Assessing Groundwater Depletion and Dynamics Using GRACE and InSAR: Potential and Limitations

In the last decade, remote sensing of the temporal variation of ground level and gravity has improved our understanding of groundwater dynamics and storage. Mass changes are measured by GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellites, whereas ground deformation is measured by processing synthetic aperture radar satellites data using the InSAR (Interferometry of Synthetic Aperture Radar) techniques. Both methods are complementary and offer different sensitivities to aquifer system processes. GRACE is sensitive to mass changes over large spatial scales (more than 100,000 km²). As such, it fails in providing groundwater storage change estimates at local or regional scales relevant to most aquifer systems, and at which most groundwater management schemes are applied. However, InSAR measures ground displacement due to aquifer response to fluid‐pressure changes. InSAR applications to groundwater depletion assessments are limited to aquifer systems susceptible to measurable deformation. Furthermore, the inversion of InSAR‐derived displacement maps into volume of depleted groundwater storage (both reversible and largely irreversible) is confounded by vertical and horizontal variability of sediment compressibility. During the last decade, both techniques have shown increasing interest in the scientific community to complement available in situ observations where they are insufficient. In this review, we present the theoretical and conceptual bases of each method, and present idealized scenarios to highlight the potential benefits and challenges of combining these techniques to remotely assess groundwater storage changes and other aspects of the dynamics of aquifer systems.     

Temporal variations and scaling of streamflow and baseflow and their nitrate-nitrogen concentrations and loads

The patterns of temporal variations of precipitation (P), streamflow (SF) and baseflow (BF) as well as their nitrate-nitrogen (nitrate) concentrations (C) and loads (L) from a long-term record (28 years) in the Raccoon River, Iowa, were analyzed using variogram and spectral analyses. The daily P is random but scaling may exist in the daily SF and BF with a possible break point in the scaling at about 18 days and 45 days, respectively. The nitrate concentrations and loads are shown to have a half-year cycle while daily P, SF, and BF have a one-year cycle. Furthermore, there may be a low-frequency cycle of 6–8 years in C. The power spectra of C and L in both SF and BF exhibit fractal 1/f scaling with two characteristic frequencies of half-year and one-year, and are fitted well with the spectrum of the gamma distribution. The nitrate input to SF and BF at the Raccoon watershed seems likely to be a white noise process superimposed on another process with a half-year and one-year cycle.     

Advancements and best practices for analysis and correlation of tephra and cryptotephra in ice

Geochemical analysis of fine grained (<20 μm) tephra found in ice cores is inherently difficult, due to the typically low number and small size of available particles. Ice core tephra samples require specialized sample preparation techniques to maximize the amount of information that can be gained from these logistically limited samples that may provide important chronology to an ice record, as well as linking glacial, marine and terrestrial sediments. We have developed a flexible workflow for preparation of tephra and cryptotephra samples to allow accurate and robust geochemical fingerprinting, which is fundamental to tephrochronology. The samples can be prepared so that secondary electron imagery can be obtained for morphological characterization of the samples to ensure that the sample is tephra-bearing and then the sample can be further prepared for quantitative electron microprobe analysis using wavelength dispersive techniques (EMP-WDS), scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS), laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) or secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). Some samples may be too small for typical instrumentation conditions to be used (i.e. 20 μm beam on the EMP) to analyze for geochemistry and we present other techniques that can be employed to obtain accurate, although less precise, geochemistry. Methods include analyzing unpolished tephra shards less than 5 μm in diameter with a 1 μm beam on an SEM; using the “broad beam overlap” EMP method on irregular particles less than 20 μm in diameter, and analyzing microlitic shards as well as aphyric shards using EMP to increase the number of analyzed shards in low abundance tephra layers. The methods presented are flexible enough to be employed in other geological environments (terrestrial, marine and glacial) which will help maximize and integrate multiple environments into the overall tephra framework.     

