Wave behavior in the solar photosphere: A comparison of theory and observation

We report detailed comparisons between theoretical and empirical eigenfunctions of velocity and intensity for the 5-min modes in the photosphere. The comparison process is accomplished by obtaining synthetic profiles of the Fei 5434 Å line in the presence of waveforms given by dynamical calculations and then applying a common procedure of reduction both to the observed and to the synthetic data. For the velocity waveforms, our results show a general agreement between theory and observations together with some systematic differences; in particular the theory systematically underestimates the observations in the low photosphere. These systematic differences are stressed by the intensity results since both the computed amplitudes and phases appear to be wrong in the deeper layers.     

The nature and petrogenesis of intra-oceanic plate alkaline eruptive and plutonic rocks: King's Trough, Northeast Atlantic

Basalts, diorites, and gabbros dredged from the side of King's Trough — a mid-plate fracture on the northeast Atlantic sea floor — are alkaline in character based on major- and trace-element chemistry and mineralogy. The variation in bulk chemical composition and in mineral paragenesis and composition suggest differentiation in a large magma chamber beneath a seamount volcano. Fractional crystallization took place in a hydrous magma and is characterized by early formation of a Ti-rich biotite as rims on olivine. Thus, pyroxene compositions are unusual in having relatively low molar Ti/Al ratios, and increasing differentiation is marked by progressively decreasing ratios of K to Na.     

Defects and short-range order in nepheline group minerals: a silicon-29 nuclear magnetic resonance study

²⁹Si magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra are presented for seven crystalline phases of the nepheline group: natural nephelines from a plutonic environment (Bancroft, Ontario) and a volcanic deposit (Mt. Somma, Italy), kalsilite, synthetic pure Na nepheline, carnegieite, and two samples of orthorhombic KAlSiO₄. In all phases, nearly all of the Si sites have four Al neighbors, indicating nearly complete Al-Si ordering. Excess Si over the 1:1 stoichiometric Si/Al ratio appears to substitute randomly for Al on an ordered lattice, adding Si sites with 3 and 0 Al neighbors in a 3:1 ratio. Various types of structural disorder, including Al-Si disorder, that are reported from some x-ray diffraction studies are probably long range in nature and are due to the presence of ordered domains. In naturally occurring nepheline, the relative abundance of T sites with three-fold local symmetry is maintained at the ideal stoichiometric value of 1/4, even when the K/(K+Na) ratio is substantially lower. This is in agreement with conclusions reached about the average structure from x-ray data. The distinction between the two sites, at least in terms of the local structure that is reflected in ²⁹Si NMR chemical shifts, is lost in a pure Na nepheline sample.     

Structure of Cl-containing silicate and aluminosilicate glasses: A Cl MAS-NMR study

Chlorine-35 magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra were collected at 14.1 and 18.8 Tesla fields to determine the atomic scale structural environments of the chloride ions in anhydrous and hydrous silicate and aluminosilicate glasses containing 0.2 to 0.7 wt% Cl. NMR peaks are broad and featureless, but are much narrower than the total chemical shift range for the nuclide in inorganic chlorides. Peak widths are primarily due to quadrupole interactions and to a lesser extent to chemical shift distributions. Peak positions are quite different for the Na- and Ca-containing glasses, suggesting that most Cl⁻ coordination environments contain network modifier cations. Comparison of peak positions and shapes for silicate and aluminosilicate glasses containing either Na or Ca suggests that there is no obvious contribution from Cl⁻ bonded to Al, and relative quantitation of peak areas indicates that there is no systematic undercounting of ³⁵Cl spins in the aluminous vs. the Al-free samples. In Ca-Na silicate glasses with varying Ca/(Ca + Na), the mixed-cation glasses have intermediate chemical shifts between those of the end members, implying that there is not a strong preference of either Ca²⁺ or of Na⁺ around Cl⁻. Hydrous Na-aluminosilicate glasses with H₂O contents up to 5.9 wt% show a shift to higher frequency NMR signal with increasing H₂O content, while the quadrupole coupling constant (C_Q) remains constant at ∼3.3 MHz. However, the change in frequency is much smaller than that expected if H₂O systematically replaced Na⁺ in the first-neighbor coordination shell around Cl⁻. A series of hydrous Ca-aluminosilicate glasses with H₂O contents up to 5.5 wt% show no shift in NMR signal with increasing H₂O content. The C_Q remains constant at ∼4.4 MHz, again suggesting no direct interaction between Cl⁻ and H₂O in these samples.     

