Sr Isotope Composition of Mud Volcanic Waters in the Kerch–Taman Province

Doklady Earth Sciences - Waters at seventeen mud volcanoes of the Kerch–Taman province in the Northwestern Cis-Caucasus region have been analyzed for Sr isotope composition. The 87Sr/86Sr...     

Study of a Crustacea Decapoda Taxocoenosis of Posidonia oceanica Beds from the Southeast of Spain

Abstract. During 1986 and 1987 a decapod crustacean taxocoenosis of Posidonia oceanica beds from the southeast of Spain has been studied.
Data on abundance-dominance of the 50 species found and other information such as reproduction and the selective use of gastropod shells by the dominant hermit crabs arc given.
Differences in richness and cquitability between shallow (3–4 m) and deeper (5–7 m) samples arc also shown.
The taxocoenosis presents a geometrical distribution in which only 9 species have a relative abundance higher than 1 % and in which the structure is basically controlled by the two dominant hermit crabs, Cestopagitius limidus and Calcium tubularis , and hydrodynamic conditions.     

The influence of the Sabatayn Evaporites on the hydrocarbon prospectivity of the Eastern Shabwa Basin, Onshore Yemen

The Shabwa Basin is the northeastern extension of the Marib-Al Jawf-Shabwa system of Mesozoic grabens, located onshore in the Republic of Yemen. An evaporitic sequence with an estimated maximum depositional thickness of 300 metres was deposited during the Tithonian. It is designated the Sabatayn Formation and exerts significant control on most of the play elements in the principal hydrocarbon play systems anticipated in the northeastern part of the basin. Migration of hydrocarbons from pre-salt source rocks into intra-and post-salt reservoirs is restricted by the evaporites. Localised heat flow perturbations introduced by the salt, increase the maturity of post-salt source rocks. Post and intra-salt reservoirs are structured by listric faulting on a salt detachment, salt pillowing due to post-depositional loading, by local salt dissolution and by late folding due to gravity sliding of the post-salt section on a salt detachment. Early dissolution and reprecipitation of salt is responsible for occlusion of porosity in intra-salt clastic reservoirs.     

Study of a thermal drill head for the exploration of subsurface planetary ice layers

The recently discovered water vapor plumes on Saturn's moon Enceladus, the polar caps of planet Mars and the possible ice volcanism on the Jovian satellites call for suitable techniques to explore deep ice layers of the solar system bodies. This paper presents a novel approach to deliver scientific probes into deeper layers of planetary ice. Several existing locomotion concepts and techniques for such probes are presented. After studying the mathematical framework of the melting locomotion process, melting tests with different head forms were done to evaluate the influence of the head's geometry on the melting process. This work led to a novel concept of a thermal drill head, using heat and mechanical drill in combination to penetrate the ice. We compare the performance of such a hybrid concept versus the melting penetration alone by a mathematical model and tests in ice with a prototype of the melting drill head.     

Archean regional transpression and paleomagnetism in northwestern Ontario, Canada

The Archean metamorphic rocks of the Superior province of the Canadian Shield occur in lithologically defined belts or subprovinces. The tectonically more stable interiors of belts possess consistent primary components of magnetic remanence. In the case of the Quetico belt, these stable directions are tightly grouped about 005°/55° with some minor dispersion and most were acquired during the cooling that followed syntectonic recrystallisation.

This study examines the directions of primary remanence components for rocks along the margins of the Quetico belt, within 4 km of the strongly deformed vertical, ENE-trending boundaries. The boundaries are known to have experienced dextral transpression involving penetrative single-phase deformation which out-lasted metamorphism. Within a few kilometres of the belt boundaries, the primary remanence components are re-distributed along a vertical ENE-trending, great-circle girdle which is nearly parallel to the plane of transpressive shear and regional schistosity. It is suggested that the effects of transpression have mechanically deflected the components of primary remanence toward this plane.     

