Plume-lithosphere interactions in the ocean basins: constraints from the source mineralogy

Trace element relationships of near-primary alkalic lavas from La Grille volcano, Grande Comore, in the Indian Ocean, as well as those of the Honolulu volcanic series, Oahu, Hawaii, show that their sources contain amphibole and/or phlogopite. Small amounts of each mineral (2% amphibole in the source of La Grille and 0.5% phlogopite plus some amphibole in the source of the Honolulu volcanics) and a range of absolute degrees of partial melting from 1 to 5% for both series are consistent with the observed trace element variation. Amphibole and phlogopite are not stable at the temperatures of convecting upper mantle or upwelling thermal plumes from the deep mantle; however, they are stable at pressure-temperature conditions of the oceanic lithospheric mantle. Therefore, the presence of amphibole and/or phlogopite in the magma source region of volcanics is strong evidence for lithospheric melting, and we conclude that the La Grille and the Honolulu series formed by melting of the oceanic lithospheric mantle.

The identification of amphibole ± phlogopite in the source region of both series implies that the metasomatism by fluids or volatile-rich melts occurred prior to melting. The presence of hydrous phases results in a lower solidus temperature of the lithospheric mantle, which can be reached by conductive heating by the thermal plumes. Isotope ratios of the La Grille and the Honolulu series display a restricted range in composition and represent compositional end-members for each island. Larger isotopic variations in shield lavas, represented by the contemporaneous Karthala volcano on Grande Comore and the older Koolau series on Oahu, reflect interaction of the upwelling thermal plumes with the lithospheric mantle rather than the heterogeneity of deep-seated mantle plume sources or entrainment of mantle material in the rising plume. Literature OsSr isotope ratio covariations constrain the process of plume-lithosphere interaction as occurring through mixing of plume melts and low-degree melts from the metasomatized oceanic lithospheric mantle.

The characterization of the lithospheric mantle signature allows the isotopic composition of the deep mantle plume components to be identified, and mixing relationships show that the Karthala and Koolau plume end-members have nearly uniform isotopic compositions. Based on independent arguments, isotopic variations on Heard and Easter islands have been shown to be a result of mixing between deep plume sources having distinct isotopic compositions with lithosphere or shallow asthenospheric mantle. To the extent that these case studies are representative of oceanic island volcanism, they indicate that interaction with oceanic lithospheric mantle plays an important role in the compositions of lavas erupted during the shield-building stage of plume magmatism, and that isotopic compositions of deep mantle plume sources are nearly uniform on the scale that they are sampled by melting.     

Sphalerite oxidation pathways detected by oxygen and sulfur isotope studies

Sphalerite oxidation is a common process under acid-mine drainage (AMD) conditions and results in the release of , Zn and potentially toxic trace metals, which can pollute rivers and oceans. However, there are only a few studies on the mechanisms of aerobic sphalerite oxidation. Oxygen and S isotope investigations of the produced may contribute to the understanding of sphalerite oxidation mechanisms so helping to interpret field data from AMD sites. Therefore, batch oxidation experiments with an Fe-rich sphalerite were performed under aerobic abiotic conditions at different initial pH values (2 and 6) for different lengths of time (2–100 days). The O and S isotope composition of the produced indicated changing oxidation pathways during the experiments. During the first 20 days of the experiments at both initial pH values, molecular O₂ was the exclusive O source of . Furthermore, the lack of S isotope enrichment processes between and sphalerite indicated that O₂ was the electron acceptor from sphalerite S. As the oxidation proceeded, a sufficient amount of released Fe(II) was oxidized to Fe(III) by O₂. Therefore, electrons could be transferred from sphalerite S sites to adsorbed hydrous Fe(III) and O from the hydration sphere of Fe was incorporated into the produced as indicated by decreasing δ¹⁸O_SO4 values which became more similar to the δ¹⁸O_H2O values. The enrichment of ³²S in relative to the sphalerite may also result from sphalerite oxidation by Fe(III).The incorporation of O₂ into during the oxidation of sphalerite was associated with an O isotope enrichment factor ε_SO4–O2 of ca. −22‰. The O isotope enrichment factor ε_SO4–H2O was determined to be ?4.1‰. A comparison with O and S studies of other sulfides suggests that there is no general oxidation mechanism for acid-soluble sulfides.     

MAX, a Laue diffraction lens for nuclear astrophysics

The next generation of instrumentation for nuclear astrophysics will have to achieve a factor of 10–100 improvement in sensitivity over present technologies. With the focusing gamma-ray telescope MAX we take up this challenge: combining unprecedented sensitivity with high spectral and angular resolution, and the capability of measuring the polarization of the incident photons. The feasibility of such a crystal diffraction gamma-ray lens has recently been demonstrated with the prototype lens CLAIRE. MAX is a proposed mission which will make use of satellite formation flight to achieve 86 m focal length, with the Laue lens being carried by one satellite and the detector by the other. In the current design, the Laue diffraction lens of MAX will consist of 13740 copper and germanium (Ge_1−x Si _x , x ∼ 0.02) crystal tiles arranged on 36 concentric rings. It simultaneously focuses in two energy bands, each centred on one of the main scientific objectives of the mission: the 800–900 keV band is dedicated to the study of nuclear gamma-ray lines from type Ia supernovae (e.g. ⁵⁶ Co decay line at 847 keV) while the 450–530 keV band focuses on electron-positron annihilation (511 keV emission) from the Galactic centre region with the aim of resolving potential point sources. MAX promises a breakthrough in the study of point sources at gamma-ray energies by combining high narrow-line sensitivity (better than 10⁻⁶ cm⁻² s⁻¹) and high energy resolution (E/dE ∼ 500). The mission has successfully undergone a pre-phase A study with the French Space Agency CNES, and continues to evolve: new diffracting materials such as bent or composite crystals seem very promising. PACS: 95.55.Ka, 29.30.Kv, 61.10.-i     

