A volcanic vent in the tremadocian rocks southeast of Blaenau ffestiniog,Merionethshire, North Wales

A tuff filled volcanic vent which outcrops among Tremadocian rocks about 2 miles southwest of Blaenau Ffestiniog is described. The vent is correlated with the lower Caradocian Moelwyn Volcanic Series. Comparisons are drawn between this vent and the fissures from which the dominantly ignimbritic rocks of the Snowdon Volcanic Series were erupted and these are extended to account for lithological differences between the Snowdon and Moelwyn volcanic rocks.     

A wind tunnel study of turbulent flow over model hills

Detailed wind tunnel measurements have been made of mean flow and turbulence over a two-dimensional ridge and a circular hill, both having cosine-squared cross-section and maximum slope about 15 °. The measurements were made in an artificially thickened neutrally stratified boundary layer, and have been compared with results from linear models and rapid distortion theory as appropriate.Our study shows that linear theory gives generally good predictions of the mean flow on the upwind side of the hills, and especially of the flow speedup at the hill top, but that the turbulence is less well predicted. In particular, the measurements show a major increase in the vertical component of turbulence and in the shear stress on the upwind slope of both the two- and three-dimensional hills which is not predicted by either equilibrium or isotropic rapid-distortion theories, although this may be partly due to the effect of streamline curvature. Rapid-distortion theory is successful only in describing the streamwise component of turbulence in the outer region of the flow, while in the upper part of the inner region of the flow, the turbulence measurements show disagreement with both the equilibrium and the rapid-distortion theories. Our experiments also confirm that the equilibrium region is a very thin layer close to the surface, while above this region and below the outer region, there is a transitional region where all terms in the stress equation are important.The measurements over the three-dimensional hill suggest that the mean flow and turbulence are broadly similar to those over the two-dimensional ridge, but with reduced perturbation amplitudes. The major differences between the two cases are found on the upwind slope and in the wake where, respectively, horizontal divergence and convergence of the three-dimensional flow are most pronounced.     

Three-Dimensional Mapping of Air Flow at an Urban Canyon Intersection

In this experimental work both qualitative (flow visualisation) and quantitative (laser Doppler anemometry) methods were applied in a wind tunnel in order to describe the complex three-dimensional flow field in a real environment (a street canyon intersection). The main aim was an examination of the mean flow, turbulence and flow pathlines characterising a complex three-dimensional urban location. The experiments highlighted the complexity of the observed flows, particularly in the upwind region of the intersection. In this complex and realistic situation some details of the upwind flow, such as the presence of two tall towers, play an important role in defining the flow field within the intersection, particularly at roof level. This effect is likely to have a strong influence on the mass exchange mechanism between the canopy flow and the air aloft, and therefore the distribution of pollutants. This strong interaction between the flows inside and outside the urban canopy is currently neglected in most state-of-the-art local scale dispersion models.     

Retreat of the Smith Sound Ice Stream in the Early Holocene

Nares Strait, a major connection between the Arctic Ocean and Baffin Bay, was blocked by coalescent Innuitian and Greenland ice sheets during the last glaciation. This paper focuses on the events and processes leading to the opening of the strait and the environmental response to establishment of the Arctic‐Atlantic throughflow. The study is based on sedimentological, mineralogical and foraminiferal analyses of radiocarbon‐dated cores 2001LSSL‐0014PC and TC from northern Baffin Bay. Radiocarbon dates on benthic foraminifera were calibrated with ΔR = 220±20 years. Basal compact pebbly mud is interpreted as a subglacial deposit formed by glacial overriding of unconsolidated marine sediments. It is overlain by ice‐proximal (red/grey laminated, ice‐proximal glaciomarine unit barren of foraminifera and containing >2 mm clasts interpreted as ice‐rafted debris) to ice‐distal (calcareous, grey pebbly mud with foraminifera indicative of a stratified water column with chilled Atlantic Water fauna and species associated with perennial and then seasonal sea ice cover) glacial marine sediment units. The age model indicates ice retreat into Smith Sound as early as c. 11.7 and as late as c. 11.2 cal. ka BP followed by progressively more distal glaciomarine conditions as the ice margin retreated toward the Kennedy Channel. We hypothesize that a distinct IRD layer deposited between 9.3 and 9 (9.4–8.9 1σ) cal. ka BP marks the break‐up of ice in Kennedy Channel resulting in the opening of Nares Strait as an Arctic‐Atlantic throughflow. Overlying foraminiferal assemblages indicate enhanced marine productivity consistent with entry of nutrient‐rich Arctic Surface Water. A pronounced rise in agglutinated foraminifers and sand‐sized diatoms, and loss of detrital calcite characterize the uppermost bioturbated mud, which was deposited after 4.8 (3.67–5.55 1σ) cal. ka BP. The timing of the transition is poorly resolved as it coincides with the slow sedimentation rates that ensued after the ice margins retreated onto land.     

