The role of shelf morphology on storm‐bed variability and stratigraphic architecture,Lower Cretaceous,Svalbard

The dominance of isotropic hummocky cross‐stratification, recording deposition solely by oscillatory flows, in many ancient storm‐dominated shoreface–shelf successions is enigmatic. Based on conventional sedimentological investigations, this study shows that storm deposits in three different and stratigraphically separated siliciclastic sediment wedges within the Lower Cretaceous succession in Svalbard record various depositional processes and principally contrasting sequence stratigraphic architectures. The lower wedge is characterized by low, but comparatively steeper, depositional dips than the middle and upper wedges, and records a change from storm‐dominated offshore transition – lower shoreface to storm‐dominated prodelta – distal delta front deposits. The occurrence of anisotropic hummocky cross‐stratification sandstone beds, scour‐and‐fill features of possible hyperpycnal‐flow origin, and wave‐modified turbidites within this part of the wedge suggests that the proximity to a fluvio‐deltaic system influenced the observed storm‐bed variability. The mudstone‐dominated part of the lower wedge records offshore shelf deposition below storm‐wave base. In the middle wedge, scours, gutter casts and anisotropic hummocky cross‐stratified storm beds occur in inferred distal settings in association with bathymetric steps situated across the platform break of retrogradationally stacked parasequences. These steps gave rise to localized, steeper‐gradient depositional dips which promoted the generation of basinward‐directed flows that occasionally scoured into the underlying seafloor. Storm‐wave and tidal current interaction promoted the development and migration of large‐scale, compound bedforms and smaller‐scale hummocky bedforms preserved as anisotropic hummocky cross‐stratification. The upper wedge consists of thick, seaward‐stepping successions of isotropic hummocky cross‐stratification‐bearing sandstone beds attributed to progradation across a shallow, gently dipping ramp‐type shelf. The associated distal facies are characterized by abundant lenticular, wave ripple cross‐laminated sandstone, suggesting that the basin floor was predominantly positioned above, but near, storm‐wave base. Consequently, shelf morphology and physiography, and the nature of the feeder system (for example, proximity to deltaic systems) are inferred to exert some control on storm‐bed variability and the resulting stratigraphic architecture.     

近1000年来西格陵兰荷尔斯泰因斯堡港生物硅指示的海洋生产力变化

We analyzed the biogenic silica(BSi) content and produced a diatom-based summer sea-surface temperature(SST) reconstruction for sediment core GC4 from the Holsteinsborg Dyb, West Greenland. Our aim was to reconstruct marine productivity and climatic fluctuations during the last millennium. Increased BSi content and diatom abundance suggest relatively high marine productively during the interval of AD 1000–1400, corresponding in time to the Medieval Warm Period(MWP). The summer SST reconstruction indicates relatively warm conditions during AD 900–1100, followed by cooling after AD 1100. An extended cooling period during AD 1400–1900 is characterized by prolonged low in reconstructed SST and high sea-ice concentration. The BSi values fluctuated during this period, suggesting varying marine productivity during the Little Ice Age(LIA).There is no significant correlation between the BSi content and SST during the last millennium, suggesting that the summer SST has little influence on marine productively in the Holsteinsborg Dyb. A good correspondence between the BSi content and the element Ti counts in core GC4 suggests that silicate-rich meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet was likely responsible for changes in marine productively in the Holsteinsborg Dyb.     

Statistical EOF analysis of spatiotemporal glacier mass-balance variability: a case study of Mittivakkat Gletscher,SE Greenland

An Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) variance analysis was performed to map in detail the spatiotemporal variability in individual stake mass-balances (ba) on Mittivakkat Gletscher (MG) – in a region where at present five out of ~20.000 glaciers have mass-balance observations. The EOF analysis suggested that observed ba was summarized by two modes: EOF1 and EOF2 represented 80% (significant) and 6% (insignificant) of the explained variance, respectively. EOF1 captured a decline in ba that was uniformly distributed in space at all stakes. The decline was correlated with albedo observations and air temperature observations from nearby stations. EOF2, however, described variations in ba that were heterogeneously distributed among stakes and associated with local slope and aspect. Low elevation stakes (~<400 m a.s.l.) showed relatively negative (out of phase) correlation and higher elevated stakes relatively positive (in phase) eigenvector correlation values with EOF2. Such relatively negative and positive eigenvector correlation values were present where the constituted of exposed glacier ice or snow cover, respectively. The results from this study show how EOF analyses can provide information on spatiotemporal patterns of glacier mass-balance. Understanding such detailed variabilities in mass-balance on a Greenlandic glacier is of interest because a fifth of the Arctic contribution from glaciers and ice caps to sea-level rise originates from Greenland.     

