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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1984

Impact phenomena as factors in the evolution of the Earth

It is estimated that 30 to 200 large impact basins could have been formed on the early Earth. These large impacts may have resulted in extensive volcanism and enhanced endogenic geologic activity over large areas. Initial modelling of the thermal and subsidence history of large terrestrial basins indicates that they created geologic and thermal anomalies which lasted for geologically significant times. The role of large-scale impact in the biological evolution of the Earth has been highlighted by the discovery of siderophile anomalies at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary and associated with North American microtektites. Although in neither case has an associated crater been identified, the observations are consistent with the deposition of projectile-contaminated high-speed ejecta from major impact events. Consideration of impact processes reveals a number of mechanisms by which large-scale impact may induce extinctions.

Grieve, R. A. F.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Current carriers for the field-aligned current system

The Dynamics Explorer satellites have returned a large body of data containing high resolution magnetometer measurements and distributions of charged particles of all but thermal electrons. From these data the relations of the field aligned currents to particle precipitation structures were investigated and the charge carriers were identified. Results include the following: (1) during very quiet periods, field aligned currents exist primarily as fine structure; (2) during onset of substorms, region 1 and region 2 become clearly evident but contain significant structure; (3) as magnetic activity subsides, current regions become less distinct, and structure becomes more dominant; (4) the distribution of the upward currents derived from magnetometer data and calculated from suprathermal electron data agree remarkably well in shape but not necessarily in magnitude; (5) at all local times, 5 eV electrons seldom carry most of the upward current; (6) except for the accelerated inverted-V electrons, the dominant upward current carriers which are measured are below 500 eV and are distributed in energy; (7) dusk upward currents (region 1) are associated with the boundary plasma sheet; and (8) suprathermal electron bursts are important current carrying structures.

Hoffman, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Participation of Ethylene in Two Modes of Gravistimulation of Shoots

In order to elucidate the role of ehtylene in gravitropism, detailed time courses for ethylene production in horizontal and upright plants were measured. Tomato and pea were chosen as examples of plants which exhibit different patterns of gravitropic curvature. Tomato seedlings were placed in gas-tight lucite boxes from which air was sampled and analyzed for ethylene. During the first 2 min interval after one set of plants was turned horizontal ethylene production was double the baseline. Similarly, plants rotated 3 rpm about a vertical axis transiently doubled ethylene production when the axis was shifted 90 deg. In order to clarify the role of this 2-min burst, the effect of exogenous ethylene was studied. In peas, epicotyls were excised, equilibrated until wound ethylene had subsided to a low stable level, and ethylene production was measured in vertical and horizontal segments. As for tomatoes, excised pea epicotyls increased their rate of ethylene production during the first 2 min of gravistimulation. Also, very low concentrations of exogenous ethylene slightly enhance curvature. On the other hand, higher levels of ethylene and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) inhibit overall curvature.

Harrison, M.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Caribbean tectonics and relative plate motions

During the last century, three different ways of interpreting the tectonic evolution of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean have been proposed, taking into account the Bailey Willis School of a permanent pre-Jurassic deep sea basin, the Edward Suess School of a subsided continental terrain, and the Alfred Wegener School of continental separation. The present investigation is concerned with an outline of an interpretation which follows that of Pindell and Dewey (1982). An attempt is made to point out ways in which the advanced hypotheses can be tested. The fit of Africa, North America, and South America is considered along with aspects of relative motion between North and South America since the early Jurasic. Attention is given to a framework for reconstructing Caribbean plate evolution, the evolution of the Caribbean, the plate boundary zones of the northern and southern Caribbean, and the active deformation of the Caribbean plate.

Burke, K.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Thermomechanical evolution of oceanic fracture zones

To explain the topographic and gravitational signals of fracture zones (FZs), a realistic model is developed and compared with Seasat altimeter data across three major FZs. The model is based on the thermal, subsidence, and mechanical models of the oceanic lithosphere. The model is used to calculate the FZ topography and the evolution of the geoid signature across a FZ. When lithospheric flexure is included, the model explains the persistence of sharp FZ geoid steps on old seafloor as well as the asymmetry of the geoid steps across major FZs. The model does not explain the disappearance of the thermal part of the FZ geoid signature. The model profiles are used to access the various techniques for estimating the overall geoid offsets across FZs. It is shown that steps may be underestimated by as much as 50 percent. These predictions, if correct, will force reinterpretation of published geoid height versus age data derived from altimeter profiles across FZs.

