climatic periodicity during the late pleistocene from a loess paleosol sequence in northwest argentina abstract a 42 m thick loess paleosol sequence was studied in the pre andean intramountain valley of tafi del valle 100 km west of the city of san miguel de tucuman at an elevation of 2280 m asl in northwest argentina the sequence contains 28 paleosols alternating with loess layers the loess layers are coarse loamy and have large hexagonal polyhedra the soil layers are restricted to bt horizons having fine loamy textures prismatic structures and organo argillans on the structural surfaces surface a and eluvial e horizons are absent from the whole sequence soil truncation is unlikely as no remains of these horizons or erosional unconformities were identified the dated part of the sequence encompasses a time span of 10 080 years from 17 580 bp at 5 2 m depth to 27 660 bp at 42 3 m depth the base of the exposed sequence the youngest strata are probably missing either because of a depositional hiatus or because of post depositional erosion as dated paleosols in adjacent areas indicate that loess deposition continued during at least the early holocene the 20 bt c couplets identified in the dated sequence correspond to 20 climatic oscillations in 10 080 years thus every 500 years on average there was a climatic change from dry cool conditions with loess deposition to moist warm conditions favouring soil development this might have been related to recurrent northward shifts of the polar front accompanied by weakening of the mid latitude south pacific anticyclone similar short term periodicity has been identified in the ice cap of greenland and in tropical lake level records so such frequent climatic changes during the late pleistocene seem to have been global in character

late quaternary paleosols stratigraphy and landscape evolution in the northern pampa argentina the field properties micromorphology grain size geochemistry and optically stimulated luminescence osl ages of two late quaternary sections have been used to reconstruct the sequence of pedosedimentary processes and to provide insights into landscape evolution in part of the northern pampa of argentina paleosols developed in paludal sediments adjacent to the parana river at baradero and in loess at lozada can both be correlated and linked to other sites thus enabling for the first time the tentative recognition and tracing of a diachronous soil stratigraphic unit that probably spans the equivalent of at least part of marine oxygen isotope stage ois 5 the paleosol at lozada was truncated and buried beneath fluvial sediments during the time span of ois 4 and 3 eolian gradually replaced paludal inputs at baradero over this period and there were also two clearly defined breaks in sedimentation and development of paleosols the period corresponding to ois 2 was marked by significant loess accumulation at both sites with accretion continuing into the mid holocene only at lozada the more developed nature of the surface soil at baradero probably reflects a combination of a moister climate and a longer soil forming interval

submillimeter scale topography of the lunar regolith we have applied computer stereophotogrammetry to apollo lunar surface closeup camera alscc pictures of the lunar surface to construct the first ever digital topographic relief maps of undisturbed lunar soil over spatial scales from 85 m to 8 5 cm using elevation histograms fractal analysis and hapke s photometric roughness model we show that apollo 14 fra mauro imbrium ejecta is rougher than average apollo 11 mare tranquilitatis and apollo 12 oceanus procellarum mare surfaces at submillimeter to decimeter size scales we confirm the early result of k lumme et al 1985 earth moon planets33 19 29 that the cumulative distribution of elevations for lunar soil is typically well described by gaussian statistics however cumulative distributions are insensitive to asymmetries in the shapes of elevation histograms of 11 discrete elevation histograms we measured about half exhibit significant deviations from gaussian behavior we also confirm lumme et al s finding that the roughnesses of all lunar surfaces increase with decreasing size scale we further show that the scale dependence of roughness is well represented by fractal statistics the rates of change of roughness with size scale represented by fractal dimension d are remarkably similar among terrians after correcting for the contribution of large scale roughness our average value of d 2 31 0 06 falls within the range 2 0 d 2 4 reported from lunar radar studies the amplitude of roughness which we characterize with the rms slope angle at 1 mm scale varies significantly among terrains for lunar mare the average rms slope angle is 16 4 3 and that for fra mauro regolith is 25 1 by comparison to radar data we suggest that the roughness of fra mauro imbrium ejecta regolith is similar to that of lunar highland terrains we find that the gaussian slope distribution assumed in b w hapke s model 1984 icarus59 41 59 adequately describes typical lunar regolith surfaces a revised form of hapke s equation that models realistic particle phase functions and the coherent backscatter opposition effect was fitted to disk resolved lunar photometric observations and yields estimates of 27 1 for highland and 24 1 for mare regolith these values of as well as the implied relative highland mare photometric roughness ratio are best matched in our elevation data by the cummulative contributions of surface topography covering all scales greater than 0 1 mm less than 5 of the photometrically detected roughness of lunar regolith is contributed by surface relief at scales larger than 8 cm this conclusion implies that values of derived from whole disk and disk resolved photometry respectively may be taken to represent the same physical quantity in addition particulate samples used in goniophotometric measurements should not be assumed to be photometrically smooth i e 0 as is often done in laboratory applications of hapke s photometric model the predicted photometric roughness at size scales of 0 1 mm and less significantly exceed photometric estimates and suggests that there exists a measurable size scale below which topographic relief either is not photometrically detectable or is not represented in the hapke model as macroscopic roughness

