Anatexis and fluid regime of the deep continental crust: New clues from melt and fluid inclusions in metapelitic migmatites from Ivrea Zone (NW Italy)

We investigate the inclusions hosted in peritectic garnet from metapelitic migmatites of the Kinzigite Formation (Ivrea Zone, NW Italy) to evaluate the starting composition of the anatectic melt and fluid regime during anatexis throughout the upper amphibolite facies, transition, and granulite facies zones. Inclusions have negative crystal shapes, sizes from 2 to 10 μm and are regularly distributed in the core of the garnet. Microstructural and micro‐Raman investigations indicate the presence of two types of inclusions: crystallized silicate melt inclusions (i.e., nanogranitoids, NI), and fluid inclusions (FI). Microstructural evidence suggests that FI and NI coexist in the same cluster and are primary (i.e., were trapped simultaneously during garnet growth). FI have similar compositions in the three zones and comprise variable proportions of CO₂, CH₄, and N₂, commonly with siderite, pyrophyllite, and kaolinite, suggesting a COHN composition of the trapped fluid. The mineral assemblage in the NI contains K‐feldspar, plagioclase, quartz, biotite, muscovite, chlorite, graphite and, rarely, calcite. Polymorphs such as kumdykolite, cristobalite, tridymite, and less commonly kokchetavite, were also found. Rehomogenized NI from the different zones show that all the melts are leucogranitic but have slightly different compositions. In samples from the upper amphibolite facies, melts are less mafic (FeO + MgO = 2.0–3.4 wt%), contain 860–1700 ppm CO₂ and reach the highest H₂O contents (6.5–10 wt%). In the transition zone melts have intermediate H₂O (4.8–8.5 wt%), CO₂ (457–1534 ppm) and maficity (FeO + MgO = 2.3–3.9 wt%). In contrast, melts at granulite facies reach highest CaO, FeO + MgO (3.2–4.7 wt%), and CO₂ (up to 2,400 ppm), with H₂O contents comparable (5.4–8.3 wt%) to the other two zones. Our results represent the first clear evidence for carbonic fluid‐present melting in the Ivrea Zone. Anatexis of metapelites occurred through muscovite and biotite breakdown melting in the presence of a COH fluid, in a situation of fluid–melt immiscibility. The fluid is assumed to have been internally derived, produced initially by devolatilization of hydrous silicates in the graphitic protolith, then as a result of oxidation of carbon by consumption of Fe³⁺‐bearing biotite during melting. Variations in the compositions of the melts are interpreted to result from higher T of melting. The H₂O contents of the melts throughout the three zones are higher than usually assumed for initial H₂O contents of anatectic melts. The CO₂ contents are highest at granulite facies, and show that carbon‐contents of crustal magmas are not negligible at high T. The activity of H₂O of the fluid dissolved in granitic melts decreases with increasing metamorphic grade. Carbonic fluid‐present melting of the deep continental crust represents, together with hydrate‐breakdown melting reactions, an important process in the origin of crustal anatectic granitoids.     

Equilibrium and Stability of Prominence Flux Ropes

Realistic models of solar prominence flux ropes are numerically constructed. The models are in 2.5 dimensions, including the effects of non-isothermal temperature, density and gravity, and pressure. Stability of the equilibria to pressure- and gravity-driven instabilities is numerically investigated, using the ballooning formalism of fusion plasma theory. The equilibrium models can become unstable to pressure- and gravity-driven modes at plasma parameters characteristic of prominences.     

Strike-slip faults parallel to crustal spreading axes: data from Iceland and the Afar Depression

Slickenside studies in regions of crustal spreading such as Iceland and the Afar Depression, East Africa, reveal that a significant number of faults parallel and close to rift axes are strike-slip rather than normal. Therefore, the pattern of brittle deformation in these regions does not conform to the classic two-dimensional schemes of oceanic tectonics and pre-oceanic rifting. Dip-slip and strike-slip faulting presumably alternated along or in the vicinity of spreading axes, indicate a varying stress field and a combination of transverse and longitudinal movements. In Iceland, strike-slip faults parallel to rifts are observed both west and east of the rift system as well as in a median area between overlapping rifts; the mechanisms proposed for their origin include accommodation of oblique convergence or divergence of crustal sections due to variations of spreading directions along axis and the interaction of overlapping rifts. In the Afar Depression this kind of fault is recorded west of the rift of Asal and can be imputed to reflect an interaction among rifts in the vicinity of the Afar triple junction. Rift-parallel strike-slip faults cannot however be assumed to be a feature of all crustal spreading axes due to the peculiarity of the examined regions: both of them are hot-spot areas and the Afar Depression lies at a triple junction.     

