The origin of high magnetic remanence in fault pseudotachylites: Theoretical considerations and implication for coseismic electrical currents

Several examples of fault-related pseudotachylites display a significantly higher initial magnetic susceptibility than their granitic host rock (10:1 to 20:1). These higher values are attributed to the presence of fine magnetic particles formed during melt quenching. The hysteresis properties of the particles indicate a single domain (SD) to pseudo single domain (PSD) magnetic grain size. The Curie temperature (Tc) of the magnetic particles is close to 580 °C.The natural remanent magnetization (NRM) of these pseudotachylites is also significantly higher than that of the host rock (up to 300:1). Such anomalously high remanence cannot be explained by a magnetization acquired in the Earth's magnetic field, regardless of pseudotachylite age.Ground lightning and other strong electric pulses can cause anomalously high NRM intensities. A ground lightning explanation seems unlikely to explain the systematically high NRM intensities, particularly in the case of recently exposed samples that have been collected from active quarries. Alternatively, high NRM intensities could be explained by earthquake lightning (EQL), a seismic phenomenon occasionally reported in connection with large magnitude earthquakes (M > 6.0).The coseismic electrical properties of the pseudotachylite vein–host rock system are characterized by (1) a core of molten material (high conductivity), (2) vapor-rich margins of thermally and mechanically fractured host rocks (low conductivity) and (3) moderately fractured to undeformed host rock (normal conductivity). Such a core conductor bordered by insulating margins is potentially responsible for the propagation of EQL pulses.The coseismic thermal history of pseudotachylite veins has been modeled in 2-D using conductive heat transfer equations. It shows that EQL can be recorded only during a brief time interval (less than 1 min) for a given vein thickness and host-rock temperatures. If the vein is too thick or if the host rock is too hot, the pseudotachylite remains above Tc after the electric pulse has lapsed.     

黑海西南陆架(土耳其)全新世沉积物矿物学及其与物源、海平面和海流状态的关系

岩心中沉积物颗粒大小和矿物成分用来研究不同大陆和海洋环境的影响。在全新世,黑海西南陆架地区都处于这种环境。附近沿海腹地主要沉积类型是硅质碎屑泥质夹少量砂质和砾石。陆架边缘、伊斯坦布尔海峡和杜鲁湖(古河口)沉积物为大量生物成因和陆源砂质和砾石。数量不等的文石、10A-云母、石英、长石、方解石、白云石构成主要的非黏土矿物。<2μm的黏土矿物组合为蒙脱石、伊利石、高岭土、绿泥石。文石和方解石主要来自底栖聚集物,而长石(主要是斜长石)和蒙脱石反映其岩浆和火山物源区。10A-云母和绿泥石的分布与附近的变质岩源区相关。然而…     

Hybridization of mafic microgranular enclaves: mineral and whole-rock chemistry evidence from the Karamadazı Granitoid, Central Turkey

On the Eastern Tauride Belt, the Cretaceous calc-alkaline Karamadazı Granitoid consists of quartz diorite containing mafic microgranular enclaves (MME) and leucocratic granite. The quartz diorite consists of plagioclase (An_8-65), hornblende, biotite, K-feldspar, quartz, epidote and titanite. Subrounded MME in the quartz diorite are holocrystalline, fine-grained, quartz diorite to diorite in composition, and display a similar mineral assemblage to their host. Large crystals in MME and quartz diorite show various disequilibrium microstructures indicative of hybridization. Plagioclase crystals exhibit inverse, normal, and oscillatory zoning with maximum core-to-rim An content increase up to 38% in the enclave and 40% in the quartz diorite. Both hornblende and augite exhibit normal and reverse zoning even in the same sample. The new field, textural, mineral compositional, and geochemical evidence leads to the conclusion that MME could have formed through injection of successive pulses of basic magma into upward mobile magma chambers containing cooler, partially crystalline quartz diorite magma. The quartz diorites show similarity to high-Al TTG (tonalites–trondhjemites–granodiorites), with their high Na₂O, Sr, LREE, and low Mg#, Cr, HREE contents, and are suggested to be produced by extensive interaction between the crustal and mantle-derived melts through mixing at depth. In contrast, leucogranites have geochemical characteristics distinct from the quartz diorites and MME, and are probably not involved in MME genesis.     

Orbits of new outer planetary satellites based on observations

More than 70 new distant satellites of major planets have been discovered over the past five years. Until recently, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the USA was the only institution that modeled the motion of these satellites based on observational data and computed their ephemerides. New independent computations are needed to ensure the reliability and to assess the accuracy of satellite ephemerides. In this paper, the results of our determination of orbital parameters for 73 new distant satellites of major planets based on all available observations are reported and the adopted model of perturbing forces acting on a satellite is described. The satellite motions are computed via numerical integration. A special program—an ephemeris server—is used to compute the ephemerides of satellites, which are freely available to any user on the Internet at http://lnfm1.sai.msu.ru/neb/nss/index.htm. The server offers ample choice in terms of the form and composition of the ephemerides produced. The paper gives examples of deviations of the theory from observations and comparisons of our results with JPL ephemerides. Standard deviations of observational results from the theory are equal to 0.3–0.5 for most of the satellites. A comparison of our models of the motion of satellites with those developed at JPL shows that deviations in topocentric coordinates do not exceed 0.01 over a six-year interval.__________Translated from Astronomicheskii Vestnik, Vol. 39, No. 2, 2005, pp. 128–140.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Emelyanov, Kanter.     