interaction between aggrading geomorphic surfaces and the formation of a late pleistocene paleosol in the palouse loess of eastern washington state abstract variable rates of loess deposition contributed to dramatic regional variation in a soil stratigraphic unit the washtucna soil in the palouse loess deposits in the channeled scabland of eastern washington state throughout most of the channeled scabland the morphology of the washtucna soil is that of a single buried soil but it bifurcates into two well developed and pedologically distinct buried soils in areas immediately downwind of the major source of loessial sediment regional loess stratigraphy confirms that the two well developed soils formed during the same interval of time during which only one soil formed in areas that are distal to loess source areas the variable and perhaps rapid rates of soil formation suggested by the stratigraphy resulted from an interaction between variable rates of loess deposition and the formation of superimposed calcic soils petrocalcic horizons with weak stage iv morphology formed as the zone of carbonate accumulation moved up into former a and cambic horizons that had been profusely burrowed by cicadas the development of cicada burrows in one phase of soil development that were subsequently engulfed by pedogenic carbonate under a rising land surface seems to have greatly accelerated the development of the petrocalcic horizons accelerated rates of formation of the petrocalcic horizons occurred when extrinsic pulses of loess deposition and intrinsic engulfment of burrowed horizons thresholds were exceeded stratigraphic evidence suggests that the soil formation that accompanied the rise in the land surface due to additional loess deposition may have occurred during the late wisconsin glaciation when giant glacial outburst floods in the channeled scabland triggered a new cycle of loess deposition

the glaciogenic origin of the pleistocene calcareous dust in argentina on the basis of field mineralogical textural and geochemical analyses calcareous dust occurs in argentina as layers and pockets closely associated with pleistocene deposits and periglacial features from southernmost patagonia to at least the mendoza precordillera and has been traditionally interpreted as a soil horizon resulting from postdepositional pedogenesis during interglacials detailed field and microscopic observations and sedimentological and geochemical analyses of more than 100 samples collected from lower to upper pleistocene deposits between 51 s and 33 s and from near sea level to 2800 m asl allow us to interpret the dust as synchronous with the host sediment all observations and analyses lead us to conclude that 1 the cryogenic morphology and the chemical signatures of the calcite component show that the dust is glaciogenic 2 the dust was carried by southeasterly antarctic winds and 3 it was deposited over most of southern and central argentina field observations geomorphic evidence and radiocarbon dates suggest that the dust was deposited during several pleistocene glacial episodes

climatic interpretation of a 1 9 ma environmental magnetic record of loess deposition and soil formation in the central eastern pampas of buenos aires argentina abstract much of what we know about quaternary climate has been learned from sedimentary records from the world s oceans with the exception of the extensive studies of the chinese loess paleosol sequence and more recent studies of long lake records there are few long terrestrial climate records particularly from the southern hemisphere the loess record of argentina provides an important opportunity to further our understanding of climate change from a terrestrial environment but its complexity and discontinuity have led to difficulty in formulating a climatological model of depositional and pedogenic processes in this study we present one of the longest and most continuous loess loessoid records from the central eastern pampas of argentina our age model is based on optically stimulated luminescent dates and a paleomagnetic reversal stratigraphy and indicates a basal age around 1 9 ma within the age model uncertainties we characterize the environmental magnetic properties associated with loess deposition and soil formation with respect to wind patterns moisture availability and temperature major changes in magnetic grain size are linked to a differential northward shift of the subtropical high pressure cell during glacial periods we suggest that coarser finer magnetic grains correspond to weaker stronger glacial periods when the high pressure cell is located in a more southerly northerly position and the source region is more proximal distal to our study area an abrupt increase in the ultrafine grained magnetic material around 0 9 ma is related to an increase in moisture transport from the south atlantic driven by an increase in summer sea surface temperatures at the mid pleistocene transition 1 ma in addition to these grain size variations there is a relative decrease in the amount of goethite compared to hematite beginning around 0 5 ma which has been related to the temperature increase observed after the mid brunhes event 450 ka in the epica ice core temperature record a more detailed comparison to insolation indicates that for portions of the record ferrimagnetic minerals are depleted during periods of low insolation this result suggests that argentine loess deposition and soil formation follows a model more similar to the alaskan loess sequences than the chinese loess sequences although further work is needed to validate the models and mechanisms proposed in this study our record indicates that the mineral magnetic properties of the loess and paleosol deposits record major changes in deposition and soil formation and provide insight into possible mechanisms relating to global and or hemispheric climate change

