Volcán Las Navajas,a Pliocene-Pleistocene trachyte/peralkaline rhyolite volcano in the northwestern Mexican volcanic belt

Volcán Las Navajas, a Pliocene-Pleistocene volcano located in the northwestern portion of the Mexican volcanic belt, erupted lavas ranging in composition from alkali basalt through peralkaline rhyolite, and is the only volcano in mainland Mexico known to have erupted pantellerites. Las Navajas is located near the northwestern end of the Tepic-Zacoalco rift and covers a 200-m-thick pile of alkaline basaltic lavas, one of which has been dated at 4.3 Ma. The eruptive history of the volcano can be divided into three stages separated by episodes of caldera formation. During the first stage a broad shield volcano made up of alkali basalts, mugearites, benmoreites, trachytes, and peralkaline rhyolites was constructed. Eruption of a chemically zoned ash flow then caused collapse of the structure to form the first caldera. The second stage consisted of eruptions of glassy pantellerite lavas that partially filled the caldera and overflowed its walls. This stage ended about 200 000 years ago with the eruption of pumice falls and ash flows, which led to the collapse of the southern portion of the volcano to form the second caldera. During the third stage, two benmoreite cinder cones and a benmoreite lava flow were emplaced on the northwestern flank of the volcano. Finally, the calc-alkaline volcano Sanganguey was built on the southern flank of Las Lavajas. Alkaline volcanism continued in the area with eruptions of alkali basalt from cinder cones located along NW-trending fractures through the area. Although other mildly peralkaline rhyolites are found in the rift zones of western Mexico, only Las Navajas produced pantellerites. Greater volumes of basic alkaline magma have erupted in the Las Navajas region than in the other areas of peralkaline volcanism in Mexico, a factor which may be necessary to provide the initial volume of material and heat to drive the differentiation process to such extreme peralkaline compositions.     

Dynamo action in simulations of penetrative solar convection with an imposed tachocline

We summarize new and continuing three-dimensional spherical shell simulations of dynamo action by convection allowed to penetrate downward into a tachocline of rotational shear. The inclusion of an imposed tachocline allows us to examine several processes believed to be essential in the operation of the global solar dynamo, including differential rotation, magnetic pumping, and the stretching and organization of fields within the tachocline. In the stably stratified core, our simulations reveal that strong axisymmetric magnetic fields (of ∼ 3000 G strength) can be built, and that those fields generally exhibit a striking antisymmetric parity, with fields in the northern hemisphere largely of opposite polarity to those in the southern hemisphere. In the convection zone above, fluctuating fields dominate over weaker mean fields. New calculations indicate that the tendency toward toroidal fields of antisymmetric parity is relatively insensitive to initial magnetic field configurations; they also reveal that on decade-long timescales, the magnetic fields can briefly enter (and subsequently emerge from) states of symmetric parity.We have not yet observed any overall reversals of the field polarity, nor systematic latitudinal propagation. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Field validation of 1930s aerial photography: What are we missing?

Aerial photography from the 1930s serves as the earliest synoptic depiction of vegetation cover. We generated a spatially explicit database of shrub (Prosopis velutina) stand structure within two 1.8 ha field plots established in 1932 to address two questions: (1) What are the detection limits of panchromatic 1936 aerial photography?, and (2) How do these influence P. velutina biomass estimates? Shrub polygons were manually digitized on 1936 imagery and linked to 1932 field measurements of P. velutina canopy area. Aboveground 1932 P. velutina biomass was estimated using a site-specific allometric relationship for field-measured canopy area. Shrub canopy detection limits on the 1936 imagery were comparable to those reported for contemporary imagery. Based on a conservative shrub size detection threshold of 3.8 m², 5.8% of P. velutina biomass was missed. Spatial resolution (0.6 vs. 1.0 m) did not influence detection limits, but the overall accuracy of shrub cover estimates was greater on 1.0 m images. Presence of the sub-shrub Isocoma tenuisecta may also have significantly influenced estimates of P. velutina canopy area. These analyses illustrate the importance of standardizing aerial photo interpretation protocols, accounting for uncertainty estimating shrub biomass, and caution species-specific interpretations for historic aerial photography.     

The magnetic non-equilibrium of buoyant flux tubes in the solar corona

The equilibrium shape of a slender flux tube in the stratified solar atmosphere is studied. The path is determined by a balance between the downwards magnetic tension, which depends on the curvature of the loop, and the upwards buoyancy force. Previous results for untwisted slender tubes are extended to include twisted tubes embedded in an external magnetic field.The path of an untwisted tube in an atmosphere with an ambient magnetic field is calculated. For a given footpoint separation, the height of the tube is lowered by increasing the strength of the external magnetic field. If the footpoints are slowly moved apart, the tube rises, until a threshold separation is reached beyond which there is no possible equilibrium height. This threshold width does not depend on the strength of the external field.The effects of twisting up a curved loop are studied, using an extension of results obtained for slender curved tubes with a straight axis. It is shown that for a twisted tube of given width, there can be two possible values of the equilibrium height. If, however, the tube is twisted more than a certain amount or if the footpoints are too widely separated there is no equilibrium. The critical footpoint separation for non-equilibrium is smaller for a twisted tube that an untwisted one.Twisting a tube or moving its feet apart is thus likely to result in non-equilibrium, causing the tube to rise indefinitely under the influence of the unbalanced buoyant force. It is suggested that this phenomenon could be important in the preflare stage of a large two-ribbon solar flare, by causing the initial slow rise of an active region filament. As well as being involved in the onset of an erupting prominence, this non-equilibrium may also be relevant to the formation of coronal loop transients.     

Variations in eelgrass (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Zostera marina</Emphasis> L.) morphology and internal nutrient composition as influenced by increased temperature and water column nitrate

In an experimental mesocosm system, we evaluated changes in morphology and tissue nutrient content (carbon [C], nitrogen [N], phosphorus [P]) of eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) as influenced by increased temperature and nitrate. During the late summer-fall growing season (14 weeks, August through mid-November), control plants were compared to plants grown at elevated temperatures (3°C to 4°C above ambient, based on 20-yr weekly means) and elevated water column nitrate enrichment (8 μM NO₃ ⁻, pulsed daily). Both increased temperature and increased nitrate led to declines in shoot density (by 40% and 48% for nitrate and temperature treatments, respectively), as well as decreased leaf and root production. High temperature promoted increased total C content of leaf tissues, whereas high nitrate increased the percentage of N in belowground tissues and depressed the C∶N ratio in aboveground tissues. The data indicated that increases in nitrate or temperature can significantly reduce the size ofZ. marine shoots and can also alter the internal C and N content. This reduction was not associated with significant increases in light-attenuating algae as we controlled epiphytic growth, so we suggest that a direct physiological mechanism or other mechanism was involved.     

Magnetic Relaxation and Particle Acceleration in a Flaring Twisted Coronal Loop

In the present work we aim to study particle acceleration in twisted coronal loops. For this purpose, an MHD model of magnetic reconnection in a linearly unstable twisted magnetic fluxtube is considered. Further, the electric and magnetic fields obtained in the MHD simulations are used to calculate proton and electron trajectories in the guiding-centre approximation. It is shown that particle acceleration in such a model is distributed rather uniformly along the coronal loop and the high-energy population remains generally neutral. It also follows from the model that the horizontal cross-section of the volume occupied by high-energy particles near the loop footpoints increases with time, which can be used as an observational proxy.