Simple 2-D models for melt extraction at mid-ocean ridges and island arcs

A general set of 2-D equations for the conservation of mass and momentum of a two-phase system of melt in a deformable matrix is used to derive analytic solutions for the corner flow of a constant porosity melt-saturated porous medium. This solution is used to model the melt extraction processes at mid-ocean ridges and island arcs. The models indicate that flow of melt is controlled by pressure gradients induced by the Laplacian of the matrix velocity field and by the dimensionless percolation velocity which measures the relative contributions of buoyancy-driven flow to advection by the matrix. The models can account for many features of ridge and arc volcanism. Matrix corner flow at ridges causes melt to be drawn to the ridge axis enabling the extraction of small melt fractions from a wide melting zone while showing a narrow zone of volcanism at the surface. At subduction zones melts do not percolate vertically but are drawn to the junction of the upper plate and subducting slab by corner flow in the mantle wedge. For subduction zones, if the dimensionless percolation velocity is below a critical value, slab-derived fluids will be carried down by the matrix and cannot interact with the mantle wedge. The geochemistry of island arcs will be controlled by the geometry of melt streamlines. This model is consistent with geophysical and geochemical data from the Aleutian arc.     

Etude systématique des isotopes de l'oxygène,du carbone et du strontium dans les carbonatites

${}^{18}\text{O}{}^{16}\text{O}$, ${}^{13}\text{C}{}^{12}\text{C}$ and ${}^{87}\text{Sr}{}^{86}\text{Sr}$ ratios have been measured on the same samples for carbonatite complexes. The results show that besides the ‘carbonatite box’ of Tayloret al. (1967) there exist higher δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C values than can be explained by late magmatic or deuteric processes. These processes correspond to high concentrations of CO₂ and lead to big enrichments in ¹⁸O and ¹³C as well as in some ‘volatile’ elements. Strontium results are consistent with a model of selective contamination of deep-seated material by highly radiogenic strontium. The whole study leads to the opinion that parent magmas of carbonatites differentiated in a crustal environment with or without significant contamination.     

Global tectonics and the geoid

A digitised tectonic model, initially built up for regionalization of Rayleigh waves, is applied to the geoid in order to define the mean geoid heights of the following regions: 3 oceanic regions, namely young oceans (0–30 Ma) middle-aged oceans (30–80 Ma) and old oceans (> 80 Ma); trenches and subduction zones; mountains; and shields. The relative importance of the deep sources is damped or enhanced by progressively removing or adding the lower or higher degrees of the geoid. A statistical approach allows us to quantify the success of the correlation between tectonics and these filtered geoids.Significant variations are observed in these correlations for oceanic regions (including subduction zones) with a cut-off between degree-2 and higher degrees. For degrees ? 3, a well-known trend is observed: high values correspond to young oceans (ridges) and low values to old oceans, high values are also obtained for subduction zones. On the contrary, and unexpectedly, for the degree-2 alone a trend reversal is observed: geoid lows are observed over ridges and geoid highs over old oceans; trenches give the same geoid amplitude than old oceans. Clearly this denotes a degree-2 convection pattern connected to plate tectonics. In addition it is shown that the minimum and maximum inertia axes of the surface distribution of young oceans, and independently of old oceans and trenches, coincide with the Earth's equatorial inertia axes (74°E and 164°E), i.e., with the equatorial extremes of the degree-2 geoid.Plate tectonics is uncorrelated with the polar anomaly of the degree-2 geoid, namely the flattening which is not accounted for by Earth rotation. A north-south axisymmetric convection with a degree-2 pattern is proposed to explain this extra flattening; this model is supported by the latitude dependence of the depth of oceanic ridges.     

Acoustic monitoring of gas emissions from the seafloor. Part II: a case study from the Sea of Marmara

A rotating, acoustic gas bubble detector, BOB (Bubble OBservatory) module was deployed during two surveys, conducted in 2009 and 2011 respectively, to study the temporal variations of gas emissions from the Marmara seafloor, along the North Anatolian Fault zone. The echosounder mounted on the instrument insonifies an angular sector of 7° during a given duration (of about 1 h). Then it rotates to the next, near-by angular sector and so forth. When the full angular domain is insonified, the “pan and tilt system” rotates back to its initial position, in order to start a new cycle (of about 1 day). The acoustic data reveal that gas emission is not a steady process, with observed temporal variations ranging between a few minutes and 24 h (from one cycle to the other). Echo-integration and inversion performed on the acoustic data as described in the companion paper of Leblond et al. (Mar Geophys Res, 2014), also indicate important variations in, respectively, the target strength and the volumetric flow rates of individual sources. However, the observed temporal variations may not be related to the properties of the gas source only, but reflect possible variations in sea-bottom currents, which could deviate the bubble train towards the neighboring sector. During the 2011 survey, a 4-component ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) was co-located at the seafloor, 59 m away from the BOB module. The acoustic data from our rotating, monitoring system support, but do not provide undisputable evidence to confirm, the hypothesis formulated by Tary et al. (2012), that the short-duration, non-seismic micro-events recorded by the OBS are likely produced by gas-related processes within the near seabed sediments. Hence, the use of a multibeam echosounder, or of several split beam echosounders should be preferred to rotating systems, for future experiments.     

