A comparison of the chemistry of pseudotachylyte breccias in the Archean Levack Gneisses of the Sudbury structure, Ontario

The Archean Levack Gneisses of the North Range host millimeter-thick veins and centimeter-thick lenses of pseudotachylyte, as well as substantially larger meter-wide, dykelike bodies of pseudotachylytic 'breccia'. The 'breccia' occurs up to several tens of kilometers away from the Sudbury Igneous Complex and is commonly sited within or near joints and other natural weaknesses such as bedding, dyke contacts, and lithological boundaries. The larger 'breccia' dykes comprise a generally dark matrix containing rounded to subrounded and occasionally angular rock fragments derived predominantly from Levack Gneiss. Selected samples of bulk Sudbury Breccia and Sudbury Breccia matrices were chemically analyzed and compared to existing data on the Levack Gneisses and Sudbury Breccia. The matrices are apparently enriched in Fe and, to a lesser extent, Mg, Ti, and Ca compared to the wallrocks and the majority of clasts. This enrichment can be partly explained by the preferential cataclasis and/or frictional melting of hydrous ferromagnesian wallrock minerals, but also appear to require contamination by more basic exotic lithologies. This suggests that certain components of pseudotachylitic Sudbury Breccia have undergone significant transport during their formation

LSE Festival 2021: planning for the next pandemic – three urgent priorities

Governments and businesses failed to prepare for a pandemic. It is vital they step up now to pre-empt the worst effects of the next one. Lucy Thompson (LSE) sets out three urgent priorities: better global co-ordination, health investment, and digital health services

LSE Festival 2021: where are all the women?

The UK government promised ‘everyone would play a crucial part’ in planning for life after the pandemic. Yet the Budget offered nothing on social care or childcare. Lucy Thompson (LSE) asks why an equal and fair recovery is not possible

What a successful Covid-19 vaccination campaign would look like

A COVID-19 vaccine appears to be the only way out of repeated lockdowns – yet in the UK and US, where trust in governments’ handling of the pandemic is already low, many people are minded to refuse it. Rebecca Forman and Lucy Thompson (LSE) set out what a proactive vaccination campaign would look like

Mellow Babies : a randomised feasibility trial of an intervention to improve the quality of parent-infant interactions and parental mental wellbeing

Acknowledgments: We are extremely grateful to the late Pam Sherriff for administrative support to the study, and to Gerry King, who worked as a research assistant to the study and no longer works in academic research. We are also most grateful to the Mellow Babies practitioners for helping facilitate the research.Peer reviewe

Why do so few Britons comply with a self-isolation order?

With only 11% of Britons thought to be self-isolating when told to, the new contact-tracing app may be less effective than hoped. Rebecca Forman and Lucy Thompson (LSE) says poor public messaging, the fear of losing jobs and wages, and problems with getting essentials are major reasons for failing to comply

How has the NHS been able to vaccinate Britons so quickly?

The UK’s vaccination programme has been a rare success during the pandemic. Lucy Thompson, Rebecca Forman and Elias Mossialos (LSE) explain why the NHS has been able to deliver jabs faster than any other European country