Übersicht über die Geologie des südlichen Lüderitzlandes

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Calcite dissolution kinetics in the system CaCO3-H2O-CO2 at high undersaturation

Dissolution rates of limestone covered by a water film open to a CO₂-containing atmosphere are controlled by the chemical composition of the CaCO₃-H₂O-CO₂ solution at the water-mineral interface. This composition is determined by the Ca²⁺-concentration at this boundary, conversion of CO₂ into H⁺ and in the solution, and by diffusional mass transport of the dissolved species from and towards the water-limestone interface. A system of coupled diffusion-reaction equations for Ca²⁺, , and CO₂ is derived. The Ca²⁺ flux rates at the surface of the mineral are defined by the PWP-empirical rate law. These flux rates by the rules of stoichiometry must be equal to the flux rates of CO₂ across the air-water interface. In the solution, CO₂ is converted into H⁺ and . At low water-film thickness this reaction becomes rate limiting. The time dependent diffusion-reaction equations are solved for free drift dissolution by a finite-difference scheme, to obtain the dissolution rate of calcite as a function of the average calcium concentration in the water film. Dissolution rates are obtained for high undersaturation. The results reveal two regimes of linear dissolution kinetics, which can be described by a rate law F = α_i(m_ic_eq − c), where c is the calcium concentration in the water film, c_eq the equilibrium concentration with respect to calcite. For index i = 0, a fast rate law, which here is reported for the first time, is found with α₀ = 3 × 10⁻⁶ m s⁻¹ and m₀ = 0.3. For c > m₀c_eq, a slow rate law is valid with α₁ = 3 × 10⁻⁷ m  s⁻¹ and m₁ = 1, which confirms earlier work. The numbers given above are valid for film thickness of several tenths of a millimetre and at 20 °C. These rates are proven experimentally, using a flat inclined limestone plate covered by a laminar flowing water film injected at an input point with known flow rate Q and calcium concentration. From the concentration measured after flow distance x the dissolution rates are determined. These experiments have been performed at a carbon-dioxide pressure of 0.00035 atm and also of 0.01 atm. The results are in good agreement to the theoretical predictions.     

Metamorphe Basalte und Tuffe des Stavanger-Gebietes

Zusammenfassung Eine Reihe von kaledonischen Metamorphiten wurde mikroskopisch und chemisch untersucht. Die Lagerungsverhältnisse, makroskopischen und mikroskopischen Strukturmerkmale dieser Gesteine zeigen, daß es sich um metamorphe Basalte, Tuffe und Tuffite des kaledonischen Geosynklinalvulkanismus handelt, die jetzt in Grünschiefer- und Amphibolitfazies vorliegen. Die chemischen Analysen, CIPW-Normen und AFM-Koordinaten der Metabasalte liegen im Bereich ummetamorpher Basalte. Die Niggli-Werte entsprechen dem femischen bis schwach femischen Charakter von gabbroiden bis lenkogabbroiden Magmen der Kalkalkalireihe.Auf den basaltischen Ursprung solcher Gesteine des Boknfjords hatte bereits Goldschmidt (1921) hingewiesen.Ferner wurde eine ausgewählte Reihe von Metatuffen und -tuffiten, die dem basaltischen Vulkanismus entstammen, vergleichend untersucht: Eine im Felde nicht sehr häufig vertretene Gruppe von Metatuffen besitzt annähernd identische mineralogische und chemische Zusammensetzung mit den Metabasalten. Bei einer anderen Gruppe bestätigen sich die bereits bei der Kartierung gemachten Beobachtungen, daß das tuffogene Material zum großen Teil umgelagert wurde und einer Fraktionierung in dunkle schwere Minerale und helle leichte unterlag. Eine dritte am weitesten verbreitete Gruppe von Metatuffiten enthält mehr oder weniger bedeutende Anteile gewöhnlichen klastischen Verwitterungsmaterials, welches aus der Abtragung präkambrischer Mikroklingranite stammt.Die Untersuchungen zeigen, daß die von Oftedahl (1968) mitgeteilte Karte über die Verbreitung von unterordovizischen Grünsteinen ergänzt werden kann. Die Grenze des Verbreitungsgebietes verschiebt sich von der Insel Karmøy nach SE über den Boknfjord und das Gebiet von Strand hinaus.

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Metamorphic rocks of basaltic origin of the Stavanger-district

A metamorphic series of Cambro-Silurian sediments and granitic rocks in the Boknfjord area (SW-Norway) have been described in some earlier papers. In the upper division of the Boknfjord series metamorphic basalts and associated tuffs are the most important rocks. In the present paper chemical and mineralogical compositions of metabasalts and metatuffs have been investigated. Niggli values and CIPW norms demonstrate the basaltic origin of the samples. The original effusive rocks were transformed to amphibolites and greenstones by Caledonian metamorphism. Main part of the tuffs was found to be mixed with clastic sediments.

