late cenozoic structure and tectonics of the northern mojave desert in the fort irwin region of the northern mojave desert late cenozoic east striking sinistral faults predominate over northwest striking dextral faults of the same age kinematic indicators and offset marker units indicate dominantly sinistral strike slip on the east striking portions of the faults and sinistral thrust slip on northwest striking moderately dipping segments at the east ends of the blocks crustal blocks 7 10 km wide by 50 km long are bounded by complex fault zones up to 2 km wide at the edges and ends of each block faulting initiated after 11 ma and quaternary deposits are faulted and folded we document a minimum of 13 km cumulative sinistral offset in a north south transect from south of the bicycle lake fault to north of the drinkwater lake fault paleomagnetic results from 50 sites reveal two direction groups in early and middle miocene rocks the north to northwest declinations of the first group are close to the middle miocene reference pole however rock magnetic studies suggest that both primary and remagnetized directions are present in this group the northeast declinations of the second group are interpreted as primary and 63 5 7 6 clockwise from the reference pole and suggest net post middle miocene clockwise rotation of several of the east trending blocks in the northeast mojave domain the jurassic independence dike swarm in fort irwin may be rotated 25 80 clockwise relative to the swarm north of the garlock fault thus supporting the inference of clockwise rotation using a simple shear model that combines sinistral slip and clockwise rotation of elongate crustal blocks we predict 23 clockwise rotation using the observed fault slip or one third that inferred from the paleomagnetic results the discrepancy between slip and rotation may reflect clockwise bending at the ends of fault blocks where most of our paleomagnetic sites are located however at least 25 40 of clockwise tectonic rotation is consistent with the observed slip on faults within the domain plus possible rigid body rotation of the region evidenced by clockwise bending of northwest striking domain bounding faults our estimates of sinistral shear and clockwise rotation suggest that approximately half of the 65 km of dextral shear in the eastern california shear zone over the last 10 m y occurred within the northeast mojave domain the remainder must be accommodated in adjacent structural domains e g east of the avawatz mountains and west of the goldstone lake fault supporting appendices 1 and 2 are available on diskette or via anonymous ftp from kosmos agu org directory apend username anonymous password guest diskette may be ordered from american geophysical union 2000 florida avenue n w washington dc 20009 or by phone at 800 966 2481 15 00 payment must accompany order

absolute timing of sulfide and gold mineralization a comparison of re os molybdenite and ar ar mica methods from the tintina gold belt alaska new re os molybdenite dates from two lode gold deposits of the tintina gold belt alaska provide direct timing constraints for sulfide and gold mineralization at fort knox the re os molybdenite date is identical to the u pb zircon age for the host intrusion supporting an intrusive related origin for the deposit however 40ar 39ar dates from hydrothermal and igneous mica are considerably younger at the pogo deposit re os molybdenite dates are also much older than 40ar 39ar dates from hydrothermal mica but dissimilar to the age of local granites these age relationships indicate that the re os molybdenite method records the timing of sulfide and gold mineralization whereas much younger 40ar 39ar dates are affected by post ore thermal events slow cooling and or systemic analytical effects the results of this study complement a growing body of evidence to indicate that the re os chronometer in molybdenite can be an accurate and robust tool for establishing timing relations in ore systems

error analysis for the determination of tectonic rotation from paleomagnetic data appendix b is available with entire article on microfiche order from american geophysical union 2000 florida avenue n w washington d c 20009 document b83 001 2 50 payment must accompany order recent determinations of tectonic rotation and flattening from paleomagnetic data have exaggerated the size of the confidence limits or error bars by about 25 this has been caused by the misuse of conventional error propagation formulas to derive one degree of freedom error bars from a two dimensional cone of confidence 95 an analytical calculation which is valid when error bars are small shows that the correct error bars are 75 to 80 of the values derived in previous studies i have used numerical integration to check on the applicability of the analytical solution and to calculate error bars when the analytical approximation cannot be used the analytical approximation may be used whenever 95 is less than 10 and the mean inclination is not too close to vertical confidence limits given for tectonic rotation and flattening in recent literature are too large and should be reduced by 20 25 narrowing the error bars in this way permits a more accurate interpretation of paleomagnetic data

a new calibration point for the late miocene section of the geomagnetic polarity time scale 40ar 39ar dating of lava flows from akaroa volcano new zealand recent dating of geomagnetic field reversals over the past 2 ma by both the radiometric and astrochronologic techniques indicates that the k ar derived ages for these reversals are too young we report herein on 40ar 39ar incremental heating study of two geomagnetic field reversals trapped in lavas on akaroa volcano new zealand that demonstrate that the k ar derived ages for field reversals at 10 9 ma are too young by about 7 the new age for the termination of chron 5 a critical tie point on the geomagnetic polarity time scale for late miocene time is 9 67 0 11 ma

