changing techniques and paradigms for the evaluation of magmatic processes the study of magmatic processes is at a juncture new continuum models for the complex physics of crystallization and melting with convection and crystal melt segregation are now available and the models are amenable to exploration by numerical methods these models which were largely developed in the fields of material science and mechanical engineering will allow petrologists to consider a wide range of transport phenomena crystal settling with reaction as fully multiphase flow combined thermal and compositional buoyancy with realistic material property variations open system and eruptive behavior and the appropriate system geometry and boundary conditions the traditional notions of magma chambers as large vats of near liquidus material is being replaced by models where a substantial portion of the chamber may consist of a crystal melt mush subject to reintrusion or mobilization percolative flow and reaction in this mush including contaminants may be as important as near liquidus processes in driving petrological diversity thus simple dimensionless numbers are of little utility in describing the vigor or style of magmatic processes melting of the crust following intrusion by basalt can be considered in light of two end members the large sill or tabular mafic magma body and intrusion of basalt as sequences of spatially and temporally over lapping dikes although more commonly cartooned the large sill type may not be nearly as efficient as repeated diking in driving crustal melting magma mixing and mingling the greatest challenge for those studying magma dynamics will be to key the models to well constrained geological examples and to raise the sophistication of the content of these models in light of well defined tests that have geological significance

geochemistry of laterites stability of al goethite al hematite and fe super 3 kaolinite in bauxites and ferricretes an approach to the mechanism of concretion formation

impact of the late glacial eruption of the laacher see volcano central rhineland germany abstract within a period of a few weeks toward the end of the allerod interstadial the major plinian eruption of the laacher see volcano produced some 20 km3 of eruptiva covering and preserving the late glacial landscape in the german central rhineland over an area of more than 1000 km2 correlation of terrestrial archives with the greenland ice core records and improved calibration of the radiocarbon timescale permit a precise accurate age determination of the laacher see event some 200 yr before the onset of the younger dryas cold episode carbonized trees and botanical macrofossils preserved by laacher see tephra permit detailed regional paleoenvironmental reconstruction and show that open woodland were typical for the cool and humid hemiboreal climatic conditions during the late allerod this woodland provided the habitat for a large variety of animal species documented at both paleontological and final paleolithic archeological sites preserved below laacher see deposits of special interest are numerous animal tracks intercalated in middle laacher see deposits at the south of the neuwied basin this knowledge may help to evaluate possible supraregional impacts of this volcanic event on northern hemispheric environment and climate during the late allerod

influence of periatlantic climates and paleoclimates on the distribution and mineralogical composition of bauxites and ferricretes

genesis of autochthonous and allochthonous apulian karst bauxites southern italy climate constraints abstract the apulian carbonate platform acp in southern italy has experienced several episodes of subaerial exposure which were in some cases associated with the formation of karst bauxite deposits the acp contains both autochthonous canyon like bauxite and allochthonous salento type bauxite with the latter having been derived from a weathered and eroded pristine bauxite deposit the remnants of this pristine bauxite are preserved as transported pebbles embedded in a clayey matrix the autochthonous bauxite and the pebbles of the allochthonous bauxite have the same texture of sub spheroidal components ooids dispersed in a fine grained matrix the fractal dimension of ooids from both deposits is very similar and corresponds to the growth of aggregates under a diffusion controlled process the ooids of the autochthonous bauxite have a different composition to those in the pebbles of the allochthonous bauxite because they formed under different climatic conditions during the turonian autochthonous bauxite ooids formed in alternating wet tropical conditions promoting al hematite formation and drier conditions favouring boehmite stability in the allochthonous pebbles ooids formed mainly in a dry climate promoting the formation of large boehmite cores the ooids matrix ratio and the geometrical features of the ooids reflect these climate differences the differences in composition and age post turonian of the salento type bauxite bedrock suggest that the pristine bauxite that produced the salento type pebbles was different in composition to and younger in age than the canyon like bauxite the latter probably formed during a middle campanian emersion event evidenced by large karstic cavities which is correlated with the subaerial exposure of karst recorded on the adriatic island of brac

the skaergaard layered series part ii magmatic flow and dynamic layering re examination of textural and structural features of the skaergaard intrusion has clarified the process responsible for various forms of layering two general types are distinguished one produced by magmatic flow and another by non dynamic processes such as compaction and varied nucleation and growth of crystals our concern here is mainly with layering of the first type magmatic flow results in contrasting layers and strong foliation accompanied by a linear orientation of elongated minerals it is associated with slumping and cross bedding in a zone near the margins of the intrusion rocks in the interior of the layered series are foliated and commonly layered but have little or no lineation their layering cannot be due solely to deposition from currents the principal structural elements produced by dynamic processes in the magmatic state foliation lineation shear zones folds and current structures define parallel belts mainly around the western and northern margins their distribution suggests that the strongest component of flow was for the western side and that its strength decreased toward the east shear flow trajectories deduced from lineations and kinematic indicators confirm this asymmetry and point to mass movement toward the southeastern part of the floor

geological geochemical and mineralogical characteristics of the mandan and deh now bauxite deposits zagros fold belt iran the mandan and deh now bauxite deposits are located 40 km northeast of the dehdasht city in the zagros simply fold belt these deposits occur in eroded major nw se trending anticlines and occupy karst cavities near or at the boundary between the sarvak and ilam formations local uplifts at the end of the cenomanian and the mid turonian caused erosion and karstification of the sarvak formation these unconformities in the upper cretaceous favoured the formation and enrichment of bauxite deposits in the zagros fold belt the bauxite sequence in the mandan deposit consists of white gray black pisolitic red and yellow bauxites this sequence was repeated in the deh now area but without gray and black bauxites the present mineralogical studies of the sarvak formation and the mandan and deh now bauxite deposits indicate oxidizing to reducing conditions during the upper cretaceous in the zagros fold belt which had a significant effect on the compositions of the bauxites at least two phases of bauxitization can be distinguished in the study area i an oxidizing phase represented by boehmite diaspore hematite and kaolinite and ii a reducing phase represented by pyrite and chlorite geochemical data show that trace elements like zr hf nb ta th and u were enriched during bauxitization the bauxite deposits and carbonate rocks show similar ree patterns namely they are enriched in rees although the lrees are more enriched than the hrees mass change calculations demonstrate that mg mn ca k and p2o5 were leached out of the weathered system whereas al fe and si become concentrated in the residual system this study indicates that the mandan and deh now deposits are karst type bauxites formed by karstification and weathering of the sarvak formation

modeling compaction of olivine cumulates in the muskox intrusion we have developed numerical models for compaction of olivine cumulates by simultaneous grain boundary diffusion creep and power law creep the simulation is a coupled model of compaction porous medium flow and heat transport that includes latent heat of fusion and advective heat transport by flow of interstitial liquid it also includes precipitation from interstitial pore liquid and partial melting of cumulates caused by changes in temperature or passage of interstitial melt through regions of different temperature compositions and quantities of liquid and precipitated phases are aetermined from a fractional crystallization simulation using the computer program melts we use these models to simulate the accumulation and crystallization of the muskox intrusion simulations suggest that regardless of their initial state compaction will lithify cumulates into a cohesive mass within meters of the depositional interface upward velocity of interstitial liquid is also much too small to suspend or liquify the crystal column the simulations produced rapidly cooled marginal zones at both top and bottom of the intrusion high rates of compaction are found at the tops and bottoms of cyclic units as a result of both high temperature at the boundary and partial melting caused by upward flow of cooler interstitial liquid as it enters hotter compositionally more primitive cumulates above the cyclic unit contact in contrast upward movement of interstitial liquid into cooler cumulates contrib utes to precipitation both in the upper marginal zone and in the middle region of cyclic units the degree of compaction of cumulates is strongly a function of temperature but if temperature is sufficiently high adcumulates can form in the interior of cumulate bodies by compaction alone

the lower zone critical zone transition of the bushveld complex a quantitative textural study the lower zone critical zone boundary of the bushveld complex is an intrusion wide major stratigraphic transition from ultramafic harzburgite and pyroxenite in the lower zone to increasingly plagioclase richpyroxenitesandnoritesinthecriticalzone quantitative textural and compositional data for 29 samples through this transition show the following lower zone orthopyroxene grains are larger have higher aspect ratios are better foliated and have a lower trapped liquid component than those of the critical zone the larger grain size of the lower zone results in crystal size distribution plots that are rotated to lower slopes and intercepts relative to those in the critical zone although all rocks show differing amountsoffoliation mineral lineations are weak to absent these data are consistent with significant compaction driven recrystallization in the study section numerical modeling of concurrent compaction and crystallization provides a quantitative model of how the lower zone critical zone transition may have formed plagioclase is rare in the lower zone because compaction removes interstitial liquid before it reaches plagioclasesaturation however asthecrystalpilegrows plagioclase saturation is reached in the interstitial liquid before compaction is complete in more evolved pyroxenites producing more abundant but still modest amounts of plagioclase characteristic of the lower critical zone it is concluded that both the textures and the modal mineralogy are largely controlled by compaction and compactiondriven recrystallization primary magmatic textures are not preserved

