Search

Constraining the controlling factors of fault rupture is fundamentally important. Fluids influence earthquake locations and magnitudes, although the exact pathways through the lithosphere are not well-known. Ocean transform faults are ideal for studying faults and fluid pathways given their relative simplicity. We analyse seismicity recorded by the Passive Imaging of the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Boundary (PI-LAB) experiment, centred around the Chain Fracture Zone. We find earthquakes beneath morphological transpressional features occur deeper than the brittle-ductile transition predicted by simple thermal models, but elsewhere occur shallower. These features are characterised by multiple parallel fault segments and step overs, higher proportions of smaller events, gaps in large historical earthquakes, and seismic velocity structures consistent with hydrothermal alteration. Therefore, broader fault damage zones preferentially facilitate fluid transport. This cools the mantle and reduces the potential for large earthquakes at localized barriers that divide the transform into shorter asperity regions, limiting earthquake magnitudes on the transform., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

Bird feather shafts are light, stiff and strong, but the fine details of how their structure, mechanics and function relate to one another remains poorly understood. The missing piece in our understanding may be the various fibrous layers that make up the shaft's cortex. Detailed imaging techniques are needed to enable us to capture, analyse and quantify these layers before we can begin to unravel the relationship between their structure, mechanics and function. We show that Serial-Block-Face scanning electron microscopy, scanning confocal polarised microscopy and synchrotron-based computed tomography are three suitable techniques to investigate layer thickness and fibre orientation in the feather cortex. These techniques and other are discussed in terms of their ability to resolve the fibrous laminar structure of the feather cortex, on sample preparation, and on throughput. Annotated images are presented for each and less suitable techniques are presented in the Supplementary Material. LAY DESCRIPTION: Bird feathers have a light, stiff and strong central shaft. However, the fine details of how their structure, mechanics and function relate to one another remains poorly understood. The missing piece in our understanding may have to do with how fibrous layers within the shaft vary in thickness and alignment. Detailed imaging techniques are needed so that we can quantify some of this variation before we can revisit some long-unanswered questions about the feather shaft's structure, mechanics and function. We investigate a number of microscopy techniques and show that three techniques are suitable for the sort of investigation that is required. These techniques and others are discussed in terms of their ability to resolve the layers' thickness and alignment, on sample preparation, and on the sample sizes they are able to process. Annotated images are presented and discussed for each of the three techniques and unsuitable techniques receive the same examination in the Supplementary Material., (© 2019 The Authors Journal of Microscopy © 2019 Royal Microscopical Society.)

The spatial ecology of rare, migratory oceanic animals is difficult to study directly. Where incremental tissues are available, their chemical composition can provide valuable indirect observations of movement and diet. Interpreting the chemical record in incremental tissues can be highly uncertain, however, as multiple mechanisms interact to produce the observed data. Simulation modeling is one approach for considering alternative hypotheses in ecology and can be used to consider the relative likelihood of obtaining an observed record under different combinations of ecological and environmental processes. Here we show how a simulation modeling approach can help to infer movement behaviour based on stable carbon isotope profiles measured in incremental baleen tissues of a blue whale ( Balaenoptera musculus ). The life history of this particular specimen, which stranded in 1891 in the UK, was selected as a case study due to its cultural significance as part of a permanent display at the Natural History Museum, London. We specifically tested whether measured variations in stable isotope compositions across the analysed baleen plate were more consistent with residency or latitudinal migrations. The measured isotopic record was most closely reproduced with a period of residency in sub-tropical waters for at least a full year followed by three repeated annual migrations between sub-tropical and high latitude regions. The latitudinal migration cycle was interrupted in the year prior to stranding, potentially implying pregnancy and weaning, but isotopic data alone cannot test this hypothesis. Simulation methods can help reveal movement information coded in the biochemical compositions of incremental tissues such as those archived in historic collections, and provides context and inferences that are useful for retrospective studies of animal movement, especially where other sources of individual movement data are sparse or challenging to validate., Competing Interests: The authors declare there are no competing interests., (©2019 Trueman et al.)

