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The following boulder samples are analyzed for U, Th, and Pb concentrations and for Pb isotopic compositions: 72275,53/matrix; 72275,73/matrix; 72275,81/dark rind, clast #1; 72275,117/white interior, clast #1; 72255,49/Civet Cat clast; 72255,54/light gray matrix; and 72255,67/dark gray matrix.
U, Th, and Pb concentrations and lead isotopic compositions of Apollo 16 samples are interpreted as follows: (1) an early period of lunar differentiation of either global or regional scale occurred about 4.47 b.y. ago; (2) the Imbrian impact event affected many Apollo 16 samples about 3.99 b.y. ago; (3) some Apollo 16 metaclastic rocks and breccias contain a large amount of KREEP-like material; (4) lead produced in the early history of the moon has been concentrated in lunar highland soils yielding high Pb-207/Pb-206 ratios corresponding to apparent ages of more than 4.8 b.y.; and (5) South Ray Crater soils reflect the approximately 2-b.y.-old event previously proposed for the Apollo 12 and 14 samples.
Anorthosite 60015 contains the lowest initial Sr-87/Sr-86 ratio (0.69884 + or - 0.00004) yet reported for a lunar sample. The initial ratio is equal to that of the achondrite Angra dos Reis and slightly higher than the lowest measured Sr-87/Sr-86 ratio for an inclusion in the C3 carbonaceous chondrite Allende. The Pb-Pb ages of both Angra dos Reis and Allende are 4.62 x 10 to the 9th power years (4.62 billion years). Thus, the initial Sr-87/Sr-86 ratio found in lunar anorthosite 60015 strongly supports the hypothesis that the age of the moon is about 4.65 b.y. The U-238/Pb-204 value estimated for the source of the excess lead in orange soil 74220 is lower than the values estimated for the sources of KREEP (600-1000), high K (300-600) and low K (100-300) basalts.
Anorthosite 60015 contains the lowest initial Sr-87/Sr-86 ratio yet reported for a lunar sample. The initial ratio is equal to that of the achondrite Angra dos Reis and slightly higher than the lowest measured Sr-87/Sr-86 ratio for an inclusion in the C3 carbonaceous chondrite Allende. The Pb-Pb ages of both Angra does Reis and Allende are 4.62 X 10 to the ninth power yr. Thus, the initial Sr/87/Sr-86 ratio found in lunar anorthosite 60015 strongly supports the hypothesis that the age of the Moon is about 4.65 b.y. The U-238/Pb-204 value estimated for the source of the excess lead in "orange soil" 74220 is approximately 35 and lower than the values estimated for the sources of KREEP (600-1000), high-K (300-600), and low-K (100-300) basalts. From these and other physical, chemical and petrographic results it was hypothesized that (1) the moon formed approximately 4.65 b.y. ago; (2) a global-scale gravitational differentiation occurred at the beginning of lunar history; and (3) the differentiation resulted in a radical chemical and mineralogical zoning in which the U-238/Pb-204 ratios increased toward the surface, with the exception of the low U-238/Pb-204 surficial anorthositic layer which "floated" at the beginning of the differentiation relative to the denser pyroxene-rich material.
Analyses of whole rock and mineral separates from the Nakhla meteorite are carried out by means of Sm-Nd and U-Tn-Pb systematics and by determining their REE, Ba, Sr, Rb, and K concentrations. Results show that the Sm-Nd age of the meteorite is 1.26 + or - 0.7 b.y., while the high initial epsilon(Nd) value of +16 suggests that Nakhla was derived from a light REE-depleted, old planetary mantle source. A three-stage Sm-Nd evolution model is developed and used in combination with LIL element data and estimated partition coefficients in order to test partial melting and fractional crystallization models and to estimate LIL abundances in a possible Nakhla source. The calculations indicate that partial melting of the source followed by extensive fractional crystallization of the partial melt could account for the REE abundances in the Nakhla constituent minerals. It is concluded that the significantly younger age of Nakhla than the youngest lunar rock, the young differentiation age inferred from U-Th-Pb data, and the estimated LIL abundances suggest that this meteorite may have been derived from a relatively large, well-differentiated planetary body such as Mars.
Pb, Sr, Nd and Hf isotopic compositions of Oahu volcanics indicate that the three principal volcanic series on Oahu Koolau, Honolulu and Waianae - were derived from isotopically distinct sources. Honolulu and Waianae basalts plot on the Nd-Pb-Sr 'mantle plane' whereas Koolau data plot distinctly below the plane.