Long‐term spruce budworm outbreak dynamics reconstructed from subfossil trees

We reconstructed the long‐term spruce budworm (SBW) (Choristoneura fumiferana Clem.) outbreak dynamics in the boreal forest of Quebec (Canada) using a dendrochronological approach with subfossil trees. Although the majority of the excavated wood belonging to the genus Picea could potentially reveal the past activity of spruce budworms in the tree rings, very few were cross‐dated due to a lack of marker rings. All cross‐dated trees were found within a particular zone of the peat bogs and the floating chronology was radiocarbon dated to ca. 5.1 cal ka BP. The results presented in this study suggest that the dynamics of SBW outbreaks in the studied area fluctuated during the last millennia and that severe outbreaks as observed during the 20th century seldom occurred in that part of the boreal forest since the end of the last glaciation. These results are in agreement with observations from other parts of eastern North America. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

GRI: focusing on the evolving violent universe

The gamma-ray imager (GRI) is a novel mission concept that will provide an unprecedented sensitivity leap in the soft gamma-ray domain by using for the first time a focusing lens built of Laue diffracting crystals. The lens will cover an energy band from 200–1,300 keV with an effective area reaching 600 cm². It will be complemented by a single reflection multilayer coated mirror, extending the GRI energy band into the hard X-ray regime, down to ∼10 keV. The concentrated photons will be collected by a position sensitive pixelised CZT stack detector. We estimate continuum sensitivities of better than 10^− 7 ph cm^− 2s^− 1keV^− 1 for a 100 ks exposure; the narrow line sensitivity will be better than 3 × 10^− 6 ph cm^− 2s^− 1 for the same integration time. As focusing instrument, GRI will have an angular resolution of better than 30 arcsec within a field of view of roughly 5 arcmin—an unprecedented achievement in the gamma-ray domain. Owing to the large focal length of 100 m of the lens and the mirror, the optics and detector will be placed on two separate spacecrafts flying in formation in a high elliptical orbit. R&D work to enable the lens focusing technology and to develop the required focal plane detector is currently underway, financed by ASI, CNES, ESA, and the Spanish Ministery of Education and Science. The GRI mission has been proposed as class M mission for ESAs Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 program. GRI will allow studies of particle acceleration processes and explosion physics in unprecedented detail, providing essential clues on the innermost nature of the most violent and most energetic processes in the universe. All authors are on behalf of a large international collaboration The GRI mission has been proposed as an international collaboration between (in alphabetical order) Belgium (CSR), China (IHEP, Tsinghua Univ.), Denmark (DNSC, Southern Univ.), France (CESR, APC, ILL, CSNSM, IAP, LAM), Germany (MPE), Ireland (UCD School of Physics), Italy (INAF/IASF Rome, Bologna, Milano, Palermo; INAF/OA Brera, Roma; UNIFE, CNR/IMEM), Poland (NCAC), Portugal (Combra Univ., Evora Univ.), Russia (SINP, MSU, Ioffe Inst.), Spain (IEEC-CSIC-IFAE, CNM-IMB), the Netherlands (SRON, Utrecht Univ.), Turkey (Sabanci Univ.), United Kingdom (Univ. of Southampton, MSSL, RAL, Edinburgh Univ.), and the United States of America (SSL UC Berkeley, Argonne National Lab., MSFC, GSFC, US NRL).     

Implementing the WSSD decision of restoring marine ecosystems by 2015—scientific information support in the public domain

Among the relatively few decisions taken by heads of States and government at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in September 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa, was the time-bound objective to restore degraded stocks to productive levels in its Plan of Implementation. The paper examines the evidence leading to this decision and the broadening of cognitive maps it implies. In particular, it documents how public archiving of research results and other knowledge sources particularly those accessible through the FishBase (www.fishbase.org) and Sea Around Us (www.seaaroundus.org) websites has been effective in enabling citizens in addition to specialist publics to counteract shifting baselines and monitor progress against the WSSD plan. The increased targeting and cost-effectiveness of research efforts and the social benefits of public research spending this implies militates for the extension of such approaches to other groups as an enabling mechanism for WSSD decisions on restoring marine ecosystems by 2015.     

Simulated performance of dedicated Ge-strip Compton telescopes as γ-lens focal plane instrumentation

With focusing of gamma rays in the nuclear-line energy regime starting to establish itself as a feasible and very promising approach for high-sensitivity γ-ray (line) studies of individual sources, optimizing the focal plane instrumentation for γ-ray lens telescopes is a prime concern. Germanium detectors offer the best energy resolution available at ∼2 keV FWHM at 1 MeV and thus constitute the detector of choice for a spectroscopy mission in the MeV energy range. Using a Compton detector focal plane has three advantages over monolithic detectors: additional knowledge about (Compton) events enhances background rejection capabilities, the inherently finely pixellated detector naturally allows the selection of events according to the focal spot size and position, and Compton detectors are inherently sensitive to γ-ray polarization. We use the extensive simulation and analysis package assembled for the ACT vision mission study to explore achievable sensitivities for different Ge Compton focal plane configurations as a first step towards determining an optimum configuration.CBW thanks the Townes Fellowship at UCB and NASA Grant NNG05WC28G for Support.