A generalized geo-hazard warning system

An automated geo-hazard warning system is the need of the hour. It is integration of automation in hazard evaluation and warning communication. The primary objective of this paper is to explain a geo-hazard warning system based on Internet-resident concept and available cellular mobile infrastructure that makes use of geo-spatial data. The functionality of the system is modular in architecture having input, understanding, expert, output and warning modules. Thus, the system provides flexibility in integration between different types of hazard evaluation and communication systems leading to a generalized hazard warning system. The developed system has been validated for landslide hazard in Indian conditions. It has been realized through utilization of landslide causative factors, rainfall forecast from NASA??s TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) and knowledge base of landslide hazard intensity map and invokes the warning as warranted. The system evaluated hazard commensurate with expert evaluation within 5?C6?% variability, and the warning message permeability has been found to be virtually instantaneous, with a maximum time lag recorded as 50?s, minimum of 10?s. So it could be concluded that a novel and stand-alone system for dynamic hazard warning has been developed and implemented. Such a handy system could be very useful in a densely populated country where people are unaware of the impending hazard.     

Archean regional transpression and paleomagnetism in northwestern Ontario, Canada

The Archean metamorphic rocks of the Superior province of the Canadian Shield occur in lithologically defined belts or subprovinces. The tectonically more stable interiors of belts possess consistent primary components of magnetic remanence. In the case of the Quetico belt, these stable directions are tightly grouped about 005°/55° with some minor dispersion and most were acquired during the cooling that followed syntectonic recrystallisation.

This study examines the directions of primary remanence components for rocks along the margins of the Quetico belt, within 4 km of the strongly deformed vertical, ENE-trending boundaries. The boundaries are known to have experienced dextral transpression involving penetrative single-phase deformation which out-lasted metamorphism. Within a few kilometres of the belt boundaries, the primary remanence components are re-distributed along a vertical ENE-trending, great-circle girdle which is nearly parallel to the plane of transpressive shear and regional schistosity. It is suggested that the effects of transpression have mechanically deflected the components of primary remanence toward this plane.     

Morphosedimentary features and recent depositional architectural model of the Cantabrian continental margin

Multibeam bathymetry, high (sleeve airguns) and very high resolution (parametric system-TOPAS-) seismic records were used to define the morphosedimentary features and investigate the depositional architecture of the Cantabrian continental margin. The outer shelf (down to 180–245 m water depth) displays an intensively eroded seafloor surface that truncates consolidated ancient folded and fractured deposits. Recent deposits are only locally present as lowstand shelf-margin deposits and a transparent drape with bedforms. The continental slope is affected by sedimentary processes that have combined to create the morphosedimentary features seen today. The upper (down to 2000 m water depth) and lower (down to 3700–4600 m water depth) slopes are mostly subject to different types of slope failures, such as slides, mass-transport deposits (a mix of slumping and mass-flows), and turbidity currents. The upper slope is also subject to the action of bottom currents (the Mediterranean Water — MW) that interact with the Le Danois Bank favouring the reworking of the sediment and the sculpting of a contourite system. The continental rise is a bypass region of debris flows and turbidity currents where a complex channel-lobe transition zone (CLTZ) of the Cap Ferret Fan develops.The recent architecture depositional model is complex and results from the remaining structural template and the great variability of interconnected sedimentary systems and processes. This margin can be considered as starved due to the great sediment evacuation over a relatively steep entire depositional profile. Sediment is eroded mostly from the Cantabrian and also the Pyrenees mountains (source) and transported by small stream/river mountains to the sea. It bypasses the continental shelf and when sediment arrives at the slope it is transported through a major submarine drainage system (large submarine valleys and mass-movement processes) down to the continental rise and adjacent Biscay Abyssal Plain (sink). Factors controlling this architecture are tectonism and sediment source/dispersal, which are closely interrelated, whereas sea-level changes and oceanography have played a minor role (on a long-term scale).     

