Five WC9 stars discovered in the AAO/UKST Hα survey

We report the discovery of five massive Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars resulting from a programme of follow-up spectroscopy of candidate emission-line stars in the Anglo-Australian Observatory United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope (AAO/UKST) Southern Galactic Plane Hα survey. The 6195–6775 Å spectra of the stars are presented and discussed. A WC9 class is assigned to all five stars through comparison of their spectra with those of known late-type WC stars, bringing the known total number of Galactic WC9 stars to 44. Whilst three of the five WC9 stars exhibit near-infrared (NIR) excesses characteristic of hot dust emission (as seen in the great majority of known WC9 stars), we find that two of the stars show no discernible evidence of such excesses. This increases the number of known WC9 stars without NIR excesses to seven. Reddenings and distances for all five stars are estimated.     

Metamorphic history of the South Tibetan Detachment System,Mt. Everest region,revealed by RSCM thermometry and phase equilibria modelling

This study combines microstructural observations with Raman spectroscopy on carbonaceous material (RSCM), phase equilibria modelling and U–Pb dating of titanite to delineate the metamorphic history of a well‐exposed section through the South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS) in the Dzakaa Chu valley of Southern Tibet. In the hanging wall of the STDS, undeformed Tibetan Sedimentary Series rocks consistently record peak metamorphic temperatures of ～340 °C. Temperatures increase down‐section, reaching ～650 °C at the base of the shear zone, defining an apparent metamorphic field gradient of ～310 °C km^?1 across the entire structure. U–Th–Pb geochronological data indicate that metamorphism and deformation at high temperatures occurred over a protracted period from at least 20 to 13 Ma. Deformation within this 1‐km‐thick zone of distributed top‐down‐to‐the‐northeast ductile shear included a strong component of vertical shortening and was responsible for significant condensing of palaeo‐isotherms along the upper margin of the Greater Himalayan Series (GHS). We interpret the preservation of such a high metamorphic gradient to be the result of a progressive up‐section migration in the locus of deformation within the zone. This segment of the STDS provides a detailed thermal and kinematic record of the exhumation of footwall GHS rocks from beneath the southern margin of the Tibetan plateau.     

The Petrology of Plutonic Blocks and Inclusions from the Lesser Antilles Island Arc

Three main groups of plutonic nodules are present in the LesserAntilles arc and are interpreted as (a) phenocryst clusters,(b) metamorphosed wallrock xenoliths and (c) cumulate texturedxenoliths. Large cumulate blocks display felsic-mafic layering,slump structures and auto-intrusive features. The majority ofspecimens are ad- and heteradcumulates with fewer ortho- andcrescumulates. Interstitial scoria and glass are present ina variety of samples. Plagioclase, amphibole, cino- and orthopyroxene,olivine, magnetite, biotite, ilmenite, quartz and apatite arepresent in various proportions in individual blocks. Plagioclaseand amphibole are modally predominant. Significant variationalong the arc is displayed in the rarity of orthopyroxene andabundance of amphibole in the southern islands compared withthe common presence of two pyroxenes in the northern islands. Plagioclase varies from An_100–36 with very low orthoclasecomponent, and usually precedes amphibole in a given crystallizationsequence. Only on Grenada are plagioclase-free blocks present.Olivine is restricted to assemblages where coexisting plagioclaseis more calcic than An₈₉ and its composition range is Fo_90–59.Clinopyroxene is predominantly calcic augite and cinopyroxene,olivine and plagioclase all coexist stably with amphibole. Ageneral trend of decreasing Ca content in clinopyroxene fromsouth to north in the arc is present. Orthopyroxene ranges from En_73–49 and is most common inassemblages where the coexisting plagioclase is more sodic thanAn₈₃ Coexisting pyroxenes define temperatures in the range 800–1050?C. Amphibole compositions include pargasite, magnesiohastingsite,magnesio-hornblende and tschermakitic hornblende. The K contentof the amphiboles increases from north to south in the samesense as the general tholeiitic-calcalkalic-alkalic variationof parental magmas. Magnetite is the dominant spinel phase but ferrian chromiteand chromian magnetite are present in some Grenada cumulatesand pleonaste is found in rare St. Kitts samples. Ilmenite ispresent in blocks from several islands; coexisting Fe-Ti oxidesdefine a temperature range of 710?-950 ?C at of 15.5 to 10.0 bars. Biotite, quartz and apatiteare restricted to evolve cumulate types. Some modification of interstitial scoria/glass compositionsfrom equilibrium melts has occurred in the majority of samples,but general similarity with erupted lava types is importantevidence for the cognate relationship of the cumulate assemblages.The role of H₂O is crucial in determining the calcic natureof island arc plutonic plagioclase when compared with relativelydry, layered tholeiitic plutons. Some modal and chemical featuresof cumulate-lava comparisons suggest plagioclase flotation maybe significant. A variety of thermodynamic calculations indicate temperaturesand pressures of crystallization in the range 850–1050?C, 4–10 kb. No evidence exists for systematic along-arcvariations in these parameters. Standard amphibole crystallinesolution models give unsatisfactory results for calculations. Some distinctive contrasts between cumulate and phenocryst modesare present. The abundance of amphibole in equilibrium withbasaltic melts in the plutonic situation compared with its rarityin lavas is striking. Plagioclase coexisting with a given meltis more anorthitic in the plutonic than the phenocryst mode. Least squares fractionation tests demonstrate the possibilityof relating basalt-andesite-dacite suites by fractional crystallizationof the cumulus phases. Trace element systematics of cumulate-lavasuites for individual islands also generally support this hypothesis.The suggestion of sole amphibole fractionation for the generationof andesite from basalt is discarded. ^* Present address: CRAE, Box 39598, Darwin, N.T. 5798, Australia.     

