Meteoric fluid‐rock interaction in Variscan shear zones

Variscan shear zones in the Armorican Massif represent sites of strong fluid‐rock interaction. The hydrogen isotope composition of muscovite (δD_Ms) from syntectonic leucogranite allows to determine the source of fluids that infiltrated the footwall of three detachment zones and the South Armorican Shear Zone. Using temperatures of hydrogen isotope exchange estimated from microstructural data, we calculate the hydrogen isotope ratios of water (δD_water) present within the shear zones during high‐temperature deformation. A ~40‰ difference in δD_water values from deep to shallow crustal level reveals a mixing relationship between deep crustal fluids with higher δD values that range from ?34 to ?33‰, and meteoric fluids with δD values as low as ?74‰ in the upper part of detachment footwalls.     

The SFR and IMF of the galactic disk

There is a long term dynamical heating of stellar populations with age observed in the age – velocity dispersion – relation (AVR). This effect allows a determination of the star formation history SFR(t) from local kinematical data of main sequence stars. Using a self-consistent disk model for the vertical structure of the disk, we find from the kinematics of the stars in the solar neighbourhood that the SFR shows a moderate star burst about 10 Gyr ago followed by a continuous decline to the present day value consistent with the observed number of OB stars. The gravitational potential of the gas component and of the Dark Matter Halo is included and the effect of chemical enrichment, finite lifetime of the stars and mass loss of the stellar component are taken into account. The scale heights for main sequence stars together with the SFR is then used to determine constistently the IMF from the observed local luminosity function. The main new result is that the power law break in the present day mass function (PDMF) around 1 M _⊙ is entirely due to evolutionary effects of the disk and does not appear in the IMF. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Interpretation of aeromagnetic data across the central crystalline shield area of Nigeria

Summary. A residual map of the total magnetic field (above 25 000 nT base) is presented for a portion of the central crystalline shield area of Nigeria and overlapping small portions of the Chad basin and the Benue rift (8°30'−12° 00'lat, and 7°−10°30' long). The map (based on a dataset digitized from recently released aeromagnetic sheets of Nigeria) leads to four results. (1) A magnetic boundary, evident on the map, separates the Younger Granite complexes into two groups. The groups are petrologically different, and the boundary may be a fault line with uplift to the south. (2) South of the boundary the map is dominated by a system of sub-parallel anomalies striking NE–SW, possibly representing major tectonic trends, and a set of fractures through which the Younger Granite complexes were intruded. The trend of the system parallels the Benue rift and lineaments in the oceanic crust off West Africa. (3) Negative magnetic anomalies lie over most of the known ring complexes, and over some suspected buried ring complexes and other intrusions. (4) 2½-and 3-D modelling shows that the larger complexes extend to 12 km depth, and the smaller ones to 6 km. They have nearly vertical sides, and magnetization contrasts range from 0.3 to 0.5 A m⁻¹.     

Ultra-Deep Optical Spectroscopy with PMAS. Using the Nod-and-Shuffle Technique

PMAS, the Potsdam Multi-Aperture Spectrophotometer, is a new integral field spectrograph in the optical, which is optimized for good transmission and high image quality from 350 nm to 1 μm. We present our plan to implement a CCD charge-shuffle mode to allow for beam switching with a very high degree of sky subtraction accuracy for faint object 3-D spectroscopy. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The origin of the correlation between the spin parameter and the baryon fraction of galactic disks

The puzzling correlation between the spin parameter λ of galactic disks and the disk-to-halo mass fraction f _disk is investigated. It is shown that such a correlation arises naturally from large uncertainties in determining the virial masses of dark matter halos. This result indicates that halo properties derived from fits to observed rotation curves are still very uncertain. An analysis of λ versus f _disk as function of the adopted halo virial mass shows that for reasonable halo concentrations f _disk ≈ 0.01 - 0.07 which is significantly smaller than the universal baryon fraction. Most of the available gas either never settled into the galactic disks or was ejected subsequently. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Partitioning of Ca and Al between forsterite and silicate melt in dynamic systems with implications for the origin of Ca,Al‐rich forsterites in primitive meteorites