paleomagnetism of middle miocene volcanic rocks in the mojave sonora desert region of western arizona and southeastern california paleomagnetic directions have been obtained from 190 early to middle miocene 12 20 ma mafic volcanic flows in 16 mountain ranges in the mojave sonora desert region of western arizona and southeastern california these flows generally postdate early miocene tectonic deformation accommodated by low angle normal faults but predate high angle normal faulting in the region after detailed demagnetization experiments 179 flows yielded characteristic directions interpreted as original thermal remanent magnetizations trm because of the episodic nature of basaltic volcanism in this region the 179 flows yielded only 65 time distinct virtual geomagnetic poles vgps the angular dispersion of the 65 vgps is consistent with the angular dispersion expected for a data set that has adequately averaged geomagnetic secular variation the paleomagnetic pole calculated from the 65 cooling unit vgps is located at 85 5 n 108 9 within a 4 4 circle of 95 confidence this pole is statistically indistinguishable at 95 confidence from reference poles calculated from rocks of similar age in stable north america and from a paleomagnetic pole calculated from rocks of similar age in baja california the coincidence of paleomagnetic poles from the mojave sonora desert region with reference poles from the stable continental interior indicates that 1 significant vertical axis net tectonic rotations have not accompanied post middle miocene high angle normal faulting in this region 2 there has been no detectable post middle miocene latitudinal transport of the region and 3 long term nondipole components of the middle miocene geomagnetic field probably were no larger than those of the recent 0 5 ma geomagnetic field in contrast paleomagnetic data indicate vertical axis rotations of similar age rocks in the transverse ranges the eastern transverse ranges and the mojave block we speculate that a major structural discontinuity in the vicinity of the southeastward projection of the death valley fault zone separates western areas affected by vertical axis rotations from eastern areas that have not experienced such rotations

different crustal sources for au rich and au poor ores of the grasberg cu au porphyry deposit abstract the grasberg is a porphyry copper deposit that is crosscut by a second stage mineralization which is greatly enriched in gold sulfides from the porphyry type event yield a 2 9 0 3 ma re os isochron that agrees with published geochronology the initial 187os 188os ratio of the isochron is 0 56 0 02 and implies a significant crustal component for the source of os and by inference the other base metals the samples from the crosscutting secondary event do not form an isochron but form a mixing line with the older porphyry style mineralization as one of the end members and a very radiogenic end member possibly shale the initial 187os 188os ratios from samples of the second event range from 0 81 to 1 26 and correlate with gold content the most radiogenic samples have the highest gold the re os isotope data indicate different crustal sources for the ore forming elements at the grasberg cu au deposit and support a model in which gold is derived from sedimentary protoliths that may have been pre enriched by sedimentary processes the gold derived from these sources is concentrated by magmatic hydrothermal systems the requirement of a sedimentary source for gold to produce hydrothermal gold deposits has been debated for decades and this study provides strong support for the model

pliocene pleistocene asymmetric unroofing of the irian fold belt irian jaya indonesia apatite fission track thermochronology the central range of new guinea is an orogenic belt up to 100 km wide and more than 1300 km long with numerous peaks over 3 km high the orogen was generated since the middle miocene by the collisional underthrusting of the northern passive margin of the australian continent into a north dipping subduction zone beneath the melanesian island arc south of puncak jaya the highest peak in new guinea pliocene pleistocene uplift and unroofing have exposed tertiary carbonates and mesozoic clastic rocks of a rift and passive margin sequence above unmetamorphosed paleozoic strata and greenschist facies slates probably of precambrian age eight magmatic apatite samples from pliocene intrusions of intermediate composition in the gunung bijih ertsberg mining district at the crest of the central range in irian jaya indonesia yield pooled fission track ages ranging between 3 7 0 9 and 2 0 0 3 ma 1 long etchable mean track lengths 14 m and narrow track length distributions indicate rapid cooling as expected for shallow level intrusions these track length data and the observation that the grasberg pluton was emplaced into its own volcanic cover indicate that 2 km of material has been eroded from the top of this part of the range since the pliocene seven detrital apatite samples from the triassic jurassic tipuma and the carboniferous permian aiduna formations and apatite from two igneous dikes exposed halfway down the southern slope of the range yield pooled fission track ages ranging between 2 7 0 7 and 2 0 0 5 ma 1 etchable mean track lengths of 9 12 m and wide track length distributions indicate slower cooling compared to the pliocene intrusions complete resetting of provenance fission track ages in detrital apatite requires burial deeper than 4 km unroofing rates are 1 7 km m y on the southern flank of the range but 0 7 km m y at the crest these fission track data combined with local and regional geologic relationships indicate that unroofing of the irian fold belt occurred at least two and a half times faster and perhaps more than five times faster on the lower slope than at the crest this difference is probably due to regional weather patterns that result in up to 11 m yr of orographically induced precipitation on the southern slope of the irian central range but only 3 m yr near the highest elevations

structural geology and 40ar 39ar geochronology of the goldstone lane mountain area mojave desert california metasedimentary rocks near goldstone california consist in ascending structural order of 1 a calc silicate hornfels unit 2 a quartzite schist and radiolarian chert unit and 3 a calcareous and pelitic sequence of rocks that contains minor basaltic or andesitic composition dikes sills and flows unit 1 is of unknown but probably pre mesozoic age unit 2 is lower paleozoic in part ordovician and is correlative to lower paleozoic eugeoclinal rocks in the el paso mountains north of the garlock fault unit 3 is probably correlative to upper paleozoic permian basinal sequences in the el paso mountains these rocks were strongly deformed during a progressive deformational event that caused isoclinal to tight folding about northwest southeast trending fold axes and northeast dipping axial planes tectonic transport during this deformation was in a southwesterly direction similarity of structural trends to those in the el paso mountains suggests that the deformation in these two areas is the same age and predates intrusion of permo triassic plutons in the el paso mountains regional relationships suggest that deep water metasedimentary rocks in the northwestern mojave desert and in the el paso mountains are allochthonous with respect to miogeoclinal and cratonal paleozoic rocks elsewhere in the mojave the emplacement of the allochthonous rocks postdates deposition of permian strata and predates permo triassic to earliest triassic deformation and plutonism this deformation involved both eugeoclinal and miogeoclinal sequences and took place within an andean arc setting the subsequent mesozoic history of these two parts of the mojave desert has been the same 40 ar 39 ar data on hornblende biotite and muscovite in the goldstone and lane mountain quadrangles indicate that a plutonic complex consisting of gabbro quartz diorite and tonalite was intruded during the late jurassic probably slightly earlier than 148 m y ago voluminous granitic rocks were intruded during the late cretaceous about 85 90 m y ago these younger plutonic rocks caused variable resetting of all k ar systems in older rocks cooling of late cretaceous plutons to about 280 40 c occurred by about 78 4 m y regional uplift of these rocks to a crustal level where no further diffusive loss of argon took place occurred at about 45 m y ago

