H2O–CO2 solubility in mafic alkaline magma: applications to volatile sources and degassing behavior at Erebus volcano, Antarctica

We present new equilibrium mixed-volatile (H₂O–CO₂) solubility data for a phonotephrite from Erebus volcano, Antarctica. H₂O–CO₂-saturated experiments were conducted at 400–700 MPa, 1,190 °C, and ~NNO + 1 in non-end-loaded piston cylinders. Equilibrium H₂O–CO₂ fluid compositions were determined using low-temperature vacuum manometry, and the volatile and major element compositions of the glassy run products were determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and electron microprobe. Results show that the phonotephrite used in this study will dissolve ~0.8 wt% CO₂ at 700 MPa and a fluid composition of $ X_{{{\text{H}}_{ 2} {\text{O}}}} $ ~0.4, in agreement with previous experimental studies on mafic alkaline rocks. Furthermore, the dissolution of CO₂ at moderate to high $ X_{{{\text{H}}_{ 2} {\text{O}}}}^{\text{fluid}} $ in our experiments exceeds that predicted using lower-pressure experiments on similar melts from the literature, suggesting a departure from Henrian behavior of volatiles in the melt at pressures above 400 MPa. With these data, we place new constraints on the modeling of Erebus melt inclusion and gas emission data and thus the interpretation of its magma plumbing system and the contributions of primitive magmas to passive and explosive degassing from the Erebus phonolite lava lake.     

Study of Stratus-Lowering Marine-Fog Events Observed During C-FOG

Boundary-Layer Meteorology - Two stratus-lowering marine fog events observed on 28 September and 4 October 2018 during the Coastal Fog (C-Fog) field campaign that took place offshore of eastern...     

The Non-Climatic Research Potential of Ships' Logbooks and Journals

The large-scale study of ship's logbooks for climatic data has revealed the wide and varied potential of this under-exploited resource for the study of the past. As well as being of utility to climatologists, the daily recording of shipboard information can help illuminate a number of themes of interest to maritime and naval historians. More than this, however, such studies can help inform both more general and other specialized historical studies. Logbooks contain both anecdotal and statistical data relevant to the studies of medical historians, the history of science and navigation, social history, economic history, warfare, imperial history and of course environmental history. Moreover, many of these themes can be studied in a multi-national context and furthermore, if studied in a multi-disciplinary context, can offer many useful insights.     

The petroleum geology of the Unst Basin, North Sea

The Unst Basin is situated in the northern North Sea between the East Shetland Basin and the Shetland Isles. The basin is essentially a three-armed, Permo-Triassic fault-controlled basin containing up to 3600 m of red-beds. This is overlain by a westerly thickening Jurassic and early Cretaceous sequence, the stratigraphy of which is very similar to that of the East Shetland Basin. In particular, the Brent Group (140 m), Humber Group (685 m) and Cromer Knoll Group (300 m) are well represented.As a result of Laramide uplift of the area, the thick Upper Cretaceous and Palaeocene strata of the East Shetland Basin are absent from the Unst Basin. This uplift resulted in substantial erosion within the Unst Basin providing the major source for Palaeocene sands in the Viking Graben and the Faeroes Basin. Late Palaeocene and younger Tertiary strata transgress westwards across this erosion surface.Petroleum exploration within the basin culminated in the drilling of two exploration wells. These wells encountered potential reservoir and source rocks in the Jurassic section. However, geochemical analyses indicate these source rocks are immature for hydrocarbon generation within the Unst Basin. It is concluded that the Unst Basin has a low petroleum potential.     

Improved groundwater vulnerability mapping for the karstic chalk aquifer of south east England

The Cretaceous age Chalk of south east England forms an important aquifer. Within chalk the storage and transmission of groundwater is enhanced by subsurface karstic weathering. The case study presented in this paper demonstrates that current approaches to assessing groundwater vulnerability to pollution and delineating source protection zones are flawed, as they do not take proper account of the karstic nature of chalk.Improved techniques, based on understanding the geological and geomorphological controls of karst development in chalk, are proposed to overcome the shortcomings of published groundwater vulnerability maps. The results also demonstrate the inadequacies of current groundwater modelling approaches for defining source protection zones. The techniques follow European Commission research recommendations by taking account of recharge, presence of overlying cover deposits, the nature of chalk karst and the way in which it influences the flow of groundwater. The approach described allows for better informed decisions to be made about chalk aquifer management to ensure adequate protection and conservation of groundwater. For example, the published groundwater vulnerability map shows Lambeth Group deposits classified as being a minor aquifer of low groundwater vulnerability in the chosen study area. However, by applying the new techniques, they are classified as having an Aquifer Vulnerability Rating of moderate to very high, when taking the karstic development of the underlying chalk into account.     

