Bounce Rock—A shergottite‐like basalt encountered at Meridiani Planum,Mars

Abstract– The Opportunity rover of the Mars Exploration Rover mission encountered an isolated rock fragment with textural, mineralogical, and chemical properties similar to basaltic shergottites. This finding was confirmed by all rover instruments, and a comprehensive study of these results is reported here. Spectra from the miniature thermal emission spectrometer and the Panoramic Camera reveal a pyroxene‐rich mineralogy, which is also evident in Mössbauer spectra and in normative mineralogy derived from bulk chemistry measured by the alpha particle X‐ray spectrometer. The correspondence of Bounce Rock’s chemical composition with the composition of certain basaltic shergottites, especially Elephant Moraine (EET) 79001 lithology B and Queen Alexandra Range (QUE) 94201, is very close, with only Cl, Fe, and Ti exhibiting deviations. Chemical analyses further demonstrate characteristics typical of Mars such as the Fe/Mn ratio and P concentrations. Possible shock features support the idea that Bounce Rock was ejected from an impact crater, most likely in the Meridiani Planum region. Bopolu crater, 19.3 km in diameter, located 75 km to the southwest could be the source crater. To date, no other rocks of this composition have been encountered by any of the rovers on Mars. The finding of Bounce Rock by the Opportunity rover provides further direct evidence for an origin of basaltic shergottite meteorites from Mars.     

Determination of Selenium in Thirty-Two Geochemical Reference Materials by Continuous - Flow Hydride Generation Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry

A continuous-flow hydride atomic absorption spectrophotometric method has been applied to 32 geochemical reference materials for the determination of selenium. The sample is decomposed with a mixture of nitric, perchloric and hydrofluoric acids. Selenium values obtained in this study are in general agreement with literature values and provide additional certification for these reference materials. The precision of the method is generally better than 5% relative standard deviation. The lower limit of determination of selenium in the sample is 12 ppb.     

洋面冷锋的三维数值模拟──潜热释放对冷锋结构的影响

通过比较一次洋面冷锋过程的干、湿三维模拟结果，揭示潜热释放对冷锋结构的影响。结果表明：由于潜热释放的作用，冷锋区的温度梯度和风矢量的气旋性切变大大地加强了，冷锋附近的涡度场和垂直速度场呈现出更多的更加紧密的中尺度结构；锋面非地转直接环流在湿模拟中比在干模拟中发展得更加充分并且具有更高的组织性；潜热加热倾向于增加锋面环流的强度，尤其是其上升支的强度。研究表明，潜热释放过程是形成冷锋前沿上方低层大气中狭窄强上升气流区的关键因素之一。     

The coronal transient of 16 June 1972

On 16 June 1972, the Naval Research Laboratory's coronagraph aboard OSO-7 tracked a huge coronal cloud moving outward from the Sun. Concurrent observations of the inner corona made by the High Altitude Observatory at Mauna Loa showed bifurcation of the underlying coronal structure. Together, these observations can be interpreted as evidence for the stretching of the closed fields into a magnetic bottle, extending to at least eight radii from the center of the Sun.     

Effect of pressure, temperature, and oxygen fugacity on the metal-silicate partitioning of Te, Se, and S: Implications for earth differentiation

We have measured liquid Fe metal-liquid silicate partitioning (D_i) of tellurium, selenium, and sulfur over a range of pressure, temperature, and oxygen fugacity (1-19 GPa, 2023-2693 K, fO₂ −0.4 to −5.5 log units relative to the iron-wüstite buffer) to better assess the role of metallic melts in fractionating these elements during mantle melting and early Earth evolution. We find that metal-silicate partitioning of all three elements decreases with falling FeO activity in the silicate melt, and that the addition of 5-10 wt% S in the metal phase results in a 3-fold enhancement of both D_Te and D_Se. In general, Te, Se, and S all become more siderophile with increasing pressure, and less siderophile with increasing temperature, in agreement with previous work. In all sulfur-bearing experiments, D_Te is greater than D_Se or D_S, with the latter two being similar over a range of P and T. Parameterized results are used to estimate metal-silicate partitioning at the base of a magma ocean which deepens as accretion progresses, with the equilibration temperature fixed at the peridotite liquidus. We show that during accretion, Te behaves like a highly siderophile element, with expected core/mantle partitioning of >10⁵, in contrast to the observed core/mantle ratio of ∼100. Less extreme differences are observed for Se and S, which yielded core/mantle partitioning 100- to 10 times higher, respectively, than the observed value. Addition of ∼0.5 wt% of a meteorite component (H, EH or EL ordinary chondrite) is sufficient to raise mantle abundances to their current level and erase the original interelement fractionation of metal-silicate equilibrium.     

