Seawater-peridotite interaction at 300°C and 500 bars: implications for the origin of oceanic serpentinites

An experiment has been performed reacting seawater with fresh peridotite (80% olivine, Fo₉₀ and ～- 15% enstatitic orthopyroxene En₉₅ and minor clinopyroxene and spinel) at 300°C, 500 bars and water/rock mass ratio of 20. The duration of the experiment was approximately 1500 hr.Seawater chemistry was appreciably modified during the experiment. Mg, Ca, Sr, SO₄ and H₂O were removed, while H₂S_(aq), Fe, Mn and Zn were added. H₂S_(aq) resulted from the inorganic reduction of seawater SO₄. pH was initially acid (2.8), but then rose slowly to a value of 5.2. The aqueous concentrations of Na, K, Cl and boron (B) changed little from that in seawater prior to reaction. However, as the solution was cooled to room temperature at the end of the experiment, the B concentration decreased. This suggests that the B content of oceanic serpentinites may be the result of retrograde reactions between a previously serpentinized body and ‘cold’ seawater.The primary minerals in the peridotite were replaced to varying degrees by serpentine (lizardite), magnetite. Mg-hydroxysulfate, anhydrite and possibly pyrite and sphalerite. Mg-hydroxysulfate and much anhydrite dissolved on quench.The alteration mineral assemblage generated during this experiment is consistent with that predicted from equilibrium phase relations and is similar in chemical composition, mineralogy and paragenesis to that reported for oceanic serpentinites.     

The Effects of Plant Invasion and Ecosystem Restoration on Energy Flow through Salt Marsh Food Webs

We measured the effects of a plant invasion (Phragmites australis) on resident fish (Fundulus heteroclitus) in New England salt marshes by assessing diet quality at the food web base and by quantifying the importance of primary producers to secondary production using a recently developed Bayesian mixing model (Stable Isotope Analysis in R, “SIAR”). Spartina alterniflora, the dominant native plant, exhibited significantly greater leaf toughness and higher C/N ratios relative to P. australis. Benthic microalgae and phytoplankton (as suspended particulate matter) exhibited the lowest C/N indicating higher diet quality. We conducted a sensitivity analysis in SIAR by modeling F. heteroclitus at three separate trophic levels (1.5, 2.0, and 2.5) using species-specific discrimination factors to determine basal resource contributions. Overall, the best-fitting models include those that assume F. heteroclitus resides approximately 2.0 trophic levels above primary producers. Using discrimination factors from a range of data sources reported in the literature, our analyses revealed that consumers rely less on benthic microalgae and phytoplankton in restricted marshes (7–23 % and 11–44 %, respectively) relative to reference marshes (5–34 % and 23–48 %, respectively), resulting in a shift in diet toward invasive plant consumption (0–27 %). This is likely due to increased P. australis cover and marsh surface shading leading to decreased microalgal biomass, combined with reduced flooding of the marsh surface that favors terrestrial invertebrate assemblages. Restoration decreased the quantity of P. australis in the food web (0–15 %) and increased the importance of microalgae (1–30 %), phytoplankton (19–48 %), and native plants (23–63 %), indicating a shift in ecological recovery toward reference conditions.     

Desert Pavement Disturbance and Artifact Taphonomy: A Case Study from the Eastern Libyan Plateau,Egypt

Accretionary desert pavements on the eastern Libyan Plateau of central Egypt support a rich Middle and Upper Paleolithic artifact assemblage exhibiting intensive blank production and minimal tool production. These assemblages appear to be in primary context with numerous examples of lithic refits showing on‐site lithic production. However, the smallest (length ≤2.5 cm) archaeological fragments are recovered at a much lower rate on this desert pavement surface than expected given comparable data from lithic assemblages in cave and shelter contexts in France. Excavation of archaeological contexts on the Libyan Plateau reveals the loss of small artifact fragments into the subsurface due to aeolian accumulation of silts, whereas geomorphic examination of desert pavement surfaces suggests a potential for relatively isolated bioturbation as a source of lateral and vertical disturbance of desert pavement surfaces over small areas. Archaeologists should be aware of the potential for long‐term assemblage stability as well as small artifact burial in surficial desert pavement contexts.     

A 29Si NMR study of silica species in dilute aqueous solution

The speciation of silica in dilute, nearly neutral, aqueous solution has been determined by ²⁹Si NMR. Our results indicate that tetrahedral dimers in addition to monomers occur in the concentration range of dissolved amorphous silica.     

Seismological studies of the Raoul Island eruption, 1964

Raoul Island, the largest of the Kermadec Group, is about 8 km across and is situated about 1100 km north-east of Auckland, New Zealand. An eruption of steam and mud occurred on the island on 1964 November 21 (local date); this was preceded by an earthquake swarm which started on 10 November. Records made with the Willmore seismograph at the Meteorological Station on the north coast of the island show that within four hours of the start of the swarm, the frequency of shocks had risen to a peak of more than 80 an hour. Most shocks had sharp beginnings with S-P intervals of 1 to 2 seconds. Tremor was noticeable on 11 November and increased until by 12 November it was continuous, masking all but the largest of the discrete shocks. The level of tremor and the number of recorded shocks then decreased, until by the time the largest earthquake occurred on November 14, only 30 to 40 shocks were being recorded per hour. The largest earthquake was assigned a magnitude of 5.7 from recordings made in New Zealand, and was felt on Raoul Island at intensity 7 on the Modified Mercalli scale. Further shocks and tremor were recorded, and on 15 November the tremor was particularly active for several hours. On 21 November, an eruption occurred, throwing steam, mud, and rocks to an estimated height of 800 m from a crater on the edge of Green Lake, about 2 km from the Meteorological Station. During the eruption the seismograph recorded a peak vibration 30 to 40 times the amplitude of the normal background level. By two hours after the eruption, the level of vibration had stabilised at double that before the eruption. The island was evacuated from 23 November until 6 December, during which time the seismograph was inoperative. From 6 December to 11 December three portable seismographs were recording in addition to the permanent station. By this time the frequency of recorded shocks had dropped to about two per hour. The earthquakes were located in the vicinity of Denham Bay, some kilometres to the west of the main crater. Volcanic activity has been observed previously in Denham Bay, and it is thought that the Bay may be a former crater.     

