Crystal clots,amphibole fractionation and the evolution of calc-alkaline magmas

Petrographic and microprobe investigations of calc-alkaline (CA) rocks from the High Cascade Range (i.e., Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Jefferson, Crater Lake and Mt. Shasta) of western North America show that crystal clots represent primary igneous phase assemblages and are not products of amphibole reactions with melt. For each eruptive complex, crystal clots display diverse modal proportions even within a single eruptive unit. Nevertheless, in all cases the crystal-clot minerals are also represented in the rock as phenocrysts or microphenocrysts. Basalts contain clots of ol+plag+mgt, ol+mgt, cpx+ plag+mgt, cpx+mgt and plag+mgt; andesites, clots of cpx+mgt, opx+mgt, cpx+opx+plag+mgt, cpx+plag+mgt, opx+plag+mgt and plag±mgt; and dacites, clots of opx+mgt, cpx+opx+plag+ mgt, opx+plag+mgt, amph+plag+mgt±ilm, amph+mgt±ilm and plag±mgt. The bulk compositions of most of these clot assemblages could not have been derived from amphibole percursors. Although some amphiboles in dacitic rocks display a breakdown reaction of amph=plag+cpx+opx +mag, these mineral clusters, unlike those of clots, typically have a relict amphibole crystal outline and a fine-grained metamorphic texture. Plagioclase grains in the mineral clusters lack oscillatory zoning which is typical of crystal clot plagioclase grains. The euhedral to subhedral shapes of most clot minerals and the oscillatory zoning present in most clot plagioclase grains are not likely to have formed from the breakdown of amphibole. Crystal clots are also observed in Hawaiian and ocean floor basalts, although amphibole fractionation has not been proposed for those lavas. Magnetite fractionation may be the controlling process limiting iron enrichment in CA magmas rather than amphibole fractionation. Textural evidence indicates that magnetite is an early-forming phase in CA magmas. V, which is concentrated in magnetite, shows a strong decrease with increasing silica in many CA rocks, supporting a magnetite fractionation model.Hawaii Institute of Geophysics Contrib. No. 969     

Occurrence and exploration of gas hydrate in the marginal seas and continental margin of the Asia and Oceania region

Supplies of conventional natural gas and oil are declining fast worldwide, and therefore new, unconventional forms of energy resources are needed to meet the ever-increasing demand. Amongst the many different unconventional natural resources are gas hydrates, a solid, ice-like crystalline compound of methane and water formed under specific low temperature and high pressure conditions. Gas hydrates are believed to exist in large quantities worldwide in oceanic regions of continental margins, as well as associated with permafrost regions in the Arctic. Some studies to estimate the global abundance of gas hydrate suggest that the total volume of natural gas locked up in form of gas hydrates may exceed all known conventional natural gas reserves, although large uncertainties exist in these assessments. Gas hydrates have been intensively studied in the last two decades also due to connections between climate forcing (natural and/or anthropogenic) and the potential large volumes of methane trapped in gas hydrate accumulations. The presence of gas hydrate within unconsolidated sediments of the upper few hundred meters below seafloor may also pose a geo-hazard to conventional oil and gas production. Additionally, climate variability and associated changes in pressure-temperature regimes and thus shifts in the gas hydrate stability zone may cause the occurrence of submarine slope failures.Several large-scale national gas hydrate programs exist especially in countries such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, India, and New Zealand, where large demands of energy cannot be met by domestic supplies from natural resources. The past five years have seen several dedicated deep drilling expeditions and other scientific studies conducted throughout Asia and Oceania to understand gas hydrates off India, China, and Korea. This thematic set of publications is dedicated to summarize the most recent findings and results of geo-scientific studies of gas hydrates in the marginal seas and continental margin of the Asia, and Oceania region.     

Zircon U-Pb-Hf constraints from Gongga Shan granites on young crustal melting in eastern Tibet

The Gongga Shan batholith is a complex granitoid batholith on the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau with a long history of magmatism spanning from the Triassic to the Pliocene. Late Miocene-Pliocene units are the youngest exposed crustal melts within the entire Asian plate of the Tibetan Plateau.Here, we present in-situ zircon Hf isotope constraints on their magmatic source, to aid the understanding of how these young melts were formed and how they were exhumed to the surface. Hf isotope signatures of Eocene to Pliocene zircon rims(ε_Hf(t)=-4 to +4), interpreted to have grown during localised crustal melting, are indicative of melting of a Neoproterozoic source region, equivalent to the nearby exposed Kangding Complex. Therefore, we suggest that Neoproterozoic crust underlies this region of the Songpan-Ganze terrane, and sourced the intrusive granites that form the Gongga Shan batholith. Localised young melting of Neoproterozoic lower or middle crust requires localised melt-fertile lithologies. We suggest that such melts may be equivalent to seismic and magnetotelluric low-velocity and high-conductivity zones or "bright spots" imaged across much of the Tibetan Plateau. The lack of widespread exposed melts this age is due either to the lack of melt-fertile rocks in the middle crust, the very low erosion level of the Tibetan plateau, or to a lack of mechanism for exhuming such melts. For Gongga Shan, where some melting is younger than nearby thermochronological ages of low temperature cooling, the exact process and timing of exhumation remains enigmatic, but their location away from the Xianshuihe fault precludes the fault acting as a conduit for the young melts. We suggest that underthrusting of dry granulites of the lower Indian crust(Archaean shield) this far northeast is a plausible mechanism to explain the uplift and exhumation of the eastern Tibetan Plateau.     

