Search results for "Processes"

Climate signatures on decadal to interdecadal time scales as obtained from mollusk shells (Arctica islandica) from Iceland

2013

Abstract Pronounced decadal climate oscillations are detected in a multi-centennial record based on shell growth rates of the marine bivalve mollusk, Arctica islandica, from Iceland. The corresponding analysis of patterns in sea level pressure and temperature exhibit large-scale teleconnections with North Atlantic climate quantities. We find that the record projects onto blocking situations in the northern North Atlantic. The associated circulation shows a low-pressure signature over Greenland and the Labrador Sea and a high-pressure system over Western Europe associated with northeasterly flow towards Iceland and weakening in the westerly zonal flow over Europe. It can be speculated that s…

2020

Although volcanic eruptions represent short periods in the whole history of a volcano, the large amount of loose pyroclastic material produced, combined with aeolian processes, can lead to continuous, long-lasting reworking of volcanic products. Driven by wind, these processes significantly influence the geomorphology and prolong the impacts of eruptions on exposed communities and ecosystems. Since such phenomena are of interest to scientists from a range of disciplines (e.g. volcanology, atmospheric and soil sciences), a well-defined, common nomenclature is necessary to optimize the multidisciplinary characterisation of both processes and deposits. We, therefore, first describe ash wind-re…

Tracking dynamics of magma migration in open-conduit systems

2016

Open-conduit volcanic systems are typically characterized by unsealed volcanic conduits feeding permanent or quasi-permanent volcanic activity. This persistent activity limits our ability to read changes in the monitored parameters, making the assessment of possible eruptive crises more difficult. We show how an integrated approach to monitoring can solve this problem, opening a new way to data interpretation. The increasing rate of explosive transients, tremor amplitude, thermal emissions of ejected tephra, and rise of the very-long-period (VLP) seismic source towards the surface are interpreted as indicating an upward migration of the magma column in response to an increased magma input r…

Geoarchaeological evidence of marshland destruction in the area of Rungholt, present-day Wadden Sea around Hallig Südfall (North Frisia, Germany), by…

2018

Abstract Geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations were carried out in the Wadden Sea of North Frisia (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) to elucidate major environmental changes that considerably altered the coastal landscape since medieval times. Between the 12 th and 14 th cent. AD, the present-day tidal flats around the marsh island Hallig Sudfall belonged to the historical Edomsharde district and its main settlement Rungholt . For North Frisia, it is well known that during medieval and early modern times, extreme storm surges caused major land losses associated with a massive landward shift of the coastline. Today, cultural traces like remains of dikes, drainage ditches, terps or even…

Quaternary development and evolution of the sedimentary environments in the Central Mediterranean Spanish coast

1995

Abstract The reconstruction of the evolutive phases of the Mediterranean Spanish Central sector during the Late Quaternary is the aim of this work. From geomorphological, sedimentological and chronometrical studies, different morphostratigraphic units are determined. Results point out the development of several transgressive phases. The older one go back to isotope stage 7. The Eemian transgression is broadly recorded, and its coastline was near the present one. During the Flandrian episode, the sea surpassed the current coastline in the northern coastal plain, while in the meridional littoral erosive notches were formed between +1 and +2 m. During the regressive events, we find the prograd…

Yttrium and REE signature recognized in Central Mediterranean Sea (ODP Site 963) during the MIS 6–MIS 5 transition

2010

Abstract The Mediterranean Sea acts as a miniature ocean with the development of its own conveyor belt. It constitutes an ideal location to study and forecast how the marine environment responds to rapid climatic change. Here we present a palaeoenvironmental study carried out on the sediments of ODP Site 963, recovered in the Sicily Channel, the sill which divides the western from the eastern Mediterranean basin. We focused on the transition between the penultimate glacial (MIS 6) and the last interglacial (MIS 5), between approximately 130 and 115 kyr BP. A novel approach is proposed, taking into account centennial-scale geochemical data on major elements, selected trace elements, and yttr…

Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic gneisses reworked during a Neoproterozoic (Pan-African) high-grade event in the Mozambique belt of East Africa: Struct…

2006

Abstract This study presents new zircon ages and Sm–Nd whole-rock isotopic compositions for high-grade gneisses from the Udzungwa Mountain area in the central part of the Mozambique belt, Tanzania. The study area comprises a succession of layered granulite-facies para- and orthogneisses, mostly retrograded to amphibolite-facies. The original intrusive contacts became obscured or severely modified during non-coaxial ductile deformation, and extensive shearing occurred during retrogression. Structures reflecting the early deformational history were mostly obscured when the rocks were transported into the lower crust as documented by severe flattening. Only the fragmented gneisses in the easte…

Single zircon ages for felsic to intermediate rocks from the Pietersburg and Giyani greenstone belts and bordering granitoid orthogneisses, northern …

2000

Abstract Previous models for the temporal evolution of greenstone belts and surrounding granitoid gneisses in the northern Kaapvaal Craton can be revised on the basis of new single zircon ages, obtained by conventional UPb dating and PbPb evaporation. In the Pietersburg greenstone belt, zircons from a metaquartz porphyry of the Ysterberg Formation yielded an age of 2949.7±0.2 Ma, while a granite intruding the greenstones, and deformed together with them, has an age of 2853 + 19/−18 Ma. These data show felsic volcanism in this belt to have been coeval with felsic volcanism in the Murchison belt farther east, and the date of ∼2853 Ma provides an older age limit for deformation in the region…

Zircon ages for a felsic volcanic rock and arc-related early Palaeozoic sediments on the margin of the Baydrag microcontinent, central Asian orogenic…

2011

Abstract Magmatic zircons from the basal part of an arc terrane in the accretionary complex NE of the Baydrag microcontinental block in central Mongolia were dated at 544 ± 7 Ma and reflect arc magmatism at the Ediacaran/Cambrian boundary. Detrital zircon ages for clastic metasediments of the adjacent Dzag zone suggest a depositional age

Non-explosive, dome-forming eruptions at Mt. Taranaki, New Zealand

2012

Abstract Volcanic domes may be emplaced rapidly and with few hazardous consequences, even at the summit of large stratovolcanoes. In this study the most recent activity of Mt. Taranaki in New Zealand is shown to have been a passive effusion of a c. 5.9 million m3 lava dome with minor associated explosions and little syn-eruptive hazard. This event, the Sisters eruption, appears to have been unrecorded by local indigenous populations but likely occurred between A.D. 1785 and 1820. The magma erupted is chemically distinct from the preceding A.D. 1755 Tahurangi eruption. Based on breakdown of hornblende crystal rims, the Sisters magma was probably only four days outside the hornblende stabilit…