Granite intruding into Granodiorite: An example from the Damara Belt,South West Africa

Until now (Smith, 1965) it was thought that in the central Damara Belt, South West Africa, the Red Granite and the Salem Granodiorite are two magmatic bodies separated by (essentially) marbles. Three places were discovered, where the marbles are missing; in all three places the Red Granite intrudes the Salem Granodiorite. Experimental melting done with samples from two of these localities allows to appraise the likely conditions during the intrusion of the Red Granite (680° C, 4 kb H₂O-pressure).The White Granites — until now thought to be late or post kinematic — are a geologically heterogeneous group, at least in one place such an intrusion precedes that of the Red Granite.

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Zusammenfassung Bis jetzt dachte man (Smith, 1965) daß im Zentralbereich des Damara-Orogens, Südwest Afrika, der Rote Granit und der Salem Granodiorit zwei magmatische Körper wären, die überall von (im wesentlichen) Marmoren getrennt seien. Es wurden drei Gegenden entdeckt, an denen die Marmore fehlen; an allen drei Stellen intrudiert der Rote Granit in den Salem Granodiorit. Schmelz-Experimente mit Proben von zwei dieser Lokalitäten erlauben die Bedingungen abzuschätzen, die während der Intrusion des Roten Granites geherrscht haben (680° C, 4 kb H₂O-Druck).Die Weißen Granite — von denen man bis jetzt glaubte, sie seien spät-oder nachkinematisch — sind eine geologisch heterogene Gruppe. Mindestens an einer Stelle geht eine Intrusion der Weißen Granite derjenigen der Roten Granite voraus.

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Résumé Jusqu'à présent (Smith, 1965) on a pensé que dans la zone centrale de l'orogène de Damara (Sud-Ouest Africain) le Granite Rouge et la Granodiorite de Salem étaient deux plutonites séparées partout par des couches de marbres. On a découvert trois endroits où les marbres n'existent pas et où le Granite Rouge forme des intrusions recoupant la Granodiorite de Salem.Des essais de fusibilité sur des échantillons provenant de deux de ces localité permettent d'estimer les conditions d'intrusion du Granite Rouge (680° C avec des pressions H₂O de 4–5 kb).Les Granites blancs (acceptés jusqu'à présent comme tardi orogéniques) forment géologiquement une groupe hétérogène. En un endroit au moins, une intrusion de Granite blanc est recoupée par une intrusion du Granite Rouge, plus jeune.

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GETEMME—a mission to explore the Martian satellites and the fundamentals of solar system physics

GETEMME (Gravity, Einstein??s Theory, and Exploration of the Martian Moons?? Environment), a mission which is being proposed in ESA??s Cosmic Vision program, shall be launched for Mars on a Soyuz Fregat in 2020. The spacecraft will initially rendezvous with Phobos and Deimos in order to carry out a comprehensive mapping and characterization of the two satellites and to deploy passive Laser retro-reflectors on their surfaces. In the second stage of the mission, the spacecraft will be transferred into a lower 1500-km Mars orbit, to carry out routine Laser range measurements to the reflectors on Phobos and Deimos. Also, asynchronous two-way Laser ranging measurements between the spacecraft and stations of the ILRS (International Laser Ranging Service) on Earth are foreseen. An onboard accelerometer will ensure a high accuracy for the spacecraft orbit determination. The inversion of all range and accelerometer data will allow us to determine or improve dramatically on a host of dynamic parameters of the Martian satellite system. From the complex motion and rotation of Phobos and Deimos we will obtain clues on internal structures and the origins of the satellites. Also, crucial data on the time-varying gravity field of Mars related to climate variation and internal structure will be obtained. Ranging measurements will also be essential to improve on several parameters in fundamental physics, such as the Post-Newtonian parameter ?? as well as time-rate changes of the gravitational constant and the Lense-Thirring effect. Measurements by GETEMME will firmly embed Mars and its satellites into the Solar System reference frame.     

