Experimental Investigation of the Upper Thermal Stability of Mg-rich Actinolite; Implications for Kiruna-Type Iron Deposits

The occurrence of actinolite in magnetite deposits of possiblemagmatic origin has prompted an experimental investigation ofthe upper thermal stability of Mg-rich actinolite to determinehow the stability of actinolite changes with increasing Fe content.Experiments were carried out primarily on the compositionalre-equilibration of natural tremolite [molar Fe/(Fe + Mg) =Fe-number = 0·014] in the presence of synthetic clinopyroxene(Ca_0·80Fe_0·67Mg_0·54Si_2·00O₆), syntheticpigeonite/orthopyroxene (Ca_0·08Fe_1·19Mg_0·70Si_2·02O₆),quartz, and water to a more Fe-rich actinolite over the rangeof 600–880°C, 1 and 4 kbar, at the Ni–NiO oxygenbuffer, for durations of 1–2 weeks. The bulk compositionof the mineral mixture is close to actinolite with Fe-number= 0·5. These experiments constitute a half-reversal ofthe amphibole composition, which, when approached from a Mg-richstarting composition, provides information on the minimum Fecontent of actinolite at a given temperature. Compositionalchanges were monitored by electron microprobe analysis of amphibolerim compositions and/or overgrowths on the original tremolite.At 4 kbar and 880–800°C, tremolite shows strong re-equilibrationwith overgrowths of an Fe-rich but low-Ca (1·7 > Ca> 1·4) actinolite; Fe-rich cummingtonite (Ca <0·7)begins to nucleate at 860°C. At 800–700°C, tremoliteshows weak compositional re-equilibration but strong nucleationof Fe-rich cummingtonite. Similar results were observed at 1kbar, with tremolite showing strong re-equilibration to low-Caactinolite at 790–600°C with cummingtonite nucleationat 800°C and below. The wide variation in Ca contents ofthe re-equilibrated amphiboles was unexpected. Additional univariantreversal experiments were carried out on the thermal decompositionof a natural actinolite (Fe-number = 0·22) from PleitoMelón, Chile, indicating the breakdown of actinoliteto clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, quartz, and water at 780°Cand 1 kbar, and 850°C and 4 kbar. Considering only amphiboleswith Ca >1·7 a.p.f.u., the thermal stability of actinoliteis observed to decrease in a linear manner over the P–Trange investigated with a dT/dFe-number slope of –372°C/Fe-numberat 1 kbar and –546°C/Fe-number at 4 kbar. The highthermal stabilities (750–900°C) of actinolites withFe-numbers in the range of 0–0·4 overlap with therange of water-saturated melting for a typical andesite or tonalite.These conditions also overlap the field of experimental Fe–P-richmelt formation, suggesting that actinolite may have an igneousorigin in Kiruna-type ore deposits. KEY WORDS: actinolite; mineral stability; Kiruna deposits, thermodynamic values; cummingonite     

Helium isotope geochemistry of some volcanic rocks from Saint Helena

³He/⁴He ratios have been measured for olivine and clinopyroxene phenocrysts in 7–15 m.y. old basaltic lavas from the island of St. Helena. Magmatic helium was effectively resolved from post-eruptive radiogenic helium by employing various extraction techniques, includingin vacuo crushing, and stepwise heating or fusion of the powders following crushing. The inherited³He/⁴He ratio at St. Helena is 4.3–5.9 R_A. Helium isotope disequilibrium is present within the phenocrysts, with lower³He/⁴He upon heating and fusion of the powders following crushing, due to radiogenic ingrowth or to -particle implantation from the surrounding(U + Th)-rich lavas.

A single crushing analysis for clinopyroxene in a basalt from Tubuaii gave³He/⁴He= 7.1 R_A.³He/⁴He ratios at St. Helena and Tubuaii (HIMU hotspots characterized by radiogenic Pb isotope signatures) are similar to³He/⁴He ratios previously measured at Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island (EM hotspots characterized by low²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb). Overall, the HeSrPb isotope systematics at these islands are consistent with a mantle origin as contiguous, heterogeneous materials, such as recycled crust and/or lithosphere.³He/⁴He ratios at HIMU hotspots are similar to mantle xenoliths which display nearly the entire range of Pb isotope compositions found at ocean islands, and are only slightly less than values found in mid-ocean ridge basalts (7–9 R_A). This suggests that the recycled materials were injected into the mantle within the last 10⁹ yrs.     

