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Iron-rich carbonates and the oxidized remains of former carbonates (iron-oxide concretions) underlie bleached Navajo Sandstone over large portions of southern Utah. Iron in the carbonates came from hematite rims on sand grains in the upper Navajo that were dissolved when small quantities of methane accumulated beneath the sealing Carmel Formation. As a second buoyant gas (CO2 derived from Oligocene-Miocene magmas) reached the seal and migrated up dip, it dissolved in the underlying water, enhancing the solution's density. This water carried the released ferrous iron and the methane downward. Carbonates precipitated when the descending, reducing water degassed along fractures. The distribution of a broad array of iron-rich features made recognition of the extent of the ancient flow systems possible. Although siderite is not preserved, dense, rhombic, mm-scale, iron-oxide pseudomorphs after ferrous carbonates are common. Distinctive patterns of iron oxide were also produced when large (cm-scale), poikilotopic carbonate crystals with multiple iron-rich zones dissolved in oxidizing waters. Rhombic pseudomorphs are found in the central cores of small spheroids and large (meter-scale), irregular concretions that are defined by thick, tightly cemented rinds of iron-oxide-cemented sandstone. The internal structure and distribution of these features reveal their origins as ironcarbonate concretions that formed within a large-scale flow system that was altered dramatically during Neogene uplift of the Colorado Plateau. With rise of the Plateau, the iron-carbonate concretions passed upward from reducing formation water to shallow, oxidizing groundwater flowing parallel to modern drainages. Finally they passed into the vadose zone. Absolute dating of different portions of these widespread concretions could thus reveal uplift rates for a large portion of the Plateau. Iron-rich masses in other sedimentary rocks may reveal flow systems with similar histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concretions with thick, iron oxide-cemented rinds and lightly cemented, iron-poor sandstone cores are abundant within the Navajo Sandstone near the southeast flank of the Escalante anticline (Utah, United States). Previous workers suggested the spheroidal concretions as analogs for Martian "blueberries" (hematite concretions), and linked the origin of concretions and bleaching of the Navajo Sandstone to the buoyant rise of hydrocarbons toward anticlinal crests. We measured azimuths of 163 pipe-like (pipy), joint-associated concretions and those of 58 "comet tails" that extend from some spherical concretions. Both data sets have vector magnitudes >90%, and subparallel, southeast-directed resultant vectors. Our data indicate that groundwater transported and deposited iron over a flow path that spanned more than 100 km from the anticlinal crest to the Colorado River. Buoyant fluids could not have transported iron from bleached rock to sites of concretion growth, however, because iron moved downdip. We propose that iron was transported southeastward by reducing groundwater that flowed through a CO2- and methane-charged reservoir within the Escalante anticline. Iron-rich carbonates precipitated during CO2 degassing. After methane was flushed from the aquifer, microaerophiles oxidized Fe2+ in concretions, dissolving the carbonates and forming the iron oxide-rich rinds and iron-poor cores. These concretions define the flow direction and geochemical evolution of a paleoaquifer. This approach could be used to follow the water on other planets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A response to a letter to the editor is presented by Richard M. Kettler, David B. Loope and Karrie A. Weber, authors of an article on the geology in the Jurassic period of Navajo sandstone located in Utah.

Dune fields and loess deposits of the Great Plains of North America contain stratigraphic records of eolian activity that can be used to extend the short observational record of drought. We present a 10,000 yr reconstruction of dune activity and dust production in the central Great Plains region, based on 95 optically stimulated luminescence ages. The integration of data from both eolian sand and loess is an important new aspect of this record. Clusters of ages define episodes of extensive eolian activity, which we interpret as a response to frequent severe drought, at 1.0-0.7 ka and 2.3-4.5 ka (with peaks centered on 2.5 and 3.8 ka); sustained eolian activity occurred from 9.6 to 6.5 ka. Parts of this record may be consistent with hypotheses linking Hobocene drought to sea surface temperature anomalies in the Pacific or Atlantic oceans, or to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon, but the record as a whole is difficult to reconcile with any of these hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]