spatially integrated geodetic glacier mass balance and its uncertainty based on geostatistical analysis application to the western svartisen ice cap norway estimates of glacier mass balance using geodetic methods can differ significantly from estimates using direct glaciological field based measurements to determine if such differences are real or methodological there is a need to improve uncertainty estimates in both methods in this paper we focus on the uncertainty of geodetic methods and describe a geostatistical technique that takes into account the spatial correlation of the elevation differences when calculating spatially averaged elevation changes we apply this method to the western svartisen ice cap norway using elevation differences from the surrounding bedrock derived from stereophotogrammetry we show that the uncertainty is not only dependent on the standard error of the individual elevation differences but is also dependent on the size of the averaging area and the scale of the spatial correlation to assess if the geostatistical analysis made over bedrock is applicable to glacier surfaces we use concurrent photogrammetrical and laser scanning data from bedrock and a range of glacier surfaces to evaluate the dependency of the geostatistical analysis on the surface type the estimated geodetic mass balance and its uncertainty is 2 6 0 9 m w e for the period 1968 85 and 2 0 2 2 m w e for 1985 2002

present day south american climate abstract this paper documents the main features of the climate and climate variability over south america on the basis of instrumental observations gathered during the 20th century it should provide a modern reference framework for paleoclimate research in south america targeting high resolution proxies over the past few centuries several datasets suitable for present day climate research are first described highlighting their advantages as well as their limitations we then provide a basic physical understanding of the mean annual cycle of the precipitation and atmospheric circulation over the continent and the adjacent oceans in particular the diversity of precipitation temperature and wind patterns is interpreted in terms of the long meridional extent of the continent and the disruption of the large scale circulation caused by the andes cordillera the contrasting oceanic boundary conditions and the landmass distribution similarly the intensity and timing of the interannual and interdecadal climatic fluctuations exhibit considerable geographical dependence as some regions are more influenced by large scale phenomena rooted in the tropical oceans while others are more influenced by high latitude phenomena the impact of these large scale phenomena over south america is documented by a regression analysis between selected atmospheric indices and the precipitation and temperature fields we have included a discussion on the seasonality and long term stability of such impacts and complemented our general description by an updated review of the literature on climate variability over specific regions

origin and timing of the metasomatic silicification of an early archean komatiite sequence barberton mountain land south africa abstract stratiform units of pervasively silicified early archean ultramafic rocks occur near the boundary between the onverwacht and fig tree groups in the barberton mountain land republic of south africa the origin of these units has been variously ascribed to early archean subaerial weathering or submarine alteration to cataclastic metamorphism and to the alteration of silicic tuffs an exceptionally well exposed example of such an alteration sequence along the skokohla river valley in the central barberton mountain land was studied to determine the nature of the precursor rocks and the timing and nature of the alteration processes well preserved ghosts of spinifex and culmulate textured olivines and pyroxenes establish the komatiitic ancestry of the skokohla rocks rock units of several distinctive lithofacies can be correlated over the entire 1 5 km strike of the sequence and were derived from the metasomatic conversion of a series of ultramafic flow units to rocks dominated by quartz dioctohedral mica and chlorite the original ultramafics have been strongly enriched in si k rb and ba and depleted in fe mg ca na mn sr zn and ni the elements al ti p cr zr y and nb were immobile alteration apparently occurred soon after extrusive activity and before any significant tectonic deformation it is most probable that alteration resulted from the dynamic hydrothermal upwelling of fluids through original fracture porosity in the ultramafic flows

systematics of chlorite alteration at the phelps dodge massive sulfide deposit matagami quebec hydrothermal alteration at the phelps dodge archcan volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit has converted rhyodacite and rhyolite footwall rocks into the following mineral assemblages quartz chlorite albite epidote or sericite quartz chlorite or sericite chlorite or sericite and chlorite talc or stilpnomelane alteration at constant al was initiated by hydration addition of fe mg silicification and leaching of ca na which produced al saturated chlorites with a wide range of fe fe mg ratios within the assemblage quartz chlorite albite epidote or sericite with continued addition of fe and less mg combined with extensive leaching of quartz the chlorite became al undersaturated quartz chlorite talc assemblage and ultimately formed a rock composed essentially of chlorite the chlorite talc or stilpnomelane assemblage is stable in late crosscutting veinlets and in the ore zone chlorites in the si al mg fe system form a rectangular solid solution plane with limited substitution of al for si and extensive substitution of fe for mg in si al space the solid solution plane is outlined by al saturation presence of other al rich mineral and al undersaturation presence of al poor or al free mineral boundaries al iv substitution for si in the chlorites increases from 2 3 to 3 01 formula units based on 8 si al iv with fe fe mg whereas al iv occupancy decreases from 2 88 to 2 65 the valence charge balance is compensated by octahedral site vacancies or by the conversion of fe super 2 to fe super 3 the al iv content of chlorite also increases with temperature chlorites on the al saturated boundary of the solid solution field form a potentially useful geothermometer t degrees c 106 al iv 18 al iv is corrected for changes with the fe fe mg ratio as al iv corrected al iv 0 7 fe fe mg the fe fe mg ratios of bulk rock and contained chlorite correlate well birefringence colors of the chlorite change from green to brown violet and berlin blue as fe fe mg changes from 0 18 to 0 64 the fe fe mg variation apparently depends largely on the proportions of mg rich seawater and fe rich hydrothermal fluid in the altering brine

archaean flow top alteration zones formed initially in a low temperature sulphate rich environment the 3 500 3 400 myr onverwacht group in the southern part of the barberton greenstone belt south africa includes up to 12 km of komatiitic and tholeiitic lavas containing minor sedimentary and felsic volcanic units1 komatiitic lavas showing spinifex textures chrome spinels and high ni and cr contents are common throughout the sequence2 the rocks have been subject to polyphase archaean deformation and low grade metasomatism2 4 at several positions within the onverwacht group fig 1 the tops of komatiitic lavas underlying chert beds are marked regionally by 1 50 m thick zones of silicification carbonatization and k2o enrichment fig 2 because these zones have been variously interpreted to represent the felsic tops of mafic to felsic volcanic cycles weathering horizons and shear zones their origin is germane to any interpretation of the stratigraphy structure and evolution of the barberton belt here we present evidence that they formed inlarge part by low temperature near surface alteration of komatiitic lavas during intervals of volcanic quiescence they do not mark fault zones and cannot be used to subdivide the greenstone belt sequence into a series of fault bounded structural slices

