Intense fracturing and fracture sealing induced by mineral growth in porous rocks

Mineral precipitation in the pores of a rock may exert a force, which is called crystallization pressure. This process has been studied experimentally and results bring a new look on the way fractures may develop and seal in natural systems. Cylindrical core samples of porous limestone and sandstone were left for several weeks in contact with an aqueous solution saturated with sodium chloride, at 30 or 45 °C, under axial normal stress in the range 0.02–0.26 MPa. The fluid was allowed to rise in the core samples by capillary forces, up to a controlled height where evaporation and precipitation occurred. The uniaxial deformation of the samples was measured using high-resolution displacement sensors. The samples were characterized using computed X-ray tomography, allowing therefore imaging in 3D the intensity and localization of the damage. Two kinds of damage could be observed. Firstly, small rock fragments were peeled from the sample surface. Secondly, and more interestingly, fracture networks developed, by nucleation of microcracks at the interface where evaporation occurred, and propagation to the free surface. Two families of fractures could be identified. A first set of sealed fracture parallel to the evaporation front is directly induced by crystallization pressure. A second fracture network, perpendicular to the evaporation front, accommodates the first set of fractures. An analytical model where fluid flow is coupled to evaporation, vapour transport, and localization of mineral precipitation explains the shape of this fracture network.     

The DeKalb mounds of northeastern Illinois as archives of deglacial history and postglacial environments

The “type” DeKalb mounds of northeastern Illinois, USA (42.0°N, −88.7°W), are formed of basal sand and gravel overlain by rhythmically bedded fines, and weathered sand and gravel. Generally from 2 to 7 m thick, the fines include abundant fossils of ostracodes and uncommon leaves and stems of tundra plants. Rare chironomid head capsules, pillclam shells, and aquatic plant macrofossils also have been observed.Radiocarbon ages on the tundra plant fossils from the “type” region range from 20,420 to 18,560 cal yr BP. Comparison of radiocarbon ages of terrestrial plants from type area ice-walled lake plains and adjacent kettle basins indicate that the topographic inversion to ice-free conditions occurred from 18,560 and 16,650 cal yr BP. Outside the “type” area, the oldest reliable age of tundra plant fossils in DeKalb mound sediment is 21,680 cal yr BP; the mound occurs on the northern arm of the Ransom Moraine (−88.5436°W, 41.5028°N). The youngest age, 16,250 cal yr BP, is associated with a mound on the Deerfield Moraine (−87.9102°W, 42.4260°N) located about 9 km east of Lake Michigan. The chronology of individual successions indicates the lakes persisted on the periglacial landscape for about 300 to 1500 yr.     

Virtual moralities: The mainstreaming of Fairtrade in Kenyan tea fields

Fairtrade was founded to alleviate poverty and economic injustice through a market-based form of solidarity exchange. Yet with the increasing participation of transnational food corporations in Fairtrade sourcing, new questions are emerging on the extent to which the model offers an alternative to the inimical tendencies of neoliberalism. Drawing on a qualitative research project of Kenyan Fairtrade tea, this paper examines how the process of corporate mainstreaming influences the structure and outcomes of Fairtrade, and specifically the challenges it poses for the realization of Fairtrade’s development aspirations. It argues firstly that whilst tea producers have experienced tangible benefits from Fairtrade’s social premium, these development ‘gifts’ have been conferred through processes marked less by collaboration and consent than by patronage and exclusion. These contradictions are often glossed by the symbolic force of Fairtrade’s key tenets - empowerment, participation, and justice - which simultaneously serve to neutralize critique and mystify the functions that Fairtrade performs for the political economy of development and neoliberalism. Second, building on recent critiques of corporate social responsibility, the paper explores how certain neoliberal rationalities are emboldened through Fairtrade, as a process of mainstreaming installs new metrics of governance (standards, certification, participation) that are at once moral and technocratic, voluntary and coercive, and inclusionary and marginalizing. The paper concludes that these technologies have divested exchange of mutuality, as the totemic features of neoliberal regulation - standards, procedures and protocols - increasingly render north south partnerships ever more virtual and depoliticized.     

