North Pacific sea ice cover, a predictor for the Western North Pacific typhoon frequency?

The relationship between the sea ice cover in the North Pacific and the typhoon frequency has been studied in this paper. It follows that the index for the sea ice cover in the North Pacific (ISA) both in December-January-February (DJF) and in March-April-May (MAM) is negatively correlated with annual typhoon number over the western North Pacific (TNWNP) during 1965―2004, with correlation coeffi-cients of -0.42 and -0.49 respectively (above 99% significant level). Large sea ice cover in the North Pacific tends to decrease TNWNP. Positive ISA (MAM) is associated with the tropical circulation and SST anomalies in the North Pacific, which may lead to unfavorable dynamic and thermal conditions for typhoon genesis over WNP from June to October (JJASO). The variability of the atmospheric circula-tion over the North Pacific, associated with the ISA anomaly in MAM is connected to the tropical at-mospheric circulation variability in MAM via the teleconnection wave train. Besides, as the tropical circulation has strong seasonal persistency from the MAM to JJASO, thus, the ISA in MAM-related variability of the tropical atmospheric circulation as well as the SST can affect the typhoon activity over the western North Pacific.     

Experimental study of surface texture and resonance mechanism of booming sand

The sound-producing mechanism of booming sand has long been a pending problem in the blown sand physics. Based on the earlier researches, the authors collected some silent sand samples from Teng- ger Desert, Australian Desert, Kuwait Desert, beaches of Hainan Island and Japanese coast as well as the soundless booming sand samples from the Mingsha Mountain in Dunhuang to make washing ex- periments. In the meantime the chemical corrosion experiment of glass micro-spheres, surface coating experiment and SEM examination were also conducted. The experimental results show that the sound production of booming sand seems to have nothing to do with the presence of SiO2 gel on the surface of sand grains and unrelated to the surface chemical composition of sand grains but is related to the resonance cavities formed by porous (pit-like) physical structure resulting from a number of factors such as wind erosion, water erosion, chemical corrosion and SiO2 gel deposition, etc. Its resonance mechanism is similar to that of Hemholz resonance cavity. Under the action of external forces, nu- merous spherical and sand grains with smooth surface and porous surface are set in motion and rub with each other to produce extremely weak vibration sound and then become audible sound by human ears through the magnification of surface cavity resonance. However the booming sands may lose their resonance mechanism and become silent sand due to the damping action caused by the invasion of finer particles such as dust and clay into surface holes of sand grains. Therefore, clearing away fine pollutants on the quartz grain surface is an effective way to make silent sand emit audible sound.     

Town of Tornio in November 1898: a rare survey of earthquake damage in Finland

This study investigates the effects of the Fennoscandian earthquake that occurred on 4 November 1898 (GMT) on Tornio in Northern Finland. The extra fire inspection conducted in the town on 21, 22 and 23 November 1898 provided insight into the failures caused by this low-magnitude earthquake. The building stock was of timber with masonry stone components. More than 30 heating units sustained damage. The macroseismic intensity in Tornio is estimated at I = 6 (European Macroseismic Scale).     

Study on inelastic displacement ratio spectra for near-fault pulse-type ground motions

In displacement-based seismic design, inelastic displacement ratio spectra (IDRS) are particularly useful for estimating the maximum lateral inelastic displacement demand of a nonlinear SDOF system from the maximum elastic displacement demand of its counterpart linear elastic SDOF system. In this study, the characteristics of IDRS for near-fault pulse-type ground motions are investigated based on a great number of earthquake ground motions. The in? uence of site conditions, ratio of peak ground velocity (PGV) to peak ground acceleration (PGA), the PGV, and the maximum incremental velocity (MIV) on IDRS are also evaluated. The results indicate that the effect of near-fault ground motions on IDRS are signifi cant only at periods between 0.2 s - 1.5 s, where the amplifi cation can approach 20%. The PGV/PGA ratio has the most signifi cant in? uence on IDRS among the parameters considered. It is also found that site conditions only slightly affect the IDRS.     