local topographic effects on photometry and reflectance spectra of planetary surfaces an example based on lunar photometry the photometric properties of the average lunar surface are characterized using hapkes equations and whole disk observations ranging from 0 36 to 1 06 m synthetic spectra across a crater topographic profile arecreated using the modeling results the synthetic spectra are examined for spectral variations created by changes in lighting conditions induced by the topography changes above the modeling uncertainties are seen in both spectral slope and band depths though the most pronounced change is in band depth the data have insufficient spectral resolution to determine if there are any changes in band center due to photometric effects no additional absorption features are introduced by the photometry these results have serious implications on the interpretation of spectral observations in terms of abundance estimates and alteration processes as a function of location and association with geologic features

timing of the younger dryas event in east africa from lake level changes the last deglaciation was interrupted by an abrupt cooling event the younger dryas at 11 000 ndash 10 000 yr bp uncalibrated radiocarbon timescale 1 originally recognized in climate records from northwest europe the younger dryas has now been identified in marine and ice core records worldwide2 6 in the tropics a broadly contemporaneous change in climate is recorded by decreases in water levels and increased salinity of lakes7 9 14 indicating a period of arid climate caused by a reduction in ocean to land moisture flux the exact timing of these changes in relation to the younger dryas event in high latitude records has remained unclear however here we present climate records based on analyses of diatom assemblages geochemistry and magnetic mineralogy of radiocarbon dated sequences of laminated lake sediments from lake magadi in the east african rift these records provide a detailed record of climate change in lowland equatorial africa throughout the last deglaciation 12 800 ndash 10 000 14c yr bp we find that lake level and humidity maxima coincide with the most rapid phases of ice melting in the northern hemisphere and that the climate changes including the younger dryas event were synchronous at low and high latitudes thus the effects of abrupt climate change appear to be felt at both high and low latitudes without a significant time lag

magnetostratigraphy and magnetic susceptibility of the las carreras loess paleosol sequence in valle de tafi tucuman nw argentina abstract stratigraphic studies on loess deposits in the intramontane basin of valle de tafi 27 s 66 w revealed up to 31 intercalated paleosols in order to clarify the chronostratigraphic position of the sediments we performed paleomagnetic investigations in the 50 m thick las carreras section the characteristic remanent magnetization chrm obtained after alternating field af demagnetization gives clear evidence of the matuyama brunhes boundary mbb at a profile depth of 26 7 m and of the jaramillo subchron at depths from 38 7 to 44 9 m we assign a minimum age of 1 15 ma to the onset of loess sedimentation which calls for a complete reassessment of the antiquity of loess in the region thus the las carreras sequence which is probably continuous and complete represents one of the longest quaternary terrestrial paleoclimatic records reported from the southern hemisphere the magnetic susceptibility signal follows the behavior known for argentinian eolian sediments though with certain restrictions and an overall weak correlation with pedostratigraphy this behavior is opposite to the pattern reported from the chinese loess plateau clp and seems to be influenced strongly by changing source materials contributing to the susceptibility signal in valle de tafi

