Numerical modeling of intraoceanic arc growth

We investigate crustal growth processes on the basis of a 2D coupled geochemical—petrological-thermomechanical numerical model of retreating intraoceanic subduction. The model includes spontaneous slab retreat and bending, subducted crust dehydration, aqueous fluid transport, mantle wedge melting, and melt extraction resulting in crustal growth. Our numerical experiments show that (1) the rate of plate retreat influences both the rate of crust formation and composition of newly formed crust; (2) both the intensity of melt extraction and the age of subducted plate affect the volume of newly formed crust. In the present paper we describe possible scenarios of magmatic and geodynamic evolution of the arc system and then compare results with magmatic addition rates of Western Pacific arcs. Published in Russian in Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Geologiya, 2009, No. 4, pp. 30–43. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

The geoecological impact of eruptions on Karymskii Volcano and Tokareva crater, Eastern Kamchatka: The 1996–2008 observations

This paper considers the geoecological impacts of eruptions on Karymskii Volcano and the Tokareva crater for the 1996–2008 period, which resulted in changes in (a) the relief around these edifices, (b) the discharge and composition of water in the Karymskii River and other streams in the area, and (c) the discharge and composition of gases in thermal springs. It was found that the concentration of CH₄ previously had been abnormally high in free gases that emanate from the new Piipovskii Springs and an explanation is provided of the decrease in their concentration over time. We detected variations in the radon activity, OARn (Bq/m³), in free gases that are released in the Karymskii caldera hydrothermal occurrences; the variations are consistent with those in the eruptive activity of Karymskii Volcano in 2005–2006. We describe permafrost rocks in the Karymskii caldera that favor the generation of a cryolithic zone.     

The evolution of the behavior and physico-chemical characteristics of solutions in the new geyser in Uzon Caldera, Kamchatka

This paper is a study of variations in the behavior and physico-chemical characteristics of solutions in the geyser that formed in 2008 in the place of a pulsating spring in Uzon Caldera. We describe the features of this geyser??s activity in 2009 and 2010. Overheating of water is for the first time described, rising to reach100.13°C at the mouth of a geyser during an eruption. We discuss the compositions of the solutions and free gases in the geyser, the possible source depths of the solutions, and the causes of geyser generation.     

Dependence of geomagnetic activity during magnetic storms on the solar wind parameters for different types of streams: 3. Development of storm

This paper is a continuation of (Nikolaeva et al., 2011, 2012) and it analyzes the development of the main phase of 190 magnetic storms with Dst ≤ −50 nT depending on the type of source in the solar wind (magnetic clouds, MC; corotating interaction regions, CIR; Ejecta; Sheath before them, Sh_E; Sheath before MC, Sh_MC; all Sheath regions before ICME, Sh_E + Sh_MC; all ICME, MC + Ejecta; and an indeterminate type of solar wind stream, IND).     

Convection and field-aligned currents, related to polar cap arcs, during strongly northward IMF (11 January 1983)

Electric and magnetic fields and auroral emissions have been measured by the Intercosmos-Bulgaria-1300 satellite on 10–11 January 1983. The measured distributions of the plasma drift velocity show that viscous convection is diminished in the evening sector under IMF B_y < 0 and in the morning sector if IMF B_y > 0. A number of sun-aligned polar cap arcs were observed at the beginning of the period of strongly northward IMF and after a few hours a θ-aurora appeared. The intensity of ionized oxygen emission [O⁺(²P), 7320 Å] increased significantly reaching up to several kilo-Rayleighs in the polar cap arc. A complicated pattern of convection and field-aligned currents existed in the nightside polar cap which differed from the four-cell model of convection and NBZ field-aligned current system. This pattern was observed during 12 h and could be interpreted as six large scale field-aligned current sheets and three convective vortices inside the polar cap. Sun-aligned polar cap arcs may be located in regions both of sunward and anti-sunward convection. Structures of smaller spatial scale correspond to the boundaries of hot plasma regions related to polar cap arcs. Obviously these structures are due to S-shaped distributions of electric potential. Parallel electric fields in these S-structures provide electron acceleration up to 1 keV at the boundaries of polar cap arcs. The pairs of field-aligned currents correspond to those S-structures: a downward current at the external side of the boundary and an upward current at the internal side of it.     

A catastrophic holocene event in the lake bottom sediments of the Kola region (northeastern Fennoscandian shield)

Horizons with seismogenic sediments are revealed in the bottom sediments of the lake basins in the southwestern Kola Peninsula. In the borehole cores, they are represented by material that sharply differs from the overlying and underlying sediments: fragments of gyttia, siltstone, wood, sand, and peat that are embedded in the sapropelic matrix and look like breccia. These sediments reflect a strong catastrophic event from the Holocene that occurred 6000–5400 ¹⁴C yr BP. The seismic events that happened in the middle Holocene in the northeastern Fennoscandian shield indicate a significant role of the tectonic component in the damping process of relaxation of the Earth’s crust in the unloading of the recent glacier cover.