Stability of methane clathrate hydrates under pressure: Influence on outgassing processes of methane on Titan     

Mathieu Choukroun  Olivier Grasset 《Icarus》2010,205(2):581-10437

We have conducted high-pressure experiments in the H₂O-CH₄ and H₂O-CH₄-NH₃ systems in order to investigate the stability of methane clathrate hydrates, with an optical sapphire-anvil cell coupled to a Raman spectrometer for sample characterization. The results obtained confirm that three factors determine the stability of methane clathrate hydrates: (1) the bulk methane content of the samples; (2) the presence of additional gas compounds such as nitrogen; (3) the concentration of ammonia in the aqueous solution. We show that ammonia has a strong effect on the stability of methane clathrates. For example, a 10 wt.% NH₃ solution decreases the dissociation temperature of methane clathrates by 14-25 K at pressures above 5 MPa. Then, we apply these new results to Titan’s conditions. Dissociation of methane clathrate hydrates and subsequent outgassing can only occur in Titan’s icy crust, in presence of locally large amounts of ammonia and in a warm context. We propose a model of cryomagma chamber within the crust that provides the required conditions for methane outgassing: emplacement of an ice plume triggers the melting (if solid) or heating (if liquid) of large ammonia-water pockets trapped at shallow depth, and the generated cryomagmas dissociate surrounding methane clathrate hydrates. We show that this model may allow for the outgassing of significant amounts of methane, which would be sufficient to maintain the presence of methane in Titan’s atmosphere for several tens of thousands of years after a large cryovolcanic event.  相似文献   

Improving the simulation of fine-resolution landscape changes by coupling top-down and bottom-up land use and cover changes rules     

Thomas Houet  Noémie Schaller  Mathieu Castets  Cédric Gaucherel 《International journal of geographical information science》2014,28(9):1848-1876

Modelling land use and cover changes (LUCC) at local and landscape scales simultaneously, in terms of composition and configuration, remains today highly challenging. Agricultural landscapes offer an illustrative context for this purpose. This article presents a modelling platform (DYPAL) able to simulate LUCC at both local (agricultural parcel, farm) and landscape levels by combining LUCC processes with an optimization algorithm. The efficiency of this approach is assessed by comparing it with an approach applying the same LUCC processes without optimization. Simulations have been developed for two representative case studies of temperate intensive agricultural mosaics: (1) neutral landscapes with simple and theoretical rules and (2) observed landscapes with realistic crop successions rules. Results show that this modelling platform improves the simulation of LUCC achieved at fine resolution, although not systematically. Improvements are observed when compared to theoretical farming practices. But, when compared with an observed landscape, it is true for one type of (arable) farms only. Several hypotheses are discussed, such as the fact that farmers possibly do not follow optimized rules. Finally, this study illustrates that the use of several indices is crucial to assess whether a simulated landscape is realistic or not, because it does not rely to the assessment of the predictive power of the model.  相似文献   

Simulation of the annual and diurnal cycles of rainfall over South Africa by a regional climate model     

Benjamin Pohl  Mathieu Rouault  Shouraseni Sen Roy 《Climate Dynamics》2014,43(7-8):2207-2226

The capability of a current state-of-the-art regional climate model for simulating the diurnal and annual cycles of rainfall over a complex subtropical region is documented here. Hourly rainfall is simulated over Southern Africa for 1998–2006 by the non-hydrostatic model weather research and forecasting (WRF), and compared to a network of 103 stations covering South Africa. We used five simulations, four of which consist of different parameterizations for atmospheric convection at a 0.5 × 0.5° resolution, performed to test the physic-dependency of the results. The fifth experiment uses explicit convection over tropical South Africa at a 1/30° resolution. WRF simulates realistic mean rainfall fields, albeit wet biases over tropical Africa. The model mean biases are strongly modulated by the convective scheme used for the simulations. The annual cycle of rainfall is well simulated over South Africa, mostly influenced by tropical summer rainfall except in the Western Cape region experiencing winter rainfall. The diurnal cycle shows a timing bias, with atmospheric convection occurring too early in the afternoon, and causing too abundant rainfall. This result, particularly true in summer over the northeastern part of the country, is weakly physic-dependent. Cloud-resolving simulations do not clearly reduce the diurnal cycle biases. In the end, the rainfall overestimations appear to be mostly imputable to the afternoon hours of the austral summer rainy season, i.e., the periods during which convective activity is intense over the region.  相似文献   

