Evaluation of petrogenetic models for intermediate and silicic plutonic rocks from the Sierra de Valle Fertil-La Huerta, Argentina: Petrologic constraints on the origin of igneous rocks in the Ordovician Famatinian-Puna paleoarc

The whole Valle Fertil-La Huerta section appears as a calc-alkaline plutonic suite typical of a destructive plate margin. New Sr and Nd isotopic whole-rock data and published whole-rock geochemistry suggest that the less-evolved intermediate (dioritic) rocks can be derived by magmatic differentiation, mainly by hornblende + plagioclase +/- Fe-Ti oxide fractional crystallization, from mafic (gabbroic) igneous precursors. Closed-system differentiation, however, cannot produce the typical intermediate (tonalitic) and silicic (granodioritic) plutonic rocks, which requires a preponderant contribution of crustal components. Intermediate and silicic plutonic rocks from Valle Fertil-La Huerta section have formed in a plate subduction setting where the thermal and material input of mantle-derived magmas promoted fusion of fertile metasedimentary rocks and favored mixing of gabbroic or dioritic magmas with crustal granitic melts. Magma mixing is observable in the field and evident in variations of chemical elemental parameters and isotopic ratios, revealing that hybridization coupled with fractionation of magmas took place in the crust. Consideration of the whole-rock geochemical and isotopic data in the context of the Famatinian-Puna magmatic belt as a whole demonstrates that the petrologic model postulated for the Sierra Valle Fertil-La Huerta section has the potential to explain the generation of plutonic and volcanic rocks across the Early Ordovician paleoarc from central and northwestern Argentina. As the petrologic model does not require the intervention of old Precambrian continental crust, the nature of the basement on which thick accretionary turbiditic sequences were deposited remains a puzzling aspect. Discussion in this paper provides insights into the nature of magmatic source rocks and mechanisms of magma generation in Cordilleran-type volcano-plutonic arcs of destructive plate margins. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Petrogenesis of Early Cretaceous silicic volcanism in SE Uruguay: The role of mantle and crustal sources

Early Cretaceous (similar to 129 Ma) silicic rocks crop out in SE Uruguay between the Laguna Merin and Santa Lucia basins in the Lascano, Sierra Sao Miguel. Salamanca and Minas areas They are mostly rhyolites with minor quartz-trachytes and are nearly contemporaneous with the Parana-Etendeka igneous province and with the first stages of South Atlantic Ocean opening A strong geochemical variability (particularly evident from Rb/Nb, Nb/Y trace element ratios) and a wide range of Sr-Nd isotopic ratios ((143)Nd/(144)Nd((129)) = 0.51178-0.51209, (87)Sr/(86)Sr((129)) = 0.70840-0.72417) characterize these rocks Geochemistry allows to distiniguish two compositional groups, corresponding to the north-eastern (Lascano and Sierra Sao Miguel, emplaced on the Neo-Proterozoic southern sector of the Dom Feliciano mobile belt) and south-eastern localities (Salamanca, Minas, emplace on the much older (Archean) Nico Perez teriane or on the boundary between the Dom Feliciano and Nico Perez termites) These compositional differences between the two groups are explained by variable mantle source and crust contributions. The origin of the silicic magmas is best explained by complex processes involving assimilation and fractional crystallization and mixing of a basaltic magma with upper crustal lithologies, for Lascano and Sierra Sao Miguel rhyolites. In the Salamanea and Minas rocks genesis, a stronger contribution from lower crust is indicated.

The Granada ignimbrite: A compound pyroclastic unit and its relationship with Upper Miocene caldera volcanism in the northern Puna

The Granada ignimbrite, an Upper Miocene volcanic unit from the northern Puna, previously has been interpreted as an extensive ignimbrite (>2300 km(2)) associated with eruptions from the Vilama caldera (trap-door event). On the basis of new data, we revise its correlation and redefine the unit as a compound, high aspect ratio ignimbrite, erupted at approximately 9.8 Ma. Calculated volumes (similar to 100 km(3)) are only moderate in comparison with other large volume (>1000 km(3)) ignimbrites that erupted approximately 2-6 m.y. later in the region (e.g. Vilama, Panizos, Atana). Six new volcanic units are recognized from sequences previously correlated with Granada (only one sourced from the same center). Consequently, the area ascribed to the Granada ignimbrite is substantially reduced (630 km(2)), and links to the Vilama caldera are not supported. Transport directions suggest the volcanic source for the Granada ignimbrite corresponds to vents buried under younger (>= 7.9-5 Ma) volcanic rocks of the Abra Granada volcanic complex. Episodes of caldera collapse at some stage of eruption are likely, though their nature and timing cannot be defined from available data. The eruption of the Granada ignimbrite marks the onset of a phase of large volume (caldera-sourced) volcanism in the northern Puna. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Leaf application of silicic acid to white oat and wheat

