Structural control of tertiary Au-Ag-bearing breccias in an extensional environment,Nelson area,Southern Nevada,USA

Gold-silver mineralization in the Nelson area of southern Nevada was controlled by structures associated with intrusion of an east-west oriented pluton. Flatlying breccias formed during intrusion have allowed passive flooding of highly permeable zones and deposition of mineralized quartz and calcite. Steep fractures were formed in the pluton and immediate country rock during cooling, and later reactivated by north-south extension. These fractures have channelled fluids, and some have been the sites of hydrothermal eruptions which produced further brecciation and deposition of mineralized quartzcalcite veins. The mineralizing fluid was water which was boiling at or near 100 °C. The calcite deposited by this water has ¹³C = –5.4 to –7.1, and ¹⁸O = +5.8 to +11.3, and the water was probably meteoric in origin. Mineralization had an epithermal style, with strong local structural control, rather than deep-sourced regional detachment-related hydrothermal origin.     

Rejuvenation of Lake Erie

The positive ecological changes that have occurred in Lake Erie since the mid-1970, demonstrate that an extensively degraded aquatic ecosystem can be rejuventated. This rejuvenation should provide encouragement to other who are attempting to save such habitats as the Aral Sea. This paper summarizes the problems of Lake Erie, the meassures instituted to correct the problems and the result of remediation efforts.     

Possible creep-related tilt precursors obtained in the Central Apennines (Italy) and in the Southern Caucasus (Georgia)

Daily averaged tilt component data from two sites of the Central Apennines (Italy) and of the Southern Caucasus (Georgia), respectively, revealed intermediate-term tilts as possible precursors to earthquakes (M=3.0÷4.7) which occurred in the above-mentioned seismic areas within a distance of 50 km from the sites. A good temporal correlation as well as a fair spatial correspondence between these residual tilts (with amplitude and duration of some microradians and months, respectively) and main shocks were pointed out, by removing both secular trends and seasonal thermoelastic effects from the raw tilts. An attempt was made to justify the above-mentioned results, based on the assumption that the observed intermediate-term preseismic tilts are the manifestation of aseismic creep episodes of comparable duration in the fault materials of thrust faults close to the tilt sites. The mechanism refers to a strain field slowly propagating from the preparation focal area to the tilt site, through crustal blocks separated by weak transition zones. This propagation is thought to be the cause of the local aseismic fault slip recorded by the tiltmeters. Previously, both discrete structures and strain propagation effects were revealed in the Central Apennines and are thought also to exist in the Southern Caucasus. As in the past, the rheological properties of fault materials are revealed as viscoelastic ones. In fact, creep equations obtained by applying several viscoelastic models on our data, proved to fit quite well some of the observed tilt precursors, producing viscosity and rigidity values very similar to those reported in literature.Professor Petr Viktorovich Manjgaladze died during the writing of this paper     

Room temperature solid-state detectors for Gamma ray burst spectroscopy

We have evaluated several solid state detectors which offer excellent energy resolution at room temperature for soft X-rays. For soft X-rays (< 1 keV to 20 keV), silicon P-intrinsic-N (PIN) and avalanche-mode photodiodes (APD's) have been studied. Using commercially available charge sensitive pre-amplifiers, these photodiodes provide 1 keV resolution without cooling. Their detection efficiencies are limited to about 20 keV and 15 keV, respectively. To overcome this constraint, we have studied thick (1.5 mm) PIN detectors made by Micron Semiconductor Ltd., U.K., as well as compound semiconducting materials with high Z constituents such as CZT and PbI₂. PbI₂ allows high detection efficiencies of photons up to 100 keV with detectors 100–300 microns thick. These new detectors offer the capability to study the low-energy spectral evolution of Gamma ray bursts (GRBs). A matrix of these detectors could be used as an image plane detector with moderate spatial resolution for imaging.     

The development of radio astronomy at Hartebeesthoek

The development of radio astronomy at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory in South Africa is described. The Hartebeesthoek site was established originally by NASA as one of three Deep Space Stations equipped with 26-m parabolic reflector antennas. It was first used for radio astronomy by South Africa in terms of the NASA host nation agreement which allowed for its use at times when the facility was not needed for its primary purpose of tracking space probes. After NASA withdrew from South Africa in 1975, the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research took over the site and the 26-m parabolic reflector antenna, which NASA had abandoned in position, and established it as a national observatory. The development of the facility to the stage where it could support a variety of observing programmes such as continuum observations and mapping, spectroscopy and pulsar timing is described as well as the role played by the Observatory in global programmes of very long baseline interferometry.     

