Diagenetic evolution of Aptian evaporites in the Namibe Basin (south‐west Angola)

The widespread and dissected nature of the Angolan gypsiferous salt residuals offers a uniquely detailed view of the lateral and vertical relations inherent to secondary evaporite textures, which typify exhumed salt masses worldwide. Such secondary textures are sometimes misinterpreted as primary evaporite textures. Thin, metre‐scale and patchy, dome‐like gypsum accumulations are well‐exposed within strongly incised present‐day river valleys along the eastern margin of the Namibe and Benguela basins (south‐west Angola). These sections are time equivalent to the main basinward subsurface evaporites (Aptian Loeme Formation) which mostly consist of halite. The gypsum (here called the Bambata Formation) is interpreted to represent the final residual product of fractional dissolution and recrystallization of the halite mass that occurred during Late Cretaceous margin uplift and continues today. This halite underwent multiple episodes of diagenetic alteration between its deposition and its final exhumation, leading to the formation of various secondary gypsum fabrics and solution‐related karst and breccia textures that typify the current evaporite outcrop. Four different diagenetic gypsum fabrics are defined: thinly bedded alabastrine, nodular alabastrine, displacive selenite rosettes and fibrous satin‐spar gypsum. Current arid conditions are responsible for a thin weathered crust developed at the top of the outcropping gypsum, but the fabrics in the main core of the current at‐surface evaporite unit mostly formed during the telogenetic stage of uplift prior to complete subaerial exposure. Alteration occurred as various dissolving and rehydrating saline minerals encountered shallow aquifers in the active phreatic and vadose zones. Geomorphological and petrographic analyses, mostly based on the cross‐cutting relations and crystallographic patterns in the outcrop, are used to propose a sequence of formation of these different fabrics.     

Pathways of manganese in an open estuarine system

The distribution of Mn was examined in the bottom sediments and water column (suspended paniculate matter) of the Laurentian Trough. Gulf of St. Lawrence. A characteristic profile of Mn with depth in the sediment consisted of a Mn-enriched surface oxidized zone, less than 20 mm thick, and a Mn-depleted subsurface reducing zone. A subsurface Mn maximum occurred within the oxidized zone. Below this maximum the concentration dropped sharply to nearly constant residual levels in the reducing zone. The accumulating estuarine sediments are deficient in Mn compared to the river input of suspended matter and are definitely not the ultimate sink for manganese. Manganese escapes from the sediment by diffusion and resuspension, forming Mn-enriched, fine-grained particles which are flushed out in the estuarine circulation. 5.0 × 10⁹gyr^?1 of Mn, or 50% more than the river input of dissolved Mn. are exported to the open ocean. In spite of the efficient mobilization and export of Mn, the quantity exported is a small fraction (0.2%) of the total flux to the deep-sea sediments. This is related to the low levels of paniculate matter transported by the St. Lawrence River. The export phénomenon, however, is probably true of many coastal regions of muddy sediments and thus has interesting implications for the oceanic budget of Mn.     

我国资源环境对城镇化问题的影响因素

城镇化问题是当代中国社会经济发展的综合性重大问题。涉及到国民经济如何协调发展,达到一个新水平 的根本问题;也涉及到我国的资源环境合理开发利用与长远保护的可持续发展问题。 我国是世界上人多地少、资源十分有限的发展中国家。人口基数达13 亿人,城镇总人口的绝对数量也是世界 最大的国家。因此,资源环境对我国城镇化的影响是巨大的,也是非常深刻的。本论文从我国的城市化概念出发,深 入论述资源环境基础对我国城镇化的影响与制约因素,并对我国的国情条件作了辩证的分析研究。按照科学发展 观的思想,对我国今后城镇化发展提出了符合我国国情健康发展的城镇化道路及其对策。     

Transition from wavelets to ripples in a laboratory flume with a diverging channel

