Trace element distribution between orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene in peridotites from the Gakkel Ridge: a SIMS and NanoSIMS study

Clinopyroxenes (cpx) in abyssal and ophiolitic peridotites are commonly analyzed for lithophile trace element abundances in order to estimate degrees of melting and porosity conditions during melt extraction, assuming that these data reflect near-solidus conditions. During cooling, however, cpxs always exsolve into parallel lamellae of low-Ca enstatite and high-Ca diopside. This may potentially lead to redistribution of the initial trace element budget. Since orthopyroxene (opx) cannot significantly host most incompatible trace elements, exsolution will lead to an enrichment in the cpx lamellae. In order to address a possibly exsolution-controlled partitioning between cpx and opx, we have obtained major and trace element mineral compositions on 14 plagioclase-free ocean floor mantle rocks. They cover the entire abyssal peridotite compositional spectrum from very fertile to highly depleted compositions. The mean volume proportion of opx lamellae in cpx porphyroclasts lies around 15% of the original cpx. For the light to middle rare earth elements, the enrichment in the measured cpx exsolution is exclusively controlled by these phase proportions. Relative to these highly incompatible trace elements, solely Ti and Yb partition significantly into opx. Lamellar interpyroxene partition coefficients, estimated from NanoSIMS analyses, are around three times as high as the ones for near-solidus bulk pyroxene. The equilibration temperatures for the exsolution lamella are slightly higher than 800°C. The bulk cpx can be reconstructed using the lamellar proportions and their relative partitioning. The implication of such a reconstruction is that the cpx rare earth element patterns shift almost in parallel to lower values. These shifts, however, do not affect mantle melting models proposed thus far for mid-ocean ridges. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at and is accessible for authorized users.     

The diversity of SCUBA-selected galaxies

We present extensive observations of a sample of distant, submillimetre (submm) galaxies detected in the field of the massive cluster lens Abell 1835, using the Submm Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA). Taken in conjunction with earlier observations of other submm-selected sources, we now have detailed, multiwavelength observations of seven examples of the submm population, having exploited the combination of achromatic amplification by cluster lenses and lavish archival data sets. These sources, all clearly at z ≳1, illustrate the wide range in the radio and optical properties of distant submm-selected galaxies. We include detailed observations of the first candidate 'pure' starburst submm galaxy at high redshift, a z =2.56 interacting galaxy which shows no obvious sign of hosting an AGN. The remaining sources have varying degrees of inferred AGN activity (three out of seven of the most luminous show some evidence of the presence of an AGN), although even when an AGN is obviously present it is still not apparent whether reprocessed radiation from this source dominates the submm emission. In contrast with the variation in the spectral properties, we see relatively homogeneous morphologies for the population, with a large fraction of merging or interacting systems. Our study shows that virtually identical spectral energy distributions are seen for galaxies that exhibit strikingly different optical/UV spectral-line characteristics. We conclude that standard optical/UV spectral classifications are misleading when applied to distant, highly obscured galaxies, and that we must seek other means of determining the various contributions to the overall energy budget of submm galaxies and hence to the far-infrared extragalactic background.     

The discovery of ERO counterparts to faint submillimetre galaxies

We have used deep ground-based imaging in the near-infrared (near-IR) to search for counterparts to the luminous submillimetre (submm) sources in the catalogue of Smail et al. For the majority of the submm sources the near-IR imaging supports the counterparts originally selected from deep optical images. However, in two cases (10 per cent of the sample) we find a relatively bright near-IR source close to the submm position, sources that were unidentified in the deep Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) and ground-based R -band images used by Smail et al. We place limits on colours of these sources from deep high-resolution Keck II imaging and find they have 2 σ limits of ( I − K )≳6.8 and ( I − K )≳6.0, respectively. Both sources thus class as extremely red objects (EROs). Using the spectral properties of the submm source in the radio and submm we argue that these EROs are probably the source of the submm emission, rather than the bright spiral galaxies previously identified by Smail et al. This connection provides important insights into the nature of the enigmatic ERO population and faint submm galaxies in general. From the estimated surface density of these submm-bright EROs we suggest that this class accounts for the majority of the reddest members of the ERO population, in good agreement with the preliminary conclusions of pointed submm observations of individual EROs. We conclude that the most extreme EROs represent a population of dusty, ultraluminous galaxies at high redshifts; further study of these will provide useful insights into the nature of star formation in obscured galaxies in the early Universe. The identification of similar counterparts in blank-field submm surveys will be extremely difficult owing to their faintness ( K ∼20.5, I ≳26.5). Finally, we discuss the radio and submm properties of the two submm-bright EROs discovered here and suggest that both galaxies lie at z ≳2.     

