The effect of lithology on valley width,terrace distribution,and bedload provenance in a tectonically stable catchment with flat‐lying stratigraphy

How rock resistance or erodibility affects fluvial landforms and processes is an outstanding question in geomorphology that has recently garnered attention owing to the recognition that the erosion rates of bedrock channels largely set the pace of landscape evolution. In this work, we evaluate valley width, terrace distribution, and bedload provenance in terms of reach scale variation in lithology in the study reach and discuss the implications for landscape evolution in a catchment with relatively flat‐lying stratigraphy and very little uplift. A reach of the Buffalo National River in Arkansas was partitioned into lithologic reaches and the mechanical and chemical resistance of the main lithologies making up the catchment was measured. Valley width and the spatial distribution of terraces were compared among the different lithologic reaches. The surface grain size and provenance of coarse (2–90 mm) sediment of both modern gravel bars and older terrace deposits that make up the former bedload were measured and defined. The results demonstrate a strong impact of lithology upon valley width, terrace distribution, and bedload provenance and therefore, upon landscape evolution processes. Channel down‐cutting through different lithologies creates variable patterns of resistance across catchments and continents. Particularly in post‐tectonic and non‐tectonic landscapes, the variation in resistance that arises from the exhumation of different rocks in channel longitudinal profiles can impact local base levels, initiating responses that can be propagated through channel networks. The rate at which that response is transmitted through channels is potentially amplified and/or mitigated by differences between the resistance of channel beds and bedload sediment loads. In the study reach, variation in lithologic resistance influences the prevalence of lateral and vertical processes, thus producing a spatial pattern of terraces that reflects rock type rather than climate, regional base level change, or hydrologic variability. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

奥地利Gosau群Bibereck组Campanian早期海水变深序列的地层学和地球化学

Schmidsippl剖面位于奥地利北钙质阿尔卑斯构造带内Gosau群典型地区。剖面出露的Bibereck组记录了一个海侵和沉积区海水变深过程。Bibereck 组之下是Santonian 晚期Hochmoos 组(Sandkalkbank段),主要为砂质、粉砂质灰色生物扰动构造发育的泥灰岩,含少量双壳类碎片。Hochmoos组之上为灰色泥灰岩和泥灰质灰岩。Bibereck组下部显示变深到近滨-远滨过渡带区域;向上,泥灰岩指示细粒泥质远滨沉积,水深大致50~150 m;之上出现浮游有孔虫含量超过90%的泥灰质灰岩,代表着半深海沉积环境。生物地层数据显示采样层位整体位于浮游有孔虫asymetrica elevata 带,由Globotruncanita elevata 和Dicarinellaasymetrica 的共同出现来界定。钙质超微化石Calculites obscurus、Lucianorhabdus cayeuxii、Arkhangelsk iella cymbiformis 的出现指示属于钙质超微化石带CC17b/UC12,相当于Campanian初期。地层深度剖面上,Ca/Al比值和Catot含量显示海水来源的Ca在0~5 m地层内几近于零,向上快速增加;(Fe/Al)/碳酸盐显示两个峰值,代表更还原条件,分别位于4 m和10 m位置;K/Al比值的下降被解释为更潮湿气候条件;剖面上部Ba含量的增加显示向更低原始生产条件的变化;陆源矿物在剖面7 m以下保持稳定,之上一直到剖面顶部不断下降。生物地层     

Bathymetry of Molloy Deep: Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland

The sea floor of Fram Strait, the over 2500 m deep passage between the Arctic Ocean and the Norwegian-Greenland Sea, is part of a complex transform zone between the Knipovich mid-oceanic ridge of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea and the Nansen-Gakkel Ridge of the Arctic Ocean. Because linear magnetic anomalies formed by sea-floor spreading have not been found, the precise location of the boundary between the Eurasian and the North American plate is unknown in this region. Systematic surveying of Fram Strait with SEABEAM and high resolution seismic profiling began in 1984 and continued in 1985 and 1987, providing detailed morphology of the Fram Strait sea floor and permitting better definition of its morphotectonics. The 1984 survey presented in this paper provided a complete set of bathymetric data from the southernmost section of the Svalbard Transform, including the Molloy Fracture Zone, connecting the Knipovich Ridge to the Molloy Ridge; and the Molloy Deep, a nodal basin formed at the intersection of the Molloy Transform Fault and the Molloy Ridge. This nodal basin has a revised maximum depth of 5607 m water depth at 79°8.5N and 2°47E.     

Bioluminescence potential during polar night: impact of behavioral light sensitivity and water mass pathways

During polar nights of 2012 and 2017, bioluminescence (BL) potential surveys demonstrated high emissions at depths around and below 100 m at offshore stations to the north of a Svalbard fjord (Rijpfjorden). We demonstrated that the highest bioluminescent emissions for offshore stations are located at depths below depths of modelled/ambient light intensities corresponding to the reported irradiance thresholds for the behavioral light sensitivity of krill and copepods, and suggest that behavioral light sensitivity is one of the reasons for high values of BL potential observed below 100 m at offshore stations. In order to understand sources of bioluminescent taxa responsible for the observed high values of BL potential in offshore waters, we have investigated the origin and pathways of water masses circulating to the north, offshore of the fjord Rijpfjorden by using a hydrodynamic model. For both 2012 and 2017, the model water masses mostly originate from the west, where the Atlantic water is flowing northward, then along the shelf and shelf slope of northern Svalbard, and to the offshore of the fjord. This indicates that the advection of zooplankton by North Atlantic Water is one possible source of bioluminescent organisms offshore of northern Svalbard. In 2012, water masses also originated from the inflow through Hinlopen trench and strait, while, in 2017, the offshore water was advected and upwelled into the fjord on time scales less than 10 days, and after that there was a recirculation back from the fjord to offshore on time scales larger than 10 days. This recirculation from the fjord might be another source of bioluminescent organisms in the offshore waters.