The challenge of dating early pleistocene fossil teeth by the combined uranium series–electron spin resonance method: the Venta Micena palaeontological site (Orce,Spain)     

Mathieu Duval  Christophe Falguères  Jean‐Jacques Bahain  Rainer Grün  Qingfeng Shao  Maxime Aubert  John Hellstrom  Jean‐Michel Dolo  Jordi Agusti  Bienvenido Martínez‐Navarro  Paul Palmqvist  Isidro Toro‐Moyano 《第四纪科学杂志》2011,26(6):603-615

The palaeontological site of Venta Micena (Orce, Andalusia, Spain) lies in the eastern sector of the Guadix–Baza basin, one of the best documented areas in Europe for Plio‐Pleistocene biostratigraphy. The combination of biochronological and palaeomagnetic results, combined with the radiometric data obtained for Atapuerca Sima del Elefante, indicated that the Venta Micena stratum was formed between the Jaramillo and Olduvai palaeomagnetic events, most likely between 1.22 and 1.77 Ma. Five fossil teeth from two outcrops (sites A and B) were selected to assess the potential of combined uranium series–electron spin resonance (US‐ESR) dating of Early Pleistocene sites. Although the US‐ESR results of the first outcrop showed a large scatter between the three teeth, the mean age of 1.37 ± 0.24 Ma can be considered a reasonable age estimate for Venta Micena. The mean ESR age of 0.62 ± 0.03 Ma obtained for site B seems to be a severe underestimation when compared with the independent age control. This underestimation is attributed to a relative recent U‐mobilization event that led to some U‐leaching. The results show that any ESR age calculations of old samples are extremely sensitive to variations in the measured ²³⁰Th/²³⁴U ratios in dental tissues. Although the results demonstrate that ESR can in principle be applied to Early Pleistocene sites, they also reveal the complexity of dating such old teeth. It is necessary to continue research in several directions, such as study of the behaviour of ESR signals in old teeth and understanding recent U‐mobilization processes, to improve the reliability of the combined US‐ESR dating method applied to Early Pleistocene times, a period for which the number of available numerical dating techniques is very limited. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Analyzing seismic imagery in the time–amplitude and time–frequency domains to determine fluid nature and migration pathways: A case study from the Queen Charlotte Basin,offshore British Columbia     

Mathieu J. Duchesne  E. Julie Halliday  J. Vaughn Barrie 《Journal of Applied Geophysics》2011,73(2):111-120

Combining time–amplitude and time–frequency information from seismic reflection data sets of different resolutions allows the analysis of anomalous reflections from very-shallow to great subsurface depths. Thus, it can enhance the imaging of subsurface features which have a frequency-dependent reflectivity such as gas. Analysing seismic data of different resolution in the time–amplitude and time–frequency domains is a powerful method to determine hydrocarbon migration pathways from deep reservoirs to the seafloor. This interpretation method has been applied to the formerly-glaciated offshore Queen Charlotte Basin hosting several seafloor pockmarks and mounds associated with the leakage of underlying hydrocarbon reservoirs. Low-frequency shadows observed in the time–frequency domain provide evidence of different resolutions that several anomalous reflection amplitudes may be attributed to the occurrence of gas. The seismic imagery shows that gas uses a fault to migrate from deep reservoirs included in Upper Mesozoic strata towards secondary reservoirs located along the fault plane into Neogene layers. Once gas reaches a porous cut-and-fill succession, migration changes from structurally- to stratigraphically-controlled before gas leaks through unconsolidated Quaternary sediments forming the shallow subsurface to eventually seep at the seafloor where pockmarks and carbonate mounds are formed.  相似文献   

