Hydrography of the Santee River during moderate discharge conditions

To harness hydroelectric power, most of the flow of the Santee River, SC was diverted in 1942 into Charleston Harbor, where shoaling promptly became a major problem. For this reason, most of the diverted flow is scheduled to be rediverted to the Santee within the next decade, increasing the mean discharge of the Santee from 74 to 428 m³s^?1. To assess the present hydrogrpahy of the Santee estuary under conditions of moderate discharge, we determined 226 vertical profiles of velocity, salinity, and temperature distributed over 17 stations in February, 1975. We found that 73 and 27% of the discharge reached the ocean via the North and South distributaries, respectively. The 1 ppt isohaline was found no further than 8 km upstream from the mouth, indicating the limited extent of the estuarine zone. The Santee is a partially mixed estuary classified as type 2b. The circulation parameter is approximately 3 and the stratification parameter approximately 0.3. The bulk parameters indicate the importance of tidal, mixing and a weakly developed gravitational circulation. When rediversion is completed, the net salinity in the lower Santee River can be expected to decrease drastically, which in turn is likely to terminate the lucrative oyster and clam fishery.     

Evolution of the northeastern Kaapvaal craton and the central Limpopo belt,South Africa,based on single-zircon ages (extended abstract)

Geologie en Mijnbouw -     

Complex zoning and resorption in Breunnerite from hall in Tyrol,Austria: Evidence from back-scattered electron microscopy

Summary Back-scattered electron imagery (BSE) coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray elemental analysis was applied to petrographic investigations of recrystallized, anchimetamorphic breunnerites (ferroan magnesites). Analyses of polished thin sections allowed the recognition of a complex zoning pattern, invisible by transmitted or reflected light microscopy. Breunnerite precipitation and replacement started with (Mg_0.90Fe_0.07Ca_0.01Mn_0.02) CO₃ and proceeded towards (Mg_0.73Fe_0.22Ca_0.00Mn_0.05)CO₃. This precipitation sequence was interrupted by at least two major events of reverse zoning (i.e. Fe-rich zones followed by Fe-poor ones). Resorption surfaces in Fe-poor zones are common and prove that short-term fluctuations occurred in the paleobrine composition and/or paleotemperature.

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Nachweis komplexer zonierung und resorption im breunnerit mittels Rückstreuelektronenbilder

Zusammenfassung Breunnerit-Proben von der Typlokalität evaporitischer Magnesitlagerstätten (ehemaliger Salzbergbau Hall in Tirol/Österreich) wurden an Hand von Rückstreuelektronen(BSE)-Bildern und energiedispersiven Röntgenanalysen (EDS) untersucht. Während Durch- und Auflichtmikroskopie lediglich eine zweiphasige Kristallisationsgeschichte erkennen ließen, konnte mittels BSE-Bildern eine detaillierte Rekonstruktion der spätdiagenetischen bzw. anchimetamorphen Breunneritbildung durchgeführt werden. Ein genereller Trend zu Fe-reicheren, häufig oszillierend-zonierter Mischkristalle der Reihe Magnesit-Siderit konnte erkannt werden, der jedoch von mindestens zwei invers zonierten Phasen unterbrochen wurde. Resorptionserscheinungen in den Fe-ärmeren Zonen sind verbreitet und belegen kurzfristige Fluktuationen in der Paläofluid-Zusammensetzung und/oder dessen Paläotemperatur.

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With 5 Figures     

Tracing leachates at waste sites using geophysical and geochemical modelling

Tracing leachates at landfills is usually carried out using either geophysical methods or chemical analyses of groundwater. There are often problems with fingerprinting pollution sources or clarifying the spreading pattern due to a wide variety of possibilities giving similar anomalies. The aims of the project were to evaluate the advantages of combining results from multigeophysical modelling and statistical/chemical modelling in order to identify pollution sources and the spreading pattern and to test a new technique for chemical fingerprinting. The project was carried out at a landfill in central Sweden using geophysical measurements and modelling of CVES, GPR and VLF as well as chemical modelling using M3 (multivariate mixing and mass balance calculations). The results indicate that by combining geophysical modelling and chemical calculations, the possibilities of fingerprinting the origin of pollution as well as delineating the spreading pattern are significantly increased.     

Spectrometric analyses in comparison to the physiological condition of heavy metal stressed floodplain vegetation in a standardised experiment

Floodplain ecosystems are affected by flood dynamics, nutrient supply as well as anthropogenic activities. Heavy metal pollution poses a serious environmental challenge. Pollution transfer from the soil to vegetation is still present at the central location of Elbe River, Germany. The goal of this study was to assess and separate the current heavy metal contamination of the floodplain ecosystem, using spectrometric field and laboratory measurements. A standardized pot experiment with floodplain vegetation in differently contaminated soils provided the basis for the measurements. The dominant plant types of the floodplains are: Urtica dioica, Phalaris arundinacea and Alopecurus pratensis, these were also chemically analysed. Various vegetation indices and methods were used to estimate the red edge position, to normalise the spectral curve of the vegetation and to investigate the potential of different methods for separating plant stress in floodplain vegetation. The main task was to compare spectral bands during phenological phases to find a method to detect heavy metal stress in plants. A multi-level algorithm for the curve parameterisation was developed. Chemo-analytical and ecophysiological parameters of plants were considered in the results and correlated with spectral data. The results of this study show the influence of heavy metals on the spectral characteristics of the focal plants. The developed method (depth CR1730) showed significant relationship between the plants and the contamination.     

A resin nodule in the Cretaceous Garschella Formation from Langer Köchel (Bavaria, S Germany): possible origin and palaeogeographic provenance

A resin nodule was found in glauconite-rich detrital sediments of the Cretaceous Garschella Formation (Aptian to Albian) outcropping at Langer Köchel (Bavaria, S Germany). Gas chromatographic and mass spectrometric analyses of the fossil resin revealed dealkylation and the total defunctionalisation of its polycyclic constituents. Besides many unspecific components a specific one, agathalene, has survived. Agathalene also presents a strongly degraded product, but may have been derived from its natural precursor agathic acid, which is a very specific constituent (biomarker) of recent and fossil kauri resin. Although agathalene is a far less specific secondary biomarker, it indicates the botanic origin of the fossil resin nodule. Besides other potential producers of agathic acid, precursors of the present-day conifer species Agathis dammara and A. australis were distributed in a wider palaeophytogeographic range than today and might have been the botanical source of kauri resin. In view of the east–west directed Early Cretaceous surface current system of the Tethys ocean, the palaeogeographic provenance of the Werdenfels resin nodule probably was a mainland positioned further to the east or southeast of the Helvetic shelf, to where it was transported probably by driftwood of the resin-producing Agathis sp.     

Varved sediments of Lake Yoa (Ounianga Kebir,Chad) reveal progressive drying of the Sahara during the last 6100 years

The sedimentological and geochemical properties of a 7·47 m long laminated sequence from hypersaline Lake Yoa in northern Chad have been investigated, representing a unique, continuous 6100 year long continental record of climate and environmental change in the eastern Central Sahara. These data were used to reconstruct the Mid to Late Holocene history of this currently hyper‐arid region, in order to address the question of whether the Mid Holocene environmental transition from a humid to a dry Sahara was progressive or abrupt. This study involved a suite of analyses, including petrographic and scanning electron microscope examination of thin sections, X‐ray diffraction, X‐radiography, granulometry, loss on ignition and magnetic susceptibility. The potential of micro‐X‐ray fluorescence core scanning was tested at very high resolution. Detailed microscopic investigation revealed the sedimentary processes responsible for the formation of the fine laminations, identified the season during which they were formed, and confirmed their annually rhythmic nature. High‐resolution X‐ray fluorescence core scanning allowed the distinction of each individual lamination over the entire record, opening new perspectives for the study of finely laminated sediment sequences. Geochemical and mineralogical data reveal that, due to decreasing monsoon rainfall combined with continuous and strong evaporation, the hydrologically open and fresh Mid Holocene Lake Yoa slowly evolved into the present‐day hypersaline brine depleted in calcium, which has existed for about the past 1050 years. During the oldest part of the investigated period, Lake Yoa probably contained a permanently stratified lower water column that was nevertheless disrupted relatively frequently by mixing events. Deep‐water anoxia became more stable because of increased salinity‐driven density stratification. In parallel, the sediment grain‐size proxies record a progressive increase of aeolian input in the course of the last 6100 years. Altogether, all geochemical and sedimentological indicators point to a progressive drying of the eastern Central Sahara, strengthening previous conclusions based on palaeoecological indicators.     

On causes and impacts of land subsidence in Bandung Basin, Indonesia

The Bandung Basin is a large intra-montane basin surrounded by volcanic highlands, in western Java, Indonesia, inhabited by more than seven million people. The basin, an area of about 2,300 km², is a highland plateau at approximately 650–700 m above sea level and is surrounded by up to 2,400 m high Late Tertiary and Quaternary volcanic terrain. Based on the results of nine GPS surveys conducted since 2000 up to 2011, it was shown that several locations in the Bandung Basin have experienced land subsidence, with an average rate of about ?8 cm/year and can go up to about ?23 cm/year in certain locations. A hypothesis has been proposed by several studies that land subsidence observed in several locations in the Bandung Basin has been caused mainly by excessive groundwater extraction. It is found that there is a strong correlation between the rates of groundwater level lowering with the GPS-derived rates of land subsidence in several locations in Bandung Basin. The GPS results in this study detected significant subsidence in the textile industry area, where very large volumes of groundwater are usually extracted. The impact of land subsidence in Bandung can be seen in several forms, mainly in the cracking and damage of houses, buildings and infrastructure. Land subsidence also aggravates the flooding in Bandung Basin, which has brought huge economic losses and deteriorated the quality of life and environment in the affected areas.     

Évolution de l'onde semi-diurne M2 de la marée à Brest de 1846 à 2005

The work of searching, recovering and quality control of ancient sea-level measurements at Brest is presented. This work enables us to complete a study carried out by Cartwright in 1972, which showed a decrease in the tidal M2 semi-diurnal amplitude of 1% per century. After including these ancient data, as well as the last four decades of observations in the analysis, our results show an increase of the amplitude of M2 after 1960 and a decrease before 1880, suggesting a long-period oscillation rather than a steady secular trend. To cite this article: N. Pouvreau et al., C. R. Geoscience 338 (2006).