Neon produced by solar cosmic rays in ordinary chondrites

Solar‐cosmic‐ray‐produced Ne (SCR‐Ne), in the form of low cosmogenic ²¹Ne/²²Ne ratios (²¹Ne/²²Ne_cos <0.8), is more likely to be found in rare meteorite classes, like Martian meteorites, than in ordinary chondrites. This may be the result of a sampling bias: SCR‐Ne is better preserved in meteorites with small preatmospheric radii and these specimens are often only studied if they belong to unusual or rare classes. We measured He and Ne isotopic concentrations and nuclear tracks in 25 small unpaired ordinary chondrites from Oman. Most chondrites have been intensively heated during atmospheric entry as evidenced by the disturbed track records, the low ³He/²¹Ne ratios, the low ⁴He concentrations, and the high peak release temperatures. Concentration depth profiles indicate significant degassing; however, the Ne isotopes are mainly undisturbed. Remarkably, six chondrites have low ²¹Ne/²²Ne_cos in the range 0.711–0.805. Using a new physical model for the calculation of SCR production rates, we show that four of the chondrites contain up to ~20% of SCR‐Ne; they are analyzed in terms of preatmospheric sizes, cosmic ray exposure ages, mass ablation losses, and orbits. We conclude that SCR‐Ne is preserved, regardless of the meteorite class, in specimens with small preatmospheric radii. Sampling bias explains the predominance of SCR‐Ne in rare meteorites, although we cannot exclude that SCR‐Ne is more common in Martian meteorites than it is in small ordinary chondrites.     

Brittle Rock Failure in the Steg Lateral Adit of the Lötschberg Base Tunnel

Summary  During the crossing of brittle rock formations at the L?tschberg base tunnel, failure phenomena have been observed both at the tunnel face and at the walls. A detailed analysis has been undertaken to explain these behaviours, based on the recent developments of Canadian research on brittle failure mechanisms. At the tunnel walls, a very good agreement is found between the calculated and observed damage and between two prediction methods, i.e. a semi-empirical failure criterion and elastic calculations with the “brittle Hoek-Brown parameters.” Near the face, due to the 3D nature of the stress conditions, some limitations of these approaches have been highlighted, and the growth of wall failure has been analysed. This research allowed a better understanding of the brittle rock mass behaviour at the L?tschberg base tunnel and showed that brittle failure processes dominate the behaviour of deep, highly stressed excavations in massive to moderately jointed rock. It also illustrates where improvements to the adopted approaches are required.     

Phosphorus and nitrogen limitation of algal biomass across trophic gradients

Regression results based on data from 46 northern temperate lakes show that total phosphorus (TP) is the best predictor for phytoplankton (as chl-a) at lower trophic levels, TP < 200 mg · m^–3. A regression including both TP and TN as regressors is the best predictor for lakes with TP > 200 mg · m^–3. However, the good correlation is probably due to a high correlation between lake average chl-a (all years observed) and lake average TP and TN. Within single hypereutrophic lakes, TN alone is the best predictor. It was not possible to identify a medium trophic domain where TN and TP in combination was the best predictor for chl-a. The ratio TN:TP in the water decreases from about 40 to about 5 with increasing trophic level. Optimum TN:TP ratio for algal species with high abundance during late summer and autumn reflects this decreasing ratio, but within a lesser range, i.e., 20 to 5. In contrast, TN:TP ratios for species abundant during the early vernal period showed no, or an inverse, relation to the TN:TP ratio of the water.     

A water movement study in Lianzhou Bay,Guangxi Province,China

This study investigates the physical conditions (water depth, current speed, salinity, temperature) in Lianzhou Bay, a shallow coastal bay in southern China, during two expeditions in the dry and wet seasons of 2011. Based on these expedition data, basic hydrodynamic parameters like Brunt-Väisälä Frequency, Richardson Number, Rossby radius, and Resonance Period are calculated. The results show that Lianzhou Bay is characterized by comparatively small quantity of freshwater input and weak stratification. Strong tides, which are spatially uniform within the bay, cause turbulent mixing. Residence time of the water is shorter in winter due to a stronger coastal current in that season. Consideration of the water movement may help to reduce the harmful ecological impact of aquaculture waste water discharge.     

