Volatiles in submarine volcanic rocks from the Mariana Island arc and trough

High temperature mass spectrometric analyses of glasses from quenched pillow rims of andesites dredged from 1170 m water depth in the northern portion of the Mariana Island arc indicate substantially less H₂O (~ 1 wt.%) and more CO₂ (~ 0.24 wt.%) than previously reported for volcanic arc rocks. Glass-vapor inclusions within plagioclase phenocrysts from quenched rims have $\text{CO}{}_2\text{H}{}_2\text{O}$ ratios of 1:1. These results are similar to analyses of basaltic samples from the Mariana Trough (a back-arc basin). Generally, F and Cl contents are higher and S lower in the arc rocks compared to the samples from the back-arc basin. These results favor models for the production of island arc magmas which involve melting of the subducted slab, rather than just melting of the overlying mantle wedge because of the high volatile content needed to produce island arc magmas from peridotite (10–15 wt.%). The trough samples, although similar in non-volatile composition to mid-ocean ridge rocks, have much higher H₂O. somewhat higher CO₂ and lower S contents. Either near surface addition of voiatiles has enriched the magmas or H₂O must be a more important component in the generation and evolution of back-arc basin lavas than in the genesis of mid-ocean ridge basalts.     

Rare earths in the Leadville Limestone and its marble derivates

Samples of unaltered and metamorphosed Leadville Limestone (Mississippian, Colorado) were analyzed by neutron activation for ten rare-earth elements (REE). The total abundance of the REE in the least-altered limestone is 4–12 ppm, and their distribution patterns are believed to be dominated by the carbonate minerals. The abundances of the REE in the marbles and their sedimentary precursors are comparable, but the distribution patterns are not. Eu is enriched over the other REE in the marbles, and stratigraphically upward in the formation (samples located progressively further from the heat source), the light REE become less enriched relative to the heavy REE. The Eu anomaly is attributed to its ability, unique among the REE, to change from the 3+ to 2+ oxidation state. Whether this results in preferential mobilization of the other REE or whether this reflects the composition of the pore fluid during metamorphism is unknown. Stratigraphically selective depletion of the heavy REE may be attributed to more competition for the REE between fluid and carbonate minerals in the lower strata relative to the upper strata. This competition could have been caused by changes in the temperature of the pore fluid or to the greater resistance to solution of the dolomite in the lower parts of the formation than the calcite in the upper parts.     

The Amsterdam-St. Paul volcanic province,and the formation of low Al tholeiitic andesites

The island of St. Paul in the Indian Ocean is located on the axis of the southeastern branch of the Indian Ocean Rise, as is the similar volcano of Amsterdam, 80 km to the north. Both volcanoes and possibly part of the local ridge are formed of a high-alumina plagioclase tholeiite making this a distinctive volcanic province. Lavas with Al₂O₂ contents of 12 to 22% are directly related by plagioclase fractionation. Residual rocks are a distinctive low silica, low alumina, potassic andesite with andesine and even olligoclase feldspar. Parallel lines of evolution exist in the sea floor plagioclase tholeiites, which differ only in slightly lower tenor of Sr and potassium group elements, and in the Steens Mountain tholeiites of Oregon, which differ in their significantly higher Sr and K group elements     

Accuracy assessment of real-time kinematics (RTK) measurements on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for direct geo-referencing

ABSTRACT

Geospatial information acquired with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) provides valuable decision-making support in many different domains, and technological advances coincide with a demand for ever more sophisticated data products. One consequence is a research and development focus on more accurately referenced images and derivatives, which has long been a weakness especially of low to medium cost UAV systems equipped with relatively inexpensive inertial measurement unit (IMU) and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers. This research evaluates the positional accuracy of the real-time kinematics (RTK) GNSS on the DJI Matrice 600 Pro, one of the first available and widely used UAVs with potentially surveying-grade performance. Although a very high positional accuracy of the drone itself of 2 to 3 cm is claimed by DJI, the actual accuracy of the drone RTK for positioning the images and for using it for mapping purposes without additional ground control is not known. To begin with, the actual GNSS RTK position of reference center (the physical point on the antenna) on the drone is not indicated, and uncertainty regarding this also exists among the professional user community. In this study the reference center was determined through a set of experiments using the dual frequency static Leica GNSS with RTK capability. The RTK positioning data from the drone were then used for direct georeferencing, and its results were evaluated. Test flights were carried out over a 70 x 70 m area with an altitude of 40 m above the ground, with a ground sampling distance of 1.3 cm. Evaluated against ground control points, the planimetric accuracy of direct georeferencing for the photogrammetric product ranged between 30 and 60 cm. Analysis of direct georeferencing results showed a time delay of up to 0.28 seconds between the drone GNSS RTK and camera image acquisition affecting direct georeferencing results.     

