Readout Techniques for Drift and Low Frequency Noise Rejection in Infrared Arrays

Three different methods are presented to subtract thermal drifts and low-frequency noise from the signal of infrared array. The first is dead pixels with open Indium bumps, the second is reference output as implemented on the Hawaii2 multiplexer, and the third is dark pixels to emulate reference cells having a capacity connected to the gate of the unit cell field-effect transistor (FET). The third method is the most effective and yields a reduction in readout noise from15.4–9.4 erms. A novel method will be described to extend this readout technique to the Aladdin 1 K × 1 K InSb array. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Different styles of metasomatic veining in ultramafic xenoliths from the TUBAF Seamount (Bismarck Microplate,Papua New Guinea)

Petrologic, geochemical and isotopic investigations on two ultramafic xenoliths with metasomatic veins from the TUBAF Seamount in the Bismarck Archipelago NE of Papua New Guinea reveal different styles of metasomatic overprinting. The first xenolith, a clinopyroxene–poor spinel lherzolite, was part of the depleted upper mantle. It contains an orthopyroxene-rich vein that formed by hydrous metasomatism at ~ 980 °C and ~ 1.5 GPa. The second xenolith is a clinopyroxene-dominated spinel olivine websterite that formed as a magmatic cumulate at the transition of the upper mantle to the oceanic crust. The websterite contains a vein with orthopyroxenes and clinopyroxenes, which give evidence for high-temperature crystallization at ~ 1300 °C and < 0.36 GPa. Both xenoliths were transported to the seafloor by a Quaternary trachybasalt in a fore-arc position. The vein minerals show a strong affinity to a supra-subduction zone or island arc setting. The REE pattern of the vein in the clinopyroxene–poor lherzolite strongly resembles the one from the host trachybasalt, with a high enrichment of the LREE and a strong to moderate enrichment of the MREE and HREE. Although broadly similar in shape, the REE pattern of the vein in the websterite shows a much weaker enrichment. The same applies to the trace-element patterns, although there are significant differences in the Eu, Zr, Hf and Nb concentrations. The isotope signatures of both veins suggest a derivation from a subducted slab that had been hydrothermally altered by seawater (high ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values).The contrasting crystallization temperatures of the vein minerals as well as their overall geochemical differences indicate that the metasomatic agents responsible for the vein in the websterite were mobilized from a previously depleted source at a much deeper mantle level than those forming the vein of the clinopyroxene–poor lherzolite. The metasomatic agents may also have been mobilized at different times and from different plates, i.e., the deeply subducted Solomon Sea Microplate (for the veins in the websterite) and the shallow dehydrating Pacific Plate (for the veins in the clinopyroxene–poor lherzolite).Metasomatic agents responsible for similar petrologic phenomena, i.e., modal or cryptic metasomatism, may have distinctly different origins and show contrasting histories. A strongly depleted lherzolite may totally lose its initial geochemical signature by the influence of an enriched metasomatic agent, whereas a primarily enriched ultramafic rock, e.g., a websterite, may strongly obscure the trace-element pattern of a less enriched metasomatic vein. Furthermore, the geochemistry of the ultramafic xenoliths may reflect polyphase cryptic and modal metasomatism related to veining and later transport by the hosting melt to the seafloor.     

High-P granulites of the Songshugou area (Qinling Orogen,east-central China): Petrography,phase relations,and U/Pb zircon geochronology

High-pressure (HP) granulites provide telling records of mineral reactions at upper mantle to lower crustal levels and key information on the fate of material in subduction systems. The latter especially applies when they abut eclogite and mantle dunite because such rock associations are crucial for understanding the incompletely known processes at the interface of converging plates. A continental arc, active c. 520–395 Ma ago, formed an enigmatic example of such a rock association in the Songshugou area, Qinling Orogen. To unravel the juxtaposition of the distinct rocks, this study combines petrography, phase equilibria modelling, conventional thermobarometry, and zircon U–Th–Pb–Ti–REE analysis. Two mafic HP granulites, which contain the mineral assemblages garnet–clinopyroxene–plagioclase–rutile–mesoperthite–quartz and garnet–clinopyroxene–plagioclase–rutile, experienced peak metamorphic conditions of ≤1.4 GPa, 860°C and ~1.3 GPa, ≥910°C, respectively. During decompression and cooling, at 489 ± 4 Ma, amphibole lamellae unmixed from a clinopyroxene solid solution and orthopyroxene in part replaced garnet. A felsic HP granulite shows equilibration of garnet, perthite, antiperthite, kyanite, quartz, and rutile at 810–860°C, ~1.2 GPa, sillimanite growth during decompression, and upper amphibolite facies cooling at 510 ± 4 Ma. Though the thermobarometric data are just within the methodological errors, the U/Pb zircon ages imply the HP granulites did not evolve coherently. The HP granulites either represent foundered lower arc crust or originated from subduction erosion because their geochemistry is indistinguishable from that of the hanging-wall plate. Published and new pressure–temperature–time–deformation paths converge at ~710°C, ~0.9 GPa, and ≲470 Ma, implying exhumation tectonics juxtaposed the HP granulites with a mélange of eclogite and mantle dunite at lower crustal levels. This study highlights that lower arc crust can comprise material of diverse evolution.     

