Feldspathic clast populations in polymict ureilites: Stalking the missing basalts from the ureilite parent body

Polymict ureilites DaG 164/165, DaG 319, DaG 665, and EET 83309 are regolith breccias composed mainly of monomict ureilite-like material, but containing ∼2 vol% of feldspathic components. We characterized 171 feldspathic clasts in these meteorites in terms of texture, mineralogy, and mineral compositions. Based on this characterization we identified three populations of clasts, each of which appears to represent a common igneous (generally basaltic) lithology and whose mafic minerals show a normal igneous fractionation trend of near-constant Fe/Mn ratio over a range of Fe/Mg ratios that extend to much higher values than those in monomict ureilites. The melts represented by these populations are unlikely to be impact melts, because the ubiquitous presence of carbon in polymict ureilites (the regolith of the ureilite parent body) implies that impact melts would have crystallized under conditions of carbon redox control and therefore have highly magnesian mafic mineral compositions with constant Mn/Mg ratio. Therefore, these melts appear to be indigenous products of igneous differentiation on the ureilite parent body (UPB), complementary to the olivine-pigeonite residues represented by the majority of monomict ureilites.The most abundant population is characterized by albitic plagioclase in association with pyroxenes, phosphates, ilmenite, silica, and incompatible-element enriched glass. Model calculations suggest that it formed by extensive fractional crystallization of the earliest melt(s) of precursor materials from which the most magnesian (shallowest) olivine-pigeonite ureilites formed. A less abundant population, characterized by labradoritic plagioclase, may have formed from melts complementary to more ferroan olivine-pigeonite ureilites, and derived from deeper in the UPB. The third population, characterized by the presence of olivine and augite, could only have formed from melts produced at greater depths in the UPB than the olivine-pigeonite ureilites. Many other feldspathic clasts cannot be positively associated with any of these three populations, because their mafic mineral compositions exhibit carbon redox control. However, they may be products of early crystallization of basaltic melts produced on the UPB, before carbon was exhausted by reduction.Partial melting on the ureilite parent body was a fractional (or incremental) process. Melts were produced early in UPB history, and most likely extracted rapidly, thus preserving primitive chemical and oxygen isotopic signatures in the residues.     

Bayes estimation: A novel approach to derivation of internally consistent thermodynamic data for minerals,their uncertainties,and correlations. Part II: Application

Internally consistent thermodynamic data, including their uncertainties and correlations, are reported for 22 phases of the quaternary system CaO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-H₂O. These data have been derived by simultaneous evaluation of the appropriate phase properties (PP) and reaction properties (RP) by the novel technique of Bayes estimation (BE). The thermodynamic model used and the theory of BE was expounded in Part I of this paper. Part II is the follow-up study illustrating an application of BE. The input for BE comprised, among others, the a priori values for standard enthalpy of formation of the i-th phase, Δ_f H _i ⁰ , and its standard entropy, S _i ⁰ , in addition to the reaction reversal constraints for 33 equilibria involving the relevant phases. A total of 269 RP restrictions have been processed, of which 107 turned out to be non-redundant. The refined values for Δ_f H _i ⁰ and S _i ⁰ obtained by BE, including their 2σ-uncertainties, appear in Table 4; the Appendix reproduces the corresponding correlation matrix. These data permit generation of computed phase diagrams with 2σ-uncertainty envelopes based on conventional error propagation; Fig. 3 depicts such a phase diagram for the system CaO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂. It shows that the refined dataset is capable of yielding phase diagrams with uncertainty envelopes narrow enough to be geologically useful. The results in Table 4 demonstrate that the uncertainties of the prior values for Δ_f H _i ^Emphasis>0 , given in Table 1, have decreased by up to an order of magnitude, while those for S _i ⁰ improved by a factor of up to two. For comparison, Table 4 also lists the refined Δ_f H _i ⁰ and S _i ⁰ data obtained by mathematical programming (MAP), minimizing a quadratic objective function used earlier by Berman (1988). Examples of calculated phase diagrams are given to demonstrate the advantages of BE for deriving internally consistent thermodynamic data. Although P-T curves generated from both MAP and BE databases will pass through the reversal restrictions, BE datasets appear to be better suited for extrapolations beyond the P-T range explored experimentally and for predicting equilibria not constrained by reversals.     

