REE distribution in water-sediment interface system at deep ocean floor

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Viscous model of plate tectonics for the Black Sea region (in relation to the problem of the late Cenozoic evolution of the Black Sea basins)

A numerical model of the Black Sea region (Northeastern Mediterranean) is presented in which it is regarded as a part of the mosaic plate ensemble consisting of the fixed East European platform; the active Arabian, Adriatic, and Pannonian plates; and passive East and West Black Sea and Mysian microplates, which are embedded in a plastically deformable regional orogenic matrix. The fields of displacements, stresses, and deformations in the region are calculated by means of the finite element method within the framework of a linear-viscous rheology approach to a system with nonhomogeneous viscosities. The velocity field obtained is in good agreement with published data of direct observations of plate displacements in the region. In the pressure field, areas of low pressure and decompression are established in the western part of Black Sea and in the south of the Mysian microplate. The poles of rotation of the East and West Black Sea microplates and of the Mysian microplate are computed. For the latter two microplates, significant rotational components are suggested. The East Black Sea microplate acts mostly as indenter, which transmits the collisional motion from the Arabian plate to the southern edge of the East European platform including the Crimea. According to the geodynamical model, the rates of the Cenozoic sedimentation in the Black Sea depression at the collision stage (Oligocene-Pliocene) result from the greater compression of the East Black Sea microplate as compared to the West Black Sea microplate, which, probably, experienced a kind of extension.     

海山铁锰结壳基岩岩石学特征及其生长关系

为了研究海山铁锰结壳基岩类型与结壳壳层生长的关系。对麦哲伦海山及中太平洋海山区取得的铁锰结壳及其基岩样品在电子显微镜下进行了观察和研究。结果表明,上述2个区域基岩岩石类型主要有玄武岩,火山熔岩,火山碎屑岩,硅质岩和碳酸盐岩,其中麦哲伦海山玄武岩为块状构造,中太平洋海山玄武岩则主要为气孔-杏仁状构造,多发生蚀变或完全蚀变,硅质岩颗粒物质主要是硅藻,碳酸盐岩则以晶质灰岩为主,结壳壳层厚度在各类基岩类型上都有变化,以在玄武岩和碳酸盐岩上变化最大。     

Modern modes of provenance and dispersal of terrigenous sediments in the North Pacific and Bering Sea: implications and perspectives for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions

During expedition 202 aboard the RV Sonne in 2009, 39 seafloor surface sediment sites were sampled over a wide sector of the North Pacific and adjoining Bering Sea. The data served to infer land–ocean linkages of terrigenous sediment supply in terms of major sources and modes of sediment transport within an over-regional context. This is based on an integrated approach dealing with grain-size analysis, bulk mineralogy and clay mineralogy in combination with statistical data evaluation (end-member modelling of grain-size data, fuzzy cluster analysis of mineralogical data). The findings on clay mineralogy served to update those of earlier work extracted from the literature. Today, two processes of terrigenous sediment supply prevail in the study area: far-distance aeolian sediment supply to the pelagic North Pacific, and hemipelagic sediment dispersal from nearby land sources via ocean currents along the continental margins and island arcs. Aeolian particles show the finest grain sizes (clay and fine silt), whereas hemipelagic sediments have high abundances of coarse silt. Exposed sites on seamounts and the continental slope are partly swept by strong currents, leading to residual enrichment of fine sand. Four sediment sources can be distinguished on the basis of distinct index minerals revealed by statistical data analysis: dust plumes from central Asia (quartz, illite), altered materials from the volcanic regions of Kamchatka and the Aleutian Arc (smectite), detritus from the Alaskan Cordillera (chlorite, hornblende), and fluvial detritus from far-eastern Siberia and the Alaska mainland (quartz, feldspar, illite). These findings confirm those of former studies but considerably expand the geographic range of this suite of proxies as far south as 39°N in the open North Pacific. The present integrated methodological approach proved useful in identifying the major modern processes of terrigenous sediment supply to the study region. This aspect deserves attention in the selection of sediment core sites for future palaeoenvironmental reconstructions related to aeolian and glacial dynamics, as well as the recognition of palaeo-ocean circulation patterns in general.     

