Imaging Pathways in Fractured Rock Using Three‐Dimensional Electrical Resistivity Tomography

Major challenges exist in delineating bedrock fracture zones because these cause abrupt changes in geological and hydrogeological properties over small distances. Borehole observations cannot sufficiently capture heterogeneity in these systems. Geophysical techniques offer the potential to image properties and processes in between boreholes. We used three‐dimensional cross borehole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) in a 9 m (diameter) × 15 m well field to capture high‐resolution flow and transport processes in a fractured mudstone contaminated by chlorinated solvents, primarily trichloroethylene. Conductive (sodium bromide) and resistive (deionized water) injections were monitored in seven boreholes. Electrode arrays with isolation packers and fluid sampling ports were designed to enable acquisition of ERT measurements during pulsed tracer injections. Fracture zone locations and hydraulic pathways inferred from hydraulic head drawdown data were compared with electrical conductivity distributions from ERT measurements. Static ERT imaging has limited resolution to decipher individual fractures; however, these images showed alternating conductive and resistive zones, consistent with alternating laminated and massive mudstone units at the site. Tracer evolution and migration was clearly revealed in time‐lapse ERT images and supported by in situ borehole vertical apparent conductivity profiles collected during the pulsed tracer test. While water samples provided important local information at the extraction borehole, ERT delineated tracer migration over spatial scales capturing the primary hydrogeological heterogeneity controlling flow and transport. The fate of these tracer injections at this scale could not have been quantified using borehole logging and/or borehole sampling methods alone.     

SCUBA observations of NGC 1275

Deep SCUBA observations of NGC 1275 at 450 and 850 μm along with the application of deconvolution algorithms have permitted us to separate the strong core emission in this galaxy from the fainter extended emission around it. The core has a steep spectral index and is likely caused primarily by the active galactic nucleus. The faint emission has a positive spectral index and is clearly caused by extended dust in a patchy distribution out to a radius of ∼20 kpc from the nucleus. These observations have now revealed that a large quantity of dust, ∼     (two orders of magnitude larger than that inferred from previous optical absorption measurements), exists in this galaxy. We estimate the temperature of this dust to be ∼20 K (using an emissivity index of     and the gas/dust ratio to be 360. These values are typical of spiral galaxies. The dust emission correlates spatially with the hot X-ray emitting gas, which may be a result of collisional heating of broadly distributed dust by electrons. As the destruction time-scale is short, the dust cannot be replenished by stellar mass loss and must be externally supplied, via either the infalling galaxy or the cooling flow itself.     

Numerical investigation of wave propagation in the Liverpool Bay, NW England

The computer model for near shore wave propagation,SWAN,was used to study wave climates in Liverpool Bay,northwest England with various input parameters,including bottom friction factor,white capping,wind drag formulation and effects of tidal modulations.Results were compared with in-situ measurements and reveal the impacts from these inputs on the predictions of wave height and propagation distributions.In particular,the model results were found very sensitive to different input formulations,and tend to underestimate the wave parameters under storm conditions in comparison with the observations.It is therefore important to further validate the model against detailed field measurements,particularly under large storms that are often of the primary concern.     

Ageing research in Australia: reflecting on Graeme Hugo’s four decades of contribution

ABSTRACT

Globally, population ageing is one of the most pressing social and policy issues faced today. Over the next two decades, Australian society will face dramatic increases in the proportion of the population aged 65 years and over, as the baby boomers move into older age and fertility levels remain low. Yet population ageing is not a surprising or new trend—demographic changes in the age profile of a population tend to occur incrementally rather than suddenly. As a demographer and geographer, Graeme Hugo drew attention to this trend in Australia’s population more than three decades ago. Throughout Graeme Hugo’s vast breadth of work over the past 40 years, there has been a consistent thread of demographic analysis and academic thought associated with the ageing of Australia’s population. This paper focuses on Hugo’s contributions to academic thought and policy on Australia’s ageing population and the challenges associated with this for both service delivery and health policy as Australian society moves into an unprecedented era of population ageing.     

Chemical Characteristics of Carbonaceous Aerosols During Dust Storms over Xi'an in China

Characterization of carbonaceous aerosols including CC （carbonate carbon）, OC （organic carbon）, and EC （elemental carbon） were investigated at Xi＇an, China, near Asian dust source regions in spring 2002. OC varied between 8.2 and 63.7μgm^- 3, while EC ranged between 2.4 and 17.2 μ m^-3 during the observation period. OC variations followed a similar pattern to EC and the correlation coefficient between OC and EC is 0.89 （n=31）. The average percentage of total carbon （TC, sum of CC, OC, and EC） in PM2.5 during dust storm （DS） events was 13.6%, which is lower than that during non-dust storm （NDS） periods （22.7%）. CC, OC, and EC accounted for 12.9%, 70.7%, and 16.4% of TC during DS events, respectively. The average ratio of OC/EC was 5.0 in DS events and 3.3 in NDS periods. The OC-EC correlation （R^2=0.76, n=6） was good in DS events, while it was stronger （R^2=0.90, n=25） in NDS periods. The percentage of watersoluble OC （WSOC） in TC accounted for 15.7%, and varied between 13.3% and 22.3% during DS events. The distribution of eight carbon fractions indicated that local emissions such as motor vehicle exhaust were the dominant contributors to carbonaceous particles. During DS events, soil dust dominated the chemical composition, contributing 69% to the PM2.5 mass, followed by organic matter （12.8%）, sulfate （4%）, EC （2.2%）, and chloride （1.6%）. Consequently, CC was mainly entrained by Asian dust. However, even in the atmosphere near Asian dust source regions, OC and EC in atmospheric dust were controlled by local emission rather titan the transport of Asian dust.     