Climate variability and trends in downscaled high-resolution simulations and projections over Metropolitan France   总被引：2，自引：1，他引：1  

Robert Vautard  Thomas Noël  Laurent Li  Mathieu Vrac  Eric Martin  Philippe Dandin  Julien Cattiaux  Sylvie Joussaume 《Climate Dynamics》2013,41(5-6):1419-1437

In order to fulfill the society demand for climate information at the spatial scale allowing impact studies, long-term high-resolution climate simulations are produced, over an area covering metropolitan France. One of the major goals of this article is to investigate whether such simulations appropriately simulate the spatial and temporal variability of the current climate, using two simulation chains. These start from the global IPSL-CM4 climate model, using two regional models (LMDz and MM5) at moderate resolution (15–20 km), followed with a statistical downscaling method in order to reach a target resolution of 8 km. The statistical downscaling technique includes a non-parametric method that corrects the distribution by using high-resolution analyses over France. First the uncorrected simulations are evaluated against a set of high-resolution analyses, with a focus on temperature and precipitation. Uncorrected downscaled temperatures suffer from a cold bias that is present in the global model as well. Precipitations biases have a season- and model-dependent behavior. Dynamical models overestimate rainfall but with different patterns and amplitude, but both have underestimations in the South-Eastern area (Cevennes mountains) in winter. A variance decomposition shows that uncorrected simulations fairly well capture observed variances from inter-annual to high-frequency intra-seasonal time scales. After correction, distributions match with analyses by construction, but it is shown that spatial coherence, persistence properties of warm, cold and dry episodes also match to a certain extent. Another aim of the article is to describe the changes for future climate obtained using these simulations under Scenario A1B. Results are presented on the changes between current and mid-term future (2021–2050) averages and variability over France. Interestingly, even though the same global climate model is used at the boundaries, regional climate change responses from the two models significantly differ.  相似文献   

3. Solar System Formation and Early Evolution: the First 100 Million Years     

Thierry Montmerle  Jean-Charles Augereau  Marc Chaussidon  Mathieu Gounelle  Bernard Marty  Alessandro Morbidelli 《Earth, Moon, and Planets》2006,98(1-4):39-95

The solar system, as we know it today, is about 4.5 billion years old. It is widely believed that it was essentially completed 100 million years after the formation of the Sun, which itself took less than 1 million years, although the exact chronology remains highly uncertain. For instance: which, of the giant planets or the terrestrial planets, formed first, and how? How did they acquire their mass? What was the early evolution of the “primitive solar nebula” (solar nebula for short)? What is its relation with the circumstellar disks that are ubiquitous around young low-mass stars today? Is it possible to define a “time zero” (t ₀), the epoch of the formation of the solar system? Is the solar system exceptional or common? This astronomical chapter focuses on the early stages, which determine in large part the subsequent evolution of the proto-solar system. This evolution is logarithmic, being very fast initially, then gradually slowing down. The chapter is thus divided in three parts: (1) The first million years: the stellar era. The dominant phase is the formation of the Sun in a stellar cluster, via accretion of material from a circumstellar disk, itself fed by a progressively vanishing circumstellar envelope. (2) The first 10 million years: the disk era. The dominant phase is the evolution and progressive disappearance of circumstellar disks around evolved young stars; planets will start to form at this stage. Important constraints on the solar nebula and on planet formation are drawn from the most primitive objects in the solar system, i.e., meteorites. (3) The first 100 million years: the “telluric” era. This phase is dominated by terrestrial (rocky) planet formation and differentiation, and the appearance of oceans and atmospheres.  相似文献   

Yearly and seasonal variations of low albedo surfaces on Mars in the OMEGA/MEx dataset: Constraints on aerosols properties and dust deposits     

Mathieu Vincendon  Y. Langevin  F. Poulet  A. Pommerol  M. Wolff  J.-P. Bibring  B. Gondet  D. Jouglet 《Icarus》2009,(2):395-405

