Identification of Mineralization in Geochemistry Along a Transect Based on the Spatial Curvature of Log-Ratios

Detecting subcropping mineralizations but also deeply buried mineralizations is one important goal in geochemical exploration. The identification of useful indicators for mineralization is a difficult task, as mineralization might be influenced by many factors, including location, investigated media and depth. Here, a statistical method is proposed which indicates chemical elements related to mineralization along a transect. Moreover, the method determines the potential area of the deposit along a transect. The identification is based on general additive models (GAMs) for the element concentrations across the spatial coordinate(s). The log-ratios of the GAM fits are taken to compute the curvature, where high and narrow curvature is supposed to indicate the mineralization area. By defining a measure for the quantification of high curvature, the log-ratios can be ranked, and elements can be identified that are indicative of the anomaly patterns.

     

Limit states and failure mechanisms of viscous dampers and the implications for large earthquakes

Fluid viscous dampers are used to control story drifts and member forces in structures during earthquake events. These elements provide satisfactory performance at the design‐level or maximum considered earthquake. However, buildings using fluid viscous dampers have not been subjected to very large earthquakes with intensities greater than the design and maximum considered events. Furthermore, an extensive database of viscous damper performance during large seismic events does not exist. To address these issues, a comprehensive analytical and experimental investigation was conducted to determine the performance of damped structures subjected to large earthquakes. A critical component of this research was the development and verification of a detailed viscous damper mathematical model that incorporates limit states. The development of this model and the laboratory and simulation results conclude good correlation with the new model and the damper limit states and provide superior results compared with the typical damper model when considering near collapse evaluation of structures. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Groundwater-level response to land-use change and the implications for salinity management in the West Moorabool River catchment, Victoria, Australia

The connection between the removal of native vegetation, rising water tables and increasing stream salinity has been established for many catchments across Australia. However, the West Moorabool River in south west Victoria is an example of a catchment where there has been little discernable effect on groundwater levels following land clearing. Over the past 150 years, a significant portion of the catchment has been cleared of dense forest for agricultural development. Historic standing water-level records from 1870–1871 and 1881 are compared with contemporary measurements (1970s to 2007) recorded in the government bore databases. The data show that the earliest recorded groundwater levels are well within the seasonal range of values observed today. By integrating geology and hydrogeology with historical observations of groundwater levels, climate data and land use, the contemporary field observations of stream salinity are linked to the changed water use and shift in rainfall. In contrast to the normally accepted axiom, reafforestation as a management strategy to mitigate the rising salinity in the West Moorabool River catchment would seem inappropriate.     

The multiple chronological techniques applied to the Lake Suigetsu SG06 sediment core,central Japan

The varved sediment of Lake Suigetsu (central Japan) provides a valuable opportunity to obtain high‐resolution, multi‐proxy palaeoenvironmental data across the last glacial/interglacial cycle. In order to maximize the potential of this archive, a well‐constrained chronology is required. This paper outlines the multiple geochronological techniques being applied – namely varve counting, radiocarbon dating, tephrochronology (including argon–argon dating) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) – and the approaches by which these techniques are being integrated to form a single, coherent, robust chronology. Importantly, we also describe here the linkage of the floating Lake Suigetsu (SG06) varve chronology and the absolute (IntCal09 tree‐ring) time scale, as derived using radiocarbon data from the uppermost (non‐varved) portion of the core. This tie‐point, defined as a distinct (flood) marker horizon in SG06 (event layer B‐07–08 at 1397.4 cm composite depth), is thus derived to be 11 255 to 11 222 IntCal09 cal. years BP (68.2% probability range).     

Balancing deformation in NW Borneo: Quantifying plate-scale vs. gravitational tectonics in a delta and deepwater fold-thrust belt system

Recent GPS measurements demonstrate that NW Borneo undergoes 4–6 mm of plate-scale shortening a year, which is not accommodated by plate-scale structures. The only geological structure in NW Borneo described to accommodate on-going shortening is the Baram Delta System located on the outer shelf to basin floor. Delta toe fold-thrust belts are commonly thought to be caused by margin-normal compressional stresses generated by margin-parallel upslope gravitational extension.     

Mechanisms of seismic quiescences

In the past decade there have been major advances in understanding the seismic cycle in terms of the recognition of characteristic patterns of seismicity over the entire tectonic loading cycle. The most distinctive types of patterns are seismic quiescences, of which three types can be recognized:post-seismic quiescence, which occurs in the region of the rupture zone of an earthquake and persists for a substantial fraction of the recurrence time following the earthquake,intermediate-term quiescences, which appear over a similar region and persist for several years prior to large plate-rupturing earthquakes, andshort-term quiescences, which are pronounced lulls in premonitory swarms that occur in the hypocentral region hours or days before an earthquake. Although the frequency with which intermediate-term and short-term quiescences precede earthquakes is not known, and the statistical significance of some of the former has been challenged, there is a need, if this phenomena is to be considered a possibly real precursor, to consider physical mechanisms that may be responsible for them.The characteristic features of these quiescences are reviewed, and possible mechanisms for their cause are discussed. Post-seismic quiescence can be readily explained by any simple model of the tectonic loading cycle as due to the regional effect of the stress-drop of the previous principal earthquake. The other types of quiescence require significant modification to any such simple model. Of the possibilities considered, only two seem viable in predicting the observed phenomena, dilatancy hardening and slip weakening. Intermediate-term quiescences typically occur over a region equal to or several times the size of the rupture zone of the later earthquake and exhibit a relationship between the quiescence duration and size of the earthquake: they thus involve regional hardening or stress relaxation and agree with the predictions of the dilatancy-diffusion theory. Short-term quiescences, on the other hand, are more likely explained by fault zone dilatancy hardening and/or slip weakening within a small nucleation zone. Because seismicity is a locally relaxing process, seismicity should follow a behaviour known in rock mechanics as the Kaiser effect, in which only a very slight increase in strength, due to dilatancy hardening or decrease in stress due to slip weakening, is required to cause quiescence. This is in contrast to other precursory phenomena predicted by dilatancy, which require large dilatant strains and complete dilatancy hardening.Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory     

