Avulsion regimes in southeast Texas rivers

Avulsions – relatively sudden changes in course, or establishment of new anabranches – are an important process in alluvial rivers. Their key role in floodplain construction and alluvial architecture, and the general conditions favouring avulsions, are well known. However, avulsion processes and evolution, and the factors controlling avulsion regimes, are poorly understood. In the southeast Texas coastal plain, where avulsions are common features of the river valleys, avulsions were studied on the lower Brazos, Navasota, Trinity, Neches and Sabine rivers using a combination of aerial imagery, digital elevation models and field surveys. Avulsions have important influences on the surface morphology and contemporary processes in all five rivers. Features associated with avulsions are active and distinct throughout the study area, and all the rivers have experienced geologically (if not historically) recent avulsions. However, no two of the study rivers have the same contemporary avulsion regime. First‐order differences in avulsion style are controlled by the stage of valley filling, and within the three rivers characterized by an unfilled incised valley, antecedent morphology associated with late Quaternary and Holocene coastal and fluvial‐deltaic processes accounts for the major differences. In the Navasota (27 avulsions in 185 km) and Neches (21 in 340 km) rivers, subchannels associated with avulsions exist in all stages of development from active to infilled, and some have occurred in recent decades. The other rivers have fewer avulsions, but both the Sabine and Trinity have experienced historic channel shifts. Only the Brazos River has experienced no avulsions within the past c. 300 years. Results show that even within a region of similar environmental controls and geological history local variations in inherited morphology can result in different avulsion regimes. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consequences of short‐term changes in coastal processes: a case study

In 1997–98, unique critical beach erosion led to structural failure along the Penarth, South Wales, UK coastline and anthropogenic activities, such as the construction of the Cardiff Bay Barrage and offshore marine aggregate dredging, were suggested as causes. The time‐frame of significant erosion was between 1995 and 1997 and forcing agents (extreme sea level and wind direction) and shoreline indicators (mean beach level and MHW) were analysed in order to assess change. Water level analysis showed that although there was no significant difference between actual and predicted mean sea levels, extreme sea levels at that time were significantly higher (t = 3·305; d.f. = 8; p < 0·05). Three wind direction analyses (annual mean, mean annual maximum gust and mean annual maximum gust ≥28 kn) between 1995 and 1997 also showed significant differences (p < 0·05). All comprised more easterly components which meant they approached the beach from the sea. Furthermore, gusts ≥28 kn from the northeast quadrant, that is, 0° to 90° true, were significantly more frequent during these years (t = 3·674; d.f. = 8; p < 0·01). Justification of statistical significances was established and there was supporting evidence of unusual meteorological conditions at that time. Relationships showed correlation between forcing agents (extreme sea level and wind direction) and shoreline indicators (mean beach level and Mean High Water). Furthermore, regression analysis showed winds from the northeast quadrant resulted in steeper longshore gradients, as a consequence of beach material loss. Therefore, it was concluded that the critical erosion of Penarth beach between 1995 and 1997 was caused by increased wave attack from the northeast and southeast quadrants, generated by unique significant changes in wind direction and extreme sea levels. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Data reporting norms for 40Ar/39Ar geochronology

Data reported in ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology studies are commonly insufficient to allow computation of ages. This deficiency renders it difficult to compare ages based on different standards or constants, and often hinders critical evaluation of the results. Herein are presented an enumeration of the data that should be reported in all ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar studies, including a discussion in support of these requirements. The minimum required data are identified and distinguished from parameters that are useful but may be derived from them by calculation. Finally, recommendations are made for metadata needed to document age calculations (e.g., from age spectrum or isochron analyses).     

Twentieth century North Atlantic climate change. Part II: Understanding the effect of Indian Ocean warming

Ensembles of atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) experiments are used in an effort to understand the boreal winter Northern Hemisphere (NH) extratropical climate response to the observed warming of tropical sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over the last half of the twentieth Century. Specifically, we inquire about the origins of unusual, if not unprecedented, changes in the wintertime North Atlantic and European climate that are well described by a linear trend in most indices of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The simulated NH atmospheric response to the linear trend component of tropic-wide SST change since 1950 projects strongly onto the positive polarity of the NAO and is a hemispheric pattern distinguished by decreased (increased) Arctic (middle latitude) sea level pressure. Progressive warming of the Indian Ocean is the principal contributor to this wintertime extratropical response, as shown through additional AGCM ensembles forced with only the SST trend in that sector. The Indian Ocean influence is further established through the reproducibility of results across three different models forced with identical, idealized patterns of the observed warming. Examination of the transient atmospheric adjustment to a sudden “switch-on” of an Indian Ocean SST anomaly reveals that the North Atlantic response is not consistent with linear theory and most likely involves synoptic eddy feedbacks associated with changes in the North Atlantic storm track. The tropical SST control exerted over twentieth century regional climate underlies the importance of determining the future course of tropical SST for regional climate change and its uncertainty. Better understanding of the extratropical responses to different, plausible trajectories of the tropical oceans is key to such efforts.     

