Palladium, platinum, and gold distribution in serpentinite seamounts in the Mariana and Izu-Bonin forearcs: evidence from Leg 125 fluids and serpentinites

Palladium, platinum, and gold were analyzed for 20 interstitial water samples from Leg 125. No Pd or Pt was detected in fluids from serpentinite muds from Conical Seamount in the Mariana forearc, indicating that low-temperature seawater-peridotite interaction does not mobilize these elements into the serpentinizing fluids to levels above 0.10 parts per billion (ppb) in solution. However, Au may be mobilized in high pH solutions. In contrast, fluids from vitric-rich clays on the flanks of the Torishima Seamount in the Izu-Bonin forearc have Pd values of between 4.0 and 11.8 nmol/L, Pt values between 2.3 and 5.0 nmol/L and Au values between 126.9 and 1116.9 pmol/L. The precious metals are mobilized, and possibly adsorbed onto clay mineral surfaces, during diagenesis and burial of the volcanic-rich clays. Desorption during squeezing of the sediments may produce the enhanced precious metal concentrations in the analyzed fluids. The metals are mobilized in the fluids probably as neutral hydroxide, bisulfide, and ammonia complexes. Pt/Pd ratios are between 0.42 and 2.33, which is much lower than many of the potential sources for Pt and Pd but is consistent with the greater solubility of Pd compared with Pt in most natural low-temperature fluids

Palladium, platinum, and gold distribution in serpentinite seamounts in the Mariana and Izu-Bonin forearcs: evidence from Leg 125 fluids and serpentinites

Palladium, platinum, and gold were analyzed for 20 interstitial water samples from Leg 125. No Pd or Pt was detected in fluids from serpentinite muds from Conical Seamount in the Mariana forearc, indicating that low-temperature seawater-peridotite interaction does not mobilize these elements into the serpentinizing fluids to levels above 0.10 parts per billion (ppb) in solution. However, Au may be mobilized in high pH solutions. In contrast, fluids from vitric-rich clays on the flanks of the Torishima Seamount in the Izu-Bonin forearc have Pd values of between 4.0 and 11.8 nmol/L, Pt values between 2.3 and 5.0 nmol/L and Au values between 126.9 and 1116.9 pmol/L. The precious metals are mobilized, and possibly adsorbed onto clay mineral surfaces, during diagenesis and burial of the volcanic-rich clays. Desorption during squeezing of the sediments may produce the enhanced precious metal concentrations in the analyzed fluids. The metals are mobilized in the fluids probably as neutral hydroxide, bisulfide, and ammonia complexes. Pt/Pd ratios are between 0.42 and 2.33, which is much lower than many of the potential sources for Pt and Pd but is consistent with the greater solubility of Pd compared with Pt in most natural low-temperature fluids

Community-level response of coastal microbial biofilms to ocean acidification in a natural carbon dioxide vent ecosystem.

The version on PEARL: Corrected proofs are Articles in Press that contain the authors' corrections. Final citation details, e.g., volume/issue number, publication year and page numbers, still need to be added and the text might change before final publication. Although corrected proofs do not have all bibliographic details available yet, they can already be cited using the year of online publication and the DOI , as follows: author(s), article title, journal (year), DOIThe impacts of ocean acidification on coastal biofilms are poorly understood. Carbon dioxide vent areas provide an opportunity to make predictions about the impacts of ocean acidification. We compared biofilms that colonised glass slides in areas exposed to ambient and elevated levels of pCO(2) along a coastal pH gradient, with biofilms grown at ambient and reduced light levels. Biofilm production was highest under ambient light levels, but under both light regimes biofilm production was enhanced in seawater with high pCO(2). Uronic acids are a component of biofilms and increased significantly with high pCO(2). Bacteria and Eukarya denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis profile analysis showed clear differences in the structures of ambient and reduced light biofilm communities, and biofilms grown at high pCO(2) compared with ambient conditions. This study characterises biofilm response to natural seabed CO(2) seeps and provides a baseline understanding of how coastal ecosystems may respond to increased pCO(2) levels

Variational analysis for a generalized spiked harmonic oscillator

A variational analysis is presented for the generalized spiked harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian operator H, where H = -(d/dx)^2 + Bx^2+ A/x^2 + lambda/x^alpha, and alpha and lambda are real positive parameters. The formalism makes use of a basis provided by exact solutions of Schroedinger's equation for the Gol'dman and Krivchenkov Hamiltonian (alpha = 2), and the corresponding matrix elements that were previously found. For all the discrete eigenvalues the method provides bounds which improve as the dimension of the basis set is increased. Extension to the N-dimensional case in arbitrary angular-momentum subspaces is also presented. By minimizing over the free parameter A, we are able to reduce substantially the number of basis functions needed for a given accuracy.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur

Surprises in the suddenly-expanded infinite well

I study the time-evolution of a particle prepared in the ground state of an infinite well after the latter is suddenly expanded. It turns out that the probability density $|\Psi(x, t)|^{2}$ shows up quite a surprising behaviour: for definite times, {\it plateaux} appear for which $|\Psi(x, t)|^{2}$ is constant on finite intervals for $x$. Elements of theoretical explanation are given by analyzing the singular component of the second derivative $\partial_{xx}\Psi(x, t)$. Analytical closed expressions are obtained for some specific times, which easily allow to show that, at these times, the density organizes itself into regular patterns provided the size of the box in large enough; more, above some critical time-dependent size, the density patterns are independent of the expansion parameter. It is seen how the density at these times simply results from a construction game with definite rules acting on the pieces of the initial density.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figure

Gravitational radiation from nonaxisymmetric spherical Couette flow in a neutron star

The gravitational wave signal generated by global, nonaxisymmetric shear flows in a neutron star is calculated numerically by integrating the incompressible Navier--Stokes equation in a spherical, differentially rotating shell. At Reynolds numbers \Rey \gsim 3 \times 10^{3}, the laminar Stokes flow is unstable and helical, oscillating Taylor--G\"ortler vortices develop. The gravitational wave strain generated by the resulting kinetic-energy fluctuations is computed in both $+$ and $\times$ polarizations as a function of time. It is found that the signal-to-noise ratio for a coherent, $10^{8}$-{\rm s} integration with LIGO II scales as $6.5 (\Omega_*/10^{4} {\rm rad} {\rm s}^{-1})^{7/2}$ for a star at 1 {\rm kpc} with angular velocity $\Omega_*$. This should be regarded as a lower limit: it excludes pressure fluctuations, herringbone flows, Stuart vortices, and fully developed turbulence (for \Rey \gsim 10^{6}).Comment: (1) School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia. (2) Departamento de Fisica, Escuela de Ciencias,Universidad de Oriente, Cumana, Venezuela, (3) Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letter

Cluster-assisted accretion for massive stars

Gravitational interactions in very young high-density stellar clusters can to some degree change the angular momentum in the circumstellar discs surrounding initially the majority of stars. However, for most stars the cluster environment alters the angular momentum only slightly. For example, in simulations of the Orion Nebula cluster (ONC) encounters reduce the angular momentum of the discs on average at most by 3-5% and in the higher density region of the Trapezium %where encounters are more likely, the disc angular momentum is on average lowered by 15-20% - still a minor loss process. However, in this paper it is demonstrated that the situation is very different if one considers high-mass stars (M* > 10 M(solar) only. Assuming an age of 2 Myr for the ONC, their discs have on average a 50-90% lower angular momentum than primordially. This enormous loss in angular momentum in the disc should result in an equivalent increase in accretion, implying that the cluster environment boosts accretion for high-mass stars, thus %in the cluster center, making them even more massive.Comment: 10 pages including 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