Nucleosynthesis and early chemical evolution in galaxies

Nucleosynthesis and galactic chemical evolution are inter-linked topics that merge various fields in astronomy and physics. Speakers at the RAS discussion meeting of January 2003 combined theory and observation in understanding these fields. Stelios A Tsangarides, Enrico Arnone and Sean G Ryan report.     

Factors governing subaqueous siliceous sinter precipitation in hot springs: examples from Yellowstone National Park, USA

Abstract Siliceous sinter precipitation within hot spring systems has been attributed to a variety of mechanisms: evaporative concentration, cooling, changes in pH and cation effects. Repetitive in situ (T, pH, alkalinity, etc.) and laboratory (major, minor and trace elemental, stable isotopic) analyses of the waters plus observations of silica precipitation on natural (e.g. twigs, pine cones) as well as artificial substrates (glass slides and copper plates) in the waters substantiate that subaqueous precipitation is occurring throughout the vent to distal end of flow in both Cistern Spring (Norris Geyser Basin) and Deerbone Spring (Lower Geyser Basin), Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA. Quartz and sodium–potassium geothermometers indicate that Cistern Spring is fed by a subsurface reservoir that is between 232 and 272 °C. Calculated reservoir temperatures are significantly lower at Deerbone Spring (182–197 °C). Based on a suite of measured and theoretical saturation indices, downflow changes in the system resulting from evaporative concentration (e.g. Cl increases 10%), changes in pH (e.g. 5·6–7·1) and cation effects (Al and Fe) are of negligible importance in the subaqueous precipitation of hot spring opal‐A. Similarly, at the macroenvironmental scale, potential biotic effects on opal‐A precipitation appear to be minimal. Modelling of the two active siliceous sinter precipitating systems indicates that cooling (e.g. 80–17 °C) is the predominant process governing subaqueous mineral precipitation.     

Chert provenance analysis at the Mack Canyon Site,Sherman County,Oregon: An evaluative study

Chert is the most frequent lithic raw material in the Columbia Plateau, but archaeologists have made few attempts to link chert artifacts to their quarries in this area. The Mack Canyon Site in north-central Oregon is near a chert source, providing an opportunity to compare provenance analysis techniques. Macroscopic and microscopic visual attributes and element concentrations were determined for 26 samples from six sources in the Columbia Plateau. Additional concentration data from two other sources were included for comparison. Four artifacts were selected from the Mack Canyon Site for comparison to the nearby outcrop. Although all of the artifacts were macroscopically indistinguishable from the local material, microscopic attributes and element concentrations indicate that only one of the artifacts came from the outcrop. Linking chert artifacts and quarries through statistical analysis of element concentrations holds promise for the Columbia Plateau. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Development of push moraines in deeply frozen sediment adjacent to a cold-based glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys,Antarctica

Previous studies of push moraines have concluded that structural architecture is controlled by a combination of stress exerted by flowing ice and the rheology of the deforming sediment. However, the relationship between deformation processes and the thermal/hydrologic conditions within the sediment remains ambiguous. Using a combination of surface mapping, logging exposures and ground penetrating radar we examine the relationships between surface morphology, material properties and development of deformation structures in deeply frozen sediment that has been deformed by Joyce Glacier, a cold-based glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. The structural architecture of the push moraines is characterized by a combination of brittle and ductile deformation structures that have produced a structurally complex pattern of thrust faults, low angle listric thrusts and recumbent folds that extend 400 m beyond the glacier margin. Deformation is ductile where the ice concentration exceeds c. 65% volume and predominantly brittle where the ice concentration is less than c. 65%. The change in rheology reflects transition in behaviour from the material having a predominantly frictional character when the ice is limited to pore spaces to a non-frictional character in which strength is primarily determined by the cohesive strength of the ice. This work shows that glaciotectonic deformation can occur in deeply frozen permafrost where there is no liquid pore water. We conclude that the presence of liquid porewater is not a necessary condition for the development of glaciotectonic deformation or for the formation of push moraines. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Regime-dependent streamflow sensitivities to Pacific climate modes cross the Georgia–Puget transboundary ecoregion

