The Athel silicilyte is an enigmatic, hundreds of meters thick, finely laminated quartz deposit, in which silica precipitated in deep water (>~100-200 m) at the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary in the South Oman Salt Basin. In contrast, Meso-Neoproterozoic sinks for marine silica were dominantly restricted to peritidal settings. The silicilyte is known to contain sterane biomarkers for demosponges, ...

Introduction: Ascraeus Mons is one of the three Tharsis Montes shield volcanoes that are aligned along a N40°E trend on the crest of the broad Tharsis Rise. Although largely constructed of volcanic deposits, each of the Tharsis Montes has a distinctive and unusual fan-shaped deposit extending approximately northwest on their western flanks. Three major facies have been identified within the fan...

A substantial body of evidence suggests that subsurface water masses in mid-Proterozoic marine basins were commonly anoxic, either euxinic (sulfidic) or ferruginous (free ferrous iron). To further document redox variations during this interval, a multiproxy geochemical and paleobiological investigation was conducted on the approximately 1000-m-thick Mesoproterozoic (Lower Riphean) Arlan Member ...

Monazite-(Ce) and xenotime-(Y) were found in the metacherts (pumpellyite–actinolite-facies conditions: 3 ≤ P ≤ 4 kbars and 300 ≤ T ≤ 350°C) of the Monte Figogna Unit, Sestri–Voltaggio Zone, Liguria, in Italy, as scattered submillimetric grains in pelitic beds and as euhedral crystals in both millimeter-thick quartz veins and open fissures. Their composition is comparable to those of known occur...

The distribution of life in the continental subsurface is likely controlled by a range of physical and chemical factors. The fundamental requirements are for space to live, carbon for biomass and energy for metabolic activity. These are inter-related, such that adequate permeability is required to maintain a supply of nutrients, and facies interfaces invite colonization by juxtaposing porous ha...

We studied the humic-acid fraction isolated from a Spanish leonardite coal (Torrelapaja, Cretaceous basin belonging to the Utrillas facies) using a suite of chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques to characterize the structure of the carbon skeleton and the nature of the sulfur-containing compounds. In particular, analytical pyrolysis coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was use...

A 1.5‰ to 2‰ carbon isotope excursion immediately above the clay layer that defines the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/ T) boundary has been reported in marine sediments world wide. This paper reports a similar 1.5‰ to 2.8‰ carbon isotope excursion recorded by C3 land plants from three temporally-controlled, stratigraphically-constrained terrestrial sections in the Western Interior of North America (Ga...

U-Pb dating of zircon was undertaken with the Beijing SHRIMP II (sensitive high resolution ion microprobe) on anamphibolite facies granodiorite and an almandine-albite granulite from the Santa Maria Chico Granulitic Complex, southern Brazilian Shield. This work was also done to unravel protolith ages which are often hidden in the array of partly reset data. The obtained metamorphic ages of the ...

The study of paleosols can be a vital tool in the paleoenvironmental interpretation of continental deposits because their physical and chemical characteristics are a reflection of variations in aspects of soil formation. Changes in paleosol characteristics can be used to determine the architecture and nature of parent material, paleosol maturity, topography, climate and soil-forming organisms (...