Detrital Zircon Evidence for Mixing of Mazatzal Province Age Detritus With Yavapai Age (ca. 1700-1740 Ma) and Older Detritus in the ca. 1650 Ma Mazatzal Province of Central New Mexico, USA

Preliminary detrital zircon age distributions from Mazatzal crustal province quartzite and schist exposed in the Manzano Mountains and Pedernal Hills of central New Mexico are consistent with a mixture of detritus from Mazatzal age (ca. 1650 Ma), Yavapai age (ca. 1720 Ma.), and older sources. A quartzite sample from the Blue Springs Formation in the Manzano Mountains yielding 67 concordant grain analyses shows two dominant age peaks of 1737 Ma and 1791 Ma with a minimum peak age of 1652 Ma. Quartzite and micaceous quartzite samples from near Pedernal Peak give unimodal peak ages of ca. 1695 Ma and 1738 Ma with minimum detrital zircon ages of ca. 1625 Ma and 1680 Ma, respectively. A schist sample from the southern exposures of the Pedernal Hills area gives a unimodal peak age of 1680 Ma with a minimum age of ca. 1635 Ma. Minor amounts of older detritus (>1800 Ma) possibly reflect Trans-Hudson, Wyoming, Mojave Province, and older Archean sources and aid in locating potential source terrains for these detrital zircon. The Blue Springs Formation metarhyolite from near the top of the Proterozoic section in the Manzano Mountains yields 71 concordant grains that show a preliminary U-Pb zircon crystallization age of 1621 ¿ 5 Ma, which provides a minimum age constraint for deposition in the Manzano Mountains. Normalized probability plots from this study are similar to previously reported age distributions in the Burro and San Andres Mountains in southern New Mexico and suggest that Yavapai Province age detritus was deposited and intermingled with Mazatzal Province age detritus across much of the Mazatzal crustal province in New Mexico. This data shows that the tectonic evolution of southwestern Laurentia is associated with multiple orogenic events. Regional metamorphism and deformation in the area must postdate the Mazatzal Orogeny and ca. 1610 Ma ¿ 1620 Ma rhyolite crystallization and is attributed to the Mesoproterozoic ca. 1400 ¿ 1480 Ma Picuris Orogeny.

Ceramics, Trade, Provenience and Geology: Cyprus in the Late Bronze Age

The island of Cyprus was a major producer of copper and stood at the heart of east Mediterranean trade networks during the Late Bronze Age. It may also have been the source of the Red Lustrous Wheelmade Ware that has been found in mortuary contexts in Egypt and the Levant, and in Hittite temple assemblages in Anatolia. Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) has enabled the source area of this special ceramic to be located in a geologically highly localised and geochemically distinctive area of western Cyprus. This discovery offers a new perspective on the spatial organisation of Cypriot economies in the production and exchange of elite goods around the eastern Mediterranean at this time.

Low-temperature evolution of the Morondava rift basin shoulder in western Madagascar: An apatite fission track study

[1] The evolution of the rift shoulder and the sedimentary sequence of the Morondava basin in western Madagascar was mainly influenced by a Permo-Triassic continental failed rift (Karroo rift), and the early Jurassic separation of Madagascar from Africa. Karroo deposits are restricted to a narrow corridor along the basement-basin contact and parts of this contact feature a steep escarpment. Here, apatite fission track (AFT) analysis of a series of both basement and sediment samples across the escarpment reveals the low-temperature evolution of the exhuming Precambrian basement in the rift basin shoulder and the associated thermal evolution of the sedimentary succession. Seven basement and four Karroo sediment samples yield apparent AFT ages between ∼330 and ∼215 Ma and ∼260 and ∼95 Ma, respectively. Partially annealed fission tracks and thermal modeling indicate post-depositional thermal overprinting of both basement and Karroo sediment. Rocks presently exposed in the rift shoulder indicate temperatures of >60°C associated with this reheating whereby the westernmost sample in the sedimentary plain experienced almost complete resetting of the detrital apatite grains at temperatures of about ∼90–100°C. The younging of AFT ages westward indicates activity of faults, re-activating inherited Precambrian structures during Karroo sedimentation. Furthermore, our data suggest onset of final cooling/exhumation linked to (1) the end of Madagascar's drift southward relative to Africa during the Early Cretaceous, (2) activity of the Marion hot spot and associated Late Cretaceous break-up between Madagascar and India, and (3) the collision of India with Eurasia and subsequent re-organization of spreading systems in the Indian Ocean.