Interpretation of migrated seismic reflection profiles across the northern Appalachians in Maine

Summary. A simple line-migration technique has been developed and applied to deep crustal reflection data collected in the northern Appalachians of Quebec and central Maine. Preliminary interpretation of these data, combined with the results of gravity and refraction studies, shows thinning of the crust in two distinct steps beneath the Silurian-Devonian Merrimack synclinorium and shows evidence for Mesozoic crustal stretching and dike intrusion.     

EVOLUTIONARY CHARACTERISTICS OF LAKES AND PALAEOCLIMATIC UNDULATION IN THE Q AID AM BASIN,CHINA

The Qaidam Basin is. a tectonically controlled depression at 2700 m altitude on the northern margin of the Tibet Plateau. A succession of Neogene clastic sediments indicates lake depocentre migration from NW to SE. Towards late Pliocene, evaporative conditions developed with formation of gypsum, halite, celestite, mirabilite and bloedite. Continued deformation through Pleistocene developed a series of NW- SE trending domes and troughs. This setting continued to exert a controlling influence on basin and brine evolution and the progressive development of sulfate to chloride brines as, dry conditions intensified in late Pleistocene, at the end of which, extensive flat floors were formed in Dalangtan, Qarhan and other playas.The, model, which was set up based on the synthetic analyses, divides the fluctuating palaeoclimate since 750ka,B. P. into 11 warm and humid stages and 10 dry and cold stages. The water of the lakes evaporated during the dry-cold periods and were freshened during the warm-humid periods     

Subsurface radar sounding of the martian polar cap: radiative transfer approach

The problem of subsurface radar sounding of the martian polar caps [Ilyushin, 2004. Martian northern polar cap: layering and possible implications for radar sounding. Planet. Space Sci. 52, 1195–1207] is considered from the point of view of incoherent radiative transfer theory. Since it has been previously shown that the radar signal field within the polar cap has diffuse structure, there is a need for a statistical approach to the problem. Radiative transfer theory, which is now well developed, seems to be the most appropriate formalism for this approach.Several physical models of polar caps have been formulated. The asymptotic solutions for all proposed models are derived here. In the present paper only the case of orbital ground penetrating radar is considered, because it is of great interest in relationship to currently developed radar experiments. In principle, the approach is believed to be applicable to a wide class of short pulse and compressed chirp radar experiments, including both orbital and landed instruments and media more complicated than a simple plane parallel geometry. This work, however, is postponed to future papers.Techniques for retrieval of physical properties of polar caps from the radar measurements are proposed. From the observational data, the macroscopic parameters of the medium appearing in radiative transfer theory, i.e. the single scattering albedo and volume extinction coefficient can be estimated. These estimates put certain constraints on the physical parameters of the medium model introduced in the paper. With some additional information, known a priori or from other observations, these estimates can be used to retrieve physically meaningful information, for example, the average content of impurities in the ice.     

Influences of the unsaturated,saturated, and riparian zones on the transport of nitrate near the Merced River,California, USA

Transport and transformation of nitrate was evaluated along a 1-km groundwater transect from an almond orchard to the Merced River, California, USA, within an irrigated agricultural setting. As indicated by measurements of pore-water nitrate and modeling using the root zone water quality model, about 63% of the applied nitrogen was transported through a 6.5-m unsaturated zone. Transport times from recharge locations to the edge of a riparian zone ranged from approximately 6 months to greater than 100 years. This allowed for partial denitrification in horizons having mildly reducing conditions, and essentially no denitrification in horizons with oxidizing conditions. Transport times across a 50–100-m-wide riparian zone of less than a year to over 6 years and more strongly reducing conditions resulted in greater rates of denitrification. Isotopic measurements and concentrations of excess N₂ in water were indicative of denitrification with the highest rates below the Merced River. Discharge of water and nitrate into the river was dependent on gradients driven by irrigation or river stage. The results suggest that the assimilative capacity for nitrate of the groundwater system, and particularly the riverbed, is limiting the nitrate load to the Merced River in the study area.     

Revealing Materials: plastics in alternative food economies

This article draws upon recent geographical work on assemblage to reconsider how we understand alternative food economies. In particular it brings attention to the devices upon which these economies rely—specifically plastics. Since the mid-twentieth century, plastics have developed close and complex relations with our agrifood systems; they facilitate commodity valuation and product circulation worldwide but are also recognised as problematic due to their environmental and human health impacts. Despite this paradox and the attention plastics increasingly receive, we know little of their relations with alternative food initiatives (AFIs). How do plastics inhabit alternative food economies? What associations and circulations become performed? What do these markets look like from a device-oriented perspective? To address these questions, the paper draws on fieldwork undertaken in Brisbane (Australia) with two AFIs—a weekly organic market and an online box program/wholesaler. Using visualisation and an assemblage approach discloses the presences, flows, functions, and tensions of plastics in AFIs. In this way, plastics are revealed but also act to reveal alternative food economies. This analysis steps away from evaluations of AFIs’ (in)effective challenge to neoliberalisation to consider them as complex, processual, sometimes ambivalent efforts that not only distribute ‘good food’ but engage in important ways with things like plastics.