Detection of seismic façade damages with multi-temporal oblique aerial imagery

ABSTRACT

Remote sensing images have long been recognized as useful for the detection of building damages, mainly due to their wide coverage, revisit capabilities and high spatial resolution. The majority of contributions aimed at identifying debris and rubble piles, as the main focus is to assess collapsed and partially collapsed structures. However, these approaches might not be optimal for the image classification of façade damages, where damages might appear in the form of spalling, cracks and collapse of small segments of the façade. A few studies focused their damage detection on the façades using only post-event images. Nonetheless, several studies achieved better performances in damage detection approaches when considering multi-temporal image data. Hence, in this work a multi-temporal façade damage detection is tested. The first objective is to optimally merge pre- and post-event aerial oblique imagery within a supervised classification approach using convolutional neural networks to detect façade damages. The second objective is related to the fact that façades are normally depicted in several views in aerial manned photogrammetric surveys; hence, different procedures combining these multi-view image data are also proposed and embedded in the image classification approach. Six multi-temporal approaches are compared against 3 mono-temporal ones. The results indicate the superiority of multi-temporal approaches (up to ~25% in f1-score) when compared to the mono-temporal ones. The best performing multi-temporal approach takes as input sextuples (3 views per epoch, per façade) within a late fusion approach to perform the image classification of façade damages. However, the detection of small damages, such as smaller cracks or smaller areas of spalling, remains challenging in this approach, mainly due to the low resolution (~0.14 m ground sampling distance) of the dataset used.     

Stability of Holocene Climate Regimes in the Yellowstone Region

A 12,500-yr pollen record from Loon Lake, Wyoming provides information on the climate history of the southwestern margin of Yellowstone National Park. The environmental reconstruction was used to evaluate hypotheses that address spatial variations in the Holocene climate of mountainous regions. Loon Lake lies within the summer-dry/winter-wet climate regime. An increase in xerophytic pollen taxa suggests drier-than-present conditions between ca. 9500 and 5500 ¹⁴ C yr B.P. This response is consistent with the hypothesis that increased summer radiation and the expansion of the east Pacific subtropical high-pressure system in the early Holocene intensified summer drought at locations within the summer-dry/winter-wet regime. This climate history contrasts with that of nearby sites in the summer-wet/winter-dry region, which were under the influence of stronger summer monsoonal circulation in the early Holocene. The Loon Lake record implies that the location of contrasting climate regimes did not change in the Yellowstone region during the Holocene. The amplitude of the regimes, however, was determined by the intensity of circulation features and these varied with temporal changes in the seasonal distribution of solar radiation.     

Satellite Measurements of Albedo and Radiant Temperature from Semi-Desert Grassland along the Arizona/Sonora Border

Along the international border separatingthe U.S. (Arizona) and Mexico (Sonora), differencesin the grazing intensity of domestic livestock arecommonly presumed to have created a large differencein vegetation cover between the two countries. Thisvegetation difference is reportedly responsible for anextensive albedo and temperature discontinuity thatmay be affecting regional climate. In this study, weused Landsat Thematic Mapper data to examinetrans-border differences in these two biophysicalparameters. Albedo and radiant temperature estimateswere computed for 25 km-long (east-west) transectsthrough semi-desert grassland on each side of theborder at two different times of year. Only smallaverage trans-border differences in these parameterswere found, and in some cases average albedo andtemperature data were essentially equal on each sideof the border. In addition, we found significantspatial heterogeneity in conditions on both sides ofthe border. These results suggest that, based on asmall sample, it may be difficult to assess whetherthere are significant differences in biophysicalproperties of semi-arid grassland between Arizona andMexico in the vicinity of the border. We concludethat more extensive spatial and temporal sampling iscritical in assessing any possible trans-borderdifferences in average terrain conditions that mightaffect climate, and that this data must be coupledwith more extensive meteorological data to assesswhether a difference in climate also exists.     

An Introduction to SnapTrack® Wireless-Assisted GPS Technology™

With more than 30 worldwide patent applications filed and nearly 20 granted, SnapTrack is the first to create a location determination system that embeds high-performance GPS receiving capability into a mobile terminal (e. g., a wireless phone or PDA) without significantly altering its shpae, size, or cost. SnapTrack's technology fuses the intelligence and power of wireless networks in the mobile environment with the accuracy and worldwide coverage of the Global Positioning System. The distributed SnapTrack^? Wireless-Assisted GPS system architecture is superior to conventional GPS-based approaches and other location technologies in terms of cost, sensitivity, time-to-first-fix, and power consumption. This paper describes the advantages of Wireless-Assisted GPS and demonstrates the technology with a presentation of field test results. ? 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Sensitivity of evapotranspiration in a wheat field,a forest,and a grassland to changes in climate and direct effects of carbon dioxide

Micrometeorological and physiological measurements were used to develop Penman-Monteith models of evapotranspiration for a wheat field in eastern Nebraska, a forest in Tennessee, and a grassland in east-central Kansas. The model fit the measurements well over the periods of observation. Model sensitivities to changes in climatic and physiological parameters were then analyzed. The range of changes considered was established from recent general circulation model output and from review of recent plant physiological research. Finally, climate change scenarios produced by general circulation models for the locations and seasons matching the observed data were applied to the micrometeorological models. Simulation studies show that when all climatic and plant factors are considered, evapotranspiration estimates can differ greatly from those that consider only temperature. Depending on ecosystem and on climate and plant input used, evapotranspiration can differ from the control (no climate or plant change) by about -20 to +40%.