Large Wind Farms and the Scalar Flux over an Heterogeneously Rough Land Surface

The influence of surface heterogeneities extends vertically within the atmospheric surface layer to the so-called blending height, causing changes in the fluxes of momentum and scalars. Inside this region the turbulence structure cannot be treated as horizontally homogeneous; it is highly dependent on the local surface roughness, the buoyancy and the horizontal scale of heterogeneity. The present study analyzes the change in scalar flux induced by the presence of a large wind farm installed across a heterogeneously rough surface. The change in the internal atmospheric boundary-layer structure due to the large wind farm is decomposed and the change in the overall surface scalar flux is assessed. The equilibrium length scale characteristic of surface roughness transitions is found to be determined by the relative position of the smooth-to-rough transition and the wind turbines. It is shown that the change induced by large wind farms on the scalar flux is of the same order of magnitude as the adjustment they naturally undergo due to surface patchiness.     

Rare earth element mobility in the Roffna Gneiss,Switzerland

The Roffna Gneiss, a deformed Hercynian granite porphyry within the Penninic nappes of eastern Switzerland, underwent extreme cataclasis with the progressive development of phengite towards the margins of the nappe under conditions of the glaucophane schist to greenschist facies. This resulted in the selective mobilization of major and trace elements over distances of 10's to 100's of meters and the resetting of the Rb — Sr whole rock isotopic systems some 100 my ago. The component ratios and compositionvolume relationships of progressively deformed gneiss samples studied here suggest that this process was essentially isovolumetric. The mineralogy of the deformation sequence appears to have been controlled by a reaction involving the breakdown of microcline, albite and biotite and the formation of phengite and quartz. The fluids introduced Mg and H₂O, promoting the development of phengite, and removed the Na being released by the breakdown of albite. The fluids were most probably derived from the surrounding Triassic carbonates and quartzites. These relatively high fO₂ and carbonate rich fluids also introduced rare earth elements (REE) into the gneiss. The gneiss was progressively enriched in Eu up to 60%, Y up to 40%, and Yb up to 100%. These enrichments are associated with the development of epitaxial xenotime around zircon in the most phengite-rich sample. While the REE were mobile, uranium and thorium were essentially immobile. The formation of xenotime was suggested to explain the observed heavy REE enrichment when large differences in the REE contents were found for replicate analyses using HF and then lithium metaborate for dissolution. These differences arose because xenotime, like monazite, can be difficult (if not impossible) to dissolve in hydrofluoric acid. Due to the possibility of incomplete sample dissolution, we now recommend fusion with lithium metaborate for all REE, Lu — Hf or Sm — Nd studies.     

Isothermal compression of an eclogite from the Western Gneiss Region (Norway)

In the Western Gneiss Region in Norway, mafic eclogites form lenses within granitoid orthogneiss and contain the best record of the pressure and temperature evolution of this ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) terrane. Their exhumation from the UHP conditions has been extensively studied, but their prograde evolution has been rarely quantified although it represents a key constraint for the tectonic history of this area. This study focused on a well-preserved phengite-bearing eclogite sample from the Nordfjord region. The sample was investigated using phase-equilibrium modelling, trace-element analyses of garnet, trace- and major-element thermobarometry and quartz-in-garnet barometry by Raman spectroscopy. Inclusions in garnet core point to crystallization conditions in the amphibolite facies at 510–600°C and 11–16 kbar, whereas chemical zoning in garnet suggests growth during isothermal compression up to the peak pressure of 28 kbar at 600°C, followed by near-isobaric heating to 660–680°C. Near-isothermal decompression to 10–14 kbar is recorded in fine-grained clinopyroxene–amphibole–plagioclase symplectites. The absence of a temperature increase during compression seems incompatible with the classic view of crystallization along a geothermal gradient in a subduction zone and may question the tectonic significance of eclogite facies metamorphism. Two end-member tectonic scenarios are proposed to explain such an isothermal compression: Either (1) the mafic rocks were originally at depth within the lower crust and were consecutively buried along the isothermal portion of the subducting slab or (2) the mafic rocks recorded up to 14 kbar of tectonic overpressure at constant depth and temperature during the collisional stage of the orogeny.