thermal histories of the core and mantle recognition that the cooling of the core is accomplished by conduction of heat into a thermal boundary layer d at the base of the mantle partly decouples calculations of the thermal histories of the core and mantle both are controlled by the temperature dependent rheology of the mantle but in different ways thermal parameters of the earth are more tightly constrained than hitherto by demanding that they satisfy both core and mantle histories we require evolution from an early state in which the temperatures of the top of the core and the base of the mantle were both very close to the mantle solidus to the present state in which a temperature increment estimated to be 800 k has developed across d the thermal history is not very dependent upon the assumption of newtonian or non newtonian mantle rheology the thermal boundary layer at the base of the mantle i e d developed within the first few hundred million years and the temperature increment across it is still increasing slowly in our preferred model the present temperature at the top of the core is 3800 k and the mantle temperature extrapolated to the core boundary without the thermal boundary layer is 3000 k the mantle solidus is 3860 k these temperatures could be varied within quite wide limits without seriously affecting our conclusions core gravitational energy release is found to have been remarkably constant at 3 1011 w nearly 20 of the core heat flux for the past 3 109 y although the total terrestrial heat flux has decreased by a factor of 2 or 3 in that time this gravitational energy can power the chemical dynamo in spite of a core heat flux that is less than that required by conduction down an adiabatic gradient in the outer core part of the gravitational energy is used to redistribute the excess heat back into the core leaving 1 8 1011 w to drive the dynamo at no time was the dynamo thermally driven and the present radioactive heating in the core is negligibly small the dynamo can persist indefinitely into the future available power 1010 y from now is estimated to be 0 3 1011 w if linear mantle rheology is assumed or more if mantle rheology is non linear the assumption that the gravitational constant decreases with time imposes an implausible rate of decrease in dynamo energy with conventional thermodynamics it also requires radiogenic heating of the mantle considerably in excess of the likely content of radioactive elements

spreading of greenland meltwaters in the ocean revealed by noble gases we present the first noble gas observations in a proglacial fjord in greenland providing an unprecedented view of surface and submarine melt pathways into the ocean using optimum multiparameter analysis noble gas concentrations remove large uncertainties inherent in previous studies of meltwater in greenland fjords we find glacially modified waters with submarine melt concentrations up to 0 66 0 09 and runoff 3 9 0 29 radiogenic enrichment of helium enables identification of ice sheet near bed melt 0 48 0 08 we identify distinct regions of meltwater export reflecting heterogeneous melt processes a surface layer of both runoff and submarine melt and an intermediate layer composed primarily of submarine melt intermediate ocean waters carry the majority of heat to the fjords glaciers and warmer deep waters are isolated from the ice edge the average entrainment ratio implies that ocean water masses are upwelled at a rate 30 times the combined glacial meltwater volume flux

isotope data from ice station weddell implications for deep water formation in the weddell sea helium isotope data 3he 4he ratios and 4he concentrations and h218o h216o ratios obtained from stations occupied during the drift of ice station weddell february to june 1992 are used together with hydrographic data to study formation of deep and bottom water in the western weddell sea the data indicate deep and bottom water formation along the entire track of the ice station 71 4 to 65 8 s 53 w ice shelf water isw seems to contribute significantly to the formation of weddell sea deep water wsdw and weddell sea bottom water wsbw in the southern part of the drift track toward the north the fraction of isw contained in wsdw wsbw decreases this trend is overlaid by high isw fractions in the deep and bottom waters found in the vicinity of the larsen ice shelf the fraction of western shelf water wsw in wsbw shows the opposite trend increasing from south to north the combined fraction of isw and wsw in waters with potential temperatures below 0 c is about 20 corresponding to a roughly 200 m thick layer overall wsw seems to contribute approximately 2 to 3 times more water than isw to the water column below the 0 c isotherm using the estimated flow of isw over the sill north of the filchner depression of 1 sv foldvik et al 1985a together with the ratio of wsw plus winter water ww to isw we calculate a value of about 5 sv for the formation rate of wsbw with a potential temperature of 0 7 c about one third of this flux represents near surface waters wsw ww which have recently been equilibrated with the atmosphere whereas pure isw contributes about 10