Modelling stream acidification in afforested catchments: An assessment of the relative effects of acid deposition and afforestation

A model of the combined long-term effects of acidic deposition and forest growth has been developed and calibrated for an upland site in Scotland. The model is used to perform a series of simulation experiments to assess the relative effects of afforestation and acidic deposition on soil and surface water chemistry. The experiments compare and contrast: (a) the simulated historical effects of increased acidic deposition and forest growth, both individually and in combination; (b) the simulated future effects of various levels of reduction of deposition in combination with the forestry strategies of harvesting with and without replanting. Results indicate that historical acidification of surface waters in areas receiving high levels of acidic deposition has been exacerbated by afforestation practices. Afforestation in the absence of acidic deposition, however, has had a lesser effect on surface water acidification even though the nutrient demands of forest growth have caused significant soil acidification. Comparisons of future forest management strategies in conjunction with likely deposition reductions indicate that, in sensitive areas, replanting of a felled forest without treatment of the soil by addition of base cations, should not be undertaken even if significant deposition reductions are realised.     

Scour and Burial Mechanics of Objects in the Nearshore

A process-based, numerical, hydrodynamic vortex lattice mine scour/burial model (VORTEX) is presented that simulates scour and burial of objects of arbitrary shape resting on a granular bed in the nearshore. There are two domains in the model formulation: a far-field where burial and exposure occur due to changes in the elevation of the seabed and a near-field involving scour and transport of sediment by the vortices shed from the object. The far-field burial mechanisms are based on changes in the equilibrium bottom profiles in response to seasonal changes in wave climate and accretion/erosion waves spawned by fluxes of sediment into the littoral cell. The near-field domain consists of one grid cell extracted from the far-field that is subdivided into a rectangular lattice of panels having sufficient resolution to define the shape of the object. The vortex field induced by the object is constructed from an assemblage of horseshoe vortices excited by local pressure gradients and shear over the lattice panels. The horseshoe vortices of each lattice panel release a pair of vortex filaments into the neighboring flow. The induced velocity of these trailing vortex filaments causes scour of the neighboring seabed and induces hydrodynamic forces on the object. Scour around the object and its subsequent movement into the scour depression contribute to burial, while far-field changes in local sand level may increase burial depth or expose the object. Scour and burial predictions of mines and mine-like objects were tested in field experiments conducted in the nearshore waters off the Pacific coast of California at Scripps Pier, the Gulf Coast of Florida at Indian Rocks, and off the Atlantic coast of Massachusetts at Martha's Vineyard. Model predictions of mine scour and burial are in reasonable agreement with field measurements and underwater photographs.     

Resolving cosmic structure formation with the Millennium-II Simulation

We present the Millennium-II Simulation (MS-II), a very large N -body simulation of dark matter evolution in the concordance Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmology. The MS-II assumes the same cosmological parameters and uses the same particle number and output data structure as the original Millennium Simulation (MS), but was carried out in a periodic cube one-fifth the size  (100  h ⁻¹ Mpc)  with five times better spatial resolution (a Plummer equivalent softening of  1.0  h ⁻¹ kpc  ) and with 125 times better mass resolution (a particle mass of  6.9 × 10⁶  h ⁻¹ M_⊙  ). By comparing results at MS and MS-II resolution, we demonstrate excellent convergence in dark matter statistics such as the halo mass function, the subhalo abundance distribution, the mass dependence of halo formation times, the linear and non-linear autocorrelations and power spectra, and halo assembly bias. Together, the two simulations provide precise results for such statistics over an unprecedented range of scales, from haloes similar to those hosting Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies to haloes corresponding to the richest galaxy clusters. The 'Milky Way' haloes of the Aquarius Project were selected from a lower resolution version of the MS-II and were then resimulated at much higher resolution. As a result, they are present in the MS-II along with thousands of other similar mass haloes. A comparison of their assembly histories in the MS-II and in resimulations of 1000 times better resolution shows detailed agreement over a factor of 100 in mass growth. We publicly release halo catalogues and assembly trees for the MS-II in the same format within the same archive as those already released for the MS.