a special issue devoted to gold deposits in northern nevada part 2 carlin type deposits this is the second of two special issues of economic geology devoted to gold deposits in northern nevada readers interested in a general overview of these deposits their economic significance their context within the tectonic evolution of the region and synoptic references on each gold deposit type are directed to the preface of the first special issue john et al 2003 volume 98 issue 2 contains five papers that address regional aspects important to the genesis of gold deposits in northern nevada and five papers that present detailed studies of epithermal deposits and districts all of the regional papers are pertinent to carlin type gold deposits because they address the age of mineralization arehart et al 2003 origin and evolutionary history of the northwest striking mineral belts that localize many deposits grauch et al 2003 nature of the middle and lower crust below these mineral belts howard 2003 district to deposit scale stream sediment and lithogeochemical anomalies theodore et al 2003 and stratigraphy and structure of a district located along a northeast striking lineament peters et al 2003 the nine papers in this second special issue focus on an array of problems pertinent to genetic and exploration models for carlin type deposits in northern nevada fig 1 these investigations sort out and characterize the sequence of deformational igneous and hydrothermal events in mining districts constrain the age of mineralization map paleothermal gradients identify structures and lithologies that are preferentially mineralized ascertain processes of ore formation determine sources of ore fluid components and define fluid flow paths a common theme among these papers is inheritance whereby older features in the mineral belts influence ore formation in subsequent carlin type hydrothermal systems three types of inheritance are inferred by one or more of these investigations 1 structural inheritance where older faults are reactivated during subsequent contractional and or

continental collision with finite indenter strength 2 european eastern alps 1 comparison of the results of a thin viscous sheet model with the velocity field determined by gps stations in the alpine pannonian realm shows that the adriatic plate is only slightly stronger than the eastern alps the observed velocity field is best approximated with a newtonian fluid however this scenario must be fairly recent as the overall geometry of the orogen can only be reproduced if the rheology contrast was about 1 10 before the late miocene the boundary conditions for this model are tested against the orientation of the intraplate stress field and are robust for argand numbers between 1 and 5 we conclude that the convergence rate between the adriatic and european plates must have slowed since the miocene and that the present day eastward extrusion of the eastern alps is largely due to lateral escape and only to a minor degree due to gravitational collapse scaled viscosities of the eastern alps are on the order of 1023 pa s

rock type control on erosion induced uplift eastern swiss alps abstract there is growing evidence that quaternary rock uplift in parts of the european alps is a consequence of climate and erosion driven isostatic rebound contemporary rates of rock uplift u in the swiss alps show two distinctive dome like peak regions that attain 1 6 mm yr 1 we focus on the alpenrhein catchment and its surroundings where one of these peak regions spatially coincides with widely exposed cretaceous bundner schist and lower tertiary flysch field assessments and analyses of hillslope gradient distributions quantitatively demonstrate the low rock mass strength and high erodibility of these rocks this is reflected in mean postglacial catchment erosion rates d 4 mm yr 1 as opposed to 0 7 mm yr 1 in more resistant crystalline rocks though largely inferred from landslide and debris flow prone tributary catchments 2 the localised erosion rates in bundner schist and flysch are among the highest documented for the alps and corroborated by historic suspended sediment yields and thus export from the region we further find that the steepness of bedrock rivers the density of large landslides and d correlate with the highest values of u our observations highlight the possibility that erosion of mechanically weak bundner schist and flysch enhanced by large landslides may have contributed to regional crustal unloading and concomitant rock uplift irrespective of whether this is betraying a coupling between long term uplift and erosion modulated by rock type our findings indicate that long term 10 3 to 10 4 yr geomorphic signals contained in bedrock river steepness spatial density of large landslides and postglacial erosion rates strikingly correlate with regional gradients of historic 10 1 yr rock uplift rates

