The Neogene and Quaternary of England: landscape evolution,tectonics, climate change and their expression in the geological record

During the Neogene and Quaternary, tectonic and climatic processes have had a profound impact upon landscape evolution in England and, perhaps as far back as 0.9 Ma, patterns of early human occupation. Until the Late Miocene, large-scale plate tectonic processes were the principal drivers of landscape evolution causing localised basin inversion and widespread exhumation. This drove, in places, the erosion of several kilometres of Mesozoic cover rocks and the development of a regional unconformity across England and the North Sea Basin. By the Pliocene, the relative influence of tectonics on landscape evolution waned as the background tectonic stress regime evolved and climatic influences became more prominent. Global-scale climate-forcing increased step-wise during the Plio-Pleistocene amplifying erosional and depositional processes that operated within the landscape. These processes caused differential unloading (uplift) and loading (subsidence) of the crust (‘denudational isostasy’) in areas undergoing net erosion (upland areas and slopes) and deposition (basins). Denudational isostasy amplified during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (c.0.9 Ma) as landscapes become progressively synchronised to large-scale 100 ka ‘eccentricity’ climate forcing. Over the past 0.5 Ma, this has led to the establishment of a robust climate record of individual glacial/interglacial cycles enabling comparison to other regional and global records. During the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition and early Holocene (c.16–7 ka), evidence for more abrupt (millennial/centennial) scale climatic events has been discovered. This indicates that superimposed upon the longer-term pattern of landscape evolution is a more dynamic response of the landscape to local and regional drivers.     

Kampelite,Ba3Mg1.5Sc4(PO4)6(OH)3·4H2O,a new very complex Ba-Sc phosphate mineral from the Kovdor phoscorite-carbonatite complex (Kola Peninsula,Russia)

Mineralogy and Petrology - Kampelite, Ba3Mg1.5Sc4(PO4)6(OH)3·4H2O, is a new Ba-Sc phosphate from the Kovdor phoscorite-carbonatite complex (Kola Peninsula, Russia). It is orthorhombic, Pnma,...     

Maritime tsunami evacuation guidelines for the Pacific Northwest coast of Oregon

Recent tsunamis affecting the West Coast of the USA have resulted in significant damage to ports and harbors, as well as to recreational and commercial vessels attempting to escape the tsunami. With the completion of tsunami inundation simulations for a distant tsunami originating from the Aleutian Islands and a locally generated tsunami on the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ), the State of Oregon is now able to provide guidance on the magnitudes and directions of the simulated currents for the Oregon coast and shelf region. Our analyses indicate that first wave arrivals for an Aleutian Island event would take place on the north coast,?~?3 h 40 min after the start of the earthquake,?~?20 min later on the southern Oregon coast. The simulations demonstrated significant along-coast variability in both the tsunamis water levels and currents, caused by localized bathymetric effects (e.g., submarine banks and reefs). A locally generated CSZ event would reach the open coast within 7–13 min; maximum inundation occurs at?~?30–40 min. As the tsunami current velocities increase, the potential for damage in ports and harbors correspondingly increases, while also affecting a vessels ability to maintain control out on the ocean. Scientific consensus suggests that tsunami currents?<?1.54 m/s are unlikely to impact maritime safety in ports and harbors. No such guidance is available for boats operating on the ocean, though studies undertaken in Japan suggest that velocities in the region of 1–2 m/s may be damaging to boats. In addition to the effects of currents, there is the added potential for wave amplification of locally generated wind waves interacting with opposing tsunami currents in the offshore. Our analyses explore potential wave amplification effects for a range of generic sea states, ultimately producing a nomogram of wave amplification for a range of wave and opposing current conditions. These data will be useful for US Coast Guard and Port authorities as they evaluate maritime tsunami evacuation options for the Oregon coast. Finally, we identify three regions of hazard (high, moderate, and low) across the Oregon shelf, which can be used to help guide final designation of tsunami maritime evacuation zones for the coast.     

Use of LiDAR-derived DEM and a stream length-gradient index approach to investigation of landslides in Zagros Mountains,Iran

This paper presents an approach to stream length-gradient index analysis to identify tectonic signatures. The graded profile of the Dez River in Zagros Mountains, Iran, indicates that the area has been tectonically disturbed, and it triggers landslide hazards. The high-gradient index shows that a steeper gradient could be potentially a signature for landslides identification. The digital surface models acquired by airborne LiDAR were used in this study to generate the HRDEM. Our result shows a great potential for improving landslide investigations by implementing stream length-gradient index derived from the HRDEM in conjunction with the landslide inventories data-set in the GIS environment. We also identified a correlation between the stream length-gradient index and the graded topographic profile with slopes and landslides. This empirical approach was verified by geodata analytics and landslide inventories data-set in conjunction with field observations. This study has identified the locations of high-gradient indices with susceptible to landslides.     

The development and analysis of quasi-linear map projections

Map projections are an essential component of coordinate systems used in applications such as surveying, topographic mapping, and engineering, and care needs to be taken to select ones that minimize distortion for each case. This article explores the selection process for near-linear features on the surface of the Earth and derives limits for the extent of a project that can be projected within specified distortion tolerances. It is then demonstrated that a multifaceted set of projections of the Earth may be used to extend this concept to the mapping of features such as highways and railways that are quasi-linear but do not exactly follow a standard geometrical line (a great circle or a small circle) on the surface of the Earth. A continuous, conformal coordinate system may be derived in such situations, extending to indefinite length and applicable over a swath of several kilometers width, but it cannot be extended to cover situations with extensive variations in height. Instead, the Snake Projection is analyzed, and it is shown that this can be used to develop continuous (non-zonal) projected coordinate systems for major engineering projects extending for hundreds of kilometers and having extensive height ranges. Examples are shown of the application to railway projects.     