micromorphology and osl dating of the basal part of the loess paleosol sequence at la mesada in tucuman province northwest argentina abstract the basal part of the 42 m loess paleosol sequence at la mesada near tucuman in nw argentina reported by zinck and sayago j s am earth sci 12 1999 293 quat int 78 2001 11 is re examined here using a combination of micromorphology and optically stimulated luminescence osl dating depth distributions of microstructure clay coatings and secondary carbonate features enable the development of this part of the sequence to be reconstructed in terms of a series of pedosedimentary stages stage one involved accretionary pedogenesis with loess being modified by bioturbation and possibly leaching processes as it accumulated stage two was marked by a reduction in loess deposition and establishment of a relatively stable surface at which bioturbation leaching and clay translocation processes were dominant stage three represented a return to accretionary pedogenesis followed by establishment of a new relatively stable surface and vertical leaching and clay translocation processes with some welding of secondary carbonate features on the underlying older soil the three osl dates ranging from ca 150 to 195 ka bp suggest that the whole sequence is significantly older than indicated by the radiocarbon chronology ka bp reported in the works of zink and sayago cited above however assuming that the pedosedimentary changes reflect alternating periods of dry cool and moist warm conditions as suggested in the works of zink and sayago cited above the succession still potentially provides the highest resolution proxy climatic record so far reported in argentina

the scattering properties of natural terrestrial snows versus icy satellite surfaces abstract a j verbiscer and j veverka 1990 icarus 88 418 428 demonstrated that the single scattering properties of terrestrial snows are highly forward scattering in contrast to the single scattering properties of icy satellite surfaces which all have a backscattering component to their single scattering functions as modeled with b hapke s equations 1981 j geophys res 86 3039 3054 1984 icarus 59 41 59 1986 icarus 67 264 280 this study demonstrates to first order that the differences between the scattering properties of icy satellite regoliths and their terrestrial counterparts are due to differences in particle structure and textures we find that the particles of the regoliths of the icy satellites are composed of a complex mixture of grain textures and structures

formation of calcareous nodules in loess paleosol sequences reviews of existing models with a proposed new per evapotranspiration model abstract loess is a product of aeolian deposition during quaternary glaciation cycles loess paleosol sequences are rich in calcareous nodules cns in the literature two models are widely cited for the formation of cns namely per descendum and per ascendum however there has been no direct testing or monitoring to support either of these contradictory models this paper reviews a large number of multidisciplinary literature to evaluate the consistency reliability and rationality of these two models three main conclusions are drawn 1 the causative factors variation of ph value along loess paleosol sequence decrease of co2 partial pressure and reduction of solvent water that are used to support the per descendum model do not completely explain the supersaturation of infiltration solution with caco3 thereby making this model questionable 2 the per ascendum model explains the formation of cns along narrow horizons through upward evaporation however it fails to produce sporadic distributions and irregular shapes of nodules on loess slope faces and the frequent appearance of nodules around plant roots in order to reconcile these deficiencies we conducted an extensive field survey in various parts of shanxi province based on this new set of observations it was concluded that the per ascendum model can be extended to explain all occurrences of cns this extended model is called per evapotranspiration

the argentine neotropical loess an overview abstract the neotropical loess primary and reworked covers a large part of argentina north of 30 s it is different in some ways from the loess of the pampa which is generally considered the typical argentine loess the mineralogical chemical and physical composition of the neotropical loess has been analyzed and is here compared with both pampean and northern hemisphere european and north american loess the distribution of neotropical loess is established following the former teruggi scheme and the bio stratigraphical data indicating a late pleistocene age is described the great climatic variability of this period is documented through description of a loess paleosol sequence that mantles the pre andean valleys the influence of loess influx upon the genesis of the paleosols and the stadial interstadial environmental changes are considered in relation to the generalized truncation of paleoedaphic sequences the migration of the polar front and the weakness of the pacific high pressure system are also analyzed in relation to south american environmental evolution during the upper quaternary in that sense the genesis of pre andean fluvial valleys and mega fans extending outward into the andean piedmont plains having sources on the eastern dry side of the andes would have been influenced by such a paleoclimatic situation

mineralogy of the lunar crust results from clementine received 1997 december 5 accepted in revised form 1998 september 15 abstract the central peaks of 109 impact craters across the moon are examined with clementine ultraviolet visible uvvis camera multispectral data the craters range in diameter from 40 to 180 km and are believed to have exhumed material from 5 30 km beneath the surface to form the peaks including both upper and lower crustal rocks depending on whether craters have impacted into highlands or basins representative five color spectra from spectrally and spatially distinct areas within the peaks are classified using spectral parameters including key ratio which is related to mafic mineral abundance and spectral curvature linked to absorption band shape which distinguishes between low and high ca pyroxene and olivine the spectral parameters are correlated to mineralogical abundances related in turn to highland plutonic rock compositions the derived rock compositions for the various central peaks are presented in a global map from these results it is evident that the lunar crust is compositionally diverse both globally and at local 100 m scales found within individual sets of central peaks although the central peaks compositions imply a crust that is generally consistent with previous models of crustal structure they also indicate a more anorthositic crust than generally assumed with a bulk plagioclase content of 8 1 evolving from pure anorthosite near the surface towards more mafic low ca pyroxene rich compositions with depth comparable to anorthositic norite evidence for mafic plutons occurs in both highlands and basins and represent all mafic highland rock types however the lower crust is more compositionally diverse than the highlands with both a greater range of rock types and more diversity within individual sets of central peaks

