Reevaluation of the earthquakes of 10 March and 19 May 1951 in southern Spain

Damage and parameters of the earthquakes of 10 March and 19 May 1951 in southern Spain have been reevaluated. Data available do not allow accurate depth determinations and previous estimates of larger depths are not confirmed, so depths have been fixed at 30 km for both shocks. Magnitudes (Ms) have been determined as 5.4 and 5.6, respectively. Intensities estimated at 22 and 29 sites from contemporary documentary sources give maximum values of VI–VII and VI (EMS Scale), lower than previous estimates. The focal mechanism for the May shock is right-lateral strike-slip with a normal component of motion, with planes with strikes 273° and 169°; seismic moment 1.9 × 10¹⁶ Nm and dimension 6 km (radius of circular fault). Shocks are located near the boundary between the Iberian plateau and the Guadalquivir Basin and may be related to faults connected with this boundary.     

Estimating runoff from a glacierized catchment using natural tracers in the semi‐arid Andes cordillera

This paper presents a methodology for hydrograph separation in mountain watersheds, which aims at identifying flow sources among ungauged headwater sub‐catchments through a combination of observed streamflow and data on natural tracers including isotope and dissolved solids. Daily summer and bi‐daily spring season water samples obtained at the outlet of the Juncal River Basin in the Andes of Central Chile were analysed for all major ions as well as stable water isotopes, δ¹⁸O and δD. Additionally, various samples from rain, snow, surface streams and exfiltrating subsurface water (springs) were sampled throughout the catchment. A principal component analysis was performed in order to address cross‐correlation in the tracer dataset, reduce the dimensionality of the problem and uncover patterns of variability. Potential sources were identified in a two‐component U‐space that explains 94% of the observed tracer variability at the catchment outlet. Hydrograph separation was performed through an Informative‐Bayesian model. Our results indicate that the Juncal Norte Glacier headwater sub‐catchment contributed at least 50% of summer flows at the Juncal River Basin outlet during the 2011–2012 water year (a hydrologically dry period in the Region), even though it accounts for only 27% of the basin area. Our study confirms the value of combining solute and isotope information for estimating source contributions in complex hydrologic systems, and provides insights regarding experimental design in high‐elevation semi‐arid catchments. The findings of this study can be useful for evaluating modelling studies of the hydrological consequences of the rapid decrease in glacier cover observed in this region, by providing insights into the origin of river water in basins with little hydrometeorological information. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Downscaling projections of climate change in Sao Tome and Principe Islands,Africa

Sao Tome and Principe is a small insular African country extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels and impacts such as inundation, shore line change, and salt water intrusion into underground aquifers. Projections of climate change have considered coarse model resolutions. The objective of this work is to dynamically downscale the global model projections to 4-km resolution and to assess the climate change in the Sao Tome and Principe islands. The global climate projections are provided by the Canadian Earth System Model under two Representative Concentration Pathways greenhouse gas scenarios, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The downscaling is produced by the Eta regional climate model. The baseline period is taken between 1971 and 2000, and the future climate period is taken between 2041 and 2070. The 2-m temperature simulations show good agreement with station data. The model simulates temperature more accurately than precipitation. The precipitation simulations systematically show underestimation and delay of the rainy and the dry seasons by about 1 month, a feature inherited from the global climate model. In the middle of the 21st century, projections show the strongest warming in the elevated parts of the Sao Tome Island, especially in February under RCP8.5. Warmer nights and warmer days become more frequent in the islands when compared with those in the present. While under RCP4.5, precipitation increases in the islands; under RCP8.5, it decreases everywhere in both islands. Heavy precipitation rates should increase, especially in the south-southwestern parts of the Sao Tome islands. Detailed spatial variability of the temperature and precipitation changes in the islands can only be revealed at very high spatial model resolution. Implications for the potential energy production from two major river basins are assessed in this work.     

Does the proton-to-electron mass ratio μ = m p /m e vary in the course of cosmological evolution?

The possible cosmological variation of the proton-to-electron mass ratio μ = m _p /m _e was estimated by measuring the H₂ wavelengths in the high-resolution spectrum of the quasar Q 0347-382. Our analysis yielded an estimate for the possible deviation ofμ value in the past, 10 Gyr ago: for the unweighted valueΔ μ / μ = (3.0±2.4)×10^-5; for the weightedvalueΔ μ / μ = (5.02±1.82)×10^-5.Since the significance of the both results does not exceed3σ, further observations are needed to increase the statistical significance. In any case, this result may be considered as the most stringent estimate on an upper limit of a possible variation of μ (95% C.L.):|Δ μ / μ| < 8× 10^-5 .This value serves as an effective tool for selection of models determining a relation between possible cosmological deviations of the fine-structure constant α and the elementary particle masses (m_p, m_e, etc.). This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Cassini/VIMS hyperspectral observations of the HUYGENS landing site on Titan

