Supplemental Material: How similar was the 1983 Mw 6.9 Borah Peak earthquake rupture to its surface-faulting predecessors along the northern Lost River fault zone (Idaho, USA)?

Text S1: Bayesian (OxCal) models for northern Lost River fault zone trench sites. Text S2: Bulk sediment analysis and charcoal identification; Text S3: Luminescence geochronology. Table S1: Description of stratigraphic units at the Sheep Creek trench. Table S2: Description of stratigraphic units at the Arentson Gulch trench. Figure S1: Photomosaics and large-format trench logs for the Sheep Creek trench. Figure S2: Photomosaics and large-format trench logs for the Arentson Gulch trench. Figure S3: Sheep Creek and Arentson Gulch vertical displacement measurements. Figure S4: Fault bend angles along the northern Lost River fault zone. Figure S5: Photographs of the Sheep Creek and Arentson Gulch trench sites. Figure S6: Probability density functions for Lost River fault zone ruptures.

Supplemental Material: How similar was the 1983 Mw 6.9 Borah Peak earthquake rupture to its surface-faulting predecessors along the northern Lost River fault zone (Idaho, USA)?

Text S1: Bayesian (OxCal) models for northern Lost River fault zone trench sites. Text S2: Bulk sediment analysis and charcoal identification; Text S3: Luminescence geochronology. Table S1: Description of stratigraphic units at the Sheep Creek trench. Table S2: Description of stratigraphic units at the Arentson Gulch trench. Figure S1: Photomosaics and large-format trench logs for the Sheep Creek trench. Figure S2: Photomosaics and large-format trench logs for the Arentson Gulch trench. Figure S3: Sheep Creek and Arentson Gulch vertical displacement measurements. Figure S4: Fault bend angles along the northern Lost River fault zone. Figure S5: Photographs of the Sheep Creek and Arentson Gulch trench sites. Figure S6: Probability density functions for Lost River fault zone ruptures.

Development of an improved ramped pyrolysis method for radiocarbon dating and application to Antarctic sediments

<p>Archives of the retreat history of the Antarctic Ice Sheet since the Last Glacial Maximum (~20,000 years ago) are preserved in marine sediment cores from around the margins of Antarctica, but accurate dating methods remain elusive in many areas. Radiocarbon dating of key lithofacies transitions indicative of grounding-line retreat is problematic due to pervasive reworking issues in glacimarine sediments. Bulk sediment material can be radiocarbon dated but yields ages which are not indicative of the time of sedimentation due to the presence of reworked carbon material from pre-Last Glacial Maximum times. Consequently, development of methods to date only the autochthonous carbon component of these sediments are required to date the retreat of the Last Glacial Maximum ice sheet in Antarctica. A new radiocarbon dating capability has been developed at Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory (RRL), National Isotope Centre, GNS Science, Lower Hutt, in the course of this study. This has entailed designing, building and testing a ramped pyrolysis (RP) system, in which sedimentary material is heated from ambient to ~1000oC in the absence of oxygen (pyrolysed), with the carbon liberated during pyrolysis being combined with oxygen at a temperature of ~800oC to produce CO2. The amount of CO2 produced is measured by a gas analyser and the CO2 is captured in a vacuum line. The method exploits the thermochemical behaviour of degraded organic carbon. Organic carbon which has been least degraded with time breaks down earliest under pyrolysis, so CO2 captured from this fraction most closely approximates the time of deposition of the sediment. CO2 captured at higher temperatures represents more degraded carbon-containing fractions and yields older ages. The RP system includes a gas delivery system to deliver ultra-high purity He (carrier gas) and O2, a furnace system in which to pyrolyse sample material and oxidise the liberated carbon, a CO2 detection system to measure the CO2 produced and a vacuum line system to enable simultaneous collection and processing of CO2. The RRL system was based on the design developed by Dr Brad Rosenheim (University of South Florida (USF)), the originator of the first RP system at the National Ocean Sciences AMS Facility (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, USA), who also provided guidance in this thesis. As part of the study, a visit to USF was undertaken, with sediment samples from Crystal Sound, Antarctic Peninsula being processed in the USF RP system. CO2 collected from RP processing was radiocarbon dated at RRL. The scope of this thesis was to develop and build the RRL RP system, and numerous tests were conducted during this process and are presented in this thesis. As part of this, sediment samples from Crystal Sound were also processed on the RRL RP system, and an interlaboratory comparison was conducted on the same materials processed independently through both the USF and RRL RP systems. In the development and testing of the RRL system, numerous issues were identified and a set of operating protocols developed. Due to time constraints and the scope of this thesis, interlaboratory comparisons were limited in number, but initial results show good reproducibility, and that ramped pyrolysis captured significantly younger carbon populations in both the USF and RRL RP systems than methods using bulk sediment dating alone. Within uncertainties, the ages of the youngest and oldest splits from RP processing of the same material on both systems were indistinguishable.</p>

