Modelling discharge through artesian springs based on a high‐resolution piezometric network

Artesian springs are localized aquifer outlets that originate when pressurized ground water is allowed to rise to the surface. Computing artesian discharge directly is often subject to practical difficulties such as restricted accessibility, abundant vegetation or slow flow rates. These circumstances call for indirect approaches to quantify flow. This paper presents a method to estimate ground water discharge through an upwelling spring by means of a three‐layer steady‐state groundwater flow model. Model inputs include on‐site measurements of vertical sediment permeability, sediment temperatures and hydraulic gradients. About 70 spring bed piezometers were used to carry out permeability tests within the spring sediments, as well as to quantify the hydraulic head at different depths below the discharge point. Sediment temperatures were measured at different depths and correlated to permeabilities in order to demonstrate the potential of temperature as a substitute for cumbersome slug tests. Results show that the spatial distribution of discharge through the spring bottom is highly heterogeneous, as sediment permeability varies by several orders of magnitude within centimetres. Sensitivity analyses imply that geostatistical interpolation is irrelevant to the results if field datasets come from a sufficiently high resolution of piezometric records. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Alpine paleostress reconstruction and active faulting in Western Iberia

The study of intraplate tectonics is crucial for understanding the deformation within plates, far from active plate boundaries and associated stress transmission to the plate interiors. This paper examines the tectonic evolution of the Variscan basement at the western margin of the Cenozoic Duero basin. Located east of the Vilariça Fault System in NW Iberia, this intraplate zone is a relatively flat but elevated area with an intense NNE-SSW trending fault system and associated moderate seismicity. Although the area has played an important role in the Duero basin configuration, its Alpine to present-day tectonic evolution has not been well constrained. In order to characterize the successive paleostress fields, 1428 pairs of fault-striae were measured at 56 sites and two focal mechanisms were used. Stress inversion methods have been applied to analyze paleostress regimes. Results show the existence of three dominant maximum horizontal stress (Shmax) trends: N-S, NE-SW and E-W. Relative and absolute dating of the activated faults for each Shmax shows that the clearly predominant N-S paleostress field in the zone has been active since the Oligocene up to the present day; while a NE-SW stress field is found to have been active during the Cretaceous and an older E-W paleostress field was active in the earlier Alpine cycle (Late Triassic).     

Estimating Intrinsic Formation Constants of Mineral Surface Species Using a Genetic Algorithm

The application of a powerful evolutionary optimization technique for the estimation of intrinsic formation constants describing geologically relevant adsorption reactions at mineral surfaces is introduced. We illustrate the optimization power of a simple Genetic Algorithm (GA) for forward (aqueous chemical speciation calculations) and inverse (calibration of Surface Complexation Models, SCMs) modeling problems of varying degrees of complexity, including problems where conventional deterministic derivative-based root-finding techniques such as Newton–Raphson, implemented in popular programs such as FITEQL, fail to converge or yield poor data fits upon convergence. Subject to sound a priori physical–chemical constraints, adequate solution encoding schemes, and simple GA operators, the GA conducts an exhaustive probabilistic search in a broad solution space and finds a suitable solution regardless of the input values and without requiring sophisticated GA implementations (e.g., advanced GA operators, parallel genetic programming). The drawback of the GA approach is the large number of iterations that must be performed to obtain a satisfactory solution. Nevertheless, for computationally demanding problems, the efficiency of the optimization can be greatly improved by combining heuristic GA optimization with the Newton–Raphson approach to exploit the power of deterministic techniques after the evolutionary-driven set of potential solutions has reached a suitable level of numerical viability. Despite the computational requirements of the GA, its robustness, flexibility, and simplicity make it a very powerful, alternative tool for the calibration of SCMs, a critical step in the generation of a reliable thermodynamic database describing adsorption equilibria. The latter is fundamental to the forward modeling of the adsorption behavior of minerals and geologically based adsorbents in hydro-geological settings (e.g., aquifers, pore waters, water basins) and/or in engineered reactors (e.g., mining, hazardous waste disposal industries).     

Using Argo data to investigate the Meridional Overturning Circulation in the North Atlantic

Using a variety of oceanographic data, including direct volume transports in the Florida Strait, and Argo float profiles and drift velocities at 24°N and 36°N in the North Atlantic, inverse calculations are presented in which the net meridional transport, down to a depth of approximately 1600 m, is estimated at both latitudes for a 5-year period 2003–2007. The upper ocean is divided into seven layers using neutral density, and mass conservation constraints have been applied to a closed box bounded by these latitudes, including the Florida Strait. Ekman layer transports have been included in the top-most layer, and the inverse calculation has solved for changes from the initial reference velocities, Ekman and Florida Strait transports, given a priori estimates on the accuracy of each of these quantities. Solutions with and without transformations due to Mediterranean Water (MW) formation are made. Our results indicate that (1) time-averaged transport estimates derived from Argo have significant less eddy noise than individual hydrographic sections, (2) Argo drift velocities provide information to the inverse solution for the ocean interior, and (3) comparison of the total integrated interior mass transports in the thermocline waters for the period 2003–2007 with the previous estimates based on trans-ocean hydrographic sections shows that, within the errors of our estimation, the upper limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation has not significantly changed since 1957.     

