Daily Meteorological Observations in Cádiz – San Fernando. Analysis of the Documentary Sources and the Instrumental Data Content (1786–1996)

Meteorological observations in the city of Cádiz are acknowledged as having been made from the middle of the 18th century onwards although they were only recorded and preserved in documentary form from 1789 onwards. Data readings were taken at the new Naval Observatory in San Fernando, ten kilometres from Cádiz, from 1797 onwards. Continuous series for temperature and atmospheric pressure at a daily resolution have been compiled and constructed from 1817 until 1996. The data series is composed of thrice daily observations made at Cádiz (1821–1880) by local observers and hourly data from Naval Observatory at San Fernando (1870–1996).     

Simultaneous use of geochemical and geophysical methods to characterise abandoned landfills

. Groundwater sampling and geophysical methods determined a serious contamination problem associated with refilled exploitation sites at the Cal Dimoni area, Llobregat delta, Barcelona, Spain. To characterise this process, hydrogeochemical analyses were performed and showed the following modifications to groundwater chemical composition: increasing pH values, changing redox conditions, significant increases in total organic carbon (TOC) and certain trace elements, and high groundwater conductivity values. Major ion content accumulations were found under the refilled area. In contrast, elements involved in the oxidation–reduction processes, such as iron, manganese and nitrates, clearly diminished. Electromagnetic prospecting methods were also performed and delineated the contamination plume extent. These methods also showed separate sources of contamination, one clearly related to the groundwater–refilled zone leachate interaction, another as a consequence of the manure–accumulation surface site. Geochemical and geophysical methods have shown similar results for locating groundwater contamination sources, and for determining leachate generation mechanisms and flow paths.     

Al hematites prepared by homogeneous precipitation of oxinates: material characterization and determination of the Morin transition

A novel method for synthesis of aluminium hematites, based upon the homogeneous precipitation of Fe and Al oxinates in various proportions, is presented. The precursor precipitates are heated in air at 700?°C. X-ray diffraction, thermal analyses, BET, FTIR, optical reflection analysis, TEM and Mössbauer spectroscopy at room temperature and 80?K of the resulting products indicate that single-phase hematites are formed with structural Al substitution of up to 10 at%. Interestingly, the particle size (>100?nm) is not substantially reduced by the Al content. Although it remains difficult to obtain a homogeneously distributed Al substitution in the final hematite, this processing line offers a unique opportunity to separate the effects of grain size and Al substitution on the Morin transition temperature (T _M) of Al hematite. From the comparison between the present hematites and a series of Al-substituted hematites with lepidocrocite as precursor, it could be shown that the effect on T _M, associated with a change of a factor 10 in grain size, is about 1/3 of the effect caused by a change of 10 in the degree of substitution. Finally, it is suggested that proper thermal treatments under different conditions of the same precursors are likely to produce spinel phases.     

Anhydrite-bearing rocks from the Rožná district (Moldanubian zone,Czech Republic): high-grade metamorphosed exhalites?

Several types of anhydrite-bearing rocks have been found in the amphibolite-facies metamorphosed rocks at the north-eastern margin of the Moldanubian Zone. Anhydrite either forms monomineralic bands up to 40 cm thick, or occurs in the form of disseminated grains in surrounding calc-silicate gneiss together with feldspar, scapolite, amphibole, pyroxene, epidote and pyrite. The isotopic composition of sulphur ('³⁴S=30.6 to 32.3‰) and strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr=0.70797 to 0.70781) in anhydrite may indicate a marine source of sulphate. The isotopic ratio of strontium is in the same range as that of metamorphosed strata-bound barite-sulphide ores, which have been previously described in the same area. The '³⁴S values of coexisting pyrite range from 21.4 to 22.5‰, the (³⁴S_{anhydrite-pyrite} corresponding to the metamorphic temperature of 600 to 660 °C. In contrast to many submarine-exhalative deposits, the oxygen isotopic compositions of anhydrite ('¹⁸O=9.3 to 10.2‰) are lighter than that of barite ('¹⁸O=10.4 to 13.8‰). This indicates that the both minerals are not in isotopic equilibrium. Therefore, it is probable that anhydrite and barite from the Ro—ná district were deposited from fluids that contained different proportions of seawater and hydrothermal fluids or from hydrothermal fluids that underwent variable extent of oxygen isotope exchange with seafloor rocks. The '¹³C values in calcite ('¹³C=-17.2 to -18.7‰) from anhydrite-bearing rock are lower than those in distant marbles. As graphite is absent in anhydrite- and calcite-bearing rocks, impoverishment in the ¹³C isotope cannot be attributed to the graphite-carbonate isotopic exchange during metamorphism. It is proposed that low '¹³C values in carbonates are caused by pre-metamorphic oxidation of organic matter in course of hydrothermal processes. Anhydrite and anhydrite-bearing calc-silicate gneiss from the north-eastern part of the Moldanubian Zone are interpreted to be the high-grade metamorphosed analogue of anhydrite-rich exhalites commonly found in submarine-exhalative hydrothermal deposits.     