the distribution of glacial meltwater in the amundsen sea antarctica revealed by dissolved helium and neon the light noble gases helium he and neon ne dissolved in seawater can be useful tracers of freshwater input from glacial melting because the dissolution of air bubbles trapped in glacial ice results in an approximately tenfold supersaturation using he and ne measurements we determined for the first time the distribution of glacial meltwater gmw within the water columns of the dotson trough dt and in front of the dotson and getz ice shelves dis and gis respectively in the western amundsen sea antarctica in the austral summers of 2011 and 2012 the measured saturation anomalies of he and ne he and ne were in the range of 3 35 and 2 12 respectively indicating a significant presence of gmw throughout the dt the highest values of he 21 were observed at depths of 400 500 m corresponding to the layer between the incoming warm circumpolar deep water and the overlying winter water the high he and ne area extended outside of the shelf break suggesting that gmw is transported more than 300 km offshore the he was substantially higher in front of the dis than the gis and the highest he 31 was observed in the western part of the dis where concentrated outflow from the shelf to the offshore was observed in 2012 the calculated gmw fraction in seawater based on excess he and ne decreased by 30 40 compared with that in 2011 in both ice shelves indicating strong temporal variability in glacial melting

long term polarity stability and strength of the geomagnetic dipole palaeomagnetically observed reversals so far provide the strongest evidence1 that reversals originate from processes of core magnetohydrodynamics mhd thus furnishing a crucial constraint for geomagnetic dynamo modelling the long term variations in reversal frequency favouring2 independent mechanisms for the dynamo and its reversals provide an added constraint here we present evidence for a correlation between polarity superchrons and palaeointensity data and also marine magnetic and mags at anomalies our results indicate that the dipole moment is correlated to the reversal frequency being appreciably greater during the fixed polarity superchrons this new information derived from the reversal record provides fresh insight into the workings of the geodynamo and also explains why the oceanic crust associated with the cretaceous quiet zone carries such a strong thermoremanence

mechanisms controlling the distribution of helium and neon in the arctic seas the case of the knipovich ridge abstract helium concentration and isotopic ratio in the ocean are influenced by four sources the mantle atmosphere crust and tritium decay in addition the concentration of dissolved gases can be altered by air injection and ice related mechanisms such as brine rejection sea ice melting and glacial melting especially in the high latitude seas the knipovich ridge a northern continuation of the mid atlantic ridge 74 79 n 6 8 e is potentially affected by all the sources and mechanisms mentioned above this suggests that the ridge should be a good place to investigate these mechanisms during the knipovich 2000 expedition water samples were collected for helium and neon analysis along the axis of the ridge although mn and ch 4 results suggest the existence of hydrothermal activity in the ridge we could not detect a significant increase of helium isotopic ratio 3 he 4 he at corresponding water depths instead the bottom waters in the northern section of the ridge were supersaturated by up to 40 for 4 he the helium isotopic ratio of 1 3 10 6 indicates the dominance of atmospheric helium using he and ne saturation anomalies we further explored the mechanisms affecting the distribution of helium and neon in the ridge around 5 supersaturation of he and ne at most deep waters is explained by air injection and brine rejection however the large excess in the northern ridge was attributed to the input of 2 5 glacial meltwater possibly originating from the glacier covered islands svalbard

dissolved gas dynamics in perennially ice covered lake fryxell antarctica we use the concentrations of noble gases he ne and ar helium isotopes and tritium to characterize the mechanisms and rates of ventilation for lake fryxell antarctica as well as the physical processes controlling dissolved gases the upper oxic zone is ventilated on timescales of several decades the anoxic bottom waters are weakly ventilated with a turnover time of 3 800 years in the upper euphotic zone helium and neon are greatly undersaturated with respect to solubility equilibrium with the atmosphere whereas argon is greatly supersaturated owing to equilibrium partitioning of the gases between ice water and air inclusions in the ice in the bottom waters the inert dissolved gas concentrations may be remnants of a near desiccation event that occurred 2 000 years b p consistent with current paleoclimatic theories

