No abstract

The western Chugach Mountains and Prince William Sound are located in a syntaxial bend, which lies above fl at-slab subduction of the Yakutat microplate and inboard of the Yakutat collision zone of southern Alaska. The syntaxis is characterized by arcuate fault systems and steep, high topography, which suggest focused uplift and exhumation of the accretionary prism. We examined the exhumation history with low-temperature thermochronometry of 42 samples collected across the region. These new apatite (U-Th)/He, apatite fi ssion-track, zircon (U-Th)/He, and zircon fi ssion-track ages, combined with ages from surrounding regions, show a bull'seye pattern, with the youngest ages focused on the western Chugach syntaxis. The ages have ranges of ca. 10-4 Ma, ca. 35-11 Ma, ca. 33-25 Ma, and ca. 44-27 Ma, respectively. The youngest ages are located on the south (windward) side of the Chugach Mountains and just north of the Contact fault. Sequentially higher closure temperature systems are nested across Prince William Sound in the south, the Chugach Mountains, and the Talkeetna Mountains to the north. Computed exhumation rates typically are 0.2 mm/yr across Prince William Sound, increase abruptly to ~0.7 mm/yr across and adjacent to the Contact fault system, and decrease to ~0.4 mm/yr north of the core of the Chugach Mountains. The abrupt age and exhumation rate changes centered on the Contact fault system suggest that it may be a critical structural system for facilitating rock uplift. Our data are most consistent with Yakutat fl at-slab subduction starting in the Oligocene, and since then ~11 km of rock uplift north of the Contact fault and ~4-5 km of rock uplift in Prince William Sound to the south. These data are consistent with a deformation model where the western Chugach core has approached long-term exhumational steady state, though exhumation rates have probably increased in the last ~5 m.y. We interpret that rock uplift in the overriding wedge has been driven dominantly by underplating, with long-term vertical displacement concentrated at the southern edge of the Chugach Mountains and centered on the Contact fault system. Though our data do not unequivocally differentiate between Pliocene tectonic-or climate-related causes for increased exhumation in the last ~5 m.y., we interpret the increased rates to be due to increased infl ux of underplated sediments that are derived from erosion in the Saint Elias orogen collision zone.

We present thermochronologic and geochronologic data that constrain the slip history of the Buckskin-Rawhide detachment fault in west central Arizona, one of the largest extensional fault systems in the North American Cordillera. (U-Th)/He zircon and apatite thermochronology, integrated with 40 Ar/ 39 Ar geochronology of postdetachment volcanic rocks, indicate that large-magnitude extension associated with the detachment fault initiated at~21-20 Ma and continued until~12-11 Ma in the southwestern portion of the Buckskin-Rawhide metamorphic core complex. (U-Th)/He footwall cooling ages from the breakaway zone in the western Bouse Hills to upper greenschist-facies mylonites in the southern Buckskin Mountains indicate that the slip rate on the detachment fault was 3 + 1.5/À1 km/Myr during the early Miocene. Space-time patterns of hanging wall tilting suggest that at 17-16 Ma, a secondary detachment fault breakaway developed 12 km northeast of the primary detachment fault breakaway. Proximal conglomerates deposited in a supradetachment basin adjacent to the secondary breakaway scarp were displaced 6-11 km northeast in the middle Miocene by the Buckskin-Rawhide detachment fault at a slip rate of 1.2-2.7 km/Myr. The total displacement across the detachment fault in the southwestern portion of the core complex is 24 ± 10 km, well short of the previous estimate of 66 ± 8 km across the entire core complex. Based on these data and new observations, we propose that total displacement on the Buckskin-Rawhide detachment fault system increases in the slip direction to~40-50 km at the northeastern end of the exposed footwall, corresponding to time-averaged slip rates that ranged from~2 km/Myr to ≤6 km/Myr across the entire core complex.

The effects of continuous feeding of graded levels (.5, 1.0, 2.0 ppm) of ochratoxin A (OA) for eight weeks to male and female broiler chickens were investigated. A depression in body weight gain was observed in all groups receiving OA. The depression was proportional to the level of exposure to OA and was more marked and prolonged in males than in females. Detectable residues of OA were observed in the liver and kidney of birds fed 2 ppm OA. Residues disappeared from liver within 24 hr and from kidney within 48 hr after withdrawal of the mycotoxin from feed. No residues of OA were found in muscle or fat.

Ochratoxin A was given by gavage to male rats. Moribund and dead animals were necropsied, and the surviving rats, including the controls, were killed 48 hours after dosing. Many of the principal rats were moribund, or began dying, within 12 to 24 hours after dosing. Lesions suggestive of disseminated intravascular coagulation were seen by light microscopy as early as 12 hours after dosing; fibrin deposits were in the spleen, brain choroid plexus, glomerular capillaries, liver, and heart. Renal tubular nephrosis, hepatic and lymphoid necrosis, and necrotic enteritis with villous atrophy were also seen. Electron microscopy demonstrated fibrin strands mixed with degranulated platelets, necrotic leukocytes, and swollen endothelial cells in glomerular capillaries. Myocardial changes included focal supercontracted sarcomeres adjacent to intercalated disks. Swollen sarcolemma, lysed myofibrils and fragmented Z-bands with interstitial edema, vascular thrombosis, and endothelial damage were also seen. The acute pathologic changes induced by ochratoxin A in the intestine, liver, and lymphoid tissues were more obvious than the tubular nephrosis, and the development of a disseminated intravascular coagulation-like syndrome with myocardial changes was a complicating factor.