Status of the Transient Gamma-Ray Spectrometer

The Transient Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (TGRS) was launched aboard the GGS/WIND spacecraft on November 1, 1994. After several deep space orbits (2 yrs) WIND will eventually be injected into a halo orbit around the Sun-EarthL ₁ point. TGRS consists of a 215 cm³ high purityn-type Ge crystal which is kept at cryogenic temperatures by a passive radiative cooler. The energy range covered by the instrument is 25–8000 keV with an energy resolution of 2–3 keV. The primary task of TGRS is to perform high resolution spectroscopy of gamma-ray bursts and solar flares. Additional objectives are the study of transient x-ray pulsars and, using an on-board passive occulter, the long-term monitoring of sources such as the Crab and the Galactic Center. Since launch, TGRS has been performing exceedingly well, and all the important experiment parameters such as background levels, gain, and resolution have proven to be very stable. To date, TGRS has detected 27 GRBs and three solar flares. Preliminary analysis of our data also indicates that TGRS is indeed sensitive to sources such as the Crab and the Galactic Center.     

X-ray powder data for Mg-Al-celadonite (leucophyllite) from Barcza,Poland

A natural 1 M-celadonite from Barcza, Poland, approximates closely the Mg-Al end member of the celadonite group. The lattice constants of this phase are $$a_0 = 5.208 \pm 0.005{\AA},b_0 = 9.006 \pm 0.003{\AA}, c_0 = 10.071 \pm 0.004{\AA}, \beta = 1$$ . A comparison with other end members indicates that within this group of minerals the substitution Mg+Si=2 Al diminishes c ₀, whereas the incorporation of Fe⁺³ instead of octahedral Al will increase both b ₀ and c ₀ sin β.     

Metastability of an osumilite end member in the system K2O-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O and its possible bearing on the rarity of natural osumilites

A synthetic end member of the osumilite group with a composition KMg₂Al₃[Si₁₀Al₂-O₃₀]·xH₂O was obtained as a single phase through short-time hydrothermal treatment of a glass of the appropriate composition at 1 kb and 650–700° C. Its optical and x-ray properties are close to those of natural osumilites. At temperatures outside the range 650 to 700°C, and at higher pressures osumilite could not be synthesized as a single phase, even in short runs. With experiment durations of 3 months and more the synthesized osumilite breaks down under the PT conditions of its formation, indicating that it is metastable under these conditions. The stable breakdown products, in the order of increasing temperatures, are: muscovite+amesitic chlorite+quartz; eastonitic phlogopite+cordierite+muscovite+quartz; and cordierite+K-feldspar+quartz. Natural osumilite of Sakkabira, Japan, treated under similar conditions also broke down. These results suggest that the rare mineral osumilite may represent a metastable phase due to rapid and non-equilibrium crystallization common in sanidinite-facies environments. Natural myrmekite-like intergrowths of cordierite with quartz and K-feldspar occurring in metamorphic rocks may be the result of the breakdown of pre-existing osumilite phases in these rocks.

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Zusammenfassung Ein synthetisches Endglied der Osumilitgruppe mit der Formel KMg₂Al₃[Si₁₀Al₂-O₃₀]·xH₂O wurde durch kurzzeitige Hydrothermalversuche bei 650–700° C, 1 kb aus einem Glas der entsprechenden Zusammensetzung mit voller Ausbeute dargestellt. Seine optischen und röntgenographischen Eigenschaften sind denen natürlicher Osumilite nahe verwandt. Bei niedrigeren und höheren Temperaturen und Wasserdrucken entstanden zusätzlich noch andere Phasen, und zwar um so mehr, je länger die Versuchszeiten gewählt wurden. In sehr langen Versuchen von 3 Monaten und darüber wird der synthetische Osumilit wieder abgebaut, selbst unter den PT-Bedingungen seiner Bildung. Dies bedeutet, daß die Phase unter solchen Bedingungen ein metastabiles Kristallisationsprodukt ist. Die stabilen Abbauprodukte sind, in der Reihenfolge zunehmender Temperatur: Muscovit+amesitischer Chlorit+Quarz; eastonitischer Phlogopit+Cordierit+ Muscovit+ Quarz und Cordierit+Kalifeldspat+Quarz. Ein natürlicher Osumilit von Sakkabira, Japan, wurde unter ähnlichen Bedingungen ebenfalls abgebaut. Diese Versuchsergebnisse sprechen dafür, daß das seltene Mineral Osumilit vielleicht eine metastabile Phase ist, die sich bevorzugt in Bereichen der Sanidinitfacies bildet wegen der dort im allgemeinen raschen, nicht zum Gleichgewicht führenden Kristallisation. Natürliche, myrmekitartige Verwachsungen von Cordierit, Kalifeldspat und Quarz aus metamorphen Gesteinen können möglicherweise durch den Abbau von früher in diesen Gesteinen vorhandenen Osumilitphasen gedeutet werden.