Development of an improved ramped pyrolysis method for radiocarbon dating and application to Antarctic sediments

<p>Archives of the retreat history of the Antarctic Ice Sheet since the Last Glacial Maximum (~20,000 years ago) are preserved in marine sediment cores from around the margins of Antarctica, but accurate dating methods remain elusive in many areas. Radiocarbon dating of key lithofacies transitions indicative of grounding-line retreat is problematic due to pervasive reworking issues in glacimarine sediments. Bulk sediment material can be radiocarbon dated but yields ages which are not indicative of the time of sedimentation due to the presence of reworked carbon material from pre-Last Glacial Maximum times. Consequently, development of methods to date only the autochthonous carbon component of these sediments are required to date the retreat of the Last Glacial Maximum ice sheet in Antarctica. A new radiocarbon dating capability has been developed at Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory (RRL), National Isotope Centre, GNS Science, Lower Hutt, in the course of this study. This has entailed designing, building and testing a ramped pyrolysis (RP) system, in which sedimentary material is heated from ambient to ~1000oC in the absence of oxygen (pyrolysed), with the carbon liberated during pyrolysis being combined with oxygen at a temperature of ~800oC to produce CO2. The amount of CO2 produced is measured by a gas analyser and the CO2 is captured in a vacuum line. The method exploits the thermochemical behaviour of degraded organic carbon. Organic carbon which has been least degraded with time breaks down earliest under pyrolysis, so CO2 captured from this fraction most closely approximates the time of deposition of the sediment. CO2 captured at higher temperatures represents more degraded carbon-containing fractions and yields older ages. The RP system includes a gas delivery system to deliver ultra-high purity He (carrier gas) and O2, a furnace system in which to pyrolyse sample material and oxidise the liberated carbon, a CO2 detection system to measure the CO2 produced and a vacuum line system to enable simultaneous collection and processing of CO2. The RRL system was based on the design developed by Dr Brad Rosenheim (University of South Florida (USF)), the originator of the first RP system at the National Ocean Sciences AMS Facility (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, USA), who also provided guidance in this thesis. As part of the study, a visit to USF was undertaken, with sediment samples from Crystal Sound, Antarctic Peninsula being processed in the USF RP system. CO2 collected from RP processing was radiocarbon dated at RRL. The scope of this thesis was to develop and build the RRL RP system, and numerous tests were conducted during this process and are presented in this thesis. As part of this, sediment samples from Crystal Sound were also processed on the RRL RP system, and an interlaboratory comparison was conducted on the same materials processed independently through both the USF and RRL RP systems. In the development and testing of the RRL system, numerous issues were identified and a set of operating protocols developed. Due to time constraints and the scope of this thesis, interlaboratory comparisons were limited in number, but initial results show good reproducibility, and that ramped pyrolysis captured significantly younger carbon populations in both the USF and RRL RP systems than methods using bulk sediment dating alone. Within uncertainties, the ages of the youngest and oldest splits from RP processing of the same material on both systems were indistinguishable.</p>

Deep-Water Circulation over the Last Two Glacial Cycles Reconstructed from Authigenic Neodymium Isotopes in the Equatorial Indian Ocean (Core HI1808-GPC04)

