late pleistocene holocene eolian deposits of the southern buenos aires province argentina a preliminary model abstract the aim is to reconstruct the sedimentological history of the late pleistocene holocene eolian deposits of southern buenos aires province hence a preliminary model is proposed in order to analyze the different stages of the sedimentological cycle the deposits include sandy loess fine sand sheets and dunefields the southern buenos aires province represents the depositional area whereas the source and transport environments are located in the northern patagonian andes and northern extra andean patagonia according to the mineralogical characteristics of the material explosive volcanism is considered the predominant process of particle formation particularly as generator of pyroclastic deposits which were reworked by different erosive processes glacial fluvial eolian during the late glacial maximum and the holocene alluvial deposits which were mainly generated by fluvial erosion of volcaniclastic sedimentary units were deposited along the floodplains of the colorado and negro rivers including those distal segments located in the emerged offshore platform the fluvial regime depended upon the regime of the glaciers hence it reflected the major glacial fluctuations which took place in the andes floodplains were deflated by southwest winds transporting the material towards the southern buenos aires province sandy loess and loessial sands and to la pampa province dunefields

sources of non glacial loess size quartz silt and the origins of desert loess abstract descriptions of peridesertic loess deposits and possible non glacial origins for silt size quartz are reviewed including direct release from weathered bedrock results from salt and frost weathering experiments are presented and methods by which sufficient energy can be imparted to sand size grains to release silt size fragments are identified these fragments may then be entrained by aeolian or fluvial action results from fluvial comminution experiments indicate that high energy mixed sediment fluvial systems may be very effective in generating quartz silt purely aeolian attrition is also seen as a major source of silt size and finer material results from aeolian abrasion experiments performed using crushed quartz sand are complemented by trials using sands from deeply weathered granite and pannonian sands from hungary field and laboratory observations are therefore seen to argue for the existence of deposits that can be classified as desert loess

mode and timing of terrane accretion in the forearc of the andes in ecuador the volcanic basement of the ecuadorian western cordillera pallatanga formation and san juan unit is made up of mafi c and ultramafi c rocks that once formed an oceanic plateau radiometric ages from these rocks overlap with a hornblende 40 ar 39 ar plateau age of 88 1 6 ma age obtained for oceanic plateau basement rocks of the pinon formation in coastal ecuador and with ca 92 88 ma ages reported for oceanic plateau sequences in the caribbean and western colombia these results suggest that the oceanic plateau rocks of the western cordillera and fl at forearc in ecuador are derived from the late cretaceous caribbean colombia oceanic plateau intraoceanic island arc sequences rio cala group overlie the plateau in the western cordillera and yield crystallization ages that range between ca 85 and 72 ma the geochemistry and radiometric ages of island arc lavas from the rio cala group combined with the age range and geochemistry of their turbiditic volcaniclastic products indicate that the arc was initiated by westward subduction beneath the caribbean plateau they are coeval with island arc rocks of coastal ecuador las orquideas san lorenzo and cayo formations and colombia ricaurte arc these island arc

geochemistry of the pliocene red clay formation in the chinese loess plateau and implications for its origin source provenance and paleoclimate change abstract recent field observations and sedimentological studies suggest the eolian origin of the late tertiary red clay formation underlying the pleistocene loess soil sequence in the loess plateau thereby extending the wind blown record from 2 6 ma down to 7 0 ma in north central china to address the source provenance of the red clay major and trace element concentrations were analyzed on the samples from a north south loess transect of the loess plateau and a red clay section at jiaxian results show that there is a good agreement of both major and trace element compositions between the last glacial interglacial loess soil units and the jiaxian red clay record the ree distribution patterns of the loess soil and red clay samples are remarkably similar in shape with enriched lree and fairly flat hree profiles and clear negative eu anomaly the geochemical features of the red clay are also identical to those of upper continental crust these chemical characteristics provide further evidence for eolian sedimentation of the red clay from the relations both between na2o al2o3 and k2o al2o3 ratios and between u pb and th pb ratios the eolian loess and red clay materials must have been subject to thorough sedimentary differentiation and moderate chemical weathering in the source area the chemical similarity between soil unit s1 and the red clay implies that such an environment as occurred in the last interglacial period may have already formed in northwestern china during the late tertiary comparison of down section variations in elemental ratios with field observations of pedogenic development of the red clay suggests that cao al2o3 sr rb and sr ba are more sensitive to climate changes than magnetic susceptibility and can be used to reconstruct the climate history of the late cenozoic

compositional variations of cretaceous pumpellyites along the western margin of south america and their relation to an extensional geodynamic setting pumpellyites in pervasively altered basic to intermediate rocks from three cretaceous andean volcanic sequences the colombian diabasic group the ecuadorian peruvian celica formation casma group and the chilean ocoite group were studied to test their compositional behaviour in relation to changes in geodynamic setting they occur mostly in assemblages of the prehnite pumpellyite facies filling amygdules and inside plagioclase phenocrysts a pumpellyites from the three geodynamic settings define three distinct compositional fields in afm space i those in the diabasic group plot closer to the fe corner ii those in the ocoite group plot closer to the al corner iii those in the celica formation casma group plot between and partly overlapping fields i and ii b pumpellyites in group i formed in t morb like k poor tholeiites high fe al affected by ocean floor metamorphism in an oceanic back arc basin pumpellyites in group ii generated in k rich calc alkaline low fe al to shoshonitic metabasites affected by burial metamorphism in an ensialic aborted marginal basin with moderate attenuation of the continental crust pumpellyites in group iii formed in basic and intermediate calc alkaline to tholeiitic rocks metamorphosed in ensialic marginal basins with various degrees of continental crust thinning from splitting to moderate attenuation a correlation between pumpellyite and host rock composition is suggested by these characteristics c pumpellyites in prehnite pumpellyite facies assemblages of some of the units studied plot inside higher and lower grade reference fields afm space corresponding to different geodynamic settings elsewhere this anomaly is attributed to the changing characteristics of the marginal basins at the south american margin and emphasizes the need to compare equal facies referred to equal settings

making loess sized quartz silt data from laboratory simulations and implications for sediment transport pathways and the formation of desert loess deposits associated with the sahara abstract results from a series of laboratory simulations designed to investigate quartz silt generation by a number of geomorphic mechanisms are reviewed these findings are then used to discuss potential sediment pathways involved in the formation of desert loess deposits and a pathway is presented to show a proposed sequence of events involved in the formation of the loess deposits associated with the sahara the results indicate that both fluvial and aeolian systems can be very effective at producing quartz silt it is suggested that fluvial systems within hot desert environments may play a central role in both the production and distribution of loessic silt first the highly energetic but periodic fluvial regimes associated with arid and semi arid environments may be responsible for considerable quantities of particle comminution second the intermittent nature of these systems will help maintain geomorphologically active surfaces from which silt sized material can be easily deflated as well as fluvial comminution a range of weathering mechanisms and aeolian abrasion may also be responsible for the generation of silts in desert loess consequently silt sources and mechanisms of silt generation are likely to be much more diverse for desert loess than those associated with glacial loess

middle to late pleistocene loess record in eastern nebraska usa and implications for the unique nature of oxygen isotope stage 2 abstract new subsurface data reveal a nearly continuous stratigraphic record of middle to late pleistocene loess sedimentation preserved beneath upland summits in eastern nebraska usa thickness and grain size trends as well as pedologic evidence indicate significant changes in loess sources accumulation rates and depositional environments the newly defined kennard formation accumulated in the middle pleistocene and may represent multiple thin increments of distal loess from nonglacial sources on the great plains the overlying loveland loess up to 18 m thick and deposited during oxygen isotope stage 6 ois 6 illinoian glaciation probably records the emergence of the missouri river valley as a major glaciogenic loess source the prominent sangamon geosol formed through long term pedogenic alteration of the upper loveland loess during ois 5 and 4 thin loess of the gilman canyon formation records slow loess accumulation and pedogenic alteration in ois 3 the peoria loess ois 2 is similar in thickness to loveland loess but may have accumulated more rapidly in an environment less favorable to bioturbation more importantly comparison of peoria and loveland loess thickness trends indicates much greater influx of nonglaciogenic loess from the great plains during ois 2 than in ois 6 suggesting colder and or drier conditions in the midcontinent during ois 2 than in earlier glacial stages

tectonic erosion and consequent collapse of the pacific margin of costa rica combined implications from odp leg 170 seismic offshore data and regional geology of the nicoya peninsula the convergent margin off the pacific coast of the nicoya peninsula of costa rica exhibits evidence for subduction erosion caused by the underthrusting cocos plate critical evidence for efficacy of this process was recovered at the ocean drilling program odp drilling site 1042 leg 170 positioned 7 km landward of the middle america trench axis off the nicoya peninsula the primary drilling objective at this site was to identify the age and origin of a regionally extensive and prominent seismic discontinuity the so called base of slope sediment boss horizon or surface the boss horizon which can be traced landward from near the trench to the nicoya coastal area and parallel to it for hundreds of kilometers separates a low velocity 2 0 2 5 km s 1 sequence of slope sediment from an underlying sequence of much higher velocity 4 4 5 km s 1 rock site 1042 reached the acoustically defined boss horizon at a below sea level depth of 3900 m and yielded a carbonate cemented calcarenitic breccia of early middle miocene age sedimentological geochemical paleontological and cement paragenesis data document that the breccia accumulated in a shallow water depositional environment on the basis of coastal exposures the boss horizon as a margin wide geologic interface can be temporally and lithostratigraphically correlated to a regional angular unconformity this unconformity known as the mal pais unconformity separates neogene and younger shelf to littoral beds from the underlying mafic units of the mesozoic nicoya complex and cretaceous and early tertiary sedimentary sequences at site 1042 it is inferred that tectonism caused the vertical subsidence of the early neogene breccia from a shallow to a deep water setting the mal pais unconformity of the boss horizon thus connects the rock fabric of the outermost part of margin to that of coastal nicoya and implies that in the early neogene the nicoya shelf extended seaward to near the present trench axis this circumstance requires that the early neogene trench axis was at least 50 km seaward of where it is now located the long term effects of subduction erosion similar to those described for the scientifically drilled japan tonga and peru margins best account for offshore and onshore evidence for a post paleogene history of crustal thinning and landward trench migration of costa rica s pacific margin during the past 16 17 myr the calculated mass removal and landward migration rates are 34 36 km myr 1 km 1 of margin and 3 km myr 1 respectively these values are similar to those found for other pacific margins dominated by nonaccretionary subduction zone processes

