Mirdita Zone ophiolites and associated sediments in Albania reveal Neotethys Ocean origin

The Mirdita Ophiolite Zone in Albania is associated with widespread mélanges containing components of up to nappe-size. We dated matrix and components of the mélange by radiolarians, conodonts, and other taxa. The components consist of radiolarites, pelagic limestones and shallow-water limestones, all of Triassic age, as well as ophiolites. Triassic radiolarite as a primary cover of ophiolite material proves Middle Triassic onset of Mirdita ocean-floor formation. The mélange contains a turbiditic radiolarite-rich matrix (“radiolaritic flysch”), dated as Late Bajocian to Early Oxfordian. It formed as a synorogenic sediment during west-directed thrusting of ophiolite and sediment-cover nappes representing ocean floor and underplated fragments of the western continental margin. The tectonic structures formed during these orogenic events (“Younger Kimmeridian or Eohellenic Orogeny”) are sealed by Late Jurassic platform carbonates. The geological history conforms with that of the Inner Dinarides and adjoining areas; we therefore correlate the Mirdita-Pindos Ophiolite Zone with the Vardar Zone and explain its present position by far-distance west-directed thrusting.     

普里兹湾邻近海域大磷虾的生殖特点研究

本文依据 1 989/1 990和 1 990 /1 991夏季 ,“极地”号考察船在普里兹湾邻近海域 (南大洋的印度洋区 )的拖网样品 ,对大磷虾的性腺发育和生殖群体的年龄结构等 ,进行了分析研究。大磷虾的生殖开始于 1月 ,一直持续到 3月。高峰期出现在 2月中旬 ,比大西洋区相比迟了一个月。生殖群体主要包括两个年龄组 ,即 3 + 龄和 4+ 龄。换句话说 ,绝大部分个体是三年性成熟 ,一生可生殖两次 ,不排除少数个体两年性成熟 ,或第三次性成熟的可能 ,但比例非常小。在 5 91 6尾能区分性别的个体中 ,雄性个体只占 3 4 .1 %。雄性比随体长的增加而降低。体长大于 5 0 mm的个体中雄性仅占 2 2 .9%。     

Measurements of peroxyacetylnitrate in the marine boundary layer over the Atlantic

The atmospheric concentration of peroxyacetylnitrate (PAN) was measured during a cruise of the R.S. Polarstern from Bremerhaven (Germany) to Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) in September/ October 1988. The measurements were made in-situ by a combination of electron capture gaschromatography with a cryogenic preconcentration step. The theoretical lower limit of detection (3) was 0.4 ppt. The mixing ratios of PAN varied by more than three orders of magnitude from 2000 ppt in the English Channel to less than 0.4 ppt south of the Azores (38° N). South of 35° N, PAN levels were below the detection limit, except at 30–31° S off the eastern coast of South America. Here, PAN mixing ratios of 10 to 100 ppt were detected in continentally influenced air masses. Detectable levels of PAN were mostly observed in air masses of continental or high northern origin. Changes in the wind directions were usually associated with substantial changes in the PAN mixing ratios.     

Seasonal variation of atmospheric dimethylsulfide at Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean

Daily measurements of atmospheric concentrations of dimethylsulfide (DMS) were carried out for two years in a marine site at remote area: the Amsterdam Island (37°50S–77°31E) located in the southern Indian Ocean. DMS concentrations were also measured in seawater. A seasonal variation is observed for both DMS in the atmosphere and in the sea-surface. The monthly averages of DMS concentrations in the surface coastal seawater and in the atmosphere ranged, respectively, from 0.3 to 2.0 nmol l^-1 and from 1.4 to 11.3 nmol m^-3 (34 to 274 pptv), with the highest values in summer. The monthly variation of sea-to-air flux of DMS from the southern Indian Ocean ranges from 0.7 to 4.4 mol m^-2 d^-1. A factor of 2.3 is observed between summer and winter with mean DMS fluxes of 3.0 and 1.3 mol m^-2 d^-1, respectively.     

Spatial and temporal variability of Holocene temperature in the North Atlantic region

The early Holocene climate of the North Atlantic region was influenced by two boundary conditions that were fundamentally different from the present: the presence of the decaying Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) and higher than present summer solar insolation. In order to assess spatial and temporal patterns of Holocene climate evolution across this region, we collated quantitative paleotemperature records at sub-millennial resolution and synthesized their temporal variability using principal components analysis (PCA). The analysis reveals considerable spatial variability, most notably in the time-transgressive expression of the Holocene thermal maximum (HTM). Most of the region, but especially areas peripheral to the Labrador Sea and hence closest to the locus of LIS disintegration, experienced maximum Holocene temperatures that lagged peak summer insolation by 1000-3000 years. Many sites from the northeastern North Atlantic sector, including the Nordic Seas and Scandinavia, either warmed in phase with maximum summer insolation (11,000-9000 years ago) or were less strongly lagged than the Baffin Bay-Labrador Sea region. These spatially complex patterns of Holocene climate development, which are defined by the PCA, resulted from the interplay between final decay of the LIS and solar insolation forcing.     

