Photometric Stability of the Lunar Surface

The rate at which cratering events currently occur on the Moon is considered in light of their influence on the use of the Moon as a radiometric standard. The radiometric effect of small impact events is determined empirically from the study of Clementine images. Events that would change the integral brightness of the moon by 1% are expected once per 1.4 Gyr. Events that cause a 1% shift in one pixel for low Earth-orbiting instruments with a 1-km nadir field of view are expected approximately once each 43 Myr. Events discernible at 1% radiometric resolution with a 5 arc-sec telescope resolution correspond to crater diameters of approximately 210 m and are expected once every 200 years. These rates are uncertain by a factor of two. For a fixed illumination and observation geometry, the Moon can be considered photometrically stable to 1 × 10⁻⁸per annum for irradiance, and 1 × 10⁻⁷per annum for radiance at a resolution common for spacecraft imaging instruments, exceeding reasonable instrument goals by six orders of magnitude.     

Intermediate disturbance and patterns of species richness

Abstract

The intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH) predicts highest species diversity in environments experiencing intermediate intensity disturbance, after an intermediate timespan. Because many landscapes comprise mosaics with complex disturbance histories, the theory implies that each patch in those mosaics should have a distinct level of diversity reflecting the magnitude of disturbance and the time since it occurred. We model changing patterns of species richness across a landscape experiencing varied scenarios of simulated disturbance in order to predict first the variation of richness through time in individual patches, based on their disturbance histories, and then the changing patterns of richness across the landscape through time, representing the cumulative impact of changing richness within the individual patches. Model outputs show that individual landscape patches have highly variable species richness through time, with the trajectory reflecting the timing, intensity and sequence of disturbances. When the results are mapped across the landscape, the resulting temporal and spatial complexity reveals a distribution of biodiversity that is strikingly contingent on the details of disturbance history. These results illustrate the danger of generalization (in either data interpretation or management decisions), as IDH actually imposes a highly variable pattern of diversity.     

Lower Oligocene Calc-Alkaline Spessartitic Lamprophyres from Central Iran (East of Anarak Area); an Evidence from the Eastern Branch of Neotethys Subduction-Related Mantle Enrichment

Geotectonics - The Lower Oligocene Kal-e-kafi (East of Anarak, Central Iran) lamprophyres occur as stocks and dikes, which cross-cut the Eocene volcanic and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. The...     

The Benagerie Shear Zone: 1100 Myr of reactivation history and control over continental lithospheric deformation

A newly identified northwest–southeast oriented, deeply-rooted, steep to vertical, large-scale structural system within the Proterozoic Curnamona Province, Australia, which we term the “Benagerie Shear Zone”, is imaged in regional magnetic and gravity datasets. In this study, we use a combination of field analysis and quantitative geophysical methods, to establish a 1100 Myr history of activity along the Benagerie Shear Zone during which the location of younger geological structures are influenced by the pre-existing shear zone. This deformational system is interpreted to have 1) aided ascent and emplacement of the ca. 1600 Ma Ninnerie (magmatic) Supersuite; 2) controlled the loci of nucleation of normal faults during rifting and continental breakup at ca. 800 Ma; and 3) influenced the development of fold structures as well as acting as a plane co-linear to the rotation axis of pre-existing normal faults such that they were steepened and reactivated as strike slip structures during the ca. 500 Ma Delamerian Orogeny. We interpret that the Benagerie Shear Zone has not undergone uni-directional propagation during its evolution but rather through reactivation was a primary influence on controlling the nucleation of Neoproterozoic rift faults, thereby playing a major role in accommodating strain over a significant period of the evolution of the Curnamona Province. This study demonstrates that crustal-scale shear zones can evolve over hundreds of millions of years, have strike-lengths of hundreds to thousands of kilometers, and have vastly different surface expressions along strike.     

