Glacier mass balance Vernagtferner, Ötztal Alps, Austria, 1889-2010

In this article, methods and results are presented for the analysis of the behaviour of an alpine glacier, the Vernagtferner, Oetztal Alps, Austria. Since 1601, the advances and retreats of Vernagtferner are documented and analysed with rising temporal and spa- tial precision. Early pictorial documents (from 1601 to 1844), high-resolution maps since 1889, mass balance investigations with the glaciological method since 1964 and meteorological-hydrological records and models since 1974 deliver, with increasing temporal resolution, a consistent pattern of the continual ice loss of this glacier over more than 30 years.

Low-pressure melting relations of a basalt from ODP Hole 127-797C

One-atmosphere melting experiments, controlled to approximately the fayalite-magnetite-quartz oxygen buffer, performed on a basalt from Hole 797C crystallized olivine and plagioclase nearly simultaneously from about 1235°C and augite from about 1175°C. The liquid compositions indicate systematic trends of increasing FeO and TiO2 and decreasing Al2O3 with decreasing MgO. Experimental olivine compositions vary from Fo90 to Fo78, plagioclase from An79 to An67, and augite from En49 to En46. The KD value for the Fe2+ and Mg distribution between olivine and liquid is 0.31. The KD value for the distribution of Fetotal and Mg between augite and liquid averages 0.24. These KD values suggest experimental equilibrium. The KD values for Na and Ca distribution between plagioclase and liquid range between 0.55 and 0.99 and are dependent on crystallization temperature. Projected on pseudoternary basaltic phase diagrams, the liquid line of descent moves toward increasing quartz normative compositions, revealing a typical tholeiitic crystallization trend with marked Fe and Ti enrichments. Such enrichments are a reflection of the dominance of plagioclase in the crystallizing assemblage. The experimental results can explain the marked Fe- and Ti-enrichment trends observed for the sills of the lower part of Hole 797C, but have no direct bearing on the origin of the relatively evolved high-Al basalts of Hole 794C.