direction and intensity of the geomagnetic field in the middle devonian and lower ordovician southern mugodjary ophiolites urals abstract a considerable quantity of petromagnetic and palaeomagnetic measurements in the field has allowed us to obtain reliable palaeomagnetic results for such difficult and complex objects as ophiolites eifelian baked sediments diabases dyke contacts and gabbros and tremadocian baked sediments were studied continuous thermocleaning conglomerate and fold tests were applied the palaeointensity was investigated by means of several palaeomagnetic methods wilson burakov van zijl shaw and bagina petrova the mean intensities of the geomagnetic fields are 7 and 16 5 t with mean palaeomagnetic pole positions of 9 n 134 e and 6 s 83 e respectively these data demonstrate that southern urals mugodgary was located near the northern margin of the east european plate during ordovician devonian time the allochthonous crustal oceanic plate was thrust upon the edge of the plate and deformed as late as the permian changes in the polarity of the geomagnetic field are recorded in the succession of sheeted dykes a direct corroboration of the vine mathews hypothesis

an optimized estimate of glacial melt from the ross ice shelf using noble gases stable isotopes and cfc transient tracers 1 isotopes of helium and neon and the h218o h216o ratio of water are proven proxies for melt from glacial ice beneath floating ice shelves and at ice shelf fronts their high concentrations in glacial meltwater compared to other environmental sources make them ideal tracers for studies of the pathways of glacial meltwater from its origins into the ocean interior we combine noble gas and stable isotopes with temperature salinity and dissolved oxygen measurements from three cruises along the ross ice shelf during the austral summers of 1993 1994 and 1999 2000 and to the ross sea in 2000 2001 and use optimal multiparameter analysis to compute the water mass concentration including glacial meltwater the distribution of meltwater at the front of the ross ice shelf extended east from 180 w with the highest concentrations found near 165 w in both 1994 and 2000 the mean meltwater concentration at the ice shelf front was 2 0 0 33 in 1994 2 2 0 36 in 2000 and 0 25 0 1 in the western ross sea in 2001 water mass concentrations are used to correct for bias in the cfc age introduced by mixing with cfc free waters an effect revealed by comparing cfc age with transit time distribution curves the water residence time within the ice shelf cavity using cfcs and the mean meltwater concentration implies a basal melt rate of 33 50 km3 a 1

intensity of the earth s magnetic field evidence for a mesozoic dipole low the variation of the strength of the earth s magnetic field throughout geological time is known only poorly large uncertainties spoil indirect paleointensity determinations based on magnetic anomaly amplitude or remanence of sedimentary rocks even when paleointensity data are obtained from direct thermomagnetic studies of magmatic units fundamental problems related to the actual nature of the primary remanence and to the effects of different cooling rates may result in erroneous determinations these uncertainties combined with well known experimental difficulties can explain the large scatter in paleointensity data reported in most previous review papers because experimental difficulties are more rigourously dealt with using the thellier method which also offers some opportunities to minimize some fundamental uncertainties we carried out a compilation of all triassic and younger paleointensity determinations made using this method this selected data set indicates the occurrence of large long term changes of the geomagnetic dipole strength with time the average dipole strength seems to have been approximately constant since late cretaceous time but a dipole strength only one third of the cenozoic value prevailed during most of mesozoic time following a period of larger strength ending possibly during early jurassic times the mesozoic dipole low may be correlated with a cessation of relative motion between the geomagnetic axis and the mantle the terrestrial dynamo seems therefore to exhibit different long term stable states which are probably controlled by the thermal structure in the lowermost mantle

the impact of melting ice on ocean waters abstract ice melts when it is in contact with ocean waters that have temperatures above the in situ freezing point the product is a mixture of meltwater and seawater having properties intermediate between those of the two components density is one of the properties that is affected and this has important implications for how the melt induced changes are eventually manifested although the direct impact of melting is to cool and dilute the ocean subsequent convection can carry the products of melting to parts of the water column where they are comparatively warm and salty these principles are illustrated with a set of observations from the continental shelf of the amundsen sea measurements made near a floating glacier are used to calculate the concentration of meltwater in the water column concentrations approaching 2 are associated with comparatively high temperatures low dissolved oxygen concentrations and negligible stable isotope anomalies the impact of drifting icebergs on the southern ocea

