ALBERT

Description: Von den drei wichtigsten feldgeologischen Elementen, die zur Gliederung des Jungpleistozäns herangezogen werden können (Löß, Terrassen, Jungmoränen) werden hier die beiden ersten behandelt. Die Lösse sind in Österreich auf das Alpenvorland und auf das Wiener Becken beschränkt. Auf Grund typologischer Unterschiede innerhalb der fossilen Böden (im Löß) kann eine Gliederung in drei Räume getroffen werden (vergl. Abb. 1), die auch für die rezenten Böden (aus Löß) gilt: Im W liegt die humid beeinflußte „Feuchte Lößlandschaft", im mittleren Teil das „Übergangsgebiet" und im E die „Trockene Lößlandschaft". Abb. 5a und b vermitteln Sammelprofile für die feuchte Lößlandschaft, 5c für die trockene; das Übergangsgebiet wird nicht im Detail behandelt. Eine charakteristische Abfolge kehrt in allen Profilen wieder und darf einander gleichgesetzt werden: In der feuchten Lößlandschaft ist es ein Unterboden vom Typus sol lessivé, dem ein Fließerdepaket aufliegt, im trockenen Raum eine Verlehmungszone mit mehreren durch Lößzwischenlagen getrennten Humuszonen darüber. Es werden die Namen „Linzer" bzw. „Stillfrieder Komplex" für diese Abfolgen vorgeschlagen. Anschließend werden andere mittel- und westeuropäische Räume zum Vergleich herangezogen und der Beweis erbracht, daß diese Abfolge eine regionale Bedeutung besitzt (vergl. Abb. 6, 7 und 8). Im Hinblick auf die Gruppierung der Terrassen ergibt sich eine Gliederung in den „gletschernahen" und „gletscherfernen" Raum, deren geographische Verbreitung ungefähr mit dem Feucht- und Trockengebiet der Lösse zusammenfällt. Im gletschernahen Bereich sind wir gezwungen, die Nomenklatur von A. Penck zu verwenden. Hier ist die starke Aufgliederung der Niederterrasse in verschiedene Teilfelder auffallend, der aber nur eine rein lokale Bedeutung zukommt. Dagegen ist nur eine Hochterrasse ausgebildet, dann wieder eine Reihe altpleistozäner Terrassen (vergl. Abb. 9a). Im gletscherfernen Raum hingegen ist nur mehr eine große Niederterrasse ( — Praterterrasse) vorhanden, über der eine zweite, morphologisch völlig verschiedene Terrasse ( = Gänserndorfer T.) folgt. Letztere ist gegenüber den mittleren Terrassen und diese wieder gegenüber den altpleistozänen deutlich abgesetzt (vergl. Abb. 9b). Im gletscherfernen Bereich dürfen vorläufig nur Lokalnamen verwendet werden, da die Korrelation mit dem anderen Raum noch nicht völlig gesichert ist. Die Verlehmungszone des Stillfrieder Komplexes fällt in die Zäsur zwischen Prater- und Gänserndorfer Terrasse, die Humuszonen entsprechen der beginnenden letzten „Kaltzeit", die mit einer kräftigen Solifluktionsperiode einsetzt. Diese Solifluktion tritt im Trockengebiet nicht allzu stark in Erscheinung (so daß die Humuszonen mit den Lößzwischenlagen autochthon geblieben sind), während in der feuchten Lößlandschaft diese Zeit durch das mächtige Fließerdepaket charakterisiert ist.

Description: research

Description: Theoretical models used in the remote determination of lava flow rheology and compositions rely on estimates of such geometric and flow parameters as volume flow rates, levee heights, and channel dimensions, as well as morphologic and structural patterns on the flow surfaces. Quantitative measures of these variables are difficult to obtain, even under optimum conditions. Detailed topographic profiles across several Hawaiian lava flows that were carefully monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey during their emplacement in 1983 were surveyed in order to test various flow emplacement models. Twenty two accurate channel cross sections were constructed by combining these profiles with digitized pre-flow topographic measurements. Levee heights, shear zone widths, and flow depths could then be read directly from the cross sections and input into the models. The profiles were also compared with ones constructed for some Martian lava flows.

