Specific structure of convection currents in the system layered intrusion–feeding conduit–parental magma chamber

The structure of convection currents was experimentally studied in the model system layered intrusion–feeding conduit–parental magma chamber. Persistent hydrodynamical and thermophysical interaction between interrelated melts of the parental magma and intrusive body occurs through the feeding conduit. Being associated, they control the structure of convection currents and mechanisms of heat and mass transfer in the intrusive, conduit, and magma chamber. The existence of two convection countercurrents in the conduit has experimentally been established: inner central lifting jet and outer annular downward current along the conduit walls. At the top of the conduit, the downward current has the lowest temperature and appears to be quite in equilibrium with the earlier precipitated crystals. Moving downward along the conduit wall, the annular descending current interacts with the lifting jet and, as a result, becomes hotter and undersaturated relative to the crystals that formed before. Thus, there is no possibility for heterogeneous crystallization to occur on the walls of conduit. The experimentally simulated mechanism of melt interaction in a whole natural system rules out the possibility of formation of a zone of immobile melt with stable steady-state temperature stratification anywhere in the chamber's volume.     

Variability of Evaporation and Precipitation over the Ocean from Satellite Data

HOAPS-3 and PMWC satellite archives for 1988–2008 are used to estimate moisture-exchange components between the ocean and atmosphere (evaporation, precipitation, and the difference between them or effective evaporation). Moisture-exchange components for the entire World Ocean and for the North Atlantic Ocean within 30°–60° N are calculated. A strong overestimation of the global values of effective evaporation by HOAPS data (mainly caused by a decrease in precipitation) is shown. In the interannual variability of effective evaporation, there is clearly an overestimated positive trend, which contradicts the real increase in the Global Sea Level. Large systematic errors in moisture-exchange components are revealed for the North Atlantic water area. According to HOAPS data, there is a significant underestimation of evaporation and effective evaporation. According to PMWC data, the amount of precipitation is significantly overestimated and evaporation is underestimated. As a consequence, effective evaporation becomes negative, which is impossible. Low accuracy in the estimation of moisture-exchange components and the need to improve old estimates and develop new evaporation and precipitation databases based on satellite data are noted.     

Dissolution of Quartz, Albite, and Orthoclase in H2O-Saturated Haplogranitic Melt at 800{degrees}C and 200 MPa: Diffusive Transport Properties of Granitic Melts at Crustal Anatectic Conditions

We have conducted experiments on dissolution of quartz, albite,orthoclase, and corundum into H₂O-saturated haplogranite meltat 800°C and 200 MPa over a duration of 120–1488 hwith the aim of ascertaining the diffusive transport propertiesof granitic melts at crustal anatectic temperatures. Cylindersof anhydrous starting glass and a single mineral phase (quartzor feldspar) were juxtaposed along flat and polished surfacesinside gold or platinum capsules with 10 wt % added H₂O. Concentrationprofiles in glass (quenched melt) perpendicular to the mineral–glassinterfaces and comparison with relevant phase diagrams suggestthat melts at the interface are saturated in the dissolvingphases after 384 h, and with longer durations the concentrationprofiles are controlled only by diffusion of components in themelt. The evolution of the concentration profiles with timeindicates that uncoupled diffusion in the melt takes place alongthe following four linearly independent directions in oxidecomposition space: SiO₂, Na₂O, and K₂O axes (Si-, Na-, and K-eigenvectors,respectively), and a direction between the Al₂O₃, Na₂O, andK₂O axes (Al-eigenvector), such that the Al/Na molar ratio isequal to that of the bulk melt and the Al/(Na + K) molar ratiois equal to the equilibrium ASI (= mol. Al₂O₃/[Na₂O + K₂O])of the melt. Experiments in which a glass cylinder was sandwichedbetween two mineral cylinders—quartz and albite, quartzand K-feldspar, or albite and corundum—tested the validityof the inferred directions of uncoupled diffusion and exploredlong-range chemical communication in the melt via chemical potentialgradients. The application of available solutions to the diffusionequations for the experimental quartz and feldspar dissolutiondata provides diffusivities along the directions of the Si-eigenvectorand Al-eigenvector of (2·0–2·8) x 10^–15m²/s and (0·6–2·4) x 10^–14 m²/s, respectively.Minimum diffusivities of alkalis [(3–9) x 10^–11m²/s] are orders of magnitude greater than the tetrahedral componentsof the melt. The information provided here determines the rateat which crustal anatexis can occur when sufficient heat issupplied and diffusion is the only mass transport (mixing) processin the melt. The calculated diffusivities imply that a quartzo-feldspathicsource rock with initial grain size of 2–3 mm undergoinghydrostatic, H₂O-saturated melting at 800°C (infinite heatsupply) could produce 20–30 vol. % of homogeneous meltin less than 1–10 years. Slower diffusion in H₂O-undersaturatedmelts will increase this time frame. KEY WORDS: chemical diffusion; haplogranite; mineral dissolution experiments; crustal anatexis     

