A Simon–Weiss model for supergranule flows and their cross-correlations

Supergranule revolution rate and lifetime can be measured by cross-correlating pairs of Doppler-velocity maps that have been filtered (by Hathaway's method) to remove other flows. As a conceptual framework for that analysis, this exploratory paper develops an idealized, phenomenological model of supergranule flows. Assumptions made about supergranule cells on the Sun's photosphere include: random location in space and time, and horizontal flows with circular symmetry and having a Simon–Weiss velocity function. Each supergranule is stable for a time, dies, and after a while, a daughter is born at a nearby position determined by a random walk. The effect on the cross-correlations of changing projection onto the line-of-sight as the Sun rotates is analyzed. The total cross-correlation for strips of constant latitude depends on two generic, slowly-varying projection functions. Effects of differential rotation and time-evolution are also considered. GONG observations of June 1994 show systematic variations in the width and shape of correlation peaks with latitude; our model suggests that projection effects alone can account for these without invoking any intrinsic variations of the supergranules.     

HEMIARID BASIN RESPONSES TO ABRUPT CLIMATIC CHANGE: PALEOLAKES OF THE TRANS-PECOS CLOSED BASIN

Western North American hemiarid basins situated along a climate boundary zone, or threshold, that separates regions of different climate regimes exhibit greater variability to changes in hydroclimatic variables. The Trans-Pecos Closed Basin study examines how global paleoclimatic factors and intrinsic geographic controls act in determining the threshold between states of hydroclimatic equilibria. Geomorphic, radiocarbon, and limnetic evidence identifies four major highstands for late Pleistocene Lake King during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Patterns in the resulting model limnograph for Lake King suggest that runoff contributions from basin catchments to the inundated area were limited by precipitation rather than evaporation. Timing of the onset of lacustrine transgressive events corresponds with the later stages of cooling events recorded in the Greenland ice and North Atlantic deep-sea sedimentary record. Correlation of Trans-Pecos lacustrine environments with North Atlantic cooling implies that full pluvial conditions in the basin were limited to those periods when those cooling events resulted in extreme equatorward shifts of the LGM subpolar winter storm tracks, providing a moisture source to the basin. By comparing timing, intensity, and direction of climate change over a widely spaced array of hemiarid basins, the global implications of climatic events are better understood. [Key words: Last Glacial Maximum, paleolakes, Pleistocene, Trans-Pecos Closed Basin, New Mexico, Texas.]     

X-ray reverberation around accreting black holes

Luminous accreting stellar mass and supermassive black holes produce power–law continuum X-ray emission from a compact central corona. Reverberation time lags occur due to light travel time delays between changes in the direct coronal emission and corresponding variations in its reflection from the accretion flow. Reverberation is detectable using light curves made in different X-ray energy bands, since the direct and reflected components have different spectral shapes. Larger, lower frequency, lags are also seen and are identified with propagation of fluctuations through the accretion flow and associated corona. We review the evidence for X-ray reverberation in active galactic nuclei and black hole X-ray binaries, showing how it can be best measured and how it may be modelled. The timescales and energy dependence of the high-frequency reverberation lags show that much of the signal is originating from very close to the black hole in some objects, within a few gravitational radii of the event horizon. We consider how these signals can be studied in the future to carry out X-ray reverberation mapping of the regions closest to black holes.     

