Reports on Past Meetings

Authigenic Minerals Meetings, American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting

17-18 December, San Francisco, USA

Authigenic Mineral Formation in the Marine Environment: Pathways, Processes, and Products

AGU Ocean Sciences. Co-sponsored by Biogeosciences and Paleoceanography & Paleoclimatology

Conveners:

Craig R. Glenn, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA, Tel: 808 956-2200, Fax: 808 956-5512, email: glenn@soest.hawaii.edu

Gabriel M. Filippelli, Indiana University/Purdue University, Department of Geology, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5132 USA, Tel: 317-274-3795, Fax: 317-274-7966, email: gfilippe@iupui.edu

Amongst 10,000 other scientists, the Meeting on Marine Authigenesis at the Fall AGU meeting brought together 7 oral and 14 poster sessions (complete abstracts listed below) with much success! Participants traveled from France, Switzerland, Israel, Italy, and Canada as well as many from around the United States (find the complete report with full abstracts here).

The final meeting of IGCP project 325 was held in Strasbourg late 1996. This meeting marked the "grand finale" of a very successful IGCP project which focused on phos-phorites and related authigenic minerals.
First of all, the professional experience, the diplomatic capabilities, and the persis-tence, but above all the personal concern, the enthousiasm, and the french charm of Jacques and Liliane were prime garantuees of the high performance index of IGCP 325. Under their guidance, IGCP 325 grew to a group of 222 participants. Amongst the many activities that evolved in the framework of IGCP 325, I count the instructive meetings and memorable fieldtrips that took place in France, Albania, Poland, Russia, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, and Switzerland.
An important guarantee of the success of IGCP 325 was certainly also the financial sponsoring by the Unesco-IUGS. This allowed for the setup of small exchange pro-grams, for inviting participants from overseas, and for starting fieldwork programs, amongst others. The financial support rendered turned out to be particularly important in the case of IGCP 325, with its focus on phosphorites and related authigenic minerals, resources that are predominantly exploited in financially less well-endowed countries.

The final meeting was held in the hospitable "Hôtel Mercure", situated along the Rhine, close to the "Pont de l'Europe". 40 participants were registered, which came from 18 different countries (France, Germany, UK, Spain, Switzerland, Czech Rep., Greece, Russia, Kazakhstan, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, India, China, Mexico and the USA). The meeting was set up in a way that allowed for maximum freedom and time for informal discussion rounds. Scientific presentations were exclusively in the form of posters.
During the meeting, two working groups were established, one on the interaction between microbial activity and mineral authigenesis, and a second one on the global phosphorus cycle and its implications for environmental change. These working groups convened during two full days, and presented their results at the end of the meeting. Publication of the proceedings of the meeting, including the reports of the two working groups is foreseen in combination with the proceedings of the Hawaii Meeting, in the "special volume" series of SEPM, with Jacques, Liliane, and Craig Glenn as editors.

The informal character of the meeting, the excellent location, the accompanying program (incl. a fieldtrip through the Alsace), as well as the good mix of scientists made the meeting very worthwhile, and it is to be hoped for that in the future, this type of informal meetings will be continued.

A complete set of the abstracts is available from J. Lucas (email: jlucas@illite.u-strasbg.fr)

