ALBERT

Notizen: Abstract Specimen thickness is the main experimental factor controlling the results of illite crystallinity (IC) or crystallite size measurements on sedimentation slides. Different values obtained from thick and thin preparations are due to grain-size gradation effects, which may exclude larger and higher ordered grains from contributing to the diffraction. Orientation effects control the measured peak intensity. The change from poor particle orientation in thick slides to high orientation in very thin slides is marked by an increase in specimen density, diminishing non-basal reflections, and by a strong increase in peak intensity. A plateau with constant peak breadths is observed if thin slides of well ordered, platy illites are used. A similar plateau can be recognized for thick preparations of specimens from less ordered materials, but not from well ordered ones. Therefore, it is suggested that IC is determined on very thin sedimentation slides with a thickness of 0.25 mg/cm2 or less. Ultrasonic and H2O2 treatments enhance the degree of particle orientation by destruction of grain aggregates and organic compounds, leading to smaller peak breadths and higher intensities.

Notizen: Abstract Five basalt samples from the Point Sal ophiolite, California, were examined using HRTEM and AEM in order to compare observations with interpretations of XRD patterns and microprobe analyses. XRD data from ethylene-glycol-saturated samples indicate the following percentages of chlorite in mixed-layer chlorite–smectite identified for each specimen: (i) L2036 ± 50%, (ii) L2035 ± 70 and 20%, (iii) 1A-13 ± 70%, (iv) 1B-42 ± 70%, and (v) 1B-55 = 100%. Detailed electron microprobe analyses show that ‘chlorite’analyses with high Si, K, Na and Ca contents are the result of interlayering with smectite-like layers. The Fe/(Fe + Mg) ratios of mixed-layer phyllosilicates from Point Sal samples are influenced by the bulk rock composition, not by the percentage of chlorite nor the structure of the phyllosilicate.Measurements of lattice-fringe images indicate that both smectite and chlorite layers are present in the Point Sal samples in abundances similar to those predicted with XRD techniques and that regular alternation of chlorite and smectite occurs at the unit-cell scale. Both 10- and 14-Å layers were recorded with HRTEM and interpreted to be smectite and chlorite, respectively. Regular alternation of chlorite and smectite (24-Å periodicity) occurs in upper lava samples L2036 and 1A-13, and lower lava sample 1B-42 for as many as seven alternations per crystallite with local layer mistakes. Sample L2035 shows disordered alternation of chlorite and smectite, with juxtaposition of smectite-like layers, suggesting that randomly interlayered chlorite (〈0.5)–smectite exists. Images of lower lava sample 1B-55 show predominantly 14-Å layers. Units of 24 Å tend to cluster in what may otherwise appear to be disordered mixtures, suggesting the existence of a corrensite end-member having thermodynamic significance.

Notizen: Abstract White mica crystallinity studies have been carried out on 90 samples of mudrocks, six of spotted slate, and five of accretionary lapilli tuff from the area around the Berwyn Hills, North Wales. Strain was measured for some of the spotted slate and tuff samples. The metamorphic grade increases from southeast to northwest, with values of the Kübler index varying from 0.64 to 0.20Δ2θ. Metamorphic zonal boundaries follow the strike of bedding and cleavage, but crystallinity values increase into stratigraphically younger rocks on the northwest side of the Berwyn Dome. This effect is attributed mainly to a rapid increase in the thickness of synmetamorphic overburden to the northwest, comprising exposed Silurian turbidites and inferred Lower Devonian non-marine sediments. Strain variations have a more local influence on crystallinity, and lateral variations in the contemporary geothermal gradient cannot be ruled out. However, only with unrealistically high gradients would the need for a thick Lower Devonian component to the overburden be removed. This reasoning implies that the metamorphic peak was coeval with the Acadian (late Caledonian) event, rather than with an early diastathermal event.

Notizen: Abstract Illite crystallinity (IC) measurements, determination of the proportion of 2M mica-polytypes and organic-matter reflectance measurements establish regional diagenetic/low-grade metamorphic trends for the Taconian and Acadian belts of Gaspé Peninsula.IC varies as a function of many factors besides maximum burial temperature and heating time. Correlation between IC and %2M illite polytypes for the Fortin Group and Temiscouata Formation suggests (i) that the amount of high-grade detrital mica in the samples is low, and (ii) that IC can be used with some confidence as an estimator of regional thermal maturation levels. Correlation of these parameters with available organic reflectance values further supports this assumption. The illites of the Temiscouata and western Fortin groups are mostly phengitic in composition, whereas in the eastern outcrop belt they are more Mg- and Fe-rich (celadonitic), but generally also of lower grade and lower 2M content. The d(060) values for illites measured on the unorientated 〈2-μm fraction of samples fall between 1.502 and 1.503 Å (range: 1.500–1.504 Å), indicating relatively low octahedral occupancy by Mg and Fe (between one-fifth and one-third of the available spaces). Pyrophyllite and paragonite were not detected. Chlorites are Fe-rich and ripidolitic.The IC map for the Acadian belt of the peninsula displays general congruence between IC contours (2200 sample points) and structural trends for the 27,000-km2 area. The highest grades (anchimetamorphic) are associated with the oldest rocks (Honorat and Matapedia groups) exposed in the cores of major anticlines. Anchimetamorphic grades associated with the western outcrop belt of the Lower Devonian Fortin Group require 7–8 km of subsidence to accommodate sufficient thickness of overlying younger rocks (on top of 4–5 km of Fortin Group deep-water clastics) to explain the grades in terms of burial metamorphism assuming a geothermal gradient of 30° C km−1. The lowest-grade diagenetic rocks occupy a large area in the northeastern part of the peninsula, smaller areas in the northwestern part of the Acadian belt, in the centre of Chaleurs Bay synclinorium, and in the Ordovician Mictaw Group. The contact between the Taconian and Acadian belt is marked by a distinct maturation discontinuity. The Grand Pabos fault juxtaposes rocks of contrasting maturation levels (Matapedia Group against Fortin Group) in the west, but shows no maturation offset further east in the Honorat Group. The fault zone limiting the Fortin Group in the north is also associated with a major IC jump.

Notizen: Abstract The assemblage muscovite-quartz-staurolite-aluminium silicate-biotite-garnet-chlorite with H2O (SABGC assemblage) is invariant in the K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O (KFMASH) system. Such five-phase AFM assemblages should be absent in nature, but reported occurrences from at least ten localities suggest that either the assemblage internally controls μH2O or non-KFMASH components stabilize one or more of the phases.Least-squares regression analysis of minerals from South Royalton and Gassetts, Vermont, USA, demonstrates that subsets of the minerals in single SABGC assemblages from both localities are related by balanced reactions involving water. These results are consistent with the interpretation that the subassemblages fixed μH2O at an arbitrary, specified pressure and temperature. Balanced dehydration reactions also may be written between minerals in the SABGC assemblages and four-phase assemblages from the same outcrops interpreted to have equilibrated at the same pressures and temperatures as the five-phase assemblages. These results suggest that different specimens from the same outcrops equilibrated at different values of μH2O, supporting the conclusion that μH2O was not controlled externally. We could not demonstrate internal control of fo2 using measured mineral compositions because oxygen balance occurred in all reactions derived by regression.Regression analysis of published mineral compositions from New Mexico failed to identify balanced reactions involving water or oxygen either among the phases in a single SABGC assemblage or between SABGC and nearby four-phase assemblages. These results demonstrate that neither μH2O nor fo2 were fixed by the SABGC assemblages at these localities, and permit the interpretations that the assemblages were stabilized by the non-KFMASH components Na or Ca and that μH2O and fo2 were controlled externally.

Notizen: Abstract Albite porphyroblasts are widely distributed in pelitic and semi-pelitic schists of the Fleur de Lys Supergroup, western Newfoundland. Textures and mineral assemblages indicate that albite grew during nearly isothermal decompression from P-T conditions of about 500° C, 9 kbar, to conditions of 550° C, 6.5 kbar. Three compositional varieties of albite-bearing schists, here termed PMAQ (paragonite-muscovite-albite-quartz), MMAQ (microcline-muscovite-albite-quartz), and PMMQ (paragonite-muscovite-margarite-quartz), can be distinguished on the basis of pre-porphyroblast mineral assemblages. Analysis of these assemblages in terms of the composition of the coexisting fluid [log a(Na+/H+) versus log a(K+/H+)] suggests that, as pressure and temperature changed, the stability field of albite expanded at the expense of coexisting matrix phyllosilicates. This promoted growth of albite on pre-existing or newly formed nuclei. Late oligoclase in PMAQ and PMMQ samples is associated with replacement of matrix garnet by plagioclase + mica ° Chlorite, particularly in strongly sheared samples.

Notizen: Abstract Spinel-quartz-cordierite and spinel-quartz are found as relic prograde assemblages in Fe-rich granulites from the Araku area, Eastern Ghats belt, India. Subsequent reactions produced orthopyroxene + sillimanite in the former association and garnet + sillimanite in the latter. The first reaction is univariant in the FMAS system, but is trivariant in the present case because of the presence of Zn and Fe3+ in spinel. The second reaction also has high variance because of Zn and Fe3+, but also because of the presence of Ca in garnet. Thermobarometry shows that the metamorphic conditions were approximately 950° C and 8.5 kbar and the fo2 was near the NNO buffer. In Fe-rich bulk compositions and low-P-high-T conditions of metamorphism, two of the univariant reactions around the invariant point [Sa], namely (Sa, Hy) and (Sa, Cd), change topology due to reverse partitioning of Fe-Mg between coexisting garnet and spinel. An alternative partial petrogenetic grid in the system FMAS is constructed for such conditions and is applied satisfactorily to several sapphirine-free spinel granulites. It is shown that bulk composition (XFe and Zn) exerts greater control on the stability of spinel + quartz than fo2. The effect of the presence of Zn and Fe3+ in spinel on the proposed grid is evaluated. Reaction textures in the Araku spinel granulites can be explained from the petrogenetic grid as due to near-isobaric cooling.

Notizen: The impure marbles of the internal Sesia-Lanzo Zone underwent a multi-stage metamorphic evolution of Alpine age and retain early-Alpine eclogitic assemblages, partially recrystallized under blueschist to greenschist facies conditions. These high-P assemblages consist of carbonates, phengite, quartz, omphacite, grossular-rich (locally spessartinic) garnet, zoisite and Al-rich titanite. Retrogressive stages are characterized by the growth of glaucophane, paragonite, phlogopite, tremolite and albite. Halogen-rich biotite and amphibole are also present. P-T estimates of the early-Alpine metamophism have been calculated from these unique high-P assemblages, in order to test the applicability of some calibrations to impure carbonate systems. In particular, some Gt-Cpx calibrations and the phengite geobarometer give results (T= 575 ± 45° C at 15 kbar for the eclogitic climax and T≤ 500° C at PH2O ≤ 9 kbar for early-Alpine retrogressive stages) which are within the range obtained from the surrounding lithologies.Phase relationships in P-T-XCO2 space indicate that mineral assemblages in the impure marbles coexisted with H2O-rich fluids (XCO2 〈0.03) during their entire Alpine evolution.

Notizen: Petrographical and mineral chemical data are given for the eclogites which occur in the garnet-kyanite micaschists of the Penninic Dora-Maira Massif between Brossasco, Isasca and Martiniana (Italian Western Alps) and for a sodic whiteschist associated with the pyrope-coesite whiteschists of Martiniana. The Brossasco-Isasca (BI) eclogites are fine grained, foliated and often mica-rich rocks with a strong preferred orientation of omphacite crystals and white micas. Porphyroblasts of hornblende are common in some varieties, whilst zoisite and kyanite occur occasionally in pale green varieties associated with leucocratic layers with quartz, jadeite and garnet. These features differentiate the BI eclogites from the eclogites that occur in other continental units of the Western Alps, which all belong to type C. Garnet, sodic pyroxene and glaucophane are the major minerals in the sodic whiteschist.Sodic pyroxene in the eclogites is an omphacite often close to Jd50Di50, with very little acmite and virtually no AlIV, and impure jadeite in the leucocratic layers and in the sodic whiteschist. Garnet is almandine with 20–30 mol. % for each of the pyrope and grossular components in the eclogites and a pyrope-rich variety in the sodic whiteschist. White mica is a variably substituted phengite, and paragonite apparently only occurs as a replacement product of kyanite. Amphibole is hornblende in the eclogites, but the most magnesian glaucophane yet described in the sodic whiteschist. Quartz pseudomorphs of coesite were found occasionally in a few pyroxenes and garnets.The P-T conditions during the VHP event are constrained in the eclogites by reactions which define a field ranging from 27–28 kbar to 35 kbar and from 680 to 750° C. These temperatures are consistent with the results of garnet-pyroxene and garnet-phengite geothermometry which suggest that the eclogites may have equilibrated at around 700° C. In the sodic whiteschist pressures ranging from 29 to 35 kbar can be deduced from the stability of the jadeite-pyrope garnet-glaucophane compatibility. As in the eclogites water activity must have been low. Such conditions are close to the P-T values estimated for the early Alpine recrystallization of the pyrope-coesite rock and, like petrographical and mineralogical features, set aside the BI eclogites from the other eclogites of the Western Alps, instead indicating a close similarity to some of the eclogite bodies occurring in the Adula nappe of the Central Alps. An important corollary is that glaucophane stability, at least in Na- and Mg-rich compositions and under very high pressures, may extend up to 700° C, in agreement with the HT stability limit suggested by experimental studies.

Notizen: The retrograde P-T trajectory of the eclogitic Fe-Ti-gabbros from the Ligurian Alps is constrained by the appearance of mineral parageneses post-dating the Na-clinopyroxene + garnet eclogitic assemblage and indicating the following sequence of metamorphic events: (1) amphibolitic stage— edenite/katophorite + plagioclase (An33–43) + oxides in symplectitic aggregates; (2) glaucophanic stage— a porphyroblastic glaucophanic amphibole has overgrown the symplectite, winchite also occurs as thin rims around glaucophane and both amphiboles are, sometimes, armoured by atoll garnets; (3) albite-amphibolite stage—barroisite/katophorite + albite + epidote + oxides ± chlorite overprint the glaucophanic stage minerals; (4) greenschist stage—represented by actinolite + albite + epidote + oxide paragenesis.The metamorphic evolution is complex and the decompression path, on a P–T diagram, is significantly different from those defined in the literature for the Voltri eclogites. The main features inferred from the P–T path are the following: (1) the pressure climax does not match the thermal climax, the maximum temperature conditions are in fact achieved during the early stage of uplift; (2) a decrease in temperature, suggested by the appearance of glaucophane after the amphibolitic symplectite; (3) successive uplift, probably accompanied by an increase in temperature. The complexity of the P-T path drawn for the Voltri eclogites can be explained with a mechanism of successive underthrusts propagating from the innermost to the outermost sector of the Ligurian Alps.

