Tephrochronology of marine sediments around the Island of Montserrat, Lesser Antilles volcanic arc

The recent history of the Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat, Lesser Antilles volcanic arc, is reconstructed using data obtained from recently drilled submarine cores.Tephra layers in these cores preserve a record of the volcanic history of Montserrat back to ~250 ka on the basis of micropaleontology and stable isotope stratigraphy. Stratigraphic relationships identified in the cores collected in 2002 and 2005 document the fate of both pyroclastic flows entering the ocean to the east of Montserrat and carbonate-rich turbidites sourced from the carbonate platformssurrounding the islands of the Lesser Antilles. Using oxygen isotope stratigraphy, micropalaeontological analysis and Carbon-14 dating, it can be shown that three significant volcanic events, including the on-going eruption, have occurred over the last 12 ka. Preceding this was a time of volcanic quiescence, with three carbonate-rich turbidite events being documented in many of the cores. Our data suggest that these events occurred during Marine Isotope Stage 2, following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and onset of post-glacial sea level rise.

Connecting Indigenous stories with geology : inquiry-based learning in a middle years classroom

One way to integrate indigenous perspectives in junior science is through links between indigenous stories of the local area and science concepts. Using local indigenous stories about landforms, a teacher of year 8 students designed a unit on geology that catered for the diverse student population in his class. This paper reports on the inquiry-based approach structured around the requirements of the Australian Curriculum highlighting the learning and engagement of students during the unit.

"The Stratified Record upon Which We Set Our Feet" : The Spatial Turn and the Multilayering of History, Geography, and Geology

In Thomas Mann’s tetralogy of the 1930s and 1940s, Joseph and His Brothers, the narrator declares history is not only “that which has happened and that which goes on happening in time,” but it is also “the stratified record upon which we set our feet, the ground beneath us.” By opening up history to its spatial, geographical, and geological dimensions Mann both predicts and encapsulates the twentieth-century’s “spatial turn,” a critical shift that divested geography of its largely passive role as history’s “stage” and brought to the fore intersections between the humanities and the earth sciences. In this paper, I draw out the relationships between history, narrative, geography, and geology revealed by this spatial turn and the questions these pose for thinking about the disciplinary relationship between geography and the humanities. As Mann’s statement exemplifies, the spatial turn itself has often been captured most strikingly in fiction, and I would argue nowhere more so than in Graham Swift’s Waterland (1983) and Anne Michaels’s Fugitive Pieces (1996), both of which present space, place, and landscape as having a palpable influence on history and memory. The geographical/geological line that runs through both Waterland and Fugitive Pieces continues through Tim Robinson’s non-fictional, two-volume “topographical” history Stones of Aran. Robinson’s Stones of Aran—which is not history, not geography, and not literature, and yet is all three—constructs an imaginative geography that renders inseparable geography, geology, history, memory, and the act of writing.

A brief guide to synchrotron radiation-based microtomography in (structural) geology and rock mechanics

This contribution outlines Synchrotron-based X-ray micro-tomography and its potential use in structural geology and rock mechanics. The paper complements several recent reviews of X-ray microtomography. We summarize the general approach to data acquisition, post-processing as well as analysis and thereby aim to provide an entry point for the interested reader. The paper includes tables listing relevant beamlines, a list of all available imaging techniques, and available free and commercial software packages for data visualization and quantification. We highlight potential applications in a review of relevant literature including time-resolved experiments and digital rock physics. The paper concludes with a report on ongoing developments and upgrades at synchrotron facilities to frame the future possibilities for imaging sub-second processes in centimetre-sized samples.

Late Pleistocene stratigraphy of IODP Site U1396 and compiled chronology offshore of south and south west Montserrat, Lesser Antilles

Marine sediments around volcanic islands contain an archive of volcaniclastic deposits, which can be used to reconstruct the volcanic history of an area. Such records hold many advantages over often incomplete terrestrial datasets. This includes the potential for precise and continuous dating of intervening sediment packages, which allow a correlatable and temporally-constrained stratigraphic framework to be constructed across multiple marine sediment cores. Here, we discuss a marine record of eruptive and mass-wasting events spanning ~250 ka offshore of Montserrat, using new data from IODP Expedition 340, as well as previously collected cores. By using a combination of high-resolution oxygen isotope stratigraphy, AMS radiocarbon dating, biostratigraphy of foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils and clast componentry, we identify five major events at Soufriere Hills volcano since 250 ka. Lateral correlation of these events across sediment cores collected offshore of the south and south west of Montserrat, have improved our understanding of the timing, extent and associations between events in this area. Correlations reveal that powerful and potentially erosive density-currents travelled at least 33 km offshore, and demonstrate that marine deposits, produced by eruption-fed and mass-wasting events on volcanic islands, are heterogeneous in their spatial distribution. Thus, multiple drilling/coring sites are needed to reconstruct the full chronostratigraphy of volcanic islands. This multidisciplinary study will be vital to interpreting the chaotic records of submarine landslides at other sites drilled during Expedition 340 and provides a framework that can be applied to the stratigraphic analysis of sediments surrounding other volcanic islands.

Structural-stratigraphic reconstruction of the lower Whakataki formation, north island, New Zealand

This thesis details a Miocene aged sedimentary rock formation located in north island New Zealand. Mapping, stratigraphic logging and petrographic analysis of the rock formation ascertained that it was deposited in a deep-marine, tectonically active region. The work details the make-up of the sedimentary rocks using geochemistry and microscopy to define their origin. This definition was used to interpret the depositional model of the sediments detailing how they were transported and how they were emplaced.

Contributions to the geology and paleontology of the Canal Zone, Panama, and geologically related areas in Central America and the West Indies. Decapod crustaceans from the Panama region

Fifty-eight species of Decapods are enumerated from the collections examined by the author. Three species described by other authors are inserted in systematic order, thus making the list complete for the Panama region. All available material in the United States National Museum from Panama and Costa Rica is included; it ranges in age from the Oligocene (Culebra formation) to the Pleistocene.

Geology and geomorphology of Florida's coastal marshes

(PDF contains 16 pages.)

Interim report on geology and ground-water resources of Indian River County, Florida

In the area of this investigation a partial inventory was made of the estimated 2,000 existing wells to obtain information on location, depth, and yield of representative wells. Also, data were obtained on the quality of water from the various aquifers, and on the fluctuation of water levels in certain wells in the Floridan aquifer. The hydraulic characteristics of the Floridan aquifer at several sites were determined by means of pumping tests. (PDF has 80 pages.)

Reconnaissance of the geology and ground-water resources of Columbia County, Florida

The Floridan aquifer was found to be principal source of ground water in the area, containing artesian water in the northern part of Columbia County, and being recharged in the southern part of the county. A few wells in the northern part of the county tap water present in sediments that lie above the Floridan aquifer. These shallow waters are generally high in iron and tannic acid. The details on the geology and hydrology necessary to conserve and utilize the water available to the residents of Columbia County are presented in this study. (PDF contains 86 pages)

Contributions to the Geology and Paleontology of the Canal Zone, Panama, and geologically related areas in central America and the West Indies. Part 11: The biologic character and geologic correlations of the sedimentary formations of Panama in their relation to the geologic history of Central America and the West Indies

The paper presents: 1) biologic summaries for each of the formations for which paleontologic data are available, with brief discussions of the geologic age; 2) geologic correlations of the formations and the distribution of their age-equivalents in Central America, the West Indies, and the southeastern United States; 3) an outline of the paleogeography of middle America. The biologic summaries are based on the paleontologic memoirs in this vol. by Messars. Howe, Berry, Chuchman, Jackson, Canu and Bassler and Pilsbry, Miss Rathbun and myself.

Earthquake geology of Myanmar

This thesis describes the active structures of Myanmar and its surrounding regions, and the earthquake geology of the major active structures. Such investigation is needed urgently for this rapidly developing country that has suffered from destructive earthquakes in its long history. To archive a better understanding of the regional active tectonics and the seismic potential in the future, we utilized a global digital elevation model and optical satellite imagery to describe geomorphologic evidence for the principal neotectonic features of the western half of the Southeast Asia mainland. Our investigation shows three distinct active structural systems that accommodate the oblique convergence between the Indian plate and Southeast Asia and the extrusion of Asian territory around the eastern syntaxis of the Himalayan mountain range. Each of these active deformation belts can be further separated into several neotectonic domains, in which structures show distinctive active behaviors from one to another.

In order to better understand the behaviors of active structures, we focused on the active characteristics of the right-lateral Sagaing fault and the oblique subducting northern Sunda megathrust in the second part of this thesis. The detailed geomorphic investigations along these two major plate-interface faults revealed the recent slip behavior of these structures, and plausible recurrence intervals of major seismic events. We also documented the ground deformation of the 2011 Tarlay earthquake in remote eastern Myanmar from remote sensing datasets and post-earthquake field investigations. The field observation and the remote sensing measurements of surface ruptures of the Tarlay earthquake are the first study of this kind in the Myanmar region.

I. Geology of the Southwest quarter of the Elsinore Quadrangle. II. Geochemical properties of the waters of the Elsinore Quadrangle [= Geology of the Lake Elsinore Quadrangle, California. Mineral deposits of Lake Elsinore Quadrangle, California]

The Lake Elsinore quadrangle covers about 250 square miles and includes parts of the southwest margin of the Perris Block, the Elsinore trough, the southeastern end of the Santa Ana Mountains, and the Elsinore Mountains.

The oldest rocks consist of an assemblage of metamorphics of igneous effusive and sedimentary origin, probably, for the most part, of Triassic age. They are intruded by diorite and various hypabyssal rocks, then in turn by granitic rocks, which occupy over 40 percent of the area. Following this last igneous activity of probable Lower Cretaceous age, an extended period of sedimentation started with the deposition of the marine Upper Cretaceous Chico formation and continued during the Paloecene under alternating marine and continental conditions on the margins of the blocks. A marine regression towards the north, during the Neocene, accounts for the younger Tertiary strata in the region under consideration.

Outpouring of basalts to the southeast indicates that igneous activity was resumed toward the close of the Tertiary. The fault zone, which characterizes the Elsinor trough, marks one of the major tectonic lines of southem California. It separates the upthrown and tilted block of the Santa Ana Mountains to the south from the Perris Block to the north.

Most of the faults are normal in type and nearly parallel to the general trend of the trough, or intersect each other at an acute angle. Vertical displacements generally exceed the horizontal ones and several periods of activity are recognized.

Tilting of Tertiary and older Quaternary sediments in the trough have produced broad synclinal structures which have been modified by subsequent faulting.

Five old surfaces of erosion are exposed on the highlands.

The mineral resources of the region are mainly high-grade clay deposits and mineral waters.