Weathering process at the natural fission reactor of Bangombé     

G. Bracke  S. Salah  F. Gauthier-Lafaye 《Environmental Geology》2001,40(4-5):403-408

 The uranium deposits in the basin of Franceville (Gabon) host the only natural fission reactors known in the world. Unique geological conditions favoured a natural fission reaction 2 Ga ago. This was detected by anomalous isotopic compositions of uranium and rare earth elements (REE), which are produced by the fission reaction. In total, 16 reactor zones were found. Most of them are mined out. The reactor zone of Bangombé, is only 10–11 m below the surface. This site has been influenced by surface weathering processes. Six drill cores have been sampled at the site of the reactor zone of Bangombé during the course of the study and only one drill core (BAX 08) hit the core of the reactor. From these data and previous drilling campaigns, the reactor size is estimated to be 10 cm thick, 2–3 m wide and 4–6 m long. The migration of fission products can be traced by the anomalous isotope ratios of REE because of the fission process. The ¹⁴⁹Sm/¹⁴⁷Sm ratio close to the reactor zone is only 0.28 (normal: 0.92) because of the intense neutron capture of ¹⁴⁹Sm and subsequent transmutation, whereas ¹⁴⁷Sm is enriched by the fission reaction. Similar changes in isotopic patterns are detectable on other REE. The isotope ratios of Sm and Nd of whole rock and fracture samples surrounding the reactor indicate that fission-genic REE migrated only a few decimetres above and mainly below the reactor zone. Organic matter (bitumen) seems to act as a trap for fission-genic REE. Additional REE-patterns show less intense weathering with increasing depth in the log profile and support a simple weathering model. Received: 26 November 1999 · Accepted: 2 May 2000  相似文献   

Characterization of soil's structural crust by spectral reflectance in the SWIR region (1.2–2.5 μm)     

N. Goldshleger  E. Ben-Dor  Y. Benyamini  M. Agassi  & D. G. Blumberg 《地学学报》2001,13(1):12-17

Structural crust is a thin layer formed on the soil surface after a rainstorm. The crust is the result of a physical segregation and rearrangement of soil particles in a way that affects some of the soil properties, such as infiltration, runoff and soil erosion. In practice, there is no rapid, in situ method for monitoring, assessing and mapping crust intensity and quality. In this study, a controlled spectral investigation of the structural crust across the NIR–SWIR spectral region was conducted on three selected Israeli soils, to study the potential of reflectance radiation to detect structural crust in soils. Two major factors served as the driving forces for this study: (1) there is no valid method for in situ assessment of the crust's characteristics in the agriculture field, and (2) the crust might bias thematic remote sensing of soils, because the thin layer of crust blocks photon–matter interaction, which represents the relevant soil body. Through the use of a laboratory rainfall simulator and a sensitive spectrometer, it was revealed that for three selected soils, significant spectral differences occurred between the crust and its bulk soil. The spectral information was found to be related to changes in particle size distribution and texture at the surface of the soil. This conclusion was based on indications of absorption of OH in clay lattice, OH in adsorbed water and CO₃ in carbonates. It was concluded that the structural crust is a phenomenon that should not be ignored by remote-sensing users. In fact, in the field of agriculture, the spectral properties of crust can be used as tools for estimating the crust's intensity.  相似文献   

Microboudin structures of piemontite along the Sambagawa metamorphic belt, Japan: implications for lateral variation of differential stress during regional metamorphism     

T. Masuda  T. Shibutani  T. Ochiai  S. Akagi  H. Yamaguchi  Y. Kugimiya  N. Kimura  T. Miyake 《Journal of Metamorphic Geology》2004,22(3):199-205

Evidence is presented of a lateral variation in differential stress during metamorphism along a regional metamorphic belt on the basis of the proportion of microboudinaged piemontite grains (p) in a quartz matrix in metacherts. It is proposed that p is a practical indicator of relative differential stress. Analysis of 123 metacherts from the 800 km long Sambagawa metamorphic belt, Japan, reveals that p‐values range from < 0.01 to 0.7 in this region. Most samples from Wakayama in the mid‐belt area have p‐values of 0.4–0.6, whereas those from western Shikoku have p‐values of < 0.1. This difference cannot be explained by variations in metamorphic temperature, and is instead attributed to a regional, lateral variation in differential stress during metamorphism.  相似文献   

Optical and X-Ray Observations of the Symbiotic System Ag Draconis During Quiescence and Outburst     

