根据GPS数据的北天山现代构造活动概率区研究

根据GPS数据的现代运动场研究了北天山的现代形变过程。在这一地区,速率分量和某些类型形变速率场的不均性都表现出与现代构造活动区密切相关。以场的水平梯度极值区图为基础划分构造活动区段,查明强震震中区就位于这些活动区。当取得活动区状态的GPS数据时,区域地壳动力学状态监测是最有效的。     

Assessing mitigation-adaptation scenarios for reducing catastrophic climate risk

Countries can use both mitigation and adaptation strategies to protect their citizens from catastrophic risk posed by climate change (e.g., shift in the jet stream). A nation can mitigate by reducing CO₂ emissions, which reduces the probability of a catastrophic event; it can adapt by altering the infrastructure so that damages can be reduced in the event a catastrophe is realized. Herein we add to the current literature by extending the endogenous risk framework into a dynamic framework permitting analysis of both mitigation and adaptation while allowing for the dynamic process of global climate change. Our results suggest adaptation to catastrophe is a small fraction of the national climate protection budget relative to mitigation when nations cooperate fully, when damages are both continuous and catastrophic, and when nations have a short planning horizon. Adaptation becomes more important relative to mitigation when nations are unlikely to cooperate, when damages are mainly catastrophic, or when the nation’s planning horizon increases.     

Integration of Satellite Telemetry Data and Land Cover Imagery: A Study of Migratory Cranes in Northeast Asia

The present study describes a procedure for quantitatively analyzing satellite telemetry data to identify interspecific land use differences among four threatened crane species. The inherent inaccuracy of satellite telemetry data points, the temporal autocorrelation of those points, and the resolution of two land‐cover imagery products from the IGBP‐DISCover Global Land‐Cover Characterization Project (derived from AVHRR data) were assessed and integrated in a GIS. Satellite telemetry is a system where animals are tracked using battery‐operated transmitters and locations are calculated using triangulation from satellites. Using the variable spatial inaccuracy of the telemetry locations, each point was buffered using a radius based on the accuracy of the point, and then intersected with the land cover imagery. The research concluded that the methodology is valuable for studies of birds at a regional scale, with interspecific differences clearly evident, but that diurnal and nocturnal differences were not discernable due to the coarse resolution of both satellite telemetry and land‐cover data.     

Photogrammetric Analysis of Front Range Rock Glacier Flow Rates

Flow rates for rock glaciers in the European Alps have been monitored using photogrammetric techniques; however, a program has not been initiated for similar Front Range, USA, rock glaciers. Horizontal rock glacier displacements were measured by tracking large surficial rocks on temporal orthophotos from 1978, 1990, and 1999. Vertical change was measured by creating digital elevation models (DEMs) from digital stereopairs, then subtracting elevations to detect change. Long‐term horizontal velocities ranged from 14 to 20 cm/yr on average, although uncertainty ranged from 4 to 5 cm/yr. On average, vertical elevation changes were negligible with most rock glaciers exhibiting a slight growth or thinning (1–2 cm/yr). Over shorter time scales (c. 10‐year periods), horizontal velocities have only increased by about 2 cm/yr. Because horizontal and vertical change is minimal, Front Range rock glaciers appear to be adjusted with current climate, unlike some rock glaciers in the European Alps that have shown increasing subsidence rates or significant increasing or decreasing horizontal velocities.     

Damped Lyα systems at high redshift and models of protogalactic discs

We employ observationally determined intrinsic velocity widths and column densities of damped Lyman alpha (Lyα) systems at high redshift to investigate the distribution of baryons in protogalaxies within the context of a standard cold dark matter (CDM) model. We proceed under the assumption that damped Lyα systems represent a population of cold, rotationally supported, protogalactic discs, and that the abundance of dark matter haloes is well approximated by a CDM model with critical density and vanishing cosmological constant. Using conditional cross-sections to observe a damped system with a given velocity width and column density, we compare observationally inferred velocity width and column density distributions to the corresponding theoretically determined distributions for a variety of disc parameters and CDM normalizations. In general, we find that the observations cannot be reproduced by the models for most disc parameters and CDM normalizations. Whereas the column density distribution favours small discs with large neutral gas fraction, the velocity width distribution favours large and thick discs with small neutral gas fraction. The possible resolutions of this problem in the context of this CDM model may be (1) an increased contribution of rapidly rotating discs within massive dark matter haloes to damped Lyα absorption, or (2) the abandoning of simple disc models within this CDM model for damped Lyα systems at high redshift. Here the first possibility may be achieved by supposing that damped Lyα system formation occurs only in haloes with fairly large circular velocities, and the second possibility may result from a large contribution of mergers and double discs to damped Lyα absorption at high redshift.     

混合岩中浅色体的有限迁移及其对变形分解的影响

熔体在地壳和地幔中怎样迁移及其动力学是地质学中的一个重要问题。作为地壳深融作用的产物 ,混合岩中的浅色体提供了一个极好的机会来探讨影响地壳熔体在中下地壳迁移的因素。为此 ,我们对美国加州南 Sierra Nevada岩基中典型的混合岩、变泥质岩及邻近的花岗闪长岩进行了详细的主要元素地球化学和野外构造变形分析 ,同时应用流体动力学理论估算了在中下地壳条件下 ,典型浅色体的迁移距离。南 Sierra Nevada岩基中的混合岩中的浅色体厚度为 1mm至 1cm。在部分熔融程度较高的区域 (>10 % ) ,浅色体相互连接而成网结状构造 ,应变的承载方式主要以 IWL(Interconnected Weak L ayers)形式进行 ,即熔融体表现为弱相而承载大部分的应变。相反地 ,在部分熔融程度较低的区域 (<5 % ) ,浅色体孤立地出现 ,应变的承载方式主要以 L BF(L oad- Bearing Frame-work)形式进行 ,即应变主要由非熔融体的基质来承担。这表明在混合岩形成过程中 ,熔体的出现强烈地制约着应变分解作用。应用 Shaw的岩石粘度模型 ,我们根据浅色体的主要元素地球化学成分计算了浅色体在熔融状态下的粘度。根据流体动力学原理 ,估算了浅色体在不同条件下的迁移距离。计算结果表明 :1和典型花岗岩相比 ,浅色体具有较高的粘度 ,为 10 9～ 10 1 2     

The volume and paleobathymetry of glacial Lake Agassiz

During the last retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in North America, many proglacial lakes formed as continental drainage was impounded against the southern and western ice margin. Lake Agassiz was the largest of these lakes. The bathymetry of Lake Agassiz at the Herman and Upper Campbell beach levels – formed at about 11.5–11.0 ka and 9.9–9.5 ka, respectively – was computer modelled in this study by first collecting data for the isostatically-deformed paleowater planes of the two lake levels (derived from isobase lines constructed from beach elevations), and then subtracting these from the modern topography of the former lake floor. Pixels with dimensions of 1/30 × 1/30 of a degree were used in the model. Using these data, the area and volume of the lake were also calculated: at the Herman level these were 152 500 km2 and 13 100 km3 respectively; at the Upper Campbell level these were 350 400 km2 and 38 700 km3. Contour maps showing the paleobathymetry of both periods in the lake's history were also constructed. Determining the paleobathymetry and volume of Lake Agassiz is an important step in understanding the impact that the lake had on its surrounding environment and on the rivers, lakes, and oceans into which it flowed.