Sample return of interstellar matter (SARIM)

The scientific community has expressed strong interest to re-fly Stardust-like missions with improved instrumentation. We propose a new mission concept, SARIM, that collects interstellar and interplanetary dust particles and returns them to Earth. SARIM is optimised for the collection and discrimination of interstellar dust grains. Improved active dust collectors on-board allow us to perform in-situ determination of individual dust impacts and their impact location. This will provide important constraints for subsequent laboratory analysis. The SARIM spacecraft will be placed at the L2 libration point of the Sun–Earth system, outside the Earth’s debris belts and inside the solar-wind charging environment. SARIM is three-axes stabilised and collects interstellar grains between July and October when the relative encounter speeds with interstellar dust grains are lowest (4 to 20 km/s). During a 3-year dust collection period several hundred interstellar and several thousand interplanetary grains will be collected by a total sensitive area of 1 m². At the end of the collection phase seven collector modules are stored and sealed in a MIRKA-type sample return capsule. SARIM will return the capsule containing the stardust to Earth to allow for an extraction and investigation of interstellar samples by latest laboratory technologies.     

Post-glacial rebound and present-day three-dimensional deformations

The WEGENER^† activities related to the study of post-glacial rebound are presented together with a review of the present state-of-the-art in this study field. Post-glacial rebound research is an unique tool for studying the viscoelastic behaviour of the Earth's mantle on time scales of thousands of years. The viscosity structure of the Earth's mantle determined from an inversion of observations of glacially induced deformations is a basic requirement for modelling long-term phenomena such as the convection in the Earth's mantle, and for better understanding unsolved questions such as the nature of the mantle discontinuities or the vertical scale of convection.First, an introduction to the scientific background is given, and the three principal ingredients for post-glacial rebound studies, namely the ice model, the Earth model, and the observations are briefly considered. For the ice model, the uncertainties due to a trade-off between ice model and Earth rheology are outlined. The different approaches used to model the Earth and its deformations in post-glacial rebound studies are discussed emphasising the preliminary nature of the derived rheologies and depth dependencies. The observations, in particular the relative sea-level changes and three-dimensional surface deformations, are described with special emphasis on observational gaps. Based on the discussion of the ingredients, an outline of the future developments in post-glacial rebound research is attempted with particular emphasis on the Earth model and the theory of deformations.For several decades extreme efforts have been made to precisely monitor the land uplift in Scandinavia. However, for the height component the existing data still are associated with large uncertainties while reliable data on the horizontal component are practically nil. The ongoing long-term (longer than ten years) spacegeodetic measurements are likely to provide the three-dimensional deformations with the spatial resolution and accuracy required in order to substantially contribute to post-glacial rebound studies. Thus, present-day three-dimensional deformations of the Earth's surface beneath and around the former ice sheets as a constraint for the mantle rheology and viscosity structure will increasingly become important as they become known from space-geodetic measurements with high spatial resolution and an accuracy approaching the mm/a-level.     

Diamonds and the Kokchetav Massif

<正>A geodynamical revolution in modern geosciences was initiated by Chopin(1984)and Smith(1984),who discovered metamorphic coesite in rocks of the Dora Maira Massif,Italy and the Western gneiss region,Norway,respectively.The term"UHP metamorphism"was born and such rocks which initially have been considered as products of an exotic process on a local scale,     

Petrogenesis of early cretaceous andesite dykes in the Sulu orogenic belt,eastern China

Mineralogy and Petrology - This study presents data of in-situ mineral major and trace element chemistry, whole-rock major and trace element and Sr–Nd isotope geochemistry, as well as zircon...     

Experimental constraints on the genesis of Jadeite quartzite from Shuanghe, Dabie Mountain ultra-high pressure metamorphic terrane

Jadeite quartzite,essentially a two-phase rock made up of jadeite and quartz,is one of the most important UHP lithologies occurring in the Dabie Mountain ultrahigh pressure metamorphic belt and forms layers in biotite-plagioclase gneiss.High pressurehigh temperature studies on natural albite from the country rock gneiss were undertaken to reveal the—in parts—complex mineralogical changes that occur in the jadeite quartzite during prograde metamorphism.Experiments were conducted at 800–1200°C,in the pressure range of 2.0–3.5 GPa.One of the most intriguing results shows that the low pressure boundary of the jadeite+coesite stability field is located between about 3.2 GPa at 1000°C and 3.4 GPa at 1200°C,thus about(0.2–0.3)±0.1GPa higher than the quartz-coesite transition curve,given the uncertainty in the present study.Minor amounts of sodium and aluminum entering the structure of quartz and the intimate intergrowth texture of the run products may contribute to the observed pressure shift.Combined petrological and mineralogical studies on the run products and the natural rocks yield the following prograde reaction sequence to have occurred:The protolith of the jadeite-quartzite from Dabie Mountain is an albitized siltstone/greywacke characterized by an albite+quartz assemblage.During prograde metamorphism albite breaks down to form jadeite+quartz and thus at this stage two types of quartz can be distinguished whereas type-I-quartz already existed in the protolith,type-II-quartz represents a newly formed reaction product of albite.During further P-T-increase the pure type-I-quartz was transformed to coesite,whereas type-II-quartz(together with jadeite)was still present as a stable phase because of its impurities of Na and Al.At a later stage during further subduction,type-II-quartz also decomposes to form coesite.These studies represent an important puzzlement for a better understanding of the evolution of jadeite-quartzite from the Dabie Mountain during continental crust subduction and thus contribute to a more complete knowledge of the formation of the Dabie Mountain UHP orogenic belt in general.     

