Leaching of lead metallurgical slags and pollutant mobility far from equilibrium conditions

Lead metallurgical slags are partially vitrified materials containing residual amounts of Zn, Pb, Cr, Cd and As. These hazardous materials are generally buried on heaps exposed to weathering. In this study, leaching behavior of lead blast furnace slags has been tested using pure water and open flow experiments. It appears that in such far from equilibrium and slightly acidic conditions, the main phase to be altered is the vitreous phase. As for lunar, basaltic and nuclear glasses, alkalis/proton exchanges prevail and lead to the formation of a non-protective altered layer enriched in Si, Fe and Al. The composition of the altered layer is quite constant except for Si whose concentration decreases towards the leachate interface. Owing to their sizes, micrometric Pb droplets are not always totally dissolved at the slag surface. Nevertheless, nanometric Pb droplets are instantaneously dissolved while a surrounding altered layer is formed. This leads to high Pb releases in open flow systems. Leachate chemistry and dissolution rates of the vitreous phase are closely comparable to previous leaching tests with basaltic and nuclear glasses in conditions far from equilibrium. Moreover, this study confirms that Fe is a stable element in such conditions.     

The July 1974 solar events: A possible lower limit for microwave activity

The active region McMath 10433 was the source of several flares and radio outbursts during the early part of July 1974. This region was tracked continuously, for several periods during the month at 22.2 GHz using a telescope with a 4 beam. Comparison with the results obtained simultaneously with a normal 7 GHz solar patrol instrument indicate that there is important burst activity occurring at levels below the detection limit of normal solar patrol instruments. The time-development morphology of these bursts is similar to those normally observed and has enabled the simple events to be re-interpreted. A completely new type of event - the fast absorption - has also been recognized. The correlation of the microwave events with SPA events observed on VLF propagation is also discussed.Spending a sabbatical year at CRAAM, São Paulo, Brazil.     

Determination of Pb/Pb ages on zircon and monazite by laser-ablation ICPMS and application to a study of sedimentary provenance and metamorphism in southeastern Brazil

The recently developed method of laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) allows the determination of ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb ages of single zircon grains. The main advantages of the method are minimal sample preparation, low cost, and high throughput. In this work we present an analytical routine for geochronological analyses of zircon and monazite by LA-ICPMS and its application to the Ribeira Belt of the Brazilian Orogen in southeastern Brazil. The ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb ages of one hundred and thirty-seven detrital zircons from amphibolite facies quartzites from three lithotectonic domains in the central Ribeira Belt indicate that they are derived mainly from Paleoproterozoic crust of Transamazonian age (2.0−2.3 Ga). A small number of zircons originated in 2.6−2.9 Ga Archean crust. These results are coherent with 2.1−2.2 Ga and 2.6−3.0 Ga U---Pb ages previously obtained for basement gneisses. The viability of the method to date monazite is also assessed. Monazites from the same quartzite samples yield ages between 2.1 Ga and 0.57 Ga. indicating variable resetting of the U---Pb system during amphibolite facies metamorphism. In contrast, monazite from a basement migmatite and syn-metamorphic granitoids yields ages in the 500–700 Ma range, in general agreement with U-Pb ages of 590-565 Ma for the main metamorphic event.

The LA-ICPMS ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb ages are coherent and agree with expected results based on previous U---Pb geochronology, and show that the method has immediate applicability. At present, the most significant limitations of the method are the inability to yield reliable U/Pb values, analytical precision in the 1–10% range, and the requirement of grains larger than 80 gmm The method may be advantageous for provenance studies of Precambrian detrital sequences.     

On core surface flows inferred from satellite magnetic data

Satellite-data allows the magnetic field produced by the dynamo within the Earth’s core to be imaged with much more accuracy than previously possible with only ground-based data. Changes in this magnetic field can in turn be used to make some inferences about the core surface flow responsible for them. In this paper, we investigate the improvement brought to core flow computation by new satellite-data based core magnetic field models. It is shown that the main limitation now encountered is no longer the (now high) accuracy of those models, but the “non-modelled secular variation” produced by interaction of the non-resolvable small scales of the core flow with the core field, and by interaction of the (partly) resolvable large scales of the core flow with the small scales of the core field unfortunately masked by the crustal field. We show how this non-modelled secular variation can be taken into account to recover the largest scales of the core flow in a consistent way. We also investigate the uncertainties this introduces in core flows computed with the help of the frozen-flux and tangentially geostrophic assumptions. It turns out that flows with much more medium and small scales than previously thought are needed to explain the satellite-data-based core magnetic field models. It also turns out that a significant fraction of this flow unfortunately happens to be non-recoverable (being either “non-resolvable” because too small-scale, or “invisible”, because in the kernel of the inverse method) even though it produces the detectable “non-modelled secular variation”. Applying this to the Magsat (1980) to Ørsted (2000) field changes leads us to conclude that a flow involving at least strong retrograde vortices below the Atlantic Hemisphere, some less-resolved prograde vortices below the Pacific Hemisphere, and some poorly resolved (and partly non-resolvable) polar vortices, is needed to explain the 1980-2000 satellite-era average secular variation. The characteristics of the fraction of the secular variation left unexplained by this flow are also discussed.     

