Imaging the surface of Mercury using ground-based telescopes

We describe and compare two methods of short-exposure, high-definition ground-based imaging of the planet Mercury. Two teams have recorded images of Mercury on different dates, from different locations, and with different observational and data reduction techniques. Both groups have achieved spatial resolutions of <250 km, and the same albedo features and contrast levels appear where the two datasets overlap (longitudes 270–360°). Dark albedo regions appear as mare and correlate well with smooth terrain radar signatures. Bright albedo features agree optically, but less well with radar data. Such confirmations of state-of-the-art optical techniques introduce a new era of ground-based exploration of Mercury's surface and its atmosphere. They offer opportunities for synergistic, cooperative observations before and during the upcoming Messenger and BepiColombo missions to Mercury.     

Size distribution of colloidal trace metals and organic carbon during a coastal bloom in the Baltic Sea

The physico-chemical speciation of organic carbon and selected metals was measured during a coastal bloom in Ekhagen Bay, Baltic Sea, using ultrafiltration.One important objective with the study was to see if any depletion of trace metals could be measured in the directly bioavailable fraction (<1000 Da, the soluble low molecular weight fraction, LMW) during a plankton bloom. Filters with five different cut-offs were used (1 kD (1000 Da), 5 kD, 10 kD, 100 kD and 0.22 μm) in order to delineate the size distribution of colloidal organic carbon (COC) and trace metals.During the bloom in May, LMW Al, Co, Cu, Mn and Ni concentrations decreased although the colloidal and particulate concentrations were relatively high. Data show that desorption of colloidal and particulate bound trace metals to the LMW fraction was slower than the process depleting the LMW fraction.Estimates of the maximum active uptake of Cu, Ni and Mn by the phytoplankton, and the loss of non-bioactive Al from the LMW fraction, indicate that processes other than active uptake by phytoplankton must contribute to the observed depletion of trace metals in the LMW fraction. Hence, in order to estimate the bioavailable pool of trace metals for plankton during bloom conditions, these other processes must be understood and quantified.Transparent Exopolymeric Particles (TEP, reflecting sugar-rich phytoplankton exudates) increased around eight times during the plankton bloom. We hypothesize that the formation of TEP is a process that might be important for the transfer of trace metals from the LMW to the particulate fraction during the phytoplankton bloom, but the significance of TEP for this depletion in Baltic Sea surface water remains to be shown.     

Influence of relative sea level changes on the construction of the Mississippi Fan

A conceptual sea-level-driven depositional model for individual fanlobes (channel-overbank systems) of the Mississippi Fan does not permit direct application of the sequence stratigraphic principles of Vail and colleagues. Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 96 results suggest that, during initial relative lowering of sea level, the canyon and upper fan channel were formed; excavated fine-grained slope sediments may have formed a debris flow deposit base for the fanlobe. Continued lowering produced constructional channel-levee-overbank deposits. Rising relative sea level inhibited input of coarse clastics, and channel depressions filled with muds. A blanket of (hemi)pelagics represents relative high sea level stand.     

Naming of undersea features

The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), and the joint IOC/IHO Guiding Committee for the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) have expressed considerable concern about the indiscriminate and unregulated naming of undersea features which often go into print without any close scrutiny. An author may not realize that the feature has a name already, maybe in another language, or that his terminology conflicts with established definitions.Geo-Marine Letters wants to follow the IOC/IHO/GEBCO recommendations and requests that its authors follow the set forth guidelines. Examples of terms and definitions are given and addresses of national authorities provided.     

The POC / Th ratio of settling particles isolated using split flow-thin cell fractionation (SPLITT)

