Weathering regime and geochemical conditions in a polar desert environment, Haughton impact structure region, Devon Island, Canada

2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (10) ◽  
pp. 1139-1157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Lacelle ◽  
Véronique Juneau ◽  
André Pellerin ◽  
Bernard Lauriol ◽  
Ian D. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Active Layer ◽  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Surface Sediments ◽  
Impact Structure ◽  
Desert Environment ◽  
Polar Desert ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Mechanical Weathering ◽  
Thermal Dilation ◽  
The Impact

This study examines the physical and geochemical properties of near-surface sediments, as well as the geochemical and stable O–H–C isotope composition of (ground)surface waters in and around the Haughton impact structure region (Devon Island, Nunavut) to determine the types of weathering (mechanical, (bio)chemical) and their relative contribution in this polar desert environment. The surface sediments collected from the Allen Bay and Thumb Mountain formations surrounding the impact crater are dominated by sand-sized particles; whereas the impact melt breccias inside the crater have a greater abundance of silt-sized particles. The subsurface sediments in the Allen Bay formation show a near equal amount of sand- and silt-sized particles. However, the micromorphologies of the sand-sized particles collected at the surface revealed that these grains, irrespective of the local geology, were heavily fractured. By contrast, fractures and rounded pits are observed on the surface of the sand grains located within the active layer; whereas those located just above the permafrost table have only rounded cavities on their surface. The (ground)waters also show variations in their solute concentration with depth; the highest concentrations being found in the groundwaters near the top of permafrost. Taken together, these observations suggest that there is a progressive evolution from a mechanically dominated weathering regime near the surface, to increasing chemical weathering with depth. The transition from mechanical weathering near the surface to increasing chemical weathering with depth can be attributed to the decreasing frequency and intensity of mechanical weathering processes (i.e., frost action, wetting–drying, thermal dilation) with depth, and to the presence of permafrost, which allows a greater availability of water for chemical aqueous reactions at the base of the active layer.

scholarly journals Heterotrophic microbial colonization of the interior of impact-shocked rocks from Haughton impact structure, Devon Island, Nunavut, Canadian High Arctic

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Fike ◽  
Charles Cockell ◽  
David Pearce ◽  
Pascal Lee
Keyword(s):  
Heterotrophic Bacteria ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Crystalline Rocks ◽  
Microbial Colonization ◽  
Impact Structure ◽  
Canadian High Arctic ◽  
Polar Desert ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Rdna Sequencing ◽  
The Impact

The polar desert is one of the most extreme environments on Earth. Endolithic organisms can escape or mitigate the hazards of the polar desert by using the resources available in the interior of rocks. We examined endolithic communities within crystalline rocks that have undergone shock metamorphism as a result of an asteroid or comet impact. Specifically, we present a characterization of the heterotrophic endolithic community and its environment in the interior of impact-shocked gneisses and their host polymict breccia from the Haughton impact structure on Devon Island, Nunavut, Canadian High Arctic. Microbiological colonization of impact-shocked rocks is facilitated by impact-induced fissures and cavities, which occur throughout the samples, the walls of which are lined with high abundances of biologically important elements owing to the partial volatilization of minerals within the rock during the impact. 27 heterotrophic bacteria were isolated from these shocked rocks and were identified by 16S rDNA sequencing. The isolates from the shocked gneiss and the host breccia are similar to each other, and to other heterotrophic communities isolated from polar environments, suggesting that the interiors of the rocks are colonized by microorganisms from the surrounding country rocks and soils. Inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis were used to identify the chemical composition of the shocked materials and to document the in situ growth of microbes in their interiors. The identification of these heterotrophic communities within impact-shocked crystalline rocks extends our knowledge of the habitable biosphere on Earth. The colonization of the interiors of these samples has astrobiological applications both for considering terrestrial, microbiological contamination of meteorites from the Antarctic ice sheet and for investigating possible habitats for microbial organisms on the early Earth, and more speculatively, on Mars and other planetary bodies.

scholarly journals Syngenetic dynamic of permafrost of a polar desert solifluction lobe, Ward Hunt Island, Nunavut

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Verpaelst ◽  
Daniel Fortier ◽  
Mikhail Kanevskiy ◽  
Michel Paquette ◽  
Yuri Shur
Keyword(s):  
Active Layer ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Mass Movements ◽  
Polar Desert ◽  
Freeze Thaw ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
Central Depression ◽  
Ice Content ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Coarse Gravel

