Anisotropy in the Ironton and Galesville Sandstones Near a Thermal-Energy-Storage Well, St. Paul, Minnesota

The U.S. Geological Survey is studying the potential for storage of heated water in a sandstone aquifer in St. Paul, Minnesota. The efficiency of the aquifer to store thermal energy is related, in part, to the hydrogeologic characteristics of the aquifer. The movement of heat away from the injection well is directly related to the anisotropy. Aquifer tests were conducted to determine the anisotropy near the heated-water injection well. The maximum and minimum values of transmissivity along the principal directions of the hydraulic conductivity tensors of the Ironton and Galesville Sandstones in St. Paul, Minnesota are approximately 1,090 and 480 feet squared per day. The storage coefficient is 4.5 × 10⁻⁵. These values represent the average of four determinations of nonsteady flow to a well in an idealized infinite anisotropic aquifer. Analysis of the values of transmissivity and storage coefficient for hypothetical changes in location of two of the monitoring wells where depth-deviation surveys were not available indicates that computed transmissivities vary less than 5 percent and storage coefficients vary less than ±6 percent.     

MINI-MACtm—A new generation dual—Band surveyor

Summary Litton Divisions presently produce both high accuracy GPS surveyors and low—cost GPS navigation sets. Aero Service'sMACROMETER ^R Interferometric Surveyors, have become the standard against which GPS surveying equipment is measured. Litton Aero Products has developed a highly digitized, low costL ₁,C/A code GPS card set. The integration of these technologies had led to the development of a low-cost, high-precision, GPS survey system which can be configured with or without a codelessL ₂ capability. TheMINI-MAC surveying system is the first member of the new generation of GPS survey systems resulting from this joint development. The system design is described in this paper, and initial survey test results using a prototypeMINI-MAC surveying system are presented.     

High latitude river runoff in a doubled CO2 climate

A global atmospheric model is used to calculate the monthly river flow for nine of the world's major high latitude rivers for the present climate and for a doubled CO₂ climate. The model has a horizontal resolution of 4° × 5°, but the model's runoff from each grid box is quartered and added to the appropriate river drainage basin on a 2° × 2.5° resolution. A routing scheme is used to move runoff from a grid box to its neighboring downstream grid box and ultimately to the mouth of the river. In a model simulation in which atmospheric carbon dioxide is doubled, mean annual precipitation and river flow increase for all of these rivers, increased outflow at the river mouths begins earlier in the spring, and the maximum outflow occurs approximately one month sooner due to an earlier snow melt season. In the doubled CO₂ climate, snow mass decreases for the Yukon and Mackenzie rivers in North America and for rivers in northwestern Asia, but snow mass increases for rivers in northeastern Asia.     

A statistical method to evaluate homogeneity of structural populations

For any specific rock unit in a discontinuous rock mass, the determination of structural domain boundaries is important because geologic and hydrologic properties vary from one domain to another. A domain can be considered as a structural population characterized by a distinct pattern of structure orientations (i.e., fracture, bedding, or foliation orientations).Boundaries are usually determined by comparing samples of structural data, each of which consists of a Schmidt plot that commonly displays at least 150 poles to fractures. When fracture orientations appear dispersed and random on the plots, visual comparisons are not sufficient to determine whether the samples were obtained from the same structural domain. An appropriate x ² test has been adapted to this situation and is capable of evaluating the homogeneity of structural populations. The method uses a contingency table analysis based on the frequencies of fracture poles that occur in corresponding patches on the Schmidt plots being compared.     

Importance of the Lu-Hf isotopic system in studies of planetary chronology and chemical evolution