growth stratal architectures associated to decollement folds and fault propagation folds inferences on fold kinematics abstract in many thrust and fold belts asymmetric folds with overturned or steeply dipping forelimbs and gently dipping backlimbs are commonly interpreted as thrust related folds determining the folding mechanism exclusively from the final fold geometry in the pre growth units is possible only for a limited suite of structures the nature of fold thrust interaction in shallow structures can be inferred by coupling the fold geometric analysis with the study of the syntectonic sediment stratal architectures several factors such as axial surface activity fold uplift limb rotation and limb widening rates together with sedimentation and erosion rates control growth strata patterns because the evolutionary path of most of these parameters depends on the folding kinematics different growth stratal architectures are expected for different thrust related anticlines in this paper we examine the influence of the above factors on growth stratal geometries associated to a simple kink band and then we apply the same approach to kinematic models of decollement folding and fault propagation folding four geometric approaches are used to account for the geometry and kinematics of anticlines located at the tip of a blind thrust fault propagation folding with no excess layer parallel shear fault propagation folding with progressive layer parallel shear constant limb length decollement folding and variable limb length decollement folding whereas fault propagation folding with no excess layer parallel shear is a self similar folding mechanism the other three types involve limb rotation coherent geometries between growth and pre growth sequences develop at high sedimentation rates in the crest of fault propagation folds and incoherent ones in decollement folds minor differences within growth strata patterns occur at low sedimentation rates and when erosion affects the crest of the anticlines

excess helium and neon in the southeast pacific tracers for glacial meltwater 1 we analyze helium he and neon ne isotope data sets from the southeast pacific sector of the southern ocean collected in 1992 and 1994 and describe a new method to estimate glacial meltwater fluxes independent of previous approaches the waters sampled during these cruises reveal large atmospheric he and ne excess concentrations in the upper 500 m that are derived predominantly from the dissolution of air contained in glacial ice during melting underneath and at the front of floating ice shelves at elevated hydrostatic pressure on the stations sampled the meltwater fractions are largest near the northern and southern ice shelf fronts of george vi ice shelf 1 5 2 5 consistent with prior inferences from 18o the inventories of 4he and ne with local glacial meltwater origin south of 70 s between 210 e and 295 e are 2 5 0 7 1011 cm3stp 4he and 7 9 2 7 1011 cm3stp ne respectively the associated meltwater volumes are 430 120 gt for 4he and 400 140 gt for ne for an estimated seawater residence time of 2 years on the continental shelf the amounts of glacial meltwater translate into bulk melting rates of 215 170 gt yr 1 for 4he and 200 170 gt yr 1 for ne the values derived from 4he are expected to be larger than those obtained from ne because of the terrigenic he component which accounts for 10 15 of the he excess in this region our regional melting rate of 200 215 gt yr 1 is comparable to a prior estimate but subject to uncertainties resulting from the station distribution the air sea gas exchange and the estimate of the net transport through the study region

basal melt and freezing rates from first noble gas samples beneath an ice shelf a climatically induced acceleration in ocean driven melting of antarctic ice shelves would have consequences for both the discharge of continental ice into the ocean and thus global sea level and for the formation of antarctic bottom water and the oceanic meridional overturning circulation using a novel gas tight in situ water sampler noble gas samples have been collected from six locations beneath the filchner ice shelf the first such samples from beneath an antarctic ice shelf helium and neon are uniquely suited as tracers of glacial meltwater in the ocean basal meltwater fractions range from 3 6 near the ice shelf base to 0 5 near the sea floor with distinct regional differences we estimate an average basal melt rate for the filchner ronne ice shelf of 177 95 gt year independently confirming previous results we calculate that up to 2 7 of the meltwater has been refrozen and we identify a local source of crustal helium