Experimental work on undercooling and structure of tin-lead droplets emulsified in oil is described. The droplets, predominantly in the size range of 10 to 20 microns, were cooled at rates (just before nucleation) ranging from about 0.1 to 1 million K/s. The higher cooling rates were obtained by a newly developed technique of quenching the emulsified droplets in a cold liquid. Measured undercoolings (at the lower cooling rates) ranged up to about 100 K. Structures obtained depend strongly on undercooling, cooling rate before and after nucleation, and alloy composition. Droplets containing up to 5 wt pct Pb were apparently single phase when undercooled and rapidly quenched. Droplets in the composition range of about 25-90 wt pct Pb solidified dendritically, even at the most rapid quench rates employed, apparently because these alloys undercooled only slightly before nucleation of the primary phase.
The C-jets and Pb-jets were surveyed on the part of Chacaltaya emulsion chamber No.19 amounting to an exposure of 28.8 sq m yr. It is shown that the adopted events make up an unbiased sample of C-jets for sigma sub E gamma TeV. Mini-Centauro interaction gives the most natural explanation for the eight pinaught-less C-jets with three or more constituent shower core. Out of the eight double-cored pinaught-less events, three are found to have visible invariant masses 1.8 GeV/c. Three Pb-jets-lower are composed of double cores whose respective visible transverse momenta are greater than 0.5 GeV/c, suggesting that they are of Geminion origin or chiron origin. The energies of the parent particles are estimated to be 100 to 200 TeV for all three kinds of events. The implications of this energy estimate and the frequency of observed exotic events are discussed.
In order to examine spatial and temporal variability during the seasonal cycle of the oligotrophic Crystal Lake, Wisconsin, vertical distribution measurements of Pb-210 and Po-210 in both the dissolved and particulate phases were conducted. Mass balance considerations indicate that the removal rates of the two isotopes from the water column to the sediment vary temporally by nearly an order of magnitude. The mean removal residence time was estimated to be 0.095 yr for Pb-210 and 0.26 yr for Po-210, suggesting a difference in the extent of water column recycling. Calculations indicate a cyclic response of the water column Po-210 inventory which corresponds to successive time periods when there were net losses or gains; this response may be due to rapid biological removal and subsequent release from the sediment of freshly deposited Po-210.
The underlying mechanisms of Archean tectonics and the degree to which modern plate tectonic models are applicable early in Earth's history continue to be a subject of considerable debate. A precise knowledge of the timing of geological events is of the utmost importance in studying this problem. The high precision U-Pb method has been applied in recent years to rock units in many areas of the Superior Province. Most of these data have precisions of about + or - 2-3 Ma. The resulting detailed chronologies of local igneous development and the regional age relationships furnish tight constraints on any Archean tectonic model. Superior province terrains can be classified into 3 types: (1) low grade areas dominated by meta-volcanic rocks (greenstone belts); (2) high grade, largely metaplutonic areas with abundant orthogneiss and foliated to massive I-type granitoid bodies; and (3) high grade areas with abundant metasediments, paragneiss and S-type plutons. Most of the U-Pb age determinations have been done on type 1 terrains with very few having been done in type 3 terrains. A compilation of over 120 ages indicates that the major part of igneous activity took place in the period 2760-2670 Ma, known as the Kenoran event. This event was ubiquitous throughout the Superior Province.
The isotopic composition of Pb from Shergotty, Zagami, and EETA 79001 meteorites was determined for different phases. Using phases with low U-238/Pb-204 ratio, the initial leads of these meteorites were defined. Samples from all three meteorites were shown to have distinct initial leads, and, thus to have evolved from different reservoirs over most of solar system history in a low U-238/Pb-204 environment. It follows that the parent planet of the shergottites has a high Pb-204 concentration relative to U and must also be high in other volatiles. The possibility of the Martian origin of the SNC-type meteorites is discussed.
Directional solidification of the pseudobinary compound semiconductor material Pb sub 1-x Sn sub x Te by the Bridgman crystal growth process will be studied. Natural convection in the molten sample will be visualized with a novel electrochemical cell technique that employs the solid electrolyte material yttria-stabilized zirconia. Mass transfer by both diffusion and convection will be measured by detecting the motion of oxygen tracer in the liquid. Additional applications for electrochemical cells in semiconductor crystal growth are suggested. Unsteady convection in the melt will also be detected by the appearance of temperature oscillations. The purpose of this study is to experimentally characterize the overstable conditions for a Pb sub 1-x Sn sub x Te melt in the vertical Bridgman crystal growth technique and use a linear analysis to predict the onset of convection for this system.
Trace element and Pb, Sr, and Nd isotopic compositions of anorthosites and related rocks, and of younger mafic dikes from Harp Lake and Mealy Mountains in Labrador, Canada are estimated and compared. The effects of crustal component contaminants on the isotopic compositions of the dikes are investigated. The correlation between the isotopic data and the crustal contamination model is studied. It is observed that for Harp Lake the initial Sr ratios are higher and the Nd values are lower than Mealy samples, and the data do not correspond to the crustal contamination model; however, the Pb isotope data favor a crustal contamination model. It is noted that the Labrador segment of the Grenville Front appears to coincide with the southern margin of the Archean North Atlantic craton, and may represent a pre mid-Proterozoic suture.
