Complex thermal histories in the Banggai–Sula Microcontinent, Indonesia: Evidence from monazite U–Th–Pb geochronology

Silurian A-type metaquartz-syenite to -granite in the Eastern Anatolia: Implications for Late Ordovician-Silurian rifting at the northern margin of Gondwana

We studied serum thyroid hormone and thyrotropin (TSH) levels in subjects from two regions (Nomane and KarKar) of New Guinea where endemic goiter and/or iodine deficiency are prevalent. The results of the studies in 285 patients from Nomane indicated subnormal serum T4 (mean plus or minus SD, 6.5 plus or minus 2.8 vs 8.4 plus or minus 2.0 mug/1ll ml, for normal Americans, P less than 0.001), supranormal serum T3 (161 plus or minus 51 vs 126 plus or minus 33, ng/100 ml, p less than 0.001), supranormal serum T3/T4 ratio (T3/T4 x 100, 3.1 plus or minus 2.4 vs 1.5 plus or minus 0.4, P less than 0.001) and supranormal serum TSH (16 plus or minus 40 vs 2.7 plus or minus 1.2 muU/ml, P less than 0.001). Serum free T4 and free T3 were measured in 42 subjects. Serum free T4 was subnormal (2.0 plus or minus 0.9 vs 2.8 plus or minus 0.5, ng/100 ml P less than 0.001) and free T3 was elevated (677 plus or minus 150 vs 375 plus or minus 105, pg/100 ml, P less than 0.001). Serum T4 in goitrous patients was significantly lower than that in non-goitrous patients (5.9 vs 6.9 mug/100 ml, P less than 0.005). However, serum T3 and TSH were no different in the presence or absence of goiter. The frequencies of elevated serum TSH or serum T3 in presence of goiter were also no different from those in its absence. The mean values of various thyroid function tests in 37 subjects from KarKar Island were similar to the corresponding values in Nomane subjects. Serum T4, T3 and TSH values in 8 of 13 deaf-mute patients were similar to the corresponding mean values of other inhabitants of the region. However, the remaining 5 patients had deaf-mutism with no appreciable abnormality in thyroid function. Serum TSH correlated inversely with serum T4 (r= -0.31, P less than 0.001). There was, however, no significant relationship between serum TSH and T3 levels. The data suggest that: 1) circulating T4 exerts a significant negative feedback effect on serum TSH level and that this effect of T4 may be even more important than that of circulating T3; 2) factors other than hypothyroidism may be important in the genesis of neurological defects in endemic goiter regions.

Detrital zircon and rutile of southern Mexico Cambrian–Ordovician sandstone: Their significance for sediment provenance and Rheic Ocean evolution

