an empirical method to forecast the effect of storm intensity on shallow landslide abundance alii 2009 and involve failure of soil and weathered bedrock layers they are commonly fractions of a meter to several meters deep rarely exceeding 10 m in width or length a fraction of these failures mobilize as debris flows mixtures of soil water and rock that sweep down steep valleys at high velocities and destroy homes and infrastructure with little warning varved sediments in the santa barbara basin southern california may contain the geologic record of the largest storms over the past millennium schimmelman et alii 2003 layers interpreted as storm deposits have a periodicity of several hundred years not unlike earthquake recurrence intervals for the san andreas fault these deposits are substantially thicker than those associated with storms of january 1969 the most recent historic events to generate widespread landslides in southern california if layer thickness scales with storm intensity these layers imply that southern california has experienced storms that are massive compared to our recent historical experience unlike seismic hazard maps available for some large faults we cannot begin to quantify the magnitude of landslide hazards that will accompany such a storm put simply we cannot answer the question of how many shallow landslides california s largest storms would trigger we are beginning to understand more about what such massive storms might look like recent work ralph et alii 2006 neiman et alii 2008 illustrates that some of california s largest storms are atmosabstract we hypothesize that the number of shallow landslides a storm triggers in a landscape increases with rainfall intensity duration and the number of unstable model cells for a given shallow landslide susceptibility model of that landscape for selected areas in california usa we use digital maps of historic shallow landslides with adjacent rainfall records to construct a relation between rainfall intensity and the fraction of unstable model cells that actually failed in historic storms we find that this fraction increases as a power law with the 6 hour rainfall intensity for sites in southern california we use this relation to forecast shallow landslide abundance for a dynamic numerical simulation storm for california representing the most extreme historic storms known to have impacted the state

cenozoic ice volume history development of a composite oxygen isotope record to view cenozoic ice volume and ocean temperature history a composite 18 o time series was constructed for tropical shallow dwelling planktonic foraminifers and for deep water benthic foraminifers we conclude that cenozoic benthic 18 o primarily reflect considerable deep ocean temperature variation and that tropical planktonic 18 o afford the best record of cenozoic ice volume the planktonic composite indicates the presence of a significant ice budget for the past 40 m y the difference between the benthic and planktonic 18 o composites suggests that low latitude production of warm saline bottom water dominated tertiary thermohaline circulation

carbon isotope chemostratigraphy and implications of palaeoclimatic changes during the cisuralian early permian in the southern urals russia abstract in order to meet the requirements for potential gssps in the cisuralian series early permian isotopic chemostratigraphy from the carboniferous permian boundary to middle artinskian using bulk carbonates was investigated under high resolution biostratigraphical and new geochronologic constrains from three gssp candidate sections at usolka kondurovsky and dal ny tulkas in the southern urals russia a gradually increasing trend in carbonate carbon isotope 13 c has been observed in the interval from the base of asselian to early sakmarian which is generally consistent in timing with the increasing development of glacial iii or p1 from the latest carboniferous to early sakmarian early permian which prevailed in southern gondwana an excursion with double negative shifts in 13 c value is present around the asselian sakmarian boundary in both the usolka and kondurovsky sections which may have great potential to serve as chemostratigraphical marks for intercontinental correlation the following highly positive excursion of 13 c in early sakmarian indicates the maximium expansion of glacial iii or p1 the negative 13 c shift in the middle sakmarian is possibly related to the quick collapse of glacial iii or p1 on the gondwanaland this negative shift is largely correlative with those documented in other areas of russia the north american craton and south china but further precise biostratigraphical and geochronologic constrains are neccessary to confirm this global signal the late sakmarian is characterized by a strong oscillation stage of 13 c which probably indicates a complex climate transition marked by smaller alternating glacial interglacial transitions during glacial p2 superimposed on an overall warming trend the sharp negative 13 c shift around the sakmarian artinskian boundary at the dal ny tulkus section is difficult to interpret this is followed by long term low values 13 c values in the artinskian at the dal ny tulkas section might result regionally from the enhanced input of organic carbon after the melt out of ice sheets and the subsequent degradation and isotopic refractionation of the microbial chemosynthetic processes on the buried organic matter

sulfur isotope change across the early mississippian k o kinderhookian osagean δ13c excursion abstract paired carbonate associate sulfate cas sulfur isotopes 34 scas pyrite sulfur isotopes 34 spy and cas oxygen isotopes 18 ocas across the early mississippian k o 13 c excursion are documented from two sections of a west dipping carbonate ramp in the southern great basin western u s a a 4 6 positive 34 scas anomaly accompanied by negative shifts in 34 spy and 18 ocas is found within the k o 13 c excursion in the section with a broader 13 c excursion 34 s 34 s 34 scas 34 spy increases from 15 to 45 and 13 ccarb drops from 7 to 4 at the same stratigraphic interval if this 34 scas anomaly represents a global phenomenon the large magnitude 4 6 and short duration shorter than that of 13 c suggest an unusual pyrite burial event that expanded from sediments to the ocean water column in this scenario the areal and volumetric expansion of sulfate reduction and pyrite burial was likely triggered by abundantly available organic matter near the peak of the k o 13 c excursion during which organic carbon production and burial may have reached a maximum thus substantially expanding the oxygen minimum zone omz numerical simulations suggest that pyrite burial rates 2 5 5 times higher than that of the modern ocean followed by sulfide oxidation are required to produce the observed 34 scas anomaly in a sulfate rich so4 28 mm early mississippian ocean alternatively the sulfur and cas oxygen isotope anomalies may record local sulfur cycling in a foreland basin where changes in weathering input and bottom water redox conditions in response to sea level fall and cooling resulted in isotope changes in both scenarios either local or global the integrated carbon sulfur and cas oxygen isotope data suggest a much more dynamic sulfur cycle across the k o 13 c excursion than has been previously suggested

n2 fixing cyanobacteria supplied nutrient n for cretaceous oceanic anoxic events the abundance of specific membrane lipids 2 methylhopanoids indicates that cyanobacteria played a key role in the seemingly global deposition of black shales during the early aptian ca 120 5 ma and late cenomanian ca 93 5 ma oceanic anoxic events organic matter rich sediments deposited during these events are characterized by a 15n content typical of newly fixed n2 indicating that cyanobacterial n2 fixation was the main source for nutrient n we propose that denitrification and anaerobic ammonium oxidation effectively cut off the return of nutrient n from the anoxic deep waters to the photic zone in the oceans giving n2 fixing cyanobacteria a competitive advantage over algae during these oceanic anoxic events

contrasting watermass conditions during deposition of the whitby mudstone lower jurassic and kimmeridge clay upper jurassic formations uk abstract the whitby mudstone formation wmf and kimmeridge clay formation kcf are both jurassic organic rich black shale units containing well preserved marine organic matter despite such gross similarities they exhibit opposite trends in 13 c toc versus wt decarbonated total organic carbon toc r 0 76 for wmf and 0 71 for kcf the 13 c toc versus toc trend also varies geographically within both units only the kcf data exhibit a positive correlation between 13 c toc and 15 n org r 0 76 and the presence of aryl isoprenoids probable indicators of photic zone anoxia maturity differences are insufficient to explain such contrasts bulk and compound specific isotopic variations in the kcf are interpreted largely as a reflection of primary productivity during deposition rather than a dominantly diagenetic signal due to incorporation of sulphurised carbohydrate the contrasts between the formations and the geographic variation in coeval shelf sediments are explained by a model stressing the relative positions and stabilities of the chemocline pycnocline nutricline and euphotic zone and the effect these have on productivity co 2 recycling and bacterial floras

time partitioning in cratonic carbonate rocks dissimilarity in relations between thickness duration and accumulation rate in holocene sections metre scale phanerozoic cycles and epoch interval phanerozoic sequences reflects variation in the distribution of depositional and hiatal time at different scales of observation modern accumulation rates are strongly dependent on duration of deposition lower rates correspond to longer durations phanerozoic cycle thicknesses are similar to those of holocene sections suggesting that both formed while filling similar amounts of accommodation space however accumulation rates of phanerozoic cycles and sequences are about two orders of magnitude less than in modern settings and they show neither strong dependence on duration of accumulation nor significant variation over phanerozoic time hence net accumulation is primarily controlled by regional subsidence rate these relations also allow for determination of that fraction of cycle period recorded as rock and that corresponding to hiatal time at intercycle boundaries depending on subsidence rate and amount of compaction most cratonic carbonate units accumulated over 3 to 30 of the time represented by sequences in which they occur

models for circulation patterns in epicontinental seas applied to paleozoic facies of north america craton circulation in epicontinental seas develops in response to thermohaline wind driven and tidal motions in various climatic geographic and bathymetric settings mass balance relations in a seaway are established by the relative rates of outflow inflow freshwater and ocean water and evaporation which constrain two contrasting styles of epicontinental circulation quasietuarine circulation qec is established where rates of freshwater influx exceeds evaporation surface outflow from a seaway with qec typically is balanced by inflow of oceanic water at depth a density stratification can be established below the limits of vertical mixing a bottom layer of oxygen poor or anoxic water may develop in a seaway with or without an entrance sill if the bottom waters are derived from the oxygen minimum zone of the open ocean or if organic productivity exceeds the limits of aerobic respiration upwelling may be promoted in specific epicontinental settings with qec antiestuarine circulation aec is developed in arid climates where evaporation exceeds freshwater influx evaporative concentration in the surface layer causes oxygenated water to sink bottom outflow of denser more saline water is balanced by surface inflow from the open ocean a sill or barrier may inhibit bottom circulation in seas with aec permitting development of a basal brine layer stagnation in the brine layer may lead to oxygen depletion seas with aec commonly are characterized by extensive carbonate evaporite facies geographic and stratigraphic syntheses of lithofacies and biofacies provide the empirical basis for interpretations of seaway dynamics in ancient epicontinental settings examples from the upper ordovician maquoketa formation and upper devonian lime creek sweetland creek formations of cratonic north america are interpreted in the context of stratified qec patterns in each case oxygen poor to anoxic waters appear to have impinged along the basin slope below the margin of an oxygenated carbonate shelf upwelling along the shelf margin in the maquoketa example helps explain the distribution of phosphatic sediments a stratified aec pattern is interpreted for the gower formation silurian of eastern iowa a barrier to bottom circulation at the mouth of an embayment in the epicontinental sea resulted in a basal layer of hypersaline water devoid of shelly benthos surface water salinities increased progresively shoreward within the embayment but benthic organisms flourished where carbonate mounds built upward into the oxygenated layer

preservation of elemental and isotopic source identification of sedimentary organic matter the amount and type of organic matter in the sediments of lakes and oceans contribute to their paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatological records only a small fraction of the initial aquatic organic matter survives destruction and alteration during sinking and sedimentation selective degradation modifies the character of the surviving small fraction of organic matter which becomes incorporated in bottom sediments organic matter alterations can continue to sub bottom depths of hundreds of meters corresponding to millions of years source and paleoenvironmental information nonetheless remains preserved in the molecular elemental and isotopic compositions of organic matter c n and 13c values of total organic matter in particular appear to retain paleoenvironmental information for multi myr time periods

high resolution stable isotope stratigraphy of upper ordovician sequences constraints on the timing of bioevents and environmental changes associated with mass extinction and glaciation the two phases of the late ordovician mass extinction are approximately coeval with the periods of rapid climate change associated with the onset and demise of the gondwanan glaciation in this paper we argue that the distinctive late ordovician carbon isotope profile provides a chronostratigraphic ruler against which a sequence of environmental and biotic events may be located the ruler also allows regional and global high resolution correlation of successions representing very different environments cores from the upper ordovician succession of estonia and latvia record a large 1 3 c c a r b o n a t e excursion up to 6 with a similar profile shape the consistent relationship between the chemostratigraphy and biostratigraphy in the baltic region suggests that the isotope profile has a regional chronostratigraphic value the presence of similar profiles in nevada united states suggests that the excursion is a global chronostratigraphic signal this interpretation enables a detailed correlation to be made between upper ordovician shallow marine and basinal sequences that have wholly different faunas successions in the baltic area and in canada that do not display the model profile are interpreted as incomplete reinter pretation of these important successions significantly modifies the global database used to assess the pattern of diversity change during the mass extinction key levels of environmental change have been located against the carbon isotope profile new oxygen isotope data from brachiopod and ostracode calcite set tight limits on the start of the glacial events cooling and sea level fall started at the same stratigraphic level as the start of the carbon isotope excursion the later rise in sea level and fall in oxygen isotope values record the end of the glaciation these restrict the duration of the main glaciation to only 1 5 graptolite zones we propose that models of the carbon cycle should be adapted to be consistent with the temporal relationships between carbon cycling sea level fall and temperature change documented here the chronostratigraphic ruler provided by the carbon isotope profiles is used as a scale to determine the sequence of biotic changes and to allow high resolution correlation of biotic events at different locations this approach identifies regional similarities and differences in the patterns of extinction the main phase of graptolite extinction in the monitor range nevada for example is synchronous with the chitinozoan extinction in the baltic region but chitinozoan taxa survive to higher levels in nevada the benthic faunas in the baltic region demonstrate that the main extinction event corresponded with the beginning of the isotope excursion at the start of the hirnantian the level at which the marine environment started to change rapidly but that there were further extinctions of species within the early hirnantian the cold adapted hirnantia fauna did not appear immediately after the extinction in this area the relationship between the second phase of extinction and the carbon isotope excursion is less clear but the available data suggest that the extinction coincides with a time of rapid environmental change but not at the inception of environmental change as happened in the first phase

