Browse Our Earth and Environmental Sciences Journals
Earth and environmental sciences cover all planetary and Earth science aspects, including solid Earth processes, development of Earth, environmental issues, ecology, marine and freshwater systems, as well as the human interaction with these systems.
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) team discovered “the striking difference” in elevation between northern and southern hemispheres: “on Mars, the South Pole lying about six km higher than the North Pole, … the planet’s center of mass (is) 3 km north of its geometric center” (Physics Today, Oct 1999, p. 34). The same topography we have for solid Earth: low Arctic and high Antarctic with the same difference 5–7 km. No sound explanation of NS asymmetry was proposed: impact, planetary evolution, mantle convection … are rather artificial and vague. Meanwhile, NS asymmetry is inherent property of any freely rotating flexible celestial body as it follows from Kozyrev’s Causal or asymmetrical mechanics. Relations of Causal mechanics are supported by experimental study of vertical component of causal force by weight change measurement of rotated gyroscope and the study of its horizontal component by pendulum deflection measurement. Kozyrev made measurements at latitudes φ from 45° to 84° and proved that causal force is directed along Earth rotation axis: to the North for φ < 73° and to South for φ > 73°. The magnitude of causal force has order (1–5) × 10−5 of gravity force.
The results of measuring elevations leveling using an optical beam straightness, contain, besides the desired constant height, variable part caused by the influence of refraction. The latter has traditionally been seen as an error (random and partly systematic). However, these “errors” due to physical causes, are not subject to statistical regularities, but because they can not provide a mean-square error. Fluctuations in the heights under the influence of refraction caused by physical laws, which makes use of classical methods to evaluate the accuracy and altitude adjustment flawed.
In precise geoid modelling the combination of terrestrial gravity data and an Earth Gravitational Model (EGM) is standard. The proper combination of these data sets is of great importance, and spectral combination is one alternative utilized here. In this method data from satellite gravity gradiometry (SGG), terrestrial gravity and an EGM are combined in a least squares sense by minimizing the expected global mean square error. The spectral filtering process also allows the SGG data to be downward continued to the Earth’s surface without solving a system of equations, which is likely to be ill-conditioned. Each practical formula is presented as a combination of one or two integral formulas and the harmonic series of the EGM.Numerical studies show that the kernels of the integral part of the geoid and gravity anomaly estimators approach zero at a spherical distance of about 5°. Also shown (by the expected root mean square errors) is the necessity to combine EGM08 with local data, such as terrestrial gravimetric data, and/or SGG data to attain the 1-cm accuracy in local geoid determination.
In the community of geodesy it is well-known that the famous normal distribution is originated from the mathematical analysis of observational errors in astronomical and geodetic measurements.However, as far as we know this aspect of scientific history which is of considerable interest for the community of earth sciences has rarely been considered in the literature of earth sciences.In geodesy and related areas the bivariate normal distribution is one of the most frequently used probability distributions. Nowadays, in a wide range of problems arising from diverse areas of geodesy, geophysics, photogrammetry and astronomical geodesy we encounter numerous applications of the univariate and multivariate normal distributions.In the present paper the historical role of earth sciences in the origins of the bivariate normal distribution is briefly discussed. Some new evidences of Bravais’ contribution to the origin of the correlated bivariate normal distribution are considered. The new evidences and refinements established in this paper convey such a general methodological and intellectual content that is useful for the community of geodesy, geophysics, and furthermore in earth sciences.
Abstract
The mineralogical museum of the Collegio Nazareno of the Piarists Order in Rome was founded by Gian Vincenzo Petrini c. 1760. It hosted minerals and rocks the Popes had received as gifts and given to Piarists to support their teaching, as well as minerals collected from Roman and Neapolitan volcanoes. On March 24, 1769, the museum was visited by Emperor Joseph II, officially there as an incognito tourist but, in fact, to organize the election of a Pope who would abolish the Jesuit Order. On June 14, 1785 the Emperor, by now King of Hungary as well, presented eight crates of minerals from mining areas in Transylvania and Upper Hungary, i.e. Slovakia. This collection had been organized by “Baron of Born”, who also wrote down descriptions of all the specimens (mostly ores), as referred to in Petrini (1791–92). The museum of the Collegio Nazareno has survived and the royal gift is partially preserved, curated by the Gruppo Mineralogico Romano (GMR), a private association of amateurs founded in 1982. The museum now exhibits a rare collection of minerals from 18th century central Europe, organized according to systematics that just preceeded the major scientific changes brought about in mineralogy by the crystallographic approach.
