Early Miocene sequence development across the New Jersey margin

Sequence stratigraphy provides an understanding of the interplay between eustasy, sediment supply and accommodation in the sedimentary construction of passive margins. We used this approach to follow the early to middle Miocene growth of the New Jersey margin and analyse the connection between relative changes of sea level and variable sediment supply. Eleven candidate sequence boundaries were traced in high-resolution multi-channel seismic profiles across the inner margin and matched to geophysical log signatures and lithologic changes in ODP Leg 150X onshore coreholes. Chronologies at these drill sites were then used to assign ages to the intervening seismic sequences. We conclude that the regional and global correlation of early Miocene sequences suggests a dominant role of global sea-level change but margin progradation was controlled by localized sediment contribution and that local conditions played a large role in sequence formation and preservation. Lowstand deposits were regionally restricted and their locations point to both single and multiple sediment sources. The distribution of highstand deposits, by contrast, documents redistribution by along shelf currents. We find no evidence that sea level fell below the elevation of the clinoform rollover, and the existence of extensive lowstand deposits seaward of this inflection point indicates efficient cross-shelf sediment transport mechanisms despite the apparent lack of well-developed fluvial drainage.     

Compositional gradients surrounding spherulites in obsidian and their relationship to spherulite growth and lava cooling

Spherical masses of crystal fibers (spherulites) crystalize from rhyolitic melt/glass mainly in response to significant undercooling while lava cools. Spherulite growth should induce compositional gradients in the surrounding glass from expulsion of incompatible constituents and diffusion of those constituents away from the spherulite. Finite-difference numerical modeling of one-dimensional diffusion, in which diffusivities are allowed to vary with temperature, is used to investigate how compositional gradients reflect spherulite growth and lava cooling. Overall, three forms of gradients are identified. Elements that diffuse quickly are expelled from the spherulite but then migrate away too quickly to become enriched at the boundary of the spherulite. Elements that diffuse slowly are trapped within the growing spherulite. Between those endmembers are elements that are not trapped, yet diffuse slow enough that they become enriched at the contact. Their slow diffusion away then elevates their concentrations in the surrounding glass. How enriched those elements are at the spherulite-matrix interface and how far their enrichments extend outwards into the glass reflect how spherulites grow and thermal conditions during growth. Concentrations of H₂O, Rb, F, Li, Cl, Na, K, Sr, Cs, Ba, and Be were measured in and around spherulites in obsidian from a 4.7?±?1?km³ rhyolite lava dome erupted from Tequila volcano, Mexico. Measurable concentration gradients are found for H₂O, Rb, and F. Attributes of those gradients and the behaviors of the other elements are in accord with their experimentally constrained diffusivities. Spherulites appear to have grown following radial, rather than volumetric, growth. The observed gradients (and lack of others) are more consistent with growth mainly below the glass transition, which would necessitate the dome cooling at ca. 10^?5 to 10^?7?°C?s^?1. Such slow cooling is consistent with the relatively large volume of the dome.     

Ground‐motion intensity and damage map selection for probabilistic infrastructure network risk assessment using optimization

In many parts of the world, earthquakes threaten regional infrastructure systems. For modeling risk using stochastic earthquake catalogs, random variables include rupture location and the damage state of different components. Thus, there is an infinite set of possible damage maps that a risk modeler could evaluate in an event‐based probabilistic loss model. Even a finite but large number of damage maps may not be practical, because many network performance measures are computationally expensive. Here, we show a computationally efficient method for selecting a subset of damage maps, corresponding ground‐motion intensity maps, and associated occurrence rates that reasonably estimates the full distribution of the ground‐motion intensity and a target performance measure using optimization. The method chooses a subset of maps and associated annual rates of occurrence that minimizes the error in estimating the distribution of a network performance measure as well as the marginal distributions of ground‐motion intensity exceedance. The joint distribution of the ground‐motion intensity is implicitly included in the objective function of the optimization problem via the network performance measure. We then show how to tune the optimization parameters based on consistency checks related to the network performance measure and the ground‐motion hazard. We illustrate the proposed method with a case study of the San Francisco Bay Area road network to estimate the exceedance curve of the average percentage change in morning commute trip time. This work facilitates expanded and risk‐consistent studies of the impacts of infrastructure networks on regional seismic risk and resiliency. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Generic identification of fragmentary Quaternary molluscs by amino acid chromatography: A tool for Quaternary and palaeontological research