We reconstructed the past deep-water character of the equatorial Indian Ocean using the isotope ratio of neodymium (εNd) in the Fe–Mn coating of mixed-species foraminifera. When compared with previous εNd records at the same site (ODP 758) and at another site to the west (SK 129), the three datasets were consistent and showed glacial-interglacial variations, even though the other two records were extracted from different media (cleaned foraminifera and bulk sediment leach). This confirms that while the foraminiferal coating is the preferred medium for reconstructing past bottom water εNd records, for carbonate-dominated lithologies, weak acid extraction of bulk sediment is also a viable option offering high-resolution capabilities. When the lithology includes volcanic particles or high organics, the extraction protocol may need to be adjusted to guard against detrital contamination or a slight correction may need to be applied. During glacials, the deep waters bathing the equatorial Indian Ocean had a larger AABW component and during interglacials a larger NADW component. Our HI1808-GPC04 record supplements the ODP 758 record in the interval with prominent AABW signal (MIS 6/5 transition and MIS 7) and reveals regional effects in some non-radiogenic intervals. The smaller differences between the HI1808-GPC04/ODP 758 and SK 129 records seem to reflect regional Nd input from river systems and non-radiogenic Nd from the boundaries.

Does Nitrate Enrichment Accelerate Organic Matter Turnover in Subterranean Estuaries?

Due to the widespread pollution of coastal groundwaters with fertilizers, submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is often thought to be a large dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) source to the ocean. Whether this N is autochthonous or allochthonous to the subterranean estuary (STE), the availability of large quantities of DIN can nevertheless interact with the cycling of other elements, such as carbon (C). In previous studies, we documented the discharge of large quantities of freshwater and NO3– from the mouth of an STE into the Ria Formosa lagoon (SW Iberian Peninsula). For the period covered in this study (2009–2011), the same STE site was dominated by recirculating seawater due to a prolonged fall in piezometric head in the coupled coastal aquifers. Total SGD rates remained similarly high, peaking at 144 cm day–1 at the lower intertidal during fall. We observed a progressive increase of NO3– availability within the STE associated with the recovery of piezometric head inland. Interestingly, during this period, the highest SGD-derived dissolved organic C and DIN fluxes (112 ± 53 and 10 ± 3 mmol m–2 day–1, respectively) originated in the lower intertidal. NO3– enrichment in the STE influences the benthic reactivity of fluorescent dissolved organic matter (FDOM): when seawater recirculation drives STE dynamics, only small changes in the benthic distribution of recalcitrant humic-like FDOM are observed (from −2.57 ± 1.14 to 1.24 ± 0.19 10–3 R.U. “bulk” sediment h–1) in the absence of DIN. However, when DIN is available, these recalcitrant fractions of FDOM are actively generated (from 1.32 ± 0.15 to 11.56 ± 3.39 10–3 R.U. “bulk” sediment h–1), accompanied by the production of labile protein-like FDOM. The results agree with previous studies conducted with flow-through reactor experiments at the same site and suggest that DIN enrichment in the STE enhances the metabolic turnover of sedimentary organic matter up to the point of discharge to surface waters. DIN pollution of coastal aquifers may therefore promote a contraction of the residence time of particulate organic C within the STE, driving carbon from continental storage into the sea.

Brittlestar diversity at the dawn of the Jenkyns Event (early Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event): new microfossils from the Dudelange drill core, Luxembourg

Ophiuroids, the slender-armed cousins of starfish, which constitute an important component of modern marine benthos and have been used successfully in exploration of (palaeo)-ecological and evolutionary trends, yet their fossil record is still poorly known. One of the major gaps in the known palaeobiodiversity of this group coincides with a global palaeoenvironmental crisis during the early Toarcian (Early Jurassic, 183 myr ago), known as the Jenkyns Event. Here, we describe ophiuroid remains retrieved from a series of samples from the Dudelange (Luxembourg) drill core, which spans the lower part of the Toarcian, between the top of the Pliensbachian to the onset of the Jenkyns Event. A total of 21 species are recorded, including three new genera and 12 new species. Ophiuroid diversity and abundance fluctuate in parallel with depositional facies, with lowest values coinciding with black shales. Highest diversities, including exceptional occurrences of taxa nowadays restricted to deep-sea areas, are recorded from just below the black shales corresponding to the onset of the Jenkyns Event. Our results show that even small (100 g) bulk sediment samples retrieved from drill cores can yield numerous identifiable ophiuroid remains, thus unlocking this group for the study of faunal change across palaeoenvironmental crises.