The trace of the Pacific‐Cocos‐Nazca triple junction in the Central Pacific and the formation of an overlapping spreading centre

The `plate tectonic mirror image' to the region of the Cocos and Nazca plates, which are currently being subducted beneath Central America, is preserved in the Central Pacific around 120°W just south of the equator. Cruise SO‐180 investigated this remote area during project CENTRAL and acquired new magnetic and bathymetric data. A plate tectonic model for the ‘mirror image’ is presented based on the newly acquired as well as reprocessed existing data. Discordant magnetic anomaly patterns and bathymetric structures indicate at least two major reorganization events (19.5 and 14.7 Myr), which can be detected both in the Cocos‐Nazca spreading system and in the East Pacific Rise. Irregularities in the anomaly pattern and curvilinear structures on the sea floor of the survey area are interpreted in terms of a fossil overlapping spreading centre at the location where the Farallon break‐up originated.     

Experimental boron isotope fractionation between tourmaline and fluid: confirmation from in situ analyses by secondary ion mass spectrometry and from Rayleigh fractionation modelling

Tourmaline synthesised in an experiment with low boron excess was analysed in situ by secondary ion mass spectrometry. It revealed significant B isotope zonation with ¹¹B/¹⁰B ratios increasing in the growth direction of the crystals. Trend, magnitude and absolute values strongly support results from high-B-excess isotope fractionation experiments. Furthermore, the closed system B-isotopic evolution of the experimental fluid was modelled by Rayleigh fractionation. The model results are in excellent agreement with the measured B-isotope composition of the run-product fluid. Consequently, low-element-excess experiments are proposed as an ideal approach to determine fluid-solid isotope fractionation factors for systems that are characterised by Rayleigh fractionation.     

Ultraviolet Observations of a Dynamic Event in the Solar Corona

The Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation instrument (SUMER) observations show high Doppler shifts and temporal variations in profiles of ultraviolet lines from low temperature gas in the corona above the active region NOAA 7974. The profiles indicate 100 km s^-1 flows coming from an almost stationary source that appears bright in the lines of N III and Si III. The variations in line-of-sight velocities and intensities suggest small knots of cooling plasma emanating from a small region high in the corona. A few arc sec sunward of the region where the cool flows are seen is an elongated region of enhanced higher temperature, low velocity Ne VI and Mg VI line emission.     

Experimental Na-K distribution between amphiboles and aqueous chloride solutions, and a mixing model along the richterite – K-richterite join

The cation exchange equilibrium has been investigated by hydrothermal experiments at 700 and 800°C at 200 MPa. To avoid equilibration problems of conventional exchange experiments, we synthesized amphiboles with an excess fluid allowing exchange between solid and fluid during the experiment. The exchangeable cations Na and K were provided as excess 1 to 2n chloridic solution. These exchange syntheses can be described by the reaction equation with ^(aq) for hydroxides and chlorides in aqueous solutions and _{( s )} and _{( p )}?=?start and product fluid. The amphiboles grew in presence of the exchange fluid and adjusted their stoichiometry in equilibrium with the fluid phase. The solid products consist of more than 99% amphibole (Na,K-richterite_ss) with traces of diopside and quartz. The amphiboles are up to 1?mm long and often ≈ 40 μm thick. Detailed EMP- and HRTEM-observations show that they are chemically homogeneous and structurally wellordered. The experimental results give consistent phase relations in the reciprocal ternary system Na-richterite–K-richterite–NaCl–KCl. We analysed the product fluid with AAS- and ICP-methods. The Na-K distribution coefficients between fluid and amphiboles of the richterite–K-richterite join are close to unity at 700°C and 800°C at 200 MPa. Small systematic deviations are explained by a symmetric solution model for the A-position of the amphiboles. Using ideal mixing for H₂O-NaCl-KCl fluids, a mixing model for the system richterite–K-richterite is presented. We suggest that the composition of richterite solid solutions can be used as a sensor for NaCl/KCl-ratios in metamorphic fluids.     

Evaluating the potential of multi-view data extraction from small Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) for object-based classification for Wetland land covers

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) have the potential to provide multi-view data, but the approaches used to extract the multi-view data from UAS and investigation of their use in image classification are currently unavailable in publications to our best knowledge. This study presents a method that combines collinearity equations and a two-phase optimization procedure to automatically project a point from real world coordinate system of an orthoimage to UAS image coordinate system (row and column numbers) to be used in multi-view data extraction. The results show average errors for the computed UAS column and row numbers were 1.6 and 1.8 pixels respectively evaluated with leave-one-out method. Based on this algorithm, it’s also for the first time that object-based multi-view data were extracted and presented, and the potential of using the multi-view data to aid Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis(GEOBIA) through bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) modelling was evaluated with two representatives of BRDFs, the Rahman-Pinty-Verstraete(RPV) and Ross-Thick-LiSparse (RTLS). Our results indicate the RPV model tends to overestimate the bidirectional reflectance for land cover types with high reflectance, while perform well for those with relatively low reflectance in our study area. To test the impact of using multi-view data on image classification, we extracted parameters from BRDF models and used these parameters as object features for object-based classification. The 10-fold cross validation results show that the 3-parameter RTLS significantly improved overall accuracy compared to the classifications relying only on the orthoimage features, while other BRDF models did not show significant improvements, raising the needs to develop new methods to better utilize the multi-view information in GEOIBA in the future.     

