Shoreline spatial and temporal response to natural and human effects in Boujagh National Park,Iran

Shoreline variation and river deltas are among the most dynamic systems in marine environments. The related different variations in spatial and temporal scales play significant roles in land planning and different management applications. Modeling the dynamics of seashore of Boujagh National Park (BNP) which is located on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea in the Sefidrud Delta (SD), considering natural and anthropogenic factors, was the main objective of the current study. To achieve this goal, a combination of remote sensing data, historical data, and numerical simulations was utilized. The BNP covers an area of 3,270 ha and includes two international wetlands, Boujagh and Kiashahr. In earlier periods, this area faced severe morphological changes whereas recently its shoreline has experienced gradual variations. Accordingly, at the first stage, the shoreline variation from 2006 to 2017 was extracted by processing and classifying Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thematic Mapper (TM) images from Landsat satellites using the Maximum Likelihood approach. In the second stage, the two dimensional MIKE21 model was utilized to identify wave and coastal current patterns and parameters for the year 2015. Morphologically, the results showed that, the shoreline of the BNP is affected by several natural and anthropogenic factors. Seaward advancement of the shoreline occurred in zones A (east zone) and C (west zone) due to Caspian Sea Level drop and sedimentation while retreating occurred at Zone B (north zone) influenced by wave and current patterns and reduction of the Sefidrud River flows. Also, the results imply that maintaining the existing conditions results in the disappearance of a considerable part of the ecological area in the BNP. Hence, to manage and preserve the coastline of the BNP complying with the current anthropogenic and natural factors, it is vital to take necessary management measures.     

Chikyû Bankoku Sankai Yochi Zenzu Setsu: The First Japanese World Map with Latitudes and Longitudes and with an Extensive Japanese Explanatory Note

In the early 1780s, Nagakubo Sekisui, the first Japanese scientific geographer, published a world map containing latitudes and longitudes, based on Matteo Ricci's map of 1602. The map and its extensive explanatory text had a considerable impact on the educated classes of the late Edo Period (1603–1868) toward their new vision of the world. We are providing here an analysis of the map and the first complete English translation of Nagakubo Sekisui's most interesting, long explanatory text.     

Simulation of air storage aquifer by finite element model

A finite element model is developed to simulate the behaviour of an aquifer used as storage space for a compressed air energy storage (CAES) system. The governing equations describing a two-phase flow of air and water are coupled non-linear partial differential equations and are solved by the Galerkin approach. The resulting computer model is applied to a gas percolation problem. Upon verification of the numerical results, the model is employed to simulate the air-water displacement in a storage reservoir during daily air cycling. The corresponding saturation variations and the effects of reservoir permeability on the system are presented. The results obtained are essential in establishing storage design and stability criteria for long-term operation of compressed air energy storage systems.     

PEGASE, an infrared interferometer to study stellar environments and low mass companions around nearby stars

PEGASE is a mission dedicated to the exploration of the environment (including habitable zone) of young and solar-type stars (particularly those in the DARWIN catalogue) and the observation of low mass companions around nearby stars. It is a space interferometer project composed of three free flying spacecraft, respectively featuring two 40 cm siderostats and a beam combiner working in the visible and near infrared. It has been proposed to ESA as an answer to the first “Cosmic Vision” call for proposals, as an M mission. The concept also enables full-scale demonstration of space nulling interferometry operation for DARWIN.

The Carpathian Mountain range and the enclosed interior

The baffling duality of the Carpathian Mountain Range and the Basin it surrounds is briefly discussed. The various attempts at solving the nature of this duality, including plate tectonics with its micro-plates are mentioned. The component ranges of the Carpathians and the structural belts are given, followed by the discussion of the Carpathian Basin System, the Interior, consisting of the Great Hungarian Plain, Transdanubia, the two groups of Central Mountains, also the Apuseni (Bihar) Mountains and the Banat Contact Belt. Economic ore deposits are featured in the relevant sections.     

Geological mapping by geobotanical and geophysical means: a case study from the Bükk Mountains (NE Hungary)

Geological mapping of an unexposed area can be supported by indirect methods. Among these, the use of mushrooms as geobotanical indicators and the shallow-penetration electromagnetic VLF method proved to be useful in the Bükk Mountains. Mushrooms have not been applied to geological mapping before. Common species like Boletus edulis and Leccinum aurantiacum are correlated with siliciclastic and magmatic formations while Calocybe gambosa is correlated with limestone. The validity of this correlation observed in the eastern part of the Bükk Mts. was controlled on a site where there was an indicated (by the mushrooms only) but unexposed occurrence of siliciclastic rocks not mapped before. The extent and structure of this occurrence were explored with the VLF survey and a trial-and-error method was applied for the interpretation. This case study presented here demonstrates the effectiveness of the combination of these relatively simple and inexpensive methods.     

