Pressure dependence of melt viscosities on the join diopside-albite

The pressure dependence of melt viscosities on the join diopside-albite has been studied using falling-sphere viscometry. The five melt compositions investigated are: diopside, Ab₂₅Di₇₅, Ab₅₀Di₅₀, Ab₇₅Di₂₅ and albite. Experiments were performed at 1500° and 1600°C and at pressures of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 kbar. The positive and negative pressure dependence of the viscosity of diopside and albite, respectively, were confirmed. All intermediate compositions show an initial decrease in viscosity with increasing pressure; however, melt of Ab₂₅Di₇₅ composition passes through a minimum viscosity at approximately 12 kbar and 1600°C. This behavior is analogous to the variation in the viscosity of water with pressure at low temperature.

It is suggested that the three-dimensional, fully polymerized, albite structure dominates flow at low pressures. With increasing pressure, disruption of this structure and decrease in the average size of the flow units leads to domination by the diopside structure. The variation in viscosity with composition along the join at one atmosphere can be adequately modelled using the and (1965) configurational entropy model with an additional two-lattice configurational entropy of mixing term. The pressure dependence of viscosity in the diopside-albite system, however, cannot be predicted by the model, because there is an absence of information on the pressure dependence of the model parameters.

It is probable that relatively polymerized magmas (e.g. rhyolites to SiO₂-saturated basalts) show a negative pressure dependence of viscosity to depths where they originate in the lower crust or upper mantle. In contrast, the most depolymerized, naturally-occurring melts, such as strongly SiO₂-undersaturated basalts and picrites, may exhibit a viscosity minimum. The viscosity of these melts may be sufficiently high at depths within the upper mantle to inhibit their segregation, rise and eventual eruption at the surface.     

Geomorphic evolution of the Southern Alps,New Zealand

The Southern Alps are the topographic expression of late Cenozoic (<8 Ma ago) uplift of the crust of the leading edge of the Pacific plate in South Island, New Zealand. New fission track data on the basement exposed in the Southern Alps quantify the age, amount, and rate of rock uplift, and in combination with geomorphic parameters permit the construction of a new model of the geomorphic evolution of the Southern Alps. The model emphasizes the development over time and space of rock uplift, mean surface elevation, exhumation of crustal section, and relief. The earliest indications of mean surface uplift are between 4 and 5 Ma ago at the Alpine Fault. Mean surface uplift, which lagged the start of rock uplift, propagated southeastward from the Alpine Fault at a rate of 30 km/Ma. By about 4 Ma ago, exhumation had exposed greywacke basement adjacent to and east of the entire 300 km long central section of the Alpine Fault. At 3 Ma ago, greenschist was exposed in the southern parts of the Southern Alps near Lake Wanaka, and since then has become exhumed along a narrow strip east of the Alpine Fault. The model infers that amphibolite grade schist has been exhumed adjacent to the Alpine Fault only in the last 0·3 Ma. The age of the start of rock uplift and the amount and rate of rock uplift, all of which vary spatially, are considered to be the dominant influences on the development of the landscape in the Southern Alps. The Southern Alps have been studied in terms of domains of different rock uplift rate. At present the rate of rock uplift varies from up to 8–10 mm/a adjacent to the Alpine Fault to 0·8–1·0 mm/a along the southeastern margin of the Southern Alps. This spectrum can be divided into two domains, one northwest of the Main Divide where the present rock uplift rates are very high (up to 8–10 mm/a) and exceed the long-term value of 0·8–1·0 mm/a, and another to the southeast of the Main Divide where the long-term rate is 0·8–1·0 mm/a. A domain of no uplift lies immediately to the east of the Southern Alps, and is separated from them by a 1·0–1·5 km step in the basement topography. We argue that this spatial sequence of uplift rate domains represents a temporal one. The existing models of the geomorphic development of the Southern Alps—the dynamic cuesta model of J. Adams and the numerical model of P. Koons—are compared with the new data and evolutionary model. Particular constraints unrealized by these two earlier models include the following: the earlier timing of the start of rock uplift of the Southern Alps (8 Ma ago); the spatial variation in the timing of the start of rock uplift (8 Ma ago to 3 Ma ago); the lower long-term rock uplift rate (0·8–1·0 mm/a) of the Southern Alps for most of the late Cenozoic; the lag between the start of rock uplift and the start of mean surface uplift; and the patterns of the amounts of late Cenozoic rock uplift and erosion across the Southern Alps.     

Geochemical Indicators of Intrinsic Bioremediation

A detailed field investigation has been completed at a gasoline-contaminated aquifer near Rocky Point, NC, to examine possible indicators of intrinsic bioremediation and identify factors that may significantly influence the rate and extent of bioremediation. The dissolved plume of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) in ground water is naturally degrading. Toluene and o-xylene are most rapidly degraded followed by m-, p-xylene, and benzene. Ethylbenzene appears to degrade very slowly under anaerobic conditions present in the center of the plume. The rate and extent of biodegradation appears to be strongly influenced by the type and quantity of electron acceptors present in the aquifer. At the upgradient edge of the plume, nitrate, ferric iron, and oxygen are used as terminal electron acceptors during hydrocarbon biodegradation. The equivalent of 40 to 50 mg/I of hydrocarbon is degraded based on the increase in dissolved CO₂ relative to background ground water. Immediately downgradient of the source area, sulfate and iron are the dominant electron acceptors. Toluene and o-xylene are rapidly removed in this region. Once the available oxygen, nitrate, and sulfate are consumed, biodegradation is limited and appears to be controlled by mixing and aerobic biodegradation at the plume fringes.     