A silicon-29 nuclear magnetic resonance study of silicon-aluminum ordering in leucite and analcite

Silicon-29 magic-angle-spinning NMR spectroscopy has been used to investigate the silicon-aluminum distribution in natural samples of analcite and leucite (before and after heat treatment) as well as a leucite synthesized from a gel. Three different simulation programs have been developed to fit the experimental spectra. For two we assume a different aluminum occupancy fraction g _i for each of the three crystallographically distinct tetrahedral sites T _i in leucite and some degree of aluminum avoidance, but an otherwise random arrangement of tetrahedral cations. A third program interchanges Al and Si cations on a lattice of 3×3×3 unit cells to generate an optimized fit. All models predict that the T ₂ sites in natural leucite are deficient in aluminum: g ₁≈0.39, g ₂≈0.16, and g ₃≈0.42 for the fractional Al occupancy at each site, with apparently strict aluminum avoidance. Heat treatment of the sample at 1673 K for a week has little effect on the g _i values but may create some Al-O-Al linkages. In the gel-synthesized leucite, Al occupancies are slightly more uniform than in natural leucite: g ₁≈0.36, g ₂≈0.20, and g ₃≈0.42. For analcite, two distinctly different Si, Al distributions are obtained: (A) g ₁=g ₃≈0.09, g ₂≈0.78 and (B) g ₁=g ₃≈0.46, g ₂≈0.04. Additional NMR measurements on an ion-exchanged sample or an accurate determination of unit-cell dimensions could resolve this ambiguity.     

Heat capacities and entropies of silicate liquids and glasses

The heat capacities of several dozen silicate glasses and liquids composed of SiO₂, TiO₂, Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, FeO, MgO, CaO, BaO, Li₂O, Na₂O, K₂O, and Rb₂O have been measured by differential scanning and drop calorimetry. These results have been combined with data from the literature to fit C _pas a function of composition. A model assuming ideal mixing (linear combination) of partial molar heat capacities of oxide components (each of which is independent of composition), reproduces the glass data within error. The assumption of constancy of ¯C _p,iis less accurate for the liquids, but data are not sufficient to adequately constrain a more complex model. For liquids containing alkali metal and alkaline earth oxides, heat capacities are systematically greater in liquids with high field strength network modifying cations. Entropies of fusion (per g-atom) and changes of configurational entropy with temperature, are similarly affected by composition. Both smaller cation size and greater charge are therefore inferred to lead to greater development of new structural configurations with increasing temperature in silicate liquids.     

Effects of the degree of polymerization on the structure of sodium silicate and aluminosilicate glasses and melts: An O NMR study

Revealing the atomic structure and disorder in oxide glasses, including sodium silicates and aluminosilicates, with varying degrees of polymerization, is a challenging problem in high-temperature geochemistry as well as glass science. Here, we report ¹⁷O MAS and 3QMAS NMR spectra for binary sodium silicate and ternary sodium aluminosilicate glasses with varying degrees of polymerization (Na₂O/SiO₂ ratio and Na₂O/Al₂O₃ ratio), revealing in detail the extent of disorder (network connectivity and topological disorder) and variations of NMR parameters with the glass composition. In binary sodium silicate glasses [Na₂O-k(SiO₂)], the fraction of non-bridging oxygens (NBOs, Na-O-Si) increases with the Na₂O/SiO₂ ratio (k), as predicted from the composition. The ¹⁷O isotropic chemical shifts (¹⁷O δ_iso) for both bridging oxygen (BO) and NBO increase by about 10-15 ppm with the SiO₂ content (for k = 1-3). The quadrupolar coupling products of BOs and NBOs also increase with the SiO₂ content. These trends suggest that both NBOs and BOs strongly interact with Na; therefore, the Na distributions around BOs and NBOs are likely to be relatively homogenous for the glass compositions studied here, placing some qualitative limits on the extent of segregation of alkali channels from silica-enriched regions as suggested by modified random-network models. The peak width (in the isotropic dimension) and thus bond angle and length distributions of Si-O-Si and Na-O-Si increase with the SiO₂ content, indicating an increase in the topological disorder with the degree of polymerization. In the ternary aluminosilicate glasses [Na₂O]_x[Al₂O₃]_1−xSiO₂, the NBO fraction decreases while the Al-O-Si and Al-O-Al fractions apparently increase with increasing Al₂O₃ content. The variation of oxygen cluster populations suggests that deviation from “Al avoidance” is more apparent near the charge-balanced join (Na/Al = 1). The Si-O-Si fraction, which is closely related to the activity coefficient of silica, would decrease with increasing Al₂O₃ content at a constant mole fraction of SiO₂. Therefore, the activity of silica may decrease from depolymerized binary silicates to fully polymerized sodium aluminosilicate glasses at a constant mole fraction of SiO₂.     