The common assumption that the ratio between particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate ²³⁴Th obtained from shallow sediment traps and filterable particles are representative of the ratio in the total particle settling flux should be treated with caution in view of well-known biases associated with tethered shallow sediment traps and the decoupling between size and settling velocity of many natural particle regimes. To make progress toward reliably constraining the POC / ²³⁴Th ratio on truly settling particles, we have tested here a settling collection technique designed to remove any hydrodynamic bias; split flow-thin cell fractionation (SPLITT). These first results from a North Sea fjord and an open Baltic Sea time-series station indicates that the POC / ²³⁴Th ratio on the more complete particle-settling spectrum, isolated with SPLITT, was higher than the POC / ²³⁴Th ratio obtained simultaneously from tethered shallow sediment traps in seven out of seven parallel deployments with an average factor of 210%. The POC / ²³⁴Th ratio from the SPLITT was either in the same range or higher than that obtained on filtered “bulk” particles. To explain this novel data we hypothesize that the slowest settling fraction is organic-matter rich and does not strongly complex ²³⁴Th (i.e., high POC / ²³⁴Th). We suggest that this ultra-slow sinking fraction is better collected by SPLITT than with tethered sediment traps because of minimized hydrodynamic bias.This was tested using the ratio of POC / Al as a tracer of detrital mineral-ballast influenced settling velocity. The higher POC / Al ratios in SPLITT samples relative to in traps is consistent with the hypothesis that SPLITT is better suited for collecting also the slow-settling component of sinking particles. This important slow-settling component appears to here consist primarily of non-APS/TEP components of plankton exudates or other less-strongly ²³⁴Th-complexing organic matter. Further applications of the SPLITT technique are likely to return increasingly new insights on the composition (including “truly settling” POC / ²³⁴Th) of the total spectrum of particles settling out of the upper ocean.     

Remote comets and related bodies: VJHK colorimetry and surface materials

Spectrophotometric data show that major compositional groups among outer solar system (OSS) surfaces include bright ices and at least two distinct classes of blackish carbonaceous-like materials, called C-type and RD-type. VJHK colorimetry of asteroids, satellites, and laboratory samples shows that these three classes can be distinguished by VJHK colors. We define an “α index” that denotes the position of objects in VJHK color - color diagrams; it empirically increases with albedo and ice/dirt ratio. We use the above data to define color fields that may be useful in interpreting our observations of eight comets (1980–1981). All eight comets have colors generally resembling RD asteroids and are inconsistent with reflection off clean ice surfaces. The observations suggest that these comets' halos contain RD dirt or dirty ice grains colored by RD dirt, supporting J. Gradie and J. Veverka's [Nature283, 840–842 (1980)] prediction of RD, rather than C, material in comets. Remote Comet P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 was observed both during outburst and quiescence and had the highest α index of any observed comet. Comet α indices appear to be correlated with solar distance. Further work will be needed to clarify possible coloring effects due to particle size, dispersal, and composition. We suggest a number of physical interpretations based on a single two-component mixing model, which assumes that all OSS planetesimals formed primarily from bright ices and dark carboneceous-like dirt, consistent with condensation theory. We discuss differentiation processes that concentrated one component or the other at the surface. All measured OSS interplanetary bodies have surfaces of dark dirt or dark dirty ice colored by the dirt component. Comets, consistent with the Whipple dirty iceberg model, are such objects close enough to the Sun for volatilization to throw dirty ice grains into the coma. In remote comets, the ice component of the grains remains stable, and we see dirty ice grains; in near comets, the ice component vaporizes, and we see dirt grains. A volatile-depleted dusty regolith on P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 and other remote comets could explain their eruptive behavior by means of gas pressure buildup in the porous, weakly bonded dust.     

Denudation and cooling of the Lake Teletskoye Region in the Altai Mountains (South Siberia) as revealed by apatite fission-track thermochronology

Lake Teletskoye occupies a narrow graben located in the northwestern sector of the Altai fold belt in South Siberia. The lake basin is thought to have formed during the Pleistocene as a distant result of the Cenozoic collision of India and Eurasia that caused a tectonic reactivation of the Palaeozoic Gorny–Altai (GA) and West Sayan (WS) blocks.The present work reports of a pilot fission-track study performed on 13 apatite separates collected from rocks that were sampled along two profiles in close proximity of the lake. The age–length data and AFT thermochronological modelling reveal two important phases of cooling in the Altai Mountains, a first one during the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous and a second one that started in the Miocene–Pliocene and that persists until today. The first event is interpreted to result from uplift-induced denudation probably related to the closure of the Mongol–Okhotsk Ocean; the second event can be linked to the young Cenozoic movements that lie at the origin of the formation of the Lake Teletskoye basin.     

