ALBERT

Notes: [Auszug] We describe a codon 299 mutation in the glucokinase gene in a British pedigree with maturity–onset diabetes of the young (MODY) resulting in a substitution of glycine to arginine. One out of fifty patients diagnosed with classical late–onset type 2 diabetes mellitus was also found to ...

Notes: Abstract In the contact metamorphic aureole of the Tinaroo Batholith (north Queensland, Australia), mylonitic rocks were metamorphosed during a regional folding/crenulation event (D2) synchronous with the emplacement of muscovite-bearing granitoids. Prismatic and skeletal andalusite porphyoblasts grew in carbonaceous schists, mainly from the dissolution of staurolite. Muscovite, quartz and biotite played a dual role in this reaction, acting in a catalytic capacity as well as reactants or products. Staurolite was replaced by coarse-grained muscovite ± biotite, whereas andalusite locally replaced quartz ± muscovite ± biotite, with diffusion of H, Al, Si, Mg, Fe and K ionic species linking sites of dissolution and growth.Graphite contributed to the reaction mechanism in a number of ways. Accumulations of graphite in front of advancing andalusite crystal faces led to skeletal growth and the formation of chiastolite structure, where incremental growth occurred on adjacent {110} faces, with subsequent filling in and inclusion of graphite along the diagonal zones. The presence of graphite in some layers in the schist matrix prevented recrystallization of strained muscovite grains. The muscovite grains in these layers, in contrast to adjacent thin non-graphitic layers, were preferentially replaced by quartz. This resulted in muscovite-depletion haloes in graphitic layers around andalusite porphyroblasts. Somewhat arcuate zones of graphite, concentrated during dissolution of quartz along a crenulation cleavage, occur on some andalusite faces. Reactivation of the mylonitic foliation during the formation of D2 crenulations led to a preferential dissolution of quartz in zones of progressive shearing localized near andalusite porphyroblasts and hence the accumulation of graphite.Lack of deflection of the pre-existing mylonitic foliation and anastomosing of the axial planes of D2 crenulations around andalusite porphyroblasts demonstrate not only the timing of growth, but also that growing porphyroblasts do not push aside existing foliations.

Notes: Glasshouse trials, using trickle irrigation and increasing levels of NaOH-induced alkalinity, identified species that could be expected to tolerate the high-pH conditions of bauxite processing waste residue sites. Of 29 taxa tested, the most tolerant were Casuarina obesa, Melaleuca lanceolata, M. armillaris, M. nesophila, Eucalyptus loxophleba, E. halophila, E. platypus, Tamarix aphylla, and a particular clone of E. camaldulensis; E. spathulata, E. tetragona, E. preissiana, E. gomphocephala, E. diptera, and E. occidentalis proved to be relatively sensitive to severe alkaline conditions. Tolerance appeared to relate to an ability to maintain root membrane function, nutrient uptake balance, and ultimately root tissue structure while under increasing levels of alkalinity stress. Species normally inhabiting alkaline soils tended to have increased growth rates in nutrient irrigation conditions between pH 8 and 10 compared with control plants irrigated with nutrient solutions of pH values near 7.4. However, once the irrigation solutions reached pH 12 and the buffering capacity of the soil appeared to be exceeded, the condition of susceptible plants rapidly declined and death followed. Sensitive plants initially showed symptoms related to nutrient deficiency, followed by wilting and death as the root systems failed. Field trial conditions in the bauxite residue impoundments at Kwinana, Western Australia, include soils with pH values as high as 11.00. In general, the relative survival and growth of seedlings after eight months were predicted by the response under glasshouse trial conditions. Appropriately designed stress trials can be important ecological techniques in choosing species most capable of surviving difficult environmental conditions in the rehabilitation of damaged landscapes.

Notes: Abstract The mid-Tertiary blueschists, eclogites and eclogitic gneisses of northern New Caledonia are the products of four phases of regional metamorphism and deformation (D1–D4). Omphacite, lawsonite and Mn-rich garnet isogradic surfaces were developed during the second deformation (D2) under prograde pressure and temperature conditions. Subsequent deformations (D3–D4) folded these D2 isogradic surfaces. However, within the P-retrograde, T-prograde metamorphic environment of the D4 phase, omphacite altered to albite and chlorite; as a result, a late-stage sub-horizontal isogradic surface developed for omphacite-out where this mineral preserved as relics within syn-D4 albite porphyroblasts. Other minerals that crystallized for the first time (epidote) or had rim additions (almandine phengite) during D4, also form nearly horizontal isogradic surfaces. Porphyroblastic garnet and albite contain inclusion trails, which allow their microstructural development and crystallization of the matrix to be traced from D2 to D4.Late syn-D4 the temperature increased markedly in association with an extensive exothermic decarbonation, even though the rocks were in a state of pressure retrogression. This caused considerable neocrystallization, recrystallization and growth of mattix and porphyroblasts such that, although S2 foliation crenulated by D3 and D4 is readily observable, almost all signs of stored strain due to D3 and D4 have been removed, and the deeper schists and eclogitic gneisses superficially appear to have undergone a drastic annealing recrystallization, post-dating deformation.

