Flexure of the ocean lithosphere from island uplift, bathymetry and geoid height observations: the Society Islands

Summary. The response of a stratified elastic medium can be conveniently characterized by the Green's tensor for the medium. For coupled seismic wave propagation ( P—SV or fully anisotropic), the Green's tensor may be constructed directly from two matrices of linearly independent displacement solutions. Rather simple forms for the Green's tensor can be found if each displacement matrix satisfies one of the boundary conditions on the seismic field. This approach relates directly to 'reflection matrix' representations of the seismic field.
For a stratified elastic half space the Green's tensor is used to give a spectral representation for coupled seismic waves. By means of a contour integration a general completeness relation is obtained for the 'body wave' and 'surface wave' parts of the seismic field. This relation is appropriate for SH and P–SV waves in an isotropic medium and also for full anisotropy.     

Optimized system to improve pumping rate stability during aquifer tests

Aquifer hydraulic properties are commonly estimated using aquifer tests, which are based on an assumption of a uniform and constant pumping rate. Substantial uncertainties in the flow rate across the borehole-formation interface can be induced by dynamic head losses, caused by rapid changes in borehole water levels early in an aquifer test. A system is presented that substantially reduces these sources of uncertainty by explicitly accounting for dynamic head losses. The system which employs commonly available components (including a datalogger, pressure transducers, a variable-speed pump motor, a flow controller, and flowmeters), is inexpensive, highly mobile, and easily set up. It optimizes the flow rate at the borehole-formation interface, making it suitable for any type of aquifer test, including constant, step, or ramped withdrawal and injection, as well as sinusoidal. The system was demonstrated for both withdrawal and injection tests in three aquifers at the Savannah River Site. No modifications to the control system were required, although a small number of characteristics of the pumping and monitoring system were added to the operating program. The pumping system provided a statistically significant, constant flow rate with time. The range in pumping variability (95% confidence interval) was from +/- 2.58 x 10(-4) L/sec to +/- 9.07 x 10(-4) L/sec, across a wide range in field and aquifer conditions.     

Effective bulk composition changes due to cooling: a model predicting complexities in retrograde reaction textures

Diffusive processes are a strong function of temperature. Thus, during cooling of rocks, mineral grains may develop zoning profiles as successively larger parts of the grain “close” to the diffusive exchange with the rock. One of the consequences of this process is that, during cooling, successively larger parts of zoned minerals (depending on grain size) are effectively removed from the reacting part of the rock volume. Thus, the effective bulk composition of metamorphic rocks changes during cooling and the rate of its change will be a function of grain size. Because the sequence of metamorphic reactions seen by a given rock is a strong function of its bulk composition, this process may have the consequence that two rocks of identical overall bulk composition, but of different grain size, may experience a different sequence of reactions. Qualitatively identical peak paragenesis may therefore react to form qualitatively different retrograde reaction textures. The model is applied to examples in the pelitic system. There, garnet is usually the slowest diffusing phase developing zoning profiles during cooling and the effective removal of garnet from the reacting rock volume will cause changes of the effective bulk composition. It is shown that, during cooling of pelitic rocks from amphibolite facies conditions, typical aluminous peak parageneses of garnet-muscovite-kyanite ± biotite may react to form either staurolite, chlorite or muscovite (or different combinations thereof), depending on grain size. During cooling from the granulite facies, aluminous peak parageneses of garnet-cordierite-sillimanite may form biotite, either on the expense of cordierite or garnet, also depending on grain size. The two examples are illustrated with a series of reaction textures reported for amphibolite and granulite terrains in the literature. Received: 12 March 1996 / Accepted: 7 April 1997     

