ALBERT

Description: At the time of the opening of the Tethys Ocean the northern edge of Gondwana was affected by several rifting events. In this study, we used data from deep exploration wells, seismic profiles, and seismic depth maps to reconstruct the pattern of Tethyan rifting in the Levant region and to investigate its effects on the evolution of the Levant crust. The results show a several hundred kilometre wide deformation zone, comprised of graben and horst structures that extend from the inner part of the Levant to the marine basin offshore Israel. The structures are dominated by sets of NE-SW and NNE-SSW oriented normal faults with vertical offsets in the range of 1-8 km. Rifting was associated with a NW-SE direction of extension, approximately perpendicular to the present-day Mediterranean coast. Faulting activity progressed over a period of 120 Ma and took place in three main pulses: Late Palaeozoic (Carboniferous to Permian); Middle to Late Triassic; and Early to Middle Jurassic. The last, and the most intense, tectonic phase post-dates the activity in other rifted margins of northern Gondwana. Rifting was associated with the modification and stretching of the Levant crust. Our results demonstrate an extension discrepancy between the brittle deformation in the upper crust and the amount of total crustal thinning. Seismic reflection data shows that the Levant Basin lacks the characteristics of typical rifted margins, either volcanic or non-volcanic. The evolution of the basin may be explained by depth-dependant stretching, associated with the upwelling of divergent mantle flow and removal of lower crustal layers by decoupling along deep detachment faults.

Description: Regional multichannel seismic reflection (MCS) profiles across the Egyptian continental slope, offshore the Nile delta, were recorded during the MEDISIS survey (conducted in 2002 on board the R/V Nadir). The results of this survey allow an interpretation of the overall structure and evolution of this passive continental margin. The MCS data were processed using an amplitude preserving pre-stack depth migration technique, which has the advantage of providing a quantitative, and geometrically correct, image of seismic horizons. Well-defined reflecting events allow the identification of three main seismic units. The upper unit (a 7 km thick) is interpreted as the post-rift sedimentary cover of the margin; it includes an undisturbed Middle Cretaceous to Upper Miocene sedimentary pile, covered by thick Messinian (latest Miocene) salt-rich layers and by Pliocene to Quaternary sediments, locally intensively deformed by gravity tectonics. The underlying intermediate acoustic unit (6 km thick on average) is interpreted as the Mesozoic syn-rift sedimentary cover of the margin; the end of the last rifting event is marked by a strong angular unconformity, tentatively of Aptian age. The lower unit may correspond to the thinned continental crust of Africa (12 km thick on average in the study area) and its pre-rift cover. Its base is identified by strong, discontinuous reflector packages about 23-25 km below sea floor, interpreted as indicative of the Moho.

Description: The Upper Barremian-Albian Levant Platform was studied in North Sinai and Israel (Galilee and Golan Heights) by bio- and lithostratigraphy, facies analyses, and sequence stratigraphy. Integrating shallow-marine benthic foraminifera (mainly orbitolines), ammonite, and stable isotope data resulted in a detailed stratigraphic chart. Transects across the shallow shelf in both regions are based on facies analysis and form the basis for depositional models. In both transects five platform stages (PS I-V) were identified, which differ significantly in their stratigraphic architecture, mainly controlled by local tectonics, climate and second-order sea-level changes. In North Sinai, a transition from a shallow-shelf that is structured by sub-basins through a homoclinal ramp into a flat toped platform is recognized, while the sections in North Israel show a transition from a homoclinal ramp into a fringing platform. Local normal faults influenced the depositional architecture of the Upper Barremian-Lower Aptian strata in North Sinai and were attributed to syn-rift extensional tectonics. Four second-order sequence boundaries were identified, bounding Mid-Cretaceous Levant depositional sequences. These well-dated second-order sequence boundaries are MCL-1 (Late Barremian), MCL-2 (earliest Late Aptian), MCL-3 (Lower Albian), and MCL-4 (Late Albian). The sea-level history of the Levant Platform reflects the Late Aptian-Albian global long-term transgression, while the second-order sea-level changes show good correlation with those described from the Arabian plate.

Description: Two Cenomanian-Turonian boundary (CTBE) sections (KB3 and GM3) of the Karak-Silla intra-platform basin of the Eastern Levant carbonate platform, Jordan, are correlated based on high-resolution calcimetry. KB3 contains black shales with over 7 wt% total organic carbon (TOC). GM3 was deposited at shallower water depth and reveals four conspicuous gypsum beds used for sea-level reconstruction. Spectral analysis of carbonate content and TOC reveals forcing, mainly by the 100 ka cycle of Earth's orbit eccentricity. Whole rock stable carbon isotope data show a conspicuous positive {delta}13C excursion representing the Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2). The carbon isotope records of KB3 and GM3 correspond well with the cycles in the {delta}13C record of the global stratotype (GSSP) at Pueblo (USA). The GSSP orbital timescale, thus, can be applied to the Jordan record. Furthermore, all stable isotope events defined in the English chalk reference record are recognized in Jordan. Our orbital model for the Jordan sequence-stratigraphical framework reveals approximately 1.2 (+0.2) Ma duration of a third-order sequence, proposed to represent one cycle of the long obliquity (1.2 Ma). This long-term period is superimposed on three fourth-order fluctuations of 400 ka length (long eccentricity; fourth-order sea-level fluctuations), each of which comprises four carbonate cycles (100 ka eccentricity; fifth-order sea-level fluctuations). Demise of the Levant platform occurred during the phase of decreasing {delta}13C values after OAE2 in the interval between the Cenomanian-Turonian (C-T) boundary and the end of the Early Turonian.

Description: We used teleseismic P-wave receiver functions recorded by the Eastern Turkey Seismic Experiment to determine the crustal structure across an active continent-continent collision zone. Moho depth and Vp/Vs variations in the region are mapped by incorporating crustal multiples and later two-dimsional (2-D) seismic profiles are produced using a common conversion point technique with our crustal Vp/Vs estimates. Moho depths do not correlate with surface topography and reveal a relatively thin crust consistent with the high plateau being supported by hot asthenosphere near the base of the crust. Under the Arabian plate, the crust is thinnest (c. 35 km) and exhibits high Vp/Vs ([≥]1.8) associated with mafic compositions. In the east, the crust gradually becomes thicker towards the north and exceeds 45 km in the northeastern side whereas in the west, the crust thickens sharply near the Bitlis suture and displays pronounced Moho topography within the Anatolian plate that suggests the presence of multiple fragments. Vp/Vs variations show an anomalously high Vp/Vs corridor ([≥]1.85) along the North Anatolian Fault and near the youngest volcanic units (c. 3 Ma) and support the presence of partial melt. This corridor is spatially limited from both north and south by low Vp/Vs regions implying a change in crustal composition. Near the Bitlis suture, a layered Vp/Vs model points to the source of low Vp/Vs in the lower crust that may be rich in quartz. Furthermore, the seismic profiles indicate a prominent low velocity zone in the lower crust across a large area beneath the plateau that may act as a decoupling zone between the crust and upper mantle.

Description: Late Cretaceous to Middle Eocene calc-alkaline to alkaline magmatic rocks emplaced within the southeastern Anatolian orogenic belt, the most extensive magmatic belt in Turkey, result from the complex collision between the Afro-Arabian and Eurasian plates and the subduction of the southern and northern Neotethyan oceanic basins beneath the Eurasian continental margin during the Alpine-Himalayan orogeny. In a transect in east-central Turkey extending from Baskil (Elazig) to Divrigi (Sivas) to the north, and from Copler (Erzincan) to Horozkoy (Nigde) to the SW, these magmatic rocks vary in time, spatial distribution, and composition. 40Ar/39Ar ages supplemented by a few U-Pb ages geochronology from major plutons demonstrate a general younging of magmatism in the transect from c. 83 Ma in the south (Baskil) to c. 69 Ma in the north (Divrigi-Keban), followed by a c. 44 Ma scattered magmatic complex now found along a NE trending arcuate belt between Copler and Horoz. In general, trace element and rare earth element (REE) geochemistry in the magmatic rocks suggest two main sources for the melts: (1) a mantle-wedge and subducted oceanic lithosphere producing arc-type magma; and (2) metasomatized lithospheric mantle modified by subduction producing magmatic rocks with more metasomatized mantle and within plate signatures. The combination of geochemical and geochronological data presented herein provides a basis to reconstruct the temporal and spatial transition from subduction-related to post-collision and to late-orogenic magmatism in the eastern Mediterranean region. Subduction-related magmatism is rooted to closure of the Neo-Tethyan Ocean whereas post-collision and late orogenic-within plate-related magmatism is driven by the collision of a northern promontory of the SE Anatolian orogenic belt with northerly derived ophiolitic rocks. The magmatic transition occurs regionally in northerly to northwesterly trending belts in the southeastern Anatolian orogenic belt. The magmatism exhibit a clear shift from deep seated arc-type to late-orogenic from south (Baskil) to more deeply eroded mid-crustal plutons at the north (Divrigi), then to magmatism related to incipient slab-rupture from northeast (Copler, Kabatas, Bizmisen-Calti) to SW (Karamadazi and Horoz). The age progression follows a south-to-north geochemical trend of decreasing crustal input into mantle-derived magmas, and is explained as a consequence of slab roll-back after the collision/obduction of northerly ophiolites followed by slab steepening and incipient rupture leading to transtensional block faulting and subsidence, and thus to the preservation of near-surface magmatic products along a NE trending belt.

Description: Recent progress both in studies of Chinese loess and deep-sea sediments have provided robust and longer records of winter monsoon variation and ice volume change back to the Late Miocene. However, when and how the winter monsoon became coupled with global ice volume change remains uncertain. Here we compare quartz grain size (a reliable winter monsoon proxy) generated from two loess-palaeosol and red clay sequences with a stacked benthic {delta}18O record (a global ice volume proxy). Our results indicate that at longer (〉500 ka) timescales, the winter monsoon became strongly coupled with global ice volume change at 2.1 Ma, while at orbital timescales the winter monsoon variations started to be influenced by global ice volume change at c. 3.3 Ma. Correlation coefficients between these two records further indicate that winter monsoon intensity was strongly coupled with global ice volume change during intervals of 0-1.1 Ma, 1.4-1.8 Ma, and 2-2.85 Ma. In spite of these close connections amplitude mismatches between these two records are evident in terms of both long-term trend and glacial-interglacial fluctuations, suggesting that additional processes might have played a role in modulating the response of the winter monsoon variation to ice volume forcing.

Description: Recent advances in radiometric dating have enabled independent investigation into monsoon variations. In this study, summer monsoon pedogenesis proxies (CaCO3 and magnetic susceptibility) have been analysed by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age for five loess-palaeosol sections over the Chinese Loess Plateau. The use of CaCO3 is complicated by the multiple influences on its variation. However, changes in magnetic susceptibility can be used as a proxy for summer monsoon induced pedogenesis. The data suggest that the summer monsoon in north-central China is not prone to high frequency shifts, although abrupt transitions occur. The overall patterns show general decreasing trends from c. 50 to 18 ka. However, between 9 and 6 ka, magnetic susceptibility increases abruptly and dramatically at the sites. These findings suggest that the Holocene optimum' in the region may be a more recent phenomenon than previously suggested, and that this summer monsoon intensity increase significantly post-dates the insolation peak occurring at 11.5 ka. An apparent close correspondence to ice volume is suggested to be a consequence of forcing via atmospheric circulation. Independently dated records that employ high sampling resolution can be used to test this hypothesis, together with suggestions over the apparent lag between insolation forcing and monsoon response.

Description: The effective computation and visualization of cross-fault sealing or flow, and parameters that infer or control that distribution, is a key step in the production of more reliable exploration and production simulation models. A better understanding of the impact of fault-related flow or baffling through visualization can lead to the development of more robust and useful geological models that better define the likely range in flow behaviour. A range of visualization tools are available, from the traditional fault plane juxtaposition map to the vector visualization of cross-fault fluid flux. Each tool has its applications and limitations. In this contribution we discuss the application of these different techniques and highlight situations where these are particularly successful. A number of existing visualization approaches will be reviewed and improvements to those techniques are shown. A series of existing property visualization techniques are critiqued, such as the imaging of shale gouge ratio (SGR) and fault transmissibility multipliers (TMs) on the fault faces, both of which are limited in their ability to act as a proxy for cross-fault fluid flux in many circumstances. Fault rock property visualizations, such as hydraulic resistance and fault transmissibility, are presented. More direct and hence more powerful indications of probable cross-fault fluid flux are also described, such as the effective cross-fault transmissibility (ECFT) and the effective cross-fault permeability (ECFP). These static proxies for cross-fault fluid flux are compared against back-calculated and visualized cross-fault fluid flux values derived from either streamline or full flow simulation data. The ECFT is shown to provide a useful and rapid indication of likely fluid flux from the static model; however, the direct imaging of cross-fault fluid flux derived from simulation results allows for a far better understanding of how the faults have contributed to the reservoir flow simulation result. Visualizations of the fault- and flow-related properties: (a) on the fault face; (b) in the grid cells adjacent to the fault face; (c) as vectors; or (d) as fault-wide summations, all provide useful insights for different parts of the reservoir evaluation workflow. This contribution highlights a series of new and efficient techniques to image and hence improve the understanding and modelling of fault sealing in both exploration and production settings.

Description: Outside the Middle East, onshore fold-thrust belts (FTB) of Tertiary to Recent age contain a significant part of the globally developed petroleum, but far less of the oil and gas remaining undiscovered. Depending on high quality data and on deep drilling, renewed exploration of former failures is commercially attractive, and it will help in exploring the deepwater belts of compression. In FTB with a defined petroleum system, an under-explored trend may be the informally named deep-updip' or DUD trend. Shale-gas-prone formations in FTB require new exploration strategies, but in the public domain, this type of prospect has not yet been discussed. FTB discoveries require geological insight, persistence and exponentially rising investment. The paper includes examples from the Northern Alps, from the Llanos foothills of Colombia, from Eastern Venezuela and from the Po Valley basin of Italy.

Description: Cross sections, seismic data and centrifuge analogue modelling reveal the structural styles in the oil-producing areas of the Papuan Fold Belt. They include inverted basement faults, detachment faults in the Jurassic section 1-2 km beneath the Neocomian Toro Sandstone reservoir, and tight, overturned folds in the reservoir sequence with stretched and boudinaged forelimbs, cut by break-thrusts. Additional features include highly variable thicknesses in the Cretaceous Ieru Formation, the regional seal sequence, including through-going detachments that isolate the overlying thick Miocene Darai Limestone. Centrifuge analogue modelling of intact, plane-layered strata determined that the mechanical stratigraphy and the thickness of weak beds above the lower decollement horizon exert the greatest control on the structural style. Large-offset thrust faults were only produced in models with pre-cut faults, generating early inversion and then large ramp anticlines, similar to those in the Kutubu Oilfield, which has reserves of 〉350 million barrels. It is suggested that the Kutubu Oilfield trend was underlain by a large normal fault and that, by analogy with the Vulcan Sub-basin, oil-rich source rocks may be confined to the hanging wall or north side of this fault. Oil would have been generated and expelled during thin-skinned deformation.

