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The Adamello intrusive suite is a composite batholith in Northern Italy, with an estimated 2000 km3 volume, assembled incrementally over a time span of 10 to 12 million years. The history of crystallization has been studied in detail through laser ablation ICP-MS and SIMS U–Pb geochronology of zircon, which records prolonged crystallization of each of the different intrusive units at mid-crustal levels between 43·47 and 33·16 Ma. The magmas were episodically extracted from this storage area and ascended to the final intrusion level at ∼6 km paleo-depth. Each batch of melt cooled very rapidly down to the ambient temperature of 250°C, evidenced by distinct cooling paths recorded by amphibole, biotite and K-feldspar 40Ar/39Ar dates. The magma source area was moving from SW to NE with time, causing increasing thermal maturity in the mid-crustal reservoir. The resulting temporal trend of higher degrees of crustal assimiliation in the course of the evolution of the magmatic system can be traced through Hf and O isotopes in zircon. Rough estimates of magma emplacement rates (‘magma flux’) yield very low values in the range of 10-4 km3/yr, typical of mid-to-upper crustal plutons and increase with time. Although we cannot discern a decrease of magma flux from our own data, we anticipate that a dramatic decrease of magma flux between 33 and 31 Ma along the northern contact lead to cessation of magma emplacement. ISSN:0022-3530 ISSN:1460-2415

Tracing the origin and evolution of magmas on their pathway through the lithosphere is key to understanding the magmatic processes that eventually produce eruptions. For ancient magmatic provinces, isotope-geochemical tracers are powerful tools to probe the source regions and magma-crust interaction during ascent and storage. Here we present hafnium isotopic compositions of ID-TIMS dated zircons to trace the evolution of the Middle Triassic magmatic province in the Southern Alps (northern Italy) at high temporal resolution. Systematic changes in hafnium isotopic composition with time record progressively stronger crustal assimilation over 3.5 million years, followed by a rapid increase in eHf towards more juvenile compositions for the major pulse of mafic intrusions and post-intrusive volcanic ash beds within one million years. We interpret these trends to reflect variations in mantle-crust interaction through time. Initial intrusions of basaltic dykes into the relatively cold lower crust cause only limited crustal melting and assimilation but an ensuing magma injection into progressively hotter crust results in more extensive partial melting and assimilation of crustal material. Subsequent intrusions into the magmatic lower-crustal roots cannibalize previous intrusions with progressively less isotopic contrast due to dilution with mantle-derived magmas. This is potentially accompanied by an increase in magma flux due to delamination of dense lower crustal cumulates into the subcontinental lithospheric mantle. The observed trends in hafnium isotopic composition therefore do not necessarily require tectonic re-organizations or changes in mantle sources. Instead these trends may trace variations in mantle-crust interaction during thermally induced chemical maturation of the lower crustal magmatic roots progressively replacing ancient pelitic to mafic lower crustal lithologies by juvenile cumulates.

Geochemical, structural, field, and geochronological data have been used to arrive at very different models for the construction of upper crustal batholiths. Models for pulsed intrusion of small magma batches over long timescales (>1 Ma) versus transfer of larger magma bodies on shorter timescales predict a different thermal, metamorphic, and rheological state of the crust, highlighting the importance of robust time constraints. This study focuses on a well-characterized upper crustal intrusion, the 15 km2 Lago della Vacca complex (LVC), Adamello batholith, N. Italy. Previous studies used structural and petrologic data to argue that the LVC was emplaced through pulsed magma injection and in situ expansion (or, ballooning) of a short lived (∼ 105 yr) magma chamber. We test this model using a dense sampling strategy and high-precision ID-TIMS U-Pb geochronology of zircon and titanite combined with hafnium isotope and trace element analyses of the same volume of dated mineral (U-Pb TIMS-TEA). These data show that the marginal mafic pulses of magma crystallized zircon with primitive Hf isotopes and negligible Eu anomalies during fractional crystallization and ascent through the crust on 10-30 ka timescales. Subsequent, more felsic pulses yield individual zircon dates spanning as much as 200 ka within single handsamples and restrict the total construction time of the LVC to

New magnetostratigraphic data for the ~470-m-thick Latemar carbonate platform, which includes ~600 shallowing-upward bedding cycles, are consistent with litho- and biostratigraphic correlations of the section to a ~10-m-thick interval in the basinal Buchenstein Beds that most likely represents only ~1 m.y. of deposition according to published U–Pb single-crystal zircon dates. A reappraisal of reported cycle stratigraphic analyses of the Latemar suggests that the visibly obvious meter-scale bedding is not due to Milankovitch precessional forcing but rather reflects tempos an order of magnitude faster that may involve millennial-scale tidal amplitude variations. D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The pre-drift Wegenerian model of Pangea is almost universally accepted, but debate exists on its pre-Jurassic configuration since TedIrving introd ucedPangea ‘B’ by placing Gond wana farther to the east by V3000 km with respect to Laurasia on the basis of paleomagnetic data. New paleomagnetic data from radiometrically dated Early Permian volcanic rocks from parts of Adria that are tectonically coherent with Africa (Gondwana), integrated with published coeval data from Gondwana and Laurasia, again only from igneous rocks, fully support a Pangea ‘B’ configuration in the Early Permian. The use of paleomagnetic data strictly from igneous rocks excludes artifacts from sedimentary inclination error as a contributing explanation for Pangea ‘B’. The ultimate option to reject Pangea ‘B’ is to abandon the geocentric axial dipole hypothesis by introducing a significant non-dipole (zonal octupole) component in the Late Paleozoic time-averaged geomagnetic field. We demonstrate, however, by using a dataset consisting entirely of paleomagnetic directions with low inclinations from sampling sites confined to one hemisphere from Gondwana as well as Laurasia that the effects of a zonal octupole field contribution would not explain away the paleomagnetic evidence for Pangea ‘B’ in the Early Permian. We therefore regard the paleomagnetic evidence for an Early Permian Pangea ‘B’ as robust. The transformation from Pangea ‘B’ to Pangea ‘A’ took place during the Permian because Late Permian paleomagnetic data allow a Pangea ‘A’ configuration. We therefore review geological evidence from the literature in support of an intra-Pangea dextral megashear system. The transformation occurred after the cooling of the Variscan mega-suture andlasted V20 Myr. In this interval, the Neotethys Ocean opened between India/Arabia and the Cimmerian microcontinents in the east, while widespread lithospheric wrenching and magmatism took place in the west around the Adriatic promontory. The general distribution of plate boundaries and resulting driving forces are qualitatively consistent with a right-lateral shear couple between Gondwana and Laurasia during the Permian. Transcurrent plate boundaries associated with the Pangea transformation reactivated Variscan shear zones andwere subsequently exploitedby the opening of western Neotethyan seaways in the Jurassic.