Notizen: The intracrystalline diffusion rate of oxygen in diopside was constrained based on natural isotopic variations from a granulite facies marble from Cascade Slide, Adirondacks (New York, USA). The oxygen isotope compositions of the diopsides, measured as a function of grain size, are nearly constant (20.9 ± 0.3‰ vs. SMOW) over the entire measured size range (0.3–3.2 mm diameter). The δ18O values of the cores of calcite grains are 23.0‰. Temperature estimates based on the Δ18O(calcite-diopside) are 800d̀C, in agreement with the highest previous thermometric estimates for these rocks.The lack of isotopic variation in the diopsides as a function of grain size requires that the oxygen intracrystalline diffusion rate in diopside from the Adirondack samples was very slow. The maximum diffusion rates (D800d̀C parallel to the c-axis) were calculated with an infinite reservoir model (IRM) and a finite reservoir model (FRM) that incorporates mineral modal abundances and initial isotopic variations. For an assumed activation energy (Q) = 100 kJ/mol, the IRM diffusion rate estimate of 1.6 times 10-20cm2/s is two orders of magnitude faster than from the FRM; at Q=500kJ/mol, the D800d̀C estimate for both methods is c. 5.6 times 10-20 cm2/s. The present results require that a hydrothermal fluid significantly enhances the diffusion rate of oxygen in diopside if previous data are correct.The δ18O(SMOW) and δ13C(PDB) values of the calcite, measured in situ with a CO2 laser, are 22.9 ± 0.3, 0.1±0.3‰ in the grain cores, 22.1 ±0.3, 0.2 ±0.1‰ at the grain boundaries and 21.7 ±0.4, -0.6±0.1‰ abutting diopside grains. The δ18O and δ13δC values measured conventionally are: crystal cores, 22.96, -0.95‰; abutting diopside grains, 22.38, -0.93‰; bulk, 22.79, -0.95%. Use of the bulk δ18O(calcite) values for thermometry yields unreasonably high temperatures. The lower δ18O values at the calcite grain boundaries are not due to retrograde diffusional exchange with the diopside, they are thought to be a result of a late retrograde fluid infiltration.

Notizen: Clay mineral crystallinity and crystallite (domain) size data determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) are methods extensively used in the characterization of very low-grade metamorphic conditions. However, the lack of sufficient interlaboratory standardization has made comparisons between different research groups unreliable due to significant variations in numerical results obtained, a consequence of the different machine conditions, measurement methods and sample preparations used during analysis. A calibration approach to the standardization of data using rock chip standards is presented, which allows data sets produced by different research groups to be directly and quantitatively compared. A standardized scale, the crystallinity index standard (CIS), is proposed, with illite crystallinity anchizonal boundary limits of 0.25d̀Δ2θ and 0.42d̀Δ2θ, and equivalent illite crystallite sizes of 52 and 23 nm, respectively, determined by the Warren-Averbach method. Calibrating both old and new data will enable more reliable comparisons between similar and contrasting geological environments, and should improve the accuracy and reliability of correlations made between XRD data and other indicators of very low-grade metamorphism, hence increasing the value of such clay mineral studies.

Notizen: The Chicago mineral-carbonate oxygen isotope fractionation curves have been combined with mineral-water fractionation data for jadeite, zoisite and rutile and new data for grossular-water to provide a set of self-consistent mineral-pair calibrations. The A coefficients in the equation 1000 In α=A× 106T-2 of the new mineral-pair fractionations areJadeite Zoisite Grossular RutileQuartz 1.69 2.00 3.03 5.02Jadeite 0.31 1.34 3.33Zoisite 1.03 3.02Grossular 1.99The isotopic fractionation properties of natural pyralspite garnet [(Ca, Fe, Mg, Mn)3Al2Si3O12] can be approximated by those of the grossular end-member. Appropriate substitutions also yield coefficients for the solid-solution minerals: sodic pyroxene and epidote, e.g. A quartz-sodic pyroxene= 2.75 - 1.06Xjd, A quartz-epidote= 2.00 + 0.75Xpswhere XJd and XPs are the mole fractions of the jadeite and pistacite components, respectively.The new data set is particularly suitable for the geothermometry of metamorphic rocks. δ18O data from minerals of the high-pressure metamorphic rocks of the Sesia Zone of Italy and Cyclades Complex of Greece yield well-constrained mean temperatures of 572 and 478d̀ C, respectively. Type III blueschist metabasalts of the Franciscan Formation of California give mean quartz-garnet temperatures of 354d̀ C.

Notizen: Quantitative modelling of oxygen exchange by diffusion during slow cooling has been compared to the observed oxygen isotope distributions from high-grade metamorphic and granitic rocks of the High Himalayan Crystallines, Langtang Valley, central Nepal, in order to investigate the effect of retrograde diffusional exchange on the preservation of high-temperature, oxygen isotope systematics.Modelled fractionations, using water-present diffusion data reported in the literature, predict quartz-mica fractionations to be much larger than those at peak metamorphic and igneous conditions due to low closure temperatures for micas. Quartz-feldspar fractionations may be less than those at peak conditions, and in some samples may even be slightly negative.The observed oxygen isotope fractionations in the metamorphic rocks are small and largely appear to record equilibrations close to peak conditions determined by other methods. Hence these rocks clearly do not conform to predictions of fluid-present diffusional retrograde exchange. It is suggested that their retrograde history was therefore within an anhydrous closed system in which diffusion was slow and hence mineral closure temperatures were high. The granitic rocks record rather larger quartz-biotite fractionations, approaching those predicted by the diffusion modelling. However, quartz-feldspar fractionations are large and hence, although significant retrograde exchange has clearly occurred, simple diffusion alone is not sufficient to explain the observed data and open-system exchange may be required. The presence of fluids during the retrograde history of this part of the section is supported by petrographic evidence.The different retrograde oxygen exchange histories recorded between the regional metamorphic and magmatic regimes of the Langtang section would appear to support the importance of water on the kinetics of such exchange, and suggests that in its absence, diffusional exchange may become insignificant, allowing oxygen isotope thermometry to record meaningful high-temperature data.

Notizen: The assemblages chlorite-pumpellyite-lawsonite-albite-quartz, chlorite-lawsonite-quartz-epidote and chlorite-epidote-albite-quartz occur in metabasaltic blocks and veins in a metamorphosed tectonic mélange in the structurally highest unit of the autochthonous and parautochthonous section underlying the Semail ophiolite in Saih Hatat, north-east Oman. The pre-Permian basement of this section contains mafic units characterized by the assemblage crossite-epidote-chlorite-quartz-albite /el actinolite. These assemblages indicate a down-section increase in metamorphic grade from ‘lawsonite-albite facies' conditions in the mélange to ‘epidote-blueschist’ facies conditions in the basement.Application of empirically and experimentally based thermobarometers as well as petrogenetic grids calculated for a model basaltic system indicates that the P-T conditions of metamorphism ranged from 3 to 6 kbar and 250 to 300d̀ C for the mélange and P 〉 6.8 kbar, T 〉 310d̀ C for the basement units. Textural relations interpreted in the context of petrogenetic grids indicate that these units followed clockwise P-T paths of evolution. The estimated P-T conditions and down-section increase in metamorphic grade in central, western and northern Saih Hatat are consistent with the hypothesis relating metamorphism to the Late Cretaceous tectonic loading of the continental margin by an ophiolite slab 〈 18 km in thickness. These results contrast with field and petrological observations documented for blueschists and eclogites exposed along the eastern coast of Saih Hatat which may have formed at an earlier stage in response to an Early Cretaceous collisional event.

Notizen: Books reviewed in this article: Perspectives on Biodiversity: Case Studies of Genetic Resource Conservation and Development. Christopher S. Potter, foci 1. Cohen, and Dianne Janczewski, editors

Notizen: To evaluate reclamation success on the Wooley Valley phosphate mine in southeastern Idaho, we compared vegetation structure and soil physical, chemical, and elemental properties of several different reclamation treatments with those of a nearby reference area (a native Artemisia tridentata vaseyana/Festuca idahoensis association) after 14 years. Vegetation data had been collected four years after reclamation, and we were able to compare differences in biomass and species composition between dates on the reclaimed area. Four years after reclamation there were no differences in total biomass between topsoil or spoil or between seed only, seed + mulch, or control treatments on the different soil types. Most treatments were dominated by seeded perennial grasses. Fourteen years after reclamation there were no differences in biomass or cover between spoil and topsoil plots, but on spoil plots the seeded and mulched treatment had higher total biomass and vegetation cover than on control or seed-only treatments. The seeded perennial legume Medicago sativa was codominant with the seeded forage grasses on all of the treatments. High initial fertilization rates probably facilitated the early establishment and dominance of the forage grasses; once nutrient levels, especially nitrogen, began to decline, the legume increased in abundance. Similarity between the reclaimed area and the reference or native area was low. Reclaimed treatments had higher biomass but lower species richness. The topsoil and spoil plots had similar soil texture, bulk density, pH, cation exchange capacity, electrical conductivity, and phosphorus. Differences in organic carbon, total nitrogen, carbon: nitrogen ratios, and available moisture were related more to treatments than to soil type. High biomass and, thus, litter input on the seed + mulch treatment on spoil plots resulted in both higher OC and TN than any on other soil/treatment combination. The reclaimed area had lower OC, TN, and available moisture than did the reference area on all but seed + mulch spoil plots. Bulk density was higher on reclaimed plots. The long-term differences observed between the reclaimed and reference areas parallel those obtained for other western reclamation sites. Although successional trajectories depend on the attribute measured, similarity to native reference areas depends on the initial reclamation methods. We discuss reclamation methods that would increase the structural and functional similarity of reclaimed and reference areas on the Wooley Valley phosphate mine.

Notizen: In land restoration it is imperative to study the potential role of disturbances, biotic or abiotic, that may provide sites for colonization by specific plants. Disturbances can alter community composition by removing species or allowing others to become established. In communities where animal-generated disturbances open sites for seedling establishment, animals may have important indirect effects on several aspects of plant community structure. Animal disturbances in Quercus havardii communities of western Texas appear to open sites for colonization by herbaceous species. These animal disturbances vary in spatial distribution, density, and abiotic and biotic characteristics. The abundance of herbaceous plant seedlings is positively related to bare ground and the number of distinct disturbances. Thus, the density and the spatial distribution of these disturbances may be expected to have an important influence on the abundance and dispersion of plant species. Therefore, successful restoration efforts of sand shinnery oak communities and other similar habitats must consider the effects of animal disturbances and the role of plant-animal and plant-soil microbe interactions on plant community composition and the maintenance of plant species diversity.

Notizen: The rates of seston elimination by zooplankton and primary production were measured in Funada-ike Pond, typical of human-made impoundments in Japan, from April to September in order to evaluate various treatments of the pond aimed at improving water quality by reducing seston abundance. The treatments included draining the pond water, dredging the bottom mud, eliminating the wastewater inflow, and biomanipulation through removal of all fish. After the treatment, seston abundance was reduced from more than 10 to 0.4–2.5 mg C/liter, and large daphnid species, Daphnia similis and D. magna, occurred and predominated in the zooplankton community. Seston abundance remained at a relatively low level from June to August but increased markedly in late August, while the biomass of zooplankton became high from June to mid-August and then decreased. A decrease in seston abundance was found when the elimination rate exceeded the primary production rate. The results indicate that the development of daphnid populations was effective in keeping seston abundance at a low level. The relationship between the rate of primary production and the zoo-plankton biomass required to offset this rate, however, suggests that biomanipulation aimed at increasing zooplankton biomass alone is less effective in a pond with a high primary production. The success in improving water quality in this pond seems to depend not only on the increase in biomass of large daphnid species that resulted mainly from the removal of fish, but also on the decrease in nutrient load that was realized by the other treatments.

Notizen: This essay reviews the recent attempts by the Northwest Power Planning and Conservation Council (NPPC) to conserve and restore wild salmon lost to hydroelectric development along the Columbia River and its tributaries. The restoration of the wild salmon is predicated on cooperation between myriad stakeholders in a planning process that includes the NPPC, 11 state and federal agencies, 13 Indian tribes, 8 utilities, and numerous interest groups. The two goals of the essay are (1) to review the recent amendments to the NPPC's fish and wildlife program, and (2) to describe the political barriers to restoration versus restocking of wild salmon in the Columbia River. The failure of political and administrative entities to deal with the problem of restoring wild salmon may result in drastic requirements being imposed by the imperatives of the Endangered Species Act.

Notizen: An environmental revolution is urgently needed that will lead to a post-industrial symbiosis between man and nature. This can be realized only if the present unrestrained biological impoverishment and neotechnological landscape degradation are replaced by the creation of healthy and attractive landscapes. Restorationists can fulfill a vital role in this process. They must broaden their scales from biodiversity restoration in small, protected nature islands to the large-scale restoration of natural and cultural landscapes. To achieve this they must restore not only the patterns of vegetation but also the processes that create these patterns, including human land uses. Their goal should be to restore the total biological, ecological, and cultural landscape diversity, or “ecodiversity,” and its intrinsic and instrumental values of highly valuable, endangered seminatural, agricultural and rural landscapes. For this purpose it is essential to maintain and restore the dynamic flow equilibrium between biodiversity, ecological, and cultural landscape heterogeneity, as influenced by human land uses, which occur at different spatial and temporal scales and intensities. Recent advances in landscape ecology should be utilized for broader assessment of ecodiversity, including proposed indices of ecodiversity, new techniques such as Intelligent Geographical Information Systems (IGIS), and Green Books for the holistic conservation and restoration of valuable endangered landscapes. Restoration ecology can make an important contribution to an urgently needed environmental revolution. This revolution should lead to a new symbiosis between man and nature by broadening the goal of vegetation restoration to ecological and cultural landscape restoration, and thereby to total landscape ecodiversity.

Notizen: A study of spider (Araneae) communities was conducted in rehabilitated bauxite mines at the Jarrahdale mine site of Alcoa of Australia Ltd. and in the nearby native jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest in southwest Western Australia. The study was conducted from March to August 1993 in five rehabilitated sites of different age and method of rehabilitation and in two forest sites. A variety of collection methods was used, including pitfall trapping, litter sampling, sweep netting, tree beating, and visual searching. These methods were the same as those carried out in a previous study of some of these areas in 1983. We collected 151 spider species belonging to 102 genera and 34 families. We examined the relationship between various habitat features, including the age and method of rehabilitation, of the spider communities present. It was found that leaf litter depth and cover and vegetation density had a significant positive influence on recolonization by the various spider guilds. The age and method of rehabilitation were found to influence different vegetational and habitat features; these, in turn, influenced the spider communities. Thus, the older a rehabilitated site the greater the species richness of both plants and spiders. We compared these results with those of the 1983 study to determine the spider succession of the aging rehabilitation. The spider communities and guild composition were found to change as the vegetation matured, from a dominance of pioneer species to a community of species requiring less harsh conditions. By comparison with the pre-1983 rehabilitation, the latest method of rehabilitation increased the rate of recolonization by both plants and spiders.

Notizen: Peak flowering activity among woody species in the tropical dry forests of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, coincided with the brief spring rainy season but continued at moderate levels for six months, abating with the autumn rains. Fruit maturation showed a major peak in the long winter dry season and a minor crest during the summer dry season. Seeds of wind-dispersed species disseminated mainly during the winter dry season, while animal dispersal of seeds (74% of all woody species) followed the bimodal pattern (for wet and dry seasons) described for the community as a whole. Under shadehouse conditions, most dry forest tree species germinated well (〉 80%) and emerged promptly (within four weeks of planting) and synchronously (90% emergence within a four-week interval). Nine of 29 species tested in the shadehouse manifested dormancy of at least six weeks. Seed germinability varied among tree species, and the viability of most species began to decline following six months of dry storage. Few species retained high germinability after nine months of dry storage. The species composition of soil seed banks did not correspond closely with above-ground communities on three forested sites of varying stand age. In the youngest stand (35 years old), dominated by the weedy, arborescent legume Leucaena leucocephala, the soil seed bank was also dominated by this species, but no seeds of any other tree species were found in the soil samples. Seeds of native trees were scarcely encountered (only one indigenous species) in soil seed bank samples of three forest sites. Local seed rain from less disturbed forest may not be sufficient for prompt recovery of the dry forest community on degraded sites.

Notizen: I present an integrated survey of management strategy, which examines organizational design, competitive strategy, and public policy considerations. In addition, 1 offer suggestions on how economic analysis can be applied in unifying and developing management strategy as a field of study.