Titan is one of the primary scientific objectives of the NASA–ESA–ASI Cassini–Huygens mission. Scattering by haze particles in Titan's atmosphere and numerous methane absorptions dramatically veil Titan's surface in the visible range, though it can be studied more easily in some narrow infrared windows. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument onboard the Cassini spacecraft successfully imaged its surface in the atmospheric windows, taking hyperspectral images in the range 0.4–5.2 μm. On 26 October (TA flyby) and 13 December 2004 (TB flyby), the Cassini–Huygens mission flew over Titan at an altitude lower than 1200 km at closest approach. We report here on the analysis of VIMS images of the Huygens landing site acquired at TA and TB, with a spatial resolution ranging from 16 to14.4 km/pixel. The pure atmospheric backscattering component is corrected by using both an empirical method and a first-order theoretical model. Both approaches provide consistent results. After the removal of scattering, ratio images reveal subtle surface heterogeneities. A particularly contrasted structure appears in ratio images involving the 1.59 and 2.03 μm images north of the Huygens landing site. Although pure water ice cannot be the only component exposed at Titan's surface, this area is consistent with a local enrichment in exposed water ice and seems to be consistent with DISR/Huygens images and spectra interpretations. The images show also a morphological structure that can be interpreted as a 150 km diameter impact crater with a central peak.     

PILOT: a balloon-borne experiment to measure the polarized FIR emission of dust grains in the interstellar medium

Future cosmology space missions will concentrate on measuring the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background, which potentially carries invaluable information about the earliest phases of the evolution of our universe. Such ambitious projects will ultimately be limited by the sensitivity of the instrument and by the accuracy at which polarized foreground emission from our own Galaxy can be subtracted out. We present the PILOT balloon project, which aims at characterizing one of these foreground sources, the polarized continuum emission by dust in the diffuse interstellar medium. The PILOT experiment also constitutes a test-bed for using multiplexed bolometer arrays for polarization measurements. This paper presents the instrument and its expected performances. Performance measured during ground calibrations of the instrument and in flight will be described in a forthcoming paper.     

Mantle derived crystal-poor rhyolitic ignimbrites: Eruptive mechanism from geochemical and geochronological data of the Piedra Parada caldera,Southern Argentina

Trace elements, isotopic modeling and U-Th-Pb SHRIMP zircon age constraints are used to reconstruct the eruption history and magmatic processes of the Piedra Parada Caldera. In the early Eocene, the crystal-poor Barda Colorada ignimbrite(BCI), having 15% micro-porphyritic crystals with respect to magmatic components, erupted a volume estimated in more than 300 km~3. The Piedra Parada caldera is located in the Patagonian Andes foreland, at the southern end of the calderas field of the Pilcaniyeu Volcanic Belt(PVB). This belt is related to an extensional tectonic setting as a result of the collision of the Farallon-Aluk ridge with South America, which enabled the development of a transform ocean/continental plate margin followed by the detachment of the Aluk plate and the opening of a slab window. The BCI extra-caldera Plateau is a 100 m thick deposit, having a lower unit with high silica(Si O_2 76 wt.%),potassium poor rhyolitic composition(trondhjemitic like magma), and an upper unit with normal to high potassium rhyolitic composition(granitic like magma). A trace elements modeling of the BCI units shows that the BCI lower and upper units did not evolve from fractionation or immiscibility in the shallow magma reservoir. The BCI also have a primitive isotopic signature(initial87 Sr/86 Sr =0.7031-0.7049 and ε_(Nd)= +3.4 to +3.65). Thus, tectonic, compositional and isotopic constraints suggest the fast ascent of high silica magmas to a shallow reservoir, and point to an upper mantle origin for these rhyolitic magmas in a transitional(Orogenic-Anorogenic) tectono-magmatic setting. U-Th-Pb SHRIMP zircon crystallization ages of the Syn-caldera stage BCI units(56 -51.5 Ma) show a protracted life of 5 Ma for this caldera reservoir. The age of 52.9 ± 0.3 Ma is considered the best fit for the possible maximum age for the caldera collapse. The Late-caldera magmatism has trachyandesitic and rhyolitic compositions.The trace element modeling suggests that these rhyolites evolve from the trachyandesites and do not evolve from the BCI residual magma. The trachyandesites have U-Th-Pb SHRIMP zircon crystallization ages of 52 ± 1 Ma, suggesting that the caldera eruption was triggered by the arrival of the trachyandesitic magma.     

