Viticulture in California: Cool airconditioned valleys as the equivalent of warm sheltered “côtes”

This essay focuses on the distinctive geographic setting of viticulture in California. It assesses the significance of the prevailing environmental conditions for wine growing in California and offers an explanation of the spatial pattern of Californian wine climate regions. Wine varieties in California, as almost everywhere in the world, are of European origin (Vitis vinifera). The ultimate result of a bio-geographic diffusion process of Vitis vinifera was the development of superior wine varieties in a climate that is marginal for wine growing in Western Europe (Cf-Köppen). Nestled in a cooler and more precarious macro-climatological environment, the relatively warm micro climates of the slopes (cotes) allow wine growing. The noble varieties peculiar to the slopes have been successfully transplanted in California's coastal valleys, this not-withstanding the California environment, which is diametrically opposed to that in Western Europe. In a hot macro environment (Cs-Köppen), high-quality wine growing is only possible due to the cool airconditioned micro climate in the valleys.     

Meteorological and synoptic aspects of the formation and evolution of the Novorossiysk Bora

The genetic and synoptic classifications of the Novorossiysk Bora are created using the data of daily observations at the Novorossiysk meteorological station and other available synoptic information. Obtained are the quantitative criteria of these classifications, and on this base worked out are the basic scenarios of the generation and evolution of this dangerous phenomenon on the Black Sea coast of Russia. According to the genetic classification, the Bora was divided into four types: frontal, air-mass, monsoon, and gravity. Quantitative criteria worked out for each type can be used for the more accurate forecast of this destructive phenomenon near Novorossiysk. According to the synoptic classification, four classes were distinguished: Azores, North Atlantic, Siberian, and Arctic.     

Wrench faults,pull-apart basins,and volcanism in central Oregon: A new tectonic model based on image interpretation

A tectonic study of the Newberry Crater region of central Oregon has been based on the interpretation of Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery. Two major faults, the Brothers-Tumalo and Eugene-Denio Faults, pass NW-SE through the region and step to the right at the eastern margin of the Cascades Range. Dextral wrench faulting on these structures during the Tertiary controlled the formation of the La Pine Basin, a pull-apart structure containing Tertiary and Quaternary sediments and volcanics. Tertiary wrench faulting appears to have been associated with rotations of crustal blocks at a plate margin, but was superseded in the Quaternary by extensional faulting of the Basin and Range province. Newberry Crater and other major bimodal volcanic centres in the NW Cordillera (Crater Lake, Medicine Lake, Mt. St. Helens) seem to have a similar tectonic setting in crustal pull-aparts. A relationship between magma type and fault trend at Newberry and Medicine Lake is suggested.     

Mantle(?) xenoliths in the carbonatites of northern Transbaikalia

The composition and nature of high-Cr minerals in lithic clasts from the carbonatites of the Veseloe occurrence, northern Transbaikalia, were considered. In order to determine their source, the Cr-bearing phases were compared with chromite, magnetite, and rutile from ultrabasic rocks, mantle xenoliths, and eclogites. It was suggested that the xenoclasts studied were formed at great depths, whereas the carbonatites were directly derived from the mantle rather than formed by the crustal differentiation of a silicate-carbonate melt.     

Sur quelques concentrations plombo-zinciferes du devonien inferieur du massif schisteux rhenan

