The Ganga Plain represents a large proportion of the current foreland basin to the Himalaya. The Himalayan-sourced waters irrigate the Plain via major river networks that support approximately 10 percent of the global population. However, some of these rivers are also the source of devastating floods. The tendency for some of these rivers to flood is directly linked to their large scale morphology. In general, the rivers that drain the east Ganga Plain have channels that are perched at a higher elevation relative to their floodplain, leading to more frequent channel avulsion and flooding. In contrast, those further west have channels that are incised into the floodplain and are historically less prone to flooding. Understanding the controls on these contrasting river forms is fundamental to determining the sensitivity of these systems to projected climate change and the growing water resource demands across the Plain. Here, we present a new basin scale approach to quantifying floodplain and channel topography that identifies areas where channels are super-elevated or entrenched relative to their adjacent floodplain. We explore the probable controls on these observations through an analysis of basin subsidence rates, sediment grain size data and sediment supply from the main river systems that traverse the Plain (Yamuna, Ganga, Karnali, Gandak and Kosi rivers). Subsidence rates are approximated by combining basement profiles derived from seismic data with known convergence velocities; results suggest a more slowly subsiding basin in the west than the east. Grain size fining rates are also used as a proxy for relative subsidence rates along the strike of the basin; the results also indicate higher fining rates (and hence subsidence rates for given sediment supply) in the east. By integrating these observations, we propose that higher subsidence rates are responsible for a deeper basin in the east with perched, low gradient river systems that are relatively insensitive to climatically driven changes in base-level. In contrast, the lower subsidence rates in the west are associated with a higher elevation basin topography, and entrenched river systems recording climatically induced lowering of river base-levels during the Holocene.

The modern Baltic Sea is the world9s largest anthropogenically forced anoxic basin. Using integrated geochemical records collected during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 347 from the deepest and one of the most reducing sub-basins in the Baltic Sea, Landsort Deep, we explore the degree and frequency of natural anoxia through the Baltic Holocene. A marked decrease in carbon-to-sulfur ratios (C/S) from the cores indicate the transition from the Baltic Ice Lake to the current brackish sea, which occurred about 8.5 kyrs B.P. Following this, laminations throughout sediments recording brackish deposition suggest sustained anoxia or extreme low oxygen, while high molybdenum (Mo) concentrations of >100 ppm and iron (Fe) geochemistry suggest water column sulfide accumulation, or euxinia, that persisted beyond seasonal timescales during deposition of two distinct sapropel units. Sedimentary Mo isotope values range from +1.11 to −0.50 permil, which are distinctly fractionated from modern Baltic seawater (+2.26 to +2.67‰) and thus indicate that each of the sapropels experienced only weak and/or oscillatory euxinia—in contrast to the more stable euxinic conditions of more restricted basins. A shift in δ98Mo starting above the lower sapropel to a distinctly more negative range suggests particularly weak and oscillatory euxinia, with an enhanced contribution of manganese (Mn) redox cycling to Mo deposition relative to the lower portion of the profile. This conclusion is supported by extreme sedimentary Mn enrichments of up to 15 weight percent. We interpret the combined data to indicate episodic but major Baltic inflow events of saline and oxygenated North Sea water into the anoxic Landsort Deep that limited the concentrations and residence time of water column sulfide and caused episodic oxide deposition. Considering the temporal overlap between the most reducing conditions and periods of redox instability, we hypothesize that major Baltic inflows, as is observed today, lead to short-term instability while simultaneously supporting longer-term Baltic anoxia by strengthening the halocline. Ultimately, our results indicate that periods more reducing than the modern Baltic Sea have occurred naturally over the Holocene, but the characteristic dynamic saline inputs have historically prevented the relatively more widespread and stable anoxia observed in other classic restricted basins and will likely continue to do so.

