Arctic climate change in 21st century CMIP5 simulations with EC-Earth

The Arctic climate change is analyzed in an ensemble of future projection simulations performed with the global coupled climate model EC-Earth2.3. EC-Earth simulates the twentieth century Arctic climate relatively well but the Arctic is about 2 K too cold and the sea ice thickness and extent are overestimated. In the twenty-first century, the results show a continuation and strengthening of the Arctic trends observed over the recent decades, which leads to a dramatically changed Arctic climate, especially in the high emission scenario RCP8.5. The annually averaged Arctic mean near-surface temperature increases by 12 K in RCP8.5, with largest warming in the Barents Sea region. The warming is most pronounced in winter and autumn and in the lower atmosphere. The Arctic winter temperature inversion is reduced in all scenarios and disappears in RCP8.5. The Arctic becomes ice free in September in all RCP8.5 simulations after a rapid reduction event without recovery around year 2060. Taking into account the overestimation of ice in the twentieth century, our model results indicate a likely ice-free Arctic in September around 2040. Sea ice reductions are most pronounced in the Barents Sea in all RCPs, which lead to the most dramatic changes in this region. Here, surface heat fluxes are strongly enhanced and the cloudiness is substantially decreased. The meridional heat flux into the Arctic is reduced in the atmosphere but increases in the ocean. This oceanic increase is dominated by an enhanced heat flux into the Barents Sea, which strongly contributes to the large sea ice reduction and surface-air warming in this region. Increased precipitation and river runoff lead to more freshwater input into the Arctic Ocean. However, most of the additional freshwater is stored in the Arctic Ocean while the total Arctic freshwater export only slightly increases.     

A flow-foliated ignimbrite related to the Åland rapakivi granite in SW Finland

A flow-foliated felsic ignimbrite constitutes the uppermost lithological unit of the 1.58 Gyr anorogenic magmatic rocks in SW Finland. The ignimbrite is derived from an explosive eruption of hot (≅ 950 °C) phenocryst-bearing A-type (rapakivi-type granite magma.
The ignimbrite is close in composition to subvolcanic rapakivi granites that occur in the margins of the kand rapakivi batholith. The subvolcanic granites crystallized under a pressure of ≅ 1 kbar and at temperatures of about 650–700 °C. However, both major and rare earth elements show that the ignimbrite- forming magma was more fractionated than the magma forming the subvolcanic varieties.
Supported by evidence of mafic-felsic magma mingling, it is suggested that injection of hot mafic magma into a shallow magma chamber produced the high temperature of the ignimbrite-forming magma. This injection increased the magmatic and the volatile pressure that caused the eruption of the dry felsic magma.     

Contrasting tonalite genesis in the Lyngen magmatic complex, north Norwegian Caledonides

The Lyngen gabbro (LG), defining the major part of the Lyngen magmatic complex, is characterised by layered gabbros of N-MORB affinity (western suite) and layered gabbronorites, quartz-bearing gabbros and diorites/quartz-diorites of IAT (island-arc tholeiite) to boninitic affinity (eastern suite). The boundary between the eastern and western suites is generally defined by a large-scale ductile shear zone of suboceanic origin, the Rypdalen shear zone (RSZ). Tonalites occur within the RSZ and in the eastern suite of the LG. Variations in field occurrence and chemical composition of the tonalites suggest that they represent two petrologically different groups. Tonalite intrusion (the Vakkas pluton) up to 5 km² large occur in the eastern suite of the LG, and are characterised by high Y contents (average 26 ppm) and high K₂O/Rb ratios (average 0.062) compared to tonalites on the RSZ. The Vakkas pluton has lightly concave REE (rare earth element) patterns with negative Eu-anomalies, and positive _ND-values (+3.7 to +3.9). Geochemical modelling based on the REE and field evidence suggests that these tonalites may have formed by fractional crystallization from a boninitic parental magma. Tonalites related to the RSZ form irregular veins and dikes that net vein the shear zone. They are characterised by low Y contents (average 6 ppm), low K₂O/Rb ratios (average 0.025), and highly variable contents of Na₂O, K₂O, Sr and Ba, compared to the Vakkas pluton. Tonalites related to the RSZ show substantial variation in the content of the LREEs. They possess low abundances of the HREEs, and absence of, or slightly positive Eu-anomalies. The tonalites have highly variable _ND-values (−0.6 to −9.4), probably resulting from enrichment of Nd from an external source. Geochemical modelling suggests that the LREE-rich tonalites formed by H₂O-rich partial melting of differentiated products from the eastern suite of the LG. The presence of B in the fluid phase is suggested by the presence of tourmaline-bearing tonalite pegmatites. Thus, the anatectic tonalites of this group could have been formed by water-excess melting of a variety of gabbroic cumulates of the LG. In the LG, LREE-depleted tonalites (_ND-values +5.1) also occur, and these are best explained in terms of partial melting of gabbroic cumulates from the transition zone between the eastern and the western suites of the LG.     

