Origin of eclogite and garnet pyroxenite from the Moldanubian Zone of the Bohemian Massif, Czech Republic and its implication to other mafic layers embedded in orogenic peridotites

Summary The granulite terrane of the Czech part of the Gf?hl unit includes numerous small bodies of mantle derived peridotite, some of which contain layers or lenses of eclogite and garnet pyroxenite. These eclogitic rocks have generally been considered to be high-pressure crystal cumulates formed in the upper mantle. We present new analyses of whole-rock major and trace element contents for three kynanite-quartz eclogite samples taken from the Nové Dvory garnet peridotite body. Integrating these data with previously published analyses from the literature on eclogitic rocks from this terrane, we demonstrate that a magnesian group of eclogites, including these three new samples, were originally formed as cumulus gabbros, which were later transformed to eclogites in the mantle. A gabbroic origin for some mafic layers (Type II) has been advocated for other orogenic peridotites, such as Beni Bousera (Morocco), Ronda (Spain), and Horoman (Japan). By comparing these sets of data with those from the Bohemian Massif, we propose a simple method of identifying groups of metagabbros by utilizing MgO-normalization in oxide ratio plots for whole-rock major element analyses.     

Damage Evaluation of Agro-meteorological Hazards in the Maize-Growing Region of Songliao Plain,China: Case Study of Lishu County of Jilin Province

Agro-meteorological hazards such as drought, waterlogging and cool summer occur with very high frequency and affect maize production and social-economic development in the maize-growing region of Songliao Plain, China. Moreover, both the frequency of these hazards and loss from them are considered to be increasing with global warming. The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively analyze the relationships between the fluctuation of maize yield and drought, waterlogging and cool summer, and to evaluate the consequences of these hazards in the maize-growing area of Songliao Plain, taking Lishu county as a case study area based on GIS (Geographic Information System). Crop yield-climate analysis and regression analysis were employed to analyze and quantify relationships between the fluctuation of maize yield and drought, waterlogging and cool summer, and to evaluate the consequences of these hazards. The parameters and model of damage evaluation were presented using weighted comprehensive analysis, and the degree of damage of drought, waterlogging and cool summer to maize production was comprehensively evaluated and regionalized. It is shown that from 1949 to 1990, the negative value years of the fluctuation of maize yield due to meteorological hazards accounted for 55% of seasons, of which 14% was caused by drought, 30% by waterlogging, 4% by cool summer and drought, 9% by cool summer and waterlogging, 13% by drought and waterlogging, 30% by drought, waterlogging and cool summer. Studies on the instability and spatial variation of the fluctuations in maize yield in Lishu county showed that the middle plains are stable areas to climatic influence, while southeastern hills and low mountains, the low lands of the plains along the East Liao River and the western plain are unstable areas in terms of areas in maize yield. The synthetic index of the degree of damage to maize of drought, waterlogging and cool summer showed a strong positive correlation with the ratio of the amount damaged to the normal yield of maize. This suggests that this index can be used to evaluate such damage. The degree of damage of drought, waterlogging and cool summer to maize in Lishu county shows the regional characteristics, which increase gradually from the center to the west and east, this being almost identical with the spatial distribution of the fluctuation of maize yield due to these hazards. This study can be expected to provide the basis for developing strategies to mitigate agro-meteorological hazards and reducing the losses from them, and adjust the medium and long-term distribution of agricultural activities so as to adapt to environmental changes.     

长江干流主要营养盐含量的变化特征——1998~1999年日中合作调查结果分析

根据1998年和1999年秋季在长江干流从重庆至长江口进行的纵向采样和分析,对长江干流的各态氮、磷含量的沿江变化进行研究。从整体上了解长江干流的水质变化特性,特别是营养盐含量的分布状况。研究结果表明,长江干流的SS浓度很高,介于50~400 mg/l。TN、TP浓度分别在70~110 滋mol/L、2~25 滋mol/L之间,前者以NO3-N为主,后者以PTP为主,PO4-P含量仅占TP的10%~20%。DIN/PO4-P的比值在70~160之间,远高于浮游植物生长P限制值,表明长江口及临近海域中P可能是生物生命活动的主要限制因素。葛洲坝水库对SS、TP、TN、NH4-N、BOD、COD等水质有一定的净化作用。长江水体在通过各大城市以及两大湖泊时,BOD、NH4-N负荷的增加迅速,特别是通过重庆、武汉、南京、上海及洞庭湖和鄱阳湖之后尤为明显。N、P含量的上升与人口增长、生活污水排放量及流域内化肥施用量增加有关。洞庭湖和鄱阳湖水系以及周围的面源负荷,对长江流域的营养盐变动有很大的影响。     

