Low-degree partial melting trends recorded in upper mantle minerals

The study of glass inclusions inside mantle minerals provides direct information about the chemistry of naturally occurring mantle-derived melts and the fine-scale complexity of the melting process responsible for their genesis. Minerals in a spinel lherzolite nodule from Grande Comore island contain glass inclusions which, after homogenization by heating, exhibit a continuous suite of chemical compositions clearly distinct from that of the host basanitic lava. The compositions range from silicic, with nepheline–olivine normative, 64 wt% SiO₂ and 11 wt% alkali oxides, to almost basaltic, with quartz normative, 50 wt% SiO₂ and 1–2 wt% alkali oxides. Within a single mineral phase, olivine, the inferred primary melt composition varies from 54 to 64 wt% SiO₂ for MgO content ranging from 8 to 0.8 wt%. An experimental study of the glass and fluid inclusions indicates that trapped melts represent liquids that are in equilibrium with their host phases at moderate temperature and pressure (T≈1230°C and P≈1.0 Gpa for melts trapped in olivine). Quantitative modelling of the compositional trends defined in the suite shows that all of the glasses are part of a cogenetic set of melts formed by fractional melting of spinel lherzolite, with F varying between 0.2 and 5%. The initial highly silicic, alkali-rich melts preserved in Mg-rich olivine become richer in FeO, MgO, CaO and Cr₂O₃ and poorer in SiO₂, K₂O, Na₂O, Al₂O₃ and Cl with increasing melt fractions, evolving toward the basaltic melts found in clinopyroxene. These results confirm the connection between glass inclusions inside mantle minerals and partial mantle melts, and indicate that primary melts with SiO₂ >60 wt%, alkali oxides >11%, FeO <1 wt% and MgO <1 wt% are generated during incipient melting of spinel peridotite. The composition of the primary melts is inferred to be dependent on pressure, and to reflect both the speciation of dissolved CO₂ and the effect of alkali oxides on the silica activity coefficient in the melt. At pressures around 1 GPa, low-degree melts are characterized by alkali and silica-rich compositions, with a limited effect of dissolved CO₂ and a decreased silica activity coefficient caused by the presence of alkali oxides, whereas at higher pressures alkali oxides form complexes with carbonates and, consequently, alkali-rich silica-poor melts will be generated.     

Relations entre contraintes tectoniques et propriétés magnétiques des roches volcaniques permiennes de la vallée du Guil (briançonnais,Alpes Françaises)

Résumé Les roches volcaniques permiennes de la vallée du Guil présentent une ARN de direction voisine du plan de la schistosité alpine qui les affecte. Leur aimantation permienne a probablement été modifiée, lors de l'orogénèse alpine, par les efforts tectoniques (modification d'origine purement mécanique, ou acquisition d'une nouvelle aimantation par effet de pression). L'ARN des roches du Guil ne peut donc pas être prise en référence pour une étude géotectonique de l'arc alpin.

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Summary The Guil valley permian volcanic rocks have NRM whose direction is very near to the plane of alpine schistosity affecting these rocks. During the alpine orogeny, their permian magnetization was probably modified by tectonic stresses (mechanical modification, or new magnetization by piezo-magnetic effect). The NRM of the Guil valley rocks cannot be used as a reference for geotectonic study of the Alps.

     

Petrogenesis of garnet lherzolite, Cima di Gagnone, Lepontine Alps

Garnet lherzolite at Cima di Gagnone has chemical and mineralogical properties similar to those of other garnet lherzolites in the lower Pennine Adula/Cima Lunga Nappe (Alpe Arami, Monte Duria). The Cima di Gagnone occurrence encloses mafic boudins that belong to an eclogite-metarodingite suite common in the numerous neighboring ultramafic lenses. The ultramafic rocks at Cima di Gagnone, including the garnet lherzolite, are interpreted as tectonic fragments of an originally larger lherzolite body that underwent at least partial serpentinization prior to regional metamorphism. This lherzolite body cycled through at least three metamorphic facies: greenschist or blue-schist (as antigorite serpentinite) → eclogite (as garnet lherzolite), pre-Alpine or early Alpine → amphibolite facies (as chlorite-enstatite-tremolite peridotite), Lepontine metamorphism. Relics of titanoclinohumite in the garnet peridotite, as also recorded by Möckel near Alpe Arami, are consistent with this metamorphic history, since they indicate a possible connection with Pennine antigorite serpentinites, e.g., Liguria, Piedmont, Zermatt-Saas, Malenco, Pustertal, all of which have widespread titanoclinohumite belonging to the antigorite paragenesis. Estimated pressures in excess of 20 kbar and temperatures of 800°±50°C for the garnet lherzolite assemblage are not inconsistent with conditions inferred for Gagnone and Arami eclogites. These conditions could have been reached during deep subduction zone metamorphism. It is shown by calculation that the effects of Fe and Cr on the location of the garnet lherzolite/spinel lherzolite phase boundary largely counter-balance each other.     

