Using Simple Dilution Models to Predict New Zealand Estuarine Water Quality

A tool based on simple dilution models is developed to predict potential nutrient concentrations and flushing times for New Zealand estuaries. Potential nutrient concentrations are the concentrations that would occur in the absence of nutrient uptake or losses through biogeochemical processes, and so represent the pressure on a system due to nutrient loading. The dilution modelling approach gives a single time- and space-averaged concentration as a function of flow and nutrient input, with the capability to include seasonal nutrient and flow differences. This tool is intended to be used to identify estuaries likely to be highly sensitive to current nutrient loads based on their physical attributes, or to quickly compare the effects of different land-use scenarios on estuaries. The dilution modelling approach is applied both to a case study of a single New Zealand estuary, and used in a New Zealand-wide assessment of 415 estuaries. For the NZ-wide assessment, annual nutrient loads to each estuary were obtained from a GIS-based land-use model. Comparison with measured data shows that the predicted potential nitrate concentrations are significantly correlated with, but higher than, measured nitrate values from water quality sampling time series. This is consistent with expectations given that the measured concentrations include the effects of nitrogen uptake and loss. The estuary dilution modelling approach is currently incorporated into the GIS-land use model, and is also available as a web-app for assessing eutrophication susceptibility of New Zealand estuaries.     

Employment in retailing: A case study of employment in suburban shopping centres

There have been many studies of the retail industry in recent years, and of the impact that retailing has had on the spatial arrangement of urban areas and on consumer behaviour. Little attention has been paid, however, to employment in retailing, which is disturbing in view of its growing importance and its rapidly changing nature and composition. This paper examines the nature of the broad structural changes within the industry, and investigates their spatial consequences through a case study of employment generation within a system of suburban retail centres in Canberra, Australia. It is shown that the evolution of suburban centres, particularly those of a regional variety, has had an important and enriching impact on the suburban labour market. The regional centres are also seen to be the focus of the major structural employment changes currently affecting the retail industry. This has some important implications for urban planning.     

6: Classification of VMS deposits: Lessons from the South Uralides

VMS deposits of the South Urals developed within the evolving Urals palaeo-ocean between Silurian and Late Devonian times. Arc-continent collision between Baltica and the Magnitogorsk Zone (arc) in the south-western Urals effectively terminated submarine volcanism in the Magnitogorsk Zone with which the bulk of the VMS deposits are associated. The majority of the Urals VMS deposits formed within volcanic-dominated sequences in deep seawater settings. Preservation of macro and micro vent fauna in the sulphide bodies is both testament to the seafloor setting for much of the sulphides but also the exceptional degree of preservation and lack of metamorphic overprint of the deposits and host rocks. The deposits in the Urals have previously been classified in terms of tectonic setting, host rock associations and metal ratios in line with recent tectono-stratigraphic classifications. In addition to these broad classes, it is clear that in a number of the Urals settings, an evolution of the host volcanic stratigraphy is accompanied by an associated change in the metal ratios of the VMS deposits, a situation previously discussed, for example, in the Noranda district of Canada.Two key structural settings are implicated in the South Urals. The first is seen in a preserved marginal allochthon west of the Main Urals Fault where early arc tholeiites host Cu–Zn mineralization in deposits including Yaman Kasy, which is host to the oldest macro vent fauna assembly known to science. The second tectonic setting for the South Urals VMS is the Magnitogorsk arc where study has highlighted the presence of a preserved early forearc assemblage, arc tholeiite to calc-alkaline sequences and rifted arc bimodal tholeiite sequences. The boninitc rocks of the forearc host Cu–(Zn) and Cu–Co VMS deposits, the latter hosted in fragments within the Main Urals Fault Zone (MUFZ) which marks the line of arc-continent collision in Late Devonian times. The arc tholeiites host Cu–Zn deposits with an evolution to more calc-alkaline felsic volcanic sequences matched with a change to Zn–Pb–Cu polymetallic deposits, often gold-rich. Large rifts in the arc sequence are filled by thick bimodal tholeiite sequences, themselves often showing an evolution to a more calc-alkaline nature. These thick bimodal sequences are host to the largest of the Cu–Zn VMS deposits.The exceptional degree of preservation in the Urals has permitted the identification of early seafloor clastic and hydrolytic modification (here termed halmyrolysis sensu lato) to the sulphide assemblages prior to diagenesis and this results in large-scale modification to the primary VMS body, resulting in distinctive morphological and mineralogical sub-types of sulphide body superimposed upon the tectonic association classification.It is proposed that a better classification of seafloor VMS systems is thus achievable using a three stage classification based on (a) tectonic (hence bulk volcanic chemistry) association, (b) local volcanic chemical evolution within a single edifice and (c) seafloor reworking and halmyrolysis.     

