Highly reducing conditions during core formation on Mercury: Implications for internal structure and the origin of a magnetic field

The high average density and low surface FeO content of the planet Mercury are shown to be consistent with very low oxygen fugacity during core segregation, in the range 3-6 log units below the iron-wüstite buffer. These low oxygen fugacities, and associated high metal content, are characteristic of high-iron enstatite (EH) and Bencubbinite (CB) chondrites, raising the possibility that such materials may have been important building blocks for this planet. With this idea in mind we have explored the internal structure of a Mercury sized planet of EH or CB bulk composition. Phase equilibria in the silicate mantle have been modeled using the thermodynamic calculator p-MELTS, and these simulations suggest that orthopyroxene will be the dominant mantle phase for both EH and CB compositions, with crystalline SiO₂ being an important minor phase at all pressures. Simulations for both compositions predict a plagioclase-bearing “crust” at low pressure, significant clinopyroxene also being calculated for the CB bulk composition. Concerning the core, comparison with recent high pressure and high temperature experiments relevant to the formation of enstatite meteorites, suggest that the core of Mercury may contain several wt.% silicon, in addition to sulfur. In light of the pressure of the core-mantle boundary on Mercury (∼7 GPa) and the pressure at which the immiscibility gap in the system Fe-S-Si closes (∼15 GPa) we suggest that Mercury’s core may have a complex shell structure comprising: (i) an outer layer of Fe-S liquid, poor in Si; (ii) a middle layer of Fe-Si liquid, poor in S; and (iii) an inner core of solid metal. The distribution of heat-producing elements between mantle and core, and within a layered core have been quantified. Available data for Th and K suggest that these elements will not enter the core in significant amounts. On the other hand, for the case of U both recently published metal/silicate partitioning data, as well as observations of U distribution in enstatite chondrites, suggest that this element behaves as a chalcophile element at low oxygen fugacity. Using these new data we predict that U will be concentrated in the outer layer of the mercurian core. Heat from the decay of U could thus act to maintain this part of Mercury’s core molten, potentially contributing to the origin of Mercury’s magnetic field. This result contrasts with the Earth where the radioactive decay of U represents a negligible contribution to core heating.     

Ground-based observations of time variability in multiple active volcanoes on Io

Since before the beginning of the Galileo spacecraft’s Jupiter orbital tour, we have observed Io from the ground using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF). We obtained images of Io in reflected sunlight and in-eclipse at 2.3, 3.5, and 4.8 μm. In addition, we have measured the 3.5 μm brightness of an eclipsed Io as it is occulted by Jupiter. These lightcurves enable us to measure the brightness and one-dimensional location of active volcanoes on the surface. During the Galileo era, two volcanoes were observed to be regularly active: Loki and either Kanehekili and/or Janus. At least 12 other active volcanoes were observed for shorter periods of time, including one distinguishable in images that include reflected sunlight. These data can be used to compare volcano types and test volcano eruption models, such as the lava lake model for Loki.     

Distribution of Impact Locations and Velocities of Earth Meteorites on the Moon

Following the analytical work of Armstrong et al. (Icarus 160:183–196, 2002), we detail an expanded N-body calculation of the direct transfer of terrestrial material to the Moon during a giant impact. By simulating 1.4 million particles over a range of launch velocities and ejecta angles, we have derived a map of the impact velocities, impact angles, and probable impact sites on the moon over the last 4 billion years. The maps indicate that the impacts with the highest vertical impact speeds are concentrated on the leading edge, with lower velocity/higher-angle impacts more numerous on the Moon’s trailing edge. While this enhanced simulation indicates the estimated globally averaged direct transfer fraction reported in Armstrong et al. (Icarus 160:183–196, 2002) is overestimated by a factor of 3–6, local concentrations can reach or exceed the previously published estimate. The most favorable location for large quantities of low velocity terrestrial material is 50 W, 85 S, with 8.4 times more impacts per square kilometer than the lunar surface average. This translates to 300–500 kg km⁻², compared to 200 kg km⁻² from the previous estimate. The maps also indicate a significant amount of material impacting elsewhere in the polar regions, especially near the South Pole-Aiken basin, a likely target for sample return in the near future. The magnitudes of the impact speeds cluster near 3 km/s, but there is a bimodal distribution in impact angles, leading to 43% of impacts with very low (<1 km/s) vertical impact speeds. This, combined with the enhanced surface density of meteorites in specific regions, increases the likelihood of weakly shocked terrestrial material being identified and recovered on the Moon.     

