Metasomatism and sulfide mobility in lithospheric mantle beneath eastern Australia: Implications for mantle Re–Os chronology

Spinel lherzolite xenoliths from Tertiary basaltic host magmas at Allyn River, eastern Australia reveal two distinct petrographic and geochemical types. One group is distinguished by xenoliths with undeformed, equilibrated microstructures and interstitial melt patches; The second group shows deformation and contains abundant fluid inclusions but no melt patches. Trace-element signatures of clinopyroxene in these xenoliths provide evidence for metasomatism by a silicate agent with hydrous component and by a carbonate-rich agent respectively.

Melt patches in the undeformed xenoliths contain secondary minerals including clinopyroxene, olivine, feldspar, Mg- and Ca-rich carbonate, apatite, ilmenite and spinel. They are interpreted to represent volatile-rich melt captured shortly prior to entrainment in the host basalt. Sulfide globules, now recrystallised to discrete sulfide phases but inferred to be molten at lithospheric mantle T and P, are closely associated with the melt patches. The close association between sulfide and highly mobile, volatile-bearing fluid has important implications for the mobility of Re and Os, the use of their isotopes in dating mantle events, and the possible effect of volatile-bearing metasomatic agents on their composition.     

Comparison of statistically downscaled precipitation in terms of future climate indices and daily variability for southern Ontario and Quebec,Canada

Given the coarse resolution of global climate models, downscaling techniques are often needed to generate finer scale projections of variables affected by local-scale processes such as precipitation. However, classical statistical downscaling experiments for future climate rely on the time-invariance assumption as one cannot know the true change in the variable of interest, nor validate the models with data not yet observed. Our experimental setup involves using the Canadian regional climate model (CRCM) outputs as pseudo-observations to estimate model performance in the context of future climate projections by replacing historical and future observations with model simulations from the CRCM, nested within the domain of the Canadian global climate model (CGCM). In particular, we evaluated statistically downscaled daily precipitation time series in terms of the Peirce skill score, mean absolute errors, and climate indices. Specifically, we used a variety of linear and nonlinear methods such as artificial neural networks (ANN), decision trees and ensembles, multiple linear regression, and k-nearest neighbors to generate present and future daily precipitation occurrences and amounts. We obtained the predictors from the CGCM 3.1 20C3M (1971–2000) and A2 (2041–2070) simulations, and precipitation outputs from the CRCM 4.2 (forced with the CGCM 3.1 boundary conditions) as predictands. Overall, ANN models and tree ensembles outscored the linear models and simple nonlinear models in terms of precipitation occurrences, without performance deteriorating in future climate. In contrast, for the precipitation amounts and related climate indices, the performance of downscaling models deteriorated in future climate.     

利用漫反射光谱鉴定红粘土中针铁矿和赤铁矿

针铁矿(Gt)和赤铁矿(Hm)是广泛存在于土壤和沉积物中的重要铁矿物。这两种矿物在土壤和沉积物中含量很低,常规的测试手段很难有效地测定其含量。利用反射光谱联合加热处理的方法,可对土壤及沉积物样品中针铁矿和赤铁矿进行定性或半定量测定。实验结果显示,样品加热到300℃后,针铁矿的反射光谱的一阶导数特征峰发生了变化,赤铁矿的一阶导数特征峰却没有明显的变化。因此加热前后样品反射光谱一阶导数的变化取决于针铁矿和赤铁矿的含量。利用这种方法估计黄土高原第三纪红粘土样品中的赤铁矿含量约为0.3%～0.4%,针铁矿含量约为0.5%～1%。     

Seasonal distribution of sulfur fractions in Louisiana salt marsh soils

The profile distributions of specific sulfur forms were examined at a site in a Louisiana salt marsh over a 1-yr period. Soil samples were fractionated into acid-volatile sulfides, HCl-soluble sulfur, elemental sulfur, pyrite sulfur, ester-sulfate sulfur, carbon-bonded sulfur, and total sulfur. Inorganic sulfur constituted 16% to 36% of total sulfur, with pyrite sulfur representing <2%. Pyrite sulfur content in marsh soil was relatively high in winter. Pyrite sulfur and elemental sulfur together accounted for 4% to 24% of the inorganic sulfur fraction. Between 74% and 95% of inorganic sulfur was present as the HCl-soluble sulfur form. A significant negative correlation between acid-volatile sulfides and elemental sulfur observed in summer suggested the transformation of fulfides to elemental sulfur. Organic sulfur, in the forms of ester-sulfate sulfur and carbon-bonded sulfur, predominated in all sampling periods, comprising 64% to 84% of total sulfur. The conversion of ester-sulfate sulfur into carbon-bonded sulfur was more likely to occur in winter than in other seasons. Carbon-bonded sulfur accounted for 53% to 89% of the organic sulfur. Organic sulfur was the major contributor to the variation of total sulfur in all seasons studied. Total sulfur concentration showed a statistically significant increase with depth.     