a multi proxy study of argentina loess marine oxygen isotope stage 4 and 5 environmental record from pedogenic hematite abstract a 12 m loess paleosol section la angostura from tafi del valle tucuman argentina was studied using rock magnetic measurements geochemistry mossbauer effect particle size and nd isotopes in order to elucidate changes in paleoenvironment at the site combining the results of these experiments allowed us to separate the effects of the two major controls parent material and pedogenesis on the measured parameters two behavior regimes were identified in the sediment 1 in the lower half of the section pedogenic processes though weak dominate the variation of the sediment s physical properties and 2 for the upper half of the section subtle changes in parent material control the majority of the measured parameters even those typically controlled by pedogenesis e g clay fraction applying rock magnetic mossbauer and bulk geochemistry measurements in concert we calculated an iron budget for the loess 80 of the iron in the sediment is in paramagnetic minerals 20 of the iron is in hematite 1 6 of the sediment s mass and 1 of the total iron is present as magnetite maghemite 0 1 of the sediment s total mass neither the pedogenic formation nor the depletion of ferrimagnetic material with increasing pedogenesis was consistently observed in this sediment throughout the entire section the concentration of hematite is argued to be sensitive to in situ alteration and it is further surmised to be sensitive to the available moisture at the site finally we present a curiosity within the error of our chronology the concentration of hematite seems to correlate with the coeval climate record from antarctica vostok it is possible that the sedimentary magnetic record from la angostura is a proxy for the strength of the south american summer monsoon

the summer 1997 eruption at pillan patera on io implications for ultrabasic lava flow emplacement galileo data and numerical modeling were used to investigate the summer 1997 eruption at pillan patera on io this event now defined as pillanian eruption style keszthelyi et al this issue included a high temperature 1600 c possibly ultrabasic 140 km high plume eruption that deposited dark orthopyroxene rich pyroclastic material over 125 000 km2 followed by emplacement of dark flow like material over 3100 km2 to the north of the caldera we estimate that the high temperature energetic episode of this eruption had a duration of 52 167 days between may and september 1997 with peak eruption temperatures around june 28 1997 galileo 20 m pixel 1 images of part of the pillan flow field show a widespread rough pitted surface that is unlike any flow surface we have seen before we suggest that this surface may have resulted from 1 a fractured lava crust formed during rapid low viscosity lava surging perhaps including turbulent flow emplacement 2 disruption of the lava flow by explosive interaction with a volatile rich substrate or 3 a combination of 1 and 2 with or without accumulation of pyroclastic materials on the surface well developed flow lobes are observed suggesting that this is a relatively distal part of the flow field shadow measurements at flow margins indicate a thickness of 8 10 m we have modeled the emplacement of putative ultrabasic flows from the summer 1997 pillan eruption using constraints from new galileo data results suggest that either laminar sheet flows or turbulent channelized flows could have traveled 50 150 km on a flat unobstructed surface which is consistent with the estimated length of the pillan flow field 60 km our modeling suggests low thermal erosion rates 20 m erosion channels was unlikely especially distal to the source we calculate a volumetric flow rate of 2 7 103 m3 s 1 which is greater than those for typical mauna loa kilauea flows but comparable to those for the 1783 laki eruption and the inferred flow rates of the roza flows in the columbia river flood basalts the differences in ultrabasic eruption styles on earth and io appear to be controlled by the different eruption environments plumes at sites of ultrabasic eruptions on io suggest strong magma volatile interactions on a low gravity body lacking an atmosphere whereas the geology at sites of komatiite eruptions on earth suggest mostly submarine emplacement of thick flows with a pronounced lack of subaerial explosive activity

