'The debatable territory where geology and archaeology meet': reassessing the early archaeobotanical work of Clement Reid and Arthur Lyell at Roman Silchester

The first large-scale archaeobotanical study in Britain, conducted from 1899 to 1909 by Clement Reid and Arthur Lyell at Silchester, provided the first evidence for the introduction of Roman plant foods to Britain, yet the findings have thus far remained unverified. This paper presents a reassessment of these archaeobotanical remains, now stored as part of the Silchester Collection in Reading Museum. The documentary evidence for the Silchester study is summarised, before the results are presented for over a 1000 plant remains including an assessment of preservation, identification and modern contamination. The dataset includes both evidence for the presence of nationally rare plant foods, such as medlar, and several archaeophytes. The methodologies and original interpretations of Reid and Lyell’s study are reassessed in light of current archaeobotanical knowledge. Spatial and contextual patterns in the distribution of plant foods and ornamental taxa are also explored. Finally, the legacy of the study for the development of archaeobotany in the 20th century is evaluated.

The timing of Neotropical speciation dynamics: A reconstruction of Myiopagis flycatcher diversification using phylogenetic and paleogeographic data

Neotropical forests have brought forth a large proportion of the world`s terrestrial biodiversity, but the underlying evolutionary mechanisms and their timing require further elucidation. Despite insights gained from phylogenetic studies, uncertainties about molecular clock rates have hindered efforts to determine the timing of diversification processes. Moreover, most molecular research has been detached from the extensive body of data on Neotropical geology and paleogeography. We here examine phylogenetic relationships and the timing of speciation events in a Neotropical flycatcher genus (Myiopagis) by using calibrations from modern geologic data in conjunction with a number of recently developed DNA sequence dating algorithms and by comparing these estimates with those based on a range of previously proposed molecular clock rates. We present a well-supported hypothesis of systematic relationships within the genus. Our age estimates of Myiopagis speciation events based on paleogeographic data are in close agreement with nodal ages derived from a ""traditional"" avian mitochondrial 2%/My clock, while contradicting other clock rates. Our comparative approach corroborates the consistency of the traditional avian mitochondrial clock rate of 2%/My for tyrant-flycatchers. Nevertheless, our results argue against the indiscriminate use of molecular clock rates in evolutionary research and advocate the verification of the appropriateness of the traditional clock rate by means of independent calibrations in individual studies. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Determination of controls on Holocene barrier progradation through application of OSL dating: The Ilha Comprida Barrier example, Southeastern Brazil

Barrier development during the Holocene is studied using the example of the Ilha Comprida, Southeastern Brazil. Aerial photos, facies analysis, and optically stimulated luminescence dating are used to define the barrier emergence and evolution. Optically stimulated luminescence ages and facies successions indicate that the Ilha Comprida probably began as a Holocene transgressive barrier island 6000 years ago, just before the last relative sea-level maximum. Since then the barrier has progradated through the addition of curved beach ridges. Based on beach ridge alignments, six units of growth are identified with two growth directions, transverse and longitudinal. Rates of progradation with transverse growth vary from 0.13 to 4.6 m/year. Rates of longitudinal growth to NE range from 5.2 to 30 m/year. Variation in coastal progradation rates and sediment retention during the last 6000 years is compared with climate, physiography and relative sea-level changes. The physiography, represented by pre-Cenozoic hills, is the major control on sediment retention and alternation between longitudinal and transverse growth. Climate variations, such as the Little Ice Age event, apparently control the formation of ridges types: beach ridges, foredunes, and blowouts. These results allow the use of the Ilha Comprida Barrier as an example to analyze the major controls on barriers progradation. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sediment deformation in Miocene and post-Miocene strata, Northeastern Brazil: Evidence for paleoseismicity in a passive margin