Spatial and temporal variation of the nekton and hyperbenthos from a temperate European estuary with regulated freshwater inflow

The aquatic macrofauna of the Guadalquivir estuary were sampled (1 mm mesh persiana net) at 5 sampling sites located along the entire (except the tidal freshwater region) estuarine gradient of salinity (outer 50 km). A total of 134 fish and macroinvertebrate species was collected but only 62 were considered common or regularly present in the estuary. Univariate measures of the community structure showed statistically significant differences among sampling sites: species richness, abundance, and biomass decreased in the upstream direction, being positively correlated with the salinity. Temporal differences of these three variables were also statistically significant. While a clear seasonal pattern (minimum densities in winter and maximum in spring-summer) was observed for abundance and biomass, no such pattern existed for the number of species. Mysids was the most dominant group throughout the estuary (96% to 99% of abundance; 49% to 85% of biomass), although fish biomass was also important at the outer estuary (36% to 38%). Multivariate analyses indicated highly significant spatial variation in the macrofaunal communities observed along the salinity gradient. These analyses suggest that the underlying structure was a continuum with more or less overlapping distributions of the species dependent on their ability to tolerate different physicochemical conditions. There were also significant temporal (intermonthly + interannual) variation of the estuarine community; the relative multivariate dispersion indicated that monthly variation was more considerable (relative multivariate dispersion >1) at the outer part of the estuary during the wet year (last 20 km) and was higher in the inner stations during the dry year (32 to 50 km from the river mouth). Since a clear negative exponential relationship was observed between the freshwater input (from a dam located 110 km upstream) and water salinity at all sampling stations, it is concluded that the human freshwater management is probably affecting the studied estuarine communities. While the higher seasonal (long-term) stability of the salinity gradient, due to the human control of the freshwater input, may facilitate the recruitment of marine species juveniles during the meteorologically unstable early-spring, the additional (short-term) salinity fluctuations during the warm period may negatively affect species that complete their lifecycle within the estuary.     

An estuarine benthic index of biotic integrity for the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. II. Index development

A benthic index of biotic integrity was developed for use in estuaries of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States (Delaware Bay estuary through Albemarle-Pamlico Sound). The index was developed for the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment Program (MAIA) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency using procedures similar to those applied previously in Chesapeake Bay and southeastern estuaries, and was based on sampling in July through early October. Data from seven federal and state sampling programs were used to categorize sites as degraded or non-degraded based on dissolved oxygen, sediment contaminant, and sediment toxicity criteria. Various metrics of benthic community structure and function that distinguished between degraded and reference (non-degraded) sites were selected for each of five major habitat types defined by classification analysis of assemblages. Each metric was scored according to thresholds established on the distribution of values at reference sites, so that sites with low scoring metrics would be expected to show signs of degradation. For each habitat, metrics that correctly classified at least 50% of the degraded sites in the calibration data set were selected whenever possible to derive the index. The final index integrated the average score of the combination of metrics that performed best according to several criteria. Selected metrics included measures of productivity (abundance), diversity (number of taxa, Shannon-Wiener diversity, percent dominance), species composition and life history (percent abundance of pollution-indicative taxa, percent abundance of pollution-sensitive taxa, percent abundance of Bivalvia, Tanypodinae-Chironomidae abundance ratio), and trophic composition (percent abundance of deep-deposit feeders). The index correctly classified 82% of all sites in an independent data set. Classification efficiencies of sites were higher in the mesohaline and polyhaline habitats (81–92%) than in the oligohaline (71%) and the tidal freshwater (61%). Although application of the index to low salinity habitats should be done with caution, the MAIA index appeared to be quite reliable with a high likelihood of correctly identifying both degraded and non-degraded conditions. The index is expected to be of great utility in regional assessments as a tool for evaluating the integrity of benthic assemblages and tracking their condition over time.     

Seismic Hazard Estimate at the Iberian Peninsula

—?Seismic hazard at the Iberian Peninsula has been evaluated by using a methodology which combines both zonified and non-zonified probabilistic methods. Seismic sources are used when considering zones where certain calculation parameters may be considered homogeneous, as in zonified methods, while, on the other hand, earthquakes are considered wherever it has taken place, as in non-zonified methods. The methodology which is applied in this paper has been originally used to calculate the seismic hazard maps in the United States. In our case, it has been necessary to adapt the method to the specific features of the seismicity in the Iberian Peninsula and its geographical surroundings, not only with respect to its distribution and characteristics, but also with respect to the properties of the seismic catalog used.¶Geographically, the main feature of the result is the fact that it reflects both historical seismicity and current seismic clusters of the region. Despite the smoothing, maps show marked differences between several seismic zones; these differences becoming more noticeable as exposure time increases. Maximum seismic hazard is found to be in the southwestern region of the Peninsula, especially in the area of the Cape St. Vicent, and around Lisbon. The uncertainty of the results, without considering that due to the attenuation laws, as deduced from the other evaluation parameters, is quite stable, being more sensitive to the parameters b and m _max of the Gutenberg-Richter relation.     

Rock magnetic evidence of inflation of a flood basalt lava flow

The anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) of lava flows is an innovative method which has been proved to be directly related to the shear history of lava. One of the advantages of this method is that it can be used in the absence of other morphological features commonly employed to study the mechanism of emplacement of lava flows. This feature of the AMS method makes it very attractive to gain insight into the mechanism of emplacement of massive, relatively featureless, long lava flows such as those forming flood basalt provinces. In this work, we report the results of the measurement of AMS as a function of vertical position within the Birkett lava flow, one of the Columbia River Basalt Group flows. The observed variation of AMS allows us to identify at least 16 discrete events of lava injection and to estimate the thickness of individual injection events. The AMS-estimated thickness of each injection event (in the range of 0.5-4.0 m) coincides with the range inferred for injected lava pulses in modern Hawaiian lava flows. Thus, the evidence provided by the AMS method supports the notion that at least some flood basalt lava flows were emplaced by the same mechanism as many present-day inflated pahoehoe flows. Regarding the orientation of the principal susceptibilities, in the central part of the flow they define a preferred orientation along an E-W trend, whereas in the outer parts of the flow they have a NNE-SSW trend. This difference in the orientation of the principal susceptibilities is interpreted as the result of a change of flow direction of the lava as emplacement progressed. Electronic supplementary material to this paper can be obtained by using the Springer LINK server located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00445-002-0203-8.