Volcanic hazards of North Island, New Zealand-overview

In October 1980, a National Civil Defence Planning Committee on Volcanic Hazards was formed in New Zealand, and solicited reports on the likely areas and types of future eruptions, the risk to public safety, and the need for special precautions. Reports for eight volcanic centres were received, and made available to the authors. This paper summarises and quantifies the type and frequency of hazard, the public risk, and the possibilities for mitigation at the 7 main volcanic centres: Northland, Auckland, White Island, Okataina, Taupo, Tongariro, and Egmont. On the basis of Recent tephrostratigraphy, eruption probabilities up to 20% per century (but commonly 5%), and tephra volumes up to 100 km³ are credible.     

Effects of phenology and meteorological disturbance on litter rainfall interception for a Pinus elliottii stand in the Southeastern United States

Litter layers develop across a diverse array of vegetated ecosystems and undergo significant temporal compositional changes due to canopy phenological phases and disturbances. Past research on temporal dynamics of litter interception has focused primarily on litter thickness and leaf fall, yet forest phenophases can change many more litter attributes (e.g., woody debris, bark shedding, and release of reproductive materials). In this study, weekly changes in litter composition over 1 year were used to estimate litter water storage dynamics and model event‐based litter interception. Litter interception substantially reduced throughfall (6–43%), and litter water storage capacity ranged from 1 to 3 mm, peaking when megastrobili release and liana leaf senescence occurred simultaneously during fall 2015. Tropical storm disturbances occurred during the sampling period, allowing evaluation of how meteorological disturbances altered litter interception. High wind speeds and intense rainfall from 2 tropical storms increased litter interception by introducing new woody debris, which, in this study, stored more water than the pre‐existing woody debris. After 2 extreme weather events, a third (Hurricane Hermine) did not increase woody debris (or litter interception), suggesting that the canopy pool of branches susceptible to breakage had been largely depleted. Needle and bark shedding had minor effects on litter interception. Results suggest that the release of reproductive materials and meteorological disturbances appear to be the major compositional drivers of litter interception beyond their obvious contribution to litter thickness.     

The Two-Component Virial Theorem and the Physical Properties of Stellar Systems

Using eigenmode expansion of the Mark III and SFI surveys of cosmological radial velocities, a goodness-of-fit analysis is applied on a mode-by-mode basis. This differential analysis complements the Bayesian maximum likelihood analysis that finds the most probable model given the data. Analyzing the surveys with their corresponding most likely models from the CMB-like family of models, as well as with the currently popular LambdaCDM model, reveals a systematic inconsistency of the data with these "best" models. There is a systematic trend of the cumulative chi(2) to increase with the mode number (where the modes are sorted by decreasing order of the eigenvalues). This corresponds to a decrease of the chi(2) with the variance associated with a mode and hence with its effective scale. It follows that the differential analysis finds that on small (large) scales the global analysis of all the modes "puts" less (more) power than actually required by the data. This observed trend might indicate one of the following: (1) the theoretical model (i.e., power spectrum) or the error model (or both) have an excess of power on large scales, (2) velocity bias, or (3) the velocity data suffers from systematic errors that have not yet been corrected.     

Vertical impulse measurements of mines buried in saturated sand

The ultimate aim of our overall task, of which the effort described in this paper is a part, is to be able to model the impulsive output of buried charges and the response of targets of interest. It is not practical or cost-effective to determine the response of all targets of interest to buried charges of all sizes by testing them. In order to have confidence in our models, however, they must be validated by a modest number of tests. A critical element in modelling the response of a target is the ability to model the loading function. The load a buried charge applies to a target above it when the charge detonates can be characterized in terms of the vertical impulse. The vertical impulse is a function of the size of the charge, its depth of burial, and the properties of the soil in which it is buried. The primary objective of the effort described in this paper is to determine the load a known charge places on a non-responding target so the data can be used to validate our models.

For model validation, a large number of detonator-scale experiments have been conducted by the University of Maryland (Fourney et al. [1]). It was also necessary to conduct a modest number of experiments at a larger scale, nine in total, to ensure that the results of the detonator-scale tests can be satisfactorily scaled up. Of the nine large-scale experiments conducted, seven were conducted with 5 or 10 lb cast TNT charges. All experiments were conducted in sand that was as nearly fully water-saturated as possible. The objective of the experiments was to determine the vertical impulse applied to a non-deforming target plate above the charge.

The large-scale experiments were conducted using the Vertical Impulse Measurement Fixture (VIMF) at the Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen, MD. The VIMF is a unique facility that has been designed specifically to measure accurately the vertical impulse from buried charges weighing up to 8 kg.

This paper describes the VIMF and its instrumentation, test methods and test results. The results obtained demonstrate that in some cases, when the soil is saturated sand, explosive 'bubble' effects similar to those encountered in shallow water are encountered.