Zircon and whole-rock Nd-Pb isotopic provenance of Middle and Upper Ordovician siliciclastic rocks, Argentine Precordillera

Graptolite‐bearing Middle and Upper Ordovician siliciclastic facies of the Argentine Precordillera fold‐thrust belt record the disintegration of a long‐lived Cambro‐Mid Ordovician carbonate platform into a series of tectonically partitioned basins. A combination of stratigraphic, petrographic, U‐Pb detrital zircon, and Nd‐Pb whole‐rock isotopic data provide evidence for a variety of clastic sediment sources. Four Upper Ordovician quartzo‐lithic sandstones collected in the eastern and central Precordillera yield complex U‐Pb zircon age spectra dominated by 1·05–1·10 Ga zircons, secondary populations of 1·22, 1·30, and 1·46 Ga, rare 2·2 and 1·8 Ga zircons, and a minor population (<2%) of concordant zircons in the 600–700 Ma range. Archaean‐age grains comprise <1% of all zircons analysed from these rocks. In contrast, a feldspathic arenite from the Middle Ordovician Estancia San Isidro Formation of the central Precordillera has two well‐defined peaks at 1·41 and 1·43 Ga, with no grains in the 600–1200 Ma range and none older than 1·70 Ga. The zircon age spectrum in this unit is similar to that of a Middle Cambrian quartz arenite from the La Laja Formation, suggesting that local basement rocks were a regional source of ca 1·4 Ga detrital zircons in the Precordillera Terrane from the Cambrian onwards. The lack of grains younger than 600 Ma in Upper Ordovician units reinforces petrographic data indicating that Ordovician volcanic arc sources did not supply significant material directly to these sedimentary basins. Nd isotopic data (n = 32) for Middle and Upper Ordovician graptolitic shales from six localities define a poorly mixed signal [ɛ_Nd(450 Ma) = −9·6 to −4·5] that becomes more regionally homogenized in Upper Ordovician rocks (−6·2 ± 1·0; T_DM = 1·51 ± 0·15 Ga; n = 17), a trend reinforced by the U‐Pb detrital zircon data. It is concluded that proximal, recycled orogenic sources dominated the siliciclastic sediment supply for these basins, consistent with rapid unroofing of the Precordillera Terrane platform succession and basement starting in Mid Ordovician time. Common Pb data for Middle and Upper Ordovician shales from the western and eastern Precordillera (n = 15) provide evidence for a minor (<30%) component that was likely derived from a high‐μ (U/Pb) terrane.     

Jovian electron jets in interplanetary space

The COSPIN/KET experiment onboard Ulysses has been monitoring the flux of 3–20 MeV electrons in interplanetary space since the launch of Ulysses in October 1990. The origin of these electrons has been known for a long time to be the Jovian magnetosphere. Propagation models assuming interplanetary diffusion of these electrons in the ideal Parker magnetic field were successfully developed in the past. The average electron flux measured by our experiment agrees with these models for most of the times before and after the Jovian flyby of February 1992, i.e. in and out of the ecliptic down to 28° S of heliographic latitude for the last data presented here (end of March 1993).However, in addition to this average flux level well accounted for by diffusion in an ideal Parker field, we have found very short duration electron events which we call “jets”, characterized by: (i) a sharp increase and decrease of flux; (ii) a spectrum identical to the electron spectrum in the Jovian magnetosphere; and (iii) a strong first-order anisotropy. These jets only occur when the magnetic field at Ulysses lies close to the direction of Jupiter, and most of the time (86% of the events) points outwards from Jupiter, i.e. has the same polarity after the flyby as the Jovian dipole (North to South). These events are interpreted as crossings by Ulysses of magnetic flux tubes or sheets directly connected to the location of the Jovian magnetosphere from which electrons escape into interplanetary space. The average thickness of these sheets is 10¹¹cm or 14 Jovian radii. These jets are clearly identified up to 0.4 a.u. before the Jupiter flyby in the ecliptic plane, and up to 0.9 a.u. out of the ecliptic.Moreover, the characteristic rocking of the electron spectrum in the Jovian magnetosphere with a 10 h periodicity is found to be present during the jets, and predominantly during them. In the past, this modulation has been reported to be present in interplanetary space as far as 1 a.u. upwind of Jupiter, a fact which cannot be accounted for by diffusion in the average Parker magnetic field. Our finding gives a simple explanation to this phenomenon, the 10 h modulation being carried by the “jet” electrons which travel with no appreciable diffusion along magnetic field lines with a direction far from the ideal Parker spiral.     

Large-scale cold water dispersant effectiveness experiments with Alaskan crude oils and Corexit 9500 and 9527 dispersants

There continues to be reluctance in some jurisdictions to use chemical dispersants as a viable countermeasure for accidental oil spills. One argument used by some opponents to dispersant use is that “chemical dispersants do not work effectively in cold water”. To address this issue, the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) funded and conducted two series of large-scale dispersant experiments in very cold water at Ohmsett - The National Oil Spill Response Test Facility, located in Leonardo, New Jersey in February-March 2006 and January-March 2007. Alaska North Slope, Endicott, Northstar and Pt. McIntyre crude oils and Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527 dispersants were used in the two test series. The crude oils were tested both when fresh and after weathering. Results demonstrated that both Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527 dispersants were 85-99% effective in dispersing the fresh and weathered crude oils tested at cold temperatures. The MMS expects that results from these test series will assist government regulators and responders in making science based decisions on the use of dispersants as a response tool for oil spills in the Arctic.     