circulation and melting beneath george vi ice shelf antarctica introduction george vi ice shelf sandwiched between the western coast of palmer land and the eastern coast of alexander island is the largest and most studied of the west antarctic peninsula ice shelves it covers an area of approximately 25 000 km2 and is underlain by circumpolar deep water cdw with temperatures in excess of 1oc giving rise to rapid basal melting bishop and walton 1981 lennon et al 1982 the maximum ice thickness of about 500 m occurs about 70 km from the southern ice front where a ridge of thick ice extends across george vi sound near 70ow see figure 1 effectively dividing the upper water column into northern and southern regions the northern ice front which faces marguerite bay appears to be near the geographical limit of ice shelf viability and has undergone a gradual retreat in recent decades lucchitta and rosanova 1998 a timeframe over which much of the nearby wordie ice shelf disintegrated doake and vaughan 1991 there is extensive surface melting over the northern parts of the ice shelf and much of the ice column near the northern ice front appears to be temperate paren and cooper 1986 conditions in the south where the ice front faces into ronne entrance are colder and the ice front position appears to be steady the vast majority of the flow into the ice shelf comes from palmer land but basal melting is sufficient to remove most of this so that the ice is derived almost exclusively from local accumulation by the time it reaches the ice fronts potter et al 1984 there is some evidence at the margins of the ice shelf to suggest that it may have disappeared completely during the early holocene before reforming sugden and clapperton 1981 bentley et al 2005

helium a new tracer in antarctic oceanography the abyssal characteristics of the world oceans are strongly influenced by the northward propagation of antarctic bottom water aabw an important source of aabw is weddell sea bottom water wsbw which is formed in part on the continental slope of the southern weddell sea1 3 the formation of wsbw on the continental slope is related to the floating ice shelves of the southern weddell sea filchner ronne ice shelves western shelf water wsw is modified under the ice shelves by cooling and admixture of melt water to form ice shelf water isw and a substantial part of the isw flows over the sill that separates the filchner depression from the weddell sea and participates in the formation of wsbw4 5 the data reported here demonstrate that the water ice interaction leads to a strong 4he supersaturation of the isw due to dissolution of air entrapped in the ice shelf melt water the 4he supersaturation of the isw can be used as a tracer of this water mass and also influences the 4he balance of the wsbw

40ar 39ar dating and geochemistry of tholeiitic magmatism related to the early opening of the central atlantic rift tholeiitic effusive and intrusive magmatism from iberia morocco algeria and mali related to the early opening of the central atlantic rift was dated by the 40ar 39ar step heating method four plateau ages ranging from 203 7 2 7 to 197 1 1 8 ma were obtained on plagioclase from dykes from the taoudenni area mali and two lava flows from morocco the messejana dyke iberia which previously yielded discrepant conventional kar dates did not furnish any 40ar 39ar plateau dates however there is a clear inverse relationship between apparent age and k ca ratio for gas fractions from a plagioclase separate proportional to the alteration degree which combined with dates obtained on amphibole biotite and pyroxene allows us to determine an age of around 200 ma for this body these data and those obtained on the foum zguid morocco and the ksi ksou algeria dykes give evidence of a brief magmatic event between 206 and 195 ma ago which affected a large area ca 2500 km long trace element modelling shows that most of these formations originated from a homogeneous enriched source material such a brief magmatic episode related to the opening of a continental rift is in agreement with findings in other magmatic provinces e g the deccan traps and the red sea rift precisely dated by the 40ar 39ar method as well

evidence of deep and bottom water formation in the western weddell sea abstract during ice station polarstern ispol r v polarstern cruise ant xxii 2 november 2004 january 2005 hydrographic and tracer observations were obtained in the western weddell sea while drifting closely in front of the larsen ice shelf these observations indicate recently formed weddell sea bottom water which contains significant contributions of glacial melt water in its upper part and high salinity shelf water in its lower layer the formation of this bottom water cannot be related to the known sources in the south the filchner ronne ice shelf we show that this bottom water is formed in the western weddell sea most likely in interaction with the larsen c ice shelf by applying an optimum multiparameter analysis omp using temperature salinity and noble gas observations helium isotopes and neon we obtained mean glacial melt water fractions of about 0 1 in the bottom water on sections across the weddell gyre farther north melt water fractions are still on the order of 0 04 using chlorofluorocarbons cfcs as age tracers we deduced a mean transit time between the western source and the bottom water found on the slope toward the north 9 3 years this transit time is larger and the inferred transport rate is small in comparison to previous findings but accounting for a loss of the initially formed bottom water volume due to mixing and renewal of weddell sea deep water a formation rate of 1 1 0 5 sv in the western weddell sea is plausible this implies a basal melt rate of 35 19 gt year or 0 35 0 19 m year at the larsen ice shelf this bottom water is shallow enough that it could leave the weddell basin through the gaps in the south scotia ridge to supply antarctic bottom water these findings emphasize the role of the western weddell sea in deep and bottom water formation particularly in view of changing environmental conditions due to climate variability which might induce enhanced melting or even decay of ice shelves