stratigraphy and palaeoclimatic significance of late quaternary loess palaeosol sequences of the last interglacial glacial cycle in central alaska abstract loess is one of the most widespread subaerial deposits in alaska and adjacent yukon territory and may have a history that goes back 3 ma based on mineralogy and major and trace element chemistry central alaskan loess has a composition that is distinctive from other loess bodies of the world although it is quartz dominated central alaskan loess was probably derived from a variety of rock types including granites metabasalts and schists detailed stratigraphic data and pedologic criteria indicate that contrary to early studies many palaeosols are present in central alaskan loess sections the buried soils indicate that loess sedimentation was episodic or at least rates of deposition decreased to the point where pedogenesis could keep ahead of aeolian input as in china loess deposition and pedogenesis are likely competing processes and neither stops completely during either phase of the loess soil formation cycle loess deposition in central alaska took place before and probably during the last interglacial period during stadials of the mid wisconsin period during the last glacial period and during the holocene an unexpected result of our geochronological studies is that only moderate loess deposition took place during the last glacial period our studies lead us to conclude that vegetation plays a key role in loess accumulation in alaska factors favouring loess production are enhanced during glacial periods but factors that favour loess accumulation are diminished during glacial periods the most important of these is vegetation boreal forest serves as an effective loess trap but sparsely distributed herb tundra does not thus thick accumulations of loess should not be expected where tundra vegetation was dominant and this is borne out by modern studies near the treeline in central alaska much of the stratigraphic diversity of north american loess including that found in the central lowlands the great plains and alaska is explained by a new model that emphasizes the relative importance of loess production factors versus loess accumulation factors

the petrology and geochemistry of cretaceous to recent volcanism in colombia the magmatic history of an accretionary plate margin the pacific margin of colombia records a complex history of subduction related magmatism from at least cretaceous times cretaceous lavas from the western cordillera and part of the central cordillera of the colombian andes exhibit some chemical characteristics typical of island arc tholeiites including low lil element abundances and flat to light depleted ree patterns but also have chemical and geological affinities with deposits from marginal basins and with transitional type ocean floor basalts an appraisal of the geological and chemical evidence leads to the conclusion that these rocks were erupted in an oceanic environment in close proximity to the continent a suite of basic rocks from the coastal cordillera of upper cretaceous to tertiary age has been interpreted elsewhere as abyssal tholeiites following accretion of the cretaceous sequences on to cratonic s america volcanism continued in the upper miocene with the eruption of basalts and basaltic andesites on the eastern flanks of the western cordillera this tholeiitic suite is lree and lil element enriched compared with the cretaceous lavas and represents the trenchward portion of an ensialic island arc sequence subduction related magmatism continued from the miocene with the formation of composite calc alkaline strato volcanoes mostly along the axis of the central cordillera these miocene to recent lavas are dominantly andesitic with strong lil and lree enrichment and 87 sr 86 sr ratios of 0 7042 0 7047

making the material the formation of silt sized primary mineral particles for loess deposits abstract in 1911 e e free wrote it may be well to point out that there are really two problems of the loess a problem of the origin of material and a problem of deposition the problem of the origin of material has been relatively neglected in comparison to problems of deposition of the formation of deposits and latterly in comparison to studies of loess stratigraphy if we are to understand the true nature of loess this fascinating material we need to be aware of all the significant events in the processing of the particles which form a deposit a large amount of silt sized primary mineral material has to be produced to make a loess deposit loess is a quaternary phenomenon and we see the entire process being completed in quaternary times some powerful quaternary forces are able to produce very large amounts of granular material glacial grinding vigorously supported by smalley 1966a provides an obvious source for some loess material but the vast deposits of north china and central asia have no obvious glacial connection however they are adjacent to high asia a region of vast tectonic activity and an enormous release of terrestrial energy in the last several million years high asia is a large producer of loess silt much of which finds its way south to make the ganges delta but large amounts are moved north and east to make huge loess deposits africa presents a problem recent work e g coude gaussen 1987 suggests that there is a region of peri saharan loess but earlier observations e g penck indicate quite clearly that the sahara region is free of loess rathjens 1928 in his study of tripolitania indicated the presence of loess like deposits and described their nature but he did point out that 90 of the granular material was greater than 100 pm in diameter which would remove it from a strict loess definition on the soil taxonomy map of africa there is a belt of soil d3 which could include considerable loess deposits it stretches from the matmata loess in tunisia across northern libya to the western part of the egyptian coastal region if d3 contains loess this points to a genuine desert loess particle producing mechanism operating in the sahara

transport direction of peoria loess in nebraska and implications for loess sources on the central great plains abstract in the midwestern united states large rivers draining the laurentide ice sheet lis were the most important sources of peoria loess deposited during the last glaciation loess deposition near those rivers may have responded primarily to ice sheet dynamics rather than direct effects of climatic change in contrast it has been proposed that thick peoria loess on the central great plains was derived mainly from unglaciated landscapes northwest of the main loess deposits in this study transport directions inferred from more than 600 measurements of peoria loess thickness in nebraska are used to test the hypothesis that much of the peoria loess on the great plains is nonglaciogenic a strong northwest to southeast thickness trend indicates that most peoria loess in nebraska was transported from one or more unglaciated northwestern source areas rather than from glacially influenced river floodplains the missouri river draining the lis the platte river draining alpine glaciers and the elkhorn river unglaciated basin were secondary sources their contribution is not detectable beyond a distance of 40 60 km peoria loess deposition on the central great plains was largely a direct response to climatic change in the unglaciated source region

paleosubarctic eolian environments along the southern margin of the north american icesheet and the southern margin of siberia during the last glacial maximum abstract based on a negative correlation of magnetic susceptibility with organic matter content and the degree of gleying documented both in north american and southern siberian eolian sequences the authors propose that reducing conditions of incipient histosol development contributed to the alteration of magnetic minerals from strongly magnetic forms of oxidized iron to weakly magnetic forms therefore the magnetic susceptibility is basically an indicator of redox cycles well vegetated conditions generally dominated the later part of the last glacial maximum lgm 15 000 8000 14 c years bp and poorly vegetated conditions the early part 21 000 15 000 14 c years bp with a rapid transition around 15 000 14 c years bp chronologically corresponding to many well documented rapid transitions around the world the magnetic susceptibility signatures indicate approximately 1000 year long cycles of environmental changes during the last glacial maximum 21 000 10 000 14 c years bp in north america the initial perturbation of these 1000 year long cycles might have started in the tropical pacific and then been promptly transferred to the north atlantic via the north american icesheet the southern siberian eolian sequence recorded approximately 1400 year cycles these 1400 year cycles might have been associated with the thermal variations in the arctic ocean that was directly linked with the thermal variations in the north atlantic ocean to sum up our research suggests that the north american eolian sequence recorded 1000 year cycles and the southern siberian eolian sequence recorded 1400 year cycles although it is not able to propose plausible mechanisms controlling the 1000 or and 1400 year cycles

loess record of dry climate and aeolian activity in the early to mid holocene central great plains north america thick holocene bignell loess sections provide new evidence for the timing of early to middle holocene aridity in the central great plains the immediate source of loess in these sections was dune fields just upwind based on thickness trends and grain size data thus periods of rapid loess accumulation indicate episodes of extensive dune activity under drier than present climate in typical bignell loess sections a thick zone of coarse textured loess with minimal pedogenic alteration is interpreted as a record of the most rapid sustained holocene loess accumulation optical ages indicate that loess in this zone was deposited beginning about 9000 10000 years ago at five study sites accumulation ended shortly after 6500 years ago at three sites but possibly earlier at the other two in two well dated sections the average rate of loess accumulation between 9000 10000 and 6500 years ago was about 1 6 3 5 times greater than in the late holocene thus we infer that the most extensive sustained holocene

k ar ages of basic rocks in the patia valley southwest colombia abstract the patia valley situated between the western and central cordilleras of the southwest colombian andes contains two areas in which mesozoic basic and ultrabasic rocks crop out in abundance late cretaceous diabase group pillow basalts which make up much of the western cordillera are at least 81 5 ma in the e1 tambo e1 penol area 105 97 ma hornblende and whole rock dates from the ophiolitic los azules complex indicate an albian age of formation although many dates are lower 65 62 ma owing the low grade ocean floor metamorphism the metamorphic age distribution here supports an end of cretaceous emplacement for the complex rather than the early mid cretaceous emplacement suggested for north colombian ophiolites similarly aligned along the romeral fault system tertiary dacites intruding the low azules complex are 36 15 ma

the occurrence and timing of high pressure metamorphism on margarita island venezuela a constraint on caribbean south america interaction the metamorphic rock sequences exposed on the island of margarita venezuela located in the southeastern corner of the caribbean plate margin are composed of a high pressure lowtemperature hp lt nucleus subducted to at least 50 km depth now structurally overlain by lower grade greenschist facies units lacking any sign of high pressure subduction zone metamorphism the hp lt nucleus involves protoliths of both oceanic metabasalts and intimately associated carbonaceous schists of the la rinconada unit peridotite massifs and continental affinity metapelites marbles and gneisses of the juan griego unit all hp lt units were joined together prior to the peak of high pressure metamorphism as shown by their matching metamorphic pressure temperature evolution the metamorphic grade attained produced barroisite as the regional amphibole glaucophane is not known from margarita contrary to a widely propagated assumption there are no major nappe structures post dating

the ecology of living stained deep sea benthic foraminifera from the sulu sea the distribution of living rose bengal stained deep sea benthic foraminifera was determined in the upper 20 cm of sediments of eight soutar box cores taken from two depth transects 510 4515 m in the thermospheric 10 c sulu sea despite the uniformity of bottom water temperatures salinities and dissolved oxygen levels below 1000 m significant faunal differences exist at different depths in the low oxygen 1 25 ml l below 1000 m basin the shallowest site 510 m is dominated 10 of the calcareous fauna by cibicidoides uvigerina 150 m and bolivina 63 m while siphonina is codominant with cibicidoides and uvigerina in the 1005 m core the 2000 m cores are dominated by cibicidoides gyroidinoides and oridorsalis while cibicidoides bradyi and oridorsalis umbonatus dominate the 3000 and 4000 m cores infaunal assemblages of valvulineria mexicana are found in the sediments of the 4515 m core relatively low bottom water oxygen values do not necessarily yield typical low oxygen taxa such as bolivina uvigerina chilostomella bulimina and globobulimina changes in the abundances of these taxa in fossil assemblages have been used as indicators of changes in ancient bottom water oxygen levels but may instead reflect organic carbon contents of the sediments an examination of the vertical distributions of foraminiferal assemblages from the 63 m and 150 m fractions reveals that taxa have microhabitat preferences similar to those observed in other regions taxa found in the upper 0 to 1 cm interval epifaunal include cibicidoides wuellerstorfi and hoeglundina elegans while taxa such as chilostomella and globobulimina reach maximum abundances in subsurface sediments and have infaunal microhabitat preferences cibicidoides bradyi and o umbonatus live in sediment depths from 0 to 4 cm and have transitional preferences with both epifaunal and infaunal occurrences intrageneric differences in test morphologies including pore distribution rounded peripheries and variable spire height are observed in cibicidoides and gyroidinoides and are suggested to be related to microhabitat preferences vertical distributions of a number of taxa found in both the 63 to 150 m and 150 m fractions are similar suggesting that juveniles and adults live under similar microhabitat conditions ontogenetic changes in microhabitat preferences of most species are not observed in this study and therefore would not be expected to account for isotopic vital effects reported for some taxa in previous studies

