Paleolimnological assessment of human impacts in Lake Blanca, SE Uruguay

Paleolimnological techniques were used to assess human impacts onLake Blanca, a small (0.6 km²), coastal fresh waterbodyin southern Uruguay, which is the drinking water source for 100,000 localresidents. We retrieved a core that extends to about 1100 ¹⁴Cyr BP. ²¹⁰Pb ages, organic mater, CO₃, totalcarbon, nutrients, fossil pigments and diatoms allowed us to establishlimnological conditions before and after cultural impacts. Soil removal(1880–1960) and intensive cattle and sheep grazing (1943–1966) ledto gully formation in the catchment. This watershed erosion resulted inincreased sedimentation rates. The aquatic system appeared to be mesotrophicwith dominance of epibenthic diatoms until 1966, at which timeeutrophication intensified with forestry activities. Increases in nutrients, aswell as blooms of planktonic diatoms, were observed. During the last decade,tourist/urban development as well as high drinking water demand caused areduction in lake area. Subsequent marked increases in rainfall led to furtherphytoplankton blooms and macrophyte proliferation.     

A paleoenvironmental reconstruction of Laguna Babícora, Chihuahua, Mexico based on ostracode paleoecology and trace element shell chemistry

Paleoecology of Laguna Babícora, Chihuahua, Mexico was reconstructed using ostracode faunal assemblages and shell chemistry. The paleolimnological record is used to show the magnitude of paleoclimatic changes in the area from 25,000 years to the present.Faunal assemblages consist of four species of the genus Limnocythere: L. sappaensis, L. ceriotuberosa, L. bradburyi and L. platyforma, all associated with Candona caudata, Candona patzcuaro and Cypridopsis vidua. A paleosalinity index developed from these assemblages indicates that the lake's salinity fluctuated frequently from oligo- to meso-haline conditions during the last 25,000 years. This pattern and low salinity range are in good agreement with modern TDS (here used as an indicator of salinity) values recorded from 26 wells and one spring from the area (258–975 mg l^–1). To estimate paleotemperature we examined the trace element content (Mg/Ca ratios) from individual valves of L. ceriotuberosa and L. platyforma, the two species most commonly recorded in Laguna Babícora.Shell Mg/Ca ratios of 204 specimens of these two species were used to estimate water temperature (Mg/Ca) by means of experimental standard coefficients. Our data show that paleowater temperature ranged from 5.6–21.3 °C (with 2 values ranging from 0.2–4.8 °C), which suggest a close correlation with atmospheric temperatures around the lake. These results are in good agreement with a modern mean winter temperature (3.5 °C) and mean summer temperature (20 °C) recorded in the area between 1970 and 1980.     

Contributions to the Ring Current Energy During Geomagnetic Storms

The purpose of this research was to study the complexity of the energization of the ring current during a geomagnetic storm, produced during southern Bz(IMF) by the injection of plasma sheet ions, accelerated by enhanced convective electric fields. This model assumes that the plasma sheet is continuously populated by H⁺ from the sun and the ionosphere, and sporadically by ionospheric O⁺, making the ring current a coupled system whose energy can hardly be expressed analytically. When Bz(IMF) turns north, the ring current becomes uncoupled, and the energy decays exponentially if the storm is weak, or can be expressed as a combination of exponentials during strong storms representing the quick decay of O⁺ and the slower decay of H⁺, as has been shown.     

Evaluation of pre-CHAMP gravity models `GRIM5-S1' and `GRIM5-C1' with satellite crossover altimetry

 The new GFZ/GRGS gravity field models GRIM5-S1 and GRIM5-C1, currently used as initial models for the CHAMP mission, have been compared with other recent models (JGM 3, EGM 96) for radial orbit accuracy (by means of latitude lumped coefficients) in computations on altimetry satellite orbits. The bases for accuracy judgements are multi-year averages of crossover sea height differences from Geosat and ERS 1/2 missions. This radially sensitive data is fully independent of the data used to develop these gravity models. There is good agreement between the observed differences in all of the world's oceans and projections of the same errors from the scaled covariance matrix of their harmonic geopotential coefficients. It was found that the tentative scale factor of five for the formal standard deviations of the harmonic coefficients of the new GRIM fields is justified, i.e. the accuracy estimates, provided together with the GRIM geopotential coefficients, are realistic. Received: 20 February 2001 / Accepted: 24 October 2001     

