Modeling and Fitting of Three-Dimensional Mineral Microstructures by Multinary Random Fields

Mathematical Geosciences - Modeling a mineral microstructure accurately in three dimensions can render realistic mineralogical patterns which can be used for three-dimensional processing...     

The Portuguese bend landslide

The Portuguese Bend landslide, in coastal southern California, is an active, slow-moving mass of blocks and debris that extends from the shoreline to moderate altitudes along part of the southerly margin of the Palos Verdes Hills. These hills form a peninsula that is underlain by Cenozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks draped anticlinally over a core of Mesozoic schist. In the southerly parts of the peninsula, inherently weak units in the Altamira Shale Member of the Miocene Monterey Formation dip seaward in general concordance with the ground surface. Ground failure has been widespread in this area. It evidently began in mid- to late-Pleistocene time, and it has continued intermittently to the present.

The Portuguese Bend landslide represents a reactivation of movement of the eastern part of a complex of prehistoric landslides occupying an area of approximately two square miles. This latest episode of movement began in 1956, presumably in response to placement of fill during a road construction project. The active slide subsequently was enlarged by sequential failure of adjoining blocks of ground, and by September 1969 about 54,500,000 metric tons of debris was slowly moving downslope in an area of approximately 104 ha. Movement has been continuous since recent failure began in 1956, although the velocity of the active slide decreased markedly after that year. Between 1962 and 1972 the velocity fluctuated only slightly about an average value of about 1 cm per day.

The active slide is an irregular prism, roughly triangular in plan view. The southern side of the triangle trends approximately 1100 m east-west along a stretch of shoreline that essentially coincides with the toe of the slide. The other two sides of the triangle trend northeast and northwest from the ends of the toe and meet about 1200 m north of the shoreline. The thickness of the moving mass differs considerably from one place to another, reflecting both topographic irregularities and major undulations in the underlying surface of movement. The maximum thickness is approximately 75 m.

Movement is occurring along a distinct basal failure surface. The eastern part of the slide is underlain by bedrock, and is bordered by bedrock with a general structure that limits further deep-seated propagation of failure to the east and northeast. In contrast, the western part of the slide is underlain and bordered by extensive ancient landslide deposits that are marginally stable. Further encroachment of the active slide westward and northwestward into these materials was viewed as a distinct possibility at the time the dissertation was prepared and has occurred since then.

Continued movement of the Portuguese Bend landslide since 1956 has been due to four main factors. A rise in the water table during the period 1957–1968 has been documented in the northwestern part of the moving mass and is attributable mainly to infiltration of surface runoff entering numerous open fissures that cut the surface of the slide. The toe of the active slide daylights along the shoreline and is subjected to storm-wave erosion, so that any natural build-up of resisting forces is prevented in this area. The redistribution of mass as the slide has moved along an undulatory failure surface has been responsible for local fluctuations in the driving and resisting forces. Finally, smoothing of irregularities in the failure surface by the moving slide mass must have decreased some of the forces resisting movement.     

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF TROPICAL LATIN AMERICA: THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL HETEROGENEITY OF ENVIRONMENTS

For the past 40 years, studies of physical geography in tropical Latin America have concentrated on the spatial and temporal diversity of biophysical environments and biota. Environmental heterogeneity arises from historical and present-day interaction between climatic, geomorphologic, edaphic, and biogeographic systems. Recent research emphasizes three major themes involving these systems: Quaternary climate change; human-altered biophysical environments; and geomorphologic activity. Findings on these themes are evaluated with respect to the tropical highlands, the tropical lowlands and related extra-tropical areas. Research on physical geography in Latin America promises numerous contributions toward a better understanding of environmental conservation.     

The effect of horizontal resolution on ocean surface heat fluxes in the ECMWF model

Annual mean ocean surface heat fluxes have been studied as a function of horizontal resolution in the ECMWF model (cycle 33) and compared with Oberhuber's COADS (1959–1979) based empirical estimates. The model has been run at resolutions of T21, T42, T63 and T106 for 15 months with prescribed monthly varying climatological SST and sea ice. The T42 simulation was extended to 2 years, which enabled us to determine that many differences between the resolution runs were significant and could not be explained by the fact that individual realizations of an ensemble of years can be expected to give different estimates of the annual mean climate state. In addition to systematic differences between the modeled and the observed fluxes, the simulated fields of surface shortwave and longwave radiation showed much more spatial variability than the observed estimates. In the case of the longwave radiation this may be attributable more to deficiencies in the observations than to errors in the model. The modeled latent and sensible heat fields were in better agreement with observations. The primary conclusion concerning the dependence of ocean surface fluxes on resolution is that the T21 simulation differed significantly from the higher resolution runs, especially in the tropics. Although the differences among the three higher resolution simulations were generally small over most of the world ocean, there were local areas with large differences. It appears, therefore, that in relation to ocean surface heat fluxes, a resolution greater than T42 may not be justified for climate model simulations, although the locally large differences found between the higher resolution runs suggest that convergence has not been achieved everywhere even at T106.     

Time scale of hydrothermal water-rock reactions in Yellowstone National Park based on radium isotopes and radon

We have measured ²²⁴Ra (3.4 d), ²²⁸Ra (5.7 yr), and ²²⁶Ra (1620 yr) and chloride in hot spring waters from the Norris-Mammoth Corridor, Yellowstone National Park. Two characteristic cold-water components mix with the primary hydrothermal water: one for the travertine-depositing waters related to the Mammoth Hot Springs and the other for the sinter-depositing Norris Geyser Basin springs. The Mammoth Hot Springs water is a mixture of the primary hydrothermal fluid with meteoric waters flowing through the Madison Limestone, as shown by the systematic decrease of the (²²⁸Ra/²²⁶Ra) activity ratio proceeding northward. The Norris Geyser Basin springs are mixtures of primary hydrothermal water with different amounts of cold meteoric water with no modification of the primary hydrothermal (²²⁸Ra/²²⁶Ra) activity ratio. Using a solution and recoil model for radium isotope supply to the primary hydrothermal water, a mean water-rock reaction time prior to expansion at 350°C and supply to the surface is 540 years assuming that 250 g of water are involved in the release of the radium from one gram of rock. The maximum reaction time allowed by our model is 1150 years.     

Planktonic dimethylsulfide and cloud albedo: An estimate of the feedback response

Partial control of climate by the biosphere may be possible through a chain of processes that ultimately links marine plankton production of dimethylsulfide (DMS) with changes in cloud albedo (Charlson et al., 1987). Changes in cloud optical properties can have profound impacts on atmospheric radiation transfer and, hence, the surface environment. In this study, we have developed a simple model that incorporates empirically based parameterizations to account for the biological control of cloud droplet concentration in a first attempt to estimate the strength of the DMS-cloud albedo feedback mechanism. We find that the feedback reduces the global climatic response to imposed perturbations in solar insolation by less than 7%. Likewise, it modifies the strength of other feedbacks affecting surface insolation over oceans by roughly the same amount. This suggests that the DMS-cloud albedo mechanism will be unable to substantially reduce climate sensitivity, although these results should be confirmed with less idealized models when more is known about the net production of DMS by the marine biosphere and its relation to aerosol/cloud microphysics and climate.