Helium and neon isotopes in the Imnaha Basalt, Columbia River Basalt Group: Evidence for a Yellowstone plume source

Helium, neon, and argon isotopic compositions were measured in two flows of the Columbia River flood basalt. The Imnaha Basalt has a ³He/⁴He ratio of 11.4 times atmospheric and ²⁰Ne/²²Ne and ²¹Ne/²²Ne ratios characteristic of a plume component. The measured ³He/⁴He is a lower limit, due to possible preferential ³He loss and/or addition of radiogenic ⁴He. A Wanapum Basalt flow, erupted approximately 2 Ma later in the waning stages of volcanism, has more MORB-like noble gases. The He, Nd and Sr isotopic compositions of these lavas suggest that the Columbia River basalts were derived from the Yellowstone plume head which contained both ‘high-helium’ plume material and entrained depleted mantle. As the eruptions progressed the plume component in the melting region was gradually diluted or replaced.     

Carbonate banks and slump beds in the Upper Cretaceous (Upper Turonian-Santonian) of Haute Normandie, France

Large scale sedimentary structures present in the Upper Turonian to Santonian chalks of Haute Normandie (northern France) represent the remains of a carbonate bank complex which formerly extended over an area of at least 1500 km². Cliff exposures along the Channel coast from St Valéry-en-Caux to Cauville and along the Seine from Sandouville to Lillebonne show sections of banks up to 50 m high and 1500 m across, their internal structures picked out by hardgrounds, nodular chalks and horizons of burrow flint. Associated with banks are slump sheets up to 20 m thick, slump scars, sedimentary breccias, injection phenomena and faults contemporaneous with sedimentation. Later diagenetic features include extensive dolomitization and silicification. These structures compare closely with the Waulsortian banks of the Palaeozoic, and bryozoan bioherms known from the Upper Cretaceous and Palaeocene of Denmark. Frame-building, sediment trapping and stabilizing organisms are absent, and bank development and stabilization was probably due to a plant covering, either algal or of marine angiosperms. Banks generated much of their own sediment, whilst a pelagic constituent (calcareous nannofossils and Foraminiferida) is also present. The distribution of the bank complex is related to a basement controlled swell area, whilst the life of the complex was limited to a relatively shallow water, regressive episode in the predominantly transgressive Upper Cretaceous history of the region. Les falaises littorales du Pays de Caux comprises entre Antifer et St Valèry-enCaux, et les affleurements de la basse vallée de la Seine permettent d'observer des formations du Turonien supérieur-Sénonien inférieur qui présentent des stratifications irrégulières soulignées par de nombreux hardgrounds, des horizons de craie noduleuse et des cordons de silex. Ces structures sont identifiées à des accumulations de calcilutite et calcarénite sous forme de bancs sous-marins dont la hauteur peut atteindre 50 m et qui couvrent une surface supérieure à 1500 km²; ils apparaissent au-dessus de hardgrounds subhorizontaux qui indiquent un haut-fond régional stable. Des glissements sous-marins sont associés à ces bancs et engendrent des niveaux avec des déformations souples atteignant 20 m d'épaisseur. Des brèches apparaissent localement et contiennent des blocs basculés de hardgrounds fragmentés lors du glissement; on y observe aussi de petites failles intrasédimentaires et des phénomènes d'injection. Aucun organisme constructeur ou capable de piéger et retenir le sédiment n'a été observé. La stabilisation de ces bancs serait due à une couverture végétale (algues ou angiospermes marines) dont on sait qu'elle peut disparâitre sans laisser de trace lors de la fossilisation. La croissance de ces bancs serait réalisée par un apport de sédiment comprenant une part de nourrissage autochtone comme cela existe pour les bancs récents en eau peu profonde, associée au dépôt d'une fraction pélagique.     

