Ultraprecise age and formation temperature of the Australasian tektites constrained by 40Ar/39Ar analyses

The Australasian tektites are quench melt glass ejecta particles distributed over the Asian, Australian, and Antarctic regions, the source crater of which is currently elusive. New ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age data from four tektites: one each from Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Australia measured using three different instruments from two different laboratories and combined with published ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data yield a weighted mean age of 788.1 ± 2.8 ka (±3.0 ka, including all sources of uncertainties) (P = 0.54). This age is five times more precise compared to previous results thanks, in part, to the multicollection capabilities of the ARGUS VI noble gas mass spectrometer, which allows an improvement of almost fourfold on a single plateau age measurement. Diffusion experiments on tektites combined with synthetic age spectra and Monte Carlo diffusion models suggest that the minimum temperature of formation of the Thai tektite is between 2350 °C and 3950 °C, hence a strict minimum value of 2350 °C.     

新疆西准噶尔地区塔斯特岩体锆石LA-ICPMS年龄及其意义

西准噶尔萨吾尔地区地处新疆阿勒泰地区吉木乃县及塔城地区和丰县。酸性侵入岩在区内较发育,其研究对于准噶尔地区后碰撞构造-岩浆演化时限的厘定具有重要的意义。塔斯特岩体是萨吾尔地区重要的复式花岗岩体,与区内铜、金矿化关系密切。塔斯特岩体锆石 LA—ICPMS 年龄为337±4Ma(1σ),形成于早石炭世。结合已有的地球化学特征研究,这一年龄显示西准噶尔地区在早石炭世已处于后碰撞环境。本文获得的塔斯特岩体成岩年龄是目前在准噶尔地区获得的最老的后碰撞花岗岩锆石 U—Pb 年龄之一,为准噶尔地区后碰撞构造-岩浆演化时限的厘定提供了新的证据。     

Tropical Indian Ocean variability revealed by self-organizing maps

The tropical Indian Ocean climate variability is investigated using an artificial neural network analysis called self-organizing map (SOM) for both observational data and coupled model outputs. The SOM successfully captures the dipole sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) pattern associated with the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and basin-wide warming/cooling associated with ENSO. The dipole SSTA pattern appears only in boreal summer and fall, whereas the basin-wide warming/cooling appears mostly in boreal winter and spring owing to the phase-locking nature of these phenomena. Their occurrence also undergoes significant decadal variation. Composite diagrams constructed for nodes in the SOM array based on the simulated SSTA reveal interesting features. For the nodes with the basin-wide warming, a strong positive SSTA in the eastern equatorial Pacific, a negative Southern Oscillation, and a negative precipitation anomaly in East Africa are found. The nodes with the positive IOD are associated with a weak positive SSTA in the central equatorial Pacific or positive SSTA in the eastern equatorial Pacific, a positive (negative) sea level pressure anomaly in the eastern (western) tropical Indian Ocean, and a positive precipitation anomaly over East Africa. The warming in the central equatorial Pacific appears to correspond to El Niño Modoki discussed recently. These results suggest usefulness of SOM in studying large-scale ocean–atmosphere coupled phenomena.     

Molecular simulation of the diffusion of uranyl carbonate species in aqueous solution

Potential-based molecular dynamics simulations of aqueous uranyl carbonate species (M_xUO₂(CO₃)_y^2+2x−2y with M = Mg, Ca, or Sr) were carried out to gain molecular-level insight into the hydration properties of these species. The simulation results were used to estimate the self-diffusion coefficients of these uranyl carbonate species, which often dominate uranyl speciation in groundwater systems. The diffusion coefficients obtained for the monoatomic alkaline-earth cations and polyatomic ions (uranyl, carbonate, and uranyl tri-carbonate) were compared with those calculated from the Stokes-Einstein (SE) equation and its variant formulation by Impey et al. (1983). Our results show that the equation of Impey et al. (1983), originally formulated for monovalent monoatomic ions, can be extended to divalent monoatomic ions, with some success in reproducing the absolute values and the overall trend determined from the molecular dynamics simulations, but not to polyatomic ions, for which the hydration shell is not spherically symmetrical. Despite the quantitative failure of both SE formulations, a plot of the diffusion coefficients of the uranyl carbonate complexes as a function of the inverse of the equivalent spherical radius showed that a general linear dependence is observed for these complexes as expected from the SE equation. The nature of the alkaline-earth cation in the uranyl carbonate complexes was not found to have a significant effect on the ion’s diffusion coefficient, which suggests that the use of a single diffusion coefficient for different alkaline-earth uranyl carbonate complexes in microscopic diffusion models is appropriate.The potential model reproduced well published quantum mechanical and experimental data of and of the individual constituent ions, and therefore is expected to offer reliable predictions of the structure of magnesium and strontium uranyl carbonate aqueous species, for which there is no structural data available to date. In addition, the interatomic distances reported for could help with the refinement of the interpretation of EXAFS data of these species, which is made difficult by the similar uranium-distant carbonate oxygen and uranium-calcium distances.An analysis of the dynamics of water exchange around the alkaline-earth cations revealed that the presence of the uranyl tri-carbonate molecule has a strong influence on the geometry of the cation’s first hydration shell, which, in turn, can considerably affect the water exchange kinetics depending on whether the imposed geometry matches that around the isolated alkaline-earth cation. This result shows that the alkaline-earth uranyl carbonate complexes have distinct water exchange dynamics, which may lead to different reactivities. Finally, significant changes in water residence time were also predicted when replacing carbonate for water ligands in the uranyl coordination shell.     