Arctic Climate and Water Change: Model and Observation Relevance for Assessment and Adaptation

The Arctic is subject to growing economic and political interest. Meanwhile, its climate and water systems are in rapid transformation. In this paper, we review and extend a set of studies on climate model results, hydro-climatic change, and hydrological monitoring systems. Results indicate that general circulation model (GCM) projections of drainage basin temperature and precipitation have improved between two model generations. However, some inaccuracies remain for precipitation projections. When considering geographical priorities for monitoring or adaptation efforts, our results indicate that future projections by GCMs and recent observations diverge regarding the basins where temperature and precipitation changes currently are the most pronounced and where they will be so in the future. Regarding late twentieth-century discharge changes in major Arctic rivers, data generally show excess of water relative to precipitation changes. This indicates a possible contribution to sea-level rise of river water that was previously stored in permafrost or groundwater. The river contribution to the increasing Arctic Ocean freshwater inflow is similar in magnitude to the separate contribution from glaciers, which underlines the importance of considering all possible sources of freshwater when assessing sea-level change. We further investigate monitoring systems and find a lack of harmonized water chemistry data, which limits the ability to understand the origin and transport of nutrients, carbon and sediment to the sea. To provide adequate information for research and policy, Arctic hydrological and hydrochemical monitoring needs to be extended, better integrated and made more accessible. Further water-focused data and modeling efforts are required to resolve the source of excess discharge in Arctic rivers. Finally, improvements in climate model parameterizations are needed, in particular for precipitation projections.     

Correlation of foreshocks and aftershocks and asperities

A close correlation in spatial distribution of local seismic activity and energy release patterns before and after the 1979 Petatlan, Mexico earthquake suggests heterogeneity within the fault plane of this major low-angle thrust event associated with subduction along the Middle America Trench. A simple two-asperity model is proposed to account for the complexity. Foreshocks and aftershocks of the neighboring 1981 Playa Azul earthquake showed a similar pattern. As both events occurred at the junction of the Orozco Fracture Zone and the Middle America Trench, we speculate that the observed complex fault plane is caused by subduction of the rugged ocean floor of the Orozco Fracture Zone. Short-term precursory seismicity prior to the Petatlan earthquake can be explained by using the asperity model and migration of a slip front from the south-east to the north-west across the main shock source region.     

Compound and simple lava flows and flood basalts

Compound lava flows, defined as those lavas which are divisible into flowunits, commonly have a shield-like form and are thought to develop when the rate of extrusion of lava is relatively low.Simple lava flows, defined as those lavas which are not divisible into flow-units, are thought to form when the rate of extrusion of lava is relatively high. A logical definition oflava flow must embrace both simple lava sheets and substantial lava shields (compound lava flows) up to 600 m high. Flood basalt piles include both compound and simple flows, but the most extensive and far-reaching flows are simple and they are believed to form when the rate of extrusion of lava is particularly high.     

燕郊等测点迁移优化与地磁观测研究

为优化地磁观测条件，开展了燕郊、夏垫等测点迁移工作；按照测眯迁移原则与实施技术方案，完整地收集并整理了地质构造与地球物理等方面的基本资料；进行了野外实地勘察，磁场梯度的测量，确定了新测点，在新老测点上进行了较长时间的地磁场对比观测；应用多种方法分析研究了地磁对比观测资料，结果表明，新老测点与有关测点的地磁变化具有良好的一致性，并得到了新老测点之间的地磁数据的按点差。     

Correlation coefficients and concentration factors of copper and lead in seawater and benthic algae

Raritan Bay, which is adjacent to the New York metropolitan area, served as a study site to investigate the relationship between copper and lead concentrations in water and in seaweeds. Correlation coefficients of 0.98 for copper and 0.97 for lead indicate a high degree of correspondence between levels of these metals in water and in algal tissue. Concentration factors of 18.4 × 10⁴ for copper and 8.2 × 10⁴ for lead are among the highest reported to date.     

Point and Diffuse Nutrient Emissions and Transports in the Odra Basin and its Main Tributaries

The river Odra is one of the biggest transboundary rivers in Central Europe. The basin is characterized by an area of 110 074 km?sk (upstream Krajnik Dolny) and a population of about 15.5 million inhabitants. Compared with the Westeuropean river basins the specific runoff of the Odra basin is low and amounts only 4.5 L km?sk s–1. The long term changes of the average annual nutrient transport of the Odra at Krajnik Dolny show for the period 1991 to 1994 a low reduction for phosphorus but no changes for nitrogen. For the period of 1991 to 1994 an inventory of the point sources produces emissions of 10.7 kt a–1 P and 54.4 kt a–1 N upstream of the station Krajnik Dolny/Schwedt. Emissions from agricultural land and urban areas represent the main diffuse sources. A range of 68 to 96 kt a–1 N and 3.3 to 3.9 kt a–1 P were estimated for the total diffuse emissions depending on the database and the method of modeling. The emission situation of the river is characterized by a high dominance of point sources in the case of phosphorus (about 73%). For nitrogen the diffuse emissions dominate the total emissions to an amount between 59 and 67%. Compared to the emissions the nutrient transport is low. An average load of 5.1 kt a–1 P and 70.1 kt a–1 N was observed at the station Krajnik Dolny for the period 1991 to 1994. The emission and load situation within the main tributaries of the river Odra is comparable to the whole basin. The big difference between the total emissions and the observed load refers to intensive retention and loss processes within the river system of the Odra.     