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Mein Dank gilt den Herren Professoren Dr. T. F. W. Barth, Oslo, und Dr. F. Karl, Kiel, für ihre tatkräftige Förderung meiner Untersuchungen sowie der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bad Godesberg, für die Bewilligung finanzieller Mittel.     

Der Stand des Problems der Entstehung des Mansfelder Kupferschiefers

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Eine Simulierung orographischer Effekte durch Quellsingularitäten zur Fixierung stromaufwärts gelegener Randwerte

Zusammenfassung Ein zweidimensionales, linearisiertes Strömungsmodell für orographisch induzierte Effekte wird vorgestellt: Unter Voraussetzung von Pseudo-Instationärität lassen sich in einem schwach-geschichteten, reibungsfreien Medium mittlerer Größenordnung dynamisch-thermodynamische Störungen parameterisieren. Beim Überströmen eines Hindernisses, das durch effektiven QuellflußQ simuliert wird, kann man für normierte Stromlinien eine inhomogene Helmholtz-Gleichung ableiten, deren vier Randbedingungen durch das Eingreifen zweier Zusatzterme, welche das instationäre Verhalten beschreiben, modifiziert werden. Man wählt im folgenden den Quellfluß derartig, sodaß vonQ ein aufz=0 aufliegender, endlich ausgedehnter Rücken (mit dem ungefähren Querschnitt eines Halbzylinders) beschrieben wird.Näherungslösungen für den stromaufwärts liegenden Teil eines Rechteckbereiches nach Erreichen eines stationären Strömungszustandes sind mit den Methoden von Laplace-Fourier bestimmbar. Die numerische Größenabschätzung dieser kolumnaren Wellen zeigt, daß die im Windfeld orographisch induzierten Scherungszonen noch in beträchtlicher Entfernung stromaufwärts eines endlichen Hindernisses auftreten. Ihre Größenordnung gleicht jener von Scherungen, welche aus Effekten des thermischen Windes entstehen können. Die horizontale Perturbation der Geschwindigkeit ist bloß um eine Größenordnung kleiner als die Fließgeschwindigkeit des Grundstromes.Die Vorteile des neuen Ansatzes werden diskutiert: Quellsingularitäten sind besser als die üblichen analytischen Darstellungen der Topographie geeignet, die mitunter über weite Distanzen laufenden Störwellen niedrigster Frequenzen mit kolumnarem Charakter zu erfassen.Im Anhang findet man die Verallgemeinerung auf ein analoges dreidimensionales Modell: Ein System zweier partieller Differentialgleichungen führt zu Pseudo-Stromlinien des dreidimensionalen Raumes.

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Source disturbances simulating orographical effects: The determination of upstream boundary values

Summary As outlined in an Appendix a system of partial differential equations is derived for the stream surfaces of a flow of a stratified fluid over an obstacle for the so-called pseudo-instationary case of an inviscid linearized model for mesoscale motions in three dimensions.The solution for the two-dimensional case, which is the basic part of this paper, results in a Helmholtz Equation, the four boundary conditions of which are partially modified by two additional terms characterizing the instationarity of the problem. The orographic effects are parameterized by the effective source singularity. (The latter corresponds roughly to a mountain range with a semi-circular cross-sectional profile).For the upstream part of a rectangular range steady-state solutions in the limit of long time are obtained by the methods of Laplace-Fourier. The numerical calculation shows, that a system of orographically caused shear-layers (columnar waves) exists. The wind shears induced are of the order of shears due to thermal wind effects, though quite apart from these effects. The perturbations of horizontal velocity are only one order of magnitude smaller than the velocity of the fluid-flow itself.The results show that source singularities are good means to represent topographical effects: Especially they may explain more precisely upstream influences due to horizontally propagating waves having near-zero frequencies than the usual analytical formulations of orography can do it.Finally the theoretical results are compared with some data-sets taken from fluid-tank experiments and from observations from instrumented aircraft.

     

Ecological stability during the LGM and the mid-Holocene in the Alpine Steppes of Tibet?

