Seepage of methane at Jaco Scar,a slide caused by seamount subduction offshore Costa Rica

Methane (CH₄) concentrations and CH₄ stable carbon isotopic composition ( \( \delta^{13} {\text{C}}_{{{\text{CH}}_{4} }} \) ) were investigated in the water column within Jaco Scar. It is one of several scars formed by massive slides resulting from the subduction of seamounts offshore Costa Rica, a process that can open up structural and stratigraphical pathways for migrating CH₄. The release of large amounts of CH₄ into the adjacent water column was discovered at the outcropping lowermost sedimentary sequence of the hanging wall in the northwest corner of Jaco Scar, where concentrations reached up to 1,500 nmol L^?1. There CH₄-rich fluids seeping from the sedimentary sequence stimulate both growth and activity of a dense chemosynthetic community. Additional point sources supplying CH₄ at lower concentrations were identified in density layers above and below the main plume from light carbon isotope ratios. The injected CH₄ is most likely a mixture of microbial and thermogenic CH₄ as suggested by \( \delta^{13} {\text{C}}_{{{\text{CH}}_{4} }} \) values between ?50 and ?62 ‰ Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite. This CH₄ spreads along isopycnal surfaces throughout the whole area of the scar, and the concentrations decrease due to mixing with ocean water and microbial oxidation. The supply of CH₄ appears to be persistent as repeatedly high CH₄ concentrations were found within the scar over 6 years. The maximum CH₄ concentration and average excess CH₄ concentration at Jaco Scar indicate that CH₄ seepage from scars might be as significant as seepage from other tectonic structures in the marine realm. Hence, taking into account the global abundance of scars, such structures might constitute a substantial, hitherto unconsidered contribution to natural CH₄ sources at the seafloor.     

A bimillennial-length tree-ring reconstruction of precipitation for the Tavaputs Plateau, Northeastern Utah

Despite the extensive network of moisture-sensitive tree-ring chronologies in western North America, relatively few are long enough to document climatic variability before and during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) ca. AD 800-1300. We developed a 2300-yr tree-ring chronology extending to 323 BC utilizing live and remnant Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) from the Tavaputs Plateau in northeastern Utah. A resulting regression model accounts for 70% of the variance of precipitation for the AD 1918-2005 calibration period. Extreme wet and dry periods without modern analogues were identified in the reconstruction. The MCA is marked by several prolonged droughts, especially prominent in the mid AD 1100s and late 1200s, and a lack of wet or dry single-year extremes. The frequency of extended droughts is not markedly different, however, than before or after the MCA. A drought in the early AD 500s surpasses in magnitude any other drought during the last 1800 yr. A set of four long high-resolution records suggests this drought decreased in severity toward the south in the western United States. The spatial pattern is consistent with the western dipole of moisture anomaly driven by El Niño and is also similar to the spatial footprint of the AD 1930s “Dust Bowl” drought.     

Ground-based visible and near-IR observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 during the Deep Impact encounter

We present the results of our visible and near-IR observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 during the Deep Impact encounter. The comet was observed before, during, and after impact from Kitt Peak National Observatory (J, H, K) and Observatorio Astronómico Nacional-San Pedro Mártir, Mexico (B, V, R, I). High time-resolution images in R, J, H, and K the night of impact with a 3^.″5 radius aperture revealed a rapid brightening which had multiple slopes and lasted for approximately 25 min before leveling off. The brightness decreased on subsequent nights and returned to near pre-impact levels by July 8 UT. The R-J, R-H, R-K, J-H, J-K, and H-K colors became bluer the night of impact. The R-J, R-H, and R-K colors remained blue on the night after impact while the J-H, J-K, and H-K colors returned to baseline levels. The observed color changes suggest the bluening was due to an increase in small grains relative to the ambient coma, an increase in ice relative to refractory dust in the coma, or a combination of the two. The ejecta were initially directed towards the southwest but had been driven southeast by solar radiation pressure by the second night after impact. The mean projected ejecta velocity was estimated at 0.20-0.23 km s⁻¹ over the first 24 h after impact.     

A Parkes radio telescope study of giant pulses from PSR J1823–3021A

We report on 685-MHz observations of PSR J1823–3021A using the Parkes radio telescope. A total of 120 giant pulses (GPs) were found by searching for spiky emission at 16-μs time resolution. The energies of these pulses follow a power law that has a very steep exponent of −3.1. This means that the emission mechanism that gives rise to the GPs almost always produces pulses that only have moderate energies. The profile formed by adding all the GPs has components that are narrower and more widely separated than the profile formed from all pulses. Aberration and retardation of emission from a corotating volume mean that components emitted at high altitude will have asymmetric phases compared to those emitted at low altitude. By assuming that the components of the pulse profile form conal pairs, we use this effect to limit the GPs to be emitted no higher than 4 km above ordinary emission. The arrival times of the GPs are well modelled by Poisson statistics at time-scales around 100 s. We report a GP with spikes of emission at the phases of both components. The probability of two independent GPs occurring within a single pulse period is     , so an interpretation can be conjectured that the two pulses are not independent. This may mean that the magnetosphere can remain in a state that is susceptible to discrete 'giant' emission events for as long as 2 ms.     