Stratigraphic intervals characterized by varied and complex styles of soft-sediment deformation structures are well preserved in Miocene and Late Pleistocene to Holocene deposits of a sedimentary basin located in Northeastern Brazil. The Miocene strata, represented by the Barreiras Formation, record only brittle structures, including numerous faults and fractures with straight and high angle-dipping planes that are often filled with sands derived from overlying beds. Folds consisting of broad anticlines and synclines are also present in this unit. The late Pleistocene to Holocene deposits, named Post-Barreiras Sediments, contain an indurated sandy package with a large variety of ductile and brittle deformation structures (i.e., massive sandstones with isolated sand fragments and breccias, undulatory strata, sand dykes and diapirs, sinks and bowls, pebbly pockets, plunged sediment mixtures, fitted sand masses, cone-shaped cracks, fault grading and sedimentary enclaves). These features, confined to sharp-based stratigraphic horizons that progressively grade downward into undisturbed deposits, are related to seismic shocks of high surface-wave magnitude (i.e., Ms>5 or 6). Amalgamated seismites suggest that previously formed seismites were affected by subsequent seismic-wave propagation. Seismic waves caused by activity along one, or most likely, several tectonic structures would have propagated throughout the depositional environment, producing laterally extensive seismites. The close proximity to earthquake epicenters would have promoted pervasive re-sedimentation due to pore overpressure, resulting high volumes of massive sandstones and breccia. The similarity between deposits with correlatable strata from many other areas along the Brazilian coast allows raise the hypothesis that the seismic episodes might have affected sedimentation patterns in a large (i.e., extension of several hundreds of kilometers) geographic area. Thus, the modern seismicity recorded along Northeastern Brazil was recurrent during the Quaternary and, perhaps, also in the Pliocene. The estimated high magnitude of the seismic events and the great regional extent of the affected area demonstrate that the Brazilian coast experienced tectonic stress through the last geological episodes of its evolution, which would have favored sediment accumulation and penecontemporaneous re-sedimentation. This geological context is unexpected in a passive margin, inducing to revisit the debate on how active is a passive margin. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evolution of a rift basin dominated by subaerial deposits: The Guaritas Rift, Early Cambrian, Southern Brazil

Most existing models for the evolution of rift basins predict the development of deep-water depositional systems during the stage of greatest tectonic subsidence, when accommodation generation potentially outpaces sedimentation. Despite this, some rift basins do not present deep-water systems, instead being dominated by subaerial deposits. This paper focuses on one of these particular rift basins, the Cambrian Guaritas Rift, Southern Brazil, characterized by more than 1500 m of alluvial and aeolian strata deposited in a 50-km-wide basin. The deposits of the Guaritas Rift can be ascribed to four depositional systems: basin-border alluvial fans, bedload-dominated ephemeral rivers, mixed-load ephemeral rivers and aeolian dune fields. These four systems are in part coeval and in part succeed each other, forming three stages of basin evolution: (i) Rift Initiation to Early Rift Climax stage, (ii) Mid to Late Rift Climax stage, and (iii) Early Post-Rift stage. The first stage comprises most of the Guaritas Group and is characterized by homogeneous bed-load-dominated river deposits, which do not clearly record the evolution of subsidence rates. The onset of sedimentation of finer-grained deposits occurred as a consequence of a reactivation event that changed the outline of the basin and the distribution of the nearby highlands. This strongly suggests that the capture of the main river system to another depression decreased the sediment supply to the basin. The study of the Guaritas Rift indicates that rift basins in which the sediment supply exceeds the accommodation generation occur as a consequence of moderate subsidence combined with the capture of a major river system to the basin during the initial stages of basin evolution. In these basins, changes in the average discharge of the river system or tectonic modification of the drainage network may be the major control on the stratigraphic architecture. (c) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Grain size and heavy minerals of the Late Quaternary eolian sediments from the Imbituba-Jaguaruna coast, Southern Brazil: Depositional controls linked to relative sea-level changes

