Vertical material flux under seasonal sea ice in the Okhotsk Sea north of Hokkaido, Japan

Downward material fluxes under seasonal sea ice were measured using a time-series sediment trap installed at an offshore site in the Okhotsk Sea north of Hokkaido, Japan, from 13 January to 23 March 2005. The maximum fluxes of lithogenic material (753 mg m⁻² day⁻¹) and organic matter (mainly detritus; 333 mg m⁻² day⁻¹) were recorded during the period in which sea ice drifted ashore and increased in extent, from 13 January to 9 February. Organic matter as fecal pellets (81–93 mg m⁻² day⁻¹) and opal as biosilica (51–67 mg m⁻² day⁻¹), representing diatom fluxes, were abundant in sediment trap samples obtained during the period of full sea ice coverage from 10 February to 9 March. Microscopic observations revealed that fecal pellets were largely diatom frustules, suggesting that zooplankton actively grazed on ice algae during the period of full sea ice coverage. During the period of retreating sea ice, from 10 to 23 March, the phytoplankton flux showed a rapid increase (from 9.5 to 22.5 × 10⁶ cells m⁻² day⁻¹), reflecting their release into the water column as the sea ice melted. Our results demonstrate that the quantity and quality of sinking biogenic and lithogenic materials vary with the seasonal extent of sea ice in mid-winter.     

Morphotectonic zones along the coast of the Pacific continental margin, southern Mexico

Geomorphic analysis, employing topographic, morphologic, geologic, and bathymetric maps, and field studies show that the morphology of the southern coast of Mexico can be linked to lateral variations in the geometry and tectonism of the subduction zone. A reconnaissance study, based on the regional morphological characteristics and correlation with seismotectonic segments, regional tectonics and major bathymetric features, allows identification of several morphotectonic zones along the coast of southern Mexico: (1) Jalisco zone, (2) Colima zone, (3) Michoacan zone, (4) Guerrero zone, (5) Oaxaca zone, and (6) Tehuantepec zone. A range of geomorphological evidence, including marine terraces, river terraces, uplifted notches, and elevated wave-cut platforms, indicates local and regional uplift along the coast of the Jalisco, Michoacan, Guerrero and Oaxaca zones. Coasts of the Colima and Tehuantepec zones show morphological evidence of subsidence.     

Late Holocene lake level dynamics inferred from magnetic susceptibility and stable oxygen isotope data: Lake Elsinore, southern California (USA)

Southern California faces an imminent freshwater shortage. To better assess the future impact of this water crisis, it is essential that we develop continental archives of past hydrological variability. Using four sediment cores from Lake Elsinore in Southern California, we reconstruct late Holocene (3800 calendar years B.P.) hydrological change using a twentieth-century calibrated, proxy methodology. We compared magnetic susceptibility from Lake Elsinore deep basin sediments, lake level from Lake Elsinore, and regional winter precipitation data over the twentieth century to calibrate the late Holocene lake sediment record. The comparison revealed a strong positive, first-order relationship between the three variables. As a working hypothesis, we suggest that periods of greater precipitation produce higher lake levels. Greater precipitation also increases the supply of detritus (i.e., magnetic-rich minerals) from the lake's surrounding drainage basin into the lake environment. As a result, magnetic susceptibility values increase during periods of high lake level. We apply this modern calibration to late Holocene sediments from the lake's littoral zone. As an independent verification of this hypothesis, we analyzed ¹⁸O_(calcite), interpreted as a proxy for variations in the precipitation:evaporation ratio, which reflect first order hydrological variability. The results of this verification support our hypothesis that magnetic susceptibility records regional hydrological change as related to precipitation and lake level. Using both proxy data, we analyzed the past 3800 calendar years of hydrological variability. Our analyses indicate a long period of dry, less variable climate between 3800 and 2000 calendar years B.P. followed by a wet, more variable climate to the present. These results suggest that droughts of greater magnitude and duration than those observed in the modern record have occurred in the recent geological past. This conclusion presents insight to the potential impact of future droughts on the over-populated, water-poor region of Southern California.     

北疆黄土的磁化率各向异性揭示末次冰期以来古风向的变化

黄土磁化率各向异性（AMS）被认为是重建古风向变化重要的指标之一,在黄土高原地区得到广泛的应用。然而新疆地区的黄土磁化率各向异性研究相对薄弱。通过对新疆塔城盆地库尔托别剖面磁化率各向异性参数和磁化率分析古风向和风力强度的变化,结果表明：塔城地区末次冰期以来以东南风为主,剖面从下至上,可分为5个阶段：第1阶段（12~14 m）：对应MIS3c时期,磁组构特征受水流作用的影响明显,表现为东南风。第2阶段（6~12 m）：对应MIS3b时期,出现西南风,但主要还是以东南风为主。第3阶段（4~6 m）：对应MIS3a早中期,以东南风为主,西南风逐渐消失,并且风力强度逐渐减弱。第4阶段（0.5~4 m）：对应MIS3a晚期和MIS2早期,表现为东南风,风力强度波动较大。第5阶段（0~0.5 m）：磁组构特征受成壤作用影响强烈。     

