Mineralogy and geochemistry of platinum-group elements in the Aguablanca Ni-Cu deposit (SW Spain)

Summary The Aguablanca Ni-Cu-(PGE) magmatic sulphide deposit is associated with a magmatic breccia located in the northern part of the Aguablanca gabbro (SW, Iberia). Three types of ores are present: semi-massive, disseminated, and chalcopyrite-rich veined ore. The principal ore minerals are pyrrhotite, pentlandite and chalcopyrite. A relatively abundant platinum-group mineral (PGM) assemblage is present and includes merenskyite, melonite, michenerite, moncheite and sperrylite. Moreover, concentrations of base and precious metals and micro-PIXE analyses were obtained for the three ore-types. The mineralogy and the mantle-normalised chalcophile element profiles strongly suggest that semi-massive ore represents mss crystallisation, whereas the disseminated ore represents an unfractionated sulphide liquid and the chalcopyrite-rich veined ore a Cu-rich sulphide liquid. Palladium-bearing minerals occur commonly enclosed within sulphides, indicating a magmatic origin rather than hydrothermal. The occurrences and the composition of these minerals suggest that Pd was initially dissolved in the sulphides and subsequently exsolved at low temperatures to form bismutotellurides. Negative Pt and Au anomalies in the mantle-normalised chalcophile element profiles, a lack of Cu-S correlation and textural observations (such as sperrylite losing its euhedral shape when in contact with altered minerals) suggest partial remobilisation of Pt, Au and Cu by postmagmatic hydrothermal fluids after the sulphide crystallisation. Authors’ addresses: R. Pi?a, L. Ortega, R. Lunar, Departamento de Cristalografía y Mineralogía, Facultad de Geología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ES-28040 Madrid, Spain; F. Gervilla, Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Granada-CSIC, Avda. Fuentenueva, s/n, ES-18002 Granada, Spain     

Gas hydrate disturbance fabrics of southern Hydrate Ridge sediments (ODP Leg 204): Relationship with texture and physical properties

Soupy and mousse-like fabrics are disturbance sedimentary features that result from the dissociation of gas hydrate, a process that releases water. During the core retrieval process, soupy and mousse-like fabrics are produced in the gas hydrate-bearing sediments due to changes in pressure and temperature conditions. Therefore, the identification of soupy and mousse-like fabrics can be used as a proxy for the presence of gas hydrate in addition to other evidence, such as pore water freshening or anomalously cool temperature. We present here grain-size results, mineralogical composition and magnetic susceptibility data of soupy and mousse-like samples from the southern Hydrate Ridge (Cascadia accretionary complex) acquired during Leg 204 of the Ocean Drilling Program. In order to study the relationship between sedimentary texture and the presence of gas hydrates, we have compared these results with the main textural and compositional data available from the same area. Most of the disturbed analyzed samples from the summit and the western flank of southern Hydrate Ridge show a mean grain size coarser than the average mean grain size of the hemipelagic samples from the same area. The depositional features of the sediments are not recognised due to disturbance. However, their granulometric statistical parameters and distribution curves, and magnetic susceptibility logs indicate that they correspond to a turbidite facies. These results suggest that gas hydrates in the southern Hydrate Ridge could form preferentially in coarser grain-size layers that could act as conduits feeding gas from below the BSR. Two samples from the uppermost metres near the seafloor at the summit of the southern Hydrate Ridge show a finer mean grain-size value than the average of hemipelagic samples. They were located where the highest amount of gas hydrates was detected, suggesting that in this area the availability of methane gas was high enough to generate gas hydrates, even within low-permeability layers. The mineralogical composition of the soupy and mousse-like sediments does not show any specific characteristic with respect to the other samples from the southern Hydrate Ridge.     

On the elliptic restricted three-body problem

The main goal of this paper is to show that the elliptic restricted three-body problem has ejection-collision orbits when the mass parameter µ is small enough. We make use of the blow up techniques. Moreover, we describe the global flow of the elliptic problem when µ = 0 taking into account the singularities due to collision and to infinity.     

Periodic orbits of an electric charge in a magnetic dipole field

Periodic orbits in the Stormer problem are studied using the symmetry lines of the Poincaré map introduced by De Vogelaere. Many known facts are explained by mean of these lines. The dynamics of four special symmetry lines when the Stormer parameter ₁ changes is presented, and we obtain a clear global view of the structure of the simple periodic orbits and their bifurcations, including the asymmetrical ones. New asymmetrical multiple periodic orbits are obtained.     

用混合和扩散云室对大气冰核浓度的观测分析

继1963年用混合云室对春季冰核浓度观测之后，1994～1996年，在同季节、同地点用混合和静力扩散云室又做了同步观测。对取得的资料进行整理分析，得出了凝华核浓度在不同天气背景下占总冰核浓度的百分比，两种云室测值的对应关系；分析了扩散云室的容积效应及冰核浓度随气压、能见度等气象因子的变化。     

Numerical Analysis of Gravity Coring Using Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian Method and a New Corer

The shortcomings of gravity corers in sampling marine sediments have been observed extensively in various field tests. In order to optimize the coring, this article provides an alternative numerical way to model the gravity coring and analyze the sampling effect. Based on this analysis, a new hydraulic hammer corer is devised. A coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian method with capability of simulating the problem involving extreme deformation, penetration is used to simulate the coring process. The results show that the hydrostatic pressure and deviator stress increase and reach their peak when the pile tip is slightly above or at the level of the observation point and then drop rapidly when the pile tip slides below the observation point. In addition, the stress path indicates that the soil element sustains plastic compression before yielding and then expands until recovering to the original state. The obvious “under-sampling” phenomenon is also well-captured by the finite element model.     

Silver–bearing minerals in the Xinhua hydrothermal vein-type Pb-Zn deposit,South China

Mineralogy and Petrology - Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) results are reported for newly identified silver–bearing minerals from the Xinhua deposit, Yunkaidashan area, South China. The...     

Geochronology,geochemistry and Hf isotopes of andesites in the Sandaowanzi gold deposit (Great Xing'an Range,NE China): implications for petrogenesis,tectonic setting,and mineralization

Acta Geochimica - The Sandaowanzi gold deposit is an extremely Au-rich deposit in the Northern Great Hinggan Range in recent years. Zircon U–Pb geochronology, Hf isotope analysis, and the...     

Tile‐based polygon overlay of vector data in a virtual globe

The demand for analysis of large‐scale data has increased with increased access to spatial vector data. Polygon overlay of vector data in a virtual globe requires proprietary data structures and proprietary analysis algorithms. A vector data structure is designed for rapid polygon overlay in a virtual globe by recording the metadata of the triangles (TriMeta) that constitute polygons. A polygon overlay algorithm is proposed based on this data structure. The overlay of two complex GIS polygons is transformed into the intersection computation of their 3D triangular presentations. The intersection computation of two sets of triangles is reduced considerably by utilizing TriMeta to filter out the disjoint triangle pairs and rapidly identify the contained triangle. The new method improves the overlay efficiency in a virtual globe because the amount of computation required to calculate the intersections of two large polygons and drape the intersections onto a terrain surface is reduced.