the tice event perturbation of carbon nitrogen cycles during the mid tournaisian early carboniferous greenhouse icehouse transition abstract carbonate carbon 13ccarb and bulk nitrogen 15n isotopic variation during the mid tournaisian was analyzed in the malanbian and long an sections of south china their c isotope profiles document a large positive excursion herein termed the mid tournaisian carbon isotope excursion tice during the siphonodella isosticha conodont zone although its magnitude differed between the two sections 6 at malanbian versus 3 at long an the tice event coincided with sedimentologic and oxygen isotopic evidence of climatic cooling and glaciation during the mid tournaisian it was probably triggered by an increase in organic carbon burial rates linked to changes in global ocean circulation the study sections also document a large positive shift in 15n from 1 7 to 4 2 at malanbian and from 1 5 to 3 8 at long an the n isotope shift shows no termination within the study sections and is likely to mark the onset of an extended interval of 15n enriched marine nitrate that lasted for the duration of the late paleozoic ice age its initiation coincided with tice and thus may have been linked to ocean circulation changes that resulted in intensified upwelling and an increase in water column denitrification the continuation of the n isotope shift over millions of years may have been linked to glacio eustatic fall and a long term shift in the locus of denitrification from continental shelf sediments to continent margin oxygen minimum zones the tice event thus marks the onset of sustained continental glaciation during the late paleozoic ice age

perturbation of the marine nitrogen cycle during the late ordovician glaciation and mass extinction abstract the late ordovician was a critical interval in geologic history during which both the biosphere and marine environments underwent severe perturbations including one of the big five phanerozoic mass extinctions and the massive but short term 0 5 myr hirnantian glaciation the onset and termination of the hirnantian glaciation have been widely accepted as the triggers for the two extinction pulses that comprise the late ordovician biocrisis but the mechanisms that caused the hirnantian glaciation itself remain poorly known here we analyze the nitrogen isotope composition 15 n of two sections in south china wangjiawan and nanbazi in order to better understand nitrogen cycle perturbations in the late ordovician ocean and their relationship to contemporaneous climatic and biogeochemical changes low 15 n 1 in the upper katian and lower rhuddanian of both sections suggests intensive i e near quantitative denitrification and thus nitrogen fixation as the main source of biologically available nitrogen for primary producers a positive 15 n excursion in both sections during the hirnantian indicates weaker i e non quantitative denitrification possibly as a result of more vigorous thermohaline circulation and improved ocean ventilation weaker denitrification would have reduced the flux of n 2 o an intermediate product of denitrification to the atmosphere n 2 o is a potent greenhouse gas and a major decline in its production would have led to cooler climatic conditions and ultimately the hirnantian glaciation a global survey of published nitrogen isotope records suggests that similar processes operated broadly within the late ordovician global ocean

isotopic constraints on glacial interglacial changes in the oceanic nitrogen budget early deglacial maximum in nitrate 15 n 14 n in suboxic zones and no significant glacialto late holocene change in global ocean nitrate 15 n 14 n consistent with the work of brandes and devol 2002 we find that the steady state 15 n 14 n of oceanic nitrate is controlled primarily by the fraction of total denitrification that occurs in the water column therefore a deglacial peak in the ratio of water column to sediment denitrification caused by either a strong feedback between water column denitrification and the n reservoir or by an increase in sediment denitrification due to sea level rise can explain the observed deglacial 15 n 14 n maximum in sediments underlying water column denitrification zones the total denitrification rate and the mean ocean nitrate concentration are also important determinants of steady state nitrate 15 n 14 n for this reason modeling a realistic deglacial 15 n 14 n maximum further requires that the combined negative feedbacks from n2 fixation and denitrification are relatively strong and n losses are relatively small our results suggest that the glacial oceanic n inventory was at most 30 greater than today s and probably less than 10 greater index terms 4267 oceanography general paleoceanography 4805 oceanography biological and chemical biogeochemical cycles 1615 4845 oceanography biological and chemical nutrients and nutrient cycling 4870 oceanography biological and chemical stable isotopes keywords feedback nitrogen isotopes paleoceanography

potential availability of sedimentary phosphorus to sediment resuspension in florida bay the central bay the spatial pattern of tsp is consistent with distribution of both seagrass and phytoplankton that are limited by available phosphorus in florida bay among the five pools the authigenic carbonate fluorapatite biogenic apatite and caco3 bound phosphorus account for the largest fraction 45 of tsp of which inorganic phosphorus is the dominant form and organic phosphorus accounts for about 30 in the western and north central regions and less than 10 in other areas of florida bay the second largest pools are the refractory organic phosphorus 24 of tsp and reductant soluble inorganic phosphorus 19 of tsp readily exchangeable phosphorus accounts for 8 of tsp of which organic phosphorus is 60 detrital apatite phosphorus of igneous or metamorphic origin represents the smallest fraction only 5 of tsp spatial distribution of phosphorus and iron in sediments indicates that external sources of these two essential plant nutrients to florida bay are spatially separated with phosphorus introduced by west coast waters across the western margin of florida bay and iron from freshwater flow into the eastern region index terms 1030 geochemistry geochemical cycles 0330 1050 geochemistry marine geochemistry 4835 4850 4805 oceanography biological and chemical biogeochemical cycles 1615 4845 oceanography biological and chemical nutrients and nutrient cycling keywords florida bay phosphorus sediment

oxygen isotope evolution of biogenic calcite and apatite during the middle and late devonian oxygen isotope ratios of well preserved brachiopod calcite and conodont apatite were used to reconstruct the palaeotemperature history of the middle and late devonian by assuming an oxygen isotopic composition of 1 v smow for devonian seawater the oxygen isotope values of eifelian and early givetian brachiopods and conodonts give average palaeotemperatures ranging from 22 to 25 c late givetian and frasnian palaeotemperatures calculated from 18o values of conodont apatite are close to 25 c in the early frasnian and increase to 32 c in the latest frasnian and early famennian oxygen isotope ratios of late givetian and frasnian brachiopods are significantly lower than equilibrium values calculated from conodont apatite 18o values and give unrealistically warm temperatures ranging from 30 to 40 c diagenetic recrystallization of shell calcite different habitats of conodonts and brachiopods as well as non equilibrium fractionation processes during the precipitation of brachiopod calcite cannot explain the 18o depletion of brachiopod calcite moreover the 18o depletion of brachiopod calcite with respect to equilibrium 18o values calculated from conodont apatite is too large to be explained by a change in seawater ph that might have influenced the oxygen isotopic composition of brachiopod calcite the realistic palaeotemperatures derived from 18o apatite may suggest that biogenic apatite records the oxygen isotopic composition and palaeotemperature of palaeozoic oceans more faithfully than brachiopod calcite and do not support the hypothesis that the 18o 16o ratio of devonian seawater was significantly different from that of the modern ocean

changes in ocean denitrification during late carboniferous glacial interglacial cycles rates of denitrification below some oceanic upwelling zones reach a maximum during periods when sea level rise was fastest throughout the pleistocene glacial cycles nitrogen isotope data from north american shales deposited 300 million years ago during palaeozoic glaciations are indicative of a similar pattern

enhanced nitrogen fixation in the immediate aftermath of the latest permian marine mass extinction the carbon 13 c org and nitrogen 15 n isotopic compositions of bulk organic matter were analyzed in two high resolution permian triassic transitional sections containing microbialite in south china the results from these shallow marine sections show that an abrupt negative shift in 15 n from 3 to 0 occurred immediately after the latest permian mass extinction lpe in both sections concurrent with a distinct negative shift in 13 c org the persistently low values of 15 n suggest that following the lpe microbial nitrogen fixation became the main source of biologically available nitrogen in the nanpanjiang basin and perhaps over a broader region of the eastern paleotethys ocean enhanced n fixation is probably indicative of the prevalence of stratified anoxic water masses characterized by intense denitrification and or anaerobic ammonium oxidation at the time perturbation of the marine nitrogen cycle might have contributed to high temperatures following the main marine mass extinction through the release of the greenhouse gas n 2 o the sharp declines in 15 n and 13 c org may be ascribed to an abrupt change in shallow water microbial communities which differed in composition from contemporaneous deep water communities

a global marine fixed nitrogen isotopic budget implications for holocene nitrogen cycling 1 a nitrogen stable isotopic model was constructed in order to constrain the holocene marine fixed nitrogen budget the primary sources and sinks considered were riverine and atmospheric sources nitrogen fixation sedimentary and water column denitrification and sediment burial the source budget was found to be insensitive to changes in nitrogen fixation rates and thus could not be used to constrain this term however the isotopic value of fixed nitrogen losses was very sensitive to the amount of sedimentary denitrification if the isotopic value of marine fixed nitrogen has not changed during the holocene as supported by sedimentary records then in order to balance the isotopic value of sinks and sources approximately 280 tg n yr 1 of sedimentary denitrification is required if such a high rate of denitrification has been sustained throughout the holocene it implies that present day estimates of marine nitrogen fixation are grossly underestimated it also implies that the marine nitrogen budget has a residence time of less than 2000 years

orbital control on carbon cycle and oceanography in the mid cretaceous greenhouse we established a new high resolution carbonate carbon isotope record of the albian interval of the marne a fucoidi formation central apennines italy which was deposited on the southern margin of the western tethys ocean bulk carbonate sampled with 10 15 cm spacing was used for the construction of a continuous carbon isotope curve through the albian stage spectral analyses reveal prominent 400 kyr cyclicity in the 13c curve which correlates with milankovitch long eccentricity changes cycles occurring in our record resemble those observed in several cenozoic 13c records suggesting that a link between orbital forcing and carbon cycling existed also under mid cretaceous greenhouse conditions based on comparisons with cenozoic eccentricity carbon cycle links we hypothesize that 400 kyr cycles in the mid cretaceous were related to a fluctuating monsoonal regime coupled with an unstable oceanic structure which made the oceanic carbon reservoir sensitive to orbital variations in the tethys these oceanographic conditions lasted until the late albian and then were replaced by a more stable circulation mode less sensitive to orbital forcing

seismic imaging of crust beneath the dharwar craton india from ambient noise and teleseismic receiver function modelling we use cross correlation of continuous 18 months 2009 february to 2010 august ambient noise data recorded over 35 broad band seismographs in the archean dharwar craton and the adjoining granulite terrain to generate rayleigh wave group velocity maps in the period 5 28 s this is supplemented with longer period data 40 70 s from earthquake source combined group velocity measurement was inverted jointly with the teleseismic receiver functions obtained at 50 stations includes 15 stations operated during 1998 2002 to produce shear velocity image of the crust the velocity image reveals thinner crust 34 38 km in the late archean 2 7 ga eastern dharwar craton edc while all other terrains mid archean and proterozoic have crustal thickness from 40 to over 50 km the mid archean 3 36 ga greenstone belt of the western dharwar craton wdc has the thickest crust 50 km the average crustal vs beneath the edc is 3 70 3 78 km s 1 as compared to 3 80 3 95 km s 1 beneath the wdc we observe significant lateral variation in the thickness of lower crust vs 3 8 4 2 km s 1 10 15 km in the edc compared to 20 30 km in the wdc the lowermost part of the crust vs 4 0 km s 1 is thin 5 km beneath the edc in contrast to more thickness 10 27 km beneath the wdc our analysis suggests intermediate composition for the crust beneath the edc similar to those for other cratons in contrast the mid archean exposed wdc crust has more mafic composition and exceptional thickness a scenario at variance with the global observations we interpret this thick mafic crust to represent undeformed geological segment of 3 36 ga the edc with a nearly flat moho felsic to intermediate composition of crust and thin basal layer may represent a reworked terrain during the late archean

carbon and oxygen isotope stratigraphy of the lower mississippian kinderhookian lower osagean western united states implications for seawater chemistry and glaciation a positive carbon isotope 1 3 c excursion has been recognized in upper kinderhookian and early osagean carbonates in three sections in southeast idaho and nevada the oldest 1 3 c peak 7 is dated to the isostichaconodont zone and a younger peak occurs in the typicus zone the shifts are recorded in a range of carbonate lithofacies representing various water depths along the shelf lithofacies sampled for 1 3 c and 1 8 o at the samaria mountain section in southeast idaho record the shallowest water conditions indicated by cross bedded skeletal and peloidal grainstones the deepest water conditions are present in the pahranagat range section in eastern nevada which consists mainly of bioturbated lime mudstone and skeletal wackestone the 1 3 c values from these widely separated sedimentary basins show a consistent trend that correlates with early mississippian curves generated from brachiopod calcite in western europe and the midcontinent of north america as well as dolomites in utah and wyoming 1 8 o values become more positive up section generally paralleling the positive trend in 1 3 c during the late kinderhookian no subaerial exposure surfaces are recognized in the sections examined in southeast idaho and nevada and at least the 1 3 c trends are interpreted as primary seawater fluctuations sea level changes occurred near the beginning of the late kinderhookian 1 3 c shift early to middle parts of the isosticha zone and within the peak of the 1 3 c excursion kinderhookian osagean boundary although tectonic changes associated with the antler orogeny have likely modified the eustatic signature

