Chicxulub multiring impact basin: size and other characteristics derived from gravity analysis

The buried Chicxulub impact structure in Mexico, which is linked to the Cretaceous- Tertiary (K-T) boundary layer, may be significantly larger than previously suspected. Reprocessed gravity data over Northern Yucatan reveal three major rings and parts of a fourth ring, spaced similarly to those observed at multiring impact basins on other planets. The outer ring, probably corresponding to the basin's topographic rim, is almost 300 kilometers in diameter, indicating that Chicxulub may be one of the largest impact structures produced in the inner solar system since the period of early bombardment ended nearly 4 billion years ago.     

40Ar-39Ar Dating of the Manson Impact Structure: A Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Crater Candidate

The mineralogy of shocked mineral and lithic grains in the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary claystone worldwide is most consistent with a bolide impact on a continent. Both the concentrations and sizes of these shocked grains are greatest in the western interior of North America. These data suggest that the Manson impact structure in north-central Iowa is a viable candidate for the K-T boundary impact event. Argon-40-argon-39 age spectrum dating of shocked microcline from the crystalline central uplift of the Manson impact structure indicates that there was severe argon-40 loss at 65.7 +/- 1.0 million years ago, an age that is indistinguishable from that of the K-T boundary, within the limits of analytical precision.     

Coesite and Shocked Quartz from Holleford Crater, Ontario, Canada

The Holleford Crater, a circular depression in southern Ontario, is filled with Paleozoic sediments and underlain by brecciated Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks. The presence of coesite in two core samples of this breccia has been established by petrographic and x-ray diflraction methods. Shattered quartz in the coesite-bearing samples exhibits planar fractures. The shocked quartz is the result of great shock pressures and the association of coesite with the shocked quartz strongly suggests that Holleford Crater originated from a hypervelocity impact.     

Shocked quartz in the cretaceous-tertiary boundary clays: evidence for a global distribution

Shocked quartz grains displaying planar features were isolated from Cretaceous- Tertiary boundary clays at five sites in Europe, a core from the north-central Pacific Ocean, and a site in New Zealand. At all of these sites, the planar features in the shocked quartz can be indexed to rational crystallographic planes of the quartz lattice. The grains display streaking indicative of shock in x-ray diffraction photographs and also show reduced refractive indices. These characteristic features of shocked quartz at several sites worldwide confirm that an impact event at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary distributed ejecta products in an earth-girdling dust cloud, as postulated by the Alvarez impact hypothesis.     

Terrestrial carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios from cretaceous-tertiary boundary nanodiamonds

One hypothesis for the origin of the nanometer-size diamonds found at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary is that they are relict interstellar diamond grains carried by a postulated asteroid. The (13)C/(12)C and (15)N/(14)N ratios of the diamonds from two sites in North America, however, show that the diamonds are two component mixtures differing in carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition and nitrogen abundance. Samples from a site from Italy show no evidence for either diamond component. All the isotopic signatures obtained from the K-T boundary are material well distinguished from known meteoritic diamonds, particularly the fine-grain interstellar diamonds that are abundant in primitive chondrites. The K-T diamonds were most likely produced during the impact of the asteroid with Earth or in a plasma resulting from the associated fireball.     

Proximal cretaceous-tertiary boundary impact deposits in the Caribbean

Trace element, isotopic, and mineralogic studies indicate that the proposed impact at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary occurred in an ocean basin, although a minor component of continental material is required. The size and abundance of shocked minerals and the restricted geographic occurrence of the ejecta layer and impact-wave deposits suggest an impact between the Americas. Coarse boundary sediments at sites 151 and 153 in the Colombian Basin and 5- to 450-meter-thick boundary sediments in Cuba may be deposits of a giant wave produced by a nearby oceanic impact. On the southern peninsula of Haiti, a approximately 50-centimeter-thick ejecta layer occurs at the K-T boundary. This ejecta layer is approximately 25 times as thick as that at any known K-T site and suggests an impact site within approximately 1000 kilometers. Seismic reflection profiles suggest that a buried approximately 300-km-diameter candidate structure occurs in the Colombian Basin.     

Mineralogic evidence for an impact event at the cretaceous-tertiary boundary

A thin claystone layer found in nonmarine rocks at the palynological Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in eastern Montana contains an anomalously high value of iridium. The nonclay fraction is mostly quartz with minor feldspar, and some of these grains display planar features. These planar features are related to specific crystallographic directions in the quartz lattice. The shocked quartz grains also exhibit asterism and have lowered refractive indices. All these mineralogical features are characteristic of shock metamorphism and are compelling evidence that the shocked grains are the product of a high velocity impact between a large extraterrestrial body and the earth. The shocked minerals represent silicic target material injected into the stratosphere by the impact of the projectile.     