Advection in plankton models with variable elemental ratios

As ocean biogeochemical models evolve to permit the elemental composition of plankton populations and dissolved organic matter to vary, each element is normally assigned a separate state variable, which is advected and mixed independently of the others. In a population of cells with varying elemental quotas, the proper currency of the advection operator is subpopulations of similar cells. The spatial gradient in total C, N, or P summed over the spectrum of such subpopulations is identical to that calculated for the population means, so treating the various elements as independent should generally be a valid approximation. However, errors can arise in high-order advection schemes with nonlinear corrector terms, which are not additive across the subpopulations. Some numerical examples indicate that these errors are relatively small [O(10⁻³–10⁻⁴)] but can be as high as O(10⁻²) in certain cases. As grid resolution varies, the error scales approximately to the Courant number.     

Stochastic modelling of soil moisture dynamics in a grassland of Qilian Mountain at point scale

Stochastic modeling of soil moisture dynamics is crucial to the quantitative understanding of plant responses to water stresses,hydrological control of nutrient cycling processes,water competition among plants,and some other ecological dynamics,and thus has become a hotspot in ecohydrology at present.In this paper,we based on the continuously monitored data of soil moisture during 2002―2005 and daily precipitation date of 1992―2006,and tried to make a probabilistic analysis of soil moisture dynamics at point scale in a grassland of Qilian Mountain by integrating the stochastic model improved by Laio and the Monte Carlo method.The results show that the inter-annual variations for the soil moisture patterns at different depths are very significant,and that the coefficient of variance(CV) of surface soil moisture(20 cm) is almost continually kept at about 0.23 whether in the rich or poor rainy years.Interestingly,it has been found that the maximal CV of soil moisture has not always appeared at the surface layer.Comparison of the analytically derived soil moisture probability density function(PDF) with the statistical distribution of the observed soil moisture data suggests that the stochastic model can reasonably describe and predict the soil moisture dynamics of the grassland in Qilian Mountain at point scale.By extracting the statistical information of the historical precipitation data in 1994―2006,and inputting them into the stochastic model,we analytically derived the long-term soil moisture PDF without considering the inter-annual climate fluctuations,and then numerically derived the one when considering the inter-annual fluctuation effects in combination with a Monte-Carlo procedure.It was found that,though the peak position of the probability density distribution significantly moved towards drought when considering the disturbance forces,and its width was narrowed,accordingly its peak value was increased,no significant bimodality was observed in the soil moisture dynamics under the given intensity of random fluctuation disturbance.     

Three-dimensional thermal structure of the Chinese continental crust and upper mantle

We invert S-wave velocities for the 3D upper-mantle temperatures, in which the position with a temperature crossing the 1300℃ adiabat is corresponding to the top of the seismic low velocity zone. The temperatures down to the depth of 80 km are then calculated by solving steady-state thermal conduction equation with the constraints of the inverted upper-mantle temperatures and the surface temperatures, and then surface heat flows are calculated from the crustal temperatures. The misfit between the calculated and observed surface heat flow is smaller than 20% for most regions. The result shows that, at a depth of 25 km, the crustal temperature of eastern China (500―600℃) is higher than that of western China (<500℃). At a depth of 100 km, temperatures beneath eastern and southeastern China are higher than the adiabatic temperature of 1300℃, while that beneath west China is lower. The Tarim craton and the Sichuan basin show generally low temperature. At a depth of 150 km, temperatures beneath south China, eastern Yangtze craton, North China craton and around the Qiangtang terrane are higher than the adiabatic temperature of 1300℃, but is the lowest beneath the Sichuan basin and the regions near the Indian-Eurasian collision zone. At a depth of 200 km, very low temperature occurs beneath the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the south to the Tarim craton.     

