The lunar regolith is exposed to irradiation from the solar wind and to bombardment by asteroids, comets and inter-planetary dust. Fragments of projectiles in the lunar regolith can potentially provide a direct measure of the sources of exogenous material being delivered to the Moon. Constraining the temporal flux of their delivery helps to address key questions about the bombardment history of the inner Solar System.Here, we use a revised antiquity calibration (after Eugster et al., 2001) that utilises the ratio of trapped 40Ar/36Ar (‘parentless’ 40Ar derived from radioactive decay of 40K, against solar wind derived 36Ar) to semi-quantitatively calculate the timing of the assembly of the Apollo 16 regolith breccias. We use the trapped 40Ar/36Ar ratios reported by McKay et al. (1986). Our model indicates that the Apollo 16 ancient regolith breccia population was formed between ∼3.8 and 3.4 Ga, consistent with regoliths developed and assembled after the Imbrium basin-forming event at ∼3.85 Ga, and during a time of declining basin-forming impacts. The material contained within the ancient samples potentially provides evidence of impactors delivered to the Moon in the Late-Imbrian epoch. We also find that a young regolith population was assembled, probably by local impacts in the Apollo 16 area, in the Eratosthenian period between ∼2.5 and 2.2 Ga, providing insights to the sources of post-basin bombardment. The ‘soil-like’ regolith breccia population, and the majority of local Apollo 16 soils, were likely closed in the last 2 Ga and, therefore, potentially provide an archive of projectile types in the Eratosthenian and Copernican periods. 相似文献
Northern, high latitude soils have stored vast amounts of organic carbon (OC) in permafrost and peats for many millennia, however, climate change may mobilize and release this particulate OC (POC) to arctic rivers. Deltaic and floodplain lakes that receive fluvial sediments, primarily during the spring freshet, may provide records of such changes in riverine POC. Here, we examine properties of OC in a sediment core from a lake in the lower floodplain of the Ob’ River, west Siberia, to determine how the properties of OC deposited in this lake varied over many decades and to evaluate use of this sedimentary OC as a recorder of riverine POC load and properties. The core predates the most recent, dramatic changes in arctic climate and hence may serve as a benchmark against which to contrast future variations in fluvial POC discharge. Elemental, stable carbon and radiocarbon isotopic analyses, along with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and molecular-level information (lignin phenol composition), indicate two major sources of OC to most of the sediments in this lake: plant-derived OC and algal-derived OC. However, a mixing model indicates that the nature and 14C content of these two sources change with depth in the sediment, resulting in three distinct layers: surface horizons, a “high-OC” layer and “mixing” horizons found above and below the high-OC layer. The plant-derived component is significantly aged throughout the core (14C ages of 1300-3900 years) and appears to derive from primarily local, tundra sources, whereas the algal component is modern. Our analysis suggests that the usual mode of OC deposition, as exemplified by the “mixing” and surface horizons, involved mixing of varying amounts of new algal production (35-65%) with aged permafrost- or peat-derived OC. This deposition was interrupted by an event, such as the collapse of a riverbank, which laid down the compositionally distinct “high-OC” layer in which plant-derived OC mixes with aged mineral-soil-derived OC without clear input from algae. The relative amounts of the plant and algal components in the lake sediments appear to be controlled primarily by local hydrological conditions rather than by river-wide processes, suggesting that comparison of sediment records from multiple lakes within a floodplain will be important to assess changes in POC export by arctic rivers. However, the flux and nature of the higher plant-derived OC may carry important information on the sources and dynamics of OC stored within the drainage basin. 相似文献
We present a polarimetric characterization and correction for the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/Large Angle Spectrometric
Coronagraph (SOHO/LASCO) C2 and C3 white light coronagraphs. By measuring the uncorrected polarization angles in solar minimum
C2 coronal images, we have determined that the coronagraph acts as an optical phase retarder which converts a small fraction
of the incoming radiation polarization from linear to circular. In addition, from the measurements of polarization angle in
C3 coronal images we have determined that a component of the instrumentally scattered light in that instrument is polarized.