Numerical simulation of the general circulation of the atmosphere of Titan

The atmospheric circulation of Titan is investigated with a general circulation model. The representation of the large-scale dynamics is based on a grid point model developed and used at Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique for climate studies. The code also includes an accurate representation of radiative heating and cooling by molecular gases and haze as well as a parametrization of the vertical turbulent mixing of momentum and potential temperature. Long-term simulations of the atmospheric circulation are presented. Starting from a state of rest, the model spontaneously produces a strong superrotation with prograde equatorial winds (i.e., in the same sense as the assumed rotation of the solid body) increasing from the surface to reach 100 m sec-1 near the 1-mbar pressure level. Those equatorial winds are in very good agreement with some indirect observations, especially those of the 1989 occultation of Star 28-Sgr by Titan. On the other hand, the model simulates latitudinal temperature contrasts in the stratosphere that are significantly weaker than those observed by Voyager 1 which, we suggest, may be partly due to the nonrepresentation of the spatial and temporal variations of the abundances of molecular species and haze. We present diagnostics of the simulated atmospheric circulation underlying the importance of the seasonal cycle and a tentative explanation for the creation and maintenance of the atmospheric superrotation based on a careful angular momentum budget.     

A topological approach to understand a multiple-loop solar flare

We analyze the UV and X-ray data obtained by the SMM satellite for the flare starting at 02:36 UT on November 12, 1980 in AR 2779. From a detailed revision of the Ov emission, we find that the observations are compatible with energy being released in a zone above the magnetic inversion line of the AR intermediate bipole. This energy is then transported mainly by conduction towards the two distant kernels located in the AR main bipole. One of these kernels is first identified in this paper. Accelerated particles contribute to the energy transport only during the impulsive phase.We model the observed longitudinal magnetic field by means of a discrete number of subphotospheric magnetic poles, and derive the magnetic field overall topology. As in previous studies of chromospheric flares, the Ov kernels are located along the intersection of the computed separatrices with the photosphere. Especially where the field-line linkage changes discontinuously, these kernels can be linked in pairs by lines that extend along separatrices. Our results agree with the hypothesis of magnetic energy released by magnetic reconnection occurring on separatrices.     

Analysis of 2-d flare spectra: Velocity fields derived from Hα line asymmetries

We derive a time series of two-dimensional velocity fields for a flare region on 1992 December 16, based on the asymmetries of the H line. The H spectra were obtained by an imaging spectrograph at the Solar Tower Telescope of Nanjing University. Four sites with evident chromospheric downflows are found to appear and decay consecutively in the studied region. The value of maximum velocities is 30–40 km s^–1 and the lifetime of downflows is 2–3 min at these sites. It is also shown that the asymmetries only exist at the line wing, while the line center has nearly no shifts for this flare. Finally, we make a discussion on the characteristics of the velocity distribution and its correlations with the intensity distribution, as well as with the hard X-ray emission.     

Energy release in a prominence-loaded flaring loop

Zaitsev and Stepanov (1991, 1992) proposed a mechanism for energy release in solar flares that involves the intrusion of dense prominence material into a coronal loop. The resulting non-steady state conditions are claimed to increase the resistance of the loop by 8–10 orders of magnitude. It is shown here that the dramatic increase in resistance calculated by Zaitsev and Stepanov depends on a gross overestimate of the of the magnitude of the magnetic force in the loop prior to the flare trigger. A more realistic estimate of the increase due to the mechanism suggests that it is by no more than about four orders of magnitude. As a consequence, the prominence-loading mechanism does not provide a tenable flare model.     

On the use of ‘first spotless day’ as a predictor for sunspot minimum

Defining the first spotless day of a sunspot cycle as the first day without spots relative to sunspot maximum during the decline of the solar cycle, one finds that the timing of that occurrence can be used as a predictor for the occurrence of solar minimum of the following cycle. For cycle 22, the first spotless day occurred in April 1994, based on the International sunspot number index, although other indices (Boulder and American) indicated the first spotless day to have occurred earlier (September 1993). For cycles 9–14, sunspot minimum followed the first spotless day by about 72 months, having a range of 62–82 months; for cycles 15–21, sunspot minimum followed the first spotless day by about 35 months, having a range of 27–40 months. Similarly, the timing of first spotless day relative to sunspot minimum and maximum for the same cycle reveals that it followed minimum (maximum) by about 69 (18) months during cycles 9–14 and by about 90 (44) months during cycles 15–21. Accepting April 1994 as the month of first spotless day occurrence for cycle 22, one finds that it occurred 91 months into the cycle and 57 months following sunspot maximum. Such values indicate that its behavior more closely matches that found for cycles 15–21 rather than for cycles 9–14. Therefore, one infers that sunspot minimum for cycle 23 will occur in about 2–3 years, or about April 1996 to April 1997. Accepting the earlier date of first spotless day occurrence indicates that sunspot minimum for cycle 23 could come several months earlier, perhaps late 1995.The U.S. Government right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty free licence in and to any copyright is acknowledged.