Last interglacial sea levels on the south coast of New South Wales

Remnants of the Last Interglacial shoreline occur at Middle Lagoon on the far south coast of New South Wales. Relict beach sediments can be traced to a height of at least +4.8 m and are indicative of a former mean sea level of about +3 m. Thermoluminescence (TL) ages of 126 ± 13 ka and 114 ± 15 ka were determined for beach and aeolian facies respectively. Sands in the lower part of an exposure on the adjacent Gillards Beach gave TL ages of 108 ± 13 ka, but sands in the upper part of that exposure gave an age of 19.9 ± 3.5 ka. This chronological evidence of a stratigraphic unconformity in what was initially taken as pedogenic differentiation at Gillards Beach is supported by contrasting electron traps and colour centres in crystal lattices of quartz grains in these two samples. No tectonic displacement is apparent. This site provides the first evidence of the Last Interglacial sea level for 1000 km along the coast between Gippsland and Newcastle.     

Double injection events of mafic magma into supersolidus Yucheon granites to produce two types of mafic enclaves in the Cretaceous Gyeongsang Basin,SE Korea

Petrographic and geochemical features of the Cretaceous Yucheon granites and their mafic microgranular/magmatic enclaves (MMEs), SE Korea, reveal that the MMEs originated from magma mixing. Mesoscopic and microscopic features indicate that mechanical mixing operated heterogeneously to produce the MMEs with a wide range of sizes and textures. Chemical compositions of amphibole, biotite, and plagioclase rims of both the MMEs and host granites are almost identical, indicating that chemical homogenization took place to some extent after the mechanical mixing. Plagioclase cores, however, have various compositions depending on the host rocks and/or sampling locations, suggesting their sluggish re-equilibration. The MMEs are divided into Type A (low TiO₂, very fine-grained, chilled margins) and Type B (high TiO₂, fine- to medium-grained, no chilled margins). The lower TiO₂ MMEs cooled more rapidly and interacted with granitic magma for a shorter period of time than the higher TiO₂ MMEs. Additionally, the former are less enriched in HREEs than the latter. Zoned plagioclase has two zones of increased An content. These features are indicative of double injection events of mafic magma. A previous model explains the magma mixing as resulting from the generation of a slab window due to Kula-Pacific ridge subduction. The model cannot, however, explain the eastward younging of the granites in Korea, necessitating a new, more elaborate model of Cretaceous geodynamics and magmatism in East Asia.     

Endolithic biodegradation of cool-water skeletal carbonates on Scott shelf, northwestern Vancouver Island, Canada

Biodegradation of shell material is widespread in the cool-water skeletal carbonate deposits on Scott shelf, northwestern Vancouver Island, and is especially evident in the large aragonitic bivalves, Glycymeris and Humilaria, major primary sediment contributors. Ten types of endolithic microborings have been identified in the shells, including representatives of green algae (e.g., Ostreobium quekettii), blue-green algae (e.g., Plectonema terebrans, ?Scytonema sp.), fungi, bacteria and clionid sponges, as well as macroborings of phoronids, polychaetes and naticid gatropods. Microcrystalline carbonate is not precipitated in vacated bores. Boring physically weakens the shells, rendering them more prone to mechanical abrasion during sediment transport and bioturbation, and to biological abrasion by grazing benthos. Tumbling experiments demonstrate that the rate of carbonate mud production is much greater for bored as compared to fresh bivalve shells, and that mud production rates decrease with tumbling time because most endolithic microborings are confined to the periphery of grains. Boring also increases significantly the porosity and surface area of skeletal grains, and destroys their organic matrix, making them susceptible to maceration and dissolution on cool-water shelves. Fostered by the generally low rates of carbonate production and accumulation, many aragonitic bivalve shells on Scott shelf have become thoroughly degraded through a combination of endolithic microboring, maceration and dissolution within about 1000 years in ambient sea water. In geologic terms, such selective taphonomic loss of skeletal material may be considerable in ancient temperate-shelf limestones and should be evaluated when interpreting their paleoecology and paleoenvironments.     

