1,721,011 research outputs found

    Cohenite, native iron and troilite inclusions in garnets from polycrystalline diamond aggregates

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    Syngenetic garnet of eclogitic/pyroxenitic composition included in a polycrystalline diamond aggregate from the Venetia kimberlite, Limpopo Belt, South Africa shows multiple inclusions of spherules consisting of 61+/-5 vol% Fe3C (cohenite), 30+/-2 vol% Fe-Ni and 9+/-3 vol% FeS (troilite). Troilite forms shells around the native iron-cohenite assemblage, implying that both compositions were immiscible melts and were trapped rapidly by the silicate. It is proposed that this polycrystalline diamond-silicate-metallic spherule assemblage formed in very local pressure and fO(2) conditions in cracks at the base of the subcratonic lithosphere from a C-H-O fluid that reacted with surrounding silicate at about 1,300-1,400 degreesC. In a mantle fluid consisting of CH4>H2O>H-2 near fO(2)=IW, the H-2 activity increases rapidly when carbon from the fluid is consumed by diamond precipitation, driving the oxygen fugacity of the system to lower values along the diamond saturation curve. Water from the fluid induces melting of surrounding silicate material, and hydrogen reduces metals in the silicate melt, reflected by an unusually low Ni content of the garnet. The carbon isotopic composition of delta(13)C=-13.69parts per thousand (PDB) and the lack of nitrogen as an impurity is consistent with formation of the diamond from non-biogenic methane, whereas delta(18)O=7.4parts per thousand (SMOW) of the garnet implies derivation of the silicate from subduction-related material. Hence, very localized and transient reducing conditions within the subcratonic lithosphere can be created by this process and do not necessarily call for involvement of fluids derived from subducted material of biogenic origin

    A comparison of angiographic CT and multisection CT in lumbar myelographic imaging

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    BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The purpose of this work was to provide an intraindividual comparison of angiographic CT (ACT) and multisection CT (MSCT) in lumbar myelographic imaging and to evaluate possible benefits of ACT, which is a further development of rotational angiography providing image data of high spatial and CT-like contrast resolution. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 26 patients with degenerative lumbar spine disease a lumbar ACT was performed in combination with conventional lumbar myelography and followed by postmyelographic. MSCT. Conventional lumbar myelography and lumbar ACT were performed with a flat panel detector-equipped angiographic device. Postmyelographic MSCT was performed with a 16-section CT scanner. Three experienced neuroradiologists rated anonymized sets of multiplanar reformatted CT and ACT images regarding diagnostic and technical parameters. The ratings were repeated after 2 months. Weighted K Statistics were calculated to describe the levels of intraobserver and interobserver agreement. RESULTS: The analysis shows that MSCT achieves higher ratings than ACT in all of the parameters asked. An adequate diagnostic quality was only assigned to 80% of the ACT acquisitions compared with 97% of the MSCT acquisitions. All of the mean K values were above 0.60, demonstrating a substantial intraobserver and interobserver agreement for MSCT, as well as for ACT. CONCLUSION: Using ACT, radiographic myelography and myelographic CT can be performed at the same imaging system. However, the results of our study show that the current myelographic ACT image quality fails to apply diagnostic standards. We, therefore, cannot recommend ACT as a general alternative to postmyelographic MSCT

    Element substitution by living organisms: The case of manganese in mollusc shell aragonite

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    Determining the manganese concentration in shells of freshwater bivalves provides a unique way to obtain information about climate and environmental changes during time-intervals that pre-date instrumental data records. This approach, however, relies on a thorough understanding of how manganese is incorporated into the shell material-a point that remained controversial so far. Here we clarify this issue, using state-of-the-art X-ray absorption and X-ray emission spectroscopy in combination with band structure calculations. We verify that in the shells of all studied species manganese is incorporated as high-spin Mn 2+, i.e. manganese always has the same valence as calcium. More importantly, the unique chemical sensitivity of valence-to-core X-ray emission enables us to show that manganese is always coordinated by a CO 3-octahedron. This, firstly, provides firm experimental evidence for manganese being primarily located in the inorganic carbonate. Secondly, it indicates that the structure of the aragonitic host is locally altered such that manganese attains an octahedral, calcitic coordination. This modification at the atomic level enables the bivalve to accommodate many orders of magnitude more manganese in its aragonitic shell than found in any non-biogenic aragonite. This outstanding feature is most likely facilitated through the non-classical crystallization pathway of bivalve shells.Fil: Soldati, Analía Leticia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Johannes Gutenberg-Universität; Alemania. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Jacob, Dorrit E.. Macquarie University; AustraliaFil: Glatzel, Pieter. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility; FranciaFil: Swarbrick, Janine C.. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility; FranciaFil: Geck, Jochen. Paris Lodron University Salzburg; Austri