slope distributions threshold hillslopes and steady state topography digital elevation models of two steady state mountain ranges the olympic mountains om and oregon coast range ocr are used to examine relationships between slope distributions the development of threshold hillslopes and steady state topography plots of drainage area versus slope for these mountain ranges exhibit substantial scatter that complicates comparison of range form to analytical theories and landscape evolution models contour plots of the density of such data reveal an attractor at the scale of the transition from hillslope processes to channel processes and log bin averaging reveals trends that parallel predictions of steady state erosion laws but with different rate laws for five distinct process domains hillslopes valley heads and colluvial bedrock and alluvial valley segments slope histograms computed for 100 km2 areas defined by a 10 10 km grid throughout the om exhibit approximately normal or exponential distributions in areas of active rock uplift and depositional topography respectively local slope distributions in the ocr also tend to be normally distributed but some are left skewed in areas with gentler slopes mean slopes determined both over the above referenced grid and a 10 km diam moving window are relatively invariant in the core of the om in spite of strong contrasts in bedrock erodibility and gradients in long term rock uplift rates in contrast the mean slopes in the ocr parallel latitudinal gradients in rock uplift rates and bedrock erodibility hence the slope distributions in the om and ocr reflect distinct relationships between development of threshold bedrock and soil mantled hillslopes and steady state topography

significant deposits of gold silver copper lead and zinc in the united states approximately 99 percent of past production and remaining identified resources of gold silver copper lead and zinc in the united states are accounted for by deposits that originally contained at least 2 metric tonnes t gold 85 t silver 50 000 t copper 30 000 t lead or 50 000 t zinc the u s geological survey beginning with the 1996 national mineral resource assessment is systematically compiling data on these deposits collectively known as significant deposits as of december 31 1996 the significant deposits database contained 1 118 entries corresponding to individual deposits or mining districts maintaining updating and analyzing a database of this size is much easier than managing the more than 100 000 records in the mineral resource data system and minerals availability system minerals industry location system yet the significant deposits database accounts for almost all past production and remaining identified resources of these metals in the united states about 33 percent of gold 22 percent of silver 42 percent of copper 39 percent of lead and 46 percent of zinc are contained in or were produced from deposits discovered after world war ii even within a database of significant deposits a disproportionate share of past production and remaining resources is accounted for by a very small number of deposits the largest 10 producers for each metal account for one third of the gold 60 percent of the silver 68 percent of the copper 85 percent of the lead and 75 percent of the zinc produced in the united states the 10 largest deposits in terms of identified remaining resources of each of the five metals contain 43 percent of the gold 56 percent of the silver 48 percent of the copper 94 percent of the lead and 72 percent of the zinc identified resources in significant deposits for each metal are less than the mean estimates of resources in undiscovered deposits from the 1996 u s national mineral resource assessment identified resources are roughly the same magnitude as cumulative past production assuming that roughly the same proportion of resources in undiscovered deposits will occur in significant deposits a substantial number of significant deposits remain to be discovered