Description: In a well-defined small-scale recess in the Appalachian thrust belt in northwestern Georgia (USA), two distinct regional strike directions intersect at c. 50{degrees}. Fault intersections and interference folds enable tracing of both structural strikes. Around the recess, tectonically thickened weak stratigraphic layers - shales of the Cambrian Conasauga Formation - accommodated ductile deformation associated with the folding and faulting of the overlying Cambrian-Ordovician regional competent layer. The structures in the competent layer are analogous to those over ductile duplexes documented along strike to the SW in Alabama, where gas production has been established from the deformed shale. The analogy with structures in Alabama suggests a ductile duplex and natural gas potential within the recess in Georgia. The tectonic thickening of the weak-layer shales is evident in palinspastically restored cross sections, which demonstrate a nearly 100% increase in volume over the restored state cross sections. The dominant cause of the surplus shale volume is likely pre-thrusting deposition of thick shale in a basement graben that was later inverted. The volume balance of the ductile duplex is critical for palinspastic reconstruction of the recess, and for the kinematic history and mechanics of the ductile duplex.

Description: Catastrophic deterioration of limestone facades occurs where areas of stonework become rapidly hollowed out. It affects many historic buildings in Oxford, especially where soot-rich gypsum crusts have accumulated. In order to understand the processes of catastrophic deterioration we need to understand the microenvironmental conditions, especially the moisture distributions in the deteriorating walls. Geoelectric methods, in the form of two-dimensional (2D) resistivity surveys, have been used to study the distribution and amount of water stored in deteriorating limestone walls within the historic centre of Oxford. Fifteen vertical profiles, each 2-2.5 m in length, have been monitored at five sites using 50 medical electrodes and GeoTom equipment. Calculated moisture contents and distributions are presented for those profiles that extend up to 40 cm into the wall. The data indicate the diversity and complexity of moisture distributions within these often heterogeneous walls, which have also had long histories of decay and conservation. Replacement stone patches show consistently higher moisture conditions than the surrounding stone. Most profiles indicate the presence of wetter patches 5-10 cm behind the wall face under blackened crusts. Catastrophically decayed sections of profiles often exhibit wetter near-surface conditions than surrounding stonework, whilst areas with shallow but active decay are often much drier than surrounding crusted stone. In conclusion, the results give preliminary confirmation of a simple model of catastrophic decay and illustrate the complexity of moisture regimes in historic walls.

Description: Maastricht limestone is a soft bioclastic calcarenite of the Upper Cretaceous period cropping out in southern Limburg between Belgium and The Netherlands. This material was widely used from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Four different varieties can be distinguished according to fossil content and petrographic characteristics, which determine slight differences in compressive strength. Despite its poor mechanical characteristics, the material is very durable with remarkable frost resistance. This is mainly due to the pore dimensions (the most frequent pore radius class is 16-64 {micro}m) but also to the particular kind of weathering that causes the formation of a protective skin' through a process of dissolution of unstable aragonite from serpulids and calcite precipitation in the pores of the external layer. The physical characteristics and the mechanical properties (using the drilling resistance measurement system (DRMS) method) of the hard layer that developed on the surface of Tongeren Cathedral, constructed using the Sibbe variety of Maastricht limestone, were investigated and compared with those of the quarry material. This comparison made it possible to emphasize the particular hardness of this surface in contrast to the outer layer of the quarry material. Moreover, it was possible to determine its thickness and to infer that this hard layer was formed after only 15 years of exposure.

Description: A study of the different building campaigns, restoration works, pathologies and stones used through time in the Church of Santa Engracia (Portuguese National Pantheon) is presented. The changing fortunes of the monument make it a useful case study in terms of building stone use and decay. This bold baroque project, begun in the seventeenth century, remained without a roof until the 1960s. At that time the leader of the conservative regime of Estado Novo ( New State'), Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, decided to complete the building as a national pantheon to provide a memorial to some of the personalities of Portuguese history. A complementary approach between the geosciences and history of art identified the ancient and more recent quarries, and the main stone types, used during its different building campaigns and restoration/conservation works. The local stone variety lioz', extracted in the area around Lisbon, was the main type used. An overview of the current knowledge of the chemical, physical and mechanical characteristics of these stones is now available. Besides new data on the typology, causes and processes of the major weathering forms observed inside and outside the building, the building campaigns and restoration works are also presented.

Description: Carbonate ramp systems are widespread throughout the geological record, but very few areas have seismic-scale, continuous and structurally undeformed outcrops that allow reliable interpretation of facies distributions and stacking patterns. The Amellago outcrop shows the detailed depositional and stratigraphic relationships of an ooid-dominated ramp system that is almost completely exposed along a dip profile (37 km long and 1000 m thick) in the Lower to Middle Jurassic of the southern High Atlas, Morocco. Ammonite and brachiopod fauna provide excellent biostratigraphic control on small scale stacking patterns. At Amellago, the evolution of depositional environments is evident at different scales of space and time during this period of tectonic quiescence dominated by thermal subsidence. An important observation is that the Amellago ramp system contains micrite-rich, ooid-free intervals that alternate with ooid-rich intervals. The ooid-rich intervals are mainly in the late transgressive and highstand system tracts, whereas the ooid-free intervals occur in the early transgressive phase. More than 25 such alternations were recorded in high frequency cycles and at the scale of one large cycle at the Aalenian/Bajocian transition. These compositional changes and the associated different ramp geometries are interpreted to result from the combined effects of eustatic sea level and climatic changes.

Description: In south-central Turkey, a carbonate platform system of early middle Miocene age is exposed in three-dimensional outcrops displaying a rich variety of carbonate facies associated with exceptionally well-preserved depositional geometries. This paper presents a detailed reconstruction of the geometries and facies organization across the prograding margin of one intra-platform carbonate bank that grew during the Langhian on the Ermenek Platform. The total thickness of the margin is approximately 250 m, and it has prograded over a distance of 1.2 km. The geometrical pattern shows an alternation between sigmoid, sigmoid-oblique, and oblique accretionary units at different scales. Based on the facies distribution and the geometrical framework two large-scale depositional sequences and eight medium-scale depositional sequences were defined. The general evolution from a low-angle shelf geometry to a prograding flat-topped platform was associated with an evolution from oligophotic-dominated carbonate producers, such as large benthic foraminifera, molluscs, echinoderms, red algae and bryozoans at the base, to mesophotic and euphotic carbonate producer organisms, such as corals, red algae and porcellaneous small benthic foraminifera at the top. The eight medium cycles were defined primarily using the depositional geometries, since facies changes were observed only locally within these cycles. Several mechanisms influenced the stratigraphic architecture of this margin: (1) eustatic sea-level controlled the overall transgressive-regressive Langhian sequence, and two superposed large-scale sequences. Medium cycles were probably also influenced by higher frequency sea-level fluctuations; (b) climate change probably influenced the overall evolution of the faunal assemblage; and (c) antecedent topography determined the overall architecture of a shelf bordering a deeper basin.

Description: The Zagros fold-thrust belt (ZFTB) extends from Turkey to the Hormuz Strait, resulting from the collision of the Arabian and Eurasian plates during Cenozoic times, and separates the Arabian platform from the large plateaux of central Iran. To the east a pronounced syntaxis marks the transition between the Zagros collision belt and the Makran accretionary wedge. In the ZFTB, the Proterozoic to Recent stratigraphic succession pile is involved in huge folds, and offers the opportunity to study the stratigraphic and tectonic evolution of the Palaeo-Tethyan margin. Few recent data were widely available on the southern Tethys margin preserved in the Zagros Mountains. The Middle East Basins Evolution (MEBE) program was an excellent opportunity to go back to the field and to collect new data to better constrain the evolution of this margin. In this volume the structure of the Zagros Mountains is explored through different scales and using different methodologies.

Description: The Zagros fold–thrust belt (ZFTB) extends for c. 2000 km from Turkey in the NW to the Hormuz Strait in the SE. This belt results from the collision of the Arabian and Eurasian plates during Cenozoic times and constitutes a morphological barrier (with some peaks exceeding 4000 m) separating the Arabian platform from the large plateaux of central Iran. To the east a pronounced syntaxis marks the transition between the Zagros collision belt and the Makran accretionary wedge. In the ZFTB, the Proterozoic to Recent stratigraphic succession pile of the southern Tethys margin is involved in huge folds detached from the Pan-African basement and offers the opportunity to study the stratigraphic and tectonic evolution of the Palaeo-Tethyan margin over large time periods. Few recent data are widely available on the southern Tethys margin as preserved in the Zagros Mountains. Since the classical works of James & Wynd (1965) and Murris (1980), the most recent synthesis is the palaeogeographical reconstruction of the Arabian platform published by Ziegler (2001). Many petroleum data have been acquired during the last 10 years, but few of these have been published. The Middle East Basins Evolution (MEBE) Programme, coordinated by P. Barrier and M. F. Brunet, in close relationship with colleagues of the Geological Survey of Iran, was an excellent opportunity to go back to the field and to collect new data to better constrain the evolution of this margin. In this volume, the structure of the Zagros Mountains is explored through different...

Description: In the Zagros Fold-Thrust Belt (ZFTB) of Iran it is firmly established that the basement is involved in the deformation. The strongest line of evidence for this assertion comes from the relatively intense mid-crustal seismic activity. On one hand, the main basement structures such as the Main Zagros Fault (MZT) and High Zagros Fault (HZF) reach the surface and are therefore well identified. On the other hand, basement faults south of the HZF are hidden by sedimentary cover and their location is uncertain. In the Eastern Zagros, basement control on surface structures occurred only at a late stage of the tectonic evolution. In other words, the current thick-skinned style of Zagros deformation succeeded a more general thin-skinned phase of orogeny. This chronology is particularly well illustrated by spectacular interference patterns, in which early detachment folds are cut by late oblique basement faults. We present a combined morphological and structural analysis of such structures, and we explore their impact on the river network. We confirm that basement involvement occurred at a late stage of deformation and we show that thick-skinned deformation progressively propagated towards the foreland. An overview of basement steps throughout the Zagros based on published cross-sections allows us to conclude that although basement deformation is concentrated on two major faults in the Central Zagros, it is distributed on several segmented faults in the Fars Arc. This segmentation increases to the SE towards the so-called Oman line and the transition to the Makran accretionary prism.

Description: During the Late Cretaceous the northeastern margin of the Arabian plate (Zagros-Fars Area) was characterized by significant variations in sedimentary facies, sedimentation patterns and accommodation space, and by shifting depocentres. A succession of events recording the evolution of the region from a passive to an active margin is documented by the study of eight outcrop sections and one well. This new study uses new age dating (benthic and planktonic foraminifers, nannoplankton and radiolarian biozonations and strontium isotope stratigraphy). The new observations provide a detailed overview of the response of the sedimentary system to changes in the tectonic regime related to obduction processes. These changes are very well shown in regional cross-sections and palaeogeographical maps. Three tectono-sedimentary phases are recognized indicating the evolution from a passive to an active margin: Phase I (Late Albian to Cenomanian, before obduction) comprises three depositional third-order sequences comparable with those of the other parts of the Zagros and Arabian plate. This interval is composed of shallow-water platform carbonates and intra-shelf basins. The platform facies consists of rudist and benthic foraminifer-dominated assemblages, whereas the intra-shelf basins contain an Oligostegina' facies. Eustatic sea-level variations and local differential subsidence controlled sediment deposition during this phase. Phase II (Turonian to Late Campanian, obduction phase) is characterized by major changes in depositional environments and sedimentary facies, as a result of obduction and foreland basin creation. It consists of pelagic and platform carbonates in the south, and a foreland basin with obducted radiolarites, ophiolitic and olistoliths or thrust slices in the north. During this phase, large volumes of turbidites and gravity flows with olistoliths were shed from both the SW and NE into the foreland basin. The age of the tectonic slices increases upward through the section, from Early Cretaceous at the base to Permian at the top. Based on various dating methods used on the far-travelled sediments, the depositional age of the radiolarites can be attributed to the Albian-Cenomanian, whereas the planktonic foraminifers are of Santonian to Campanian age. Phase III (Late Campanian to Maastrichtian, after obduction) shows the development of rudist-dominated carbonates in the NE prograding onto the deep basinal facies in the centre of study area. In the extreme NE no sediments of this age have been recorded, suggesting uplift at that time.

Description: In the current Zagros Fold Belt of Iran and in its contiguous offshore, five petroleum systems caused an impressive gathering of oil and gas fields that represent some 8% and 15% of global oil and gas reserves, respectively. Almost all the oil fields are located in the relatively small Dezful Embayment, which extends over 60 000 km2, whereas most of the gas fields are concentrated in Central and Coastal Fars and in the contiguous offshore area. This paper describes the functioning of the various petroleum systems through time, each petroleum system having its own specificity, and reconstructs the succession of events that explains the current location of the oil and gas fields and the reservoirs in which oil and/or gas accumulated. In addition to the classical description of the petroleum systems (distribution and organic composition of the source rocks, evolution of their maturity through time, geometry of drains and reservoirs, and trap availability at the time of migration), the influence of tectonic phases (Acadian, Hercynian, Late Cenomanian to pre-Maastrichtian, and Late Miocene to Pliocene Zagros phases) on the various systems are discussed. As the time of oil and/or gas expulsion from the source rocks is necessary to reconstruct migration paths and to locate the traps available at the time of migration, extensive modelling was used. The timing of oil or gas expulsion was compared with the timing of tectonic events. For the older systems, namely the Palaeozoic (Llandovery source rocks), Middle Jurassic (Sargelu), Late Jurassic (Hanifa-Tuwaiq Mountain-Diyab) and Early Cretaceous (Garau), oil and/or gas expulsion occurred before the Zagros folding. Oil migrated over long distances, according to low-angle geometry, towards large-scale low-relief regional highs and salt-related structures. In the current Zagros Fold Belt, oil and gas remigrated later to the closest Zagros anticlines. In contrast, for the prolific Middle Cretaceous to Early Miocene System (Kazhdumi, Pabdeh), oil expulsion occurred almost everywhere in the Dezful Embayment after the onset of the Zagros folding. Oil migrated vertically towards the closest anticlines through a system of fractures. A comparison was made between the oil expelled from the source rocks, as calculated by the model, and the initial oil in place discovered in the fields. Oils were grouped into families based upon isotopic composition (carbon and sulphur), and biomarkers. Correlation between pyrolysates and oils verifies the origin of the oils that was proposed to explain the current location of the oil (and gas) fields.

Description: An argument is presented that, despite popular assumptions, many limestones, especially the wide range of clastic and, in general, granular limestones, do not decay in a steady and predictable pattern in response to slow dissolution. Instead these stones, especially when used in construction in polluted environments, invariably decay episodically through physical breakdown. Most commonly this is accomplished through a variety of salt weathering mechanisms that, if unconstrained, can lead to the rapid, catastrophic decay of building blocks and their complete loss - a process that has driven the extensive programmes of stone replacement that are typical of buildings constructed of these stones. In polluted environments, especially those rich in sulphur and particulates, the most common constraint on accelerated decay has been the rapid development of gypsum crusts that, for example, could rapidly heal' the scars left by contour scaling. It is ironic, therefore, that any reduction in pollution could conceivably lead to increased erosion by retarding this healing process. Because of this temporal variability of decay and its translation into spatial complexity, it is important that further research is undertaken to understand controls on the decay of these important building stones so that future conservation strategies can be appropriately informed.

