Gravity field analysis of Sio Guyot: An isostatically compensated seamount in the Mid-Pacific Mountains

Positive gravity anomalies indicate two dense conduits or eruptive centers beneath the northern summit of Sio Guyot, western Mid-Pacific Mountains. The low amplitude of the positive anomalies and the gravity lows flanking the guyot can be explained by crust 2.5 times the normal Pacific Ocean crustal thickness extending to a depth of 22 ± 2 km. The excess mass of the seamount is 100% locally isostatically compensated by the mass deficit below; this compensation may result from flexural loading and voluminous sill injection near a former ridge-crest transform fault system trending roughly ENE and NNW.     

Wind erosion from military training lands in the Mojave Desert, California, U.S.A.

Military training activities reduce vegetation cover, disturb crusts, and degrade soil aggregates, making the land more vulnerable to wind erosion. The objective of this study was to quantify wind erosion rates for typical conditions at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, CA, U.S.A. Five Big Spring Number Eight (BSNE) sampler stations were installed at each of five sites. Each BSNE station consisted of five BSNE samplers with the lowest sampler at 0·05 m and the highest sampler at 1·0 m above the soil surface. Once a month, sediment was collected from the samplers for analysis. Occurrence of saltating soil aggregates was recorded every hour using Sensits, one at each site. The site with the most erosion had a sediment discharge of 311 kg m⁻¹ over a period of 17 months. Other sites eroded much less because of significant rock cover or the presence of a crust. Hourly sediment discharge was estimated combining hourly Sensit count and monthly sediment discharge measured using BSNE samplers. More simultaneously measured data are needed to better characterize the relationship between these two and reconstruct a detailed time-series of wind erosion. This measured time-series can then be used for comparison with simulation results from process-based wind erosion models such as the Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS), once it has been adapted to the unique aspects of military lands.     

Secondary mineralization pathways induced by dissimilatory iron reduction of ferrihydrite under advective flow

Iron (hydr)oxides not only serve as potent sorbents and repositories for nutrients and contaminants but also provide a terminal electron acceptor for microbial respiration. The microbial reduction of Fe (hydr)oxides and the subsequent secondary solid-phase transformations will, therefore, have a profound influence on the biogeochemical cycling of Fe as well as associated metals. Here we elucidate the pathways and mechanisms of secondary mineralization during dissimilatory iron reduction by a common iron-reducing bacterium, Shewanella putrefaciens (strain CN32), of 2-line ferrihydrite under advective flow conditions. Secondary mineralization of ferrihydrite occurs via a coupled, biotic-abiotic pathway primarily resulting in the production of magnetite and goethite with minor amounts of green rust. Operating mineralization pathways are driven by competing abiotic reactions of bacterially generated ferrous iron with the ferrihydrite surface. Subsequent to the initial sorption of ferrous iron on ferrihydrite, goethite (via dissolution/reprecipitation) and/or magnetite (via solid-state conversion) precipitation ensues resulting in the spatial coupling of both goethite and magnetite with the ferrihydrite surface. The distribution of goethite and magnetite within the column is dictated, in large part, by flow-induced ferrous Fe profiles. While goethite precipitation occurs over a large Fe(II) concentration range, magnetite accumulation is only observed at concentrations exceeding 0.3 mmol/L (equivalent to 0.5 mmol Fe[II]/g ferrihydrite) following 16 d of reaction. Consequently, transport-regulated ferrous Fe profiles result in a progression of magnetite levels downgradient within the column. Declining microbial reduction over time results in lower Fe(II) concentrations and a subsequent shift in magnetite precipitation mechanisms from nucleation to crystal growth. While the initial precipitation rate of goethite exceeds that of magnetite, continued growth is inhibited by magnetite formation, potentially a result of lower Fe(III) activity. Conversely, the presence of lower initial Fe(II) concentrations followed by higher concentrations promotes goethite accumulation and inhibits magnetite precipitation even when Fe(II) concentrations later increase, thus revealing the importance of both the rate of Fe(II) generation and flow-induced Fe(II) profiles. As such, the operating secondary mineralization pathways following reductive dissolution of ferrihydrite at a given pH are governed principally by flow-regulated Fe(II) concentration, which drives mineral precipitation kinetics and selection of competing mineral pathways.     

