Chicxulub impact ejecta from Albion Island, Belize

Impact ejecta from the Albion Formation are exposed in northern Belize. The ejecta come from the outer portion of the continuous ejecta blanket of the Chicxulub crater, which is located 360 km to the northwest. The basal unit of the Albion Formation is a 1-m-thick clay and dolomite spheroid bed composed of up to four discrete flows. The clay spheroids are altered impact glass, and the dolomite spheroids are accretionary lapilli. The upper unit is a 15-m-thick coarse diamictite bed containing altered glass, large accretionary blocks, striated, polished, and impacted cobbles, and rare shocked quartz. The abundance of accretionary clasts, evidence for atmospheric drag sorting, and the presence of multiple flows in the Albion Formation indicate that atmospheres play an important role in the formation of the outer portions of continuous ejecta blankets of large craters.     

Geochemistry of the magmatic–hydrothermal system of Kawah Ijen volcano, East Java, Indonesia

Samples from Kawah Ijen crater lake, spring and fumarole discharges were collected between 1990 and 1996 for chemical and isotopic analysis. An extremely low pH (<0.3) lake contains SO₄–Cl waters produced during absorption of magmatic volatiles into shallow ground water. The acidic waters dissolve the rock isochemically to produce “immature” solutions. The strong D and ¹⁸O enrichment of the lake is mainly due to enhanced evaporation at elevated temperature, but involvement of a magmatic component with heavy isotopic ratios also modifies the lake D and ¹⁸O content. The large Δ_SO4–S⁰ (23.8–26.4‰) measured in the lake suggest that dissolved SO₄ forms during disproportionation of magmatic SO₂ in the hydrothermal conduit at temperatures of 250280°C. The lake δ¹⁸O_SO4 and δ¹⁸O_H2O values may reflect equilibration during subsurface circulation of the water at temperatures near 150°C. Significant variations in the lake's bulk composition from 1990 to 1996 were not detected. However, we interpret a change in the distribution and concentration of polythionate species in 1996 as a result of increased SO₂-rich gas input to the lake system.Thermal springs at Kawah Ijen consist of acidic SO₄–Cl waters on the lakeshore and neutral pH HCO₃–SO₄–Cl–Na waters in Blawan village, 17 km from the crater. The cation contents of these discharges are diluted compared to the crater lake but still do not represent equilibrium with the rock. The SO₄/Cl ratios and water and sulfur isotopic compositions support the idea that these springs are mixtures of summit acidic SO₄–Cl water and ground water.The lakeshore fumarole discharges (T=170245°C) have both a magmatic and a hydrothermal component and are supersaturated with respect to elemental sulfur. The apparent equilibrium temperature of the gas is 260°C. The proportions of the oxidized, SO₂-dominated magmatic vapor and of the reduced, H₂S-dominated hydrothermal vapor in the fumaroles varied between 1979 and 1996. This may be the result of interaction of SO₂-bearing magmatic vapors with the summit acidic hydrothermal reservoir. This idea is supported by the lower H₂S/SO₂ ratio deduced for the gas producing the SO₄–Cl reservoir feeding the lake compared with that observed in the subaerial gas discharges. The condensing gas may have equilibrated in a liquid–vapor zone at about 350°C.Elemental sulfur occurs in the crater lake environment as banded sediments exposed on the lakeshore and as a subaqueous molten body on the crater floor. The sediments were precipitated in the past during inorganic oxidation of H₂S in the lake water. This process was not continuous, but was interrupted by periods of massive silica (poorly crystallized) precipitation, similar to the present-day lake conditions. We suggest that the factor controlling the type of deposition is related to whether H₂S- or silica-rich volcanic discharges enter the lake. This could depend on the efficiency with which the lake water circulates in the hydrothermal cell beneath the crater. Quenched liquid sulfur products show δ³⁴S values similar to those found in the banded deposits, suggesting that the subaqueous molten body simply consists of melted sediments previously accumulated at the lake bottom.     

