Noble gas and carbon abundances of the Haverö, Dingo Pup Donga,and North Haig ureilites

Total carbon determinations on the Haverö, Dingo Pup Donga, and North Haig ureilites yield values of 2.07, 3.17, and 5.58 wt.%, respectively. Haverö and Dingo Pup Donga contain relatively large amounts of trapped Ar, Kr and Xe, which like the carbon content varies with grain size for Haverö. These two meteorites also contain dominant cosmic rayproduced He and Ne, and show ³He exposure ages of ~23 m.y. and ~7 m.y., respectively. North Haig contains much smaller amounts of trapped gases and spallogenic gases, which may result from loss due to terrestrial weathering. The isotopic composition of Xe in five grain size analyses of Haverö and a whole rock analysis of Dingo Pup Donga shows the presence of a major solar-like Xe component. The presence of this solar component adds an additional complication to the concept of forming ureilites from carbonaceous chondrites.     

CAN TRANSITION IN THE ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF THE EARTH BE DETECTED?*

The interface phenomena for low periods, i.e. the initial oscillations, and the cut-off periods are two characteristic features in Magnetotelluric Sounding curves. A method is proposed to distinguish between transitional and homogeneous layered earth by means of these two features.     

Breadth and depth in research on health disparities: commentary on the work of Nancy Krieger

Geocoding and spatial analysis of data describing populations and health events are important methods in health social science now carried out using GIS technology. This commentary considers Nancy Krieger’s work on health disparities in light of the various ways individuals and organizations use geocoded population and health data: analyzing spatial patterns of health and disease including health disparities, aggregating data spatially, assessing health status of individuals based on characteristics of aggregates, modeling neighborhood contextual factors affecting health, designing observation and intervention studies, and delivering health interventions and services. The extent to which her work addresses each of these purposes is considered. The strengths and limitations of the research including choice of spatial analytic units and techniques as reported in the published work are discussed. Krieger’s work, with her colleagues, has used standard methods of spatial analysis to raise the profile of GIS and spatial analysis in the public health community.     

Younger Dryas glaciolacustrine rhythmites and cirque glacier variations at Kråkenes, western Norway: depositional processes and climate

Kråkenes faces the open sea on the west coast of Norway. During the Younger Dryas a cirque glacier deposited a large outer and a smaller inner moraine in a cirque at the site and melt-water entered a small lake depositing glaciolacustrine sediments. The glaciolacustrine succession can be divided into three sub-units corresponding to the advance, the still-stand and the retreat phases of the glacier. The sediment succession contains both varves and other types of rhythmites, the latter being mainly deposited as turbidity underflows caused by localized slumping events. Lee-side accumulation of snow by wind and avalanching into the cirque was crucial to form and maintain the cirque glacier once summer temperatures were low enough. At maximum, the glacier likely was in equilibrium with climate. The initial retreat from the maximum position might have been triggered by fall-out of volcanic ash from Iceland, but the continued retreat was due to increased ablation season temperatures. The most rapid change in climate at the Younger Dryas/Preboreal transition occurred after the cirque glacier had melted away completely.     

Assessment of soil erosion in a tropical mountain river basin of the southern Western Ghats,India using RUSLE and GIS

Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation(RUSLE) model coupled with transport limited sediment delivery(TLSD) function was used to predict the longtime average annual soil loss, and to identify the critical erosion-/deposition-prone areas in a tropical mountain river basin, viz., Muthirapuzha River Basin(MRB; area=271.75 km~2), in the southern Western Ghats, India. Mean gross soil erosion in MRB is 14.36 t ha~(-1) yr~(-1), whereas mean net soil erosion(i.e., gross erosion-deposition) is only 3.60 t ha~(-1) yr~(-1)(i.e., roughly 25% of the gross erosion). Majority of the basin area(~86%) experiences only slight erosion(5 t ha~(-1) yr~(-1)), and nearly 3% of the area functions as depositional environment for the eroded sediments(e.g., the terraces of stream reaches, the gentle plains as well as the foot slopes of the plateau scarps and the terrain with concordant summits). Although mean gross soil erosion rates in the natural vegetation belts are relatively higher, compared to agriculture, settlement/built-up areas and tea plantation, the sediment transport efficiency in agricultural areas and tea plantation is significantly high,reflecting the role of human activities on accelerated soil erosion. In MRB, on a mean basis, 0.42 t of soil organic carbon(SOC) content is being eroded per hectare annually, and SOC loss from the 4th order subbasins shows considerable differences, mainly due to the spatial variability in the gross soil erosion rates among the sub-basins. The quantitative results, on soil erosion and deposition, modelled using RUSLE and TLSD, are expected to be beneficial while formulating comprehensive land management strategies for reducing the extent of soil degradation in tropical mountain river basins.     

On the gradient line of the moon's zonal gravitational potential field

The analytical expression of the gradient line, i.e. the perpendicular to the Moon's zonal equipotential surfaces is derived. Being a sensitive indicator of the geometric structure of the gravitational field, the shape of the trajectory, its direction field and curvature, the points of inflection, etc., are computed at elevations 0 km, 250 km, 1000 km and 10000 km above the Moon's surface. The numerical results were derived from the coefficients of Liu and Laing (1971) and are compared- whenever suitable - with the results obtained from the coefficients of Michaelet al. (1969).     

Palaeomagnetic evidence for Tertiary counterclockwise rotation of Adria

With the aim of obtaining Tertiary palaeomagnetic directions for the Adriatic Foreland of the Dinaric nappe system, we carried out a palaeomagnetic study on platform carbonates from stable Istria, from the northwestern and the Central Dalmatia segment of imbricated Adria. Despite the weak to very weak natural remanences of these rocks, we obtained tectonically useful palaeomagnetic directions for 25 sites from 20 localities. All exhibit westerly declinations, both before and after tilt correction. Concerning the age of the magnetizations, we conclude that five subhorizontal and magnetite bearing Eocene localities from stable Istria are likely to carry primary remanence, whereas three tilted and hematite-bearing ones were remagnetized. In the northwestern segment of imbricated Adria the cluster of the mean directions improved after tectonic correction indicating pre-tilting magnetization. In contrast, Maastrichtian–Eocene platform carbonates from Central Dalmatian were remagnetized in connection with the late Eocene–Oligocene deformation or Miocene hydrocarbon migration. Based on the appropriate site/locality means, we calculate mean palaeomagnetic directions for the above three areas and suggest an alternative interpretation of the data of Kissel et al. [J. Geophys. Res. 100 (1995) 14999] for the flysch of Central Dalmatia. The four area mean direction define a regional palaeomagnetic direction of Dec=336°, Inc=+52°, k=107, α₉₅=9°. From these data we conclude that stable Istria, in close coordination with imbricated Adria, must have rotated by 30° counterclockwise in the Tertiary, relative to Africa and stable Europe. We suggest that the latest Miocene–early Pliocene counterclockwise rotations observed in northwestern Croatia and northeastern Slovenia were driven by that of the Adriatic Foreland, i.e. the rotation of the latter took place between 6 and 4 Ma.     

Approaches for comparative evaluation of raster GIS-based landslide susceptibility zonation maps

Evaluation of maps generated from different conceptual models or data processing approaches at spatial level has importance in many geoenvironmental applications. This paper addresses the spatial comparison of different landslide susceptibility zonation (LSZ) raster maps of the same area derived from various procedures.