Showing papers by "Paul R. Renne published in 2012"

40Ar/39Ar ages for deep (~3.3 km) samples from the Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project, Mauna Kea volcano, Hawaii

Abstract: [1] The Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project recovered core from a 3.5 km deep hole from the flank of Mauna Kea volcano, providing a long, essentially continuous record of the volcano's physical and petrologic development that has been used to infer the chemical and physical characteristics of the Hawaiian mantle plume. Determining a precise accumulation rate via 40Ar/39Ar dating of the shield-stage tholeiites, which constitute 95–98% of the volcano's volume is challenging. We applied40Ar/39Ar dating using laser- and furnace-heating in two laboratories (Berkeley and Curtin) to samples of two lava flows from deep in the core (∼3.3 km). All determinations yield concordant isochron ages, ranging from 612 ± 159 to 871 ± 302 ka (2σ; with P ≥ 0.90). The combined data yield an age of 681 ± 120 ka (P = 0.77) for pillow lavas near the bottom of the core. This new age, when regressed with 40Ar/39Ar isochron ages previously obtained for tholeiites higher in the core, defines a constant accumulation rate of 8.4 ± 2.6 m/ka that can be used to interpolate the ages of the tholeiites in the HSDP core with a mean uncertainty of about ±83 ka. For example at ∼3300 mbsl, the age of 664 ± 83 ka estimated from the regression diverges at the 95% confidence level from the age of 550 ka obtained from the numerical model of DePaolo and Stolper (1996). The new data have implications for the timescale of the growth of Hawaiian volcanoes, the paleomagnetic record in the core, and the dynamics of the Hawaiian mantle plume.

Refined age estimates and Paleoanthropological investigation of the Manyara Beds, Tanzania.

Abstract: The Manyara Beds in the area of Makuyuni Village in the Lake Manyara Basin, Tanzania have been studied for nearly a century, but interpretations of their age have ranged from Middle Pleistocene to Late Pliocene. New geological, paleontological and archeological fieldwork was conducted at the site and has provided siginificant new evidence, including refined stratigraphy, radiometric age estimates, preliminary paleomagnetic analysis, significant new faunal collections, as well as stratigraphic context for some of the lithic artifacts in stratigraphic context. These efforts have succesfully constrained the geological age estimates for the Manyara Beds to between less than 0.63 to 1.3 Ma, and the age of the two hominin bearing localities to between 0.63 and 0.78 Ma. This new chronology may impact the taxonomic interpretation of the hominin remains recovered from the site. They also suggest that two mammalian taxa, Metridiochoerus compactus and Eurygnathohippus, may have some of their youngest known occurences in the Manyara Beds. Acheulean lithics were also found in stratigraphic context during this more narrow time interval. Furthermore, the presence of potential cut-marks on the surface of a bovid mandible may represent the first evidence for human modification of bones from the Manyara Beds.

Direct U-Pb dating of Cretaceous and Paleocene dinosaur bones, San Juan Basin, New Mexico: COMMENT

Abstract: [Fassett et al. (2011][1], herein) analyzed fossil bone fragments from the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and claim to have achieved the “first successful direct dating of fossil vertebrate bone” (p. 159). This claim is asserted to establish the survival of dinosaurs into the Paleogene, thus

from the Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project, Mauna Kea volcano, Hawaii

Abstract: [1] The Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project recovered core from a 3.5 km deep hole from the flank of Mauna Kea volcano, providing a long, essentially continuous record of the volcano's physical and petrologic development that has been used to infer the chemical and physical characteristics of the Hawaiian mantle plume. Determining a precise accumulation rate via 40Ar/39Ar dating of the shield-stage tholeiites, which constitute 95–98% of the volcano's volume is challenging. We applied40Ar/39Ar dating using laser- and furnace-heating in two laboratories (Berkeley and Curtin) to samples of two lava flows from deep in the core (∼3.3 km). All determinations yield concordant isochron ages, ranging from 612 ± 159 to 871 ± 302 ka (2σ; with P ≥ 0.90). The combined data yield an age of 681 ± 120 ka (P = 0.77) for pillow lavas near the bottom of the core. This new age, when regressed with 40Ar/39Ar isochron ages previously obtained for tholeiites higher in the core, defines a constant accumulation rate of 8.4 ± 2.6 m/ka that can be used to interpolate the ages of the tholeiites in the HSDP core with a mean uncertainty of about ±83 ka. For example at ∼3300 mbsl, the age of 664 ± 83 ka estimated from the regression diverges at the 95% confidence level from the age of 550 ka obtained from the numerical model of DePaolo and Stolper (1996). The new data have implications for the timescale of the growth of Hawaiian volcanoes, the paleomagnetic record in the core, and the dynamics of the Hawaiian mantle plume.

Geoscience: Fossil raindrops and ancient air

Abstract: An analysis of fossil imprints of ancient raindrops suggests that the density of the atmosphere 2.7 billion years ago was much the same as that today. This result casts fresh light on a long-standing palaeoclimate paradox. See Letter p.359 About 2.7 billion years ago, towards the end of the Archaean period, a rain shower left its mark on ash deposits from a volcanic eruption in what is now the South African veldt. As the ash hardened to form tuff rock, the crater-like imprints of the individual raindrops were fossilized. An analysis of these imprints, aided by comparison with similar prints formed during the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull eruption in Iceland, suggests that air density during the Archaean was no more than twice modern levels. At that time, the Sun was dimmer than it is today, but the climate was warm. Most theories to explain this 'Faint Young Sun' paradox have assumed that the atmosphere was denser in the Archaean than it is now, and that the greenhouse effect was stronger, but this latest work seems to rule out higher carbon dioxide levels; nitrogen-pressure broadening remains unlikely, but possible.

Timing of Emeishan magmatic activity and implications for the end-Middle Permian biotic crisis

Abstract: Evidence from high-resolution geochronology combined with fossil records and proxies for changes in the paleoenvironment suggest that there is a link between large-scale (but short-term) volcanic events and mass extinctions. Synchroneity has been shown between large-scale volcanic events and three of the five most severe mass extinctions: the end-Permian extinction (P-T) coincides with Siberian Traps LIP; the end-Triassic extinction (Tr-J) with Central Atlantic Magmatic Province; and the end-Cretaceous (K-P) with the Deccan Traps LIP. Recent studies also show that the magnitude of the extinction is not a simple function of the size (volume) of the igneous event; rather, the eruption rate and nature of the host rock that is intruded exert important controls on the rate and magnitude of the release of gases that affect climate and ocean chemistry. Consequently, high-resolution geochronological constraints on LIP volcanism, biotic extinctions, and climatic change are essential to understanding the role of magmatism in these evolutionary catastrophes.