Compositions of Formosan basalts and aspects of their petrogeneses

Twenty-three basalts from northwestern Formosa were analyzed for Si, Ti, Al, Fe, Mg, Ca, Na, K, Rb, Sr, Hf, Co, Sc, Cr, Th, and 7 REE. Formosan alkalic basalts are generally similar to most alkalic basalts, and Formosan tholeiites are somewhat similar to island arc and continental tholeiites in terms of trends in K/Rb, Rb/Sr, K/Sr, and Ca/Sr ratios. Compared to most submarine tholeiites, Formosan tholeiites are enriched in Rb relative to K and Sr, and enriched in Sr relative to K and Ca. Both types of Formosan basalts show, relative to chondritic proportions, enrichments in light REE which smoothly decrease through the heavy REE. Their REE patterns are similar to those observed in Dogo-Oki alkalic basalts, Hawaiian basalts, and Deccan Plateau basalt, but differ strikingly from those of Japanese tholeiites and oceanic ridge basalts. These relationships and contrasts suggest that Formosan basalts originated in a plagioclase-free portion of the upper mantle and at greater depths that did Japanese tholeiites and oceanic ridge basalts.     

Climatological aspects of the tropical convective boundary layer

The characteristics of a boundary layer depend both on conditions at the surface and in the interior of the medium. In the undisturbed tropics, the latter are largely determined by subsidence and by infrared radiational cooling. One-dimensional models are used to establish relationships between the inversion height, subsidence, upper-air humidity and sea-surface temperature. In particular, it is shown that a universally colder tropical ocean would probably be covered by more extensive clouds.Contribution No. 1700 Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami.     

Surface history of some Apollo 17 lunar soils

Cosmic ray track densities in Apollo 17 soil samples are used to infer surface exposure times of soils from a trench at Van Serg Crater, from on and near a boulder at Camelot Crater, and from the position of the heat flow and neutron flux experiments (the ALSEP site). The topmost 2 cm of soil at Van Serg was exposed for 11 m.y., the top cm at Camelot for 36 m.y. A layering chronology and average deposition rate are proposed for the trench. For all soils the median track densities imply predispositional irradiation in the top 15 cm of the lunar surface for times that were long compared with the actual residence in the stratigraphic positions from which the soils were collected. Van Serg crater is inferred to have been formed approximately 24 m.y. ago.     

Role of hypsometry and planform in basin hydrologic response

The effects of variations of drainage basin morphometry and relief characteristics on flood peak magnitude and time-to-peak are investigated using simulated stream networks. The networks are produced by three models: headward growth, systematic capture, and minimum power relaxation. Translational and kinematic wave flood routing were used to generate synthetic hydrographs. Peak discharge and time-to-peak are predictable to a high degree by five different sets of morphometric-relief parameters. In order of decreasing order of importance in predictive ability the parameters characterize basin size, relative relief, basin concavity, and basin shape. Both simulated and natural stream networks exhibit strong dependence of planimetric morphometry upon basin concavity. The effect of this dependency is to increase the effect of basin concavity upon flood hydrographs.     

Reconstructing CME Structures from IPS Observations Using a Phenomenological Model

We present an extension of the Tappin?–?Howard (TH) phenomenological model (Tappin and Howard, Space Sci. Rev. 147, 55, 2009) for coronal mass ejection reconstruction to use interplanetary scintillation g-map data. The necessary changes to the model are discussed. We then use the modified model to reconstruct two major interplanetary disturbances observed using the Cambridge 3.6 ha Array in September 1980. We find that despite the lower cadence of IPS observations compared with white-light imagers, a consistent reconstruction can be generated which is in agreement with in-situ measurements and solar observations.     

Modal mineralogy of CV3 chondrites by X-ray diffraction (PSD-XRD)

Using position sensitive detector X-ray diffraction (PSD-XRD) we determine a complete modal mineralogy for all phases present in abundances greater than 1 wt% in Vigarano, Efremovka, Mokoia, Grosnaja, Kaba and Allende. Reduced CV3 samples are comprised of (vol%): olivine (83-85%); enstatite (6.5-8.1%); anorthite (1.1-1.2%); magnetite (1.4-1.8%); sulphide (2.4-5.1%); Fe, Ni metal (2-2.2%). The oxidized samples are comprised of: olivine (76.3-83.9%); enstatite (4.8-7.8%); anorthite (1.1-1.7%); magnetite (0.3-6.1%); sulphide (2.9-8.1%); Fe, Ni metal (0.2-1.1%); Fe-oxide (0-2.7%) and phyllosilicate (1.9-4.2%). When our modal data is used to calculate a bulk chemistry that is compared to literature data a near 1:1 correlation is observed. PSD-XRD data indicates that olivine compositions may span almost the entire Fe-Mg solid solution series in all CV samples and that these contain a component (4-13%) of fine-grained olivine that is more Fe-rich (>Fa₆₀) than is typically reported. Modal mineralogy shows that there are mineralogic differences between CV3 samples classified as oxidized and reduced but that these sub-classes are most clearly distinguished by the relative abundance of metal and Ni content of sulphide, rather than abundance of magnetite. The most significant difference in modal mineralogy observed is the relative absence of phyllosilicate in reduced CV that essentially escaped aqueous alteration.Fayalite, ferrous olivine and magnetite are typically considered secondary alteration products. The abundances of these minerals overlap in oxidized and reduced samples and correlate positively supporting common conditions of formation in a relatively oxidizing environment. The abundances of fayalite, ferrous olivine and magnetite show no relationship to petrographic type and if these abundances were used as a proxy for alteration, Allende would be the least altered CV - contrary to all previous data. The implication is that thermal metamorphism on the parent body was de-coupled from formation of Fe-rich secondary minerals. Low temperature fluid-assisted metamorphism can also not easily explain the origin of fayalite, ferrous olivine and magnetite, since the reduced CVs appear to be largely unaffected by this process. Parent body models require an anhydrous low-temperature mechanism of secondary alteration. The alternative is that these phases formed prior to accretion of the final CV parent body.