Building a sustainable urban future: An Auckland experience

Abstract:  The Untouched World Sustainable Cities Youth pilot project was held in Auckland in July 2005. This article outlines the activities that school students were involved in during the week and reflects on the nature of the learning experience. Whilst not specifically targeted at geography students or teachers, the project does support the outcomes of senior high school geography programmes.     

Opportunities for geography in the New Zealand senior secondary school in the context of current curriculum developments

Abstract:  Current curriculum developments will provide a new framework for the teaching of social sciences, including geography, in New Zealand secondary schools. This article outlines recent challenges faced by the subject, and the development and likely nature of the new curriculum. Some ways in which teachers can plan and implement innovative programmes within the framework of the existing syllabus and the new curriculum are suggested.     

Facies architecture and Late Pliocene – Pleistocene evolution of a felsic volcanic island, Milos, Greece

The volcanic island of Milos, Greece, comprises an Upper Pliocene –Pleistocene, thick (up to 700 m), compositionally and texturally diverse succession of calc-alkaline, volcanic, and sedimentary rocks that record a transition from a relatively shallow but dominantly below-wave-base submarine setting to a subaerial one. The volcanic activity began at 2.66±0.07 Ma and has been more or less continuous since then. Subaerial emergence probably occurred at 1.44±0.08 Ma, in response to a combination of volcanic constructional processes and fault-controlled volcano-tectonic uplift. The architecture of the dominantly felsic-intermediate volcanic succession reflects contrasts in eruption style, proximity to source, depositional environment and emplacement processes. The juxtaposition of submarine and subaerial facies indicates that for part of the volcanic history, below-wave base to above-wave base, and shoaling to subaerial depositional environments coexisted in most areas. The volcanic facies architecture comprises interfingering proximal (near vent), medial and distal facies associations related to five main volcano types: (1) submarine felsic cryptodome-pumice cone volcanoes; (2) submarine dacitic and andesitic lava domes; (3) submarine-to-subaerial scoria cones; (4) submarine-to-subaerial dacitic and andesitic lava domes and (5) subaerial lava-pumice cone volcanoes. The volcanic facies are interbedded with a sedimentary facies association comprising sandstone and/or fossiliferous mudstone mainly derived from erosion of pre-existing volcanic deposits. The main facies associations are interpreted to have conformable, disconformable, and interfingering contacts, and there are no mappable angular unconformities or disconformities within the volcanic succession.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at     

Speciation and role of iron in cloud droplets at the puy de Dôme station

Iron is the most abundant transition metal in the atmosphere and can play a significant role in cloudwater chemistry where its reactivity is closely related to the partitioning between Fe(II) and Fe(III). The objective of this work is to determine the total iron content and the iron speciation in a free tropospheric site, and to understand which factors influence these parameters. We collected 147 samples of cloudwater during 34 cloud events over a period of four years at the puy de Dôme summit. Besides iron we measured other chemical compounds, solar radiation, physico-chemical and meteorological parameters potentially connected with iron reactivity. The total iron concentrations ranged from 0.1 to 9.1 μM with the major frequency occurring at low levels. The pH and presence of organic complexants seem to be the most significant factors connected with total dissolved iron; while the iron oxidation state seems to be an independent factor. Light intensity, presence of complexants or oxidants (H₂O₂) do not influence the Fe(II)/Fe(Total) ratio, that was quite constant at about 0.75. This could be due to the potential redox that forces the Fe(II)-Fe(III) couple to the reduced form or, more probably to the complexation by Natural Organic Matter, that can stabilize iron in its reduced form and prevent further oxidation. Our field measurements did not show the diurnal cycle observed in surface water and predicted by models of atmospheric chemistry. This result prompts a more careful review of the role of iron and, by analogy, all the transition metals in atmospheric liquid phase, often over-estimated in the literature.     

Combining Non-local Scalings with a TKE Closure for Mixing in Boundary-layer Clouds

A new approach to the parametrization of the cumulus-capped boundary layer is described. It combines a traditional higher-order turbulence closure, appropriate for boundary layers where the skewness of thermodynamic variable probability distributions is low (typically stratocumulus-capped), with non-local scaled similarity functions. These are introduced in order to represent explicitly that part of the distribution arising from skewed cumulus elements and the scalings are found to work very well against equilibrium shallow cumulus large-eddy simulations. Results from a wide range of single column model simulations, from stratocumulus to shallow cumulus to cumulus rising into stratocumulus, are presented that demonstrate the validity of the approach as a means of parametrizing the cloudy boundary layer. Sensitivity tests show that enhancement of the turbulence length scales and the buoyancy production of TKE are especially important.     

Endogenous growth of a Miocene submarine dacite cryptodome, Rebun Island, Hokkaido, Japan

Momo-iwa, Rebun Island, Hokkaido, Japan, is a dacite cryptodome 200–300 m across and 190 m high. The dome is inferred to have intruded wet, poorly consolidated sediment in a shallow marine environment. The internal structure of the dome is concentric, with a massive core, banded rim, and narrow brecciated border, all of which are composed of compositionally uniform feldspar-phyric dacite. Boundaries between each of the zones are distinct but gradational. The massive core consists of homogeneous coherent (unfractured) dacite and is characterized by radial columnar joints 60–200 cm across. The banded rim encircles the massive core and is 40 m wide. It is characterized by large-scale flow banding parallel to the dome surface. The flow banding comprises alternating partly crystalline and more glassy bands 80–150 cm thick. The outermost brecciated border is up to 80 cm thick, and consists of in situ breccia and blocky peperite. The in situ breccia comprises polyhedral dacite clasts 5–20 cm across and a cogenetic granular matrix. The blocky peperite consists of polyhedral dacite clasts 0.5–2 cm across separated by the host sediment (mudstone). The internal structures of the dome suggest endogenous growth involving a continuous magma supply during a single intrusive phase and simple expansion from the interior. Although much larger, the internal structures of Momo-iwa closely resemble those of lobes in subaqueous felsic lobe-hyaloclastite lavas.     