Model studies of the impact of chemical inhomogeneity on SO2 oxidation in warm stratiform clouds

A one-dimensional, time-dependent model of the physics and chemistry of a warm stratiform cloud is used to study the possible impact of chemical inhomogeneity among cloud and raindrops on the oxidation of SO₂ in clouds. The effects of chemical inhomogeneity are examined using two contrasting models: In Model 1 a bulk-solution parameterization is adopted which effectively treats all cloud and raindrops as if they are chemically homogeneous; in Model 2 we allow the cloud and raindrops to have a dichotomous distribution. The dichotomous distribution in Model 2 is simulated by assuming that the two groups of cloud droplets nucleate from two chemically distinct populations of condensation nuclei; one being acidic and the other being alkaline. While the two models yield essentially identical results when the ambient levels of H₂O₂ are greater than the ambient levels of SO₂, the rate of conversion of SO₂ to sulfuric acid and the amount of sulfate removed in the precipitation can be significantly enhanced in Model 2 over that of Model 1 under conditions of oxidant limitation (i.e., H₂O₂ < SO₂). This enhancement is critically dependent upon the fraction of alkaline nuclei assumed to be present in Model 2 and arises from the rapid increase in the aqueous-phase reaction between O₃+S_IV at high pH. Our results suggest that cloud models which adopt a bulk-solution parameterization for cloud droplet chemistry, may underestimate the amount of in-cloud SO₂ oxidation under oxidant-limited conditions.     

Scientific challenges and instrumentation for the International Meridian Circle Program

Earth's ecosystems and human activities are threatened by a broad spectrum of hazards of major importance for the safety of ground infrastructures,space systems...     

Precessional forcing of tropical vegetation carbon storage

Since the Mid Pleistocene Revolution, which occurred about one million years ago, global temperatures have fluctuated with a quasi‐periodicity of ca. 100 ka. The pattern of past change in the extent of woodlands, and therefore by inference vegetation carbon storage, has been demonstrated to have a strong positive link with this global temperature change at high and mid latitudes. However, understanding of climate systems and ecosystem function indicates that the pattern of woodland change at low latitudes may follow a fundamentally different pattern. We present output from the intermediate complexity model GENIE‐1, comprising a single transient simulation over the last 800 ka and a 174‐member ensemble of 130 ka transient simulations over the last glacial cycle. These simulations suggest that while vegetation carbon storage in mid–high northern latitudes robustly follows the characteristic ca. 100 ka cycle, this signal is not a robust feature of tropical vegetation, which is subject to stronger direct forcing by the precessional (21 ka) orbital cycle (albeit with a highly uncertain response). We conclude that the correlation of palaeoenvironmental records from low latitudes with global temperature change must be done with caution. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integration of aquifer geology,groundwater flow and arsenic distribution in deltaic aquifers – A unifying concept

Groundwater arsenic (As) presents a public health risk of great magnitude in densely populated Asian delta regions, most acutely in the Bengal Basin (West Bengal, India and Bangladesh). Research has focused on the sources, mobilisation, and heterogeneity of groundwater As, but a consistent explanation of As distribution from local to basin scale remains elusive. We show for the Bengal Aquifer System that the numerous, discontinuous silt‐clay layers together with surface topography impose a hierarchical pattern of groundwater flow, which constrains As penetration into the aquifer and controls its redistribution towards discharge zones, where it is re‐sequestered to solid phases. This is particularly so for the discrete periods of As release to groundwater in the shallow subsurface associated with sea level high‐stand conditions of Quaternary inter‐glacial periods. We propose a hypothesis concerning groundwater flow ( S ilt‐clay layers I mpose H ierarchical groundwater flow patterns constraining A rsenic progression [SIHA]), which links consensus views on the As source and history of sedimentation in the basin to the variety of spatial and depth distributions of groundwater As reported in the literature. SIHA reconciles apparent inconsistencies between independent, in some cases contrasting, field observations. We infer that lithological and topographic controls on groundwater flow, inherent to SIHA, apply more generally to deltaic aquifers elsewhere. The analysis suggests that groundwater As may persist in the aquifers of Asian deltas over thousands of years, but in certain regions, particularly at deeper levels, As will not exceed low background concentrations unless groundwater flow systems are short‐circuited by excessive pumping.