    Long-term simulation of Indonesian rainfall with the MPI regional model

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    Simulations of the Indonesian rainfall variability using the Max Planck Institute regional climate model REMO have been performed using three different lateral boundary forcings: Reanalyses from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ERA15), the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NRA) as well as from ECHAM4 climate model simulation. The result of those simulations are compared to station data. REMO simulations were performed at 0.5degrees horizontal resolution for the whole archipelago and at 1/6degrees for Sulawesi Island. In general the REMO model, reproduces the spatial pattern of monthly and seasonal rainfall well over land, but overestimates the rainfall over sea. Superiority of REMO performance over land is due to a high-resolution orography, while over sea, REMO suffers from erroneously low surface fluxes. REMO reproduces variability during El Nino-Southern Oscillations years well but fails to show a good (wet and dry) monsoon contrast. Despite strong influences of the lateral boundary fields, REMO shows a realistic improvement of a local phenomenon over Molucca. Significant improvement for the step from the relatively high global 1.125degrees to 0.5degrees resolution is noticeable, but not from 0.5degrees into 1/6degrees. The REMO simulation driven by ERA15 has the best quality, followed by NRA and ECHAM4 driven simulations. The quality of ERA15 is the main factor determining the quality of REMO simulations. A predictability study shows small internal variability among ensemble members. However, there are systematic intrinsic climatological errors as shown in the predictability analysis. These intrinsic errors have monthly, seasonal and regional dependencies and the one over Java is significantly large. The intrinsic error study suggests the presence of the spring predictability barrier and a high level of predictability in summe

    Nano-inclusion suite and high resolution micro-computed-tomography of polycrystalline diamond (framesite) from Orapa, Botswana

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    A single polycrystalline diamond aggregate from the Orapa kimberlite (Botswana) contains a syngenetic micro- and nano-inclusion suite of magnetite, pyrrhotite, omphacite, garnet, rutile and C-O-H fluid in order of abundance. This suite of inclusions is distinctly different from those in fibrous diamonds, although the presence of sub-micrometer fluid inclusions provides evidence for a similarly important role of fluids in the genesis of polycrystalline diamond. It is the first study of polycrystalline diamond by High resolution mu-CT (Computed Tomography) reaching a resolution of 1.3 mu m using polychromatic X-rays. Combined with Focused Ion Beam assisted Transmission Electron Microscopy the method reveals epigenetic replacement coatings of hematite and late stage sheet silicates around the magnetites showing that magnetites are often (but not always) interstitial to the diamond and, thus, were open to late stage overprinting. It is proposed that the polycrystalline diamond formed by a redox reaction between a small-scale carbonatitic melt and a sulfide-bearing eclogite. The water released from the melt during diamond precipitation fluxed local melting of the surrounding eclogite, and oxidation of sulfide phases to magnetite, which mingled with the carbonatitic melt and (re-)precipitated locally. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Multi-stage Ag–Bi–Co–Ni–U and Cu–Bi vein mineralization at Wittichen, Schwarzwald, SW Germany: geological setting, ore mineralogy, and fluid evolution

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    The Wittichen Co-Ag-Bi-U mining area (Schwarzwald ore district, SW Germany) hosts several unconformity-related vein-type mineralizations within Variscan leucogranite and Permian to Triassic redbeds. The multistage mineralization formed at the intersection of two fault systems in the last 250 Ma. A Permo-Triassic ore stage I with minor U-Bi-quartz-fluorite mineralization is followed by a Jurassic to Cretaceous ore stage II with the main Ag and Co mineralization consisting of several generations of gangue minerals that host the sub-stages of U-Bi, Bi-Ag, Ni-As-Bi and Co-As-Bi. Important ore minerals are native elements, Co and Ni arsenides, and pitchblende; sulphides are absent. The Miocene ore stage III comprises barite with the Cu-Bi sulfosalts emplectite, wittichenite and aikinite, and the sulphides anilite and djurleite besides native Bi, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena and tennantite. The mineral-forming fluid system changed from low salinity (< 5 wt.% NaCl) at high temperature (around 300A degrees C) in Permian to highly saline (around 25 wt.% NaCl + CaCl2) at lower temperatures (50-150A degrees C) in Triassic to Cretaceous times. Thermodynamic calculations and comparison with similar mineralizations worldwide show that the Mesozoic ore-forming fluid was alkaline with redox conditions above the hematite-magnetite buffer. We suggest that the precipitation mechanism for native elements, pitchblende and arsenides is a decrease in pH during fluid mixing processes. REE patterns in fluorite and the occurrence of Bi in all stages suggest a granitic source of some ore-forming elements, whereas, e.g. Ag, Co and Ni probably have been leached from the redbeds. The greater importance of Cu and isotope data indicates that the Miocene ore stage III is more influenced by fluids from the overlying redbeds and limestones than the earlier mineralization stages.Alfried-Krupp foundatio
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