dune dammed paleovalleys of the nebraska sand hills intrinsic versus climatic controls on the accumulation of lake and marsh sediments although running water is the dominant geomorphic agent on earth eolian processes can gain ascendancy in regions where the climate is arid vegetation is sparse and abundant sand is available for transport with climate change the boundaries between fluvial dominated and eolian dominated areas may shift although there have been few reports in the north american literature of river systems blocked by dune sand our work in the nebraska sand hills provides evidence of multiple episodes of such blockage events during prolonged arid intervals in latest pleistocene and middle holocene time eolian dune sand blocked two large valley systems in western nebraska these blockages raised the water table of the high plains aquifer as much as 25 m over an area of 7000 km2 and created over one thousand lakes wetlands far removed from the discharge points of the buried paleovalley system are strongly alkaline exceeding 250 000 mg l total dissolved solids tds relatively fresh 280 mg l tds flow through lakes are present at the distal end of the system where the gradient of the water table is steep and the cross section of the buried valley is large anomalously thick marsh and lake sediments accumulated in deep paleovalleys upstream of dune dams near the southern margin of the sand hills our cores and radiocarbon dates from blue and crescent lakes reveal their histories to be quite distinct from adjacent swan lake these differences are best explained by multiple blockage events our work explains why lakes are most abundant in the driest part of the sand hills it also provides another line of evidence for major dune activity in the sand hills region during holocene time and shows that factors other than regional climate specifically location height and hydraulic conductivity of dune dams can control the rise and fall of the ground water table and the chemistry of lakes

high rates of arc consumption by subduction processes some consequences new estimates of long term consumption of japanese and peruvian continental fore arc margins together with recent drilling data ocean drilling program on some other erosional island arcs such as izu bonin mariana or tonga allow the calculation of a mean rate of 7 3 km m y landward migration of the arc trench system on both east and west sides of the pacific basin during cenozoic time such relative arcward retreat counterbalances seaward migration of the slab hinge line to accommodate opening of the atlantic ocean retreat can thus be interpreted as a delay in seaward or retrograde migration due to upper mantle resistance to contraction of the pacific basin mass transfers in subduction zones must be reconsidered in the light of these new estimates especially the balance between net growth and loss of continental crust in recent geologic time a 50 m y period is long enough to erode the initial width of the volcanic arc and fore arc massif of any subduction zone assuming a mean trench volcanic arc landward migration of 5 km m y and a mean trench volcanic arc distance of 250 km this circumstance thus raises the question of whether the izu bonin mariana and tonga arcs are older than their reported eocene age

neural network interpretation of lwd data odp leg 170 confirms complete sediment subduction at the costa rica convergent margin abstract the internal structure of a convergent plate boundary was the focus of odp leg 170 in 1996 at the subduction zone off costa rica although the structure of the subduction zone is rather well known from seismic surveys prior to drilling of odp leg 170 it was a matter of discussion whether it is accretionary or non accretionary with a neural network approach we confirm the evidence gained during drilling of leg 170 that at least presently no lower plate sediments are transferred to the upper plate by accretion to supplement lithological information logging while drilling geophysical data have been included in this study and were interpreted in terms of lithology using a genetically trained artificial neural network

recent benthic foraminifera from the eastern south atlantic ocean dependence on food supply and water masses abstract sixty surface sediment samples from the eastern south atlantic ocean including the walvis ridge the angola and cape basins and the southwest african continental margin were analysed for their benthic foraminiferal content to unravel faunal distribution patterns and ecological preferences live stained with rose bengal and dead faunas were counted separately and then each grouped by q mode principal component analysis into seven principal faunal end members then multiple regression technique was used to correlate recent assemblages with available environmental variables and to finally differentiate between four principal groups of environmental agents acting upon the generation of benthic foraminiferal assemblages 1 seasonality of food supply and organic carbon flux rates together with oxygen content in the pore and bottom waters 2 lateral advection of deep water masses 3 bottom water carbonate corrosiveness and 4 energetic state at the benthic boundary layer and grain size composition of the substrate food supply and corresponding dissolved oxygen contents in the pore and bottom waters turned out to be the most important factors which control the distribution pattern of the recent benthic foraminifera at the continental margin in the zone of coastal upwelling and its mixing area benthic foraminiferal assemblages are dominated by stenobathic high productivity faunas characterized by elevated standing stocks low diversities and a large number of endobenthic living species at the continental shelf and upper continental slope the live assemblages are characterized by rectuvigerina cylindrica uvigerina peregrina s 1 uvigerina auberiana and rhizammina spp while the dead assemblages are characterized by cassidulina laevigata bolivina dilatata bulimina costata and b mexicana at the lower continental slope strong influence of high organic matter fluxes on the species composition is restricted to the area off the cunene river mouth where the live assemblage is dominated by uvigerina peregrina s 1 the corresponding dead assemblage by melonis barleeanum and m zaandamae in the adjacent areas of the lower continental slope the biocoenosis is characterized by reophax bilocularis and epistominella exigua which becomes dominant in the corresponding dead assemblage at the walvis ridge and in the abyssal angola and cape basins where organic matter fluxes are low and highly seasonal benthic foraminiferal assemblages reflect both the oligotrophic situation and the deep and bottom water mass configuration the top and flanks of the walvis ridge are inhabited by the rhizammina psammosphaera and r bilocularis live assemblages the corresponding dead assemblages are dominated by g subglobosa on the ridge top and e exigua on the flanks within the highly diverse e exigua dead assemblage several associated epibenthic species coincide with the core of nadw between about 1600 and 3700 m water depth these species include osangularia culter cibicidoides kullenbergi melonis pompilioides bolivinita pseudothalmanni and bulimina alazanensis the assemblages of the abyssal cape and angola basins are characterized by nuttallides umbonifer and a high proportion of agglutinated species these species are adapted to very low organic matter fluxes and a carbonate corrosive environment

low grade metamorphism and geotectonic setting of the macuchi formation western cordillera of ecuador the cretaceous eocene basic to intermediate marine volcanic rocks of the mucuchi formation constitute the western cordillera in northern ecuador their chemical features mostly correspond to those of tholeiitic basalts with some calc alkaline affinities and suggest an oceanic island arc setting the macuchi rocks are affected by low grade non deformative metamorphism characterized by zeolite prehnite pumpellyite and lower greenschist facies assemblages depth zonation is suggested by the downward mineral sequence i laumontite pistacitic epidote pumpellyite prehnite ii pumpellyite prehnite pistacitic epidote iii actinolite biotite pistacitic epidote chlorite this broad zonation and the chemistry of individual minerals point to an interaction between the volcanic rocks and sea water under a moderate to high thermal gradient 75 c km alteration appears to have been dependent primarily on fluid control volume pressure composition temperature and reaction kinetics which together partly overshadow the role of load pressure compositional variations of a mineral species at the scale of a contiguous flow or even at the scale of a thin section show that intensity of alteration was spatially uneven depending on rock permeability and consequently metastable equilibrium commonly exists however a progressive approximation to equilibrium as a result of p t control is shown by the mineralogy a high fo2 of the fluid phase is evident from the mineral chemistry the metamorphism of the macuchi volcanics is similar to the hydrothermal burial type produced during the development of a volcanic arc where lavas and volcanoclastics accumulated in a shallow marine environment however some of its characteristics point to a transition toward systems defined by a higher t p ratio such as those found in ocean floor metamorphism a model is proposed in which the macuchi volcanics are assigned to an oceanic island arc generated contemporaneously with a marginal basin which has opened as the outcome of progressive north south attenuation of the continental crust due to mantle diapirism

origin and paleoclimatic significance of late quaternary loess in nebraska evidence from stratigraphy chronology sedimentology and geochemistry muhs d r bettis iii e a aleinikoff j n mcgeehin j p beann j skipp g marshall b d roberts h m johnson w c benton r 2008 origin and paleoclimatic significance of late quaternary loess in nebraska evidence from stratigraphy chronology sedimentology and geochemistry gsa bulletin 120 11 12 1378 1407

optical and radiocarbon ages of stacked paleosols and dune sands in the nebraska sand hills usa abstract optical ages for eolian sands from the nebraska sand hills indicate periods of extensive eolian activity at ca 115 25 840 70 2300 240 and 3560 340 a activity was also noted at single sampling locations at ca 6180 370 8430 510 and 13110 800 a many of these ages are similar to those noted by earlier authors optical ages from samples collected within paleosols indicate shorter and possibly less extensive periods of eolian activity at approximately 1220 150 1590 110 and possibly 1950 150 a during which the paleosol sands accumulated what was originally interpreted as a single 1 2 m thick paleosol is shown by optical dating to consist of three or more welded soils developed within eolian sands with optical ages of ca 3800 240 2740 240 1560 110 and possibly 1930 140 a each of which match eolian pulses recognized elsewhere scatter in some optical ages is attributable to intersection of sand filled rodent burrows extending in outcrop 1 5 m below the contact between paleosol and overlying topset beds a 5310 360 a optical age for one probable intersected burrow provides evidence for upward or lateral transport of older sands

tobago west indies a fragment of a mesozoic oceanic island arc petrochemical evidence the pre cenozoic rocks of tobago west indies represent an exceptional cross section through a portion of a composite mesozoic arc system other parts of which may be found in the villa de cura klippe the aruba blanquilla island chain and perhaps in the western cordillera of colombia and ecuador the geochemical data from tobago presented in this paper provide a basis from which a regional view of the petrologic character of the accreted mesozoic arc of the southern caribbean mountain system can be deduced the mesozoic rocks of tobago can be divided into four main groups the north coast schist the ultramafic to mafic plutonic complex the tobago volcanic group and late mafic dykes rocks of the north coast schist served as wallrock for the plutonic volcanic dyke complex which evolved during the mid cretaceous geochemical and nd and sr isotopic data presented demonstrate the oceanic island arc character of all the pre cenozoic rocks of the island all suites span the calc alkaline and tholeiitic regions on discrimination diagrams rare earth element ree patterns for the north coast schist tobago volcanic group and plutonic suite are essentially identical and are moderately lree enriched la yb 1 1 2 7 the dykes exhibit the most unevolved ree patterns and are interpreted as most closely representative of parental liquid compositions initial nd 6 6 to 9 4 and 87 sr 86 sr 0 70303 0 70364 for all samples except north coast schist and tobago volcanic group argillites are similar in value and overall range to other oceanic island arcs limited isotopic data from argillite samples from tobago suggest an important change in the continental derived sediment contribution during mesozoic arc growth nd isotopic data from north coast schist siliceous argillite indicate virtually no continental detritus in this neocomian sediment while nd isotopic data from the tobago volcanic group argillite suggest a definite continental contribution during albian arc growth

three dimensional seismic imaging of the costa rica accretionary prism structural diversity in a small volume of the lower slope conventional two dimensional seismic reflection investigations have been generally relied upon to provide images of large to medium scale structural features in accretionary prisms we undertook a three dimensional seismic reflection survey of a small part of a prism arcward of the middle america trench off costa rica to more correctly image structure and to use the improved structural information to examine the processes of accretion this survey reveals small features with dimensions of hundreds of meters while also defining features thousands of meters in lateral extent both of which were underappreciated in conventional two dimensional data from the same area we have imaged active off scraping at the trench and both duplexing and out of sequence faulting a few kilometers arcward of the trench fault spacing and reflector geometry vary dramatically over a space of several hundred meters some of these variations are related to visible changes in morphology of the underlying oceanic basement but others are not so easily documented fault surface reflections define an architecture which may control gross fluid motion through the prism this architecture is apparently formed by duplexing and out of sequence faulting and has been maintained by periodic motion on some of the out of sequence faults the slope sediment apron records multiple phases of deformation abundant small offset reverse faults break the seafloor and indicate recent shortening of a broad region of the underlying prism a primary result of this survey is appreciation of the structural diversity across a small width of an accretionary prism