The amino acid signature of fourteen genera of Mollusca, both Bivalvia and Gastropoda, was determined on over 300 individual valves. Examination of eight specific sets of amino acid ratios (for example: aspartic acid/glutamic acid, leucine/valine) indicates that these 14 genera (Patella, Littorina, Nucella, Buccinum, Turritella, Macoma, Scrobicularia, Mytilus, Cerastoderma, Arctica, Gtycymeris, Venus, Mya, and Hiatelld) can be distinguished one from another with a high degree of certainty. Discrimination between genera can be based on quantitative assessment of the probability of an individual analysis belonging to a specific genus. We conclude that the amino acid signature is sufficiently distinct that small shell fragments can be assigned to a genus on the basis of the amino acid chromatography. In some instances, for example Littorina, it may even be possible to identify fragments to specific species.     

Eclipse effects in the atmospheric boundary layer

The influence of a solar eclipse on solar-radiation fluxes, meteorological parameters, turbulence characteristics, and vertical temperature profiles in the atmospheric boundary layer is analyzed. Air-temperature variations caused by an eclipse and time delays of these variations with respect to the onset of the total-eclipse phase in the atmospheric surface and boundary layers are determined. The influence of a solar eclipse on the turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent heat flux, and variance and spectral density of the power of air-temperature pulsations are estimated. Variations in aerosol parameters and concentrations of light ions during a total solar eclipse are discussed.     

Age of granitoids in the Pripechora fault zone of the basement of Pechora Basin: First U–Pb (SIMS) data

Upper Precambrian basement of the Pechora Basin that is located between the Urals and Timan and is a part of the Pechora plate lies beneath 1–7 km of Ordovician-Cenozoic sediment cover. On the base of geophysical data and drilling the basement of the Pechora plate is subdivided into the Timan crustal block and the Bolshezemel crustal block which differ by composition and the character of magmatism. The boundary between the crustal blocks is a system of deep faults called the Pripechora and Ilych-Chikshino faults that strike in a northwestern direction, extending from the Urals to the Pechora Sea. Granitoids of Charkayu complex which were penetrated by several deep boreholes in Pripechora fault zone are interpreted as suprasubduction (island arc and collision) magmas associated with the Timan orogeny. First U–Pb dating (SIMS, using SHRIMP-II and SHRIMP-RG) of zircons from granitoids indicate that granitoid magmatism which accompanied the final stages of the Timanide orogeny occurred in the Late Vendian about 555–544 Ma. The age of zircons from granites of the 1-Charkayu borehole is 544 ± 6 Ma, from granites of 1-East Charkayu borehole is 545 ± 5 Ma, and from granodiorites of 1-South Charkayu borehole is 555 ± 2 Ma.     

Adsorption of carbonate and bicarbonate salts at the air–brine interface

Previous research has shown that the flotation of soluble salt is determined by interfacial water structure, thermal stability, and viscosity. These salts include alkali halide and alkali oxyanion salts. Of particular interest are the carbonate salts such as those associated with the great trona deposit of the Green River basin in Wyoming. In this study, we investigated the adsorption of carbonate and bicarbonate salts at the air–brine interface and correlated the adsorption behavior with water structure. Specifically, the equilibrium and dynamic surface tensions of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate salts have been measured as a function of the salt concentration up to saturation and compared with the model prediction using the Gibbs–Langmuir adsorption theory. The results show that the negative adsorption of sodium carbonate leads to a significant increase in surface tension of the brine solution. For sodium bicarbonate, both the negative adsorption and the increase in surface tension are significantly lower when compared with the sodium carbonate case. The negative adsorption is correlated with the water structure making/breaking character of carbonate and bicarbonate solutions. In particular, sodium ions are significantly more hydrated than carbonate and bicarbonate ions, and, therefore, tend to be excluded from the air–brine interface. On the other hand, carbonate and bicarbonate ions are accommodated at the air–brine interface. In any event, the balance between sodium exclusion and carbonate/bicarbonate accommodation results in an increase in the surface tension of these solutions with an increase in salt concentration.     