mineralogical characteristics of the karstic bauxite deposits in the xiuwen ore belt central guizhou province southwest china abstract the karstic bauxite deposits in the xiuwen ore belt of central guizhou province are hosted by the lower carboniferous jiujialu formation and show parallel unconformity with the overlying and underlying strata the ore bearing rock series that exhibits a typical coal bauxite iron structure is divided into three segments from the bottom upward namely an iron layer a bauxite layer and a coal layer based on the textural features and iron abundances the bauxite ores occurring in the middle segments are divided into three types of ores clastic compact and high iron the bauxite ores primarily comprise diaspore boehmite kaolinite illite and hematite with minor zircon pyrite rutile and feldspar the existence of rutile within diaspore lumps which were inherited from laterization suggests that diaspore was transformed from gibbsite and that karstic bauxite was transformed from laterite bauxite the results of x ray diffraction xrd scanning electron microscopy sem and electron probe x ray microanalyses epma suggest that diaspore and boehmite differ with regard to appearance and element abundance diaspore 2 10 m displays short prismatic or platy shapes and contains low sio2 abundances ranges from 0 2 to 0 51 wt whereas boehmite 0 2 5 m exhibits granular or irregular shapes and contains high contents of sio2 that vary between 2 71 and 10 4 wt the fe cu pb zn ba sulfide and sulfate mineral assemblages associated with cryptocrystalline kaolinites are discovered in the xiaoshanba deposit from the xiuwen ore belt mineralogical and geochemical studies reveal that the genesis of these assemblages is controlled by the decomposition processes of organic matter and the activities of microorganisms within the ore bearing rock series geochemical data suggest that elements rich in high organic cryptocrystalline kaolinite are produced from the adsorption effect of organic matter whereas the low concentration of these elements in pure kaolinite can be attributed to the scavenging effect during kaolinite crystallization in addition coexisting organic matter cryptocrystalline kaolinite and sulfide and sulfate minerals see sample xsb 14 indicate that the forming environment of the bauxite was hot humid tropical or subtropical climates

simulation of 3d karst conduits with an object distance based method integrating geological knowledge karst conduit shapes have a high influence on fluid flows as these underground hidden systems are partially inaccessible their stochastic simulation is an essential tool to assess the uncertainties related to these highly exploited water resources the object distance simulation method odsim is a hybrid dual scale approach that has been recently proposed to model geological underground structures due to late processes such as dolomitized rocks mineralized veins or karsts using a perturbed euclidean distance field around a curve representing roughly the conduit centre and called a skeleton the resulting shapes are globally cylindrical like 3d envelopes but at a drain scale karstic conduits are elongated along weakness planes such as lithostratigraphic horizons bedding planes fractures or faults in addition to those planes the influence of the water table is added this work presents different improvements of odsim methodology for simulating more realistic shapes in the particular case of karst firstly we propose using a custom distance field computed with a fast marching method considering the velocity field to be proportional to the permeability allows the resulting features to be elongated along the weakness planes secondly to handle specific shapes due to the proximity of the water table such as trenches or notches we impose areas of higher velocity between the skeleton and the water table finally we generate a custom random threshold with several variograms and or distributions depending on the different features integrated in the velocity field applied on different models it is shown that the resulting karst conduits have more realistic shapes than those obtained with the previous workflow while the variability of structures which can be modelled with odsim is preserved

physical properties of partly melted tholeiitic basalt melting experiments on centimetre scale blocks of tholeiitic holyoke basalt from the mesozoic hartford basin of connecticut reveal that when this basalt is only 30 crystallized a relatively strong network of crystals exists cubes of the basalt melted to this degree retain their shape as the interstitial liquid drains easily from the crystal network the intrinsic permeability of a sample containing 34 crystals was determined to be 3 10 10 m2 which is similar to that of coarse gravel serial sections through partly melted samples reveal that the network owes its strength to monomineralic strings of plagioclase and pyroxene crystals although these strings are clearly evident once the rock has been partly melted they are difficult to see in thin sections of the initial basalt but they are present the compressive strength of the mush increases dramatically from 336 to 4333 pa as the percentage of crystals increases from 33 to 37 this rapid strengthening is believed to explain why sheets of segregation liquid in tholeiitic flood basalts have compositions that correspond to no more than 35 fractional crystallization of the host basalt these sheets are proposed to form through compaction of the crystal mush in the lower part of thick flows the compaction occurring only while the mush remains weak that is while it has 35 crystals

karst bauxite deposits in the zagros mountain belt iran more than 190 occurrences of bauxitic lateritic deposits were investigated in seven areas within the zagros simply folded mountain belt in southwestern of iran the bauxitic horizons are situated in eroded major nw se trending anticlines and occur in karst cavities near or at the boundary between the sarvak and ilam formations uplift in the cenomanian turanian period had exposed the sarvak limestone to karst weathering and during a period of unconformity layers of ferruginous argillaceous limestone debris developed and accumulated on its surface the ferruginous argillaceous debris was partly converted to bauxite folding and faulting in oligocene miocene time with ensuing erosion exposed the bauxitic horizons on the limbs and cores of anticlines the karst bauxite deposits are probably of authigenic origin as evidenced by their lithologic associations textural and mineralogy

radiocarbon dating of soil organic matter radiocarbon ages of soil organic matter are evaluated with a model which incorporates the dynamics of the14c content of soil organic matter measured14c ages of soil organic matter or its fractions are always younger than the true ages of soils due to continuous input of organic matter into soils differences in soil c dynamics due to climate or soil depth will result in significantly different14c signatures of soil organic matter for soils of the same age as a result the deviation of the measured14c age from the true age of soil formation could differ significantly among different soils or soil horizons our model calculations also suggest that14c ages of soil organic matter will eventually reach a steady state provided that no climatic or ecological perturbations occur once a soil or a soil horizon has reached a steady state 14c dating of soil organic matter will provide no useful information regarding the age of the soil however for soils in which steady state has not been reached it is possible to estimate the age of soil formation by modeling the measured14c contents of soil organic matter radiocarbon dating of buried soils could in general overestimate the true age of the burial by as much as the steady state age of the soil or soil horizon

quantitative measures of textural anisotropy resulting from magmatic compaction illustrated by a sample from the palisades sill new jersey abstract early in the crystallization of many tholeiitic basaltic magmas plagioclase crystals cluster together into a 3 d cellular network which forms a passive marker capable of recording the deformation that accompanies compaction of crystal mush although irregular in detail the overall network is initially isotropic and only becomes anisotropic as a result of compaction we have developed four independent methods to quantify the 3 d textural anisotropy of a basalt sample using at least three non parallel thin sections three of the methods are based on the geometrical properties of digitized maps of the feldspar chain networks one approach focuses on the angular variation of the mean intercept along parallel traverses through the network another examines the orientation and size distribution of individual links and the third considers the average shape of interstitial regions outlined by the plagioclase network the fourth technique approximates the textural anisotropy by the variogram anisotropy of a scanned thin section image we illustrate the methods using five oriented non parallel thin sections from a sample of diabase 146 m above the base of the 300 m thick palisades sill of new jersey compaction of crystal mush in this sill has previously been postulated on the basis of chemical evidence the 3 d feldspar network anisotropy based on the first three approaches suggests nearly uniaxial compaction on the order of 8 6 in a direction within 3 of the intersection of the columnar joints at the sample site a rigorous statistical test based on the statistics of elliptically contoured non normal multivariate distributions documents that the link vector distribution in vertical sections are statistically anisotropic at a 95 confidence level and that the overall compaction is 7 9 2 6 the orientation and magnitude of the 3 d textural anisotropy determined by the image variogram of the non opaque minerals is almost identical to the mean feldspar network anisotropy 8 5 compaction in a direction 10 from the columnar joint intersections the major silicate textural and feldspar network anisotropy axes both plunge almost directly down dip of the sill on the other hand the major axis of the variogram anisotropy of the opaque minerals is approximately parallel to the strike of the sill and to the major axis of the anisotropic magnetic susceptibility the anisotropy of the silicate mineral fabric may reflect down dip flow of a deformable melt rich crystal mush whereas the ams and opaque textural anisotropy reflects the influence of gravitational stresses during the growth of magnetite in the final stages of melt crystallization evidently the palisades sill was not originally horizontal but was intruded in an orientation close to its present attitude

evolution and environmental impacts of the eruption of laacher see volcano germany 12 900 a bp abstract laacher see volcano lsv 40 km south of bonn explosively erupted ca 6 3 km 3 of chemically strongly zoned phonolite magma probably during spring 12 900 years ago the resulting eruption column having reached at least 20 km in height the bulk of the laacher see tephra lst was deposited east of the volcano within the neuwied basin lst ashes form the most important stratigraphic marker in lateglacial deposits over much of central europe a minimum of 2 mt total s was calculated to have been released during the eruption by comparing pre and posteruptive volatile concentrations in glass inclusions and pumice matrix glasses because a separate s bearing vapor phase was probably present in the magma prior to eruption as indicated by the high melt h 2 o contents close to saturation level the actual amount of s released during the eruption could have significantly exceeded 2 mt the sulfuric acid aerosol layer resulting from the massive stratospheric s input probably resided in the stratosphere for years and most likely had a significant impact on climate and thus the environment increased precipitation in central europe and or impairment of the vegetation cover for several years is suggested by several proxies especially increased sediment supply into lakes proximal to the eruptive center major environmental impacts include an initial blast that felled trees up to 4 km away from vent fast deposition of huge tephra volumes led to the complete disruption of rhine river within the lower neuwied basin and the damming up of a lake ca 140 km 2 in areal extent sudden collapse of the temporary tephra dam caused a catastrophic flood wave downstream whose deposits are recognized as far north as bonn reworking of unconsolidated tephra deposits over several 100 km 2 was widespread and extensive generating abundant lahars and flood plain deposits a braided river system established in neuwied basin probably persisted up to several years recent reports for a second eruption of lsv are not confirmed

pegmatoid and gabbroid layers in jurassic preakness and hook mountain basalts newark basin new jersey abstract coarse grained segregations are found in several subaerial flows of jurassic flood basalts in the watchung mountains new jersey they are particularly common within a 140 180 m thick quartz tholeiitic preakness flow the thickest of the watchung flows the segregations are enriched in iron and depleted in aluminum compared with the enclosing basaltic rock and are composed of pyroxene plagioclase and magnetite in a dark fine grained interstice most of the segregations are characterized by a 0 1 0 6 cm gabbroid crystal size range but a few lenses are characterized by a 0 4 2 cm pegmatoid size range three types of coarse grained segregations are found within the thickest preakness flow type 1 vesicular horizontal sheets 2 m typically 5 20 cm thick within the upper 40 m of the flow type 2 a thick 10 30 m mappable but discontinuous nonvesicular layer located at the contact of the colonnade with the overlying entablature and type 3 very thick up to 96 m lens shaped accumulations

