Parental magma of the Skaergaard intrusion: constraints from melt inclusions in primitive troctolite blocks and FG-1 dykes

Troctolite blocks with compositions akin to the Hidden Zone are exposed in a tholeiitic dyke cutting across the Skaergaard intrusion, East Greenland. Plagioclase in these blocks contains finely crystallised melt inclusions that we have homogenised to constrain the parental magma to 47.4–49.0 wt.% SiO₂, 13.4–14.9 wt.% Al₂O₃ and 10.7–14.1 wt.% FeO^T. These compositions are lower in FeO^T and higher in SiO₂ than previous estimates and have distinct La/Sm_N and Dy/Yb_N ratios that link them to the lowermost volcanic succession (Milne Land Formation) of the regional East Greenland flood basalt province. New major- and trace element compositions for the FG-1 dyke swarm, previously taken to represent Skaergaard magmas, overlap with the entire range of the regional flood basalt succession and do not form a coherent suite of Skaergaard like melts. These dykes are therefore re-interpreted as feeder dykes throughout the main phase of flood basalt volcanism.     

Range-dependent geoacoustic inversion: results from the Inversion Techniques Workshop

Model-based geoacoustic inversion in range-dependent underwater environments is a challenging task constrained by data quality (synthetic or measured) and propagation-model efficiency and accuracy. The Inversion Techniques Workshop (ITW), held in Gulfport, MS, May 15-18, 2001, was organized for the acoustics community to present state-of-the-art numerical geoacoustic inversion capabilities in range-dependent shallow-water environments. The organizers defined five range-dependent test cases (three synthetic and two experimental cases). Two of the synthetic cases were adopted for geoacoustic inversion in this paper. The first test case (TC1) is a monotonic down-slope bathymetry problem and the adiabatic normal-mode model PROSIM was applied for the inversion in this case. The second test case (TC3) is a flat-bottom case with an intrusion. The forward model used in this case was RAMGEO. The global optimization package SAGA was used for geoacoustic inversion of the synthetically generated reference solutions for TC1 and TC3. In general, the geoacoustic inversion results are in good agreement with the true solutions provided by the organizers. The results obtained demonstrate the feasibility of performing geoacoustic inversion in synthetic range-dependent shallow-water environments. However, results show that the propagation model choice in the inversion is strongly dependent on the specific range-dependent environment.     

Adaptive beamforming of a towed array during a turn

During maneuvering, towed array beamforming degrades if a straight array is assumed. This is especially true for high-resolution adaptive beamforming. It is experimentally demonstrated that adaptive beamforming is feasible on a turning array, provided that array shape is estimated. The array shape can be inferred solely from the coordinates of the tow vessel's Global Positioning System (GPS) without any instrumentation in the array. Based on estimated array shape from the GPS, both the conventional beamformer and the white noise constrained (WNC) adaptive beamformer are shown to track the source well during a turn. When calculating the weight vector in the WNC approach, a matrix inversion of the cross-spectral density matrix is involved. This matrix inversion can be stabilized by averaging the cross-spectral density matrix over neighboring frequencies. The proposed algorithms have been tested on real data with the tow-vessel making 45/spl deg/ turns with a 500-m curvature radius. While turning, the improvement in performance over the assumption of a straight array geometry was up to 5 dB for the conventional beamformer and considerably larger for the WNC adaptive beamformer.     

Evidence for topographic effects on the Martian ionosphere

The Radio occultation experiment on board Mariner 9 has been used to demonstrate that the altitude of the main electron density peak in the Martian ionosphere is closely related to the height of Mars’ surface at the occultation point. This is direct evidence for topographic effects on the Martian ionosphere. Modeling indicates that topographic-induced modulations of the neutral density in the upper atmosphere can account for the observed ionospheric effects. The neutral density modulation is likely to be caused by nonmigrating tides in the Martian thermosphere.     

