Shock surfing acceleration

Analytical and numerical analysis identify shock surfing acceleration as an ideal pre-energization mechanism for the slow pick-up ions at quasiperpendicular shocks. After gaining sufficient energy by shock surfing, pick-up ions undergo diffusive acceleration to reach their observed energies. Energetic ions upstream of the cometary bow shock, acceleration of solar energetic particles by magnetosonic waves in corona, ion enhancement in interplanetary shocks, generation of anomalous cosmic rays from interstellar pick-up ions at the termination shock are some of the cases where shock surfing acceleration apply. Inclusion of the lower-hybrid wave turbulence into the laminar model of shock surfing can explain the preferential acceleration of heavier particles as observed by Voyager at the termination shock. At relativistic energies, unlimited acceleration of ions is theoretically possible; because for sufficiently strong shocks main limitation of the mechanism, caused by the escape of accelerated particles downstream of the shock during acceleration no longer exists.     

Low post-Cenomanian denudation depths across the Brazilian Northeast: Implications for long-term landscape evolution at a transform continental margin

The Brazilian Northeast affords good opportunities for obtaining reliable timings and rates of landscape evolution based on stratigraphic correlations across a vast region. The landscape formed in the context of an episodically fluctuating but continuously falling base level since the Cenomanian. After formation of the transform passive margin in Aptian times, landscape development was further driven by a swell-like uplift with its crest situated  300 km from the coastline. The seaward flank of this swell or broad monocline between the interior Araripe and coastal Potiguar basins was eroded, and currently forms a deeply embayed plain bordered by a semi-circular, north-facing erosional escarpment. The post-Cenomanian uplift caused an inversion of the Cretaceous basins and generated a landscape in which the most elevated landforms correspond either to resistant Mesozoic sedimentary caprock, or to eroded stumps of syn-rift Cretaceous footwall uplands. Denudation in the last 90 My never exceeded mean rates of 10 m·My^− 1 and exhumed a number of Cretaceous stratigraphic unconformities. As a result, some topographic surfaces at low elevations are effectively Mesozoic land surfaces that became re-exposed in Cenozoic times. The Neogene Barreiras Formation forms a continuous and mostly clastic apron near the coast. It testifies to the last peak of erosion in the hinterland and coincided with the onset of more arid climates at  13 Ma or earlier. The semi-circular escarpment is not directly related to the initial breakup rift flanks, which had been mostly eroded before the end of the Mesozoic, but the cause and exact timing of post-Cenomanian crustal upwarping are poorly constrained. It could perhaps have been a flexural response of the low-rigidity lithosphere to sediment loads on the margin, and thus a slowly ongoing process since the late Cretaceous. Uplift could instead be the consequence of a more discrete dynamic event related either to Oligocene magmatism in the region, or to continental-scale far-field stresses determined by Andean convergence.     

Geochemical evidence of the 8.2 ka event and other Holocene environmental changes recorded in paleolagoon sediments,southeastern Brazil

The paleoclimatic record of Juréia Paleolagoon, coastal southeastern Brazil, includes cyclic and gradual changes with different intensities and frequencies through geological time, and it is controlled by astronomical, geophysical, and geological phenomena. These variations are not due to one single cause, but they result from the interaction of several factors, which act at different temporal and spatial scales. Here, we describe paleoenvironmental evidence regarding climatic and sea level changes from the last 9400 cal yr BP at the Juréia Paleolagoon — one of the main groups of protected South Atlantic ecosystems. Geochemical evidences were used to identify anomalies from multi-proxy analyses of a paleolagoon sediment core. The anomalies of centennial scale were correlated to climate and transgression–regression cycles from the Holocene period. Decadal scale anomalous oscillations in the Quaternary paleolagoon sediments occur between 9400 and 7500 cal yr BP, correlated with long- and short-term natural events, which generated high sedimentation rates, mainly between 8385 and 8375 cal yr BP (10 cm/yr). Our results suggest that a modern-day short-duration North Atlantic climatic event, such as the 8.2 ka event, could affect the environmental equilibrium in South America and intensify the South American Summer Monsoon.     