Shallow Drilling of Seafloor Hydrothermal Systems Using the BGS Rockdrill: Conical Seamount (New Ireland Fore-Arc) and PACMANUS (Eastern Manus Basin), Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACT

From September to October 2002, shallow drilling, using the submersible (5 m) Rockdrill of the British Geological Survey and the German R/V Sonne revealed critical information on the subsurface nature of two distinct hydrothermal systems in the New Ireland fore-arc and the Manus Basin of Papua New Guinea. Drilling at Conical Seamount significantly extends the known surface extent of the previously discovered vein-style gold mineralization (up to 230 g/t Au) at this site. Drilling the conventional PACMANUS volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposit recovered complexly textured massive sulfide with spectacular concentrations of gold in several core sections including 0.5 m @ 28 g/t Au, 0.35 m @ 30 g/t Au, and 0.20 m @ 57 g/t Au. Shallow drilling is a fast and cost efficient method that bridges the gap between surface sampling and deep (ODP) drilling and will become a standard practice in the future study of seafloor hydrothermal systems and massive sulfide deposits.     

Protoliths and phase petrology of whiteschists

Whiteschists appear in numerous high- and ultrahigh-pressure rock suites and are characterized by the mineral assemblage kyanite + talc (+-quartz or coesite). We demonstrate that whiteschist mineral assemblages are well stable up to pressures of more than 4 GPa but may already form at pressures of 0.5 GPa. The formation of whiteschists largely depends on the composition of the protolith, which requires elevated contents of Al and Mg as well as low Fe, Ca, and Na contents, as otherwise chloritoid, amphibole, feldspar, or omphacite are formed instead of kyanite or talc. Furthermore, the stability field of the whiteschist mineral assemblage strongly depends on XCO₂ and fO₂: already at low values of XCO₂, CO₂ binds Mg to carbonates strongly reducing the whiteschist stability field, whereas high fO₂ enlarges the stability field and stabilizes yoderite. Thus, the scarcity of whiteschist is not necessarily due to unusual P–T conditions, but to the restricted range of suitable protolith compositions and the spatial distribution of these protoliths: (1) continental sedimentary rocks and (2) hydrothermally and metasomatically altered felsic to mafic rocks. The continental sedimentary rocks that may produce whiteschist mineral assemblages typically have been deposited under arid climatic conditions in closed evaporitic basins and may be restricted to relatively low latitudes. These rocks often contain large amounts of the clay minerals palygorskite and sepiolite. Marine sediments generally do not yield whiteschist mineral assemblages as marine shales commonly have too high iron contents. Sabkha deposits may have too high CO₂ contents. Protoliths of appropriate geochemical composition occur in and on continental crust. Therefore, whiteschist assemblages typically are only found in settings of continental collision or where continental fragments were involved in subduction. Our calculations demonstrate that whiteschists can form by closed-system metamorphism, which implies that the chemical and isotopic composition of these rocks provide constraints on the development of the protoliths.     

Caledonian high-pressure metamorphism in the Strona-Ceneri Zone (Southern Alps of southern Switzerland and northern Italy)

The Strona-Ceneri Zone comprises a succession of polymetamorphic, pre-Alpidic basement rocks including ortho- and paragneisses, metasedimentary schists, amphibolites, and eclogites. The rock pile represents a Late Proterozoic or Palaeozoic subduction accretion complex that was intruded by Ordovician granitoids. Eclogites, which occur as lenses within the ortho-paragneiss succession and as xenoliths within the granitoids record a subduction related high-pressure event (D1) with peak metamorphic conditions of 710 ± 30 °C at 21.0 ± 2.5 kbar. After isothermal uplift, the eclogites experienced a Barrowtype (D2) tectonometamorphic overprint under amphibolite facies conditions (570-630 °C, 7-9 kbar). U-Pb dating on zircon of the eclogites gives a metamorphic age of 457 ± 5 Ma, and syn-eclogite facies rutile gives a ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U age of 443 ± 19 Ma classifying the subduction as a Caledonian event. These data show that the main tectonometamorphic evolution of the Strona-Ceneri Zone most probably took place in a convergent margin scenario, in which accretion, eclogitization of MOR-basalt, polyphase (D1 and D2) deformation, anatexis and magmatism all occurred during the Ordovician. Caledonian high-pressure metamorphism, subsequent magmatism and Barrow-type metamorphism are believed to be related to subduction and collision within the northern margin of Gondwana. Editorial handling: Edwin Gnos     

