Late Mesozoic magmatism and Cenozoic tectonic deformations of the Barents Sea continental margin: Effect on hydrocarbon potential distribution

The paper is focused on the two tectonic-geodynamic factors that made the most appreciable contribution to the transformation of the lithospheric and hydrocarbon potential distribution at the Barents Sea continental margin: Jurassic-Cretaceous basaltic magmatism and the Cenozoic tectonic deformations. The manifestations of Jurassic-Cretaceous basaltic magmatism in the sedimentary cover of the Barents Sea continental margin have been recorded using geological and geophysical techniques. Anomalous seismic units related to basaltic sills hosted in terrigenous sequences are traced in plan view as a tongue from Franz Josef Land Archipelago far to the south along the East Barents Trough System close to its depocentral zone with the transformed thinned Earth’s crust. The Barents Sea igneous province has been contoured. The results of seismic stratigraphy analysis and timing of basaltic rock occurrences indicate with a high probability that the local structures of the hydrocarbon (HC) fields and the Stockman-Lunin Saddle proper were formed and grew almost synchronously with intrusive magmatic activity. The second, no less significant multitectonic stress factor is largely related to the Cenozoic stage of evolution, when the development of oceanic basins was inseparably linked with the Barents Sea margin. The petrophysical properties of rocks from the insular and continental peripheries of the Barents Sea shelf are substantially distinct as evidence for intensification of tectonic processes in the northwestern margin segment. These distinctions are directly reflected in HC potential distribution.     

Bottom microtopography as a factor responsible for variations in the thickness of the Turonian-Coniacian sequence in the Melovoe-Nizhnyaya Bannovka area (Saratov Region)

The Turonian-Coniacian carbonate sequence outcropping in the Melovoe-Nizhnyaya Bannovka area (Saratov region) is described along with the characterization of its geomorphologic, sedimentologic, and sequence-stratigraphy aspects and accompanying isopach maps. A sedimentation model is proposed for explaining factors responsible for variations in the thickness of the sequence.     

Conditions of formations of slightly enriched tholeiites in the northern Knipovich Ridge

New petrological and geochemical data were obtained for basalts recovered during cruise 24 of the R/V “Akademik Nikolay Strakhov” in 2006. These results significantly contributed to the understanding of the formation of tholeiitic magmatism at the northern end of the Knipovich Ridge of the Polar Atlantic. Dredging was performed for the first time both in the rift valley and on the flanks of the ridge. It showed that the conditions of magmatism have not changed since at least 10 Ma. The basalts correspond to slightly enriched tholeiites, whose primary melts were derived at the shallowest levels and were enriched in Na and depleted in Fe (Na-TOR type). The most enriched basalts are typical of the earlier stages of the opening and were found on the flanks of the ridge in its northernmost part. Variations in the ratios of Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopes and lithophile elements allowed us to conclude that the primary melts generated beneath the spreading zone of the Knipovich Ridge were modified by the addition of the enriched component that was present both in the Neogene and Quaternary basalts of Spitsbergen Island. Compared with the primitive mantle, the extruding magmas were characterized by positive Nb and Zr anomalies and a negative Th anomaly. The formation of primary melts involved melting of the metasomatized depleted mantle reservoir that appeared during the early stages of opening of the Norwegian-Greenland Basin and transformation of the paleo-Spitsbergen Fault into the Knipovich spreading ridge, which was accompanied by magmatism in western Spitsbergen during its separation from the northern part of Greenland.     

Seasonal and Inter-Annual Variability of Wind-Driven Upwelling near the East Coast of Sakhalin Island Based on QuikSCAT/SeaWinds Scatterometer Data

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - In this paper, seasonal and interannual upwelling variability in the Sea of Okhotsk off the eastern coast of Sakhalin Island based on wind data obtained...     

Late Vendian postcollisional leucogranites of Yenisei Ridge

The Late Vendian (540–550 Ma) U–Pb zircon age of postcollisional granitoids in the Osinovka Massif was obtained for the first time. The Osinovka Massif is located in rocks of the island-arc complex of the Isakovka Terrane, in the northwestern part of the Sayany–Yenisei accretion belt. These events stand for the final stage of the Neoproterozoic history of the Yenisei Ridge, related to the completing accretion of the oceanic crust fragments and the beginning of the Caledonian orogenesis. The petrogeochemical composition and the Sm–Nd isotopic characteristics support the fact that the granitoid melt originated from a highly differentiated continental crust of the southwestern margin of the Siberian Craton. Hence, the granite-bearing Late Riphean island-arc complexes were thrust over the craton margin at a distance considerably exceeding the dimensions of the Osinovka Massif.     