The Nature of Submillimetre Galaxies

I present a brief summary of the results from extensive multi-wavelength observations of the submillimetre-selected galaxies. I discuss the properties of this population, in particular their interpretation within the framework of our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Testing the hypothesis of the morphological transformation from field spiral to cluster S0

Hubble Space Telescope observations of distant clusters have suggested a steep increase in the proportion of S0 galaxies between clusters at high redshifts and similar systems at the present day. It has been proposed that this increase results from the transformation of the morphologies of accreted field galaxies from spirals to S0s. We have simulated the evolution of the morphological mix in clusters based on a simple phenomenological model where the clusters accrete a mix of galaxies from the surrounding field, the spiral galaxies are transformed to S0s (through an unspecified process) and are added to the existing cluster population. We find that in order to reproduce the apparently rapid increase in the ratio of S0 galaxies to ellipticals in the clusters, our model requires that: (1) the galaxy accretion rate has to be high (typically, more than half of the present-day cluster population must have been accreted since z ∼0.5) , and (2) most of the accreted spirals, with morphological types as late as Scdm, must have transformed to S0s. Although the latter requirement may be difficult to meet, it is possible that such bulge-weak spirals have already been 'pre-processed' into the bulge-strong galaxies prior to entering the cluster core and are eventually transformed into S0s in the cluster environment. On the basis of the evolution of the general morphological mix in clusters our model suggests that the process responsible for the morphological transformation takes a relatively long time (∼ 1–3 Gyr) after the galaxy has entered the cluster environment.     

An ultradeep submillimetre map: beneath the SCUBA confusion limit with lensing and robust source extraction

Extracting sources with low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) from maps with structured background is a non-trivial task which has become important in studying the faint end of the submillimetre (submm) number counts. In this paper, we study the source extraction from submm jiggle-maps from the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) using the Mexican hat wavelet (MHW), an isotropic wavelet technique. As a case study, we use a large (11.8-arcmin²) jiggle-map of the galaxy cluster Abell 2218 (A2218), with a 850-μm 1σ rms sensitivity of 0.6–1 mJy. We show via simulations that MHW is a powerful tool for the reliable extraction of low-S/N sources from the SCUBA jiggle-maps and nine sources are detected in the A2218 850-μm image. Three of these sources are identified as images of a single background source with an unlensed flux of 0.8 mJy. Further, two single-imaged sources also have unlensed fluxes <2 mJy, below the blank-field confusion limit. In this ultradeep map, the individual sources detected resolve nearly all of the extragalactic background light at 850 μm, and the deep data allow to put an upper limit of 44 sources arcmin⁻² to 0.2 mJy at 850 μm.     

The relative formation ages of ferromagnesian chondrules inferred from their initial aluminum‐26/aluminum‐27 ratios

Abstract— We performed a systematic high‐precision secondary ion mass spectrometry ²⁶Al‐²⁶Mg isotopic study for 11 ferromagnesian chondrules from the highly unequilibrated ordinary chondrite Bishunpur (LL3.1). The chondrules are porphyritic and contain various amounts of olivine and pyroxene and interstitial plagioclase and/or glass. The chemical compositions of the chondrules vary from FeO‐poor to FeO‐rich. Eight chondrules show resolvable ²⁶Mg excesses with a maximum δ²⁶Mg of ?1% in two chondrules. The initial ²⁶Al/²⁷Al ratios inferred for these chondrules range between (2.28 ± 0.73) × 10^?5 to (0.45 ± 0.21) × 10^?5. Assuming a homogeneous distribution of Al isotopes in the early solar system, this range corresponds to ages relative to CAIs between 0.7 ± 0.2 Ma and 2.4_+0.7^?0.4 Ma. The inferred total span of the chondrule formation ages is at least 1 Ma, which is too long to form chondrules by the X‐wind. The initial ²⁶Al/27Al ratios of the chondrules are found to correlate with the proportion of olivine to pyroxene suggesting that olivine‐rich chondrules formed earlier than pyroxene‐rich chondrules. Though we do not have a completely satisfactory explanation of this correlation we tentatively interpret it as a result of evaporative loss of Si from earlier generations of chondrules followed by addition of Si to the precursors of later generation chondrules.