Industrialization of Slovenia

A new European state, the Republic of Slovenia, was constituted in 1991. It used to be considered the most industrialized and economically developed federal unit of the former Yugoslavia. There were (in 1990) 362,732 workers employed in manufactur industry, which meant 46% of all employees in Slovenia. The industrialization occurred in two waves: the first one before the Great War, and the second one, imposed and conducted by the communist regime, in the 1960's and 1970's. The latter promoted the establishing of factories all over Slovenia, particularly in the less developed regions. This process was prolonged, and the result of universal industrialization of Slovenia was that 464 Slovenian settlements had one or more industrial plants. The willful industrialization caused the substantial transformation of society, and left its traces in geographic features of Slovenia as well. The intended incorporation of Slovenia into the international market will cause considerable dilemmas and a crisis in this type of industrialization.     

Seasonal variability in Atlantic Water off Spitsbergen

A combination of 2-year-long mooring-based measurements and snapshot conductivity–temperature–depth (CTD) observations at the continental slope off Spitsbergen (81°30′N, 31°00′E) is used to demonstrate a significant hydrographic seasonal signal in Atlantic Water (AW) that propagates along the Eurasian continental slope in the Arctic Ocean. At the mooring position this seasonal signal dominates, contributing up to 50% of the total variance. Annual temperature maximum in the upper ocean (above 215 m) is reached in mid-November, when the ocean in the area is normally covered by ice. Distinct division into ‘summer’ (warmer and saltier) and ‘winter’ (colder and fresher) AW types is revealed there. Estimated temperature difference between the ‘summer’ and ‘winter’ waters is 1.2 °C, which implies that the range of seasonal heat content variations is of the same order of magnitude as the mean local AW heat content, suggesting an important role of seasonal changes in the intensity of the upward heat flux from AW. Although the current meter observations are only 1-year long, they hint at a persistent, highly barotropic current with little or no seasonal signal attached.     

Late Weichselian and Holocene seismostratigraphy and depositional history of the Gulf of Riga,NE Baltic Sea

The Lateglacial and postglacial sequence in the northern Gulf of Riga is sedimentologically subdivided into nine distinctive layers. In the seismo‐acoustic sequence these layers are correlated with seven seismic/acoustic units, which largely reflect different stages in the development of the Baltic Sea. A uniform layer of the Late Weichselian till, a layer of waterlain glacial diamicton (WGD), a varved succession of the Baltic Ice Lake, a brackish‐water/freshwater sandy/silty clay of Yoldia Sea, a FeS‐rich layer of Ancylus Lake and discordantly bedded sand of the Litorina Sea and present‐day gyttja are revealed both in sediment cores and in acoustic recordings. In general, the lateral extent of the distinguished sediment layers is gradually shrinking upwards in the Quaternary sequence towards the deepest, central depression of the gulf. Two distinguished regional discontinuities divide the Lateglacial and postglacial sediment sequence into three allounits: glacial diamicton deposits in the lower part; ice‐proximal WGD, glaciolacustrine and postglacial lake/marine deposits in the middle; and brackish‐water marine deposits in the uppermost part of the sequence. The presented detailed seismostratigraphic subdivision of the Quaternary sediment sequence of the Gulf of Riga permits a correlation/comparison with similar sequences across the Baltic Sea and in other former glaciated basins.     

Quaternary palaeoenvironments and multi-storey valley fill architecture along the Mezen and Severnaya Dvina river valleys,Arkhangelsk region,NW Russia

The modern Severnaya Dvina and Mezen river systems in the Arkhangelsk region, NW Russia, are located within extensive palaeovalley systems. The palaeovalleys form depressions in bedrock and have controlled the drainage systems in the area at least since the Last Interglacial. Vertically stacked marine to fluvial sediments reflect deposition during fluctuating climate and sea levels.A compilation of lithostratigraphical data collected during the last decade has been coupled with bedrock topography and geomorphology from satellite images in order to describe the valley fill architecture for the two valley systems. Each system has been divided into a number of depositional units (storeys) separated by incision/non-deposition and used to investigate the timing of aggradational versus incisional phases. Time constraints for each phase are provided by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages, and aggradation and incision are linked to independent records of climate and sea level change.The pattern of aggradation and erosion is regional and primarily driven by episodes of increasing and decreasing sediment supply. Aggradation is correlated to times of deglaciation with high sediment supply from the ice margin, release of sediment from ice-dammed lakes and low vegetation and degradation of permafrost on the flood plain. Incision is related to cold intervals with low sediment supply, delayed incision due to isostatic uplift and drainage of ice-dammed lakes. Relative sea level change controls the distribution of marine deposits, which show significant regional variations due to variable isostatic response across the region. Sea level change plays a limited role for fluvial aggradation/incision in the study area.     

