Creating an isotopically similar Earth–Moon system with correct angular momentum from a giant impact

The giant impact hypothesis is the dominant theory explaining the formation of our Moon. However, the inability to produce an isotopically similar Earth–Moon system with correct angular momentum has cast a shadow on its validity. Computer-generated impacts have been successful in producing virtual systems that possess many of the observed physical properties. However, addressing the isotopic similarities between the Earth and Moon coupled with correct angular momentum has proven to be challenging. Equilibration and evection resonance have been proposed as means of reconciling the models. In the summer of 2013, the Royal Society called a meeting solely to discuss the formation of the Moon. In this meeting, evection resonance and equilibration were both questioned as viable means of removing the deficiencies from giant impact models. The main concerns were that models were multi-staged and too complex. We present here initial impact conditions that produce an isotopically similar Earth–Moon system with correct angular momentum. This is done in a single-staged simulation. The initial parameters are straightforward and the results evolve solely from the impact. This was accomplished by colliding two roughly half-Earth-sized impactors, rotating in approximately the same plane in a high-energy, off-centered impact, where both impactors spin into the collision.     

Chemical variations and genetic relationships between the Hess and Foy offset dikes at the Sudbury impact structure

Offset dikes are found concentrically around—and extending radially outward from—the Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC), which represents an ~3 km thick differentiated impact melt sheet. The dikes are typically composed of an inclusion‐rich, so‐called quartz diorite (IQD) in the center of the dike, and an inclusion‐poor quartz diorite (QD) along the margins of the dike. New exposures of the intersection between the concentric Hess and radial Foy offset dikes provide an excellent opportunity to understand the relationship between the radial and concentric offset dikes and their internal phases. The goal was to constrain the timing of the dike emplacements relative to the impact and formation of the SIC. Results herein suggest that (1) the timing between the emplacement of the QD and IQD melts was geologically short, (2) the Hess and Foy dikes coexisted as melts at the same time and the intersection between them represents a mixture of the two, (3) the Foy dike has a slightly more evolved chemical composition than the Hess dike, and (4) the IQD melt from the Foy dike underwent some degree of chemical fractionation after its initial emplacement.     

Seismic stratigraphy and subsidence analysis of the southern Brazilian margin (Campos,Santos and Pelotas basins)

The Campos, Santos and Pelotas basins have been investigated in terms of 2D seismo-stratigraphy and subsidence. The processes controlling accommodation space (e.g. eustacy, subsidence, sediment input) and the evolution of the three basins are discussed. Depositional seismic sequences in the syn-rift Barremian to the drift Holocene basin fill have been identified. In addition, the subsidence/uplift history has been numerically modeled including (i) sediment flux, (ii) sedimentary basin framework, (iii) relation to plate-tectonic reconfigurations, and (iv) mechanism of crustal extension. Although the initial rift development of the three basins is very similar, basin architecture, sedimentary infill and distribution differ considerably during the syn-rift sag to the drift basin stages. After widespread late Aptian–early Albian salt and carbonate deposition, shelf retrogradation dominated in the Campos Basin, whereas shelf progradation occurred in the Santos Basin. In the Tertiary, these basin fill styles were reversed: since the Paleogene, shelf progradation in the Campos Basin contrasts with overall retrogradation in the Santos Basin. In contrast, long-term Cretaceous–Paleogene shelf retrogradation and intense Neogene progradation characterize the Pelotas Basin. Its specific basin fill and architecture mainly resulted from the absence of salt deposition and deformation. These temporally and spatially varying successions were controlled by specific long-term subsidence/uplift trends. Onshore and offshore tectonism in the Campos and Santos basins affected the sediment flux history, distribution of the main depocenters and occurrence of hydrocarbon stratigraphic–structural traps. This is highlighted by the exhumation and erosion of the Serra do Mar, Serra da Mantiqueira and Ponta Grossa Arch in the hinterland, as well as salt tectonics in the offshore domain. The Pelotas Basin was less affected by changes in structural regimes until the Eocene, when the Andean orogeny caused uplift of the source areas. Flexural loading largely controlled its development and potential hydrocarbon traps are mainly stratigraphic.     

