Nickel hyperaccumulator plants contain at least 1,000 mg Ni/g dry mass. Their high-Ni tissues present a chemically unique resource for herbivorous insects. A prior survey of insects associated with the Ni hyperaccumulator Streptanthus polygaloides in California yielded a new species, Melanotrichus boydi Schwartz and Wall (Hemiptera: Miridae). Here we document the host preference of M. boydi. Su...

Arguments for an abiotic origin of low-molecular weight organic compounds in deep-sea hot springs are compelling owing to implications for the sustenance of deep biosphere microbial communities and their potential role in the origin of life. Theory predicts that warm H2-rich fluids, like those emanating from serpentinizing hydrothermal systems, create a favorable thermodynamic drive for the abi...

Experimental, petrographic and numerical methods are used to explore the igneous evolution of the early solar system. Chapters 1 and 2 detail the results of petrographic and experimental studies of a suite of primitive achondritic meteorites, the ureilites. The first chapter presents data that reveal correlations between mineral modal proportions and mineral chemistry that are used to guide exp...

Warm fluids emanating from hydrothermal vents can be used as windows into the rocky subseafloor habitat and its resident microbial community. Two new vent systems on the Mid-Cayman Rise each exhibits novel geologic settings and distinctively hydrogen-rich vent fluid compositions. We have determined and compared the chemistry, potential energy yielding reactions, abundance, community composition...

The East Harrison Lake belt (EHLB) refers to a northwest-trending belt of rocks occurring to the east of Harrison Lake in southwest British Columbia (Figure 1) which is currently the focus of exploration for ultramafic-related Cu-Ni (PGE). The geology of the EHLB will also be summarized as a 1: 50 000-scale compilation map (Ash et al., in preparation) incorporating both published and unpublishe...

taposed along the north-trending, high-angle Nahlin fault; all three tectonic elements are intruded by the Late Cretaceous Atlin Mountain pluton (Figure 1-19-2). The oldest rocks in the eastern domain are Mississippian to Triassic oceanic; crustal and sedimentary rocks of the Cache Creek Complex. These include ultramafite, basalt, limestone, chert, argillite and wacke, and probably a mixed ultr...

Olivine chemistry as a petrogenetic indicator for origin and formation conditions of Sargaz-Abshur ultramafic-mafic intrusion, SE Baft, Kerman