Suzanne Y. O’Reilly and William L. Griffin

Mineralogy and Petrology -     

Comparing public rationales for justice trade-offs in mitigation and adaptation climate policy dilemmas

Despite a great deal of research on public perceptions of climate change science, very little empirical work has attempted to investigate how members of the lay public might evaluate the justice dilemmas inherent within climate policy decision-making. This exploratory study contrasts arguments about justice from a mitigation perspective, with those from an adaptation perspective and draws insights about the contours of politically acceptable climate policy. Using think-aloud protocols and a structured elicitation approach with members of the lay public to generate quantitative and qualitative data, this study suggests that the two types of climate policy trigger different sets of arguments about justice. When asked about mitigation burden-sharing participants overwhelmingly invoke arguments about causality. In contrast, in discussions of adaptation participants emphasized the needs of the afflicted parties and their ability to cope. Furthermore, social and spatial distances were not a factor in allocation of mitigation burdens, but were used to discount the distribution of compensation towards adaptation. These initial data about public perceptions of justice in this area suggest that the public would view adaptation and mitigation as complements not substitutes. These findings also highlight the importance of exploring public reactions to the sub-components of climate policy individually.     

EXOTIME: searching for planets around pulsating subdwarf B stars

In 2007, a companion with planetary mass was found around the pulsating subdwarf B star V391 Pegasi with the timing method, indicating that a previously undiscovered population of substellar companions to apparently single subdwarf B stars might exist. Following this serendipitous discovery, the EXOTIME (http://www.na.astro.it/~silvotti/exotime/) monitoring program has been set up to follow the pulsations of a number of selected rapidly pulsating subdwarf B stars on time scales of several years with two immediate observational goals:

1. determine $\dot{P}$ of the pulsational periods P
2. search for signatures of substellar companions in O–C residuals due to periodic light travel time variations, which would be tracking the central star’s companion-induced wobble around the centre of mass

These sets of data should therefore, at the same time, on the one hand be useful to provide extra constraints for classical asteroseismological exercises from the $\dot{P}$ (comparison with “local” evolutionary models), and on the other hand allow one to investigate the preceding evolution of a target in terms of possible “binary” evolution by extending the otherwise unsuccessful search for companions to potentially very low masses. While timing pulsations may be an observationally expensive method to search for companions, it samples a different range of orbital parameters, inaccessible through orbital photometric effects or the radial velocity method: the latter favours massive close-in companions, whereas the timing method becomes increasingly more sensitive toward wider separations. In this paper we report on the status of the on-going observations and coherence analysis for two of the currently five targets, revealing very well-behaved pulsational characteristics in HS?0444+0458, while showing HS?0702+6043 to be more complex than previously thought.     

Lithium isotope analysis of olivine by SIMS: Calibration of a matrix effect and application to magmatic phenocrysts

High-spatial resolution analysis of light element isotope variations by secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has numerous applications in geochemistry and cosmochemistry. Recent attention has focused on ⁷Li/⁶Li variations in magmatic phenocrysts to infer the volatile degassing history of their parent magmas, and on minerals from mantle samples to determine source-region processes and the recycling history of mantle reservoirs. In these studies the effect of mineral composition on the ⁷Li/⁶Li ratio measured by SIMS has been considered secondary, and generally disregarded. We show, using a suite of nine olivines analyzed by MC-ICP-MS or TIMS, that there is a substantial effect of composition on the ⁷Li/⁶Li ratio of olivine measured by SIMS. For magnesian olivine (74 < Fo < 94) the effect is a linear function of composition, with δ⁷Li increasing by 1.3‰ for each mole percent decrease in forsterite component. At higher Fe contents, the relationship ceases to be linear. The composition range over which linear behavior is exhibited appears to depend on instrumental conditions. A calibration of this matrix effect over the linear range is presented, assuming the measurement of ⁷Li/⁶Li relative to an olivine standard of known composition. Application of this calibration to a suite of olivines separated from basaltic lavas from Ko'olau, Hawai'i demonstrates that the matrix effect is responsible for a geologically spurious correlation between δ⁷Li and Mg#. However, after correction, the olivines retain evidence of Li isotope heterogeneity, the degree and nature of which differs in each of the four separates studied. These results emphasize the importance of compositional correction for SIMS measurement of δ⁷Li in olivine, particularly in zoned crystals, and support previous conclusions that Li isotope variability in igneous materials is subject to late-stage disturbance. The significant matrix effect demonstrated for olivine suggests that matrix effects in other minerals require further evaluation.     

