The Meteoritical Bulletin,No. 104

Meteoritical Bulletin 104 contains 2279 meteorites including 12 falls (Annama, Cartersville, Creston, Diepenveen, Famenin, Izarzar, Nkayi, Porangaba, San Juan de Ocotán, Trâpe?ng Rôno?s, Xinglongquan, ?d’ár nad Sázavou), with 1847 ordinary chondrites, 138 carbonaceous chondrites, 128 HED achondrites, 38 lunar meteorites, 24 ureilites, 22 Martian meteorites, 19 iron meteorites, 17 primitive achondrites, 14 enstatite chondrites, 10 mesosiderites, 9 Rumuruti chondrites, 5 pallasites, 4 ungrouped achondrites, 2 enstatite achondrites, 1 ungrouped chondrite, and 1 Kakangari chondrite, and with 996 from Antarctica, 790 from Africa, 337 from Asia, 111 from South America, 30 from North America, 11 from Oceania, and 4 from Europe. Note: 1 meteorite from Russia was counted as European.     

Exhumed hydrocarbon traps on the North Atlantic margin: Stratigraphy,palaeontology, provenance and bitumen distribution,an integrated approach

Previous work has demonstrated the presence of a number of exhumed hydrocarbon traps in central East Greenland. Re-evaluation of the stratigraphy alongside detailed investigation of the occurrence of bitumen within the Mols Bjerge and Laplace Bjerg exhumed hydrocarbon traps provides new perspectives on these structures, as well as the petroleum geology of East Greenland and the wider North Atlantic. Sedimentological and stratigraphic studies, augmented with palynological and provenance investigations, have constrained the dating and correlation of the strata exposed in the Mols Bjerge and Laplace Bjerg. Petrographic analysis, alongside analysis of the bitumen identified, has highlighted a much wider distribution of hydrocarbon than previously recognized. It was previously considered that Jurassic strata formed the main reservoir interval within the Mols Bjerge and Laplace Bjerg exhumed hydrocarbon traps. It is shown here that the reservoir intervals in the Laplace Bjerg trap lie within the Late Triassic Ørsted Dal and Vega Sund members, which contain up to 18% pyrobitumen and were previously misidentified as Jurassic. The Jurassic Bristol Elv Formation is the most extensively bitumen stained unit in the Mols Bjerge trap. However, occurrences of pyrobitumen (up to 3%) are recorded throughout the Triassic stratigraphy, including the Early Triassic Wordie Creek Formation. Faults, thick calcrete development and regionally continuous mudstone units play an important role in compartmentalizing the palaeohydrocarbon accumulations.     

Unpacking ‘Success’: Applying Local Perceptions to Interpret Influences of Water Fund Payments for Ecosystem Services in the Ecuadorian Andes

NGOs, government agencies, and green businesses proclaim water fund arrangements in Latin America as successful payments for ecosystem services (PES) systems. Associated success narratives emphasize that PES allows downstream ecosystem service beneficiaries to incentivize upstream land managers to pursue conservation activities. However, recent scholarship questions their on-the-ground influence. This article assesses the success narrative of Quito, Ecuador’s Fondo para la protección del Agua’s (FONAG) as a model water fund PES arrangement. Using a novel perceived directionality framework, the author compares the FONAG claims about its influence to ethnographic evidence from three participating rural communities. The findings suggest that statements of direct, causal influence on local conservation activities overlook local context and ignores nuance within the interactions between program incentives and in community activity. This study urges future assessments of PES arrangements to recognize complexities in political, economic, and social context.     

真空预压法及真空-堆载联合预压法的室内试验研究

通过室内试验,研究了试样在模拟的堆载预压、真空预压、真空-堆载联合预压以及各向等压4种情况下土体的固结变形特性。结果表明,在真空预压模拟试验情况下,试样的变形、加固情况等指标与各向等压模拟试验下的情况很接近,即：试样的竖向变形小于堆载预压模拟试验情况下试样的竖向变形,土性改善程度要优于堆载预压的情况。而真空-堆载联合预压模拟情况下,试样的竖向变形大于真空预压的情况,加固效果好于堆载预压的情况,总体上具有更好的加固效果。     

