Biologic and geologic characteristics of cold seeps in Monterey Bay, California

Cold seep communities discovered at three previously unknown sites between 600 and 1000 m in Monterey Bay, California, are dominated by chemoautotrophic bacteria (Beggiatoa sp.) and vesicomyid clams (5 sp.). Other seep-associated fauna included galatheid crabs (Munidopsis sp.), vestimentiferan worms (Lamellibrachia barhami?), solemyid clams (Solemya sp.), columbellid snails (Mitrella permodesta, Amphissa sp.), and pyropeltid limpets (Pyropelta sp.). More than 50 species of regional (i.e. non-seep) benthic fauna were also observed at seeps. Ratios of stable carbon isotopes (δ¹³C) in clam tissues near 36‰ indicate sulfur-oxidizing chemosynthetic production, rather than non-seep food sources, as their principal trophic pathway. The “Mt Crushmore” cold seep site is located in a vertically faulted and fractured region of the Pliocene Purisima Formation along the walls of Monterey Canyon ( 635 m), where seepage appears to derive from sulfide-rich fluids within the Purisima Formation. The “Clam Field” cold seep site, also in Monterey Canyon ( 900 m) is located near outcrops in the hydrocarbon-bearing Monterey Formation. Chemosynthetic communities were also found at an accretionary-like prism on the continental slope near 1000 m depth (Clam Flat site). Fluid flow at the “Clam Flat” site is thought to represent dewatering of accretionary sediments by tectonic compression, or hydrocarbon formation at depth, or both. Sulfide levels in pore waters were low at Mt Crushmore (ca 0.2 mM), and high at the two deeper sites (ca 7.011.0 mM). Methane was not detected at the Mt Crushmore site, but ranged from 0.06 to 2.0 mM at the other sites.     

Spatial and temporal variability of coastal storms in the North Atlantic Basin

Over the past three to four decades, there has been a growing awareness of the important controls exerted by large-scale meteorological events on coastal systems. For example, definitive links are being established between short-term (timescales of 5–10 years) beach dynamics and storm frequency. This paper assesses temporal variability of coastal storms (both tropical and extratropical) and the wave climatology in the North Atlantic Basin (NAB), including the Gulf of Mexico. With both storm types, the empirical record shows decadal scale variability, but neither demonstrates highly significant trends that can be linked conclusively to natural or anthropogenic factors. Tropical storm frequencies have declined over the past two or three decades, which is perhaps related to recent intense and prolonged El Niños. Some forecasts predict higher frequencies of tropical storms like that experienced from the 1920s to the 1960s to occur in coming decades. Results from general circulation models (GCMs) suggest that overall frequencies of tropical storms could decrease slightly, but that there is potential for the generation of more intense hurricanes. These data have important implications for the short-term evolution of coastal systems.

There is strong suggestion that extratropical systems have declined overall over the past 50–100 years, but that there is an increase in frequency of very powerful storms, especially at higher latitudes. Both ENSO and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) are shown to have associations with frequencies and tracking of these systems. These empirical results are in general agreement with GCM forecasts under global warming scenarios. Analyses of wave climatology in the NAB show that the last two to three decades have been rougher at high latitudes than several decades prior, but this more recent sea state is similar to conditions from about 100 years ago. The recent roughness at sea seems to be related to high NAO index values, which are also expected to increase with global warming. Thus, when coupled to an anticipated continued rise in global sea level, this trend will likely result in increasing loss of sediment from the beach-nearshore system resulting in widespread coastal erosion.     

A multidisciplinary-based conceptual model of a fractured sedimentary bedrock aquitard: improved prediction of aquitard integrity

A hydrogeologic conceptual model that improves understanding of variability in aquitard integrity is presented for a fractured sedimentary bedrock unit in the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system of midcontinent North America. The model is derived from multiple studies on the siliciclastic St. Lawrence Formation and adjacent strata across a range of scales and geologic conditions. These studies employed multidisciplinary techniques including borehole flowmeter logging, high-resolution depth-discrete multilevel well monitoring, fracture stratigraphy, fluorescent dye tracing, and three-dimensional (3D) distribution of anthropogenic tracers regionally. The paper documents a bulk aquitard that is highly anisotropic because of poor connectivity of vertical fractures across matrix with low permeability, but with ubiquitous bed parallel partings. The partings provide high bulk horizontal hydraulic conductivity, analogous to aquifers in the system, while multiple preferential termination horizons of vertical fractures serve as discrete low vertical hydraulic conductivity intervals inhibiting vertical flow. The aquitard has substantial variability in its ability to protect underlying groundwater from contamination. Across widespread areas where the aquitard is deeply buried by younger bedrock, preferential termination horizons provide for high aquitard integrity (i.e. protection). Protection is diminished close to incised valleys where stress release and weathering has enhanced secondary pore development, including better connection of fractures across these horizons. These conditions, along with higher hydraulic head gradients in the same areas and more complex 3D flow where the aquitard is variably incised, allow for more substantial transport to deeper aquifers. The conceptual model likely applies to other fractured sedimentary bedrock aquitards within and outside of this region.     