Sandwell, D. T.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Magsat and POGO magnetic anomalies over the Lord Howe Rise Evidence against a simple continental crustal structure

Magsat average scalar and POGO reduced-to-pole magnetic anomaly data both show prominent positive signatures over the Lord Howe Rise. Although generally assumed to be continental in nature, the Lord Howe Rise cannot simply be submerged ordinary continental crust, which would produce a negative anomaly contrast with respect to the surrounding higher susceptibility oceanic crust. Three-dimensional modeling of the plateau, using the known crustal structure and assuming an induced origin for the satellite elevation anomaly, leads to a model in which the lowest crustal layer in an otherwise 'continental' crustal structure has an unusually high susceptibility in the range cgs 0.008-0.010 (SI 0.10-0.13). Replacement or alteration of the lowest layer by a high-susceptibility rock type may be related to the subsidence of the plateau.

Frey, H.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Cenozoic rift formation in the northern Caribbean

Rifts form in many different tectonic environments where the lithosphere is put into extension. An outline is provided of the distribution, orientation, and relative ages of 16 Cenozoic rifts along the northern edge of the Caribbean plate and it is suggested that these structures formed successively by localized extension as the Caribbean plate moved eastward past a continental promontory of North America. Evidence leading to this conclusion includes (1) recognition that the rifts become progressively younger westward; (2) a two-phase subsidence history in a rift exposed by upthrusting in Jamaica; (3) the absence of rifts east of Jamaica; and (4) the observation that removal of 1400 km of strike-slip displacement on the Cayman Trough fault system places the Paleogene rifts of Jamaica in an active area of extension south of Yucatan where the rifts of Honduras and Guatemala are forming today.

Mann, P.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Ultraviolet and X-ray observations of NGC 2264

An IUE satellite search is reported for chromospheric emission in the UV spectra of the brightest pre-main sequence stars the open cluster NGC 2264. Einstein X-ray observations to search for variability of the bright O7 V ((f)) star S Mon = W131, which may be the most massive member of the cluster, are also reported. Fifteen cluster members of spectral type B-K, ranging in age from a million to ten million yr, were observed in the ultraviolet. The only star exhibiting chromospheric emission is W79, a faint, heavily veiled T Tauri star that lies below the main sequence of NGC 2264. The observations are consistent with the generally accepted idea that chromospheric activity of late-type stars subsides with age.

Simon, T.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Current carriers for the field-aligned current system

The Dynamics Explorer satellites have returned a large body of data containing high resolution magnetometer measurements and distributions of charged particles of all but thermal electrons. From these data the relations of the field aligned currents to particle precipitation structures were investigated and the charge carriers were identified. Results include the following: (1) during very quiet periods, field aligned currents exist primarily as fine structure; (2) during onset of substorms, region 1 and region 2 become clearly evident but contain significant structure; (3) as magnetic activity subsides, current regions become less distinct, and structure becomes more dominant; (4) the distribution of the upward currents derived from magnetometer data and calculated from suprathermal electron data agree remarkably well in shape but not necessarily in magnitude; (5) at all local times, 5 eV electrons seldom carry most of the upward current; (6) except for the accelerated inverted-V electrons, the dominant upward current carriers which are masured are below 500 eV and are distributed in energy; (7) dusk upward currents (region 1) are associated with the boundary plasma sheet; and (8) suprathermal electron bursts are important current carrying structures.

Hoffman, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Diagnosis of ageostrophic circulations in a two-dimensional primitive equation model of frontogenesis

A two-dimensional primitive equation frontogenesis model is applied to the identification of dynamical mechanisms which contribute to transverse ageostrophic circulation in warm and cold advection situations. Attention is focused on conditions conducive to significant alongfront ageostrophic flow with divergence confined to the transverse plane. The circulation is partitioned as a function of forcing mechanisms accompanied by confluence, horizontal shear and the alongfront component of the ageostrophic wind. A series of diagnostic equations is defined for the transverse geostrophic circulation and instantaneous contribution from each partitioned component of the circulation are quantified. In the cold advection case, results are obtained which are consistent with positive feedback between the subsidence pattern and forcing by horizontal shear.