regional surficial geochemistry of the northern great basin the regional distribution of arsenic and 20 other elements in stream sediment samples in northern nevada and southeastern oregon was studied in order to gain new insights about the geologic framework and patterns of hydrothermal mineralization in the area data were used from 10 261 samples that were originally collected during the national uranium resource evaluation nure hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance hssr program in the 1970s the data are available as u s geological survey open file report 02 0227 the data were analyzed using traditional dot maps and interpolation between data points to construct highresolution raster images which were correlated with geographic and geologic information using a geographic information system gis wavelength filters were also used to deconvolute the geochemical images into various textural components in order to study features with dimensions of a few kilometers to dimensions of hundreds of kilometers the distribution of arsenic antimony gold and silver is different from distributions of the other elements in that they show a distinctive high background in the southeast part of the area generally in areas underlain by the pre mesozoic craton arsenic is an extremely mobile element and can be used to delineate structures that served as conduits for the circulation of metal bearing fluids it was used to delineate large crustal structures and is particularly good for delineation of the battle mountain eureka mineral trend and the steens lineament which corresponds to a post miocene fault zone arsenic distribution patterns also delineated the black rock structural boundary northwest of which the basement apparently consists entirely of miocene and younger crust arsenic is also useful to locate district sized hydrothermal systems and clusters of systems most important types of hydrothermal mineral deposit in the northern great basin appear to be strongly associated with arsenic this is less so for low sulfidation epithermal deposits in addition to individual elements the distribution of factor scores that resulted from principal component studies of the data was used the strongest factor is characterized by fe ti v cu ni and zn and is used to map the distribution of distinctive basalts that are high in cu ni and zn and that appear to be related to the steens basalt the other important factor is related to hydrothermal precious metal mineralization and is characterized by sb ag as pb au and zn the map of the distribution of this factor is similar in appearance to the one for arsenic and we used wavelength filters to remove regional variations in the background for this factor score the resulting residual map shows a very strong association with the most significant precious metal deposits and districts in the region this residual map also shows a number of areas that are not associated with known mineral deposits illustrating the utility of the method as a regional exploration tool a number of these prospective areas are distant from known significant mineral deposits the deconvolution of the spatial wavelength structure of geochemical maps combined with the use of large regional geochemical data sets and gis permits new possibilities for the use of stream sediment geochemistry in the study of large scale crustal features as well as the isolation of mineral district scale anomalies

regional crustal structures and their relationship to the distribution of ore deposits in the western united states based on magnetic and gravity data upgraded gravity and magnetic databases and associated filtered anomaly maps of western united states define regional crustal fractures or faults that may have guided the emplacement of plutonic rocks and large metallic ore deposits fractures igneous intrusions and hydrothermal circulation tend to be localized along boundaries of crustal blocks with geophysical expressions that are enhanced here by wavelength filtering in particular we explore the utility of regional gravity and magnetic data to aid in understanding the distribution of large mesozoic and cenozoic ore deposits primarily epithermal and porphyry precious and base metal deposits and sediment hosted gold deposits in the western united states cordillera on the broadest scale most ore deposits lie within areas characterized by low magnetic properties the mesozoic mother lode gold belt displays characteristic geophysical signatures regional gravity high regional low to moderate background magnetic field anomaly and long curvilinear magnetic highs that might serve as an exploration guide geophysical lineaments characterize the idaho montana porphyry belt and the la caridad mineral park belt from northern mexico to western arizona and thus indicate a deep seated control for these mineral belts large metal accumulations represented by the giant bingham porphyry copper and the butte polymetallic vein and porphyry copper systems lie at intersections of several geophysical lineaments at a more local scale geophysical data define deep rooted faults and magmatic zones that correspond to patterns of epithermal precious metal deposits in western and northern nevada of particular interest is an interpreted dense crustal block with a shape that resembles the elliptical deposit pattern partly formed by the carlin trend and the battle mountain eureka mineral belt we support previous studies which on a local scale conclude that structural elements work together to localize mineral deposits within regional zones or belts this study of mineral deposits of the western united states demonstrates the ability of magnetic and gravity data to elucidate the regional geologic framework or structural setting and to contribute in locating favorable environments for hydrothermal mineralization

geomorphic limits to climate induced increases in topographic relief recognition of the potential for strong dynamic coupling between atmospheric and tectonic processes has sparked intense cross disciplinary investigation and debate on the question of whether tectonics have driven long term climate change or vice versa it has been proposed that climate change might have driven the uplift of mountain summits through an isostatic response to valley incision because isostasy acts to compensate mean elevations the debate hinges on the question of whether climate change can significantly increase topographic relief or more precisely increase the volume of missing mass between summits and ridges here we show that in tectonically active mountain ranges geomorphic constraints allow only a relatively small increase in topographic relief in response to climate change thus although climate change may cause significant increases in denudation rates potentially establishing an important feedback between surficial and crustal processes neither fluvial nor glacial erosion is likely to induce significant isostatic peak uplift

