Raman spectroscopic analysis of cyanobacterial colonization of hydromagnesite, a putative martian extremophile

Raman spectra of an extremophile cyanobacterial colony in hydromagnesite from Lake Salda in Turkey have revealed a biogeological modification which is manifest as aragonite in the stratum associated with the colony. The presence of key spectral biomarkers of organic protectant molecules such as β-carotene and scytonemin indicate that the survival strategy of the cyanobacteria is significantly one of UV-radiation protection. The terrestrial location of this extremophile is worthy of consideration further because of its possible putative link with the “White Rock” formations in Sabaea Terra and Juventae Chasma on Mars.     

Two new large-separation gravitational lenses from SDSS

We present discovery images, together with follow-up imaging and spectroscopy, of two large-separation gravitational lenses found by our survey for wide arcs [the CAmbridge Sloan Survey Of Wide ARcs in the skY (CASSOWARY)]. The survey exploits the multicolour photometry of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to find multiple blue components around red galaxies. CASSOWARY 2 (or 'the Cheshire Cat') is composed of two massive early-type galaxies at   z = 0.426  and 0.432, respectively, lensing two background sources, the first a star-forming galaxy at   z = 0.97  and the second a high -redshift galaxy  ( z > 1.4)  . There are at least three images of the former source and probably four or more of the latter, arranged in two giant arcs. The mass enclosed within the larger arc of radius ∼11 arcsec is  ∼33 × 10¹² M_⊙  . CASSOWARY 3 comprises an arc of three bright images of a   z = 0.725  source, lensed by a foreground elliptical at   z = 0.274  . The radius of the arc is ∼4 arcsec and the enclosed mass is  ∼2.5 × 10¹² M_⊙  . Together with earlier discoveries like the Cosmic Horseshoe and the 8 o'clock Arc, these new systems, with separations intermediate between the arcsecond-separation lenses of typical strong galaxy lensing and arcminute-separation cluster lenses, probe the very high end of the galaxy mass function.     

Evaluation of coseismic landslide hazard on the proposed Haast-Hollyford Highway,South Island,New Zealand

Coseismic landsliding presents a major hazard to infrastructure in mountains during large earthquakes. This is particularly true for road networks, as historically coseismic landsliding has resulted in road losses larger than those due to ground shaking. Assessing the exposure of current and planned highway links to coseismic landsliding for future earthquake scenarios is therefore vital for disaster risk reduction. This study presents a method to evaluate the exposure of critical infrastructure to landsliding from scenario earthquakes from an underlying quantitative landslide hazard assessment. The method is applied to a proposed new highway link in South Island, New Zealand, for a scenario Alpine Fault earthquake and compared to the current network. Exposure (the likelihood of a network being affected by one or more landslides) is evaluated from a regional-scale coseismic landslide hazard model and assessed on a relative basis from 0 to 1. The results show that the proposed Haast-Hollyford Highway (HHH) would be highly exposed to coseismic landsliding with at least 30–40?km likely to be badly affected (the Simonin Pass route being the worse affected of the two routes). In the current South Island State Highway network, the HHH would be the link most exposed to landsliding and would increase the total network exposure by 50–70% despite increasing the total road length by just 3%. The present work is intended to provide an effective method to assess coseismic landslide hazard of infrastructure in mountains with seismic hazard, and potentially identify mitigation options and critical network segments.     

Surficial fractures in the Navajo sandstone,south-western USA: the roles of thermal cycles,rainstorms, granular disintegration,and iterative cracking

Deep (> 5 m) sheeting fractures in the Navajo sandstone are evident at numerous sites in southern Utah and derive from tectonic stresses. Strong diurnal thermal cycles are, however, the likely triggers for shallow (< 0.3 m) sheeting fractures. Data from subsurface thermal sensors reveal that large temperature differences between sensors at 2 and 15 cm depth on clear summer afternoons are as great as those that trigger sheeting fractures in exposed California granite. Extensive polygonal patterns in the Navajo sandstone are composed of surface-perpendicular fractures and were produced by contractile stresses. Numerous studies have shown that porewater diminishes the tensile strength of sandstone. Based on our thermal records, we propose that cooling during monsoonal rainstorms triggers polygonal fracturing of temporarily weakened rock. On steep outcrops, polygonal patterns are rectilinear and orthogonal, with T-vertices. Lower-angle slopes host hexagonal patterns (defined by the dominance of Y-vertices). Intermediate patterns with rectangles and hexagons of similar scale are common. We posit that outcropping fractures are advancing downward by iterative steps, and that hexagons on sandstone surfaces (like prismatic columns of basalt) have evolved from ancestral orthogonal polygons of similar scale. In lava flows, fractures elongate intermittently as they follow a steep thermal gradient (the source of stress) as it rapidly moves through the rock mass. In our model, a steep, surficial thermal gradient descends through unfractured sandstone, but at the slow pace of granular disintegration. Through time, as the friable rock on stable slopes erodes, iterative cracking advances into new space. Hexagonal patterns form as new fractures, imperfectly guided by the older ones, propagate in new directions, and vertices drift into a configuration that minimizes the ratio of fracture length to polygon area. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An evaluation of temperature scales for silica diagenesis in diatomaceous sequences including a new approach based on the Miocene Monterey Formation,California

Geologic relations indicate that silica phases transformed in the Monterey Formation in two zones that persist over a narrow depth/temperature range and do not stratigraphically overlap. The wide and overlapping range of reported temperatures of these transformations is mainly a result of the many uncertainties inherent in the different methods used to estimate temperature and does not indicate that phases transform throughout these ranges. Our approach to a reliable temperature scale for silica diagenesis combines as empirical zonation of silica phases with temperature calibration from a sequence at maximum temperature and depth of burial.