Silica diagenesis in Cenozoic mudstones of the North Viking Graben: physical properties and basin modelling

Silica diagenesis can significantly change physical properties of the host strata and release large volumes of water. Predicting these changes and their timing is essential to understanding compaction, fluid flow and rock deformation in sedimentary basins. In this paper, the influence of silica diagenesis (opal‐A/CT transformation) on physical properties is determined, the sediment volume affected by these changes is mapped, and a new technique to model silica diagenesis is introduced. A petrophysical analysis of 16 exploration wells shows that the opal‐A/CT transformation leads to a porosity reduction of c.20% (from 49 to 29%) in Cenozoic mudstones of the North Viking Graben. Using three‐dimensional seismic reflection data, it is shown that the c.50 m thick opal‐A/CT transformation zone covers an area of >1500 km², equating to a minimum volume of 75 km³. The spatial and temporal evolution of opal‐A/CT transformation is simulated using an innovative basin modelling approach, the results of which indicate that the transformation started around Middle‐to‐Late Eocene times and then migrated upwards until it gradually fossilised between the Miocene and present. These findings are important, as they help understanding how these sediments compact and when fluids are released by diagenesis.     

An Improved 20-Year Arctic Ocean Altimetric Sea Level Data Record

For ocean and climate research, it is essential to get long-term altimetric sea level data that is as accurate as possible. However, the accuracy of the altimetric data is frequently degraded in the interior of the Arctic Ocean due to the presence of seasonal or permanent sea ice. We have reprocessed ERS-1/2/Envisat satellite altimetry to develop an improved 20-year sea level dataset for the Arctic Ocean. We have developed both an along-track dataset and three-day gridded sea level anomaly (SLA) maps from September 1992 to April 2012. A major improvement in data coverage was gained by tailoring the standard altimetric editing criteria to Arctic conditions. The new reprocessed data has significant increased data coverage with between 4 and 10 times the amount of data in regions such as the Beaufort Gyre region compared with AVISO and RADS datasets. This allows for a more accurate estimation of sea level changes from satellite altimetry in the Arctic Ocean. The reprocessed dataset exhibit a mean sea level trend of 2.1 ± 1.3 mm/year (without Glacial Isostatic Adjustment correction) covering the Arctic Ocean between 66°N and 82°N with significant higher spatial coherency in the ice-covered regions than the RADS and DUACS datasets.     

Simple models of the thermal structure of the Venusian ionosphere

Simple models, analytical and numerical, of plasma temperatures in the Venusian ionosphere are developed. They are applied to thermal-structure data obtained by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter to estimate the magnitudes of important plasma thermal parameters.     

Analysis of local ionospheric time varying characteristics with singular value decomposition

In this paper, a time series from 1999 to 2007 of absolute total electron content (TEC) values has been computed and analyzed using singular value decomposition (SVD). The data set has been computed using a Kalman Filter and is based on dual frequency GPS data from three reference stations in Denmark located in the midlatitude region. The station separation between the three stations is 132–208 km (the time series of the TEC can be freely downloaded at ). For each year, a SVD has been performed on the TEC time series in order to identify the three time varying (daily, yearly, and 11 yearly) characteristics of the ionosphere. The applied SVD analysis provides a new method for separating the daily from the yearly components. The first singular value is very dominant (approximately six times larger than the second singular value), and this singular value corresponds clearly to the variation of the daily cycle over the year. The second singular value corresponds to variations of the width of the daily peak over the year, and the third singular value shows a clear yearly variation of the daily signal with peaks around the equinoxes. The singular values for each year show a very strong correlation with the sunspot number for all the singular values. The correlation coefficients for the first 5 sets of singular values are all above 0.96. Based on the SVD analysis yearly models of the TEC in the ionosphere can be recomposed and illustrate the three time varying characteristics of the ionosphere very clearly. By prediction of the yearly mean sunspot number, future yearly models can also be predicted. These can serve as a priori information for a real time space weather service providing information of the current status of the ionosphere. They will improve the Kalman filter processing making it more robust, but can also be used as starting values in the initialization phase in case of gaps in the data stream. Furthermore, the models can be used to detect variations from the normal local ionospheric activity.     

