Actinometric System Aboard the Yak-42D “Roshydromet” Research Aircraft

The actinometric system installed aboard the Yak-42D "Roshydromet" research aircraft is presented. It is designed to study radiation processes in the troposphere. The system is based on standard Kipp&Zonen actinometric instruments for measuring solar, thermal, and ultraviolet radiation fluxes as well as on specially developed radiation models with high-precision methods for solving radiative transfer equations (Monte Carlo, k-distribution, and line-by-line calculations). The combination of actinometric measurements and detailed simulation of radiative transfer in the atmosphere allows examining the radiation balance components throughout the troposphere using in situ measurements at the aircraft location. Some results of studying radiation fluxes obtained during the flights over the Arctic region of the Russian Federation are presented. The data of measurements carried out using the presented system are useful for validating radiation codes utilized in general atmospheric circulation models and for processing satellite remote sensing data.     

The Mukun basin: Settings, paleoenvironmental parameters, and factors controlling the early mesoproterozoic terrestrial sedimentation (Lower Riphean section of the Anabar uplift, Siberia)

Quartz arenites of the Lower Riphean Mukun Group were formed 1.58 Ga ago exclusively in terrestrial settings of the alluvial and eolian-fluvial sedimentation. The subordinate fluvial-sabkha sediments were deposited in intracontinental lacustrine basins. Analysis of paleohydrological and granulometric data, distribution of sedimentary fluxes, and influence of the biotic factor on sedimentogenesis served as a basis for the facies-paleogeographic and basinal-stratigraphic reconstructions. These materials provided grounds for defining a peculiar eolian-fluvial type of microbial sedimentation and revealing the scale and mechanisms of the influence of terrestrial microbial ecosystems on the formation of the sedimentation basins and their sedimentary successions. It is shown that total microbial fixation and biostabilization of sediments resulted in the suppression of fluvial transport, the removal of a significant share of sedimentary material from them, and the formation of peculiar eolian-fluvial landscape, i.e., a system of very shallow ponds connected by intermittent water streams and separated by changeable eolian fields. Development of such landscapes was responsible for the accumulation of thick terrestrial quartz arenite sequences. The microbial type of eolian-fluvial sedimentation characteristic of the Early Proterozoic and initial Riphean basins determined proportions of sandy sediments on continents and shelves.     

Geochemistry of О, Н, C,S, and Sr isotopes in the water and sediments of the Aral basin

The paper presents original authors' data on the O, H, C, S, and Sr isotopic composition of water and sediments from the basins into which the Aral Sea split after its catastrophic shoaling: Chernyshev Bay (CB), the basin of the Great Aral in the north, Lake Tshchebas (LT), and Minor Sea (MS). The data indicate that the δ¹⁸О, δD, δ¹³C, and δ³⁴S of the water correlate with the mineralization (S) of the basins (as of 2014): for CB, S = 135.6‰, δ¹⁸О = 4.8 ± 0.1‰, δD = 5 ± 2‰, δ¹³C (dissolved inorganic carbon, DIC) = 3.5 ± 0.1‰, δ³⁴S = 14.5‰; for LT, S = 83.8‰, δ¹⁸О = 2.0 ± 0.1‰, δD =–13.5 ± 1.5‰, δ¹³C = 2.0 ± 0.1‰, δ³⁴S = 14.2‰; and for MS, S = 9.2‰, δ¹⁸О =–2.0 ± 0.1‰, δD =–29 ± 1‰, δ¹³C =–0.5 ± 0.5‰, δ³⁴S = 13.1‰. The oxygen and hydrogen isotopic composition of the groundwaters are similar to those in MS and principally different from the artesian waters fed by atmospheric precipitation. The mineralization, δ¹³С, and δ³⁴S of the groundwaters broadly vary, reflecting interaction with the host rocks. The average δ¹³С values of the shell and detrital carbonates sampled at the modern dried off zones of the basins are similar: 0.8 ± 0.8‰ for CB, 0.8 ± 1.4‰ for LT, and –0.4 ± 0.3‰ for MS. The oxygen isotopic composition of the carbonates varies much more broadly, and the average values are as follows: 34.2 ± 0.2‰ for CB, 32.0 ± 2.2‰ for LT, and 28.2 ± 0.9‰ for MS. These values correlate with the δ¹⁸O of the water of the corresponding basins. The carbonate cement of the Late Eocene sandstone of the Chengan Formation, which makes up the wave-cut terrace at CB, has anomalously low δ¹³С up to –38.5‰, suggesting origin near a submarine methane seep. The δ³⁴S of the mirabilite and gypsum (11.0 to 16.6‰) from the bottom sediments and young dried off zone also decrease from CB to MS in response to increasing content of sulfates brought by the Syr-Darya River (δ³⁴S = 9.1 to 9.9‰) and weakening sulfate reduction. The ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio in the water and carbonates of the Aral basins do not differ, within the analytical error, and is 0.70914 ± 0.00003 on average. This value indicate that the dominant Sr source of the Aral Sea is Mesozoic–Cenozoic carbonate rocks. The Rb–Sr systems of the silicate component of the bottom silt (which is likely dominated by eolian sediments) of MS and LT plot on the Т = 160 ± 5 Ma, I₀ = 0.7091 ± 0.0001, pseudochron. The Rb–Sr systems of CB are less ordered, and the silt is likely a mixture of eolian and alluvial sediments.     

Isotopic composition of pyritic sulfur from the mud volcanic ejecta in Azerbaijan

Geochemical studies of pyrite crystals from the mud volcanic ejecta in Azerbaijan were studied. It is shown that all of them have cubic shape. Determination of the sulfur isotope composition revealed a wide variation range of δ³⁴S values from–27.0 to +26.4‰. Signs of spatial zonation were recorded in the distribution of δ³⁴S values—lower values are confined to the present-day coastline of the Caspian Sea. Appearance of pyrite with a high share of ³⁴S is attributed to sulfate reduction that takes place in an environment with excess organic matter. It is supposed that the isotopically heavy sulfides represent the “neck” facies that are formed at the periphery of mud volcanic conduits at the contact of the hydrocarbon-rich mud volcanic fluids with stratal waters of host sediments.     

Rescaling of fluid-conducting fault structures

The interrelation between geometric parameters (density and length) of the fault systems of four scale levels (kilometers, meters, centimeters, and millimeters) was established for the first time by detailed structural study of the rocks of the Urtui granite massif located in the western framework of the Strel’tsovskii uranium caldera in the Southeastern Transbaikalia. The further use of these geostructural data for conceptual and numerical modeling of the fluid filtration processes and transport of radionuclides in a three-dimensional crack and pore space in the variably deformed and metasomatically altered crystalline rocks was substantiated.     

Tectonomagmatic cycles and geodynamic conditions of formation of the ore-bearing systems in the Southern Argun’ Region

The evolution of the geological structure in the Southern Argun’ Region is studied in terms of changing geodynamic conditions of the Proterozoic, Caledonian, and Variscan Tectonomagmatic Cycles, which also under Mesozoic tectonomagmatic activation led to the formation of latite igneous rocks enriched in Au, Cu–Mo, Pb–Zn–Ag, volcanic and plutonic complexes of the caldera structures with Mo–U, Pb–Zn, and fluorite ores, and rare-metal granites with a Sn–W–Li–Ta spectrum.