Environmental policy as a factor in a new security policy

Environmental policy is increasingly becoming an indispensable part of modern policy to maintain peace and security. After the end of the East-West conflict, a new cold war between North and South is looming on the horizon. It is caused by a steadily widening gap between the poverty of the South and the wealth of the North, which has been gained not least at the expense of the environment worldwide, and thus also of the South.There is a need for a parallel development between the disarmament process in the classical sense and a disarmament process in a material sense to promote an economic, social and ecological development which is consistent in itself and coordinated with regard to its effects.Appropriate instruments to achieve this, besides international conventions, include the opening up of markets, ecologically honest prices, technical cooperation and not least the enforcement of environmentally compatible and resource-saving forms of industry and ways of life in the industrialised countries.     

The coalification pattern in the Northern Apennines and its palaeogeothermic and tectonic significance

The rocks of the Northern Apennines predominantly consist of non-metamorphic terrigeneous deposits (flysches and molasses) some of which are preorogenic, some synorogenic and others postorogenic with respect to the nappe tectonics (Miocene). As plant fragments frequently occur in these sediments, a study of coal rank based on reflectance measurements on vitrinites (% Rm = mean value of the random reflectance in non polarized light) contributes to the clarification of the relation between the orogenic and the palaeogeothermal development. The determination of the Rm values of more than 180 samples from outcrops and three deep drillings revealed some important features. Within the pile of Liguride and Tuscanide nappes, the coal rank increases from the uppermost nappe to the lower nappes until lowgrade metamorphism is reached in the Lower Tuscanides. In the single nappes the rank decreases from the Tyrrhenian coast (internal zone) towards the Po Plain (external zone). This regional trend is disturbed only locally by young post-coalification tectonics. In the uppermost Liguride nappe (M. Antola Unit) a pre-Oligocene (i. e. pre-Apenninic) thermal event was detected. Postorogenic heating is connected with the magmatic activity of Late Miocene to Pleistocene age in Tuscany. Except for these preorogenic and postorogenic thermal events, the main coalification is generally younger than the emplacement of the nappes in the nappe pile during the Apenninic orogeny in the Miocene, but it is older than the last thrust movements and the final tensional tectonics in the internal zones of the chain. For these reasons, the main regional thermal event has to be considered as synorogenic or, more precisely, as late-synorogenic.     

Magma mixing as the probable origin of some Permian volcanic rocks of the Saar-Nahe-Basin (SW-Germany)

Some Permian calc-alkaline rocks of the Saar-Nahe-Basin are briefly described and their origin is discussed in the light of a magma-mixing model for the intermediate members. The model is based on high trace element concentrations of Ni, Cr, Rb, Sr, Zr and Nb, straight-line chemical variations, mineralogical features and stratigraphie sequence of the volcanic rocks. The model is in accord with a geodynamic model for the Hercynian belt as suggested by Lorenz & Nicholls (in prep.).     

Glassy orthopyroxene granodiorites of the Pannonian Basin: tracers of ultra-high-temperature deep-crustal anatexis triggered by Tertiary basaltic volcanism