Spatial processing of signals received by platform mounted sonar

Acoustic signals received by platform mounted sonar arrays can be spatially processed to enhance the detection of targets in the presence of both ambient and platform generated (self) noise. Ambient noise in the ocean, such as that due to distant shipping or biological choruses, are known to be spatially correlated. The platform generated noise will be of near-field origin and may not be received by all elements in the array. In this paper we investigate the performance of the minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer and the recently introduced Fourier integral method (FIM) and compare their performances with the conventional beamformer. Real passive sonar data, obtained from a platform mounted sparse linear array of hydrophones, is used to study the performance of the beamformers in a typical sonar environment. It is shown that in the absence of self noise, when the array is accurately calibrated the MVDR beamformer will perform very well, but when sensor gain or phase errors are present the performance of the MVDR beamformer is degraded. Further, the MVDR beamformer is unable to reject the self noise which is not "seen" by the entire array. FIM however seems to perform well and a modified version of FIM, which we call weighted FIM (WFIM), is shown to perform better and is at worst comparable to a well calibrated MVDR beamformer     

Inertial currents in the northern North sea

Current profiles were measured in the northern North Sea during the autumnal breakdown of stratification (September and October) in 1998. The site was in 110 m of water and the depth-averaged M₂ tidal current amplitudes were about 0.15 m s⁻¹. The surface and bed mixed layers were initially well separated. The measurements were made principally with Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP) which gave good coverage of the majority of the water column.During a two-month period several episodes of inertial currents were observed, exhibiting a range of responses some of which corresponded very closely to that predicted by theory. The structure of the inertial currents was primarily first mode baroclinic, with no inertial energy in the depth-averaged current. This implies that the currents in the lower layer are strongly linked to those in the surface layer and also that dissipation could be generated by bed friction, but the nature of the link is unclear. The level of least motion coincided with the thermocline. Since the currents in the upper and lower layers are 180° out of phase, large shears can occur across the thermocline; occasionally the bulk Richardson number determined with a four-metre vertical resolution was less than one.Turbulence measurements suggest that when large inertial current shears are present across the thermocline, which exceed the buoyancy frequencies, then mixing within and across the thermocline is significant. Future experiments should concentrate on enhanced dissipation measurements around the thermocline and higher spatial resolution time series measurements of current and density.     

Mg and Si isotopic fractionation patterns in types B1 and B2 CAIs: Implications for formation under different nebular conditions

Magnesium and silicon isotopic profiles across melilite grains in two type B1 and two type B2 calcium‐aluminum‐rich inclusions (CAIs) reveal differing but constant enrichments in heavy isotopes everywhere except ≤1000 μm from the CAI margins. There is no close correlation in the B1s or the B2s between isotopic composition and åkermanite content of the melilite, a measure of progressive igneous crystallization, yet such a correlation might be expected in a type B2: without a melilite mantle (as in B1s) to seal the interior off and prevent further evaporation, the melt would have maintained communication with the external gas. These observations indicate a model in which B1s and B2s solidified under differing conditions. The B2s solidified under lower hydrogen pressures ( ≤ 10^?4 – 10^?5 bars) than did B1s ( > 10^?4 bars), so surface volatilization was slower in the B2s and internal chemical and isotopic equilibrium was maintained over the interval of melilite crystallization. The outermost zones of the CAIs (≤1000 μm from the edge) are not consistently enriched in heavy isotopes relative to the interiors, as might be expected from diffusion‐limited surface evaporation of the melt. In all cases, the magnesium in the CAI margins is lighter than in the interiors. In one case, silicon in the margin also is lighter, but locally in some CAIs, it is isotopically heavier near the surface. If melt evaporation played a role in the formation of these outer zones, a later event in many cases caused isotopic re‐equilibration with an external and isotopically near‐normal reservoir.     

