Late Pleistocene–Holocene rise and collapse of Lake Suguta,northern Kenya Rift

The Late Pleistocene to Middle Holocene African Humid Period (AHP) was characterized by dramatic hydrologic fluctuations in the tropics. A better knowledge of the timing, spatial extent, and magnitude of these hydrological fluctuations is essential to decipher the climate-forcing mechanisms that controlled them. The Suguta Valley (2°N, northern Kenya Rift) has recorded extreme environmental changes during the AHP. Extensive outcrops of lacustrine sediments, ubiquitous wave-cut notches, shorelines, and broad terrace treads along the valley margins are the vestiges of Lake Suguta, which once filled an 80 km long and 20 km wide volcano–tectonic depression. Lake Suguta was deep between 16.5 and 8.5 cal ka BP. During its maximum highstand, it attained a water depth of ca 300 m, a surface area of ca 2150 km², and a volume of ca 390 km³. The spatial distribution of lake sediments, the elevation of palaeo-shorelines, and other geomorphic evidences suggest that palaeo-Lake Suguta had an overflow towards the Turkana basin to the north. After 8.5 cal ka BP, Lake Suguta abruptly disappeared. A comparison of the Lake Suguta water-level curve with other reconstructed water levels from the northern part of the East African Rift System shows that local insolation, which is dominated by precessional cycles, may have controlled the timing of lake highstands in this region. Our data show that changes of lake levels close to the Equator seem to be driven by fluctuations of spring insolation, while fluctuations north of the Equator are apparently related to variations in summer insolation. However, since these inferred timings of lake-level changes are mostly based on the radiocarbon dating of carbonate shells, which may have been affected by a local age reservoir, alternative dating methods are needed to support this regional synthesis. Between 12.7 and 11.8 cal ka BP, approximately during the Northern Hemisphere high-latitude Younger Dryas, the water level of Lake Suguta fell by ca 50 m, suggesting that remote influences also affected local hydrology.     

Impact cratering and spall failure of gabbro

Both hypervelocity impact and dynamic spall experiments were carried out on a series of well-indurated samples of gabbro to examine the relation between spall strength and maximum spall ejecta thickness. The impact experiments carried out with 0.04- to 0.2-g, 5- to 6-km/sec projectiles produced decimeter- to centimeter-sized craters and demonstrated crater efficiencies of 6 × 10^?9 g/erg, an order of magnitude greater than in metal and some two to three times that of previous experiments on less strong igneous rocks. Most of the crater volume (some 60 to 80%) is due to spall failure. Distribution of cumulative fragment number, as a function of mass of fragments with masses greater than 0.1 g yield values of b = d(log N_f)/d log(m) ?0.5 ?0.6, where N is the cumulative number of fragments and m is the mass of fragments. These values are in agreement or slightly higher than those obtained for less strong rocks and indicate that a large fraction of the ejecta resides in a few large fragments. The large fragments are plate-like with mean values of B/A and C/A 0.8 0.2, respectively (A = long, B = _termediate, and C = short fragment axes). The small equant-dimensioned fragments (with mass < 0.1 g and B ～ 0.1 mm) represent material which has been subjected to shear failure. The dynamic tensile strenght of San Marcos gabbro was determined at strain rates of 10⁴ to 10⁵ sec^?1 to be 147 ± 9 MPa. This is 3 to 10 times greater than inferred from quasi-static (strain rate 10⁰ sec^?1) loading experiments. Utilizing these parameters in a continuum fracture model predicts a tensile strenght of $\text{σ}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>m</mtext>}}\text{∝}\text{ε}\text{?}{}^{\mathrm{[0.25–0.3]}}$, where ε is strain rate. It is suggested that the high spall strenght of basic igneous rocks gives rise to enhanced cratering efficiencies due to spall in the <10²-m crater diamter strength-dominated regime. Although the impact spall mechanism can enhance cratering efficiencies it is unclear that resulting spall fragments achieve sufficient velocities such that fragments of basic rocks can escape from the surfaces of planets such as the Moon or Mars.     

