Woodleigh impact structure,Australia: Shock petrography and geochemical studies

Abstract— The large, complex Woodleigh structure in the Carnarvon basin of Western Australia has recently been added to the terrestrial impact crater record. Many aspects of this structure are, however, still uncertain. This work provides a detailed petrographic assessment of a suite of representative drill core samples from the borehole Woodleigh 1 that penetrated uplifted basement rocks of the central part of this structure. Fundamental rock and mineral deformation data and high‐precision chemical data, including results of PGE and oxygen isotopic analysis, are presented. The sampled interval displays likely impact‐produced macrodeformation in the form of fracturing and breccia veining at the microscopic scale. Contrary to earlier reports that these breccias represent pseudotachylite (friction melt) or even shock/shear‐produced pseudotachylitic melt breccia cannot be confirmed due to pervasive post‐impact alteration. Abundant planar deformation features (PDFs) in quartz, in addition to diaplectic glass and partial isotropization, are the main shock deformation effects observed, confirming that Woodleigh is of impact origin. Over the investigated depth interval, the statistics of quartz grains with a variable number of sets of PDFs does not change significantly, and the patterns of crystallographic orientations of PDFs in randomly selected quartz grains does not indicate a change in absolute shock pressure with depth either. The value of oxygen isotopes for the recognition of meteoritic contamination, as proposed by earlier Woodleigh workers, is critically assessed. Neither INA nor PGE analyses of our samples support the presence of a meteoritic component within this basement section, as had been claimed in earlier work.     

The relative importance of land use and climatic change in Alpine catchments

Carbon storage and catchment hydrology are influenced both by land use changes and climatic changes, but there are few studies addressing both responses under both driving forces. We investigated the relative importance of climate change vs. land use change for four Alpine catchments using the LPJ-GUESS model. Two scenarios of grassland management were calibrated based on the more detailed model PROGRASS. The simulations until 2100 show that only reforestation could lead to an increase of carbon storage under climatic change, whereby a cessation of carbon accumulation occurred in all catchments after 2050. The initial increase in carbon storage was attributable mainly to forest re-growth on abandoned land, whereas the stagnation and decline in the second half of the century was mainly driven by climate change. If land was used more intensively, i.e. as grassland, litter input to the soil decreased due to harvesting, resulting in a decline of soil carbon storage (1.2−2.9 kg C m^–2) that was larger than the climate-induced change (0.8–1.4 kg C m⁻²). Land use change influenced transpiration both directly and in interaction with climate change. The response of forested catchments diverged with climatic change (11–40 mm increase in AET), reflecting the differences in forest age, topography and water holding capacity within and between catchments. For grass-dominated catchments, however, transpiration responded in a similar manner to climate change (light management: 23–32 mm AET decrease, heavy management: 29–44 mm AET decrease), likely because grassroots are concentrated in the uppermost soil layers. Both the water and the carbon cycle were more strongly influenced by land use compared to climatic changes, as land use had not only a direct effect on carbon storage and transpiration, but also an indirect effect by modifying the climate change response of transpiration and carbon flux in the catchments. For the carbon cycle, climate change led to a cessation of the catchment response (sink/source strength is limited), whereas for the water cycle, the effect of land use change remains evident throughout the simulation period (changes in evapotranspiration do not attenuate). Thus we conclude that management will have a large potential to influence the carbon and water cycle, which needs to be considered in management planning as well as in climate and hydrological modelling.     

The STAGES view of red spirals and dusty red galaxies: mass-dependent quenching of star formation in cluster infall

We investigate the properties of optically passive spirals and dusty red galaxies in the A901/2 cluster complex at redshift ∼0.17 using rest-frame near-ultraviolet–optical spectral energy distributions, 24-μm infrared data and Hubble Space Telescope morphologies from the STAGES data set. The cluster sample is based on COMBO-17 redshifts with an rms precision of  σ _cz ≈ 2000 km s⁻¹  . We find that 'dusty red galaxies' and 'optically passive spirals' in A901/2 are largely the same phenomenon, and that they form stars at a substantial rate, which is only four times lower than that in blue spirals at fixed mass. This star formation is more obscured than in blue galaxies and its optical signatures are weak. They appear predominantly in the stellar mass range of  log  M _*/M_⊙=[10, 11]  where they constitute over half of the star-forming galaxies in the cluster; they are thus a vital ingredient for understanding the overall picture of star formation quenching in clusters. We find that the mean specific star formation rate (SFR) of star-forming galaxies in the cluster is clearly lower than in the field, in contrast to the specific SFR properties of blue galaxies alone, which appear similar in cluster and field. Such a rich red spiral population is best explained if quenching is a slow process and morphological transformation is delayed even more. At  log  M _*/M_⊙ < 10  , such galaxies are rare, suggesting that their quenching is fast and accompanied by morphological change. We note that edge-on spirals play a minor role; despite being dust reddened they form only a small fraction of spirals independent of environment.     

Magnetically-regulated fragmentation induced by nonlinear flows and ambipolar diffusion

We present a parameter study of simulations of fragmentation regulated by gravity, magnetic fields, ambipolar diffusion, and nonlinear flows. The thin-sheet approximation is employed with periodic lateral boundary conditions, and the nonlinear flow field (“turbulence”) is allowed to freely decay. In agreement with previous results in the literature, our results show that the onset of runaway collapse (formation of the first star) in subcritical clouds is significantly accelerated by nonlinear flows in which a large-scale wave mode dominates the power spectrum. In addition, we find that a power spectrum with equal energy on all scales also accelerates collapse, but by a lesser amount. For a highly super-Alfvénic initial velocity field with most power on the largest scales, the collapse occurs promptly during the initial compression wave. However, for trans-Alfvénic perturbations, a subcritical magnetic field causes a rebound from the initial compression, and the system undergoes several oscillations before runaway collapse occurs. Models that undergo prompt collapse have highly supersonic infall motions at the core boundaries. Cores in magnetically subcritical models with trans-Alfvénic initial perturbations also pick up significant systematic speeds by inheriting motions associated with magnetically-driven oscillations. Core mass distributions are much broader than in models with small-amplitude initial perturbations, although the disturbed structure of cores that form due to nonlinear flows does not guarantee subsequent monolithic collapse. Our simulations also demonstrate that significant power (if present initially) can be maintained with negligible dissipation in large-scale compressive modes of a magnetic thin sheet, in the limit of perfect flux freezing.     

Detecting protoplanets with ALMA

Theoretical investigations show that planet-disk interactions cause structures in circumstellar disks, which are usually much larger in size than the planet itself and thus more easily detectable. The specific result of planet-disk interactions depends on the evolutionary stage of the disk. Exemplary signatures of planets embedded in disks are gaps and spiral density waves in the case of young, gas-rich protoplanetary disks and characteristic asymmetric density patterns in debris disks. Numerical simulations convincingly demonstrate that high-resolution imaging performed with observational facilities which are already available or will become available in the near future will allow to trace these “fingerprints” of planets in protoplanetary and debris disks. These observations will provide a deep insight into specific phases of the formation and early evolution of planets in circumstellar disks. In this context, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) will play a crucial role by allowing to trace features in disks which are indicative for various stages of the formation and early evolution of planets in circumstellar disks.