Shocked quartz at the triassic-jurassic boundary in Italy

Quartz grains that appear to have been shock-metamorphosed occur within three closely spaced shale beds from the uppermost Triassic ("Rhaetian") Calcare a Rhaetavicula in the Northern Apennines of Italy. The upper shale coincides with the abrupt termination of the distinctive, uppermost Triassic Rhaetavicula fauna and is overlain by the Hettangian (Lower Jurassic) Calcare Massiccio; no extinctions appear to be associated with the two lower layers, which occur 1.2 and 2.4 meters below the boundary shale. Approximately 5 to 10% of the quartz grains within these layers exhibit one or more sets of planar deformational features whose orientations cluster around the rational crystallographic planes (basal, omega, and pi) most commonly observed in shocked quartz. Textural and stratigraphic observations support an interpretation of at least three closely spaced impacts at the end of the Triassic.     

Is GRO J1744-28 a strange star?

The unusual hard x-ray burster GRO J1744-28 recently discovered by the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory can be modeled as a strange star with a dipolar magnetic field of 相似文献   

冷休克诱导红鳍东方鲀雄核发育单倍体的条件优化

为探索无需卵子失活仅用冷休克方法诱导雄核发育单倍体,以红鳍东方鲀Takifugu rubripes为研究对象,试验选用L_9(3~4)设计,进行3因素3水平的正交试验,处理温度设为0、2、4℃,处理持续时间设为30、45、60 min,处理起始时间设为2、5、8 min,共9个试验组,并对其后代采用单个胚胎染色体计数法进行染色体数目统计及微卫星分析。结果表明:冷休克诱导得到的单倍体率最高为第7试验组和第9试验组,分别为受精后8 min在4℃下处理30 min和受精后5 min在4℃下处理60 min,单倍体率分别为86.7%和80.0%;根据正交试验直观分析结果,得出冷休克诱导红鳍东方鲀雄核发育单倍体的3因素最优组合为处理温度4℃、处理持续时间60 min、处理起始时间8 min;影响冷休克诱导单倍体的3因素主次顺序为处理温度处理起始时间处理持续时间;微卫星分析结果表明,单倍体携带的遗传基因全部为父本的遗传基因。研究表明,仅用冷休克方法可以成功诱导红鳍东方鲀雄核发育单倍体,雄核发育单倍体率高达86.7%,为进一步研究诱导红鳍东方鲀雄核发育二倍体奠定了基础。     

Bedout: a possible end-Permian impact crater offshore of northwestern Australia

The Bedout High, located on the northwestern continental margin of Australia, has emerged as a prime candidate for an end-Permian impact structure. Seismic imaging, gravity data, and the identification of melt rocks and impact breccias from drill cores located on top of Bedout are consistent with the presence of a buried impact crater. The impact breccias contain nearly pure silica glass (SiO2), fractured and shock-melted plagioclases, and spherulitic glass. The distribution of glass and shocked minerals over hundreds of meters of core material implies that a melt sheet is present. Available gravity and seismic data suggest that the Bedout High represents the central uplift of a crater similar in size to Chicxulub. A plagioclase separate from the Lagrange-1 exploration well has an Ar/Ar age of 250.1 +/- 4.5 million years. The location, size, and age of the Bedout crater can account for reported occurrences of impact debris in Permian-Triassic boundary sediments worldwide.     

高温冲击对东亚小花蝽存活及生殖特性的影响

测定了在不同高温（39、41、43℃）下冲击1 h后,东亚小花蝽成虫存活率、产卵前期、产卵量、寿命等生殖特性指标的差异。结果表明：随着温度的升高,东亚小花蝽成虫的存活率从94.44%下降到68.89%;东亚小花蝽雌虫的产卵前期随温度升高而延长,25℃恒温条件下雌虫产卵前期平均为2.56 d,43℃高温处理1 h后延长至4.11 d;短时高温冲击显著降低东亚小花蝽成虫的单雌产卵量,25℃恒温条件下单雌产卵量平均为60.44粒,41℃冲击1 h后,其产卵量为24.10粒,43℃冲击1 h后仅为13.78粒;东亚小花蝽成虫寿命随温度的升高而降低,25℃恒温条件下,雌成虫寿命平均为15.33 d,而43℃高温冲击1 h后,雌虫寿命仅为8.11 d。以上结果表明,短时高温冲击导致东亚小花蝽生殖适应性下降。     

Social setting: influence on the physiological response to electric shock in the rat

A significant fall in tail blood pressure occurs in paired rats after shock-induced aggression. Pressure returns to baseline levels within 4 hours after fighting. Conversely, single rats subjected to jump threshold measurements or to shocks identical to those used in the aggression paradigm show significant elevations in tail blood pressure. The size of the pressure increase in rats shocked alone appears dependent on the intensity of the shocks, while the pressure fall in rats shocked in pairs occurs over a broad range of shock intensities.     

