Time-series temperature measurements at high-temperature hydrothermal vents, East Pacific Rise 9°49′–51′N: evidence for monitoring a crustal cracking event

Temperature measurements of hydrothermal vent fluids provide an important indicator of the physical and chemical state of mid-ocean ridge crest hydrothermal and magmatic systems. Changes in vent fluid temperature and chemistry can have dramatic effects on biological communities that inhabit these unique ecosystems. In an attempt to understand temporal variability of ridge crest hydrothermal activity as it relates to geological processes at the ridge axis, six high-temperature hydrothermal vents on the East Pacific Rise crest between 9°49′N and 9°51′N were instrumented and sampled repeatedly during five years following a submarine volcanic eruption in 1991. Bio9 vent, located on the floor of the axial trough near 9°50.2′N, has the most complete record of fluid temperatures from 1991 to 1997, including a continuous temperature record of nearly three years (1994–1997). Bio9 vent fluids were 368°C in 1991, increased to an estimated temperature ≥388°C after a second volcanic event in 1992, and thereafter declined over the next 2 years reaching a temperature of 365°C in December 1993. Continuous temperature records and point measurements made by Alvin's thermocouple probe show Bio9 vent fluids were stable for 15 months at 365±1°C, until March 26, 1995. On March 26, an abrupt 7°C increase occurred over a period of eight days at this vent, and a maximum temperature of 372±1°C persisted for 14 days. The vent fluid cooled gradually over 3.5 months to 366±1°C, and for several months at the end of the recording period the temperature increased a few degrees. A continuous record of fluid temperature at this vent between November 1995 and November 1997 shows a 5±1°C increase for the two-year period. The abrupt temperature increase at Bio9 vent, and coincident changes in faunal community structure, and geochemistry of vent fluids from this area suggest that a crustal event occurred, either in the form of a cracking front in the crust or intrusion of a small dike. Based on the results of a microseismicity experiment conducted around the Bio9 vent in 1995 [Sohn et al., Trans. Am. Geophys. Union 78 (1997) F647; Sohn et al., Nature (in press)], and the identification of a small earthquake swarm which occurred on March 22, 1995 we conclude that the temperature anomaly measured at Bio9 four days following the swarm was caused by a cracking front penetrating into hot crustal rocks beneath the vent.     

The influence of shock-waves on UV-emission-lines

If shock-waves are running outwards through the solar atmosphere, the variations of the intensity of optically thin UV-lines should reflect the variations in temperature and pressure of the shocks. In addition, the high fluid velocity produces Doppler shifts in the local line profiles. Assuming vertically propagating shockwaves with a period of 200 s, a procedure is specified for calculating the time-dependent line profile for a radial line of sight. The width of the shock pulse which characterizes the shape of the shock, is treated as a free parameter. Because the processes of ionization and recombination are out of equilibrium, the relative ion densities are obtained by solving the continuity equations. Results are presented for the O vi-resonance-line 1032 Å.     

Shock-induced formation of kyanite (Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>SiO<Subscript>5</Subscript>) from sillimanite within a dense metamorphic rock from the Ries crater (Germany)

A dense (~3.34 g cm^–3) garnet–sillimanite-rich metamorphic rock from the suevite breccia of the Ries impact crater was studied by scanning-electron microscopy and Raman microprobe spectroscopy. In the strongly shocked rock clast kyanite was formed from sillimanite under momentary high pressures of natural shock waves. Kyanite aggregates were found as thin (~0.3–2.0 m) seams along grain boundaries between, and fractures within, sillimanite grains. Within these seams kyanite c-axes are oriented perpendicular to original grain boundaries and fractures. In addition, larger (up to 10 m) isolated kyanite grains were rarely found within host sillimanite. Filamentary kyanite aggregates and isolated crystals typically show shrinkage cracks due to volume decrease (~10%). Locally, broad interstices between sillimanite crystals are filled with aluminosilicate glass containing a high volume fraction of sub-micrometer-sized euhedral crystals. The silica-rich glass suggests incongruent melting of sillimanite at local post-shock temperatures significantly higher than 1,300°C. The edges of adjacent sillimanite grains are thermally and chemically altered. The local generation of temperature spikes is attributed to strong shock wave interactions due to very high shock impedance contrasts.     

Coalification history of the Stephanian Ciñera-Matallana pull-apart basin,NW Spain: Combining anisotropy of vitrinite reflectance and thermal modelling

The Stephanian Ciñera-Matallana Basin of NW Spain comprises 1,500 m of alluvial to lacustrine coal-bearing sediments, which were deposited in a late Variscan transtensional/transpressional pull-apart setting. The relationship between coalification pattern and rock deformation was evaluated by measurements of the anisotropy of vitrinite reflectance (AVR). The AVR ellipsoids reveal both pre-tectonic elements related to the bedding fabric and syn-tectonic elements related to folding, producing biaxial ellipsoid shapes with the maximum reflectance parallel to fold axes. The mean coalification gradient for the Stephanian succession is about 0.62 %Rr/km. Calculations of the mean palaeo-geothermal gradient are presented on the basis of three different empirical equations. A palaeo-geothermal gradient of 85 °C/km is considered the most realistic, with an overburden of about 1,000 m. 1-D numerical modelling of the burial history results in two possible scenarios, the most preferable involving a palaeo-heat flow of 150 mW/m² and an overburden of ca. 1,050 m. These results indicate that maximum coalification was related to a localised but high palaeo-heat flow/-geothermal gradient. The anisotropy of vitrinite reflectance highlights the interactive and transitional nature of sedimentary compaction and rock deformation on the maturation of organic material within strike-slip fault zones.     