Punctuated,long-lived emplacement history of the Renard 2 kimberlite,Canada, revealed by new high precision U-Pb groundmass perovskite dating

Kimberlites are rare volatile-rich ultramafic magmas thought to erupt in short periods of time (<1 Myr) but there is a growing body of evidence that the emplacement history of a kimberlite can be significantly more protracted. In this study we report a detailed geochronology investigation of a single kimberlite pipe from the Renard cluster in north-central Québec. Ten new high precision ID-TIMS (isotope dilution – thermal ionization mass spectrometry) U-Pb groundmass perovskite dates from the main pipe-infilling kimberlites and several small hypabyssal kimberlites from the Renard 2 pipe indicate kimberlite magmatism lasted at least ~20 Myr. Two samples of the main pipe-infilling kimberlites yield identical weighted mean ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U perovskite dates with a composite date of 643.8 ± 1.0 Myr, interpreted to be the best estimate for main pipe emplacement. In contrast, six hypabyssal kimberlite samples yielded a range of weighted mean ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U perovskite dates between ~652-632 Myr. Multiple dates determined from these early-, syn- and late-stage small hypabyssal kimberlites in the Renard 2 pipe demonstrate this rock type (commonly used to date kimberlites) help to constrain the duration of kimberlite intrusion history within a pipe but do not necessarily reliably record the emplacement age of the main diatreme in the Renard cluster. Our results provide the first robust geochronological data on a single kimberlite that confirms the field relationships initially observed by Wagner (1914) and Clement (1982); the presence of antecedent (diatreme precursor) intrusions, contemporaneous (syn-diatreme) intrusions, and consequent (post-diatreme) cross-cutting intrusions. The results of this detailed U-Pb geochronology study indicate a single kimberlite pipe can record millions of years of magmatism, much longer than previously thought from the classical viewpoint of a rapid and short-duration emplacement history.

     

1983 Compilation of Elemental Concentration Data for Samples SO-1 to SO-4

Concentration data for as many as 72 constituents in the four Canadian Certified Reference Materials Project (CCRMP) soil samples have been collected from journal articles and technical reports published since these soil standards were issued in 1978. These data are summarized into mean +/- one standard deviation values and compared with available certification data from CCRMP. All literature data located or calculated are presented in the appendices.     

Late Pleistocene paleo-oceanography of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea: Benthic foraminiferal evidence

Fluctuations in benthic foraminiferal faunas over the last 130,000 yr in four piston cores from the Norwegian Sea are correlated with the standard worldwide oxygen-isotope stratigraphy. One species, Cibicides wuellerstorfi, dominates in the Holocene section of each core, but alternates downcore with Oridorsalis tener, a species dominant today only in the deepest part of the basin. O. tener is the most abundant species throughout the entire basin during periods of particularly cold climate when the Norwegian Sea presumably was ice covered year round and surface productivity lowered. Portions of isotope Stages 6, 3, and 2 are barren of benthic foraminifera; this is probably due to lowered benthic productivity, perhaps combined with dilution by ice-rafted sediment; there is no evidence that the Norwegian Sea became azoic. The Holocene and Substage 5e (the last interglacial) are similar faunally. This similarity, combined with other evidence, supports the presumption that the Norwegian Sea was a source of dense overflows into the North Atlantic during Substage 5e as it is today. Oxygen-isotope analyses of benthic foraminifera indicate that Norwegian Sea bottom waters warmer than they are today from Substage 5d to Stage 2, with the possible exception of Substage 5a. These data show that the glacial Norwegian Sea was not a sink for dense surface water, as it is now, and thus it was not a source of deep-water overflows. The benthic foraminiferal populations of the deep Norwegian Sea seem at least as responsive to near-surface conditions, such as sea-ice cover, as they are to fluctuations in the hydrography of the deep water. Benthic foraminiferal evidence from the Norwegian Sea is insufficient in itself to establish whether or not the basin was a source of overflows into the North Atlantic at any time between the Substage 5e/5d boundary at 115,000 yr B.P. and the Holocene.     

1982 Compilation of Elemental Concentrations in Eleven United States Geological Survey Rock Standards

Elemental composition data on eight older (AGV-1, BCR-1, DTS-1, G-1, G-2, GSP-1, PCC-1 and W-1) and three newer (BIR-1, DNC-1 and W-2) USGS rock standards have been collected from institutional reports and journal articles from 1972–1981. This collection was combined with data from previous compilations and "consensus values" for up to 79 elements determined by comparing overall means, medians, and individual means based on analytical techniques.     

Dust in the Wind: Long Range Transport of Dust in the Atmosphere and Its Implications for Global Public and Ecosystem Health

Movement of soil particles in atmospheres is a normal planetary process. Images of Martian dust devils (wind-spouts) and dust storms captured by NASA's Pathfinder have demonstrated the significant role that storm activity plays in creating the red atmospheric haze of Mars. On Earth, desert soils moving in the atmosphere are responsible for the orange hues in brilliant sunrises and sunsets. In severe dust storm events, millions of tons of soil may be moved across great expanses of land and ocean. An emerging scientific interest in the process of soil transport in the Earth's atmosphere is in the field of public and ecosystem health. This article will address the benefits and the potential hazards associated with exposure to particle fallout as clouds of desert dust traverse the globe. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.