On the formation of metal-rich deposits at ridge crests

Data from the hot springs at the Galapagos spreading center (T = 3–13°C) show depletions of the exiting waters in Cu, Ni, Cd, Se, Cr and U relative to ambient seawater. Manganese is strongly enriched. Iron shows highly variable behavior between vent fields but is in general low. The data confirm the occurrence of extensive subsurface mixing between the primary high-temperature, acid, reducing hydrothermal fluids and “groundwater”. The composition of the latter is indistinguishable from that of the free water column adjacent to the ridge axis. The final solutions are on the boundary between those forming MnO₂ crusts and those producing iron-manganese rich sediments. The suite of metal rich deposits observed at ridge crests — Mn-O, Fe-Mn-O, Fe-S — can be explained as the manifestation of the degree of subsurface mixing, decreasing from 100 : <1 to <1 : 1 across the series (assuming an end-member temperature of 350°C).     

Analysis of radionuclide migration through a 200-m Vadose zone following a 16-year infiltration event

Atomic weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site has introduced many tracers for quantifying subsurface hydrologic transport processes in arid climates. In 1975, groundwater adjacent to the Cambric test, conducted beneath Frenchman Flat 10 years earlier, was pumped steadily for 16 years to elicit information on the migration of residual radioactivity through the saturated zone. Radionuclides in the pumping well effluent, including tritium, ¹⁴C, ³⁶Cl, and ⁸⁵Kr, were extensively monitored prior to its discharge in an unlined ditch, where approximately a third of the flow infiltrated over a distance of 1 km. Radionuclide infiltration through a 220-m thick vadose zone created a second, and rather unique long-term field experiment. Effluent data have been utilized in conjunction with geologic data, new radionuclide measurements, isotopic age-dating estimates, and vadose zone flow and transport models to better understand the movement of radionuclides between the ditch, the water table and a nearby groundwater monitoring well. Detection of tritium in the monitoring well occurred approximately 16 years after its initial discharge into the ditch. Modeling and tritium age dating have suggested 3–5 years of this 16-year transit time occurred solely in the vadose zone. They also suggest considerable recirculation of the pumping well discharge back into the original pumping well. Notably, there have been no observations of ¹⁴C or ⁸⁵Kr in the monitoring well, suggesting their preferential retention or volatilization during transit to the water table.     

Combined U-Pb dating and Sm-Nd studies on lower crustal and mantle xenoliths from the Delegate basaltic pipes, southeastern Australia

Mafic rocks dominate the lower crustal and upper mantle xenolith suites within the Jurassic Delegate basaltic diatremes in the Paleozoic Lachlan Fold Belt, SE Australia. Two upper mantle mafic xenoliths from the Delegate pipes, a garnet pyroxenite and a garnet granulite (equilibrated at 1060 and 1140 °C, and 40–50 km), yield garnet-clinopyroxene Sm-Nd ages of 160 ± 4 Ma and 153 ± 10 Ma, respectively. Both ages are indistinguishable from the time of eruption of the diatremes, and are interpreted as showing continuous isotopic equilibrium within the mantle of Sm and Nd between garnet + clinopyroxene at temperatures ≥ 1050 °C. A lower crustal, 2-pyroxene granulite xenolith (equilibrated at 810–850 °C and ca. 25 km) yields a clinopyroxene + plagioclase + whole rock Sm-Nd isochron ages of 283 ± 26 Ma. This age probably reflects partial resetting of the isotopic systems of much older granulite during slow cooling, or after a heating event in the lower crust associated with the Jurassic magmatic activity represented by the basaltic host rock. Metamorphic zircons from the 2-pyroxene granulite xenolith were dated by the U-Pb method at 398±2 and 391 ± 2 Ma. These ages are considered to date granulite facies metamorphic events in the lower crust of the region. The age gap between the granulite facies metamorphism and granitoid plutonism in the region (420–410 Ma) indicates that the dated granulite is unlikely to represent residue after partial melting and magma extraction that generated the regional granitoids. It is suggested that these ages may record a relatively slow cooling following the cessation of mafic magmatic intrusion that formed the xenolith protoliths and that was probably the heat source responsible for granite production. At about 25 km, this thermal relaxation accounts for the change from an olivine + plagioclase + 2-pyroxene gabbroic assemblage into the granulite facies 2-pyroxene + plagioclase + spinel field. Received: 17 May 1995 / Accepted: 24 March 1997     

