The late Mesozoic-Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the South China Sea: A petrologic perspective

This paper presents a review of available petrological, geochonological and geochemical data for late Mesozoic to Recent igneous rocks in the South China Sea (SCS) and adjacent regions and a discussion of their petrogeneses and tectonic implications. The integration of these data with available geophysical and other geologic information led to the following tectono-magmatic model for the evolution of the SCS region. The geochemical characteristics of late Mesozoic granitic rocks in the Pearl River Mouth Basin (PRMB), micro-blocks in the SCS, the offshore continental shelf and Dalat zone in southern Vietnam, and the Schwaner Mountains in West Kalimantan, Borneo indicate that these are mainly I-type granites plus a small amount of S-type granites in the PRMB. These granitoids were formed in a continental arc tectonic setting, consistent with the ideas proposed by Holloway (1982) and Taylor and Hayes (1980, 1983), that there existed an Andean-type volcanic arc during later Mesozoic era in the SCS region. The geochonological and geochemical characteristics of the volcanics indicate an early period of bimodal volcanism (60-43. Ma or 32. Ma) at the northern margin of the SCS, followed by a period of relatively passive style volcanism during Cenozoic seafloor spreading (37 or 30-16. Ma) within the SCS, and post-spreading volcanism (tholeiitic series at 17-8. Ma, followed by alkali series from 8. Ma to present) in the entire SCS region. The geodynamic setting of the earlier volcanics was an extensional regime, which resulted from the collision between India and Eurasian plates since the earliest Cenozoic, and that of the post-spreading volcanics may be related to mantle plume magmatism in Hainan Island. In addition, the nascent Hainan plume may have played a significant role in the extension along the northern margin and seafloor spreading in the SCS. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

Four Variations on Graded Posets

We explore the enumeration of some natural classes of graded posets, including all graded posets, (2+2)- and (3+1)-avoiding graded posets, (2+2)-avoiding graded posets, and (3+1)-avoiding graded posets. We obtain enumerative and structural theorems for all of them. Along the way, we discuss a situation when we can switch between enumeration of labeled and unlabeled objects with ease, generalize a result of Postnikov and Stanley from the theory of hyperplane arrangements, answer a question posed by Stanley, and see an old result of Klarner in a new light.Comment: 28 page

Secure thermal infrared communications using engineered blackbody radiation

The thermal (emitted) infrared frequency bands, from 20–40 THz and 60–100 THz, are best known for applications in thermography. This underused and unregulated part of the spectral range offers opportunities for the development of secure communications. The ‘THz Torch' concept was recently presented by the authors. This technology fundamentally exploits engineered blackbody radiation, by partitioning thermally-generated spectral noise power into pre-defined frequency channels; the energy in each channel is then independently pulsed modulated and multiplexing schemes are introduced to create a robust form of short-range secure communications in the far/mid infrared. To date, octave bandwidth (25–50 THz) single-channel links have been demonstrated with 380 bps speeds. Multi-channel ‘THz Torch' frequency division multiplexing (FDM) and frequency-hopping spread-spectrum (FHSS) schemes have been proposed, but only a slow 40 bps FDM scheme has been demonstrated experimentally. Here, we report a much faster 1,280 bps FDM implementation. In addition, an experimental proof-of-concept FHSS scheme is demonstrated for the first time, having a 320 bps data rate. With both 4-channel multiplexing schemes, measured bit error rates (BERs) of < 10(−6) are achieved over a distance of 2.5 cm. Our approach represents a new paradigm in the way niche secure communications can be established over short links