The south-western Black Forest and the Upper Rhine Graben Main Border Fault: thermal history and hydrothermal fluid flow

The thermal history of the south-westernmost Black Forest (Germany) and the adjacent Upper Rhine Graben were constrained by a combination of apatite and zircon fission-track (FT) and microstructural analyses. After intrusion of Palaeozoic granitic plutons in the Black Forest, the thermal regime of the studied area re-equilibrated during the Late Permian and the Mesozoic, interrupted by enhanced hydrothermal activity during the Jurassic. At the eastern flank of the Upper Rhine Graben along the Main Border Fault the analysed samples show microstructural characteristics related to repeated tectonic and hydrothermal activities. The integration of microstructural observations of the cataclastic fault gouge with the FT data identifies the existence of repeated tectonic-related fluid flow events characterised by different thermal conditions. The older took place during the Variscan and/or Mesozoic time at temperatures lower than 280°C, whereas the younger was probably contemporary with the Cenozoic rifting of the Upper Rhine Graben at temperatures not higher than 150°C.     

Provenance of the Lower Triassic Bunter Sandstone Formation: implications for distribution and architecture of aeolian vs. fluvial reservoirs in the North German Basin

Zircon U–Pb geochronometry, heavy mineral analyses and conventional seismic reflection data were used to interpret the provenance of the Lower Triassic Bunter Sandstone Formation. The succession was sampled in five Danish wells in the northern part of the North German Basin. The results show that sediment supply was mainly derived from the Ringkøbing‐Fyn High situated north of the basin and from the Variscan belt located south of the basin. Seismic reflection data document that the Ringkøbing‐Fyn High was a local barrier for sediment transport during the Early Triassic. Hence, the Fennoscandian Shield did not supply much sediment to the basin as opposed to what was previously believed. Sediment from the Variscan belt was transported by wind activity across the North German Basin when it was dried out during deposition of the aeolian part of the Volpriehausen Member (lower Bunter Sandstone). Fluvial sand was supplied from the Ringkøbing‐Fyn High to the basin during precipitation events which occurred most frequently when the Solling Member was deposited (upper Bunter Sandstone). Late Neoproterozoic to Carboniferous zircon ages predominate in the Volpriehausen Member where the dominant age population with a peak age of 337 Ma corresponds to the culmination of Variscan high‐grade metamorphism, whereas a secondary age population with a peak at 300 Ma matches the timing of volcanism and magmatism at the Carboniferous/Permian boundary in the northern Variscan belt. Parts of the basement in the Ringkøbing‐Fyn High were outcropping during the Early Triassic and zircon ages similar to this Mesoproterozoic basement are present in the Bunter Sandstone. The heavy mineral assemblage of the Solling Member is uniform and has a high garnet content compared to the contemporaneous sediments in the Norwegian‐Danish Basin and in the southern part of the North German Basin. This finding confirms that a local source in the Ringkøbing‐Fyn High supplied most of the fluvial sediment in the northern part of the North German Basin. The northernmost part of the Bunter Sandstone is situated on a platform area that is separated from the basin area by a broad WNW–ESE‐oriented fault zone. The most promising reservoir in the basin area is the aeolian Volpriehausen Member since the sandstone has a wide lateral distribution and a constant thickness. The alluvial to ephemeral fluvial Solling Member may be a good reservoir in the platform area and marginal basin area, but the complex sand‐body architecture makes it difficult to predict the reservoir quality.     

Computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy: A fast and reliable tool for diamond prospecting

Computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy is introduced as a faster, reliably and cost-reducing alternative to conventional electron microprobe analyses on kimberlite indicator minerals. The method is based on conventional scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, but due to extended counting times, optimised settings and computer-controlled particle recognition valid data can be obtained on a low amount of operator and machine time. A comparison of the results between both methods yields that computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy is able to investigate major and minor element concentrations in indicator minerals with almost the same precision as the electron microprobe.     

Selective grazing by cattle on spatially and seasonally heterogeneous rangeland in Sahel

The selective use by cattle of range resources in the Sahel was assessed in terms of quantity and nutritional quality of the herbage grazed and diet selected. Peak standing crop was 1951 kg ha⁻¹dry matter (DM) with 47·9 kg nitrogen (N) ha⁻¹and 7·4 kg phosphorus (P) ha⁻¹. Esophageally fistulated cattle diets were consistently (p<0·05) higher in N, P and organic matter digestibility (OMD) than the herbage grazed. Cattle consumed 48% of the mean annual herbage production. The results indicate grazing ruminants select a higher quality diet from Sahelian rangelands than can be predicted on the basis of pasture evaluation alone. Therefore, the foraging behaviour of the animals needs to be considered in the evaluation of Sahelian rangelands for animal production.     