Notizen: Under prospective pricing, payers for health care essentially use price regulation of hospitals as a way of indirectly regulating the provision of treatment intensity. This paper presents a theory of how a nonprofit hospital selects treatment intensities for its products given the payer's choice of prices and then determines how the payer should select prices in light of this theory. The main result is that, in equilibrium, the ratio of price to marginal cost will vary across products inversely with the elasticity of demand with respect to treatment intensity. This means that, generally, the hospital will earn positive (negative) accounting profit on products with low-(high-) intensity elasticities of demand.

Notizen: Legislation to create optional no-fault insurance (ONFL) programs has recently been enacted in Florida and Virginia. ONFI programs provide compensation to patients when certain medical complications arise, provided the patient agrees not to sue the doctor for additional damages. The optimal design of ONFI programs is explored in this paper, focusing on the incentive effects of ONFI programs. The question of whether ONFI programs should be funded entirely by participating doctors, or whether social subsidies are optimal, is examined.

Notizen: The microstructures in the Erro-Tobbio peridotite indicate several stages of recrystallization of olivine + titanian clinohumite-bearing assemblages. The development of these assemblages is closely associated with serpentinite mylonites, in which they occur in shear bands and foliations and are inferred to have grown synkinematically, in veins, and as post-kinematic radial aggregates. In the peridotite wall-rock adjacent to these mylonites, the same assemblages have recrystallized statically at the expense of original olivine and pyroxenes, mesh-textured chrysolite and antigorite veins. In addition, the olivine-bearing assemblage occurs in widespread vein systems. The brittle deformation of the peridotite resulting in the development of these vein systems is closely related to ductile deformation of metagabbroic dykes in the peridotite. Although early metasomatism resulted in extensive rodingitization of the gabbros, some dykes show an eclogitic assemblage of Na-clinopyroxene + garnet + chloritoid + chlorite ± talc. These observations, the microstructures and the mineral chemistry all suggest that the assemblages in the ultramafic rocks and metagabbros developed during a prograde evolution towards high pressures (〉13–16 kbar, 450–550° C), and during subsequent decompression. This metamorphic evolution is considered to be related to Late Cretaceous intraoceanic subduction in the Alps-Apennine system and closure of the Piedmont-Ligurian basin.

Notizen: Abstract In well NJ-15 of the Nesjavellir geothermal field, Iceland, the transition of discrete smectite into discrete chlorite has been studied from drill cuttings recovered at depths of less than 1714 m and over a continuous range of temperatures between 60 and 300° C. At temperatures below 180° C, the clay fractions contain mixtures of di- and trioctahedral smectites, whose layer charge increases with depth. Between 200 and 240° C, discrete smectites have transformed into smectite-rich, randomly interstratified chlorite and smecite (R0 C/S). Because the abundance of chlorite interlayers in this C/S is generally 〈20%, its presence can be detected only by electron microprobe techniques and not by X-ray diffraction. Between 245 and 265° C, both regularly (R1) and randomly interstratified C/S are the predominant layer silicates. Discrete chlorite first appears at approximately 270° C and coexists with minor amounts of R0 C/S at higher temperatures. R0 and R1 C/S form a nearly complete compositional series between trioctahedral saponite and discrete chlorite end-members. The interlayer cation and Si content of smectites and C/S decrease with increasing temperature. The Mg/(Mg + Fe) content of smectite, C/S, and chlorite is unrelated to temperature. The percentage of chlorite in C/S, as determined by electron microprobe analyses, increases continuously with increasing temperature, except for occurrences of smectite-rich C/S in fresh basaltic dykes which have not thermally equilibrated with the higher grade country rocks.

Notizen: Abstract Fairly strong (r= 0.75–0.85) positive linear correlations were found between crystallinity indices (peak widths) measured on the first two basal reflections of chlorite and those of illite–muscovite in 〈2-μm fractions of a representative shale–slate–phyllite series from Palaeozoic and Mesozoic formations of northeast Hungary. The metamorphic grade ranges from late or deep diagenesis through anchizone to epizone conditions. Chlorite crystallinity values measured on air-dried and ethylene-glycol-solvated samples suggest that the effects of expandable interlayers are negligable, especially in the higher grade (∼temperature) part of the series. However, the greater scattering of crystallinity values for the chlorite 001 reflection compared to those of the 002 reflection may be related to the effects of minor amounts of interlayered and/or discrete smectite and/or vermiculite. With increasing metamorphic grade and advancing equilibrium recrystallization, the chlorite compositions in different samples become more homogenous. No correlation exists between crystallinity and changes in chlorite composition as estimated from the intensity ratios of basal reflections. Hence an increase of domain size and a decrease of lattice distortion with increasing grade (∼temperature) may be decisive factors affecting chlorite crystallinity.Chlorite crystallinity can be applied as a reliable regional, statistical technique complementary with, or instead of, the illite crystallinity method. The illite and chlorite crystallinity scales used here are related to Kübler's epi-, anchi- and diagenetic zones and correlated with coal rank, conodont colour alteration and mineral facies data. As the effects of the detrital white mica can be observed even in the 〈2-μm fractions of anchizonal metapelites, the anchizone boundaries determined solely on the base of ‘fixed’illite crystallinity values may vary with amounts of detrital and newly formed muscovite–illite. Hence a complex approach utilizing more than one method for determination of grade is preferred for petrogenetic purposes, even if relationships between crystallinity scales, coal rank and mineral facies also vary strongly in different tectonic settings and lithologies.

Notizen: Abstract Illite crystallinity (IC) and other indicators of the grade of very-low-grade metamorphism associated with the appearance of various stages of slaty cleavage in phyllosilicate-rich rocks have been compiled from a wide variety of terranes. IC values have been converted to a Kübler-equivalent standard scale, but the diverse characterizations of the cleavage fabrics in published descriptions do not always allow an unequivocal identification of equivalent stages of cleavage development.Nevertheless, there exists a distinct relationship between grade and the appearance of various stages of cleavage development.(1) Indications of incipient slaty cleavage, such as S0–S1 pencil structure, appearance of primary (S1) crenulation cleavage and of closely-spaced cleavage without parallel fabric in the microlithons, is associated with a wide range of mostly medium- and high-grade diagenetic IC values.(2) The appearance of smooth cleavage with a strong parallel fabric in the microlithons and/or quartz–mica ‘beards’and the chlorite–mica stacks shortened at a high angle to (001), and of irregular cleavage in sandy beds is associated with a much narrower range of predominantly low- and medium-grade anchimetamorphic grades (rarely high-grade diagenetic). The first appearance of these stages of cleavage development with higher grades can often be related to post-kinematic magmatic heating, polymetamorphism (pre-cleavage metamorphism), or ‘static’recrystallization without cleavage formation, for example in low-strain zones.There exists a relationship between finite strain, fabric and metamorphic grade in mudstones and slates; in coarser clastic rocks the same finite strain–fabric relationship occurs at appreciably higher grades. A relationship between finite strain in carbonate rocks and IC in the nearby rocks has been reported from the Helvetic zone of the Swiss Alps.The earlier stages of cleavage formation are associated with little improvement in IC; the narrow range of IC associated with smooth cleavage is concluded to represent recrystallization and grain growth concurrent with cleavage formation.

Notizen: Distinctive lithological associations and geological relationships, and initial geochronological results indicate the presence of an areally extensive region of reworked Archaean basement containing polymetamorphic granulites in the Rauer Group, East Antarctica.Structurally early metapelites from within this reworked region preserve complex and varied metamorphic histories which largely pre-date and bear no relation to a Late Proterozoic metamorphism generally recognized in this part of East Antarctica. In particular, magnesian metapelite rafts from Long Point record extreme peak P–T conditions of 10–12 kbar and 100–1050°C, and an initial decompression to 8 kbar at temperatures of greater than 900°C. Initial garnet–orthopyroxene–sillimanite assemblages contain the most magnesian (and pyrope-rich) garnets (XMg= 0.71) yet found in granulite facies rocks. A high-temperature decompressional P–T history is consistent with reaction textures in which the phase assemblages produced through garnet breakdown vary systematically with the initial garnet XMg composition, reflecting the intersection of different divariant reactions in rocks of varied composition as pressures decreased. This history is thought to relate to Archaean events, whereas a lower-temperature (c. 750–800°C) decompression to 5 kbar reflects Late Proterozoic reworking of these relict assemblages.The major Late Proterozoic (c. 1000 Ma) granulite facies metamorphism is recorded in a suite of younger Fe-rich metapelites and associated paragneisses in which syn- to post-deformational decompression, through 2–4 kbar from maximum recorded P–T conditions of 7–9 kbar and 800–850°C, is constrained by geothermobarometry and reaction textures. This P–T evolution is thought to reflect rapid tectonic collapse of crust previously thickened through collision.

Notizen: In the southeastern Reynolds Range, central Australia, a low-P granulite facies metamorphism affected two sedimentary sequences: the Lander Rock Beds and the Reynolds Range Group. In the context of the whole of the Reynolds Range and the adjacent Anmatjira Range, this metamorphism is M3 in a sequence M1–4 that occurred over a period of 250 Ma. In particular, M1 affected the Lander Rock Beds prior to the deposition of the Reynolds Group. M3 has an areally restricted, high-grade area in the southeastern Reynolds Range, affecting both the Reynolds Range Group and the underlying Lander Rock Beds. The effects of M3 are characterized by spinel + quartz-bearing peak metamorphic assemblages in metapelites, which imply peak conditions of ≥750°C and 4.5 ± 1 kbar, and involved isobaric cooling or compression with cooling. It is concluded that one of a series of thermal perturbations caused by thinning of mantle lithosphere contemporaneous with crustal thickening was responsible for M3. In the southeastern Reynolds Range, evidence of both the unconformity between the two rock groups and previous metamorphism/deformation has been completely erased by recrystallization during M3–D3.

Notizen: On the basis of fluid inclusion evidence, pervasive influx of deep-seated CO2-rich fluids has been invoked to account for mid- to upper amphibolite facies (M2B) metamorphism on the island of Naxos (Cyclades, Greece). In this paper, mineral devolatilization and melt equilibria are used to constrain the composition of both syn- and post-peak-M2B fluids in the deepest exposed levels of the metamorphic complex. The results indicate that peak-M2B fluids were spatially and compositionally heterogeneous throughout the high-grade core of the complex, whereas post-peak-M2B fluids were generally water-rich. The observed heterogeneities in syn-M2B fluid composition are inconsistent with pervasive CO2-flushing models invoked by previous workers on the basis of fluid inclusion evidence. It is likely that few CO2-rich fluid inclusions on Naxos preserve fluids trapped under peak metamorphic conditions. It is suggested that many of these inclusions have behaved as chemically open systems during the intense deformation that accompanied the uplift of the metamorphic complex. A similar process may explain the occurrence of some CO2-rich fluid inclusions in granulite facies rocks.

Notizen: A detailed high-pressure experimental study of two mafic xenoliths, in which coexisting garnet and clinopyroxene (± plagioclase, spinel and olivine) were crystallized over a P–T range of 10–30 kbar and 950–1200°C, has revealed significant differences in temperatures from those estimated for coexisting garnets and clinopyroxenes using the Ellis & Green Fe–Mg exchange thermometer. The results show perfect matching at 30 kbar, 1150–1200°C, but increasing deviation at lower pressure and lower temperature, with the Ellis & Green calibration reaching a ΔT (overestimate) of c. 145°C at 10–12 kbar and 950°C. The grossular content of the garnet increases from c. 21 mol.% at 10 kbar to 26–31 mol.% at 30 kbar. These results confirm other recent experimental studies that show that the pressure correction, and possibly to a lesser extent the correction for grossular content, applied by Ellis & Green, are not appropriate for lower pressure conditions, and give estimated temperatures that are significantly high when applied to granulitic terranes formed at c. 10 kbar. The new reconnaissance results allow a graphical interpolation of a garnet–clinopyroxene geothermometer based on the Fe–Mg exchange reaction which should be applicable to assemblages formed under lower crustal conditions.

Notizen: The Main Zone of the Hidaka Metamorphic Belt is an uplifted crustal section of island-arc type. The crust was formed during early Tertiary time, as a result of collision between two arc–trench systems of Cretaceous age. The crustal metamorphic sequence is divided into four metamorphic zones (I–IV), in which zone IV is in the granulite facies.A detailed study of the evolution of the Hidaka Belt, based on a revised P–T–t analysis of the metamorphic rocks, notably a newly found staurolite-bearing granulite, confirms a prograde isobaric heating path, after a supposed event of tectonic thickening of accretionary sedimentary and oceanic crustal rocks. During the peak metamorphic event (c. 53 Ma), the regional geothermal gradient attained 33–40° C km−1, and the highest P–T condition obtained from the lowest part of the granulite unit is 830° C, 7 kbar. In this part, XH2O of Gt–Opx–Cd gneiss is about 0.15 and that of Gt–Cd–Bt gneiss is 0.4. The P–T–XH2O condition of the granulite unit is well within a field where fluid-present partial melting of pelitic and greywacke metamorphic rocks takes place. This is in harmony with the restitic nature of the Gt–Opx–Cd gneiss in the lowest part of the granulite unit.The possibility that partial melting took place in the Main Zone is significant for the genesis of the peraluminous (S-type) granitic rocks within it. The S-type granitic rocks in this zone are Opx–Gt–Bt tonalite in the granulite zone, Gt–Cd–Bt tonalite in the amphibolite zone, and Cd–Bt–Mus tonalite in the Bt–Mus gneiss zone. The mineralogical and chemical nature of these strongly peraluminous tonalitic rocks permit them to be regarded as having been derived from S-type granitic magma generated by crustal anatexis of pelitic metamorphic rocks in deeper crust.

Notizen: Retrograde exchange of oxygen isotopes between minerals in igneous and metamorphic rocks by means of diffusion is explored using a finite difference computer model, which predicts both the zonation profile of δ18O within grains, and the bulk δ18O value of each mineral in the rock. Apparent oxygen isotope equilibrium temperatures that would be observed in these rocks are calculated from the δ18O values of each mineral pair within the rock. In systems which cool linearly from a sufficiently high temperature or at a low enough cooling rate, such that the final oxygen isotope values are not dependent upon the initial oxygen isotope values (‘slow cooling’), the apparent oxygen isotope temperature derived for a rock composed of a single mineral pair can be shown to be simply related to the Dodson closure temperatures (Tc) for the two phases and the mode of the rock. Adding a third phase into a system which undergoes ‘slow’ cooling will cause the apparent temperature derived for the two minerals already present to differ from the simple relationship for a two-phase system. In some systems oxygen isotope reversals can be developed. If cooling is not ‘slow’, then the mineral δ18O values resulting from cooling will be partly dependent upon the initial temperature of the system concerned. The model successfully simulates the mineral δ18O values that are often observed in granitic rocks. Application of the model will help in assessing the validity of oxygen isotope thermometry in different geological settings, and allows quantitative prediction of the oxygen isotope fractionations that are developed in cooling closed systems.

Notizen: The highest grade pelitic and semipelitic rocks of the Ballachulish aureole are dominantly potash feldspar + cordierite + biotite hornfelses with widely variable amounts of quartz, plagioclase, andalusite, sillimanite and corundum (together with accessory phases). On a microscopic scale these hornfelses show textural evidence of the presence of melt, whilst on a mesoscopic scale they contain a variety of leucosomes. Oxygen isotope studies have been carried out on both whole rocks and mineral separates in order to: (1) assess the sources of molten and volatile constituents and (2) determine the extents of isotopic homogenization and equilibration. Data from localities with both restricted and extensive evidence of leucosomes and melt development are compared, as well as one locality with petrographic evidence of melt incursion from the igneous complex.The whole-rock δ18O values of the leucosomes (10.5–14.9%.) are in general similar to the immediately adjacent mesosomes (9.9–14.5%.) which are typically cordierite- and feldspar-rich hornfelses. Isotopic evidence is thus consistent with an in-situ partial melt origin for the leucosomes, without the substantial addition of externally derived components. In the area of extensive melt development, the ‘chaotic zone’, it is possible there was addition of an H2O-rich fluid phase (6-13 wt%) from the igneous complex which resulted in a slight lowering of δ18O values by 0.5–1.0%.Quartz mineral separates were used to assess the degree of local isotopic homogenization. In the extensively molten area (chaotic zone) there is extensive homogenization between rock layers (quartz δ18O usually within 1.0%), whilst in less molten areas δ18O quartz has a range of c. 3.0%. The greater homogenization in the chaotic zone is attributed to the increased degree of melting and infiltration of H2O-rich fluid from the igneous complex.