geomagnetic field intensity in early jurassic investigation of the newark supergroup eastern north america abstract a collection of 220 samples from early jurassic newark supergroup volcanic units watchung talcott holyoke hampden and deerfield basalts and intrusive units manitook and palisades sills was studied with the aim of testing the previously suggested occurrence of a low average dipole moment of the earth s magnetic field some 200 ma ago after viscosity tests alternating field demagnetization of all samples and thermal variation studies of saturation magnetization of 74 selected samples we find that only 8 of the entire collection was a priori suitable for paleointensity experiments using the original thellier and thellier method we have obtained 17 reliable paleointensity values of average quality from the palisades sill and the holyoke basalt although these two units recorded substantially different field directions they provide similar estimates of the virtual dipole moment 9 4 1 2 and 11 3 2 2 10 22 a m 2 respectively these values are within the range of secular variation of the recent geomagnetic field

intensity of the earth s magnetic field since precambrian from thellier type palaeointensity data and inferences on the thermal history of the core summary we present a compilation of palaeointensity data obtained by the thellier method from magmatic rocks up to 3 5 gyr old no apparent very long term variation occurs from present to early precambrian the overall data are compatible with a gravitationally powered dynamo model in which the inner core is some 4 0 gyr old however palaeointensity data are still too incomplete to dismiss the possibility of a more complex field history with a geodynamo first thermally driven then gravitationally powered despite the limited number of data currently available large differences in the dipole field moment are clearly documented with a time scale of the order of 50 100myr the changes in intensity can be due to repetitive instabilities of the thermal boundary layer at the base of the mantle

characteristics of meltwater export from jakobshavn isbrae and ilulissat icefjord jakobshavn isbrae which terminates in ilulissat icefjord has undergone rapid retreat and is currently the largest contributor to ice sheet mass loss among greenland s marine terminating glaciers accelerating mass loss is increasing fresh water discharge to the ocean which can feed back on ice melt impact marine ecosystems and potentially modify regional and larger scale ocean circulation here we present hydrographic observations including inert geochemical tracers that allow the first quantitative description of the glacially modified waters exported from the jakobshavn icefjord system observations within the fjord suggest a deep reaching overturning cell driven by glacial buoyancy forcing modified waters containing submarine meltwater up to 2 5 0 12 subglacial discharge up to 6 0 37 and large portions of entrained ocean waters are seen to exit the fjord and flow north the exported meltwaters form a buoyant coastal gravity current reaching to 100 m depth and extending 10 km offshore

revised and synthetic apparent polar wander paths of the african eurasian north american and indian plates and true polar wander since 200 ma we have reviewed paleomagnetic data available for the eurasian african north american and indian plates over the last 200 ma selection criteria are those generally accepted with an emphasis on evidence for lack of remagnetization accurate dating and proper structural analysis this results in 23 35 51 and 2 poles for eurasia africa north america and india respectively we believe that this limited set of higher quality data is more likely to reveal key features of apparent polar wander apw paths than averaging of larger data sets involving less stringent selection criteria we propose and describe revised apw paths but more importantly we next use relative motion models to transfer all data in a common reference frame we find good agreement between transferred data when they are averaged separately for each plate in independent 20 ma windows this is a check on consistency of paleomagnetic data kinematic models and of the geocentric dipole hypothesis transferred data from all plates are averaged in 20 ma windows to generate synthetic apw paths for all plates studied these synthetic paths are in agreement with the original revised apw paths that use only data from a single plate moreover both geographic and time resolution are improved spatial confidence intervals are of the order of 5 the synthetic paths display interesting features such as a previously ill recognized apw loop for eurasia paleomagnetic and hotspot apw are next compared and a determination of true polar wander tpw is derived we find significant tpw amounting to over 20 in the last 200 ma tpw appears to be episodic with a standstill between 180 and 110 ma there is general agreement with a previous study of livermore et al 1984 the tpw standstill appears to correlate with a time of decreasing reversal frequency ending with the cretaceous long normal superchron other periods of fast tpw would seem to correspond to increasing reversal frequency however it is suggested that the major tpw hairpin at 50 ma might correspond to the collision of india with eurasia tentative correlations with core or mantle indicators can be understood as a result of couplings between the core mantle and lithosphere we believe primarily related to episodic evolution of the d layer

