Mamaku Ignimbrite: a caldera-forming ignimbrite erupted from a compositionally zoned magma chamber in Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand

Mamaku Ignimbrite was deposited during the formation of Rotorua Caldera, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand, 220–230 ka. Its outflow sheet forms a fan north, northwest and southwest of Rotorua, capping the Mamaku–Kaimai Plateau. Mamaku Ignimbrite can be divided into a partly phreatomagmatic basal sequence, and a main sequence which comprises lower, middle, and upper ignimbrite. The internal stratigraphy indicates that it was emplaced progressively from a pyroclastic density current of varying energy that became less particulate away from source. Gradational contacts between lower, middle, and upper ignimbrite are consistent with it being deposited during one eruptive event from the same source. Variations in lithic clast content and coexistence of different pumice types through the ignimbrite sequence indicate that caldera collapse occurred throughout the eruption, but particularly when middle Mamaku Ignimbrite was deposited and in the final stages of deposition of upper Mamaku Ignimbrite. Maximum lithic data and the location of lithic lag breccias in upper Mamaku Ignimbrite confirm Rotorua Caldera as the source. At least 120 m of geothermally altered intra-caldera Mamaku Ignimbrite occurs inside Rotorua Caldera. Pumice clasts in the Mamaku Ignimbrite are dacite to high-silica rhyolite and can be chemically divided into three types: high–silica rhyolite (type 1), rhyolite (type 2), and dacite (type 3). All are petrogenetically related and types 1 and 2 may be derived by up to 20% crystal fractionation from the type 3 dacite. All three types probably resided in a single, gradationally zoned magma chamber. Andesitic juvenile fragments are found only in upper Mamaku Ignimbrite and inferred to represent a discrete magma that was injected into the silicic chamber and is considered to have accumulated as a sill at the base of the magma chamber. The contrast in density between the andesitic and silicic magmas did not allow eruption of the andesitic fragments during the deposition of lower and middle Mamaku Ignimbrite. The advanced stage of caldera collapse, late in the main eruptive phase, created withdrawal dynamics that allowed andesitic magma to reach the surface as fragments within upper Mamaku Ignimbrite.     

Detritus fuels ecosystem metabolism but not metazoan food webs in San Francisco estuary's freshwater delta

Detritus from terrestrial ecosystems is the major source of organic matter in many streams, rivers, and estuaries, yet the role of detritus in supporting pelagic food webs is debated. We examined the importance of detritus to secondary productivity in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Delta (California, United States), a large complex of tidal freshwater habitats. The Delta ecosystem has low primary productivity but large detrital inputs, so we hypothesized that de tritus is the primary energy source fueling production in pelagic food webs. We assessed the sources, quantity, composition, and bioavailability of organic matter among a diversity of habitats (e.g., marsh sloughs, floodplains, tidal lakes, and deep river channels) over two years to test this hypothesis. Our results support the emerging principle that detritus dominates riverine and estuarine organic matter supply and supports the majority of ecosystem metabolism. Yet in contrast to prevailing ideas, we found that detritus was weakly coupled to the Delta's pelagic food web. Results from independent approaches showed that phytoplankton production was the dominant source of organic matter for the Delta's pelagic food web, even though primary production accounts for a small fraction of the Delta's organic matter supply. If these results are general, they suggest that the value of organic matter to higher trophic levels, including species targeted by programs of ecosystem restoration, is a function of phytoplankton production.     

The galaxy power spectrum: precision cosmology from large-scale structure?

Published galaxy power spectra from the two-degree field galaxy redshift survey (2dFGRS) and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) are not in good agreement. We revisit this issue by analysing both the 2dFGRS and SDSS Data Release 5 (DR5) catalogues using essentially identical techniques. We confirm that the 2dFGRS exhibits relatively more large-scale power than the SDSS, or, equivalently, SDSS has more small-scale power. We demonstrate that this difference is due to the r -band selected SDSS catalogue being dominated by more strongly clustered red galaxies, which have a stronger scale-dependent bias. The power spectra of galaxies of the same rest-frame colours from the two surveys match well. If not accounted for, the difference between the SDSS and 2dFGRS power spectra causes a bias in the obtained constraints on cosmological parameters which is larger than the uncertainty with which they are determined. We also found that the correction developed by Cole et al. to model the distortion in the shape of the power spectrum due to non-linear evolution and scale-dependent bias is not able to reconcile the constraints obtained from the 2dFGRS and SDSS power spectra. Intriguingly, the model is able to describe the differences between the 2dFGRS and the much more strongly clustered Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) sample, which exhibits greater non-linearities. This shows that more work is needed to understand the relation between the galaxy power spectrum and the linear perturbation theory prediction for the power spectrum of matter fluctuations. It is therefore important to accurately model these effects to get precise estimates of cosmological parameters from these power spectra and from future galaxy surveys like Pan-STARRS, or the Dark Energy Survey, which will use selection criteria similar to the one of SDSS.     

