EVENT STRATIGRAPHY AND CORRELATION PROBLEMS OF THE ORDOVICIAN STRATA OF GORNY ALTAI AND SALAIR

Study of the Ordovician sedimentary sequences of Gorny Altai and Salair has revealed lithological and paleontological features correlating with global sedimentary events:(1) The Acerocare Regressive Event (an initial event in the Early Tremadocian);(2) Black Mountain Transgressive Event (Early Tremadocian);(3) Peltocare Regressive Event (Tremadocian);(4) Kelly Creek Regressive Event (Late Tremadocian);(5) Ceratopyge Regressive Event (Late Tremadocian);(6) Billingen Transgressive Event (Early Floian);(7) Stein Lowstand Event (Middle Darriwilian);(8) Vollen Lowstand Event (Sandbian);(9) Arestad Drowning Event (Middle Sandbian);(10) Frognerkilen Lowstand Event (Early Katian);(11) Linearis Drowning Events 1 and 2 (Middle Katian);(12) Terminal Husbergoya Lowstand Event (Hirnantian); and(13) Hirnantian Lowstand Event (HICE) (Late Ordovician).The chronostratigraphic levels with traces of the global sedimentary events in the Uymen-Lebed structural-facies zone (SFZ) (Gorny Altai) differ from those in the Charysh-Inya and Anui-Chuya SFZ (Altai). In the Ordovician, the Altai basin located in the Charysh-Inya and Anui-Chuya SFZ was a marine area separated from both the Uymen-Lebed basin and the coeval Salair basin. The traces of the global sedimentary and/or biotic events in the Altai and Salair sections can be used as a precise basis for direct correlation of the local stratigraphic units with the units of the International Stratigraphic Chart.

Apatite Texture, Composition, and O-Sr-Nd Isotope Signatures Record Magmatic and Hydrothermal Fluid Characteristics at the Black Mountain Porphyry Deposit, Philippines

The trace elemental and isotopic signatures in apatite can be modified during hydrothermal alteration. This study investigates the suitability of apatite as an indicator of the source, chemistry, and evolution of magma and hydrothermal fluids. In situ textural, elemental, and O-Sr-Nd isotope analyses were performed on apatite in thin sections, from fresh and propylitically altered pre- and synmineralized dioritic porphyries from the Black Mountain porphyry Cu deposit in the Philippines. All studied apatite crystals have similar subhedral to euhedral shapes and are homogeneous in the grayscale in backscattered electron images. In cathodoluminescence images, the apatite in fresh and altered rocks displays yellow to yellow-green and green to brown luminescence, respectively. Apatite in fresh rocks has a higher Cl and Mn content, and lower Fe, Mg, Sr, Pb, and calculated XOH-apatite, compared to apatite in altered rocks. The content of F, rare earth elements (REEs), Y, U, Th, and Zr, and the Sr-Nd isotope signatures of apatite from fresh and altered rocks are similar in all apatite grains (87Sr/86Sr = 0.7034–0.7042 vs. 0.7032–0.7043, εNd(t) = 5.3–8.0 vs. 5.1–8.4). The X-ray maps and elemental and oxygen isotope signatures across individual apatite crystals are typically homogeneous in apatite from both fresh and altered rocks. The distinct luminescence colors, coupled with distinct mobile element compositions (Cl, OH, Mn, Mg, Fe, Sr, Pb), indicate modification of primary magmatic apatite during interaction with hydrothermal fluids. The similarities in Sr isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr = 0.7032–0.7043) but slight differences in O isotope signatures (δ18O = 6.0 ± 0.3‰ vs. 6.6 ± 0.3‰) in apatite from fresh and altered rocks are consistent with the magma and hydrothermal fluids having the same source and suggest significant phase separation in the hydrothermal fluids given that 18O preferentially fractionates into the residual liquid relative to 16O during phase separation. The similarity of immobile element (REE, Y, U, Th, and Zr) contents in both populations of apatite, consistency of textures and Nd isotope compositions, and absence of obvious dissolution-reprecipitation features all suggest that altered apatite retains some magmatic characteristics. The apatite in fresh rocks has oxygen isotope compositions similar to that of zircons from the same sample (δ18O = 5.9 ± 0.3‰), indicating little to no oxygen isotope fractionation between zircon and apatite and that apatite can be a good proxy for the oxygen isotope composition of the magma. Based on the Cl contents of the magmatic and replacement apatite, and assuming their equilibrium with high-temperature magma fluid and replacement hydrothermal fluid, respectively, the calculated Cl content of the early magmatic fluid and the later replacement fluid can be estimated to be 6.4 to 15.1 wt % and ~0.25 ± 0.03 wt %, respectively. This indicates a depletion of Cl from the early high-temperature fluid to the replacement fluid, consistent with phase separation. This study demonstrates that cathodoluminescence, elemental compositions (such as Cl, Mn, Mg, Fe, Sr, Pb) and Sr-O isotope signatures in apatite can be modified during hydrothermal alteration, whereas other components (REE, Y, U, Th, and Zr) and the Nd isotope composition are preserved. These features can be used to constrain the origin, chemistry, and evolution of the primary magma and ore-forming hydrothermal fluids.

Teaching Open Form Poetics through the Beat Generation and the Black Mountain School

Keenaghan discusses how in his upper-level literature course he pairs Beat and Black Mountain writers, introducing students to the genesis of open form poetics. The essay features a brief history of mid-twentieth-century cultural politics and presents a close of reading Diane di Prima’s “The Practice of Magical Evocation” as open form poetics.

From Baghdad to Antioch and Constantinople: Ibn Buṭlān and the Byzantines

This article explores the Byzantine network of the famous physician and theologian Ibn Buṭlān who left Baghdad for Antioch and Constantinople in the mid-11th-century. His contacts included Patriarchs Michael Keroularios and Peter III, Michael Psellos and Symeon Seth. Ibn Buṭlān’s monastic vocation raises the question of his link with Nikon of the Black Mountain. They probably crossed paths in the region of Antioch. Both developed ties with local people and institutions and integrated into the monastic customs of the area.