European climates

Frenzel, B., Pfister, C. & Gläser, B. (eds.) 1992: European Climate Reconstructed from Documentary Data: Methods and Results.     

Ongonite from Ongon Khairkhan,Mongolia

Summary Albite-topaz kerotophyres, termed ongonites, were discovered byV. I. Kovalenko and coworkers at Ongon Khairkhan in Mongolia in 1970. The type area was revisited, described, resampled, the new data is compared with the earlier data and that from similar rocks elsewhere (Beauvoir and Cinovec granites; Macusani glass).Ongonites are fluorine-rich peraluminous sodic two feldspar granitoids with orthoclase and albite phenocrysts, high modal and normative albite content and the presence of topaz as common accessory mineral. They contain variable amounts of lithium micas or muscovite. Chemically, ongonite is similar to highly fractionated S-type or ilmenite series granitoids. In the type area, F-rich water-poor ongonite melts have intruded to a high crustal level.Ongonite displays a long history of subsolidus reactions and hydrothermal alteration. The hydrothermal alteration may be linked to a spatially associated quartz-wolframite stockwork not genetically related to ongonite. Ongonite has a low W content and an elevated Sn content despite a lack of association with Sn deposits.

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Ongonite von Ongon Khairkhan, Mongolei

Zusammenfassung Albit-Topas-Keratophyre, auch als Ongonite bezeichnet, wurden 1970 von V. E. Kowalenko und Mitarbeitern bei Ongon Khairkhan in der Mongolei entdeckt. Die TypLokalität wurde beschrieben und beprobt und die neuen Daten werden mit den früher erhaltenen, und denen von ähnlichen Gesteinen in anderen Bereichen (die Granite von Beauvoir und Cinovec, das Glas von Macusani) verglichen.Ongonite sind Fluor- und Aluminiumreiche (Peraluminous), zwei-Feldspat-Natriumgranitoide mit idiomorphen Orthoklasen und Albit, hohem modalem und normativem Albitgehalt, und Topas als verbreitetem Nebenmineral. Sie führen wechselnde Gehalte von Lithiumglimmern oder Muskovit. Chemisch sind Ongonite stark fraktionierten S-Typ Granitoiden vergleichbar oder auch Granitoiden der Ilmenit-Serie. Im Gebiet der Typlokalität sind fluorreiche wasserarme Ongonit-Schmelzen in ein hohes Krustenniveau intrudiert worden.Ongonite zeigen eine lange Geschichte von Subsolidusreaktionen und hydrothermaler Umwandlung. Die hydrothermale Umwandlung kann mit einem räumlich assoziiertem Quarz-Wolframit Stockwerk in Beziehung gesetzt werden, das genetisch nicht mit den Ongoniten zusammenhängt. Ongonit hat einen niedrigen Wolframgehalt und einen erhöhten Zinngehalt, obwohl keine Assoziation mit Zinnlagerstätten zu beobachten ist.

     

Intriguing climatic shifts in a 90 kyr old lake record from northern Russia

A 22 m long sediment core from Lake Yamozero on the Timan Ridge in northern Russia has provided evidence of intriguing climatic shifts during the last glacial cycle. An overall shallowing of the lake is reflected in the lower part of the cores, where pollen indicates a transition from glacial steppe vegetation to interstadial shrub-tundra. These beds are capped by a well-defined layer of compact clay deposited in relatively deep water, where pollen shows surrounding spruce forests and warmer-than-present summer temperatures. The most conservative interpretation is that this unit represents the last interglacial period. However, a series of Optical Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dates suggests that it corresponds with the Early Weichselian Odderade interstadial (MIS 5a). This would imply that the Odderade interstadial was just as warm as a normal interglacial in this continental part of northern Europe. If correct, then pollen analysis, as a correlation tool, is less straightforward and the definition of an interglacial is more complex than previously thought. We discuss the validity and possible systematic errors of the OSL dates on which this age model is based, but conclude they really indicate a MIS 5a age for the warm period. Above the clay is an unconformity, most likely reflecting a period of subaerial exposure implying dry conditions. Deposition of silt under fluctuating cold climates in the Middle Weichselian continued until a second gap in the record at c . 40 kyr BP. The lake basin started to fill up again around 18 kyr BP.     

Solar flares: The gradual phase

One has to distinguish between two kinds of the gradual phase of flares: (1) a gradual phase during which no energy is released so that we see only cooling after the impulsive phase (a confined flare), and (2) a gradual phase during which energy release continues (a dynamic flare).The simplest case of (1) is a single-loop flare which might provide an excellent opportunity for the study of cooling processes in coronal loops. But most confined flares are far more complicated: they may consist of sets of unresolved elementary loops, of conglomerates of loops, or they form arcades the components of which may be excited sequentially. Accelerated particles as well as hot and cold plasma can be ejected from the flare site (coronal tongues, flaring arches, sprays, bright and dark surges) and these ejecta may cool more slowly than the source flare itself.However, the most important flares on the Sun are flares of type (2) in which a magnetic field opening is followed by subsequent reconnection of fieldlines that may continue for many hours after the impulsive phase. Therefore, the main attention in this review is paid to the gradual phase of this category of long-decay flares. The following items are discussed in particular: The wide energy range of dynamic flares: from eruptions of quiescent filaments to most powerful cosmic-ray flares. Energy release at the reconnection site and modelling of the reconnection process. The post-flare loops: evidence for reconnection; observations at different wavelengths; energy deposit in the chromosphere, chromospheric ablation, and velocity fields; loops in emission; shrinking loops; magnetic modelling. The gradual phase in X-rays and on radio waves. Post-flare X-ray arches: observations, interpretation, and modelling; relation to metric radio events and mass ejections, multiple-ribbon flares and anomalous events, hybrid events, possible relations between confined and dynamic flares.     

