The history of the Solar system's debris disc: observable properties of the Kuiper belt     

Mark Booth  Mark C. Wyatt  Alessandro Morbidelli  Amaya Moro-Martín  Harold F. Levison 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2009,399(1):385-398

The Nice model of Gomes et al. suggests that the migration of the giant planets caused a planetesimal clearing event, which led to the late heavy bombardment (LHB) at 880 Myr. Here, we investigate the infrared emission from the Kuiper belt during the history of the Solar system as described by the Nice model. We describe a method for easily converting the results of N -body planetesimal simulations into observational properties (assuming blackbody grains and a single size distribution) and further modify this method to improve its realism (using realistic grain properties and a three-phase size distribution). We compare our results with observed debris discs and evaluate the plausibility of detecting an LHB-like process in extrasolar systems. Recent surveys have shown that 4 per cent of stars exhibit 24 μm excess and 16 per cent exhibit 70 μm excess. We show that the Solar system would have been amongst the brightest of these systems before the LHB at both 24 and 70 μm. We find a significant increase in 24 μm emission during the LHB, which rapidly drops off and becomes undetectable within 30 Myr, whereas the 70 μm emission remains detectable until 360 Myr after the LHB. Comparison with the statistics of debris disc evolution shows that such depletion events must be rare occurring around less than 12 per cent of Sun-like stars and with this level of incidence we would expect approximately one of the 413 Sun-like field stars so far detected to have a 24 μm excess to be currently going through an LHB. We also find that collisional processes are important in the Solar system before the LHB and that parameters for weak Kuiper belt objects are inconsistent with the Nice model interpretation of the LHB.  相似文献   

Debris disc stirring by secular perturbations from giant planets     

Alexander J. Mustill  Mark C. Wyatt 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2009,399(3):1403-1414

Detectable debris discs are thought to require dynamical excitation ('stirring'), so that planetesimal collisions release large quantities of dust. We investigate the effects of the secular perturbations of a planet, which may lie at a significant distance from the planetesimal disc, to see if these perturbations can stir the disc, and if so over what time-scale. The secular perturbations cause orbits at different semimajor axes to precess at different rates, and after some time   t _cross  initially non-intersecting orbits begin to cross. We show that   t _cross∝ a ^9/2_disc/( m _pl e _pl a ³_pl)  , where   m _pl, e _pl  and   a _pl  are the mass, eccentricity and semimajor axis of the planet, and   a _disc  is the semimajor axis of the disc. This time-scale can be faster than that for the growth of planetesimals to Pluto's size within the outer disc. We also calculate the magnitude of the relative velocities induced among planetesimals and infer that a planet's perturbations can typically cause destructive collisions out to 100 s of au. Recently formed planets can thus have a significant impact on planet formation in the outer disc which may be curtailed by the formation of giant planets much closer to the star. The presence of an observed debris disc does not require the presence of Pluto-sized objects within it, since it can also have been stirred by a planet not in the disc. For the star ε Eridani, we find that the known radial velocity planet can excite the planetesimal belt at 60 au sufficiently to cause destructive collisions of bodies up to 100 km in size, on a time-scale of 40 Myr.  相似文献   

An overview of developments and applications of oceanographic radar networks in Asia and Oceania countries   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Satoshi Fujii  Malcolm L. Heron  Kuh Kim  Jian-Wu Lai  Sang-Ho Lee  Xiangbai Wu  Xiongbin Wu  Lucy R. Wyatt  Wen-Chang Yang 《Ocean Science Journal》2013,48(1):69-97

More than 110 radar stations are in operation at the present time in Asia and Oceania countries, which is nearly half of all the existing radar stations in the world, for purposes related to marine safety, oil spill response, tsunami warning, coastal zone management and understanding of ocean current dynamics, depending mainly on each country’s coastal sea characteristics. This paper introduces the oceanographic radar networks of Australia, China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, presented at the 1st Ocean Radar Conference for Asia (ORCA) held in May 2012, Seoul, Korea, to share information about the radar network developments and operations, knowledge and experiences of data management, and research activity and application of the radar-derived data of neighbouring countries. We hope this overview paper may contribute as the first step to promotion of regional collaborations in the radar observations and data usages and applications in order to efficiently monitor the coastal and marginal sea waters along the western Pacific Ocean periphery.  相似文献   

The melting and crystallisation behaviour of a natural clinopyroxene-ilmenite intergrowth     