Mineralogy,paragenesis and genesis of the braunite deposits of the Mary Valley Manganese Belt,Queensland, Australia

The Mary Valley manganese deposits exhibit mineralogy and textures characteristic of at least four parageneses. The deposits consist mainly of isolated occurrences of braunite, together with a number of lower and higher valency manganese oxides, and manganese silicates, in bedded radiolarian cherts and jaspers of Permian age. The parageneses are: (a) Braunite — quartz (primary), (b) Braunite — hausmannite — spessartine — tephroite — quartz (metamorphic). (c) Hydrated manganese silicates — barite — braunite — hausmannite (hydrothermal veins), (d) Tetravalent manganese oxides (pyrolusite, cryptomelane, manjiroite, nsutite) (supergene). The primary mineralisation is interpreted as the result of the geochemical separation of Mn from Fe in a submarine exhalative system, and the precipitation of Mn as oxide within bedded radiolarian oozes and submarine lavas. During diagenesis this hydrothermal manganese oxide reacted with silica to produce primary braunite. The later geological of evolution of this volcanogenicsedimentary deposit involved metamorphism, hydrothermal veining by remobilised manganese, and supergene enrichment.     

Comparison of 4D tomographic mapping versus thin-shell approximation for ionospheric delay corrections for single-frequency GPS receivers over North America

The majority of navigation satellite receivers operate on a single frequency. They compensate for the ionospheric delay using either an ionospheric model which typically only corrects for 50% of the delay or a thin-shell map of the ionosphere. A 4D tomographic imaging technique is used to map the free electron density over the full-height of the ionosphere above North America during autumn 2003. The navigation solutions computed using correction based upon the thin-shell and the full-height maps are compared in this paper. The maps are used to calculate the excess propagation delay on the L1 frequency experienced by GPS receivers at selected locations across North America. The excess delay is applied to correct the single-frequency pseudorange observations at each location, and the improvements to the resulting positioning are calculated. It is shown that the thin-shell and full-height maps perform almost as well as a dual-frequency carrier-smoothed benchmark and for most receivers better than the unfiltered dual-frequency benchmark. The full-height corrections perform well and are considerably better than thin-shell corrections under extreme storm conditions.     

