Land subsidence and sea level rise on the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the United States

Land subsidence due to decline in head in confined aquifers, related to municipal and industrial water pumpage, is widespread in the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Although not a major engineering problem, subsidence greatly complicates adjustment of precise leveling and distorts prediction of future sea-level rise. When preconsolidation stress equivalent to about 20 m of head decline is exceeded compaction of fine-grained sediments of the aquifer system begins, and continues until a new head equilibrium is attained between fine and coarse units. The ratio subsidence/head decline is quite consistent, ranging from 0.0064 in southeastern Virginia to 0.0018 at Dover, Delaware and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Higher values are related to the occurrence of montmorillonite as the predominant clay mineral present. Review of tide gauge records indicates that gauges not affected by land subsidence or other local secular effects have been sinking relative to sea level since 1940 at rates averaging about 2.5 mm/yr, of which 0.6 mm/yr is ascribed to glacio-isostatic adjustment to unloading of North America resulting from melting of late Pleistocene glaciers, and about 0.9 mm/yr is ascribed to steric sea-level rise related to ocean warming. The residual 1 mm/yr of relative sea-level rise is not well understood, but may be related to regional tectonic subsidence of the Atlantic coast.     

Correlation of late Quaternary tephra layers in a long pluvial sequence near Summer Lake,Oregon

Near Summer Lake in southern Oregon, 54 tephra beds of late Quaternary age are exposed in pluvial lake sediments of Lake Chewaucan. Seven of the tephra beds near the top can be correlated with tephra deposits younger than 117,000 yr at Mount St. Helens, Washington, at Crater Lake, Oregon, and in northwestern Nevada in the deposits of pluvial Lake Lahontan. However, most of the section at Summer Lake lies below the correlated units, and contains 39 tephra beds older than 117,000 yr.Major-element chemistry of tephra glasses was determined by electron microprobe analysis; petrography supports the correlations made from chemical evidence. Compositions correlated range from 70 to 76% SiO₂; the least silicic Summer Lake glass contained 57%.Extrapolation of depositional rate suggests that most of the sediments at Summer Lake are younger than about 335,000 yr, but older lake beds containing tephra layers occur at one place. The long lacustrine record suggests that Lake Chewaucan persisted through the last interpluvial stage, and that the lake may have dried up at the end of the Pleistocene due to diversion of the Chewaucan River by relict shore features.     

Effect of oxidative weathering on the thermoplastic and liquefaction behaviors of four coals

Using a Gieseler plastometer to measure the thermoplastic behavior, a systematic study of the change in fluid properties with progressive oxidative weathering of three high volatile A bituminous and one low volatile bituminous coal was performed. The degree of fluidity was found to decrease rapidly with initial oxidation and then more slowly with additional oxidation. The effect of oxidation on liquefaction behavior also was studied. A level of oxidation, which significantly reduced Gieseler fluidity, had no detrimental effect on the liquefaction conversion determined as ethyl acetate soluble material, of three of the four coals tested.     

Parameter estimation in low order fractionally differenced ARMA processes

A class of regression type estimators of the parameterd in a fractionally differencedARMA (p, q) process is introduced. This class is an extension of the estimator considered by Geweke and Porter-Hudak. In a simulation study, we compared three estimators from this class together with two approximate maximum likelihood estimators which are based on two separate approximations to the likelihood. One approximation ignores the determinant term in the likelihood and the other includes a compensating factor for the determinant. When the determinant term is included, the estimate tends to be much less biased and is in general superior to the other estimate. The approximate maximum likelihood estimator out performed, by a large margin, the regression type estimators for pureARIMA (0,d,0) processes. However, forARIMA (1,d,1) processes, a regression type estimator turned out to be the best for realizations of length 400 in 3 out of the 5 cases we tried.     

Estimation using spatially distributed multivariate data: An example with coal quality

A method to estimate several spatially related variables is presented. The method uses principal component analysis to produce cokriging results in a computationally efficient manner and enables a straightforward extension to more than two variables. An example is given that describes the estimation of the coal quality parameters, ash, heating value, and sulfur.     

A wind tunnel study of the flow field within and around open-top chambers used for air pollution studies

The EPA Meteorological Wind Tunnel was used to examine the flow field in and around models of open-top field-plant growth chambers used to assess the effects of pollutant gases on plant growth. Baffles designed to reduce the ingress of ambient air into the chamber through the open top were tested; the mean flow and turbulence in the simulated boundary layer with and without the chambers were compared (the chamber was operated with and without the pollutant flow system on); and the effects of surrounding chambers on the concentration field were measured. Results showed that a baffle with a reduced opening vertically above the test area maintained the highest uniform concentration in the test area. The major differences between the three (no chamber and the chamber with flow on and off) mean velocity profiles occurred below z/h = 2.0 (h is chamber height) and at z/h ≤ 4.2. The three Reynolds stress profiles were similar above z/h = 2.0. Downwind of the chamber, the Reynolds stresses in the on-mode were greater than those in the off-mode above z/h = 1.1. The reverse was true below that point. Both longitudinal and vertical intensities above and downwind of the chamber were greater with the mixture flow system on rather than off, below about z/h < 1.5. Lateral variations in the mean wind indicated that the mean velocity was greater with the mixture flow system on except near the centerline where the reverse was true. The concentrations in the downwind wake resembled those for a cube. The location of a cylinder within a regular array had some effect on its internal gas concentration. Locations near the upwind and downwind edges of the array were associated with lower concentrations, although for all locations the highest internal values were always found at the lowest portion of the upwind wall. With active cylinders downwind, the gas plume emitted from a source cylinder at the windward edge of the array was forced 0.5 h higher and the centerline meandered laterally when compared with the single-cylinder case. A cylinder located at z/h = 1.0 downwind from a source cylinder received approximately 3%; of the concentration input to the source, or roughly 10%; of the actual concentration within the source cylinder.     

Preservation of Arctic landscapes overridden by cold-based ice sheets

For nearly 40 years, a massive, well-preserved glaciomarine delta more than 54,000 years old and ancillary landforms have formed the cornerstone of models positing limited ice-sheet extent in Arctic Canada during the late Wisconsinan. We present exposure ages for large boulders on the delta surface, which coupled with preservation of relict landforms demonstrate that the region was covered by minimally erosive, cold-based ice during the late Wisconsinan. Our data suggest that surficial features commonly used to define the pattern of late Wisconsinan ice movement cannot be used on their own to constrain late Wisconsinan ice-sheet margins in Arctic regions.