Description: This research explores preliminary observations regarding the potential effects of local climate conditions on the evolution of binder morphology and the composition or mineralogy of historic lime mortars. Samples were collected from historic buildings, one group dating to c. late nineteenth century and an older group from c. Sixteenth-Seventeenth century, with both groups representing distinct climates. The samples were then prepared and subjected to polarized light microscopy (PLM), point count, scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and backscatter election imaging (BSE) analysis to investigate differences in porosity, environmental contaminants and morphological characteristics of the lime binder. By examining the effects of climate on lime mortars, conservators can improve identification and condition assessment of historic lime mortars, better understand causes of damage and decay attributed to previous mortar repairs, and formulate more appropriate conservation mortars to improve protection and conservation of our architectural heritage.

Description: Limestones in Cyprus are mainly quarried for the production of coarse and fine aggregates to be used in concrete. The objective of this paper is to examine the properties of crushed limestone aggregates. The petrographical and physico-mechanical properties of these aggregates are described and their suitability for concrete production is examined. The coarse crushed limestone aggregates from Cyprus have water absorption values exceeding 3.3%, which is considered high for concrete applications. Their abrasion resistance (Los Angeles) values are consistently above 23%, while their weathering coefficients generally range between 10 and 30%. The fine crushed limestone aggregates show significantly lower water absorption values (less than 2.2%) and higher weathering coefficients (above 35%) than the coarse aggregates. The weathering coefficient of crushed limestone aggregates increases with a decrease in the fraction size up to 5 mm, after which it remains fairly constant. The physico-mechanical properties of crushed limestone aggregates are distinctly variable irrespective of the fact that they belong to the same geological formation and show relatively similar petrography.

Description: In orogenic belts high pressure-low temperature (HP-LT) metamorphism can widely affect units derived from both the oceanic and the continental lithosphere. In order to verify whether high P/T (pressure/temperature) ratios recorded in the continental lithosphere can result from tectonic erosion, ablative subduction and recycling in the mantle wedge, we implemented a 2D numerical model to simulate oceanic subduction beneath a continent. Particular attention is paid to the role played by mantle hydration within the continental crust recycled in the wedge region. A comparison between hydrated and non-hydrated models highlights that hydration is fundamental in allowing the recycling of crustal material at shallow depths ([≤]150 km for a convergence rate of 1 cm year-1), making the uprising and exhumation of buried crustal material during active subduction possible. The recycled crustal material can originate from any crustal level. The Tmax and Pmax distributions within the final marker configuration show that crustal recycling induces the coupling of volumes that reached different depths during their paths in the corner flow. To verify the reliability of this model we compare predictions with natural geological data from the Austroalpine Sesia-Lanzo Zone (SLZ), the largest eclogite-facies crustal fragment of early Alpine age and whose Alpine tectonic evolution has been interpreted as compatible with a cycle of burial at depth and exhumation during active subduction of the oceanic lithosphere. The relationships between natural P-T estimates and predicted P-T values show that the simulated geodynamic scenario generates a thermal regime coherent with that affecting the subducted continental crust of the SLZ, which may have been stable for a long time during Alpine subduction, allowing the SLZ rocks to accomplish their burial and exhumation path under an active subduction regime.

Description: Natural stone is considered to be a versatile, durable and aesthetically pleasing building material. From the beginning of civilization, important structures and monuments have been built from, or based on, natural stone. Until the end of the nineteenth century, the use of local stone resources was mostly in balance with the local environment. Strict environmental legislation has resulted in the closing of many long-standing quarries in industrialized countries, which has led to a shortage of traditional stone varieties. This has caused problems for restoration practice. Cheap, imported stone from less industrialized countries has become more widely available in recent years. Some of the issues related to built stone conservation and restoration covered by this volume are: the establishment of inventories of possible replacement stones; understanding the decay mechanism and use of preventive conservation methods for slowing down decay processes; evaluation of the properties of natural stone; and assessing the risks of using replacement stones of different qualities.

Description: An abandoned subsurface Oya tuff quarry in Japan had abundant salt efflorescence in winter. Besides salt weathering, freeze-thaw weathering and slaking were likely to occur because of winter temperatures below 0 {degrees}C and the presence of swelling clays in the rock. Field surveys were performed to collect salts. Thenardite and gypsum were detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD) as the main salts, along with zeolites as secondary minerals. Oya tuff is categorized into three types for practical usage. To investigate petrophysical differences among the three types of Oya tuff, mercury intrusion porosimetry and tensile strength tests were performed. To determine the influence of petrophysical properties on salt weathering, freeze-thaw weathering and slaking (wet-dry weathering), all three types of Oya tuff were used for experiments. Prismatic specimens, the bases of which were sunk into distilled water, were used for the freeze-thaw and slaking experiments and Na2SO4 saturated solution was used for the salt-weathering experiment. The results show that the specimens subjected to salt weathering were the most severely damaged. The coarse-type Oya tuff sustained the most severe damage, whereas the fine type received the least. There was a large amount of debris in the coarse type, but less in the fine type. The weathering susceptibility index WSI was also calculated from the results of the pore size analyses and tensile strength. The index decreases with increasing weathering cycles representing resistant rocks. The phenomena of weathering of Oya tuff were explained by three weathering experiments on three kinds of tuff. The WSI may be useful as a practical indicator of rock weathering.

Description: The building stones of Tepla monastery (founded 1193) experienced a huge fire in 1677. Trachyte as a major rock type responded by changing colour from light beige to pink-red. Laboratory tests, during which the fresh unaltered stone from the original quarry was heated, proved the same reddened surface. Three varieties of local trachyte were examined: a greyish, naturally very fresh type (TA), a yellowish, slightly weathered and therefore iron hydroxide-bearing type (TB) and a trachyte typical with black manganese oxide dendrites and patches (TC). The changes of the physical properties and composition of these rocks were examined by ultrasonic velocity, thin section analysis, SEM observation and XRD tests. The experimental studies showed that Tepla trachyte is generally fire resistant up to 1000 {degrees}C.

Description: Feedback relations between deformation and metamorphic mineral reactions, derived using the principles of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, indicate that mineral reactions progress to completion in high-strain areas, driven by energy dissipated from inelastic deformation. These processes, in common with other time-dependent geological processes, lead to both strain, and strain-rate, hardening/softening in rate-dependent materials. In particular, strain-rate softening leads to the formation of shear zones, folds and boudins by non-Biot mechanisms. Strain-softening alone does not produce folding or boudinage and results in low-strain shear zones; strain-rate softening is necessary to produce realistic strains and structures. Reaction-mechanical feedback relations operating at the scale of 10-100 m produce structures similar to those that arise from thermal-mechanical feedback relations at coarser (kilometre) scales and reaction-diffusion-mechanical feedback relations at finer (millimetre) scales. The dominance of specific processes at various length scales but the development of similar structures by all coupled processes leads to scale invariance. The concept of non-equilibrium mineral stability diagrams is introduced. In principle, deformation influences the position of mineral stability fields relative to equilibrium stability fields; the effect is negligible for the quartz[-〉]coesite reaction but may be important for others. Application of these results to the development of structures and mineral reactions in the Italian Alps is discussed.

Description: This paper brings a comprehensive review of the main petrophysical and mechanical properties of calcarenite rocks used from time immemorial in Apulia (south Italy), with load-bearing and decorative functions both in constructions of specific historic and architectonic interest and in more common buildings. These soft and porous rocks show a reduced ability to maintain their characteristics of strength, appearance and resistance to decay over a considerable period of time. Even more than other sedimentary rocks, calcarenites belonging to the same formation can change considerably in terms of physical properties and mechanical behaviour due to the complex spatial arrangement of facies strongly conditioned by depositional fabric and diagenetic processes. A number of calcarenite varieties belonging to the Calcarenite di Gravina Fm. and Pietra Leccese Fm. was selected from different parts of Apulia and characterized according to petrographical, physical and mechanical properties. These included porosity, pore size distribution, density, water absorption, degree of saturation, permeability, thermal properties as well as compressive strength and flexural strength. Particular attention was given to the relationships between rock fabric features and physico-mechanical behaviour of the calcarenites. In addition, a comparison of data for the examined varieties was also discussed. A classification of the Apulian calcarenites based on rock fabric features and uniaxial compressive strength was proposed. Critical observations regarding the durability of the Apulian calcarenites were made, taking into account other data from literature.

Description: The structure of the electronic database of natural stones used in the Czech Republic (named Deka) has been completed. The system is based on MySQL, and is comprised of the following crucial items: general data, data regarding the geographic location and status of the quarry; petrographic description, associated mineralogical data and chemical analyses; technical data covering physical and mechanical properties as well as sculptural workability; parameters about the deposit (quarry); and data describing historical exploitation and utilization. Along with the structure of the database, other practical problems such as access to the database, insertions, corrections, erasing a record or reference, etc. are discussed. The database is designed for geologists, historians and restorers resolving problems of a stone's provenance from monuments, architects involved in the selection of promising stone types for new projects and for educational purposes to geologists, restorers, etc. Appendix 1: A description of the eight types of data used in the dimension store database is provided at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/sup18394

Description: Most historic stone monuments in Bratislava (Slovakia) are built with various types of porous, light and weakly cemented sedimentary rocks. These Neogene sandstones and limestones, also known as Leitha limestones, were quarried in the Vienna Basin. The various sedimentary environments are reflected in the heterogeneity of lithotypes and their cementation. The distinctly different pore structure of these rocks is reflected in their very variable physical properties and consequently in the distinct durability. Petrographic and petrophysical properties were determined on main ashlar types of the two most important historical monuments of Bratislava, the Castle and St Martin's Cathedral. Fresh samples of Leitha limestones were also obtained from the existing or abandoned quarries. The study includes a detailed petrographic examination of major rocks types and an assessment of their mineralogical composition by X-ray diffraction and microscopy. Hygric properties and porosity influence the weathering stability and the chances to apply conservation treatment. Parameters such as pore volume, pore size distribution by mercury porosimetry, specific surface of pores by nitrogen adsorption (BET) analysis as well as water sorption, capillary water uptake and drying behaviour were measured and compared for the six studied lithotypes.

Description: Tectonic and orogenic processes, reflecting the dynamic nature of the planet, provide myriad examples of the failure of Earth materials under load. Despite this wealth of data, the shear localization process remains a difficult physical modelling problem, lying at the frontiers of complex and non-linear systems research. We present a non-conventional continuum-physics approach to address this problem, based on the mathematical properties of differential grade-2 (DG-2) materials. We choose this material because it is both frame-indifferent, and general enough to include other, simpler materials as special cases. DG-2 materials in pure shear exhibit a dynamic rescaling mechanism, associated with localized shearing, which links the spatial and temporal scales of this process in a self-consistent manner, independent of the observer. On typical thermal timescales, the thermomechanical competence of DG-2 materials depends on the ratio of thermal to mechanical diffusivities, {kappa}/{chi}. On this basis, we hypothesize the effective rigidity of Earth materials, pertaining when the thermomechanical competence is greater than unity. This theory, applied to the whole Earth, suggests the existence of isopycnal detachment' zones at systematic, globally correlated depths beneath orogens, consistent with a variety of geological data.

Description: This paper presents quantitative data from the Stack of Glencoul on flow vorticities associated with mylonite generation in the hanging wall and footwall of the Moine Thrust, using samples collected in a vertical traverse from 80 m above the thrust plane to 8.5 m beneath the thrust. Estimated vorticity numbers (Wm) in Moine pelites and psammites above the thrust range from 0.775-0.725 (c. 43-47% pure shear component) increasing downwards to 0.83-0.75 (35-45% pure shear) at 10 cm above the thrust. Wm values in dynamically recrystallized Cambrian quartzites at 0.5-14.5 cm beneath the thrust range from 0.99-0.90 (10-30% pure shear). At 3.0-8.5 m beneath the thrust estimated Wm values are less than 0.75 in the quartzites, although there is some thin section-scale partitioning with Wm values of 0.75-0.65 (45-55% pure shear) in domains of dynamically recrystallized quartz and Wm values 〈0.65 (〉55% pure shear) in domains of relict detrital quartz grains. Integration of strain and vorticity analyses indicates a vertical shortening of 50-75% in these gently dipping mylonites located at the base of the Moine Nappe. The tectonic implications of vertical shortening (thinning) and transport-parallel stretching at the base of the Moine Nappe are discussed.

Description: Cyanobacteria have been recognized as key players in the precipitation of calcium carbonate in marine and freshwater systems. These bacteria increase pH, (as a result of photosynthetic activity) and also produce extracellular polysaccharides, which act as binding sites for Ca2+ and CO[IMG]f1.gif" ALT="Formula" BORDER="0"〉. Both processes influence the morphology and the mineralogy of the carbonate minerals. In order to clarify the role of polysaccharides of picocyanobacteria upon calcium carbonate precipitation, both their buffering capacity and ability to induce precipitation need to be investigated. In this experimental study, we characterized the polysaccharides of three unicellular autotrophic picocyanobacterial Synechococcus-type strains by potentiometric titration and infrared spectroscopy. Potentiometric titrations were conducted to determine the total buffering capacity. The nature and concentration of active sites of the polysaccharides was clarified with the aid of potentiometric titration and spectral analysis of an aqueous cellular suspension. Precipitation experiments with polysaccharides of different strains allowed an estimation of their potential to precipitate calcium carbonate. The results presented here indicate that polysaccharides from cyanobacteria have a strong potential to exchange protons with their surrounding environment. Precipitation experiments demonstrated that extracellular polysaccharides of all the strains studied able to precipitate calcium carbonate.

Description: Our understanding of calcium carbonate precipitation within freshwater carbonate systems is being revolutionized by new quantitative approaches at both field and laboratory scale. These systems cover a diverse range of topical research areas including tufas, speleothems, stromatolites and microbial processes. Progress by various international research groups has been impressive, with major contributions to such areas as climate change, absolute dating, carbon sequestration, and biofilm construction and precipitation. A diverse sample of interrelated research is presented that provides a tantalizing glimpse of the interplay between microbial, geochemical and physical processes that control the development of tufas and speleothems. This volume will provide a cross-disciplinary platform that will stimulate further exchanges about new concepts, methodologies and interpretations associated with freshwater carbonates. In particular, it will help reinforce the importance of cross-discipline research: the driving force behind the new field of Geobiology.

Description: Stromatolites have been extensively used as indicators of ancient life on Earth. Although much work has been done on modern stromatolites, the extent to which biological processes control their structure, and the respective contributions of biological and abiotic processes in their formation are, however, still poorly constrained. A better description of the mineralogical textures of these formations at the submicrometre scale may help improve our understanding of how carbonates nucleate and grow in stromatolites. Here, we used a combination of microscopy and microspectroscopy techniques to study the chemical composition and the texture of aragonite in lacustrine stromatolites from the alkaline crator lake in Satonda, Indonesia. Several textural features are described, including morphological variations of aragonite from nanosized grains to micrometre-sized fibres, the presence of striations in the aragonite laminae showing a striking similarity with growth bands in corals, and clusters of small aragonite crystals sharing a common crystallographic orientation. These nanotextural features are compared with those observed in scleractinian corals, and possible processes involved in their formation are discussed.

Description: A carbonate terraced succession mainly consisting of fluvial/palustrine calcareous tufa and of lacustrine limestone was deposited during recent Quaternary in a limited segment of the Valdelsa fluvial pattern (southern Tuscany, Italy). The radiometric data obtained from three carbonate terraces indicate that the depositional/erosional history of the Valdelsa succession during Late Pleistocene-Holocene, has been constrained by the same cyclic events observed in coeval detrital lacustrine successions of Central Italy. At least three of the Valdelsa carbonate Synthems and the interposed erosional phases can be correlated with the major climatic changes recognized in the European-Mediterranean area, from the Last Glacial Interstadial through the Younger Dryas to the Atlantic Optimum Climatic', the Sub-Boreal and finally at 2.5 ka the last Sub-Atlantic oscillation. This climatic correlation and the radiometric data imply that the deposition of calcareous tufa in Valdelsa was mainly dependent on rainfall availability and, consequently, was active during the milder oscillations within the cold periods.

Description: Several different databases and models have been developed over many years of petrological study carried out by several European and non-European groups on mantle xenoliths, peridotite massifs, ophiolites and mafic magmas spanning in age from Archaean to Recent times. This volume aims to bring together these different approaches and to integrate the geochemical perceptions of the European upper mantle. The papers include regional petrological studies of the European lithospheric mantle, from Spain to the Pannonian Basin, from Corsica and Serbia as far north as Svalbard. Six contributions are based on studies of mantle xenoliths, while the remaining three deal with ophiolitic and peridotitic complexes. A further article provides an update on the textural classification of mantle rocks using a computer-aided approach and there is an introductory overview.

Description: Cave atmosphere PCO2 partially controls calcite deposition on stalagmites by changing the thermodynamic drive of drip water to deposit calcite. The dissolved carbon dioxide contained in karstic percolation water is generally controlled by the soil PCO2, and this CO2 will degas in any void spaces with a lower PCO2, including caves. If void space PCO2 is higher than the PCO2 of the water, dissolution may occur. Measured cave air PCO2 ranges of several caves in different climate regimes suggest that soil temperature is a major control on cave air PCO2, but that the observed trend deviates from the modelled trend when soil carbon dioxide production is moisture-limited. Calcite deposition models illustrate how soil and cave air PCO2 can influence stalagmite growth rates, and demonstrate how gradual temperature changes can skew the geochemical proxy signal in stalagmites in favour of certain seasons and eventually can result in total cessation of growth.

Description: The Triassic chronostratigraphic scale is a hierarchy of three series, seven stages and 15 substages developed during nearly two centuries of research. The first geological studies of Triassic rocks began in Germany in the late 1700s and culminated in 1834 when Friedrich August von Alberti coined the term Trias' for the Bunten Sandsteins, Muschelkalk and Keuper, a thick succession of strata between the Zechstein and the Lias. Recognition of the Trias outside of Germany soon followed, and by the 1860s Austrian geologist Edmund von Mojsisovics began constructing a detailed Triassic chronostratigraphy based on ammonoid biostratigraphy. In 1895, Mojsisovics and his principal collaborators, Wilhelm Waagen and Carl Diener, published a Triassic timescale that contains most of the stage and substage names still used today. In 1934, Leonard Spath proposed a Triassic ammonoid-based biochronological timescale that differed little from that of Mojsisovics and his collaborators. In the 1960s, E. Timothy Tozer proposed a Triassic ammonoid-based timescale based on North American standards, and his timescale included proposal of four Lower Triassic stages (Griesbachian, Dienerian, Smithian and Spathian). The work of the Subcommission on Triassic Stratigraphy began in the 1970s and resulted in current recognition of seven Triassic stages in three series: Lower Triassic-Induan, Olenekian; Middle Triassic-Anisian, Ladinian; Upper Triassic-Carnian, Norian and Rhaetian. The 1990s saw the rise of Triassic conodont biostratigraphy so that four intervals that have agreed on Triassic GSSPs use conodont occurrences as defining features: bases of Induan, Olenekian, Anisian and Rhaetian. The bases of the Ladinian and Carnian are defined by ammonoid events. The base of the Norian remains undefined, but will most likely be defined by conodonts. Except for the Rhaetian, the Middle and Upper Triassic stages and substages have been fairly stable for decades, but there has been much less agreement on Lower Triassic chronostratigraphic subdivisions. Issues in the development of a Triassic chronostratigraphic scale include those of: stability and priority of nomenclature and concepts; disagreement over and changing taxonomy; the use of ammonoid v. conodont biostratigraphy; differences in the perceived significance of biotic events for chronostratigraphic classification; disagreements about the utility of relatively short stages; correlation problems between the Tethyan and Boreal realms (provinces); and competing standards from the Old and New worlds. Most of these issues have been resolved in the recognition of three Triassic series and seven stages. Further development of the Triassic chronostratigraphic scale needs to focus on definition and characterization of the 15 Triassic substages as these will provide a much more detailed basis for subdivision of Triassic time than do the seven stages.

Description: Extensional structures characterize significant parts of the North Atlantic Caledonides. Silurian extensional deformation took place, particularly in the heated crust in the southern Greenland Caledonides, but the majority of the mapped extensional structures are Devonian (403-380 Ma). They formed by reactivation of low-angle Caledonian thrusts and by the formation of hinterland-dipping shear zones, of which the largest system is located in SW Norway and related to exhumation of the subducted margin of Baltica. The Devonian extension was concentrated to the central and southern part of the Caledonides, with maximum extension occurring in the area between the Western Gneiss Region of SW Norway and the Fjord Region of East Greenland. Kinematic data indicate that the main tectonic transport direction was toward the hinterland, and this pattern suggests that the main Devonian extension/transtension in the southern part of the North Atlantic region was postcontractional while strike-slip motions and possibly transpression occurred farther north. Late Devonian to enigmatic Early Carboniferous ages from UHP metamorphic assemblages in NE Greenland suggest that intracontinental subduction was going on in NE Greenland at a time when extensional deformation governed the rest of the orogenic belt.

Description: We document palynofloral trends through the Triassic in the Germanic and Alpine facies with an emphasis on diversity trends and possibly related palaeoenvironmental changes. As a first order approximation of palynofloral diversity, we used the range through method of the software package PAST based on a range chart compiled from several Triassic palynological studies and reviews. Our analysis suggests that during the entire Triassic the diversity of plants producing spores was largely controlled by the availability of water, while diversity among gymnosperms was also affected by other environmental and biotic factors. In general, palynofloral diversity declines by some 50% between the early Carnian and the Norian, mainly as a result of a decrease in the number of pollen species. This is the second most severe loss in pollen species after the Permian-Triassic biotic crisis. In comparison to the marked palynofloral turnover at the Permian-Triassic transition and the end-Carnian decrease in palynofloral diversity, the end-Triassic biotic crisis appears to have little affected palynofloral species diversity in Europe. A study of the palynostratigraphy of NW Europe recognizes nine zones (and nine subzones) that encompass the Triassic, most of which have their boundaries based on the first occurrences of marker species. The palynostratigraphic zones and subzones in Europe are correlated to the marine Triassic stages based on various data, including numerous palynological records in marine Alpine Triassic strata.

Description: The Lewisian Gneiss Complex of northwestern Scotland consists of Archaean gneisses, variably reworked during the Proterozoic. It can be divided into three districts - a central granulite-facies district between districts of amphibolite-facies gneiss to the north and south. Recent work has interpreted these districts in terms of separate terranes, initiating a controversy that has implications for how Precambrian rocks are understood worldwide. The northern district of the Lewisian Gneiss Complex (the Rhiconich terrane) is separated from the central district (the Assynt terrane) by a broad ductile shear zone known as the Laxford Shear Zone. This paper reviews the geology of the Laxford Shear Zone, clarifying field relationships and discussing other evidence, to consider whether or not it does indeed represent a terrane boundary. A detailed review of field, geochemical and geochronological evidence supports the recognition of the separate Assynt and Rhiconich terranes. Mafic dykes (the Scourie Dyke Swarm) and granitoids, of Palaeoproterozoic age, occur on both sides of the Laxford Shear Zone and thus the terranes were most probably juxtaposed during the late Archaean to early Palaeoproterozoic Inverian event. Subsequently, the less-competent, more-hydrous amphibolite-facies gneisses of the Rhiconich terrane were affected by later Palaeoproterozoic (Laxfordian) deformation and partial melting, to a greater extent than the more-competent granulite-facies gneisses of the Assynt terrane.

Description: Fold and fabric patterns developed within a major Caledonian thrust nappe in NW Scotland reflect a progressive increase in regional D2 strain towards the basal ductile detachment. Within the upper greenschist to lower amphibolite facies thrust sheet, the main gently east-dipping foliations and SE-plunging transport-parallel lineations maintain a broadly similar orientation over c. 600 km2. Associated main phase, thrust-related folds (F2) are widely developed, and towards the base of the thrust sheet display progressive tightening and increasing curvilinearity of fold hinges ultimately resulting in sheath folds. Secondary folds (F3) are largely restricted to high-strain zones and are interpreted as flow perturbation folds formed during non-coaxial, top-to-the-NW ductile thrusting. These features are consistent with a structural model that incorporates plane strain pure-shear flattening with a superimposed and highly variable simple shear component focused into high-strain zones. The increase in strain over a distance of 30 km across strike is similar to the increasing deformation observed when structures are traced along strike to the north, and which are apparently related to proximity to basement-cover contacts. A U-Pb zircon age of 415{+/-}6 Ma obtained from a syn-D2 meta-granite confirms that regional deformation occurred during the Scandian phase of the Caledonian orogeny.

Description: The Moine Supergroup of NW Scotland is a thick sequence of early Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks, with minor igneous intrusions, that display evidence for multiple phases of regional deformation and metamorphism. The descriptions and interpretations of the Moine Schists' provided by the 1907 memoir (Peach et al. 1907) have been proved to be essentially correct and have laid the groundwork for a century of distinguished and influential research that has reached far beyond the confines of NW Scotland. The Survey workers recognized the sedimentary protoliths of these rocks, realized that they had been deposited unconformably on inliers of reworked basement gneisses that now occupy the cores of major folds, and understood the likely complexity of folding and the kinematic significance of mineral lineations. Further advances in understanding of the Moine rocks were mainly achieved through two techniques that were not available to the Survey workers of 100 years ago - geochronology and palaeomagnetism. Isotopic studies have confirmed the view of the Survey workers that the Moine rocks are of Precambrian age, and furthermore have demonstrated a complex, polyorogenic history.

Description: Abrupt lateral changes in thrust geometry occur in many fold-and-thrust belts along so-called transverse zones, commonly related to pre-existing basement faults. However, the causative structures are usually concealed. We analyse here the Traligill Transverse Zone in the Assynt Culmination of the Caledonian Moine Thrust Belt, NW Scotland. This transverse zone trends sub-parallel to the WNW transport direction and is associated with en echelon faults cutting thrusts, discontinuity of thrust architecture and oblique fold-and-thrust structures. Thick thrust sheets north of the Transverse Zone contain thick basement slices; thrust sheets to the south are thin and involve a thin-bedded sequence. The Traligill Transverse Zone developed above the Loch Assynt Fault, a basement cross-fault, and reactivated Proterozoic ductile shearzone. Piercing point analysis shows that the cross-fault was active both before and after thrusting. Thrusting thus affected strata that were already disrupted by steep faults. The amplitude of the disturbance in fold-and-thrust architecture along the Traligill Transverse Zone is much greater than the vertical displacement along the fault; this is attributed to localized transpressional thrust-stacking. Other basement cross-faults and their relationship with lateral variations within the Moine Thrust Belt and in other thrust belts are discussed.

Description: In this paper we review microstructural and petrofabric work carried out on the Moine Thrust zone and overlying thrust nappes. Our review is primarily historical, and starts with contributions made by both amateur' and professional' geologists from the 1880s through to the early 1920s during, and immediately following, the original field-mapping of the Moine Thrust zone by the Geological Survey. From the 1920s to the early 1950s contributions were first dominated by Geological Survey work on the microstructural and metamorphic transition between the thrust zone mylonites and the overlying Moine metasedimentary rocks. Subsequent university-based quartz petrofabric work, primarily focused on the Moines, would ultimately lead to the Moine Petrofabric Controversy' that ran from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. The later stages of this controversy overlapped, from the early 1950s-mid 1960s, with a phase of microstructural and quartz petrofabric work that concentrated on the thrust zone mylonites and immediately overlying Moine Schists. Our review concludes with an overview of microstructural, petrofabric and related strain analyses undertaken since the early 1970s, both within the Moine Thrust zone and its immediate foreland and in the overlying higher grade thrust sheets. Throughout our review we emphasize and track the changing tectonic interpretations that have been placed on available microstructural and petrofabric data.

Description: Since the early descriptions published by Callaway in 1884, the gently dipping mylonites exposed along the Moine Thrust at the Stack of Glencoul have drawn generations of geologists to the northern part of the Assynt district. These mylonites, derived from Cambrian quartzites (footwall) and Moine pelites and psammites (hanging wall), have figured prominently in: a) early research into the influence of crystal plastic deformation and recrystallization on microstructural and crystal fabric evolution; b) debates on the kinematic interpretation of macro- and micro-structures and crystal fabrics; and c) debates on the tectonic significance of such kinematic data. In this paper first we briefly review the historical aspects of this research and then, using both previously published and unpublished data, document the finite strain and quartz fabric development at this classic mylonite locality. A tectonic interpretation of these data, together with quantitative estimates of flow vorticities associated with mylonite formation at the Stack of Glencoul, are presented in a companion paper by Law (2010).

Description: The Mylonite Zone' (MZ) forms a major, arcuate terrane boundary in the Precambrian Sveconorwegian orogen of SW Scandinavia. SE-directed thrusting along this curvilinear shear zone emplaced the higher-grade Idefjorden Terrane to the west onto the lower-grade Eastern Segment terrane to the east. Detailed structural characterization of the MZ mylonites in two different localities (Varmlandsnas and Bua peninsulas) reveals a complex three-dimensional strain pattern. Inclined transpression is inferred on the basis of coexisting (and broadly coeval) foliation-parallel oblique shearing (resolvable in a strike-slip and dip-slip component) and across-foliation shortening. The former accommodated the transpressive component of the MZ, and its kinematics is either sinistral or dextral depending on the local strike of the MZ with respect to the regional thrust shortening vector. The latter led to pure-shear shortening perpendicular to the thrust sheet and subsequent lateral extrusion parallel to the mylonitic foliation via the development of antithetic displacements. No significant strain partitioning is observed at the meso-scale and strain is thus truly triclinic. The example described is an outstanding case of triclinic deformation, confirms theoretical analyses of complex strain models and adds valuable natural field constraints to our knowledge of deformation in the crust.

Description: Inversion structures are now recognized in most orogenic belts and in many other tectonic settings, however, this has not always been the case. For many years the thin-skinned paradigm dominated the interpretation of thrust belts which resulted in many inversion structures being erroneously interpreted as thin-skinned thrusts. In rift basins, intra-cratonic basins and on passive margins inversion structures were often interpreted as having alternative origins, for example, strike-slip deformation. The classic paper of Bally described the geometric characteristics of inversion structures, in which he identified the extensional fault geometry and its subsequent compressional reactivation as essential requirements of an inversion structure. The increased recognition of inversion structures in a wide variety of tectonic settings is illustrated by four hydrocarbon exploration case studies. The geometric characteristics of inversion structures are remarkably consistent irrespective of the tectonic setting and by applying a few simple criteria they can easily be identified. The impact of inversion on hydrocarbon prospectivity is a function of the control on the petroleum system elements from the initial extensional tectonic history and of the later compressional tectonic history which commonly creates new, or modifies old trap configurations.

