Research Note: Low-frequency pneumatic seismic sources

Pneumatic seismic sources, commonly known as airguns, have been serving us well for decades, but there is an increasing need for sources with improved low-frequency signal and reduced environmental impact. In this paper, we present a new pneumatic source that is designed to achieve these goals by operating with lower pressures and larger volumes. The new source will release more air creating larger bubbles with longer bubble periods than airguns. The release of the air will be tuned so that the rise time will be longer and the sound pressure level and its slope will be lower. Certain engineering features will eliminate cavitation. Larger bubbles increase low-frequency content of the signal, longer rise times decrease mid-frequency content and the elimination of cavitation reduces high-frequency content. We have not yet built a full-scale version of the new source. However, we have manufactured a small-scale low-pressure source incorporating most of the engineering features, and tested it in a lake. Here, we present the lake data that, as expected, show a significant reduction in the sound pressure level, increase in rise time, decrease in slope and decrease in high-frequency content while maintaining the same low-frequency content when the source prototype is operated at low pressure compared with high pressure. Synthetic data produced by numerical modelling of the full-scale proposed pneumatic source suggest that the new source will improve the low-frequency content and can produce geophysically useful signal down to 1 Hz.     

The analysis of indexed astronomical time series –VII. Simultaneous use of times of maxima and minima to test for period changes in long-period variables

A statistical model is formulated that enables one to analyse jointly the times between maxima and minima in the light curves of monoperiodic pulsating stars. It is shown that the combination of both sets of data into one leads to analyses that are more sensitive. Illustrative applications to the American Association of Variable Star Observers data for a number of long-period variables demonstrate the usefulness of the approach.     

Testing the bivariate series of Mira light curve rise and fall times for changes

The American Association of Variable Star Observers supplies the astronomical community with a large data base of times of light maxima and minima of Mira (long-period pulsating) stars. Period change studies using these data invariably use either times between maxima, or those between minima. A statistical analysis based on the two-component time series of light curve rise and fall times is developed. The results, which enable one to detect changes in the shapes of light curves, are applied to observations of seven long-period variables.     

Thermosteric sea level rise for the past 50 years; comparison with tide gauges and inference on water mass contribution

In this paper we compare sea level trends observed at a few selected tide gauges of good quality records with thermosteric (i.e., due to ocean temperature change) sea level trends over 1950–1998 using different gridded ocean temperature data sets from Levitus et al. (2000) [Levitus, S., Stephens, C., Antonov, J.I., Boyer, T.P., 2000. Yearly and Year-Season Upper Ocean Temperature Anomaly Fields, 1948–1998. U.S. Gov. Printing Office, Washington, D.C. pp. 23.], Ishii et al. (2003) [Ishii, M., Kimoto, M., Kachi, M., 2003. Historical ocean subsurface temperature analysis with error estimates, Mon. Weather Rev., 131, 51–73.] and Levitus et al. (2005) [Levitus S., Antonov, J.I., Boyer, T.P., 2005. Warming of the world ocean, 1955–2003. Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, L02604. doi:10.1029/2004GL021592.]. When using the Levitus data, we observe very high thermosteric rates at sites located along the northeast coast of the US, north of 37°N. Such high rates are not observed with the Ishii data. Elsewhere, thermosteric rates agree reasonably well whatever the data set. Excluding the northeast US coastline sites north of 37°N, we compare tide gauge-based sea level trends with thermosteric trends and note that, in spite of a significant correlation, the latter are too small to explain the observed trends. After correcting for thermosteric sea level trends, residual (observed minus thermosteric) trends have an average value of 1.4 ± 0.5 mm/year, which should have an eustatic (i.e., due to ocean mass change) origin. This result supports the recent investigation by Miller and Douglas (2004) [Miller, L., Douglas, B.C., 2004. Mass and volume contributions to 20th century global sea level rise. Nature 428, 406–408.] which suggests that a dominant eustatic contribution is needed to explain the rate of sea level rise of the last decades observed by tide gauges, and shows that Cabanes et al. (2001) [Cabanes, C., Cazenave, A., Le Provost, C., 2001. Sea level rise during past 40 years determined from satellite and in situ observations. Science 294, 840–842.] arrived at an incorrect conclusion due to peculiarities in the gridded Levitus et al. (2000) [Levitus, S., Stephens, C., Antonov, J.I., and Boyer, T.P., 2000. Yearly and Year-Season Upper Ocean Temperature Anomaly Fields, 1948–1998. U.S. Gov. Printing Office, Washington, D.C. pp. 23.] data set.     

