Intraterrestrial life has been found at depths of several thousand metres in deep sub-sea floor sediments and in the basement crust beneath the sediments. It has also been found at up to 2800-m depth in continental sedimentary rocks, 5300-m depth in igneous rock aquifers and in fluid inclusions in ancient salt deposits from salt mines. The biomass of these intraterrestrial organisms may be equa...

A variety of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic Palaeozoic rocks from Tasmania have similar directions of NRM-steeply upward. Although the mean direction is not significantly difIerent at the 95% confidence level from the present field, its inclination is slightly steeper. Moreover, the palaeomagnetic pole calculated from these directions is closer to Tertiary poles from Australia than to the...

The occurrence of rhythmic layering of chromite and host serpentinites in the deformed layered igneous complexes has been noticed in the Nuggihalli schist belt (NSB) in the western Dharwar craton, Karnataka, South India. For this study, the chromitite rock samples were collected from Jambur, Tagadur, Bhakatarhalli, Ranganbetta and Byrapur in the NSB. Petrography and ore microscopic studies on c...

Eighty-eight strains of microorganisms were isolated from soils collected in northern and southern Chile, and 10 fungi which showed the highest solubilizing action upon the iron in granodiorite were then selected. These fungi were incubated with the following iron-containing minerals: augite, hornblende, biotite, magnetite, hematite, and the igneous rock granodiorite. The solubility of iron in ...

Landslides in tropical and sub-tropical regions are generally associated with weathered rock profiles which often possess chemical and mineralogical heterogeneities at materialand mineral-scales. Such heterogeneities reach a climax by the occurrences of oxyhydroxideand clayrich zones. Weakness and low permeability of these zones makes them ideal for the development of slip zones along which lan...

Ruthenium, silver, rhenium, osmium, iridium, platinum and gold in standard rock samples from Geological Survey of Japan (JB-1, JB-2, JG-1 and JA-1) were determined by thermal neutron activation method with a systematic chemical separation. U.S. Geological Survey standard rocks (BCR-1 and G-2) were also analyzed to obtain an information about the accuracy and precision on the method. Generally a...

The putative occurrence of methane in the Martian atmosphere has had a major influence on the exploration of Mars, especially by the implication of active biology. The occurrence has not been borne out by measurements of atmosphere by the MSL rover Curiosity but, as on Earth, methane on Mars is most likely in the subsurface of the crust. Serpentinization of olivine-bearing rocks, to yield hydro...

More percentage of new productions in oil industry is from unconventional oil and gas such as oil shale, tar sand, laminated sand, tight oil (siltstone), tight gas, gas hydrate, and igneous rock, because the conventional oil and gas can no longer meet the need of the world. Researchers in response pay more attentions to the unconventional resources. Formation properties such as total organic ca...

We report the first U–Th–Pb ion microprobe depth profiles of four Hadean zircons from the Jack Hills and Mount Narryer supracrustal belts of the Narryer Gneiss Complex (NGC), Western Australia. This ultra-high spatial resolution technique probes the age and origin of sub-micron features in individual crystals that can record episodes of zircon growth. Near-surface grain dates of 2700 Ma or olde...