How common is the Milky Way–satellite system alignment?

The highly flattened distribution of satellite galaxies in the Milky Way (MW) presents a number of puzzles. First, its polar alignment stands out from the planar alignments commonly found in other galaxies. Secondly, recent proper-motion measurements reveal that the orbital angular momentum of at least three, and possibly as many as eight, of the MW's satellites points (within  30°  ) along the axis of their flattened configuration, suggesting some form of coherent motion. In this paper, we use a high-resolution cosmological simulation to investigate whether this pattern conflicts with the expectations of the cold dark matter model of structure formation. We find that this seemingly unlikely setup occurs often: approximately 35 per cent of the time, we find systems in which the angular momentum of three individual satellites points along, or close to, the short axis of the satellite distribution. In addition, in 30 per cent of the systems we find that the net angular momentum of the six best-aligned satellites lies within  35°  of the short axis of the satellite distribution, as observed for the MW.     

Genesis of lavas of the Taupo Volcanic Zone, North Island, New Zealand

The Taupo Volcanic Zone forms part of the Taupo-Hikurangi subduction system, and comprises five volcanic centres: Tongariro, Taupo, Maroa, Okataina and Rotorua. Tongariro Volcanic Centre is formed almost entirely of andesite while the other four centres contain predominantly rhyolitic volcanics and later fissure eruptions of high-Al basalt. Estimated total volume of each lava type are as follows: 2 km³ of high-Al basalt (< 0.1%); 260 km³ of andesite (< 2.5%); 5 km³ of dacite (< 0.1%); > 10,000 km³ of rhyolite and ignimbrite (> 97.4%).The location of the andesites and vent alignments suggest a source from a subduction zone underlying the area. However, the lavas differ chemically from island-arc andesites such as those of Tonga; in particular by having higher contents of the alkali elements, light REE and Sr and Pb isotopes. This suggests some crustal contamination, and it is considered that this may occur beneath the wide accretionary prism of the subduction system. Amphibolite of the subduction zone will break down between 80 and 100 km and a partial melt will rise. A multi-stage process of magma genesis is then likely to occur. High-Al basalts are thought to be derived from partial melting of a garnet-free peridotite near the top of the mantle wedge overlying the subduction zone, locations of the vents controlled largely by faults within the crust. Rhyolites and ignimbrites were probably derived from partial melting of Mesozoic greywacke and argillite under the Taupo Volcanic Zone. Initial partial melting may have been due to hydration of the base of the crust; the “water” having come from dehydration of the downgoing slab. The partial melts would rise to form granodiorite plutons and final release of the magma to form rhyolites and ignimbrites was allowed because of extension within the Taupo graben.Dacites of the Bay of Plenty probably resulted from mixing of andesitic magma with small amounts of rhyolitic magma, but those on the eastern side of the Rotorua-Taupo area were more likely formed by a higher degree of partial melting of the Mesozoic greywacke-argillite basement. This may be due to intrusion of andesite magma on this side of the Taupo volcanic zone.     

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: the nature of the relative bias between galaxies of different spectral type

We present an analysis of the relative bias between early- and late-type galaxies in the Two-degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) – as defined by the η parameter of Madgwick et al., which quantifies the spectral type of galaxies in the survey. We calculate counts in cells for flux-limited samples of early- and late-type galaxies, using approximately cubical cells with sides ranging from 7 to  42 h ⁻¹ Mpc  . We measure the variance of the counts in cells using the method of Efstathiou et al., which we find requires a correction for a finite volume effect equivalent to the integral constraint bias of the autocorrelation function. Using a maximum-likelihood technique we fit lognormal models to the one-point density distribution, and develop methods of dealing with biases in the recovered variances resulting from this technique. We then examine the joint density distribution function,   f (δ_E, δ_L)  , and directly fit deterministic bias models to the joint counts in cells. We measure a linear relative bias of ≈1.3, which does not vary significantly with ℓ. A deterministic linear bias model is, however, a poor approximation to the data, especially on small scales  (ℓ≤ 28  h ⁻¹ Mpc)  where deterministic linear bias is excluded at high significance. A power-law bias model with index   b ₁≈ 0.75  is a significantly better fit to the data on all scales, although linear bias becomes consistent with the data for  ℓ≳ 40  h ⁻¹ Mpc  .     

An important statistical consideration,and the effect of the interplanetary magnetic field on the quiet time variation of the geomaganetic field

We present an analysis of some interplanetary and geomagnetic field data and at the same time attempt to show that erroneous conclusions may be drawn if the effects of autocorrelation are not taken into account in standard least squares regression methods. We found the following conclusions survived the autocorrelation corrections to simple correlation tests (i) that the directed z component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) affects the first few Fourier terms in the daily variation of the vertical component of the quiet geomagnetic field (ii) ΣK_p correlates with the daily mean magnitude of the IMF.