Essai de revue des concentrations métallifères dans le cycle sédimentaire

The author summarizes the main arguments in the debate between syngenetic and epigenetic deposits and then underlines the importance of the arguments which prove that the formation of the sediments and of the metalliferous concentrations which they bear are contemporaneous. This is strongly suggested by very early syn-sedimentary reworking of the mineralization. This approach leads to a consideration of metallogenesis of syngenetic sedimentary concentrations both as a supply of metal and a sedimentary trap. The exploitability of mineralized rocks is presently such that only the coincidence of an outstanding supply of metal and a receptive sedimentary environment will yield a workable ore deposit. Reviewing all metalliferous sources which could be contemporaneous with sedimentation (terrigenous, exhalative, marine and possibly also fluidogenic) the author stresses the geological and geochemical characteristic of the surrounding sediments. At the same time, the examination of traps in sandy, shaly and carbonate environments permits to the identification of the main characteristics of the concentration on the scale of the deposit and of the ore itself. The search for an understanding of metalliferous concentrations in the sedimentary cycle becomes a question of defining criteria for the quality of supplies and traps. On the level of the trap these would be the duration and the regulation of parameters which govern the efficiency of the concentrating system: the sedimentary features which result from these concentrating processes must be recognized within the lithologic column during tactical exploration. On the level of the metallogenetic province it is the purpose of strategic exploration to search among the available geological and geochemical data for features which favor each type of supply. These are the basic principles of the indirect method of exploration for sedimentary ore deposits.     

Coexisting alkali feldspars in felsic members of the Cauro-Bastelica ring complex,Corsica

The granodioritic and gneissic Hercynian basement in Corsica was intruded, in the Triassic, by non-orogenic ring complexes in which the association early rhyolite-hypersolvus granite-granophyre-late subsolvus granite is clearly developed. The association of low albite and maximum microcline in mesoperthites cannot be attributed to Alpine low-grade metamorphism, restricted to fault zones. On a number of lines of evidence, the development of ordered, almost pure K-feldspar in this rapidly cooled complex appears related to an episode of mild reheating attending emplacement of late subsolvus granites, rocks formed from melts enriched, perhaps even saturated in aqueous fluids.     

On the derivation of the energy flux of linear magnetohydrodynamic waves

Abstract

New light is shed on the derivation of the energy flux of the linear MHD waves. It is shown that, according to a suggestion of Lighthill, the usual perturbation procedure, which starts from the general expression for the energy flux, need not be supplemented by an averaging procedure. As a result, it is shown that to second order in the wave amplitude, a quantity identifiable as the wave energy flux is conserved. Some of the subtleties inherent in the derivation of the pertubation energy equation are discussed.     

Glacier mass balance of tropical Zongo glacier, Bolivia, comparing hydrological and glaciological methods

A glaciological program has been undertaken since 1991 on Zongo glacier in Bolivia (6000–4850 m asl, 2.4 km², 16°S). This program involves mass balance measurements, hydrological studies and energy balance investigations. On outer-tropical glaciers, melting and snow accumulation are both maximum in the wet season (austral summer), whereas the dry season (winter) is a period of low ablation. Errors on each term of the glaciological (stakes, snow-pits and integration method of the measurements) and hydrological (precipitation, discharge and runoff coefficient of free ice areas) methods are investigated to estimate the overall accuracy of the mass balance measurements. The hydrological budget is less than the glaciological one (mean difference: 60 cm w.e. per year), but both methods reproduce similar inter-annual variations. Errors in assessment of evaporation or water storage inside the glacier cannot explain the discrepancy. Errors using the glaciological method are large (around ± 40 cm w.e. per year), but no bias can explain the departure from the hydrological balance. Errors on discharge measurements are small and the uncertainty on the runoff coefficient has a minor effect on the mass balance. We concluded that hydrological budgets are too low due to the catch deficiency of rain gauges and absence of precipitation measurements at high altitudes, emphasizing the difficulty to assess snowfall distribution in high mountainous basins.     

Development in modeling cyclic loading of sands based on kinematic hardening

In this paper, there is presented an elastoplastic constitutive model to predict sandy soils behavior under monotonic and cyclic loadings. This model is based on an existing model (Cambou‐Jafari‐Sidoroff) that takes into account deviatoric and isotropic mechanisms of plasticity. The flow rule used in the deviatoric mechanism is non‐associated and a mixed hardening law controls the evolution of the yield surface. In this research the critical state surface and history surface, which separates the virgin and cyclic states in stress space, are defined. Kinematic hardening modulus and stress–dilatancy law for monotonic and cyclic loadings are effectively modified. With taking hardening modulus as a function of deviatoric and volumetric plastic strain and with defining the history surface and stress reversal, the model has the ability to predict the sandy soils' behavior. All of the model parameters have clear physical meanings and can be determined from usual laboratory tests. In order to validate the model, the results of homogeneous tests on Hostun and Toyoura sands are used. The results of validation show a good capability of the proposed model. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.