A paleomagnetic study of the Mull lava succession

Summary. A paleomagnetic study has been made of a succession of 139 non-overlapping basaltic lavas, representing 91 per cent of the longest remaining succession of flows associated with the Paleogene Mull volcano. All the lavas have experienced considerable hydrothermal alteration, probably at up to several million years after initial magnetization and frequently with alteration to the opaque minerals and the production of new potentially magnetic phases. The question of whether directional remagnetization has taken place while preserving within-unit directional consistency and discreteness of unit mean direction is discussed. Extensive directional remagnetization is excluded as an explanation for the data. If stable directions obtained by alternating field remanence cleaning coincide with original TRM directions then a mean pole position for all temporally independent lava directions from the British Tertiary igneous province is at 71.9° N, 167.2° E, with k:22 and α₉₅:3.0°. This pole is significantly different from the geographic pole. If the difference in palaeomagnetic and geographic poles is interpreted in terms of absolute plate motion, then 2010 km of northwards motion of the western part of the Eurasian Plate, at 3.7 cm/yr, has taken place over the last 55 Myr. This motion has implications for the geological history of the Arctic and for the complexity of mantle motions.     

Catastrophic middle Pleistocene jökulhlaups in the upper Susquehanna River: Distinctive landforms from breakout floods in the central Appalachians

Widespread till and moraines record excursions of middle-Pleistocene ice that flowed up-slope into several watersheds of the Valley and Ridge Province along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. A unique landform assemblage was created by ice-damming and jökulhlaups emanating from high gradient mountain watersheds. This combination of topography formed by multiple eastward-plunging anticlinal ridges, and the upvalley advance of glaciers resulted in an ideal geomorphic condition for the formation of temporary ice-dammed lakes. Extensive low gradient (1°–2° slope) gravel surfaces dominate the mountain front geomorphology in this region and defy simple explanation. The geomorphic circumstances that occurred in tributaries to the West Branch Susquehanna River during middle Pleistocene glaciation are extremely rare and may be unique in the world. Failure of ice dams released sediment-rich water from lakes, entraining cobbles and boulders, and depositing them in elongated debris fans extending up to 9 km downstream from their mountain-front breakout points. Poorly developed imbrication is rare, but occasionally present in matrix-supported sediments resembling debris flow deposits. Clast weathering and soils are consistent with a middle Pleistocene age for the most recent flows, circa the 880-ka paleomagnetic date for glacial lake sediments north of the region on the West Branch Susquehanna River. Post-glacial stream incision has focused along the margins of fan surfaces, resulting in topographic inversion, leaving bouldery jökulhlaup surfaces up to 15 m above Holocene channels. Because of their coarse nature and high water tables, jökulhlaup surfaces are generally forested in contrast to agricultural land use in the valleys and, thus, are readily apparent from orbital imagery.     

Mountain pastures, environmental degradation, and landscape remediation: The example of a Mediterranean policy initiative

Since the 1950s the Spanish Mediterranean mountains have undergone a process of population decline, abandonment of land by farmers, and a reduction in livestock pressure. These changes have involved pasture loss as a result of the spread of scrub and an increase in the incidence of fires. To avoid these negative outcomes the regional administration of La Rioja (Spain) has implemented scrub clearance programs. Between 1986 and 2005 a total of 23,668 ha were cleared, particularly on abandoned fields where the processes of vegetation succession had led to the dominance of Genista scorpius and Cistus laurifolius. Pasture regeneration as a result of scrub clearing of areas dominated by G. scorpius has resulted in a productivity rise from 6666 to 12,983 Mj/ha/year, whereas productivity of areas dominated by C. laurifolius has risen from 2435 to 9741 Mj/ha/year. The clearing of scrub needs to be recognized as a significant factor contributing to the control of fire. Scrub clearing has had positive results in La Rioja, leading to a reduced incidence of fires in recent years. Between 1996 and 2005 only 155 ha/year was burnt, compared with 1541 ha/year over the period from 1976 to 1985. Scrub clearing appears to be an appropriate means of management in marginal mountainous areas without the need for large investments of time and money.     

