The transition from pyroxene granulite facies to garnet clinopyroxene granulite facies. Experiments in the system CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2

The pressure-temperature curve for the equilibrium anorthite+2enstatite=pyrope+diopside+quartz has been determined in the system CaO-MgO-Al₂O₂-SiO₂ to be between 13.4 and 14.0 kbars at 900° C. The slope up to 1,240° C is 8.5 bar/K. The entropy change at 1,200 K is 20 kJ. These data, combined with data from the literature, lead to a geobarometer equation which, when applied to rocks from the Agto area (West Greenland), gives pressure estimates of 6–10 kbars at 800° C. The results are consistent for rocks of differing Fe/Mg ratios and are consistent with independent pressure estimates.     

Zirconolite and xenotime U–Pb age constraints on the emplacement of the Golden Mile Dolerite sill and gold mineralization at the Mt Charlotte mine,Eastern Goldfields Province,Yilgarn Craton,Western Australia

In situ SHRIMP U–Pb dating of magmatic zirconolite (CaZrTi₂O₇) in the Golden Mile Dolerite from the Mt Charlotte gold deposit (Yilgarn Craton, Australia) has yielded the first robust emplacement age (2,680 ± 9 Ma) for the principle host-rock of gold mineralization in the Kalgoorlie district. In contrast, co-magmatic zircon gave ages from ~2.68 Ga to ~2.17 Ga, reflecting isotopic resetting of high-U and -Th crystals. In situ SHRIMP analysis of hydrothermal xenotime (YPO₄), which co-exists with gold in alteration pyrite, provided a Pb/Pb isochron age of 2,655 ± 13 Ma. This date indicates that the youngest deposit in the Kalgoorlie district (Mt Charlotte) formed at ~2.65 Ga, and provides a new minimum age for the structurally older Golden Mile deposit. Our results indicate that gold mineralization at Mt Charlotte is ~50 million years older than indicated by recent ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating and places new constraints on the timing of late-stage regional faulting (D₄) in the province.     

Workshop on Computational Studies of Interfacial Phenomena: Nanoscale to Mesoscale

This is a report of a workshop on nanoscale to mesoscale phenomena held at the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL) of the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) in Richland, Washington on September 24 to 25, 1998. Around thirty scientists from physics, chemistry, geology, geophysics, computer science, soil science, and applied mathematics gathered and presented 14 lectures covering many areas, which included interfacial mineral chemistry, large-scale molecular dynamics, constitutive relationships and quantum chemistry, cross-scaling studies, molecular dynamics of interfaces and new approaches in molecular dynamics. This workshop demonstrates a need for an interdisciplinary forum wherein many different issues crossing many scales and disciplinary boundaries can be discussed openly.     

Altered Benthic Prey-Availability Due to Episodic Oxygen Deficiency Caused by Drifting Algal Mats

Abstract. Large quantities of drifting algal mats have become a common phenomenon on shallow sandy bottoms in the northern Baltic Sea. A decomposing algal mat rapidly induces hypoxic or anoxic conditions in the underlying sediment and interferes with the normal living-mode of the benthos, i.e., mobility, feeding, and predator-prey relationships. Field surveys have shown that bivalves, such as Macoma balthica , avoid the unfavourable anoxic conditions by emerging at the sediment surface. Due to low reburrowing rates these bivalves are exposed to epibenthic predators once the drift algae disperse. A series of aquarium experiments were conducted to test for differences in the survival of M. balthica when exposed to continuous predation without prior stress and short-term predation after hypoxic stress induced by algae (= 20% 02-saturation). Sublethally stressed adult M. balthica , that normally are outside the size-range of the isopod predator Saduria entomon , became significantly more susceptible to predation when lying exposed at the sediment surface. The same effects were found with two other predators, the brown-shrimp Crangon crungon and the flounder Platichthysflesus . Drift algal mats induced an escape-reaction in the infauna more rapidly than mere hypoxia. This response is affected by temperature. which further underlines the importance of drift algae influencing prey availability. This paper discusses the role of the drift algae as a regulating factor for the infauna and demonstrates the importance of external structuring factors, such as hypoxic stress and algal mats, on predator-prey interactions.     