During the past decade it has widely been accepted that the Avalonian-Cadomian belt results from Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic Andean-type orogeny, that was active at the northern margin of Gondwana. The major imprints of this orogeny are recorded by so-called periGondwanan terranes which faced open oceans during the Neoproterozoic. Avalonianand Cadomian-type terranes show significant differences concerning the age of protoliths and the timing of accretion. Avalonian-type terranes developed from ca. 1 Ga old rocks and were subsequently accreted to the northern margin of West Gondwana (Amazonia). Cadomian-type terranes originated along the African margin by recycling ca. 2 Ga crust. In Paleozoic times the Avalonian-Cadomian belt fell into microplates that were detached from Gondwana and collided with Laurentia or Baltica. Several attempts have been made to reconstruct the Neoproterozoic-Early Paleozoic distribution of the peri-Gondwanan microplates relative to the West African and Amazonian Cratons. However, as robust paleomagnetic and other quantitative data are largely lacking, these reconstructions are still speculative and need further confirmation. The contributions of this special volume provide new data and models which help to improve our knowledge on the AvalonianCadomian orogeny. The papers are an outcome of the GEO 2002 meeting held during October 2002 in W rzburg, Germany. In an invited paper, Murphy et al. compare inferred relationships between peri-Gondwanan terranes and the northern Gondwanan margin with paleomagnetically constrained movements interpreted for the Amazonian and West African cratons for the interval ca. 800 – 500 Ma. The following eight papers deal with Cadomian events in the Bohemian Massif. A large number of new isotopic data is presented which helps to constrain the timing of orogenic events. The paper by Linnemann et al. represents new U-Pb SHRIMP ages of detrital and inherited zircons from pre-Variscan rocks of Saxo-Thuringia which reflect a West African provenance for sediments and magmatic rocks. Based on single zircon Pb-Pb evaporation and SHRIMP ages, combined with major and trace element data and Sm-Nd isotope systematics, Mingram et al., on the other hand, suggest a link between Saxo-Thuringia and Avalonia. They found evidence for at least two discrete magmatic events in the so-called red gneisses of the Erzgebirge. Patocka and torch elucidate Cadomian sediment provenances of the Early Paleozoic siliciclastic rocks of the Tepl -Barrandian unit, Bohemian Massif. The paper by Drost et al. presents new U-Pb-SHRIMP ages for the Cambrian volcanics of the Tepl -Barrandian unit and yields constraints on the late Neoproterozoic to Cambrian geotectonic settings. U-Pb and Pb-Pb ages obtained by Mazur et al. and by Zelazniewicz et al. indicate Neoproterozoic to Cambrian magmatism in different parts of the Sudetes (Bohemian Massif). Teipel et al. obtained new U-Pb SHRIMP and Nd isotopic data which suggest Upper Vendian and Lower Ordovician magmatism in the Bavarian Forest that is part of the Moldanubian unit. Friedl et al. derived new U-Pb zircon ages (SHRIMP and TIMS) from different orthogneisses of the Austrian part of the Bohemian Massif. They found evidence for both Neoproterozoic and Ordovician magmatism in the Moldanubian domain, the latter is interW. D rr Institut f r Geowissenschaften und Lithosph renforschung, Universit t Giessen, Senckenbergstr. 3, 35390 Giesen, Germany

The Neoproterozoic-Early Cambrian evolution of peri-Gondwanan terranes (e.g. Avalonia, Carolinia, Cadomia) along the northern (Amazonia, West Africa) margin of Gondwana provides insights into the amalgamation of West Gondwana. The main phase of tectonothermal activity occurred between ca. 640–540 Ma and produced voluminous arc-related igneous and sedimentary successions related to subduction beneath the northern Gondwana margin. Subduction was not terminated by continental collision so that these terranes continued to face an open ocean into the Cambrian. Prior to the main phase of tectonothermal activity, Sm-Nd isotopic studies suggest that the basement of Avalonia, Carolinia and part of Cadomia was juvenile lithosphere generated between 0.8 and 1.1 Ga within the peri-Rodinian (Mirovoi) ocean. Vestiges of primitive 760–670 Ma arcs developed upon this lithosphere are preserved. Juvenile lithosphere generated between 0.8 and 1.1 Ga also underlies arcs formed in the Brazilide Ocean between the converging Congo/Sao Francisco and West Africa/Amazonia cratons (e.g. the Tocantins province of Brazil). Together, these juvenile arc assemblages with similar isotopic characteristics may reflect subduction in the Mirovoi and Brazilide oceans as a compensation for the ongoing breakup of Rodinia and the generation of the Paleopacific. Unlike the peri-Gondwanan terranes, however, arc magmatism in the Brazilide Ocean was terminated by continent-continent collisions and the resulting orogens became located within the interior of an amalgamated West Gondwana. Accretion of juvenile peri-Gondwanan terranes to the northern Gondwanan margin occurred in a piecemeal fashion between 650 and 600 Ma, after which subduction stepped outboard to produce the relatively mature and voluminous main arc phase along the periphery of West Gondwana. This accretionary event may be a far-field response to the breakup of Rodinia. The geodynamic relationship between the closure of the Brazilide Ocean, the collision between the Congo/Sao Francisco and Amazonia/West Africa cratons, and the tectonic evolution of the peri-Gondwanan terranes may be broadly analogous to the Mesozoic-Cenozoic closure of the Tethys Ocean, the collision between India and Asia beginning at ca. 50 Ma, and the tectonic evolution of the western Pacific Ocean.