Spectroscopy of “Big Trio” objects using the “Scorpio” spectrograph of the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory

We present the results of spectroscopy of 71 objects with steep and ultra-steep spectra (α < −0.9, S ∝ ν ^α) from the “Big Trio” (RATAN-600-VLA-BTA) project, performed with the “Scorpio” spectrograph on the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory (Russian Academy of Sciences). Redshifts were determined for these objects. We also present several other parameters of the sources, such as their R magnitudes, maximum radio sizes in seconds of arc, flux densities at 500, 1425, and 3940 MHz, radio luminosities at 500 and 3940 MHz, and morphology. Of the total number of radio galaxies studied, four have redshifts 1 ≤ z < 2, three have 2 ≤ z < 3, one has 3 ≤ z < 4, and one has z = 4.51. Thirteen sources have redshifts 0.7 < z < 1 and 15 have 0.2 < z < 0.7.Of all the quasars studied, five have redshifts 0.7 < z < 1, seven have 1 ≤ z < 2, four have 2 ≤ z < 3, and one has z = 3.57. We did not detect any spectral lines for 17 objects.     

First insights into the structure and environmental setting of cold-seep communities in the Marmara Sea

A brackish-water cold seep on the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) in the Marmara Sea was investigated with the Nautile submersible during the MarNaut cruise in 2007. This active zone has already been surveyed and revealed evidence of active seeping on the seafloor, such as bubble emissions, patches of reduced sediments, microbial mats and authigenic carbonate crusts. MarNaut was the first opportunity to sample benthic communities in the three most common microhabitats (bioturbated and reduced sediments, carbonate crust) and to examine their relationships with environmental conditions. To do so, faunal communities were sampled and chemical measurements were taken close to the organisms. According to diversity indices, the bioturbated microhabitat exhibited the highest taxonomic diversity and evenness despite a lower number of samples. Conversely, the reduced sediment microhabitat exhibited the lowest taxonomic diversity and evenness. The carbonate crust microhabitat was intermediate although it had the highest biomass. Multivariate analyses showed that (1) fauna were relatively similar within a single microhabitat; (2) faunal community structure varied greatly between the different microhabitats; (3) there was a link between faunal distribution and the type of substratum; and (4) chemical gradients (i.e. methane, oxygen and probably sulphides) may influence faunal distribution. The estimated fluid flow velocity (0.4–0.8 m/yr) confirmed the presence of fluid emission and provided evidence of seawater convection in the two soft-sediment microhabitats. Our results suggest that the reduced sediments may represent a harsher environment with high upward fluid flow, which restrains seawater from penetrating the sediments and inhibits sulphide production, whereas bioturbated sediments can be viewed as a bio-irrigated system with sulphide production occurring at greater depths. Therefore, the environmental conditions in reduced sediments appear to prevent the colonization of symbiont-bearing fauna, such as vesicomyid bivalves, which are more often found in bioturbated sediments. Fluid flow appears to control sulphide availability, which in turn influences the horizontal and vertical distribution patterns of fauna at small spatial scales as observed at other seep sites.     

Perceptions of risk and adaptation: Coffee producers,market shocks,and extreme weather in Central America and Mexico

This article explores the role of risk perception in adaptation to stress through comparative case studies of coffee farmers’ responses to climatic and non-climatic stressors. We hypothesized that farmers associating these changes with high risk would be more likely to make adaptations than those who saw the events as part of normal variation. Nevertheless, we found that farmers who associated events with high risk were not more likely to engage in specific adaptations. Adaptive responses were more clearly associated with access to land than perception of risk, suggesting that adaptation is more a function of exogenous constraints on decision making than perception.     

Metasomatic hydrous fluids in amphibole peridotites from Zabargad Island (Red Sea)

Combining textural, petrological, chemical and isotopic (Sr, H and O) data for amphiboles and whole rocks from the Zabargad peridotite diapir allows three different events to be distinguished. During each event, which can be related to a specific tectonic process of the rifting of the Red Sea, hydrous fluids produced amphiboles.

