Palaeoecology of a Late Weichselian vertebrate fauna from Nmre Lyngby, Denmark

Investigations at a Late Weichselian freshwater basin in northwestern Jutland, Denmark, yielded a fairly rich assemblage of vertebrate remains, mostly bones and teeth of small mammals. The remains are primarily allochthonous and the bones have been subjected to different taphonomic pathways and agents. AMS ¹⁴C-dates on terrestrial organic remains provided ages of Middle to Late Allerød time. Identifications revealed the first fossil record in Scandinavia of Rana arvalis, Sorex minutus, Ochotona cf. pusilla, Microtus gregalis, Microtus oeconomus , and Sicista cf. betulinu. Spermophilus cf. major and Desmana moschata , previously found only once and twice respectively, were retrieved, and Sorex araneus and Arvicola terrestris were recovered for the first time beyond the Atlantic chronozone. Ecologically, the Nørre Lyngby small mammal fauna can be characterized by its very high and almost equal proportions of boreal forest and steppe elements followed by a relatively high proportion of tundra elements. The fossil species share a modern area of sympatry north of the Caspian Sea from the river Volga in the west to the southern and western slopes of the Urals. If, however, the large Allerød mammals are added, the fauna is without modern analogues. The Nørre Lyngby fauna can be seen as a last expansion of the North European glacial fauna. Provided that an absolute chronology and a differentiated sea-level curve for the area can be established, the Nsrre Lyngby fauna could become important for studies in mammalian dispersal and migration rates.     

A Maximum-Entropy Method for Estimating the Spectrum

Based on the maximum-entropy(ME)principle,a new power spectral estimator for random waves is derived in the form of S～(ω)=a/8H~2(2π)~(d 1)ω~-~((d 2))exp[-b(2π/ω)~n],by solving a variational problem subject to some quite general constraints.This robust method is comprehensive enough to describe the wave spectra even in extreme wave conditions and is superior to periodogram method that is not suitable to process comparatively short or intensively unsteady signals for its tremendous boundary effect and some inherent defects of FFT.Fortunately,the newly derived method for spectral estimation works fairly well,even though the sample data sets are very short and unsteady,and the reliability and efficiency of this spectral estimator have been preliminarily proved.     

Interaction of Streamwise and Wall-Normal Velocities in Combined Wave-Current Motion

The aim of this paper is to present an analytical expression for the streamwise velocity distribution in a non-uniform flow in the presence of waves; the correlation between the horizontal and vertical velocity components has been compreheusively examined. Different from previous researches which attributed the deviation of velocity from the classical log-law to the wave Reynolds stress, i.e. - ρ uv^- only, this study demonstrates that the momentum flux caused by mean velocities, i.e., u^- and v^-, is also responsible for the velocity deviation, and it is found that the streamwise velocity for a flow in the presence of non-zero wall-normal velocity does not follow the classical log-law, but the modified log-law proposed in this study based on simplified mixing-length theorem. The validity of the modified log-law has been verified by use of available experimental data from published sources for combined wave-current flows, and good agreement between the predicted and observed velocity profiles has been achieved.     

Effects of Wind Fences on the Wind Environment around Jang Bogo Antarctic Research Station

This study investigated the flow characteristics altered by Jang Bogo Antarctic Research Station using computational fluid dynamics(CFD) modeling. The topography and buildings around Jang Bogo Station were constructed with computeraided-design data in the CFD model domain. We simulated 16 cases with different inflow directions, and compared the flow characteristics with and without Jang Bogo Station for each inflow direction. The wind data recorded by the site's automatic weather station(AWS) were used for comparison. Wind rose analysis showed that the wind speed and direction after the construction of Jang Bogo Station were quite different from those before construction. We also investigated how virtual wind fences would modify the flow patterns, changing the distance of the fence from the station as well as the porosity of the fence. For westerly inflows, when the AWS was downwind of Jang Bogo Station, the decrease in wind speed was maximized(-81% for west-northwesterly). The wind speed reduction was also greater as the distance of the fence was closer to Jang Bogo Station. With the same distance, the fence with medium porosity(25%–33%) maximized the wind speed reduction.These results suggest that the location and material of the wind fence should be selected carefully, or AWS data should be interpreted cautiously, for particular prevailing wind directions.     

Possibility of Solid Hydrometeor Growth Zone Identification Using Radar Spectrum Width

In this study, the correlation between simulated and measured radar velocity spectrum width(σ_v) is investigated. The results show that the dendrites growth zones(DGZs) and needles growth zones(NGZs) mostly contain dendrites(DN) and needles(NE), respectively.Clear σ_v zones(1.1 < σ_v(m s^–1) < 1.3 and 0.3 < σ_v(m s^–1) < 0.7 for the DGZ and NGZ, respectively) could be identified in the case studies(27 and 28 February 2016) n...     

