Diurnal variations of winds over an upwelling region off Oregon

The diurnal variation of surface winds off the coast of Oregon is described and compared with a recent analysis of winds off the coast of Peru. The Oregon wind speeds have a distinct 24-h periodicity, while the Peru wind speeds were reported to have an irregular 12-h variation. The long-and trans-shore components of both winds exhibit 24-h periodicities; the ratio of the long-shore to trans-shore diurnal amplitudes off Oregon is 2.8, twice the ratio found off Peru. Although meteorological conditions off Oregon were quasi-stationary during the period investigated, there were considerable day-to-day variations in diurnal amplitudes and phases. Diurnal amplitudes were found to be correlated with the daily mean long-shore winds.     

Geoelectrical and geological structure of the crust in Western Slovakia

Electrical resistivity of the Earth’s crust is sensitive to a wide range of petrological and physical parameters, and it particularly clearly indicates crustal zones that have been tectonically or thermodynamically disturbed. A complex geological structure of the Alpine nappe system, remnants of older Hercynian units and Neogene block tectonics in Western Slovakia has been a target of recent magnetotelluric investigations which made a new and more precise identification of the crustal structural elements of the Western Carpathians possible. A NW-SE magnetotelluric profile, 150 km long, with 30 broad-band and 3 long-period magnetotelluric sites, was deployed, crossing the major regional tectonic elements listed from the north: Brunia (as a part of the European platform), Outer Carpathian Flysch, Klippen Belt, blocks of Penninic or Oravicum crust, Tatricum and Veporicum. Magnetotelluric models were combined with previous seismic and gravimetric results and jointly interpreted in the final integrated geological model. The magnetotelluric models of geoelectrical structures exhibit strong correlation with the geological structures of the crust in this part of the Western Carpathians. The significant resemblance in geoelectrical and crustal geological structures are highlighted in shallow resistive structures of the covering formations represented by mainly Tertiary sediments and volcanics. Also in the deeper parts of the crust highly resistive and conductive structures are shown, which reflect the original building Hercynian crust, with superposition of granitoids or granitised complexes and lower metamorphosed complexes. Another important typical feature in the construction of the Western Carpathians is the existence of young Neogene steep fault zones exhibited by conductive zones within the whole crust. The most significant fault zones separate individual blocks of the Western Carpathians and the Western Carpathians itself from the European Platform.     

First record of fossil anguines (Squamata; Anguidae) from the Oligocene and Miocene of Turkey

Fossil anguine lizard specimens from several Turkish localities are described in this paper. The material comes from ten different localities, spanning a large geographic area consisting of both parts of the European Turkey and Anatolia, and ranging in age from the Oligocene to the Late Miocene. In certain cases, the generic determination was possible and, accordingly, members of Ophisaurus and Anguis were identified and described in detail. The specimens of Anguis, found in different, Middle and Late Miocene localities from Anatolia, represent two of only a few fossil occurrences of this taxon. Moreover, the material reported herein represents the oldest occurrences of anguine lizards, not only from Turkey, but from southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean basin as a whole. These rare records provide important information about the dispersal routes of anguines from Europe to Asia and significantly enhance our understanding of their biogeography.     

A brief summary of some PML formulations and discretizations for the velocity-stress equation of seismic motion

The perfectly matched layer is an efficient tool to simulate nonreflecting boundary condition at boundaries of a grid in the finite-difference modeling of seismic wave propagation. We show relations between different formulations of the perfectly matched layer with respect to their three key aspects — split/unsplit, classical/convolutional, with the general/special form of the stretching factor. First we derive two variants of the split formulations for the general form of the stretching factor. Both variants naturally lead to the convolutional formulations in case of the general form of the stretching factor. One of them, L-split, reduces to the well-known classical split formulation in case of the special form of the stretching factor. The other, R-split, remains convolutional even for the special form of the stretching factor. The R-split formulation eventually leads to the equations identical with those obtained straightforwardly in the unsplit formulation. We also present an alternative time discretization of the unsplit formulation that is slightly algorithmically simpler than the discretization presented recently. We implement the discretization in the 3D velocity-stress staggered-grid finite-difference scheme — 4th-order in the interior grid, 2nd-order in the perfectly matched layer.     