Abrupt climate change: An alternative view

Hypotheses and inferences concerning the nature of abrupt climate change, exemplified by the Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events, are reviewed. There is little concrete evidence that these events are more than a regional Greenland phenomenon. The partial coherence of ice core δ¹⁸O and CH₄ is a possible exception. Claims, however, of D-O presence in most remote locations cannot be distinguished from the hypothesis that many regions are just exhibiting temporal variability in climate proxies with approximately similar frequency content. Further suggestions that D-O events in Greenland are generated by shifts in the North Atlantic ocean circulation seem highly implausible, given the weak contribution of the high latitude ocean to the meridional flux of heat. A more likely scenario is that changes in the ocean circulation are a consequence of wind shifts. The disappearance of D-O events in the Holocene coincides with the disappearance also of the Laurentide and Fennoscandian ice sheets. It is thus suggested that D-O events are a consequence of interactions of the windfield with the continental ice sheets and that better understanding of the wind field in the glacial periods is the highest priority. Wind fields are capable of great volatility and very rapid global-scale teleconnections, and they are efficient generators of oceanic circulation changes and (more speculatively) of multiple states relative to great ice sheets. Connection of D-O events to the possibility of modern abrupt climate change rests on a very weak chain of assumptions.     

2004年印度洋海啸印尼亚齐省灾情遥感监测与分析

2004年12月底印尼苏门答腊岛西北海岸发生里氏9.0级地震,引发印度洋沿岸的印尼、斯里兰卡、泰国、印度等国家先后遭受强烈海啸。印度尼西亚亚齐省是遭受海啸灾害最严重的地区之一。为了评估海啸灾害造成的严重影响,应用遥感和地理信息系统技术,以2005-01-07英国DMC小卫星遥感影像为基础数据源,结合收集到的该地区灾前(2001年)LandsatETM 遥感影像,对亚齐省进行了监测和快速评估。监测结果表明距离震中位置较近的亚齐省苏门答腊岛西海岸遭受影响较严重,亚齐省苏门答腊岛西海岸由于距离震中位置较近遭受严重影响,而苏门答腊岛东海岸则影响较轻,受灾最严重的地区是亚齐省首府班达亚齐市附近。经统计,整个亚齐省遭受海啸严重影响的地区面积约为483km2,其中城市建成区受淹面积约为26·2km2,乡村(镇)地区受淹面积约为430·5km2。文章的最后还结合数字高程模型对海啸灾情的结果进行了分析。结果表明,绝大多数因海啸而受淹地区高程低于20m。     

Outlier detection algorithms and their performance in GOCE gravity field processing

The satellite missions CHAMP, GRACE, and GOCE mark the beginning of a new era in gravity field determination and modeling. They provide unique models of the global stationary gravity field and its variation in time. Due to inevitable measurement errors, sophisticated pre-processing steps have to be applied before further use of the satellite measurements. In the framework of the GOCE mission, this includes outlier detection, absolute calibration and validation of the SGG (satellite gravity gradiometry) measurements, and removal of temporal effects. In general, outliers are defined as observations that appear to be inconsistent with the remainder of the data set. One goal is to evaluate the effect of additive, innovative and bulk outliers on the estimates of the spherical harmonic coefficients. It can be shown that even a small number of undetected outliers (<0.2 of all data points) can have an adverse effect on the coefficient estimates. Consequently, concepts for the identification and removal of outliers have to be developed. Novel outlier detection algorithms are derived and statistical methods are presented that may be used for this purpose. The methods aim at high outlier identification rates as well as small failure rates. A combined algorithm, based on wavelets and a statistical method, shows best performance with an identification rate of about 99%. To further reduce the influence of undetected outliers, an outlier detection algorithm is implemented inside the gravity field solver (the Quick-Look Gravity Field Analysis tool was used). This results in spherical harmonic coefficient estimates that are of similar quality to those obtained without outliers in the input data.     

World-wide synthetic tide parameters for gravity and vertical and horizontal displacements

The response of the Earth’s crust to the direct effect of lunisolar gravitational forcing is known as the body tide. The body tide is superimposed by surface-loading forces due to the pressure of the periodically varying ocean tide acting on the Earth, called ocean tide loading (OTL). Both body tide and OTL can be decomposed into components of the same frequency known as tidal parameters. However, OTL is more complicated than body tides because of the dynamic effects of the ocean. Estimating OTL requires a model of the ocean tides and knowledge of the elastic properties of the solid Earth. Thus, synthetic tide parameters (amplitude factors and phase leads) have been developed here on a world-wide grid for gravity and positional displacements. The body tide contributions were added to the oceanic contribution to provide the Earth tide response. The accuracy and reliability of the synthetic tidal parameters have been estimated by comparing observed gravity and vertical-displacement tide parameters with those interpolated from our synthetic model, which shows good agreement. Tests also indicate that the synthetic tide parameters provide realistic gravimetric and displacements for practical use in tidal prediction.     

亚洲赤道地区大气动能的纬向传播

基于 1980～ 1997年 85 0hPa逐日NCEP/NCAR再分析资料讨论了亚洲赤道地区 (0°～ 5°N)大气动能的纬向传播特征。结果表明 ,在亚洲季风区内 ,赤道地区大气动能 (K)的最强中心位于 75°～ 90°E ,次强中心在索马里急流区 (5 0°E附近 )。在 0°～ 5°N ,90°E以东 ,平均的大气动能扰动和赤道上经向风扰动主要起源于西太平洋 ,并向西经南海传播到孟加拉湾。而在孟加拉湾动能中心与索马里急流区之间 ,动能传播方向比较复杂。以上事实说明赤道地区东亚季风系统确实是存在的 ,与印度季风系统中扰动的传播方向不同 ,东亚季风系统中动能和经向风扰动在东西方向上主要受西太平洋的影响。在亚洲赤道季风区 ,这两个系统的交界处约在 95°～ 10 0°E附近 ,比过去界定的偏西 5～ 10个经度。