On the relevance of iron adsorption to container materials in small-volume experiments on iron marine chemistry: Fe-aided assessment of capacity, affinity and kinetics

Iron chemistry in seawater has been extensively studied in the laboratory, mostly in small-volume sample bottles. However, little has been reported about iron wall sorption in these bottles. In this paper, radio-iron ⁵⁵Fe was used to assess iron wall adsorption, both in terms of capacity, affinity and kinetics. Various bottle materials were tested. Iron sorption increased from polyethylene/polycarbonate to polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA)/high-density polyethylene/polytetrafluoroethylene to glass/quartz, reaching equilibrium in a 25–70 h period. PMMA was studied in more detail: ferric iron (Fe(III)) adsorbed on the walls of the bottles, whereas ferrous iron (Fe(II)) did not. Considering that in seawater the inorganic iron pool mostly consists of ferric iron, the wall will be a factor that needs to be considered in bottle experiments.The present data indicate that for PMMA with specific surface (S)-to-volume (V) ratio S/V, both iron capacity (42 ± 16 × 10^− 9 mol/m² or 1.7 × 10^− 9 mol/L recalculated for the S/V-specific PMMA bottles used) and affinity (log K_Fe'W = 11.0 ± 0.3 m²/mol or 12.4 ± 0.3 L/mol, recalculated for the S/V-specific PMMA bottles used) are of similar magnitude as the iron capacity and -affinity of the natural ligands in the presently used seawater and thus cannot be ignored.Calculation of rate constants for association and dissociation of both Fe'L (iron bound to natural occurring organic ligands) and Fe'W (iron adsorbed on the wall of vessels) suggests that the two iron complexes are also of rather similar kinetics, with rate constants for dissociation in the order of 10 ⁻⁴–10^− 5 L/s and rate constants for association in the order of 10⁸ L/(mol s). This makes that iron wall sorption should be seriously considered in small-volume experiments, both in assessments of shorter-term dynamics and in end-point observations in equilibrium conditions. Therefore, the present data strongly advocate making use of iron mass balances throughout in experiments in smaller volume set-ups on marine iron (bio) chemistry.     

A note on the significance of the assemblage calcite-quartz-plagioclase-paragonite-graphite

The biotite zone assemblage: calcite-quartz-plagioclase (An₂₅)-phengite-paragonite-chlorite-graphite, is developed at the contact between a carbonate and a pelite from British Columbia. Thermochemical data for the equilibrium paragonite+calcite+2 quartz=albite+ anorthite+CO₂+H₂O yields: $$\log f{\text{H}}_{\text{2}} {\text{O}} + \log f{\text{CO}}_{\text{2}} = 5.76 + 0.117 \times 10^{ - 3} (P - 1)$$ for a temperature of 700°K and a plagioclase composition of An₂₅. By combining this equation with equations describing equilibria between graphite and gas species in the system C-H-O, the following partial pressures: \(P{\text{H}}_2 {\text{O}} = 2572{\text{b, }}P{\text{CO}}_2 = 3162{\text{b, }}P{\text{H}}_2 = 2.5{\text{b, }}P{\text{CH}}_4 = 52.5{\text{b, }}P{\text{CO}} = 11.0{\text{b}}\) are obtained for \(f{\text{O}}_2 = 10^{ - 26}\) . If total pressure equals fluid pressure, then the total pressure during metamorphism was approximately 6 kb. The total fluid pressure calculated is extremely sensitive to the value of \(f{\text{O}}_2\) chosen.     

PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATION OF MAXIMUM KURTOSIS PHASE ESTIMATION1

Methods of minimum entropy deconvolution (MED) try to take advantage of the non-Gaussian distribution of primary reflectivities in the design of deconvolution operators. Of these, Wiggins’(1978) original method performs as well as any in practice. However, we present examples to show that it does not provide a reliable means of deconvolving seismic data: its operators are not stable and, instead of whitening the data, they often band-pass filter it severely. The method could be more appropriately called maximum kurtosis deconvolution since the varimax norm it employs is really an estimate of kurtosis. Its poor performance is explained in terms of the relation between the kurtosis of a noisy band-limited seismic trace and the kurtosis of the underlying reflectivity sequence, and between the estimation errors in a maximum kurtosis operator and the data and design parameters. The scheme put forward by Fourmann in 1984, whereby the data are corrected by the phase rotation that maximizes their kurtosis, is a more practical method. This preserves the main attraction of MED, its potential for phase control, and leaves trace whitening and noise control to proven conventional methods. The correction can be determined without actually applying a whole series of phase shifts to the data. The application of the method is illustrated by means of practical and synthetic examples, and summarized by rules derived from theory. In particular, the signal-dominated bandwidth must exceed a threshold for the method to work at all and estimation of the phase correction requires a considerable amount of data. Kurtosis can estimate phase better than other norms that are misleadingly declared to be more efficient by theory based on full-band, noise-free data.