low intensity of the geomagnetic field in early jurassic time from a large collection of jurassic continental tholeiites cropping out in europe and africa we selected 90 samples for paleointensity determinations the samples were carefully selected to avoid any secondary magnetizations especially viscous magnetization use of the thellier method reveals that magnetic property changes due to heating begin often at quite low temperatures but fortunately without modifying noticeably their natural remanent magnetization thermoremanent magnetization ratio twenty eight well clustered paleointensity estimates were obtained from two european dikes that were emplaced during early jurassic time the kerforne dike at brenterc h in brittany northwestern france and the messejana dike on the iberian peninsula spain and portugal virtual dipole moments calculated from both magmatic units are similar and only about one third of present day values these new data lend support to the recently postulated low dipole moment of the mesozoic geomagnetic field

pathways of basal meltwater from antarctic ice shelves a model study we investigate spreading pathways of basal meltwater released from all antarctic ice shelves using a circumpolar coupled ice shelf sea ice ocean model that reproduces major features of the southern ocean circulation including the antarctic circumpolar current acc several independent virtual tracers are used to identify detailed pathways of basal meltwaters the spreading pathways of the meltwater tracers depend on formation sites because the meltwaters are transported by local ambient ocean circulation meltwaters from ice shelves in the weddell and amundsen bellingshausen seas in surface subsurface layers are effectively advected to lower latitudes with the acc although a large portion of the basal meltwaters is present in surface and subsurface layers a part of the basal meltwaters penetrates into the bottom layer through active dense water formation along the antarctic coastal margins the signals at the seafloor extend along the topography showing a horizontal distribution similar to the observed spreading of antarctic bottom water meltwaters originating from ice shelves in the weddell and ross seas and in the indian sector significantly contribute to the bottom signals a series of numerical experiments in which thermodynamic interaction between the ice shelf and ocean is neglected regionally demonstrates that the basal meltwater of each ice shelf impacts sea ice and or ocean thermohaline circulation in the southern ocean

the secular variation of earth s magnetic field models of the magnetic field at the core mantle boundary at selected epochs from 1715 0 to 1980 0 reveal novel features in the field at the core these suggest that the flow of core fluid is coupled to the mantle and that magnetic diffusion is significant

thermal core mantle interactions maps of the magnetic field at the core mantle boundary for 1715 1980 reveal static features in the field and an absence of westward drift from much of the core mantle boundary the static features suggest that flow in the core is coupled to the mantle we examine different coupling mechanisms and predict lateral inhomogeneity at the core mantle boundary comparison with models of the lower mantle and core mantle boundary derived seismically and from the geoid is encouraging though their resolution is currently inadequate for a full comparison to be made with the much better resolved magnetic field

noble gases in ocean waters and sediments noble gases are widely used in studies of the basic properties and dynamics of natural systems including the ocean this chapter describes some of the more extensive applications of noble gases mainly helium isotopes to studies of oceanographic problems they include the modern oceanic circulation paleo oceanography hydrothermal and cold brine systems in the deep ocean and ocean atmosphere gas exchange originally oceanic noble gas studies were focused on geochemical problems such as the question of the existence of excess helium in seawater derived from radioactive decay of the elements of the uranium and thorium series in ocean sediments suess and wanke 1965 bieri et al 1966 after the discovery of mantle primordial helium during the 1960s clarke et al 1969 craig and weiss 1971 craig et al 1975 and 3he derived from decay of tritium in the near surface waters of the ocean jenkins and clarke 1976 large programs were developed to exploit helium isotopes frequently in combination with tritium for studies of water mass formation circulation and variability e g jenkins 1987 schlosser et al 1991 more recent studies started to explore the use of helium isotopes to paleoceanographic objectives these studies build upon the discovery of extraterrestrial helium in deep sea sediments in the early 1960s merrihue 1964 this signal is now being systematically examined for its potential as a tool for investigations of sediment accumulation rates on very long time scales millions of years and their correlation with changes in paleoceanography e g farley 1995 farley and patterson 1995 marcantonio et al 1995 1996 2001 soon after the discovery of mantle helium in seawater noble gases were applied to studies of hydrothermal systems originally these studies were focused on the source of the fluids emanating from hydrothermal vents as well as