K. Föllmi

The Spring Meeting attracted about 40 participants with 12 talks and 5 posters and also a display of phosphate minerals from the Natural History Museum. Participants travelled from France, Belguim, Norway, Italy, Canada and Germany as well as the UK (un-fortunately the Albanian delegation did not make it), and with presentations ranging from fish teeth to rare alluaudite group phosphates, it was a lively meeting which it is hoped achieved its aim of facilitating cross fertilisation of ideas and new contacts.
Talks on the control of apatite morphology by organic molecules, the application of bond-valence theory to predict the stability of phosphate minerals, and a review of phosphate stable isotope geochemistry set the keynotes. Steve Mann described how apatite can be induced to grow as either needles or plates depending on the presence of various organics and, in reponse to a question, pointed out that it is still early days, synthesis of more closely crystallographically defined apatite has yet to come. Frank Hawthorne stressed that the H2O that we write on mineral formulae almost as an after-thought is crucial in stabilising phosphate mineral structures and Antonio Longinelli suggested that palaeoclimatology using continental fossils is more promising than that using oceanic fossils. But did you know that Spanish rabbit bones are poor indicators of the isotopic value of local meteoric water because rabbits obtain their water from eating grass rather than from drinking? Great care has to be taken in understanding the lifestyle of any animals used in such studies, including humans!
There were two presentations on teeth. Stephanie Dowker (St Bartholomew's & Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry) pointed out that we spend 840 million pounds per year in this country on dental problems which are mostly the result of dental caries and described how dental enamel comprises nearly 99% impure apatitic calcium phosphate together with 1% protein and water. Studies of actual teeth are very difficult and more useful information is obtained from a model system consisting of demineralising acid to simulate plaque, synthetic apatite as the enamel and a block behind this as the dentine part of the tooth. Fluoride, which we know to be important in dental care, appears to tip the long-term balance in a carious lesion from bacterial acid demineralisation to remineralisation from saliva which is supersaturated with respect to apatite. Moving to a more exotic location, Paul Wyeth from the Applied Biocomposites group at the University of Southampton, described how parrotfish on the Great Barrier Reef take up to 10 000 bites of coral per day and scrunch them with many MPa com-pressive load. Crystallite rods of apatite run parallel to the tooth surface and would help to prevent crack propagation and tubules (i.e. holes) that run into the teeth are probably also important contributors to the impressive strength of these teeth.
Bones were, of course, a popular topic. Lidia Quattropani (Laboratoire de Recher-che des Musees de France) described PIXE and PIGME results on bones from Palaeo-lithic and Neolithic archaeological sites at Tautevel and Bercy in France where the dis-solution and mineralisations processes taking place in bones are being studied. The sites are complex, with great variation between individual bones. Clive Trueman (University of Bristol) considered the pros and cons of the idea proposed by Kolodny et al. (1996) that bones are essentially pseudomorphs by presenting results on bones from shallow marine environments at Aust and Durlstone Bay. Barbara Cressey (University of Sout-hampton) showed the results fo a TEM study of 11th to 19th century human bones from Wharram Percy, Yorkshire and modern goat bone. The bones were prepared for study using ion beam thinning rather than crushing or ultramicrotomy and plates were seen which are thought to be a previously unknown component of all bone and an important contributor to bone strength. There were posters on fossil DNA conservation and dia-genetic evolution of bone (V. Balter et al) and Compositional variation in fossilised biogenic apatite from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (Terry Williams et al.).
Moving to exotic minerals (as well as exotic locations), Gunaar Raade (Universitetet i Oslo) described detailed crystal structural studies of the rare and new Mg-phosphates found at Modum in Norway, holtedahlite in particular has a rather beautiful structure, and A. -M. Fransolet (Université de Liege) suggested that minerals with the structure of alluaudite ((Na,Ca)Fe2+(Mn,Fe2+,Fe3+,Mg)2(PO4)3) are becoming more and more common and now include arsenates as well as phosphates. Eventually, perhaps this structure will become as well known as garnet. There was a poster on REE ion control of growth surfaces in monazite (Gordon Cressey et al.).
Deposition of phosphates was the interest of Janet Cotter-Howells (University of Aberdeen) and Hendrik Siegmund (University of Tubingen). Janet Cotter-Howells re-viewed her recent work on the production of pyromorphite (Pb5(PO4)3)Cl in soils on mine dumps and considered its effect in reducing the bioavailability of Pb and possbible use as a remediation technique. Hendrik Siegmund suggested a mechanism for the pro-duction of phosphate nodules in anoxic black shales involving three stages of deposition: initial anoxic sedimentation, organic carbon removal and apatite precipitation, and then continued sedimentation. There were poster presentations on phosphates in pelagic sediments from the Isles of Wight (Amanda Murphy and Ian Jarvis), and dissolution of apatite in the presence of Pb2+ and Cd2+ in acidic environments (Eva Valsami-Jones et al.)

A complete set of the abstracts is available from Kevin Murphy at the Mineralogical Society Office (e-mail k_murphy@minersoc.demon.co.uk).