     

Iron in silicate glasses of granitic composition: a Mössbauer spectroscopic study

⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectra of natural glasses (pumices and obsidians) and of synthetic glasses of granitic composition have been analyzed. — Ferric iron is found in tetrahedral coordination if enough M⁺-cations are available to balance the charge of both M⁺Fe³⁺O₂ and M⁺AlO₂ complexes. In other compositions the ratio of tetrahedrally to octahedrally coordinated Fe³⁺ depends on the ratio of mono-to divalent cations. — Ferrous iron occurs in two distinctly different octahedral sites. The existence of these sites can be attributed to different anionic units adjacent to Fe²⁺. The degree of polymerization of these units is reflected in the quadrupole splitting. The anionic units adjacent to Fe²⁺ are depolymerized for increasing mean Z/r ² of the network modifiers, which do not stabilize M³⁺ in the tetrahedra by local charge balance. — Increasing pressure diminishes the geometric differences between these types of ferrous iron-oxygen-octahedra, which gives rise to a more even distribution of Fe²⁺ among these sites and thereby to an ordering in the network of melts.     

Stability of the assemblage cordierite +K feldspar+quartz

Under hydrous conditions the stability field of the assemblage Mg-cordierite+K feldspar+quartz is limited on its low-temperature side by the breakdown of cordierite+K feldspar into muscovite, phlogopite and quartz, whereas the high-temperature limit is given by eutectic melting. The compatibility field of the assemblage ranges from 530° C to 745° C at 1 kbar , from 635 to 725° C at 3 kbars , from 695 to 725° C at 5 kbars and terminates at 5.5 kbars . Most components not considered in the model system will tend to restrict this field even more. However, the condition < P _total will increase the range of stable coexistence drastically, making the assemblage common at elevated temperatures from contact metamorphic rocks up to intermediate pressure granulites of appropriate bulk composition.     

Instability of sapphirine at high pressures

The stability field of Mg-sapphirines is limited at high pressures through the solid-solid breakdown reaction sapphirine?pyrope = corundum+spinel, the univariant curve originating from an invariant point located at 22 kb, 880°C to 30 kb, 1350°C. Under water pressures less than 22 kb sapphirines exhibit the same low-temperature breakdown into the assemblage chlorite+corundum+spinel as determined by Seifert (1974) between 1 kb and 7 kb thus resulting in one continuous univariant lower stability limit extending from 1 kb, about 650°C through 10 kb, 770°C to the invariant point at 22 kb, 880°C. If \(P_{{\text{H}}_{\text{2}} {\text{0}}} < P_{{\text{total}}} \) , the stability field of sapphirine will expand towards lower temperatures. The occurrence of sapphirine in mantle depths requires rather aluminous bulk compositions, high geothermal gradients and/or \(P_{{\text{H}}_{\text{2}} {\text{0}}} < P_{{\text{total}}} \) , with total pressures not exceeding 30 kb. Thus sapphirine is probably not a stable phase in the lower portions of lithospheric plates and the underlying asthenosphere.     

The incommensurate-commensurate phase transition in akermanite,Ca2MgSi2O7, observed by in-situ 29Si MAS NMR spectroscopy

²⁹Si MAS NMR spectra of synthetic akermanite, Ca₂MgSi₂O₇, exhibit a splitting into three or more lines in the stability feld of the low-temperature incommensurate phase. With increasing temperature, these lines continuously merge into a single line which is then characteristic of the high-temperature, melilite-type structure. The data point to the non-equivalence of Si sites in the low-temperature phase and the gradual structural changes as the phase transition temperature is approached.     

