A deep-sea in-situ suspended sediment sampling system: Comment

A recent article by Beer et al. (1974) in Marine Geology describes an in-situ suspended sediment sampling system which utilizes a pump/motor unit, filter holders, and a lead-acid battery power source. Two aspects of their article may be misleading: the use of certain filter material as X-ray diffraction mounts, and the technique by which an oil-filled battery case may be operated.     

Sodian stellerite from Capo Pula,Sardegna

The sodian stellerite (a zeolite) occurs as lustrous white or slightly pink, easily cleavable lamellae, filling cavities and fractures in an acid lava (andesite or rhyolite) in the cliff below S. Efisio Tower, near Capo Pula, Cagliari, Sardegna, Italy. The principal forms present are {010}, {011}, {111}. Single crystal photographs show an orthorhombic symmetry and Ammm (or Ammm) space group. An indexed X-ray diffraction powder pattern is provided. Unit cell dimensions, chemical formula, density, optical properties and thermal behaviour are given.     

Groundwater Resources In Hard Rock; Experiences from The Hvaler Study,Southeastern Norway

Investigations in a newly constructed subsea road tunnel in the Iddefjord granite at Hvaler and test-pumping of boreholes on land indicate that a topographic or geophysical anomaly is no guarantee of a substantially transmissive fracture zone. Many prominent fracture zones appear to have depressed transmissivity due to secondary swelling-clay mineral infillings. No current geophysical technique can adequately distinguish these zones from transmissive ones. Given that siting of boreholes on the basis of geology alone can be unreliable, hydrogeologists should concentrate on quantifying the chances of a successful boring, and optimizing those chances by sensible location, favourable borehole orientation and use of artificial enhancement techniques.     

Prediction of influence of global warming on biological cycle and carbon balance in forest ecosystems of the Volga River Basin

The gradient (ordination) analysis was used to find the tendencies and the rate of changes in discrete parameters of the cycle of forest phytomasses accompanying a growing thermoarid climatic trend. The prognostic estimates of biotic regulation of the carbon cycle by forest biogeocenoses according to the HadCM3 (version A2) climatic scenarios, describing the most powerful coming global warming, are presented.     

Enhancement of the method of summer precipitation forecasting

The physical-synoptic principles of the automated method of summer precipitation forecasting introduced into operational prognostic practice in 2006 by the decree of the Central Methodical Commission of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) are presented. Beside that, improved modifications of this method, which are automatically updated, are shown. Validation of those updates based on observational data collected in 2004 has shown improvement of all major criteria of forecasts efficiency. The performed improvement is based on the more detailed quantitative realization of mechanism of various showers formation (including heavy rainfalls).     

On the eigenvalues of kinematic α-effect dynamos

The kinematic α-effect dynamo problem is investigated in the case of an exterior perfect conductor. It is shown that certain approximate symmetries discovered in the numerical analysis of ROBERTS (1972) are exact for this case. As an illustration, an exact solution is given in a cylindrical geometry, where the equations can be written in terms of one variable. The implications for the earth's dynamo are discussed.     

Measures of Parameter Uncertainty in Geostatistical Estimation and Geostatistical Optimal Design

Studies of site exploration, data assimilation, or geostatistical inversion measure parameter uncertainty in order to assess the optimality of a suggested scheme. This study reviews and discusses measures for parameter uncertainty in spatial estimation. Most measures originate from alphabetic criteria in optimal design and were transferred to geostatistical estimation. Further rather intuitive measures can be found in the geostatistical literature, and some new measures will be suggested in this study. It is shown how these measures relate to the optimality alphabet and to relative entropy. Issues of physical and statistical significance are addressed whenever they arise. Computational feasibility and efficient ways to evaluate the above measures are discussed in this paper, and an illustrative synthetic case study is provided. A major conclusion is that the mean estimation variance and the averaged conditional integral scale are a powerful duo for characterizing conditional parameter uncertainty, with direct correspondence to the well-understood optimality alphabet. This study is based on cokriging generalized to uncertain mean and trends because it is the most general representative of linear spatial estimation within the Bayesian framework. Generalization to kriging and quasi-linear schemes is straightforward. Options for application to non-Gaussian and non-linear problems are discussed.     

Formation Mechanism of Mud Bank Along the Southwest Coast of India

Mud bank formation during the southwest monsoon along the southwest coast of India remains an enigma to the researchers and coastal community in spite of several earlier studies. The present study attempts to unravel the mystery through a high-frequency, season-long time-series observation at Alappuzha, located at the southern part of the west coast of India, a region of frequent occurrence of mud bank. Using 7-month-long weekly time-series observation, we identified strong winds and high waves associated with onset of the southwest monsoon and subsequent three episodic atmospheric low-pressure events (LPEs).With the help of in situ time-series data, we show that the strong winds and high waves associated with southwest monsoon pre-conditions the near shore bottom sediment to bring it into suspension. The high amplitude waves associated with the southwest monsoon, while propagating from the deep water to shallow water region, interact with the bottom initiating bottom-sediment movement and its suspension due to wave refraction and shoaling. The sporadic occurrence of the atmospheric LPEs enhances the process of suspension of bottom sediment in the near shore region leading to the formation of fluid mud. Simulations with a cohesive sediment transport model yielded realistic estimates of sediment transport, in the presence of an onshore current, a pre-requisite for transporting the fluid mud toward the coast. The prevailing onshore upwelling current during the southwest monsoon provides the favorable pre-requisite conditions for transporting the fluid mud through depression channel network towards the coast. Once sufficient quantity and thickness of fluid mud is accumulated in the near shore region, it acts as a wave damper for subsequent high monsoon waves, as indicated by the time-series wave data, leading to the formation of tranquil mud bank region. Depression channel networks extending from the shelf to the coast off Alappuzha, Kochi, Ponnani, Beypore, and Ullal were found in the bathymetric charts, thus explaining why mud banks occur only at few locations in spite of the prevalence of similar monsoon conditions.     

Fire and vegetation shifts in the Americas at the vanguard of Paleoindian migration

Across North and South America, the final millennia of the Pleistocene saw dramatic changes in climate, vegetation, fauna, fire regime, and other local and regional paleo-environmental characteristics. Rapid climate shifts following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) exerted a first-order influence, but abrupt post-glacial shifts in vegetation composition, vegetation structure, and fire regime also coincided with human arrival and transformative faunal extinctions in the Americas. We propose a model of post-glacial vegetation change in response to climatic drivers, punctuated by local fire regime shifts in response to megaherbivore-driven fuel changes and anthropogenic ignitions. The abrupt appearance of humans, disappearance of megaherbivores, and resulting changes in New World fire systems were transformative events that should not be dismissed in favor of climate-only interpretations of post-glacial paleo-environmental shifts in the Americas. Fire is a mechanism by which small human populations can have broad impacts, and growing evidence suggests that early anthropogenic influences on regional, even global, paleo-environments should be tested alongside other potential causal mechanisms.