The role of S in the evolution of the parental cores of the iron meteorites

Most iron meteorites presumably formed from the cores of parent bodies having more or less chondritic bulk compositions. Consideration of the behavior of S during condensation and core formation indicates that these cores, at least in the case of groups having high or moderate volatile contents (IIAB, IIIAB), contained a substantial amount of S. When elemental fractionations observed in these iron meteorite groups are compared to model calculations of fractional crystallization it becomes evident that at least the IIAB parent melt, and very likely the IIIAB parent melt as well, did not contain the full S complement of the parent body. We consider three possible scenarios to account for the S depletion: (1) Outgassing of S during parent body differentiation; this was probably only possible if the parent body contained organic material, which is improbable for IIIAB. (2) Liquid immiscibility. Our fractional crystallization model would predict curved log Xvs. log Ni relationships in this case, which for many elements are not observed. (3) Formation of metastable liquid layers by episodic melting during core formation. This is based on the fact that the difference in melting temperature between a FeFeS eutectic and FeNi metals is ～500 K. Two melting episodes would tend to form distinct liquid layers that maintain their identities over the crystallization lifetime of the core.Solidification of the cores parental to the main iron meteorite groups should also produce a significant number of sulfide meteorites. The scarcity of sulfide-rich meteorites can be attributed to their lower mechanical resistance to space attrition, higher ablation during atmospheric passage, and faster weathering on earth.     

Chemistry and genesis of garnets in metamorphic rocks

250 analyses of garnets in metamorphic pelitic, arkosic, and pyroclastic rocks from the Stavanger area have been made by means of a microprobe (ARL-EMX). The relations between chemistry and metamorphic grade are discussed. The dependence of the Mn content upon temperature, pressure, chemistry of the parent rocks and oxygen fugacity is a very sophisticated one.It is shown that the Mn content of the garnets depends on the oxygen fugacity of the system and that the oxygen fugacity is strongly linked to the behaviour of graphite during increasing metamorphism.Examples described by Miyashiro (1953) and Engel and Engel (1960) are in agreement with the model presented here.Some observations show an influence of primary sedimentary enrichments of manganese upon the first occurrence of garnets in the course of metamorphism.     

Repeated Aqueous Flooding from the Cerberus Fossae: Evidence for Very Recently Extant, Deep Groundwater on Mars

The geomorphology and topography of the Cerberus Plains region of Mars show three spatially and temporally distinct, young, aqueous flood channel systems. Flood geomorphology in each of these channels, as seen in Mars Orbiter Camera images, consists of streamlined forms, longitudinal lineations, and a single occurrence of transverse dunes, features similar to those in the flood-carved terrain of the Channeled Scabland in the northwestern United States. As additional geomorphic evidence of flooding, small cones (interpreted as phreatic) are found preferentially in the channels or at their distal ends. Glaciers, lava flows, and CO₂-charged density flows are each inconsistent with these geomorphic features. Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter data show two of the three channel systems (Athabasca Valles and an unnamed northern channel system) emanating from the Cerberus Fossae; we suggest that the third channel system (Marte Vallis) also originated at the fissures. The discharges for two of the three systems (Athabasca Valles and Marte Vallis) have been estimated from surface topography to have been on the order of 10⁶ m³/s. Crater counts indicate that the channels are not only young (extreme Late Amazonian), but also were carved asynchronously. Geomorphic evidence suggests that two of the channels (Athabasca and Marte Valles) experienced more than one flood. Emanation from volcanotectonic fissures instead of chaotic terrain distinguishes these Cerberus Plains channels from the larger, older circum-Chryse channels. Groundwater must have collected in a liquid state prior to flood onset to flow at the estimated discharge rates. Lack of large-scale subsidence near the channels' origination points along the Cerberus Fossae indicates that this groundwater was at least several kilometers deep.     

Single zircon ages of migmatitic gneisses and granulites in the Obudu Plateau: Timing of granulite-facies metamorphism in southeastern Nigeria

A single zircon geochronological study of gneisses from the Obudu Plateau of southeastern Nigeria, using the evaporation technique, indicates that zircons recorded several Precambrian high-grade metamorphic events (Eburnean and Pan-African). Igneous and multifaceted metamorphic zircons yielded ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb ages of 2062.4 ± 0.4 Ma, 1803.8 ± 0.4 Ma and 574 ± 10 Ma, respectively and confirm for the first time that granulite-facies metamorphism affected the basement of southeastern Nigeria, resulting in the formation of charnockites and granulitic gneisses. The Pan-African high-grade event was coeval with the formation of granulites in Cameroon, Togo and Ghana and resulted from collisional processes during continental amalgamation to form the Gondwana supercontinent. The sources of the sediments, which were deposited at ≈605 Ma and metamorphosed at 574 Ma, comprise older igneous and metamorphic protoliths (including inherited xenocrystic zircons up to 2.5 Ga in age). The Palaeoproterozoic zircons seem to have survived Pan-African melting.     

Analysis and simulation of namurian sediments in central Scotland using a Markov-process model

Many difficulties inherent in analyzing cyclical successions in terms of an idealized cycle and, to a lesser extent, in terms of the modal cycle and composite sequence can be overcome by structuring data in terms of probabilities of upward transitions from one lithology to another. This enables a finite Markov-process model to be used. Transition probability matrices have been constructed from two versions of the same borehole section through paralic Namurian (Pendleian Stage, E ₁ ) sediments east of Stirling. The first version does not allow, but the second allows, adjacent items to be of the same lithology. The matrix derived from the first version indicates the following preferred upward succession of lithologies: coal, mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, seatclay, silty and sandy rooty beds, coal. A version of the Chi-square test strongly rejects the hypothesis that the lithologies were deposited in random order. The second matrix is used as computer input forTestmark, Stochex, andMarchain programs, the last of which stimulates a realistic vertical succession. The transition probability data fit readily into the broad framework of deltaic cycles.Published with permission of the Director, Institute of Geological Sciences.     

A new assessment of the mid-1970s abrupt atmospheric temperature change in the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis and associated solar forcing implications

Based on the reanalysis data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP?CNCAR) and solar radio irradiance (SRI) at 10.7?cm wavelength obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration??s Space Weather Prediction center, the abrupt temperature change in the mid-1970s and its possible association with solar irradiance variability have been investigated. The results show that a discontinuous abrupt change in the mid-1970s in the NCEP?CNCAR reanalysis was observed in the tropical lower and middle stratospheric temperature. The shift in temperature and its timing agrees well with the climate regime shift discovered in the radiosonde observations (HadAT), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis (ERA-40), and many previous studies and manifests a statistically significant change at the 95% confidence level. A corresponding change of the SRI was identified in the mid 1970s although the statistical t test value is not very high. The running correlation with a 21-year moving time window exhibits a strong positive correlation between the solar cycle and atmospheric temperature in the tropical stratosphere during the period of 1948?C2007. However, the positive correlation was broken at the time of the mid-1970s abrupt change and two peak positive correlation points were observed in 1972 and 1982, respectively.     

Neue Anschauungen über die Rolle von Schichtfugen und Klüften in der karsthydrographischen Entwicklung

Zusammenfassung Über die Gebundenheit der Karsthydrographie an Klüfte oder Schichtfugen herrschen je nach den Sprachgebieten unterschiedliche Meinungen vor. Allgemein ging man jedoch an der Tatsache vorbei, daß das Wasser bei Druckfließen, also unter phreatischen Bedingungen, kein aggressives CO₂ mehr zur Verfügung hat und daher nicht korrodieren kann. Korrosion war daher nur für die vadose Zone erklärbar, und auch nur dann, wenn das Wasser den Gleichgewichtskalkgehalt von 60 bis 90 mg/Liter, je nach Höhenlage, nicht erreicht, was unter bedecktem Karst kaum jemals der Fall ist. Genaue Untersuchungen im 100 km langen Hölloch (Schweiz) (Bögli 1953, 1960, 1966, 1968) und an andern, vor allem französischen Höhlen (Chevalier 1944), ergeben, daß sich das unterirdische Gewässernetz zum größeren Teil anfänglich unter phreatischen Bedingungen entwickelt, was aber nur durch Mischungskorrosion (Bögli 1963 b, 1964 a, 1964 b) möglich ist, die nicht auf eine CO₂-Zufuhr von außen angewiesen ist. Durch Inkasion (Nachbruch, Einsturz), die an der primären Hohlraumbildung meist nicht beteiligte Kluftflächen herausarbeitet, wird die schichtgebundene Entstehung meist verdeckt, was zu falschen Folgerungen führt. In der vadosen Zone folgt das Wasser vorwiegend offenen Klüften oder einer undurchlässigen Schicht und fließt auf kürzestem Weg dem Karstwasserkörper zu.

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Up to now the connection between the hydrology of karst and joints on the one and bedding planes on the other hand is much discussed. But in every case the corrosion of limestone appeared impossible in the phreatic zone because free CO₂ is missing in waterfilled galleries. Intensive investigations in the 62.2 miles of galleries in the Hölloch (Switzerland,Bögli 1953, 1960, 1966, 1968) and in many other caves, in particular in France (Chevalier 1944), demonstrate that on the base of corrosion by mixed water the pattern of underground watercourses is predominantly formed under phreatic conditions in pressure flows and on bedding planes. This fact is frequently masked by incasion (roof fall, lat. incadere = to break down in a cavity) removing joints and fractures which have never participated on the primary forming of galleries. In the vadose zone the underground watercourses generally follow open joints and flow on the nearest way to the groundwater.

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Résumé Le rapport entre l'hydrographie karstique et soit les diaclases d'une part, soit les joints de stratification de l'autre est une question assez discutée, surtout en dehors de la France. Mais en tout cas on ne se rend normalement pas compte qu'en conduit forcé l'eau n'emporte pas du CO₂ aggressif plus loin que quelques mètres à l'intérieur de la terre, sauf dans les réseaux déjà assez élargis. L'élargissement demande alors d'une part des conditions vadoses, c'est-à-dire la présence de l'air avec du CO₂, de l'autre de l'eau qui n'a pas encore atteint la concentration d'équilibre de 60 à 90 mg CO₃Ca par litre selon l'altitude. Mais les recherches avancées dans les 100 km du Hölloch (Muotatal, Suisse,Bögli 1953, 1960, 1966, 1968) et dans maintes autres cavernes, surtout en France (Chevalier 1944), prouvent, que les réseaux souterrains se développent au contraire primairement en grandes parties dans la zone noyée en conduit forcé et sur des joints de stratification. Cela demande alors un autre type de corrosion, la corrosion par mélange des eaux qui ne dépend pas de l'adduction de CO₂ d'en dehors de l'eau (Bögli 1963 b, 1964 a, 1964 b). La naissance des galeries sur des joints de stratification est très souvent cachée par incasion (lat. incadere = s'effondrer dans une cavité) qui fait ressortir des diaclases et le clivage qui ne participent en rien à la naissance de la galerie souterraine, ce qui a provoqué des conclusions eronnées.

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