Celtic Sea and Armorican current structure and the vertical distributions of temperature and chlorophyll

Vertical sections of temperature and chlorophyll a across the slopes and shelf of the Celtic Sea in the summer show the characteristic regimes; oceanic, slope, shelf, frontal, and mixed. Increases of surface chlorophyll a are commonly observed along the shelf tidal fronts where the thermocline outcrops at the surface, and also at the shelf-break. The variations in phytoplankton biomass are most readily interpreted in terms of the effects of physical mixing processes due to wind and tide on the availability of inorganic nutrients and light energy. On the shelf, mixing processes, both due to internal waves, inertial currents, and to boundary induced turbulence caused by tidal shear associated with the sea floor, play an important role in determining the observed vertical structures. A numerical model is used to define regions where tidal mixing processes are likely to be relatively important and provides the physical framework for interpreting the temperature and chlorophyll a profiles.     

Impacts of pollution on coastal and marine ecosystems including coastal and marine fisheries and approach for management: a review and synthesis

The history of aquatic environmental pollution goes back to the very beginning of the history of human civilization. However, aquatic pollution did not receive much attention until a threshold level was reached with adverse consequences on the ecosystems and organisms. Aquatic pollution has become a global concern, but even so, most developing nations are still producing huge pollution loads and the trends are expected to increase. Knowledge of the pollution sources and impacts on ecosystems is important not only for a better understanding on the ecosystem responses to pollutants but also to formulate prevention measures. Many of the sources of aquatic pollutions are generally well known and huge effort has been devoted to the issue. However, new concepts and ideas on environmental pollution are emerging (e.g., biological pollution) with a corresponding need for an update of the knowledge. The present paper attempts to provide an easy-to-follow depiction on the various forms of aquatic pollutions and their impacts on the ecosystem and organisms.     

东、南洞庭湖的径流、泥沙特征及冲淤规律

通过实地调查并对1957年以来水文、泥沙观测资料做系统分析和计算,探讨东、南洞庭湖出、入湖水量、沙量的年际和年内变化特征,以及长江下荆江段裁弯对湖区径流和泥沙的影响。提出了湖区泥沙汛淤枯冲的变化规律及水位升降与湖区泥沙冲淤的关系;论证了丰、平、枯年湖区淤积严重,面积日益缩小对径流的调节作用正在减弱。     

Superwaves and superfloods: The bombardment hypothesis and geomorphology

The bombardment of the oceans by asteroids and comets leads to the propagation of very large waves—superwaves. On approaching continental margins, superwaves may grow to heights large enough to spill on to the land, flooding extensive areas of continental lowland. The waters from these superfloods, in running back to the sea, would be capable of carrying out enormous amounts of work, possibly diverting rivers, cutting gorges, forming valley meanders, and leading to the widespread aggradation of coarse deposits produced by incoming superwaves stripping the soil and regolith cover and denuding weathered bedrock. Calculations of the magnitude and frequency of superfloods, based on current asteroidal impact rates, indicate that the superflooding of continental margins, including the British Isles, could have occurred several times since the start of the Pliocene. Thus, there seems to be a case for reviving some of the views of the old diluvialists, and exploring the worth of neodiluvialism as a system of Earth surface history.     

