Age and tectonic setting of granitoid gneisses in the Eastern Desert of Egypt and south-west Sinai

Strongly deformed and locally migmatized gneisses occur at several places in the southern Eastern Desert of Egypt and in Sinai and have variously been interpreted as a basement to Pan-african (900 to 600 Ma) supracrustal and intrusive assemblages. A suite of grabbroic to granitic gneisses was investigated in the Hafafit area, which constitutes an I-type calc-alkaline intrusive assemblage whose chemistry suggests emplacement along an active continental margin and whose granitoid members can be correlated with the so-called Older Granites of Egypt.²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb single zircon evaporation from three samples of the Hafafit gneisses yielded protolith emplacement ages between 677 ± 9 and 700 ± 12 Ma and document granitoid activity over a period of about 23 Ma. A migmatitic granitic gneiss from Wadi Bitan, south-west of Ras Banas, has a zircon age of 704 ± 8 Ma, and its protolith was apparently generated during the same intrusive event as the granitoids at Hafafit. Single zircons from a dioritic gneiss from Wadi Feiran in south-west Sinai suggest emplacement of the protolith at 796 ± 6 Ma and this is comparable with ages for granitoids in north-east Sinai and southern Israel. None of the above gneisses is derived from remelting of older continental crust, but they are interpreted as reflecting subduction-related calc-alkaline magmatism during early Pan-african magmatic arc formation.     

Zur Metallogenese in Skandinavien

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Ammonia emission from CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> capture pilot plant using aminoethylethanolamine

Amine post-combustion carbon capture technology is based on washing the flue gas with a solvent that captures CO₂. Thus, a small fraction of this solvent can be released together with the cleaned flue gas. This release may cause environmental concerns, both directly and indirectly through subsequent solvent degradation into other substances in the atmosphere. The paper presents the ammonia emission from CO₂ capture pilot plant (1 tonne CO₂ per day) using 40 wt% aminoethylethanolamine solvent, along with the efficiency of the water wash unit. In addition, the temperature effect of lean amine entering the absorber on ammonia emission was studied. Furthermore, the concentrations of other compounds such as SO₂, SO₃, NO₂, CS₂ and formaldehyde were monitored. The literature review on the NH₃ emission from a pilot plant using aminoethylethanolamine solvent has not been published. The results show that the main source of ammonia emission is the absorber and that emission (in the range 27–50 ppm) corresponds to typical NH₃ release from CO₂ capture pilot plant using an amine solvent. The emission of amines and amine degradation products is a complex phenomenon which is difficult to predict in novel solvents, and for this reason the significance of new solvents testing in a pilot scale has been highlighted.     

Magnetite scavenging and the buoyancy of bubbles in magmas. Part 1: Discovery of a pre-eruptive bubble in Bishop rhyolite

Little is known about the presence, distribution and size of bubbles in rhyolitic magmas prior to eruption. Using X-ray tomography to study pumice from early-erupted Bishop rhyolite, we discovered a large vesicle with abundant magnetite crystals attached to its walls. Attachment of magnetite crystals to bubble walls under pre-eruptive conditions can explain the cluster of magnetite crystals as a result of bubbles rising and collecting magnetite crystals. Alternatively, bubbles may have nucleated on magnetite crystals and then coalesced to form one large bubble with multiple magnetite crystals attached to it. We argue that the clusters of magnetite crystals could not have formed during or after eruptive decompression, and conclude that this vesicle corresponds to a bubble present prior to eruptive decompression. The inferred presence of pre-eruptive bubbles in the Bishop magma confirms the interpretation that the magma was volatile-saturated prior to eruption. The pre-eruptive size of this bubble is estimated based on three independent approaches: (1) the current size of the vesicle, (2) the total cross-sectional area of the magnetite crystals, and (3) the bubble size required for the aggregate to be neutrally buoyant. These approaches suggest a pre-eruptive bubble 300–850 μm in diameter, with a preferred value of 600–750 μm. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Age and Origin of Paleogene Granitoids from Western Yunnan Province, China: Geochemistry, SHRIMP Zircon Ages, and Hf-in-Zircon Isotopic Compositions

We report geochemical data, SHRIMP zircon ages and Hf-in-zircon isotopic compositions for Cenozoic granitoids from major fault systems in the Tethyan belt in western Yunnan Province, southwestern China.Four magmatic pulses occurred in the Paleogene, namely at ca.57 Ma, ca.50 Ma, 45–40 Ma, and 38–34 Ma.Early magmatism of this episode(57–50 Ma) produced S-type granites whose zircons yielded εHf(t) values of-5.0 to-0.3.In contrast, late magmatism of this episode reflects heterogeneous sources.Zircons from a granite porphyry along the Ailaoshan-Red River fault system have slightly positive εHf(t) values suggesting derivation from relatively young crust and/or a juvenile source.However, zircons from a granite along the Gaoligong fault system have strongly negative εHf(t) values and suggest derivation from a Paleoproterozoic crustal source.The composition of the granitoids varies with age(from ca.57 Ma to ca.34 Ma) from peraluminous to metaluminous and also suggests a change from syn-collisional to late-orogenic tectonic setting.A new tectonic model, impacting lithospheric wedge(ILW) is shown for the origin of Paleogene granitoids in this paper.     

