Geodynamics of the deep sedimentary basin of the Caspian Sea region: paragenetic correlation of seismicity and mud volcanism

In this paper we analyze seismic regime and earthquake depth distribution and correlation of seismicity and mud volcanism in the Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea region. For the present region we have calculated accurate source locations, seismic activity, earthquake repetition and released earthquake energy parameters. It is shown that the active tectonic processes in the region are concentrated within the thick sedimentary cover that we consider as a general source of contemporary stress and a main structural element responsible for the origin of regional earthquakes. The correlation of seismicity and mud volcanism is of paragenetic character.     

Seasonal succession of cyanoprokaryotes in a hypereutrophic oligo-mesohaline lagoon from the South of France

The Bolmon lagoon (South of France) is an oligo-mesohaline coastal lagoon that has undergone intense eutrophication in the past decades, resulting from a strong concentration of human activities in its drainage basin. Consequently, it exhibits some characteristics typical of an advanced trophic state; namely, the disappearance of submerged vegetation, the permanently intense phytoplankton growth and the recurrence of cyanoprokaryote blooms. As cyanoprokaryote dominance in south-temperate saline lagoons is little reported, we carried out this study in order to understand the seasonal variations in the phytoplankton composition and biomass, and to analyse the influence of environmental parameters such as salinity, nutrients and climate on the seasonal succession of species. In this lagoon, the phytoplankton was permanently dominated by cyanoprokaryotes, probably because of high availability of nutrients, low light penetration in the water column and frequent turbulent mixing induced by wind. The two most abundant species Planktothrix agardhii (in winter–spring) and Pseudanabaena limnetica (in summer) have low light requirements and are well adapted to a high mixing frequency, which defines the S1 functional group in Reynolds' typology for phytoplankton. Although widely studied in north-temperate lakes, blooms of these typically freshwater species are almost unreported in the Mediterranean area, especially in brackish ecosystems that are not their normal habitat. In the Bolmon lagoon, all their requirements for nutrients, light and mixing are satisfied and they seem to cope with a moderate presence of salt but P. agardhii was less competitive than P. limnetica at highest salinities, the latter being probably more halophytic. Contrary to the observations in lakes located at higher latitudes, the Mediterranean climate seems to induce a typical seasonal pattern of succession characterised by the dominance of P. agardhii (winter) – Chroococcales (spring) – Pseudanabaenaceae (summer) – P. agardhii (autumn, winter). The warm temperatures seemed to have a major influence on the phytoplankton succession, being responsible for the survival of Planktothrix during winter and its rapid and intense development in early spring. Intense mixing and high irradiance in summer promoted the development of Pseudanabaenaceae, as reported in another south-temperate lagoon, the Albufera of Valencia (Spain). The ecological success of Oscillatoriales observed in the Bolmon lagoon is a perfect example of a shift to the “turbid stable state” as proposed for freshwater shallow lakes only. Our work demonstrated that hypereutrophic Mediterranean lagoons can function very similarly to shallow lakes at higher latitudes; but the warmer climate and higher irradiances are probably responsible for differences in the seasonal pattern of species dominance.     

Once more on quasar periodicities

In an earlier paper Arp, Bi, Chu and Zhu investigated various quasar samples and recognized a periodicity of remarkable degree in them. Their conclusion was that the existence of such a periodicity is a counterevidence against the cosmological origin of quasar redshifts. Since this question is of great importance in a cosmological context, here we reanalyze some of the samples together with a galaxy sample of the pencil-beam survey of Broadhurstet al. Our result is that on the plane of cosmological parameters (₀, ₀) there is a non-negligible region where two quasar samples and the galaxy sample are simultaneously fairly periodic. Pure periodicity is still compatible with cosmological principles, at least on length scales much longer than the period length. So the regularities can fit into a cosmological context.     

Particulate content of savanna fire emissions

As part of the FOS-DECAFE experiment at Lamto (Ivory Coast) in January 1991, various aerosol samples were collected at ground level near prescribed fires or under local background conditions, to characterize the emissions of particulate matter from the burning of savanna vegetation. This paper deals with total aerosol (TPM) and carbon measurements. Detailed trace element and polycyclic hydrocarbon data are discussed in other papers presented in this issue.Near the fire plumes, the aerosols from biomass burning are primarily of a carbonaceous nature (C%70% of the aerosol mass) and consist predominantly of submicron particles (more than 90% in mass.) They are characterized by their organic nature (black to total carbon ratio Cb/Ct in the range 3–20%) and their high potassium content (K/Cb0.6). These aerosols undergo aging during their first minutes in the atmosphere causing slight alterations in their size distribution and chemical composition. However, they remain enriched in potassium (K/Cb=0.21) and pyrene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, such that both of these species may be used as tracers of savanna burning aerosols. We show that during this period of the year, the background atmosphere experiences severe pollution from both terrigenous sources and regional biomass burning (44% of the aerosol). Daynight variations of the background carbon concentrations suggest that fire ignition and spreading occur primarily during the day. Simultaneous TPM and CO₂ real-time measurements point to a temporal and spatial heterogeneity of the burning so that the ratio of the above background concentrations (TPM/CO₂) varies from 2 to 400 g/kg C. Smoldering processes are intense sources of particles but particulate emissions may also be important during the rapidly spreading heading fires in connection with the generation of heavy brown smoke. We propose emission factor values (EF) for aerosols from the savanna biomass burning aerosols: EF (TPM)=11.4±4.6 and 69±25 g/kg C_{dry plant} and EF(Ct)=7.4±3.4 and 56±16 g C/kg C_{dry plant} for flaming and smoldering processes respectively. In these estimates, the range of uncertainty is mostly due to the intra-fire variability. These values are significantly lower than those reported in the literature for the combustion of other types of vegetation. But due to the large amounts of vegetation biomass being burnt in African savannas, the annual flux of particulate carbon into the atmosphere is estimated to be of the order of 8 Tg C, which rivals particulate carbon emissions from anthropogenic activities in temperate regions.     

