Rip current escape strategies: lessons for swimmers and coastal rescue authorities

Lagrangian flow of two rip currents was measured using human drifters to understand how variations in surf zone circulation affect exit positions of floating swimmers. Based on these results, two escape strategies were assessed, ‘do nothing’ and ‘swim parallel to the beach’. The drifter paths and exit positions were analysed to determine the best escape strategy for passive swimmers in each scenario. Of the two methods, doing nothing to allow the rip current to take a swimmer is the most effective strategy. More than 75% of rip current flow scenarios could hinder chances of escape of swimmers if the wrong direction was chosen to swim parallel to the beach to safety. This is because in many situations a swimmer encounters not only a rip current flowing offshore but also a longshore current flowing parallel to the beach. The best education campaign for the public, in addition to only swimming on a patrolled beach, would be to promote the ‘do nothing’ rip current escape strategy, as it covers all flow scenarios without reducing a swimmer’s chance of survival.     

Rip current hazard assessment on a sandy beach in Liguria,NW Mediterranean

Natural Hazards - Rip currents are one of the most significant environmental hazards for beachgoers and are of interest to coastal scientists. Several studies have been conducted to understand rip...     

Correction to: Rip current hazard assessment on a sandy beach in Liguria,NW Mediterranean

Natural Hazards - The article was published showing the first two author names in the wrong order.     

Rip currents as a geological tool

This paper considers the nature and sedimentary significance of rip currents. Rip currents are the main factor responsible for the transport of coarse sediments from the littoral zone to greater depths. Such sediments, deposited outside the zone of wave deformation, may be identified as storm rip current increments within sediments deposited during fair weather. Composite beds deposited during a given wave cycle by storm rip currents are closely similar to ‘turbidites’ and many so called ‘fluxo-turbidites’ described from flysch deposits. Using data gathered in studies conducted on the modern Baltic coast, supplemented by experimental work and theoretical considerations, a sedimentary model is proposed. The model may be used to interpret possible rip current deposits among shallow water ‘turbidites’, and both modern storm sediments and ancient ‘tempestites’.     

有槽沙坝海岸交叉波浪作用下裂流特征

研究叠加波浪场作用下的裂流特征,有助于全面深入开展海岸裂流的致灾机理及风险评估。为分析水动力和水底地形共同作用下形成的裂流特征,开展了交叉叠加波浪作用下有槽沙坝海岸的裂流流动特征试验,即同时考虑沿岸地形变化（存在沟槽）和交叉波浪共同作用所形成裂流。通过对裂流槽附近ADV（Acoustic Doppler Velocimetry）流速测量结果,分析叠加波浪场和裂流沟槽同时存在时所产生的裂流分布特征。裂流中心位置和宽度受裂流槽和波浪节点共同控制,裂流长度依赖于波高和海岸坡度。无槽情况裂流的驱动力主要是由波浪沿岸不均匀所产生的平均水面沿岸压力梯度,有槽情况裂流的驱动力由平均水面沿岸压力梯度和辐射应力沿岸梯度共同决定,二者量值相对大小依赖于波浪周期。     

Rip current-related fatalities in India: a new predictive risk scale for forecasting rip currents

This study analyzes fatalities caused by rip currents in important locations along east and west coasts of India for the period 2000–2010. Results include the frequency of fatalities from rip currents, their cause, and their spatial distributions. Rip current fatalities are most common in the southeastern India, with a non-uniform spatial distribution. August and October are identified as most favorable for rip current generation. In India, rip current-related drowning is estimated as 39 per year during the last decade. East coast of India averaged 30–40 drownings, and west coast of India averaged 5–10 drownings per year. In coastal Andhra Pradesh, more than 350 people had been drowned due to rip currents and only 10 people were rescued. Visakhapatnam recorded highest drowning (293); R. K. beach is the most vulnerable potential rip current zones. From 2007 onward, rip current deaths increased at an alarming rate. The frequency of rip current drownings increased markedly during shore-normal wave incidence and mid-low tidal stages. A new empirical forecasting technique has been developed for prediction of rip current risk in India for the first time. FORTRAN-based software was developed to generate automatic rip current forecast report for any given location. The scale’s performance was tested with field data and by using different statistical methods. The new predictive scale is predicting rip current occurrences reasonably well.     

A new journal on current research

Book reviewed in this article:
Current Research . Vol. 1. pp. i-vii. 1–112. A Peopling of the Americas Publication. Center for the Study of Early Man. University of Maine at Orono. Maine.     