Silver in Tokyo Bay estuarine waters and Japanese rivers

Dissolved and particulate concentrations of silver in Tokyo Bay estuarine waters and Japanese rivers were determined in this study. The dissolved silver concentrations in the surface water of Tokyo Bay range from 5.9 to 15.1 pmol kg⁻¹, which is comparable to those in the surface water of the Japan Sea, but two or three times higher than those in the surface water of the open ocean. However, elevated concentrations of dissolved silver are not found in Tokyo Bay compared with those in other highly urbanized estuaries, such as San Francisco Bay (20∼243 pmol kg⁻¹). In the Tokyo Bay estuary, silver typically exhibits non-conservative mixing behavior, which is a common feature in the other estuaries reported previously. Dissolved silver concentrations decrease with salinity from the rivers to the mouth of Tokyo Bay. Silver is efficiently scavenged by suspended particulates, as evidenced by the high conditional distribution coefficients for silver throughout the estuary (log K_d > 5.0 ± 0.6). The silver fluxes into Tokyo Bay via inflowing rivers and atmospheric deposition were estimated as 83 kg y⁻¹ and 15 kg y⁻¹, respectively. A simple budget calculation shows that the silver supplied from rivers and atmosphere must be rapidly scavenged within the Tokyo Bay estuary.     

CME Velocity and Acceleration Error Estimates Using the Bootstrap Method

The bootstrap method is used to determine errors of basic attributes of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) visually identified in images obtained by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission’s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instruments. The basic parameters of CMEs are stored, among others, in a database known as the SOHO/LASCO CME catalog and are widely employed for many research studies. The basic attributes of CMEs (e.g. velocity and acceleration) are obtained from manually generated height-time plots. The subjective nature of manual measurements introduces random errors that are difficult to quantify. In many studies the impact of such measurement errors is overlooked. In this study we present a new possibility to estimate measurements errors in the basic attributes of CMEs. This approach is a computer-intensive method because it requires repeating the original data analysis procedure several times using replicate datasets. This is also commonly called the bootstrap method in the literature. We show that the bootstrap approach can be used to estimate the errors of the basic attributes of CMEs having moderately large numbers of height-time measurements. The velocity errors are in the vast majority small and depend mostly on the number of height-time points measured for a particular event. In the case of acceleration, the errors are significant, and for more than half of all CMEs, they are larger than the acceleration itself.     

Long-term bottom water warming in the north Ross Sea

We measured potential temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen profiles from the surface to the bottom at two locations in the north Ross Sea (65.2°S, 174.2°E and 67.2°S, 172.7°W) in December 2004. Comparison of our data with previous results from the same region reveals an increase in potential temperature and decreases in salinity and dissolved oxygen concentration in the bottom layer (deeper than 3000 m) over the past four decades. The changes were significantly different from the analytical precisions. Detailed investigation of the temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and σ ₃ value distributions and the bottom water flow in the north Ross Sea suggests a long-term change in water mass mixing balance. That is to say, it is speculated that the influence of cool, saline, high-oxygen bottom water (high-salinity Ross Sea Bottom Water) formed in the southwestern Ross Sea has possibly been decreased, while the influences of relatively warmer and fresher bottom water (low-salinity Ross Sea Bottom Water) and the Adélie Land Bottom Water coming from the Australia-Antarctic Basin have increased. The possible impact of global warming on ocean circulation needs much more investigation.     

