Recommendations of RILEM TC 260-RSC for using superabsorbent polymers (SAP) for improving freeze–thaw resistance of cement-based materials

This recommendation is focused on application of superabsorbent polymers (SAP) for the improvement of the resistance of cement-based materials to freeze—thaw attack with or without deicing salts. A simple approach to the determination of the amount and properties of SAP as well as methods to verify SAP effectiveness for frost resistance protection are presented

Cumulate causes for the low contents of sulfide-loving elements in the continental crust

Despite the economic importance of chalcophile (sulfide-loving) and siderophile (metal-loving) elements (CSEs), it is unclear how they become enriched or depleted in the continental crust, compared with the oceanic crust. This is due in part to our limited understanding of the partitioning behaviour of the CSEs. Here I compile compositional data for mid-ocean ridge basalts and subduction-related volcanic rocks. I show that the mantle-derived melts that contribute to oceanic and continental crust formation rarely avoid sulfide saturation during cooling in the crust and, on average, subduction-zone magmas fractionate sulfide at the base of the continental crust prior to ascent. Differentiation of mantle-derived melts enriches lower crustal sulfide- and silicate-bearing cumulates in some CSEs compared with the upper crust. This storage predisposes the cumulate-hosted compatible CSEs (such as Cu and Au) to be recycled back into the mantle during subduction and delamination, resulting in their low contents in the bulk continental crust and potentially contributing to the scarcity of ore deposits in the upper continental crust. By contrast, differentiation causes the upper oceanic and continental crust to become enriched in incompatible CSEs (such as W) compared with the lower oceanic and continental crust. Consequently, incompatible CSEs are predisposed to become enriched in subduction-zone magmas that contribute to continental crust formation and are less susceptible to removal from the continental crust via delamination compared with the compatible CSEs

Prolonged mantle residence of zircons xenocrysts from the western Eger rift.

Zircon is a common mineral in continental crustal rocks. As it is not easily altered in processes such as erosion or transport, this mineral is often used in the reconstruction of geological processes such as the formation and evolution of the continents. Zircon can also survive under conditions of the Earth's mantle, and rare cases of zircons crystallizing in the mantle significantly before their entrainment into magma and eruption to the surface have been reported. Here we analyse the isotopic and trace element compositions of large zircons of gem quality from the Eger rift, Bohemian massif, and find that they are derived from the mantle.(U–Th)/He analyses suggest that the zircons as well as their host basalts erupted between 29 and 24 million years ago, but fragments from the same xenocrysts reveal U–Pb ages between 51 and 83 million years. We note a lack of older volcanism and of fragments from the lower crust, which suggests that crustal residence time before eruption is negligible and that most rock fragments found in similar basalts from adjacent volcanic fields equilibrated under mantle conditions. We conclude that a specific chemical environment in this part of the Earth's upper mantle allowed the zircons to remain intact for about 20–60 million years

Verwendung wasserdurchlaessiger Tragschichten im Bereich der Standspur unter Betonfahrbahndecken - technologische Untersuchungen. Verwendung wasserdurchlaessiger Tragschichten im Bereich der Standspur unter Betonfahrbahnen - Felduntersuchungen

Summary in EnglishAvailable from TIB Hannover: ZA 4681(694) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Survival times of anomalous melt inclusions from element diffusions in olivine and chromite

The chemical composition of basaltic magma erupted at the Earth's surface is the end product of a complex series of processes, beginning with partial melting and melt extraction from a mantle source and ending with fractional crystallization and crustal assimilation at lower pressures. It has been proposed that studying inclusions of melt trapped in early crystallizing phenocrysts such as Mg-rich olivine and chromite may help petrologists to see beyond the later-stage processes and back to the origin of the partial melts in the mantle(1,2). Melt inclusion suites often span a much greater compositional range than associated erupted lavas, and a significant minority of inclusions carry distinct compositions that have been claimed to sample melts from earlier stages of melt production, preserving separate contributions from mantle heterogeneities(1-4). This hypothesis is underpinned by the assumption that melt inclusions, once trapped, remain chemically isolated from the external magma for all elements except those that are compatible in the host minerals(1,2). Here we show that the fluxes of rare-earth elements through olivine and chromite by lattice diffusion are sufficiently rapid at magmatic temperatures to reequilibrate completely the rare-earth-element patterns of trapped melt inclusions in times that are short compared to those estimated for the production and ascent of mantle-derived magma(5,6) or for magma residence in the crust(7). Phenocryst-hosted melt inclusions with anomalous trace-element signatures must therefore form shortly before magma eruption and cooling. We conclude that the assumption of chemical isolation of incompatible elements in olivine- and chromite-hosted melt inclusions(1,2) is not valid, and we call for re-evaluation of the popular interpretation that anomalous melt inclusions represent preserved samples of unmodified mantle melts