Thermophysical properties of Almahata Sitta meteorites (asteroid 2008 TC3) for high‐fidelity entry modeling

Asteroid 2008 TC₃ was characterized in a unique manner prior to impacting Earth's atmosphere, making its October 7, 2008, impact a suitable field test for or validating the application of high‐fidelity re‐entry modeling to asteroid entry. The accurate modeling of the behavior of 2008 TC₃ during its entry in Earth's atmosphere requires detailed information about the thermophysical properties of the asteroid's meteoritic materials at temperatures ranging from room temperature up to the point of ablation (T ~ 1400 K). Here, we present measurements of the thermophysical properties up to these temperatures (in a 1 atm. pressure of argon) for two samples of the Almahata Sitta meteorites from asteroid 2008 TC₃: a thick flat‐faced ureilite suitably shaped for emissivity measurements and a thin flat‐faced EL6 enstatite chondrite suitable for diffusivity measurements. Heat capacity was determined from the elemental composition and density from a 3‐D laser scan of the sample. We find that the thermal conductivity of the enstatite chondrite material decreases more gradually as a function of temperature than expected, while the emissivity of the ureilitic material decreases at a rate of 9.5 × 10^?5 K^?1 above 770 K. The entry scenario is the result of the actual flight path being the boundary to the load the meteorite will be affected with when entering. An accurate heat load prediction depends on the thermophysical properties. Finally, based on these data, the breakup can be calculated accurately leading to a risk assessment for ground damage.     

Sulfide intrusion in the tropical seagrasses Thalassia testudinum and Syringodium filiforme

Sulfur and oxygen dynamics in the seagrasses Thalassia testudinum and Syringodium filiforme and their sediments were studied in the US Virgin Islands (USVI) in order to explore sulfide intrusion into tropical seagrasses. Four study sites were selected based on the iron concentration in sediments and on proximity to anthropogenic nutrient sources. Meadow characteristics (shoot density, above- and below-ground biomass, nutrient content) were sampled along with sediment biogeochemistry. Sulfide intrusion was high in T. testudinum, as up to 96% of total sulfur in the plant was derived from sediment-derived sulfides. The sulfide intrusion was negatively correlated to the turnover of sulfides in the sediments regulated by both plant parameters and sediment sulfur pools. Sediment iron content played an indirect role by affecting sulfide turnover rates. Leaf production was negatively correlated with sulfide intrusion suggesting that active growth reduced sulfide intrusion. Sulfide intrusion was lower in S. filiforme (up to 44%) compared to T. testudinum consistent with a higher internal nighttime oxygen concentrations found for S. filiforme. When S. filiforme can take advantage of its ability to maintain high internal oxygen concentrations, as was the case on the USVI, it could increase its success in colonizing unvegetated disturbed sediments with potentially high sulfide concentrations.     

Detrital zircon geochronology of Palaeozoic Novaya Zemlya – a key to understanding the basement of the Barents Shelf

The Novaya Zemlya fold‐and‐thrust‐belt is the northern continuation of the late Palaeozoic Uralide Orogen. Little is known about its deeper structure and the basement history of the adjacent Barents and Kara shelves. Based on geological evidence and detrital zircon analysis of 28 samples from the northeastern and stratigraphically deepest part of the archipelago, we demonstrate that Cambro‐Ordovician turbidite‐dominated deposition was almost exclusively sourced from rocks consolidated during the Timanian orogeny (Timanian basement). A profound change in provenance occurred near the end of the Ordovician. Over 90% of the zircons from Silurian and about 80% from Devonian strata have ages characteristic of the Sveconorwegian Orogen, implying uplift of these rocks in the vicinity of Novaya Zemlya. The presence of Sveconorwegian and Grenvillian rocks in the high Arctic suggests revision of recent reconstructions of the Rodinia supercontinent, its break‐up and subsequent Caledonian orogeny.     

