Vertical structure of hydrophysical characteristics and internal waves near the shelf boundary

Short and high frequency internal waves, propagating through horizontal gradients of temperature formed by long and low-frequency waves, induce vertical transferof heat with effective coefficients 10⁻⁴ – 10⁻³ m²/s and lead to a fine structure formation. Horizontal turbulence with seals of order 100 m produce the same effect in the presence of internal waves. The same is true for other substances, such as salt, oxygen, organic matter. It is suggested that this augmenting of vertical transports due to internal waves is an essential factor for high biological productivity in shelf zones.     

Analytical solutions of long nonlinear internal waves: Part I

The Gardner equation is an extension of the Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation. It exhibits basically the same properties as the classical KdV, but extends its range of validity to a wider interval of the parameters of the internal wave motion for a given environment. In this paper, we derive exact solitary wave solutions for the generalized Gardner equation that includes nonlinear terms of any order. Unlike previous studies, the exact solutions are derived without assuming their mathematical form. Illustrative examples for internal solitary waves are also provided. The traveling wave solutions can be used to specify initial data for the incident waves in internal waves numerical models and for the verification and validation of the associated computed solutions.     

Conservation laws and invariants of motion for nonlinear internal waves: part II

In this paper, we derive three conservation laws and three invariants of motion for the generalized Gardner equation. These conserved quantities for internal waves are the momentum, energy, and Hamiltonian. The approach used for the derivation of these conservation laws and their associated invariants of motion is direct and does not involve the use of variational principles. It can be easily applied for finding similar invariants of motion for other general types of KdV, Gardner, and Boussinesq equations. The stability and conservation properties of discrete schemes for the simulations of internal waves propagation can be assessed and monitored using the analytical expressions of the constants of motion that are derived in this work.     

Wave responses from oil reservoirs in the Arctic shelf zone

We consider the appearance of scattered PP-waves, SS-waves, scattered converted PS-waves, and SP-waves reflected from the reservoirs in the Arctic shelf zone and wave responses from them in the water column when the source and receiver are located near the water surface. We obtained a numerical solution of the direct problems of seismic prospecting in the shelf zone with a reservoir and without it. The solution was obtained using the grid-characteristic method, which makes possible to model the wave processes in detail.     

Records of nutrient-enhanced coastal ocean productivity in sediments from the Louisiana continental shelf

Shelf sediments from near the mouth of the Mississippi River were collected and analyzed to examine whether records of the consequences of anthropogenic nutrient loading are preserved. Cores representing approximately 100 yr of accumulation have increasing concentrations of organic matter over this period, indicating increased accumulation of organic carbon, rapid early diagenesis, or a combination of these processes. Stable carbon isotopes and organic tracers show that virtually all of this increase is of marine origin. Evidence from two cores near the river mouth, one within the region of chronic seasonal hypoxia and one nearby but outside the hypoxic region, indicate that changes consistent with increased productivity began by approximately the mid-1950s when the inorganic carbon in benthic forams rapidly became isotopically lighter at both stations. Beginning in the mid-1960s, the accumulation of organic matter, organic δ¹³C, and δ¹⁵N all show large changes in a direction consistent with increased productivity. This last period coincides with a doubling of the load of nutrients from the Mississippi River, which levelled off in the mid-1980s. These data support the hypothesis that anthropogenic nutrient loading has had a significant impact on the Louisiana shelf.     

Tectonics of the drake Passage-Scotia sea zone in the southern ocean

The relief and geophysical characteristics of the sea floor in the Drake Passage-Scotia Sea zone have been studied quite well in general. The oceanic floor within this zone is usually considered as a collage of small fragments of the continental bridge and of young oceanic plates formed by spreading under the large-scale motions of large lithospheric plates. The authors suppose an alternative version of the genesis of the Drake Passage-Scotia Sea lithospheric zone as an area of large fragments of the continental bridge subjected to basification under the conditions of temperate extension and local rifting.     

