Biostratigraphy of Asmari Formation in Ghare Agha seyed of Farsan region,Chaharmahale Bakhtiari Province,Iran

The Asmari Formation consists of shallow marine sedimentary rocks deposited on ramp setting .Lar-ger benthic foraminifera collected from Asmri Formation are dominated by hyaline and porcelanouse forms , in-cluding Amphistegina, Nummulites, Archaias, Astrotrillina, Miogypsinella, Miogypsinoides, Lepidocyclina, Operculina, Spiroclypeous and Miliolids.The presence of Nummulites cf.vascus in the lower part of the forma-tion allows the age to be determined as Rupelian .The occurrence of Borelis pygmae is an index taxon of the Ru-pelian-Chattian and indicates Early Chattian of SBZ 21-22 in the study section .The first appearance of Mio-gypsinella akadagensis shows Late Chattian ( SBZ 23) and defines the upper boundary of the SBZ 21-22.The new data are the first evidences showing that the shallow marine Asmari Formation is attributed to Oligocene (Rupelian-Chattian) age for this region.     

Mapping rubber trees based on phenological analysis of Landsat time series data-sets

This study proposes a strategy for accurate mapping of rubber trees through the analysis of Landsat time series datasets. The phenological dynamics of rubber trees were derived from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to verify the three important phenological metrics of rubber trees; defoliation, foliation and their growing stages. A decade (2006–2015) ago, Landsat time series NDVIs were used to study the strength of relationship between rubber trees, evergreen trees and oil palm trees. Two important results that could discriminate these three types of vegetation were found; firstly, a weak relationship of NDVIs between rubber trees and evergreen trees during the defoliation period (r² = 0.1358) and secondly between rubber trees and oil palm trees during the growing period (r² = 0.2029). This analysis was verified using Support Vector Machine to map the distribution of the three types of vegetation. An accurate mapping strategy of rubber trees was successfully formulated.     

Numerical study on static and seismic stability of breakwaters on soft granular marine deposits against deep failure

Marine structures which cover a wide range of offshore and onshore structures are often subjected to different external and internal forces against which a proper design should be performed. Among many, breakwaters constructed over a relatively loose agglomerate of granular soils are much prone to deep seated failure extended beneath the foundation. This type of failure has been given less attention in conventional design approaches. Stability analysis of such failures is the main subject of this research which includes both the static and the seismic stability of breakwaters over granular marine soils. As the subsoil strata in sea beds often comprise loose sand deposits, it is more convenient to assume a rather small angle of dilation, at least at failure, which certainly reduces the potential to resist geotechnical instabilities. The method of stress characteristics along with slight modifications to handle this issue has been used to assess the overall stability of breakwaters against deep seated failures. Investigations revealed that while even under static condition, there is certain potential of failure, under seismic condition, the risk is quite very high. A series of design charts are also developed presenting the factor of stability as a measure of safety against such failure.     

Potential sea-level rise effects on the hydrodynamics and transport processes in Hudson–Raritan Estuary,NY–NJ

Ocean Dynamics - The climatic change has led to the sea-level rise (SLR), which is expected to continue based on the current industrial and human activities. Previous studies indicated that most of...     

Fluctuations of non-point mass galaxy distribution

We examine cosmic energy equation for extended galaxy structures on the basis of different models of universe. We also extend the power spectrum and density fluctuations for extended structure by introducing softening parameter both for linear and non-linear regimes. The results are compared with earlier results of point mass structures. It is found that softening parameters introduced in the theory influence the thermodynamic fluctuation theory. Results obtained with spectrum analysis are also compared with Riemannian geometric approach (Ruppeiner in Rev. Mod. Phys. 67:605, 1995) to the galaxy clustering. The singular solutions of thermodynamic fluctuation results can be interpreted on the basis of power spectrum analysis in terms of power index law of two point correlation function.     

Application of singular value decomposition (SVD) and semi-discrete decomposition (SDD) techniques in clustering of geochemical data: an environmental study in central Iran

Common multivariate clustering techniques are ineffective in identifying subtle patterns of correlation, and clustering of variables or samples within complex geochemical datasets. This study compares the combination of singular value decomposition (SVD) and semi discrete decomposition (SDD), with that of hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), to examine patterns within a multielement soil geochemical dataset from an agricultural area in the vicinity of Pb–Zn mining operations in central Iran. SVD was used to both identify patterns of correlation between variables and samples and to “denoise” the data, and SDD to simultaneously cluster the samples and variables. The results reveal various spatial associations of mining waste-associated metals As, Ba, Pb and Zn, and within the remaining elements whose distribution is largely controlled by the major oxides. SVD–SDD was found to be superior to HCA, in its ability to detect subtle clusters in soil geochemistry indicative of mine-related contamination in the study area.     

