The age and thermal history of Cerro Rico de Potosi, Bolivia

 Cerro Rico de Potosi, Bolivia, is the world’s largest silver deposit and has been mined since the sixteenth century for silver, and for tin and zinc during the twentieth century, together with by-product copper and lead. The deposit consists primarily of veins that cut an altered igneous body that we interpret to be a dacitic volcanic dome and its underlying tuff ring and explosion breccia. The deposit is compositionally and thermally zoned, having a core of cassiterite, wolframite, bismuthinite, and arsenopyrite surrounded by a peripheral, lower-temperature mineral assemblage consisting principally of sphalerite, galena, lead sulfosalt, and silver minerals. The low-temperature assemblage also was superimposed on the high-temperature assemblage in response to cooling of the main hydrothermal system. Both the dacite dome and the ore fluids were derived from a larger magmatic/hydrothermal source at depth. The dome was repeatedly fractured by recurrent movement on the fault system that guided its initial emplacement. The dome was extruded at 13.8±0.2 Ma (2σ), based on U-Th-Pb dating of zircon. Mineralization and alteration occurred within about 0.3 my of dome emplacement, as indicated by a ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar date of 13.76±0.10 Ma (1σ) for sericite from the pervasive quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration associated with the main-stage, high-temperature, mineralization. The last thermal event able to reset zircon fission tracks occurred no later than 12.5±1.1 Ma (1σ), as indicated by fission-tract dating. Minor sericite, and magmatic-steam alunite veins, were episodically formed around 11 Ma and between 8.3 and 5.7 Ma; the younger episodes occurring at the time of extensional fracturing at Cerro Rico and widespread volcanism in the adjacent Los Frailes volcanic field. None of these younger events appear to be significant thermal/mineralizing events; the exceptionally flat thermal release pattern of ³⁹Ar from sericite and the results of the fission-tract dating of zircon show that none of the younger events was hot enough, and lasted long enough, to cause significant loss of Ar or annealing of zircon fission tracks. U-Th-Pb dating of zircon cores indicates a Precambrian progenitor for some zircons, and REE analyses of dated samples of hydrothermally altered dacite show the presence of a prominent positive Eu anomaly, which constrains interpretations of the origin and evolution of the magmatic/hydrothermal system. Received: 14 October 1995/Accepted: 29 January 1996     

Thermomechanical properties of deep argillaceous formations

A difficulty in the interpretation of mechanical and thermo-mechanical tests on specimens drawn from large argillaceous formations is the strong inhomogeneity of void ratio, clay minerals and carbonates content.

In this paper a relationship is developed to link strength and the maximum preconsolidation stress to the initial void ratio and carbonate content. Compressibility is also correlated to carbonates.

Thermal strains in drained and undrained conditions for a Spanish, a belgian and an Italian natural clay are compared. In the elastic state strains are comparable, while in the plastic range thermal strains are highest for the Belgian clay, lower in the Spanish cemented clay and lowest in the Italian clay, very stiff and cemented.     

Energy of the Jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and of Their Eddies in the Surface Layer of the Southern Ocean

Oceanology - The kinetic energy of six jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and of the cyclonic and anticyclonic mesoscale eddies generated by these jets is studied in application to the...     

An iterative scheme for use in MT 2D forward modelling — to speed up production of the Jacobian and to improve accuracy of the inverse matrix

An important stage in two-dimensional magnetotelluric modelling is the calculation of the Earth's response functions for an assumed conductivity model and the calculation of the associated Jacobian relating those response functions to the model parameters. The efficiency of the calculation of the Jacobian will affect the efficiency of the inversion modelling. Rodi (1976) produced all the Jacobian elements by inverting a single matrix and using an approximate first-order algorithm. Since only one inverse matrix required calculation the procedure speeded up the inversion. An iterative scheme to improve the approximation to the Jacobian information is presented in this paper. While this scheme takes a little longer than Rodi's algorithm, it enables a more accurate determination of the Jacobian information. It is found that the Jacobian elements can be produced in 10% of the time required to calculate an inverse matrix or to calculate a 2D starting model. A modification of the algorithm can further be used to improve the accuracy of the original inverse matrix calculated in a 2D finite difference program and hence the solution this program produces. The convergence of the iteration scheme is found to be related both to the originally calculated inverse matrix and to the change in the newly formed matrix arising from perturbation of the model parameter. A ridge regression inverse algorithm is used in conjunction with the iterative scheme for forward modelling described in this paper to produce a 2D conductivity section from field data.     

Investigation of Barred Galaxies. VII. Comparative Statistics of SB and SA Galaxies. Near and Mid-IR Regions

The near and mid-IR properties of barred and unbarred spiral galaxies are discussed on the basis of complete samples that were compiled earlier. The two types of spirals are shown not to differ from one another in emission power in the near and mid-IR ranges. Multiple regression and principal component analysis have been applied to investigate near and mid-IR properties of SB and SA galaxies, particularly their relation to X-ray and radio continuum emissions. There are definite differences between SB and SA spirals in the near and mid-IR. In the case of SB galaxies, the compactness of 10 m emission is closely related to the J - H color index, and the redder J - H color corresponds to relatively more extended emission at 10 m. It is assumed that these are caused by the bar itself, which stimulates enhanced star formation in a barred galaxy with respect to unbarred spiral.     

Light curve analysis of the new eclipsing binary LD355

The V light curve of eclipsing binary LD355 was analyzed by using the latest version of Wilson Program in order to derive photometric elements of this system. Since no spectroscopic mass ratio is available, the q‐search method was applied to yield the preliminary range of mass ratio in order to search for the final solution. The solution was performed by assuming detached (mode 2) and semi‐detached (mode 5) configurations, since no classification of the system based on the shape of light curve is possible. The solution in mode 5 leads to an acceptable model. The present solution reveals that LD355 has a photometric mass ratio q = 0.178 and is a semi‐detached binary with the secondary component filling the Roche lobe.