Thick and thin models of the evolution of carbon dioxide on Mars

We present results from a new simulation code that accounts for the evolution of the reservoirs of carbon dioxide on Mars, from its early years to the present. We establish a baseline model parameter set that produces results compatible with the present (i.e., Patm?6.5 mbar with permanent CO₂ ice cap) for a wide range of initial inventories. We find that the initial inventory of CO₂ broadly determines the evolutionary course of the reservoirs of CO₂. The reservoirs include the atmosphere, ice cap, adsorbed CO₂ in the regolith, and carbonate rocks. We track the evolution of the free inventory: the atmosphere, ice cap and regolith. Simulations begin at 4.53 Gyr before present with a rapid loss of free inventory to space in the early Noachian. Models that assume a relatively small initial inventory (?5 bar) have pronounced minima in the free inventory of CO₂ toward the end of the Noachian. Under baseline parameters, initial inventories below ∼4.5 bar result in a catastrophic loss of the free inventory to space. The current free inventory would be then determined by the balance between outgassing, sputtering losses and chemical weathering following the end of the late bombardment. We call these “thin” models. They generically predict small current free inventories in line with expectations of a small present CO₂ ice cap. For “thick” models, with initial inventories ?5 bar, a surplus of 300-700 mbar of free CO₂ remains during the late-Noachian. The histories of free inventory in time for thick models tend to converge within the last 3.5 Gyr toward a present with an ice cap plus atmospheric inventory of about 100 mbar. For thick models, the convergence is largely due to the effects of chemical weathering, which draws down higher free inventories more rapidly than the low. Thus, thick models have ?450 mbar carbonate reservoirs, while thin models have ?200 mbar. Though both thick and thin scenarios can reproduce the current atmospheric pressure, the thick models imply a relatively large current CO₂ ice cap and thin models, little or none. While the sublimation of a massive cap at a high obliquity would create a climate swing of greenhouse warming for thick models, under the thin model, mean temperatures and pressures would be essentially unaffected by increases in obliquity.     

Loss of water from Mars:: Implications for the oxidation of the soil

The evolution of the martian atmosphere with regard to its H₂O inventory is influenced by thermal loss processes of H, H₂, nonthermal atmospheric loss processes of H⁺, H₂⁺, O, O⁺, CO₂, and O₂⁺ into space, as well as by chemical weathering of the surface soil. The evolution of thermal and nonthermal escape processes depend on the history of the intensity of the solar XUV radiation and the solar wind density. Thus, we use actual data from the observation of solar proxies with different ages from the Sun in Time program for reconstructing the Sun's radiation and particle environment from the present to 3.5 Gyr ago. The correlation between mass loss and X-ray surface flux of solar proxies follows a power law relationship, which indicates a solar wind density up to 1000 times higher at the beginning of the Sun's main sequence lifetime. For the study of various atmospheric escape processes we used a gas dynamic test particle model for the estimation of the pick up ion loss rates and considered pick up ion sputtering, as well as dissociative recombination. The loss of H₂O from Mars over the last 3.5 Gyr was estimated to be equivalent to a global martian H₂O ocean with a depth of about 12 m, which is smaller than the values reported by previous studies. If ion momentum transport, a process studied in detail by Mars Express is significant on Mars, the water loss may be enhanced by a factor of about 2. In our investigation we found that the sum of thermal and nonthermal atmospheric loss rates of H and all nonthermal escape processes of O to space are not compatible with a ratio of 2:1, and is currently close to about 20:1. Escape to space cannot therefore be the only sink for oxygen on Mars. Our results suggest that the missing oxygen (needed for the validation of the 2:1 ratio between H and O) can be explained by the incorporation into the martian surface by chemical weathering processes since the onset of intense oxidation about 2 Gyr ago. Based on the evolution of the atmosphere-surface-interaction on Mars, an overall global surface sink of about 2×10⁴² oxygen particles in the regolith can be expected. Because of the intense oxidation of inorganic matter, this process may have led to the formation of considerable amounts of sulfates and ferric oxides on Mars. To model this effect we consider several factors: (1) the amount of incorporated oxygen, (2) the inorganic composition of the martian soil and (3) meteoritic gardening. We show that the oxygen incorporation has also implications for the oxidant extinction depth, which is an important parameter to determine required sampling depths on Mars aimed at finding putative organic material. We found that the oxidant extinction depth is expected to lie in a range between 2 and 5 m for global mean values.     