     

Quantifying annual groundwater recharge and storage in the central Sierra Nevada using naturally occurring 35S

Identifying aquifer vulnerability to climate change is of vital importance in the Sierra Nevada and other snow‐dominated basins where groundwater systems are essential to water supply and ecosystem health. Quantifying the component of new (current year's) snowmelt in groundwater and surface water is useful in evaluating aquifer vulnerability because significant annual recharge may indicate that streamflow will respond rapidly to annual variability in precipitation, followed by more gradual decreases in recharge as recharge declines over decades. Hydrologic models and field‐based studies have indicated that young (<1 year) water is an important component of streamflow. The goal of this study was to utilize the short‐lived, naturally occurring cosmogenic isotope sulfur‐35 (³⁵S) to quantify new snowmelt contribution to groundwater and surface waters in Sagehen Creek Basin (SCB) and Martis Valley Groundwater Basin (MVGB) located within the Tertiary volcanics of the central Sierra Nevada, CA. Activities of ³⁵S were measured in dissolved sulfate (³⁵SO₄^2?) in SCB and MVGB snowpack, groundwater, springs, and streamflow. The percent of new snowmelt (PNS) in SCB streamflow ranged from 0.2 ± 6.6% during baseflow conditions to 14.0 ± 3.4% during high‐flow periods of snowmelt. Similar to SCB, the PNS in MVGB groundwater and streamflow was typically <30% with the largest fractions occurring in late spring or early summer following peak streamflow. The consistently low PNS suggests that a significant fraction of annual snowmelt in SCB and MVGB recharges groundwater, and groundwater contributions to streamflow in these systems have the potential to mitigate climate change impacts on runoff.     

Regional debris-flow and debris-flood frequency–magnitude relationships

Construction of frequency–magnitude (F–M) relationships of debris floods and debris flows is challenging because of few direct observations, discontinuous event occurrence, loss of field evidence, the difficulty of accessing the sediment archive and the challenge of finding suitable statistical methods to analyse the dataset. Consultants often face budget limitations that prohibit application of the full gamut of absolute dating methods, stratigraphic analysis and analytical tools necessary to fully resolve the F–M legacy. In some cases, F–M curves are needed for watersheds without local information, or where obtaining this information is prohibitively expensive. For such watersheds, the F–M relationship may be estimated where several F–M curves have already been assembled in a specific region. Individual F–M curves are normalized by fan area or fan volume, then stratified by process type and geomorphic activity level. This paper describes the development of regional F–M curves for debris flows in southwestern British Columbia and debris flows and debris floods in the Bow River valley near Canmore, Alberta. We apply the regional relationships to other cases in Canada and the United States and demonstrate that the method can be globalized. The regional approach is compared to cases where detailed F–M relationships have been established by other means. Strong negative deviations from the regional debris-flow or debris-flood magnitude trends could signal inherent watershed stability, while strong positive deviations could signal extraordinary landslide processes, or suggest that the fan may be largely of paraglacial origin. We highlight some of these outlying cases and develop a method whereby the regional curves can be meaningfully adjusted, or reliance can be placed on lower or upper confidence bounds of the F–M curves. We caution against the indiscriminate use of the regionally based F–M curves, especially in watersheds where multiple geomorphic processes are active. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reconstructing 4000 years of mass movement and tsunami history in a deep peri‐Alpine lake (Lake Geneva,France‐Switzerland)

The study of mass movements in lake sediments provides insights into past natural hazards at historic and prehistoric timescales. Sediments from the deep basin of Lake Geneva reveal a succession of six large‐scale (volumes of 22 × 10⁶ to 250 × 10⁶ m³) mass‐transport deposits, associated with five mass‐movement events within 2600 years (4000 cal bp to 563 ad ). The mass‐transport deposits result from: (i) lateral slope failures (mass‐transport deposit B at 3895 ± 225 cal bp and mass‐transport deposits A and C at 3683 ± 128 cal bp ); and (ii) Rhône delta collapses (mass‐transport deposits D to G dated at 2650 ± 150 cal bp , 2185 ± 85 cal bp , 1920 ± 120 cal bp and 563 ad , respectively). Mass‐transport deposits A and C were most probably triggered by an earthquake, whereas the Rhône delta collapses were likely to be due to sediment overload with a rockfall as the external trigger (mass‐transport deposit G, the Tauredunum event in 563 ad known from historical records), an earthquake (mass‐transport deposit E) or unknown external triggers (mass‐transport deposits D and F). Independent of their origin and trigger mechanisms, numerical simulations show that all of these recorded mass‐transport deposits are large enough to have generated at least metre‐scale tsunamis during mass movement initiation. Since the Tauredunum event in 563 ad , two small‐scale (volumes of 1 to 2 × 10⁶ m³) mass‐transport deposits (H and I) are present in the seismic record, both of which are associated with small lateral slope failures. Mass‐transport deposits H and I might be related to earthquakes in Lausanne/Geneva (possibly) 1322 ad and Aigle 1584 ad , respectively. The sedimentary record of the deep basin of Lake Geneva, in combination with the historical record, show that during the past 3695 years, at least six tsunamis were generated by mass movements, indicating that the tsunami hazard in the Lake Geneva region should not be neglected, although such events are not frequent with a recurrence time of 0·0016 yr^?1.