Chemical interaction of Fe and Al(2)O3 as a source of heterogeneity at the Earth's core-mantle boundary

Seismological studies have revealed that a complex texture or heterogeneity exists in the Earth's inner core and at the boundary between core and mantle. These studies highlight the importance of understanding the properties of iron when modelling the composition and dynamics of the core and the interaction of the core with the lowermost mantle. One of the main problems in inferring the composition of the lowermost mantle is our lack of knowledge of the high-pressure and high-temperature chemical reactions that occur between iron and the complex Mg-Fe-Si-Al-oxides which are thought to form the bulk of the Earth's lower mantle. A number of studies have demonstrated that iron can react with MgSiO3-perovskite at high pressures and high temperatures, and it was proposed that the chemical nature of this process involves the reduction of silicon by the more electropositive iron. Here we present a study of the interaction between iron and corundum (Al(2)O3) in electrically- and laser-heated diamond anvil cells at 2,000-2,200 K and pressures up to 70 GPa, simulating conditions in the Earth's deep interior. We found that at pressures above 60 GPa and temperatures of 2,200 K, iron and corundum react to form iron oxide and an iron-aluminium alloy. Our results demonstrate that iron is able to reduce aluminium out of oxides at core-mantle boundary conditions, which could provide an additional source of light elements in the Earth's core and produce significant heterogeneity at the core-mantle boundary.     

Seismological constraints on a possible plume root at the core-mantle boundary

Recent seismological discoveries have indicated that the Earth's core-mantle boundary is far more complex than a simple boundary between the molten outer core and the silicate mantle. Instead, its structural complexities probably rival those of the Earth's crust. Some regions of the lowermost mantle have been observed to have seismic wave speed reductions of at least 10 per cent, which appear not to be global in extent. Here we present robust evidence for an 8.5-km-thick and approximately 50-km-wide pocket of dense, partially molten material at the core-mantle boundary east of Australia. Array analyses of an anomalous precursor to the reflected seismic wave ScP reveal compressional and shear-wave velocity reductions of 8 and 25 per cent, respectively, and a 10 per cent increase in density of the partially molten aggregate. Seismological data are incompatible with a basal layer composed of pure melt, and thus require a mechanism to prevent downward percolation of dense melt within the layer. This may be possible by trapping of melt by cumulus crystal growth following melt drainage from an anomalously hot overlying region of the lowermost mantle. This magmatic evolution and the resulting cumulate structure seem to be associated with overlying thermal instabilities, and thus may mark a root zone of an upwelling plume.     

Seismic detection of folded, subducted lithosphere at the core-mantle boundary

Seismic tomography has been used to infer that some descending slabs of oceanic lithosphere plunge deep into the Earth's lower mantle. The fate of these slabs has remained unresolved, but it has been postulated that their ultimate destination is the lowermost few hundred kilometres of the mantle, known as the D' region. Relatively cold slab material may account for high seismic velocities imaged in D' beneath areas of long-lived plate subduction, and for reflections from a seismic velocity discontinuity just above the anomalously high wave speed regions. The D' discontinuity itself is probably the result of a phase change in relatively low-temperature magnesium silicate perovskite. Here, we present images of the D' region beneath the Cocos plate using Kirchhoff migration of horizontally polarized shear waves, and find a 100-km vertical step occurring over less than 100 km laterally in an otherwise flat D' shear velocity discontinuity. Folding and piling of a cold slab that has reached the core-mantle boundary, as observed in numerical and experimental models, can account for the step by a 100-km elevation of the post-perovskite phase boundary due to a 700 degrees C lateral temperature reduction in the folded slab. We detect localized low velocities at the edge of the slab material, which may result from upwellings caused by the slab laterally displacing a thin hot thermal boundary layer.     