Keyser, D.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Sea floor swells and mantle plumes

Most of the intraplate oceanic hot spots are located on the crest of broad topographic swells in the sea floor. These swells have Gaussian shaped profiles, with up to 1.6 km of relief and half widths of 200 to 300 km. Swells are accompanied by positive geoid height anomalies with amplitudes of 6 to 8 m. In the Atlantic and Pacific basins swells cover an area equal to 10% of the Earth's surface. Next to boundary layer contraction, swells are the most important cause of uplift and subsidence in oceanic lithosphere. Calculation of buoyancy supported topography and geoid height were combined with uplift data from laboratory experiments to assess whether sea floor swell can be produced by mantle plumes. The critical constraints are: (1) swell topographic profiles; (2) geoid height/topographic height ratios; and (3) uplift rates, estimated to be 0.2 km/ma.

Olson, P.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Archean foreland basin tectonics in the Witwatersrand, South Africa

The Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa is the best-known of Archean sedimentary basins and contains some of the largest gold reserves in the world. Sediments in the basin include a lower flysch-type sequence and an upper molassic facies, both of which contain abundant silicic volcanic detritus. The strata are thicker and more proximal on the northwestern side of the basin which is, at least locally, bound by thrust faults. These features indicate that the Witwatersrand strata may have been deposited in a foreland basin and a regional geologic synthesis suggests that this basin developed initially on the cratonward side of an Andean-type arc. Remarkably similar Phanerozoic basins may be found in the southern Andes above zones of shallow subduction. It is suggested that the continental collision between the Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe Cratons at about 2.7 Ga caused further subsidence and deposition in the Witwatersrand Basin. Regional uplift during this later phase of development placed the basin on the cratonward edge of a collision-related plateau, now represented by the Limpopo Province. Similarities are seen between this phase of Witwatersrand Basin evolution and that of active basins north of the Tibetan Plateau. The geologic evidence does not agree with earlier suggestions that the Witwatersrand strata were deposited in a rift or half-graben.

Burke, K.↗
NASA NTRS1986

A continental rift model for the La Grande greenstone belt

Stratigraphic relationships and the geochemistry of volcanic rocks contrain the nature and timing of the tectonic and magmatic processes in the pre-deformational history of the La Grande greenstone belt in the Superior Province of north-central Quebec. The lowermost supracrustals in this belt are obscured by syntectonic granitoid intrusives. The supracrustal succession in the western part of the belt consists of a lower sequence of immature clastic sediments and mafic volcanoclastics, overlain by pillowed and massive basalts. Further east, along tectonic strike, a lower sequence of mafic volcanoclastics and immature clastic sediments is overlain by a thick sequence of pillowed and massive basalts, and resedimented coarse clastic sediments and banded iron formation. These are overlain by assive basaltic andesites, andesites and intermediate volcanoclastics intercalated with immature clastic sediments. In contrast, in the eastern part of the belt lenses of felsic volcanics and volcanoclastics occur at the base of the succession and pillowed and massive basalts are overlain by komatiites at the top. The La Grande greenstone belt can be explained as the product of continental rifting. The restricted occurence of komatiites, and eastwardly directed paleocurrents in clastic sediments in the central part of the belt are consistent with rifting commencing in the east and propagating westward with time. The increase in depth of emplacement and deposition with time of the lower three units in the central part of the belt reflects deposition in a subsiding basin. These supracrustal rocks are believed to represent the initial rift succession.

Skulski, T.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Connection between mesopause temperature, circulation and noctilucent clouds

To investigate the connection between mesopause temperature in summer and the induced circulation upon possible formation of the observed polar mesospheric (noctilucent) cloud layer (PMC), a two-dimensional semiempirical model is used to calculate the zonally averaged diabatic circulation. On the basis of the calculations, one may draw the following conclusions: (1) if the large departures from radiative equilibrium which occur at the summer mesopause at high latitudes should be balanced by adiabatic processes of the mean circulation alone, a vigorous circulation is needed (there is some evidence that such a vigorous circulation has been observed); (2) the vertical velocities of some cm/s at the polar summertime mesopause will support the formation of polar mesospheric clouds, because those large wind speeds support larger ice particles against gravitational sedimentation; and (3) a region of mild subsidence in the summertime midlatitude mesosphere due to the effect of nonlinear temperature advection would tend to limit the occurrence of ice particles to latitudes poleward of about 55 deg.

