Los mármoles comerciales “Marrón Imperial” y “Marrón Emperador” (S.E. España). Caracterización petrológica y criterios de exploración

Los mármoles comerciales "Marrón Imperial" y "Marrón Emperador" son dolomías brechoides que de acuerdo con la clasificación del MIA pertenece al Grupo C de mármoles comerciales. Se determinan sus parámetros petrofísicos según la norma UNE. Sus rasgos petrológicos se estudian mediante microscopio petrográfico de luz transmitida y microscopio electrónico de barrido (MEB) (en modo de electrones secundarios y electrones retrodispersados). Estas rocas son básicamente dolomías mesocristalinas con abundantes vénulas calcíticas politexturales relacionadas con procesos de brechificación y de dolomitización. Rasgos kársticos aumentan la complejidad petrológica de estas rocas ornamentales cuyo litosoma son las dolomías masivas del Cretácico Superior (¿Turoniense?) del dominio Prebético Externo. El material explotado pertenece a una alineación morfoestructural que va desde Jumilla hasta el NE de Caudete y está relacionado con la falla Jumilla-Yecla-Caudete-Font de la Figuera. La relación entre esta falla y las dolomías turonienses son el principal criterio de exploración de estas rocas ornamentales.

On the initiation of boudinage and folding instabilities in layered elasto-visco-plastic solids - Insights from natural microstructures and numerical simulations

The present understanding of the initiation of boudinage and folding structures is based on viscosity contrasts and stress exponents, considering an intrinsically unstable state of the layer. The criterion of localization is believed to be prescribed by geometry-material interactions, which are often encountered in natural structures. An alternative localization phenomenon has been established for ductile materials, in which instability emerges for critical material parameters and loading rates from homogeneous conditions. In this thesis, conditions are sought under which this type of instability prevails and whether localization in geological materials necessarily requires a trigger by geometric imperfections. The relevance of critical deformation conditions, material parameters and the spatial configuration of instabilities are discussed in a geological context. In order to analyze boudinage geometries, a numerical eigenmode analysis is introduced. This method allows determining natural frequencies and wavelengths of a structure and inducing perturbations on these frequencies. In the subsequent coupled thermo-mechanical simulations, using a grain size evolution and end-member flow laws, localization emerges when material softening through grain size sensitive viscous creep sets in. Pinch-and-swell structures evolve along slip lines through a positive feedback between the matrix response and material bifurcations inside the layer, independent from the mesh-discretization length scale. Since boudinage and folding are considered to express the same general instability, both structures should arise independently of the sign of the loading conditions and for identical material parameters. To this end, the link between material to energy instabilities is approached by means of bifurcation analyses of the field equations and finite element simulations of the coupled system of equations. Boudinage and folding structures develop at the same critical energy threshold, where dissipative work by temperature-sensitive creep overcomes the diffusive capacity of the layer. This finding provides basis for a unified theory for strain localization in layered ductile materials. The numerical simulations are compared to natural pinch-and-swell microstructures, tracing the adaption of grain sizes, textures and creep mechanisms in calcite veins. The switch from dislocation to diffusion creep relates to strain-rate weakening, which is induced by dissipated heat from grain size reduction, and marks the onset of continuous necking. The time-dependent sequence uncovers multiple steady states at different time intervals. Microstructurally and mechanically stable conditions are finally expressed in the pinch-and-swell end members. The major outcome of this study is that boudinage and folding can be described as the same coupled energy-mechanical bifurcation, or as one critical energy attractor. This finding allows the derivation of critical deformation conditions and fundamental material parameters directly from localized structures in the field.

Developmental control of H+/amino acid permease gene expression during seed development of Arabidopsis