millennial scale oscillation of denitrification intensity in the arabian sea during the late quaternary and its potential influence on atmospheric n2o and global climate the intensity of denitrification in the arabian sea during the last 65 kyr is reconstructed using high resolution 15 n records of three sediment cores in conjunction with other geochemical tracers for water column oxygenation and productivity the results reveal a close link to the greenland ice core record with low or absent water column denitrification during the last glacial maximum the stadials and at the time of the heinrich events including the younger dryas in contrast denitrification was high during the holocene and the interstadials the intensification of denitrification is related to stronger sw monsoonal upwelling which enhances organic matter flux and degradation resulting in a strengthening of the midwater oxygen deficiency such a combination of enhanced upwelling and denitrification has also been implied for the eastern tropical north pacific etnp where these events occur during the holocene and to some extent during the interstadials too today the arabian sea and the etnp together contribute substantially to the global marine water column denitrification and a significant fraction of the ocean atmosphere n 2 o flux originates from these areas changes in n 2 o emissions from these areas could thus have effected the recently described stadial interstadial variations in the atmospheric concentration of this greenhouse gas as deduced from ice cores moreover denitrification is the major sink for oceanic nitrate and provides a primary control for the oceanic nutrient inventory which in turn influences global primary productivity and co 2 sequestration by the biological pump short term switches between a nondenitrification mode and a denitrification mode in these marine regions therefore have an impact on global climate

the impacts of land plant evolution on earth s climate and oxygenation state an interdisciplinary review abstract the paleozoic emergence of terrestrial plants has been linked to a stepwise increase in earth s o2 levels and a cooling of earth s climate by drawdown of atmospheric co2 vegetation affects the earth s o2 and co2 levels in multiple ways including preferential organic carbon preservation by decay resistant biopolymers e g lignin and changing the continental weathering regime that governs oceanic nutrient supply and marine biological production over shorter time scales 1 myr land plant evolution is hypothesized to have occasionally enhanced p weathering and fertilized the oceans expanding marine anoxia and causing marine extinctions oceanic anoxia would eventually become limited by oceanic o2 uptake as oxygen accumulates in the atmosphere and surface oceans when excess organic carbon is buried in marine sediments here we review hypotheses and evidence for how the evolving terrestrial ecosystems impacted atmospheric and oceanic o2 and co2 from the ordovician and into the carboniferous 485 298 9 ma five major ecological stages in the terrestrial realm occurred during the prolonged time interval when land was colonized by plants animals and fungi marked by the evolution of 1 non vascular plants 2 vascular plants with lignified tissue 3 plants with shallow roots 4 arborescent and perennial vegetation with deep and complex root systems and 5 seed plants the prediction that land vegetation profoundly impacted the earth system is justified although it is still debated how the individual transitions affected the earth s o2 and co2 levels the geological record preserves multiple lines of indirect evidence for environmental transitions that can help us to reconstruct and quantify global controls on earth s oxygenation and climate state

rapid onset of late paleozoic glaciation on gondwana evidence from upper mississippian strata of the midcontinent united states direct evidence of the late paleozoic glaciation of gondwana from glacial deposits suggests that geographically extensive continental glaciation began some time in the namurian late mississippian however the timing and characteristics of the onset of glaciation are poorly understood because of a lack of reliable paleontological control and reworking of initial glacial deposits by subsequent glacial advances indirect evidence of glaciation preserved in unconformity bounded low latitude ramp sequences in the illinois basin united states suggests that geographically extensive continental glaciation of gondwana actually began in the late visean an abrupt change from carbonate dominated sequences bounded by disconformities with little evidence of erosion to mixed carbonate siliciclastic sequences bounded by unconformities with deep incised valleys was likely produced by a three fold increase in the magnitude of eustatic sea level fluctuations the increase in the magnitude of sea level fluctuations was likely driven by an equally abrupt increase in ice volume and marks the onset of the geographically extensive late paleozoic glaciation of gondwana a possible explanation for the rapid onset of glaciation is the closing of the equatorial seaway between laurussia and gondwana closing of this seaway would have led to an abrupt change in oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns that could have initiated major continental glaciation in the southern hemisphere

carbon isotope geochemistry of the frasnian famennian transition abstract carbon isotope records for inorganic and total organic carbon toc as well as for individual organic biomarkers show two positive excursions in the late frasnian with comparable shape and amplitude in 13c the positive shifts in 13c can be correlated with the deposition of the kellwasser horizons the inorganic carbon isotope excursions are explained by an enhanced organic carbon burial that is expected to lower the concentration of oceanic dissolved co2 toc 13c values do not exhibit a larger shift than that recorded by inorganic carbon 13c values this is unexpected since a decrease in the dissolved co2 concentration should result in lower carbon isotope fractionation during photosynthesis ep 13c values of presumed algal biomarkers low molecular weight n alkanes pristane phytane although offset by 2 5 exhibit essentially identical records as toc and confirm this unexpected result it is proposed that high atmospheric and oceanic co2 concentrations during the devonian resulted in maximum photosynthetic fractionation any change in the co2 concentration would thus not affect ep as such 13c of primary organic carbon and 13ccarb will exhibit parallel excursions the data imply that carbon isotopes and the relationship between ep and co2 will not be effective to study changes in pco2 levels during the devonian since co2 concentrations were too high

a review of nitrogen isotopic alteration in marine sediments key points use of sedimentary nitrogen isotopes is examined on average sediment 15n 14n increases approx 2 per mil during early burial isotopic alteration scales with water depth abstract nitrogen isotopes are an important tool for evaluating past biogeochemical cycling from the paleoceanographic record however bulk sedimentary nitrogen isotope ratios which can be determined routinely and at minimal cost may be altered during burial and early sedimentary diagenesis particularly outside of continental margin settings the causes and detailed mechanisms of isotopic alteration are still under investigation case studies of the mediterranean and south china seas underscore the complexities of investigating isotopic alteration in an effort to evaluate the evidence for alteration of the sedimentary n isotopic signal and try to quantify the net effect we have compiled and compared data demonstrating alteration from the published literature a 100 point comparison of sediment trap and surface sedimentary nitrogen isotope values demonstrates that at sites located off of the continental margins an increase in sediment 15n 14n occurs during early burial likely at the seafloor the extent of isotopic alteration appears to be a function of water depth depth related differences in oxygen exposure time at the seafloor are likely the dominant control on the extent of n isotopic alteration moreover the compiled data suggest that the degree of alteration is likely to be uniform through time at most sites so that bulk sedimentary isotope records likely provide a good means for evaluating relative changes in the global n cycle

a co2 decrease driven cooling and increased latitudinal temperature gradient during the mid cretaceous oceanic anoxic event 2 article i nfo the mid cretaceous is thought to be a greenhouse world with significantly higher atmospheric pco2 and sea surface temperatures as well as a much flatter latitudinal thermal gradient compared to the present this time interval was punctuated by the cenomanian turonian oceanic anoxic event oae 2 93 5 myr ago an episode of global massive organic carbon burial that likely resulted in a large and abrupt pco2 decline however the climatic consequences of this pco2 drop are yet poorly constrained we determined the first high resolution sea surface temperature sst record across oae 2 from a deep marine sedimentary sequence at ocean drilling program odp site 1276 in the mid latitudinal newfoundland basin nw atlantic by employing the organic palaeothermometer tex86 we found that ssts across the oae 2 interval were extremely high but were punctuated by a remarkably large cooling 5 11 c which is synchronous with the 2 5 5 5 c cooling in sst records from equatorial atlantic sites and the plenus cold event because this global cooling event is concurrent with increased organic carbon burial it likely acted in response to the associated pco2 drop our findings imply a substantial increase in the latitudinal sst gradient in the proto north atlantic during this period of global cooling and reduced atmospheric pco2 suggesting a strong coupling between pco2 and latitudinal thermal gradients under greenhouse climate conditions

nitrogen isotope evidence for water mass denitrification during the early toarcian jurassic oceanic anoxic event bulk sedimentary nitrogen isotope 15ntot data have been generated from lower jurassic black carbon rich shales in the british isles and northern italy deposited during the early toarcian oceanic anoxic event a pronounced positive 15ntot excursion through the exaratum subzone of the falciferum zone defined by characteristic ammonites in the british isles broadly correlates with a relative maximum in weight percent total organic carbon and in some sections with a negative 13corg excursion upwelling of a deoxygenated water mass that had undergone partial denitrification is the likely explanation for relative enrichment of 15ntot and parallels may be drawn with quaternary sediments of the arabian sea gulf of california and northwest mexican margin the development of early toarcian suboxic water masses and consequent partial denitrification is attributed to increases in organic productivity approximately coincident phenomena include the following a relative climatic optimum realignment of major oceanic current systems and a possible release of methane gas hydrates from continental margin sediments early in the history of the oceanic anoxic event

the role of three dimensional boundary stresses in limiting the occurrence and size of experimental landslides the occurrence of seepage induced shallow landslides on hillslopes and steep channel beds is important for landscape evolution and natural hazards infinite slope stability models have been applied for seven decades but sediment beds generally require higher water saturation levels than predicted for failure and controlled experiments are needed to test models we initiated 90 landslides in a 5 m long laboratory flume with a range in sediment sizes d 0 7 2 5 and 15 mm and hillslope angles 20 to 43 resulting in subsurface flow that spanned the darcian and turbulent regimes and failures that occurred with subsaturated and supersaturated sediment beds near complete saturation was required for failure in most experiments with water levels far greater than predicted by infinite slope stability models although 3 d force balance models predict that larger landslides are less stable observed downslope landslide lengths were typically only several decimeters not the entire flume length boundary stresses associated with short landslides can explain the increased water levels required for failure and we suggest that short failures are tied to heterogeneities in granular properties boundary stresses also limited landslide thicknesses and landslides progressively thinned on lower gradient hillslopes until they were one grain diameter thick corresponding to a change from near saturated to supersaturated sediment beds thus landslides are expected to be thick on steep hillslopes with large frictional stresses acting on the boundaries whereas landslides should be thin on low gradient hillslopes or in channel beds with a critical saturation level that is determined by sediment size

glacial interglacial variations in production and nitrogen fixation in the cariaco basin during the last 580 kyr the effect of sea level change on nutrient supply to the anoxic cariaco demonstrates the fundamental importance of nitrogen n2 fixation and phosphate to oceanic production as n2 fixation produces biomass of low 15n and has been reported to be an important component of the nitrogen cycle in the modern cariaco basin we propose that it contributes to the light interglacial 15n 2 3 values observed in the ocean drilling program odp site 1002 sediment record during the glacials the sediments are bioturbated oxic conditions with low total organic carbon toc contents and sedimentary 15n values of 5 suggesting that nitrogen n2 fixation contributed little to the n nutrition of cariaco surface waters the most plausible explanation for the inferred glacial interglacial changes in n2 fixation in the cariaco is that they have occurred in response to variations in the n p ratio of the nutrient supply driven by changes in denitrification

nitrogen cycling during the cretaceous cenomanian turonian oceanic anoxic event ii low 15n values ranging from 1 2 to 3 9 and atomic carbon nitrogen c n ratios of 25 50 are characteristic of black shales deposited during the cenomanian turonian boundary interval and oceanic anoxic event ii oae ii an observed antithetic relationship between c n ratios and 15n could suggest a predominance of terrestrially derived organic matter or a diagenetic control on 15n variability shifting bulk 15n values lower however hydrogen indices hi generally 450 and a positive correlation of hi with c n mitigates against a significant terrestrial organic matter fraction high c n values are likely the result preferential degradation of labile n rich compounds during early diagenesis and loss of n as ammonium from sediments through time a hypothetical model that considers the degradation of a 15n enriched labile protein fraction yields only small 1 2 negative shifts in 15n however 15n depletion during diagenesis is contrary to normal isotope kinetics which should result in 15n enrichment of bulk organic matter therefore we conclude that the bulk 15n values in this study reflect primary changes in the nitrogen cycle the 15n data support the hypothesis of expanded nitrogen fixation driven by upwelling of nutrient nitrogen poor phosphorus replete waters during oae ii and from the mid cenomanian to santonian at demerara rise the low 15n values which are significantly lower than bulk 15n values in modern regions where nitrogen fixation is known to be important probably result from a more significant fraction of dissolved inorganic nitrogen being produced by nitrogen fixation during the peak of oae ii a marked shift to lower 15n values is observed this shift possibly reflects greater utilization of 15n depleted ammonium during a chemocline upward excursion cue dominance of low 15n values from other periods of more widespread marine anoxia is likely the result of similar processes

climatic and oceanographic isotopic signals from the carbonate rock record and their preservation stable isotopic data from marine limestones and their constituent fossils and marine cements can provide quantitative evidence for changes in global climate and ocean circulation oxygen isotopic data can indicate changes in temperature and ocean composition whereas stratigraphic variation in carbon isotope ratios may reflect changes in the carbon cycle that can be linked to changes in oceanic productivity and atmospheric greenhouse gases terrestrial carbonates meteoric cements calcretes and speleothems similarly offer significant potential for understanding the evolution of terrestrial climates by providing evidence for the composition of rainwater and the nature of vegetative cover primary environmental isotopic signals may be obscured by the effects of post depositional diagenetic alteration cementation and replacement reactions can take place in a wide range of diagenetic environments the diagenetic history of an individual limestone is determined by a combination of its mineralogical diagenetic potential and depositional setting together with subsequent changes in relative sea level and burial history carbon isotopic values are less prone to alteration during diagenesis than oxygen values but shifts can be significant where organogenic carbon is incorporated linear covariation of carbon and oxygen values is not a reliable indicator of diagenetic alteration water rock interaction and fluid mixing may produce non linear distributions attempts to determine long term changes in climatic and oceanographie conditions through isotope stratigraphy of shallow water limestones must include an assessment of the diagenetic history of the materials analysed petrographic examination using conventional microscopy backed up where appropriate by cathodoluminescence and scanning electron microscopy together with elemental and strontium isotopic analysis can help to identify the effects of diagenetic alteration where material with a range of different degrees of alteration is preserved in the same sediment it may be possible to compare patterns of isotopic and elemental variation and to attempt to unravel the effects of diagenesis in order to determine primary environmental isotopic signals recent research has shown that these techniques can be successfully employed in both phanerozoic and precambrian sediments