Trends,rhythms and events in Plio-Pleistocene African climate

We analyzed published records of terrigenous dust flux from marine sediments off subtropical West Africa, the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and the Arabian Sea, and lake records from East Africa using statistical methods to detect trends, rhythms and events in Plio-Pleistocene African climate. The critical reassessment of the environmental significance of dust flux and lake records removes the apparent inconsistencies between marine vs. terrestrial records of African climate variability. Based on these results, major steps in mammalian and hominin evolution occurred during episodes of a wetter, but highly variable climate largely controlled by orbitally induced insolation changes in the low latitudes.     

Fabry-Perot determinations of midlatitude F-region neutral winds and temperatures from 1975 to 1979

Fabry-Perot interferometer measurements of the Doppler shifts and widths of the nightglow 630.0 nm line at Laurel Ridge Observatory, Pennsylvania are presented for the period 1975 to 1979, covering both solar minimum and solar maximum conditions. The F-region neutral wind vectors v_n and temperatures T_n deduced from these measurements show both day-to-day changes and overall seasonal patterns in the nocturnal variations during geomagnetically quiet conditions. Divergence in both the meridional and zonal horizontal flow is noted on occasion. The v_n results are compared with models including only solar EUV heating and those with EUV plus a high latitude heat source. The aggregate v_n data for solar cycle minimum conditions agree best with model predictions for winter zonal and equinoctal meridional winds and worst for winter meridional and summer zonal winds. At solar cycle maximum the predicted, rapid transition at equinox from summer to winter wind patterns and vice-versa is observed. The T_n data are in reasonable agreement with the MSIS model predictions.     

Aromatic ketones concentrated from Baltic Sea water

Aromatic ketones were concentrated from filtered Baltic Sea water by liquid—solid adsorption. After wet-chemical separation from acidic and basic components, the neutral fraction was column chromatographed to yield sub-fractions of increasing polarity. A subfraction eluted from silica gel with cyclopentane/diethyl ether contained a number of compounds which were identified by GC and GC—MS techniques as fluorenone, anthraquinone, benzanthrone, and benzene derivatives carrying an oxo group in the α-position relative to the aromatic ring. Formation and abiotic chemical reactions of these compounds in seawater are discussed.     

Plio-/Pleistocene climate modeling based on oxygen isotope time series from deep-sea sediment cores: The Grassberger-Procaccia algorithm and chaotic climate systems

The question whether paleoclimatic systems are governed by a small number of significant variables (low-dimensional systems) is of importance for modeling such systems. As indicators for global Plio-/Pleistocene climate variability, four marine, sedimentary oxygen isotope time series are analyzed with regard to their dimensionality using a modified Grassberger-Procaccia algorithm. An artificial, low-dimensional chaotic time series (Hénon map) is included for the validation of the method. In order to extract equidistant data the raw data are interpolated with the Akima-subspline method since this method minimizes the change in variance due to the interpolation. The nonlinear least-squares Gauss-Marquardt regression method is used instead of the linear least-squares fit to the logarithmically transformed points, in order to acquire an unbiased estimate of the correlation dimension. The dependences of the estimated correlation dimension on the embedding dimension do not indicate a small number (i.e., less than 5) of influencing variables on the investigated paleoclimatic system, whereas the low dimension for the Hénon map is verified (dimension 1.22–1.28). Because of the limited amount of data in the oxygen isotope records, dimensions greater than about 5 cannot be examined.     

Mare basalt units and the compositions of their magmas

A synthesis of the majority of the available mare basalt data shows that basalts and glasses came from 28 different volcanic units. The compositions of the magmas of 12 of these units can be calculated with a high degree of confidence. Reasonable estimates can be made for the compositions of nine of the remaining units. In addition, the compositions of three general magma types can be obtained from data derived from the Luna 16, Luna 24, and Apollo 17 fines. The compositional data presented provide a firm basis for the further study of the characteristics of the mare basalt magma source region.