Initiation of Run-Out Flows on Venus by Oblique Impacts

A hypervelocity oblique impact results in a downrange-moving vapor cloud, a significant fraction of which is derived from the projectile. Since the vapor cloud expands to great extent and becomes very tenuous quickly on a planet with a thin or no atmosphere, it does not leave a well-defined geologic expression. The thick atmosphere of Venus, however, is sufficient to contain such a rapidly expanding vapor cloud. As a result of atmospheric interactions, impact vapor condenses and contributes to run-out flows around craters on Venus. Previous results of both laboratory experiments and simple semi-analytical calculations indicate that an impact-vapor origin can account for the morphology of run-out flows on Venus most consistently. However, the detailed dynamics and geologic record of downrange-moving impact vapor clouds in Venus's atmosphere are not understood quantitatively. To approach these problems, we carried out two-dimensional hydrocode calculations. Parametric studies of these hydrocode calculations yield simple scaling laws for both the total downrange travel distance and the final temperature of impact vapor clouds under conditions on Venus. Under typical impact conditions, impact vapor clouds travel downrange more than a crater radius prior to the completion of crater formation. Furthermore, the scaling law for the total travel distance is compared with observations for the downrange offset of the source regions of run-out flows around oblique craters. The results of this comparison suggest that energy/momentum-partitioning processes other than pure shock coupling may play important roles in hypervelocity impact at planetary scales. The results of hydrocode calculations also indicate that the terminal temperature of the impact vapor is close to the condensation temperatures of silicates, suggesting that two scenarios are possible for expected range of impact conditions: 1. Impact vapor condenses and forms run-out flows. 2. Impact vapor fails to condense and leaves no run-out flows. Consequently, natural variation in impact angle, velocity, and projectile composition may account for partial occurrence of run-out flows around impact craters on Venus.     

Wide-Field Camera for Gravitational Microlensing Survey: MOA-cam2

We have constructed a large, mosaic CCD camera called MOA-cam2 which has 4096 × 6144-pixelsto search for gravitational microlensing events. MOA-cam2 has three4096 × 2048-pixel SITe CCD chips, which have a very high quantum efficiency (nearly 80% in the wave region 500 to 800 nm),and three buttable sides. We have placed the threechips side by side with 100 m dead space. MOA-cam2 has been installed on the 61 cm Boller and Chivens telescope of the MOA collaboration at the Mt. John University Observatory (MJUO) in NewZealand since July 1998. The field coverage is 0.92° × 1.38° per exposure. The technical details of MOA-cam2 and the first images obtained with the Boller and Chivens telescope are presented. MOA-cam2 introduces a second phase of research on gravitational microlensing by the MOA collaboration.     

Thermal alteration of hydrated minerals during hypervelocity capture to silica aerogel at the flyby speed of Stardust

Abstract— Outside the Earth's atmosphere, silica aerogel is one of the best materials to capture finegrained extraterrestrial particles in impacts at hypervelocities. Because silica aerogel is a superior insulator, captured grains are inevitably influenced by frictional heat. Therefore, we performed laboratory simulations of hypervelocity capture by using light‐gas guns to impact into aerogels finegrained powders of serpentine, cronstedtite, and Murchison CM2 meteorite. The samples were shot at >6 km s^?1 similar to the flyby speed at comet P/Wild‐2 in the Stardust mission. We investigated mineralogical changes of each captured particle by using synchrotron radiation X‐ray diffraction (SR‐XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and field emission scanning electron microscope (FE‐SEM). SR‐XRD of each grain showed that the majority of the bulk grains keep their original mineralogy. In particular, SR‐XRD and TEM investigations clearly exemplified the presence of tochilinite whose decomposition temperature is about 300 °C in the interior of the captured Murchison powder. However, TEM study of these grains also revealed that all the samples experienced melting and vesiculation on the surface. The cronstedtite and the Murchison meteorite powder show remarkable fracturing, disaggregation, melting, and vesiculation. Steep thermal gradients, about 2500 °C/μm were estimated near the surface of the grains (<2 μm thick) by TEM observation. Our data suggests that the interior of >4 μm across residual grains containing abundant materials that inhibit temperature rise would have not experienced >300 °C at the center.