Conodont biostratigraphy across the Permian–Triassic boundary at the Dawen section, Great Bank of Guizhou, Guizhou Province, South China: Implications for the Late Permian extinction and correlation with Meishan

Several continuous Permian–Triassic boundary (PTB) sections are well exposed in the interior of the Great Bank of Guizhou (GBG) on the east limb of the Bianyang syncline, Luodian County, Guizhou Province, South China. Fourteen conodont taxa are identified, including Clarkina kazi, Clarkina lehrmanni n. sp., Clarkina taylorae, Clarkina zhejiangensis, Hindeodus eurypyge, Hindeodus inflatus, Hindeodus sxlatidentatus, Hindeodus parvus erectus, Hindeodus parvus parvus, Hindeodus postparvus, Hindeodus praeparvus, Hindeodus typicalis, Isarcicella staeschei, and Merrillina ultima based on a detailed study of the Permian-Triassic interval at the Dawen section. The first occurrence (FO) of H. parvus parvus in the lower Daye Formation, at about 7.45 m above the contact surface between the Upper Permian skeletal packstone and a calcimicrobial framestone unit, is correlated with the Permian–Triassic boundary; the occurrence of H. eurypyge, H. praeparvus and M. ultima immediately below and H. postparvus above the interval supports this interpretation. A morphometric analysis of 31 Hindeodus specimens helped distinguish H. parvus erectus from H. parvus parvus and H. postparvus. Correlation with the Meishan section (PTB GSSP) using both conodont biostratigraphy and carbon isotopes, indicates that the major extinction at the two localities is simultaneous and coincides with the top of the skeletal packstone at Dawen. The contact between the skeletal packstone and the calcimicrobialite is very irregular and has previously been interpreted as a dissolution surface and correlated with a surface in the lower part of bed 27 at Meishan. Our results confirm this interpretation and reveal that the dissolution event postdated the extinction.     

On the astrometric detection of neighboring planetary systems,II

Extensive testing suggests that astrometric techniques can be employed to detect and study virtually any planetary system that may exist within 40 light years (12.5 parsec) of the Sun. Following the conclusion of Paper I [G. Gatewood, Icarus27 (1976), 1–12], the astrometric group at the Allegheny Observatory began an intensive survey of 20 nearby stars to detect the nonlinear variations in their motion that planetary systems would induce. Several tests conducted to further our understanding of the limitations of this survey indicated that the photographic detector itself is responsible for the majority of the random error. A new photoelectric detector has been designed and a simplified prototype of it successfully tested. The new detector is expected to be able to utilize virtually all of the astrometric information transmitted through the Earth's atmosphere. This is sufficient to determine relative positions to within an accuracy of approximately 1 milliarcsec/hr. Such precisions exceed the design capabilities of the best existing astrometric telescopes, thus a feasibility study has been conducted for the design of an improved instrument. The study concludes that a new ground-based telescope and the new detector combined should be able to study stars as faint as the 17th magnitude with an annual accuracy of a few tenths of a milliarcsecond. However, to obtain the ultimate accuracy possible from current technology, we must place an astrometric system above the Earth's atmosphere. A space-borne instrument utilizing the new detector would in theory have sufficient accuracy to detect any Earth-like planet orbiting any of the several hundred stars nearest the Sun.     

Rapid colorimetric determination of phosphorus in geochemical survey samples

A colorimetric method for the determination of phosphorus in batches of geochemical survey samples is described. The powdered material is digested with a nitric-perchloric acid mixture, excess of acid is evaporated off and the residue is leached with water. Aliquots of the leachate are treated with vanadomolybdate reagent and the yellow phosphorus complex is extracted into isobutyl methyl ketone. The colour in the organic phase, which is stable for many days, is matched against a series of similarly prepared standards. Iron, other coloured ions, and titanium do not interfere. Standard deviations of ±0.02% about a mean value of 0.20% P₂ O₅ and ±0.4% about a mean of 11.6% P₂ O₅ were obtained. At least 40 powdered samples may be analysed per working day per person.     

Seafloor profiling by a wideband sonar: simulation,frequency-response optimization, and results of a brief sea test

An ahead-looking probe of some kind, optical or acoustic, is critical when one is attempting seafloor exploration from a mobile platform. A single-frequency, split aperture sonar system can be used for this purpose, but a wideband monopulse sonar offers many advantages. It computes a running estimate of the vertical directional cosine of the source of the echo, and can thus reveal the positions of multiple wave scatterers as long as their echoes can still be time resolved. Theoretical studies of its performance have been made previously, but were directly applicable only to extremely simple seafloor geometries. A new time-domain digital simulation that largely circumvents this limitation has been developed. The simulation also provides a means for testing the theory and optimizing system parameters. The reverberation model does not account for some features of acoustic backscattering such as diffraction, but it is believed to be adequate for the investigation of most signal processing aspects of the sonar system. The theory of the simulation is developed and several examples are presented and discussed. In addition, some preliminary results are presented from a sea test that used the air-sea interface as a surrogate seafloor     

