Transient Recharge Estimability Through Field‐Scale Groundwater Model Calibration

The estimation of recharge through groundwater model calibration is hampered by the nonuniqueness of recharge and aquifer parameter values. It has been shown recently that the estimability of spatially distributed recharge through calibration of steady‐state models for practical situations (i.e., real‐world, field‐scale aquifer settings) is limited by the need for excessive amounts of hydraulic‐parameter and groundwater‐level data. However, the extent to which temporal recharge variability can be informed through transient model calibration, which involves larger water‐level datasets, but requires the additional consideration of storage parameters, is presently unknown for practical situations. In this study, time‐varying recharge estimates, inferred through calibration of a field‐scale highly parameterized groundwater model, are systematically investigated subject to changes in (1) the degree to which hydraulic parameters including hydraulic conductivity (K) and specific yield (S_y) are constrained, (2) the number of water‐level calibration targets, and (3) the temporal resolution (up to monthly time steps) at which recharge is estimated. The analysis involves the use of a synthetic reality (a reference model) based on a groundwater model of Uley South Basin, South Australia. Identifiability statistics are used to evaluate the ability of recharge and hydraulic parameters to be estimated uniquely. Results show that reasonable estimates of monthly recharge (<30% recharge root‐mean‐squared error) require a considerable amount of transient water‐level data, and that the spatial distribution of K is known. Joint estimation of recharge, S_y and K, however, precludes reasonable inference of recharge and hydraulic parameter values. We conclude that the estimation of temporal recharge variability through calibration may be impractical for real‐world settings.     

Foliation development in serpentinites, Glenrock, New South Wales

At Glenrock, near the southern end of the Peel Fault System, two fault zones are delineated by mélanges in which serpentinite is the main rock type.Protogranular and mylonitic textures are present in relicts of the parent peridotite and in blocks of massive pseudomorphic serpentinite that are surrounded by schistose serpentinite. In schistose serpentinite, the earliest foliation (S₁) is defined, microscopically, by the parallel alignment of platy and fibrous serpentine minerals (lizardite and chrysotile) and by trains of magnetite and flattened serpentine pseudomorphs after olivine and pyroxene. It is considered that the schistosity formed perpendicular to the direction of maximum shortening, under conditions in which lizardite and chrysotile were ductile, but antigorite was not, by breakdown of pre-existing serpentine minerals and new growth of lizardite and chrysotile.Post-s₁ foliations (S₂andS₃) superficially resemble crenulation cleavages in the field but, microscopically, show evidence of shear displacement and are referred to as microshear sets. They probably originated in the ductile-brittle transitional field of serpentine behaviour (Raleigh and Paterson, 1965).     

Stable isotope study of the mineralization and alteration in the Madjarovo Pb–Zn district,south-east Bulgaria

The Madjarovo ore district is centred on the exposed section of a Lower Oligocene volcano and consists of radially disposed Pb–Zn-precious metal veins and attendant intermediate sulfidation wallrock alteration. Earlier high sulfidation and potassic porphyry style alterations are found in the centre of the district spatially associated with monzonitic intrusions. The total duration of all mineralization and alteration was ca. 300 ka. Stable isotope analyses (S, O, H) have been carried out on a suite of sulfides, sulfates and silicates from the mineralization, high and intermediate sulfidation alterations and a suite of basement rocks. These data range between the following limits: . We also analysed δD of fluid inclusions in quartz and barite for which we obtained, respectively, the ranges of −43.6 to −78.6 and −58.4 to −67.1‰. The data show that high sulfidation alteration was dominated by magmatic fluids with minor meteoric water, whereas the fluids responsible for the intermediate sulfidation alteration were essentially magmatic. The fluids responsible for the intermediate sulfidation Pb–Zn mineralization were mixed magmatic–meteoric and certainly contained a significant meteoric component. Sulphur is likely derived from basement and/or igneous sources. The evolution of alteration and mineralization styles from potassic, porphyry copper style to high sulfidation to intermediate sulfidation can be understood in terms of changing ore fluid composition resulting from an increasing permeability of the system and an increasingly remote source of magmatic fluid with time. These changes link directly to the geological evolution of this volcanic centre.     

