Modified Technique for Calculating the Parameters of Climatic Variability of Upwelling by Thermal Index

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - A modified technique for calculating the amplitude-phase characteristics of the seasonal cycle and long-term trends in the intensity of upwelling is...     

Cone-penetrometer exploration of Sinkholes: Stratigraphy and soil properties

Four sinkholes with varying surficial expressions were subjected to detailed stratigraphic and soil analysis by means of Standard Penetration Tests (SPT) and Electric Friction Cone Penetration Tests (CPT) in order to evaluate applications of CPT to sinkhole investigations. Although widely used, SPT data are of limited value and difficult to apply to sinkhole mapping. CPT is sensitive to minor lithologic variability and is superior to SPT as a cost-effective technique for determining geotechnical properties of sinkholes. The effectiveness of CPT data results from the force measurements made along the sleeve of the cone. The friction ratio (ratio of sleeve to tip resistance) is a good indicator of soil stratigraphy and properties. By smoothing the friction-ratio data, general stratigraphy and changes in soil properties are easily identified. Stratigraphy of the sinks has been complicated by intense weathering, karstification and marine, transgressions. The resulting deposits include five stratigraphic units. I and II represent Plio-Pleistocene marine sediments with Unit II being the zone of soil clay accumulation. III and IV are horizons residual from Miocene strata and indicate an episode of karstification prior to deposition of Units I and II. Conduit fill is a mixture of materials with low cohesion. The fill materials indicate centripetal and downward movement of insoluble sediments derived from the surrounding strata. Loss of cohesion results in near-zero friction ratios. Very low friction ratios, coupled with materials with little cohesion, indicate potentially-liquefiable soils in the immediate vicinity of zones where piping failure may be imminent. SPT does not provide sufficient data to predict these zones of potential, failure. CPT provides sufficient information for recognition of sinkhole stratigraphy and geotechnical properties. When coupled with laboratory soil analysis, CPT provides unique information about sinkhole geometry and dynamics. In contrast, SPT data fail to produce consistent indicators of sinkhole stratigraphy or properties. With laboratory soil data, SPT indicates general, inconclusive trends.     

Spherular modern dolomite from the Coorong area, South Australia

Scanning electron micrographs show that the youngest and apparently least altered of the Coorong dolomite is in the form of spherular bodies about 0.2–1.0 μm in size which themselves are composed of spherules about 100 nm in diameter. Older and more lithified sediments show sharply defined dolomite crystals suggesting an origin as primary dolomite spherules followed by aggregation and diagenetic alteration to well crystallized dolomites.     

Geochemical cycling in the Hooghly estuary, India

U–Th decay series isotopes, δ¹⁸O and Si measurements in the river estuarine waters and sediments of the polluted Hooghly estuary as well as the surface waters of the Bay of Bengal, its high salinity end member, are reported. Dissolved Si indicates that there are probably two mixing regimes, dissolved U behaviour is nonconservative and δ¹⁸O behaves conservatively in the overall estuarine region. Isotopes of reactive elements, viz. ²³⁴Th and ²¹⁰Po, are removed from the estuarine waters in <2 days and <1 month, respectively, which is due to high suspended matter (30–301 mg l⁻¹). ²²⁸Ra and ²²⁶Ra are profusely released into the estuarine waters in the low to mid-salinity regions.As expected, the opposite trend is observed in the case of estuarine sediments and suspended matter. Reactive isotopes of Th, ²¹⁰Pb and ²¹⁰Po are enriched, whereas Ra isotopes are depleted with respect to their parent nuclides in the estuarine sediments and suspended matter. ²³²Th/Al ratio appears well suited to study the distribution and mixing of the bed load sediments of the Ganga–Brahmaputra (G–B) and the Hooghly rivers with those from other rivers on the Bay of Bengal floor.     

Visualization-based analysis of structural and dynamical properties of simulated hydrous silicate melt

