Global change revealed by palaeolimnological records from remote lakes: a review

Over recent decades, palaeolimnological records from remote sites have provided convincing evidence for the onset and development of several facets of global environmental change. Remote lakes, defined here as those occurring in high latitude or high altitude regions, have the advantage of not being overprinted by local anthropogenic processes. As such, many of these sites record broad-scale environmental changes, frequently driven by regime shifts in the Earth system. Here, we review a selection of studies from North America and Europe and discuss their broader implications. The history of investigation has evolved synchronously with the scope and awareness of environmental problems. An initial focus on acid deposition switched to metal and other types of pollutants, then climate change and eventually to atmospheric deposition-fertilising effects. However, none of these topics is independent of the other, and all of them affect ecosystem function and biodiversity in profound ways. Currently, remote lake palaeolimnology is developing unique datasets for each region investigated that benchmark current trends with respect to past, purely natural variability in lake systems. Fostering conceptual and methodological bridges with other environmental disciplines will upturn contribution of remote lake palaeolimnology in solving existing and emerging questions in global change science and planetary stewardship.     

Quantifying the influence of sill intrusion on the thermal evolution of organic‐rich sedimentary rocks in nonvolcanic passive margins: an example from ODP 210‐1276, offshore Newfoundland,Canada

Intrusive magmatism is an integral and understudied component in both volcanic and nonvolcanic passive margins. Here, we investigate the thermal effects of widespread (ca. 20 000 km²) intrusive magmatism on the thermal evolution of organic‐rich sedimentary rocks on the nonvolcanic Newfoundland passive margin. ODP 210‐1276 (45.41°N, 44.79°W) intersects two sills: an older, upper sill and a younger, lower sill that are believed to correspond to the high amplitude ‘U‐reflector’ observed across the Newfoundland Basin. A compilation of previous work collectively provides; (1) emplacement depth constraints, (2) vitrinite reflectance data and (3) ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dates. Collectively, these data sets provide a unique opportunity to model the conductive cooling of the sills and how they affect thermal maturity of the sedimentary sequence. A finite differences method was used to model the cooling of the sills, with the model outputs then being entered into the EASY%R_o vitrinite reflectance model. The modelled maturation profile for ODP 210‐1276 shows a significant but localized effect on sediment maturity as a result of the intrusions. Our results suggest that even on nonvolcanic margins, intrusive magmatism can significantly influence the thermal evolution in the vicinity of igneous intrusions. In addition, the presence of widespread sills on nonvolcanic passive margins such as offshore Newfoundland may be indicative of regional‐scale thermal perturbations that should be considered in source rock maturation studies.     

Constraining the chronology of Pleistocene glaciations on Svalbard: Kapp Ekholm re‐visited

The Kapp Ekholm site, in central Spitsbergen, shows alternating units of glaciomarine sandy silt and diamicton representing three glacial cycles and is key in reconstructing the Late Pleistocene glacial history of Svalbard. Part of the site is reinvestigated here by focusing on re‐dating two units (B and F) interpreted as interglacial/interstadial glaciomarine deposits, in order to constrain the controversial chronology. A combination of Optical Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) on quartz, infrared stimulated luminescence with a 50 °C readout temperature (IRSL₅₀) and post infrared‐infrared stimulated luminescence (pIR), both on feldspar, was applied. While Formation B was beyond the dateable range of OSL, IRSL₅₀ and pIR ages lead to the conclusion that this unit represents the Last Interglacial, Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e, and the underlying diamicton the MIS 6 glacial. Formation F yielded ages implying that the formation represents the MIS 5a interstadial and the underlying diamicton is interpreted to represent the MIS 5b stadial. This agrees with conclusions drawn concerning the Pleistocene glaciations elsewhere on Svalbard.     

Preface

'Geology and Tectonics of Venus', special issue edited by Alexander T. Basilevsky (USSR Acad. of Sci. Moscow), James W. Head (Brown University, Providence), Gordon H. Pettengill (MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts) and R. S. Saunders (J.P.L., Pasadena).     

High-energy gamma-ray emission from solar flares: Constraining the accelerated proton spectrum

Using a multi-component model to describe the γ-ray emission, we investigate the flares of December 16, 1988 and March 6, 1989 which exhibited unambiguous evidence of neutral pion decay. The observations are then combined with theoretical calculations of pion production to constrain the accelerated proton spectra. The detection of π⁰ emisson alone can indicate much about the energy distribution and spectral variation of the protons accelerated to pion producing energies. Here both the intensity and detailed spectral shape of the Doppler-broadened π⁰ decay feature are used to determine the spectral form of the accelerated proton energy distribution. The Doppler width of this γ-ray emission provides a unique diagnostic of the spectral shape at high energies, independent of any normalisation. To our knowledge, this is the first time that this diagnostic has been used to constrain the proton spectra. The form of the energetic proton distribution is found to be severely limited by the observed intensity and Doppler width of the π⁰ decay emission, demonstrating effectively the diagnostic capabilities of the π⁰ decay γ-rays. The spectral index derived from the γ-ray intensity is found to be much harder than that derived from the Doppler width. To reconcile this apparent discrepancy we investigate the effects of introducing a high-energy cut-off in the accelerated proton distribution. With cut-off energies of around 0.5–0.8 GeV and relatively hard spectra, the observed intensities and broadening can be reproduced with a single energetic proton distribution above the pion production threshold.     