南极菲尔德斯半岛地区土壤中主要元素的迁移与富集

对 Si、Al、Fe、Ca、Mg、Mn、K、Na和 P等元素在南极菲尔德斯半岛地区三个代表性土壤剖面 (不饱和寒冻雏形土、纤维质寒冻有机土和鸟成土 )中的迁移与富集规律进行了研究 ,结果表明 ,本区土壤中物质移动和元素迁移现象明显 ;几种主要元素在不同类型土壤以及同一土壤不同层次中的移动行为有显著差异 ,土壤自由水状况和地表生物活动在元素迁移与富集过程中发挥重要作用。另外 ,在土壤发育和土壤粘粒形成过程中 ,不同元素在不同土壤颗粒之间的再分配现象存在较大差异。     

Accumulation Rate Measurements at Taylor Dome, East Antarctica: Techniques and Strategies for Mass Balance Measurements in Polar Environments

Accumulation rate measurements on the East Antarctic plateau are challenging due to both spatial and temporal variability. Annual stratigraphy is often not reliably or consistently preserved in the firn, and so accumulation cannot be determined from snow pit stratigraphy. We present a suite of accumulation rate measurements collected over several seasons at Taylor Dome, East Antarctica. We compare net accumulation results from direct burial rate measurements and β -activity firn cores along a 35 km traverse. The two methods are consistent and show that the net accumulation varies from greater than 10 cm a⁻¹ to about 1 cm a⁻¹ (ice equivalent) southwest to northeast across the dome. We map the depth of shallow radar layering to interpolate and extrapolate these point-location measurements and show that considerable variations occur over kilometer scales resulting from subtle surface topography. We also present accumulation rates estimated from concentration of the cosmogenic isotope ¹⁰Be and from activity profiles of ²¹⁰Pb. Finally, satellite passive microwave data are used to estimate spatially averaged accumulation rates on the regional to continental scale to provide a context for these local observations. We show that robust mass balance measurements in this environment must rely on spatial and/or temporal averaging.     

Fluid-mediated modification of garnet interiors under ultrahigh-pressure conditions

We report the results of a novel experimental study on eclogitic garnets with abundant inclusions of clinozoisite, quartz and rutile subjected to temperatures (T) of 800–1100 °C and a pressure (P) of 4 GPa, representative of ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic terranes such as the Kokchetav massif, Saxonian Erzgebirge, etc. The experiments reveal extremely rapid recrystallization and partial melting of garnet interiors controlled by fluids liberated from the breakdown of the hydrous mineral inclusions. The traditional assumption that inclusions of minerals and primary fluid inclusions should be representative of the peak or even earlier metamorphic history cannot be strictly applied in this case. We argue that inclusions in UHP garnets may mirror P–T conditions postdating growth of the host crystal or even P–T conditions never actually experienced by the rock itself. The above modification of garnet interiors produces a typical patchy microstructure that occurs in natural eclogitic garnet from the diamond-bearing UHP Kokchetav massif.     

Fault plane solutions of microearthquakes and small events in the Hellenic arc

The Hellenic arc is the most active seismic region of the transition zone between the African and Eurasian plates. In this rapidly deforming region, the physical state of the crust and upper mantle may vary laterally and vertically. However, a detailed 3D model of the region is lacking. The reliable determination of fault plane solutions is crucial if such a model is to be produced. On this basis, fault plane solutions have been determined from recent microearthquakes and small events to assess their reliability for use in tectonic interpretation. A search algorithm on first motion data and amplitude ratios and also a waveform-matching scheme were employed on data from our temporal network, operated on the western part of the island of Crete. There, a network of 47 three-component digital stations with an aperture of 60 km and an average station spacing of 5 km was operated in 1997. The majority of the shallow microearthquakes under Crete for which fault plane solutions were determined have a near horizontal T-axis oriented essentially E–W. Differences between well determined fault plane solutions from the search algorithm and the waveform-matching technique were significant (strike up to 45°, dip up to 10°, and slip up to 50°). Second, data of small events within the Hellenic subduction zone were obtained from recently installed broadband stations at local and regional distances and inverted for a deviatoric seismic moment tensor. Available solutions from other sources such as the Harvard group, EMSC, or SED show drastic differences in part. Owing to still limited azimuthal station coverage, the resulting fault plane solutions of small events have generally not been well constrained. The observed large variation of fault plane solutions for micoearthquakes and small events poses a caveat to tectonic interpretation in case of using data from a few stations only.     

Water level changes along the Norwegian coast

The water level records of 11 stations from the Norwegian coast having the recording interval 1971–1972 in common have been analysed with a least squares algorithm. The results for the harmonic constants are compared to open ocean tide models and a good agreement is found. The variation of tidal parameters and mean sea level are calculated from a 70 years water level record from Bergen. An 18.6 yearly variation in amplitude and phase of the fortnightly tide Mf could be identified. Cross correlation techniques are used to investigate the nontidal part of the water level changes. Correlating the residuals of the analyses with each other, the main nontidal water level changes are found to be moving from south to north along the Norwegian coast, taking 20 hours to reach from Stavanger to Vadsø. The effect of local air pressure on sea level is modelled using transfer functions. Mean sea level changes in Bergen are found to correlate with changes in length of day and changes in global surface temperature.