Palaeointensity In the Pelagic Realm: Marine Sediment Data Compared With Archaeomagnetic and Lake Sediment Records

Summary. Four box cores collected from the Ontong—Java plateau during the Eurydice expedition have been used to make relative geomagnetic palaeo-intensity measurements. Rock magnetic measurements on the sediments show that they are characterized by a uniform magnetic mineralogy, and that they are suitable for relative intensity estimates. These are obtained by normalizing the NRM by an ARM imparted in a low DC bias field. the palaeoceanographic event known as the preservation spike is used to establish a crude time-scale for the record so that it may be compared with other data from the same region, and also with global palaeointensity estimates. the marine sediment data are quite similar to Australian intensity data from lake sediments and archaeomagnetic sources, but as might be expected exhibit some obvious differences from the global record.     

Sediment deposition in the flood plain of Stemple Creek Watershed, northern California

Over the past 150 years, major land use changes have occurred in the Stemple Creek Watershed in northern California that have caused erosion to move soils from the upland to the flood plain, stream channels, and the bay. The purpose of this study is to document the recent (1954 to present) sediment deposition patterns in the flood plain area adjacent to Stemple Creek using the ¹³⁷Cesium technique. Sediment deposition ranged from 0.26 to 1.84 cm year⁻¹ for the period from 1964 to 2002 with an average of 0.85±0.41 cm year⁻¹. Sediment deposition rates were higher for the 1954 to 1964 period with a range of 0.31–3.50 cm year⁻¹ and an average of 1.29±1.04 cm year⁻¹. These data indicate that sediment deposition in the flood plain has decreased since the middle 1950s, probably related to reduction in row crop agriculture and an increase in pasturelands. This study shows that the flood plains in the Stemple Creek Watershed are a significant sink for the soils being eroded from the upland area. Given the significance of the flood plain for trapping eroded materials before they reach the stream channels or the bay, efforts need to be made to manage these flood plain areas to insure that they do not change and become a source rather than a sink for eroded materials as improved management practices on the upland areas reduce sediment input to the flood plain.     

The O(1S) quantum yield from O2+ dissociative recombination

Recent laboratory studies show that the $\text{O}\text{(}{}^1\text{S}\text{)}$ quantum yield, $\text{f}\text{(}{}^1\text{S}\text{)}$, from O₂⁺ dissociative recombination varies considerably with the degree r of vibrational excitation. However, the suggestion that the high values for $\text{f}\text{(}{}^1\text{S}\text{)}$ deduced from airglow and auroral observations can be explained by invoking vibrational excitation, creates a number of problems. Firstly, the rapid vibrational deactivation of O₂⁺ ions by collisions with O atoms will keep r too low to account for the magnitude of $\text{f}\text{(}{}^1\text{S}\text{)}$; secondly, r varies considerably from one atmospheric source to another but its relative values (which should be reliable) do not co-vary with those of $\text{f}\text{(}{}^1\text{S}\text{)}$; thirdly, because r increases markedly above the peak of the $\text{X5577}\text{A}\text{?}$ dissociative recombination layer, the fits which theorists have obtained to the observed volume emission rate profiles would have to be regarded as fortuitious. It is tentatively suggested that $\text{f}\text{(}{}^1\text{S}\text{)}$ is higher in the airglow and aurora than in the laboratory plasma studied by Zipf (1980) because of the electron temperature dependence of the $\text{O}\text{(}{}^1\text{S}\text{)}$ specific recombination coefficient for O₂⁺(v^' ? 3) ions.The repulsive ${}^1\text{Σ}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>u</mtext>}}\text{[}{}^1\text{D}\text{+}{}^1\text{s}\text{]}$ state of O₂ does not provide a suitable channel for the dissociative recombination. A possible alternative is the bound ${}^3\text{Π}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>u</mtext>}}\text{[}{}^5\text{S}\text{+}{}^3\text{s}\text{]}$ state with predissociation to the repulsive ${}^3\text{Π}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>u</mtext>}}\text{[}{}^3\text{P}\text{+}{}^1\text{s}\text{]}$ state.     

Dynamics of very rich open clusters

The oldest open clusters in our Galaxy set the lower limit to the age of the Galactic Disk (9–10 Gyr). Although they appear to be very rich now, it is clear that their primordial populations were much larger. Often considered as transitional objects, these populous open clusters show structural differences with respect to globular clusters so their dynamics and characteristic evolutionary time scales can also be different. On the other hand, their large membership lead to different dynamical evolution as compared with average open clusters. In this paper, the differential features of the evolution of rich open clusters are studied using N-body simulations, including several of the largest (10⁴ stars) published direct collisional N-body calculations so far, which were performed on a CRAY YMP. The disruption rate of rich open clusters is analysed in detail and the effect of the initial spatial distribution of the stars in the cluster on its dynamics is studied. The results show that cluster life-time depends on this initial distribution, decreasing when it is more concentrated. The effect of stellar evolution on the dynamical evolution of rich clusters is an important subject that also has been considered here. We demonstrate that the cluster's life-expectancy against evaporation increases because of mass loss by evolving high-mass stars. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.