On the planar syzygy solutions of the 3-body problem

Relations between the rectilinear, collinear and syzygy solutions of the N-body problem are first pointed out. It is shown that, along a solution, the set of the non-collinear syzygy configuration instants is formed by isolated points. Then we restrict the study to the planar 3-body problem and prove that for Dirichlet-stable solutions, a non-syzygy solution cannot be as close as possible to a syzygy one. It is also true that, in the case of a syzygy solution, the orbit of one particle crosses the line of the other two and can not be tangent to this line in the transition point. Finally we prove that the set of initial conditions leading to non-collinear syzygy solutions is non-empty and open.     

On the influence of reflection over a rhythmic swash zone on surf zone dynamics

The reflection of incident gravity waves over an irregular swash zone morphology and the resulting influence on surf zone dynamics remains mostly unexplored. The wave-phase resolving SWASH model is applied to investigate this feedback using realistic low-tide terraced beach morphology with well-developed beach cusps. The rhythmic reflection generates a standing wave that mimics a subharmonic edge wave, from the superimposition of incident and two-dimensional reflected waves. This mechanism is enhanced by shore-normal, narrow-banded waves in both direction and frequency. Our study suggests that wave reflection over steep beaches could be a mechanism for the development of rhythmic morphological features such as beach cusps and rip currents.     

Seismic expression of gas and gas hydrates across the western Black Sea

This study is a synthesis of gas-related features in recent sediments across the western Black Sea basin. The investigation is based on an extensive seismic dataset, and integrates published information from previous local studies. Our data reveal widespread occurrences of seismic facies indicating free gas in sediments and gas escape in the water column. The presence of gas hydrates is inferred from bottom-simulating reflections (BSRs). The distribution of the gas facies shows (1) major gas accumulations close to the seafloor in the coastal area and along the shelfbreak, (2) ubiquitous gas migration from the deeper subsurface on the shelf and (3) gas hydrate occurrences on the lower slope (below 750 m water depth). The coastal and shelfbreak shallow gas areas correspond to the highstand and lowstand depocentres, respectively. Gas in these areas most likely results from in situ degradation of biogenic methane, probably with a contribution of deep gas in the shelfbreak accumulation. On the western shelf, vertical gas migration appears to originate from a source of Eocene age or older and, in some cases, it is clearly related to known deep oil and gas fields. Gas release at the seafloor is abundant at water depths shallower than 725 m, which corresponds to the minimum theoretical depth for methane hydrate stability, but occurs only exceptionally at water depths where hydrates can form. As such, gas entering the hydrate stability field appears to form hydrates, acting as a buffer for gas migration towards the seafloor and subsequent escape.     

Transformation of a border region: dispersed agricultural communities in Brasov County, Romania

A most distinctive feature of the settlement pattern of the Brasov area is the extreme dispersal of mixed farming encountered in the western extreme of the county to the north and south of Zarnesti: the Bran and Poiana Marului areas. Here a system of peasant subsistence farming developed in a political borderland between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires. Despite feudal pressures, the peasantry took all available opportunities to extend their independence including elaborate transhumance systems. And after seeing transfrontier commerce as a source of plunder, in the tradition of Balkan highway robbery within relatively unregulated spaces, the peasantry has profited through employment in factories, particularly during the communist period. However, the current recession in manufacturing is throwing the rural population back on limited land resources. Although farming assumes an important subsistence role which contributes to stability, the long-term survival of these communities will depend on new sources of income. Rural tourism has considerable potential and a promising start has been made in Bran. There are, however, constraints on the further development of the business and great attention will have to be given to the conservation of the environment in both the Bucegi Mountains and the Piatra Craiului where national park status is proposed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Downstream variation in bed sediment size along the East Carpathian rivers: evidence of the role of sediment sources

