A Comparison between WCS and OPeNDAP for Making Model Results and Data Products Available through the Internet

Numerical models produce output with a large number of variables, grid cells and time steps. The same applies to algorithms that produce gridded datasets from sparse or abundant raw data. Further use of the resulting data products has been challenging, especially for dissemination outside the institute of origin. Due to the gradually increasing size of data products, simply downloading copies of them is becoming impossible. A gradual transition from traditional download methods to web services is therefore observed. Web services allow for on‐the‐fly access to subsets of data that were hitherto considered as indivisible granules. Here we compare the most mature candidates to serve gridded data through the web: the Open‐source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol (OPeNDAP) and Web Coverage Service (WCS) protocols. In the framework of the new Dutch National Model and Data Centre (NMDC.eu) a distributed data storage has been created by coupling OPeNDAP servers. A WCS service layer is provided for the same data. This allows us to compare OPeNDAP and WCS. Using several use cases, we compare the usability, performance and features of the two protocols.     

Pillow talk

Three distinct types of pillows and pillow lava sequences with different modes of origin have been recognized in the extrusive sequences comprising the upper parts of ophiolite complexes that represent the mafic portion of the floor of an Early Cretaceous back-arc basin in southern Chile. One type of pillow formed by non-explosive submarine effusion. A second type formed by magmatic intrusion into pre-existing aquagene tuff formed by explosive eruption. The third type of pillow occurs within dikes, forming pillowed dikes, possibly as a result of vapor streaming within a cooling dike. Where studied in southern Chile, aquagene tuffs and intrusive pillows decrease and water-lain pillows increase in relative abundance from north to south. This variation corresponds with a north-to-south decrease in both the relative volume of extrusives to extensional dikes and the range and volume of differentiated rocks, suggesting a southward increase in rate of extension relative to rate of magma supply within the spreading ridges at which the ophiolites formed. In the northern part of the original basin where the rate of extension was small relative to the rate of magma supply, magma remained in magma chambers longer, resulting in a greater range and volume of differentiated rocks. The larger volume of more differentiated, cooler and more viscous magmas, in conjunction with the likelihood of more violent eruption of volatile-rich differentiates, may have been responsible for the large volume of aquagene tuff in the northern part of the original basin. These observations in southern Chile suggest that ophiolites which contain a great abundance of aquagene tuffs and intrusive pillow lavas formed in tectonic environments in which the rate of extension was small relative to the rate of magma supply (island arcs, embryonic marginal basins). Ophiolites with predominantly water-lain pillowed and massive lavas formed in tectonic environments in which the rate of extension was large relative to the rate of magma supply (mid-ocean ridges, mature back-arc basins). Thus geologic field data may supplement geochemical data as a tool in distinguishing the original igneous-tectonic environments in which ophiolites originate.     

Autogenic avulsion,channelization and backfilling dynamics of debris‐flow fans

Alluvial fans develop their semi‐conical shape by quasi‐cyclic avulsions of their geomorphologically active sector from a fixed fan apex. On debris‐flow fans, these quasi‐cyclic avulsions are poorly understood, partly because physical scale experiments on the formation of fans have been limited largely to turbidite and fluvial fans and deltas. In this study, debris‐flow fans were experimentally created under constant extrinsic forcing, and autogenic sequences of backfilling, avulsion and channelization were observed. Backfilling, avulsion and channelization were gradual processes that required multiple successive debris‐flow events. Debris flows avulsed along preferential flow paths given by the balance between steepest descent and flow inertia. In the channelization phase, debris flows became progressively longer and narrower because momentum increasingly focused on the flow front as flow narrowed, resulting in longer run‐out and deeper channels. Backfilling commenced when debris flows reached their maximum possible length and channel depth, as defined by channel slope and debris‐flow volume and composition, after which they progressively shortened and widened until the entire channel was filled and avulsion was initiated. The terminus of deposition moved upstream because the frontal lobe deposits of previous debris flows created a low‐gradient zone forcing deposition. Consequently, the next debris flow was shorter which led to more in‐channel sedimentation, causing more overbank flow in the next debris flow and resulting in reduced momentum to the flow front and shorter runout. This topographic feedback is similar to the interaction between flow and mouth bars forcing backfilling and transitions from channelized to sheet flow in turbidite and fluvial fans and deltas. Debris‐flow avulsion cycles are governed by the same large‐scale topographic compensation that drives avulsion cycles on fluvial and turbidite fans, although the detailed processes are unique to debris‐flow fans. This novel result provides a basis for modelling of debris‐flow fans with applications in hazards and stratigraphy.     

Dust supply from river floodplains: the case of the lower Huang He (Yellow River) recorded in a loess–palaeosol sequence from the Mangshan Plateau

The Mangshan Plateau is located on the south bank of the Huang He (Yellow River) just west of the city of Zhengzhou, well outside the Loess Plateau in central China. Mixing models of the grain‐size data indicate that the loess deposits are mixtures of three loess components. Comparison of the mixing model with existing models established for a series of loess–palaeosol sequences from the Loess Plateau indicates that the Mangshan loess has been supplied from a proximal dust source, the Huang He floodplain, during major dust outbreaks. The high accumulation rates, the composition of the loess components, and especially the high proportions of a sandy loess component support this. Owing to the exceptionally high accumulation rates, the Mangshan grain size, magnetic susceptibility and carbonate records provide a high‐resolution archive of environmental and climate change. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Early Archean processes: evidence from the South African Kaapvaal craton and its greenstone belts (extended abstract)