A submillimetre survey of the kinematics of the Perseus molecular cloud – I. Data

We present submillimetre observations of the   J = 3 → 2  rotational transition of ¹²CO, ¹³CO and C¹⁸O across over 600 arcmin² of the Perseus molecular cloud, undertaken with the Heterodyne Array Receiver Programme (HARP), a new array spectrograph on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The data encompass four regions of the cloud, containing the largest clusters of dust continuum condensations: NGC 1333, IC348, L1448 and L1455. A new procedure to remove striping artefacts from the raw HARP data is introduced. We compare the maps to those of the dust continuum emission mapped with the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA; Hatchell et al.) and the positions of starless and protostellar cores (Hatchell et al.). No straightforward correlation is found between the masses of each region derived from the HARP CO and SCUBA data, underlining the care that must be exercised when comparing masses of the same object derived from different tracers. From the ¹³CO/C¹⁸O line ratio the relative abundance of the two species  ([¹³CO]/[C¹⁸O]∼ 7)  and their opacities (typically τ is 0.02–0.22 and 0.15–1.52 for the C¹⁸O and ¹³CO gas, respectively) are calculated. C¹⁸O is optically thin nearly everywhere, increasing in opacity towards star-forming cores but not beyond  τ₁₈∼ 0.9  . Assuming the ¹²CO gas is optically thick, we compute its excitation temperature, T _ex (around 8–30 K), which has little correlation with estimates of the dust temperature.     

Oxidation of CO on surface hematite in high CO2 atmospheres

We propose a mechanism for the oxidation of gaseous CO into CO₂ occurring on the surface mineral hematite (Fe₂O₃(s)) in hot, CO₂-rich planetary atmospheres, such as Venus. This mechanism is likely to constitute an important source of tropospheric CO₂ on Venus and could at least partly address the CO₂ stability problem in Venus’ stratosphere, since our results suggest that atmospheric CO₂ is produced from CO oxidation via surface hematite at a rate of 0.4 petagrammes (Pg) CO₂ per (Earth) year on Venus which is about 45% of the mass loss of CO₂ via photolysis in the Venusian stratosphere. We also investigated CO oxidation via the hematite mechanism for a range of planetary scenarios and found that modern Earth and Mars are probably too cold for the mechanism to be important because the rate-limiting step, involving CO(g) reacting onto the hematite surface, proceeds much slower at lower temperatures. The mechanism may feature on extrasolar planets such as Gliese 581c or CoRoT-7b assuming they can maintain solid surface hematite which, e.g. starts to melt above about 1200 K. The mechanism may also be important for hot Hadean-type environments and for the emerging class of hot Super-Earths with planetary surface temperatures between about 600 and 900 K.     

Population variations in the grazing turbinid Lunella smaragda (Mollusca: Gastropoda)

The grazing turbinid gastropod Lunella smaragda was sampled regularly over 3.5 y from precise sites of different microtopography and height on the platform shore at Goat Island Beach near Leigh, Northland, New Zealand. Growth is linear for over 3 y, and the year‐classes distinct. The position of the different size‐classes is related to both the shelter afforded by the microtopography, and to the height on the shore. The populations in the mid‐eulittoral turf flats, low eulittoral bare rock areas, and the sublittoral fringe are distinct, and there is a general movement down the shore with age and size. Wave action apparently dislodges the animals from higher areas when they grow to a critical size and transports them to sites lower on the shore, where wave disturbance is less. Field experiments with marked animals and laboratory studies with a wave tank confirm that the wave‐effected distribution is size related. However measurements showed that the ratio of foot attachment area to the shell area presented to the wave does not vary with animal size. The possible benefits of wave dislodgment and wave‐effected distribution are considered.     

Diet and food preference of intertidal Astrostole scabra (Asteroidea: Forcipulata)

Dietary composition in Astrostole scabra was ascertained by regular sampling at four geographically separated locations on the Kaikoura coast between January 1976 and January 1977. A. scabra is a food generalist and scavenger with a diet composed mainly of molluscs and crustaceans belonging to more than 60 genera. The diet was dominated numerically by chitons and trochid molluscs. Several site‐specific differences in dietary composition were apparent. Only Ischnochiton maorianus was a numerically important prey species at all study sites. Dietary diversity and evenness were more or less constant and comparable both seasonally and geographically. The proportion of intertidal seastars feeding fluctuated during the study from a peak of 42% in January to 23.7% in June 1976. Prey species were consumed in proportions independent of their abundance. In the laboratory, A. scabra, free of ingestive conditioning, discriminated between different prey species and preferentially consumed I. maorianus. There were strong prey preferences at the specific, but not at the familial, level.     

