A Kaapvaal craton debate: Nucleus of an early small supercontinent or affected by an enhanced accretion event?

Incorporation of the Kaapvaal craton within a speculative Neoarchaean–Palaeoproterozoic supercontinent has long been debated, and this idea provides a potential solution to solving the apparently enigmatic provenance of the huge quantities of gold within the famous Witwatersrand auriferous deposits of Kaapvaal. Within a framework of a postulated Neoarchaean “Kenorland” (“northern”; present-day reference) supercontinent, we examine possible “southern” cratons that may have been contiguous with Kaapvaal: Pilbara, Zimbabwe, Dharwar, São Francisco, Amazon, Congo. Brief reviews of their basic geology and inferred evolution in syn-Witwatersrand basin times (c. 3.1–2.8 Ga) show no obvious support for any such supercontinental amalgamations. An alternative idea to explain a measure of gross similarity amongst several Neoarchaean cratons is through global events, such as a c. 3125–3000 Ma cratonic-scale erosive event interpreted for both Pilbara and Kaapvaal, and a much more widespread magmatic event at c. 2760–2680 Ma. We postulate that a global superplume event at c. 3.0 Ga included a plume beneath the Kaapvaal cratonic nucleus, thus halting any subduction around that terrane due to the thermal anomaly. Such a speculative global magmatic event is assumed to have enhanced production of juvenile oceanic crust at mid-ocean ridges, including those “offshore” of the thermally elevated Kaapvaal nucleus. Intra-oceanic obduction complexes may have built up fairly rapidly under such conditions, globally, and once the plume event had abated, “normal” plate tectonics would have resulted in composite (greenstone-tonalite, possibly also including granite) terranes accreting with nuclei such as Kaapvaal. This enhanced plume-related cratonic growth can be seen as a rapid accretion event. Formation of the envisaged ophiolite complexes possibly encompassed deformation-related first-order concentration of gold, and once accretion occurred around Kaapvaal's nucleus, from north and west (present-day frame of reference), a second-order (deformation-related) gold concentration may have resulted. The third order of gold concentration would logically have occurred once placer systems reworked detritus derived from the orogens along the N and W margins of Kaapvaal. Such conditions and placer gold deposits are known from many Neoarchaean cratons. The initial source of gold was presumably from the much hotter Mesoarchaean mantle and may have been related to major changes in Earth's tectonic regime at c. 3.0 Ga. The unique nature of Kaapvaal is probably its early stabilization, enabling formation of a complex flexural foreland basin system, in which vast quantities of placer sediments and heavy minerals could be deposited, and preserved from younger denudation through a unique post-Witwatersrand history.     

Observations of atmospheric water vapor above the Tharsis volcanoes on Mars with the OMEGA/MEx imaging spectrometer

The OMEGA imaging spectrometer onboard the Mars Express spacecraft is particularly well suited to study in detail specific regions of Mars, thanks to its high spatial resolution and its high signal-to-noise ratio. We investigate the behavior of atmospheric water vapor over the four big volcanoes located on the Tharsis plateau (Olympus, Ascraeus, Pavonis and Arsia Mons) using the 2.6 μm band, which is the strongest and most sensitive H₂O band in the OMEGA spectral range. Our data sample covers the end of MY26 and the whole MY27, with gaps only in the late northern spring and in northern autumn. The most striking result of our retrievals is the increase of water vapor mixing ratio from the valley to the summit of volcanoes. Corresponding column density is often almost constant, despite a factor of ∼5 decrease in air mass from the bottom to the top. This peculiar water enrichment on the volcanoes is present in 75% of the orbits in our sample. The seasonal distribution of such enrichment hints at a seasonal dependence, with a minimum during the northern summer and a maximum around the northern spring equinox. The enrichment possibly also has a diurnal trend, being the orbits with a high degree of enrichment concentrated in the early morning. However, the season and the solar time of the observations, due to the motion of the spacecraft, are correlated, then the two dependences cannot be clearly disentangled. Several orbits exhibit also spatially localized enrichment structures, usually ring- or crescent-shaped. We retrieve also the height of the saturation level over the volcanoes. The results show a strong minimum around the aphelion season, due to the low temperatures, while it raises quickly before and after this period. The enrichment is possibly generated by the local circulation characteristic of the volcano region, which can transport upslope significant quantities of water vapor. The low altitude of the saturation level during the early summer can then hinder the transport of water during this season. The influence of the coupling between atmosphere and surface, due mainly to the action of the regoliths, can also contribute partially to the observed phenomenon.     

Moderately compact helix antennas with cutoff patterns for millimeter RTK positioning

GPS Solutions - Helical antennas have been developed that feature a cutoff pattern and are suitable for practical positioning at millimeter level. The antennas are in the form of a tube with...     

Light propagation in a universe with spatial inhomogeneities

A light propagation in a universe which is homogeneous only in average systematically differs from a light propagation in a strictly homogeneous Universe. We demonstrate a link between this effect and the general theory of transport phenomenon in random media. The effective spatial curvature of a universe which is homogeneous only in average is introduced. This curvature is governing a light propagation in such universe. We show that the effective spatial curvature is lower than the average curvature. It implies that a universe with critical mean density looks like a space with negative curvature.     