Late Holocene air temperature variability reconstructed from the sediments of Laguna Escondida, Patagonia, Chile (45 degrees 30 ' S)

Climate and environmental reconstructions from natural archives are important for the interpretation of current climatic change. Few quantitative high-resolution reconstructions exist for South America which is the only land mass extending from the tropics to the southern high latitudes at 56°S. We analyzed sediment cores from two adjacent lakes in Northern Chilean Patagonia, Lago Castor (45°36′S, 71°47′W) and Laguna Escondida (45°31′S, 71°49′W). Radiometric dating (210Pb, 137Cs, 14C-AMS) suggests that the cores reach back to c. 900 BC (Laguna Escondida) and c. 1900 BC (Lago Castor). Both lakes show similarities and reproducibility in sedimentation rate changes and tephra layer deposition. We found eight macroscopic tephras (0.2–5.5 cm thick) dated at 1950 BC, 1700 BC, at 300 BC, 50 BC, 90 AD, 160 AD, 400 AD and at 900 AD. These can be used as regional time-synchronous stratigraphic markers. The two thickest tephras represent known well-dated explosive eruptions of Hudson volcano around 1950 and 300 BC. Biogenic silica flux revealed in both lakes a climate signal and correlation with annual temperature reanalysis data (calibration 1900–2006 AD; Lago Castor r = 0.37; Laguna Escondida r = 0.42, seven years filtered data). We used a linear inverse regression plus scaling model for calibration and leave-one-out cross-validation (RMSEv = 0.56 °C) to reconstruct sub decadal-scale temperature variability for Laguna Escondida back to AD 400. The lower part of the core from Laguna Escondida prior to AD 400 and the core of Lago Castor are strongly influenced by primary and secondary tephras and, therefore, not used for the temperature reconstruction. The temperature reconstruction from Laguna Escondida shows cold conditions in the 5th century (relative to the 20th century mean), warmer temperatures from AD 600 to AD 1150 and colder temperatures from AD 1200 to AD 1450. From AD 1450 to AD 1700 our reconstruction shows a period with stronger variability and on average higher values than the 20th century mean. Until AD 1900 the temperature values decrease but stay slightly above the 20th century mean. Most of the centennial-scale features are reproduced in the few other natural climate archives in the region. The early onset of cool conditions from c. AD 1200 onward seems to be confirmed for this region.

Global Change and the World's Mountain. Where are we coming from, and where are we going to?

The history of mountain research is most fascinating. Three names for 3 centuries may give an idea of the growing knowledge about the world's mountains: Horace Bénédict de Saussure, who climbed and studied the Mont Blanc in 1787; Alexander von Humboldt, ever investigating the environment during his attempt to ascend the Chimborazo in 1802; and Carl Troll, who founded the International Geographical Union's Commission on High-altitude Geoecology in 1968. Awareness of the growing impact of human activities on the environment led to scientific and political initiatives at the global level, beginning in the 1970s. The Perth conference in 2010 has offered an opportunity to both look back on these developments and explore the future of the world's mountains in a time of rapidly growing “global change” problems and processes.

A human-horse comparative map based on equine BAC end sequences

In an effort to increase the density of sequence-based markers for the horse genome we generated 9473 BAC end sequences (BESs) from the CHORI-241 BAC library with an average read length of 677 bp. BLASTN searches with the BESs revealed 4036 meaningful hits (E BAC clones to the human genome, on average one corresponding equine BAC clone per megabase of human DNA. We used the BLASTN anchored BESs for an in silico prediction of the gene content and chromosome assignment of comparatively mapped equine BAC clones. As a first verification of our in silico mapping strategy we placed 19 equine BESs with matches to HSA6 onto the RH map. All markers were assigned to the predicted localizations on ECA10, ECA20, and ECA31, respectively.

Will International Pursuit of the Millenium Development Goals Alleviate Poverty in Mountains?

Since September 2000, when world leaders agreed on time-bound, measurable goals to reduce extreme poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and disease while fostering gender equality and ensuring environmental sustainability, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have increasingly come to dominate the policy objectives of many states and development agencies. The concern has been raised that the tight timeframe and financial restrictions might force governments to invest in the more productive sectors, thus compromising the quality and sustainability of development efforts. In the long term, this may lead to even greater inequality, especially between geographical regions and social strata. Hence people living in marginal areas, for example in remote mountain regions, and minority peoples risk being disadvantaged by this internationally agreed agenda. Strategies to overcome hunger and poverty in their different dimensions in mountain areas need to focus on strengthening the economy of small-scale farmers, while also fostering the sustainable use of natural resources, taking into consideration their multifunctionality.