How soil conservation affects the catchment sediment budget – a comprehensive study in the north Ethiopian highlands

An overall approach to assess the effectiveness of soil conservation measures at catchment scale is the comparison of sediment budgets before and after implementation of a catchment management programme. In the May Zeg‐zeg catchment (187 ha) in Tigray, north Ethiopia, integrated catchment management has been implemented since 2004: stone bunds were built in the whole catchment, vegetation was allowed to re‐grow on steep slopes and other marginal land, stubble grazing abandoned, and check dams built in gullies. Land use and management were mapped and analysed for 2000 and 2006, whereby particular attention was given to the quantification of changes in soil loss due to the abandonment of stubble grazing. Sediment yield was also measured at the catchment's outlet. A combination of decreased soil loss (from 14·3 t ha^–1 y^–1 in 2000 to 9·0 t ha^–1 y^–1 in 2006) and increased sediment deposition (from 5·8 to 7·1 t ha^–1 y^–1) has led to strongly decreased sediment yield (from 8·5 to 1·9 t ha^–1 y^–1) and sediment delivery ratio (from 0·6 to 0·21). This diachronic comparison of sediment budgets revealed that integrated catchment management is most effective and efficient and is the advisable and desirable way to combat land degradation in Tigray and other tropical mountains. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the parameterization of biological influences on offshore sand wave dynamics

The bed of the North Sea is covered by sand waves and houses a great number of macrobenthic animals. These bio-engineers are known to have a significant influence on the stability of the bed and thereby on the geomorphology of the seabed. This paper proposes a parameterization of these bio-geomorphological interactions. Given the abundance of three dominant bio-engineers on the Dutch Continental Shelf, the predicted occurrence of sand waves, in which the parameterization is included, shows significantly better results, compared to the prediction for the default case without biology. Therefore, the inclusion of biological activity could be important to predict the occurrence of sand waves.     

Dynamics of soil erosion rates and controlling factors in the Northern Ethiopian Highlands – towards a sediment budget

This paper analyses the factors that control rates and extent of soil erosion processes in the 199 ha May Zegzeg catchment near Hagere Selam in the Tigray Highlands (Northern Ethiopia). This catchment, characterized by high elevations (2100–2650 m a.s.l.) and a subhorizontal structural relief, is typical for the Northern Ethiopian Highlands. Soil loss rates due to various erosion processes, as well as sediment yield rates and rates of sediment deposition within the catchment (essentially induced by recent soil conservation activities), were measured using a range of geomorphological methods. The area‐weighted average rate of soil erosion by water in the catchment, measured over four years (1998–2001), is 14·8 t ha^?1 y^?1, which accounts for 98% of the change in potential energy of the landscape. Considering these soil loss rates by water, 28% is due to gully erosion. Other geomorphic processes, such as tillage erosion and rock fragment displacement by gravity and livestock trampling, are also important, either within certain land units, or for their impact on agricultural productivity. Estimated mean sediment deposition rate within the catchment equals 9·2 t ha^?1 y^?1. Calculated sediment yield (5·6 t ha^?1 y^?1) is similar to sediment yield measured in nearby catchments. Seventy‐four percent of total soil loss by sheet and rill erosion is trapped in exclosures and behind stone bunds. The anthropogenic factor is dominant in controlling present‐day erosion processes in the Northern Ethiopian Highlands. Human activities have led to an overall increase in erosion process intensities, but, through targeted interventions, rural society is now well on the way to control and reverse the degradation processes, as can be demonstrated through the sediment budget. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Topology of Rayleigh–Bénard convection and magnetoconvection in plane layer

