Life history characteristics of the northern pipefish,Syngnathus fuscus, in Southern New Jersey

The northern pipefish,Syngnathus fuscus, is an abundant component of estuarine faunas along the east coast of the United States, yet little is known of its life history. Northern pipefish were collected from several areas in southern New Jersey, particularly the Great Bay-Little Egg Harbor estuarine system, to determine aspects of its reproduction and to estimate its age and growth. A monthly gonadosomatic index for both males and females indicated a spring through summer spawning period, with a peak in reproductive activity during June. A male brood pouch-somatic index indicated a prolonged male brooding period over spring through summer, with a peak in June. The size of males with broods ranged from 119–222 mm total length (TL), and the number of eggs within a brood varied from 45 to 1380. Individual embryos within a brood were identical in development stage, suggesting each brood resulted from a single mating. Young-of-the-year occurred in samples from May through November, with peak abundance in June. Individuals in this year class were extremely variable in size by the end of the first growing season, varying from 5 mm TL to 200 mm TL in November. At approximately 1 yr of age, individuals were 70–220 mm TL and many were of sufficient size to reproduce, indicating that the events of the first year of life for this species are of central importance to an understanding of its population dynamics.     

Magnetic field bending in accretion discs with dynamos

We consider the problem of poloidal magnetic field advection and bending of an initially vertical field owing to radial inflow in thin accretion discs. For a ratio of kinematic viscosity to magnetic diffusivity of order unity, significant bending of an externally applied vertical field cannot occur in a disc with no internal dynamo. However, we show that if poloidal field is generated by a dynamo operating near its critical state, then significant field bending may be possible. Our results are of particular relevance to wind launching from accretion discs.     

An analytic model for disc disruption by strong stellar magnetic fields

An analytic model is presented for the inner structure of an accretion disc in the presence of a strong stellar magnetic field. The model is valid inside the radius at which the electron scattering opacity starts to exceed the Kramers opacity. It illustrates how the increasing stellar poloidal field leads to an elevated disc temperature, ultimately causing a breakdown in the vertical equilibrium owing to rapidly increasing radiation pressure which cannot be balanced by the vertical stellar gravity. Viscous instability also occurs. The solution gives an accurate representation of numerical results, and enables useful expressions to be derived for the radius at which the disc is marginally thin and the radius at which viscous instability occurs. The disruption mechanism appears to have general validity for accretion discs around strongly magnetic stars.     

Non-tropical carbonate deposits on the modern New Zealand shelf

Extensive (ca. 50,000 km²) shallow-marine platforms (< 250 m) off northern (34°S) and southern (48°S) New Zealand, and more local areas of shelf between, are blanketed by skeletal carbonate sediments > 70% CaCO₃), despite proximity to a tectonically active plate margin. In these regions the terrigenous sediment supply is presently low, and growth of epibenthos is fostered by firm substrates (rock, gravels, shells, seaweeds) and the generally energetic nature and high nutrient levels of open-shelf waters. Rapid transition into adjacent terrigenous-dominated facies is characteristic. Irrespective of water depth, the carbonates are coarse-grained and fragmental; carbonate mud is rare. Calcite dominates over aragonite. High-Mg calcite, widespread off northern New Zealand, is rare in the south. Skeletal material is dominated by bryozoans and bivalve molluscs, with significant local contributions from foraminifers, barnacles, calcareous red algae and echinoderms. The name bryomol is suggested for this distinctive temperate-region skeletal carbonate facies, which can be usefully subdivided based on dominant zoarial growth forms of the bryozoan component, known to be habitat-related. Bioerosion is an important mechanism of skeletal fragmentation and degradation. Many grains, especially aragontic bivalves, are infested by endolithic borers and have low preservation potential. Ages of skeletal material in the surficial deposits range from more than 20,000 years B.P. to modern, which is consistent with both low rates of carbonate production and sediment accumulation, and the wide range in preservation state of grains. Some data suggest that the skeletal carbonates are dispersed and mixed mainly during infrequent movement of sand ribbons, sand waves and sand sheets driven by storm-assisted tidal flows. Tracts of modern, palimpsest and relict carbonates can occur in juxtaposition.

The facies characteristics of the New Zealand shelf carbonate deposits contrast significantly with those of the classical Bahaman-type carbonate model. However, they are similar to those reported from many other mid- to high-latitude carbonate shelves, and afford good analogues for most onland occurrences of New Zealand Cenozoic limestones.     

Ancient Australia

Remnants of ancient landscapes (mostly plains but including many residual hills and ranges) are widely preserved in the Australian landscape. Dated by stratigraphic means, and by their relationships with duricrusted. surfaces and lava flows, they form an integral part of the Australian scenery of which, in fact they constitute about 20%. At least twice, evidently, the continent was essentially baselevelled: first during the middle Mesozoic and second in the early-middle Tertiary. Some of the old landsurfaces are of exhumed type and examples of such palaeoforms range in age from the late Pleistocene to the Archaean. Others are of etch type and though they were initiated at various periods during the more-or-less distant past, many have only recently been exposed. But some palaeoforms including some of considerable antiquity are of epigene type: they were formed subaerially and have been exposed to the elements since exposure. Such old surfaces, even where duricrusted, pose considerable problems for all of the conventional models of landscape evolution.     