Glassy orthopyroxene granodiorite-tonalite (named pincinite after type locality) was described from basaltic lapilli tuffs of the Pliocene maar near Pinciná village in the Slovakian part of the Pannonian Basin. Two pincinite types exhibit a qualitatively similar mineral composition (quartz, An_20–55 plagioclase, intergranular silicic glass with orthopyroxene and ilmenite, ±K-feldspar), but strongly different redox potential and formation PT conditions. Peraluminous pincinite is reduced (6–7% of total iron as Fe³⁺ in corundum-normative intergranular dacitic glass) and contains ilmenite with 8–10 mol% Fe₂O₃ and orthopyroxene dominated by ferrosilite. High-density (up to 0.85 g/cm³) primary CO₂ inclusions with minor H₂, CH₄, H₂S, CO and N₂ (<2 mol% total) are present in Qtz and Plg. Equilibrium PT conditions inferred from the intergranular Opx–Ilm–Glass assemblage and fluid density correspond to 1,170±50°C, 5.6±0.4 kbar, respectively. Metaluminous pincinite is more oxidised (25–27% of total iron as Fe³⁺ in diopside-normative intergranular glass of rhyolite–trachyte–dacite composition) and contains Fe₂O₃-rich ilmenite (17–29 mol%) associated with enstatite. Fluid inclusions are composed of CO₂–H₂O mixtures with up to 38 mol% H₂O. Raman spectroscopy revealed H₂S along with dominant CO₂ in the carbonic phase. Equilibrium PT parameters for the intergranular Opx–Ilm–Glass assemblage correspond to 740±15°C, 2.8±0.1 kbar, respectively. Reducing gas species (<2 mol% total) in the CO₂-inclusions of the peraluminous pincinite resulted from hydrogen diffusion due to fH₂ gradient imposed during decrease of redox potential from the log fO₂ values near QFM during Qtz + Plg growth, to QFM-2 incidental to the superimposed Opx + Ilm assemblage in the intergranular melt. The decrease in oxygen fugacity was recorded also in the metaluminous pincinite, where log fO₂ values changed from ~QFM + 2.6 to QFM + 0.4, but hydrogen diffusion did not occur. Absence of OH-bearing minerals, major and trace element abundances (e.g. REE 300–320, Nb 55–57, Th 4–31, Zr 240–300 ppm, FeO_tot/MgO up to 11), and Sr–O isotope ratios in the pincinites are diagnostic of high-temperature anorogenic magmas originated by dehydration melting of biotite in quartz-feldspathoid crust (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr>0.705–0.706, ¹⁸O>9 V-SMOW) around alkali basalt reservoir in depths between 17 and 20 km, and around late stage derivatives of the basalt fractionation, intruding the crust up to depths of 10–11 km. Low water activity in the pincinite parental melt was caused by CO₂-flux from the Tertiary basaltic reservoirs and intrusions. The anatexis leads to generation of a melt-depleted granulitic crust beneath the Pannonian Basin, and the pincinites are interpreted as equivalents of igneous charnockites and enderbites quenched at temperatures above solidus and unaffected by sub-solidus re-equilibration and metamorphic overprint.     

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987114000395

The study of fluid inclusions in high-grade rocks is especially challenging as the host minerals have been normally subjected to deformation, recrystallization and fluid-rock interaction so that primary in- clusions, formed at the peak of metamorphism are rare. The larger part of the fluid inclusions found in metamorphic minerals is typically modified during uplift. These late processes may strongly disguise the characteristics of the ＂original＂ peak metamorphic fluid. A detailed microstructural analysis of the host minerals, notably quartz, is therefore indispensable for a proper interpretation of fluid inclusions. Cathodoluminescence （CL） techniques combined with trace element analysis of quartz （EPMA, LA- [CPMS） have shown to be very helpful in deciphering the rock-fluid evolution. Whereas high-grade metamorphic quartz may have relatively high contents of trace elements like Ti and A1, low- temperature re-equilibrated quartz typically shows reduced trace element concentrations. The result- ing microstructures in CL can be basically distinguished in diffusion patterns （along microfractures and grain boundaries）, and secondary quartz formed by dissolution-reprecipitation. Most of these textures are formed during retrograde fluid-controlled processes between ca. 220 and 500 ℃, i.e. the range of semi-brittle deformation （greenschist-facies） and can be correlated with the fluid inclusions. In this way modified and re-trapped fluids can be identified, even when there are no optical features observed under the microscope.     

Features and evaluation of sea/saltwater intrusion in southern Laizhou Bay

Understanding the degree of sea/saltwater intrusion in coastal regions is of great significance to treating the intrusion and improving the environment. Based on the character analysis of the sea/saltwater intrusion, five factors were selected in the fuzzy-synthetical evaluation approach to form the index system, so as to evaluate the degree of sea/saltwater intrusion in southern Laizhou Bay. The results show that the sea/saltwater intrusion is stronger in the middle and northern areas and weaker on the sides and in southern area; currently, the intrusion is relatively serious, and the intrusion area has covered about 68.2% of the areas under study, among which the heavily intruded area is over 50%. Based on the factors analysis of the occurrence and development of sea/saltwater intrusion, the thesis proposes treatment measures.