The energy cycle in atmospheric models

The energy cycle characterizes basic aspects of the physical behaviour of the climate system. Terms in the energy cycle involve first and second order climate statistics (means, variances, covariances) and the intercomparison of energetic quantities offers physically motivated “second order” insight into model and system behaviour. The energy cycle components of 12 models participating in AMIP2 are calculated, intercompared and assessed against results based on NCEP and ERA reanalyses. In general, models simulate a modestly too vigorous energy cycle and the contributions to and reasons for this are investigated. The results suggest that excessive generation of zonal available potential energy is an important driver of the overactive energy cycle through “generation push” while excessive dissipation of eddy kinetic energy in models is implicated through “dissipation pull‘’. The study shows that “ensemble model” results are best or among the best in the comparison of energy cycle quantities with reanalysis-based values. Thus ensemble approaches are apparently “best” not only for the simulation of 1st order climate statistics as in Lambert and Boer (Clim Dyn 17:83–106, 2001) but also for the higher order climate quantities entering the energy cycle.     

The role of the ocean in pleistocene climate changes

Doklady Earth Sciences -     

Climatic and anthropogenic influence on the stable isotope record from bulk carbonates and ostracodes in Lake Neuchâ, Switzerland, during the last two millennia

Lake Neuchåtel is a medium sized, hard-water lake, lacking varved sediments, situated in the western Swiss Lowlands at the foot of the Jura Mountains. Stable isotope data (18O and 13C) from both bulk carbonate and ostracode calcite in an 81 cm long, radiocarbon-dated sediment core represent the last 1500 years of Lake Neuchåtel's environmental history. Comparison between this isotopic and other palaeolimnologic data (mineralogical, geochemical, palynological, etc.) helps to differentiate between anthropogenic and natural factors most recently affecting the lake. An increase in lacustrine productivity (450–650AD ca), inferred from the positive trend in 13C values of bulk carbonate, is related to medieval forest clearances and the associated nutrient budget changes. A negative trend in both the bulk carbonate and ostracode calcite 18O values between approximately 1300 and 1500AD, is tentatively interpreted as due to a cooling in mean air temperature at the transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age. Negative trends in bulk carbonate 18O and 13C values through the uppermost sediments, which have no equivalent in ostracode calcite isotopic values, are concomitant with the recent onset of eutrophication in the lake. Isotopic disequilibrium during calcite precipitation, probably due to kinetic factors in periods of high productivity is postulated as the mechanism to explain the associated negative isotopic trends, although the effect of a shift of the calcite precipitation towards the warmer months cannot be excluded.     

Model calculations of the thermal fields of subducting lithospheric slabs and partial melting

A new numerical model that simulates a downgoing slab is used to study the conditions required to produce melting on its upper surface. Models with dip angles of 26.6° and 45°, rates of subduction of 0.7 and 5.6 cm y⁻¹, varying heat sources and rising material from the top of the slab are included. The results indicate that melting will not be greatly affected by dip angle, though the rate of subduction and the amount of shearstrain heating are important. When melting occurs, material rising from the top of the slab may produce high heat flow values at the surface of the earth on the continental side of the ocean trench, if the process continues sufficiently long. The sinking slab produces a positive gravity anomaly on the continental side of subduction, which is reduced in amplitude when rising material is present.     

Sulphur isotope studies of the Mount Gunson copper deposits,Pernatty Lagoon,South Australia

The Mount Gunson copper deposits occur in essentially unmetamorphosed gently-folded Upper Proterozoic sediments, far from any known igneous intrusions. They consist of a number of small ore bodies which can be divided into two groups on the basis of differences in location, texture and mineralogy. The groups are here termed the off-lagoon deposits, which are extensively oxidized and occur in low hills to the west of Pernatty Lagoon, and the lagoon deposits, which are not significantly oxidized and occur in basins of permeable bedrock under the lagoon floor. The topography and drainage of this region appear to have altered little since the Tertiary. This paper presents the results of a sulphur isotope ratio study of sulphide minerals, groundwaters and gypsum samples from the mineralized areas. The isotope ratios recorded for the lagoon sulphides provide an example of the pattern predicted for metal sulphide precipitation due to bacterial reduction of sulphate in an environment with limited replenishment of sulphate. This finding is in accord with the suggestion that the copper sulphides were precipitated during recent geological times in groundwater traps in the permeable bedrock under the lagoon. However, sulphate from groundwater and gypsum in the lagoon is not enriched in the S³⁴ isotope, and hence it is concluded that no significant bacterial reduction of sulphate is occurring in the areas examined at the present time. The isotope ratios recorded for the off-lagoon sulphides, in contrast, fall in a narrower range. They can be interpreted to reflect metal sulphide precipitation by bacterial reduction of sulphate in a fairly open system, with considerable replenishment of sulphate, but they provide no information concerning the time of this precipitation. Mineralogical studies of the sulphide samples show that individual samples contain a mixture of sulphide minerals and that one mineral is usually dominant. It appears, for samples with co-existing chalcopyrite and djurleite, that S³⁴ is preferentially enriched in the chalcopyrite.

