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In this work, an approach of paleoclimate reconstruction for tropical East Africa is presented. After giving a short summary of modern climate conditions in the tropics and the East African climate peculiarity, the potential of reconstructing climate from paleolake sediments is discussed. As demonstrated, the hydrologic sensitivity of high-elevated closed-basin lakes in the Central Kenya Rift yields valuable guaranties for the establishment of long-term climate records. Temporal fluctuations of the limnological characteristics saved in the lake sediments are used to define variations in the Quaternary climate history. Based on diatom analyses in radiocarbon- and 40Ar/39Ar-dated sediments, a chronology of paleoecologic fluctuations is developed for the Central Kenya Rift -lakes Nakuru, Elmenteita and Naivasha. At least during the penultimate interglacial (around 140 to 60 kyr BP) and during the last interglacial (around 12 to 4 kyr BP), these lakes experienced several transgression-regression cycles on time intervals of about 11,000 years. Additionally, a long-term trend of lake evolution is found suggesting the general succession from deep freshwater lakes towards more saline waters during the last million years. Using ecologic transfer functions and a simple lake-balance model, the observed paleohydrologic fluctuations are linked to potential precipitation-evaporation changes in the lake basins. Though also tectonic influences on the drainage pattern and the effect of varied seepage are investigated, it can be shown that already a small increase in precipitation of about 30±10 % may have affected the hydrologic budget of the intra-rift lakes within the reconstructed range. The findings of this study help to assess the natural climate variability of East Africa. They furthermore reflect the sensitivity of the Central Kenya Rift -lakes to fluctuations of large-scale climate parameters, such as solar radiation and sea-surface temperatures of the Indian Ocean.
The Himalayan arc stretches >2500 km from east to west at the southern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, representing one of the most important Cenozoic continent-continent collisional orogens. Internal deformation processes and climatic factors, which drive weathering, denudation, and transport, influence the growth and erosion of the orogen. During glacial times wet-based glaciers sculpted the mountain range and left overdeepend and U-shaped valleys, which were backfilled during interglacial times with paraglacial sediments over several cycles. These sediments partially still remain within the valleys because of insufficient evacuation capabilities into the foreland. Climatic processes overlay long-term tectonic processes responsible for uplift and exhumation caused by convergence. Possible processes accommodating convergence within the orogenic wedge along the main Himalayan faults, which divide the range into four major lithologic units, are debated. In this context, the identification of processes shaping the Earth’s surface on short- and on long-term are crucial to understand the growth of the orogen and implications for landscape development in various sectors along the arc. This thesis focuses on both surface and tectonic processes that shape the landscape in the western Indian Himalaya since late Miocene.
In my first study, I dated well-preserved glacially polished bedrock on high-elevated ridges and valley walls in the upper of the Chandra Valley the by means of 10Be terrestrial cosmogenic radionuclides (TCN). I used these ages and mapped glacial features to reconstruct the extent and timing of Pleistocene glaciation at the southern front of the Himalaya. I was able to reconstruct an extensive valley glacier of ~200 km length and >1000 m thickness. Deglaciation of the Chandra Valley glacier started subsequently to insolation increase on the Northern Hemisphere and thus responded to temperature increase. I showed that the timing this deglaciation onset was coeval with retreat of further midlatitude glaciers on the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. These comparisons also showed that the post-LGM deglaciation very rapid, occurred within a few thousand years, and was nearly finished prior to the Bølling/Allerød interstadial.
A second study (co-authorship) investigates how glacial advances and retreats in high mountain environments impact the landscape. By 10Be TCN dating and geomorphic mapping, we obtained maximal length and height of the Siachen Glacier within the Nubra Valley. Today the Shyok and Nubra confluence is backfilled with sedimentary deposits, which are attributed to the valley blocking of the Siachen Glacier 900 m above the present day river level. A glacial dam of the Siachen Glacier blocked the Shyok River and lead to the evolution of a more than 20 km long lake. Fluvial and lacustrine deposits in the valley document alternating draining and filling cycles of the lake dammed by the Siachen Glacier. In this study, we can show that glacial incision was outpacing fluvial incision.
In the third study, which spans the million-year timescale, I focus on exhumation and erosion within the Chandra and Beas valleys. In this study the position and discussed possible reasons of rapidly exhuming rocks, several 100-km away from one of the main Himalayan faults (MFT) using Apatite Fission Track (AFT) thermochronometry. The newly gained AFT ages indicate rapid exhumation and confirm earlier studies in the Chandra Valley. I assume that the rapid exhumation is most likely related to uplift over subsurface structures. I tested this hypothesis by combining further low-temperature thermochronometers from areas east and west of my study area. By comparing two transects, each parallel to the Beas/Chandra Valley transect, I demonstrate similarities in the exhumation pattern to transects across the Sutlej region, and strong dissimilarities in the transect crossing the Dhauladar Range. I conclude that the belt of rapid exhumation terminates at the western end of the Kullu-Rampur window. Therewith, I corroborate earlier studies suggesting changes in exhumation behavior in the western Himalaya. Furthermore, I discussed several causes responsible for the pronounced change in exhumation patterns along strike: 1) the role of inherited pre-collisional features such as the Proterozoic sedimentary cover of the Indian basement, former ridges and geological structures, and 2) the variability of convergence rates along the Himalayan arc due to an increased oblique component towards the syntaxis.
The combination of field observations (geological and geomorphological mapping) and methods to constrain short- and long-term processes (10Be, AFT) help to understand the role of the individual contributors to exhumation and erosion in the western Indian Himalaya. With the results of this thesis, I emphasize the importance of glacial and tectonic processes in shaping the landscape by driving exhumation and erosion in the studied areas.
Unlike today’s prevailing terrestrial features, the geologic past of Central Asia witnessed marine environments and conditions as well. A vast, shallow sea, known as proto-Paratethys, extended across Eurasia from the Mediterranean Tethys to the Tarim Basin in western China during Cretaceous to Paleogene times. This sea formed about 160 million years ago (during Jurassic times) when the waters of the Tethys Ocean flooded into Eurasia. It drastically retreated to the west and became isolated as the Paratethys during the Late Eocene-Oligocene (ca. 34 Ma).
Having well-constrained timing and paleogeography for the Cretaceous-Paleogene proto-Paratethys sea incursions in Central Asia is essential to properly understand and distinguish the controlling mechanisms and their link to Asian paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic change. The Cretaceous-Paleogene tectonic evolution of the Pamir and Tibet and their far-field effects play a significant role on the sedimentological and structural evolution of the Central Asian basins and on the evolution of the proto-Paratethys sea fluctuations as well. Comparing the records of the sea incursions to the tectonic and eustatic events has paramount importance to reveal the controlling mechanisms behind the sea incursions. However, due to inaccuracies in the dating of rocks (mostly continental rocks and marine rocks with benthic microfossils providing low-resolution biostratigraphic constraints) and conflicting results, there has been no consensus on the timing of the sea incursions and interpretation of their records has been in question. Here, we present a new chronostratigraphic framework based on biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy as well as a detailed paleoenvironmental analysis for the Cretaceous and Paleogene proto-Paratethys Sea incursions in the Tajik and Tarim basins, in Central Asia. This enables us to identify the major drivers of marine fluctuations and their potential consequences on regional and global climate, particularly Asian aridification and the global carbon cycle perturbations such as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). To estimate the paleogeographic evolution of the proto-Paratethys Sea, the refined age constraints and detailed paleoenvironmental interpretations are combined with successive paleogeographic maps. Regional coastlines and depositional environments during the Cretaceous-Paleogene sea advances and retreats were drawn based on the results of this thesis and integrated with existing literature to generate new paleogeographic maps.
Before its final westward retreat in the Eocene, a total of six Cretaceous and Paleogene major sea incursions have been distinguished from the sedimentary records of the Tajik and Tarim basins in Central Asia. All have been studied and documented here.
