Himalayan magmatism and porphyry copper–molybdenum mineralization in the Yulong ore belt, East Tibet

Summary ?The NW–SE-trending Yulong porphyry Cu–Mo ore belt, situated in the Sanjiang0 area of eastern Tibet, is approximately 400 km long and 35 to 70 km wide. Complex tectonic and magmatic processes during the Himalayan epoch have given rise to favorable conditions for porphyry-type Cu–Mo mineralization. Porphyry masses of the Himalayan epoch in the Yulong ore belt are distributed in groups along regional NW–SE striking tectonic lineaments. They were emplaced mainly into Triassic and Lower Permian sedimentary-volcanic rocks. K–Ar und U–Pb isotopic datings give an intrusion age range of 57–26 Ma. The porphyries are mainly of biotite monzogranitic and biotite syenogranitic compositions. Geological and geochemical data indicate that the various porphyritic intrusions in the belt had a common or similar magma source, are metaluminous to peraluminous, Nb–Y–Ba-depleted, I-type granitoids, and belong to the high-K calc-alkaline series. Within the Yulong subvolcanic belt a number of porphyry stocks bear typical porphyry type Cu–Mo alteration and mineralization. The most prominent porphyry Co–Mo deposits include Yulong, Malasongduo, Duoxiasongduo, Mangzong and Zhanaga, of which Yulong is one of the largest porphyry Cu (Mo) deposits in China with approximately 8 × 10⁶ tons of contained Cu metal. Hydrothermal alteration at Yulong developed around a biotite–monzogranitic porphyry stock that was emplaced within Upper Triassic limestone, siltstone and mudstone. The earliest alteration was due to the effects of contact metamorphism of the country rocks and alkali metasomatism (potassic alteration) within and around the porphyry body. The alteration of this stage was accompanied by a small amount of disseminated and veinlet Cu–Mo sulfide mineralization. Later alteration–mineralization zones form more or less concentric shells around the potassic zone, around which are distributed a phyllic or quartz–sericite–pyrite zone, a silicification and argillic zone, and a propylitic zone. Fluid inclusion data indicate that three types of fluids were involved in the alteration–mineralization processes: (1) early high temperature (660–420 °C) and high salinity (30–51 wt% NaCl equiv) fluids responsible for the potassic alteration and the earliest disseminated and/or veinlet Cu–Mo sulfide mineralization; (2) intermediate unmixed fluids corresponding to phyllic alteration and most Cu–Mo sulfide mineralization, with salinities of 30–50 wt% NaCl equiv and homogenization temperatures of 460–280 °C; and (3) late low to moderate temperature (300–160 °C) and low salinity (6–13 wt% NaCl equiv) fluids responsible for argillic and propylitic alteration. Hydrogen and oxygen isotopic studies show that the early hydrothermal fluids are of magmatic origin and were succeeded by increasing amounts of meteoric-derived convective waters. Sulfur isotopes also indicate a magmatic source for the sulfur in the early sulfide mineralization, with the increasing addition of sedimentary sulfur outward from the porphyry stock. Received August 29, 2001; revised version accepted May 1, 2002 Published online: November 29, 2002     

Keck observations of near-Earth asteroids in the thermal infrared

We present the results of thermal-infrared observations of 20 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) obtained in the period March 2000-February 2002 with the 10-m Keck-I telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The measured fluxes have been fitted with thermal-model emission continua to determine sizes and albedos. This work increases the number of NEAs having measured albedos by 35%. The spread of albedos derived is very large (p_v=0.02−0.55); the mean value is 0.25, which is much higher than that of observed main-belt asteroids. In most cases the albedos are in the ranges expected for the spectral types, although some exceptions are evident. Our results are consistent with a trend of increasing albedo with decreasing size for S-type asteroids with diameters below 20 km. A number of objects are found to have unexpectedly low apparent color temperatures, which may reflect unusual thermal properties. However, the results from our limited sample suggest that high thermal-inertia, regolith-free objects may be uncommon, even amongst NEAs with diameters of less than 1 km. We discuss the significance of our results in the light of information on these NEAs taken from the literature and the uncertainties inherent in applying thermal models to near-Earth asteroids.     

