Charles Lyell from 1832 to 1835: marriage, Principles, 2 trips to Heidelberg, snails and loess

Charles Lyell, on his way to becoming a famous geologist, married Mary Horner in Bonn in July 1832; volume 3 of his ‘Principles of Geology’ was published by John Murray in London in May 1833. Between these two dates Lyell encountered the loess of the Rhine valley. The loess impressed Lyell and he included mentions of it in the Principles, first in 1833 and then, with some revised ideas, in volume 4 of the 4th edition published in 1835. Twelve editions of the Principles were published between 1830 and 1875 and it became one of the most important works in the development of geology, and made a major contribution to the worldwide spread of loess awareness. It is possible that Lyell was drawn to the loess because of its high molluscan content, he was particularly attracted to the study of shells.     

The INQUA Loess Commission as a Central European Enterprise

The International Union of Quaternary Research (INQUA) organized the study and consideration of the Quaternary Period (the last 2.6 million years in Earth’s history) via a set of commissions, sub-commissions, working groups, projects and programmes. One of the most successful and best records was the Loess Commission (LC) which functioned assub-commission and then commission from 1961 to 2003, resulting in 40 years of useful activity. The history of the LC can be divided into three phases: 1, from 1961–1977 when the President was Julius Fink; 2, from 1977–1991, with President Marton Pecsi; 3, from 1991–2003 with Presidents An Zhi-Sheng and Ian Smalley. Fink, from Vienna, and Pecsi, from Budapest, gave the LC a distinctly Central European aspect. The nature of loess in Central Europe influenced the nature of the LC but the settings for phases 1 and 2 were quite distinct. Phase 1 was a small scale academic operation, carried out in German. As phase 2 began in 1977 the scope expanded and Central Europe became a base for worldwide loess studies. where the LC language changed to English. Phase 2 was run from a National Geographical Institute and demonstrated a different approach to loess research, although the basic programmes of continent-wide mapping and stratigraphy remained the same. The Commission benefited from this change of style and emphasis. In phase 3 the administration moved away from Central Europe but the Finkian ethos remained solid.     

Loess and dust on Earth and Mars: particle generation by impact mechanisms

Impact between windblown quartz grains as a source of desert dust is consistent with laboratory abrasion experiments and has received some field confirmation in the Negev. The suggestion is that an important process on Mars now gains support from laboratory studies; even though their geochemical interpretation is controversial, they show that dust generation by impact is tenable even for quartz. A simple mechanism for small dust production from sand seas is proposed; internal stresses can be mobilized by impact energy. A speculative mechanism (the andesite scenario) is proposed for fine particle production by particle impact on Mars. The internal stress range in terrestrial sand grains may vary, depending on the nature of the source rock, and this may influence particle production by impact processes.     

MALDI analysis of presolar nanodiamonds: Mass spectrometric determination of the mass distribution of nanodiamonds from meteorites and a technique to manipulate individual nanodiamonds

Abstract— This paper describes the use of matrix‐assisted laser desorption and ionization (MALDI) to measure the mass distribution of nanodiamonds extracted from meteorites. The techniques used to prepare and mass analyze nanodiamond samples from the Murchison (CM2) and Allende (CV3) meteorites are described. The mass spectra of nanodiamonds (peaking at between 1 times 10⁴‐1.5 times 10⁴ Daltons) are compared with size distributions obtained by point‐counting transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images obtained elsewhere and reasonable agreement is found. The implications of the ability to produce and mass analyze a beam of nanodiamonds are explored.