Microstructures of deformed grains in the augen gneisses of southern Menderes Massif (western Turkey) and their tectonic significance

A detailed fabric and microstructural analysis of the granitic mylonites was carried out on the southern side of Bes,parmak Mountain north of Selimiye (Milas). The mylonitic augen gneisses have?a blastomylonitic texture characterized by large retort-shape porphyroclasts or augen of feldspars, around which a more ductile, medium to fine-grained matrix of muscovite, biotite, quartz and feldspar is deflected. Feldspars behave in both plastic and brittle fashion, because size reduction occurs through grain boundary migration and/or subgrain rotation, and also through fracturing. Typical “core-and-mantle” structure, characterized by a large feldspar core surrounded by a mantle of fine recrystallized grains, is very characteristic. The majority of plagioclase twins obey the albite-twin law; however, the association with pericline-law twinning suggests that many of the twins are mechanical. Evidence of strain, such as deformation twins, bent or curved twins, undulatory extinction, deformation bands and kink bands occur characteristically in plagioclase. Myrmekite is ubiquitous at K-feldspar grain boundaries, most notably on the long sides of inequant grains parallel to the S-foliation direction, which invariably face the maximum finite shortening direction. Deformation of quartz in mylonitic augen gneisses commonly results in the development of core-and-mantle structure and “type-4” quartz ribbons of elongated, preferably oriented, newly recrystallized quartz aggregates suggesting a primary dynamic recrystallization. Undulatory extinction, deformation bands and lamellae are the strain-related features associated with quartz porphyroclasts. Micas, especially biotite, undergo internal deformation by bend gliding and kinking. Most of the micas are completely attenuated and aligned such that their (001) planes are subparallel or parallel to the margins of quartz ribbons and define the foliation in the rock. These microstructures of feldspars, quartz and mica in the mylonitic augen gneisses in this part of the southern Menderes Massif are broadly consistent with fabric development under upper-greenschist- to lower-amphibolite-facies conditions, rather than almandine–amphibolite facies, as was previously believed. This supports the previous contention of the authors that the protoliths of augen gneisses are younger granitoids and do not represent an exposed Precambrian Pan-African basement in the Menderes Massif.     

Evolution of the eastern margin of Korea: Constraints on the opening of the East Sea (Japan Sea)

We interpreted marine seismic profiles in conjunction with swath bathymetric and magnetic data to investigate rifting to breakup processes at the eastern Korean margin that led to the separation of the southwestern Japan Arc. The eastern Korean margin is rimmed by fundamental elements of rift architecture comprising a seaward succession of a rift basin and an uplifted rift flank passing into the slope, typical of a passive continental margin. In the northern part, rifting occurred in the Korea Plateau that is a continental fragment extended and partially segmented from the Korean Peninsula. Two distinguished rift basins (Onnuri and Bandal Basins) in the Korea Plateau are bounded by major synthetic and smaller antithetic faults, creating wide and considerably symmetric profiles. The large-offset border fault zones of these basins have convex dip slopes and demonstrate a zig-zag arrangement along strike. In contrast, the southern margin is engraved along its length with a single narrow rift basin (Hupo Basin) that is an elongated asymmetric half-graben. Analysis of rift fault patterns suggests that rifting at the Korean margin was primarily controlled by normal faulting resulting from extension rather than strike-slip deformation. Two extension directions for rifting are recognized: the Onnuri and Hupo Basins were rifted in the east-west direction; the Bandal Basin in the east–west and northwest–southeast directions, suggesting two rift stages. We interpret that the east–west direction represents initial rifting at the inner margin; while the Japan Basin widened, rifting propagated southeastward repeatedly from the Japan Basin toward the Korean margin but could not penetrate the strong continental lithosphere of the Korean Shield and changed the direction to the south, resulting in east–west extension to create the rift basins at the Korean margin. The northwest–southeast direction probably represents the direction of rifting orthogonal to the inferred line of breakup along the base of the slope of the Korea Plateau; after breakup the southwestern Japan Arc separated in the southeast direction, indicating a response to tensional tectonics associated with the subduction of the Pacific Plate in the northwest direction. No significant volcanism was involved in initial rifting. In contrast, the inception of sea floor spreading documents a pronounced volcanic phase which appears to reflect asthenospheric upwelling as well as rift-induced convection particularly in the narrow southern margin. We suggest that structural and igneous evolution of the Korean margin, although it is in a back-arc setting, can be explained by the processes occurring at the passive continental margin with magmatism influenced by asthenospheric upwelling.     