Women and youths participation in agroforestry:What counts and what doesn't around Mount Elgon,Uganda?

The increase in global climate change incidents is a glaring indication that more pragmatic and direct approaches to tree and forest management are urgently nee...     

Evaporation from boreal reservoirs: A comparison between eddy covariance observations and estimates relying on limited data

Hydrological models used for reservoir management typically lack an accurate representation of open-water evaporation and must be run in a scarce data context. This study aims to identify an accurate means to estimate reservoir evaporation with simple meteorological inputs during the open-water season, using long-term eddy covariance observations from two boreal hydropower reservoirs with contrasting morphometry as reference. Unlike the temperate water bodies on which the majority of other studies have focused, northern reservoirs are governed by three distinct periods: ice cover in the cold season, warming in the summer and energy release in the fall. The reservoirs of interest are Eastmain-1 (52°N, mean depth of 11 m) and Romaine-2 (51°N, mean depth of 42 m), both located in eastern Canada. Four approaches are analysed herein: a combination approach, a radiation-based approach, a mass-transfer approach, and empirical methods. Of all the approaches, the bulk transfer equation with a constant Dalton number of 1.2 x 10⁻³ gave the most accurate estimation of evaporation at hourly time steps, compared with the eddy covariance observations (RMSE of 0.06 mm h⁻¹ at Eastmain-1 and RMSE of 0.04 mm h⁻¹ at Romaine-2). The daily series also showed good accuracy (RMSE of 1.38 mm day⁻¹ at Eastmain-1 and RMSE of 0.62 mm day⁻¹ at Romaine-2) both in the warming and energy release phases of the open-water season. The bulk transfer equation, on the other hand, was incapable of reproducing condensation episodes that occurred soon after ice breakup. Basic and variance-based sensitivity analyses were conducted, in particular to measure the variation in performance when the bulk transfer equation was applied with meteorological observations collected at a certain distance (~10–30 km) from the reservoir. This exercise illustrated that accurate estimates of open water evaporation require representative measurements of wind speed and water surface temperature.     

Dynamic spectral characteristics of thermal models for solar hard X-ray bursts

The dynamic spectral characteristics of the thermal model for solar hard X-ray bursts recently proposed by Brown et al. (1979) (BMS) are investigated. It is pointed out that this model, in which a single source is heated impulsively and cooled by anomalous conduction across an ion-acoustic turbulent thermal front, predicts that the total source emission measure should rise as the temperature falls. This prediction, which is common to all conductively cooled single-source models, is contrary to observations of many simple spike bursts. It is proposed, therefore, that the hard X-ray source may consist of a distribution of many small impulsively-heated kernels, each cooled by anomalous conduction, with lifetimes shorter than current burst data temporal resolution. In this case the dynamic spectra of bursts are governed by the dynamic evolution of the kernel production process, such as magnetic-field dissipation in the tearing mode. An integral equation is formulated, the solution of which yields information on this kernel production process, from dynamic burst spectra, for any kernel model.With a BMS-type kernel model in one-dimensional form, the derived instantaneous spectra are limited in hardness to spectral indices 4 for any kernel production process, due to the nature of the conductive cooling. Ion-acoustic conductive cooling in three dimensions, however, increases the limiting spectral hardness to 3. Other forms of anomalous conduction yield similar results but could permit bursts as hard as 2, consistent with the hardest observed.The contribution to the X-ray spectrum from the escaping tail of high-energy kernel electrons in the BMS model is calculated in various limits. If this tail dissipates purely collisionally, for example, its thick-target bremsstrahlung can significantly modify the kernel spectrum at the high-energy end. The energetics of this dynamic dissipation model for thermal hard X-ray bursts also are briefly discussed.Now at: Department of Mathematics, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.     

Mapping Curvilinear Structures with Local Anisotropy Kriging

Interpolating geo-data with curvilinear structures using geostatistics is often disappointing. Channels, for example, become disconnected sets of lakes when interpolated from point data. In order to improve the interpolation of geological structures (e.g., curvilinear structures), we present a new form of kriging, local anisotropy kriging (LAK). Local anisotropy kriging combines a gradient algorithm from image analysis with kriging in an iterative way. After an initial standard kriging interpolation, the gradient algorithm determines the local anisotropy for each cell in the grid using a search area around the cell. Subsequently, kriging is carried out with the spatially varying anisotropy. The anisotropy calculation and subsequent kriging steps will then succeed until the result is satisfactory in the way of reproducing the curvilinear structures. Depending on the size of the search area more or less detail in the geological structures can be reproduced with LAK. Using test examples we show that LAK interpolates data with curvilinear structures more realistically than standard kriging. In a real world case, using bathymetric data of the Oosterschelde estuary, LAK also proves to be quantitatively superior to standard kriging. Absolute interpolation errors are decreased by 23%. Local anisotropy kriging only uses information from point data, which makes the method very objective, it only presents “what the data can tell.”