Covariance of dark energy parameters and sound speed constraints from large H i surveys

An interesting probe of the nature of dark energy is the measure of its sound speed, c _s. We review the significance for constraining sound speed models of dark energy using large neutral hydrogen (H  i ) surveys with the square kilometre array (SKA). Our analysis considers the effect on the sound speed measurement that arises from the covariance of c _s with the dark energy density, Ω_de, and a time-varying equation of state,   w ( a ) = w ₀+ (1 − a ) w _a   . We find that the approximate degeneracy between dark energy parameters that arises in power spectrum observations is lifted through redshift tomography of the H  i -galaxy angular power spectrum, resulting in sound speed constraints that are not severely degraded. The cross-correlation of the galaxy and the integrated Sachs Wolfe (ISW) effect spectra contributes approximately 10 per cent of the information that is needed to distinguish variations in the dark energy parameters, and most of the discriminating signal comes from the galaxy auto-correlation spectrum. We also find that the sound speed constraints are weakly sensitive to the H  i bias model. These constraints do not improve substantially for a significantly deeper H  i survey since most of the clustering sensitivity to sound speed variations arises from   z ≲ 1.5  . A detection of models with sound speeds close to zero,   c _s≲ 0.01,  is possible for dark energy models with   w ≳−0.9  .     

The degree of anisotropy of cosmic ray electrons of solar origin

Data obtained by the Explorer 34 satellite regarding the degree of anisotropy of ≳ 70 keV electrons of solar origin are reported. It is shown that the anisotropies are initially field aligned, and that they decay to ≲ 10% in a time of the order of 1 hr. The decays of the concurrent ionic and electronic anisotropies for one well observed event are in good agreement with the diffusive propagation model of Fisk and Axford. The data suggest parallel diffusion coefficients for both ions and electrons that are rigidity independent. From considerations of a long lived electron event, it is shown that the electronic fluxes exhibit ‘equilibrium’ anositropies at late times. These are interpreted as indicating that convective removal at the solar wind velocity is the dominant mechanism whereby solar cosmic ray electrons (∼- 70 keV) leave the solar system. They also indicate that there is a positive density gradient at late times in a solar electron event. The data suggest that this was established prior to the establishment of a similar gradient for the cosmic ray ions. This research was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under contracts NASr-198 and NAS5-9075. The research in India was supported by funds from the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India and funds from the grant NAS-1492 from the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. Support in data analysis was also provided by Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, and by the Australian Research Grants Committee.     

The rotational motion in quiescent prominences

On the basis of Kippenhahn and Schlüter's magnetohydrostatic model of a quiescent prominence we have attempted to study the effect of a rotational velocity field in it. We find that a physically plausible solution is not possible in the vertical plane. A possibility, however, is shown in the horizontal plane, with certain assumptions to get equal velocity contours.     

Water wave interaction with a floating porous cylinder

The interaction of water waves with a freely floating circular cylinder possessing a side-wall that is porous over a portion of its draft is investigated theoretically. The porous side-wall region is bounded top and bottom by impermeable end caps thereby resulting in an enclosed fluid region within the structure. The problem is formulated based on potential flow and linear wave theory and assuming small-amplitude structural oscillations. An eigenfunction expansion approach is then used to obtain semi-analytical expressions for the hydrodynamic excitation and reaction loads on the structure. Numerical results are presented which illustrate the effects of the various wave and structural parameters on these quantities. It is found that the permeability, size and location of the porous region may have a significant influence on the horizontal components of the hydrodynamic excitation and reaction loads, while its influence on the vertical components in most cases is relatively minor.     

A novel technique in analyzing non-linear wave-wave interaction

During wave growth non-linear wave–wave interactions cause transfer of some wave energy from lower to higher wave periods as the spectrum grows. Wavelet bicoherence, which is a new technique in the analysis of wind–wave and wave–wave interactions, is used to analyze non-linear wave–wave interactions. A selected record of wind wave that contains the maximum wave height observed during 6 h of wave generation is divided into five segments and wavelet bicoherence is computed for the whole record, and for all divided segments. The study shows that the non-linear wave–wave interaction occurs at different bicoherence levels and these levels are different from one segment to another due to the non-stationarity feature of the examined data set.