Gartner, V.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Transport processes as manifested in satellite and lidar aerosol measurements

A large increase in stratospheric aerosol data has become available recently from the SAM II and SAGE satellite sensors and the impetus from increased volcanic perturbations. Six years of SAM II and nearly 3 years of SAGE measurements have been accumulated. The increase in large volcanic eruptions since 1979 has caused an acceleration of new data sets from worldwide lidars and airborne lidar campaigns and from various airborne in situ measurements. The SAM II and SAGE data sets show the tropical stratosphere as a source for background stratospheric aerosols, and midlatitudes as a possible sink. Analyses of SAM II data show that the aerosol within the northern wintertime polar vortex becomes isolated from the outside. Subsidence occurs within the vortex, changing the vertical aerosol distribution over the winter period. SAM II and SAGE data show that the aerosol is transported in the stratosphere from low to high latitudes in wintertime. Entry regions of tropospheric air in the Tropics are also evident in the SAGE data as shown by stratospheric cirrus clouds being formed well above the local tropopause. Nature has provided over the past 5 years a number of large volcanic eruptions which spewed tons of new aerosol into the stratosphere. These eruptions have occurred at various latitudes which allow transport differences to be studied. Satellite and lidar aerosol data will be used to describe the stratospheric motions of aerosols produced after these violet volcanic eruptions.

Mccormick, M. P.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Lithospheric and crustal thinning

In rift zones, both the crust and the lithosphere get thinner. The amplitude and the mechanism of these two thinning situations are different. The lithospheric thinning is a thermal phenomenon produced by an asthenospherical uprising under the rift zone. In some regions its amplitude can exceed 200%. This is observed under the Baikal rift where the crust is directly underlaid by the mantellic asthenosphere. The presence of hot material under rift zones induces a large negative gravity anomaly. A low seismic velocity zone linked to this thermal anomaly is also observed. During the rifting, the magmatic chambers get progressively closer from the ground surface. Simultaneously, the Moho reflector is found at shallow depth under rift zones. This crustal thinning does not exceed 50%. Tectonic stresses and vertical movements result from the two competing effects of the lithospheric and crustal thinning. On the one hand, the deep thermal anomaly induces a large doming and is associated with extensive deviatoric stresses. On the other hand, the crustal thinning involves the formation of a central valley. This subsidence is increased by the sediment loading. The purpose here is to quantify these two phenomena in order to explain the morphological and thermal evolution of rift zones.

Moretti, I.↗
NASA NTRS1985

On the differences in continental rifting at the Earth, Mars and Venus

During the process of continental rifting on Earth, the lower ductile crust stretches, forming a neck, while the upper brittle crust is broken in blocks by faults, and the blocks sink down the thinned lower crust; if the stretching continues, the neck may break and a newly originated oceanic crust is formed at this place. The rift system structure depends on the depth of the boundary surface between the brittle crust and the ductile crust, the litospheric thickness, the tension value, etc.. The rigid brittle rifting when narrow necks form in the lower crust is characteristic of the contemporary Earth; on Mars the brittle rifting with large subsidence was characteristic of the Tharsis upland formation epoch. The ductile rifting is typical of the Venus. The differences in rheologic features of the lithospheres of different planets causes the variation in types of rifting.

Nikishin, A. M.↗
NASA NTRS1986

A dynamical model of lithosphere extension and sedimentary basin formation

The effect of convection-induced stresses at the base of the continental lithosphere on surface and extensional deviatoric stresses is investigated. The biaxial strain in the continental lithosphere is controlled by power law creep in the upper and lower crust, brittle failure, and the Dorn plasticity law. The relationship between the lithosphere stress distribution and Moho temperatures is examined. The extension factors, basin subsidence, heat flow, and sediment loading of the lithosphere are studied.

Houseman, G.↗