Long distance transport of amino acids is mediated by several families of differentially expressed amino acid transporters. The two genes AAP1 and AAP2 encode broad specificity H+-amino acid co-transporters and are expressed to high levels in siliques of Arabidopsis, indicating a potential role in supplying the seeds with organic nitrogen. The expression of both genes is developmentally controlled and is strongly induced in siliques at heart stage of embryogenesis, shortly before induction of storage protein genes. Histochemical analysis of transgenic plants expressing promoter-GUS fusions shows that the genes have non-overlapping expression patterns in siliques. AAP1 is expressed in the endosperm and the cotyledons whereas AAP2 is expressed in the vascular strands of siliques and in funiculi. The endosperm expression of AAP1 during early stages of seed development indicates that the endosperm serves as a transient storage tissue for organic nitrogen. Amino acids are transported in both xylem and phloem but during seed filling are imported only via the phloem. AAP2, which is expressed in the phloem of stems and in the veins supplying seeds, may function in uptake of amino acids assimilated in the green silique tissue, in the retrieval of amino acids leaking passively out of the phloem and in xylem-to-phloem transfer along the path. The promoters provide excellent tools to study developmental, hormonal and metabolic control of nitrogen nutrition during development and may help to manipulate the timing and composition of amino acid import into seeds.

Structural features in ODP Holes 128-794D and 128-799B

Numerous structural features occur in the Leg 128 cores from the Japan Sea. They include (1) gravity-induced structures such as slump folds, (2) dewatering structures comprising several sets of veins, and (3) larger faults and veins developed in the volcanic basement of the Yamato Basin as well as in the sedimentary rocks of the Oki Ridge and Kita-Yamato Trough. Gravity-induced structures, mainly slumps and associated faults, suggest the existence of paleoslopes and the dominance of gravitational tectonics during the early and middle Miocene, at the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary, and during the Quaternary. Several types of mud-filled veins having various shapes were observed. These are especially abundant in the middle Miocene siliceous claystones and porcellanites from the Kita-Yamato Trough. They have been interpreted as dewatering conduits that formed preferentially in highly porous, water-saturated diatomaceous muds on a slope, because of episodic loss of sediment strength, collapse of the sediment framework, and consequent fluid migration. The central part of the vein serves once as a fluid conduit, whereas the transition between conduit-controlled and intergranular flow occurs at the branching extremities, with concentration of fines. The likely trigger responsible for the strength loss is seismic activity. Development of these veins, spatially and chronologically linked to small normal microfaults, implies an extensional regime having layer-parallel extension and a local bedding-parallel shear couple, probably the result of gravitational gliding. The brittle fractures found in Yamato Basin basement Hole 794D cores comprise joints, faults, and veins filled with chlorite-saponite, saponite, and calcite. They suggest a likely transpressive to transtensional regime around the early Miocene/ middle Miocene boundary, with a north-northeast-south-southwest compression alternating with a west-northwest-eastsoutheast extension. The faults from Site 799 cores on the Yamato Rise exhibit a prominent early Miocene-middle Miocene extensional environment, a late Miocene-early Pliocene phase of normal and strike-slip faulting, and a final phase that began during the latest Pliocene. Site 798, on the Oki Ridge, reveals faults that recorded a consistent extensional tectonic regime from Pliocene to the Holocene. These data support the pull-apart kinematic model for early Miocene-middle Miocene time, as regarding the stress regime deduced from the Yamato Basin basement fractures. The recent compression known in the eastern margin of the Japan Sea was not documented by compressive structures at any site. The late Miocene-early Pliocene faulting phase corresponds to a major and general reorganization of the stress distribution in the arc area. Evidence for rapid and main subsidence and synsedimentary extension of the Yamato Basin and Yamato Rise areas between 20 and 15 Ma, and the concomitant rotation of southwest Japan, raise the question of links between this opening and the Shimanto Belt collision in southwest Japan, between the arc and the Philippine Sea Plate.

(Table 1) Stable-isotopes of mineral separates and whole-rock powders from altered volcanic rocks of DSDP Hole 62-465A

Hess Rise, in the western Pacific Ocean, formed in the mid-Cretaceous south of the equator and moved north with the Pacific Plate (Lancelot and Larson, 1975; Lancelot, 1978; Valuer et al., 1979). Southern Hess Rise was a volcanic archipelago, at least until late Albian time, after which it subsided to become one of the major aseismic rises in the present western Pacific. A second pulse of volcanic activity apparently occurred in the Campanian-Maastrichtian interval, which may be related to tectonic uplift of Hess Rise (Valuer and Jefferson, this volume). Trachytic rocks underlie 412 meters of carbonate sediments at Site 465 on southern Hess Rise. Twenty-four meters of trachyte were recovered from a 64-meter cored interval. The rocks are relatively homogeneous in texture, color, and composition, indicating that the cored sequence was probably part of only one magmatic event (Seifert et al., this volume). Large (> 5-mm) vesicles and oxidized parts of some flows suggest subaerial or shallow-water extrusions. The rocks are high in silica and relatively rich in Na2O, K2O, and light rare-earth elements. The upper part of the volcanic-rock sequence is a breccia, the fragments cemented by calcite, pyrite, and rare barite. Some of the resultant veins are more than 1 cm thick. In addition to the veins, many vesicles are also filled with these minerals. Brecciation and the number and thickness of veins decrease with depth in the hole. The degree of weathering, as indicated by water content, also decreases with depth.

