Evolution,architecture and hierarchy of distributary deep‐water deposits: a high‐resolution outcrop investigation from the Permian Karoo Basin,South Africa

Sea floor and shallow seismic data sets of terminal submarine fan lobes can provide excellent planform timeslices of distributive deep‐water systems but commonly only limited information on cross‐sectional architecture. Extensive outcrops in the Tanqua depocentre, south‐west Karoo Basin, provide these three‐dimensional constraints on lithofacies distributions, stacking patterns, depositional geometries and the stratigraphic evolution of submarine lobe deposits at a scale comparable with modern lobe systems. Detailed study (bed‐scale) of a single‐lobe complex (Fan 3) over a 15 km by 8 km area has helped to define a four‐fold hierarchy of depositional elements from bed through to lobe element, lobe and lobe complex. The Fan 3 lobe complex comprises six distinct fine‐grained sandstone packages, interpreted as lobes, which display compensational stacking patterns on a 5 km scale. Between successive lobes are thin‐bedded, very fine‐grained sandstones and siltstones that do not change lithofacies over several kilometres and therefore are identified as a different architectural element. Each lobe is built by many lobe elements, which also display compensational stacking patterns over a kilometre scale. Thickness variations of lobe elements can be extremely abrupt without erosion, particularly in distal areas where isopach maps reveal a finger‐like distal fringe to lobes. Lobe deposits, therefore, are not simple radial sheet‐dominated systems as commonly envisaged.     

Tephra layers in the Byrd Station ice core and the Dome C ice core, Antarctica and their climatic importance

Volcanic glass shards from tephra layers in the Byrd Station ice core were chemically analyzed by electron microprobe. Tephra in seven layers have similar peralkaline trachyte compositions. The tephra are believed to originate from Mt. Takahe, on the basis of their chemical similarity to analyzed rocks from Mt. Takahe and because dated rock samples from the volcano are younger than 250,000 years old. Glass shards from 726 m deep in the Dome C ice core, which is 2400 km from Byrd Station, are composed of peralkaline trachyte and may have also been derived from Mt. Takahe. The tephra could have resulted from eruptions which were triggered by increased ice loading during the late Wisconsin glaciation. Preliminary grain size data suggest the eruptions were only minor and they were unlikely to have instantaneously altered global climate as have explosive eruptions in the tropics. Nevertheless, the effect of this localized volcanic activity upon the Antarctic energy budget warrants further investigation.     

An early warning system for wave-driven coastal flooding at Imperial Beach,CA

Natural Hazards - Waves overtop berms and seawalls along the shoreline of Imperial Beach (IB), CA when energetic winter swell and high tide coincide. These intermittent, few-hour long events flood...     

Sources and variability of CO2 in a prealpine stream gravel bar

Gravel bars (GBs) contribute to carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from stream corridors, with CO₂ concentrations and emissions dependent on prevailing hydraulic, biochemical, and physicochemical conditions. We investigated CO₂ concentrations and fluxes across a GB in a prealpine stream over three different discharge‐temperature conditions. By combining field data with a reactive transport groundwater model, we were able to differentiate the most relevant hydrological and biogeochemical processes contributing to CO₂ dynamics. GB CO₂ concentrations showed significant spatial and temporal variability and were highest under the lowest flow and highest temperature conditions. Further, observed GB surface CO₂ evasion fluxes, measured CO₂ concentrations, and modelled aerobic respiration were highest at the tail of the GB over all conditions. Modelled CO₂ transport via streamwater downwelling contributed the largest fraction of the measured GB CO₂ concentrations (31% to 48%). This contribution increased its relative share at higher discharges as a result of a decrease in other sources. Also, it decreased from the GB head to tail across all discharge‐temperature conditions. Aerobic respiration accounted for 17% to 36% of measured surface CO₂ concentrations. Zoobenthic respiration was estimated to contribute between 4% and 8%, and direct groundwater CO₂ inputs 1% to 23%. Unexplained residuals accounted for 6% to 37% of the observed CO₂ concentrations at the GB surface. Overall, we highlight the dynamic role of subsurface aerobic respiration as a driver of spatial and temporal variability of CO₂ concentrations and evasion fluxes from a GB. As hydrological regimes in prealpine streams are predicted to change following climatic change, we propose that warming temperatures combined with extended periods of low flow will lead to increased CO₂ release via enhanced aerobic respiration in newly exposed GBs in prealpine stream corridors.     

Second-order state transition for relative motion near perturbed,elliptic orbits

This paper develops a tensor and its inverse, for the analytical propagation of the position and velocity of a satellite, with respect to another, in an eccentric orbit. The tensor is useful for relative motion analysis where the separation distance between the two satellites is large. The use of nonsingular elements in the formulation ensures uniform validity even when the reference orbit is circular. Furthermore, when coupled with state transition matrices from existing works that account for perturbations due to Earth oblateness effects, its use can very accurately propagate relative states when oblateness effects and second-order nonlinearities from the differential gravitational field are of the same order of magnitude. The effectiveness of the tensor is illustrated with various examples.     

