Seasonal connections between meteoric water and streamflow generation along a mountain headwater stream

In snowmelt-driven mountain watersheds, the hydrologic connectivity between meteoric waters and stream flow generation varies strongly with the season, reflecting variable connection to soil and groundwater storage within the watershed. This variable connectivity regulates how streamflow generation mechanisms transform the seasonal and elevational variation in oxygen and hydrogen isotopic composition (δ¹⁸O and δD) of meteoric precipitation. Thus, water isotopes in stream flow can signal immediate connectivity or more prolonged mixing, especially in high-relief mountainous catchments. We characterized δ¹⁸O and δD values in stream water along an elevational gradient in a mountain headwater catchment in southwestern Montana. Stream water isotopic compositions related most strongly to elevation between February and March, exhibiting higher δ¹⁸O and δD values with decreasing elevation. These elevational isotopic lapse rates likely reflect increased connection between stream flow and proximal snow-derived water sources heavily subject to elevational isotopic effects. These patterns disappeared during summer sampling, when consistently lower δ¹⁸O and δD values of stream water reflected contributions from snowmelt or colder rainfall, despite much higher δ¹⁸O and δD values expected in warmer seasonal rainfall. The consistently low isotopic values and absence of a trend with elevation during summer suggest lower connectivity between summer precipitation and stream flow generation as a consequence of drier soils and greater transpiration. As further evidence of intermittent seasonal connectivity between the stream and adjacent groundwaters, we observed a late-winter flush of nitrate into the stream at higher elevations, consistent with increased connection to accumulating mineralized nitrogen in riparian wetlands. This pattern was distinct from mid-summer patterns of nitrate loading at lower elevations that suggested heightened human recreational activity along the stream corridor. These observations provide insights linking stream flow generation and seasonal water storage in high elevation mountainous watersheds. Greater understanding of the connections between surface water, soil water and groundwater in these environments will help predict how the quality and quantity of mountain runoff will respond to changing climate and allow better informed water management decisions.     

A high speed near infrared photometer for lunar occultation studies

A recently developed near infrared high speed photometer intended for lunar oc-cultation studies is described. The primary scientific objective is to reach milli arc second levels of angular resolution so that circumstellar structure of the occulted sources can be resolved. Near infrared sky brightness close to the lunar limb is also studied. Angular diameter derived from the observed occultation of IRC +20169 is presented and system performance discussed.     

Geotechnical properties of evaporite soils of the Dead Sea area

The Dead Sea Basin is the lowest point on earth and is tectonically subsiding. During the Holocene Period the climate became much drier with increasing evaporation whereby initially lacustrine sediments were deposited from the non-marine brines, giving a multi-layered stratigraphy of lime carbonate and halite sediments. The lime carbonate sediments are comprised of laminated, clay to silt sized, clastic sediments (calcite) and authigenic aragonite and gypsum. The halite commonly appears as rock salt. Chemical industries, based on harvesting the salts from the Dead Sea, have developed on both the Israeli and the Jordanian sides of the basin. The lime carbonate soils are used for dike construction, and these soils, together with significant salt layers, are encountered in the foundations of structures, dikes, and tailings dams, requiring definition of their geotechnical properties. Use of standard soil mechanics definitions and testing approaches for the lime carbonates have been found inapplicable, particularly in view of their exceptionally high saline content, and it has been necessary to develop new concepts. The rock salt is encountered at shallow depths, with unit weights considerably lower than those usually discussed in the literature, and with correspondingly different mechanical properties. The geotechnical properties of these soils, and approaches used to define them, are discussed in the paper.     

Diffusion of seawater ions. Part II. The role of activity coefficients and ion pairing

A theoretical evaluation of basic thermodynamic relationships reveals that variation of activity coefficients, ion pairing and electrical interactions must be considered when modelling ionic diffusion in seawater. The contributions of ion-pair formation and change in activity coefficient along the diffusion path were studied experimentally by conducting diffusion experiments in which solutions of KCl, NaCl, MgCl₂, Li₂SO₄, K₂SO₄, Na₂SO₄ and MgSO₄, at an ionic strength of 0.7, were allowed to diffuse into distilled water. The study reveals that the thermodynamic factor, required to correct for changes in the activity coefficient along the diffusion path, is significant for all the salts studied. Agreement between a simple diffusion model, which does not include ion pairing, and observed data was good for completely dissociated salts, but poor for salts which are known to form ion pairs at the concentration levels studied. The diffusion of MgSO₄, 0.425 of which is associated at I = 0.7, was successfully modelled by assuming that the diffusion coefficient of the MgSO₄⁰ ion pair is different from the diffusion coefficient of the dissociated salt. The diffusion coefficient of this ion pair is estimated to be 1.9 × 10⁻⁵ cm² s⁻¹ at 30°C, as compared to 0.49 × 10⁻⁵ cm² s⁻¹ for the dissociated salt. It is suggested that the high mobility of this ion pair could cause magnesium enrichment in pore water of sulfate depleted sediments.     