on uplift and exhumation during convergence a simple kinematic model is used to illustrate the vertical motions of rocks during convergent deformation and erosion at the surface it is shown that rocks may move upward or downward in the crust depending on the relative rates of erosion and thickening and depending on their initial depth in the crust exhumation during thickening can only occur if rapid denudation accompanies the thickening process during homogeneous thickening with erosion that is elevation dependent the initial depth from which rocks can be exhumed is only determined by the density distribution in the column and is independent of erosion or thickening rates the maximum initial depth from which rocks can be exhumed is of the order of 30 km or less there is therefore no conflict in the observation of synchronous exhumation and convergent deformation if the peak pressure of rocks is equivalent to no more than 30 km of burial it is also shown that uplift defined as vertical motion of the surface with respect to a reference level for example the geoid and exhumation defined as vertical motion of rocks with respect to the surface may follow different patterns in time and that the difference between the two evolutions may be a useful indicator of the exhumation process the model serves to emphasize the important differences between uplift and exhumation which are often not distinguished in the literature

neogene lateral extension during convergence in the central alps evidence from interrelated faulting and backfolding around the simplonpass switzerland abstract the simplon fault zone occurs at the western end of the lepontine metamorphic dome in the central alps and represents a major low angle 25 dip normal fault associated with wsw ene directed lateral extension movement began in the early miocene and continued until at least 3 ma accumulating a total vertical throw of around 10 km corresponding to 24 km displacement parallel to the fault this displacement is partitioned between a broad zone of ductile mylonites in the footwall and a more discrete cataclastic detachment fault the simplon line in the central region simplon village to zwischbergen some 3 km of the total vertical displacement is accommodated by the discrete cataclastic zone due to the higher exposed structural level the importance of the cataclastic component increases towards the northwest in the northern steep belt around the simplonpass retrograde greenschist facies mylonite formation and younger cataclastic faulting associated with lateral extension occurred contemporaneously with sse vergent large scale backfolding representing nnw sse shortening and crustal thickening the combined effect was an overall shortening across the orogen accommodated by an extension parallel to the orogen allowing lateral escape of continental material normal faulting and the resultant lateral escape was not just superficial it extended to depths of at least 15 km and probably to depths exceeding 25 km the overall geometry and kinematics of the simplon fault zone and in particular the interplay between folding and faulting is very similar to that described from the metamorphic core complexes and detachment faults of the cordillera of the southwestern usa within the central alps extension was associated with rapid exhumation of the lepontine metamorphic dome as evidenced by very rapid cooling rates determined from mineral ages in the footwall similar to the cenozoic tectonics of the himalayas and tibet orogen parallel extension in the mountain belt may have been promoted by an overall reduction in the horizontal compressive stress in this direction more limited extension of the same age and orientation is known from a large area of the european foreland greater extension in the mountain belt compared with the foreland was accommodated by major strike slip transfer fault systems and was linked to coeval overthrusting of the lowlands towards the southwest in the external southwestern alps of haute provence france coeval folding and orogen parallel extension such as at the simplonpass were developed in a dextral transpressive regime due to oblique wnw ese convergence across the alps during the neogene

on the causes and modes of exhumation and lateral growth of the alps 1 a compilation of the apatite and zircon fission track ages of the alpine chain points to markedly different patterns of cooling and exhumation of the eastern alps compared to the central and western alps the site of exhumation and shortening in the western alps migrated outward whereas it was more stationary in the eastern alps where it created a narrower metamorphic belt a correlation of these observations to the deep structure of the orogen suggests that north directed lower crustal wedging induces northward propagation of the deformation and exhumation front in the middle and upper crust of the central and western alps the absence of such lower crustal wedges in the eastern alps does not induce a similar shift of deformation but rather a long term localization of shortening and exhumation in one and the same area namely the axial zone of the orogen a critical review of the temporal correlations between inferred changes in the erosional efficiency of the alps and tectonic phases points to a negative correlation and hence no erosional control on the shifts of the deformation front of the alps therefore we conclude that changes in the deep structure and rheology of the orogen instead of changes in its erosional efficiency exerted the prime control on the lateral growth of the alps