黄、渤海海岸风沙地貌类型及其分布规律和发育模式

于１９９０－１９９４年，对黄，渤海海岸风沙地貌，风沙沉积，风沙灾害和土地沙漠化现象进行详细的外业调查，测量和填图，在此基础上，利用ＧＩＳ技术原理，对海岸岗沙地貌进行系统的分类研究，对海岸风沙地貌分布规律和发育模式进行较深入的探讨，结果表明，研究区风沙地貌，风沙灾害和土地沙漠化现象主要分布在冬，春季气候干旱，风力强而持久，砂源丰富的渤海海岸和山东半岛半岸的砂质海岸地区，海岸沙丘和风成砂地总面积达７０     

Origin and thermal evolution of icy satellites

The paper reviews the problem of formation and evolution of the so-called regular satellites of the giant planets, and it consists of two parts: the first describes the possible origin of the satellites, the second studies their evolution, attempting to stress the relations of the present status of the satellites with their evolutionary history.The formation of regular satellite systems around giant planets is probably related to the formation of the central planet. Some characteristics of regular satellite systems are quite similar, and suggest a common origin in a disk present around the central body. This disk can originate through different mechanisms which we will describe, paying attention to the so-called accretion disk model, in which the satellite-forming material is captured. The disk phase links the formation of the primary body with the formation of satellites. The subsequent stages of the disk's evolution can lead first to the formation of intermediate size bodies, and through the collisional evolution of these bodies, to the birth of satellite embryos able to gravitationally capture smaller bodies.Given the scenario in which icy satellites may be formed by homogeneous accretion of planetesimals made of a mixtures of ice and silicates, if no melting occurs during accretion, the satellites have a homogeneous ice-rock composition. For the smaller satellites this homogeneous structure should not be substantially modified; only sporadic local events, such as large impacts, can modify the surface structure of the smaller satellites. For the larger satellites, if some degree of melting appears during accretion, a differentiation of the silicate part occurs, the amount of differentiation and hence the core size depending on the fraction of gravitational potential energy retained during the accumulation process. Melting and differentiation soon after the accretion, for the larger satellites, could also depend on the convective evolution in presence of phase transitions and generate an intermediate rock layer, considerably denser than the underlying, still homogeneous core, and unstable to overturning on a geologic time scale. Moreover the liquid water mantle could be a transient feature because the mantle would freeze over several hundred million years. For these large bodies the stable configuration is expected to be one consisting of a silicate core and a mantle of mixed rock and ice.     

我国高碘卤水分布规律及其形成

根据国内外大量实际资料,从碘的分布情况及其所处的地质条件,结合石油和天然气形成过程、油气藏类型及其分布特点,探讨高碘卤水分布的规律及其形成条件,在此基础上指出了我国的找碘方向。     

苍山5.2级地震异常群体时空演化特征

在对 1 995年山东省苍山 5 2级地震异常筛选的基础上 ,分析了异常群体阶段性演化过程。结果表明 ,震前 1 0a左右震中周围出现小震小区域综合断层面解主压应力P轴偏转 (约 3 0°) ,震前 7a左右震中附近 3～ 4级地震增强集中及应变释放加速 ;震前 4a左右转为异常平静 ;震前 1a左右震中外围开始出现形变类前兆异常 ,前兆异常台站比和异常台项比约达 6%及 4%左右 ,异常比例偏少 ;震前约半年起 ,以震中附近地震波速比异常出现为起点 ,相继出现各类前兆异常 6条 ,短期前兆异常台站比和异常台项比分别约达 2 5 %和 1 7%左右 ,显示孕震进入短期阶段 ,但临震异常不明显。对由此获得的 5级地震预测启示进行了讨论。     

非线性地球物理反演方法:回顾与展望

自20世纪90年代以来，非线性地球物理反演方法已走向成熟，这些方法包括线性化迭代法，仿真淬火法，遗传算法及联合反演方法等，线性化迭代反演基于开放物理系统状态发生相变的原理，要进一步改善模型参数化的技术和迭代过程的自组织；仿真淬火法与遗传算法基于自然过程的指数率或生物演化的优生率，可以相互结合以提高解估计的分辨率与置信度；联合反演要结合岩石物理性质的统计规律，才能取得兼容地质与综合方法的应用效果，地球动力学中的反问题不仅涉及偏微分方程系数项的求解，而且涉及初始条件或初始边界的求解，对地球动力学作用过程研究特别重要。     