Synthesizing multifaceted characterization techniques to refine a conceptual model of groundwater sources to springs in valley settings (Minnesota,USA)

Springs are commonly used as low-cost monitoring locations to assess groundwater quality and long-term trends. However, spring waters in many settings are a mixture of groundwater sources that range in physical properties and water chemistry. The objective of this work was to determine water sources of springs emerging from the North American midcontinent Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system at a fish hatchery near Lanesboro, Minnesota (USA), and compare and contrast the sources to shallower and deeper sources. The hydrology of the Lanesboro State Fish Hatchery has been studied for decades using a combination of dye tracing, thermal monitoring, geochemical sampling, and nearby borehole and outcrop observations. Previous studies are integrated with recently collected dye tracing results and geochemical data to develop a comprehensive conceptual model of groundwater flow. Dye trace findings and geochemistry indicate well-developed karst and bedrock fractures in shallowly buried unconfined carbonate formations are important transport pathways to convey anthropogenically influenced waters from the land surface to the hatchery springs. However, borehole dye traces, thermal monitoring, continuous nitrate monitoring, and mixing calculations show that a deeper confined siliciclastic aquifer is responsible for delivering relatively pristine water that accounts for about half of hatchery spring flux. Characterization of the hatchery’s groundwater systems provides fishery managers with information to protect this vital resource and improved context to interpret water-quality-monitoring data that track agricultural contaminants. The methods and results of this study may be widely applicable across a large extent of the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system, and to multiaquifer sedimentary bedrock systems elsewhere.

     

Multiple edifice failures, debris avalanches and associated eruptions in the Holocene history of Shiveluch volcano, Kamchatka, Russia

 Investigation of well-exposed volcaniclastic deposits of Shiveluch volcano indicates that large-scale failures have occurred at least eight times in its history: approximately 10,000, 5700, 3700, 2600, 1600, 1000, 600 ¹⁴C BP and 1964 AD. The volcano was stable during the Late Pleistocene, when a large cone was formed (Old Shiveluch), and became unstable in the Holocene when repetitive collapses of a portion of the edifice (Young Shiveluch) generated debris avalanches. The transition in stability was connected with a change in composition of the erupting magma (increased SiO₂ from ca. 55–56% to 60–62%) that resulted in an abrupt increase of viscosity and the production of lava domes. Each failure was triggered by a disturbance of the volcanic edifice related to the ascent of a new batch of viscous magma. The failures occurred before magma intruded into the upper part of the edifice, suggesting that the trigger mechanism was indirectly associated with magma and involved shaking by a moderate to large volcanic earthquake and/or enhancement of edifice pore pressure due to pressurised juvenile gas. The failures typically included: (a) a retrogressive landslide involving backward rotation of slide blocks; (b) fragmentation of the leading blocks and their transformation into a debris avalanche, while the trailing slide blocks decelerate and soon come to rest; and (c) long-distance runout of the avalanche as a transient wave of debris with yield strength that glides on a thin weak layer of mixed facies developed at the avalanche base. All the failures of Young Shiveluch were immediately followed by explosive eruptions that developed along a similar pattern. The slope failure was the first event, followed by a plinian eruption accompanied by partial fountain collapse and the emplacement of pumice flows. In several cases the slope failure depressurised the hydrothermal system to cause phreatic explosions that preceded the magmatic eruption. The collapse-induced plinian eruptions were moderate-sized and ordinary events in the history of the volcano. No evidence for directed blasts was found associated with any of the slope failures. Received: 28 June 1998 / Accepted: 28 March 1999     

Introduced marine species: Management arrangements of consideration for the Torres Strait

Introduced marine species (IMS) can have significant impacts on economic, ecological, social and cultural aspects of coastal marine environments. There is, therefore, a need to minimise these impacts through the implementation of comprehensive and consistent management strategies and monitoring processes that work towards preventing introductions, detecting introductions if they were to occur and managing incursions should they be detected. There is also the need to ensure that approaches taken are comparable to provide consistency of IMS management effort, particularly across areas that are multi-jurisdictional (e.g. spanning State or Territory borders).     