The Sula Platform is a fragment of continental crust that is generally regarded as a piece of New Guinea that was detached from western Irian Jaya in late Cenozoic time. The assumption is based on the apparent correlation of the stratigraphy of the Sula Platform with that of western Irian Jaya. New data from the Sula Platform and western Irian Jaya show that this correlation is probably not valid. The best correlation of the Sula Platform stratigraphy with that of the former northern margin of the Australian craton is found in central Papua New Guinea between long 141 and 145°E, more than 1200 km farther east than any previously proposed site of origin, implying a displacement of more than 2500 km.

The Austroalpine basement in the eastern Alps underwent Proto-Tethys and Paleo-Tethys tectonic evolution. To restore the tectonic processes of Proto-Paleo-Tethys Ocean in the eastern Alps, we carried out a systematic study by U-Pb zircon geochronology and geochemistry. In the Schladming Complex our study shows that the granodioritic gneisses (539-538 Ma) with A2-type geochemical signature and the fine-grained amphibolite (531 Ma) with E-MORB affinity, represent a bimodal magmatism. A medium-grained amphibolite (495 Ma) exhibits OIB-like geochemical features. The monzonite granitic gneiss (464 Ma) and plagioclase gneiss (487 Ma) have volcanic arc geochemical features. In Speik-Gleinalpe Complex the amphibolites (489-496 Ma), granitic gneiss (491 Ma) and plagiogneiss (472-476 Ma) all have subduction-related geochemical signatures. These all magmatism recorded the subduction and back-arc basin tectonic processes of Proto-Tethys Ocean.In Schladming Complex we found that the overgrowth rims of zircons of the early Paleozoic biotite-plagioclase gneiss and granitic gneisses give a dominantly metamorphic age of ca. 355 Ma. In addition, the zircons from the samples of Speik-Gleinalpe also yield a metamorphic age of ca. 400 Ma. In the Schladming Complex we also dated two granites with crystallization age of 353-355 Ma, which have subduction-related geochemical characteristics. These Devonian-Carboniferous metamorphism and magmatism together indicate that the Austroalpine basement had been overprinted by the Variscan orogeny.In the southern and western Saualpe crystalline basement, the three amphibolites yield crystallization ages of 415-418 Ma and have similar geochemical signature of OIB. We suggest that the Late Silurian-earliest Devonian OIB-like magmatism was related to a back-arc extension setting along the northern margin of Gondwana and indicating the opening of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean.In the Plankogel Complex we found two N-MORB amphibolites exhibit late Permian/Early Triassic protolith ages (254-227 Ma), representing the Paleo-Tethys oceanic crust relics. The manganese quartzites are explained as siliceous deep-sea sediments with a large Permian to Early Triassic (244-282 Ma) volcanic components. We interpret the Plankogel Complex as an ophiolitic complex of Paleo-Tethys suture. Based on our studies above we restore the tectonic evolution of Proto-Paleo-Tethys Ocean in the eastern Alps: The basement complexes in the eastern Alps had been a part of the active continental margin of Gondwana. With the subduction of the Proto-Tethys oceanic plate to the south, a back-arc rift developed along the northern margin of the Gondwana in the Early Cambrian, resulted in the opening of a back-arc basin (Speik Ocean) and the break-off of the proto-E Alps terranes from Gondwana in the Late Cambrian. In the Early Ordovician the proto-E Alps terranes collided back to the Gondwana with the closure of Speik Ocean. During the Late Silurian-earliest Devonian the Paleo-Tethys Ocean opened as back-arc basin due to southward subduction of Rheic Ocean, resulting in the break-off of the proto-south-Europe marginal terranes from the northern margin of Gondwana. From Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous the break-off terranes drifted northward and accreted to the southern margin of European continent with the consuming and closure of Rheic Ocean. In the Late Permian-Middle Triassic the Paleo-Tethys Ocean was closed after continuing northward subduction.

