Auto-correlation analysis in search of short-term patterns in varve data from sediments of Lake Gościā, Poland

The annually laminated, or varved, sediments of Lake Gościź, Poland, cover the last c. 12900 years, from Late Allerød up to the present. We have analysed the thickness of 1912 varves in this time-series by means of auto-correlation analysis, in the hope of obtaining information on patterns in past climate, for example patterns of 11 years, which might indicate a relation with solar activity. We analysed the total varve thickness and the thickness of the summer and the winter layer. Two single-bootstrap experiments confirmed the validity of the methods in general, but they indicated that the moving-window technique with overlapping windows hampered the assessment of statistical significance. Three global significance assessment procedures, taking into account the total number of auto-correlation coefficients (ACs) that is tested, showed significance of the ACs only at a lag of one year and only for the winter layer and the total varve. This auto-correlation with the preceding year may be explained by a factor internal to the lake, for instance some depositional mechanism. We found no indication of a relation between varve formation and the sun-spot cycle.     

Fossil Vertebrates from Kuangyuan, N. Szechuan, China

正 During the late spring of 1941, Messrs. M. N. Bien, T. H. Mi and the present writer were fortunate enough to discover several localities of vertebrate fossils. The geological condition will be reported in another paper' and need not be repeated there. Most of the fossils were derived from the hill     

ON THE CENOZOIC GEOLOGY BETWEEN LOYANG AND SIAN

Bordered by the Chungtiaoshan (中條山) on the North and the Tsinling (秦嶺) on the South, the area between Loyang and Sian, where the Huangho River hits and follows the old Weiho valley has been known for a long time to be specially rich in Cenozoic formations of different ages. These deposits are     

ON THE OCCURRENCE OF LYSTROSAURUS IN SINKIANG~1

The presence of Dicynodontia in Sinkiang was first made manifest by the beautiful skull described in the same number of the Bulletin, (see above 563) as Dicynodon sinkianensis sp. nov. Recently, a second skull also collected by     

A REVIEW OF THE EARLY TERTIARY FORMATIONS OF CHINA~1

INTRODUCTION The Early Tertiary formations in China have not been studied systematically for a long time, since they are less well exposed and less fossilifer, ous than the Pliocene or Pleistocene beds in the same areas. No further re-     

Time and space distribution of megaripples and associated bedforms, Middle Atlantic Bight, North American Atlantic Shelf

Three genetically distinct size classes of lower regime transverse bedforms have long been known from laboratory studies, and from studies of the intertidal zone; ripples, megaripples, and sand waves. These features are also present on the subtidal shelf surface of the Middle Atlantic Bight, and their distribution in time and space allows us to draw inferences concerning the time and space pattern of sediment transport. Transverse bedforms in the Middle Atlantic Bight occur in response to tidal flows at estuary and inlet mouths and on tide-dominated banks; on the shelf surface, however, they are primarily responses to wind-driven flows. Ripples are the most widespread of the three classes. They are current-formed during peak storm flows, but are probably remade as oscillatory wave ripples as the flow wanes. Megaripples are found primarily on the inner shelf, also as responses to peak storm flows. Sand waves of several metres amplitude occur on the inner shelf in the vicinity of topographic highs; low amplitude sand waves (< 2m), solitary or in trains, are widespread on the inner shelf. They survive through many seasons of storm flows. Megaripples are especially interesting as records of specific flow events. They are widespread on the inner shelf during the winter, occurring in fields up to several kilometres in diameter. On a portion of the Long Island inner shelf during December 1976, megaripple fields covered approximately 15% of the shelf surface. They tend to be erased during the succeeding summer months. Both megaripples (short-term response elements) and sand waves (long-term response elements) indicate that sand transport in the Middle Atlantic Bight is directed to the southeast, parallel with the regional trend of the isobaths.     

Ripple formation in combined transdirectional steady and oscillatory flow

Measurements are described of the geometry of ripples formed on beds of sand exposed to a steady current at right angles to an oscillatory flow. Four different sands were studied. The oscillation was produced by an oscillating tray set into the bed of a steady-flow flume. It was observed that straight-crested ripples formed by oscillatory flow would usually develop a ‘serpentine’ form when the superimposed steady current exceeded a certain limit. For amplitudes of the tray velocity U_∞ less than about 0.38 m s^-1 this limit corresponded to U_∞/ū_*c>31, where ū_*c is the shear velocity measured just upstream of the oscillating tray. It is suggested that the serpentine form is caused by the interaction of vortices carried back and forth between adjacent ripples. On this assumption, the wavelength of the serpentine form would be proportional to the product of period of oscillation and near-bed steady current velocity. The present measurements appear to support this hypothesis although there is also evidence that the wavelength is influenced by preferred spacing patterns between vortices. The measurements also show the ratio of the amplitude of the serpentine form to its wavelength to be approximately constant. Empirical relationships are derived relating ripple geometry to flow and sediment properties. It is observed that the influence of Reynolds number and sediment properties on the geometry is very weak. It is suggested that this is typical of ripples formed with relatively low sediment transport rates. It is also found that, under the present experimental conditions, the ripple spacing in the direction of oscillation is almost independent of the magnitude of the steady current and in close agreement with the wavelengths previously measured in an oscillating water tunnel. This suggests that the additional inertia effects associated with oscillating tray rigs were not sufficient to affect bed geometry under the present test conditions.