The Landsat-7 ETM+ sensor offers several enhancements over the Landsat-4,5 Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor, including increased spectral information content, improved geodetic accuracy, reduced noise, reliable calibration, the addition of a panchromatic band, and improved spatial resolution of the thermal band. In this paper, we present some initial comparisons between Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-7 ETM+ imagery in order to quantify these improvements. We find that the ETM+ continues the record of TM observations, and, in many respects, substantially improves upon the earlier sensor. Specific improvements include lower spatial noise levels, improved information content, and geodetic accuracy of systematically corrected products to 50–100 m. These improvements are likely to have significant benefits for land-cover mapping and change detection applications.

Pervasively deformed Permian and, to a lesser extent, Triassic evaporites of the Northern Calcareous Alps form a tectonic melange, collectively known as (Alpine) Haselgebirge. Isotopic compositions of S and Sr and trace-element concentrations of Sr and Ba in Ca-sulfate minerals were investigated in terms of their stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental significance. The majority of the samples yielded delta(34)S values ranging from +9.8 to +13.8 parts per thousand, indicating precipitation from Late Permian seawater with local modifications due to bacterial sulfate reduction (BSR). Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios of these samples range widely from 0.7070 to 0.7098, but most samples show Sr isotope values between 0.7070 and 0.7074, overlapping with the accepted Late Permian seawater values. Comparison of both S and Sr isotopic compositions of individual samples reveals distinct trends of isotopic enrichment and depletion that can be linked to early diagenetic BSR, mixing with continental surface- or groundwaters, and burial diagenesis. Concentrations of Sr tend to be lower and Ba values show a tendency toward values higher than those reported from marine evaporites, implying variable diagenetic alteration. Triassic evaporites are volumetrically less important in the Haselgebirge than their Permian counterparts and are characterized by marine Upper Scythian to Lower Anisian S and Sr isotope values. In three localities hitherto unknown inclusions of these Triassic evaporites were identified within the Haselgebirge melange.

Sulfur isotope ratios in pyrite have high negative values characteristic of each level, confirming a syngenetic origin of the sulfide. Two samples of gypsum have high negative values corresponding to pyrite in the same samples, indicating that the gypsum is from oxidation of the pyrite and not an evaporite sediment.

A 330-metre core drilled through the marine Permian/Triassic boundary in the Carnic Alps of Austria allows closely correlated studies of geochemistry, petrography and palaeontology across the boundary. The isotope shifts and metal concentrations are extended, multiple and complex, and do not resemble those seen at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. Both the carbon isotope shifts and the chemical events (including an indium anomaly) may have causes related to a major regression of the sea.