We identify the presence of marine conditions already in the Early Cretaceous in the western Tajik Basin, followed by the Cenomanian (ca. 100 Ma) and Santonian (ca. 86 Ma) major marine incursions far into the eastern Tajik and Tarim basins separated by a Turonian-Coniacian (ca. 92-86 Ma) regression. Basin-wide tectonic subsidence analyses imply that the Early Cretaceous invasion of the sea into the Tajik Basin is related to increased Pamir tectonism (at ca. 130 – 90 Ma) in a retro-arc basin setting inferred to be linked to collision and subduction. This tectonic event mainly governed the Cenomanian (ca. 100 Ma) sea incursion in conjunction with a coeval global eustatic high resulting in the maximum geographic extent of the sea. The following Turonian-Coniacian (ca. 92-86 Ma) major regression, driven by eustasy, coincides with a sharp slowdown in tectonic subsidence related to a regime change in Pamir tectonism from compression to extension. The Santonian (ca. 86 Ma) major sea incursion was more likely controlled dominantly by eustasy as also evidenced by the coeval fluctuations in the west Siberian Basin. During the early Maastrichtian, the global Late Cretaceous cooling is inferred from the disappearance of mollusk-rich limestones and the dominance of bryozoan-rich and echinoderm-rich limestones in the Tajik Basin documenting the first evidence for the Late Cretaceous cooling event in Central Asia.
Following the last Cretaceous sea incursion, a major regional restriction event, marked by the exceptionally thick (≤ 400 m) shelf evaporites is assigned a Danian-Selandian age (ca. 63-59 Ma). This is followed by the largest recorded proto-Paratethys sea incursion with a transgression estimated as early Thanetian (ca. 59-57 Ma) and a regression within the Ypresian (ca. 53-52 Ma). The transgression of the next incursion is now constrained as early Lutetian (ca. 47-46 Ma), whereas its regression is constrained as late Lutetian (ca. 41 Ma) and is associated with a drastic increase in both tectonic subsidence and basin infilling. The age of the final and least pronounced sea incursion restricted to the westernmost margin of the Tarim Basin is assigned as Bartonian–Priabonian (ca. 39.7-36.7 Ma). We interpret the long-term westward retreat of the proto-Paratethys Sea starting at ca. 41 Ma to be associated with far-field tectonic effects of the Indo-Asia collision and Pamir/Tibetan plateau uplift. Short-term eustatic sea level transgressions are superimposed on this long-term regression and seem coeval with the transgression events in the other northern Peri-Tethyan sedimentary provinces for the 1st and 2nd Paleogene sea incursions. However, the last Paleogene sea incursion is interpreted as related to tectonism. The transgressive and regressive intervals of the proto-Paratethys Sea correlate well with the reported humid and arid phases, respectively in the Qaidam and Xining basins, thus demonstrating the role of the proto-Paratethys Sea as an important moisture source for the Asian interior and its regression as a contributor to Asian aridification.
We lastly study the mechanics, relative contribution and preservation efficiency of ancient epicontinental seas as carbon sinks with new and existing data, using organic rich (sapropel) deposits dated to the PETM from the extensive epicontinental proto-Paratethys and West Siberian seas. We estimate ca. 1390±230 Gt organic C burial, a substantial amount compared to previously estimated global total excess organic C burial (ca. 1700-2900 Gt) is focused in the proto-Paratethys and West Siberian seas alone. We also speculate that enhanced organic carbon burial later over much of the proto-Paratethys (and later Paratethys) basin (during the deposition of the Kuma Formation and Maikop series, repectively) may have majorly contributed to drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide before and during the EOT cooling and glaciation of Antarctica. For past periods with smaller epicontinental seas, the effectiveness of this negative carbon cycle feedback was arguably diminished, and the same likely applies to the present-day.
