Re‐evaluating the age of the Haughton impact event

Abstract— We have re‐evaluated the published age information for the Haughton impact structure, which was believed to have formed ?23 Ma ago during the Miocene age, and report new Ar/Ar laser probe data from shocked basement clasts. This reveals an Eocene age, which is at odds with the published Miocene stratigraphic, apatite fission track and Ar/Ar data; we discuss our new data within this context. We have found that the age of the Haughton impact structure is ?39 Ma, which has implications for both crater recolonization models and post‐impact hydrothermal activity. Future work on the relationship between flora and fauna within the crater, and others at high latitude, may resolve this paradox.     

State of stress in the oceanic lithosphere in response to loading

Summary. Flexure studies of the oceanic lithosphere constrained by bathymetry and gravity data suggest that the lithosphere behaves elastically over geological time-scales. For loads to be supported, however, large bending stresses (approaching 10 kb in some cases) are required at the top and bottom of the elastic plate.
These stress-differences can be significantly reduced by introducing more complex rheologies: we propose a model of layered lithosphere, consisting of a purely elastic upper layer, a transition zone with viscosity varying with depth and a perfectly plastic lower layer. The transition layer is grossly centred at the bottom of the elastic plate. Such a model results in a noticeable reduction of stress differences; reaching 60 per cent for flow laws representing creep mechanisms in olivine. When applied to a number of seamount loads, this model leads to maximum stress-differences which do not exceed 1–2kb.
The approach used in this study allows us to follow stress relaxation over time. Taking account of the thermal cooling of the lithosphere, we show that the elastic thickness of the lithosphere is stabilized after a given time, while the time required for stabilization is found to be of the order 5—6 per cent of the age of the lithosphere at the date of loading.     

Rheological behaviour effect of non-newtonian fluids on steady and unsteady flow through a porous medium

This paper describes the flow behaviour of certain non-Newtonian fluids through a porous medium. A generalized Bingham rheological model of power-law in the presence of a yield stress has been considered. Several problems of fluid mechanics, which appear currently in oil reservoir engineering, have been investigated and the rheological behaviour effect has been emphasized. The short time solutions have been formulated in terms of a moving boundary problem. The approximate solutions in a closed formwere obtained by means of the integral method. Several dimensionless groups have been found to be relevant in evaluating the rheological effect on the steady and unsteady and unsteady flow behaviour. The deviation from Newtonian flow behaviour has been illustrated using several numerical examples.     

Mobility of metamorphic fluids inferred from infrared microspectroscopy on natural fluid inclusions: the example of Tinos Island,Greece

OH structure of metamorphic fluids has been studied by high temperature infrared (IR) microspectroscopy on natural fluid inclusions contained in quartz veins, over the temperature range 25–370 °C. Blueschist-facies veins from Tinos island core complex (Cyclades, Greece) display H₂O–NaCl–CaCl₂–CO₂ inclusions whereas greenschist-facies veins contain H₂O–NaCl ± CO₂ inclusions. From 25 to 370 °C, peak positions of OH stretching IR absorption bands increase quasi-linearly with slopes of 0.25 and 0.50 cm^–1 °C^–1 for inclusions trapped under blueschist and greenschist conditions, respectively. Extrapolation to 400 °C yield peak positions of 3,475 cm^–1 for blueschist inclusions and 3,585 cm^–1 for greenschist inclusions. Because the smaller wave number indicates the shorter hydrogen-bond distance between water molecules, fluids involved in the greenschist event have a loose structure compared with blueschist fluids. We suggest that these properties might correspond to a low wetting angle of fluids. This would explain the high mobility of aqueous fluids suggested by structural observation and stable isotope analysis.Editorial responsibility: J. Hoefs     

A Global Inventory of Burned Areas at 1 Km Resolution for the Year 2000 Derived from Spot Vegetation Data

