Chemical and isotopic evidence for the nature of the fluid in CH4-containing sediments of the Håkon Mosby Mud Volcano

The pore waters of CH₄-containing sediments of the Håkon Mosby Mud Volcano were rich in NH⁺ ₄, Br^-, and I^-; exhibited a high total alkalinity; but were poor in Cl^-and SO^2- ₄. The geological evidence and our data suggest that organic matter decomposition in preglacial or early interglacial sediments took place during early diagenesis (bacterial processes) and during metamorphism (thermogenic processes under the 3100-m-thick layer of glacial sediments), accompanied by mud volcano fluid generation. It is argued that the CH₄of the mud volcano sediments has a mixed, biogenic and thermogenic, origin.     

The first experience the transportation of deep-water methane hydrates in a container

Deep-water experiments on the transportation of collected samples of methane hydrates from a lake’s bottom to a support container were carried out as part of the MIRY na Baikale (2008–2009) expedition run by the Russian Academy of Sciences. High pressures and low temperatures are necessary for gas hydrates stability. As a sample of the hydrate is lifted to the water’s surface, it intensively decomposes into water and methane gas. To reduce the decomposition, we used a container in which the hydrate’s sample occurs in a gas medium rather than in water, which results in a substantial reduction in the rate of the heat exchange. At that, the gas for the container’s filling was supplied by the hydrate itself due to its partial decomposition. To estimate the method’s efficiency, we observed the hydrate’s decomposition during lifting from a depth of 1400 m using different transportation techniques such as gas- or water-filled containers or fixing the sample in the manipulator’s arm of the submersible. The sample in the gaseous medium was the only one that was safely delivered on board the support container, while the two others completely decomposed during the transportation. It is remarkable that all the samples started to decompose simultaneously at a depth of 380 m but their decomposition occurred at different rates.     

Magnetic connections of solar formations inside magneto-isolated complexes based on observations of arch structures and calculations of magnetic field lines

The magnetic connections of solar formations inside magneto-isolated complexes with areas outside the complexes were determined from the loop structures in the upper chromosphere and corona, as well as from calculations of magnetic field lines. It was found that 65% of the constructed field lines are closed within complexes or not closed on the solar surface, while 35% of the field lines intersect the boundary of the complex. Short field lines that intersect the boundary of the complex often connect the points of low intensity. The ends of the long field lines coincide with ends of the arch structures, whose higher parts are not visible in the 17.1 nm line. The short field lines coincide in position with the loop structures at the corona level. It was shown that there are three types of magnetic field variations depending on the height above the complexes.     

Reduction of CCD observations made with the Fabry-Perot scanning interferometer. II. Additional procedures

We describe a software package used at the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences to reduce and analyze the data obtained with the Fabry-Perot scanning interferometer. We already described most of the algorithms employed in our earlier paper [1]. In this paper we focus on extra procedures required in the case of the use of a high-resolution Fabry-Perot interferometer: removal of ghosts and measurement of the velocity dispersion of ionized gas in galactic and extragalactic objects.     

Gas emission spectrum in the Irr galaxy IC 10

Observations of the dwarf Irr galaxy IC 10 have been performed at the 6-m Special Astrophysical Observatory telescope with the SCORPIO focal reducer in the mode of a slit spectrograph. The ionized-gas emission spectrum in the region of intense current star formation has been investigated. The relative oxygen, N⁺, and S⁺ abundances in about twenty H II regions and the synchrotron superbubble have been estimated. The galaxy-averaged oxygen abundance is 12 + log(O/H) = 8.17 ± 0.35 and the metallicity is Z = 0.18 ± 0.14Z _⊙. The metallicity found by comparing diagnostic diagrams with photoionization models is shown to be less reliable than its estimate based on strong oxygen lines.     

Mineralogy and petrography of a kimberlite-picrite dike in the northwestern Urik-Iya Graben,the eastern Sayan region

Mica kimberlite and alkali picrite were identified in the northwestern Urik-Iya Graben of the eastern Sayan region. Typomorphism of Cr-diopside and high-Cr (up to 55.22 wt % Cr₂O₃) spinel from kimberlite of the Bushkanai dike indicate that the melt was generated in the mantle, composed of spinel peridotite. The high content of Cr-spinel (45–55 wt % Cr₂O₃) microlites in the groundmass of kimberlite and small amounts of ulvospinel and titanomagnetite in the absence of perovskite testifies to the diamond potential of this kimberlite. Picroilmenite, manganoilmenite with an anomalously high MnO content (11.37–17.78 wt %), and barium titanate with (wt %) 62.21 TiO₂, 0.61 Cr₂O₃, 15.89 FeO, 4.05 MnO, 1.71 CaO, and 11.13 BaO close in composition to a new mineral species from the Murun pluton were identified in the groundmass for the first time. Kimberlite from the Bushkanai dike belongs to the Zolotitsa low-Ti geochemical type of kimberlites derived from the slightly enriched lithospheric mantle EM1. The distribution of trace elements, including REE, in picrite from the same dike corresponds to the slightly depleted asthenospheric mantle. Different mantle sources of kimberlite and picrite from the same dike indicate that these rocks are related to independent melts rather than to products of fractionation of a common parental alkaline ultramafic magma.     

Environmental monitoring in a gas production area on the northwestern Black-Sea shelf

The results of long-term seasonal oceanographic observations conducted by YugNIRO from 1955 to 1991 in standard cross-sections on the northwestern shelf of the Black Sea and data obtained by monitoring oil and chemical pollution of the marine environment from 1987 to 1993 in the area of gas deposit development are systematized and statistically treated. The oceanographic conditions of pollution field formation in this region are studied. The dynamics and distribution of total concentrations of oil products and microelements (Hg, Cu, Pb, Cd, and Cr) in water and bottom sediments are examined in the areas in Karkinitskii Bay where permanent offshore platforms are operated. The obtained results are compared with data on the background environmental pollution of the Black Sea and World Ocean. A hypothesis is offered to elucidate the possible causes and mechanisms through which offshore gas production affects the hydrochemical conditions on the shelf. The monitoring data are said to be a necessary information basis for the prediction of pollution dynamics in Karkinitskii Bay with the use of a box-type hydroecological model of petroleum hydrocarbon biotransformations in water, and approaches for the use of these data for this purpose are outlined.