planktonic benthonic foraminiferal ratios modern patterns and tertiary applicability abstract the abundance of planktonic specimens in foraminiferal assemblages was determined in numerous bottom samples from inner neritic to deep oceanic depths along the atlantic margin of the northeastern united states the results augment previous studies in other areas that have shown a general increase in percentage of planktonic specimens in total foraminiferal bottom assemblages as water depth increases the patterns found in this area of complex shelf bathymetry and hydrography illustrate the influence on the planktonic benthonic percentages of water depth distance from shore different water mass properties and downslope movement of tests in high energy areas the patterns found in the 661 samples from the atlantic margin were compared with results from 795 stations in the gulf of mexico pacific ocean and red sea the relative abundance of planktonic specimens and water depth correlates positively in all open oceanic areas even though taxonomic composition and diversity of the faunas from different areas is variable the variation of planktonic percentages in bottom samples within most depth intervals is large so that a precise depth determination cannot be made for any given value however an approximate upper depth limit for given percentages can be estimated for open ocean environments a decrease in planktonic percentages is seen in the lower salinity and higher turbidity coastal waters of the gulf of maine planktonic percentages intermediate between the lower values in the less saline coastal waters and the higher values in the normal open oceanic conditions occur in the transitional area between the gulf of maine and the open marine atlantic ocean to the east similarly lowered values in another area of restricted oceanic circulation occur in the high salinity clear but nutrient poor waters of the gulf of aqaba off the red sea a comparison of the similarity of modern planktonic percentage values to those found in earlier tertiary assemblages was made to confirm the usefulness of this measure in the fossil record in some stratigraphic sections in upper paleocene and lower eocene strata of the eastern gulf coastal plain water depths inferred from trends and values of planktonic percentages consistently match paleobathymetry constructed from physical stratigraphic characteristics and paleogeographic relationships

sediment accretion subduction and dewatering at the base of the trench slope off costa rica a seismic reflection view of the decollement sea beam bathymetric and water gun seismic reflection data off the west coast of costa rica image the base of the trench slope its underlying structure and the behavior of a decollement surface in the presence of relief on the subducting plate a low angle landward dipping reflection marks the master decollement above which only about 80 m of a 350 m oceanic sedimentary section is offscraped and accreted to the lower trench slope a small horst block at least 9 km long 1 5 km wide and 300 m high is being obliquely subducted beneath the landward trench slope on five seismic lines the decollement rises over the horst and then descends into the next incoming graben as the fault zone maintains a specific stratigraphic level the undulating geometry of the decollement implies that the subducting grabens are not sites for sediment entrapment and subduction and that the horsts are not causing tectonic erosion of the landward trench wall substantial dewatering within the subducting sediments is documented within about 4 km of the deformation front the dewatering may favor development of bedding parallel zones of low shear strength within the subducting sediments and the master decollement may seek one of these zones

neogene block tectonics of eastern turkey and northern south america continental applications of the finite difference method continental plate boundary zones are generally wide diffuse zones of deformation within which in the upper 5 to 15 km may be recognized blocks which are bounded by fault zones within which strain is highly concentrated and along which slip rates are fairly high 2 30 m ma 1 these blocks may be irregular flakes defined by older crustal inhomogeneities of an upper brittle crust below which strain occurs in a ductile and more homogeneous lower crust with examples from the convergent plate boundary zone of eastern turkey and the southern caribbean plate boundary zone of northern south america we use plate slip rates and trends and slip rates of faults to construct block vector diagrams to deduce the sums of relative motion among block mosaics slip rates and trends of ill defined block boundaries and the extent to which blocks are internally strained

a late quaternary record of eolian silt deposition in a maar lake st michael island western alaska abstract recent stratigraphic studies in central alaska have yielded the unexpected finding that there is little evidence for full glacial late wisconsin loess deposition because the loess record of western alaska is poorly exposed and not well known we analyzed a core from zagoskin lake a maar lake on st michael island to determine if a full glacial eolian record could be found in that region particle size and geochemical data indicate that the mineral fraction of the lake sediments is not derived from the local basalt and is probably eolian silt deposition took place from at least the latter part of the mid wisconsin interstadial period through the holocene based on radiocarbon dating based on the locations of likely loess sources eolian silt in western alaska was probably deflated by northeasterly winds from glaciofluvial sediments if last glacial winds that deposited loess were indeed from the northeast this reconstruction is in conflict with a model derived reconstruction of paleowinds in alaska mass accumulation rates in zagoskin lake were higher during the pleistocene than during the holocene in addition more eolian sediment is recorded in the lake sediments than as loess on the adjacent landscape the thinner loess record on land may be due to the sparse herb tundra vegetation that dominated the landscape in full glacial time herb tundra would have been an inefficient loess trap compared to forest or even shrub tundra due to its low roughness height the lack of abundant full glacial eolian silt deposition in the loess stratigraphic record of central alaska may be due therefore to a mimimal ability of the landscape to trap loess rather than a lack of available eolian sediment

tectonic structure of the convergent pacific margin offshore costa rica from multichannel seismic reflection data the middle america trench between the cocos ridge and a well studied corridor off the nicoya peninsula has a more varied morphology and structure than previously reported the morphological positive features on the lower plate significantly affect the upper plate structure the cocos ridge has uplifted the margin opposite the osa peninsula northwest of cocos ridge numerous seamounts on the oceanic crust sculptured the margin as they subducted a seamount and a huge slump in the trench axis that currently block lateral sediment transport affect the sediment currently accreted and subducted the greater portion of the trench sediment is subducted beneath a lower slope accretionary mass beneath the middle and upper slope is a margin wedge consisting of a high velocity rock with few internal reflections its upper surface has a nondirectional random relief commonly 500 m high in the middle slope area overlying this surface is a low velocity cover of slope sediment which shows little transgressive stratigraphy and can be traced landward into an inferred eocene section beneath the shelf the shelf basement is composed of nicoya complex ophiolite with the same acoustic velocity similar structure and no apparent dividing geologic boundary with the margin wedge we favor a seaward continuation of the nicoya complex to the middle slope and emphasize the evidence for a non steady state tertiary tectonic history

geological history of the cretaceous ophiolitic complexes of northwestern south america colombian andes abstract the western cordillera of colombia was formed by intense alpine type nappe forming folding and thrusting the cretaceous 80 120 ma b p tholeiitic material of the western cordilleran nappes has been obducted onto the paleozoic and precambrian polymetamorphic micaschists and gneiss of the central cordillera near yarumal the antioquia batholith 60 80 ma b p intrudes both obducted cretaceous oceanic material and the polymetamorphic basement rock of the central cordillera therefore nappe emplacement and obduction onto the central cordillera occurred during late senonian to early paleocene the nappes travelled from northwest to southeast so that the highest unit the rio calima nappe therefore has the most northwestern source whereas the lowest units originated from a more southeastward direction sedimentological analysis of the volcanoclastic and sandy turbidite material from each unit suggests a marginal marine environment during cretaceous times the opening of this marginal sea from now on called the colombia marginal basin probably originated by detachment of a block from the south american continent related to the farallon south america plate convergence in the popayan area southern colombia the central cordilleran basement exhibits glaucophane schist facies metamorphism this high pressure low temperature metamorphism is of early cretaceous 125 ma b p age and is related to an undated metaophiolitic complex the ophiolitic material originating from the western cordilleran is thrust over both the blueschist belt and the metaophiolitic complex these data suggest that the occidente colombiano suffered at least two phases of ophiolitic obduction during mesozoic time

sources and paleoclimatic significance of holocene bignell loess central great plains usa abstract this paper reexamines the stratigraphy sources and paleoclimatic significance of holocene bignell loess in the central great plains a broadly similar sequence of loess depositional units and paleosols was observed in thick bignell loess sections up to 300 km apart suggesting that these sections record major regional changes in the balance between dust deposition and pedogenesis new optical ages together with previously reported radiocarbon ages indicate bignell loess deposition began 9000 11 000 yr ago and continued into the late holocene some bignell loess is

geological survey of canada s contributions to understanding the composition of glacial sediments drift compositional studies were initiated at the geological survey of canada gsc in the mid 1960 s in projects that drew heavily on the technology and approaches developed in fennoscandia over the previous century as this research progressed and expanded in the 1970 s its fennoscandian character diminished and like the geochemical exploration research program that it closely paralleled drift prospecting began to acquire a distinctly canadian character imposed by the geographical and logistical constraints of climate and asymmetric population distribution gsc research has increasingly focused on understanding and explaining the geochemical expression of the mineralogical composition of glacial sediments that are unaltered or only slightly altered by postdepositional weathering because glacial sediments are generated largely by crushing and abrasion their various mineral and lithological components attain characteristic size modes based on physical properties such as cleavage and hardness this s

high mg extrusive rocks from the romeral zone ophiolites in the southewestern colombian andes abstract in the southwestern colombian andes high mg extrusive rocks occur within the mesozoic late cretaceous ophiolitic fragments from the romeral fault zone a major suture between the continental domain of the central cordillera and the oceanic domain of the western cordillera the high mg rocks include picrites and picritic basalts and are associated in places with peridotites showing transitional to extrusive textures plagioclase free picrites characterized by quench textures have been found in two localities and occur as pillow lava rio boloblanco or as clasts of monogenic and polygenic volcanic breccias el encenillo they show similar olivine phyric micro spinifex textures with groundmass consisting of hopper and plate olivine or ca poor pyroxene at el encenillo skeletal clinopyroxene and glass hyaloporphyritic texture occurs in the rio boloblanco picrites at pillow rims chemically these picrites are characterized by mgo contents of 20 and are distinguished by the content of tio 2 and incompatible elements in a high ti type rio boloblanco and a very high ti type el encenillo the latter particularly remarkable for the high contents of ti zr and nb which give evidence of an alkaline tendency phase chemistry is consistently different between the two picrite types but comparably high al contents up to 14 of skeletal pyroxenes suggest that the magmas were erupted and cooled in similar conditions olivine phyric picritic rocks characterized by microlitic non quenched groundmasses occur as clasts of volcanic breccias at el encenillo picritic basalts and are present with comparatively high frequency within major los azules and minor upper chapungo valley ophiolitic fragments from the romeral zone either as lavas and volcanigenic breccias these rocks are mostly richer in olivine than the quench textured picrites contain modal plagioclase and relatively low al pyroxenes as regards chemistry a high ti and very low al group los azules upper chapungo valley and a very high ti group el encenillo can also be distinguished within these picrites a comparison with the ultramafic volcanic rocks from gorgona island in the nearby pacific domain off colombia among which the unique phanerozoic komatiites were discovered indicates close similarities between the rio boloblanco picrites and some gorgona island komatiites olivine phyric komatiites with micro spinifex groundmass regarding their petrochemical features it is suggested that they record a unique event related to the same tectonic environment and consequently that they belong to the same structural unit developed in the late cretaceous and extending from continental colombia to the pacific domain this is in contrast with previous subdivisions of the ophiolitic complexes from southwestern colombia into distinct age groups progressively younger from the central cordillera toward the pacific ocean

