Sedimentology of surface samples from the Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Mineralogical and granulometric properties of glacial-marine surface sediments of the Weddell Sea and adjoining areas were studied in order to decipher spatial variations of provenance and transport paths of terrigenous detritus from Antarctic sources. The silt fraction shows marked spatial differences in quartz contents. In the sand fractions heavy-mineral assemblages display low mineralogical maturity and are dominated by garnet, green hornblende, and various types of clinopyroxene. Cluster analysis yields distinct heavy-mineral assemblages, which can be attributed to specific source rocks of the Antarctic hinterland. The configuration of modern mineralogical provinces in the near-shore regions reflects the geological variety of the adjacent hinterland. In the distal parts of the study area, sand-sized heavy minerals are good tracers of ice-rafting. Granulometric characteristics and the distribution of heavy-mineral provinces reflect maxima of relative and absolute accumulation of ice-rafted detritus in accordance with major iceberg drift tracks in the course of the Weddell Gyre. Fine-grained and coarse-grained sediment fractions may have different origins. In the central Weddell Sea, coarse ice-rafted detritus basically derives from East Antarctic sources, while the fine-fraction is discharged from weak permanent bottom currents and/or episodic turbidity currents and shows affinities to southern Weddell Sea sources. Winnowing of quartz-rich sediments through intense bottom water formation in the southern Weddell Sea provides muddy suspensions enriched in quartz. The influence of quartz-rich suspensions moving within the Weddell Gyre contour current can be traced as far as the continental slope in the northwestern Weddell Sea. In general, the focusing of mud by currents significantly exceeds the relative and absolute contribution of ice-rafted detritus beyond the shelves of the study area.

Data on mineral composition of volcanic glass and radiocarbon age of Upper Quaternary sediments from the Sea of Okhotsk

Lithological horizons have been distinguished in sediments cores from different parts of the Sea of Okhotsk based on primary descriptions of sediments and smear slides, and analyses of contents of both calcium carbonate and organic carbon, and opal. Sediment lithology has been correlated with oxygen isotope records and the standard isotope scale and radiocarbon data by AMS method for three cores studied in detail. This allowed to determine in detail periods of carbonaceous and diatomaceous ooze accumulation in the Sea of Okhotsk. Changes in magnetic susceptibility and grain size composition of sediments have been also compared with oxygen-isotope curves and radiocarbon datings. Obtained results confirm that variations in magnetic susceptibility are related with oxygen-isotope stages and influenced by climatic changes. Tephra interlayers K0, TR, K2, K3 have been identified by mineralogical analyses in all studied cores. Stratigraphic location of these tephra interlayers in detailed studied cores and their radiocarbon ages (8.1, 8.05, 26.8, and about 60 ka, respectively) provided base correlation between the interlayers and volcanic eruptions on the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands. This allows to use the former ones as time markers for deep-sea sediments of the Sea of Okhotsk. New lithostratigraphic and tephrochronologic data obtained allowed to correlate Upper Quaternary sediments from the Sea of Okhotsk.

Mineral and chemical composition of hydrothermally altered rocks and sediments from the Middle Valley, ODP Leg 139 data