Notes: Dissolution and solution transfer during deformation/metamorphism are controlled by the partitioning of deformation into progressive shearing and shortening components. Progressive shearing is readily accommodated by slip on the planar crystal structure of phyllosilicates and graphite without accumulating dislocation density gradients across grain boundaries.Progressive shortening is accommodated by the cores of most other minerals (including sulphides). These minerals develop strain, and hence dislocation density gradients, on their rims due to progressive shearing along grain boundaries. These gradients are particularly large when the mineral abuts phyllosilicate or graphite. The resulting chemical potential gradients between the core and rim drive dissolution, causing removal of the highly strained grain margins.Removal of dissolved material by solution transfer is aided by the geometry of shearing of phyllosilicates and graphite around other grains in an active anastomosing foliation. Interlayers and interfaces on boundaries lying at a low angle to the direction of shearing, and oriented relative to the sense of shear such that they can open, gape by small amounts. Water present in these interlayer spaces becomes destructured, considerably enhancing diffusion rates along the foliation.Penetrative volume loss, especially in deforming/metamorphosing pelitic rocks, is large at all metamorphic grades, increasing and becoming more penetrative with depth to at least the transition into granulite and eclogite facies. Transference of material by fluid flow from deep to high levels in the earth's crust is precluded because thousands to tens of thousands of rock volumes of fluid are required, necessitating continual recirculation of fluid from shallow to deep crustal levels in one large or several small sets of cells, unless some extremely large-scale form of fluid channelling is possible. Reassessment of diffusion mechanisms, and hence rates, during deformation and pervasive foliation generation in large volumes of rock where fluid channeling cannot provide enough fluid, indicates that diffusion can proceed with sufficient rapidity that massive recirculation of fluid is no longer required. The amount of fluid can be reduced sufficiently to allow large volume losses by a one-way flow of fluid to the earth's surface, in deforming/metamorphosing environments where the fluid pressure equals or exceeds the hydrostatic pressure.Deformation partitioning-controlled dissolution progressively changes the bulk chemistry of a rock containing phyllosilicates or graphite during deformation/metamorphism because matrix minerals, other than phyllosilicates and graphite, are preferentially removed. The large size of porphyroblasts, if present, tends to preserve them from dissolution. Hence, the bulk chemistry operative during subsequent porphyroblast growth can have changed considerably from that operative when the first porphyroblasts grew, in rocks in which bedding is still well preserved.

Notes: Abstract In regional metamorphic rocks, the partitioning of deformation into progressive shearing and progressive shortening components results in strain and strain-rate gradients across the boundaries between the partitioned zones. These generate dislocation density gradients and hence chemical potential gradients that drive dissolution and solution transfer. Phyllosilicates and graphite are well adapted to accommodating progressive shearing without necessarily building up large dislocation density gradients within a grain, because of their uniquely layered crystal structure. However, most silicates and oxides cannot accommodate strain transitions within grains without associated dislocation density gradients, and hence are susceptible to dissolution and solution transfer.As a consequence, zones of progressive shearing become zones of dissolution of most minerals, and of concentration of phyllosilicates and graphite. Exceptions are mylonites, where strain-rates are commonly high enough for plastic deformation to dominate over diffusion rates and therefore over dissolution and solution transfer. Porphyroblastic minerals cannot nucleate and grow in zones of active progressive shearing, as they would be dissolved by the effects of shearing strain on their boundaries. However, they can nucleate and grow in zones of progressive shortening and this is aided by the propensity for microfracturing in these zones, which allows rapid access of fluids carrying the material presumed to be necessary for nucleation and growth. Zones of progessive shortening also have a number of characteristics that help to lower the activation energy barrier for nucleation, this includes a build up of stored strain-energy relative to zones of progressive shearing, in which dissolution is occuring.Porphyroblast growth is generally syndeformational, and previously accepted criteria for static growth are not valid when the role of deformation partitioning is taken into account.Porphyroblasts in a contact aureole do not grow statically either, as microfracturing, associated with emplacement, allows access of fluids in a fashion that is similar to microfracturing in zones of progressive shortening.The criteria used for porphyroblast timing can be readily accommodated in terms of deformation partitioning, reactivation of deforming foliations, and a general lack of rotation of porphyroblasts, with the spectacular exception of genuinely spiralling garnet porphyroblasts.

Notes: Investigation of microstructural relationships in major movement zones in metamorphic rocks, where the sense of displacement is known from regional geological relationships, indicates numerous problems with current concepts of shear-sense criteria and their application. The direction of apparent shearing commonly conflicts from one criterion to another (e.g. from the symmetry of quartz c-axis orientation diagrams to the asymmetry of extensional crenulation cleavages). This implies that interpretations of shear sense along foliations from some mesoscale and microscale criteria have been erroneous.A new approach to interpreting shear sense, involving the use of strain fields, resolves conflicts in mesoscopic and microscopic criteria and provides a method for determining coherent shear-sense histories extending back before the last shearing event for ‘any foliated metamorphic rock’. It also provides a powerful tool for determining the structural/metamorphic path that a rock has followed within an orogen. For determination of the shear sense on the last foliation developed in a rock, this approach uses geometries developed around competent heterogeneities such as quartz pebbles, pegmatite pods, veins, porphyroclasts, porphyroblasts and breccia clasts. A shear-sense history is derived by applying this approach to earlier foliations preserved within the heterogeneities and their strain shadows.