A magma ocean on Vesta: Core formation and petrogenesis of eucrites and diogenites

Abstract— Available evidence strongly suggests that the HED (howardite, eucrite, diogenite) meteorites are samples of asteroid 4 Vesta. Abundances of the moderately siderophile elements (Ni, Co, Mo, W and P) in the HED mantle indicate that the parent body may have been completely molten during its early history. During cooling of a chondritic composition magma ocean, equilibrium crystallization is fostered by the suspension of crystals in a convecting magma ocean until the crystal fraction reaches a critical value near 0.80, when the convective system freezes and melts segregate from crystals by gravitational forces. The extruded liquids are similar in composition to Main Group and Stannern trend eucrites, and the last pyroxenes to precipitate out of this ocean (before convective lockup) span the compositional range of the diogenites. Subsequent fractional crystallization of a Main Group eucrite liquid, which has been isolated as a body of magma, produces the Nuevo Laredo trend and the cumulate eucrites. The predicted cumulate mineral compositions are in close agreement with phase compositions analyzed in the cumulate eucrites. Thus, eucrites and diogenites are shown to have formed as part of a simple and continuous crystallization sequence starting with a magma ocean environment on an asteroidal size parent body that is consistent with Vesta.     

Origin of well-rounded gravels in glacial deposits from Brøggerhalvøya, northwest Spitsbergen: potential problems caused by sediment reworking in the glacial environment

Well-rounded gravels are described from moraine-mound complexes, diamicton forefields and modern englacial thrusts at the margins of four glaciers on the northern side of Brøggerhalvøya, northwest Spitsbergen. Their shape charcteristics are compared with modern and fossil glacigenic, modern beach and Early Weichselian beach gravels from this peninsula. The best discriminators of the well-rounded gravels have been found to be the percentage-frequency roundness histograms, the roundness mid-point and roundness range diagrams and the sphericity-roundness plots. It is concluded that the gravels have been derived by englacial thrusting from Early Weichselian or last interglacial beaches in the inner parts of the fjord and in the low level cirques when sea level reached at least 50m a.s.l. and deposited the beach gravels. The discrimination between gravel in basal diamictons, proglacial outwash and modern beaches is difficult as the reworking has resulted in little particle shape change. The potential major problem caused by reworking in the glacial environment is emphasised. especially when clast shape comparisons from modern environments to older sediments are used.     

The Southern Margin of the Late Cainozoic Ice Cap on the Central Plateau of Tasmania

The easternmost extremity of the ice cap that developed in the Tasmanian Central Highlands during the time of most extensive Late Cainozoic glaciation lay on the doleritecapped Central Plateau east and north-east of Lake St Clair. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the more restricted ice cover included a small discrete ice cap (probably less than 250-300 m thick) that formed on the Central Plateau. The LGM ice limits on the southern part of the Central Plateau, including all five southern outlet valleys, are reported here. Earlier ice limits have been identified in two of these valleys, but on the plateau proper earlier glacial deposits have been generally extensively reworked beyond the LGM limit, such that confirmation of a glacial origin for diamictons on slopes is difficult. South of the plateau, the oldest deposits flooring lower reaches of two outlet valleys indicate that ice flowed southwards directly from the plateau, but later deposits indicate diffluent flow from the Derwent Glacier.     

Transitional submarine fan deposits from the late Precambrian Kongsfjord Formats submarine fan, NE Finnmark, N. Norway

ABSTRACT Three transitional submarine fan environments are recognized in the late Precambrian, 3-2 km thick Kongsfjord Formation in NE Finnmark, North Norway, namely: (1) middle to outer fan; (2) fan lateral margin, and (3) fan to upper basin-slope deposits. Middle to outer fan deposits have a high proportion of sandstones, typically showing Bouma T _bede with T _a in the thicker beds. Deposition was mainly from sheet flows with rare shallow channels. Middle to outer fan deposits are an association of sandstone packets less than 10 m thick but commonly only a few metres thick, interpreted as channels or lobes. Interchannel and fan fringe deposits occur as discrete packets of beds between the thicker bedded and coarser grained channel or lobe deposits. Fan lateral margin deposits are recognized on the basis of their stratigraphic position adjacent to inner/middle fan deposits. They are characterized by: (a) a relatively high proportion of fine-grained sandstone/siltstone turbidites compared to other major fan environments; (b) relatively small channels oriented at various angles to the regional basin slope; (c) lobes associated with channels, and (d) abundant clastic dykes and other soft-sediment deformation. Fan lateral margin deposits are distinguished from the outer fan/basin plain successions on account of the very high proportion of siltstone turbidites comparable with middle fan inter-channel deposits. Fan to upper basin-slope deposits occur at the top of the formation as an alternation of sandstone turbidites, most of which are laterally discontinuous, and very thin-bedded upper basin-slope siltstones with slide deposits.     

