carbonate sediments from deep sea drilling project site 590b using techniques that allow the 87sr 86sr ratio to be determined to better than 0 00001 gives a high resolution record of the sr isotopic evolution of seawater the data show that the rate of change of the marine 87sr 86sr ratio has varied significantly even on time scales as short as 1 m y periods of particularly rapid growth appear to follow major marine regressions and probably reflect an increase in the delivery of radiogenic sr from the continents coupled with a decreased submarine carbonate dissolution rate greater carbonate compensation depth periods of relatively slowly changing 87sr 86sr follow major marine transgressions on the basis of correlations with the marine oxygen isotope record and the times of major continental glacier growth it is inferred that the effects of sea level variations are modified by climatic factors that affect the intensity of continental weathering and runoff the effects of sea floor generation rate variations are not discernible for the neogene the maximum attainable stratigraphic resolution using sr isotopes is between 0 1 and 2 m y for this time period

seawater sr isotopes at the cretaceous tertiary boundary abstract seawater 87 sr 86 sr values increase abruptly by 28 10 6 across the cretaceous tertiary boundary ktb this small but rapid shift is superimposed on the larger scale structure of the seawater sr isotope curve the time scale of radiogenic sr addition appears to be too rapid to reconcile with sources associated with volcanism and we show that the amount of sr required to produce even this small increase is too large to be derived from 1 a kt bolide of the size constrained by the ir anomaly 2 continental crust ejecta from the impact of such a bolide 3 soot from global wildfires initiated by an impact or 4 any combination of these sources the probable source of the radiogenic sr is enhanced continental weathering but the high rate of increase appears to rule out processes such as sea level regression glaciation or tectonism a plausible mechanism for rapid addition of radiogenic sr to the oceans is enhanced weathering associated with globally distributed acid rain ph 1 which is a proposed by product of a bolide impact 51 epsl vol 83

diagenesis and sr isotopic evolution of seawater using data from dsdp 590b and 575 new sr isotopic and concentration analyses of bulk carbonate and porewaters from a carbonate rich miocene section sampled at dsdp site 575 are reported and used along with our earlier data from a section of similar age at dsdp site 590b in a numerical model to determine for each site the rate of sr exchange during diagenesis and the degree to which this amount of exchange has shifted the87sr86sr of the bulk carbonate from the ratio each increment of sediment had when first deposited despite the fact that the two sites have very different water depth 4536 m at 575 vs 1299 m at 590b different sedimentation rate 10 m my at 575 vs 40 m my at 590b and significantly different porewater sr2 gradients we find that the rate of sr exchange as a function of sediment age is almost indistinguishable between the two sites the rate of sr exchange determined at the two sites is such that the resulting shift in bulk carbonate87sr86sr due to diagenesis is small compared to the total range of87sr86sr values measured but large compared to the analytical uncertainty of the individual isotopic ratio measurements by taking this shift into account we reconstruct the original87sr86sr of each increment of carbonate sampled which when plotted as a function of age becomes our best estimate of the sr isotopic evolution of seawater because sr is very well mixed in the ocean at any given time there is a single worldwide value of seawater87sr86sr therefore if we are quantitatively accounting for the effect sr exchange we should find the same seawater evolution curve regardless of what dsdp site is used when we compare the observed bulk carbonate87sr86sr vs age at the two sites they are seen to differ by amounts that are sometimes large compared to the analytical uncertainties of the measurements however when these data are corrected for the post depositional sr isotopic shifts predicted by our diagenetic model we find almost perfect agreement this agreement suggests that we have made a realistic determination of the rate of sr exchange and its consequences in terms of shifting the87sr86sr of the bulk carbonate and more importantly that sr isotopes can be used to correlate marine sediments with an accuracy comparable to the very small analytical uncertainties of modern isotopic measurements

variations in the strontium isotopic composition of seawater during the neogene the authors report 261 strontium isotopic analyses of well preserved planktonic foraminifers from three deep sea drilling project sites 519 588 and 607 these samples cover the period from 24 ma to present with an average of approximately one sample per 100 ka the combination of high sample density and uniformity of analytical procedures has produced a well defined record of changes in the sup 87 sr sup 86 sr of seawater during the neogene the record can be viewed as a series of essentially linear segments with slopes ranging from as high as 6 times 10 sup minus 5 m y to as low as 0 m y the times associated with major inflections in the curve do not appear to correspond to simple geologic phenomena such as eustatic cycles but are probably controlled by a combination of tectonic and climatic factors that influenced the abundance and isotopic composition of terrestrial strontium input to the oceans the strontium isotopic data are consistent with a progressive increase in the chemical weathering rates of the continents during the neogene probably related to repeated glaciations increased exposure of continents by lowered sea level and increased continental relief resulting from high rates of tectonic uplift

reevaluation of early oligocene eocene and paleocene seawater strontium isotope ratios using outcrop samples from the u s gulf coast the cenozoic strontium isotope 87sr 86sr variation in seawater is largely defined using deep sea drilling project dsdp samples examination of non dsdp results particularly for the paleogene suggest that the original seawater curve of burke et al 1982 may lie above the true seawater ratio during this time to investigate this possibility we analyzed the 87sr 86sr for 230 paleogene rock and shell samples from the 83 sites in alabama mississippi and louisiana many of the samples are from classic sections on which the gulf coast paleogene stratigraphy was originally defined multiple analyses of samples from these units show very little scatter and in most cases precise agreement is obtained among geographically separated collection sites we believe that analysis of multiple samples from a unit of established age collected at more than one site yields results that most accurately define the actual seawater sr isotope ratio at any given time results from these units define a seawater variation line that tracks well within the range of dsdp data but is generally below the original seawater line of burke et al 1982 it is often assumed that samples from continental settings will exchange with high ratio sr thereby raising 87sr 86sr values our gulf coast samples which are derived from a continental setting yield individual 87sr 86sr values that are both higher and lower than the estimated contemporaneous seawater ratio an analysis of our gulf coast data and dsdp results show that the direction of isotopic exchange cannot be confidently predicted for individual samples based solely on their derivation from either continental or oceanic settings

sr isotopes in interstitial waters of marine sediments from deep sea drilling project cores sr isotopic compositions of interstitial sea waters have been documented in detail with cores from 37 deep sea drilling project sites the 87sr 86sr ratios are sensitive indicators of diagenetic reactions involving alteration of volcanic matter dispersed in sediments and recrystallization of carbonates effects of basalt alteration reactions except possibly for hydrothermal signals and of alteration of continental debris are minimal carbonate recrystallization has a significant effect on the geochemical mass balance of sr but diffusion of unradiogenic strontium from interstitial waters has only a small effect on the 87sr 86sr ratio of ocean water