Secondary welding of submarine,pumice-lithic breccia at Mount Chalmers,Queensland, Australia

Very thick units of massive pumice and lithic clast-rich breccia in the Early Permian Berserker beds at Mount Chalmers, Queensland, are deposits from cold, water-supported, volcaniclastic mass flows emplaced in a below-wave base submarine setting. Adjacent to syn-volcanic andesitic and rhyolitic sills and dykes, the pumice-lithic breccia shows a well-developed eutaxitic texture. The eutaxitic foliation is parallel to intrusive contacts and extends as far as a few metres away from the contact. At these sites, pumice clasts are strongly flattened and tube vesicles within the pumice clasts are compacted and aligned parallel to the direction of flattening. Some lenticular pumice clasts contain small (2 mm), round, quartz-filled amygdales and spherulites. Further away from the sills and dykes, the pumice clasts have randomly oriented, delicate tube vesicle structure and are blocky or lensoid in shape. Round amygdales were generated by re-vesiculation of the glass and the spherulites indicate devitrification of the glass at relatively high temperatures. The eutaxitic texture is therefore attributed to re-heating and welding compaction of glassy pumice-lithic breccia close to contacts with intrusions. In cases involving sills, secondary welding along the contacts formed extensive, conformable, eutaxitic zones in the pumice-lithic breccia that could be mistaken for primary welding compaction in a hot, primary pyroclastic deposit.     

On the influence of wavelength-dependent light scattering on the UV-VIS absorption spectra of oxygen-based minerals: a study on silicate glass ceramics as model substances

 The Mie scattering theory shows that the presence of randomly distributed submicroscopic inclusions with narrow size distribution and a refractive index n _i in a matrix with different refractive index n _m may give rise to a λ-dependent, band-like scattering (e.g., Kortüm 1969). Intensity and spectral position of this scattering depend on a combination of several independent parameters, such as size and number of inclusions, their form and n _i /n _m ratio (Kortüm 1969). Recently, it was confirmed that at a certain inclusion size and n _i /n _m ratio the scattering bands can contribute to the UV-edge in the electronic absorption spectra of garnets, influencing their colour (Khomenko et al. 2001). In natural minerals, however, it is impossible to differentiate between individual influence on scattering of the above mentioned parameters because of complex and interconnected variations in number, size and type of inclusions. Additionally, in most natural minerals variable amounts of transition metal ions are present. They may cause UV-VIS absorption due to ligand to metal charge transfer (LMCT) in the same region where band-like scattering may occur (Khomenko et al. 2001). At least some of these difficulties may be avoided in the case of some glass ceramics where number and size of crystalline microinclusions can be controlled by varying ceramization conditions such that fine-grained homogeneous microstructures are formed (e.g., James 1982; Petzoldt and Pannhorst 1991). Thus, glass ceramics of known composition, containing different amounts of microcrystals of specified size, may serve as unique patterns for the experimental study of effects caused by submicrocrystals on bulk properties of transparent solid materials, such as scattering, UV-VIS transparency and colour. Four types of parent glasses and a series of glass ceramic materials produced from them by heat treatment were investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These materials were also studied by transmission spectrometry in the range 35 000–20 000 cm⁻¹. Different inclusions, from five to several hundred nm in size, were observed in the glass matrices depending on their compositions and heating history. These inclusions represent two groups: early very small crystals of Ti, Zr oxides and relatively large crystals of stuffed high-quartz type or keatite. The absorption spectra of the glass ceramics show largely varying long-wavelength slopes of the UV absorption. UV-edge intensity correlates mostly with the size of the inclusions and changes drastically when larger keatite-type microcrystals are growing. Small variations in the UV edges also follow the early process of Ti-phase separation and nucleation. This may be explained by Ti depletion from the glass matrix and, thus, by reducing the measured intensity of LMCT in the first co-ordination sphere of Ti⁴⁺ ions. The different yellowish colourations of unheated glasses studied here are caused by this effect, whereas developing several hundred-nm-large keatite crystals leads to a strong scattering effect and a milky colour in glass ceramics. Received: 15 February 2002 / Accepted: 11 November 2002 Acknowledgements M. Garsche and A. Kisljuck generously provided the base glass and glass ceramic samples. F. Galbert and S. Herhing-Aghte, both at the Technical University Berlin, helped with electron microprobe analyses and refractive indices measurements, respectively. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn-Bad Godesberg, provided financial support through grant La324/35. To all these individuals and this institution our sincere thanks are due.     