Extrasolar Analogues to the Kuiper Belt

Debris disks are found around some 15% of main sequencestars and their dust is thought to be continuallyreplenished in collisions between planetesimals inextrasolar Kuiper belts.While they were discovered in 1984 by IRAS, it is onlywith more recent imaging that their true nature has beenrevealed. This paper discusses recent debris disk images andtheir impact on our understanding of extrasolar systems.Importantly these images confirm the extrasolar Kuiper belthypothesis for most (but not all) debris diskcandidates and show that the planetesimals within thesedisks must have grown to at least a few km.Asymmetries in imaged disk structures also provide informationabout the planetary systems orbiting inside these planetesimalbelts. The impact of debris disk studies on our understandingof the evolution of our own Kuiper belt, as well as theirpotential to solve puzzles such as the origin of the missingmass and the outer edge of the Kuiper belt, is alsodiscussed.     

Water quality in the Great Barrier Reef region: responses of mangrove, seagrass and macroalgal communities

Marine plants colonise several interconnected ecosystems in the Great Barrier Reef region including tidal wetlands, seagrass meadows and coral reefs. Water quality in some coastal areas is declining from human activities. Losses of mangrove and other tidal wetland communities are mostly the result of reclamation for coastal development of estuaries, e.g. for residential use, port infrastructure or marina development, and result in river bank destabilisation, deterioration of water clarity and loss of key coastal marine habitat. Coastal seagrass meadows are characterized by small ephemeral species. They are disturbed by increased turbidity after extreme flood events, but generally recover. There is no evidence of an overall seagrass decline or expansion. High nutrient and substrate availability and low grazing pressure on nearshore reefs have lead to changed benthic communities with high macroalgal abundance. Conservation and management of GBR macrophytes and their ecosystems is hampered by scarce ecological knowledge across macrophyte community types.     

Metabolic conversion of cyclohexane by Pacific salmon microsomal preparations

Hydrocarbons are being introduced into the marine environment from a variety of sources including combustion processes, crude oil spills, fuel oil spills, and controlled disposal such as processed ballast water. Even in the relatively clean waters of Alaska hydrocarbons are being released at an alarming rate. The purpose of this study was to determine the optimum conditions for the metabolism of a representative hydrocarbon by Coho Salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch liver microsomes. The product of cyclohexane metabolism in the salmon microsomal system was identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry as cyclohexanol. Conditions of the microsome incubation were varied systematically to determine the optimum temperature, pH, and ionic strength for cyclohexanol production. Cyclohexanol was quantified by capillary column gas chromatography. Maximum cyclohexanol formation was achieved at 20°C, a pH of 8·0–8·5 and an ionic strength of 0·026. A linear rate of cyclohexanol formation is seen from 0–60 min of incubation and there is an apparent decrease in the rate from 60–90 min. Poor stability of the microsomal preparation from the species studied was also identified and several stability studies have been undertaken using cyclohexane metabolism as a monitor.     

Growth and provenance of a Paleozoic subduction complex in the Broken River Province,Mossman Orogen: evidence from detrital zircon ages

A Paleozoic subduction complex dominates the Mossman Orogen developed at the northern extremity of the Tasmanides, eastern Australia. Its southern part, displayed in the Broken River Province, is characterised by dismembered ocean-plate stratigraphy in which turbidite-dominated packages and widespread tectonic mélange development are characteristic. The Broken River complex is characterised by formations with quartzose sandstone alternating with those largely formed of sandstone of more labile character. The two compositional groups are considered to reflect separate, age-significant sedimentary regimes, but their ages have hitherto been poorly constrained. With the use of 1082 concordant detrital zircon ages from 13 samples we provide age control for the complex and track its sedimentary provenance. Of quartzose units, the Tribute Hills Arenite and Pelican Range Formation are late Cambrian–Early Ordovician, and the Wairuna Formation is Middle to Late Ordovician, in age. The more labile units (Greenvale, Perry Creek and Kangaroo Hills formations) are collectively of late Silurian–mid-Devonian age. Development of the complex spanned some 130 Myr. Continent-derived sediment involved in accretion of much the complex, from mid-Ordovician to mid-Devonian, was largely sourced from a nearby magmatic arc of late Cambrian–Devonian age, now represented by granitoid plutons of the Macrossan and Pama igneous associations. An older far-field Pacific-Gondwana sediment source is characteristic of early-phase (late Cambrian–Early Ordovician) accretion, in common with sedimentary units of this age generally developed in the Tasmanides. We consider the complex to have grown largely by underplating that positioned younger components beneath those that are older, with out-of-sequence thrust interleaving of these components occurring late in the accretionary history. A Late Devonian contractional folding and cleavage development (Tabberabberan orogenesis) is uniformly expressed across the entire complex and reflects an abrupt change in plate engagement with imposition of a compressional stress regime.