Dasycladacean alga <Emphasis Type="Italic">Palaeodasycladus</Emphasis> in the northern Tethys (West Carpathians,Poland) and its new palaeogeographic range during the Early Jurassic

The green alga Palaeodasycladus was recognized in Lower Jurassic shallow-marine high-energy calcarenites of the Cho? Nappe (Hronicum Domain) in the Tatra Mts in Poland. This occurrence indicates the most Northern record of Palaeodasycladus as it is known mostly from the southern part of the Western Tethys. The stratigraphic range of Palaeodasycladus (Norian, Sinemurian–Pliensbachian) and the upper Pliensbachian age of the overlying calcarenites (previous data on the basis of brachiopods) suggest that the studied part of the section was deposited during the Sinemurian–early Pliensbachian. The previous and current reports on occurrences of Palaeodasycladus allowed determination of a new northern palaeogeographic range of the shallow-marine Mediterranean biota during the Early Jurassic time.     

Tectono-metamorphic and geochronologic studies from Sandmata complex,northwest Indian shield: Implications on exhumation of late-palaeoproterozoic granulites in an archaean-early palaeoproterozoic granite-gneiss terrane

Several bodies of granulites comprising charnockite, charno-enderbite, pelitic and calc-silicate rocks occur within an assemblage of granite gneiss/granitoid, amphibolite and metasediments (henceforth described as banded gneisses) in the central part of the Aravalli Mountains, northwestern India. The combined rock assemblage was thought to constitute an Archaean basement (BGC-II) onto which the successive Proterozoic cover rocks were deposited. Recent field studies reveal the occurrence of several bodies of late-Palaeoproterozoic (1725 and 1621 Ma) granulites within the banded gneisses, which locally show evidence of migmatization at c. 1900 Ma coeval with the Aravalli Orogeny. We report single zircon ‘evaporation’ ages together with information from LA-ICP-MS U-Pb zircon datings to confirm an Archaean (2905 — ca. 2500 Ma) age for the banded gneisses hosting the granulites. The new geochronological data, therefore, suggest a polycyclic evolution for the BGC-II terrane for which the new term Sandmata Complex is proposed. The zircon ages suggest that the different rock formations in the Sandmata Complex are neither entirely Palaeoproterozoic in age, as claimed in some studies nor are they exclusively Archaean as was initially thought. Apart from distinct differences in the age of rocks, tectono-metamorphic breaks are observed in the field between the Archaean banded gneisses and the Palaeoproterozoic granulites. Collating the data on granulite ages with the known tectono-stratigraphic framework of the Aravalli Mountains, we conclude that the evolution and exhumation of granulites in the Sandmata Complex occurred during a tectono-magmatic/metamorphic event, which cannot be linked to known orogenic cycles that shaped this ancient mountain belt. We present some field and geochronologic evidence to elucidate the exhumation history and tectonic emplacement of the late Palaeoproterozoic, high P-T granulites into the Archaean banded gneisses. The granulite-facies metamorphism has been correlated with the thermal perturbation during the asymmetric opening of Delhi basins at around 1700 Ma.     

Observations and temperatures of Io's Pele Patera from Cassini and Galileo spacecraft images

Pele has been the most intense high-temperature hotspot on Io to be continuously active during the Galileo monitoring from 1996-2001. A suite of characteristics suggests that Pele is an active lava lake inside a volcanic depression. In 2000-2001, Pele was observed by two spacecraft, Cassini and Galileo. The Cassini observations revealed that Pele is variable in activity over timescales of minutes, typical of active lava lakes in Hawaii and Ethiopia. These observations also revealed that the short-wavelength thermal emission from Pele decreases with rotation of Io by a factor significantly greater than the cosine of the emission angle, and that the color temperature becomes more variable and hotter at high emission angles. This behavior suggests that a significant portion of the visible thermal emission from Pele comes from lava fountains within a topographically confined lava body. High spatial resolution, nightside images from a Galileo flyby in October 2001 revealed a large, relatively cool (<800 K) region, ringed by bright hotspots, and a central region of high thermal emission, which is hypothesized to be due to fountaining and convection in the lava lake. Images taken through different filters revealed color temperatures of 1500±80 K from Cassini ISS data and 1605±220 and 1420±100 K from small portions of Galileo SSI data. Such temperatures are near the upper limit for basaltic compositions. Given the limitations of deriving lava eruption temperature in the absence of in situ measurement, it is possible that Pele has lavas with ultramafic compositions. The long-lived, vigorous activity of what is most likely an actively overturning lava lake in Pele Patera indicates that there is a strong connection to a large, stable magma source region.     

