Deciphering the Late Paleozoic–Cenozoic Tectonic History of the Inner Central Andes Forearc: An Update From the Salar de Punta Negra Basin of Northern Chile

We integrated new and existing geological, geochronological, thermochronological, and two-dimensional (2D) seismic data from the Salar de Punta Negra Basin to define the Late Paleozoic–Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the inner Andean forearc of northern Chile more precisely. Our results indicate that this region experienced early Late Paleozoic–Mesozoic crustal extension, creating several basement half-graben structures bounded by east- and west-dipping master faults. These extensional basins were filled by Upper Permian to Jurassic volcanic and sedimentary (continental and marine) syn-rift deposits. The genesis of these structures is related to the early breakup of the western Gondwana continent and the development of the large Tarapacá Basin in northern Chile and southern Perú. Subsequently, Late Cretaceous to Paleocene contraction occurred, which led to the tectonic inversion of the pre-existing rift system and the uplift of the Paleozoic–Mesozoic syn-rift deposits. Seismic data show that Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene synorogenic deposits accumulated along and over inversion anticlines, recording the initial contraction and marking the change from an extensional to a contractional tectonic setting. During the final episodes of basin inversion, crustal shortening was accommodated by the Eocene to recent basement reverse faulting accompanied by the rapid exhumation of basement pre-rift blocks, which served as the principal sources for the sediments that filled the pre-Andean basins during the Late Cenozoic. Finally, the exhumed basement pre-rift blocks and the reverse faults compartmentalized the contractional intermontane basins, which constitute the main low topographic relief of the inner forearc of northern Chile.

Tricentennial trends in spring ice breakups in three rivers in northern Europe

In Finland, ice breakup observations have been recorded for centuries for Aura River (1749–2020), Torne River (1693–2020) and Kokemäki River (1793–2020). The Kokemäki River is a newly revised, extended, and updated ice breakup series from Pori. The Spearman analysis shows that the correlation between Aura and Kokemäki rivers is strong, while the correlation between the two southern rivers (Aura and Kokemäki) and Torne River is weaker. The difference is attributed to the longitudinal distance between the rivers. Temperature correlations are strong for all three rivers and the long-term trends towards earlier breakups are statistically significant. Aura and Kokemäki rivers show considerable changes. Aura and Kokemäki river have had two respectively three years without a complete ice cover in the 21st century. These are the first non-freeze events in over 270 years of recorded observations. In Torne River, however, the earliest recorded breakup date has changed only marginally the last 100 years. Moreover, the earliest recorded breakup date in the 21st century occurred only five days earlier than the earliest breakup date in the 18th century. Kokemäki River did not escape the hydroelectric power plant boom in the mid-1900s, and this has speeded up the breakup process. A qualitative analysis shows that exceptionally late ice breakups occurred in all three rivers in 1807, 1810 and 1867. There are noticeable clusters of late events in the early 1800s in all three series, while an exceptionally early breakup event occurred in Aura and Kokemäki rivers in 1822.

Late Cretaceous to Paleogene sand provenance, deposition and tectonomagmatic development in the southern Møre Basin, Norway

<p>Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene sandstone strata represent promising reservoirs along the NE Atlantic margins, including new discoveries in recent years that has spurred increased activity in the area. Exploration and seismic imaging is complicated by massive Paleocene magmatism related to late rifting and early breakup, forming voluminous sill and dyke complexes hosted in the sedimentary succession and extrusive complexes, such as volcanic edifices and lava flows along the margin. Such igneous activity may have played an important role in the thermal and chemical history of reservoir zones. Their diagenetic properties as well as their physical appearance is expected to have been altered by the intrusions, breaking predictive trends otherwise common for deep-marine sedimentary strata. A new understanding of the nature and implication of igneous processes and deposition of sediments, combined with new understanding of sand source-to-sink systems in the region, is thus important to better evaluate the prospectivity of the southern Møre Basin. The focus of this project will therefore be to asses sand provenance and depositional systems in basins in this area by incorporating on shore field work with integrated borehole and seismic studies. The main goal is to develop a new understanding of deposition of sand fairways during the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene to better understand this part of the break-up history of the NE Atlantic.</p>

Emperors on thin ice: three years of breeding failure at Halley Bay

Satellite imagery is used to show that the world's second largest emperor penguin colony, at Halley Bay, has suffered three years of almost total breeding failure. Although, like all emperor colonies, there has been large inter-annual variability in the breeding success at this site, the prolonged period of failure is unprecedented in the historical record. The observed events followed the early breakup of the fast ice in the ice creeks that the birds habitually used for breeding. The initial breakup was associated with a particularly stormy period in September 2015, which corresponded with the strongest El Niño in over 60 years, strong winds, and a record low sea-ice year locally. Conditions have not recovered in the two years since. Meanwhile, during the same three-year period, the nearby Dawson-Lambton colony, 55 km to the south, has seen a more than tenfold increase in penguin numbers. The authors associate this with immigration from the birds previously breeding at Halley Bay. Studying this ‘tale of two cities’ provides valuable information relevant to modelling penguin movement under future climate change scenarios.

New records of mummified crabeater seals on islands bordering Admiralty Sound, Weddell Sea

Ninety-six mummified crabeater seals discovered at Seymour Island (Isla Marambio) are reported. Each specimen was georeferenced, photographed and assigned to five different taphonomic states. Previous work stated that seals at Seymour Island get stranded inland around the breeding season. However, it is not clear if the species breeds in this area. The abundance of crabeater seals and the ice condition along Admiralty Sound (Estrecho Bouchard) were obtained by aerial surveys during spring (2015–17). It appears that the species uses the strait as a passage to breeding grounds. Under heavy ice conditions, the seals become stranded in the middle section of this strait and wander inland through a valley that represents the mouth of an ephemeral stream that ends at the pack ice level. This situation was observed in 2014 and 2015 when recently dead seals were found, evidencing that this natural trap is still active. Nonetheless, in 2016 and 2017, during an early breakup of Admiralty Sound, the seals that remained in the area were more numerous than in 2015 but they did not get stranded inland. This early breakup may encourage the seals to breed there in the presence of open water areas with ice floes.

LES of spray in crossflow – Effect of droplet distortion

The present investigation is focused on modeling of spray in crossflow using Large Eddy Simulations (LES). The modeling efforts are supported by experiments which are used both to provide accurate boundary and initial conditions and to evaluate droplet shapes in the near nozzle region. The droplets are modeled as Lagrangian parcels in an Eulerian continuum. Droplets in such configuration have been found to be distorted and not in perfect spherical shape from experimental results of our previous study. Droplet distortion is computed by Taylor-Analogy Breakup (TAB) distortion model. Each droplet is modelled as damped spring-mass system, where surface tension acts as a spring on the mass of the droplet and viscous dissipation provides the damping effect. The effort is to examine the effect of drag law used and the effect of this distortion on the droplet sizes produced in the flow field. Spray wind-ward trajectory and droplet sizes obtained from simulations are compared with the experimental results available. Although computational spray trajectory shows a reasonable match with experimental values, droplet sizes using the standard TAB model are found to be larger than that from experimental observation. To account for this distortion and its role in early breakup of droplets, constants of the TAB model are modified and the droplet sizes are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data.