Holocene vegetation history of the Okanogan Valley,Washington

Haploxylon pine(s) and Artemisia dominated the initial vegetation in front of the receding Okanogan Lobe until ca. 10,000 yr B.P., as revealed by two pollen records in north-central Washington. After 10,000 yr B.P. the macroclimate became warmer throughout the Okanogan drainage as diploxylon pines and Artemisia increased. The Mount Mazama eruption at ca. 6700 yr B.P. is recorded as two stratigraphically separate and petrographically distinct tephra units at Bonaparte Meadows. While there are apparent short-term changes in the vegetation coincident with the ashfall(s), Artemisia continues to dominate the Okanogan Valley until ca. 5000 yr B.P. By 4700 yr B.P. the modern vegetation, dominated by Pseudotsuga menziesii, had become established around Bonaparte Meadows.     

Sur lesStaurastrum du lac Léman

Among the Desmids which have been observed in the plankton of the lake of Geneva, organisms having 4 processes have been discovered. Their frequency in the water samples and the results of in vitro studies on their progeny when cultivated in several environmental conditions, allow us to consider these organisms as a form ofStaurastrum sebaldi. The triradiate organisms have been incorrectly named and one must now consider three different species.      

Reconstructing the ancestral (Plio-Pleistocene) Rio Grande in its active tectonic setting, southern Rio Grande rift, New Mexico, USA

Deposits of the ancestral Rio Grande (aRG) belonging to the Camp Rice Formation are preserved and exposed in the uplifted southern portion of the Robledo Mountains horst of the southern Rio Grande rift. The sediments are dated palaeomagnetically to the Gauss chron (upper Pliocene). The lower part of the succession lies in a newly discovered palaeocanyon cut into underlying Eocene rocks whose margins are progressively onlapped by the upper part. Detailed sedimentological studies reveal the presence of numerous river channel and floodplain lithofacies, indicative of varied deposition in channel bar complexes of low‐sinuosity, pebbly sandbed channels that traversed generally dryland floodplains and shifted in and out of the study area five times over the 1 Myr or so recorded by the succession. Notable discoveries in the deposits are: (1) complexes of initial avulsion breakout channels at the base of major sandstone storeys; (2) common low‐angle bedsets ascribed to deposition over low‐angle dunes in active channels; (3) palaeocanyon floodplain environments with evidence of fluctuating near‐surface water tables. Sand‐body architecture is generally multistorey, with palaeocurrents indicative of funnelling of initial avulsive and main fluvial discharge from the neighbouring Mesilla basin through a narrow topographic gap into the palaeocanyon and out over the study area. An avulsion node was evidently located at the stationary southern tip to the East Robledo fault during Gauss times, with aRG channels to the north flowing close to the fault and preventing fan progradation. Subsequent Matuyama growth of the fault caused (1) deposition to cease as the whole succession was uplifted in its footwall, (2) development of a thick petrocalcic horizon, and (3) fan progradation into the Mesilla basin. Parameters for the whole aRG fluvial system are estimated as: active single channels 2 m deep and 25 m wide; valley slope 0·24–0·065°; maximum mean aggradation rate 0·05 mm year^–1; major channel belt avulsion interval 200 ky; individual channel recurrence interval 100 ky; minimum bankfull mean flow velocity 1·54 m s^–1, minimum single‐channel discharge 77 m³ s^–1, bed shear stress 22·3 N m^–2; and stream power 34·3 W m^–2.     

A search for distant radio-loud quasars in the CLASS survey: three new radio-selected quasars at z > 4

We report on the search for distant radio-loud quasars in the Cosmic Lens All Sky Survey (CLASS) of flat spectrum radio sources with S _5GHz>30 mJy . Unresolved optical counterparts were selected from APM scans of POSS-I plates, with e <19.0 and red o − e >2.0 colours, in an effective area of ∼6400 deg². Four sources were found to be quasars with z >4 , of which one was previously known. This sample bridges the gap between the strong radio surveys with S _5GHz>200 mJy and the samples of radio-weak quasars that can be generated via radio observations of optically selected quasars. In addition, four new quasars at z >3 have been found. The selection criteria result in a success-rate of ∼1:7 for radio-loud quasars at z >4 , which is a significant improvement over previous studies. This search yields a surface density of 1 per 1600 deg², which is about a factor of ∼15 lower than that found in a similar search for radio-quiet quasars at z >4 . The study presented here is strongly biased against quasars beyond z >4.5 , since the e -passband of the POSS-I only samples the spectra shortward of 1200 Å at these redshifts.