the nature origin and accumulation of loess abstract loess can be defined simply as a terrestrial clastic sediment composed predominantly of silt size particles which is formed essentially by the accumulation of wind blown dust there are three fundamental requirements for its formation 1 a sustained source of dust 2 adequate wind energy to transport the dust and 3 a suitable accumulation site most loess has been modified to some degree by local reworking bioturbation and syn depositional weathering but a process of loessification is not necessary for a dust deposit to qualify as loess the terms primary loess and secondary loess have previously been used to described wind deposited loess and redeposited loess respectively but it is more accurate to describe material reworked and redeposited by non aeolian processes as loess derived colluvium or loess derived alluvium during the quaternary loess formed in three main situations 1 mid continental shield areas beyond the limits of ice sheets periglacial loess 2 on the margins of high mountain ranges perimontane loess and 3 on the semi arid margins of some lowland deserts peridesert loess peridesert loess is relatively poorly developed partly due to the limited efficiency of silt generating mechanisms in low land deserts compared with glaciation but also important is the tendency in arid areas for dust to be dispersed over a wide area and to be rapidly reworked after deposition particularly in areas which experience frequent climatic changes the remarkably thick loess of china and central asia results from an unusual combination of conditions which has persisted for much of the last 2 3 million years namely rapid uplift of the tibetan plateau and surrounding mountain ranges high rates of sediment production and supply to adjacent basins a strong northwesterly and westerly wind regime and the existence of effective dust traps downwind of the source regions

cretaceous and tertiary terrane accretion in the cordillera occidental of the andes of ecuador new field geochronological geochemical and biostratigraphical data indicate that the central and northern parts of the cordillera occidental of the andes of ecuador comprise two terranes the older pallatanga terrane consists of an early to late cretaceous oceanic plateau suite late cretaceous marine turbidites derived from an unknown basaltic to andesitic volcanic source and a tectonic melange of probable late cretaceous age the younger macuchi terrane consists of a volcanosedimentary island arc sequence derived from a basaltic to andesitic source a previously unidentified regionally important dextral shear zone named the chimbo toachi shear zone separates the two terranes regional evidence suggests that the pallatanga terrane was accreted to the continental margin the already accreted cordillera real in campanian times producing a tectonic melange in the suture zone the macuchi terrane was accreted to the pallatanga terrane along the chimbo toachi shear zone during the late eocene probably in a dextral shear regime the correlation of cretaceous rocks and accretionary events in the cordillera occidental of ecuador and colombia remains problematical but the late eocene event is recognised along the northern andean margin

benthic foraminiferal assemblage response to the onset of northern hemisphere glaciation paleoenvironmental changes and species trends in the northeast atlantic abstract the response of the benthic foraminiferal community in the northeast atlantic to the late pliocene onset of northern hemisphere glaciation was investigated using closely spaced samples from dsdp ipod site 548 factor analysis of quantitative species abundance data shows that the replacement of aglobocassidulina subglobosa assemblage first bybulimina mexicana and then bymelonis uvigerina dominated assemblages accompanied the onset of glaciation also the benthic assemblages became much more variable with progressive climatic deterioration in order to examine benthic foraminifera species responses to changing paleoenvironmental variables measurements of planktonic foraminifera species abundances benthic foraminifera stable isotope values and sediment grain size and composition were made the planktonic data and oxygen isotope values were used to quantify paleoclimatic changes and changes in bottom water properties the sediment analyses were used to quantify changes in the substrate and a combination of planktonic assemblage data and benthic carbon isotope values were used to estimate changes in food supply surface ocean productivity canonical correlation analysis of the species data and the independent paleoenvironmental indicators shows a strong relationship between planktonic assemblage diversity and the long term benthic trend of assemblage replacement this trend could be a response to changing bottom water properties but it might also reflect increasing food supply at the sea bed in addition the benthic assemblages show a strong relationship to changes in the carbonate content of the sediments this latter fluctuates due to varying terrigenous input changes in substrate at site 548 may influence the benthic foraminiferal assemblage there remains however a significant fraction of species abundance variability particularly in theuvigerina species that cannot be explained with the paleoenvironmental indicators used in this study

the andean ophiolitic megastructures on the buga buenaventura transverse western cordillera valle colombia abstract a structural study of the buga buenaventura transverse in the central part of the western cordillera of colombia has shown the presence of three structural units which from bottom to top and from west to east are the rio dagua unit the rio calima unit and the loboguerrero window unit all three units comprise strata between 120 and 80 m y old overlying a basement of green rocks showing the characteristics of submarine flows the bolivar ultrabasic and basic massif is geographically linked to the rio calima unit in which green rocks predominate and is separated from it by a tectonic contact the upper part of the massif on the other hand shows high temperature metamorphic rocks formed during its emplacement the rio dagua unit shows two tectonic phases with isoclinal folding and development of schistosity the first phase is contemporaneous with low grade metamorphism equivalent to lower greenschist facies conditions the loboguerrero window unit shows a large recumbent fold oriented towards the southeast deformation in the rio calima unit is weaker and appears to correspond to a higher structural level than in the two other units as the attitudes of the s1 schistosity in the rio dagua unit and of the shear zones located at the green rocks sediments contact in this same unit are similar to that of the overthrust at the base of the rio calima unit we are led to postulate that the overthrust belongs to the first phase of deformation as also does the recumbent fold in the loboguerrero window unit we are thus led to propose a southeastward direction of emplacement for the nappes in the western cordillera of colombia in conclusion the authors extend their observations and propose a new structural interpretation of the occidente colombiano

structure of the costa rica convergent margin offshore nicoya peninsula we present the results of a seismic refraction survey conducted offshore costa rica near the nicoya peninsula a dip profile and three strike profiles were carried out over 22 ocean bottom hydrophones and seismographs and were also recorded by land receivers these data are used to construct a crustal structure model of the convergent margin from 20 km seaward of the middle america trench onto the nicoya peninsula the best constrained portion of our model is the velocity at the top of the margin wedge immediately below the slope apron velocities increase from 3 5 to 4 2 to 4 6 km s at distances of 10 20 and 30 50 km landward of the trench these velocities are higher than observed within margin wedges at other well studied convergent margins but lower than the velocities within the adjacent nicoya complex which are 5 5 km s at similar depths below the surface we interpret the margin wedge velocities as indicating that material similar to the nicoya complex extends seaward to near the lower slope but that fracturing alteration or accretion processes have lowered the velocity of the margin wedge with respect to the nicoya complex the seismic refraction data cannot constrain the exact thickness or velocity of a possible low velocity zone lvz overlying the subducting plate however geologically reasonable structures are only produced with a lvz 400 m thick velocities in the upper part of oceanic layer 2 are 3 5 4 0 km s within the subducting slab these velocities are unusually low for oceanic crust of this age and may correlate with a proposed highly permeable zone at the top of the subducting crust the top of the subducted slab is well resolved and deepens from 5 km depth at the trench to 15 16 km depth at the nicoya peninsula coastline the dip angle of the subducting plate increases from 6 to 13 at a distance of 30 km from the trench interplate seismicity appears to become common 55 km from the trench where the plate boundary is at 14 km depth

origin of desert loess from some experimental observations a longstanding problem of quaternary geology has been the origin of the silty deposit known as loess of the many explanations for its formation and distribution1 2 the most commonly accepted is that the silt is produced by subglacial grinding processes1 3 4 followed by redistribution and deposition by the wind the large expanses of loess in central europe are therefore considered to be the consequence of quaternary glaciation5 there is however a view6 7 that loessic silt may also originate as the product of processes in hot deserts some proponents of the desert loess hypothesis consider that silt size material is the product of weathering processes7 which may include salt weathering8 or weathering down incipient cracks9 an alternative mechanism is aeolian attrition of sand grains although probably as a result of the experimental work of kuenen10 smalley and krinsley11 consider that only fine silt 2 6 m is produced in large quantities by the abrasion of quartz grains we have simulated aeolian attrition of angular quartz grains previously produced by weathering in deserts the products of abrasion show that both coarse and fine silt sizes are produced these findings suggest that desert aeolian processes can produce loess we also suggest that much of this material from many deserts has been deposited in the sea but that the chinese loess could have been produced in the gobi desert the finest particles produced by such attrition may be a source of silica for silcrete formation

paleostress evolution of the northern andes eastern cordillera of colombia implications on plate kinematics of the south caribbean region 1 new tectonic field data and paleostress determinations in the eastern cordillera of colombia enable us to identify stress regimes that prevailed in the northern andes since late cretaceous times until present day these regimes were characterized by an e w to wsw ene active contraction from late cretaceous to late paleocene this direction subsequently changed to nw se and finally became wnw ese during the andean tectonic phase the characteristics and relative chronology of these regimes were deduced from field structures and stratigraphic criteria using stress inversion of fault slip data sets to evaluate our model we used the rotation poles of the south america caribbean and nazca plates relative to north america and paleogeographic reconstructions of the caribbean region to derive a kinematic model of the northern andes assuming a general correspondence between the regional convergence directions and the regional compression we built a theoretical model of the regional stress regimes based on kinematics of the northwestern south america since late cretaceous times this model reveals a major variation at the end of the paleocene when relative divergence shifted to convergence between the americas this is in agreement with our tectonic model based on independent tectonic field data inversion in the eastern cordillera this regional kinematic and tectonic change which affected the caribbean at the end of the paleocene was responsible for and consistent with the major change in stress patterns and structural style in the eastern cordillera it is also coeval with the development of a major regional unconformity in colombia

change in atmospheric mineral aerosols in response to climate last glacial period preindustrial modern and doubled carbon dioxide climates desert dust simulations generated by the national center for atmospheric research s community climate system model for the current climate are shown to be consistent with present day satellite and deposition data the response of the dust cycle to last glacial maximum preindustrial modern and doubled carbon dioxide climates is analyzed only natural non land use related dust sources are included in this simulation similar to some previous studies dust production mainly responds to changes in the source areas from vegetation changes not from winds or soil moisture changes alone this model simulates a 92 33 and 60 change in dust loading for the last glacial maximum preindustrial and doubled carbon dioxide climate respectively when impacts of carbon dioxide fertilization on vegetation are included in the model terrestrial sediment records from the last glacial maximum compiled here indicate a large underestimate of deposition in continental regions probably due to the lack of simulation of glaciogenic dust sources in order to include the glaciogenic dust sources as a first approximation we designate the location of these sources and infer the size of the sources using an inversion method that best matches the available data the inclusion of these inferred glaciogenic dust sources increases our dust flux in the last glacial maximum from 2 1 to 3 3 times current deposition