Abstract
The Tokaj Mts, situated in the northeastern part of the inner arc of the Carpathians, forms a part of a Miocene calc-alkaline andesitic-dacitic-rhyolitic volcanic island arc. The ancient volcanic structures were reconstructed on the basis of the 1:50 000-scale and 22 sheets of the 1:25 000-scale geologicpetrologic maps, as well as the revision of the volcanic facies in 150 boreholes. Multispectral and SAR satellite imagery, aerial photos, data and maps of airborne geophysical surveys (magnetic and radiometric), gravity-filtered anomaly maps, geochemical (soil and stream sediment Au, As, Sb, Hg) concentration distribution maps and the K/Ar dating of 132 samples from 80 paleomagnetic measurements were also used.
The anomalies were only taken into consideration in the interpretation if the coincident results of at least 3 methods indicated the presence of any volcanic structure. In consequence, 91 map-scale volcanic structures were identified by morphology — complex calderas, single lava domes, volcanic fissures, subvolcanic intrusions, diatremes, stratovolcanoes and postvolcanic formations. Conclusions were also drawn regarding the link to the volcanic structures and prospective occurrences of the mineral resources of the Tokaj Mts: andesite, dacite, welded zeolitic tuff, K-metasomatite, perlite, pitchstone, pumice, bentonitic, illitic, kaolinitic, diatom-bearing and silicified lacustrine sediments, hydrothermal Au-Ag and Pb-Zn veins, and Hg stockwerks.
Abstract
The Sanandaj-Sirjan granitoids (SSG) in western Iran are composed mainly of granite, granodiorite and tonalite. Chemically the rocks are peraluminous and metaluminous, and show S-and I-type characteristics. The oval shape of the plutons, with large axes parallel to the Zagros main trend, along with deformational textures and structures, the existence of aluminous minerals such as andalusite, garnet and sillimanite as well as micaceous enclaves and geochemical features, all support generation of these rocks by partial melting of heterogeneous source materials in a continental collision setting, corresponding to the Zagros Orogen.
Abstract
We investigated three types of shocked feldspar in the Asuka-881757,531-2 sample with midinfrared spectroscopy (reflectance mode). Under the petrographic microscope three types of site were characterized by (1) undulatory extinction, (2) undulatory extinction with isotropic patches and decreased interference color, and (3) isotropic, lath-shaped feldspars, which is indicative of maskelynite. The IR emissivity maximum (Christiansen feature=CF) changes with the chemical composition of feldspar. One of the Christiansen composition features exhibits a wave length peak of 1234 cm−1 for anorthite; another feature appears at 1245 cm−1 for maskelynite (Palomba et al. 2006).
With the help of IR spectroscopy we observed three vibrational types in our spectra: (1) peaks of depolimerization of SiO4 tetrahedra (500–650 cm−1, 950–1150 cm−1), (2) peaks of stretching and bending vibrational modes of SiO6 octahedra (750–850 cm−1), and (3) Si-O stretching vibration of SiO4 units (Johnson and Hörz 2003; Johnson et al. 2003, 2007). All these vibration types were observed at the less shocked sites. In the spectrum of highly shocked maskelynite only a broader band close to 1000 cm−1 was observed, which is the main vibrational band of maskelynite (Palomba et al. 2006). The calculated FWHM showed the disordering rate of shocked feldspars. On the basis of the measurements it could be concluded that the estimated shock pressure range gradually increases from 17–35 GPa for different degrees of undulatory sites, to 35–45 GPa for maskelynite sites.
Abstract
The Kiskunhalas-NE (KIHA-NE) fractured hydrocarbon reservoir is part of the structurally rather complex crystalline basement of the Great Hungarian Plain. In the course of petrologic and thermometric examinations various rock types of the investigated area have been classified and characterized. There are four basic lithological units in the area. In the lowest structural position orthogneiss is common, which according to its petrographic features is assumed to be identical to the orthogneiss body of the adjacent Jánoshalma (JH) basement high (metamorphic peak temperature T < 580 °C according to Zachar and M. Tóth 2004). The next rock unit upward is the highly mylonitized variety of the orthogneiss with textural features suggesting deformation in an extensional stress regime. In the higher section of the mylonite zone graphitic gneiss mylonite is characteristic, with a peak metamorphic T of 410±45 °C. The lithology in the shallowest position of the area is a graphitic carbonate phyllite, with a T of 375 ± 15 °C. Estimation of the deformation temperature for both mylonitic rocks results in approximately Tdef ∼ 455 °C. All data together suggest that between the top (graphitic carbonate phyllite) and the bottom (orthogneiss) of the ideal rock column there is about 200 °C peak metamorphic temperature deviation. The two extreme metamorphic blocks probably became juxtaposed along an extensional fault zone in the basement at approximately 15 km depth.