20 my of nitrogen fixation during deposition of mid cretaceous black shales on the demerara rise equatorial atlantic ocean abstract thick sequences of dark colored organic carbon rich finely laminated santonian cenomanian claystones and homogeneous albian siltstones were recovered from ocean drilling program sites 1257 1258 and 1260 on the demerara rise in the western equatorial atlantic ocean total organic carbon toc concentrations vary from 2 to over 20 wt in the sequences of black shales that were deposited over a period of 20 million years similarly long periods of elevated marine productivity implied by the high toc concentrations are uncommon in the geological record and must have required unusual paleoceanographic conditions the importance of nitrogen fixing bacteria to sustaining the amplified export production of organic matter is indicated by 15n values that remain between 4 and 0 a range that is notably less positive than the average of 5 for modern ocean sediments although containing mostly marine organic matter the black shales have toc tn molar ratios between 20 and 40 that mimic those of land plant organic matter the anomalously large toc tn ratios suggest selective organic matter degradation probably associated with low oxygen conditions in the water column that favored preservation of nitrogen poor forms of organic matter relative to nitrogen rich components deposition of black shales on the demerara rise was likely a consequence of the mid cretaceous warm and wet greenhouse climate that strengthened thermohaline stratification of this part of the atlantic ocean which in turn encouraged bacterial nitrogen fixation enhanced primary production magnified organic matter export and ultimately established anoxic conditions at the seafloor that improved preservation of organic matter for much of the 20 my period represented by these thick sequences

evidence for thermohaline circulation reversals controlled by sea level change in the latest cretaceous fluctuations in oxygen 18 o and carbon 13 c isotope values of benthic foraminiferal calcite from the tropical pacific and southern oceans indicate rapid reversals in the dominant mode and direction of the thermohaline circulation during a 1 m y interval 71 70 ma in the maastrichtian at the onset of this change benthic foraminiferal 18 o values increased and were highest in low latitude pacific ocean waters whereas benthic and planktic foraminiferal 13 c values decreased and benthic values were lowest in the southern ocean subsequently benthic foraminiferal 18 o values in the indo pacific decreased and benthic and planktic 13 c values increased globally these isotopic patterns suggest that cool intermediate depth waters derived from high latitude regions penetrated temporarily to the tropics the low benthic 13 c values at the southern ocean sites however suggest that these cool waters may have been derived from high northern rather than high southern latitudes correlation with eustatic sea level curves suggests that sea level change was the most likely mechanism to change the circulation and or source s of intermediate depth waters we thus propose that oceanic circulation during the latest cretaceous was vigorous and that competing sources of intermediate and deep water formation linked to changes in climate and sea level may have alternated in importance

a process based model for colluvial soil depth and shallow landsliding using digital elevation data a model is proposed for predicting the spatial variation in colluvial soil depth the results of which are used in a separate model to examine the effects of root strength and vertically varying saturated conductivity on slope stability the soil depth model solves for the mass balance between soil production from underlying bedrock and the divergence of diffusive soil transport this model is applied using high resolution digital elevation data of a well studied site in northern california and the evolving soil depth is solved using a finite difference model under varying initial conditions the field data support an exponential decline of soil production with increasing soil depth and a diffusivity of about 50 cm 2 yr the predicted pattern of thick and thin colluvium corresponds well with field observations soil thickness on ridges rapidly obtain an equilibrium depth which suggests that detailed field observations relating soil depth to local topographic curvature could further test this model bedrock emerges where the curvature causes divergent transport to exceed the soil production rate hence the spatial pattern of bedrock outcrops places constraints on the production law the infinite slope stability model uses the predicted soil depth to estimate the effects of root cohesion and vertically varying saturated conductivity low cohesion soils overlying low conductivity bedrock are shown to be least stable the model may be most useful in analyses of slope instability associated with vegetation changes from either land use or climate change although practical applications may be limited by the need to assign values to several spatially varying parameters although both the soil depth and slope stability models offer local mechanistic predictions that can be applied to large areas representation of the finest scale valleys in the digital terrain model significantly influences local model predictions this argues for preserving fine scale topographic detail and using relatively fine grid sizes even in analyses of large catchments

palaeoclimatic and archaeological evidence for a 200 yr recurrence of floods and droughts linking california mesoamerica and south america over the past 2000 years conspicuous grey clay rich flood deposits in the predominantly olive varved sediment in the central santa barbara basin california were dated via varve counting to c ad 212 440 603 1029 1418 and 1605 the 200 yr quasi periodicity and the timing of individual floods match time periods of known supraregional climatic changes and the documented 200 yr periodicity in palaeoclimate records elsewhere the floods of c ad 440 and ad 1418 occurred during global reorganizations of atmospheric circulation cold spells seem to have accompanied the floods of c ad 1029 and ad 1605 california floods and other palaeoclimate records suggest that expressions of regional climates are modulated by solar variability with a 200 yr periodicity our compilation of palaeoclimatic and mesoamerican and south american archaeological records provides evidence that palaeoenvironmental and cultural changes were often coincident within their respective dating uncertainties and occurred in 200 yr steps the matching patte

glacial interglacial variability in denitrification in the world s oceans causes and consequences the late quaternary history of water column denitrifcation of the eastern pacific margins and the arabian sea is reconstructed using sedimentary 15n measurements the 15n values in six piston cores raised from these regions show remarkably similar cyclic variations being heavy 9 10 5 during the interglacials and 2 3 lighter during the glacials this implies that denitrification in these regions decreased substantially during the glacial periods the glacial decline in denitrification is attributed to reduced upwelling and flux of organic material through the oxygen minimum zone since water column denitrification in these areas accounts for about half of the fixed nitrogen loss in the modern ocean the inferred decrease in denitrification should have increased the oceanic nitrate inventory during glacial periods because nitrate is a limiting nutrient oceanic productivity and attendant changes in co2 may therefore have been modulated on glacial interglacial timescales by variations in the oceanic no3 content

meteoric burial diagenesis of middle pennsylvanian limestones in the orogrande basin new mexico water rock interactions and basin geothermics abstract stable isotopic compositions of cyclic middle pennsylvanian gobbler formation limestones record two stages of alteration early open system meteoric diagenesis during episodic subaerial exposure stabilized cycle top carbonate in the presence of meteoric fluid at high water rock ratios 400 4000 subsequent closed system burial diagenesis stabilized meteoric and residual marine carbonate in the presence of connate pore fluids at elevated temperatures to 150 c and low water rock ratios 1 0 10 present 18o distributions record normal to high geothermal gradients 27 86 c km during burial stabilization high basin center geothermal gradients probably resulted from elevated heat flow due to rapid crustal extens on and subsidence of the orogrande basin during the late pennsylvanian a dike injection lithospheric extension model with 40 oceanization best accounts for subsidence and geothermal patterns of the orogrande basin

changes in marine nitrogen fixation and denitrification rates during the end devonian mass extinction abstract the end devonian was a critical interval in earth history recording the transition from the early paleozoic greenhouse climate to the late paleozoic icehouse climate a mass extinction at this time the hangenberg extinction eliminated 21 of genera and 16 of families of marine invertebrates although its causes remain poorly understood the marine nitrogen cycle is intimately related to the nutrient status of seawater microbial community composition and the redox condition of the oceans and thus it may provide insights into the mechanism s of the end devonian mass extinction and climate change here we analyzed high stratigraphic resolution bulk sediment nitrogen isotope variation 15 n bulk in three sections from south china 1 long an an isolated carbonate platform section 2 qilinzhai a shallow water carbonate platform section between the yangtze oldland and the youjiang trough and 3 malanbian a shallow water carbonate platform section between the yangtze and cathaysia oldlands and distant from deep water areas our 15 n bulk records show a major perturbation to the marine nitrogen cycle in the middle siphonodella praesulcata zone which is marked by a decline in 15 n bullk from 4 to 0 at long an and from 4 5 to 2 5 at malanbian this perturbation coincided with the main end devonian mass extinction as well as with a negative shift in carbonate carbon isotopes 13 c carb the shift to lower 15 n values suggests locally enhanced nitrogen fixation possibly as a consequence of increased denitrification in response to globally expanded marine anoxia thus these 15 n bulk data are consistent with the hypothesis that intense anoxia was the immediate cause of the end devonian mass extinction the 15 n bulk records generated in this study suggest that there was significant spatial and temporal variation in the nitrogen isotope composition of seawater nitrate in the yangtze marginal sea during the latest devonian this variation may have been related to the complex paleogeography of the south china craton which contained numerous isolated and continent attached platforms and deep water basins that influenced watermass circulation nutrient inventories and primary productivity levels and watermass ventilation and redox conditions

middle visean mississippian coral biostrome in central guizhou southwestern china and its palaeoclimatological implications abstract a middle visean mississippian coral biostrome is reported for the first time from the shangsi formation in yashui area central guizhou province southwestern china palaeogeographically located in eastern palaeotethys the biostrome which is about 500 m across and 2 5 3 9 m thick is laterally variable and composed of rugose and tabulate corals with low taxonomic diversity comprising 4 rugose and 1 tabulate coral species belonging to 5 genera three growth stages of the biostrome are distinguished based on different compositions of coral taxa average coral contents of the biostrome increase from 38 7 to 72 0 upward and the main builders are siphonodendron pentalaxoidea syringopora sp and kueichouphyllum sinense associated fossils include abundant brachiopods crinoids and common foraminifers together with rare calcareous algae bryozoans gastropods and ostracods relative sea level changes are interpreted to have controlled growth and demise of the biostrome which grew continuously during sea level rise and decreasing water energy as evident from the gradually increasing of micrite content and in situ coral colonies however the biostrome declined and died as the sea level fell and hydrodynamic energy strengthened indicated by an increase of bioclasts and sparry calcite cement indicating lack of micritic matrix due to higher energy overlying the biostrome this coral biostrome has similar biotic composition to middle to late visean coral biostromes in europe and north africa western palaeotethys the approximately coeval occurrence of coral biostromes in both eastern and western palaeotethys suggests that a relatively global warm episode existed during the visean stage

intensified oceanic circulation during early carboniferous cooling events evidence from carbon and nitrogen isotopes abstract the early carboniferous was a climatic transition interval from a mid paleozoic greenhouse world into the late paleozoic ice age it was marked by a long term cooling trend that was punctuated by short glaciations in the tournaisian and visean early to mid early carboniferous here we generated organic carbon and nitrogen isotope profiles for two widely separated lower carboniferous sections arrow canyon range nevada and namur dinant basin belgium in order to assess the global nature and timing of changes in the carbon nitrogen cycles linked to oceanic productivity and redox conditions during this climatic transition interval the carbon and nitrogen isotope profiles of both study sections record major perturbations during the mid tournaisian and visean a mid tournaisian event tice is marked by increases in 13ccarb 13corg and 15nbulk at arrow canyon from 0 6 to 7 0 25 2 to 23 7 and 0 6 to 8 9 respectively and namur dinant from 0 3 to 4 7 27 9 to 22 2 and 5 7 to 5 2 respectively an early visean event vice named herein is marked by increases in 13ccarb 13corg and 15nbulk at arrow canyon from 0 6 to 3 1 28 4 to 23 6 and 1 4 to 9 4 respectively and namur dinant from 2 1 to 4 3 26 7 to 25 0 and 1 4 to 3 3 respectively the positive excursions in all three isotopic records during these events are consistent with increased fractional burial of organic carbon and enhanced denitrification implying intensification of marine productivity and expansion of hypoxia in the global ocean given that each event coincided with lowering of sea surface temperatures and increased glaciation as documented from published conodont 18o and sea level records we hypothesize that global cooling led to intensified oceanic circulation and upwelling on continental margins triggering increased marine productivity and attendant redox changes within the affected upwelling zones our results provide new insights into changes in early carboniferous oceanic conditions in response to the initial stages of cooling leading into the late paleozoic ice age

