Short‐term temporal variation in gelatinous zooplankton populations over 48 hours in a coral reef at Redang Island,Malaysia

Gelatinous zooplankton abundance and species composition were investigated at 3‐h intervals for a 48‐h period at a fringing reef in Malaysia. A total of 20 gelatinous zooplankton species were observed; the community was dominated by the calycophoran siphonophore Diphyes chamissonis (79.9%), followed by the trachymedusdae Aglaura hemistoma (5.6%) and Liriope tetraphylla (4.8%). The gelatinous zooplankton were not collected in the water column during most of the daytime hours (1200, 1500 and 1800 h) but were common during the night. However, an abrupt peak in abundance was found at 0900 h on the second day. The times of appearance at night were different depending on the species, and the number of species was also different depending on the hour of sampling. Sampling at 3‐h intervals over a 48‐h period revealed that the temporal variation (or sampling availability) was large in this study. Careful consideration should be given to the sampling variability in handling the gelatinous zooplankton samples in coral reef areas.     

Experimental aqueous alteration of cometary dust

Abstract– Recent spacecraft missions to comets have reopened a long‐standing debate about the histories and origins of cometary materials. Comets contain mixtures of anhydrous minerals and ices seemingly unaffected by planetary processes, yet there are indications of a hydrated silicate component. We have performed aqueous alteration experiments on anhydrous interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) that likely derived from comets. Hydrated silicates rapidly formed from submicrometer amorphous silicates within the IDPs at room temperature in mildly alkaline solution. Hydrated silicates may thus form in the near‐surface regions of comets if liquid water is ever present. Our findings provide insight into origins of cometary IDPs containing both anhydrous and hydrated minerals and help reconcile the seemingly inconsistent observations of hydrated silicates from the Stardust and Deep Impact missions.     

Zircon trace element chemistry at sub-micrometer resolution for Tarawera volcano,New Zealand,and implications for rhyolite magma evolution

Zoned crystals can be important recorders of magmatic processes in space and time. However, in most situations, the temporal dimension is difficult to quantify. Here, we have employed secondary ion mass spectrometry depth profiling to excavate parallel pits into non-polished crystal faces of zircon to obtain ~5 μm resolution U–Th disequilibrium ages (one pit) that can be correlated with trace element zoning at sub-μm resolution derived from a second pit. Data from 17 crystals representing each of the four rhyolite eruptions of Tarawera volcano, an intra-caldera edifice within the Okataina Volcanic Centre, reveal diverse zircon growth conditions over time. Most crystals display rimward depletions in Zr/Hf and Ti, broadly consistent with cooling and crystallization. However, a significant fraction of crystals lacks these patterns and displays rimward trace element variations consistent with isothermal or prograde crystallization. Oscillatory zonation patterns in Y, Th, and U are superimposed on the Zr/Hf and Ti trends. Despite the limited number of crystals analyzed in this way, the striking lack of ubiquitous trace element zoning patterns in crystals from the same hand sample implies that fractional crystallization upon cooling was punctuated by magma recharge and crystal mixing affecting different parts of the magma reservoir. By combining data from all crystals, a systematic change to more heterogeneous trace element abundances is revealed by zircon crystal domains <45 ka following the Rotoiti caldera-forming eruption. This contrasts with the more uniform conditions of zircon crystallization lasting >100 ka prior to caldera formation and is best explained by the post-caldera system consisting of small, isolated melt pockets that evolved independently. An important conclusion is that the zircon ‘cargo’ in volcanic rocks reflects thermally and compositionally divergent processes that act near simultaneously in a magma storage region and not exclusively the conditions in the eruptible magma.     

40Ar/39Ar ages of L4, H5, EL6, and feldspathic ureilitic clasts from the Almahata Sitta polymict ureilite (asteroid 2008 TC3)

The Almahata Sitta (AhS) meteorite consists of disaggregated clasts from the impact of the polymict asteroid 2008 TC₃, including ureilitic (70%–80%) and diverse non-ureilitic materials. We determined the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar release patterns for 16 AhS samples (3–1500 μg) taken from three chondritic clasts, AhS 100 (L4), AhS 25 (H5), and MS-D (EL6), as well as a clast of ureilitic trachyandesite MS-MU-011, also known as ALM-A, which is probably a sample of the crust of the ureilite parent body (UPB). Based on our analyses, best estimates of the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages (Ma) of the chondritic clasts are 4535 ± 10 (L4), 4537–4555 with a younger age preferred (H5), and 4513 ± 17 (EL6). The ages for the L4 and the H5 clasts are older than the most published ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages for L4 and H5 meteorites, respectively. The age for the EL6 clast is typical of older EL6 chondrites. These ages indicate times of argon closure ranging up to 50 Ma after the main constituents of the host breccia, that is, the ureilitic components of AhS, reached the >800°C blocking temperatures of pyroxene and olivine thermometers. We suggest that these ages record the times at which the clasts cooled to the Ar closure temperatures on their respective parent bodies. This interpretation is consistent with the recent proposal that the majority of xenolithic materials in polymict ureilites were implanted into regolith 40–60 Ma after calcium–aluminum-rich inclusion and is consistent with the interpretation that 2008 TC₃ was a polymict ureilite. With allowance for its 10-Ma uncertainty, the 4549-Ma ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age of ALM-A is consistent with closure within a few Ma of the time recorded by its Pb/Pb age either on the UPB or as part of a rapidly cooling fragment. Plots of age versus cumulative ³⁹Ar release for 10 of 15 samples with ≥5 heating steps indicate minor losses of ⁴⁰Ar over the last 4.5 Ga. The other five such samples lost some ⁴⁰Ar at estimated times no earlier than 3800–4500 Ma bp . Clustering of ages in the low-temperature data for these five samples suggests that an impact caused localized heating of the AhS progenitor ~2.7 Ga ago. In agreement with the published work, 10 estimates of cosmic-ray exposure ages based on ³⁸Ar concentrations average 17 ± 5 Ma but may include some early irradiation.