Environmental issues with Australian ports

Ports and shipping operations are under increased environmental scrutiny in Australia, particularly as so many of Australia's ports and shipping routes are located in or near major environmentally sensitive areas. The environmental risks involved have been highlighted by the publicity given to shipping accidents. Environmental regulations over aspects of port operations, including ballast water management, dredge spoil and waste reception, are also becoming stricter. While port authorities have adopted stringent environmental guidelines, they remain concerned that the full impact of proposed new environmental regulations on maritime industry may not be fully understood. This paper discusses some of the issues involved with achieving a balance between environmental protection and the need to recognise the importance of seaborne trade to Australia and to maintain Australia's competitiveness in international trade.     

Determination of palladium and platinum in seaweed

Palladium and platinum concentrations were determined for twenty two species of seaweed from the California coast, U.S.A.. A new sensitive analytical technique using atomic absorption spectrometry was developed for palladium in seaweed. For the first time, palladium contents in seaweed were obtained. The contents of palladium and platinum varied from 0.09 to 0.61 ng g^–1 and 0.25 to 1.75 ng g^–1 in dried material, respectively.The average ratio of Pt/Pd found in seaweed was 3.5, while the ratio of Pt/Pd was 4.5 in seawater. Therefore, it is postulated that there is no discrimination for seaweed to accumulate palladium and platinum from the ambient seawater due to the chemical similarity of the metals.     

On the CO2O2 system in the Northeastern Pacific

The TCO₂, O₂, TA and δ¹³C data of the 1969 Geosecs Intercalibration Cruise was analyzed and found to be consistent with a vertical mixing model which assumes that each point along a vertical profile is a mixture of the upper and lower boundaries. Calculated regression coefficients are in agreement with the model of Redfield et al. (1963) and with the assumption that TA variation is due to carbonate reaction. Oxygen consumption and TCO₂ production decrease exponentially with depth and approximately 80% of ΔCO₂ can be accounted for, on average, by O₂ consumption. The remaining 20% are probably due to carbonate solution which seems to take place at depths below 2,500 m. The present study suggests that the isotopic composition (δ¹³C) of the carbon source, required to account for most of the oxygen consumed, may be heavier than the value of −23%. assigned to dissolved organic carbon and particulate organic carbon.     

Capturing strain localization in reinforced soils

Lade’s single hardening soil model with Cosserat rotation embodied in the finite element method is employed to investigate the behavior of geosynthetic reinforced soils with special attention to the development of shear banding. The ability of the finite element model to detect shear banding in a reinforced soil is examined against three high quality small-scale laboratory plane strain tests on Toyoura sand with and without reinforcement. These three tests were chosen because of the clear failure surfaces that developed in the soil during loading. The FEM analyses were able to reasonably simulate the plane strain laboratory tests including both unreinforced and reinforced cases. The FEM analyses gave reasonably good agreement with the experimental results in terms of global stress–strain relationships and shear band occurrences. Furthermore, and based on FE analyses of a hypothetical geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) retaining wall, it is shown that the geosynthetic reinforcements are very effective in hindering the formation of shear bands in GRS retaining walls when small spacing between the reinforcement layers was used. When used properly, the geosynthetic reinforcements made the soil behave as a truly reinforced mass of considerable stiffness and strength.     

Reservoir description using dynamic parameterisation selection with a combined stochastic and gradient search

There is a correspondence between flow in a reservoir and large scale permeability trends. This correspondence can be derived by constraining reservoir models using observed production data. One of the challenges in deriving the permeability distribution of a field using production data involves determination of the scale of resolution of the permeability. The Adaptive Multiscale Estimation (AME) seeks to overcome the problems related to choosing the resolution of the permeability field by a dynamic parameterisation selection. The standard AME uses a gradient algorithm in solving several optimisation problems with increasing permeability resolution. This paper presents a hybrid algorithm which combines a gradient search and a stochastic algorithm to improve the robustness of the dynamic parameterisation selection. At low dimension, we use the stochastic algorithm to generate several optimised models. We use information from all these produced models to find new optimal refinements, and start out new optimisations with several unequally suggested parameterisations. At higher dimensions we change to a gradient-type optimiser, where the initial solution is chosen from the ensemble of models suggested by the stochastic algorithm. The selection is based on a predefined criterion. We demonstrate the robustness of the hybrid algorithm on sample synthetic cases, which most of them were considered insolvable using the standard AME algorithm.