Precipitation and evaporation budgets over the Baltic Proper: observations and modelling

Precipitation and evaporation budgets over the Baltic Sea were studied in a concerted project called PEP in BALTEX (Pilot study of Evaporation and Precipitation in the Baltic Sea), combining extensive field measurements and modelling efforts. Eddy-correlation-measurements of turbulent heat flux were made on a semi-continuous basis for a 12 month period at four well-exposed coastal sites in the Baltic Proper (the main basin of the Baltic Sea). Precipitation was measured at land-based sites with standard gauges and on four merchant ships travelling between Germany and Finland with the aid of specially designed ship rain gauges (SRGs). The evaporation and precipitation regime of the Baltic Sea was modelled for a 12 month period by applying a wide range of numerical models: the operational atmospheric High Resolution Limited Area Model (HIRLAM, Swedish and Finnish versions), the German atmospheric REgional-scale MOdel, REMO, the operational German Europe Model (only precipitation), the oceanographic model PROBE-Baltic, and two models that use interpolation of ground-based data, the Swedish MESAN model of SMHI and a German model of IFM-GEOMAR Kiel. Modelled precipitation was compared with SRG measurements on board the ships. A reasonable correlation was obtained, but the regional-scale models and MESAN gave some 20% higher precipitation over the sea than is measured. Bulk parameterisation schemes for evaporation were evaluated against measurements. A constant value of C_HN and C_EN with wind speed, underestimated large fluxes of both sensible and latent heat flux. The limited area models do not resolve the influence of the height of the marine boundary layer in coastal zones and the entrainment (on the surface fluxes), which may explain the observed low correlations between modelled and measured latent heat fluxes. Estimates of evaporation, E, and precipitation, P, for the entire Baltic Proper were made with several models for a 12 month period. While the annual variation was well represented by all predictions, there are still important differences in the annual means. Evaporation ranges from 509 to 625 mm year^-1 and precipitation between 624 and 805 mm year^-1 for this particular 12 month period. Taking the results of model verification from the present study into account, the best estimate of P-E is about 100 ± 50 mm for this particular 12 month period. But the annual mean of P-E varies considerably from year to year. This is reflected in simulations with the PROBE-Baltic model for an 18 year period, which gave 95 mm year^-1 for the 12 month period studied here and 32 mm year^-1 as an average for 18 years.     

Finite-element modelling of pull-apart basin formation

We present the results of a finite-element modelling study of pull-apart basin formation related to left-stepping left lateral strike-slip faults. The modelling quantifies the relationship between fault geometry (i.e., fault overlap and separation) and pull-apart basin formation. Two depocentres (subbasins) separated by a broad zone of relative uplift in between may develop if the strike-slip domain is characterized by fault underlap. For overlapping faults migration of the subbasins is predicted by the models. Deep subbasins in a large area of subsidence which spans the entire inner fault zone may form if fault overlap is about three times the fault separation.

The models suggest that a topographic asymmetry within the fault zone may arise due to a different displacement ratio of the strike-slip faults. The modelling results show that this asymmetry in topography becomes more pronounced towards the more active fault. Thus, basin deepening occurs progressively towards the fault characterized by the largest amount of lateral displacement. Moreover, the results indicate that the smaller the fault separation (less than basin length) the less pronounced the topographic asymmetry.

The models provide quantitative estimates for the effects of changes in elastic material properties, the magnitude of the compressive far-field stress and the coefficient of friction of the faults on the resulting topography.

Comparison of the modelling results with field observations from the Cerro Blanco-El Barranquete (CBB) subbasin located in the Internal Zone of the Betic Cordillera, southeastern Spain support an interpretation in which the interplay of major faults has formed the CBB subbasin.     

Stable carbon isotopes in freshwater mussel shells: Environmental record or marker for metabolic activity?