Mineralogical evidence for multiple dust sources in an early Triassic loessite

Loessite present in a borehole into the Smith Bank Formation (early Triassic age, Central North Sea) differentiates five coeval source terranes for aerosol dust, three long-distance sources and two local sources. All were active immediately following the end Permian mass extinction. Long-distance sources are sedimentary, basic magmatic and acid–intermediate volcanic. Although predominantly silt-sized and dominated by quartz with subordinate feldspars, muscovite and illite, evidence of basic and acid–intermediate magmatic/volcanic sources are pervasive. Baddeleyite is diagnostic of basic magmatism, an origin supported by enrichment of plagioclase relative to potassium feldspar. Deduction of acid–intermediate volcanism comes from the collective occurrence of irregular geometry quartz, volcanic shards, Ti-mineralization, euhedral biotite, sanidine, the co-occurrence of apatite and zircon, and the common occurrence of a tosuditic clay mineral. The tosuditic phase occurs as an unusual diagenetic dioctahedral chlorite/smectite formed at low temperature (<45°C), during very shallow burial by the decomposition of unstable rhyo-dacitic and andesitic grains in alkaline pore water from an adjacent lake that yielded pore fluids with a high Al : Si ratio. The Siberian Traps large igneous province is the likely source terrane for the magmatic and volcanic silt. Locally sourced clay pellets and kaolinite booklets formed from aeolian erosion of an adjacent, periodically desiccated lake-floor and a kaolinitic regolith, respectively. Inference of a prolonged harsh, arid climate leaves no evidence of any periods of sustained humidity or climatic fluctuation, such as pedogenesis. The association between the end Permian mass extinction, emplacement and aeolian erosion of the Siberian Traps large igneous province, and location of the Smith Bank Formation in a large lacustrine endorheic basin, combine to preserve a record of prolonged harsh climate in the early Triassic.     

Occurrence and infrared spectra of holmquistite and hornblende from Mt. Marion,near Kalgoorlie,Western Australia

Coexisting holmquistite and hornblende are described from an amphibolite associated with a spodumene pegmatite at Mt. Marion, near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Analytical, optical and infrared absorption data are presented. The distribution of cations in the holmquistite structure is readily determined by study of hydroxyl ion vibrations.     

Characterization of healed fracture surfaces in fluorite by etching and proton irradiation

Healed fracture surfaces in fluorite, which are not visible by conventional optical microscopy, can be revealed by etching or proton irradiation. Due to the semi-brittle nature of the mineral under conditions appropriate to the late stages of development of many ore deposits, healed fractures are often associated with some evidence of plastic deformation. Simple healed fractures consist of a single sub-boundary of very low angle, typically <0.02 degree, often decorated by <50 μm diameter fluid inclusions. Complex healed fractures consist of a zone with at least two sub-boundaries enclosing a thin layer of fluorite, which is almost in the same orientation as the surrounding crystal. This type of healed fracture is accompanied by small numbers of large fluid inclusions, typically >100 μm diameter. Simple healed fractures form by auto-epitaxial growth under conditions of high supersaturation in tight cracks. Complex healed fractures originate from more open cracks, the surfaces being initially etched before being healed by growth of a layer of fluorite under conditions of low supersaturation, probably by the screw dislocation mechanism.     

The use of fluid inclusion decrepitometry to distinguish mineralized and barren quartz veins in the aberfoyle tin-tungsten mine area, Tasmania

In the Aberfoyle Sn/W district of N.E. Tasmania, mineralization is in quartz veins associated with Devonian granite. The host rocks to the mineralization are folded Silurian quartzites, greywackes and shales and these also contain abundant pre-mineralization quartz veins which can be difficult to distinguish from irregularly mineralized ore veins on geological criteria, especially in drill core. It was found that the decrepitation characteristics of the quartz, chiefly the intensity ratio of high and low temperature peaks, which are developed in all decrepigrams, enable a distinction between the two generations of veins to be readily made. The differences between the fluid inclusions in the two generations of veins are relatively subtle, however it seems clear that “CO₂-rich” inclusions having a wide range of composition and density are the main source of decrepitation events and that the major differences in decrepitation behaviour can be correlated with differences in average homogenization temperature of these inclusions. Even those ore veins which have undergone moderate ductile deformation have the typical signature of their origin. The decrepitation results are supported by analyses of inclusion gases by Raman microprobe. These analyses differentiate a third group of veins which are possibly unmineralized veins belonging to a separate hydrothermal system.     

Fluid inclusions,deformation and recrystallization in granite tectonites

An investigation has been made of the relationships between tectonic processes and fluid inclusions in quartz from variably deformed and syntectonically recrystallized granitic rocks from the Lachlan Fold Belt, eastern Australia. The quartz contains many fluid inclusions which decorate healed fractures introduced as a result of late-stage brittle deformation. The majority of small inclusions however, are associated with deformation band boundaries and deformation lamellae showing that they have been introduced during or subsequent to ductile deformation. Fluid inclusions disappear from the cores of sub-grains during recovery and before recrystallization, and new inclusions which form along sub-grain boundaries coalesce into stringers. Inclusions are eliminated from both sides of low angle boundaries showing that inclusions leak their contents either through the system of dislocations which accompanies grain interior slip, or by a dissolution-condensation process whereby inclusion contents move by lattice diffusion and condense on the boundaries.     