The time variations of spectral properties of dark martian surface features are investigated using the OMEGA near-IR dataset. The analyzed period covers two Mars years, spanning from early 2004 to early 2008 (includes the 2007 global dust event). Radiative transfer modeling indicates that the apparent albedo variations of low to mid-latitude dark regions are consistent with those produced by the varying optical depth of atmospheric dust as measured simultaneously from the ground by the Mars Exploration Rovers. We observe only a few significant albedo changes that can be attributed to surface phenomena. They are small-scaled and located at the boundaries between bright and dark regions. We then investigate the variations of the mean particle size of aerosols using the evolution of the observed dark region spectra between 1 and 2.5 μm. Overall, we find that the observed changes in the spectral slope are consistent with a mean particle size of aerosols varying with time between 1 and 2 μm. Observations with different solar zenith angles make it possible to characterize the aerosol layer at different altitudes, revealing a decrease of the particle size of aerosols as altitude increases.  相似文献   

The Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect and Faraday rotation contributions of galaxy groups to the CMB angular power spectrum     

Hiroyuki Tashiro  Joseph Silk  Mathieu Langer  Naoshi Sugiyama 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2009,392(4):1421-1428

The Sunyaev–Zel'dovich (SZ) effect and the Faraday rotation from haloes are examined over a wide mass range, including gas condensation and magnetic field evolution. Contributions to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) angular power spectrum are evaluated for galaxy clusters, galaxy groups and galaxies. Smaller mass haloes are found to play a more important role than massive haloes for the B -mode polarization associated with the SZ CMB anisotropies. The B modes from the Faraday rotation dominate the secondary B modes caused by gravitational lensing at  ℓ > 3000  . Measurement of B -mode polarization in combination with the SZ power spectrum can potentially provide important constraints on intracluster magnetic field and gas evolution at early epochs.  相似文献   

Conflicting structural and geochronological data from the Ibituruna quartz-syenite (SE Brazil): Effect of protracted “hot” orogeny and slow cooling rate?     

Sylvain Petitgirard  Alain Vauchez  Marcos Egydio-Silva  Olivier Bruguier  Pierre Camps  Patrick Moni  Marly Babinski  Mathieu Mondou 《Tectonophysics》2009,477(3-4):174

The Ibituruna quartz-syenite was emplaced as a sill in the Ribeira-Araçuaí Neoproterozoic belt (Southeastern Brazil) during the last stages of the Gondwana supercontinent amalgamation. We have measured the Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS) in samples from the Ibituruna sill to unravel its magnetic fabric that is regarded as a proxy for its magmatic fabric. A large magnetic anisotropy, dominantly due to magnetite, and a consistent magnetic fabric have been determined over the entire Ibituruna massif. The magmatic foliation and lineation are strikingly parallel to the solid-state mylonitic foliation and lineation measured in the country-rock. Altogether, these observations suggest that the Ibituruna sill was emplaced during the high temperature (~ 750 °C) regional deformation and was deformed before full solidification coherently with its country-rock. Unexpectedly, geochronological data suggest a rather different conclusion. LA-ICP-MS and SHRIMP ages of zircons from the Ibituruna quartz-syenite are in the range 530–535 Ma and LA-ICP-MS ages of zircons and monazites from synkinematic leucocratic veins in the country-rocks suggest a crystallization at ~ 570–580 Ma, i.e., an HT deformation > 35My older than the emplacement of the Ibituruna quartz-syenite. Conclusions from the structural and the geochronological studies are therefore conflicting. A possible explanation arises from ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar thermochronology. We have dated amphiboles from the quartz-syenite, and amphiboles and biotites from the country-rock. Together with the ages of monazites and zircons in the country-rock, ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar mineral ages suggest a very low cooling rate: < 3 °C/My between 570 and ~ 500 Ma and ~ 5 °C/My between 500 and 460 Ma. Assuming a protracted regional deformation consistent over tens of My, under such stable thermal conditions the fabric and microstructure of deformed rocks may remain almost unchanged even if they underwent and recorded strain pulses separated by long periods of time. This may be a characteristic of slow cooling “hot orogens” that rocks deformed at significantly different periods during the orogeny, but under roughly unchanged temperature conditions, may display almost indiscernible microstructure and fabric.  相似文献