A Servohydraulically-controlled Deformation Apparatus for Rock Deformation under Conditions of Ultra-high Pressure Metamorphism

—A deformation apparatus has been developed to study the mechanical behaviour of high pressure and ultra-high pressure metamorphic rocks. It is based on the conventional Griggs design and the molten salt cell concept introduced by H. E. Green II. Both, the axial loading and the confining pressure are servohydraulically controlled. Alternatively, a self-made multilayer pressure vessel or a commercial stripwound construction are used. The pressure cell is improved with respect to systems described previously by the use of different salt mixtures with low eutectic temperatures, by a mechanically stable arrangement of the thermocouples, and by an optimization of the frictional characteristics of the axial loading system. The apparatus has been successfully used in deformation experiments on cylindrical aragonite and coesite samples 3 to 4 mm in diameter and 6 to 10 mm in length at confining pressures up to 3.7 GPa and temperatures up to 1170°C.     

The photometric period of 39 AY Ceti

Photoelectric photometry obtained in 1971 and 1972 is compared with that obtained in 1980–81 and 1981–82 to derive a photometric period of 77 ^d .65. JD 2444636.0 is an epoch of minimum light. The full amplitude has been as large as 0 ^m .18 inV. Curiously, the mean light level has dropped by almost 0 ^m .2 over the last ten years. This binary is additionally interesting because of the recently discovered white dwarf secondary component and because unpublished radial velocity measures of Fekel show a large (0.1) eccentricity and an orbital period (57 ^d .1) very different from our photometric period.     

The effect of dissolved magnesium on creep of calcite II: transition from diffusion creep to dislocation creep

We extended a previous study on the influence of Mg solute impurity on diffusion creep in calcite to include deformation under a broader range of stress conditions and over a wider range of Mg contents. Synthetic marbles were produced by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) mixtures of calcite and dolomite powders for different intervals (2–30 h) at 850°C and 300 MPa confining pressure. The HIP treatment resulted in high-magnesian calcite aggregates with Mg content ranging from 0.5 to 17 mol%. Both back-scattered electron images and chemical analysis suggested that the dolomite phase was completely dissolved, and that Mg distribution was homogeneous throughout the samples at the scale of about two micrometers. The grain size after HIP varied from 8 to 31 μm, increased with time at temperature, and decreased with increasing Mg content (>3.0 mol%). Grain size and time were consistent with a normal grain growth equation, with exponents from 2.4 to 4.7, for samples containing 0.5–17.0 mol% Mg, respectively. We deformed samples after HIP at the same confining pressure with differential stresses between 20 and 200 MPa using either constant strain rate or stepping intervals of loading at constant stresses in a Paterson gas-medium deformation apparatus. The deformation tests took place at between 700 and 800°C and at strain rates between 10⁻⁶ and 10⁻³ s⁻¹. After deformation to strains of about 25%, a bimodal distribution of large protoblasts and small recrystallized neoblasts coexisted in some samples loaded at higher stresses. The deformation data indicated a transition in mechanism from diffusion creep to dislocation creep. At stresses below 40 MPa, the strength was directly proportional to grain size and decreased with increasing Mg content due to the reductions in grain size. At about 40 MPa, the sensitivity of log strain rate to log stress, (n), became greater than 1 and eventually exceeded 3 for stresses above 80 MPa. At a given strain rate and temperature, the stress at which that transition occurred was larger for samples with higher Mg content and smaller grain size. At given strain rates, constant temperature, and fixed grain size, the strength of calcite in the dislocation creep regime increased with solute content, while the strength in the diffusion creep regime was independent of Mg content. The results suggest that chemical composition will be an important element to consider when solid substitution can occur during natural deformation.     

Four years of photometry of DK draconis=HR 4665

Differential BV photometry of the K0III+K0III long-period RS CVn-type binary DK Dra=HR 4665 in 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1980 at eight different observatories is presented. A least squares fit to times of maximum and minimum light yields the ephemeris JD=2 443 219.5+63 _. ^d 75E for times of minimum. This photometric period is 1% shorter than the spectroscopically determined orbital period 64 _. ^d 44. The light curve was symmetrical and roughly sinusoidal in 1979 and 1980 but was asymmetrical in 1977 and 1978, with a faster rise to maximum. During these four years DK Dra varied between V=6 _. ^m 07 and 6 _. ^m 35.Of the AAVSO.Amateur Astronomers, Inc.     

