An integrated regionalization of earthquake, flood, and drought hazards in China

Earthquake, flood, and drought data from different sources are combined in a single data set using the same data structure, projection, and scale. The intensity and frequency of each hazard is classified into severe, heavy, modest, and light, producing a classification with 64 combined states for the three kinds of hazard. These classes are then ranked according to severity. The three hazard coverages arc overlaid and the polygons that are produced are coded by the classification system. A map is produced that shows the distribution of these 64 classes in regions and their areas measured from the spatial topological data file in the GIS. Spatial analysis reveals the spatial association among the three hazards and between the three hazards and human factors. There is a brief discussion of the implications of the regionalized map for hazard monitoring.     

SPRING ICE-JAM FLOODING OF THE PEACE-ATHABASCA DELTA: EVIDENCE OF A CLIMATIC OSCILLATION

A historic record of spring ice-jam floods of the Peace-Athabasca Delta was analyzed for the years 1826–1995. The temporal pattern of flooding is non-random. The likelihood of a flood following a flood, or a non-flood following a non-flood, is greater than expected by chance. Probability analysis of flood occurrence reveals that the period 1860–1880 was a time of unusually few floods, and the period 1915–1950 was a time of unusually frequent floods. The long-term flood frequency is 1 flood in 6.25 years. Changes in flood frequency over the record reveal a pattern of oscillation described by a sine-based model that is correlated with the long-term (Gleissberg) cycle of solar activity. Monte Carlo simulation was used to test a Bennett Dam Model and a Cyclic Model. The Bennett Dam Model is unlikely to have generated the observed flood history (p=0.04). The observed flood history shows a better fit to the Cyclic Model (p=0.65). No correlations between floods and ENSO cold or warm events was detected. The most recent wet period began about 1900 and ended in the early 1960's prior to completion of the W. A. C. Bennett Dam in British Columbia. As independent corroboration of climatically-driven changes in flood frequency we present three additional lines of evidence. The pattern of annual muskrat returns (95 year record) reveals both 10 year cycles and long-term patterns that agree well with the observed flood cycle. The annual area burned in Wood Buffalo National Park is inversely related to flood occurrence. Incised channels and dendritic drainage patterns in the bed of Lake Mamawi provide probable evidence of a previous dry period in the delta. Climatic change or oscillation likely underlies the drying trend observed in recent decades in the Peace-Athabasca Delta.     

The diets of common and Brünnich's guillemots Uria aalge and U. lomvia in the Barents Sea region

Guillemots Uria spp. account for ca. 70% of the total harvest of prey taken by seabirds breeding in the Barents Sea region. This paper presents guillemot chick diet data collected recently at four localities (Finnmark, Murman, Bjørnøya and Spitsbergen) and collates all the data found by the authors in the literature and in the archives of Tromsø Museum, the Norwegian Polar Institute and Kandalaksha State Nature Reserve. Guillemots consume a wide variety of prey and, in comparison to the harvest by predatory fish and marine mammals, their impact on the Barents Sea ecosystem is considered to be minimal. We point out the need for more systematic collection of data from different regions and at different times of the year before a final impact assessment can be made.     

Egg laying, chick growth and food of kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla at Hopen, Svalbard

In 1984, kittiwakes at Hopen laid eggs ca. 14 days later than previously found in North Norway and on the Kola Peninsula. The mean clutch size, egg volume, and hatching success were otherwise very similar to those documented on the mainland. Although feeding trips were very long, a rapid chick growth and high rate of chick survival suggested that food availability was not a limiting factor in 1984. In contrast to other sites at Svalbard where polar cod Boreogadus saida and crustaceans dominate kittiwake diets, the diets of chicks at Hopen consisted mainly of capelin Mallotus villosus which the adults probably collected at or beyond the polar front southeast of the island.     

Flow dynamics and geomorphology of a trough blowout

The dynamics and geomorphological development of a trough blowout located at Fiona Beach in the Myall Lakes National Park in NSW, Australia, are examined. Wind speeds, velocities and flow structure were measured utilizing an array of miniature Rimco cup anemometers, Gill bivane and UVW instruments, and wind vanes. Flow measurements indicate that when the wind approaches the trough blowout parallel to the throat orientation, jets occur both in the deflation basin and along the erosional walls, relative flow deceleration and expansion occurs up the depositional lobe, jets are formed over the depositional lobe crest accompanied by downwind flow separation on the leeward side of the lobe, and flow separation and the formation of corkscrew vortices occur over the crests of the erosional walls. Maximum erosion and transport occurs up the deflation basin and onto the depositional lobe. Trough blowout morphologies are explained as a function of these flow patterns. When the wind approaches the blowout obliquely, the flow is steered considerably within the blowout, and the degree and complexity of topographic steering is dependent on the blowout topography. The flow is usually extremely turbulent and large corkscrew vortices are common. The local topography of a blowout can be very important in determining overall sand transport and blowout evolutionary conditions and paths. Estimates of potential sand transport within the blowout may be up to two orders of magnitude lower than actual rates if remotely sensed wind data are used.     

