Morphological response of tidal marshes,flats and channels of the Outer Yangtze River mouth to a major storm

Systematic morphological changes of the coastline of the outer Yangtze River mouth in response to storms versus calm weather were documented by daily surveys of tidal marshes and flats between April 1999 and May 2001 and by boat surveys offshore during this and earlier periods. The largest single event during 1999 to 2001 was Typhoon Paibaian, which eroded the unvegetated tidal flat and lower marsh and led to accretion on the middle-to-upper marsh and in the subtidal channel. The greatest erosion of 21 cm occurred at the border between the marsh and the unvegetated flat due to the landward retreat of the marsh edge during the storm. Strong waves on the flats increased suspended sediment concentration by 10–20 times. On the upper marsh, where the frequency of submergence by astronomical tides is only 3%, Typhoon Paibian led to 4 cm of accretion, accounting for 57% of the net accretion observed over the 2-yr study. Typhoon Paibian led to 4 cm of accretion, accounting for 57% of the net accretion observed over the 2-yr study. Typhoon Paibian and other large storms in the 1990s caused over 50 cm of accretion along the deep axis of the river mouth outlet channel. During calm weather, when hydrodynamic energy was dominated by tides, deposition was centered on the unvegetated flats and lower, marsh with little deposition on the high marsh and erosion in the subtidal channel. Depositional recovery of the tidal flat from typhoon-induced erosion took only several days, whereas recovery of the subtidal channel by erosion took several weeks. A conceptual model for the morphological responses of tidal marshes, flats, and subtidal channels to storms and calm weather is proposed such that sediment continually moves from regions of highest near-bed energy towards areas of lower energy.     

Petrological evidence for the development of refolded folds during a single deformational event

The Pelona Schist, which forms the lower plate of the Vincent thrust in the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California, has undergone a complex history of folding. The youngest folds in the schist (style 2 folds) range in shape from open to tight and fold both compositional layering and schistosity. These are superposed upon isoclinal folds with axial-plane schistosity (style 1 folds) that, in turn, overprint older isoclinal folds (also called style 1 folds). Samples from the hinges of style 2 folds contain two generations of muscovite. Muscovites of the older generation are parallel to the folded (style 1) schistosity. The newer muscovites recrystallized during and/or after style 2 folding. Microprobe analysis indicates that the two generations of muscovite are very similar in composition, although the new muscovites tend to have slightly higher paragonite and celadonite contents than the old muscovites. From the gross similarity of the two groups of muscovite, it is concluded that the style 1 and style 2 folds were produced during a single progressive deformation. The slightly higher paragonite and celadonite contents of the new muscovites are thought to indicate that both pressure and temperature were increasing during the deformation. This is consistent with the deformation being due to underthrusting of the Pelona Schist beneath the upper plate of the Vincent thrust.     

Error analyses of resonant orbits for geodesy

An error analysis of resonant orbits for geodesy indicates that attempts to use resonance to recover high order geopotential coefficients may be seriously hampered by errors in the geopotential. This effect, plus the very high correlations (up to .99) of the resonant coefficients with each other and the orbital period in single satellite solutions, makesindividual resonant orbits of limited value for geodesy. Multiple-satellite, single-plane solutions are only a slight improvement over the single satellite case. Accurate determination of high order coefficients from low altitude resonant satellites requires multiple orbit planes and small drift-periods to reduce correlations and effects of errors of non-resonant geopotential terms. Also, the effects of gravity model errors on low-altitude resonant satellites make the use of tracking arcs exceeding two to three weeks of doubtful validity. Because high-altitude resonant orbits are less affected by non-resonant terms in the geopotential, much longer tracking arcs can be used for them.     

