Publications by authors named "W Compston"

Soils are differentiated vertically by coupled chemical, mechanical, and biological transport processes. Soil properties vary with depth, depending on the subsurface stresses, the extent of mixing, and the balance between mass removal in solution or suspension and mass accumulation near the surface. Channels left by decayed roots and burrowing animals allow organic and inorganic detritus and precipitates to move through the soil from above.

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A solitary layer of shattered crustal rock fragments has been traced over a distance of 260 kilometers within folded 600-million-year-old Precambrian marine shales of the Adelaide Geosyncline, South Australia. The fragments consist entirely of acid to intermediate volcanics (approximately 1575 million years old) displaying shattered mineral grains, shock lamellae in quartz, and small shatter cones. Fragments reach 30 centimeters in diameter and show evidence of vertical fall emplacement.

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Lunar sample 15555 is a mare type basalt generally similar in chemical composition to the Apollo 12 basalts. Sample 15555 is older than any Apollo 12 basalt but younger than the Apollo 14 basalts analyzed thus far.

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Igneous lunar rocks divide into two chemical types, probably representing two rock units. They form separate close groups on the isochron diagram; no total rock age is valid unless the rocks are cogenetic. Mineral isochrons prove that one type has an age of 3.

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