A study of hybrid and chaotic long-range propagation in a doublesound channel environment

This paper presents the results of the analysis of long range propagation (~200 km) in a range-dependent environment. The propagation medium is characterized by two deep sound channels. The range dependence enables energy transfer between the channels and leads to a mismatch between real data and ray predictions. To explain this mismatch, an analysis of hybrid ray propagation is presented. This analysis is completed by an interpretation in terms of chaos. This chaos is quantified in the particular case of the Bay of Biscay environment. This paper puts forward that mesoscale perturbations, such as the Mediterranean outflow in the North Atlantic, can affect long-range propagation. However, it shows that the ray theory remains reliable for a propagation range of several hundred kilometers     

Response of precipitation over Greenland and the adjacent ocean to North Pacific warm spells during Dansgaard–Oeschger stadials

ABSTRACT Palaeoceanographic reconstructions from the North Atlantic indicate massive ice breakouts from East Greenland near the onset of cold Dansgaard–Oeschger (D–O) stadials. In contrast to these coolings in the North Atlantic area, a new sea-surface temperature record reveals concomitant warm spells in the northern North Pacific. A sensitivity experiment with an atmospheric general circulation model is used to test the potential impact of sea-surface warmings by 3.5 °C in the North Pacific, on top of otherwise cold stadial climate conditions, on the precipitation regime over the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. The model predicts a maximum response over East Greenland and the Greenland Sea, where a 40% increase in net annual snow accumulation occurs. This remote effect of North Pacific warm spells on the East Greenland snow-accumulation rate may play an important role in generating D–O cycles by rebuilding the ice lost during ice breakouts. In addition, the increased precipitation over the Greenland Sea may help to sustain the D–O stadial climate state.     

When do rock glacier fronts fail? Insights from two case studies in South Tyrol (Italian Alps)

The fronts of two rock glaciers located in South Tyrol (Italian Alps) failed on 13 August 2014, initiating debris flows in their downslope channels. A multimethod approach including climate, meteorological, and ground temperature data analysis, aerial image correlation, as well as geotechnical testing and modeling, led to the reconstruction of the two events. An integrated investigation of static predisposing factors, slowly changing preparatory factors, and potential triggering events shed light on the most likely reasons for such failures. Our results suggest that the occurrence of front destabilization at the two rock glaciers can only partly be explained by the occurrence of heavy rainfall events. Indeed, antecedent hydrological and thermal ground conditions were characterized by a saturated active layer favored by a snow-rich winter and extensive precipitation in late spring and summer. Also, the rising trend of air temperature during spring and summer months since 1950s might explain the concurrent marked displacement of the two rock glaciers. Indeed, geotechnical investigations have provided strong indications that one of the investigated rock glacier fronts was at a marginally stable state prior to 2014. As rainfall events more intense than the one that occurred in August 2014 were previously recorded in the same area without resulting failures at the studied rock glaciers, we propose that both predisposing and preparatory destabilizing factors have played a key role in the 2014 rock glacier front failures.     

Nucleation and crystallization of otavite, witherite, calcite, strontianite, hydrozincite, and hydrocerussite by CO2 membrane diffusion technique

Otavite, witherite, calcite, strontianite, hydrozincite and hydrocerussite nucleation was induced by CO₂ diffusion through a polyethylene membrane into a metal bearing solution. Nucleation and ongoing precipitation was followed at 25 ± 1 °C by the chemical evolution of the solution and the consumption of sodium hydroxide (pH-stat conditions). X-ray diffraction patterns as well as FT-infrared and Raman spectra confirmed the formation of well crystallized solids, except for less crystalline hydrozincite. In several experiments simonkolleite and laurionite precipitated concurrently with hydrozincite and hydrocerussite. The carbonate end-member minerals, smithsonite and cerussite, however were not formed. Carbonate minerals crystallized as spherical aggregates of thin layered otavite, spherical orientated witherite needles, rhombohedral calcite, pseudo-hexagonal strontianite laths, fibrous lumps of hydrozincite and planar hexagonal hydrocerussite crystals. Crystal and aggregate sizes range between 1 and 100 μm. Nucleation occurred at well defined reaction times and distinct critical supersaturation indices (SI_crit). The time for nucleation at constant pH decreased as the initial metal concentration increased for a given solid. The SI_crit values decreased in the order of hydrocerussite (3.2), otavite (2.5), strontianite (1.6), witherite (0.9) and calcite (0.7).     