Description: Cratering processes on icy satellites were simulated in a series of 102 laboratory impact experiments involving a wide range of target materials. For impacts into homogeneous clay slurries with impact energies ranging from five million to ten billion ergs, target yield strengths ranged from 100 to 38 Pa, and apparent viscosities ranged from 8 to 200 Pa s. Bowl-shaped craters, flat-floored craters, central peak craters with high or little relief, and craters with no relief were observed. Crater diameters increased steadily as energies were raised. A similar sequence was seen for experiment in which impact energy was held constant but target viscosity and strength progressively decreases. The experiments suggest that the physical properties of the target media relative to the gravitationally induced stresses determined the final crater morphology. Crater palimpsests could form by prompt collapse of large central peak craters formed in low target strength materials. Ages estimated from crater size-frequency distributions that include these large craters may give values that are too high.

Description: The unusual rheological properties of molten sulfur, in which viscosity decreases approximately four orders of magnitude as it cools from 170 to 120 C, may result in distinctive volcanic flow morphologies that allow sulfur flows and volcanoes to be identified on Io. Search of high resolution Voyager images reveals three features--Atar Patera, Daedalus Patera, and Kibero Patera--considered to be possible sulfur volcanoes based on their morphology. All three average 250 km in diameter and are distinguished by circular-to-oval central masses surrounded by irregular, widespread flows. Geometric relations indicate that the flows were emplaced after the central zone and appear to have emanated from their margins. The central zones are interpreted to be domes representing the high temperature stage of sulfur formed initially upon eruption. Rapid quenching formed a crust which preserved this phase of the emplacement. Upon cooling to 170 C, the sulfur reached a low viscosity runny stage and was released as the thin, widespread flows.

Description: -Remote sensing- is already an essential tool for many Earth and planetary scientists, whether they are studying the atmosphere, the land, the ocean floor, or the surface of the planet Mars.

Description: Impact experiments in Newtonian fluids with a range of viscosities of 0.001 to 60 Pa s demonstrate that transient crater volume and shape depend on target viscosity as well as on gravity. Volume is reduced, and depth-to-diameter ratio is increased for cratering events in which viscosity plays a dominant role. In addition to being affected by target kinematic viscosity, viscous scaling is most strongly influenced by projectile diameter, less strongly by projectile velocity, and least strongly by gravity. In a planetary context, viscous effects can occur for craters formed by small or slow moving impacting bodies, low planetary surface densities, high surface viscosities, and low gravity values; conditions all likely for certain impacts into the icy satellites of Saturn and Jupiter, especially if liquid mantles were still present beneath solid crusts. Age dating based on crater counts and size-frequency distributions for these icy bodies may have to be modified to account for the possibility that viscosity-dominated craters were initially smaller and deeper than their gravity-controlled counterparts.

Description: A simple one-dimensional cooling analysis is used to consider the cooling of a flow of pure sulfur on the Ionian surface by a combination of upward radiation and downward conduction, and some speculations on the nature of surface structures and optical properties for such a flow are made. It is concluded that surface folding caused by compressive stresses, crustal foundering due to tensile fracturing and density inversions, and local turbulence may result in regularly spaced surface ridges periodically interrupted by upwellings of liquid sulfur onto the frozen surface of the flow. The model suggests that although the color of the surface crust of a quickly quenched sulfur flow will not necessarily reflect the local internal temperature of the flow, diapiric upwellings and convection from beneath this crust should indicate the progressive cooling of the inner, more fluid zones of the flow.

Description: The MARSES is the sounding instrument developed of searching for groundwater, water-ice or permafrost layers existing in some depth under the visible surface in the dry lands of Mars. One of the more important challenges facing natural resource managers today is how to identify, measure and monitoring the cumulative impacts of land use decisions across space and time. The secondary task is to measure the soil properties of Martian subsurface, which includes porosity, electrical resistance of the liquid phase, thermal conductivity, temperature dependence. A main task of the MARSES monitoring system is to examine changes in the subsurface properties of local areas regolith on the Martian surface on the base of the database of various soil slices in terrestrial conditions