Unusual coronal activity following the flare of 6 November 1980

For almost 30 hr after the major (gamma-ray) two-ribbon flare on 6 November 1980, 03:30 UT, the Hard X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (HXIS) aboard the SMM satellite imaged in > 3.5 keV X-rays a gigantic arch extending above the active region over the limb. Like a similar configuration on 22 May 1980, this arch formed the lowest part of a stationary post-flare radio noise storm recorded at metric wavelengths at Nançay and Culgoora. 6.5 hr after the flare a coronal region below the arch started quasi-periodic pulsations in X-ray brightness, observed by several SMM instruments. These brightness variations had no response in the chromosphere (H), very little in the transition layer (O v), but they clearly correlated with similar variations in brightness at 169 MHz. There were 13 pulses of this kind, with apparent periodicity of about 20 min, until another flare occurred in the active region at 15:00 UT. All the brightenings appeared within a localized area of about 30000 km² in the northern part of the active region, but they definitely did not occur all at the same place.The top of the X-ray arch, at an altitude of 155 000 km, was continuously and smoothly decaying, taking no part in the striking variations below it. Therefore, the area variable in brightness does not seem to be the footpoint of the arch, as we supposed for similar variations on 22 May. More likely, it is a separate region connected directly with the source of the radio storm; particles accelerated in the storm may be dumped into the low corona and cause the X-ray enhancements. The X-ray arch was enhanced by two orders of magnitude in 3.5–5.5 keV X-ray counts and the temperature increased from 7.3 × 10⁶ to 9 × 10⁶ K when the new two-ribbon flare occurred at 15:00 UT. Thus, it is possible that energy is brought into the arch via the upper parts of the reconnecting flare loops - a process that can continue for hours.     

Investigation of the electrostatic charging of dust particles in a Paul-trap

Dust particles (glass, tungsten, and nickel) with sizes ranging from 0.25 to 3m were levitated in a Paul-trap and charged by ions or electrons. For ions the particle potential is limited at field strength of about 1×10⁹ V m^–1 by a temperature-dependent discharge mechanism. The particles interaction with 2 to 20 keV electrons always leads to positive surface potentials which can be explained in terms of a decreased absorption of electrons by small particles. Micrometer sized agglomerates were used for the investigation of the electrostatic fragmentation. Fragmentation takes place in a twofold manner: small surface flufl can be removed or the parent particle can be disrupted into smaller agglomerates.Paper presented at the 11th European Regional Astronomical Meetings of the IAU on New Windows to the Universe, held 3–8 July, 1989, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.     

A combined study of macroseismic data and focal mechanisms applied to the West-Bohemian earthquake,Czechoslovakia

The main shock of the West-Bohemian earthquake swarm, Czechoslovakia, (magnitudem=4.5, depthh=10 km) exhibits an irregular areal distribution of macroseismic intensities 6° to 7° MSK-64. Four lobes of the 6° isoseismal are found and the maximum observed intensity is located at a distance of 8 km from the instrumentally determined epicentre. This distribution can be explained by the energy flux of the directS wave generated by a circular source, the hypocentral location and focal mechanism of which are taken from independent instrumental studies. The theoretical intensity, which is assumed to be logarithmically proportional to the integrated squared ground-motion velocity (i.e.,I=const+log v ² (t)dt), fits the observed intensity with an overall root-mean-square error less than 0.5°. It is important that the present intensity data can also be equally well explained by the isotropic source. The fit was attained by means of a horizontally layered model though large fault zones and an extended sedimentary basin suggest a significant lateral heterogeneity of the epicentral region. The results encourage a broader application of the simple modelling technique used.     

The retreat of the Barents Sea Ice Sheet on the western Svalbard margin

The deglaciation of the continental shelf to the west of Spitsbergen and the main fjord, Isfjorden. is discussed based on sub-bottom seismic records and scdirncnt cores. The sea lloor on the shelf to the west of Isfjorden is underlain by less than 2 m of glaciomarine sediments over a firm diamicton interpreted as till. In central Isfjordcn up to 10 m of deglaciation sediments were recorded, whereas in cores from the innermost tributary, Billefjorden, less than a meter of ice proximal sediments was recognized between the till and the 'normal' Holocene marine sediments. We conclude that the Barents Sea Ice Sheet terminated along the shelf break during the Late Weichselian glacial maximum. Radiocarbon dates from thc glaciomarine sediments above the till indicate a stepwise deglaciation. Apparently the ice front rctrcatcd from the outermost shelf around 14. 8 ka A dramatic increase in the flux of line-grained glaciomarine sediments around 13 ka is assumed to reflect increased melting and/or current activity due to a climatic warming. This second stage of deglaciation was intcrruptcd by a glacial readvance culminating on the mid-shelf area shortly after 12.4 ka. The glacial readvance, which is correlated with a simultaneous readvance of the Fennoscundian ice sheet along the western coast of Norway, is attributed to the so-called 'Older Dryas' cooling event in the North Atlantic region. Following this glacial readvance the outer part of Isljorden became rapidly deglaciated around 12.3 ka. During the Younger Dryas the inner fjord branches were occupied by large outlet glaciers and possibly the ice liont terminated far out in the main fjord. The remnants of the Harcnts Sea Ice Shcet melted quickly away as a response to the Holocene warming around 10 ka.