Phobos-II results and the Martian magnetic field

The results of the Phobos-2 mission concerning the Martian magnetic field are interpreted in the framework of a model for the planetary evolution taking into account certain effects of material properties.     

The tectonic significance of K/Ar illite fine-fraction ages from the San Luis Formation (Eastern Sierras Pampeanas, Argentina)

The Sierra de San Luis forms the southern tip of the Eastern Sierras Pampeanas in central Argentina. Two narrow belts of low-grade phyllites and quartz arenites, i.e. the San Luis Formation, have accommodated part of the strain-related differential exhumation of the medium- to high-grade metamorphic domains that constitute to the basement complex of the sierra. Eleven phyllite samples were subjected to the K/Ar fine-fraction dating technique. Results are interpreted in relation to the Kübler index of the illites, which indicate epimetamorphic conditions for the majority of the samples. Obtained ages between 330 and 290 Ma cover a period of compressional tectonics in the late Mississippian (Visean/Serpukhovian boundary) followed by the subsidence during the formation of the Paganzo Basin in the provinces of La Rioja and San Luis. These tectonic movements are coincident with the Toco orogeny in northern Chile and southern Bolivia. This suggests that the older K/Ar ages document the compressional stage and that younger ages record the cooling of the basement during the subsequent extensional uplift of the basement.     

Provenance of the late Proterozoic to early Cambrian metaclastic sediments of the Sierra de San Luis (Eastern Sierras Pampeanas) and Cordillera Oriental, Argentina

Provenance studies have been performed utilising major and trace elements, Nd systematics, whole rock Pb–Pb isotopes and zircon U/Pb SHRIMP data on metasedimentary rocks of the Sierra de San Luis (Nogolí Metamorphic Complex, Pringles Metamorphic Complex, Conlara Metamorphic Complex and San Luis Formation) and the Puncoviscana Formation of the Cordillera Oriental. The goal was the characterisation of the different domains in the study area and to give insights to the location of the source rocks. An active continental margin setting with typical composition of the upper continental crust is depicted for all the complexes using major and trace elements. The Pringles Metamorphic Complex shows indications for crustal recycling, pointing to a bimodal provenance. Major volcanic input has to be rejected due to Th/Sc, Y/Ni and Cr/V ratios for all units. The εNd_{(540 Ma)} data is lower for the San Luis Formation and higher for the Conlara Metamorphic Complex, as compared to the other units, in which a good consistency is given. This is similar to the T_DM ages, where the metapsammitic samples of the San Luis Formation are slightly older. The spread of data is largest for the Pringles Metamorphic Complex, again implying two different sources. The whole rock ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb isotopic data lies in between the South American and African sources, excluding Laurentian provenances. The whole rock Pb–Pb data is almost indistinguishable in the different investigated domains. Only the PMC shows slightly elevated ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb values. Possible source rocks for the different domains could be the Quebrada Choja in the Central Arequipa–Antofalla domain, the Southern domain of the Arequipa–Antofalla basement, the Brazilian shield or southern Africa. Zircon SHRIMP data point to a connection between the Puncoviscana Formation and the Conlara Metamorphic Complex. Two maxima around 600 Ma and around 1000 Ma have been determined. The Nogolí Metamorphic Complex and the Pringles Metamorphic Complex show one peak of detrital zircons around 550 Ma, and only a few grains are older than 700 Ma. The detrital zircon ages for the San Luis Formation show age ranges between 590 and 550 Ma. A common basin can be assumed for the Conlara Metamorphic Complex and the Puncoviscana Formation, but the available data support different sources for the rest of the Complexes of the Sierra de San Luis. These share the diminished importance or the lack of the Grenvillian detrital peak, a common feature for the late Cambrian–early Ordovician basins of the Eastern Sierras Pampeanas, in contrast to the Sierras de Córdoba, the PVF and the Conlara Metamorphic Complex.     

Dolomitic slates from Uruguay: petrophysical and petromechanical characterization and deposit evaluation

