Geochemistry and petrogenesis of the post-orogenic bimodal dyke swarms in NW Sinai, Egypt: constraints on the magmatic–tectonic processes during the late Precambrian

The study area in the northwest Sinai represents one of the most significant regions in the Egyptian basement intensely invaded by post-orogenic calc-alkaline dyke swarms. Two post-orogenic dyke swarms have been recognized in NW Sinai namely: (1) mafic dykes of basalt, basaltic andesite and andesite composition and (2) felsic dykes of dacite, rhyodacite and rhyolite composition. These basaltic to rhyolitic dykes intruded contemporaneously and shortly after the intrusion of the post-orogenic leucogranite. The mafic and felsic dykes are enriched in incompatible elements, especially in the large ion lithophile elements (e.g. K, Rb, Ba) and depleted in high field strength elements with negative P, Ti and Nb anomalies. Major and trace element geochemistry indicates that investigated mafic and felsic magma types are not related via fractional crystallization. The protoliths of the mafic and felsic dykes appear to have evolved from different parental magmas. The incompatible trace element patterns favour a derivation of the mafic dykes from melting of a garnet peridotite source followed by fractional crystallization of olivine, clinopyroxene amphibole and zircon. The felsic dykes, on the other hand, could be generated by melting of garnet-free source modified subsequently by fractional crystallization of plagioclase, apatite and titanomagnetite. This implies variable source characteristics at the end of the Pan-African in the NW Sinai.The mafic and felsic dykes can be related to an intracontinental setting and that this was accompanied by a chemical evolution of the subcontinental lithosphere. Magma generation and ascent in the area was favoured by extensional movements, which is already known from other areas in NE Africa.     

Computer simulation studies of Crystallization under confinement conditions

Crystallization under confinement conditions is a very important process in geochemistry and geophysics. Computer simulations of fluids in nanometer scale pore spaces can provide a unique microscopic insight into the structure, dynamics and forces arising from the crystallization process. We discuss in this paper molecular dynamics computer simulations of crystallization in pores of nanometer dimensions. The crystallization pressure due to the freezing of a model of Argon in a nanopore is computed using molecular dynamics simulations. We also investigate the influence of pore geometry in determining the dynamics of confined fluids, as well as mass separation in binary mixtures. It turns out that the pore geometry reveals itself as an important variable, leading to 1) new mechanisms for fast diffusion in confined spaces, and 2) accumulation of solute in specific regions inside the pore.     

Cyclicity in the Main and Upper Zones of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa: Crystallization from a Zoned Magma Sheet

The major element composition of plagioclase, pyroxene, olivine,and magnetite, and whole-rock ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr data are presented forthe uppermost 2·1 km of the layered mafic rocks (upperMain Zone and Upper Zone) at Bierkraal in the western BushveldComplex. Initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios are near-constant (0·7073± 0·0001) for 24 samples and imply crystallizationfrom a homogeneous magma sheet without major magma rechargeor assimilation. The 2125 m thick section investigated in drillcore comprises 26 magnetitite and six nelsonite (magnetite–ilmenite–apatite)layers and changes up-section from gabbronorite (An₇₂ plagioclase;Mg# 74 clinopyroxene) to magnetite–ilmenite–apatite–fayaliteferrodiorite (An₄₃; Mg# 5 clinopyroxene; Fo₁ olivine). The overallfractionation trend is, however, interrupted by reversals characterizedby higher An% of plagioclase, higher Mg# of pyroxene and olivine,and higher V₂O₅ of magnetite. In the upper half of the successionthere is also the intermittent presence of cumulus olivine andapatite. These reversals in normal fractionation trends definethe bases of at least nine major cycles. We have calculateda plausible composition for the magma from which this entiresuccession formed. Forward fractional crystallization modelingof this composition predicts an initial increase in total iron,near-constant SiO₂ and an increasing density of the residualmagma before magnetite crystallizes. After magnetite beginsto crystallize the residual magma shows a near-constant totaliron, an increase in SiO₂ and decrease in density. We explainthe observed cyclicity by bottom crystallization. Initiallymagma stratification developed during crystallization of thebasal gabbronorites. Once magnetite began to crystallize, periodicdensity inversion led to mixing with the overlying magma layer,producing mineralogical breaks between fractionation cycles.The magnetitite and nelsonite layers mainly occur within fractionationcycles, not at their bases. In at least two cases, crystallizationof thick magnetitite layers may have lowered the density ofthe basal layer of melt dramatically, and triggered the proposeddensity inversion, resulting in close, but not perfect, coincidenceof mineralogical breaks and packages of magnetitite layers. KEY WORDS: layered intrusion; mineral chemistry; isotopes; magma; convection; differentiation     

初论古文化类型演替与传承模式的区域分异——以西拉沐沦河流域和汶泗流域为例

西拉沐沦河流域地处中国地貌大势三大台阶之中台阶与低台阶的过渡区。该区的中度抬升和下切,造成了西拉沐沦河流域考古文化遗址在空间上的垂向迁移;频繁的迁移也导致了考古遗址在堆积形态上主要表现为单一型,体现了不同考古文化之间“间断”的,不稳定的传承方式。位于中国地貌大势之低台阶上的汶泗流域,属自下古生代以来就十分稳定的剥蚀区,这些自然条件造成了汶泗流域遗址在堆积形态上主要表现为叠置型,考古文化在时空上,很少随着时间做空间上的改变,基本上在同一水平空间稳定不动,体现了不同考古文化之间“连续”、稳定的传承方式。两个流域的对比研究说明,不同地域、不同的自然条件,可以造成考古文化演替与传承模式的区域分异     

Volcanological and petrological evolution of Marsili Seamount (southern Tyrrhenian Sea)

