Sulphide and oxide minerals from the Ohmine granitic rocks in Kii Peninsula,central Japan,and their primary paragenetic relations

In the Ohmine granitic rocks of Kii Peninsula, central Japan, ilmenite, rutile, pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalcopyrite commonly occur, but no magnetite is present. Their primary paragenetic relations were confirmed by examining their mode of occurrences as inclusion species in major silicate minerals and the phase relations in the Cu-Fe-S system, though their parageneses changed in cooling of the rocks. This makes it possible to estimate the fugacities of oxygen and sulfur in the granitic rocks based upon their paragenetic relations, and to discuss the nature of volatiles in the granitic rocks. Significant subsolidus reactions for sulfide minerals continued until the rocks cooled below 300° C and took place in two types of mineral grains, in groundmass and as inclusions. The removal of sulfur and copper through the silicate crystals was too easy to preserve the chemistry of sulfides included in silicates.     

Tectonoelectricity

Anomalous earth-current changes in association with an earthquake occurrence have often been reported since the 19th century. Changes reported in classical as well as recent literature are reviewed, although it is hard to say that any physically clear relationship between earth-current changes and earthquakes has been established. Even though a strong correlation between precursory earthcurrent changes and earthquakes has often been reported in the U.S.S.R. and the People's Republic of China in recent years, it appears that a general rule governing the earthquake-related earth-current changes is still very much unknown, partly because of contamination by artificial and natural noise.In contrast to the difficulty in understanding earth-current changes, monitoring of earth-resistivity seems to provide a much clearer means for interpreting geoelectric phenomena in association with tectonic processes in the Earth. Soviet and American work showed that the resistivity decreases to a considerable extent in the focal region prior to an earthquake. Such a change seems to be closely correlated to dilatancy generation in the Earth's crust. This finding doubtless provides an important means for earthquake prediction.An ususual, highly sensitive resistivity variometer, developed by the writer, disclosed that a resistivity change takes place at a teleseismic distance when an earthquake of large and medium magnitude occurs. Many of the resistivity changes thus observed are preceded by a premonitory change, which is supposed to reflect the preliminary rupture at a focal region.     

Seismic return motion

Possibilities of backswing of fault displacement are investigated on the basis of a simple crack model. Although it has been suggested that the backswing would not occur in real earthquakes because of friction, there is evidence that some earthquakes might have caused return motion “locally” on the fault surface. This paper attempts to derive conditions for such local return motion. Spatial extension of the crack beyond the stress-filled region into the stress-deficient region gives a favorable site for the return motion, the site being just outside the stress-filled region. In our model the return motion occurs at this site when the frictional stress is less than about 30% of the regional stress in the stress-filled region. The overall return motion, on the other hand, would not occur unless the frictional stress is less than 10% of the regional stress.     

Decomposition of kyanite and solubility of Al2O3 in stishovite at high pressure and high temperature conditions

In order to constrain the high-pressure behavior of kyanite, multi-anvil experiments have been carried out from 15 to 25 GPa, and 1,350 to 2,500°C. Both forward and reversal approaches to phase equilibria were adopted in these experiments. We find that kyanite breaks down to stishovite + corundum at pressures above ∼15 GPa, and stishovite + corundum should be the stable phase assemblage at the pressure–temperature conditions of the transition zone and the uppermost part of the lower mantle of the Earth, in agreement with previous multi-anvil experimental studies and ab initio calculation results, but in disagreement with some of the diamond-anvil cell experimental studies in the literature. The Al₂O₃ solubility in nominally dry stishovite has been tightly bracketed by forward and reversal experiments; it is slightly but consistently reduced by pressure increase. Its response to temperature increase, however, is more complicated: increases at low temperatures, maximizes at around 2,000°C, and perhaps decreases at higher temperatures. Consequently, the Al₂O₃ solubility in dry stishovite at conditions of high temperature–high pressure is very limited.     

Incorporation of U,Pb and Rare Earth Elements in Calcite through Crystallisation from Amorphous Calcium Carbonate: Simple Preparation of Reference Materials for Microanalysis

Uncertainty for elemental and isotopic measurements in calcite by LA‐ICP‐MS is largely controlled by the homogeneity of the reference materials (RMs) used for calibration and validation. In order to produce calcite RMs with homogeneous elemental and isotopic compositions, we incorporated elements including U, Pb and rare earth elements into calcite through heat‐ and pressure‐induced crystallisation from amorphous calcium carbonate that was precipitated from element‐doped reagent solution. X‐ray absorption spectra showed that U was present as U(VI) in the synthesised calcite, probably with a different local structure from that of aqueous uranyl ions. The uptake rate of U by our calcite was higher in comparison with synthetic calcite of previous studies. Variations of element mass fractions in the calcite were better than 12% 2RSD, mostly within 7%. The ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb ratio in the calcite showed < 1% variations, while the ²³⁸U/²⁰⁶Pb ratio showed 3–24% variations depending on element mass fractions. Using the synthetic calcite as primary RMs, we could date a natural calcite RM, WC‐1, with analytical uncertainty as low as < 3%. The method presented can be useful to produce calcite with controlled and homogeneous element mass fractions and is a promising alternative to natural calcite RMs for U‐Pb geochronology.     