Methane-bearing,aqueous, saline solutions in the Skaergaard intrusion,east Greenland

Solutions of H₂O–NaCl–CH₄ occur in fluid inclusions enclosed by quartz, apatite and feldspar from gabbroic pegmatitites, anorthositic structures and intercumulus minerals within the Skaergaard intrusion. The majority of the fluid inclusions resemble 10 m diameter sub-to euhedral negative crystals. A vapour phase and a liquid phase are visible at room temperature, solids are normally absent. The salinity of the fluids ranges from 17.5 to 22.8 wt.% NaCl. CH₄, which comprises less than six mole percent of the solution, was detected in the vapour phase of the fluid inclusions with Raman microprobe analysis. Homogenization of the fluid inclusions occurred in the liquid phase in the majority of the fluid inclusions, though 10% of the inclusions homogenized in the gas phase. Thermodynamic consideration of the stability of feldspars + quartz, and the C–O–H system, indicates that the solutions were trapped at temperatures between 655 and 770°C, at oxygen fugacities between 1.5 and 2.0 log units below the QFM oxygen buffer. Textural evidence and the composition of the solutions suggest that the fluids coexisted with late-magmatic intercumulus melts and the melts which formed gabbroic pegmatites. These solutions are thought to have contributed to late-magmatic metasomatism of the primocryst assemblages of the Skaergaard intrusion.     

An explication of the radiometric method for size and albedo determination

A new radiometric model for disk-integrated photometry of asteroids is presented. With empirical support from photometry of Mercury and the Moon, the model assumes that observed sunward beaming of the infrared emission is due to craters. In contrast to earlier theoretical studies of the lunar emission, the observable flux ratio between a cratered sphere and a smooth sphere is calculated for large ranges in wavelength, temperature, and phase angle. Revised diameters and albedos based on the crater model are given for 84 asteroids. The revised values are in good agreement with Morrison's (1977) radiometric results. It is shown that the systematic discrepancy between radiometric and polarimetric albedos (Zellner and Gradie, 1976) is probably a double-valued function of albedo. Some typical geometric albedos from this paper, Morrison (1977), and Zellner and Gradie (1976), respectively, are: Ceres (0.050 ± 0.005, 0.053 ± 0.004, 0.068), Vesta (0.235 ± 0.032, 0235 ± 0.11, 0.271), mean C type (0.031 ± 0.009, 0.035 ± 0.009, 0.061 ± 0.005), mean S type (0.117 ± 0.030, 0.136 ± 0.032, 0.181 ± 0.23), and mean M type (0.105 ± 0.037, 0.115 ± 0.033, 0.157 ± 0.079). Areas of disagreement between radiometry and polarimetry are underscored, and research to resolve them is suggested.     

Effects of sea roughness and atmospheric stability on wind wave growth

The paper considers the effects of sea roughness and atmospheric stability on the wind wave growth by using the logarithmic boundary layer profile including a stability function, as well as adopting Toba et al.'s [J. Phys. Ocean. 34 (1990) 705] significant wave height formula combined with some commonly used sea surface roughness formulations. The wind wave growth is represented by the non-dimensional total wave energy relative to that for neutral stability used by Young [Coast. Engng 34 (1998) 23]. For a given velocity at the 10 m elevation, spectral peak period and stability parameter, the wind wave growth is determined.     

Early Eocene sea floor spreading and continent-ocean boundary between Jan Mayen and Senja fracture zones in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea

Sea floor spreading anomalies in the Lofoten-Greenland basins reveal an unstable plate boundary characterized by several small-offset transforms for a period of 4 m.y. after opening. North of the Jan Mayen Fracture Zone, integrated analysis of magnetic and seismic data also document a distinct, persistent magnetic anomaly associated with the continent-ocean boundary and a locally, robust anomaly along the inner boundary of the break-up lavas. These results provide improved constraints on early opening plate reconstructions, which include a new anomaly 23-to-opening pole of rotation yielding more northerly relative motion vectors than previously recognized; and a solution of the enigmatic, azimuthal difference between the conjugate Eocene parts of the Greenland-Senja Fracture Zone if the Greenland Ridge is considered a continental sliver. The results confirm high, 2.36–2.40 cm yr^–1, early opening spreading rates, and are consistent with the start of sea floor spreading during Chron 24r. The potential field data along the landward prolongations of the Bivrost Fracture Zone suggest that its location is determined by a Mesozoic transfer system which has acted as a first-order, across-margin tectono-magmatic boundary between the regional Jan Mayen and Greenland-Senja Fracture Zone systems, greatly influencing the pre-, syn- and post-breakup margin development.