The Herschel-PACS photometer calibration

This paper provides an overview of the PACS photometer flux calibration concept, in particular for the principal observation mode, the scan map. The absolute flux calibration is tied to the photospheric models of five fiducial stellar standards (α Boo, α Cet, α Tau, β And, γ Dra). The data processing steps to arrive at a consistent and homogeneous calibration are outlined. In the current state the relative photometric accuracy is ～2 % in all bands. Starting from the present calibration status, the characterization and correction for instrumental effects affecting the relative calibration accuracy is described and an outlook for the final achievable calibration numbers is given. After including all the correction for the instrumental effects, the relative photometric calibration accuracy (repeatability) will be as good as 0.5 % in the blue and green band and 2 % in the red band. This excellent calibration starts to reveal possible inconsistencies between the models of the K-type and the M-type stellar calibrators. The absolute calibration accuracy is therefore mainly limited by the 5 % uncertainty of the celestial standard models in all three bands. The PACS bolometer response was extremely stable over the entire Herschel mission and a single, time-independent response calibration file is sufficient for the processing and calibration of the science observations. The dedicated measurements of the internal calibration sources were needed only to characterize secondary effects. No aging effects of the bolometer or the filters have been found. Also, we found no signs of filter leaks. The PACS photometric system is very well characterized with a constant energy spectrum νF _ν = λF _λ = const as a reference. Colour corrections for a wide range of sources SEDs are determined and tabulated.     

Flow over Hills: A Large-Eddy Simulation of the Bolund Case

Simulation of local atmospheric flows around complex topography is important for several applications in wind energy (short-term wind forecasting and turbine siting and control), local weather prediction in mountainous regions and avalanche risk assessment. However, atmospheric simulation around steep mountain topography remains challenging, and a number of different approaches are used to represent such topography in numerical models. The immersed boundary method (IBM) is particularly well-suited for efficient and numerically stable simulation of flow around steep terrain. It uses a homogenous grid and permits a fast meshing of the topography. Here, we use the IBM in conjunction with a large-eddy simulation (LES) and test it against two unique datasets. In the first comparison, the LES is used to reproduce experimental results from a wind-tunnel study of a smooth three-dimensional hill. In the second comparison, we simulate the wind field around the Bolund Hill, Denmark, and make direct comparisons with field measurements. Both cases show good agreement between the simulation results and the experimental data, with the largest disagreement observed near the surface. The source of error is investigated by performing additional simulations with a variety of spatial resolutions and surface roughness properties.     

Two‐layer scree/snow‐avalanche triggered by rockfall (Eastern Alps): Significance for sedimentology of scree slopes

Rockfalls that trigger scree‐laden snow avalanches are common in mountain ranges, but the resulting avalanche development and its role in understanding the sedimentology of scree slopes are rarely described in detail. On Riepenwand (2774 m above sea‐level, Kalkkögel range, Alps), on 6 May 2011 a 5800 m³ rockfall of dolostone detached from the flank of a gorge in the upper part of the mountain. After first collapsing into the gorge, the fragmented rock mass fell down freely for 150 m onto a talus covered by coarse‐granular snow. Rockfall impact triggered a medium‐scale avalanche that developed: (i) a lower layer A of entrained, pure snow; and (ii) an upper layer B of clay‐sized to boulder‐sized fragments mixed with snow. This ‘two‐layer scree/snow avalanche’ halted in the distal slope segment of the talus. Boulders within layer B mainly came to rest in the distal part of the avalanche deposit. Fragments smaller than cobble‐size grade did not show obvious downslope segregation. With snowmelt, the rockfall fragments dispersed in layer B were concentrated to a clast‐supported veneer that was draped over the older talus surface upon slower melting of avalanche layer A. In the grain‐size fraction ≤16 mm, a mean of 5 wt% matrix (silt‐sized to clay‐sized grains) of the rockfall‐derived scree of layer B is similar to a mean matrix content of 7 wt% within stratified talus slopes of the Kalkkögel range. This similarity suggests that a major share of matrix – widespread in stratified talus – stems from rockfalls. The characteristics of the scree veneer as melt‐lag of a scree‐laden snow avalanche will be blurred with time. Fossil talus successions may contain a substantial proportion of scree carried down by snow avalanches. The formation of a distinct sedimentary facies of snow avalanche‐deposited scree is impeded by processes of redeposition and deposit modification on talus.     

Contribution of interstitial OH groups to the incorporation of water in forsterite

Water incorporation in forsterite samples synthesized under low to medium silica-activity conditions mostly occurs via a substitutional mechanism in which a Si vacancy is compensated by four protons. Corresponding IR absorption spectra display a cluster of narrow and weakly anharmonic OH-stretching bands at wavenumbers above 3,500 cm^?1. However, this diagnostic spectrum is often superimposed to one broader absorption band, rarely two, displaying pronounced temperature-dependent properties and tentatively assigned to H atoms in interstitial position (Ingrin et al. in Phys Chem Miner 40:499–510, 2013). Here, we investigate the structural and vibrational properties of selected interstitial H-bearing defects in forsterite using a first-principles modeling approach. We show that the broad bands discussed by Ingrin et al. (Phys Chem Miner 40:499–510, 2013) are most likely related to interstitial OH groups in the vacant octahedral sites alternating with the M2 sites along the c axis of the forsterite structure. The corresponding OH defects lead to the formation of fivefold coordinated Si species. Their peculiar thermal properties stem from the vibrational phase relaxation due to the anharmonic coupling of the high-energy local OH-stretching mode with a low-energy vibrational mode. This “exchange mode” corresponds to the hindered longitudinal translation of the OH group. These results suggest that at high pressure, hydrogen incorporation in forsterite is dominated by coexisting interstitial OH groups and (4H)_Si defects.