Relationships between Campi Flegrei and Mt. Somma volcanism: evidence from melt inclusions in clinopyroxene phenocrysts from volcanic breccia xenoliths

Summary We present compositions of reheated melt inclusions in clinopyroxene phenocrysts from three mafic xenoliths in Breccia Museo, Campi Flegrei, Italy. Melt inclusion compositions are remarkably different from the compositions of known contemporary Campi Flegrei lavas, being significantly enriched in K₂O and depleted in Na₂O. Some differences are also evident in FeO^* (total Fe as FeO) and TiO₂ contents. The clinopyroxene phenocrysts could not have crystallised from Campi Flegrei magmas. We suggest that they originated from a volcanic system genetically very similar to, and possibly linked with, the >14 ka volcanic system of Mt. Somma, another Campanian volcano ∼ 30 km east from Campi Flegrei, from which Vesuvius subsequently developed. This result indicates a close relationship (or link) between the two volcanic systems which have until now been considered separate. We speculate that the link was established prior to eruption of the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT) (∼ 12 ka). The xenoliths were derived from a volcanic system older than the host breccias themselves. We suggest that this older volcanism had close similarities with the volcanism of the older products of Mt. Somma (∼25 ka). Received March 20, 2000; accepted November 2, 2000     

Microboudin structures of piemontite along the Sambagawa metamorphic belt, Japan: implications for lateral variation of differential stress during regional metamorphism

Evidence is presented of a lateral variation in differential stress during metamorphism along a regional metamorphic belt on the basis of the proportion of microboudinaged piemontite grains (p) in a quartz matrix in metacherts. It is proposed that p is a practical indicator of relative differential stress. Analysis of 123 metacherts from the 800 km long Sambagawa metamorphic belt, Japan, reveals that p‐values range from < 0.01 to 0.7 in this region. Most samples from Wakayama in the mid‐belt area have p‐values of 0.4–0.6, whereas those from western Shikoku have p‐values of < 0.1. This difference cannot be explained by variations in metamorphic temperature, and is instead attributed to a regional, lateral variation in differential stress during metamorphism.     

What type was SN 1987A?

A comparison is made of the light and colour curves of the SN 1987A in the first 280 days with the mean properties of type II supernovae. The conclusion is that even though it has H lines, and was not a typical type II supernova, but a peculiar object from a photometric point of view. The implications for inclusion of SN 1987A in the context of the usual Minkowski-Zwicky classification are explicitly discussed.     

About Darcy's law in non-Galilean frame

This paper is aimed towards investigating the filtration law of an incompressible viscous Newtonian fluid through a rigid non-inertial porous medium (e.g. a porous medium placed in a centrifuge basket). The filtration law is obtained by upscaling the flow equations at the pore scale. The upscaling technique is the homogenization method of multiple scale expansions which rigorously gives the macroscopic behaviour and the effective properties without any prerequisite on the form of the macroscopic equations. The derived filtration law is similar to Darcy's law, but the tensor of permeability presents the following remarkable properties: it depends upon the angular velocity of the porous matrix, it verifies Hall–Onsager's relationship and it is a non-symmetric tensor. We thus deduce that, under rotation, an isotropic porous medium leads to a non-isotropic effective permeability. In this paper, we present the results of numerical simulations of the flow through rotating porous media. This allows us to highlight the deviations of the flow due to Coriolis effects at both the microscopic scale (i.e. the pore scale), and the macroscopic scale (i.e. the sample scale). The above results confirm that for an isotropic medium, phenomenological laws already proposed in the literature fails at reproducing three-dimensional Coriolis effects in all types of pores geometry. We show that Coriolis effects may lead to significant variations of the permeability measured during centrifuge tests when the inverse Ekman number Ek⁻¹ is 𝒪(1). These variations are estimated to be less than 5% if Ek⁻¹<0.2, which is the case of classical geotechnical centrifuge tests. We finally conclude by showing that available experimental data from tests carried out in centrifuges are not sufficient to determining the effective tensor of permeability of rotating porous media. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pre-collisional high pressure metamorphism and nappe tectonics at active continental margins: a numerical simulation