Rays and secondary craters of Tycho

The large, fresh crater Tycho in the nearside lunar highlands has an extensive system of bright rays covering approximately 560,000 km², containing dense clusters of secondary craters. Examination of crater densities in several clusters shows that Tycho produced almost 10⁶ secondary craters larger than 63 m diameter. This is a lower limit, because small crater densities are reduced, most likely by mass wasting. We estimate a crater erasure rate of 2-6 cm/Myr, varying with crater size, and consistent with previous results. This process has removed many small craters, and it is probable that the original number of secondary craters formed by Tycho was higher. Also, we can only identify distant secondaries of Tycho where they occur in bright rays. Craters on Mars and Europa also formed large numbers of secondaries, but under possibly ideal conditions for spallation as a mechanism to produce high-velocity ejecta fragments. The results from Tycho show that large numbers of such fragments can be produced even from impact into a heavily fragmented target on which spallation is expected to be less important.     

Evolution of the oceanic plankton

In its evolution through geologic time, the oceanic plankton has reflected many changes in the physical environment while both causing and being affected by evolutionary change in the associated biota. Temporal variations in the vertical and latitudinal habitat partitioning also affected geochemical balances in the oceans and accumulation rates of biogenic sediments, and perhaps the atmospheric oxygen pressure. Advantages of the oceanic plankton habitat that led to its occupation by a varied sequence of organisms include its extensive geographic area, the possibility for rapid dispersal by currents, the availability of resources (ranging from light, carbon dioxide, and dissolved nutrients for the autotrophic organisms to the various lower trophic levels required by the heterotrophs), and the better oxygenation of the upper water layers.Convergent morphology of the plankton represents adaptations for suspension in the water column, for movement within this water mass to increase nutrient uptake, and for protection against grazing or predation. Necessary attributes for cosmopolitan species include eurythermy and euryhalinity. The patchiness of plankton diversity results from small-scale variations in water masses, the low level of interorganism contact or competition, and the possibility of rapid exploitation of favorable conditions by species present in the local area.Parallel evolution, radiation, and extinction of the various components of the oceanic plankton are similar in pattern to an ecologic succession — early evolution and conditions following major periods of extinction being homologous with the physically controlled or immature modern ecosystem associated with high stress levels and characterized by high net but low gross productivity, low diversity but great intraspecific variability, and small biomass. Evolutionary radiation is associated with more stable physical conditions and, like the seral progression, of an ecosystem, results in high diversity but less intraspecific variability. Increased biological interaction leads to higher gross but lower net productivity, hence more efficient energy and resource utilization. The drop in gross oceanic productivity at times of major extinction is associated with low diversity and decreased rate of accumulation of biogenic ooze, hence the apparent worldwide disconformities, as at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, even in the deep sea.     

Using geographically weighted regression kriging for crop yield mapping in West Africa

Geographical information systems support the application of statistical techniques to map spatially referenced crop data. To do this in the optimal way, errors and uncertainties have to be minimized that are often associated with operations on the data. This paper applies a spatial statistical approach to upscale crop yields from the field level toward the scale of Burkina Faso. Observed yields were related to the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index derived from SPOT-VEGETATION. The objective was to quantify the uncertainties at the subsequent steps. First, we applied a point pattern analysis to examine uncertainties due to the sampling network of field surveys in the country. Second, geographically weighted regression kriging (GWRK) was applied to upscale the yield observations and to quantify the corresponding uncertainty. The proposed method was demonstrated with the mapping of sorghum yields in Burkina Faso and results were compared with those from regression kriging (RK) and kriging with external drift using a local kriging neighborhood (KEDLN). The proposed method was validated with independent yield observations obtained from field surveys. We observed that the lower uncertainty range value increased by 39%, and the upper uncertainty range value decreased by 51%, when comparing GWRK with RK and KEDLN. Moreover, GWRK reduced the prediction error variance as compared to RK (20 vs. 31) and to KEDLN (20 vs. 39). We found that climate and topography had a major impact on the country’s sorghum yields. Further, the financial ability of farmers influenced the crop management and, thus, the sorghum crop yields. We concluded that GWRK effectively utilized information present in the covariate datasets and improved the accuracies of both the regional-scale mapping of sorghum yields and was able to quantify the associated uncertainty.