ALBERT

Beschreibung: Benthic foraminiferal stable isotope data are presented for Sites 1014 (Tanner Basin, 1176 m) and 1020 (Gorda Ridge, 3040 m) to constrain past changes in Pacific deep- and intermediate-water nutrient chemistry associated with the onset of large-amplitude 100-k.y. climate cycles after ~900 ka. The Site 1014 data were based on analyses of separate species of Cibicidoides, whereas only Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi was used to generate the Site 1020 record. The present data span 380-920 and 620-950 ka at Sites 1014 and 1020, respectively.

Beschreibung: Widespread silicic pyroclastic eruptions of the Oligocene Afro-Arabian flood volcanic province (ignimbrites and airfall tuffs) produced up to 20% of the total flood volcanic stratigraphy (〉6*10**4 km**3). Volumes of individual ignimbrites and tuffs exposed on land range from ~150 to 〉2000 km**3 and eight major units (15-100 m thick) were erupted in 〈2 Myr, placing these amongst the largest-magnitude silicic pyroclastic eruptions on Earth. They are compositionally distinctive time-stratigraphic markers which were deposited as co-ignimbrite ashfall deposits on a near-global scale around the time of the Oi2 cooling anomaly at ~30 Ma. Two ignimbrites from the lower part of the flood volcanic succession in Yemen have been correlated to: (a) the conjugate rifted margin of Ethiopia (〉500 km distant); and (b) to two deep sea ash layers sampled by ODP Leg 115 in the Indian Ocean ~2700 km to the southeast. This correlation is based on whole rock analyses of silicic units for isotope ratios (Pb, Nd) and rare earth element compositions, in conjunction with novel in situ Pb isotope laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy analysis of groundmass and glass shards. Compositional diversity preserved on the scale of individual ash shards in these deep sea tephra layers record chemical heterogeneity present in the silicic magma chambers that is not evident in the welded on-land deposits. Ages of the ash layers can be established by correlation to precisely dated on-land ignimbrites, and current evidence suggests that while these eruptions may have exacerbated already changing climatic conditions, they both marginally post-date the Oi2 global cooling anomaly.

Beschreibung: A detailed (ca. 100 yr resolution) and well-dated (18 AMS 14C dates to 23 cal. ka BP) record of latest Pleistocene–Holocene variations in terrigenous (eolian) sediment deposition at ODP Site 658C off Cap Blanc, Mauritania documents very abrupt, large-scale changes in subtropical North African climate. The terrigenous record exhibits a well-defined period of low influx between 14.8 and 5.5 cal. ka BP associated with the African Humid Period, when the Sahara was nearly completely vegetated and supported numerous perennial lakes; an arid interval corresponding to the Younger Dryas Chronozone punctuates this humid period. The African Humid Period has been attributed to a strengthening of the African monsoon due to gradual orbital increases in summer season insolation. However, the onset and termination of this humid period were very abrupt, occurring within decades to centuries. Both transitions occurred when summer season insolation crossed a nearly identical threshold value, which was 4.2% greater than present. These abrupt climate responses to gradual insolation forcing require strongly non-linear feedback processes, and current coupled climate model studies invoke vegetation and ocean temperature feedbacks as candidate mechanisms for the non-linear climate sensitivity. The African monsoon climate system is thus a low-latitude corollary to the bi-stable behavior of high-latitude deep ocean thermohaline circulation, which is similarly capable of rapid and large-amplitude climate transitions.

Beschreibung: We investigate theoretical, laboratory, and atmospheric evidence for a recently proposed hypothesis: homogeneous ice nucleation initiates at the surface, not in the volume, of supercooled water drops. Using existing thermodynamic arguments, laboratory experiments, and atmospheric data, we conclude that ice embryo formation at the surface cannot be confirmed or disregarded. Ice nucleation rates measured as a function of drop size in an air ambient could help distinguish between volume and surface nucleation rates.

Beschreibung: We revisit a model of feedback processes proposed by Lindzen et al. (2001), in which an assumed 22% reduction in the area of tropical high clouds per degree increase in sea surface temperature produces negative feedbacks associated with upper tropospheric water vapor and cloud radiative effects. We argue that the water vapor feedback is overestimated in Lindzen et al. (2001) by at least 60%, and that the high cloud feedback is small. Although not mentioned by Lindzen et al. (2001), tropical low clouds make a significant contribution to their negative feedback, which is also overestimated. Using more realistic parameters in the model of Lindzen et al. (2001), we obtain a feedback factor in the range of -0.15 to -0.51, compared to their larger negative feedback factor of -0.45 to -1.03. It is noted that our feedback factor could still be overestimated due to the assumption of constant low cloud cover in the simple radiative-convective model.

Beschreibung: The build-up of intrinsic Bjerrum and ionic defects at ice-vapor interfaces electrically charges ice surfaces and thus gives rise to many phenomena including thermoelectricity, ferroelectric ice films, sparks from objects in blizzards, electromagnetic emissions accompanying cracking in avalanches, glaciers, and sea ice, and charge transfer during ice-ice collisions in thunderstorms. Fletcher's theory of the ice surface in equilibrium proposed that the Bjerrum defects have a higher rate of creation at the surface than in the bulk, which produces a high concentration of surface D defects that then attract a high concentration of OH- ions at the surface. Here, we add to this theory the effect of a moving interface caused by growth or sublimation. This effect can increase the amount of ionic surface charges more than 10-fold for growth rates near 1 mm s-1 and can extend the spatial separation of interior charges in qualitative agreement with many observations. In addition, ice-ice collisions should generate sufficient pressure to melt ice at the contact region and we argue that the ice particle with the initially sharper point at contact loses more mass of melt than the other particle. A simple analytic model of this process with parameters that are consistent with observations leads to predicted collisional charge exchange that semiquantitatively explains the negative charging region of thunderstorms. The model also has implications for snowflake formation, ferroelectric ice, polarization of ice in snowpacks, and chemical reactions in ice surfaces