Hurricane Katrina induced nutrient runoff from an agricultural area to coastal waters in Biscayne Bay,Florida

Water quality surveys conducted in Biscayne Bay, Florida, indicated enhanced nutrient input coupled with increased runoff as a result of precipitation associated with Hurricane Katrina. Nutrient concentrations before Katrina ranged from 0.06–24.2 μM (mean 3.3 μM) for nitrate and 0.01–0.18 μM (mean 0.1 μM) for soluble reactive phosphate. Five days after Katrina, nitrate concentrations ranged from 0.87–80.0 μM (mean 17.0 μM), with a bay-wide mean increase of 5.2-fold over pre-hurricane levels. Soluble reactive phosphate concentrations ranged from 0.07–0.62 μM (mean 0.2 μM), with a bay-wide mean increase of 2-fold over pre-hurricane levels. The maximum concentrations for both nitrate and soluble reactive phosphate were found at a water quality monitoring station near the mouth of Mowry Canal, which drains an agricultural area in the southern Biscayne Bay watershed near Homestead, Florida. At this station, nitrate and soluble reactive phosphate concentrations increased 7- and 10-fold, respectively. Storm-induced fertilizer runoff from this agricultural area caused a bay-wide increase in nutrient concentrations after Hurricane Katrina. Nutrient concentrations in the bay returned to pre-hurricane levels within three months after Hurricane Katrina, showing the resiliency of the Biscayne Bay ecosystem.     

A comparison of satellite-retrieved and simulated cloud coverage in the Baltic Sea area as part of the BALTIMOS project

A cloud-detection algorithm for METEOSAT first generation data has been developed. The algorithm utilizes solely infrared data from the METEOSAT thermal infrared window channel at around 11.5 μm. The developed algorithm estimates an assumed clear-sky brightness temperature from time series analysis on pixel bases. Land-/sea-depending dynamic thresholds are then utilized discriminating the infrared images in cloudy, undecided, and cloud free pixels. The cloud-detection algorithm has been validated against synoptic observations. The developed cloud-detection scheme has been applied to 10 years (1992–2001) of METEOSAT data, extracting cloud coverage statistics for the Baltic Sea catchment area. These have been compared to corresponding cloud coverage statistics derived from the BALTIMOS coupled model system. Building overall averaged values of the cloud coverage in the period from 1999 to 2001 gives results with very good agreement between simulation and observation: the total METEOSAT-derived cloud coverage amounts to 0.65 compared to 0.63 for BALTIMOS. In contrast, large discrepancies in the phase of the diurnal cycle of cloud coverage have been observed. A significant trend in total cloud amount was observed neither from the model nor from the satellite.     

Modeling of pile installation using contact mechanics and quadratic elements

In geotechnical engineering, numerical analysis of pile capacity is often performed in such a way that piles are modeled using only the geometry of their final position in the ground and simply loaded to failure. In these analyses, the stress changes caused by the pile installation are neglected, irrespective of the installation method. For displacement piles, which are either pushed or hammered into the ground, such an approach is a very crude simplification. To model the entire installation process of displacement piles a number of additional nonlinear effects need to be considered. As the soil adjacent to the pile is displaced significantly, small deformation theory is no longer applicable and a large deformation finite element formulation is required. In addition, the continuously changing interface between the pile and the soil has to be considered. Recently, large deformation frictional contact has been used to model the pile installation and cone penetration processes. However, one significant limitation of the analysis was the use of linear elements, which have proven to be less accurate than higher order elements for nonlinear materials such as soils.

This paper presents a large deformation frictional contact formulation which can be coupled consistently with quadratic solid elements. The formulation uses the so-called mortar-type discretisation of the contact surfaces. The performance of this contact discretisation technique is demonstrated by accurately predicting the stress transfer between the pile and the soil surfaces.     

The CLIVAR C20C project: which components of the Asian–Australian monsoon circulation variations are forced and reproducible?

A multi-model set of atmospheric simulations forced by historical sea surface temperature (SST) or SSTs plus Greenhouse gases and aerosol forcing agents for the period of 1950–1999 is studied to identify and understand which components of the Asian–Australian monsoon (A–AM) variability are forced and reproducible. The analysis focuses on the summertime monsoon circulations, comparing model results against the observations. The priority of different components of the A–AM circulations in terms of reproducibility is evaluated. Among the subsystems of the wide A–AM, the South Asian monsoon and the Australian monsoon circulations are better reproduced than the others, indicating they are forced and well modeled. The primary driving mechanism comes from the tropical Pacific. The western North Pacific monsoon circulation is also forced and well modeled except with a slightly lower reproducibility due to its delayed response to the eastern tropical Pacific forcing. The simultaneous driving comes from the western Pacific surrounding the maritime continent region. The Indian monsoon circulation has a moderate reproducibility, partly due to its weakened connection to June–July–August SSTs in the equatorial eastern Pacific in recent decades. Among the A–AM subsystems, the East Asian summer monsoon has the lowest reproducibility and is poorly modeled. This is mainly due to the failure of specifying historical SST in capturing the zonal land-sea thermal contrast change across the East Asia. The prescribed tropical Indian Ocean SST changes partly reproduce the meridional wind change over East Asia in several models. For all the A–AM subsystem circulation indices, generally the MME is always the best except for the Indian monsoon and East Asian monsoon circulation indices.     

