Crustal and basin evolution of the southwestern Barents Sea: from Caledonian orogeny to continental breakup

A new generation of aeromagnetic data documents the post-Caledonide rift evolution of the southwestern Barents Sea (SWBS) from the Norwegian mainland up to the continent-ocean transition. We propose a geological and tectonic scenario of the SWBS in which the Caledonian nappes and thrust sheets, well-constrained onshore, swing from a NE-SW trend onshore Norway to NW-SE/NNW-SSE across the SWBS platform area. On the Finnmark and Bjarmeland platforms, the dominant inherited magnetic basement pattern may also reflect the regional and post-Caledonian development of the late Paleozoic basins. Farther west, the pre-breakup rift system is characterized by the Loppa and Stappen Highs, which are interpreted as a series of rigid continental blocks (ribbons) poorly thinned as compared to the adjacent grabens and sag basins. As part of the complex western rift system, the Bjørnøya Basin is interpreted as a propagating system of highly thinned crust, which aborted in late Mesozoic time. This thick Cretaceous sag basin is underlain by a deep-seated high-density body, interpreted as exhumed high-grade metamorphic lower crust. The abortion of this propagating basin coincides with a migration and complete reorganization of the crustal extension toward a second necking zone defined at the level of the western volcanic sheared margin and proto-breakup axis. The abortion of the Bjørnøya Basin may be partly explained by its trend oblique to the regional, inherited, structural grain, revealed by the new aeromagnetic compilation, and by the onset of further weakening later sustained by the onset of magmatism to the west

Excitation energy transfer in chlorosomes of green bacteria: theoretical and experimental studies.

A theory of excitation energy transfer within the chlorosomal antennae of green bacteria has been developed for an exciton model of aggregation of bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) c (d or e). This model of six exciton-coupled BChl chains with low packing density, approximating that in vivo, and interchain distances of approximately 2 nm was generated to yield the key spectral features found in natural antennae, i.e., the exciton level structure revealed by spectral hole burning experiments and polarization of all the levels parallel to the long axis of the chlorosome. With picosecond fluorescence spectroscopy it was demonstrated that the theory explains the antenna-size-dependent kinetics of fluorescence decay in chlorosomal antenna, measured for intact cells of different cultures of the green bacterium C. aurantiacus, with different chlorosomal antenna size determined by electron microscopic examination of the ultrathin sections of the cells. The data suggest a possible mechanism of excitation energy transfer within the chlorosome that implies the formation of a cylindrical exciton, delocalized over a tubular aggregate of BChl c chains, and Forster-type transfer of such a cylindrical exciton between the nearest tubular BChl c aggregates as well as to BChl a of the baseplate

Energy transfer in ethane-bisporphyrins studied by fluorescence line narrowing and spectral hole burning

The quasi-line fluorescence excitation spectrum of 1,2-bis (2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octaethyl-21H,23 H-porphino) ethane at 4.8 K consists of two subbands with the splitting mean value of 51cm⁻¹, that are ascribed to the donor and the acceptor half of the homodimer. The donor's fluorescence is quenched by an efficient energy transfer to the acceptor. The energy transfer rate of 10¹¹ s⁻¹, determined by spectral hole burning, has been compared with the calculated value and a conclusion of nonconsistency with the Forster energy transfer mechanism has been drawn

Energy transfer in ethane-bisporphyrins studied by fluorescence line narrowing and spectral hole burning

The quasi-line fluorescence excitation spectrum of 1,2-bis (2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octaethyl-21H,23 H-porphino) ethane at 4.8 K consists of two subbands with the splitting mean value of 51cm⁻¹, that are ascribed to the donor and the acceptor half of the homodimer. The donor's fluorescence is quenched by an efficient energy transfer to the acceptor. The energy transfer rate of 10¹¹ s⁻¹, determined by spectral hole burning, has been compared with the calculated value and a conclusion of nonconsistency with the Forster energy transfer mechanism has been drawn