Distorted Froude‐scaled flume analysis of large woody debris

This paper presents the results of a movable‐boundary, distorted, Froude‐scaled hydraulic model based on Abiaca Creek, a sand‐bedded channel in northern Mississippi. The model was used to examine the geomorphic and hydraulic impact of simplified large woody debris (LWD) elements. The theory of physical scale models is discussed and the method used to construct the LWD test channel is developed. The channel model had bed and banks moulded from 0·8 mm sand, and flow conditions were just below the threshold of motion so that any sediment transport and channel adjustment were the result of the debris element. Dimensions and positions of LWD elements were determined using a debris jam classification model. Elements were attached to a dynamometer to measure element drag forces, and channel adjustment was determined through detailed topographic surveys. The fluid drag force on the elements decreased asymptotically over time as the channel boundary eroded around the elements due to locally increased boundary shear stress. Total time for geomorphic adjustment computed for the prototype channel at the Q₂ discharge (discharge occurring once every two years on average) was as short as 45 hours. The size, depth and position of scour holes, bank erosion and bars created by flow acceleration past the elements were found to be related to element length and position within the channel cross‐section. Morphologies created by each debris element in the model channel were comparable with similar jams observed in the prototype channel. Published in 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis><Subscript>W</Subscript>9 Tohoku earthquake in 2011 in Japan: precursors uncovered by natural time analysis

This paper reviews the precursory phenomena of the 2011 M _W9 Tohoku earthquake in Japan that emerge solely when we analyze the seismicity data in a new time domain termed natural time. If we do not consider this analysis, important precursory changes cannot be identified and hence are missed. Natural time analysis has the privilege that enables the introduction of an order parameter of seismicity. In this frame, we find that the fluctuations of this parameter exhibit an unprecedented characteristic change, i.e., an evident minimum, approximately two months before Tohoku earthquake, which strikingly is almost simultaneous with unique anomalous geomagnetic field variations recorded mainly on the z component. This is consistent with our finding that such a characteristic change in seismicity appears when a seismic electric signal (SES) activity of the VAN method (from the initials of Varotsos, Alexopoulos, Nomicos) initiates, and provides a direct confirmation of the physical interconnection between SES and seismicity.     

Efficient methods for solving water flow in variably saturated soils under prescribed flux infiltration

The non-linear solvers in numerical solutions of water flow in variably saturated soils are prone to convergence difficulties. Many aspects can give rise to such difficulties and in this paper we address the gravity term and the prescribed-flux boundary in the Picard iteration. The problem of the gravity term in the Picard iteration is iteration-to-iteration oscillation as the gravity term is treated, by analogy with the time-step advance technique, ‘explicitly’ in the iteration. The proposed method for the gravity term is an improvement of the ‘implicit’ approach of Zhang and Ewen [Water Resour. Res. 36 (2000) 2777] by extending it to heterogeneous soil and approximating the inter-nodal hydraulic conductivity in the diffusive term and the gravity term with the same scheme. The prescribed-flux boundary in traditional methods also gives rise to iteration-to-iteration oscillation because there is no feedback to the flux in the solution at the new iteration. To reduce such oscillation, a new method is proposed to provide such a feedback to the flux. Comparison with traditional Picard and Newton iteration methods for a wide range of problems show that a combination of these two proposed methods greatly improves the stability and consequently the computational efficiency, making the use of small time step and/or under-relaxation solely for convergence unnecessary.     

Are peatlands in different states with respect to their thermodynamic behaviour? A simple test of peatland energy and entropy budgets

Whilst all ecosystems must obey the second law of thermodynamics, these physical bounds and controls on ecosystem evolution and development are largely ignored across the ecohydrological literature. To unravel the importance of these underlying restraints on ecosystem form and function, and their power to inform our scientific understanding, we have calculated the entropy budget of a range of peat ecosystems. We hypothesize that less disturbed peatlands are ‘near equilibrium’ with respect to the second law of thermodynamics and thus respond to change by minimizing entropy production. This ‘near equilibrium’ state is best achieved by limiting evaporative losses. Alternatively, peatlands ‘far-from-equilibrium’ respond to a change in energy inputs by maximizing entropy production which is best achieved by increasing evapotranspiration. To test these alternatives this study examined the energy balance time series from seven peatlands across a disturbance gradient. We estimate the entropy budgets for each and determine how a change in net radiation (ΔR_n) was transferred to a change in latent heat flux (ΔλE). The study showed that: (i) The transfer of net radiation to latent heat differed significantly between peatlands. One group transferred up to 64% of the change in net radiation to a change in latent heat flux, while the second transferred as little as 27%. (ii) Sites that transferred the most energy to latent heat flux were those that produced the greatest entropy. The study shows that an ecosystem could be ‘near equilibrium’ rather than ‘far from equilibrium’.     

