An atmospheric blast/thermal model for the formation of high‐latitude pedestal craters

Abstract— Although tenuous, the atmosphere of Mars affects the evolution of impact‐generated vapor. Early‐time vapor from a vertical impact expands symmetrically, directly transferring a small percentage of the initial kinetic energy of impact to the atmosphere. This energy, in turn, induces a hemispherical shock wave that propagates outward as an intense airblast (due to high‐speed expansion of vapor) followed by a thermal pulse of extreme atmospheric temperatures (from thermal energy of expansion). This study models the atmospheric response to such early‐time energy coupling using the CTH hydrocode written at Sandia National Laboratories. Results show that the surface surrounding a 10 km diameter crater (6 km “apparent” diameter) on Mars will be subjected to intense winds (?200 m/s) and extreme atmospheric temperatures. These elevated temperatures are sufficient to melt subsurface volatiles at a depth of several centimeters for an ice‐rich substrate. Ensuing surface signatures extend to distal locations (?4 apparent crater diameters for a case of 0.1% energy coupling) and include striations, thermally armored surfaces, and/or ejecta pedestals—all of which are exhibited surrounding the freshest high‐latitude craters on Mars. The combined effects of the atmospheric blast and thermal pulse, resulting in the generation of a crater‐centered erosion‐resistant armored surface, thus provide a new, very plausible formation model for high‐latitude Martian pedestal craters.     

The Tayler instability of toroidal magnetic fields in a columnar gallium experiment

The nonaxisymmetric Tayler instability of toroidal magnetic fields due to axial electric currents is studied for conducting incompressible fluids between two coaxial cylinders without endplates. The inner cylinder is considered as so thin that the limit of R_in → 0 can be computed. The magnetic Prandtl number is varied over many orders of magnitudes but the azimuthal mode number of the perturbations is fixed to m = 1. In the linear approximation the critical magnetic field amplitudes and the growth rates of the instability are determined for both resting and rotating cylinders. Without rotation the critical Hartmann numbers do not depend on the magnetic Prandtl number but this is not true for the corresponding growth rates. For given product of viscosity and magnetic diffusivity the growth rates for small and large magnetic Prandtl number are much smaller than those for Pm = 1. For gallium under the influence of a magnetic field at the outer cylinder of 1 kG the resulting growth time is 5 s. The minimum electric current through a container of 10 cm diameter to excite the instability is 3.20 kA. For a rotating container both the critical magnetic field and the related growth times are larger than for the resting column (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Assembling insurgent citizenship: immigrant advocacy struggles in the Washington DC metropolitan area

This article examines the political and spatial registers of struggles against exclusionary local immigration policies and for more welcoming policies in the Washington DC metropolitan area, one of the hotspots for both local anti-immigration policies and immigrant advocacy in the United States. We conceptualize immigrant advocacy not simply as an alliance, but instead as an assemblage that brings together a diverse set of differently positioned actors and nonhuman actants. The assemblage enacts a diverse politics that deploys different forms of activism, while engaging different publics (e.g., religious communities, unions, the larger public sphere in public spaces, etc.) and the state in complex ways. From acting outside the state to engaging in claims-making towards the state, immigrant advocates are making claims and actions that challenge and go beyond dominant conceptions of citizenship rights and liberal democratic politics. The spatial register is similarly diverse. The immigrant advocacy assemblage is confronted with and enacts a different politics of place in central cities and inner- and outer-ring suburbs. Contestations of exclusionary local policies, however, are not simply about a local politics of place. To the contrary, some actors and actants in the assemblage are actively involved in extra-local networking, collaborating across jurisdictional boundaries—between central cities and inner-and outer-ring suburbs within the Washington DC metropolitan area and across the United States. The complexities of these contestations call into question post-political narratives of “proper” politics, underscoring the need for an empirically grounded critical theory of democracy. This article contributes to this task by providing a geographically and historically sensitive analysis of the immigrant advocacy assemblage.     

A New Martian Meteorite: the Dhofar 019 Shergottite with an Exposure Age of 20 Million Years

