Chemical Enrichment of the Intra-Cluster Medium

We investigate the metal enrichment of the intra-cluster medium by using a method that combines N-Body simulations and a semi-analytic model (SAM) of galaxy formation. The cluster of galaxies is simulated in a flat, low density universe, with a numerical resolution that allows the detection of substructures in the dark matter background of the cluster. The phenomenological approach used to model the physical processes involved in the galaxy formation and metal production is applied to the substructures found in the dark matter halos detected at different redshifts. Details of the chemical implementation in the SAM and first results related to the mean properties of the baryonic matter components are presented. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Melt extraction pathways and stagnation depths beneath the Madeira and Desertas rift zones (NE Atlantic) inferred from barometric studies

The Madeira and Desertas Islands (eastern North Atlantic) show well-developed rift zones which intersect near the eastern tip of Madeira (São Lourenço peninsula). We applied fluid inclusion barometry and clinopyroxene-melt thermobarometry to reconstruct levels of magma stagnation beneath the two adjacent rifts and to examine a possible genetic relationship during their evolution. Densities of CO₂-dominated fluid inclusions in basanitic to basaltic samples from São Lourenço yielded frequency maxima at pressures of 0.57–0.87 GPa (23–29 km depth) and 0.25–0.32 GPa (8–10 km), whereas basanites, basalts and xenoliths from the Desertas indicate 0.3–0.72 GPa (10–24 km) and 0.07–0.12 GPa (2–3 km). Clinopyroxene-melt thermobarometry applied to Ti-augite phenocryst rim and glass/groundmass compositions indicates pressures of 0.45–1.06 GPa (15–35 km; São Lourenço) and 0.53–0.89 GPa (17–28 km; Desertas Islands) which partly overlap with pressures indicated by fluid inclusions. We interpret our data to suggest a multi-stage magma ascent beneath the Madeira Archipelago: main fractionation occurs at multiple levels within the mantle (>15 km depth) and is followed by temporary stagnation within the crust prior to eruption. Depths of crustal magma stagnation beneath São Lourenço and the Desertas differ significantly, and there is no evidence for a common shallow magma reservoir feeding both rift arms. We discuss two models to explain the relations between the two adjacent rift systems: Madeira and the Desertas may represent either a two-armed rift system or two volcanic centres with separate magma supply systems. For petrological and volcanological reasons, we favour the second model and suggest that Madeira and the Desertas root in distinct regions of melt extraction. Magma focusing into the Desertas system off the hotspot axis may result from lithospheric bending caused by the load of the Madeira and Porto Santo shields, combined with regional variations in melt production due to an irregularly shaped plume.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article if you access the article at . A link in the frame on the left on that page takes you directly to the supplementary material.Editorial responsibility: J. Hoefs     

A Comparative Study of Five Reference Materials and the Lombard Meteorite for the Determination of the Platinum‐Group Elements and Gold by LA‐ICP‐MS

A range of independently characterised reference materials (RMs) for LA‐ICP‐MS, used for the determination of the platinum‐group elements (PGE) and Au in a sulfide matrix, were analysed and compared: 8b, PGE‐A, NiS‐3, Po727‐T1, Po724‐T and the Lombard meteorite. The newly developed RM NiS‐3 was used as the RM for the calibration of all LA‐ICP‐MS analyses and the measured concentrations of the other RMs compared against their published concentrations. This data were also used to assess the consistency of concentrations calibrated against the different RMs. It was found that Po727‐T1 and 8b produced results that were comparable, within uncertainty, for all elements. Po727‐T1 also produced consistent results with NiS‐3 for all elements. All other RMs showed differences for some elements, especially Ru in Po724‐T, and Os, Ir and Au in PGE‐A. The homogeneity of the PGE and Au in each RM was assessed, by comparing the precision of multiple LA‐ICP‐MS spot analyses with the average uncertainty of the signal. Po724‐T, Po727‐T1 and the Lombard meteorite were found to be homogeneous for all elements, but 8b, PGE‐A and NiS‐3 were heterogeneous for some elements. This is the first direct comparison between a range of independently characterised PGE and Au LA‐ICP‐MS RMs.     

Comparison of polar mesospheric cloud measurements from the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size experiment and the solar backscatter ultraviolet instrument in 2007

We compare measurements from the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) experiment to the NOAA-17 solar backscatter ultraviolet (SBUV/2) instrument during the 2007 Northern Hemisphere polar mesospheric cloud (PMC) season. Daily average Rayleigh scattering albedos determined from identical footprints from the CIPS nadir camera and SBUV/2 agree to better than ～5% throughout the season. Average PMC brightness values derived from the two instruments agree to within ±10%. PMC occurrence frequencies are on average ～5% to nearly a factor of two higher in CIPS, depending on latitude. Agreement is best at high latitudes where clouds are brighter and more frequent. The comparisons indicate that AIM CIPS data are valid for scientific analyses. They also show that CIPS measurements can be linked to the long time series of SBUV/2 data to investigate long-term variability in PMCs.     