Hydrometallurgical processing and recovery of molybdenum trioxide from spent catalyst

Hydrometallurgical processing of spent hydrodesulphurisation (HDS) catalyst for the recovery of molybdenum using sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide mixtures was investigated. The results indicated that the recovery of molybdenum was largely dependent on the concentrations of Na₂CO₃ and H₂O₂ in the reaction medium, which controls the acidity of the leach liquor and carry over of impurities such as Al, Ni, P, Si and V. Leaching process was exothermic and leaching efficiency of molybdenum decreased with increasing solid to liquid ratio. Large scale leaching of spent catalyst, under optimum conditions: 20% pulp density, 85 g/L Na₂CO₃, 10 vol.% H₂O₂ and 1 h reaction, resulted a leaching efficiency of 84% Mo. The obtained leach liquor contained (g/L): Mo — 22.0, Ni — 0.015 and Al — 0.82, P — 1.1, Si — 0.094 and minor quantities of V — 8 mg/L, As and Co — < 1 mg/L. Recovery of Mo from leach solution as MoO₃ of 97.30% purity was achieved by ammonium molybdate precipitation method.     

A monotonic limiter and flux-corrected transport approach for high-order time integration schemes

A monotonic transport algorithm for a high-order time integration scheme is described in this paper. The algorithm is a modified version of an existing high-order time integration scheme, and is tested using a simple one-dimensional pulse and two-dimensional deformational flows. It is found that the new formulation can remove the error, caused by new maxima/minima and excessive smoothing, which occurs in scalar transport using the original extrapolation scheme. The results show that there may be potential for the high-order time integration scheme to be applied in numerical weather prediction models.     

Changes of precipitation extremes over South Korea projected by the 5 RCMs under RCP scenarios

The change of extreme precipitation is assessed with the HadGEM2-AO - 5 Regional Climate Models (RCMs) chain, which is a national downscaling project undertaken cooperatively by several South Korean institutes aimed at producing regional climate change projection with fine resolution (12.5 km) around the Korean Peninsula. The downscaling domain, resolution and lateral boundary conditions are held the same among the 5 RCMs to minimize the uncertainties from model configuration. Climatological changes reveal a statistically significant increase in the mid-21st century (2046- 2070; Fut1) and the late-21st century (2076-2100; Fut2) precipitation properties related to extreme precipitation, such as precipitation intensity and average of upper 5 percentile daily precipitation, with respect to the reference period (1981-2005). Changes depending on the intensity categories also present a clear trend of decreasing light rain and increasing heavy rain. In accordance with these results, the change of 1-in-50 year maximum precipitation intensity over South Korea is estimated by the GEV method. The result suggests that the 50-year return value (RV50) will change from -32.69% to 72.7% and from -31.6% to 96.32% in Fut1 and from -31.97% to 86.25% and from -19.45% to 134.88% in Fut2 under representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios, respectively, at the 90% confidence level. This study suggests that multi-RCMs can be used to reduce uncertainties and assess the future change of extreme precipitation more reliably. Moreover, future projection of the regional climate change contains uncertainties evoked from not only driving GCM but also RCM. Therefore, multi-GCM and multi-RCM studies are expected to provide more robust projection.     

Impact of vegetation feedback on the temperature and its diurnal range over the Northern Hemisphere during summer in a 2 × CO2 climate

This study examines the potential impact of vegetation feedback on the changes in the diurnal temperature range (DTR) due to the doubling of atmospheric CO₂ concentrations during summer over the Northern Hemisphere using a global climate model equipped with a dynamic vegetation model. Results show that CO₂ doubling induces significant increases in the daily mean temperature and decreases in DTR regardless of the presence of the vegetation feedback effect. In the presence of vegetation feedback, increase in vegetation productivity related to warm and humid climate lead to (1) an increase in vegetation greenness in the mid-latitude and (2) a greening and the expansion of grasslands and boreal forests into the tundra region in the high latitudes. The greening via vegetation feedback induces contrasting effects on the temperature fields between the mid- and high-latitude regions. In the mid-latitudes, the greening further limits the increase in T _max more than T _min, resulting in further decreases in DTR because the greening amplifies evapotranspiration and thus cools daytime temperature. The greening in high-latitudes, however, it reinforces the warming by increasing T _max more than T _min to result in a further increase in DTR from the values obtained without vegetation feedback. This effect on T _max and DTR in the high latitude is mainly attributed to the reduction in surface albedo and the subsequent increase in the absorbed insolation. Present study indicates that vegetation feedback can alter the response of the temperature field to increases in CO₂ mainly by affecting the T _max and that its effect varies with the regional climate characteristics as a function of latitudes.     

