Microscopic impactor debris in the soil around Kamil crater (Egypt): Inventory,distribution, total mass,and implications for the impact scenario          下载免费PDF全文

Luigi Folco  Massimo D'Orazio  Agnese Fazio  Carole Cordier  Antonio Zeoli  Matthias van Ginneken  Ahmed El‐Barkooky 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2015,50(3):382-400

We report on the microscopic impactor debris around Kamil crater (45 m in diameter, Egypt) collected during our 2010 geophysical expedition. The hypervelocity impact of Gebel Kamil (Ni‐rich ataxite) on a sandstone target produced a downrange ejecta curtain of microscopic impactor debris due SE–SW of the crater (extending ~300,000 m², up to ~400 m from the crater), in agreement with previous determination of the impactor trajectory. The microscopic impactor debris include vesicular masses, spherules, and coatings of dark impact melt glass which is a mixture of impactor and target materials (Si‐, Fe‐, and Al‐rich glass), plus Fe‐Ni oxide spherules and mini shrapnel, documenting that these products can be found in craters as small as few tens of meters in diameter. The estimated mass of the microscopic impactor debris (<290 kg) derived from Ni concentrations in the soil is a small fraction of the total impactor mass (~10 t) in the form of macroscopic shrapnel. That Kamil crater was generated by a relatively small impactor is consistent with literature estimates of its pre‐atmospheric mass (>20 t, likely 50–60 t).  相似文献   

A late Triassic 40Ar/39Ar age for the El Hammam high-REE fluorite deposit (Morocco): mineralization related to the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province?     

Alain Cheilletz  Dominique Gasquet  Fouad Filali  Douglas A. Archibald  Massimo Nespolo 《Mineralium Deposita》2010,45(4):323-329

El Hammam is the only fluorite mine in Morocco (production 100,000 t/year). The fluorite mineralization is in an array of fluorite–calcite veins and is characterized by unusually high REE content in carbonate minerals (1,400 ppm in calcite; up to 2,000 ppm in siderite) and in fluorite (about 600 ppm). Since the 1960s, the genesis of the deposit has been attributed to a mesothermal hydrothermal event connected with late-Variscan granitic intrusions. Precise ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating of hydrothermal K-feldspar yields an age of formation of the El Hammam deposit at 205 ± 1 Ma. Its genesis is therefore associated in time and space with the development of the Triassic–Jurassic basins and the associated anorogenic continental flood basalts of the Moroccan Mesetian Middle Atlas. The source of the hydrothermal mineralization (magmatic and/or metamorphic) is discussed.  相似文献   

New data for the kinematic interpretation of the Alps–Apennines junction (Northwestern Italy)     

Pietro Mosca  Riccardo Polino  Sergio Rogledi  Massimo Rossi 《International Journal of Earth Sciences》2010,99(4):833-849

Alps and Apennines are juxtaposed within an approximately 100 km-wide area covered by the Upper Eocene to Miocene successions of the Tertiary Piedmont Basin. The Upper Eocene–Oligocene evolution of this area was characterized to the north and west by the propagation of the SE-verging Southalpine thrust-fold belt that can be traced from the Po Plain subsurface until the Torino Hill-Saluzzese area, and to the south by a high-angle, broadly E–W oriented megashear zone that led to the juxtaposition of different crustal levels and controlled the development of a mosaic of partly independent sub-basins. Since the latest Oligocene the N-verging Apenninic tectonics prevailed in the collisional system and the Tertiary Piedmont Basin evolved as a wide thrust-top basin, bounded to the north by the N-verging Monferrato arc and characterized by a tectono-sedimentary evolution recording changes of subsidence and shift of depocentres in relation to crustal structures.  相似文献   

Hydrogeological and thermal characterization of shallow aquifers in the plain sector of Piemonte region (NW Italy): implications for groundwater heat pumps diffusion     

Stefano Lo Russo  Massimo Vincenzo Civita 《Environmental Earth Sciences》2010,60(4):703-713

The low annual and seasonal variability of the shallow groundwater temperature in the alluvial plain aquifers of the Piemonte region (NW Italy) confirmed the potentiality of the low-enthalpy open-loop groundwater heat pumps (GWHP) diffusion to contribute to the reduction of regional greenhouse gas emissions. The distribution of mean groundwater temperatures ranged from a minimum of 10.3°C to a maximum of 17.9°C with a mean of 14.0°C. Differences among diverse areas were slight according with the modest variations in the general climatic condition. Like the air, temperature distribution of the shallow groundwater temperatures is generally similar to topographic elevations in reverse manner. Higher temperature values recorded were typical of summer months (June, July). On the opposite lower values were measured in January and February. No significant difference phase (time) difference between air and groundwater temperature appeared in the data analysis. Besides air-temperature influence (seasonal variability) seemed strictly connected to the depth to groundwater in the measure point and it was negligible when the value was over 9.5 m. For the application of the open-loop systems, extensive examinations of the hydrogeological local conditions should be conducted at site scale and groundwater heat transport modelling should be developed.  相似文献   