Mineral magnetic and physical properties of surficial sediments and onshore samples from the southern basin of Lake Baikal, Siberia

Results of lithostratigraphic and mineral magnetic analysis of two surficial sediment cores (21 cm and 45 cm in length) collected from the Southern basin of Lake Baikal at a water depth of 1390 m, are presented. The sediments have been measured for a wide range of mineral magnetic parameters in order to assess their value in the identification of turbidite layers. Particle size and geochemical data are also presented and these explain some of the down core variations in magnetic mineralogy. It is suggested that changes in the particle size frequency distributions down core may be related to fossil diatom shells. One of the cores has been dated using ²¹⁰Pb. The sediment cores were cross-correlated using low frequency magnetic susceptibility (f) and these cores can also be correlated with a nearby core collected earlier in 1992. Changes in the magnetic parameters of lf, IRMs and HIRM₂₁₀ suggest that there are significant changes in the concentration of ferrimagnetic minerals in the sediment cores, indicating changing sediment sources and/or increasing concentrations of spheroidal carbonaceous particles and the dissolution of minerals through reduction below the oxidised layer within the sediment core.     

Impact of copper smelting on lakes in the southern Ural Mountains,Russia, inferred from chironomids

Karabash (52°2 N, 60°10 E) is a copper smelting town in the southern Ural Mountains of Russia. The town is affected by sulphur dioxide emissions and deposition of metal-rich particulates from the smelter, acid drainage from old mine workings, and leachates from disused waste dumps and tailings dams. The close proximity of houses to these sources of pollution is of concern to human health and has devastated terrestrial vegetation in the environs. The environmental impact of the smelter on lakes in the area has been assessed using chironomids. Short sediment cores were taken from 16 lakes within a 50 km radius of the smelter and the composition of the chironomid fauna from the bottom of each core, representing conditions prior to the commissioning of the smelter in 1910, was compared with the present chironomid fauna in the surface sediments. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that changes in the chironomid fauna of most lakes were driven by trophic change, independent of the industrial activity. Lakes and ponds adjacent to the smelter and waste dumps, which directly receive contaminated waters were devoid of macro- and mesofauna and flora, but there is no evidence that other lakes have been severely impacted by smelter emissions. Local geology ensures that the lakes are well-buffered to the effects of acid deposition which will limit the bioavailability of metals in the water column and sediment.     

Climate of the past millennium inferred from varved proglacial lake sediments on northeast Baffin Island,Arctic Canada

This study uses ^239+240Pu-dated varved sediments from Big Round Lake, a proglacial lake on northeast Baffin Island, Arctic Canada to generate a 1000-year-long, annual-resolution record of past climate. Varve thickness is positively correlated with July–August–September temperature measured at Clyde River, 70 km to the north of the lake (r = 0.46, p < 0.001). We therefore interpret the variability and trends in varve thickness to partially represent summer temperature. The coolest Little Ice Age temperatures occurred in this record from 1575 to 1760 AD and were approximately 1.5°C cooler than today (average from 1995 to 2005 AD) and 0.2°C cooler than the last millennium (average from 1000 to 2000 AD). Pre-twentieth-century warmth occurred during two intervals, 970–1150 AD and 1375–1575 AD; temperatures were approximately 1.2°C cooler than today, but 0.1°C warmer than the last millennium. The Big Round Lake varve-thickness record contains features similar to that reconstructed elsewhere in the eastern Canadian Arctic. This high-resolution quantitative record expands our understanding of arctic climate during the past millennium.

Late Pleistocene climate inferred from the reconstruction of the Taylor River glacier complex, southern Sawatch Range, Colorado

Ice surface topography of a late Pleistocene glacier complex, herein named the Taylor River Glacier Complex (TRGC), was reconstructed on the basis of detailed mapping of glacial landforms combined with analyses of aerial photos and topographic maps. During the last glacial maximum (LGM), the TRGC covered an area of 215 km² and consisted of five valley or outlet glaciers that were nourished by accumulation in cirques basins and/or upland ice fields.Equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs) for the glaciers of the TRGC were estimated using the accumulation-area ratio method, assuming that ratio to be 0.65 ± 0.05. ELAs thus derived ranged from about 3275 to 3400 m, with a mean of 3340 ± 60 m. A degree-day model (DDM) was used to infer the climatic significance of the LGM ELA. With no appreciable differences in precipitation with respect to modern climate, the ELA implies that mean summer temperatures during the LGM were 7.6 °C cooler than today. The DDM was also used to determine the temperatures required to maintain steady-state mass balances for each of the reconstructed glaciers. The required reductions in summer temperature vary little about a mean of 7.1 °C. The sensitivity of these results to slight (± 25%) changes assumed for LGM precipitation are less than ± 0.5 °C. Even under an LGM climate in which precipitation is assumed to be substantially different (± 50%) than the present, mean summer temperatures must be on the order of 7.0 to 8.5 °C lower to depress equilibrium lines to LGM altitudes. The greater sensitivity of the ELA to changes in temperature suggests that glaciation in the region was driven more by decreases in summer temperature rather than increases in precipitation.     

