The peterson limestone — early cretaceous lacustrine carbonate deposition in western wyoming and southeastern idaho

The lacustrine Peterson Limestone of western Wyoming and southeastern Idaho comprises six lithofacies throughout its 20,000 km² aerial extent. These are: (1) calcareous sandstone and shale, (2) red nodular limestone, (3) pink sandy micrite, (4) biomicrite, (5) graded silty micrite, and (6) limestone conglomerate. The first two represent floodplain deposition and paleosols, whereas the remaining are shallow nearshore and deeper lacustrine sediments.This sequence was developed in a large fresh, hardwater lake surrounded by fluvial systems and associated flood plains in a warm temperate climate. Well-oxidized sandy terrigenous rocks, together with calcareous paleosol nodules, indicate that flood-plain deposition both preceded and was concurrent with lacustrine carbonate deposition. Micrite and biomicrite formed in deeper parts of the basin while sandy and silty carbonate accumulated in shallower lake-margin areas. Less-calcareous shale units which are interbedded with deeper-water carbonate were deposited either during rapid basin subsidence and deepening of the lake center or during periods of slower carbonate precipitation. Turbidity currents and subaqueous debris flows generated along steeper lake margins, resulted in the deposition of rhythmic layers of graded silty micrite and diamictic limestone conglomerate in the deepest part of the basin. The carbonate-rich sediments comprising these two lithofacies were originally deposited on shallow lake-margin benches and subsequently were transported downslope toward the lake center.Comparison with other carbonate-precipitating lacustrine systems indicates that this lake was not like modern playas. Although no known modern lacustrine system is precisely like Lake Peterson, the flora, fauna, composition, and distribution of facies within modern temperate-region lakes most closely resemble those of the Peterson Limestone.     

A new aspect of condensation theory

This paper examines the effects of the mixing of dry air into a cloud top from the point of view of the droplet spectra. It is shown theoretically that the resulting cycling of the air up and down in the cloud, as seems to be the essential mechanism by which cumuli have been diluted to their observed liquid water mixing ratio, can double the largest drop radius and generate cloud parcels containing drops of all sizes up to this maximum. These changes in the droplet distribution with size occur by a process which is not greatly influenced by the cloud condensation nuclei or the details of droplet growth since maritime like spectra can develop in continental type cumuli. It shows that large numbers of cloud condensation nuclei should not have much effect in inhibiting the rainforming process by reducing coalescence growth. On the contrary, the controlling parameters which determine precipitation efficiency and times seem to be those which control the mixing.     

First cosmogenic 10Be age constraint on the timing of Younger Dryas glaciation and ice cap thickness,western Scottish Highlands

We use cosmogenic ¹⁰Be surface exposure age techniques at a locality close to Rannoch Moor, western Scottish Highlands, in order to establish the age and chronology of its most recent glaciation. Glacial erratics and an in situ bedrock quartz vein sampled from this site—the summit of Beinn Inverveigh—have yielded zero‐erosion exposure ages of 12.9 ± 1.5 ka to 11.6 ± 1.0 ka, implying complete ice cover of the mountain during the Younger Dryas, or Loch Lomond Stadial. These results fit closely with published ¹⁴C dates that bracket the maximum (lateral) extent of ice cap outlet glaciers, and are the first internally consistent ages to specifically address this period of glaciation in Scotland. Furthermore, the dates imply that previous palaeoglaciological reconstructions for this area may have underestimated both the thickness of the former ice cap and, by implication, its volume. © British Geological Survey/Natural Environment Research Council copyright 2007. Reproduced with the permission of BGS/NERC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diurnal timing of warmer air under climate change affects magnitude,timing and duration of stream temperature change

Stream temperature will be subject to changes because of atmospheric warming in the future. We investigated the effects of the diurnal timing of air temperature changes – daytime warming versus nighttime warming – on stream temperature. Using the physically based model, Heat Source, we performed a sensitivity analysis of summer stream temperatures to three diurnal air temperature distributions of +4 °C mean air temperature: i) uniform increase over the whole day, ii) warmer daytime and iii) warmer nighttime. The stream temperature model was applied to a 37‐km section of the Middle Fork John Day River in northeastern Oregon, USA. The three diurnal air temperature distributions generated 7‐day average daily maximum stream temperatures increases of approximately +1.8 °C ± 0.1 °C at the downstream end of the study section. The three air temperature distributions, with the same daily mean, generated different ranges of stream temperatures, different 7‐day average daily maximum temperatures, different durations of stream temperature changes and different average daily temperatures in most parts of the reach. The stream temperature changes were out of phase with air temperature changes, and therefore in many places, the greatest daytime increase in stream temperature was caused by nighttime warming of air temperatures. Stream temperature changes tended to be more extreme and of longer duration when driven by air temperatures concentrated in either daytime or nighttime instead of uniformly distributed across the diurnal cycle. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hypervelocity capture of meteoritic particles in nonsilica aerogels

Abstract– The Stardust mission captured particles from the comet 81P/Wild 2 in gradient density silica aerogel and returned the collected samples to earth in 2006. The analyses of these particles have revealed several new insights into the formation of our solar system. However, since the aerogel used as the capture material was silica, the elemental analyses of the silica‐rich particles were made more complicated in certain ways due to the mixing of the silicon of the particles and that of the aerogel. By using a nonsilica aerogel, future elemental analyses of silica–rich particles captured in aerogel could be made more straightforward. Resorcinol/formaldehyde (RF), alumina, and zirconia aerogels were impact tested with meteoritic fragments and the captured fragments were mapped with synchrotron‐based X‐ray microprobe (XRM) and the particles were analyzed with X‐ray fluorescence (XRF). The resorcinol/formaldehyde aerogel proved to be the best capture material, in that it could be keystoned and XRF could be used to locate and analyze particles that were less than 10 μm.     

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.     

Identification of the Ca-sulfate bassanite in Mawrth Vallis, Mars

The region surrounding the Mawrth Vallis outflow channel on Mars hosts thick layered deposits containing diverse phyllosilicate minerals. Here we report detection of the Ca-sulfate bassanite on the outflow channel floor, requiring a more complex aqueous chemistry than previously inferred for this region. The sulfate-bearing materials underlie phyllosilicate-bearing strata, and provide an opportunity for testing proposed models of martian geochemical evolution with a future landed mission.