0000000000594283
AUTHOR
Barbara E. Kunz
Phase equilibrium constraints on a deep crustal metamorphic field gradient: metapelitic rocks from the Ivrea Zone (NW Italy)
The metamorphic rocks of the Ivrea Zone in NW Italy preserve a deep crustal metamorphic field gradient. Application of quantitative phase equilibria methods to metapelitic rocks provides new constraints on the P–T conditions recorded in Val Strona di Omegna, Val Sesia and Val Strona di Postua. In Val Strona di Omegna, the metapelitic rocks show a structural and mineralogical change from mica‐schists with the common assemblage bi–mu–sill–pl–q–ilm ± liq at the lowest grades, through metatexitic migmatites (g–sill–bi–ksp–pl–q–ilm–liq) at intermediate grades, to complex diatexitic migmatites (g–sill–ru–bi–ksp–pl–q–ilm–liq) at the highest grades. Partial melting in the metapelitic rocks is consi…
Partial melting of metabasic rocks in Val Strona di Omegna, Ivrea Zone, northern Italy
Field and petrographic observations combined with major and trace element bulk rock geochemistry show that metabasic rocks within Val Strona di Omegna in the central Ivrea Zone partially melted during granulite facies regional metamorphism. A transition from granoblastic amphibolite facies metabasic rocks at the lowest metamorphic grades to metatexitic and diatexitic migmatites in the granulite facies records the effects of in situ fluid-absent partial melting. Coarse-grained euhedral clinopyroxene porphyroblasts within leucosomes are consistent with anatexis via incongruent fluid-absent melting reactions consuming hornblende, plagioclase and quartz to form clinopyroxene and melt. Field obs…
Coralline algal growth-increment widths archive North Atlantic climate variability
Over the past decade coralline algae have increasingly been used as archives of paleoclimate information. Encrusting coralline algae, which deposit annual growth increments in a high Mg-calcite skeleton, are amongst the longest-lived shallow marine organisms. In fact, a live-collected plant has recently been shown to have lived for at least 850 years based on radiometric dating. While a number of investigations have successfully used geochemical information of coralline algal skeletons to reconstruct sea surface temperatures, less attention has been paid to employ growth increment widths as a temperature proxy. Here we explore the relationship between growth and environmental parameters in …
Mg/Ca ratios in coralline algae record northwest Atlantic temperature variations and North Atlantic Oscillation relationships
Climate variability in the North Atlantic has been linked in part to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The NAO influences marine ecosystems in the northwestern Atlantic and transport variability of the cold Labrador Current. Understanding historic patterns of NAO variability requires long‐term and high‐resolution climate records that are not available from instrumental data. Here we present the first century‐scale proxy record of sea surface temperature (SST) variability from the Newfoundland shelf, a region from which other annual‐resolution shallow marine proxies are unavailable. The 116 year record was obtained from three sites along the eastern Newfoundland shelf using laser ablatio…
High-resolution analysis of trace elements in crustose coralline algae from the North Atlantic and North Pacific by laser ablation ICP-MS
We have investigated the trace elemental composition in the skeleta of two specimens of attached-living coralline algae of the species Clathromorphum compactum from the North Atlantic (Newfoundland) and Clathromorphum nereostratum from the North Pacific/Bering Sea region (Amchitka Island, Aleutians). Samples were analyzed using Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) yielding for the first time continuous individual trace elemental records of up to 69 years in length. The resulting algal Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, U/Ca, and Ba/Ca ratios are reproducible within individual sample specimens. Algal Mg/Ca ratios were additionally validated by electron microprobe analyses (Amch…
Coralline algal Barium as indicator for 20th century northwestern North Atlantic surface ocean freshwater variability
During the past decades climate and freshwater dynamics in the northwestern North Atlantic have undergone major changes. Large-scale freshening episodes, related to polar freshwater pulses, have had a strong influence on ocean variability in this climatically important region. However, little is known about variability before 1950, mainly due to the lack of long-term high-resolution marine proxy archives. Here we present the first multidecadal-length records of annually resolved Ba/Ca variations from Northwest Atlantic coralline algae. We observe positive relationships between algal Ba/Ca ratios from two Newfoundland sites and salinity observations back to 1950. Both records capture episodi…