Taking as an example six main rivers that drain the western flank of the Eastern Carpathians, a conceptual model has been developed, according to which fluvial bed sediment bimodality can be explained by the overlapping of two grain size distribution curves of different origins. Thus, for Carpathian tributaries of the Siret, coarse gravel joins an unimodal distribution presenting a right skewness with enhanced downstream fining. The source of the coarse material distributions is autohtonous (by abrasion and hydraulic sorting mechanisms). A second distribution with a sandy mode is, in general, skewed to the left. The source of the second distribution is allohtonous (the quantity of sand that reaches the river‐bed through the erosion of the hillslope basin terrains). The intersection of the two distributions occurs in the area of the 0·5–8 mm fractions, where, in fact, the right skewness (for gravel) and left skewness (for sand) histogram tails meet. This also explains the lack of particles in the 0·5–8 mm interval. For rivers where fine sediment sources are low, the 0·5–8 mm fractions have a higher proportion than the fractions under 1 mm. For the Siret River itself, bed sediment bimodality is greatly enhanced due to the fact that the second mode is more than 25% of the full sample. As opposed to its tributaries, the source of the first mode, of gravel, is allohtonous to the Siret river, generated by the massive input of coarse sediment through the Carpathian tributaries, while the second mode, of the sands, is local. In this case we can also observe that the two distributions of particles of different origins overlap in the 0·5–8 mm fraction domain, creating the illusion of ‘particle lack’ in the fluvial bed sediments. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perspective targeting CuAuMo porphyries of Romanian Carpathians: blind porphyry mineralization and its variable distal expression as vein and skarns

Romania has a genuine accumulation of “blind” porphyry CuAuMo systems associated with Cu skarns or AuAg (PbZn) epithermal vein sets. Many such hidden structures were discovered inadvertently during state exploration based on local tradition that Romanian Carpathians are rich in vein and skarn ore types. Notable dichotomy between porphyries associated with peripheral skarns versus epithermal ores is expressed by age (Mesozoic versus Tertiary), precious metal content, alteration types and zoning, shape/size and extension of ore bodies. Preliminary conclusions on metallic/alteration assemblages around porphyries in addition to geophysical information about inferred deep-seated Alpine plutonism promote potential exploration vectors for what will be an increasingly important deposit type in the future.     

Gully development in eastern Romania: a case study from Falciu Hills

The gullied systems from the Falciu Hills within the Chioara catchment (2997 ha) consist of both main types of gullies, discontinuous and large continuous ones along valley bottoms, and lots of ephemeral gullies. Several methods have been used to measure and estimate gully characteristics. Then, the gully development stages, the effect of the natural conditions, and especially the impact of land management on gullying in the Falciu Hills over the last two centuries have been defined. In addition, the role of gully erosion in triggering landslides has also been studied. Two main periods have been distinguished (until 1960 and 1961–2012) for assessing major characteristics of land degradation. The results show that total gully area in the Chioara catchment is 66.4 ha excepting for the ephemeral gullies, and areas occupied by gullies from the five study sub-catchments (2334 ha) account for two-thirds. Total length of the main gully network in the entire catchment is 33.2 km from which the five sub-catchments account for 71 %. The mean gully density of 1.11 km km⁻² supports the evidence that here gullying is the major environmental threat. Half of the gully areal growth and three-quarters of the new landslide area occurred over the 1961–2012 period. Delayed deforestation peaking during 1830–1930 and land conversion to arable use resulted in severe soil erosion, high aggradation along the non-gullied valley bottoms, and severe gullying. The average gully head retreat rate over the last two centuries from four trunk continuous gullies is 14 m year⁻¹, and the sediment yield from gullying only accounted for 54–69 % of the sediment mass produced by water erosion. The evolution of gullies is linked to major land-use changes in the study area. Despite a decreasing tendency of gullying and catchment area over the last half century, gullying still remains problematically high in East Romania.

     

Upper Cretaceous Magmatic Series and Associated Mineralisation in the Carpathian – Balkan Orogen

