Atlantic GeologyPub Date : 2017-10-02DOI: 10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.012
R. Hooke, P. Hanson
{"title":"Late- and Post-glacial history of the East Branch of the Penobscot River, Maine, USA","authors":"R. Hooke, P. Hanson","doi":"10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.012","url":null,"abstract":"Between ~20 and 15 ka the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated from the edge of the continental shelf, ἀrst to the Maine coast and then across Maine to the northern reaches of the Penobscot Lowland. The Lowland, being isostatically depressed, was inundated by the sea. As ice then retreated into Maine’s western mountains, valleys through the mountains became estuaries. In the estuary now occupied by the Penobscot River’s East Branch, ten ice-marginal deltas were built during pauses in this part of the retreat. By 14 ka the ice had retreated far enough to expose land in the valley bottom between the ice front and the sea, and the Penobscot River was (re)born. This occurred near the present conᴀuence of the Seboeis River and the East Branch. The river gradually extended itself northward as the ice retreated and southward as relative sea level fell. Braidplains were formed and incised, leaving terraces. High initial discharges eroded the eastern ᴀanks of the esker and deltas, redepositing silt, sand, and gravel all the way to the present head of Penobscot Bay. By ~10 ka the discharge had decreased, the river was adjusting to on-going differential isostatic rebound, and finer sediment was accumulating, forming the present floodplain.","PeriodicalId":49235,"journal":{"name":"Atlantic Geology","volume":"53 1","pages":"285-300"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2017-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43982802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Atlantic GeologyPub Date : 2017-08-27DOI: 10.4138/atlgeol.2017.011
Martin A Becker, Rebecca B. Chamberlain, Harry M. Maisch, A. Bartholomew, J. Chamberlain
{"title":"Trilobites from the Rickard Hill facies of the Saugerties Member of the Schoharie Formation, eastern New York (upper Emsian and Lower Devonian): a case study in taphonomy and sequence stratigraphy from glacial erratics","authors":"Martin A Becker, Rebecca B. Chamberlain, Harry M. Maisch, A. Bartholomew, J. Chamberlain","doi":"10.4138/atlgeol.2017.011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4138/atlgeol.2017.011","url":null,"abstract":"Glacial erratics belonging to the Rickard Hill facies (RHF) of the Saugerties Member of the Schoharie Formation (upper Emsian: Lower Devonian) occur scattered throughout the Piedmont of northern New Jersey and Lower Hudson Valley of New York. These RHF glacial erratics contain an assemblage of trilobites belonging to: Anchiopella anchiops , Burtonops cristatus , Calymene platys , Terataspis grandis , cf. Trypaulites sp. and cf. Coniproetus sp. This RHF glacial erratic trilobite assemblage consists predominately of disarticulated cephala and pygidia that were originally preserved as part of a localized, third-order eustatic sea level lag deposit in the Helderberg Mountains region of central New York State and subsequently transported in glacially plucked blocks by the Hudson-Champlain Lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet southward into New Jersey. Physical and chemical weathering during glacial erosion, transportation and deposition of the RHF glacial erratics has revealed some anatomical features of these trilobites in high detail along with other invertebrates. This unique sequence of weathering reveals additional characteristics that bear upon issues of bathymetric controls on upper Schoharie Formation lithology, trilobite faunal abundance and taphonomy during the upper Emsian (Lower Devonian) of eastern New York State.","PeriodicalId":49235,"journal":{"name":"Atlantic Geology","volume":"53 1","pages":"269-284"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2017-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46667010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Atlantic GeologyPub Date : 2017-06-28DOI: 10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.010
Larbi Rddad