(Table 1) Chemical composition and bulk densities of dolerites from ODP Hole 504B lower dikes

Chemical interactions between seawater and the oceanic crust have been widely investigated during recent years. However, most of these studies concern the uppermost volcanic part of the crust. The contribution of the underlying sheeted dike complex to the global budget of the oceans is inferred solely from some ophiolite studies and from the 500-m high-level dike section of DSDP/ODP 504B which was drilled in 1981. Hole 504B is the only place where a continuous and long (1260 m) section in the sheeted dike complex has been cored, and it is now regarded as a reference section for the upper oceanic crust. Many petrological and chemical data from these dolerites are available, including the relative proportions of veins, extensively altered adjacent rocks, and less altered 'host-rocks'. For these three reasons, considering the entire dike section penetrated by Hole 504B is a unique chance to study chemical fluxes related to hydrothermal alteration of this part of the oceanic crust. The calculation of any chemical flux implies knowledge of the chemical composition of the fresh precursor (protolith). Previously, mean compositions of glasses (=P1a) or basalts from the Hole 504B volcanics have been used as protoliths. In this paper, we calculate and discuss the use of various protoliths based on dolerites from Hole 504B. We show that the most adequate and realistic protolith is the mean of individual protoliths that we calculated from the acquisition, by automatic mode, of about 1000 microprobe analyses in each thin-section of dolerite from the Hole 504B lower dikes. Consequently, PFm is further used to calculate chemical fluxes in the dike section of Hole 504B. The chemical compositions of the host-rocks adjacent to alteration halos tend to converge to that of PFm with depth, except for Fe2O3t and TiO2. Because the volume percent of alteration halos increases with depth, the total fluxes related to these halos increase with depth. This explains why the mean flux (host-rocks+halos+veins) of the upper dikes is roughly similar to the mean flux of the lower dikes. During the alteration of the entire Hole 504B dike section, the dolerites gained relatively large quantities of Fe2O3t (+4.0 g/100 cm**3) and released much SiO2 (-6.8 g/100 cm**3), CaO (-5.8 g/100 cm**3), and TiO2 (1.6 g/100 cm**3), and minor Al2O3 (-0.7 g/100 cm**3) and MgO (-0.7 g/100 cm**3). We show the importance of the choice of the protolith in the calculation of chemical budget, particularly for elements showing low flux values. In Hole 504B, the Mg uptake by the volcanics during low temperature alteration added to the Mg release by the dikes gives a net flux of -0.07x10**14 g/year. We propose that part of the Mg uptake by the oceanic crust, which is necessary to compensate the rivers input (-1.33x10**14 g/year), occurs in the underlying gabbros and/or in sections which are altered such as Trinity and Troodos ophiolites. Compared with ophiolites, fluxes calculated for elements other than Mg for the entire crust are generally similar (in tendency, if not in absolute value) to that we obtained from Hole 504B.

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.

Isotopic composition of carbonates from the Logachev Hydrothermal Field, MAR 14°45'N

