Zur Geologie der Danakil-Senke

Geological and geophysical investigations in the Northern part of Afar-Region were carried out by a group of scientists in 1967 and 1968. The Afar-structure is framed by the Ethiopian Highland in the West, the Somali Plateau in the South and the Danakil horst in the E. Its northern part is occupied by the NNW trending Danakil Depression (Danakil Graben), a branch of the NW trending Red Sea-Graben. The block mosaic border land in the West as well as the Danakil Alps consist of basement overlain by unfolded Mesozoic strata. Within the Afar Depression the pre-Tertiary formations are covered by limnic-fluviatile — in upper portions marine — sediments, Miocene and Pliocene in age, thickening towards the centre of the Depression. These basin fillings indicate a major phase of rift faulting prior to and during their deposition. Marginal extensions of these “Danakil-Formation” on both flanks of the Depression accompany the structural borders of the Danakil Graben, coinciding with the “outer rift structural margin” (Mohr 1967). Evaporites occupy the deepest part of the structure, “the inner Danakil Graben”, downfaulted or opened by major rift movements during Pliocene. A NW trending fault zone cutting through the flat plain north of Dallol covered by gypsum beds, seems to form the Eastern margin of the inner Danakil Graben. In its southeastern prolongation the fault and fissure system of the Amarti Volcanic Range is situated. Still active rift faulting during Quaternary caused the present topographic form of the region. These movements were followed by a marine ingression. Its sediments (Zariga-Formation, 14 C Modell ages 25 000–34 000 y) ring the depression and pass into gypsum beds towards the centre of the basin. The deepest parts of the Depression are hidden beneath the Afrera-Formation (14 C Modell ages 5800 y) framing the Lake Assale/Bakili and the Lake Afrera (soft limestones, clay and gypsum beds). The rift-forming movements in the northern Afar were accompanied by strong volcanic activity. Besides different igneous rocks intruding the pre-Tertiary and Tertiary strata of the rift margin, extensive basaltic lava flows intercalate and locally underly the Danakil-Formation. Potassium-argon age determinations on these “Afar Basalts” yielded Miocene to Pliocene age. In the southern area of the Danakil Graben the Upper Tertiary sedimentary basin fillings are replaced by “Afar Basalts” (plateau-forming flood basalt) flows. They are succeeded by scoriaceous fissure alkali-olivine-basalts and their differentiated lavas forming huge volcanoes aligned parallel to the rift structures. The Central Volcanic Range (Erta Ale volcanic chain) marking the central part of the Danakil Graben, remains active today. Besides the basaltic activity, numerous huge volcanoes display rhyolitic rocks with strong alkaline affinity.     

Interannual variability of tropical cyclone activity along the Pacific coast of North America

The interannual variability of near-coastal eastern North Pacific tropical cyclones is described using a data set of cyclone tracks constructed from U.S. and Mexican oceanic and atmospheric reports for the period 1951-2006. Near-coastal cyclone counts are enumerated monthly, allowing us to distinguish interannual variability during different phases of the May-November tropical cyclone season. In these data more tropical cyclones affect the Pacific coast in May-July, the early months of the tropical cyclone season, during La Niña years, when equatorial Pacific sea surface temperatures are anomalously cool, than during El Niño years. The difference in early season cyclone counts between La Niña and El Niño years was particularly pronounced during the mid-twentieth century epoch when cool equatorial temperatures were enhanced as described by an index of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Composite maps from years with high and low near-coastal cyclone counts show that the atmospheric circulation anomalies associated with cool sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific are consistent with preferential steering of tropical cyclones northeastward toward the west coast of Mexico.     

Nitrate assimilation by zooxanthellae maintained in laboratory culture

The ability of cultured zooxanthellae to use ammonium and nitrate was tested. The zooxanthellae were initially isolated from the anemone Aiptasia pulchella. The zooxanthellae were able to grow on media supplemented with either form of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) although ammonium was inhibitory above 300 μM. In accord with the intact symbiosis and freshly isolated algae, the cultured zooxanthellae took up ammonium. In contrast, the cultured algae demonstrated nitrate uptake and utilization. This was enhanced with DIN deprivation. Nitrate reductase was found in the algae and appeared to be inducible. Within the animal host, excretory ammonium may repress this induction.     

Medium-Term Earthquake Forecast Method Map of Expected Earthquakes: Results and Prospects

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - This paper is the first in a series of studies generalizing the Map of Expected Earthquakes (MEE) medium-term earthquake forecast method and analyzing...     

