Plinian eruptions and their impact on human settlements: stratigraphy of the 79 AD Vesuvius fall deposits and detailed study of their downwind and substrate-induced variations inside the archaeological excavations of Pompeii and Stabiae (southern Italy)

<p>Plinian eruptions are highly energetic events that release cubic kilometres of magma in the form of pyroclastic material (pumice, lithic clasts and ash). These products tend to accumulate near the vent with considerable thickness. The rapid burial of the territory around the eruptive centre makes these eruptions extremely dangerous. For this purpose, the renowned 79 AD Vesuvius eruption, which destroyed the ancient cities of Pompeii and Stabiae (where Pliny the Elder founds his death) located respectively 10 and 15 km from the vent, was studied in detailed. The recent excavations carried out in collaboration with the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, both in Pompeii and in the Stabian villas, have shown the complete sequence of products of the 79 AD eruption that destroyed and covered these Roman cities. The discovery of thick sequences of reworked material accumulated during previous excavations, testifies for the presence of underground tunnels dug for the Royal House of Bourbon. Fall products of the 79 AD eruptive sequence, accumulated during the main Plinian phase and the successive sustained column phases, were studied in detail to investigate their sedimentological characteristics and how these were influenced by anthropic structures. Results from field investigation show that in both archaeological sites, fall deposits consist of white and grey pumice lapilli in the lower part of the eruptive sequence (units A and B), and of thin, lithic-rich layers interstratified to ash products emplaced by pyroclastic currents, in the highest part of the pyroclastic deposit (units D, G1, G3, I). A new thin lithic-rich layer (X2) has been observed near the top of the sequence at Stabiae. The internal structure of the Plinian pumice lapilli deposit appears weakly stratified in open areas, while it is strongly stratified near steep roofs (e.g., impluvium areas), where the deposit thickens. The observed stratification is confirmed by a significant variation of sedimentological parameters with the stratigraphic height (e.g., median ranging from -3.5 to -0.1), possibly related to fluctuations in the eruptive parameters. Locally, rolling of pyroclastic clasts on sloped roofs produced a well-stratified deposit with laterally discontinuous layers and rounded clasts. Several roofing-tiles, either intact or in fragments, were recovered at various stratigraphic heights in the pumice lapilli deposit both at Pompeii and Stabiae.  These tiles testify for the progressive collapse of the roofs under the increasing load of the falling lapilli clasts.</p>

The Neoproterozoic geomagnetic field: new insights from a high-resolution paleomagnetic study in South China

<p>The paleomagnetic record during the middle Neoproterozoic (~825-780 Ma) displays rapid apparent polar wander variations leading to large discrepancies in paleogeographic reconstructions. Some authors propose that these data may represent true polar wander events, which correspond to independent motion of the mantle and lithosphere with respect to Earth’s rotation axis. An alternative explanation might be a perturbation of the geomagnetic field, such as a deviation from a predominantly dipole field or a hyper-reversing field. To test these hypotheses, we sampled 1200 oriented cores over a stratigraphic height of 100 metres in sedimentary rocks of the 820-810 Ma Laoshanya Formation in South China. We will present preliminary paleomagnetic and rock magnetic analyses together with results of petrologic and geochemical experiments to better understand the origin of the paleomagnetic signal.</p>

INCORPORATING INFORMATION ON VARYING SEDIMENTATION RATES INTO PALEONTOLOGICAL ANALYSES

ABSTRACT Stratigraphic changes in the clustering of first or last taxon occurrences are a joint expression of evolutionary, ecological, taphonomic, and sedimentological processes. Sedimentation rates control the degree of sedimentary dilution and condensation and thus alter the time contained in a given thickness of sediment. However, it remains poorly explored quantitatively how distinct the stratigraphic patterns in the first and last occurrences can be under different deposition models with a constant thickness of accumulated sediment. Here, I present an algorithm that translates ecological or evolutionary signals between time and stratigraphic height. It is implemented for R Software as the package DAIME and complemented by tools to quantify the uncertainties associated with the construction of deposition models. By modeling the stratigraphic expression of the K/Pg extinction and an earlier extinction pulse potentially linked to Deccan volcanism on Seymour Island under varying sedimentation rates, I show that (1) clustering of last occurrences ∼ 250 kyr prior to the K/Pg boundary can be equally explained by a stronger earlier extinction pulse or prolonged intervals with reduced sediment accumulation rate, but (2) when the temporal variability in sedimentation rate is known, the most plausible extinction dynamics can still be identified. The approach is applicable for any type of information transported as a part of the sedimentary record (e.g., fossils or trace elements) or data derived from it (e.g., isotope ratios and rates of morphological evolution).