Repeated freeze–thaw cycles on slopes trigger sorting and solifluction mass movements, while subsequent displacement of material modifies the geomorphology of slopes as well as permafrost dynamics. This study focuses on the geomorphology and the cryostratigraphy of a polar desert stone-banked solifluction lobe with the objective to clarify the impact of slow mass movements on ground ice aggradation. The morphology of the solifluction lobe was characterized by peripheral ridges of coarse gravel, partially surrounding a depression filled with finer sediments saturated with water and covered by organics. Cryostratigraphic analysis demonstrated that the solifluction lobe’s formation led to the development of a syngenetic layer of permafrost with an ice content that varied according to the location in the lobe. The ice-rich cryofacies formed in the central depression of the lobe should act as a buffer to potential active layer deepening, slowing down its thawing, whereas the ice-poor cryofacies formed under the ridges is expected to thaw faster than the central depression under climate warming scenarios. Thawing of the ice-rich zone in the future will result in differential thaw subsidence between the ridges and the central depression of solifluction lobes, along with increased drainage through the ridges and subsequent changes in hydrology.

THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL WEATHERING ON IRON SLAG FROM STANDISH, NY

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria L. Leonard ◽  
◽  
Rachel M. Kelk ◽  
Dori J. Farthing
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Iron Slag ◽  
Physical And Chemical ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Ocean resurge-induced impact melt dynamics on the peak-ring of the Chicxulub impact structure, Mexico

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix M. Schulte ◽  
◽  
Axel Wittmann ◽  
Stefan Jung ◽  
Joanna V. Morgan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Impact Structure ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Hydrothermal Conditions ◽  
Chemical Examination ◽  
Impact Melt ◽  
Target Rock ◽  
Single Process ◽  
Chicxulub Impact ◽  
The Impact

AbstractCore from Hole M0077 from IODP/ICDP Expedition 364 provides unprecedented evidence for the physical processes in effect during the interaction of impact melt with rock-debris-laden seawater, following a large meteorite impact into waters of the Yucatán shelf. Evidence for this interaction is based on petrographic, microstructural and chemical examination of the 46.37-m-thick impact melt rock sequence, which overlies shocked granitoid target rock of the peak ring of the Chicxulub impact structure. The melt rock sequence consists of two visually distinct phases, one is black and the other is green in colour. The black phase is aphanitic and trachyandesitic in composition and similar to melt rock from other sites within the impact structure. The green phase consists chiefly of clay minerals and sparitic calcite, which likely formed from a solidified water–rock debris mixture under hydrothermal conditions. We suggest that the layering and internal structure of the melt rock sequence resulted from a single process, i.e., violent contact of initially superheated silicate impact melt with the ocean resurge-induced water–rock mixture overriding the impact melt. Differences in density, temperature, viscosity, and velocity of this mixture and impact melt triggered Kelvin–Helmholtz and Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities at their phase boundary. As a consequence, shearing at the boundary perturbed and, thus, mingled both immiscible phases, and was accompanied by phreatomagmatic processes. These processes led to the brecciation at the top of the impact melt rock sequence. Quenching of this breccia by the seawater prevented reworking of the solidified breccia layers upon subsequent deposition of suevite. Solid-state deformation, notably in the uppermost brecciated impact melt rock layers, attests to long-term gravitational settling of the peak ring.

scholarly journals Straight to Low-Sinuosity Drainage Systems in a Variscan-Type Orogen—Constraints from Tectonics, Lithology and Climate

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 933
Author(s):  
Harald G. Dill ◽  
Andrei Buzatu ◽  
Sorin-Ionut Balaban
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Numerical Data ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Acute Angle ◽  
Drainage Systems ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Bedrock Lithology ◽  
The Impact

