A Middle Devensian woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) from Whitemoor Haye Quarry,Staffordshire (UK): palaeoenvironmental context and significance

This paper reports the discovery of a rare partial skeleton of a woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis Blumenbach, 1799) and associated fauna from a low Pleistocene terrace of the River Tame at Whitemoor Haye, Staffordshire, UK. A study of the sedimentary deposits around the rhino skeleton and associated organic‐rich clasts containing pollen, plant and arthropod remains suggests that the animal was rapidly buried on a braided river floodplain surrounded by a predominantly treeless, herb‐rich grassland. Highlights of the study include the oldest British chironomid record published to date and novel analysis of the palaeoflow regime using caddisfly remains. For the first time, comparative calculations of coleopteran and chironomid palaeotemperatures have been made on the same samples, suggesting a mean July temperature of 8–11 °C and a mean December temperature of between ?22 and ?16 °C. Radiocarbon age estimates on skeletal material, supported by optically stimulated luminescence ages from surrounding sediments, indicate that the rhino lived around 41–43 k cal a BP. The combined geochronological, stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental evidence places the assemblage firmly within the Middle Devensian (Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 3). This would agree with other regional evidence for the timing of aggradation for the lowest terrace of the Trent and its tributary systems. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Marie Stopes: passionate about palaeobotany

Marie Stopes (1880–1958) was one of the most flamboyant and influential figures of the early twentieth century. In addition to her well-known work on birth control, she wrote a controversial sex manual for women, and produced numerous novels, plays and works of poetry. She is also remembered as a passionate advocate of eugenics, courting the architects of the Third Reich, and was identified, in some circles, as a threat to empire and country. But geology, and specifically palaeobotany, was her first love and indeed her life's most enduring passion. Although Stopes's life has been thoroughly dissected in four biographies, her geological career has been overshadowed by her later work. This is unfortunate, because she made major contributions to palaeobotany and coal research, and her scientific career, like her humanitarian endeavours, makes fascinating reading.     

The Heliospheric Imagers Onboard the STEREO Mission

Mounted on the sides of two widely separated spacecraft, the two Heliospheric Imager (HI) instruments onboard NASA’s STEREO mission view, for the first time, the space between the Sun and Earth. These instruments are wide-angle visible-light imagers that incorporate sufficient baffling to eliminate scattered light to the extent that the passage of solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) through the heliosphere can be detected. Each HI instrument comprises two cameras, HI-1 and HI-2, which have 20° and 70° fields of view and are off-pointed from the Sun direction by 14.0° and 53.7°, respectively, with their optical axes aligned in the ecliptic plane. This arrangement provides coverage over solar elongation angles from 4.0° to 88.7° at the viewpoints of the two spacecraft, thereby allowing the observation of Earth-directed CMEs along the Sun?–?Earth line to the vicinity of the Earth and beyond. Given the two separated platforms, this also presents the first opportunity to view the structure and evolution of CMEs in three dimensions. The STEREO spacecraft were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in late October 2006, and the HI instruments have been performing scientific observations since early 2007. The design, development, manufacture, and calibration of these unique instruments are reviewed in this paper. Mission operations, including the initial commissioning phase and the science operations phase, are described. Data processing and analysis procedures are briefly discussed, and ground-test results and in-orbit observations are used to demonstrate that the performance of the instruments meets the original scientific requirements.     

The role of glacio-isostasy in the formation of post-glacial river terraces in relation to the MIS 2 ice limit: evidence from northern England