The evolution of a subduction channel and orogenic wedge is simulated in 2D for an active continental margin, with P-T paths being displayed for selected markers. In our simulation, subduction erosion affects the active margin and a structural pattern develops within a few tens of millions of years, with four zones from the trench into the forearc: (i) an accretionary complex of low grade metamorphic sedimentary material, (ii) a wedge of nappes with alternating upper and lower crustal provenance, and minor interleaving of oceanic or hydrated mantle material, (iii) a megascale melange composed of high pressure (HP) and ultra-high pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks extruded from the subduction channel, and (iv) the upward tilted frontal part of the remaining lid. The P–T paths and time scales correspond to those typically recorded in orogenic belts. The simulation shows that HP/UHP metamorphism of continental crust does not necessarily indicate collision, but that the material can be derived from the active margin by subduction erosion and extruded from the subduction channel beneath the forearc during ongoing subduction.     

Late Quaternary submarine bedforms and ice‐sheet flow in Gerlache Strait and on the adjacent continental shelf,Antarctic Peninsula

Geophysical data from Gerlache Strait, Croker Passage, Bismarck Strait and the adjacent continental shelf reveal streamlined subglacial bedforms that were produced at the bed of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet (APIS) during the last glaciation. The spatial arrangement and orientation of these bedforms record the former drainage pattern and flow dynamics of an APIS outlet up‐flow, and feeding into, a palaeo‐ice stream in the Western Bransfield Basin. Evidence suggests that together, they represent a single ice‐flow system that drained the APIS during the last glaciation. The ice‐sheet outlet flowed north/northeastwards through Gerlache Strait and Croker Passage and converged with a second, more easterly ice‐flow tributary on the middle shelf to form the main palaeo‐ice stream. The dominance of drumlins with low elongation ratios suggests that ice‐sheet outlet draining through Gerlache Strait was comparatively slower than the main palaeo‐ice stream in the Western Bransfield Basin, although the low elongation ratios may also partly reflect the lack of sediment. Progressive elongation of drumlins further down‐flow indicates that the ice sheet accelerated through Croker Passage and the western tributary trough, and fed into the main zone of streaming flow in the Western Bransfield Basin. Topography would have exerted a strong control on the development of the palaeo‐ice stream system but subglacial geology may also have been significant given the transition from crystalline bedrock to sedimentary strata on the inner–mid‐shelf. In the broader context, the APIS was drained by a number of major fast‐flowing outlets through cross‐shelf troughs to the outer continental shelf during the last glaciation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simultaneous operation of the Sea Beam multibeam echo-sounder andthe SeaMARC II bathymetric sidescan sonar system

An experiment aboard the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's RV Thomas Washington has demonstrated the seafloor mapping advantages to be derived from combining the high-resolution bathymetry of a multibeam echo-sounder with the sidescan acoustic imaging plus wide-swath bathymetry of a shallow-towed bathymetric sidescan sonar. To a void acoustic interference between the ship's 12-kHz Sea Beam multibeam echo-sounder and the 11-12-kHz SeaMARC II bathymetric sidescan sonar system during simultaneous operations, Sea Beam transmit cycles were scheduled around SeaMARC II timing events with a sound source synchronization unit originally developed for concurrent single-channel seismic, Sea Beam, and 3.5-kHz profile operations. The scheduling algorithm implemented for Sea Beam plus SeaMARC II operations is discussed, and the initial results showing their combined seafloor mapping capabilities are presented     

Deep-ocean vertical noise directionality

The structure of beam noise measured at the output of a vertical array in a range dependent ocean basin was investigated using the modified wide-angle parabolic equation (PE). Noise sources were distributed throughout the basin, and the field due to each noise source at an array located in the midbasin was calculated. The response of the array to the superposition of the noise sources was found by beamforming. An efficient and direct approach that superimposes the noise sources on the PE field as the field is marched toward the array was developed. Downslope calculations of the midbasin vertical directionality were made between 50 and 400 Hz with this technique. Use of a geoacoustic model shows that the bottom behaves as a low-pass filter