Emission spectrographic estimation of gold

A procedure for estimating minute quantities (parts per billion) of gold is described, based on dissolution of the sample in aqua regia, adsorption on activated charcoal, arcing of the charcoal ash, and measurement of the intensity of the emitted spectra.     

A method for uncertainty constraint of catchment discharge and phosphorus load estimates

River discharge and nutrient measurements are subject to aleatory and epistemic uncertainties. In this study, we present a novel method for estimating these uncertainties in colocated discharge and phosphorus (P) measurements. The “voting point”‐based method constrains the derived stage‐discharge rating curve both on the fit to available gaugings and to the catchment water balance. This helps reduce the uncertainty beyond the range of available gaugings and during out of bank situations. In the example presented here, for the top 5% of flows, uncertainties are shown to be 139% using a traditional power law fit, compared with 40% when using our updated “voting point” method. Furthermore, the method is extended to in situ and lab analysed nutrient concentration data pairings, with lower uncertainties (81%) shown for high concentrations (top 5%) than when a traditional regression is applied (102%). Overall, for both discharge and nutrient data, the method presented goes some way to accounting for epistemic uncertainties associated with nonstationary physical characteristics of the monitoring site.     

Sedimentary facies and depositional history of the Swan Islands,Honduras

Swan Island is a Honduran possession in the western Caribbean, located on the southeastern side of the Cayman Trench. Two sedimentary assemblages are found on the island: an older bedded sequence of mid-Tertiary age (Aquitanian or Burdigalian) and a younger sedimentary sequence of Late Pleistocene age. The older sequence is composed of a series of calcarenites, calcilutites, and siliciclastic mudstones; capping these are cliff-forming reefal carbonates of the younger sequence.The rocks of the older bedded sequence accumulated in deep water. Sedimentation consisted of a constant rain of pyroclastic debris interrupted by the episodic introduction of upslope carbonate material by turbidity currents. Uplift and deformation of this sequence was initiated sometime after the Early Miocene. By the Late Pleistocene, uplift had brought the rocks into water depths conducive to coral growth. Pleistocene sedimentation on the island was controlled by the interaction between tectonic uplift and eustatic sea-level changes. The primary controlling force on the tectonic history of the island is its proximity to the boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates.     

Small hypervelocity particles captured in aerogel collectors: Location,extraction, handling and storage

Abstract— It has now been about a decade since the first demonstrations that hypervelocity particles could be captured, partially intact, in aerogel collectors. But the initial promise of a bonanza of partially‐intact extraterrestrial particles, collected in space, has yet to materialize. One of the difficulties that investigators have encountered is that the location, extraction, handling and analysis of very small (10 μm and less) grains, which constitute the vast majority of the captured particles, is challenging and burdensome. Furthermore, current extraction techniques tend to be destructive over large areas of the collectors. Here we describe our efforts to alleviate some of these difficulties. We have learned how to rapidly and efficiently locate captured particles in aerogel collectors, using an automated microscopic scanning system originally developed for experimental nuclear astrophysics. We have learned how to precisely excavate small access tunnels and trenches using an automated micromanipulator and glass microneedles as tools. These excavations are only destructive to the collector in a very small area—this feature may be particularly important for excavations in the precious Stardust collectors. Using actuatable silicon microtweezers, we have learned how to extract and store “naked” particles—essentially free of aerogel—as small as 3 μm in size. We have also developed a technique for extracting particles, along with their terminal tracks, still embedded in small cubical aerogel blocks. We have developed a novel method for storing very small particles in etched nuclear tracks. We have applied these techniques to the extraction and storage of grains captured in aerogel collectors (Particle Impact Experiment, Orbital Debris Collector Experiment, Comet‐99) in low Earth orbit.     

The magnetic and thermodynamical structure of a coronal hole

A nonpolytropic model of a polar coronal hole at 2 R R 5 R is constructed. Our main assumptions are: (1) the magnetic structure of the Sun can be described by a combination of dipole-like and radial fields; (2) in the magnetically dominated region [(v ²/2) < (B ²/8)] the influence of the outflow on the magnetic structure is negligible. The magnetic and thermodynamic structures are obtained by solving the force balance equation for plasma with the observationally derived electron density. Profiles of velocities in the acceleration regime are presented and the influence of the outflow on the thermodynamic structure of the solar corona above the polar region is discussed.This paper is the first part of a joint project of the Space Environment Laboratory, the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, and the High Altitude Observatory, NCAR. The second paper by Munro and Tzur is in preparation.Work done while at the Space Environment Laboratory, NOAA, ERL, Boulder, CO 80303, U.S.A.1982–83 Visiting Fellow at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, National Bureau of Standards and University of Colorado.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.Visitor at NCAR.