Inhalt:
Eberhard Knobloch: Der Briefwechsel zwischen Alexander von Humboldt und Charles Lyell: Ein Überblick
Alejandro Cheirif Wolosky: La recepción humboldtiana de Cristóbal Colón
Luiz Estevam O. Fernandes: Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain: Humboldt and the history of Mexico
Dominik Erdmann/Christian Thomas: „… zu den wunderlichsten Schlangen der Gelehrsasmkeit zusammengegliedert“. Neue Materialien zu den ‚Kosmos-Vorträgen‘ Alexander von Humboldts, nebst Vorüberlegungen zu deren digitaler Edition
Konstantin Treuber „Warum ich nicht Diorit-Trachyt sagen soll.“ – Ein geologischer Brief Gustav Roses an Alexander von Humboldt
Anja Werner: Alexander von Humboldt’s Footnotes: “Networks of Knowledge” in the Sources of the 1826 Essai politique sur l’île de Cuba
Peter Honigmann: Alexander von Humboldts Journale seiner russisch-sibirischen Reise 1829 [mit einer Einführung von Eberhard Knobloch]
Herbert Pieper zum 65. Geburtstag
Inhalt:
- Eberhard Knobloch: Herbert Pieper zum 65. Geburtstag. Ein Rückblick
- Bernd Kölbel, Martin Sauerwein, Katrin Sauerwein, Steffen Kölbel, Cathleen Buckow: Das Fragment des englischen Tagebuches von Alexander von Humboldt
- Ulrike Leitner: Humboldt, Cotta, Ritter. Eine Miszelle über die Arbeit an einer Edition
- Ingo Schwarz: "da ich mich lebhaft für sein Schiksal im Neuen Continent interessire". A. v. Humboldt als Förderer Oscar M. Liebers
- Christian Suckow: Humboldts spanische Option 1830. Eine Nachlese
- Petra Werner: Bemerkungen zu Alexander von Humboldts Russland-Tagebuch
- Herbert Pieper Alexander von Humboldts Wahl in die Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin
- Publikationen von Herbert Pieper [Bibliographie]
Quantitative thermodynamic and geochemical modeling is today applied in a variety of geological environments from the petrogenesis of igneous rocks to the oceanic realm. Thermodynamic calculations are used, for example, to get better insight into lithosphere dynamics, to constrain melting processes in crust and mantle as well as to study fluid-rock interaction. The development of thermodynamic databases and computer programs to calculate equilibrium phase diagrams have greatly advanced our ability to model geodynamic processes from subduction to orogenesis. However, a well-known problem is that despite its broad application the use and interpretation of thermodynamic models applied to natural rocks is far from straightforward. For example, chemical disequilibrium and/or unknown rock properties, such as fluid activities, complicate the application of equilibrium thermodynamics.
One major aspect of the publications presented in this Habilitationsschrift are new approaches to unravel dynamic and chemical histories of rocks that include applications to chemically open system behaviour. This approach is especially important in rocks that are affected by element fractionation due to fractional crystallisation and fluid loss during dehydration reactions. Furthermore, chemically open system behaviour has also to be considered for studying fluid-rock interaction processes and for extracting information from compositionally zoned metamorphic minerals. In this Habilitationsschrift several publications are presented where I incorporate such open system behaviour in the forward models by incrementing the calculations and considering changing reacting rock compositions during metamorphism. I apply thermodynamic forward modelling incorporating the effects of element fractionation in a variety of geodynamic and geochemical applications in order to better understand lithosphere dynamics and mass transfer in solid rocks.
In three of the presented publications I combine thermodynamic forward models with trace element calculations in order to enlarge the application of geochemical numerical forward modeling. In these publications a combination of thermodynamic and trace element forward modeling is used to study and quantify processes in metamorphic petrology at spatial scales from µm to km. In the thermodynamic forward models I utilize Gibbs energy minimization to quantify mineralogical changes along a reaction path of a chemically open fluid/rock system. These results are combined with mass balanced trace element calculations to determine the trace element distribution between rock and melt/fluid during the metamorphic evolution. Thus, effects of mineral reactions, fluid-rock interaction and element transport in metamorphic rocks on the trace element and isotopic composition of minerals, rocks and percolating fluids or melts can be predicted.