The hydrogen balmer lines and the structure of the quiet solar chromosphere

Spectra of Hα, Hβ and Hδ have been taken under good seeing conditions with the vacuum tower telescope of Sacramento Peak Observatory. Intensity curves are given at various wavelengths in these lines to permit further comparison with a theoretical model. Moreover, considering in each case the range of height in which the lines are almost optically thin and using a few approximations, the following results are derived: between 2000 and 6000 km above the limb the average thermal + turbulent velocity of the atoms is found to increase from 20 km s^?1 to 30 km s^?1 and the mean number of hydrogen atoms per cm³ in level 2 is given by $$\log n_2 {\text{ = }}4.5{\text{ }} - {\text{ 0}}{\text{.00056(}}z - 2000)$$ z being the altitude above the limb in km. For line profile computations a new interpolation formula is presented; it gives good profiles with a small number of scans, saving microphotometer time.     

Multi-stage mixing in subduction zones: Application to Merapi volcano (Java island, Sunda arc)

Many studies have argued for the contribution of at least three components, namely the mantle wedge, the subducted oceanic crust, and its sediment cover, to describe the geochemistry of island arc volcanics. However, isotope correlations reflecting a simple binary mixing can be observed at the scale of a single arc island or volcano. Here we investigate the possibility that these trends reflect pseudo-binary mixing relationships in a three-component system. We present a simplified, two-stage model for the systematic isotope modelling of a cogenetic suite of arc lavas. This includes metasomatism of portions of the mantle wedge by hydrous phases released from the down-going oceanic crust, and sediments, followed by progressive mixing and melting. A consequence of this model is that it leads to a two end-member mixing process from the mantle wedge, oceanic crust, and sediment components. To solve the model we reduce it to a step-by-step procedure combined with a Monte-Carlo simulation. The procedure consists of: (i) producing a large number of random values on each variable of the model; (ii) using the computed values to calculate the isotopic compositions of lavas; and (iii) comparing the obtained isotopic compositions with measured data. Applied to a new set of Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope data for volcanics (basalts, basaltic andesites, trachybasalts, and basaltic trachyandesites) from Merapi volcano (Java island, Sunda arc), the model successfully reproduces the binary mixing relationships previously documented for the medium-K and high-K lava series from this volcano, thus giving further support to the hypothesis that this distinction is inherited from the primary magmas and primarily reflects a property of the mantle source. The results allow identification of a set of numerical values for bulk partition coefficients (solid/hydrous fluid, and solid/H₂O-rich melt) and variables (e.g., the mass ratio between the metasomatizing phase and the mantle wedge), which can be used for quantitative arc-lava petrogenetic calculations. They also require a direct relationship between dehydration of the slab and melting of the metasomatized mantle wedge. Finally, our evaluation shows that for isotope modelling of the Merapi lavas, the two-stage procedure is controlled more by the considered source components (mantle wedge, oceanic crust, sediments, and their derivatives) than by the various processes involved (dehydration, melting, and mixing).     

Oil-generation kinetics for organic facies with Type-II and -IIS kerogen in the Menilite Shales of the Polish Carpathians

The Menilite Shales (Oligocene) of the Polish Carpathians are the source of low-sulfur oils in the thrust belt and some high-sulfur oils in the Carpathian Foredeep. These oil occurrences indicate that the high-sulfur oils in the Foredeep were generated and expelled before major thrusting and the low-sulfur oils in the thrust belt were generated and expelled during or after major thrusting. Two distinct organic facies have been observed in the Menilite Shales. One organic facies has a high clastic sediment input and contains Type-II kerogen. The other organic facies has a lower clastic sediment input and contains Type-IIS kerogen. Representative samples of both organic facies were used to determine kinetic parameters for immiscible oil generation by isothermal hydrous pyrolysis and S₂ generation by non-isothermal open-system pyrolysis. The derived kinetic parameters showed that timing of S₂ generation was not as different between the Type-IIS and -II kerogen based on open-system pyrolysis as compared with immiscible oil generation based on hydrous pyrolysis. Applying these kinetic parameters to a burial history in the Skole unit showed that some expelled oil would have been generated from the organic facies with Type-IIS kerogen before major thrusting with the hydrous-pyrolysis kinetic parameters but not with the open-system pyrolysis kinetic parameters. The inability of open-system pyrolysis to determine earlier petroleum generation from Type-IIS kerogen is attributed to the large polar-rich bitumen component in S₂ generation, rapid loss of sulfur free-radical initiators in the open system, and diminished radical selectivity and rate constant differences at higher temperatures. Hydrous-pyrolysis kinetic parameters are determined in the presence of water at lower temperatures in a closed system, which allows differentiation of bitumen and oil generation, interaction of free-radical initiators, greater radical selectivity, and more distinguishable rate constants as would occur during natural maturation. Kinetic parameters derived from hydrous pyrolysis show good correlations with one another (compensation effect) and kerogen organic-sulfur contents. These correlations allow for indirect determination of hydrous-pyrolysis kinetic parameters on the basis of the organic-sulfur mole fraction of an immature Type-II or -IIS kerogen.