the isotopic composition of diatom bound nitrogen in southern ocean sediments treatment of diatom microfossils from southern ocean sediments with hot perchloric acid leaves a diatom bound n fraction which is 0 4 lower in 15n than the bulk sediment typically 3 lower in recent antarctic diatom ooze results from southern ocean surface sediments indicate that early diagenetic changes in bulk sediment n content and 15n are not reflected in diatom bound n suggesting that diatom bound n is physically protected from early diagenesis by the microfossil matrix a meridional transect of multicores from the indian sector of the southern ocean shows a northward increase in the 15n of diatom bound n suggesting that diatom bound 15n like bulk sedimentary 15n varies with nitrate utilization in the overlying surface waters the 15n of diatom bound n is 3 4 higher in glacial age antarctic sediments than in holocene sediments supporting the hypothesis previously based on bulk sediment 15n that nitrate utilization in the surface antarctic was higher during the last ice age while there are important uncertainties the inferred range of utilization changes could potentially explain the entire 80 ppm amplitude of observed glacial interglacial variations in atmospheric co2

a physically based model for the topographic control on shallow landsliding a model for the topographic influence on shallow landslide initiation is developed by coupling digital terrain data with near surface through flow and slope stability models the hydrologic model topog o loughlin 1986 predicts the degree of soil saturation in response to a steady state rainfall for topographic elements defined by the intersection of contours and flow tube boundaries the slope stability component uses this relative soil saturation to analyze the stability of each topographic element for the case of cohesionless soils of spatially constant thickness and saturated conductivity the steady state rainfall predicted to cause instability in each topographic element provides a measure of the relative potential for shallow landsliding the spatial distribution of critical rainfall values is compared with landslide locations mapped from aerial photographs and in the field for three study basins where high resolution digital elevation data are available tennessee valley in marin county california mettman ridge in the oregon coast range and split creek on the olympic peninsula washington model predictions in each of these areas are consistent with spatial patterns of observed landslide scars although hydrologic complexities not accounted for in the model e g spatial variability of soil properties and bedrock flow control specific sites and timing of debris flow initiation within areas of similar topographic control

glaciomarine sequence stratigraphy in the mississippian rio blanco basin argentina southwestern gondwana basin analysis and palaeoclimatic implications for the late paleozoic ice age during the tournaisian the late palaeozoic ice age lpia has been well recorded in the uppermost mississippian pennsylvanian of gondwana nevertheless little is known about the temporal and geographic dynamics particularly during the early mississippian we report on exceptional tournaisian glaciomarine strati graphic sections from central argentina rio blanco basin encompassing 1400 metres these succes sions contain conspicuous glacigenic strata with age constraints provided by palaeontological data and u pb detrital zircon age spectra a variety of marine glaciomarine and fan deltaic environments indicate relative sea level variations mainly associated with tectonism and repetitive cycles of glacial activity provenance analysis indicates a source from the sierras pampeanas basement located to the east fifteen sequences were grouped into three depositional models 1 transgressive systems tracts tst to high stand systems tracts hst sequences unaffected by glacial ice 2 lowstand systems tracts lst to tst and then to hst with glacial in uence and 3 non glacial falling stage systems tract fsst to tst and hst the glacial evidence indicates that the oldest mississippian glacial stage of the lpia in southwestern gondwana is constrained to the middle tournaisian in contrast with previous descriptions of gondwanan coeval glacial records our sequence analysis confirms complex hierarchical climate varia bility rather than a single episode of ice advance and retreat supplementary material https doi org 10 6084 m9 figshare c 5011424

paired carbonate organic carbon and nitrogen isotope variations in lower mississippian strata of the southern great basin western united states abstract the early mississippian k o kinderhookian osagean carbon isotope 13c excursion or tice mid tournaisian carbon isotope excursion is one of the most prominent positive 13c excursions of the phanerozoic recent studies raise uncertainties about the representative shape single vs double spikes and magnitude of this 13c excursion 3 to 6 in south china 5 5 in europe and 7 in north america and the 3 unidirectional increase in nitrogen isotopes across the 13c excursion which is unanticipated considering the amount of organic carbon burial required to form the 13c excursion and the resultant oxygen increase and global cooling to test if stratigraphic completeness and spatial isotope variations caused such uncertainties we have conducted paired carbonate carbon 13ccarb organic carbon 13corg and nitrogen 15n isotope analyses across the k o interval in two well exposed sections of the southern great basin western united states the two sections represent proximal shallow water and distal deep water depositional settings of a west dipping carbonate ramp in the distal ramp section where no exposure surface is present both 13ccarb and 13corg show double spikes with peak 13ccarb values up to 7 and a negative shift down to 4 between the peaks in the proximal shallower water section where two karstic disconformities are observed 13corg shows similar double spikes but 13ccarb displays only a single peak with the highest value of 5 5 the missing 13ccarb spike is likely caused by diagenetic alteration below a karstic disconformity that lowered 13ccarb but not 13corg values resulting in smaller magnitude of the 13ccarb excursion these features suggest that the 7 magnitude and double spikes are more representative of the k o 13c excursion in the southern great basin the smaller magnitude of the k o 13ccarb excursion in some sections of the great basin and the tice in other sections globally may have overprinted with local environmental diagenetic signal or resulted from stratigraphic hiatus truncation which needs to be clarified in future research the 15n across the k o 13c excursion in the distal ramp section is decoupled from 13c with the majority of 15n values around 4 1 that do not show any obvious temporal trend in contrast 15n values in the shallow water section is coupled with the k o 13c excursion with a 3 positive shift from 4 to 7 at the rising limb of the 13c excursion and a negative shift from 7 to 1 2 at the falling limb of the 13c excursion the 15n trend from the distal ramp section is in some extent comparable with that documented from a section in south china while the coupled 13c 15n pattern in the proximal section seems better explain the potential redox change across a prominent 13c excursion considering the sensitivity of 15n to redox conditions of depositional environments a more comprehensive 15n study in a broader paleogeographic context is required to better understand the interactions between carbon and nitrogen cycles across the k o interval a critical transition from the mid paleozoic greenhouse clime to late paleozoic ice age lpia

15n 14n variations in cretaceous atlantic sedimentary sequences implication for past changes in marine nitrogen biogeochemistry at two locations in the atlantic ocean dsdp sites 367 and 530 early to middle cretaceous organic carbon rich beds black shales were found to have significantly lower 15n values lower15n 14n ratios than adjacent organic carbon poor beds white limestones or green claystones while these lithologies are of marine origin the black strata in particular have 15n values that are significantly lower than those previously found in the marine sediment record and most contemporary marine nitrogen pools in contrast black organic carbon rich beds at a third site dsdp site 603 contain predominantly terrestrial organic matter and have c and n isotopic compositions similar to organic matter of modern terrestrial origin the recurring15n depletion in the marine derived cretaceous sequences prove that the nitrogen they contain is the end result of an episodic and atypical biogeochemistry existing isotopic and other data indicate that the low15n relative abundance is the consequence of pelagic rather than post depositional processes reduced ocean circulation increased denitrification and hence reduced euphotic zone nitrate availability may have led to cretaceous phytoplankton assemblages that were periodically dominated by n2 fixing blue green algae a possible source of this sediment15n depletion lack of parallel isotopic shifts in cretaceous terrestrially derived nitrogen site 603 argues that the above change in nitrogen cycling during this period did not extend beyond the marine environment

glacial interglacial modulation of eastern tropical north pacific denitrification over the last 1 8 myr 1 a 1 8 myr long 15n record from the california margin provides the first continuous record of denitrification in the eastern tropical north pacific etnp over the entire pleistocene epoch comparison of the nitrogen isotopic time series with proxies for ice volume sea surface temperature sst and biological productivity place variations in the intensity of the denitrification zone in the context of global and regional climatic changes throughout the pleistocene etnp denitrification remained linked to glacial interglacial climate cycles the pacing of denitrification cycles switched from 41 kyr in the mid to early pleistocene to 100 kyr in the late pleistocene in tandem with the well known frequency shift identified from ice volume records it therefore appears that denitrification remained an integral component of the marine feedbacks to orbital forcing and through its effect on the nitrate inventory of the ocean might have played a role in driving atmospheric co2 cycles throughout the pleistocene

late devonian glacial deposits from the eastern united states signal an end of the mid paleozoic warm period abstract a late devonian polymictic diamictite extends for more than 400 km from northeastern pennsylvania across western maryland and into east central west virginia the matrix supported unbedded locally sheared diamictite contains subangular to rounded clasts up to 2 m in diameter the mostly rounded clasts are both locally derived and exotic some exhibit striations faceting and polish the diamictite commonly is overlain by laminated siltstone mudstone facies associations laminites the laminites contain isolated clasts ranging in size from sand and pebbles to boulders some of which are striated the diamictite laminite sequence is capped by massive coarse grained pebbly sandstone that is trough cross bedded a stratigraphic change from red calcic paleo vertisols in strata below the diamictite to non calcic paleo spodosols and coal beds at and above the diamictite interval suggests that the climate became much wetter during deposition of the diamictite the diamictite deposit is contemporaneous with regressive facies that reflect fluvial incision during the late devonian of the appalachian basin these deposits record a late devonian episode of climatic cooling so extreme that it produced glaciation in the appalachian basin evidence for this episode of climatic cooling is preserved as the interpreted glacial deposits of diamictite overlain by glaciolacustrine varves containing dropstones and capped by sandstone interpreted as braided stream outwash the appalachian glacigenic deposits are contemporaneous with glacial deposits in south america and suggest that late devonian climatic cooling was global this period of dramatic global cooling may represent the end of the mid paleozoic warm interval that began in the middle silurian

nitrogen isotope and productivity variations along the northeast pacific margin over the last 120 kyr surface and subsurface paleoceanography 1 glacial interglacial changes in sedimentary 15n over the last 120 kyr display a remarkably similar pattern in timing and amplitude in core records extending from the denitrification zone in the eastern tropical north pacific etnp where subsurface denitrification is active to the oregon margin where no denitrification occurs today low 15n values 4 6 generally characterize glacial stages 2 and 4 and higher 15n values 7 10 are representative of the holocene millennial scale periods within stage 3 and stage 5 the inferred synchroneity of 15n variations along the entire margin implies that the nitrate isotopic signal produced in the oxygen poor subsurface waters in the etnp is rapidly advected northward and recorded at sites far beyond the boundaries of the modern denitrification zone similar to 15n primary production indicators percent corg ba al and percent opal show glacial interglacial as well as millennial scale variations along the ne pacific margin with higher primary production during warm periods however the relative phasing between 15n and paleoproduction tracers within individual records changes latitudinally whereas 15n and primary production vary approximately synchronously in the midlatitudes production lags 15n in the etnp by several kiloyears this lag calls for a new understanding of the processes driving denitrification in the etnp we suggest that oxygen input by the equatorial undercurrent as well as local organic matter flux controls denitrification rates in the etnp moreover the differences in relative timing point to a time transgressive development of upwelling favorable winds along the ne pacific margin after the last glaciation with those in the north developing several kiloyears earlier

preservation of organic matter and alteration of its carbon and nitrogen isotope composition during simulated and in situ early sedimentary diagenesis abstract the carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of organic matter has been widely used to trace biogeochemical processes in marine and lacustrine environments in order to reconstruct past environmental changes from sedimentary organic matter it is crucial to consider potential alteration of the primary isotopic signal by bacterial degradation in the water column and during early diagenesis in the sediments in a series of oxic and anoxic incubation experiments we examined the fate of organic matter and the alteration of its carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition during microbial degradation the decomposition rates determined with a double exponential decay model show that the more reactive fraction of organic matter degrades at similar rates under oxic and anoxic conditions however under oxic conditions the proportion of organic matter resistent to degradation is much lower than under anoxic conditions within three months of incubation the 13c of bulk organic matter decreased by 1 6 with respect to the initial value the depletion can be attributed to the selective preservation of 13c depleted organic compounds during anoxic decay the 15n values continuously decreased to about 3 below the initial value the decrease probably results from bacterial growth adding 15n depleted biomass to the residual material in the oxic experiment 15n values increased by more then 3 before decreasing to a value indistinguishable from the initial isotopic composition the dissimilarity between oxic and anoxic conditions may be attributed to differences in the type timing and degree of microbial activity and preferential degradation in agreement with the anoxic incubation experiments sediments from eutrophic lake lugano are on average depleted in 13c 1 5 and 15n 1 2 with respect to sinking particulate organic matter collected during a long term sediment trap study

