Proximal ejecta of the Bolaven extraterrestrial impact, southern Laos.

Sediments in southern Laos and eastern Thailand confirm that the Australasian tektite strewn field came from an extraterrestrial impact crater on the Bolaven Plateau of southern Laos. The principal evidence is the Bolaven diamicton, a pebbly to bouldery breccia that is thickest and coarsest on the plateau. Tektites, the melted target material strewn widely by the forces of the impact 789.0 ± 1.8 ka ago, lie either within the uppermost part of the diamicton or atop it. On the flanks of the plateau, the basal diamicton often contains clasts from preimpact lavas and gravels and sometimes mantles broken Mesozoic bedrock. Locally, its upper portions contain unweathered boulders of basalt or sandstone. Its sharp upper contact with a thick sandy silt implies that the two beds formed in rapid succession. These characteristics of the Bolaven diamicton show that it resulted primarily from the excavation, comminution, and launch of sandstone and weathered basaltic lavas from a crater on the Bolaven Plateau, and entrained other materials while in transit.

Transient rhyolite melt extraction to produce a shallow granitic pluton.

Rhyolitic melt that fuels explosive eruptions often originates in the upper crust via extraction from crystal-rich sources, implying an evolutionary link between volcanism and residual plutonism. However, the time scales over which these systems evolve are mainly understood through erupted deposits, limiting confirmation of this connection. Exhumed plutons that preserve a record of high-silica melt segregation provide a critical subvolcanic perspective on rhyolite generation, permitting comparison between time scales of long-term assembly and transient melt extraction events. Here, U-Pb zircon petrochronology and 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology constrain silicic melt segregation and residual cumulate formation in a ~7 to 6 Ma, shallow (3 to 7 km depth) Andean pluton. Thermo-petrological simulations linked to a zircon saturation model map spatiotemporal melt flux distributions. Our findings suggest that ~50 km3 of rhyolitic melt was extracted in ~130 ka, transient pluton assembly that indicates the thermal viability of advanced magma differentiation in the upper crust.

Australasian impact crater buried under the Bolaven volcanic field, Southern Laos.

The crater and proximal effects of the largest known young meteorite impact on Earth have eluded discovery for nearly a century. We present 4 lines of evidence that the 0.79-Ma impact crater of the Australasian tektites lies buried beneath lavas of a long-lived, 910-km3 volcanic field in Southern Laos: 1) Tektite geochemistry implies the presence of young, weathered basalts at the site at the time of the impact. 2) Geologic mapping and 40Ar-39Ar dates confirm that both pre- and postimpact basaltic lavas exist at the proposed impact site and that postimpact basalts wholly cover it. 3) A gravity anomaly there may also reflect the presence of a buried ∼17 × 13-km crater. 4) The nature of an outcrop of thick, crudely layered, bouldery sandstone and mudstone breccia 10-20 km from the center of the impact and fractured quartz grains within its boulder clasts support its being part of the proximal ejecta blanket.

Synchronizing volcanic, sedimentary, and ice core records of Earth's last magnetic polarity reversal.

Reversal of Earth's magnetic field polarity every 105 to 106 years is among the most far-reaching, yet enigmatic, geophysical phenomena. The short duration of reversals make precise temporal records of past magnetic field behavior paramount to understanding the processes that produce them. We correlate new 40Ar/39Ar dates from transitionally magnetized lava flows to astronomically dated sediment and ice records to map the evolution of Earth's last reversal. The final 180° polarity reversal at ~773 ka culminates a complex process beginning at ~795 ka with weakening of the field, succeeded by increased field intensity manifested in sediments and ice, and then by an excursion and weakening of intensity at ~784 ka that heralds a >10 ka period wherein sediments record highly variable directions. The 22 ka evolution of this reversal suggested by our findings is mirrored by a numerical geodynamo simulation that may capture much of the naturally observed reversal process.

Geomorphic expression of rapid Holocene silicic magma reservoir growth beneath Laguna del Maule, Chile.

Large rhyolitic volcanoes pose a hazard, yet the processes and signals foretelling an eruption are obscure. Satellite geodesy has revealed surface inflation signaling unrest within magma reservoirs underlying a few rhyolitic volcanoes. Although seismic, electrical, and potential field methods may illuminate the current configuration and state of these reservoirs, they cannot fully address the processes by which they grow and evolve on geologic time scales. We combine measurement of a deformed paleoshore surface, isotopic dating of volcanism and surface exposure, and modeling to determine the rate of growth of a rhyolite-producing magma reservoir. The numerical approach builds on a magma intrusion model developed to explain the current, decade-long, surface inflation at >20 cm/year. Assuming that the observed 62-m uplift reflects several non-eruptive intrusions of magma, each similar to the unrest over the past decade, we find that ~13 km3 of magma recharged the reservoir at a depth of ~7 km during the Holocene, accompanied by the eruption of ~9 km3 of rhyolite. The long-term rate of magma input is consistent with reservoir freezing and pluton formation. Yet, the unique set of observations considered here implies that large reservoirs can be incubated and grow at shallow depth via episodic high-flux magma injections. These replenishment episodes likely drive rapid inflation, destabilize cooling systems, propel rhyolitic eruptions, and thus should be carefully monitored.