the osmium isotopic composition of organic rich marine sediments abstract the osmium os concentration and 187 os 186 os ratio of several recent marine organic rich sediment samples from three widely separated sites have been measured os concentrations range from 0 095 to 0 212 ppb and 187 os 186 os ratios range from 8 2 to 8 9 the calculated fraction of hydrogenous os exceeds 78 in all samples thus the 187 os 186 os ratio of these samples reflects os isotopic composition of seawater the small range in measured 187 os 186 os ratio indicates that the os isotopic composition at these sites is fairly homogeneous the large magnitude of the os burial flux at these sites indicates the os burial in association with organic rich sediments is an important sink in the marine cycle of os these data also suggest that ancient organic rich sediments may provide a record of past variations in the os isotopic composition of seawater

a re os isotope study of sedimentary rocks and copper gold ores from the ertsberg district west papua indonesia abstract the ores of the ertsberg district consist of both porphyry stockwork and contact controlled mineralization related to the grasberg and ertsberg intrusion centers high grade copper mineralization with gold occurs in skarns on the periphery of each of the intrusion centers the periphery mineralization includes the kucing liar skarn related ores the massive sulfide lenses on the borders of the grasberg intrusive complex and the giant skarn bodies of the deep and intermediate ore zones together with the ores of the dom complex on the margin of the ertsberg diorite the ertsberg orebody the basis of discovery of the district is a copper gold roof pendant of sedimentary strata in the diorite in order to clarify genetic and geochronologic links between the peripheral sediment hosted ore bodies and the intrusion hosted ore bodies re os isotopes of the ores and subjacent precambrian and phanerozoic crust were analyzed re os geochronology of molybdenites was used to resolve the age relationships of the ore bodies the grasberg and kucing liar molybdenites have older molybdenite mineralization ages of 2 88 0 02 ma and 3 01 0 02 ma respectively whereas the ertsberg molybdenite has a younger age of 2 54 0 02 ma these data agree with ar chronologies of the alteration associated with mineralization pollard and taylor 2000 pollard p j taylor r 2000 geochronology of intrusive rocks and cu au mineralization in the ertsberg district in proceedings of freeport institut teknologi bandung itb geological symposium bandung java pp 17 19 and also indicate that the grasberg and kucing liar molybdenites are closely similar in age and older than the ertsberg intrusive system re os data from pyrite chalcopyrite magnetite gold and the surrounding sedimentary rocks from the district define a mixing relationship between samples from the initial stockwork mineralization and peripheral ores of each intrusion center sulfide and oxide minerals from primary stockwork mineralization are isotopically homogeneous and define trends on isochron diagrams with distinct os initial ratios whereas sulfides and oxides taken from peripheral ores are isotopically heterogeneous and define trends on mixing diagrams one possible end member for the mixing is sedimentary rock surrounding the porphyries the measured os ratios of the sedimentary rocks range from 0 52 to 2 21 and overlap the os initial ratios of the sulfides and oxides sampled from both stockwork and contact mineralization the data suggest a model in which the continental crust supplied some of the os and by inference other metals during magma genesis in the lower crust and the remainder came from sedimentary rocks near the intrusion centers

precious metal mineralogy in porphyry skarn and replacement type ore deposits of the ertsberg gunung bijih district irian jaya indonesia petrographic and electron microprobe analyses of native au and a variety of sulfide minerals indicate a generally high but widely varying native au fineness and a cu fe sulfide host for most ag in the gunung bijih timur complex of cu au skarn deposits the big gossan and dom cu skarn deposits and the grasberg porphyry cu au deposit native au rims bornite in veins and forms inclusions in bornite and chalcopyrite in samples from grasberg and from the gunung bijih timur complex as well as filling open space in quartz veins in the complex skarn and quartz veins in the big gossan area host native au in association with pyrite pyrrhotite galena chalcopyrite sphalerite and arsenopyrite native au from the gunung bijih timur complex has a wide but bimodal range of fineness 920 to 990 and 340 to 820 avg 860 native au from grasberg samples is or 930 fine avg 960 fineness of big gossan au ranges from 540 to 960 avg 830 although compositional ranges are small within most individual samples native au from grasberg falls into two groups with respect to pd pd bearing or 3 500 ppm avg 1 800 ppm and with no detectable pd fire assay of grasberg ore reveals trace but detectable 10 ppb pd 500 ppb avg or 50 ppb concentrations of pd and no detectable pt native au from the gunung bijih timur complex averages twice as much cu as that from grasberg 1 7 vs 0 8 wt cu native au from big gossan has uniformly low cu contents or 1 200 ppm cu avg 300 ppm mass balance calculations and analytical data indicate that the bulk of the ag in the gunung bijih timur complex is contained by bornite indicating a partitioning of ag into bornite relative to native au or a discrete ag mineral this is supported by the consistent positive correlation of cu and ag throughout the gunung bijih timur complex as well as in grasberg and dom ag bearing galena occurs in the big gossan area but is rare in the grasberg the gunung bijih timur complex and the dom orebodies the high fineness of native au from the gunung bijih district represents the upper end of the reported range for porphyry and skarn type cu au deposits but is similar to values reported elsewhere in indonesia the fineness of native au in the gunung bijih timur complex does not appear to be controlled by depth or distance from the local intrusive contact mineral assemblage or paragenetic relationship the fineness of native au from the big gossan area shows a positive correlation with elevation suggestive of a lower temperature more distal character than in the other skarns of the district differences in pd contents may be related to acidity and redox conditions during native au deposition high cu high pd and low ag compositions of au grains in pan concentrates suggest a porphyry or cu skarn source relative to a more distal source compositional characteristics identified in this study may have applications to exploration within the ertsberg district and elsewhere