Geologie en Mijnbouw -     

Revisiting the morphological method in two-dimensions to quantify bed-material transport in braided rivers

Research in the 1990s showed that bed-material transport rates could be estimated at the reach scale in both one-dimension and, over small spatial scales (10s of m), in two-dimensions. The limit on the latter was the spatial scale over which it was possible to obtain distributed data on morphological change. Here, we revisit the morphological method given progress in both topographical data acquisition and hydraulic modelling. The bed-material transport needed to conserve mass is calculated in both one and two dimensions for a 1600 m × 300 m Alpine braided river “laboratory”. High-resolution topographical data were acquired by laser scanning to quantify Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), and morphological changes caused by the flushing of the water intake were derived from repeated surveys. Based on DEMs of differences, 1D bed-material transport rates were calculated using the morphological method. Then, a 2D hydraulic model was combined with a topographic correction to route sediment through the network of braided channels and to obtain a spatially variable estimate of transport in both downstream and cross-stream directions. Monte Carlo simulation was applied to the routing model parameters, allowing identification of the most probable parameter values needed to minimize negative transport. The results show that within-section spatial compensation of erosion and deposition using the 1D treatment leads to substantial local errors in transport rate estimates, to a degree related to braiding intensity. Even though the 2D application showed that a large proportion of the total transport was actually concentrated into one main channel during the studied low flow event, the proportion of transport in secondary anabranches is substantial when the river starts braiding. Investigations of the effects of DEM resolution, competent flow duration and survey frequency related to ‘travelling bedload’ and sequential erosion-deposition emphasized the critical importance of careful data collection in the application of the morphological method. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prospects for the GLAS Rayleigh laser beacon on the 4.2-m WHT

The scientific exploitation of adaptive optics (AO) with natural guide stars is severely constrained by the limited presence of bright guide stars for wavefront sensing. Use of a laser beam as an alternative means to provide a source for wavefront sensing has the potential of drastically improving the sky coverage for AO. For this reason at the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope a project was started to develop a Rayleigh laser beacon to work together with the existing NAOMI adaptive optics instrumentation and the OASIS integral field spectrograph. This paper presents the rationale for this development, highlights some of the technical aspects, and gives some expected performance measures.     

Biological structures as a source of habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity on the deep ocean margins

Biological structures exert a major influence on species diversity at both local and regional scales on deep continental margins. Some organisms use other species as substrates for attachment, shelter, feeding or parasitism, but there may also be mutual benefits from the association. Here, we highlight the structural attributes and biotic effects of the habitats that corals, sea pens, sponges and xenophyophores offer other organisms. The environmental setting of the biological structures influences their species composition. The importance of benthic species as substrates seems to increase with depth as the complexity of the surrounding geological substrate and food supply decline. There are marked differences in the degree of mutualistic relationships between habitat-forming taxa. This is especially evident for scleractinian corals, which have high numbers of facultative associates (commensals) and few obligate associates (mutualists), and gorgonians, with their few commensals and many obligate associates. Size, flexibility and architectural complexity of the habitat-forming organism are positively related to species diversity for both sessile and mobile species. This is mainly evident for commensal species sharing a facultative relationship with their host. Habitat complexity is enhanced by the architecture of biological structures, as well as by biological interactions. Colony morphology has a great influence on feeding efficiency for suspension feeders. Suspension feeding, habitat-forming organisms modify the environment to optimize their food uptake. This environmental advantage is also passed on to associated filter-feeding species. These effects are poorly understood but represent key points for understanding ecosystems and biodiversity on continental margins. In this paper we explore the contributions of organisms and the biotic structures they create (rather than physical modifications) to habitat heterogeneity and diversity on the deep continental margins.     

Flow dynamics at the origin of thin clayey sand lacustrine turbidites: Examples from Lake Hazar,Turkey

Turbidity currents and their deposits can be investigated using several methods, i.e. direct monitoring, physical and numerical modelling, sediment cores and outcrops. The present study focused on thin clayey sand turbidites found in Lake Hazar (Turkey) occurring in eleven clusters of closely spaced thin beds. Depositional processes and sources for three of those eleven clusters are studied at three coring sites. Bathymetrical data and seismic reflection profiles are used to understand the specific geomorphology of each site. X‐ray, thin sections and CT scan imagery combined with grain‐size, geochemical and mineralogical measurements on the cores allow characterization of the turbidites. Turbidites included in each cluster were produced by remobilization of surficial slope sediment, a process identified in very few studies worldwide. Three types of turbidites are distinguished and compared with deposits obtained in flume studies published in the literature. Type 1 is made of an ungraded clayey silt layer issued from a cohesive flow. Type 2 is composed of a partially graded clayey sand layer overlain by a mud cap, attributed to a transitional flow. Type 3 corresponds to a graded clayey sand layer overlain by a mud cap issued from a turbulence‐dominated flow. While the published experimental studies show that turbulence is damped by cohesion for low clay content, type 3 deposits of this study show evidence for a turbulence‐dominated mechanism despite their high clay content. This divergence may in part relate to input variables, such as water chemistry and clay mineralogy, that are not routinely considered in experimental studies. Furthermore, the large sedimentological variety observed in the turbidites from one coring site to another is related to the evolution of a sediment flow within a field‐scale basin made of a complex physiography that cannot be tackled by flume experiments.