Ian Jarvis

Within the framework of the IUGS 31st International Geological Congress, held in Rio de Janeiro, a special symposium was organized on "Authigenic minerals in marine and continental environments". This meeting was proposed by the "FROMAGE" SEPM Research Group and attracted 22 poster and 7 invited oral contributions on a wide variety of authigenic minerals, ranging from glauconite and dolomite to evaporite and zeolite occurrences.

The meeting started with the poster session (Monday afternoon, Aug. 14), and the organisers were quite happy with the ratio of posters announced and actually presented (56%), which was higher than at the majority of the other symposia. The following presentations were given:

Abed, A.M. and Amireh, B.S., A new occurrence of an upper Cretaceous phosphorite belt in the southeastern desert of Jordan

Al-Asam, I.S. and Coniglio, M., Water chemistry and sediment composition in McGinnes Lake, southern Ontario: implications for marl deposition

Amorosi, A., Perspectives on the sequence stratigraphy of glaucony-rich deposits as revealed by the Cenomanian glaucony of Normandy (northern France) (also oral presentation)

Castro, L.N., et al., Rare earth elements in phosphatic deposits of Patagonia, Argentina

Emelyanov, E., Authigenic minerals at both sides of the redox barrier Eh in the seas

Eder, V.G., Glauconite and phosphorite of the condensed upper Jurassic Georgiev Formation of the west Siberian plate

Franz, B and Barth-Wirsching, U., Zeolitization of a phonolithic pyroclastic ash flow by groundwater in the Laach volcanic area, Germany

Garrison, G., et al., Laminated seasonal authigenic sedimentation and climate history within a brackish coastal Hawaiian pond

Gaspar, L., Comparative study of the phosphorites from the continental margin and the seamounts in the Atlantic north off Portugal

Hein, J.R., et al., Cenozoic paleoceanographic history derived from Fe-Mn oxyhydroxide crusts (also oral presentation)

Hesse, R., et al., Ordovician organigenic deep-sea dolomite: physical and chemical conditions of concretion growth

Neumann, T. and Heiser, U., The composition of authigenic rhodochrosites from sapropelic sediments of the Baltic Sea: indications of oxygenation of anoxic sediments

Piper, D.Z., Bottom-water redox and primary productivity of the Phosphoria Formation; a phosphorite of Permian age

Pulyaeva, I.A. and Hein, J.R., Regional, spatial and temporal correlations among Fe-Mn oxyhydroxide crusts, central Pacific Ocean

Scasso, R.A., et al., Phosphogenesis, sequence stratigraphy and paleoceanography in Gaiman Formation phosphates

Schreiber, C.B., Authigenic evaporites: implications for sedimentary history (also oral presentation)

Silva, M.A.M., et al., Aptian halites of the Sergipe Basin, northeast Brazil: implications for seawater chemical composition through fluid-inclusion analyses

Sumner, Y.D. and Tourre, S.A., Ferrous iron and the cristallographic characteristics of herringbone calcite (also oral presentation)

Yim, W.W.S. and Tovey, N.K., Authigenic minerals in a "stable" siliciclastics-dominated inner shelf during the Quaternary (also oral presentation)

Zanin, Y., et al., Uranium of sedimentary carbonate at catagenesis

Zanin, Y., et al., Ultramicrostructure of continental phosphate coprolite

Ziegler, A.M. and Goldberg, K., Permian phosphorite provinces and their diverse paleoceanographic settings

The oral presentations were held on Tuesday, Aug. 15, and included the following presentations (in alphabetic order)

Amorosi, A., Perspectives on the sequence stratigraphy of glaucony-rich deposits as revealed by the Cenomanian glaucony of Normandy (northern France)

Föllmi, K.B., Phosphogenesis, the phosphorus cycle, and environmental change

Hein, J.R., et al., Cenozoic paleoceanographic history derived from Fe-Mn oxyhydroxide crusts

McKenzie, J.A., Microbial carbonate precipitation by anaerobic bacteria: a natural experiment in Lagoa Vermelha, Brazil

Schreiber, C.B., Authigenic evaporites: implications for sedimentary historySumner, Y.D. and Tourre, S.A., Ferrous iron and the cristallographic characteristics of herringbone calcite

Yim, W.W.S. and Tovey, N.K., Authigenic minerals in a "stable" siliciclastics-dominated inner shelf during the Quaternary

The poster and oral sessions were headed by Maria Silva and Geoffrey Garrison, and both did an admirable job in organizing and streamlining the sessions (together with Craig Glenn, who was the organizer and initiator of this meeting, but who was not able to attend the meeting).