oxygen 18 and helium as tracers of ice shelf water and water ice interaction in the weddell sea oxygen 18 and helium isotope data from stations located in the filchner depression on the continental slope of the southern weddell sea and in the central weddell sea are presented and discussed the 18o and 4he signals imprinted on the water circulating under the filchner ronne ice shelf ice shelf water or isw due to melting of glacial ice at the base of the ice shelf are traced across the sill separating the filchner depression from the weddell sea low 18o values are correlated with high 4he concentrations in the isw found in the filchner depression minimum 18o values 0 8 maximum 4he concentrations about 4 7 10 8 cm3 stp g 1 the fraction of glacial meltwater contained in the isw found in the filchner depression is estimated to about 6 to 7 the 18o and helium isotope data from the overflowing shelf water component observed on the continental slope confirm the hypothesis that isw contributes significantly to the weddell sea bottom water wsbw on the basis of a inultiparameter water mass analysis it is discussed which fraction of the wsbw originates from isw and which other shelf waters potentially could contribute to wsbw

the dynamical structures of d and deep plumes in a non newtonian mantle the dynamical structures of the d layer and deep mantle plumes have been determined for a mantle with a power law creep rheology generalising recent newtonian analyses the lateral scales of d and plumes are determined by a balance between thermal diffusive thickening and lateral inflow the non newtonian effect of concentrating shear in regions of high stress acts to thicken the region of rapid flow in both d and plumes this effect is nearly counterbalanced by the increased lateral inflow in the non newtonian case resulting in a modest broadening of the lateral scales of the regions of rapid flow these changes are structurally unimportant and the essential physics of core cooling via convective flow in a thin d layer and narrow plumes is remarkably independent of mantle rheology

the nature of the earth s core the properties of the earth s core are overviewed with emphasis on seismologically determined regions and pressures and seismologically measured density elastic wave velocities and gravitational acceleration attention is given to solid state convection of the inner core and it is noted that though seismological results do not conclusively prove that the inner core is convective the occurrence and magnitude of seismic anisotropy are explained by the effects of solid state convection igneous petrology and geochemistry of the inner core a layer at the base of the mantle and contact metasomatism at the core mantle boundary and evolution of the core mantle system are discussed it is pointed out that high pressure melting experiments indicate that the temperature of the core is ranging from 4500 to 6500 k and a major implication of such high temperature is that the tectonics and convection of the mantle as well as the resulting geological processes observed at the surface are powered by heat from the core as a result of the high temperatures along with the compositional contrast between silicates and iron alloy the core mantle boundary is considered to be most chemically active region of the earth

the five stable noble gases are sensitive unambiguous tracers of glacial meltwater the five inert noble gases he ne ar kr and xe exhibit a unique dissolved gas saturation pattern resulting from the formation and addition of glacial meltwater to seawater he and ne become oversaturated and ar kr and xe become undersaturated to varying percentages for example addition of 10 glacial meltwater to seawater results in a saturation anomaly of he 12 8 ne 8 9 ar 0 5 kr 2 2 and xe 3 3 this pattern in noble gas saturation reflects a unique meltwater signature that is distinct from the other major physical processes that modify the gas concentration and saturation namely seasonal changes in temperature at the ocean surface and bubble mediated gas exchange we use optimum multiparameter analysis to illustrate how all five noble gases can help distinguish glacial meltwater from wind driven bubble injection making them a potentially valuable suite of tracers for glacial melt and its concentration in the deep waters of the world ocean