A mechanism for the exploding granule phenomenon

I suggest that the exploding granule phenomenon is a consequence of the observed internal granular motions and the conservation of angular momentum. When a granule rising from the convection zone penetrates into the overlying stable region it is stretched out horizontally. Conservation of angular momentum in the internal motions changes its form into a vortex ring. A time sequence of photographs showing an exploding solar granule is described. The proposed mechanism is illustrated by a laboratory simulation and a numerical calculation.     

Interference in solar oscillations

We have analyzed magnetograph observations of the 5-min oscillations. We find that most of the oscillatory power is concentrated in space and frequency. Interference effects where these concentrations overlap can explain some of the variations in amplitude of the oscillation.Of the National Bureau of Standards and University of Colorado.     

MAJOR ELEMENT COMPOSITIONAL VARIATION WITHIN AND BETWEEN DIFFERENT LATE EOCENE MICROTEKTITE STREWNFIELDS

Major element compositional overlap exists between microspherules of different microtektite layers or strewnfields. For this reason, microspherules of similar composition cannot, a priori, be assumed to belong to the same microtektite event and those of different compositions cannot, a priori, be assumed to result from different events. Nevertheless, despite major element compositional overlap between microspherules of different strewnfields, multivariate factor analysis shows microtektites and related microspherules of three stratigraphically different late Eocene layers to follow recognizably different compositional trends. The microtektite population of the North American strewnfield (Globorotalia cerroazulensis Zone) follows compositionally well defined trends and is characterized by high concentrations of SiO₂, Al₂O₃, and TiO₂. The microspherule population of the slightly older crystal-bearing Globorotalia cerroazulensis Zone microspherule layer is more heterogeneous and characterized by microspherules which are relatively enriched in FeO and MgO and relatively impoverished in SiO₂ and TiO₂. The microspherule population of the oldest microspherule layer in the uppermost Globigerapsis semiinvoluta Zone is highly heterogeneous and characterized by microspherules which are relatively enriched in CaO and impoverished in Al₂O₃ and Na₂O. Individual microspherules of this oldest late Eocene horizon often exhibit major element compositions similar to those of the lower Gl. cerroazulensis Zone layer and occasionally exhibit major element compositions similar to North American layer microtektites. Nevertheless, late Eocene microspherule occurrences can be assigned to appropriate late Eocene microtektite horizons on the basis of major element compositional trends.     

Enter the working forest: Discourse analysis in the Northern Forest

In 1988, four states in the northeastern USA commissioned a study to address land use changes in the Northern Forest, 26 million acres of temperate and boreal forest extending from Maine to eastern New York State. Against a backdrop of economic destabilization and concerns regarding social and ecological implications of a real estate boom, the sustained deliberative dialogue catalyzed by this study has come to rely heavily on the ambiguous concept of “working forest.” To clarify political and environmental dynamics in the region, we analyzed how people respond to and seek to capitalize on the interpretive flexibility of the term working forest. We combine an analysis of socio-political discourses of working forest based on a structured literature review with an assessment of local peoples’ definitions of working forest based on a survey conducted in a pair of contrasting New York State communities. The first study site represents an amenity-oriented community (i.e. a place where the forest supports a service economy including recreation and tourism) and the other study site represents a timber-dependent community. By linking data from community-level analysis to data derived from a general analysis of forest politics, we seek to develop a more robust perspective. By comparing discourses across differently structured communities, we investigate how local forest politics are mediated by local economic development processes. Our study empirically illustrates contested and geographically uneven processes of social construction of environment and rural development in a region confronting pressures of globalization. Results indicate that timber harvesting is a heavily privileged management objective, as a logic of ‘the forest that pays is the forest that stays’ dominates. Environmental politics in the region, and perhaps more generally, increasingly conforms to a form of pragmatism in which economic opportunities structure conservation planning and investment.     

