Early physical conditions of the planets and satellites

An understanding of the origin of the Solar System is proving hard to achieve and there is still no finally accepted account. A wider range of reliable data, and especially for the outer Solar System, has become available over the last decade due to the use of space vehicles, and particularly the two Voyager probes which are now passing out of the Solar System. The planetary and satellite systems can, therefore, be viewed now more nearly as a whole than previously and consequences for the theory of the origin of the System should follow. The subject is here reviewed again but emphasis is placed on the relative planetology of the whole System. The only reliable data available to us are associated with the System as it is now and this will be the starting point for our discussion.     

The petrology, phase relations and tectonic setting of basalts from the taupo volcanic zone, New Zealand and the Kermadec Island arc - havre trough, SW Pacific

Volcanism in the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) and the Kermadec arc-Havre Trough (KAHT) is related to westward subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the Indo-Australian Plate. The tectonic setting of the TVZ is continental whereas in KAHT it is oceanic and in these two settings the relative volumes of basalt differ markedly. In TVZ, basalts form a minor proportion (< 1%) of a dominant rhyolite (97%)-andesite association while in KAHT, basalts and basaltic andesites are the major rock types. Neither the convergence rate between the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates nor the extension rates in the back-arc region or the dip of the Pacific Plate Wadati-Benioff zone differ appreciably between the oceanic and continental segments. The distance between the volcanic front and the axis of the back-arc basin decreases from the Kermadec arc to TVZ and the distance between trench and volcanic front increases from around 200 km in the Kermadec arc to 280 km in TVZ. These factors may prove significant in determining the extent to which arc and backarc volcanism in subduction settings are coupled.All basalts from the Kermadec arc are porphyritic (up to 60% phenocrysts) with assemblages generally dominated by plagioclase but with olivine, clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene. A single dredge sample from the Havre Trough back arc contains olivine and plagioclase microphenocrysts in glassy pillow rind and is mildly alkaline (< 1% normative nepheline) contrasting with the tholeiitic nature of the other basalts. Basalts from the TVZ contain phenocryst assemblages of olivine + plagioclase ± clinopyroxene; orthopyroxene phenocrysts occur only in the most evolved basalts and basaltic andesites from both TVZ and the Kermadec Arc.Sparsely porphyritic primitive compositions (Mg/(Mg+Fe²) > 70) are high in Al₂O₃ (>16.5%), and project in the olivine volume of the basalt tetrahedron. They contain olivine (Fo₈₇) phenocrysts and plagioclase (> An₆₀) microphenocrysts. These magmas have ratios of CaO/Al₂O₃, A1₂O₃/TiO₂ and CaO/TiO₂ in the range of MORB and MORB picrites and can evolve to the low-pressure MORB cotectic by crystallisation of olivine±plagiociase. Such rocks may be the parents of other magmas whose evolutionary pathways are complicated by interaction of crystal fractionation, crystal accumulation and mixing processes and the filtering action of crust of variable density and thickness. The interplay of these processes likely accounts for the scatter of data about the cotectic. More evolved rocks from both TVZ and KAHT contain clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene phenocrysts and their compositions merge with basaltic andesites and andesites. Stepwise least-squares modelling using phenocryst assemblages in proportions observed in the rocks suggest that crystal fractionation and accumulation processes can account for much of the diversity observed in the major-element compositions of all lavas.We conclude that the parental basaltic magmas for volcanism in the TVZ and KAHT segments are similar thereby implying grossly similar source mineralogy. We attribute the diversity to secondary processes influencing liquids as they ascended through complex plumbing systems in the sub arc mantle and cross.     

Variation in the life-history traits of a Schilbid catfish,Clupisoma garua (Hamilton, 1822) in the coastal waters of southern Bangladesh

For the first time,the present study reports the life-history traits,comprising length-frequency distribution(LFD),sex ratio(SR),length-weight relationships(LWRs),condition factors(CFs),and relative growth(W_R),of Clupisoma garua in the coastal waters of Bangladesh.A total of 150 specimens ranging from 8.60 to 25.20 cm total length(TL)and 4.26 to 128.80 g body weight(BW)were collected using traditional fishing gear from August 2013 to July 2014.The overall sex ratio of males to females in the study did not dif fer significantly from the expected value of 1:1(χ~2=0.96,P0.05)but there were significant sex differences(P0.05)in the intercepts and slopes of graphs characterizing traits in C.garua.The calculated bvalues for the LWRs were 2.955,2.893 and 2.927 for males,females and combined sexes,respectively,and there was negative allometric growth in all cases(b3).The condition factors(K_A,K_F,K_R)and relative growth(W R)also did not differ significantly(P0.05)between the sexes.This study provides a useful tool for fi shery specialists to evaluate the relative condition of fish and to initiate early management strategies and regulations for the sustainable management of the remaining stocks of this species in the entire coastal region of southern Bangladesh.     

Estimating β from redshift-space distortions in the 2dF galaxy survey

Given the failure of existing models for redshift-space distortions to provide a highly accurate measure of the β -parameter, and the ability of forthcoming surveys to obtain data with very low random errors, it becomes necessary to develop better models for these distortions. Here we review the failures of the commonly used velocity dispersion models and present an empirical method for extracting β from the quadrupole statistic that has little systematic offset over a wide range of β and cosmologies. This empirical model is then applied to an ensemble of mock 2dF southern strip surveys, to illustrate the technique and see how accurately we can recover the true value of β . We compare this treatment with the error we expect to find caused only by the finite volume of the survey. We find that non-linear effects reduce the range of scales over which β can be fitted, and introduce covariances between nearby modes in addition to those introduced by the convolution with the survey window function. The result is that we are only able to constrain β to a 1 σ accuracy of 25 per cent ( β =0.55±0.14 for the cosmological model considered). We explore one possible means of reducing this error, that of cluster collapse, and show that accurate application of this method can greatly reduce the effect of non-linearities, improving the determination of β . We conclude by demonstrating that, when the contaminating effects of clusters are dealt with, this simple analysis of the full 2dF survey yields β =0.55±0.04. For this model, this represents a determination of β to an accuracy of 8 per cent and hence an important constraint on the cosmological density parameter Ω₀.