Notizen: The enderbites from Tromøy in the central, granulite facies part of the Proterozoic Bamble sector of southern Norway contain dominantly CO2 and N2 fluid inclusions. CO2 from fluid inclusions in quartz segregations in enderbites was extracted by mechanical (crushing) and thermal decrepitation and the δ13C measured. Measurement was also made on samples washed in 10% HCl, oxidized with CuO at high temperatures, and step-wise extracted with progressive heating. Results between the different techniques are systematic. The main results show δ13C of -4.5±1.5% for crushing and -7±2% for thermal decrepitation. δ13C is about constant for CO2 extracted at different temperatures and points to a homogeneous isotopic composition. Due to the presence of carbonate particles and/or induced contaminations for the extraction by thermal decrepitation, the results for the crushing experiments are assumed the most reliable for fluid-inclusion CO2. Very low values of δ13C have not been found in enderbite samples and δ13C combined with δ18O of the host quartzes (8-11%) indicates juvenile values. In addition, the fluid inclusions were examined by microthermometry and Raman analysis and host quartz by acoustic emission and cathodoluminescence. CO2 fluid inclusions have varying densities with a frequency maximum of 0.92 g cm-3 and generally do not concur with trapping densities at granulite conditions. Textures show that CO2 must have been trapped in fluid inclusions in one early event, but transformed to different extents during late isothermal uplift without important fractionation of isotope compositions. The present data support a model of intrusion and crystallization of a CO2-rich enderbitic magma at granuiite conditions.

Notizen: High-grade exotic blocks in the Franciscan Complex at Jenner, California, show evidence for polydeformation/metamorphism, with eight distinct stages. Two parallel sets of mineral assemblages [(E) eclogite, and (BS) laminated blueschist] representing different bulk chemistry were identified. Stage 1, recorded by parallel aligned inclusions (S1) of crossite + omphacite + epidote + ilmenite + titanite + quartz (E), and glaucophane + actinolite + epidote + titanite (BS) in the central parts of zoned garnets, represents the epidote blueschist facies. The onset of a second stage (stage 2) is represented by a weak crenulation of S1 and growth of garnet. This stage develops a well-defined S2 foliation of orientated barroisite + epidote + titanite (E), or subcalcic actinolite + epidote + titanite (BS) at c. 90d̀ to S1, with syntectonic growth of garnet, defining the (albite-)epidote-amphibolite facies. A third stage, with aligned inclusions of glaucophane + (subcalcic) actinolite + phengite parallel to S2 in the outermost rims of large garnet grains, is assigned to the transitional (albite-)epidote-amphibolite/(garnet-bearing) epidote blueschist facies. The fourth stage represents the peak metamorphism, and was identified by unorientated matrix minerals in the least retrograded samples. In this stage the mineral assemblages garnet + omphacite + glaucophane + phengite (E) and garnet + winchite + phengite + epidote (BS) both represent the eclogite facies. Stage 5 is represented by the retrogression of eclogite facies assemblages to the epidote blueschist facies assemblages crossite/glaucophane + garnet + omphacite + epidote + phengite (E), and glaucophane + actinolite + epidote + phengite (BS), with the development of an S5 foliation subparallel to S2. Stage 6 represents a crenulation of S5, with the development of a well-defined S6 crenulation cleavage wrapping around relics of the eclogite facies assemblages. This crenulation cleavage is further weakly crenulated during a D7 event. Post-D7 (stage 8) is recorded by the growth of lawsonite + chlorite ± actinolite replacing garnet, and by veins of lawsonite + pumpellyite + aragonite and phengite + apatite. The different, yet coeval, mineral parageneses observed in rock types (E) and (BS) are probably due to differences in bulk chemistry.The metamorphic evolution from stage 1 to stage 8 seems to have been broadly continuous, following an anticlockwise P-Tpath: (1) epidote blueschist (garnet-free) to (2) (albite-)epidote-amphibolite to (3) transitional epidote blueschist (garnet-bearing)/(albite-)epidote-amphibolite to (4) eclogite to (5) epidote blueschist (garnet-bearing) to (6-7) epidote blueschist (garnet-free) facies to (8) lawsonite + pumpellyite + aragonite-bearing assemblages. This anticlockwise P-T path may have resulted from a decreasing geothermal gradient with time in the Mesozoic subduction zone of California at early or pre-Franciscan metamorphism.

Notizen: Rocks within the Zermatt-Saas ophiolite of the western Alps have undergone eclogite facies metamorphism during subduction prior to the Alpine collision. The metamorphic history of these rocks is well defined, with eclogitic assemblages being followed by the limited growth of blueschist assemblages of glaucophane and paragonite. Subsequent greenschist alteration occurs adjacent to faults, veins and metasediments. Away from such sources of water, retrogression is very limited. Sm-Nd isotopic analyses of an essentially unretrogressed eclogitic metabasalt suggest that eclogite facies metamorphism occurred at 52 ± 18 Ma. The large uncertainty is due to the presence of very small amounts of Nd-rich epidote present as inclusions within garnet. As the closure temperature of garnet to Sm & Nd is thought to be 〉600d̀C, resetting due to post-high-pressure diffusion is thought to be insignificant. Given the fine-grained protolith to the sample analysed, and its extensive deformation under eclogite facies conditions, incomplete homogenization of pre-metamorphic isotopic variations is also considered unlikely to be responsible for the young age. A Tertiary age of eclogitization means that models of early Alpine evolution based on the cessation of high-pressure metamorphism in the Cretaceous need to be revised.

Notizen: Porphyroblast inclusion fabrics are consistent in style and geometry across three Proterozoic metamorphic field gradients, comprising two pluton-related gradients in central Arizona and one regional gradient in northern New Mexico. Garnet crystals contain curved ‘sigmoidal’ inclusion trails. In low-grade chlorite schists, these trails can be correlated directly with matrix crenulations of an older schistosity (S1). The garnet crystals preferentially grew in crenulation hinges, but some late crenulations nucleated on existing garnet porphyroblasts. At higher grade, biotite, staurolite and andalusite porphyroblasts occur in a homogeneous S2 foliation primarily defined by matrix biotite and ilmenite. Biotite porphyroblasts have straight to sigmoidal inclusion trails that also represent the weakly folded S1 schistosity. Staurolite and andalusite contain distinctive inclusion-rich and inclusion-poor domains that represent a relict S2 differentiated crenulation cleavage. Together, the inclusion relationships document the progressive development of the S2 fabric through six stages. Garnet and biotite porphyroblasts contain stage 2 or 3 crenulations; staurolite and andalusite generally contain stage 4 crenulations, and the matrix typically contains a homogeneous stage 6 cleavage.The similarity of inclusion relationships across spatially and temporally distinct metamorphic field gradients of widely differing scales suggests a fundamental link between metamorphism and deformation. Three end-member relationships may be involved: (1) tectonic linkages, where similar P-T-time histories and similar bulk compositions combine to produce similar metamorphic and structural signatures; (2) deformation-controlled linkages, where certain microstructures, particularly crenulation hinges, are favourable environments for the nucleation and/or growth of porphyroblasts; and (3) reaction-controlled linkages, where metamorphic reactions, particularly dehydration reactions, are associated with an increase in the rate of fabric development. A general model is proposed in which (1) garnet and biotite porphyroblasts preferentially grow in stage 2 or 3 crenulation hinges, and (2) chlorite-consuming metamorphic reactions lead to pulses in the rate of fabric evolution. The data suggest that fabric development and porphyroblast growth may have been quite rapid, of the order of several hundreds of thousands of years, in these rocks. These microstructures and processes may be characteristic of low-pressure, first-cycle metamorphic belts.

Notizen: Incipient metamorphism accompanying thrusting, folding and cleavage development has been investigated in a varied sequence of Palaeozoic sediments near the Variscan front in SW Dyfed, Wales. The aim was to evaluate a critical stage in the progression from heterogeneous sediment, whose detrital phases are neither in equilibrium with one another, nor with pore fluids, through indurated sedimentary rock to metamorphic rock comprising newly formed crystals that equilibrated with one another as they grew.Quartz veins are widely developed in the area, especially in the more psammitic lithologies, while finer grained rocks became cleaved during tectonic deformation. Mineralogical constraints and fluid inclusion measurements suggest maximum temperatures around 200-310d̀ C (slightly higher in the Marloes-Musselwick Thrust Sheet than in other parts of the structural succession) at depths of the order of 6-13 km.Quartz veins yield distinctly heavier oxygen isotopic compositions than detrital quartz grains in the adjacent wall rocks, although care must be taken in interpreting the data because slivers of detrital grains may become incorporated into veins, while matrix detrital grains may incorporate veinlets or rims of newly formed quartz. It is concluded that vein quartz grew in isotopic equilibrium with a fluid phase whose isotopic composition was primarily controlled by exchange with phyllosilicates, not detrital quartz grains. Vein and matrix quartzes from the Marloes-Musselwick Thrust Sheet are distinctly lighter (δ18Oveins=+14 to +18% and δ18Omatrix=+11 to +14%) than those from other thrust sheets (δ18O =+17 to +20% and +14 to +17%, respectively).We conclude that vein quartz and phyllosilicate grains in cleavage domains probably attained equilibrium with a locally buffered pore fluid at the peak of metamorphism, but many relict grains of different chemical and isotopic composition remained elsewhere in the rock. Local fluid migration along veins and through cleavage lamellae facilitated the attainment of equilibrium, but there is little evidence for large-scale infiltration of externally derived fluids. With further metamorphism the quartz in these rocks would attain an isotopic composition intermediate between that of the heavy vein material and light detritus which coexist here.

Notizen: Fire is a common but poorly understood disturbance in the forested ecosystems of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico. In this study, fire history, forest structure (density, species composition, regeneration, forest floor fuels, herbaceous cover, and age of pines), and the dendrochronological tree-ring record were measured at two unharvested 70-ha pine-oak sites near Ojito de Camellones, Durango, Mexico. Study sites were matched in slope, aspect, elevation, slope position, and plant composition, but they differed in fire history since 1945 and in forest structure. The long-term mean fire intervals (MFI) for all fires at both sites up to 1945 were similar—4.0 years at Site 1 (1744–1945) and 4.1 years at Site 2 (1815–1945)—but Site 1 burned only three times at the site margins since 1945 while Site 2 had 9 fires that scarred two or more sample trees and 15 total fires since 1945. Density measurements and age and diameter distributions showed that Site 1 was dominated by numerous, younger, smaller trees (mean total basal area of 23.4 m2/ha and 2730 trees/ha), while Site 2 had fewer, older, larger trees (basal area of 37.2 m2/ha, 647 trees/ha). Large, rotten fuel loading and duff depth were also greater at Site 1. Because regeneration averaged 6200 stems/ha at Site 1 and 8730 stems/ha at Site 2 (no significant difference), forest density at Site 2 was not limited by regeneration capability. The distributions of overstory diameter and pine age at both sites indicate that tree establishment occurred in pulses, with the largest cohort of trees establishing at Site 1 following the 1945 fire. The dense regeneration and heavy fuel accumulation at Site 1 are likely to support a switch from the former low-intensity fire regime to a high-intensity, stand-replacing fire across the site when the next suitable combination of ignition and weather occurs. Baseline quantitative information on fire frequency and ecological effects is essential to guide conservation or restoration of Madrean forests and may prove valuable for restoration of related fire-dependent ecosystems that have experienced extended fire exclusion elsewhere in North America.

Notizen: Abstract In granulite facies metapelitic rocks in the Musgrave Complex, central Australia, reaction between S1 garnet and sillimanite involves the development in S2 of both garnet + cordierite + hercynitic spinel + biotite and hercynitic spinel + cordierite + sillimanite + biotite. The S2 assemblages occur either in coronas and symplectites, mainly around garnet, or, in rocks in which S2 is more strongly developed, as recrystallized assemblages. Ignoring the presence of biotite and ilmenite, the mineral textures can be accounted for qualitatively by a consideration of the model system FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 (FMAS); the textural relationships accord with decompression accompanying the change from S1 to S2. However, since biotite and ilmenite are involved in the assemblages, the parageneses are better accounted for in terms of equilibria in the expanded model system K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2-TiO2-Fe2O3 (KFMASHTO), i.e. AFM + TiO2+ Fe2O3. The coronas reflect the tectonic unroofing of at least part of the Musgrave Complex from peak S1 conditions of about 8 kbar to S2 conditions of about 4 kbar.

Notizen: Abstract During the Eocene-Oligocene, the Indian plate collided with the Kohistan arc along the Main Mantle Thrust (MMT) zone. The structure of the Lower Swat rock sequence, on the Indian plate directly south of the MMT, is a dome with a basement of granitic gneiss and quartz-rich schist unconformably overlain by amphibolitic and calcareous schist. The earliest superposed small-scale folds (F1 & F2) represent a progressive F1/F2 deformation that is associated with a single set of WSW-vergent large-scale folds (termed F2). These folds are inferred to have developed during oblique, WSW-directed overthrusting of the MMT suture complex onto the Lower Swat rock sequence. Metamorphism began during F1/F2 as indicated by an S1 foliation that developed during biotite-grade metamorphism. S1 is preserved as a relict texture in porphyroblasts that grew during a subsequent interkinematic phase during garnet- and higher grade metamorphism. The dominant, regional foliation (S2) developed following the interkinematic phase. S2 is associated with transposition of S1 and rotation or dismemberment of porphyroblasts. Annealing recrystallization followed S2 and continued during F3 thereby destroying or masking possible pre-existing stretching fabrics. Superposed F3 folds are upright and open with N-S axial trends. They may correlate with early doming of the Lower Swat rock sequence and with strike-slip displacement in the northern part of the MMT zone, north of the Lower Swat area. F3 was followed by retrograde metamorphism and development of E-W-trending, S-vergent F4 folds. F4 may be associated with a final phase of southward directed thrusting and inactivity in the MMT zone. Correlation of published 40Ar/39Ar ages with the metamorphic fabrics suggests that F1/F2 and F3 occurred in the Eocene, and that F4 developed in the Oligocene. F4 is the earliest indication of southward verging structures on this part of the Indian plate.

Notizen: Granulites exposed in the Reinbolt Hills, East Antarctica, are part of the extensive Late Proterozoic granulite complex of East Antarctica, which includes the Rauer Group to the east and the northern Prince Charles Mountains to the west. The deformation history includes three pervasive deformation phases. No chemical or mineralogical distinction between these phases has been detected and this is interpreted to be the result of complete re-equilibration at the end of the third deformation phase. Two late deformation phases post-date the metamorphism and record a medium-temperature cooling path. A short segment of the P–T path of these rocks was inferred from mineral reactions that occurred during these late deformation phases. The path passes from 800°C, 7 kbar to 690°C, 5 kbar, indicating strong decompression, which is typical of a thrust-dominated crustal thickening followed by rapid erosion or extensional collapse.