历史地震资料与地震的中长期预测

故障诊断模型的基本内容是根据动态系统的外部特征来判断系统内部是否发生故障及确定故障发生的部位、时间和大小。由于故障诊断技术在监测及诊断故障的思路上和地震预报有很多相似之处，因此，把故障诊断技术应用于地震预报是可行的。由于该模型与其他数学模型一样，需要有较多的学习过程，所以历史地震资料在该模型中有重要作用。而其中的鲁棒性故障诊断模型在抑制各子模型的个性，凸现其共性方面有其特有的性质，所以把它作为一种综合模型，能抑制各子模型的个性，突出在地震预测方面的共性，从而提高预测的精确性。本文根据一个实例，说明了这种综合性模型的可行性。在文章的最后，由信息量的分析，说明了模型的鲁棒性特征。     

Solar and latitude dependence of TEC and SLAB thickness

Several years of the vertical total electron content (TEC) and of the equivalent slab thickness data measured at different European locations are analysed by using the linear regression technique to demonstrate the annual response of these two ionospheric parameters to changes in solar activity and to their dependence on latitude. It is shown that TEC is highly correlated with the latitude and solar activity, whereas the slab thickness is independent of both solar activity and latitude. Their intercepts relative to solar activity show clearly a seasonal dependence.     

基于递归分析和聚类的大地电磁信噪辨识及分离

为了剖析大地电磁信号和强干扰的本质特征,进一步精细分离出微弱的大地电磁有用信号,提出基于递归分析和聚类的大地电磁信噪辨识及分离方法.首先,运用递归分析法扩展大地电磁一维时间序列的维数,分析了嵌入维数、延迟时间和判别阈值对递归图的性能,并研究了不同长度的序列对递归定量分析参数的影响情况.然后,构建典型的大地电磁强干扰类型和微弱的大地电磁有用信号样本库,针对样本库讨论了强干扰和微弱大地电磁信号之间的递归定量分析参数,分析了K均值聚类和模糊C均值聚类的信噪辨识效果.最后,对实测大地电磁数据进行信噪辨识处理,并仅对辨识为强干扰的时间段采用数学形态滤波进行噪声压制.实验结果表明,递归分析能定性及定量地描述大地电磁信号时间序列的非线性特征和原动力系统的本质规律,与聚类算法相结合能对矿集区实测大地电磁信号进行信噪辨识;处理后的卡尼亚电阻率-相位曲线更为光滑、连续,其结果更为精细地保留了大地电磁信号低频段的缓变化信息,整个低频段的大地电磁数据质量得到了明显改善.

     

Helium isotopes and mantle volatiles in Loihi Seamount and Hawaiian Island basalts and xenoliths

We examine in this paper the use of helium isotope ratios for the study of hotspot volcanism along age-progressive island volcanic chains. The Hawaiian Islands are the original “high ³He” hotspot, with ³He/⁴He ratios as high as 32 × the atmospheric ratio; in the Pacific they stand out against the surrounding sea of MORB (rather uniformly 8 × atmospheric) which fills the entire Pacific with the exception of the Macdonald-Mehetia-Samoa axis in the South Pacific. The recent availability of a variety of alkalic and tholeiitic glasses from the U.S. Geological Survey and our own dredge hauls has prompted us to look first at isotopic variability within a single fresh and new volcano which is probably sitting directly atop a mantle plume. Thus we have looked in some detail at the total helium in glass pillow rims, at He in the enclosed vesicles, and at He in the glass itself, in both tholeiitic and alkalic lavas, and also at helium in associated phenocrysts and xenoliths. The measured ³He/⁴He ratios range from atmospheric to 30 × atmospheric, but we see clear evidence that the highly vesiculated lavas suffer exchange of He between the thin glass walls of vesicles and ambient seawater, so that we observe a post-eruptive isotopic disequilibrium between glass and gas phases. The primary effect is the very large loss of initial He content during eruptive vesiculation, which results in quite large isotopic effects from small additions of ambient He (of the order of 0.02 μcc He per gram of basalt; corresponding to a “water/rock ratio” of 0.5). Phenocrystic He in olivines verifies that the gas-phase He is not affected by vesicularities up to about 5%. Alkali basalt He appears to be independent of vesicularity up to values as high as 35%; this He is somewhat lower in ³He/⁴He ratio, but matches precisely the associated xenolithic He. However, from the present data we cannot exclude the possibility that diffusive exchange with seawater has affected the He ratio in alkalic vesicles.On the large scale, along the 10% of the Hawaiian chain available for subaerial sampling, we find high ³He/⁴He ratios (24 × atmospheric) in 5.5 × 10⁶-year-old lavas on Kauai. Maximum values of the ratio so far observed are in the pre-erosional Kula basalts on Maui, confirming the previous results of Kaneoka and Takaoka. Hawaii, where these high values were first observed is now seen to range from MORB ratios at Mauna Loa to only 15 × R_A at Kilauea fumaroles. Most xenolithic He so far measured is MORB He, but Loihi xenoliths have high values and are quite different in this respect. Finally, we discuss also the hydrogen and carbon isotope results on Loihi lavas, and show that these elements resemble MORB and appear not to show a distinctive plume signature.     