Fractional escape and avoidance on a titration schedule

Rats were shocked, continuously or intermittently, by an electrical stimulus whose intensity increased by one step every 20 seconds. Each time the rat depressed a lever in the experimental chamber, shock intensity was decreased by one step. Lever-pressing was maintained on such a program, with both continuous and intermittent delivery of shock.     

Long-term analgesic effects of inescapable shock and learned helplessness

Although exposure to inescapable shocks induced analgesia in rats, the analgesia was not manifest 24 hours later. A brief reexposure to shock, however, restored the analgesia. This reexposure to shock had an analgesic effect only if the rats had been shocked 24 hours previously. Further, long-term analgesic effects depended on the controllability of the original shocks and not on shock exposure per se. Implications of these results for learned helplessness and stress-induced analgesia are discussed.     

Shock-produced olivine glass: first observation

Transmission electron microscope (TEM) observations of an experimentally shock-deformed single crystal of natural peridot, (Mg(0.88)Fe(0.12))(2)SiO(4), recovered from peak pressures of about 56 x 10(9) pascals revealed the presence of amorphous zones located within crystalline regions with a high density of tangled dislocations. This is the first reported observation of olivine glass. The shocked sample exhibits a wide variation in the degree of shock deformation on a small scale, and the glass appears to be intimately associated with the highest density of dislocations. This study suggests that olivine glass may be formed as a result of shock at pressures above about 50 to 55 x 10(9) pascals and that further TEM observations of naturally shocked olivines may demonstrate the presence of glass.     

Shock effects in certain rock-forming minerals

Shock effects in quartz, plagioclase, biotite, amphibole, and some accessory minerals have been observed in rocks subjected to various degrees of meta morphism by meteoritic impact. The shock features described are unique; they are never observed in rocks from normal geologic environments. Such features are described: 1) Multiple sets of closely spaced planar microstructures occur in quartz, plagioclase, and other rock-forming minerals. Those characteristic of shock consist of alternating platelets, with a range of reduced mean index of re fraction and birefringence; they con sist of platelets that have been partially or completely transformed to an amor phous phase. 2) Quartz and plagioclase are selec tively and completely transformed to silica glass and plagioclase glass in the solid state, whereas the associated mafic minerals remained crystalline. There is no reaction between adjacent minerals. 3) High-pressure polymorphs occur, such as coesite or stishovite. Coesite oc Curs exclusively within silica glass; it has not been observed as a reaction or breakdown product. 4) Nickel-iron spherules occur in the fused glass or impactites. 5) The occurrence of droplets of ilmenite, rutile, pseudobrookite, and baddaleyite in impactites indicates a temperature of formation exceeding 150 degrees C. 6) Dense glass occurs, similar in composition to bulk rock, in which iron oxide, such as fine particles of mag netite, is completely dissolved. All these features are characteristic of a process involving the rapid rise and fall of extremiiely high pressures and temperatures. Minerals and mineral as semblages experiencing such high strain rates and sudden changes of pressures and temperatures react and change in dependently to the bulk chemical com position, under nonequilibrium condi tions. Many aspects of shock features re quire careful study. Kink bands in biotite and deformation lamellae in quartz occur in tectonically deformed rocks. These features should be studied with great care in order to determine whether reduction in mean index of refraction and total birefringence along the planar structures have resulted from vitrification or phase transition; their presence is additional evidence in favor of a shock mechanism. Vitreous phases or glasses formed by shock also have many unique prop erties; they have not been studied by such methods as thermoluminescence, electron spin resonance, low-angle x ray diffraction, or infrared spectroscopy. Shock-fused glass of high density needs to be studied in detail in carefully con trolled laboratory conditions. Experimental shock-wave studies of the equation-of-state of single minerals and mineral assemblages, under care fully controlled conditions, must pre cede estimates of peak pressures and peak and residual temperatures of shocked natural mineral assemblages. Detailed petrographic and mineralogic studies, however, have provided useful and definitive criteria for characteriza tion of impact events. Such data should be of paramount importance in the study of samples brought back from Moon.     

Critical periods for the effects of infantile experience on adult learning

Mice were shocked with 0.1, 0.3, or 0.5 ma of current at 2 to 3, 8 to 9, or 15 to 16 days. Handled, nonshocked and nonhandled controls were also used. In adulthood each group was split into thirds and taught an avoidance response under shock of 0.3, 0.5, or 0.7 ma. The amount of shock given during infancy and adulthood, and the age at which shock occurred, were all found to have significant effects upon learning.     

Interanimal "memory" transfer: results from brain and liver homogenates

Sixty mice received either shock or no shock in a shuttle box, or nonspecific stress in another apparatus. Brain and liver homogenates from these animals were then injected into 120 naive recipients, who were all tested in the shuttle box. Subjects receiving brain or liver from shocked or stressed donors had significantly higher latencies than control counterparts. These results are interpreted in terms of stress, rather than a memory transfer hypothesis.