Evaluating asbestos fibre concentration in metaophiolites: a case study from the Voltri Massif and Sestri–Voltaggio Zone (Liguria, NW Italy)     

Folco Giacomini  Vittorio Boerio  Simona Polattini  Massimo Tiepolo  Riccardo Tribuzio  Alberto Zanetti 《Environmental Earth Sciences》2010,61(8):1621-1639

This work is part of the project study for a road tunnel bypassing the town of Genova and was aimed at evaluating the amount of asbestos fibres in the metaophiolites belonging to the Voltri Group and the Sestri–Voltaggio Zone (Liguria, Northern Italy). The 85 studied rock samples (mainly mafic and ultramafic rocks) derive from exposed outcrops and prospecting boreholes. The study of field relations and petrographic/microtextural investigations under the optical microscope allowed for the identification and characterisation of asbestos-bearing settings and lithotypes. Mineralogy and concentration of asbestos fibres in powdered specimens were determined by means of a scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy device. These investigations were combined with petrography on thin-section, X-ray diffraction analysis and phase contrast optical microscopy on rock powders. Mafic and ultramafic rocks commonly contain asbestos in concentrations below 1,000 mg/kg (considered as the contamination threshold under Italian law). However, the fibre concentration rises abruptly within localised zones, where the metaophiolite sequences were involved into late ductile to brittle tectono-metamorphic events. Two groups of asbestos-bearing settings have been so far identified in the area: (a) fracture networks within serpentinites (dominated by fibrous chrysotile), and (b) boudins of chlorite-tremolite schists, likely deriving from dynamic recrystallisation of mafic rocks under greenschist facies conditions (dominated by fibrous amphibole). Even considering the low volumetric incidence of these settings (metres to few tens of metres), their high asbestos content locally controls the total fibre amount in the excavation products, thus requiring special prevention measures during excavation, management and final storage of the contaminated debris.  相似文献   

Sr isotopic evidence for a multi-source origin of the potassic magmas in the neapolitan area (S. Italy)     

Massimo Cortini  O. Don Hermes 《Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology》1981,77(1):47-55

New Sr isotopic data on lavas and xenoliths from Somma-Vesuvius and other nearby volcanic areas (Phlegrean Fields and Ischia) are presented. Chemical and isotopic evidences show that not all the Phlegrean Fields rocks belong to the low K series, but some of them may be interpreted as low pressure differentiates of Somma magmas, i.e. as a part of the high K series. Two rock groups are defined in the Ischia low K series, which are well identified both in time and in chemical and isotopic features, and cannot be derived from the same magma source. The low K series in the studied area generally has lower Sr isotopic values than the high K series.Historical Vesuvian lavas show two distinct linear trends with negative slopes when⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios are plotted against their ages of eruption. Such trends are interpreted to result from mixing of magmas in two separate reservoirs. Evidence from the Vesuvian ejecta shows that Somma-Vesuvius magmas underwent high or low pressure fractionation, in connection with different events of the Vesuvian activity. Distinct magma reservoirs developed episodically at different depths. Isotopic and geochemical evidences do not favour large scale assimilation of crustal materials by Somma-Vesuvius magmas, but instead appear to reflect mantle characteristics.A minimum of three different (inhomogeneous) source regions is necessary to account for the isotopic features of the studied rocks.  相似文献   

Destructive effects of oxygen starvation and ash falls on benthic life: A pilot study     

Maria Bianca Cita  Massimo Podenzani 《Quaternary Research》1980,13(2):230-241

A quantitative study on faunal density and faunal diversity was carried out on benthic foraminifers from 15 samples of two eastern Mediterranean deep-sea cores. Samples were taken beneath, within, and above three distinctive levels well correlatable for over 1000 km: (a) Sapropel S-5, late Pleistocene in age, correlative with marine isotopic stage 5e and with the Tyrrhenian transgression, with an interpolated age of ～ 125,000 yr: (b) the “Ischia” tephra Y-5, the most widespread ash layer of the eastern Mediterranean, correlative with the transition from isotopic stages 3 to 2 and having an interpolated age of ～ 35,000 yr; and (c) Sapropel S-1, Holocene in age, correlative with the Flandrian transgression, radiometrically dated at ～8000 yr B.P. The most severe effects on benthic life were induced by stagnation (a). Deglaciation corresponding to Termination II was so rapid that the benthic assemblages could not adapt themselves to the too-rapidly decreasing oxygen levels and were entirely destroyed. More than 1000 yr after the termination of stagnant conditions no recolonization had yet started. The lesser disturbance was induced in the benthic community by the ash fall (b). The faunal destruction was ephemeral in duration and the colonizing population did not differ from that predating the ash fall. A progressive faunal change, with increasing abundance of taxa tolerant to low oxygen levels, was recorded beneath Sapropel S-1 (c). The recolonizing assemblage differs from the previously existing one, and is more similar to those recorded from the floor of the Mediterranean.  相似文献   

