Technologies of agency and performance: Tasmania Together and the constitution of harmonious island identity

Baldacchino [Baldacchino, G., 2002. Jurisdictional self-reliance for small island territories: considering the partition of Cyprus, The Round Table, 365, 349-360] has argued that the ‘troika’ of smallness, insularity and peripherality may incline island peoples (rather more than mainlanders?) to question the effects of economic globalization and be especially disposed to innovative approaches to development. He views jurisdictional capacity as integral to that task. Much of the literature on such issues relates to island nations, but this work focuses on Australia’s smallest and only island state of Tasmania, and thus on a sub-national jurisdiction. In what follows I explore the effects of an attempt to enrol Tasmanians in the creation and stabilization of a ‘2020 vision’ meant to be global in its reach, to focus on the particular strengths of the island state, and be innovative in advancing sustainable development. Known as Tasmania Together, the 20-year strategic vision outlines diverse economic, social and environmental goals assembled over two years via widespread consultations with the island’s communities of place and interest. For a time Tasmania Together generated significant debate about what it means to be an island people, and whether and to what extent Tasmanians’ future will be secured through economic globalization or localized endeavours premised on sustainability principles. Important to Tasmanians as well as to island studies, these rhetorics of social and spatial engagement also have salience beyond the borders of the island state, highlighting larger questions about the technologies of governmentality, agency and the performance of identity.     

Geochemistry and Origin of Ananai Stratiform Manganese Deposit in the Northern Chichibu Belt, Central Shikoku, Japan

Abstract. Major and trace element contents are reported for Permian manganese ore and associated greenstone from the Ananai manganese deposit in the Northern Chichibu Belt, central Shikoku, Japan. The manganese deposit occurs between greenstone and red chert, or among red chert beds. Chemical compositions of manganese ore are characterized by enrichments in Mn, Ca, P, Co, Ni, Zn, Sr and Ba, and negative Ce and positive Eu anomalies relative to post-Archean average Australian Shale (PAAS). Geochemical features of the manganese ore are similar to those of modern submarine hydrother-mal manganese deposits from volcanic arc or hotspot setting. In addition, geochemical characteristics of the greenstone closely associated with the Ananai manganese deposit are analogous to those of with-in plate alkaline basalt (WPA). Consequently, the Ananai manganese deposit was most likely formed by hydrothermal activity related to hotspot volcanism in the Panthalassa Ocean during the Middle Permian. This is the first report documenting the terrestrially-exposed manganese deposit that was a submarine precipitate at hotspot.     

Lermontovskoe Tungsten Skarn Deposit: the Oldest Mineralization in the Sikhote-Alin Orogen, Far East Russia

Abstract. Lermontovskoe tungsten skarn deposit in central Sikhote-Alin is concluded to have formed at 132 Ma in the Early Cretaceous, based on K-Ar age data for muscovite concentrates from high-grade scheelite ore and greisenized granite. Late Paleozoic limestone in Jurassic - early Early Cretaceous accretionary complexes was replaced during hydrothermal activity related to the Lermontovskoe granodiorite stock of reduced type. The ores, characterized by Mo-poor scheelite and Fe^3+- poor mineral assemblages, indicate that this deposit is a reduced-type tungsten skarn (Sato, 1980, 1982), in accordance with the reduced nature of the granodiorite stock.
The Lermontovskoe deposit, the oldest mineralization so far known in the Sikhote-Alin orogen, formed in the initial stage of Early Cretaceous felsic magmatism. The magmatism began shortly after the accretionary tectonics ceased, suggesting an abrupt change of subduction system. Style of the Early Cretaceous magmatism and mineralization is significantly different between central Sikhote-Alin and Northeast Japan; reduced-type and oxidized-type, respectively. The different styles may reflect different tectonic environments; compressional and extensional, respectively. These two areas, which were closer together before the opening of the Japan Sea in the Miocene, may have been juxtaposed under a transpressional tectonic regime after the magmatism.     

Application of back-propagation networks in debris flow prediction

Debris flows have caused serious loss of human lives and a lot of damage to properties in Taiwan over the past decades. Moreover, debris flows have brought massive mud causing water pollution in reservoirs and resulted in water shortage for daily life locally and affected agricultural irrigation and industrial usages seriously. A number of methods for prediction of debris flows have been studied. However, the successful prediction ratio of debris flows cannot always maintain a stable and reliable level. The objective of this study is to present a stable and reliable analytical model for occurrence predictions of debris flows. This study proposes an Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) model that was constructed by seven significant factors using back-propagation (BP) algorithm. These seven factors include (1) length of creek, (2) average slope, (3) effective watershed area, (4) shape coefficient, (5) median size of soil grain, (6) effective cumulative rainfall, and (7) effective rainfall intensity. A total of 178 potential cases of debris flows collected in eastern Taiwan were fed into the ANN model for training and testing. The average ratio of successful prediction reaching 93.82% demonstrates that the presented ANN model with seven significant factors can provide a stable and reliable result for the prediction of debris flows in hazard mitigation and guarding systems.     

