Wet deposition of excess sulfate at Macquarie Island, 54° S

Annual wet deposition of excess sulfate at Macquarie Island has been estimated from 5 months of rainwater composition data covering the Austral summer of 1985/86. The resulting figure of 2.1±0.6 mmol/m²/yr is at the low end of previous estimates of maritime excess sulfate deposition by precipitation. Within estimated uncertainty limits this figure is consistent with the DMS emission flux which would be predicted for latitude 50°–60° S, based solely on available Northern Hemispheric DMS measurements.Temporarily at the International Meteorological Institute, Stockholm University, S-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden.     

New U-Pb ages of zircons in the Owk Shale (Kurnool Group) with reflections on proterozoic porcellanites in India

Felsic tuff beds with some presumed sedimentary components were reported from the Owk Shale (Kurnool Group; bearing Neoproterozoic fossils) in the upper part of the sedimentary succession in the Cuddapah basin in India by Saha and Tripathy (2012a). Our optical and SEM petrographic study of three thin sections, however, indicates that the parent samples are sandy mudstones with variable amounts of a felsic volcaniclastic component. New highquality U-Pb (SHRIMP and LA-MC-ICPMS) ages of 133 detrital zircon grains from a sample show that one grain is ca. 1880 Ma, one grain is ca. 3300 Ma, and the ages of the remaining 131 grains fall between 2690 Ma and 2429 Ma, the population averaging 2522 ± 36 Ma. The data indicate that the zircons are detrital grains derived from the ca. 2.5 Ga granitic/gneissic/greenstone basement of the Dharwar cratons that also host minor older Archean enclaves. The single 1880 Ma grain could have come from a ca. 1.9 Ga LIP. In the absence of any younger magmatic zircon, the absolute age of the Owk Shale remains elusive.     

The Benagerie Shear Zone: 1100 Myr of reactivation history and control over continental lithospheric deformation

A newly identified northwest–southeast oriented, deeply-rooted, steep to vertical, large-scale structural system within the Proterozoic Curnamona Province, Australia, which we term the “Benagerie Shear Zone”, is imaged in regional magnetic and gravity datasets. In this study, we use a combination of field analysis and quantitative geophysical methods, to establish a 1100 Myr history of activity along the Benagerie Shear Zone during which the location of younger geological structures are influenced by the pre-existing shear zone. This deformational system is interpreted to have 1) aided ascent and emplacement of the ca. 1600 Ma Ninnerie (magmatic) Supersuite; 2) controlled the loci of nucleation of normal faults during rifting and continental breakup at ca. 800 Ma; and 3) influenced the development of fold structures as well as acting as a plane co-linear to the rotation axis of pre-existing normal faults such that they were steepened and reactivated as strike slip structures during the ca. 500 Ma Delamerian Orogeny. We interpret that the Benagerie Shear Zone has not undergone uni-directional propagation during its evolution but rather through reactivation was a primary influence on controlling the nucleation of Neoproterozoic rift faults, thereby playing a major role in accommodating strain over a significant period of the evolution of the Curnamona Province. This study demonstrates that crustal-scale shear zones can evolve over hundreds of millions of years, have strike-lengths of hundreds to thousands of kilometers, and have vastly different surface expressions along strike.     

Similarity of rivers and their systems

Similarity criteria of rivers and river systems are studied. Zonal and azonal indicators of their similarity are established. The role of river system patterns in the changes of hydrographic and hydrologic characteristic of rivers in the passage from river heads to mouths is considered. The efficiency of applying fractal and indication analyses to river systems is examined. The extent and the scale effect of changes in various characteristics of the flow-channel systems are shown to depend on changes in river orders. The fractal dimension and the scale effects of their changes are correlated. A universal relationship between river orders, on the one hand, and river drainage area and river network density, on the other hand, was established. The root-mean-square error of the obtained formula, evaluated based on data on 274 watersheds, was 0.27, enabling it to be used in hydrological calculations under various landscape conditions.     

Zur linearen Anordnung nicht frontal gebundener Niederschlagszellen

Zusammenfassung Die möglichen Ursachen der linienhaften Anordnung von Schauern in einer homogenen Luftmasse werden erörtert.

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Summary Possible causes of linear arrangement of showers in a homogeneous air mass are discussed.

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Résumé L'auteur discute les causes possibles de la disposition linéaire d'averses dans une masse d'air homogène.

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Mit 7 Textabbildungen     

Age and structure of the southern Rockall Trough new evidence

The Rockall Trough separates the Rockall Plateau microcontinent from the shelf and slope west of the British Isles. The structure and age of the trough has been the source of considerable discussion. Although widely considered to be of oceanic origin, postulated ages for the spreading range from Permian to Cretaceous. New seismic profiles linked to the IPOD sites in the Bay of Biscay and to oceanic anomalies of known age are used to present a new assessment of the age and structure of the southern Rockall Trough. It is concluded that about 120 km of ocean crust is present in the trough and that spreading took place in the Albian-Maastrichtian interval.     

Behandlung eines einfachen hydromagnetischen Dynamos mittels Linearisierung

The non-linear equations of the spherical α = const-dynamo are solved by a linearisation with respect to the deviation of α from the critical value. The magnitude of the induced magnetic field is derived. Representations of the toroidal and the poloidal component of the magnetic field are given.