Measurements of trace gases emitted by Australian savanna fires during the 1990 dry season

During 18–23 July 1990, 31 smoke samples were collected from an aircraft flying at low altitudes through the plumes of tropical savanna fires in the Northern Territory, Australia. The excess (above background) mixing ratios of 17 different trace gases including CO₂, CO, CH₄, several non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), CH₃CHO, NO _x (– NO + NO₂), NH₃, N₂O, HCN and total unspeciated NMHC and sulphur were measured. Emissionratios relative to excess CO₂ and CO, and emissionfactors relative to the fuel carbon, nitrogen or sulphur content are determined for each measured species. The emission ratios and factors determined here for carbon-based gases, NO _x , and N₂O are in good agreement with those reported from other biomass burning studies. The ammonia data represent the first such measurements from savanna fires, and indicate that NH₃ emissions are more than half the strength of NO _x emissions. The emissions of NO _x , NH₃, N₂O and HCN together represent only 27% of the volatilised fuel N, and are primarily NO _x (16%) and NH₃ (9%). Similarly, only 56% of the volatilised fuel S is accounted for by our measurements of total unspeciated sulphur.     

Implications for the thermal regime of acoustic noise measurements in Crater Lake,Mount Ruapehu,New Zealand

Hydrophone measurements of acoustic noise levels in the Crater Lake of Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand were made on 18 January 1991 from an inflatable rubber boat on the lake. The greatest sound pressures were recorded in the 1–10 Hz band, with sound levels generally decreasing about 20 dB per decade from 10 Hz to 80 kHz. The low frequency noise did not have an obvious relationship to the tremor observed at a seismic station within 1 km of the lake. The comparatively low levels of middle and high frequency sound meant that at the time of measurement, direct steam input did not make a significant contribution to the heating of Crater Lake. This is consistent with the earlier conclusion that during the last decade a major part of the heat input of Crater Lake has come from lake water that was heated below the lake and recycled back into the lake.     

Peralkaline nephelinites

Two fractionation trends in sodic alkaline ultramafic liquids have been predicted from experiments in subsystems of the join Di-Ak-Ne-Lc-Qz. The products of these trends are equated with contrasting suites of peralkaline nephelinites from two nephelinite-carbonatite volcanos of the south Gregory Rift, Shombole (southern Kenya) and Oldoinyo L'engai (northern Tanzania). In both trends, peralkalinity is interpreted to result from fractional crystallization of aluminous clinopyroxene. The Shombole trend has olivine nephelinite as its parental magma, and the differentiation products are mildly peralkaline [(Na+K)/Al1.15] nephelinites. It is the most common lineage observed in nephelinite-carbonatite centres. The Oldoinyo L'engai trend has melilitite or olivine-melilite nephelinite as its parental magma, and produces extremely peralkaline [(Na+K)/Al=1.4–2.3] wollastonite- and combeite- (Na₂ Ca₂Si₃O₉) bearing nephelinites. The presence of a reaction relation between wollastonite and liquid to produce combeite, indicated by corroded wollastonite phenocrysts armoured by combeite in some nephelinites from Oldoinyo L'engai, is confirmed by melting experiments. Combeite nephelinites from Oldoinyo L'engai were erupted simultaneously with natrocarbonatite ash, and are very similar in composition to silicate liquids that have been shown by experiment to be immiscible with natrocarbonatite. Because the L'engai trend is rarely expressed at extrusive centres (combeite has been recorded at only three localities), and combeite nephelinites are highly evolved magmas, it is unlikely that natrocarbonatite is primary to other carbonatite types. It is proposed that carbonatite liquid is exsolved at crustal pressures from a wide range of nephelinitic liquids: Mg-rich carbonatite from primitive, olivine-bearing alkaline ultramafic liquids, Ca-rich carbonatite from olivine-free nephelinites of low peralkalinity, and natrocarbonatite from strongly peralkaline combeite nephelinites.     

Geochronologic investigations of the Sudbury Nickel Irruptive and the Superior Province granites north of Sudbury

RbSr ($\text{λ}\text{Rb}\text{= 1.39 × 10}{}^{\mathrm{?11}}\text{yr}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}\text{)}$ and U-Pb ($\text{λ 238 = 1.54 × 10}{}^{\mathrm{?10}}\text{yr}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}\text{, λ235 = 9.72 × 10}{}^{\mathrm{?10}}\text{yr}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}$) measurements were undertaken in the Sudbury area, Sudbury, Ontario to determine the ages of the Sudbury Nickel Irruptive, Superior Province granites north of Sudbury, Sudbury Breccia and subsequent metamorphism. The Sudbury Nickel Irruptive norite whole rock Rb-Sr data yield an age of $\text{1883 ± 136}\text{Myr}$ ($\text{I.R}\text{. = 0.7071 ± 0.0005}$; all results quoted at 2π level) while the Nickel Irruptive micropegmatite Rb-Sr system has been disturbed and does not yield an isochron. A plagioclase-whole rock pair from the norite near the norite-micropegmatite transition yields an age of 1866 Myr, which when taken in conjunction with field (Stevenson and Colgrove, 1968) and geochemical (Naldrettet al., 1970, 1972) data does not support the conclusion of gibbins and McNurr (1972) that the micropegmatite is a later intrusion rather than a differentiate of the magma which produced the norite. Rb-Sr studies of the Superior Province granites north of Sudbury yield an age of $\text{2698 ± 162}\text{Myr}$ ($\text{I.R.}\text{= 0.7019 ± 0.0012}$). U-Pb zircon studies of these granites and granitic clasts within the Sudbury Breccia yield an age of $\text{2.71 ± 0.05}$ Byr and suggest the breccia granitic clasts were derived from the Superior Province granites. The granitic rocks ~150 km north of Sudbury have been undisturbed for ~ 2.6 Byr based on Rb-Sr mineral studies, whereas the granites and Sudbury Breccia within ~ 15 km of the Nickel Irruptive, as well as the Sudbury norite at the perimeter of the Irruptive have been disturbed by the Penokean Orogeny 1.7–1.75 Byr ago. The Penokean event appears to have overprinted isotopic evidence of the Sudbury impact event at least in the area studied.     

Cars and capitalism: The political economy of urban transportation

The car (automobile) appears to many to be an essential ingredient of capitalist society. This paper seeks to assess the role of the car in capitalist dominated social formations by relating the production, consumption and utilization of the car to the underlying structural relationships of the capitalist mode of production as a whole.