{"title":"Fixation and redistribution of arsenic during early and late diagenesis in the organic matter-rich members of the Lockatong Formation, Newark basin, USA: implication for the quality of groundwater","authors":"Larbi Rddad","doi":"10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.010","url":null,"abstract":"The Byram and Walls Island members in the lower and upper sections, respectively, of the Lockatong Formation in the Newark basin near the border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey were chosen to assess (i) the role of euxinic/anoxic conditions in sequestering arsenic (As) and other trace elements and (ii) the redistribution of these elements during catagenetic transformations. ἀese members are rich in organic matter and host pyrite which occurs as disseminations, small patches, and subparallel veins. ἀe sulfur isotope values of pyrite samples range between -7.5 and 0.5 ‰CDT (average = -3.5‰CDT). ἀe negative δ34S values are indicative of Bacterial Sulfate Reduction (BSR) under low temperature and euxinic/anoxic conditions. ἀe total organic carbon (TOC) values in this member ᴀuctuate between 0.5 and 2.1%. ἀese euxinic/anoxic conditions enhanced the incorporation of As and other trace elements in both organic matter and pyrite. ἀe As concentrations range from 13 to 800 mg/kg and from 1.4 to 34 mg/kg in pyrite and black shale samples, respectively. Rock Eval analyses reveal that organic matter is over-mature which altered the correlation between TOC and As. ἀe thermal cracking of organic matter resulted in the removal of these elements from organic matter and their subsequent incorporation in pyrite and bitumen. Organic matter- and pyrite-rich anoxic black shale layers and bitumen veins are potential sources of arsenic in groundwater in the Newark basin, with arsenic values that reach up to 215 μg/L.","PeriodicalId":49235,"journal":{"name":"Atlantic Geology","volume":"53 1","pages":"253-268"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2017-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41955821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Atlantic GeologyPub Date : 2017-05-06DOI: 10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.008
N. Mohammadi, L. Fyffe, C. McFarlane, K. Thorne, D. Lentz, Brittany E. Charnley, L. Branscombe, S. Butler
{"title":"Geological relationships and laser ablation ICP-MS U-Pb geochronology of the Saint George Batholith, southwestern New Brunswick, Canada: implications for its tectonomagmatic evolution","authors":"N. Mohammadi, L. Fyffe, C. McFarlane, K. Thorne, D. Lentz, Brittany E. Charnley, L. Branscombe, S. Butler","doi":"10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.008","url":null,"abstract":"The Late Silurian to Late Devonian Saint George Batholith in southwestern New Brunswick is a large composite intrusion (2000 km 2 ) emplaced into the continental margin of the peri-Gondwanan microcontinent of Ganderia. The batholith includes: (1) Bocabec Gabbro; (2) equigranular Utopia and Wellington Lake biotite granites; (3) Welsford, Jake Lee Mountain, and Parks Brook peralkaline granites; (4) two-mica John Lee Brook Granite; (6) Jimmy Hill and Magaguadavic megacrystic granites; and (6) rapakivi Mount Douglas Granite. New LA ICP-MS in situ analyses of six samples from the Saint George Batholith are as follows: (1) U-Pb monazite crystallization age of 425.5 ± 2.1 Ma for the Utopia Granite in the western part of the batholith (2) U-Pb zircon crystallization ages of 420.4 ± 2.4 Ma and 420.0 ± 3.5 Ma for two samples of the Utopia Granite from the central part of the batholith; (3) U-Pb zircon crystallization age of 418.0 ± 2.3 Ma for the Jake Lee Mountain Granite; (4) U-Pb zircon crystallization age of 415.5 ± 2.1 Ma for the Wellington Lake Granite; and (5) U-Pb monazite crystallization age of 413.3 ± 2.1 Ma for the John Lee Brook Granite. The new geochronological together with new and existing geochemical data suggest that the protracted magmatic evolution of the Late Silurian to Early Devonian plutonic rocks is related to the transition of the Silurian Kingston arc-Mascarene backarc system from an extensional to compressional tectonic environment during collision of the Avalonian microcontinent with Laurentia followed by slab break-off.","PeriodicalId":49235,"journal":{"name":"Atlantic Geology","volume":"53 1","pages":"207-240"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2017-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47440500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Atlantic GeologyPub Date : 2017-04-27DOI: 10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.007
P. Getty, Robert G. Sproule, M. Stimson, P. Lyons