EMERGY ANALYSIS OF GRAIN PRODUCTION SYSTEM IN JIANGSU AND SHAANXI PROVINCES

Efficiency and sustainability of grain production are now important in China. In this study, the grain production systems of Jiangsu and Shaanxi Provinces were compared, to analyze their efficiency and sustainability in terms of utilization of natural resources, inputs of purchased energy and materials, and outputs. Flows of energy and materials between environment and human society were identified, and the natural and human work involved in generating inputs as materials or energy were valued in terms of equivalent amount of solar energy required for their production using emergy method. The results showed environmental resources were continually playing a less important role in the systems, when inorganic subsidiary emergy inputs increased drastically while organic ones decreased or increased little. Deterioration of input emergy structure affected the systems‘ efficiency and sustainability, resulting in emergy investment ratios and environmental loading ratios increasing while yield ratios and sustainability indices decreasing. In general, efficiency and sustainability of grain production in Jiangsu are worse than those in Shaanxi. This analysis also suggested that inorganic subsidiary emergy should be introduced properly, and peasants in Jiangsu should utilize natural conditions wisely while those in Shaanxi pay enough attention to soil and surface water conservation.     

Infrared Study of T Tauri Stars Based on IRAS and 2MASS Observations

The IRAS and 2MASS associations for 193 T Tauri stars are identified in this paper. From the color–color diagrams and spectral index, it is found that the IR excesses for most samples are due to thermal emission from the circumstellar material, as suggested previously. It is also found that the IR excesses at IRAS region for few T Tauri stars and the near-IR excesses for some T Tauri stars are likely attributed to free-free emission or free-bound emission from the circumstellar ionized gas. Moreover, It is found in deredened J–H versus H–K color–color diagram that there is a slight separation in different spectral groups. The T Tauri stars locus equation in J–H versus H–K color–color diagram for our sample is also presented.     

Collisional instability of the drift wave in multi-component plasmas

The collisional instability of the drift wave in a multi-component plasma is investigated. It is shown that when the electron and ion density gradients are different, e.g., due to the presence of a static third component or due to neutral drag effects, the drift mode becomes unstable. The instability is caused by the simultaneous action of the electron collisions with all other plasma species and the spatial difference of the density of the plasma components. This instability may be expected as a natural consequence of the stratification of a multi-component plasma placed in an external gravity field where it can operate for any amount of charge on heavy particles. Therefore it could develop in weakly ionized cold interstellar regions for example, when the heavy particles, i.e. charged grains, are a few tens of Å in size, and carry typically ±1,±2 charge. In the solar atmosphere, it may appear in the weakly ionized photospheric layers due to the convective motion of the neutral component.     

Survival of organic phases in porous IDPs during atmospheric entry: A pulse‐heating study

Abstract— In this study, we have performed pulse‐heating experiments at different temperatures for three organic molecules (a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon [PAH], a ketone, and an amino acid) absorbed into microporous aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) in order to imitate the heating of the organic molecules in interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) and micrometeorites (MMs) during atmospheric entry and to investigate their survival. We have shown that modest amounts (a few percent) of these organic molecules survive pulse‐heating at temperatures in the 700 to 900 °C range. This suggests that the porosity in IDPs and MMs, combined with a sublimable phase (organic material, water), produces an ablative cooling effect, which permits the survival of organic molecules that would otherwise be lost either by thermal degradation or evaporation during atmospheric entry.     

Polar Ring Currents on the sun During a Polar Magnetic Field Reversal

We have studied the variations of the height of polar crown prominences according to daily observations of the Sun at the Kodaikanal Observatory (India) during 1905–1975. Polar ring filaments at latitudes 60°–80° are related to the polar magnetic field reversal. A double decrease of the height of polar ring filaments was found in the course of their migration from 40°to the poles. We estimated the limiting height of the equilibrium of polar ring filaments from the stability condition of a strong electric current. We found that the transition from large-scale to small-scale ring filaments reduces the critical height of the stability for the prominences. A model of an inverse-polarity filament was used.