Morphosedimentary features and recent depositional architectural model of the Cantabrian continental margin

Multibeam bathymetry, high (sleeve airguns) and very high resolution (parametric system-TOPAS-) seismic records were used to define the morphosedimentary features and investigate the depositional architecture of the Cantabrian continental margin. The outer shelf (down to 180–245 m water depth) displays an intensively eroded seafloor surface that truncates consolidated ancient folded and fractured deposits. Recent deposits are only locally present as lowstand shelf-margin deposits and a transparent drape with bedforms. The continental slope is affected by sedimentary processes that have combined to create the morphosedimentary features seen today. The upper (down to 2000 m water depth) and lower (down to 3700–4600 m water depth) slopes are mostly subject to different types of slope failures, such as slides, mass-transport deposits (a mix of slumping and mass-flows), and turbidity currents. The upper slope is also subject to the action of bottom currents (the Mediterranean Water — MW) that interact with the Le Danois Bank favouring the reworking of the sediment and the sculpting of a contourite system. The continental rise is a bypass region of debris flows and turbidity currents where a complex channel-lobe transition zone (CLTZ) of the Cap Ferret Fan develops.The recent architecture depositional model is complex and results from the remaining structural template and the great variability of interconnected sedimentary systems and processes. This margin can be considered as starved due to the great sediment evacuation over a relatively steep entire depositional profile. Sediment is eroded mostly from the Cantabrian and also the Pyrenees mountains (source) and transported by small stream/river mountains to the sea. It bypasses the continental shelf and when sediment arrives at the slope it is transported through a major submarine drainage system (large submarine valleys and mass-movement processes) down to the continental rise and adjacent Biscay Abyssal Plain (sink). Factors controlling this architecture are tectonism and sediment source/dispersal, which are closely interrelated, whereas sea-level changes and oceanography have played a minor role (on a long-term scale).     

High-Resolution Simulations of Nonhelical MHD Turbulence

According to the kinematic theory of nonhelical dynamo action, the magnetic energy spectrum increases with wavenumber and peaks at the resistive cutoff wavenumber. It has previously been argued that even in the dynamical case, the magnetic energy peaks at the resistive scale. Using high resolution simulations (up to 1024³ meshpoints) with no large-scale imposed field, we show that the magnetic energy peaks at a wavenumber that is independent of the magnetic Reynolds number and about five times larger than the forcing wavenumber. Throughout the inertial range, the spectral magnetic energy exceeds the kinetic energy by a factor of two to three. Both spectra are approximately parallel. The total energy spectrum seems to be close to k ^?3/2, but there is a strong bottleneck effect and we suggest that the asymptotic spectrum is instead k ^?5/3. This is supported by the value of the second-order structure function exponent that is found to be ζ₂ = 0.70, suggesting a k ^?1.70 spectrum. The third-order structure function scaling exponent is very close to unity,—in agreement with Goldreich–Sridhar theory. Adding an imposed field tends to suppress the small-scale magnetic field. We find that at large scales the magnetic energy spectrum then follows a k ^?1 slope. When the strength of the imposed field is of the same order as the dynamo generated field, we find almost equipartition between the magnetic and kinetic energy spectra.     

The 'Grasses' of the Big Scrub District of North-eastern New South Wales: A sedimentary record of late Holocene grasslands in a subtropical forest landscape

This paper records sedimentary data which indicate that at least part of the Wilsons River floodplain, on the margins of the subtropical rainforest known as the 'Big Scrub', has a long and certainly pre-European history of relative treelessness. Despite a general presumption that this lowland subtropical region was completely forested prior to European settlement, recent historical research has indicated that certain areas were naturally open. While the historical information is clear, the data reported here-a fossil pollen record and one radiocarbon date- reinforces that information for one type of locality, providing an initial indication of time depth.     

Die Bildung der Kupfererze im mittelsudetischen Rotliegenden

Ohne Zusammenfassung