The oral session was then followed by the FROMAGE business meeting, during which a variety of topics were discussed, such as

1. History and goals of the FROMAGE SEPM research group

2. Recent publication edited by Glenn, C., Lucas-Prévôt, L., and Lucas, J., 2000, Marine authigenesis; from global to microbial. SEPM Spec. Publ. No. 66.

3. Availability and maintenance of the FROMAGE web site
(http://www-geol.unine.ch/FROMAGE/welcome.html)

4. Planning of a special journal volume with contributions made during this meeting as well as contributions from others wishing to participate.

5. Planning of a future workshop and fieldtrip

With regards to point 5, several propositions were made, which are listed below.

1. Meeting and fieldtrip in Trelew, Argentina, to be organized by R. Scasso, L. Castro, and M. Leanze (Buenos Aires). Goal of the fieldtrips: Upper Cretaceous and early Paleocene, as well as upper Oligocene and lower Miocene phosphorites.
Possible date: March-April or Sept. 2002

2. Meeting and fieldtrip in Amman, Jordan, with a fieldtrip also to Egypt, to be organized by A. Abed (Amman). Goal of the fieldtrips: upper Cretaceous siliceous and phosphatic formations (Amman and Duwi Formations), amongst others.
Possible date: spring 2002?

3. Meeting and fieldtrip in Switzerland, similar to the 1993 Interlaken meeting, to be organized by K. Föllmi (Neuchâtel). Goal of the fieldtrip: Jurassic and Cretaceous glauconitic and phosphatic beds in the Alps and Jura Mountains.
Possible date: sept. 2002

4. Meeting and fieldtrip in Santa Barbara, CA, USA, to be organized by K. Föllmi (Neuchâtel) and Glenn, C. (Honolulu). Goal of the fieldtrip: Authigenic dolomite, siliceous phases, and phosphates in the Miocene Monterey Formation.
Possible date: june-sept. 2002

We would like to ask you to give us your feedback on your preferences, and we would also like to receive further propositions if possible. Based on the outcome of the feedback, we hope to make a decision during Fall, this year.