Geochemistry and metamorphic evolution of the Pohorje Mountain eclogites from the easternmost Austroalpine basement of the Eastern Alps (Northern Slovenia)

Kyanite-rich and quartz-rich eclogites occur as lenses within amphibolite-facies quartzo-feldspathic gneisses in the Pohorje Mountains, Northern Slovenia, that form the easternmost Austroalpine basement. Major and trace elements indicate that the kyanite-rich eclogites were derived from plagioclase-rich gabbroic cumulates, whereas the quartz-rich eclogites represent more fractionated basaltic compositions. Both varieties are characterized by a LREE-depleted N-MORB type REE signature. Geothermobarometry and P-T pseudosections indicate that eclogites equilibrated at 1.8-2.5 GPa and 630-700 °C, consistently with the lack of coesite and with equilibration conditions of the chemically similar eclogites from the adjacent basement units at Koralpe and Saualpe type localities. Decompression reaction textures include (i) clinopyroxene-plagioclase intergrowths after omphacite, (ii) replacement of kyanite by corundum-plagioclase-spinel±sapphirine symplectites, (iii) breakdown of phengite to biotite-plagioclase sapphirine symplectites. The results of this study indicate that Koralpe, Saualpe and Pohorje high-pressure rocks represent former MORB-type oceanic crust that was subducted in the course of the late Cretaceous (approximately 100 Ma ago) collision between the European and the Apulian plates.     

Interdecadal variability of the Pacific Ocean: model response to observed heat flux and wind stress anomalies

Variability of the Pacific Ocean is examined in numerical simulations with an ocean general circulation model forced by observed anomalies of surface heat flux, wind stress and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) over the period 1970-88. The model captures the 1976-77 winter time climate shift in sea surface temperature, as well as its monthly, seasonal and longer term variability as evidenced in regional time series and empirical orthogonal function analyses. Examination of the surface mixed-layer heat budget reveals that the 1976-77 shift was caused by a unique concurrance of sustained heat flux input anomalies and very strong horizontal advection anomalies during a multi-month period preceding the shift in both the central Pacific region (where cooling occurred) and the California coastal region (where warming occurred). In the central Pacific, the warm conditions preceding and the cold conditions following the shift tend to be maintained by anomalous vertical mixing due to increases in the atmospheric momentum flux (TKE input) into the mixed layer (which deepens in the model after the shift) from the early 1970s to the late 1970s and 1980s. Since the ocean model does not contain feedback to the atmosphere and it succeeds in capturing the major features of the 1976-77 shift, it appears that the midlatitude part of the shift was driven by the atmosphere, although effects of midlatitude ocean-atmosphere feedback are still possible. The surface mixed-layer heat budget also reveals that, in the central Pacific, the effects of heat flux input and vertical mixing anomalies are comparable in amplitude while horizontal advection anomalies are roughly half that size. In the California coastal region, in contrast, where wind variability is much weaker than in the central Pacific, horizontal advection and vertical mixing effects on the mixed layer heat budget are only one-quarter the size of typical heat flux input anomalies.This paper was presented at the Second International Conference on Modelling of Global Climate Variability, held in Hamburg 7–11 September 1992 under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. Guest Editor for these papers is L. Dümenil     

Parametrization and influence of subgridscale orography in general circulation and numerical weather prediction models

Summary The problem of representing the drag due to subgridscale orography is examined. Results from model simulations are used to illustrate clear deficiencies in the global angular momentum budgets and possible ways of correcting for these deficiencies are considered. It is argued that a formulation for the stress due to subgridscale gravity waves is required, as was first recognized by Boer et al. (1984a, b), and the impact of a scheme based on Palmer et al. (1986) is presented. The scheme is improved by using directionally-dependent subgridscale orographic variances. Results from 90-day integrations using the ECMWF and UKMO models with similar resolutions are very much in accord both with and without a wave drag parametrization scheme; showing much improved wintertime circulations.The relationship between the wave drag and the model orography is examined with the use of idealized stress profiles whereby the wave drag is limited to either near the surface or in the stratosphere. A combination of parametrized wave drag with an envelope orography performs best at this stage of development.Results are presented from a substantial series of ten-day forecast experiments with the ECMWF operational model using mean and (1 ) envelope orographies, these show significant improvements in forecast skill.With 26 Figures