A holistic-modular approach has been taken to study the evolution of three straight to low-sinuosity drainage systems (=SSS) in an uplifted basement block of the Central European Variscides. The development of the SSS is described by means of a quadripartite model. (1) The geological framework of the SSS: Forming the lithological and structural features in the bedrock as a result of different temperature, pressure and dynamic-metamorphic processes. (2) Prestage of SSS: Forming the paleo-landscape with a stable fluvial regime as a starting point for the SSS. (3) Proto-SSS: Transition into the metastable fluvial regime of the SSS. (4) Modern SSS: Operation of the metastable fluvial regime Tectonics plays a dual role. Late Paleozoic fold tectonic creates the basis for the studied SSS and has a guiding effect on the development of morphotectonic units during the Neogene and Quaternary. Late Cenozoic fault tectonics triggered the SSS to incise into the Paleozoic basement. The change in the bedrock lithology has an impact on the fluvial and colluvial sediments as well as their landforms. The latter reflects a conspicuous modification: straight drainage system ⇒ higher sinuosity and paired terraces ⇒ hillwash plains. Climate change has an indirect effect controlling via the bedrock the intensity of mechanical and chemical weathering. The impact on the development of the SSS can be assessed as follows: Tectonics >> climate ≅ bedrock lithology. The three parameters cause a facies zonation: (1) wide-and-shallow valley (Miocene), (2) wide-angle V-shaped valley (Plio-Pleistocene), (3) acute-angle V-shaped valley (Pleistocene), (4) V-shaped to U-shaped valleys (Pleistocene-Holocene). Numerical data relevant for the hydrographic studies of the SSS are determined in each reference area: (1) Quantification of fluvial and colluvial deposits along the drainage system, (2) slope angles, (3) degree of sinuosity as a function of river facies, (4) grain size distribution, (5) grain morphological categorization, (6) grain orientation (“situmetry”), (7) channel density, (8) channel/floodplain ratios. Thermodynamic computations (Eh, pH, concentration of solubles) are made to constrain the paleoclimatic regime during formation of the SSS. The current model of the SSS is restricted in its application to the basement of the Variscan-Type orogens, to an intermediate crustal maturity state.

Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) of impact melt breccia and target rocks from the Dhala impact structure, India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anuj Kumar Singh ◽  
Jayanta Kumar Pati ◽  
Shiva Kumar Patil ◽  
Wolf Uwe Reimold ◽  
Arun Kumar Rao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Susceptibility ◽  
Anisotropy Of Magnetic Susceptibility ◽  
Impact Structure ◽  
Magnetic Phases ◽  
Impact Melt ◽  
Rock Samples ◽  
Average Value ◽  
Magnetic Fabrics ◽  
Target Rock ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT The ~11-km-wide, Paleoproterozoic Dhala impact structure in north-central India comprises voluminous exposures of impact melt breccia. These outcrops are discontinuously spread over a length of ~6 km in a semicircular pattern along the northern, inner limit of the monomict breccia ring around the central elevated area. This study of the magnetic fabrics of impact breccias and target rocks from the Dhala impact structure identified a weak preferred magnetic orientation for pre-impact crystalline target rocks. The pre- and synimpact rocks from Dhala have magnetite and ilmenite as common magnetic phases. The distributions of magnetic vectors are random for most impact melt breccia samples, but some do indicate a preferred orientation. Our anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) data demonstrate that the shape of susceptibility ellipsoids for the target rocks varies from prolate to oblate, and most impact melt breccia samples display both shapes, with a slight bias toward the oblate geometry. The average value for the corrected degree of anisotropy of impact melt rock (P′ = 1.009) is lower than that for the target rocks (P′ = 1.091). The present study also shows that both impact melt breccia and target rock samples of the Dhala structure have undergone minor postimpact alteration, and have similar compositions in terms of magnetic phases and high viscosity. Fine-grained iron oxide or hydroxide is the main alteration phase in impact melt rocks. Impact melt rocks gave a narrow range of mean magnetic susceptibility (Km) and P′ values, in contrast to the target rock samples, which gave Km = 0.05–12.9 × 10−3 standard international units (SI) and P′ = 1.036–1.283. This suggests similar viscosity of the source magma, and limited difference in the degrees of recorded deformation. Between Pagra and Maniar villages, the Km value of impact melt breccias gradually decreases in a clockwise direction, with a maximum value observed near Pagra (Km = 1.67 × 10−3 SI). The poor grouping of magnetic fabrics for most impact melt rock samples implies local turbulence in rapidly cooled impact melt at the front of the melt flow immediately after the impact. The mean K1 for most impact melt samples suggests subhorizontal (<5°) flow in various directions. The average value of Km for the target rocks (4.41 × 10−3 SI) is much higher compared to the value for melt breccias (1.09 × 10−3 SI). The results of this study suggest that the melt breccias were likely part of a sheet-like body of sizeable extent. Our magnetic fabric data are also supported by earlier core drilling information from ~70 locations, with coring depths reaching to −500 m. Our extensive field observations combined with available widespread subsurface data imply that the impact melt sheet could have covered as much as 12 km2 in the Dhala structure, with an estimated minimum melt volume of ~2.4 km3.