Mussel shells have been used in a number of paleoecological and environmental studies. The interpretation of stable carbon isotopic composition of shell material is still controversial. The carbon for shell carbonate precipitation can either be derived from ambient dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), with shells recording environmental signals, or from metabolic CO₂, with the potential to disguise environmental signals. To gain insight into this question, we investigated four nearly 100-yr long-term records of aragonite shells from an extant freshwater bivalve species, the endangered freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera L.). Single growth increments of the outer prismatic and the inner nacreous zones were successfully and easily separated with a simple heat treatment for chronological analyses of δ¹³C in single layers of each zone. Autocorrelation and semivariance statistical methods reveal that mussels show distinct individual signal patterns, which extend up to 25 yr. Signal patterns are reliably reproduced with replicate samples from defined layers within one shell and show similar patterns with a slight offset for inner nacreous and outer prismatic layers for individual animals. Mussels exposed to the same environmental conditions exhibit distinct and contradictory signature patterns, which do not match between individuals. This observation can only be explained by strong metabolic influences on shell precipitation. Environmental changes in pH, temperature, electric conductivity and atmospheric carbon signature had no or little (<5%) influence, whereas body tissue protein and body tissue δ¹³C signatures negatively correlated with the youngest produced shell δ¹³C signatures, indicating that respiration causes a preferential loss of light isotopes from body mass and an inverse enrichment in shell aragonite. Hence, the shells of the freshwater pearl mussel yield a long-term record of metabolic activity, whereas the use of δ¹³C in these shells as recorder for environmental signals is questionable. This may also be true for shells from other species, for which metabolic carbon incorporation has been acknowledged.     

Global sea level stratigraphy: An appraisal

Although Pleistocene sea level concepts were first developed in the Mediterranean Basin, research has been revolutionized during the past 15 years by massive dating programs applied in other world areas. reappraisal of four key sequences nonetheless shows that the chronometric framework is imperfect. As a result, available paleosea level traces continue to depend on deep-sea stratigraphy for confirmation rather than the reverse; they do not provide independent support for the Milankovitch radiation cycles, nor do they invite deductive-hypothetical ‘dating’ by means of such astronomical reconstructions. Inferred ‘initial’ sea levels, based on uplift assumptions or δ¹⁸O determinations on coral and mollusca, show considerable divergence but broadly agree that sea levels assigned to isotope stages 5a and 5c were lower than today. Systematic studies should be expanded in environments that allow lithostratigraphic resolution of interdigitated marine and continental sediments, meticulously complemented by biostratigraphic work. Direct information on the complexity and significance of regressional hemicycles helps place sea level stages recorded by transgressive facies into a multidimensional context essential for comprehensive interpretation.     

Diffraction of SV waves by underground, circular, cylindrical cavities

The scattering and diffraction of plane SV waves underground, circular, cylindrical cavities at various depths in an elastic half space is studied in this paper. The cavities, studied here, are at depths of two to five cavity radii, measured from the surface to the center of the cavity. Fourier-Bessel series are used to satisfy the wave equation and the boundary conditions. When the angle of incidence of the plane SV wave exceeds the critical angle, surface waves are generated, which are expanded in terms of Fourier series, which also involve Bessel functions. The surface displacement amplitudes and phases that are presented show that the results depend on the following parameters: (1) The angle of incidence, θ_β; (2) the ratio cavity depth to the cavity radius, h/a; (3) the dimensionless frequency of the incident SV wave, η; and (4) Poisson's ratio, v. The presence of the cavity in the half space results in significant deviation of both the displacement amplitudes and phases on the nearby half space surface from that of a uniform half space.     

PREDICTING SHORELINE CHANGES AT TIDAL INLETS ON A DEVELOPED COAST

Implementation of shore protection measures at tidal inlets in New Jersey has reduced the rate of shoreline change and altered mechanisms for sediment transfer. Shoreline mobility has been reduced to 19 percent of pre-development rates updrift of inlets where new breaches in the islands are prevented by bulkheads or accretion related to human activities. Rates of change downdrift of inlets have been influenced by protection structures and channel dredging. A conversion from cyclic to unidirectional shoreline change has occurred in some areas. Prediction of future changes must be based on probabilities of human action, calibrated with knowledge of physical processes.     

The substructure in the heads of comets with type I and type II tails

On a number of Comet Halley 1910 photographs of short exposures (Helwan material) a substructure in dust emission in the inner coma becomes detectable. Narrow and diffuse dust streamers leave the nucleus area within a smaller or larger cone opened in the direction to the Sun. On plates with longer exposures these structures merge together in a parabolic envelope. Structures of the type I tail are not visible for lower heliocentric distances (r<1) in the inner coma; however, occasionally CN, C₂ eject circular emission areas.The present note represents a preliminary account of a larger publication which will contain a great number of details and also many photographic reproductions. The preparation of the latter will, however, take some time.