Seawater strontium isotopes, Acid rain, and the cretaceous-tertiary boundary

A large bolide impact at the end of the Cretaceous would have produced significant amounts of nitrogen oxides by shock heating of the atmosphere. The resulting acid precipitation would have increased continental weathering greatly and could be an explanation for the observed high ratio of strontium-87 to strontium-86 in seawater at about this time, due to the dissolution of large amounts of strontium from the continental crust. Spikes to high values in the seawater strontium isotope record at other times may reflect similar episodes.     

Tracing food webs with stable hydrogen isotopes

The hydrogen isotopic content of an animal's food, not water, determines that animal's hydrogen isotopic content. Liver and muscle tissue from mice reared on a diet such that the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen (DIH) of their food and water was kept constant, have the same average D/H ratio as the food source. In a simple, natural population of snails and their possible algal diets, Littorina obtusata (northern Atlantic intertidal snails that feed almost exclusively on the brown alga Fucus vesiculosus) has the same D/H ratio as Fucus vesiculosis and not that of the other algae available to the snails.     

High-resolution NMR spectroscopy with a portable single-sided sensor

We report construction of a portable nuclear magnetic resonance sensor with a single-sided open probe design. The resulting magnetic field inhomogeneity is compensated by a pulse sequence that takes advantage of parallel inhomogeneity in the applied radio frequency field. We can thereby acquire fluorine-19 spectra of liquid fluorocarbons with 8 parts per million resolution, surmounting the long-standing obstacle of obtaining chemical shift information with open probe instruments.     

Mechanics of wind ripple stratigraphy

Stratigraphic patterns preserved under translating surface undulations or ripples in a depositional eolian environment are computed on a grain by grain basis using physically based cellular automata models. The spontaneous appearance, growth, and motion of the simulated ripples correspond in many respects to the behavior of natural ripples. The simulations show that climbing strata can be produced by impact alone; direct action of fluid shear is unnecessary. The model provides a means for evaluating the connection between mechanical processes occurring in the paleoenvironment during deposition and the resulting stratigraphy preserved in the geologic column: vertical compression of small laminae above a planar surface indicates nascent ripple growth; supercritical laminae are associated with unusually intense deposition episodes; and a plane erosion surface separating sets of well-developed laminae is consistent with continued migration of mature ripples during a hiatus in deposition.     

High-resolution microwave images of saturn

An analysis of high-resolution microwave images of Saturn and Saturn's individual rings is presented. Radio interferometric observations of Saturn taken at the Very Large Array in New Mexico at wavelengths of 2 and 6 centimeters reveal interesting new features in both the atmosphere and rings. The resulting maps show an increase in brightness temperature of about 3 K from equator to pole at both wavelengths, while the 6-centimeter map shows a bright band at northern mid-latitudes. The data are consistent with a radiative transfer model of the atmosphere that constrains the well-mixed, fully saturated, NH(3) mixing ratio to be 1.2 x 10(-4) in a region just below the NH(3) clouds, while the observed bright band indicates a 25 percent relative decrease of NH(3) in northern mid-latitudes. Brightness temperatures for the classical rings are presented. Ring brightness shows a variation with azimuth and is linearly polarized at an average value of about 5 percent. The variations in ring polarization suggest that at least 20 percent of the ring brightness is the result of a single scattering process.     

High-resolution electron microscopy of muscovite

Images of the (001) planes of muscovite were observed by electron microscopy after embedment of clay-size flakes in epoxy resin and sectioning by ultramicrotome. Dislocation or growth planes were indicated. Incomplete exchange of potassium for barium produced zones with 20-angstrom periodicity, suggesting regular interstratification.     