Diagenetic history and provenance of Devonian terrestrial sandstones at the margin of Gondwana: Padeha Formation, Eastern Alborz, Iran

Structural and sedimentary evidence from the northern margin of the Tauride platform in south central Turkey used to test alternative models of Tethys during Early Mesozoic time

Based on the marine magnetic anomalies identified in the Argo Abyssal Plain offshore northwestern Australia, the conceptual continent of Argoland must have rifted off in the Late Jurassic (∼155 Ma) and drifted northward towards SE Asia. Intriguingly, in SE Asia there are no intact relics of a major continent such as India, but instead the region displays an intensely deformed, long-lived accretionary orogen that formed during more than 100 million years of oceanic and continental subduction. Within this orogen, there are continental fragments that may represent parts of Argoland. After accretion of these fragments, the orogen was further deformed. We compiled the orogenic architecture and the history of post-accretionary deformation of SE Asia, as well as the architecture and history of the NW Australian passive margin. We identified the Gondwana-derived blocks and mega-units of SW Borneo, Greater Paternoster, East Java, West Burma, and Mount Victoria Land as fragments that collectively may represent fragments of Argoland. These fragments are found between sutures with relics of Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic oceanic basins that all pre-date the break-up of Argoland. We systematically restore deformation within SE Asia in the upper plate system above the modern Sunda trench, use this to estimate where Gondwana-derived continental fragments accreted at the Sundaland (Eurasian) margin in the Cretaceous (∼110–85 Ma), and subsequently reconstruct their tectonic transport back to the Australian-Greater Indian margin. Our reconstruction shows that Argoland originated at the northern Australian margin between the Bird’s Head in the east and Wallaby-Zenith Fracture Zone in the west, south of which it bordered Greater India. We show that the lithospheric fragment that broke off northwest Australia in the Late Jurassic consisted of multiple continental fragments and intervening Triassic to Middle Jurassic oceanic basins, which we here call Argopelago. Argoland broke up into Argopelago during the Late Triassic rifting of Lhasa from the northern margin of Gondwana, and consisted of multiple continental fragments that were surrounded by oceanic basins, similar to Zealandia offshore modern east Australia, and the reconstructed history of Greater Adria in the Mediterranean.

Serum thyroglobulin Tg(RIA) was studied in 161 residents of the Nomane region of New Guinea. The incidence of antithyroglobulin antibodies (ATA) and antimicrosomal antibodies (anti-M) was also studied to assess the role of autoimmunity in goitrogenesis. ATA were detected in only 4 sera; these sera were excluded from the study since ATA interfere in the Tg radioimmunoassay. Anti-M antibodies were undetectable in all of 105 subjects whose sera were analyzed. Mean (+/-se) serum Tg(RIA) in the 84 nongoitrous (NG) subjects was 163.1 +/- 17.2 ng/ml, whereas that in 77 goitrous (G) subjects was 208.1 +/- 19.8 ng/ml; both values were much higher (P is less than 0.001) than that (5.1 +/- 0.49 ng/ml) in normal Californian subjects. The mean serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in the NG group (12.1 +/- 2.1 muU/ml) was not statistically different from that in the G group (10.1 +/- 1.5 muU/ml). Serum Tg(RIA) correlated positively with log TSH (r equals 0.38 P is less than 0.001). Intrigued by the finding of goiters in some residents of an endemic goiter region and its absence in other residents exposed to the same environmental factors, we evaluated the possibility that the thyroid glands of subjects who develop goiters may be inherently more responsive to any given level of TSH than those of the inhabitants without goiters. However, the slope of the correlation between serum Tg(RIA) and log TSH was only slightly (0.1 is less than P is greater than .05) higher in G than in the NG group. These studies suggested that factors other than thyroidal responsiveness to TSH must also be important in goiterogenesis of endemic goiter regions. We conclude that 1) serum thyroglobulin is a sensitive parameter of chronic as well as acute thyroidal stimulation; 2) Thyroid autoimmunity and increased thyroidal response to TSH do not explain goiterogenesis in New Guinea and attention should be focused on other possibilities.