hazardous processes and events from glacier and permafrost areas lessons from the chilean and argentinean andes glacier and permafrost hazards such as glacial lake outburst floods and rock ice avalanches cause significant socio economic damages worldwide and these processes may increase in frequency and magnitude if the atmospheric temperature rises in the extratropical andes nearly 200 human deaths were linked to these processes during the twentieth century we analysed bibliographical sources and satellite images to document the glacier and permafrost dynamics that have caused socio economic damages in this region in historic time including glacial lake outburst floods ice and rock ice avalanches and lahars to unravel their causes and geomorphological impacts in the extratropical andes at least 15 ice dammed lakes and 16 moraine dammed lakes have failed since the eighteenth century causing dozens of floods some floods rank amongst the largest events ever recorded 5000 106 m3 and 229 106 m3 respectively outburst flood frequency has increased in the last three decades partially as a consequence of long term decades to centuries climatic changes glaciers shrinkage and lake growth short term days to weeks meteorological conditions i e intense and or prolonged rainfall and high temperature that increased meltwater production have also triggered outburst floods and mass movements enormous mass failures of glaciers and permafrost 10 106 m3 have impacted lakes glaciers and snow covered valleys initiating chain reactions that have ultimately resulted in lake tsunamis and far reaching 50 km flows the eruption of ice covered volcanoes has also caused dozens of damaging lahars with volumes up to 45 106 m3 despite the importance of these events basic information about their occurrence e g date causes and geomorphological impact which is well established in other mountain ranges is absent in the extratropical andes a better knowledge of the processes involved can help to forecast and mitigate these events copyright 2014 john wiley sons ltd

calving processes and the dynamics of calving glaciers abstract calving of icebergs is an important component of mass loss from the polar ice sheets and glaciers in many parts of the world calving rates can increase dramatically in response to increases in velocity and or retreat of the glacier margin with important implications for sea level change despite their importance calving and related dynamic processes are poorly represented in the current generation of ice sheet models this is largely because understanding the calving problem involves several other long standing problems in glaciology combined with the difficulties and dangers of field data collection in this paper we systematically review different aspects of the calving problem and outline a new framework for representing calving processes in ice sheet models we define a hierarchy of calving processes to distinguish those that exert a fundamental control on the position of the ice margin from more localised processes responsible for individual calving events the first order control on calving is the strain rate arising from spatial variations in velocity particularly sliding speed which determines the location and depth of surface crevasses superimposed on this first order process are second order processes that can further erode the ice margin these include fracture propagation in response to local stress imbalances in the immediate vicinity of the glacier front undercutting of the glacier terminus by melting at or below the waterline and bending at the junction between grounded and buoyant parts of an ice tongue calving of projecting submerged ice feet can be regarded as a third order process because it is paced by first or second order calving above the waterline first order calving can be represented in glacier models using a calving criterion based on crevasse depth which is a function of longitudinal strain rate modelling changes in terminus position and calving rates thus reduces to the problem of determining the ice geometry and velocity distribution realistic solutions to the problem of modelling ice flow therefore depend critically on an appropriate choice of sliding law models that assume that basal velocities are controlled by basal drag can replicate much of the observed behaviour of calving glaciers with grounded termini but an important limitation is that they cannot be used to model floating glacier termini or ice shelves alternative sliding laws that parameterise drag from the glacier margins provide more flexible and robust ways of representing calving in ice sheet models such models can explain a remarkable range of observed phenomena within a simple unifying framework including downglacier increases in velocity and strain rates where basal and or lateral drag diminishes flow acceleration in response to thinning through time the tendency for glaciers to stabilise at pinning points in relatively shallow water or fjord narrowings the constraints on ice shelf stability and the contrasts in calving rates between tidewater and freshwater calving glaciers many unresolved issues remain however including the role played by the removal of backstress in the acceleration of retreating calving glaciers and the controls on melting at and below the waterline

remote sensing based assessment of hazards from glacier lake outbursts a case study in the swiss alps glacier lakes are a common phenomenon in high mountain areas outbursts from glacier lakes have repeatedly caused the loss of human lives as well as severe damage to local infrastructure in several high mountain ranges around the world a grave uncertainty about the hazard potential of glacier lakes still exists especially with respect to the effects of accelerating rates of glacier retreat as a consequence of atmospheric warming area wide detection and modeling of glacier lake hazard potentials is therefore a major challenge in this study an approach integrating three scale levels allows for the progressive focus on critical glacier lakes remote sensing methods for application in glacier lake hazard assessment are presented and include channel indexing data fusion and change detection each method matches the requirements of a certain scale level for estimating potential disaster amplitudes assessments must be made of maximum discharge and runout distance of outbursts floods and debris flows existing empirical relations are evaluated and complementary ones as derived from available data are proposed tests with observations from a recent outburst event from a moraine dammed lake in the swiss alps show the basic applicability of the proposed techniques and the usefulness of empirical relations for first hazard assessments in particular the observed runout distance of the debris flow resulting from the outburst does not exceed the empirically estimated maximum runout distance a list of decision criteria and related remote sensing techniques are discussed in conclusion such a list is an essential tool for evaluating the hazard potential of a lake a systematic application of remote sensing based methods for glacier lake hazard assessment is recommended

the 2015 chileno valley glacial lake outburst flood patagonia abstract glacial lake outburst floods glofs have become increasingly common over the past century in response to climate change posing risks for human activities in many mountain regions in this paper we document and reconstruct the sequence of events and impact of a large glof that took place in december 2015 in the chileno valley patagonia hydrograph data suggests that the flood continued for around eight days with an estimated total discharge of 105 6 106 m3 of water the sequence of events was as follows 1 a large debris flow entered the lake from two steep and largely non vegetated mountain gullies located northeast of the chileno glacier terminus 2 water displaced in the lake by the debris flow increased the discharge through the chileno lake outflow 3 lake and moraine sediments were eroded by the flood 4 eroded sediments were redistributed downstream by the glof the post glof channel at the lake outlet widened in some places by 130 m and the surface elevation of the terrain lowered by a maximum of 38 8 1 5 m farther downstream large amounts of entrained sediment were deposited at the head of an alluvial plain and these sediments produced an 340 m wide fan with an average increase in surface elevation over the pre glof surface of 4 6 1 5 m we estimate that around 3 5 million m3 of material was eroded from the flood affected area whilst over 0 5 million m3 of material was deposited in the downstream glof fan the large debris flow that triggered the glof was probably a paraglacial response to glacier recession from its little ice age limits we suggest that glofs will continue to occur in these settings in the future as glaciers further recede in response to global warming and produce potentially unstable lakes detailed studies of glof events are currently limited in patagonia and the information presented here will therefore help to inform future glacial hazard assessments in this region

flotation and retreat of a lake calving terminus mendenhall glacier southeast alaska usa mendenhall glacier is a lake calving glacier in southeastern alaska usa that is experiencing substantial thinning and increasingly rapid recession long term mass wastage linked to climatic trends is responsible for thinning of the lower glacier and leaving the terminus vulnerable to buoyancy driven calving and accelerated retreat bedrock topography has played a major role in stabilizing the terminus between periods of rapid calving and retreat lake terminating glaciers form a population distinct from both tidewater glaciers and polar ice tongues with some similarities to both groups lacustrine termini experience fewer perturbations e g tidal flexure high subaqueous melt rates and are therefore inherently more stable than tidewater termini at mendenhall rapid thinning and simultaneous retreat into a deeper basin led to flotation conditions along approximately 50 of the calving front this unstable terminus geometry lasted for approximately 2 years and culminated in large scale calving and terminus collapse during summer 2004 buoyancy driven calving events and terminus break up can result from small rapidly applied perturbations in lake level

chloritoid and staurolite stability implications for metamorphism in the archaean yilgarn block western australia the stability of quartz chloritoid staurolite almandine cordierite and aluminium silicates is used to constrain both metamorphic conditions and pressure temperature trajectories for two localities within the 2700 ma archaean yilgarn block in western australia available experimental data are used to calculate thermodynamic data for a self consistent set of equilibria between these minerals a lower amphibolite facies locality from the margin of a lower strain area contains assemblages including quartz chloritoid staurolite garnet biotite with altered cordierite replacing chloritoid quartz staurolite andalusite and quartz cordierite andalusite biotite this locality was heated to 530 560 c in the andalusite field at 4 2 kbar a sample from a mid to upper amphibolite facies highly strained locality contains relict staurolite enclosed by andalusite in turn replaced by cordierite and muscovite with biotite and sillimanite in the matrix the assemblage was heated isobarically from conditions near the maximum experienced by the lower grade locality of 560 c at 4 2 kbar to temperatures in excess of the andalusite sillimanite transition but within the quartz plus muscovite stability field 600 650 c the higher grade locality is close to a granitoid dome and sections based on gravity profiles reveal that this locality is underlain by granitoid at shallow depths the higher grade metamorphism apparently reflects superposition of the thermal aureole on regional metamorphic conditions similar to those in the lower grade areas

thermo erosional notch development at fresh water calving tasman glacier new zealand controls on glacier calving rates are receiving increased scientific interest at fresh water calving glaciers limnological factors might be more important than glaciological ones measurements of thermo erosional notch development at the calving ice cliff of tasman glacier new zealand suggest that the calving rates at this glacier are directly controlled by the rate of thermal undercutting notch formation rates typically vary between 10 and 30 cm d 1 maximum rate 65 cm d 1 in summer corresponding to an average calving rate of 34 m a 1 notch formation is slower than waterline melt and is controlled by water temperatures and circulation cliff geometry debris supply and water level fluctuations the latter shift the position of undercutting resetting the level of the notch formation process and thereby slowing it the geometry of the notch and the debris supply determine the extent of influence of the lake on notch water temperatures and circulation hence water temperatures in the lake are not necessarily indicative of the rate of notch formation the prediction of rate of notch formation from far field variables is hampered by the complex interaction of the influencing factors the significance of thermal undercutting as a calving rate controlling process decreases with increasing ice velocities calving rates and surface gradients

gliding and overthrust nappe tectonics in the barberton greenstone belt abstract regional recumbent folds inverted stratigraphy nappes and olistostromes are described from the southern part of the 3 3 3 5 ga barberton greenstone belt overthrusting of thin rigid silicified slabs with minimum dimensions of 25 km2 and up to 500 m in thickness occurred over minimum distances of 86 km more ductile and coherent units were overfolded up to at least 2 km during their emplacement the glide planes on which these nappes travelled were zones of high fluid pressures related to hydrothermal fluid circulation patterns driven by heat sources from igneous intrusions the upwelling areas of the geothermal convection cells were sites of mud pools and hydrothermal vents which may mark the trailing edges pull aparts of the overthrust units progressive silica and carbonate precipitation due to decreasing temperatures within the zones of fluid migration distant from the areas of high heat flow probably acted as built in braking systems below the travelling slabs active sedimentation and metasomatism during this tectonism indicates a protracted history for the evolution of the greenstone belt the recognition of nappe and overthrust tectonics in the barberton belt processes which may have been commonplace in archaean terrains necessitates a re evaluation of the stratigraphy of this belt