Relating food and human hair to assess mercury exposure levels in Poboya,Central Sulawesi,Indonesia

Poboya is a major small-scale gold-mining area in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, that has been operating since 2009. About 200–500 kg of mercury is released each day as a result of gold-mining activities over a total area of 7000 ha. We examined mercury contamination by using two types of sample, namely food and human hair. Samples were obtained in Poboya and in the city of Palu, 11 km away. Samples of 22 foods were obtained from traditional markets in Poboya and Palu. Total mercury concentrations ranged from 0.003 to 0.31 µg/g in foods from Poboya and from 0.001 to 0.13 µg/g in those from Palu. The highest total mercury concentration in Poboya was found in unripe banana, which is frequently consumed by the local people. In Poboya, the weekly mercury intakes from foods were calculated at 180.3 µg/person from vegetables, 1.7 µg/person from processed foods, 51.4 µg/person from seafood, and 17.2 µg/person from meat and eggs. In Palu, the weekly mercury intakes were 2.9 µg/person from vegetables, 3.1 µg/person from processed foods, 60.8 µg/person from seafood, and 19 µg/person from meat and eggs. These findings delineated Poboya as an area polluted by mercury contamination. Intake of mercury-contaminated food influenced the results obtained in human hair. Hair concentrations of total mercury in Poboya ranged from 0.3 to 19.6 µg/g.     

Evolutionary lineage of the Maastrichtian <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bolivinoides draco</Emphasis> group (benthic foraminifera) in Abu Zenima section,west central Sinai,Egypt

Three subspecies belong to middle-late Maastrichtian Bolivinoides draco group (B. draco aegyptiacus, B. d. draco, and B. d. dorreeni) are described of which one is new: Bolivinoides draco aegyptiacus from Abu Zenima section, west central Sinai, Egypt. This new subspecies differs from the other Bolivinoidid taxa in possessing well-developed two divergent medial longitudinal ribs along the smooth test surface, with another one rib in the central part between them. In this study, the early Maastrichtian B. miliaris is not related to this group. The other evolutionary trends are also distinguished and the paleogeographic distributions of Bolivinoides members in the Middle East are presented.     

The international at-sea intercomparison of fCO2 systems during the R/V Meteor Cruise 36/1 in the North Atlantic Ocean

The ‘International Intercomparison Exercise of fCO₂ Systems’ was carried out in 1996 during the R/V Meteor Cruise 36/1 from Bermuda/UK to Gran Canaria/Spain. Nine groups from six countries (Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, USA) participated in this exercise, bringing together 15 participants with seven underway fugacity of carbon dioxide (fCO₂) systems, one discrete fCO₂ system, and two underway pH systems, as well as systems for discrete measurement of total alkalinity and total dissolved inorganic carbon. Here, we compare surface seawater fCO₂ measured synchronously by all participating instruments. A common infrastructure (seawater and calibration gas supply), different quality checks (performance of calibration procedures for CO₂, temperature measurements) and a common procedure for calculation of final fCO₂ were provided to reduce the largest possible amount of controllable sources of error. The results show that under such conditions underway measurements of the fCO₂ in surface seawater and overlying air can be made to a high degree of agreement (±1 μatm) with a variety of possible equilibrator and system designs. Also, discrete fCO₂ measurements can be made in good agreement (±3 μatm) with underway fCO₂ data sets. However, even well-designed systems, which are operated without any obvious sign of malfunction, can show significant differences of the order of 10 μatm. Based on our results, no “best choice” for the type of the equilibrator nor specifics on its dimensions and flow rates of seawater and air can be made in regard to the achievable accuracy of the fCO₂ system. Measurements of equilibrator temperature do not seem to be made with the required accuracy resulting in significant errors in fCO₂ results. Calculation of fCO₂ from high-quality total dissolved inorganic carbon (C_T) and total alkalinity (A_T) measurements does not yield results comparable in accuracy and precision to fCO₂ measurements.