Architecture of a river-dominated, wave- and tide-influenced, pre-vegetation braid delta: Cambrian middle member of the Wood Canyon Formation, southern Marble Mountains, California, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT Across the Mojave Desert of southeastern California, outcrops of the Cambrian middle member of the Wood Canyon Formation preserve the deposits of pre-vegetation braided-fluvial and braid-delta environments. One 78-meter-thick section in the southern Marble Mountains, documented here through detailed stratigraphic logging, facies analysis, architectural panels based on “Structure-from-Motion” models, and a suite of paleocurrent and accretion-surface measurements, provides insight into the development of a river-dominated, wave- and tide-influenced braid delta at the distal end of a continent-scale braidplain. In contrast to other pre-Devonian braid-delta strata, in which mudrock is largely absent, the greater part of the middle member system contains over 5% mudstone. Four facies associations, FA4–7, constitute the middle member section and represent (in order of stratigraphic height) a braidplain-to-delta transition (FA4), proximal braid delta (FA5), distal braid delta (FA6), and upper braid-delta front (FA7). The 20 meters of braidplain-to-delta transition strata are largely similar to those of fluvial middle member sections, containing approximately 2% mudstone, unimodal north-northwest paleoflow, and vertical, downstream, and downstream-lateral accretion elements representing compound barforms and channel fills. Above, each braid-delta facies association (FA5–7) preserves high-sinuosity paleocurrent indicators, 6–12% mudstone, and symmetrical, wave-formed sand waves. Decimeter-thick fluid-mud deposits found chiefly in FA6 and less commonly in FA7 indicate the presence of a turbidity-maximum zone that records brackish-water conditions in the distal braid delta. Trace fossils concentrated in FA7 suggest that metazoans were confined to the upper braid-delta front and could not tolerate the variable salinity of the braid delta. Increased marine influence with stratigraphic height requires gradual transgression during deposition of the middle member of the Wood Canyon Formation, possibly as part of a lowstand systems tract.

Testing for the effects of depositional rates in multiproxy models of environmental and faunal change: the Silurian Lau δ13C excursion

<p>The Silurian is characterized by several extinction events, among them the late Ludfordian Lau event, which mainly affected conodont and graptolite communities. This event was followed by the strongest global positive δ<sup>13</sup>C excursion of the Phanerozoic. This event has been first recognized in the classical succession in Gotland, Sweden, where a continuous increase in δ<sup>13</sup>C values of up to nearly 9 ‰ from the upper När Formation to the Eke Formation is observed. It has been attributed to large scale carbon cycle perturbations. This time period is also characterized by a regression and associated changes in sedimentation and deposition rates. This raises the question to what extent these factors contribute to the observed changes in faunal diversity and geochemical proxies.</p><p>A mechanism linking changes in seawater chemistry and the faunal turnover has been proposed based on a high abundance of malformed acritarchs observed during the onset phase of some Phanerozoic isotope excursions including the Lau isotope excursion. Malformations during the late Silurian Pridoli event coincide with a significant increase in trace metal content measured in fossils and host rock, which suggests the teratology to be caused by metal pollution. However, also in the case on an increase in the trace metal content the contribution of changing depositional rates has not been quantified.  </p><p>Models developed in the field of stratigraphic paleobiology have demonstrated that changing deposition rates have a substantial influence on the stratigraphic distribution of fossils. In the same sense, element concentrations can be altered by changing deposition rates, which may dilute or condense the primary element signal. For this study, concentrations of different trace elements were measured across a profile in an outcrop Bodudd (Gotland) which exposes the Lau isotope excursion from the upper När to the Eke Formation. Using a newly developed statistical method, the effects of changing deposition rates were quantified and the measured element signal corrected for these effects. This method uses a deposition model to transform the measured element signal, which is a function of the stratigraphic height in the outcrop, back into a temporal rate. The temporal rate reflects the primary element signal and is defined as a function of time instead of stratigraphic height. Thus, the effect of changing deposition rates is accounted for. Approximate deposition models were created based on Th concentrations measured across the profile, which act as a proxy for the rate of terrestrial input, and based on the chitinozoan yield, which reflects deposition rates. Pre- and post-transformation element patterns were compared for different deposition models and evaluated with respect to their ability to preserve element peaks.</p>