Sand waves: A model of origin and internal structure

Sand waves are large flow-transverse bedforms coupled to oscillatory boundary-layer currents of tidal origin. Like the much smaller ripple-marks generated by short-period wind waves, sand waves are observed to grow more asymmetrical with increase in the time—velocity asymmetry of the governing currents, that is, with increase in the steady component of flow (mass-transport strictly related to wave-motion) relative to the periodic component. Wind-wave ripple-marks owe their origin directly to a mass-transport component dependent on bed-curvature, which arises naturally wherever a sufficiently powerful oscillatory flow is imposed on a deformable grain boundary. This curvature-related current, flowing from troughts to crests on the bed, drifts grains mobilized by the periodic component into transverse bands. Sand waves may also owe their origin and growth to an unstable interaction within tide-generated oscillatory boundary layers between the mobile bed and a curvature-related mass-transport.Sand-wave internal structure apparently depends on the strength and degree of asymmetry of the governing currents. Relatively symmetrical forms associated with currents of low asymmetry are expected to contain comparatively small, intricately related herring-bone or climbing cross-bedding sets. Relatively asymmetrical currents shape sand waves with one side so steep that large-scale flow separation is inevitable. The predominant structure is then expected to be long avalanche bedding broken into sets by mud drapes and bioturbated zones representing periods of gentle flow, and/or by erosional discontinuities recording tidal reversals. The expected structures have parallels in the stratigraphic record and amongst modern sand waves.     

Investigation of long waves in the tsunami frequency band on the southwestern shelf of Kamchatka

Two inexpensive cable bottom pressure stations were installed on the southwestern shelf of Kamchatka (Okhotsk Sea) in 1987 and two more in 1988 to provide longwave measurements in the tsunami frequency band, to investigate the generating mechanism of these waves, and to test the instrumentation. Microfluctuations of atmospheric pressure were recorded simultaneously. Two cable lines were torn off by ship anchors in March 1989 but others are still working in spite of highly dynamic activity on beaches and in hard ice regimes. Careful data analysis of two months of observations (September–October, 1987) showed that: (1) the atmospheric spectra were very stable and monotonic in the period range 2–50 min and corresponded to a power law of ^–2.3, (2) the direct generation of long waves by atmospheric pressure fluctuations was negligible, (3) there was high correlation between background longwave oscillations and sea state, (4) the structure of the offshore longwave field was in good agreement with theoretical estimates of standing waves for a linear slope.     

过渡区条件下广域电磁法探测深度问题的理论研究

为了研究广域电磁法(WFEM)过渡区条件下的有效探测深度,设计了均匀半空间、二层断面、三层断面及四层断面4种地电模型,通过正演计算得到了趋肤深度—视电阻率曲线。以大地电磁(MT)为参照,对同等收发距下广域电磁法和可控源音频大地电磁法的探测深度进行了比较,结果表明:广域电磁法可以在过渡区进行测量,即以较小的收发距探测到较大的深度。     

A pilot acoustic experiment to determine the coordinates of a submarine object in the shelf zone of the Sea of Japan

Doklady Earth Sciences -     

Three‐dimensional seismic analysis of sediment waves and related geomorphological features on a carbonate shelf exposed to large amplitude internal waves,Browse Basin region,Australia

This study analyses the three‐dimensional geometry of sedimentary features recorded on the modern sea floor and in the shallow subsurface of a shelf to upper slope region offshore Australia that is characterized by a pronounced internal wave regime. The data interpreted comprise an extensive, >12 500 km² industrial three‐dimensional seismic‐reflection survey that images the northern part of the Browse Basin, Australian North West Shelf. The most prominent seismic–morphological features on the modern sea floor are submarine terrace escarpments, fault‐scarps and incised channels, as well as restricted areas of seismic distortion interpreted as mass wasting deposits. Besides these kilometre‐scale sea floor irregularities, smaller bedforms were discovered also, including a multitude of sediment waves with a lateral extent of several kilometres and heights up to 10 m. These sedimentological features generally occur in extensive fields in water depths below 250 m mostly at the foot of submerged terraces, along the scarps of modern faults and along the shelf break between the outer shelf and the upper continental rise. Additional bedforms that characterize the more planar regions of the outer shelf are elongate, north‐west/south‐east oriented furrows and ridges. The formation of both sediment waves and furrow‐ridge systems requires flow velocities between 0·3 m sec^?1 and 1·5 m sec^?1, which could be generated by oceanic currents, gravity currents or internal waves. In the studied setting, these velocities can be best explained as being generated by bottom currents induced by internal waves, an interpretation that is discussed against oceanographic background data and modelling results. In addition to the documentation of three‐dimensional seismic–geomorphological features of the modern sea floor, it was also possible to map kilometre‐scale buried sediment wave fields in the seismic volume down to ca 500 ms two‐way‐time below the present sea floor, indicating the general potential for the preservation of such bedforms in the sedimentary record.     