geochemical and isotopic properties of fluids from gold bearing and barren quartz veins of the sovetskoye gold deposit siberia russia this paper reports on the comparative study of fluids trapped in inclusions in gold bearing and barren quartz veins at the sovetskoye gold deposit yeniseisky ridge siberia russia the host rocks are greenschist facies metasedimentary rocks of upper proterozoic age within the deposit some veins contain 10 to 25 ppm of au gold bearing veins others contain less than 1 ppm of au barren veins fluid inclusions trapped in barren veins are predominantly low salinity h2o 4 0 8 0 mass nacl equiv with variable contents of dissolved co2 12 5 mol ch4 1 3 mol and n2 1 7 mol homogenization temperatures vary from 200 to 410 c and the calculated pressures of entrapment are 1 5 kbars inclusion fluids trapped in the host schists are predominantly aqueous 97 6 99 3 mol h2o with co2 contents below 2 4 mol percent the fluids trapped in ore bearing quartz inclusions are different inclusions show higher homogenization temperatures up to 630 c and salinity up to 20 25 mass nacl equiv calculated pressures range from 0 7 to 2 0 kbars bulk gas chromatographic data of fluids extracted from native gold have contents of co2 that range from 29 3 to 62 0 mol percent n2 from 2 7 to 13 2 mol percent and ch4 from 0 0 to 2 8 mol percent in gold bearing quartz the contents of co2 range from 18 0 to 41 0 mol percent n2 from 0 1 to 0 2 mol percent and ch4 from 0 3 to 3 0 mol percent raman spectroscopic data of fluid from gold bearing quartz revealed co2 contents of individual inclusions as high as 98 2 mol percent n2 up to 66 4 mol percent and ch4 up to 88 7 mol percent fluids of the country rock schists which host gold bearing quartz veins are also enriched in co2 up to 49 5 mol the host rocks for both barren and gold bearing quartz veins show consistent ree patterns characterized by a negative eu anomaly fluids from barren quartz veins show similar ree patterns although with a less conspicuous negative eu anomaly whereas fluids from gold bearing quartz show a marked positive eu anomaly similar isotopic values of sulfur in pyrite pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite disseminated in country rocks 34s 14 7 21 6 and in barren 34s 12 9 19 9 and gold bearing quartz veins 34s 13 3 17 9 suggest that sulfur in sulfides was derived from the same source most likely being the adjacent country rocks co2 trapped in fluid inclusions of barren and gold bearing quartz has distinct isotopic compositions 13c 8 1 to 10 2 and 4 9 to 5 2 respectively and the 13c values are positively correlated with au contents in veins helium isotope composition of both types of quartz veins 3he 4he 0 04 0 05 ra for gold bearing veins and 3he 4he 0 02 ra for barren veins indicates a crustal provenance of mineral forming fluids the 40ar 39ar dating of sericite demonstrates that the barren veins 890 850 ma are significantly older than the gold bearing veins 830 730 ma on the basis of their ages barren veins are interpreted as synmetamorphic the age of the gold bearing veins corresponds to the age of the local granitoids 850 720 ma suggesting that the origin of the sovetskoye deposit is related to the tectonic activity syntetctonic magmatism

bedrock landsliding river incision and transience of geomorphic hillslope channel coupling evidence from inner gorges in the swiss alps 1 the formation of inner gorges cut into bedrock has been explained as relief rejuvenation by fluvial incision in response to rapid base level drop repeated glaciations frequent pore pressure driven landsliding focused at hillslope toes or catastrophic outburst flows from natural dam failures prominent inner gorges occur in soft mesozoic bundner schist and lower tertiary flysch units of the formerly glaciated alpenrhein catchment eastern swiss alps their channel and hillslope morphologies differ from basins characterized by strong glacial or landslide imprints while formally resembling the theoretically predicted transient response of detachment limited bedrock rivers to rapid base level fall by headward knickpoint migration assuming a postglacial onset of fluvial bedrock incision into a last glacial maximum surface in response to base level drop induced by downwasting of trunk valley glaciers requires downcutting rates e 20 mm yr 1 and requires hillslopes to adjust by frequent landsliding toward development of a threshold state we test this scenario using data on surface uplift geomorphometry geomorphic hillslope coupling and probabilistic slope stability models we find that adjustment of inner gorge walls through landsliding is mainly strength limited and structurally controlled and threshold conditions are restricted to the lower 25 of local hillslope relief mass movement processes on upper hillslopes remain largely decoupled from channel incision despite inferred postglacial specific sediment yields of 104 m3 km 2 yr 1 from the studied basins conversely several constraints imposed by fluvial bedrock detachment postglacial sediment yields and bedrock landsliding argue for a pre holocene origin for at least some of the inner gorges in the area this implies partial protection of fluvial gorge topography by subglacial sediment fill during the last wurm extensive glaciation and implies that glaciers were insufficient to fully eradicate fluvially sculpted bedrock topography this leads us to conclude that lithology and major climate oscillations should be considered as further alternative controls on inner gorge formation

cosmogenic 10be derived denudation rates of the eastern and southern european alps denudation rates from cosmogenic 10be measured in quartz from recent river sediment have previously been used in the central alps to argue that rock uplift occurs through isostatic response to erosion in the absence of ongoing convergence we present new basin averaged denudation rates from large rivers in the eastern and southern european alps together with a detailed topographic analysis in order to infer the forces driving erosion denudation rates in the eastern and southern alps of 170 1 400 mm ky 1 are within a similar range to those in the central alps for similar lithologies however these denudation rates vary considerably with lithology and their variability generally increases with steeper landscapes where correlations with topographic metrics also become poorer tertiary igneous rocks are associated with steep hillslopes and channels and low denudation rates whereas pre alpine gneisses usually exhibit steep hillslopes and higher denudation rates molasse flysch and schists display lower mean basin slopes and channel gradients and despite their high erodibility low erosion rates exceptionally low denudation rates are also measured in permian rhyolite which has high mean basin slopes we invoke geomorphic inheritance as a major factor controlling erosion such that large erosive glaciers in the late quaternary cold periods were more effective in priming landscapes in the central alps for erosion than in the interior eastern alps however the difference in tectonic evolution of the eastern and central alps potentially adds to differences in their geomorphic response their deep structures differ significantly and unlike the central alps the eastern alps are affected by ongoing tectonic influx due to the slow motion and rotation of adria the result is a complex pattern of high mountain erosion in the eastern alps which has evolved from one confined to the narrow belt of the tauern window in late tertiary time to one affecting the entire underthrust basement orogenic lid and parts of the southern alps today

the adriatic region an independent microplate within the africa eurasia collision zone 1 we use gps measurements and block modeling to investigate the present day deformation of the adriatic region whose kinematics within the nubia eurasia plate boundary zone is not well constrained and remains controversial block modeling allows us to compute rigid plate angular velocities while accounting for elastic strain accumulation along block bounding faults results suggest that the adriatic is a microplate adria and that the southern boundary with the nubia plate and the aegean domain may be located along the apulia escarpment and the kefallinia fault geodetic data alone cannot discriminate between a single block ap or a two blocks gdap description of adria but the gdap model predicts boundary slip rates that are in better agreement with observations from previous studies