percolation threshold and permeability of crystallizing igneous rocks the importance of textural equilibrium the permeability of a crystal mush fundamentally controls the ability of its melt to migrate or segregate with respect to the solid phase and thus controls the extent to which compaction and porous media convection can occur in crystallizing igneous cumulates in particular the existence of a percolation threshold which defines the porosity at which a crystallizing rock becomes impermeable can limit the effectiveness of these processes we present three dimensional numerical models of the topology of porosity in both texturally equilibrated and nonequilibrated crystal melt systems these models enable porosity vs permeability relationships and hence percolation thresholds to be calculated the permeability of the nonequilibrated models was calculated using a network simulation method these models confirm that there is no percolation threshold for a perfectly texturally equilibrated rock with dihedral angles of 20 these results suggest that the volume of trapped melt in an igneous cumulate may be controlled by the ability of the crystallizing crystal melt system to reach textural equilibrium

compaction of igneous cumulates when initially deposited mafic igneous cumulates consist of a solid matrix of mineral phases plus 50 60 interstitial liquid due to its greater density the matrix compacts squeezing the interstitial liquid upward a numerical fluid mechanical model of this process indicates that if the cumulate deposition rate is constant compaction occurs in one of two distinct models for rapid deposition the system is permeability controlled with compaction occurring only at the base of the cumulate pile for slowly deposited cumulates an additional compaction zone that is partially viscosity controlled develops at the top of the pile if the extent of compaction and thickness of this zone are known for a real system the model can be used to estimate the permeability and effective viscosity of the compacting cumulates such calculations yield a permeability of 1 5 times 10 3 a 2 f 3 1 f 2 for olivine cumulates in the muskox intrusion reliable viscosity estimates await an empirical law relating ma

radiocarbon simulation fails to support the temporal synchroneity requirement of the younger dryas impact hypothesis fine scale temporal processes such as the synchronous deposition of organic materials can be challenging to identify using 14 c datasets while some events such as volcanic eruptions leave clear evidence for synchronous deposition synchroneity is more difficult to establish for other types of events this has been a source of controversy regarding 14 c dates associated with a hypothesized extraterrestrial impact at the younger dryas boundary ydb to address this controversy we first aggregate 14 c measurements from northern hemisphere ydb sites we also aggregate 14 c measurements associated with a known synchronous event the laacher see volcanic eruption we then use a monte carlo simulation to evaluate the magnitude of variability expected in a 14 c dataset associated with a synchronous event the simulation accounts for measurement error calibration uncertainty old wood effects and laboratory measurement biases the laacher see 14 c dataset is consistent with expectations of synchroneity generated by the simulation however the ydb 14 c dataset is inconsistent with the simulated expectations for synchroneity these results suggest that a central requirement of the younger dryas impact hypothesis synchronous global deposition of a ydb layer is extremely unlikely calling into question the younger dryas impact hypothesis more generally

geochemical balance of lateritization processes and climatic signatures in weathering profiles overlain by ferricretes in central africa a simple geochemical balance of lateritization processes governing the development of several tens of meters of weathering profiles overlain by ferricretes is estimated on the basis of detailed mineralogical and geochemical data the lateritic weathering mantle of the haut mbomou area in central africa is composed of different weathering layers described from the base to the top of vertical profiles as a saprolite a mottled clay layer a soft nodular layer a soft ferricrete and a ferricrete in which kaolinite gibbsite goethite and hematite occur in various quantities incongruent dissolution of kaolinite leads to the formation of gibbsite in the upper saprolite whereas the hematite does not clearly replace the kaolinite according to an epigene process in the upper ferruginous layers of the profiles instead that kaolinite is also transformed into gibbsite according to an incongruent dissolution under hydrated and reducing conditions induced by a relatively humid climatic pattern the respective relations of the silica iron and aluminum balances and the al substitution rate of the hematite on the one hand and of rhg rhg 100 hematite hematite goethite and the kaolinite on the other hand to the consumption or the release of protons h permit differentiation of aggrading ferruginization and degradation processes operating in the different lateritic weathering profiles the al substitution rate of the fe oxyhydroxides varies according to the nature of lateritization processes e g saprolitic weathering and aggrading ferruginization vs degradation the observations and results indicate that the ferruginization process of the weathering materials of parent rocks is not a simple ongoing process as often thought this suggests that the actual lateritic weathering mantle of the haut mbomou area may result from different stages of weathering and erosion during climatic changes

santorini eruption radiocarbon dated to 1627 1600 b c precise and direct dating of the minoan eruption of santorini thera in greece a global bronze age time marker has been made possible by the unique find of an olive tree buried alive in life position by the tephra pumice and ashes on santorini we applied so called radiocarbon wiggle matching to a carbon 14 sequence of tree ring segments to constrain the eruption date to the range 1627 1600 b c with 95 4 probability our result is in the range of previous less precise and less direct results of several scientific dating methods but it is a century earlier than the date derived from traditional egyptian chronologies

critical metals distribution in tethyan karst bauxite the cretaceous italian ores abstract bauxite is a residual rock consisting mainly of a mixture of aluminium hydroxides whose industrial significance is primarily due to its profitably exploitable alumina contents in the last decades bauxite mainly karst bauxite has been also considered as possible resource of a great number of economically interesting elements including some critical metals such as rare earth elements sc co ni and nb in this study we present results of univariate and multivariate r mode factor analysis statistics performed on a large data set including chemical composition of the principal cretaceous karst bauxites from central and southern italy with the twofold aim to evaluate the inter elemental relationship among major oxides and critical metals and describe factors affecting their distribution univariate statistics reveal that some critical metals co ni and lree have a significant number of outliers the co ni relationship associated to the outliers dataset suggests that co is likely hosted in ni rich phases whereas ce accumulation in authigenic minerals carbonate fluoride and phosphate is at the origin of lree outliers multivariate r mode statistics applied to the outliers devoid database instead demonstrate that in absence of specific mineralization events the distribution of most critical metals is controlled by al fe and ti oxi hydroxides and to a lesser extent by detrital phases among the critical metals cr and y are the exceptions their geochemical behaviour seems to be influenced primarily by their own chemical features that are responsible for the mobility of cr during bauxitization and for the decoupling of y from the rees

interpreting magmatic fabric patterns in plutons abstract most plutons have widespread magmatic fabrics the interpretation of which remains controversial we propose a method to constrain likely causes of fabric patterns the application of which indicates the following 1 preserved fabric patterns often form after chamber construction and only rarely provide information about ascent or emplacement 2 fabrics are poor recorders of total strain and are easily reset preserving only the last increment of strain during crystallization 3 in magmatic systems mechanically decoupled from host rocks patterns may result from strain during internally driven flow filter pressing or porous flow in relatively static chambers or by final increments of strain during emplacement 4 with greater emplacement depths fabric patterns increasingly reflect strain caused by regional deformation and 5 given that magmatic fabrics are easily reset and reflect only the last increment of strain of comparatively weak materials they may provide a relatively direct record of paleostress in orogenic belts

consequences of crystal shape and fabric on anisotropic permeability in magmatic mush crystals that form an interconnected porous network can become preferentially oriented both prior to and during compaction of magmatic mush this introduces anisotropy in the melt pore space that can reduce permeability in the direction of compaction and in turn decrease melt flux and compaction rate using a number of grain scale numerical models the consequences of end member magmatic fabrics on the directional dependence of permeability are tested over a range in melt fraction from 22 to 77 as the crystal aspect ratio i e ratio of long to short axis length increases from 2 to 10 isotropic permeability decreases by a factor of 2 and 5 for randomly oriented prolate and oblate shaped crystals respectively at a melt fraction of 22 with a flattening fabric permeability is reduced in the compaction direction no more than approximately a factor of 2 relative to the isotropic permeability at the same melt fraction and crystal shape for both oblate and triaxial prisms however permeability is enhanced in directions orthogonal to the compaction direction for example permeability is enhanced up to a factor of 11 relative to the isotropic permeability at a melt fraction of 22 for oblate prisms with a ratio of the long to short axis length of 10 anisotropy in permeability increases as the melt fraction decreases and the crystal aspect ratio increases ratios of the principal permeabilities are sufficiently large based on the realistic crystal shapes tested here to warrant including anisotropic permeability into macroscale melt segregation models including those for compaction

nanodiamonds in the younger dryas boundary sediment layer we report abundant nanodiamonds in sediments dating to 12 9 0 1 thousand calendar years before the present at multiple locations across north america selected area electron diffraction patterns reveal two diamond allotropes in this boundary layer but not above or below that interval cubic diamonds form under high temperature pressure regimes and n diamonds also require extraordinary conditions well outside the range of earth9s typical surficial processes but common to cosmic impacts n diamond concentrations range from 10 to 3700 parts per billion by weight comparable to amounts found in known impact layers these diamonds provide strong evidence for earth9s collision with a rare swarm of carbonaceous chondrites or comets at the onset of the younger dryas cool interval producing multiple airbursts and possible surface impacts with severe repercussions for plants animals and humans in north america

origin and provenance of spherules and magnetic grains at the younger dryas boundary abstract one or more bolide impacts are hypothesized to have triggered the younger dryas cooling at 12 9 ka in support of this hypothesis varying peak abundances of magnetic grains with iridium and magnetic microspherules have been reported at the younger dryas boundary ydb we show that bulk sediment and or magnetic grains microspherules collected from the ydb sites in arizona michigan new mexico new jersey and ohio have 187os 188os ratios 1 0 similar to average upper continental crust 1 3 indicating a terrestrial origin of osmium os in these samples in contrast bulk sediments from ydb sites in belgium and pennsylvania exhibit 187os 188os ratios 1 0 and at face value suggest mixing with extraterrestrial os with 187os 188os of 0 13 however the os concentration in bulk sample and magnetic grains from belgium is 2 8 pg g and 15 pg g respectively much lower than that in average upper continental crust 31 pg g indicating no meteoritic contribution the ydb site in pennsylvania is remarkable in yielding 2 to 5 mm diameter spherules containing minerals such as suessite fe ni silicide that form at temperatures in excess of 2000 c gross texture mineralogy and age of the spherules appear consistent with their formation as ejecta from an impact 12 9 ka ago the 187os 188os ratios of the spherules and their leachates are often low but os in these objects is likely terrestrially derived the rare earth element patterns and sr and nd isotopes of the spherules indicate that their source lies in 1 5 ga quebecia terrain in the grenville province of northeastern north america