Modelling road surface sediment production using a vector geographic information system

Field investigations indicate that unpaved roads are the largest sediment source on St John, US Virgin Islands. Cross-sectional measurements of eroded road surfaces were used to establish an empirical relationship to predict annual road surface erosion as a function of road gradient and contributing drainage area. A model (ROADMOD) for estimating and mapping average annual sediment production from a road network was developed by combining this empirical relationship with a series of network algorithms to analyse road data stored in a vector geographic information system. ROADMOD was used to estimate road surface erosion in two St John catchments with very different road densities but similar land cover, topography and soils. Unpaved roads were found to increase sediment production in the more densely roaded catchment by a factor of three to eight, and in the less-roaded catchment by a factor of 1·3–2·0. Turbidity measurements in the receiving bays of these two catchments are consistent with model predictions and observed sediment delivery processes. Although this model was developed specifically for St John, it can easily be adapted to other locations by substituting a locally derived predictive equation for road erosion. Model assumptions, limitations and potential improvements are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Carbon isotopic fractionation between CO2 vapour,silicate and carbonate melts: an experimental study to 30 kbar

The carbon isotopic fractionation between CO₂ vapour and sodamelilite (NaCaAlSi₂O₇) melt over a range of pressures and temperatures has been investigated using solid-media piston-cylinder high pressure apparatus. Ag₂C₂O₄ was the source of CO₂ and experimental oxygen fugacity was buffered at hematite-magnetite by the double capsule technique. The abundance and isotopic composition of carbon dissolved in sodamelilite (SM) glass were determined by stepped heating and the ¹³C of coexisting vapour was determined directly by capsule piercing. CO₂ solubility in SM displays a complex behavior with temperature. At pressures up to 10 kbars CO₂ dissolves in SM to form carbonate ion complexes and the solubility data suggest slight negative temperature dependence. Above 20 kbars CO₂ reacts with SM to form immiscible Na-rich silicate and Ca-rich carbonate melts and CO₂ solubility in Na-enriched silicate melt rises with increasing temperature above the liquidus. Measured values for carbon isotopic fractionation between CO₂ vapour and carbonate ions dissoived in sodamelilite melt at 1200°–1400° C and 5–30 kbars average 2.4±0.2, favouring¹³C enrichment in CO₂ vapour. The results are maxima and are independent of pressure and temperature. Similar values of 2 are obtained for the carbon isotopic fractionation between CO₂ vapour and carbonate melts at 1300°–1400° C and 20–30 kbars.     

THIN-SECTION SIZE ANALYSIS: A FURTHER NOTE

Criticisms by VAN DER PLAS (1962) of thin-section point counting as a method of size analysis appear to be based on confusion between number percent and volume percent. Points are samples of volume, and point counts yield volume percents. This is as much true of size classes as of other types of constituents, though distortions are caused in the distribution by the sectioning effect. The “ribbon” method advocated by Van der Plas counts individuals rather than points and hence yields number percents. The two types of statistic are fundamentally different.     

Neuere Ergebnisse der Braunkohlen- und Torf-Petrographie. Gedanken zur Mazeral-Klassifikation

Zusammenfassung Die Mazeral-Klassifikation von Torf und Weichbraunkohle muß tunlichst auf die Steinkohlen-Nomenklatur Bezug nehmen und nach gleichen bzw. ähnlichen Prinzipien erfolgen. Ferner hat sie technologischen Gesichtspunkten Rechnung zu tragen. Die vom Verfasser vorgeschlagene Nomenklatur wird diesen Anforderungen gerecht. Da Torfe und Weichbraunkohlen heterogener als Steinkohlen sind, ist eine stärkere Gliederung erforderlich. 5 Gruppen (Exinit, Xylinit, Detrinit, Dopplerinit und Inertinit) werden jeweils in 3 Untergruppen eingeteilt. Diese erfahren eine weitere Gliederung nach Mazeralen. Abschließend weist der Verfasser darauf hin, daß durch Kombination der Weichbraunkohlen- und Steinkohlen-Klassifikation auch den Belangen der Hartbraunkohlen-Petrographie Rechnung getragen werden kann.