Shallow-level differentiation of phonolitic lavas from Sumaco Volcano,Ecuador

Sumaco Volcano is located in the rear-arc of Ecuador and produces phonolitic alkaline lavas hosting a unique assemblage of minerals including haüyne and titanaugite. The most mafic lavas are picrobasalts that contain titanaugite as the primary mineral phase; the most evolved tephri-phonolite lavas contain titanaugite?+?anorthoclase?+?haüyne. Titanaugite forms at middle to deep crustal pressures, whereas haüyne is only stable at shallow depths in highly oxidizing conditions. The Sumaco mineral assemblages and geochemistry indicate that fractionation of the titanaugite- and haüyne-bearing assemblage took place over a range of pressures from 5 to 25 kbar (14–75 km), with at least 50% of differentiation taking place at shallow crustal levels. Minerals record multiple cycles of recharge and mixing accompanied by an increase in fO₂ and sulfur concentration during differentiation. Mantle-like Sr and Nd isotope values (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr = 0.70406–0.70423; ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd = 0.512880–0.512913) indicate minimal crustal assimilation. Sumaco’s unique geochemical composition is not observed in the nearby volcanoes Antisana, Pan de Azucar or El Reventador suggesting that its unique magma source is confined to this volcano. The high temperature and sulfate-saturated conditions at shallow depths suggest that magma ascends rapidly to a shallow reservoir where the majority of crystallization and recharge takes place prior to eruption. An important conclusion of this research is that Sumaco does not represent typical rear-arc subduction processes, and caution should be used when using Sumaco as an end-member to evaluate across-arc processes in the Northern Volcanic Zone.     

Remote sensing of breaking wave phase speeds with application to non-linear depth inversions

A number of existing models for surface wave phase speeds (linear and non-linear, breaking and non-breaking waves) are reviewed and tested against phase speed data from a large-scale laboratory experiment. The results of these tests are utilized in the context of assessing the potential improvement gained by incorporating wave non-linearity in phase speed based depth inversions. The analysis is focused on the surf zone, where depth inversion accuracies are known to degrade significantly. The collected data includes very high-resolution remote sensing video and surface elevation records from fixed, in-situ wave gages. Wave phase speeds are extracted from the remote sensing data using a feature tracking technique, and local wave amplitudes are determined from the wave gage records and used for comparisons to non-linear phase speed models and for non-linear depth inversions. A series of five different regular wave conditions with a range of non-linearity and dispersion characteristics are analyzed and results show that a composite dispersion relation, which includes both non-linearity and dispersion effects, best matches the observed phase speeds across the domain and hence, improves surf zone depth estimation via depth inversions. Incorporating non-linearity into the phase speed model reduces errors to O(10%), which is a level previously found for depth inversions with small amplitude waves in intermediate water depths using linear dispersion. Considering the controlled conditions and extensive ground truth, this appears to be a practical limit for phase speed-based depth inversions. Finally, a phase speed sensitivity analysis is performed that indicates that typical nearshore sand bars should be resolvable using phase speed depth inversions. However, increasing wave steepness degrades the sensitivity of this inversion method.     

Unsteady thermoelastic analysis of a circular disk with a hot central core and subjected to adiabatic conditions

The unsteady thermoelastic analysis of a cooling circular disk or cylinder which is originally at uniform temperature is a classical problem of the theory of thermal stresses. More recent studies consider the case of composite structural configurations. The present paper deals with a situation which, apparently, has not been previously considered: unsteady thermal stresses caused by the presence of a hot, central nucleus. The temperature field is obtained in terms of a Fourier–Bessel expansion and then, radial and tangential stresses are evaluated analytically. The problem is of basic interest in mechanical and naval engineering systems.