Search results for "surface"
showing 10 items of 9345 documents
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…
Modelling of piping collapses and gully headcut landforms: Evaluating topographic variables from different types of DEM
2021
Abstract The geomorphic studies are extremely dependent on the quality and spatial resolution of digital elevation model (DEM) data. The unique terrain characteristics of a particular landscape are derived from DEM, which are responsible for initiation and development of ephemeral gullies. As the topographic features of an area significantly influences on the erosive power of the water flow, it is an important task the extraction of terrain features from DEM to properly research gully erosion. Alongside, topography is highly correlated with other geo-environmental factors i.e. geology, climate, soil types, vegetation density and floristic composition, runoff generation, which ultimately inf…
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…
Badlands in the Tabernas Basin, Betic Chain
2014
The complex badland landscape at Tabernas results from a combination of relief amplitude generated by tectonic uplift since the Pliocene and reactivated several times during the Pleistocene, the properties of the Tortonian sedimentary rocks and a predominantly arid climate. The landscape is dominated by deep incision of the main river systems, which continues in part of the headwater tributaries, and characterized by contrasting slope morphologies and a variety of microecosystems. The Tabernas badlands exhibit a diversity of landforms resulting from the combination of multi-age soil surface components that allow a variety of processes to operate at different rates. These are dominated by ri…
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…
Improved discrimination of subglacial and periglacial erosion using10Be concentration measurements in subglacial and supraglacial sediment load of th…
2015
Deciphering the complex interplays between climate, uplift and erosion is not straightforward and estimating present-day erosion rates can provide useful insights. Glaciers are thought to be powerful erosional agents, but most published ‘glacial’ erosion rates combine periglacial, subglacial and proglacial erosion processes. Within a glaciated catchment, sediments found in subglacial streams originate either from glacial erosion of substratum or from the rock walls above the glacier that contribute to the supraglacial load. Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides (TCN) are produced by interactions between cosmic ray particles and element targets at the surface of the Earth, but their concentration …