On the origin of silicate-bearing diamondites

Garnets and clinopyroxenes, intergrown with diamonds in 37 diamondites (“bort”, “polycrystalline diamond aggregates”, “polycrystalline diamond”, “framesite”), presumably from southern Africa, were analyzed for trace element contents by LA-ICP-MS. The intimate diamond-silicate intergrowths suggest that both precipitated from the same fluids during the same crystallization events. In this study we distinguish 5 chemical garnet groups: “peridotitic” (P), intermediate (I) and 3 “eclogitic” groups (E1, E2 and E3). Chondrite-normalized trace element patterns for the garnet groups roughly correlate with major element abundances. Most of P garnets show complex, mildly sinusoidal REE_N patterns with relatively flat HREE_N-MREE_N, a small hump at Sm-Nd and depleted LREE_N, and have relatively high contents of Nb, Ta, U, and Th. The REE_N abundance patterns of E garnets differ by showing a continuous increase from LREE to HREE and depletion in LREE and highly incompatible elements relative to the P garnets. Of all garnet groups, E3 garnets are the poorest in highly incompatible trace elements and in Mg. Model equilibrium fluids for P garnets suggest crystallization from magnesian carbonate-bearing fluids/melts, which were very rich in incompatible trace elements — similar to kimberlites. Hypothetical equilibrium melts for E1 and E2 garnets are also magnesian and poorer in LREE and highly incompatible elements relative to typical kimberlitic or carbonatitic melts. Fluids that crystallized the P and most of the E garnets have similar mg numbers indicating a peridotitic source for both. The differences in Cr and highly incompatible element contents can be the result of differences in fluid formation and/or evolution rather than different source rock. The positive correlation of Cr₂O₃ and mg with the abundances of highly incompatible elements in garnets indicate fluid-rock fractionation processes rather than igneous fractional crystallization processes being responsible for the evolution of the diamondite-forming fluids.     

Evolution of the Archean crust in Finland

An Archean age for Finnish rocks in the range 2500–3000 Ma has been determined north of the NW-striking Ladoga—Raahe shear belt. The Archean may be divided into two main units: the granitoid association and the greenstone-belt association. The complex is characterized by stockwork tectonics. The granitoid association forms the basement infrastructure and the greenston-belt association forms the suprastructure which is present in synforms between granitoid diapirs. The infrastructure has been subjected to ultrametamorphism, and the second and third generation palingenetic magmas so formed have intruded the suprastructure. The granitoid association contains widespread migmatized relicts of the greenstone-belt association, indicating that the latter originally covered much larger areas, but the granitoids are also thought to be partly transformed primitive ensialic crust on which rocks of the greenstone-belt association were deposited. The Archean rocks have been deformed in at least four subsequent phases, of which part developed in Proterozoic time. The youngest deformation is the overthrust of the granulite belt of Lapland towards SSW. NWSE striking transcurrent faults played a major role in Proterozoic time and affected cratonized Archean crust. On the whole the greenstone belts in eastern and northern Finland form a NNW-trending zone 750 km long. On a geochemical basis the volcanic rocks of the greenstone belts can be divided into two groups: tholeiites with a low potassium content and extremely low aluminium content and a calc-alkalic group with some alkalic affinities.     

Magnetotactic bacteria and their magnetofossils in sediments

Living magnetotactic bacteria from freshwater environments show, under natural and laboratory conditions, a great variety of morphological appearances. Their magnetosomes vary in number, shape, and size. One species of bacteria yields up to 1000 magnetosomes per cell. Individual particles reach a size of up to 200 nm. As a rule, they form elongated chains. In bacteria which are held under laboratory conditions, loop-shaped arrangements and nearly unordered clusters are also found. During the laboratory experiments, different species of bacteria periodically dominated. Freshwater samples always exhibited a great variety of different magnetosomes. On the other hand, samples from marine environment clearly showed the preponderance of one type of particle. These observations may reflect specific properties of the physico-chemical milieu in which the bacteria grew. At the end of our experiments north- and south-seeking bacteria co-existed in roughly equal quantities.Quaternary unconsolidated sediments from the Ammersee (Bavaria) and the Antarctic, Quaternary to Tertiary deep-sea sediments from the Atlantic and Pacific, and Jurassic limestones from the Sonnwendgebirge (Tyrol, Austria) were analyzed for fossil magnetosomes. We found that fossil magnetosomes were morphologically similar to those from living bacteria, but seemed to be corroded in some cases.The observed differences in quantity, size and shape of magnetosomes from various sediments may be influenced by variations in bacterial viability and particle stability at different sites, but are not determined by geographical latitude.     

Flow toward periodic tile drains

The method of conformal mapping is applied to the analysis of transient flow toward parallel periodic drains in a semi-infinite aquifer taking into consideration the non-linear boundary conditions on the free surface. The mapping function is expressed as a power series in time and the seepage domain is mapped onto a domain of an auxiliary complex variable. Mapping is performed in such a manner that the free surface will always remain the real axis. Calculations are carried out for different ratios of drain depth to drain spacing using various drain diameter to depth ratios.