Chemical aspects of iron oxide coagulation in water: Laboratory studies and implications for natural systems

Initial coagulation rates of colloidal hematite (-Fe₂O₃) particles (diameter less than 0.1 µm) were measured experimentally in well-defined laboratory systems at constant temperature. The relative stability ratio,W, was obtained at various ionic strengths in NaCl medium and at pH values in the range from 3 to 12. ExperimentalW values ranged from 1 to 10⁴ in various systems. The results delineate the roles ofspecific andgeneralized coagulation mechanisms for iron oxides. Among the specifically-interacting species (G _ads ⁰ >G _coul ⁰ ) studied were phosphate, monomeric organic acids of various structures, and polymeric organic acids. The critical coagulation-restabilization concentrations of specifically-interacting anions (from 10^–7 to 10^–4 molar) can be compared with the general effects of non-specific electrolyte coagulants (10^–3 to 10^–1 molar). The laboratory results are interpreted with the help of a Surface Complex Formation/Diffuse Layer Model (SCF/DLM) which describes variations of interfacial charge and potential resulting from variations of coagulating species in solution. Comparison of these laboratory experiments with observations on iron behavior in estuarine and lake waters aids in understanding iron removal mechanisms and coagulation time scales in natural systems.     

Fracture analysis in the south-western Corinth rift (Greece) and implications on fault hydraulic behavior

This paper reviews the data concerning the fracture network and the hydraulic characteristics of faults in an active zone of the Gulf of Corinth. Pressure gap measured through fault planes shows that in this area the active normal faults (Aigion, Helike) act, at least temporarily and locally, as transversal seal. The analysis of the carbonate cements in the fractures on both the hangingwall and the footwall of the faults also suggests that they have acted as local seals during the whole fault zone evolution. However, the pressure and the characteristics of the water samples measured in the wells indicate that meteoric water circulates from the highest part of the relief to the coast, which means it goes through the fault zones. Field quantitative analysis and core studies from the AIG-10 well have been performed to define both regional and fault-related fracture networks. Then laboratory thin section observations have been done to recognize the different fault rocks characterizing the fault zone components. These two kinds of approach give information on the permeability characteristics of the fault zone. To synthesize the data, a schematic conceptual 3D fluid flow modeling has been performed taking into account fault zone permeability architecture, sedimentation, fluid flow, fault vertical offset and meteoric water influx, as well as compaction water flow. This modeling allows us to fit all the data with a model where the fault segments act as a seal whereas the relays between these segments allow for the regional flow from the Peloponnese topographic highs to the coast.     

Variability in Early Amazonian Tharsis stress state based on wrinkle ridges and strike-slip faulting

We present evidence for a decrease in the magnitude of Tharsis-circumferential compressive stress during the Late Hesperian to the Middle Amazonian based on chronologic changes in the predominant style of faulting in southern Amazonis Planitia. Using high-resolution MOLA topography, we identify a population of strike-slip faults that exhibit Middle Amazonian-aged displacements of regional chrono-stratigraphic units. These strike-slip faults are adjacent to an older population of previously documented Late Hesperian-aged thrust faults (wrinkle ridges). Along-strike orientations of these thrust and strike-slip faults reveal the Tharsis-radial stress to be the area's most compressive remote principal stress and that this stress orientation and magnitude persisted throughout the Late Hesperian to the Middle Amazonian. We show that the change in the predominant style of faulting from thrust faulting to strike-slip faulting during this time requires a decrease of the Tharsis-circumferential compressive stress to a magnitude less than lithostatic load, with negligible change in stress orientation.     

Early Jurassic rift structures associated with the Soapaga and Boyacá faults of the Eastern Cordillera, Colombia: Sedimentological inferences and regional implications

The NW-trending Bucaramanga fault links, at its southern termination, with the Soapaga and Boyacá faults, which by their NW trend define an ample horsetail structure. As a result of their Neogene reactivation as reverse faults, they bound fault-related anticlines that expose the sedimentary fill of two Early Jurassic rift basins. These sediments exhibit the wedge-like geometry of rift fills related to west-facing normal faults. Their structural setting was controlled further by segmentation of the bounding faults at approximately 10 km intervals, in which each segment is separated by a transverse basement high. Isopach contours and different facies associations suggest these transverse anticlines may have separated depocenters of their adjacent subbasins, which were shaped by a slightly different subsidence history and thereby decoupled. The basin fill of the relatively narrow basin associated with the Soapaga fault is dominated by fanglomeratic successions organized in two coarsening-upward cycles. In the larger basin linked to the Boyacá fault, the sedimentary fill consists of two coarsening-upward sequences that, when fully developed, vary from floodplain to alluvial fan deposits. These Early Jurassic rift fills temporally constrain the evolution of the Bucaramanga fault, which accommodated right-lateral displacement during the early Mesozoic rift event.     

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.     

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.     

On the Importance of Geolithological Features for the Estimate of the Site Response: The Case of Catania Metropolitan Area (Italy)

The evaluation of seismic site response in the urban area of Catania was tackled by selecting test areas having peculiar lithological and structural features, potentially favourable to large local amplifications of ground motion. The two selected areas are located in the historical downtown and in the northern part of Catania where the presence of a fault is evident. Site response was evaluated using spectral ratio technique taking the horizontal- to-vertical component ratio of ambient noise. Inferences from microtremor measurements are compared with results from synthetic accelerograms and response spectra computed at all drillings available for this area. Such method is particularly suitable in urban areas where the nature of the outcropping geological units is masked by city growth and anthropic intervention on the surface geology. The microtremor H/V spectral ratios evaluated at soft sites located within the downtown profile tend to be smaller than that usually reported in the literature for such soils. A tendency for amplifications to peaks near 2 Hz is observed only in some sites located on recent alluvial deposits. Evidences for amplifications of site effects (frequency range 4–8 Hz) were observed in the sampling sites located on the fault, with a rapid decrease of spectral amplitude just a few tenths of metres away from the discontinuity. Numerical simulations evidenced the importance of geolithological features at depth levels even greater than 20–30 m. Besides this, the results strongly confirm the importance of the subsurface geological conditions, in the estimate of seismic hazard at urban scale.     

2-D deformation of two welded half-spaces due to a blind dip-slip fault

The solution of two-dimensional problem of an interface breaking long inclined dip-slip fault in two welded half-spaces is well known. The purpose of this note is to obtain the corresponding solution for a blind fault. The solution is valid for arbitrary values of the fault-depth and the dip angle. Graphs showing the variation of the displacement field with the distance from the fault, for different values of fault depth and dip angle are presented. Contour maps showing the stress field around a long dip-slip fault are also obtained