Magnetostratigrapic and biostratigraphic data across the Anisian/Ladinian (Middle Triassic) boundary were obtained from the Frotschbach/Seceda section from the Dolomites region of northern Italy, and the Vlichos section from the Greek island of Hydra, where the Aghia Triada published section was also resampled. The Frotschbach/Seceda section includes two radiometrically dated (U Pb) tuff levels and covers two of the three chief candidates for the position of the base of the Ladinian, namely at the base of the Secedensis Zone or the subsequent Curionii Zone. The Aghia Triada section yields biochronological evidence for the base of the Secedensis Zone, whose significance is, however, critically discussed in the light of the magnetostratigraphic correlation with Frotschbach/Seceda. The Vlichos section can be correlated with Aghia Triada and Frotschbach/Seceda by means of magnetic polarity stratigraphy and sparse fossil occurrences. The satisfactory correlation of the magnetozones allows us to construct a composite geomagnetic polarity sequence tied to Tethyan ammonoid and conodont biostratigraphy for about a 2.4 Myr interval across the Anisian/Ladinian boundary.

We report high-resolution single-zircon UPb age data for Middle Triassic volcaniclastic intercalations in biostratigraphically calibrated pelagic successions of the Southern Alps. The results require a redefinition of the chronometric scale for the Middle Triassic. Moreover, they do not support current models relating cyclic sedimentation in platform carbonates of the Dolomites to orbital tuning. Tight concordant age clusters were obtained for five volcaniclastic layers in three ammonoid biozones of late Anisian to early Ladinian age. Two layers in the (Nevadites) Secedensis Zone yielded identical mean 206 Pb 238 U ages of 241.2 + 0.8/−0.8 Ma and 241.2 + 0.8/−0.6 Ma (errors given at the 95% confidence level). A layer in the Gredleri Zone is dated at 238.8 + 0.5/−0.2 Ma, and two horizons in the Archelaus Zone yield similar ages of 237.9 + 1.0/−0.7 Ma and 238.0 + 0.4/−0.7 Ma. These results are significantly older than the age values of 233–235 Ma assigned to the Anisian/Ladinian boundary by several current time scales [1–4]. Moreover, our estimate of 240.7–241.3 Ma (depending on biostratigraphic collocation) for the Anisian/Ladinian boundary casts doubts on the reliability of age values of 245–250 Ma proposed by most time scales for the Permian/Triassic boundary. The occurrence of pelagic fossils in basinal sediments as well as in age-equivalent shallow marine Middle Triassic platform carbonates in the Dolomites allows the sedimentary sequences of both environments to be correlated. The 800 m thick Latemar platform (western Dolomites) is characterized by cyclic stacking patterns, which have been interpreted as results of Milankovitch-type high-frequency/low-amplitude sea-level fluctuations. The 12 m.y. interval of platform growth postulated from the assignment of orbital periodicities to the platform carbonate cycles [5,6] is in conflict with a maximum time span of 4.7 m.y. allowed by the present zircon data.

Three methods of estimating H20 contents of geologic glasses are compared: (1) ion microprobe analysis (secondary ion mass spectrometry), (2) Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR), and (3) electron microprobe analysis using the Na decay-curve method. Each analytical method has its own advantages under certain conditions, depending on the relative importance of analytical accuracy, precision, sensitivity, spatial resolution, and convenience, and each is capable of providing reasonably accurate estimates of the H20, or total volatile, content of geologicglasses.The accuracy of ion microprobe analyses depends critically on the availability of well-characterized hydrous standard glasses. Precision is often better than 0,2 wt% (10). The method provides good spatial resolution (-15 #m) and the capability to determine simultaneously the abundance of other volatile species of interest (e.g., F, B). FTIR spectroscopy provides excellent analytical sensitivity (-10 ppm), accuracy and precision «0.1 wt%),and the capability to determine the abundance of H20 and C02 species (H20, OH-, C02' eOj-) in analyzed glasses, although the spatial resolution (> 25-35 #m) is not as good as that of the ion microprobe. The main advantages of the estimation of H20 contents of hydrous glasses using the electron microprobe are excellent spatial resolution (- 10 #m) and analytical convenience. The disadvantages are that accuracy and precision (>0.5 wt%) are not as good as those associated with the other methods, but, for certain applications, these uncertainties may be acceptable for the estimation of H20 contents of H20-rich (> 1 wt%) samples.

a Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Universita' di Milano, via Mangiagalli 34, 20133 Milan, Italy b Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA c Department of Geological Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA d Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche e Geotecnologie, Universita' di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 4, 20126 Milan, Italy e Departement Erdwissenschaften, ETH-Zentrum, CH-8092 Zu«rich, Switzerland f Department of Earth Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark