Comets, meteorites and atmospheres

The relatively low value of Xe/Kr in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars seems to rule out meteorites as the major carriers of noble gases to the inner planets. Laboratory experiments on the trapping of gases in ice forming at low temperatures suggest that comets may be a better choice. It is then possible to develop a model for the origin of inner planet atmospheres based on volatiles delivered by comets added to volatiles originally trapped in planetary rocks. The model will be tested by results from the Galileo Entry Probe.     

Summary of the Mars recent climate change workshop NASA/Ames Research Center,May 15–17, 2012

This note summarizes the results from the Mars recent climate change workshop at NASA/Ames Research Center, May 15–17, 2012.     

Inherited drainage - paleochannels and preferential groundwater flow

It is suggested that in a localized remnant of Kalahari sand at Dufuya, central Zimbabwe, groundwater flows in an integrated pattern inherited from the paleochannel network of the underlying gneiss. Contact springs occur at discrete localities along the Kalahari sand/gneiss boundary and are associated with spring sapping and land surface subsidence. Subsidence is presumed to be due to preferential solute removal by leaching and dissolution as a result of concentration of groundwater flow within the buried paleochannel network and the location of the springs is presumed to occur where the paleochannel network intersects the Kalahari sand/gneiss boundary. Over time the surficial Kalahari sand is preferentially removed along these buried drainage lines by spring sapping and headwards erosion, exposing the gneiss. Multi-electrode direct current resistivity profiling and radar have been used to map the sub-surface, revealing the topography of the basement and nature of the Kalahari cover. Coincidence of gneiss basement depressions with the spring sites, leached sands and subsidence zones suggests inheritance of the gneiss fluvial paleochannel network pattern by the present day groundwater flow. Washed sand and gravel intersected in shallow boreholes in these areas provides further evidentiary support for the concept of inherited drainage.     

Back analysis of landslide susceptibility zonation mapping for the 2005 Kashmir earthquake: an assessment of the reliability of susceptibility zoning maps

The October 2005 earthquake triggered several thousand landslides in the Lesser Himalaya of Kashmir in northern Pakistan and India. Analyses of ASTER satellite imagery from 2001 were compared with a study undertaken in 2005; the results show the extent and nature of pre- and co-/post-seismic landsliding. Within a designated study area of ~2,250 km², the number of landslides increased from 369 in 2001 to 2,252 in October 2005. Assuming a balanced baseline landsliding frequency over the 4 years, most of the new landslides were likely triggered by the 2005 earthquake and its aftershocks. These landslides mainly happened in specific geologic formations, along faults, rivers and roads, and in shrubland/grassland and agricultural land. Preliminary results from repeat photographs from 2005 and 2006 after the snowmelt season reveal that much of the ongoing landsliding occurred along rivers and roads, and the extensive earthquake-induced fissuring. Although the susceptibility zoning success rate for 2001 was low, many of the co-/post-seismic landsliding in 2005 occurred in areas that had been defined as being potentially dangerous on the 2001 map. While most of the area in 2001 was (very) highly susceptible to future landsliding, most of the area in 2005 was only moderate to low susceptible, that is, most of the landsliding in 2005 actually occurred in the potentially dangerous areas on the 2001 map. This study supports the view that although susceptibility zoning maps represent a powerful tool in natural hazard management, caution is needed when developing and using such maps.     

Geochemistry of lamprophyres from the Western Alps,Italy: implications for the origin of an enriched isotopic component in the Italian mantle

Cenozoic lamprophyres (minettes, spessartites, kersantite) from the Western Alps, northern Italy, represent small volume, mafic melts with high Mg#s and high Ni and Cr contents. All the lamprophyres show light REE enrichment, high incompatible element contents, and Ta, Ti and Nb troughs on chondrite-normalized diagrams. Age-corrected ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr isotopic ratios (assuming t = 30 Ma) are highly variable and range from 0.70590 to 0.71884; ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd ratios range from 0.51203 to 0.51242. Pb isotopic ratios are: ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 18.669–18.895, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 15.605–15.689 and ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 38.224–39.134. ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios show a negative correlation with ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd, and a positive correlation with K, Ba, and Rb as well as with Ti, Th, Ta, Nb and Zr abundances. The primitive nature of the lamprophyres, coupled with their enriched incompatible trace element and isotopic signatures, suggest derivation from a metasomatized upper mantle source. Linear arrays in isotope space and elemental data plots suggest mixing between two distinct end-members in the Italian mantle; an enriched end-member that is isotopically similar to pelagic sediments, and a significantly less enriched end-member that approaches Bulk Earth values. New isotopic data indicate that the mantle source(s) of the lamprophyres from the Western Alps contain a very high proportion of the enriched end-member. The geochemical signature of the enriched end-member is attributed to fluids or melts derived from pelagic sediments subducted during the closure of the Tethyan Ocean in the late Cretaceous to early Tertiary.     

