Stream response to repeated coseismic folding, Tiptonville dome, New Madrid seismic zone

Fluvial response to tectonic deformation is dependent on the amount and style of surface deformation and the relative size of the stream. Active folding in the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) forms the Tiptonville dome, a 15-km long and 5-km wide surface fold with up to 11 m of late Holocene structural relief. The fold is crossed by streams of varying size, from the Mississippi River to small flood-plain streams. Fluvial response of these streams to repeated coseismic folding has only been preserved for the past 2.3 ka, since the Tiptonville meander of the Mississippi River migrated across the area forming the present flood plain. This surface comprises a sandy point-bar deposit locally overlain by clayey overbank and silty sand crevasse-splay deposits, an abandoned chute channel infilled with laminated sandy silt and silty clay, and an abandoned neck cutoff filled with a sandy cutoff bar and silty clay oxbow lake deposits.Dating various stream responses to coseismic folding has more tightly constrained the timing of earthquake events in the central NMSZ and provides a means of partitioning the deformation amount into individual seismic events. Three earthquakes have been dated in the Reelfoot Lake area, ca. A.D. 900, 1470, and 1812. The latter two earthquakes had large local coseismic deformation. Both of these events were responsible for numerous stream responses such as shifting depocenters, modification of Mississippi River channel geometry, and derangement of small streams. Overbank sedimentation ceased on the dome as it was uplifted above the normal flood stage, and sedimentation of crevasse-splay deposits from the Mississippi River, colluvium from the scarp, and lacustrine sediment accumulated in the adjacent Reelfoot basin. The much larger Mississippi River channel responded to uplift by increasing its sinuosity across the uplift relative to both upstream and downstream, increasing its width/depth ratio across and downstream of the uplift, and decreasing the width/depth ratio upstream of the uplift. Despite the size of the Mississippi River, it has not yet attained equilibrium since the latest uplift 190 years ago. Small channels that could not downcut through the uplift were filled, locally reversed flow direction, or formed a lake where they were dammed.Uplift and stream response to folding along the Tiptonville dome is less dramatic between 2.3 and 0.53 ka. During this interval, abandoned channel fill and overbank deposition across the dome suggests that it was not a high-relief feature. One earthquake event occurred during this interval (ca. A.D. 900), but coseismic stream response was probably limited to a slight aggradation of a small flood-plain stream.     

The social impact of anthropogenic landscape modification in the Río Verde drainage basin,Oaxaca, Mexico

This article examines the effects of anthropogenic landscape modification in the upper drainage basin of the Río Verde on environments and populations of the lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. Archaeological and geomorphological research conducted by the Río Verde Formative Project indicates that Late Formative (400–100 B.C.) population growth and agricultural intensification in the Oaxaca and Nochixtlán valleys increased erosion and runoff from the Verde's upper drainage. This geomorphic change in the highland valleys altered the drainage system and led to increased flooding and alluviation in the lower Río Verde Valley. The environmental effect in the lower valley may have increased the agricultural potential of the region, leading to population growth, and at least indirectly to social change.     

Public Support for Land Acquisition: A Key Instrument for Successful Land Conservation,Governance and Management

While it is recognized that protected areas are important for biodiversity conservation and human wellbeing, governments struggle to establish and/or enlarge protected areas. Land acquisition and the challenges encountered by governing institutions in funding protected area systems expansion is discussed in this paper using the Capital Regional District (CRD) Land Acquisition Fund as a case study. We briefly discuss land acquisition in British Columbia and in the CRD, and offer an overview of the CRD Land Acquisition Fund and the public participation process that led to its establishment. We emphasize the importance of developing political and citizen support, and a shared vision about expanding protected areas systems - a key element for nearly doubling the parkland base of CRD Regional Parks in less than 20?years. We conclude by offering the lessons learned through the case study and provide guidance for policy and governance directions with regard to land acquisition.     

Development of the HEFT and NuSTAR focusing telescopes

Hard X-ray/soft gamma-ray astrophysics is on the verge of a major advance with the practical realization of technologies capable of efficiently focusing X-rays above 10 keV. Hard X-ray focusing telescopes can achieve orders of magnitude improvements in sensitivity compared to the instruments based on coded apertures and collimated detectors that have traditionally been employed in this energy band. Compact focal planes enable high-performance detectors with good spectral resolution to be employed in efficient, low-background configurations. We have developed multilayer coated grazing incidence optics and solid state Cadmium Zinc Telluride focal plane systems for the High Energy Focusing Telescope (HEFT) balloon-borne experiment, and for the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) Small Explorer satellite. In this paper we describe the technologies, telescope designs, and performance of both experiments.     

Spin-cast ZERODUR mirror substrates of the 8 m class and lightweight substrates for secondary mirrors

For about 20 years SCHOTT has been supplying the glass ceramic ZERODUR, a material with very low thermal expansion. Besides many other applications, ZERODUR is excellently suited for the manufacture of mirror substrates for telescopes. About 80% of all telescopes in the western world with mirror diameters >1.8 m have been equipped with ZERODUR during the last 10 years. The development of modern astronomical telescopes is aimed at larger primary mirrors and lighter secondary mirrors.New techniques have been developed by SCHOTT for manufacture of thin monolithic mirror blanks of more than 8 m in diameter. The development of thin meniscus shaped shells using the spin-casting technique was successfully completed last year. During a test production several mirror substrates up to 4.1 m in diameter and down to 57 mm in thickness could be produced. The know-how has been acquired for the fabrication of mirror substrates of more than 8 m in diameter by the spin-casting technique.SCHOTT has also performed considerable developmental work in the field of lightweighted ZERODUR mirror substrates which can be generated using different techniques: forming of the lightweighted structure during casting, fusion of individual components to a total structure and lightweighting of a massive block by various mechanical machining methods.Paper presented at the Symposium on the JNLT and Related Engineering Developments, Tokyo, November 29–December 2, 1988.Registered trademark of SCHOTT Glaswerke, Mainz.     