Protracted storage of CR chondrules in a region of the disk transparent to galactic cosmic rays

Renazzo‐type carbonaceous (CR) chondrites are accretionary breccias that formed last. As such they are ideal samples to study precompaction exposures to cosmic rays. Here, we present noble gas data for 24 chondrules and 3 dark inclusion samples (DIs) from Shi?r 033 (CR2). The meteorite was selected based on the absence of implanted solar wind noble gases and an anomalous oxygen isotopic composition of the DIs; the oxygen isotopes match those in CV3 and CO3 chondrites. Our samples contain variable mixtures of galactic cosmic ray (GCR)‐produced cosmogenic noble gases and trapped noble gases of presolar origin. Remarkably, all chondrules have cosmogenic ³He and ²¹Ne concentrations up to 4.3 and 7.1 times higher than the DIs, respectively. We derived an average ³He‐²¹Ne cosmic ray exposure (CRE) age for Shi?r 033 of 2.03 ± 0.20 Ma (2 SD) and excesses in cosmogenic ³He and ²¹Ne in chondrules (relative to the DIs) in the range (in 10^?8 cm³STP/g) 3.99–7.76 and 0.94–1.71, respectively. Assuming present‐day GCR flux density, the excesses translate into average precompaction ³He‐²¹Ne CRE ages of 3.1–27.3 Ma depending on the exposure geometry. The data can be interpreted assuming a protracted storage of a single chondrule generation prior to the final assembly of the Shi?r 033 parent body in a region of the disk transparent to GCRs.     

DEM Simulation of Direct Shear: 1. Rupture Under Constant Normal Stress Boundary Conditions

A particle-based distinct element method and its grain-based method are used to generate and simulate a synthetic specimen calibrated to the rupture characteristics of an intact (non-jointed) low-porosity brittle rock deformed in direct shear. The simulations are compared to the laboratory-generated ruptures and used to investigate rupture at various normal stress magnitudes. The fracturing processes leading to shear rupture zone creation and the rupture mechanism are found to be normal stress dependent (progressing from tensile splitting to shear rupture) and show partial confirmation of rupture zone creation in nature and in experiments from other materials. The normal stress dependent change is found to be due to the orientation of the major principal stress and local stress concentrations internal to the synthetic specimens being deformed. The normal stress dependent rupture creation process results in a change to the rupture zone’s geometry, shear stress versus horizontal displacement response, and thus ultimate strength.     

Heat transfer and thermal boundary layers in high amplitude annulus waves

Abstract

The heat transfer by a rotating, differentially-heated annulus of fluid is measured throughout the high amplitude wave regime. Only Δr_w T was varied (although v(T₁₅ ).K(T₁₅ ) varied by 46%), and it is found that Nu = C₁(λ)Ra^? away from the symmetry and low amplitude to wave transition curves and this is independent of ω. (λ is the wavelength.) On the wave side of these transition curves a region exists in which Nu (symmetry) λ Nu λ C₁(λ)Ra^?. The local heat transfer rate also varies strongly with wave phase.

Using a selection of measured internal thermal fields in the steady, high amplitude wave regime, the side-wall thermal boundary layer structure is examined. It is found that Nu, = C₂·Gr₂ ^A2; both C ₂ and A ₂ are independent of ω and λ to first order. For the time mean profiles, A ₂ ≈ 0.25; in the high heat transfer portion of the wave A ₂ < ¼ and in the low heat transfer portion of the wave A ₂ > ?. These relations hold over most of the vertical extent of the side walls. The deviations of the boundary layers from the above behavior which occur on the remainder of the walls is illustrated. The average thicknesses of the wall boundary layers ∞ Ra^?¼ except in that phase of the wave in which the wall to mid-gap temperature difference is the largest.     

Dust Detection by the Wave Instrument on STEREO: Nanoparticles Picked up by the Solar Wind?

Solar Physics - The STEREO wave instrument (S/WAVES) has detected a very large number of intense voltage pulses. We suggest that these events are produced by impact ionisation of nanoparticles...