loess of southern south america abstract loess and loessoid loess like reworked loess sediments extend across the chaco pampean plains and the nw mountain environments of argentina and in neighbouring countries paraguay brazil uruguay bolivia loessoid sediments are much more abundant than primary loess the beginning of the loessoid sedimentation cycle was related to a phase of late miocene orogeny in the andes the plio pleistocene record is mostly composed of loessoid sediments modified by pedogenesis which produced welded palaeosols the late pleistocene holocene loess record reveals a heterogeneous composition across the region coarse textures and an andean derived volcanic composition prevail in the southern pampas finer textures and material coming from the andes and the other two sources sierras pampeanas and the parana basin characterize the loess deposits of the northern pampas and the eastern chaco a southern patagonian source is also suggested for the mountain valley loess of tucuman although a western andean provenance has been proposed it is believed that the material in the western chaco was derived from the bolivian andes loess deposition was related to a multistage transport mechanism involving fluvial and aeolian processes inferred westerly and southwesterly wind directions as dominant carriers of the aeolian deposits are in agreement with westerly palaeowind simulations using climate models however the role played by westerly tropospheric winds and northerly winds remains to be established

multispectral photometry of the moon and absolute calibration of the clementine uv vis camera abstract we present a multispectral photometric study of the moon between solar phase angles of 0 and 85 using clementine images obtained between 0 4 and 1 0 m we produce a comprehensive study of the lunar surface containing the following results 1 empirical photometric functions for the spectral range and viewing and illumination geometries mentioned 2 photometric modeling that derives the physical properties of the upper regolith and includes a detailed study of the causes for the lunar opposition surge 3 an absolute calibration of the clementine uv vis camera the calibration procedure given on the clementine calibration web site produces reflectances relative to a halon standard and further appear significantly higher than those seen in groundbased observations by comparing clementine observations with prior groundbased observations of 15 sites on the moon we have determined a good absolute calibration of the clementine uv vis camera a correction factor of 0 532 has been determined to convert the web site www planetary brown edu clementine calibration html reflectances to absolute values from the calibrated data we calculate empirical phase functions useful for performing photometric corrections to observations of the moon between solar phase angles of 0 and 85 and in the spectral range 0 4 to 1 0 m finally the calibrated data is used to fit a version of hapke s photometric model modified to incorporate a new formulation developed in this paper of the lunar opposition surge which includes coherent backscatter recent studies of the lunar opposition effect have yielded contradictory results as to the mechanism responsible shadow hiding coherent backscatter or both we find that most of the surge can be explained by shadow hiding with a halfwidth of 8 however for the brightest regions the highlands at 0 75 1 0 m a small additional narrow component halfwidth of

the giant paleolandslide deposits of tafi del valle tucuman province argentina abstract in the present study seven landslide deposits that took place during the pleistocene in the northern part of tafi del valle tucuman province argentina are described the recognition and mapping of them were carried out using satellite images aerial photograph interpretation and field survey the analysis of the area covered by the deposits and their runout distances were undertaken using aerial photographs at a scale of 1 50 000 and the software image tool all the deposits overcome the 106 m3 of volume with smaller coefficients of friction at 0 22 that gives an idea of the great mobility that they had reaching average speeds 100 km h these deposits could have originated as a consequence of a combination of internal slow deformation and fragmentation under periglacial conditions followed by a sudden collapse of the rock mass generated by strong earthquakes of magnitudes 6 at the base of the cumbres calchaquies ranges

the lunar opposition surge observations by clementine abstract the clementine mission to the moon in 1994 provided the first multispectral observations of the lunar opposition surge below a few degrees the brightness of the moon increases more than 40 between solar phase angles of 4 and 0 the opposition effect exhibits a small wavelength dependence the surge is 3 4 larger at 0 41 m than at 1 00 m this result suggests that the principal cause of the lunar opposition surge is shadow hiding while coherent backscatter if present makes only a minor contribution the amplitude of the effect depends significantly on terrain the surge is about 10 greater in the lunar highlands this difference is attributed to textural variations between the two terrains the clementine measurements provide a new basis for deriving spectral geometric albedos phase integrals and bond albedos a value of 0 11 0 01 was found for the lunar bolometric bond albedo this value is at the low end of the historical published values but not as low as the recent result of 0 080 0 002