In recent years it has been demonstrated that the formation of long-timescale river terrace sequences, which are generally found in areas beyond the extent of most if not all of the Middle and Late Pleistocene ice sheets, has invariably been a response to uplift during the Late Cenozoic and especially the Quaternary. Climatic fluctuation at a Milankovitch timescale has driven the alternations of aggradation and incision recorded in such terraces. It has been widely observed, however, that fluvial terraces also occur in areas glaciated during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), which coincides with marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 2. This paper, in seeking to compare records from inside and outside of the LGM ice limit, concentrates on a single English river system, that of the Humber. The Humber estuary is shared by the largely Pennine-derived drainage of the Yorkshire Ouse, to the north and entirely within the MIS 2 glacial limit, and, to the south, the Trent, which is almost wholly outside the LGM limit. Thus the Trent has a terrace sequence extending back to the Middle Pleistocene, whereas in the component rivers of the Ouse system, records begin with the melting of the last glacial ice. Importantly, there is considerable difference in the disposition of the post-LGM fluvial deposits in these two subsystems. In the Ouse system there are modest terrace staircases, commencing with full glacial deposits that stand up to 30 m above the modern floodplain. In the Trent, in contrast, last glacial gravels form the foundation of the modern floodplain, with Holocene sediments emplaced directly above them. Thus there is little or no post-LGM incision in the Trent, whereas in the Ouse several incision events are recorded, continuing into the later stages of the Holocene. Wider comparison reveals that the Ouse system is an exemplar for other sequences within the MIS 2 limit, whereas systems beyond this glaciation typically have last glacial sediments beneath their modern floodplains and show little evidence of Holocene incision. The various possible explanations of these differences are discussed, with emphasis placed on glacio-isostatic uplift of areas glaciated during MIS 2 as the main reason for the significant post-glacial incision that typifies valleys in such regions. A new approach to modelling glacio-isostatic adjustment is outlined, from which it is concluded that lower-crustal flow plays a significant role in this process in regions of relatively hot and dynamic crust, like northern England, in addition to the mantle flow that is considered in conventional analyses of glacio-isostasy. Lower-crustal flow has a significant effect due to the combination of the small spatial scale of the glaciated region of northern England and the high mobility of the lower-crustal layer beneath it, due to the heating effect of the widespread Palaeozoic granite in the area.     

Examining Periodic Solar-Wind Density Structures Observed in the SECCHI <Emphasis Type="Italic">Heliospheric Imagers</Emphasis>

We present an analysis of small-scale, periodic, solar-wind density enhancements (length scales as small as ≈ 1000 Mm) observed in images from the Heliospheric Imager (HI) aboard STEREO-A. We discuss their possible relationship to periodic fluctuations of the proton density that have been identified at 1 AU using in-situ plasma measurements. Specifically, Viall, Kepko, and Spence (J. Geophys. Res. 113, A07101, 2008) examined 11 years of in-situ solar-wind density measurements at 1 AU and demonstrated that not only turbulent structures, but also nonturbulent, periodic density structures exist in the solar wind with scale sizes of hundreds to one thousand Mm. In a subsequent paper, Viall, Spence, and Kasper (Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, L23102, 2009) analyzed the α-to-proton solar-wind abundance ratio measured during one such event of periodic density structures, demonstrating that the plasma behavior was highly suggestive that either temporally or spatially varying coronal source plasma created those density structures. Large periodic density structures observed at 1 AU, which were generated in the corona, can be observable in coronal and heliospheric white-light images if they possess sufficiently high density contrast. Indeed, we identify such periodic density structures as they enter the HI field of view and follow them as they advect with the solar wind through the images. The smaller, periodic density structures that we identify in the images are comparable in size to the larger structures analyzed in-situ at 1 AU, yielding further evidence that periodic density enhancements are a consequence of coronal activity as the solar wind is formed.     

Performance assessment of a GCM land surface scheme using a fine‐scale calibrated hydrological model: an evaluation of MOSES for the Nile Basin