current states of stress in the northern andes as indicated by focal mechanisms of earthquakes abstract systematic inversion of double couple focal mechanisms of shallow earthquakes in the northern andes reveals relatively homogeneous patterns of crustal stress in three main regions the first region presently under the influence of the caribbean plate includes the northern segment of the eastern cordillera of colombia and the western flank of the central cordillera north of 4 n it is characterized by wnw ese compression of dominantly reverse type that deflects to nw se in the merida andes of venezuela where it becomes mainly strike slip in type a major bend of the eastern thrust front of the eastern cordillera near its junction with the merida andes coincides with a local deflection of the stress regime sw ne compression suggesting local accommodation of the thrust belt to a rigid indenter in this area the second region includes the sw pacific coast of colombia and ecuador currently under the influence of the nazca plate in this area approximately e w compression is mainly reverse in type it deflects to wsw ene in the northern andes south of 4 n where it is accommodated by right lateral displacement of the romeral fault complex and the eastern front of the northern andes the third and most complex region is the area of the triple junction between the south american nazca and caribbean plates it reveals two major stress regimes both mainly strike slip in type the first regime involves sw ne compression related to the interaction between the nazca and caribbean plates and the panama micro plate typically accommodated in an e w left lateral shear zone the second regime involves nw se compression mainly related to the interaction between the caribbean plate and the north andes block which induces left lateral displacement on the uramita and romeral faults north of 4 n deep seismicity about 150 170 km concentrates in the bucaramanga nest and cauca valley areas the inversion reveals a rather homogeneous attitude of the minimum stress axis which dips towards the e this extension is consistent with the present plunge of the nazca and caribbean slabs suggesting that a broken slab may be torn under gravitational stresses in the bucaramanga nest this model is compatible with current blocking of the subduction in the western northern andes inhibiting the eastward displacement of slabs which are forced to break and sink in to the asthenosphere under their own weight

paleoproductivity from benthic foraminifera abundance glacial to postglacial change in the west equatorial pacific surface productivity is correlated with the rate of accumulation of benthic foraminifera on the deep sea floor as a rule of thumb for each 1 mg of organic carbon arriving at the sea floor one benthic foram shell 150 m is deposited the correlation can be used to reconstruct organic flux to the sea floor in the past and hence the productivity of past oceans applying the appropriate equations to box core data from the ontong java plateau in the western equatorial pacific we found that productivity during the last glacial maximum exceeded present productivity by a factor of between 1 5 and 2 0 with intermediate values for the mid transition period accumulation of benthic foraminifera was depressed on top of the plateau during the glacial and transitional period presumably because increased winnowing removed part of the food supply

melange formation by subduction erosion the case of the osa melange in southern costa rica the convergent plate margin off the osa peninsula in southern costa rica is characterized by the indentation of the cocos ridge at 4 5 ma the indentation causes the uplift of the osa melange which we interpret to represent an exhumed major channel for the transport of tectonically eroded material down into the subduction zone we present evidence that similar to the nicoya segment of the costa rica convergent margin subduction erosion rather than accretion has been the dominant process along the plate boundary the composition of the osa melange is dominated by tectonized material of the upper plate nicoya ophiolite complex basalt radiolarite limestone strong deformation is concentrated in numerous discrete shear zones and produced the layered fabric of large rock volumes which partly experienced temperatures 200 c we thus interpret the osa melange to be a product of subduction erosion at the base of the outer arc wedge structure

development of the gulf of guayaquil ecuador during the quaternary as an effect of the north andean block tectonic escape 1 interpretation of industrial multichannel seismic profiles and well data are used to identify the main tectonic features of the gulf of guayaquil gg area these include two e w trending major detachments the posorja and the jambeli detachment systems which represent half grabens with oppositely dipping detachments to the south and to the north respectively the ne sw trending puna santa clara fault system developed as a transfer fault system between the posorja and the jambeli detachments the esperanza and the jambeli basins exhibit 3 4 km of sediment that accumulated during the past 1 6 1 8 myr the puna santa clara fault system bounds the esperanza and the jambeli basins evidencing that the evolution of these basins is tightly controlled by the two detachments at depth to the west the n s trending domito fault system bounding the posorja detachment system and the esperanza basin to the west acted as a transfer zone between the shelf area and the continental slope the pliocene series show no significant variations in thickness throughout the gulf of guayaquil area suggesting that no important tectonic deformation occurred from 5 2 to 1 8 1 6 ma the major period of tectonic deformation in the gulf of guayaquil area occurred during the pleistocene times three main tectonic steps are identified from early pleistocene to 180 ka major subsidence occurred along the esperanza and jambeli basins from 180 to 140 ka most of the gulf of guayaquil area was above sea level during the isotope substage 6 low stand from 140 ka to present tectonic activity is restricted along the normal faults bounding the esperanza basin the tenguel fault and the puna santa clara and domito fault systems a n s trending tensional stress regime characterizes the pleistocene times throughout the northward drifting of the north andean block is proposed to control the tectonic evolution and associated subsidence of the gulf of guayaquil area it is also accepted that the collision of the carnegie ridge with the trench axis has to play a major role in controlling the north andean block northward drift because the carnegie ridge subduction is possibly an ongoing process which began prior to the pliocene we postulate the along strike morphology of the ridge at the origin of interplate coupling variations the subduction of an along strike positive relief of the ridge is proposed at the origin of the major tectonic reorganization of the gg area occurring at 1 8 1 6 ma

seismic attenuation in the costa rica margin wedge amplitude modeling of ocean bottom hydrophone data abstract travel time and amplitude modeling were carried out on data recorded by three ocean bottom seismometers along two strike profiles located 10 20 km landward of the middle america trench offshore costa rica these two profiles bracket a region of rapid change in physical properties and structural styles the travel time modeling indicates little structural change along the profiles and therefore the data are suitable for amplitude modeling with the reflectivity method for the profile 10 km from the trench amplitude modeling indicates a margin wedge with velocities of 4 4 4 km s and qp 25 50 for the profile 20 km from the trench the amplitude modeling indicates a margin wedge with velocities of 4 4 4 8 km s and qp 50 75 the primary new result of this analysis is the constraint that qp 25 75 within the margin wedge at both locations these high attenuation values are consistent with fracturing of the material making up the margin wedge either ophiolitic nicoya complex rocks dewatered and cemented sediments or a tectonic mixture of both

seamount ridge and transform subduction in southern central america understanding the factors that control subduction zone processes is a first order goal in the study of convergent margins in southern central america a growing body of research reveals strong links between the character of the subducting slab and the mechanics of important processes that include subduction erosion fluid flow deformation and seismogenesis in this paper i evaluate the role that seamount ridge and transform subduction have in the development of upper plate deformation and volcanism by summarizing previous work across a 500 km long region of central america where each of these three scenarios are present along strike the data show that the subduction of short wavelength bathymetry e g seamounts and faults on the seafloor produces short wavelength deformation that persists for relatively short timescales 104 105 years whereas the subduction of longer wavelength bathymetry e g the aseismic cocos ridge results in longer wavelength deformation that endures over a longer time scale 106 years the timing and distribution of upper plate deformation are consistent with subhorizontal cocos ridge subduction driving upper plate deformation and the increased crustal thickness 20 km of the subducting cocos ridge is likely one of the most important factors in the production of upper plate contraction and crustal thickening the data illustrate a fundamental connection between lower plate properties and upper plate deformation and highlight the profound influence that bathymetry and crustal thickness have in the localization and kinematics of upper plate strain and volcanism in middle america

chinese loess record of monsoon climate during the last glacial interglacial cycle the thick loess paleosol succession of central china contains a detailed record of changes in east asian monsoon climate since the late miocene epoch the alternating loess paleosol stratigraphy closely resembles the marine oxygen isotope record implying that episodic dust deposition and pedogenesis are in phase with global ice volume fluctuations and controlled by variations in solar radiation reaching the land surface deposits equivalent to marine isotope stages mis 5 through 1 have been dated by 14c 10be luminescence and magnetic susceptibility and grain size models malan loess mis 4 2 decreases in thickness southeastward from 30 m in the western loess plateau to 5 m east of xi an downwind asian dust is found in japan the north pacific ocean and the greenland ice sheet where it has a chemical signature that points to a primary source in western china during glacial times the mean dust flux in the central loess plateau reached 0 35 mm year whereas in interglacial times it fell to 0 1 mm year times of high dust influx and reduced soil development coincided with strengthened winter monsoon conditions which are inferred from variations in loess grain size times of decreased dust accumulation and strong pedogenesis marked by high values of magnetic susceptibility represent times of strengthened summer monsoon conditions high frequency fluctuations in dust influx during deposition of the malan loess include peaks that likely correlate with north atlantic heinrich events the younger dryas oscillation is recorded in chinese eolian and organic deposits by a shift from cool humid late glacial conditions to cold and dry conditions followed by a return to milder humid climate at the beginning of the holocene warm moist climate associated with a strong summer monsoon characterized the first half of the holocene epoch when a widespread paleosol complex developed on the loess plateau increased dust deposition during the middle to late holocene marked a shift to cooler drier conditions

quaternary aeolian dust processes and sediments in the australian region abstract aeolian dust processes have played an important role in the evolution of the australian landscape yet little is known of the processes and their sediments two major dust transport pathways are described based upon paleo dune patterns and present day dust storms and related processes these dust pathways have been fed by alluvium deposited in internally draining river basins during the period leading up to and including the late pleistocene aridity rates of dust entrainment transport and deposition were significantly higher than at present the ocean sediments of the tasman sea the pacific and indian oceans received massive amounts of aeolian sediment dust contributions to some australian soils have also been considerable

subsidence and extension at a convergent plate margin evidence for subduction erosion off costa rica subduction erosion rather than subduction accretion is proposed as the dominant process currently occurring at the nicoya segment of the convergent plate margin off costa rica based on new results from odp drilling cores and our interpretations of published seismic data we present a tectonic model of subsidence and extension due to tectonic erosion of the forearc wedge and landward migration of the nicoya coastline high seismic velocities in the outermost part of the forearc wedge off the nicoya peninsula below the boss bottom of slope sediment reflector indicate the seaward continuation of the nicoya ophiolite complex into the basement of the forearc wedge odp site 1042 revealed neritic sediment that points to strong subsidence of the forearc basement progradation of the sedimentary succession and landward migration of the coastline tilted block structures are explained by substantial fore arc extension in our interpretation the removal of material from the base of the forearc wedge by the process of basal subduction erosion leads to progressive subsidence and thus to landward migration of the coastline landward shift of the active volcano chain in the same order of magnitude as the coastline migration is consistent with this interpretation