X-ray absorption study of Ti-bearing silicate glasses

Ti K-edge XANES spectra have been collected on a series of Ti-bearing silicate glasses with metasilicate and tetrasilicate compositions. The intensity of the preedge feature in these spectra has been found to change with glass composition and varies from 29 to 58% (normalized intensity) suggesting a variation in structural environent around the absorbing atom. The pre-edge peak intensity increases for the alkali titanium tetrasilicate glasses from 35% to 58% in the order Li < Na < K < Rb, Cs whereas for the metasilicate compositions there is a maximum for the K-bearing glass. The pre-edge peak intensity remains constant for the alkaline earth titanium metasilicate glasses, Ca and Sr (34%) but increases slightly for Ba (41%). As the intensity of this feature is inversely correlated with coordination number, a comparison of the pre-edge intensity data for the investigated glasses with those of materials of known coordination number leads us to establish a regression equation and to infer that the average coordination number of Ti in these glasses ranges from 4.8 to 5.8. Large alkali cations appear to stabilize a relatively low average coordination number for Ti in silicate melts. The Ti structural environment results appear also to vary as a function of SiO₂ content within the K₂O-TiO₂-SiO₂ system. A number of physical properties of the melts from which these glasses were quenched and of other Ti-bearing silicate melts, have been determined in recent years. Clear evidence of a variable coordination number of Ti, consistent with the interpretation of the present XANES data is available from density measurements. These and other property determinations are compared with the present spectroscopic observations in an attempt to relate structure and properties in these melts which contain a major component with variable coordination number.     

Structure of Cr2SiO4 and possible metal-metal interactions in crystal and melt

Cr₂SiO₄ has been prepared both as quench crystals and as an apparently stable subsolidus phase, at T=1600 and 1650 °C, P=37 kbar on Cr₂SiO₄ and Cr-SiO₃ bulk compositions. Crystal structure determination by Rietveld analysis of X-ray powder data from 3 samples show the structure, in space group Fddd, to be related to that of Cd₂SiO₄ (thenardite Na₂SO₄-V structure) but with approximately “square planar” coordination of the Cr²⁺ (d ⁴) atom. In one of the axial ligand positions, normal to the strongly bonded CrO₄ equatorial plane, is found a Cr atom (Cr-Cr=2.75 Å). Stereochemistry permits this contact to be a weak metal-metal bond, though it cannot be ruled out to be a non-bonded result of polyhedral connectivity.     

Geology of the Niederlausitz Lignite district, Germany

One of the largest brown coal producing districts in the world is the Miocene of Niederlausitz Lignite area in the southeastern part of Germany. Production is in a range of 320 million t/yr. The resources of the first (shallowest) Miocene seam have nearly been exhausted and it is now mainly the second seam which is being mined. A fourth is being explored. The third Miocene and the Oligocene seam, Calau, are unminable. All brown coal is mined in open pits. The rank of brown coal of the second Miocene seam ranges from fuel coal to coking coal. Its heat value (dry) from 22.2 to 23.5 MJ, its ash content (dry) from 6% to 13%, its moisture from 57% to 59%, and its seam thickness from 10 to 12 m. Due to the close relationship between swamp facies and the main coal quality parameters, the coal quality can be directly determined from the drill log.The Oligocene and Miocene brown coal formation was synchronous with the alpine orogenesis and the seafloor spreading of the North Atlantic Ocean, which both caused north and east oriented migrations of the labile basement of central Europe. Periods of compression alternated with longer periods of isostatic subsidence and sedimentation. Additionally, the trends of thickness and facies of sediments were controlled by a block system in the basement of the brown coal district of Niederlausitz, uplifting, subsiding, collapsing, rotating or spreading.The second Lower Miocene seam is situated at sea level in the north of the Niederlausitz area and rises to the south to +150 to +180 m above sea level, due to considerable widespread subsidence and uplifting since the Lower Miocene. Horizontal tectonic movements were caused by the collapse of asymmetric grabens with slight tendency to rotation. Regional shear movements led to block faulting followed by volcanism. Counter-clockwise rotation of the basement blocks is assumed, a hypothesis supported by recent tension measurements and seismic observations. Ice cover in the Pleistocene caused wide destruction zones, narrow and deep channels and intensively folded or imbricated seam structures. Some gravity-induced plastic structures were also formed.