pedostratigraphy and pedological and geochemical characterization of las carreras loess paleosol sequence valle de tafi nw argentina abstract the las carreras loess paleosol sequence is considered the most complete quaternary pedostratigraphic record in south america it consists of 32 paleosols formed during the past 1 15 ma chronological control is provided by magnetostratigraphy sediment and paleosol characterization is based on a variety of methods including soil chemistry geochemistry and micromorphology the main pedogenic processes identified are carbonate leaching and reprecipitation ped formation and translocation of clay and organic matter in many cases the boundaries between individual paleosols are not clearly defined due to indistinct transitional zones based on both pedological and sedimentological characteristics the sequence was subdivided into three units with paleosols in units i and iii designated as luvisols and paleosols in unit ii tentatively classified as luvic kastanozems this subdivision reflects environmental changes associated with the mid pleistocene transition overall geochemical variability is low and largely related to pedogenesis the homogeneity suggests a rather constant provenance that seems to be linked to the central andes pursuant to the chaco model of iriondo 1997 models of deposition of loess and loessoids in the upper quaternary of south america journal of south american earth sciences 10 71 79 and includes direct volcanic ash falls and local sources in a subordinate manner in a paleoclimatic context loess paleosol alternation is interpreted to reflect climatic cycles that were primarily caused by the variability of the south american monsoon system

evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250 kyr ice core record recent results1 2 from two ice cores drilled in central greenland have revealed large abrupt climate changes of at least regional extent during the late stages of the last glaciation suggesting that climate in the north atlantic region is able to reorganize itself rapidly perhaps even within a few decades here we present a detailed stable isotope record for the full length of the greenland ice core project summit ice core extending over the past 250 kyr according to a calculated timescale we find that climate instability was not confined to the last glaciation but appears also to have been marked during the last interglacial as explored more fully in a companion paper3 and during the previous saale holstein glacial cycle this is in contrast with the extreme stability of the holocene suggesting that recent climate stability may be the exception rather than the rule the last interglacial seems to have lasted longer than is implied by the deep sea specmap record4 in agreement with other land based observations5 6 we suggest that climate instability in the early part of the last interglacial may have delayed the melting of the saalean ice sheets in america and eurasia perhaps accounting for this discrepancy

detection of temperature dependent spectral variation on the asteroid eros and new evidence for the presence of an olivine rich silicate assemblage data obtained by the near infrared spectrometer carried by the near shoemaker spacecraft show that the spectral properties of the asteroid eros vary with temperature the manner in which they vary demonstrates that the mineral olivine is a major constituent of the surface the near ir temperature dependent spectral properties of eros in the northern hemisphere and for two individual regions on the surface show clear evidence of the presence of the mineral olivine and are a close match to the temperature spectral behavior of ll type ordinary chondrite meteorites while the presence of other olivine rich meteorites cannot be excluded h type ordinary chondrites are clearly too pyroxene rich to be permitted as a major surface component of eros the results of the thermal spectral analysis are consistent with results from analysis of conventional reflectance spectra of the asteroid and contribute unambiguous detection of olivine to the understanding of the surface composition of eros

impact induced thermal effects in the lunar and mercurian regoliths while the moon and mercury are similar objects in a geomorphologic sense they also possess important differences particularly in the context of small scale impact phenomena not only is the surface of mercury notably hotter than that of the moon but the impact flux is also more intense at mercury due to higher impact velocities and a greater spatial density of micrometeoroids by extrapolating the terrestrial micrometeoroid flux to the moon and mercury it is found that the impact rate at mercury is 5 5 times greater and the mean impact velocity more than 60 percent higher than at the moon a model of impact melting and vaporization applied to the lunar and mercurian environments indicates that almost 14 times more impact melt and over 20 times more vapor are generated per unit time in the mercurian regolith although the surface temperature plays a role in determining the melt and vapor volumes the difference in impact velocity appears to be markedly more important average craters formed by identical projectiles under the two velocity distributions on the two planets should be very similar in size because differences in the kinetic energy of the average impactors will be offset by the differences in gravitational acceleration as a result variations in regolith mixing should depend more on the actual impact rates than on disparities in excavated volumes each average impact on mercury however will produce more than twice as much impact melt as its lunar counterpart introducing more glass into the mercurian regolith although substantial quantities of impact vapor are produced on both planets mixing of the regolith should occur quickly enough in each case to spread the deposited vapor over large surface areas the resulting vapor coatings should be negligibly small for most purposes a much larger agglutinate population should exist on mercury and individual agglutinates should be similar to those of the lunar highlands reflectance spectra and visual albedos indicate that the mercurian crust possesses relatively small quantities of fe perhaps similar to those of apollo 16 light and dark matrix breccias laboratory studies have demonstrated that as the magnetic fractions which are correlated with agglutinate abundances of soils derived from these breccias increase the differences in 0 565 mm visible light reflectivity between the soils diminish should the regional variations in fe content of the mercurian crust be similar to those of these apollo 16 samples then the intense agglutination environment could account for the lack of optical contrast across the mercurian surface at the same time the very large fraction of impact glass in the regolith would imply that most pyroxenes have been fused and incorporated into these glasses seriously attenuating the fe2 crystal field absorption near 0 9 mm supporting this picture are the most recently published spectral observations of mercury which provide little or no evidence of such an absorption feature

