The stability of road cut cliff face along SH-121: a case study

Rockfall is one of the major concerns along highways, settlements and forests around the globe. Amboli road cut hill is one such region which is highly vulnerable and suffers from recurrent rockfall mostly in the rainy season, which blocks the State Highway 121 for considerable period of time. The steep and highly jointed slope along the road makes the zone prone to failure due to rainwater action. This road experiences heavy traffic throughout the year as it is the only road connecting Goa to Satara and Kolhapur via Sawantwadi in Maharashtra State, India. Therefore, an attempt has been made in this study to understand the stability of the cliff face. A combination of field study and 2D computer simulation was performed to assess surface characteristics of the cliff face. Bounce height, translational kinetic energy, translational velocity and factor of safety for saturated condition have been estimated. The result of this study shows that the rock face is highly unstable taking into consideration the environmental condition and daily traffic. Proper preventive measures have also been suggested to arrest the movement of falling rocks before reaching the roads or valleys. It is a belief that if proper care is taken, then further uncertain rockfall hazards can be prevented.     

Receiver function imaging in strongly laterally heterogeneous crust: Synthetic modeling of BOLIVAR data

We resolve a large (~20 km) discrepancy in Moho depth determined from PdS receiver functions (RFs) and from active source seismic profiling in the complex Caribbean-South American plate boundary zone in eastern Venezuela. As part of the BOLIVAR experiment 20 broadband stations were deployed along an active source profile to record teleseisms. Using the extremely heterogeneous crustal model obtained from active source data, we generated 2D finite-difference elastic wave synthetics and from them calculated receiver functions and CCP stacks. We compare the observations with synthetic sections that have been spatially sampled at 0.25 km to 40 km. The densely sampled synthetics show that several events in the field data that were originally interpreted as the Moho are multiple reflections within sedimentary basins. Where the Moho has the steepest dip under the plate boundary the CCP stacks fail to image the Moho well, regardless of the density of spatial sampling. A suitable spatial sampling criterion for clearly imaging the lower crust and Moho is to overlap Fresnel zones by 50% at Moho depth, which for the 1 Hz receiver functions examined here, requires an instrument spacing of 15–20 km, with the actual field data density ranging from 20 km to 100 km.     

P travel-times from Nevada Test Site explosions and the determination of average global P travel-times

An analysis of P travel-times from the Nevada Test Site is carried out using data from 23 explosions between 1966 and 1976. Results show a scatter of travel times which may partly arise in the lower mantle. P travel-times over the distance range 25–100° are 2.0–2.5 s faster than the Jeffreys-Bullen travel times.     

A comparison of channel-base currents and optical signals for rocket-triggered lightning strokes

A comparative analysis has been performed of the channel-base current and light waveforms for four rocket-triggered lightning strokes. It has been found that the current and light signals at the bottom of the channel exhibit a linear relationship (direct proportionality) in their rising portions. However, just after the peaks the linearity disappears, and the light signals usually decrease faster than the currents during the next several microseconds. Later, this trend is reversed and in some cases the light signals show another rising trend, even when the currents continue to decrease. The linear light/current relationship for the rising portions of the waveforms appears to be the same for different strokes. The findings support the idea of evaluating the variation of return stroke current along the lightning return stroke channel using light signals, provided that evaluation is limited to the rising portions of those signals and assuming that the light/current relationship observed at the bottom of the channel holds at other heights.     

Studying an interaction between tropical cyclones and jet streams using the numerical simulation data

Discussed are the results of studying an evolution of tropical cyclones (TCs) in the Pacific Ocean using the data of computation of ETA and WRF NMM mesoscale numerical atmospheric models. Computed are the trajectories of TCs and the fields of meteorological variables in the typhoons, of the wind speed and kinetic energy in the subtropical jet stream during the development of Parma, Melor, and Lupit typhoons. Carried out are the analysis and comparison of computed fields of pressure, wind, kinetic energy, and trajectories of TCs obtained using these models and their comparison with the actual fields. It is demonstrated that both models computed rather well the complex trajectories and the fields of wind and kinetic energy varying in the course of the interaction. Proposed is an explanation of processes taking place during the interaction between the vortices and the subtropical jet stream and the polar front.     

Zircon trace element characteristics and ages in granulite xenoliths: a key to understanding the age and origin of the lower crust,Arkhangelsk kimberlite province,Russia

Garnet granulite and pyroxenite xenoliths from the Grib kimberlite pipe (Arkhangelsk, NW Russia) represent the lower crust beneath Russian platform in close vicinity to the cratonic region of the north-eastern Baltic (Fennoscandian) Shield. Many of the xenoliths have experienced strong interaction with the kimberlite host, but in others some primary granulite-facies minerals are preserved. Calculated bulk compositions for the granulites suggest that their protoliths were basic to intermediate igneous rocks; pyroxenites were ultrabasic to basic cumulates. A few samples are probably metasedimentary in origin. Zircons are abundant in the xenoliths; they exhibit complex zoning in cathodoluminescence with relic cores and various metamorphic rims. Cores include oscillatory zircon crystallized in magmatic protoliths, and metamorphic and magmatic sector-zoned zircons. Recrystallization of older zircons led to the formation of bright homogeneous rims. In some samples, homogeneous shells are surrounded by darker convoluted overgrowths that were formed by subsolidus growth when a change in mineral association occurred. The source of Zr was a phase consumed during a reaction, which produced garnet. Late-generation zircons in all xenoliths show concordant U–Pb ages of 1.81–1.84 Ga (1,826 ± 11 Ma), interpreted as the age of last granulite-facies metamorphism. This event completely resets most zircon cores. An earlier metamorphic event at 1.96–1.94 Ga is recorded by some rare cores, and a few magmatic oscillatory zircons have retained a Neoarchaean age of 2,719 ± 14 Ma. The assemblage of metaigneous and metasedimentary rocks was probably formed before the event at 1.96 Ga. Inherited magmatic zircons indicate the existence of continental crust by the time of intrusion of magmatic protoliths in the Late Archaean. The U–Pb zircon ages correspond to major events recorded in upper crustal rocks of the region: collisional metamorphism and magmatism 2.7 Ga ago and reworking of Archaean rocks at around 1.95–1.75 Ga. However, formation of the granulitic paragenesis in lower crustal rocks occurred significantly later than the last granulite-facies event seen in the upper crust and correlates instead with retrograde metamorphism and small-volume magmatism in the upper crust.     

Typochemistry of rinkite and products of its alteration in the Khibiny Alkaline pluton,Kola Peninsula

The occurrence, morphology, and composition of rinkite are considered against the background of zoning in the Khibiny pluton. Accessory rinkite is mostly characteristic of foyaite in the outer part of pluton, occurs somewhat less frequently in foyaite and rischorrite in the central part of pluton, even more sparsely in foidolites and apatite–nepheline rocks, and sporadically in fenitized xenoliths of the Lovozero Formation. The largest, up to economic, accumulations of rinkite are related to the pegmatite and hydrothermal veins, which occur in nepheline syenite on both sides of the Main foidolite ring. The composition of rinkite varies throughout the pluton. The Ca, Na, and F contents in accessory rinkite and amorphous products of its alteration progressively increase from foyaite and fenitized basalt of the Lovozero Formation to foidolite, rischorrite, apatite–nepheline rocks, and pegmatite–hydrothermal veins.