Mantle Convection Modeling with Viscoelastic/Brittle Lithosphere: Numerical Methodology and Plate Tectonic Modeling

--The earth's tectonic plates are strong, viscoelastic shells which make up the outermost part of a thermally convecting, predominantly viscous layer. Brittle failure of the lithosphere occurs when stresses are high. In order to build a realistic simulation of the planet's evolution, the complete viscoelastic/brittle convection system needs to be considered. A particle-in-cell finite element method is demonstrated which can simulate very large deformation viscoelasticity with a strain-dependent yield stress. This is applied to a plate-deformation problem. Numerical accuracy is demonstrated relative to analytic benchmarks, and the characteristics of the method are discussed.     

The Role of Organic Matter During Metal Enrichment in Permian Kupferschiefer of the Rudna Mine,Southwest Poland

The bulk composition of organic matter and saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons extracted from 16 samples collected from two Kuperschiefer profiles in the Rudna mine,Southwest Poland has been analyzed to study the role of organic matter during base metal enrichment in the Kupferschiefer shale.The results indicated that the extract yields and saturated hydrocarbon yields decreased with increasing base metal contents.GC and GC/MS analyses indicated that n -alkanes and alkylated aromatic compounds were depleted and may have served as hydrogen donators for thermochemical sulfate reduction.The enrichment of base metal is closely connected with the destruction of hydrocarbons.     

Enhanced red fluorescence emission in the oxygen minimum zone of the Arabian Sea

 Depth profiles of fluorescence at several excitation and emission wavelengths were measured along with CTD data during the cruise So119 of RV Sonne in the Arabian Sea from 12 May to 10 June 1997. In addition to chlorophyll fluorescence from phytoplankton in the near-surface layer, the profiles in the oxygen minimum region well below the euphotic zone show enhanced red fluorescence. Red fluorescence intensity is inversely related to the oxygen concentration in intermediate and deep waters. A relationship to characteristic water masses of the region cannot be found in the data, and this holds also with chemical data such as DOC. Absorbance spectra of water samples taken in the oxygen minimum zone show an absorption band at 420 nm wavelength with about 50 nm bandwidth, much weaker than gelbstoff absorbance in the same wavelength range. The absorption band remains stable after sample filtration with 0.45 μm glass fibre filters. Hence, the size of the absorbing matter is in the range of dissolved molecules or particles much smaller than 1 μm. Fluorescence spectra of unfiltered samples with 420 nm excitation show a weak emission band at 600 nm and a more pronounced one at 660 nm wavelength. The trailing edge of the 660 nm band falls into the range of chlorophyll emission, thus giving rise to the observed depth profiles of red fluorescence in the oxygen minimum zone. Red fluorescence measured on samples remain stable during a few hours after sampling even in the presence of oxygen. It is not detectable after several weeks of sample storage in the dark and cannot be reproduced even after depletion of dissolved oxygen. Received: 22 May 2002 / Accepted: 18 February 2003 Responsible Editor: Andreas Oschlies Acknowledgements. This work was supported by a grant from the Federal Minister of Education and Technology, Bonn, within the frame work of the JGOFS Arabian Sea program. We are grateful to the captain and the crew of RV Sonne for their support. We are indebted to Mrs. Kirsten Neumann from the Institute of Marine Chemistry and Biogeochemistry of the University of Hamburg for providing the oxygen data, and to Mr. Nikolai Delling from the same institute for making the DOC and chlorophyll data available to us.     

The BEAM-project: prediction and assessment of mixture toxicities in the aquatic environment

Freshwater and marine ecosystems are exposed to various multi-component mixtures of pollutants. Nevertheless, most ecotoxicological research and chemicals regulation focus on hazard and exposure assessment of individual substances only, the problem of chemical mixtures in the environment is ignored to a large extent. In contrast, the assessment of combination effects has a long tradition in pharmacology, where mixtures of chemicals are specifically designed to develop new products, e.g. human and veterinary drugs or agricultural and non-agricultural pesticides. In this area, two concepts are frequently used and are thought to describe fundamental relationships between single substance and mixture effects: Independent Action (Response Addition) and Concentration Addition. The question, to what extent these concepts may also be applied in an ecotoxicological and regulatory context may be considered a research topic of major importance, as the concepts would allow to make use of already existing single substance toxicity data for the predictive assessment of mixture toxicities. Two critical knowledge gaps are identified: (a) There is a lack of environmental realism, as a huge part of our current knowledge about the applicability of the concepts is restricted to artificial situations with respect to mixture composition or biological effect assessment. (b) The knowledge on what exactly is needed for using the concepts as tools for the predictive mixture toxicity assessment is insufficient. Both gaps seriously hamper the necessary, scientifically sound consideration of mixture toxicities in a regulatory context.In this paper, the two concepts will be briefly introduced, the necessity of considering the toxicities of chemical mixtures in the environment will be demonstrated and the applicability of Independent Action and Concentration Addition as tools for the prediction and assessment of mixture toxicities will be discussed. An overview of the specific aims and approaches of the BEAM project to fill in the identified knowledge gaps is given and first results are outlined.     