The isotopic composition of the noble gases of the new Martian meteorite, the Dhofar 019 shergottite, found in the desert in the territory of the Sultanate of Oman on January 24, 2001, was investigated. Stepwise thermal annealing with isotopic analysis of each of the noble-gas temperature fractions was employed to determine the component composition. The concentration of the trapped noble gases in the new Martian meteorite Dhofar 019 is relatively high, although it lies within the range of concentrations in known SNC meteorites. A characteristic feature of all the trapped noble gases is the presence of two main components: a low-temperature, probably terrestrial atmospheric, component, trapped during the weathering of the meteorite on Earth, and a high-temperature trapped Martian component. Owing to the different ratios of the quantities of the two components, the trapped neon, argon, krypton, and xenon differ markedly in the kinetics of their release. The isotopic composition of the noble gases varies accordingly. The trapped xenon was found to contain two Martian components. One of them, with typical ratios of ¹²⁹Xe/¹³²Xe and ¹³²Xe/⁸⁴Kr, is representative of xenon and krypton of the Martian atmosphere; the other, of gases of the Martian mantle. Variations of the isotopic compositions of helium, neon, and argon (and also, to a lesser extent, of krypton and xenon) during the thermal annealing of the Dhofar 019 meteorite clearly point to a large proportion of cosmogenic as well as trapped components. The concentration of cosmogenic neon and argon in the meteorite is unusually high. This corresponds to a maximum exposure age among other SNC meteorites: 20 million years. Estimates of the potassium–argon age (gas-retention age) yielded the figure of 560 million years, which is within the range of values obtained for SNC meteorites by other authors, who used the rubidium–strontium and the potassium–argon technique.     

Watson: A new link in the HE iron chain

Abstract— Watson, which was found in 1972 in South Australia, contains the largest single silicate rock mass seen in any known iron meteorite. A comprehensive study has been completed on this unusual meteorite: petrography, metallography, analyses of the silicate inclusion (whole rock chemical analysis, INAA, RNAA, noble gases, and oxygen isotope analysis) and mineral compositions (by electron microprobe and ion microprobe). The whole rock has a composition of an H-chondrite minus the normal H-group metal and troilite content. The oxygen isotope composition is that of the silicates in the HE iron meteorites and lies along an oxygen isotope fractionation line with the H-group chondrites. Trace elements in the metal confirm Watson is a new HE iron. Whole rock Watson silicate shows an enrichment in K and P (each ～2X H-chondrites). The silicate inclusion has a highly equilibrated igneous (peridotite-like) texture with olivine largely poikilitic within low-Ca pyroxene: olivine (Fa₂₀), opx (Fs₁₇Wo₃), capx (Fs₉Wo₄₁) (with very fine exsolution lamellae), antiperthite feldspar (An_1–Or₅) with <1 μm exsolution lamellae (An_1–3Or_>40), shocked feldspar with altered stoichiometry, minor whitlockite (also a poorly characterized interstitial phosphate-rich phase) and chromite, and only traces of metal and troilite. The individual silicate minerals have normal chondritic REE patterns, but whitlockite has a remarkable REE pattern. It is very enriched in light REE (La is 720X C1, and Lu is 90X C1, as opposed to usual chonditic values of ～300X and 100–150X, respectively) with a negative Eu anomaly. The enrichment of whole rock K is expressed both in an unusually high mean modal Or content of the feldspar, Or₁₃, and in the presence of antiperthite. Whole rock trace element data for the silicate mass support the petrography. Watson silicate was an H-chondrite engulfed by metal and melted at > 1550 °C. A flat refractory lithophile and flat REE pattern (at ～1x average H-chondrites) indicate that melting took place in a relatively closed system. Immiscible metal and sulfide were occluded into the surrounding metal host. Below 1100 °C, the average cooling rate is estimated to have been ～1000 °C/Ma; Widmanstätten structure formed, any igneous zoning in the silicates was equilibrated, and feldspar and pyroxene exsolution took place. Cooling to below 300 °C was completed by 3.5 Ga B. P. At 8 Ma, a shock event took place causing some severe metal deformation and forming local melt pockets of schreibersite/metal. This event likely caused the release of Watson into interplanetary space. The time of this event, 8Ma, corresponds to the peak frequency of exposure ages of the H-chondrites. This further confirms the link between HE irons and the H-chondrites, a relationship already indicated by their common oxygen isotope source. Watson metal structures are very similar to those in Kodaikanal. Watson, Kodaikanal and Netschaëvo form the young group of HE meteorites (ages 3.7 ± 0.2 Ga). They appear to represent steps in a chain of events that must have taken place repeatedly on the HE parent body or bodies from which they came: chondrite engulfed in metal (Netschaëvo); chondrite melted within metal (Watson); and finally melted silicate undergoing strong fractionation with the fractionated material emplaced as globules within metal (Kodaikanal). Watson fills an important gap in understanding the sequence of events that took place in the evolution of the IIE-H parent body(ies). This association of H-chondrite with HE metal suggests a surface, or near surface process-a suggestion made by several other researchers.     

Floor-fractured lunar craters

Numerous lunar craters (206 examples, mean diameter = 40km) contain pronounced floor rilles (fractures) and evidence for volcanic processes. Seven morphologic classes have been defined according to floor depth and the appearance of the floor, wall, and rim zones. Such craters containing central peaks exhibit peak heights (approximately 1km) comparable to those within well-preserved impact craters but exhibit smaller rim-peak elevation differences (generally 0–1.5km) than those (2.4km) within impact craters. In addition, the morphology, spatial distribution, and floor elevation data reveal a probable genetic association with the maria and suggest that a large number of floor-fractured craters represent pre-mare impact craters whose floors have been lifted tectonically and modified volcanically during the epochs of mare flooding. Floor uplift is envisioned as floating on an intruded sill, and estimates of the buoyed floor thickness are consistent with the inferred depth of brecciation beneath impact craters, a zone interpreted as a trap for the intruding magma. The derived model of crater modification accounts for (1) the large differences in affected crater size and age; (2) the small peak-rim elevation differences; (3) remnant central peaks within mare-flooded craters and ringed plains; (4) ridged and flat-topped rim profiles of heavily modified craters and ringed plains; and (5) the absence of positive gravity anomalies in most floor-fractured craters and some large mare-filled craters. One of the seven morphologic classes, however, displays a significantly smaller mean size, larger distances from the maria, and distinctive morphology relative to the other six classes. The distinctive morphology is attributed, in part, to the relatively small size of the affected crater, but certain members of this class represent a style of volcanism unrelated to the maria - perhaps triggered by the last major basin-forming impacts.     

Eddy viscosity and turbulent Schmidt number by kink-type instabilities of toroidal magnetic fields

The potential of the non-axisymmetric magnetic instability to transport angular momentum and to mix chemicals is probed considering the stability of a nearly uniform toroidal field between conducting cylinders with different rotation rates. The fluid between the cylinders is assumed as incompressible and to be of uniform density. With a linear theory, the neutral-stability maps for   m = 1  are computed. Rigid rotation must be sub-Alfvénic to allow instability, while for differential rotation also an unstable domain with faster rotation exists [azimuthal magnetorotational instability (AMRI)]. The rotational quenching of the magnetic instability is strongest for magnetic Prandtl number of the order of unity.
The effective angular momentum transport by the instability is directed outwards for subrotation. The resulting magnetic-induced eddy viscosity exceeds the microscopic values by factors of 10–100. This is only true for AMRI; in the opposite case of Tayler instability, the viscosity results are very small.
The same instability also quenches concentration gradients of chemicals by dynamic fluctuations. The corresponding diffusion coefficient always remains smaller than the magnetic-generated eddy viscosity. A Schmidt number of the order of 30 is found as the ratio of the effective viscosity and the diffusion coefficient. For not too strong magnetic fields in the radiation zone of young solar-type stars, the magnetic instability transports much more angular momentum than that it mixes chemicals.     

Gondwana break-up and the northern margin of the Saxothuringian belt (Variscides of Central Europe)

At the northwestern edge of the Hercynian Bohemian Massif (Saxothuringian belt) new U-Pb zircon age data from rift-related magmatic rocks indicate that the initiation of Gondwana break-up in this area started during the Middle to Upper Cambrian. Magmatic rocks from a bimodal, MORB- to within-plate volcanic sequence in the Vesser area are dated between ca. 517 and 501 Ma. The volcaniclastic sequences analysed exhibit basal layers of conglomerates and mature sandstones, which can be correlated with a widespread Gondwana-derived onlap horizon of an uppermost Cambrian/Tremadocian age that links the Vesser area with the Saxothuringian continental basin. The association of the Vesser rocks with the Saxothuringian terrane as part of the Armorican terrane assemblage is further demonstrated by a coeval magmatic development and by identical detrital components which are derived from a common Cadomian basement (white mica with a ca. 539 Ma K-Ar minimum age and inherited zircon signatures). The Vesser unit, situated between the NW margin of the Saxothuringian zone and the Mid-German Crystalline Zone, probably represents a N-facing remnant of an ocean-continent transition of the, or within the, Armorican terrane assemblage and involves sections of the early break-up process at the peri-Gondwanan shelf south of the Rheic ocean.     

Uniaxial strength testing of non-welded Calico Hills tuff, Yucca Mountain, Nevada

A detailed investigation of the strength properties of Calico Hills tuff was undertaken to further characterize the behavior of this unit. Uniaxial compression tests on 43 specimens of massive and reworked tuff show a dependence of peak strength and Young's modulus on the total porosity, and thereby on the geologic history of the Calico Hills tuff. The average Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, and compressive (peak) strength of dry specimens of massive (and reworked) tuff are: 5.43±0.96 GPa (9.80±0.89 GPa), 0.194±0.052 (0.244±0.067), and 26.34±5.13 MPa (38.64±4.96 MPa). Wet specimens of massive tuff have compressive strengths of 15.34±0.70 MPa, lower than those of dry specimens. The post-peak region for this brittle tuff is characterized by rapid load drops and well-defined residual strengths associated with growth of macrocracks and small faults in the specimens.