直流电法超前探测沙槽模拟实验

直流电法超前探测是研究掘进工作面前方地层电性变化规律,预测掘进面前方含、导水构造的分布和发育情况的一种井下电法探测新技术。本次超前探测实验是通过在沙坑中埋设已知的低阻体,在模拟巷道中布置电极的方式,采用网络并行电法勘测系统将前方已知的物体探测出来。因为资料采集不受外界电流和其他环境的影响,探测结果较为理想,可以较为清楚的反应前方的异常体,验证其电法超前探测的可行性。     

The current ethnic panorama in Bulgaria

Although a constant trickle of outmigrants and several larger waves (mostly to Turkey) are characteristic for the modern history of Bulgaria, its ethnic composition was relatively stable. The ethnic Bulgarians are a clear majority, the largest minority groups being in descending order the Turks, Roma (Gypsies), the Muslim Bulgarians and several much smaller groups. The geographical patterns of distribution have been analysed. Over time, the policies of the Bulgarian state towards the minority groups have been varying between benevolence and restriction measures. The ethnocultural communities have worked out moduses of co-existence preventing the escalation of conflicts at the local level.     

Evaluation of swimmer-based rip current escape strategies

Rip currents are the primary hazard on surf beaches, and early studies described them as fast, shore-normal flows that extended seaward of the surf zone. Based on this traditional view, commonly promoted safety advice was to escape a rip current by swimming parallel to the beach. However, recent studies have shown dominant rip current re-circulation within the surf zone and have endorsed floating as an appropriate escape strategy. Here, a first quantitative assessment of the efficacy of various rip current escape strategies, with a focus on the underlying physical processes, is presented. A field study was conducted at Shelly Beach, NSW, Australia, measuring three rip currents (two open beaches, one topographic) over 3 days in varying wave conditions. Floating was found to be a longer duration, more variable escape strategy ( $ \overline{t} $  = 3.8 min, σ = 2.4 min), than swimming parallel ( $ \overline{t} $  = 2.2 min, σ = 1.0 min). Neither of the scenarios is 100 % foolproof, and both fail in some scenarios, making simplified safety recommendations difficult. Swim parallel failures are related to swimming against the alongshore current of the rip circulation. Float failures related to surf zone exits, with the highest exit rate occurring in the topographic rip. Float failures also occurred due to multiple re-circulations without the person attaining safe footing on the bar. The variable spatial and temporal behaviour of rip currents suggests that a single escape strategy safety message is inappropriate. Instead, a combined approach and scenario-specific safety advice should be considered by beach safety practitioners to promote to the public.     

Lunar-A mission: Outline and current status

The scientific objective of the Lunar-A, Japanese Penetrator Mission, is to explore the lunar interior by seismic and heat-flow experiments. Two penetrators containing two seismometers (horizontal and vertical components) and heat-flow probes will be deployed from a spacecraft onto the lunar surface, one on the near-side and the other on the far-side of the moon. The data obtained by the penetrators will be transmitted to the earth station via the Lunar-A mother spacecraft orbiting at an altitude of about 200 km. The spacecraft of a cylindrical shape, 2.2 m in maximum diameter and 1.7 m in height, is designed to be spin-stabilized. The spacecraft will be inserted into an elliptic lunar orbit, after about a half-year cruise during which complex manoeuvering is made using the lunar-solar gravity assist. After lunar orbit insertion, two penetrators will be separated from the spacecraft near perilune, one by one, and will be landed on the lunar surface. The final impact velocity of the penetrator will be about 285 m/sec; it will encounter a shock of about 8000 G at impact on the lunar surface. According to numerous experimental impact tests using model penetrators and a lunar-regolith analog target, each penetrator is predicted to penetrate to a depth between l and 3 m, depending on the hardness and/or particle-size distribution of the lunar regolith. The penetration depth is important for ensuring the temperature stability of the instruments in the penetrator and heat flow measurements. According to the results of the Apollo heat flow experiment, an insulating regolith blanket of only 30 cm is sufficient to dampen out about 280 K lunar surface temperature fluctuation to < 3 K variation. The seismic observations are expected to provide key data on the size of the lunar core, as well as data on deep lunar mantle structure. The heat flow measurements at two penetrator-landing sites will also provide important data on the thermal structure and bulk concentrations of heat-generating elements in the Moon. These data will provide much stronger geophysical constraints on the origin and evolution of the Moon than has been obtained so far. Currently, the Lunar-A system is being reviewed and a more robust system for communication between the penetrators and spacecraft is being implemented according to the lessons learned from Beagle-2 and DS-2 failures. More impact tests for penetrators onto a lunar regolith analogue target will be undertaken before its launch.     