塔里木盆地南缘沉积物磁化率、δ13C与粒度及其气候环境意义

本文研究表明,塔里木盆地南缘湖沼相沉积物质量磁化率与碳酸盐δ¹³C呈正相关关系,与粒度参数中056～3557μm各组分呈显著负相关,其中同1783～3170μm部分负相关性最为显著;与5637～2244μm之间各组分显著正相关,其中与7096～200μm各组分正相关性最为显著。其气候环境背景与意义表现为:在寒冷期中,δ¹³C偏轻,相对湿度和植被盖度增加,地表侵蚀减弱,只有较细物质才能向湖泊沼泽搬运加积,地表氧化环境减弱,磁化率减小;而在温暖期中,则相反。在区域对比基础上,根据上述指标将近40ka以来此地区气候环境变化划分了8个阶段。本文的各种指标（特别是粒度指标）与GreenlandGISP2冰芯δ¹⁸O记录之间有很好的吻合,表明研究区近40ka以来的气候与环境变化可能具有全球背景。     

New techniques for the analysis of earthquake sources from local array data with an application to the 1993 Scotts Mills, Oregon, aftershock sequence

We analysed aftershocks recorded by a temporary digital seismic network following the moderate M _w = 5.5 1993, Scotts Mills, Oregon, earthquake. A technique to retrieve source moment tensors from local waveforms was developed, tested, and applied to 41 small earthquakes ( M _w ranging from 1.6 to 3.2). The derived focal mechanisms, although well resolved, are highly variable and do not share a common nodal plane. In contrast, the majority of the events, relocated with a joint hypocentre determination algorithm, collapse to a well-focused plane. The incompatibility of the nodal planes of most events with the plane defined by their locations suggests that the aftershocks did not occur on the fault plane, but tightly around it, outlining the rupture area rather than defining it. Furthermore, the moment tensors reveal stable P -axes, whereas T  -axes plunges are highly dispersed. We detect a rotation of average T  -axis plunge with depth, indicating a change from shallower, predominantly dip-slip mechanisms to deeper strike-slip mechanisms. These characteristics are difficult to explain by remnant stress concentrations on the main-shock rupture plane or asperity- and barrier-type models. We suggest that the aftershocks occurred under the ambient regional stress, triggered by a sudden weakening of the region surrounding the main-shock slip, rather than from a shear stress increase due to the main shock.     

Cambro-Ordovician palaeomagnetic and geochronologic data from southern Victoria Land, Antarctica: revision of the Gondwana apparent polar wander path

We present new palaeomagnetic and isotopic data from the southern Victoria Land region of the Transantarctic Mountains in East Antarctica that constrain the palaeogeographic position of this region during the Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician. A new pole has been determined from a dioritic intrusion at Killer Ridge (⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar biotite age of 499 ± 3 Ma) and hornblende diorite dykes at Mt. Loke (21°E, 7°S, A 95 = 8°, N = 6 VGPs). The new Killer Ridge/Mt. Loke pole is indistinguishable from Gondwana Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician poles. Previously reported palaeomagnetic poles from southern Victoria Land have new isotopic age constraints that place them in the Late Cambrian rather than the Early Ordovician. Based upon the new palaeomagnetic and isotopic data, new Gondwana Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician mean poles have been calculated.     

Short-term beach–dune sand budgets on the north sea coast of France: Sand supply from shoreface to dunes, and the role of wind and fetch

Three experimental plots, covering the transition from the upper beach to the dune, on the North Sea coast of France were monitored at various intervals over a period of 18–24 months via high resolution terrain surveys in order to determine inter-site sand budget variability, as well as patterns and processes involved in sand exchanges between the upper beach and dune. The wind regime consists of a fairly balanced mix of moderate (80% of winds are below 8 m/s) onshore, offshore and shore-parallel winds. Sustained dune accretion over several years depends on the periodic local onshore welding of shoreface tidal banks that have developed in the storm- and tide-dominated setting of the southern North Sea. The only site where this has occurred in the recent past is Calais, where bank welding has created a wide accreting upper beach sand flat. At this site, significant sand supply from the subtidal sand bank reservoir to the upper beach flat occurred only once over the 18-month survey following a major storm. The bulk of the sand deposited over this large flat is not directly integrated into the adjacent embryo dunes by onshore winds but is progressively reworked in situ into developing dunes or transported alongshore by the balanced wind regime, thus resulting in alongshore stretching of the embryo dune system. The Leffrinckoucke site near Belgium shows moderate beach–dune mobility and accretion, while the Wissant site exhibits significant upper beach bedform mobility controlled by strong longshore currents that result in large beach budget fluctuations with little net budget change, to the detriment of the adjacent dunes. Accretion at these two sites, which are representative of the rest of the North Sea coast of France, is presently constrained by the absence of a shore-attached sand bank supply reservoir, while upper beach–dune sand exchanges are further limited by the narrow wave-affected upper beach, the intertidal morphology of bars and troughs which segments the aeolian fetch, and the moderate wind energy conditions. The balanced wind regime limits net sand mobilisation in favour of either the beach or the dune, and may explain the relatively narrow longshore morphology of the dune ridges bounding this coast.