We investigate the Logatchev Hydrothermal Field at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 14°45' N to constrain the calcium isotope hydrothermal flux into the ocean. During the transformation of seawater to a hydrothermal solution, the Ca concentration of pristine seawater ([Ca]_SW) increases from about 10 mM to about 32 mM in the hydrothermal fluid endmember ([Ca]_HydEnd) and thereby adopts a d44/40Ca_HydEnd of -0.95+/-0.07 per mil relative to seawater (SW) and a 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratio of 0.7034(4). We demonstrate that d44/40Ca_HydEnd is higher than that of the bedrock at the Logatchev field. From mass balance calculations, we deduce a d44/40Ca of -1.17+/-0.04 per mil (SW) for the host-rocks in the reaction zone and -1.45+/-0.05 per mil (SW) for the isotopic composition of the entire hydrothermal cell of the Logatchev field. The values are isotopically lighter than the currently assumed d44/40Ca for Bulk Earth of -0.92+/-0.18 per mil (SW) [Skulan J., DePaolo D. J. and Owens T. L. (1997) Biological control of calcium isotopic abundances in the global calcium cycle. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 61,(12) 2505-2510] and challenge previous assumptions of no Ca isotope fractionation between hydrothermal fluid and the oceanic crust [Zhu P. and Macdougall J. D. (1998) Calcium isotopes in the marine environment and the oceanic calcium cycle. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 62,(10) 1691-1698; Schmitt A. -D., Chabeaux F. and Stille P. (2003) The calcium riverine and hydrothermal isotopic fluxes and the oceanic calcium mass balance. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 6731, 1-16]. Here we propose that Ca isotope fractionation along the fluid flow pathway of the Logatchev field occurs during the precipitation of anhydrite. Two anhydrite samples from the Logatchev Hydrothermal Field show an average fractionation of about D44/40Ca = -0.5 per mil relative to their assumed parental solutions. Ca isotope ratios in aragonites from carbonate veins from ODP drill cores indicate aragonite precipitation directly from seawater at low temperatures with an average d44/40Ca of -1.54+/-0.08 per mil (SW). The relatively large fractionation between the aragonite precipitates and seawater in combination with their frequent abundance in weathered mafic and ultramafic rocks suggest a reconsideration of the marine Ca isotope budget, in particular with regard to ocean crust alteration.

(Table 1) Sulfur isotopes and description of anhydrite in DSDP Holes 70-504B and 83-504B

Anhydrite occurs in veins in hydrothermally altered basalts recovered from Hole 504B during Leg 83 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. Sulfur isotopic data indicate that the anhydrites formed from fluids with sulfur isotopic compositions similar to seawater sulfate. Anhydrite probably formed as a pulse of relatively unreacted seawater was heated when it entered a relatively hot hydrothermal system containing evolved fluids. Reheating and continued evolution of the system followed anhydrite deposition. Preservation of anhydrite in Hole 504B was probably favored by the high temperatures and by the low permeability that resulted from the sealing of cracks with secondary minerals. Evidence also indicates that anhydrite was partly replaced by laumontite and prehnite at relatively high temperatures, and possibly by calcite at lower temperatures.

(Table 1) Deuterium ratios, chloride content and hydrate volume of pore water and hydrate meltwater from ODP Site 164-996

Site 996 is located above the Blake Diapir where numerous indications of vertical fluid migration and the presence of hydrate existed prior to Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 164. Direct sampling of hydrates and visual observations of hydrate-filled veins that could be traced 30-40 cm along cores suggest a connection between fluid migration and hydrate formation. The composition of pore water squeezed from sediment cores showed large variations due to melting of hydrate during core recovery and influence of saline water from the evaporitic diapir below. Analysis of water released during hydrate decomposition experiments showed that the recovered hydrates contained significant amounts of pore water. Solutions of the transport equations for deuterium (d2H) and chloride (Cl-) were used to determine maximum (d2H) and minimum (Cl-) in situ concentrations of these species. Minimum in situ concentrations of hydrate were estimated by combining these results with Cl- and d2H values measured on hydrate meltwaters and pore waters obtained by squeezing of sediments, by the means of a method based on analysis of distances in the two-dimensional Cl- d2H space. The computed Cl- and d2H distribution indicates that the minimum hydrate amount solutions are representative of the actual hydrate amount. The highest and mean hydrate concentrations estimates from our model are 31% and 10% of the pore space, respectively. These concentrations agree well with visual core observations, supporting the validity of the model assumptions. The minimum in situ Cl- concentrations were used to constrain the rates of upward fluid migration. Simulation of all available data gave a mean flow rate of 0.35 m/k.y. (range: 0.125-0.5 m/k.y.).

Venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism /

Mode of access: Internet.

Alberti v. Haller ... De partium corporis humani ... Tom. IV. Liber sextus. Arteriarum et venarum oeficia.

Mode of access: Internet.

A primer of venous pressure.

Mode of access: Internet.