Karl B. Föllmi

	AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco (2004) \| IGCP 325 Final Meeting, Strasbourg (1996) \| Phosphate Meeting, London (1997) \| Fromage meeting, GSA, Hawaii (1997) \| SEPM/AAPG (1999) \| 31st IGC, Rio de Janeiro (2000) Authigenic Minerals Meetings, American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting 17-18 December, San Francisco, USA Authigenic Mineral Formation in the Marine Environment: Pathways, Processes, and Products AGU Ocean Sciences. Co-sponsored by Biogeosciences and Paleoceanography & Paleoclimatology Conveners: Craig R. Glenn, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA, Tel: 808 956-2200, Fax: 808 956-5512, email: glenn@soest.hawaii.edu Gabriel M. Filippelli, Indiana University/Purdue University, Department of Geology, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5132 USA, Tel: 317-274-3795, Fax: 317-274-7966, email: gfilippe@iupui.edu Amongst 10,000 other scientists, the Meeting on Marine Authigenesis at the Fall AGU meeting brought together 7 oral and 14 poster sessions (complete abstracts listed below) with much success! Participants traveled from France, Switzerland, Israel, Italy, and Canada as well as many from around the United States (find the complete report with full abstracts here). IGCP 325 Final Meeting, Strasbourg Report on the final meeting of IGCP Project N° 325 ("troiscentvingtcinq") "Deposystems of phosphorites and related authigenic minerals: processes, pathways and products" held 20-26 october 1996 in Strasbourg, France Conveners: J. Lucas and L. Prévôt-Lucas The final meeting of IGCP project 325 was held in Strasbourg late 1996. This meeting marked the "grand finale" of a very successful IGCP project which focused on phos-phorites and related authigenic minerals. First of all, the professional experience, the diplomatic capabilities, and the persis-tence, but above all the personal concern, the enthousiasm, and the french charm of Jacques and Liliane were prime garantuees of the high performance index of IGCP 325. Under their guidance, IGCP 325 grew to a group of 222 participants. Amongst the many activities that evolved in the framework of IGCP 325, I count the instructive meetings and memorable fieldtrips that took place in France, Albania, Poland, Russia, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, and Switzerland. An important guarantee of the success of IGCP 325 was certainly also the financial sponsoring by the Unesco-IUGS. This allowed for the setup of small exchange pro-grams, for inviting participants from overseas, and for starting fieldwork programs, amongst others. The financial support rendered turned out to be particularly important in the case of IGCP 325, with its focus on phosphorites and related authigenic minerals, resources that are predominantly exploited in financially less well-endowed countries. The final meeting was held in the hospitable "Hôtel Mercure", situated along the Rhine, close to the "Pont de l'Europe". 40 participants were registered, which came from 18 different countries (France, Germany, UK, Spain, Switzerland, Czech Rep., Greece, Russia, Kazakhstan, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, India, China, Mexico and the USA). The meeting was set up in a way that allowed for maximum freedom and time for informal discussion rounds. Scientific presentations were exclusively in the form of posters. During the meeting, two working groups were established, one on the interaction between microbial activity and mineral authigenesis, and a second one on the global phosphorus cycle and its implications for environmental change. These working groups convened during two full days, and presented their results at the end of the meeting. Publication of the proceedings of the meeting, including the reports of the two working groups is foreseen in combination with the proceedings of the Hawaii Meeting, in the "special volume" series of SEPM, with Jacques, Liliane, and Craig Glenn as editors. The informal character of the meeting, the excellent location, the accompanying program (incl. a fieldtrip through the Alsace), as well as the good mix of scientists made the meeting very worthwhile, and it is to be hoped for that in the future, this type of informal meetings will be continued. A complete set of the abstracts is available from J. Lucas (email: jlucas@illite.u-strasbg.fr) K. Föllmi Phosphate Meeting, London Report on the phosphate meeting, Mineralogical Society "Phosphates: biogenic to exotic" held 18 March 1997 in London, UK Conveners: F. Wall, G. Cressey, and I. Jarvis The Spring Meeting attracted about 40 participants with 12 talks and 5 posters and also a display of phosphate minerals from the Natural History Museum. Participants travelled from France, Belguim, Norway, Italy, Canada and Germany as well as the UK (un-fortunately the Albanian delegation did not make it), and with presentations ranging from fish teeth to rare alluaudite