Comet dust as a source of amino acids at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary

Large amounts of apparently extraterrestrial amino acids have been detected recently in rocks at the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary at Stevns Klint, Denmark. The amino acids were found a few tens of centimetres above and below the boundary layer, but were absent in the boundary clay itself. If one supposes that these compounds were carried to the Earth by the giant meteorite thought to have impacted at the end of the Cretaceous, some puzzling questions are raised: why weren't the amino acids incinerated in the impact, and why are they not present in the boundary clay itself? Here we suggest that the amino acids were actually deposited with the dust from a giant comet trapped in the inner Solar System, a fragment of which comprised the K/T impactor. Amino acids or their precursors in the comet dust would have been swept up by the Earth both before and after the impact, but any conveyed by the impactor itself would have been destroyed. The observed amino acid layers would thus have been deposited without an impact.     

Deposition of 1.88-billion-year-old iron formations as a consequence of rapid crustal growth

Iron formations are chemical sedimentary rocks comprising layers of iron-rich and silica-rich minerals whose deposition requires anoxic and iron-rich (ferruginous) sea water. Their demise after the rise in atmospheric oxygen by 2.32?billion years (Gyr) ago has been attributed to the removal of dissolved iron through progressive oxidation or sulphidation of the deep ocean. Therefore, a sudden return of voluminous iron formations nearly 500?million years later poses an apparent conundrum. Most late Palaeoproterozoic iron formations are about 1.88?Gyr old and occur in the Superior region of North America. Major iron formations are also preserved in Australia, but these were apparently deposited after the transition to a sulphidic ocean at 1.84?Gyr ago that should have terminated iron formation deposition, implying that they reflect local marine conditions. Here we date zircons in tuff layers to show that iron formations in the Frere Formation of Western Australia are about 1.88?Gyr old, indicating that the deposition of iron formations from two disparate cratons was coeval and probably reflects global ocean chemistry. The sudden reappearance of major iron formations at 1.88?Gyr ago--contemporaneous with peaks in global mafic-ultramafic magmatism, juvenile continental and oceanic crust formation, mantle depletion and volcanogenic massive sulphide formation--suggests deposition of iron formations as a consequence of major mantle activity and rapid crustal growth. Our findings support the idea that enhanced submarine volcanism and hydrothermal activity linked to a peak in mantle melting released large volumes of ferrous iron and other reductants that overwhelmed the sulphate and oxygen reservoirs of the ocean, decoupling atmospheric and seawater redox states, and causing the return of widespread ferruginous conditions. Iron formations formed on clastic-starved coastal shelves where dissolved iron upwelled and mixed with oxygenated surface water. The disappearance of iron formations after this event may reflect waning mafic-ultramafic magmatism and a diminished flux of hydrothermal iron relative to seawater oxidants.     

公式法与数值模拟法在水源地保护区划分中的应用——以北方地区水源地为例

2007年颁布的《饮用水水源保护区划分技术规范》中,提出运用公式法和数值模拟法两种方法对地下水水源地保护区进行划分。本文以北方地区水源地为例,分别应用两种方法对水源地保护区进行划分。通过对比与分析看出,公式法简便易行,但具有较强的主观性,划分结果与实际地质条件脱离较大;数值模拟法能客观详细地刻画实际含水层的结构与水文地质条件,划分结果比较可靠,但应用复杂,概化时也会产生一定的误差。在实际应用中,应将公式法和数值模拟法结合起来加以应用。     

Cooler winters as a possible cause of mass extinctions at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary

The Eocene/Oligocene boundary, at about 33.7 Myr ago, marks one of the largest extinctions of marine invertebrates in the Cenozoic period. For example, turnover of mollusc species in the US Gulf coastal plain was over 90% at this time. A temperature change across this boundary--from warm Eocene climates to cooler conditions in the Oligocene--has been suggested as a cause of this extinction event, but climate reconstructions have not provided support for this hypothesis. Here we report stable oxygen isotope measurements of aragonite in fish otoliths--ear stones--collected across the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. Palaeo-temperatures reconstructed from mean otolith oxygen isotope values show little change through this interval, in agreement with previous studies. From incremental microsampling of otoliths, however, we can resolve the seasonal variation in temperature, recorded as the otoliths continue to accrete new material over the life of the fish. These seasonal data suggest that winters became about 4 degrees C colder across the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. We suggest that temperature variability, rather than change in mean annual temperature, helped to cause faunal turnover during this transition.     