Particle fluxes and recent sediment accumulation on the Aquitanian margin of Bay of Biscay

As a part of the ANR-Forclim experiment, particle mass fluxes and sedimentation processes were investigated on the slope of Aquitanian margin of the Bay of Biscay, between the canyons of Cap-Breton and Cap-Ferret. Interface sediments were collected along a depth transect from 145 to 2000 m; simultaneously a mooring line was deployed at the deepest station (WH, 2000 m) with two traps (800 and 1700 m) for a 16-month period (June 2006–November 2007). ²¹⁰Pb activities of settling particles and of interface sediments were determined to study transport processes of particles. Sediment and mass accumulation rates, calculated from excess ²¹⁰Pb profiles in the sediment column, show the expected decreasing trend with depth, as usually observed on margins. Mean particulate mass fluxes at 800 and 1700-m depth at site WH are, respectively, 27 and 70 g m^?2 a^?1.The ²¹⁰Pb budget points out events of temporary high lateral input of particles. The comparison of mass and ²¹⁰Pb fluxes between the water column and the seabed indicates that lateral transport plays an important role in particle accumulation on the Aquitanian margin. Regarding the objectives of the ANR-Forclim program, which aims to improve significantly the interpretation of fossil foraminifera signals, as a proxy for hydrological changes in the North Atlantic ocean, these results highlight advection processes must be considered when interpreting fluxes of foraminifers on the Aquitanian margin.     

Chirp sub-bottom profiler source signature design and field testing

Chirp sub-bottom profilers are marine sonar systems which use a highly repeatable source signature to facilitate the acquisition of correlated data with decimetre vertical resolution in the top 20–30 m of sediments. Source signatures can be readily developed and implemented, but an applicable methodology for assessing resolution and attenuation characteristics of these wide-band systems did not exist. Methodologies are developed and applied to seven contrasting source signatures which occupy the same frequency band, but differ in their Envelope and Instantaneous Frequency functions. For the Chirp source signatures tested, a Sine-Squared envelope function is shown to produce seismic data with the optimum resolution and penetration characteristics.     

Simulation of the Micro-physics of Rocks Using LSMearth

-- The particle-based Lattice Solid Model (LSM) was developed to provide a basis to study the physics of rocks and the nonlinear dynamics of earthquakes (M0ra and Place, 1994; Place and Mora, 1999). A new modular and flexible LSM approach has been developed that allows different micro-physics to be easily included in or removed from the model. The approach provides a virtual laboratory where numerical experiments can easily be set up and all measurable quantities visualised. The proposed approach provides a means to simulate complex phenomena such as fracturing or localisation processes, and enables the effect of different micro-physics on macroscopic behaviour to be studied. The initial 2-D model is extended to allow three-dimensional simulations to be performed and particles of different sizes to be specified. Numerical bi-axial compression experiments under different confining pressure are used to calibrate the model. By tuning the different microscopic parameters (such as coefficient of friction, microscopic strength and distribution of grain sizes), the macroscopic strength of the material and can be adjusted to be in agreement with laboratory experiments, and the orientation of fractures is consistent with the theoretical value predicted based on Mohr-Coulomb diagram. Simulations indicate that 3-D numerical models have different macroscopic properties than in 2-D and, hence, the model must be recalibrated for 3-D simulations. These numerical experiments illustrate that the new approach is capable of simulating typical rock fracture behaviour. The new model provides a basis to investigate nucleation, rupture and slip pulse propagation in complex fault zones without the previous model limitations of a regular low-level surface geometry and being restricted to two-dimensions.     

La Flexure du Saleve—les Bornes

The formations of the Jura and the Salève show definite characters of epicontinental sedimentation, such as carbonates, biodetrital limestones and corresponding faunas. In nearby Savoy, conditions are different and correspond to deeper sea deposits, clayish limestones, clays and reducing conditions with Cephalopods and pelagic microfauna. Between the two areas, the authors suppose the existence of a mobile and permanent flexure. They give its extension and general features.     

Reconstruction of past decades sea level using thermosteric sea level, tide gauge, satellite altimetry and ocean reanalysis data

This study investigates past sea level reconstruction (over 1950–2003) based on tide gauge records and EOF spatial patterns from different 2-D fields. In a first step, we test the influence on the reconstructed signal of the 2-D fields temporal coverage. For that purpose we use global grids of thermosteric sea level data, available over 1950–2003. Different time spans (in the range 10–50 yr) for the EOF spatial patterns, and different geographical distributions for the 1-D thermosteric sea level time series (interpolated at specific locations from the 2-D grids), are successively used to reconstruct the 54-year long thermosteric sea level signal. In each case we compare the reconstructed trend map with the reference. The simulation indicates that the longer the time span covered by the spatial EOFs, the closer to the reference the reconstructed thermosteric sea level trends. In a second step, we apply the method to reconstructing 2-D sea level data over 1950–2003, combining sparse tide gauge records available since 1950, with EOF spatial patterns from different sources: (1) thermosteric sea level grids over 1955–2003, (2) sea level grids from Topex/Poseidon satellite altimetry over 1993–2003, and (3) dynamic height grids from the SODA reanalysis over 1958–2001. The reconstructed global mean sea level trend based on thermosteric EOFs (case 1) is significantly lower than the observed trend, while the interannual/decadal sea level fluctuations are well reproduced. Case 2 (Topex/Poseidon EOFs over 1993–2003) leads to a global mean sea level trend over the 54-year time interval very close to the observed trend. But the spatial trends of the reconstruction over 1950–2003 are significantly different from those obtained with thermosteric EOFs. Case 3 (SODA EOFs over 1958–2001) provides a reconstruction trend map over 1950–2003 that differs significantly from the previous two cases. We discuss possible causes for such differences. For the three cases, on the other hand, reconstructed spatial trends over 1993–2003 agree well with the regional sea level trends observed by Topex/Poseidon.