Some problems related to the origin of methane on Mars

The following problems related to the origin of methane on Mars have been considered. (1) Laboratory simulations of the impact phenomena confirm effective heterogeneous chemistry between the products of the fireball. This chemistry lowers the fireball freezing temperature from 2000 to 750 K for methane and to 1100 K for CO/CO₂. Production of methane on Mars by cometary impacts is 0.8% of the total production. A probability that the observed methane on Mars came from impact of a single comet is 0.0011. (2) The PFS observations of variations of methane on Mars require a very effective heterogeneous loss of methane. Heterogeneous effect of dust is half that of the surface rocks. Thermochemical equilibrium requires production, not loss, of methane. Existing kinetic data show a very low efficiency of heterogeneous reactions of methane. Highly reactive superoxide ions generated by the solar UV photons on the martian rocks cannot remove methane. The required efficiency of heterogeneous loss of methane on Mars is higher than that on Earth by a factor of ?1000, although the expected efficiency on Earth is stronger than that on Mars because of the liquid ocean and the abundant oxygen. All these inconsistencies may be removed if variations of the rock reflectivity contribute to the PFS observations of methane on Mars. The PFS data on H₂CO, HCl, HF, and HBr also raise doubts. (3) Although geologic sources of methane are possible, the lack of current volcanism, hydrothermal activity, hot spots, and very low seepage of gases from the interior are not favorable for geologic methane. Any proposed geological source of methane on Mars should address these problems. Some weak points in the suggested geologic sources are discussed. (4) Measurements of ¹³C/¹²C and D/H in methane would be difficult because of the low methane abundance. These ratios are mostly sensitive to a temperature of methane formation and cannot distinguish between biogenic and low-temperature geologic sources. Their analysis requires the carbon isotope ratio in CO₂ on Mars, which is known with the insufficient accuracy, and D/H in water, which is different in the atmosphere, polar caps, regolith and interior. Therefore, the stable isotope ratios may not give a unique answer on the origin of methane. (5) Ethane and propane react with OH much faster than methane. If their production relative to methane is similar to that on Earth, then their expected abundances on Mars are of a few parts per trillion. (6) Loss of SO₂ in the reaction with peroxide on ice is smaller than its gas-phase loss by an order of magnitude. The overall results strengthen the biogenic origin of martian methane and its low variability.     

Small observatories for the UV

We describe concepts for small space telescopes that are able to provide significant UV science and can be realized with small (but realistic) budgets. The concepts are based on nano-satellites carrying small optics, with no redundancy, without producing intermediate models prior to flight model, and using COTS (custom off-the-shelf) components. We describe a few concepts of deployable optics that could provide large collecting areas and high angular resolution while packaged in the small volume of a nano-satellite. We point out areas where technological development is still required.     

Extended Self-Similarity in Geophysical and Geological Applications

In this paper we demonstrate application of the Extended Self-Similarity (ESS) concept, recently developed in turbulence physics, for geological and geophysical phenomena. The theoretical background is discussed first and then the ESS properties in fluvial turbulence, sand wave dynamics, Martian topography, river morphometry, gravel-bed mobility, and atmospheric barometric pressure are explored. The main attention is paid to fluvial turbulence and sand waves, while other examples are presented to support the generality of the ESS concept in earth sciences. The results show that the ESS properties of the considered phenomena are remarkably similar to those reported for turbulence, in spite of different underlying mechanisms. This suggests that a general rule should exist which governs a wide class of complex natural phenomena.     

Population biology of Ischyrocerus commensalis,a crab‐associated amphipod,in the Southern Barents Sea: a multi‐annual summer study

Population biology of the amphipod Ischyrocerus commensalis Chevreux, 1900, a facultative commensal of the red king crab Paralithodes camtschaticus (Tilesius, 1815), is here described on samples collected during summers 2005–2009 in Dalnezelenetskaya Bay (Southern Barents Sea, Russia). The studied features included infestation indices, size composition, morphometric, and reproductive parameters of the summer generation. During the studied period, prevalence and mean number of I. commensalis per host were 34.4% and 54.4 ± 3.3 individuals, respectively. The majority of amphipods were found on the host mouth parts, limbs, and gills. The amphipod sex‐ratio was significantly biased towards females (F:M = 1.36:1). The size frequency distributions observed in July and August were similar but in July the proportion of the smallest amphipods (<2.1 mm body length) was two times higher than that in August. All the amphipods with body length >5.1 mm were males or females. Length–weight relationships in female and male amphipods differed significantly, suggesting that females were heavier than the same‐sized males. The females carrying eggs in their brood pouches were the most abundant groups (54.8% in July 2009 and 51.6% in August 2005–2008). The minimal body length of a female which had released juveniles was 7.0 mm in July and 6.2 mm in August. The size at 50% maturity of I. commensalis females was estimated to be 6.58 mm. The number of eggs laid is positively linearly correlated with the size of a female. The proportion of the females with eggs in the latest developmental stage in July was 10 times higher than in August. The differences of biological features in symbiotic amphipods between the July and August may be explained by more intensive reproduction effort in the earlier month.     

