A comparison between the fabric camera and texture goniometer methods of fabric analysis by X-ray diffraction

The effects of grain size on the analysis of fabrics by X-ray diffraction using both the fabric camera and the texture goniometer are discussed. Simple calculations show the interdependance between the mean grain diameter and the number of crystals which are measured by each instrument. The effects of both grain size and modal composition of the specimen are illustrated by comparative analyses. Both the fabric camera and texture goniometer are well suited to the analysis of specimens in which the mean grain diameter is between approximately 10 and 100 microns. The texture goniometer is more suitable when the grain size is less than this, while the fabric camera is better suited when the grain size is coarser, especially when the specimen is not monomineralic.     

氮气、氧气和空气水合物的合成及其拉曼光谱特征

在-20℃和不同的压力下,在实验室内分别合成了氮气水合物(16MPa)、氧气水合物(13MPa)和空气水合物(15MPa),并对其N—N和O—O键伸缩振动的拉曼光谱特征进行了研究。结果表明,人工合成的水合物中的N—N和O—O键的拉曼位移与天然的空气水合物中的数据十分接近。在氮气水合物和空气水合物中,N—N键的拉曼峰值均为2322.4cm-1;O—O键的拉曼峰值在氧气水合物和空气水合物保持一致,均为1547.8cm-1。空气水合物分解的拉曼谱图表明,它不是氮气水合物和氧气水合物组成的混合物,而是由氮分子和氧分子共同生成的单一水合物,氮分子和氧分子同时进入水合物的大笼和小笼中。与空气中的氮、氧比例相比,水合物中氧分子明显富集,氮分子和氧分子的比例为2.4∶1。     

Graphite in Kupferschiefer (Poland) and its genetic meaning

Graphite forms crystals up to 0.08 mm in size in carbonates or argillaceous carbonates directly under- and overlying black shale. Increased contents of Si, Al, Ca, and K in graphite are related to intercalations of graphite-montmorillonite and less to intercalations of graphite-illite. Quartz and gibbsite are also detected. The formation of graphite was probably a two-stage process:

1. Catalytic oxidation of organic matter. As a result of oxidation original organic matter has been enriched as aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene ring compounds) being most resistant to oxidation.
2. Ordering of conjugated benzene rings on the 001 montmorillonite plane as a matrix. As a result, the c₀ of dry montmorillonite increased to 1.678±0.020 or 2.450±0.050 nm. Primary layers of graphite became themselves matrices for the next layers of conjugated rings producing microscopically visible graphite.

To a less extent the process of dehydrogenesis and conjugation of aromatic rings took place in a reaction with Al, Si, and OH of phyllosilicates producing Al(OH)₃ (gibbsite), former H₄SiO₄ (now quartz), and H₂O.     

Rb-Sr dating of Paleozoic glauconite from the Llano region,central Texas

Glauconite from eight stratigraphic horizons (Cambrian to Pennsylvanian) in the Llano Uplift, central Texas and two Cretaceous glauconites were analyzed by the Rb-Sr method. Only two untreated samples provide ages in agreement with those anticipated from current best estimates of the geologic time scale. With one exception all the other apparent ages fall short of the estimated age of deposition by as much as 22%. Low ages, the pattern customarily observed, are attributed to postdepositional loss of radiogenic ⁸⁷Sr from expandable layers by weathering or during diagenesis.Detailed leaching experiments using a variety of reagents were performed to characterize the behavior of glauconite. The most promising treatment, which we recommend as standard procedure in all future studies, is with ammonium acetate which is able to purge the mineral of loosely-bound Rb and Sr while leaving tightly-bound components intact. After appropriate leach, three other Rb-Sr ages were brought into coincidence with their estimated ages of deposition.In contrast an Upper Cambrian glauconite was found to be extremely resistant to further alteration by chemical attack′, providing an age of 429 ± 17 M yr. Although 17% short of the age of deposition, this age is interpreted as the time of a real event: diagenetic recrystallization induced by burial. Comparison of data from four samples indicates that for Paleozoic glauconite, conditions exist in which the Rb-Sr system is less susceptible to mild disturbance than is the K-Ar system.     

Chemical fractionations in meteorites—X. Ureilites

Four ureilites (Dyalpur, Goalpara, Haverö, and Novo Urei) were analyzed by radiochemical neutron activation analysis for Ag, Au, Bi, Br, Cd, Cs, Ge, In, Ir, Ni, Rb, Re, Sb, Se, Te, Tl, and U. An attempt has been made to resolve the data into contributions from the parent ultramafic rock and the injected, carbon- and gas-rich vein material. Interelement correlations, supported by analyses of separated vein material (WANKE et al, 1972), suggest that the vein material is enriched about 10-fold in refractory Ir and Re over moderately volatile Ni and Au, and is low in volatiles except Ge, C, and noble gases. It appears to be a refractory-rich nebular condensate that precipitated carbon by surface catalytic reactions at ˜500K and trapped noble gases but few other volatiles. The closest known analogue is a Cr- and C-rich fraction from the Allende meteorite, highly enriched in heavy noble gases and noble metals. By analogy with Allende, the gas-bearing phase in ureilites may have been an Fe, Cr-sulfide.

The ultramafic rock contains siderophiles and chalcophiles (Ni, Au, Ge, S, Se) at ˜0.05 of Cl chondrite level, and highly volatile elements (Rb, Cs, Bi, Tl, Br, Te, In, Cd) at ˜0.01 Cl level. It probably represents the residue from partial melting of a C3V-like chondrite body, under conditions where phase separation was incomplete so that some liquid was retained. The vein material was injected into this rock at some later time.     