Limnological response to the Laacher See eruption (LSE) in an annually laminated Allerød sediment sequence from the Nahe palaeolake,northern Germany

This paper presents evidence for a limnological response to the Laacher See eruption (LSE) as detected in lake sediments from Nahe, northern Germany. The sediment section of the Allerød period dating to between 13 422 and 12 708 cal. a BP is preserved in annual laminations. Within this section, the LSE was identified as a cryptotephra layer (12 944±44 cal. a BP). Microfacies analysis, continuous high-resolution geochemical measurements and pollen analyses enabled a high-resolution reconstruction of environmental change. The older part of the Allerød (c. 13 422 to 12 943 cal. a BP) was characterized by relatively stable sedimentation conditions. Evidence for windier conditions dating to c. 13 160 to 13 080 cal. a BP probably reflects the Gerzensee oscillation. Pronounced changes of the lake sedimentation followed the LSE. Four unusually thick varves with increased amounts of allochthonous material indicate serious disturbance of the local environment immediately after the LSE, related to increased storminess and/or the occurrence of high intensity rainfall events. A pronounced reduction of biogenic silica accumulation for c. 60 years after the LSE could reflect a period of acidification. Indications of a simultaneous lake level increase until c. 60 years after the LSE are in line with the supposed reduced evapotranspiration associated with cooler conditions. About 120 years after the LSE, increased oxygen access at the lake bottom, allochthonous input and Cl fluxes point to an onset of increasingly stronger westerly winds, probably as a long-term response to the LSE. This supports the idea of a southward shift of the mid-latitude westerlies wind system within the interval between the LSE and the beginning of the Younger Dryas. The pace of the southwards shift of this wind system decreased from 10 km a⁻¹ in the initial phase (40–120 years after LSE) to 6 km a⁻¹ in the later phase (120–200 years after LSE).     

Changes in the radial growth of trees in relation to biogeomorphic processes in an old-growth forest on flysch,Czechia

Tree radial growth is influenced by individual tree abilities, climate, competition, disturbance regimes, as well as biogeomorphic processes – including biomechanical interactions between trees and soil. Trees are actively involved in hillslope dynamics, both responding to and affecting many (bio)geomorphic processes. Using dendrochronology, we studied feedbacks associated with tree–soil–landscape formation, specifically relationships between hillslope processes, biomechanical effects of trees in soils, tree microhabitat conditions and their morphological adaptations, in the flysch zone of the Carpathians. We visually evaluated stem shape, microhabitat conditions and the biomechanical effects of 1663 trees. Cores were taken in four growing directions from 224 individuals of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.). In a set of 193 cross-dated beeches, average tree-ring widths and tree eccentricities in all directions were calculated and analysed in relation to the biogeomorphic impacts of trees. Some significant drivers of tree radial growth and sources of stem eccentricity were detected. The radial growth of trees on which deadwood was leaning was markedly limited. In contrast, trees with exposed roots expressed the highest growth rates. This clearly suggests that root exposure may not be an effect of ‘exogenous’ soil creep, but may rather result from individually intensifying tree growth due to fine-scale disturbance dynamics. The response of biomechanical tree–soil interactions in tree radial growth weakened with increasing stem diameter, reflecting the stabilizing role of larger trees. The significance of calendar year on radial growth suggests seasonality in the dynamic component of soil creep. Tree eccentricity was observed mainly in the downslope direction, which suggests a relatively complex effect of biomechanics on stem tilting. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monocular 3D scene reconstruction at absolute scale

In this article we propose a method for combining geometric and real-aperture methods for monocular three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of static scenes at absolute scale. Our algorithm relies on a sequence of images of the object acquired by a monocular camera of fixed focal setting from different viewpoints. Object features are tracked over a range of distances from the camera with a small depth of field, leading to a varying degree of defocus for each feature. Information on absolute depth is obtained based on a Depth-from-Defocus approach. The parameters of the point spread functions estimated by Depth-from-Defocus are used as a regularisation term for Structure-from-Motion. The reprojection error obtained from bundle adjustment and the absolute depth error obtained from Depth-from-Defocus are simultaneously minimised for all tracked object features. The proposed method yields absolutely scaled 3D coordinates of the scene points without any prior knowledge about scene structure and camera motion. We describe the implementation of the proposed method both as an offline and as an online algorithm. Evaluating the algorithm on real-world data, we demonstrate that it yields typical relative scale errors of a few per cent. We examine the influence of random effects, i.e. the noise of the pixel grey values, and systematic effects, caused by thermal expansion of the optical system or by inclusion of strongly blurred images, on the accuracy of the 3D reconstruction result. Possible applications of our approach are in the field of industrial quality inspection; in particular, it is preferable to stereo cameras in industrial vision systems with space limitations or where strong vibrations occur.