Detection and Analysis of Near-Surface Explosions on the Kola Peninsula

Seismic and infrasonic observations of signals from a sequence of near-surface explosions at a site on the Kola Peninsula have been analyzed. NORSAR’s automatic network processing of these events shows a significant scatter in the location estimates and, to improve the automatic classification of the events, we have performed full waveform cross-correlation on the data set. Although the signals from the different events share many characteristics, the waveforms do not exhibit a ripple-for-ripple correspondence and cross-correlation does not result in the classic delta-function indicative of repeating signals. Using recordings from the ARCES seismic array (250 km W of the events), we find that a correlation detector on a single channel or three-component station would not be able to detect subsequent events from this source without an unacceptable false alarm rate. However, performing the correlation on each channel of the full ARCES array, and stacking the resulting traces, generates a correlation detection statistic with a suppressed background level which is exceeded by many times its standard deviation on only very few occasions. Performing f-k analysis on the individual correlation coefficient traces, and rejecting detections indicating a non-zero slowness vector, results in a detection list with essentially no false alarms. Applying the algorithm to 8 years of continuous ARCES data identified over 350 events which we confidently assign to this sequence. The large event population provides additional confidence in relative travel-time estimates and this, together with the occurrence of many events between 2002 and 2004 when a temporary network was deployed in the region, reduces the variability in location estimates. The best seismic location estimate, incorporating phase information for many hundreds of events, is consistent with backazimuth measurements for infrasound arrivals at several stations at regional distances. At Lycksele, 800 km SW of the events, as well as at ARCES, infrasound is detected for most of the events in the summer and for few in the winter. At Apatity, some 230 km S of the estimated source location, infrasound is detected for most events. As a first step to providing a Ground Truth database for this useful source of infrasound, we provide the times of explosions for over 50 events spanning 1 year.     

Late Tertiary paleoclimatic interpretation from lacustrine rhythmites in the Gray Fossil Site,northeastern Tennessee,USA

The Gray Fossil Site (GFS) includes a small (<2 ha) paleosinkhole lake fill with an exceptionally well-preserved record of sedimentation and fossils from the latest Miocene to earliest Pliocene. The uppermost lacustrine stratigraphy is characterized by rhythmites that regularly alternate between coarse-grained and organic-rich (A) laminae and fine-grained, silty clay (B) laminae. Both the A and B components are almost exclusively comprised of exogenic sediment (including organic matter). Periodicities of 24 and 4.4 are recorded within a continuous 96 interpreted year sequence of rhythmite sediment. In a small lake with a poorly oxygenated bottom, the presence of laterally continuous laminated sediment that includes well-known periodicities in rhythmite thickness is interpreted as representing annually generated varves that correspond to seasonal variations in sedimentation. The distinctly larger fraction of medium sand-size quartz grains present within the A laminae, as well as the abrupt transitions between A and B components suggest that the rhythmites represent deposition during alternating high-energy and lower-energy seasons, which is consistent with a monsoonal precipitation pattern. The seasonal climate may relate to changes in the ocean circulation pattern prior to 4.6 Ma that resulted in an increased temperature and atmospheric pressure gradient between the east coast of North America and the Atlantic Ocean, but this climate phase seems to be only a temporary condition, as underlying and overlying sediment are both consistent with drier conditions. The periodicity at 24 interpreted years is consistent with the well-known Hale solar cycle. The 4.4 interpreted-year periodicity occurs within the ENSO frequency band, and if this documentation of ENSO-like interannual climate change is correct, then it suggests that ENSO operated at times during the warm Earth conditions characterizing the late Tertiary.     

Dynamic modelling of passive margin salt tectonics: effects of water loading, sediment properties and sedimentation patterns

We investigate the evolution of passive continental margin sedimentary basins that contain salt through two‐dimensional (2D) analytical failure analysis and plane‐strain finite‐element modelling. We expand an earlier analytical failure analysis of a sedimentary basin/salt system at a passive continental margin to include the effects of submarine water loading and pore fluid pressure. Seaward thinning sediments above a weak salt layer produce a pressure gradient that induces Poiseuille flow in the viscous salt. We determine the circumstances under which failure at the head and toe of the frictional–plastic sediment wedge occurs, resulting in translation of the wedge, landward extension and seaward contraction, accompanied by Couette flow in the underlying salt. The effects of water: (i) increase solid and fluid pressures in the sediments; (ii) reduce the head to toe differential pressure in the salt and (iii) act as a buttress to oppose failure and translation of the sediment wedge. The magnitude of the translation velocity upon failure is reduced by the effects of water. The subsequent deformation is investigated using a 2D finite‐element model that includes the effects of the submarine setting and hydrostatic pore pressures. The model quantitatively simulates a 2D approximation of the evolution of natural sedimentary basins on continental margins that are formed above salt. Sediment progradation above a viscous salt layer results in formation of landward extensional basins and listric normal growth faults as well as seaward contraction. At a later stage, an allochthonous salt nappe overthrusts the autochthonous limit of the salt. The nature and distribution of major structures depends on the sediment properties and the sedimentation pattern. Strain weakening of sediment favours landward listric growth faults with formation of asymmetric extensional depocentres. Episodes of low sediment influx, with partial infill of depocentres, produce local pressure gradients in the salt that result in diapirism. Diapirs grow passively during sediment aggradation.