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    30 June 1996, Volume 8 Issue 2 Previous Issue    Next Issue

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    PETROCHEMISTRY AND GEOCHEMISTRY OF TERTIARY VOLCANICS,NORTHERN COAST OF KING GEORGE ISLAND,WEST ANTARCTICA
    1996, 8 (2):  4-18. 
    Abstract ( 1326 )   PDF (432KB) ( 1160 )  

    Tertiary volcanic rocks located in Fildes Block and outcropped along the northern coast of King George Island(South Shetland Islands,West Antarctica) include basalt,basaltic andesite,andesite and dacite effusives(Fildes Peninsula Group,FPG),basaltic and andesitic plugs(Admiralty Bay Group,ABG).Intrusive rocks of Wegger Peak Group(WPG) in this study were collected from Barton Horst near North Foreland.Most of basic lavas are porphyritic with plagioclase and augite phenocrysts.Rare orthopyroxene is found in andesite and dacite is usually finely crystalline.The component of plugs is much similar to effusives although it contains less phenocrysts. The major and trace element contents of volcanic rocks were measured with XRF and INAA in China.As shown in majors and traces discrimination plots,all the effusives and intrusives which have higher Al 2O 3 content,are subalkaline rocks following a calc alkaline trend,although the WPG plutons have higher silicon and alkali content.The basalt has the lowest REE abundant and the andesite has the highest,that is,the REE abundant increases with increasing SiO 2 content of rocks.All chondrite normalized REE patterns are with light rare earth element enrichment and parallel to each other indicating calc alkaline characteristics and the affinity of magmatic generation.Comparing with primary mantle composition,the rocks are rich in LIL element.Also,the trace concentrations of rocks have the same varying patterns as shown by REE that indicate magma generation process. The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr and 143 Nd/ 144 Nd ratios of four samples of FPG and two ABG plugs are about 0.7034 and 0.5128 respectively,same as those from Fildes Peninsula,the south cost of King George Island and Cape Shirreff of Livingston Island.All plots of rocks distributed along the mantle array in 143 Nd/ 144 Nd vs 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isotope correlation diagram,near the Prevalent Mantle area and cumulate together with those from Fildes Peninsula and Livingston Island.The average ε Nd value of rocks is +6±.That implies these rocks did not undergo any crust contamination and might be derived from the same primary magma source of the volcanic rocks in Fildes Peninsula.There are almost no change in 87 Sr/ 86 Sr had been observed when SiO 2,K 2O,1/Sr,Rb,Th,Sm of the rocks increased.The distribution of all the rocks on Ce/Yb Ce and Th/Ta Th correlation diagrams follows same trend with the slope being positive,which strongly suppose the result mentioned above. It can be concluded that the volcanic rocks of FPG lavas and ABG plugs,as well as WPG granodiorites are all of calc alkaline characteristics,being part of the South Shetland magmatic arc.They might have been generated directly by partial melting of upper mantle,being associated with the same simple magma source that resulted from the Mesozoic to Cenozoic volcanism activities controlled by the subduction of proto Pacific oceanic crust beneath Antarctic Plate.

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    NUMBER AND COMPOSITION OF OOCYTES IN GRAVID FEMALES OF ANTARCTIC KRILL, EUPHAUSIA SUPERBA DANA
    1996, 8 (2):  19-25. 
    Abstract ( 1462 )   PDF (362KB) ( 1173 )  

    Based on the samples collected from 4 austral summer sampling cruises from 1989/1990 to 1992/1993 in the Prydz Bay region,the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean,the number and development phase composition of ovarian oocytes in gravid females of Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba Dana,and the relations of the number of ovarian oocytes with body weight and body length were studied.The number of oocytes ranged from 2188 to 9263,with average of 5283.Year to year changes of the number of oocytes was not statistically significant.The relationship between the number of oocytes(OC) and body wet weight(WW,g) was OC=5172.1 WW-1121.6,R=0.856,that between OC and eye diameter(ED,mm)was OC=3799.1 ED-3175.6,R=0.431,and that between OC and uropod length(UL,mm) was OC=813.2UL-35.98,R=0.243.Four development phases of oocytes were found in gravid females,but their composition percentages varied with different samples which were collected in different times.It seemed that the complete maturity of almost all oocytes was an indication of egg laying.

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    SEASONAL CHANGES OF CHLOROPHYLL A AND OCEANO GRAPHIC CONDITIONS UNDER FAST ICE OFF ZHONG SHAN STATION,EAST ANTARCTICA IN 1992
    1996, 8 (2):  26-37. 
    Abstract ( 1299 )   PDF (66KB) ( 1009 )  

    The chlorophyll a concentrations and oceanographic conditions under sea ice near Zhongshan Station(69°22′24″S,76°22′40″E) ,east Antarctica was monitored from April 12 to December 30 in 1992.The biomass measured as chlorophyll a were lower than 0.5mg/m 3 during wintertime,and even lower than 0.1mg/m 3 from July to September.The concentrations began to rise during spring and reached its maximum value of 21.40mg/m 3 in mid December in the water surface following the ice algal bloom,and then decreased quickly again.The ratios of nanoplankton(<20μm) biomass to the total phytoplankton biomass were commonly higher than 50% in winter but decreased following the increasing biomass in spring,the ratio in the water shrface was only 3.2% during the phytoplanton bloom. The nutrients were sufficent to support the growth of phytoplankton,but the concentrations decreased apparently during spring,and reached its lowest values of PO 4 P:0.32,SiO 3 Si:26.47,and NO 3 N:1.41(μmol/L) during phytoplankton bloom.The irradiance might be the prodominant factor to limit the phytoplankton biomass in water column under sea ice. Comparison of biomass in water column and sea ice shows that the phytoplankton biomass was less important when the sea surface was covered with sea ice. Because the primary production were mostly distributed in the bottom of ice and the surface water,the role of ice water interface in the ecosystem was very important.