Description: Diverse biogenic and abiogenic processes produce calcite speleothems. From a biogenic perspective, cave microbes mediate a wide range of destructive and constructive processes that collectively influence the growth of calcite speleothems and their internal fabrics. Destructive processes include substrate breakdown by dissolution, boring and residue micrite production, whereas constructive processes include microbe calcification, trapping and binding of detrital particles to substrates, and microbial induced calcite precipitation. Biogenesis can be established from: (1) the presence of mineralized microbes; (2) fabrics, such as stromatolite-like structures, that can be attributed to microbial activity; and/or (3) geochemical proxies (carbon and oxygen isotopes, lipid biomarkers) considered indicative of microbe activity. Such criteria have, for example, been used to demonstrate microbial involvement in the formation of pool fingers, stalactites/stalagmites, cave pisoliths and moonmilk. Nevertheless, absolute proof of microbial biogenesis in calcitic speleothems is commonly difficult because taphonomic processes and/or diagenetic processes commonly mask evidence of microbial activity. The assumption that calcitic speleothems are abiogenic, which has been tacitly assumed in many studies, is dangerous as there is clear evidence that microbes thrive in most caves and can directly and indirectly influence calcite precipitation in many different ways.

Description: Tufas represent a palaeoclimatic archive of potentially global significance. However, uncertainty remains over the exact process of calcite precipitation from these systems, inhibiting our ability to decipher the precise meaning of geochemical records. For example, field studies of alkaline stream systems are unable to disentangle the influence of temperature and photosynthesis on ambient hydrochemistry on diurnal and annual timescales. This report describes a series of flume experiments in which temperature and light conditions are manipulated separately. These experiments reveal that precipitation of calcite occurs preferentially under conditions of rising pH, and consequently at the night-day transition. The amplitude of diurnal changes is regulated by the buffering capacity (i.e. alkalinity) of the ambient water and by the daytime balance of photosynthesis and respiration. Respiration is shown to be strongly affected by temperature, whereas photosynthesis is found to be limited by nutrient and/or DIC availability making temperature impacts minor. Consequently, macroenvironment pH during both day and night-time tend to be higher under lower temperatures, in contrast to expectation. These observations may have potential implications for the isotopic geochemistry of tufa carbonate, promoting slightly lower {delta}18O, due to the carbonate ion effect, and more significantly negative {delta}13C, due to incorporation of respired CO2 accumulated during the night. The observation that long periods of daylight are not necessarily needed for photosynthetically induced precipitation to occur confirm previous arguments that seasonal lamination requires either strong variability in ambient physicochemical activity or an ecological change in the microbial assemblage, and cannot be ascribed to reduced temperature and light intensity.

Description: Phosphorus fractionation studies were undertaken on seven UK tufas: three modern, and four old. The phosphorus in the carbonate fraction of the tufa averaged 19% of the total phosphorus in the modern material, and from 48-64% in the 4000 year-old deposits and the increase attributed to the mineralization of the contained organic matter. Two further phosphorus fractions contained significant amounts of P. The dithionite fraction ranged from 10-27% of the total, and most of this fraction was probably associated with detrital iron minerals. The alkali-soluble fraction which removed most of the organically-bound P was highest in the modern bryophyte tufas. Total P levels in the tufas ranged from 33-119 ppm. These are low values for stream sediments. Phosphorus uptake rates into tufa were estimated for these sites. They were less than 5% of the incoming P and deemed to have a negligible effect on the aquatic biota.

Description: The Guney waterfall area is a perched springline tufa site developed on the southeast slope of the Buyuk Menderes River near Guney town, in the Denizli province, Western Turkey. The site is 12 km away from Guney and 72 km from the city centre of Denizli. The spring waters emerge from the boundary between Palaeozoic marble and micaschist and precipitated tufa deposits downslope at the altitudes ranging from 220 to 400 metres. The tufa deposits cover an area of about 20 hectares. Flat upper surfaces of the deposits are indicative of mature stage. The waters are of the Ca-HCO3 type and supersaturated with respect to CaCO3. The stable isotope values of the spring waters are -49.94 for {delta}2H and -7.15 for {delta}18O. The {delta}13C and {delta}18O values of active and passive tufa samples are in the range from -9.13 to -6.0{per thousand}, and from -8.44 to -7.40{per thousand}, respectively. These isotopic values are typical for fresh water tufa. The passive tufas give the 14C age in the range from 2000 to 5800 yr BP. According to the 14C age data, passive tufas are not older than Holocene. The stable isotope composition is similar south European examples.

Description: The Monte Maggiore peridotite represents subcontinental mantle that underwent tectonic and magmatic evolution during the rifting stage of the Jurassic Ligurian Tethys oceanic basin. Pristine garnet peridotites were first equilibrated under spinel-facies conditions. During continental extension they were diffusely infiltrated by asthenospheric melts that consisted of single fractional melt increments (6% melting degree) showing depleted MORB (mid-ocean ridge basalt) signature. Diffuse melt migration of undersaturated melts at spinel-facies conditions formed reactive spinel peridotites, and melt impregnation at plagioclase-facies conditions formed impregnated plagioclase peridotites. Further focused melt migration occurred within high-porosity dunite channels. Subsequently, the single melt fractions underwent coalescence to form aggregate MORB melts that were intruded into shallow magma chambers. They underwent fractional crystallization and formation of variably evolved Mg-rich and Fe-Ti-rich magmas. Mg- and Fe-Ti-gabbroic dykes were formed by intrusion along fractures of these magmas. Melt-percolated peridotites and gabbroic rocks are isotopically homogeneous, suggesting that melts which percolated and intruded the mantle lithosphere derived from isotopically homogeneous asthenospheric mantle sources. The magmatic cycle, that is, asthenosphere partial melting, lithosphere diffuse melt percolation and dyke intrusion, occurred during Late Jurassic times (163-150 Ma) and represents the youngest events of lithosphere-asthenosphere interaction so far documented in ophiolitic peridotites from the Ligurian Tethys. The Ligurian Tethys basin never reached a mature oceanic stage, that is, the genetic link between exposed oceanic crustal rocks and refractory mantle peridotites.

Description: This paper describes a rare occurrence of graphite in non-cratonic mantle rocks. Graphite has been found in garnet clinopyroxenite layers from the External Liguride peridotites that represent slices of subcontinental lithospheric mantle exhumed at the ocean floor in Mesozoic times. The high-pressure assemblage of the pyroxenites is characterized by garnet+Al-Na-rich clinopyroxene, and testifies to an early stage of equilibration at approximately 2.8 GPa and 1100 {degrees}C. Graphite occurs as small dispersed euhedral flakes and stacks of flakes. Structural characterization by microRaman spectrometry indicates a highly ordered structure, compatible with a high-temperature mantle origin. C isotope composition of graphite has a typical mantle signature. Fe-Ni-Cu sulphides occur as accessory phases, both as blebs enclosed in silicates (E-Type) and interstitial grains (I-Type). The sulphide assemblage (Ni-free pyrrhotite, pentlandite, Cu-Fe sulphides) mainly reflects subsolidus exsolution from high-temperature Fe-Ni-Cu monosulphide solid solutions with variable Ni (up to 18 wt%) and Cu content (up to 7 wt%). The origin of E- and I-Type sulphides requires the existence of an immiscible Fe-Ni-Cu sulphide liquid, which segregated from the partial melt of the garnet pyroxenite. Graphite precipitation in the pyroxenite was presumably related to the reduction of a more oxidized carbon species interacting with the sulphide liquid as a reducing agent.

Description: Effects of mafic alkaline metasomatism have been investigated by a combined study of the East Serbian mantle xenoliths and their host alkaline rocks. Fertile xenoliths and tiny mineral assemblages found in depleted xenoliths have been investigated. Fertile lithologies are represented by clinopyroxene (cpx)-rich lherzolite and spinel (sp)-rich olivine websterite containing Ti-Al-rich Cr-augite, Fe-rich olivine, Fe-Al-rich orthopyroxene and Al-rich spinel. Depleted xenoliths, which are the predominant lithology in the suite of East Serbian xenoliths, are harzburgite, cpx-poor lherzolite and rare Mg-rich dunite. They contain small-scale assemblages occurring as pocket-like, symplectitic or irregular, deformation-assisted accumulations of metasomatic phases, generally composed of Ti-Al- and incompatible element-rich Cr-diopside, Cr-Fe-Ti-rich spinel, altered glass, olivine, apatite, ilmenite, carbonate, feldspar, and a high-TiO2 (c. 11 wt%) phlogopite. The fertile xenoliths are too rich in Al, Ca and Fe to simply represent undepleted mantle. By contrast, their composition can be reproduced by the addition of 5-20 wt% of a basanitic melt to refractory mantle. However, textural relationships found in tiny mineral assemblages inside depleted xenoliths imply the following reaction: opx+sp1 (primary mantle Cr-spinel) {+/-}phlogopite+Si-poor alkaline melt=Ti-Al-cpx+sp2 (metasomatic Ti-rich spinel){+/-}ol{+/-}other minor phases. Inversion modelling, performed on the least contaminated and most isotopically uniform host basanites (87Sr/86Sr=c. 0.7031; 143Nd/144Nd=c. 0.5129), implies a source that was enriched in highly and moderately incompatible elements (c. 35-40x chondrite for U-Th-Nb-Ta, 2x chondrite for heavy rare earth elements (HREE), made up of clinopyroxene, carbonate (c. 5%), and traces of ilmenite (c. 1%) and apatite (c. 0.05%). A schematic model involves: first, percolation of CO2- and H2O-rich fluids and precipitation of metasomatic hydrous minerals; and, second, the subsequent breakdown of these hydrous minerals due to the further uplift of hot asthenospheric mantle. This model links intraplate alkaline magmatism to lithospheric mantle sources enriched by sublithospheric melts at some time in the past.

Description: We re-evaluate the Neoproterozoic, Pacific-type accretionary complex on Anglesey and in the Lleyn peninsula (Wales, UK), by reconstructing its ocean plate stratigraphy (OPS). Three types of distinctive OPS were successively emplaced downwards in an accretionary wedge: the oldest at the top formed when an ocean opened and closed from a ridge to a trench, the central OPS was subjected to deep subduction and exhumed as blueschists, and the youngest at the bottom is an olistostrome-type deposit that formed by secondary gravitational collapse of previously accreted material. The three types formed by successive eastward subduction of young oceanic lithosphere at the leading edge of Avalonia. The downward growth of the accretionary complex through time was almost coeval with exhumation of the blueschist unit at 550-560 Ma in the structural centre of the complex on Anglesey. From balanced sections we have reconstructed the ocean plate stratigraphy on Llanddwyn Island from which we calculate that about 8 km of lateral shortening of ocean floor took place during imbrication and accretion; this is comparable with the history of plate subduction around the Pacific Ocean. We also calculate that the age of the subducted lithosphere was very young, probably less than 10 Ma.

Description: The boron-bearing minerals grandidierite, werdingite, serendibite and sinhalite are common in high-grade rocks of the Tranomaro belt in southeastern Madagascar. The mutual occurrence of these phases allows a new understanding of the role of boron-rich fluids in the crustal evolution of Gondwana, and we provide critical borosilicate data to constrain that development. We distinguish two types of grandidierite depending on their B2O3 and Al2O3 contents and on their relations with associated borosilicate phases. (1) At Vohibola the presence of sinhalite and serendibite associated with phlogopite lenses in metasedimentary diopsidites indicates an evaporitic origin from calc-silicate sediments. (2) At Cape Andrahomana borosilicates are associated with pegmatites and granites that were emplaced along shear zones on the boundary of the Tranomaro belt. The shear zones acted as conduits for boron-bearing fluids and for granitic partial melts, which had derived their boron from calc-silicate sedimentary protoliths. Using geothermometry and geobarometry of minerals from associated rocks, we calculate that ambient pressures and temperatures changed in time from 7.5 to 4.0 kbar and from c. 800 {degrees}C to 700 {degrees}C. Our results confirm the important role of shear zones in channelling the fluid flow of boron-bearing fluids that were derived from crustal melt granites in the same shear zones, but that ultimately derived their boron from early metasediments. We provide new information on the mineralogy, phase assemblages and paragenetic history of multiple borosilicates.

Description: Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry U-Pb dating of zircons from granitoids and paragneiss in the Chinese segment of the Khanka Block reveals that granite magmatism occurred at 518{+/-}7 Ma and was followed shortly after by high-grade metamorphism at c. 500 Ma (timing ranging from 491{+/-}4 Ma in medium-grained granitoid, through 499{+/-}10 Ma in porphyritic granite, to 501{+/-}8 Ma in paragneiss). Such a scenario has previously been established on similar lithologies in the Jiamusi Block to the west, with identical ages. This suggests that the Khanka and Jiamusi blocks form part of a single terrane and that the Dunhua-Mishan Fault, which was previously considered to separate two unique terranes, cannot be a terrane boundary fault. Previous suggestions of a link between the Khanka Block and the Hida Block in Japan are not supported following a comparison of the new zircon data with published ages for the Japanese terranes. A granitoid with an age of 112{+/-}1 Ma in the Khanka Block probably records the effect of Pacific plate subduction, as such ages are common further south in the extreme eastern part of the North China Craton, where they have been related to post-collisional extension and lithospheric thinning in the Jiaodong Peninsula. The presence of such young granitoids, and the previous dating of blueschist-facies metamorphism as late Early Jurassic in the Heilongjiang Complex of the Jiamusi Block, supports the view that the current location of the Jiamusi-Khanka terrane is a product of circum-Pacific accretion rather than it being a microcontinental block that was trapped by the northward collision of the North China Craton with Siberia as part of the assembly of the main Central Asian Orogenic Belt.

Description: Orogens and their posthumous traces are the basic elements that can be used to understand the material circulation within the Earth. Although information preserved in the rocks on the surface ranging in age from 4.4 Ga to the present has been used to characterize orogens, it is important to understand orogens on a whole-Earth scale to evaluate global material circulation through time. In this paper, we synthesize the general concepts and characteristics of orogens and orogenic belts. The collision type and accretionary type constitute the two end-member types of orogens, both sharing similar structural features of subhorizontal disposition, bounded above and below by paired faults. Their exhumation generally occurs in two steps: first by wedge extrusion to form a sandwich structure with subhorizontal boundaries, which is followed by domal uplift of all the units. In the accretionary type, oceanic lithosphere subducts under the continental margin, and in the collision type, buoyant continents collide with each other. Of the various types of subduction and collision processes, arc-arc collision orogeny may have been widespread in the Archaean, although most of the intra-oceanic arc crust must have been destroyed and dragged down to the Archaean core-mantle boundary (CMB). Here we propose a broad two-fold classification of orogens and their subducted remnants, based on (1) their thermal history and (2) temporal constraints. Based on their thermal history, orogens are grouped into three types: cold orogens, hot orogens and ultra-hot orogens. Two extreme situations, which are anomalous and unlikely to occur on Earth, termed here super-cold and super-hot orogens, are also proposed. We discuss the characteristics of each of these subtypes. Based on temporal constraints, we group orogens into Modern and Ancient, where in both cases regional metamorphic belts occupy the orogenic core. In both groups, the overlying and underlying units of the regional metamorphic belts are weakly metamorphosed or unmetamorphosed, and are either accretionary complex in origin (Pacific type) or continental basement and cover (collision type). Major structures are subhorizontal with oceanward vergence of deformation, for both types. Orogens in the Modern Earth are grouped into four sub-categories: (1) deeply subducted orogens that are taken down to mantle depths and never return to the surface, termed here ghost orogens'; (2) those that are subducted to deep crustal levels, undergo melting and are recycled back to the surface, forming resurrected and temporarily arrested orogens'; (3) extant orogens', which are partly returned to the surface after deep subduction; (4) concealed orogens', which have been deeply subducted and only the traces of which are represented on the surface by mantle xenoliths carried by younger magmas. The preservation of orogens on the surface of the Earth occurred through an unusual return process from their natural course of total destruction, a phenomenon that operated more efficiently in the Phanerozoic through exhumation from ultra-deep domains against the slab-pull force of the plate, aided by fluids derived by dehydration of subducted lithosphere. Orogens at present represented on the surface of the Earth constitute only a fraction of the total volume formed in Earth history. Traces of the deeply subducted lost orogens' are sometimes returned to the surface in the form of melt or mantle xenoliths through combined processes of plume and plate tectonics. From a synthesis of the processes associated with the various categories of orogens proposed in this study, we trace the time-dependent transformations of orogens in relation to the history of the evolving Earth.