A methane fuse for the Cambrian explosion: carbon cycles and true polar wander

The dramatic diversification of animal groups known as the Cambrian Explosion (evolution's ‘Big Bang’) remains an unsolved puzzle in Earth Science. The Vendian–Cambrian interval is characterized by anomalously high rates of apparent plate motion, interpreted as True Polar Wander (TPW), and by more than a dozen large, high-frequency perturbations in carbon isotopes that dwarf all others observed through the past 65 million years. We suggest that these biological, tectonic, and geochemical events are intimately related in the following fashion. First, tropical continental margins and shelf-slopes which formed during fragmentation of the supercontinent Rodinia accumulated massive quantities of isotopically-light organic carbon during Late Neoproterozoic time, as indicated by strikingly heavy isotope ratios in inorganic carbon during interglacial intervals. Second, an initial phase of Vendian TPW moved these organic-rich deposits to high latitude, where conditions favored trapping biogenic methane in layers of gas hydrate and perhaps permafrost. Continued sedimentation during Late Vendian time added additional hydrate/gas storage volume and stabilized underlying units until the geothermal gradient moved them out of the clathrate stability field, building up deep reservoirs of highly pressurized methane. Finally, a burst of TPW brought these deposits back to the Tropics, where they gradually warmed and were subjected to regional-scale thermohaline eddy variation and related sedimentation regime changes. Responding to the stochastic character of such changes, each reservoir reached a critical failure point independently at times throughout the Cambrian. By analogy with the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum event, these methane deposits yield transient, greenhouse-induced pulses of global warming when they erupt. Temperature correlates powerfully with biodiversity; the biochemical kinetics of metabolism at higher temperature decrease generation time and maintain relatively rich and dense invertebrate populations. Repeated thermal pulses along with progressive disruption and alteration of global ocean circulation patterns by TPW could cause the increase in diversity that accompanied the radiation of metazoans. We suggest that a methane ‘fuse’ ignited the Cambrian Evolutionary Explosion.     

地震活动时序谱的涨落统计特征与地震活跃期

为寻求地震活动演化的统计判据，本文采用多项式拟合法展示地震时序谱之涨落谱，以分维函数法判断最小邻间距（NNS）分布的Poisson性，然后采用MKS无参量法判别涨落谱之统计稳定性，确定NNS分布的转变区，具体研讨了四川、云南若干震区地震活动时序谱的涨落统计分布，发现地震活跃期到来时NNS分布表现出非Poisson化的特征。进一步通过改变和调节时序数据样本集之震级下限，并逐段前推进行统计计算的方式进一步验证结果的可靠性，客观地确定了这些震区地震活动时序涨落谱统计特征的转变期，使根据该统计法判断地震活跃期的方法论渐趋完善。     

辽北清原地区太古宙地质演化及其对成矿的控制作用

辽北清原地区在时空上有系统地发育了三个太古亩地体：浑河以南的小莱河花岗岩-绿岩带（ＸＧＧＢ）、浑河以北的清原花岗岩-绿岩带（ＱＧＧＢ）和在ＱＧＧＢ东北部出露的景家沟麻粒岩-片麻岩区（ＪＧＧＲ）。绿岩带中火山岩组合在ＸＧＧＢ中以双峰式岩套为特征，而在（ＱＧＧＢ中以连续的钙碱性系列为特征。ＸＧＧＢ中斜长角门岩全岩Ｓｍ－Ｎｄ等时线年龄为３０１８±２０Ｍａ，Ｎｄ（ｔ）＝＋０．１９±０．１７，ＴＤＭ＝３３４７～３７３５Ｍａ，而ＱＧＧＢ中的斜长角闪岩全岩Ｓｍ～Ｎｄ等时线年龄为２８８４±４８Ｍａ，∈Ｎｄ（ｔ）＝＋２．６１±０．４１，ＴＤＭ＝２９３８～２９９２Ｍａ。ＪＧＧＲ中黑云麻粒岩的Ｒｂ－Ｓｒ等时线年龄为２９９４±３２５Ｍａ，可能代表变质年龄，表明其形成在ＸＧＧＢ之前。综合研究表明辽北地区太古亩地质演化模式很可能为：ＪＧＧＢ代表了古中太古代古陆的残骸，ＸＧＧＢ于中太古代形成在这个古陆边缘的裂谷盆地内，ＱＧＧＢ则形成在新太古代的大陆边缘岛弧环境，并于新太古代晚期与ＸＧＧＢ拼贴。在此陆一弧碰撞过程中，ＱＧＧＢ逆冲推覆于ＪＧＧＲ之上，后者由于后期的伸展作用而出露于地表。成矿作用是地质演化的组成部分，并受制于各个演化阶段的构造环境