crystal mush compaction and the origin of pegmatitic segregation sheets in a thick flood basalt flow in the mesozoic hartford basin connecticut

quantifying the distribution of nanodiamonds in pre younger dryas to recent age deposits along bull creek oklahoma panhandle usa high levels of nanodiamonds nds have been used to support the transformative hypothesis that an extraterrestrial et event comet explosion triggered younger dryas changes in temperature flora and fauna assemblages and human adaptations firestone rb et al 2007 proc natl acad sci usa 104 41 16016 16021 we evaluate this hypothesis by establishing the distribution of nds within the bull creek drainage of the beaver river basin in the oklahoma panhandle the earlier report of an abundance spike of nds in the bull creek i younger dryas boundary soil is confirmed although no pure cubic diamonds were identified the lack of hexagonal nds suggests bull creek i is not near any impact site potential hexagonal nds at bull creek were found to be more consistent with graphene graphane an additional nd spike is found in deposits of late holocene through the modern age indicating nds are not unique to the younger dryas boundary nd distributions do not correlate with depositional environment pedogenesis climate perturbations periods of surface stability or cultural activity

on the identification of textural equilibrium in rocks using dihedral angle measurements three dimensional numerical simulations have been constructed to investigate the distributions of apparent dihedral angles expected in unequilibrated rock textures for comparison with those expected in equilibrated rock textures for unequilibrated fully crystallized monomineralic rocks the simulation shows that the distribution of apparent dihedral angles is nonrandom and similar to that expected from an equilibrated rock and is largely independent of crystal shape and crystal nuclei distribution this new distribution together with the one previously derived for an equilibrated texture defines a pair of apparent dihedral angle curves which encompass curves corresponding to any degree of textural equilibrium within a monomineralic rock the location of a measured curve within this range allows a quantitative assessment of the degree of textural equilibrium within that rock the simulations also show that unequilibrated partially crystallized rocks generate apparent dihedral angle distributions for closed triangular pores that depending on crystal shape may mimic equilibrated dihedral angle distributions they also indicate that unless a rock is in complete equilibrium different dihedral angle distributions are produced by measuring the apparent dihedral angles of closed triangular or open nontriangular pores an important conclusion of this work is that apparent dihedral angle curves for unequilibrated textures are similar to those for equilibrated textures therefore care must be taken when interpreting textural equilibrium from apparent dihedral angle curves

petrologic evolution of partially molten cumulate the atok section of the bushveld complex the postcumulus evolution of a portion of the bushveld complex that includes the merensky reef is inferred from the study of a continuous 56 m drill core the core penetrated the basal orthopyroxenites of the merensky and bastard units the massive anorthosites overlying the two pyroxenites and about 10 m of norite underlying the merensky pyroxenite detailed profiles of major minor and rare earth element ree contents of clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene were determined by electron and ion probe good correlations exist between textural and lithological variations and the ree contents of the pyroxenes specifically enrichments in pyroxene ree abundances are observed in the basal pyroxenites of the merensky and bastard units relative to the underlying and overlying rocks in the pyroxenites the nd content of clinopyroxene is typically over 12 ppm and reaches nearly 40 ppm 90 chondrite and nd yb ratio is in the range 8 to 25 these extreme enrichments in ree are not accompanied by large variations in major element contents computations of the compaction parameters relevant to the conditions of crystallization of the bushveld complex combined with a consideration of cooling history confirm the importance of compaction as a post cumulus process this analysis indicates that the geochemical variability is a result of redistribution of interstitial melt driven by compaction and cannot reflect variations in the initial porosity of the accumulating crystal pile a model for the development of the atok section is developed the merensky anorthosite is interpreted to have served as a barrier to the upward porous flow of late stage hydrous and incompatible element enriched melt which was thus trapped in the underlying merensky pyroxenite the flow was driven by compaction of the 350 meter thick section of predominantly norite beneath the anorthosite the introduction and accumulation of this melt in the pyroxenite and subsequent cooling resulted in partial dissolution recrystallization and ree enrichment of the rock forming minerals and in the formation of the main lithologic features of the merensky pyroxenite further upward percolation of the interstitial melt through the merensky anorthosite was restricted to channels due to the relatively impermeable nature of the cemented anorthosite this melt accumulated in and metasomatized the bastard pyroxenite in the same manner as the merensky pyroxenite having again been trapped by the overlying bastard anorthosite

clay cortex in epikarst forms as an indicator of age and morphogenesis case studies from lublin volhynia chalkland east poland west ukraine abstract clay cortex from the contact zone between the host rock chalk and infilling deposits were examined in paleokarst forms pockets pipes and dolines of different age from the lublin volhynia chalk karst region in light of the sedimentological and micromorphological analyses it seems possible to work out a model as the basis for genetic and stratigraphic discussions 1 dolines with the paleogene or neogene mineral infills are characterized by a homogeneous residual type of massive clay gradually passing into the chalk monolith and at the same time b relatively thick weathered zone 2 pipes with glacigenic mineral infill from the saalian glacial are characterized by a sharp contact between host rock and clay b narrow weathering zone of chalk c diffuse nature of the contact zone between residual clay and mineral infill and d contamination of clay by clastic material 3 pockets with glacigenic mineral infill and traces of the weichselian periglacial transformation are characterized by a strong contamination of chalk by quartz grains b diffuse transition between clay and infill from clayey matrix with single quartz grains at the contact with chalk to clayey coatings and intergranular bridges in the infill c intensive weathering cracking of mineral grains in the infill

experimental and theoretical constraints on melt distribution in crustal sources the effect of crystalline anisotropy on melt interconnectivity in partially molten systems the equilibrium distribution of melt at the grain scale is governed by the principle of interfacial energy minimization in ideal sources i e partially molten rocks that are monomineralic have single valued solid liquid and solid solid interfacial energies and are subject to hydrostatic stress the wetting angle is known to be a unique characteristic which specifies the melt configuration for a given melt fraction crustal rocks cannot be modelled as ideal sources because of their polymineralic nature the moderate to high anisotropy of interfacial energies which characterizes common refractory minerals and the possible presence of a crystallographic preferred orientation that partially molten crustal rocks depart from ideal sources is documented by a series of high p high t experiments illustrating the textural relationships of biotite and amphibole with silicic melts the melt distributions observed in these experiments differ significantly from those expected in ideal sources 1 crystal melt interfaces are commonly planar rational faces rather than smoothly curved irrational surfaces and 2 the concept of a unique wetting angle does not hold as shown in the biotite silicic melt system these textural features demonstrate that anisotropy of crystal melt interfacial energy is a factor of primary importance in modelling the grain scale distribution of partial melts the petrological implications of our study are the following 1 1 at high degrees of anisotropy and low melt fractions melt is predicted to form isolated plane faced pockets at grain corners the overall shape of these pockets and therefore the value of the connectivity threshold c are expected to be very sensitive to the ratio of solid solid to solid liquid interfacial energies ss sl c is the melt fraction at which melt interconnectivity is established melt pockets with low volume to surface ratio and low but non constant wetting angles should prevail at high ss sl resulting in very low values of c 1 to a few vol higher values of c a high volume to surface ratio of melt pockets and high wetting angles are expected at low ss sl 2 2 the wetting angle at hornblende hornblende melt junctions at 1200 mpa 975 c is 25 a review of existing data indicates that quartz melt and feldspar melt wetting angles are also low to moderate 12 60 a very low value of c should therefore be the general rule during crustal anatexis in particular a connectivity threshold lower than 3 4 vol is predicted for partially molten amphibolite 3 3 in biotite rich rock types such as melanosomes in migmatites the combination of a pronounced crystalline anisotropy and a marked preferred orientation of mica flakes leads to a very low permeability normal to layering biotite rich melanosomes should therefore impede chemical interactions between neighbouring leucosomes and mesosomes

the murray springs clovis site pleistocene extinction and the question of extraterrestrial impact some of the evidence for the recent hypothesis of an extraterrestrial impact that caused late pleistocene megafaunal extinctions firestone et al 2007 proc natl acad sci usa 104 16016 16021 was based upon samples collected at murray springs a clovis archaeological site in southeastern arizona here we describe sampling and analyses of magnetic separates from within above and below the lower younger dryas boundary lydb black mat at murray springs as well as radiation measurements from the lydb at murray springs and two other well stratified clovis sites the main magnetic fraction at murray springs is maghemite magnetic microspherules have terrestrial origins but also occur as cosmic dust particles we failed to find iridium or radiation anomalies the evidence for massive biomass burning at murray springs is addressed and found to be lacking we could not substantiate some of the claims by firestone and others but our findings do not preclude a terminal pleistocene cosmic event

plagioclase chain networks in slowly cooled basaltic magma plagioclase crystals in the slowly cooled interior of the thick holyoke flood basalt flow of connecticut linked to form monomineralic chains at an early crystallization stage partial melting experiments reveal that when the quartz tholeiite was only 25 crystallized the chains had already linked to form a continuous 3 d network at such an early stage of crystallization the network was weak highly permeable and easily deformed consequently the mush of plagioclase chains and interstitial pyroxene crystals underwent compaction in the lower third of the flow with the expelled liquid rising to the center of the flow where it crystallized to form coarse grained sheets of fractionated basalt plagioclase chains are most easily seen in the basalt after it has been partly melted and the late crystallizing minerals converted to glass the chains are several crystals wide the crystals which are approximately 0 5 mm long are attached together randomly normal zoning patterns indicate crystals had a brief period of growth before linking together the chains branch every few millimeters to form the 3 d network which was mapped using serial polished sections and x ray ct scans the chain frequency measured along vertical and horizontal traverses decreases toward the center of the flow in the compaction zone the frequency in the vertical direction is greater than in the horizontal making the reasonable assumption that these frequencies were initially the same the difference is used to calculate the degree of compaction the resulting pattern through the flow matches almost exactly the pattern indicated by variations in the incompatible elements plagioclase chains are also found in some coarser grained plutonic rocks if they are common their fabric may provide a new direct means of measuring the degree of compaction in crystal mushes