Type III burst pair

We present a special solar radio burst detected on 5 January 1994 using the multi-channel (50) spectrometer (1.0–2.0 GHz) of the Beijing Astronomical Observatory (BAO). Sadly, the whole event could not be recorded since it had a broader bandwidth than the limit range of the instrument. The important part was obtained, however. The event is composed of a normal drift type III burst on the lower frequency side and a reverse drift type III burst appearing almost simultaneously on the high side. We call the burst type III a burst pair. It is a typical characteristic of two type III bursts that they are morphologically symmetric about some frequency from 1.64 GHz to 1.78 GHz on the dynamic spectra records, which indicates that there are two different electron beams from the same acceleration region travelling simultaneously in opposite directions (upward and downward). A magnetic reconnection mode is a nice interpretation of type III burst pair since the plasma beta 0.01 is much less than 1 and the beams have velocity of about 1.07×10⁸ cm s^–1 after leaving the reconnection region if we assume that the ambient magnetic field strength is about 100 G.     

Paleohydrology of Andean saline lakes from sedimentological and isotopic records, Northwestern Argentina

The paleohydrological evolution of several high altitude, saline lakes located in the southernmost Altiplano (El Peinado and San Francisco basins, Catamarca province, NW Argentina) was reconstructed applying sedimentological, geochemical and isotopic techniques. Several playa lakes from the San Francisco basin (26° 56 S; 68° 08 W, 3800-3900 m a.s.l.) show evidence of a recent raise in the watertable that led to modern deposition of carbonate and diatomaceous muds. A 2 m - long core from El Peinado Lake (26° 29 59 S, 68°05 32 W, 3820 m a.s.l.) consists of calcitic crusts (unit 3), overlaid by an alternation of macrophyte-rich and travertine clast- rich, laminated muds (unit 2), and topped by travertine facies (unit 1). This sedimentary sequence illustrates a paleohydrological evolution from a subaerial exposure (unit 3) to a high lake stand (unit 2), and a subsequent smaller decrease in lake level (unit 1). The ¹³C_{organic matter}record also reflects the lake transgression between units 3 and 2. Although there is a general positive correlation between ¹⁸O_carbonate and salinity proxies (Na, Li and B content), the large data dispersion indicates that other factors besides evaporation effects control chemical and isotopic composition of lakewater. Consequently, the oxygen isotopic composition cannot be interpreted exclusively as an indicator of salinity or evaporation ratio. The degassing of CO₂ during groundwater discharge can explain the enriched ¹³C values for primary carbonates precipitated. The carbon budget in these high altitude, saline lakes seems to be controlled by physical rather than biological processes.The Altiplano saline lakes contain records of environmental and climatic change, although accurate ¹⁴C dating of these lacustrine sediments is hindered by the scarcity of terrestrial organic material, and the large reservoir effects. Sedimentologic evidence, a ²¹⁰Pb-based chronology, and a preliminary U/Th chronology indicate a very large reservoir effect in El Peinado, likely as a result of old groundwaters and large contributions of volcanic and geothermal ¹⁴C-free CO₂ to the lake system. Alternative chronologies are needed to place these paleorecords in a reliable chronological framework. A period of increased water balance in the San Francisco basin ended at about 1660 ± 82 yr B.P. (calendar yr U/Th age), and would correlates with the humid phase between 3000 and 1800 yr B.P detected in other sites of the southern Altiplano. Both, ²¹⁰Pb and preliminary U/Th dating favor a younger age for the paleohydrological changes in El Peinado. The arid period reflected by subaerial exposure and low lake levels in unit 3 would have ended with a large increase in effective moisture during the late 17th century. The increased lake level during deposition of unit 2 would represent the period between AD1650 - 1900, synchronous to the Little Ice Age. This chronological framework is coherent with other regional records that show an abrupt transition from more arid to more humid conditions in the early 17th century, and a change to modern conditions in the late 19th century. Although there are local differences, the Little Ice Age stands as a significant climatic event in the Andean Altiplano.     