group phosphates, it was a lively meeting which it is hoped achieved its aim of facilitating cross fertilisation of ideas and new contacts. Talks on the control of apatite morphology by organic molecules, the application of bond-valence theory to predict the stability of phosphate minerals, and a review of phosphate stable isotope geochemistry set the keynotes. Steve Mann described how apatite can be induced to grow as either needles or plates depending on the presence of various organics and, in reponse to a question, pointed out that it is still early days, synthesis of more closely crystallographically defined apatite has yet to come. Frank Hawthorne stressed that the H2O that we write on mineral formulae almost as an after-thought is crucial in stabilising phosphate mineral structures and Antonio Longinelli suggested that palaeoclimatology using continental fossils is more promising than that using oceanic fossils. But did you know that Spanish rabbit bones are poor indicators of the isotopic value of local meteoric water because rabbits obtain their water from eating grass rather than from drinking? Great care has to be taken in understanding the lifestyle of any animals used in such studies, including humans! There were two presentations on teeth. Stephanie Dowker (St Bartholomew's & Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry) pointed out that we spend 840 million pounds per year in this country on dental problems which are mostly the result of dental caries and described how dental enamel comprises nearly 99% impure apatitic calcium phosphate together with 1% protein and water. Studies of actual teeth are very difficult and more useful information is obtained from a model system consisting of demineralising acid to simulate plaque, synthetic apatite as the enamel and a block behind this as the dentine part of the tooth. Fluoride, which we know to be important in dental care, appears to tip the long-term balance in a carious lesion from bacterial acid demineralisation to remineralisation from saliva which is supersaturated with respect to apatite. Moving to a more exotic location, Paul Wyeth from the Applied Biocomposites group at the University of Southampton, described how parrotfish on the Great Barrier Reef take up to 10 000 bites of coral per day and scrunch them with many MPa com-pressive load. Crystallite rods of apatite run parallel to the tooth surface and would help to prevent crack propagation and tubules (i.e. holes) that run into the teeth are probably also important contributors to the impressive strength of these teeth. Bones were, of course, a popular topic. Lidia Quattropani (Laboratoire de Recher-che des Musees de France) described PIXE and PIGME results on bones from Palaeo-lithic and Neolithic archaeological sites at Tautevel and Bercy in France where the dis-solution and mineralisations processes taking place in bones are being studied. The sites are complex, with great variation between individual bones. Clive Trueman (University of Bristol) considered the pros and cons of the idea proposed by Kolodny et al. (1996) that bones are essentially pseudomorphs by presenting results on bones from shallow marine environments at Aust and Durlstone Bay. Barbara Cressey (University of Sout-hampton) showed the results fo a TEM study of 11th to 19th century human bones from Wharram Percy, Yorkshire and modern goat bone. The bones were prepared for study using ion beam thinning rather than crushing or ultramicrotomy and plates were seen which are thought to be a previously unknown component of all bone and an important contributor to bone strength. There were posters on fossil DNA conservation and dia-genetic evolution of bone (V. Balter et al) and Compositional variation in fossilised biogenic apatite from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (Terry Williams et al.). Moving to exotic minerals (as well as exotic locations), Gunaar Raade (Universitetet i Oslo) described detailed crystal structural studies of the rare and new Mg-phosphates found at Modum in Norway, holtedahlite in particular has a rather beautiful structure, and A. -M. Fransolet (Université de Liege) suggested that minerals with the structure of alluaudite ((Na,Ca)Fe2+(Mn,Fe2+,Fe3+,Mg)2(PO4)3) are becoming more and more common and now include arsenates as well as phosphates. Eventually, perhaps this structure will become as well known as garnet. There was a poster on REE ion control of growth surfaces in monazite (Gordon Cressey et al.). Deposition of phosphates was the interest of Janet Cotter-Howells (University of Aberdeen) and Hendrik Siegmund (University of Tubingen). Janet Cotter-Howells re-viewed her recent work on the production of pyromorphite (Pb5(PO4)3)Cl in soils on mine dumps and considered its effect in reducing the bioavailability of Pb and possbible use as a remediation technique. Hendrik Siegmund suggested a mechanism for the pro-duction of phosphate nodules