THE ERA OF STAR FORMATION IN GALAXY CLUSTERS Brodwin, M.; Stanford, S. A.; Gonzalez, Anthony H. ...
Astrophysical journal/The Astrophysical journal,
12/2013, Volume:
779, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Scientific theories of how subduction and plate tectonics began on Earth--and what the tectonic structure of Earth was before this--remain enigmatic and contentious. Understanding viable scenarios ...for the onset of subduction and plate tectonics is hampered by the fact that subduction initiation processes must have been markedly different before the onset of global plate tectonics because most present-day subduction initiation mechanisms require acting plate forces and existing zones of lithospheric weakness, which are both consequences of plate tectonics. However, plume-induced subduction initiation could have started the first subduction zone without the help of plate tectonics. Here, we test this mechanism using high-resolution three-dimensional numerical thermomechanical modelling. We demonstrate that three key physical factors combine to trigger self-sustained subduction: (1) a strong, negatively buoyant oceanic lithosphere; (2) focused magmatic weakening and thinning of lithosphere above the plume; and (3) lubrication of the slab interface by hydrated crust. We also show that plume-induced subduction could only have been feasible in the hotter early Earth for old oceanic plates. In contrast, younger plates favoured episodic lithospheric drips rather than self-sustained subduction and global plate tectonics.
Amalgamation and final accretion of the Arabian–Nubian Shield during the late Cryogenian and Ediacaran.
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► By 640
Ma, the core terranes of the ANS had amalgamated, forming a ...proto-Arabian-Nubian Shield (pANS). ► Terrestrial and marine post-amalgamation basins developed on the pANS; subduction and arc generation continued in the east. ► Melting of lower crust and/or upper mantle during delamination and extension generated vast amounts of granitoid magma. ► Between 620–550
Ma, the ANS was fully amalgamated, accreting with the Saharan Metacraton and closing intervening ocean.
During the late Cryogenian–Ediacaran (650–542
Ma), the Arabian–Nubian Shield (ANS) underwent final assembly and accretion to the Saharan Metacraton concurrent with the assembly of eastern and western Gondwana. At the end of the Precambrian it lay at one end of the East African Orogen, with its northern margin (present coordinates) forming a low-relief stable shelf facing an open ocean; to the south the ANS transitioned into the Mozambique Belt. The geologic history of the ANS during this period provides insight into the closing developmental stages of one of the world’s largest accretionary orogens. Following a 680–640
Ma orogenic event reflecting amalgamation of a core grouping of island-arc terranes (the proto-Arabian–Nubian Shield; pANS), the region underwent extensive exhumation, erosion, and subsidence. Depositional basins formed in the northern and eastern pANS, with those in the east below sea level and connected to an ocean. Periodic basin closure and formation of new basins in other parts of the ANS followed. Many basins were filled by terrestrial, molasse-type sediments interfingering with subordinate to predominant amounts of volcanic rocks. Magmatism was extensive throughout the period, initially characterized by tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite (TTG) and granite (monzogranite, syenogranite), but also characterized, from ∼610
Ma on, by increasing amounts of alkali-feldspar granite and alkali granite. The plutons are largely undeformed, except where cut by brittle–ductile shear zones. The magma sources of the late Cryogenian–Ediacaran granitoids were dominated by juvenile crust and(or) depleted mantle and magmas mostly originated in anorogenic, post-collisional, commonly extensional, settings. They were derived by melting and fractionation of anhydrous high-grade metamorphosed lower crust, mafic- to intermediate calc-alkaline crust, and(or) subduction-modified mantle wedges associated with slab break-off or delamination.