High-resolution climate variability of southwest China during 57-70 ka reflected in a stalagmite δ18O record from Xinya Cave

A 26-cm-long stalagmite (XY2) from Xinya Cave in northeastern Chongqing of China has been ICP-MS ²³⁰Th/U dated, showing a depositional hiatus at 2.3 cm depth from the top. The growth of the 2.3–26 cm interval determined by four dates was between 57 ka and 70 ka, with a linear growth rate of 0.023 mm/a. We have analyzed 190 samples for δ ¹⁸O and δ ¹³C, mostly in the 2.3–26 cm part. The δ ¹⁸O and δ ¹³C values between 57 ka and 70 ka reveal decadal-to-centennial climatic variability during the glacial interval of Marine Isotope Stage 4 (MIS4), exhibiting much higher resolution than that of the published Hulu and Dongge records during this interval. Speleothem δ ¹⁸O in eastern China, including our study area can be used as a proxy of summer monsoon strength, with lighter values pointing to stronger summer monsoon and higher precipitation, and vice versa. Two decreases in the δ ¹⁸O signature of XY2 record around 59.5 and 64.5 Ka are argued to correspond to the Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events 17 and 18 respectively. The Heinrich event 6 (H6) can be identified in the record as a heavy δ ¹⁸O peak around 60 ka, indicating significant weakening of the monsoon in Chongqing during the cold period. The XY2 δ ¹⁸O record shows very rapid change toward to the interstadial condition of the D-O event, but more gradual change toward to the cold stadial condition. This phenomenon found in the Greenland ice core records is rarely observed so clearly in previously published speleothem records. According to SPECMAP δ ¹⁸O record, the glacial maximum of MIS 4 was around 64.5 ka with the boundary of MIS 3/4 around 60 ka. Unlike the marine record, the speleothem record of XY2, China, exhibits much high frequency variations without an apparent glacial maximum during MIS 4. However, the timing of MIS 3/4 boundary seems to be around 60 ka when the H6 terminated, in agreement with the marine chronology. The growth period of sample XY2 during glacial times probably reflects a local karstic routing of water, rather than having climatic significance. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40672165, 90511004, 40672202) and the Academician Special Project of Chongqing Science Committee (Grant No. 2003-7835)     

Volcanoes of the Tibesti massif (Chad,northern Africa)

The Tibesti massif, one of the most prominent features of the Sahara desert, covers an area of some 100,000 km². Though largely absent from scientific inquiry for several decades, it is one of the world’s major volcanic provinces, and a key example of continental hot spot volcanism. The intense activity of the TVP began as early as the Oligocene, though the major products that mark its surface date from Lower Miocene to Quaternary (Furon (Geology of Africa. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh (trans 1963, orig French 1960), pp 1–377, 1963)); Gourgaud and Vincent (J Volcanol Geotherm Res 129:261–290, 2004). We present here a new and consistent analysis of each of the main components of the Tibesti Volcanic Province (TVP), based on examination of multispectral imagery and digital elevation data acquired from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER). Our synthesis of these individual surveys shows that the TVP is made up of several shield volcanoes (up to 80 km diameter) with large-scale calderas, extensive lava plateaux and flow fields, widespread tephra deposits, and a highly varied structural relief. We compare morphometric characteristics of the major TVP structures with other hot spot volcanoes (the Hawaiian Islands, the Galápagos Islands, the Canary and Cape Verdes archipelagos, Jebel Marra (western Sudan), and Martian volcanoes), and consider the implications of differing tectonic setting (continental versus oceanic), the thickness and velocity of the lithosphere, the relative sizes of main volcanic features (e.g. summit calderas, steep slopes at summit regions), and the extent and diversity of volcanic features. These comparisons reveal morphologic similarities between volcanism in the Tibesti, the Galápagos, and Western Sudan but also some distinct features of the TVP. Additionally, we find that a relatively haphazard spatial development of the TVP has occurred, with volcanism initially appearing in the Central TVP and subsequently migrating to both the Eastern and Western TVP regions. Electronic supplementary material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at and is accessible for authorized users.