Metasomatism and the crystallization of zircon megacrysts in Archaean peridotites from the Lewisian complex,NW Scotland

Zircon megacrysts are locally abundant in 1–40 cm-thick orthopyroxenite veins within peridotite host rocks in the Archaean Lewisian gneiss complex from NW Scotland. The veins formed by metasomatic interaction between the ultramafic host and Si-rich melts are derived from partial melting of the adjacent granulite-facies orthogneisses. The interaction produced abundant orthopyroxene and, within the thicker veins, phlogopite, pargasite and feldspathic bearing assemblages. Two generations of zircon are present with up to 1 cm megacrystic zircon and a later smaller equant population located around the megacryst margins. Patterns of zoning, rare earth element abundance and oxygen isotopic compositions indicate that the megacrysts crystallized from crustal melts, whereas the equant zircon represents new neocryst growth and partial replacement of the megacryst zircon within the ultramafic host. Both zircon types have U–Pb ages of ca. 2464 Ma, broadly contemporaneous with granulite-facies events in the adjacent gneisses. Zircon megacrysts locally form?>?10% of the assemblage and may be associated to zones of localized nucleation or physically concentrated during movement of the siliceous melts. Their unusual size is linked to the suppression of zircon nucleation and increased Zr solubility in the Si-undersaturated melts. The metasomatism between crustal melts and peridotite may represent an analog for processes in the mantle wedge above subducting slabs. As such, the crystallization of abundant zircon in ultramafic host rocks has implications for geochemistry of melts generated in the mantle and the widely reported depletion of high field strength elements in arc magmas.     

Experiments of DSAEF_LTP Model with Two Improved Parameters for Accumulated Precipitation of Landfalling Tropical Cyclones over Southeast China

The Dynamical-Statistical-Analog Ensemble Forecast model for landfalling tropical cyclones (TCs) precipitation (DSAEF_LTP) utilises an operational numerical weather prediction (NWP) model for the forecast track, while the precipitation forecast is obtained by finding analog cyclones, and making a precipitation forecast from an ensemble of the analogs. This study addresses TCs that occurred from 2004 to 2019 in Southeast China with 47 TCs as training samples and 18 TCs for independent forecast experiments. Experiments use four model versions. The control experiment DSAEF_LTP_1 includes three factors including TC track, landfall season, and TC intensity to determine analogs. Versions DSAEF_LTP_2, DSAEF_LTP_3, and DSAEF_LTP_4 respectively integrate improved similarity region, improved ensemble method, and improvements in both parameters. Results show that the DSAEF_LTP model with new values of similarity region and ensemble method (DSAEF_LTP_4) performs best in the simulation experiment, while the DSAEF_LTP model with new values only of ensemble method (DSAEF_LTP_3) performs best in the forecast experiment. The reason for the difference between simulation (training sample) and forecast (independent sample) may be that the proportion of TC with typical tracks (southeast to northwest movement or landfall over Southeast China) has changed significantly between samples. Forecast performance is compared with that of three global dynamical models (ECMWF, GRAPES, and GFS) and a regional dynamical model (SMS-WARMS). The DSAEF_LTP model performs better than the dynamical models and tends to produce more false alarms in accumulated forecast precipitation above 250 mm and 100 mm. Compared with TCs without heavy precipitation or typical tracks, TCs with these characteristics are better forecasted by the DSAEF_LTP model.     

Aircraft Observations of Sea-Surface Turbulent Fluxes Near the California Coast

Aircraft turbulence data from the Autonomous Ocean Sampling Network project were analyzed and compared to the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) bulk parametrization of turbulent fluxes in an ocean area near the coast of California characterized by complex atmospheric flow. Turbulent fluxes measured at about 35 m above the sea surface using the eddy-correlation method were lower than bulk estimates under unstable and stable atmospheric stratification for all but light winds. Neutral turbulent transfer coefficients were used in this comparison because they remove the effects of mean atmospheric conditions and atmospheric stability. Spectral analysis suggested that kilometre-scale longitudinal rolls affect significantly turbulence measurements even near the sea surface, depending on sampling direction. Cross-wind sampling tended to capture all the available turbulent energy. Vertical soundings showed low boundary-layer depths and high flux divergence near the sea surface in the case of sensible heat flux but minimal flux divergence for the momentum flux. Cross-wind sampling and flux divergence were found to explain most of the observed discrepancies between the measured and bulk flux estimates. At low wind speeds the drag coefficient determined with eddy correlation and an inertial dissipation method after corrections were applied still showed high values compared to bulk estimates. This discrepancy correlated with the dominance of sea swell, which was a usually observed condition under low wind speeds. Under stable atmospheric conditions measured sensible heat fluxes, which usually have low values over the ocean, were possibly affected by measurement errors and deviated significantly from bulk estimates.     

Estimating Sea-Level Allowances for Atlantic Canada using the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC

Abstract

Sea-level allowances at 22 tide-gauge sites along the east coast of Canada are determined based on projections of regional sea-level rise for the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) from the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5) and on the statistics of historical tides and storm surges (storm tides). The allowances, which may be used for coastal infrastructure planning, increase with time during the twenty-first century through a combination of mean sea-level rise and the increased uncertainty of future projections with time. The allowances show significant spatial variation, mainly a consequence of strong regionally varying relative sea-level change as a result of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). A methodology is described for replacement of the GIA component of the AR5 projection with global positioning system (GPS) measurements of vertical crustal motion; this significantly decreases allowances in regions where the uncertainty of the GIA models is large. For RCP8.5 with GPS data incorporated and for the 1995–2100 period, the sea-level allowances range from about 0.5?m along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to more than 1?m along the coast of Nova Scotia and southern Newfoundland.