We infer the retardation angle for C2 and compute the corresponding Mueller matrix, and determine the polarized stray light
spatial profile in C3. The C2 Mueller matrix and C3 polarized stray light profiles are used to correct for instrumental effects
in solar minimum coronal observations to obtain polarized brightness between two and thirty-two solar radii, which show deep
polar coronal holes extending to the limit of the field of view. 相似文献
Seven Bacillus spp. were exposed to simulations of Mars-normal UV fluence rates in order to study the effects of UV irradiation on microbial survival. A UV illumination system was calibrated to deliver 9.78 W m−2 (35.2 kJ m−2 h−1) of UVC + UVB irradiation (200-320 nm) to microbial samples, thus creating a clear-sky simulation (0.5 optical depth) of equatorial Mars. The Bacillus spp. studied were: B. licheniformis KL-196, B. megaterium KL-197, B. nealsonii FO-092, B. pumilus FO-36B, B. pumilus SAFR-032, B. subtilis 42HS1, and B. subtilis HA101. The bacteria were prepared as thin monolayers of endospores on aluminum coupons in order to simulate contaminated spacecraft surfaces. Bacterial monolayers were exposed to Mars UV irradiation for time-steps of 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 5, 15, 30, 60, 120, or 180 min. The surviving endospores were then assayed with a Most Probable Numbers (MPN) procedure and with a culture-based assay that utilized a bacillus spore germination medium. Results indicated that B. pumilus SAFR-032 was the most resistant, and B. subtilis 42HS-1 and B. megaterium were the most sensitive of the seven strains exposed to martian UV fluence rates. Bacillus subtilis 42HS1 and B. megaterium were inactivated after 30 min exposure to Mars UV, while B. pumilus SAFR-032 required 180 min for full inactivation in both assays. Spores of B. pumilus SAFR-032 exhibited significantly different inactivation kinetics suggesting that this wild type isolate also was more resistant than the standard dosimetric strain, B. subtilis HA101. Although the various Bacillus spp. exhibited diverse levels of UV resistance, none were immune to UV irradiation, and, thus, all species would be expected to be inactivated on Sun-exposed spacecraft surfaces within a few tens-of-minutes to a few hours on sol 1 under clear-sky conditions on equatorial Mars. The inactivation kinetics of all seven Bacillus spp. support the conclusion that significant levels of bioload reductions are possible on Sun-exposed spacecraft surfaces in very short time periods under clear-sky conditions on Mars. However, the presence of UV resistant microbes on spacecraft surfaces rapidly covered in dust during landing operations, and non-Sun-exposed surfaces of spacecraft remain concerns that must continue to be addressed through adequate spacecraft sanitizing procedures prior to launch. 相似文献
There is a scarcity of long-term groundwater hydrographs from sub-Saharan Africa to investigate groundwater sustainability, processes and controls. This paper presents an analysis of 21 hydrographs from semi-arid South Africa. Hydrographs from 1980 to 2000 were converted to standardised groundwater level indices and rationalised into four types (C1–C4) using hierarchical cluster analysis. Mean hydrographs for each type were cross-correlated with standardised precipitation and streamflow indices. Relationships with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) were also investigated. The four hydrograph types show a transition of autocorrelation over increasing timescales and increasingly subdued responses to rainfall. Type C1 strongly relates to rainfall, responding in most years, whereas C4 notably responds to only a single extreme event in 2000 and has limited relationship with rainfall. Types C2, C3 and C4 have stronger statistical relationships with standardised streamflow than standardised rainfall. C3 and C4 changes are significantly (p <?0.05) correlated to the mean wet season ENSO anomaly, indicating a tendency for substantial or minimal recharge to occur during extreme negative and positive ENSO years, respectively. The range of different hydrograph types, sometimes within only a few kilometres of each other, appears to be a result of abstraction interference and cannot be confidently attributed to variations in climate or hydrogeological setting. It is possible that high groundwater abstraction near C3/C4 sites masks frequent small-scale recharge events observed at C1/C2 sites, resulting in extreme events associated with negative ENSO years being more visible in the time series.
Natural Hazards - Effective tsunami risk reduction requires an understanding of how at-risk populations are specifically vulnerable to tsunami threats. Vulnerability assessments primarily have been... 相似文献