What makes a ‘REDD’ country?

Despite remaining uncertainties, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing countries (REDD) projects are being planned and implemented across the tropics, primarily targeting countries with high forest cover and high deforestation rates. However, there is growing recognition that REDD planning requires a broadened approach; a future REDD mechanism should incentivise emissions reduction in all developing forested countries, and should address critical non-carbon dimensions of REDD implementation—quality of forest governance, conservation priorities, local rights and tenure frameworks, and sub-national project potential. When considering this broader suite of factors, different REDD priorities can emerge, including in countries with low forest cover that would be overlooked by conventional site selection criteria. Using the Philippines as a case study, the paper highlights the importance of an enabling environment to REDD implementation, and presents a more comprehensive and inclusive approach for thinking about what comprises a “REDD country.”     

Initialization and data assimilation experiments with a primitive equation model

The process of combining models of the ocean circulation with large data sets is known in meteorology as model initialization and data assimilation. This process is new to oceanographers, who only now are on the verge of having available world-wide synoptic maps of dynamic variables. In this paper we carry out a series of idealized initialization/assimilation experiments with a primitive equation (PE) model, which constitute a first step in developing a realistic process model and data assimilation techniques for the Gulf Stream system. The PE model is used in a spin-down mode and initialized with an analytic jet profile with geostrophically balanced fields.Two major questions are addressed in the present study. The first concerns the initialization process of a PE model during which internal/inertial gravity wave noise is produced. We ask: are the initialization shocks equally crucial for ocean models as they have been for their atmospheric counterparts? The results of an extensive series of balanced versus unbalanced initializations indicate that, for a PE model with a rigid lid, a brutally unbalanced initialization is required to produce strong internal gravity wave shocks. A geostrophically balanced initialization is sufficient to ensure smooth jet evolutions, with no apparent gravity waves, over long time durations in the spin-down mode. No sophisticated initialization procedures seem, therefore, to be required.The second question addressed is: which component of the flow is the most important in data assimilation to drive the model response towards a baseline reference ocean? We specifically compare the knowledge of the depth-integrated flow only, corresponding to measurements of the total transport, with the knowledge of the density field only, or equivalently the velocity shear. The knowledge of the interior density field is much more effective in decreasing the root-mean-square (r.m.s.) errors relative to the reference ocean. If the baroclinic structure is known, coarse horizontal resolutions of data insertion can be reached before significantly worsening the model estimates. If only the depth-averaged flow is known, a decrease in the horizontal resolution of data assimilation has an immediate effect: the r.m.s. errors sharply increase and the assimilation run diverges from the reference ocean. In the assimilation of the barotropic flow alone, even with dense resolution, the errors in the deep layers always show an increasing trend. The relative effectiveness of baroclinic versus barotropic data insertion can be rationalized in the context of geostrophic adjustment theory.     

Laboratory and field investigations of rockburst phenomena using concurrent geotomographic imaging and acoustic emission/microseismic techniques

The progress made on three phases of a research project, started in 1986 to investigate mining induced seismicity/rockburst phenomena using concurrent geotomographic imaging and microseismic monitoring techniques, is described. Phase I is the geotomographic software development and laboratory calibration trials. Phase II is the enhancement of traditional microseismic monitoring instrumentation with a waveform acquisition system, so that source mechanism studies can be carried out on mining induced seismic events. Phase III is the field trials of the hybrid technique which will be used to monitor changing rock mass physical properties, in response to mining. Preliminary results from all three phases are given, together with an outline of current and future research planned.Presented at the Fred Leighton Memorial Workshop on Mining Induced Seismicity, Montreal 1987.