Modeling the cyclic swelling pressure of mudrock using artificial neural networks

The stochastic nature of the cyclic swelling behavior of mudrock and its dependence on a large number of interdependent parameters was modeled using Time Delay Neural Networks (TDNNs). This method has facilitated predicting cyclic swelling pressure with an acceptable level of accuracy where developing a general mathematical model is almost impossible. A number of total pressure cells between shotcrete and concrete walls of the powerhouse cavern at Masjed–Soleiman Hydroelectric Powerhouse Project, South of Iran, where mudrock outcrops, confirmed a cyclic swelling pressure on the lining since 1999. In several locations, small cracks are generated which has raised doubts about long term stability of the powerhouse structure. This necessitated a study for predicting future swelling pressure. Considering the complexity of the interdependent parameters in this problem, TDNNs proved to be a powerful tool. The results of this modeling are presented in this paper.     

A reassessment of models for hydrocarbon generation in the Khibiny nepheline syenite complex, Kola Peninsula, Russia

Although hydrocarbon-bearing fluids have been known from the alkaline igneous rocks of the Khibiny intrusion for many years, their origin remains enigmatic. A recently proposed model of post-magmatic hydrocarbon (HC) generation through Fischer-Tropsch (FT) type reactions suggests the hydration of Fe-bearing phases and release of H₂ which reacts with magmatically derived CO₂ to form CH₄ and higher HCs. However, new petrographic, microthermometric, laser Raman, bulk gas and isotope data are presented and discussed in the context of previously published work in order to reassess models of HC generation. The gas phase is dominated by CH₄ with only minor proportions of higher hydrocarbons. No remnants of the proposed primary CO₂-rich fluid are found in the complex. The majority of the fluid inclusions are of secondary nature and trapped in healed microfractures. This indicates a high fluid flux after magma crystallisation. Entrapment conditions for fluid inclusions are 450–550 °C at 2.8–4.5 kbar. These temperatures are too high for hydrocarbon gas generation through the FT reaction. Chemical analyses of rims of Fe-rich phases suggest that they are not the result of alteration but instead represent changes in magma composition during crystallisation. Furthermore, there is no clear relationship between the presence of Fe-rich minerals and the abundance of fluid inclusion planes (FIPs) as reported elsewhere. δ¹³C values for methane range from − 22.4‰ to − 5.4‰, confirming a largely abiogenic origin for the gas. The presence of primary CH₄-dominated fluid inclusions and melt inclusions, which contain a methane-rich gas phase, indicates a magmatic origin of the HCs. An increase in methane content, together with a decrease in δ¹³C isotope values towards the intrusion margin suggests that magmatically derived abiogenic hydrocarbons may have mixed with biogenic hydrocarbons derived from the surrounding country rocks.     

Application of the QUILF thermobarometer to the peralkaline trachytes and pantellerites of the Eburru volcanic complex, East African Rift, Kenya

The Quaternary Eburru volcanic complex in the south-central Kenya Rift consists of pantelleritic trachytes and pantellerites. The phenocryst assemblage in the trachytes is sanidine + fayalite + ferrohedenbergite + aenigmatite ± quartz ± ilmenite ± magnetite ± pyrrhotite ± pyrite. In the pantellerites, the assemblage is sanidine + quartz + ferrohedenbergite + fayalite + aenigmatite + ferrorichterite + pyrrhotite ± apatite, although fayalite, ferrohedenbergite and ilmenite are absent from more evolved rocks (e.g. with SiO₂ > 71%). QUILF temperature calculations for the trachytes range from 709 to 793 °C and for the pantellerites 668–708 °C, the latter temperatures being among the lowest recorded for peralkaline silicic magmas. The QUILF thermobarometer demonstrates that the Eburru magmas crystallized at relatively low oxidation states (ΔFMQ + 0.5 to − 1.6) for both trachytes and pantellerites. The trachytes and pantellerites evolved along separate liquid lines of descent, the trachytes possibly deriving from a more mafic parent by fractional crystallization and the pantellerites from extreme fractionation of comenditic magmas.     

