The mass and moment of inertia of the Earth

Recent revisions of geodetic and astronomical constants by the International Association of Geodesy and the International Astronomical Union lead to improved values for the earth's mass and moment of inertia. Corrections to be applied to these values before they are used as constraints in the inversion of seismic data are discussed.     

Arsenic mobility in alteration products of sulfide-rich, arsenopyrite-bearing mine wastes, Snow Lake, Manitoba, Canada

The Arsenopyrite Residue Stockpile (ARS) in Snow Lake, Manitoba contains approximately 250,000 tons of cyanide treated, refractory arsenopyrite ore concentrate. The residue was deposited between 1950 and 1959 in an open waste rock impoundment, and remained exposed until 2000, when the pile was capped with layers of waste rock and clay. During the time when the ARS was exposed to the atmosphere, arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalcopyrite were oxidized producing scorodite, jarosite and two generations of amorphous Fe sulfo-arsenates (AISA). These secondary phases attenuated some of the As released to pore water during oxidation in the upper layers of the ARS. The imposition of the cap prevented further oxidation. The secondary As minerals are not stable in the reduced environment that currently dominates the pile. Therefore, As currently is being released into the groundwater. Water in an adjacent monitoring well has concentrations of >20 mg/L total As with relative predominance of As(III).     

Analysis of coprolites from the extinct mountain goat Myotragus balearicus

Humans colonized the Balearic Islands 5–4 ka ago. They arrived in a uniquely adapted ecosystem with the Balearic mountain goat Myotragus balearicus (Bovidae, Antilopinae, Caprini) as the only large mammal. This mammal went extinct rapidly after human arrival. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the extinction of M. balearicus. For the present study ancient DNA analysis (Sanger sequencing, Roche-454, Ion Torrent), and pollen and macrofossil analyses were performed on preserved coprolites from M. balearicus, providing information on its diet and paleo-environment. The information retrieved shows that M. balearicus was heavily dependent on the Balearic box species Buxus balearica during at least part of the year, and that it was most probably a browser. Hindcast ecological niche modelling of B. balearica shows that local distribution of this plant species was affected by climate changes. This suggests that the extinction of M. balearicus can be related to the decline and regional extinction of a plant species that formed a major component of its diet. The vegetation change is thought to be caused by increased aridity occurring throughout the Mediterranean. Previous hypotheses relating the extinction of M. balearicus directly to the arrival of humans on the islands must therefore be adjusted.     

Development and Re‐Evaluation of Tourmaline Reference Materials for In Situ Measurement of Boron δ Values by Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

Six tourmaline samples were investigated as potential reference materials (RMs) for boron isotope measurement by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The tourmaline samples are chemically homogeneous and cover a compositional range of tourmaline supergroup minerals (primarily Fe, Mg and Li end‐members). Additionally, they have homogeneous boron delta values with intermediate precision values during SIMS analyses of less than 0.6‰ (2s). These samples were compared with four established tourmaline RMs, that is, schorl IAEA‐B‐4 and three Harvard tourmalines (schorl HS#112566, dravite HS#108796 and elbaite HS#98144). They were re‐evaluated for their major element and boron delta values using the same measurement procedure as the new tourmaline samples investigated. A discrepancy of about 1.5‰ in δ¹¹B was found between the previously published reference values for established RMs and the values determined in this study. Significant instrumental mass fractionation (IMF) of up to 8‰ in δ¹¹B was observed for schorl–dravite–elbaite solid solutions during SIMS analysis. Using the new reference values determined in this study, the IMF of the ten tourmaline samples can be modelled by a linear combination of the chemical parameters FeO + MnO, SiO₂ and F. The new tourmaline RMs, together with the four established RMs, extend the boron isotope analysis of tourmaline towards the Mg‐ and Al‐rich compositional range. Consequently, the in situ boron isotope ratio of many natural tourmalines can now be determined with an uncertainty of less than 0.8‰ (2s).     

Addressing Scottish rural fuel poverty through a regional industrial symbiosis strategy for the Scottish forest industries sector

Tackling fuel poverty is central to the delivery of the Scottish Executive’s commitment to social justice. Many Scottish rural households are not linked into the mains gas network and rely on expensive alternatives, despite being surrounded by plentiful supplies of low-cost renewable wood biomass. A regional study was undertaken to establish the potential market for pelletised wood fuel, available as a low-value by-product from the rapidly expanding Scottish forest industry sector. The wider implications of the research findings are analysed by extending the principles of industrial symbiosis from a site-specific to a regional scale. Promoting an indigenous pellet-based wood fuel market for rural Scotland would fulfil important Scottish Executive economic, social and environmental sustainability objectives. Adding off-site social symbiotic elements increases the potential for on-site technical symbiosis in nascent Scottish forest industry clusters. At present, market failure is preventing the realisation of these benefits, and the paper concludes by identifying ways in which market intermediation, through wood fuel energy service companies, might overcome the current barriers to exploiting such symbiosis.     

