The ClBrI composition of 3.23 Ga modified seawater: implications for the geological evolution of ocean halide chemistry

Fluid inclusion leachates obtained from vug and vein quartz samples from an Archean (3.23 Ga) Fe-oxide hydrothermal deposit in the west-central part of the Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa, were analyzed by ion chromatography for chloride, bromide, and iodide. The deposit, known as the ironstone pods, formed by seafloor hydrothermal activity and fluid discharge. Quartz is dominated by type I liquid-vapor, aqueous inclusions with a bimodal salinity distribution (0–0.25 M_Cl⁻ and 0.9–1.8 M_Cl⁻). Bulk analytical salinities range from 0.45 to 0.99 M_Cl⁻ represent averages of type I inclusions. Bulk fluid inclusion bromide and iodide concentrations are 1.44–3.32 mM and 0.01–0.12 mM, respectively. For comparison, modern seawater has halogen contents of 590 mM chloride, 0.9 mM bromide, and 0.5 μM total iodine. In the fluids from the ironstone pods, bromide and iodide are enriched relative to chloride, when compared with modern seawater.Approximate Br⁻Cl⁻ and I⁻Cl⁻ ratios of 3.2 Ga Barberton seawater are 2.5 × 10⁻³ and 40 × 10⁻⁶, respectively. Dispersion to higher values was caused principally by reaction with organic sediments whose trends are similar to those seen for modern vent fluids at unsedimented and sedimented ridges, relative to modern seawater. These halide ratios are greater than those of modern seawater, suggesting a change in the halide ratios of seawater over geological time. The analytical data are consistent with a model in which marine organic sedimentation has fractionated bromine and iodine out of seawater relative to chloride, thereby causing the halide ratios of seawater to decrease from high early and mid-Archean values towards their present day values.     

Relationship of Avalonian and Cadomian terranes to Grenville and Pan-African events

Suturing of the supercontinent Rodinia in the Grenville event (˜ 1000 Ma) was followed by rifting in the late Proterozoic (˜ 800-700 Ma), reorganization to Gondwana in the Pan-African (˜ 700-500 Ma) and further accretion to develop Pangea at the end of the Paleozoic. One of the Rodinian rifts followed part of the Grenville suture, it produced the margin of eastern North America and southern Baltica and the contrasting margin of west Gondwana in present South America. The Paleozoic accretionary wedge against the Grenville-age margin of North America and Baltica contains Avalonian/Cadomian terranes that exhibit Pan-African erogenic events ± sediments apparently developed while the terranes were in or near Gondwana. These terranes carry lower-Paleozoic fauna (Acado-Baltic) that are not indigenous to North America and Baltica.U---Pb zircon ages range from 1500-1000 Ma in Grenville terranes and from 800–500 Ma with minor inheritance in Avalonian terranes; they are generally much older in Cadomian terranes, implying very little resetting during Pan-African events. T_DM ages are generally 2000–1200 Ma in Grenville terranes, 1300–600 Ma in Avalonian terranes and 2000–1200 in Cadomian terranes. These summary data show that: (1) the Grenville orogenic event produced almost no juvenile crust; (2) the Avalonian terranes of North America contain crust that evolved primarily in the late Proterozoic, possibly as a mixture of juvenile Pan-African material and Grenville or slightly older material; (3) the Cadomian terranes of Europe consist of old (middle-Proterozoic to Archean) crust with minor juvenile Pan-African material. The Avalonian terranes apparently evolved near, and partly on, the Grenville-age crust now in South America during the intense orogeny associated with rotation of Gondwana away from North America. The Cadomian terranes of Europe, however, appear to be fragments of other parts of Gondwana, probably West Africa.     

Objective cyclone climatologies of the North Atlantic – a comparison between the ECMWF and NCEP Reanalyses

Simple and easily reproducible techniques have been used to construct two objective cyclone climatologies of the North Atlantic-European sector. The goal of this study is to increase understanding of cyclones with the potential to cause damage, in particular, those reaching Beaufort category 7 and above. The two climatologies constructed here span the period 1979–2000 and have been developed from reanalysis mean sea level pressure data from the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts) and NCEP (National Centres for Environmental Prediction). The ECMWF reanalysis data are only available for 15 years, and have been extended from 1994 using operational analyses. The major temporal and spatial characteristics of North Atlantic cyclones are examined and a comparison between the climatologies developed from the two data sets is carried out. The well-known cyclogenesis regions along the east coast of the United States and to the southeast of Greenland are replicated by both reanalyses, as is the characteristic southwest/northeast orientation of the dominant cyclone track across the Atlantic basin. However, only weak correlations are found between the time series of cyclone frequency produced from the two reanalyses, and this is particularly true for the lower intensity Beaufort Scale category 0–6 cyclones. This result, together with the large differences in the spatial distribution of cyclones over Greenland for Beaufort Scale 0–6 cyclones, indicates the NCEP reanalyses generates fewer systems than the ECMWF reanalyses. The overall conclusion is that the ECMWF mean sea level pressure data produce a more comprehensive climatology of North Atlantic cyclones at all scales.     