an apparent shear zone trending north northwest across the mojave desert into owens valley eastern california strain rates measured at four geodetic networks in eastern california situated between northern owens valley and transverse ranges along a small circle drawn about the pacific north america pole of rotation are remarkably consistent each exhibits 0 14 mu rad yr simple right lateral engineering shear strain accumulation across the local vertical plane tangent to the small circle local faults e g owens valley garlock helendale traversing these networks are not as closely aligned with the vertical planes of maximum shear strain accumulation as is the local tangent to the small circle a fifth network slightly east of the small circle shows no significant strain accumulation thus a shear zone trending n35 degree w from near the eastern end of the big bend of the san andreas fault to northern owens valley is indicated by these data this corresponds to the eastern california shear zone proposed on geological evidence by dokka and travis the shear zone carries approximately 8 mm yr of the pacific north america relative plate motion from the san andreas fault north northwest across the mojave desert into owens valley and the northern basin and range province the shear zone observed at the surface may be a manifestation of a through going subcrustal fault

fluid inclusion noble gas and halogen evidence on the origin of cu porphyry mineralising fluids the naturally occurring noble gas isotopes 40ar 36ar 84kr and 129xe and halogens cl br i have been determined simultaneously in irradiated quartz vein samples by noble gas mass spectrometry quartz vein samples were collected from the potassic and propylitic alteration zones of six porphyry copper deposits pcd bingham canyon utah and silverbell ray mission pinto valley and globe miami in arizona in addition analyses of 3he 4he have been obtained from sulphide minerals hosted by the quartz veins at silverbell ray pinto valley and globe miami the majority of pcd fluids studied have br cl and i cl ratios that overlap those of fluids included in mantle diamond suggesting that the salinity had a juvenile origin the high i cl 121 10 6 mole m in samples from the propylitic zone of silverbell is attributed to the presence of sedimentary formation water 3he 4he ratios have r ra values in the range 0 3 to 1 72 and provide evidence for the involvement of a crustal component in addition to mantle volatiles 40ar 36ar ratios vary from meteoric values of 317 in the propylitic zone of bingham canyon and 323 in the skarn alteration of mission up to 3225 in the potassic zone of pinto valley fluids in both the potassic and propylitic alteration zones of every deposit are a mixture of a low salinity end member comprising meteoric water and air and a high salinity end member consisting of a mixed mantle and crustal fluid the 40ar cl ratio of fluid inclusions at pinto valley 10 4 m is similar to values obtained previously for mantle fluids the 40ar cl value is two orders of magnitude lower at bingham canyon where a depleted 36ar concentration 0 2 10 6 cm3 g below that of air saturated water asw and a range of highly fractionated noble gas compositions f84kr 13 and f129xe 160 indicate that boiling and pulsed fluid flow have occurred

block rotations along the strike slip finlay ingenika fault north central british columbia implications for paleomagnetic and tectonic studies structure developed in association with oblique motions on the dextral strike slip finlay ingenika fault fif in the mcconnell creek area north central british columbia is dominated by subvertical to vertical strike slip faults some of the faults cut the area into discrete fault bounded blocks several kilometres wide stress tensors for 24 sites were inverted from the regional cleavage which predates the block bounding faults the site mean stress tensors indicate that the fault bounded blocks were rotated clockwise about a subvertical axis during progressive oblique motions on the fif rotation varies systematically being maximal 58 7 3 3 close to the fif and minimal 0 0 1 6 about 20 km away paleomagnetic samples were collected from 13 sites in the widespread early jurassic to cretaceous plutonic rocks interpretable magnetic components of presumed late cretaceous age were obtained from six sites the observed paleopole is significantly different from the late cretaceous reference pole for cratonal north america cna after corrections for the local block rotations the precision is much improved k increased from 48 to 383 and the paleopole moves closer to the reference pole but is not coincident with it rotation about the eulerian pole for the best fitting small circle to the tintina trench and northern rocky mountain trench fault zone however brings the observed pole into coincidence with that for cna and requires 670 km of dextral displacement on the fault zone it is evident therefore that local structures associated with large dextral strike slip faults could account for at least part of the paleomagnetic disparity between some western parts of the canadian cordillera and cna