Sedimentary evidence for recent eutrophication in the northern basin of Lake Taihu,China: human impacts on a large shallow lake

Environmental change in Lake Taihu and its catchment since the early to middle part of the twentieth century has left a clear geochemical record in the lake sediments. The human activities in the lake and its catchment responsible for the change include agriculture, fishery, urbanisation, sewage and industrial waster disposal. Sediment cores were collected from Meilian Bay of northern Lake Taihu to investigate the record of anthropogenic impacts on the lake’s ecosystem and to assess its natural, pre-eutrophication baseline state. Two marked stratigraphic sediment units were identified on the basis of total phosphorus concentration (TP), pigments, total organic carbon (TOC)/total nitrogen (TN), δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N corresponding to stages in the lake history dominated by phytoplankton, and by aquatic macrophytes. Results show that as TP loading increased from the early 1950s the lake produced sediments with increasing amounts of organic matter derived from phytoplankton. In the early 1950s, the first evidence for eutrophication at the Meilian Bay site is recorded by an increase in C/N values and in sediment accumulation rate, but there is little change in phosphorus concentrations, pigments, δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N at this time. After 1990 a more rapid increase in trophic status took place indicated by increased levels of phosphorus, pigments, δ¹⁵N and by decreased δ¹³C and TOC/TN values in the lake sediments. The first increase in trophic status of the early 1950s results mainly from agricultural development in the catchment. In contrast, the acceleration from ca. 1990 originates from the recent development of fisheries and the urbanisation and industrialisation of the catchment.     

New near-aphelion light curves of Comet 2P/Encke

We present new, near-aphelion, time series of photometry of Comet 2P/Encke in Cousins-R band. With these light curves we find that the dominant, synodic rotational periodicity is either P₀=11.079±0.009 h or 2P₀=22.158±0.012 h. This is in contrast to data from the 1980s published by others that are consistent with 15.08- and 22.6-h periods. Those periods do not satisfy our phased light curves, and also the 1980s data are not easily reconciled with our periods. This could be due to P/Encke having non-principal axis rotation or due to a drift in the rotation period caused by outgassing torques. We observed the comet at five epochs: July, August, September, and October 2001, and September 2002, and the comet was at times intrinsically brighter than expected for a bare nucleus, due to an apparent contribution from an unresolved coma. Three-quarters of the data were obtained in the second and fifth epochs, and we analyzed these two time series using both the phase-dispersion minimization and “WindowCLEAN” techniques. At both epochs and with both techniques strong periodicities were found near frequencies and . By then using visual inspection of the phased light curves to corroborate these frequencies, and by using the data from the other three epochs to properly align light curve features, we were able to derive P₀ and 2P₀ as the only solutions that satisfy all our observations. The periodicity due to f₁ is clearly seen in our data, but we cannot tell from our data alone whether it is a manifestation of the nucleus's shape, non-principal axis rotation, or both.     

Permeability and degassing of dome lavas undergoing rapid decompression: An experimental determination

The gas permeability of volcanic rocks may influence various eruptive processes. The transition from a quiescent degassing dome to rock failure (fragmentation) may, for example, be controlled by the rocks permeability, in as much as it affects the speed by which a gas overpressure in vesicles is reduced in response to decompression. Using a modified shock-tube-based fragmentation bomb (Alidibirov and Dingwell 1996a,b; Spieler et al. 2003a), we have measured unsteady-state permeability at a high initial pressure differential. Following sudden decompression above the rock cylinder, pressurized gas flows through the sample. Two pressure transducers record the pressure signals above and below the sample. A transient 1D filtration code has been developed to calculate permeability using the experimental decay curve of the lower pressure transducer. Additionally an analytical steady-state method to achieve permeability is presented as an alternative to swiftly predict the sample permeability in a sufficiently precise manner. Over 100 permeability measurements have been performed on samples covering a wide range of porosity. The results show a general positive relationship between porosity and permeability with a high data scatter. Our preferred interpretation of the results is a combination of two different, but overlapping effects. We propose that at low porosities, gas escape occurs predominantly through microcracks or elongated micropores and therefore could be described by simplified forms of Kozeny–Carman relations (Carman 1956) and fracture flow models. At higher porosities, the influence of vesicles becomes progressively stronger as they form an increasingly connected network. Therefore, a model based on the percolation theory of fully penetrable spheres is used, as a first approximation, to describe the permeability-porosity trend. In the data acquired to date it is evident, that in addition to the porosity control, the samples bubble size, shape and distribution strongly influence the permeability. This leads to a range of permeability values up to 2.5 orders of magnitude at a given porosity.     

Imaging of the Structure and Evolution of the Coma Morphology of Comet Hale–Bopp (C/1995 O1)

Imaging of coma morphology of Comet Hale-Bopp from pre-perihelion through perihelion to post-perihelion is presented. Broad band images from 1996 and late 1997 show nearly radial jets streaking out from the nucleus. During both 1996 and late 1997, the brightest jets are approximately in a northern/northeastern direction. The slight curvature present in these radial jets is consistent with radiation pressure effects. Narrow band images around perihelion show two distinctive pictures of the CN and the continuum coma morphology. Spirals are clearly seen in the CN images but not in the continuum where structure is confined to the sunward side. The CN structure is consistent with continuous outgassing of the source of CN from the nucleus during both day and night. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.