On the Possibility of Lightning in the Protosolar Nebula

Chondrules constitute a significant fraction of primitive meteorites. Their thermal history includes rapid melting followed by cooling on timescales of minutes to hours. The mechanism underlying such extreme, short-lived thermal excursions away from the prevailing, much milder nebular equilibrium conditions has eluded understanding for many decades. Among the prime candidate mechanisms long thought to provide a possible explanation of chondrule formation is lightning—large-scale electrostatic discharges—in the protoplanetary nebula.In this paper, we explore the possible occurrence of such electrostatic discharges in the protoplanetary nebula powered by precipitation or other processes analogous to that believed to cause lightning on Earth and other planets. Our analysis incorporates charge separation in collisions of water-ice or other solid particles, and includes a self-consistent nebular electrical conductivity determined by a balance between production of free electrons and ions and loss to grain surfaces. We find that development of a large-scale electric field strong enough to produce discharges does not occur under conditions characteristic of protostellar nebulae. This is mainly a result of the fact that the high electrical conductivity of the environment and the relatively low density of solid particles combine to yield a situation in which the large scale electric fields, as well as the electric charges segregated on the particles are short circuited by the highly mobile electrons and ions. We also consider the possibility of lightning in altered nebula environments with higher than canonical dust density, such as a dust subdisk.     

Absence of regional stratigraphic hiatus in the late Carboniferous (Asturian - Stephanian) in the northern Variscan foreland: a review of the bio- and lithostratigraphical evidence in central england

An extensive regional stratigraphic hiatus has been proposed in the Asturian to Stephanian foreland basin successions lying to the north of the main Variscan deformation belt, stretching from north west Europe to eastern North America. The hiatus is inferred on megafloral grounds and involves the absence of most if not all of Stephanian Substages B and C. If present it would have great significance for the understanding of regional basin dynamics in the later stages of the Variscan orogeny. However, its existence has been strongly contested. One of the keys to this hypothesis is the correct identification and interpretation of plant fossils from the Warwickshire Coalfield (Central England). The published identifications are here shown to be incorrect, and revised determinations taken in conjunction with other stratigraphic data from Central England suggest that a regional hiatus is not present in the early-mid Stephanian, and that any stratigraphic hiatuses at other horizons in the succession are of purely local extent. A review of known occurrences of the Asturian and Stephanian successions in basins stretching from eastern Canada to Germany suggests that, while facies developments may be similar, there is little uniformity in stratigraphic style and little evidence for a major Stephanian hiatus.     

Detection of radio recombination lines of hydrogen ionized by cosmic-ray protons in the cool interstellar medium

The emission of hydrogen radio recombination lines from a cloud of cool interstellar matter toward the radio source Cassiopeia A has been detected. The formation of the radio recombination lines is initiated by cosmic rays. The rate of ionization of the interstellar hydrogen by cosmic-ray protons measured from the radio recombination lines using the most direct method is ζ_H = (1 ± 0.25)×10⁻¹⁶ s⁻¹. This value of ζ_H is compared with measurements obtained using other methods.     

Organized Roll Circulation and Transport of Mineral Aerosols in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - An investigation into mesoscale roll circulation and its transport characteristics in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is carried out. The case...     

On the infrared observations of stellar flares

In connection with the appearance of the first results of infrared observations of stellar flares, a more elaborate analysis ofnegative infrared flares as a phenomenon, predicted by the fastelectron hypothesis, has been carried out. As a result, the wavelength regions of negative flares are established for the stars of different spectral types as well as the calculated amplitudes of the negative flares (Tables I and II). The analysis of the infrared observations (c.f. Kilyachkoet al., 1978) lead to the following conclusions:

1. The negative infrared flares discovered around 8000 Å is not in agreement with the theory in the case of the flare star UV Cet. Some traces of negative flares have been noted for a number of less powerful flares of EV Lac.
2. The amplitudes of the recorded positive flares of UV Cet and EV Lac on λ8000 Å are in good agreement with the magnitudes predicted by the fast-electron hypothesis (non-thermal bremsstrahlung).
3. In the future the negative flares around 8000 Å should be looked for in early-type flare stars of types M0-K5.
4. For a positive discovery of negative flares, future observations must be carried out in the wavelength region of 1–3 μm.