Investigation into the petrogenesis of Apollo 14 high-Al basaltic melts through crystal stratigraphy of plagioclase

The petrogenesis of Apollo 14 high-Al basaltic melts was studied using crystal stratigraphy, which involves textural (crystal size distributions — CSDs) and chemical analyses (electron microprobe and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry). The samples studied here include pristine basalt 14072 and basaltic clasts from breccia 14321, and impact-generated crystalline samples 14073, 14276 and 14310. Plagioclase was the focus of this study because of its relatively high modal abundances and because it was on the liquidus for much of the melt cooling histories. Plagioclase crystals were analyzed (core-to-rim compositions where possible) to test and refine petrogenetic models based upon whole-rock compositions (Groups A, B, and C designations) and to investigate basalt 14072 and impact-melt crystallization. Textural studies have shown that each basalt group has distinctive plagioclase CSDs, which are in turn distinctive from those of the impact melts. Evolution of the individual basaltic melts was studied by comparing the equilibrium-melt compositions (calculated from plagioclase compositions using relevant partition coefficients) to fractional crystallization (FC) and assimilation and fractional crystallization (AFC) models. Petrogenetic modeling of trace elements in Group A basalts revealed that petrogenesis continued beyond 40% total crystallization required to model whole-rock compositions, and that there were open-system processes that affected the magma during plagioclase crystallization. Petrogenetic modeling of pristine high-Al basalts (14072 and Groups A, B and C) using trace elements shows that the equilibrium-melt compositions do not fall on a single AFC or FC trajectory. This is consistent with fluctuating degrees of assimilation (i.e., variable r-values) and/or variable assimilant compositions during petrogenesis. Petrogenetic modeling reveals that the impact melts experienced only closed-system fractional crystallization. This work demonstrates the importance of crystal stratigraphy in revealing the intricacies of lunar basalt petrogenesis.     

Toward Improving Coastal-Fog Prediction (C-FOG)

Boundary-Layer Meteorology -     

Finite volume discretization with imposed flux continuity for the general tensor pressure equation

We present a new family of flux continuous, locally conservative, finite volume schemes applicable to the diagonal and full tensor pressure equations with generally discontinuous coefficients. For a uniformly constant symmetric elliptic tensor field, the full tensor discretization is second order accurate with a symmetric positive definite matrix. For a full tensor, an _M-matrix with diagonal dominance can be obtained subject to a sufficient condition for ellipticity. Positive definiteness of the discrete system is illustrated. Convergence rates for discontinuous coefficients are presented and the importance of modeling the full permeability tensor pressure equation is demonstrated.     

Squeezing information from regional climate change projections - results from a synthesis of CMIP5 results for south-east Queensland, Australia

We present a synthesis of CMIP5 model results for projected rainfall changes for a single region (south-east Queensland, Australia) and note that, as was evident in CMIP3 results, the multi-model mean projected changes for the late 21st century are not statistically significant for any season nor annually. Taking account of the number of statistically significant changes to mean rainfall, we find some evidence favouring a decrease in both spring and annual rainfall, but this is not compelling. In almost all cases the most frequent result is for no significant change. However, if we consider the number of results where there is a statistically significant change in the distributions of rainfall amounts, there appears to be slightly more information available for risk assessment studies. These numbers suggest an increase in the frequency of both wet and dry events during summer and spring, and a shift towards more frequent dry events during winter. There is no evidence for any significant changes to the distributions for either autumn or annually. The findings suggest that, in one respect, multi-model rainfall projections may contain more information than is evident from syntheses which focus on changes to the means and that, for some regions where changes in the frequency of wet and dry seasons/years have known impacts, the model projections may be more valuable than previously thought.