ABSTRACT

The present study aims to link the dynamics of geophysical fluid flows with their vortical structures in physical space and to study the transition of these structures due to the control parameters. The simulations are carried in a rectangular box filled with liquid gallium for three different cases, namely, Rayleigh–Bénard convection (RBC), magnetoconvection (MC) and rotating magnetoconvection (RMC). The physical setup and material properties are similar to those considered by Aurnou and Olson in their experimental work. The simulated results are validated with theoretical results of Chandrasekhar and experimental results of Aurnou and Olson. The results are also topologically verified with the help of Euler number given by Ma and Wang. For RBC, the onset is obtained at Ra greater than 1708 and at this Ra, the symmetric rolls are orientated in/along a horizontal axis. As the value of Ra increases further, the width of the horizontal rolls starts to amplify. It is observed that these two-dimensional rolls are nothing but the cross-sections of three-dimensional (3D) cylindrical rolls with wave structures. When the vertically imposed magnetic field is added to RBC, the onset of convection is delayed due to the effect of Lorentz force on the thermal buoyancy force. The presence of 3D rectangular structures is highlighted and analysed. When the magnetically influenced rectangular box rotates about vertical axis at low rotation rates in magnetoconvection model, the onset of convection gets further delayed by magnetic field, which is in general agreement with the theoretical predictions. The critical Ra increases linearly with magnetic field intensity. Coherent thermal oscillations are detected near the onset of convection, at moderate rotation rates.     

Effects of solar activity on production rates of short‐lived cosmogenic radionuclides

The solar activity can be quantified by solar modulation parameter Φ that affects the heliospheric magnetic field. This activity influences the intensity of the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) particle flux within the solar system, and consequently, the differential primary particle spectra depend on the solar modulation parameter Φ (MeV). The modulation parameter Φ shows spatial and temporal variations (Leya and Masarik 2009). Some of the solar activity variations are cyclic and result in measurable effects as for example the 11‐year solar cycle. Variations in solar activity only induce small effects on the production of long‐lived cosmogenic radionuclides. This is due to the fact that activities measured in meteorites usually correspond to saturation values and represent long‐term average values. Long‐lived radionuclides often require millions of years of irradiation by GCR to reach saturation and therefore activity cycles average out. In contrast, one can expect strongly pronounced variations for saturation values caused by primary flux intensity variations, if short‐lived radionuclides with half‐lives ranging from days to a few years are investigated. Short‐lived cosmogenic nuclides were the subject of many experimental and theoretical investigations (e.g., Evans et al. 1982; Spergel et al. 1986; Neumann et al. 1997; Komura et al. 2002; Laubenstein et al. 2012). The aim of this work is to develop formulae for calculating production rates of radionuclides with short half‐life, taking into account temporal variations in the primary cosmic ray intensity. The developed formulae were applied to the Kosice and Chelyabinsk meteorites. The results for the Ko?ice meteorite were already published (Povinec et al. 2015). Here, we give a full explanation of underlying model.     

Cosmogenic nuclides in the Košice meteorite: Experimental investigations and Monte Carlo simulations

Results of nondestructive gamma‐ray analyses of cosmogenic radionuclides (⁷Be, ²²Na, ²⁶Al, ⁴⁶Sc, ⁴⁸V, ⁵⁴Mn, ⁵⁶Co, ⁵⁷Co, ⁵⁸Co, and ⁶⁰Co) in 19 fragments of the Ko?ice meteorite are presented and discussed. The activities varied mainly with position of fragments in the meteoroid body, and with fluxes of cosmic‐ray particles in the space affecting radionuclides with different half‐lives. Monte Carlo simulations of the production rates of ⁶⁰Co and ²⁶Al compared with experimental data indicate that the pre‐atmospheric radius of the meteoroid was 50 ± 5 cm. In two Ko?ice fragments, He, Ne, and Ar concentrations and isotopic compositions were also analyzed. The noble‐gas cosmic‐ray exposure age of the Ko?ice meteorite is 5–7 Myr, consistent with the conspicuous peak (or doublet peak) in the exposure age histogram of H chondrites. One sample likely contains traces of implanted solar wind Ne, suggesting that Ko?ice is a regolith breccia. The agreement between the simulated and observed ²⁶Al activities indicate that the meteoroid was mostly irradiated by a long‐term average flux of galactic cosmic rays of 4.8 particles cm^?2 s^?1, whereas the short‐lived radionuclide activities are more consistent with a flux of 7.0 protons cm^?2 s^?1 as a result of the low solar modulation of the galactic cosmic rays during the last few years before the meteorite fall.