The Georgia Basin–Puget Sound Lowland region of British Columbia (Canada) and Washington State (USA) presents a crucial test in environmental management due to its combination of abundant salmonid habitat, rapid population growth and urbanization, and multiple national jurisdictions. It is also hydrologically complex and heterogeneous, containing at least three streamflow regimes: pluvial (rainfall-driven winter freshet), nival (melt-driven summer freshet), and hybrid (both winter and summer freshets), reflecting differing elevation ranges within various watersheds. We performed bootstrapped composite analyses of river discharge, air temperature, and precipitation data to assess El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) impacts upon annual hydrometeorological cycles across the study area. Canadian and American data were employed from a total of 21 hydrometric and four meteorological stations. The surface meteorological anomalies showed strong regional coherence. In contrast, the seasonal impacts of coherent modes of Pacific circulation variability were found to be fundamentally different between streamflow regimes. Thus, ENSO and PDO effects can vary from one stream to the next within this region, albeit in a systematic way. Furthermore, watershed glacial cover appeared to complicate such relationships locally; and an additional annual streamflow regime was identified that exhibits climatically driven non-linear phase transitions. The spatial heterogeneity of seasonal flow responses to climatic variability may have substantial implications to catchment-specific management and planning of water resources and hydroelectric power generation, and it may also have ecological consequences due to the matching or phase-locking of lotic and riparian biological activity and life cycles to the seasonal cycle. The results add to a growing body of literature suggesting that assessments of the streamflow impacts of ocean–atmosphere circulation modes must accommodate local hydrological characteristics and dynamics. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The copyright in Paul H. Whitfield's contribution belongs to the Crown in right of Canada and such copyright material is reproduced with the permission of Environment Canada.     

Quantifying urbanization-associated changes in terrestrial hydrologic system memory

A common feature of watershed urbanization is increased hydrograph ‘flashiness,’ whereby river discharge fluctuations grow more erratic. Such changes might be intuitively interpreted as a decrease in watershed-scale hydrologic system memory. Here, I investigate this hypothesis through a paired-catchment experiment. The serial correlation coefficient, a common metric of short-term time series memory, is applied to daily winter streamflow data from urbanizing and rural watersheds in the Puget Sound lowland of Washington State, USA. Statistical comparisons confirm that this metric shows highly significant decreases over time in the catchment undergoing land use change, but not in the control watershed, which remains rural over the hydrometric record. Moreover, the mean serial correlation coefficients are statistically indistinguishable between the two catchments over the early period of record, when both watersheds are largely rural, whereas the system memory is far weaker in the urbanized stream relative to the rural stream over the late period, following land use change in the former. The results appear readily interpretable in terms of the physical hydrologic changes typically associated with urbanization. The serial correlation coefficient thus appears to be an instructive measure of urbanization impacts for small streams in this region.     

Reprocessed emission line profiles from dense clouds in geometrically thick accretion engines

The central engines of active galactic nuclei (AGN) contain cold, dense material as well as hot X-ray-emitting gas. The standard paradigm for the engine geometry is a cold thin disc sandwiched between hot X-ray coronae. Strong support for this geometry in Seyferts comes from the study of fluorescent iron line profiles, although the evidence is not ubiquitously airtight. The thin disc model of line profiles in AGN and in X-ray binaries should still be benchmarked against other plausible possibilities. One proposed alternative is an engine consisting of dense clouds embedded in an optically thin, geometrically thick X-ray-emitting engine. This model is also motivated by studies of geometrically thick engines such as advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs). Here we compute the reprocessed iron line profiles from dense clouds embedded in geometrically thick, optically thin X-ray-emitting discs near a Schwarzschild black hole. We consider a range of cloud distributions and disc solutions, including ADAFs, pure radial infall and bipolar outflows. We find that such models can reproduce line profiles similar to those from geometrically thin, optically thick discs and might help alleviate some of the problems encountered from the latter. Thus, independent of thin discs, thick disc engines can also exhibit iron line profiles if embedded dense clouds can survive long enough to reprocess radiation.     

Population maintenance of the scyphozoan<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cyanea</Emphasis> sp. Settled planulae and the distribution of medusae in the Niantic River,Connecticut, USA

Scyphozoan jellyfish are seasonally conspicuous in coastal waters, but relatively little is known about the factors that control their distribution and population dynamics.Cyanea sp is a seasonally abundant medusa in the Niantic River, Connecticut, U.S. and appears to maintain a population entirely within the estuary. To better understand the factors controlling their occurrence, we examined the temporal and spatial distribution of settled scyphistomae in relation to that of the medusae. Planula settlement patterns mirrored the presence of mature female medusae. The planulae settled primarily near the bottom. After settlement, planulacysts and polyps on the settlement plates were out competed by large barnacle and ascidian larvae, resulting in a sharp decline in cyst and polyp abundance. This stage-specific mortality may represent a population bottleneck in the life cycle of scyphozoans.