Predicting suitability of cockle Austrovenus stutchburyi restoration sites using hydrodynamic models of larval dispersal

An important aspect of shellfish restoration projects is to evaluate whether potential sites are likely to be recolonised naturally once disturbances are removed and habitats are restored. Similarly, if active translocation or reseeding of juveniles or adults is undertaken, it is important to understand whether these introduced populations will be self‐maintaining in future, and whether any seed they produce are likely to be retained within the restored area. We used a combined hydrodynamic and particle tracking model to predict larval dispersion patterns for the common cockle Austrovenus stutchburyi under different hydrodynamic scenarios for seven release locations in Whangarei Harbour, New Zealand. Our results implied that sites varied substantially in their potential for self‐seeding and for exporting seed to other locations. For sites with more restricted dispersal, the model predicted that most larvae originating at these sites would settle inside the release region (68–94% for passive particle simulations), whereas relatively few larvae originating from the other release sites settled at these sites. In contrast, model larvae released from sites exhibiting high connectivity dispersed to all sub‐regions in the harbour, and export outside of the model region was high. Forthcoming field validation of these model predictions will result in better integration of hydrodynamic connectivity in whole estuary restoration programs.     

Observed winds,turbulence, and dispersion in built-up downtown areas of Oklahoma City and Manhattan

Wind and tracer data from the Oklahoma City Joint Urban 2003 (JU2003) and the Manhattan Madison Square Garden 2005 (MSG05) urban field experiments are being analyzed to aid in understanding air flow and dispersion near street-level in built-up downtown areas. The mean winds are separately calculated for groups of anemometers having similar exposures such as “near street level” and “on building top”. Several general results are found, such as the scalar wind speed at street level is about 1/3 of that at building top. Turbulent standard deviations of wind speed components and temperature, and vertical fluxes of momentum and sensible heat, are calculated from sonic anemometers near street level at 20 locations in JU2003 and five locations in MSG05, and from two rooftop locations in MSG05. The turbulence observations are consistent with observations in the literature at other cities, although the JU2003 and MSG05 data are unique in that many data are available near street level. For example, it is found that the local (i.e., at the measuring height) averages about 1.5 and the local averages about 0.25 in the two cities, where is the standard deviation of vertical velocity fluctuations, is the friction velocity, and u is the wind speed. The ratio of temperature fluctuations to temperature scale, , averages about −3 in both cities, consistent with similarity theory for slightly unstable conditions, where is the standard deviation of temperature fluctuations, and is the temperature scale. The calculated Obukhov length, L, is also consistent with slightly unstable conditions near street level, even at night during JU2003. The SF₆ tracer concentration observations from JU2003 are analyzed. Values of for the continuous releases are calculated for each release and arc distance, where is the 30-min average arc maximum concentration, Q is the continuous source emission rate, and u is the spatial-averaged wind speed in the downtown area. The basic characteristics of the JU2003 plot of averaged agree reasonably well with similar plots for other urban experiments in Salt Lake City and London (i.e., at . A is found to be about 3 during the day and about 10 during the night.     

Shear stress partitioning in large patches of roughness in the atmospheric inertial sublayer

Drag partition measurements were made in the atmospheric inertial sublayer for six roughness configurations made up of solid elements in staggered arrays of different roughness densities. The roughness was in the form of a patch within a large open area and in the shape of an equilateral triangle with 60 m long sides. Measurements were obtained of the total shear stress (τ) acting on the surfaces, the surface shear stress on the ground between the elements (τ_S) and the drag force on the elements for each roughness array. The measurements indicated that τ_S quickly reduced near the leading edge of the roughness compared with τ, and a τ_S minimum occurs at a normalized distance (x/h, where h is element height) of (downwind of the roughness leading edge is negative), then recovers to a relatively stable value. The location of the minimum appears to scale with element height and not roughness density. The force on the elements decreases exponentially with normalized downwind distance and this rate of change scales with the roughness density, with the rate of change increasing as roughness density increases. Average τ_S : τ values for the six roughness surfaces scale predictably as a function of roughness density and in accordance with a shear stress partitioning model. The shear stress partitioning model performed very well in predicting the amount of surface shear stress, given knowledge of the stated input parameters for these patches of roughness. As the shear stress partitioning relationship within the roughness appears to come into equilibrium faster for smaller roughness element sizes it would also appear the shear stress partitioning model can be applied with confidence for smaller patches of smaller roughness elements than those used in this experiment.