Disaggregating and mapping crop statistics using hypertemporal remote sensing

Governments compile their agricultural statistics in tabular form by administrative area, which gives no clue to the exact locations where specific crops are actually grown. Such data are poorly suited for early warning and assessment of crop production. 10-Daily satellite image time series of Andalucia, Spain, acquired since 1998 by the SPOT Vegetation Instrument in combination with reported crop area statistics were used to produce the required crop maps. Firstly, the 10-daily (1998–2006) 1-km resolution SPOT-Vegetation NDVI-images were used to stratify the study area in 45 map units through an iterative unsupervised classification process. Each unit represents an NDVI-profile showing changes in vegetation greenness over time which is assumed to relate to the types of land cover and land use present. Secondly, the areas of NDVI-units and the reported cropped areas by municipality were used to disaggregate the crop statistics. Adjusted R-squares were 98.8% for rainfed wheat, 97.5% for rainfed sunflower, and 76.5% for barley. Relating statistical data on areas cropped by municipality with the NDVI-based unit map showed that the selected crops were significantly related to specific NDVI-based map units. Other NDVI-profiles did not relate to the studied crops and represented other types of land use or land cover. The results were validated by using primary field data. These data were collected by the Spanish government from 2001 to 2005 through grid sampling within agricultural areas; each grid (block) contains three 700 m × 700 m segments. The validation showed 68%, 31% and 23% variability explained (adjusted R-squares) between the three produced maps and the thousands of segment data. Mainly variability within the delineated NDVI-units caused relatively low values; the units are internally heterogeneous. Variability between units is properly captured. The maps must accordingly be considered “small scale maps”. These maps can be used to monitor crop performance of specific cropped areas because of using hypertemporal images. Early warning thus becomes more location and crop specific because of using hypertemporal remote sensing.     

The influence of interpolation and station network density on the distributions and trends of climate variables in gridded daily data

We study the influence of station network density on the distributions and trends in indices of area-average daily precipitation and temperature in the E-OBS high resolution gridded dataset of daily climate over Europe, which was produced with the primary purpose of Regional Climate Model evaluation. Area averages can only be determined with reasonable accuracy from a sufficiently large number of stations within a grid-box. However, the station network on which E-OBS is based comprises only 2,316 stations, spread unevenly across approximately 18,000 0.22° grid-boxes. Consequently, grid-box data in E-OBS are derived through interpolation of stations up to 500 km distant, with the distance of stations that contribute significantly to any grid-box value increasing in areas with lower station density. Since more dispersed stations have less shared variance, the resultant interpolated values are likely to be over-smoothed, and extreme daily values even more so. We perform an experiment over five E-OBS grid boxes for precipitation and temperature that have a sufficiently dense local station network to enable a reasonable estimate of the area-average. We then create a series of randomly selected station sub-networks ranging in size from four to all stations within the E-OBS interpolation search radii. For each sub-network realisation, we estimate the grid-box average applying the same interpolation methodology as used for E-OBS, and then evaluate the effect of network density on the distribution of daily values, as well as trends in extremes indices. The results show that when fewer stations have been used for the interpolation, both precipitation and temperature are over-smoothed, leading to a strong tendency for interpolated daily values to be reduced relative to the “true” area-average. The smoothing is greatest for higher percentiles, and therefore has a disproportionate effect on extremes and any derived extremes indices. For many regions of the E-OBS dataset, the station density is sufficiently low to expect this smoothing effect to be significant and this should be borne in mind by any users of the E-OBS dataset.     

Impact melt rocks from the Late Paleocene Hiawatha impact structure,northwest Greenland

Impact melt rocks formed during hypervelocity impact events are ideal for studying impact structures. Here, we describe impact melt rock samples collected proximal to the 31 km wide 58 Ma Hiawatha impact structure, northwest Greenland, which is completely covered by the Greenland Ice Sheet. The melt rocks contain diagnostic shock indicators (e.g., planar deformation features [PDF] in quartz and shocked zircon) and form three groups based on melt textures and chemistry: (i) hypocrystalline, (ii) glassy, and (iii) carbonate-based melt rocks. The exposed foreland directly in front of the structure consists of metasedimentary successions and igneous plutons; however, the carbonate-based impactites indicate a mixed target sequence with a significant carbonate-rich component. Well-preserved organic material in some melt rocks indicates that North Greenland at the time of impact was host to abundant organic material, likely a dense high-latitude temperate forest. Geochemical signatures of platinum-group elements in selected samples indicate an extraterrestrial component and support previous identification of a highly fractionated iron impactor in glaciofluvial sand. Our results illustrate the possibility to study impact structures hidden beneath a thick ice sheet based on transported samples and this opens a new avenue for identifying other potential impact craters in Greenland and Antarctica.