Filtration of Hudson River water by the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha)

Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) graze on phytoplankton, and decreased phytoplankton concentrations have been associated with zebra mussels in lakes. It is not known, however, how the zebra mussel will affect phytoplankton in turbid systems such as rivers and the freshwater portions of estuaries. To determine whether zebra mussels can effectively remove phytoplankton in these turbid systems, and to determine what components of the suspended material are removed and at what rates, we conducted a series of grazing and size-selection experiments using ambient Hudson River water and its natural phytoplankton community. Zebra mussels removed both phytoplankton and total suspended weight (TSW) at comparable rates (～115 ml mussel^?1 h^?1). Variation in filtration rates were not correlated with TSW or chlorophylla (chla) concentration, and did not appear to depend on relative proportions of either component. Mussels removed particles with approximately equal efficiency in all particle size classes measured (0.4 μm to >40 μm). Zebra mussels appear to remove Hudson River phytoplankton effectively in the presence of suspended sediment and do so at rapid rates. Based on our measurements and unpublished estimates of the size of the population, zebra mussels filter a volume equivalent to the entire volume of the tidal freshwater portion of the Hudson River about every 2 d.     

Variation of magnetic directions within pillow basalts

Relative directions of magnetization have been measured within individual pillow basalts collected from the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. The angle between the magnetic directions was determined and is referred to as the directional difference. Although one pillow contained a directional difference of 44°, the remaining ten pillows had differences less than 14°. The maximum orientation and measurement error was 7°. Dispersion on the scale found in these fine-grained pillow basalts would not appreciably affect the magnetic anomaly pattern on the sea floor. We detected no reversals of magnetization despite the sometimes large and variable low-temperature oxidation. Comparison of directions within homogeneous segments of the pillow, viscous remanent magnetization (VRM) acquisition experiments, and alternating field (AF) demagnetization indicate a large portion of the dispersion was due to the acquisition of a viscous component in the larger grained, less oxidized portion of the pillows. Evidence from one variably weathered pillow suggests that extreme low-temperature oxidation may lead to the acquisition of a secondary component with high coercivities (20–80 mT). We could not determine whether this was a chemical remanent magnetization (CRM) or a VRM acquired by single domain grains near the superparamagnetic threshold. Hysteresis properties confirmed by microscopic examination indicated that the magnetic grain size in all the pillows was at least as small as pseudo-single domain.     

Second-stage acceleration in a limb-occulted flare

We analyze hard and soft X-ray, microwave and meter wave radio, interplanetary particle, and optical data for the complex energetic solar event of 22 July 1972. The flare responsible for the observed phenomena most likely occurred 20° beyond the NW limb of the Sun, corresponding to an occultation height of 45 000 km. A group of type III radio bursts at meter wavelengths appeared to mark the impulsive phase of the flare, but no impulsive hard X-ray or microwave burst was observed. These impulsive-phase phenomena were apparently occulted by the solar disk as was the soft X-ray source that invariably accompanies an H flare. Nevertheless essentially all of the characteristic phenomena associated with second-stage acceleration in flares - type II radio burst, gradual second stage hard X-ray burst, meter wave flare continuum (FC II), extended microwave continuum, energetic electrons and ions in the interplanetary medium - were observed. The spectrum of the escaping electrons observed near Earth was approximately the same as that of the solar population and extended to well above 1 MeV.Our analysis of the data leads to the following results: (1) All characteristics are consistent with a hard X-ray source density n _i 10⁸ cm^–3 and magnetic field strength 10 G. (2) The second-stage acceleration was a physically distinct phenomenon which occurred for tens of minutes following the impulsive phase. (3) The acceleration occurred continuously throughout the event and was spatially widespread. (4) The accelerating agent was very likely the shock wave associated with the type II burst. (5) The emission mechanism for the meter-wave flare continuum source may have been plasma-wave conversion, rather than gyrosynchrotron emission.