Three years of photometry of IM pegasi = HR8703

Differential photometry of this K1 IV–III p RS VNn-type binary in 1978–79, 1979–80, and 1980–81 at eight different observatories shows that the variability, discovered orignally by Herbst, is periodic. The mean of three different determinations of the photometric period was 24^d.39±-0^d.03, about 1% shorter than the orbital period of 24^d.649 determined spectroscopically by Harper. The total range observed during these three years was 5 ^m .60<V<5 ^m .85. The light curve was nearly sinusoidal but always noticeably asymmetric, with the sense reversing sometime between 1979–80 and 1980–81.     

Prometheus and Pandora: masses and orbital positions during the Cassini tour

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of Prometheus and Pandora show longitude discrepancies of about 20° with respect to the Voyager ephemerides, with an abrupt change in mean motion at the end of 2000 (French et al., 2003, Icarus 162, 143-170; French and McGhee, 2003, Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 34, 06.07). These discrepancies are anti-correlated and arise from chaotic interactions between the two moons, occurring at interval of 6.2 yr, when their apses are anti-aligned (Goldreich and Rappaport, 2003a, Icarus 162, 391-399). This behavior is attributed to the overlap of four 121:118 apse-type mean motion resonances (Goldreich and Rappaport, 2003b, Icarus 166, 320-327). We study the Prometheus-Pandora system using a Radau-type integrator taking into account Saturn's oblateness up to and including terms in J₆, plus the effects of the major satellites. We first confirm the chaotic behavior of Prometheus and Pandora. By fitting the numerical integrations to the HST data (French et al., 2003, Icarus 162, 143-170; French and McGhee, 2003, Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 34, 06.07), we derive the satellite masses. The resulting GM values (with their standard 3-σ errors) for Prometheus and Pandora are respectively and . Using the nominal shape of the two moons (Thomas, 1989, Icarus 77, 248-274), we derive Prometheus and Pandora's densities, 0.40^+0.03_−0.07 and 0.49^+0.05_−0.09 g cm⁻³, respectively. Our numerical fits also enable us to constrain the time of the latest apse anti-alignment in 2000. Finally, using our fit, we predict the orbital positions of the two satellites during the Cassini tour, and provide a lower limit of the uncertainties due to chaos. These uncertainties amount to about 0.2° in mean longitude at the arrival of the Cassini spacecraft in July 2004, and to about 3° in 2008, at the end of the nominal tour.     

Statistical comparisons of heavy metal pollutants between seven regions of the Polish exclusive economic zone

This paper addresses three intractable difficulties associated with the statistical analysis of compositional data, such as percentages or ppm. These are: (1) that such data do not follow multivariate normal distributions thus rendering inappropriate, standard parametric statistical tests and estimation procedures, (2) the covariance/correlation coefficients between specific pairs of components are determined in whole or in part by the presence or absence of other components, and, (3) the negative bias property. That is, at least one covariance and therefore at least one correlation, must be negative, hence the remaining correlations are prevented from ranging freely between ?1 and +1. It follows that correlation coefficients formed from compositional data are not only not absolute, but also frequently spurious. Standard multivariate procedures based on them are unreliable, and intrinsic associations between components inferred from strong positive correlations in particular, are potentially false. In a recent 2009 paper, it was reported that 59 surface sediment samples from 7 regions in the Polish exclusive economic zone had been chemically analyzed for 16 elements. Enrichment factors together with crude correlation coefficients between selected elements were presented. All these quantities were computed from the initial raw compositional data resulting from the chemical analyses In this paper, a statistical procedure is presented which is distinctly different to the enrichment factor computations based on the same raw compositional data. The procedure generates a log-ratio measure of the abundance of each element in each of the seven regions, thus enabling comparisons of relative levels of pollution between the regions. Although the two techniques are quite unrelated, it is shown that in general, extremely high or low measures of the relative abundances in the regions are associated with correspondingly high or low values of the enrichment factors in the same regions that were reported in the 2009 paper. That is, the statistical analysis confirms the results of the enrichment factor data in the identification of the most to the least polluted regions. In an additional analysis, the residue term was excluded from each sediment sample by rescaling the 16 element concentrations to sum to 100%, thus forming 59 residue-free sub-compositions. Crude correlation coefficients were computed for pairs of elements of this sub-compositional data. These revealed that certain correlations based on the initial raw data that were reported in the 2009 paper for the same pairs of elements, were not only inconsistent, but sometimes also contradictory. Such contradictions imply that intrinsic geochemical element associations inferred in that paper from such correlations were false.