Pennsylvanian carbonate platforms adjacent to deltaic systems in an active marine foreland basin (Escalada Fm., Cantabrian Zone,NW Spain)

The Pennsylvanian marine foreland basin of the Cantabrian Zone (NW Spain) is characterized by the unique development of kilometre‐size and hundred‐metre‐thick carbonate platforms adjacent to deltaic systems. During Moscovian time, progradational clastic wedges fed by the orogen comprised proximal alluvial conglomerates and coal‐bearing deltaic sequences to distal shelfal marine deposits associated with carbonate platforms (Escalada Fm.) and distal clay‐rich submarine slopes. A first phase of carbonate platform development (Escalada I, upper Kashirian‐lower Podolskian) reached a thickness of 400 m, nearly 50 km in width and developed a distal high‐relief margin facing a starved basin, nearly 1000‐m deep. Carbonate slope clinoforms dipped up to 30° and consisted of in situ microbial boundstone, pinching out downslope into calciturbidites, argillaceous spiculites and breccias. The second carbonate platform (Escalada II, upper Podolskian‐lower Myachkovian) developed beyond the previous platform margin, following the basinward progradation of siliciclastic deposits. Both carbonate platforms include: (1) a lower part composed of siliciclastic‐carbonate cyclothems characterized by coated‐grain and ooid grainstones; and (2) a carbonate‐dominated upper part, composed of tabular and mound‐shaped wackestone and algal‐microbial boundstone strata alternating at the decametre scale with skeletal and coated‐grain grainstone beds. Carbonate platforms initiated in distal sectors of the foreland marine shelf during transgressions, when terrigenous sediments were stored in the proximal part, and developed further during highstands of 3rd‐order sequences in a high‐subsidence context. During the falling stage and lowstand systems tracts, deltaic systems prograded across the shelf burying the carbonate platforms. Key factors involved in the development of these unique carbonate platforms in an active foreland basin are: (1) the large size of the marine shelf (approaching 200 km in width); (2) the subsidence distribution pattern across the marine shelf, decreasing from proximal shoreline to distal sectors; (3) Pennsylvanian glacio‐eustacy affecting carbonate lithofacies architecture; and (4) the environmental conditions optimal for fostering microbial and algal carbonate factories.     

Estimating australian forest fire danger under conditions of doubled carbon dioxide concentrations

The most appropriate indices with which to quantify Australian bushfire danger are the McArthur fire danger meters. These meters use meteorological information to produce a fire danger index that is directly related to the chance of a fire starting - and to the severity of a fire once it has started. The Mark 5 forest-fire danger meter uses air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed, plus a drought factor that is calculated using daily rainfall and temperature information.Three years of daily data generated from the CSIRO four-level general circulation model, and thirty years of daily data generated from the CSIRO nine-level model were used to estimate the daily McArthur forest fire danger index for simulations corresponding to present conditions, and to those corresponding to doubled atmospheric CO₂. The performance of these models with respect to fire danger was tested by comparing the fire danger index for Sale (in the Eastern part of Victoria, South-eastern Australia) calculated from analysis of daily climatological data with the modelled annual cumulative forest fire danger index for the grid point that was representative of Sale. Data from both models for all Australian grid points were also examined. Both models predict an increase in fire danger over much of Australia for their doubled CO₂ scenarios.The results from the models confirm that annually averaged daily relative humidity is the single most important variable in the estimation of forest fire danger on an annual basis, yet the models tend to produce relative humidities that are slightly too low so that the fire danger is overestimated. A simple one-box model of evaporation indicates that the value of relative humidity to be expected under an altered climatic regime depends on the modelled relation between actual and potential evaporation, the present values of relative humidity and evaporation rate, as well as on the expected changes in wind speed.     

Sources and variability of CO2 in a prealpine stream gravel bar

Gravel bars (GBs) contribute to carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from stream corridors, with CO₂ concentrations and emissions dependent on prevailing hydraulic, biochemical, and physicochemical conditions. We investigated CO₂ concentrations and fluxes across a GB in a prealpine stream over three different discharge‐temperature conditions. By combining field data with a reactive transport groundwater model, we were able to differentiate the most relevant hydrological and biogeochemical processes contributing to CO₂ dynamics. GB CO₂ concentrations showed significant spatial and temporal variability and were highest under the lowest flow and highest temperature conditions. Further, observed GB surface CO₂ evasion fluxes, measured CO₂ concentrations, and modelled aerobic respiration were highest at the tail of the GB over all conditions. Modelled CO₂ transport via streamwater downwelling contributed the largest fraction of the measured GB CO₂ concentrations (31% to 48%). This contribution increased its relative share at higher discharges as a result of a decrease in other sources. Also, it decreased from the GB head to tail across all discharge‐temperature conditions. Aerobic respiration accounted for 17% to 36% of measured surface CO₂ concentrations. Zoobenthic respiration was estimated to contribute between 4% and 8%, and direct groundwater CO₂ inputs 1% to 23%. Unexplained residuals accounted for 6% to 37% of the observed CO₂ concentrations at the GB surface. Overall, we highlight the dynamic role of subsurface aerobic respiration as a driver of spatial and temporal variability of CO₂ concentrations and evasion fluxes from a GB. As hydrological regimes in prealpine streams are predicted to change following climatic change, we propose that warming temperatures combined with extended periods of low flow will lead to increased CO₂ release via enhanced aerobic respiration in newly exposed GBs in prealpine stream corridors.     

