Numerical Simulations of the Microscale Heterogeneities of Turbulence Observed on a Complex Site

We simulate the microscale heterogeneities of turbulent variables observed at a complex site for different wind directions. The atmospheric computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results are compared with an ensemble of 36 months of data collected at the experimental site SIRTA “Site Instrumental de Recherche par Télédétection Atmosphérique”, located near Paris (France) in a semi-urban environment. The experimental data show that the normalized turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) k/U ² (where k is TKE and U is the wind speed) at 10-m height, for two different locations, is highly dependent on wind direction and strongly influenced by trees. These measurements show a strong increase of the normalized TKE downstream of the forest canopies with a large variability within the 36-month period in part due to the variation of the tree foliage. The numerical simulations are carried out using the CFD code Code_Saturne with the standard k?ε closure, in neutral stratification. The buildings are taken into account explicitly in the mesh and the forested areas are modelled with two approaches: the classical roughness wall law and a drag porosity. A comparison has been performed between the calculated values and the median of measured values of the normalized TKE and the normalized friction velocity, for each wind sector of 10°. A very good agreement is obtained with the drag porosity model, whereas the classical roughness law leads to a strong underestimation downstream of the forested areas. However, this large improvement of the results using the drag porosity model can only be obtained with a refinement of the grid, especially in forested areas, and an accurate land-use map.     

Brick and tile clay mining from the paddy lands of Central Kerala (southwest coast of India) and emerging environmental issues

The increasing demand for building materials has led to indiscriminate exploitation of clay-rich topsoil from wetlands including the paddy lands of Central Kerala in the southwestern coast of India. The problem is critical in areas adjoining the major developmental centers having low per capita land and natural resource availability. Loss of fertile topsoil, shrinkage of agricultural lands and consequent food security issues, erosion of naturally evolved nutrients, lowering of water table in wells adjacent to the mining sites, etc., are some of the major environmental issues arising from indiscriminate brick and tile clay mining. Although, brick and tile clay mining brings short-term economic benefits and employment opportunities to a section of people, the process in the long run creates severe damages to the environmental settings of the area. The present paper deals with a few aspects of brick and tile clay mining in the paddy lands of Central Kerala, especially around Kochi City, a fast developing urban-cum-industrial center in South India, which demands large quantities of building materials including bricks and tiles for construction of infrastructural facilities. It is estimated that 729,695 tons/year (ty^?1) of brick and tile clays are extracted from the coastal lowlands of Central Kerala, spreading to the Chalakudy (135,975 ty^?1), Periyar (483,820 ty^?1) and Muvattupuzha (109,900 ty^?1) river basins. The N, P and K loss through extraction of brick and tile clays amounts to 210 ty^?1, 96 ty^?1 and 9,352 ty^?1, respectively. As nutrient loss is an irreversible process in human time scale, its implications on agricultural productivity is a matter of serious concern. The study warrants the need for a comprehensive policy with an aim to regulate the mining activities on an environment- friendly basis in the densely populated coasts of the world, in general, and the study area in particular.     

Dwarf galaxies: Important clues to galaxy formation

The smallest dwarf galaxies are the most straight forward objects in which to study star formation processes on a galactic scale. They are typically single cell star forming entities, and as small potentials in orbit around a much larger one they are unlikely to accrete much (if any) extraneous matter during their lifetime (either intergalactic gas, or galaxies) because they will typically lose the competition with the much larger galaxy. We can utilise observations of stars of a range of ages to measure star formation and enrichment histories back to the earliest epochs. The most ancient objects we have ever observed in the Universe are stars found in and around our Galaxy. Their proximity allows us to extract from their properties detailed information about the time in the early Universe into which they were born. A currently fashionable conjecture is that the earliest star formation in the Universe occurred in the smallest dwarf galaxy sized objects. Here I will review some recent observational highlights in the study of dwarf galaxies in the Local Group and the implications for understanding galaxy formation and evolution. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Generation of Long Internal Gravity Waves in Waveguides by Rising Buoyant Air Masses and Other Sources

Summary The displacement fields generated in an internal gravity wave waveguide between plane rigid walls are compared for two types of source: an explosive point source and a rising buoyant sphere moving at constant speed. It is concluded that for large enough spheres and comparable energy expenditures, the buoyant sphere is a far more efficient source of long internal gravity waves. In particular it appears possible to conclude that, in the case of large events such as nuclear or volcanic explosions in the atmosphere, the rising heated air mass can generate long wavelength (Λ > 500 km) internal gravity waves at ionospheric heights.     