Carbon and nitrogen isotope,and mineral inclusion studies on the diamonds from the Pozanti–Karsanti chromitite,Turkey

The Pozanti–Karsanti ophiolite (PKO) is one of the largest oceanic remnants in the Tauride belt, Turkey. Micro-diamonds were recovered from the podiform chromitites, and these diamonds were investigated based on morphology, color, cathodoluminescence, nitrogen content, carbon and nitrogen isotopes, internal structure and inclusions. The diamonds recovered from the PKO are mainly mixed-habit diamonds with sectors of different brightness under the cathodoluminescence images. The total δ¹³C range of the PKO diamonds varies between ??18.8 and ??28.4‰, with a principle δ¹³C mode at ??25‰. Nitrogen contents of the diamonds range from 7 to 541 ppm with a mean value of 171 ppm, and the δ¹⁵N values range from ??19.1 to 16.6‰, with a δ¹⁵N mode of ??9‰. Stacking faults and partial dislocations are commonly observed in the Transmission Electron Microscopy foils whereas inclusions are rather rare. Combinations of (Ca_0.81Mn_0.19)SiO₃, NiMnCo-alloy and nano-sized, quenched fluid phases were observed as inclusions in the PKO diamonds. We believe that the ¹³C-depleted carbon signature of the PKO diamonds derived from previously subducted crustal matter. These diamonds may have crystallized from C-saturated fluids in the asthenospheric mantle at depth below 250 km which were subsequently carried rapidly upward by asthenospheric melts.     

2018 International Summer School on rockslides and related phenomena in the Kokomeren River valley (Kyrgyzstan)

Information about the next Kokomeren Summer School that will take place on August 15–30, 2018, is provided.     

Numerical Analysis of Block Caving-Induced Instability in Large Open Pit Slopes: A Finite Element/Discrete Element Approach

This paper addresses one of the most challenging problems in mining rock engineering—the interaction between block cave mining and a large overlying open pit. The finite element modeling/discrete element modeling (FEM/DEM) approach was utilized in the analysis of block caving-induced step-path failure development in a large open pit slope. The analysis indicated that there is a threshold percentage of critical intact rock bridges along a step-path failure plane that may ensure the stability of an open pit throughout caving operations. Transition from open pit to underground mining at Palabora mine presents an important example of a pit wall instability triggered by caving. Using combined FEM/DEM-DFN (discrete fracture network) modeling, it was possible to investigate the formation of a basal failure surface within an open pit slope as a direct result of cave mining. The modeling of Palabora highlighted the importance of rock mass tensile strength and its influence on caving-induced slope response.     

Contributors to chromium isotope variation of meteorites

We report the results of a comprehensive, high precision survey of the Cr isotopic compositions of primitive chondrites, along with some differentiated meteorites. To ensure complete dissolution of our samples, they were first fused with lithium borate-tetraborate at 1050-1000 °C. Relative to the NIST Cr standard SRM 3112a, carbonaceous chondrites exhibit excesses in ⁵⁴Cr/⁵²Cr from 0.4 to 1.6ε (1ε = 1 part in 10,000), and ordinary chondrites display a common ⁵⁴Cr/⁵²Cr deficit of ∼0.4ε. Analyses of acid-digestion residues of chondrites show that carbonaceous and ordinary chondrites share a common ⁵⁴Cr-enriched carrier, which is characterized by a large excess in ⁵⁴Cr/⁵²Cr (up to 200ε) associated with a very small deficit in ⁵³Cr/⁵²Cr (<2ε). We did not find ⁵⁴Cr anomalies in either bulk enstatite chondrites or in leachates of their acid-digestion residues. This either requires that the enstatite chondrite parent bodies did not incorporate the ⁵⁴Cr anomaly carrier phase during their accretion, or the phase was destroyed by parent body metamorphism. Chromium in the terrestrial rocks and lunar samples analyzed here show no deviation from the NIST SRM 3112a Cr standard. The eucrite and Martian meteorites studied exhibit small deficits in ⁵⁴Cr/⁵²Cr. The ⁵⁴Cr/⁵²Cr variations among different meteorite classes suggest that there was a spatial and/or temporal heterogeneity in the distribution of a ⁵⁴Cr-rich component in the inner Solar System.We confirm the correlated excesses in ⁵⁴Cr/⁵²Cr and ⁵³Cr/⁵²Cr for bulk carbonaceous chondrites, but the new data yield a steeper slope (∼6.6) than that reported in Shukolyukov and Lugmair (2006). The correlated excesses may affect the use of the Mn-Cr chronometer in carbonaceous chondrites. We could not confirm the bulk carbonaceous chondrite Mn-Cr isochron reported by Shukolyukov and Lugmair (2006) and Moynier et al. (2007), mostly because we find much smaller total variations in ε⁵³Cr (∼0.2). All bulk chondrites have small ε⁵³Cr excesses (up to 0.3) relative to the Earth, most likely reflecting the sub-chondritic Mn/Cr ratio of the Earth. The ε⁵³Cr variations in chondrites do seem to grossly correlate with Mn/Cr and yield an initial Solar System ⁵³Mn/⁵⁵Mn value of 5.4(±2.4) × 10⁻⁶, corresponding to an absolute age of 4566.4 (±2.2) Ma.Nuclear interactions with cosmic rays result in coupled excesses in ε⁵⁴Cr and ε⁵³Cr with a ∼4:1 ratio in phases with high Fe/Cr. These are most dramatically demonstrated in the iron meteorite Carbo, showing excesses in ε⁵⁴Cr of up to 140ε. These new results show that the Mn-Cr chronometer should be used with caution in samples/minerals with high Fe/Cr and long cosmic ray exposure ages.