The Sensitivity of Four Monitoring Well Sampling Systems to Low Concentrations of Three Volatile Organics

Four state-of-the-art ground water sampling systems were analyzed to determine their reliability in providing representative samples of the volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), and 1,1,1-trichloroethane (TCA) from a simulated monitoring well. The sampling systems studied represent four commonly used devices, including a stainless steel and Teflon® piston pump, a Teflon bailer, a Teflon bladder pump, and a PVC air-lift pump.
Controlled laboratory sampling experiments were conducted in a tank and well test chamber designed to approximate field conditions. A well purging and sampling procedure was used in the test apparatus to determine the accuracy and precision of each device for detecting low concentrations of the compounds in ground water. The compounds selected are some of the most ubiquitous hazardous contaminants found in shallow aquifers near hazardous waste sites throughout the United States.
No significant statistical difference was found among the four sampling systems in detecting the compounds.     

Factors affecting trans-Tasman air services

International civil aviation is circumscribed by a plethora of bilateral air service agreements between sovereign nations. In recent years there has been a marked trend to liberalise these agreements as well as moves to create multilateral common markets as appear to be emerging in Europe. Airline managements are being given opportunities to implement operational strategies once severely proscribed in confidential memoranda of understanding lying behind the public bilateral documents. In keeping with the philosophy of extending the Closer Economic Relations (CER) agreement, Australia and New Zealand have been exploring the ramifications of bringing trade in air services within the ambit of CER. This paper examines some of the factors affecting the trans Tasman civil aviation environment and discusses the implications of modifications to air services in and between Australia and New Zealand.     

Rock-magnetic proxies of climate change in the loess-palaeosol sequences of the western Loess Plateau of China

Results of the first detailed study of the climate proxy record in the loess-palaeosol sequence at Xining-one of the few palaeoclimate sites in the currently arid western Loess Plateau of China-illustrate the importance of making many types of rock-magnetic measurements other than susceptibility. A multiparameter approach yielded confirmation that here, as elsewhere in the Loess Plateau, the susceptibility enhancement in palaeosols was caused primarily by ultrafine magnetite and maghaemite. Nevertheless, magnetic enhancement was caused not exclusively by changes in relative grain size, but also by variations in concentration and mineralogy of the magnetic fraction.
The effects of concentration variations were removed through normalization of susceptibility and anhysteretic remanence with saturation magnetization and saturation remanence, respectively. the resulting signal was ascribed more confidently to variation in magnetic grain size, which in turn was interpreted as a better proxy of pedogenesis than simple susceptibility. Variations in magnetic mineralogy were also determined to constrain interpretations further. the data were then used to discuss climate history at Xining. Finally, results from Xining were compared with other western sites and contrasted with eastern sites.
In summary: (1) data is presented from a new Loess Plateau site which also appears to yield a global climate signal; (2) a demonstration is made of a more rock-magnetically robust way to separate concentration, composition and grain-size controls on susceptibility and other magnetic parameters; and (3) models are provided for inter-regional comparisons of palaeoclimate proxy records.     

Sensitivity of medium-range weather forecasts to the use of reference atmosphere

In this paper, the authors develop the earlier work of Chen Jiabin et al. (1986). In order to reduce spectral truncation errors, the reference atmosphere has been introduced in ECMWF model, and the spectrally-represented variables, temperature, geopotential height and orography, are replaced by their deviations from the reference atmos-phere. Two modified semi- implicit schemes have been proposed to alleviate the computational instability due to the introduction of reference atmosphere. Concerning the deviation of surface geopotential height from reference atmos-phere, an exact computational formulation has been used instead of the approximate one in the earlier work. To re-duce aliasing errors in the computations of the deviation of the surface geopotential height, a spectral fit has been used slightly to modify the original Gaussian grid-point values of orography.A series of experiments has been performed in order to assess the impact of the reference atmosphere on ECMWF medium- range forecasts at the resolution T21, T42 and T63, The results we have obtained reveal that the reference atmosphere introduced in ECMWF spectral model is generally beneficial to the mean statistical scores of 1000-200 hPa height 10-day forecasts over the globe. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is a clear improvement for T21, T42 and T63 throughout the 10-day forecast period, In the Northern Hemisphere, the impact of the reference atmos-phere on anomaly correlation is positive for resolution T21, a very slightly damaging at T42 and almost neutral at T63 in the range of day 1 to day 4. Beyond the day 4 there is a clear improvement at all resolutions.