Abstract— We report the results of dynamic crystallization experiments that were specifically designed to study the dependence of Ca and Al partitioning between forsterite and melt in rapidly cooling Caand Al‐rich melts. The partitioning of Ca between olivine and silicate melt is found to be independent of the cooling rate within the range of 1.5 to 1000°C/hr and at CaO contents of up to 25 wt%. Within analytical uncertainty, our data plot on the equilibrium partitioning curve obtained by Libourel (1999). The partitioning behavior of Al at high cooling rates is more complex. Aluminum is much more heterogenously distributed in the olivine and the co‐existing melt than Ca. But, no systematic trend of Al partition coefficient with cooling rate is observed. We apply the results of the experiments to the formation of meteoritic forsterites with relatively high contents of Ca and Al. Although these forsterites are found frequently inside chondrules, the Ca contents of their host chondrules are far too low to crystallize these high Ca‐forsterites. This is also true for very rapid cooling of chondrule melts. The parental melt of these forsterites requires CaO contents above 20 wt%.     

The host galaxies of active galactic nuclei

We examine the properties of the host galaxies of 22 623 narrow-line active galactic nuclei (AGN) with  0.02 < z < 0.3  selected from a complete sample of 122 808 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We focus on the luminosity of the [O  iii ]λ5007 emission line as a tracer of the strength of activity in the nucleus. We study how AGN host properties compare with those of normal galaxies and how they depend on L [O  iii ]. We find that AGN of all luminosities reside almost exclusively in massive galaxies and have distributions of sizes, stellar surface mass densities and concentrations that are similar to those of ordinary early-type galaxies in our sample. The host galaxies of low-luminosity AGN have stellar populations similar to normal early types. The hosts of high-luminosity AGN have much younger mean stellar ages. The young stars are not preferentially located near the nucleus of the galaxy, but are spread out over scales of at least several kiloparsecs. A significant fraction of high-luminosity AGN have strong Hδ absorption-line equivalent widths, indicating that they experienced a burst of star formation in the recent past. We have also examined the stellar populations of the host galaxies of a sample of broad-line AGN. We conclude that there is no significant difference in stellar content between type 2 Seyfert hosts and quasars (QSOs) with the same [O  iii ] luminosity and redshift. This establishes that a young stellar population is a general property of AGN with high [O  iii ] luminosities.     

V792 Her=HD 155638: A totally eclipsing RS CVn binary

Photometry of HD 155638=V792 Her has been analyzed to determine the elements of this totally eclipsing RS CVn binary. The light variation outside eclipse was found to have a period of 27^d.07±0^d.07, which is slightly different from the 27^d.5384±0^d.0045 orbital period. Analysis of the eclipses was achieved by a modification of the Russell-Merrill technique. With the aid of radial velocity measures, absolute elements were obtained for the hot and cool stars, respectively;R _h=2.58R ,R _c=12.28R ,M _h=1.40M ,M _c=1.46M ,i=80^o.61 and velocity semi-amplitudesK _c=48.36 km s^–1±0.79 km s^–1, andK _h=50.50 km s^–1±0.33 km s^–1. The apparent magnitudes areV _h=9 ^m .73 andV _c=8 ^m .48. The distance to HD 155638 was estimated to be 310 parsecs.     

Archean high-Mg monzodiorite–syenite,epidote skarn,and biotite–sericite gold lodes in the Granny Smith–Wallaby district,Australia: U–Pb and Re–Os chronometry of two intrusion-related hydrothermal systems