Identification and Modelling of Translational and Axial Symmetries and their Hierarchical Structures in Building Footprints by Formal Grammars

Buildings and other man‐made objects, for many reasons such as economical or aesthetic, are often characterized by their symmetry. The latter predominates in the design of building footprints and building parts such as façades. Thus the identification and modeling of this valuable information facilitates the reconstruction of these buildings and their parts. This article presents a novel approach for the automatic identification and modelling of symmetries and their hierarchical structures in building footprints, providing an important prior for façade and roof reconstruction. The uncertainty of symmetries is explicitly addressed using supervised machine learning methods, in particular Support Vector Machines (SVMs). Unlike classical statistical methods, for SVMs assumptions on the a priori distribution of the data are not required. Both axial and translational symmetries are detected. The quality of the identified major and minor symmetry axes is assessed by a least squares based adjustment. Context‐free formal grammar rules are used to model the hierarchical and repetitive structure of the underlying footprints. We present an algorithm which derives grammar rules based on the previously acquired symmetry information and using lexical analysis describing regular patterns and palindrome‐like structures. This offers insights into the latent structures of building footprints and therefore describes the associated façade in a relational and compact way.     

Melt in the impact breccias from the Eyreville drill cores,Chesapeake Bay impact structure,USA

The center of the 35.3 Ma Chesapeake Bay impact structure (85 km diameter) was drilled during 2005/2006 in an ICDP–USGS drilling project. The Eyreville drill cores include polymict impact breccias and associated rocks (1397–1551 m depth). Tens of melt particles from these impactites were studied by optical and electron microscopy, electron microprobe, and microRaman spectroscopy, and classified into six groups: m1—clear or brownish melt, m2—brownish melt altered to phyllosilicates, m3—colorless silica melt, m4—melt with pyroxene and plagioclase crystallites, m5—dark brown melt, and m6—melt with globular texture. These melt types have partly overlapping major element abundances, and large compositional variations due to the presence of schlieren, poorly mixed melt phases, partly digested clasts, and variable crystallization and alteration. The different melt types also vary in their abundance with depth in the drill core. Based on the chemical data, mixing calculations were performed to determine possible precursors of these melt particles. The calculations suggest that most melt types formed mainly from the thick sedimentary section of the target sequence (mainly the Potomac Formation), but an additional crystalline basement (schist/gneiss) precursor is likely for the most abundant melt types m2 and m5. Sedimentary rocks with compositions similar to those of the melt particles are present among the Eyreville core samples. Therefore, sedimentary target rocks were the main precursor of the Eyreville melt particles. However, the composition of the melt particles is not only the result of the precursor composition but also the result of changes during melting and solidification, as well as postimpact alteration, which must also be considered. The variability of the melt particle compositions reflects the variety of target rocks and indicates that there was no uniform melt source. Original heterogeneities, resulting from melting of different target rocks, may be preserved in impactites of some large impact structures that formed in volatile‐rich targets, because no large melt body exists, in which homogenization would have taken place.     

Reaction rim growth in the system MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 under uniaxial stress

We synthesize reaction rims between thermodynamically incompatible phases in the system MgO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂ applying uniaxial load using a creep apparatus. Synthesis experiments are done in the MgO-SiO₂ and in the MgO-Al₂O₃ subsystems at temperatures ranging from 1150 to 1350 °C imposing vertical stresses of 1.2 to 29 MPa at ambient pressure and under a constant flow of dry argon. Single crystals of synthetic and natural quartz and forsterite, synthetic periclase and synthetic corundum polycrystals are used as starting materials. We produce enstatite rims at forsterite-quartz contacts, enstatite-forsterite double rims at periclase-quartz contacts and spinel rims at periclase-corundum contacts. We find that rim growth under the “dry” conditions of our experiments is sluggish compared to what has been found previously in nominally “dry” piston cylinder experiments. We further observe that the nature of starting material, synthetic or natural, has a major influence on rim growth rates, where natural samples are more reactive than synthetic ones. At a given temperature the effect of stress variation is larger than what is anticipated from the modification of the thermodynamic driving force for reaction due to the storage of elastic strain energy in the reactant phases. We speculate that this may be due to modification of the physical properties of the polycrystals that constitute the reaction rims or by deformation under the imposed load. In our experiments rim growth is very sluggish at forsterite-quartz interfaces. Rim growth is more rapid at periclase-quartz contacts. The spinel rims that are produced at periclase-corundum interfaces show parabolic growth indicating that reaction rim growth is essentially diffusion controlled. From the analysis of time series done in the MgO-Al₂O₃ subsystem we derive effective diffusivities for the Al₂O₃ and the MgO components in a spinel polycrystal as ${\rm D}_{MgO} = 1.4 \pm 0.2 \cdot 10^{-15}$  m²/s and ${\rm D}_{Al_2O_3} = 3.7 \pm 0.6 \cdot 10^{-16}$  m²/s for T?=?1350 °C and a vertical stress of 2.9 MPa.