Characterizing the phosphorus forms extracted from soil by the Mehlich III soil test

Phosphorus (P) can limit crop production in many soils, and soil testing is used to guide fertilizer recommendations. The Mehlich III (M3) soil test is widely used in North America, followed by colorimetric analysis for P, or by inductively coupled plasma-based spectrometry (ICP) for P and cations. However, differences have been observed in M3 P concentrations measured by these methods. Using ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance (P-NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS), we characterized P forms in M3 extracts. In addition to the orthophosphate that would be detected during colorimetric analysis, several organic P forms were present in M3 extracts that would be unreactive colorimetrically but measured by ICP (molybdate unreactive P, MUP). Extraction of these P forms by M3 was confirmed by P-NMR and MS in NaOH-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid extracts of whole soils and residues after M3 extraction. The most abundant P form in M3 extracts was myo-inositol hexaphosphate (myo-IHP, phytate), a compound that may not contribute to plant-available P if tightly sorbed in soil. Concentrations of myo-IHP and other organic P forms varied among soils, and even among treatment plots on the same soil. Extraction of myo-IHP in M3 appeared to be linked to cations, with substantially more myo-IHP extracted from soils fertilized with alum-treated poultry litter than untreated litter. These results suggest that ICP analysis may substantially over-estimate plant-available P in samples with high MUP concentrations, but there is no way at present to determine MUP concentrations without analysis by both colorimetry and ICP. This study also tested procedures that will improve future soil P-NMR studies, such as treatment of acid extracts, and demonstrated that techniques such as P-NMR and MS are complimentary, each yielding additional information that analysis by a single technique may not provide.

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Global radiation within corn

Global and net solar radiation profiles were measured by traversing sensors at four heights in a square-sown plot and a row plot of field corn on four relatively cloudless days in August 1972. The fluxes and their vertical distributions are discussed. A numerical model of the short-wave radiation fluxes in a canopy is presented. Using leaf area index and fixed leaf radiative properties, calculated values of radiation are within 10% of measurements in most instances. The performance under predominantly beam or diffuse radiation is similar and model values of crop albedo compare well with values calculated from radiation measurements above the crops.     

<Superscript>40</Superscript>Ar/<Superscript>39</Superscript>Ar dating of the eruptive history of Mount Erebus,Antarctica: volcano evolution

Mt. Erebus, a 3,794-meter-high active polygenetic stratovolcano, is composed of voluminous anorthoclase-phyric tephriphonolite and phonolite lavas overlying unknown volumes of poorly exposed, less differentiated lavas. The older basanite to phonotephrite lavas crop out on Fang Ridge, an eroded remnant of a proto-Erebus volcano and at other isolated locations on the flanks of the Mt. Erebus edifice. Anorthoclase feldspars in the phonolitic lavas are large (~10 cm), abundant (~30–40%) and contain numerous melt inclusions. Although excess argon is known to exist within the melt inclusions, rigorous sample preparation was used to remove the majority of the contaminant. Twenty-five sample sites were dated by the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar method (using 20 anorthoclase, 5 plagioclase and 9 groundmass concentrates) to examine the eruptive history of the volcano. Cape Barne, the oldest site, is 1,311±16 ka and represents the first of three stages of eruptive activity on the Mt. Erebus edifice. It shows a transition from sub-aqueous to sub-aerial volcanism that may mark the initiation of proto-Erebus eruptive activity. It is inferred that a further ~300 ky of basanitic/phonotephritic volcanism built a low, broad platform shield volcano. Cessation of the shield-building phase is marked by eruptions at Fang Ridge at ~1,000 ka. The termination of proto-Erebus eruptive activity is marked by the stratigraphically highest flow at Fang Ridge (758±20 ka). Younger lavas (~550–250 ka) on a modern-Erebus edifice are characterized by phonotephrites, tephriphonolites and trachytes. Plagioclase-phyric phonotephrite from coastal and flank flows yield ages between 531±38 and 368±18 ka. The initiation of anorthoclase tephriphonolite occurred in the southwest sector of the volcano at and around Turks Head (243±10 ka). A short pulse of effusive activity marked by crustal contamination occurred ~160 ka as indicated by at least two trachytic flows (157±6 and 166±10 ka). Most anorthoclase-phyric lavas, characteristic of Mt. Erebus, are less than 250 ka. All Mt. Erebus flows between about 250 and 90 ka are anorthoclase tephriphonolite in composition.Editorial responsibility: J. Donelly-Nolan