Astronomically forced hydrology of the Late Cretaceous sub-tropical Potosí Basin, Bolivia

Periodic variations in Earth’s orbital parameters force climate on local and global scales, with global responses particularly sensitive to the presence of ice sheets and their associated feedbacks. Therefore, determining whether orbital forcings influenced sedimentary records of the past, and if so, which had such an effect, can shed light on Earth’s climate sensitivity and global ice volume. To this end, we present a field- and drone-based cyclostratigraphy of the predominantly lacustrine El Molino Formation of the Late Cretaceous–Early Paleogene Potosí Basin in present day Bolivia, which contains carbonate mud parasequences that record fluctuating hydrological conditions, including ephemeral marine connections, from 73 Ma to 64 Ma. We introduce a novel methodology for incorporating drone imagery into a quantitative, three-dimensional stratigraphic model that generates an upward-younging quantity comparable to stratigraphic height, and we find that our model outperforms our own field measurements of stratigraphic height. We project drone imagery at two sites into the stratigraphic model to construct time series of outcrop color, which vary systematically with facies and track basin water depth. Spectral analysis of these time series reveals sedimentary periodicities corresponding to short eccentricity, precession, and semi-precession, which are corroborated with measurements of magnetic susceptibility from mudstones. We generate independent age models at both study areas from four new U-Pb chemical abrasion–isotope dilution–thermal ionization mass spectrometry (CA–ID–TIMS) ages, which are consistent with an orbital interpretation for observed sedimentary periodicities. Importantly, we observe the presence of obliquity-scale periodicity in sedimentation during a period of marine connection, suggesting that sea level oscillations were driven by obliquity. This observation is consistent with previous claims about the presence of a small, orbitally forced Antarctic ice sheet during the latest Cretaceous.

On the track of a Scottish impact structure: a detrital zircon and apatite provenance study of the Stac Fada Member and wider Stoer Group, NW Scotland

The Stac Fada Member of the Stoer Group, within the Torridonian succession of NW Scotland, is a melt-rich, impact-related deposit that has not been conclusively correlated with any known impact structure. However, a gravity low approximately 50 km east of the preserved Stac Fada Member outcrops has recently been proposed as the associated impact site. We investigate the location of the impact structure through a provenance study of detrital zircon and apatite in five samples from the Stoer Group. Our zircon U–Pb data are dominated by Archaean grains (> 2.5 Ga), consistent with earlier interpretations that the detritus was largely derived from local Lewisian Gneiss Complex, whereas the apatite data (the first for the Stoer Group) display a single major peak at c. 1.7 Ga, consistent with regional Laxfordian metamorphism. The almost complete absence of Archaean-aged apatite is best explained by later heating of the > 2.5 Ga Lewisian basement (the likely source region) above the closure temperature of the apatite U–Pb system (c. 375–450°C). The U–Pb age distributions for zircon and apatite show no significant variation with stratigraphic height. This may be interpreted as evidence that there was no major change in provenance during the course of deposition of the Stoer Group or, if there was any significant change, the different source regions were characterized by similar apatite and zircon U–Pb age populations. Consequently, the new data do not provide independent constraints on the location of the structure associated with the Stac Fada Member impact event.

Geology and Origin of the Vanadiferous Fe-Ti Oxide-rich Kennedy's Vale Discordant Body, Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa

The 2055 Ma Bushveld Complex, South Africa, is well known for the occurrence of discordant bodies within the Rustenburg Layered Suite (RLS). Many discordant bodies disrupt mining of layered reefs, but a few have been successfully exploited, including the well known platiniferous dunite pipes. The Kennedy's Vale discordant body, situated in the Steelpoort Valley section of the Eastern Limb, has been almost entirely mined out for a central core of vanadium-rich Ti-magnetite. Discordant bodies are particularly abundant in this area which is severely disrupted by syn-Bushveld doming and faulting. The three-dimensional shape of discordant bodies in the RLS is highly variable, most are pipe-like, but Kennedy's Vale is unusual in that it constitutes an elongate, dyke-like body. The Kennedy's Vale occurrence is emplaced within gabbroic-anorthositic wall rocks of the Lower Main Zone, at a stratigraphic height of several thousands of metres below the Ti-magnetite layers. A broad zonation is recognised and the central core of massive Fe-Ti oxides is enclosed by an inner sheath of iron-rich wehrlite pegmatite and an outer sheath of iron-rich clinopyroxenite pegmatite. The sheath contains disseminated Fe-Ti oxides. An irregular and diffuse reaction rim has been identified between the outer sheath and the wall rocks. Kennedy's Vale is part of the iron-rich ultramafic pegmatite (IRUP) group of discordant bodies, highly unusual rocks characterised by the absence of plagioclase and being more differentiated than the wall rocks in which they are emplaced. The composition of the olivine in the outer sheath at Kennedys' Vale (Fo49.6-46.5) is typical of the IRUP at this stratigraphic height, but considerably more differentiated than the pyroxene in the wall rocks. The reaction rim to the dyke includes relic grains of extremely calcic plagioclase and symplectites, indicative of high-temperature reactions. Symplectites formed due to reaction between the primocrysts in the gabbroic wall rocks and Fe-Ti melts. Kennedy's Vale crystallized from dense, immiscible Fe-Ti oxide-rich melts that drained downward within the RLS into the underlying cumulates with which they reacted. The relatively high vanadium content of the Ti-magnetite in the Kennedy's Vale orebody (average of 2.0 to 2.2 weight % V2O5) is consistent with melts sourced from the lowermost group of Ti-magnetite layers in the Upper Zone. The internal zonation of the dyke is ascribed to contamination of melt with distance from the conduit. The core-zone of massive Fe-Ti oxides was the last component to form as it required a persistent supply of Fe-Ti oxide melt. The absence of core parts of massive Fe-Ti oxides from some bodies of IRUP can be explained by their relatively low stratigraphic height or the relative paucity of introduced melt.

Unusual Fe-Ti-Cr spinels from discordant bodies of iron-rich ultramafic pegmatite at the Amandelbult Platinum mine, northwestern Bushveld Complex

Spinels associated with discordant bodies of iron-rich ultramafic pegmatite are described from the Amandelbult Platinum mine in the northwestern part of the Bushveld Complex. The spinels are divided into three groups, disseminated Ti-magnetite, disseminated Fe-Ti-Cr spinel and massive Fe-Ti-Cr spinel. The Fe-Ti-Cr spinels show a range of unusual compositions intermediate between chromite and Ti-magnetite. A relationship was found between stratigraphic height and spinel-type, with the Fe-Ti-Cr spinels restricted to pegmatites from the Upper Critical zone and Ti-magnetite to pegmatites from the Lower Main zone. Ilmenite is a ubiquitous component of all of the pegmatites examined here. The massive Fe-Ti-Cr oxide pegmatites are found only where earlier-formed chromitite layers are juxtaposed with sheet-like bodies of olivine-clinopyroxene pegmatite. A distinct thickening of the original chromitite layers in this situation, and compositional gradients within them, points to accretion of Fe-Ti-Cr spinels onto them prior to partial sub-solidus re-equilibration. Analytical data are presented for these spinels and for the Ti-magnetite. The composition of the Fe-Ti-Cr spinels is not duplicated by cumulus spinels in the Bushveld Complex, but the compositions and microtextures of the disseminated Ti-magnetite are very similar to cumulus Ti-magnetite from the Upper zone. Accordingly, it is deduced that the Ti-magnetite in the pegmatites from the Lower Main zone, together with the ilmenite, crystallized at magmatic temperatures from a suitable Fe-Ti-rich silicate-oxide melt. No evidence has been found to link the pegmatites to hydrothermal fluids. The Cr-rich nature of the disseminated spinels in pegmatites from the Upper Critical zone suggests that the pegmatite melt was richer in chromium at this stratigraphic height, although re-equilibration with earlier-formed cumulus chromite also occurred. Formation of the Fe-Ti-Cr oxide pegmatites reflects a complex process that is incompletely understood and why new oxides plate onto pre-existing chromitite layers that are juxtaposed with Fe-rich ultramafic pegmatites is a matter of conjecture.