spatial and temporal variability of air temperature on a melting glacier atmospheric controls extrapolation methods and their effect on melt modeling juncal norte glacier chile 1 temperature data from three automatic weather stations and twelve temperature loggers are used to investigate the spatiotemporal variability of temperature over a glacier its main atmospheric controls the suitability of extrapolation techniques and their effect on melt modeling we use data collected on juncal norte glacier central chile during one ablation season we examine temporal and spatial variability in lapse rates lrs together with alternative statistical interpolation methods the main control over the glacier thermal regime is the development of a katabatic boundary layer kbl katabatic wind occurs at night and in the morning and is eroded in the afternoon lrs reveal strong diurnal variability with steeper lrs during the day when the katabatic wind weakens and shallower lrs during the night and morning we suggest that temporally variable lrs should be used to account for the observed change they tend to be steeper than equivalent constant lrs and therefore result in a reduction in simulated melt compared to use of constant lrs when extrapolating from lower to higher elevations in addition to the temporal variability the temperature elevation relationship varies also in space differences are evident between local lrs and including such variability in melt modeling affects melt simulations extrapolation methods based on the spatial variability of the observations after removal of the elevation trend such as inverse distance weighting or kriging do not seem necessary for simulations of gridded temperature data over a glacier

using an ultra long range terrestrial laser scanner to monitor the net mass balance of urumqi glacier no 1 eastern tien shan china at the monthly scale we describe the use of a terrestrial laser scanner tls to monitor the net mass balance of urumqi glacier no 1 eastern tien shan we used an ultra long range riegl vz 6000 tls which is specially designed for surveying snow and ice covered terrain to create repeated high spatiotemporal resolution dems focusing on the monthly scale 25 april 28 may 2015 net mass balance according to the tls derived dems the area of urumqi glacier no 1 was 1 558 km 2 on 25 april 2015 and the average surface elevation change was 0 225 m by comparing the results from the use of tls with the conventional glaciological mass balance method the correlation coefficient r 2 between glaciological elevation changes of individual stakes and the tls derived geodetic elevation change of corresponding points was 0 85 considering the uncertainty of both methods this is a promising result using the in situ measured snow densities snow pits of the glacier surface the geodetic net mass balance was 0 074 m w e which is slightly positive the mean uncertainty in the tls derived monthly net mass balance was 0 018 m w e showing that the tls surveying system presented accurate and relevant results and is therefore suitable to monitor mass balance evolution of mountain glaciers

tourmaline mineralization in the barberton greenstone belt south africa early archean metasomatism by evaporite derived boron tourmaline rich rocks are common in the lowgrade interior portions of the barberton greenstone belt of south africa where shallow marine sediments and underlying altered basaltic and komatiitic lavas contain up to 50 tourmaline the presence of tourmaline bearing rip up clasts intraformational tourmalinite pebbles and tourmaline coated grains indicates that boron mineralization was a low temperature surficial process the association of these lithologies with stromatolites evaporites and shallow water sedimentary structures and the virtual absence of tourmaline in correlative deep water facies rocks in the greenstone bels strengthens this model

melt and surface sublimation across a glacier in a dry environment distributed energy balance modelling of juncal norte glacier chile previous estimates of melt and surface sublimation on glaciers of the subtropical semiarid andes 29 34 s have been obtained at few specific locations but it is not clear how ablation components vary across the entire extent of a glacier in this dry environment here we simulate the distributed energy and mass balance of juncal norte glacier 33 s during a 2 month summer period forcing fields of near surface air temperature and wind speed are generated using two methods accounting for the main physical processes that shape their spatial variations simulated meteorological variables and ablation agree well with observations on the glacier tongue and reveal complex patterns of energy and mass fluxes ablation decreases from 70 mm w e d 1 at the low albedo glacier terminus 3000 m where almost 100 of total ablation corresponds to melt to 75 of total ablation our simulations provide the first glacier scale estimates of ablation components on a glacier in the study region and better reproduce the observed and expected spatial variations of melt and surface sublimation in comparison with more simple assumptions such as linear gradients and uniform wind speeds

glacier area changes in the central chilean and argentinean andes 1955 2013 14 to improve our knowledge of glacier area changes in the central chilean and argentinean andes 32 9 s 33 4 s two new glacier inventories from 1989 to 2013 14 are compared with a reinterpreted inventory from 1955 comparisons show glacier area retreat of 30 3 since 1955 decreasing from 134 to 94 km2 in 2013 14 whilst the annual rate of area loss showed a small increase insignificant between the periods of 1955 1989 and 1989 2013 14 separate analysis of the 1989 and 2013 14 inventories including a larger sample revealed a higher rate of glacier change compared with the smaller samples of these inventories additionally an analysis at 5 year intervals for six major glaciers 1955 2013 indicates large variability in response times and area loss magnitudes glacier olivares alfa for example lost 63 of its ice area while the juncal norte glacier lost only 10 1955 2013 the findings from this study improve our current knowledge base concerning widespread glacier decline in the southern andes and furthers monitoring efforts in this poorly described region of the world a region containing vital water resources for populated areas in south america

glacier inventory and recent glacier variations in the andes of chile south america the first satellite derived inventory of glaciers and rock glaciers in chile created from landsat tm etm images spanning between 2000 and 2003 using a semi automated procedure is presented in a single standardized format large glacierized areas in the altiplano palena province and the periphery of the patagonian icefields are inventoried the chilean glacierized area is 23 708 1185 km 2 including 3200 km 2 of both debris covered glaciers and rock glaciers glacier distribution varies as a result of climatic gradients with latitude and elevation with 0 8 occurring in the desert andes 17 30 32 s 3 6 in the central andes 32 36 s 6 2 in the lakes district and palena province 36 46 s and 89 3 in patagonia and tierra del fuego 46 56 s glacier outlines across all glacierized regions and size classes updated to 2015 using landsat 8 images for 98 complexes indicate a decline in areal extent affecting mostly clean ice glaciers 92 3 4 6 km 2 whereas debris covered glaciers and rock glaciers in the desert and central andes appear nearly unchanged in their extent glacier attributes estimated from this new inventory provide valuable insights into spatial patterns of glacier shrinkage for assessing future glacier changes in response to climate change