Modelling the biogeochemistry of a tidal flat ecosystem with EcoTiM

The ecological tidal model simulates the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphate, and silicate and describes the tidal, diurnal, and annual dynamics of the back barrier area of the island Spiekeroog in the German Bight. The region is characterized by strong tidal currents and extensive tidal flats. It is strongly influenced by the conditions in the southern part of the German Bight. This model study investigates the dependence of the model behavior on the boundary conditions and the forcing. The effect of short- and long-term sea level rise on nutrient and plankton dynamics is analyzed. As the model is set up as semi-Lagrangian with only a coarse approximation of the hydrodynamics, the seasonal and intratidal variability in the biogeochemical cycling can only be reproduced qualitatively. By varying the boundary conditions, the intrinsic dynamics of the back barrier area can be separated from boundary condition effects. This study shows that any agreement between model results and field data cannot be expected without correct boundary conditions. The seasonal variability is of major importance, while higher-frequency variability only plays a minor role.     

Black hole spin and radio loudness in a Λ cold dark matter universe

We use a combination of a cosmological N -body simulation of the concordance Λ cold dark matter paradigm and a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation to investigate the spin development of central supermassive black holes (BHs) and its relation to the BH host galaxy properties. In order to compute BH spins, we use the α model of Shakura & Sunyaev and consider the King et al. warped disc alignment criterion. The orientation of the accretion disc is inferred from the angular momentum of the source of accreted material, which bears a close relationship to the large-scale structure in the simulation. We find that the final BH spin depends almost exclusively on the accretion history and only weakly on the warped disc alignment. The main mechanisms of BH spin-up are found to be gas cooling processes and disc instabilities, a result that is only partially compatible with Monte Carlo models where the main spin-up mechanisms are major mergers and disc instabilities; the latter results are reproduced when implementing randomly oriented accretion discs in our model. Regarding the BH population, we find that more massive BHs, which are hosted by massive ellipticals, have higher spin values than less massive BHs, hosted by spiral galaxies. We analyse whether gas accretion rates and BH spins can be used as tracers of the radio loudness of active galactic nuclei (AGN). We find that the current observational indications of an increasing trend of radio-loud AGN fractions with stellar and BH mass can be easily obtained when placing lower limits on the BH spin, with a minimum influence from limits on the accretion rates; a model with random accretion disc orientations is unable to reproduce this trend. Our results favour a scenario where the BH spin is a key parameter to separate the radio-loud and radio-quiet galaxy populations.     

MINVIT: Multi Instrumental Visualization Tool for Solar Physics

In recent years much effort has been devoted to constructing systems for sharing resources within the solar physics community. Several advanced archives and data analysis systems do exist, but there is low availability of data visualization tools for displaying simultaneous multi instruments/wavelengths solar data. Meanwhile map server technology has received great attention by the IT researcher and geophysical community. In this paper we discuss a possible use of an open source environment for building spatially enabled Internet applications for the visualization and analysis of solar physics data sets. We present the preliminary status of the MINVIT (Multi Instrumental Visualization Tool) project, which shall be able to merge images and information produced by different instruments in a single/synoptic image available on-line. Moreover, the tool is designed in order to allow the visualization of the temporal evolution of data. We further discuss the possible integration into the grid framework, focusing on a middleware able to query EGSO resources such us UOC and SEC in order to include data from several space and ground-based solar observatories.     

Submicroscopic accessory minerals overprinting clay mineral REE patterns (celadonite–glauconite group examples)

Samples of glauconite, representing different stages of glauconitisation, as well as different formation environments, were analysed for rare earth elements (REE) and other trace elements using a combination of bulk sample and spatially-resolved in situ techniques. The results indicate that the high-sensitivity, spatially-resolved technique of laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) produces values up to two orders of magnitude lower than the bulk sample analyses. This suggests that submicroscopic rare earth element-bearing phases are distributed within the glauconite aggregates comprising the bulk samples. Analytical scanning electron microscopy (ASEM) revealed the presence of micrometre-sized grains of apatite and pore filling precipitates of an unidentified (REE, Ca)-phosphate (approximate composition Ca_0.3–0.4(Ce_0.4La_0.1–0.2Nd_0.1)PO₄) in some glauconite grains.The inherent REE concentrations of the glauconite aggregates (i.e., glauconite crystallites without accidental mechanical inclusions or authigenic, not layer silicate mineral precipitates) was found to be relatively low (e.g., typically less than 100 ppm), and this value decreased with increasing glauconitisation (smectite–mica transformation through a series of recrystallisation processes). These results suggest that the REEs substitute for Ca in the interlayer space of the layer silicate structure and, therefore, the REE content decreases as Ca is progressively removed from the interlayer (smectite–mica transition).LA-ICP-MS, when combined with electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) or ASEM, offers an opportunity to exclude submicroscopic accessory minerals from glauconite trace element analyses, and so produces reliable trace element data for the respective minerals which host those elements.These results illustrate that accessory minerals are difficult to eliminate from clay samples, and that care needs to be taken in the interpretation of clay mineral REE distributions, irrespective of the aggregation state of the studied clay (i.e., whether finely dispersed within the sedimentary rock, or forming millimetre-sized aggregates). Model calculations showed that authigenic apatite associated with the studied green marine clays tends to have higher REE content than “bioapatites”, the total REE content being above 10 000 ppm.