Cambrian Reefs in the Western North China Platform, Wuhai, Inner Mongolia

Mid to late Cambrian thrombolites and maze-like maceriate reefs from the western North China Platform, Wuhai, Inner Mongolia, northwestern China, occur in the middle of a succession dominated by thin-bedded lime mudstone-shale/marlstone alternations, and are laterally surrounded by limestone conglomerate and/or grainstone. Thrombolite, characterized by meter-scale lenticular mounds composed of millimeter- to centimeter-scale mesoclots and wackestone matrix, occurs in the lower middle part of the sequence. Thrombolite mesoclots are composed of microstromatolites with alternating dark gray and light gray micritic laminae. The maze-like maceriate reefs occur in the middle to the upper part of the sequence, commonly forming lenticular mounds up to 1 m thick. They are characterized by centimeter- to decimeter-scale branched maze-like structures, whose biogenic portions (maceria) are selectively dolomitized. The maceriae are composed of poorly preserved microstromatolites and siliceous sponges. Inter-macerial sediments consist of lime mud and scattered bioclasts. These Wuhai reefs are generally similar to but older than various other Cambrian reefs previously reported from the Shandong region, northeastern China.     

The harp seal (Phoca groenlandica Erxleben) in Denmark, southern Scandinavia, during the Holocene

The harp seal ( Phoca groenlandica ) is a low-arctic species that is currently a rare visitor to Danish waters. However, bone remains from archaeological and geological deposits in Denmark and the Baltic Sea testify to a regular presence of harp seals in this region during the mid-Holocene. The paradox of the presence of a low-arctic seal species in southern Scandinavia during the mid-Holocene thermal maximum has been widely discussed. In order to improve the Holocene chronology for the presence of harp seal in Denmark, 24 bone remains of the species were radiocarbon dated. The oldest date is around 4100 cal. yr BC, indicating that the harp seal arrived several millennia after fully marine conditions were established in Danish waters. The majority of the dated specimens fall within two age groups, one centred around 3900 cal. yr BC (11 dates), the other around 2700 cal. yr BC (7 dates). It is argued that these two groups may reflect periods with suitable living conditions for the harp seal in Danish waters and that this is connected with an enhanced inflow of high-salinity North Sea water and higher biological productivity. Six dates show a scattered distribution between c . 1400 cal. yr BC and c . AD 1000, suggesting sporadic visits of the harp seal to Danish waters during the late Holocene.     

Analysis of effects of operating parameters on rate of penetration in drilling process with air down-the-hole hammer

Air down-the-hole(DTH)hammer drilling has long been recognized to have the potential of drilling faster than conventional rotary drill,especially in some hard rocks such as granite,sandstone,limestone,dolomite,etc.with the same weight on bit(WOB)and rotations per minute(RPM).So,it has been widely used in many drilling fields including mineral resource exploration drilling,oil and gas drilling and geothermal drilling.In order to reduce drilling cost by selecting optimal drilling parameters,rate of penetration(ROP)should be estimated accurately and the effects of different factors on ROP should be analyzed.In this research,ANN model with several multi-layer perception back propagation(BP)networks for predicting ROP of air DTH hammer drilling was developed using controllable parameters such as impact energy,impact frequency,WOB,RPM and bit operating time for the formations with a certain drillability index of rock.Several BP neural networks with the different neurons in hidden layers were developed and compared for selecting optimal architecture of ANN.The effects of the drilling parameters such as impact energy,impacting frequency,WOB,RPM and bit operating time on the ROP of air DTH hammer drilling were investigated by trained ANN.From the analyses,the optimum range of drilling parameters for providing high ROP were determined and analyzed for a formation with a certain drillability index of rock.The methodology proposed in this study can be used in many mathematical problems for optimization of drilling process with air DTH hammer.     

Terrestrial ages of meteorites from the Nullarbor region,Australia, based on 14C and 14C–10Be measurements

Abstract– We have investigated the terrestrial ages, or residence times, of 78 meteorites (representing 73 discrete falls) recovered in Western Australia, and one from South Australia, using both ¹⁴C measurements and also ¹⁴C/¹⁰Be. The samples studied included two ureilites, one CK and one EL chondrite. We have included ¹⁰Be measurements from 30 meteorites, including some meteorites for which the ¹⁴C terrestrial age was previously determined. We find that the ¹⁴C/¹⁰Be terrestrial ages are more precise than ¹⁴C alone, as we can correct for shielding effects. In general, the two different age determinations age by ¹⁴C–¹⁰Be are precise to 0.5–1 ka and ¹⁴C alone within 1–2 ka. However, measurement of the ¹⁴C age alone gives good agreement with the ¹⁴C–¹⁰Be for most samples. The study of the terrestrial ages of meteorites gives us useful information concerning the storage and weathering of meteorites and the study of fall times and terrestrial age. We have compared the terrestrial ages to weathering, degree of oxidation (estimated from Mössbauer studies) and Δ¹⁷O. In this study, we found that weathering is not well correlated with terrestrial age for Nullarbor meteorites. However, there is a good correlation between degree of oxidation and Δ¹⁷O. The implications for the study of terrestrial ages and weathering from other desert environments will be discussed.