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Relativistic Archimedes law for fast moving bodies and the general-relativistic resolution of the submarine paradox

We investigate and solve in the context of general relativity the apparent paradox which appears when bodies floating in a background fluid are set in relativistic motion. Suppose some macroscopic body, say, a submarine designed to lie just in equilibrium when it rests (totally) immersed in a certain background fluid. The puzzle arises when different observers are asked to describe what is expected to happen when the submarine is given some high velocity parallel to the direction of the fluid surface. on the one hand, according to observers at rest with the fluid, the submarine would contract and, thus, sink as a consequence of the density increase. on the other hand, mariners at rest with the submarine using an analogous reasoning for the fluid elements would reach the opposite conclusion. The general relativistic extension of the Archimedes law for moving bodies shows that the submarine sinks. As an extra bonus, this problem suggests a new gedankenexperiment for the generalized second law of thermodynamics.

Vulcanismo félsico paleoproterozoico do Grupo Iricoumé, Domínio Erepecuru-Trombetas, Província Amazônia Central: dados de campo, caracterização petrográfica e geocronologia Pb-Pb em zircão

O Grupo Iricoumé compreende rochas vulcânicas efusivas e piroclásticas, com texturas e estruturas bastante preservadas, que pertence a um extenso evento vulcano-plutônico que marcou a região central do Cráton Amazônico durante o Orosiriano. Tais rochas estão expostas no noroeste do estado do Pará, na porção meridional do sudoeste do Domínio Erepecuru-Trombetas, sul do Escudo das Guianas. Estudos petrográficos permitiram distinguir um vulcanismo explosivo, predominante e representado por rochas piroclásticas (ignimbritos, reoignimbritos, tufo coignimbrítico de queda e lápili-tufo relacionado a surge), e um efusivo, subordinado, representado por fluxos de lavas coerentes e rochas hipabissais (andesitos, lamprófiros espessartíticos e latitos). A maioria das rochas piroclásticas exibe feições diagnósticas da deposição dos piroclastos sob altas temperaturas, sugerindo que as rochas vulcânicas estão provavelmente relacionadas a ambientes de geração de caldeiras. As idades Pb-Pb de 1888 ± 2,5 e 1889 ± 2 Ma obtidas em zircão de ignimbritos traquidacíticos confirmam que a maioria das rochas estudadas pertence ao Grupo Iricoumé. Por outro lado, a idade Pb-Pb de 1992 ± 3 Ma obtida em zircão de um andesito evidencia um episódio vulcânico efusivo orosiriano mais antigo, já reconhecido, localmente, mais a sul, no Domínio Tapajós. Os dados obtidos demonstram a ampla extensão do vulcanismo Iricoumé e rochas vulcânicas correlatas na porção central do Cráton Amazônico, e constituem argumentos favoráveis para associar esse episódio vulcânico e rochas magmáticas correlatas a uma silicic large igneous province (SLIP), como já vem sendo descrito por alguns autores.

New insights on the occurrence of peperites and sedimentary deposits within the silicic volcanic sequences of the Parana Magmatic Province, Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Leaf application of silicic acid to upland rice and corn

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Monitoring Ploughing Activities during Submarine Pipeline Construction on different Seabed Substrata

Máster en Oceanografía

Remote Sensing of the El Hierro submarine volcanic eruption plume

[EN] Between October 2011 and March 2012 submarine volcanic eruptions took place at El Hierro (Canary Islands). The event produced plumes of discolored waters due to the discharge of volcanic matter, gases and fluids. Field samples of Chl-a and sulphur reduced species were collected by some oceanographic cruises (Instituto Español de Oceanografía, IEO).