Slates are internationally known as roof and façade-cladding material since prehistoric times. The methods required to mine and manufacture these dimensional stones are relatively simple in comparison to those utilized in granitic dimensional stones. This has led to a worldwide rentable commercialization of slate in the last centuries and also to the development of characteristic cultural landscapes. In Uruguay several slates are mined and used in architecture, especially as façade cladding and floor slabs. The most important slates regarding their production and utilization are the dolomitic slates. These dolomitic slates are associated with the Neoproterozoic thrust and fold belt of the Dom Feliciano belt. Representative samples have been geochemically and petrographically characterized, as well as petrophysically and petromechanically analyzed. The petrophysical and petromechanical properties were investigated in a very systematic way with respect to the new European standards, showing values comparable to those registered for internationally known slates. Detailed structural and deposit analysis were carried out in Uruguay in order to evaluate the dolomitic slate deposits. The slates are linked to calc-silicate strata in a greenschist facies volcano-sedimentary sequence and the deposits are located in the limb of a regional fold, where bedding and cleavage are parallel. The main lithotype is a layered and fine-grained dolomitic slate with a quite diverse palette of colors: light and dark green, gray, dark gray, reddish and black. The mined slate is split into slabs 0.5–2 cm thick. In the past, the average production in Uruguay was around 4,000 tons/year and a historical maximum of 13,000 tons was reached in 1993 (Oyhantçabal et al. in Z dt Ges Geowiss 158(3):417–428, 2007). The oscillations in the regional demand were the cause of several flourishing and decay cycles in the activity, but our investigation shows a considerable volume of indicated resources and therefore a very good potential.     

Interaction between Wind and Temperature Fields in the Planetary Boundary Layer for a Spatially Heterogeneous Surface Heat Flux

Interaction between wind and temperature fields in the planetary boundary layerfor a spatially heterogeneous surface heat flux has been investigated using large-eddysimulation. It is shown that a substantial difference exists in the wind and temperaturefields, depending on whether the directions of the background wind and the surfaceheat flux variation are parallel or perpendicular.When they are parallel to each other, two-dimensional plumes induced by theheterogeneous surface heat flux are easily destroyed by the background wind,and the velocity field is strongly modified by convective eddies compared tothe case when they are perpendicular to each other. This leads to a substantialdifference in the profiles of turbulent kinetic energy and its flux.It also results in a difference between the two cases in the bulk properties of theplanetary boundary layer, such as the entrainment at the top of the planetary boundarylayer and the drag at the bottom, which have important implications for boundary-layermodelling. The difference between the two cases exists even when the background windspeed is as large as 15.0 m s^-1. Meanwhile, the contrast between two cases is weakened by the Coriolis force.     

Why allanite may swindle about its true age

Allanite from the Tertiary Rieserferner pluton (Austrian Alps) is texturally and chemically heterogeneous. Continuous covariation trends reflect coupled substitution of Ca+Al vs. Fe+REE+Th in allanite, whereas systematic variations in La/Nd demonstrate the increasingly stronger depletion of LREE in the melt during its crystallization. Allanite samples (corrected for ²⁰⁶Pb_excess) from two rocks scatter in the concordia diagram and define discordias from 31.8±0.4 Ma and 32.2±0.4 Ma to ca. 540 Ma. The apparent inheritance does not originate from the inclusion of older allanite or a high- phase, such as monazite, xenotime, or zircon, but from the incorporation of radiogenic Pb originating from a precursor. Since allanite requires a high enrichment of Th, (U), and LREE, it may form at the expense of a Th-LREE-rich precursor in metamorphic rocks or where such a phase had dissolved in melts. Likely precursors acquire with time radiogenic Pb isotopic compositions. This Pb, if incorporated in the product mineral, may give the illusion of inheritance. The allanite samples from the Rieserferner pluton show a tendency from high Th/U_calc (30–50) in samples with an Alpine age to low Th/U_calc (4–12) in samples with distinct inheritance. This relation between extent of inheritance and apparent Th/U_calc indicates a lower Th/U_calc for a possible precursor, falling into the Th/U range commonly encountered for monazite. Precursor monazite would have originated from assimilated Palaeozoic rocks and give rise to localized enrichments of Th and LREE in the melt, thus eventually enabling the growth of allanite.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at .Editorial responsibility: J. Hoefs     

Population dynamics of spot,leiostomus xanthurus,in polyhaline tidal creeks of the York River estuary,Virginia

Most populations of estuarine-dependent, early life stages of marine fishes are open. As a result, it has been difficult to apply conventional population models to most systems. In this study, a marked population of young-of-year spot (Leiostomus xanthurus) was released into a polyhaline tidal creek within the Guinea Marshes of the York River estuary, Virginia. Over a 90-day study period, 221 marked fishes were recaptured. Plots of the ratio of marked to unmarked individuals (m_i/n_i) in subsequent samples indicated that the population was resident in the creek for up to 162 days with the average individual present for 81 days. When this population turnover rate was compared to the total population decay rate (marked plus unmarked fish), it was determined that exchange between habitats (immigration/emigration) accounted for about 36.4% of the total decay rate, with the remainder attributed to natural mortality. By correcting the overall disappearance rate for population turnover due to emigration and using this adjusted value as a measure of instantaneous mortality (z), the estimated production (over 90 days) in this population was 23,630 cal (98,870 J) per m². This figure agrees with a previously derived estimate for spot in the Guinea marshes and is nearly two orders of magnitude higher than other reported values for this species for all size classes over the entire growing season.     