interpreting carbon isotope excursions carbonates and organic matter abstract variations in the carbon isotopic compositions of marine carbonate and organic carbon provide a record of changes in the fraction of organic carbon buried through time and may provide clues to changes in rates of weathering and sources of organic carbon paired carbonate and organic carbon isotope determinations provide a possibility of interpreting not only changes in the global carbon cycle through time but changes in atmospheric pco2 as well interpretations of these types of data are typically rather qualitative a quantitative basis is required to develop a better understanding of changes in the carbon cycle for this purpose we employ a simple model of the global carbon cycle which is subjected to a number of different perturbations each lasting 500 ky i e much longer than the residence times of carbon and phosphorus in the ocean atmosphere system in addition to standard considerations of carbon mass and isotopic fluxes to the ocean atmosphere system from weathering and volcanism and fluxes of organic carbon and carbonate carbon to sediments the model incorporates sensitivity of the photosynthetic carbon isotope effect to changes in pco2 the inclusion of this parameter leads to unexpected carbon isotope responses to forcing that causes increased rates of organic carbon burial a series of simple to more complex simulations illustrates the significant effects of varying differences between the carbon isotopic composition of sedimented carbonate and organic carbon b with constant b a 50 increase in organic carbon burial produces a parallel increase in carbonate and organic carbon isotopic compositions however the same simulation with b responsive to pco2 changes produces an initial parallel 13 c increase but this is followed by an even greater 13 c enrichment in organic carbon because pco2 falls in response to increased organic carbon burial the counterintuitive overall result of the enhanced organic carbon burial event is that the carbonate carbon isotopic composition actually decreases because of the more substantial increase in 13 c org in addition we illustrate the effects on carbon isotopic compositions of the oceanic inorganic carbon reservoir and buried organic matter of a 50 increase in volcanic co2 outgassing a 50 increase in weathering rate with coupled phosphate and riverine carbon flux responses a 50 decrease in shale associated organic carbon weathering a 50 decrease in silicate weathering rate and the possible effects of the rise in abundance of c4 plants in the late miocene to recent we compare the model simulated carbon isotopic responses for some of these experiments to paired carbonate and organic carbon records to illustrate how these records might be interpreted in light of the model response

global carbon isotopic events associated with mass extinction and glaciation in the late ordovician mass extinctions and glacioeustatic sea level changes in the lower part of the hirnantian final stage of the ashgill are accompanied by shifts in marine stable isotope compositions previously published stable isotope changes have been used to identify the onset and demise of the gondwana glaciation and to suggest relationships between biotic changes and carbon cycling within the oceans however the existing isotopic data set had limitations because it was derived from ordovician low latitude settings and from carbonates or organic carbon in separate areas we report new data from ordovician high latitude carbonates and demonstrate parallel shifts in organic and carbonate 13c from baltica brachiopod shells from a high palaeolatitude periglacial setting in argentina have elevated 13c values similar to those described previously from low latitude sites the new data demonstrate that the positive hirnantian 13c excursion previously only recognised from low palaeolatitude areas was widespread and probably global in extent the poor preservation state of the brachiopods unfortunately prevented the determination of a reliable oxygen isotopic value from the same material preliminary carbon isotopic data from thermally immature organic matter from estonia provide the first indication of a synchronous shift in organic and inorganic 13c in sediments from the same basin this work provides new data of critical importance for constraining models of end ordovician palaeoceanography and climate change

the longest delay re emergence of coral reef ecosystems after the late devonian extinctions abstract reefs are an excellent tool for tracking marine ecosystem changes especially through mass extinction transitions although metazoan reefs proliferated during the phanerozoic prolonged metazoan reef recovery intervals often occurred after extinction events here we document and review the reef recovery interval following the late devonian frasnian famennian kellwasser and end famennian hangenberg mass extinctions which eliminated the largest area of metazoan stromatoporoid coral reefs of the phanerozoic previous reports of the late visean coral bioconstructions from western palaeotethys ocean may mark the first metazoan reef proliferation after the hangenberg extinction in this study abundant coral reefs coral frameworks and coral biostromes were described in detail for the first time from the late visean strata on the south china block eastern palaeotethys ocean the occurrence of these coral bioconstructions further suggests that the late visean coral reef recovery may have been a widespread phenomenon based on the high resolution reef database constructed in this study three sub intervals of the mississippian metazoan reef recovery were distinguished which are 1 metazoan reef gap phase mrg without metazoan reefs during the tournaisian 2 metazoan reef re establishment phase mrr containing a few metazoan reefs from early visean to early part of the late visean and 3 metazoan reef proliferation phase mrp with global coral reef flourishment during the middle part of the late visean late asbian to early brigantian substages hence coral reef ecosystems proliferated and became dominant in marine ecosystems during the late asbian to early brigantian indicating a prolonged metazoan reef recovery of about 12 ma and 23 ma until the mrr and mrp respectively coral reef proliferation at this time shows that the mississippian was not solely a period dominated by microbial reefs late visean coral reef development coincided with increased nektonic and benthic diversity showing that metazoan reef recovery closely tracked overall marine ecosystem evolution even compared with other slow reef recovery intervals such as the middle late cambrian and early middle triassic with the intervals until the mrr and mrp of 5 ma and 2 ma and 15 ma and 9 ma respectively the mississippian metazoan reef recovery was the longest in reef history harsh climatic and oceanic conditions were present during the mississippian mainly including the widespread marine anoxia during the middle part of tournaisian and the following recurrent glacial and interglacial climatic episodes with frequent changes in sea level sedimentary facies and sea water surface temperature which may have stymied metazoan reef recovery during this time during the late visean marine communities flourished during a phase of relative warm conditions and high sea level and coincided with the long delayed re emergence of coral reef ecosystems after the late devonian extinctions

rapid stepwise onset of antarctic glaciation and deeper calcite compensation in the pacific ocean the ocean depth at which the rate of calcium carbonate input from surface waters equals the rate of dissolution is termed the calcite compensation depth at present this depth is 4 500 m with some variation between and within ocean basins the calcite compensation depth is linked to ocean acidity which is in turn linked to atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and hence global climate1 geological records of changes in the calcite compensation depth show a prominent deepening of more than 1 km near the eocene oligocene boundary 34 million years ago 2 when significant permanent ice sheets first appeared on antarctica3 4 5 6 but the relationship between these two events is poorly understood here we present ocean sediment records of calcium carbonate content as well as carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions from the tropical pacific ocean that cover the eocene oligocene boundary we find that the deepening of the calcite compensation depth was more rapid than previously documented and occurred in two jumps of about 40 000 years each synchronous with the stepwise onset of antarctic ice sheet growth the glaciation was initiated after climatic preconditioning7 by an interval when the earth s orbit of the sun favoured cool summers the changes in oxygen isotope composition across the eocene oligocene boundary are too large to be explained by antarctic ice sheet growth alone and must therefore also indicate contemporaneous global cooling and or northern hemisphere glaciation

the δ15n of nitrate in the southern ocean nitrogen cycling and circulation in the ocean interior we report analyses of the nitrogen isotopic composition of nitrate in the eastern indian and pacific sectors of the southern ocean in this paper we focus on the subsurface data as well as data from the deep waters of other ocean basins nitrate 15n is relatively invariant in much of the abyssal ocean i e below 2 5 km with a value of 4 8 0 2 observed in lower circumpolar deep water north atlantic deep water and central pacific deep water the isotopic invariance of deep ocean nitrate stems fundamentally from the completeness of nitrate utilization in most of the global surface ocean the southern ocean surface being an important exception in the subantarctic zone north of the polar frontal zone the nitrate 15n of upper circumpolar deep water is 0 7 greater than that of lower circumpolar deep water this isotopic enrichment appears to result from denitrification in the low latitude water masses with which upper circumpolar deep water communicates the isotopic enrichment of upper circumpolar deep water is diminished in the antarctic probably because of the remineralization of sinking organic n which has a low 15n in the antarctic relative to the other water masses of the southern ocean the subantarctic thermocline has a very low nitrate 15n for its nitrate concentration because of exchange with the low latitude thermocline where this isotopic signature appears to originate this signature of the low latitude thermocline has two probable causes 1 mixing with low nitrate surface water and 2 the oxidation of newly fixed n

glaciation aridification and carbon sequestration in the permo carboniferous the isotopic record from low latitudes to evaluate the isotopic record of climate change and carbon sequestration in the late paleozoic we have compiled new and published oxygen and carbon isotopic measurements of more than 2000 brachiopod shells from carboniferous through middle permian 359 260 ma strata we focus on the isotopic records from the u s midcontinent and the russian platform because these two regions provide well preserved marine fossils spanning a broad time interval both regions show a 18o increase at the mid carboniferous boundary ca 318 ma that roughly correlates with geologic evidence for an expansion of gondwanan glaciers only the russian platform record shows a 18o maximum during the glacial maximum in the asselian in contrast to a previous study korte c jasper t kozur h w and veizer j 2005 18o and 13c of permian brachiopods a record of seawater evolution and continental glaciation palaeogeogr palaeoclimatol palaeoecol 224 333 351 our data show no oxygen isotope evidence for glacial retreat in the early permian but instead show increasing 18o values related to aridification dissimilarity in the 18o trends for the epicontinental seas of north american and the russian platform suggests that at least one region experienced periodic restriction that altered regional salinities and seawater 18o values these results highlight the need for complementary proxies to identify restricted circulation in epicontinental seas carbon isotopic compositions of carbonates exhibit substantial regional variation with low values in western north america intermediate values in the midcontinent and high values in the sverdrup basin russian platform and northern spain nevertheless both u s midcontinent and russian platform records show a late serpukhovian minimum a sharp increase across the mid carboniferous boundary and a minimum centered on the kasimovian the correlative increase in brachiopod 13c and 18o values at the mid carboniferous boundary is our best isotopic evidence for a link between the carbon burial and glaciation in the permo carboniferous

local overprints on the global carbonate δ13c signal in devonian carboniferous boundary successions of south china abstract an integrated study of the litho bio and chemostratigraphy of the devonian carboniferous boundary at four sections qilinzhai malanbian gedongguan and long an in south china was undertaken in order to better understand paleoenvironmental changes and controls on 13 c carb variation during the hangenberg crisis sedimentological data record a major regression in the middle siphonodella praesulcata zone which coincided with the hangenberg extinction he in south china our new 13 c carb data document a negative 13 c carb shift near the base of the middle s praesulcata zone which may have been related to the he prior to and during the he respiration of organic matter contributed abundant 12 c enriched dissolved inorganic carbon dic to the restricted nanning carbonate platform resulting in a negative vertical 13 c dic gradient in the study area in the upper s praesulcata zone all four sections exhibit a positive 13 c carb shift suggesting that a vigorous biological pump existed in the aftermath of the latest devonian glaciation however peak 13 c carb values differ markedly among the study sections suggesting that local carbon cycling processes played an important role during the initial post glacial transgression

isotopic records of brachiopod shells from the russian platform evidence for the onset of mid carboniferous glaciation we performed isotopic analyses of carboniferous brachiopod shells from the russian platform to examine global and regional environmental change along the western and eastern margins of laurussia during the formation of pangea and specifically to examine the isotopic evidence for the onset of mid carboniferous glaciation shell preservation was evaluated from shell microstructure cathodoluminescence trace element content and isotopic comparison with matrix material most interior nonluminescent nl prismatic shell appears to be chemically well preserved as indicated by low to undetectable si al fe and mn contents with minor exception nl shell 13c and 18o values are higher than those of corresponding cements and matrix the 13c record for the russian platform clearly shows a 3 increase from 2 4 0 7 to 5 5 0 6 in the serpukhovian or early bashkirian this shift was first reported by popp et al popp b n anderson t f sandberg p a 1986 brachiopods as indicators of original isotopic compositions in some paleozoic limestones geol soc am bull 97 1262 1269 but had not been documented for a single region widespread occurrence of high 13c values in the late carboniferous support the interpretation of popp et al with regard to this shift as a record of increased burial of organic carbon north american sections show a mid carboniferous 13c shift of only 1 5 we hypothesize that the reduced 13c shift reflects enhanced upwelling on the epicontinental seas of north america after the closing of the seaway between laurussia and gondwana the 18o record for the russian platform shows a 1 8 increase in the mid carboniferous correlative with increased occurrence of glacial sediments and a drop in sea level as a first approximation ice volume calculations suggest that 0 7 of the mid carboniferous 18o shift is due to changes in seawater 18o and 1 1 is due to 5 c cooling concurrent positive 13c and 18o shifts provide evidence for a relationship between mid carboniferous glaciation and burial of organic carbon presumably through changes in atmospheric co2 levels

transient global cooling at the onset of early aptian oceanic anoxic event oae 1a the onset of the early aptian oceanic anoxic event oae 1a ca 120 ma coincided with a major perturbation of the carbon cycle which is reflected in the sedimentary carbon isotope record triggering mechanisms duration and climatic repercussions of this episode of accelerated organic matter burial remain poorly constrained here we present millennial scale bulk rock carbon and oxygen isotope data from a marly subtropical intrashelf basin la bedoule southeast france with unusually high sedimentation rates which track the onset of oae1a in unprecedented resolution our record reveals that the negative low amplitude delta 13 c excursion preceding oae1a lasted 100 k y implying that enhanced volcanic co 2 emission and or pulsed methane dissociation over a prolonged time span were instrumental in triggering oae1a the main positive carbon isotope shift at the onset of oae1a previously regarded as continuous occurred stepwise over an extended period of 300 k y transient climate cooling during the initial delta 13 c increase probably reflects ephemeral high latitude glaciation triggered by changes in radiative forcing and drawdown of atmospheric co 2

