Two Creeks Interstade Dated through Dendrochronology and AMS

Dendrochronological analysis of fossil wood from Two Creeks, Wisconsin, reveals that the Two Creekan Intetstade lasted at least 252 yr. The sites crossdated by tree rings cover an area of about 970 km². AMS determinations from the beginning and end of the chronology open a ¹⁴ C time window for the episode from 12,050 to 11,750 yr B.P. The interval is contemporaneous with the Older Dryas in northern Europe. The development of a forest covering at least 970 km² on the western shore of Lake Michigan indicates a water level about as low as in modern times. Glacier retreat must have opened drainage channels either through the Straits of Mackinac or via the Indian River Plateau into the eastern lakes. The beginning of the tree-ring chronology coincides with the peak of meltwater pulse 1A at 12,000 yr B.P. Increased amounts of meltwater seem to have disturbed the heat exchange between the waters and the atmosphere in the North Atlantic off the Gulf of St. Lawrence or affected the δ¹⁸O-ratio of the evaporation, causing the climatic or isotopic reversal of the Older Dryas in Greenland and northern Europe.     

Vulnerabilities to flood hazards among rural households in India

Natural Hazards - Flooding constitutes the most predominant natural disaster in India. The degree and causes of vulnerability to flood risk vary by society, geographical region and over time. The...     

Jurassic cooling ages in Paleozoic to early Mesozoic granitoids of northeastern Patagonia: 40Ar/39Ar, 40K–40Ar mica and U–Pb zircon evidence

International Journal of Earth Sciences - U–Pb SHRIMP zircon crystallization ages and Ar–Ar and K–Ar mica cooling ages for basement rocks of the Yaminué and Nahuel Niyeu...     

Late Paleozoic deformation and exhumation in the Sierras Pampeanas (Argentina): 40Ar/39Ar-feldspar dating constraints

International Journal of Earth Sciences - Systematic 40Ar/39Ar feldspar data obtained from the Sierras Pampeanas are presented, filling the gap between available high-...     

Longterm Prediction of Solar Activity Using the Combined Method

The Combined Method is a non-parametric regression technique for long-term prediction of smoothed monthly sunspot numbers. Starting from a solar minimum, a prediction of the succeeding maximum is obtained by using a dynamo-based relation between the geomagnetic aa index and succeeding solar maxima. Then a series of predictions is calculated by computing the weighted average of past cycles of similar level. This technique leads to a good prediction performance, particularly in the ascending phase of the solar cycle where purely statistical methods tend to be inaccurate. For cycle 23 the combined method predicts a maximum of 160 (in terms of smoothed sunspot number) early in the year 2000.     

The granulitic impactite suite: Impact melts and metamorphic breccias of the early lunar crust

Abstract— An important and poorly understood group of rocks found in the ancient lunar highlands is called “feldspathic granulitic impactites.” Rocks of the granulite suite occur at most of the Apollo highlands sites as hand samples, rake samples, clasts in breccias, and soil fragments. Most lunar granulites contain 70–80% modal plagioclase, but they can range from anorthosite to troctolite and norite. Previous studies have led to different interpretations for the thermal history of these rocks, including formation as igneous plutons, long-duration metamorphism at high temperatures, and short-duration metamorphism at low temperatures. This paper reports on a study of 24 polished thin sections of lunar granulites from the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions. We identify three different textural types of granulitic breccias: poikilitic, granoblastic, and poikilitic-granoblastic breccias. These breccias have similar equilibration temperatures (1100 ± 50 °C), as well as common compositions. Crystal size distributions in two granoblastic breccias reveal that Ostwald ripening took place during metamorphism. Solid-state grain growth and diffusion calculations indicate relatively rapid cooling during metamorphism (0.5 to 50 °C/year), and thermal modeling shows that they cooled at relatively shallow depths (<200 m). In contrast, we conclude that the poikilitic rocks formed by impact melting, whereas the poikilitic-granoblastic rocks were metamorphosed and may have partially melted. These results indicate formation of lunar granulites in relatively small craters (30–90 km in diameter), physically associated with the impact-melt breccia pile, and possibly from fine-grained fragmental precursor lithologies.     

The Tolerable Windows Approach: Theoretical and Methodological Foundations

The tolerable windows (TW) approach is presented as a novel scheme for integrated assessment of climate change. The TW approach is based on the specification of a set of guardrails for climate evolution which refer to various climate-related attributes. These constraints, which define what we call tolerable windows, can be purely systemic in nature – like critical thresholds for the North Atlantic Deep Water formation – or of a normative type – like minimum standards for per-capita food production worldwide. Starting from this catalogue of knock-out criteria and using appropriate modeling techniques, those policy strategies which are compatible with all the constraints specified are sought to be identified. In addition to the discussion of the basic elements and the general theory of the TW approach, a modeling exercise is carried out, based on simple models and assumptions adopted from the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). The analysis shows that if the global mean temperature is restricted to 2°C beyond the preindustrial level, the cumulative emissions of CO2 are asymptotically limited to about 1550 Gt C. Yet the temporal distribution of these emissions is also determined by the climate and socio-economic constraints: using, for example, a maximal tolerable rate of temperature change of 0.2°C/dec and a smoothly varying emissions profile, we obtain the maximal cumulative emissions, amounting to 370 Gt C in 2050 and 585 Gt C in 2100.     