ratio correlations and major element mobility in altered basalts and komatiites attempts have been made in the recent literature to constrain major element mobility in altered basalts and komatiites using the molecular proportion ratio mpr diagrams developed by t h pearce 1970 the method involves ratioing the molecular proportions of two oxides against a third oxide and presenting the results as an oxide oxide ratio plot the transformation appears to clean up scatter plots with low correlations and produces highly correlated ratio plots these plots have been taken to be indicative of igneous fractionation trends and thus of minimal bulk chemical change during alteration there are however inherent statistical problems in ratio correlation which have received much attention in the mathematical literature this paper explains the implications of enhanced correlations for work on altered rocks using ratio plots and suggests that extreme caution must be exercised in the interpretation of mpr diagrams

rapid expansion of glacial lakes caused by climate and glacier retreat in the central himalayas glacial lake outburst floods are among the most serious natural hazards in the himalayas such floods are of high scientific and political importance because they exert trans boundary impacts on bordering countries the preparation of an updated inventory of glacial lakes and the analysis of their evolution are an important first step in assessment of hazards from glacial lake outbursts here we report the spatiotemporal developments of the glacial lakes in the poiqu river basin a trans boundary basin in the central himalayas from 1976 to 2010 based on multi temporal landsat images studied glacial lakes are classified as glacier fed lakes and non glacier fed lakes according to their hydrologic connection to glacial watersheds a total of 119 glacial lakes larger than 0 01km 2 with an overall surface area of 20 22km 2 10 8 were mapped in 2010 with glacier fed lakes being predominant in both number 69 58 0 and area 16 22km 2 80 2 we found that lakes connected to glacial watersheds glacier fed lakes significantly expanded 122 1 from 1976 to 2010 whereas lakes not connected to glacial watersheds non glacier fed lakes remained stable 2 8 during the same period this contrast can be attributed to the impact of glaciers retreating glaciers not only supply meltwater to lakes but also leave space for them to expand compared with other regions of the hindu kush himalayas hkh the lake area per glacier area in the poiqu river basin was the highest this observation might be attributed to the different climate regimes and glacier status along the hkh the results presented in this study confirm the significant role of glacier retreat on the evolution of glacial lakes copyright c 2014 john wiley sons ltd

regional cooling in a warming world recent temperature trends in the southeast pacific and along the west coast of subtropical south america 1979 2006 1 while it is widely accepted that the global mean atmospheric temperature has increased in recent decades the spatial distribution of global warming has been complex in this study we comprehensively characterize the spatial pattern including vertical structure of temperature trends along the subtropical west coast of south america continental chile for the period 1979 2006 and examine their consistency with expectations based on the cmip 3 ensemble of coupled ocean atmosphere simulations for the late 20th century in central and northern chile 17 37 s the most notable feature is a strong contrast between surface cooling at coastal stations 0 2 c decade and warming in the andes 0 25 c decade only 100 200 km further inland coastal radiosonde data imply that the coast andes variation is largely due to strong vertical stratification of temperature trends in the atmosphere west of the andes the coastal cooling appears to form part of a larger scale la nina like pattern and may extend below the ocean mixed layer to depths of at least 500 m over continental chile the cmip 3 gcm ensemble predicts temperature trends similar to those observed in the andes the cooling along the chilean coast is not reproduced by the models but the mean sst warming is weaker there than any other part of the world except the southern ocean it is proposed that the intensification of the south pacific anticyclone during recent decades which is also a simulated consequence of global warming is likely to play a major role in maintaining cooler temperatures off the coast of chile

iib trioctahedral chlorite from the barberton greenstone belt crystal structure and rock composition constraints with implications to geothermometry iib trioctahedral chlorite in the barberton greenstone belt bgb metavolcanic rocks was formed during pervasive greenschist metamorphism the chem ical composition of the chlorite is highly variable with the fe fe mg ratio ranging from 0 12 to 0 8 among 53 samples the chemical variation of the chlorite results from the chemical diversity of the host rock especially the mgo content of the rock but major details of the variation pattern of the chlorite are due to the crystal structure of the chlorite all major cation abundances in the chlorite are strongly correlated with each other sil icon increases with mg and decreases with fe while aliv and alvi decrease with mg and increase with fe2 a complex exchange vector explains over 90 of the chlorite compositional variation mg4sife2 3alvi 1 aliv 1 which has 3 parts fe mg substitution coupled with one part tschermakite substitution this ratio is required to maintain the charge and site balances and the dimensional fit between the tetrahedral and octahedral sheets the subtle change in al substitution in chlorite implies that alvi is preferentially ordered in the m 4 site and about 84 of the alvi present is in the m 4 sites when they are nearly filled with alvi based on 47 analyzed chlorite bearing rock samples chlorite chl composition is strongly correlated with the mgo content of the host rock calculated correlation coefficients are 0 91 for sio2chl mgorock 0 87 for al2o3chl mgorock 0 89 for mgochl mgorock and 0 85 for feochl mgorock only weak correlations have been found between chlorite oxides and other oxides of rock between same oxides in chlorite and rock sio2 0 67 al2o3 0 59 feo 0 41 however mgochl is saturated at about 36 wt in rocks that have mgo above 22 wt the mgochl is about 5 wt when the host rock approaches 0 wt of mgo this implies that mg substituting into the chlorite is approximately limited to 1 5 9 2 mg atoms per formula unit and 1 0 3 2 aliv chlorite geothermometers can not be applied to all bgb samples however the empirical chlorite geothermometer based on aliv of chlorite may be applicable to chlorites formed under metamorphic conditions because it can predict the chemical composition of the chlorite from basaltic and dacitic samples in this study an estimated temperature of about 320 c for the greenschist metamorphism of the greenstone belt through this geothermometer is consistent with that obtained by other geothermometers