in anoxic black shales involving three stages of deposition: initial anoxic sedimentation, organic carbon removal and apatite precipitation, and then continued sedimentation. There were poster presentations on phosphates in pelagic sediments from the Isles of Wight (Amanda Murphy and Ian Jarvis), and dissolution of apatite in the presence of Pb2+ and Cd2+ in acidic environments (Eva Valsami-Jones et al.) A complete set of the abstracts is available from Kevin Murphy at the Mineralogical Society Office (e-mail k_murphy@minersoc.demon.co.uk). Ian Jarvis Fromage meeting, GSA, Hawaii Report on the Fromage meeting during GSA Cordilleran Section Meeting "Formation of authigenic marine minerals" held may 21-23 1997 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii Conveners: C. Glenn and W. Burnett In late May, 1997, FROMAGE members gathered for oral presentations on the origin of authigenic marine minerals in Hilo, Hawaii, in conjunction with the annual Cordilleran Section Meeting of GSA. The presentations were made at three different special sessions, and the meeting included a FROMAGE Luncheon Meeting. The talks encompassed modern and ancient phosphorites, authigenesis and sequence stratigraphy, glauconite and verdine facies, ferro-manganese and phosphorite formation in Pacific Crusts, and the precipitation of Precambrian Banded Iron Formation minerals. A selection of the papers presented will appear in a new SEPM Special Publication entitled "Marine Authigenesis, from Global to Microbial". Approximately 35 papers for this volume are presently making their way through the review process. We and SEPM are very excited about this volume of important new reseach on authigenic and diagenetic marine mine-rals and processes, and we anticipate publication of this volume sometime next year. The volume is being edited by Craig Glenn, Jacques Lucas, and Liliane Prévôt-Lucas. A complete set of the abstracts is available from C. Glenn (email: glenn@soest.hawaii.edu) Craig Glenn SEPM/AAPG Research Conference/Symposium: Seafloor Alteration of Marine Carbonates held in April 13, 1999, in San Antonio, Texas, USA Presiding: C.R. Glenn, N.P. James, P.A. Scholle Welcome to the SEPM Research Conference on Seafloor Alteration of Marine Carbonates! This session will consist of a nearly a full day of oral presentations. We also expect to produce a collection of papers from the meeting that will serve as contributions to a new SEPM Special Publication. The selected topic is designed to focus on both carbonate precipitation and carbonate dissolution features at the seafloor (or within a few meters of it), but will also include biological alteration (boring, microbial activities, etc.) and precipitation of associated minerals (sulfides, phosphates, and others). We are particularly interested in contrasting the styles of seafloor alteration in warm-water (shallow/tropical) settings with those found in higher latitude and/or deeper cool- and cold-water settings. We also have attempted to achieve an interesting and informative mix of papers on modern and ancient examples, combining information from both the oceanographic and geologic communities. Craig Glenn 31st IGC, General Symposium: "Authigenic Minerals in Marine and Continental Environments" held on August, 6-17, 2000, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Within the framework of the IUGS 31st International Geological Congress, held in Rio de Janeiro, a special symposium was organized on "Authigenic minerals in marine and continental environments". This meeting was proposed by the "FROMAGE" SEPM Research Group and attracted 22 poster and 7 invited oral contributions on a wide variety of authigenic minerals, ranging from glauconite and dolomite to evaporite and zeolite occurrences. The meeting started with the poster session (Monday afternoon, Aug. 14), and the organisers were quite happy with the ratio of posters announced and actually presented (56%), which was higher than at the majority of the other symposia. The following presentations were given: Abed, A.M. and Amireh, B.S., A new occurrence of an upper Cretaceous phosphorite belt in the southeastern desert of Jordan Al-Asam, I.S. and Coniglio, M., Water chemistry and sediment composition in McGinnes Lake, southern Ontario: implications for marl deposition Amorosi, A., Perspectives on the sequence stratigraphy of glaucony-rich deposits as revealed by the Cenomanian glaucony of Normandy (northern France) (also oral presentation) Castro, L.N., et al., Rare earth elements in phosphatic deposits of Patagonia, Argentina Emelyanov, E., Authigenic minerals at both sides of the redox barrier Eh in the seas Eder, V.G., Glauconite and phosphorite of the condensed upper Jurassic Georgiev Formation of the west Siberian plate Franz, B and Barth-Wirsching, U., Zeolitization of a phonolithic pyroclastic ash flow by groundwater in the Laach volcanic area, Germany Garrison, G., et al., Laminated seasonal