The Richfield LL3 chondrite

Abstract— Richfield is a moderately shocked (shock stage S4) LL3.7 genomict breccia find consisting mainly of light-colored recrystallized clasts and dark clasts exhibiting significant silicate darkening; a few impact-melt-rock clasts and LL5 chondrite clasts also occur. The cosmic-ray exposure age of 14.5 Ma is indistinguishable from the main exposure peak for LL chondrites (15 Ma). Although the exposure ages indicate little He loss, the gas-retention ages indicate high gas losses that must have occurred prior to or during ejection from the LL parent body.     

Auld Reekie MIST

The magnetosphere, ionosphere and solar–terrestrial physics community gathered at the University of Edinburgh from 29 March – 1 April 2004, for a meeting including a day of joint sessions with UKSP. The four day programme reflected the breadth and depth of the science covered. Neil Arnold and Alan Thomson report; the UKSP meeting is covered in the following pages.     

Transverse Oscillations in Coronal Loops Observed with TRACE – II. Measurements of Geometric and Physical Parameters

Solar Physics - We measure geometric and physical parameters oftransverse oscillations in 26 coronal loops, out of the 17 events described in Paper I by Schrijver, Aschwanden, and Title (2002)....     

Rapid Formation of Ice Giant Planets

The existence of Uranus and Neptune presents severe difficulties for the core accretion model for the formation of ice giant planets. We suggest an alternative mechanism, namely disk instability leading to the formation of gas giant protoplanets, coagulation and settling of dust grains to form ice-rock cores at their centers, and photoevaporation of their gaseous envelopes by a nearby OB star, as a possible means of forming ice giant planets.     

Lithospheric Electrical Structure across the Eastern Segment of the Altyn Tagh Fault on the Northern Margin of the Tibetan Plateau

Project INDEPTH (InterNational DEep Profiling of Tibet and the Himalaya) is an interdisciplinary program designed to develop a better understanding of deep structures and mechanics of the Tibetan Plateau. As a component of magnetotelluric (MT) work in the 4th phase of the project, MT data were collected along a profile that crosses the eastern segment of the Altyn Tagh fault on the northern margin of the plateau. Time series data processing used robust algorithms to give high quality responses. Dimensionality analysis showed that 2D approach is only valid for the northern section of the profile. Consequently, 2D inversions were only conducted for the northern section, and 3D inversions were conducted on MT data from the whole profile. From the 2D inversion model, the eastern segment of the Altyn Tagh fault only appears as a crustal structure, which suggests accommodation of strike slip motion along the Altyn Tagh fault by thrusting within the Qilian block. A large-scale off-profile conductor within the mid-lower crust of the Qilian block was revealed from the 3D inversion model, which is probably correlated with the North Qaidam thrust belt. Furthermore, the unconnected conductors from the 3D inversion model indicate that deformations in the study area are generally localized.     

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987114000437

The Pranhita-Godavari Basin in central eastern India is one of the Proterozoic "Purana" basins of cratonic India.New geochronology demonstrates that it has a vast depositional history of repeated basin reactivation from the Palaeoproterozoic to the Mesozoic.U-Pb laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry dating of detrital zircons from two samples of the Somanpalli Group—a member of the oldest sedimentary cycle in the valley-constrains its depositional age to ~1620 Ma and demonstrates a tripartite age provenance with peaks at ~3500 Ma,~2480 Ma and ~1620 Ma,with minor age peaks in the Eoarchaean(~3.8 Ga) and at ~2750 Ma.These ages are consistent with palaeocurrent data suggesting a southerly source from the Krishna Province and Enderby Land in East Antarctica.The similarity in the maximum depositional age with previously published authigenic glauconite ages suggest that the origin of the Pranhita-Godvari Graben originated as a rift that formed at a high angle to the coeval evolving late Meosproterozoic Krishna Province as Enderby Land collided with the Dharwar craton of India.In contrast,detrital zircons from the Cycle III Sullavai Group red sandstones yielded a maximum depositional age of 970±20 Ma and had age peaks of ~2550 Ma,~1600 Ma and then a number of Mesoproterozoic detrital zircons terminating in three analyses at ~970 Ma.The provenance of these is again consistent with a southerly source from the Eastern Ghats Orogen and Antarctica.Later cycles of deposition include the overlying Albaka/Usur Formations and finally the late Palaeozoic to Mesozoic Gondwana Supergroup.     

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987114001601

Data from a migmatised metapelite raft enclosed within charnockite provide quantitative constraints on the pressure-temperature-time[P-T-t) evolution of the Nagercoil Block at the southernmost tip of peninsular India.An inferred peak metamorphic assemblage of garnet,K-feldspar.sillimanite,plagioclase,magnetite,ilmenite,spinel and melt is consistent with peak metamorphic pressures of 6-8 kbar and temperatures in excess of 900℃.Subsequent growth of cordierite and biotite record high-temperature retrograde decompression to around 5 kbar and 800 C.SHRIMP U-Pb dating of magmatic zircon cores suggests that the sedimentary protoliths were in part derived from felsic igneous rocks with Palaeoproterozoic crystallisation ages.New growth of metamorphic zircon on the rims of detrital grains constrains the onset of melt crystallisation,and the minimum age of the metamorphic peak,to around560 Ma.The data suggest two stages of monazite growth.The first generation of REE-enriched monazite grew during partial melting along the prograde path at around 570 Ma via the incongruent breakdown of apatite.Relatively REE-depleted rims,which have a pronounced negative europium anomaly,grew during melt crystallisation along the retrograde path at around 535 Ma.Our data show the rocks remained at suprasolidus temperatures for at least 35 million years and probably much longer,supporting a long-lived high-grade metamorphic history.The metamorphic conditions,timing and duration of the implied clockwise P-T-t path are similar to that previously established for other regions in peninsular India during the Ediacaran to Cambrian assembly of that part of the Gondwanan supercontinent.     

Revisiting wintertime cold air intrusions at the east of the Andes: propagating features from subtropical Argentina to Peruvian Amazon and relationship with large-scale circulation patterns

This study investigates the spatial and temporal characteristics of cold surges that propagates northward along the eastern flank of the Andes from subtropical to tropical South America analysing wintertime in situ daily minimum temperature observations from Argentina, Bolivia and Peru and ERA-40 reanalysis over the 1975–2001 period. Cold surges usually last 2 or 3 days but are generally less persistent in the southern La Plata basin compared to tropical regions. On average, three to four cold surges are reported each year. Our analysis reveals that 52 % of cold episodes registered in the south of La Plata basin propagate northward to the northern Peruvian Amazon at a speed of around 20 m s^?1. In comparison to cold surges that do not reach the tropical region, we demonstrate that these cold surges are characterized, before they reach the tropical region, by a higher occurrence of a specific circulation pattern associated to southern low-level winds progression toward low latitudes combined with subsidence and dry condition in the middle and low troposphere that reinforce the cold episode through a radiative effect. Finally, the relationship between cold surges and atmosphere dynamics is illustrated for the two most severe cold intrusions that reached the Peruvian and Bolivian Amazon in the last 20 years.