An experimental investigation on the initiation and development of bed forms on a bed of fine silica sand was conducted under alluvial flow conditions in a laboratory flume with a diverging channel. The main aims of the study were to assess： i） the steepness of bed forms in the transition stage of development; and ii） the threshold height of wavelets （ηt） that triggered the start of ripple development. Detailed bed profile measurements were carried out using an acoustic Doppler probe, traversed longitudinally over the sediment bed at various experimentation times. The bed form dimensions were extracted from such bed profile records and analysed for the wavelet, transition and equilibrium stages. It was found that the steepness of ripples in the transition and equilibrium stages were similar, confirming predictions of previous mathematical model simulations. A lognormal distribution fitted the wavelet length data. The wavelet threshold height was estimated as ηt ≈ 7 mm, or ηt≈ 80 in wall units. Such a height magnitude suggested that ripple development could be triggered by the wavelets reaching the outer flow zone of a turbulent boundary layer. The ηt value obtained corresponded generally to the intersection point between two predictive equations for bed form dimensions. A formulation was developed to predict ηt as a function of the sediment grain size, which was confirmed for the fine sand used in this study.     

Effects of mesoscale sea-surface temperature fronts on the marine atmospheric boundary layer

A numerical modelling study is presented focusing on the effects of mesoscale sea-surface temperature (SST) variability on surface fluxes and the marine atmospheric boundary-layer structure. A basic scenario is examined having two regions of SST anomaly with alternating warm/cold or cold/warm water regions. Conditions upstream from the anomaly region have SST values equal to the ambient atmosphere temperature, creating an upstream neutrally stratified boundary layer. Downstream from the anomaly region the SST is also set to the ambient atmosphere value. When the warm anomaly is upstream from the cold anomaly, the downstream boundary layer exhibits a more complex structure because of convective forcing and mixed layer deepening upstream from the cold anomaly. An internal boundary layer forms over the cold anomaly in this case, generating two distinct layers over the downstream region. When the cold anomaly is upstream from the warm anomaly, mixing over the warm anomaly quickly destroys the shallow cold layer, yielding a more uniform downstream boundary-layer vertical structure compared with the warm-to- cold case. Analysis of the momentum budget indicates that turbulent momentum flux divergence dominates the velocity field tendency, with pressure forcing accounting for only about 20% of the changes in momentum. Parameterization of surface fluxes and boundary-layer structure at these scales would be very difficult because of their dependence on subgrid-scale SST spatial order. Simulations of similar flow over smaller scale fronts (<5 km) suggest that small-scale SST variability might be parameterized in mesoscale models by relating the effective heat flux to the strength of the SST variance.     

Carbonaceous filaments from North Pole,Western Australia: Are they fossil bacteria in Archaean stromatolites?

A sample of chert from North Pole in the Archaean Pilbara block of Western Australia contains carbonaceous filaments that resemble microfossils. These occur in alternating light and dark laminae that look stromatolitic. However, the filaments are too simple in form for their origin to be determined, so they should be regarded as dubiofossils, perhaps biogenic, perhaps inorganic. Their host laminae were inorganically precipitated in a concordant fissure and thus cannot be stromatolitic. This fissure is younger than the surrounding silicified sediments of the ca. 3500 Ma old Warrawoona Group and possibly formed towards the end of the uplift and associated fracturing of the North Pole Dome, perhaps ca. 2750 Ma ago. The filaments are therefore contaminants in secondary chert.The filament-bearing rock was collected less than a metre from one of the localities (B) from which Awramik et al. reported early Archaean microfossils and possible microfossils. Their filaments from this locality were almost identical to those described here and were found in similar laminae. This suggests that their locality B filaments may also be contaminants in secondary chert. Other filaments found by Awramik et al. at North Pole come from an imprecisely located sample site (locality A) where the rock relationships are unknown. Since the host laminae of these filaments are not demonstrably primary and as cryptic concordant fissures filled with secondary minerals are common in locality A rocks, the filaments from this sample site could be contaminants too. Those that were assigned to Archaeotrichion should be treated as dubiofossils. Thus, the filaments described by Awramik et al. may not be fossil bacteria in ca. 3500 Ma old stromatolites, as they proposed, and are not necessarily the oldest known fossil organisms, as has been claimed.     

