ALBERT

Description: Previous studies in the Yakataga fold-thrust belt of the St. Elias orogen in southern Alaska have demonstrated high exhumation rates associated with alpine glaciation; however, these studies were conducted with only a rudimentary treatment of the actual structures responsible for the deformation that produced long-term uplift. We present results of detailed geologic mapping in two corridors across the onshore fold-thrust system: the Duktoth River transect just west of Cape Yakataga and the Icy Bay transect in the Mount St. Elias region. In the Duktoth transect, we recognize older, approximately east-west–trending structures that are overprinted by open, northwest-trending fold systems, which we correlate to a system of northeast-trending, out-of-sequence, probably active thrusts. These younger structures overprint a fold-thrust stack that is characterized by variable structural complexity related to detachment folding along coal-bearing horizons and duplexing within Eocene strata. In the Icy Bay transect, we recognize a similar structural style, but a different kinematic history that is constrained by an angular unconformity at the base of the syntectonic Yakataga Formation. At high structural levels, near the suture, structures show a consistent northwest trend, but fold-thrust systems rotate to east-west to northeast trends in successively younger structures within the Yakataga Formation. We present balanced cross sections for each of these transects where we project the top of basement from offshore seismic data and assume a subsurface structure with duplex systems similar to, but simplified from, structures observed in the onshore transects. These sections can account for 150–200 km of shortening within the fold-thrust system, which is 〈33% of the likely convergence based on the subsurface geometry of the subducted Yakutat terrane lithosphere. This mismatch with known convergence is the result of loss of the earliest thrust belt structures by erosion and recycling into the orogen, sediment subduction, and three-dimensional (3D) motions that move mass through the cross section. Based on order of magnitude estimates and regional geophysical studies, we suggest that sediment subduction has been significant and probably accounts for previously recognized low Vp/Vs (compressional to shear wave velocity) ratios in the mantle wedge above subducting Yakutat lithosphere. Our section restorations also provide a simple explanation for the observed elongate bullseye pattern of low-temperature cooling ages in the thrust belt as a consequence of exhumation above the growing duplex and/or antiformal stack. Comparison with analog model studies suggests that structural feedbacks between erosion and development of décollement horizons in coal-bearing strata led to this structural style. Although previous studies based on thermochronology suggested an active backthrust at the northern edge of the thrust belt, section restorations indicate that a backthrust is allowable but not required by available data. The Yakataga fold-thrust belt has been treated as a dominantly 2D system, yet our work indicates that 3D processes are prominent. In the Duktoth transect, we interpret a group of northeast-trending thrusts as younger, out-of-sequence structures formed in response to the rapid destruction of the orogenic wedge by glacial erosion and deposition immediately offshore. We infer that these northeast-trending thrusts transfer slip downdip into a duplex system that forms the antiformal stack modeled in cross-section restorations, and we infer that these structures represent thrusting stepping back from the active thrust front attempting to rebuild an orogenic wedge that is being destroyed as rapidly as, or more rapidly than, it is being rebuilt. In the Icy Bay transect, we use the relative chronology provided by an angular unconformity beneath the syntectonic Yakataga Formation to infer that early, northwest-trending fold-thrust systems were formed along the Fairweather transform as transpressional structures. Continued strike slip carried these structures into the tectonic corner between the Fairweather and Yakataga segments of the orogen, producing a counterclockwise rotation of the shortening axis until the rocks reached their present position.

Description: A pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide (PBAN) hormone that controls sex pheromone production in female moths was identified from the brain-subesophageal ganglion complexes of the adult corn earworm, Heliothis zea. PBAN has 33 amino acid residues and a molecular weight of 3900. Its amino acid sequence has no significant homology with any of the fully characterized peptide hormones. The synthetic peptide, at a dose of between 2 and 4 picomoles, induced production of a normal quantity of sex pheromone in ligated H. zea females. The peptide also induced pheromone production in six other species of moths, thus indicating that this or similar peptides may be responsible for the regulation of pheromone production in moths.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Raina, A K -- Jaffe, H -- Kempe, T G -- Keim, P -- Blacher, R W -- Fales, H M -- Riley, C T -- Klun, J A -- Ridgway, R L -- Hayes, D K -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1989 May 19;244(4906):796-8.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17802237" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Release of mature sperm from the testis into seminal ducts of the gypsy moth exhibits a circadian rhythm. The rhythm of sperm release was shown to persist in vitro, in isolated complexes of testis and seminal ducts cultured in light-dark cycles or in constant darkness. The phase of the rhythm was also reset in vitro by exposure to shifted light-dark cycles. Therefore, the testis-seminal ducts complex from the gypsy moth is photosensitive and contains a circadian pacemaker, which controls the rhythm of sperm movement. This finding extends the range of structures in multicellular organisms that are known to contain circadian oscillators and provides a new model system in which circadian mechanisms may be studied.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Giebultowicz, J M -- Riemann, J G -- Raina, A K -- Ridgway, R L -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1989 Sep 8;245(4922):1098-100.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17838810" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