By ∼630
Ma, the region was affected by oblique (transpressional) convergence of continental blocks that formed eastern and western Gondwana—the pANS was approaching the Saharan Metacraton; north-trending shear and shortening zones developed in the southern ANS; and northwest-trending strike-slip shear zones of the Najd fault system dominated farther north. In the northwestern ANS, convergence and Najd transpression buckled the crust causing structural highs with domes of gneissic infracrust overlain by supracrust composed of ophiolitic and volcanosedimentary assemblages dating from the Tonian–middle Cryogenian period of island-arc activity. The supracrust was extensively translated to the northwest above a high-strain zone. Extension and tectonic escape augmented exhumation of the gneissic infracrust particularly between ∼620–580
Ma. In the northeastern ANS, linear belts of gneiss formed from reworked older intrusive bodies or syntectonic intrusions that were emplaced along Najd faults. By ∼620
Ma a marine basin on the eastern margin of the pANS (present coordinates) was beginning to close. A thick sedimentary assemblage (Abt formation) in this basin underwent metamorphism and folding, and subduction-related magmatism and volcanism farther into this basin (Al Amar arc; >690–615
Ma) was coming to an end. Amalgamation of the Abt formation, Al Amar arc, and the pANS occurred between ∼620 and ∼605
Ma, and terminal collision between the pANS and the Saharan Metacraton was complete by ∼580
Ma. At this time, the ANS was fully assembled. Granite magmatism continued until ∼565–560
Ma and orogeny ceased by ∼550
Ma. During these terminal events, the region underwent strong chemical weathering and became a vast low-relief surface on which Lower Paleozoic sandstone was eventually deposited.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Comets are remnants from the time when the outer planets formed, approximately 4-4.5 billion years ago. They have been in storage since then in the Oort cloud and Kuiper belt-distant regions that are ...so cold and sparsely populated that it was long thought that comets approaching the Sun were pristine samples from the time of Solar System formation. It is now recognized, however, that a variety of subtle but important evolutionary mechanisms operate on comets during their long storage, so they can no longer be regarded as wholly pristine.
Comprehensive multiplatform analysis of 80 uveal melanomas (UM) identifies four molecularly distinct, clinically relevant subtypes: two associated with poor-prognosis monosomy 3 (M3) and two with ...better-prognosis disomy 3 (D3). We show that BAP1 loss follows M3 occurrence and correlates with a global DNA methylation state that is distinct from D3-UM. Poor-prognosis M3-UM divide into subsets with divergent genomic aberrations, transcriptional features, and clinical outcomes. We report change-of-function SRSF2 mutations. Within D3-UM, EIF1AX- and SRSF2/SF3B1-mutant tumors have distinct somatic copy number alterations and DNA methylation profiles, providing insight into the biology of these low- versus intermediate-risk clinical mutation subtypes.
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•Both D3 and M3-UM divide into molecularly distinct subsets with different outcomes•Poor-prognosis M3-UM are characterized by a global DNA methylation pattern•Poor-prognosis M3-UM subsets have distinct genomic, signaling, and immune profiles•EIF1AX and SRSF2/SF3B1 mutant D3-UM have different genomic/DNA methylation profiles
Robertson et al. analyze 80 uveal melanomas (UM) and divide poor-prognosis monosomy 3 UM into subsets with divergent genomic aberrations, transcriptional features, and clinical outcomes. Somatic copy number changes and DNA methylation profiles separate better-prognosis disomy 3 UM into low or intermediate risk.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Condensed timetable of major geologic events in the East African Orogen. Opening of the Mozambique Ocean and formation of rift basins in Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and SW Madagascar was accompanied ...by emplacement of anorthosite melt in extending crust. A first phase of ocean closure and accretion of terranes defines the East African Orogeny. The second orogen phase, Kuungan Orogeny, mainly affected the southern parts of east Africa and Madagascar. Both shortening events were followed by extension phases that were accompanied by emplacement of late- to post-tectonic granitoids. EGCD: Eastern Granulite–Cabo Delgado Nappe Complex; Madag: Madagascar; Ub–Us: Usagaran/Ubendian Belts; WG: Western Granulite Belt; IB (Z–M): Irumide Belt of Zambia and Malawi; IB (M): Irumide Belt of Mozambique. Display omitted
•We review the tectonic evolution of the East African Orogen.•We present tectonic and metamorphic maps from East Africa and Madagascar.•We define orgogen styles of East African and Kuungan orogenies.