俄远东、中国东北的构造特点及岩石圈深部的不均一性

俄罗斯远东和中国东北前新生代可划分为８个大地构造单元。区域地质、深部地质、地球物理及新构造研究表明，地壳和地幔深部的不均一性反映了该区主要构造单元的深部构成和大地动力学等方面的特点。地热和地磁资料表明，远东地区软流层顶部具有起伏形态的特点，最大深度２００～２５０ｋｍ，浅部仅１００～１４０ｋｍ，松辽盆地７５～１００ｋｍ；在中国东北及亚太过渡带上地幔低速层厚度在０～１００ｋｍ之间变化，计算数据表明，本区地壳厚度为３０～４４ｋｍ，变化幅度为１４ｋｍ。     

Polyclonal antibodies to light-harvesting CHL-protein of PSII (LHC II) in marine green algaeBryopsis corticulans

Polyc·lonal antibodies raised against LHC II isolated from SDS-solubilizedBryopsis corticulans thylakiod membranes by SDS-PAGE, were characterised by double immunodiffusion, Rocket immunoelectrophoresis and antigen-antibody crossed immunoelectro-phoresis assays showed the antibodies had strong cross-reaction with allB. corticulans LHC II components (even with those which were incubated in boiling water) and showed immunological cross-reactivity with LHC II polypeptides of spinach and the marine green algaCodium fragile. The results suggested that LHC II of different species had similar antigenic determinants and also conservation of amino acid sequences of the polypeptides during evolution, and that the antibodies could cross react with apoproteins of D₂ proteins (which contain P₆₈₀) fromB. corticulans, spinach andC. fragile, but not with apoproteins of P₇₀₀ Chl-proteins. Our results indicated some similarities in primary structure between LHC II of different species, and between LHC II and D₂ proteins of marine green algae and spinach. Our finding that D₂ and P₇₀₀ Chl-proteins are not immunologically related suggested that P₇₀₀ Chl-proteins and D₂ proteins pass through independent evolutionary pathways. Contribution No 1717 from the Institute of Oceanology, Academia Sinica, This subject was supported by the National Science Foundation of China.     

On a new species ofPavlova (Prymnesiophyceae) from China

Pavlova viridis sp. nov. is described on the basis of light and electron microscope observations. The material was collected from the coast of haiyang county of Shandong, China. It is characterized by 1) yellowish green to green chloroplast, 2) rudimentary short flagellum 0.3 μm long and hook-shaped, 3) long flagellum with small spherical knob-scales, 4) absence of pyrenoid and stigma, and 5) marine habitat. This new species andP. salina seem to be most closely related to each other but their colour, the insertion of their three appendages, the shape of their knob scales, and their cell periplasts are quite different from one another. Contribution No. 1879 from the Institute of Oceanology, Academia Sinica     

Filtering vibroseis data in the precorrelation domain

Vibroseis data recorded at short source–receiver offsets can be swamped by direct waves from the source. The signal-to-noise ratio, where primary reflections are the signal and correlation side lobes are the noise, decreases with time and late reflection events are overwhelmed. This leads to low seismic resolution on the vibroseis correlogram. A new precorrelation filtering approach is proposed to suppress correlation noise. It is the ‘squeeze-filter-unsqueeze’ (SFU) process, a combination of ‘squeeze’ and ‘unsqueeze’ (S and U) transformations, together with the application of either an optimum least-squares filter or a linear recursive notch filter. SFU processing provides excellent direct wave removal if the onset time of the direct wave is known precisely, but when the correlation recognition method used to search for the first arrival fails, the SFU filtering will also fail. If the tapers of the source sweeps are badly distorted, a harmonic distortion will be introduced into the SFU-filtered trace. SFU appears to be more suitable for low-noise vibroseis data, and more effective when we know the sweep tapers exactly. SFU requires uncorrelated data, and is thus cpu intensive, but since it is automatic, it is not labour intensive. With non-linear sweeps, there are two approaches to the S,U transformations in SFU. The first requires the non-linear analytical sweep formula, and the second is to search and pick the zero nodes on the recorded pilot trace and then carry out the S,U transformations directly without requiring the algorithm or formula by which the sweep was generated. The latter method is also valid for vibroseis data with a linear sweep. SFU may be applied to the removal of any undesired signal, as long as the exact onset time of the unwanted signal in the precorrelation domain is known or determinable.