Sur la recherche des mouvements stationnaires dans les systèmes ayant des variables cycliques

Résumé Ayant défini la notion de système lié associé à un système mécanique comportant des variables cycliques, on montre que l'ensemble des mouvements stationnaires du système coïncide avec l'ensemble des mouvements stationnaires du système lié. L'étude de la stabilité de ces mouvements montre que si le système lié est stable, il en est de même pour le système initial. La recherche des mouvements stationnaires des gyrostats fournit une application de cette étude.

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A constrained system is associated with a mechanical system having cyclic coordinates. We prove that the set of steady motions of this mechanical system and the set of steady motions of the constrained system are the same. Investigating the stability of these motions, we prove that, if the constrained system is stable, then the mechanical system is also stable. As an example, we consider the problem of the relative equilibrium of gyrostat satellites.

     

Fluid inclusion studies in apatite from carbonatites of the Wasaki area of western Kenya

Apatites from the carbonatites contain relatively large (up to 120μ), aqueous, CO₂-rich, saline inclusions. Homogenisation temperature determinations show that the minimum formation temperature of these apatites ranged from 200°C to 484°C. The mode of homogenisation of inclusion in the Wasaki sövite apatites indicates that these apatites crystallised from a supercritical fluid. A higher estimate of the formation temperature of the apatites from this sample (500°C–590°C) was obtained from the solution temperature of a transient phase (probably Na₂CO₃) precipitated from the inclusion-fluid at elevated temperatures. These fluids are considered to represent trapped portions of a fluid carbonatite magma.     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
NEW VIEWPOINTS IN URBAN AND INDUSTRIAL GEOGRAPHY. By M. I. Logan and G. J. Missen.
A PRIMER ON ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY. By R. B. McNee.     

On the subpulse modulation, polarization and sub-beam carousel configuration of pulsar B1857−26

New Giant Metre-Wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) observations of the five-component pulsar B1857−26 provide detailed insight into its pulse-sequence modulation phenomena for the first time. The outer conal components exhibit a 7.4-rotation period, longitude-stationary modulation. Several lines of evidence indicate a carousel circulation time     of about 147 stellar rotations, characteristic of a pattern with 20 beamlets. The pulsar nulls some 20 per cent of the time, usually for only a single pulse, and these nulls show no discernible order or periodicity. Finally, the pulsar's polarization-angle traverse raises interesting issues: if most of its emission comprises a single polarization mode, the full traverse exceeds 180°; or if both polarization modes are present, then the leading and the trailing halves of the profiles exhibit two different modes. In either case, the rotating-vector model fails to fit the polarization-angle traverse of the core component.     

X-band low-grazing-angle ocean backscatter obtained during LOGAN1993

This paper reviews X-band ocean microwave backscatter data from the LOGAN (LOw Grazing ANgle) experiment conducted on the Chesapeake Light Tower by the Naval Air Warfare Center. The data were collected under varied wind, sea, and swell conditions that provide some new insights into low-grazing-angle backscatter phenomena. Transient backscatter peaks called “sea spikes” have long been associated with deep-water breaking waves; however, they have yet to be fully reconciled with backscatter and hydrodynamic theories. New analysis techniques have been applied to the LOGAN data that take advantage of the unique characteristics of sea spikes and their dynamics. High-resolution Doppler spectra are organized relative to the space-time centroids of the sea-spike clusters and conditionally averaged by RCS strength. The mean Doppler variation of the strongest sea spikes then map the breaking-wave structure just as Doppler histories measured at moderate grazing angles map the dynamics of the dominant linear surface-wave components. While breaking waves are manifest to some degree in backscatter data at all grazing angles, a non-Bragg-scatter mechanism accentuates the crest scattering at low grazing angles. The phenomena potentially can be exploited for remote ocean sensing and imaging     