Notizen: Mafic granulite, garnet amphibolite and charnockite occur in the southwest Swedish part of the Baltic Shield. This part is generally considered to be the continuation of the Grenville collisional belt in Canada. The area with granulite facies rocks, the Southwest Swedish Granulite Region (SGR), is considerably larger than previously thought. The SGR is bounded to the east and west by two major tectonic zones. The first quantitative age data and P–T determinations for the high-grade metamorphism in the SGR are presented.Conventional geothermobarometry was applied to mafic granulites from five localities. The estimated P–T conditions for the peak of metamorphism range from 705°C and 8.1 kbar at Hallandsås in the south, to 770°C and 10.5 kbar at Ullared in the north (medium- to high-P granulite facies conditions). Sm–Nd geochronology on minerals from the mafic granulites at Hallandsås and Ullared give late Sveconorwegian (Grenville) ages of 907 ± 12 and 916 ± 11 Ma for the high-grade metamorphism, which is considerably younger than previously thought.Our results stress the hitherto underestimated importance of the late Sveconorwegian high-grade metamorphism in the southwestern part of the Baltic Shield.

Notizen: Dark hornblende + garnet-rich, quartz-absent metagabbro boudins from the Seguin subdomain, Ontario Grenville Province, are transected by anastomosing light-coloured veins rich in orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, plagioclase and sometimes quartz. The veins vary in texture from fine-grained diffuse veins and patches that overprint the metagabbro, to coarse tonalitic leucosomes with sharp borders. The diffuse veins and patches are suggestive of channellized subsolidus dehydration of the metagabbro, while the tonalitic leucosomes are suggestive of local internally-derived anatexis. All vein types grade smoothly into each other, with the tonalitic leucosomes being the latest.Relative to the host metagabbro, the veins have higher Si, Na, Ba & Sr, lower Fe, Mg, Ca & Ti, and similar Al. The coarser veins are enriched in K. Plagioclase becomes steadily enriched in Na in the transition from host metagabbro (An47) to the veins (An35), and in the coarsest veins it is antiperthitic. Differences in composition of the other minerals between host metagabbro and vein are minor. Pressure–temperature estimates are scattered, but indicate a minimum temperature during vein formation of 700°C at about 8 kbar.Mass balance constraints indicate that the veins formed from the metagabbro in an open system. The transecting veins are interpreted to represent pathways of Si + Na + Ba + Sr ± K ± Al-enriched, low aH2O fluids that metasomatized the host metagabbro to form the anhydrous veins. An initial period of localized solid-state dehydration of the metagabbro, represented by the diffuse veins, was followed by a transition to localized anatexis, represented by the tonalitic leucosomes. The change to anatexis may have been due to the addition of K to the infiltrating fluid. The source and delivery mechanism of the fluids is unknown.

Notizen: Eclogite facies mineral assemblages are variably preserved in mafic and ultramafic rocks within the Western Gneiss Region (WGR) of Norway. Mineralogical and microstructural data indicate that some Mg–Cr-rich, Alpine-type peridotites have had a complex metamorphic history. The metamorphic evolution of these rocks has been described in terms of a seven-stage evolutionary model; each stage is characterized by a specific mineral assemblage. Stages II and III both comprise garnet-bearing mineral assemblages. Garnet-bearing assemblages are also present in Fe–Ti-rich peridotites which commonly occur as layers in mafic complexes. Sm–Nd isotopic results are reported for mineral and whole rock samples from both of these types of peridotites and related rocks.The partitioning of Sm and Nd between coexisting garnet and clinopyroxene is used to assess chemical equilibrium. One sample of Mg–Cr-type peridotite shows non-disturbed partitioning of Sm and Nd between Stage II garnet and clinopyroxene pairs and yields a garnet–clinopyroxene–whole-rock date of 1703 ± 29 Ma (I= 0.51069, MSWD = 0.04). This is the best estimate for the age of the Stage II high-P assemblage. Other Stage II garnet–clinopyroxene pairs reflect later disturbance of the Sm–Nd system and yield dates in the range 1303 to 1040 Ma. These dates may not have any geological significance. Stage III garnet–clinopyroxene pairs typically have equilibrated Sm–Nd partitioning and two samples yield dates of 437 ± 58 and 511 ± 18 Ma. This suggests that equilibration of the Stage III high-P assemblage is related to the Caledonian orogeny and is more or less contemporaneous with high-P metamorphism of ‘country-rock’eclogites in the surrounding gneisses. The Sm–Nd mineral data for the Fe–Ti-rich garnet peridotites and for a superferrian eclogite, which occurs as a dyke within the Gurskebotn Mg–Cr-type peridotite, are consistent with a Palaeozoic high-P metamorphism.Finally a synoptic P–T–t path is proposed for the Mg–Cr-type peridotites which is consistent with the petrological and geochronological data.

Notizen: Compositional zoning in biotite–garnet pairs in metamorphic rocks from eastern Finland has been studied. The Mg profiles in the garnet side of biotite–garnet crystal pairs have been interpreted by means of Lasaga's theory (geospeedometry). However, the binary interdiffusion equations are first reformulated by starting from a ternary system and using the lattice fixed frame of reference. This frame of reference gives the fluxes directly by means of the numbers of diffusing ions, which helps to check the 1-dimensionality of the analysis assumed in Lasaga's theory. It is also shown that the recently argued effect of the third cation Ca is negligible in our samples. We were able to investigate satisfactory profiles in three samples from different areas. The values for the cooling rate are a few degrees per million years if the diffusion data obtained by Freer are adopted. The cooling rates are in agreement with recent estimates based on the K–Ar ages on biotite in the same areas.

Notizen: In the Caledonide orogen of northern Sweden, the Seve Nappe Complex is dominated by rift facies sedimentary and mafic rocks derived from the Late Proterozoic Baltoscandian miogeocline and offshore-continent–Iapetus transition. Metamorphic breaks and structural inversions characterize the nappe complex. Within the Sarek Mountains, the Sarektjåkkå Nappe is composed of c. 600-Ma-old dolerites with subordinate screens of sedimentary rocks. These lithological elements preserve parageneses which record contact metamorphism at shallow crustal levels. The Sarektjåkkå Nappe is situated between eclogite-bearing nappes (Mikka and Tsäkkok nappes) which underwent high-P metamorphism at c. 500 Ma during westward subduction of the Baltoscandian margin. 40Ar/39Ar mineral ages of c. 520–500 Ma are recorded by hornblende within variably foliated amphibolite derived from mafic dyke protoliths within the Sarektjåkkå Nappe. Plateau ages of 500 Ma are displayed by muscovite within the basal thrust of the nappe and are consistent with metamorphic evidence which indicates that the nappe escaped crustal depression as a result of detachment at an early stage of subduction. Cooling ages recorded by hornblende from variably retrogressed eclogites in the entire region are in the range of c. 510–490 Ma and suggest that imbrication of the subducting miogeocline was followed by differential exhumation of the various imbricate sheets. Hornblende cooling ages of 470–460 Ma are recorded from massive dyke protoliths within the Sarektjåkkå Nappe. These are similar to ages reported from the Seve Nappe Complex in the central Scandinavian Caledonides. Probably these date imbrication and uplift related to Early Ordovician arrival of outboard terranes (e.g. island-arc sequences represented by structurally lower horizons of the Köli Nappes).Metamorphic contrasts and the distinct grouping of mineral cooling ages suggest that the various Seve structural units are themselves internally imbricated, and were individually tectonically uplifted through argon closure temperatures during assembly of the Seve Nappe Complex. The cooling ages of 520–500 Ma recorded within Seve terranes and along terrane boundaries of the Sarek Mountains provide evidence of significant accretionary activity in the northern Scandinavian Caledonides in the Late Cambrian–Early Ordovician.

Notizen: Abstract Aegirine–jadeite clinopyroxene (〉60 mol% jadeite) locally occurs within blueschists of the ‘Lower Allochthon’exposed in the Trás-os-Montes region of northern Portugal. Peak conditions attained during blueschist facies metamorphism are estimated to have been c. 420° C and 〉11 kbar. Porphyroblastic white mica (paragonite/phengite) within the blueschist assemblage records a 36Ar/40Ar versus 39Ar/40Ar isotope correlation age of 329.4 ± 1.6 Ma. In view of the relatively low-T nature of the metamorphism, the c. 330-Ma age is interpreted to date closely the high-P recrystallization. This tectonothermal activity is interpreted to have resulted from structural emplacement of a previously assembled crystalline nappe complex (‘Upper Allochthon/Ophiolite Nappe’) onto Iberian protoliths of the Lower Allochthon during terminal stages of the Hercynian orogeny.

Notizen: Abstract Standard petrographic, microthermometric and Raman spectroscopic analyses of fluid inclusions from the metamorphosed massive sulphide deposits at Ducktown, Tennessee, indicate that fluids with a wide range of compositions in the C–O–H–N–S–salt system were involved in the syn- to post-metamorphic history of these deposits. Primary fluid inclusions from peak metamorphic clinopyroxene contain low-salinity, H2O–CH4 fluids and calcite, quartz and pyrrhotite daughter crystals. Many of these inclusions exhibit morphologies resembling those produced in laboratory experiments in which confining pressures significantly exceed the internal pressures of the inclusions. Secondary inclusions in metamorphic quartz from veins, pods, and host matrix record a complex uplift history involving a variety of fluids in the C–O–H–N–salt system. Early fluids were generated by local devolatilization reactions while later fluids were derived externally.Isochores calculated for secondary inclusions in addition to the chronology of trapping and morphological features of primary and secondary fluid inclusions suggest an uplift path which was concave toward the temperature axis over the P–T range 6–3 kbar and 550–225° C. Immiscible H2O–CH4–N2–NaCl fluids were trapped under lithostatic to hydrostatic pressure conditions at 3–0.5 kbar and 215 ± 20° C. Entrapment occurred during Alleghanian thrusting, and the fluids may have been derived by tectonically driven expulsion of pore fluids and thermal maturation of organic material in lower-plate sedimentary rocks which are thought to underlie the deposits. Episodic fracturing and concomitant pressure decreases in upper-plate rocks, which host the ore bodies, would have allowed these fluids to move upward and become immiscible. Post-Alleghanian uplift appears to have been temperature-convex.Uplift rates of 0.10–0.05 mm year−1 from middle Ordovician to middle Silurian – late Devonian, and 0.07–0.12 mm year−1 from middle Silurian – late Devonian to late Permian are suggested by our uplift path and available geochronological data.

Notizen: Abstract Metapelites in the Altavista area, southwest Virginia Piedmont, USA, underwent allochemical hydrothermal retrograde metamorphism in synmetamorphic shear zones. The metapelites of the Evington Group were metamorphosed in a prograde sequence of chlorite, staurolite, and sillimanite zones. Garnet–biotite geothermometry and phase relations support eastward increasing metamorphic grade, ranging from 570° C in the staurolite zone to 650° C in the sillimanite zone at c. 5.8 kbar. Sillimanite-zone rocks later underwent progressive retrogression around shear zones which acted as fluid conduits. Retrograde assemblages are successively zoned around the shear zones with staurolite-, chloritoid- and kyanite-bearing assemblages. The shear zones commonly contain kyanite or tourmaline veins. Applicable phase equilibria indicate that retrogression occurred during isobaric cooling through c. 200–270° C. Rock compositional changes with retrogression occurred in steps: SiO2 was gained in the early stages of the retrogression but lost in the late stages; Al2O3, K2O, and H2O were increasingly gained through the sequence; CaO was increasingly lost. Addition of H2O and decreasing temperatures resulted in new ferromagnesian minerals (staurolite, chloritoid, chlorite) and changes in H2O, SiO2, Al2O3, K2O, and CaO contents produced muscovite and sodic plagioclase.Subsequent to prograde metamorphism, deeply derived fluids migrated upwards along shear zones, providing fluid and energy for the retrograde reactions. The sheared rocks underwent fluid infiltration with fluid fluxes of 1.8 × 107–4.3 × 107 cm3/cm2 corresponding to minimum estimated fluid-to-rock ratios of 7.5–21 as a function of position within the shear zone. Fluid flow was from high to low temperature early and low to high temperature later in the retrogression.

Notizen: Calc-silicate rocks occur as elliptical bands and boudins intimately interlayered with eclogites and high-pressure gneisses in the Münchberg gneiss complex of NE Bavaria. Core assemblages of the boudins consist of grossular-rich garnet, diopside, quartz, zoisite, clinozoisite, calcite, rutile and titanite. The polygonal granoblastic texture commonly displays mineral relics and reaction textures such as post kinematic grossular-rich garnet coronas. Reactions between these mineral phases have been modelled in the CaO-Al2O3-SiO2-CO2-H2O system with an internally consistent thermodynamic data base. High-pressure metamorphism in the calc-silicate rocks has been estimated at a minimum pressure of 31 kbar at a temperature of 630d̀ C with XH2, O ≥ 0.03. Small volumes of a CO2-N2-rich fluid whose composition was buffered on a local scale were present at peak-metamorphic conditions. The P-T conditions for the onset of the amphibolite facies overprint are about 10 kbar at the same temperature. XCo2 of the H2O-rich fluid phase is regarded to have been 〈0.03 during amphibolite facies conditions. These P-T estimates are interpreted as representing different stages of recrystallization during isothermal decompression. The presence of multiple generations of mineral phases and the preservation of very high-pressure relics in single thin sections preclude pervasive post-peak metamorphic fluid flow as a cause of a re-equilibration within the calc-silicates. The preservation of eclogite facies, very high-pressure relics as well as amphibolite facies reactions textures in the presence of a fluid phase is in agreement with fast, tectonically driven unroofing of these rocks.

Notizen: Mineral stable isotopic and trace element studies in 2 GPa banded eclogites of the Tauern Window, eastern Alps, record mm- to cm-scale heterogeneities that reflect compositional variations in the accompanying metamorphic fluids. A close correlation between dolomite mode and dolomite δ18O is consistent with equilibrium partitioning among coexisting minerals and fluids. Small variations in dolomite δ13C values correspond with δ18O variations, but an overall decrease in dolomite δ13C by c. 1%o across a 12-cm sample is a relict feature that pre-dates eclogite equilibration. Garnet, omphacite, and clinozoisite rims show little systematic mineral-mineral partitioning behaviour for Ti, V, Cr, Y, Sr, or Zr; major elements, however, are well equilibrated among these same minerals. Despite the apparent lack of mineral-mineral trace element equilibration, most of the trace elements vary systematically with water activity calculated in each layer. Trace element behaviour during the eclogite metamorphism thus appears to have been controlled largely by mineral-fluid interactions along grain boundaries.Shallow structural levels in other subduction complexes (c. 10-45 km) typically exhibit fracture-controlled permeability and extensive metasomatism, but there is no field or geochemical evidence for extensive fluid advection during high-pressure metamorphism in the Tauern eclogites. Because most dewatering and devolatilization during tectonic burial occurs prior to eclogite conditions, the volumetric fluid/rock ratio in eclogites should generally be low. Low fluid/rock ratios, coupled with the possible non-wetting nature of the fluids, permits the production and preservation of fine-scale chemical heterogeneities in deeply subducted eclogites and associated fluids. However, the eventual breakdown at greater depth of volatile-bearing dolomite, phengite, clinozoisite, zoisite, or amphibole could lead to renewed fracture-controlled fluid release from the subducted rocks to regions appropriate for arc magma generation.