     

Muscovite dehydration melting: Reaction mechanisms,microstructures, and implications for anatexis

Dehydration melting of muscovite in metasedimentary sequences is the initially dominant mechanism of granitic melt generation in orogenic hinterlands. In dry (vapour-absent) crust, muscovite reacts with quartz to produce K-feldspar, sillimanite, and monzogranitic melt. When water vapour is present in excess, sillimanite and melt are the primary products of muscovite breakdown, and any K-feldspar produced is due to melt crystallization. Here we document the reaction mechanisms that control nucleation and growth of K-feldspar, sillimanite, and silicate melt in the metamorphic core of the Himalaya, and outline the microstructural criteria used to distinguish peritectic K-feldspar from K-feldspar grains formed during melt crystallization. We have characterized four stages of microstructural evolution in selected psammitic and pelitic samples from the Langtang and Everest regions: (a) K-feldspar nucleates epitaxially on plagioclase while intergrowths of fibrolitic sillimanite and the remaining hydrous melt components replace muscovite. (b) In quartzofeldspathic domains, K-feldspar replaces plagioclase by K⁺–Na⁺ cation exchange, while melt and intergrowths of sillimanite+quartz form in the aluminous domains. (c) At 7–8 vol.% melt generation, the system evolves from a closed to open system and all phases coarsen by up to two orders of magnitude, resulting in large K-feldspar porphyroblasts. (d) Preferential crystallization of residual melt on K-feldspar porphyroblasts and coarsened quartz forms an augen gneiss texture with a monzogranitic-tonalitic matrix that contains intergrowths of sillimanite+tourmaline+muscovite+apatite. Initial poikiloblasts of peritectic K-feldspar trap fine-grained inclusions of quartz and biotite by replacement growth of matrix plagioclase. During subsequent coarsening, peritectic K-feldspar grains overgrow and trap fabric-aligned biotite, resulting in a core to rim coarsening of inclusion size. These microstructural criteria enable a mass balance of peritectic K-feldspar and sillimanite to constrain the amount of free H₂O present during muscovite dehydration. The resulting modal proportion of K-feldspar in the Himalayan metamorphic core requires vapour-absent conditions during muscovite dehydration melting and leucogranite formation, indicating that the generation of large volumes of granitic melts in orogenic belts is not necessarily contingent on an external source of fluids.     

Influence of the mean period of ground motion on the inelastic dynamic response of single and multi degree of freedom systems

This paper focuses on examining the effects of frequency content of the ground motion on the inelastic demands imposed on both single degree of freedom (SDF) and multi degree of freedom (MDF) steel‐framed systems. A detailed literature review is conducted to identify the indicator that best represents the frequency content of ground motion. The mean period (T_m) of ground motion is selected owing to its ability to distinguish between various spectral shapes of ground motion, and its relationship with magnitude, distance and site characteristics. Inelastic displacement demands on SDF systems for target ductility levels are first studied in the light of T_m, using a suite of 128 ground motion records. The study is then extended to MDF systems with the help of incremental dynamic analysis by employing the same ground motion ensemble to assess the influence of T_m on various engineering demand parameters. The results obtained indicate that, for SDF systems, the amplification of displacements occurs when the period ratio between elastic period (T_e) and T_m is lower than unity. For MDF systems, the results demonstrate that the influence of higher modes on the base shear and maximum storey drift profile becomes more pronounced, as T_m approaches the higher mode periods of the structure. These observations, for both SDF and MDF systems, tend to be more evident for higher levels of inelasticity. The significance of the results, with particular reference to European seismic design procedures, is highlighted. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Statistical properties of seismicity of fault zones at different evolutionary stages

We perform a systematic parameter space study of the seismic response of a large fault with different levels of heterogeneity, using a 3-D elastic framework within the continuum limit. The fault is governed by rate-and-state friction and simulations are performed for model realizations with frictional and large scale properties characterized by different ranges of size scales. We use a number of seismicity and stress functions to characterize different types of seismic responses and test the correlation between hypocenter locations and the employed distributions of model parameters. The simulated hypocenters are found to correlate significantly with small L values of the rate-and-state friction. The final sizes of earthquakes are correlated with physical properties at their nucleation sites. The obtained stacked scaling relations are overall self-similar and have good correspondence with properties of natural earthquakes.