Origins of compositional heterogeneity in olivine-hosted melt inclusions from the Baffin Island picrites

The Baffin Island picrites are highly magnesian (22 wt% MgO) olivine tholeiites, erupted through felsic continental crust. Plots of most major and minor element oxides against MgO for the lavas define very tight trends consistent with modification of melts parental to the erupted suite by olivine fractionation or accumulation. However, melt inclusions trapped in primitive olivine phenocrysts in these lavas have much more diverse compositions. After correction for post-entrapment modification, the inclusions are systematically slightly lower in Al₂O₃, and significantly higher in SiO₂, K₂O and P₂O₅ than the lavas fractionation trends. CaO, Na₂O and TiO₂ contents lie within the lavas fractionation trends. Similarly, most inclusions are higher in Sr/Nd, K/Nb, Rb/Ba, Rb/Sr, U/Nb and Ba/Th than the lavas. These characteristics resulted from up to 15% contamination of evolving picritic-basaltic liquids by locally-derived, broadly granitic partial melts of the quartz + feldspar-rich crust through which the picrites erupted. Contamination was minor in the bulk lavas (<1%), suggesting that the inclusions compositions partly reflect a link between wall rock reaction and precipitation of liquidus olivine. Rapid crystallisation of liquidus olivine from the picrites, along with melting of felsic crustal wall rocks of magma chambers or conduits, were likely during emplacement of hot picritic magmas into cooler felsic crust. Inclusion compositions may thus reflect mixing trends or may be constrained to phase boundaries between olivine and a phase being resorbed, for example, an olivine-plagioclase cotectic. The extent of contamination was probably a complex function of diffusion rates of components in the magmas, and phenocryst growth rates and proximity to wall rock. These results bear on the common observation that melt inclusions compositions are frequently more heterogeneous than those of the lavas that host them.     

Hydroacoustic contributions to understanding the December 26th 2004 great Sumatra–Andaman Earthquake

Within the era of modern digital-recording, the December 26th 2004 Sumatra–Andaman Earthquake represents an event of unprecedented scale. Hydroacoustic observations have made significant contributions toward our understanding of this great rupture and serve to reiterate the potential use of tertiary (T) waves as a tool in tsunami warning. Small-aperture arrays of hydrophones operated by the International Monitoring System (IMS) recorded the seismically generated, water-borne T-wave within the Indian Ocean. Due to the velocity structure of the oceanic water column, T-wave propagation is both slower and more efficient than radiation within the solid earth. This results in a relatively large amplitude signal that arrives within a time window distinct from the more complex and overlapping pattern of solid earth seismic phases. Hydroacoustic analysis has constrained the rupture length of the fault to be ~1,200 km and the duration on the order of 8 min, with 2–3 phases exhibiting progressively decreasing rupture velocity. These data also indicate that aftershock rates in the first hours following the mainshock correlate with spatial variability in the sourced T-wave amplitude, with far fewer events along the northern section of the main rupture. Although IMS stations telemeter data in near real time, data access for scientists was restricted due to the provisions of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The swift dissemination of data will be critical in using hydroacoustic methods to assess the magnitude and tsunamigenic potential of future events.     

Partitioning of lanthanides and Y between immiscible silicate and fluoride melts, fluorite and cryolite and the origin of the lanthanide tetrad effect in igneous rocks

Some F-rich granitic rocks show anomalous, nonchondritic ratios of Y/Ho, extreme negative Eu anomalies, and unusual, discontinuous, segmented chondrite-normalised plots of rare earth elements (REE). The effects of F-rich fluids have been proposed as one of the explanations for the geochemical anomalies in the evolved granitic systems, as the stability of nonsilicate complexes of individual rare earths may affect the fluid-melt element partitioning. The lanthanide tetrad effect, related to different configurations of 4f-electron subshells of the lanthanide elements, is one of the factors affecting such complexing behaviour. We present the first experimental demonstration of the decoupling of Y and Ho, and the tetrad effect in the partitioning of rare earths between immiscible silicate and fluoride melts. Two types of experiments were performed: dry runs at atmospheric pressure in a high-temperature centrifuge at 1100 to 1200°C, and experiments with the addition of H₂O at 700 to 800°C and 100 MPa in rapid-quench cold-seal pressure vessels. Run products were analysed by electron microprobe (major components), solution-based inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) (REE in the centrifuged runs), and laser ablation ICP-MS (REE and Li in the products of rapid-quench runs). All the dry centrifuge runs were performed at super-liquidus, two-phase conditions. In the experiments with water-bearing mixtures, minor amounts of aqueous vapour were present in addition to the melts. We found that lanthanides and Y concentrated strongly in the fluoride liquids, with two-melt partition coefficients reaching values as high as 100-220 in water-bearing compositions. In all the experimental samples, two-melt partition coefficients of lanthanides show subtle periodicity consistent with the tetrad effect, and the partition coefficient of Y is greater than that of Ho. One of the mixtures also produced abundant fluorite (CaF₂) and cryolite (Na₃AlF₆) crystals, which enabled us to study fluorite-melt and cryolite-melt REE partitioning. REE concentrations in fluorite are high and comparable to those in the fluoride melt. However, fluorite-melt partition coefficients appear to depend mostly on ionic radii and show neither significant tetrad anomalies, nor differences in Y and Ho partitioning. In contrast, REE concentrations in cryolite are low (∼5-10 times lower than in the silicate melt), and cryolite-melt REE partitioning shows very strong tetrad and Y-Ho anomalies. Our results imply that Y-Ho and lanthanide tetrad anomalies are likely to be caused mainly by aluminofluoride complexes, and the tetrad REE patterns in natural igneous rocks can result from fractionation of F-rich magmatic fluids.