FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC science mission update

The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission is a microsatellite mission for weather forecast, climate monitoring, and atmospheric, ionospheric and geodesy research. This mission is a collaborative Taiwan-USA science experiment to deploy a constellation of six microsatellites in low Earth orbits. The mission life is 2 years with a goal of 5 years. The final mission orbit has an altitude of 750–800 km. Each satellite consists of three science payloads: global positioning system (GPS) occultation experiment (GOX) payload, tiny ionospheric photometer (TIP) and tri-band beacon (TBB). The GOX will collect the GPS signals for the study on atmosphere, ionosphere, and geodesy. The TIP and TBB can provide the electron distribution information for ionospheric research. The deployment of the FORMOSAT-3 constellation and the resulting influence on the occultation sounding distributions are reported. Details are also given on GOX, TIP, and TBB payload operations and the contributions of the Taiwan Science Team.     

Efficient strong motion duration of pulse-like records for nonlinear structural analyses

The special interest produced by near-field directivity records and their effect on structural response has given a new significance in the velocity time history, its pulse-like content, and relevant parameters and indices. Recent research has shown that directivity pulses inherent in these records govern the linear and the nonlinear response of a wide range of structures. Based on this observation, it is suggested in this paper that a truncated ground motion, limited to the duration of the predominant velocity pulse, can be efficiently used to predict the structural response, instead of the base motion with the total duration, reducing significantly the required runtimes. The proposed methodology is verified for a series of medium to high rise reinforced concrete buildings, for which nonlinear time-history analyses are performed for a vast suite of pulse-like near-field records applied as base excitations with their total duration and the proposed truncated one. Comparison of the results for the response displacements and forces shows very good agreement, permitting the acceptance of the pulse duration as the efficient strong motion time interval of the original record, which determines the response and, thus, it can be used for nonlinear structural analyses.     

Long‐term Holocene groundwater fluctuations in a chalk catchment: evidence from Rock‐Eval pyrolysis of riparian peats

The depositional history of peat‐dominated wetlands can be used to understand palaeoclimate and palaeohydrology and also constrain the impacts of future climate change. However, in chalkland valleys, seasonal water table fluctuations and a high alkalinity have diminished key environment indicators such as pollen, and there is a need for alternative investigative techniques. The method of Rock‐Eval pyrolysis can track changes in organic matter source and degradation, potentially relating to historic changes in vegetation cover. This is the first Rock‐Eval on cores from a groundwater‐dependent riparian chalk valley wetland combined with radiocarbon dating. The dating showed that the cores represented approximately 4000 years of depositional history. Changes in hydrocarbon chemistry including normal alkane composition of the peat indicated shifts of around 500 to 1000 years between terrestrial and more aquatic species, relating to periods of climate wetness. These climatic shifts are broadly consistent with other evidence from ombrotrophic peatland and lacustrine sediments across northwest Europe. However, the connection between climate wetness and groundwater dependent chalkland wetlands is complicated by external anthropogenically driven factors relating to land use and vegetation cover changes in the catchment. Nonetheless, this study suggests that Rock‐Eval pyrolysis is a useful and cost‐effective tool that can provide evidence for long‐term Holocene groundwater fluctuations. Copyright © 2016 British Geological Survey.     

The temperature of the warm neutral medium in the Milky Way

We report high-spectral-resolution Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) H  i 21-cm observations resulting in the detection of the warm neutral medium (WNM) of the Galaxy in absorption against two extragalactic radio sources, PKS 1814−637 and PKS 0407−658. The two lines of sight were selected on the basis of the simplicity of their absorption profiles and the strength of the background sources; the high velocity resolution of the spectra then enabled us to estimate the kinetic temperatures of the absorbing gas by fitting multiple Gaussians to the absorption profiles. Four separate WNM components were detected towards the two sources, with peak optical depths  τ_max= (1.0 ± 0.08) × 10⁻², (1.4 ± 0.2) × 10⁻³, (2.2 ± 0.5) × 10⁻³  and  (3.4 ± 0.5) × 10⁻³  and kinetic temperatures   T _k= 3127 ± 300, 3694 ± 1595, 3500 ± 1354  and  2165 ± 608 K  , respectively. All four components were thus found to have temperatures in the thermally unstable range  500 < T _k < 5000 K  ; this suggests that thermal equilibrium has not been reached throughout the WNM.     

Identifying the potential loss of monitoring wells using an uncertainty analysis

From the mid-1940s through the 1980s, large volumes of waste water were discharged at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State, causing a large-scale rise (>20 m) in the water table. When waste water discharges ceased in 1988, ground water mounds began to dissipate. This caused a large number of wells to go dry and has made it difficult to monitor contaminant plume migration. To identify monitoring wells that will need replacement, a methodology has been developed using a first-order uncertainty analysis with UCODE, a nonlinear parameter estimation code. Using a three-dimensional, finite-element ground water flow code, key parameters were identified by calibrating to historical hydraulic head data. Results from the calibration period were then used to check model predictions by comparing monitoring wells' wet/dry status with field data. This status was analyzed using a methodology that incorporated the 0.3 cumulative probability derived from the confidence and prediction intervals. For comparison, a nonphysically based trend model was also used as a predictor of wells' wet/dry status. Although the numerical model outperformed the trend model, for both models, the central value of the intervals was a better predictor of a wet well status. The prediction interval, however, was more successful at identifying dry wells. Predictions made through the year 2048 indicated that 46% of the wells in the monitoring well network are likely to go dry in areas near the river and where the ground water mound is dissipating.     

