Academic literature on the topic 'Meteorites Mathematical models'

Study of commercially produced volcanic CO 2 gas associated with the Colorado Plateau, USA, has revealed substantial new information about the noble gas isotopic composition and elemental abundance pattern of the mantle. Combined with published data from mid-ocean ridge basalts, it is now clear that the convecting mantle has a maximum 20 Ne/ 22 Ne isotopic composition, indistinguishable from that attributed to solar wind-implanted (SWI) neon in meteorites. This is distinct from the higher 20 Ne/ 22 Ne isotopic value expected for solar nebula gases. The non-radiogenic xenon isotopic composition of the well gases shows that 20 per cent of the mantle Xe is ‘solar-like’ in origin, but cannot resolve the small isotopic difference between the trapped meteorite ‘Q’-component and solar Xe. The mantle primordial 20 Ne/ 132 Xe is approximately 1400 and is comparable with the upper end of that observed in meteorites. Previous work using the terrestrial 129 I– 129 Xe mass balance demands that almost 99 per cent of the Xe (and therefore other noble gases) has been lost from the accreting solids and that Pu–I closure age models have shown this to have occurred in the first ca 100 Ma of the Earth's history. The highest concentrations of Q-Xe and solar wind-implanted (SWI)-Ne measured in meteorites allow for this loss and these high-abundance samples have a Ne/Xe ratio range compatible with the ‘recycled-air-corrected’ terrestrial mantle. These observations do not support models in which the terrestrial mantle acquired its volatiles from the primary capture of solar nebula gases and, in turn, strongly suggest that the primary terrestrial atmosphere, before isotopic fractionation, is most probably derived from degassed trapped volatiles in accreting material. By contrast, the non-radiogenic argon, krypton and 80 per cent of the xenon in the convecting mantle have the same isotopic composition and elemental abundance pattern as that found in seawater with a small sedimentary Kr and Xe admix. These mantle heavy noble gases are dominated by recycling of air dissolved in seawater back into the mantle. Numerical simulations suggest that plumes sampling the core–mantle boundary would be enriched in seawater-derived noble gases compared with the convecting mantle, and therefore have substantially lower 40 Ar/ 36 Ar. This is compatible with observation. The subduction process is not a complete barrier to volatile return to the mantle.

The lunar magma ocean model is a well-established theory of the early evolution of the Moon. By this model, the Moon was initially largely molten and the anorthositic crust that now covers much of the lunar surface directly crystallized from this enormous magma source. We are undertaking a study of the geochemical characteristics of anorthosites from lunar meteorites to test this model. Rare earth and other element abundances have been measured in situ in relict anorthosite clasts from two feldspathic lunar meteorites: Dhofar 908 and Dhofar 081. The rare earth elements were present in abundances of approximately 0.1 to approximately 10× chondritic (CI) abundance. Every plagioclase exhibited a positive Eu-anomaly, with Eu abundances of up to approximately 20×CI. Calculations of the melt in equilibrium with anorthite show that it apparently crystallized from a magma that was unfractionated with respect to rare earth elements and ranged in abundance from 8 to 80×CI. Comparisons of our data with other lunar meteorites and Apollo samples suggest that there is notable heterogeneity in the trace element abundances of lunar anorthosites, suggesting these samples did not all crystallize from a common magma source. Compositional and isotopic data from other authors also suggest that lunar anorthosites are chemically heterogeneous and have a wide range of ages. These observations may support other models of crust formation on the Moon or suggest that there are complexities in the lunar magma ocean scenario to allow for multiple generations of anorthosite formation.

Loss statistics for natural disasters demonstrate, also after correction for inflation, a dramatic increase of the loss burden since 1950. This increase is driven by a concentration of population and values in urban areas, the development of highly exposed coastal and valley regions, the complexity of modern societies and technologies and probably, also by the beginning consequences of global warming. This process will continue unless remedial action will be taken. Managing the risk from natural disasters starts with identification of the hazards. The next step is the evaluation of the risk, where risk is a function of hazard, exposed values or human lives and the vulnerability of the exposed objects. Probabilistic computer models have been developed for the proper assessment of risks since the late 1980s. The final steps are controlling and financing future losses. Natural disaster insurance plays a key role in this context, but also private parties and governments have to share a part of the risk. A main responsibility of governments is to formulate regulations for building construction and land use. The insurance sector and the state have to act together in order to create incentives for building and business owners to take loss prevention measures. A further challenge for the insurance sector is to transfer a portion of the risk to the capital markets, and to serve better the needs of the poor. Catastrophe bonds and microinsurance are the answer to such challenges. The mechanisms described above have been developed to cope with well-known disasters like earthquakes, windstorms and floods. They can be applied, in principle, also to less well investigated and less frequent extreme disasters: submarine slides, great volcanic eruptions, meteorite impacts and tsunamis which may arise from all these hazards. But there is an urgent need to improve the state of knowledge on these more exotic hazards in order to reduce the high uncertainty in actual risk evaluation to an acceptable level. Due to the rarity of such extreme events, specific risk prevention measures are hardly justified with exception of attempts to divert earth-orbit crossing meteorites from their dangerous path. For the industry it is particularly important to achieve full transparency as regards covered and non-covered risks and to define in a systematic manner the limits of insurability for super-disasters.

Inner Solar System bodies are depleted in volatile elements relative to chondrite meteorites, yet the source(s) and mechanism(s) of volatile-element depletion and/or enrichment are poorly constrained. The timing, mechanisms and quantities of volatile elements present in the early inner Solar System have vast implications for diverse processes, from planetary differentiation to the emergence of life. We report major, trace and volatile-element contents of a glass bead derived from the D'Orbigny angrite, the hydrogen isotopic composition of this glass bead and that of coexisting olivine and silicophosphates, and the 207 Pb– 206 Pb age of the silicophosphates, 4568 ± 20 Ma. We use volatile saturation models to demonstrate that the angrite parent body must have been a major body in the early inner Solar System. We further show via mixing calculations that all inner Solar System bodies accreted volatile elements with carbonaceous chondrite H and N isotope signatures extremely early in Solar System history. Only a small portion (if any) of comets and gaseous nebular H species contributed to the volatile content of the inner Solar System bodies. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The origin, history and role of water in the evolution of the inner Solar System’.

"July 2003." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 459-484) Electronic publication; full text available in PDF format; abstract in HTML format. Details the application of a medium frequency Doppler radar to observations of meteorites entering the Earth's atmosphere. Techniques were developed that verified system performance was to specification Electronic reproduction.[Australia] :Australian Digital Theses Program,2001. xx, 485 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.

This chapter describes a mathematical model of tsunami propagation (transient waves). A tsunami is a series of ocean waves triggered by large-scale disturbances of the ocean, including earthquakes, as well as landslides, volcanic eruptions, and meteorites. Tsunamis have very long wavelengths (typically hundreds of kilometers). They have also been called “tidal waves” or “seismic sea waves,” but both terms are misleading. The chapter first considers the boundary-value problem before modeling two special cases of tsunami generation, one due to an initial displacement on the free surface and the other due to tilting of the seafloor. It also discusses surface waves on deep water and how fast the wave energy propagates and concludes with an analysis of leading waves due to a transient disturbance.