Paleosols (fossil soils) are abundant in the sedimentary record and reflect, at least in part, regional paleoclimate. Paleopedology thus offers a great potential for elucidating high resolution, deep-time paleoclimate records. However, many fossil soils did not equilibrate with climate prior to burial and instead dominantly express physical and chemical features reflective of other soil forming factors. Current models that use elemental oxides for climate reconstruction bypass the issue of soil-climate equilibration by restricting datasets to narrow ranges of soil properties, soil-forming environments and mean annual precipitation (MAP) and mean annual temperature (MAT). Here we evaluate a data-driven paleosol-paleoclimate model (PPM1.0) that uses subsoil geochemistry to test the ability of soils from wide-ranging environments to predict MAP and MAT as a joint response with few initial assumptions. The PPM1.0 was developed using a combined partial least squares regression (PLSR) and a nonlinear spline on 685 mineral soil B horizons currently forming under MAP ranging from 130 to 6900 mm and MAT ranging from 0 to 27 °C. The PLSR results on 11 major and minor oxides show that four linear combinations of these oxides (Regressors 1-4), akin to classic oxide ratios, have potential for predicting climate. Regressor 1 correlates with increasing MAP and MAT through Fe oxidation, desilication, base loss and residual enrichment. Regressor 2 correlates with MAT through temperature-dependent dissolution of Na- and K-bearing minerals. Regressor 3 correlates with increasing MAP through decalcification and retention of Si. Regressor 4 correlates with increasing MAP through Mg retention in mafic-rich parent material. The nonlinear spline model fit on Regressors 1 to 4 results in a Root Mean Squared Error (RMSEMAP) of 228 mm and RMSEMAT of 2.46 °C. PPM1.0 model simulations result in Root Mean Squared Predictive Error (RMSPEMAP) of 512 mm and RMSPEMAT of 3.98 °C. The RMSE values are lower than some preexisting MAT models and show that subsoil weathering processes operating under a wide range of soil forming factors possess climate prediction potential, which agrees with the state-factor model of soil formation. The nonlinear, multivariate model space of PPM1.0 more accurately reflects the complex and nonlinear nature of many weathering processes as climate varies. This approach is still limited as it was built using data primarily from the conterminous USA and does not account for effects of diagenesis. Yet, because it is calibrated over a broader range of climatic variable space than previous work, it should have the widest array of potential applications. Furthermore, because it is not dependent on properties that may be poorly preserved in buried paleosols, the PPM1.0 model is preferable for reconstructing deep time climate transitions. In fact, previous studies may have grossly underestimated paleo-MAP for some paleosols.

We describe glacial-geological observations and cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages from the Schmidt, Williams, and Thomas Hills in the Pensacola Mountains of Antarctica adjacent to the Foundation Ice Stream (FIS). Our aim is to learn about changes in the thickness and grounding line position of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Weddell Sea embayment between the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the present. Glacial-geological observations from all three regions indicate that currently-ice-free areas were covered by ice during one or more past ice sheet expansions, and that this ice was typically frozen to its bed and thus non-erosive, permitting the accumulation of multiple generations of glacial drift. Cosmogenic-nuclide exposure-age data from glacially transported erratics are consistent with this interpretation in that we observe both (i) samples with Holocene exposure ages that display a systematic age-elevation relationship recording LGM-to-present deglaciation, and (ii) samples with older and highly scattered apparent exposure ages that were deposited in previous glacial-interglacial cycles and have experienced multiple periods of surface exposure and ice cover. Holocene exposure ages at the Thomas and Williams Hills, upstream of the present grounding line of the FIS, show that the FIS was at least 500 m thicker prior to 11 ka, and that 500 m of thinning took place between 11 and 4 ka. However, exposure-age data from the Schmidt Hills, downstream of the present grounding line of the FIS, show no evidence for LGM thickening of the FIS and, in fact, provide some evidence that the FIS could have been no more than 200 m thicker than present at the LGM. If all these observations are correct, they imply that the LGM and early Holocene ice surface slope in the vicinity of the present grounding line was steeper than present, which is inconsistent with glaciological model predictions of possible LGM ice sheet configurations. Specifically, scenarios in which the LGM grounding line of the FIS advanced to the outer continental shelf appear inconsistent with exposure-age data from the Schmidt Hills, whereas scenarios in which the FIS grounding line did not advance at the LGM appear inconsistent with exposure-age data from the Williams and Thomas Hills.