A Tortonian onset for the Algerian margin inversion: Evidence from low‐temperature thermochronology

In North Africa, the Algerian margin is made of basement blocks that drifted away from the European margin, namely the Kabylia, and docked to the African continental crust in the Early Miocene. This young margin is now inverted, as dated Miocene (17 Ma) granites outcrop alongshore, evidencing kilometre‐scale exhumation since their emplacement. Age of inversion is actually unknown, although Pliocene is often considered in the offshore domain. To decipher the exhumation history of the margin between 17 and 5 Ma, we performed a coupled apatite fission track (AFT) and (U–Th–Sm)/He (AHe) study in the Cap Bougaroun Miocene granite. AFT dates range between 7 ± 1 and 10 ± 1 Ma, and mean AHe dates between 8 ± 2 and 10 ± 1 Ma. These data evidence rapid and multi‐kilometre exhumation during Tortonian times. This event cannot be related to slab break‐off but instead to the onset of margin inversion that has since developed as an in‐sequence north‐verging deforming prism.     

Evaluation of the Diurnal Cycle in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Over Land as Represented by a Variety of Single-Column Models: The Second GABLS Experiment

We present the main results from the second model intercomparison within the GEWEX (Global Energy and Water cycle EXperiment) Atmospheric Boundary Layer Study (GABLS). The target is to examine the diurnal cycle over land in today??s numerical weather prediction and climate models for operational and research purposes. The set-up of the case is based on observations taken during the Cooperative Atmosphere-Surface Exchange Study-1999 (CASES-99), which was held in Kansas, USA in the early autumn with a strong diurnal cycle with no clouds present. The models are forced with a constant geostrophic wind, prescribed surface temperature and large-scale divergence. Results from 30 different model simulations and one large-eddy simulation (LES) are analyzed and compared with observations. Even though the surface temperature is prescribed, the models give variable near-surface air temperatures. This, in turn, gives rise to differences in low-level stability affecting the turbulence and the turbulent heat fluxes. The increase in modelled upward sensible heat flux during the morning transition is typically too weak and the growth of the convective boundary layer before noon is too slow. This is related to weak modelled near-surface winds during the morning hours. The agreement between the models, the LES and observations is the best during the late afternoon. From this intercomparison study, we find that modelling the diurnal cycle is still a big challenge. For the convective part of the diurnal cycle, some of the first-order schemes perform somewhat better while the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) schemes tend to be slightly better during nighttime conditions. Finer vertical resolution tends to improve results to some extent, but is certainly not the solution to all the deficiencies identified.     

Courbes Intensité–Durée–Fréquence (IDF): comparaison des estimateurs des durées partielles et des maximums annuels

Résumé

Cette étude compare, pour la région sud du Québec (Canada), différents estimateurs des courbes intensité–durée–fréquence (IDF) basés sur les séries de durées partielles (SDP) et sur celles des maximums annuels (SMA). Deux modèles ont été considérés pour les SMA, le premier utilisant un paramètre local (SMA-1), et le second utilisant deux paramètres locaux (SMA-2). Pour les SDP, les séries ont été construites en fixant, d'une part, un seuil régional (SDP-1) et, d'autre part, le nombre moyen régional de dépassements du seuil (SDP-2). Les quantiles et les intervalles de confiance à 90% des différents modèles ont été estimés et comparés. Le modèle SDP-1 a été finalement retenu puisque, d'après la littérature, il conviendrait à une région comme celle sous étude dont l'hétérogénéité est raisonnable. Par ailleurs, le modèle SDP-1 reproduit relativement bien les quantiles et probabilités empiriques. Les quantiles générés, à chaque site, par ce modèle régional sont comparés à ceux obtenus à partir d'un modèle SDP local.

Citation Kingumbi, A. & Mailhot, A. (2010) Courbes Intensité–Durée–Fréquence (IDF): comparaison des estimateurs des durées partielles et des maximums annuels. Hydrol. Sci. J. 55(2), 162–176.     

Stress behavior from fault data sets within a transtensional zone, South Central Cordillera, Luzon, Philippines: Implications for mineral occurrences

The structural signature in the area between the Baguio mineral district and Ansagan, Tuba, Benguet in the South Central Cordillera, northern Luzon, Philippines, is dominated by northeast- to ENE-trending faults, contained within a NNW–SSE-trending transtensional strip. This 50-km-long, 25-km-wide elongated tectonic zone is bounded to the west by the Pugo Fault and to the east by the Tebbo Fault, both being branches of the Philippine Fault System. Detailed structural geological (particularly microtectonic) analysis of fracture and mineral vein systems indicates strong conformity with the regional structural direction. Computed extensional stress axis σ₃ directions are oriented N150° on average, sub-parallel to the strike of the bounding faults. The existence of known mineral deposits and prospects within the tectonic strip implies an intimate relationship between transtension and mineral occurrence.