The evolution of the mantle source beneath Mt. Etna (Sicily,Italy): from the 600 ka tholeiites to the recent trachybasaltic magmas     

Federico Casetta  Pier Paolo Giacomoni  Carmelo Ferlito  Costanza Bonadiman  Massimo Coltorti 《International Geology Review》2020,62(3):338-359

ABSTRACT

The spatial/temporal proximity of Mt. Etna to the Hyblean Plateau and the Aeolian slab makes the discussion on the nature of its mantle source/s extremely controversial. In this study, a detailed geochemical overview of the entire Mt. Etna evolutionary sequence and a comparison with the magmatism of the Hyblean Plateau was proposed to: (i) simulate the composition of Mt. Etna tholeiitic to alkaline primitive magmas in equilibrium with a fertile mantle source; (ii) model the nature, composition and evolution of the mantle source from the tholeiitic stage (600 ka) to present magmatism. According to our simulations, two amphibole + phlogopite-bearing spinel lherzolite sources are able to explain the wide range of Etnean primary magmas. The enrichment in LILE, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, Rb and H₂O of the magmas emitted after 1971 (but also discontinuously generated in both historic and prehistoric times) are caused by different melting proportions of amphibole and phlogopite in a modally and compositionally homogeneous mantle domain, with melting degrees analogous to those required to produce magmas erupted prior to 1971. The behaviour of the hydrous phases during melting could be ascribed to a variable H₂O/CO₂ activity in the mantle source, in turn related to the heat/fluxes supply from the asthenospheric upwelling beneath Mt. Etna. All these considerations, strengthened by numerical models, are then merged to review the complex Pliocene/Lower Pleistocene to present day’s geodynamic evolution of eastern Sicily.  相似文献   

On the evolution of the cosmic supernova rates     

Piero Madau  Massimo Della Valle  & Nino Panagia 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》1998,297(1):L17-L22

The Galactic radio-emitting X-ray binary Cygnus X-3 is known to be a source of large-scale radio jets associated with periods of intense radio flaring. These jets have been found to have an expansion velocity of ∼0.3 c and are believed (on kinematic grounds) to lie close to the plane of the sky. We present new observations of Cygnus X-3 using the VLBA at 15 GHz. These observations, which included the detection of two small flares, show an additional kind of behaviour with apparent superluminal expansion along both major and minor axes. Evidence for superluminal activity has been found in a number of X-ray binary systems such as GRS 1915+105 and GRO J1655−40 with their superluminal radio jets. Apparently similar morphologies of the Galactic and extragalactic jet sources have led to the X-ray binaries being described as 'micro-quasars'. The superluminal expansion seen in our results appears to be different in nature from these other two sources, and a number of mechanisms are presented and discussed.  相似文献   

Early Cretaceous »events« in the evolution of the eastern and western North Atlantic continental margins     

Dr. Ulrich von Rad  Dr. Massimo Sarti 《International Journal of Earth Sciences》1986,75(1):139-158

At many North Atlantic continental margins, the early Neocomian is characterized by a major stratigraphic turning point from Late Jurassic-Berriasian carbonate bank/pelagic carbonate deposition to Valanginian-Barremian hemipelagic sedimentation with thick Wealden-type deltaic to deep-sea fan sequences. The stratigraphy and structure of the very old, starved passive margin of the Mazagan Plateau and adjacent steep escarpment off Morocco was studied during the French-German CYAMAZ deep diving campaign. The drowning of the Late Jurassic-early Berriasian carbonate platform was strongly influenced by a global late Berriasian sea level fall which was followed by a rapid late Valanginian sea level rise and/or by a major regional blockfaul ting event with accelerated subsidence rates. Upper Berriasian to (?) Hauterivian quartz-bearing bioclastic wackestones document the transition from the carbonate platform to the hemipelagic deposition on the drowned platform margin. Seawards, these deposits are correlated with a deep sea fan sequence. We discuss also an example from the Tarfaya Basin-Fuerteventura area further south. A 300 m thick succession of organic-rich claystone and sandstone turbidites (including m-thick debris flow units) of Hauterivian to Barremian age was an unexpected discovery at DSDP Site 603 off North Carolina (Leg 93). We discuss a tectonically confined fan model with laterally migrating channels, influenced by sea level fluctuations and varying terrigenous supply. During the Valanginian to Barremian time of high-standing (or rising) sea level, shelf construction (Wealden-type deltas) coincided with subdued, resedimentation-starved turbiditic system on the continental rise. Extensive unconsolidated sands, however, reflect sudden input of shelfal material into the basin during a mid-Aptian sea level lowstand (shelf destruction). The following global late Aptian transgression terminated the clastic fan deposition, raised the CCD and started the deposition of organic-rich shales.  相似文献