Arid and Alpine ecosystems are known for extreme environmental changes during the Late Quaternary. We hypothesize that the world's largest Alpine arid ecosystem however, the Alpine Steppes of the Tibetan highlands, remained ecologically stable during the LGM and the mid-Holocene. This hypothesis is tested by distributional range of plant species, plant life forms and rate of endemism. The set of character species has a precipitation gradient between 50 and 350 mm/a, testifying for resilience to precipitation changes. 83% of the species have a wider vertical range than 1000 m used as a proxy for resilience to temperature changes. 30% of the species are endemic with 10 endemic genera, including plate-shaped cushions as a unique plant life form. These findings are in line with palaeo-ecological proxies (δ¹⁸O, pollen) allowing the assumption that Alpine Steppes persisted during the LGM with 3 to 4 K lower summer temperatures.During the mid-Holocene, forests could have replaced Alpine Steppes in the upper catchments of the Huang He, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween and Yarlung Zhangbo, but not in the interior basins of the north-western highlands, because the basins were then flooded, suppressing forests and supporting the environmental stability of this arid Alpine grassland biome.     

Hydrostatic pressure tests for the permeability - formation factor relation on crystalline rocks from the KTB drilling project

Transport properties (permeability and electrical conductivity) have been measured at different hydrostatic pressure runs on 7 crystalline rocks (gneisses and amphibolites) sampled from the KTB drilling project. The decrease of permeability by pressure are compared with the pressure-dependent data of the electrical conductivity (formation factor) resulting from complex impedance measurements. According to the equivalent-channel model (ECM), there exists a linear relationship between these parameters by representing both properties on logarithmic scales. The results show that it is possible to extrapolate high-pressure permeability from low-pressure (< 60 MPa) permeability data by using the pressure-dependent electrical conductivity (up to 300 MPa).     

Silicon isotope fractionation during magmatic differentiation

The Si isotopic composition of Earth’s mantle is thought to be homogeneous (δ³⁰Si = −0.29 ± 0.08‰, 2 s.d.) and not greatly affected by partial melting and recycling. Previous analyses of evolved igneous material indicate that such rocks are isotopically heavy relative to the mantle. To understand this variation, it is necessary to investigate the degree of Si isotopic fractionation that takes place during magmatic differentiation. Here we report Si isotopic compositions of lavas from Hekla volcano, Iceland, which has formed in a region devoid of old, geochemically diverse crust. We show that Si isotopic composition varies linearly as a function of silica content, with more differentiated rocks possessing heavier isotopic compositions. Data for samples from the Afar Rift Zone, as well as various igneous USGS standards are collinear with the Hekla trend, providing evidence of a fundamental relationship between magmatic differentiation and Si isotopes. The effect of fractionation has been tested by studying cumulates from the Skaergaard Complex, which show that olivine and pyroxene are isotopically light, and plagioclase heavy, relative to the Si isotopic composition of the Earth’s mantle. Therefore, Si isotopes can be utilised to model the competing effects of mafic and felsic mineral fractionation in evolving silicate liquids and cumulates.At an average SiO₂ content of ∼60 wt.%, the predicted δ³⁰Si value of the continental crust that should result from magmatic fractionation alone is −0.23 ± 0.05‰ (2 s.e.), barely heavier than the mantle. This is, at most, a maximum estimate, as this does not take into account weathered material whose formation drives the products toward lighter δ³⁰Si values. Mass balance calculations suggest that removal of continental crust of this composition from the upper mantle will not affect the Si isotopic composition of the mantle.     

Time-scale and state dependence of the carbon-cycle feedback to climate

Climate and atmospheric CO₂ concentration are intimately coupled in the Earth system: CO₂ influences climate through the greenhouse effect, but climate also affects CO₂ through its impact on the amount of carbon stored on land and in the ocean. The change in atmospheric CO₂ as a response to a change in temperature ( $\varDelta CO_{2}/\varDelta T$ ) is a useful measure to quantify the feedback between the carbon cycle and climate. Using an ensemble of experiments with an Earth system model of intermediate complexity we show a pronounced time-scale dependence of $\varDelta CO_{2}/\varDelta T$ . A maximum is found on centennial scales with $\varDelta CO_{2}/\varDelta T$ values for the model ensemble in the range 5–12 ppm °C^?1, while lower values are found on shorter and longer time scales. These results are consistent with estimates derived from past observations. Up to centennial scales, the land carbon response to climate dominates the CO₂ signal in the atmosphere, while on longer time scales the ocean becomes important and eventually dominates on multi-millennial scales. In addition to the time-scale dependence, modeled $\varDelta CO_{2}/\varDelta T$ show a distinct dependence on the initial state of the system. In particular, on centennial time-scales, high $\varDelta CO_{2}/\varDelta T$ values are correlated with high initial land carbon content. A similar relation holds also for the CMIP5 models, although for $\varDelta CO_{2}/\varDelta T$ computed from a very different experimental setup. The emergence of common patterns like this could prove to usefully constrain the climate–carbon cycle feedback.