Petrology of recrystallized ultramafic xenoliths from Merelava volcano,Vanuatu

Xenoliths in primitive olivine tholeiite lavas from Merelava Volcano, Vanuatu, include recrystallized wehrlites and harzburgites characterized by extremely fine grain size (0.02–2 mm) and equigranular textures. The harzburgites display mineral segregations, have highly variable ratios of ol: opx, minor clinopyroxene and accessory Cr-spinel, and are interpreted as the residues of high degrees of melting of upper mantle peridotite. Annealed Cr-spinel aggregates in harzburgite sample # 31564B enclose numerous small inclusions of sodic sanidine and minor plagioclase, attributed to infiltration of the harzburgite by a residual melt derived from an earlier period of island arc magmatism. The recrystallized wehrlites have high ol/cpx ratios and depleted REE patterns compatible with a cumulus origin. The refractory nature of the phases in both groups of recrystallized xenoliths compares closely with phases in Alpine-type peridotites and primitive arc lavas, and is incompatible with compositions of abyssal peridotites. The recrystallized wehrlites give equilibration temperatures of 1070–1130° C and are interpreted as cumulates derived from an earlier period of Vanuatu Arc magmatism. The range of composition displayed by phases in the harzburgites is greater than phase variation in the wehrlites, and reflects a more complex thermal history. Textural, mineralogical, and geothermometric considerations indicate the harzburgites underwent cooling to 800°/900° C before being re-heated to 1000–1100° C by the current magmatic regime. A shallow crustal origin for these xenoliths is indicated by gravity data and tectonic considerations which strongly imply the presence of an ophiolite body beneath Merelava, representing the northward extension of the Pentecost Ophiolite. These interpretations are compatible with a published model for generation of the host basalts by partial melting at the crust/mantle boundary (ca. 17 km). Sr isotopic data show that the harzburgites are incompatible with residues of ocean-floor magmatism, or with residues of Merelava and Central Chain magmatism, but suggest an affinity with Vitiaz Arc magmatism of Eocene-lower Miocene age. Both groups of xenoliths were apparently entrained from wall rocks during ascent of the host magmas.     

Water vapor flux at the sea surface

Methods and instrumentation for determining the rate of evaporation at the sea surface are reviewed. At experimental sites free of local influences, there is a consensus that the evaporation coefficient in neutral conditions C _EN = 1.2 × 10^–3 at low and moderate wind speeds. Combining this with Businger-Dyer flux-gradient formulas, a parameterization scheme is proposed. Evaporation of spray droplets from breaking waves is expected to cause C _EN to increase at high wind speeds, but no direct observations of this are found. Recently it has become possible to estimate water vapor flux in tropical regions from satellite data, opening the possiblity of studying large-scale evaporative events as a function of both time and space.Visiting scholar, Department of Atmospheric Sciences AK-40, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195, U.S.A. (until June, 1989).     

The effects of hydrocarbons on the setting of the American oyster,Crassostrea virginica,in intertidal habitats in Southeastern North Carolina

Effects of petroleum covered substrate on intertidal oyster spat (Crassostrea virginica) set were measured at three intertidal elevations in a southeastern North Carolina estuary.Mercenaria mercenaria shells were coated with Bunker C crude oil or a 40∶1 mixture of gasoline: 2-cycle engine oil and placed intertidally for seven 13-d periods. Spat densities were significantly lower on oil treatments versus control and gas-treated shells in the high intertidal zone. This was principally attributed to an increased sediment coat on oiled shells. Maximum spat size was smaller on oil-treated shells at all elevations when compared to gas and control shells, indicating that setting may be delayed on oiled shell. For all experimental 13-d periods in the low intertidal zone and for three periods in the mid-tidal zone, barnacle densities (primarilyBalanus improvisus andB. eburneus) were significantly greater on oiled shells than on control shells.     

Fate of riverine nitrate entering an estuary: I. Denitrification and nitrogen burial

Fate of riverine nitrate entering a well defined turbid estuary receiving discharges from the Atchafalaya River, a distributary of the Mississippi River, was determined. Seasonal distribution of NO₃ and its transformations were measured in Four League Bay (9,300 ha). Denitrification was estimated by incubating wet samples in the presence of acetylene and monitoring N₂O production. The annual sediment accumulation of N was also determined within the bay and within the adjacent marshes. Nitrogen accumulation ranged from 6.0 to 23 gN per m² per yr on the marsh and 6.1 to 11.2 gN per m² per yr in the bay. Denitrification in this system was controlled by the availability of NO₃ ^? with fluxes ranging from 2 to 70 ngN per g per hr. The annual (N₂O +N₂)-N emission was equivalent to 142 and 120 μg per g or 2.1 and 1.7 gN per m² from the 5 bay and 5 marsh stations, respectively. Approximately 1.95×10⁵ kgN, predominantly as N₂, is being returned to the atmosphere via denitrification. We estimate this to be equivalent to 50% of the riverine NO₃ ^? entering this estuary. A significant amount was also assimilated within the estuary.     

Urban mental maps and housing estate preferences of council tenants

This paper offers an exploratory examination of the urban mental maps and housing estate preferences of council tenants. The study area is the council housing market of the city of Birmingham. The data are based on an interview survey of transfer applicants on six Birmingham ‘study estates’ which provide contrasts in terms of age and location. The findings generally offer support for J.S. Adams' sectoral mental maps hypothesis, although important differences are disclosed among the familiarity spaces of tenant groups defined on the basis of the study estates. The results are also suggestive of a general sharpening of preferences for council estates located inside the home sector, with tenants expressing a net preference for older suburban housing areas. Conversely, the least popular estates are located in the inner/middle rings of the city and characterized by relatively large concentrations of New Commonwealth immigrants.     