Dynamics of the long-period tides

The long-period tides are a tool for understanding oceanic motions at low frequencies and large scales. Here we review observations and theory of the fortnightly, monthly and pole tide constitutents. Observations have been plagued by low signal-to-noise ratios and theory by the complex lateral geometry and great sensitivity to bottom slopes. A new spectral element model is used to compute the oceanic response to tidal forcing at 2-week and monthly periods. The general response is that of a heavily damped (Q ≈ 5) system with both the energy input from the moon and the dissipation strongly localized in space. The high dissipation result is probably generally applicable to all low frequency barotropic oceanic motions. Over much of the ocean, the response has both the character of a large-scale and a superposed Rossby wave-like character, thus vindicating two apparently conflicting earlier interpretations. To the extent that free waves are excited they are consistent with their being dominated by Rossby and topographic Rossby wave components, although gravity modes are also necessarily excited to some degree. In general, a modal representation is not very helpful. The most active regions are the Southern Ocean and the western and northern North Atlantic. These results are stable to changes in geometry, topography, and tide period. On a global average basis, the dynamical response of Mm is closer to equilibrium than is Mf.     

Effect of bed surface roughness on longitudinal dispersion in artificial open channels

In several empirical and modelling studies on river hydraulics, dispersion was negatively correlated to surface roughness. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the influence of surface roughness on longitudinal dispersion under controlled conditions. In artificial flow channels with a length of 104 m, tracer experiments with variations in channel bed material were performed. By use of measured tracer breakthrough curves, average flow velocity, mean longitudinal dispersion, and mean longitudinal dispersivity were calculated. Longitudinal dispersion coefficients ranged from 0·018 m² s^?1 in channels with smooth bed surface up to 0·209 m² s^?1 in channels with coarse gravel as bed material. Longitudinal dispersion was linearly related to mean flow velocity. Accordingly, longitudinal dispersivities ranged between 0·152 ± 0·017 m in channels with smooth bed surface and 0·584 ± 0·015 m in identical channels with a coarse gravel substrate. Grain size and surface roughness of the channel bed were found to correlate positively to longitudinal dispersion. This finding contradicts several existing relations between surface roughness and dispersion. Future studies should include further variation in surface roughness to derive a better‐founded empirical equation forecasting longitudinal dispersion from surface roughness. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evidence for a small,high-Z,iron-like solar core

Radial and nonradial oscillation equations without and with the gravitation perturbation (with and without the Cowling approximation, CA) are solved numerically using the profile from a more accurate high-Z core (HZC) solar model. This more accurate HZC model was generated with the CRAY X-MP/48 supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Frequencies of oscillation in the five-min band (5MB) and frequencies with period near 160 min are presented in tables and plotted in echelle diagrams. The model was generated by integrating the stellar structure equations from the center to he surface, as done in Rouse (1964), using a maximum space step, ;x _m = 5 × 10^–4, decreasing to 10^–6 in the hydrogenionization zone just below the photosphere. Two subsets of space mesh points are used to calculate the oscillation frequencies, viz., one with a maximum space step of 5 × 10^–3, decreasing to 10^–6 with a total of 621 points (mesh 5I) and the other with a maximum space step of 2 × 10^–3, with a total of 867 points (mesh 5J).With the surface boundary condition applied at x = 1.0, the l – 1 degree nonradial frequencies with CA and the l-degree frequencies without CA are in very good agreement with the frequency spacings for observed frequencies of oscillation labeled l = 1 to 5, but with the l – 1 frequencies with CA about 10 Hz or so less than the observations and the l frequencies without CA about 10 Hz or so greater than the observations. And for the Duvall and Harvey (1983) observations labeled l = 10 and l = 20, the l = 9 and l = 19 nonradial solutions with CA agree to about 5 Hz or less with the observations. Considering from the two preceeding papers in this series that increasing the density in the outer envelope and photosphere will increase the 5MB frequencies and applying the outer boundary condition at x > 1.0 will decrease the 5MB frequencies, the net affects of such changes could move one or the other set of frequencies closer to the observations — or require a slightly different model structure to obtain accurate agreements with the values of the observed frequencies throughout the 5MB.In either case, it is concluded that the first-order, radially-symmetric structure of the model outside the HZC is close to the structure of the real Sun. This is of fundamental importance because a real gas adiabatic temperature gradient (Rouse, 1964, 1971) is used in the outer convective region without free parameters.Other aspects of agreements and differences between radial and nonradial solutions, with CA and without CA are discussed. In particular, the l = 4, 6, 8, and 9 g-mode solutions with CA indicate that the observed 160.01 min period may be a common l-mode period of oscillation. More research is proposed.