The ¹⁷⁶Lu-¹⁷⁶Hf isotope method and its applications in earth sciences are discussed. Greater fractionation of Lu/Hf than Sm/Nd in planetary magmatic processes makes ${}^{176}\text{Hf}{}^{177}\text{Hf}$ a powerful geochemical tracer. In general, proportional variations of ${}^{176}\text{Hf}{}^{177}\text{Hf}$ exceed those of ${}^{143}\text{Nd}{}^{\mathrm{l44}}\text{Nd}$ by factors of 1.5–3 in terrestrial and lunar materials. Lu-Hf studies therefore have a major contribution to make in understanding of terrestrial and other planetary evolution through time, and this is the principal importance of Lu-Hf. New data on basalts from oceanic islands show unequivocally that whereas considerable divergences occur in ${}^{176}\text{Hf}{}^{177}\text{Hf}\text{-}{}^{87}\text{Sr}{}^{86}\text{Sr}$ and ${}^{143}\text{Nd}{}^{\mathrm{l44}}\text{Nd}\text{-}{}^{87}\text{Sr}{}^{86}\text{Sr}$ diagrams, ${}^{176}\text{Hf}{}^{177}\text{Hf}$ and ${}^{143}\text{Nd}{}^{144}\text{Nd}$ display a single, linear isotopic variation in the suboceanic mantle. These discordant ${}^{87}\text{Sr}{}^{86}\text{Sr}$ relationships may allow, with the acquisition of further Hf-Nd-Sr isotopic data, a distinction between processes such as mantle metasomatism, influence of seawater-altered material in the magma source, or recycling of sediments into the mantle. In order to evaluate the Hf-Nd isotopic correlation in terms of mantle fractionation history, there is a need for measurements of Hf distribution coefficients between silicate minerals and liquids, and specifically for a knowledge of Hf behavior in relation to rareearth elements. For studying ancient terrestrial Hf isotopic variations, the best quality Hf isotope data are obtained from granitoid rocks or zircons. New data show that very U-Pb discordant zircons may have upwardly-biased ${}^{176}\text{Hf}{}^{177}\text{Hf}$, but that at least concordant to slightly discordant zircons appear to be reliable carriers of initial ${}^{176}\text{Hf}{}^{177}\text{Hf}$. Until the controls on addition of radiogenic Hf to zircon are understood, combined zircon-whole rock studies are recommended. Lu-Hf has been demonstrated as a viable tool for dating of ancient terrestrial and extraterrestrial samples, but because it offers little advantage over existing methods, is unlikely to find wide application in pure chronological studies.     

Geochemistry of the Sweetwater Wash Pluton,California: Implications for “anomalous” trace element behavior during differentiation of felsic magmas

Field relations, mineralogy and major and trace element data for the very felsic, peraluminous Sweetwater Wash pluton establish a differentiation sequence dominantly controlled by fractional crystallization processes. Elements Ba and Sr show depletion by factors of 50–60X from the earliest granite unit analyzed to the late-stage pegmatites and aplites. The strong Ba depletion is largely due to the partitioning behavior of this element in K-feldspar, while the Sr depletion is due to the combined effects of the two feldspars. The 4-fold increase in Rb during crystallization is also predictable from mineral/ melt partition coefficients.Coefficients for the light rare-earth elements (LREE) in major mineral species predict that these elements should behave incompatibly during crystallization and increase with fractionation. In fact, the LREE abundances decrease by a factor of 10–20X during crystallization. This anomalous behavior is commonly observed in felsic plutonic and volcanic sequences. In the Sweetwater Wash pluton monazite occurs in minute quantities, but it is sufficiently abundant to govern the partitioning of LREE and Th during crystallization. Petrographic observations indicate that monazite was on the liquidus throughout most of the crystallization. Analyses of silicate mineral separates suggest that the monazite contains more than 75% of the LREE in the whole rocks.Fractionation of REE-rich accessories (in particular monazite) from felsic magmas may be the general cause of REE depletion during differentiation of these melts. Monazite can easily be mistaken for zircon and, because it typically contains 50% LREE, extremely minute and easily overlooked quantities of monazite can control LREE abundances.     

Trace element zoning in pyroxenes from ODP Hole 735B gabbros: diffusive exchange or synkinematic crystal fractionation?

Major and trace element profiles of clinopyroxene grains in oceanic gabbros from ODP Hole 735B have been investigated by a combined in situ analytical study with ion probe, and electron microprobe. In contrast to the homogeneous major element compositions, trace elements (REE, Y, Cr, Sr, and Zr) show continuous core to rim zoning profiles. The observed trace element systematics in clinopyroxene cannot be explained by a simple diffusive exchange between melts and gabbros along grain boundaries. A simultaneous modification of the melt composition is required to generate the zoning, although Rayleigh fractional crystallization modelling could mimic the general shape of the profiles. Simultaneous metasomatism between the cumulate crystal and the porous melt during crystal accumulation is the most likely process to explain the zoning. Deformation during solidification of the crystal mush could have caused squeezing out of the incompatible element enriched residual melts (interstitial liquid). Migration of the melt along grain boundaries might carry these melt out of the system. This process named as synkinematic differentiation or differentiation by deformation (Natland and Dick in J Volcanol Geotherm Res 110(3–4):191–233, 2001) may act as an important magma evolution mechanism in the oceanic crust, at least at slow-spreading ridges.