long term glacier variations in the central andes of argentina and chile inferred from historical records and tree ring reconstructed precipitation abstract snow and ice in the central andes of chile and argentina 33 36 s are the major source of water for the highly populated regions near the cities of santiago and mendoza however our knowledge of the forces driving the general glacier retreat in the region is limited in order to obtain a long term perspective of glacier fluctuations and their relationships with climate in the central andes historical glacier variations were documented and compared with a tree ring precipitation reconstruction based upon austrocedrus chilensis trees a multi proxy approach historical documents old aerial photographs and satellite imagery was used to map the fluctuations of eight glaciers including the cipreses glacier which provides the oldest record of glacier variations in the region starting in ad 1842 all the studied glaciers exhibited a negative trend during the 20th century with mean frontal retreats between 50 and 9 m y 1 thinning rates between 0 76 and 0 56 m y 1 and a mean ice area reduction of 3 since 1955 more than 350 tree ring cores were combined into three tree ring chronologies which strongly correlate with the instrumental precipitation in santiago de chile 33 26 s 70 41 w 520 m asl based on these records a 712 year precipitation reconstruction was developed this reconstruction is characterised by a centennial oscillation indicating marked dry conditions around the years 1440 and 1600 ad wet conditions were prevalent in the years 1500 1650 and particularly around 1850 ad since this precipitation maximum the reconstruction shows a clear secular decreasing trend the reduction in precipitation indicated by this reconstruction for the last 150 yr in combination with a significant warming recorded in central chile are the main causes of the observed current glacier retreats

stratigraphic and sedimentological evidence bearing on structural repetition in early archean rocks of the barberton greenstone belt south africa abstract the 3 5 3 3 ga old swaziland supergroup in the barberton greenstone belt south africa includes a lower predominantly volcanic unit the onverwacht group and an upper largely sedimentary section the fig tree and moodies groups although viljoen and viljoen concluded that the onverwacht group exceeds 15 km in stratigraphic thicknesses more recent workers have suggested that it represents a much thinner section of rocks repeated by folding and faulting our mapping indicates that the upper half of the group includes at least 8 km of unrepeated stratigraphic section inferences of structural repetition have arisen in part because a major shear zone is present in the upper half of the onverwacht group on the west limb of the onverwacht anticline shearing and the overturning of large blocks of the igneous sequence have combined with the later intrusion of felsic magma to produce a generally stratiform highly complex zone of deformation up to 2 km wide the displacement across the zone is unknown but the presence of unfaulted sections of this part of the stratigraphic sequence indicates that the gross stratigraphic arrangement of units within the group has not been significantly altered structures previously mapped as major fold hinges within the upper part of the onverwacht group can be shown to have formed by local deformation and reflect neither large scale folding nor structural repetition of the rocks several kilometers higher in the section rocks of the uppermost onverwacht and fig tree groups are stacked and repeated in a series of thrust nappes individual nappes extend for up to 15 km along strike and include as much as 900 m of allochthonous volcanic and sedimentary rocks they were apparently emplaced by faulting or gravity sliding at or near the earth s surface their formation involved the movement of sheets made largely up of sedimentary rocks along shear surfaces within underlying much weaker serpentinized ultramafic komatiites locally the sheets were deformed to form fold nappes the lower limbs of the fold nappes commonly show extreme attenuation and brittle deformation whereas the upper limbs are largely intact the thrust faults are the loci of small hypabyssal igneous bodies that appear to be co magmatic with a suite of upper fig tree volcanic rocks this style of faulting has not affected rocks of the overlying moodies group although estimates of the timing of deformation are as yet imprecise these features suggest that it occurred during a late fig tree phase of tectonism and volcanism

the new remote sensing derived swiss glacier inventory i methods a new swiss glacier inventory is to be compiled from satellite data for the year 2000 the study presented here describes two major tasks 1 an accuracy assessment of different methods for glacier classification with landsat thematic mapper tm data and a digital elevation model dem 2 the geographical information system gis based methods for automatic extraction of individual glaciers from classified satellite data and the computation of three dimensional glacier parameters such as minimum maximum and median elevation or slope and orientation by fusion with a dem first results obtained by these methods are presented in part ii of this paper kaab and others 2002 thresholding of a ratio image from tm4 and tm5 reveals the best suited glacier map the computation of glacier parameters in a gis environment is efficient and suitable for worldwide application the methods developed contribute to the u s geological survey led global land ice measurements from space glims project which is currently compiling a global inventory of land ice masses within the framework of global glacier monitoring haeberli and others 2000

corrensite and mixed layer chlorite corrensite in metabasalt from northern taiwan tem aem empa xrd and optical studies many chloritic minerals in low grade metamorphic or hydrothermally altered mafic rocks exhibit abnormal optical properties expand slightly upon glycolation expandable chlorite and or have excess alvi relative to aliv as well as significant ca k and na contents chloritic minerals with these properties fill vesicles and interstitial void space in low grade metabasalt from northern taiwan and have been studied with a combination of tem aem empa xrd and optical microscopy the chloritic minerals include corrensite which is an ordered 1 1 mixed layer chlorite smectite and expandable chlorite which is shown to be a mixed layer chlorite corrensite corrensite and some mixed layer chlorite corrensite occur as rims of vesicles and other cavities while later formed mixed layer chlorite corrensite occupies the vesicle cores the tem observations show that the mixed layer chlorite corrensite has ca 20 and the corrensite has ca 50 expandable smectite like layers consistent with xrd observations and with their abnormal optical properties the aem analyses show that high si and ca contents high alvi aliv and low fevi fe mg vi ratios of chlorites are correlated with interstratification of corrensite or smectite like layers in chlorite the aem analyses obtained from 200 500 a thick packets of nearly pure corrensite or chlorite layers always show that corrensite has low aliv siiv and low fevi fe mg vi while chlorite has high aliv siiv and high fevi fe mg vi this implies that the trioctahedral smectite like component of corrensite has significantly lower aliv siiv and fevi fe mg vi the ratios of fevi fe mg vi and aliv siiv thus decrease in the order chlorite corrensite smectite the proportions of corrensite or smectite like layers relative to chlorite layers in low grade rocks are inferred to be controlled principally by fe mg ratio in the fluid or the bulk rock and by temperature compositional variations of chlorites in low grade rocks which appear to correlate with temperature or metamorphic grade more likely reflect variable proportions of mixed layered components the assemblages of trioctahedral phyllosilicates tend to occur as intergrown discrete phases such as chlorite corrensite corrensite smectite or chlorite corrensite smectite a model for the corrensite crystal structure suggests that corrensite should be treated as a unique phase rather than as a 1 1 ordered mixed layer chlorite smectite

