Transition, Integration and Convergence. The Case of Romania

This volume comprises several studies and papers published in the last decades. They have been selected and ranged so that to provide a minimum of coherence concerning the phases which Romania has crossed in her way to the advanced socio-economic system of European type: transition to the market economy, accession to the EU, the economic convergence in the three fundamental domains: institutions, real economy, and nominal economy. The readers may find in this volume a description of debates, difficulties and solutions adopted for building-up the market economy by a state being in a profound transformation from weak transition institutions towards hard democratic institutions. Because the transition to the market economy and the association of Romania with the EU and then the integration presenting strategic political decisions, I have included in this work two studies devoted to the political forces state and political parties that elaborated and applied these strategic decisions underlining their structure, role and function and their transformation. Integration into the EU of a country like Romania, which emerged from a different system comparing with the West-European one, has proved to be difficult and lasting many years because of the structural transformations. In five chapters I am referring to the essential characteristics of the integration process, such as: market liberalization, competitiveness of the local (national) firms on the national and EU markets, institutional reforms so that the institutions of candidate countries have to become compatible with those of the EU and finally the perspective assessment to find out the real and nominal convergence. Putting into practice the EU competitivity and cohesion principles, Romania has good prospects to close, in a reasonable time, the economic gap and to be admitted into the Euro Zone. Although the real convergence of Romania with the EU requires higher growth rates for the former, a new approach is compulsory to take into consideration the environment quality, the natural resources and the equity between the present and the future generations as natural resource consumers. Just these problems have determined me to include in this volume the last two chapters which, on the one hand, try to prove the necessity of the economy growth harmonization with the environment evolution as well as the saving of the energy resources, and, on the other hand, to point out the main ways to be followed and instruments to be used

Strontium isotope stratigraphy for Late Cretaceous time: Direct numerical calibration of the Sr isotope curve based on the US Western Interior

The 87Sr/86Sr of Sr in macrofossil carbonate from Upper Cretaceous strata deposited in the Western Interior Seaway, USA, provides a Sr-isotope curve for Late Cretaceous time (Cenomanian-Early Maastrichtian). The curve is calibrated biostratigraphically against the most refined ammonite zonation known for the interval, and calibrated numerically with 39Ar/40Ar dates for 20 bentonites within the sequence. Marine 87Sr/86Sr decreased from 0.70743 in the late Middle Cenomanian to a Late Cretaceous minimum of 0.70730 in the Late Turonian (89 Ma). From the minimum, 87Sr/86Sr increased through a Middle Campanian inflexion (minimum at 77 Ma, maximum at 78-80 Ma) to reach 0.70772 at the Campanian/Maastrichtian boundary. Thereafter 87Sr/86Sr increased through a very short inflexion in the latest Early Maastrichtian to the limit of our sampling in the earliest Late Maastrichtian. The inflexions provide global event markers for correlation. For most of the period covered by our curve resolution in dating and correlation of ≤0.8 Ma should be achievable with our 2 s.d. precision in measurement of ±18 × 10-6. Our 87Sr/86Sr data show no evidence of having been affected by influxes of freshwater into the US Western Interior Seaway from rivers, including those that drained the Sevier Orogenic Belt. © 1994

Strontium isotope stratigraphy for the Late Cretaceous: A new curve, based on the English Chalk

Marine 87Sr/ 86Sr decreases from 0.70775 in the Cenomanian to 0.70730 in the middle Turonian before increasing in a near-linear manner to >0.70775 in the early Maastrichtian. This variation has been defined using samples from the English Chalk that are closely integrated with the macrofossil and microfossil biostratigraphy of northwestern Europe. With this new isotope curve a stratigraphic resolution is attainable in correlation that is typically ±0.8 Ma for the Santonian and Campanian stages. Isotopic and biostratigraphic correlations between Dorset and Norfolk, in the UK, agree within the limit of analytical error in 87Sr/ 86Sr. © The Geological Society 1993

The petrogenesis of sodic island arc magmas at Savo volcano, Solomon Islands

Savo, Solomon Islands, is a historically active volcano dominated by sodic, alkaline lavas, and pyroclastic rocks with up to 7.5 wt% Na2O, and high Sr, arc-like trace element chemistry. The suite is dominated by mugearites (plagioclase–clinopyroxene–magnetite ± amphibole ± olivine) and trachytes (plagioclase–amphibole–magnetite ± biotite). The presence of hydrous minerals (amphibole, biotite) indicates relatively wet magmas. In such melts, plagioclase is relatively unstable relative to iron oxides and ferromagnesian silicates; it is the latter minerals (particularly hornblende) that dominate cumulate nodules at Savo and drive the chemical differentiation of the suite, with a limited role for plagioclase. This is potentially occurring in a crustal “hot zone”, with major chemical differentiation occurring at depth. Batches of magma ascend periodically, where they are subject to decompression, water saturation and further cooling, resulting in closed-system crystallisation of plagioclase, and ultimately the production of sodic, crystal and feldspar-rich, high-Sr rocks. The sodic and hydrous nature of the parental magmas is interpreted to be the result of partial melting of metasomatised mantle, but radiogenic isotope data (Pb, Sr, Nd) cannot uniquely identify the source of the metasomatic agent. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00410-009-0410-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users