Description: The North China craton (NCC) is one of oldest cratons in the world, with crust up to c. 3.8 Ga old, and has a complicated evolution. The main Early Precambrian geological events and key tectonic issues are as follows. (1) Old continental nuclei have been recognized in the NCC, and the oldest remnants of granitic gneiss and supracrustal rocks are 3.8 Ga old. The main crustal growth in the NCC took place at 2.9-2.7 Ga. The NCC can be divided into several microblocks, which are separated by Archaean greenstone belts that represent continental accretion surrounding the old continental nuclei. (2) By 2.5 Ga, the microblocks amalgamated to form a coherent craton by continent-continent, arc-continent or arc-arc collisions. The tectonic processes in Neoarchaean and modern times appear to differ more in degree than in principle. Extensive intrusion of K-granite sills and mafic dykes and regional upper amphibolite- to granulite-facies metamorphism occurred, and marked the beginning of cratonization in the NCC. Coeval ultramafic-mafic and syenitic dykes of c. 2500 Ma in Eastern Hebei indicate that the NCC became a stable, thick and huge continent at the end of the Archaean, and probably was a part of the Neoarchaean supercontinent that has been suggested by previous studies. (3) In the period between 2500 and 2350 Ma, the NCC was tectonically inactive, but the development of a Palaeoproterozoic volcanic and granitic rocks occurred between 2300 and 1950 Ma. The volcanic-sedimentary rocks are termed Palaeoproterozoic mobile belts; these have a linear distribution, and were affected by strong folding and metamorphism at 1900-1850 Ma, and intruded by granites and pegmatites at 1850-1800 Ma. The Palaeoproterozoic mobile belts formed and evolved within the craton or continental margin (epicontinental geosyncline). Some 2.30-1.95 Ga rift-margin, passive continental margin deposits, analogous arc or back-arc assemblages, as well as HP and HT-UHT metamorphic complexes seem to be comparable with many in the late Phanerozoic orogenic belts. Regarding Palaeoproterozoic orogeny in other cratons, it is possible that a global Palaeoproterozoic orogenic event occurred, existed and resulted in the formation of a pre-Rodinian supercontinent at c. 2.0-1.85 Ga. (4) In contrast, the c. 1800 Ma event is an extension-migmatization event, which includes uplift of the lower crust of the NCC as a whole, the emplacement of mafic dyke swarms, continental rifting, and intrusion of an orogenic magmatic association. This event has been considered to be related to the break-up of the pre-Rodinian supercontinent at 1.8 Ga, attributed to a Palaeoproterozoic plume. (5) As HP and HT-UHT metamorphic rocks occur widely in the NCC, their high pressure of 10-14 kbar has attracted attention from researchers, and several continental collisional models have been proposed. However, it is argued that these rocks have much higher geothermal gradient and much slower uplift rate than those in Phanerozoic orogenic belts. Moreover, HP and HT-UHT rocks commonly occur together and are not distributed in linear zones, suggesting that the geological and tectonic implications of these data should be reassessed.

Description: This paper summarizes some 30 years of more intense recent work and almost 100 years of geological observations in Kohistan. The paper is divided into two section: an earlier factual-based section with minimal interpretation, and a later section summarizing a range of ideas based on the data as well as presenting new thoughts and interpretations. Kohistan is a c. 30 000 km2 terrane situated in northern Pakistan. The great bulk of Kohistan represents growth and crustal accretion during the Cretaceous at an intra-oceanic island arc dating from c. 134 Ma to c. 90 Ma (Early to Late Cretaceous). This period saw the extrusion of c. 15-20 km of arc volcanic and related sedimentary rocks as well as the intrusion of the oldest parts of the Kohistan batholith, lower crustal pluton intrusion, crustal melting and the accretion of an ultramafic mantle-lower crust sequence. The crust had thickened sufficiently by c. 95 Ma to allow widespread granulite-facies metamorphism to take place within the lower arc. At around 90 Ma Kohistan underwent a c. 5 Ma high-intensity deformation caused by the collision with Eurasia. The collision created crustal-scale folds and shears in the ductile zone and large-scale faults and thrusts in the brittle zone. The whole terrane acquired a strong penetrative foliation fabric. Kohistan, now an Andean margin, was extended and intruded by a diapiric-generated crustal-scale mafic-ultramafic intrusion (the Chilas Complex) with a volume of 0.2x106 km3 that now occupies much of the mid-lower crust of Kohistan and had a profound impact on its thermal structure. The Andean-post-collisonal (c. 90-26 Ma) period also saw the intrusion of the stage 2 and 3 components of the batholith and the extrusion of the Dir Group and Shamran/Teru volcanic rocks. Collision with India at c. 55-45 Ma saw the rotation, upturning, underplating and whole-scale preservation of the terrane. The seismic structure of Kohistan has some similarities to that of mature arcs such as the Lesser and Greater Antilles and Japan, although Kohistan has a higher proportion of high-velocity granulites in the lower crust. The chemical composition of Kohistan is very different from that of average continental crust, although it is similar to an analogue obducted arc within Alaska (Talkeetna), suggesting that mature' continental crust undergoes a series of geochemical processes and reworking to transform an initial stage 1 primitive arc crust'. Most of Kohistan is gabbroic in composition, particularly within the lower and middle crust. A high proportion of the basement' volcanic units is also basaltic to basaltic andesite with smaller proportions of boninite, andesite to rhyolite, ignimbrite and volcaniclastic material. Post Eurasian-collision cover' volcanic rocks are highly evolved, comprising predominant rhyolites, ignimbrites and related volcaniclastic rocks. Most lithological units throughout the crustal section have an arc-like geochemical composition (e.g. high LREE/HREE and LFSE/HFSE ratios) although some have oceanic (main ocean and back-arc) characteristics. Isotopic compositions indicate that the great bulk of igneous rocks have an ultimate sub-arc mantle source. In broad terms the Kohistan terrane represents a juvenile mantle extract addition to the Phanerozoic continental crust with a total volume of c. 1.2x106 km3 (equivalent to c. 1/50 the volume of the Ontong-Java Plateau or Alaska).

Description: This paper concerns the kinematics of active strike-slip faults in the Arabia-Eurasia collision zone, and how they accommodate plate convergence. Several roles are discernible: (1) collision zone boundaries, the left-lateral Dead Sea Fault System and right-lateral faults in eastern Iran form the western and eastern boundaries of the collision zone; (2) tectonic escape structures, the North and East Anatolian faults transport intervening crust westwards, out of the path of the Arabia; (3) strain partitioning, right-lateral slip on the Zagros Main Recent Fault and NW-SE-striking thrusts to its SW produce north-south convergence, parallel to the plate vector; left-lateral slip along the Alborz range and thrusts across it produce oblique left-lateral shortening; (4) shortening arrays, arrays of strike-slip faults (e.g. Kopeh Dagh and eastern Iranian faults) rotate about vertical axes, producing north-south shortening without crustal thickening; (5) transfer zones, fold trends and earthquake slip vectors change orientation across strike-slip faults in the Zagros, suggesting that these faults allow for changes in thrust transport along strike in the orogen. These different roles emphasize the complex behaviour of continental crust, and the advantages of studying active tectonics rather than ancient examples.

Description: Regional metamorphic rocks in the Pakistan Himalaya include both UHP coesite eclogite-facies and MP/T kyanite-sillimanite-grade Barrovian metamorphic rocks. Age data show that peak metamorphism of both was c. 47 Ma. 40Ar-39Ar hornblende cooling ages date post-peak metamorphic cooling of both through 500 {degrees}C by 40 Ma, some 20 Ma earlier than for metamorphic rocks in the central and eastern Himalaya. Typically these ages have been explained by obduction of the Kohistan arc onto the Indian plate at about 50 Ma and India-Asia collision. We suggest instead that the earlier metamorphic and cooling ages of the Pakistani Barrovian metamorphic sequence could be partially explained by Late Cretaceous to Early Paleocene crustal thickening linked to obduction of an ophiolite thrust sheet onto the leading edge of the Indian plate, similar to the Spontang Ophiolite in Ladakh. Heating following on from this Paleocene crustal thickening explains peak Barrovian metamorphism within 5-10 Ma of subsequent obduction of Kohistan. Remnants of the ophiolite sheet, and underlying Tethyan sediments, are preserved in NW India and in western Pakistan but not in northern Pakistan. Tectonic erosion removed all cover sequences (including the ophiolites) from the Indian plate basement.

Description: The Gobi Altai is an intraplate, intracontinental transpressional orogen in southern Mongolia that formed in the Late Cenozoic as a distant response to the Indo-Eurasia collision. The modern range formed within crust constructed by successive terrane accretion and ocean suturing events and widespread granite plutonism throughout the Palaeozoic. Modern reactivation of the Gobi Altai crust and the kinematics of Quaternary faults are fundamentally controlled by Palaeozoic basement structural trends, the location of rigid Precambrian blocks, orientation of SHmax and possible thermal weakening of the lower crust as a result of an extensive history of Mesozoic-Cenozoic basaltic volcanism in the region, and the presence of thermally elevated asthenosphere under the Hangay Dome to the north. Modern mountain building processes in the Gobi Altai typically involve reactivation of NW-SE-striking basement structures in thrust mode and development of linking east-west left-lateral strike-slip faults that crosscut basement structures within an overall left-lateral transpressional regime. Restraining bends, other transpressional ridges and thrust basement blocks are the main range type, but are discontinuously distributed and separated by internally drained basins filling with modern alluvial deposits. Unlike a contractional thrust belt, there is no orogenic foreland or hinterland, and thrusts are both NE and SW directed with no evidence for a basal decollement. Normal faults related to widespread Cretaceous rifting in the region appear to be unfavourably oriented for Late Cenozoic reactivation despite widespread topographic inversion of Cretaceous basin sequences. Because the Gobi Altai is an actively developing youthful mountain range in an arid region with low erosion rates, it provides an excellent opportunity to study the way in which a continental interior reactivates as a result a distant continental collision. In addition, it offers important insights into how other more advanced intracontinental transpressional orogens may have developed during earlier stages of their evolution.

Description: Alfred Nicholson Leeds, F.G.S., amassed one of the largest collections of fossil vertebrates from a single geological horizon anywhere in the world. The Leeds Collection is world famous for its large marine reptiles, but also includes the remains of a fine range of dinosaurs and a fragmentary pterosaur. The Leeds Collection ornithodirans were almost exclusively recovered from the Peterborough Member of the Oxford Clay Formation, with a single specimen of a sauropod derived from the underlying Kellaways Formation. The Leeds Collection includes the remains of at least 12 individual dinosaurs representing at least eight taxa (with other remains currently generically indeterminate) and a single fragmentary rhamphorhynchid pterosaur. Perhaps most intriguingly of all, in 1898 Alfred Leeds discovered a probable reptile egg, later attributed to a dinosaur. Each dinosaur and the pterosaur from the Leeds Collection is discussed, and, where known, details of the provenance, a brief history of research and pertinent archive material are included to provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the Leeds Collection ornithodirans to date.

Description: The colonization of land required new strategies for safe gamete/diaspore dispersal, and to cope with desiccation, harmful radiation, fire and gravity. Accordingly, the morphology, behaviour and physiology of the organisms changed. Here, we explore to what extent physiological adaptations, reflected in the molecular content of the sediments, add to our understanding of the terrestrialization. Many compounds considered characteristic of land organisms do not provide valuable information from the fossil record since (1) they were not preserved; (2) they occur or correspond to substances that evolved prior to the terrestrialization (e.g. cutan vs. algaenan, cellulose); or (3) they have been changed diagenetically and/or catagenetically. The latter leads to geo(macro)molecules without a chemical fingerprint relating them to their original bio(macro)molecules despite, sometimes, excellent morphological preservation of the organic remains. Nevertheless, some molecular markers and their stable isotopes provide independent information on the terrestrialization process. The odd predominance of n-alkane surface waxes is a feature already apparent in early land plants and could, with caution, be used as such. Furthermore, fossil terpenoids and their derivatives are valuable for reconstructing the evolution of major plant groups. The radiation of the phenylpropanoid pathway with for example, sporopollenin and lignin seems to be closely related to the evolution of land plants.

Description: Evidence of dinosaurs in Yorkshire is largely confined to the Middle Jurassic Ravenscar Group (Aalenian-Bathonian) and consists of both skeletal material and trace fossils. The oldest record is of unfigured limb elements, recorded by Williamson in 1837 and ascribed by Owen to Cetiosaurus, but they have not been more recently described. There are no other published records of dinosaur bone from the Ravenscar Group until 2003, when Romano and Whyte recorded recent discoveries including a sauropod caudal vertebra, ribs, disarticulated pectoral and limb elements. Non-dinosaurian skeletal material includes crocodile, turtle and fish. In contrast, dinosaur tracks are extremely abundant in the Ravenscar Group. Although some may have been observed around 1895, the first definite identification of dinosaur tracks was by Brodrick in 1907. A modern resurgence in interest began about 1970 when Sarjeant first formally named a track from Yorkshire. Subsequent publications have amply documented the abundance and diversity of dinosaur tracks within the Ravenscar Group. In 1995 the first new ichnotaxon from Yorkshire, Deltapodus brodricki, was described; this was followed by the recognition of sauropod tracks and swimming tracks. There are scattered records of dinosaur bone from other marine units in the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous. The Yorkshire records are of great international significance, especially in the Middle Jurassic where there is a dearth of material from other areas.

Description: The footprints called Chirotherium', because of their resemblance to human hands, were found in Triassic sandstones from Germany in 1834 and Cheshire in 1838. As no bones or other fossil remains were found at either locality, the trackmaker's identity was a mystery. Marsupial mammals were first suggested but in 1842 Richard Owen confidently identified the prints as those of labyrinthodont amphibians. Later discoveries in Cheshire and elsewhere indicated that the trackmakers were more likely to have been pseudosuchian reptiles. In 1965 strong confirmation of this view came from the discovery in Switzerland of the skeleton of Ticinosuchus ferox. The absence of fossil remains associated with the footprints has always been ascribed to the arid climate of Triassic times - a view reinforced by Henry Charles Beasley in 1907. A more moderate viewpoint was put forward by George Highfield Morton in 1898, who took note of the traces of flora found in the local Triassic strata. Pictorial representations of the Anisian through the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries indicate varying interpretations of the degree of aridity from sparsely vegetated landscapes to sand sea desert. Recent work shows that the environment in a local context was more richly vegetated and humid than had previously been supposed and that the historical interpretation of aridity has probably been overstated. A modern context may, perhaps, be seen in the river valleys of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Here, permanent fertile fluvial systems support a mixed indigenous flora of giant horsetails and conifers. The flora displays an adaptation to high groundwater salinity, which may have lessons in interpretation of the Anisian environment.

Description: The discovery of dinosaurs and other large extinct 'saurians', a term under which the Victorians commonly lumped ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs and their kin, makes exciting reading. The story of how early 'fossilists' first found the remains of these 'primeval monsters' has been told again and again in popular and semi-popular books about the history of palaeontology. Mary Anning making a living by collecting extinct reptiles along the Dorset coast, William Buckland and Gideon Mantell finding the 'terrible lizards' for which Richard Owen was to coin the word 'Dinosauria', O. C. Marsh and E. D. Cope fighting over new fossil vertebrates in the American West – all of these well-known stories have almost achieved the status of legends, and have often been retold with little regard for historical or scientific accuracy. The purpose of the present volume is not to retell these tales. The papers in this collection focus on relatively little-known episodes in the discovery and interpretation (from both a scientific and an artistic point of view) of dinosaurs and other Mesozoic animals. They cover a long time span, from the beginnings of scientific palaeontology to the present, and deal with many parts of the world, from the Yorkshire coast to central India, from Bavaria to the Sahara. The characters in these stories include professional palaeontologists and geologists (some of them well known, others more obscure), explorers, amateur fossil collectors and artists, linked together by their interest in Mesozoic creatures. The papers are diverse in their scope and approach, some...

Description: The early history of reptile palaeontology is reviewed in order to assess the different roles played by museums, collections and collectors. The formal characterization and description of several fossil reptile groups (mosasaurs, pterosaurs, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and dinosaurs) is then examined in a series of case histories. Fossil reptile bones were collected from the end of the sixteenth century, originally as objects of curiosity. The comprehensive collection of John Woodward (1665-1728) was an exception to this, and fossil reptiles only comprise a small fraction of the total number of specimens. Early discoveries of reptile fossils were interpreted within an anthropocentric context, with later interpretations being based on contemporary exotic faunas. The emergence of the systematic study of comparative anatomy at the end of the eighteenth century allowed more precise identifications of specimen's affinities, and demonstrated that extinction was a reality. Interpretations were no longer constrained by the contemporary biota. Georges Cuvier was instrumental in both of these advances. Collections and museums of comparative biological material were vital to his methods, and to the whole field of comparative anatomy. By the 1840s, fossil reptiles had been classified into separate and distinguishable groups. Private collectors were important for securing new discoveries, but specimens have only survived when they were acquired by institutional museums. Museums and their collections influenced the careers of such early pioneers as Richard Owen, who later became one of the most politically powerful scientists of the nineteenth century. It is hard to conceive how a field such as palaeontology could survive without collections, as fossil reptiles ably demonstrate.

Description: Alan Jack Charig was Curator of Fossil Amphibians, Reptiles and Birds at the British Museum (Natural History) from 1961 to 1987. We here review his academic accomplishments and the impact of his work within vertebrate palaeontology. His position gave him considerable influence in the discussion of emerging theories and in how vertebrate palaeontology was portrayed to the public. His main areas of scientific interest included biogeography and faunal provinces, the evolution of an erect gait in archosaurs, the systematics and diversity of Triassic proterosuchians, erythrosuchians and their relatives, and the origin of dinosaurs. Besides Triassic archosaurs, ornithischian, theropod and sauropodomorph dinosaurs, he published on gastropods, amphisbaenians and plesiosaurs. While he did produce some lasting contributions to the literature, it is telling that he failed to publish the specimen-based analyses he apparently planned to, despite citations of in press' manuscripts. Between the 1970s and 1990s Alan opposed or offered alternatives to many emerging theories and schools of thought. He is best described as conservative' in terms of his views on palaeontological controversies and his opinions would not conform with those favoured by the majority of palaeontologists today. He was highly critical of the concept of dinosaur monophyly, the dinosaurian origin of birds, of the division of archosaurs into a crocodilian and bird-dinosaur clade, and of cladistics. Several of his papers are ICZN (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature) submissions, published in order to clear up taxonomic problems, and they served to bring nomenclatural stability. Contradicting views exist of him as a scientist and a popularist. He has, not without contradiction, been described as intellectually arrogant, most clubbable, humorous, charming, an academic snob, political and meticulous. His lasting fame, however, is that very few of us live to be referred to as the Carl Sagan of the BBC' or have the good fortune to describe a dinosaur as important as Baryonyx.

Description: The potential of using dinoflagellate cysts as proxies for palaeoceanographic conditions and as monitors of the dynamic marine environment of climatically sensitive Arctic fjords was investigated with sediment traps. Dinoflagellate cysts were analysed from three separate deployments in two high Arctic fjords in the Svalbard archipelago. Two deployments in Kongsfjorden on the west coast of Svalbard occurred during 2002 and 2006-2007 and a deployment in Rijpfjorden on the NE coast occurred during 2006-2007. The cyst production displayed peaks of abundance in the spring and late summer with distinct differences in cyst occurrence in different fjords and in different years. The recorded and identified cyst species were consistent both with the hydrography of the fjords and with changes in cyst composition that are comparable to the seasonal shifts in water mass characteristics. The presence of the heterotrophic species Protoperidinium conicum in Kongsfjorden during 2002 is of note and may reflect the availability of a particular food source possibly associated with the strong influx of Atlantic Water. Cysts recovered from Kongsfjorden during 2006-2007 were dominated by Islandinium minutum, an indicator of cold, polar to subpolar conditions. The temperature and salinity characteristics of the ambient hydrography in this period indicated less influence by Atlantic Water than in 2002, and the cyst production was consistent with regional cyst distribution patterns. In Rijpfjorden, cyst assemblages were dominated by Pentapharsodinium dalei, consistent with the fjord being dominated by full Arctic conditions during the mooring deployment and the possible occurrence of stratified water with high productivity during the spring phytoplankton bloom.

Description: Whereas most Late Quaternary sedimentary systems experienced only sea-level rise, fjords record unique sequences because rapid uplift after the unloading of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ice sheets outpaced global eustatic sea-level rise. This study aims to disentangle how rapid initial uplift and high variability of eustatic sea-level change affects fjord sedimentary records. Two numerical models are coupled, ICE-5G and SedFlux, and show that timing and duration of deglaciation and total uplift strongly affect fjord stratigraphy. The ICE-5G model predicts a number of distinct time intervals during which many fjords deglaciate, independent of latitude and short-term climate. Deglaciation of the entire fjord system takes significantly longer (c. 6 ka) for fjords that deglaciate early (17-15 ka BP) than for fjords deglaciating after 9 ka BP (c. 1 ka). Exponential uplift curves totalled c. 220-280 m, and have half-lives of 1-1.4 ka. High uplift rates consistently cause rapid progradation of the rivermouth over tens of kilometres. Thick packages of glaciomarine, and glaciofluvial sediments emerged above sea level and are subsequently incised. Sensitivity tests predict high frequency of submarine mass movements. Fjords that deglaciated early additionally show deposition to be strongly dominated by rapid sea-level rise; signs of drowning are pronounced and subsequent thick fine-grained sequences aggrade. We conclude that recently deglaciated fjords record solely deposition under falling sea-level and thus provide the best modern analogues of forced-regressive systems.

Description: A preliminary investigation of the occurrence of hard-shelled benthic foraminifera in a sample of maerl (gravels derived from calcareous red seaweed) collected from a water depth of 10 m by SCUBA diving in the Clyde Sea, Scotland reveals an exceptionally well-preserved and diverse assemblage. A total of 90 different species were identified, comprising 12 agglutinated, 15 porcelaneous and 63 hyaline types; this represents the highest recorded species count described from the west of Scotland. The assemblage probably represents an integrated record of material derived directly from the maerl (mostly epifaunal types) and material derived from the reworking of adjacent sediments (mostly infaunal types). Maerl deposits represent an important near-shore habitat which appear to have been largely overlooked in regional studies of benthic foraminiferal distribution/ecology.

Description: Sea lochs are regions where riverine and marine organic carbon (OC) undergoes decomposition, deposition or transportation to shelf slopes and the deep sea. According to the OC budget presented here, discharge from River Creran (1.44x106 kg a-1) and phytoplankton material (0.89x106 kg a-1) make up a significant input of OC to Loch Creran while 0.67x106 kg a-1 OC is from other sources. A total of 1.28x106 kg a-1 OC is deposited in the loch and 1.14x106 kg a-1 OC is oxidized in the water column. Discharge to the Lynn of Lorn consists of 0.58x106 kg a-1 OC. Hence Loch Creran is a sink for OC where 42.7% of the total OC input is buried and 38% and 1.7% decomposed in the water column and subsurface sediments, respectively. River Creran contributes 63% labile and 37% refractory organic matter to the loch. More than 95% of each of the total OC, lignin and organic matter deposited onto the surface sediments is buried in the subsurface sediments. Seventy-five percent of the total organic matter decomposed in the water column is labile. Output to Lynn of Lorn consists of 54.6% refractory organic matter.

Description: Three high-resolution sediment cores from the periodically anoxic Inner Barsnesfjord and the oxic Outer Barsnesfjord and Sogndalsfjord, Western Norway, are analysed for signals of climate variation. Sedimentation rates are 0.85, 0.75 and 0.45 cm a-1, respectively. Sediment slices are taken of 0.3-0.5 cm thickness revealing annual resolution. Corresponding peaks of mineral clay particles, total organic matter and freshwater diatoms correlate well with maxima in regional precipitation, temperature and cloud cover over the last 20 years. This regional climate record is also correlated to the wider NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) winter index, northern hemisphere temperature and solar activity (cosmic rays and open solar flux) based on 60 years of continuous observation. There is a strong indication that the fjord sediment record contains a climate archive spanning the last 20-100 a; it is suggested that these proxies might also work on longer timescales. A simple box model is presented describing the use of the sediment record for the interpretation of climate variability on a regional scale and at a longer timescale on a millennium scale. It is predicted that this model can be transferred to sediment settings of similar regional climate influence.

Description: Swath bathymetry data and one sediment core were used to improve the understanding of the Late Weichselian and Holocene glacier activity in Billefjorden, Svalbard. Grounded ice existed in Billefjorden prior to 11.23 cal ka BP (calendar years before present), depositing a basal till and producing glacial lineations. The glacier front retreated from the central parts to the inner parts of the fjord between c. 11.23 and 11.2 cal ka BP. Annual recessional moraines suggest that this retreat occurred at a rate of up to 170 m a-1. During the early Holocene, the glacier Nordenskioldbreen was comparatively small and sediment supply to central Billefjorden occurred mainly from the fjord sides. An increase in ice rafting around 7930 cal a BP is ascribed to enhanced sea-ice formation. The activity of Nordenskioldbreen increased around 5470 cal a BP. Ice rafting was generally low during the past c. 3230 a. This was most likely related to the formation of a more permanent sea-ice cover. Nordenskioldbreen reached its maximum Holocene extent around AD 1900, generating glacial lineations and depositing a terminal moraine in the inner fjord. Annual recessional moraines were formed during its subsequent retreat. Icebergs from Nordenskioldbreen generated iceberg ploughmarks during the late Holocene.

Description: Loch Sunart is located on the NW coast of Scotland and contains a sedimentary sequence that records Lateglacial to Holocene climatic variations. A 12 m core MD04-2833 was acquired in the main basin of the loch sampling this sequence. We present the palaeoenvironmental data and palaeoclimatical scenario based on a multiproxy approach using pollen concentrations, sortable silt variation, lithic fraction and marine benthic foraminifera assemblages. These analyses allow the identification of major climate fluctuations such as cooling events. Global temperature decreases are discriminated from local water temperature decreases due to ice-melting processes by the presence of Elphidium subarcticum and the assemblage of Cassidulina obtusa and Haynesina germanica. Two meltwater pulses (MWP) are distinguished, which correspond to the MWP-Ia (15.5-13 cal ka BP) and MWP-Ib (12.2-10.1 cal ka BP). After the maximum water stratification occurred at 7.5 cal ka BP, full marine conditions were established around 6 cal ka BP, which correspond to the highest relative sea-level reached in the loch.

Description: Evidence from seismic profiles, sidescan and multibeam sonar surveys and sediment cores reveal important information about the depositional history of Scotland's fjords during the last deglacial transition and the subsequent Holocene. Devensian glaciation removed pre-existing sediments both inside and outside the fjord basins, and deposited a diamict over much of the subsequent erosional surface. Glaciomarine sequences deposited during the initial retreat of this ice margin are mainly preserved in the sea area outside the fjords. Younger glaciomarine units present within the fjord basins are often attributed to the later Younger Dryas re-advance (12.8-11.5 ka BP). Younger Dryas ice reworked Devensian sediments, depositing terminal moraines at the mouths of a number of fjords and glaciomarine units within the basins during its retreat. Ice margins oscillated throughout deglaciation, although the latter stages of post-Younger Dryas retreat may have occurred rapidly with topographic pinning an important factor in determining the style of retreat. Holocene records from the fjords are limited, but tentatively support the onshore evidence for a tundra-style landscape in the earliest Holocene, followed by a warming of the climate and, latterly (c. 2000 ka BP), increasing humidity. In the more recent past, human activities such as deforestation, fishing, aquaculture and industry have been recorded in the fjord sediments.

Description: Elevation data are a critical element in most geoscience applications. From geological mapping to modelling Earth systems and processes geologists need to understand the shape of the Earth's surface. Vast amounts of digital elevation data exist, from large-scale global to smaller scale regional datasets, and many datasets have been merged to improve scale and accuracy. For each application, decisions are made on which elevation data to use driven by cost, resolution and accuracy. This publication shows the current status of available digital elevation data and illustrates the key applications. The types of data assessed include: ASTER stereo satellite imagery, Shuttle Radar Topographic Mapping data, airborne laser and radar such as NEXTMap, and Multibeam Bathymetry. Applications covered include: glacial deposits, landslides, coastal erosion and other geological hazards. Technical issues discussed include: accuracy analysis, derived product creation, software comparisons and copyright considerations. This volume is a comprehensive look at elevation models for geoscience.

Description: Lateglacial-Holocene fjord sediments in Little Loch Broom preserve evidence of extensive slope instability. The major area of reworking is in the outer loch and mid-loch sill region where ice-contact/ice-proximal deposits of the Lateglacial Assynt Glaciogenic Formation have been disrupted by sliding and mass-flow processes linked to the Little Loch Broom Slide Complex and the adjacent Badcaul Slide. Mass failure was instigated about 14-13 ka BP, and is probably the response of the landscape to deglaciation immediately following the removal of ice support during glacial retreat. An initial phase of translational sliding was followed by rotational sliding, as revealed by the superimposition of scallop-shaped slumps on a larger-scale rectilinear pattern of failure. Paraglacial landscape readjustment may also have been enhanced by episodic seismic activity linked to glacio-isostatic unloading. In the inner fjord, evidence of Holocene mass failure includes the Ardessie debris lobe and a discrete intact slide block preserved within the postglacial basinal deposits. The former is a localized accumulation linked to a fluvial catchment on the adjacent An Teallach massif. These mass-transport deposits may represent an ongoing response to paraglacial processes, albeit much reduced (relative to the major slides) in terms of sediment supply to the fjord.

