ALBERT

Description: The morphology of lava flows is often taken as an indicator of the broad chemical composition of the lava, especially when interpreting extraterrestrial volcanoes using spacecraft images. The historical lavas of the active volcano Mount Etna in Sicily provide an excellent opportunity to examine the controls on flow field morphology. In this study only flow produced by flank eruptions after the middle of the 18th century are examined. The final form of a flow-field may be more indicative of the internal plumbing of the volcano, which may control such factors as the effusion, rate, duration of eruption, volume of available magma, rate of de-gassing, and lava rheology. Different flow morphologies on Etna appear to be a good indicator of differing conditions within the volcanic pile. Thus the spatial distribution of different flow types on an extraterrestrial volcano may provide useful information about the plumbing conditions of that volcano, rather than necessarily providing information on the composition of materials erupted.

Description: The 10.7 cm flux patrols in Canada recorded 4 Great Bursts (peaks greater than 500 sfu) during the disk passage of AR 5395 in March 1989. The Great Bursts of 16 and 17 March were simple events of great amplitude and with half-life durations of only several minutes. Earlier Great Bursts, originating on 6 March towards the NE limb and on 10 March closer to the central meridian, belong to an entirely different category of event. Each started with a very strong impulsive event lasting just minutes. After an initial recovery, however, the emission climbed back to level as greater or greater than the initial impulsive burst. The events of 6 and 10 March stayed above the Great Burst threshold for at least 100 minutes. The second component of long duration in these cases is associated with Type 4 continuum emission and thus very likely with CMEs. Major geomagnetic disturbances did not occur as a result of the massive complex event of 6 March or the two simple but strong events of 16 and 17 March. But some 55 hours after the peak in the long-enduring burst of 10 March, a storm began which qualifies as the fourth strongest geomagnetic storm in Canada since 1932. The vertical component of the earth's field measured during the storm by a fluxgate magnetometer at a station in Manitoba is presented. Within a minute of the sudden commencement of this storm, a series of breakdowns began in the transmission system of Hydro-Quebec which resulted in a total loss of power, on a bitterly cold winter's day, for at least 10 hours. The loss of power provoked an enormous outcry from the public resulting in the power utilities being more receptive to the need to monitor solar as well as geomagnetic activity.

Description: Thirty-six aluminous mare basalt fragments from breccia 14321 and other Apollo 14 basalts are statistically divided into two broad groups, comprising five subgroups, using La, Sm, and Yb data. Major element compositions, petrographic characteristics, and mineral compositions are similar for the five groups. However, there is an eight-fold increase in REE abundances from Group 5 to Group 1, with Group 1 having a REE pattern similar to KREEP. Groups 1 to 3 may be related by partial melting of a source similar to that proposed by Unruh et al. (1984) for feldspathic basalt 12038. However, Groups 4 and 5 cannot be as closely matched by larger degrees of partial melting of this source. Groups 1 to 4 could also be produced by assimilation of a KREEP component by a magma similar in composition to Group 5. Such a magma can be produced by partial melting of an olivine-orthopyroxene source that crystallized from a magma with chondritic relative REE abundances.

Description: In order that magnetic flux be confined within the solar interior for times comparable to the solar cycle period it has been suggested that the bulk of the solar toroidal field is stored in the convectively stable overshoot region situated beneath the convection zone proper. Such a magnetic field, though, is still buoyant and is therefore subject to Rayleigh-Taylor type instabilities. The model problem of an isolated region of magnetic field embedded in a convectively stable atmosphere is considered. The fully nonlinear evolution of the two dimensional interchange of modes is studied, thereby shedding some light on one of the processes responsible for the escape of flux from the solar interior.

Description: Motivated by considerations of the solar toroidal magnetic field, the behavior of a layer of uniform magnetic field embedded in a convectively stable atmosphere is studied. Since the field can support extra mass, such a configuration is top-heavy and thus instabilities of the Rayleigh-Taylor type can occur. For both static and rotating basic states, the evolution of the interchange modes (no bending of the field lines) is followed by integrating numerically the nonlinear compressible MHD equations. The initial Rayleigh-Taylor instability of the magnetic field gives rise to strong shearing motions, thereby exciting secondary Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities which wrap the gas into regions of intense vorticity. The subsequent motions are determined primarily by the strong interactions between vortices which are responsible for the rapid disruption of the magnetic layer.

Description: Electron microprobe and INAA were used to analyze forty spherules of Apollo 15 yellow-brown glass for major and trace elements. The glass is one of twenty-five high-Mg primary magmas emplaced on the lunar surface in pyroclastic eruptions. The abundances show that the magma was produced by partial melting of differentiated cumulates in the lunar mantle. Models to explain the possible source-regions of several Apollo 15 and Apollo 12 low-Ti mare magmas are presented.

Description: Zr/Hf ratios and other elemental data in 68 samples of various mare basalts, KREEP units, and lunar glasses have been determined using instrumental neutron activation analysis coupled with coincidence-anticoincidence counting for greater precision. The data are presented in order to quantify further the amount of Zr/Hf fractionation that has occurred during primordial crystallization and cumulate remelting or by any other process. Models of Zr-Hf evolution are developed to place additional constraints on the bulk lunar composition and on the effects of minor phases that may be responsible for the observed fractionations. The Hf-Ta fractionation in lunar compositions is also reviewed in order to characterize normal Hf(4+) versus Ta(4+) behavior and to delineate possible effects due to the oxidation of Ta(4+) to Ta(5+) during late-stage ilmenite crystallization.

Description: Using the subdivision of Apollo 16 regolith breccias into ancient (about 4 Gyr) and younger samples (McKay et al., 1986), with the present-day soils as a third sample, a petrologic and chemical determination of regolith evolution and exotic component addition at the A-16 site was performed. The modal petrologies and mineral and chemical compositions of the regolith breccias in the region are presented. It is shown that the early regolith was composed of fragments of plutonic rocks, impact melt rocks, and minerals and impact glasses. It is found that KREEP lithologies and impact melts formed early in lunar history. The mare components, mainly orange high-TiO2 glass and green low-TiO2 glass, were added to the site after formation of the ancient breccias and prior to the formation of young breccias. The major change in the regolith since the formation of the young breccias is an increase in maturity represented by the formation of fused soil particles with prolonged exposure to micrometeorite impacts.

Description: An INAA analysis of 16 individual spherules of orange volcanic glass extracted from the 74220,680 soil was performed in order to determine trace element signatures in a primary high-Ti mare magma. The composition of these glasses is shown to be nearly identical to that of 74220 bulk soil, indicating a general absence of constituents other than volcanic glass in the soil. The results suggest that the evolving lunar mantle included processes of cumulate-mass transport and/or segregation of the primordial lunar magma ocean into separate differentiating zones, allowing commingling of early and late components.

Description: The understanding of basalt petrogenesis at the Apollo 14 site has increased markedly due to the study of 'new' samples from breccia 'pull-apart' efforts. Whole-rock compositions of 26 new high alumina (HA) and 7 very high potassium (VHK) basalts emphasize the importance of combined assimilation and fractional crystallization in a lunar regime. Previously formulated models for HA and VHK basalt petrogenesis are modified in order to accomodate these new data, although modeling parameters are essentially the same. The required range in HA basalt compositions is generated by the assimilation of KREEP by a 'primitive' parental magma. The VHK basalts can be generated by three parental HA basalts assimilating granite. Results indicate that VHK basalt compositions are dominated by the parental magma, and only up to 8 percent granite assimilation is required. This modeling indicates that at least three VHK basalt flows must be present at the Apollo 14 site.