Time‐lapse electrical resistivity imaging of solute transport in a karst conduit

The use of electrical resistivity surveys to locate karst conduits has shown mixed success. However, time‐lapse electrical resistivity imaging combined with salt injection improves conduit detection and can yield valuable insight into solute transport behaviour. We present a proof of concept above a known karst conduit in the Kentucky Horse Park (Lexington, Kentucky). A salt tracer solution was injected into a karst window over a 45‐min interval, and repeat resistivity surveys were collected every 20 min along a 125‐m transect near a monitoring well approximately 750 m downgradient from the injection site. In situ fluid conductivity measurements in the well peaked at approximately 25% of the initial value about 3 h after salt injection. Time‐lapse electrical resistivity inversions show two broad zones at the approximate conduit depth where resistivity decreased and then recovered in general agreement with in situ measurements. Combined salt injection and electrical resistivity imaging are a promising tool for locating karst conduits. The method is also useful for gaining insight into conduit geometry and could be expanded to include multiple electrical resistivity transects. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geochemistry and chronology of the Bunburra Rockhole ungrouped achondrite

Bunburra Rockhole is a unique basaltic achondrite that has many mineralogical and petrographic characteristics in common with the noncumulate eucrites, but differs in its oxygen isotope composition. Here, we report a study of the mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry, and chronology of Bunburra Rockhole to better understand the petrogenesis of this meteorite and compare it to the eucrites. The geochemistry of bulk samples and of pyroxene, plagioclase, and Ca‐phosphate in Bunburra Rockhole is similar to that of typical noncumulate eucrites. Chronological data for Bunburra Rockhole indicate early formation, followed by slow cooling and perhaps multiple subsequent heating events, which is also similar to some noncumulate eucrites. The ²⁶Al‐²⁶Mg extinct radionuclide chronometer was reset in Bunburra Rockhole after the complete decay of ²⁶Al, but a slight excess in the radiogenic ²⁶Mg in a bulk sample allows the determination of a model ²⁶Al‐²⁶Mg age that suggests formation of the parent melt for this meteorite from its source magma within the first ~3 Ma of the beginning of the solar system. The ²⁰⁷Pb‐²⁰⁶Pb absolute chronometer is also disturbed in Bunburra Rockhole minerals, but a whole‐rock isochron provides a re‐equilibration age of ~4.1 Ga, most likely caused by impact heating. The mineralogy, geochemistry, and chronology of Bunburra Rockhole demonstrate the similarities of this achondrite to the eucrites, and suggest that it formed from a parent melt with a composition similar to that for noncumulate eucrites and subsequently experienced a thermal history and evolution comparable to that of eucritic basalts. This implies the formation of multiple differentiated parent bodies in the early solar system that had nearly identical bulk elemental compositions and petrogenetic histories, but different oxygen isotope compositions inherited from the solar nebula.     

A GIS‐based Vehicle Mobility Estimator for Operational Contexts

A vehicle mobility estimator has been developed to produce decision aid maps for projecting civil or military forces on operational theatres. Based on the exploitation of classical geographical sources (e.g. digital elevation models, optical images, and vector databases) and thematic sources (e.g. climate, meteorological, pedological and land cover databases), the system computes speed maps for different kinds of vehicles moving both on‐road and off‐road. Such computations are realized through a ground‐vehicle interaction module that estimates the vehicle performance from experimental results, numerical simulations and empirical relationships. The system's architecture is built using a GIS interface that manages the data, the computation and the presentation layers. An operational version of this tool has been tested and validated on several operational theatres in France and in northern Africa. The results show good agreement between the predicted mobility performance of various vehicles and those observed on the field. A case study is presented to illustrate the mobility maps and demonstrate their relevance in the decision‐making chain depending on different climate contexts. A short application to itinerary optimization is presented as a promising future application.     

Magnesium isotopic fractionation in chondrules from the Murchison and Murray CM2 carbonaceous chondrites