centreline and cross glacier air temperature variability on an alpine glacier assessing temperature distribution methods and their influence on melt model calculations the spatio temporal distribution of air temperature over mountain glaciers can demonstrate complex patterns yet it is often represented simplistically using linear vertical temperature gradients vtgs extrapolated from off glacier locations we analyse a network of centreline and lateral air temperature observations at tsanteleina glacier italy during summer 2015 on average vtgs are steep 1 but they are shallow under warm ambient conditions when the correlation between air temperature and elevation becomes weaker published along flowline temperature distribution methods explain centreline observations well including warming on the lower glacier tongue but cannot estimate lateral temperature variability application of temperature distribution methods improves simulation of melt rates rmse in an energy balance model by up to 36 compared to the environmental lapse rate extrapolated from an off glacier station however results suggest that model parameters are not easily transferable to glaciers with a small fetch without recalibration such methods have potential to improve estimates of temperature across a glacier but their parameter transferability should be further linked to the glacier and atmospheric characteristics furthermore cold spots which can be 2 c cooler than expected for their elevation whose occurrence is not predicted by the temperature distribution models are identified at one quarter of the measurement sites

comparison of satellite derived with ground based measurements of the fluctuations of the margins of vatnajokull iceland 1973 92 vatnajokull iceland is the earth s most studied ice cap and represents a classical glaciological field site on the basis of s palsson s seminal glaciological field research in the late 18th century since the 19th century vatnajokull has been the focus of an array of glaciological studies by scientists from many nations including many remote sensing investigations since 1951 landsat derived positions of the termini of 11 outlet glaciers of vatnajokull were compared with frontal positions of six of these 11 outlet glaciers determined by field observations during the period 1973 92 the largest changes during the 19 year period 1973 92 occurred in the large lobate surge type outlet glaciers along the southwestern western and northern margins of vatnajokull tungnaarjokull receded 1413 112 m 1380 1 m from ground observations and bruarjokull receded 1975 191 m 2096 5 m from extrapolated ground observations between 1973 and 1992 satellite images can be used to delineate glacier margin changes on a time lapse basis if the glacier margin can be spectrally discriminated from terminal moraines and sandur deposits and if the advance recession is larger than maximum image pixel size local knowledge of glaciers is critically important however in the accurate delineation of glacier margins on landsat images

the na ca amphibole albite chlorite epidote quartz geothermobarometer in the system s a f m c n h2o 1 an empirical calibration the proposed geothermobarometer is based on an empirical calibration which takes account of two equilibria involving the tremolite edenite pargasite and hastingsite components in amphiboles it has applications to assemblages found in metabasic rocks of widely different chemical compositions magnesian to fe rich metabasalts and for metamorphism ranging from lower greenschist to highest amphibolite facies knowing the si t1 aliv alvi fe3 fe2 mg ca nam4 naa and a vacancy in an amphibole and the al3 and xmg in coexisting epidote and chlorite it is possible to calculate two values of in kd for this assemblage these equilibria involve edenite tremolite and pargasite hastingsite tremolite end members in amphibole the calculation program is given for these equilibria the isopleths iso values of kd have been calculated for 0 27 xmg 0 75 and 0 xfe3 fe3 fe3 alvi 0 8 it is then possible to determine pressure and temperature directly when xmg xfe3 in kd for tremoliteedenite and in kd for pargasite hastingsite tremolite are known application of this geothermobarometer is limited to ca free plagioclase assemblages and complete p t paths can be drawn only if all the minerals are considered together phase relations at successive stages of crystallization can be constrained by studying the relationships between the coexisting minerals their zoning and the metamorphic fabrics

structure from motion photogrammetry a low cost effective tool for geoscience applications abstract high resolution topographic surveying is traditionally associated with high capital and logistical costs so that data acquisition is often passed on to specialist third party organisations the high costs of data collection are for many applications in the earth sciences exacerbated by the remoteness and inaccessibility of many field sites rendering cheaper more portable surveying platforms i e terrestrial laser scanning or gps impractical this paper outlines a revolutionary low cost user friendly photogrammetric technique for obtaining high resolution datasets at a range of scales termed structure from motion sfm traditional softcopy photogrammetric methods require the 3 d location and pose of the camera s or the 3 d location of ground control points to be known to facilitate scene triangulation and reconstruction in contrast the sfm method solves the camera pose and scene geometry simultaneously and automatically using a highly redundant bundle adjustment based on matching features in multiple overlapping offset images a comprehensive introduction to the technique is presented followed by an outline of the methods used to create high resolution digital elevation models dems from extensive photosets obtained using a consumer grade digital camera as an initial appraisal of the technique an sfm derived dem is compared directly with a similar model obtained using terrestrial laser scanning this intercomparison reveals that decimetre scale vertical accuracy can be achieved using sfm even for sites with complex topography and a range of land covers example applications of sfm are presented for three contrasting landforms across a range of scales including an exposed rocky coastal cliff a breached moraine dam complex and a glacially sculpted bedrock ridge the sfm technique represents a major advancement in the field of photogrammetry for geoscience applications our results and experiences indicate sfm is an inexpensive effective and flexible approach to capturing complex topography

a physical model for seismic noise generation from sediment transport in rivers measuring sediment flux in rivers remains a significant problem in studies of landscape evolution recent studies suggest that observations of seismic noise near rivers can help provide such measurements but the lack of models linking observed seismic quantities to sediment flux has prevented the method from being used here we develop a forward model to describe the seismic noise induced by the transport of sediment in rivers the model provides an expression for the power spectral density psd of the rayleigh waves generated by impulsive impacts from saltating particles which scales linearly with the number of particles of a given size and the square of the linear momentum after incorporating expressions for the impact velocity and rate of impacts for fluvially transported sediment we observe that the seismic noise psd is strongly dependent on the sediment size such that good constraints on grain size distribution are needed for reliable estimates of sediment flux based on seismic noise observations the model predictions for the psd are consistent with recent measurements and based on these data a first attempt at inverting seismic noise for the sediment flux is provided

