Significance of flow rule for the passive earth pressure problem

Acta Geotechnica - Determination of earth pressures is one of the fundamental tasks in geotechnical engineering. Although many different methods have been utilized to present passive earth pressure...     

MODIS Derived Equilibrium Line Altitude Estimates for Purogangri Ice Cap,Tibetan Plateau,and their Relation to Climatic Predictors (2001–2012)

The variation of the equilibrium line altitude can be used as an indicator for glacier mass balance variability. Snow lines at the end of the ablation period are suitable proxies for the annual equilibrium line altitude on glaciers. We investigate snow lines at Purogangri ice cap on the central Plateau in order to study the interannual variability of glacier mass balance. Datasets of the daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer snow product MOD10A1 were used to infer transient snow line variability during 2001–2012 and to derive regional‐scale, annual equilibrium line altitude. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer snow albedo embedded within the snow product was compared with high‐resolution Landsat imagery. An albedo threshold was established to differentiate between ice and snow and the 13th percentile of the altitudes of snow‐covered pixels was chosen to represent the snow line altitude. The second maximum of the snow line altitudes in the ablation period was taken as a proxy for the annual equilibrium line altitude. A linear correlation analysis was carried out (1) between interannual variability of the equilibrium line altitude at Purogangri ice cap and various climate elements derived from the High Asia Reanalysis, and (2) between interannual variability of the equilibrium line altitude and the circulation indices North Atlantic Oscillation and Indian Summer Monsoon. Results suggest that air temperature and meridional wind speed above ground in July, as well as the lower tropospheric zonal wind in June and August play a crucial role in the development of the annual equilibrium line altitude.     

Effective stability around the Cassini state in the spin-orbit problem

We investigate the long-time stability in the neighborhood of the Cassini state in the conservative spin-orbit problem. Starting with an expansion of the Hamiltonian in the canonical Andoyer-Delaunay variables, we construct a high-order Birkhoff normal form and give an estimate of the effective stability time in the Nekhoroshev sense. By extensively using algebraic manipulations on a computer, we explicitly apply our method to the rotation of Titan. We obtain physical bounds of Titan’s latitudinal and longitudinal librations, finding a stability time greatly exceeding the estimated age of the Universe. In addition, we study the dependence of the effective stability time on three relevant physical parameters: the orbital inclination, $i$ , the mean precession of the ascending node of Titan orbit, $\dot{\varOmega }$ , and the polar moment of inertia, $C$ .     

Trading more food: Implications for land use,greenhouse gas emissions,and the food system

The volume of agricultural trade increased by more than ten times throughout the past six decades and is likely to continue with high rates in the future. Thereby, it largely affects environment and climate. We analyse future trade scenarios covering the period of 2005–2045 by evaluating economic and environmental effects using the global land-use model MAgPIE (“Model of Agricultural Production and its Impact on the Environment”). This is the first trade study using spatially explicit mapping of land use patterns and greenhouse gas emissions. We focus on three scenarios: the reference scenario fixes current trade patterns, the policy scenario follows a historically derived liberalisation pathway, and the liberalisation scenario assumes a path, which ends with full trade liberalisation in 2045.Further trade liberalisation leads to lower global costs of food. Regions with comparative advantages like Latin America for cereals and oil crops and China for livestock products will export more. In contrast, regions like the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia face the highest increases of imports. Deforestation, mainly in Latin America, leads to significant amounts of additional carbon emissions due to trade liberalisation. Non-CO₂ emissions will mostly shift to China due to comparative advantages in livestock production and rising livestock demand in the region. Overall, further trade liberalisation leads to higher economic benefits at the expense of environment and climate, if no other regulations are put in place.     

High-resolution isotope records of early Holocene rapid climate change from two coeval stalagmites of Katerloch Cave,Austria