The stratigraphic subdivision and correlation of dune deposits is difficult, especially when age datings are not available. A better understanding of the controls on texture and composition of eolian sands is necessary to interpret ancient eolian sediments. The Imbituba-Jaguaruna coastal zone (Southern Brazil, 28 degrees-29 degrees S) stands out due to its four well-preserved Late Pleistocene (eolian generation 1) to Holocene eolian units (eolian generations 2, 3, and 4). In this study, we evaluate the grain-size and heavy-mineral characteristics of the Imbituba-Jaguartma eolian units through statistical analysis of hundreds of sediment samples. Grain-size parameters and heavy-mineral content allow us to distinguish the Pleistocene from the Holocene units. The grain size displays a pattern of fining and better sorting from generation 1 (older) to 4 (younger), whereas the content of mechanically stable (dense and hard) heavy minerals decreases from eolian generation 1 to 4. The variation in grain size and heavy-mineral content records shifts in the origin and balance (input versus output) of eolian sediment supply attributable mainly to relative sea-level changes. Dunefields submitted to relative sea-level lowstand conditions (eolian generation 1) are characterized by lower accumulation rates and intense post-depositional dissection by fluvial incision. Low accumulation rates favor deflation in the eolian system, which promotes concentration of denser and stable heavy minerals (increase of ZTR index) as well as coarsening of eolian sands. Dissection involves the selective removal of finer sediments and less dense heavy minerals to the coastal source area. Under a high rate of relative sea-level rise and transgression (eolian generation 2), coastal erosion prevents deflation through high input of sediments to the coastal eolian source. This condition favors dunefield growth. Coastal erosion feeds sand from local sources to the eolian system. including sands from previous dunefields (eolian generation 1) and from drowned incised valleys. Therefore, dunefields corresponding to transgressive phases inherit the grain-size and heavy-mineral characteristics of previous dunefields, leading to selective enrichment of finer sands and lighter minerals. Eolian generations 3 and 4 developed during a regressive-progradational phase (Holocene relative sea level highstand). The high rate of sediment supply during the highstand phase prevents deflation. The lack of coastal erosion favors sediment supply from distal sources (fluvial sediments rich in unstable heavy minerals). Thus, dunefields of transgressive and highstand systems tracts may be distinguished from dunefields of the lowstand systems tract through high rates of accumulation (low deflation) in the former. The sediment source of the transgressive dunefields (high input of previously deposited coastal sands) differs from that of the highstand dunefields (high input of fluvial distal sands). Based on this case study, we propose a general framework for the relation between relative sea level, sediment supply and the texture and mineralogy of eolian sediments deposited in siliciclastic wet coastal zones similar to the Imbituba-Jaguaruna coast (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Geology and geochronology of the Betara region in south-southeastern Brazil: Evidence for possible Statherian (1.80-1.75 Ga) and Calymmian (1.50-1.45 Ga) extension events

The results of geological mapping, chemical analysis and radiometric dating of metabasic rocks of Betara Formation, and mapping and dating of those present in the Betara basement nucleus together with mylonitic granodiorite and syenogranite are reported here. U-Pb analysis of bulk zircon fractions from the metabasic rocks of the basement nucleus yielded a Statherian age of 1790 +/- 22 Ma, while the metabasic rocks from the upper part of the Betara Formation yielded a Calymmian age between 1500 and 1450 Ma. This age is a minimum for the deposition of the Betara Formation. The older metabasic rocks are associated with post-tectonic, possibly anorogenic syenogranite, while the younger ones are gabbro or very porphyritic ankaramite whose REE patterns are consistent with crystallization from an N-MORB parent magma. The observations and data point to the probable events associated with extensional processes of the end of Paleoproterozoic and early Mesoproterozoic. Similar registers of Statherian (1.80-1.75 Ga) and Calymmian (1.50-1.45 Ga) extensional events are recorded in other parts of the South American and African continents. The Neoproterozoic witnessed the formation and junction of the tectonic slices which formed the Apiai domain during the assemblage of western Gondwana. (C) 2010 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bedrock Geology of Maine

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