Structure and stability of the former subglacial drainage system of the glacier De Tsanfleuron,Switzerland

A well-developed subglacial drainage system consisting of large cavities developed in the lee of bedrock steps connected together by a network of Nye channels is exposed on an area of recently deglaciated limestone bedrock in front of Glacier de Tsanfleuron, Switzerland. This system covers some 51 per cent of the bedrock surface area, and is believed to have transported the bulk of supraglacially-derived meltwaters through the glacier. Using the cavity hydraulics model of Kamb (1987), it is shown that the geometry of the system rendered it stable against collapse by meltback of channel roofs into a tunnel-dominated system. For likely combinations of glacier geometry and meltwater discharge, the steady state water pressure in this system would have been only a small fraction of that required for flotation, and for discharges of less than about 0·5–5 m³ s^?1 water would have flowed at atmospheric pressure. The system appears to have adjusted to varying discharges by a combination of varying water pressure and changing the total cross-sectional area of flow by altering the number of active channels connecting cavities. Glacier sliding velocity would have been independent of meltwater discharge for discharges at which water flowed at atmospheric pressure, but would have risen with increasing discharge for higher flows. Velocities on the order of 0·1 m d^?1 are predicted for a realistic range of discharges and effective pressures, and these are believed to be plausible. Episodes of enhanced sliding in glaciers with similar drainage systems could be triggered by a rise in meltwater discharge across the threshold between flows at atmospheric pressure and flow under pressure from the glacier.     

Zircon xenocrysts from the Kambalda volcanics: age constraints and direct evidence for older continental crust below the Kambalda-Norseman greenstones

The Hangingwall Basalt at Kambalda, Western Australia, contains zircons that have been shown by ion microprobe analyses to have very high U and Th contents and a wide variety of crystallization ages. Nearly all of these zircons certainly are xenocrysts; a few might relate to intrusive veinlets. The age of the youngest xenocrysts, 2693 ± 50Ma(2 σ), shows that the eruptive age of the basalt cannot exceed 2743 Ma. This confirms that the apparent SmNd isochron giving 3200 Ma [1,2] for Kambalda mafic and ultramafic rocks is a mixing-line [2] between unrelated components enriched and depleted in light rare earth elements. Mixing probably occurred at depth by erosion of 3200–3500 Ma old felsic crust from the walls of the HWB conduits. The zircon xenocryst ages are the first direct evidence for the presence of very old felsic crust in the eastern Yilgarn Block. The latter implies that the Kalgoorlie-Norseman greenstone sequences were formed in a continental rather than an oceanic environment.     

The dynamics of magma-mixing during flow in volcanic conduits

The production of mixed magmas (streaky pumice) during flow in a volcanic conduit has been modelled in the laboratory by studying the flow of two miscible fluids of differing viscosity passing concentrically through a vertical pipe. In the experiments reported in this paper, the outermost fluid is the more viscous, as would be the case when two magmas are simultaneously tapped from a zoned chamber in which silicic magma overlies mafic magma. At a Reynolds number (Re) which is much less than that required for turbulence in isoviscous pipe flow, the interface between two liquids of different viscosity can become unstable. Growth of the instability and mixing proceed when Re, based on the properties of the inner, less viscous fluid (Re _i), is greater than approximately 3 if between 10% and 90% of the flowing fluid is composed of the more viscous fluid. Outside this range of flow rate ratios, higher Re _i and viscosity ratios are required to ensure mixing. When the viscosity ratio U10 the unstable flow takes the form of an asymmetric, sinusoidal wave and at higher viscosity ratios axisymmetric, bead-like waves are the dominant instability. Entrainment across the boundaries of these wavy interfaces results in the production of streaky mixtures of the two liquids. The degree of mixing increases with Re ₁, U and distance downstream. Application of experimental results to magmatic situations shows that mixing will be possible in eruptions which tap layers of different viscosity from a stratified chamber. If a volcanic feeder is allowed to become lined by silicic magma before a mafic magma layer is drawn up from the chamber then a mixed pumice (or lava) sequence will ensue. Alternatively, if draw-up occurs when the feeder is still propagating away from the chamber, the slower flowing silicic magma may be overtaken by the faster flowing mafic magma. The advancing conduit will then have mafic or hybrid chilled margins enclosing a silicic interior, i.e. the usual arrangement in composite dykes and sills. Simultaneous tapping of silicic and underlying mafic magmas from a chamber can thus lead to magma mixing and to the emplacement of either mixed pumice sequences or composite intrusions, depending on the history of magma withdrawal and the dynamics of flow in the conduit.