Rayleigh Wave Group Velocity Tomography of Siberia, China and the Vicinity

—Rayleigh waves are used in a tomographic inversion to obtain group velocity maps of East Asia (40° E–160° E and 20° N–70° N). The period range studied is 30 to 70 seconds. Seismograms used for this study were recorded at CDSN stations, at a temporary broadband seismic array in Tibet, at several SRO stations, and Kirnos-equipped stations established in Asia by the former Soviet Union, in Siberia, in the Sakhalin and in Mongolia. Altogether more than 1200 paths were available in the tomographic inversion. The study area includes the Angara craton, the geologically ancient core of Asia, and the subsequently accreted units, the Altaids (a Paleozoic collision complex), the Sino-Korean platform (a chain of Archaen terranes separated by belts of active structures), the south China platform (a collage of Precambrian, Paleozoic and Mesozoic metamorphic and igneous terranes), as well as the Tibetan plateau (an active tectonic feature created in late Cenozoic through collision of the Indian subcontinent and the Asian continent). Many of these main units are recognizable in the tomographic images as distinctive units; Tibet appears as a prominent low velocity (about ?15% from the average) structure, with western and central Tibet often appearing as the areas with the lowest velocities, the Central Asian fold-belt, and the Angara craton are consistently high group velocity areas. Some lesser tectonic features are also recognizable. For example, Lake Baikal is seen as a high velocity feature at periods greater than 40 seconds. However, the high group velocity feature does not stop near the southern end of Lake Baikal; it extends south-southwestward across Mongolia. The North China Plain, a part of the platform where extensional tectonics dominate, is an area of high velocities as a result of relatively thin crust. The south China block, the least tectonically active region of China, is generally an area of high velocity. For periods longer than 40 seconds, a NNE trending high group velocity gradient clearly exists in eastern China; the velocities are noticeably higher in the east. From the group velocity maps, average dispersion curves at twelve locations were determined and inverted to obtain velocity structures. Main results of group velocity inversion include: (1) a Tibetan crust of around 60?km thick, with low crustal and upper mantle shear velocities, at 3.3?km/s and 4.2?km/s, respectively; (2) with the Moho constrained at 40–43?km, the Angara craton and the Central Asian foldbelt have a V _S in excess of 4.6?km/s; (3) relatively low shear velocities are obtained for tectonically active areas. In many parts of the study area, where Precambrian basement is exposed, the process in the crust and upper mantle due to recent tectonic activities have modified the crust and upper mantle velocity structures under the Precambrian terranes, they are no longer underlain by high velocity crust and mantle.     

Wave clouds over mountains

Main characteristics of the atmosphere disturbances over the mountains are calculated with a nonlinear two-dimensional stationary model of the airstream over mountains depending on the properties of the unperturbed upstream. A spatial humidity distribution over mountains is defined under assumption that water vapor is transported with airstreams like a passive pollutant. The derived humidity fields and calculated temperature distribution are used for determining the spatial relative humidity distribution over mountains. Critical values of the relative humidity in the interval of 70–100% are used for identifying the cloud zone boundaries. The analysis is performed on the cloud zone dependence on vertical distribution of relative humidity in the upstream and on the mountain form characteristics. The studies are conducted with a special reference to a complicated mountain relief in Southern Zagros (Iran).     

The role of protons of the radiation belts in the generation of Pc 3–5

A new theory of the Alfvén wave generation in inhomogeneous finite β two component plasma is developed ($\text{β =}\text{8πρ}\text{β}{}_0{}^2$, ρ and B₀ are plasma pressure and unperturbed magnetic field, respectively). The analysis was carried out for these waves both for long wave approximation kρ_i ? 1 as well as for $\text{kρ}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{? 1}$ (k and ρ_i are wave vector and larmor radius of protons). The influence of the loss-cone on the development of the instability is considered. The theory is applied to explain the generation mechanism of Pc 3–5.     

Turning off low and high currents in a transmitter loop used in the transient electromagnetic method

In near-surface transient electromagnetic studies, it is desirable to measure the transient response starting from the earliest possible time. This requires the current in the transmitter loop to be switched off quickly, which necessitates working with a low transmitter current. As for deep-target transient electromagnetic studies, the transmitter current is as high as possible. The transmitter current's turn-off waveform and total duration affect the transient voltage response, especially at early times, which is to be accounted for when interpreting transient electromagnetic data. This article discusses the difference in switching off low and high current in a horizontal loop used as the source of the primary magnetic field in the transient electromagnetic method. Low and high currents are turned off in fundamentally different ways. When the current to be switched off is low, the loop can be represented as a symmetric combination of two transmission lines grounded at the middle of the loop perimeter. Such a representation of a loop allows calculating the current turn-off waveform at any point of the loop. The waveform and total duration of switching off a low current does not depend on its magnitude, but is determined by the period of natural oscillations of the current in the loop and the resistance of a shunting resistor. Switching off a low current in a loop can be represented as the sum of stepped current waves travelling along the loop wire. As a consequence, the current at different points of the loop perimeter is turned off at different times. In contrast to a low current, a high current is switched off linearly in time and synchronously at all points of the loop perimeter. The wave phenomena appear only at the very beginning of the current shutdown for a time interval that is much less than the total current turn-off duration. Presentation of the loop using a simple lumped-circuit model predicts the waveform and duration of the high current turn-off that coincide with the measured ones. There are two reasons why the article may be of interest to those engaged in the theory and/or practice of electromagnetic geophysical methods. First, it contributes to a general understanding of how the current in the transmitter loop is turned off. Second, the article shows how the parameters of a transmitter loop determine the current turn-off duration and thus the minimum depth of the transient electromagnetic sounding method.     

