Morphometric study of pillow-size spectrum among pillow lavas

Measurements of H and V (dimensions in the horizontal and vertical directions of pillows exposed in vertical cross-section) were made on 19 pillow lavas from the Azores, Cyprus, Iceland, New Zealand, Tasmania, the western USA and Wales. The median values of H and V plot on a straight line that defines a spectrum of pillow sizes, having linear dimensions five times greater at one end than at the other, basaltic toward the small-size end and andesitic toward the large-size end. The pillow median size is interpreted to reflect a control exercised by lava viscosity. Pillows erupted on a steep flow-foot slope in lava deltas can, however, have a significantly smaller size than pillows in tabular pillowed flows (inferred to have been erupted on a small depositonal slope), indicating that the slope angle also exercised a control. Pipe vesicles, generally abundant in the tabular pillowed flows and absent from the flow-foot pillows, have potential as a paleoslope indicator. Pillows toward the small-size end of the spectrum are smooth-surfaced and grew mainly by stretching of their skin, whereas disruption of the skin and spreading were important toward the large-size end. Disruption involved increasing skin thicknesses with increasing pillow size, and pillows toward the large-size end are more analogous with toothpaste lava than with pahoehoe and are inferred from their thick multiple selvages to have taken hours to grow. Pseudo-pillow structure is also locally developed. An example of endogenous pillow-lava growth, that formed intrusive pillows between normal pillows, is described from Sicily. Isolated pillow-like bodies in certain andesitic breccias described from Iceland were previously interpreted to be pillows but have anomalously small sizes for their compositions; it is now proposed that they may lack an essential attribute of pillows, namely, the development of bulbous forms by the inflation of a chilled skin, and are hence not true pillows. Para-pillow lava is a common lava type in the flow-foot breccias. It forms irregular flow-sheets that are locally less than 5 cm thick, and failed to be inflated to pillows perhaps because of an inadequate lava-supply rate or too high a flow velocity.     

Aluminum partitioning between olivine and ultrabasic silicate liquid to 6 GPa

Trace element analyses of 1-atm and high-pressure experiments show that in komatiite and peridotite, the olivine (OL)/liquid (L) distribution coefficient for Al₂O₃ ( ) increases with pressure and temperature. Olivine in equilibrium with liquid accepts as much as 0.2 wt% Al₂O₃ in solution at 6 GPa. Convergence to equilibrium compositions at this high level is shown by cation diffusion of Al into synthetic forsterite crystals of low-Al contents in the presence of melt. Convergence to low-Al equilibrium compositions at lower P and T is shown by diffusion of Al out of synthetic forsterite with high initial Al content. Isobaric and isothermal experimental data subsets reveal that temperature and pressure variations both have real effects on . Variation in silicate melt composition has no detectable effect on within the limited range of experimentally investigated mixtures. Least-squares regression for 24 experiments, using komatiite and peridotite, performed at 1 atm to 6 GPa and 1300 to 1960°C, gives the best fit equation: Increase in with increasingly higher-pressure melting is consistent with incorporation of a spinel-like component of low molar volume into olivine, although other substitutions possibly involving more complex coupling cannot be ruled out. High P-T ultrabasic melting residues, if pristine, may be recognized by the high calculated from microprobe analyses of Al₂O₃ concentrations in residual olivines and estimated Al₂O₃ concentration in the last liquid removed. In general the low levels of Al in natural olivine from mantle xenoliths suggest that pristine residues are rarely recovered.     

Bearing error in VLF direction finding

The magnitude of the Goos-Hänchen shift of whistler rays in the lowest ionosphere is calculated. It is concluded that the shift is not sufficiently large to have a significant effect on goniometer measurements of the position of the exit point of a whistler.     

Origin of the Permian-Triassic komatiites,northwestern Vietnam

Abstract Rare examples of Phanerozoic komatiites are found in the Song Da zone, NW Vietnam. These komatiites were erupted through continental crust and may belong to the SE extension of the Permo-Triassic Emeishan volcanic province located in SW China. They provide a good opportunity to study the source characteristics of starting plume magmas in a continental flood basalt province. Erupted on late-Permian carbonate rocks, the komatiitic rocks are interbedded with low-Ti olivine basalts. Basaltic komatiites display pyroxene spinifex textures, while more magnesian rocks (MgO up to 32 wt.%) are porphyritic, containing a single, cognate population of euhedral to elongated olivine phenocrysts with Fo up to 93.0%. This suggests a highly magnesian parental magma with 22–23 wt.% MgO. In terms of major and minor elements, the komatiites are similar to the ca. 89 Ma old Gorgona Island komatiites of Colombia. The Song Da komatiites are also strongly light-rare-earth-element- (LREE) depleted (Ce_N/Yb_N 0.30–0.62) and have unfractionated heavy rare earth element (HREE) patterns. The komatiites have high Os concentrations (up to 7.0 ppb), low but variable Re/Os ratios, and define an isochron with an age of 270±21 Ma, and an initial ¹⁸⁸Os/¹⁸⁷Os ratio of 0.12506± 0.00041 (_Os=+0.02±0.40). The Os isotopic systematics of the komatiites show no effects of crustal contamination. In contrast, their initial _Nd values range from +3 to +8, reflecting varying but generally small degrees of contamination with Proterozoic sialic basement material. Associated low-Ti basalts have low initial _Nd values (–0.8 to –7.5), high initial _Os values (15), flat or LREE-enriched REE patterns, and Nb-Ta depletion. These characteristics are also attributed to variable extents of crustal contamination.Editorial responsibility: T.L. Grove     

Secondary electrons in aurora

The Bethe approximation is used with measured and theoretical values of ionization cross sections and measured values of differential oscillator strengths to derive the initial energy spectrum of auroral secondary electrons. The differential flux of the auroral secondaries is then calculated, using the approximation of continuous energy loss. The calculations are applied to a particular aurora for which rocket data have been published. There is substantial disagreement between theoretical and measured electron spectra. The theoretical spectra show structure at energies less than 20 eV, associated primarily with vibrational and electronic excitation of molecular nitrogen. This structure is largely absent in the measured spectrum. Substantially more high energy electrons were measured than theory predicts. In addition, there are disagreements in the altitude profiles of the total number of non-thermal secondary electrons.

Calculated values of OI green line photon emission rates which result from excitation by secondary electrons and dissociative recombination of O₂⁺ fall short of the measured values. The effect on the excitation rate of varying several parameters is investigated, and it is found that the results are particularly sensitive to competing inelastic processes in N₂.     

Nutrient distributions and new production in polar regions: parallels and contrasts between the Arctic and Antarctic

Polar regions are poorly understood components of global biogeochemical cycles. This paper discusses the influences of nitrate and ammonium concentrations on nitrate uptake (and hence new production), particularly with regard to data collected within marginal ice zones in the Arctic and Antarctic. Subsurface ammonium maxima in waters over 150 m are frequently encountered in the Arctic and occasionally in the Antarctic. Such maxima result from the heterotrophic remineralization of organic matter, and because stratified environments occur more frequently in the Arctic, significant concentrations of ammonium accumulate as a result of lower diffusive losses. Causal agents (bacteria vs. Zooplankton) may also be different in the Arctic from those in the Antarctic. Elevated ammonium concentrations significantly reduce nitrate uptake, and it is suggested that this nutrient interaction may play a significant role in controlling new production, particularly in open water regions. The new production of the Southern Ocean is estimated, and it is suggested that the production and flux from the surface layer is significant relative to the world's oceans.