Die Entstehungsgeschichte eines Maares in Süd-Chile

Zusammenfassung Die südchilenische, aktive Vulkanprovinz begleitet den Anden-Westrand gegen das Längstal. Die 1300 km lange Vulkanzone sitzt auf einer tektonischen Naht zwischen dem alten Sockel der Küstenkordillere im W und dem andinen Orogen im E. Der Vulkanismus begann mit andesitischen Ergüssen an der Tertiär/Quartär-Wende im Gefolge germanotyper Zerrbewegungen. Im letzten Interglazial und in der Nacheiszeit bildeten sich infolge starker Aschenförderung zahlreiche Stratovulkane. In der Gegenwart überwiegen explosive Aschenausbrüche mit Förderung gasreicher Blocklava. Teilweise hat Maarbildung und postvulkanische Tätigkeit eingesetzt. Als jüngstes Ereignis enstand in der Provinz Valdivia am 27. Juli 1955 durch einen Initialdurchbruch ein neuer Ausbläser, dessen Sprengtrichter sich nach Art eines Maares bald mit Grundwasser füllte. Die Beobachtungen während dieses Ausbruches werden aktuo-geologisch zur Deutung von Erscheinungen an den Eifel-Maaren verwertet.     

Neuer Tiefsee-fund eines rezenten Vertreters der kambro-silurischen Molluskengruppe Tryblidiacea

Zusammenfassung Die Dänische GALATHEA-Expedition erbeutete am 6. Mai 1952 vor der Südwestküste Costa Ricas aus 3590 m Tiefe einige Repräsentanten einer Weichtiergruppe, der Tryblidiaceen, die man Ende Silurs (oder in Devon) ausgestorben dachte. Die Tiere zeigen Spuren unverkennbarer Segmentierung wie bei den Ringelwürmern und Gliedertieren. Möglicherweise stammen die genannten drei Tiergruppen von gemeinsamen frühkambrischen Vorfahren ab, was eine beträchtliche Verkürzung der bisher vermuteten präkambrischen Phylogenie der Metazoen bedeuten würde.Die großen Meerestiefen haben sich nochmals als Zufluchtsstelle altertümlicher Formen erwiesen, und der neue Fund kann wohl als Zeichen dafür genommen werden, daß die letzte Überraschung noch nicht aus diesen Meerestiefen heraufgezogen ist.     

Die großen Gräben: Harmonische Strukturen in einer disharmonisch struierten Erdkruste

A system of intracontinental grabens extends over Western Europe, the Levant and East Africa. Small crustal segments framed by elevated shoulders are sunken along parallel escarpments and disintegrated by antithetic normal faults. The shoulders are risen up as outward tilted blocks and thought to form a closed vault at the base of the crust, corresponding to the wedge block of the graben. Underneath the Rhinegraben exists, as detected by seismic refraction measurements, a pillow-shaped body of material with P-wave velocities of 7.4 to 7.9 km/sec, intercalated between crust and mantle. The taphrogenesis of all larger grabens is assumed to be induced by the formation and growth of subcrustal swells of this type. Also the specific graben volcanism is thought to be connected with the intruded laccolithic body of mantle-derived material. The tensional breakup and the faulting of the warped crustal masses was favoured by the gravity slide of the crust which was uncoupled from the substratum by the intercalated magmatic layer. Along the Red Sea Rift the crust tore completely releasing the basaltic substratum in the inner graben. The pattern of its magnetic anomalies leads to the assumption that the pillow body is recruited by simatic dike injections according to the principle of sea-floor spreading. Therefore, there is a great conformity between the intercontinental and the mid-oceanic rift systems. The supplies of mantle material along the Mid-Atlantic and the Carlsberg Rift are related to the drift of the continental frames. The mid-oceanic rift systems in their medial position to the framing continental margins correspond to the intracontinental graben swarm, equidistant from both fronts of circum-Pacific tectonics. A reciprocating action is presumed between the ascending masses along the rift zones and the suction of masses along the deep-sea trenches and geosynclines. The observed crustal movements imply an equilibrant plastic flow within the upper mantle, probably impelled by mechanical convection currents. The continental unbalance between the Pacific and the anti-Pacific hemisphere is discussed as causing mantle currents. Within this interplay between crust and mantle and between continents and ocean floors, the oceanic crust had obtained harmonical features moulded directly by the deduced mobility. The continental crust, however, is passively stressed, its rocks are affected by heterogeneous deformations from which the continents got its polygenetic multiform fabric.     