Incremental heating of Bishop Tuff sanidine reveals preeruptive radiogenic Ar and rapid remobilization from cold storage.

Accurate and precise ages of large silicic eruptions are critical to calibrating the geologic timescale and gauging the tempo of changes in climate, biologic evolution, and magmatic processes throughout Earth history. The conventional approach to dating these eruptive products using the 40Ar/39Ar method is to fuse dozens of individual feldspar crystals. However, dispersion of fusion dates is common and interpretation is complicated by increasingly precise data obtained via multicollector mass spectrometry. Incremental heating of 49 individual Bishop Tuff (BT) sanidine crystals produces 40Ar/39Ar dates with reduced dispersion, yet we find a 16-ky range of plateau dates that is not attributable to excess Ar. We interpret this dispersion to reflect cooling of the magma reservoir margins below ∼475 °C, accumulation of radiogenic Ar, and rapid preeruption remobilization. Accordingly, these data elucidate the recycling of subsolidus material into voluminous rhyolite magma reservoirs and the effect of preeruptive magmatic processes on the 40Ar/39Ar system. The youngest sanidine dates, likely the most representative of the BT eruption age, yield a weighted mean of 764.8 ± 0.3/0.6 ka (2σ analytical/full uncertainty) indicating eruption only ∼7 ky following the Matuyama-Brunhes magnetic polarity reversal. Single-crystal incremental heating provides leverage with which to interpret complex populations of 40Ar/39Ar sanidine and U-Pb zircon dates and a substantially improved capability to resolve the timing and causal relationship of events in the geologic record.

Magnetic source separation in Earth's outer core.

We present evidence that the source of Earth's axial dipole field is largely independent from the sources responsible for the rest of the geomagnetic field, the so-called nonaxial dipole (NAD) field. Support for this claim comes from correlations between the structure of the historic field and the behavior of the paleomagnetic field recorded in precisely dated lavas at those times when the axial dipole was especially weak or nearly absent. It is argued that a "stratification" of magnetic sources exists in the fluid core such that the axial dipole is the only observed field component that is nearly immune from the influence exerted by the lowermost mantle. It follows that subsequent work on spherical harmonic-based field descriptions may now incorporate an understanding of a dichotomy of spatial-temporal dynamo processes.

Patagonian glacier response during the late glacial-Holocene transition.

Whether cooling occurred in the Southern Hemisphere during the Younger Dryas (YD) is key to understanding mechanisms of millennial climate change. Although Southern Hemisphere records do not reveal a distinct climate reversal during the late glacial period, many mountain glaciers readvanced. We show that the Puerto Bandera moraine (50 degrees S), which records a readvance of the Southern Patagonian Icefield (SPI), formed at, or shortly after, the end of the YD. The exposure age (10.8 +/- 0.5 thousand years ago) is contemporaneous with the highest shoreline of Lago Cardiel (49 degrees S), which records peak precipitation east of the Andes since 13 thousand years ago. Absent similar moraines west of the Andes, these data indicate an SPI response to increased amounts of easterly-sourced precipitation-reflecting changes in the Southern Westerly circulation-rather than regional cooling.

Structural and temporal requirements for geomagnetic field reversal deduced from lava flows.

Reversals of the Earth's magnetic field reflect changes in the geodynamo--flow within the outer core--that generates the field. Constraining core processes or mantle properties that induce or modulate reversals requires knowing the timing and morphology of field changes that precede and accompany these reversals. But the short duration of transitional field states and fragmentary nature of even the best palaeomagnetic records make it difficult to provide a timeline for the reversal process. 40Ar/39Ar dating of lavas on Tahiti, long thought to record the primary part of the most recent 'Matuyama-Brunhes' reversal, gives an age of 795 +/- 7 kyr, indistinguishable from that of lavas in Chile and La Palma that record a transition in the Earth's magnetic field, but older than the accepted age for the reversal. Only the 'transitional' lavas on Maui and one from La Palma (dated at 776 +/- 2 kyr), agree with the astronomical age for the reversal. Here we propose that the older lavas record the onset of a geodynamo process, which only on occasion would result in polarity change. This initial instability, associated with the first of two decreases in field intensity, began approximately 18 kyr before the actual polarity switch. These data support the claim that complete reversals require a significant period for magnetic flux to escape from the solid inner core and sufficiently weaken its stabilizing effect.