On the last explosions of carbonatite pipe G3b, Gross Brukkaros, Namibia

 Pipe G3b is part of the Upper Cretaceous carbonatitic Gross Brukkaros Volcanic Field in southern Namibia. The pipe represents the root zone of a diatreme and is located 2800 m west of the rim of Gross Brukkaros, a downsag caldera. The pipe is exposed approximately 550 m below the original Upper Cretaceous land surface. It cuts down into its own feeder dyke, 0.3 m thick. The pipe coalesced from two small pipes and in plan view is 19 m long and 12 m wide. It consists of fragmented Cambrian Nama quartzites and shales of the Fish River subgroup. Despite intensive brecciation, the stratigraphic sequence of the country rocks is almost preserved in the pipe. In addition, the feeder dyke became fragmented too and can be traced in a 2- to 3-m-wide zone full of carbonatite blocks along the southern margin of the pipe. The void space of the breccia is 30–50% in volume. Finally, after the disruption of country rocks and feeder dyke, a little carbonatite magma intruded some of the void space. The breccia of pipe G3b is considered to represent a root zone at the transition from the feeder dyke into a diatreme above. Formation of the breccia required a shock wave thought to have been associated with a last explosion of the diatreme immediately above the present level of exposure. The explosion can be shown to have been phreatomagmatic in origin. Received: 11 October 1996 / Accepted: 6 March 1997     

Origin, age and stratigraphic significance of distal fallout ash tuffs from the Carboniferous–Permian continental Saar–Nahe Basin (SW Germany)

Thin, widespread, fallout tuff layers interbedded within fluvio-lacustrine successions of the Carboniferous-Permian Saar-Nahe Basin provide important tephrostratigraphic markers. In addition, radiogeochronometric data derived from the tuffs serve as calibration points for the adjustment to regional chronostratigraphy and to numerical time scales. The Pappelberg-Tuff in the Meisenheim Formation (Glan Group) has been dated by U/Pb zircon SHRIMP technique at 297.0Dž.2 Ma. Taking the Carboniferous/Permian boundary at 296 Ma, the Meisenheim Formation coincides approximately with this boundary. Consequently, underlying strata, lithostratigraphically regarded as the basal part of the 'Rotliegend', chronostratigraphically belong to the Upper Carboniferous. Bed thicknesses, grain size and sorting characteristics of the tuffs and the absence of contemporaneously emplaced volcanics within the Saar-Nahe Basin point to an extrabasinal derivation of the wind-drifted volcanic ash. Decreasing grain sizes of juvenile pyroclastic particles towards the north suggest source areas south of the basin within 300 km distance. The majority of the tuffs are rhyolitic to rhyodacitic and indicate petrographic and geochemical affinities to Moldanubian S-type granitoids, in particular to highly differentiated two-mica granites, and related volcanic effusives. Within the time frame considered here, such potential source rocks were emplaced in the northern and central Black Forest (SW Germany) and the northern Vosges (E France) at 100-150 km distance south of the Saar-Nahe Basin.     

Improving sub-salt imaging using 3D basin model derived velocities

The quality of depth imaging is directly related to the accuracy of the underlying velocity model. In most sub-salt settings, lack of angular illumination severely degrades the resolution and accuracy of velocity information derived from the seismic data itself. A standard approach for building a starting velocity model uses more reliable velocity information outboard of salt which is subsequently extrapolated to populate the sub-salt regions. The shortcoming of this method lies in the assumption that the effective stress observed outboard of salt can be extrapolated beneath salt solely as a function of depth below mudline.     

A New Framework for Solving the Spatial Network Problems Based on Line Graphs

In this article we define inverse line graphs of directed graphs as a new framework for solving some classical network analysis problems. The extraction method and theories of inverse line graphs are explained in this article. It is shown that by changing the analysis space from the original directed graph to the inverse line graph, complex problems can be changed into simpler problems. We show the usefulness of the proposed framework in two particular applications: shortest path computations and the more general route planning. Considering the implementation result, we expect that this framework could be used in many more network analysis problems.     

Changes of cloud microphysical properties during the transition from supercooled to mixed-phase conditions during CIME

A ground-based seeding experiment using carbon dioxide and propane sprayed from pressurized bottles was carried out under supercooled cloud conditions on a small spatial and short time scale. Water vapor deposition on the artificially generated dry ice and propane ice germs as the main ice formation process (nucleation and growth) is consistent with the experimental results. After nucleation, diffusional growth of the ice particles, partly at the expense of evaporating small droplets, was identified during the mixing of the seeding line with the ambient supercooled cloud. Within the seeding plume, ice water contents up to 80% of the total condensed water are observed, although the size of the formed ice particles did not exceed 25 μm. From the changes of the ice and supercooled liquid phase with time under mixed-phase conditions, liquid water content (LWC) evaporation, ice water content (IWC) formation, and ice crystal growth rates are estimated, which are not affected by the artificial nucleation process. Thus, these rates are assessed to be applicable for a growing ice phase of small ice particles in a young mixed-phase cloud, where other growth mechanisms, like riming or aggregation, are negligible.     

Application of the water balance model J2000 to estimate groundwater recharge in a semi-arid environment: a case study in the Zarqa River catchment, NW-Jordan

Pollution and overexploitation of scarce groundwater resources is a serious problem in the Zarqa River catchment, Jordan. To estimate this resource’s potential, the amount and spatial distribution of groundwater recharge was calculated by applying the hydrological model J2000. The simulation period is composed of daily values gathered over a 30-year period (July 1977 to June 2007). The figure finally obtained for estimated groundwater recharge of the Zarqa River catchment is 105 × 10⁶ m³ per year (21 mm a^?1). This is 19 % higher than the value previously assumed to be correct by most Jordanian authorities. The average ratio of precipitation to groundwater recharge is 9.5 %. To directly validate modelled groundwater recharge, two independent methods were applied in spring catchments: (1) alteration of stable isotope signatures (δ¹⁸O, δ²H) between precipitation and groundwater and (2) the chloride mass balance method. Recharge rates determined by isotopic investigations are 25 % higher, and recharge rates determined by chloride mass balance are 9 % higher than the modelled results for the corresponding headwater catchments. This suggests a reasonably modelled safe yield estimation of groundwater resources.     

In situ Sr/Sr investigation of igneous apatites and carbonates using laser-ablation MC-ICP-MS

In situ Sr isotopic compositions of coexisting apatite and carbonate for carbonatites from the Sarfartoq alkaline complex, Greenland, have been determined by laser-ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. This study is the first to examine the extent of Sr isotopic homogeneity among coexisting igneous minerals containing high Sr (>3000 ppm) and low Rb (?1 ppm) contents within a single ∼50-μm-thick thin-section mount. This technique is capable of producing measured ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values with analytical precision (∼0.005%, 2σ) approaching those obtained by thermal ionization mass spectrometry but in a much shorter interval of time (100 s vs. >1 h, respectively). The combined total analyses (n = 107) of apatite and carbonate yield ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr compositions ranging from ∼0.7025 to ∼0.7031. This relatively large variation in Sr isotopic compositions (∼0.0006) is ∼1 order of magnitude larger than the estimated external reproducibility (∼0.00005, 2σ) of the method. The large range in ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values suggests that apatite and carbonate precipitated predominantly under nonequilibrium conditions. The isotopic variations observed within individual hand specimens may therefore reflect larger (regional) scale open-system processes, possibly involving mixing of carbonatitic melts derived from distinct mantle sources or from a common isotopically heterogeneous mantle.