neogene clockwise tectonic rotation of the eastern transverse ranges california suggested by paleomagnetic vectors results from a paleomagnetic study of neogene volcanic rocks situated within and around the pinto basin region of the eastern transverse ranges suggest that the ranges have undergone a clockwise tectonic rotation of 41 4 7 7 since late miocene time both normal and reversed polarities are observed and inclination data indicate no significant flattening the rotation was accompanied by progressive sinistral slip on the several east west trending faults which bound and transect the eastern transverse ranges a computation using the observed amount of cumulative left slip on the east west trending faults of the eastern transverse ranges 50 km and the spacing between the pinto mountain and salton creek faults which bound the region 70 km indicates that 35 of clockwise rotation is required which roughly agrees with the paleomagnetic data removal of the eastern transverse ranges rotation in a reconstruction shows that the distributed dextral shear across the mojave desert region to the north must have been on the order of 100 km since late miocene time from the results of this study we infer that crustal rotation of the eastern transverse ranges began later and is of less magnitude than that of the western transverse ranges

re os ages for archean molybdenite and pyrite kuittila kivisuo finland and proterozoic molybdenite kabeliai lithuania testing the chronometer in a metamorphic and metasomatic setting seven 187re 187os ages were determined for molybdenite and pyrite samples from two well dated precambrian intrusions in fennoscandia to examine the sustainability of the re os chronometer in a metamorphic and metasomatic setting using a new 187re decay constant 1 666 10 11y 1 with a much improved uncertainty 0 31 we determined replicate re os ages for molybdenite and pyrite from the kuittila and kivisuo prospects in easternmost finland and for molybdenite from the kabeliai prospect in southernmost lithuania these two localities contain some of the oldest and youngest plutonic activity in fennoscandia and are associated with newly discovered economic au mineralization ilomantsi finland and a cu mo prospect kabeliai lithuania two re os ages for vein hosted kabeliai molybdenite average 1486 5 ma in excellent agreement with a 1505 11 ma u pb zircon age for the hosting kabeliai granite pluton the slightly younger age suggests the introduction of cu mo mineralization by a later phase of the kabeliai magmatic system mean re os ages of 2778 8 ma and 2781 8 ma for kuittila and kivisuo molybdenites respectively are in reasonable agreement with a 2753 5 ma weighted mean u pb zircon age for hosting kuittila tonalite these re os ages agree well with less precise ages of 2789 290 ma for a rb sr whole rock isochron and 2771 75 ma for the average of six sm nd tdm model ages for kuittila tonalite three re os analyses of a single pyrite mineral separate from the same sample of kuittila pluton that yielded a molybdenite separate provide individual model ages of 2710 27 2777 28 and 2830 28 ma re 17 4 12 1 and 8 4 ppb respectively with a mean value of 2770 120 ma in agreement with the kuittila molybdenite age the re and 187os abundances in these three pyrite splits are highly correlated r 0 9994 and provide a 187re 187os isochron age of 2607 47 ma with an intercept of 21 ppt 187os mswd 1 1 it appears that the re os isotopic system in pyrite has been reset on the millimeter scale and that the 21 ppt 187os intercept reflects the in situ decay of 187re during the 160 to 170 m y interval from 2778 ma time of molybdenite pyrite deposition to 2607 ma time of pyrite resetting when the re os data for molybdenites from the nearby kivisuo prospect are plotted together with the kuittila molybdenite and pyrite data a well constrained five point isochron with an age of 2780 8 ma and a 187os intercept 2 4 3 8 ppt of essentially zero results mswd 1 5 we suggest that the pyrite isochron age records a regional metamorphic and or hydrothermal event possibly the time of au mineralization a proposed re os age of 2607 ma for au mineralization is in good agreement with radiometric ages by other methods that address the timing of archean au mineralization in deposits worldwide so called late au model molybdenite in contrast provides a robust re os chronometer retaining its original formation age of 2780 ma despite subsequent metamorphic disturbances in archean and proterozoic time

the study of molybdenites through the187re 187os chronometer we determined the re and os concentrations in 11 molybdenites of various ages 30 2700 m y and from various areas no common osmium has been detected and os was found to be purely radiogenic therefore by comparing the concentrations we were able to determine 187 re 187 os ages for most samples these ages are in good agreement with those measured in surrounding rocks and probably correspond to the age of mineralization however two or three re os ages seem unreliable being probably related to some rhenium leaching through later metamorphic and or hydrothermal events this shows that the petrographic characteristics of ores and the type of crystallization of mos 2 are important in choosing samples suitable for dating re and os determinations combined with careful petrographic investigations may give important clues on the genesis and evolution of molybdenum ores

phanerozoic ocean cycles and sedimentary rock hosted gold ores the worldwide occurrence of au ores associated with phanerozoic strata reveals a bimodal temporal association with either older paleozoic or younger mesozoic successions these strata were deposited mostly in passive margin environments synchronously with formation of volcanogenic massive sulfide ores on active margins during times of high sea level widespread submarine oceanic volcanism reduced and at least locally sulfidic oceans and episodes of ocean anoxia this correspondence of ocean properties and ages of strata that host au seems beyond coincidence cause and effect cannot yet be described with confidence but beyond the evolution of chemically reduced strata the reduced oceans may also have been favorable to the enhancement of au in certain strata that may constitute metallotects of au