Preliminary Analysis of V and Hp Light Curves of 26 Carbon Miras

Light variations of a representative sample of 26 more or less periodically variable carbon stars were analyzed on the basis of 2220 individual observations made by the Hipparcos satellite and 33 544 visual observations listed in AFOEV and VSOLJ databases within the interval JD = 2 448 000 (1988) ±6 cycles. We found the osculating linear ephemerides of all stars and their mean light curves, as well. We found that the light curves of the carbon Miras in our set can be satisfactorily expressed as a linear combination of only two basic light curves. The analysis was done by an own method combining robust regression and principal component analysis.     

Bryozoan event from Middle Miocene (Early Badenian) lower neritic sediments from the locality Kralice nad Oslavou (Central Paratethys,Moravian part of the Carpathian Foredeep)

Fossil Bryozoa occurs usually in shallow-water environments. One of the rare deep-water associations of Bryozoa has been studied in a profile at Kralice nad Oslavou. According to studies of foraminifera, the paleodepth was more than 150 m and less than 500 m. The bryozoan assemblages are poor, consisting of four species only, dominated by Tervia irregularis (Cyclostomatida) and Reteporella kralicensis sp.n. (Cheilostomatida), a new species being described in detail.     

Floodplain sediments of the 2002 catastrophic flood at the Vltava (Moldau) River and its tributaries: mineralogy,chemical composition,and post-sedimentary evolution

Fine-grained floodplain sediments of the catastrophic 2002 flood deposited along the lower reaches of the Berounka and Vltava Rivers, Czech Republic, were not highly contaminated with heavy metals and other toxic elements. This is due to the dominantly mineral character of the sediments (C_tot in the range 3.97–5.01%, relatively low content of clay minerals), and due to the very high degree of contamination dilution by eroded pre-industrial non-contaminated floodplain sediments. Despite this high degree of dilution, the influence of the small Litavka River, draining the historical Pb–Zn–Ag Příbram ore region, is well visible. The Litavka River is one of important sources of Pb and Zn contamination in the whole Berounka–Vltava–Labe river system. The 2002 flood sediments deposited in the floodplain of the Berounka and Vltava Rivers show poor vertical chemical zoning, except for some components enriched in the uppermost layer by precipitation from evaporated pore-water contained in the mud, i.e. secondary carbonate. The content of C_carb of the sediments (0.05–0.15%) is partly represented by this secondary carbonate, which is later leached by rainwater, and partly by fragments of river mollusk shells. A majority of the heavy metals contained in sediments can be readily leached by diluted acids, and to a much smaller degree by rainwater.     

Facies analyses and volcanic setting of the giant Neves Corvo massive sulfide deposit,Iberian Pyrite Belt,Portugal

In the Iberian Pyrite Belt, volcanic rocks are relatively scarce, accounting for approximately only 25% of the geologic record, with the remaining 75% consisting of sedimentary units. This association is very clear in the host succession to the Neves Corvo massive sulfide deposit in Portugal. The Neves Corvo host succession comprises the products of explosive and effusive rhyolitic eruptions intercalated with mudstone that records a submarine below-wave-base environment and provides precise biostratigraphic age constraints. The first and second volcanic events involved eruptions at local intrabasinal vents. The first event generated thick beds of fiamme breccia that are late Famennian in age. The fiamme were originally pumice clasts produced by explosive eruptions and were subsequently compacted. The second event was the late Strunian (latest Famennian) effusion of rhyolitic lava that was pervasively quench-fragmented. The third and final event is younger than the massive sulfide deposits poorly represented in the mine area and minor compared with the two other events. The integration of biostratigraphic data with the volcanic facies architecture indicates that the Neves Corvo ore deposits are similar in age to the late Strunian rhyolitic lava. Although regionally the Iberian Pyrite Belt is essentially a sedimentary succession, ore formation at Neves Corvo can be closely linked to discrete volcanic events that produced a relatively narrow range of volcanic facies.     

Testing spatial heterogeneity in geographically weighted principal components analysis

We propose a method to evaluate the existence of spatial variability in the covariance structure in a geographically weighted principal components analysis (GWPCA). The method, that is extensive to locally weighted principal components analysis, is based on performing a statistical hypothesis test using the eigenvectors of the PCA scores covariance matrix. The application of the method to simulated data shows that it has a greater statistical power than the current statistical test that uses the eigenvalues of the raw data covariance matrix. Finally, the method was applied to a real problem whose objective is to find spatial distribution patterns in a set of soil pollutants. The results show the utility of GWPCA versus PCA.