西准噶尔洋中海山及其俯冲带处地质效应

随着研究的不断深入,在中亚造山带(CAOB)不断有不同时代的洋岛玄武岩(OIB)被识别出来。在中亚造山带西南缘的西准噶尔地区的多条蛇绿混杂岩带中,也存在具有OIB特征的玄武岩。这些玄武岩呈枕状,与超基性岩、辉长岩、块状玄武岩、灰岩及紫红色硅质岩等紧密共生。地球化学研究表明枕状玄武岩均为碱性系列,具有较高的TiO2含量(大多>2.5%)、强烈富集轻稀土元素、无明显Nb、Ta负异常,与典型的OIB极为相似,认为其可能形成于大洋板内与地幔柱有关的海山环境。通过对海山的发展阶段分析认为,西准噶尔地区海山应该发展到爆炸海山阶段,因为其中发育大量的枕状熔岩。海山中火山岩或火山碎屑沉积物富集大离子亲石元素和高场强元素,海山的俯冲将对弧及弧后地区火山岩地球化学产生明显影响,而西准噶尔地区泥盆纪-石炭纪火山岩中恰恰存在海山的信号。因此,海山俯冲模式可能能更好地解释西准噶尔地区火山岩中存在OIB特征火山岩的成因。另外,海山俯冲还存在潜在的资源效应,因此应该寻找和研究古海山及火山岛链俯冲的迹象,将对进一步找金铜等矿提供可靠依据。     

Evidence for currents associated with waves in Late Precambrian shelf deposits from Finnmark, North Norway

Abundant wave ripples with wavelengths of up to 0.3 m, top-surface granule lags and tabular sand-stone beds suggest that the interbedded sandstones and siltstones of the Skaergårdnes Formation are shallow marine deposits. A simple orthogonal relationship between crestal trends of wave ripples and trough axes/cross-bed dip directions indicates that bottom currents and surface waves were closely related, suggesting that wind-drift currents were responsible for deposition. Interbedding of the tabular sandstones with siltstone is more probably due to the patchy nature of sand cover on the sea floor than to episodic sand derivation from the coast. The top-surface granule lags indicate local, temporary excess of sand removal over supply, and were probably formed by both wave-winnowing and non-depositional megaripple migration. The well developed lags in this and similar ancient sediments suggest that winnowing, leading to bed armouring and sediment bypassing may be an important shallow marine process.     

季冻区草炭土非线性K-G模型试验研究

季冻区草炭土是沼泽环境中植物残体在氧化分解作用下,堆积形成的含有大量未分解纤维残体的特殊土。草炭土纤维及其含量对其强度和变形特性具有重要影响,目前考虑纤维含量对草炭土强度和变形特性影响的本构关系研究还相对匮乏。K-G本构模型因其模型参数与土的体积模量和剪切模量能建立直接联系,因此在岩土工程非线性理论和数值计算分析方面广泛应用。以不同纤维含量的草炭土为研究对象,进行三轴剪切试验,研究了草炭土的应力应变曲线,得到了草炭土非线性K-G模型参数,分析了各模型参数随纤维含量的变化规律,建立了模型参数与纤维含量之间的线性函数关系。     

包气带增厚条件下地下水补给规律研究

伴随人类活动影响的不断增大,地下水位持续下降,包气带厚度增大,改变了地下水的补给条件.为阐明在巨厚包气带中水分运移规律,在河北栾城实验站进行了包气带水分运移监测试验.通过对监测数据的计算和分析,揭示了大水漫灌条件下,灌溉水在包气带中湿润峰和零通量面（ZFP）的运移和形成规律,计算了灌溉水回归补给地下水的水量,并利用达西公式进行验证.试验结果客观准确地反映了在当前人类剧烈活动影响下,包气带中水分运移规律及灌溉水补给地下水的情况,同时通过对包气带水分运移情况进行监测,取得了包气带水分运移的翔实资料和灌溉参数,对于促进农业节水灌溉有重大的现实意义.     

New data on the period of existence of the continental margin subduction zone in the Middle Urals

U–Pb (SIMS) dating of zircons from granite of the Petrokamensk gabbro–granitoid complex, marking termination of the Devonian island–arc magmatism in the Verkhisetsk–Tura Zone of the Middle Urals, gave an age of 386 ± 3 Ma. Zircons from the West Verkhisetsk granitoids, the formation of which corresponds to the beginning stage of magmatism of the continental margin in the region, yielded ages of 386.6 ± 4.1 and 381.8 ± 6.0 Ma. This suggests that the change in the regime of the island–arc geodynamic mode to an active continental margin took place at the boundary of the Middle and Late Devonian. The upper boundary of existence of the continental margin subduction zone is determined by the closure of the Ural paleo-ocean and the beginning of continental collision processes, which resulted in accumulation of flysch in the Ural foreland trough from the second half of the Bashkirian Stage.