First Find of Trace Metal Minerals at the Albaza Gold Deposit

Doklady Earth Sciences - The results of mineralogical–geochemical study of the Albaza gold deposit (Khabarovsk Krai) are presented here. The ore mineral assemblage, in addition to already...     

Source Provenance and Paleogeographic Conditions during Deposition of Jurassic Continental Sediments in the Southern Part of the Siberian Platform (Implication of Sm–Nd and U–Pb Data)

The first Sm–Nd isotopic data and U–Pb (LA–ICP–MS) detrital zircon ages from sandstones of the Prisayan and Kuda Formations (the Irkutsk Basin, southern part of the Siberian Platform) have been obtained. They demonstrate that during accumulation of the sediments in the Irkutsk Basin, the contribution of local erosion sources decreased over time, while input from the Paleo–Transbaikalia sources increased. The change in provenance areas was triggered by tectonic rebuilding in Paleo–Transbaikalia caused by the closure of the Mongol–Okhotsk Ocean.     

Spectra of Standard Radio Sources at the Current Epoch

The results of observations aimed at determining the spectra of standard radio sources in an “artificial-Moon” absolute flux scale at epoch 2015.5 at wavelengths of 3.5–18 cm are presented. The sample includes sources with small angular sizes, used as flux-density standards for the calibration of various types of antennas, including large synthesized apertures, over a wide range of frequencies. The artificial-Moon flux scale is constructed in a way that makes it the most accurate of existing scales, and the only scale for which source spectra are not deformed. The methods used to construct the articial-Moon flux scale are briefly described. Repeat measurements of the spectra of standard sources, required to preserve the accuracy of the flux scale, were carried out in 2014–2017 (at a mean epoch of 2015.5) on the 32-m telescope of the Svetloe Observatory of the Institute of Applied Astronomy at four wavelengths: 18, 13, 6.2, and 3.5 cm. The characteristic properties of the measurement methods are discussed, and the data obtained are compared with data from earlier epochs.     

Radio Emission Variability of Supernova Remnants and a Possible Explanation of the Phenomenon

Astronomy Reports - The flux densities and current spectra of plerions and combined supernova remnants (SNRs): 3C58, 3C144, G11.2–0.3, G21.5–0.9, and 3C396 are determined on an...     

Precise and efficient evaluation of gravimetric quantities at arbitrarily scattered points in space

Gravimetric quantities are commonly represented in terms of high degree surface or solid spherical harmonics. After EGM2008, such expansions routinely extend to spherical harmonic degree 2190, which makes the computation of gravimetric quantities at a large number of arbitrarily scattered points in space using harmonic synthesis, a very computationally demanding process. We present here the development of an algorithm and its associated software for the efficient and precise evaluation of gravimetric quantities, represented in high degree solid spherical harmonics, at arbitrarily scattered points in the space exterior to the surface of the Earth. The new algorithm is based on representation of the quantities of interest in solid ellipsoidal harmonics and application of the tensor product trigonometric needlets. A FORTRAN implementation of this algorithm has been developed and extensively tested. The capabilities of the code are demonstrated using as examples the disturbing potential T, height anomaly \(\zeta \), gravity anomaly \(\Delta g\), gravity disturbance \(\delta g\), north–south deflection of the vertical \(\xi \), east–west deflection of the vertical \(\eta \), and the second radial derivative \(T_{rr}\) of the disturbing potential. After a pre-computational step that takes between 1 and 2 h per quantity, the current version of the software is capable of computing on a standard PC each of these quantities in the range from the surface of the Earth up to 544 km above that surface at speeds between 20,000 and 40,000 point evaluations per second, depending on the gravimetric quantity being evaluated, while the relative error does not exceed \(10^{-6}\) and the memory (RAM) use is 9.3 GB.     

Unique Clinkers and Paralavas from a New Nyalga Combustion Metamorphic Complex in Central Mongolia: Mineralogy,Geochemistry, and Genesis