Serpentinitic systems are potential habitats for microbial life due to frequently high concentrations of microbial energy substrates, such as hydrogen (H 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), and short-chain organic acids (SCOAs). Yet, many serpentinitic systems are also physiologically challenging environments due to highly alkaline conditions (pH > 10) and elevated temperatures (>80°C). To elucidate the possibility of microbial life in deep serpentinitic crustal environments, International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 366 drilled into the Yinazao, Fantangisña, and Asùt Tesoru serpentinite mud volcanoes on the Mariana Forearc. These mud volcanoes differ in temperature (80, 150, 250°C, respectively) of the underlying subducting slab, and in the porewater pH (11.0, 11.2, 12.5, respectively) of the serpentinite mud. Increases in formate and acetate concentrations across the three mud volcanoes, which are positively correlated with temperature in the subducting slab and coincide with strong increases in H 2 concentrations, indicate a serpentinization-related origin. Thermodynamic calculations suggest that formate is produced by equilibrium reactions with dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) + H 2 , and that equilibration continues during fluid ascent at temperatures below 80°C. By contrast, the mechanism(s) of acetate production are not clear. Besides formate, acetate, and H 2 data, we present concentrations of other SCOAs, methane, carbon monoxide, and sulfate, δ 13 C-data on bulk carbon pools, and microbial cell counts. Even though calculations indicate a wide range of microbial catabolic reactions to be thermodynamically favorable, concentration profiles of potential energy substrates, and very low cell numbers suggest that microbial life is scarce or absent. We discuss the potential roles of temperature, pH, pressure, and dispersal in limiting the occurrence of microbial life in deep serpentinitic environments.

Abelisaurid theropods first appear in the fossil record in the early Jurassic and survived at least until the end of the Mesozoic. They were known to have dominated South America, India and Madagascar but were not so abundant in North America or Asia. Much less is known about their presence in Africa, although there has been several recent discoveries of abelisaurid material in Morocco. Here we add a partially preserved ilium to a growing body of evidence that suggests abelisaurs might also have dominated Africa., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

A Late Cretaceous-aged multi-taxon nesting site from Romania preserved in three dimensions reveals the earliest example of nest site sharing yet known from the vertebrate fossil record. Eggshell and osteological evidence combined in this single accumulation demonstrate that at least four vertebrate taxa including enantiornithine birds and another avian of indeterminate affinities as well as crocodylomorphs and gekkotan squamates nested together in the same place. Colonial nesting in enantiornithines was previously described from this site; here, we present the first fossil evidence that other vertebrates also nested in the same place, perhaps exploiting the presence of the large bird colony. We describe four distinct eggshell morphotypes that have been collected from this site and draw palaeoecological inferences based on this unique multi-taxon nesting association.

The Raman spectrum of Ge(2)Cl(6) shows close analogies with that of the isoelectronic [Ga(2)Cl(6)](2)(-). A band at 262 cm(-)(1) is assigned as principally a Ge-Ge stretching mode. The compound is very moisture-sensitive and decomposes readily in vacuo to give GeCl(4) as one of the products. A sealed sample stored at room temperature gave colorless cuboidal crystals shown by X-ray crystallography to be Ge(5)Cl(12).GeCl(4). The Ge-Ge distance in the neopentyl-like Ge(5) skeleton is 2.420(6) Å, and the Ge-Cl distance in the Ge(5)Cl(12) moiety is 2.119(5) Å whereas in the case of the GeCl(4) molecule it is 2.082(7) Å. The symmetric stretching frequency of the Ge(5) tetrahedron is assigned to the band at 224 cm(-)(1).

The Raman and infrared spectra of gas phase Re(2)O(7) are reported. The experimental vibrational spectra of molecular Tc(2)O(7) and Re(2)O(7) are compared with calculated spectra. The results of these studies agree with a nonlinear M-O-M bridge for Tc(2)O(7) and Re(2)O(7). For infrared intensity calculations, the point charge approximation is used, while for the Raman calculations a combination of bond and atom polarizabilities is adopted. Pure Re(2)O(7) was prepared from rhenium wire, but attempts to prepare it from rhenium powder and oxygen always led to infrared spectra showing serious contamination from a species containing an -OH linkage. Detailed experiments identified this molecule as HReO(4), a unique transition metal analogue of the perhalic acids, and a partial infrared spectrum of this molecule is reported.