Un programme de photographie en lumière monochromatique des émissions coronales pour la période 1973–1976

A Cooperative international program is suggested for monochromatic coronal photography by means of interference filters.     

Element Mobility in Melts during Successive Intrusions of Crustal-derived Magmas and Sn-W Mineralization

Abstract. Continental collisions are the place where granitic plutons result from the melting of crustal components. Granitic plutons are built up by successive input of magma with a variable composition and hence temperature and chemistry. The intrusion of a new magma batch has consequences on the element mobility in the melt. Diffusion in already formed crystals is limited, due to the short time interval between magma input, and because of the low values of element diffusivity in solids. Because the new magma is generally hotter than the magma chamber, the temperature in the contact zone is modified. It activates diffusion by and modifies its characteristic length for element mobility in the melt. A new intrusion also modifies the partition coefficients, decreasing compatibility and increasing the incompatibility. The change in temperature has also effects on fluid exsolution controlled by crystallization, or second boiling. The present paper examines the intrusion of magma (fel‐sic or mafic) into a felsic magma chamber with a time interval of 30 ky. The intrusion of magma with similar composition, hence low (±100d?C) temperature difference has few effects. The diffusion lengths for elements rarely exceed one order of magnitude. The fluids released by the cooling magma are balanced by their reincorporation into the warming magma. In contrast, the intrusion of mafic magma into felsic magma chamber results in temperature difference that can reach ±300d?C. It may change the diffusion length up to two orders of magnitude for elements having large activation energy. Partition coefficients also vary by more than one order of magnitude. The effect is enhanced in the warming felsic magma, and damped in the mafic magma. In consequence elements like As, Sn, Sr, W, Zr are driven from the mafic magma toward the felsic magma. The release of H₂O and CO₂ are balanced between the two magma types. However the mafic magma releases an important amount of S that cannot re‐dissolves into the felsic magma and remains in the fluid phase. This simple model also addresses processes acting during ore formation. In particular, it examines the behavior of ions with a four valences state, as Sn and W, which has implications on the incorporation of other elements sharing a similar structure. It points out the necessity of external factors (S, halogens content and redox conditions) for controlling ore formation.     

Were the 2.1-Gyr fossil colonial organisms discovered in the Francevillian basin (Palaeoproterozoic,Gabon) buried by turbidites?

The Francevillian series (Gabon) in which the Earth's oldest large colonial organisms were recently discovered (El Albani et al., 2010) were deposited 2 Gyr ago. These series are usually interpreted as a fining-upward basin-fill sequence composed by five superimposed lithological terms noted FA to FE. New studies initiated by AREVA, allowed new data to be collected on the southwestern edge of the Francevillian basin, particularly on newly excavated outcrops. Facies interpretations show that the Poubara sandstones and associated shales and black shales (upper part of FB,FB2a), correspond to turbidites deposited on an upper slope rather than one a shelf, submitted to tidal currents or storm wave action. These new interpretations based on facies association, sedimentary geometries, and basin evolution show that the depositional environment could be a turbidite lobe set at a palaeobathymetry deeper than 200 m.     

On some early attempts to determine the variation of the magnetic force with distance

We describe two experiments made by the 18th-century physicists Francis Hauksbee and Pieter van Musschenbroek, designed to find the dependence of the magnetic force on distance. From the experimental results, given in the form of tables, the authors did not infer any simple law. We calculated the values obtained by assuming that the force varies as the inverse square of the distance and found a good agreement with their results. It therefore appears that these remarkable experiments could have provided an experimental proof of the law.     

Impact of the LMDZ atmospheric grid configuration on the climate and sensitivity of the IPSL-CM5A coupled model

The IPSL-CM5A climate model was used to perform a large number of control, historical and climate change simulations in the frame of CMIP5. The refined horizontal and vertical grid of the atmospheric component, LMDZ, constitutes a major difference compared to the previous IPSL-CM4 version used for CMIP3. From imposed-SST (Sea Surface Temperature) and coupled numerical experiments, we systematically analyze the impact of the horizontal and vertical grid resolution on the simulated climate. The refinement of the horizontal grid results in a systematic reduction of major biases in the mean tropospheric structures and SST. The mid-latitude jets, located too close to the equator with the coarsest grids, move poleward. This robust feature, is accompanied by a drying at mid-latitudes and a reduction of cold biases in mid-latitudes relative to the equator. The model was also extended to the stratosphere by increasing the number of layers on the vertical from 19 to 39 (15 in the stratosphere) and adding relevant parameterizations. The 39-layer version captures the dominant modes of the stratospheric variability and exhibits stratospheric sudden warmings. Changing either the vertical or horizontal resolution modifies the global energy balance in imposed-SST simulations by typically several W/m² which translates in the coupled atmosphere-ocean simulations into a different global-mean SST. The sensitivity is of about 1.2 K per 1 W/m² when varying the horizontal grid. A re-tuning of model parameters was thus required to restore this energy balance in the imposed-SST simulations and reduce the biases in the simulated mean surface temperature and, to some extent, latitudinal SST variations in the coupled experiments for the modern climate. The tuning hardly compensates, however, for robust biases of the coupled model. Despite the wide range of grid configurations explored and their significant impact on the present-day climate, the climate sensitivity remains essentially unchanged.