Chemical fractionations in meteorites—XI. C2 chondrites

Six C2M chondrites (Boriskino, Cold Bokkeveld, Erakot, Essebi, Haripura and Santa Cruz) and the C2R chondrite Al Rais were analyzed by radiochemical neutron activation analysis for Ag, Au, Bi, Cd, Cs, Ge, In, Ir, Ni, Os, Pd, Rb, Re, Sb, Se, Sn, Te, Tl, U, and Zn. Abundances (relative to Cl chondrites) show a systematic dependence on volatility, apparently reflecting volatile loss during formation of chondrules and other high-T components. Elements of nebular condensation temperature (T_c) > 1200 K are undepleted, those of T_c < 700 K are depleted by a constant factor (0.482 ± 0.049 for C2M's) and elements of intermediate volatility are depleted by intermediate factors. The abundances do not “tend to fall monotonically as a function of [T_c],” as previously claimed by Wai and Wasson (1977) for a more restricted temperature range. For meteorites that have suffered little aqueous alteration (Mighei, Murchison, Murray), the mean abundance of volatiles agrees with the matrix content, but for the more altered meteorites, matrix contents are 20–30% higher. Only a few meteorites deviate appreciably from the mean abundance pattern. Al Rais, a C2R chondrite with a significant metal content, is systematically lower in 12 volatiles, but is enriched in Ni and Pd. Haripura and Erakot are enriched in Bi and Tl, possibly from the late condensate, mysterite.     

Vergleichende Untersuchungen an ostalpinen Eklogiten

Zusammenfassung Eklogite der wichtigsten Vorkommen des mittelostalpinen Altkristallins und der penninischen Schieferhülle der Hohen Tauern wurden gesteins- und mineralchemisch untersucht. Sie sind Produkte aufsteigender Metamorphose von meist gabbroiden Ausgangsgesteinen. Die Bildungsbedingungen entsprechen, abgesehen von den erhöhten Gesamtdrucken, der mineralfaziellen Stellung der Begleitgesteine. Die Umwandlung zu Eklogitamphiboliten und Amphiboliten fand unter fallendem Gesamtdruck (in einigen Fällen auch steigender Temperatur) und unter Änderung des Gesamtchemismus statt. Die Bildung der Eklogite wird als Funktion des Wasserdampfpartialdruckes gesehen, und ein möglicher Mechanismus zu seiner Kontrolle wird diskutiert.

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Comparative investigations of eclogites in the eastern alpes

Summary Eclogites from the most important occurences of the mittelostalpines Altkristallin and the penninische Schieferhülle of the Hohen Tauern are investigated. Chemical analyses of the whole rocks and their minerals are given. These rocks are derived from gabbroic material, that has been altered by progressive metamorphism. The conditions of their formation are similar to the mineral fazies of their accompanying rocks with the exception of some-what higher pressure. The transformation to eclogiteamphibolites and amphibolites took place while the total pressure slightly decreased and the chemical composition of the rock changed. In some cases temperature was rising too. The formation of eclogites is a function of H₂O-partial-pressure. A possible controlling mechanism it is discussed.

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Mit 9 Abbildungen     

Beryllium Geochemistry in the Lesni Potok Catchment (Czech Republic), 7 Years of Systematic Study

The biogeochemical study was carried out at the Lesni potok (LP)catchment, Central Bohemia, Czech Republic. The ecosystem was impacted by heavy acid depositionduring the industrial development in 1980–1990. The catchment is forested mostly by two tree species, Norwayspruce and European beech. The Be concentration in the granite bedrock is 12.6 mg kg^-1. Theplagioclase contains the highest Be concentrations out of the rock-forming minerals. Elevatedconcentration of Be (5.4 mu;g L^-1) in surface waters is a result of its mobilization from the soils(3.9 mg kg^-1) and weathered rock by acid precipitation. As the pH of the precipitation and consecutivelypH of the surface waters is increasing in the Czech Republic, the Be concentrations in the surface watersgradually decrease. Groundwater with high pH values contains lower concentrations of Be (0.17 g L^-1)than surface waters. The soils at prone area of the catchment are depleted in Be compared to thesoils in the riparian zones. The vegetation located on the prone area contains lower concentrations of theBe than vegetation at riparian zones. The monitoring of Be in the environment is important with respectto its possible harmful effects on aquatic biota and root systems of the plants.     

Timescales determining the degree of kinetic isotope fractionation by evaporation and condensation

A first order characteristic of the relative abundance of the elements in solar system materials ranging in size from inclusions in primitive meteorites to planetary sized objects such as the Earth and the Moon is that they are very much like that of the Sun for the more refractory elements but systematically depleted to varying degrees in the more volatile elements. This is taken as evidence that evaporation and and/or condensation were important processes in determining the distinctive chemical properties of solar system materials. In some instances there is also isotopic evidence suggesting evaporation in that certain materials are found enriched in the heavy isotopes of their more volatile elements. Here model calculations are used to explore how the relative rates of various key processes determine the relationship between elemental and isotopic fractionation during partial evaporation and partial condensation. The natural measure of time for the systems considered here is the evaporation or condensation timescale defined as the time it would take under the prevailing conditions for evaporation or condensation to completely transfer the element of interest between the two phases of the system. The other timescales considered involve the rate of change of temperature, the rate at which gas is removed from further interaction with the condensed phase, and the rates of diffusion in the condensed and gas phases. The results show that a key determinant of whether or not elemental fractionations have associated isotopic effects is the ratio of the partial pressure of a volatile element (P_i) to its saturation vapor pressure (P_i,sat) over the condensed phase. Systems in which the rate of temperature change or of gas removal are slow compared to the evaporation or condensation timescale will be in the limit P_i ∼ P_i,sat and thus will have little or no isotopic fractionation because at the high temperatures considered here there is negligible equilibrium fractionation of isotopes. If on the other hand the temperature changes are relatively fast, then P_i ≠ P_i,sat and there will be both elemental and isotopic fractionation during partial evaporation or partial condensation. Rapid removal of evolved gas results in P_i ? P_i,sat which will produce isotopically heavy evaporation residues. Diffusion-limited regimes, where transports within a phase are not sufficiently fast to maintain chemical and or isotopic homogeneity, will typically produce less isotopic fractionation than had the phases remained well mixed. The model results are used to suggest a likely explanation for the heavy silicon and magnesium isotopic composition of Type B CAIs (as due to rapid partial melting and subsequent cooling at rates of a few °C per hour), for the uniformity of the potassium isotopic composition of chondrules despite large differences in potassium depletions (as due to volatilization of potassium by reheating in regions of large but variable chondrules per unit volume), and that the remarkable uniformity of the potassium isotopic composition of solar system materials is not a measure of the relative importance of evaporation and condensation but rather due to the solar nebula having evolved sufficiently slowly that materials did not significantly depart from chemical equilibrium.     

Projections of uncertainties in climate change scenarios into expected winter wheat yields

