Current imaging technique such as micro X-ray CT can provide us detailed 3D micro-structures of porous rocks that can be used in numerical simulation so as to predict elastic properties of rocks saturated with different fluids. However, limited by the resolution the imaging process can provide, we usually lose the small features of rocks such as cracks and micro-pores, consequences of which can...

The Wadi Hodein area in the south Eastern Desert of Egypt is occupied by Neoproterozoic Pan-African (Precambrian) basement rocks including metamorphic and intrusive assemblages. The metamorphic assemblage comprises dismembered ophiolitic metamorphosed ultramafic rocks and island-arc calc-alkaline metavolcanics. On the other hand, the intrusive assemblage rocks include syn-tectonic tonalite-gran...

Theoretical and empirical studies of habitat selection suggest that reptiles should use ‘‘fixed’’ structural features (perch diameter, vegetation) or light intensity (sun and shade) to select thermally suitable microhabitats. But how do nocturnal species select thermally suitable diurnal retreat sites at night in the absence of visual cues? To investigate this question, we studied habitat selec...

The atmospheres of solid planets exert a fundamental control on their surfaces. Interactions between atmospheric and geologic processes influence the morphology and composition of surfaces, and over the course of geologic time determine the historical evolution of the planet’s surface environments including climate. In the case of Earth, the origin of life likely occurred within surface environ...

The small GTPase RhoA can retract cell extensions by acting on two Rho kinases (ROCKs). Activated protein kinase A (PKA) inhibits RhoA and induces extensions. The isoquinoline H89 inhibits PKA and thus should prevent the inactivation of RhoA. In kinase assays, H89 has been recently found to inactivate a ROCK-II also. Because H89 may be able to exert opposite effects on cell extensions, we have ...

Sedimentary rocks are composed of detrital grains derived from source rocks, which are altered by chemical weathering, sorted during transport, and cemented during diagenesis. Fluvio-lacustrine sedimentary rocks of the Bradbury group, observed on the floor of Gale crater by the Curiosity rover during its first 860 sols, show trends in bulk chemistry that are consistent with sorting of mineral g...

We studied a suite of 40 oils and extracts of purported source rocks from the Tarim basin in NW China. The main group of oils comes from Tazhong and Tabei wells, which sample the largest known petroleum accumulations in the basin. These oils can be statistically correlated with extracts of Ordovician rocks based upon high relative concentrations of 24-isopropylcholestanes and low relative conce...

The central part of the Fennoscandian Shield in Finland is composed of the Palaeoproterozoic Svecofennian domain and the Archaean Karelian craton with a Palaeoproterozoic allochthonous and autochthonous cover. A cryptic suture separating these areas and another tentative suture dividing the Svecofennian into central and southern parts have been proposed. The chemical composition of sedimentary ...

The Apollo 14 rocks returned to ear th a re divisible into two broad groups: relatively hoinogeneous crystalline rocks and fragmental rocks (breccias). The crystalline rocks are, for the most par t , metaclastic, but a few, including the second largest sample returned, a re aphyric basalts. All of the crystalline rocks a re considered to be clasts dislodged from fragmental rocks. These fragment...

Introduction: Study of the Martian crust by orbital spectroscopy and SNC meteorites has so far only recognized subalkaline volcanic rocks. However, Spirit rover measured high alkalis and low silica in picritic basalts on the Gusev plains [1,2], allowing the possibility that alkaline differentiates might occur. Isolated rocks having mildly alkaline compositions and distinctive spectra have now b...