PROCESSES AND SUBDIVISIONS IN DIOGENITES,A MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Multivariate statistical techniques used on diogenite orthopyroxene analyses show the relationships that occur within diogenites and the two orthopyroxenite components (class I and II) in the polymict diogenite Garland. Cluster analysis shows that only Peckelsheim is similar to Garland class I (Fe-rich) and the other diogenites resemble Garland class II. The unique diogenite Y 75032 may be related to type I by fractionation. Factor analysis confirms the subdivision and shows that Fe does not correlate with the weakly incompatible elements across the entire pyroxene composition range, indicating that igneous fractionation is not the process controlling total diogenite composition variation. The occurrence of two groups of diogenites is interpreted as the result of sampling or mixing of two main sequences of orthopyroxene cumulates with slightly different compositions.     

Petrology and Pairing of Mesosiderites from Victoria Land,Antarctica

Abstract— The Allan Hills mesosiderites A77219, A81059 and A81098 are classified as subgroup 1B (Hewins, 1984), on the basis of very fine-grained silicate matrix, low plagioclase content and absence of highly ferroan pyroxenes. Since they are so similar petrologically, it is reasonable to pair them. ALHA 81208, a highly weathered orthopyroxenite, is probably a clast from one of the Allan Hills mesosiderites. Reckling Peak A80258, is a Floran 2B or Hewins 4B mesosiderite. It contains reversely zoned orthopyroxene clasts in a sparse matrix with interstitial/poikilitic plagioclase and highly magnesian (chadacryst) orthopyroxene (close to En₈₀). All pyroxene is much lower in FeO/MnO than Allan Hills mesosiderite pyroxene of similar FeO content. The other Reckling Peak mesosiderites A79015, A80229, A80246 and A80263 contain orthopyroxene and recrystallized orthopyroxenite clasts in a metal-troilite matrix. Orthopyroxenite clasts in ALH A81059 are very similar texturally and modally to RKPA 79015 orthopyroxenite, but differ in pyroxene composition. Orthopyroxene in RKPA 79015 (Prinz et al., 1982) is very similar in Fe/Mg and Fe/Mn to the cores of (reversely zoned) pyroxene clasts in RKPA 80258. On this basis, RKPA 80258 is related to the other Reckling Peak mesosiderites and they could all be paired, assuming that three components (metal, pyroxenite and silicate matrix) were very irregularly mixed in these breccias. Pairing is problematical, in that specimens of a polymict breccia can be so different that they would not be paired if they were not known to have fallen together. The silicate fraction of mesosiderites ranges from diogenitic (RKPA 79015) to analogous to polymict eucrite (Dyarrl Island) although the silicate fractions are not equivalent in detail. The mesosiderite subdivision scheme is amended recognizing this, permitting the classification of the formerly “anomalous” RKPA 79015.     

BiSON performance

Since 1981 we have been operating the Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network (BiSON), a global network of resonant-scattering spectrometers, observing the low-l solar p modes. Here we discuss historical developments, culminating in the establishment of a 6-station network in 1992 September, and the subsequent performance of that network. The data record of each station from 1992 to 1994 has been analysed in terms of weather and equipment breakdowns. Our early experience suggests that the best long-term coverage possible with a 6-station network is limited in practice to about 80%, which falls short of previous predictions.     

A calculated petrogenetic grid for ultramafic rocks in the system CaO-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-CO2-H2O at low pressures

Calculated phase equilibria among the minerals amphibole, chlorite, clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, olivine, dolomite, magnesite, serpentine, brucite, calcite, quartz and fluid are presented for the system CaO–FeO–MgO–Al₂O₃–SiO₂–CO₂–H₂O (CaF-MASCH), with chlorite and H₂O–CO₂ fluid in excess and for a temperature range of 440°C–600°C and low pressures. The minerals chosen in CaFMASCH represent the great majority of phases encountered in metamorphosed ultramafic rocks. The changes in mineral compositions in terms of FeMg_-1 and (Mg, Fe)SiAl_-1Al_-1 are related to variations in the intensive parameters. For example, equilibria at high in the presence of chlorite involve minerals which are relatively aluminous compared with those at low . The calculated invariant, univariant and divariant equilibria are compared with naturally-occurring greenschist and amphibolite facies ultramafic mineral assemblages. The correspondence of sequences of mineral assemblages and the compositions of the minerals in the assemblages is very good.