the osmium isotopic composition of the continental crust osmium isotopic compositions and concentrations have been determined for deltaic and continental shelf sediments from three major rivers the amazon changjiang and mississippi and for two loesses from the upper mississippi river valley the loesses have heavy mineral and clay compositions characteristic of mississippi river and delta sediment concentrations range from 15 to 120 pg os g and 187os 186os ratios range from 8 2 to 10 9 sediments which are polluted surface sediment from the changjiang estuary or which have scavenged metals from seawater gulf of mexico slope surface sediment and distal amazon shelf sediment have high osmium concentrations and less radiogenic isotopic compositions purely terrigenous sediments have 15 90 pg os g and 187os 186os 10 0 10 9 north american loess and mississippi delta sediment osmium isotopic compositions are indistinguishable we believe that 187os 186os 10 11 is a good average for currently eroding upper continental crust these sediments have neodymium isotopic compositions close to the global mean for river sediment terrigenous 187os 186os is significantly more radiogenic than seawater 187os 186os 8 6 requiring a nonriverine source of osmium to seawater terrigenous osmium is also significantly more radiogenic than bulk pelagic clay osmium we use the improved estimate of terrigenous 187os 186os to recalculate the flux of extraterrestrial osmium to pacific marine sediment if the residence age of osmium in an upper crustal region is similar to the neodymium model age of a sediment derived from that region a model dependent upper crustal 187re 186os ratio can be calculated for the model ages of the sediments analyzed in this study tdm 1 5 1 7 ga model 187re 186os ratios are 340 360 and can be used to correct for bias resulting from the preferential erosion of young crust the 187os 186os ratio of 2 2 ga crust with 187re 186os 400 is 14 2 we have also used the data from this study to estimate upper crustal osmium and rhenium concentrations of 50 pg g and 390 pg g respectively

chasing the garlock a study of tectonic response to vertical axis rotation vertical axis clockwise block rotations in the northeast mojave block are well documented by numerous authors however the effects of these rotations on the crust to the north of the northeast mojave block have remained unexplored in this paper we present a model that results from mapping and geochronology conducted in the north and central owlshead mountains the model suggests that some or all of the transtension and rotation observed in the owlshead mountains results from tectonic response to a combination of clockwise block rotation in the northeast mojave block and basin and range extension the owlshead mountains are effectively an accommodation zone that buffers differential extension between the northeast mojave block and the basin and range in addition our model explores the complex interactions that occur between faults and fault blocks at the junction of the garlock brown mountain and owl lake faults we hypothesize that the bending of the garlock fault by rotation of the northeast mojave block resulted in a misorientation of the garlock that forced the owl lake fault to break in order to accommodate slip on the western garlock fault subsequent sinistral slip on the owl lake fault offset the garlock creating the now possibly inactive mule springs strand of the garlock fault dextral slip on the brown mountain fault then locked the owl lake fault forcing the active leach lake strand of the garlock fault to break

a re os study of sulfide minerals from the bagdad porphyry cu mo deposit northern arizona usa rhenium and osmium isotopes in sulfide minerals from the bagdad porphyry cu mo deposit have been used to determine timing of mineralization and the source of osmium and by inference ore metals molybdenite chalcopyrite and pyrite were analyzed mainly from the quartz monzonite and porphyritic quartz monzonite units which are characterized by moderate to strong potassic alteration secondary biotite and k feldspar rhenium concentrations in molybdenite are between 330 and 642 ppm four re os analyses of two molybdenite samples from the quartz monzonite and porphyritic quartz monzonite yield a weighted average age of 71 8 0 2 ma 2 analyses of a third sample from a molybdenite vein in precambrian rocks outside of the main ore zone yield a weighted average age of 75 9 0 2 ma 2 and provide evidence of two separate mineralization episodes chalcopyrite samples contain 6 to 12 ppt os and 1 7 to 4 1 ppb re 187os 188os initial ratios are between 0 1 and 0 8 pyrite samples have osmium and rhenium concentrations varying in the range 8 17 ppt and 3 9 6 8 ppb respectively analyses from these pyrite samples yield an eight point isochron with an age of 77 15 ma 2 and an initial 187os 188os ratio of 2 1 0 8 mswd 0 90 the results presented here add to the growing body of work indicating that porphyry type mineralization is produced by long term multiple episodes of magmatism and associated mineralization the data also support the hypothesis that a significant part of the metals and magmas may have a crustal source as has been suggested for other copper deposits and districts in arizona

rhenium and osmium isotopes in black shales and ni mo pge rich sulfide layers yukon territory canada and hunan and guizhou provinces china rhenium and osmium abundances and osmium isotopic compositions were determined by negative thermal ionization mass spectrometry for samples of devonian black shale and an associated ni enriched sulfide layer from the yukon territory canada the same composition information was also obtained for samples of early cambrian ni mo rich sulfide layers hosted in black shale in guizhou and hunan provinces china this study was undertaken to constrain the origin of the pge enrichment in the sulfide layers samples of the ni sulfide layer from the yukon territory are highly enriched in re os and other pge with distinctly higher re 192os but similar pt re compared to the black shale host re os isotopic data of the black shale and the sulfide layer are approximately isochronous and the data plot close to reference isochrons which bracket the depositional age of the enclosing shales samples of the chinese sulfide layers are also highly enriched in re os and the other pge re 192os are lower than in the yukon sulfide layer re os isotopic data for the sulfide layers lie near a reference isochron with an age of 560 ma similar to the depositional age of the black shale host the osmium isotopic data suggest that re and pge enrichment of the brecciated sulfide layers in both the yukon territory and in southern china may have occurred near the time of sediment deposition or during early diagenesis during the middle to late devonian and early cambrian respectively