A swath bathymetric survey was conducted on Marsili Volcano, the biggest seamount in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It stands 3000 m above the surrounding oceanic crust of the 3500 m-deep Marsili back-arc basin and is axially located within the basin. The seamount has an elongated shape and presents distinctive morphology, with narrow (<1000 m) ridges, made up of several elongated cones, on the summit zone and extensive cone fields on its lower flanks. A dredging campaign carried out at water depths varying between 3400 and 600 m indicates that most of Marsili Seamount is composed of medium-K calc-alkaline basalts. Evolved high-K andesites were only recovered from the small cones on the summit axis zone. Petrological and geochemical characteristics of the least differentiated basalts reveal that at least two varieties of magmas have been erupted on the Marsili Volcano. Group 1 basalts have plagioclase and olivine as dominant phases and show lower Al, Ca, K, Ba, Rb and Sr, and higher Fe, Na, Ti and Zr with respect to a second type of basaltic magma. Group 2 basalts reveal the presence of clinopyroxene as an additional phenocryst phase. In addition, the two basaltic magmas have different original pre-eruptive H₂O content (group 1, H₂O-poor and group 2, H₂O-rich). Moreover, comparison of the compositional trends and mineralogical compositions obtained from MELTS [Ghiorso, M.S., Sack, R.O., Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 119 (1995) 197–212] fractional crystallization calculations reveal that the evolved andesites can only exclusively be derived from a low-pressure (0.3 kbar) fractionation of magmas compositionally similar to the least evolved group 2 basalts. Finally, we suggest that the high vesicularity of the basalts sampled at relatively great depths (>2400 m) on the edifice is governed by H₂O and, probably, CO₂ exsolution and is not a feature indicative of shallow water depth eruption.     

新疆宏观生态的空间分异与变化

根据新疆环境和生态特点，将新疆划分为14个二级生态区进行了研究。结果表明，新疆荒漠与非荒漠生态景观面积大致相当，但空间分异较大。新疆北部荒漠景观占全区域的约1／3，非荒漠景观占2／3，宏观生态相对稳定；新疆东部荒漠景观占全区域的2／3以上，宏观生态十分严峻；新疆南部荒漠景观占全区域的1／2，宏观生态稳定性差。沙漠、绿洲、水体三种主要景观类型中，北疆阿尔泰山南坡、伊犁盆地及南疆叶尔羌－喀什河三角洲地区沙漠化呈降低趋势；天山北坡各段及准噶尔盆地西部，20世纪90年代以来沙漠化明显减缓；新疆东部及南部其余各地区沙漠化均呈现增强趋势。新疆水体景观的变化表现为天然和人工水体面积的消长。近50年来，新疆修建的水库和坑塘等人工水体总面积与同期天然水体缩小的面积基本相当，表明新疆水体景观再近50年来的变化主要体现为水体的空间位移。绿洲景观的变化表明，北疆地区天然绿洲与人工绿洲面积的比例已经从50年代的5：1以上下降到约1：1，南疆由6：1以上下降到3：1左右。天然绿洲的减少是绿洲生态局部劣变的标志。研究还表明，新疆宏观生态的空间分异主要受自然因素的影响，其中，区域降水量的影响最为重要。     

Disequilibrium for Ca during growth of pelitic garnet

Compositional zoning in hundreds of almandine-rich garnets in amphibolite by facies micaceous quartzites from the Picuris Range, north-central New Mexico USA, indicates that although Mn, Mg and Fe achieve chemical equilibrium at hand-sample scale during garnet growth, Ca does not. Instead, Ca concentrations at the surface of growing garnets appear to depend strongly on kinetic factors that govern the local chemical environment, yielding disequilibrium for Ca at scales larger than the region immediately surrounding an individual porphyroblast. Detailed zoning profiles were obtained for 371 garnet crystals in a small volume of a single sample of garnetiferous quartzite, and core analyses were made of 97 additional crystals. Each analysis was made on a section that passed precisely through the morphological centre of the crystal, located by means of 3-D imagery from computed X-ray tomography. The data reveal strong correlations between crystal size and concentrations of Mn, Mg and Fe (but not Ca) in garnet cores; a relationship between crystal size and isolation; rigorous cross-correlations among concentrations of Mn, Mg and Fe (but not Ca); and systematic variations in Ca concentrations as a function of crystal size and core composition that are anomalous in comparison to the behaviour of the other divalent cations. We interpret these observations as the result of thermally accelerated diffusion-controlled garnet growth, in circumstances that promoted rapid intergranular diffusion and thus rock-wide equilibration of Mn, Mg and Fe, but that prevented equilibration at similar scale for Ca because of its more sluggish intergranular diffusion. The anomalous behaviour of Ca is made evident in these garnets by the presence of sharp spikes in Ca concentration, which are demonstrably not a consequence of any simultaneous rock-wide event, such as a change in pressure, temperature, or some other intensive parameter. Instead, Ca concentrations probably reflect the local extent of reaction in the immediate vicinity of each porphyroblast. To the degree that such kinetic factors introduce departures from chemical equilibrium for Ca, thermobarometric estimates that involve grossular contents of pelitic garnet will be in error.     

新疆阿拉尔花岗岩MFC过程的微量元素综合效应

新疆阿拉尔花岗岩的微量元素比相关图显示了线性样点列与幂函数曲线形式的样点列相 复杂图型。该图型用简单混合或者单一结果分异模型都不能解释。本文建立了混合－结晶分异复合过程的微量元素综合效应模型。模型１：从初始混合线引起害虫函数曲线束形式的结晶分异线。特殊情况有结晶分异线简化为通过原点的直线束形式或者与初始混合线重合。