The Middle Valley segment at the northern end of the Juan de Fuca Ridge is a deep extensional rift blanketed with 200-500 m of Pleistocene turbiditic sediment. Sites 857 and 858 were drilled during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 139 to determine whether these two sites were hydrologically linked end members of an active hydrothermal circulation system. Site 858 was placed in an area of active hydrothermal discharge with fluids up to 270°C venting through anhydrite-bearing mounds on top of altered sediment. The shallow basement of fine-grained basalt that underlies the vents at Site 858 is interpreted as a seamount that was subsequently buried by turbidites. Site 857 was placed 1.6 km south of the Site 858 vents in a zone of high heat flow and numerous seismically imaged ridge-parallel faults. Drilling at Site 857 encountered sediments that are increasingly altered with depth and that overlie a series of mafic sills at depths of 460-940 m below sea floor. Sill margins and adjacent baked sediment are highly altered to magnesian chlorite and crosscut with veins filled with quartz, chlorite, sulfides, epidote, and wairakite. The sill interiors vary from slightly altered, with unaltered plagioclase and clinopyroxene in a mesostasis replaced by chlorite, to local zones of intense alteration and brecciation. In these latter zones, the sill interiors are pervasively replaced by chlorite, epidote, quartz, pyrite, titanite, and rare actinolite. The most complete replacement is associated with brecciated horizons with low recovery and slickensides on fracture surfaces, which we interpret as intersections between faults and the sills. Geochemically, the alteration of the sill complex is reflected in significant whole-rock depletions in Ca, Sr, and Na with corresponding enrichments in Mg, Al, and most metals. The latter results from the formation of conspicuous sulfide poikiloblasts. In contrast, metamorphism of the Site 858 seamount includes incomplete albitization of plagioclase phenocrysts and replacement of sparse mafic phenocrysts. Much of the basement alteration at Site 858 is confined to crosscutting veins except for a highly altered and veined horizon at the contact between basaltic basement and the overlying sediment. The sill complex at Site 857 is more highly depleted in 18O (d18O = 2.4 per mil - 4.7 per mil) and more pervasively replaced by secondary minerals relative to the extrusives at Site 858 (d18O = 4.5 per mil - 5.5 per mil). There is no evidence of significant albitization of the plagioclase at Site 857, suggesting high Ca/Na in the pore fluids. Fluid-inclusion data from hydrothermal minerals in altered mafic rocks and veins at Sites 857 and 858 show a consistency of homogenization temperatures, varying from 245 to 270°C, which is within the range of temperatures observed for the fluids venting at Site 858. The consistency of the fluid inclusion temperatures, the lack of albitization within the Site 857 sills, and the apparently low water/rock ratio collectively suggest that the sill complex at Site 857 is in thermal equilibrium and being altered by a highly evolved Ca-rich fluid similar to the fluids now venting at Site 858. The alteration evident in these two deep crustal drillsites is a result of the ongoing hydrothermal circulation and is consistent with downhole logging results, instrumented borehole results, and hydrothermal fluid chemistry. The pervasive alteration of the laterally extensive sill-sediment complex at Site 857 determines the chemistry of the fluids that are venting at Site 858. The limited alteration of the Site 858 lavas suggests that this basement edifice acts as a penetrator or ventilator for the regional hydrothermal reservoir with much of the flow focussed at the highly altered and veined sediment-basalt contact.

Geochemistry and stable isotope record of the hydtrothermally altered lower sheeted dike complex in ODP Hole 140-504B

Drilling during Legs 137 and 140 of the Ocean Drilling Program deepened Hole 504B, the only hole to penetrate through the volcanic section and into the underlying hydrothermally altered sheeted dike complex, by 438.1 m to a total depth of 2000.4 meters below seafloor. This paper presents the secondary mineralogy, bulk-rock sulfur contents, and stable isotopic (O, S) compositions, plus oxygen isotopic compositions of secondary minerals from the lower sheeted dike complex drilled during Legs 137 and 140. Various evidence indicates higher temperatures of hydrothermal alteration in the lower dikes than in the upper dikes, including: the local presence of secondary clinopyroxene in the lower dikes; secondary anorthite and hornblende in the lower dikes vs. mainly actinolite and albite-oligoclase in the upper dikes; generally increasing Al and Ti contents of amphibole downward in the dike section; and greater 18O depletions of the lower dikes (d18O = 3.6-5.0 per mil) compared with the upper dikes. Early high-temperature alteration stages (T = 350°-500°C) resulted in 18O depletions and losses of metals (Cu, Zn) and sulfur from the rocks. Local incorporation of reduced seawater sulfate led to elevated d34S values of sulfide in the rocks (up to 2.5 per mil). Quartz + epidote formed in crosscutting veins at temperatures of 310°-320°C from more evolved fluids (d18O = 1 per mil). Late-stage lower-temperature (~250°C) reactions producing albite, prehnite, and zeolites in the rocks caused slight 18O enrichments, but these were insufficient to offset the 18O depletions caused by earlier higher-temperature reactions. Addition of anhydrite to the rocks during seawater recharge led to increased S contents of rocks that had previously lost S during axial hydrothermal alteration, and to further increases in d34S values of total S in the rocks (up to 12 per mil). Despite the evidence for seawater recharge to near the base of the sheeted dike complex, the paucity of late zeolites in the lower dikes suggests that late-stage, off-axis circulation was mainly restricted to the volcanics and shallowest dikes, or to localized high-permeability zones (faults) at depth.