Prograde metamorphism and decompression of the Gföhl gneiss, Czech Republic

Quartzofeldspathic rocks of the Gföhl gneiss from the Moldanubian of the Czech Republic span amphibolite-to granulite-facies, and are associated with eclogite. Protomylonitic fabrics related to terminal tectonic emplacement and reworking of the gneiss are common. Some non-mylonitic rocks, however, preserve early, prograde features (e.g., Opx-rimmed Hbl in metabasites), whereas others have characteristics generally associated with near-isothermal decompression (e.g., Pl-Opx moats separating Grt and Qtz in metabasites; Crd ± Spl coronas on Grt and aluminosilicates in metapelites); the unequivocal distinction between prograde and decompressional features in these rocks, however, may not be possible or even justified. For example, some metapelites contain growth-zoned (i.e., rimward increase in X_Mg) garnets that also record evidence (i.e., rimward decrease in X_Ca, compensated by the presence of reversely-zoned plagioclase in the same rock) of decompression. In rare instances, eclogitic rocks (P > 11 kbar) interpreted as tectonic enclaves within the gneiss also record mineralogic evidence of decompression (e.g., Crd-Opx-Spr coronas on pyrope). In metapelites, plagioclase-cored coronal garnets with high Prp/Grs ratios (˜ 2.5) record near-isobaric cooling from near the thermal maximum at a relatively shallow but undetermined crustal level.

Unlike Gföhl gneisses elsewhere (e.g., in Austria), the rocks described here do not preserve evidence of extreme metamorphic conditions. Texturally stable Grt-Bt pairs in non-mylonitic samples give T_max < 750 °C. P_max is not known, but prograde metamorphism apparently progressed from the kyanite to sillimanite fields, implying P ˜ 8 kbar at the maximum Grt-Bt temperature. At these conditions, dehydration of mafic gneiss occurred in the presence of a CO₂-rich (X_CO2 ˜ 0.85) pore fluid     

New carboniferous Polyzoa from Derbyshire

The highly fossiliferous fore-reef limestones of B₂ age from near Castleton, Derbyshire are rich in Polyzoa. Ten species are described, six of them new.     

Carboniferous Bryozoa from County Tyrone

Six species of Bryozoa, three new, of Upper Visean age are described from Tullaghoge, County Tyrone, Ireland. The assemblage suggests shallow water conditions subject to wave action. The new species are Dyscritella tyronei, Stenophragmidium incrustans, and Sulcoretepora? ramosa.     

Geochemical and mineralogical distinctions between Bonnin and Morris (Philadelphia, 1770–1772) porcelain and some contemporary British phosphatic wares

The major element compositions of 15 ceramic sherds from the Bonnin and Morris factory site were determined by electron microprobe. Thirteen samples are phosphatic; the others consist of (a) “soapstone” (magnesian/plombian) and (b) true porcelain, and are interpreted as exotic artifacts, as is one compositionally distinct (relatively SiO₂‐poor, P₂O₅+CaO‐rich) phosphatic sample. Although long considered to be virtually indistinguishable from Bow porcelain (London: ca. 1747–1776), the phosphatic Philadelphia wares have a relatively low mean CaO/P₂O₅ ratio (3.3 versus 3.8; molecular proportions) and high alumina content (6.6 versus 5.4 wt % Al₂O₃). Furthermore, unlike Bow, the Bonnin and Morris samples contain calcic plagioclase (bytownite), and in some instances, an orthoclase‐rich ternary feldspar. The preservation of calcic plagioclase indicates that Philadelphia porcelain was fired at (rather than above) the thermal minimum in the An‐SiO₂‐C₃P system, although the presence of Na (and other fluxes) in these wares precludes the exact determination of the maximum firing temperature from this phase diagram. These wares are also distinctive insofar as the phosphate and melt phases can contain small amounts of lead; they have bulk lead contents of approximately 0.1–1.2 wt % PbO. This component has not been detected in the body of Bow or other contemporary British phosphatic porcelains. Their principal similarity lies in the fact that both wares contain sulfate. In addition, the glazes on Bonnin and Morris porcelain (e.g., PbO ∼ 35–50 wt %; SnO₂ ∼ 1–2%) compositionally resemble those used at Bow. If feldspar is formed at all, then Al‐poor phosphatic porcelain (or those with low CaO/P₂O₅ ratios) will have comparatively low modal calcic plagioclase contents, thereby allowing the rapid depletion of this mineral via resorption by the melt phase during vitrification. Such appears to have been the case for analyzed Bow porcelain, which is therefore interpreted to have been overfired (sensu lato) relative to its Philadelphia counterpart. Conceivably, calcic plagioclase could be preserved in low‐Al wares that were fired only briefly at vitrification temperatures. Given the role of firing history in governing the mineralogy of porcelain, compositional criteria are more reliable for distinguishing these wares. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Resurrecting beach ridge archaeology: Parallel depositional records from St. Lawrence Island and Cape Krusenstern,Western Alaska

Archaeological sites on gravel beach ridge plains offer a treacherously facile method of reconstructing cultural chronology based on the assumption that settlements were preferentially situated nearest the sea. the initial phase of beach ridge methodology in Alaska dates from its 1930s use by Henry Collins at St. Lawrence Island and its 1950s use by Louis Giddings in Kotzebue Sound. Numerous questions of cultural and depositional chronology remain unresolved. At Gambell, on St. Lawrence Island, three sets of ridges span the period since about 2000 B.P., with a prominent disconformity after Punuk culture times at ca. 1100 B.P. Reviewing the ¹⁴C dates (n = 83) we find that the Gambell sequence (n = 50) broadly parallels that of Kotzebue Sound, especially in the similar erosional disconformity at 1200-1000 B.P., related to increased storminess in the North Pacific. the Cape Krusenstern sequence is only loosely constrained by ¹⁴C dates (n = 33) disproportionately concentrated on 7 of the 114 ridge fragments. the dating of early Choris culture is especially problematic, which seems to occur both before and after the Old Whaling culture, well-dated at 2900-2800 B.P. on the 53rd ridge. However, reanalyzing the depositional sequence, we find that some of the more easterly Choris ridges probably represent erosional events after the Old Whaling occupation.