the arc of the western alps in the light of geophysical data on deep crustal structure recently two international deep seismic campaigns in the western and central alps etude continentale et oceanique par reflexion et refraction sismique progetto strategico crosta profonda ecors crop roure et al 1996b and national research program 20 nrp 20 pfiffner et al 1997 have been completed here we present a synoptic interpretation of the wealth of geophysical data about deep crustal structure of the alps collected during the past 40 years including the two above mentioned geophysical projects the tectonic reinterpretation of the ecors crop high resolution seismic transect is based on an evaluation of the deep crustal structure by integrating new and literature data on surface geology combined with previously published interpretations regarding the central alps schmid et al 1996 this study reveals substantial differences in geometry and kinematics between transects across the western and central alps respectively at depth the transition between the central and western alps is marked by the western limits of an adriatic lower crustal wedge shaped structure and the northeastern limits of a similar structure made of european lower crustal material at the surface it coincides with a corridor of dextral strike slip along the tonale and simplon lines in addition the thickness of the seismogenic zone shows a remarkable variation from over 40 km beneath the penninic realm of the western alps to less than 20 km in the central alps the formation of the western alpine arc was initiated during convergence and collision before 35 myr ago when the adriatic micro plate moving northward with respect to the european foreland caused sinistral transpression in the western alps while the central and eastern alps underwent head on convergence and collision during the post collisional stage i e after 35 myr ago the arcuate shape of the western alps was accentuated by wnw directed movement and anticlockwise rotation of the adriatic microplate decoupled from the central and eastern alps along the tonale simplon dextral shear zone this led to wedging of lower crustal slices both in the western alps and in the central alps the new tectonic interpretation of the ecors crop transect allows a kinematic model to be established for crustal shortening in the western alps during the past 35 myr the ivrea mantle plays the role of a backstop in our tectonic model we distinguish three episodes of post collisional crustal shortening along the ecors crop transect from 35 to 30 ma the brianconnais basement was back thrusted over the gran paradiso units leading to 30 km of crustal shortening first episode in the early miocene movements concentrated mainly along the penninic frontal thrust and resulted in about 60 km shortening second episode post 12 ma shortening within the external massifs is associated with folding in the jura mountains when the crust was shortened by an additional 30 km third episode

current strain regime in the western alps from continuous global positioning system measurements 1996 2001 four to six years of continuous measurements at 10 permanent global positioning system sites in the western alps show horizontal residual velocities of 2 mm yr with respect to stable europe uncertainties range from 0 3 to 1 4 mm yr these velocities and the associated strain rate field indicate that the central part of the range is currently dominated by east west extension whereas the southern part shows north south to northwest southeast compression the geodetic and seismotectonic data are consistent with a model where strain is essentially controlled by the counterclockwise rotation of the adriatic microplate with respect to eurasia this rotation together with the arcuate shape of the contact between the adriatic microplate and the alps induces dextral shear kinematic boundary conditions across the western alps with an additional divergence component in their central part and in switzerland and a convergence component in their southern part

isotopic record of lead pollution in lake sediments from the northeastern united states abstract although it is common knowledge that pb concentrations have increased in lake sediments in the northeastern united states over the last 150 years the processes responsible have been the subject of debate in this study differences in lead isotopic compositions and concentrations in sediment from large lakes lake erie ontario and michigan and small ones deep lake and lake andrus are used to infer temporal changes in the source s of anthropogenic pb in the great lakes region a natural background component of pb is present in sediment deposited prior to 1860 in lake erie and the other lakes as indicated from low pb concentrations and uniform lead isotopic compositions changes in isotopic ratios of lake sediment reflect differing sources of anthropogenic pb superimposed on the natural component such as regional deforestation from 1860 1890 followed by coal combustion and ore smelting through 1930 combustion of leaded gasoline was the dominant anthropogenic pb source to the atmosphere and by inference to lake sediment from 1930 1980 temporal changes in lead isotopic compositions in lake sediment suggest that the source of the pb used in gasoline additives gradually changed from 1930 to present the best example is a distinct shift in lead isotopic ratios in lake sediment deposited after 1970 which corresponds to increased pb production from the viburnum trend deposits in missouri present in all lakes except ontario however the changes in lead isotopic compositions are much less variable than and do not parallel those calculated on the basis of annual united states mine production and imports rather anthropogenic recycling of pb as well as natural mixing processes during emission transport and deposition of pb in lake sediment control most of the variation in lead isotope ratios differences in lead isotopic ratios in lake michigan erie and deep lake sediment preserve regional differences in lead isotopic ratios from u s and canadian sources first noted in aerosols by sturges and barrie 1987 more localized sources of pb such as point discharges are needed to explain the results from lake ontario and andrus