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Zusammenfassung Die Mount Gunson-Kupferlagerstätten finden sich in im wesentlichen nicht metamorphisierten, schwach gefalteten ober-proterozoischen Sedimenten, weit entfernt von irgendwelchen bekannten Intrusiven. Sie bestehen aus einer Reihe kleiner Erzkörper, die sich auf Grund ihrer Unterschiede in bezug auf ihren Fundort, ihr Gefüge und ihre Mineralogie in zwei Gruppen unterteilen lassen. Diese beiden Gruppen werden hier als Off-Lagoon-Lagerstätten, die weitgehend oxidiert sind und in niedrigen Hügeln westlich von der Pernatty Lagoon vorkommen, beziehungsweise als Lagoon-Lagerstätten, die nicht significant oxidiert sind und in Becken permeablen Gesteins unter dem Lagunenboden gefunden werden, bezeichnet. Die Topographie und die Abflußverhältnisse scheinen sich in dieser Region seit dem Tertiär nur wenig verändert zu haben. Diese Arbeit zeigt die Ergebnisse einer Analyse der Schwefelisotopen-Verhältnisse von Sulfiden, Grundwasser- und Gips-Proben aus den mineralisierten Bereichen. Die für die Lagunen-Sulfide registrierten Isotopenverhältnisse sind ein Beispiel der für die Metallsulfid-Ausfällung auf Grund von bakterieller Sulfatzufuhr zu erwartenden Verteilung. Dieser Befund stimmt mit der Vorstellung, daß die Kupfersulfide während rezenter geologischer Zeiten in Grundwasserspeichern innerhalb des permeablen Gesteins unter der Lagune ausgefällt worden sind, überein. Die Sulfate aus dem Grundwasser und Gips der Lagune sind jedoch nicht mit dem Isotop S³⁴ angereichert, woraus der Schluß gezogen wird, daß in den untersuchten Gebieten gegenwärtig keine wesentliche bakterielle Reduktion von Sulfaten stattfindet. Im Gegensatz dazu fallen die für die Off-Lagoon-Lagerstätten-Sulfide registrierten Isotopen-Verhältnisse in einen engeren Streuungsbereich. Sie können als Darstellung von Metall-Sulfid-Ausfällung durch bakterielle Reduktion von Sulfaten in einem ziemlich offenen System mit erheblichem Sulfat-Nachschub gedeutet werden, geben aber keine Auskunft über den Zeitpunkt dieser Präzipitation. Mineralogische Untersuchungen der Sulfid-Proben zeigen, daß die einzelnen Proben eine Mischung von Sulfid-Mineralien enthalten und daß gewöhnlich ein Mineral überwiegt. In Proben, die sowohl Kupferkies als auch Djurleit enthalten, scheint S³⁴ vorzugsweise im Kupferkies angereichert zu sein.

     

Die Einschichtung der Rhone im Genfersee: Ergebnisse von Strömungsmessungen im August 1983

Results obtained by means of an ultrasonic current meter in the plume of the Rhone river are summarized as follows:

1. Currents of Rhone river water entering the lake were clearly discernible up to a distance of about 1 km from the river mouth. The interflow was observed at depth of 10 to 30 m.
2. Interflow velocities decreased with increasing distance from the river mouth: from 40cm/s at a distance of 350 m to about 15 cm/s at 1 km.
3. Short-term variations of current velocities and directions documented the highly turbulent nature of the interflow.
4. The entering river water (inflow direction to the NNW) interfered with a persisting northeastward current of the lake water. At a distance of 1–2 km from the mouth the interflow gradually assumed the same direction, possibly due to deflection by Coriolis forces.
5. Current velocities showed considerable variations within a time scale in the order of hours at the same measuring position. The reasons for these fluctuations remain unclear. Possible causes may be lateral oscillations of the entering river water or its deviation by river mouth bars during periods of reduced river discharge. Variations of the discharge alone cannot explain these current fluctuations.

     

Shock effects on hydrous minerals and implications for carbonaceous meteorites

New infrared absorption spectra, thermo-gravimetric analyses and optical-and scanning electron microscopy of shock-recovered specimens of antigorite serpentine (Mg₃Si₂O₅(OH)₄) from the pressure range between 25 to 59 GPa are reported. The infrared spectra show systematic changes in absorption peaks related to structural and molecular surface absorbed water. H₂O absorption peaks increase at the expense of OH peaks with increasing shock pressure. Changes in SiO bond vibrational modes with increasing shock pressure parallel those seen for other, non-hydrous minerals. Thermogravimetric analyses of shock-recovered samples determine the amount of shock-induced water loss. For samples shocked in vented assemblies, the data define a relation between shock-induced water loss versus shock pressure. Results for samples shocked in sealed assemblies demonstrate a dependence of water loss on shock pressure and target confinement. For the vented assembly samples, a linear relation between shock pressure and both the length of dehydration interval and the effective activation energy for releasing post-shock structural water in antigorite is found. Optical and scanning electron miscroscopy of shocked antigorite reveal a number of textures thought to be unique to shock loading of volatile-bearing minerals. Gas bubbles, which probably are the result of shock-released H₂O appear to be injected into zones of partial melting. This process may produce the vesicular dark veins which are distributed throughout heavily shocked samples. The present observations suggest several criteria which may constrain possible shock histories of the hydrous matrix phases of carbonaceous condrites. A model is proposed for explaining hydrous alteration processes occurring on carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies in the course of their accretion. We speculate that shock loading of hydrous minerals would release and redistribute free water in the regoliths of carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies giving rise to the observed hydrous alterations.