Notizen: Metamorphism of the Gile Mountain Formation and Waits River Formation in the Strafford Dome and Townshend-Brownington Syncline in east-central Vermont records two nappe-style events, D1 and D2, followed by doming. D1 formed a muscovite + biotite ± ilmenite schistosity subparallel to compositional layering, SO, and was followed by heating to garnet grade. The temperature and pressure at the end of D1 are estimated to be c. 450d̀ C and 6-8 kbar. D2 variably crenulated and folded S1 during a nearly isothermal pressure increase of 1-2 kbar, calculated from compositions of garnet, which have inclusions trails with progressive crenulation and rotation of the S1 fabric. Similar P-T paths are computed for most of the area, suggesting that the later schistosity developed during emplacement of a regional nappe 3-6 km thick. There is a general lack of D3 (dome-stage) microstructures.Near the Strafford-Willoughby Arch, staurolite and kyanite overgrew S2 in pelites, and plagioclase with increasing XAn overgrew S2 in calcic pelites, reflecting post-D2 heating to a maximum of 550-600d̀ C. Metamorphic pressures at the end of D2 are fairly constant on the west side of the dome, indicating minor dome-stage uplift. In contrast, pressures at the thermal peak of metamorphism decrease by more than 4 kbar east of the dome. The observed pattern of isotherms and isobars is mainly the result of post-metamorphic, differential uplift and unroofing.Finally, a minor, retrograde metamorphism produced the assemblage albite + epidote + K-feldspar + muscovite + chlorite, with grade increasing east toward the Connecticut River.

Notizen: Grandite garnet-rich calcsilicate rocks from the Lower Calcsilicate Unit of the regionally metamorphosed Reynolds Range Group (central Australia) crop out along a strike-parallel section in which a transition zone from M22 amphibolite to granulite facies rocks is exposed. Across this transition the grandite-rich layers do not show systematic changes in mineral assemblages, compositions and modes, or stable isotope compositions. These layers are deformed by F22 folds that are associated with the peak of regional low-pressure/high-temperature metamorphism. Therefore, the grandite-rich layers appear to pre-date regional metamorphism and to have acted as closed chemical systems during prograde M22 metamorphism.Mineral assemblages in the grandite-rich layers are consistent with their formation through the infiltration of oxidized, water-rich fluids (Xco2 〈 0.1–0.3; log fo2 -16 to -14). The stable isotope values of calcite (Δ13C=-4.2 to -0.8%0 PDB; Δ18O = 10.5–14.0%0 V-SMOW) and bulk-silicate fractions (Δ18O = 6.1 to 10.8%) of the grandite-rich layers are most consistent with the infiltrating fluid being from a magmatic source. It is most likely that fluid infiltration occurred during the pre-M22 contact metamorphism (M21) that affected much of the Reynolds Range Group. The preservation of these assemblages is probably due to their high variance and little pervasive fluid-rock interaction having occurred during M22.The clinopyroxene- and feldspar-rich calcsilicate rocks that host the grandite-rich layers contain poikiloblastic grandite garnet that formed during prograde M22 metamorphism. Thin marbles that locally occur with the grandite-rich layers contain a third garnet generation that is post- or late M22. This grossular-rich garnet occurs in coronas around calcite, plagioclase, clinopyroxene, wollastonite and scapolite. These coronas are consistent with cooling and/or compression. However, because the marble assemblages are themselves overprinted by M21 grandite-rich layers the development of coronal garnet does not reflect a continuous P-T-t path. Rather, it more probably reflects the partial re-equilibration of M21 contact metamorphic assemblages to post-M22 conditions.

Notizen: Proterozoic granulite facies gneisses in MacRobertson Land, east Antarctica, are cut by numerous D5 mylonite-ultramylonite zones of probable Cambrian age. In garnet-absent mafic two-pyroxene gneisses and garnet-bearing charnockitic orthogneisses, the mylonite-ultramylonite zones are characterized by the growth of garnet at the expense of ilmenite, pyroxene and plagioclase. Textures within each mylonite zone can vary from protomylonitic to ultramylonitic. A range of mineral textures involving M5 garnet is developed corresponding to variations in deformation intensity. In protomylonites, garnet occurs as coronas on orthopyroxene-plagioclase and ilmenite-plagioclase boundaries, and as overgrowths on earlier garnet. In ultramylonites, fine-grained orthopyroxene-plagioclase-garnet ± quartz ± clinopyroxene intergrowths and poikilitic garnet are common. Garnet growth in all shear zones is accompanied by shifts in the compositions of neoblastic minerals occurring with garnet, consistent with local chemical equilibrium having been attained during recrystallization. Mylonitization is inferred to have occurred at P∼ 6.5 kbar. Temperature estimates for M5 vary between 550 and 797d̀ C, which may reflect variations and uncertainties associated with the calibrations used and/or partial re-equilibration during cooling. The presence of post-tectonic, coronate garnet in some mylonite zones indicates that garnet continued to form exclusively in the mylonite zones after movement had ceased and is interpreted to reflect the effects of localized strain heating.

Notizen: Transmission and scanning electron microscopy were utilized to investigate the nature and mechanisms of alteration of abundant detrital biotite of volcanic origin and progressive modification of phyllosilicate aggregates in a prograde sequence of pelitic rocks (illite crystallinity index = 0.19–0.58d̀λ2θ) from the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec.Detrital biotite has been diagenetically altered to form corrensite and chlorite through two mechanisms; (1) layer-by-layer replacement gave rise to interstratification of packets of layers and complex mixed layering via several kinds of layer transitions between biotite and chlorite, corrensite or smectite; (2) dissolution-transport-precipitation resulted in the formation of relatively coarse-grained aggregates of randomly orientated, corrensite-rich flakes and fine-grained corrensite intergrown with chlorite and illite in the matrix.The data show that stacks consisting of alternating packets of trioctahedral and dioctahedral phyllosilicates originated during early diagenesis when lenticular fissures in strained altering biotite were filled by dioctahedral clays. Subsequent prograde evolution of dioctahedral clays occurred through deformation, dissolution and crystallization, and overgrowth. Illite evolved to muscovite, with K in part provided through biotite alteration, and corrensite/chlorite to homogeneous chlorite. The alteration of detrital biotite is closely related to the formation of titanite and magnetite in diagenetic rocks, and pyrite, calcite and anatase or rutile in the higher grade rocks.The observations demonstrate that detrital biotite of volcanic origin may be the principal precursor of chlorite in chlorite-rich metapelites originating in marginal basins. The mineral parageneses suggest that the transitions from corrensite to chlorite and illite to muscovite may be a function of local chemistry and time.

Notizen: A fluid dynamic model for a rigid spherical porphyroblast growing in a viscous fluid matrix undergoing simple shear deformation predicts an arrangement of captured inert inclusions that is remarkably similar to the spiral pattern observed in synkinematic ‘rolled’ garnets. The model assumes only creeping (Stokes) flow of the matrix and a kinetic model for the growth of the porphyroblast of the form rm=kmΩ, where r is the crystal radius, Ω is the amount of shear-induced rotation, and m and k are kinetic parameters. For rotation less than 18d̀, J. B. Thompson and J. L. Rosenfeld's simple ring-model provides a surprisingly accurate description of the three-dimensional geometry of the central inclusion surface in the simulated porphyroblasts. Although marker planes, originally parallel to the shear plane, are deflected around the porphyroblast, their intersections with its surface remain approximately circular for much larger amounts of rotation than anticipated by Rosenfeld. The polar coordinate equation, T(r, θ), of the double spiral formed by the trace of the central inclusion surface in a section through the centre of simulated porphyroblasts, is also surprisingly simple, as follows: rm∼ (6/5k)mθ. This relationship was observed over the complete range of rotation angles investigated, 0-720d̀, and could form a reasonable basis for estimating the growth-rotation history of rolled garnets from the shape of their spiral inclusion trails. Two-dimensional sections through the simulated porphyroblasts, parallel to the rotation axis, yield ‘clamshell’ (Rosenfeld's term) inclusion geometries similar to the controversial ‘millipede’ patterns observed in many natural porphyroblasts.

Notizen: Detailed textural and chemical data for mineral assemblages on a regional scale are presented for the metaandesitic Eocene-Oligocene Taveyanne greywacke of the Glarus Alps, Eastern Switzerland. Presented data indicate an increase of metamorphic grade from zeolite facies to prehnite-pumpellyite and pumpellyite-actinolite facies. Low-grade outcrops contain laumontite, minor corrensite and pumpellyite (assemblage type 1), whereas outcrops of higher metamorphic grade contain prehnite and two populations of pumpellyite (type 2), prehnite—pumpellyite-(Al)—white mica (type 3), a single outcrop shows pumpellyite-actinolite facies (type 4). From the zeolite to prehnite-pumpellyite/pumpellyite-actinolite facies there are indications for an increase of the chemical equilibrium domain size for the critical paragenesis from a single detrital grain ≤1 mm) in type 1, to a few millimetres in type 2, and to a whole thin section in type 3. Metamorphic P-T conditions were determined by a combination of chlorite thermometry, fluid inclusion and vitrinite reflectance data. Peak temperatures range from 170-190d̀ C for zeolite facies to 270-310d̀ C for prehnite-pumpellyite and pumpellyite-actinolite facies. For the higher temperature range, pressures of 2-3 kbar are derived indicating a geothermal gradient of 24-32d̀ C km-1. The well-constrained temperature estimations derived for the assemblages provide a useful test of the different empirical calibrations of chlorite thermometers recently proposed. The best correspondence to the temperatures determined here is for the Cathelineau calibration. In addition, in the lower grade samples differences in textures and calculated temperatures provide a mean to distinguish between detrital and newly formed chlorites.

Notizen: Discordant andalusite-biotite-quartz-bearing veins occur in the contact aureole of the Vedrette di Ries pluton (Italian Eastern Alps), never outside the area of contact metamorphic andalusite development. Andalusite veins are found only within andalusite-bearing hornfelses, and vein biotite occurs wherever host-rock garnet is partially replaced by biotite. Veins formed during contact metamorphism, synchronously with the crystallization of andalusite and biotite within host rocks. Their pegmatitic structure and their orientation suggest that vein parageneses crystallized within fluid-filled cavities that opened by hydraulic fracturing.A mechanism of synmetamorphic veining is proposed to explain rock failure and subsequent mineral deposition within veins. During hydrofracturing induced by dehydration reactions in response to heating in the aureole, fissures were immediately filled with locally derived fluids. The lack of large-scale flux, together with high fluid pressures required by hydrofracturing, suggest fluid in the cavities was a virtually stagnant, passive medium, and that mass-transport toward fractures was driven by intergranular diffusion. Because temperature and Pf values within veins are similar to those in the host rock, vein assemblages are interpreted as the stable, high-T side of reactions taking place within pelitic schists, at the time when fractures opened. Once nucleation of product phases occurred, chemical components released by dissolution of reactant minerals were driven to precipitation sites by chemical potential gradients. Since nucleation was favoured at the strained grains of vein walls, andalusite and biotite simultaneously grew in vein and host rock.The proposed genetic model contrasts with generally adopted metasomatic mechanisms for the genesis of Al2SiO5-bearing veins, in not requiring large fluid/rock ratios or a highly ‘aggressive’ fluid composition. The mechanism of synmetamorphic veining may be particularly useful in the interpretation of vein occurrences in medium- and deep-crustal rocks which have undergone extensive devolatilization.

Notizen: Mineral and isotope studies were undertaken on migmatites from the Schwarzwald, Moldanubian zone of the Variscan belt. The aims of the study were to date the migmatite formation and to determine the processes involved in migmatization in order to evaluate their influence on isotopic resetting. Textural evidence and the comparison of mineral compositions from leucosomes and mesosomes of two centimetre-scale migmatite profiles, respectively, suggest that migmatitic textures and mineral assemblages were formed by metamorphic segregation (deformation-enhanced mass transport) rather than by partial melting (anatexis). The results of Rb-Sr thin-slab dating on these profiles indicate that Sr isotopes were not completely reset during migmatization. No true isochron ages, but ages of approximate isotopic homogenization were obtained on the thin slabs by calculating 87Sr/86Sr ratios back to various stages in their evolution. The coincidence of these Rb-Sr data with U-Pb ages of monazites from migmatites and non-migmatitic gneisses shows that gneisses and migmatites were formed during the same high-temperature event in the Carboniferous (330-335 Ma). The observation that high-temperature metamorphism failed to equilibrate Sr isotopes on the centimetre-scale imposes limitations on the use of conventional whole-rock isochron techniques in dating migmatites.

Notizen: In the inner aureole of the Bufa del Diente alkali syenite (north-east Mexico), thin calcareous argillite bands horizontally embedded in impure marbles acted as contact-metamorphic aquifers for hypersaline brines of magmatic origin. Thick-bedded marbles were largely impervious. From 180 m up to the intrusion contact, argillites were completely decarbonated, resulting in melilite + wollastonite + phlogopite + perovskite-bearing parageneses. In marbles, this assemblage is confined to a narrow 7-12-m-wide infiltration zone adjacent to the contact. Up to this distance, calcite + wollastonite + diopside + alkali feldspar + titanite was stable, indicating that the fluid evolution in these marbles was internally buffered.Brine infiltration from the metaargillite aquifer into the marbles occurred perpendicular to the marble-metaargillite boundaries and was confined to a zone 4-6 cm wide above the boundaries. This is documented by the three reactionsCc + Di = Mel + CO2, (1)Cc + Kfs + Di + H2O = Phl + Wo + CO2, (2)Cc + Ttn = Prv + Wo + CO2, (3)Melilites (Ak32-45Gh13-32Sm32-40 to Ak52-72Gh0-1Sm28-48) occur as rims around diopsides and become continuously thicker towards the metaargillite beds. Fluid inclusion observations suggest that the infiltrating brine was hypersaline (NaCl + KClcq∼ 65 wt%) and that the reactions took place at the water-rich side of the H2O-CO2-salts immiscibility field at about 600d̀ C (2, 3) and 660 to 680d̀ C (1) at P∼ 1200 bar and Xco2∼ 0.02.Mass balance calculations show that the amount of brine infiltrated from the aquifer into the marble was very low and decreased continuously with increasing distance from the boundary. The maximum width of brine infiltration was about 6 cm. This confirms that brine flow was largely parallel to the aquifer, not perpendicular to it. The CO2 produced by the decarbonation reactions probably escaped as an immiscible low-density H2O-CO2 fluid of Xco2≤ 0.5 into overlying marble via grain-edge flow. The metaargillite-marble boundary acted as a semipermeable membrane 6 cm in thickness keeping back the brine in the aquifer and losing the in-situ produced low-density CO2-rich fluid.

Notizen: During the Alice Springs Orogeny, deformation at Ormiston Gorge, central Australia, occurred under lower- to middle-greenschist facies conditions. Dolomites of the Bitter Springs Formation and quartzites. metagreywackes, and metapelites of the Heavitree Quartzite contain abundant early-, syn-, and post-tectonic veins. However, though vein densities locally approach 15%, the distribution of veins and the oxygen isotope geochemistry of wallrocks and veins suggest that fluid movement was on a local scale. The Heavitree Quartzite contains quartz veins that, even along the main thrust plane, have similar δ18O values (13.5–16.9%o) to those of their wallrocks (13.6–16.9%o), with Δ18O(vein-wallrock) values of -0.6 to 0.4%o. In contrast, the Bitter Springs Formation contains predominantly dolomite veins that have δ18O values of 23.4 to 27.7%o. These differences are observed even at the boundary between the Heavitree and Bitter Springs rocks, implying that significant fluid exchange between these rocks has not occurred, or that fluid flow was channelled through areas outside those sampled for this study. By contrast with the Heavitree Quartzite, δ18O values of wallrocks in individual samples of the Bitter Springs Formation are significantly higher (23.3–29.1%o) than those of the veins, with δ18O(vein-wallrock) values up to -4%o (average of -2.1%o). These systematic differences in δ18O values most likely result from oxygen isotope fractionation caused by fluid immiscibility or disequilibrium dissolution. Smaller differences in δ13C values between some dolomite veins and wallrocks [δ13C(vein-wallrock) up to -1.9%o, average of -0.5%o] are also explained by these processes. This study indicates that large volumes of veins may be produced by repeated fracturing and fluid migration within particular rock units, without involving large volumes of externally derived fluids.