Making a living in the cocoa frontier,Western Ghana: Diversifying incomes in a cocoa economy

Geografisk Tidsskrift, Danish Journal of Geography 107(2):29–44, 2007

The literature on livelihoods in rural Africa has for the past decade documented and discussed the growing importance of non-farm income for rural livelihoods and often linked this to an increasing divorce of rural livelihoods from farming and land. This paper challenges the view that the increasing importance of income earned on non-farm activities is a direct expression of processes of deagrari-anisation. Drawing on empirical evidence from recent research in the Ghanaian cocoa frontier, the paper shows that a growing importance of income from non-farm activities is evident, but that incomefrom cocoa is still the determining factor for most households' income and thereby for the demand for non-farm goods and investment in the non-farm sector. By identifying two overall factors explaining the level of income diversification, the paper questions how generally applicable processes of deagrarianisation are in the Ghanaian case. Firstly, the actual crop cultivated and its price and marketing possibilities are of great importance for a farmer's choice to engage and stay in the agricultural sector or to diversify into non-farm activities. Secondly, different dynamics are evident between settlements dominated by either migrant or indigenous households, mainly due to unequal access to land. The paper argues that what on a general scale may look like processes of deagrarianisation during the last decade to a large extent can be explained by migrants without access to land who engage full-time in the nonfarm sector and by cocoa farmers diversifying their incomes, but not leaving a deteriorated agriculture.     

The dayside Venus ionosphere: I. Pioneer-Venus retarding potential analyzer experimental observations

The median values of the principal ionospheric quantities of the Venus dayside ionosphere are presented. The values are derived from the quantities measured by the Pioneer-Venus orbiter retarding potential analyzer over a period of two Earth yaers at solar cycle maximum. Quantities reported are total ion density, O⁺ density, O₂⁺ density, sum density (NO⁺ + N₂⁺ + CO⁺), CO₂⁺ density, ion temperature, electron temperature, and plasma particle pressure. The data are organized to reveal altitude, solar zenith angle, solar longitude, and latitude dependences. The O⁺ density exhibits both a solar longitude and a latitude dependence which we suggest is caused by superrotation of the thermosphere and/or ionosphere. Asymmetry between the dawn and dusk terminator regions in the behavior of other quantities is also descibed.     

II. Combined numerical model of ion and neutral composition above 120 km

A coupled neutral-ionic photochemical model has been used to interpret the ionic composition of the Venusian dayside ionosphere measured by the orbiter retarding potential analyser (ORPA) experiment on board the NASA Pioneer-Venus orbiter spacecraft. The electron and ion temperatures also measured by the ORPA are used for calculating the plasma-diffusion coefficients and scale heights for ions. The neutral temperature profiles and the densities of neutral constituents, particularly CO₂ and O, play key roles in the determination of the height profiles of the ionic constituents. All these quantities vary substantially in the Venusian thermosphere near the terminator; the models presented are representatives of the solar zenith angle ～65°. The predicted O₂⁺ densities below ～200km agree particularly well with observations by the ORPA, but the model values are significantly less than those measured by the orbiter ion mass spectrometer (OIMS). Models predict much smaller densities than observed values for all molecular ions above ～200km. The reason for the turn-up trend of the concentration gradient of molecular ions observed at these heights by both ORPA and OIMS is unknown. One of the models can predict O⁺ ion densities above ～200km compatible with observations, if an effective vertical escape flux (φ10⁸cm^?2sec^?1) is assumed at the ionopause. The neutral air density required to explain the observed ion composition is about 1.4 times larger than the values measured by the orbiter neutral mass spectrometer (ONMS).