The influence of crystal field stabilization energy on Fe2+ partitioning in paragenetic minerals

In order to explore possible quantitative relations between crystal field stabilization energy, CFSE, and partitioning behaviour of the 3d ⁶-configured Fe²⁺ ion, a suite of 29 paragenetic rock-forming minerals from 12 high-grade metamorphic rock samples of the Ukrainian shield, including the parageneses garnet/orthopyroxene/clinopyroxene (2x), orthopyroxene/clinopyroxene, garnet/clinopyroxene, garnet/orthopyroxene/biotite, garnet/biotite, garnet/cordierite, garnet/cordierite/biotite, garnet/orthopyroxene/clinopyroxene/Ca-amphibole, Ca-amphibole/biotite (retrograde), was studied by electron microprobe analysis to obtain the respective K _D Fe^{2+ (Ph1/Ph2)} values and by polarized single crystal electronic absorption spectroscopy to evaluate the respective CFSE_Fe2+ values. Other than in the case of Cr³⁺, a clear quantitative relation between K _D ^(Ph1/Ph2) and the ΔCFSE^(Ph1/Ph2) was only observed when geometrical factors, mainly the volume of crystallographic sites and ionic radii of ions competing in the partitioning process, are similar in the respective two paragenetic phases to within 15–20%. In such cases, the ΔCFSE_Fe2+ contribution to K _D ^(Ph1/Ph2) amounts to 0.1 to 0.2 log K _D per 100 cm⁻¹ΔCFSE. The conclusion is that ΔCFSE_Fe2+ plays only a secondary role after geometrical factors, in the partitioning behaviour of Fe²⁺. The reason for this is seen in the facts that, compared to the 3d ³-configured Cr³⁺ ion, CFSE of the 3d ⁶-configured Fe²⁺ amounts only to 20–25%, and that the former ion enters only octahedral sites with similar geometrical properties in the paragenetic mineral phases. Received: 17 November 1998 / Accepted: 28 June 1999     

Three-dimensional Separator Reconnection – How Does It Occur?

In two dimensions magnetic energy release takes place at locations where the magnetic field strength becomes zero and has an x-point topology. The x-point topology can collapse into two y-points connected by a current sheet when the advection of magnetic flux into the x-point is larger than the dissipation of magnetic flux at the x-point. In three dimensions magnetic fields may also contain singularities in the form of three-dimensional null points. Three-dimensional nulls are created in pairs and are therefore, at least in the initial stages, always connected by at least one field line – the separator. The separator line is defined by the intersection of the fan planes of the two nulls. In the plane perpendicular to a single separator the field line topology locally has a two dimensional x-point structure. Using a numerical approach we find that the collapse of the separator can be initiated at the two nulls by a velocity shear across the fan plane. It is found that for a current concentration to connect the two nulls along the separator, the current sheet can only obtain two different orientations relative to the field line structure of the nulls. The sheet has to have an orientation midway between the fan plane and the spine axis of each null. As part of this process the spine axes are found to lose their identity by transforming into an integrated part of the separator surfaces that divide space into four magnetically independent regions around the current sheet.     

Evidence for low‐temperature growth of fayalite and hedenbergite in MacAlpine Hills 88107, an ungrouped carbonaceous chondrite related to the CM‐CO clan

Abstract— The carbonaceous chondrite MacAlpine Hills (MAC) 88107 has bulk composition and mineralogy that are intermediate between those of CO and CM chondrites. This meteorite experienced minor alteration and a low degree of thermal metamorphism (petrologic type 3.1) and escaped post‐accretional brecciation. The alteration resulted in the formation of fayalite (Fa_90–100). Al‐free hedenbergite (～Fs₅₀Wo₅₀), phyllosilicates (saponite‐serpentine intergrowths), magnetite, and Ni‐bearing sulfides (pyrrhotite and pentlandite). Fayalite and hedenbergite typically occur as veins, which start at the opaque nodules in the chondrule peripheries, crosscut fine‐grained rims and either terminate at the boundaries with the neighboring fine‐grained rims or continue as layers between these rims. These observations suggest that fayalite and hedenbergite crystallized after accretion and compaction of the fine‐grained rims. Fayalite also overgrows isolated forsteritic (Fa_1–5) and fayalitic (Fa_20–40) olivine grains without any evidence for Fe‐Mg interdiffusion; it also replaces massive magnetite‐sulfide grains. The initial ⁵³Mn/⁵⁵Mn ratio of (1.58 ± 0.26) × 10^?6 in the MAC 88107 fayalite corresponds to an age difference between the formation of fayalite and refractory inclusions in Allende of either ～9 or 18 Ma, depending upon the value of the solar system initial abundance of ⁵³Mn used in age calculations. Formation of secondary fayalite and hedenbergite requires mobilization and transport of Ca, Si, and Fe either through a high‐temperature gaseous phase (Hua and Buseck, 1995) or low‐temperature aqueous solution (Krot et al., 1998a, b). The high‐temperature nebular model for the origin of fayalite (Hua and Buseck, 1995) fails to explain (a) formation of fayalite‐hedenbergite assemblages after accretion of fine‐grained rims that lack any evidence for high‐temperature processing; (b) extreme fractionation of refractory lithophile elements of similar volatility, Ca and Al, in hedenbergite; and (c) absence of Fe‐Mg interdiffusion along fayalite‐forsterite boundaries. We conclude that fayalite and hedenbergite in MAC 88107 formed during late‐stage, low‐temperature (approximately 150–200 °C) aqueous alteration. The data for MAC 88107 extend the evidence for an early onset of aqueous activity on chondrite parent bodies and reinforce the conclusion that liquid water played an important role in the chemical and mineralogical evolution of the first chondritic planetesimals.