world class base and precious metal deposits a quantitative analysis over 62 percent of the 193 000 metric tons of gold discovered to date is located in four countries and more than 68 percent occurs in four types of mineral deposits about 55 percent of the 1 740 000 metric tons of silver found is in four countries and 45 percent is in four types of deposits fifty six percent of the 1 52 billion metric tons of discovered copper is from four countries and four types of deposits contain 88 percent of the total over 50 percent of both the 713 000 000 metric tons of zinc and 349 000 000 metric tons of lead discovered to date come from four countries and 70 percent of both metals occur in four types of deposits all discovered gold would fit in a cube with a height of 22 m silver in a 55 m cube copper in a 550 m cube zinc in a 460 m cube and lead in a 310 m cube at least 74 percent of gold silver zinc and lead is in deposits having average grades above the respective median grades and 44 percent of copper is in deposits with average grades above the median grade of all deposits lower grade deposits contain less total metal than higher grade deposits tonnage of mineralized rock is an even better predictor of contained metal with over 96 percent of each metal s total residing in deposits having greater than median size and between 47 and 79 percent of metal contained in the largest 10 percent of deposits world class deposits defined as the upper 10 percent of deposits in terms of contained metal account for over 86 percent of all gold 79 percent of silver 84 percent of copper 71 percent of zinc and 73 percent of lead these giant deposits contain at least 100 metric tons 3 2 moz gold 2 400 metric tons 77 moz silver 2 million metric tons copper 1 7 million metric tons zinc or 1 million metric tons lead mineral deposits occur rarely in the earth s crust and large ones are especially uncommon this analysis shows that only the unusually large deposits can significantly affect supply

are the alps collapsing abstract orogenic collapse is a process that transfers gravitational potential energy from regions of high potential energy to regions of lower potential energy this transfer is classically considered to be accomplished by extension in the orogenic core and by synchronous shortening in foreland regions of the orogen not all extensional features in collisional mountain belts need however reflect orogenic collapse normal faulting thrust faulting and strike slip faulting are all active in different parts of the alps today and reflect complex local responses to ongoing europe adria convergence the western alps is the only area today where extension and shortening radial to orogen trend occur synchronously and where orogenic collapse may be an important process elsewhere in the alps normal faults are oriented at a high angle to orogen trend and were primarily active in oligocene and miocene time most present day activity in the central and eastern alps is on strike slip faults that are accommodati

crustal structure and active tectonics in the eastern alps 1 during the last decade a series of controlled source seismic experiments brought new insight into the crustal and lithospheric structure of the eastern alps and their adjacent tectonic provinces a fragmentation of the lithosphere into three blocks europe eu adria ad and the new pannonian fragment pa was interpreted and a triple junction was inferred the goal of this study has been to relate these deep crustal structures to active tectonics we used elastic plate modeling to reconsider the moho fragmentation we interpret subduction of eu below ad and pa from north to south and underthusting of ad mantle below pa from southwest to northeast the moho fragmentation correlates well with major upper crustal structures and is supported by gravity seismic and geodetic data an analysis of crustal thickening suggests that active convergence is associated with continued thrusting and lateral extrusion in the central eastern alps and thickening of the adriatic indenter under the southern alps according to the velocity relations at the triple junction pa moves relative to eu and ad along ene and se striking faults mainly by strike slip an eastward directed extensional component is compensated by the lateral extrusion of the central eastern alps the periadriatic insubric line east of the triple junction and the mid hungarian fault zone have relatively recently lost their role as first order active structures we favor the idea that the pannonian fragment and the tisza block merged to a soft microplate surrounded by the eastern and southern alpine carpathian and dinaric orogens