Changes in seabed morphology, mud temperature and free gas venting at the Håkon Mosby mud volcano, offshore northern Norway, over the time period 2003–2006

The Håkon Mosby mud volcano is a 1.5-km-diameter geological structure located on the Southwest Barents Sea slope at a water depth of 1,270 m. High-definition seabed mapping of the mud volcano has been carried out in 2003 and 2006. A comparative analysis of the bathymetry and backscatter maps produced from the two surveys shows subtle morphological changes over the entire crater of the mud volcano, interpreted to be the consequence of mud eruption events. Mud temperature measurements point to a persistently warm mud at shallow depth in the crater. This is explained by upward fluid advection, rather than conductive cooling of mud flows. The small-scale spatial variability in the temperature distribution may be related to mud outflows or changes in the fluid flow regime. Furthermore, the locations of free gas venting observed in 2006 were found to differ from those of 2003. Our observations of overall similar topographic profiles across the mud volcano in 2003 and 2006 suggest that eruption events would have been modest. Nevertheless, the data bring evidence of significant change in activity even over short time intervals of only 3 years. This may be a characteristic shared by other submarine mud volcanoes, notably those considered to be in a quiescent stage.     

Estimating commercial property prices: an application of cokriging with housing prices as ancillary information

A vast majority of the recent literature on spatial hedonic analysis has been concerned with residential property values, with only very few examples of studies focused on commercial property prices. The dearth of studies can be attributed to some of the challenges faced in the analysis of commercial properties, in particular the scarcity of information compared to residential transactions. In order to address this issue, in this paper we propose the use of cokriging and housing prices as ancillary information to estimate commercial property prices. Cokriging takes into account the spatial autocorrelation structure of property prices, and the use of more abundant information on housing prices helps to improve the accuracy of property value estimates. A case study of Toledo in Spain, a city for which commercial activity stemming from tourism is one of the key elements of the economy in the city, demonstrates that substantial accuracy and precision gains can be obtained from the use of cokriging.     

Ontogenetic and gender-modulated behavioural rhythms in the deep-water decapods Liocarcinus depurator (Brachyura: Portunidae), Munida tenuimana and Munida intermedia (Anomura: Galatheidae)

The regulation and expression of biological rhythms with respect to sex and ontogeny in deep-water benthic decapod crustaceans constitutes an exciting field in marine biology that is far from understood. Liocarcinus depurator , Munida intermedia and Munida tenuimana are ecologically key crustacean decapod species of the Atlantic and Mediterranean shelves and slopes, and their activity rhythms in the field are poorly known. Our aim was to measure the behavioural rhythms of these species, while at the same time defining their type of displacement ( i.e. endobenthic, nektobenthic or benthopelagic). Whether gender and ontogeny modulate the rhythmic behaviour of these decapods is unknown, and we sought to clarify this issue. A temporally scheduled series of trawl hauls and light intensity measures was performed on the western Mediterranean shelf (100–110 m depth) and slope (400–430 m), close to the autumn equinox and the summer solstice. The sex and the size of animals in the catches were analysed. Catch patterns were evaluated through waveform and periodogram analyses. Liocarcinus depurator was captured at night on the shelf, whereas on the slope, animals displayed peaks both in the middle of the day and night. Size-related differences (but no gender differences) were found in its rhythmic behaviour, possibly due to intra-specific competition ( e.g. fighting) between juveniles and adults. Munida intermedia were weakly diurnal in October and both diurnal and nocturnal in June. Munida tenuimana presented no discernible rhythmicity in October, but was nocturnal in June. Both species showed no evident sex or size modulation of their behaviour. Data were interpreted assuming that all tested species present an endobenthic behaviour ( i.e. animals emerge from the substrate during the active phase of their behavioural cycle).     

Chlorophyll distribution in a temperate estuary: The Strait of Georgia and Juan de Fuca Strait

Data collected during 7 years of seasonal surveys are used to investigate the distribution of phytoplankton biomass within the estuarine waters of the Strait of Georgia and Juan de Fuca Strait. Variability of the chlorophyll distribution is examined in relation to the density stratification, light availability and nutrient concentration. In the Strait of Georgia, both the horizontal and vertical distribution of chlorophyll are found to be linked to the presence of a near-surface layer of increased density stratification. Despite important year-to-year variability, the seasonal cycle of chlorophyll in the Strait of Georgia is dominated every year by relatively large near-surface concentrations in the spring that are linked to the seasonal increase in solar radiation onto the stratified near-surface layer. In the vertical, a sub-surface peak is observed around 10 m depth, corresponding to the depth of maximum water column stability. Nutrients within the euphotic zone are in general abundant, with the exception of the Strait of Georgia in summer where phytoplankton growth is potentially limited by low nitrate concentration near the surface. The depth of the euphotic zone is estimated along the thalweg of the estuary from transmissometer profiles. It appears to vary relatively little within the estuary from a minimum of 20 m in spring, near the mouth of the Fraser River, to an autumnal maximum of about 30 m in the northern Strait of Georgia. Finally, the estimated self-shading contribution to light attenuation is shown to be generally significant (5–10%) in the surface waters of the Strait of Georgia, during spring and summer, reaching values as high as 35% during the spring bloom.     

