Ferromanganoan sediments in the equatorial East Pacific

Ferromanganoan sediments containing little or no CaCO₃ have been found to occur extensively throughout the region between the East Pacific Rise and the Galapagos Rise. Concentrations of Fe and Mn of up to 18 and 6.5%, respectively, accompany low concentrations of Al and Ti. The concentrations of Cu, Ni, and Zn are also high relative to more typical pelagic sediments.While chemically similar to the non-carbonate fraction of metalliferous sediments previously described from the East Pacific Rise, the mineralogy is markedly different. A non-detrital smectite makes up the bulk of sediment (70 to 90%) and is the most important iron bearing phase. Fe and Mn oxides, occurring primarily as micro-nodules, comprise 10 to 20% of the sediment. Detrital material is relatively rare, amounting to less than 10% in all samples.     

Carbon monoxide on the primitive earth

The reaction of CO + OH^? in aqueous solution to give formate was studied as a carbon monoxide sink on the primitive earth and in the present ocean. The reaction is first order in OH^? and first order in the molar CO concentration. The second order rate constant is given by log k(M^?1hr^?1) = 15.83?4886/T between 25°C and 60°C. Using the solubility of CO in sea water, and assuming a pH of 8 for a primitive ocean of the present size, the halflife of CO in the atmosphere is calculated to be 12 × 10⁶ yr at 0°C and 5.5 × 10⁴ yr at 25°C.Three other CO sinks would have been important in the primitive atmosphere: CO + H₂ → H₂CO driven by various energy sources, CO + OH → CO₂ + H, and the Fischer-Tropsch reaction of CO + H₂ → hydrocarbons, etc. It is concluded that the lifetime of a CO atmosphere would have been very short on the geological time scale although the relative importance of these four CO sinks is difficult to estimate.The CO + OH^? reaction to give formate is a very minor CO sink on the earth at the present time.     

Effect of thermal effluent on migrating menhaden

Hot water effluent from power stations kills juvenile menhaden migrating through Long Island Sound. Since the fish sink to the bottom, losses are unrecorded or at best under-estimated. Other fish are probably also affected. Menhaden in Long Island Sound contribute to the commercial fishery off the eastern seaboard of the United States. At present the losses have little impact on the fishery, but if the projected increase in hot water discharges into the Sound materializes the consequences may be serious.     

Oxygen and hydrogen in the primitive atmosphere

From time to time there appears in the literature the assertion that photolysis of water vapor could have maintained an appreciable concentration of oxygen in the primitive (prebiological) atmosphere. The implausibility of this assertion is argued in this paper.By itself, photolysis does not provide a source of oxygen because it is usually followed by recombination of the products of photolysis. Only the escape to space (at a much smaller rate) of the hydrogen produced by photolysis of water results in a net source of oxygen. The oxidation state of the primitive atmosphere depended on the relative magnitudes of this net source of oxygen and a volcanic source of hydrogen and other reduced gases. Today the volcanic source of reduced gases is approximately equal to the oxygen source provided by photolysis followed by escape. The oxygen source depends on the mixing ratio of water vapor in the stratosphere, which ultimately determines the rate of escape of hydrogen produced from water vapor. Its magnitude may not have been very different in the past. The volcanic source of hydrogen, on the other hand, is likely to have been much larger when the earth was tectonically young. Hydrogen was therefore released to the primitive atmosphere more rapidly than oxygen, probably. Photochemical reactions with the excess hydrogen maintained oxygen mixing ratios at negligibly small levels. The hydrogen mixing ratio was determined by a balance between the volcanic source (reduced by recombination with oxygen) and escape to space.In time, either because of decline of the volcanic source of hydrogen or because of addition of a biological source of oxygen, the input of oxygen to the atmosphere rose above the input of hydrogen. The oxidation state of the atmosphere changed rapidly. Volcanic hydrogen was now consumed by photochemical reactions with excess oxygen, while the oxygen mixing ratio was determined by a balance between the source (reduced by recombination with volcanic hydrogen) and consumption in reactions with reduced material at the surface.     