paleomagnetic and structural evidence for localized tectonic rotation associated with fault drag in the northeastern mojave desert implications for the late cenozoic tectonic evolution of the eastern california shear zone abstract paleomagnetic data coupled with detailed geological analysis of the southeastern goldstone lake region indicate that lower miocene volcanic and epiclastic rocks of the pink canyon area have been folded faulted and tectonically rotated 28 4 9 0 clockwise about a vertical axis identical rocks lying to the west across the goldstone lake fault east branch have been rotated 9 6 7 4 the coyote canyon fault is locally folded about a vertical axis 25 in a clockwise sense in the pink canyon area timing relationships indicate that rotation is post early miocene regional relationships imply that deformation is late miocene to holocene in age these relationships imply that tectonic rotation is local rather than regional in extent as proposed by some tectonic models the results of this study are generally consistent with the dokka and travis 1 model and the subsequently revised dokka model 2 of strain partitioning in the northeastern mojave desert block

experimental constraints on the partitioning of rhenium and some platinum group elements between olivine and silicate melt abstract we have performed partitioning experiments to assess the role of olivine in controlling the behavior of rhenium and the platinum group elements pges during basalt petrogenesis olivines were crystallized from an iron bearing basalt at 1 bar 105 pa and log fo2 of 2 6 4 9 and 7 4 fmq 4 3 2 and 0 5 respectively in situ analyses of olivine and glass by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry la icp ms reveal a homogeneous distribution of ru rh pd re and pt but significant os heterogeneity at the m scale this latter behavior arises from the presence of undissolved os micronuggets suspended in the melt and included in olivine crystals olivine melt partition coefficients ds for re and the pges follow the order drh dru dpd dre dpt with decreasing fo2 rh and ru become more compatible with maximum partition coefficients of 2 6 and 2 respectively at log fo2 of 4 9 in contrast d values for pd become smaller with decreasing fo2 to a value of 0 006 at log fo2 of 7 4 olivine melt partitioning of rh ru pd re and pt derived from our experiments is confirmed by the behavior of these elements in lavas that have evolved by olivine fractionation an elastic strain model predicts the olivine melt partitioning of these elements excepting our measured value of dpt which is much lower the fo2 dependence on partitioning implies that at higher fo2 some portion of pges exist in higher valence states than predicted from their solubility

paleomagnetic results from the mogollon datil volcanic field southwestern new mexico and a refined mid tertiary reference pole for north america miocene oligocene rocks of the mogollon datil volcanic field in southwestern new mexico have yielded paleomagnetic data giving 61 site mean unit vgps and a paleomagnetic pole located at 81 9 n 143 6 e a95 4 5 k 17 6 this pole is indistinguishable from other mid tertiary reference poles for north america combining the mogollon datil data with vgp data from other studies of mid tertiary 20 40 ma rocks yields a paleomagnetic pole at 81 5 n 147 3 e n 239 a95 2 4 k 15 4 when divided into normal and reversed polarity subsets the data yield paleomagnetic poles that are statistically different at the 95 confidence level mcfadden and lowes 1981 the paleopole determined from reversely magnetized units located at 78 6 n 138 5 e n 125 a95 3 4 k 14 5 is 6 8 on the far side of the paleopole determined from normally magnetized units positioned at 84 2 n 166 4 e n 114 a95 3 3 k 17 0 when viewed from a common site location i e the western united states similar pole positions an differences are also seen in 10 ma subsets of this data set incomplete removal of a normal overprint on the reversely magnetized units appears unlikely to explain these results rather we suggest that the differences are consistent with the concept that differing harmonics may be associated with the two polarity states over the long term merrill and mcelhinny 1977 merrill et al 1979

collapse of southwestern north america and the evolution of early miocene detachment faults metamorphic core complexes the sierra nevada orocline and the san andreas fault system plate reconstructions indicate that early miocene pacific north american relative motion was not parallel to the transform but was instead oblique and transtensional we propose that the western edge of the north american plate east of the transform gravitationally collapsed to the southwest in response to this divergence the northern and eastern edges of the collapsed region underwent extension between 24 and 20 ma whereas extension in southeastern california and southern arizona during this interval was coaxial with the overall s50 60 w collapse direction the extension direction along the northern oundary mojave extensional belt was north south and the result of the combined effects of the southwestward collapse and the independent northwestward translation of the region to the north collapse continued between 20 and 16 ma and extension persisted in southeastern california and southern arizona extension along the northern boundary waned owing to the apparent cessation of motion of the region to the north thus the kinematics of the northern boundary changed to dextral shear and extension along what is here named the trans mojave sierran shear zone this east west zone of mainly right shear oroclinally folded the southern tail of the sierra nevada and the central mojave desert rocks within this 83 110 km wide zone were rotated approx 40 60 clockwise about vertical axes finally as collapse moved the north american plate progressively west across the locus of transform shear its western edge became increasingly subject to the motion of the pacific plate over time the edge of north america was truncated by faults of the san andreas system and transferred to the pacific plate

rhenium behavior in molybdenite in hypogene and near surface environments implications for re os geochronometry abstract rhenium is concentrated mainly in molybdenite mos2 and occurs as a major cation in only a few rare minerals this affinity makes molybdenite an ideal mineral for re os geochronometry but research on the behavior of re in molybdenite is limited infrared microscope xrd back scattered electron bse and microprobe techniques have been used in this study to document re behavior in molybdenite affected by hypogene and near surface processes in the hypogene environment both 3r and 2h molybdenite can experience re loss during hydrothermal alteration which also causes increased infrared transparency ir alteration at temperatures as low as 150 c can cause re loss in the presence of advecting fluids and will affect re os dating if it occurs long after primary mineralization re loss in 3r and 2h molybdenite under supergene conditions does not increase ir transparency rhenium is not incorporated into supergene ferrimolybdite but is enriched in k al silicate intergrowths which may be illite these minute intergrowths are present in several samples and would not be detected in a simple optical examination in the supergene environment elemental os is stable whereas re is not rhenium in molybdenite may be removed by supergene fluids after some has decayed to 187os causing erroneously old ages or it may be adsorbed into the illite intergrowths creating ages which are too young in the weathering environment proterozoic molybdenites have altered to re enriched powellite which can be detected using back scattered electron imagery combined microprobe xrd bse and infrared microscopy can be successfully used to detect alteration in molybdenite prior to dating these techniques are non destructive and should be performed before any molybdenite is dated by the re os system