GIS-based evaluation of groundwater quality and estimation of soil salinization and land degradation risks in an arid Mediterranean site (SW Tunisia)

Arabian Journal of Geosciences - The present work is concerned with the valorization of clay minerals of the Aleg formation (Coniacian-middle Campanian) in the clinker manufacturing. The studied...     

Features of soil redistribution and major element migration in a karst hillslope of Southwest China

In this study, we investigated the spatial characteristics of the rate of soil distribution and the mechanism of major element migration in a typical karst hillslope in Guangxi Province, Southwestern China. Soil redistribution was examined using ¹³⁷Cs technique under different hillslope components. With the combination of geochemical methods, the migration characteristics of major elements in soils of three hillslope components in both the horizontal and vertical directions were determined. Thirty-seven soil samples were collected and analyzed for ¹³⁷Cs and the major elements were determined. By using the profile distribution model the mean soil redistribution rates were found to be -17.01, 0.40 and -23.30 t ha^-1 yr^-1 in the summit (BYSD), shoulder (BYSY) and toeslope (BYSJ) components of the studied hillslope, respectively. In comparison to BYSD, the sesquioxides of Fe₂O₃ and TiO₂ tend to be enriched, whereas the alkalis (CaO, MgO, Na₂O and K₂O) tend to be depleted, both in the shoulder and toeslope components. Due to human and animal activities, the contents of CaO, MgO, K2O and Na₂O have somewhat increased within the topsoil. The results indicated that ¹³⁷Cs activities are significantly correlated with clay particles and organic matter, and are affected by the pedogenic process and vegatation. Overall, it maybe necessary to use techniques such as ¹³⁷Cs to investigate soil erosion with the combination of geochemical methods.     

A priori testing of sparse adaptive polynomial chaos expansions using an ocean general circulation model database

This work explores the implementation of an adaptive strategy to design sparse ensembles of oceanic simulations suitable for constructing polynomial chaos surrogates. We use a recently developed pseudo-spectral algorithm that is based on a direct application of the Smolyak sparse grid formula and that allows the use of arbitrary admissible sparse grids. The adaptive algorithm is tested using an existing simulation database of the oceanic response to Hurricane Ivan in the Gulf of Mexico. The a priori tests demonstrate that sparse and adaptive pseudo-spectral constructions lead to substantial savings over isotropic sparse sampling in the present setting.     

Abu Roash G dolomite reservoir characterization using seismic inversion technique, Horus field, Western Desert, Egypt

The main objective of this paper was the characterization of the reservoir (Abu Roash G dolomite) in terms of acoustic impedance from surface seismic data complemented by available well logs. To reach our target, a two-step procedure was followed: first, identification of the reservoir signatures using synthetic seismogram using Strata program in Hampson–Russell software and second, applying inversion technique to the post-stack seismic data using Strata program in Hampson–Russell software to obtain acoustic impedance profiles and maps. This procedure was applied to 12 3D seismic lines (six cross-lines, and six in-lines) from Horus field in Western Desert in Egypt after converting them from analog state to SEGY format by vectorization. Five wells had been used in this study. The outcome of this paper is an improved subsurface image of seismic data and achieving the reservoir characterization in a good way.     

Quantifying initial and wind forcing uncertainties in the Gulf of Mexico

This study aims at analyzing the combined impact of uncertainties in initial conditions and wind forcing fields in ocean general circulation models (OGCM) using polynomial chaos (PC) expansions. Empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) are used to formulate both spatial perturbations to initial conditions and space-time wind forcing perturbations, namely in the form of a superposition of modal components with uniformly distributed random amplitudes. The forward deterministic HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) is used to propagate input uncertainties in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) in spring 2010, during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and to generate the ensemble of model realizations based on which PC surrogate models are constructed for both localized and field quantities of interest (QoIs), focusing specifically on sea surface height (SSH) and mixed layer depth (MLD). These PC surrogate models are constructed using basis pursuit denoising methodology, and their performance is assessed through various statistical measures. A global sensitivity analysis is then performed to quantify the impact of individual modes as well as their interactions. It shows that the local SSH at the edge of the GoM main current—the Loop Current—is mostly sensitive to perturbations of the initial conditions affecting the current front, whereas the local MLD in the area of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is more sensitive to wind forcing perturbations. At the basin scale, the SSH in the deep GoM is mostly sensitive to initial condition perturbations, while over the shelf it is sensitive to wind forcing perturbations. On the other hand, the basin MLD is almost exclusively sensitive to wind perturbations. For both quantities, the two sources of uncertainty have limited interactions. Finally, the computations indicate that whereas local quantities can exhibit complex behavior that necessitates a large number of realizations, the modal analysis of field sensitivities can be suitably achieved with a moderate size ensemble.