Coal as a source rock for oil: a review

The geological debate about whether, and to what extent, humic coals have sourced oil is likely to continue for some time, despite some important advances in our knowledge of the processes involved. It is clear that not only liptinites, but also perhydrous vitrinites have the potential to generate hydrocarbon liquids in the course of natural coalification. Some liptinites, especially alginite, cutinite, and suberinite, contain a higher proportion of aliphatic moieties in their structure than other liptinites such as sporinite and resinite and are, therefore, more oil-prone. It is of potential value to be able to predict the several environments of deposition in which coals with high liptinite contents or containing perhydrous vitrinites may have been formed. Review of the distribution of oil-prone coals in time and space reveals that most are Jurassic–Tertiary with key examples from Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia. Methods based both on experimental simulations and the examination of naturally matured samples have been used to determine the order of generation of hydrocarbons from different macerals. Results are not entirely consistent among the different approaches, and there is much overlap in the ranges of degradation, but it seems probable that in the natural environment vitrinites begin to generate early, followed by labile liptinites such as suberinite, then cutinite, sporinite, and, finally, alginite.Petroleum potential may be determined by experimental simulation of natural coalification or inferred through various micro-techniques, especially fluorescence and infrared (IR) spectroscopy, or bulk techniques such as elemental analysis and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. The latter three techniques enable a measure of the polymethylene component of the coal, which now appears to be one of the best available approaches for determining petroleum potential. No method of experimental simulation of petroleum generation from coals is without criticism, and comparative results are highly variable. However, hydrous pyrolysis, confined pyrolysis, and forms of open-system hydrous pyrolysis approach acceptable simulations.Whether, and to what degree generated liquid hydrocarbons are expelled, has long been the central problem in ‘oil from coal’ studies. The structure of vitrinite was believed until recently to contain an interconnected microporous network in which generated oil would be contained until an expulsion threshold was attained. Recent studies show the pores are not interconnected. Combined with a dynamic model of pore generation, it now seems that expulsion of hydrocarbons is best explained by activated diffusion of molecules to maceral boundaries and ultimately by cleats and fractures to coal seam boundaries. The main reason for poor expulsion is the adsorption of oil on the organic macromolecule, which may be overcome (1) if coals are thin and interbedded with clastic sediments, or (2) if the coals are very hydrogen-rich and generate large quantities of oil.The existence of oil in vitrinite is attested to by solvent extractions, fluorescence properties, and by microscopic observations of oil and bitumen. Experimental simulation of expulsion of oil from coals has only recently been attempted. The relative timing of release of generated CO₂ and CH₄ could have considerable importance in promoting the expulsion of liquid hydrocarbons but the mechanism is unclear. As it is universally agreed that dispersed organic matter (DOM) in some shales readily generates and expels petroleum, it is curious that few consistent geochemical differences have been found between coal macerals and DOM in interbedded shales.Unambiguous evidence of expulsion from coals is limited, and in particular only a few commercial oil discoveries can be confidently correlated to coals. These include Upper Cretaceous Fruitland Formation coals in the USA, from which oil is produced; New Zealand Tertiary coals; and Middle Jurassic coals from the Danish North Sea. It is likely that coals have at least contributed to significant oil discoveries in the Gippsland Basin, Australia; in the Turpan Basin, China; and in the Kutei and Ardjuna basins in Indonesia, but this remains unproven. Early reports that early Jurassic coals in mid-Norway were a major source of the reservoired oils have been shown to be inaccurate.None of the proposed ‘rules of thumb’ for generation or expulsion of petroleum from coals seem particularly robust. Decisions on whether a particular coal is likely to have been an active source for oil should consider all available geological and geochemical information. The assumptions made in computational models should be well understood as it is likely with new understandings of processes involved that some of these assumptions will be difficult to sustain.