Flow over mountains with the stream velocity shear

The dependence of orographic disturbances of the atmosphere on properties of the incident flow is studied within the semianalytic approach. Reducing the initial system of equations of hydrothermodynamics to a single equation for an associative stream function makes it possible to consider a class of solutions of a sufficiently general type when the background velocity of the wind and the Lyra’s scale vary with height. It is shown that the dependence of the solution on the indicated factors can be not only strong, but also sufficiently unexpected. In particular, with the monotonic growth in the wind velocity in the troposphere, which corresponds to conditions of a jet stream near the tropopause, disturbances at low and medium heights can acquire an almost resonant and waveguide nature.     

Long-Term Starspot Activity of the Eclipsing Variable System CG Cyg

Photometric observations of the eclipsing variable system CG Cyg (G9+K3, P=0 ^d .63), which belongs to a group of short-period, chromospherically active RS CVn type stars with the same type of activity as the sun, have been made over two seasons in 2003 and 2004. The spotting of the star’s surface is modelled using the original observations together with photometric data published since 1965. In every season the spots were concentrated near the equator and covered up to 18% of the star’s entire surface, while the temperature difference between the quiescent photosphere and the spotted regions was 2100 K. Cyclical variations in the total area and average latitude of the spots, as well as flip-flop of the active longitudes, are suspected. Latitudinal drift of the spots during a cycle and differential rotation of the star are discovered. The following orbital elements are obtained: M₁ = 0.93 M⊙, M₂ = 0.81 M⊙, R₁ = 1.01 R⊙, and R₂ = 0.82 R⊙.__________Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 349–363 (August 2005).     

Applying the transmission line theory to study ungrounded horizontal loop self-transients

Ungrounded horizontal loop responses at low frequencies and/or late times can be modeled in terms of an equivalent circuit with lumped elements, but a loop in a general case is a distributed system. At high frequencies and/or early times, the wire in combination with the underlying earth makes a transmission line in which current behaves according to the wave equation. Solving the equation for current turn-off is quite difficult because the primary parameters of the wire–earth system depend, in an intricate way, on earth conductivity (resistivity) and frequency (or time). In modeling the current turn-off process, the loop was simulated as a symmetrical combination of two identical transmission lines with shorted outputs. Modeling was performed in the frequency domain with subsequent transformation into the time domain. Comparison of measured and computed transient self responses showed that good fit requires taking into account (1) interaction of each line with its own image current, (2) mutual inductance of the two lines, and (3) skin effect in the wire. As a result of mutual inductance, the parameters of the lines and, hence, of the whole loop depend on local conductivity, which, at least in principle, may allow one to infer the resistivity of shallow subsurface from current turn-off responses. A real ungrounded horizontal loops lacks symmetry at early times and its magnetic field differs from that predicted by the conventional methods of induction soundings.     

Oriented growth of garnet by topotactic reactions and epitaxy in high‐pressure,mafic garnet granulite formed by dehydration melting of metastable hornblende‐gabbronorite (Jijal Complex,Kohistan Complex,north Pakistan)

Garnet growth in high‐pressure, mafic garnet granulites formed by dehydration melting of hornblende‐gabbronorite protoliths in the Jijal complex (Kohistan palaeo‐island arc complex, north Pakistan) was investigated through a microstructural EBSD‐SEM and HRTEM study. Composite samples preserve a sharp transition in which the low‐pressure precursor is replaced by garnet through a millimetre‐sized reaction front. A magmatic foliation in the gabbronorite is defined by mafic‐rich layering, with an associated magmatic lineation defined by the shape‐preferred orientation (SPO) of mafic clusters composed of orthopyroxene (Opx), clinopyroxene (Cpx), amphibole (Amp) and oxides. The shape of the reaction front is convoluted and oblique to the magmatic layering. Opx, Amp and, to a lesser extent, Cpx show a strong lattice‐preferred orientation (LPO) characterized by an alignment of [001] axes parallel to the magmatic lineation in the precursor hornblende‐gabbronorite. Product garnet (Grt) also displays a strong LPO. Two of the four 〈111〉 axes are within the magmatic foliation plane and the density maximum is subparallel to the precursor magmatic lineation. The crystallographic relationship 〈111〉_Grt // [001]_Opx,Cpx,Amp deduced from the LPO was confirmed by TEM observations. The sharp and discontinuous modal and compositional variations observed at the reaction front attest to the kinetic inhibition of prograde solid‐state reactions predicted by equilibrium‐phase diagrams. The P–T field for the equilibration of Jijal garnet granulites shows that the reaction affinities are 5–10 kJ mol.^?1 for the Grt‐in reaction and 0–5 kJ mol.^?1 for the Opx‐out reaction. Petrographic and textural observations indicate that garnet first nucleated on amphibole at the rims of mafic clusters; this topotactic replacement resulted in a strong LPO of garnet. Once the amphibole was consumed in the reaction, the parallelism of [001] axes of the mafic‐phase reactants favoured the growth of garnet crystals with similar orientations over a pyroxene substrate. These aggregates eventually sintered into single‐crystal garnet. In the absence of deformation, the orientation of mafic precursor phases conditioned the nucleation site and the crystallographic orientation of garnet because of topotaxial transformation reactions and homoepitaxial growth of garnet during the formation of high‐pressure, mafic garnet‐granulite after low‐pressure mafic protoliths.