MARKET TRADE IN DECENTRALIZED DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF CAJAMARCA,PERU *

Decentralized development views market trade and market towns as part of a comprehensive strategy to divert economic development away from major metropolitan areas. Seventy-one traders were surveyed in the central market of Cajamarca, Peru in 1981. Most are women earning minimal incomes, primarily because of price controls and expensive credit. Stimulating market trade as it is currently organized seems unlikely to assist migrants in secondary towns or to stimulate agricultural development in their hinterlands.     

Historical variability of subfossil chironomids (Diptera: Chironomidae) in three lakes impacted by natural and anthropogenic disturbances

In the eastern boreal forest of Quebec, Canada, harvesting strategies try to mimic the effects of fire on forest ecosystems, assuming that both disturbances have similar impacts. However impacts of both types of perturbations on lacustrine ecosystems, especially on chironomids (non-biting midges), are still poorly understood. The objectives of this study were to determine if logging and fire resulted in chironomid assemblages significantly different than pre-disturbance states and to see if the harvesting strategy (careful logging around advanced growth (CLAAG) and buffer zones) protect lakes from logging effects in the boreal forest. Three statistical tests were used to study the difference between pre- and post-disturbance assemblages: a principal component analysis (PCA), analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) and a non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) ordination. All statistical analyses suggested that fire did not have any effects on chironomid assemblages. The PCA analysis showed that two logging events in Lac aux Huards created chironomid assemblages slightly outside the pre-disturbance variability. However, ANOSIM showed that these differences were not significant at the 0.5% level of significance. These results suggest that the presence of a buffer zone probably limited the impacts of logging on lakes in this area.     

From marine bands to hybrid flows: Sedimentology of a Mississippian black shale

Organic-rich mudstones have long been of interest as conventional and unconventional source rocks and are an important organic carbon sink. Yet the processes that deposited organic-rich muds in epicontinental seaways are poorly understood, partly because few modern analogues exist. This study investigates the processes that transported and deposited sediment and organic matter through part of the Bowland Shale Formation, from the Mississippian Rheic–Tethys seaway. Field to micron-scale sedimentological analysis reveals a heterogeneous succession of carbonate-rich, siliceous, and siliciclastic, argillaceous muds. Deposition of these facies at basinal and slope locations was moderated by progradation of the nearby Pendle delta system, fourth-order eustatic sea-level fluctuation and localized block and basin tectonism. Marine transgressions deposited bioclastic ‘marine band’ (hemi)pelagic packages. These include abundant euhaline macrofaunal tests, and phosphatic concretions of organic matter and radiolarian tests interpreted as faecal pellets sourced from a productive water column. Lens-rich (lenticular) mudstones, hybrid, debrite and turbidite beds successively overlie marine band packages and suggest reducing basin accommodation promoted sediment deposition via laminar and hybrid flows sourced from the basin margins. Mud lenses in lenticular mudstones lack organic linings and bioclasts and are equant in early-cemented lenses and in plan-view, and are largest and most abundant in mudstones overlying marine band packages. Thus, lenses likely represent partially consolidated mud clasts that were scoured and transported in bedload from the shelf or proximal slope, as a ‘shelf to basin’ conveyor, during periods of reduced basin accommodation. Candidate in situ microbial mats in strongly lenticular mudstones, and as rip-up fragments in the down-dip hybrid beds, suggest that these were potentially key biostabilizers of mud. Deltaic mud export was fast, despite the intrabasinal complexity, likely an order of magnitude higher than similar successions deposited in North America. Epicontinental basins remotely linked to delta systems were therefore capable of rapidly accumulating both sediment and organic matter.     

The Boliden gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit, Skellefte district, Sweden: new U–Pb age constraints and implications at deposit and district scale

The Boliden deposit (8.3 Mt at 15.9 g/t Au) is interpreted to have been formed between ca. 1894 and 1891 Ma, based on two new U–Pb ID-TIMS ages: a maximum age of 1893.9?+?2.0/?1.9 Ma obtained from an altered quartz and feldspar porphyritic rhyolite in the deposit footwall in the volcanic Skellefte group and a minimum age of 1890.8?±?1 Ma obtained from a felsic mass-flow deposit in the lowermost part of the volcano-sedimentary Vargfors group, which forms the stratigraphic hanging wall to the deposit. These ages are in agreement with the alteration and mineralization being formed at or near the sea floor in the volcanogenic massive sulfide environment. These two ages and the geologic relationships imply that: (1) volcanism and hydrothermal activity in the Skellefte group were initiated earlier than 1.89 Ga which was previously considered to be the onset of volcanism in the Skellefte group; (2) the volcano-sedimentary succession of the Vargfors group is perhaps as old as 1892 Ma in the eastern part of the Skellefte district; and (3) an early (synvolcanic) deformation event in the Skellefte group is evidenced by the unconformity between the ≤1893.9?+?2.0/?1.9 Ma Skellefte group upper volcanic rocks and the ≤1890.8?±?1 Ma Vargfors sedimentary and volcanic rocks in the Boliden domain. Differential block tilting, uplift, and subsidence controlled by synvolcanic faults in an extensional environment is likely, perhaps explaining some hybrid VMS-epithermal characteristics shown by the VMS deposits of the district.