wildfire and abrupt ecosystem disruption on california s northern channel islands at the allerod younger dryas boundary 13 0 12 9 ka abstract sedimentary records from california s northern channel islands and the adjacent santa barbara basin sbb indicate intense regional biomass burning wildfire at the allerod younger dryas boundary 13 0 12 9 ka all age ranges in this paper are expressed in thousands of calendar years before present ka radiocarbon ages will be identified and clearly marked 14c years multiproxy records in sbb ocean drilling project odp site 893 indicate that these wildfires coincided with the onset of regional cooling and an abrupt vegetational shift from closed montane forest to more open habitats abrupt ecosystem disruption is evident on the northern channel islands at the allerod younger dryas boundary with the onset of biomass burning and resulting mass sediment wasting of the landscape these wildfires coincide with the extinction of mammuthus exilis pygmy mammoth the earliest evidence for human presence on these islands at 13 1 12 9 ka 11 000 10 900 14c years is followed by an apparent 600 800 year gap in the archaeological record which is followed by indications of a larger scale colonization after 12 2 ka although a number of processes could have contributed to a post 18 ka decline in m exilis populations e g reduction of habitat due to sea level rise and human exploitation of limited insular populations we argue that the ultimate demise of m exilis was more likely a result of continental scale ecosystem disruption that registered across north america at the onset of the younger dryas cooling episode contemporaneous with the extinction of other megafaunal taxa evidence for ecosystem disruption at 13 12 9 ka on these offshore islands is consistent with the younger dryas boundary cosmic impact hypothesis firestone r b west a kennett j p becker l bunch t e revay z s schultz p h belgya t kennett d j erlandson j m dickenson o j goodyear a a harris r s howard g a kloosterman j b lechler p mayewski p a montgomery j poreda r darrah t que hee s s smith a r stich a topping w wittke j h wolbach w s 2007 evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12 900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and younger dryas cooling proceedings of the national academy of sciences 104 16016 16021

quantitative modeling of compaction in the holyoke flood basalt flow hartford basin connecticut compaction in the holyoke flood basalt flow is modeled using a quantitative phase equilibrium routine based on the melts algorithm that is coupled with compaction driven heat and mass transport equations for a crystal liquid mush that is cooling from both the top and the bottom the compaction is qualitatively different in the upper and lower parts of the flow the solid fraction in the lower part increases as a result of concurrent compaction and solidification in contrast cooling from the upper boundary results in an increase in viscosity and a decrease in permeability toward the top this causes the velocity of the solid matrix to increase downward and the upper part to undergo dilation of the solid matrix the result is an s shaped profile for compatible elements and an inverse profile for incompatible elements the region of modeled maximum dilation matches the location of segregation sheets in the holyoke flow discrepancy between observed deformation as calculated from textural deformation of plagioclase chain networks versus compositional profiles suggest some crystal accumulation and or compaction prior to the formation of the plagioclase chains

the evidence and implications of polar ice during the mesozoic abstract the mesozoic perhaps representing the longest period of warmth during phanerozoic earth history contains in general sparse and frequently equivocal evidence for polar ice although this time is undoubtedly punctuated by oscillations in climate whether sufficient to lead to polar cooling and the formation of polar ice an inviting mechanism to account for faunal and floral distribution patterns and large scale sea level change has been widely debated mesozoic evidence for glacial conditions includes abraded rock surfaces generally unsorted stone rich beds and the presence of dropstones rafted by ice within a finer grained host sediment faunal and floral evidence has also been utilised to determine the presence or absence of cold or sub freezing polar conditions together with more indirect evidence for glacial conditions derived from general circulation model gcm simulations of climate the analysis of clay mineral distributions glendonite abundance and palaeontological and sedimentological evidence for globally synchronous sea level change the extent of possible glacial environments during the mesozoic has been established by plotting published reports of glacial sediments on palaeogeographic reconstructions the general clustering of evidence at high palaeolatitudes suggests that the extent of polar ice during the mesozoic is likely to have been approximately one third the size of the present day based on such evidence a number of episodes of cold or sub freezing polar climates during the bajocian bathonian tithonian volgian valanginian and aptian are recognised evidence exists possibly also for a cold episode during the early jurassic pliensbachian although poorly constrained owing to limited biostratigraphical control the longevity of these events may be represented by a cold snap within a stage although undoubtedly the possible smearing of ages may have had the effect of lengthening and hence promoting the importance of these proposed events the climate regime of the earth during these times may be hypothesised to be characterised by a relatively steep pole to equator temperature gradient where low latitude regions are as warm or warmer than today the evidence to support such reasoning includes sharp increases in the areal distribution of both glendonites and deposits with affinities to glacial tillites and dropstones for these times coincidental falls of sea level arid events and an increased bipolarity of faunas at these times imparts further confidence that these events were of a magnitude to effect the earth as a whole

growth of hematite and boehmite in concretions from ancient karst bauxite clue for past climate abstract in the peri adriatic apulia carbonate platform southern ltaly late cretaceous karst bauxites mark an emergence period during a wet tropical climate bauxite formed through clay accumulation in the karst in situ bauxitization and late formation of iron rich concretions in a water unsaturated pedogenic environment the concretions which are geochemical recorders of the environment of formation have a large core of al hematite surrounded by a cortex of alternating al hematite and boehmite boehmite forms instead of al hematite at lower water activity values using a model of molecular diffusion and assuming the fluid flow negligible the time necessary for growth of the concretions has been calculated the average sized core grew in 180 ka the al hematite accretionary band grew in 8 ka whereas the boehmite accretionary band grew in 4 5 ka the average bulk concretions possibly formed in 300 400 ka the growth of the concretions is assumed to be a two stage process in the first stage the core grew in a relatively long period of wet tropical climate in the second stage drier conditions favouring boehmite stability alternated to a wetter climate favouring al hematite stability the growth of the bulk concretions is consistent with the earth s long eccentricity cycle

effect of faceting on pore geometry in texturally equilibrated rocks implications for low permeability at low porosity the pore geometry of texturally equilibrated rocks is controlled by the interfacial energy ratio between grain boundaries and solid liquid boundaries faceting at pore walls which is a common feature of pore networks in rocks strongly affects the liquid distribution we investigated the effects of faceting on the equilibrium pore geometries based on image analysis of several systems with various degrees of faceting and dihedral angles the degree of faceting was assessed by the f value which is the ratio of the flat interface length at the pore wall to the length of total interfacial boundary between solid and liquid the f values tend to increase with increasing liquid volume fraction little faceted systems show relatively homogeneous liquid distribution moderately faceted systems with a higher dihedral angle 55 are characterized by development of large pores surrounded by faceted walls and complementary shrinkage of triple junction tubes whereas strongly faceted systems with a low dihedral angle show no evidence of shrinking triple junction tubes although most pores are surrounded by faceted pore walls the faceted systems tend to produce more facet boundaries at the pore walls due to the difference of interfacial energies between the flat and curved surfaces in the systems with the same degree of faceting heterogeneity of liquid distribution tends to decrease with dihedral angle for faceting systems the permeability of texturally equilibrated rocks with low liquid fraction would be significantly decreased by the relative reduction of triple junction volumes or by closure of channels along grain edge due to the truncation of facet walls

radiocarbon dating and the old wood problem the case of the hohokam chronology abstract many archaeological chronologies including that of the hohokam in southern arizona are based on a series of radiocarbon dates on wood this paper argues that because of variability in rates of wood decay processes in the environment and in systemic context such archaeological chronologies are potentially biased towards excessive antiquity by an old wood problem and must be reassessed following the theoretical insights of dean 1978 this paper sets forth principles and procedures for relating radiocarbon dates to cultural events emphasis is placed on identifying and taking into account the formation processes of 1 the dated specimens and 2 the deposits that yielded them this methodological framework is applied to hohokam radiocarbon dates and a chronology much shorter than the original gladwin haury formulation is supported

accumulation of impact markers in desert wetlands and implications for the younger dryas impact hypothesis the younger dryas impact hypothesis contends that an extraterrestrial object exploded over north america at 12 9 ka initiating the younger dryas cold event the extinction of many north american megafauna and the demise of the clovis archeological culture although the exact nature and location of the proposed impact or explosion remain unclear alleged evidence for the fallout comes from multiple sites across north america and a site in belgium at 6 of the 10 original sites excluding the carolina bays elevated concentrations of various impact markers were found in association with black mats that date to the onset of the younger dryas black mats are common features in paleowetland deposits and typically represent shallow marsh environments in this study we investigated black mats ranging in age from approximately 6 to more than 40 ka in the southwestern united states and the atacama desert of northern chile at 10 of 13 sites we found elevated concentrations of iridium in bulk and magnetic sediments magnetic spherules and or titanomagnetite grains within or at the base of black mats regardless of their age or location suggesting that elevated concentrations of these markers arise from processes common to wetland systems and not a catastrophic extraterrestrial impact event

quantifying three dimensional silicate fabrics in cumulates using cumulative distribution functions we present a new method for quantifying three dimensional silicate fabrics and the associated uncertainties from grain orientation data on three orthogonal sections our technique is applied to the orientation of crystallographic features and hence yields a fabric related to the lattice preferred orientation although the method could be applied to shape preferred orientations or strain analysis based on passive linear markers the orientation data for each section are represented by their cumulative distribution function and an iterative procedure is used to find the symmetric second rank strain tensor that will simultaneously satisfy the cumulative distribution functions observed on each section for samples with well developed fabrics this technique provides a much closer match to the sectional data than do previous techniques based on eigenparameter analysis of two dimensional orientation data robust uncertainty estimates are derived from a non parametric bootstrap resampling scheme the method is applied to two cumulates one with a well developed fabric and the other with a weak fabric from the stillwater complex montana the silicate petrofabric orientations obtained for these samples compare favorably with independent direct estimates of the volume fabric from electron backscatter diffraction and magnetic techniques