Managing sustainable farmed landscape through 'alternative' food networks: a case study from Italy

This paper focuses on a case study of an 'alternative' food network based in the Abruzzo National Park, Italy, to explore how ideas of sustainable farmland management can be expressed through broader understandings of developing networks of care concerned with local economies and societies, high-quality specialist food products, particular 'traditional' farming practices and livestock breeds, as well as the ecology of a farmed landscape. The scheme allows customers, internationally as well as in Italy, to 'adopt' a milking sheep on a large mountain farm. In return, adopters are sent food products from the farm. The adoption scheme is inter-twined with an agri-tourism project which provides accommodation, runs a restaurant and engages in educational activities. The scheme is the result of the individual initiative of its founder, and is associated with a strongly expressed ethical position concerning the value of sustaining valued local rural landscapes and lifestyles, and the importance of 'reconnecting' urban dwellers with rural areas, farming and 'quality' food production. Yet the localness of the scheme is sustained through wider national and international networks: volunteer and paid workers are drawn from several European countries, funding has been acquired from the EU LEADER programme, and internet and transport technologies are essential in connecting with and supplying an international customer base. The broader economy of care instanced in this case study draws attention to a need to develop strategies for sustainable farmland management constructed around wider programmes of social, economic and cultural, as well as environmental, concern.     

Can we sustain sustainable agriculture? Learning from small-scale producer-suppliers in Canada and the UK

There has been particular interest in 'alternative' food over the last 10 years, with many policymakers and researchers throughout the Minority World following a growing number of consumers and producers in supporting organic farming and a host of 'alternative' food networks. To date, there has been a tendency for theory and policy to emerge somewhat divorced from the grounded practices and experiences of producer-suppliers themselves within these networks. Urging a shift from 'alternativity' to 'sustainability' as a more critical and valuable tool to analyse food networks, this paper draws upon in-depth ethnographic research with small-scale producer-supplier case studies in south Wales and southern Ontario. In so doing it explores often overlooked voices and stories within sustainable food discourses. Focusing on the value of farmer-led understandings and responses, the paper highlights important implications for policymakers and consumers and outlines future research on sustainable food networks.     

Petrology, geochemistry and the mechanisms determining the distribution of platinum-group element and base metal sulphide mineralisation in the Platreef at Overysel, northern Bushveld Complex, South Africa

Platinum-group element (PGE) mineralisation within the Platreef at Overysel is controlled by the presence of base metal sulphides (BMS). The floor rocks at Overysel are Archean basement gneisses, and unlike other localities along the strike of the Platreef where the floor is comprised of Transvaal Supergroup sediments, the intimate PGE–BMS relationship holds strong into the footwall rocks. Decoupling of PGE from BMS is rare and the BMS and platinum-group mineral assemblages in the Platreef and the footwall are almost identical. There is minimal overprinting by hydrothermal fluids; therefore, the mineralisation style present at Overysel may represent the most ‘primary’ style of Platreef mineralisation preserved anywhere along the strike. Chondrite-normalised PGE profiles reveal a progressive fractionation of the PGE with depth into the footwall, with Ir, Ru and Rh dramatically depleted with depth compared to Pt, Pd and Au. This feature is not observed at Sandsloot and Zwartfontein, to the south of Overysel, where the footwall rocks are carbonates. There is evidence from rare earth element abundances and the amount of interstitial quartz towards the base of the Platreef pyroxenites that contamination by a felsic melt derived from partial melting of the gneissic footwall has taken place. Textural evidence in the gneisses suggests that a sulphide liquid percolated down into the footwall through a permeable, inter-granular network that was produced by partial melting around grain boundaries in the gneisses that was induced by the intrusion of the Platreef magma. PGE were originally concentrated within a sulphide liquid in the Platreef magma, and the crystallisation of monosulphide solid solution from the sulphide liquid removed the majority of the IPGE and Rh from it whilst still within the mafic Platreef. Transport of PGE into the gneisses, via downward migration of the residual sulphide liquid, fractionated out the remaining IPGE and Rh in the upper parts of the gneisses leaving a ‘slick’ of disseminated sulphides in the gneiss, with the residual liquid becoming progressively more depleted in these elements relative to Pt, Pd and Au. Highly sulphide-rich zones with massive sulphides formed where ponding of the sulphide liquid occurred due to permeability contrasts in the footwall. This study highlights the fact that there is a fundamental floor rock control on the mechanism of distribution of PGE from the Platreef into the footwall rocks. Where the floor rocks are sediments, fluid activity related to metamorphism, assimilation and later serpentinisation has decoupled PGE from BMS in places, and transport of PGE into the footwall is via hydrothermal fluids. In contrast, where the floor is comprised of anhydrous gneiss, such as at Overysel, there is limited fluid activity and PGE behaviour is controlled by the behaviour of sulphide liquids, producing an intimate PGE–BMS association. Xenoliths and irregular bands of chromitite within the Platreef are described in detail for the first time. These are rich in the IPGE and Rh, and evidence from laurite inclusions indicates they must have crystallised from a PGE-saturated magma. The disturbed and xenolithic nature of the chromitites would suggest they are rip-up clasts, either disturbed by later pulses of Platreef magma in a multi-phase emplacement or transported into the Platreef from a pre-existing source in a deeper staging chamber or conduit.