Calculation of Oxygen Fugacity in High Pressure Metal-Silicate Experiments and Comparison to Standard Approaches

Calculation of oxygen fugacity in high pressure and temperature experiments in metal-silicate systems is usually approximated by the ratio of Fe in the metal and FeO in the silicate melt: (Delta)IW=2*log(X(sub Fe)/X(sub FeO)), where IW is the iron-wustite reference oxygen buffer. Although this is a quick and easy calculation to make, it has been applied to a huge variety of metallic (Fe- Ni-S-C-O-Si systems) and silicate liquids (SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2, FeO, MgO, CaO, Na2O, K2O systems). This approach has surely led to values that have little meaning, yet are applied with great confidence, for example, to a terrestrial mantle at "IW-2". Although fO2 can be circumvented in some cases by consideration of Fe-M distribution coefficient, these do not eliminate the effects of alloy or silicate liquid compositional variation, or the specific chemical effects of S in the silicate liquid, for example. In order to address the issue of what the actual value of fO2 is in any given experiment, we have calculated fO2 from the equilibria 2Fe (metal) + SiO2 (liq) + O2 = Fe2SiO4 (liq)

Characterization of mesostasis regions in lunar basalts: Understanding late-stage melt evolution and its influence on apatite formation

Recent studies geared toward understanding the volatile abundances of the lunar interior have focused on the volatile-bearing accessory mineral apatite. Translating measurements of volatile abundances in lunar apatite into the volatile inventory of the silicate melts from which they crystallized, and ultimately of the mantle source regions of lunar magmas, however, has proved more difficult than initially thought. In this contribution, we report a detailed characterization of mesostasis regions in four Apollo mare basalts (10044, 12064, 15058, and 70035) in order to ascertain the compositions of the melts from which apatite crystallized. The texture, modal mineralogy, and reconstructed bulk composition of these mesostasis regions vary greatly within and between samples. There is no clear relationship between bulk-rock basaltic composition and that of bulk-mesostasis regions, indicating that bulk-rock composition may have little influence on mesostasis compositions. The development of individual melt pockets, combined with the occurrence of silicate liquid immiscibility, exerts greater control on the composition and texture of mesostasis regions. In general, the reconstructed late-stage lunar melts have roughly andesitic to dacitic compositions with low alkali contents, displaying much higher SiO2 abundances than the bulk compositions of their host magmatic rocks. Relevant partition coefficients for apatite-melt volatile partitioning under lunar conditions should, therefore, be derived from experiments conducted using intermediate compositions instead of compositions representing mare basalts

Isentropic Melting Processes in the Mantle

Batch melting of ascending mantle can be approximated as an isentropic process, since on the time scale of melting heat flow into or out of source regions will typically be negligible and the process is slow enough to be close to reversible. Similarly, fractional fusion can be idealized as a series of incremental isentropic melting steps, although the entropy of the residue decreases in each step. Although actual melting processes (e.g., involving melt migration, diffusion, and convective boundary layers) must deviate to some extent from idealized isentropic conditions, modeling of mantle processes under the assumption of constant entropy is tractable from a thermodynamic perspective and leads to a number of insights. Here we present models of the productivity of isentropic pressure-release melting, consider the effect of solid-solid phase transitions on melting, and model deep crystal fractionation in ascending melts of the mantle

Discovery of Isotopes of the Transuranium Elements with 93 <= Z <= 98

One hundred and five isotopes of the transuranium elements neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium and californium have so far been observed; the discovery of these isotopes is discussed. For each isotope a brief summary of the first refereed publication, including the production and identification method, is presented.Comment: To be published in Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Table

Lava channel formation during the 2001 eruption on Mount Etna: evidence for mechanical erosion

We report the direct observation of a peculiar lava channel that was formed near the base of a parasitic cone during the 2001 eruption on Mount Etna. Erosive processes by flowing lava are commonly attributed to thermal erosion. However, field evidence strongly suggests that models of thermal erosion cannot explain the formation of this channel. Here, we put forward the idea that the essential erosion mechanism was abrasive wear. By applying a simple model from tribology we demonstrate that the available data agree favorably with our hypothesis. Consequently, we propose that erosional processes resembling the wear phenomena in glacial erosion are possible in a volcanic environment.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Discovery of the actinium, thorium, protactinium, and uranium isotopes

Currently, 31 actinium, 31 thorium, 28 protactinium, and 23 uranium isotopes have so far been observed; the discovery of these isotopes is discussed. For each isotope a brief summary of the first refereed publication, including the production and identification method, is presented.Comment: Accepted for publication in Atomic Data Nuclear Data Table

Microscopic Description of Super Heavy Nuclei

The results of extensive microscopic Relativistic Mean Field (RMF) calculations for the nuclei appearing in the alpha - decay chains of recently discovered superheavy elements with Z = 109 to 118 are presented and discussed. The calculated ground state properties like total binding energies, Q values, deformations, radii and densities closely agree with the corresponding experimental data, where available. The double folding (t-rho-rho) approximation is used to calculate the interaction potential between the daughter and the alpha, using RMF densities along with the density dependent nucleon - nucleon interaction (M3Y). This in turn, is employed within the WKB approximation to estimate the half lives without any additional parameter for alpha - decay. The half lives are highly sensitive to the Q values used and qualitatively agree with the corresponding experimental values. The use of experimental Q values in the WKB approximation improves the agreement with the experiment, indicating that the resulting interaction potential is reliable and can be used with confidence as the real part of the optical potential in other scattering and reaction processes.Comment: Accepted for publication in Annals of Physics (NY