One of the included publications shows that trace element growth zonations in metamorphic garnet porphyroblasts can be used to get crucial information about the reaction path of the investigated sample. In order to interpret the major and trace element distribution and zoning patterns in terms of the reaction history of the samples, we combined thermodynamic forward models with mass-balance rare earth element calculations. Such combined thermodynamic and mass-balance calculations of the rare earth element distribution among the modelled stable phases yielded characteristic zonation patterns in garnet that closely resemble those in the natural samples. We can show in that paper that garnet growth and trace element incorporation occurred in near thermodynamic equilibrium with matrix phases during subduction and that the rare earth element patterns in garnet exhibit distinct enrichment zones that fingerprint the minerals involved in the garnet-forming reactions.
In two of the presented publications I illustrate the capacities of combined thermodynamic-geochemical modeling based on examples relevant to mass transfer in subduction zones. The first example focuses on fluid-rock interaction in and around a blueschist-facies shear zone in felsic gneisses, where fluid-induced mineral reactions and their effects on boron (B) concentrations and isotopic compositions in white mica are modeled. In the second example, fluid release from a subducted slab and associated transport of B and variations in B concentrations and isotopic compositions in liberated fluids and residual rocks are modeled. I show that, combined with experimental data on elemental partitioning and isotopic fractionation, thermodynamic forward modeling unfolds enormous capacities that are far from exhausted.
In my publications presented in this Habilitationsschrift I compare the modeled results to geochemical data of natural minerals and rocks and demonstrate that the combination of thermodynamic and geochemical models enables quantification of metamorphic processes and insights into element cycling that would have been unattainable so far.
Thus, the contributions to the science community presented in this Habilitatonsschrift concern the fields of petrology, geochemistry, geochronology but also ore geology that all use thermodynamic and geochemical models to solve various problems related to geo-materials.
The Prussian geologist Leopold von Buch was a lifelong friend of Alexander von Humboldt and had a significant influence on Humboldt’s geological ideas. In a talk, held in Berlin in 1831, which is published here for the first time, von Buch presented the Duria Antiquior of 1830 by the English geologist Henry De La Beche. The Duria Antiquior is widely regarded as the earliest depiction of a scene of prehistoric life from deep time. The print raised new questions about the processes of geohistorical change. The talk reveals that Leopold von Buch was a true scientist of the Romantic Age. His descriptions of geohistorical organismic transformations are taken from pictorial examples of organismic transformation from the classical literature. The talk also illustrates how influential English geologists were for geo-historical reconstructions in Germany.
Inhalt: Kröger, Björn: Remarks on a scene, depicting the primeval world. A talk given by Leopold von Buch in 1831, popularizing the Duria antiquior Roussanova, Elena: Hermann Trautschold und die Ehrung Alexander von Humboldts in Russland Schmuck, Thomas: Tod in den Anden. Ein Brief Francis Halls an Humboldt 1831 und seine historischen und politischen Hintergründe Schnoepf, Markus: Evaluationskriterien für digitale Editionen und die reale Welt Thiemer-Sachse, Ursula: „Wir verbrachten mehr als 24 Stunden, ohne etwas anderes als Schokolade und Limonade zu uns zu nehmen“. Hinweise in Alexander von Humboldts Tagebuchaufzeichnungen zu Fragen der Verpflegung auf der Forschungsreise durch Spanisch-Amerika Schwarz, Ingo: Hanno Beck zum 90. Geburtstag Beck, Hanno: Das literarische Testament Alexander von Humboldts 1799
Inhalt:
- Kristian Köchy: Das Ganze der Natur – Alexander von Humboldt und das romantische Forschungsprogramm
- Gerhard Kortum: „Alexander von Humboldt“ als Name für Forschungsschiffe vor dem Hintergrund seiner meereskundlichen Arbeiten
- Ulrike Leitner: „Anciennes folies neptuniennes!“ Über das wiedergefundene „Journal du Mexique à Veracruz“ aus den mexikanischen Reisetagebüchern A. v. Humboldts
- Oliver Lubrich: „Egipcios por doquier“. Alejandro de Humboldt y su visión ‘orientalista’ de América
- Jose Alberto Navas Sierra: Humboldt y el ‘Área de Libre Comercio de las Américas (ALCA)’ – Un ejercicio de ‘ciencia humboldtiana
- Miguel Ángel Puig-Samper und Sandra Rebok: Un sabio en la meseta. El viaje de Alejandro de Humboldt a España en 1799