The Canary Eddy Corridor: A major pathway for long-lived eddies in the subtropical North Atlantic

We report, from remote sensing and in situ observations, a new type of permanent structure in the eastern subtropical Atlantic Ocean, that we call the “Canary Eddy Corridor”. The phenomenon, is a zonal long-lived (>3 months) mesoscale eddy corridor, whose source is the flow perturbation of the Canary Current and the Trade Winds at the Canary Islands. The latitudinal range of the corridor spans 22°N–29°N and extends from the Canaries to at least 32ºW, near the mid-Atlantic. This is the main region of long-lived westward-propagating eddies in the subtropical northeast Atlantic. From a age-distribution study we observe that at least 10% of mesoscale eddies in this region are long-lived, with a dominance of anticyclones over cyclones. Another four westward-propagating eddy corridors were also detected: two small corridors north and south of the Azores Front; a small zonal corridor located near 31ºN, south of the island of Madeira; and a small corridor located near the Cape Blanc giant filament. The existence of these corridors may change, at least for the northeastern subtropical Atlantic, the general idea that mesoscale eddies are disorganized, ubiquitous structures in the ocean. The Canary Eddy Corridor constitutes a direct zonal pathway that conveys water mass- and biogeochemical properties offshore from the Canary Island/Northwest Africa upwelling system, and may be seen as a recurrent offshore pump of organic matter and carbon to the oligotrophic ocean interior. Estimates of volume and mass transport indicate that Canary Eddy Corridor westward transport is more than one-fourth of the southward transport of the Canary Current. The westward transport of kinetic energy by the eddies of the Canary Corridor is as important as the southward transport by the Canary Current. The total primary production related to the Corridor may be as high as the total primary production of the northwest Africa upwelling system for the same latitude range.     

Hydrological and geomorphological criteria to evaluate the dispersion risk of waste sludge generated by the Aznalcollar mine spill (SW Spain)

Following the Aznalcóllar pyrite mine disaster (Seville, Spain) which caused the spilling of some 4.5?hm³ of acid water, the floodplains of the rivers Agrio and Guadiamar were rapidly cleaned of waste sludge. However, despite the efficiency of cleaning activities, there is still evidence of a fine superficial layer of sludge and some soil contamination, with the consequent risk of remobilisation of the pollutants by water erosion. There is much concern that these contaminated sediments may affect the precious ecosystems of the Doñana National Park and the Guadalquivir marshlands. This report describes the evaluation of the risk of mobilisation of the waste sludge through (1) detailed geomorphological analysis, indicating potential areas of erosion-sedimentation on the floodplains of the rivers Agrio and Guadiamar, and predicted dynamics of the waste sludge, and (2) evaluation of the potential dispersion of the waste sludge provoked by future flood events, including hydraulic calculations to model channel flow and the analysis of the texture of the sludge to obtain critical transport and sedimentation values. Findings suggest that the waste sludge is likely to be transported and deposited within the Doñana National Park during future flood events.     

How to improve attribution of changes in drought and flood impacts

ABSTRACT

For the development of sustainable, efficient risk management strategies for the hydrological extremes of droughts and floods, it is essential to understand the temporal changes of impacts, and their respective causes and interactions. In particular, little is known about changes in vulnerability and their influence on drought and flood impacts. We present a fictitious dialogue between two experts, one in droughts and the other in floods, showing that the main obstacles to scientific advancement in this area are both a lack of data and a lack of commonly accepted approaches. The drought and flood experts “discuss” available data and methods and we suggest a complementary approach. This approach consists of collecting a large number of single or multiple paired-event case studies from catchments around the world, undertaking detailed analyses of changes in impacts and drivers, and carrying out a comparative analysis. The advantages of this approach are that it allows detailed context- and location-specific assessments based on the paired-event analyses, and reveals general, transferable conclusions based on the comparative analysis of various case studies. Additionally, it is quite flexible in terms of data and can accommodate differences between floods and droughts.     

A tertiary fold and thrust belt in the Valle del Cauca Basin, Colombian Andes

Surface geology and heophysical data, supplemented by regional structural interpretations, indicate that the Valle del Cauca basin and adjacent areas in west-central Colombia form a west-vergent, basement-involved fold and thrust belt. This belt is part of a Cenozoic orogen developed along the west side of the Romeral fault system. Structural analysis and geometrical constraints show that the Mesozoic ophiolitic basement and its Cenozoic sedimentary cover are involved in a “thick-skinned” west-vergent foreland style deformation. The rocks are transported and shortened by deeply rooted thrust faults and stacked in imbricate fashion. The faults have a NE---SW regional trend, are listric in shape, developed as splay faults which are interpreted as joining a common detachment at over 10 km depth. The faults carry Paleogene sedimentary strata and Cretaceous basement rocks westward over Miocene strata of the Valle del Cauca Basin. Fold axes trend parallel or sub parallel to the thrust faults. The folds are westwardly asymmetrical with parallel to kink geometry, and are interpreted to be fault-propagation folds stacked in an imbricate thrust system. Stratigraphic evidence suggests that the Valle del Cauca basin was deformed between Oligocene and upper Miocene time. The kinematic history outlined above is consistent with an oblique convergence between the Panama and South American plates during the Cenozoic.A negative residual Bouguer anomaly of 20–70 mgls in the central part of the Valle del Cauca basin indicates that a substantial volume of low density sedimentary rocks is concealed beneath the thrust sheets exposed at the land surface. The hydrocarbon potential of the Valle del Cauca should be reevaluated in light of the structural interpretations presented in this paper.