{"title":"Invertebrate trace fossils from the Pennsylvanian Rhode Island Formation of Massachusetts, USA","authors":"P. Getty, Robert G. Sproule, M. Stimson, P. Lyons","doi":"10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.007","url":null,"abstract":"A large open-pit quarry in Plainville, Massachusetts, has yielded fourteen invertebrate ichnotaxa from the Pennsylvanian Rhode Island Formation of the Narragansett Basin. These traces include Cochlichnus anguineus , Diplichnites cuithensis, Diplichnites gouldi, Diplopodichnus biformis, Gordia carickensis, Helminthoidichites tenuis, Lockeia isp., Mitchellichnus cf. ferrydenensis, Planolites montanus, Siskemia elegans, Stiallia pilosa, Stiaria intermedia, Tonganoxichnus buildexensis and Narragansettichnus fortunatus new ichnogenus and ichnospecies. Specimens were collected from talus and the depositional environment has been inferred from sedimentary structures. The sediment - ology of the slabs on which the traces were preserved indicates that the rocks represent lake-margin and shallowlacustrine sedimentary facies. Distinct ichnofacies occur in the different sedimentary environments. The lake-margin traces belong to the Scoyenia ichnofacies and include traces of apterygote insects, arthropleurid myriapods, bivalved arthropods and vermiform animals in association with tracks of temnospondyl amphibians and diapsid reptiles. The lacustrine traces include arthropod trackways, fish trails and a newly named body imprint possibly produced by an aquatic mayfly larva. These shallow lacustrine traces are attributed to the Mermia ichnofacies.","PeriodicalId":49235,"journal":{"name":"Atlantic Geology","volume":"53 1","pages":"185-206"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2017-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49310238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Atlantic GeologyPub Date : 2017-03-29DOI: 10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.004
D. B. Clarke, C. McFarlane, D. Hamilton, D. Stevens
{"title":"Forensic igneous petrology: locating the source quarry for the “black granite\" Titanic headstones in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada","authors":"D. B. Clarke, C. McFarlane, D. Hamilton, D. Stevens","doi":"10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.004","url":null,"abstract":"In Halifax, Nova Scotia, 149 victims of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic lie beneath petrologically identical \"black granite\" headstones. Those headstones, supplied by the White Star Line, arrived in Halifax in late 1912, but no known historical document reveals their source. They consist of medium- to coarse-grained olivine-bearing gabbro, with cumulus phases consisting of randomly oriented euhedral plagioclase laths, corroded olivine, and titaniferous magnetite, and intercumulus material consisting of augite with reaction rims of hornblende, both of which are variably altered to actinolite and biotite. Three types of forensic evidence [quantitative – radiometric age of 422.1 ± 1.3 Ma (n = 17), mean olivine FeO/(FeO + MgO) values ranging from 0.43 to 0.46, augite rim trace- element compositions (35 elements), and whole-rock chemical compositions (48 elements), including statistical analysis of all these data showing no significant differences between the headstones and their putative source quarry; qualitative – mineral assemblages, modal proportions, textural parameters, style and degree of alteration; and circumstantial – regional reputation, quarrying history, local logistics, regional transportation, McGrattan marker] connect the Titanic headstones to the Saint George Batholith in southwestern New Brunswick. Precise matching of any dimension stone to its source quarry is problematic, because that material connects only to a void in the quarry. Ideally, all physical-chemical-temporal properties of the dimension stone and source quarry should match, both quantitatively and qualitatively, but in reality only the ages must almost certainly match. Thus it is remotely possible for the right quarry to mismatch most of the properties of the dimension stone, and for a wrong quarry to match most of the properties of the dimension stone. However, in the case of the Titanic headstones, the cumulative weight of all the quantitative, qualitative, and circumstantial evidence, combined with a process of elimination and application of Ockham’s razor, indicate that the Charles Hanson quarry near Bocabec, southwestern New Brunswick, is the likely source for the gabbroic Titanic headstones in Halifax, Nova Scotia.","PeriodicalId":49235,"journal":{"name":"Atlantic Geology","volume":"53 1","pages":"087-114"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2017-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47690795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Atlantic GeologyPub Date : 2017-03-29DOI: 10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.005
A. Berger