B. A. Wyatt 《Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology》1977,61(1):1-9

The anhydrous solidus of a natural clinopyroxene-ilmenite intergrowth from the kimberlite pipe at Monastery was found to be 1300° C at 20 kb increasing to 1470 ° C at 47 kb. The slope of the solidus is 6 ° C/kb, with a constant melting interval of approximately 140 ° C. Clinopyroxene was the liquidus phase in all but one case, and the ilmenite-out curve coincided with the beginning of melting. Controlled cooling experiments resulted in liquidus clinopyroxene crystals surrounded by intergrowths of clinopyroxene and ilmenite. The experimental and natural intergrowths are texturally, crystallographically and chemically similar. These results support the view that the natural clinopyroxene-ilmenite intergrowths found in kimberlites are a product of eutectic crystallisation in the upper mantle. Compositional similarities between the liquidus clinopyroxene and discrete clinopyroxene nodules from kimberlite suggest that the latter are possibly related to the clinopyroxene-ilmenite intergrowths by fractional crystallisation. Differences between the temperatures of equilibration obtained for clinopyroxenes from the natural intergrowths, and the beginning of melting on the clinopyroxene-ilmenite join, may be the result of hydrous melting in the former case, or as a consequence of the natural intergrowths existing as mantle veins or pegmatites at the ambient temperature prior to their incorporation in the kimberlite.  相似文献   

A Comparison of an Ecological Model and GIS Spatial Analysis to Describe Niche Partitioning Amongst Carrion Beetles in Nebraska     

Andrew A. Bishop  W. Wyatt Hoback  Marc Albrecht  & Kerri M. Skinner 《Transactions in GIS》2002,6(4):457-470

Carrion beetles depend on vertebrate carcasses to rear their young. Carcasses are a limited resource with patchy distribution, and there is an intense competition among many species for these carcasses. This situation is expected to lead to niche partitioning, such that different beetle species use different resources and thus escape direct competition. Our project used a geographic information system (GIS) and pitfall sampling to characterize carrion beetle preferences for soil texture and land use in Kearney County, Nebraska. The GIS was used to select sites where sampling was conducted using pitfall traps baited with rat carcasses. Attracted beetles were counted, identified to species, and released. The resulting data were used to construct occurrence maps of eleven species of carrion beetles by overlaying soil texture and land use. We then compared the results of EcoSim (an ecological simulation model of niche overlap) with GIS–generated maps of probability of carrion beetle occurrence. Our results are consistent with landscape–level niche partitioning by seven of the eleven examined species. Our application of GIS to the spatial analysis of carrion beetle distributions demonstrates how this technology can be used to test ecological and evolutionary hypotheses, predict habitat associations, and examine the effects of land use on a community of insects. This work could easily be extended to study the habitat preferences of the federally endangered American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus .  相似文献   

Provenance and diagenesis of the evaporite-bearing Burns formation, Meridiani Planum, Mars     

S.M. McLennan  J.F. Bell III  P.R. Christensen  P.A. de Souza  J. Farmer  D.A. Fike  A. Ghosh  J.P. Grotzinger  K.E. Herkenhoff  J.R. Johnson  B. Jolliff  A.H. Knoll  M.C. Malin  J. Pocock  L.A. Soderblom  N.J. Tosca  M.B. Wyatt 《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》2005,240(1):95-121

Impure reworked evaporitic sandstones, preserved on Meridiani Planum, Mars, are mixtures of roughly equal amounts of altered siliciclastic debris, of basaltic provenance (40 ± 10% by mass), and chemical constituents, dominated by evaporitic minerals (jarosite, Mg-, Ca-sulfates ± chlorides ± Fe-, Na-sulfates), hematite and possibly secondary silica (60 ± 10%). These chemical constituents and their relative abundances are not an equilibrium evaporite assemblage and to a substantial degree have been reworked by aeolian and subaqueous transport. Ultimately they formed by evaporation of acidic waters derived from interaction with olivine-bearing basalts and subsequent diagenetic alteration. The rocks experienced an extended diagenetic history, with at least two and up to four distinct episodes of cementation, including stratigraphically restricted zones of recrystallization and secondary porosity, non-randomly distributed, highly spherical millimeter-scale hematitic concretions, millimeter-scale crystal molds, interpreted to have resulted from dissolution of a highly soluble evaporite mineral, elongate to sheet-like vugs and evidence for minor synsedimentary deformation (convolute and contorted bedding, possible teepee structures or salt ridge features). Other features that may be diagenetic, but more likely are associated with relatively recent meteorite impact, are meter-scale fracture patterns, veins and polygonal fractures on rock surfaces that cut across bedding. Crystallization of minerals that originally filled the molds, early cement and sediment deformation occurred syndepositionally or during early diagenesis. All other diagenetic features are consistent with formation during later diagenesis in the phreatic (fluid saturated) zone or capillary fringe of a groundwater table under near isotropic hydrological conditions such as those expected during periodic groundwater recharge. Textural evidence suggests that rapidly formed hematitic concretions post-date the primary mineral now represented by crystal molds and early pore-filling cements but pre-date secondary moldic and vug porosity. The second generation of cements followed formation of secondary porosity. This paragenetic sequence is consistent with an extended history of syndepositional through post-depositional diagenesis in the presence of a slowly fluctuating, chemically evolving, but persistently high ionic strength groundwater system.  相似文献   