Open-source approaches for location cover models: capabilities and efficiency

Journal of Geographical Systems - Location cover models are aimed at siting facilities so as to provide service to demand efficiently. These models are crucial in the management, planning and...     

Thermochronological insights into the structural contact between the Tian Shan and Pamirs,Tajikistan

Multi‐method thermochronology along the Vakhsh‐Surkhob fault zone reveals the thermotectonic history of the South Tian Shan–Pamirs boundary. Apatite U/Pb analyses yield a consistent age of 251 ± 2 Ma, corresponding to cooling below ~550–350°C, related to the final closure of the Palaeo‐Asian Ocean and contemporaneous magmatism in the South Tian Shan. Zircon (U–Th–Sm)/He ages constrain cooling below ~180°C to the end of the Triassic (~200 Ma), likely related either to deformation induced by the Qiangtang collision or to the closure of the Rushan Ocean. Apatite fission track thermochronology reveals two low‐temperature (<120°C) thermal events at ~25 Ma and ~10 Ma, which may be correlated with tectonic activity at the distant southern Eurasian margin. The late Miocene cooling is confirmed by apatite (U–Th–Sm)/He data and marks the onset of mountain building within the South Tian Shan that is ongoing today.     

Rosetta-Alice observations of exospheric hydrogen and oxygen on Mars

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, en route to a 2014 encounter with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, made a gravity assist swing-by of Mars on 25 February 2007, closest approach being at 01:54 UT. The Alice instrument on board Rosetta, a lightweight far-ultraviolet imaging spectrograph optimized for in situ cometary spectroscopy in the 750-2000 Å spectral band, was used to study the daytime Mars upper atmosphere including emissions from exospheric hydrogen and oxygen. Offset pointing, obtained five hours before closest approach, enabled us to detect and map the H i Lyman-α and Lyman-β emissions from exospheric hydrogen out beyond 30,000 km from the planet’s center. These data are fit with a Chamberlain exospheric model from which we derive the hydrogen density at the 200 km exobase and the H escape flux. The results are comparable to those found from the Ultraviolet Spectrometer experiment on the Mariner 6 and 7 fly-bys of Mars in 1969. Atomic oxygen emission at 1304 Å is detected at altitudes of 400-1000 km above the limb during limb scans shortly after closest approach. However, the derived oxygen scale height is not consistent with recent models of oxygen escape based on the production of suprathermal oxygen atoms by the dissociative recombination of .     

Origin of the differences in refractory-lithophile-element abundances among chondrite groups

Chondrite groups can be distinguished on the basis of their abundances of refractory lithophile elements (RLE). These abundances are, in part, functions of the mass fraction of Ca-Al-rich inclusions (CAIs) within the chondrites. Carbonaceous chondrites contain the most CAIs and the highest RLE abundances; they also contain modally abundant fine-grained matrix material that consists largely of modified nebular dust. The amount of dust varied throughout the solar nebula: enstatite and ordinary chondrites formed in low-dust regions in the inner part of the nebula, R chondrites formed in higher-dust zones at somewhat greater heliocentric distances, and carbonaceous chondrites formed in even dustier regions farther from the Sun. The amount of ambient dust peaked in the region where CV and CK chondrites accreted; these chondrites have abundant matrix, the highest modal abundances of CAIs, and the highest bulk RLE contents. Substantial amounts of nebular dust occurred in highly porous multi-millimeter-to-centimeter-size dustballs that were on the order of 100 times more massive than CAIs. Radial drift processes in the nebula affected these dustballs to approximately the same extent as the CAIs; both types of objects were aerodynamically concentrated in the same nebular regions. These regions maintained approximately the same relative amounts of dust through the periods of chondrule formation and chondrite accretion.     

Book reviews

Behavioural biology of killer whales. Editors: C. Kirkevold and J. S. Lockard. Zoo Biology Monographs, Volume 1. Alan Liss Inc., New York, 1986. 457 p. ISBN 0–8451–3100–1. Price: US$79.50.

Aquaculture of Cyprinids. Editors: R. Billard and J. Marcel. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 1986. 504 p. Price FF150.00. Available from INRA Publications, Route de St Cyr, 78000 Versailles, France.

The Peruvian anchoveta and its upwelling ecosystem: three decades of change. Editors: D. Pauly and I. Tsukayama. Institute) del Mar del Peru (IMARPE); Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ); International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM) 1987.351 p. ISBN 971–1022–34–6, ISSN 0115–4389. Price US$17.50 surface; US$36 airmail. Available from ICLARM, MCP.O. 1501, Makati, Metro Manilla, Philippines.

The freshwater planktonic blue‐greens (Cyanophyta/Cyanobacteria) of New Zealand: a taxonomic guide. By M. K. Etheredge and R. D. Pridmore. Published for the National Water and Soil Conservation Authority, 1987. 122 p, including 93 figures. ISSN0110–4705. Price $38.50. Available from DSIR Publishing, P.O. Box 9741, Wellington, New Zealand.