{"title":"Tracking rapid landscape change with repeated photography, Gros Morne National Park, Canada","authors":"A. Berger","doi":"10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.005","url":null,"abstract":"At various coastal and inland sites in and around Gros Morne National Park in western Newfoundland, photographs taken periodically over many decades illustrate the physical stability of landforms. ἀese images provide a convenient, qualitative way to track the development of stone rings and patterned ground, the movement of rocks along intertidal platforms, changes to marine estuaries and to alluvial rivers and fans, temporal trends in late-lying snow beds along mountain tops, and slope failure by landslides and rock falls. ἀis study has established a spatial and temporal photographic record of slope failures along the steep cliḀs of Western Brook Pond, showing that nearly all of the sites identiᴀed in earlier studies as high risk of failure have remained stable. In contrast, thin-skinned landslides along Winter House Brook have remained active for at least 100 years. Little evidence of physical changes in patterned ground features in Trout River Gulch was found, other than frost-heaving in soils disturbed by road construction. Fluctuations from year to year in the level of gravel beaches along parts of the coast are common, and blow-outs continue to modify coastal sand dunes. Apart from certain engineered sites where change was obviously driven by direct human activities, the immediate cause or “driver” of change was natural (non-human), the result of gravitational instability, heavy precipitation, wave and storm action, frost heaving, and other background processes of the sort that long pre-date the coming of people to the region. Continuation of this kind of inexpensive, non-invasive monitoring can assist in assessing ecological integrity, managing public safety, and interpreting landscape processes for Park visitors.","PeriodicalId":49235,"journal":{"name":"Atlantic Geology","volume":"53 1","pages":"115-126"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2017-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47363137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Atlantic GeologyPub Date : 2017-03-16DOI: 10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.003
A. Ludman, J. Hopeck, Henry N Berry Iv
{"title":"Provenance and paleogeography of post-Middle Ordovician, pre-Devonian sedimentary basins on the Gander composite terrane, eastern and east-central Maine: implications for Silurian tectonics in the northern Appalachians","authors":"A. Ludman, J. Hopeck, Henry N Berry Iv","doi":"10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4138/ATLGEOL.2017.003","url":null,"abstract":"Recent mapping in eastern and east-central Maine addresses long-standing regional correlation issues and permits reconstruction of post-Middle Ordovician, pre-Devonian paleogeography of sedimentary basins on the Ganderian composite terrane. Two major Late Ordovician-Silurian depocenters are recognized in eastern Maine and western New Brunswick separated by an emergent Miramichi terrane: the Fredericton trough to the southeast and a single basin comprising the Central Maine and Aroostook-Matapedia sequences to the northwest. This Central Maine/Aroostook-Matapedia (CMAM) basin received sediment from both the Miramichi highland to the east and highlands and islands to the west, including the pre-Late Ordovician Boundary Mountains, Munsungun-Pennington, and Weeksboro-Lunksoos terranes. Lithofacies in the Fredericton trough are truncated and telescoped by faulting along its flanks but suggest a similar basin that received sediment from highlands to the west (Miramichi) and east (St. Croix). Deposition ended in the Fredericton trough following burial and deformation in the Late Silurian, but continued in the CMAM basin until Early Devonian Acadian folding. A westward-migrating Acadian orogenic wedge provided a single eastern source of sediment for the composite CMAM basin after the Salinic/Early Acadian event, replacing the earlier, more local sources. The CMAM, Fredericton, and Connecticut Valley-Gaspe depocenters were active immediately following the Taconian orogeny and probably formed during extension related to post-Taconian plate adjustments. These basins thus predate Acadian foreland sedimentation. Structural analysis and seismic reflection profiles indicate a greater degree of post-depositional crustal shortening than previously interpreted. Late Acadian and post-Acadian strike-slip faulting on the Norumbega and Central Maine Boundary fault systems distorted basin geometries but did not disturb paleogeographic components drastically.","PeriodicalId":49235,"journal":{"name":"Atlantic Geology","volume":"53 1","pages":"063-085"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2017-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43096071","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}