Permafrost in Svalbard: a review of research history, climatic background and engineering challenges

This paper reviews permafrost in High Arctic Svalbard, including past and current research, climatic background, how permafrost is affected by climatic change, typical permafrost landforms and how changes in Svalbard permafrost may impact natural and human systems. Information on active layer dynamics, permafrost and ground ice characteristics and selected periglacial features is summarized from the recent literature and from unpublished data by the authors. Permafrost thickness ranges from less than 100 m near the coasts to more than 500 m in the highlands. Ground ice is present as rock glaciers, as ice-cored moraines, buried glacial ice, and in pingos and ice wedges in major valleys. Engineering problems of thaw-settlement and frost-heave are described, and the implications for road design and construction in Svalbard permafrost areas are discussed.     

The impact of decentralised forest management on charcoal production practices in Eastern Senegal

In accordance with Senegal’s decentralisation policy, important forest management tasks, including the right to allocate charcoal production rights, have been transferred to rural councils. This paper investigates the impact of these institutional reforms on charcoal production practices using the environmental entitlement framework developed by Leach et al. [Environmental entitlements: dynamics and institutions in community-based natural resource management. World Development 27 (2) (1999) 225]. The councils have not been able to turn their new endowments into entitlements because they lack sufficient strength and legitimacy. Informal institutions, notably the coalition between merchants, state agents and village chiefs, continue to run the charcoal business and are hardly affected by decentralisation efforts. Most rural people, especially those relying solely on agriculture for sustenance, do not benefit at all from the charcoal trade. They do suffer from the environmental costs it brings with it, however. Although tensions between pro-exploitation actors and pro-conservation actors are evident, the pro-exploitation actors’ firm grip on the informal institutions will probably lead to a prolonged subversion of the laws that seek to enhance local control and to sustain the forest.     

Subduction,mega-shear systems and Late Palaeozoic basin development in the African segment of Gondwana

 Basins within the African sector of Gondwana contain a Late Palaeozoic to Early Mesozoic Gondwana sequence unconformably overlying Precambrian basement in the interior and mid-Palaeozoic strata along the palaeo-Pacific margin. Small sea-board Pacific basins form an exception in having a Carboniferous to Early Permian fill overlying Devonian metasediments and intrusives. The Late Palaeozoic geographic and tectonic changes in the region followed four well-defined consecutive events which can also be traced outside the study area. During the Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous period (up to 330 Ma) accretion of microplates along the Patagonian margin of Gondwana resulted in the evolution of the Pacific basins. Thermal uplift of the Gondwana crust and extensive erosion causing a break in the stratigraphic record characterised the period between 300 and 330 Ma. At the end of this period the Gondwana Ice Sheet was well established over the uplands. The period 260–300 Ma evidenced the release of the Gondwana heat and thermal subsidence caused widespread basin formation. Late Carboniferous transpressive strike-slip basins (e.g. Sierra Australes/Colorado, Karoo-Falklands, Ellsworth-Central Transantarctic Mountains) in which thick glacial deposits accumulated, formed inboard of the palaeo-Pacific margin. In the continental interior the formation of Zambesi-type rift and extensional strike-slip basins were controlled by large mega-shear systems, whereas rare intracratonic thermal subsidence basins formed locally. In the Late Permian the tectonic regime changed to compressional largely due to northwest-directed subduction along the palaeo-Pacific margin. The orogenic cycle between 240 and 260 Ma resulted in the formation of the Gondwana fold belt and overall north–south crustal shortening with strike-slip motions and regional uplift within the interior. The Gondwana fold belt developed along a probable weak crustal zone wedged in between the cratons and an overthickened marginal crustal belt subject to dextral transpressive motions. Associated with the orogenic cycle was the formation of mega-shear systems one of which (Falklands-East Africa-Tethys shear) split the supercontinent in the Permo-Triassic into a West and an East Gondwana. By a slight clockwise rotation of East Gondwana a supradetachment basin formed along the Tethyan margin and northward displacement of Madagascar, West Falkland and the Gondwana fold belt occurred relative to a southward motion of Africa. Received: 2 October 1995 / Accepted: 28 May 1996