On precursors to the Italy earthquake M.6.2 using VLF signal of NSY(45.9 kHz) received at Kiel Longwave Monitor

On August 24, 2016, an earthquake of magnitude 6.2 struck Central Italy (42.706°N and 13.223°E) at 1:36 UT. We present the results obtained from the US Navy VLF Transmitter’s NSY signal of 45.9 kHz transmitted from Niscemi, in the province of Sicily, Italy and received at the Kiel Longwave Monitor, Germany for 2016. We analysed the terminator times and their individual differences. We also analysed trends, dispersion and night time fluctuation which gave us a possible precursor the Italy earthquake. We found ionospheric perturbations in these parameters on 14th, 19th and 22nd of August, few days prior. Moreover, we filtered the possible effects due to lightning, storms and auroras if any.     

Experimental study of a biotite-bearing granitic system under water-saturated and water-undersaturated conditions

Phase relationships in haplogranitic melts containing ferromagnesian minerals were investigated in the temperature range 760–850°C, atP _total=2 kbar, =0.25 1.00, and at NNO buffer conditions. The compositions of coexisting biotite, orthopyroxene, magnetite and granitic melt were determined by electron microprobe. Biotite was the only Fe–Mg mineral in the starting material. It disappeared in water-undersaturated melts at temperatures above 830°C and in melts saturated with water above 810°C. Magnetite was present in all runs. Orthopyroxene became stable between 780 and 800°C. The Mg/(Mg+Fe) ratios of biotite (0,63–0,72) and orthopyroxene (0,63–0,71) are similar in water-saturated and undersaturated melts at comparable temperatures and increase slightly with increasing temperature. The solubility of Mg in haplogranitic melts is very low (0,07–0,24 wt% MgO). It increases slightly with temperature and is independent of the prevailing water activity. The solubility of Fe is low (0,91–1,37 wt% FeO); it also increases with increasing temperature, and it is higher in water-saturated than in water-undersaturated melts.     

Assessment of Primary Production by Statistical Analysis of Water‐quality Data

Time series of weekly water‐quality data at Schnackenburg on the Elbe River (1985—2000) were subjected to principal component analysis (PCA). Considering the amplitudes of composite patterns of variables is a step towards a process‐oriented interpretation of waterquality data. One specific objective was to investigate the impact of improved water quality after the German reunification in 1990 on primary production and the oxygen budget. To discriminate anthropogenic signals from natural fluctuations a separation of the impact of discharge was attempted based on a linear regression approach. A dominant pattern of co‐variation in the residual data could be attributed to biological activity (primary production). The most relevant variables of this 'biomode' are oxygen saturation, pH, and orthophosphate. We conclude that multivariate statistical analysis of water‐quality data can help to estimate primary production when direct observations of algal concentrations are missing. In the years from 1998—2000 the trend of the ‘biomode’ indicates an increased load of oxygen consuming biomass caused by enhanced primary production in the middle stretches of the Elbe River which corresponds with the observation of more severe oxygen deficits in the tidal section of the river.     

High Arctic sea ice conditions influence marine birds wintering in Low Arctic regions

Ocean climate change is having profound biological effects in polar regions. Such change can also have far-reaching downstream effects in sub-polar regions. This study documents an environmental relationship between High Arctic sea ice changes and mortality events of marine birds in Low Arctic coastal regions. During April 2007 and March 2009, hundreds of beached seabird carcasses and moribund seabirds were found along the east and northeast coasts of Newfoundland, Canada. These seabird “wrecks” (i.e. dead birds on beaches) coincided with a period of strong, persistent onshore winds and heavily-accumulated sea ice that blocked bays and trapped seabirds near beaches. Ninety-two percent of wreck seabirds were Thick-billed Murres (Uria lomvia). Body condition and demographic patterns of wreck murres were compared to Thick-billed Murres shot in the Newfoundland murre hunt. Average body and pectoral masses of wreck carcasses were 34% and 40% lighter (respectively) than shot murres, indicating that wreck birds had starved. The acute nature of each wreck suggested that starvation and associated hypothermia occurred within 2–3 days. In 2007, first-winter murres (77%) dominated the wreck. In 2009, there were more adults (78%), mostly females (66%). These results suggest that spatial and temporal segregation in ages and sexes can play a role in differential survival when stochastic weather conditions affect discrete areas where these groups aggregate. In wreck years, southward movement of Arctic sea ice to Low Arctic latitudes was later and blocked bays longer than in most other years. These inshore conditions corresponded with recent climate-driven changes in High Arctic ice break-up and ice extent; coupled with local weather conditions, these ice conditions appeared to be the key environmental features that precipitated the ice-associated seabird wrecks in the Low Arctic region.