Epithermal gold veins in a caldera setting: Banská Hodruša, Slovakia

The central zone of the large Miocene tiavnica stratovolcano in the Western Carpathians hosts epithermal Au mineralization of intermediate-sulfidation type, located at deep levels of the historic Rozália base-metal mine at Banská Hodrua. The Au mineralization occurs as subhorizontal veins at the base of pre-caldera andesites, close to the roof of a subvolcanic granodiorite intrusion. The veins are dismembered by a set of quartz–diorite porphyry sills and displaced by the younger, steeply dipping, Rozália base-metal vein, and parallel structures. The base-metal vein structures are related to resurgent horst uplift in the caldera center. The Au mineralization formed during two stages. Based on fluid inclusion evidence, both stages formed from fluids of low salinity (0–3 wt% NaCl eq.), which underwent extensive boiling at moderate temperatures (280–330°C). Variable pressure conditions (39–95 bars, neglecting the effect of CO₂) indicate continual opening of the system and a transition from suprahydrostatic towards hydrodynamic conditions at shallow depths (~550 m). The fluid inclusions of the Rozália base-metal vein show homogenization temperature peaks at ~285 and 187°C and salinities between 1 and 4 wt% NaCl eq. Precipitation of Au is considered to be the result of prolonged boiling of fluids and associated decrease in Au solubility. Oxygen and hydrogen isotope data for quartz and carbonate from the Au veins show a relatively homogeneous fluid composition (–2.7 to 1.1¹⁸O, –78 to –62D). The combined ¹⁸O_fluid and D_fluid values suggest a mixed character of fluids, falling between the fields of typical magmatic and meteoric water influenced by ¹⁸O_fluid shift due to fluid–rock isotopic exchange. End stages of open-system boiling and fractionation could have been reached, at least locally. Significantly lower isotopic composition of meteoric fluids associated with Au mineralization compared to those associated with the intrusion-related mineralizations could have resulted from changing paleoclimate and/or analytical problems of extraction of water from fluid inclusions. The proposed genetic model for the Au deposit at Rozália mine highlights the importance of hydrothermal activity during the early stage of caldera collapse. Caldera subsidence established new, convective, fluid-flow paths along marginal caldera faults, which acted as infiltration zones. Major metal precipitation occurred within subhorizontal structures that formed as the result of a collapse-related stress field. A shallow, differentiated magma chamber at the base of the volcano was the likely source of heat and magmatic components for the mineralizing fluids.Editorial handling: S. Nicolescu     

Polarization of the magneto-telluric fields over an anisotropic earth

Summary The effect of an anisotropic earth on an elliptically polarized incident magnetic field is investigated. A new method is developed for delineating the local conductivity structure using the polarization parameters of the magneto-telluric fields.     

Late Cretaceous basement foundering of the Rosario embayment, Peninsular Ranges forearc basin: backstripping of the El Gallo Formation, Baja California Norte, Mexico

Excellent exposure, well-controlled palaeobathymetry, and tightly-spaced, high-precision radiometric age control in the El Gallo Fm. permit rigorous quantitative analysis. Backstripping of these proximal nonmarine, forearc basin deposits reveals that, during the Late Cretaceous, the Rosario embayment of the Peninsular Ranges forearc was undergoing an episode of rapid tectonic subsidence. This subsidence had several marked effects on the sedimentology of the Rosario embayment: formation of a broad alluvial plain consisting of coarse-grained clastics; rapid (∼ 600 m Myr^-1) aggradation of sediments; and a retrogradational succession of facies, capped by a marine transgression, as deposition failed to keep pace with eustatic rise and subsidence.
Long-term sedimentation is driven by some combination of two allocyclic mechanisms: tectonic subsidence and eustatic sea-level rise. In order to evaluate which force predominated during deposition of the El Gallo Fm., the processes of sedimentation, compaction, and isostasy are evaluated through the interval in question. A sensitivity analysis is performed, in which the maximum tectonic and maximum eustatic contributions are estimated, along with the best-fit model. These results are qualitatively the same: tectonic subsidence was the major driving force of sedimentation in the Rosario embayment in late Campanian time. Regional sedimentological similarities suggest that this tectonic subsidence may have characterized the Peninsular Ranges forearc margin at this time, reflecting an episode of active down-faulting during the Late Cretaceous.     

Formation and evolution of lateritic profiles in the middle Amazon basin: Insights from radiation-induced defects in kaolinite

The content of radiation-induced defects (RIDs) in kaolinite samples originating from lateritic soils and continental detritic sediments of the middle Amazon Basin (Brazil) is investigated using electron paramagnetic resonance. The paleodose registered by kaolinites ranges from 80 to 900 kGy. Present-day dose rates of radiation, determined from the whole-rock U and Th content, range between 4000 and 40,000 mGy/ka. In most samples, U and Th concentrations are correlated, suggesting that U has not been remobilized by lateritization. This observation is consistent with the fact that ∼80% of the total U content is incorporated in resistant minerals, such as zircon and Ti oxides. The heterogeneous distribution of U, observed by induced fission tracks mapping, makes it possible to neglect the α-radiation contribution of the U decay chains in the dose-rate calculation. The interpretation of the measured content of RIDs in kaolinite is then performed using the calculated present-day dose rate and assuming equilibrium in the radioactive decay chains. For the sedimentary samples, the amount of RIDs is broadly correlated to the dose rate and provides apparent absolute ages older than 20 Ma. The RID contents in kaolinites from the lateritic soils provide apparent ages ranging from 10 to 6 Ma. The high RID content of these lateritic kaolinites shows that their chemical, isotopic, and crystallographic properties are not representative of present-day weathering conditions. Models assuming the “dynamical equilibrium” of kaolinites with local physical-chemical conditions prevailing in lateritic soils are thus questionable. Alternatively, our findings bring strong support for the use of the isotopic composition of kaolinites to decipher continental paleo-climates.