We present high‐precision measurements of the Mg isotopic compositions of a suite of types I and II chondrules separated from the Murchison and Murray CM2 carbonaceous chondrites. These chondrules are olivine‐ and pyroxene‐rich and have low ²⁷Al/²⁴Mg ratios (0.012–0.316). The Mg isotopic compositions of Murray chondrules are on average lighter (δ²⁶Mg ranging from ?0.95‰ to ?0.15‰ relative to the DSM‐3 standard) than those of Murchison (δ²⁶Mg ranging from ?1.27‰ to +0.77‰). Taken together, the CM2 chondrules exhibit a narrower range of Mg isotopic compositions than those from CV and CB chondrites studied previously. The least‐altered CM2 chondrules are on average lighter (average δ²⁶Mg = ?0.39 ± 0.30‰, 2SE) than the moderately to heavily altered CM2 chondrules (average δ²⁶Mg = ?0.11 ± 0.21‰, 2SE). The compositions of CM2 chondrules are consistent with isotopic fractionation toward heavy Mg being associated with the formation of secondary silicate phases on the CM2 parent body, but were also probably affected by volatilization and recondensation processes involved in their original formation. The low‐Al CM2 chondrules analyzed here do not exhibit any mass‐independent variations in ²⁶Mg from the decay of ²⁶Al, with the exception of two chondrules that show only small variations just outside of the analytical error. In the case of the chondrule with the highest Al/Mg ratio (a type IAB chondrule from Murchison), the lack of resolvable ²⁶Mg excess suggests that it either formed >1 Ma after calcium‐aluminum‐rich inclusions, or that its Al‐Mg isotope systematics were reset by secondary alteration processes on the CM2 chondrite parent body after the decay of ²⁶Al.     

The timing and isotopic character of regional hydrothermal alteration and associated epigenetic mineralization in the western sector of the Kaapvaal Craton (South Africa)

The Kaapvaal Craton of South Africa comprises an Archaean core of ≈3.5 Ga lithospheric and crustal rocks surrounded by younger accreted terrains of ≈3.0–2.7 and ≈2.1–1.9 Ga. The craton is covered by relatively undeformed 3.0–2.4 Ga supracrustal rocks, which show the effects of thermal and hydrothermal interaction. Part of this activity is manifested by a large number of epigenetic Pb–Zn (±Ag, Au, Cu, F) deposits in the cover rocks of the Kaapvaal Craton. These include small volcanic and breccia hosted deposits in mafic and felsic volcanic rocks of the 2.7 Ga Ventersdorp Supergroup and the Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) deposits in the carbonates of the Transvaal Supergroup.MVT mineralization at the Pering (and other Zn–Pb deposits) is hosted in fracture-generated N–S breccia bodies in the Paleoproterozoic carbonate succession of the western Kaapvaal Craton. The fluids carrying the metals were focused in vertical bodies within the fracture zones (FZ), the metals and the sulphur being carried together and precipitated in organic-rich sectors of the basin. Two small Pb–Zn deposits within mafic rocks of the Ventersdorp Supergroup, stratigraphically below the basin-hosted MVTs on the southwestern part of the Kaapvaal Craton have secondary chlorite which is extremely Rb-rich, associated with the mineralization. This chlorite and the associated altered basaltic host rocks give a Rb–Sr date of ≈1.98 Ga, and the associated galena Pb isotope data plot on the same array as those of other Pb–Zn deposits, the radiogenic intercept giving a date of ≈2.0 Ga. We interpret these data to indicate a craton-wide epigenetic fluid-infiltration event, which exploited the Maquassie Quartz Porphyry (MQP) as the aquifer and metal source.Sr isotopic results for the ore-zone gangue minerals show highly radiogenic ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios (>0.710) which support earlier models that the origin of radiogenic Sr isotopic composition in the calcite cements is the felsic tuffs (MQP) of the Ventersdorp Supergroup occurring at deeper levels within the basin. Relationships between δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C performed on carbonate cements within the aquifers are complex: the range in δ¹³C for some of the cements represents a mixture from two sources and with a progression from heavy carbon in the host to somewhat lighter carbon in the cements. Similarly, the lighter δ¹⁸O values have a narrow range indicative of rapid exchanges between hydrous fluid and rock.     

Convection and lunar thermal history

The effect of solid convection on the thermal evolution of the Moon is explored for a variety of viscosities, radioactive differentiation efficiencies and initial temperature profiles. Convective heat flux in the models is calculated using an empirical relation derived from the results of laboratory experiments and numerical solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations. The method retains the spherically symmetric approximation and, therefore, greatly facilitates numerical calculations.Results show that even though solid convection may determine the thermal state of the lunar interior, it does not necessarily produce a quasi-steady thermal balance between heat sources and surface loss. An imbalance persists, due to the cooling and growth of the nonconvecting lithosphere. The state of the lithosphere is sensitive to the efficiency of heat source redistribution, while that of the convecting interior depends primarily on rheology. Convecting models have viscosities of 10²¹–10²² cm²s^?1 in their interiors; the central temperature must be above 1100°C. Convection occurring within the first billion years after formation could have led to mare flooding by magma produced in hot zones of convection cells. However, it cannot be shown from model calculations alone that solid convection must have dominated lunar thermal history.