Correction: Impact of excessive groundwater pumping on rejuvenation processes in the Bandung basin (Indonesia) as determined by hydrogeochemistry and modeling

In the Bandung basin, Indonesia, excessive groundwater pumping caused by rapid increases in industrialization and population growth has caused subsurface environmental problems, such as excessive groundwater drawdown and land subsidence. In this study, multiple hydrogeochemical techniques and numerical modeling have been applied to evaluate the recharge processes and groundwater age (rejuvenation). Although all the groundwater in the Bandung basin is recharged at the same elevation at the periphery of the basin, the water type and residence time of the shallow and deep groundwater could be clearly differentiated. However, there was significant groundwater drawdown in all the depression areas and there is evidence of groundwater mixing between the shallow and deep groundwater. The groundwater mixing was traced from the high dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC-12) concentrations in some deep groundwater samples and by estimating the rejuvenation ratio (R) in some representative observation wells. The magnitude of CFC-12 concentration, as an indicator of young groundwater, showed a good correlation with R, determined using ¹⁴C activity in samples taken between 2008 and 2012. These correlations were confirmed with the estimation of vertical downward flux from shallower to deeper aquifers using numerical modeling. Furthermore, the change in vertical flux is affected by the change in groundwater pumping. Since the 1970s, the vertical flux increased significantly and reached approximately 15% of the total pumping amount during the 2000s, as it compensated the groundwater pumping. This study clearly revealed the processes of groundwater impact caused by excessive groundwater pumping using a combination of hydrogeochemical methods and modeling.

     

An estimation of the height system bias parameter <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis><Subscript>0</Subscript> using least squares collocation from observed gravity and GPS-levelling data

This paper deals with the analysis of gravity anomaly and precise levelling in conjunction with GPS-Levelling data for the computation of a gravimetric geoid and an estimate of the height system bias parameter N_o for the vertical datum in Pakistan by means of least squares collocation technique. The long term objective is to obtain a regional geoid (or quasi-geoid) modeling using a combination of local data with a high degree and order Earth gravity model (EGM) and to determine a bias (if there is one) with respect to a global mean sea surface. An application of collocation with the optimal covariance parameters has facilitated to achieve gravimetric height anomalies in a global geocentric datum. Residual terrain modeling (RTM) technique has been used in combination with the EGM96 for the reduction and smoothing of the gravity data. A value for the bias parameter N_o has been estimated with reference to the local GPS-Levelling datum that appears to be 0.705 m with 0.07 m mean square error. The gravimetric height anomalies were compared with height anomalies obtained from GPS-Levelling stations using least square collocation with and without bias adjustment. The bias adjustment minimizes the difference between the gravimetric height anomalies with respect to residual GPS-Levelling data and the standard deviation of the differences drops from 35 cm to 2.6 cm. The results of this study suggest that N_o adjustment may be a good alternative for the fitting of the final gravimetric geoid as is generally done when using FFT methods.     

Wavelet-based multifractal analysis of earthquakes temporal distribution in Mammoth Mountain volcano,Mono County,Eastern California

This paper presents a wavelet-based multifractal approach to characterize the statistical properties of temporal distribution of the 1982–2012 seismic activity in Mammoth Mountain volcano. The fractal analysis of time-occurrence series of seismicity has been carried out in relation to seismic swarm in association with magmatic intrusion happening beneath the volcano on 4 May 1989. We used the wavelet transform modulus maxima based multifractal formalism to get the multifractal characteristics of seismicity before, during, and after the unrest. The results revealed that the earthquake sequences across the study area show time-scaling features. It is clearly perceived that the multifractal characteristics are not constant in different periods and there are differences among the seismicity sequences. The attributes of singularity spectrum have been utilized to determine the complexity of seismicity for each period. Findings show that the temporal distribution of earthquakes for swarm period was simpler with respect to pre- and post-swarm periods.