Formation of the sodium clouds and the regolith on Io by micrometeoroid impacts

The effects of the amount of sodium ions, their solar angles correlation, temperature and velocities, have been explained as consequences of the almost full penetration of the second mode of micrometeorite fluxes (M>10^–8 g) across the Io atmosphere to its surface, whereas volcanism may satisfy only the amount of sodium.Conclusions about the formation of fine grains on the Io surface, unflooded by lava, are presented. Due to its large specific surface (m² g^–1) the interaction of this topsoil and the Io atmosphere is no less important than the lava-atmosphere interaction.Paper presented at the European Workshop on Planetary Sciences, organised by the Laboratorio di Astrofisica Spaziale di Frascati, and held between April 23–27, 1979, at the Accademia Nazionale del Lincei in Rome, Italy.From September 1979.     

Helical waves in type-1 comet tails

Oscillations of type-1 comet tails with plasma compressibility taken into account are studied. A comet tail is treated as a plasma cylinder separated by a tangential discontinuity surface from the solar wind. The dispersion equation obtained in the linear approximation is solved numerically with typical plasma parameters. A sufficient condition for instability of the cylindrical tangential discontinuity in the compressible fluid is obtained. The phase velocity of helical waves is shown to be approximately coincident with Alfvén speed in the tail in the reference system moving with the bulk velocity of the plasma outflow in the tail. The instability growth rate is calculated.This theory is shown to be in good agreement with observations in the tails of Comets Kohoutek, Morehouse and Arend-Roland. Hence we conclude that helical waves observed in type-1 comet tails are produced due to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, and the model under consideration is justified. If so, one may estimate comet tail magnetic field from the pressure balance at the tangential discontinuity; it turns out to be of the order of the interplanetary magnetic field.     

Thin magnetic hydrogen atmospheres and the neutron star RX J1856.5–3754

RX J1856.5–3754 is one of the brightest nearby isolated neutron stars, and considerable observational resources have been devoted to it. However, current models are unable to satisfactorily explain the data. We show that our latest models of a thin, magnetic, partially ionized hydrogen atmosphere on top of a condensed surface can fit the entire spectrum, from X-rays to optical, of RX J1856.5–3754, within the uncertainties. In our simplest model, the best-fit parameters are an interstellar column density N _H≈1×10²⁰ cm^?2 and an emitting area with R ^∞≈17 km (assuming a distance to RX J1856.5–3754 of 140 pc), temperature T ^∞≈4.3×10⁵ K, gravitational redshift z _g ～0.22, atmospheric hydrogen column y _H≈1 g cm^?2, and magnetic field B≈(3–4)×10¹² G; the values for the temperature and magnetic field indicate an effective average over the surface.     

Filamentary structure of the ISM at high latitudes

Different mechanisms for filament formation are studied with a view to account for the results of Verschuur (1991a, b). It is shown that pinch phenomena can produce a filamentary structure of H I without any pressure contribution from the warm component of the interstellar medium (ISM). The mechanisms of filament formation involving the Parker instability and magnetoconvection are also discussed. It is shown that instabilities corresponding to all these mechanisms may result in a picture similar to that observed by Verschuur.     

Is It Possible to Find Evidence of Waves Generated by Solar Energetic Protons?

A recent model of solar energetic particle propagation suggests that large fluxes of protons may produce their own turbulence. To verify this theoretical prediction it becomes essential to find out whether these fluxes cause appreciable changes in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) fluctuation regime. It is also important to check if the suggested optimum conditions for wave production are consistent with observational evidence. In the present work we perform a study of directional power and magnetic helicity spectra of the IMF fluctuations from a few hours before to a few hours after the maximum flux of 4–13 MeV protons observed on board the two Helios spacecraft during eight solar events. The time evolution of the directional power and helicity spectra show increases which may be associated with the solar energetic proton (SEP) flux in two of the analysed events. In one event, we present a decrease of turbulence and helicity coincident with the maximum flux of SEP may also admit an interpretation in terms of self-generated waves. The existence of solar wind phenomena such as sector boundaries or interplanetary shocks obscure possible signatures of proton self-generated waves in two events. One event with a low level of turbulence previous to the arrival of particles shows no turbulence increase which might be associated with them. The remaining two events show no evidence of particle-generated turbulence, but the conditions on which these were observed do not fulfil some assumptions of the model.