Notizen: Calcite and quartz veins have formed, and are forming, in steeply dipping fissures in the actively rising Alpine Schist metamorphic belt of New Zealand. The fluids that deposited these minerals were mostly under hydrostatic pressure almost down to the brittle-ductile transition, which has been raised to 5-6 km depth by rapid uplift. Some fluids were trapped under lithostatic pressures. Fluids in the fissure veins were immiscible H2O + NaCl-CO2 mixtures at 200-350d̀ C. Bulk fluid composition is 15-20 mol% CO2 and 〈4.3 total mol CH4+ N2+ Ar/100mol H2O. Water hydrogen isotopic ratio δDH2O in the fissure veins spans -29 to -68‰, δ18OH2O -0.7 to 8.5‰, and bulk carbon isotopic ratio δ13C ranges from -3.7 to -11.7‰. The oxygen and hydrogen isotopic data suggest that the water has a predominantly meteoric source, and has undergone an oxygen isotope shift as a result of interaction with the host metamorphic rock. Similar fluids were present during cooling and uplift. Dissolved carbon is not wholly derived from residual metamorphic fluids; part may be generated by oxidation of graphite.

Notizen: In the central Minto Block of northern Québec, the Lake Minto and Goudalie domains are dominated, respectively, by orthopyroxene-bearing plutonic suites (granite-granodiorite and diatexite) and a tonalitic gneiss complex, both of which contain scattered remnant paragneisses. Two main granulite-grade mineral assemblages are observed in the paragneiss: garnet (Grt)-orthopyroxene (Opx)-plagioclase-quartz (GOPQ) and garnet (Grt)-cordierite (Crd)-sillimanite-plagioclase-quartz (GCSPQ). These show distinct lithological associations, with the GCSPQ assemblages occurring exclusively within the diatexite in the Lake Minto domain. Petrogenetic grid considerations demonstrate that the GOPQ rocks are higher grade than the GCSPQ rocks. Maximum temperatures for GOPQ rocks, obtained from equilibria based on Al solubility in orthopyroxene in equilibrium with garnet, range from 950 to 1000d̀ C, significantly higher than garnet-orthopyroxene Fe-Mg exchange temperatures of 700 ± 50d̀ C, the latter probably representing a closure temperature below peak conditions. The Al temperatures were corrected for late cation exchange by adjusting the Fe/(Fe + Mg) ratios in garnet and orthopyroxene, to achieve internal consistency between the GOPQ thermometers and barometers. Grt-Crd thermometry records temperatures of 750±50d̀ C. Peak P-T conditions range from 5-6 kbar and 750-800d̀ C in the Goudalie and eastern Lake Minto domains, to 7-10 kbar and 950-1000d̀ C in the western and central Lake Minto domain. This variability contrasts with the uniform crustal pressures of 5 ± 1 kbar recorded by the GCSPQ assemblages in the diatexites and the hornblende granodiorites (c. 4-5 kbar) across the same area. The GOPQ rocks are inferred to record earlier P-T conditions that prevailed before the formation of GCSPQ assemblages and the intrusion of the granodiorites. Partial P-T paths in GOPQ rocks from both domains, based on net transfer equilibria corrected for Fe-Mg resetting, document cooling of 100-250d̀ C from thermal-peak conditions, concomitant with a modest pressure decrease of 2-3 kbar. Although textures diagnostic of isobaric cooling are not developed, the paths are consistent with a tectonic model in which granulite metamorphism and crustal thickening in the Minto Block were consequences of magmatic underplating. The progression from higher P-T conditions recorded by GOPQ assemblages to lower P-T conditions recorded by GCSPQ assemblages is attributed to variable amounts of synmagmatic uplift and cooling in a single, continuous thermal event in the Minto crust, associated with protracted crustal magmatism. In the Goudalie and eastern Lake Minto domains, where GOPQ and GCSPQ rocks and Hbl granodiorites have similar P-T conditions of equilibration, the crust may not have been thickened as much as further west, where GOPQ P-T conditions are significantly higher than those of the hornblende granodiorites and the GCSPQ rocks.

Notizen: A sequence of regional metamorphic isograds indicating a range from prehnite-pumpellyite to lower amphibolite facies was mapped in metabasites near Flin Flon, Manitoba. The lowest grade rocks contain prehnite + pumpellyite and are cut by younger brittle faults containing epidote + chlorite + calcite. Isobaric temperature-XCO2 and pressure-temperature (constant XCO2) diagrams were calculated to quantify the effects of CO2 in the metamorphic fluid on the stability of prehnite-pumpellyite facies minerals in metabasites containing excess quartz and chlorite. Prehnite and, to a lesser extent, pumpellyite are stable only in fluids with Xco2 〈0.002. For Xco2〉0.002, epidote + chlorite + calcite assemblages are stable. Our calculated phase relations are consistent with regional metamorphism in the Flin Flon area in the presence of an H2O-rich fluid and a more CO2-rich fluid in the later fault zones. We believe that the potential effects of small amounts of CO2 in the metamorphic fluid should be assessed when considering the pressure-temperature implications of mineral assemblages in low-grade metabasites.

Notizen: The Palghat Gap region is located near the centre of the large southern Indian granulite terrane. at the northern edge of the Kodaikanal charnockite massif. The dominant rock types in the region are hornblende-biotite ± orthopyroxene gneisses and charnockites along with minor amounts of intercalated mafic granulite, metapelite and calc-silicate. The P-T estimates from garnetiferous mafic granulites and metapelite samples are generally in the range 9-10 kbar and 800-900d̀ C using both conventional thermobarometric methods and the TWEEQU thermobarometry program. These P-T estimates, which should be taken as minimum values, are among the highest yet reported for South Indian and Sri Lankan granulites. The occurrence of orthopyroxene + plagioclase symplectites around embayed garnet grains in the mafic granulites and cordierite rims around garnet grains in metapelite suggest an isothermal decompression-type path. Similarly, a core-rim P-T trajectory indicates c. 3 and 7 kbar decompression at high temperature in the mafic granulites and metapelite, respectively. In both rock types, the key to the determination of the retrograde P-T path was the recognition of small amounts of second generation plagioclase with a more anorthitic composition than the matrix plagioclase. The preservation of high garnet-pyroxene temperatures in the mafic granulites (despite small garnet grain size) suggests rapid cooling of the terrane. Calculated minimum cooling rates range from 8 to 80d̀ C Ma-1. Such cooling rates are more rapid than those associated with normal isostatic processes and suggest that the terrane was tectonically exhumed at high temperature.

Notizen: Microstructural timing relationships indicate that the Rosebery massive sulphide ore, western Tasmania, Australia, formed by metasomatic replacement of ‘sericite’ schist during a Devonian deformation event (D3). This interpretation is contrary to earlier volcanogenic-based interpretations, but accords with the discordant position and inferred structurally controlled emplacement of the orebody. The main timing criteria are: overprinting of S3 by the late ore minerals, replacement textures in undeformed mineral parageneses, and a D3 structural control from the microscopic to the macroscopic scales. The consistent observation of these criteria in the orebody and the complete lack of pre-D3 ore argue against in situ dissolution of a primary orebody and local redeposition of sulphides by replacement.D3 deformation at Rosebery is inferred to have been characterized by heterogeneous cleavage-parallel extension, which resulted in localized microfracturing and selective replacement of zones of maximum strain rate. Continuous shifts in the strain-rate distribution pattern during progressive mineralization led to the compositional ore banding.Published Pb-isotope data point towards a Cambrian source rock for the orebody. This suggests a metamorphogenic origin by regional-scale dissolution of dispersed volcanogenic metals, focused solution transfer and concentrated redeposition in a structural trap.

Notizen: Granulite facies metasedimentary gneiss exposed on Jetty Peninsula, east Antarctica, contains assemblages involving garnet-sillimanite-biotite-cordierite-spinel-ilmenite-rutile and garnet-orthopyroxene-cordierite-biotite, as well as quartz and K-feldspar. Peak assemblages involve garnet + sillimanite + ilmenite (±rutile) and garnet + orthopyroxene. P-T calculations suggest formation conditions of approximately 800d̀ C at 7-7.5 kbar. Cooling from peak conditions is suggested by biotite + garnet (±sillimanite) overprinting some peak assemblages. A subsequent increase in temperature is inferred from the formation of cordierite + garnet + biotite + ilmenite, garnet + sillimanite + cordierite + ilmenite and cordierite + orthopyroxene assemblages during D2. In slightly zincian bulk compositions, hercynitic spinel + cordierite + sillimanite constitutes the peak D2 assemblage. Average pressure calculations indicate peak pressures of 5.9 ±0.4 kbar at 700d̀ C for the cordierite-bearing D2 assemblages. Available radiometric data suggest that peak metamorphism occurred at c. 1000 Ma and D2 occurred after 940 ± 20 Ma. The following two possibilities exist for the metamorphic evolution. (1) The formation of the lower pressure cordierite-bearing assemblages is associated with a separate metamorphic event (M2), unrelated to the peak assemblage (M1), and the lower pressure assemblages have no relevance in terms of a single tectonothermal event. (2) The cordierite-bearing assemblages formed during a progression from peak conditions. In this case, the lower pressure assemblages reflect a broadly decompressional metamorphic evolution, during which temperatures fluctuated. Comparison with P-T paths from granulites of similar age in adjacent areas suggests that the second possibility should be preferred. The cooling interval between peak conditions and the development of cordierite-bearing coronas and symplectites suggests affinities with isobarically cooled granulites of similar age immediately to the west, and the low-P/high-T post-peak conditions are similar to the later stages of decompressional paths recognized in much of east Antarctica.

Notizen: A petrogenetic grid is presented for the system KFMASH (K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O), including biotite, muscovite, K-feldspar, chlorite, chloritoid, staurolite, cordierite, garnet, orthoamphibole, orthopyroxene, spinel, andalusite, sillimanite, kyanite, quartz and corundum with H2O in excess, which was calculated using the computer program THERMOCALC and the Powell and Holland internally consistent thermodynamic dataset. By removing the normal constraint of having quartz in excess, both quartz-bearing and quartz-absent equilibria are shown. Quartz-absent equilibria are particularly relevant at high-T and low-P conditions, because of their common occurrence at these conditions. The calculated mineral assemblage and mineral compositional variations in terms of FeMg-1 and (Fe, Mg)SiAl-2 exchange vectors are broadly compatible with observations on natural rocks, particularly when non-KFMASH components are taken into account.

Notizen: Vein-controlled retrograde infiltration of H2O-CO2 fluids into Dalradian epidote amphibolite facies rocks of the SW Scottish Highlands under greenschist facies conditions resulted in alteration of calcite-rich marble bands to dolomite and spatially associated 18O enrichment of about 10%. on a scale of metres. Fluid inclusion data indicate that the retrograde fluid was an H2O-salt mixture with a low CO2 content, and that the temperature of the fluid was about 400d̀ C. Detailed petrographic and textural (backscattered electron imaging) studies at one garnet-grade locality show that advection of fluid into marbles proceeded by a calcite-calcite grain edge flow mechanism, while alteration of non-carbonate wall-rock is associated with veinlets and microcracks.Stable isotopic analysis of carbonates from marble bands provides evidence for advection of isotopic fronts through carbonate wall-rocks perpendicular to dolomite veins, and fluid fluxes in the range 2.4–28.6 m3/m2 have been computed from measured advection distances. Coincidence of isotope and reaction fronts is considered to result from reaction-enhanced kinetics of isotope exchange at the reaction front. Front advection distances are related to the proportion of calcite to quartz in each marble band, with the largest advection distance occurring in nearly pure calcite matrix. This relationship indicates that fluid flow in carbonates is only possible along fluid-calcite-calcite grain edges. However, experimental constraints on dihedral angles in calcite-fluid systems require that pervasive infiltration occurred in response to calcite dissolution initiated at calcite-calcite grain junctions rather than to an open calcite pore geometry.The regional extent of the retrograde infiltration event has been documented from the high δ18O of dolomite-ankerite carbonates from veins and host-rocks over an area of least 50 × 50 km in the SW Scottish Highlands. Isotopically exotic 18O-rich retrograde fluids have moved rapidly upwards through the crust, inducing isotopic exchange and mineral reaction in wall-rocks only where lithology, pore geometry or mineral solubilities, pressure and temperature have been appropriate for pervasive infiltration to occur.

Notizen: The role of volatiles in the stabilization of the lower (granulite facies) crust is contentious. Opposing models invoke infiltration of CO2-rich fluids or generally vapour-absent conditions during granulite facies metamorphism. Stable isotope and petrological studies of granulite facies metacarbonates can provide constraints on these models. In this study data are presented from metre-scale forsteritic marble boudins within Archaean intermediate to felsic orthogneisses from the Rauer Group, East Antarctica.Forsteritic marble layers and associated calcsilicates preserve a range of 13C- and 18O-depleted calcite isotope values (δ13C= -9.9 to -3.0% PDB, δ18O = 4.0 to 12.1% SMOW). A coupled trend of 13C and 18O depletion (∼2%, ∼5%, respectively) from core to rim across one marble layer is inconsistent with pervasive CO2 infiltration during granulite facies metamorphism, but does indicate localized fluid-rock interaction. At another locality, more pervasive fluid infiltration has resulted in calcite having uniformly low, carbonatite-like δ18O and δ13C values. A favoured mechanism for the low δ18O and δ13C values of the marbles is infiltration by fluids that were derived from, or equilibrated with, a magmatic source. It is likely that this fluid-rock interaction occurred prior to high-grade metamorphism; other fluid-rock histories are not, however, ruled out by the available data. Coupled trends of 13C and 18O depletion are modified to even lower values by the superposed development of small-scale metasomatic reaction zones between marbles and internally folded mafic (?) interlayers. The timing of development of these layers is uncertain, but may be related to Archaean high-temperature (〉1000d̀C) granulite facies metamorphism.

Notizen: The effects of high-strain deformation and fluid infiltration during Alpine eclogite facies metamorphism have been studied across ductile shear zones in relatively undeformed metagranitoids at Monte Mucrone (Sesia Zone, Western Alps, Italy). Microfabrics together with bulk rock and stable isotope data indicate that the mineralogical and chemical variations are related to the degree of deformation, rather than to changes in P-T conditions or tectonic position. Transformation of meta-quartz diorite to recrystallized eclogitic mylonites involved the breakdown of biotite and plagioclase and required the influx of H2O. Bulk-rock geochemical data show that ductile deformation to form eclogitic mylonites involved an increase in volume with a weight percent gain in H2O and Si and variable loss of K, Na, Ca and Al. δ18O changes systematically across ductile shear zones into the undeformed country rocks. Constant values in shear zone centres indicate advection parallel to the shear zone and within 10 cm of the mylonites. A dominant component of diffusive oxygen exchange perpendicular to the shear zones produced isotopic fronts, evident from a gradual increase in δ18O values to the reference values of the country rocks. The degree of isotopic shift within the shear zones reflects increasing deformation and degree of reaction progress.Multiple phases of Alpine deformation and mineral growth are recognized in the Monte Mucrone metagranitoids, and in some cases, eclogite facies shear zones were reactivated under greenschist facies conditions. The results of this study suggest that high-strain deformation provided pathways for both synkinematic and post-kinematic metamorphic fluids which were necessary for complete reactions. Relict igneous fabrics, as well as the presence of corona textures around biotite and pseudomorphs after primary igneous plagioclase in the least deformed rocks, indicate a paucity of hydrous fluids and support the conclusion that fluid movement was channelled rather than pervasive.