The paper presents mineralogical and geochemical data on clinkers and paralavas and on conditions under which they were formed at the Nyalga combustion metamorphic complex, which was recently discovered in Central Mongolia. Mineral and phase assemblages of the CM rocks do not have analogues in the world. The clinkers contain pyrogenically modified mudstone relics, acid silicate glass, partly molten quartz and feldspar grains, and newly formed indialite microlites (phenocrysts) with a ferroindialite marginal zone. In the paralava melts, spinel microlites with broadly varying Fe concentrations and anorthite–bytownite were the first to crystallize, and were followed by phenocrysts of Al-clinopyroxene ± melilite and Mg–Fe olivine. The next minerals to crystallize were Ca-fayalite, kirschsteinite, pyrrhotite, minerals of the rhönite–kuratite series, K–Ba feldspars (celsian, hyalophane, and Ba-orthoclase, Fe³⁺-hercynite ± (native iron, wüstite, Al-magnetite, and fresnoite), nepheline ± (kalsilite), and later calcite, siderite, barite, celestine, and gypsum. The paralavas contain rare minerals of the rhönite–kuratite series, a new end-member of the rhönite subgroup Ca₄Fe ₈ ²⁺ Fe ₄ ³⁺ O₄ [Si₈Al₄O₃₆], a tobermorite-like mineral Ca₅Si₅(Al,Fe)(OH)O₁₆ · 5H₂O, and high- Ba F-rich mica (K,Ba)(Mg,Fe)₃(Al,Si)₄O₁₀F₂. The paralavas host quenched relics of microemulsions of immiscible residual silicate melts with broadly varying Si, Al, Fe, Ca, K, Ba, and Sr concentrations, sulfide and calcitic melts, and water-rich silicate–iron ± (Mn) fluid media. The clinkers were formed less than 2 Ma ago in various parts of the Choir–Nyalga basin by melting Early Cretaceous mudstones with bulk composition varies from dacitic to andesitic. The pyrogenic transformations of the mudstones were nearly isochemical, except only for volatile components. The CM melt rocks of basaltic andesitic composition were formed via melting carbonate–silicate sediments at temperatures above 1450°C. The Ca- and Fe-enriched and silicaundersaturated paralavas crystallized near the surface at temperatures higher than 900–1100°C and oxygen fugacity \(f_{O_2 }\) between the IW and QFM buffers. In local melting domains of the carbonate–silicate sedimentary rocks and in isolations of the residual melts among the paralava matrix the fluid pressure was higher than the atmospheric one. The bulk composition, mineral and phase assemblages of CM rocks of the Nyalga complex are very diverse (dacitic, andesitic, basaltic andesitic, basaltic, and silica-undersaturated mafic) because the melts crystallized under unequilibrated conditions and were derived by the complete or partial melting of clayey and carbonate–silicate sediments during natural coal fires.     

Structural–Tectonic Features of the Northeastern Barents Plate from Numerical Modeling of Potential Fields

Structural–geological inhomogeneities in the northeastern Barents Sea are zoned based on an analysis of various components of the gravity and magnetic fields. The objects revealed in the basement and sedimentary cover of the Barents Sea Plate form anomalies in potential fields at coexisting complex geological structures and contrasting petrophysical properties. Cluster analysis reveals the fault-marked boundaries of individual blocks in the basement. A numerical model of faults in the sedimentary cover and basement of the Barents Sea Plate is constructed.     

Late Vendian Complexes in the Structure of Metamorphic Basement of the Fore Range Zone,Greater Caucasus

The paper presents new data on the composition, age, and relationships (with host and overlying deposits) of intrusive rocks in the basement of the Fore Range zone (Greater Caucasus), in the Malaya Laba River Basin. The evolutionary features of intrusive units located within the Blyb metamorphic complex are described. It is shown for the first time that the lower levels of this complex are, in a structural sense, outcrops of the Late Vendian basement. The basement is composed of the Balkan Formation and a massif of quartz metadiorites that intrudes it; for the rocks of this massif, ages ranging from 549 ± 7.4 to 574.1 ± 6.7 Ma are obtained for three U–Pb datings by the SHRIMP-II method. The Herzyinan magmatic event is represented by a group of granodiorite intrusions penetrating the Blyb complex on a series of faults extending along its boundary with the Main Range zone. The obtained estimate for the U–Pb age of one of the intrusions (319 ± 3.8 Ma) corresponds to the end of the Serpukhovian stage of the Early Carboniferous.     

Albedo-shifting method: Source function in a plane atmosphere

A classical problem in the theory of radiative transfer is considered: calculating the radiation field within a plane scattering atmosphere. The recently proposed albedo-shifting method is used to calculate the source function both in a semi-infinite atmosphere and in an atmophere of finite optical depth, illuminated by parallel rays. The method enables one to “suppress” scattering and obtain iterative solutions of the integral equation for the source function in only a few direct lambda iterations, even when the average number of photon scatterings in the atmosphere is very large. Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 485–500, October–December, 1999.     

Beginning of the new solar cycle (cycle 24) in the large-scale open solar magnetic field

It is proposed to determined minimums of the 11-year solar cycles based on a minimal flux of the large-scale open solar magnetic field. The minimal fluxes before the finished cycle 23 (Carrington rotation CR 1904) and the started cycle 24 (CR 2054, April 2007) were equal to 1.8 × 10²² and 1.2 × 10²² μs, respectively. The long-term tendency toward an approach to a deep minimum of solar activity is confirmed. On the assumption that magnetic flux variations from minimums to maximums are proportional to each other, the anticipated value of the maximal Wolf number during cycle 24 is estimated as W _max = 80.