Dynamics of Na in sodium aluminosilicate glasses and liquids

²³Na NMR measurements on Na₂Si₃O₇, Na₃AlSi₆O₁₅, and NaAlSi₃O₈ glasses from room temperature to 1200°C show that the dynamics and local structure of sodium in silicate/aluminosilicate glasses and melts vary with composition and temperature.The peak positions decrease in frequency between room temperature and 200°C indicating that the Na sees a larger average site as temperature is increased. Between 200°–300° and 700°C, line widths, nutation frequencies and peak positions are consistent with motional averaging of quadrupolar satellites. Above 700°C there is little or no change in the peak positions with temperature. Chemical shifts of the materials at 1000°C (Na₂Si₃O₇: 3.6; Na₃AlSi₆O₁₅:-1.3; NaAlSi₃O₈:-6.4 ppm) indicate a slight change in the average Na coordination number from 6–7 for the silicate to 7–8 for the aluminosilicates.     

23Na NMR chemical shifts and local Na coordination environments in silicate crystals,melts and glasses

In order to decipher information about the local coordination environments of Na in anhydrous silicates from ²³Na nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), we have collected ²³Na magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectra on several sodium-bearing silicate and aluminosilicate crystals with known structures. These data, together with those from the literature, suggest that the ²³Na isotropic chemical shift correlates well with both the Na coordination and the degree of polymerization (characterized by NBO/T) of the material. The presence of a dissimilar network modifier also affects the ²³Na isotropic chemical shift. From these relations, we found that the average Na coordinations in sodium silicate and aluminosilicate liquids of a range of compositions at 1 bar are nearly constant at around 6–7. The average Na coordinations in glasses of similar compositions also vary little with Na content (degree of polymerization). However, limited data on ternary alkali silicate and aluminosilicate glasses seem to suggest that the introduction of another network-modifier, such as K or Cs, does cause variations in the average local Na coordination. Thus it appears that the average Na coordination environments in silicate glasses are more sensitive to the presence of other network-modifiers than to the variations in the topology of the silicate tetrahedral network. Further studies on silicate glasses containing mixed cations are necessary to confirm this conclusion.     

Paleoenvironments and geochemistry across a continuous Permian–Triassic boundary section at B?kk Mountains,Hungary

The Bálvány North Permian-Triassic boundary sediments were deposited on a carbonate platform in the tropical part of the western Paleo Tethys ocean.The overall elemental geochemistry of the detailed two-metre-thick section across the boundary that we studied shows that the clastic content of the sediments came from dominantly silica-rich continental sources though with some more silica-poor inputs in the uppermost Permian and lowest Triassic limestones as shown by Ni/Al and Nb/Ta ratios.These inputs bracket, but do not coincide with, the main extinctions and associated C, O and S changes.Increased aridity at the Permian-Triassic boundary with increased wind abrasion of suitable Ti-bearing heavy minerals accounts for both the high Ti/Al and Ti/Zr ratios.Various geochemical redox proxies suggest mainly oxic depositional conditions, with episodes of anoxia, but with little systematic variation across the Permian–Triassic extinction boundary.The lack of consistent element geochemical changes across the Permian-Triassic boundary occur not only in adjacent shallower-water marine sections, and in other marine sections along the SW Tethys margin such as the Salt Range sections in Pakistan, but also in deeper shelf and oceanic sections, and in non-marine African and European continental sediments.In the absence of significant changes in physical environments, chemical changes in the atmosphere and oceans,reflected in various isotopic changes, drove the Permian–Triassic extinctions.