effects of temperature on remotely sensed mineral absorption features laboratory spectral reflectance of mafic silicates has been measured over a temperature range characteristic of solar system objects to study the variation of diagnostic mineral absorption bands this information has become increasingly important with recent improvements in the quality of remotely sensed planetary data and the concurrent increase in sophistication of quantitative and qualitative spectrum analysis techniques in this study visible and near ir reflectance spectra 0 4 2 5 m of pyroxenes and olivine were obtained over a sample temperature range of 80 448 k these are the first published reflectance data for these minerals at temperatures significantly below ambient 300 k additionally thermal radiation emitted from the samples at elevated temperatures was effectively removed disclosing for the first time the high temperature reflectance behavior of pyroxenes in the diagnostic 2 m spectral region as expected from basic physical considerations fe2 crystal field absorptions in all samples become narrower with decreasing temperature the three components of the composite olivine band centered near 1 m become better resolved with decreased temperature and show changes in relative absorption strength there is not however any significant wavelength shift of the olivine reflectance minimum both orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene spectra show dramatic changes in band symmetry with temperature with the greatest change in the longer wavelength edge despite these significant changes in shape little if any change is observed in the wavelength position of reflectance minima of pyroxene absorptions near 1 m the 2 m pyroxene absorptions in contrast demonstrate major shifts of reflectance minima but in different directions in orthopyroxene spectra the band shifts to longer wavelengths with increased temperature while for the clinopyroxene spectra the band shifts to shorter wavelengths this behavior results in greatly improved spectral differentiation of orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene components in a mixture such as a basalt at reduced temperatures application of the results presented here to remote sensing mineral characterization techniques currently in use for determination of pyroxene composition can provide a moderate improvement to quantitative interpretations from 5 to 20 wt feo for orthopyroxenes and 5 wt cao for clinopyroxenes depending on planetary surface temperature

disk resolved photometric analysis of european terrains abstract using hapke s photometric model we examined the photometric textures of a representative subset of the geologic units on europa defined by lucchitta and soderblom 1982 satellites of jupiter pp 521 555 university of arizona press tucson the individual units studied possess the same small mean photometric slope angle as that found by domingue et al 1991 icarus 90 30 42 for the entire disk with one major exception the particles composing the surfaces of most of the units have similar scattering properties however the single particle scattering functions of the two bright plains regions examined are very different from each other and from the other units if the bright plains units are geologically younger than the other units an aging process that affects the single particle phase functions and albedos is inferred in our previous study we concluded that the disk integrated photometric properties of europa could not be explained adequately by ion bombardment however a new study on the effects of ion irradiation on the optical properties of materials sack et al 1991 j geophys res e 96 2 17535 17539 renders this conclusion invalid

chronology of late pleistocene pampa loess from the cordoba area in argentina in argentina loess palaeosol sequences were studied from the two sections at monte ralo and corralito located near to the city of cordoba in the east of the pampean ranges infrared optically stimulated luminescence irsl and thermoluminescence tl dating techniques were applied to set up a more reliable chronological framework for the upper pleistocene loess record irsl ages increase with depth and are stratigraphically consistent the oldest loess exposed correlates at least to the penultimate glaciation the luminescence dating study gives evidence for humid climate conditions with soil formation during the last interglacial period and the middle pleniglacial correlating to marine isotope stage mis 5 and 3 respectively three extended periods of soil formation are recorded in the loess palaeosol sequences at the corralito section these buried soils most likely correlate with the last interglacial and early last glacial period during the middle pleniglacial two palaeosols are intercalated in the loess successions in the cordoba area the periods of increased loess accumulation and deposition of loessic sediments correlate with more arid and glacial periods during the early pleniglacial the middle pleniglacial and the late glacial copyright 2009 john wiley sons ltd