The thermodynamic properties of the earth's lower mantle

The thermodynamic properties of the lower mantle are determined from the seismic profile, where the primary thermodynamic variables are the bulk modulus K and density ρ. It is shown that the Bullen law (K ∝ P) holds in the lower mantle with a high correlation coefficient for the seismic parametric Earth model (PEM). Using this law produces no ambiguity or trade-off between ρ₀ and K₀, since both K₀ and K′₀ are exactly determined by applying a linear K?ρ relationship to the data. On the other hand, extrapolating the velocity data to zero pressure using a Birch-Murnaghan equation of state (EOS) results in an ambiguous answer because there are three unknown adjustable parameters (ρ₀, K₀, K′₀) in the EOS.From the PEM data, K = 232.4 + 3.19 P (GPa). The PEM yields a hot uncompressed density of 3.999 ± 0.0026 g cm^?3 for material decompressed from all parts of the lower mantle. Even if the hot uncompressed density were uniform for all depths in the lower mantle, the cold uncompressed mantle would be inhomogeneous because the decompression given by the Bullen law crosses isotherms; for example, the temperature is different at different depths. To calculate the density distribution correctly, an isothermal EOS must be used along an isotherm, and temperature corrections must be placed in the thermal pressure P_TH.The thermodynamic parameters of the lower mantle are found by iteration. Values of the three uncompressed anharmonic parameters are first arbitrarily selected: α₀ (hot), the coefficient of thermal expansion; γ₀, the Grüneisen parameter; and δ, the second Grüneisen parameter. Using γ₀ and the measured ρ₀ (hot) and K₀ (hot), the values of θ₀ (Debye temperature) and q = dlnγ/dlnρ are found from the measured seismic velocities. Then from (αK_T)₀ and q the thermal pressure P_TH at all high temperatures is found. Correlating P_TH against T to the geotherm for the lower mantle, P_TH is found at all depths Z. The isothermal pressure, along the 0 K isotherm, at every Z is found by subtracting P_TH from the measured P given by the seismic model. Using the isothermal pressure at depth Z, the solution for the cold uncompressed density ρ_0C and the cold uncompressed bulk modulus, K_T0 is found as a trace in the K_T0?_ρ0C plane. A narrow band of solutions is then found for ρ_0C and K_T0 at all depths.The thermal expansion at all T is found from [ρ_0C ? ρ₀ (hot)/ρ_0C. From Suzuki's formula, the best fit to the thermal expansion determines γ₀ and α₀ (hot). When the values of these two parameters do not agree with the original assumptions, the calculation is repeated until they do agree. In this way all the important thermodynamic parameters are found as a self-consistent set subject only to the assumptions behind the equations used.     

Two-dimensional kinematic and rheological modeling of the 1912 pyroclastic flow,Katmai, Alaska

Pyroclastic flow emplacement is strongly influenced by eruption column height. A surface along which kinetic energy is zero theoretically connects the loci of eruption column collapse with all coeval ignimbrite termini. This surface is reconstructed as a two-dimensional energy line for the 1912 Katmai pyroclastic flow in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes from mapped flow termini and the runup of the ignimbrite onto obstructions and through passes. Extrapolation of the energy line to the vicinity of the source vent at Novarupta suggests the eruption column which generated the ignimbrite eruption was approximately 425 m high. The 1912 pyroclastic flow travelled about 25 km downvalley. Empirical velocity data calculated from runup elevations and surveyed centrifugal superelevations indicate initial velocities near Novarupta were greater than 79–88 m s^–1. The flow progressively decelerated and was travelling only 2–8 m s^–1 when it crossed a moraine 16 km downvalley. The constant slope of the energy line away from Novarupta suggests the flow was systematically slowed by internal and basal friction. Using a simple physical model to calculate flow velocities and a constant kinetic friction coefficient (Heim coefficient) of 0.04 derived from the reconstructed energy line, the flow is estimated to have decelerated at an average rate of –0.16 m s^–2 and to have taken approximately 9.5 minutes to travel 25 km down the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. The shear strength of the flowing ignimbrite at the moraine was approximately 0.5 kPa, and its Bingham viscosity when it crossed the moraine was 3.5 × 10³ P. If the flow was Newtonian, its viscosity was 4.2 × 10³ P. Reynolds and Froude numbers at the moraine were only 41–62 and 0.84–1.04, respectively, indicating laminar, subcritical flow.     

Seismic wave attenuation in fluid-saturated porous media

Contrary to the traditional view, seismic attenuation in Biot's theory of fluid-saturated porous media is due to viscous damping of local (not global) pore-fluid motion. Since substantial inhomogeneities in fluid permeability of porous geological materials are to be expected, the regions of highest local permeability contribute most to the wave energy dissipation while those of lowest permeability dominate the fluid flow rate if they are uniformly distributed. This dichotomy can explain some of the observed discrepancies between computed and measured attenuation of compressional and shear waves in porous earth. One unfortunate consequence of this result is the fact that measured seismic wave attenuation in fluid-filled geological materials cannot be used directly as a diagnostic of the global fluid-flow permeability.