Influence of a dipole magnetic field on the topology of toroidal magnetic configurations around a gravitating body

The topological structure of the toroidal magnetic field, which is affected by a dipole magnetic field, is studied. It is shown, that a dipole magnetic field is able to split the initial toroidal configuration into two toroids and, at a certain critical value of the magnetic dipole, can completely destroy the toroidal configuration. The dependence of the total mass excess on the dipole magnetic field is found.     

3D diffraction imaging of fault and fracture zones via image spectral decomposition of partial images

The paper presents 3D diffraction imaging based on the spectral decomposition of a different combination of selective or partial images. These images are obtained by the pre-stack asymmetric migration procedure, which is weighted data summation. Spectral decomposition is done in the Fourier domain with respect to spatial dip and azimuth angles. Numerical examples with the application of different workflows for the synthetic and real data examples demonstrate detailed reliable reconstruction of the fractured zones and reliable reconstruction of fracture orientation on synthetic and real 3D data examples.     

Mossman orogenic gold province in north Queensland,Australia: regional metallogenic controls and undiscovered gold endowment

The Hodgkinson and Broken River provinces of the Mossman Orogen in north Queensland host numerous orogenic gold deposits and still remain under-explored. This paper discusses regional metallogenic controls and results of a probabilistic quantitative assessment of undiscovered gold potential in the region. Significant orogenic gold deposits in the region occur only within relatively small well-endowed metallogenic zones, likely to be controlled by the eastern margin of the Paleoproterozoic continental crust underlying the western Mossman Orogen. Three distinct styles of primary orogenic gold deposits are present in the area: gold–quartz veins, refractory gold associated with quartz–pyrite–arsenopyrite veins and stockworks and stibnite–quartz±gold veins. Refractory gold deposits are estimated to have the highest potential for significant undiscovered resources in the region. The Hodgkinson Province is estimated to host between one and ten significant undiscovered refractory gold ore fields, with a 50 % probability of at least 20 t of total contained gold and a 90 % probability of at least 1 t. The Broken River Province is estimated to host up to five significant undiscovered refractory gold ore fields, with a 50 % probability of at least 12 t of contained gold.     

The use of uniaxial recordings in moment tensor inversions for induced seismic sources

This study shows that the use of uniaxial recordings maintains the linear dependence of the low frequency displacements, with first polarities included, on the moment tensor components, and thus can be easily incorporated in the evaluation of failure mechanism using a moment tensor approach. Synthetic data analysis demonstrates that the errors in the orientation of the principal strain axes of the mechanism solution can be reliably evaluated using a linear error propagation approximation for up to 30% variance in the amplitude data. Case studies at the Kidd Mine indicate that the general characteristics of the mechanism solution are well retrieved, regardless of the type of data used, as relatively small disorientation angles of 15–20° are found between the solutions derived from rotated triaxial data and those from unrotated triaxial data used as uniaxial data, and of 25–30° between the solutions based on rotated triaxial data and those on independent uniaxial data.     

Influence of ground-motion correlation on probabilistic assessments of seismic hazard and loss: sensitivity analysis

Recent studies have shown that the proper treatment of ground-motion variability and, particularly, the correlation of ground motion are essential for the estimation of the seismic hazard, damage and loss for distributed portfolios. In this work we compared the effects of variations in the between-earthquake correlation and in the site-to-site correlation on probabilistic estimations of seismic damage and loss for the extended objects (hypothetical portfolio) and critical elements (e.g. bridges) of a network. Taiwan Island has been chosen as a test case for this study because of relatively high seismicity and previous experience in earthquake hazard modelling. The hazard and loss estimations were performed using Monte Carlo approach on the basis of stochastic catalogues and random ground-motion fields. We showed that the influence of correlation on parameters of seismic hazard, characteristics of loss distribution and the probability of damage depend, on one hand, on level of hazard and probability level of interest (return period) and, on the other hand, the relative influence of each type of correlation is not equal.