Yalaku is one of the smallest members of the Ndu language family of the Sepik region of New Guinea. Spoken in a hilly area off the Sepik river, Yalaku has been in intensive contact with the unrelated Kwoma for several generations. Comparison between Yalaku and closely related Manambu shows the presence of a number of grammatical patterns borrowed from Kwoma, alongside a number of loanwords. Tok Pisin, the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea, is known to every speaker of Yalaku, with the two languages in a diglossic relationship. Lexical loans from Tok Pisin are avoided; however, Tok Pisin impact is being felt in the pronunciation patterns by younger speakers, calques, and the presence of two borrowed grammatical forms—the possessive verb and the negator. Cultural and linguistic factors suggest an explanation for this seemingly curious development.

ABSTRACTNew Guinea was settled by ancestors of present day Papuan-speaking communities 40,000 years ago. Between 3 and 5 millennia BP, waves of Austronesians (AN) followed and settled mostly on the offshore islands and along some coastal areas of the New Guinea mainland. According to a well-received view, AN Diaspora originated from Taiwan and dispersed from there to inhabit much of island Southeast Asia, Malagasy and islands of the South Pacific. Austronesian colonisation was augmented by their superior cultural traits including horticulture and marine technology. In their conquest they assimilated weaker, nomadic pre-AN aboriginal communities as was the case with the Negritos of northern Philippines; settled beside or with earlier sedentary communities as was the case in Western Melanesia; or settled on uninhabited islands in Eastern Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia (Pawley & Ross, 1995). Beside demographic movements, other forces were at work. Trade-induced contact between Asia and New Guinea was in place before European contact. A trade link promoted by the Sultan of Tidor was extended to involve some communities of West New Guinea (now Irian Jaya) and the West Sepik Province some 5,000 years ago. As a result, trade items such as plumes of the kumul (bird of paradise), spices, sandalwood, aromatic barks and sea slugs from “islands of the coast of Western New Guinea “found their way into the Middle East markets about 4,000 years ago (Swadling, 1996). Other internal or external forces such as intermarriages and so on were at work also (see Bellwood, 1978). This fairly brief prehistory of what went on in the northern region of New Guinea raises questions about possible cross-cultural or cross-linguistic influences. Indeed, it does pose a challenge to those who endeavour to piece together a pre-linguistic history of lexical “ruins” found to suggest cognate relationships among languages of the northern region of New Guinea. This essay attempts to adumbrate a linguistic etymology of “loan cognates” that Abu', a Papuan language of the Torricelli Phylum of the central Sepik region, shares with AN languages. It commences with a list of lexical items and statements about their etymologies. This approach inescapably leads to a delineation of the kinds of attitudes the Abu' have towards foreign linguistic elements. The paper concludes with a typological statement about grammatical typology as an additional explanation to both the Papuan-Austronesian contact, and the trade-link theory as bases for the diffusion of areal or regional linguistic features among languages of the East Sepik and Sandaun (West Sepik) provinces.

From 1965 to 1967 a regional psychiatric service based on Rabaul was offered to the Islands Region of New Guinea. The results of the first year's work, which included three hundred referred cases were reviewed to provide the guide lines for the second year of the existing project and for possible future developments.

From 1965 to 1967 a regional psychiatric service based on Rabaul was offered to the Islands Region of New Guinea. The results of the first year's work, which included three hundred referred cases were reviewed to provide the guide lines for the second year of the existing project and for possible future developments.