geochemistry of the apulian karst bauxites southern italy chemical fractionation and parental affinities article i nfo this study focuses on a late cretaceous karst bauxite deposit in the murge area of the apulia district southern italy the first analysis of the vertical distributions of a wide range of elements including rees and selected trace elements throughout the deposit was shown in order to identify the processes determining element frac tionation during the evolution of the bauxite the studied karst bauxite deposit exhibits an ooidal texture is mineralogically homogeneous and contains higher abundances of boehmite than of hematite kaolinite and anatase the major element composition of the bauxite is dominated by elevated concentrations of sio2 t io2 a l2o3 a nd fe2o3 and analyses of element mo bility within the bauxite indicate that all elements except for nb and ni and to a lesser extent cr are depleted relative to the immobile element ti r mode factor analysis revealed a number of key findings i some low solubility elements e g zr th ti v ga were concentrated in detrital zircon and monazite zr th in anatase ti v and possibly in boehmite and hematite ga during the later stages of bauxitisation ii fe and cr were concentrated during wet conditions whereas al and co accumulated during dry conditions iii distributions of the light rees lrees and the heavy rees hrees are controlled by the same processes suggesting that little lree hree fractionation occurred during bauxite formation and iv the behaviour of cerium is different from that of the other rees and highly variable cerium anomalies are observed across the deposit with three characteristic ce ce maxima with values ofn2 parisite was the only authigenic cerium mineral detected during this study thus we propose a three step model to explain the distribution of ce cerianite is dissolved by cerium reduction is transported by downward moving meteoric water per descensum and finally parisite is precipi tated this cycle was repeated several times in the apulian karst bauxite in response to eh decreases under alka line conditions promoted by fluctuations in the groundwater level finally we used the value of the eu anomaly todiscuss theparental affinity or protolith of thebauxite the value of the eu anomaly min eu eu 0 76 max eu eu 0 89 indicates that the bauxite was not derived from carbonates but rather that the majority of the bauxite was influenced by intermediate to mafic magmatic sources eu eu vs sm nd diagram suggests that the parental material for the bauxite was derived from a combination of a distant magmatic source and clastic material derived from a continental margin northern africa to the south

mineralogical and geochemical evolution of the bidgol bauxite deposit zagros mountain belt iran implications for ore genesis rare earth elements fractionation and parental affinity the present study focuses on the late cretaceous bidgol bauxite deposit in the zagros simply fold belt sw iran the orebody is located in the eroded major nw se trending koh e hosseyn anticline and hosted as discontinuous stratified layers and lenses within the upper member of the cenomanian turonian sarvak formation detailed mineralogical analysis reveals that diaspore hematite goethite anatase clinochlore chamosite and calcite are the major mineral components accompanied by minor amounts of detrital and ree bearing minerals such as rutile zircon and parisite the ore texture suggest that the bauxite material has an authigenic origin but in some parts it has been transported short distances from a primary in situ environment and redeposited in karstic depressions the spheroidal pisolites of the bidgol bauxite formed under conditions of low water activity favouring the formation of large diaspore cores and a single dry to wet climatic fluctuation the mass change calculations relative to the immobile element ti show that elements such as si fe mg k na and sr are leached out of the weathered system al ni zr ga cr and ba are concentrated in the residual system and hf ta co rb cs be and u are relatively immobile during the bauxitisation processes the nb th y v sc sn and ree are relatively immobile in the initial stage of bauxitisation processes in the bauxite ores but were slightly mobile at the later stage of bauxitisation geochemical data reveal progressive enrichment of the ree and intense lree hree fractionation toward the lower parts of the bauxite profile cerium behaves differently from the other rees especially lree and show positive anomalies in the upper horizons that gradually become negative in the deeper parts of the profile the distribution and fractionation of trace elements and rees during the bauxitisation process in the bidgol deposit are mainly controlled by the presence of ree bearing minerals fluctuations in soil solution ph ree ionization potential and the presence of bicarbonates or organic matter geochemical analyses confirm a protolith contribution from the bedrock argillaceous limestone and suggest that the source material for the bidgol bauxite was provided from a siliciclastic material derived from a continental margin the mid turonian uplift led to the formation of karstic topography rubbly breccia and a layer of ferruginous argillaceous debris that was affected by lateritic weathering under humid tropical climate subsequently mobile elements are removed from the profiles while al fe and ti are enriched resulting in the formation of the pristine bauxite materials when the platform subsided into the water again the pristine bauxitic materials were partly converted to bauxite during the exposure of bauxite orebodies on the limbs and crests of anticlines and subsequent eroding and accumulation in the karstic depressions during folding and faulting in oligocene miocene important factors such as intensity of the weathering drainage and floating flow may have improved the qualities of the bauxite ores

fungus not comet or catastrophe accounts for carbonaceous spherules in the younger dryas impact layer 1 a claim attributes the onset of the younger dryas climate interval and a range of other effects 12 900 years ago to a comet airburst and or impact event one key aspect of this claim centers on the origin of carbonaceous spherules that purportedly formed during intense impact ignited wildfires samples from pleistocene holocene sedimentary sequences in the california channel islands and other sites show that carbon spherules and elongate forms are common in samples dating to before during and well after the 12 900 year time horizon including from modern samples microscopic studies show that carbon spherules have morphologies and internal structures identical to fungal sclerotia such as sclerotium and cenococcum experimental charring of fungal sclerotia shows that their reflectance increases with temperature reflectance measurements of modern and late pleistocene spherules show that the latter indicate at most low intensity burning these data cast further doubt upon the evidence suggesting a catastrophic younger dryas impact event

igneous microstructures from kinetic models of crystallization during crystallization a variety of competing kinetic processes determine the evolution of the igneous microstructure yet the relative contribution of each process remains elusive to this end a stochastic algorithm is developed to yield a detailed spatial representation of the igneous microstructure during progressive crystallization this algorithm is used to test a variety of kinetic models for nucleation and crystal growth that yield realistic igneous microstructures the algorithm itself relies on a theoretical model of crystallization the avrami method and can therefore be internally validated in addition to being verified against natural microstructures using crystal size distributions csds the most realistic simulated igneous microstructure in which the csds remain approximately log linear throughout the crystallization interval is produced using a kinetic model involving exponential nucleation rate and constant growth rate an extension of the algorithm is used to simulate multiply saturated mineral growth emulating basalt crystallization through simultaneous nucleation and growth of plagioclase and clinopyroxene a fundamentally important feature of this procedure is the numerical production of detailed 3d representations of the microstructure that can be interrogated to study many physical and chemical processes for example the critical crystallinity necessary for the onset of a finite yield strength and the interstitial melt flow within the igneous microstructure depend on the percolation of the solid and melt phases respectively bounds on the percolation thresholds the critical crystallinity at which the phase of interest is connected or contiguous such that it extends across the full microstructure from one face to the opposite face are determined for the simulated igneous microstructure and are comparable with previously published results for the percolation threshold of both the melt phase and solid network the simulated igneous microstructure can also be used as input into other physical models to ascertain the physical properties of partially molten magmas that are otherwise difficult to estimate by experiment in a real sense these computed microstructures are equivalent to 3d microtomographic images of partially molten basalt within a solidification front

infiltration metasomatism of cumulates by intrusive magma replenishment the wavy horizon isle of rum scotland the eastern layered intrusion of the rum layered suite comprises paired peridotite and allivalite troctolite and gabbro layers forming 16 macro rhythmic units whereas the majority of these macro units are believed to have formed by a process of crystal liquid differentiation involving successive accumulation of crystals from multiple picritic replenishments of the chamber the unit 9 peridotite is interpreted as a layer parallel picrite intrusion closely correlated with this discontinuous peridotite body is a distinctive feature generally known as thewavy horizon which divides the overlying allivalite into a lower troctolite and an upper gabbro along a well defined undulating contact we propose that the wavy horizon is a metasomatic feature formed consequent to the removal of clinopyroxene from an original gabbroic mush foundering of the mush into the picritic sill resulted in the replacement of the original interstitial liquid by one saturated only in olivine plagioclase progressive through flow of this liquid resulted in the stripping out of clinopyroxene from the lower parts of the allivalite we interpret thewavy horizon as a reaction front representing the point at which the invading liquid became saturated in clinopyroxene the distinctive pyroxene enriched zone immediately above thewavy horizon could have formed when mixing of the interstitial liquids on either side of the reaction front formed a supercooled liquid oversaturated in pyroxene as a result of the curvature of the olivine plagioclase clinopyroxene cotectic the presence of many such approximately layer parallel features defined by differences in pyroxene content in the eastern layered intrusion of rum suggests that such an infiltration reaction process was not unique to unit 9

crystal size distribution csd in rocks and the kinetics and dynamics of crystallization ii makaopuhi lava lake crystal size distribution csd theory has been applied to drill core samples from makaopuhi lava lake kilauea volcano hawaii plagioclase and fe ti oxide size distribution spectra were measured and population densities n were calculated and analyzed using a steady state crystal population balance equation n n0 exp l g slopes on ln n versus crystal size l plots determine the parameter g a product of average crystal growth rate g and average crystal growth time the intercept is j g where j is nucleation rate known temperature depth distributions for the lava lake provide an estimate of effective growth time allowing nucleation and growth rates to be determined that are independent of any kinetic model plagioclase growth rates decrease with increasing crystallinity 9 9 5 4 10 11 cm s as do plagioclase nucleation rates 33 9 1 6 10 3 cm3 s ilmenite growth and nucleation rates also decrease with increasing crystallinity 4 9 3 4 10 10 cm s and 15 2 2 10 3 cm3 s respectively magnetite growth and nucleation rates are also estimated from the one sample collected below the magnetite liquidus g 2 9 10 10 cm s j 7 6 10 2 cm3 s moments of the population density function were used to examine the change in crystallization rates with time preliminary results suggest that total crystal volume increases approximately linearly with time after 50 crystallization a more complete set of samples is needed for material with 50 crystals to define the entire crystallization history comparisons of calculated crystallization rates with experimental data suggests that crystallization in the lava lake occurred at very small values of undercooling this interpretation is consistent with proposed thermal models of magmatic cooling where heat loss is balanced by latent heat production to maintain equilibrium cooling

a high precision age estimate of the holocene plinian eruption of mount mazama oregon usa the climactic eruption of mount mazama in oregon north america resulted in the deposition of the most widespread holocene tephra deposit in the conterminous united states and south western canada the tephra forms an isochronous marker horizon for palaeoenvironmental sedimentary and archaeological reconstructions despite the current lack of a precise age estimate for the source eruption previous radiocarbon age estimates for the eruption have varied and greenland ice core ages are in disagreement for the mazama tephra to be fully utilised in tephrochronology and palaeoenvironmental research a refined precise and accurate age for the eruption is required here we apply a meta analysis of all previously published radiocarbon age estimations n 81 and perform bayesian statistical modelling to this data set to provide a refined age of 7682 7584 cal yr bp 95 4 probability range although the depositional histories of the published ages vary this estimate is consistent with that estimated from the gisp2 ice core of 7627 150 yr bp zdanowicz et al 1999

permeability and melt flow in simulated and natural partially molten basaltic magmas abstract a lattice boltzmann method is used to calculate grain scale low reynolds number single phase interstitial porous melt flow in two independent igneous microstructures 1 a microstructure simulated using a stochastic algorithm for progressive crystallization and 2 a natural microstructure obtained through x ray computed tomography ct of a partially melted basalt in both cases the error in the calculated flow field due to finite discretization and domain size has been estimated or demonstrated to be insignificant visually the porous melt flow tends to localize into high flux channels especially with increasing crystallinity and this impression is quantitatively confirmed by increasing skewness of the velocity distribution in the direction parallel to the imposed pressure gradient driving the flow a change from uniform to localized melt flow in naturally occurring situations may have a profound effect on the distribution of trace elements and if the melt is reactive the chemical and structural evolution of the igneous microstructure through localized phase change permeabilities of both microstructures are determined from the calculated steady flow field the permeabilities are then fitted to two different correlation models which are based on the rumpf gupte and carman kozeny relations in these models we express permeability as functions of melt fraction and either the mean crystal length or specific surface area extrapolated permeability to higher melt fractions using both correlation models for the partially melted basalt is shown to be within a factor of four of experimentally determined permeability of a similar sample we determine permeability estimates in the relatively unexplored melt fraction range of 30 80 and find consistency with previous work for permeability estimates in the melt fraction range of 20 30

evidence from central mexico supporting the younger dryas extraterrestrial impact hypothesis we report the discovery in lake cuitzeo in central mexico of a black carbon rich lacustrine layer containing nanodiamonds microspherules and other unusual materials that date to the early younger dryas and are interpreted to result from an extraterrestrial impact these proxies were found in a 27 m long core as part of an interdisciplinary effort to extract a paleoclimate record back through the previous interglacial our attention focused early on an anomalous 10 cm thick carbon rich layer at a depth of 2 8 m that dates to 12 9 ka and coincides with a suite of anomalous coeval environmental and biotic changes independently recognized in other regional lake sequences collectively these changes have produced the most distinctive boundary layer in the late quaternary record this layer contains a diverse abundant assemblage of impact related markers including nanodiamonds carbon spherules and magnetic spherules with rapid melting quenching textures all reaching synchronous peaks immediately beneath a layer containing the largest peak of charcoal in the core analyses by multiple methods demonstrate the presence of three allotropes of nanodiamond n diamond i carbon and hexagonal nanodiamond lonsdaleite in order of estimated relative abundance this nanodiamond rich layer is consistent with the younger dryas boundary layer found at numerous sites across north america greenland and western europe we have examined multiple hypotheses to account for these observations and find the evidence cannot be explained by any known terrestrial mechanism it is however consistent with the younger dryas boundary impact hypothesis postulating a major extraterrestrial impact involving multiple airburst s and and or ground impact s at 12 9 ka

ce anomalies in the textural components of upper cretaceous karst bauxites from the apulian carbonate platform southern italy the chemical and mineralogical composition of upper cretaceous apulian karst bauxites southern italy and their textural components i e ooids and matrix has been studied the bulk samples are composed of boehmite hematite anatase and kaolinite the samples collected along a vertical profile show a downward enrichment for the elements rb sr ba ni and cr a similar distribution is observed in deposits bauxitized in situ at the expense of matrix like material collected in the karst zone the ooids consist mainly of hematite with minor boehmite and anatase whereas in the matrix boehmite prevails on hematite kaolinite and anatase in the void fillings in the matrix there is a ca fluorocarbonate having a ce ce of 5 8 the ooids with the exception of ce are enriched in ree and show a higher la yb ch ratio relative to the matrix the matrix exhibits a large positive ce anomaly whereas the ooids have negative ce anomaly the ce fractionation between the textural components can be explained assuming 1 ce oxidation and cerianite precipitation in the uppermost part of the deposits 2 scavenging of ree from ce depleted percolating solutions by the iron oxide inducing both ree enrichment and ce negative anomalies in ooids 3 remobilization of cerium as fluoride complex as a consequence of more acidic conditions in the uppermost part of the deposit and precipitation of ce3 as fluorocarbonate mineral toward the carbonate bedrock barrier at alkaline ph alternatively the cerium remobilization possibly as a carbonate fluoride complex could be due to an eh decrease favoured by a rise of the groundwater level

mineralogical characteristics of the superlarge quaternary bauxite deposits in jingxi and debao counties western guangxi china abstract in recent decades more than 0 5 billion tons of ores scattered in the quaternary laterite in western guangxi china have been explored the ores were derived from a bauxite horizon in permian via physical break up and re sediment process utilizing various test methods i e xrd dta tg dtg sem eds and epma the mineralogical characteristics of the quaternary bauxite ores in jingxi and debao counties were investigated xrd was used together with tg dtg to obtain relatively accurate ore mineral abundance diaspore is the major phase whereas hematite kaolinite anatase chamosite gibbsite goethite illite and rutile are minor diaspore is characterized by a small particle size low degrees of crystallinity and complex chemical composition both gibbsite and goethite have a varied particle size and goethite crystals contain high al substitution and si it is clarified that diaspore chamosite and anatase were formed in a mildly reduced and alkaline depositional environment in permian while gibbsite hematite goethite and part kaolinite were precipitated from al 3 si 4 and fe 3 enriched solutions within an quaternary oxidized environment the ions al 3 si 4 and fe 3 are mostly released from chamosite in its dissolution process the different physicochemical conditions between the permian depositional and the quaternary weathering periods resulted in a complex mineral assemblage in the quaternary bauxite

the graveyard point intrusion an example of extreme differentiation of snake river plain basalt in a shallow crustal pluton the graveyard point intrusion is the only known example of a wellexposed differentiated mafic pluton associated with the late miocene pleistocene magmatism of the western snake river plain srp it is exposed in a 6 km by 4 km area adjacent to the oregon idaho border and exposures range in thickness from 20 to 160 m the thicker parts of the intrusion are strongly differentiated and contain a 25 60 m thick section of well laminated cumulus textured gabbros that grade upward into pegmatoidal ferrogabbro evolved liquids formed sheets of fe rich siliceous granophyre at least two injections of magma are indicated by abrupt discontinuities in the rock and mineral compositions and by the lack of mass balance between the bulk intrusion and its chilled borders the laminated gabbros are interpreted to have formed from a tongue of augite and plagioclase crystals that were carried in with the second pulse of magma following the final emplacement of the intrusion in situ differentiation proceeded through a two stage process the ferrogabbros are explained as interstitial liquids forced out of the crystal mush by compaction and the siliceous granophyres are interpreted to be residual liquids that migrated out of the partly crystallized ferrogabbros in response to the exsolution of volatiles because the geochemical trend inferred for the mafic to intermediate composition liquids in the graveyard point intrusion is similar to the trend for many western snake river plain lavas the pluton may be a good model for shallow sub volcanic magma chambers elsewhere in the srp however some western srp lavas contain anomalously high concentrations of p2o5 which are best explained by mixing within the active crustal mush column or with partial melts of previously formed differentiated mafic intrusions

laacher see tephra a widespread isochronous late quaternary tephra layer in central and northern europe a late quaternary tephra layer widespread in central and northern europe resulted from explosive plinian and phreatomagmatic eruptions of the laacher see volcano 11 000 yr b p the tephra is distinguished from other late quaternary andesitic rhyolitic airfall tuff layers in northern europe and from basaltic or trachytic tuff deposits in southern europe by its phonolitic composition and abundance of sanidine plagioclase clinopyroxene amphibole and sphene the proximal tephia sequence at laacher see is divided into three main deposits the predominantly plinian deposits of lower and middle laacher see tephra llst and mlst and phreatomagmatic deposits of the upper laacher see tephra ulst the mlst member is further subdivided into beds a b and c1 c2 and c3 the chemical composition of the magma is highly differentiated phonolite in the llst to mlst b sections but mafic phonolite in the mlst c1 to ulst sections all deposits are considered to be isochronous the frequency maximum of 16 radiocarbon datings indicating an eruption about 11 000 50 yr b p distal ash was deposited in three main fans directed to the northeast lst traced up to 1 100 km distance south lst traced up to 600 km and southwest lst traced up to 100 km tephrostratigraphic correlation of the distal ash deposits is based on a the major element composition of glass shards b lithology and c heavy mineral analyses the northeastern fan consists of deposits from llst mlst b and mlst c1 eruptive phases the southern fan comprises mlst a mlst c2 and ulst deposits and the southwestern fan consists exclusively of ash from the ulst eruptive phase northeastern transport of ash during eruptive phases with high plinian eruption columns but southern and southwestern transport of ash along phases of relatively low eruption columns are interpreted in terms of prevailing southwesterly paleowinds at high altitudes tropopause level but northerly winds dominating in the lower atmosphere the laacher see eruption columns were emplaced into an atmosphere vertically zoned with respect to paleowind directions which also explains the near vent shifting of llst mlst b and mlst c1 iso pach axes from east southeast to northeast within the first 20 km of transport

shock synthesized hexagonal diamonds in younger dryas boundary sediments the long standing controversy regarding the late pleistocene megafaunal extinctions in north america has been invigorated by a hypothesis implicating a cosmic impact at the llerod younger dryas boundary or ydb 12 900 100 cal bp or 10 900 100 14c years abrupt ecosystem disruption caused by this event may have triggered the megafaunal extinctions along with reductions in other animal populations including humans the hypothesis remains controversial due to absence of shocked minerals tektites and impact craters here we report the presence of shock synthesized hexagonal nanodiamonds lonsdaleite in ydb sediments dating to 12 950 50 cal bp at arlington canyon santa rosa island california lonsdaleite is known on earth only in meteorites and impact craters and its presence strongly supports a cosmic impact event further strengthened by its co occurrence with other nanometer sized diamond polymorphs n diamonds and cubics these shock synthesized diamonds are also associated with proxies indicating major biomass burning charcoal carbon spherules and soot this biomass burning at the younger dryas yd onset is regional in extent based on evidence from adjacent santa barbara basin and coeval with broader continent wide biomass burning biomass burning also coincides with abrupt sediment mass wasting and ecological disruption and the last known occurrence of pygmy mammoths mammuthus exilis on the channel islands correlating with broader animal extinctions throughout north america the only previously known co occurrence of nanodiamonds soot and extinction is the cretaceous tertiary k t impact layer these data are consistent with abrupt ecosystem change and megafaunal extinction possibly triggered by a cosmic impact over north america at 12 900 100 cal bp

compaction of igneous cumulates part ii compaction and the development of igneous foliations quantitative petrofabric analysis of 66 samples from olivine bearing zones iii and iv of the middle banded series of the stillwater complex montana was conducted to allow direct comparison among textural and chemical variations systematic variations in foliations with stratigraphic height are observed in both zones statistical analysis of the orientations of inequant grains was used to calculate an alignment factor af corresponding to the extent of the development of the foliation both petrofabric and petrographic evidence indicates that the foliation is best explained by compaction of the crystal pile comparison of afs with estimates of the amount of compaction based on whole rock compositions shows approximate agreement variations in mole fraction cl of interstitial apatite mimic the observed trends in the af indicating that local concentrations of fluids exsolved from interstitial liquid were important in the development of strong foliations we conclude that 1 differing amounts of co

the cumulate paradigm reconsidered the cumulate terminology outlined by wager and coworkers provided a logical system for describing the textures of the rocks of layered intrusions but recent work shows that this model fails to accommodate all the processes responsible for the petrographic features of coarse grained rocks textures of adcumulates and orthocumulates in the skaergaard intrusion cannot be correlated with concentrations of incompatible elements representing trapped liquid compaction and open system percolative processes have altered their textures modes and even bulk compositions although a rock may be a cumulate in the absence of other evidence it can be misleading to refer to it in terms of the cumulate nomenclature

the origin of laminated and massive anorthosite sept iles layered intrusion quebec canada well laminated plagioclase rich rocks anorthosite occur as layers in mineralogically similar but massive rocks in the sept iles intrusion several phases of crystallization of poikilitic clinopyroxene have preserved the intermediate stages in the production of these rocks plagioclase nucleated and initially grew in random orientations in the stationary part of the boundary layer there in the absence of other events crystallization produced the massive anorthosite the laminated anorthosite may have been produced by episodic increases in the velocity of the magma adjacent to the boundarylayer induced by magmatic density currents such currents would have caused the zone of simple shear of the boundary layer to migrate outwards into the previously stationary part this simple shear would then have rotated the existing plagioclase crystals as well as crystals that nucleated at that time towards the shear plane some rocks show evidence of several periods of enhanced flow velocities the production of the lamination may have weakened the crystal mush and enabled slumping to occur producing folds and contorted layers finally compaction liberated large quantities of intercumulus magma of which some was trapped as granophyric segregations and some escaped by overturing and churning the crystal pile earlier formed granophyric segregations and laminated layers were disrupted during this process to produce a range of more complex rocks including igneous breccias

content and mode of occurrences of rare earth elements in the zagrad karstic bauxite deposit niksic area montenegro abstract three vertical sections through the zagrad deposit of jurassic karst bauxite in central montenegro have provided knowledge of the vertical distribution of major and some selected trace elements including rare earth elements ree variations in the mineralogy particularly those hosting ree have been studied this has revealed the presence of authigenic mineral phases such as xenotime mottramite and monazite best proved using raman microprobe analysis as well as residual phases such as zircon titanite and monazite the mobility of the elements during bauxitization processes has been studied to show that the ree minerals ensure progressive concentration of these elements during removal of major elements through weathering the similarity of normalized ree in the bauxite to the typical post archean australian shales paas and upper continental crust ucc profile and the preserved eu anomaly are evidence that the bauxite was not derived from carbonates and represents alteration of shale marly limestone and volcanogenic or proximal igneous sourced detritus that accumulated in the original karst landform mass change during bauxitization using ti as index element and compared to paas composition revealed almost 100 depletion of si and weak enrichment in al deeper parts of the deposit with authigenic minerals exhibit very strong enrichment in all ree the bauxite ores have high ree contents 693 5 6953 4 ppm especially lree contents 582 8 4882 9 ppm while hree contents 106 6 2070 5 ppm are much lower

textures of orthopyroxenites from the burgersfort bulge of the eastern bushveld complex republic of south africa a suite of 30 samples was collected from the burgersfort bulge area of the eastern bushveld complex for a detailed quantitative textural study the studied section represents a stratigraphic column approximately 1 000 m thick of mainly orthopyroxenites from the lower zone lz and lower critical zone crystal size distribution csd plots and quantitative fabric analyses reveal a history of crystal aging and compaction as evident from the loss of smaller sized crystals and the development of foliation with little evidence of mineral lineation compared with the thicker section from jagdlust 80 km north the lz orthopyroxenites at burgersfort are consistently finer grained foliation is equally well developed at both locations and is consistent with a relatively thin compaction zone at the top of the mush column grain size is largely a function of local cooling history with a grain size growth exponent estimated to be between 2 0 and 3 4

on the use of changes in dihedral angle to decode late stage textural evolution in cumulates the melt filled pore structure in the final stages of solidification of cumulates must lie somewhere between the two end members of impingement in which pore topology is controlled entirely by the juxtaposition of growth faces of adjacent grains and textural equilibrium in which pore topology is controlled by the minimization of internal energies the exact position between these two end members is controlled by the relative rates of crystal growth and textural equilibration for samples in which growth has stopped or is very slow textural equilibrium will prevail a close examination of dihedral angles in natural examples demonstrates that these two end member textures can be distinguished the impingement end member results in a population of apparent solid melt dihedral angles with a median of 60 and a standard deviation of 25 30 whereas the texturally equilibrated end member population has a median of 28 and a standard deviation of 14 for the specific case of cumulates in the rum layered intrusion residual porosity in troctolitic cumulates was close to the impingement end member whereas that in peridotites was close to melt bearing textural equilibrium suites of glass bearing samples from small or frequently disturbed magma systems show modification of initial impingement textures these modifications may be a consequence of textural equilibration or of diffusion limited growth during quenching distinction can be made between these two processes by a consideration of grain shape the geometry of interstitial phases in suites of fully solidified cumulates from the rum layered intrusion shows variable approach to sub solidus textural equilibrium from an initial state inherited by pseudmorphing of the last melt textural equilibration at pore corners occurs as a continuous process with a gradual movement of the entire dihedral angle population towards the equilibrium final state if the initial pseudomorphed state is one of disequilibrium i e a melt present impingement texture this change is accompanied by a reduction in the spread of the population if it is one of equilibrium the change is accompanied by an initial increase in the spread of the population followed by a decrease these observations demonstrate that previously published models of dihedral angle change involving the instantaneous establishment of the equilibrium angle in the immediate vicinity of the pore corner are incorrect

hierarchy of high frequency orbital cycles in cretaceous carbonate platform strata abstract lower cretaceous valanginian hauterivian carbonate platform strata which are well exposed in the matese mountains of the southern apennines italy have been analyzed on a microstratigraphic cm scale to exemplify the high frequency cyclic nature of the mesozoic shallow water sedimentation in southern italy based on the vertical organization of lithofacies and their early diagenetic signature 46 metre scale cycles are recognized these elementary cycles are hierarchically organized into groups bundles and superbundles the elementary cycles are prevalently formed by subtidal deposits and show emersion related features at the top suggesting repeated sea level fluctuations the number of elementary cycles compared to time as constrained by biostratigraphy and their grouping into sets implying higher order complexity in the environmental oscillation suggest an orbital control on sedimentation spectral analysis of recurrent thickness in stratal features defines and quantifies the cyclicity which is characterized by lithofacies thickness periodicities of 1271 391 159 124 and 69 cm linear correlation of the relative ratio set rrs of these periodicities with the corresponding rrs of the orbital perturbation periodicities shows that 1271 and 391 cm fit the 404 220 and 94 890 year cycles of early cretaceous orbital eccentricity 159 and 124 cm fit the 49 010 and 38 030 year cycles of the earth s axial obliquity whereas 69 cm corresponds to the precession periodicity thus the san lorenzello section required not less than 1 6 ma to form at an average rate of 26 mm ka each 400 ka cycle can be viewed as a depositional sequence in which sequence boundaries maximum flooding surfaces and system tract equivalents have been recognized the microstratigraphic approach is very promising for understanding the fine structure of climate related environmental fluctuation recorded by the 3000 m thick carbonate platform successions of the southern apennines over a time span of about 150 ma upper triassic upper cretaceous and for deriving a more precise chronostratigraphy for global correlation