authigenic sedimentation and climate history within a brackish coastal Hawaiian pond Gaspar, L., Comparative study of the phosphorites from the continental margin and the seamounts in the Atlantic north off Portugal Hein, J.R., et al., Cenozoic paleoceanographic history derived from Fe-Mn oxyhydroxide crusts (also oral presentation) Hesse, R., et al., Ordovician organigenic deep-sea dolomite: physical and chemical conditions of concretion growth Neumann, T. and Heiser, U., The composition of authigenic rhodochrosites from sapropelic sediments of the Baltic Sea: indications of oxygenation of anoxic sediments Piper, D.Z., Bottom-water redox and primary productivity of the Phosphoria Formation; a phosphorite of Permian age Pulyaeva, I.A. and Hein, J.R., Regional, spatial and temporal correlations among Fe-Mn oxyhydroxide crusts, central Pacific Ocean Scasso, R.A., et al., Phosphogenesis, sequence stratigraphy and paleoceanography in Gaiman Formation phosphates Schreiber, C.B., Authigenic evaporites: implications for sedimentary history (also oral presentation) Silva, M.A.M., et al., Aptian halites of the Sergipe Basin, northeast Brazil: implications for seawater chemical composition through fluid-inclusion analyses Sumner, Y.D. and Tourre, S.A., Ferrous iron and the cristallographic characteristics of herringbone calcite (also oral presentation) Yim, W.W.S. and Tovey, N.K., Authigenic minerals in a "stable" siliciclastics-dominated inner shelf during the Quaternary (also oral presentation) Zanin, Y., et al., Uranium of sedimentary carbonate at catagenesis Zanin, Y., et al., Ultramicrostructure of continental phosphate coprolite Ziegler, A.M. and Goldberg, K., Permian phosphorite provinces and their diverse paleoceanographic settings The oral presentations were held on Tuesday, Aug. 15, and included the following presentations (in alphabetic order) Amorosi, A., Perspectives on the sequence stratigraphy of glaucony-rich deposits as revealed by the Cenomanian glaucony of Normandy (northern France) Föllmi, K.B., Phosphogenesis, the phosphorus cycle, and environmental change Hein, J.R., et al., Cenozoic paleoceanographic history derived from Fe-Mn oxyhydroxide crusts McKenzie, J.A., Microbial carbonate precipitation by anaerobic bacteria: a natural experiment in Lagoa Vermelha, Brazil Schreiber, C.B., Authigenic evaporites: implications for sedimentary historySumner, Y.D. and Tourre, S.A., Ferrous iron and the cristallographic characteristics of herringbone calcite Yim, W.W.S. and Tovey, N.K., Authigenic minerals in a "stable" siliciclastics-dominated inner shelf during the Quaternary The poster and oral sessions were headed by Maria Silva and Geoffrey Garrison, and both did an admirable job in organizing and streamlining the sessions (together with Craig Glenn, who was the organizer and initiator of this meeting, but who was not able to attend the meeting). The oral session was then followed by the FROMAGE business meeting, during which a variety of topics were discussed, such as 1. History and goals of the FROMAGE SEPM research group 2. Recent publication edited by Glenn, C., Lucas-Prévôt, L., and Lucas, J., 2000, Marine authigenesis; from global to microbial. SEPM Spec. Publ. No. 66. 3. Availability and maintenance of the FROMAGE web site (http://www-geol.unine.ch/FROMAGE/welcome.html) 4. Planning of a special journal volume with contributions made during this meeting as well as contributions from others wishing to participate. 5. Planning of a future workshop and fieldtrip With regards to point 5, several propositions were made, which are listed below. 1. Meeting and fieldtrip in Trelew, Argentina, to be organized by R. Scasso, L. Castro, and M. Leanze (Buenos Aires). Goal of the fieldtrips: Upper Cretaceous and early Paleocene, as well as upper Oligocene and lower Miocene phosphorites. Possible date: March-April or Sept. 2002 2. Meeting and fieldtrip in Amman, Jordan, with a fieldtrip also to Egypt, to be organized by A. Abed (Amman). Goal of the fieldtrips: upper Cretaceous siliceous and phosphatic formations (Amman and Duwi Formations), amongst others. Possible date: spring 2002? 3. Meeting and fieldtrip in Switzerland, similar to the 1993 Interlaken meeting, to be organized by K. Föllmi (Neuchâtel). Goal of the fieldtrip: Jurassic and Cretaceous glauconitic and phosphatic beds in the Alps and Jura Mountains. Possible date: sept. 2002 4. Meeting and fieldtrip in Santa Barbara, CA, USA, to be organized by K. Föllmi (Neuchâtel) and Glenn, C. (Honolulu). Goal of the fieldtrip: Authigenic dolomite, siliceous phases, and phosphates in the Miocene Monterey Formation. Possible date: june-sept. 2002 We would like to ask you to give us your feedback on your preferences, and we would also like to receive further propositions if possible. Based on the outcome of the feedback, we hope to make a decision during Fall, this year. Karl B. Föllmi
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