Zur Ostracoden-Fauna eines marinen Schlammbodens an der istrischen Küste (Limski kanal,NW-Jugoslawien)

Zusammenfassung Die Ostracoden mariner Schlammböden an der istrischen Küste werden am Beispiel des Limski kanal nördlich Rovinj untersucht und erste ökologische Ergebnisse anhand von 74 Proben mitgeteilt.Die Lebendfärbung mit Bengalspiritus nachLutze (1964) hat sich auch für ökologische Untersuchungen an Ostracoden bewährt.Einxe kurze Charakteristik der morphologischen, hydrologischen und sedimentologischen Verhältnisse im Limski kanal umreißt den Rahmen für eine mit etwa 25 Arten relativ artenarme Fauna. Die hydrographischen Bedingungen entsprechen weitgehend denen der offenen Adria. Die Ostracoden-Fauna zeigt jedoch einen selbständigen Charakter, was vor allem auf Art und Gefüge des Sediments zurückzuführen ist. Es werden 2 Assoziationen unterschieden und den Thanatozönosen gegenübergestellt. Dabei zeigt sich, daß im westlichen, von der Adria stärker beeinflußten Teil des Kanals etwa ein Drittel der Ostracoden-Schalen aus dem engeren Litoral-Bereich eingeschwemmt ist.

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Ostracods were studied from Recent marine clayey and silty sediments of the Limski Channel north of Rovinj, Istrian peninsula. On the basis of 74 samples from bottom cores, first ecological results are given.Staining with rose bengal according toLutze (1964) turned out to be a practicable method for ecological studies of living ostracods, as well.The morphological, hydrological, and sedimentological conditions of the Limski Channel are outlined which affected the environmental position of a relatively poor fauna of about 25 species. The hydrographical conditions correspond with those of the open Adriatic. The ostracod fauna, however, reveals an individual character which is attributed, above all, to the kind and structure of the sediment. Two assemblages may be distinguished. They are compared with the dead populations. There is evidence that in the western part of the channel, which is more strongly influenced by the sea, one third of the ostracod shell material has been transported from the littoral and the uppermost part of the sublittoral to deeper parts of the channel.

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Résumé Des recherches sur les Ostracodes marins, originaires des fonds vaseux de la côte d'Istrie, ont été fait dans le Canal Limski au nord de Rovinj. Les premiers résultats écologiques ont été publiés avec 74 échantillons à l'appui.Nous avons acquis de bons résultats pour des études écologiques d'Ostracodes vivants en nous servant du «Bengalspiritus» suivant la méthode deLutze (1964).Les caractéristiques des conditions morphologiques, hydrologiques et sédimentologiques du Canal Limski, qui constituent le cadre de la faune relativement pauvre en Ostracodes (25 espèces), sont esquissées. Les conditions hydrographiques correspondent dans une large mesure à celles de la Mer Adriatique. Cependant la faune d'Ostracodes présente un caractère particulier attribué avant tout à la nature sédimentologique et à la structure du substratum. Deux associations sont à différencier et sont comparées avec les thanatocénoses. Il en résulte que dans la partie ouest du canal, qui est ouverte à l'influence de la mer, environ un tiers des valves d'Ostracodes provient du voisinage immédiat du littoral.

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74 Limski Rovinj. . — Lutze (1964). — , , Limski, . — , . , . , , , 1/3 .

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Erweiterte Fassung eines am 27. Februar 1970 auf der 60. Jahrestagung der Geologischen Vereinigung in Kiel unter dem Titel: Zur Ökologie der Ostracoden des Limski kanal bei Rovinj (nördliche Adria) gehaltenen Vortrages.     

Meteorite stranding surfaces and the Greenland icesheet

Abstract— Thirty years of recoveries in East Antarctica have led to significant understanding of the regional characteristics associated with meteorite stranding surfaces. In Antarctica these sites are characterized by patches of snow‐free blue ice at high altitude on the icesheet in regions where iceflow is highly restricted. Melting is extremely rare or absent and sublimation rates are high, even though meteorite stranding surfaces are predominantly found within regions where accumulation typically dominates. Localized environmental conditions that persist for thousands of years or longer appear to be the dominant factor rather than shorter‐term or seasonal cycles. In this paper we describe our discovery of regions in Northeast Greenland with blue ice areas that exhibit many of the requisite characteristics, suggesting that they are excellent prospects for future meteorite recovery efforts.     

The nature of the 10 and 20 micrometer features in circumstellar dust shells

Photographic reduction techniques are compared using an iris photometer, GALAXY and PDS for measurement of two plates (B andV) of the globular cluster M15. The comparison shows that satisfactory results can be obtained by any of these methods in the outer areas of globular clusters, but in inner regions, due to crowding of stellar images and to the influence of the background density, the most appropriate technique is the procedure applied to PDS scans of the plates.