Dissociative excitation of SO2 by controlled electron impact

The fragmentation of SO₂ following dissociative electron impact excitation has been studied under single collision conditions for incident electron energies up to 500 eV. The emission spectrum in the far v.u.v. spectral range (450–1100Å) shows many features arising from excited neutral oxygen and ionized oxygen and sulphur fragments. Absolute emission cross sections have been measured for the most intense lines and the maximum values were found to range from 1–12 × 10^?19 cm² with an uncertainty of approx. ± 35%. Dissociation mechanisms are discussed and in some cases the dissociation path could be uniquely identified. The striking differences between the v.u.v. emission spectrum produced by single step dissociation of SO₂ and the spectra emitted by the plasma torus around Jupiter are discussed.     

An atlas of the optical spectrum of supernova 1987A in the large magellanic cloud

Photographic spectra of SN1987A in the LMC have been obtained from 1987 February 25 to 1988 June 30. Microdensitometer tracings of these have been reduced to intensity and corrections for instrumental response have been applied to the spectra. This paper presents these data in an atlas format, discusses the reduction procedures in detail, and presents radial velocity measurements of selected lines in the spectra     

The 'Grasses' of the Big Scrub District of North-eastern New South Wales: A sedimentary record of late Holocene grasslands in a subtropical forest landscape

This paper records sedimentary data which indicate that at least part of the Wilsons River floodplain, on the margins of the subtropical rainforest known as the 'Big Scrub', has a long and certainly pre-European history of relative treelessness. Despite a general presumption that this lowland subtropical region was completely forested prior to European settlement, recent historical research has indicated that certain areas were naturally open. While the historical information is clear, the data reported here-a fossil pollen record and one radiocarbon date- reinforces that information for one type of locality, providing an initial indication of time depth.     

Integrated geophysics and soil gas profiles as a tool to characterize active faults: the Amer fault example (Pyrenees, NE Spain)

The combined use of geophysical and soil gas composition exploration methods allows to rapidly obtain at relative low cost information that might be related to seismic activity conditions. In this study, we carried out geochemical soil gas sampling (²²²Rn, ²²⁰Rn and CO₂), electrical resistivity tomography and seismic refraction profiles in two selected zones near the town of Amer in the Spanish Pyrenees, where the presence of recent fractures is evident in the field. Data analysis clearly reveals anomalous values for each gas at specific positions along the electrical imaging transects. Geomorphologic and hydrogeologic data and the integration of geophysical data and soil gas measurements indicate that: (1) endogene gases radon (²²²Rn) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) are released from the meta-sedimentary basement rocks across the main fractured zones with higher permeability values, while lower Cenozoic detrital sedimentary formations act as an impervious boundary; (2) sites with highest radon concentrations (52?kBq?m^?3) coincide with the zones in the Amer fault showing more recent geomorphic evidence of activity, and more specifically with those areas covered by thinner surficial formations; (3) the lowest ²²²Rn values (0.2?C0.4?kBq?m^?3) were recorded just on the master active fault plane. This pattern could be explained by a dilution effect resulting from high rates of soil CO₂ efflux (267?g?m^?2?day^?1); (4) soil thoron (²²⁰Rn) activity is maximum (143?kBq?m^?3) in areas with high surficial fracturing; (5) groundwater pumping may cause important distortions in the natural flow dynamics and in the measured concentrations of gases. The agreement between the different data (geochemical, geophysical, and hydrogeological) and field observations (geology and geomorphology) leads us to propose a preliminary tectonic-gravitational model for the study area.     

Applications of the random model of drainage basin composition

The random model of drainage basin composition is founded on the assumptions that (a) natural channels are topologically random in the absence of geological controls and (b) for channel networks developed in similar environments, the exterior and interior link lengths are independent random variables with a common distribution for each type. The effectiveness of this model in estimating the values of geomorphic variables and in explaining and predicting geomorphic relationships is illustrated by several examples. The data required for these examples were obtained from map studies of 30 channel networks, comprising a total of about 8700 links, in eastern Kentucky. A common factor in the success of all three applications of the model is the way in which the planimetric features of drainage basins are determined by their underlying topologic structure.