Chemical and isotopic effects of retrogression in metamorphic fluid inclusions

Fluid inclusions may provide compositional and isotopic information about fluids from which the host mineral precipitated as long as the host mineral does not react with the fluid. Our transmission electron microscope (TEM) investigation of grain boundaries and of fluid inclusions in zoisite and quartz of high-pressure metamorphic rocks from Dabie Shan (eastern China) demonstrates daughter minerals, such as margarite, muscovite, calcite, and anhydrite. Their precipitation changes (1) the composition of the fluid by selective and mineral-specific removal of CO₂ (carbonates), H₂O (sheet silicates, hydration of the walls), or S (gypsum, anhydrite, sulfides), (2) the concentrations and proportions of ions dissolved in the fluid, and (3) the isotopic composition of the fluid because of isotopic fractionation between mineral precipitate and fluid and between unmixed fluids. Fluid leakage from overpressurized fluid inclusions with daughter minerals changes the overall chemical and isotopic composition of the inclusion irreversibly, even when the daughter crystals later redissolve. Such fluid loss yields a wide range of compositionally and isotopically different fluids from a single starting fluid. Depending on the relation between mineral reactions in and fluid loss from the inclusion, the fluid remaining in the inclusion and the fluid lost from the inclusion may appear entirely unrelated.     

Conversion Gain and Interpixel Capacitance of Cmos Hybrid Focal Plane Arrays

The conversion gain of optical and infrared focal plane CMOS hybrid arrays is a fundamental parameter, whose value computes into the derivation of other parameters characterizing the performance of a detector. The widespread “noise squared versus signal” method used to obtain the conversion gain can overestimate the nodal capacitance of the detector pixel by more than 20% for infrared arrays and by more than 100% for Si-PIN diode arrays. This is because this method does not take account of the capacitive coupling between neighboring pixels. A simple technique has been developed to measure the nodal capacitance directly by comparing the voltage change of an external calibrated capacitor with the voltage change on the nodal capacitor of the detector pixel. The method is elaborated in detail and has been verified with a Si-PIN diode array hybridized to a Hawaii-2RG multiplexer using an Fe ⁵⁵ X-ray source. It is also in good agreement with a stochastic method based on 2D autocorrelation.     

Steady state geotherm,thermal disturbances,and tectonic development of the lower lithosphere underneath the Gibeon Kimberlite Province,Namibia

The Gibeon Kimberlite Province of southern Namibia comprises more than 75 group 1 kimberlite pipes and dykes. From the Gibeon Townsland 1 pipe, 38 upper mantle xenoliths (23 garnet lherzolites and 15 garnet harzburgites) were collected and minerals were analysed by electron microprobe for major elements. Pressures and temperatures of crystallisation for xenoliths with either coarse equant, porphyroclastic and mosaic-porphyroclastic textures were estimated by a number of combinations of geothermometers and geobarometers judged to be reliable and accurate for peridotites by Brey and Köhler (1990): The P-T estimates for equilibrated xenoliths agree within the errors of the methods and plot within the stability field of graphite. The P-T values for coarse equant xenoliths fall close to a geothermal gradient of about 44?mW/m² within a very restricted pressure range. The porphyroclastic xenoliths yield similar and higher temperatures at similar depths. In these xenoliths Ca in orthopyroxene and Ca in olivine increase towards the rims and are high in the neoblasts indicating a stage of transient heating at depth. The mosaic-porphyroclastic xenolith minerals yield the highest temperatures, are unzoned and indicate internal mineral equilibrium. The depth of origin for the xenoliths from Gibeon Townsland 1 ranges from 100 to 140 km. The “cold”, coarse equant peridotites are relatively enriched garnet lherzolites with comparatively (to the “hot” peridotites) low modal orthopyroxene contents, whereas the “hot”, mosaic-porphyroclastic peridotites are depleted garnet harzburgites with high modal amounts of orthopyroxene. This is opposite to the findings for peridotites from the Kaapvaal craton where the cold peridotites are depleted harzburgites with high modal orthopyroxene and many of the hot peridotites are fertile lherzolites with low modal abundance of orthopyroxene. We present a model in which the high temperature, depleted garnet harzburgites are equated to the cold, coarse equant peridotites from the Kaapvaal craton. It is envisaged that this material was detached and transported laterally by an upwelling, deflected plume.     

GCM-related uncertainty in river flow projections at the threshold for “dangerous” climate change: the Kalu Ganga river,Sri Lanka

The Kalu Ganga catchment is one of the largest in Sri Lanka, and is home to 5% of the national population. A first assessment is provided here of the sensitivity of Kalu Ganga runoff to a 2°C increase in global mean temperature – the supposed threshold for “dangerous” climate change. Runoff is simulated using the HBV-Light hydrological model and scenario data from seven general circulation models (GCMs). Precipitation is the strongest cause of change in runoff. Substantial inter-GCM differences in scenario precipitation lead to uncertainty in the direction of change in mean annual runoff from the baseline (range ?25% to +19%). Scenario monthly runoff ranges from ?41% to +124% of the baseline values at its most extreme (March); June is the only month with a consistent direction of change (range ?17% to ?65%) – thus indicating that climate change may lead to a substantially different hydrological regime in the Kalu Ganga catchment.