Interaction Between Camel Farming and Environment

2020 ◽  
pp. 363-378
Author(s):  
Bernard Faye
Keyword(s):  
Production System ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽  
Desert Environment ◽  
Active Growth ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
The World ◽  
Animal Metabolism ◽  
Extensive Farming ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Selection Of

The close adaptation of camel to its desert environment could explain its weak expansion out of the arid lands of the world. This adaptation can contribute to the desertification combat, attesting to its small ecological footprint with traditional extensive farming. The camel population in the world, despite its active growth, remains marginal, and its contribution to the greenhouse gas emission is negligible. However, the current trends to the intensification of camel productions could change the impact of the species on the environment and on animal metabolism. The necessity to expect a better productivity face to the growing demand could lead to a “specialization” of the camel farms and a specific selection of the camel. Such trends require care with a possible erosion of the camel biodiversity and the consequences on the interactions between the emerging camel production system and the environment.

scholarly journals Active layer slope disturbances affect seasonality and composition of dissolved nitrogen export from High Arctic headwater catchments

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa J. Lafrenière ◽  
Nicole L. Louiseize ◽  
Scott F. Lamoureux
Keyword(s):  
Active Layer ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Rainfall Runoff ◽  
Headwater Catchments ◽  
Dissolved Nitrogen ◽  
Total Dissolved Nitrogen ◽  
Nitrate Export ◽  
Limiting Nutrient ◽  
Seasonal Discharge ◽  
The Impact

This study investigates the impacts of active layer detachments (ALDs) on nitrogen in seasonal runoff from High Arctic hillslope catchments. We examined dissolved nitrogen in runoff from an undisturbed catchment (Goose (GS)) and one that was disturbed (Ptarmigan (PT)) by ALDs, prior to disturbance (2007) and 5 years after disturbance (2012). The seasonal dynamics of nitrogen species concentrations and fluxes were similar in both catchments in 2007, but the mean seasonal nitrate concentration and mass flux from the disturbed catchment were on the order of 30 times higher relative to the undisturbed catchment in 2012. Stormflow yielded 45% and 60% of the 2012 total dissolved nitrogen flux in GS and PT, respectively, although rainfall runoff provided less than 25% of seasonal discharge. Results support that through the combined effects of increased disturbance and rainfall, climate change stands to significantly enhance the export of nitrate from High Arctic watersheds. This study highlights that the increase in the delivery of nitrate from disturbance is especially pronounced late in the season when downstream productivity and the biological demand for this often limiting nutrient are high. Our results also demonstrate that the impact of ALDs on nitrate export can persist more than 5 years following disturbance.

Through the impact glass: Insight into the evolution of melt at the Mistastin Lake impact structure

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 591-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick J. A. Hill ◽  
Gordon R. Osinski ◽  
Neil R. Banerjee
Keyword(s):  
Impact Structure ◽  
Impact Glass ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

scholarly journals Recent changes to the hydrological cycle of an Arctic basin at the tundra–taiga transition

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 3993-4014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian A. Krogh ◽  
John W. Pomeroy
Keyword(s):  
Layer Thickness ◽  
Active Layer ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Arctic Basin ◽  
Hydrological Processes ◽  
Active Layer Thickness ◽  
Blowing Snow ◽  
Hydrological Changes ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The impact of transient changes in climate and vegetation on the hydrology of small Arctic headwater basins has not been investigated before, particularly in the tundra–taiga transition region. This study uses weather and land cover observations and a hydrological model suitable for cold regions to investigate historical changes in modelled hydrological processes driving the streamflow response of a small Arctic basin at the treeline. The physical processes found in this environment and explicit changes in vegetation extent and density were simulated and validated against observations of streamflow discharge, snow water equivalent and active layer thickness. Mean air temperature and all-wave irradiance have increased by 3.7 ∘C and 8.4 W m−2, respectively, while precipitation has decreased 48 mm (10 %) since 1960. Two modelling scenarios were created to separate the effects of changing climate and vegetation on hydrological processes. Results show that over 1960–2016 most hydrological changes were driven by climate changes, such as decreasing snowfall, evapotranspiration, deepening active layer thickness, earlier snow cover depletion and diminishing annual sublimation and soil moisture. However, changing vegetation has a significant impact on decreasing blowing snow redistribution and sublimation, counteracting the impact of decreasing precipitation on streamflow, demonstrating the importance of including transient changes in vegetation in long-term hydrological studies. Streamflow dropped by 38 mm as a response to the 48 mm decrease in precipitation, suggesting a small degree of hydrological resiliency. These results represent the first detailed estimate of hydrological changes occurring in small Arctic basins, and can be used as a reference to inform other studies of Arctic climate change impacts.

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