New insights into the high-pressure polymorphism of SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> cristobalite

Single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments with SiO₂ α-cristobalite reveal that the well-known reversible displacive phase transition to cristobalite-II, which occurs at approximately 1.8 GPa, can be suppressed by rapid pressure increase, leading to an overpressurized metastable state, persisting to pressure as high as 10 GPa. In another, slow pressure increase experiment, the monoclinic high-pressure phase-II was observed to form at ~1.8 GPa, in agreement with earlier in situ studies, and its crystal structure has been unambiguously determined. Single-crystal data have been used to refine the structure models of both phases over the range of pressure up to the threshold of formation of cristobalite X-I at ~12 GPa, providing important constraints on the feasibility of the two competing silica densification models proposed in the literature, based on quantum mechanical calculations. Preliminary diffraction data obtained for cristobalite X-I reveal a monoclinic unit cell that contradicts the currently assumed model.     

Field study and laboratory experiments of bubble plumes in shallow seas as analogues of sub-seabed CO2 leakages

To understand the effects of increased levels of CO₂ on the marine realm, it is possible to study areas where, for natural reasons, there are emissions of CO₂ from the seabed. One of these areas is located east of Panarea Island (Aeolian Islands – Southern Tyrrhenian Sea – Italy). Here, the volcanic activity that characterizes the Aeolian archipelago causes a continuous release of CO₂ (up to 98% of the total gas) from several vents on the seafloor in shallow water. This area was studied by means of surface techniques and direct SCUBA diving surveys; the data presented refers to a field campaign performed in 2008. To collect the necessary data, some dedicated sampling and measuring techniques were developed for use in an underwater environment. The chemistry of the fluids and their influence on the water body was determined via logs and transects in the field and by gas-chromatographic and liquid-chromatographic laboratory analysis. The flux from some of the main gas vents was also measured directly underwater. Furthermore, some laboratory experiments in a two-layer stratified fluid were conducted to understand the main features of the physical interaction of a gas plume with the surrounding environment. Both field and laboratory experiments show that there is a development of a pseudo-convective cell around the rising plume with the formation of vortices that act as a physical barrier thus reducing the interaction between the plume and the surrounding water.     

Hydrous olivine alteration on Mars and Earth

Hydrous alteration of olivine macrocrysts in a Martian olivine phyric basalt, NWA 10416, and a terrestrial basalt from southern Colorado are examined using SEM, EPMA, TEM, and µXRD techniques. The olivines in the meteorite contain linear nanotubes of hydrous material, amorphous areas, and fluid dissolution textures quite distinct from alteration identified in other Martian meteorites. Instead, they bear resemblance to terrestrial deuteric alteration features. The presence of the hydrous alteration phase Mg‐laihunite within the olivines has been confirmed by µXRD analysis. The cores of the olivines in both Martian and terrestrial samples are overgrown by unaltered rims whose compositions match those of a separate population of groundmass olivines, suggesting that the core olivines are xenocrysts whose alteration preceded crystallization of the groundmass. The terrestrial sample is linked to deep crustal metasomatism and the “ignimbrite flare‐up” of the Oligocene epoch. The comparison of the two samples suggests the existence of an analogous relatively water‐rich magmatic reservoir on Mars.     