Occurrence and distribution of shortnose sturgeon,Acipenser brevirostrum,in the upper tidal Delaware River

Sampling in the upper tidal Delaware River between Trenton, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 1981 through December 1984 demonstrated the existence of a significant population of shortnose sturgeon. The sturgeon aggregate in the river channel during daylight hours, especially in the area between Trenton and Florence, New Jersey (river km 211.8 to 198.8). Occurrence in the river downstream of Florence appears to be restricted by poor water quality during summer months. Sturgeon were present in the study area throughout the year, but largest numbers were collected from May though November. No spawning was observed during this study, but presence of males with milt suggests that spawning possibly occurs in the Trenton area. Preliminary population estimates (Peterson, Schnabel and Seber-Jolly) indicate an adult population of approximately 6,000–14,000 shortnose sturgeon occupying the upper tidal Delaware River.     

Zircon saturation revisited: temperature and composition effects in a variety of crustal magma types

Hydrothermal experiments in the temperature range 750–1020°C have defined the saturation behavior of zircon in crustal anatectic melts as a function of both temperature and composition. The results provide a model of zircon solubility given by: In D_Zr^zircon/melt= ?3.80?[0.85(M?1)]+12900/T where D_Zr^zircon/melt is the concentration ratio of Zr in the stoichiometric zircon to that in the melt, T is the absolute temperature, and M is the cation ratio (Na + K + 2Ca)/(Al · Si). This solubility model is based principally upon experiments at 860°, 930°, and 1020°C, but has also been confirmed at temperatures up to 1500°C for M = 1.3. The lowest temperature experiments (750° and 800°C) yielded relatively imprecise, low solubilities, but the measured values (with assigned errors) are nevertheless in agreement with the predictions of the model.For M = 1.3 (a normal peraluminous granite), these results predict zircon solubilities ranging from ～ 100 ppm dissolved Zr at 750°C to 1330 ppm at 1020°C. Thus, in view of the substantial range of bulk Zr concentrations observed in crustal granitoids (～ 50–350 ppm), it is clear that anatectic magmas can show contrasting behavior toward zircon in the source rock. Those melts containing insufficient Zr for saturation in zircon during melting can have achieved that condition only by consuming all zircon in the source. On the other hand, melts with higher Zr contents (appropriate to saturation in zircon) must be regarded as incapable of dissolving additional zircon, whether it be located in the residual rocks or as crystals entrained in the departing melt fraction. This latter possibility is particularly interesting, inasmuch as the inability of a melt to consume zircon means that critical geochemical “indicators” contained in the undissolved zircon (e.g. heavy rare earths, Hf, U, Th, and radiogenic Pb) can equilibrate with the contacting melt only by solid-state diffusion, which may be slow relative to the time scale of the melting event.     

A simple sufficient condition for a variogram model to yield positive variances under restrictions

Estimation of linear combinations is accomplished by using the observed (available) data. Accordingly, to require the negative of a modeled variogram function to be positive definite for all possible data combinations is unnecessary when only the observed data are used in estimation. The requirement that the negative of a variogram model be conditionally positive semidefinite is then relaxed to apply at the observed spatial locations only. In this setting a simple, yet crude, sufficient condition is developed to ensure that a variogram model will yield nonnegative variances for the available data. It is seen that the condition is independent of the dimensionality of the data and applies to both isotropic and anisotropic models. An example of the application of the condition is also presented. The condition is harder to satisfy as the amount of data increases and must be adjusted as the variogram changes to accommodate new data.     

Efficiency of heavy liquid separation to concentrate magnetic particles

Low-temperature rock magnetic measurements have distinct diagnostic value. However, in most bulk marine sediments the concentration of ferrimagnetic and antiferromagnetic minerals is extremely low, so even sensitive instrumentation often responds to the paramagnetic contribution of the silicate matrix in the residual field of the magnetometer. Analysis of magnetic extracts is usually performed to solve the problems raised by low magnetic concentrations. Additionally magnetic extracts can be used for several other analyses, for example electron microscopy or X-ray diffraction. The magnetic extraction technique is generally sufficient for sediments dominated by magnetite. In this study however, we show that high-coercivity components are rather underrepresented in magnetic extracts of sediments with a more complex magnetic mineralogy. We test heavy liquid separation, using hydrophilic sodium polytungstenate solution Na₆[H₂W₁₂O₄₀], to demonstrate the efficiencies of both concentration techniques. Low-temperature cycling of zero-field-cooled, field-cooled and saturation isothermal remanent magnetization acquired at room temperature was performed on dry bulk sediments, magnetic extracts, and heavy liquid separates of clay-rich pelagic sediments originating from the Equatorial Atlantic. The results of the thermomagnetic measurements clarify that magnetic extraction favours components with high spontaneous magnetization, such as magnetite and titanomagnetite. The heavy liquid separation is unbiased with respect to high- and low-coercive minerals, thus it represents the entire magnetic assemblage.     

Identifying volcanic regimes using Hidden Markov Models

We examine the application of Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) to volcanic occurrences. The parameters in HMMs can be estimated from data by means of the Expectation–Maximization (EM) algorithm. Various formulations permit modelling the activity level of a volcano through onset counts, the intensity of a Markov Modulated Poisson Process (MMPP), or through the intervals between onsets. More elaborate models allow investigation of the relationship between durations and reposes. After fitting the model, the Viterbi algorithm can be used to identify the underlying (hidden) activity level of the volcano most consistent with the observations. The HMM readily provides forecasts of the next event, and is easily simulated. Data of flank eruptions 1600–2006 from Mount Etna are used to illustrate the methodology. We find that the volcano has longish periods of Poissonian behaviour, interspersed with less random periods, and that changes in regime may be more frequent than have previously been identified statistically. The flank eruptions of Mount Etna appear to have a complex time-predictable character, which is compatible with transitions between an open and closed conduit system. The relationship between reposes and durations appears to characterize the cyclic nature of the volcanoes activity.