Mapping seismic risk: the current crisis

The seismic risks to which populations are exposed should be estimated reliably for mitigation and preparation of response to disastrous earthquakes. Three parameters need to be known: Population numbers, properties of the built environment, and the seismic hazard. If we focus on large cities, we can say that at least one of these is known satisfactorily, namely the population, but not the other two. In the developing world, the numbers of buildings in a city are known only approximately, their distribution into building types (resistance to shaking) has to be assumed, and the distribution of types throughout the city is unknown. Recent verification of the world seismic hazard map has shown that it is grossly misleading: Instrumental measurements of accelerations due to six earthquakes were about three times larger, on average, than the maximum likely accelerations shown on the map; the macroseismic intensities reported for the last 60 earthquakes with M ≥ 7.5 were all significantly larger than expected, based on the hazard map (by 2.3 intensity units for the 12 deadliest earthquakes); and calculations of losses of life based on the hazard map underestimate the losses sustained in the 12 recent earthquakes with more than 1,000 fatalities by two to three orders of magnitude. This means that the seismic risk in most of the approximately 1,000 large cities at risk in the developing world is unknown. To remedy this intolerable situation, models for the built environment in cities need to be constructed, using cost-effective analyses of satellite images, and worst case scenario estimates of the losses in case of the nearest maximum credible earthquake.     

The anisotropy of kinetic and current helicity

A three-dimensional model for thermal convection with a dynamo in a rotating planar layer heated from below is used to investigate the behavior of the mean kinetic and current helicities. In spite of the presence of gravity and rotation, which introduce anisotropy into the system, the components of the helicity determined from the field components in the directions tangent and normal to the boundary have similar values. The existence of a separation by scale, when the current helicity has different signs on different spatial scales, is demonstrated. The number of regions where the sign of the helicity does not coincide with the sign of its mean value in that region is estimated (～43?45% of the total number of regions). The estimates presented are relevant for interpretations of observations of solar activity and analysis of the properties of rotating magnetohydrodynamical turbulence.     

关于当前铀矿地质工作的几点思考

本根据我国能源发展对铀资源的需求形势,在铀矿勘查战略、重点地区铀矿勘查、铀资源潜力评价、铀矿地质科研等方面作了思考,提出工作建议,并强调了以人为本的管理理念。     

岫岩软玉矿床成因研究现状分析

岫岩软玉因其特有的成矿环境和优越的地理位置,使得对其矿床成因的研究也具有了特殊的意义。但迄今为止,有关岫岩软玉矿床成因的研究并不系统。本文在成矿系统思想的指导下,总结前人的工作成果,对岫岩软玉的矿床成因研究现状进行了分析,具体包括成矿构造背景、矿源、成矿流体、成矿空间、成矿能量、成矿时间、成矿过程和成矿后生变化。在此基础上指出了岫岩软玉矿床成因未来的研究方向。     

An MHD model for a heliospheric current sheet

A numerical solution of the full set of MHD equations shows the generation of a heliospheric current sheet during the thermal expansion of the corona. Calculations were performed for a compressible plasma taking into account dissipative terms and anisotropy of the thermal conductivity of the magnetized plasma. It is shown that the current sheet is not magnetically neutral. The sheet contains a normal component of the magnetic field, which plays a fundamental role during the formation of the sheet and in the stationary state. The sheet is stable against MHD perturbations, which are apparently carried away by the plasma flow. For the numerical scheme chosen, the minimum sheet thickness is determined by the length of the spatial integration step. The PERESVET code was used for the calculations.     

Some problems in current concepts of continental drift

Evaporites (gypsum, anhydrite, halite, etc.) of all ages, Proterozoic to the present, have been plotted on world maps. Without exception, 95–100% of the evaporites of each age, by volume and area, occupy areas which today are the earth's dry wind belts. This implies that the wind-circulation patterns of the lower astmosphere have not changed for 1,000 million years. This cannot be true unless the present position of the earth's rotational pole, ocean basins, and continents have also remained essentially unchanged since Middle Proterozoic time. Additional evidence corroborates this conclusion.

1.

(1) The present horse-latitude (desert) belts of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, as shown by the stratigraphic record, have occupied the same approximate positions during the same length of time. The widths of the two horse-latitude belts have fluctuated, but the mean positions have been constant. This suggests great latitudinal stability through time.