Chromitites platinifères des complexes ophiolitiques de l'Estrie-Beauce,Appalaches du sud du Québec

Résumé Des chromitites contenant du platine, du palladium et du rhodium viennent d'être mises à jour dans les Appalaches du sud du Québec. Les complexes ophiolitiques hôtes de ces minéralisations sont d'âge Ordovicien inférieur et d'affinité boninitique. De plus, ils sont étroitement liés à un arc insulaire. Les chromitites à Pt-Pd-Rh se situent dans les dunites de la séquence à cumulat à leur passage aux pyroxénites. Le platine, le palladium et le rhodium sont exprimés soit sous forme d'alliages et de sulfures complexes automorphes ou soit sous forme d'alliages à Pt-Pd et d'arséniures rhodifères xénomorphes. Cette dernière paragenèse accompagne la serpentinisation des cumulats ultramafiques.

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PGE-bearing (Pt-Pd-Rh) chromitites have been found recently in the Appalachians of southern Québec. They are hosted by Ordovician boninitic ophiolites associated with an island-arc complex. Pt-Pd-Rh-bearing chromitites occur in dunite of the cumulates sequence. PGM occur both as euhedral alloys and sulfides or anhedral Pt-Pd alloys and Rh-arsenides. The Rh-arsenide paragenesis is associated with serpentinized ultramafic cumulates.

     

Disequilibrium features in experimentally shocked mixtures of olivine plus silica glass powders

Seventeen shock-recovery experiments were performed on powder mixtures of one part (by weight) olivine (St. John's forsterite) plus two parts silica glass (pure vitreous silica) in order to characterize the physical and chemical interaction of two chemically incompatible components during shock. Powders of <45 m grain size were shocked by impact of projectiles launched from a 20 mm gun which created pressures ranging from 6.2 to 64.2 GPa (1 GPa= 10kbar).Petrographie features observed in thin section attest to mechanical and thermal metamorphism. Samples shocked to pressures from 6.2 to 39.3 GPa form compacted, mosaic, granular aggregates with fractured and strained grains. Samples shocked to pressures from 42.9 to 64.2 GPa form vesicular, mixed melts containing flow schlieren and relict olivine fragments. Petrographic disequilibrium is manifested in cataclastic textures showing deformational anisotropy and in thermal effects showing non-uniform intergranular melting. This disequilibrium is caused by an irregular pressure distribution resulting from the rapid collapse of pore spaces.The chemical composition of the shock melts are similar in each of six samples shocked to pressures of 42.9 to 64.2 GPa. Melt chemistry is bimodal in each sample. Colorless melts are 99.9% SiO₂ and represent pure silica glass melts; pale to dark green melts range in composition from 47% to 64% SiO₂ and represent a progressive mixture of olivine melt (41% SiO₂) with silica glass melt. Surprisingly, the compositions of the colored glasses are intermediate between the composition of pure olivine and the bulk composition of the original starting material (79% SiO₂) and are similar to enstatitic pyroxene compositions (50% to 57% SiO₂; 33% to 37% MgO). Although bulk compositions of shocked samples are unchanged, the creation of melts with pyroxene compositions instead of bulk sample compositions may indicate that an incipient eutectic-type fusion may have occurred in small olivine-normative domains surrounding individual olivine grains. Chemical disequilibrium is evidenced by the creation of these olivine-normative melts from a quartz-normative starting compositions and by the chemical heterogeneity in the melts.     

The Alleret maar (Massif Central, France): A new lacustrine sequence of the early Middle Pleistocene in western Europe

The Alleret maar (Massif Central, France) provides a long lacustrine sequence (40.6 m) attributed to the early Middle Pleistocene. Sediment, pollen and diatoms analysis of its upper part (AL2 core, 14.6 m) indicates two temperate phases marked by high lake levels, forest development and vegetation expansion. They are separated by a cold period during which lake level drops, coarse sediment input increases and steppic and xerophilous plants develop. Pollen data suggests that this sequence belongs to the upper part of the Cromerian complex. These results are in agreement with the 557 ± 3 ka (±12 ka, including all errors) ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age obtained from an interbedded tephra layer emitted by the Mont-Dore/Sancy strato-volcano and establish that this sequence probably covers the MIS 15 substages.     

Lithologic and stratigraphic setting of zinc mineralization in Grenville metasediments,Quebec

For many years, high-grade metamorphism and multiphase deformation have discouraged mineral exploration in the Grenville terrain of the Canadian Shield. However, detailed studies of known zinc occurrences in the Grenville Supergroup metasediments of Quebec now reveal that mineralization is stratigraphically controlled and consistently limited to mapable lithologic units. Within the vast regions composed predominantly of calcitic marbles, zinc mineralization is found to be confined to the much more limited areas of dolomitic marble, and more precisely, to the lithologic transition from metaclastic beds to meta-dolomites. Massive sphalerite mineralization of the Balmat-type is very closely restricted to this contact zone, while disseminated sphalerite with sparse amounts of galena are commonly observed in the adjacent dolomite. With these guidelines, and with evidence that mineralization is fundamentally stratiform in nature, it has now been demonstrated that mineralized stratigraphic horizons can be located beyond the areas of previously known sphalerite showings, and consequently the potential for important discoveries of zinc mineralization in the Grenville Supergroup has become very attractive to the present-day mining industry.