Water and sediment runoff at the Amazon River mouth

The regime and budget of water and sediment runoff in the mouth area of the Amazon River are discussed. New values of the water and sediment runoff at the terminal cross section (the town of Obidos) and at its outflow into the Atlantic Ocean have been obtained on the basis of observational data. It turned out that the water runoff value was markedly higher and the sediment runoff value was lower than it had been considered previously.     

Delta formation processes at the Mississippi River mouth

Specific processes of delta formation at the Mississippi River mouth are discussed. In the last 7000–8000 years, a series of large deltaic lobes was formed in succession at the Mississippi River mouth under the condition of high river sediment runoff and stabilization of the ocean level after its sudden postglacial rise. In the mid-XX century, the formation of a new deltaic lobe began at the Atchafalaya Branch mouth. Over the last centuries, the processes of delta formation at the Mississippi River mouth slowed down as a result of the river sediment runoff decrease after flow regulation of the Missouri and Arkansas tributaries; in some parts of the deltaic plain, these processes gave way to degradation of marshes and seashore erosion under the impact of intense land subsidence. The current processes of delta formation are under the great influence of local economic activities.     

The August 2, 2007, Nevelsk earthquake: Instrumental data analysis

A catalogue of aftershocks of the 2007 Nevelsk earthquake (M _w = 6.2) was prepared on the basis of the data from the local network of digital seismic stations established on the southern part of Sakhalin Island. The parameters of the aftershock hypocenters were determined using the method of the seismic wave travel time inversion. The errors in the determination of the coordinates of the seismic events were analyzed. The particularities of the spatiotemporal distribution of the aftershocks in the source zone of the earthquake were established. It was shown that a strong aftershock was a subsource earthquake with its own source zone. This explains the disagreement between the energetic characteristics and the size of the aftershock zone of the Nevelsk earthquake.     

Hydrological and morphological processes in Senegal River mouth area

The main features of the structure and water regime of the mouth area of the Senegal River and their changes caused by river regulation in its upper reaches and within its delta area are considered. Data on water and sediment runoff of the Senegal River and their variations along the river are specified. River runoff was found to dramatically decrease in recent decades because of a drought. Zoning of river mouth area was carried out, and morphological processes in its estuary, in particular, the formation of a new outlet of the river into the ocean with the formation of a lagoon, are described.     

Hypersalinization of river estuaries in West Africa

Regularities in processes of seawater intrusion into the rivers of Senegal, Saloum, Gambia, and Casamance in West Africa are analyzed. The seawater intrusion during the low-flow period, which is a common phenomenon for the lower reaches of these rivers, has taken on extreme features in the course of the severe drought that occurred in West Africa in the 1970s–1980s. The processes of progressing water salinization in estuaries under the impact of drastic reduction of atmospheric precipitation and river runoff, considerable evaporation water losses, and tides are described. Due consideration is given to the unique hydrological phenomenon, i.e., the so-called reverse estuary. The Senegal River mouth is taken as a case study of cyclic variations in runoff, water salinity, and distance of saltwater penetration into the river. Certain environmental consequences of water salinization are discussed using the Casamance River estuary as an example. Methods used in Africa to prevent seawater intrusion and salinization of estuaries harmful for the environment and economy are described in this article.     

A postseismic process in the area of the Simushir 11/2006 Earthquake recovered by the GRACE data

The GRACE data make it possible to detect the areas where the earthquakes initiate postseismic creep in regions much larger than the focal area. This information is important for estimation of the seismic potential and position of the locked segments in the subduction zones.     

Layered Jurassic intrusions in Antarctica

The paper addresses the current understanding of the inner structure of the layered intrusions at Dufek Massif in the Pensacola Mountains and the Utpostane and Muren intrusions in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, which are still poorly known to Russian geologists. The magmatic events at approximately 180 Ma, including the emplacement of layered intrusions, are thought to had predated the breakup of the Gondwana supercontinent. The spatiotemporal similarities of the intrusions determine the importance of the problem of whether they were produced by a single or more than one parental magmas, which are thought to have been derived under the effect of a superplume.     

Multimodel Evaluation of Phytomass Dynamics of Tundra Plant Communities Based on Satellite Images

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - This paper presents a two-stage method for solving the problem of predicting phytomass and the corresponding two-component model of phytomass dynamics....     

The most distant quasar at z = 7.08: Probable retrograde rotation of an accreting supermassive black hole

We estimate the value of the spin of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) of the high‐redshift quasar ULAS J112001.48 +064124.3 using new observational data for its mass, bolometric luminosity, and X‐ray spectrum. We show that, assuming equilibrium between the magnetic and the accretion gas pressures at the event horizon radius, the spin of the SMBH is negative. This result implies that the SMBH in this quasar is rotating retrograde with respect to the accretion disk. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)