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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Contrasting Silicic Magma Series In Miocene-Pliocene Ash Deposits In The San Miguel De Allende Graben, Guanajuato, Mexico, Eric Christiansen, Bart Kowallis, Aaron Adams, Oscar Carranza-Castaneda, Wade Miller Jul 2015

Contrasting Silicic Magma Series In Miocene-Pliocene Ash Deposits In The San Miguel De Allende Graben, Guanajuato, Mexico, Eric Christiansen, Bart Kowallis, Aaron Adams, Oscar Carranza-Castaneda, Wade Miller

Bart J Kowallis

The San Miguel de Allende graben, Guanajuato, Mexico, contains numerous rhyolitic volcanic ash beds. Electron microprobe and x-ray fluorescence analyses of glass shards from 14 localities, combined with mineralogic, stratigraphic, radiometric, and paleomagnetic data, allow us to correlate the ash beds (and the intervening sedimentary strata and fossils), understand the timing of volcanism, date the age of extension, and better understand the tectonic and volcanic evolution of central Mexico. Our analyses reveal that at least six separate eruptions of rhyolitic ash occurred during the Late Miocene and Pliocene (5-3 Ma) while the San Miguel Allende basin was subsiding. The fallout …


Trace Element Variations In A Stalagmite From Southwest Mexico: Implications For Paleoclimate, Chad Michael Crotty May 2015

Trace Element Variations In A Stalagmite From Southwest Mexico: Implications For Paleoclimate, Chad Michael Crotty

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The combination of stable isotope and trace element concentrations in speleothems has been shown to be a valuable indicator for interpreting paleoclimatic conditions. Anomalous spikes in trace element concentrations have also been shown to indicate anthropogenic environmental changes to the surface, such as deforestation events. In this study, trace element concentrations (24Mg, 25Mg, 84Sr, 88Sr, 137Ba, and 238U) of a stalagmite (JX-6) from Juxtlahuaca Cave, in southwestern Mexico, were measured using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). These trace element concentrations were compared to previously analyzed δ18O and δ13C values from JX-6, and to the results of previous studies …