The first and the second generations of amphiboles have characteristics consistent with the involvement of mantle-derived hydrous fluids. The first generation consists of scarce Ti-pargasites which crystallized from small amounts of fluid at temperatures of around 900–1000°C. Their growth was linked to magma percolation in the peridotites before their deformation during diapiric uplift. The second generation consists of Cr-pargasites which crystallized locally (and abundantly) during reaction between the peridotites and a sodium/potassium-bearing hydrous fluid at temperatures of around 700–800°C. These amphiboles grew synchronously with the diapiric uplift. The hydrous fluids probably originated in the sub-continental mantle and were released during the diapiric uplift of the peridotites.

The third generation consists of amphiboles (pargasitic hornblende, hornblende sensu lato and tremolite) which are localized in shear zones and veins. They crystallized at temperatures estimated between 700°C and 450°C, again from a sodium/potassium-bearing hydrous fluid. However, this fluid is extraneous to the peridotites, as shown by the Sr, H and O isotope compositions which suggest seawater penetration either during or after the final emplacement of the peridotite diapir.

Although the peridotite diapir was emplaced in granulitic gneisses of the pan-African deep continental crust, no evidence was found for a contribution of hydrous continental fluids in the production of the amphiboles present in the peridotite bodies of Zabargad Island.     

Les eaux thermales des granites de Galice (Espagne): des eaux carbogazeuses aux eaux alcalines (Thermal waters from granites of Galicia (Spain): from CO2-rich to high-pH waters)

Thermal waters from Galicia, Spain, range from CO₂-rich, low-pH to high-pH, sulfide-rich waters, going through intermediate waters. In order to explain the variations of their chemical composition, we present a discussion of the major factors governing the water composition. We eiscuss especially the isochemical recrystallization of a granite. It is shown that the equilibrium mineral association of the water-alkali granite system is unique. For chalco-alkaline granites, two different associations are possible, depending on the chemical composition of the granite. The effect of an addition of CO₂ is also discussed.

Some criteria allowing a distinction between fully equilibrated and non-equilibrated waters are presented.

Finally, the composition of Galician waters is explained by different initial CO₂ contents and by different values of the degree of the granite-water reaction progress (ξ).

Résumé

Les eaux thermales de Galice (Espagne) vont des eaux riches en CO₂ aux eaux typiquement alcalines en passant par différents intermédiaires. Pour comprendre l'évolution de la composition chimique de ces eaux, nous avons été conduits à discuter, de façon plus générale, des facteurs majeurs qui fixent la composition minéralogique résultant d'une recristallisation isochimique du granite. Nous avons pu montrer que les granites alcalins se transformaient toujours en la même association minérale, tandis que les granites calcoalcalins pouvaient donner naissance à deux associations d'équilibre différentes. L'apport de CO₂ au système eau-roche peut faire passer d'une association minérale à l'autre, et, si le CO₂ est en grande quantité, à une association contenant un minéral de moins et du CO₂ en excès. On propose également, pour les solutions géothermales, des critères d'équilibre ou de non équilibre, basés sur la composition en éléments majeurs. La variation de composition des eaux de Galice peut alors s'interpréter par des teneurs variables en CO₂ et des degrés d'avancement différents de la réaction d'interaction eau-granite.     

The solubility of fluorite in hydrothermal solutions,an experimental study

The solubility of fluorite in NaCl solutions increases with increasing temperature at all ionic strengths up to about 100°C. Above this temperature, the solubility passes through a maximum and possibly a minimum with increasing temperature at NaCl concentrations of 1.0M or less, and increases continuously with increasing temperature at NaCl concentrations above 1.0M. At any given temperature, the solubility of fluorite increases with increasing salt concentration in NaCl, KCl and CaCl₂ solutions. The solubility follows Debye-Hückel theory for KCl solutions. In NaCl and CaCl₂ solutions, the solubility of fluorite increases more rapidly than predicted by Debye-Hückel theory: the excess solubility is due to the presence of NaF^c, CaF⁺, and possibly of Na₂F⁺. The solubility of fluorite in NaCl-CaCl₂ and in NaCl-CaCl₂-MgCl₂ solutions is controlled by the common ion effect and by the presence of NaF^c, CaF⁺, and MgF⁺. The solubility of fluorite in NaCl-HCl solutions increases rapidly with increasing initial HCl concentration; the large solubility increase is due to the presence of HF^c. It seems likely that complexes other than those identified in this study rarely play a major role in fluoride transport and fluorite deposition at temperatures below 300°C.