Comparison of precipitation in the regional climate model BALTIMOS to radar observations

Observational data and simulations of the regional climate system Baltic integrated model system (BALTIMOS) were used to study precipitation in the Baltic Sea and its drainage basin with a special focus on the diurnal cycle. The study includes a general evaluation of BALTIMOS precipitation, showing that BALTIMOS has too many light rain events causing an overestimation of the total annual precipitation amount. The diurnal cycle as well as its spatial distribution was analysed. BALTIMOS captures the broad characteristics: a significant diurnal variability with an afternoon peak above land and weak variability with a nocturnal peak above sea. An algorithm to distinguish between frontal and convective precipitation was applied to examine the diurnal cycle more thoroughly. The local solar time of maximum rain in summer is about 1 to 2 h earlier in BALTIMOS than in radar observations of precipitation.     

Mean sea level and the marine geoid—an analysis of concepts

The current ambition to achieve a 10‐cm marine geoid focuses attention on the interdisciplinary problem of relating oceanographic to geodetic measurements, and on the apparent conflict between them along the United States’ coasts. The concepts underlying the comparisons in this conflict are analyzed, and shown to leave a possibility of diffusing the deadlock by more precise reformulations. Concepts which have been equated in practical applications under less stringent accuracy requirements need to be refined and related more precisely through interdisciplinary efforts. An example is given of a geodetic utilization of density differences in the ocean, akin to but not the same as the idea of steric leveling, in order to highlight the similarity and dissimilarity between some geodetic and oceanographic ideas.     

Supra‐glacial deposition and flux of catastrophic rock–slope failure debris,south‐central Alaska

The ongoing debate over the effects of global environmental change on Earth's cryosphere calls for detailed knowledge about process rates and their variability in cold environments. In this context, appraisals of the coupling between glacier dynamics and para‐glacial erosion rates in tectonically active mountains remain rare. We contribute to filling this knowledge gap and present an unprecedented regional‐scale inventory of supra‐glacial sediment flux and hillslope erosion rates inferred from an analysis of 123 large (> 0·1 km²) catastrophic bedrock landslides that fell onto glaciers in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska, as documented by satellite images obtained between 1972 to 2008. Assuming these supra‐glacial landslide deposits to be passive strain markers we infer minimum decadal‐scale sediment yields of 190 to 7400 t km^–2 yr^–1 for a given glacier‐surface cross‐section impacted by episodic rock–slope failure. These rates compare to reported fluvial sediment yields in many mountain rivers, but are an order of magnitude below the extreme sediment yields measured at the snouts of Alaskan glaciers, indicating that the bulk of debris discharged derives from en‐glacial, sub‐glacial or ice‐proximal sources. We estimate an average minimum para‐glacial erosion rate by large, episodic rock–slope failures at 0·5–0·7 mm yr^–1 in the Chugach Mountains over a 50‐yr period, with earthquakes likely being responsible for up to 73% of this rate. Though ranking amongst the highest decadal landslide erosion rates for this size of study area worldwide, our inferred rates of hillslope erosion in the Chugach Mountains remain an order of magnitude below the pace of extremely rapid glacial sediment export and glacio‐isostatic surface uplift previously reported from the region. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hydrological model comparison and assessment: criteria from catchment scales and temporal resolution

ABSTRACT

This study examines the performance of three hydrological models, namely the artificial neural network (ANN) model, the Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning-D (HBV-D) model, and the Soil and Water Integrated Model (SWIM) over the upper reaches of the Huai River basin. The assessment is done by using databases of different temporal resolution and by further examining the applicability of SWIM for different catchment sizes. The results show that at monthly scale the performance of the ANN model is better than that of HBV-D and SWIM. The ANN model can be applied at any temporal scale as it establishes an artificial precipitation–runoff relationship for various time scales by only using monthly precipitation, temperature and runoff data. However, at daily scale the performance of both HBV-D and SWIM are similar or even better than the ANN model. In addition, the performance of SWIM at a small catchment size (less than 10 000 km²) is much better than at a larger catchment size. In view of climate change modelling, HBV-D and SWIM might be integrated in a dynamical atmosphere-water-cycle modelling rather than the ANN model due to their use of observed physical links instead of artificial relations within a black box.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor D. Hughes