High-resolution three-dimensional imaging of dislocations

Dislocations and their interactions govern the properties of many materials, ranging from work hardening in metals to device pathology in semiconductor laser diodes. However, conventional electron micrographs are simply two-dimensional projections of three-dimensional (3D) structures, and even stereo microscopy cannot reveal the true 3D complexity of defect structures. Here, we describe an electron tomographic method that yields 3D reconstructions of dislocation networks with a spatial resolution three orders of magnitude better than previous work. We illustrate the method's success with a study of dislocations in a GaN epilayer, where dislocation densities of 1010 per square centimeter are common.     

High-resolution scanning x-ray diffraction microscopy

Coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) and scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM) are two popular microscopy techniques that have evolved quite independently. CDI promises to reach resolutions below 10 nanometers, but the reconstruction procedures put stringent requirements on data quality and sample preparation. In contrast, STXM features straightforward data analysis, but its resolution is limited by the spot size on the specimen. We demonstrate a ptychographic imaging method that bridges the gap between CDI and STXM by measuring complete diffraction patterns at each point of a STXM scan. The high penetration power of x-rays in combination with the high spatial resolution will allow investigation of a wide range of complex mesoscopic life and material science specimens, such as embedded semiconductor devices or cellular networks.     

High-resolution autoradiography of intracellular plutonium

Intracellular incorporation of polymeric plutonium injected into mice was demonstrated in liver and spleen by electron-microscopic auto-radiography. The observations are not inconsistent with other evidence indicating the association of plutonium with lysosomal components. Early results with a quantitative electron-microscopic technique may lead to microdosimetry of cells and cellular components.     

Large groundwater strontium flux to the oceans from the Bengal Basin and the marine strontium isotope record

Strontium concentration and isotopic data for subsurface flowing groundwaters of the Ganges-Brahmaputra (G-B) delta in the Bengal Basin demonstrate that this is a potentially significant source of strontium to the oceans, equal in magnitude to the dissolved strontium concentration carried to the oceans by the G-B river waters. The strontium concentrations of groundwaters are higher by a factor of about 10 than typical G-B river waters and they have similar 87Sr/86Sr ratio to the river waters. These new data suggest that the present contribution of the G-B system to the rise in 87Sr/86Sr ratio in seawater is higher by at least a factor of 2 to 5 than the average over the past 40 million years.     

Strontium isotopes in deep-sea sediments

Recent deep-sea sediments, leached of carbonate, have Sr(87) Sr(86) ratios ranging from 0.7044 to 0.7394. Strontium in the detrital sediment has not equilibrated isotopically with seawater strontium. Amounts of strontium-bearing authigenic material in the clay-mineral assemblage are not great enough to mask strontium-isotope ratios inherited from source areas.     

Nonbiological fractionation of iron isotopes

Laboratory experiments demonstrate that iron isotopes can be chemically fractionated in the absence of biology. Isotopic variations comparable to those seen during microbially mediated reduction of ferrihydrite are observed. Fractionation may occur in aqueous solution during equilibration between inorganic iron complexes. These findings provide insight into the mechanisms of iron isotope fractionation and suggest that nonbiological processes may contribute to iron isotope variations observed in sediments.     

High-resolution climatic analysis and southwest biogeography

Meteorologists and climatologists have produced significant new data on the fluid dynamics of the atmosphere, thus allowing biologists to examine more closely the cause-effect relation between the large-scale structure of the atmosphere and the dominant patterns of global biogeography. The inability to characterize the high-frequency variability of the weather has constrained such efforts. A method that allows year-to-year patterns of weather variability to be characterized in the contexts of global warming and cooling trends is applied in a combined analysis of long-term monthly weather records and data from an ecological monitoring project in southern New Mexico. The analysis suggests a cause-effect hypothesis of recent desertification in the North American Southwest. The links between the atmosphere and the biosphere are based on the fundamentally different responses to specific weather regimes of semidesert grasses with a C(4) photosynthetic pathway and desert shrubs with a C(3) photosynthetic pathway. The hypothesis appears to be of sufficient generality to explain the complex, but well-documented, floristic changes that have occurred in the same region since the last glacial maximum.