Io as a source of the jovian dust streams

Streams of dust emerging from the direction of Jupiter were discovered in 1992 during the flyby of the Ulysses spacecraft, but their precise origin within the jovian system remained unclear. Further data collected by the Galileo spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since December 1995, identified the possible sources of dust as Jupiter's main ring, its gossamer ring, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (ref. 8) and Io. All but Jupiter's gossamer ring and Io have since been ruled out. Here we find that the dominant source of the jovian dust streams is Io, on the basis of periodicities in the dust impact signal. Io's volcanoes, rather than impact ejecta, are the dust sources.     

低温对固体碳源填充床反硝化的影响

为固体碳源反硝化工艺的实际应用提供理论和技术参数,采用一种淀粉基类的可生物降解聚合物作为反硝化微生物的固体碳源和生物膜载体反硝化脱氮,主要考察了低温对填充床反硝化性能的影响.试验结果表明: 8～10℃的低温下,进水硝酸氮浓度在60～80 mg·L-1之间时,反硝化速率为2.5～4.5 mg·(L·h)-1, 去除率低于20%, 均比常温下有明显的降低;在水力负荷9～12 cm·h-1之间时,反硝化速率与水力负荷成正比;在10～15 ℃范围内,温度对反硝化率的影响比常温时要大,温度常数K=0.046.     

基于分布源边界点法的新型近场声全息技术

文章提出采用分布源边界点法作为近场声全息变换算法,建立了基于分布源边界点法的新型近场声全息理论,该方法避开了采用边界元法时所存在的复杂的变量插值、奇异积分的处理、特征波数处解的非唯一性处理等问题,具有计算速度快、计算精度高、计算稳定性好等优点;针对重建结果对测量误差的高度敏感性,提出采用Tikhonov正则化方法稳定重建过程,抑制了重建误差的影响;提出新型的半自由声场全息重建和预测方法,解决了存在地面反射的声场的全息重建问题,对音箱源的研究验证了文中方法的可行性和正确性。     

Dolochar as a reductant in the reduction roasting of iron ore slimes

The present investigation examines the viability of dolochar, a sponge iron industry waste material, as a reductant in the reduction roasting of iron ore slimes, which are another waste generated by iron ore beneficiation plants. Under statistically determined optimum conditions, which include a temperature of 900℃, a reductant-to-feed mass ratio of 0.35, and a reduction time of 30-45 min, the roasted mass, after being subjected to low-intensity magnetic separation, yielded an iron ore concentrate of approximately 64wt% Fe at a mass recovery of approximately 71% from the feed iron ore slime assaying 56.2wt% Fe. X-ray diffraction analyses indicated that the magnetic products contain magnetite and hematite as the major phases, whereas the nonmagnetic fractions contain quartz and hematite.     

反应堆中子边缘增强效应成像初步研究

中子边缘增强效应是近年来发展的基于中子波动性的新型中子成像技术.相较于传统的中子照相技术利用样品中不同元素对中子衰减能力的差别来得到样品内部的结构潜像,边缘增强效应成像利用中子射线穿过物体时各种元素对中子的折射率不同来反映物体的内部结构.为研究中子边缘增强效应成像的实际工业应用可行性,通过数值模拟方法分析了边缘增强效应的产生过程,并基于反应堆进行了不同条件下的多色热中子边缘增强效应成像实验.模拟与实验结果表明在适当准直比条件下,铝材料边缘将出现明显的边缘增强效应,该效应与准直比、样品与转换屏之间的距离密切相关.