Advanced analyses of 57Fe Mössbauer data of alumino-silicate glasses

⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectra of iron bearing alumino-silicate glasses are analysed by two complementary methods (SID and x-VBF) especially adapted for the analysis of disordered systems by taking into account distributions of hyperfine Mössbauer parameters. Qualitative and quantitative information about the oxidation state of iron are obtained as well as information about the distribution of local environments of iron. The possibility to separate the signal of ferric iron from that of ferrous iron allows to derive precise redox ratio in favourable cases but also to analyse more sharply the different contributions to Mössbauer spectra. Using two different glass series (feldspar composition, haplo-tonalitic composition), the characteristics of the two methods are described and employed to study the effect of composition, water incorporation and oxidation state on the glass structure. Optical absorption spectroscopy is used to support the interpretation of the Mössbauer spectra in case of the feldspar glasses.     

Recycling of Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) in Electronic Waste

The management of used electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) or e‐waste is a significant problem worldwide due to rapid uptake of the technology and early obsolescence of EEE. Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) from used televisions and computer monitors represent a major e‐waste problem as they consist of glass with different compositions. The front panel is a lead‐free barium‐strontium glass whereas parts such as the funnel hidden inside are composed of glass with lead oxides. Regulations require the glass from waste CRTs to be recycled or re‐utilized. Closed‐loop recycling and open‐loop recycling are two principal ways of recycling CRT glass. The aim of this paper is to examine the technical characteristics and composition of the CRTs, its generation, environmental impacts and related regulatory requirements and to review the current technologies and their limitations for recycling CRT glass and its end use.     

Crystal fractionation in the friction melts of seismic faults (Alpine Fault, New Zealand)

Compositional variations are documented in friction melts along the Hari Hari section of the Alpine Fault, New Zealand, with multiple stages of melt injection into quartzo-feldspathic schists. Intermediate to felsic melts were heterogeneous in composition, but all fractions show a common trend, with a tendency for the younger melt layers and glasses to be more alkali − (Na + K) and Si-enriched, while being depleted in mafic (Fe + Mg + Mn) components. These changes are attributed primarily to crystal fractionation of the melt during transport. Farther traveled molten layers were on the whole less viscous, mostly due to a higher melt-to-clast ratio; however, compositional change, together with a decrease in volatile content, produced a progressively more viscous liquid melt with time. The glass phase is interpreted as a remnant of this high viscosity felsic residual melt that was preserved during final quenching. Following initial failure, the formation of largely phyllosilicate-derived, volatile-rich, lower viscosity melt corresponds with a phase of fault weakening. Subsequent rapid crystal fractionation during melt transport, the loss of volatiles and freezing of residual melt contributed to the strengthening of the fault during seismic slip.     

Structural changes in sodium tetrasilicate glass around the liquid-glass transition: a neutron diffraction study

The structure of sodium tetrasilicate (Na₂Si₄O₉) glass and melt was studied in the range from 300 to 950?K by neutron diffraction. Increasing temperature leads to gradual decrease of the peak intensities in the static structure factors possibly with a change in the slope at the glass transition temperature (T _g?773?K), but no shift and broadening of the peaks is observed. Especially, the position of the first sharp diffraction peak (FSDP) at 1.6?Å^–1 remains constant in the whole temperature range studied. The corresponding pair correlation functions g(r) are very similar at all temperatures. Only a slight broadening of the Si-O and O-O first nearest-neighbour peaks with temperature is observed, which can be attributed to temperature enhanced dynamic distortions of the SiO₄ tetrahedra. All these results suggest that there is little change not only in the short- but also in the medium-range order of the sodium tetrasilicate glass and melt around the glass-liquid transition.