Biomass burning constitutes a major contribution to global emissions of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, greenhouse gases and aerosols. Furthermore, biomass burning has an impact on health, transport, the environment and land use. Vegetation fires are certainly not recent phenomena and the impacts are not always negative. However, evidence suggests that fires are becoming more frequent and there is a large increase in the number of fires being set by humans for a variety of reasons. Knowledge of the interactions and feedbacks between biomass burning, climate and carbon cycling is needed to help the prediction of climate change scenarios. To obtain this knowledge, the scientific community requires, in the first instance, information on the spatial and temporal distribution of biomass burning at the global scale. This paper presents an inventory of burned areas at monthly time periods for the year 2000 at a resolution of 1 kilometer (km) and is available to the scientific community at no cost. The burned area products have been derived from a single source of satellite-derived images, the SPOT VEGETATION S1 1 km product, using algorithms developed and calibrated at regional scales by a network of partners. In this paper, estimates of burned area, number of burn scars and average size of the burn scar are described for each month of the year 2000. The information is reported at the country level. This paper makes a significant contribution to understanding the effect of biomass burning on atmospheric chemistry and the storage and cycling of carbon by constraining one of the main parameters used in the calculation of gas emissions.     

Circulation Variability Reflected in Ice Core and Lake Records of the Southern Tropical Andes

The circulation mechanisms of climate anomalies in the southern tropical Andes are of particular interest for the January–February core of the precipitation season. With this focus, we evaluate in context upper-air and surface analyses, water level measurements of Lake Titicaca, and records of net balance and ¹⁸O from ice cores. Precipitation is more abundant with enhanced and southward expanded easterlies through a deep layer of the troposphere over the southern tropical Andes. Concomitant with this is a southward displaced circulation system over the equatorial Atlantic, entailing reduced interhemispheric gradient of sea surface temperature (SST; cold/warm anomalies in the North/South), more southerly position of the surface wind confluence and Intertropical Convergence Zone, and thus more abundant rainfall in Northeast Brazil. Such ensemble of circulation departures in boreal winter is common to the high phase of the Southern Oscillation.¹⁸O in the ice cores from Peru's Quelccaya Icecap, as wellas the cores from Sajama and Ilimani in Bolivia is more negative with more abundant precipitation, both in the same annual cycle and on interannual timescales. The large-scale circulation departures associated with the more negative ¹⁸O are in the sense as for anomalously abundant precipitation activity over the southern tropical Andes. The variability of ¹⁸O seasonally and interannually appears to be controlled mainly by the fate of the water vapor along its trajectory and over the Andes, rather than by the SST of the South Atlantic source region.     

Water quality and health status of the Senegal River estuary

The Senegal River estuary was sampled in May 2002 to get the first data on both the trophic and sanitary status of the water of the main river of the northwest African coast. Several physical, chemical and microbiological variables were measured twice along a transect. Inorganic nutrient concentrations were low while phytoplanktonic abundances (0.58-1.8 x 10(5) cells ml(-1)), bacterial abundances (0.27-8.1 x 10(7) cells ml(-1)), activity (22-474 pmol l(-1) h(-1)), were among the highest recorded in such ecosystems. Microbiological variables revealed a eutrophicated status for this estuary. Largest abundances of fecal contamination bacterial indicators were only detected in localized areas (Saint-Louis city and surrounding areas). The apparent good survival of fecal indicator bacteria in the estuarine waters despite a long residence time (4-5 days) has been evaluated by complementary survival experiments. Exposed to a salinity gradient, a local Escherichia coli strain showed a significantly better survival than those of an E. coli reference strain.     

Problème restreint des trois corps appliqué à un gyrostat

Résumé On étudie le mouvement d'un corpsS ₃ supposé non ponctuel, attiré par deux corps sphériques homogènes dont les masses sont prépondérantes vis à vis de la masse deS ₃. Le corpsS ₃ est muni de rotors et on recherche les cas d'équilibres apparents de ce corps lorsque son centre d'inertie occupe l'une des positions de LagrangeL ₁, ...,L ₅ du cas ponctuel. Des conditions suffisantes de stabilité de certaines solutions particulières sont obtenues.

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This paper is concerned with an extension of the classical restricted problem of three bodies when the smallest body is not considered to be a point mass. We assume that the smallest body consists of a solid hub and symetric rotors rotating at constant relative angular velocities. The mass center of the gyrostat satellite is presumed to occupy one of five librations pointsL ₁, ...,L ₅ of the classical restricted problem of three bodies. Assuming that the gyrostatic moment can have arbitrary constant values, we find the set of positions of relative equilibrium of the gyrostat satellite. We then proceed to define the domains of stability and instability.

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Un sujet proche du problème traité ici a été étudié par V. V. Rumyantsev (1974b).