Mud Tank Zircon: Long‐Term Evaluation of a Reference Material for U‐Pb Dating,Hf‐Isotope Analysis and Trace Element Analysis

Zircon megacrysts from the Mud Tank carbonatite, Australia, are being used in many laboratories as a reference material for LA‐ICP‐MS U‐Pb dating and trace element measurement, and LA‐MC‐ICP‐MS determination of Hf isotopes. We summarise a database of > 10000 analyses of Mud Tank zircon (MTZ), collected from 2000 to 2018 during its use as a secondary reference material for simultaneous U‐Pb and trace element analysis, and for Hf‐isotope analysis. Trace element mass fractions are highest in dark red‐brown stones and lowest in colourless and gem‐quality ones. Individual unzoned grains can be chemically homogeneous, while significant variations in trace element mass fraction are associated with oscillatory zoning. Chondrite‐normalised trace element patterns are essentially parallel over large mass fraction ranges. A Concordia age of 731.0 ± 0.2 Ma (2s, n = 2272) is taken as the age of crystallisation. Some grains show lower concordant to mildly discordant ages, probably reflecting minor Pb loss associated with cooling and the Alice Springs Orogeny (450–300 Ma). Our weighted mean ¹⁷⁶Hf/¹⁷⁷Hf is 0.282523 ± 10 (2s, n = 9350); the uncertainties on this ratio reflect some heterogeneity, mainly between grains. A few analyses suggest that colourless grains have generally lower ¹⁷⁶Hf/¹⁷⁷Hf. MTZ is a useful secondary reference material for U‐Pb and Hf‐isotope analysis, but individual grains need to be carefully selected using CL imaging and tested for homogeneity, and ideally should be standardised by solution analysis.     

Early Cretaceous flora from coal-bearing strata of Markovsky Peninsula in South Primorye，Russia

The Early Cretaceous flora from the coal-bearing strata(Ussuri and Lipovtsy formations)in the Markovsky peninsula of South Primorye,Far East Russia,is reported in some detail in this paper.The flora containing over 80 species of about 50 genera can be divided into two assemblages.The paleofloristic characteristics and the comparisons of this flora with its coeval floras from the adjacent region of the eastern Heilongjiang of Northeast China,indicate the flora and its coal-bearing strata of the Markovsky peninsula can be compared to those of the Chengzihe and Muling formations of the Jixi area of Heilongjiang,representing probably the late Barremian and Aptian age,respectively.     

Rebuttal to comment on “Modeling of opposition effects with ensembles of clusters: Interplay of various scattering mechanisms” by Elena V. Petrova, Victor P. Tishkovets, Klaus Jockers, 2007 [Icarus 188, 233-245]

Shkuratov and Zubko [Shkuratov, Yu.G., Zubko, E., 2008. Icarus 194, 850-852] criticize our paper [Petrova, E.V., Tishkovets, V.P., Jockers, K., 2007. Icarus 188, 233-245]. With this comment we reply to this criticism. We show that the experimental data and the modeling calculations presented by these authors cannot disprove the near-field effect as an important contributor to the scattering mechanisms considered in our paper.     

Quasi-stars: accreting black holes inside massive envelopes

We study the structure and evolution of 'quasi-stars', accreting black holes embedded within massive hydrostatic gaseous envelopes. These configurations may model the early growth of supermassive black hole seeds. The accretion rate on to the black hole adjusts so that the luminosity carried by the convective envelope equals the Eddington limit for the total mass,   M _*+ M _BH≈ M _*  . This greatly exceeds the Eddington limit for the black hole mass alone, leading to rapid growth of the black hole. We use analytic models and numerical stellar structure calculations to study the structure and evolution of quasi-stars. We show that the photospheric temperature of the envelope scales as   T _ph∝ M ^−2/5_BH M ^7/20_*  , and decreases with time while the black hole mass increases. Once   T _ph < 10⁴ K  , the photospheric opacity drops precipitously and T _ph hits a limiting value, analogous to the Hayashi track for red giants and protostars, below which no hydrostatic solution for the convective envelope exists. For metal-free (Population III) opacities, this limiting temperature is approximately 4000 K. After a quasi-star reaches this limiting temperature, it is rapidly dispersed by radiation pressure. We find that black hole seeds with masses between 10³ and  10⁴ M_⊙  could form via this mechanism in less than a few Myr.     

An Excel Macro to Plot the HFE‐Diagram to Identify Sea Water Intrusion Phases

A hydrochemical facies evolution diagram (HFE‐D) is a multirectangular diagram, which is a useful tool in the interpretation of sea water intrusion processes. This method note describes a simple method for generating an HFE‐D plot using the spreadsheet software package, Microsoft Excel. The code was applied to groundwater from the alluvial coastal plain of Grosseto (Tuscany, Italy), which is characterized by a complex salinization process in which sea water mixes with sulfate or bicarbonate recharge water.