Environment health and intraspecific biodiversity in T. tubifex: a preliminary analysis of a population from Apennines springs

The cosmopolitan freshwater oligochaete Tubifex tubifex is an important health indicator of the aquatic environment. Water pollutants can affect the intraspecific biodiversity grade of local Tubifex colonies. A genetic profile of specimens collected in an environment with reduced anthropic presence is particularly important to define genetic variability in unperturbed Tubifex populations, and it is still missing in the international literature. Therefore, it has been performed the analysis of lineage composition in a T. tubifex colony from high mountain spring ponds in Central Italy, characterized by a very low concentration of heavy metals. The sampling was performed during spring 2010 and 2011, in the Sett’acque valley (1,900 m above mean sea level), within the township of Lucoli. Data presented in this work depicted a peculiar composition of the population, characterized by a reduced complexity compared to other urban environments, and with no specimens belonging to the lineage I, largely described in many European populations. Interestingly, lineage 2e, previously discovered only in a natural reserve, results to be the most common lineage in this population. Considerations on environmental health and genetic evolution are discussed.     

New type of possible high-pressure polymorphism in NiAs minerals in planetary cores

The nickel arsenide (B8₁) and related crystal structures are among the most important crystallographic arrangements assumed by Fe and Ni compounds with light elements such as Si, O, S, and P, expected to be present in planetary cores. Despite the simple structure, some of these materials like troilite (FeS) exhibit complex phase diagrams and rich polymorphism, involving significant changes in interatomic bonding and physical properties. NiP (oP16) represents one of the two principal structure distortions found in the nickel arsenide family and is characterized by P–P bonding interactions that lead to the formation of P₂ dimers. In the current study, the single-crystal synchrotron X-ray diffraction technique, aided by first principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations, has been applied to examine the compression behavior of NiP up to 30 GPa. Two new reversible displacive phase transitions leading to orthorhombic high-pressure phases with Pearson symbols oP40 and oC24 were found to occur at approximately 8.5 and 25.0 GPa, respectively. The oP40 phase has the primitive Pnma space group with unit cell a = 4.7729(5) Å, b = 16.6619(12) Å, and c = 5.8071(8) Å at 16.3(1) GPa and is a superstructure of the ambient oP16 phase with multiplicity of 2.5. The oC24 phase has the acentric Cmc2₁ space group with unit cell a = 9.695(6) Å, b = 5.7101(9) Å, and c = 4.7438(6) Å at 28.5(1) GPa and is a superstructure of the oP16 phase with multiplicity of 1.5. DFT calculations fully support the observed sequence of phase transitions. The two new phases constitute logical next stages of P sublattice polymerization, in which the dilution of the P₃ units, introduced in the first high-pressure phase, decreases, leading to compositions of Ni₂₀(P₃)₄(P₂)₄ and Ni₁₂(P₃)₄, and provide important clues to understanding of phase relations and transformation pathways in the NiAs family.     

Factors controlling the survival of coastal dunes during multiple hurricane impacts in 2004 and 2005: Santa Rosa barrier island, Florida

Santa Rosa Island is an 85 km-long, wave-dominated low-lying barrier island situated along the northwestern Florida coast, facing the Gulf of Mexico. The entire island was severely impacted by Ivan, a strong category 3 hurricane that made landfall about 45 km to the west in September of 2004. Ten months later in July of 2005, Dennis, another category 3 hurricane, made landfall about 30 km east of the western tip of the island. Santa Rosa Island is characterized by well-developed but relatively low dunefields, described in this paper as incipient and established dunes, based on the presence of grassy and woody types of vegetation, respectively. The dunes were severely eroded by the two hurricanes. This paper investigates the factors controlling the regional-scale destruction and survival of the dunefields.Dune survival is controlled by: 1) hurricane characteristics, including intensity, duration, and frequency, and 2) morphological parameters including width of the barrier island, height and width of the dunefields, vegetation type, distance of the dunes to the ocean, and continuity of the dunefields. Three processes of dune destruction are described including, from most to least severe, inundation, overwash, and scarping. The interaction of all the above factors determines the different dune responses to the storm impacts. In general, the extensive and densely woody vegetated dunefields near the bay-side shoreline survived the storms, while the discontinuous dunes with grassy vegetation near the Gulf shoreline were almost completely destroyed.