An investigation of algorithm-induced variability in geoacoustic inversion

This paper investigates the inherent variability in the results of matched-field geoacoustic inversion algorithms. This algorithm-induced variability must be considered when interpreting inversion results in terms of environmental changes as a function of time or space. Fast simulated annealing (FSA), genetic algorithms (GA), and a hybrid algorithm (adaptive simplex simulated annealing; ASSA) are compared by performing multiple inversions of benchmark synthetic data (noise free and noisy) and acoustic data measured over both low- and high-speed sea-bed sediments in the MAPEX 2000 experiment. ASSA produced the lowest variability in inversion results for all cases, followed by GA and FSA. For the high-speed MAPEX 2000 case, the variability is essentially negligible, while for the low-speed case the variability is significant as compared with environmental variations reported in the literature.     

Wave synchronizing crane control during water entry in offshore moonpool operations - experimental results

A new strategy for active control in heavy-lift offshore crane operations is suggested by introducing a new concept referred to as wave synchronization. Wave synchronization reduces the hydrodynamic forces by minimizing variations in the relative vertical velocity between payload and water using a wave-amplitude measurement. Wave synchronization is combined with conventional active heave compensation to obtain accurate control. Experimental results using a scale model of a semi-submerged vessel with a moonpool shows that wave synchronization leads to significant improvements in performance. Depending on the sea state and payload, the results indicate that the reduction in the standard deviation of the wire tension may be up to 50%.     

Changes to urban form and commuting patterns: trends in two Danish city regions

This paper compares indicators of polycentricity in a monocentric (MUR) and a polycentric urban region (PUR) in Denmark at two points in time (1982 and 2002). It describes how population, jobs and commuting indicators of polycentricity develop and interact over time. Both the MUR and the PUR tend towards more balanced development. The increasing size of the main node in the PUR is the only deviation from the general trend. The general tendency towards a more polycentric regional structure was most marked in changing interaction and commuting patterns. Inter-urban commuting increased, while intra-urban commuting decreased, leading to dispersion of commuters and a rapid increase in commuting across the region. Commuting distances were shortest in the polycentric region, but it also had the highest growth rates. In both regions, the balancing trend leads to a dispersal of commuting demand over an increasingly complex web of origins and destination nodes. This tendency compels us to question whether people’s choice of residence is becoming increasingly irrelevant to their place of work. In relation to polycentricity and sustainability, this calls into question the degree to which proximity can be a valuable ‘asset’ in terms of planning sustainable transport outcomes connecting residence, jobs and service.     

Magnitude and processes of bank erosion at a small stream in Denmark

River banks are important sources of sediment and phosphorus to fluvial systems, and the erosion processes operating on the banks are complex and change over time. This study explores the magnitude of bank erosion on a cohesive streambank within a small channelized stream and studies the various types of erosion processes taking place. Repeat field surveys of erosion pin plots were carried out during a 4‐year period and observations were supplemented by continuous monitoring of volumetric soil water content, soil temperature, ground water level and exposure of a PEEP sensor. Bank erosion rates (17·6–30·1 mm year^?1) and total P content on the banks were relatively high, which makes the bank an important source of sediment and phosphorus to the stream, and it was estimated that 0·27 kg P_tot year^?1 ha^?1 may potentially be supplied to the stream from the banks. Yearly pin erosion rates exceeding 5 cm year^?1 were mainly found at the lower parts of the bank and were associated with fluvial erosion. Negative erosion pin readings were widespread with a net advance of the bank during the monitoring period mainly attributed to subaerial processes and bank failure. It was found that dry periods characterized by low soil water content and freeze–thaw cycles during winter triggered bank failures. The great spatial variability, in combination with the temporal interaction of processes operating at different scales, requires new tools such as 3‐D topographical surveying to better capture bank erosion rates. An understanding of the processes governing bank erosion is required for riparian management using vegetational measures as root size and structure play different roles when it comes to controlling bank erosion processes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.