simple shear of southern california during neogene time suggested by paleomagnetic declinations we have studied the paleomagnetism of various neogene age rocks in southern california as a means of determining the amounts of oligocene and younger tectonic rotation and translation which has occurred in this region our results suggest that fully 25 of this area in particular the transverse ranges has undergone extreme clockwise rotation work in southeastern california implies that 40 of clockwise rotation has occurred here although paleomagnetic declinations adjacent to a major right lateral fault are apparently rotated over 200 the crustal block bounded by the san gabriel and san andreas fault has undergone a net clockwise rotation of 35 although the data here can be interpreted to show that an original early miocene rotation of about 50 was followed by a late miocene or pliocene counterclockwise rotation of 15 paleomagnetic results from the offshore islands suggests that san clemente santa barbara and san nicolas islands have not rotated but santa catalina has undergone about 90 of clockwise rotation all of the northern channel islands including anacapa santa cruz santa rosa and san miguel are implied to have rotated 70 or 80 clockwise this result is also found for the santa monica mountains east of anacapa island in the santa ynez range north of the channel islands paleomagnetic study of the monterey formation also indicates large clockwise rotations of near 90 these data also suggest that the santa maria basin is not rotated and that the north boundary of the rotated region is the santa ynez river fault stratigraphic control on the paleomagnetic data from the monterey formation implies that the rotation began about 16 m y ago and may be continuing today in the western region paleomagnetic inclination data from our study show that the northern channel islands in particular may have translated 15 northward since middle miocene time however equally valid interpretations of these same data are that the low inclinations are due to the combined effects of erroneous structural corrections non dipole magnetic field behavior and right offset on the san andreas fault system palinspastic reconstruction of southern california regions for the early miocene implies that parts of the transverse ranges structures were once aligned with north trending extensional structures in the southwestern united states we propose that pacific american plate interactions both rifted the continental crust to create this pattern and rotated the western most structures within a dextral simple shear zone which had a half width of about 400 km

size frequency distributions of rocks on mars and earth analog sites implications for future landed missions the size frequency distribution of rocks at the viking landing sites and a variety of rocky locations on the earth that formed from a number of geologic processes all have the general shape of simple exponential curves which have been combined with remote sensing data and models on rock abundance to predict the frequency of boulders potentially hazardous to future mars landers and rovers rock data from the near field of the viking landers where dimensions can be measured accurately in stereo images and estimates from the far field of viking 1 have convex up curved shapes on log log graphs of cumulative frequency per square meter or cumulative fractional area versus diameter the rock data show a sharp drop off at large diameters and a progressive approach to a plateau with decreasing diameter approaching the total rock coverage which can be fit well with simple exponential functions similar shaped size frequency distributions of rocks are found at a wide variety of rocky surfaces on the earth and can be fit well with simple exponential functions this distribution is compatible with fracture and fragmentation theory which provides a physical basis for its wide application a combined fit to rock area data at both viking sites was made with a general exponential function in which the pre exponential is the total area covered by rocks simple linear height versus diameter relationships were also derived from height diameter ratios at the viking sites which suggest that rockier areas on mars have higher standing rocks than less rocky areas height was then substituted into the general exponential function derived for diameter yielding the cumulative fractional area of rocks versus height for any given total rock coverage on mars results indicate that most of mars is rather benign with regard to hazards from landing on large rocks for total rock coverage of 8 equivalent to modal rock coverage on mars and the viking 1 site without the outcrops about 1 of the surface is covered by 20 cm or higher rocks a lander designed to accommodate landing on 0 5 m high boulders such as the mars pathfinder airbag system could land on a surface covered by about 20 rocks similar to the viking 2 site which is rockier than 95 of the planet with 1 of the surface covered by rocks of 0 5 m or higher

high resolution magnetic stratigraphy of fluvio lacustrine succession in the nihewan basin china abstract a detailed paleomagnetic and rock magnetic investigation of nihewan fluvio lacustrine deposits at tai ergou 40 o 12 52 n 114 o 38 22 e hebei province of north china has been carried out the results show that the magnetic mineralogy is dominated by magnetite and high coercivity hematite maghemite occurs mainly in the grayish yellow yellowish brown silt layers and fine grained yellow sand beds either as a detrital component or as the result of low temperature oxidation of magnetite distinct variations in magnetic susceptibility are always associated with changes in lithology i e color and grain size of the sediments reflecting the frequent lowering ascendance of the water table level and change of sedimentation environment based on paleomagnetic results of thermal and af demagnetization experiments we present an unambiguous polarity stratigraphy for the exposed lacustrine fluvial sediments at tai ergou consisting of three normal magnetozones including the brunhes chron the jaramillo and olduvai subchrons and two reversed zones belonging to the matuyama chron this suggests that the nihewan basin carries a long continuous stratigraphic record albeit varying in sedimentation facies and sedimentation rates consequently we concluded that the nihewan lacustrine sediments at tai ergou commenced depositing at the onset of the olduvai subchron and the tai ergou section can be used as a dating tool for biochronological and high resolution magnetostratigraphic purposes