crustal structure beneath hudson bay from ambient noise tomography implications for basin formation summary the hudson bay basin is the least studied of four major phanerozoic intracratonic basins in north america and the mechanism by which it formed remains ambiguous we investigate the crustal structure of hudson bay based on ambient noise tomography using 21 months of continuous recordings from 37 broad band seismograph stations that encircle the bay green s functions that emerge from the cross correlation of these ambient noise recordings are dominated by fundamental mode rayleigh waves in the microseismic period band 5 20 s these signals are most prominently expressed in certain preferred azimuths indicative of stationary coastal source regions in southern alaska and labrador seasonal variations are subtle but consistent with more energetic noise sources during winter months when wave heights in the pacific and north atlantic are larger than in the summer noise emanating from hudson bay does not appear to contribute significantly to the cross correlograms group velocity dispersion curves are obtained by time frequency analysis of cross correlation functions we test and implement a signal to noise ratio snr selection method for producing one sided cross correlograms which yields better defined dispersion ridges than the standard two sided averaging approach tomographic maps and cross sections obtained in the 5 40 s period range reveal significantly lower crustal velocities beneath hudson bay than in the bounding archean superior craton the lowest mid crustal velocities correspond to a previously determined region of maximum lithospheric stretching near the centre of the basin pseudosections extracted from the tomographic inversions along profiles across hudson bay provide the first compelling direct evidence for crustal thinning beneath the basin our results are consistent with a recent estimate of 3 km of crustal thinning but not consistent with a proposed model for basin subsidence triggered by eclogitization of a remnant crustal root

greenhouse to icehouse a biostratigraphic review of latest devonian mississippian glaciations and their global effects the latest devonian mississippian interval records the long term transition from devonian greenhouse conditions into the late palaeozoic ice age lpia this transition was punctuated by three short glaciation events in the latest famennian mid tournaisian and visean stages respectively primary evidence for glaciation is based on diamictite deposits and striated pavements in south america appalachia and africa the aim of this review is to assess the primary biostratigraphic and sedimentological data constraining diamictite deposits through this transition these data are then compared to the wider record of eustasy mass extinction and isotope stratigraphy in the lower palaeolatitudes precise age determinations are vital to integrate high and low palaeolatitude datasets and to understand the glacial control on wider global changes palynological techniques currently provide the best biostratigraphic tool to date these glacial deposits and to correlate the effects of glaciation globally this review highlights a high degree of uncertainty in the known history of early lpia glaciation as much of the primary stratigraphic data are limited and or unpublished future high resolution stratigraphic studies are needed to constrain the history of glaciation both spatially and temporally through the latest devonian and mississippian

climatic and hydrologic controls on upper paleozoic bauxite deposits in south china abstract the late paleozoic era was an interval of major tectonic and climatic changes including formation of the supercontinent pangea and the 60 myr long late paleozoic ice age lpia although bauxite formation declined globally from the carboniferous to the permian in conjunction with global cooling it was an interval of widespread bauxite formation in china in south china 1 the jiujialu formation bauxite deposits in central and northern guizhou zunyi area are of early middle visean age 2 the dazhuyaun formation bauxite deposits in northern guizhou wuchuan zheng an daozheng area to southern chongqing nanchuan area and southeastern guizhou fuquan kaili area are of late pennsylvanian early permian age and 3 the heshan formation bauxite deposits in western guangxi to yunnan are of middle late permian age in north china the benxi formation bauxite deposits are of late mississippian middle pennsylvanian age the contrasting trends in bauxite metallogenesis between china and the rest of the world imply different climatic patterns in the eastern tethys high annual humidity with seasonal dryness and pangea aridification this hypothesis is further supported by differences in the chemical index of alteration or cia 80 in the eastern tethys vs 50 in western pangea and in paleotemperatures mean annual temperature or mat 20 c in the eastern tethys vs 4 c in western pangea determined from permo carboniferous siliciclastic deposits permo carboniferous bauxite deposits in south china formed in coastal plain and coastal karstic depression environments in which the position of the groundwater table was related to sea level changes during the late paleozoic high frequency eustatic fluctuations caused by waxing and waning of gondwana icesheets controlled sedimentation in these coastal depositional systems leading to cyclic accumulation of coal and bauxite deposits and cycles of vadose and phreatic type bauxite formation the results of the present study show that during interglacial stages lateritization resulted from high pco2 high sea level and groundwater table elevations low precipitation and limited vegetation cover whereas during glacial stages bauxitization of these ferralitic weathering products was promoted by low pco2 low sea level and groundwater table elevations high precipitation and more extensive vegetation cover thus a unique combination of geographic climatic and eustatic factors accounted for widespread formation of bauxite in south china during the lpia

global events of the late paleozoic early devonian to middle permian a review abstract the late paleozoic early devonian to middle permian was an interval of profound changes in earth surface systems reflected in dynamic interplay among the biosphere hydrosphere atmosphere and geosphere major events transpired including the colonization of landmasses by vascular plants the assembly of the supercontinent pangea two first order mass extinctions the frasnian famennian and devonian carboniferous boundary events and the most severe icehouse climate mode of the phanerozoic the late paleozoic ice age lpia the goals of the present review are 1 to summarize major global developments in climate oceanography and paleobiology during the late paleozoic 2 to examine the roles of land plant evolution global tectonics and large igneous province magmatism in driving these developments and 3 to serve as an introduction to the 23 contributions to this special issue of palaeogeography palaeoclimatology palaeoecology indicating how they advance our knowledge of various scientific issues related to these developments

impact of skeletal dissolution and secondary aragonite on trace element and isotopic climate proxies in porites corals restricted zones of recent dissolution and secondary aragonite infilling were identified in a coral core collected in 1986 from a living massive porites colony from the central great barrier reef australia secondary aragonite needles 20 m long cover skeletal surfaces deposited from 1972 to late 1974 and increase bulk density by 10 dissolution is observed above this zone whereas older skeleton is pristine we investigate the impact of both types of early marine diagenesis on skeletal geochemistry and coral paleoclimate reconstructions by comparison with similar records from eight contemporary porites colonies collected at nearby reefs secondary aragonite overgrowth causes anomalies in skeletal density mg ca sr ca u ca o and c the secondary aragonite is consistently associated with a cool temperature anomaly for each of the sea surface temperature sst proxies o sst 1 6 c sr ca sst 1 7 c mg ca sst 1 9 c u ca sst 2 8 c dissolution through incongruent leaching also causes cool sst artifacts but only for trace element ratios mg ca sst 1 2 c sr ca sst 1 2 c u ca sst 2 1 c the sequence of preference with respect to dissolution of coral skeleton in seawater is mg ca sr u rigorous screening of coral material for paleoclimate reconstructions is therefore necessary to detect both dissolution and the presence of secondary minerals the excellent agreement between apparent sst anomalies generated by different modes of diagenesis means that replication of tracers within a single coral cannot be used to validate climate proxy interpretations poor replication of records between different coral colonies however provides a strong indication of nonclimatic artifacts such as dissolution and secondary aragonite copyright 2007 by the american geophysical union

structure and dynamics of sheared mantle plumes 1 an extensive series of laboratory experiments is used to investigate the behavior of sheared thermal plumes the plumes are generated by heating a small circular plate on the base of a cylindrical tank filled with viscous fluid and then sheared by rotating a horizontal lid at the fluid surface the motion of passive tracers in the plumes is visualized by the release of several dye streams on the hot plate we systematically examine the dependence of the convective flow on four dimensionless numbers a velocity ratio a rayleigh number the viscosity ratio and an aspect ratio we identify and delineate two transitions in the convective behavior from a regime where the plume can spread upstream against the shear to a regime where the entire plume is advected downstream and from a regime of negligible cross stream circulation to a regime with significant cross stream circulation and thermal entrainment our analysis of the steady profiles of the plumes shows that they initially rise with a constant vertical rise velocity this rise velocity depends on the buoyancy flux and ambient viscosity but is almost independent of the centerline plume viscosity which suggests that most of the thermal plume has a viscosity that is much closer to the ambient viscosity than the centerline viscosity as the plumes approach the lid they decelerate as the viscous drag on them steadily increases the lateral spreading of the plumes under the lid is found to be well described by similarity solutions derived for the spreading of compositional plumes on a rigid surface if the effective viscosity of the thermal plumes is taken to be the ambient viscosity rather than the centerline viscosity a similar theoretical model is found to roughly predict the upstream spreading of thermal plumes at low shear but it breaks down at moderate to high shear where the entire plumes are advected downstream when our results are applied to the earth we find that mantle plumes are mostly divided into only two flow regimes in the upper mantle plumes under slow moving plates experience upstream flow and negligible cross stream circulation while plumes under faster moving plates including all pacific plumes experience significant cross stream circulation and are advected downstream we also demonstrate that geochemical heterogeneities in a plume s source region will result in an azimuthally zoned plume and in an asymmetric geographical distribution of geochemical heterogeneities in the erupted hot spot basalts as is seen in the hawaiian galapagos marquesas and tahiti society island chains for individual mantle plumes we determine their diameter and vertical rise velocity as well as the extent of upstream spreading and the rate of lateral spreading under the lithosphere

the sequence of events surrounding termination ii and their implications for the cause of glacial interglacial co2 changes events surrounding termination ii as preserved in the vostok ice core provide a number of clues about the mechanisms controlling glacial to interglacial climate change antarctic temperature and the atmosphere s co2 content increased together over a period of 8000 years this increase is bounded by a drop in dust flux at its onset and by a drop in the 18o of trapped air at its finish a similar lag between dust flux and foraminiferal 18o is seen in a southern ocean marine record suggesting that the 18o in air trapped in vostok ice is a valid proxy for ice volume the synchronous change of atmospheric co2 and southern hemisphere temperature thus preceded the melting of the northern hemisphere ice sheets this observation coupled with the fact that nutrient reorganization in the north atlantic occurs with or after the sea level rise eliminates many scenarios proposed to explain the co2 rise including those which rely on sea level change conveyor related nutrient redistribution or north atlantic cooling southern ocean scenarios become the front runners but the most popular mechanism iron fertilization has two problems in explaining the co2 rise before termination ii first much of the dust demise occurs prior to the change in co2 so if iron is the villain a threshold value of its supply must be called upon above which productivity does not continue to increase second the co2 rise continues for some 4 5 kyr after the dust flux has fallen to close to zero these problems may be solved if the increased iron supply in dust caused higher rates of nitrogen fixation during the glacial periods in this case the residence time of oceanic nitrate of a few thousand years would enable decreasing productivity to be a global rather than a local phenomenon and would explain the slow rampup of atmospheric co2

87sr86sr isotopic evolution of lower carboniferous seawater dinantian of western europe abstract the chemical and isotopic evolution of ocean water mirrors the dynamics of the earth system the original seawater signature can be measured only indirectly for the palaeozoic samples with the greatest utility for such an approach are the secondary layers of articulate brachiopods for a correct interpretation of isotope data samples that have suffered alteration by diagenetic processes must be avoided trace element analysis is frequently utilized as an analytical tool the present study deals with the delineation of a detailed 87 sr 86 sr curve for the dinantian this in turn enables us to search for causative factors of the observed isotopic oscillations a total of 175 lower carboniferous dinantian brachiopod shells from a variety of western european locations have been analysed for their 87 sr 86 sr ratios for 152 of these shells quantitative geochemical tests on diagenetic alteration based on trace element repartitioning during recrystallisation have been performed the concentrations of ca mg sr mn and fe were routinely measured by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy icp aes analysing the diluted phosphoric acid that remained after carbonate dissolution for stable isotope gas preparation in addition 71 samples have been analysed by proton induced x ray emission spectroscopy micro pixe despite large differences in the analysed masses 3 6 mg for icp aes as low as 10 ng for pixe both methods yield comparable data for the sr and mn contents any discrepancies can be related to inhomogeneities of the shells e g punctae of these shells 73 have sr and mn contents of 600 ppm and the sr isotope record of the dinantian seawater is characterised by a decline in 87 sr 86 sr ratio from 0 7082 at the devonian carboniferous transition to 0 7076 in the mid visean superimposed on this trend are higher order fluctuations with a periodicity in the ma range the dinantian seawater curve may potentially serve as a geochronological and correlation tool particularly for the hastarian to lower chadian interval where the attainable resolution is 1 ma this is better than the resolution available by biostratigraphy the higher order wiggles for the most part can be generated by changing the riverine flux of sr or its isotopic ratio within reasonable geological scenarios some spikes however are too large and too short to be explained by the above phenomena these apparent spikes may reflect instead the fact that their duration has been underestimated due to unreliable geochronology and or the presence of unrecognised hiatuses