Orbitolinidae and Alveolinidae (Foraminiferida) from the uppermost Albian-lower Cenomanian of Monti d'Ocre (Abruzzi, Italy)

A biostratigraphic study carried out in the Monti d'Ocre area, Abruzzi, Central Apennines, allowed us to recognize Orbitolina (Conicorbitolina) moulladei ‘Strata 5 (1985) 1’, Praealveolina iberica Reichel and Praealveolina simplex Reichel in uppermost Albian–lower Cenomanian shelf-edge deposits of the Fossato Machè succession. These foraminifers have now been found for the first time in the Apennines of central Italy; their finding is quite important from a palaeobiogeographic viewpoint, as it contributes to the improvement of our knowledge on facies distribution in the circum-Mediterranean regions during the Cretaceous Period. In the study area, the coeval Monte Rotondo and Monte Orsello sections also crop out; these are characterized by bauxite deposits and stratigraphic gaps reflecting episodes of emergence on the carbonate platform. The Monte Rotondo and Monte Orsello sections accumulated in a platform back-reef environment; consequently, in this sector of the Monti d'Ocre area, the depositional environment shifted from a back-reef westward and southward to a shelf-edge northward, during the latest Albian–early Cenomanian. Owing to synsedimentary tectonics, the area investigated underwent differential subsidence: westward and southward, wide areas were uplifted and subjected to emergence, karstification and bauxite accumulation, whereas sedimentation continued in a shelf-edge environment in the north-eastern area.     

Palaeo-environmental and dietary analysis of intestinal contents of a mammoth calf (Yamal Peninsula,northwest Siberia)

Intestinal samples from the one-month-old Siberian mammoth calf ‘Lyuba’ were studied using light microscopy and ancient DNA to reconstruct its palaeo-environment and diet. The palynological record indicates a ‘mammoth steppe’. At least some pollen of arboreal taxa was reworked, and thus the presence of trees on the landscape is uncertain. In addition to visual comparison of 11 microfossil spectra, a PCA analysis contributed to diet reconstruction. This yielded two clusters: one of samples from the small intestine and the other of large-intestine samples, indicating compositional differences in food remains along the intestinal tract, possibly reflecting different episodes of ingestion. Based on observed morphological damage we conclude that the cyperaceous plant remains and some remains of dwarf willows were originally eaten by a mature mammoth, most likely Lyuba’s mother. The mammoth calf probably unintentionally swallowed well-preserved mosses and mineral particles while eating fecal material deposited on a soil surface covered with mosses. Coprophagy may have been a common habit for mammoths, and we therefore propose that fecal material should not be used to infer season of death of mammoths. DNA sequences of trnL and rbcL genes amplified from ancient DNA extracted from intestinal samples confirmed and supplemented plant identifications based on microfossils and macro-remains. Results from different extraction methods and barcoding markers complemented each other and show the value of longer protocols in addition to fast and commercially available extraction kits.     

Feldspathic clast populations in polymict ureilites: Stalking the missing basalts from the ureilite parent body

Polymict ureilites DaG 164/165, DaG 319, DaG 665, and EET 83309 are regolith breccias composed mainly of monomict ureilite-like material, but containing ∼2 vol% of feldspathic components. We characterized 171 feldspathic clasts in these meteorites in terms of texture, mineralogy, and mineral compositions. Based on this characterization we identified three populations of clasts, each of which appears to represent a common igneous (generally basaltic) lithology and whose mafic minerals show a normal igneous fractionation trend of near-constant Fe/Mn ratio over a range of Fe/Mg ratios that extend to much higher values than those in monomict ureilites. The melts represented by these populations are unlikely to be impact melts, because the ubiquitous presence of carbon in polymict ureilites (the regolith of the ureilite parent body) implies that impact melts would have crystallized under conditions of carbon redox control and therefore have highly magnesian mafic mineral compositions with constant Mn/Mg ratio. Therefore, these melts appear to be indigenous products of igneous differentiation on the ureilite parent body (UPB), complementary to the olivine-pigeonite residues represented by the majority of monomict ureilites.The most abundant population is characterized by albitic plagioclase in association with pyroxenes, phosphates, ilmenite, silica, and incompatible-element enriched glass. Model calculations suggest that it formed by extensive fractional crystallization of the earliest melt(s) of precursor materials from which the most magnesian (shallowest) olivine-pigeonite ureilites formed. A less abundant population, characterized by labradoritic plagioclase, may have formed from melts complementary to more ferroan olivine-pigeonite ureilites, and derived from deeper in the UPB. The third population, characterized by the presence of olivine and augite, could only have formed from melts produced at greater depths in the UPB than the olivine-pigeonite ureilites. Many other feldspathic clasts cannot be positively associated with any of these three populations, because their mafic mineral compositions exhibit carbon redox control. However, they may be products of early crystallization of basaltic melts produced on the UPB, before carbon was exhausted by reduction.Partial melting on the ureilite parent body was a fractional (or incremental) process. Melts were produced early in UPB history, and most likely extracted rapidly, thus preserving primitive chemical and oxygen isotopic signatures in the residues.