mechanisms of loess sized quartz silt production and their relative effectiveness laboratory simulations the production of loess sized quartz silt is frequently ascribed to glacial grinding mechanisms in this study a series of laboratory simulations was set up the purpose of which was to demonstrate that a range of geomorphic mechanisms are capable of producing silt under laboratory conditions the geomorphic mechanisms investigated were aeolian abrasion fluvial comminution glacial grinding salt weathering and frost weathering the results confirmed that under laboratory conditions all of these mechanisms were capable of producing silt the relative effectiveness of these mechanisms at producing silt under laboratory conditions was then calculated in order to provide a starting point for a consideration of their potential effectiveness within the natural environment these results indicate that fluvial and aeolian activity are highly effective at producing quartz silt over short time periods in a dust storm of four days duration 287 g of silt could potentially be produced from every kilogram of sand entrained while fluvial comminution in a turbulent fluvial environment could potentially produce 900 g of silt from every kilogram of sand entrained within 32 h over longer periods of time the glacial grinding and weathering mechanisms represent more continuous and hence more effective silt producing mechanisms although it is realised that the relative importance of each silt producing mechanism will differ spatially and temporally due to differences in climate relief geology and geomorphic history the findings from this work do have implications for the genesis of loess deposits they demonstrate that glacial and cold weathering processes are not solely responsible for fine particle formation and that efficient silt producing mechanisms can operate within a variety of environments under suitable conditions weathering together with episodic contributions from aeolian and fluvial mechanisms could be responsible for a considerable proportion of global quartz silt production

the geologic history of the caribbean cocos plate boundary with special reference to the nicoya ophiolite complex costa rica and d s d p results legs 67 and 84 off guatemala a synthesis abstract the pre upper senonian basement of costa rica crops out in the santa elena and nicoya peninsulas from south to north and from base to top the basement includes the esperanza matapalo and santa elena units the esperanza unit is albian santonian in age and consists mainly of pillow basalt and massive basalt flows the matapalo unit includes callovian to cenomanian radiolarite and includes massive basalt flows basalt and dolerite basement the santa elena unit contains ultramafic and mafic rocks in which harzburgite is the major component the most important tectonic features of the nicoya complex are the large santa elena and matapalo nappes nappe emplacement was from north to south during upper santonian time the sedimentary cover of the nicoya complex comprises 1 1 the campanian el viejo formation that consists of shallow water sediments in the north santa elena peninsula and the campanian maastrichtian sabana grande formation of deep water origin in the south nicoya peninsula 2 2 paleocene strata indicating deposition in a deep water environment comprises the rivas las palmas and samara formations 3 3 a post upper eocene sequence that consists of the shallow water barra honda and montezuma formations two unconformities are significant geological features of the upper senonian to tertiary history of costa rica the lower one is at the base of the sabana grande formation and marks a major change in the geologic conditions basalt is scarce in the campanian tertiary series the upper unconformity at the base of the barra honda and montezuma formations is not as major as the lower one during post campanian time normal faulting occurred in two stages separated by a strong erosional phase the geology of the landward slope of the adjacent middle america trench is outlined by interpreting multifold seismic reflection records off the west coast of costa rica and the dsdp legs 67 and 84 transects off guatemala the western caribbean plate boundary may have been under extensional stress for the last 75 m y the strong landward dipping reflectors of the middle america trench landward slope off guatemala could be equivalent to the on land pre campanian overthrusts of costa rica the available data are consistent with the convergent extensional margin concept

cretaceous basaltic terranes in western colombia elemental chronological and sr nd isotopic constraints on petrogenesis accreted terranes comprising mid to late cretaceous picrites basalts and dolerites occur in three north south trending belts in western colombia in the central cordillera western cordillera and along the pacific coast the geochemistry of these rocks is consistent with an oceanic plateau plume related origin and they most probably formed in the pacific as part of the caribbean oceanic plateau these igneous rocks display small but significant inter cordillera variations being younger and more depleted in incompatible trace element ratios and with more positive end values to the west the igneous rocks of the pacific coast serrania de baudo are dated at 73 78 ma 40ar 39ar and those of the western cordillera at 90 ma whereas the volcanics of the central cordillera are believed to be older than 100 ma most of the igneous rocks are basaltic and it is suggested that they have fractionated from picritic primary magmas generated by partial melting within a hot mantle plume variable and positive end values reveal that the plume must have been heterogeneous originating from a mantle source with a long term history of depletion partial melt modelling suggests that the composition of the basalts requires at least some input from a mantle source region containing garnet and that the extent of partial melting required to reproduce the composition of the erupted basalts is of the order of 20 mixing of melts from different depths either in the mantle melting column or during fractionation in lithospheric magma chambers can explain the relative homogeneity of basaltic lavas erupted to form this and other oceanic plateaux the caribbean colombian oceanic plateau may have formed at an oceanic spreading centre and valuable comparisons can be made between iceland and the caribbean colombian plateau

ophiolite complex from la tetilla southwestern colombia south america a disrupted ophiolitic complex of cretaceous age from the romeral fault zone in the southwestern colombian andes occurs in the la tetilla area near popayan it represents a peculiar association of low ti and high ti tholeiitic basalts among the ophiolitic complexes from the romeral zone it includes 1 a main sequence with incipient metamorphism under prehnite pumpellyite to greenschist facies conditions consisting in ascending order of cumulus wehrlite and gabbro massive gabbro and basaltic and doleritic lavas and breccias the basalts are characterized by the crystallization of clinopyroxene prior to plagioclase cpx phyric basalt group and have a primitive low ti tholeiite composition mg numbers between 70 6 and 65 4 the clinopyroxene chemistry is consistent with this magmatic affinity the plutonic rocks can be related to a similar low ti tholeiitic magma 2 a sequence of pervasively metamorphosed basalts with greenschist facies metamorphism of oceanic type structurally underlies the mai

benthic foraminiferal distribution and sedimentary structures suggest tectonic erosion at the costa rica convergent plate margin distribution patterns of benthic foraminiferal faunas from odp leg 170 sites 1041 and 1042 show that the costa rican convergent margin subsided from coastal to abyssal depth from middle miocene to present this favours the model of a margin undergoing active subduction erosion we propose that subduction erosion leads to the removal of material from the base of the forearc wedge and as a consequence to progressive subsidence of the forearc a mean subsidence rate is estimated to be approximately 0 4 mm yr 1

metamorphic pattern of the cretaceous celica formation sw ecuador and its geodynamic implications abstract the volcanic rocks of the cretaceous celica formation of southern ecuador are affected by a weak although widespread alteration the chemical study of the secondary chemical phases present in andesitic and basaltic lava flows reveals that this alteration corresponds to very low grade metamorphism comprising the zeolite and the prehnite pumpellyite facies main features of this metamorphism are weak lithostatic pressure moderate to steep thermal gradient high o 2 low value of the seawater rock ratio and total absence of deformation these characteristics are typically present in other volcanic suites of similar age and composition along the andes and correspond to the pattern of metamorphism developed in extensional settings diastathermal metamorphism linked to various degrees of thinning of the continental crust based on this metamorphic pattern a geodynamic model is proposed in which the celica formation is interpreted as an ensialic aborted marginal basin developed on strongly attenuated continental crust at the border of the south american plate the relationship between the ecuadorian and colombian volcanic suites of cretaceous age present along the western cordillera is discussed in the light of the model suggested

substratum transverse faults in kuqa foreland basin northwest china and their significance in petroleum geology abstract the importance of transverse faults in basin evolution and petroleum geology has been often emphasized however the transverse faults in the kuqa foreland basin the most important gas producing area in china have rarely been studied interpreted seismic sections and earthquake focal mechanism solutions as well as other geological and geophysical data allow us to identify a few widely spaced approximately ns trending transverse strike slip faults separating major structural units and to clarify the geometry and kinematics of these transverse faults hidden below thrust faults in the kuqa foreland basin two major structural domains can be distinguished transverse faults in the northern kuqa foreland basin are mainly nne trending sinistral indicating clockwise rotation of fault bounded blocks in contrast the predominant nw trending dextral faults in the southern kuqa foreland basin imply counterclockwise rotation of fault bounded blocks we propose a tectonic model in which crustal blocks are bounded by strike slip faults in a zone of simple shear rotation about vertical axis the strike slip faulting and thrust faulting in the kuqa foreland basin suggest that some of the convergence between south tianshan and tarim blocks may have been accommodated not only by obvious crustal shortening and thickening along thrust faults but also by rotation and possible lateral movement of the crust along transverse faults controlled by the remote collision of indian block with eurasian block since the miocene these reactivated substratum faults which may inherit from paleozoic deformation control various elements relevant to gas accumulation in the kuqa foreland basin which should expect to be paid more attention in the future these elements include maturity of tertiary and jurassic source rocks a difference in the regional cap of kumugelimu salt beds from east to west reservoir bed properties gas migration channels and traps formation in addition the strike slip faulting of the transverse faults may affect deformation of the sedimentary cover including making the western qiulitag structural belt to form an arcuated structure curved to the ssw

evidence and mechanisms for forearc extension at the accretionary costa rica convergent margin seismic reflection data across the upper trench slope off the nicoya peninsula costa rica reveal a wide zone of nearly trench parallel normal faults although work in the last decade has shown that normal faults are present at many convergent margins most examples e g japan peru chile and guatemala have been associated with margins experiencing subduction erosion or non accretion in contrast extension in the costa rica study area apparently is coeval with frontal accretion and underplating the normal faults across the costa rica forearc are striking in seismic section due to the well layered 2 km thick upper slope apron fault plane reflections and reflector terminations show that the faults extend through the sedimentary apron and apparently into the underlying accretionary prism indicating a deep seated deformation process the zone of extension is from the midslope area to within 10 km of the shelf edge a minimum width of about 20 km the estimated extension across the zone is at least 1 5 to 3 km within the apron section spacing between the faults is generally 200 500 m and nominal fault dip is 20 40 and predominantly landward activity on the normal faults appears to have occurred over a significant period of time based on increased displacement with depth and on fault controlled sedimentary thickening at least some of the faults may be presently active shallow reflectors and possibly the seafloor are displaced by faulting contemporary sediment accretion is documented by the same seismic reflection profiles showing offscraping and underplating near the toe of the wedge and out of sequence thrusting primarily below the midslope area the consistent landward normal fault dip may be influenced by structural anisotropy in the prism and possible extensional reactivation of earlier thrust faults associated with accretion processes with the available data it is not possible to conclusively determine the cause of the stress field leading to the upper prism and apron extension however the three most likely causes are underplating changes in basal shear stress or a brief episode of subduction erosion

formation of quartz silt during humid tropical weathering of dune sands abstract quartz dune sand grains in northeast australia break down in situ under humid tropical weathering conditions to form substantial amounts of silt fragmentation appears to occur primarily due to silica solution along microfractures and dislocation structures in grains which have experienced tectonic deformation prior to deposition the surface textures of quartz grains viewed with the sem exhibit a close dependency on crystallographic properties in the b and c horizons of some weathered late pleistocene dunes silt forms up to 10 of the bulk sediment local remobilisation of such deposits by wind allows selective removal of the silt which is later deposited as a thin surficial sheet in more sheltered areas downwind these observations provide further evidence that weathering processes provide a major mechanism of silt formation and are an important factor to be considered in relation to the origin of loess and siltstones