Contrasting diagenesis of two Carboniferous Oolites from South Wales: a tale of climatic influence

Two oolites in the Dinantian (Mississippian/Lower Carboniferous) of Glamorgan, SW Britain, were deposited in similar depositional environments but have contrasting diagenetic histories. The Brofiscin and Gully Oolites occur in the upper parts of shallowing-upward sequences, formed through strandplain progradation and sand shoal and barrier growth upon a southward-dipping carbonate ramp. The Brofiscin Oolite is characterized by a first-generation cement of equant calcite spar, preferentially located at grain-contacts and forming non-isopachous fringes around grains, interpreted as meteoric vadose and phreatic in origin. Isopachous fibrous calcite fringes of marine origin are rather rare and occur only at a few horizons. Burial compaction was not important and porosity was occluded by poikilotopic calcite spar. Fitted grain-grain contacts locally occur and could be the result of near-surface vadose dissolution-compaction. Syntaxial overgrowths on echinoderm debris are common. Pre-compaction overgrowths are cloudy (inclusion-rich) and probably of meteoric origin, and post-compaction overgrowths are inclusion-free. By contrast, the Gully Oolite has little first-generation cement. However, marine fibrous calcite is common in oolitic intraclasts, as isopachous fringes of acicular calcite crystals closely associated with peloidal internal sediment; and early equant, drusy calcite spar occurs in the uppermost part of the Gully, beneath a prominent palaeokarst where pedogenic cements also occur. The major feature of Gully diagenesis is burial compaction, resulting in extensive grain-grain dissolution and microstylolitic grain contacts, and post-compaction poikilotopic spar occluded remaining porosity. The Brofiscin Oolite is pervasively dolomitized up-dip but the Gully Oolite for the most part only contains scattered pre-compaction dolomite rhombs and late veins of baroque dolomite, with less pervasive dolomitization. The difference in diagenetic style of the two Dinantian oolites is attributed to prevailing climate. The paucity of early meteoric cements in the Gully is a result of an arid climate, and this is supported by the nature of the capping palaeokarst. The abundant meteoric cements in the Brofiscin reflect a more humid climate, and effective meteoric recharge also resulted in up-dip pervasive mixing-zone dolomitization. The style of early diagenesis in these two oolites exerted a major control on the later burial diagenesis: in the Brofiscin, the early cements inhibited grain-grain dissolution and pressure solution, while these processes operated extensively in the Gully Oolite. Thus, prevailing climate can influence a limestone's diagenetic history from near-surface through into deep burial.     

Petrology and Geochemistry of MORB from 25?E to 46?E along the Southwest Indian Ridge: Evidence for Contrasting Styles of Mantle Enrichment

The 1984 PROTEA expedition, leg 5, to the central SouthwestIndian Ridge recovered basaltic lavas from fracture zones andridge segments between 25?E and 48?E. In terms of petrographyand major element variations the samples are unremarkable forocean ridge basalts and range from aphyric to highly plagioclasephyric and from primitive (mg-number = 70) to moderately evolved(mg-number = 40) in composition. Multiply saturated (i.e., olivine,plagioclase, and clinopyroxene) basalts are common within thisregion. There is no systematic difference in compositional characteristicsbetween basalts dredged from fracture zone walls and those dredgedfrom ridge segments, and fractional crystallization has playedan important role in controlling the overall range in lava compositionin both tectonic environments. Incompatible element abundance ratios in the basalts are morenotable and distinguish between geochemically depleted (N-type)MORB with high Zr/Nb (1668) and Y/Nb (4?723) ratios and low(La/Sm)^m, ratios (0-?76–1?00), and geochemically enriched(E-type) MORB with low Zr/Nb (3?4–15?8) and Y/Nb (0?5–8?8)and high (La/Sm). ratios (1?07–3?8). N-type MORB appearsto be absent in the immediate vicinity of Marion Island, butoccurs further along the ridge to the northeast and southwest.Geochemically enriched MORB occurs at scattered localities alongthe ridge but is particularly abundant along the section ofthe ridge closest to the Marion hotspot. In detail, two distinct varieties of E-type MORB can be recognized.The one type has incompatible element and isotopic ratios similarto, although slightly less enriched than, those characteristicof the Marion hotspot (Zr/Nb=5?8–8?6; Y/Nb=0?5–0?8;Ba/Nb=5?1–9?0). The second type can be distinguished byhaving high Ba/Nb ratios (9–22), unlike any lavas directlyassociated with the Marion hotspot, but similar to those characteristicof DUPAL ocean island basalts (OIB). A single sample from thisgroup for which there are isotopic data indicates derivationfrom an isotopically anomalous source region. A model is proposed whereby the sub-oceanic mantle below thisportion of the southwest Indian Ocean has experienced at leasttwo distinct enrichment events. The one is associated with theupwelling of the Marion mantle plume (geochemically characterizedby having low Ba/Nb ratios and normal OIB isotopic ratios).The other is associated with upwelling from a DUPAL source (characterizedby having high Ba/Nb ratio and unusual isotopic ratios) whichhas been proposed to exist beneath this portion of the southwestIndian Ocean (Hart, 1984). On the basis of Ba/Nb and Nb/U ratios,recycled oceanic lithosphere is favoured as a source for theMarion hotspot, while recycled oceanic lithosphere plus ancientpelagic sediment appears to be the most likely source for theDUPAL anomaly and the DUPAL E-type MORB in this region.