Description: We present a combination of fjord bathymetry and shallow seismic data from Kongsfjorden and Krossfjorden, Svalbard, to characterize and analyse change in the fjord coastal environment physiography and the glaciosedimentary processes since the Last Glacial Maximum. Swath bathymetry reveals a series of several styles of landform, frequently superimposed upon each other, permitting the reconstruction of the relative timings of deposition of each landform with the oldest successively overlain and cross-cut by younger landforms and erosional processes. Large transverse ridges interpreted as recessional moraines are overlain by streamlined lineations formed subglacially during a subsequent ice advance. A complex of recessional morainal ridges occurring within the central fjord are incised by glacial lineations and meltwater channels from younger glacial events.

Description: The climate evolution of the South Shetland Islands during the last c. 2000 years is inferred from the multiproxy analyses of a long (928 cm) sediment core retrieved from Maxwell Bay off King George Island. The vertical sediment flux at the core location is controlled by summer melting processes that cause sediment-laden meltwater plumes to form. These leave a characteristic signature in the sediments of NE Maxwell Bay. We use this signature to distinguish summer and winter-dominated periods. During the Medieval Warm Period, sediments are generally finer which indicates summer-type conditions. In contrast, during the Little Ice Age (LIA) sediments are generally coarser and are indicative of winter-dominated conditions. Comparison with Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Antarctic, and global temperature reconstructions reveals that the mean grain-size curve from Maxwell Bay closely resembles the curve of the global temperature reconstruction. We show that the medieval warming occurred earlier in the Southern than in the Northern Hemisphere, which might indicate that the warming was driven by processes occurring in the south. The beginning of the LIA appears to be almost synchronous in both hemispheres. The warming after the LIA closely resembles the Northern Hemisphere record which might indicate this phase of cooling was driven by processes occurring in the north. Although the recent rapid regional warming is clearly visible, the Maxwell Bay record does not show the dominance of summer-type sediments until the 1970s. Continued warming in this area will likely affect the marine ecosystem through meltwater induced turbidity of the surface waters as well as an extension of the vegetation period due to the predicted decrease of sea ice in this area.

Description: A well-dated high-resolution {delta}13C record of the last 2400 a, based on the benthic foraminifer Cassidulina laevigata, is presented for Gullmar Fjord, Sweden. The time interval covers the Roman Warm Period (RWP), the Viking Age/Medieval Warm Period (VA/MWP), the Little Ice Age (LIA) and the most recent warming. There is little variation in the {delta}13C record until the early Viking Age (AD 800), when the {delta}13C signal becomes significantly more negative and continues to decrease throughout the VA/MWP. The {delta}13C signal increases both at the beginning and at the end of the LIA but is marked by more negative values during the larger part of the period. Since about 1970, the {delta}13C values are more negative than the long-term average. This general negativity of the record may result from a higher flux of organic matter, possibly of terrestrial origin due to land-use changes together with moderate changes in stagnation periods since the VA/MWP. In most recent times, the oceanic Suess effect together with increased number of extended stagnation periods are probably the main causes of the shift towards more negative {delta}13C values.

Description: Loch Sunart is a glacially over-deepened sea loch (fjord) on the west coast of Scotland, UK. The loch is divided into three sub-basins, separated by relatively shallow and narrow sills. A programme of data collection including high-resolution bathymetric sonar and sub-bottom seismic surveys were conducted in the loch as part of an investigation into the sedimentological and climatic change signatures preserved in western sea lochs since the Last Glacial Maximum. Very-high-resolution sub-bottom profiles were obtained using the SEISTEC boomer system. The seismic profiles revealed an igneous and metamorphic basement covered by a 10-70 m thick sediment sequence. Five different acoustic facies were recognized and interpreted in terms of glacial activity, ice retreat and subsequent Holocene sedimentation. These facies have been correlated to sediments sampled in a radiocarbon-dated 12 m long giant piston core (MD04-2833) acquired from the main basin of Loch Sunart. Pollen analyses conducted along the length of the core, together with 14C dating, indicate a complex series of palaeoclimate changes in the loch. In particular, five distinct cooling events have been recognized c. 9.8, 8.2, 5.8, 1.2 cal ka BP and 771-1211 cal a BP (possibly the Little Ice Age), corresponding to phases of Holocene rapid climate change.

Description: One of the most fundamental geophysical measurements of the Earth is that which describes the shape of its land surface. Topographical data are required by virtually all Earth science disciplines engaged in studies at or near the land surface. Topography is also civilization's most heavily used non-atmospheric geophysical measurement. NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) projects have each completed independent near-global digital elevation measurements at comparable resolutions that approach 30 m spatially and 10 m vertically. Exploration of these datasets provides a new perspective of our planet. Fusion of these datasets will produce a more complete global elevation database, and differentiation of these datasets can be used to quantify select geomorphic processes.

Description: In many overseas geological surveying projects an accurate elevation model is often required for analysis, image orthorectification, navigation and the generation of contours. Acquiring an accurate elevation model can be a difficult and expensive task. One possible solution is to generate a digital elevation model (DEM) from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) satellite imagery. However, to fully understand the potential of ASTER DEMs the accuracy of these models needs to be established. The DEM was created using the Sulsoft ASTER DTM add-on ENVI module. NEXTMap provides an ideal reference dataset for comparison. In this study the accuracy of an ASTER generated DEM was assessed for a 50x50 km area in central Wales. A total of 2.4 million points were compared. Visual and statistical assessments were made, including profile and contour comparisons, allowing the spatial variation in accuracy to be explored. A mean vertical difference of -0.98 m and a standard deviation of c. 9 m were calculated. This suggests that 95% of the ASTER DEM points are within {+/-}20 m of the NEXTMap DEM. Considering these accuracy levels, contours from ASTER can be generated at 40 m intervals.

Description: Digital elevation models (DEMs) of seabed relief are now commonly available at a number of scales. On a global scale three-dimensional (3D) relief maps of the ocean floor are derived from satellite gravity measurements validated by single-beam echo soundings. On a smaller, more local, scale, the development of multibeam bathymetric mapping technology provides detailed seabed data from which DEMs are derived. Over the past 30 years multibeam bathymetry has replaced single-beam echo soundings as the main tool used to map the sea floor. Multibeam bathymetry has revolutionized our ability to interpret seabed morphology. It has the capability to provide complete seabed coverage and gives a 3D visualization of the seabed not previously available. DEMs derived from multibeam are comparable to those on land. One aspect of the improved seabed visualization is in mapping marine geohazards. Here three DEMs, from Papua New Guinea, Hawaii and the Indian Ocean, are presented. These DEMs have been used to investigate submarine seabed failure and volcanic flank collapse in the context of their tsunami hazard. For these three areas the DEMs contribute to an improved interpretational capability in marine geohazards. In addition, the DEMs underpin newly developed modelling methodologies of landslide-generated tsunami.

Description: Australian Landscapes provides an up-to-date statement on the geomorphology of Australia. Karst, desert, bedrock rivers, coasts, submarine geomorphology, biogeomorphology and tectonics are all covered, aided by the latest geochronological techniques and remote sensing approaches. The antiquity and enduring geomorphological stability of the Australian continent are emphasized in several chapters, but the cutting-edge techniques used to establish that stability also reveal much complexity, including areas of considerable recent tectonic activity and a wide range of rates of landscape change. Links to the biological sphere are explored, in relation both to the lengthy human presence on the continent and to a biota that resulted from Cenozoic aridification of the continent, dated using new techniques. New syntheses of glaciation in Tasmania, aridification in South Australia and aeolian activity all focus on Quaternary landscape evolution. This major synthesis of Australian geomorphology is dedicated to Professor John Chappell (The Australian National University) and Professor Martin Williams (University of Adelaide).

Description: The paper describes recent applications by the British Geological Survey (BGS) of the technique of mobile terrestrial Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) surveying to monitor various geomorphological changes on English coasts and estuaries. These include cliff recession, landslides and flood defences, and are usually sited at remote locations undergoing dynamic processes with no fixed reference points. Advantages, disadvantages and some practical problems are discussed. The role of GPS in laser scanning is described.

Description: Australian Landscapes is at least the third edited volume to be devoted to Australian geomorphology in the last half-century, two others being Landform Studies from Australia and New Guinea (Jennings & Mabbutt 1967) and Landform Evolution in Australasia (Davies & Williams 1978). There is a strong thread running between those two volumes and this one: the second volume marked the retirement of Joe Jennings, who was one of the editors of the first volume, and this volume honours one of the editors of the second, Martin Williams, along with John Chappell; both John and Martin retired recently. The legacy of Joe Jennings, who supervised the PhD research of both Martin and John, is summarized briefly in an Appendix to this Introduction. The fact that we, the editors of this current volume, were supervised in our PhD research by John (B.P.) and Martin (P.B.) continues that intertwining of threads. The apparent directness of the links between these three volumes is matched in some ways by the enduring nature of some themes in the three volumes, themes that have been particularly Australian (or at least Gondwanan) for more than half a century. Thus, at least seven papers in the 1967 volume emphasize the antiquity of the Australian landscape, with statements such as ‘The pattern of relief imposed by structure has persisted at least since the Mesozoic’ (Twidale 1967, p. 95). That clear grasp of landscape antiquity, along with parallel landmark Gondwanan contributions by researchers such as...

Description: The last 35 years have seen rapid advances in our knowledge of climate change during the Quaternary Period in Tasmania. Extensive mapping and new dating studies, particularly since the advent of exposure dating, have revealed that maximum ice advance occurred 1 Ma ago and later advances were less extensive. Ice advances occurred several times during the last 100 ka, not only during the Last Glacial Maximum. Deglaciation was rapid after 18 ka and complete by 14 ka. Ice strongly affected limestone and produced extensive glaciokarst with deranged surface drainage. Glacial sediment plugged conduits to underground passages partially filled with glaciofluvial gravels. Periglacial erosion, and human impact since late oxygen isotope stage (OIS) 3, enhanced sediment influxes. New pollen records, particularly from Lake Selina, provide a 125 ka vegetation and climate record representative of the Southern Hemisphere. Finally, stable isotope studies of speleothem growth have revealed wide swings in climate. The climate was warm and moist during OIS 5e and early in OIS 1. Climate was cold and dry during OIS 5d and 4, and prevented speleothem growth during OIS 3 and OIS 2.

Description: The Australian continent is actively deforming in response to far-field stresses generated by plate boundary interactions and buoyancy forces associated with mantle dynamics. On the largest scale (several 103 km), the submergence of the northern continental shelf is driven by dynamic topography caused by mantle downwelling along the Indo-Pacific subduction system and accentuated by a regionally elevated geoid. The emergence of the southern shelf is attributed to the progressive movement of Australia away from a dynamic topography low. On the intermediate scale (several 102 km), low-amplitude (c. 100-200 m) long-wavelength (c. 100-300 km) topographic undulations are driven by (1) anomalous, smaller-scale upper mantle convection, and/or (2) lithospheric-scale buckling associated with plate boundary tectonic forcing. On the smallest scale (101 km), fault-related deformation driven by partitioning of far-field stresses has modified surface topography at rates of up to c. 170 m Ma-1, generated more than 30-50% of the contemporary topographic relief between some of Australia's highlands and adjacent piedmonts, and exerted a first-order control on long-term (104-106 a) bedrock erosion. Although Australia is often regarded as tectonically and geomorphologically quiescent, Neogene to Recent tectonically induced landscape evolution has occurred across the continent, with geomorphological expressions ranging from mild to dramatic.

Description: There are some 300 bodies of cavernous limestone in eastern Australia, extending from Precipitous Bluff in southeastern Tasmania to the Mitchell Palmer region in north Queensland. These impounded karsts, developed in Palaeozoic limestones of the Tasman Fold Belt System, contain many caves. The caves have a suite of features in common that allows them to be thought of as a major group: the Tasmanic Caves. The Tasmanic Caves include multiphase hypogene caves such as Cathedral Cave at Wellington and multiphase, multiprocess caves such as Jenolan with Carboniferous hypogene and younger paragenetic and fluvial elements. Active hypogene caves occur at Wee Jasper and possibly at five other localities. The Tasmanic Caves are one of the most complex suites of caves in folded Palaeozoic limestones in the world. Field techniques developed to study these caves are now being applied to complex caves in central Europe: in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Description: We report erosion rates determined from in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be across a spectrum of Australian climatic zones, from the soil-mantled SE Australian escarpment through semi-arid bedrock ranges of southern and central Australia, to soil-mantled ridges at a monsoonal tropical site near the Arnhem escarpment. Climate has a major effect on the balance between erosion and transport and also on erosion rate: the highest rates, averaging 35 m Ma-1, were from soil-mantled, transport-limited spurs in the humid temperate region around the base of the SE escarpment; the lowest, averaging about 1.5 m Ma-1, were from the steep, weathering-limited, rocky slopes of Kings Canyon and Mt Sonder in semi-arid central Australia. Between these extremes, other factors come into play including rock-type, slope, and recruitment of vegetation. We measured intermediate average erosion rates from rocky slopes in the semi-arid Flinders and MacDonnell ranges, and from soil-mantled sites at both semi-arid Tyler Pass in central Australia and the tropical monsoonal site. At soil-mantled sites in both the SE and tropical north, soil production generally declines exponentially with increasing soil thickness, although at the tropical site this relationship does not persist under thin soil thicknesses and the relationship here is humped'. Results from Tyler Pass show uniform soil thicknesses and soil production rates of about 6.5 m Ma-1, supporting a longstanding hypothesis that equilibrium, soil-mantled hillslopes erode in concert with stream incision and form convex-up spurs of constant curvature. Moreover, weathering-limited slopes and spurs also occur in the same region: the average erosion rate for rocky sandstone spurs at Glen Helen is 7 m Ma-1, similar to the Tyler Pass soil-mantled slopes, whereas the average rate for high, quartzite spurs at Mount Sonder is 1.8 m Ma-1. The extremely low rates measured across bedrock-dominated landscapes suggest that the ridge-valley topography observed today is likely to have been shaped as long ago as the Late Miocene. These rates and processes quantified across different, undisturbed landscapes provide critical data for landscape evolution models.

Description: Reservoir compartmentalization - the segregation of a petroleum accumulation into a number of individual fluid/pressure compartments - controls the volume of moveable oil or gas that might be connected to any given well drilled in a field, and consequently impacts booking' of reserves and operational profitability. This is a general feature of modern exploration and production portfolios, and has driven major developments in geoscience, engineering and related technology. Given that compartmentalization is a consequence of many factors, an integrated subsurface approach is required to better understand and predict compartmentalization behaviour, and to minimize the risk of it occurring unexpectedly. This volume reviews our current understanding and ability to model compartmentalization. It highlights the necessity for effective specialist discipline integration, and the value of learning from operational experience in: detection and monitoring of compartmentalization; stratigraphic and mixed-mode compartmentalization; and fault-dominated compartmentalization.