Summary The crop model CERES-Wheat in combination with the stochastic weather generator were used to quantify the effect of uncertainties in selected climate change scenarios on the yields of winter wheat, which is the most important European cereal crop. Seven experimental sites with the high quality experimental data were selected in order to evaluate the crop model and to carry out the climate change impact analysis. The analysis was based on the multi-year crop model simulations run with the daily weather series prepared by the stochastic weather generator. Seven global circulation models (GCMs) were used to derive the climate change scenarios. In addition, seven GCM-based scenarios were averaged in order to derive the average scenario (AVG). The scenarios were constructed for three time periods (2025, 2050 and 2100) and two SRES emission scenarios (A2 and B1). The simulated results showed that: (1) Wheat yields tend to increase (40 out of 42 applied scenarios) in most locations in the range of 7.5–25.3% in all three time periods. In case of the CCSR scenario that predicts the most severe increase of air temperature, the yields would be reduced by 9.6% in 2050 and by 25.8% in 2100 if the A2 emission scenario would become reality. Differences between individual scenarios are large and statistically significant. Particularly for the time periods 2050 and 2100 there are doubts about the trend of the yield shifts. (2) The site effect was caused by the site-specific soil and climatic conditions. Importance of the site influence increases with increasing severity of imposed climatic changes and culminates for the emission scenario A2 and the time period 2100. The sustained tendency benefiting two warmest sites has been found as well as more positive response to the changed climatic conditions of the sites with deeper soil profiles. (3) Temperature variability proved to be an important factor and influenced both mean and standard deviation of the yields. Change of temperature variability by more than 25% leads to statistically significant changes in yield distribution. The effect of temperature variability decreases with increased values of mean temperature. (4) The study proved that the application of the AVG scenarios – despite possible objections of physical inconsistency – might be justifiable and convenient in some cases. It might bring results comparable to those derived from averaging outputs based on number of scenarios and provide more robust estimate than the application of only one selected GCM scenario.     

Quantitative high resolution cathodoluminescence spectroscopy of diagenetic and hydrothermal dolomites

A combination of high resolution cathodoluminescence-spectroscopy (HRS-CL=high resolution spectroscopy of cathodoluminescence emission) with spatial resolving trace element analyses (PIXE=proton induced X-ray emission) is used to establish a method for the quantitative determination of the Mn-content of diagenetic and hydrothermal dolomites using the measurements of peak areas of Mn-activated CL emission bands. This method takes into account the overlap of the CL broad bands of Mn²⁺ in the Mg- and the Ca-lattice-position of dolomite. There is a linear correlation between the peak areas and Mn concentration up to approx. 1000–1500 ppm. Thus, CL spectroscopy allows a determination of Mn concentrations below the abilities of PIXE (10–15 ppm) to less than 1 ppm by extrapolation of this linear relation.

Up to an Fe-content of approx. 2000 ppm, no quenching effect of Fe on this linear relationship occurs. However, Fe-contents above 2000 ppm result in a decrease of Mn-induced luminescence. Even at Fe-concentration >25,000 ppm spectroscopy reveals that Mn-activated CL of dolomite is not entirely extinguished.     

Numerical models for diagenesis and the Neogene Sr isotopic evolution of seawater from DSDP Site 590B

A numerical model for the diagenetic exchange of Sr between carbonates and their pore fluids during sedimentation and compaction has been developed. The model has been applied to data from DSDP Site 590B in order to assess the accuracy with which the Sr isotope record in the carbonate sediment reflects that of seawater. The most important process affecting the Sr in the solid carbonate is exchange with the pore fluid due to solution-reprecipitation, but the concentration or isotopic composition of Sr in the solid itself gives little or no information as to the magnitude of this exchange. The key to determining the rate of exchange is the pore fluid, where the variations of Sr²⁺ and⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr with depth are very sensitive indicators. The logical structure of applying the model to data from DSDP 590B is to find by successive iteration an ocean history (i.e., the initial⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and Sr concentration of each increment of carbonate deposited) and a rate of Sr exchange between pore water and solid carbonate such that the model matches the present Sr concentration and⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr of both pore water and solid carbonate.Once all the data are matched, the model provides an estimate of the rate of Sr exchange due to solution-reprecipitation and the evolution of⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr in seawater over the past 20 million years. For DSDP 590B we find that solution-reprecipitation decreases rapidly with depth, from a near surface value of about 10% per million years to about 1% per million years below 200 m. This rate of exchange of Sr results in the carbonates of DSDP 590B preserving an accurate record of the Sr isotopic evolution of the ocean over the past 5 million years, but for ages greater than 5 million years the⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of the carbonate is systematically displaced from that of the seawater in which it was deposited. The maximum difference is of order 5 × 10⁻⁵.