Antenna phase center calibration for precise positioning of LEO satellites

Phase center variations of the receiver and transmitter antenna constitute a remaining uncertainty in the high precision orbit determination (POD) of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites using GPS measurements. Triggered by the adoption of absolute phase patterns in the IGS processing standards, a calibration of the Sensor Systems S67-1575-14 antenna with GFZ choke ring has been conducted that serves as POD antenna on various geodetic satellites such as CHAMP, GRACE and TerraSAR-X. Nominal phase patterns have been obtained with a robotic measurement system in a field campaign and the results were used to assess the impact of receiver antenna phase patterns on the achievable positioning accuracy. Along with this, phase center distortions in the actual spacecraft environment were characterized based on POD carrier phase residuals for the GRACE and TerraSAR-X missions. It is shown that the combined ground and in-flight calibration can improve the carrier phase modeling accuracy to a level of 4 mm which is close to the pure receiver noise. A 3.5 cm (3D rms) consistency of kinematic and reduced dynamic orbit determination solutions is achieved for TerraSAR-X, which presumably reflects the limitations of presently available GPS ephemeris products. The reduced dynamic solutions themselves match the observations of high grade satellite laser ranging stations to 1.5 cm but are potentially affected by cross-track biases at the cm-level. With respect to the GPS based relative navigation of TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X formation, the in-flight calibration of the antenna phase patterns is considered essential for an accurate modeling of differential carrier phase measurements and a mm level baseline reconstruction.

A marked correlation function analysis of halo formation times in the Millennium Simulation

We study the environmental dependence of the formation epoch of dark matter haloes in the Millennium Simulation: a ten billion particle N -body simulation of standard Lambda cold dark matter cosmology. A sensitive test of this dependence – the marked correlation function – reveals highly significant evidence that haloes of a given mass form earlier in denser regions. We define a marked cross-correlation function, which helps quantify how this effect depends upon the choice of the halo population used to define the environment. The mean halo formation redshift as a function of the local overdensity in dark matter is also well determined, and we see an especially clear dependence for galaxy-sized haloes. This contradicts one of the basic predictions of the excursion set model of structure formation, even though we see that this theory predicts other features of the distribution of halo formation epochs rather well. It also invalidates an assumption usually employed in the popular halo, or halo occupation distribution, models of galaxy clustering, namely that the distribution of halo properties is a function of halo mass but not of halo environment.     

GNSS processing at CODE: status report

Since May 2003, the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE), one of the analysis centers of the International GNSS Service, has generated GPS and GLONASS products in a rigorous combined multi-system processing scheme, which promises the best possible consistency of the orbits of both systems. The resulting products, in particular the satellite orbits and clocks, are easily accessible by the user community. In the first part of this article, we focus on the generation of the combined global products at CODE, where we put emphasis not only on accuracy, but also on completeness. We study the impact of GLONASS on the CODE products, and the benefit of using them. Last, but not least, we introduce AGNES (Automated GNSS Network for Switzerland), a regional tracking network of small extensions (roughly 400 km East–West, 200 km North–South), which consequently tracks all GNSS satellites and analyzes their measurements using the CODE products.     

Palaeomagnetic,geochronological and geological constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Mejillones Peninsula,northern Chile

Palaeomagnetic and geochronological data from an Early Palaeozoic high grade metamorphic complex (Jorgina Formation) and Jurassic layered basic intrusion (Moreno Complex) are reported from the Mejillones Peninsula of northern Chile (23–23°30'S). ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar dates from the Lower Palaeozoic Jorgina Formation and the Moreno Complex are between 170 and 158 Ma, coincident with a phase of emplacement of the north Chilean coastal batholith. This suggests that intrusion and magnetization of the Moreno Complex and the metamorphism and remagnetization of the Jorgina Formation were related to batholith emplacement. Extracted stable components of magnetization from all units (17 sites) define site-mean directions with a scattered distribution. The scatter in site-mean directions is interpreted as being due to minor, localized, non-uniform, block-fault related (normal or strike-slip, or both) rotation after 158 Ma. The palaeomagnetic and geochronological data indicate that no significant large-scale latitudinal translation of crustal blocks has taken place in this part of northern Chile since the Late Jurassic. In addition, they indicate that the uniform clockwise rotation after the mid-Cretaceous which affected the adjacent Cordillera de la Costa either did not extend into the Mejillones Peninsula or took the form of localized block-fault rotations. The restriction of palaeomagnetically defined styles of rotation to discrete areas within the north Chilean forearc indicates that forearc wide block-fault rotation models are not applicable to the Pacific margin of northern Chile.