The Granny Smith (37 t Au production) and Wallaby deposits (38 t out of a 180 t Au resource) are located northeast of Kalgoorlie, in 2.7 Ga greenstones of the Eastern Goldfields Province, the youngest orogenic belt of the Yilgarn craton, Western Australia. At Granny Smith, a zoned monzodiorite–granodiorite stock, dated by a concordant titanite–zircon U–Pb age of 2,665 ± 3 Ma, cuts across east-dipping thrust faults. The stock is fractured but not displaced and sets a minimum age for large-scale (1 km) thrust faulting (D2), regional folding (D1), and dynamothermal metamorphism in the mining district. The local gold–pyrite mineralization, controlled by fractured fault zones, is younger than 2,665 ± 3 Ma. In augite–hornblende monzodiorite, alteration progressed from a hematite-stained alkali feldspar–quartz–calcite assemblage and quartz–molybdenite–pyrite veins to a late reduced sericite–dolomite–albite assemblage. Gold-related monazite and xenotime define a U–Pb age of 2,660 ± 5 Ma, and molybdenite from veins a Re–Os isochron age of 2,661 ± 6 Ma, indicating that mineralization took place shortly after the emplacement of the main stock, perhaps coincident with the intrusion of late alkali granite dikes. At Wallaby, a NE-trending swarm of porphyry dikes comprising augite monzonite, monzodiorite, and minor kersantite intrudes folded and thrust-faulted molasse. The conglomerate and the dikes are overprinted by barren (<0.01 g/t Au) anhydrite-bearing epidote–actinolite–calcite skarn, forming a 600-m-wide and >1,600-m-long replacement pipe, which is intruded by a younger ring dike of syenite porphyry pervasively altered to muscovite + calcite + pyrite. Skarn and syenite are cut by pink biotite–calcite veins, containing magnetite + pyrite and subeconomic gold–silver mineralization (Au/Ag = 0.2). The veins are associated with red biotite–sericite–calcite–albite alteration in adjacent monzonite dikes. Structural relations and the concordant titanite U–Pb age of the skarn constrain intrusion-related mineralization to 2,662 ± 3 Ma. The main-stage gold–pyrite ore (Au/Ag >10) forms hematite-stained sericite–dolomite–albite lodes in stacked D2 reverse faults, which offset skarn, syenite, and the biotite–calcite veins by up to 25 m. The molybdenite Re–Os age (2,661 ± 10 Ma) of the ore suggests a genetic link to intrusive activity but is in apparent conflict with a monazite–xenotime U–Pb age (2,651 ± 6 Ma), which differs from that of the skarn at the 95% confidence level. The time relationships at both gold deposits are inconsistent with orogenic models invoking a principal role for metamorphic fluids released during the main phase of compression in the fold belt. Instead, mineralization is related in space and time to late-orogenic, magnetite-series, high-Mg monzodiorite–syenite intrusions of mantle origin, characterized by Mg/(Mg + Fe_TOTAL) = 0.31–0.57, high Cr (34–96 ppm), Ni (22–63 ppm), Ba (1,056–2,321 ppm), Sr (1,268–2,457 ppm), Th (15–36 ppm), and rare earth elements (total REE: 343–523 ppm). At Wallaby, shared Ca–K–CO₂ metasomatism and Th-REE enrichment (in allanite) link Au–Ag mineralization in biotite–calcite veins to the formation of the giant epidote skarn, implicating a Th + REE-rich syenite pluton at depth as the source of the oxidized hydrothermal fluid. At Granny Smith, lead isotope data and the Rb–Th–U signature of early hematite-bearing wall-rock alteration point to fluid released by the source pluton of the differentiated alkali granite dikes.     

Partitioning of Na between olivine and melt: An experimental study with application to the formation of meteoritic Na2O-rich chondrule glass and refractory forsterite grains

We report experimentally determined 1 atm olivine/melt D_Na partitioning data for low f_O2, a variety of melt compositions and a temperature range of 1325-1522 °C. We demonstrated that high-current electron microprobe analyses (EPMA, I = 500 nA, 600 s on the peak) allow quantitative determination of Na₂O in olivine down to ∼10 μg/g. The mean olivine/melt D_Na from 12 experimental runs is 0.0031 ± 0.0007 (1σ). This is the recommended value for low pressures and a wide range of natural compositions.This result is applied to the problem of the origin of alkalis in chondrules and the formation of chondritic refractory forsterite grains. The data on Semarkona (LL3.0) chondrules show that Na₂O is primordial and was present during olivine crystallization. For refractory forsterite grains from Murchison (CM2), we demonstrate that high CaO contents are not a result of equilibration with Na₂O-rich melts, but require high activities of CaO during their formation.