The Pridoli epoch is one of the most geobiologically unstable intervals in the Silurian period. However, the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of the biota from this time are still poorly understood. Here we present a comprehensive quantitative time-series analyses of conodont abundances during the middle and the upper parts of the Pridoli epoch. The study reveals that the stratigraphic series of conodont abundances has a multifractal structure. This feature implies the presence of multiple serially correlated processes hierarchically operating on different time scales and interacting in a multiplicative fashion. Estimation of a maximal Lyapunov exponent and a test for presence of determinism also revealed a chaotic and non-linear low-dimensional nature of long-term conodont abundance dynamics. The most probable (but not exclusive) mechanism for the origin of chaos in the time series of conodont abundance is that conodont abundances tracked changes in crucial environmental parameters, most probably related to the climate that exhibits long term chaos. The complex and non-linear nature of the conodont dynamics is also revealed by a moving-window correlation analyses of conodont abundances and by an environmental proxy time series. We found three alternating episodes of different correlation patterns between conodont abundances and the δ13C record. In the middle and upper most Pridoli interval there are positive but statistically non-significant correlations between these two variables. In contrast the lower part of the upper Pridoli (middle of the Jūra formation) exhibits negative and statistically significant correlation between the variables. In addition moving-window standard deviation analyses reveals that during the transitions between these episodes, there were abrupt changes in the variance in both the carbon isotopes and the conodont abundances, which implies that these episodes represent alternative states in the way the earth system functioned that were punctuated by the critical transitions between them. The interval with negative correlations between abundances and isotopes was also marked by a profound evolutionary turnover of acanthodians and to lesser extent conodonts. This interval most probably represented an anomalous time, with differing ecological rules and increased macroevolutionary rates, which can be interpreted as a turnover pulse. The spectral cyclostratigraphic analyses of the abundance data reveals that conodont abundances also exhibited periodic oscillations at several frequencies. The cycles determined for the analysis have the period lengths of 56, 99, 127 and 950 Ka, which probably were caused by the periodic changes in the obliquity and eccentricity of Earth9s orbit. The proposed proximate mechanism that controlled cyclic changes in the abundances of conodonts, based on the climatological deductions, was a variation in nutrients supplies that was due to changes in the degree of seasonality in the tropics, driven by Milankovitch cycles. It is probable that the described state shifts in the way that the ecosystem functioned were also forced by long-term Milankovitch cycles.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41472086, 41272120), the fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan). The first author also acknowledges China Scholarship Council (Grant No. 201208420001) for supporting his research in the University of St Andrews. PAC acknowledges support from NERC grant NE/J021822/1.

Breccias in the Rusey Fault (Cornwall, UK) and the Roamane Fault (Porgera gold deposit, Papua New Guinea) provide insights about the dynamics of fluid flow and flow velocities when fault ruptures breach overpressured reservoirs of hydrothermal fluid. These faults contain cockade-like breccias in which rock fragments are mantled by spheroidal overgrowths of hydrothermal minerals. At Rusey, the overgrowths are quartz-dominant, whereas in the Roamane Fault overgrowths are composed of calcite, quartz, or gold-rich pyrite. Although none of the rock fragment cores of accretionary spheroids are in contact with their neighbours, the spheroidal overgrowths do contact each other and are at least partially cemented together. The hydrothermal overgrowths mostly comprise either outwards coarsening crystals that radiate from the surface of the core rock fragment, or finer-grained, inequigranular to mesh-like intergrowths. Concentric textural banding and oscillatory growth zones are present in some hydrothermal mantles. The breccias occur as fault-parallel layers and lenses, each up to several tens of centimeters thick. Adjacent layers are characterized by texturally-distinct ranges of clast sizes and different proportions of clasts to hydrothermal overgrowths. In the Rusey Fault, many texturally-distinct breccia layers are present within a 3m wide fault core. Some layers truncate others and many breccia layers exhibit grainsize grading or banding. Clasts in the breccias include fragments of wall-rock, veins and various fault damage products, including fragments of earlier generations of cemented breccia. Brecciation was episodic and separated by periods of cementation. The distinctive textures of the breccias are interpreted to have formed by fluidization of fault damage products in a high fluid flux regime. Hydrothermal coatings developed while clasts were in a suspended state during fluid ascent through dilatant fault segments. Layered breccias record multiple episodes of particle fluidization and indicate that the faults provided conduits for repeated transitory fluid upflow. Particle size distributions indicate that fluid velocities during fluidization were in the range 0.1 ms−1 to 1 ms−1. The maximum flow rates correspond to fluid fluxes of 10 to 100 L.s−1 per meter strike length of fault through dilatant fault apertures up to several tens of centimeters wide. Such high flow rates characteristically induce intense swarm seismicity rather than mainshock-aftershock seismicity, and have implications for the dynamics and rates of formation of fault-related hydrothermal ore deposits.