nitrate reduction sulfate reduction and sedimentary iron isotope evolution during the cenomanian turonian oceanic anoxic event onset of the oae in italy have unusually low bulk d 57 fe values unlike those found in the black shale livello bonarelli deposited during the oceanic anoxic event itself these latter conform to the phanerozoic norm for organic rich sediments pyrite formation in the pre oae black shales has apparently taken place via dissimilatory iron reduction dir within the sediment a suboxic process that causes an approximately 2 fractionation between a lithogenic fe iii oxide source and fe ii aq in contrast bacterial sulfate reduction bsr at least partly in the water column characterized the oae itself and was accompanied by only minor iron isotope fractionation this change in the manner of pyrite formation is reflected in a decrease in the average pyrite framboid diameter from 10 to 7 mm the gradual albeit irregular increase in fe isotope values during the oae as recorded in the italian section is taken to demonstrate limited isotopic evolution of the dissolved iron pool consequent upon ongoing water column precipitation of pyrite under euxinic conditions given that evidence exists for both nitrate and sulfate reduction during the oae it is evident that redox conditions in the water column were highly variable in both time and space

production of 15n depleted biomass during cyanobacterial n2 fixation at high fe concentrations 1 in this study we examine the effects of varying fe mo and p concentrations on 15 n fractionation during n 2 fixation in the cyanobacterium anabaena variabilis we show that when grown in fe enriched media fe 50 nm this organism produces biomass up to 3 o lower in 15 n than when grown in fe limited media fe 50 nm a compilation of our data with previous measurements of 15 n in n 2 fixing cyanobacteria reveals a general trend toward the production of more 15 n depleted biomass at higher fe concentrations we discuss our results in the context of negative 15 n values preserved in archean and some phanerozoic sediments generally attributed to the production of marine organic matter with low 15 n by n 2 fixation and potentially nh4 regeneration during periods of fluctuating nutrient dynamics we suggest that enhanced fe availability during periods of widespread ocean anoxia can further stimulate the production of 15 n depleted biomass by n 2 fixing organisms contributing to the isotopic record

isotope stratigraphy of the european carboniferous proxy signals for ocean chemistry climate and tectonics abstract carboniferous brachiopods from western europe and the former ussr have been utilized as carriers of isotopic proxy signals for paleoceanography and paleoclimatology during the assemblage of pangea this is of particular interest because this time interval coincides with the transition from greenhouse to icehouse conditions the 18 o values 3 ma running means show an overall 18 o increase from about 7 1 to 3 1 during the carboniferous the rise in the 18 o is stepwise with major shifts in the mid tournaisian and at the visean serpukhovian transition the comparable 13 c record shows a tournaisian peak at 5 a visean oscillation at about 2 5 1 a serpukhovian rise of more than 3 a plateau around 5 during the bashkirian and moscovian a 4 drop during the kasimovian and another rise of about 3 during the gzhelian the 87 sr 86 sr record shows an early carboniferous decline from 0 7083 to a mid visean minimum of 0 7077 followed by a rapid serpukhovian rise to a bashkirian and moscovian plateau at 0 7087 and a slight decline during the kasimovian and gzhelian the covariance of isotopic trends and the coincidence with geological phenomena indicates that the long term variations in ocean chemistry and climate may be coupled to the tectonic evolution of the earth system the namurian witnesses the onset of hercynian orogeny initiation of the main phase of carboniferous glaciation formation of the extensive coal deposits and the rise in 87 sr 86 sr 13 c and 18 o all this suggests that a tectonically controlled climate change resulting in cooling and increased carbon storage in the organic reservoir was the major triggering factor for all the above phenomena the late carboniferous glacial episode was interrupted by a warm interval in the stephanian the carbon and oxygen isotope data indicate that this episode may have been restricted to the early kasimovian a proposition at odds with the poorly dated record of glacial deposits that are interpreted as indicating a warm climate for the entire stephanian in addition the pattern of short lived peaks in 13 c and 18 o in the tournaisian and possibly visean may be interpreted as a reflection of short lived glacial episodes a proposition consistent with geologic records

nitrogen isotope variations in santa barbara basin sediments implications for denitrification in the eastern tropical north pacific during the last 50 000 years nitrogen isotope variations preserved in santa barbara basin sediments are used to evaluate changes in denitrification in the eastern tropical north pacific etnp during the last 50 000 years a significant component of the subsurface waters 100 400 m that presently fill the santa barbara basin is derived from the low oxygen denitrifying zone in the etnp and the nitrate in these waters has a 15n value of 8 9 during the last glacial the 15n values of santa barbara basin sediments were typically 6 7 indicating decreased denitrification in the etnp and a better oxygenated intermediate water mass in the santa barbara basin at this time this reduced denitrification during the last glacial would have increased the pool of fixed nitrogen and may have contributed to the higher productivity previously reported for various regions of the global ocean during this period at the onset of deglaciation sediment 15n values increase by more than 2 indicating increased denitrification in the etnp during younger dryas time 15n values decreased by 3 and record a brief return to better ventilated conditions in the subsurface waters of the etnp this is followed by an increase in 15n to over 9 at 10 000 years ago indicating intense denitrification at the beginning of the holocene

nitrogen 15 enriched precambrian kerogen and hydrothermal systems 1 nitrogen isotope data are reported for kerogen from precambrian black shales at prehnite pumpellyite to greenschist facies and for micas from postmetamorphic hydrothermal quartz vein systems nitrogen in micas was acquired from n bearing aqueous metamorphic hydrothermal fluids generated from breakdown of sedimentary kerogen and dehydration of k silicates at deeper crustal levels the 2 7 ga kerogens and hydrothermal k micas yield 15n values of 15 24 compared to existing data of 2 6 in phanerozoic counterparts paleoproterozoic equivalents have intermediate 15n of 7 12 implying a secular decrease in 15n of shale kerogen the 15n enriched nitrogen in archean shales and hydrothermal vein systems cannot be caused either by n isotopic shifts accompanying metamorphism or rayleigh fractionation because premetamorphic and postmetamorphic samples from the same terrane are both enriched and lack covariation of 15n with n c n ratios or metamorphic grade the magnitude of shifts during progressive metamorphism of sedimentary rocks in previous studies is constrained at 1 to greenschist and about 3 to amphibolite facies furthermore 15n enriched values cannot stem from long term preferential diffusional loss of 14n as samples were selected from terranes where 40ar 39ar ages are within a few million years of concordant u pb ages nitrogen is structurally bound in micas whereas ar is not it is possible that the 15n enriched values stem from a different n cycle in the archean with large biologically mediated fractionations yet the magnitude of the fractionations observed exceeds any presently known and chemoautotrophic communities tend to depleted values earlier results on archean cherts show a range from 6 to 30 given the temporal association of chert banded iron formation with mantle plumes the range is consistent with mixing between mantle n2 of 5 and the enriched marine reservoir identified in this study we attribute the secular trend from archean kerogen of 15 24 to phanerozoic kerogen averaging 3 4 to a secondary atmosphere derived from ci chondrite like material and comets with 15n of 30 42 shifts of 15n to its present values of 0 can be accounted for by a combination of sequestration of atmospheric n2 into sedimentary rocks and mantle degassing of 5 mantle n2

glacial holocene δ15n record from the gulf of tehuantepec mexico implications for denitrification in the eastern equatorial pacific and changes in atmospheric n2o 1 the intensity of denitrification in the gulf of tehuantepec along the mexican margin of the eastern tropical north pacific etnp was reconstructed for the last 23 000 years using the nitrogen isotopic composition of sediment organic matter 15norg in conjunction with other geochemical tracers of water column productivity during the last glacial period 15norg values ranged from 6 5 to 8 6 with values increasing between 23 and 17 ka deglaciation was marked by an abrupt increase in 15norg with maximum values 9 9 occurring during the bolling allerod period and the earliest holocene a decline in 15norg values occurred over the last 10 000 years with late holocene values being similar to those of the glacial period our data suggest that denitrification in this region was minimal during the last glacial and is consistent with the deposition of bioturbated sediments at the study site the intensity of denitrification increased dramatically during deglaciation and the early holocene signaling the presence of a strong oxygen minimum zone this period is also marked by the deposition of laminated sediments in the region the 15norg records display similar temporal trends to those seen in the greenland ice core record of atmospheric n2o concentrations at present denitrification within the eastern tropical pacific and arabian sea accounts for a major portion of the global marine loss of fixed nitrogen and a significant fraction of the ocean atmosphere n2o flux originates from these areas large changes in n2o emissions from these regions in the past would have directly impacted global greenhouse gas concentrations

revised phosphate water fractionation equation reassessing paleotemperatures derived from biogenic apatite oxygen isotopes of biogenic apatite have been widely used to reassess anomalous temperatures inferred from oxygen isotope ratios of ancient biogenic calcite more prone to diagenetic alteration however recent studies have highlighted that oxygen isotope ratios of biogenic apatite differ dependent on used analytical techniques this questions the applicability of the phosphate water fractionation equations established over 25 years ago using earlier analytical techniques to more recently acquired data in this work we present a new phosphate water oxygen isotope fractionation equation based on oxygen isotopes determined on fish raised in aquariums at controlled temperature and with monitored water oxygen isotope composition the new equation reveals a similar slope but an offset of about 2 to the earlier published equations this work has major implications for paleoclimatic reconstructions using oxygen isotopes of biogenic apatite since calculated temperatures have been underestimated by about 4 to 8 c depending on applied techniques and standardization of the analyses

nitrogen isotope compositions of metasedimentary rocks in the catalina schist california implications for metamorphic devolatilization history abstract in the catalina schist subduction zone metamorphic complex california metasedimentary rocks show a decrease in n concentration and an increase in 15nair with increasing metamorphic grade lowest grade lawsonite albite rocks contain 632 185 ppm n with 15 n 1 9 0 6 whereas highgrade amphibolite equivalents contain 138 76 ppm n with 15 n 4 3 0 8 loss of n accompanied devolatilization reactions that evolved h2o rich c o h s n fluids through consumption of chlorite and phengitic white mica and production of mineral assemblages containing muscovite biotite garnet and kyanite whole rock n concentrations of up to 200 ppm in veins and pegmatites produced during high p t metamorphism reflect the redistribution of n during devolatilization and partial melting of the metasedimentary rocks bulk fluid rock n isotope fractionations 15n 15nfluid 15nrock of 1 5 1 were calculated with the rayleigh distillation equation taking into account variability in rock composition by comparison of samples with similar k2o concentrations these fractionations are similar to but slightly lower than published calculated fractionations for n2 nh4 exchange at the temperature range of 350 600 c over which most of the devolatilization occurred in the catalina schist approximately 3 4 to 2 25 the n systematics appear to be explained by n2 nh4 exchange and a devolatilization process intermediate in behavior to batch volatilization and rayleigh distillation the observed shifts in n concentration and 15n cannot be explained by nh3 nh4 exchange at these temperatures using the equilibrium models the distillation devolatilization process implicated in this study may govern the behavior of other trace elements partitioned into hydrous fluids during devolatilization e g b cs u similarity of the calculated fluid 15n 1 5 to 5 5 with compositions of natural gases inferred to be derived from metasedimentary sources indicates the possibility of using n as a tracer of large scale volatile transport

ice volume and paleoclimate history of the late paleozoic ice age from conodont apatite oxygen isotopes from naqing guizhou china abstract a high resolution and continuous conodont apatite oxygen isotope record spanning the late visean to middle permian is reported from south china which is interpreted with respect to the ice volume and or tropical seawater temperature history of the late paleozoic ice age lpia the presented 18o record shows significant fluctuations in 18o from the late visean to middle permian with highest values observed in the bashkirian early pennsylvanian the 18o maximum coincides with a major eustatic sea level fall recorded in low latitude successions and postdates the significant increases in 87sr 86sr and 13ccarb measured on well preserved brachiopod calcite which can be interpreted as reflecting intensified weathering as consequence of the closure of rheic ocean as well as enhanced carbon burial both processes may have contributed to lower greenhouse gas levels and cooled down the earth s surface triggering the maximum glaciation the high bashkirian 18o values are interpreted to represent the glacial maximum of the lpia a coeval change in faunal composition and a decreasing diversity in climate sensitive marine invertebrates can be ascribed to icehouse cooling and or loss of habitat despite inconsistencies with earlier interpretations that the early permian represented the glacial maximum of the lpia as inferred from gondwanan glacial sediments records the suggested bashkirian glacial maximum agrees well with ice extent estimates based on the regional tectonic history in gondwana which suggests that the bashkirian glaciation occurred during gondwana interior uplift promoting maximum ice cover of the entire lpia however maximum glaciation is only poorly represented in the depositional record because large parts of the glacial deposits were possibly removed by erosion as outlined by a major regional unconformity

nitrogen isotopic variations in the gulf of california since the last deglaciation response to global climate change high resolution records of the nitrogen isotopic composition of organic matter 15norg opal content and opal accumulation rates from the central gulf of california reveal large and abrupt variations during deglaciation and gradual holocene changes coincident with climatic changes recorded in the north atlantic homogenous sediments with relatively low 15norg values and low opal content were deposited at the end of the last glacial period during the younger dryas event and during the middle to late holocene in contrast laminated sediments deposited in the two deglacial stages are characterized by very high 15norg values 14 and opal accumulation rates 29 41 mg cm 2 yr 1 abrupt shifts in 15norg were driven by widespread changes in the extent of suboxic subsurface waters supporting denitrification and were amplified in the central gulf record due to variations in upwelling vertical mixing and or the latitudinal position of the intertropical convergence zone