An isotopic study of hydrocarbon generation processes

The sources of reservoired liquid hydrocarbons in Australia differ substantially from their Northern Hemisphere counterparts. Not only are Australian source rocks largely of terrigenous origin but the concepts accepted as defining the hydrocarbon potential of source rocks have recently been challenged. Although isotopic measurements on Australian source rocks and liquid hydrocarbon products closely parallel those published from elsewhere, new interpretations of these data have been made, particularly with regard to D/H ratios in coals. As interesting as such results may be, the most important findings relate to the origins and histories of methane, the higher gaseous hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide, and the interpretation of these data in terms of hydrocarbon genesis. Simple Northern Hemisphere concepts which characterize gases as being biogenic, oil-associated, etc., on the bases of their isotopic and chemical compositions are clearly not applicable to the Australian scene. Indeed justification of such precise classifications in the Northern Hemisphere on the available evidence is also questioned.Isotopic and compositional data from gases from the Cooper, Bowen, Sydney and Gippsland Basins and from the North West Shelf (Australia) are reviewed, and assessed in terms of generation pathways.     

A tem microstructural study of dolomite with curved faces (saddle dolomite)

Electron diffraction, analytical electron microscopy, and high voltage, high resolution electron microscopy have been used to investigate crystal defects in calcium-rich saddle dolomites having pronounced curvature of the faces. Results show that branching, ribbon-like defects in these so-called saddle dolomites are thin, coherent laths of calcitic material. The ribbons are profuse and explain the characteristic calcium excess found in most saddle dolomites. Because the lattice spacings of calcite are between 3.8% and 6.7% larger than the corresponding lattice spacings of dolomite, a calcitic ribbon causes local distortion of the host dolomite. The branching ribbons have a predominant {10¯14} orientation and are generally present in high density. They may represent the source of crystal distortion that ultimately manifests itself on the macroscopic scale. The calcitic ribbons form during growth from aqueous solution, although they have features in common with similar defects found in carbonatite carbonates. This fine-scale intergrowth microstructure may be a variant of even finer-scale modulated structures found in other sedimentary calcian dolomites.     

Lithic breccias in pyroclastic flow deposits on St. Kitts,West Indies

Lithic-rich breccias are described from within a sequence of young (2000–3000 yrs B.P.) scoria and ash flow deposits erupted from Mount Misery and an older pumice and ash flow deposit (ignimbrite) on St. Kitts. Cross sections constructed through pyroclastic flow fans in well-exposed sea cliffs 4–6 km from the vent show that the lithic breccias are lensoid deposits which seem to occur as channel-shaped accumulations (up to > 20 m thick and > 150 m wide) within flow units. The best-developed example infills a deeply incised channel cut into older flow units. The coarsest lithic breccias are clast supported and fines depleted and grade laterally and vertically through finer-grained, matrix-supported breccias into scoria and ash flow deposits. Coarse scoria-concentration zones mainly occur at the tops of scoria and ash flow units but also at the bases, and gas-segregation pipes are common. The lithic breccias are a type of body-concentration deposit as they pass laterally into normal scoria and ash flow deposits and, where best developed, clearly occur above a reversely graded basal shear zone or layer. Grain-size studies indicate the lithic breccias and parent flows are strongly fines depleted and were highly fluidized. We suggest this may be a feature of many Lesser Antillean pyroclastic flows because of increased turbulence-induced fluidization resulting from a high degree of surface roughness caused by the steep (up to 40 °) irregular slopes, densely vegetated sinuous gullies of the tropical volcanoes, and ingestion and ignition of large amounts of lush vegetation. Accumulation of batches of lithics concentrated in the highly fluidized flows began at the break in slope where flows moved from gullies across hydraulic jumps onto the outer coastal flanks. The accumulations of breccias continued to move and be channelled down the central parts of the flows. Initially, on crossing onto the lower slopes, some of these flows seem to have had very powerfully erosive, nondepositional heads, and in the extreme example a deep channel as long as 1–2 km may have cut through underlying flow units at least as far as the present coastline. Much of the overriding remainder of the flow then drained away laterally. Thin, fine-grained ash flow deposits may form a marginal overbank facies to the pyroclastic flow fans.     

Radon-222 in groundwater of the Long Valley caldera,California

In the Long Valley caldera, where seismicity has continued essentially uninterrupted since mid-1980 and uplift is documented, samples of water from hot, warm, and cold springs have been collected since September, 1982, and their²²²Rn concentrations analyzed. Concurrently, rocks encompassing the hydrologic systems feeding the springs were analyzed for their radioelement contents, because their uranium is the ultimate source of the²²²Rn in the water.The²²²Rn concentration in the springs varies inversely with their temperature and specific conductance. High concentrations (1500 to 2500 picocuries per liter) occur in dilute cold springs on the margins of the caldera, while low contents (12 to 25 pCi/l) occur in hot to boiling springs. Springwater radon concentrations also correlate slightly with the uranium content of the encompassing rocks.A continuous monitoring system was installed in August, 1983, at a spring issuing from basalt, to provide hourly records of radon concentration. A gamma detector is submerged in a natural pool, and we have observed that the radioactivity measured in this manner is due almost entirely to the²²²Rn concentration of the water. Initial operation shows diurnal and semidiurnal variations in the²²²Rn concentration of the springwater that are ascribed to earth tides, suggesting that those variations are responding to small changes in stress in the rocks encompassing the hydrologic system.