On the relationship of regional meteorological drought with SOI and NAO over southwest Iran

A fuzzy hierarchical clustering technique using the pairwise similarity matrix is employed to find the homogenous climate subregions over southwest Iran, based on the similarity of meteorological drought characteristics (i.e., duration, intensity, onset, and ending dates). The representative subregions are recognized for different rainy seasons; for each, the regional rainfall anomalies are computed. To find appropriate drought predictors, the lag relationships of regional rainfall with seasonal Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) are examined using a conditional probability approach. The results suggest a significant negative correlation between autumn rainfall and June–August SOI. The NAO is also negatively correlated with autumn rainfall such that it is least likely for an extreme autumn drought to occur when June–August NAO is negative. A spring drought is preceded by an October–December NAO greater than 0.5. However, winter droughts do not appear to be lag-correlated with either SOI or NAO. In addition to the findings for droughts, these indices also emerged having considerable influence on wet seasons. A wet autumn tends to occur when either May–July SOI is less than ?0.5 or June–August NAO is less than about ?0.3. It is also apparent that the extreme wet springs are absent when October–December NAO is positive. This season is influenced most by NAO in both dry and wet spells. However, similar to droughts, the wet winter seasons are not found to be associated with either SOI or NAO.     

Pyroclastic dune bedforms: macroscale structures and lateral variations. Examples from the 2006 pyroclastic currents at Tungurahua (Ecuador)

Pyroclastic currents are catastrophic flows of gas and particles triggered by explosive volcanic eruptions. For much of their dynamics, they behave as particulate density currents and share similarities with turbidity currents. Pyroclastic currents occasionally deposit dune bedforms with peculiar lamination patterns, from what is thought to represent the dilute low concentration and fluid‐turbulence supported end member of the pyroclastic currents. This article presents a high resolution dataset of sediment plates (lacquer peels) with several closely spaced lateral profiles representing sections through single pyroclastic bedforms from the August 2006 eruption of Tungurahua (Ecuador). Most of the sedimentary features contain backset bedding and preferential stoss‐face deposition. From the ripple scale (a few centimetres) to the largest dune bedform scale (several metres in length), similar patterns of erosive‐based backset beds are evidenced. Recurrent trains of sub‐vertical truncations on the stoss side of structures reshape and steepen the bedforms. In contrast, sporadic coarse‐grained lenses and lensoidal layers flatten bedforms by filling troughs. The coarsest (clasts up to 10 cm), least sorted and massive structures still exhibit lineation patterns that follow the general backset bedding trend. The stratal architecture exhibits strong lateral variations within tens of centimetres, with very local truncations both in flow‐perpendicular and flow‐parallel directions. This study infers that the sedimentary patterns of bedforms result from four formation mechanisms: (i) differential draping; (ii) slope‐influenced saltation; (iii) truncative bursts; and (iv) granular‐based events. Whereas most of the literature makes a straightforward link between backset bedding and Froude‐supercritical flows, this interpretation is reconsidered here. Indeed, features that would be diagnostic of subcritical dunes, antidunes and ‘chute and pools’ can be found on the same horizon and in a single bedform, only laterally separated by short distances (tens of centimetres). These data stress the influence of the pulsating and highly turbulent nature of the currents and the possible role of coherent flow structures such as Görtler vortices. Backset bedding is interpreted here as a consequence of a very high sedimentation environment of weak and waning currents that interact with the pre‐existing morphology. Quantification of near‐bed flow velocities is made via comparison with wind tunnel experiments. It is estimated that shear velocities of ca 0·30 m.s^?1 (equivalent to pure wind velocity of 6 to 8 m.s^?1 at 10 cm above the bed) could emplace the constructive bedsets, whereas the truncative phases would result from bursts with impacting wind velocities of at least 30 to 40 m.s^?1.