Analysis and prediction of household carbon emission in northwest China北大核心CSCD

The economic development, living standard of residents and carbon emissions in Northwest China are lower than the national average. However,with the favorable policies the economic development is being improved and the household living standard is gradually raised up which will lead to an increase of the residents living carbon emissions, and the emission pattern will also be affected. This is detrimental to the fragile ecological environment of the Northwest China. At present, most of the researches on residents' carbon emissions are focused on the eastern and southern regions of China where there are frequent and significant human activities and high carbon emissions, and less attention has been paid to the northwest region, but the increase of carbon emissions and the increase of environmental costs have a more far-reaching impact on the less developed areas. In addition, when researchers pay attention to the prediction of residents' carbon emissions, they usually focus on the quantitative prediction and ignore the spatial pattern prediction, which is not conducive to the coordinated development between regions. Based on the data of energy consumption and consumption expenditure in the five provinces of Northwest China, including Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang from 1997 to 2016, this paper firstly used the direct coefficient method to measure the residents' direct carbon emissions, and the input-output method to calculate the indirect carbon emissions of the residents and analyzes the present situation of residents' carbon emissions in the northwest region. Secondly, based on standard deviation ellipse and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average Model, the carbon emissions of residents in Northwest China were predicted in terms of quantity and spatial pattern from 2017 to 2021. Major results are listed as follows: From 1997 to 2016, household carbon emissions in Northwest China showed a rising trend with an initial slow pace followed by a quick pace. The direct carbon emissions were stabilized in the range from 0. 3 × 108 t to 0. 4 × 108 t,and the indirect carbon emissions reached 2. 38 × 108 t. The spatial distribution of household carbon emissions in Northwest China was generally steady with a direction pattern from northwest to southeast. And the moving trend of standard deviation ellipse was from northwest to southeast to northwest, and the center of standard deviation ellipse moved around the point of (99. 07 °E,38. 19°N). From 2017 to 2021, the direct household carbon emissions in Northwest China reach to 0.543 × 108 t and the indirect carbon emissions are 3. 631 × 108 t by 2021. With the development of the western region in China and the promotion of poverty alleviation,Xinjiang Province had a lower emission than Shaanxi,but it had the higher growth rate than Shaanxi. These factors are all driving the main areas of carbon emission northwestward. The purpose of this paper is to recommend how to coordinate between the population and consumption and the environment, leading citizens to establish the value of low-carbon consumption. © 2019 Science Press (China). All rights reserved.     

沟道流域坡面与沟谷侵蚀演化关系——以晋西王家沟小流域为例

以往坡、沟侵蚀关系研究主要限于水沙关系的探讨 ,有关原型尺度小流域坡、沟地貌侵蚀演化关系的定量研究甚少 ,尤其是坡、沟地貌特征对流域切割程度的综合影响与交互作用的定量研究尚属空白。本文在 3S技术支持下 ,根据晋西王家沟小流域 196 7年 1∶5 0 0 0正摄影像图 (DOM )、高程数字化模型 (DEM )和同期、同比例尺地形图 ,利用正交多项式回归分析方法 ,定量分析了坡、沟地貌特征对流域切割程度的影响与交互作用。研究表明 ,沟谷地在流域地貌演化及地表切割程度中起主导作用 ,在沟间地面积相同时 ,沟谷地面积约为0 1km2 是影响流域切割裂度侵蚀演化强度最大的区域 ,流域面积愈小影响流域地表破碎的程度最大。其沟道流域坡、沟地貌演化机制可用坡、沟水流动能的地貌指标的综合影响与交互作用来解释     

The reserves of extracted resources: Historical data

The available data on known reserves of extracted resources have not previously been tabulated and graphed. In this article we compile the reserves data in one place for the first time. This serves to (1) show the trends in the reserves series, (2) make the series available to others, and (3) place the reserves data in the context of price data for which longer series have been available, and with which they can now be seen to be consistent in both showing increasing availability rather than increasing scarcity.     

The Production of Investment Returns in Spatially Extensive Financial Markets

Investment returns are produced by combining financial assets with human capital, the decision-making protocols of investment houses, and the electronic infrastructure that supports the flow of information about investment. At the center of the production process stand senior managers; their power and authority in the production process is fundamental to the performance of investment organizations. This article provides a model of the production of investment returns in financial centers and spatially extensive financial markets. We begin with Coase's theory of the firm but go beyond models of the firm that represent commodity-producing industries. Having substantiated the model of investment management, it is applied to institutions that seek investment returns in geographically extensive financial markets. Operating in financial markets at a distance from home jurisdictions is an increasingly important aspect of investment management. Given recent turmoil in global financial markets, financial houses have sought higher rates of return from markets in which they have little direct experience. At issue is how different types of financial organizations (large and small, growing and declining) produce investment returns in this new environment.