Relationships between hornblende K-Ar ages, chemical composition and hydrogen isotopes, Connemara, western Ireland: evidence for a massive extinct hydrothermal system

Major element compositional analyses, K-Ar ages, deltaD parts per thousand and delta O-18 parts per thousand values for 30 zoned and unzoned hornblendes from Dalradian amphibolites and metagabbros. mostly in north Connemara are reported. Although the cooling ages are expected from previous U-Pb zircon studies to be c. 475-450 Ma the results obtained are from 556 +/- 6 to 410 +/- 9 Ma with an average of 470 Ma. Fluid movements. probably at 275 +/- 15 degreesC, i.e. much below Ar closure temperature for hornblende. erratically reset the ages, as is shown by a negative correlation of hornblende deltaD and age and a wide scatter of ages even within 2 m. The changes were implemented by deltaD exchange between fluid and hornblendes in which ionic porosity. Z, influenced the loss of Ar and possibly its gain from the fluid to give the excess Ar found in some samples. Z is controlled by hornblende chemical composition. High Mg, Si and Mg/Fe and low Fe, Al, Ti, Na and particularly low K, amphiboles giving low Z values retained Ar more firmly and gained Ar more readily than compositions which had higher Z values, which gave younger ages. These range down to c, 400 Ma. being the age of the intrusion of the Galway Granite suite that initiated the fluid circulation. The scatter of ages is a consequence of incomplete equilibration, mainly because of the slow deltaD exchange rate below 350 degreesC and partly because the fluid permeated erratically in different areas and down cracks of all kinds, promoting irregular Ar movement. The meteoric fluid circulated through Connemara. the Galway Granite and at least some of the contiguous Silurian sediments of the South Mayo trough. These overlying sediments may have contributed to the water circulated in north Connemara which was slightly less negative deltaD than in central Connemara. For hornblende K-Ar ages to be a reliable measure of times of uplift and cooling, they need to be demonstrated to be free from the influence of hot fluids by showing no correlation of age with deltaD

Atmospheric Heating and Wind Acceleration: Results for Cool Evolved Stars based on Proposed Processes

A chromosphere is a universal attribute of stars of spectral type later than ~F5. Evolved (K and M) giants and supergiants (including the zeta Aurigae binaries) show extended and highly turbulent chromospheres, which develop into slow massive winds. The associated continuous mass loss has a significant impact on stellar evolution, and thence on the chemical evolution of galaxies. Yet despite the fundamental importance of those winds in astrophysics, the question of their origin(s) remains unsolved. What sources heat a chromosphere? What is the role of the chromosphere in the formation of stellar winds? This chapter provides a review of the observational requirements and theoretical approaches for modeling chromospheric heating and the acceleration of winds in single cool, evolved stars and in eclipsing binary stars, including physical models that have recently been proposed. It describes the successes that have been achieved so far by invoking acoustic and MHD waves to provide a physical description of plasma heating and wind acceleration, and discusses the challenges that still remain.Comment: 46 pages, 9 figures, 1 table; modified and unedited manuscript; accepted version to appear in: Giants of Eclipse, eds. E. Griffin and T. Ake (Berlin: Springer

Fractal Reconnection in Solar and Stellar Environments

Recent space based observations of the Sun revealed that magnetic reconnection is ubiquitous in the solar atmosphere, ranging from small scale reconnection (observed as nanoflares) to large scale one (observed as long duration flares or giant arcades). Often the magnetic reconnection events are associated with mass ejections or jets, which seem to be closely related to multiple plasmoid ejections from fractal current sheet. The bursty radio and hard X-ray emissions from flares also suggest the fractal reconnection and associated particle acceleration. We shall discuss recent observations and theories related to the plasmoid-induced-reconnection and the fractal reconnection in solar flares, and their implication to reconnection physics and particle acceleration. Recent findings of many superflares on solar type stars that has extended the applicability of the fractal reconnection model of solar flares to much a wider parameter space suitable for stellar flares are also discussed.Comment: Invited chapter to appear in "Magnetic Reconnection: Concepts and Applications", Springer-Verlag, W. D. Gonzalez and E. N. Parker, eds. (2016), 33 pages, 18 figure

"Named Amphiboles": a new catergory of amphiboles recognized by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA), and the proper order of perefixes to be used in amphibole names.

A new category of "named amphiboles" whose names can be published without previous approval by the IMA-CNMMN, is now recognized by the IMA-CNMMN, so long as the names agree with the IMA-CNMMN-approved system of amphibole nomenclature. Generally there will be only a chemical composition and monoclinic or orthorhombic symmetry known. These are not new amphibole species and the criteria for recognition by the IMA-CNMMN of new amphibole species remain unchanged. In addition, for the first time, the sequence order in which prefixes appear in amphibole names, whether in species or in "named amphiboles," is defined and applies immediately