Making the EU Emissions Trading System: The European Commission as an entrepreneurial epistemic leader

The EU has developed the first and largest international emissions trading system in the world. This development is puzzling due to the EU's scepticism to international emissions trading in greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the run-up to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. This article analyses how the EU ETS was initiated in the first place mainly from the perspectives of Liberal intergovernmentalism (LI) and multi-level governance (MLG). LI emphasises change in the positions of the EU member states as the key to understand what happened and why, whereas MLG opens up for change in the position of supranational entrepreneurial leaders as the key explanation. The main conclusion is that entrepreneurial epistemic leadership exercised by the European Commission was crucial for making the EU ETS. The principal means of leadership involved building up independent expertise on how an EU ETS could be designed, and mobilizing support from state and non-state actors at various levels of decision-making. This type of leadership may be needed more generally to deal with challenges characterized by high scientific uncertainty and social complexity in which learning is pertinent, such as climate change.     

The effect of a vertical temperature gradient in the lithosphere on seismic and tectonic waves

A linear analysis of the stability of the lithosphere considered as a viscoelastic layer with an equilibrium vertical gradient of temperature is carried out. The problem is solved with a complete system of linearized equations of a continuous medium represented in the dimensionless form and containing a set of dimensionless parameters that determine thermomechanical properties of the lithosphere. As a result of the stability analysis, decrements are found that give the time dependence of perturbations and correspond to high-frequency seismic waves and low-frequency tectonic waves. The frequency and velocity of seismic waves are determined by the elasticity and inertial properties of the lithosphere, and their attenuation, by viscous properties of the lithosphere. The temperature gradient existing in the lithosphere influences seismic waves very weakly. On the contrary, the pattern of tectonic waves is controlled by the temperature gradient and viscous properties, while the effect of elastic and inertial properties on these waves is negligibly small. The stability of a viscoelastic lithosphere is examined using such rheological models as the Maxwell, standard linear, and Andrade media (the frequency of tectonic waves is zero in the Maxwell medium).     

Barium, SiO2 (excess), and P2O5 as proxies of biological productivity in the Middle East during the Palaeocene and the latest Palaeocene benthic extinction event

The distribution of barium and other elements related to biological productivity has been studied in two Palaeocene sections from the Middle East. In the bathyal Ben Gurion section, Israel, Ba* (= Ba/Al₂O₃× 15%) concentrations are low, in the range 0.04% to 0.3% in the lower Palaeocene, and very high, 1% to 2%, throughout most of the upper Palaeocene. In the neritic Gebel Aweina section in Egypt Ba* values are low, < 0.1%, throughout the entire Palaeocene. The Ba* enrichments at Ben Gurion and their correlations with increases in P₂O₅ and opaline silica, and local and global δ¹³C maxima, indicate that upwelling and high productivity were important in this region during the late Palaeocene. The absence of Ba* enrichments in the shallower Gebel Aweina section probably reflects the strong depth dependence of biobarium deposition. In the uppermost Palaeocene, at the level where the global benthic extinction event is registered, Ba* concentrations in the Ben Gurion section increase to anomalous 6%. which suggests that upwelling and possibly wind strengths intensified during this event. The results speak against deep-water formation in this region since downwelling and not upwelling is required.     

Application of the Lorenz equations for studying thermal convection in the lithosphere

Stationary solutions including wave solutions with constant amplitudes are found for nonlinear equations of thermal convection in a layer with nonlinear rheology. The solution is based on the Fourier expansion of unknown velocities and temperatures with only the first and first two terms retained in the velocity and temperature series, respectively. This method, which can be regarded as the Lorenz method, yields the Lorenz equations that fairly well describe the thermal convection in a layer with Newtonian rheology if the Rayleigh number is not very large. The obtained generalization of the Lorenz equations to the case of an integral (having a memory) nonlinear rheology implies that only the first term is retained in the Fourier series for the stress components, i.e., the nonlinear rheological equation is harmonically linearized. However, in the Fourier series of temperature, it is essential to keep the second term: this term, which is independent of the horizontal coordinate, models the thermal boundary layer that characterizes the developed convection. We constructed the bifurcation curves that describe the stationary convection in the nonlinear integral medium simulating the rheology of the mantle, and analyzed the stability of stationary convective flows. The Lorenz method is applied to study small-scale thermal convection in the lithosphere of the Earth.