Phanerozoic shallow water diversity driven by changes in sea-level     

A. R. Wyatt 《International Journal of Earth Sciences》1993,82(2):203-211

Shallow water (< 50 m) marine diversity curves for the Phanerozoic, based on area changes due to sea-level variation and continental movements, are presented. It is shown that a change in the degree of endemism can alter diversity more than the effect of sea-level change, or change in the number of faunal provinces. The pattern produced, for a constant degree of endemism, shows some rapid, but not periodic, falls in diversity. These occur in the Middle Cambrian, at the end of the Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Cretaceous and Eocene, and in the Messinian. There is no recurring single cause for these falls.  相似文献   

Comparing tiltmeters for crustal deformation measurement--a preliminary report     

Wyatt F  Bilham R  Beavan J  Sylvester AG  Owen T  Harvey A  Macdonald C  Jackson DD  Agnew DC 《Geophysical research letters》1984,11(10):963-966

A collection of high-precision tiltmeters is being operated at Pinon Flat Observatory, southern California, both to compare instruments and to measure tectonic deformation. We report on 1.2 years of data from four of these: two Michelson-Gale long fluid tiltmeters, one long center-pressure tiltmeter, and a shallow borehole tiltmeter. The three long-base instruments are all located on the same baseline, with a precise leveling line running between their end-monuments. At nontidal frequencies, only the two Michelson-Gale instruments show some coherence (gamma 2 = .3 for periods of 2 to 4 days), while the center-pressure instrument is correlated with air temperature at periods from a few days to a few weeks. The most stable tilt record shows a secular rate of 0.28 mu rad/a, which may be real. Over much longer times, leveling to specially stabilized bench-marks should confirm this. Comparing instruments has identified more and less successful measurement techniques; it appears that low-noise data will most probably be produced only by relatively complex and expensive instruments, though even for these, the operating costs over any reasonable lifetime will exceed the capital cost. Even the best existing sensors must be improved to measure continuous tectonic motions.  相似文献   

A late-glacial transition from Picea glauca to Picea mariana in southern New England     

Matts Lindbladh  W. Wyatt Oswald  David R. Foster  Edward K. Faison  Juzhi Hou  Yongsong Huang 《Quaternary Research》2007,67(3):502-508

Picea is an important taxon in late-glacial pollen records from eastern North America, but little is known about which species of Picea were present. We apply a recently developed palynological method for discriminating the three Picea species in eastern North America to three records from New England. Picea glauca was dominant at  14,500–14,000 cal yr BP, followed by a transition to Picea mariana between  14,000 and 13,500 cal yr BP. Comparison of the pollen data with hydrogen isotope data shows clearly that this transition began before the beginning of the Younger Dryas Chronozone. The ecological changes of the late-glacial interval were not a simple oscillation in the position of a single species' range, but rather major changes in vegetation structure and composition occurring during an interval of variations in several environmental factors, including climate, edaphic conditions, and atmospheric CO₂ levels.  相似文献   

Methods for intercomparison of wave measurements     

Harald E. Krogstad  Judith Wolf  Stephen P. Thompson  Lucy R. Wyatt 《Coastal Engineering》1999,37(3-4)

The paper reviews methods for quality assessment and intercomparison of ocean wave data. The sampling variability for conventional time series recordings is summarized and compared to less common area measuring measurements. The sampling variability affects the scatter seen in simultaneous observations, and variability in excess of the sampling variability signifies real differences between the instruments. Various means of intercomparing wave parameters and spectra are discussed and two somewhat unconventional ways of deriving regression and calibration relationships are also shown. The methods are illustrated using data from SCAWVEX, focusing mainly on wave data from the HF radars and Directional Waveriders.  相似文献