Projected changes in meteorological drought over East Africa inferred from bias-adjusted CMIP6 models

Natural Hazards - The ongoing global warming has caused unprecedented changes in the climate system, leading to an increase in the intensity and frequency of weather and climate extremes. This...     

Meteoritic material at four Canadian impact craters

Eleven impact melt and 6 basement rock samples from 4 craters were analyzed by neutron activation for Au, Co, Cr, Fe, Ge, Ir, Ni, Os, Pd, Re and Se. Wanapitei Lake, Ontario: the impact melts show uniform enrichments corresponding to 1–2% C1-chondrite material. Interelement ratios ($\text{Co}\text{Cr}$, $\text{Ni}\text{Cr}$, $\text{Ni}\text{Ir}$) suggest that the impacting body was a Cl-, C2-, or LL-chondrite. Nicholson Lake, North West Territory: Ni, Cr and Co are distinctly more enriched than Ir and Au which tentatively suggests an olivine-rich achondrite (nakhlite or ureilite). Gow Lake, Saskatchewan and Mistastin, Labrador: small enrichments in Ir and Ni; both the low $\text{Ir}\text{Ni}$ ratios and low Cr content suggest iron meteorites, but the signals are too weak for conclusive identification.A tentative comparison of meteoritic signatures at 10 large, ≥4km craters and their presumed celestial counterparts (13 Apollo and Amor asteroids) shows more irons and achondrites among known projectile types, and a preponderance of S-type objects, having no known meteoritic equivalent, among asteroids. It is not yet clear that these differences are significant, in view of the tentative nature of the crater identifications (achondrites in particular), and the limited statistics.     

A framework of Holocene and Late Pleistocene environmental change in eastern Iran inferred from the dating of periods of alluvial fan abandonment,river terracing,and lake deposition

We review studies of the Holocene and Late Pleistocene stratigraphy of eastern Iran to infer past changes in the environment within this presently arid region. We build a scenario of widespread, and presumably climatically driven, evolution of the landscape through the Holocene. Six sites, covering a 10° range in latitude, indicate a regional abandonment of alluvial fan surfaces at ～10 ± 3 ka, with the younger (～9 ka) end of this age range supported by several of the best-constrained studies. Incision of rivers into the fan surfaces has occurred in discrete stages in the early to mid-Holocene (～9–7 ka) leading to the formation of flights of river terraces. Detailed records of lakebed deposition in the presently arid interior of Iran are rare, though the available data indicate lake highstand conditions at <7.8 ka at South Golbaf in SE Iran and at < 8.7 ± 1.1 ka at the Nimbluk plain in NE Iran. The major periods of Holocene landscape development hence correlate with a period of time where water was more abundant than at present, with incision of rivers into thick alluvial deposits possibly occurring due to a combination of decreased sediment supply and high levels of precipitation, and with the formation of inset river terraces possibly responding to century-scale fluctuations in precipitation. No major geomorphic changes are identified within the later part of the Holocene, from which we infer that increased aridity has slowed evolution of the landscape. A decrease in precipitation in the mid-Holocene may have had a detrimental effect on bronze age societies in eastern Iran as has been inferred elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean region. The pre-Holocene environmental changes in eastern Iran are less well constrained, though there are suggestions of alluvial fan abandonment at 40–60 ka, at ～80 ka, and at ～120 ka.     

Middle Paleolithic occupation on a Marine Isotope Stage 5 lakeshore in the Nefud Desert,Saudi Arabia

Major hydrological variations associated with glacial and interglacial climates in North Africa and the Levant have been related to Middle Paleolithic occupations and dispersals, but suitable archaeological sites to explore such relationships are rare on the Arabian Peninsula. Here we report the discovery of Middle Paleolithic assemblages in the Nefud Desert of northern Arabia associated with stratified deposits dated to 75,000 years ago. The site is located in close proximity to a substantial relict lake and indicates that Middle Paleolithic hominins penetrated deeply into the Arabian Peninsula to inhabit landscapes vegetated by grasses and some trees. Our discovery supports the hypothesis of range expansion by Middle Paleolithic populations into Arabia during the final humid phase of Marine Isotope Stage 5, when environmental conditions were still favorable.     

Slow quasigeostrophic unstable modes of a lens vortex in a continuously stratified flow

This work addresses the linear dynamics underlying the formation of density interfaces at the periphery of energetic vortices, well outside the vortex core, both in the radial and axial directions. We compute numerically the unstable modes of an anticyclonic Gaussian vortex lens in a continuously stratified rotating fluid. The most unstable mode is a slow mode, associated with a critical layer instability located at the vortex periphery. Although the most unstable disturbance has a characteristic vertical scale which is comparable to the vortex height, interestingly, the critical levels of the successively fastest growing modes are closely spaced at intervals along the axial direction that are much smaller than the vortex height.