Nutrient Mass Flux between Florida Bay and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

There is a net discharge of water and nutrients through Long Key Channel from Florida Bay to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS). There has been speculation that this water and its constituents may be contributing to the loss of coral cover on the Florida Keys Reef tract over the past few decades, as well as speculation that changes in freshwater flow in the upstream Everglades ecosystem associated with the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan may exacerbate this phenomenon. The results of this study indicate that although there is a net export of approximately 3,850 (±404) ton N year^?1 and 63 (±7) ton P year^?1, the concentrations of these nutrients flowing out of Florida Bay are the same as those flowing in. This implies that no significant nutrient enrichment is occurring in the waters of the FKNMS in the vicinity of Long Key Channel. Because of the effect of restricted southwestward water flow through Florida Bay by shallow banks and small islands, the volume of relatively high-nutrient water from central and eastern portions of the bay exiting through the channel is small compared to the average tidal exchange. Nutrient loading of relatively enriched bay waters is mediated by tidal exchange and mixing with more ambient concentrations of the western Florida Bay and Hawk Channel. System-wide budgets indicate that the contribution of Florida Bay waters to the inorganic nitrogen pool of the Keys coral reef is small relative to offshore inputs.     

Mineralogical and geochemical compositions of modern bivalve shells from the Mediterranean coast of Egypt

The stable isotopic composition (¹³C and ¹⁸O) and elemental (Sr and Mg) of marine molluscs are presented for Carditacea and Solenacea shells collected off the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. Based on shell microstructures and mineralogy, the bivalve shells are preserved in their original mineralogy and chemistry.The Sr and Mg concentrations of the bivalve shells have mean values of 1960 ppm and 226 ppm respectively. The stable isotopic composition generally show high values of ¹⁸O and ¹³C. The ¹⁸O values range from +0.1 to –1.8 PDB and most shells are highly enriched in¹³C; averaging +2.5 PDB. These elemental and isotopic signatures are analogous to modern marine bivalves from other localities.The oxygen and carbon isotopes, together with the calculated temperatures, suggest that the aragonitic bivalve shells were precipitated in isotopic equilibrium from warm marine waters.     

Observations of the structure and evolution of solar flares with a soft X-ray telescope

132 soft X-ray flare events have been observed with The Aerospace Corporation/Marshall Space Flight Center S-056 X-ray telescope that was part of the ATM complement of instruments aboard Skylab. Analyses of these data are reported in this paper. The observations are summarized and a detailed discussion of the X-ray flare structures is presented. The data indicated that soft X-rays emitted by a flare come primarily from an intense well-defined core surrounded by a region of fainter, more diffuse emission. Loop structures are found to constitute a fundamental characteristic of flare cores and arcades of loops are found to play a more important role in the flare phenomena than previously thought. Size distributions of these core features are presented and a classification scheme describing the brightest flare X-ray features is proposed. The data show no correlations between the size of core features and: (1) the peak X-ray intensity, as indicated by detectors on the SOLRAD satellite; (2) the rise time of the X-ray flare event, or (3) the presence of a nonthermal X-ray component. An analysis of flare evolution indicates evidence for preliminary heating and energy release prior to the main phase of the flare. Core features are found to be remarkably stable and retain their shape throughout a flare. Most changes in the overall configuration seem to be the result of the appearance, disappearance or change in brightness of individual features, rather than the restructuring or re-orientation of these features. Brief comparisons with several theories are presented.     

Late Archaean to Palaeoproterozoic geotherms in the Kaapvaal craton, South Africa: constraints on the thermal evolution of the Witwatersrand Basin

The c. 2.97–2.71 Ga Witwatersrand Basin located in the Kaapvaal craton of South Africa represents a remnant of a large Late Archaean sedimentary basin that hosts the world's premier gold deposit within a series of conglomerate horizons. Evidence of postdepositional gold mobility within these conglomerates associated with hydrothermal–metamorphic activity has led to speculation about the Late Archaean to Palaeoproterozoic geothermal gradients in the basin. We use surface heat flow and heat production data from rocks in the basin and its environs in order to calculate detailed temperature profiles for the central Kaapvaal craton that show that the steady state crustal geotherm during the Late Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic was relatively cool at 15–20 K km^?1. The geotherm in the upper crustal strata is also largely unaffected by substantial increases in the heat flow into the base of the crust. Consequently, regional greenschist facies metamorphism of the basin sediments could only have been achieved during a transient thermal event that advected heat into the upper crust. The most likely candidate for this is the Bushveld magmatic event at 2.06 Ga.     

Employment and Socio-spatial Relations in Australia's Cultural Economy

This paper examines the significance and contribution of Australian 'creative' industry activities in light of recent debates on the emergence of the 'cultural economy of cities'. First, census employment data and business location counts are used to illustrate patterns of metropolitan primacy and concentration in the cultural industries both across states and in Sydney. Second, the specificities of the locations of cultural production, and the links between cultural industry activities and wider urban-regional change are explored in more detail. A set of observations of urban-regional change is used to demonstrate how the notion of 'cultural economy' should include complex interactions between the material activities of consumers and producers, and the discursive worlds of image makers and place marketers. Urban renewal, housing market pressures and intra-regional migration all mediate Australian experiences of the 'cultural economy'. Such interactions, in addition to key quantitative data on employment and business activity, suggest important policy considerations.     