Fossil insect evidence for late pleistocene paleoenvironments of the lamb spring site,Colorado

The study of Quarternary insect fossils has shown their value as paleoenvironmental indicators, especially during times of rapid climatic change, and this method is now being introduced into North America archeological studies. Abundant insect fossils have been recovered from 13,000 year old detrital organic materials from silty clays at the Lamb Spring site, south of Denver, Colorado. The spring deposits also contain bones of extinct camel and mammoth, thought to have been modified by human hunters. The late Pleistocene insect fauna from Lamb Spring comprises 71 identified taxa from 6 orders and 14 families, principally beetles, providing substantial paleoenvironmental data. The beetle fauna is a mixture of grassland and mountain elements, and they appear to represent an environment similar to that found today in high mountain valleys, such as South Park, Colorado. Based on this fauna, mean summer temperatures at 13,140 B.P. were probably 10°C cooler than present.     

High‐ to ultrahigh‐temperature metamorphism in the lower crust: An example resulting from Hikurangi Plateau collision and slab rollback in New Zealand

Lower crustal xenoliths erupted from an intraplate diatreme reveal that a portion of the New Zealand Gondwana margin experienced high‐temperature (HT) to ultrahigh‐temperature (UHT) granulite facies metamorphism just after flat slab subduction ceased at c. 110–105 Ma. P–T calculations for garnet–orthopyroxene‐bearing felsic granulite xenoliths indicate equilibration at ~815 to 910°C and 0.7 to 0.8 GPa, with garnet‐bearing mafic granulite xenoliths yielding at least 900°C. Supporting evidence for the attainment of HT and UHT conditions in felsic granulite comes from re‐integration of exsolution in feldspar (~900–950°C at 0.8 GPa), Ti‐in‐zircon thermometry on Y‐depleted overgrowths on detrital zircon grains (932°C ± 24°C at aTiO₂ = 0.8 ± 0.2), and correlation of observed assemblages and mineral compositions with thermodynamic modelling results (≥850°C at 0.7 to 0.8 GPa). The thin zircon overgrowths, which were mainly targeted by drilling through the cores of grains, yield a U–Pb pooled age of 91.7 ± 2.0 Ma. The cause of Late Cretaceous HT‐UHT metamorphism on the Zealandia Gondwana margin is attributed to collision and partial subduction of the buoyant oceanic Hikurangi Plateau in the Early Cretaceous. The halt of subduction caused the fore‐running shallowly dipping slab to rollback towards the trench position and permitted the upper mantle to rapidly increase the geothermal gradient through the base of the extending (former) accretionary prism. This sequence of events provides a mechanism for achieving regional HT–UHT conditions in the lower crust with little or no sign of this event at the surface.     

On the interannual variability of arctic sea‐level pressure and sea ice

Abstract

Monthly mean sea‐level pressure (SLP) data from the Northern Hemisphere for the period January 1952‐December 1987 are analysed. Fluctuations in this field over the Arctic on interannual time‐scales and their statistical association with fluctuations farther south are determined. The standard deviation of the interannual variability is largest compared with that of the annual cycle along the seaboards of the major land masses. The SLP anomalies are generally in phase over the entire Arctic Basin and extend south over the northern Russia and Canada, but tend to be out of phase with fluctuations at mid‐latitudes. The anomalies are most closely associated with fluctuations over the North Atlantic and Europe except near the Chukchi Sea to the north of Bering Strait. The associations with the North Pacific fluctuations become increasingly more prominent at most Arctic sites (e.g. the Canadian Arctic Archipelago) as the time‐scale increases.

Associations between the SLP fluctuations and atmospheric indices that represent processes affecting sea‐ice drift (wind stress and wind stress curl) are determined. In every case local associations dominate, but some remote ones are also evident. For example, changes in the magnitude of the wind stress curl over the Beaufort Sea are increased if the atmospheric circulation over the North Pacific is intensified; wind stress over the region where sea ice is exchanged between the Beaufort Gyre and the Transpolar Drift Stream is modulated by both the Southern and North Atlantic Oscillations.