Mineral counts from Geschiebemergel of various localities in northern Germany

In ganz Norddeutschland werden bei jeder tieferen Bohrung bis zu mehrere 100 m maechtige Schichten des Diluviums durchbohrt, die aus scheinbar voellig unregelmäßigen Folgen von Sand, Kies und Geschiebemergel bestehen. Diese Absätze lassen sich in den meisten Fällen mit den bisherigen Methoden nicht weiter untergliedern. Aus besonders günstigen Aufschlüssen und Profilen ist bekannt, daß mindestens drei Vereisungen während des Diluviums über das norddeutsche Flachland hinweggegangen sind. Wenn in den Bohrungen nicht zufällig sichere Interglazialschichten auftreten, was äußerst selten der Fall ist, so ist es also im allgemeinen nicht möglich, das erbohrte Diluvium auf die drei bekannten Vereisungen aufzuteilen. Es besteht für Tagesaufschlüsse im Diluvium durch die Geschiebezählmethode nach Milthers, Heesemann u. a. wenigstens eine Möglichkeit, stratigraphische Einordnungen vorzunehmen. Arbeitsmethoden und Ergebnisse der Geschiebezählmethode sollen hier jedoch nicht näher besprochen werden. Dreimanis 1936 gibt eine Methode an, um aus Bohrproben durch Zählungen der Mineralkörner der Grobsand- und Feinkiesfraktionen Anhaltspunkte für vergleichende stratigraphische Untersuchungen zu gewinnen.

Schwermineraltabelle

Die Altersbestimmung von Sedimentärgeschieben, die nicht durch ihren Fossilgehalt hinreichend gekennzeichnet sind, ist nur auf dem Wege eines petrographischen Vergleiches mit bekannten Geschieben oder dem anstehenden Vorkommen der betreffenden Gesteine möglich. In vielen Fällen Iäßt zwar schon das makroskopische Bild sichere Aussagen zu, wie z. B. ein fossilfreier roter Orthocerenkalk oder ein Juraoolith ohne Schwierigkeiten erkannt und damit auch richtig eingestuft werden können. Zuweilen ist dieser makroskopische Vergleich aber doch recht unsicher und Iäßt keine eindeutige Entscheidung zu. Hier können mikroskopische Methoden mit Aussicht auf Erfolg weiterhelfen. Im Laufe der letzten Jahrzehnte hat sich zur Kennzeichnung klastischer Sedimente die Untersuchung der spezifisch schweren Minerale in zunehmendem Maße bewährt, wobei einmal das Auftreten bestimmter Minerale in einzelnen Schichtgruppen, zum andern das relative Mengenverhältnis gleicher Minerale in verschiedenen Ablagerungen herangezogen wurde. Eine Übertragung dieser Methoden auf die Geschiebeforschung ist bisher noch nicht versucht worden, obwohl hier gerade ein dankbares Objekt vorliegt, da auch sehr geringe Mengen von Untersuchungssubstanz eine hinreichende Charakterisierung des Schwermineralbestandes gestatten, also auch kleine und kleinste Geschiebe der Untersuchung zugänglich sind.

Mineralogical compositions of sediment samples from the San Francisco Bay coastal system

The mineralogical compositions of 119 samples collected from throughout the San Francisco Bay coastal system, including bayfloor and seafloor, area beaches, cliff outcrops, and major drainages, were determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD). Comparison of the mineral concentrations and application of statistical cluster analysis of XRD spectra allowed for the determination of provenances and transport pathways. The use of XRD mineral identifications provides semi-quantitative compositions needed for comparisons of beach and offshore sands with potential cliff and river sources, but the innovative cluster analysis of XRD diffraction spectra provides a unique visualization of how groups of samples within the San Francisco Bay coastal system are related so that sand-sized sediment transport pathways can be inferred. The main vector for sediment transport as defined by the XRD analysis is from San Francisco Bay to the outer coast, where the sand then accumulates on the ebb tidal delta and also moves alongshore. This mineralogical link defines a critical pathway because large volumes of sediment have been removed from the Bay over the last century via channel dredging, aggregate mining, and borrow pit mining, with comparable volumes of erosion from the ebb tidal delta over the same period, in addition to high rates of shoreline retreat along the adjacent, open-coast beaches. Therefore, while previously only a temporal relationship was established, the transport pathway defined by mineralogical and geochemical tracers support the link between anthropogenic activities in the Bay and widespread erosion outside the Bay. The XRD results also establish the regional and local importance of sediment derived from cliff erosion, as well as both proximal and distal fluvial sources. This research is an important contribution to a broader provenance study aimed at identifying the driving forces for widespread geomorphic change in a heavily urbanized coastal-estuarine system.