Seasonal trend of particulate PAHs at Gosan, a background site in Korea between 2001 and 2002 and major factors affecting their levels

The concentrations of particulate Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured at Gosan, a background site in Korea for 1 year between November 2001 and November 2002. The total concentrations of 14 PAH compounds at Gosan were between 0.52 and 14.76 ng m^− 3 and about 3–15 times higher than those at other rural or remote sites in the world. Seasonal trend was observed for particulate PAHs concentrations at Gosan with higher levels during heating season due to increased fossil fuel usage and the movement of air parcels from Asian continent. Principal component factor analysis (PCF) for PAHs showed three factors; combination of coal combustion and vehicular emission, natural gas combustion, and unidentified one. However, PCF for the combined data of PAHs, inorganic ions, and elements revealed that the unidentified factor consists of crustal species, sea salts, and four PAH compounds. Thus, this factor is thought to be transport of crustal species with organics from combustion sources. The major variables which determine the sources of PAHs are the heating season and the movement of air parcels from Asian continent.     

Fracture Toughness Measurements and Acoustic Emission Activity in Brittle Rocks

Fracture toughness measurements under static loading conditions have been carried out in Barre and Lac du Bonnet granites. An advanced AE technique has been adopted to monitor real-time crack initiation and propagation around the principal crack in these tests to understand the processes of brittle failure under tension and related characteristics of the resulting fracture process zone. The anisotropy of Mode I fracture toughness has been investigated along specific directions. Microcrack density and orientation analysis from thin section studies have shown these characteristics to be the primary cause of the observed variation in fracture toughness, which is seen to vary between 1.14 MPa.(m)^1/2 and 1.89 MPa.(m)^1/2 in Barre granite. The latter value represents the case in which the crack is propagated at right angles to the main set of microcracks. The creation of a significant fracture process zone surrounding the propagating main crack has been confirmed. Real-time imaging of the fracture process and formation of fracture process zone by AE techniques yielded results in very good agreement with those obtained by direct optical analysis.     

Quantifying Damage, Saturation and Anisotropy in Cracked Rocks by Inverting Elastic Wave Velocities

Crack damage results in a decrease of elastic wave velocities and in the development of anisotropy. Using non-interactive crack effective medium theory as a fundamental tool, we calculate dry and wet elastic properties of cracked rocks in terms of a crack density tensor, average crack aspect ratio and mean crack fabric orientation from the solid grains and fluid elastic properties. Using this same tool, we show that both the anisotropy and shear-wave splitting of elastic waves can be derived. Two simple crack distributions are considered for which the predicted anisotropy depends strongly on the saturation, reaching up to 60% in the dry case. Comparison with experimental data on two granites, a basalt and a marble, shows that the range of validity of the non-interactive effective medium theory model extends to a total crack density of approximately 0.5, considering symmetries up to orthorhombic. In the isotropic case, Kachanov's (1994) non-interactive effective medium model was used in order to invert elastic wave velocities and infer both crack density and aspect ratio evolutions. Inversions are stable and give coherent results in terms of crack density and aperture evolution. Crack density variations can be interpreted in terms of crack growth and/or changes of the crack surface contact areas as cracks are being closed or opened respectively. More importantly, the recovered evolution of aspect ratio shows an exponentially decreasing aspect ratio (and therefore aperture) with pressure, which has broader geophysical implications, in particular on fluid flow. The recovered evolution of aspect ratio is also consistent with current mechanical theories of crack closure. In the anisotropic cases—both transverse isotropic and orthorhombic symmetries were considered—anisotropy and saturation patterns were well reproduced by the modelling, and mean crack fabric orientations we recovered are consistent with in situ geophysical imaging. Our results point out that: (1) It is possible to predict damage, anisotropy and saturation in terms of a crack density tensor and mean crack aspect ratio and orientation; (2) using well constrained wave velocity data, it is possible to extrapolate the contemporaneous evolution of crack density, anisotropy and saturation using wave velocity inversion as a tool; 3) using such an inversion tool opens the door in linking elastic properties, variations to permeability.     

Forest fire ash impact on micro- and macroalgae in the receiving waters of the east coast of South Korea

Mountain forest fire ash flushed into the eastern coastal waters of South Korea is known to contain cadmium as one of its significant constituents. To study its impact, two representatives of the micro- and macroalgal communities, Ulva pertusa and Nannochloropsis oculata, were exposed to the concentration range of Cd indicated from the forest fire localities. At low concentrations of 0.224–0.448 mg L⁻¹, a 20% reduction in growth rate of N. oculata was observed. Chlorophyll a pigment concentration was proportionate to the growth reduction while at higher concentrations (1.792 mg L⁻¹) pigments were completely leached. In the macrophyte U. pertusa, a similar trend of pigment leaching was observed. Bioaccumulation factors obtained for these rapidly growing algal species revealed excessive bioconcentration of Cd. Variations in the concentration of Cd among the samples collected along the Korean coast clearly indicated the additional source of metal influx from the forest fires.     

Near-infrared imaging polarimetry of Cygnus A

We present a 2.2-μm polarization image of the nuclear regions of Cygnus A. The degree of polarization in the central 1 arcsec is (4.1±0.50) per cent, at a position angle of (23.6±3.6)°, approximately perpendicular to the axis of the radio jet.
Modelling of the results suggests that at this wavelength the polarization along the line of sight to the central source is most likely produced by dichroism, through an A _v∼40 mag, with the polarization in surrounding regions produced by scattering. For this model, the K -band luminosity of the central source is calculated to be ∼2×10⁴⁴ erg s⁻¹.     

Use of obliquely rotated principal component analysis to identify coherent structures

Principal component analysis (PCA) with oblique rotation is applied to Large Eddy Simulation (LES) results to discern and quantify coherent structures within the convective boundary layer (CBL). Sensitivity tests are first conducted on a moderately convective LES run. Once the ability of PCA to generate robust results is verified, the method is applied to LES runs spanning a range of stability regimes. Interregime similarities and differences in the coherent structures are discussed. For the moderately convective LES run, three-dimensional convective cells are arrayed in two-dimensional bands aligned with the geostrophic wind. The resulting gravity waves in the free atmosphere and convective inflow and outflow in the boundary layer are also captured by the PCA. Convective modes are more sensitive to the ratio of w _* to u _* than are the dynamic modes.PCA has demonstrated advantages over previous analysis methods. PCA score maps provide information on the spatial distribution of phenomena that has not been available from traditional conditional sampling studies. Principal components provide information on the vertical structures of phenomena that would be obscured by life-cycle effects or erratic tilts from the vertical in the conventional approaches to either conditional sampling or composite analysis. Future work includes application of this technique to multi-level observational time series from a surface-layer tower for the Risø Air/Sea Experiment (RASEX).     

IGU commission on geographical education

IGU-Reports

IGU commission on geographical education     

IGU commission on geographical education

IGU Reports

IGU commission on geographical educationNewsletter 16 (abridged by GeoJournal)     

Comparison of thermoluminescence and radiocarbon age-determinations from late-pleistocene alluvial deposits near Sydney, Australia

Radiocarbon and thermoluminescence (TL) age-determinations have been obtained for a large Pleistocene alluvial terrace on the Nepean River near Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The deposit was laid down by a braided river system prior to the last glacial maximum. Six thoroughly pretreated samples of charcoal and degraded wood buried within gravels at the base of the terrace yielded apparent ¹⁴C ages of 37,000–42,000 yr B.P. These compare favorably with four TL determinations that gave apparent ages of 41,000–47,000 yr B.P. for the same deposit. Adjustment of the ¹⁴C ages to take geomagnetic effects into account further improves the correlation between these two independent dating techniques. In addition, ¹⁴C and TL correctly identified a reworked portion of the fine-grained alluvial overburden as being substantially younger than the main body of the terrace. These results augur well for the usefulness of TL age determinations of certain alluvial deposits.