Shape and lattice orientation relations as well as chemical compositions of Fe-Ti-oxide micro-inclusions and plagioclase host crystals in rocks of a gabbro-plagiogranite assemblage from the Mid-Atlantic ridge at 13°349 N were studied using electron back scatter diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and field-emission gun-electron microprobe analyzer. Several evolutionary stages of the micro-inclusion-host assemblages were discerned, starting with precipitation of Fe-Ti-oxides from a super-saturated plagioclase in otherwise unaltered gabbro, followed by transformation and re-crystallization of the micro-inclusions as well as chemical alteration of both inclusions and host during plagiogranite intrusion and subsequent hydrothermal alteration. A detailed sequence of petrogenetic processes could be reconstructed. Fe-Ti-oxide micro-inclusions are the main carriers of the paleo-magnetic record of these rocks, and understanding the transformations affecting Fe-Ti-oxide micro-inclusions in the highly dynamic mid-ocean ridge environment is crucial for interpreting paleo-magnetic data.

The Moretown Formation, exposed as a north-trending unit that extends from northern Vermont to Connecticut, is located along a critical Appalachian litho-tectonic zone between the paleomargin of Laurentia and accreted oceanic terranes. Remnants of magmatic activity, in part preserved as metamorphosed mafic rocks in the Moretown Formation and the overlying Cram Hill Formation, are a key to further understanding the tectonic history of the northern Appalachians. Field relationships suggest that the metamorphosed mafic rocks might have formed during and after Taconian deformation, which occurred at ca. 470 to 460 Ma. Geochemistry indicates that the sampled metamorphosed mafic rocks were mostly basalts or basaltic andesites. The rocks have moderate TiO2 contents (1–2.5 wt %), are slightly enriched in the light-rare earth elements relative to the heavy rare earths, and have negative Nb-Ta anomalies in MORB-normalized extended rare earth element diagrams. Their chemistry is similar to compositions of basalts from western Pacific extensional basins near volcanic arcs. The metamorphosed mafic rocks of this study are similar in chemistry to both the pre-Silurian Mount Norris Intrusive Suite of northern Vermont, and also to some of Late Silurian rocks within the Lake Memphremagog Intrusive Suite, particularly the Comerford Intrusive Complex of Vermont and New Hampshire. Both suites may be represented among the samples of this study. The geochemistry of all samples indicates that parental magmas were generated in supra-subduction extensional environments during lithospheric delamination.

A set of models for estimating the enthalpy of formation, the entropy, the heat capacity and the volume of dehydrated phyllosilicates is presented. The model for entropy and heat capacity estimation is essentially based on a method of decomposition into polyhedral units, similar to that published by Holland (1989). The model for predicting the enthalpy of formation is based on the electronegativity scale, as previously developed by Vieillard (1994a, 1994b). For the sake of consistency, the models are parameterized using the same critical selection of thermodynamic properties from the literature. This includes a set of direct measurements especially dedicated to clay minerals that had not been taken into account in previous calculation methods. The accuracy of the predictions is tested for each property. The verification tests are also carried out for minerals that include different chemical elements than the phases used to derive the model constants, especially lithium-bearing micas. Verification tests also concern the Gibbs energy function that combines contributions from both models. Finally, the models are used in order to propose a complete thermodynamic database for clay mineral end-members. The consistency of the stability domains calculated on the basis of these thermodynamic properties is investigated by drawing relevant predominance diagrams for some chemical systems of interest. The models proposed represent a significant improvement with respect to previous works as regards the global accuracy of the estimates and because the developments were realized and tested using the same set of minerals, whose properties had been collected through a critical selection of the literature.