Regional variations in cleavage and fold development in North Wales

The arcuate pattern of the main Caledonian cleavage and associated fold axial plane traces in North Wales is due partly to NW-SE compression with tectonic transport to the southeast against the concealed crop of the Tan y grisiau Microgranite. Low-angle cleavage close to the microgranite is shown to be a local variant of the regional cleavage formed during the main deformation and not an earlier phase as previously supposed. Transcurrent movements along several major fault systems are also related to compression around the microgranite and the Harlech Dome block.     

Tokaido — megalopolis of Japan

The Tokaido east coast road has been the main road of Japan since Mediaeval times, and the journey from Tokyo at one end to Kyoto or Osaka at the other, which used to take a fortnight, can now be completed in about three hours by bullet train, and an even faster linear-motor car is likely to be in operation in the near future.Already during the 18. cent., Edo (Tokyo) was the largest city in the world, with a population over a million, and the rapid urbanization of Japan's population since Meiji times, and particularly during the post-WW II period, has been quite unprecendented. In 1950, the median size of place was 13,000 and by 1975 it was 140,000. About 60 million lived in the Tokaido zone.The Kanto, Nobi and Osaka plains, adjacent to the good harbours of Tokyo, Ise and Osaka bays, enjoying the relatively mild climate of the Pacific coast, and being within 600 km of each other, have been the focii of urban and industrial development in Japan. The emergence of Tokaido megalopolis was boosted by capital investment in this zone, and was contingent upon the industriousness and high level of education of the people.The concept of megalopolis in Japan is popularly associated with rapid urbanization, poly-nuclear and linear form, and concentration of population, capital and information, all of which elements are typified by the Tokaido zone. The linear megalopolis pattern has been postulated as a more efficient growth form for high-dense society than the radial metropolitan pattern. It has even been suggested that megalopolis is a concept perceived by the intellect, its physical structure determined by information networks, metropolis being perceived by the eye and its physical structure being determined by transport and energy networks.Quite irrespective of the concept of megalopolis, there can be no denying that Japan's society is a high-dense society. In 1975, 57% of the population lived in Densely Inhabited Districts (DIDs) at minimum densities of 40 persons per hectare, and these DIDs covered only 2.2% of the land area of Japan. The current trend is for more and more people to live in DIDs, but for overall DID densities to decrease. During the past 25 years, there has been a huge influx of population into the Tokaido zone, and while until 1960 the greatest increases were in the three main metropolitan centres, as these became saturated, rapid urbanization spread into the neighbouring prefectures. Since the mid-sixties, the central metropolitan wards have begun to lose residents, but the daytime population has continued to increase, giving rise to increasingly complex commuting patterns. To give an example, the commuting field of Yokohama includes almost all the prefectures of Tokaido megalopolis.Like the image of megalopolis itself, life in Tokaido megalopolis has its good and bad aspects. Although per capita space in dwellings is increasing somewhat, housing is extremely expensive and people commute long distances. Incomes are high but environmental problems persist. There is a U-turn phenomenon, but metropolitan suburbs remain a popular choice of residence.Central management functions and knowledge and information oriented occupations are predominantly concentrated in Tokyo and Osaka, the two main nodes of Tokaido megalopolis. In the intermediate cities, new employment opportunities are stimulated by the expansion of second-level managerial functions. The transport and communications networks of Tokaido are becoming congested as mobility and information flow increase.Planning in the eighties will be affected by the switch from industries dependent on raw materials to knowledge intensive industries; from investment in production to investment in public facilities and pollution control. Within Tokaido megalopolis, there is room for local governments to expand efforts to improve the existing situation, and at its fringes to avert some of the less desirable consequences of rapid urbanization.     

The present flora and vegetation of the moraines of the Klutlan Glacier,Yukon Territory,Canada: A study in plant succession

The flora and vegetation of six ice-cored moraines of the Klutlan Glacier were analyzed in 65 plots by European plant-sociological techniques. The age of each plot was estimated from annual growth rings of shrubs or trees in the plots. Nine major vegetation types are distinguished: Crepis nana, Dryas drummondii, Hedysarum mackenzii, Hedysarum-Salix, Salix-Shepherdia canadensis, Picea-Salix, Picea-Arctostaphylos, Picea-Ledum, and Picea-Rhytidium. These contain plants aged 2–6, 9–23, 10–20, 24–30, 32–58, 58–80, 96–178, 177–240, and >163- >339 yr, respectively. Six other vegetation types are described from windthrow areas, drainage channels, volcanic tephra slopes, lake margins, fens, and drained lakes. The major vegetation types reflect a vegetational succession related to moraine age and stability, with the Crepis nana type as the pioneer vegetation developing through the other vegetation types to the Picea-Rhytidium type on the oldest moraines. Changes in species diversity and soil development, particularly humus accumulation, parallel the vegetational succession. This succession differs from patterns of revegetation of deglaciated landscapes in Alaska and British Columbia today and in Minnesota in late-Wisconsin times because of differences in climate, plant migration, and local ecology.     

On the variability of the position of the equatorial electrojet axis in India

An examination of day-to-day and monthly mean positions of the electrojet axis in relation to the changes in the apparent solar declination, in the Indian equatorial region shows marked association between the two. For relatively quiet days, significant correlations are observed between the solar declination and each of the parameters, the northernSq focal latitude, the jet axis and the line of maximumSq(H). From the significant mutual association of these parameters, it has been suggested that the equatorial electrojet could be a part of the world-wideSq current system.     

Beobachtungen an der Küste von Suriname

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Occurrence of hypogenic caves in a karst region: Examples from central Italy

The caves of the Umbria and Marche regions in central Italy are made up of three-dimensional maze systems that display different general morphologies due to the various geological and structural contexts. At the same time, the internal morphologies of the passages, galleries, and shafts present some similarity, with solutional galleries characterized by cupolas and blind pits, anastamotic passages, roof pendants, and phreatic passages situated at different levels. Some of these caves are still active, as is the case for Frassassi Gorge, Parrano Gorge, and Acquasanta Terme, with galleries that reach the phreatic zone, where there is a rising of highly mineralized water, rich in hydrosulfydric acid, and with erosion of limestone walls and the formation of gypsum. Elsewhere there are fossil caves, such as Monte Cucco and Pozzi della Piana, where large speleothems of gypsum are present 500 m or more above the regional water table. In all of these important karst systems it is possible to recognize basal input points through fracture and intergranular porosity networks at the base of the oxidizing zone in the core of the anticline, where mineralized water rises up from the Triassic evaporitic layers in small hydrogeological circuits. Different underground morphologies can derive from the presence of a water table related to an external stream or from the confined setting of the carbonate rocks, underlying low permeable sedimentary cover, where artesian conditions can occur.     

Border effects on household dissolution in the Banat Region,Yugoslavia

Abstarct The article recognizes two border effects on average size of households: the past and the present one.Both the incidence and the long-standing tradition of the multifamily and multigenerational households in the past time have been attributed to the influence of Turkish and Austrian state regulations in the period when the area was a part of the Military Border.An attempt is made to estimate the share of vital and spatial mobility factors. In the contemporary process of household dissolution the impact of vital mobility decreases and the impact of spatial mobility increases going from the center towards the periphery.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Regional Conference of the International Geographical Union, held in Prague in 1994.