Random encounters in probabilistic time geography

Probabilistic time geography considers the encounter of moving agents to be random; therefore, a quantitative time geography analysis must consider the actual encounter probability. The existing algorithm of encounter probability is oriented over a discrete space and is sensitive to the unit definition of a virtual grid; thus, it is not suitable for continuous space. For this reason, a new method is presented in this paper for the encounter of two moving agents in continuous space. When the encounters are less than a specified distance threshold apart, an encounter event occurs based on the probability of the product, which is calculated by their respective probability density functions over their respective potential location areas. This probability provides a quantitative basis for predicting the likelihood of two agents meeting, as well as the location of this meeting point. Finally, the validity of the proposed model is verified by an experiment, which uses tracking data to calculate the encounter probabilities of three zebras and analyse the distribution characteristics of these probabilities over time and space.     

Sediment Distribution Around Glacially Abraded Bedrock Landforms (Whalebacks) at Lago Tranquilo, Chile

Whalebacks are convex landforms created by the smoothing of bedrock by glacial processes. Their formation is attributed to glacial abrasion either by bodies of subglacial sediment sliding over bedrock or by individual clasts contained within ice. This paper reports field measurements of sediment depth around two whaleback landforms in order to investigate the relationship between glacigenic deposits and whaleback formation. The study site, at Lago Tranquilo in Chilean Patagonia, is situated within the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ice limits. The two whalebacks are separated by intervening depressions in which sediment depths are generally 0.2 to 0.3 m. Two facies occur on and around the whalebacks. These facies are: (1) angular gravel found only on the surface of the whalebacks, interpreted as bedrock fracturing in response to unloading of the rock following pressure release after ice recession, and (2) sandy boulder‐gravel in the sediment‐filled depressions between the two whalebacks, interpreted as an ice‐marginal deposit, with a mixture of sediment types including basal glacial and glaciofluvial sediment. Since the whalebacks have heavily abraded and striated surfaces but are surrounded by only a patchy and discontinuous layer of sediment, the implication is that surface abrasion of the whalebacks was achieved primarily by clasts entrained in basal ice, not by subglacial till sliding.     

Diachronous isotopic and sedimentary responses to topographic change as indicators of mid‐Eocene hydrologic reorganization in the western United States

Early Cenozoic terrestrial deposits in the western United States represent well‐preserved archives of climatic and tectonic processes that together shaped the Earth's surface during the demise of a large continental plateau. This study examines a Cenozoic terrestrial sedimentary sequence in the central part of the Cordilleran orogen (Montana) using sedimentologic and geochemical techniques. At ～49 Ma, we observe rapid major shifts in oxygen, carbon and strontium isotope records that are too large to directly reflect changes in meteoric water composition due to simple orographic rainout. The transition to low‐δ¹⁸O values in pedogenic carbonate in concert with changes in the composition of clastic material at ～49 Ma points to the input of evolved meteoric water to the hydrological cycle due to a change in the source of waters reaching Cordilleran intermontane regions in southwestern Montana. This drainage reorganization coincides with the initiation of magmatism and extension to the west in what is now Montana and Idaho. The sedimentological record shows evidence that depositional gradients increased in the study area ～46 Ma, ～3 Myr after the drainage reorganization occurred. This interval is most likely the time it took for extensional deformation to propagate to the study area itself. Evidence of freshening events in Laramide Basins to the southeast suggests that this drainage reorganization diverted waters to progressively fill these basins and highlights the impact of post‐plateau extension‐related landscape reorganization on river networks and lake dynamics. This study also emphasizes the importance of using multiple tools in deciphering topographic history through the study of terrestrial basin deposits, in that interpretation based on any single method employed would have compromised our ability to successfully identify the regional evolution of topography and drainage networks.     

Social–ecological memory in urban gardens—Retaining the capacity for management of ecosystem services

Many ecosystem services are in decline. Local ecological knowledge and associated practice are essential to sustain and enhance ecosystem services on the ground. Here, we focus on social or collective memory in relation to management practice that sustains ecosystem services, and investigate where and how ecological practices, knowledge and experience are retained and transmitted. We analyze such social–ecological memory of allotment gardens in the Stockholm urban area, Sweden. Allotment gardens support ecosystem services such as pollination, seed dispersal and pest regulation in the broader urban landscape. Surveys and interviews were preformed over a four-year period with several hundreds of gardeners. We found that the allotment gardens function as communities-of-practice, where participation and reification interact and social–ecological memory is a shared source of resilience of the community by being both emergent and persistent. Ecological practices and knowledge in allotment gardens are retained and transmitted by imitation of practices, oral communication and collective rituals and habits, as well as by the physical gardens, artifacts, metaphors and rules-in-use (institutions). Finally, a wider social context provides external support through various forms of media, markets, social networks, collaborative organizations, and legal structures. We exemplify the role of urban gardens in generating ecosystem services in times of crisis and change and conclude that stewards of urban green areas and the social memory that they carry may help counteract further decline of critical ecosystem services.