Contrasting diagenesis of two Carboniferous Oolites from South Wales: a tale of climatic influence

Two oolites in the Dinantian (Mississippian/Lower Carboniferous) of Glamorgan, SW Britain, were deposited in similar depositional environments but have contrasting diagenetic histories. The Brofiscin and Gully Oolites occur in the upper parts of shallowing-upward sequences, formed through strandplain progradation and sand shoal and barrier growth upon a southward-dipping carbonate ramp. The Brofiscin Oolite is characterized by a first-generation cement of equant calcite spar, preferentially located at grain-contacts and forming non-isopachous fringes around grains, interpreted as meteoric vadose and phreatic in origin. Isopachous fibrous calcite fringes of marine origin are rather rare and occur only at a few horizons. Burial compaction was not important and porosity was occluded by poikilotopic calcite spar. Fitted grain-grain contacts locally occur and could be the result of near-surface vadose dissolution-compaction. Syntaxial overgrowths on echinoderm debris are common. Pre-compaction overgrowths are cloudy (inclusion-rich) and probably of meteoric origin, and post-compaction overgrowths are inclusion-free. By contrast, the Gully Oolite has little first-generation cement. However, marine fibrous calcite is common in oolitic intraclasts, as isopachous fringes of acicular calcite crystals closely associated with peloidal internal sediment; and early equant, drusy calcite spar occurs in the uppermost part of the Gully, beneath a prominent palaeokarst where pedogenic cements also occur. The major feature of Gully diagenesis is burial compaction, resulting in extensive grain-grain dissolution and microstylolitic grain contacts, and post-compaction poikilotopic spar occluded remaining porosity. The Brofiscin Oolite is pervasively dolomitized up-dip but the Gully Oolite for the most part only contains scattered pre-compaction dolomite rhombs and late veins of baroque dolomite, with less pervasive dolomitization. The difference in diagenetic style of the two Dinantian oolites is attributed to prevailing climate. The paucity of early meteoric cements in the Gully is a result of an arid climate, and this is supported by the nature of the capping palaeokarst. The abundant meteoric cements in the Brofiscin reflect a more humid climate, and effective meteoric recharge also resulted in up-dip pervasive mixing-zone dolomitization. The style of early diagenesis in these two oolites exerted a major control on the later burial diagenesis: in the Brofiscin, the early cements inhibited grain-grain dissolution and pressure solution, while these processes operated extensively in the Gully Oolite. Thus, prevailing climate can influence a limestone's diagenetic history from near-surface through into deep burial.     

Environmental impacts of the Norse settlement: palaeoenvironmental data from Myvatnssveit, northern Iceland

Lawson, I. T., Gathorne‐Hardy, F. J., Church, M. J., Newton, A. J., Edwards, K. J., Dugmore, A. J. & Einarsson, Á. 2007 (January): Environmental impacts of the Norse settlement: palaeoenvironmental data from Mývatnssveit, northern Iceland. Boreas, Vol. 36, pp. 1–19. Oslo. ISSN 0300–9483. The first stratigraphically continuous pollen profile spanning the Norse and Medieval periods from the archaeologically‐rich Mvatnssveit region of northern Iceland is presented. Detailed analyses were made of the tephra, sediment characteristics, pollen and chironomids of a 3 kyr sediment sequence from Helluvastjörn, a small, shallow lake. The pollen data show a steady decline in the percentage abundance of tree birch (Betula pubescens) pollen between the Norse settlement (landnám, c. AD 870) and c. AD 1300, a pattern that contrasts with the abrupt fall in birch pollen percentages immediately following the Norse colonization at almost all previously studied sites in Iceland. Some lines of evidence suggest that the gradual birch decline could be a result of reworking of soil pollen, but independent evidence suggests that this may not necessarily be the case. The pollen record indicates that birch woodland was replaced by acidophilic taxa (notably Empetrum nigrum and Sphagnum), again contrasting with the more usual pattern of Poaceae expansion seen in post‐landnám pollen diagrams from mires close to farm sites. Chironomid and Pediastrum accumulation data show that the limnic environment became more productive immediately after landnám, probably because of anthropogenic disturbance. An increase in sedimentation rate after landnám appears initially to have been caused by increased lake productivity, while reworked inorganic soil materials became a significant contributor to the sediments after c. AD 1200. The data suggest that the impact of settlement on terrestrial vegetation may have been more variable than previously thought, while freshwater ecosystems experienced significant and rapid change.     

The ice-dammed lakes of Ossian Sarsfjellet (Svalbard): their geomorphology and significance

The tidewater glacier complex of Kongsvegen/Kronebreen, at the head of Kongsfjorden in north-west Spitsbergen, has advanced rapidly several times since its Neoglacial maximum. Two such advances, 1869 and 1948, are well constrained in time and space and are widely interpreted as glacier surges. During the 1869 advance an ice-dammed lake formed on the western side of Ossian Sarsfjellet. This ice-dammed lake is associated with a thrust moraine complex. Four lake levels are identified, two of which are associated with rock-cut shorelines implying a degree of lake stability. The history of this lake, the nature of the ice dam and its relationship to the thrust moraine complex are discussed. The lake history spanning 28 to 35 years is used to assess the ice-marginal dynamics of the Kongsvegen/Kronebreen glacier. It is concluded that, contrary to previous suggestions, the rapid advance of this tidewater glacier may simply be an example of a non-climatic ice-marginal fluctuation, of the type common to tidewater glacier, as opposed to a glacier surge. A second ice-dammed lake, to the east of Ossian Sarsfjellet, formed sometime after 1869 as the ice retreated, and still exists today. This largely supraglacial lake is associated with a very different geomorphological assemblage, which has a poor long-term preservation potential. The geomorphological characteristics of the two lakes on Ossian Sarsfjellet are compared and used to discuss the problems associated with the recognition of ice-dammed lakes within the Pleistocene record. On the basis of the evidence presented here, ice-dammed lakes may be more common during deglaciation than currently suggested.     

Stoss-side mud-drapes: deposits of interdune pond margins

Arcuate mud-drapes have been observed in an interdune area in southern Tunisia. They are believed to have been formed by deposition from ponded water around aeolian dunes during flood events. They are preferentially preserved on the stoss-side of the dunes as a result of subsequent dune migration, and exhibit extensive evidence of animal tracks. They are useful in illustrating dune-interdune dynamics and recording the type of animals present.