Mid-Jurassic Tectonothermal Event Superposed on a Paleozoic Geological Record in the Acatlán Complex of Southern Mexico: Hotspot Activity During the Breakup of Pangea

U-Pb isotopic analyses of zircon from the lowest structural units of the Acatlán Complex of southern Mexico indicate that Paleozoic tectonothermal events are overprinted by mid-Jurassic (175±3 to 171±1 Ma), low pressure migmatization (5–6 kb), polyphase deformation, and intrusion of felsic and mafic magmas. Ensuing rapid cooling recorded by ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar muscovite, biotite and K-feldspar ages is estimated to have taken place at 21±3°C/my at exhumation rates of 0.6 mm/yr. Such rapid exhumation requires a combination of erosion and tectonic unroofing that is recorded by top-to-the-west kinematic data. Synchronous tectonic unroofing is also recorded 100 km to the east in the adjacent Oaxaca terrane, where top-to-the-north, extensional shear zones occur in Paleozoic strata.This pattern of extension suggests tectonic unroofing in response to domal uplift (radius >100 km) like that associated with core complexes, slab windows, and hotspots. Most tectonic analyses for the Jurassic place the Acatlán Complex in the forearc region of an arc in Colombia lying 600–800 km inboard of the subduction zone, presumably in response to flat-slab subduction. Modern analogues suggest that flat-slab subduction reflects subduction of young buoyant oceanic lithosphere adjacent to either a mid-oceanic ridge, or a plume. Since core complexes are typical of arc-backarc regions, and slab windows generally produce metamorphic belts, the forearc setting and associated domal uplift suggest a plume to be the most likely cause of this Jurassic tectonothermal pulse in southern Mexico. This plume activity is synchronous with the opening of the Gulf of Mexico during the breakup of Pangea, to which it may have contributed.     

Mapping the state of fracture around cavities

The state of stress around cavities is heterogeneous. Consequently, the state of fracture may also vary from point to point. Under compressive loading, cavity may be in one of four possible states: pre-fracture (pre-microfracture initiation), microfracture propagation (initiation to the onset of dilata dilatancy to failure) and post-failure. These four states are separated by the crack initiation stress, the crack damage stress and the failure stress. fracture events with confining pressure is examined with reference to three intact rocks: a brittle granite, a semi-brittle limestone and a ductile sal

The maximum principal stress (σ₁) at crack initiation, crack damage (onset of dilatancy), yielding and failure are established as a function stress (σ₃). For a single intact rock, all four fracture events can be represented using one function (the Rocker function) with a single fac various fracture states.

The proposed fracture criteria, based on the experimental data, are combined with the existing state of stress to prepare a fracture map around an elli intact Lac du Bonnet granite. The state of stability is expressed through a newly defined stability factor, the unconfined strength ratio (USR), wh to the traditional safety factor. In contrast to the conventional safety factor in rock mechanics (SFstrength/σ₁), which is σ₃ 3–σ₁, space of the stability diagram.     

A flood-dominated mesotidal inlet

Tidal inlets along the mesotidal coast of Maine contrast with those from other parts of the world by being dominated by flood-tidal currents. Analysis of the factors responsible for flood or ebb dominance indicates factors external to the backbarrier environment. We suggest that the flood dominance is caused by both a steepening of the tidal wave in the Gulf of Maine and the shallow depth of the ebb-tidal delta and spit platform. Flood currents are typically 10–20 cm/sec stronger than the ebb at the inlet throat. The flood dominance results in a significant net landward transport of sediment into the backbarrier.     

A catalogue and analysis of X-ray luminosities of early-type galaxies

We present a catalogue of X-ray luminosities for 401 early-type galaxies, of which 136 are based on newly analysed ROSAT PSPC pointed observations. The remaining luminosities are taken from the literature and converted to a common energy band, spectral model and distance scale. Using this sample we fit the L _X  :  L _B relation for early-type galaxies and find a best-fit slope for the catalogue of ∼2.2. We demonstrate the influence of group-dominant galaxies on the fit and present evidence that the relation is not well modelled by a single power-law fit. We also derive estimates of the contribution to galaxy X-ray luminosities from discrete-sources and conclude that they provide     . We compare this result with luminosities from our catalogue. Lastly, we examine the influence of environment on galaxy X-ray luminosity and on the form of the     relation. We conclude that although environment undoubtedly affects the X-ray properties of individual galaxies, particularly those in the centres of groups and clusters, it does not change the nature of whole populations.     

Three pulsars discovered by FAST in the globular cluster NGC 6517 with a pulsar candidate sifting code based on dispersion measure to signal-to-noise ratio plots

We report the discovery of three new pulsars in the globular cluster(GC) NGC 6517, namely NGC 6517 E, F and G, made with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST).The spin periods of NGC 6517 E, F and G are 7.60 ms, 24.89 ms and 51.59 ms, respectively. Their dispersion measures are 183.29, 183.713 and 185.3 pc cm~(-3), respectively, all slightly larger than those of the previously known pulsars in this cluster. The spin period derivatives are at the level of 1×10~(-18) s s~(-1),which suggests these are recycled pulsars. In addition to the discovery of these three new pulsars, we updated the timing solutions of the known isolated pulsars, NGC 6517 A, C and D. The solutions are consistent with those from Lynch et al. but with smaller timing residuals. From the timing solution, NGC6517 A, B(position from Lynch et al.), C, E and F are very close to each other on the sky and only a few arcseconds from the optical core of NGC 6517. With currently published and unpublished discoveries,nine pulsars have been discovered in NGC 651, ranking it 6 thfor GCs with the most known pulsars. The discoveries take advantage of the high sensitivity of FAST and a new algorithm used to check and filter possible candidate signals.