近地表反射和折射法的进展及应用

针对近地表物质非均质极强、各向异性明显及地形复杂等特点,系统阐述和讨论了近地表折射和反射法的国内外研究与应用进展,认为:① 综合利用纵、横波的优势,开展多波多分量联合勘探对提高浅层地震勘探的精度和分辨率具有重要作用;② 现在的浅层地震勘探主要是对地震剖面进行解释,容易忽略一些隐含的地质异常现象,属性提取技术是充分提取地震信息,进行全面综合解释的有效手段;③ 开展多层折射介质的观测系统和解释方法研究,尤其是折射层析成像研究,是提高多层折射介质成像精度的途径;④ 开展黏弹性、双相和各向异性介质的地震反射与折射波法研究是提高近地表地震勘探成像和物性参数提取精度的新思路.     

Global climate change and its impacts on water resources planning and management: assessment and challenges

Population explosion and its many associated effects (e.g. urbanization, water pollution, deforestation) have already caused enormous stress on the world’s fresh water resources and, in turn, environment, health, and economy. According to latest World Health Organization estimates, about 900 million people still lack access to safe drinking water, about 2.5 billion people lack access to proper sanitation, millions of people die every year from water-related disasters and diseases, and economic losses in the order of billions of dollars occur due to water-related disasters. With the global climate change anticipated to have threatening consequences on our water resources and environment both at the global level and at local/regional levels (e.g. increases in the number and magnitude of floods and droughts, increases in sea levels), a general assessment is that the future state of our water resources will be a lot worse than it is now. The facts that over 300 rivers around the world are being shared by two or more nation states and that there are already numerous conflicts in the planning, development, and management of water resources in these basins further complicate matters for future water resources planning. In view of these, any sincere effort towards proper management of our future water resources and resolving potential future water-related conflicts will need to overcome many challenges. These challenges are both biophysical science-related and human science-related. The biophysical science challenges include: identification of the actual causes of climate change, development of global climate models (GCMs) that can adequately incorporate these causes to generate dependable future climate projections at larger scales, formulation of appropriate techniques to downscale the GCM outputs to local conditions for hydrologic predictions, and reliable estimation of the associated uncertainties in all these. The human science challenges have social, political, economic, and environmental facets that often act in an interconnected manner; proper ‘communication’ of (or lack thereof) our climate-water ‘scientific’ research activities to fellow scientists and engineers, policy makers, economists, industrialists, farmers, and the public at large crucially contributes to these challenges. The present study is intended to review the current state of our water resources and the climate change problem and to detail the challenges in dealing with the potential impacts of climate change on our water resources.     

Mantle tomography and its relation to temperature and composition

We propose a new method to constrain lateral variations of temperature and composition in the lower mantle from global tomographic models of shear- and compressional-wave speed. We assume that the mantle consists of a mixture of perovskite and magnesio-wüstite. In a first stage, we directly invert V_P and V_S anomalies for variations of temperature and composition, using the appropriate partial derivatives (or sensitivities) of velocities to temperature and composition. However, uncertainties in the tomographic models and in the sensitivities are such that variations in composition are completely unconstrained. Inferring deterministic distributions of temperature and composition being currently not possible, we turn to a statistical approach, which allows to infer several robust features. Comparison between synthetic and predicted ratios of the relative shear- to compressional-velocity anomalies indicates that the origin of seismic anomalies cannot be purely thermal, but do not constrain the amplitude of the variations of temperature and composition. We show that we can estimate these variations using histograms of the relative V_P and V_S anomalies at a given depth. We computed histograms for a large variety of cases and found that at the bottom of the mantle, variations in the volumic fraction of perovskite from −14 to 10% are essential to explain seismic tomography. In the mid-mantle, anomalies of perovskite are not required, but moderate variations (up to 6%) can explain the observed distributions equally well. These trade-offs between anomalies of temperature and composition cannot be resolved by relative velocity anomalies alone. An accurate determination of temperature and composition requires the knowledge of density variations as well. We show that anomalies of iron can then also be resolved.