On the formation of element carbon during decomposition of CaCO3 at High P-T parameters under reducing conditions

This work presents data on the experimental study of CaCO₃ stability (3.0–5.5 GPa; 1300–1400°C) under reducing conditions modeling the presence of metallic iron. It is established that CaCO₃ is stable at the above P-T parameters under reducing conditions (in the presence of metallic Ti). CaCO₃ decomposed only when it chemically interacted with iron, forming Ca-ferrites and releasing solid carbon in the form of graphite in the closed system (in sealed Pt-ampoules).     

Station-keeping for a translunar communication station

A translunar communication station is to be kept close to a nominal unstable periodic ‘Halo’ orbit, visible at all times from Earth. The analytically computed nominal orbit is not perfect, requiring an average control acceleration of about 10^?6 g's for tight control. An adjustable quadratic combination of position deviation and control acceleration is minimized to provide an (adjustable) control law with period feedback gains and a periodic bias. The average control acceleration can be reduced to less than 10^?8 g's with an error settling time of less than 21/2 months. The resulting limiting motion provides, in turn, an improved nominal, permitting the same low control cost with much tighter control, corresponding to settling times of the order of one day.     

Sodium in the atmospheres of thick-disk red giants

The atmospheric parameters and elemental abundances for ten thick-disk red giants have been determined from high-resolution spectra by the method of model stellar atmospheres. The results of a comparative analysis of the [Na/Fe] abundances in the atmospheres of the investigated stars and thin-disk red giants are presented. Sodium in the atmospheres of thick-disk red giants is shown to have no overabundances typical of thin-disk red giants.     

Construction of the semi-analytical and numerical solutions to the problem of rotational motion of the moon

New high-precision, semianalytical and numerical solutions to the problem of the rotational motion of the Moon are obtained, for use in the long 418.9-year time frame. The dynamics of the rotational motion of the Moon is studied numerically using the Rodrigues-Hamilton parameters, relative to the fixed ecliptic for the epoch J2000. The results of the numerical solution to the problem under study are compared with a compiled semianalytical theory of Moon rotation (SMR). The initial conditions for the numerical integration have been taken from the SMR. The comparative discrepancies derived from the comparison between the numerical solutions and the SMR do not exceed 1.5″ on the time-scale of 418.9 yr. The investigation of the comparative discrepancies between the numerical and semianalytical solutions is performed using the least squares and spectral analysis methods in the Newtonian case. All the periodic terms describing the behavior of the comparative discrepancies are interpreted as the corrections to the semianalytical SMR theory. As a result, the series are constructed to describe the rotation of the Moon (MRS2010) in the time interval under study. The numerical solution for the Moon’s rotation has been obtained anew, with new initial conditions calculated using MRS2010. The discrepancies between the new numerical solution and MRS2010 do not exceed 20 arc milliseconds on the time-scale of 418.9 years. The results of the comparison suggest that that the MRS2010 series describe the rotation of the Moon more correctly than the SMR series.     

Calculation of the intermediate perturbed orbit from three or more positions of a small body on the celestial sphere

Two new methods are described for finding the orbit of a small celestial body from three or more pairs of angular measurements and the corresponding time points. The methods are based on, first, the approach that has been developed previously by the author to the determination, from a minimum number of observations, of intermediate orbit considering most of the perturbations in the bodies’ motion and, second, Herget’s algorithmic procedure enabling the introduction of additional observations. The errors of orbital parameters calculated by the proposed methods are two orders of magnitude smaller than the corresponding errors of the traditional approach based on the construction of an unperturbed Keplerian orbit. The thus-calculated orbits of the minor planets 1566 Icarus, 2002 EC1, and 2010 TO48 are used to compare the results of Herget’s multiposition procedure and the new methods. The comparison shows that the new methods are highly effective in the study of perturbed motion. They are particularly beneficial if high-precision observational data covering short orbital arcs are available.