Roberto F. Viotti  Rosario González-Riestra  Takashi Iijima  Stefano Bernabei  Riccardo Claudi  Jochen Greiner  Michael Friedjung  Vito Francesco Polcaro  Corinne Rossi 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2005,296(1-4):435-439

We review the main characteristics of the symbiotic system AG Draconis, with special emphasis on its optical and X-ray variations. We also discuss the X-ray to visual energy distribution during quiescence and outburst and describe our spectroscopic and X-ray observations during the 2003 outburst. Based on X-ray observations collected with the XMM–Newton Observatory, on INES data from the IUE satellite, and on optical spectra collected with the Asiago–Cima Ekar, Bologna–Loiano and La Palma–Galileo Italian telescopes.  相似文献   

Cosmic metal production and the mean metallicity of the Universe     

F. Calura  F. Matteucci 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2004,350(1):351-364

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Simultaneous operation of the Sea Beam multibeam echo-sounder andthe SeaMARC II bathymetric sidescan sonar system     

de Moustier  C. Lonsdale  P.F. Shor  A.N. 《Oceanic Engineering, IEEE Journal of》1990,15(2):84-94

An experiment aboard the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's RV Thomas Washington has demonstrated the seafloor mapping advantages to be derived from combining the high-resolution bathymetry of a multibeam echo-sounder with the sidescan acoustic imaging plus wide-swath bathymetry of a shallow-towed bathymetric sidescan sonar. To a void acoustic interference between the ship's 12-kHz Sea Beam multibeam echo-sounder and the 11-12-kHz SeaMARC II bathymetric sidescan sonar system during simultaneous operations, Sea Beam transmit cycles were scheduled around SeaMARC II timing events with a sound source synchronization unit originally developed for concurrent single-channel seismic, Sea Beam, and 3.5-kHz profile operations. The scheduling algorithm implemented for Sea Beam plus SeaMARC II operations is discussed, and the initial results showing their combined seafloor mapping capabilities are presented  相似文献   

X-shaped radio galaxies as observational evidence for the interaction of supermassive binary black holes and accretion disc at parsec scale     

F. K. Liu 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2004,347(4):1357-1369

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Simulations of a giant hybrid air shower detector     

B. R. Dawson  Y. Dai H.  P. Sommers  S. Yoshida 《Astroparticle Physics》1996,5(3-4):239-247

We have used Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the capabilities of a giant air shower observatory designed to detect showers initiated by cosmic rays with energies exceeding 10¹⁹ eV. The observatory is to consist of an array of detectors that will characterise the air shower at ground level, and optical detectors to measure the fluorescence light emitted by the shower in the atmosphere. Using these detectors together in a ‘hybrid’ configuration, we find that precise geometrical reconstruction of the shower axis is possible, leading to excellent resolution in energy. The technique is also shown to provide very good reconstruction below 10¹⁹ eV, at energies where the ground array is not fully efficient.  相似文献   

Current plate motions   总被引：57，自引：0，他引：57  

C. DeMets  R. G. Gordon  D. F. Argus  S. Stein 《Geophysical Journal International》1990,101(2):425-478

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Circumstellar Silicate Mineralogy     

A.G.G.M. Tielens  L.B.F.M. Waters  F.J. Molster  K. Justtanont 《Astrophysics and Space Science》1997,255(1-2):415-426

This paper reviews spectra obtained with the SWS on board of ISO of dust shells around O-rich objects. These spectra reveal the presence of many new emission features between 10 and 45 μm. These bands are generally much narrower than the well-known 10 and 20 μm silicates features. The strength of these features relative to the underlying broad continuum varies from source to source (≅ 5-50%). The 10 μm region shows evidence for the presence of Al2O3 grains. At longer wavelength, the spectra are dominated by features due to crystalline olivine and pyroxene. The exact peak position of these features shows that the emitting grains consist of the Mg-rich end-members of these minerals with an Fe-content of < 10%. The underlying continuum is attributed to amorphous silicate grains. These observations of aluminum-rich and magnesium-rich compounds compare well with the thermodynamic condensation sequence of minerals expected for O-rich outflows. The observations also imply that freeze out (ie., kinetics) of this condensation sequence at different temperatures is an important characteristic of dust formation in these objects. It is suggested that the absence of Fe-rich silicates is a natural consequence of the low temperature at which gaseous Fe reacts with Mg-rich silicates in these outflows, resulting in amorphous grains with little characterizing spectral detail. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献