Source identification of PM2.5 particles measured in Gwangju, Korea

The UNMIX and Chemical Mass Balance (CMB) receptor models were used to investigate sources of PM_2.5 aerosols measured between March 2001 and February 2002 in Gwangju, Korea. Measurements of PM_2.5 particles were used for the analysis of carbonaceous species (organic (OC) and elemental carbon (EC)) using the thermal manganese dioxide oxidation (TMO) method, the investigation of seven ionic species using ion chromatography (IC), and the analysis of twenty-four metal species using Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP)-Atomic Emission Spectrometry (AES)/ICP-Mass Spectrometry (MS). According to annual average PM_2.5 source apportionment results obtained from CMB calculations, diesel vehicle exhaust was the major contributor, accounting for 33.4% of the measured PM_2.5 mass (21.5 μg m^− 3), followed by secondary sulfate (14.6%), meat cooking (11.7%), secondary organic carbon (8.9%), secondary nitrate (7.6%), urban dust (5.5%), Asian dust (4.4%), biomass burning (2.8%), sea salt (2.7%), residual oil combustion (2.6%), gasoline vehicle exhaust (1.9%), automobile lead (0.5%), and components of unknown sources (3.4%). Seven PM_2.5 sources including diesel vehicles (29.6%), secondary sulfate (17.4%), biomass burning (14.7%), secondary nitrate (12.6%), gasoline vehicles (12.4%), secondary organic carbon (5.8%) and Asian dust (1.9%) were identified from the UNMIX analysis. The annual average source apportionment results from the two models are compared and the reasons for differences are qualitatively discussed for better understanding of PM_2.5 sources.Additionally, the impact of air mass pathways on the PM_2.5 mass was evaluated using air mass trajectories calculated with the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) backward trajectory model. Source contributions to PM_2.5 collected during the four air mass patterns and two event periods were calculated with the CMB model and analyzed. Results of source apportionment revealed that the contribution of diesel traffic exhaust (47.0%) in stagnant conditions (S) was much higher than the average contribution of diesel vehicle exhaust (33.4%) during the sampling period. During Asian dust (AD) periods when the air mass passed over the Korean peninsula, Asian dust and secondary organic carbon accounted for 25.2 and 23.0% of the PM_2.5 mass, respectively, whereas Asian dust contributed only 10.8% to the PM_2.5 mass during the AD event when the air mass passed over the Yellow Sea. The contribution of biomass burning to the PM_2.5 mass during the biomass burning (BB) event equaled 63.8%.     

Direct shortwave radiative forcing of the Asian dust aerosol on dust emission

The physical processes of the feedback mechanism of direct shortwave radiative forcing of the Asian dust aerosol on dust emission has been examined using simulated results with the coupled (with dust shortwave radiative forcing) and the non-coupled model (without dust shortwave radiative forcing) based on the MM5 model and the Asian Dust Aerosol Model on 19 March 2002. The results indicate that a significant dust emission reduction occurs in the high dust concentration (HDC) region of the dust source region whereas an enhanced dust emission appears in the downstream of the dust source region. It is found that Asian dust aerosols raised during the daytime by the strong surface wind cause negative shortwave radiative flux near the surface, which in turn reduces the sensible heat flux causing the cooling of the air, thereby enhancing stable stratification. The dynamic adjustment of the negative radiative flux of the dust induces a positive pressure anomaly over the HDC region and a negative pressure anomaly toward the synoptic low pressure center, resulting in a dipole shape of pressure anomaly field near the surface. The associated secondary circulation of this pressure anomaly together with the reduction of turbulent intensity due to the reduced sensible heat flux reduces the low-level wind speed thereby reducing dust emission in the upstream of the HDC region of the dust source region (Region I), while enhancing the low-level wind speed in the downstream region (Region II), which in turn enhances dust emission. This enhanced dust emission is smaller than the emission reduction in the upstream, resulting in overall dust emission reduction during the daytime.     

