Search results for "Surface Processes"

StalAge – an algorithm especially designed for construction of speleothem age models

2012

Pattern and rate of post-20 ka vertical tectonic motion around the Capo Vaticano Promontory (W Calabria, Italy) based on offshore geomorphological in…

2014

The magnitude and rate of Late Pleistocene-Holocene vertical tectonic movements offshore of the Capo Vaticano Promontory (western Calabria, southern Italy) have been measured on the basis of the present-day depth variations of the edges of submerged depositional terraces (and associated abrasion platforms) that formed below the storm-wave base, during the sea level stillstand of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). These depositional features, represented by submerged prograding wedges and an associated terrace-shaped upper boundary, have been identified in high-resolution seismic reflection profiles acquired along the continental shelf and the upper slope of the promontory, and are referred to …

Late Quaternary slip rates for the southern Elsinore fault in the Coyote Mountains, southern California from analysis of alluvial fan landforms and c…

2019

Abstract Offset alluvial fans along the Elsinore fault in the south-central Coyote Mountains were studied to resolve an average late Quaternary slip rate for this major western strand of the San Andreas fault system in southern California. Alluvial fans and their offsets were mapped using high-resolution DEMs combined with field observations of fan-surface morphology and the character of the soils developed in each fan remnant. Clast assemblage data was used to determine the source of each alluvial fan upstream of the fault, and U-series dating of pedogenic carbonate was used to estimate minimum ages of the alluvial fan surfaces. Forty U-Th dates on pedogenic carbonate confirm the utility o…

Detrital footprint of the Mozambique ocean: U–Pb SHRIMP and Pb evaporation zircon geochronology of metasedimentary gneisses in eastern Madagascar

2003

Abstract The southern East African Orogen is a collisional belt where the identification of major suture zones has proved elusive. In this study, we apply U–Pb isotopic techniques to date detrital zircons from a key part of the East African Orogen, analyse their possible source region and discuss how this information can help in unravelling the orogen. U–Pb sensitive high-mass resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) and Pb evaporation analyses of detrital zircons from metasedimentary rocks in eastern Madagascar reveal that: (1) the protoliths of many of these rocks were deposited between ∼800 and 550 Ma; and (2) these rocks are sourced from regions with rocks that date back to over 3400 Ma, with…

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 …

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…

Single zircon evaporation ages from the Oban Massif, southeastern Nigeria

1998

Abstract A single zircon geochronological study in the Oban Massif of southeastern Nigeria, using the evaporation technique, provides evidence for the existence of Palaeoproterozoic crustal components in the area. The banded gneiss in the Oban village yielded a 207 Pb 206 Pb age of 1931.9±0.8 Ma, whilst charnockites associated with this gneiss provided an emplacement age of 584.5 ± 1.0 Ma. The volumetrically most important intrusive unit in the Oban area is a granodiorite that yielded a zircon age of 616.9 ± 1 Ma. These ages suggest that the banded gneiss is the oldest rock in the Oban Massif and that the emplacement of granodiorite and the formation of charnockites took place during the Pa…

Beach ridges from the Varanger Peninsula (Arctic Norwegian coast): Characteristics and significance

2009

The most common coastal sedimentary forms on the arctic coast of the Varanger Peninsula are raised beach ridge plains. The majority of the ridges consist of coarse material, but there are also sandy beach ridge areas close to the river mouths of some of the major rivers. Some bays having the same isostatic rebound and dynamic conditions have been studied to test if the number of beach ridges in each locality is significant to prove climatic changes, storminess, and rates of sediment accumulation, or if the number of beach ridges in each bay is only dependent on their intrinsic characteristics and self organization. Because the number of ridges varies not only from bay to bay, but even withi…

Thermo-mechanical role of a Cambro-Ordovician paleorift during the Variscan collision: the NE margin of the Bohemian Massif

2001

Abstract The Stare Město (SM) belt (NE margin of the Bohemian Massif) represents a preserved example of an intracontinental Cambro-Ordovician rift that has been shortened during the Variscan orogeny. The rifted sequence consists of gabbroic intrusions and a leptyno-amphibolite complex of Cambro-Ordovician protolith age. The latter suffered medium pressure, granulite facies, Cambro-Ordovician metamorphism associated with extension in a continental protorift. The Variscan tectonometamorphic event is manifested by convergent orogenesis with syn-convergent intrusion of a Carboniferous tonalitic sill, high temperature–medium pressure compressional deformation of gabbros and high temperature meta…

Can Dasymetric Mapping Significantly Improve Population Data Reallocation in a Dense Urban Area?

2016

The issue of reallocating population figures from a set of geographical units onto another set of units has received a great deal of attention in the literature. Every other day, a new algorithm is proposed, claiming that it outperforms competitor procedures. Unfortunately, when the new (usually more complex) methods are applied to a new data set, the improvements attained are sometimes just marginal. The relationship cost-effectiveness of the solutions is case-dependent. The majority of studies have focused on large areas with heterogeneous population density distributions. The general conclusion is that as a rule more sophisticated methods are worth the effort. It could be argued, however…