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    REE GEOCHEMISTRY OF LACUSTRINE DEPOSIT ON THE FILDES PENINSULA
    1996, 8 (2):  38-44. 
    Abstract ( 1444 )   PDF (231KB) ( 1219 )  

    The REE geochemistry of lacustrine deposits on the Fildes Peninsula has been investigated in this paper,Their REE patterns are similar very much to those of Tertiary volcanic rocks on the Fildes Peninsula. So the lacustrine deposits are derived from island arc volcanic rocks. The difference of REE compositions between lacustrine face deposits and drift sheet shows that they underwent chemical wethering on different degree and contained clay with different content. Ce anomaly suggests that the cycle of lacustrine deposit evolves from weter environment to drier one. The contents and compositions of REE are unvariable, indicating that the weather was relatively dry in middle and late Holocene.

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    A GROUP VELOCITY OF SEISMIC LOVE SURFACE WAVE AND LITHOSPHERE STRUCTURE IN ANTARCTIC PENINSULA
    1996, 8 (2):  45-48. 
    Abstract ( 1388 )   PDF (223KB) ( 1377 )  

    This paper is based on the surface wave seismogram of South Sandwich Island earthquake(Ms=6.4) recorded by Antarctic General Bernardo O'Higgins Station. We computed a group velocity dispersion of Love surface wave and obtained lithosphere structure by appling the matched filter frequancy time analysis and the grid dispersion inversion.Our result shows that crust structure below Antarctic Peninsula may be divided into three layers and their thicknesses are respectively 5km,8km and 10km. Upper mantle velocity is 5.32km/s and gradually changes into 5.11km/s-4.9km/s below 53km.The minimum velocity is 4.8km/s. It can be infered that Antarctic mantle is also a layer structure.

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    THE MAXIMUM OF VLF HISS OCCURRENCE IN THE POSTNOON SECTOR AT CUSP LATTITUDES
    1996, 8 (2):  49-54. 
    Abstract ( 1460 )   PDF (390KB) ( 1184 )  

    The postnoon sector at cusp latitude is a abnormal plasma process region. It has been found that the postnoon sector at cusp latitudes is often characterized by the secondary maximum of the activities or intensities of space physical phenomena (to adjacent region):Stronger upward field aligned current;the maximum of downward low energy electron stream; the maximum of upward ion flux;the maximum of electron density in the ionosphere F region and so on.The substancial reason that causes the abnormal in this region is not understood well yet. In this paper the electric field intensity data of aurora hiss at South Pole Station (geomagnetic latitude about 75°) in 1986 were analized statistically.The relationship between the occurrence of VLF aurora hiss and Ap index is examined also. The results show the secondary maximum of occurrence of 31-38kHz VLF emissions in the postnoon sector exists and the position of the maximum agrees with the abnormal plasma region mentioned above and that there is a good correlation between occurrence and Ap index.

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    A GEOMAGNETIC SURVEY ON FROZEN SEA NEAR ZHONGSHAN STATION,PRYDZ BAY,ANTARCTICA
    1996, 8 (2):  55-61. 
    Abstract ( 1259 )   PDF (381KB) ( 1212 )  

    As a preparation for future inland investigation in Antarctica,a geomagnetic survey was conducted during the 9th voyage of Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition(1992/1993).The survey area covering about 132km 2 is located in north of Zhongshan Station,Prydz Bay.The results show that there is a NW direction anomaly with 5-8 km width and 500nT in amplitude.The anomaly is probably caused by a plutonic mass or a magnetite rich body,which is located at depth of 0.3-2.0km under the sea level.It has been proved that a large range geophysical survey on frozen sea of Prydz Bay is fully feasible in Antarctic winter.

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    CALCULATION OF THE MOHO DISCONTINUITY AND DISCUSSION OF FEATURE OF GRAVITY FIELD IN THE ANTARCTIC REGION
    1996, 8 (2):  62-67. 
    Abstract ( 1305 )   PDF (143KB) ( 1019 )  

    We calculated Bouguer gravity anomaly and free air gravity anomaly of the Antarctic region by using OSU91A potential model, and analyzed the cautions of the acute change of the free air anomaly and the correlation between the free air anomaly and height. Additionally,we calculated the ice thickness and the crustal thickness using free air anomaly data by means of the method of multi layer invertion which has been given by us.The results show that thicker ice region locates in eastern Antarctic region. The large undulation of crustal thickness concentrates in eastern Antarctic region, the thickest is 56km,and the thickness in western Antarctic region is thinner, about 8 km.

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