Projections of high resolution climate changes for South Korea using multiple-regional climate models based on four RCP scenarios. Part 1: surface air temperature

We projected surface air temperature changes over South Korea during the mid (2026-2050) and late (2076-2100) 21st century against the current climate (1981-2005) using the simulation results from five regional climate models (RCMs) driven by Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model, version 2, coupled with the Atmosphere- Ocean (HadGEM2-AO), and two ensemble methods (equal weighted averaging, weighted averaging based on Taylor’s skill score) under four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenarios. In general, the five RCM ensembles captured the spatial and seasonal variations, and probability distribution of temperature over South Korea reasonably compared to observation. They particularly showed a good performance in simulating annual temperature range compared to HadGEM2-AO. In future simulation, the temperature over South Korea will increase significantly for all scenarios and seasons. Stronger warming trends are projected in the late 21st century than in the mid-21st century, in particular under RCP8.5. The five RCM ensembles projected that temperature changes for the mid/late 21st century relative to the current climate are +1.54°C/+1.92°C for RCP2.6, +1.68°C/+2.91°C for RCP4.5, +1.17°C/+3.11°C for RCP6.0, and +1.75°C/+4.73°C for RCP8.5. Compared to the temperature projection of HadGEM2-AO, the five RCM ensembles projected smaller increases in temperature for all RCP scenarios and seasons. The inter-RCM spread is proportional to the simulation period (i.e., larger in the late-21st than mid-21st century) and significantly greater (about four times) in winter than summer for all RCP scenarios. Therefore, the modeled predictions of temperature increases during the late 21st century, particularly for winter temperatures, should be used with caution.     

Direct and semi-direct radiative effects of anthropogenic aerosols in the Western United States: Seasonal and geographical variations according to regional climate characteristics

The direct and semi-direct radiative effects of anthropogenic aerosols on the radiative transfer and cloud fields in the Western United States (WUS) according to seasonal aerosol optical depth (AOD) and regional climate are examined using a regional climate model (RCM) in conjunction with the aerosol fields from a GEOS-Chem chemical-transport model (CTM) simulation. The two radiative effects cannot be separated within the experimental design in this study, thus the combined direct- and semi-direct effects are called radiative effects hereafter. The CTM shows that the AOD associated with the anthropogenic aerosols is chiefly due to sulfates with minor contributions from black carbon (BC) and that the AOD of the anthropogenic aerosol varies according to local emissions and the seasonal low-level winds. The RCM-simulated anthropogenic aerosol radiative effects vary according to the characteristics of regional climate, in addition to the AOD. The effects on the top of the atmosphere (TOA) outgoing shortwave radiation (OSRT) range from ?0.2?Wm^?2 to ?1?Wm^?2. In Northwestern US (NWUS), the maximum and minimum impact of anthropogenic aerosols on OSRT occurs in summer and winter, respectively, following the seasonal AOD. In Arizona-New Mexico (AZNM), the effect of anthropogenic sulfates on OSRT shows a bimodal distribution with winter/summer minima and spring/fall maxima, while the effect of anthropogenic BC shows a single peak in summer. The anthropogenic aerosols affect surface insolation range from ?0.6?Wm^?2 to ?2.4?Wm^?2, with similar variations found for the effects on OSRT except that the radiative effects of anthropogenic BC over AZNM show a bimodal distribution with spring/fall maxima and summer/winter minima. The radiative effects of anthropogenic sulfates on TOA outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) and the surface downward longwave radiation (DLRS) are notable only in summer and are characterized by strong geographical contrasts; the summer OLR in NWUS (AZNM) is reduced (enhanced) by 0.52?Wm^?2 (1.14?Wm^?2). The anthropogenic sulfates enhance (reduce) summer DLRS by 0.2?Wm^?2 (0.65?Wm^?2) in NWUS (AZNM). The anthropogenic BC affect DLRS noticeably only in AZNM during summer. The anthropogenic aerosols affect the cloud water path (CWP) and the radiative transfer noticeably only in summer when convective clouds are dominant. Primarily shortwave-reflecting anthropogenic sulfates decrease and increase CWP in AZNM and NWUS, respectively, however, the shortwave-absorbing anthropogenic BC reduces CWP in both regions. Due to strong feedback via convective clouds, the radiative effects of anthropogenic aerosols on the summer radiation field are more closely correlated with the changes in CWP than the AOD. The radiative effect of the total anthropogenic aerosols is dominated by the anthropogenic sulfates that contribute more than 80% of the total AOD associated with the anthropogenic aerosols.