Glacial rebound of the British Isles—II. A high-resolution, high-precision model

Observations of ice movements across the British Isles and of sea-level changes around the shorelines during Late Devensian time (after about 25 000 yr BP) have been used to establish a high spatial and temporal resolution model for the rebound of Great Britain and associated sea-level change. The sea-level observations include sites within the margins of the former ice sheet as well as observations outside the glaciated regions such that it has been possible to separate unknown earth model parameters from some ice-sheet model parameters in the inversion of the glacio-hydro-isostatic equations. The mantle viscosity profile is approximated by a number of radially symmetric layers representing the lithosphere, the upper mantle as two layers from the base of the lithosphere to the phase transition boundary at 400 km, the transition zone down to 670 km depth, and the lower mantle. No evidence is found to support a strong layering in viscosity above 670 km other than the high-viscosity lithospheric layer. Models with a low-viscosity zone in the upper mantle or models with a marked higher viscosity in the transition zone are less satisfactory than models in which the viscosity is constant from the base of the lithosphere to the 670 km boundary. In contrast, a marked increase in viscosity is required across this latter boundary. The optimum effective parameters for the mantle beneath Great Britain are: a lithospheric thickness of about 65 km, a mantle viscosity above 670 km of about (4-5) 10²⁰ Pa s, and a viscosity below 670 km greater than 4 × 10²¹ Pa s.     

The origin and evolution of magmas from the San Pedro-Pellado volcanic complex,S. Chile: multicomponent sources and open system evolution

The San Pedro-Pellado volcanic complex is located at 36° S in the Chilean Andes. The eruptive rocks of the complex record the development and collapse of a caldera, followed by voluminous, largely basaltic andesite, volcanism. At each stage of evolution, crystal fractionation was accompanied by variable degrees of contamination and mixing. Large variations in incompatible element ratios cannot be produced by closed system evolution. Correlations between indices of differentiation and incompatible element ratios, together with high ¹⁸O values, indicate that basaltic andesites have assimilated crust to generate the evolved volcanic rocks at San Pedro-Pellado. Even in the most mafic rocks, however, incompatible element characteristics are variable as a result of source heterogeneity and deep level processes. The restricted ranges in isotope ratios of Sr, Nd and Pb among San Pedro-Pellado rocks are due to the small contrast in isotopic compositions between magma and wallrock. Three source components are recognized as contributing to parental magmas at San Pedro-Pellado. Although the relative contributions of each cannot be quantified, the volumetrically dominant source component is the sub-arc asthenospheric mantle (MORB source). The major source of LILE is thought to be slab-derived fluids which modified the sub-arc mantle. Other incompatible elements may also have been enriched by interaction with the continental lithosphere (mantle and/or lower crust) during ascent.     

Biomass composition and methods for the determination of metabolic reserve polymers in phototrophic sulfur bacteria

To study nutrient fluxes within aquatic ecosystems, the synthesis of biomass and of various storage polymers has been analysed in samples from a meromictic alpine lake. Methods are described for the quantitative determination of whole cell biomass, glycogen, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and sulfur. Methods were adapted to conditions present in natural environments and tested with samples from blooms of Chromatiaceae and with corresponding laboratory cultures. Dried bacterioplankton-biomass has been analyzed for sulfur, glycogen and polyhydroxyalkanoates, and after complete oxidation for SO ₄ ^2- , NO ₃ ^- and HPO ₄ ^2- . The average elemental composition of biomass from phototrophic sulfur bacteria, depleted of sulfur and carbon storage compounds, was C₃₈₀H₅₈₀O₁₅₃N₆₇P₃S_2.5M, where M stands for the content of the remaining minor elements. C, H, O, N, P and S accounted for 86.7% of the total dry mass. Storage sulfur in natural populations was equivalent to 2.5% to 13.5% of the dry mass; its content varied by 80% within a diurnal cycle. Glycogen contents fluctuated by approximately 50%; they accounted for 7.5% to 15.2% of the dry cell mass. The total content of reserve materials per cell never exceeded 30% of the dry mass. PHA had not been found in appreciable amounts in cells harvested from the natural lake habitat. Under certain conditions in the laboratoryChromatium okenii could be induced, however, to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates. Sulfur, glycogen and PHA contents of 33, 26 and 11%, respectively, were achieved under laboratory-culture conditions. Cells with up to 60% of their dry mass consisting of reserve materials can be obtained under selected laboratory conditions.