C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp): Gas Production Curves And Their Interpretation

The discovery of C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) at 7 AU from the Sun provided the first opportunity to follow the activity of a bright comet over a large range of heliocentric distances r_h. Production rates of a number of parent molecules and daughter species have been monitored both pre- and postperihelion. CO was found to be the major driver of the activity far from the Sun, surpassed by water within 3 AU whose production rate reached 10³¹ s⁻¹ at perihelion. Gas production curves obtained for various species show several behaviours with r_h. Gas production curves contain important information concerning the physical state of cometary ices, the structure of the nucleus and all the processes taking place inside the nucleus leading to outgassing. They are relevant to the study of several other phenomena such as the sublimation from icy grains, dust mantling or seasonal effects. For some species, such as H₂CO or HNC, they permit to constrain their origin in the coma. We discuss models of subsurface gas production in distant comets and predictions of how such a source may vary as the comet moves along its orbit, approaching perihelion and receding again. Features in the observed gas production curves of comet Hale-Bopp are generally interpretable in terms of either subsurface production (typical example: CO at large r_h) or free sublimation (typical example: H₂O). Possible implications for the vertical stratification of the cometary ices are reviewed, and preference is found for a model with crystallization of amorphous ice close to the nuclear surface. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Braided rivers within an arid alluvial plain (example from the Lower Triassic,western German Basin): recognition criteria and expression of stratigraphic cycles

Based on a detailed sedimentological analysis of Lower Triassic continental deposits in the western Germanic sag Basin (i.e. the eastern part of the present‐day Paris Basin: the ‘Conglomérat basal’, ‘Grès vosgien’ and ‘Conglomérat principal’ Formations), three main depositional environments were identified: (i) braided rivers in an arid alluvial plain with some preserved aeolian dunes and very few floodplain deposits; (ii) marginal erg (i.e. braided rivers, aeolian dunes and aeolian sand‐sheets); and (iii) playa lake (an ephemeral lake environment with fluvial and aeolian sediments). Most of the time, aeolian deposits in arid environments that are dominated by fluvial systems are poorly preserved and particular attention should be paid to any sedimentological marker of aridity, such as wind‐worn pebbles (ventifacts), sand‐drift surfaces and aeolian sand‐sheets. In such arid continental environments, stratigraphic surfaces of allocyclic origin correspond to bounding surfaces of regional extension. Elementary stratigraphic cycles, i.e. the genetic units, have been identified for the three main continental environments: the fluvial type, fluvial–aeolian type and fluvial/playa lake type. At the time scale of tens to hundreds of thousands of years, these high‐frequency cycles of climatic origin are controlled either by the groundwater level in the basin or by the fluvial siliciclastic sediment input supplied from the highland. Lower Triassic deposits from the Germanic Basin are preserved mostly in endoreic basins. The central part of the basin is arid but the rivers are supplied with water by precipitation falling on the remnants of the Hercynian (Variscan)–Appalachian Mountains. Consequently, a detailed study of alluvial plain facies provides indications of local climatic conditions in the place of deposition, whereas fluvial systems only reflect climatic conditions of the upstream erosional catchments.     

一种新型人工“流体包裹体”：融合二氧化硅毛细管技术

利用融合二氧化硅毛细管技术制作了纯H2O体系、纯CO2体系、H2O-NaCl体系和H2O-CO2体系的人工包裹体样品,并对样品进行了显微测温和激光拉曼光谱测试工作。实验结果显示毛细管样品中的流体成分具有代表性,而且常规的流体包裹体显微测温和显微激光拉曼光谱分析技术完全适于毛细管样品的测试。对样品的显微测温和拉曼光谱研究...     

Sea‐level reconstructions from the Peri‐Vocontian Zone (South‐east France) point to Valanginian glacio‐eustasy

The Valanginian is a period of global environmental change as illustrated by sedimentary, palaeontological, geochemical and climatic perturbations. A production crisis in most of the carbonate platforms suggests important changes in palaeoenvironmental conditions. During the same time interval, a major positive excursion in δ¹³C, the Weissert Event, suggests perturbations of the carbon cycle from the latest Early Valanginian to the Early Hauterivian. In order to better understand the link between these changes, sea‐level fluctuations have been reconstructed in detail from the Middle Berriasian to the earliest Hauterivian. Sections from the Peri‐Vocontian Zone (South‐east France) have been investigated because of the good quality of outcrops on the carbonate platforms, their margins and in the Vocontian Basin. Sections ranging from the most proximal zone (Swiss Jura) to the basin were interpreted in terms of sequence stratigraphy and cyclostratigraphy, and correlated at high resolutions. Using the identified small, medium and large‐scale sequences as well as depositional geometries, sea‐level fluctuations were reconstructed. Two main trends are evidenced during the studied interval: (i) the peak amplitude (magnitude) of the sea‐level fluctuations increased gradually from the Middle Berriasian to the Early Valanginian, and reached a maximum (more than 50 m) from the middle Early Valanginian to the Valanginian/Hauterivian boundary; and (ii) sea‐level variations were quite symmetrical during the Late Berriasian, slightly asymmetrical during the Early Valanginian and strongly asymmetrical (fast sea‐level rise, slow fall) from the latest Early Valanginian to the earliest Hauterivian. Moreover, three orders of sea‐level fluctuations were recognized in the sedimentary rocks of the Peri‐Vocontian Zone. Platform‐basin correlations and cyclostratigraphic interpretations of the basinal sections evidence an astronomical control on the sea‐level variations, mainly by the two eccentricity cycles of 100 and 400 kyr. The increase in the amplitude of the sea‐level fluctuations and their change from symmetrical to asymmetrical can be related to the onset of a major cooling event in the Early Valanginian. Fast transgressions followed by slower regressions would correspond to waxing and waning of high‐latitudinal ice during most of the Valanginian, especially from the latest Early Valanginian to the latest Late Valanginian. Glacio‐eustatic sea‐level fluctuations in tune with the 100 and 400 kyr eccentricity cycles are in agreement with glaciations during the Valanginian.     

The boundary layer of the residence time field

The residence time of a tracer in a control domain is usually computed by releasing tracer parcels and registering the time when each of these tracer parcels cross the boundary of the control domain. In this Lagrangian procedure, the particles are discarded or omitted as soon as they leave the control domain. In a Eulerian approach, the same approach can be implemented by integrating forward in time the advection–diffusion equation for a tracer. So far, the conditions to be applied at the boundary of the control domain were uncertain. We show here that it is necessary to prescribe that the tracer concentration vanishes at the boundary of the control domain to ensure the compatibility between the Lagrangian and Eulerian approaches. When we use the Constituent oriented Age and Residence time Theory (CART), this amounts to solving the differential equation for the residence time with boundary conditions forcing the residence time to vanish at the open boundaries of the control domain. Such boundary conditions are likely to induce the development of boundary layers (at outflow boundaries for the tracer concentration and at inflow boundaries for the residence time). The thickness of these boundary layers is of the order of the ratio of the diffusivity to the velocity. They can however be partly smoothed by tidal and other oscillating flows.