Many industrial uses for liquid phase miscibility gap alloys are proposed. However, the commercial production of these alloys into useful ingots with a reasonable amount of homogeneity is arduous because of their immiscibility in the liquid state. In the low-g environment of space gravitational settling forces are abated, thus solidification of an immiscible alloys with a uniform distribution of phases becomes feasible. Elimination of gravitational settling and coalescence processes in low-g also makes possible the study of other separation and coarsening mechanisms. Even with gravitational separation forces reduced, many low-g experiments have resulted in severely segregated structures. The segregation in many cases was due to preferential wetting of the crucible by one of the immiscible liquids. The objective was to analyze the wetting behavior of Pb-Zn alloys on various crucible materials in an effort to identify a crucible in which the fluid flow induced by preferential wetting is minimized. It is proposed that by choosing the crucible for a particular alloy so that the difference in surface energy between the solid and two liqud phases is minimized, the effects of preferential wetting can be diminished and possibly avoided. Qualitative experiments were conducted and have shown the competitive wetting behavior of the immiscible Pb-Zn system and 13 different crucible materials.
A novel technique resulting in large undercoolings in bulk samples (23g) of lead-tin eutectic alloy is described. Samples of eutectic composition were processed with undercoolings ranging from 4 to 20 K and with cooling rates varying between 0.04 to 4 K/sec. The final macrostructure of undercooled samples depends on both the initial undercooling of the melt and the cooling rate. Gravity-driven segregation is found to increase with increasing undercooling. A eutectic Pb-Sn alloy undercooled at 20 K and cooled at 4 K/sec had a composition of about Pb-72 wt pct Sn at the top and 55 pct Sn at the bottom. Macrosegregation in these undercooled lead-tin eutectic alloys is shown to be primarily due to a sink/float mechanism caused by the difference in density of the solid and liquid phases and the undercooling and nucleation behavior of the alloy.
Many industrial uses for liquid phase miscibility gap alloys are proposed. However, the commercial production of these alloys into useful ingots with a reasonable amount of homogeneity is arduous because of their immiscibility in the liquid state. In the low-g environment of space gravitational settling forces are abated, thus solidification of an immiscible alloy with a uniform distribution of phases becomes feasible. Elimination of gravitational settling and coalescence processes in low-g also makes possible the study of other separation and coarsening mechanisms. Even with gravitational separation forces reduced, many low-g experiments have resulted in severely segregated structures. The segregation in many cases was due to preferential wetting of the crucible by one of the immiscible liquids. The objective was to analyze the wetting behavior of Pb-Zn alloys on various crucible materials in an effort to identify a crucible in which the fluid flow induced by preferential wetting is minimized. It is proposed that by choosing the crucible for a particular alloy so that the difference in surface energy between the solid and two liquid phases is minimized, the effects of preferential wetting can be diminished and possibly avoided. Qualitative experiments were conducted and have shown the competitive wetting behavior of the immiscible Pb-Zn system and 13 different crucible materials.
Isotope analyses of Os, Sr, Nd, and Pb elements were caried out on twelve peridotite xenoliths from the Jagersfontein, Letseng-la-terae, Thaba Patsoa, Mothae, and Premier kimberlites of southern Africa, to investigate the timing and the nature of melt extraction from the continental lithosphere and its relation to the continent formation and stabilization. The distinct Os and Pb isotopic characteristics found in these samples suggested that both the low- and the high-temperature peridotites reside in an ancient stable lithospheric 'keel' to the craton that has been isolated from chemical exchange with the sublithospheric mantle for time periods in excess of 2 Ga.
The dependence of primary arm spacings on growth speed was investigated for cellular and dendritic arrays in Pb-10 wt percent Sn samples directionally solidified under a constant positive thermal gradient in the melt. The gradient of constitutional supercooling was varied from almost zero (near the break-down of the planar liquid-solid interface at small growth speeds, cellular morphology) to near unity (large growth speeds, dendritic morphology). The spatial arrangements of cells and dendrites, as given by their coordination number, are not very different from each other. It appears that primary arm spacing maxima and the cell to dendrite transition are strongly influenced by the magnitude of the solute partition coefficient. The planar to cellular bifurcation is supercritical in Pb-Sn which has a high partition coefficient, as compared to the subcritical behavior reported in Al-Cu and succinonitrile-acetone, both of which have low partition coefficients. The primary arm spacing model due to Hunt agrees with the experimentally observed trend for the whole growth regime. There is a good quantitative agreement at higher gradients of supercooling. However, the model overpredicts the primary arm spacings at low gradients of constitutional supercooling.