Two coeval stalagmites from Katerloch Cave show pronounced intervals of low δ¹⁸O values around 8.2, 9.1, and 10.0 kyr (all ages are reported before the year 2000 AD) and represent an inorganic U–Th dated climate archive from the southeast of the European Alps, a region where only very few well-dated climate records exist. The O isotope curves, providing near-annual resolution, allow a direct comparison to the Greenland ice core records, as temperature was the primary factor controlling the O isotopic composition of Katerloch speleothems.The 8.2 kyr climate anomaly lasted about one century, from 8196 to 8100 yr, with a maximum amplitude of 1.1‰ at 8175 yr. The event is characterized by a rapid onset and a more gradual demise and U–Th data as well as annual lamina counting support a rapid climate change towards cooler conditions within 10–20 yr. There is no strong evidence that the 8.2 kyr anomaly was superimposed on a pronounced longer-term cooling episode, nor do the new data support two separate cooling events within the 8.2 kyr event as reported by other studies. Our record also shows a distinct climate anomaly around 9.1 kyr, which lasted 70–110 yr and showed a maximum amplitude of 1.0‰, i.e. it had a similar duration and amplitude as the (central) 8.2 kyr event. Compared to the 8.2 kyr event, the 9.1 kyr anomaly shows a more symmetrical structure, but onset and demise still occurred within a few decades only. The different progression of the 8.2 (asymmetrical) and 9.1 kyr anomaly (symmetrical) suggests a fundamental difference in the trigger and/or the response of the climate system. Moreover, both stalagmites show evidence of a climate anomaly around 10.0 kyr, which was of comparable magnitude to the two subsequent events.Using a well constrained modern calibration between air temperature and δ¹⁸O of precipitation for the study area and cave monitoring data (confirming speleothem deposition in Katerloch reflecting cave air temperature), a maximum cooling by ca 3 °C can be inferred at 8.2 and 9.1 kyr, which is similar to other estimates, e.g., from Lake Ammersee north of the Alps. The O isotopic composition of meteoric precipitation, however, is a complex tracer of the hydrological cycle and these temperature estimates do not take into account additional effects such as changes in the source area or synoptic shifts. Apart from that, the relative thickness of the seasonally controlled lamina types in the Katerloch stalagmites remains rather constant across the intervals comprising the isotopic anomalies, i.e. the stalagmite petrography argues against major shifts in seasonality during the early Holocene climate excursions.     

Validation of the three-dimensional ECOHAM model in the German Bight for 2004 including population dynamics of Pseudocalanus elongatus

A three-dimensional ecosystem model for the North Sea which includes competition between Pseudocalanus elongatus and the rest of the zooplankton biomass was applied to describe the seasonal cycle of zooplankton in 2003–2004. The paper presents the comparison of simulated stage-resolved abundances with copepod counts at several stations in the German Bight during the GLOBEC-Germany project from February to October 2004. A validation of influential state variables gives confidence that the model is able to calculate reliably the stage development and abundances of P. elongatus as well as the range of bulk zooplankton biomass, and thus the ratio of population biomass to total biomass. In the German Bight, the population is below 20% in spring. The ratio increases up to 50% during summer. The number of generations was estimated from peaks in egg abundance to about 4–8 generations of P. elongatus in the southern North Sea. A mean of four generations per year were estimated in the central North Sea, six to eight generations northwest of the Dogger Bank (tails end) and five generations in the German Bight.     

Turbidites deposited on Southern Central Chilean seamounts: Evidence for energetic turbidity currents

Gravity cores obtained from isolated seamounts located within, and rising up to 300 m from the sediment-filled Peru–Chile Trench off Southern Central Chile (36°S–39°S) contain numerous turbidite layers which are much coarser than the hemipelagic background sedimentation. The mineralogical composition of some of the beds indicates a mixed origin from various source terrains while the faunal assemblage of benthic foraminifera in one of the turbidite layers shows a mixed origin from upper shelfal to middle-lower bathyal depths which could indicate a multi-source origin and therefore indicate an earthquake triggering of the causing turbidity currents. The bathymetric setting and the grain size distribution of the sampled layers, together with swath echosounder and sediment echosounder data which monitor the distribution of turbidites on the elevated Nazca Plate allow some estimates on the flow direction, flow velocity and height of the causing turbidity currents. We discuss two alternative models of deposition, both of which imply high (175–450 m) turbidity currents and we suggest a channelized transport process as the general mode of turbidite deposition. Whether these turbidites are suspension fallout products of thick turbiditic flows or bedload deposits from sheet-like turbidity currents overwhelming elevated structures cannot be decided upon using our sedimentological data, but the specific morphology of the seamounts rather argues for the first option. Oxygen isotope stratigraphy of one of the cores indicates that the turbiditic sequences were deposited during the last Glacial period and during the following transition period and turbiditic deposition stopped during the Holocene. This climatic coupling seems to be dominant, while the occurrence of megathrust earthquakes provides a trigger mechanism. This seismic triggering takes effect only during times of very high sediment supply to the shelf and slope.