生物不对称性变异在研究胁迫对水生生物的影响中的应用

化学污染，气候变化和养殖导致的遗传变化是影响水生生物的重要环境胁迫因素，会使生物种群的适应和竞争能力等健康指数降低。生物体发育的稳定性作为环境胁迫对生物健康指数的标志之一，在过去几十年的研究中得到了广泛的关注。生物发育的稳定性通常以生物不对称变异(即：与生物对称性的偏差)表示。与不对称的生物相比，具有对称性的生物个体通常生长较快、繁殖力强、存活率也高；不适宜环境往往导致生物体不对称性变异程度增加。主要就生物不对称性变异的原理、实际测定中的问题及该方法在水生生物研究中的适用范围进行了论述。     

A geophysical survey of the Spitsbergen Margin and surrounding areas

New geophysical information including multichannel seismic profiling data obtained by the PGO Sevmorgeologia Ministry of Geology of the former USSR, Murmansk during 1984–1988 is discussed and interpreted in this study. The deep structure, sedimentary cover and stratigraphy of the Spitsbergen Continental Margin, considered to be a passive margin, i.e. divergent in the northern part and strike-slip in the western part, is described.Two genetically different types of plateaus on the continental margin, Yermak in the north and Spitsbergen (Vestnesa) in the west, have been identified.The entire extent of the continental slope of the northern part of the Spitsbergen Continental Margin in the Eurasia Basin is underlain by attenuated continental crust, while at the base of the Southwest Continental Margin, the oceanic crust along almost the entire extent is observed. The sedimentary cover, up to 10 km thick within the West Spitsbergen Continental Margin, is likewise observed. Within the North Spitsbergen Margin, however, it does not exceed 3.5 km in thickness.The extension and deposition within the West Spitsbergen Margin began in early Oligocene, while the rifting with accompanying sedimentation within the North Spitsbergen Continental Margin started probably in Early Cretaceous.     

The benefits of a high-resolution analysis of transit accessibility

Accessibility is an important consideration in sustainable mobility policies, particularly for transit users. Measures suggested in the literature are based on coarse aggregate spatial resolution of traffic analysis zones that is sufficient for managing car travels only. To reflect a human door-to-door travel, transit accessibility demands an explicit view of the location of origin, transit stops and destination, as well as of the temporal fit between transit lines timetable and traveler’s needs. We thus estimate transit accessibility based on mode-specific travel times and corresponding paths, including walking and waiting, at the resolution of individual buildings and stops. Car accessibility is estimated at a high resolution too. A novel representation of transit network as a graph is proposed. This representation includes all modal components of a transit travel – walking, waiting at a stop, transit ride, transfers between lines, thus enabling unified view of a travel, regardless of mode. The use of modern high-performance graph database allows construction of high-resolution accessibility maps for an entire metropolitan area with its 100–200 K buildings. The application is tested and applied in a case study involving the evaluation of the 2011 bus line reform in the city of Tel Aviv. Specifically, we demonstrate that while the reform increased the average accessibility for the entire city the increase was not uniform with different areas of the city experiencing different absolute accessibility by transit and relative accessibility in comparison to car travel. The bus reform did in fact benefit travelers that experienced low relative accessibility, but the benefits are mainly accruing to longer trips. Our approach and computational methods can be employed for directly investigating the impacts of transportation infrastructure investments.     

HALF-WIDTH OF A SOLAR DYNAMO WAVE IN PARKER'S MIGRATORY DYNAMO

A kinematic -dynamo model of magnetic field generation in a thin convection shell with nonuniform helicity for large dynamo numbers is considered in the framework of Parker's migratory dynamo. The asymptotic solution obtained of equations governing the magnetic field has the form of an anharmonic travelling dynamo wave. This wave propagates over most latitudes of the solar hemisphere from high latitudes to the equator, and the amplitude of the magnetic field first increases and then decreases with propagation. Over the subpolar latitudes, the dynamo wave reverses; there the dynamo wave propagates polewards and decays with latitude. The half-width of the maximum of the magnetic field localisation and the phase velocity of the dynamo wave are calculated. Butterfly diagrams are plotted and analysed and these show that even a simple model may reveal some properties of the solar magnetic fields.     

Energy spectra of gamma-ray bursts detected by the APEX experiment on phobos mission

Molecular clouds are clumpy on length scales down to the limits of observational resolution. At least some ultracompactHii regions (UCHiiR) may result from the interaction of a young early type star and this type of cloud. The clumps can act as reservoirs of ionized gas distributed within theHii region. These models reproduce the relatively long lifetimes implied by the population statistics of UCHiiR. We present line profile and emission measure plots based on the simplest case where the flow remains supersonic through to a recombination front. The morphology agrees with the shell-like UCHiiR as classified by Churchwell. The predicted line profiles are broad and double peaked with a separation of about 50 km s^–1 for the example given.