Going underground: in search of Carboniferous coal forests

The development of coal forests during the Carboniferous is one of the best-known episodes in the history of life. Although often reconstructed as steamy tropical rainforests, these ancient ecosystems were a far cry from anything we might encounter in the Amazon today. Bizarre giant club-mosses, horsetails and tree ferns were the dominant plants, not flowering trees as in modern rainforests. At their height, coal forests stretched all the way from Kansas to Kazakhstan, spanning the entire breadth of tropical Pangaea. Most of what we know of their biodiversity and ecology has been quite literally mined out of the ground through two centuries of hard labour. Without coal mining, our knowledge would be greatly impoverished. Over the past few years, we've been exploring underground coal mines in the United States, where entire forested landscapes have been preserved intact over huge areas. Never before have geologists had the opportunity to walk out through mile upon mile of fossilized forest. In this feature article, we describe some of our recent explorations and attempt to shed new light on these old fossils.     

Thermal stability of a layer with permeable boundaries and variable gravitational field

The aim of this paper is to investigate the thermal stability of a fluid layer with permeable boundaries and a variable gravitational field. It is observed that the principle of exchange of stabilities is valid when the layer is heated form below and the complex growth rate of an arbitrary oscillatory mode exists outside of a circle whose radius depends upon the permeability parameter, Prandtl number and wavelength of the mode. In the case of a layer heated from below, gravity increasing upward has a destabilizing effect whereas the permeability parameter has a stabilizing effect.     

The exact theory of inductive conductivity sensors for oceanographic application

The results of a general theoretical investigation of three commonly used types of inductive conductivity sensors, i.e., the single transformer, the double transformer, and the double transformer with an additional loop, are presented. The resulting formulas describe the dependence of the sensor output signal not only on the conductivity of the seawater but also on the parameters of the electrical circuit, among them the permeability of the transformer core(s), which-unlike the other parameters-shifts considerably during oceanographic in situ measurements. A mathematical discussion of these formulas shows that for certain circuit configurations, the sensor output is independent of changes in permeability. Most of these configurations form the basis of existing oceanographical conductivity sensors, among them the "classical" sensors developed by H. Hinkelmann [3], [4], and by N. L. Brown [14], while some others make evident further possibilities for eliminating the unwanted effects of shifting permeability. In the era of microelectronics, the latter might lead to a reassessment, especially of the single transformer-type sensor.     

Zircon U–Pb age, trace element and Hf isotope composition of Kongling terrane in the Yangtze Craton: refining the timing of Palaeoproterozoic high-grade metamorphism

U–Pb age, trace element and Hf isotope compositions of zircon were analysed for a metasedimentary rock and two amphibolites from the Kongling terrane in the northern part of the Yangtze Craton. The zircon shows distinct morphological and chemical characteristics. Most zircon in an amphibolite shows oscillatory zoning, high Th/U and ¹⁷⁶Lu/¹⁷⁷Hf ratios, high formation temperature, high trace element contents, clear negative Eu anomaly, as well as HREE-enriched patterns, suggesting that it is igneous. The zircon yields a weighted mean ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb age of 2857 ± 8 Ma, representing the age of the magmatic protolith. The zircon in the other two samples is metamorphic. It has low Th/U ratios, low trace element concentrations, variable HREE contents (33.8 ≥ Lu_N≥2213; 14.7 ≤ Lu_N/Sm_N ≤ 354) and ¹⁷⁶Lu/¹⁷⁷Hf ratios (0.000030–0.001168). The data indicate that the zircon formed in the presence of garnet and under upper amphibolite facies conditions. The metamorphic zircon yields a weighted mean ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb age of 2010 ± 13 Ma. These results combined with previously obtained Palaeoproterozoic metamorphic ages suggest a c. 2.0 Ga Palaeoproterozoic collisional event in the Yangtze Craton, which may result from the assembly of the supercontinent Columbia. The zircon in two samples yields weighted mean two-stage Hf model ( T _DM2) ages of 3217 ± 110 and 2943 ± 50 Ma, respectively, indicating that their protoliths were mainly derived from Archean crust.     

Nature of the Martian uplands: Effect on Martian meteorite age distribution and secondary cratering

Abstract— Martian meteorites (MMs) have been launched from an estimated 5–9 sites on Mars within the last 20 Myr. Some 80–89% of these launch sites sampled igneous rock formations from only the last 29% of Martian time. We hypothesize that this imbalance arises not merely from poor statistics, but because the launch processes are dominated by two main phenomena: first, much of the older Martian surface is inefficient in launching rocks during impacts, and second, the volumetrically enormous reservoir of original cumulate crust enhances launch probability for 4.5 Gyr old rocks. There are four lines of evidence for the first point, not all of equal strength. First, impact theory implies that MM launch is favored by surface exposures of near‐surface coherent rock (≤10² m deep), whereas Noachian surfaces generally should have ≥10² m of loose or weakly cemented regolith with high ice content, reducing efficiency of rock launch. Second, similarly, both Mars Exploration Rovers found sedimentary strata, 1–2 orders of magnitude weaker than Martian igneous rocks, favoring low launch efficiency among some fluvial‐derived Hesperian and Noachian rocks. Even if launched, such rocks may be unrecognized as meteorites on Earth. Third, statistics of MM formation age versus cosmic‐ray exposure (CRE) age weakly suggest that older surfaces may need larger, deeper craters to launch rocks. Fourth, in direct confirmation, one of us (N. G. B.) has found that older surfaces need larger craters to produce secondary impact crater fields (cf. Barlow and Block 2004). In a survey of 200 craters, the smallest Noachian, Hesperian, and Amazonian craters with prominent fields of secondaries have diameters of ?45 km, ?19 km, and ?10 km, respectively. Because 40% of Mars is Noachian, and 74% is either Noachian or Hesperian, the subsurface geologic characteristics of the older areas probably affect statistics of recognized MMs and production rates of secondary crater populations, and the MM and secondary crater statistics may give us clues to those properties.