radar interferogram filtering for geophysical applications the use of sar interferometry is often impeded by decorrelation from thermal noise temporal change and baseline geometry power spectra of interferograms are typically the sum of a narrow band component combined with broad band noise we describe a new adaptive filtering algorithm that dramatically lowers phase noise improving both measurement accuracy and phase unwrapping while demonstrating graceful degradation in regions of pure noise the performance of the filter is demonstrated with sar data from the ers satellites over the jakobshavns glacier of greenland

chronology of early archaean granite greenstone evolution in the barberton mountain land south africa based on precise dating by single zircon evaporation abstract we report precise 207 pb 206 pb single zircon evaporation ages for low grade felsic metavolcanic rocks within the onverwacht and fig tree groups of the barberton greenstone belt bgb south africa and from granitoid plutons bordering the belt dacitic tuffs of the hooggenoeg formation in the upper part of the onverwacht group yield ages between 3445 3 and 3416 5 ma and contain older crustal components represented by a 3504 4 ma old zircon xenocryst fig tree dacitic tuffs and agglomerates have euhedral zircons between 3259 5 and 3225 3 ma in age which we interpret to reflect the time of crystallization a surprisingly complex xenocryst population in one sample documents ages from 3323 4 to 3522 4 ma we suspect that these xenocrysts were inherited during the passage of the felsic melts to the surface from various sources such as greenstones and granitoid rocks now exposed in the form of tonalite trondhjemite plutons along the southern and western margins of the bgb and units predating any of the exposed greenstone or intrusive rocks several of the granitoids along the southern margin of the belt have zircon populations with ages between 3490 and 3440 ma coeval with or slightly older than onverwacht felsic volcanism while the kaap valley pluton along the northwestern margin of the belt is coeval with fig tree dacitic volcanism these results emphasize the comagmatic relationships between greenstone felsic volcanic units and the surrounding plutonic suites some of the volcanic and plutonic units contain zircon xenocrysts older than any exposed rocks these indicate the existence of still older units possibly stratigraphically lower and older portions of the greenstone sequence itself older granitoid intrusive rocks or bodies of older unrelated crustal material our data show that the onverwacht and fig tree felsic units have distinctly different ages and therefore do not represent a single tectonically repeated unit as proposed by others unlike the late archaean abitibi greenstone belt in canada which formed over about 30 ma exposed rocks in the bgb formed over a period of at least 220 ma the complex zircon populations encountered in this study imply that conventional multigrain zircon dating may not accurately identify the time of felsic volcanic activity in ancient greenstones a surprising similarity in rock types tectonic evolution and ages of the bgb in the kaapvaal craton of southern africa and greenstones in the pilbara block of western australia suggests that these two terrains may have been part of a larger crustal unit in early archaean times

compositional variations in mafic phyllosilicates from regional low grade metabasites and application of the chlorite geothermometer mafic phyllosilicates in metabasites affected by low grade regional metamorphism from wales and eastern north greenland show variations in their structure and chemistry these variations are related to four mineral zones in these metabasites which are recognized on the presence absence of various key calc silicate minerals and also actinolite zones 1 and 2 equate with the zeolite facies zone 3 with the prehnite pumpellyite facies or prehnite actinolite facies in rocks with appropriate bulk rock composition and zone 4 with the greenschist facies whilst variations in fe fe mg in chlorite correlate closely with fe fe mg ratios in the whole rock other chemical variations are clearly unrelated to whole rock compositions contents of aliv are seen to increase systematically in samples from zone 1 through to zone 4 which relate to an increase in temperature calibration of alteration temperatures calculated using the chlorite geothermometer based on aliv contents developed for meta andesites in the los azufres geothermal system mexico against x values an estimate of the proportion of chlorite to swelling component in the mafic phyllosilicates shows a decrease in the swelling component in passing from zone 1 to zone 4 i e with an increase in temperature calculated temperatures compare favourably with published stability estimates for the various key calc silicates and actinolite these data indicate that the chlorite geothermometer although developed for meta andesites from a hydrothermal system does show a correlation with temperatures estimated from calc silicate assemblages in metabasites affected by low grade metamorphism developed on a regional scale

two decades of glacier mass loss along the andes andean glaciers are among the fastest shrinking and largest contributors to sea level rise on earth they also represent crucial water resources in many tropical and semi arid mountain catchments yet the magnitude of the recent ice loss is still debated here we present andean glacier mass changes from 10 n to 56 s between 2000 and 2018 using time series of digital elevation models derived from aster stereo images the total mass change over this period was 22 9 5 9 gt yr 1 0 72 0 22 m w e yr 1 m w e metres of water equivalent with the most negative mass balances in the patagonian andes 0 78 0 25 m w e yr 1 and the tropical andes 0 42 0 24 m w e yr 1 compared to relatively moderate losses 0 28 0 18 m w e yr 1 in the dry andes subperiod analysis 2000 2009 versus 2009 2018 revealed a steady mass loss in the tropics and south of 45 s conversely a shift from a slightly positive to a strongly negative mass balance was measured between 26 and 45 s in the latter region the drastic glacier loss in recent years coincides with the extremely dry conditions since 2010 and partially helped to mitigate the negative hydrological impacts of this severe and sustained drought these results provide a comprehensive high resolution and multidecadal data set of recent andes wide glacier mass changes that constitutes a relevant basis for the calibration and validation of hydrological and glaciological models intended to project future glacier changes and their hydrological impacts glaciers in the andes have lost about 23 gt of mass per year between 2000 and 2018 with the fastest loss in patagonia according to time series of digital elevation models that are based on aster stereo images