Time-dependent, coupled, Ekman boundary layer solutions incorporating Stokes drift

Recent technological advances in current measuring devices has resulted in a large observational database related to wind-driven motions in the upper ocean mixed layer. This has served to highlight the fact that transient motions make up a substantial contribution of the resulting Ekman currents. At the same time, certain discrepancies have emerged between the observed angular deflections of the steady-state currents from the surface wind stress, both at the surface and at sub-surface depths, which cannot be reconciled using the classical Ekman model. This paper seeks to tackle these two issues.First a general analytical method is presented for solving the time dependent horizontal momentum Ekman equations. Analysis of the unsteady terms that arise from simple special cases shows how the evolution proceeds through three stages. At early times, the Coriolis acceleration is insignificant, and the current is unidirectional and deepens through downward diffusion of momentum. Later Coriolis acceleration deflects the current vectors in the upper layers, whilst downward diffusion of momentum continues to deepen the layer. Finally, once diffusion has penetrated down to the depth of the steady-state current, then the transients decay on the inertial or diffusive timescale, depending upon the boundary conditions of the particular problem.In the second half of the paper, a new steady-state model is developed that includes the effects of wind-generated waves, through the action of their Stokes drift on the planetary vorticity. Comparisons between observations and the theoretical predictions, demonstrate that inclusion of the Stokes drift is the key to reconciling the discrepancies in the angular deflections of the steady-state currents. This leads to the conclusion that Ekman layer currents are significantly influenced by the surface waves.     

Century-Scale Change in Water Availability: CO2-Quadrupling Experiment

It has been suggested that, unless a major effort is made, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide may rise above four times the pre-industrial level in a few centuries. Here we use a coupled atmosphere-ocean-land model to explore the response of the global water cycle to such a large increase in carbon dioxide, focusing on river discharge and soil moisture. Our results suggest that water is going to be more plentiful in those regions of the world that are already `water-rich'. However, water stresses will increase significantly in regions and seasons that are already relatively dry. This could pose a very challenging problem for water-resource management around the world. For soil moisture, our results indicate reductions during much of the year in many semi-arid regions of the world, such as the southwestern region of North America, the northeastern region of China, the Mediterranean coast of Europe, and the grasslands of Australia and Africa. In some of these regions, soil moisture values are reduced by almost a factor of two during the dry season. The drying in semi-arid regions is likely to induce the outward expansion of deserts to the surrounding regions. Over extensive regions of both the Eurasian and North American continents in high and middle latitudes, soil moisture decreases in summer but increases in winter, in contrast to the situation in semi-arid regions. For river discharge, our results indicate an average increase of ～ 15% during the next few centuries. The discharges from Arctic rivers such as the Mackenzie and Ob' increase by much larger fractions. In the tropics, the discharges from the Amazonas and Ganga-Brahmaputra also increase considerably. However, the percentage changes in runoff from other tropical and many mid-latitude rivers are smaller.     

多年冻土地区建筑物地基的热稳定性技术

Thermal stabilization of soils (including freezing of thawed soils and cooling of permafrost) is known to be the effective method providing stable support for buildings and structures in cold regions.Seasonal thermo-stabilizers (STS) are mainly used in construction. The predicted climate warming because of natural and man-caused factors determines wide application of STS in permafrost regions. A STS transfers heat from its underground part (evaporator) to the aerial part (condenser) owing to natural temperature difference between them during a cold season. We have been working out and manufacturing different types of two-phase, vapor-liquid STS. Aluminum alloys are used in our STS to prevent corrosion and to increase their efficiency. They are successfully used in the northern regions of Western Siberia, in particular, at the railway Obskaya Bovanenkovo. The paper presents some technical parameters of new STS, the results of their experimental study and computer simulation, as well as experience features.     

Statistical Detection and Characterization of a Deviation from the Gutenberg-Richter Distribution above Magnitude 8

— We present a quantitative statistical test for the presence of a crossover c₀ in the Gutenberg-Richter distribution of earthquake seismic moments, separating the usual power-law regime for seismic moments less than c₀ from another faster decaying regime beyond c₀. Our method is based on the transformation of the ordered sample of seismic moments into a series with uniform distribution under condition of no crossover. A simulation method allows us to estimate the statistical significance of the null hypothesis H₀ of an absence of crossover (c₀=infinity). When H₀ is rejected, we estimate the crossover c₀ using two different competing models for the second regime beyond c₀ and the simulation method. For the catalog obtained by aggregating 14 subduction zones of the Circum-Pacific Seismic Belt, our estimate of the crossover point is log(c₀)=28.14 ± 0.40 (c₀ in dyne-cm), corresponding to a crossover magnitude m_W=8.1 ± 0.3. For separate subduction zones, the corresponding estimates are substantially more uncertain, so that the null hypothesis of an identical crossover for all subduction zones cannot be rejected. Such a large value of the crossover magnitude makes it difficult to associate it directly with a seismogenic thickness as proposed by many different authors. Our measure of c₀ may substantiate the concept that the localization of strong shear deformation could propagate significantly in the lower crust and upper mantle, thus increasing the effective size beyond which one should expect a change of regime.     

Geographical and Ecological Characteristics of the Caspian Sea and Modern Tendencies in the Evolution of Its Ecosystem

The Caspian Sea is characterized in the geographic and ecological aspects, and the state of its ecosystem is estimated. The natural and anthropogenic processes that control the formation of the environmental conditions in the Caspian Sea and the distribution of principal commercial hydrobionts and their food items are analyzed. Data on modern tendencies in changes in the abiotic and biotic parameters of the ecosystem, their causes and mechanisms are summarized. Prospects of further changes related to the development of shelf fields of petroleum hydrocarbons are assessed.