The Western Irish Namurian Basin reassessed

ABSTRACT Current basin models for the Western Irish Namurian Basin (WINB) envisage an elongate trough along the line of the present‐day Shannon Estuary that was infilled with clastic sediments derived from a hinterland that lay to the W or NW. This paper argues for an alternative basin configuration with source areas to the SW supplying sediment to a basin where deepest water conditions were in northern County Clare. Rapid subsidence along the present‐day Shannon Estuary ponded sediment in this area throughout the early Namurian and, only with the rapid increase of sedimentation rates within the mid‐Namurian (Kinderscoutian Stage), were substantial amounts of sediment able to prograde to the NE of the basin. This alternative model better explains the overwhelming predominance of NE‐directed palaeocurrents in the Namurian infill, but requires fundamental revisions to most aspects of current depositional models. Deep‐water black shales (Clare Shale Formation) initially accumulated throughout the region and were progressively downlapped by an unconfined turbidite system (Ross Formation) prograding to the NE. This in turn was succeeded by an unstable, siltstone‐dominated slope system (Gull Island Formation) characterized by large‐scale soft‐sediment deformation, which also prograded to the NE. In the northern‐most basin outcrops, in northern County Clare, this early phase of basin infill was developed as a condensed succession of radiolarian‐rich black shales, minor turbiditic sandstones and undisturbed siltstones. The new basin model envisages the northern exposures of County Clare to be a distal, basin floor succession whereas the traditional model considers it a relatively shallow, winnowed, basin margin succession. Later stages of basin infill consist of a series of deltaic cycles that culminate in major, erosive‐based sandstone bodies (e.g. Tullig Sandstone) interpreted either as axial, deltaic feeder channels or incised valley fills genetically unrelated to the underlying deltaic facies. Within the context of the new basin model the former alternative is most likely and estimated channel depths within the Tullig Sandstone indicate that the basal erosive surface could have been generated by intrinsic fluvial scour without recourse to base‐level fall. The northerly flowing Tullig channels pass down‐dip into isolated channel sandbodies interbedded with wave‐dominated strata that suggest the deltas of the WINB were considerably more wave‐influenced than hitherto proposed. The retreat of the Tullig delta during sea‐level rise saw the rapid southerly retrogradation of parasequences, as may be expected if the basin margin lay to the SW of the present‐day outcrops.     

Comparing the transitional behaviour of kaolinite and bentonite suspension flows

Past research has demonstrated the dramatic effects that variations in suspended clay can have on the properties of flow by producing a range of transitional flows between turbulent and laminar states, depending on clay concentration and fluid shear. Past studies have been restricted to kaolinite flows, a clay mineral that has relatively weak cohesive properties. This paper extends these studies to suspension flows of bentonite, a clay mineral that attains higher viscosities at far lower volumetric concentrations within a flow. The results show that the types of transitional flow behaviour recognized in past studies can also be found in bentonite suspension flows, but at lower suspended sediment concentrations, thus demonstrating an even more dramatic effect on flow properties, and potentially on sediment transport and resulting bed morphology, than kaolinite flows. The paper proposes new stability diagrams for the phase space of bentonite flows and compares these to past work on kaolinite suspension flows. These new data suggest that the transitional‐flow Reynolds number can be used to delineate the types of transitional flow across different clay types and assess modern and ancient clay‐suspension flows. © 2016 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

PREFACE

正The Abstracts of Chinese Geological Literature is edited and published by China Geological Library with an aim to provide bibliographic information to foreign geological circles on Chinese geological literature.The Abstracts is published in four numbers per annum.It gives reference s to more than one hundred Chinese periodicals and serials of     

On the use of multiple antenna arrays and corner reflector assemblies in radio positioning applications

Modern radio positioning systems often use multiple-antenna arrays or corner reflector arrays in order to increase the system range. A theoretical investigation of the movement of the antenna phase center on these arrays is carried out, and the resulting distance error is presented for several array configurations.     

Crisis? What crisis? Displacing the spatial imaginary of the fiscal state

This paper argues that there is an immanent and evolving relationship between the prevailing form of taxation and the economic geographies of the state. Despite this, the geographic significance of taxation has been obscured by the language in which its historic transformation tends to be couched. Prevailing fiscal systems tend to be presented as essentially static – institutionally and spatially fixed and routinely inscribed within the fixed boundaries and territories of the ‘sovereign’ fiscal state. Any threat to, or change in the nature or geography of the fiscal state tends to be couched in terms of ‘crisis’ – of negative and discontinuous change. This paper contends that these related and essentially conservative discourses of fiscal geography mask the degree to which fiscal spaces are both multiple and continuously evolving. More importantly, it argues, this fluidity and multiplicity does not threaten the stability and viability of state form, but it is an essential process in its maintenance and reproduction. Running counter to the prevailing discourse of the ‘national economy’, the practice of fiscal geography is an under-analysed but key aspect of the historical evolution and transformation of the imagined geographies of economies.     

Sedimentology and event timing of a catastrophic volcaniclastic mass flow,Volcan Hudson,Southern Chile

Eruption of Volcan Hudson, Aisen region, Southern Chile on 12 August 1971 melted up to 80% of ice within the 9-km-wide Hudson Caldera. Rapid mobilisation of abundant fluvio-glacial sediment within the adjacent Huemules valley led to the generation of a catastrophic mass flow which swept westwards along the valley, eventually entering the fjord some 40 km downstream. The mass flow, developing from one source and being unaffected by tributary input, was characterised by three events within the flood hydrograph: (1) a precessional flood possibly linked to breakage of an early formed dammed lake; (2) a main mass flow which varied in its rheological behaviour from plug-flow to hyperconcentrated flow; and (3) a recessional flood at the tail of the main flow which diluted towards a concentrated streamflow. The main debris flow displayed characteristics of pulsing, internal segregation/density stratification, significant downstream sediment assimilation, cohesive/frictional freezing with ensuing fluidisation and development of an advancing runout phase. Consideration of these sedimentary characteristics and spatial/temporal flow transformations are used to propose a schematic model of event timing within this catastrophic volcaniclastic flow.     

Distribution and seasonal abundance of large cetaceans in the Durban whaling grounds off KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa, 1972–1975

Daily charts of the aerial search effort (432 206 nautical miles) of the Union Whaling Company and 1 099 sightings of 10 497 whales were available from 628 flights off Durban between 1972 and 1975. Densities of whales were analysed by month and water depth distribution over the four-year period. Low observed densities of blue Balaenoptera musculus, right Eubalaena australis, sei B. borealis and humpback Megaptera novaeangliae whales most likely resulted from earlier whaling pressure. Seasonality of blue, sei and humpback whales was bimodal, indicative of winter migrations to the north of the Durban whaling grounds, whereas the unimodal seasonality of fin whales B. physalus and minke whales B. bonaerensis or B. acutorostrata suggest the offshore region as the northern terminus of their migrations. Sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus migrate northwards offshore of the KwaZulu-Natal coast in autumn/early winter and southwards in late winter/spring, with larger males migrating later than the smaller males and females. Killer whale Orcinus orca presence was coincident with that of offshore minke whales and the southward migrations of other baleen whales, whereas densities of animals deemed as bottlenose whale Hyperoodon planifrons suggest strong early and late summer seasonal abundance in the offshore region. Such extensive surveys offshore of the KwaZulu-Natal coast are unlikely to be repeated; hence, data-extraction of whaling records provides a valuable source of seasonal and distributional information for marine management.