Crustal evolution of Archaean granitoids in the Murchison Province, Western Australia

Four suites of granitoids intruded the supracrustal greenstone sequence in the Murchison Province of the Archaean Yilgarn Craton during a 300 million year period. The earliest granitoid suite intruded the base of the developing greenstone sequence as a series of thin subhorizontal tabular plutons of monzogranite and granodiorite at 2.9Ga. This suite has been deformed and metamorphosed, and is now a pegmatite-banded gneiss. At about 2.7 Ga, thick, subhorizontal, tabular plutons of monzogranite intruded the base of the greenstone sequence. This suite, which now forms much of the regions between greenstone belts, was folded and recrystallized during regional deformation and metamorphism. Two distinct but contemporaneous suites of post-folding granitoids intruded the greenstone belts at 2.6 Ga, largely post-dating regional metamorphism. One suite of post-folding granitoids comprises tonalite, trondhjemite, granodiorite and monzogranite plutons, confined mainly to the north of the Province. The other suite comprises quartz-rich monzogranite and syenogranite plutons, confined mainly to the south of the Province.Pegmatite-banded gneiss, recrystallized monzogranite, and the northern suite of post-folding granitoids were all derived by partial-melting of mafic crustal rocks. Most post-folding granitoids from the southern suite were derived by partial-melting of siliceous crustal material at least as old as basal greenstones. The modes and sites of intrusion of all granitoid plutons were controlled by active tectonic processes or by structural features of the crust. Widespread 2.6 Ga Rb---Sr ages of pegmatite-banded gneiss and recrystallized monzogranite reflect post-metamorphic cooling which was contemporaneous with intrusion of post-folding granitoids.     

The science process for selecting the landing site for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory

The process of identifying the landing site for NASA’s 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) began in 2005 by defining science objectives, related to evaluating the potential habitability of a location on Mars, and engineering parameters, such as elevation, latitude, winds, and rock abundance, to determine acceptable surface and atmospheric characteristics. Nearly 60 candidate sites were considered at a series of open workshops in the years leading up to the launch. During that period, iteration between evolving engineering constraints and the relative science potential of candidate sites led to consensus on four final sites. The final site will be selected in the Spring of 2011 by NASA’s Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. This paper serves as a record of landing site selection activities related primarily to science, an inventory of the number and variety of sites proposed, and a summary of the science potential of the highest ranking sites.     

Influence of liquid structure on diffusive isotope separation in molten silicates and aqueous solutions

Molecular diffusion in natural volcanic liquids discriminates between isotopes of major ions (e.g., Fe, Mg, Ca, and Li). Although isotope separation by diffusion is expected on theoretical grounds, the dependence on mass is highly variable for different elements and in different media. Silicate liquid diffusion experiments using simple liquid compositions were carried out to further probe the compositional dependence of diffusive isotopic discrimination and its relationship to liquid structure. Two diffusion couples consisting of the mineral constituents anorthite (CaAl₂Si₂O₈; denoted AN), albite (NaAlSi₃O₈; denoted AB), and diopside (CaMgSi₂O₆; denoted DI) were held at 1450 °C for 2 h and then quenched to ambient pressure and temperature. Major-element as well as Ca and Mg isotope profiles were measured on the recovered quenched glasses. In both experiments, Ca diffuses rapidly with respect to Si. In the AB-AN experiment, D_Ca/D_Si ≈ 20 and the efficiency of isotope separation for Ca is much greater than in natural liquid experiments where D_Ca/D_Si ≈ 1. In the AB-DI experiment, D_Ca/D_Si ≈ 6 and the efficiency of isotope separation is between that of the natural liquid experiments and the AB-AN experiment. In the AB-DI experiment, D_Mg/D_Si ≈ 1 and the efficiency of isotope separation for Mg is smaller than it is for Ca yet similar to that observed for Mg in natural liquids.The results from the experiments reported here, in combination with results from natural volcanic liquids, show clearly that the efficiency of diffusive separation of Ca isotopes is systematically related to the solvent-normalized diffusivity - the ratio of the diffusivity of the cation (D_Ca) to the diffusivity of silicon (D_Si). The results on Ca isotopes are consistent with available data on Fe, Li, and Mg isotopes in silicate liquids, when considered in terms of the parameter D_cation/D_Si. Cations diffusing in aqueous solutions display a similar relationship between isotopic separation efficiency and D_cation/D_H2O, although the efficiencies are smaller than in silicate liquids. Our empirical relationship provides a tool for predicting the magnitude of diffusive isotopic effects in many geologic environments and a basis for a more comprehensive theory of isotope separation in liquid solutions. We present a conceptual model for the relationship between diffusivity and liquid structure that is consistent with available data.     

Isotopic fractionation of the major elements of molten basalt by chemical and thermal diffusion

Samples produced in piston cylinder experiments were used to document the thermal isotopic fractionation of all the major elements of basalt except for aluminum and the fractionation of iron isotopes by chemical diffusion between a natural basalt and rhyolite. The thermal isotopic fractionations are summarized in terms of a parameter Ω_i defined as the fractionation in per mil per 100 °C per atomic mass units difference between the isotopes. For molten basalt we report Ω_Ca = 1.6, Ω_Fe = 1.1, Ω_Si = 0.6, Ω_O = 1.5. In an earlier paper we reported Ω_Mg = 3.6. These fractionations represent a steady state balance between thermal diffusion and chemical diffusion with the mass dependence of the thermal diffusion coefficient being significantly larger than the mass dependence of the chemical diffusion coefficients for isotopes of the same element. The iron isotopic measurements of the basalt-rhyolite diffusion couple showed significant fractionation that are parameterized in terms of a parameter β_Fe = 0.03 when the ratio of the diffusion coefficients D₅₄ and D₅₆ of ⁵⁴Fe and ⁵⁶Fe is expressed in terms of the atomic mass as D₅₄/D₅₆ = (56/54)^β_Fe. This value of β_Fe is smaller than what we had measured earlier for lithium, magnesium and calcium (i.e., β_Li = 0.215, β_Ca = 0.05, β_Mg = 0.05) but still significant when one takes into account the high precision with which iron isotopic compositions can be measured (i.e., ±0.03‰) and that iron isotope fractionations at magmatic temperatures from other causes are extremely small. In a closing section we discuss technological and geological applications of isotopic fractionations driven by either or both chemical and thermal gradients.     

北美西部内陆海盆Niobrara组的钙质超微化石及其环境意义——Ⅰ：钙质超微化石及其分带

北美西部内陆海盆上白垩统Niobrara组中的钙质超微化石十分丰富,且多保存良好,呈现典型的晚白垩世远洋钙质超微化石组合面貌,经系统鉴定,计有60属100余种和亚种。为适应不同的环境,Kansas西部和South Dakota东部的钙质超微化石组合面貌稍有不同。经与白垩纪颗石藻化石带对比,可将Kansas西部的Niobrara组划分为6个化石带(CC13～CC18)和8个亚带,其中,根据本文研究地区的化石序列,CC15和CC16带被进一步划分。根据与同一剖面所建立的无脊椎动物化石带对比,钙质超微化石CC17带的时代被重新厘定,即该带应始于中Santonian的晚期,结束于晚Santonian的早期,并据此将Santoniatr／Campanian的界线划在CC18带之内。