Search results for "Geology"
showing 10 items of 6012 documents
Volcanic products of Lipari (Aeolian islands, Italy): Multivariate analysis of petrographic and radiometric data
2010
Abstract A petrographic and radiometric study, along with statistical multivariate analysis of volcanic products of the island of Lipari (Aeolian islands, Italy) was carried out. The volcanological history of Lipari was reconstructed defining two stages (pre- and post-erosive stages) further on subdivided in four volcanic phases, each of which characterized by products with a particular chemical composition and separated by stratigraphic unconformities. The correlations between petrographic features, determined by X-ray fluorescence, and volcanological history of the island highlight a gradual differentiation with younger rocks showing a more acid chemical composition than the older ones. R…
Mediterranean Tertiary lamproites derived from multiple source components in postcollisional geodynamics
2008
Abstract In the Mediterranean area, lamproitic provinces in Spain, Italy, Serbia and Macedonia have uniform geological, geochemical and petrographic characteristics. Mediterranean lamproites are SiO2-rich lamproites, characterized by relatively low CaO, Al2O3 and Na2O, and high K2O/Al2O3 and Mg-number. They are enriched in LILE relative to HFSE and in Pb, and show depletion in Ti, Nb and Ta. Mediterranean lamproites show huge regional variation of Sr, Nd and 207Pb/204Pb isotopic values, with 87Sr/86Sr range of 0.707–0.722, eNd range from −13 to −3, and 207Pb/204Pb range of 15.62–15.79. Lamproitic rocks are derived from melts with three components involved in their origin, characterized by c…
Orogenic vs anorogenic lamproites in a single volcanicprovince: Mediterranean-type lamproites from Turkey
2008
Lamproites are mantle-derived ultrapotassic volcanic rocks, derived from phlogopite-bearing harzburgitic source. The origin of the metasomatism which enriched their mantle source is either an old event with a metasomatic component derived from the convecting mantle, or is a more recent introduction of an already aged metasomatic component. Together with different trace element signatures, this view serves for a general distinction between anorogenic and orogenic lamproites worldwide. In Turkey, lamproitic volcanism resulted from interplay of subduction/collisional and postcollisional/extensional regime since Miocene until Pliocene, in the Western Anatolia-Aegean and Kirka-Afyon-Isparta regi…
Solution and recrystallisation processes and associated landforms in gypsum outcrops of Sicily
2003
Abstract Four small areas of Messinian (Upper Miocene) age gypsum, outcropping in western Sicily, are described. Messinian age evaporites are found in Sicily over a 1000-km 2 area. Here, gypsum outcrops extensively as a consequence of soil erosion induced by human impact. Geomorphological maps show how the rocky surfaces are characterized by a wide range of forms. There are large, medium, small, and microsized forms, which can be identified as belonging to different morphotypes. The morphotypes can be classified into two main categories: those that originated by solution and those that originated through recrystallisation. Four areas, illustrated by geomorphological maps, were specifically …
Intrusion age of Pan-African augen gneisses in the southern Menderes Massif and the age of cooling after Alpine ductile extensional deformation
1996
AbstractPb–Pb single zircon ages of 546.2 ± 1.2 Ma demonstrate that the augen gneisses in the southern Menderes Massif were generated from Pan-African intrusions. During the Alpine orogenic evolution of the Menderes Massif these granites were metamorphosed and transformed into augen gneiss in an extensional top-to-the-south shear zone, located between augen gneisses and overlying schists. Quartz fabrics suggest a pronounced static recrystallization that post-dates the ductile deformation in the shear zone. Ar–Ar muscovite ages of 43–37 Ma from augen gneisses and schists suggest that ductile deformation and subsequent cooling occurred in the Eocene. These results contradict previous models t…
The Proterozoic P–T–t Evolution of the Kemp Land Coast, East Antarctica; Constraints from Si-saturated and Si-undersaturated Metapelites
2007
Integrated metamorphic and geochronological data place new constraints on the metamorphic evolution of a Neoproterozoic orogen in east Antarctica. Granulite-facies rocks from a 150 km stretch of the Kemp Land coast reflect peak conditions involving T � 870^9908 Ca t P� 7� 4^10 kbar, with pressure increasing westward towards an Archaean craton. Electron microprobe-derived (Th þ U)^Pb monazite ages from metapelitic assemblages indicate that the major mineral textures in these rocks developed during the c. 940 Ma Rayner Orogeny. Complex compositional zoning in monazite suggests high-T recrystallization over c. 25 Myr. Diversity in metapelitic reaction textures reflects silica and ferromagnesia…
Triassic rift-related meta-granites in the Internal Hellenides, Greece
2009
AbstractThe Serbo-Macedonian Massif is a basement complex in the Internal Hellenides of northern Greece, situated between the Vardar Zone to the west and the Rhodope Massif to the east. The Serbo-Macedonian Massif comprises several distinct basement units interpreted as terranes, the largest of which is the Gondwana-derived Vertiskos Terrane in the northwestern and central parts of the massif. A series of leucocratic meta-granites intrude the Silurian orthogneiss basement of the Vertiskos Terrane. No similar granites are found in any of the other units of the Internal Hellenides. The meta-granites have a pronounced crustal within-plate signature which is visible in lithology, major- and tra…
Speculations on the impact of catastrophic subduction initiation on the Earth System
2016
Abstract The physics of subduction initiation can be studied with numerical models of lithosphere dynamics, to the extent where we can now test the potential consequences of a catastrophic subduction initiation event on the Earth System. The South American Atlantic passive margin is here used to show that, once subduction has catastrophically initiated there, a major geodynamic reconfiguration of the South American plate (SAm) is likely to take place: (1) compression in the east will be inverted to extension, because ridge push will be replaced by subduction rollback and trench retreat; (2) compression in the west will be inverted to extension due to absolute rollback; and (3) without buttr…
Plio-Pleistocene geological evolution of the northern Sicily continental margin (southern Tyrrhenian Sea): new insights from high-resolution, multi-e…
2003
High-resolution seismic profiles were acquired in the north Sicily offshore region with an innovative, multi-tip sparker array which lacks ringing and has a base frequency around 600 Hz. The new data, combined with published data, suggest that intra-slope and extensional basins formed as a consequence of the late Miocene (?)–early Pliocene shortening and thrusting, and the middle (?)–late Pliocene continental rifting affecting the internal side of the Sicilian-Maghrebian chain. Early (?) Pleistocene to Holocene high-amplitude and high-frequency sea-level changes resulted in repeated sub-aerial exposure and flooding of the shelf, and the deposition of cyclically arranged hemipelagic and shel…
Structure, evolution, and dynamics of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea in the Blue Road Geotraverse area
1981
The orogeny of the Scandinavian and Greenland Caledonides is shortly reviewed, and a structural sketch map of the Scandinavian Caledonide part of the Geotraverse is presented. Post-Caledonian rifting episodes prior to the formation of the North Atlantic Ocean are briefly discussed, as well as the opening of the northern North Atlantic Ocean and its spreading rates. Computations of density models carried out on the basis of the Simplex-Algorithm which allows a least-squares solution under certain constraints show clearly a Moho-depression beneath the Caledonides and a comparatively thick oceanic crust in the Norwegian Sea. The transition zone oceanic continental crust has a complex structure…