Simulation of the probable maximum flood in the area of the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant with account of wind waves

At the designing of nuclear power facilities at the coastal sites the risk of their flooding caused by the combinations of adverse hydrometeorological events should be assessed with the probability of exceedance to 0.01%. According to the IAEA recommendations, the combination of statistical and deterministic methods was used to calculate the flood level of such rare occurrence. The level of flooding caused by the storm surge and reiated wind waves were computed with the probability of 0.01% for the coastal part of the Koporye Bay of the Gulf of Finland in the area of the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant 2 (LNPP 2) construction; the results are presented. The calculations are based on the CARDINAL and SWAN software and four nested numerical models (for the Baltic Sea, the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, the Koporye Bay, and a part of the bay in the area of LNPP). The decrease in sea-surface drag coefficient at hurricane winds is taken into account.     

Re-equilibration of CO2 fluid inclusions at controlled hydrogen fugacities

Abstract Natural, pure CO₂ inclusions in quartz and olivine (c. Fo₉₀) were exposed to controlled f_H2 conditions at T= 718–728°C and P_total= 2 kbar; their compositions were monitored (before and after exposures) by microsampling Raman spectroscopy (MRS) and microthermometry. In both minerals exposed at the graphite–methane buffer (f_H2= 73 bar), fluid speciations record the diffusion of hydrogen into the inclusions. In quartz, room-temperature products in euhedral isolated (EI type) inclusions are carbonic phases with molar compositions of c. CO₂(60) + CH₄(40) plus graphite (Gr) and H₂O, whereas anhedral inclusions along secondary fractures (AS type) are Gr-free and contain H₂O plus carbonic phases with compositions in the range c. CO₂(60) + CH₄(40) to CO₂(10) + CH₄(90). EI type inclusions in olivine evolved to c. CO₂(90–95) + CH₄(5–10) without Gr, whereas AS type inclusions have a range of compositions from CO₂(90) + CH₄(10) ± Gr to CH₄(50) + H₂(50) ± Gr; neither H₂O nor any hydrous species was detected by optical microscopy or MRS in the olivine-hosted products. Differences in composition between and among the texturally distinct populations of inclusions in both minerals probably arise from variations in initial fluid densities, as all inclusions apparently equilibrated with the ambient f_H2. These relations suggest that compositional variability among inclusions in a given natural sample does not require the entrapment of multiple generations of fluids. In addition, the absence of H₂O in the olivine-hosted inclusions would require the extraction of oxygen from the fluids, in which case re-equilibration mechanisms may be dependent on the composition and structure of the host mineral. Many of the same samples were re-exposed to identical P–T conditions using Ar as the pressure medium, yielding ambient f_H2= 0.06 bar. In most inclusions, the carbonic fluids returned to pure CO₂ and graphite persisted in the products. Reversal of the mechanisms from the prior exposure at f_H2= 73 bar did not occur in any inclusions but the AS types in olivine, in which minor CO₂ was produced at the expense of CH₄ and/or graphite. The observed non-reversibility of previous mechanisms may be attributed to: (1) slower fluid–solid reactions compared to reactions in the homogeneous fluid phase; (2) depressed activities of graphite due to poor ordering; and/or (3) low ambient f_O2 at the conditions of the second run.     

Genetic Diversity of Copepod Limnocalanus macrurus from Russian Arctic Seas

Oceanology - The diversity, phylogenetic relationships, and demographic history of glacial relict copepod Limnocalanus macrurus from estuaries of large Siberian Arctic rivers (the Ob, Khatanga,...     

An experimental study in the structure of convective flows of magma melts in a complete system: Mantle chamber-intermediate chamber-volcano

A continuous interrelationship of melts in intermediate and mantle chambers is found by experiment. The interrelationship occurs due to the presence of two melt counter currents within the supply channel (conduit) of the intermediate chamber. In the upper part of the intermediate chamber horizontal rolling flows are found to go from the center to the periphery and backward horizontal flows over the entire bottom of the intermediate chamber travel from the periphery to the center (the conduit), then become an annular descending flow. Due to thermal interaction with the central ascending flow, the annular descending flow heats and becomes undersaturated relative to precipitated crystals, thus excluding encrustation of the conduit walls. The mechanism of continuous interaction between the melts in the mantle and intermediate chambers provides a quasisteady-state of the system irrespective of volcanic activity. It is thought that horizontal layering in large basic intrusives forms similarly to the described process of development and accumulation of cumulus at the bottom of the intermediate chamber.