Sapphires from Sri Lanka

A rural industry of small‐scale mining, for sapphires and a host of other gemstones, is alive and thriving at Ratnapura in Sri Lanka. The minerals are extracted from alluvial gravels and colluvium, and most are then cut and polished locally for use in jewellery.     

The rotational and physical properties of the Centaur (32532) 2001 PT13

We present observations of the Centaur (32532) 2001 PT₁₃ taken between September 2000 and December 2000. A multi-wavelength lightcurve was assembled from V-, R- and J-band photometry measurements. Analysis of the lightcurve indicates that there are two peaks of slightly different brightness, a rotation period of 0.34741±0.00005 day, and a maximum photometric range of 0.18 mag. We obtained VRJHK colors (V-R=0.50±0.01, V-J=1.69±0.02, V-H=2.19±0.04, and V-K=2.30±0.04) that are consistent with the grey KBO/Centaur population. The V-R color shows no variation as a function of rotational phase; however, we cannot exclude the possibility that rotational variations are present in the R-J color. Assuming a 4% albedo, we estimate that 2001 PT₁₃ has an effective diameter of 90 km and a minimum axial ratio a/b of 1.18. We find no evidence of a coma and place an upper limit of 15 g s⁻¹ on the dust production rate.     

Klondike Gold

In 1896, the world's greatest gold rush descended on the Klondike, in northern Canada. The hardships endured on the journey there and then in hand-mining the frozen ground are the stuff of legends. But the 'mother lode' was never found, and only recently have the origins of the gold been recognized. After the madness and the extravagance of the initial rush, mining methods evolved, and there are miners still working the Klondike today.     

Photo‐feature: World of Geology

World of Geology is a book that was born from the back pages of Geology Today: a celebration of the richness of the diversity of geological sites worldwide, and a fitting tribute to the impact of a magazine that is marking its thirty‐fifth year in 2019. This photo‐feature revisits some of the spectacular images that have faetured on its back pages over the years     

St Francis: the world's worst dam site

Lying just north of Los Angeles, the total collapse of the St Francis Dam in 1928 has been described as America's worst civil engineering disaster of the twentieth century. Although poorly remembered among today's residents of Los Angeles, the event is better known to engineering geologists. The dam's failure was largely due to the geology of its site, which was inappropriate to the point of disastrous, in more ways than one.     

Photometric analysis of the nucleus of Comet 81P/Wild 2 from Stardust images

The disk-resolved flyby images of the nucleus of Comet 81P/Wild 2 collected by Stardust are used to perform a detailed study of the photometric properties of this cometary nucleus. A disk-integrated phase function from phase angle 11° to about 100° is measured and modeled. A phase slope of 0.0513 ± 0.0002 mag/deg is found, with a V-band absolute magnitude of 16.29 ± 0.02. Hapke’s photometric model yields a single-scattering albedo of 0.034, an asymmetry factor of phase function −0.53, a geometric albedo 0.059, and a V-band absolute magnitude of 16.03 ± 0.07. Disk-resolved photometric modeling from both the Hapke model and the Minnaert model results in 11% model RMS, indicating small photometric variations. The roughness parameter is modeled to be 27 ± 5° from limb-darkening profile. The modeled single-scattering albedo and asymmetry factor of the phase function are 0.038 ± 0.004 and −0.52 ± 0.04, respectively, consistent with those from disk-integrated phase function. The bulk photometric properties of the nucleus of Wild 2 are comparable with those of other cometary nuclei. The photometric variations on the surface of the nucleus of Wild 2 are at a level of or smaller than 15%, much smaller than those on the nucleus of Comet 19P/Borrelly and comparable or smaller than those on the nucleus of Comet 9P/Tempel 1. The similar photometric parameters of the nuclei of Wild 2, Tempel 1, and the non-source areas of fan jets on Borrelly may reflect the typical photometric properties of the weakly active surfaces on cometary nuclei.     

Coma morphology of Jupiter-family comets

We present a general review of cometary coma morphology, with specific reference to how it used in studies of Jupiter-family comets. We introduce the most common features that are seen in gas and dust observations, and summarize of how they are used to infer the properties of the nucleus and coma. We also expand the discussion to cover other topics relating to morphology, including the general shape of the coma (characterized by radial gradient profiles) and spatial maps of the color, albedo and polarization of the dust. We address the pros and cons of the different approaches used in the interpretation and analysis of the features. Finally, we review the results obtained for specific comets and compare the Jupiter-family comets to those from other classes.     

Quasi-evaporating black holes and cold dark matter

Vilkovisky has claimed to have solved the black hole backreaction problem and finds that black holes lose only ten percent of their mass to Hawking radiation before evaporation ceases. We examine the implications of this scenario for cold dark matter, assuming that primordial black holes are created during the reheating period after inflation. The mass spectrum is expected to be dominated by 10-gram black holes. Nucleosynthesis constraints and the requirement that the earth presently exist do not come close to ruling out such black holes as dark matter candidates. They also evade the demand that the photon density produced by evaporating primordial black holes does not exceed the present cosmic radiation background by a factor of about one thousand.