- Ingo Schwarz: Nachruf – Zur Erinnerung an Kurt-R. Biermann
Mountain ranges can fundamentally influence the physical and and chemical processes that shape Earths’ surface. With elevations of up to several kilometers they create climatic enclaves by interacting with atmospheric circulation and hydrologic systems, thus leading to a specific distribution of flora and fauna. As a result, the interiors of many Cenozoic mountain ranges are characterized by an arid climate, internally drained and sediment-filled basins, as well as unique ecosystems that are isolated from the adjacent humid, low-elevation regions along their flanks and forelands. These high-altitude interiors of orogens are often characterized by low relief and coalesced sedimentary basins, commonly referred to as plateaus, tectono-geomorphic entities that result from the complex interactions between mantle-driven geological and tectonic conditions and superposed atmospheric and hydrological processes. The efficiency of these processes and the fate of orogenic plateaus is therefore closely tied to the balance of constructive and destructive processes – tectonic uplift and erosion, respectively. In numerous geological studies it has been shown that mountain ranges are delicate systems that can be obliterated by an imbalance of these underlying forces. As such, Cenozoic mountain ranges might not persist on long geological timescales and will be destroyed by erosion or tectonic collapse. Advancing headward erosion of river systems that drain the flanks of the orogen may ultimately sever the internal drainage conditions and the maintenance of storage of sediments within the plateau, leading to destruction of plateau morphology and connectivity with the foreland. Orogenic collapse may be associated with the changeover from a compressional stress field with regional shortening and topographic growth, to a tensional stress field with regional extensional deformation and ensuing incision of the plateau. While the latter case is well-expressed by active extensional faults in the interior parts of the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalaya, for example, the former has been attributed to have breached the internally drained areas of the high-elevation sectors of the Iranian Plateau.
In the case of the Andes of South America and their internally drained Altiplano-Puna Plateau, signs of both processes have been previously described. However, in the orogenic collapse scenario the nature of the extensional structures had been primarily investigated in the northern and southern terminations of the plateau; in some cases, the extensional faults were even regarded to be inactive. After a shallow earthquake in 2020 within the Eastern Cordillera of Argentina that was associated with extensional deformation, the state of active deformation and the character of the stress field in the central parts of the plateau received renewed interest to explain a series of extensional structures in the northernmost sectors of the plateau in north-western Argentina. This study addresses (1) the issue of tectonic orogenic collapse of the Andes and the destruction of plateau morphology by studying the fill and erosion history of the central eastern Andean Plateau using sedimentological and geochronological data and (2) the kinematics, timing and magnitude of extensional structures that form well-expressed fault scarps in sediments of the regional San Juan del Oro surface, which is an integral part of the Andean Plateau and adjacent morphotectonic provinces to the east.
Importantly, sediment properties and depositional ages document that the San Juan del Oro Surface was not part of the internally-drained Andean Plateau, but rather associated with a foreland-directed drainage system, which was modified by the Andean orogeny and that became successively incorporated into the orogen by the eastward-migration of the Andean deformation front during late Miocene – Pliocene time. Structural and geomorphic observations within the plateau indicate that extensional processes must have been repeatedly active between the late Miocene and Holocene supporting the notion of plateau-wide extensional processes, potentially associated with Mw ~ 7 earthquakes. The close relationship between extensional joints and fault orientations underscores that 3 was oriented horizontally in NW-SE direction and 1 was vertical. This unambiguously documents that the observed deformation is related to gravitational forces that drive the orogenic collapse of the plateau. Applied geochronological analyses suggest that normal faulting in the northern Puna was active at about 3 Ma, based on paired cosmogenic nuclide dating of sediment fill units. Possibly due to regional normal faulting the drainage system within the plateau was modified, promoting fluvial incision.