Experimental Study of the Effects of DNAPL Distribution on Mass Rebound

The release of stored dissolved contaminants from low permeability zones contributes to plume persistence beyond the time when dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) has completely dissolved. This is fundamental to successfully meeting acceptable low concentrations in groundwater that are driven by site‐specific cleanup goals. The study goals were to assess the role of DNAPL entrapment morphology on mass storage and plume longevity. As controlled field studies are not feasible, two‐dimensional (2D) test tanks were used to quantify the significance of mass loading processes from source dissolution and stored mass rebound. A simple two‐layer soil domain representing a high permeable formation sand overlying a zone of lower permeability sand was used in the tests. DNAPL mass depletion through dissolution was monitored via X‐ray photon attenuation, and effluent samples were used to monitor the plume. These data enabled analysis of the DNAPL distribution, the dissolved plume, and the dissolved phase distribution within the low permeability layer. Tests in an intermediate tank showed that mass storage contributes substantially to plume longevity. Detectable effluent concentrations persisted long after DNAPL depletion. The small tank results indicated that the DNAPL morphology influenced the flow field and caused distinctive transport mechanisms contributing to mass storage. Zones of high DNAPL saturation at the interface between the low and high permeability layers exhibited flow bypassing and diffusion dominated transport into the low permeability layer. In the absence of a highly saturated DNAPL zone near the soil interface the contaminant penetrated deeper into the low permeability layer caused by a combination of advection and diffusion.     

The imaging and slitless spectroscopy instrument for surveys (ISSIS) for the world space observatory-ultraviolet (WSO-UV)

ISSIS is the Imaging and Slitless Spectroscopy Instrument for the World Space Observatory-Ultraviolet (WSO-UV) mission. ISSIS is a multipurpose instrument designed to carry out high resolution (<0.1 arcsec) imaging in the far UV with fields of view ≥2×2 arcmin². ISSIS has two acquisition channels: the High Sensitivity Channel (HSC) and the Channel for Surveys (CfS). The HSC is equipped with an MCP-type detector to guarantee high sensitivity in the 1150–1750 ? range and high rejection of lower energy radiation. The CfS is equipped with a large CCD detector (4k×4k) to obtain images from the far UV to the red (1150–8500 ?); the CfS is implemented to allow observing UV bright sources such as reflection nebulae or nearby massive star forming regions. The design drivers and the current status of the instrument are described in this contribution.     

Titan’s cloud seasonal activity from winter to spring with Cassini/VIMS

Since Saturn orbital insertion in July 2004, the Cassini orbiter has been observing Titan throughout most of the northern winter season (October 2002–August 2009) and the beginning of spring, allowing a detailed monitoring of Titan’s cloud coverage at high spatial resolution with close flybys on a monthly basis. This study reports on the analysis of all the near-infrared images of Titan’s clouds acquired by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) during 67 targeted flybys of Titan between July 2004 and April 2010.The VIMS observations show numerous sporadic clouds at southern high and mid-latitudes, rare clouds in the equatorial region, and reveal a long-lived cloud cap above the north pole, ubiquitous poleward of 60°N. These observations allow us to follow the evolution of the cloud coverage during almost a 6-year period including the equinox, and greatly help to further constrain global circulation models (GCMs). After 4 years of regular outbursts observed by Cassini between 2004 and 2008, southern polar cloud activity started declining, and completely ceased 1 year before spring equinox. The extensive cloud system over the north pole, stable between 2004 and 2008, progressively fractionated and vanished as Titan entered into northern spring. At southern mid-latitudes, clouds were continuously observed throughout the VIMS observing period, even after equinox, in a latitude band between 30°S and 60°S. During the whole period of observation, only a dozen clouds were observed closer to the equator, though they were slightly more frequent as equinox approached.We also investigated the distribution of clouds with longitude. We found that southern polar clouds, before disappearing in mid-2008, were systematically concentrated in the leading hemisphere of Titan, in particular above and to the east of Ontario Lacus, the largest reservoir of hydrocarbons in the area. Clouds are also non-homogeneously distributed with longitude at southern mid-latitudes. The n = 2-mode wave pattern of the distribution, observed since 2003 by Earth-based telescopes and confirmed by our Cassini observations, may be attributed to Saturn’s tides.Although the latitudinal distribution of clouds is now relatively well reproduced and understood by the GCMs, the non-homogeneous longitudinal distributions and the evolution of the cloud coverage with seasons still need investigation. If the observation of a few single clouds at the tropics and at northern mid-latitudes late in winter and at the start of spring cannot be further interpreted for the moment, the obvious shutdown of the cloud activity at Titan’s poles provides clear signs of the onset of the general circulation turnover that is expected to accompany the beginning of Titan’s northern spring. According to our GCM, the persistence of clouds at certain latitudes rather suggests a ‘sudden’ shift in near future of the meteorology into the more illuminated hemisphere. Finally, the observed seasonal change in cloud activity occurred with a significant time lag that is not predicted by our model. This may be due to an overall methane humidity at Titan’s surface higher than previously expected.