Use of Plant Bioassays for the Detection of Genotoxins in the Aquatic Environment

The present article describes the use of plant bioassays for the detection of genotoxins in the aquatic environment and gives an overview of test methods, their detection spectrum for environmental mutagens and carcinogens and their limitations and pitfalls. The most widely used test systems are micronucleus assays with meiotic cells of Tradescantia and with meristematic root tip cells of Allium and Vicia. In the last years, protocols for single cell gel electrophoresis assays have been developed, which can be conducted with a variety of species. Also various gene mutation test procedures have been developed with plants but they have hardly ever been used in environmental studies. Plants detect a broad variety of environmentally relevant genotoxins, in particular directly acting compounds. Many pesticides and industrial chemicals caused positive results; plant assays are also a unique tool for the detection of DNA‐reactive carcinogenic heavy metals in the environment. In many studies with complex mixtures, positive results were obtained which indicates that plants are sufficiently sensitive to detect effects without concentration of water samples. One of the shortcomings of the use of plants as indicators is their lack of sensitivity towards certain classes of promutagens such as nitrosamines, heterocyclic amines, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). However, the former compounds are hardly encountered in the environment and PAHs can easily be detected chemically and in other mutagenicity tests. Taken together, the currently available data show that plant bioassays are a useful component of test batteries for environmental monitoring.     

Influence of shape fabric and crystal texture on marble degradation phenomena: simulations

Microstructure-based finite element simulations were used to study the influence of grain shape fabric and crystal texture on thermoelastic responses related to marble degradation phenomena. Calcite was used as an illustrative example for studying extremes of shape preferred orientation (SPO) in shape fabric and lattice preferred orientation (LPO) in crystal texture. Three SPOs were analyzed: equiaxed grains, elongated grains, and a mixture of equiaxed and elongated grains. Three LPOs were considered: a random orientation distribution function and two degrees of strong directional crystal texture. Finally, the correlation between the direction of the LPO with respect to that of the SPO was examined. Results show that certain combinations of SPO, LPO, and their directional relationship have significant influence on the thermomechanical behavior of marble. For instance, while there is no major dependence of the elastic strain energy density and the maximum principal stress on SPO for randomly textured microstructures, there is a strong synergy between LPO and its directional relationship with respect to the SPO direction. Microcracking precursors, elastic strain energy density, and maximum principal stress, decrease when the crystalline c-axes have fiber texture perpendicular to the SPO direction, but increase significantly when the c-axes have fiber texture parallel to the SPO direction. Moreover, the microstructural variability increases dramatically for these latter configurations. In general, the influence of LPO was as expected, namely, the strain energy density and the maximum principal stress decreased with more crystal texture, apart from for the exception noted above. Spatial variations of these precursors indicated regions in the microstructure with a propensity for microcracking. Unexpectedly, important variables were the microstructural standard deviations of the spatial distributions of the microcracking indicators. These microstructural standard deviations were as large as or larger than the variables themselves. The elastic misfit-strain contributions to the coefficients of thermal expansion were also calculated, but their dependence was as expected.     

Non-stationarity of the signal and noise characteristics of seasonal precipitation anomalies

In order to improve seasonal-to-interannual precipitation forecasts and their application by decision makers, there is a clear need to understand when, where, and to what extent seasonal precipitation anomalies are driven by potentially predictable surface–atmosphere interactions versus to chaotic interannual atmospheric dynamics. Using a simple Monte Carlo approach, interannual variability and linear trends in the SST-forced signal and potential predictability of boreal winter precipitation anomalies is examined in an ensemble of twentieth century AGCM simulations. Signal and potential predictability are shown to be non-stationary over more than 80% of the globe, while chaotic noise is shown to be stationary over most of the globe. Correlation analysis with respect to magnitudes of the four leading modes of global SST variability suggests that interannual variability and trends in signal and potential predictability over 35% of the globe is associated with ENSO-related SST variability; signal and potential predictability are not significantly associated with SST modes characterized by a global SST trend, North Atlantic SST variability, and North Pacific SST variability, respectively. Results suggest that mechanisms other than SST variability contribute to the non-stationarity of signal and noise characteristics of hydroclimatic variability over mid- and high-latitude regions.