Damaging Weather Conditions in the United States: A Selection of Data Quality and Monitoring Issues

The limitations of observational data available for the study of damaging weather conditions (e.g., storms and extreme temperature events) are discussed. Crop and property insurance loss records are advocated as a potential supplement to traditional weather observations, as they integrate specific information about the spatial dimension of damaging weather conditions and the cost of damage they cause. Insurance loss data may also be analyzed in combination with meteorological data sets to derive indicator variables for the detection of damaging weather events.Two sets of insurance data are described. One record provides adjusted property losses associated with "catastrophic" weather events since 1949, and the other is an index of the amount of crop-hail losses per year since 1948. Additionally, an example of the benefits of the combination of insurance and meteorological data is presented through a selection of results from a recent study of freezing temperatures in the southeastern United States and associated insurance claims related to pipe bursting.If insurance data are to be applied in the future in similar studies of damaging weather conditions, it is essential that the insurance industry continues to collect and adjust loss data and periodically confirm that adjustment factors are temporally consistent.     

Stratigraphic expression of the lateral propagation and growth of isolated fault-related uplifts

The lateral propagation of faults and folds is known to be an important process during the development of mountain belts, but little is known about the manner in which along‐strike fault–fold growth is expressed in pre‐ and syntectonic (growth) strata. We use a coupled tectonic and stratigraphic model to investigate the along‐strike stratigraphic expression of fault‐related folds/uplifts that grow in both the transport and strike directions. We consider faults that propagate following a quadratic (nonself‐similar evolution) or linear (self‐similar evolution) scaling law, using different slip distributions per episode of fault propagation, under general background sedimentation. We find that the long‐strike geometry of pre‐ and syntectonic strata and the geometry of growth axial surfaces reflect the mode of fault propagation. The geometry of strata observed in the model is similar to that observed in natural contractional structures when: (1) the evolution of the fault is nonself‐similar, or (2) the fault grows as a result of thrust faulting events with similar displacements along strike that are terminated abruptly at the fault tips.     

Diatom-derived palaeoconductivity estimates for Lake Awassa, Ethiopia: evidence for pulsed inflows of saline groundwater

A 6,500-year diatom stratigraphy has been used to infer hydrochemical changes in Lake Awassa, a topographically closed oligosaline lake in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. Conductivity was high from ~6400-6200 BP, and from 5200-4000 BP, with two brief episodes of lower conductivity during the latter period. Although the timing of the conductivity changes is similar to the timing of lake-level change in the nearby Zwai-Shalla basin, their directions are the reverse of that expected from a climatic cause. Dissolution of the tephras which precede both phases of high conductivity cannot explain the increases in salinity, because rhyolitic tephras are only sparingly soluble. Instead, the pulsed input of groundwater made saline by the reaction of silicate minerals and volcanic glass with carbonic acid, formed from the solution of carbon dioxide degassed from magma under the Awassa Caldera, is suggested as a plausible mechanism for the observed change in lake chemistry. Diatom-inferred hydrochemistry cannot therefore be used to reconstruct climate change in Lake Awassa.     

Monitoring the effects of longwall mine-induced subsidence on vineyards

This paper reports on the design and implementation of a program to monitor the surface effects of longwall mining-induced subsidence on wine grape yields within vineyards of Australia’s Hunter Valley. Implemented in 2003, this five-year project incorporated a multi-scale, multi-temporal, sliding window monitoring design synchronised with progression of longwall panels. On the vineyard-block scale, individual vine panels were sampled for grape yield. On the regional scale measures of vine photosynthetically active biomass were obtained from remotely sensed, Quickbird satellite imagery. All data were analysed in conjunction with three identified subsidence “zones”: minimum subsidence associated with chain-pillars, maximum subsidence associated with the longwall, and a zone corresponding to the transition between them. Visual observations conducted throughout the campaign confirmed the occurrence of isolated localised surface cracking, particularly in areas of maximum soil tension. However, both vineyard and block-scale data indicated no obvious, systematic mining-induced viticultural effects in the study site investigated during the study period. Rather, observed trends in vine yields were better explained by vine biophysical responses to climatic factors.     

An upper limit to coronal X-rays from single,magnetic white dwarfs

Pointed ROSAT PSPC exposures of 9277 and 6992 sec, directed toward the nearby, single, cool, magnetic white dwarfs GR 290 and EG 250 yielded no counts significantly above the expected background rate. The corresponding flux limits (for an assumed source temperature of l keV) are 1.0 and 1.7 × 10⁻¹⁴erg cm⁻² s⁻¹, within the 0.1–2.5 keV bandpass of the instrument (99% confidence limits). This is more than an order of magnitude below the tentative detection level (for GR 290) and limits (for four other similar stars) obtained from archival Einstein data in 1991. The corresponding limits on coronal electron density are comparable with those implied if cyclotron emission is not responsible for any of the features observed in the optical spectra of magnetic white dwarfs. X-ray data currently provide no evidence for the existence of coronae around these stars. A final long observation (25,000 sec of GD 356) is scheduled for later this year on ROSAT, along with coordinated EUVE observations.