Late Holocene high precipitation events recorded in lake sediments and catchment geomorphology,Lake Vuoksjávrátje,NW Sweden

In this paper, we show the potential of combining multi‐proxy analysis of lake sediments with catchment geomorphology to better understand palaeoenvironmental changes. Previous studies have suggested that alpine lakes in N Sweden may be highly sensitive to variations in catchment erosion and precipitation, and that this sensitivity may influence ecologically based reconstructions of past temperature changes. We analysed lake sediments covering the last 5100 years from the alpine Lake Vuoksjávrátje in NW Sweden in order to identify different erosional regimes in the lake catchment, sediment sources and lake sedimentary processes, which ultimately affect the palaeoecological record. The measured proxies include elemental geochemistry from XRF core scanning, grain size, sediment accumulation rates, fraction of terrestrial organic carbon and geomorphological mapping, supported by previously published chironomid and total organic carbon data. From the integrated results we identified time intervals when increased intensity of precipitation altered sedimentation and lake catchment erosional processes. The most prominent event occurred c. 2900 cal. a BP and is interpreted to be the result of excessive precipitation, possibly related to the climatic shift towards cooler and wetter conditions referred to as the 2.8 ka event.     

Pan-African metamorphic evolution in the southern Yaounde Group (Oubanguide Complex,Cameroon) as revealed by EMP-monazite dating and thermobarometry of garnet metapelites

Garnet-bearing micaschists and paragneisses of the Yaounde Group in the Pan-African Central African Orogenic Belt in Cameroon underwent a polyphase structural evolution with the deformation stages D₁–D₂, D₃ and D₄. The garnet-bearing assemblages crystallized in course of the deformation stage D₁–D₂ which led to the formation of the regional main foliation S₂. In X_Ca–X_Mg coordinates one can distinguish several zonation trends in the garnet porphyroblasts. Zonation trends with increasing X_Mg and variably decreasing X_Ca signalize a garnet growth during prograde metamorphism. Intermineral microstructures provided criteria for local equilibria and a structurally controlled application of geothermobarometers based on cation exchange and net transfer reactions. The syndeformational P–T path sections calculated from cores and rims of garnets in individual samples partly overlap and align along clockwise P–T trends. The P–T evolution started at ～450 °C/7 kbar, passed high-pressure conditions at 11–12 kbar at variable temperatures (600–700 °C) and involved a marked decompression toward 6–7 kbar at high temperatures (700–750 °C). Th–U–Pb dating of metamorphic monazite by electron microprobe (EMP-CHIME method) in eight samples revealed a single period of crystallization between 613 ± 33 Ma and 586 ± 15 Ma. The EMP-monazite age populations between 613 ± 33 Ma enclosed in garnet and 605 ± 12 Ma in the matrix apparently bracket the high temperature–intermediate pressure stage at the end of the prograde P–T path. The younger monazites crystallized still at amphibolite-facies conditions during subsequent retrogression. The Pan-African overall clockwise P–T evolution in the Yaounde Group with its syndeformational high pressure stages and marked pressure variations is typical of the parts of orogens which underwent contractional crustal thickening by stacking of nappe units during continental collision and/or during subduction-related accretionary processes.     

Interpreting the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) Multi-Height Velocity Measurements

The Solar Dynamics Observatory/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (SDO/HMI) filtergrams, taken at six wavelengths around the Fe i 6173.3 Å line, contain information about the line-of-sight velocity over a range of heights in the solar atmosphere. Multi-height velocity inferences from these observations can be exploited to study wave motions and energy transport in the atmosphere. Using realistic convection-simulation datasets provided by the STAGGER and MURaM codes, we generate synthetic filtergrams and explore several methods for estimating Dopplergrams. We investigate at which height each synthetic Dopplergram correlates most strongly with the vertical velocity in the model atmospheres. On the basis of the investigation, we propose two Dopplergrams other than the standard HMI-algorithm Dopplergram produced from HMI filtergrams: a line-center Dopplergram and an average-wing Dopplergram. These two Dopplergrams correlate most strongly with vertical velocities at the heights of 30?–?40 km above (line center) and 30?–?40 km below (average wing) the effective height of the HMI-algorithm Dopplergram. Therefore, we can obtain velocity information from two layers separated by about a half of a scale height in the atmosphere, at best. The phase shifts between these multi-height Dopplergrams from observational data as well as those from the simulated data are also consistent with the height-difference estimates in the frequency range above the photospheric acoustic-cutoff frequency.     

Laser fusion argon‐40/argon‐39 ages of Darwin impact glass

Abstract— Three samples of Darwin Glass, an impact glass found in Tasmania, Australia at the edge of the Australasian tektite strewn field were dated using the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar single‐grain laser fusion technique, yielding isochron ages of 796–815 ka with an overall weighted mean of 816 ± 7 ka. These data are statistically indistinguishable from those recently reported for the Australasian tektites from Southeast Asia and Australia (761–816 ka; with a mean weighted age of 803 ± 3 ka). However, considering the compositional and textural differences and the disparity from the presumed impact crater area for Australasian tektites, Darwin Glass is more likely to have resulted from a distinct impact during the same period of time.