Long-Term Tsunami Data Archive Supports Tsunami Forecast, Warning, Research, and Mitigation

In response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the United States began a careful review and strengthening of its programs aimed at reducing the consequences of tsunamis. Several reports and calls to action were drafted, including the Tsunami Warning and Education Act (Public Law 109–424) signed into law by the President in December 2006. NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) and co-located World Data Center for Geophysics and Marine Geology (WDC-GMG) maintain a national and international tsunami data archive that fulfills part of the P.L. 109-424. The NGDC/WDC-GMG long-term tsunami data archive has expanded from the original global historical event databases and damage photo collection, to include tsunami deposits, coastal water-level data, DART? buoy data, and high-resolution coastal DEMs. These data are used to validate models, provide guidance to warning centers, develop tsunami hazard assessments, and educate the public about the risks from tsunamis. In this paper we discuss current steps and future actions to be taken by NGDC/WDC-GMG to support tsunami hazard mitigation research, to ultimately help save lives and improve the resiliency of coastal communities.     

Benefits of Software GPS Receivers for Enhanced Signal Processing

In this article, the architecture of a software Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver is described and an analysis is included of the performance of a software GPS receiver when tracking the GPS signals in challenging environments. Results are included that demonstrate the advantage of the software GPS receiver in tracking the GPS signals in low signal-to-noise or jamming scenarios. Various current and previous applications of the software GPS receiver are also described. ? 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Heinrich-type glacial surges in a low-order dynamical climate model

Recent studies suggest the occurrence of sporadic episodes during which the ice streams that discharge ice sheets become enormously active, producing large numbers of icebergs (reflected in North Atlantic sea cores as Heinrich events) and possibly causing the partial collapse of the ice sheets. To simulate the mechanism of internal thermo-hydrodynamical instability implied by such behavior in the context of a more general paleoclimate dynamics model (PDM), we introduce a new sliding-catastrophe function that can account for ice-sheet surges. In particular, using simple scaling estimates derived from the equations of motion and thermo-conductivity for ice flow, we express this function in terms of the thickness, density, viscosity, heat-capacity, and heat-conductivity of ice. Analysis of the properties of this function suggests that these Heinrich-type instability events might be of three possible kinds: the first type of event occurs in periods of glacial maximum when temperature conditions on the ice surface are extremely cold, but internal friction within bottom boundary layer is also at its maximum and is strong enough to melt ice and cause its surge. The second type of event may happen during an interglacial, when the ice thickness is small but relatively warm climatic conditions on the upper surface of ice can be easily advected with the flow of ice to the bottom where even a small additional heating due to friction may cause melting. The third and, perhaps, most interesting type of event is one that may occur during ice sheet growth; in this period particles of ice reaching the bottom still remember the warm temperature conditions of the previous interglacial and additional heating due to increasing friction associated with the growing ice sheet may again cause melting. To the extent that the upper glacier surface temperature depends on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, this third case introduces the interesting possibility that earlier CO₂ concentrations may be as important for the present-day climate as its current value. We present results of numerical experiments demonstrating how these three kinds of instability can originate and interact with other components of the global climate system to produce variations of the Heinrich-event type. In particular, according to our model the climate system seems more vulnerable to surges during the penultimate interglacial period than in the present one, which may contribute to an explanation of the recent results of the Greenland Ice Core Project.     

A first-order global model of late Cenozoic climatic change II. Further analysis based on a simplification of CO2 dynamics

A model developed recently for the long-term variations of global ice mass, carbon dioxide, and mean ocean temperature through the late Cenozoic is simplified by hypothesizing a new equation for the CO₂ variations containing one less adjustable parameter, but retaining the essential physical content of the previous equation (including nonlinearity and the potential for instability). By assuming plausible time constants for the glacial ice mass and global mean ocean temperature, and setting the values of six adjustable parameters (rate constants), a solution for the last 5 My is obtained displaying many of the features observed over this period, including the transition to the near-100 ky major ice-age oscillations of the late Pleistocene. In obtaining this solution it is also assumed that variations in tectonic forcing lead to a reduction of the equilibrium CO₂ concentration (perhaps due to increased weathering of rapidly uplifted mountain ranges over this period). As a consequence of this CO₂ reduction, the model dynamical system can bifurcate to a free oscillatory ice-age regime that is under the pacemaker influence of earthorbital (Milankovitch) forcing. Expanded discussions are given of the surface temperature variations accompanying the evolution of ice, CO₂, and ocean temperature, and of the bifurcation properties of the model from both mathematical and physical viewpoints.This paper was presented at the International Conference on Modelling of Global Climate Change and Variability, held in Hamburg 11–15 September 1989 under the auspices of the Meteorological Institute of the University of Hamburg and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. Guest Editor for these papers is Dr. L. Dumenil