Notizen: Granulite facies anorthosites on Holsenøy Island in the Bergen Arcs region of western Norway are transected by shear zones 0.1–100 m wide characterized by eclogite facies assemblages. Eclogite formation is related to influx of fluid along the shears at temperatures of c. 700d̀C and pressures in excess of 1.7 GPa. Combined carbon and nitrogen stable isotope, 40Ar/36Ar, trace-element and petrological data have been used to determine the nature and distribution of fluids across the anorthosite-eclogite transition.A metre-wide drilled section traverses the eclogitic centre of the shear into undeformed granulite facies garnet-clinopyroxene anorthosite. Clinozoisite occurs along grain boundaries and microcracks in undeformed anorthosite up to 1 m from the centre of the shear and clinozoisite increases in abundance as the edge of the shear zone is approached. The eclogite-granulite transition, marked by the appearance of sodic pyroxene and loss of albite, occurs within the most highly sheared section of the traverse. The jadeite-in reaction coincides with increased paragonite activity in mica. The separation between paragonite and clinozoisite reaction fronts can be semiquantitatively modelled assuming advective fluid flow perpendicular to the shear zone. The inner section of the traverse (0.25 m wide) is marked by retrogressive replacement of omphacite by plagioclase + paragonite accompanied by veins of quartz-phengite-plagioclase.C-N-Ar characteristics of fluid inclusions in garnet show that fluids associated with precursor granulite, eclogite and retrogressed eclogite are isotopically distinct. The granulite-eclogite transition coincides with a marked change in CO2 abundance and δ13C (〈36ppm, δ13C=-2% in the granulite; 〈180 ppm, δ13C=-10% in the eclogite). The distribution of Ar indicates mixing between influxed fluid (40Ar/36Ar 〉 25 times 103) and pre-existing Ar in the granulite (40Ar/36Ar 〈 8 times 103). δ15N values decrease from +6% in the anorthosite to +3% within the eclogite shear. The central zone of retrogressed eclogite post-dates shearing and is characterised by substantial enrichment of Si, K, Ba and Rb. Fluids are CO2-rich (δ13C ∼ -5%) with variable N2 and Ar abundances and isotopic compositions.Both Ar and H2O have penetrated the underformed granulite fabric more than 0.5m beyond the granulite/eclogite transition during eclogite formation. Argon isotopes show a mixing profile consistent with diffusion through an interconnecting H2O-rich fluid network. In contrast, a carbon-isotope front coincides with the deformation boundary layer, indicating that the underformed anorthosite was impervious to CO2-rich fluids. This is consistent with the high dihedral angle of carbonic fluids, and may be interpreted in terms of evolving fluid compositions within the shear zone.

Notizen: Ultramafic blocks that themselves contain eclogite lenses in the Triassic Su-Lu ultrahigh-P terrane of eastern China range in size from hundreds of metres to kilometres. The ultramafic blocks are enclosed in quartzofeldspathic gneiss of early Proterozoic age. Ultramafic rocks include garnetiferous lherzolite, wehrlite, pyroxenite, and hornblende peridotite. Garnet lherzolites are relatively depleted in Al2O3 (〈3.8wt%), CaO (〈3.2%) and TiO2 (〈0.11 wt%), and are low in total REE contents (several p.p.m.), suggesting that the rocks are residual mantle material that was subjected to low degrees of partial melting. The eclogite lenses or layers within the ultramafic rocks are characterized by higher MgO and CaO, lower Al2O3 and TiO2 contents, and a higher CaO/Al2O3 ratio compared to eclogites enclosed in the quartzofeldspathic gneiss. Scatter in the plots of major and trace elements vs. MgO, REE patterns and La, Sm and Lu contents suggest that some eclogites were derived from melts formed by various degrees (0.05–0.20) of partial melting of peridotite, and that other eclogites formed by accumulation of garnet and clinopyroxene ± trapped melt in the upper mantle.Both ultramafic and eclogitic rocks have experienced a complex metamorphic history. At least six stages of recrystallization occurred in the ultramafic rocks based on an analysis of reaction textures and mineral compositions. Stage I is a high temperature protolith assemblage of Ol + Opx + Cpx + Spl. Stage II consists of the ultrahigh-pressure assemblage Ol + Cpx + Opx + Grt. Stage III is manifested by the appearance of fine-grained garnet after coarse-grained garnet. Stage IV is characterized by formation of kelyphitic rims of fibrous Opx and Cpx around garnet, and replacement of garnet by spinel and pargasitic-hornblende. Stage V is represented by the assemblage Ol + Opx + Prg-Hbl + Spl. The mineral assemblages of stages VIA and VIB are Ol + Tr-Amp + Chl and Serp + Chl ± talc, respectively. Garnet and orthopyroxene all show a decrease in MgO with retrogressive recrystallization and Na2O in clinopyroxene also decreases throughout this history. Eclogites enclosed within ultramafic blocks consist of Grt + Omp + Rt ± Qtz ± Phn. A few quartz-bearing eclogites contain rounded and oval inclusion of polycrystalline quartz aggregates after coesite in garnet and omphacite. Minor retrograde features include thin symplectic rims or secondary amphiboles after Cpx, and ilmenite after rutile. P-T estimates indicate that the ultrahigh-metamorphism (stage II) of ultramafic rocks occurred at 820-900d̀ C and 36-41 kbar and that peak metamorphism of eclogites occurred at 730-900d̀ C and 〉28 kbar. Consonant with earlier plate tectonic models, we suggest that these rocks were underplated at the base of the continental crust. The rocks then underwent ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism and were tectonically emplaced into thickened continental crust during the Triassic collision between the Sino-Korean and Yangtze cratons.

Notizen: Jadeitites from Guatemala are found as weathered blocks in tectonized serpentinite in a 15-km zone north of the Motagua Fault Zone. Rock types found with jadeitite include albitites, albite-mica rocks, omphacite/taramitic amphibole-bearing metabasites, chlorite-actinolite schists, talc-carbonate rocks and antigorite schists. In addition to the predominant jadeitic (Jd93_100) pyroxene, common phases in jadeitite include micas (paragonite and/or phengite ± rarer phlogopite), omphacite, albite, titanite /Pm zircon, apatite and graphite. Conditions of jadeitite formation are 100-400d̀ C, 5-11 kbar with 0.0 〉 log10asio2≥= 0.7. Fluid inclusions, coarse textures, vein structures, and rhythmic zoning of pyroxene indicate an aqueuos fluid was involved. Jadeitites are either (1) metasomatic modifications of former felsic-to-pelitic inclusions that have undergone silica depletion plus efficient soda exchange and enrichment, or (2) solution precipitations derived from such a source. The close spatial relationship of faults and shear zones, serpentinites, and jadeitites suggests jadeitites form in a relatively high-P/T setting with substantial flow of sodic fluid in a tectonized zone.Most Guatemalan jadeitites are extensively altered to analcime, albite, taramitic amphibole, (clino)zoisite ± nepheline and preiswerkite. This alteration reflects depressurization /Pm heating to below the jadeite + fluid = analcime reaction at high aNa. With progressive alteration, analcime and nepheline are replaced by albite; the increase in silica content may result from fluid flowing up a tectonized zone reaching saturation with an albite assemblage. Albitite phases, albite, actinolite, zoisite, /Pm chlorite, phengite, K-feldspar and quartz, record conditions of c. 3-8 kbar at T 〈 400d̀ C, indicating a clockwise P-T trajectory of the blocks.Barium aluminosilicates—banalsite, celsian, cymrite and hyalophane—are common minor late-stage phases in jadeitites and albite-rich rocks. Barian phengite is common in albite-mica rocks.

Notizen: Mineral assemblages in metapelites of the contact aureole of the Tono granodiorite mass, northeast Japan, change systematically during progressive metamorphism along an isobaric path at 2-3 kbar. The bulk rock compositions of metapelites are aluminous with A′ values on an AFM projection larger than that of the chlorite join. The metapelites commonly contain paragonite in the low-grade zone. With increasing temperatures, andalusite is formed by the breakdown of paragonite. The importance of pyrophyllite as a source of Al2SiO5 polymorphs is limited in typical pelitic rocks.The most common type of metapelite in the study area has FeO/(FeO + MgO) = 0.5–0.6, and develops assemblages involving chlorite, andalusite, biotite, cordierite, K-feldspar, sillimanite and almandine, with paragenetic changes similar to other andalusite-sillimanite type aureoles. Rocks with FeO/(FeO + MgO) 〉 0.8 progressively develop chloritoid-bearing assemblages from Bt-Chl-Cld, And-Bt-Cld, to And-Bt at temperatures between the breakdown of paragonite and the appearance of cordierite in the more common pelitic rocks in the aureole. The paragenetic relations are explained by a KFMASH univariant reaction of Chl + Cld = And + Bt located to the low-temperature side of the formation of cordierite by the terminal equilibrium of chlorite. A P-T model depicting the relative stability of chloritoid and staurolite at low- and medium-pressure conditions, respectively, is proposed, based on the derived location of the Chl + Cld = And + Bt reaction combined with the theoretical phase relations among biotite, chlorite, chloritoid, garnet and staurolite.

Notizen: The objective of this study was to evaluate seven woody plant species on four growth media for their potential contribution to moose habitat and establishment of viable plant communities on a proposed mine site in southcentral Alaska. Populus balsamifera (balsam poplar), Salix alaxensis (feltleaf willow), S. barclayi (Barclay willow), S. bebbiana (Bebb willow), Alnus tenuifolia (thinleaf alder), Betula papyrifera (paper birch), and Picea glauca (white spruce) were selected for their functions in moose habitat, ease of propagation, and presence in the existing native vegetation. Three native soils were selected for biological characteristics such as different potential to form mycorrhizae and to regenerate local plant species, both of which are governed partly by existing vegetation. The fourth growth medium, glacial till or overburden, was expected to have little or no biological activity. A mining disturbance was simulated on three sites by removing existing vegetation from the plots, stripping the native soils, and then spreading these soil materials over the respective study plots. Rooted cuttings of the Salicaceae and nursery seedlings of the other species were planted in each of the four growth media. Height and survival of all plant species were greater on the three soil media than on the glacial till during the second and third years. Percentage of ectomycorrhizal infection on transplants was similar among growth media, although lower ectomycorrhizal infection occurred on volunteers in grassland soils than in the other growth media. Browsable plants were produced within three years on the disturbed native soils but not on the glacial till.

Notizen: Seagrass transplanting experiments were conducted in Back Sound, Carteret County, North Carolina, and Tampa Bay, Pinellas County, Florida. In Florida, we compared three planting methods (cores, stapled bare root, and peat-pot plugs) for shoot addition rate coverage, and labor cost (harvest, fabrication, and deployment) using Halodule wrightii. Only planting methods and development rates were recorded for Syringodium filiforme. Fertilizer additions were made to peat-pot plantings of H. wrightii and Zostera marina in both North Carolina and Florida. Exclosure cages were tested to attempt to minimize bioturbation of H. wrightii and Z. marina in both North Carolina and Florida. Recovery from harvesting impacts to existing, natural beds of S. filiforme and H. wrightii were assessed in Florida. The peat-pot method was about 35% and 63% less expensive in work time than staples and core tubes, respectively. Response to fertilizer additions was masked by inconsistent release properties of the fertilizer, although some indication of positive response to phosphorus fertilizer in sediments with low carbonate content, and nitrogen in general, was detected. Complete loss of peat pots, largely ascribed to bioturbation, occurred in a large planting (Tampa Bay) but not in nearby smaller ones where exclosure cages were used. Cages did not affect planting unit survival in North Carolina but did improve number of shoots per planting unit in one of three experiments. No detrimental effects of cages were noted. Existing natura beds used to harvest transplanting stock in Tampa Bay recovered from excavations as large as 0.5 m2 in one year. Significant cost savings were found to be possible through methodological improvement, including planting techniques, bioturbation exclusion, and possibly fertilizer additions.

Notizen: Land rehabilitation is proposed as a management strategy to reverse the negative consequences of tropical deforestation and land degradation. We first define the concepts associated with ecosystem modification—conversion, damage, and degradation—and those associated with ecosystem repair—restoration, rehabilitation, and reclamation. We then present a scheme of sustainable land use in the tropics, with illustrations of how rehabilitation and restoration activities fit into the overall scheme of the use of land. Because damaged lands cannot contribute effectively to sustained economic development, land rehabilitation is a necessary step for increasing the chances of attaining sustainability. Approaches for rehabilitating ecosystems are discussed, including the management of stressors and subsidies in relation to their point of interaction in the ecosystem. Finally, we illustrate the concepts of ecosystem rehabilitation of damaged, degraded, and derelict lands with examples of case studies from dry to humid life zones in island and continental situations throughout the tropics. The case studies demonstrate that opportunities for success exist, even with severely degraded lands, but a considerable amount of research remains to be done before we have a full understanding of the complexity of the task facing us.

Notizen: The foundation of a successful revegetation or restoration program is quality native seed. This requires careful collection, processing, and storage. Mature seed should be collected from healthy, local stands with a sufficiently broad genetic base. Careful identification of the site characteristics and seed-lot tracking are essential. Yearly variation in seed production and seed quality can be very high, and an early determination of seed quality can prevent expensive failures. Nondestructive evaluation using X-rays is effective and economical, but techniques such as staining, inspection, and germination tests can also be helpful. Cleaning, dewinging, and upgrading seed before storage can (1) reduce weight and bulk, (2) improve storage life, (3) increase germination, and (4) make greenhouse production and field planting easier and more economical. The seeds of many native plants can lose their viability quickly if they are not stored under controlled conditions. Seeds in storage must also be protected from rodents, pests, and disease. Dormancy is common in the seeds of many native species, and experimentation is often necessary to determine the best way to break seed dormancy. This can be complicated by year-to-year and plant-to-plant variation.

Notizen: The performance of woody plants was analyzed in 15 successional seres starting at bare ground in central European manmade habitats. The total cover of woody species after 10 years of succession was significantly related neither to initial soil moisture nor to nitrogen (expressed using Ellenberg indicator values). But the comparison of seres indicates that establishment of woody plants was easier under moderate environmental conditions and retarded in extreme habitats (dry, nutrient-poor, or acid). The arrival of the first woody plants was delayed in dry sites. No significant differences were found between primary and secondary seres, either with respect to the total cover of woody plants reached after 10 years of succession or considering the time of their arrival. In total, 24 woody species (10 shrubs and 14 trees) appeared in the series investigated. Their successional performance (in terms of the number of seres in which the species occurred and maximum cover reached in any sere) was not related to species traits (life strategy, type of mycorrhizae, mode of dispersal, diaspore weight), except for the regeneration strategy, species with seasonal regeneration by seeds were capable of creating higher cover. Betula pendula (European birch) was the most successful species in spontaneous succession, especially on moist sites. Practical suggestions for the management of particular habitats (sites disturbed by mining, sites reclaimed after acid rain deforestation, urban sites, abandoned fields) are provided regarding the establishment of woody plants.

Notizen: Books reviewed in this article: Semiarid Lands and Deserts: Soil Resources and Reclamation J. Skujins, editor

Notizen: Several landscape restoration alternatives were evaluated in the Gorecht area, a cultivated river plain in the northern part of the Netherlands. A landscape analysis was performed to investigate the hydrological functioning of this area. Groundwater composition in the area was assessed by using distribution patterns of indicative plant species. Results proved to be consistent with an interpolation of actual data of the groundwater composition. Groundwater flow was simulated with hydrological models to explain the observed patterns in water chemistry. It appeared that upwelling Ca-rich groundwater is now absent in the area, contrary to the past situation. Because a constant supply of Ca-rich water is an essential condition for mesotraphent fen vegetation, we concluded that under the present conditions the regeneration prospects for these vegetation types are poor. We suggest that the plan to regenerate groundwater-fed fens be abandoned for a plan to create surface-water-fed marshes.