Late Cretaceous rift-related upwelling and melting of the Trindade starting mantle plume head beneath western Brazil

High mantle potential temperatures and local extension, associated with the Late-Cretaceous impact of the Trindade mantle plume, produced substantial widespread and voluminous magmatism around the northern half of the Paraná sedimentary basin. Our previous studies have shown that, above the central and eastern portions of the postulated impact zone where lithosphere extension is minimal, heat conducted by the plume caused large-scale melting of the more fusible parts of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle beneath the margin of the São Francisco craton and the surrounding Brasilía mobile belt. Here we combine geochemical data and field evidence from the Poxoreu Igneous Province, western Brazil to show how more intense lithospheric extension above the western margin of the postulated impact zone permitted greater upwelling and melting of the Trindade plume than further east. Laser ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age determinations indicate that rift-related basaltic magmas of the Poxoreu Igneous Province were emplaced at ? 84 Ma. Our detailed geochemical study of the mafic magmas shows that the parental melts underwent polybaric crystal fractionation within the crust prior to final emplacement. Furthermore, some magmas (quartz-normative) appear to have assimilated upper crust whereas others (nepheline- and hypersthene-normative) appear to have been unaffected by open-system crustal magma chamber processes. Incompatible trace element ratios (e.g. chondrite-normalised La/Nb?=?1) and isotopic ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr?=?0.704 and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd?=?0.51274) of the Hy-normative basalts resemble those of oceanic islands (OIB). We therefore propose that these “OIB-like” magmas were predominantly derived from convecting-mantle-source melts (i.e. Trindade mantle plume). Inverse modelling of rare-earth element (REE) abundances suggests that the initial melts were predominantly generated within the depth range of ?80–100 km, in mantle with a potential temperature of ?1500 °C.     

Geochemistry of Tertiary tholeiites and picrites from Qeqertarssuaq (Disko Island) and Nuussuaq, West Greenland with implications for the mineral potential of comagmatic intrusions

Tertiary continental flood basalts on Qeqertarssuaq and Nuussuaq in West Greenland contain ～3?km of picrites and variably contaminated tholeiites. The picrites are in the Naujánguit member of the Vaïgat Formation and they have 7–29?wt% MgO, La/Sm?=?0.9–2.1, and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd?=?0.51263–0.51307. They appear to have crystallised from high-Mg parental magmas (14.4–16.4?wt% MgO) with isotope and trace element ratios similar to recent Icelandic picrites. Discrete horizons of tholeiites, including the Asûk and?Kûgánguaq, have elevated SiO₂ (50–58 wt%), La/Sm?=?3–7, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr?=?0.70550–0.71224, and low ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd?=?0.51234–0.51174. These lavas have low Cu and Ni abundances (typically 10–50?ppm Ni or Cu), and in the case of the Asûk on Qeqertarssuaq, they contain droplets of native iron. The low Cu and Ni contents are attributed to scavenging by magmatic sulphides formed in response to crustal contamination of picritic magmas. Two contamination trends are recognised, one to a sediment end-member with high Th/Nb and Archaean model Nd ages, and the other to a meta-igneous component with high La/Sm, low Th/Nb and Rb/Nb, and Proterozoic source ages. Overall, ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb varies from 16.47–21.68. Both contamination trends are associated with low Cu and Ni, and high SiO₂, and it is argued that the magmatic sulphides were triggered by the increases in silica, rather than simply by the introduction of additional crustal-derived sulphur. Geochemically, the Asûk and Kûgánguaq rocks resemble the most contaminated Nadezhdinsky lavas of the Siberian Trap, which are widely regarded as the source of the Ni and Cu mineralisation in the giant Noril'sk deposits. Mass balance considerations indicate that the parental liquids to the contaminated magmas contained sufficient Ni, Cu, S and platinum group elements to form substantial magmatic sulphide deposits. However, unlike the lavas at Noril'sk, the contaminated (low Cu and Ni) West Greenland basalts are in isolated units with no evidence for a gradual recovery in Ni and Cu abundances with height in the lava column. Comparison with Noril'sk suggests that although significant quantities of metals were scavenged by sulphides in West Greenland, the metal contents of the sulphides may not have been upgraded by continued interaction with subsequent magma batches.     

Observations of borehole-source amplitude reduction due to casing

Theoretical results show that the amplitude of a borehole source is reduced when the well in which it is operated is cased and cemented. This reduction is a strong function of the formation velocity and is more weakly dependent on the direction of propagation of the wave travelling from source to receiver and on the diameter of the borehole itself. We have tested these predictions with data gathered in a cross-hole seismic experiment conducted in two stages in 1990 and 1991. The source and receivers were located in the MIT/Stech 1-21A and MIT/Burch 1-20B wells at the Earth Resources Laboratory (ERL) test site in Michigan (USA). Though the source well (MIT/Stech 1-21A) was uncased in 1990, a steel casing and cement were added prior to the collection of data in 1991. Several receiver positions were reoccupied to compare data collected with the source in open and cased holes. Using a velocity model for this area and borehole diameter measurements from a calliper log, a compensation factor can be computed that will adjust the data collected in 1991 to have amplitudes comparable to that collected in the first stage of the experiment. The accuracy of the results demonstrates the validity of the theory, which can be very useful in better understanding seismic waveforms recorded in cross-hole experiments.