The impact of land use and land cover changes on soil erosion in western Iran

Natural Hazards - Analysis of long-term land use and land cover (LULC) changes requires up-to-date remotely sensed data to assess their effects on erosion. This is a particularly important...     

Ionization State in PDR (IC 63 nebula)

We investigated the chemical evolution in IC 63 nebula, a photo-dominated region (PDR). The chemical structure and the ionization state depend directly on the intensity of the incident UV radiation. The electron density is also affected by the incident UV radiation. It decreases gradually with the increase of the depth in the cloud varying from 5.9×10^-5 at the surface to 9.6×10^-9 in the core. Ionic carbon(C⁺) dominates the electron density in the outer region while ionic metals and other ions (H⁺, CH₂D⁺, and HCO⁺) are the most dominant in the deepest region. Our results at A _V = 6.7 mag are in good agreement with observations except in the case of H₂S, where the calculated value is lower than the observed value by about two orders of magnitude.     

Possibility of the Application of Danube,Sava and Morava River Area Shallow Aquifer Groundwater (Serbia) in the Irrigation Purposes

Water Resources - This paper presents the results of the groundwater quality assessment, on the Serbian Danube, Sava and Morava River water area, for irrigation purposes. The analysis was done at...     

Vorticity analysis in the Zagros orogen,Shiraz area,Iran

International Journal of Earth Sciences - Quantitative vorticity analyses in orogenic belts are essential for studying the kinematics of deformation and can be performed using a range of methods....     

3D Gravity Inversion of Northern Sinai Peninsula: A Case Study

The Sinai Peninsula has attracted the attention of many geological and geophysical studies as it is influenced and bounded by major tectonic events. Those are (1) the Mesozoic to Early Cenozoic tectonically active opening of the Tethys, (2) the Late Cretaceous to Early Tertiary (Laramide) Syrian arc system, due to closing of the Tethys (3) the Oligo-Miocene Gulf of Suez rifted basin, and (4) the Late Miocene to Recent transform Dead Sea–Gulf of Aqaba rift. Additionally, the shear zones inside Sinai such as the Ragabet El-Naam and Minsherah-Abu Kandu Shear Zones. Each of these major tectonic events has affected dramatically the structure evolution of the northern Sinai area. The present paper estimates the 3D density contrast model using the gravity data of northern Sinai. The estimated 3D density contrast model elucidated the peculiarities of the main structural elements in the region. The estimated 3D density contrast model showed the high and low gravity anomalies that form the main mountains and main valleys in northern Sinai. The estimated low density zones are in agreement with the inferred faults resulting from the first horizontal derivative. Comparing the 3D model with the tectonic history of the region and the results of the first horizontal derivative and least square separation increased the reliability of the model.     

Offshore sand sources for beach replenishment: Potential borrows on the continental shelf of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico

Erosion of sandy beaches is a worldwide problem that elicits innovative geoengineer‐ing techniques to reduce adverse impacts of shoreline retreat. Beach replenishment has emerged as the “soft”; shore‐stabilization technique of choice for mitigating beach erosion. This method of shore protection involves the addition of sand to the littoral sediment budget for sacrificial purposes. Because inland sand sources are often uneconomical or impractical to use, and known nearshore sources are limited, finding adequate quantities of suitable sand on the inner continental shelf is often vital to beach replenishment projects. The technical studies of survey and materials analysis that identify and delineate usable sand sources are sometimes almost as expensive as small‐project dredging, pumping, and placing the sand on the beach as fill. Inadequate quantity or substandard quality of shelf sand, as well as often‐prohibitive overhead expenses, thus compel shoreline managers to seek suitable sand sources offshore.

In the study area off the central‐west coast of Florida, offshore potential borrow areas (PBAs) were identified on the basis of studies conducted in reconnoitory and detailed phases. Sophisticated state‐of‐the‐art equipment used in this investigation provided more detailed subbottom mapping information than is normally obtained with conventional seismic equipment. An example of sand exploration studies was incorporated in a 215‐km² survey of offshore areas by conducting bathymetric surveys and subbottom seismic profiling, collecting jet probes, grab samples, and vibrocores, and analyzing sediment grading in subsamples from vibrocores. These combined analyses indicated that at least 8.8 ×10⁶ m³ of sand is available in potential borrow areas from 7.0 to 12 km offshore in water depths of 8.0 to 11.5 m. In the PBAs, mean grain size of sand falls into the range 0.13–0.53 mm, sorting averages 0.65–1.31ø, and the overall silt content varies from 3.9–8.5%. High silt contents (13–19%) mapped in some areas make these sedimentary deposits unsuitable as fill for artificial beach renourishment.     

Time series analysis of water quality parameters at Stillaguamish River using order series method

This study applied the time series analysis approach to model and predict univariate dissolved oxygen and temperature time series for four water quality assessment stations at Stillaguamish River located in the state of Washington. The order series method was applied to fulfill the normality assumption for modeling the univariate time series. Then, the AR(I)MA models were applied to study the stationary and nonstationary time series, the Auto-Regressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average model was applied to study the time series with long memory. The results showed there existed three different structures for the univariate water quality time series at Stillaguamish River watershed. The identified time series model for each univariate water quality time series was found to be capable of predicting future values with reasonable accuracy. Overall, the time series modeling approach may be an efficient tool in assessment of the water quality in the river system.