StalAge – An algorithm designed for construction of speleothem age models

Here we present a new algorithm (StalAge), which is designed to construct speleothem age models. The algorithm uses U-series ages and their corresponding age uncertainty for modelling and also includes stratigraphic information in order to further constrain and improve the age model. StalAge is applicable to problematic datasets that include outliers, age inversions, hiatuses and large changes in growth rate. Manual selection of potentially inaccurate ages prior to application is not required. StalAge can be applied by the general, non-expert user and has no adjustable free parameters. This offers the highest degree of reproducibility and comparability of speleothem records from different studies. StalAge consists of three major steps. Firstly, major outliers are identified. Secondly, age data are screened for minor outliers and age inversions, and the uncertainty of potential outliers is increased using an iterative procedure. Finally, the age model and corresponding 95%-confidence limits are calculated by a Monte-Carlo simulation fitting ensembles of straight lines to sub-sets of the age data.We apply StalAge to a synthetic stalagmite ’sample’ including several problematic features in order to test its performance and robustness. The true age is mostly within the 95%-confidence age limits of StalAge showing that the calculated age models are accurate even for very difficult samples. We also apply StalAge to three published speleothem datasets. One of those is annually laminated, and the lamina counting chronology agrees with the age model calculated by StalAge. For the other two speleothems the resulting age models are similar to the published age models, which are both based on smoothing splines. Calculated uncertainties are in the range of those calculated by combined application of Bayesian chronological ordering and a spline, showing that StalAge is efficient in using stratigraphic information in order to reduce age model uncertainty.The algorithm is written in the open source statistical software R and available from the authors or as an electronic supplement of this paper.     

Identification of a blue object with a newly detected X-ray source

An approximate analytical solution for self-similar flow behind a spherically-symmetric magnetogasdynamic strong shock wave is investigated using the method of Laumbach and Probstein (1969). The total energy of flow is taken to be dependent on the shock radius obeying a power law. The shock is propagating into a perfect gas at rest with non-uniform density and magnetic field.     

Changes in European precipitation seasonality and in drought frequencies revealed by a four-century-long tree-ring isotopic record from Brittany, western France

A new paleoclimatic reconstruction for western France is obtained from tree-ring cellulose stable isotopes. Living trees from Rennes Forest and beams from two ancient buildings in Rennes city have been combined to cover the past four centuries with a gap from 1730 to 1750. The cellulose ¹³C reflects the progressive changes in atmospheric CO₂ isotopic composition. The combined ¹³C and ¹⁸O measurements are used to propose a reconstruction of interannual fluctuations in local summer temperature and water stress. At the decadal time scale, the reconstructed water stress profile exhibits a significant similarity with the historical wine harvest dates, an indicator of warm and dry growth seasons, as well as with the summer central England and central Alps instrumental temperature records and climate model results. Combined with instrumental precipitation records from Paris, these reconstructions suggest a dramatic and widespread change in the seasonality of the precipitation at the beginning of the nineteenth century, with drier winters and wetter summers, which may have contributed to the Alpine glacier decline at the end of the Little Ice Age. The tree-ring isotope records also show a relationship with large-scale North Atlantic circulation changes and the interannual variability is modified between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (7–8 year periodicities) and the seventeenth century (11–14 year periodicities). By classifying 20-year-long subsets of the reconstructed climatic parameters, we estimate that a decadal mean summer warming of 0.8±0.1°C induced extreme dry years to be 2.2±0.7 times more frequent.     

Recent warming in a small region with semi-oceanic climate, 1949–1998: what is the ground truth?

Summary Trends of monthly air temperature extremes were investigated in five meteorological stations of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg during the period 1949–1998. The application of an innovative homogenization method based on the concept of relative homogeneity to climatic time series allows identifying multiple break points, as well as correcting data series in an objective and robust statistical way. The rise of maximum temperature (Tmax) has occurred at a rate of 1.5 times that of the minimum temperature (Tmin) in winter (+1.4°C versus +0.9°C) and summer (+1.4°C versus +0.8°C). No trend in temperature extremes was found in autumn, while spring was affected by a small warming (+0.3°C) of Tmin and no change in Tmax resulting in a decrease of the diurnal temperature range (DTR) (–0.3°C). In spring, a strong positive linear relationship between Tmin warming and local terrain slope could be found. Comparison to new-gridded large-scale climatologies indicates generally close agreement to temperature trends during the 1949–1998 period, while a lower local warming was observed in summer during the post-1975 period following the changing-point year of atmospheric circulation over North-western Europe. This study shows that the question of data homogeneity is not trivial and should receive careful attention before quantifying historical temperature trends and identifying their spatial patterns at regional scale.     

The lacustrine sedimentary records of coal-burning atmospheric pollution

With the acceleration of industrialization, coal- burning atmospheric pollution is getting more and more serious in many regions in China. However, there are only about ten odd years literature records about pollution in some large and mid-sized cities, where the atmosphere has perhaps been polluted for several decades, and therefore it is difficult to know the process and characteristic of pollution, and diffi-cult to evaluate its damage to environment. Lacustrine sediment, a natural record w…