Topex/Poseidon Altimetry and Dynamics of the Ocean-Atmosphere System

The T/P altimeter data 1993 – 1997 (cycles 11 – 194) has been analyzed with emphases on seasonal variations in sea surface topography (SST). The amplitude of the annual variations amounted to (5.9±0.3) mm when inverted barometer (IB) corrections were applied and (2.0±0.4) mm without any IB corrections. The amplitude of the semi-annual variations in SST was small with IB corrections applied: (0.6±0.3) mm. However, when no IB corrections were applied, it was (1.8±0.4) mm, i.e. the semiannual variations are at the same level as the annual variations with no IB corrections. The phase angle offset of the annual term has shifted by about 180° when IB correction was applied. The dynamics of the ocean-atmosphere system is discussed and it is concluded that it could, at least partly, be responsible for the above observed effects.     

A Lost Realm in the Internal Domains of the Betic-Rif Orogen (Spain and Morocco): Evidence from Conglomerates and Consequences for Alpine Geodynamic Evolution

The Malaguide-Ghomaride Complex is capped by Upper Oligocene-Aquitanian clastic deposits postdating early Alpine orogenesis but predating the main tectonic-metamorphic evolution, end of nappe emplacement, unroofing, and exhumation of the metamorphic units of the Betic-Rif Orogen. Two conglomerate intervals within these deposits are characterized by clasts of sedimentary, epimetamorphic, and mafic volcanic rocks derived from Malaguide-Ghomaride units and by clasts of acidic magmatic and orthogneissic rocks of unknown provenance, here studied. Magmatic rocks originated from late-Variscan two-mica cordierite-bearing granitoids and, subordinately, from aplitic dikes. Orthogneisses derive from similar plutonic rocks but are affected by an Alpine metamorphic overprint evolving from greenschist (T=510&j0;-530 degrees C and P=5-6 kbar) to low-temperature amphibolite facies (T>550&j0;C and P<3 kbar). Such a plutonic rock suite is unknown in any Betic-Rif unit or in the basement of the Alboran Sea, and the metamorphic evolution in the orthogneisses is different from (and older than) that of Alpujarride-Sebtide rocks to which they were formerly ascribed. Magmatic and metamorphic rocks very similar to those studied characterize the basements of some Kabylia and Calabria-Peloritani units. Therefore, the source area is a currently lost continental-crust realm of Calabria-Peloritani-Kabylia type, located to the ESE of the Malaguide-Ghomaride Domain and affected by a pre-latest Oligocene Alpine metamorphism. Increasingly active tectonics transformed this realm into rising areas from which erosion fed small subsiding synorogenic basins formed on the Malaguide-Ghomaride Complex. This provenance analysis demonstrates that all these domains constituted a single continental-crust block until Aquitanian-Burdigalian times, before its dispersal around nascent western Mediterranean basins.     

陕西二台子铜金床钠长石碳酸（角砾）岩类特征及形成构造背景分析

从岩石学、矿物学、岩石化学、地球化学、稀土元素等方面研究了二台子铜金矿内长石炭酸（角砾）岩类地质地球化学特征。晚泥盆世－石炭纪,在区域幔羽构造作用下,深部热流体沿先存在构造通道上升进入镇安二台子三级热水沉积盆地之中,形成了石英重晶石炭酸角砾岩、碳酸角砾岩、复成分角砾岩、钠长岩、钠长石碳酸岩,受同性断裂及层位控制明显,并构成了金的矿源层及普遍金矿化。燕山期,具有幔源特征的深部含矿热流体在北东、北西向