On the use of synthetic tropical cyclones and hypothetical events for storm surge assessment under climate change

Natural Hazards - This study presents a new approach to assess storm surge risk from tropical cyclones under climate change by direct calculation of the local flood levels using a limited number of...     

Late Pleistocene baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) forest deposit on the continental shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico

Approximately 13 km south of Gulf Shores, Alabama (United States), divers found in situ baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) stumps 18 m below the ocean surface. These trees could have only lived when sea level fell during the Pleistocene subaerially exposing the tectonically stable continental shelf. Here we investigate the geophysical properties along with microfossil and stratigraphical analyses of sediment cores to understand the factors that lead to this wood’s preservation. The stumps are exposed in an elongated depression (~100 m long, ~1 m deep) nested in a trough of the northwest–southeast trending Holocene sand ridges and troughs with 2–5 m vertical relief and ~0.5 km wavelength. Radiocarbon ages of the wood were infinite thus optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating was used to constrain the site’s age. Below the Holocene sands (~0.1–4 m thick), separated by a regional erosional unconformity, are Late Pleistocene mud-peat (72±8 ka OSL), mud-sand (63±5, 73±6 ka OSL), and palaeosol (56±5 ka OSL) facies that grade laterally from west to east, respectively. Foraminiferal analysis reveals the location of the terrestrial-marine transitional layer above the Pleistocene facies in an interbedded sand and mud facies (3940±30 (1σ) ¹⁴C a BP), which is part of a lower shoreface or marine-dominated estuarine environment. The occurrence of palaeosol and swamp facies of broadly similar ages and elevation suggests the glacial landscape possessed topographic relief that allowed wood, mud and peats to be preserved for ~50 ka of subaerial exposure before transitioning to the modern marine environment. We hypothesize that rapid sea-level rise occurring ~60 or ~40 ka ago provided opportunities for local flood-plain aggradation to bury the swamp thus preserving the stumps and that other sites may exist in the northern Gulf of Mexico shelf.     

When hazard avoidance is not an option: lessons learned from monitoring the postdisaster Oso landslide,USA

On 22 March 2014, a massive, catastrophic landslide occurred near Oso, Washington, USA, sweeping more than 1 km across the adjacent valley flats and killing 43 people. For the following 5 weeks, hundreds of workers engaged in an exhaustive search, rescue, and recovery effort directly in the landslide runout path. These workers could not avoid the risks posed by additional large-scale slope collapses. In an effort to ensure worker safety, multiple agencies cooperated to swiftly deploy a monitoring and alerting system consisting of sensors, automated data processing and web-based display, along with defined communication protocols and clear calls to action for emergency management and search personnel. Guided by the principle that an accelerating landslide poses a greater threat than a steadily moving or stationary mass, the system was designed to detect ground motion and vibration using complementary monitoring techniques. Near real-time information was provided by continuous GPS, seismometers/geophones, and extensometers. This information was augmented by repeat-assessment techniques such as terrestrial and aerial laser scanning and time-lapse photography. Fortunately, no major additional landsliding occurred. However, we did detect small headscarp failures as well as slow movement of the remaining landslide mass with the monitoring system. This was an exceptional response situation and the lessons learned are applicable to other landslide disaster crises. They underscore the need for cogent landslide expertise and ready-to-deploy monitoring equipment, the value of using redundant monitoring techniques with distinct goals, the benefit of clearly defined communication protocols, and the importance of continued research into forecasting landslide behavior to allow timely warning.

     

A framework for testing dynamic classification of vulnerable scenarios in ensemble water supply projections

Climatic Change - Recent water resources planning studies have proposed climate adaptation strategies in which infrastructure and policy actions are triggered by observed thresholds or...     

Inter-season and interannual variations in fish and macrocrustacean community structure on a eastern English Channel sandy beach: Influence of environmental factors

The intertidal zone of an exposed sandy beach on the French coast of the English Channel was sampled with a 1.5 m beam-trawl over five years (2000 and 2003–2006) at weekly intervals. The fish and macrocrustacean catches were analysed to determine the inter-season and interannual variation in community structure and relate these variations to changes in the major environmental variables. Only six species (plaice Pleuronectes platessa, common goby Pomatoschistus microps, sprat Sprattus sprattus, sand eel Ammodytes tobianus, brown shrimp Crangon crangon and shore crab Carcinus maenas) from the 27 species captured can be considered as dominant species of the intertidal zone, and they accounted for >90% of total numbers. Most individuals caught were young-of-the-year or juvenile. Analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) and similarities percentage (SIMPER) indicated that inter-season variability of community structure (mean average similarity = 47%) was more pronounced than interannual variability (mean average similarity = 65%). Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) indicates that a substantial component (32.2%) of the measured inter-season variation in community structure can be explained by environmental factors (mainly water temperature). The main inter-season changes in the abundance and community structure were due to the variation of the six key species and reflect the different times of their recruitment. During the five years of the study, the structure of the fish and macrocrustacean spring community persisted from year to year, with the dominant species reappearing consistently even though their abundances fluctuated from year to year. This interannual variation probably reflects variable recruitment success influenced by physico-chemical conditions. In spite of the considerable interannual variation (40 times) in the spring bloom of the prymnesiophyte alga Phaeocystis globosa we found no effect of this bloom on either fish and macrocrustacean species densities or diversity index.