Age of the Peach Springs Tuff, Southeastern California and Western Arizona

Sanidine separates from pumice of the early Miocene Peach Springs Tuff are concordantly dated at 18.5 ± 0.2 Ma by two isotopic techniques. The Peach Springs Tuff is the only known unit that can be correlated between isolated outcrops of Miocene strata from the central Mojave Desert of southeastern California to the western Colorado Plateau in Arizona, across five structural provinces, a distance of 350 km. Thus the age of the Peach Springs Tuff is important to structural and paleogeographic reconstructions of a large region. Biotite and sanidine separates from bulk samples of the Peach Springs Tuff from zones of welding and vapor-phase alteration have not produced consistent ages by the K-Ar method. Published ages of mineral separates from 17 localities ranged from 16.2 to 20.5 Ma. Discordant 40Ar/39Ar incremental release spectra were obtained for one biotite and two of the sanidine separates. Ages that correspond to the last gas increments are as old as 27 Ma. The 40Ar/39Ar incremental release determinations on sanidine separated from blocks of Peach Springs Tuff pumice yield ages of 18.3 ± 0.3 and 18.6 ± 0.4 Ma. Laser fusion measurements yield a mean age of 18.51 ± 0.10. The results suggest that sanidine and biotite K-Ar ages older than about 18.5 Ma are due to inherited Ar from pre-Tertiary contaminants, which likely were incorporated into the tuff during deposition. Sanidine K-Ar ages younger than 18 Ma probably indicate incomplete extraction of radiogenic 40Ar, whereas laser fusion dates of biotite and hornblende younger than 18 Ma likely are due to postdepositional alteration. Laser fusion ages as high as 19.01 Ma on biotite grains from pumice suggest that minerals from pre-Tertiary country rocks also were incorporated in the magma chamber.

A 200 Year Sulfate Record from Sixteen Antarctic Ice Cores and Associations With Southern Ocean Sea-Ice Extent

Chemistry data from 16, 50-115 m deep, sub-annually dated ice cores are used to investigate spatial and temporal concentration variability of sea-salt (ss) SO42- and excess (xs) SO42- over West Antarctica and the South Pole for the last 200 years. Low-elevation ice-core sites in western West Antarctica contain higher concentrations Of SO42- as a result of cyclogenesis over the Ross Ice Shelf and proximity to the Ross Sea Polynya. Linear correlation analysis of 15 West Antarctic ice-core SO42- time series demonstrates that at several sites concentrations Of ssSO(4)(2-) are higher when sea-ice (SIE) extent is greater, and the inverse for XSS04. Concentrations Of XSS04 from the South Pole site (East Antarctica) are associated with SIE from the Weddell region, and West Antarctic XSSO42- concentrations are associated with SIE from the Bellingshausen-Amundsen-Ross region. The only notable rise of the last 200 years in xsSO(4)(2-), around 1940, is not related to SIE fluctuations and is most likely a result of increased xsSO(4)(2-) production in the mid-low latitudes and/or an increase in transport efficiency from the mid-low latitudes to central West Antarctica. These high-resolution records show that the source types and source areas Of ssSO(4)(2-) and xsSO(4)(2-) delivered to eastern and western West Antarctica and the South Pole differ from site to site but can best be resolved using records from spatial ice-core arrays such as the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE).