Fluid venting from a mud volcano in the Mediterranean Ridge Diapiric Belt

Direct observation of active emission of fluids and mud from a submarine mud volcano were made for the first time in an extensive field of mud diapirs and mud volcanoes on the Mediterranean Ridge using a video camera towed 2 m above the seafloor in 1800 m of water. This recent research using both long range and deep-towed sidescan sonar systems indicates also that diapirism and eruption of mud along the crest of the ridge is more common than previously thought. The southwards increase in age of rock fragments carried within the erupted mud supports the hypothesis that the fluid mud becomes overpressured within a southward-dipping backthrust from the Inner Deformation Front of this accretionary prism.     

Visco-plastic behaviour during the excavation phase of a salt cavity

The stress field and flow characteristics are studied for a cavity with the shape of a prolate spheroid in dome salt with emphasis given to the excavation phase. A semi-empirical creep law is derived from thermodynamic principles and experimental results. In this paper, an elementary non-linear form is used in the kinetic relation. A finite element solution procedure is discussed which incorporates the creep law, excavation sequence, and arbitrary non-homogeneous initial stress field.     

Foraminiferal associations of the Mid-Tertiary Edegem Sands at Terhagen, Belgium

A factor-analytic approach (varimax rotated factors) was used in studying the benthonic foraminiferal associations of the Mid-Tertiary Edegem Sands at Terhagen (near Antwerpen) Belgium. The fauna can be described by two groups. The lower and upper part of the stratigraphic section are characterized by one group and the middle transitional part by a second group. The results can be correlated with the number of the planktonic forms and with the fossil richness of the sediment.     

Topological properties of disjoint channel networks within enclosed regions

Enclosure of some portion of one or more natural stream-drainage basins by superposition of a rectangle on a map of drainage network results in fragmentation of the natural basins into a set of disjoint channel networks. Each of these may have some channel links and forks of the natural network plus truncated links intersected by the enclosure boundary. The topological properties of the network elements in the enclosure are used to set up a model of random network patterns, in which the number of disjoint channel networks is expressed as a function of the number of links and forks in the enclosures. This function is shown to be a multiplicative constant times the square root of the number of links or forks. Empirical data on square and rectangular enclosures of several sizes from the Inez (Kentucky)Quadrangle map showed that the predicted multiplicative constants do not agree with observation, but that the square-root relation seems to hold at least to a first approximation. The models thus can be used as a norm against which deviations of real-world enclosures from network pattern randomness can be studied.     

Trajectoires rectilignes du problème des 3 corps,lorsque la constante des forces vives est nulle

This problem is reducible to the integration of the EulerChazy's differential equation. We give a new simplified version of the equation, and we interpret in the corresponding diagram the study of two extreme degenerate cases.

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Presenté à la Conference du Mécanique Céleste, Oberwolfach, Germany, août 27–septembre 2, 1972.     

Applications of thermodynamics to fundamental earth physics

New fundamental thermodynamic relationships of complete generality and absolute rigour of derivation are not to be expected, because the subject has such a secure and complete basis in classical physics. There is, however, still scope for original, fundamental work based on recognised assumptions and approximations which may be obviously acceptable in particular situations. Clarification of relationships between thermodynamic parameters for materials within the Earth is particularly important because there is so little possibility of measuring them individually. This survey first summarises the established relationships in a very condensed form and then concentrates on some recent developments which have direct bearing on the thermal and mechanical states of the Earth's mantle and core. Considerable use is made of the thermodynamic Grüneisen parameter, which is a dimensionless quantity of order unity for almost all materials, solid, liquid and gaseous, and is directly related to the pressure dependences of elastic constants. This allows its value to be estimated for the different regions of the Earth from seismological data. The thermodynamic (heat engine) efficiency of convection in a homogeneous medium, driving tectonic activity or the geomagnetic dynamo, is found to be the ideal (Carnot) efficiency corresponding to adiabatic temperature differences between the heat source and sink, within the assumption that the thermal expansion coefficient is not strongly temperature dependent. The use of this conclusion to infer tectonic stresses is indicated. The thermodynamic basis for Lindemann's melting law is restated and the reasons for supposing it to be valid for materials at megabar pressures reaffirmed. Application to the inner core boundary gives a fixed point on the Earth's temperature profile. Use of thermodynamic relationships in the interpretation of shock wave compressions is indicated.