the miocene of the hatay area s turkey transition from the arabian passive margin to an underfilled foreland basin related to closure of the southern neotethys ocean abstract miocene sediments of the hatay area document the distal southerly part of an underfilled peripheral foreland basin related to the closure of the southern neotethys the basin is underlain by latest cretaceous and eocene shallow marine carbonates interpreted as the youngest part of the arabian passive margin succession unconformably overlying lower miocene conglomerates sandstones and palaeosols up to 250 m thick represent braided river deposits derived from an uplifted area to the south during the middle miocene carbonate sediments accumulated in a variety of shallow marine environments dominated by a northward sloping ramp with non marine peritidal lagoonal and coral reef deposition in local areas the upper miocene succession is mainly deeper water hemipelagic marl with clastic interbeds messinian evaporites were deposited near the depocentre the early miocene coarse fluvial sediments above the regional unconformity reflect the development of a flexural bulge or re activated basement structure the middle miocene carbonates and upper miocene marls are interpreted as the lower and middle units of an underfilled trinity considered typical of peripheral foreland basins similar lower miocene coarse clastic sediments and mid miocene shallow water carbonates unconformably overlie the arabian platform succession c 75 km to the north where the succession continues upwards into thick shallow marine to non marine terrigenous sediments upper unit of the trinity sourced from the overthrust load comparable coarse clastic sediments are absent from the distal foreland basin in the hatay area probably reflecting its more southerly position structural barriers in the foreland and the westward bypassing of sediment towards the mediterranean sea regional convergence halted by the end of the miocene and was followed by strike slip and westward tectonic escape as a result the miocene foreland basin was dismembered to form the plio quaternary transtensional hatay graben this like many other foreland basins shows some features which are not accommodated by ideal models of foreland basin evolution

crustal structure of the middle american trench off costa rica from wide angle seismic data off costa rica seismic wide angle experiments were made using marine seismic sources of high shot density and ocean bottom hydrophones obh and land stations for recording three profiles perpendicular to the middle american trench mat and one parallel to it are presented here the coverage from closely spaced obh and structural constraints from the coincident near vertical reflection seismic survey provided detailed velocity depth distributions over 4 0 km s velocities were found directly underlying the thick continental margin sediment in a margin wedge that extends from below the coastal area seaward within 10 km from the mat axis the interpretation of the wide angle data required a low velocity zone lvz between the upper and lower plate indicating its nature as subducted and underplated sediment the velocity depth distributions support the hypothesis that the continental margin wedge off costa rica is most likely an offshore extension of the nicoya complex ophiolitic rocks which are exposed along the coast the subduction of the sediments seems very efficient and the accretionary prism appears to be confined to the lower slope

response of northern indian ocean deep sea benthic foraminifera to global climates during pliocene pleistocene abstract the northern indian ocean dsdp site 214 benthic foraminifera have been examined quantitatively to understand their response to the global climatic events and to determine the history of bottom water circulation in the northern indian ocean during pliocene pleistocene uvigerina spp cibicides kullenbergi c wuellerstorfi globocassidulina pacifica g subglobosa oridorsalis umbonatus and bulimina alazanensis are the dominant members of the benthic assemblage and reveal significant changes in distribution patterns based on benthic foraminiferal frequency changes four intervals of major faunal and climatic turnover have been recognized at 5 2 5 1 ma 3 9 3 2 ma 3 2 3 1 ma and 3 1 0 6 ma the interval between 5 2 5 1 ma is marked by widespread antarctic glaciation deep sea hiatuses bottom water cooling increased upwelling high sedimentation rates highest uvigerina abundances and intensified bottom water circulation during 3 9 3 2 ma the bottom waters were warmer and bottom water activity waned with a sharp decline in uvigerina abundance and increase in cibicides the interval between 3 2 3 1 ma was a time of bottom water cooling and coincides with a global benthic positive oxygen isotopic shift antarctic ice volume increase and possible initiation of northern hemisphere glaciation the late pliocene and pleistocene interval 3 1 recent is punctuated by major changes in benthic foraminiferal assemblages warm cold cycles major glacial interglacial intervals increase in polar ice volume and intensification of upwelling on the basis of cumulative percentages of uvigerina and cibicides nine intervals of major bottom water cooling have been inferred in the pliocene and two in the pleistocene at site 214 reflecting the major changes in bottom water circulation

unprecedented last glacial mass accumulation rates determined by luminescence dating of loess from western nebraska abstract a high resolution chronology for peoria last glacial period loess from three sites in nebraska midcontinental north america is determined by applying optically stimulated luminescence osl dating to 35 50 m quartz at bignell hill nebraska an osl age of 25 000 yr near the contact of peoria loess with the underlying gilman canyon formation shows that dust accumulation occurred early during the last glacial maximum lgm whereas at devil s den and eustis nebraska basal osl ages are significantly younger 18 000 and 21 000 yr respectively at all three localities dust accumulation ended at some time after 14 000 yr ago mass accumulation rates mars for western nebraska calculated using the osl ages are extremely high from 18 000 to 14 000 yr much higher than those calculated for any other pre holocene location worldwide these unprecedented mars coincide with the timing of a mismatch between paleoenvironmental evidence from central north america and the paleoclimate simulations from atmospheric global circulation models agcms we infer that the high atmospheric dust loading implied by these mars may have played an important role through radiative forcing in maintaining a colder than present climate over central north america for several thousand years after summer insolation exceeded present day values

a critical review of tectonic processes at continental margin orogens abstract a cordilleran type orogen has previously been defined as contractional deformation of a continental margin due to subcontinental subduction the plate tectonic setting of cordilleran type orogenesis is fundamentally different from that of collisional orogenesis intracontinental orogens such as the himalayas and alps form by collision between a continental margin and a continental margin subduction zone orogens at continental margins may form due to subcontinental subduction cordilleran type orogeny or due to collision of a continental margin with an intra oceanic subduction zone which is typically followed by a reversal of subduction polarity in the latter case collisional orogenesis may proceed along with the reversed subcontinental subduction modern arcs are mostly extensional or neutral so subduction hangingwall contraction is not a necessary consequence of subduction crustal contraction in known collisional orogens lasts for tens of millions of years so collisional deformation at a continental margin may last for tens of millions of years after arc continent collision and subduction reversal collisional orogenesis is a predictable consequence of subduction and collisional deformation is kinematically linked to the kinematics of subduction noncollisional cordilleran type orogenesis is not predicted by plate theory a geologic history that would demonstrate noncollisional orogenesis is a magmatic arc built into a passive margin sequence with strong deformation but without an earlier arc or ophiolite accretion event this history has not been recognized in the geologic record the classic examples of cordilleran type orogens including the cretaceous cenozoic of the andes and the jurassic early tertiary of the western united states may be interpreted as arc continent collisions however the youngest increments of deformation in these two orogens occurred 100 million years after the youngest collisions and are thus difficult to ascribe to collisional processes notwithstanding the long time scales these deformations occurred at the end of space time continua of probable collisional orogenies alternatively these deformations may represent lithosphere scale fault bend folding duplex folding backthrusting and or out of sequence forethrusting during shallow subduction

benthic foraminiferal response to the emergence of the isthmus of panama and coincident paleoceanographic changes abstract late cenozoic benthic foraminiferal faunas from the caribbean deep sea drilling project dsdp site 502 3052 m and east pacific dsdp site 503 3572 m were analyzed to interpret bottom water masses and paleoceanographic changes occurring as the isthmus of panama emerged major changes during the past 7 myr occur at 6 7 6 2 3 4 2 0 and 1 1 ma in the caribbean and 6 7 6 4 4 0 3 2 2 1 1 4 and 0 7 ma in the pacific prior to 6 7 ma benthic foraminiferal faunas at both sites indicate the presence of antarctic bottom water aabw after 6 7 ma benthic foraminiferal faunas indicate a shift to warmer water masses north atlantic deep water nadw in the caribbean and pacific deep water pdw in the pacific flow of nadw may have continued across the rising sill between the caribbean and pacific until 5 6 ma when the pacific benthic foraminiferal faunas suggest a decrease in bottom water temperatures after 5 6 ma deep water to intermediate water flow across the sill appears to have stopped as the bottom water masses on either side of the sill diverge the second change recorded by benthic foraminiferal faunas occurs at 3 4 ma in the caribbean and 4 0 3 2 ma in the pacific at this time the caribbean is flooded with cold aabw which is either gradually warmed or is replaced by glacial bottom water gbw at 2 0 ma and by nadw at 1 1 ma these changes are related to global climatic events and to the depth of the sill between the caribbean and atlantic rather than the rising isthmus of panama benthic foraminiferal faunas at east pacific site 503 indicate a gradual change from cold pdw to warmer pdw between 4 0 and 3 2 ma the pdw is replaced by the warmer poorly oxygenated piw at 2 1 ma although the pdw affects the faunas during colder intervals between 1 4 and 0 7 ma the piw remains the principal bottom water mass in the guatemala basin of the east pacific

constraints on inner forearc deformation from balanced cross sections fila costena thrust belt costa rica 1 the fila costena thrust belt in the forearc of costa rica is accommodating a significant portion of the convergence of the cocos plate and panama microplate geologic mapping of the thrust belt depicts a duplex with three horses that incorporate eocene limestones and oligocene to early miocene clastics inboard of the subducting cocos ridge axis by constructing a cross section at this location along a ne sw trending transect perpendicular to the thrust belt we constrain a shortening rate of approximately 40 mm a and propose that as much as 50 of the total plate convergence rate is taken up in the inner forearc the eocene limestones at the base of the thrust sheets pinch out in both directions away from the onland projection of the cocos ridge axis owing to decrease in slip on faults and a lateral ramp in the basal decollement the thrust belt terminates near the panama border at the onland projection of the subducting panama fracture zone these observations suggest that shortening is propagating to the east with the migration of the panama triple junction and the onset of shallow subduction of the thickened edge of the cocos plate the absence of similar features in the nicaraguan forearc where the subducting crust is older subducts more steeply and lacks incoming ridges and seamounts indicates that deformation of the forearc basin in costa rica reflects greater coupling between the converging plates inboard of the cocos ridge

dirtmap the geological record of dust atmospheric dust is an important feedback in the climate system potentially affecting the radiative balance and chemical composition of the atmosphere and providing nutrients to terrestrial and marine ecosystems yet the potential impact of dust on the climate system both in the anthropogenically disturbed future and the naturally varying past remains to be quantified the geologic record of dust provides the opportunity to test earth system models designed to simulate dust records of dust can be obtained from ice cores marine sediments and terrestrial loess deposits although rarely unequivocal these records document a variety of processes source transport and deposition in the dust cycle stored in each archive as changes in clay mineralogy isotopes grain size and concentration of terrigenous materials although the extraction of information from each type of archive is slightly different the basic controls on these dust indicators are the same changes in the dust flux and particle size might be controlled by a combination of a source area extent b dust emission efficiency wind speed and atmospheric transport c atmospheric residence time of dust and or d relative contributions of dry settling and rainout of dust similarly changes in mineralogy reflect a source area mineralogy and weathering and b shifts in atmospheric transport the combination of these geological data with process based forward modelling schemes in global earth system models provides an excellent means of achieving a comprehensive picture of the global pattern of dust accumulation rates their controlling mechanisms and how those mechanisms may vary regionally the dust indicators and records of terrestrial and marine palaeoenvironments dirtmap data base has been established to provide a global palaeoenvironmental data set that can be used to validate earth system model simulations of the dust cycle over the past 150 000 years