Severe sea‐ice conditions in the Greenland Sea (as measured by the Koch Ice Index) coincide with a weakened atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic.     

Salinity stratification in a river-dominated estuary

Analysis of salinity data from Mobile Bay indicates that stratification-destratification events within this broad, shallow estuary are not uncommon. These events are related to the strength of the winds, through their influence on wave generation and subsequent bottom drag coefficient increases, and to the strength of river discharge. They do not appear to be due to the strength of tidal currents, as has been observed elsewhere. Furthermore, river flow appears to be the dominant control, the winds being important only in the absence of large freshwater discharges. The annual spring freshet can flush most of the salt from the bay. During other times of the year the relative strengths of river discharge and wind stress change the bay from highly stratified to nearly homogeneous and back on a variety of time scales ranging from daily to seasonal.     

Fractal analysis of long-range paleoclimatic data: Oxygen isotope record of pacific core V28-239

R/S analysis of the oxygen isotope curve of Pacific core V28-239 yields a fractal dimension of 1.22. This value is considered to characterize global climatic change over the last 2 million years as expressed by changing O¹⁸ ratios and confirms that climatic variations are characterized by long-term persistence. The fractal dimension of 1.22 compares favorably with the approximate fractal dimension of 1.26 for annual precipitation records for nine major cities in the United States. Although the precipitation and oxygen isotope data are measured in different physical units and recorded at different time scales, fractal analysis allows for a mathematical comparison of the two phenomena. Additionally, since the fractal dimensions of the oxygen isotope and precipitation records are similar, it is implied that such fractal dimensions are characteristic of climate change over the spectral range of 10 to 10⁶ years. Given this temperature curves based on fractal parameters of long-term O¹⁸ data could be constructed which would allow examination of characteristics of temperature variation over tens and hundreds of years. Such studies may allow the establishment of limits on natural temperature variation and document the persistence of temperature trends through time. If these trends and limits can be resolved, long-range climatic prediction is feasible.     

Amphipod predation by the infaunal polychaete,Nephtys incisa

Survival of the tubicolous amphipodAmpelisca abdita in a sediment toxicity test was negatively correlated with the presence of indigenousNephtys incisa. The gut contents ofN. incisa held in uncontaminated sediment included identifiable portions of the amphipods.A. abdita andMicrodeutopus gryllotalpa. Although most nephtyid polychaete worms are active predators,Nephtys incisa has been considered a nonselective deposit-feeder. We coclude thatN. incisa will prey upon amphipods under laboratory conditions. This predation may be a factor in the exclusion of surface-dwelling amphipods from theNephtys-Nucula community common in southern New England.     

Depositional history of the Main Tuff Interval of the Wittenoom Formation, late Archean—early Proterozoic Hamersley Group, Western Australia

The Main Tuff Interval (MTI) is a 3.5 to 16.4 m thick sequence of pyroclastic turbidites in the Wittenoom Formation of the late Archean to early Proterozoic Hamersley Group, Western Australia. The Hamersley Group accumulated in a basin located on the Archean Pilbara Craton, Western Australia. MTI pyroclasts formed via hydrovolcanic eruption processes from a magma that was likely intermediate in composition. Eruption took place in a shallow subaqueous setting. The MTI was deposited by high- and low- concentration turbidity currents in four overlapping regional depositional packages. Paleocurrent and stratigraphic data indicate the MTI source lay to the north of the present exposure limits of the Hamersley Group on the Pilbara Craton, and was likely to have been a single volcano. Reflection of turbidity currents in the southeastern part of the study area and westward travel of the reflected flows indicate that the Hamersley Group depositional basin shallowed to the east and south at the time of MTI deposition. The presence of the MTI source volcano on the northern Pilbara Craton indicates that the subsidence and marine deposition recorded by the Hamersley Group may be limited to the southern portion of the craton, and that volcanism may have continued on the northern Pilbara Craton.