Diamond formation episodes at the southern margin of the Kaapvaal Craton: Re–Os systematics of sulfide inclusions from the Jagersfontein Mine

Sulfide inclusions in diamonds from the 90-Ma Jagersfontein kimberlite, intruded into the southern margin of the Kaapvaal Craton, were analyzed for their Re–Os isotope systematics to constrain the ages and petrogenesis of their host diamonds. The latter have δ¹³C ranging between −3.5 and −9.8‰ and nitrogen aggregation states (from pure Type IaA up to 51% total N as B centers) corresponding to time/temperature history deep within the subcontinental lithospheric mantle. Most sulfides are Ni-poor ([Ni + Co]/Fe = 0.05–0.25 for 15 of 17 inclusions), have elevated Cu/[Fe + Ni + Co] ratios (0.02–0.36) and elemental Re–Os ratios between 0.5 and 46 (12 of 14 inclusions) typical of eclogitic to more pyroxenitic mantle sources. Re–Os isotope systematics indicate two generations of diamonds: (1) those on a 1.7 Ga age array with initial ¹⁸⁷Os/¹⁸⁸Os (¹⁸⁷Os/¹⁸⁸Os_i) of 0.46 ± 0.07 and (2) those on a 1.1 Ga array with ¹⁸⁷Os/¹⁸⁸Os_i of 0.30 ± 0.11. The radiogenic initial Os isotopic composition for both generations of diamond suggests that components with high time-integrated Re–Os are involved, potentially by remobilization of ancient subducted oceanic crust and hybridization of peridotite. A single sulfide with higher Os and Ni content but significantly lower ¹⁸⁷Os/¹⁸⁸Os hosted in a diamond with less aggregated N may represent part of a late generation of peridotitic diamonds. The paucity of peridotitic sulfide inclusions in diamonds from Jagersfontein and other kimberlites from the Kaapvaal craton contrasts with an overall high relative abundance of diamonds with peridotitic silicate inclusions. This may relate to extreme depletion and sulfur exhaustion during formation of the Kaapvaal cratonic root, with the consequence that in peridotites, sulfide-included diamonds could only form during later re-introduction of sulfur.     

Moho-offset beneath northern Scotland

Summary. Independent sets of LISPB data are presented, having as a common feature a local lateral variation in the Moho beneath northern Britain.
The evidence for this step-like feature on the Moho is taken from P and S travel times and from PS reflection times and phase velocities.
Another important observation is that a high-frequency Moho refraction is generated north of the step, whilst the refraction from the step region and south of it contains only low frequencies. This leads to the assumption that a change in the Moho structure exists in the same region as where the step has been deduced from travel-time interpretation. A numerical model is presented which generates a high-frequency refracted wave from an input signal which contains low- and high-frequency spectral energy.
The significance of this offset on the Moho, in particular its relationship to surface tectonics, is critically discussed.     

Comparison of Large-Eddy Simulation Data with Spatially Averaged Measurements Obtained by Acoustic Tomography – Presuppositions and First Results

An attempt is made to compare results oflarge-eddy simulation (LES) in a convective boundarylayer using the model PALM with experimental data obtained from acoustic travel time tomography.This method provides two-dimensional data arrays, which are considered as more suitable forLES-validation than classical local orline-integrated measurements, because the tomographic data are area- or volume-averaged.For a quantitative comparison with experimental data in general, some prerequisites have to be considered: First of all, the initial and boundary conditions of the LES model have to be provided correctly by the experiment. Considering measurement errors, a sensitivity study was performed to investigate the influence of inaccurate initial and boundary conditions on the simulation results.This showed that for determining some boundary conditions, such as the surface temperature and the roughness length, high measurement accuracies are necessary, which are difficult to reach or which at least require considerable extra measurement efforts.The initial and boundary conditions provided by the Lindenberg experiment in 1999 turned out to be of insufficient accuracy to allow quantitative comparisons.However, a qualitative comparison was performed instead to investigate if the acoustic tomography method is a proper method for comparisons with LES models in general.It showed a good qualitative agreement with some quantitative differences. These differences can partly be explained by the sensitivity of the LES to initial and boundary conditions and by the limitations of the acoustic tomography.     

Looking for a needle in a haystack: Probability density based classification and reconstruction of dormers from 3D point clouds

Accurate reconstruction of roofs with dormers is challenging. Without careful separation of the dormer points from the points on the roof surface, the estimation of the roof areas is distorted. The characteristic distortion of the density distribution in comparison to the expected normal distribution is the starting point of our method. We propose a hierarchical method which improves roof reconstruction from LiDAR point clouds in a model‐based manner, separating dormer points from roof points using classification methods. The key idea is to exploit probability density functions to reveal roof properties and to skilfully design the features for a supervised learning method using support vector machines. The approach is tested based on real data as well as simulated point clouds.     

The peat bog at Zinnwald-Georgenfeld revisited after 25 years: Geochemical investigation of water,Sphagnum moss and peat cores

From 1992 to 1994, trace metal concentrations of bog water, Sphagnum mosses and peat cores of the bog “Georgenfelder Hochmoor” at Zinnwald-Georgenfeld in the Eastern Ore Mountains (Germany) were investigated. A sampling campaign in September 2019 allows the comparison of the older measurements with today's trace metal concentrations. No changes were found in the bog waters, while the trace metal concentrations of the Sphagnum mosses have decreased significantly. Due to the low growth rate of the peat and despite certain heterogeneity between the peat cores, the investigated elemental data for the peat sampled in the 1990s and in 2019 are in the same concentration range. The maximum concentrations are measured in the upper samples of all peat cores for the analysed elements (except sulphur). Compared to upper crustal data, a different behaviour of the elements is observed: Cr, Sc, Ti, and V, rare earth elements show crustal ratios, while Al and Si are also influenced by crust-air fractionation. Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn are additionally enriched by anthropogenic atmospheric inputs from industry and transport. These results confirm the assumption that peat cores record past atmospheric deposition.