The East African Orogen, extending from southern Israel, Sinai and Jordan in the north to Mozambique and Madagascar in the south, is the world́s largest Neoproterozoic to Cambrian orogenic complex. It comprises a collage of individual oceanic domains and continental fragments between the Archean Sahara–Congo–Kalahari Cratons in the west and Neoproterozoic India in the east. Orogen consolidation was achieved during distinct phases of orogeny between ∼850 and 550Ma. The northern part of the orogen, the Arabian–Nubian Shield, is predominantly juvenile Neoproterozoic crust that formed in and adjacent to the Mozambique Ocean. The ocean closed during a protracted period of island-arc and microcontinent accretion between ∼850 and 620Ma. To the south of the Arabian Nubian Shield, the Eastern Granulite–Cabo Delgado Nappe Complex of southern Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique was an extended crust that formed adjacent to theMozambique Ocean and experienced a ∼650–620Ma granulite-facies metamorphism. Completion of the nappe assembly around 620Ma is defined as the East African Orogeny and was related to closure of the Mozambique Ocean. Oceans persisted after 620Ma between East Antarctica, India, southern parts of the Congo–Tanzania–Bangweulu Cratons and the Zimbabwe–Kalahari Craton. They closed during the ∼600–500Ma Kuungan or Malagasy Orogeny, a tectonothermal event that affected large portions of southern Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar and Antarctica. The East African and Kuungan Orogenies were followed by phases of post-orogenic extension. Early ∼600–550Ma extension is recorded in the Arabian–Nubian Shield and the Eastern Granulite–Cabo Delgado Nappe Complex. Later ∼550–480Ma extension affected Mozambique and southern Madagascar. Both extension phases, although diachronous,are interpreted as the result of lithospheric delamination. Along the strike of the East African Orogen, different geodynamic settings resulted in the evolution of distinctly different orogen styles. The Arabian–Nubian Shield is an accretion-type orogen comprising a stack of thin-skinned nappes resulting from the oblique convergence of bounding plates. The Eastern Granulite–Cabo Delgado Nappe Complex is interpreted as a hot- to ultra-hot orogen that evolved from a formerly extended crust. Low viscosity lower crust resisted one-sided subduction, instead a sagduction-type orogen developed. The regions of Tanzania and Madagascar affected by the Kuungan Orogeny are considered a Himalayan-type orogen composed of partly doubly thickened crust.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
The vast, deep, volatile-ice-filled basin informally named Sputnik Planum is central to Pluto's vigorous geological activity. Composed of molecular nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide ices, but ...dominated by nitrogen ice, this layer is organized into cells or polygons, typically about 10 to 40 kilometres across, that resemble the surface manifestation of solid-state convection. Here we report, on the basis of available rheological measurements, that solid layers of nitrogen ice with a thickness in excess of about one kilometre should undergo convection for estimated present-day heat-flow conditions on Pluto. More importantly, we show numerically that convective overturn in a several-kilometre-thick layer of solid nitrogen can explain the great lateral width of the cells. The temperature dependence of nitrogen-ice viscosity implies that the ice layer convects in the so-called sluggish lid regime, a unique convective mode not previously definitively observed in the Solar System. Average surface horizontal velocities of a few centimetres a year imply surface transport or renewal times of about 500,000 years, well under the ten-million-year upper-limit crater retention age for Sputnik Planum. Similar convective surface renewal may also occur on other dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt, which may help to explain the high albedos shown by some of these bodies.
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IJS, KISLJ, NUK, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
The μeV axion is a well-motivated extension to the standard model. The Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) collaboration seeks to discover this particle by looking for the resonant conversion of ...dark-matter axions to microwave photons in a strong magnetic field. In this Letter, we report results from a pathfinder experiment, the ADMX "Sidecar," which is designed to pave the way for future, higher mass, searches. This testbed experiment lives inside of and operates in tandem with the main ADMX experiment. The Sidecar experiment excludes masses in three widely spaced frequency ranges (4202-4249, 5086-5799, and 7173-7203 MHz). In addition, Sidecar demonstrates the successful use of a piezoelectric actuator for cavity tuning. Finally, this publication is the first to report data measured using both the TM_{010} and TM_{020} modes.
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CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
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