Calibrating a Salt Water Intrusion Model with Time‐Domain Electromagnetic Data

Salt water intrusion models are commonly used to support groundwater resource management in coastal aquifers. Concentration data used for model calibration are often sparse and limited in spatial extent. With airborne and ground‐based electromagnetic surveys, electrical resistivity models can be obtained to provide high‐resolution three‐dimensional models of subsurface resistivity variations that can be related to geology and salt concentrations on a regional scale. Several previous studies have calibrated salt water intrusion models with geophysical data, but are typically limited to the use of the inverted electrical resistivity models without considering the measured geophysical data directly. This induces a number of errors related to inconsistent scales between the geophysical and hydrologic models and the applied regularization constraints in the geophysical inversion. To overcome these errors, we perform a coupled hydrogeophysical inversion (CHI) in which we use a salt water intrusion model to interpret the geophysical data and guide the geophysical inversion. We refer to this methodology as a Coupled Hydrogeophysical Inversion‐State (CHI‐S), in which simulated salt concentrations are transformed to an electrical resistivity model, after which a geophysical forward response is calculated and compared with the measured geophysical data. This approach was applied for a field site in Santa Cruz County, California, where a time‐domain electromagnetic (TDEM) dataset was collected. For this location, a simple two‐dimensional cross‐sectional salt water intrusion model was developed, for which we estimated five uniform aquifer properties, incorporating the porosity that was also part of the employed petrophysical relationship. In addition, one geophysical parameter was estimated. The six parameters could be resolved well by fitting more than 300 apparent resistivities that were comprised by the TDEM dataset. Except for three sounding locations, all the TDEM data could be fitted close to a root‐mean‐square error of 1. Possible explanations for the poor fit of these soundings are the assumption of spatial uniformity, fixed boundary conditions and the neglecting of 3D effects in the groundwater model and the TDEM forward responses.     

Electrical Resistivity Imaging of Seawater Intrusion into the Monterey Bay Aquifer System

We use electrical resistivity tomography to obtain a 6.8‐km electrical resistivity image to a depth of approximately 150 m.b.s.l. along the coast of Monterey Bay. The resulting image is used to determine the subsurface distribution of saltwater‐ and freshwater‐saturated sediments and the geologic controls on fluid distributions in the region. Data acquisition took place over two field seasons in 2011 and 2012. To maximize our ability to image both vertical and horizontal variations in the subsurface, a combination of dipole–dipole, Wenner, Wenner‐gamma, and gradient measurements were made, resulting in a large final dataset of approximately 139,000 data points. The resulting resistivity section extends to a depth of 150 m.b.s.l., and is used, in conjunction with the gamma logs from four coastal monitoring wells to identify four dominant lithologic units. From these data, we are able to infer the existence of a contiguous clay layer in the southern portion of our transect, which prevents downward migration of the saltwater observed in the upper 25 m of the subsurface to the underlying freshwater aquifer. The saltwater and brackish water in the northern portion of the transect introduce the potential for seawater intrusion into the hydraulically connected freshwater aquifer to the south, not just from the ocean, but also laterally from north to south.     

The thermal expansion and crystal structure of mirabilite (Na<Subscript>2</Subscript>SO<Subscript>4</Subscript>·10D<Subscript>2</Subscript>O) from 4.2 to 300 K,determined by time-of-flight neutron powder diffraction

We have collected high resolution neutron powder diffraction patterns from Na₂SO₄·10D₂O over the temperature range 4.2–300 K following rapid quenching in liquid nitrogen, and over a series of slow warming and cooling cycles. The crystal is monoclinic, space-group P2₁/c (Z = 4) with a = 11.44214(4) Å, b = 10.34276(4) Å, c = 12.75486(6) Å, β = 107.847(1)°, and V = 1436.794(8) Å³ at 4.2 K (slowly cooled), and a = 11.51472(6) Å, b = 10.36495(6) Å, c = 12.84651(7) Å, β = 107.7543(1)°, V = 1460.20(1) Å³ at 300 K. Structures were refined to R _P (Rietveld powder residual, \( R_{P} = {{\sum {\left| {I_{\text{obs}} - I_{\text{calc}} } \right|} } \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\sum {\left| {I_{\text{obs}} - I_{\text{calc}} } \right|} } {\sum {I_{\text{obs}} } }}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {\sum {I_{\text{obs}} } }} \)) better than 2.5% at 4.2 K (quenched and slow cooled), 150 and 300 K. The sulfate disorder observed previously by Levy and Lisensky (Acta Cryst B34:3502–3510, 1978) was not present in our specimen, but we did observe changes with temperature in deuteron occupancies of the orientationally disordered water molecules coordinated to Na. The temperature dependence of the unit-cell volume from 4.2 to 300 K is well represented by a simple polynomial of the form V = ? 4.143(1) × 10^?7 T ³ + 0.00047(2) T² ? 0.027(2) T + 1437.0(1) Å³ (R ² = 99.98%). The coefficient of volume thermal expansion, α _V , is positive above 40 K, and displays a similar magnitude and temperature dependence to α _V in deuterated epsomite and meridianiite. The relationship between the magnitude and orientation of the principal axes of the thermal expansion tensor and the main structural elements are discussed; freezing in of deuteron disorder in the quenched specimen affects the thermal expansion, manifested most obviously as a change in the behaviour of the unit-cell parameter β.