Stability Analysis on Speed Control System of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

The stability of the motion control system is one of the decisive factors of the control quality for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV).The divergence of control,which the unstable system may be brought about,is fatal to the operation of AUV.The stability analysis of the PD and S-surface speed controllers based on the Lyapunov' s direct method is proposed in this paper.After decoupling the six degree-of-freedom (DOF) motions of the AUV,the axial dynamic behavior is discussed and the condition is deduced,in which the parameters selection within stability domain can guarantee the system asymptotically stable.The experimental results in a tank and on the sea have successfully verified the algorithm reliability,which can be served as a good reference for analyzing other AUV nonlinear control systems.     

Coupling Effect of Riser on Integrated FPS in Deepwater Area

The main challenge in predicting global responses of floating vessels in deepwater and ultra-deepwater areas comes from the system's coupled effect.In this paper,the coupled approach is used to analyze effects of riser on floating system in deepwater.The analysis results show that the coupling effects of risers will mainly affect the low frequency (LF) motions of the system.That is because risers will provide the system with a significant low frequency (LF) damping which will vary with the sea states.Under ...     

An Efficient Model for Transient Surface Waves in Both Finite and Infinite Water Depths

A numerical model is developed to simulate fully nonlinear extreme waves in finite and infinite water-depth wave tanks. A semi-mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian formulation is adopted and a higher-order boundary element method in conjunction with an image Green function is used for the fluid domain. The boundary values on the free surface are updated at each time step by a fourth-order Runga-Kutta time-marching scheme at each time step. Input wave characteristics are specified at the upstream boundary by an appropr...     

Estimation of Tsunami Run-up Height by Three Artificial Neural Network Methods

Tsunami run-up height is a significant parameter for dimemsions of coastal structures.In the present study,tsunami run-up heights are estimated by three different Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models,i.e.Feed Forward Back Propagation (FFBP),Radial Basis Functions (RBF) and Generalized Regression Neural Network (GRNN).As the input for the ANN configuration,the wave height (H) values are employed.It is shown that the tsunami run-up height values are closely approximated with all of the applied ANN methods.The ANN estimations are slightly superior to those of the empirical equation.It can he seen that the ANN applications are especially significant in the absence of adequate number of laboratory experiments.The restdts also prove that the available experiment data set can he extended with ANN simulations.This may be helpful to decrease the burden of the experimental studies and to supply results for comparisons.     

阿拉善地块新生代构造作用——兼论阿尔金断裂新生代东向延伸问题

阿拉善地块在新生代的变形是青藏高原北部活动的直接结果,各方面的资料显示这种影响仅发生在中新世中晚期,前的活动性已经很低。阿尔金断裂的延伸并不能穿过阿拉善与南蒙古相关断裂相连,我们的研究更偏重认为阿尔金断裂没有进入阿拉善地区,而是经过金塔—花海盆地南缘的宽滩山—黑山地区与合黎山—龙首山南缘断裂相连,中新世中晚期,由于青藏高原北部重要的构造事件,青藏高原由南向北挤压河西走廊地区,造成了金塔—花海盆地内部由近南北向构造转变为近东西向构造。同时形成北山地区控制上第三系沉积(上新统)的东西向断裂。而阿拉善南缘产生右行走滑运动,地块的北部及内部则产生了近南北向的第三纪伸展构造,这些伸展构造以及金塔—花海盆地第三纪断裂控制的沉积与前人认为的强前陆、弱限制性边界的侧向挤出类似。我们认为阿拉善及蒙古地区中新世—上新世期间,由于受到青藏高原近南北向的挤压,产生区域性的"共轭"断裂系统,由于这些地区早期构造的控制,这些新活动的断裂主要迁就于老构造,以脆性活动为主,在蒙古国形成了沿阿尔泰山的北西—南东向断裂和东南部的北东—南西向"共轭"断裂系统,而阿尔金断裂与合黎山—龙首山南缘断裂则形成南侧的"共轭"断裂系统。北山以及金塔—花海地区则是这两组断裂的交汇地区,挤压作用明显,控制了新生代的沉积,并导致了新生代金塔—花海盆地的形成。阿拉善地块作为夹持在这两组断裂之间的地块,发生了一定程度的向东挤出运动,在其东缘贺兰山西侧形成了新生代的挤压构造,而在其东北缘和西南缘则迁就早期的韧性剪切带分别向北东和南西运动,产生相应的变形。该模型能够合理地解释阿拉善周围地区及其内部中新世以来的变形及其与青藏高原北部构造运动之间的关系。