The initial interaction between material rising from the African Large Low Shear Velocity Province and the African lithosphere manifests as the Eocene continental large igneous province (LIP), centered on southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya. Here we present a geographically well-distributed geochemical dataset comprising the flood basalt lavas of the Eocene continental LIP to refine the regional volcano-stratigraphy into three distinct magmatic units: (1) the highly-alkaline small-volume Akobo Basalts (49.4–46.6 Ma), representing the initial phase of flood basalt volcanism derived from the melting of lithospheric-mantle metasomes, (2) the primitive and spatially restricted Amaro Basalts (45.2–39.58 Ma) representing the early main phase of flood basalt volcanism derived from the melting of the upwelling thermochemical anomaly, and (3) the spatially extensive Gamo-Makonnen magmatic unit (38-28 Ma) representing the mature main phase of flood basalt volcanism that has undergone significant processing within the lithosphere resulting in relatively homogeneous compositions. The focused intrusion of these main phase magmas over 10 m.y. preconditioned the African lithosphere for the localization of strain during subsequent episodes of lithospheric stretching. The focusing of strain into the region occupied by this continental LIP may have contributed to the initial extension in SW Ethiopia associated with the East African Rift.Supplementary material at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5557626

Strain localization is central to the transition between continental rifting and seafloor spreading. In the East African Rift System (EARS) there is an emerging understanding of the link between extensional pulses and magmatic episodes. We investigate modern magmatism located within the Turkana Depression and its relationship to the distribution of extensional strain. We probe the source of magmatism at South Island volcano using bulk rock, melt inclusion, and olivine geochemical data and find that the magmas are derived from sub-lithospheric sources equivalent to magmatism in the more mature sectors of the rift. The depth extent of the magmatic plumbing system of South Island is constrained using vapor saturation pressures derived from bubble-corrected H2O and CO2 concentrations in melt inclusions, and results indicate a magmatic system resembling modern axial volcanic systems observed in other parts of the EARS. The zone of focused axial magmatism that South Island represents has evolved contemporaneously with a region of focused axial faulting that has accommodated the majority of regional Holocene extension and subsidence at this latitude. We conclude that at South Island there has been a migration of magmatic and tectonic strain towards the modern zone of focused intrusion along this portion of the EARS.Supplementary material: S1-S2 image files, data table files S3-S6, and caption file S7 are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6026627.

GREENPEG is a H2020 project developing exploration toolsets for critical materials in pegmatites. Lineament mapping is a powerful tool to identify geological structures at different scales, which is commonly applied in mineral exploration. To extract lineament information, different types of data can be employed, namely: (i) optical remote sensing data, (ii) radar remote sensing data, and (iii) digital elevation models (DEMs). All these data have been used by GREENPEG, where image processing of Sentinel-1 and ALOS (DEM) datasets were evaluated to identify regional-scale tectonic structures, such as faults, that may have controlled pegmatite melt emplacement. Automated geomatics methods to extract lineament information and perform lineament mapping were employed and the mean direction of the extracted lineaments was evaluated through rose diagrams. In general, the results of the radar image processing were affected by noise in the coastal areas and by the topography of the region. ALOS data presented some advantages, due to less influence from topography and human structures (saving time in the visual inspection of the results). Moreover, even though higher thresholds for the minimum length to consider as a lineament were applied to Sentinel-1 images, ALOS-derived lineaments were longer. The main trend of the extracted lineaments is in agreement between the two datasets, although specific trends are clearer in the ALOS-derived lineaments because the shaded reliefs produced already filtered the azimuth of lineaments to be extracted according to light incidence angle. For all three project demonstration sites (Leinster, Ireland; Wolfsberg, Austria; and Tysfjord, Norway) it was possible to identify lineaments that may relate to structures that controlled pegmatite emplacement. This study demonstrates the usefulness of different satellite data in structural mapping and mineral exploration.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced a re-evaluation of how to deliver traditionally in-person formal and informal laboratory instruction. Shared facilities, such as microscope laboratories, were acutely affected as the sudden pivot to online-only instruction prevented access to these tools. Strategies employed by instructors to overcome these difficulties included: (1) the rewriting of laboratory courses in order to utilize the limited collection of free online microscopy resources, (2) expensive commercial microscopy solutions, (3) the ad-hoc collection of new microscopic imagery by either film scanners with limited optical resolution or laborious manual image collection. While these solutions provided avenues to permit learning continuity, they have not provided an adequate bridge linking students' pre-pandemic experiences with the

Stirring and aeration processes are the major operations needed for effective wastewater treatment. Especially in activated sludge processes and the variants of this process stirring and aeration systems need to be chosen carefully since both operations are crucial for the purification power and the energy demand of wwtp's. The aim of the present work is to define the demands on stirring and aeration systems for activated sludge treatment plants, to give an overview about suitable systems currently available on the market including latest developments and to give advice how to choose the optimum system. A brief review of the literature and the market of stirring and aeration systems leads to a simple classification of the existing numerous systems. In order to choose the optimum system, first one has to decide, about the demands in each process step. In anaerobic and anoxic reactors the use of hyperboloid stirring systems or combined hyperboloid stirring and aeration systems which distribute small air bubbles throughout the entire reactor in the aeration mode (for intermittent aeration) and gently circulate bacteria flocks in the stirring mode is recommended. For aerobic processes like BOD-removal and nitrification highly efficient membrane aerating systems using silicone membranes are recommended.