An Mw based earthquake Catalogue for central, northern and northwestern Europe using a hierarchy of magnitude conversions

Data from 25 local catalogues and 30special studies of earthquakes in central,northern and northwestern Europe have beenincorporated into a Databank. The dataprocessing includes discriminating eventtypes, eliminating fake events and dupletsand converting different magnitudes andintensities to M_w if this is not givenby the original source. The magnitudeconversion is a key task of the study andimplies establishment of regressionequations where no local relations exist.The Catalogue contains tectonic events fromthe Databank within the area44°N–72°N,25°W–32°E and the time period1300–1993. The lower magnitude level forthe Catalogue entries is setat M_w == 3.50. The area covered by thedifferent catalogues are associated withpolygons. Within each polygon only datafrom one or a small number of the localcatalogues, supplemented by data fromspecial studies, enter the Catalogue. Ifthere are two or more such catalogues orstudies providing a solution for an event,a priority algorithm selects one entry forthe Catalogue. Then M_w is calculatedfrom one of the magnitude types, or frommacroseismic data, given by the selectedentry according to another priority scheme.The origin time, location, M_w magnitude and reference are specified for eachentry of the Catalogue. So is theepicentral intensity, I₀, if providedby the original source. Following thesecriteria, a total of about 5,000earthquakes constitute the Catalogue.Although originally derived for the purposeof seismic hazard calculation within GSHAP,the Catalogue provides a data base for manytypes of seismicity and seismic hazardstudies.     

Anomalous Gadolinium,Cerium, and Yttrium Contents in the Adige and Isarco River Waters and in the Water of Their Tributaries (Provinces Trento and Bolzano/Bozen,NE Italy)

Rare earth patterns of surface and groundwaters near big cities often show anthropogenic Gd (Gd_ant) anomalies in addition to geogenic Ce and Y anomalies. The Gd_ant anomaly is caused by very stable organic complexes, one of which is gadopentetic acid, Gd‐DTPA. Derivatives of this and similar compounds are used as contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the human blood system. The organic Gd complexes are stable enough to pass nearly unaffected through sewage treatment plants and are, thereafter, discharged into surface water systems. Water of the rapidly flowing Isarco/Eisack and Adige/Etsch rivers (Provinces of Trento and Bolzano/Bozen, NE Italy) and their tributaries show remarkable variations in anthropogenic Gd contents (Gd_ant). Low Gd_ant values are found on Monday and Tuesday, whereas high values are observed during the remaining weekdays. Reliable Gd_ant balances are calculated for the river system at the confluence of the Adige and its tributaries. At two places local decrease of Gd_ant indicates exfiltration of groundwater. It is demonstrated that Gd_ant can be used as a reliably conservative tracer to study the water budget in rapidly flowing alpine river systems. The studied different river waters show considerable negative Ce and positive Y anomalies. Negative Ce anomalies are caused by scavenging of Ce(III) by FeO(OH) precipitates and subsequent oxidation to CeO₂. Y anomalies are attributed to less sorption of Y than REE onto particulate matter. Thus, Y moves faster than REE. Both, Ce and Y anomalies, are of geogenic origin.     

The tectonic regime in Italy inferred from borehole breakout data

In Italy, the horizontal stress directions are well constrained in many regions, but the tectonic regime is not well known because the stress magnitudes are unknown. Our intention is to improve the knowledge of crustal stress in Italy, both at shallow depth and in low seismicity areas. Therefore, we inferred the tectonic regime from the comparison between the depth of breakout occurrence and the physical properties of the rocks in 20 boreholes. The critical value of the maximum horizontal stress, for which the effective tangential stress at the borehole wall overcomes the rock strength to form breakouts, could be computed from rock strength and density. Comparing the theoretical stress distributions for different tectonic regimes with the depth distribution of breakout occurrence, it is possible to infer the tectonic regime that fits best to the breakout depth distribution. We investigated boreholes up to 6 km deep located in different tectonic environments over the Italian peninsula: the Po Plain, the Apenninic chain, the Adriatic foredeep and the Tyrrhenian Quaternary volcanic region. These wells are characterised by breakout data of good quality (A, B and C, according to World Stress Map quality ranking system). The results are in general agreement with the style of faulting derived from earthquake focal mechanisms and other stress indicators. Our results show a predominance of a normal faulting (NF) regime in the inner Apennines and both normal faulting and strike–slip faulting (SS) style in the surrounding regions, possibly also associated with changes in the tectonic regime with depth.     

Geoid determination using adapted reference field, seismic Moho depths and variable density contrast

 The traditional remove-restore technique for geoid computation suffers from two main drawbacks. The first is the assumption of an isostatic hypothesis to compute the compensation masses. The second is the double consideration of the effect of the topographic–isostatic masses within the data window through removing the reference field and the terrain reduction process. To overcome the first disadvantage, the seismic Moho depths, representing, more or less, the actual compensating masses, have been used with variable density anomalies computed by employing the topographic–isostatic mass balance principle. In order to avoid the double consideration of the effect of the topographic–isostatic masses within the data window, the effect of these masses for the used fixed data window, in terms of potential coefficients, has been subtracted from the reference field, yielding an adapted reference field. This adapted reference field has been used for the remove–restore technique. The necessary harmonic analysis of the topographic–isostatic potential using seismic Moho depths with variable density anomalies is given. A wide comparison among geoids computed by the adapted reference field with both the Airy–Heiskanen isostatic model and seismic Moho depths with variable density anomaly and a geoid computed by the traditional remove–restore technique is made. The results show that using seismic Moho depths with variable density anomaly along with the adapted reference field gives the best relative geoid accuracy compared to the GPS/levelling geoid. Received: 3 October 2001 / Accepted: 20 September 2002 Correspondence to: H.A. Abd-Elmotaal