Zusammenfassung The Lower Devonian of the Rhine Schist Massif is characterized by a fine detrital sedimentation which reflects a coastal plain environment located between the Old Red Sandstone continent in the N and the marine Bohemian Facies in the SE. Mineralisations are located within these coastal-plain sediments, especially in fractured horizons topped by pelitic and floored by sandy sediments of Sieg Emsian age. The mineralised localities occur in three zones: the districts of Bensberg, Eitorf and Mayen. The Lüderich locality (Bensberg) is the most important having approximately one million tons of Zn and Pb metal. It is localised within a zone having marked sedimentary characteristics since the Siegenian. Mineralisation occurs as penecontemporaneous lenses, fracture fillings etc, formed at abnormal contacts between lithological units having different competance during Siegenian and Lower Emsian deformation. However, locally there is lateral transition between the upper units of the sandy channel series and the lower units of the pelitic swamp facies. Vertical extension of mineralisations is strictly limited to the tectonic contact zone between the Odenspiel Sandstone and the Bensberg pelites. Study of mineralisations at various levels (mapping, morphology, structure, paragenetic and geochemical) leads to the formulation of a genetic model requiring complex fracturation at the contact between contrasting lithologies and preferential drainage through these fractured zones; metals are trapped on the sandstone floor, the pelitic roof trapping the vadose hydrothermal solutions. These basic controls seem to apply throughout the Bensberg, Eitorf and Mayen districts. On a more regional scale the age variations of the gangue sediments reflects a lateral displacement of red/grey facies limits due to coastal evolution. Thus one may demonstrate a type of mineral occurrence whose model may be that of epigenetic reconcentration within fractures affecting syngenetic geochemical anomalies.Zusammenfassung Das Unterdevon des Rheinischen Schiefergebirges wird durch eine feinkörnige detritische Sedimentation gekennzeichnet. Die Verteilung dieser detritischen Sedimente widerspiegelt eine flache Küstenlandschaft zwischen dem Kontinent des Unterrotliegenden im Norden und des Meeres mit der Böhmischen Fazies im Südosten. In diesen Schichten befinden sich gangförmige Vererzungen, die in Bruchzonen auftreten, die ein pelitisches Hangendes und ein sandsteinreiches Liegendes vom Siegen-Ems Alter haben. Die Lagerstätten kommen in drei Bezirken vor: Der Bensberger Bezirk, der Bezirk Eitorf und der Bezirk Mayen. Die Lagerstätte Lüderich (Bensberger Revier) ist die größte (ungefähr eine Million Tonnen Metall Zink+Blei). Sie befindet sich in einer Zone, in der schon in der Siegen-Stufe bemerkenswerte sedimentäre Strukturen auftreten. Die Vererzung tritt als penekonkordante Linsen, Gänge, Stockwerke in tektonischen Kontaktzonen auf. Diese Kontaktzonen befinden sich zwischen 2 verschiedenen sedimentären Einheiten, deren Gesteinseigenschaften sehr verschieden sind. Es handelt sich um Pelite mit Sandstein-Einschaltungen einerseits, die zur unteren Emsstufe gehören sollen und um fluviatile Sandsteine andererseits, die zur oberen Siegenstufe gehören sollen. Lokal ist ein lateraler Übergang durch Faziesänderung von den oberen Sandsteinen in die unteren Pelitschichten jedoch nicht unmöglich. Die Sandsteine vertreten einen fluviatilen Sedimentationsbereich, die Pelite einen sumpfigen Sedimentationsbereich. Die Vererzung (mit einer vertikalen Ausdehnung ungefähr von 300 m) tritt nur im Bereich der Kontaktzone zwischen den Odenspieler Sandsteinen und den Peliten der Unteren Bensberger Schichten auf. Die Resultate der Kartographie, der morphologischen Studie der Erzkörper, der Struktur und der Paragenese führen zu einem genetischen Modell. Dabei spielt die Anwesenheit einer Bruchstruktur an der Grenze zwischen 2 Bereichen mit verschiedenen lithologischen Eigenschaften eine Hauptrolle für die Konzentration der im Hangenden fein verteilten Metalle. Die hydrothermalen Lösungen kommen demnach nicht von der Teufe, sondern aus dem Nebengestein. Im ganzen Bensberger Erzrevier wie in der Gegend von Eitorf und in der Gegend von Mayen finden wir dieselben Leitfäden für die Vererzung in den Lagerstätten und Vorkommen. Beobachtet man die ganze Provinz, dann merkt man, daß die Altersverschiedenheiten in den Nebengesteinen der verschiedenen Lagerstätten eine geographische Wanderung der Faziesgrenze zwischen rot und grau in dieser küstennahen Ebene Widerspiegeln. Die verschiedenen Vorkommen und Lagerstätten treten immer in unmittelbarer Nähe dieser Grenze auf. Die Eigenschaften dieser Lagerstätten weisen auf eine Bildung durch eine epigenetische Umlagerung in eine gangförmige Bruchstruktur hin.     

Proper motion surveys in the infrared

Current and future wide field surveys in infrared passbands present opportunities for ultra low‐mass stellar sample selection via proper motions, as well as or instead of purely photometric techniques. Furthermore, proper motion measurements yield additional clues as to candidate membership of cluster or field (kinematic) populations. In this paper we review some recent results and speculate as to the possibilities afforded by the next generation of wide‐field infrared surveys. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)