Regional non-hazardous landfill site selection by integrating fuzzy logic, AHP and geographic information systems

This study presents a geographic information systems-based multi-criteria site selection of non-hazardous regional landfill in Polog Region, Macedonia. The multi-criteria decision framework integrates legal requirements and physical constraints that relate to environmental and economic concerns and builds a hierarchy model for landfill suitability. The methodology is used for preliminary assessment of the most suitable landfill sites by combining fuzzy set theory and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The fuzzy set theory is used to standardize criteria using different fuzzy membership functions while the AHP is used to establish the relative importance of the criteria. The AHP makes pairwise comparisons of relative importance between hierarchy elements grouped by environmental and economic decision criteria. The landfill suitability is achieved by applying weighted linear combination that uses a comparison matrix to aggregate different importance scenarios associated with environmental and economic objectives. The results from the study suggested that a least suitable landfill area of 1.0% from the total is generated when environmental and economic objectives are valued equally while a most suitable landfill area of 1.8% area is generated when the economic objective is valued higher. Such results are aimed for enhancement of regional landfill site selection in the country that is compliant with modern EU standards.     

Low-grade metamorphic alteration of feldspar minerals: a CL study

ABSTRACT Two styles of feldspar alteration – carbonatization and albitization – were investigated using a cathodoluminescence (CL) technique. The nature of the alteration depends on the composition of the fluids. The infiltration of CO₂-rich fluids causes decomposition of An-rich zones in plagioclase followed by the formation of secondary calcite, albite and white mica. K-feldspar is more resistant to CO₂-induced alteration. The circulation of aqueous fluids results in decomposition of primary oligoclase into albite and clinozoisite. Secondary K-feldspar exsolved as small independent grains on the rim of the primary oligoclase, if the primary plagioclase was enriched in the orthoclase component. The fluids easily penetrate the crystals using, crystallographic plains, e.g., twinning or cleavage or simply along cracks. These migration pathways enable the fluids to enter the inner parts of the grain, which would otherwise not be affected by grain-surface alteration.     

The resolved red giant branches of E/S0 galaxies

Formation paradigms for massive galaxies have long centered around two antipodal hypotheses – the monolithic-collapse and the accretion/merger scenarios. Empirical data on the stellar contents of galaxy halos is crucial in order to develop galaxy formation and assembly scenarios which have their root in observations, rather than in numerical simulations. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has enabled us to study directly individual stars in the nearby E/S0 galaxies Cen A, NGC 3115, NGC 5102, and NGC 404. We here present and discuss HST single-star photometry in V and I bands. Using color-magnitude diagrams and stellar luminosity functions, we gauge the galaxies' stellar contents. This can be done at more than one position in the halo, but data with deeper limiting magnitudes are desired to quantify the variation of metallicity with galactocentric radius. We here compare the color distributions of red giant stars with stellar isochrones, and we intercompare the galaxies' halo populations, noting that their total absolute V magnitudes cover the range from about –21.5 to –17.5. In the future, we plan to model the stellar metallicity distributions with the aim to constrain chemical enrichment scenarios, a step towards unravelling the evolutionary history of elliptical and lenticular galaxies. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

WSO-UV progress and expectations

The World Space Observatory Ultraviolet (WSO-UV) is the space mission that will grant access to the ultraviolet (UV) range in the post Hubble epoch. WSO-UV is equipped with instrumentation for imaging and spectroscopy and it is fully devoted to UV astronomy. In this article, we outline the WSO-UV mission model and present the current status of the project.     

Neoproterozoic Alkaline Igneous Rocks,Carbonatites and Gold Deposits of the Yenisei Ridge,Central Siberia: Evidence of Mantle Plume Activity and Late Collision Shear Tectonics Associated with Orogenic Gold Mineralization

This paper discusses the plausible genetic relationship between disseminated Au‐sulfide mineralization and mantle plume‐related magmatism in the context of the tectonic evolution of the Yenisei ridge in central Siberia. The relationship is inferred based on structural and geochemical studies of the Blagodat Au deposit, and the Transangara alkaline syenite and Penchenga fenite‐carbonatite complexes. Analyses of Nd, Sr and Ar isotopic compositions of samples from these geological features show their possible close temporal relationships but different sources. Nevertheless, the present data sets suggest that thermal effects of mantle plume activity likely controlled hydrothermal fluid mobilization in metamorphic suites and further enrichment of gold. The structural setting of the Blagodat Au deposit demonstrates the typical example of Au‐sulfide mineralization controlled by late collisional shear deformations. The present example of Au deposit associated temporally and spatially with carbonatites and alkaline rock complexes is an exclusive case in the Earth's history supporting a plausible genetic relationship between mantle plume‐related magmatism and orogenic‐Au mineralization.