Geochemical features of the Okhotsk Sea Cenozoic volcanism

Cenozoic volcanic rocks were discovered on major rises of the inner Okhotsk Sea. In this paper, these rocks are geochemically typified, and the geodynamic conditions of their formation reconstructed. For this purpose, mineralogical and geochemical analyses as well as radioisotope age determinations were carried out. The radioisotope age determinations show that the Cenozoic volcanic rocks were formed during the Paleogene–Pleistocene. Within this period, Eocene and Plio-Pleistocene volcanic complexes are particularly prominent. Mineralogical and geochemical analyses show that the rocks belong to the calc-alkaline volcanic series. The Eocene volcanic rocks were formed under subaerial conditions, whereas the Plio-Pleistocene volcanics were formed under submarine conditions. The results of the study suggest that the Okhotsk Sea Basin was formed during the destruction of the Asian continental margin, the Eocene volcanism reflecting subaerial, the Plio-Pleistocene volcanism submarine stages of the Okhotsk Sea evolution.     

Petrogeochemical features of Oligocene-Early Miocene volcaniclastic rocks of the Sea of Japan

Petrographic and geochemical studies showed that the Oligocene-Early Miocene volcaniclastic rocks from the southern part of the Sea of Japan are ascribed to the high-potassium aluminous rocks of the subalkaline volcanic series of active continental margins. A comparative analysis revealed the spatiotemporal relation of Oligocene-Early Miocene subaerial volcanism of the Sea of Japan with Late Cretaceous and Eocene-Early Miocene ignimbrite volcanism of the East Eurasian margin. This allows us to refer the volcaniclastic rocks of the Sea of Japan to a stage of ignimbrite volcanism that occurred during relative quiescence against a general extension in the continental margin setting.     

Dark energy in the three-body problem: Wide triple galaxies

The structure and evolution of triple galaxy systems in the presence of the cosmic dark-energy background is studied in the framework of the three-body problem. The dynamics of wide triple systems are determinedmainly by the competition between the mutual gravitational forces between the three bodies and the anti-gravity created by the dark-energy background. This problem can be solved via numerical integration of the equations of motion with initial conditions that admit various types of evolutionary behavior of the system. Such dynamical models show that the anti-gravity created by dark energy makes a triple system less tightly bound, thereby facilitating its decay, with a subsequent transition to motion of the bodies away from each other in an accelerating regime with a linear Hubble-law dependence of the velocity on distance. The coefficient of proportionality between the velocity and distance in this asymptotic relation corresponds to the universal value H_Λ = 61 km s^?1 Mpc^?1, which depends only on the dark-energy density. The similarity of this relation to the large-scale recession of galaxies indicates that double and triple galaxies represent elementary dynamical cells realizing the overall behavior of a system dominated by dark energy on their own scale, independent of their masses and dimensions.     

Migration of Giant Gaseous Clumps and Structure of the Outer Solar System

Solar System Research - New data on the distribution of distant trans-Neptunian objects and on the properties of comets indicate the importance of dynamical processes in the outer part of the...     

Distribution of the near-earth objects

This paper analyzes the distribution of the orbits of near-Earth minor bodies from the data on more than 7500 objects. The distribution of large near-Earth objects (NEOs) with absolute magnitudes of H < 18 is generally consistent with the earlier predictions (Bottke et al., 2002; Stuart, 2003), although we have revealed a previously undetected maximum in the distribution of perihelion distances q near q = 0.5 AU. The study of the orbital distribution for the entire sample of all detected objects has found new significant features. In particular, the distribution of perihelion longitudes seriously deviates from a homogeneous pattern; its variations are roughly 40% of its mean value. These deviations cannot be stochastic, which is confirmed by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with a more than 0.9999 probability. These features can be explained by the dynamic behavior of the minor bodies related to secular resonances with Jupiter. For the objects with H < 18, the variations in the perihelion longitude distribution are not so apparent. By extrapolating the orbital characteristics of the NEOs with H < 18, we have obtained longitudinal, latitudinal, and radial distributions of potentially hazardous objects in a heliocentric ecliptic coordinate frame. The differences in the orbital distributions of objects of different size appear not to be a consequence of observational selection, but could indicate different sources of the NEOs.     

Temporary satellite capture of comets by Jupiter

This paper studies the dynamical evolution of 97 Jupiter-family comets over an 800-year time period. More than two hundred encounters with Jupiter are investigated, with the observed comets moving during a certain period of time in an elliptic jovicentric orbit. In most cases this is an ordinary temporary satellite capture of a comet in Everhart??s sense, not associated with a transition of the small body into Jupiter??s family of satellites. The phenomenon occurs outside the Hill sphere with comets with a high Tisserand constant relative to Jupiter; the comets?? orbits have a small inclination to the ecliptic plane. An analysis of 236 encounters has allowed the determination within the planar pair two-body problem of a region of orbits in the plane (a, e) whose semimajor axes and eccentricities contribute to the phenomenon under study. Comets with orbits belonging to this region experience a temporary satellite capture during some of their encounters; the jovicentric distance function has several minima; and the encounters are characterized by reversions of the line of apsides and some others features of their combination that are intrinsic to comets in this region. Therefore, this region is called a region of comets with specific features in their encounters with Jupiter. Twenty encounters (out of 236), whereby the comet enters an elliptic jovicentric orbit in the Hill sphere, are identified and investigated. The size and shape of the elliptic heliocentric orbits enabling this transition are determined. It is found that in 11 encounters the motion of small bodies in the Hill sphere has features the most important of which is multiple minima of the jovicentric distance function. The study of these 20 encounters has allowed the introduction of the concept of temporary gravitational capture of a small body into the Hill sphere. An analysis of variations in the Tisserand constant in these (20) encounters of the observable comets shows that their motion is unstable in Hill??s sense.