Abstract: The Alpine Orogen contains in South East Europe, from the Carpathians to the Balkans–Srednogorie, an Upper Cretaceous, ore bearing igneous belt: a narrow elongated body which runs discontinously from the Apuseni Mountains in the North, to the western part of the South Carpathians (Banat) in Romania, and further South to the Carpathians of East Serbia and still further East to Srednogorie (Bulgaria). This results in a belt of 750 km/30–70 km, bending from N-S in Romania and Serbia, to E-W in Bulgaria. Using the well established century-old terminology of this region, we describe it in this paper as the Banatitic Magmatic and Metallogenetic Belt (BMMB). Plate tectonics models of the Alpine evolution of South East Europe involve Mesozoic rifting, spreading and thinning of the continental crust or formation of oceanic crust in the Tethian trench system, followed by Cretaceous-Tertiary convergence of Africa with Europe and opening of Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea troughs. The result of successive stages in the collision process is not only the continental growth of Europe from N to S by the docking of several microplates formerly separated from it by Mesozoic palaeo–oceans, but also the rise of mountain belts by overthickening of the crust, followed by orogenic collapse, lateral extrusion, exhumation of metamorphic core complexes and post-collisional magmatism connected to strike-slip or normal faulting. The BMMB of the Carpathian-Balkan fold belt is rich in ore deposits related to plutons and/or volcano-plutonic complexes. Serbian authors have proposed an Upper Cretaceous Paleorift in Eastern Serbia for the Timok zone and some Bulgarian geologists have furnished geologic, petrological and metallogenetic support for this extensional model along the entire BMMB. The existence and importance of previous westwards directed subductions of Transilvanides (=South Apuseni = Mure? Zone) and Severin-Krajina palaeo–oceans, popular in Roman ian literature, seems to have little relevance to BMMB generation, but the well documented northwards directed subduction of the Vardar-Axios palaeo–ocean during Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous is a good pre-condition for the generation, during the Upper Cretaceous, of banatitic magmas in extensional regime, by mantle delamination due to slab break–off. Four magmatic trends are found: a tholeiitic trend, a calc-alkaline trend, a calc-alkaline high–K to shoshonitic trend and, restricted to East Srednogorie, a peralkaline trend. For acid intrusives, the typology is clearly I-type and magnetite–series, pointing to sources in the deep crust or the mantle; however, some high ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios recorded in banatites prove important contamination from the upper crust. The calc-alkaline hydrated magmas, most common for banatitic plutons, can be considered as recording three stages of evolution: more primitive – the monzodioritic, dioritic to granodioritic trend (S Apuseni, S Ba–nat, Timok, C and W Srednogorie); more evolved – the granodioritic-granitic trend (N Apuseni, N Banat, Ridanj–Krepoljin); the alkaline trend (E and W Srednogorie, western part of N Banat). Correlating the composition of the host plutons with the types of mineralisation, several environments can be found in the BMMB, function of timing of fluid separation (porphyry versus non-porphyry environments), depth of emplacement, size of intrusion and geology of intruded rock pile, biotite versus hornblende crystallisation, involving the evolution of K/Na ratio in fluids, i. e. development of potassic and phyllic alteration zones: a) non-porphyry environment with granodioritic to granitic magmas, plutonic level, skarn mineralisation prevails; b) porphyry environment with monzodioritic or dioritic to granodioritic magmas, subvolcanic–hypabyssal–plutonic level; porphyry Cu with skarn halo at hypabyssal-subvolcanic level; c) porphyry environment with monzodioritic or dioritic to granodioritic magmas, volcano-plutonic complexes with porphyry copper plus massive sulfide mineralisation at subvolcanic-volcanic level; d) non-porphyry environment with magmas of alkaline tendency, volcanic level, vein (“mesothermal” and “epithermal”) mineralisation.     

Coping strategies in rural areas of the Buzau Sub–Carpathians

This paper focuses on the Sub–Carpathian region which has traditionally maintained a large rural population and is today suffering acute economic and social stress. During the present transition phase the rural population is struggling to survive by combining elements of the modern and traditional economies and research has been undertaken to clarify a range of household strategies. After profiling the communes of the Buzau Carpathians the problem is tackled at two levels on the basis of questionnaire work carried out during 1998–1999. First there is a general overview to outline conditions in Patarlagele commune, including some local contrasts between settlements on main transport axis along the Buzau valley and those in the hills and side valleys. Second there is a consideration of in-depth profiles of specific households in villages in the wider area including Panatau as well as Patarlagele commune. It remains to be seen to what extent the district will be able to safeguard its social capital when growth resumes in large towns especially Brasov and Buzau with which Patarlagele has the best contacts. It is also an open question how far the remoter settlements will retain a viable population, assuming that the services remain relatively poor while disadvantage persists with regard to both employment opportunities and physical security. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.