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
Leverrier's development of the indirect part of the disturbing function has been extended to include terms up to degree 4 in eccentricity and inclination; the resulting series has been expressed with respect to a fixed plane, and in a computer readable form (a list of integers). Tests have been performed for the relative significance of the terms of degrees 2, 3 and 4, and estimates have been obtained for the accuracy of the short periodic perturbations of a minor planet, and of the corresponding mean orbital elements. It was found that: (i) even in extreme cases, the indirect part of the disturbing function gives rise to very small short periodic perturbations; (ii) bodies of very high eccentricity/inclination and those close to mean motion resonances are most significantly affected; (iii) indirect perturbations for minor planets can be computed up to the degree 2 terms only, without any significant loss of accuracy; and (iv) higher degree indirect perturbations appear to be important only for their contribution to the long periodic effects of higher order (with respect to the perturbing mass). 相似文献
Low pressure partial melting of basanitic and ankaramitic dykes gave rise to unusual, zebra-like migmatites, in the contact aureole of a layered pyroxenite–gabbro intrusion, in the root zone of an ocean island (Basal Complex, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands). These migmatites are characterised by a dense network of closely spaced, millimetre-wide leucocratic segregations. Their mineralogy consists of plagioclase (An32–36), diopside, biotite, oxides (magnetite, ilmenite), +/− amphibole, dominated by plagioclase in the leucosome and diopside in the melanosome. The melanosome is almost completely recrystallised, with the preservation of large, relict igneous diopside phenocrysts in dyke centres. Comparison of whole-rock and mineral major- and trace-element data allowed us to assess the redistribution of elements between different mineral phases and generations during contact metamorphism and partial melting.
Dykes within and outside the thermal aureole behaved like closed chemical systems. Nevertheless, Zr, Hf, Y and REEs were internally redistributed, as deduced by comparing the trace element contents of the various diopside generations. Neocrystallised diopside – in the melanosome, leucosome and as epitaxial phenocryst rims – from the migmatite zone, are all enriched in Zr, Hf, Y and REEs compared to relict phenocrysts. This has been assigned to the liberation of trace elements on the breakdown of enriched primary minerals, kaersutite and sphene, on entering the thermal aureole. Major and trace element compositions of minerals in migmatite melanosomes and leucosomes are almost identical, pointing to a syn- or post-solidus reequilibration on the cooling of the migmatite terrain i.e. mineral–melt equilibria were reset to mineral–mineral equilibria. 相似文献