Land surface schemes (LSSs) represent the interface between land surface and the atmosphere in general circulation models (GCMs). Errors in LSS‐simulated heat and moisture fluxes can result from inadequate representation of hydrological features and the derivation of effective surface parameters for large heterogeneous GCM gridboxes from small‐scale observations. Previous assessments of LSS performance have generally compared simulated heat and moisture fluxes to observations over a defined experimental domain for a limited period. A different approach has been evaluated in this study, which uses a fine‐resolution calibrated hydrological model of the study basin to provide a quasi‐observed runoff series for direct comparison with simulated runoff from a selected LSS at GCM scale. The approach is tested on two GCM gridboxes covering two contrasting regions within the Nile Basin. Performance is mixed; output from the LSS is generally compatible with that of the fine‐resolution model for one gridbox while it cannot reproduce the runoff dynamics for the other. The results also demonstrate the high sensitivity of runoff and evapotranspiration to radiation and precipitation inputs and show the importance of subtle issues such as temporal disaggregation of climatic inputs. We conclude that the use of a fine‐resolution calibrated model to evaluate a LSS has several advantages, can be generalized to other areas to improve the performance of global models and provides useful data that can be used to constrain LSS parameterizations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of heterogeneity and field-scale groundwater flow regime in a leaky till aquitard

Recent work in southern Ontario, Canada, demonstrates anomalously high vertical groundwater flow velocities (>1 m/year) through a thick (as much as 60 m), sandy silt till aquitard (Northern till), previously assumed to be of very low permeability (hydraulic conductivity <10^–10 m/s). Rapid recharge is attributed to the presence of fractures and sedimentary heterogeneities within the till, but the field-scale flow regime is poorly understood. This study identifies the nature of physical groundwater pathways through the till and provides estimates of the associated groundwater fluxes. The aquitard groundwater flow system is characterized by integrating details of the outcrop and subsurface sedimentary characteristics of the till with field-based hydrogeologic investigation and numerical modeling. Outcrop and subsurface data identify a composite internal aquitard stratigraphy consisting of tabular till beds (till elements) separated by laterally continuous sheet-like sands and gravels (interbeds) and boulder pavements. Individual till elements contain sedimentary heterogeneities, including discontinuous sand and gravel lenses, vertical sand dikes, and zones of horizontal and vertical fractures. Hydrogeologic field investigations indicate a three-layer aquitard flow system, consisting of upper and lower zones of more hydraulically active and heterogeneous till separated by a middle unit of relatively lower hydraulic conductivity. Groundwater pathways and fluxes in the till were evaluated using a two-dimensional aquitard/aquifer flow model which indicates a step-wise flow mechanism whereby groundwater moves alternately downward along vertical pathways (fractures, sedimentary dikes) and laterally along horizontal sand interbeds within the till. This model is consistent with observed hydraulic-head and isotope profiles, and the presence of tritiated pore waters at various depths throughout the till. Simulations suggest that a bulk aquitard vertical hydraulic conductivity on the order of 1×10^–9 m/s is required to reproduce observed hydraulic-head and tritium profiles. Electronic Publication     

A model for phlogopite development in low magnesium rocks

Phlogopites containing anomalously high values of Zn, Mn and Li have been identified in low-magnesium feldspathic schists and quartzites from the Precambrian of northern New Mexico. The phlogopite is volumetrically minor (<2%) and coexists with muscovite. The presence of hematite and piemontite in the phlogopite-bearing samples indicates high oxidizing conditions, but their presence in phlogopite-free mica schists nearby demonstrates that high fo₂ is insufficient to account for the phlogopite occurrences. A model for phlogopite development is presented which is based upon (1) high fo₂ conditions, (2) limited H⁺ during metamorphism, and (3) early mobilization of Mg (and Zn, Mn, Li) during incipient metamorphism. The absence of phlogopite in associated rocks which refect high fo₂ conditions is due to the larger amount of H⁺ available during metamorphism, resulting in the development of abundant muscovite rather than rare phlogopite.     

Generation of hazard-consistent fragility curves

This paper presents an analytical method for generating fragility curves of structures. In the proposed method, seismic sources, path attenuation, local soil conditions, and nonlinear building behavior are systematically considered. The uncertainties in the earthquake-site-structure system are quantified by considering the uncertainties in the seismic, site, and structural parameters that define the system. For an illustration, the proposed method is used to generate fragility curves and a damge probability matrix for Smith Hall on the main campus of The University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee.