Paleolimnological assessment of human impacts on an urban South African lake

North End Lake is a polluted and eutrophic freshwater system located in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Since the lake is expected to be used for recreational/tourist purposes by 2010, a rehabilitation program will have to be designed. For this reason, we retrieved a sediment core from the central region of the lake to decipher the effect of historical human impacts on the water body. Pre-disturbance paleolimnological inferences indicate that the lake was likely mesotrophic. After ∼1831, when sheep farming activities were undertaken in the catchment, increases in trophic state and changes in sediment composition were observed. After ∼1937, increases in trace metal levels, organic matter, spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCP) and changes in sediment composition were recorded. The system became eutrophic as indicated by the dominance of the diatom Actinocyclus normanii, a cosmopolitan species often observed in systems where water quality has been dramatically degraded. The conditions worsened after 1986 because of the construction of a storm-water retention system, which intentionally channeled storm-water runoff into the lake. Because of this, extremely high values of fecal coliforms (i.e. 2 × 10⁶ every 100 ml) have been measured in the water column. The paleolimnological information identified the sharp increase in organic content in the uppermost section of the core, and this could be correlated to the operation of the storm-water retention system. Therefore, as an immediate management measure, we suggest that the storm-water retention system should either no longer be utilized, or the storm-water runoff should be treated before disposal into the lake. In addition, an effective sewage system has to be constructed.     

Spatial Analysis Techniques as Successful Mineral-Potential Mapping Tools for Orogenic Gold Deposits in the Northern Fennoscandian Shield,Finland

Geoscientific Information Systems (GIS) provide tools to quantitatively analyze and integrate spatially referenced information from geological, geophysical, and geochemical surveys for decision-making processes. Excellent coverage of well-documented, precise and good quality data enables testing of variable exploration models in an efficient and cost effective way with GIS tools. Digital geoscientific data from the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) are being used widely as spatial evidence in exploration targeting, that is ranking areas based on their exploration importance. In the last few years, spatial analysis techniques including weights-of-evidence, logistic regression, and fuzzy logic, have been increasingly used in GTK’s mineral exploration and geological mapping projects. Special emphasis has been put into the exploration for gold because of the excellent data coverage within the prospective volcanic belts and because of the increased activity in gold exploration in Finland during recent years. In this paper, we describe some successful case histories of using the weights-of-evidence method for the Au-potential mapping. These projects have shown that, by using spatial modeling techniques, exploration targets can be generated by quantitatively analyzing extensive amounts of data from various sources and to rank these target areas based on their exploration potential.     

Occurrence of juvenile Atlantic sturgeon,Acipenser oxyrhynchus,in the upper tidal Delaware River

Eighty-nine juvenile Atlantic sturgeon,Acipenser oxyrhynchus oxyrhynchus, including 10 recaptures, were collected, tagged and released in the upper tidal Delaware River between July 1981 and December 1984. All were captured in the river channel between Roebling and Trenton, New Jersey, using bottom-set experimental gill nets during daylight hours. The species was present from July through December and collected in increased numbers in the past two years. The fork lengths ranged from 284 to 862 mm (mean±SD = 516 mm±106 mm) and the weights from 140 to 4,250 g (mean±SD = 1,369 g±815 g). Ten juvenile Atlantic sturgeon were recaptured between September 1983 and December 1984 and were at large from one to 418 d. Recapture data suggest that these sturgeon utilize this area annually from July through December, possibly as a nursery. Juvenile Atlantic sturgeon appear to utilize the upper tidal portion of the Delaware River for a much longer period of time and at lower temperatures than in other river systems.     

Isotopic and Geochemical Constraints on the Origin and Evolution of the Columbia River Basalt

New major and trace element data on over 70 samples are combinedwith a wider knowledge of the regional stratigraphy, and ofthe tectonic evolution of the boundary between the ColumbiaPlateau and the northern margin of the Basin and Range province,to distinguish three subgroups within the Columbia River BasaltGroup (CRBG): the Picture Gorge Basalt; the main sequence ofColumbia River flood basalts, here named the Clarkston Basalt;and the Saddle Mountains Basalt. The subgroups are characterizedby different incompatible element and Sr-, Nd-, and Pb-isotoperatios, and they are interpreted in terms of different sourceregions mobilized under different tectonic conditions. The majordifferences between the subgroups are consistent with partialmelting processes in the upper mantle, and it is argued thatthey reflect previous partial melting episodes which resultedin source regions that were variably enriched and depleted inincompatible elements. The major variations within the PictureGorge and Clarkston Basalt subgroups include increases in theabundances of large ion lithophile elements (LILE) and increasesin the ratios of LILE/high field strength elements (HFSE) whichare interpreted as the addition of a lithospheric/subduction-relatedcomponent. The Picture Gorge Basalt has a depleted isotopic and chemicalsignature on which is superimposed an enrichment of LILE toproduce a trace element pattern similar to that of other 17–0-Mabasalts erupted south of the Olympic Wallowa Lineament. Thispattern is characteristic of volcanism associated with the Basinand Range extensional province, and others have attributed itto a source component derived from an enriched subcontinentallithospheric mantle (SCLM). Of the Clarkston Basalts, the Imnaha and Grande Ronde Basaltsform chemical and isotopic arrays which indicate mixing of componentsfrom two distinct source regions. One had high ratios of LILE/HFSEand light rare earth elements (LREE)/HFSE, and as these arenot common in oceanic basalts, this component is thought tohave been derived from the continental mantle lithosphere. Itsisotope ratios are more enriched (older?) than those of thePicture Gorge Basalt, and its Rb/Sr ratios are much higher thanthose in its source rocks, consistent with preferential mobilizationof LILE at the time of magmatism. The second component was derivedfrom an asthenospheric source similar to that of Hawaii basaltsand is most obviously attributed to mantle plume activity. Basaltsof the Eckler Mountain and Wanapum Formations (smaller, separateformations of the Clarkston Basalt as redefined in this paper)fit this mixing model less well and may represent mixing betweenmore than two components. Flows of the third CRBG subgroup,the Saddle Mountains Basalt, also carry a lithospheric geochemicalsignature and have long been recognized as having more radiogenicisotopic signatures than the other two subgroups. Thus, SaddleMountains flows appear to require a lithospheric source enrichedin LILE at an even earlier time, and we concur with other workersthat the isotopic and chemical evidence implies their derivationfrom subcontinental lithospheric mantle enriched at {small tilde}2000Ma. Within each subgroup, the chemical effects of partial melting,fractional crystallization, and magma mixing processes can allbe distinguished within particular flow sequences. In the ImnahaBasalt variable degrees of partial melting during the generationof the CRBG magmas, and gabbro fractionation within the lowercrust, played major roles in their evolution. In the GrandeRonde Basalt fractional crystallization appears to be restrictedto >10%. The chemical and isotopic data for each CRBG subgroup, and thedifferent sources which those data imply, can be accommodatedin a tectonic model which includes the passing of the Yellowstonehotspot south of the center of the CRBG eruption before significantBasin and Range extension had moved north of the Brothers Faultzone at 15 Ma.     

ARMA order model detection using minimum of Kurtosis: application on seismic data

The objective of this study is to find the order and coefficients of non-low-phase causal filters for ARMA (auto regressive moving average) filter model, using the Kurtosis minimization criterion. This method is based on the Kurtosis calculation of the treated sample at the input level and its identification at the output of the ARMA model. For this purpose, the order and coefficients of the AR (auto regressive) part are identified using the Yule-Walker algorithm at order two and then extended to order four. To obtain the MA (moving average) part, the AR components are calculated at first from the ARMA filter by deconvolution. Then, spectrally equivalent and minimum phase (SEMP) MA filter is identified using the Durbin algorithm at second and fourth order. Finally, the correct filter is found when the Kurtosis value of the output ARMA filter reconstituted is the closest to the Kurtosis of introduced signal. The proposed method is then tested on simulated processes and applied to real seismic data to perform blind deconvolution and obtain the reflectivity coefficients of subsoil studied.     

ENSO and IOD analysis on the occurrence of floods in Pakistan

Different techniques have been used to discuss the existence of significant relation between the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). Various studies present their interaction and influence on the natural disasters (i.e. drought, flood, etc.) over large parts of the globe. This study uses a Markov chain method to investigate the relation between the ENSO and IOD for the period of 62 years (1950–2011) and aggregates their influence on the occurrence of floods in Pakistan. Both data sets show similarities in the formation of transition matrices and expected number of visits from one state to another. The strong values of 2-dimensional correlation and high self-communication of the transition states confirm the existence of a possible relation between ENSO and IOD data. Moreover, significant values of dependency and stationary test endorse the applicability of the Markov chain analyses. The independent analysis shows that strong events of both data sets are co-occurred in the same flood years. During the study period maximum number of floods was observed during summer monsoon season. However, further analysis shows that after 1970, Pakistan observed the highest percentage of floods occurred per year during El Nino, Non-ENSO and positive IOD years. These observations and results demonstrate that climate variability especially ENSO and IOD should be incorporated into disaster risk analyses and policies in Pakistan.     

A micro–macro investigation of the capillary strengthening effect in wet granular materials

Wet granular materials are three-dimensionally simulated by the discrete element method with water bridges incorporated between particles. The water bridges are simplified as toroidal shapes, and the matric suction is constantly maintained in the material. A comparison with experimental tests in the literature indicates that the toroidal shape approximation may be one of the best choices with high practicability and decent accuracy. Mechanical behaviours of wet granular materials are studied by triaxial tests. Effects of particle size distributions and void ratios are investigated systematically in this study. The hydraulic limit of the pendular state is also discussed. It gives the capillary cohesion function which is not only determined by the degree of saturation but also positively correlated to relative density and particle size polydispersity and inversely proportional to mean particle size. Furthermore, the capillary strengthening effect is also analysed microscopically in aid of the Stress–Force–Fabric relationship, mainly in fabric anisotropy, coordination number and stress transmission pattern, which revealed the micro-mechanisms of the additional effective stress induced by capillary effect.