We have explored first-principles molecular dynamics simulation data for hydrous MgSiO₃ liquid (with 10 wt% water) to gain insight into its structural and dynamical behavior as a function of pressure (0–150 GPa) and temperature (2,000–6,000 K). By visualizing/analyzing a number of parameters associated with short- and mid-range orders, we have shown that the melt structure changes substantially on compression. The speciation of the water component at low pressures is dominated by the isolated structures (with over 90% hydrogen participated) consisting of hydroxyls, water molecules, O–H–O bridging and four-atom (O–H–O–H and H–O–H–O) groups, where every oxygen atom may be a part of polyhedron or free (i.e., bound to only magnesium atom). Hydroxyls favor polyhedral sites over magnesium sites whereas molecular water is almost entirely bound to magnesium sites, and also interpolyhedral bridging (Si–O–H–O–Si) dominates other types of bridging. Water content is shown to enhance and suppress, respectively, the proportions of hydroxyls and molecular water. As compression increases, these isolated structures increasingly combine with each other to form extended structures involving a total of five or more O and H atoms and also containing threefold coordination species, which together consume over 80% hydrogen at the highest compression studied. Our results show that water lowers the mean coordination numbers of different types including all cation–anion environments. The hydrous melt tends to be more tetrahedrally coordinated but with the Si–Si network being more disrupted compared to the anhydrous melt. Protons increase the content of non-bridging oxygen and decrease the contents of bridging oxygen as well as oxygen triclusters (present at pressures above 10 GPa). The calculated self-diffusion coefficients of all atomic species are enhanced in the presence of water compared to those of the anhydrous melt. This is consistent with the prediction that water depolymerizes the melt structure at all pressures. Our analysis also suggests that proton diffusion involves two processes—the transfer of H atoms (requiring the rupture and formation of O–H bonds) and the motion of hydroxyls as hydrogen carriers (requiring the rupture and formation of Si–O and/or Mg–O bonds). Both the processes are operative at low compression whereas only the first process is operative at high compression.     

Zonal biostratigraphy in the solution of the fundamental and applied problems of geology

The problems of zonal stratigraphy of the early 21st century are discussed. The great advances achieved in recent years in using zones in geological practice are noted. At the same time, attention is drawn to the controversies existing in the interpretation of the concepts “biostratigraphic zone” and “chronozone,” in the methods of drawing the boundaries of such zones, and in the assessment of the spatial scale of zones and in the understanding of them as stratigraphic units.     

Geometric constraints on composition of sediment derived from erosional landscapes

Although unroofing sequences are well known in the stratigraphic record, there is no general theory for estimating relevant basic quantities such as the time history of sediment production from a particular unit or the degree of mixing between successive units. Here we investigate the production of sediment from layered source rocks that are milled off by steady-state erosional topography. The shape of the sediment-production function for milling off a thin horizontal layer is given by the derivative of the hypsometric function, in the form of area contained within contours as a function of contour altitude. The time-scale for the production function, the ‘topographic mixing time’, is set by the topographic relief divided by the uplift rate. The production function for a sharp transition from one unit to another is given directly by the hypsometric function. The effects of stratal dip parallel to the mean slope of the erosional topography and finite layer thickness can be accounted for to a first approximation by simple geometric corrections to the mixing time. Finite layer thickness also has the effect of smoothing the production function although most natural hypsometric functions are smooth enough that this effect is relatively weak. The quality of an unroofing sequence can be measured in terms of the ‘sharpness’ of separation of successive peaks in sediment production produced by milling off a sequence of geometrically similar layers. This peak sharpness can be parameterized by a ratio of the interval between successive peaks in sediment production to topographic mixing time. By this measure, the quality of unroofing sequences is controlled by two parameters: the ratio of layer thickness to topographic relief, and the dip angle. The dip angle in concert with topographic mixing exerts a strong control on the degree of signal segregation; in particular, production of cleanly segregated signals for dip angles greater than about 15° requires very high ratios of layer thickness to relief. Hence identification of distinct unroofing sequences may place significant and useful constraints on the attitude and/or thickness of units in the eroding stratigraphy.     

Seismic surface-wave dispersion: A world-wide survey

Summary By means of the long-period records at Uppsala and Kiruna of thirteen specially selected earthquakes, the Love and Rayleigh wave dispersion is determined for all oceans and all continents except for South America. The observations have given information on crustal structure along several paths, not investigated earlier; in other cases, they have confirmed earlier results. The methods are discussed. The results for oceanic areas are summarized in the following table: The observations demonstrate the oceanic structure of the central Arctic area as well as the complete similarity of the Atlantic and Pacific bottom structure. Continental dispersion curves are determined for very long paths over Euro-Asia and for the hitherto longest path over North America as well as for a path crossing Africa. These observations indicate an average crust about 10–15 km thicker along the Euro-Asiatic path than along the North American path, whereas there is perfect agreement between the North American and the African continent. A shear-wave velocity of 4.3–4.4 km/sec is obtained for the upper part of the mantle under the continents. Further conclusions must await the computation of a greater number of theoretical dispersion curves.

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Zusammenfassung Mittels der langperiodischen Registrierungen in Uppsala und Kiruna von dreizehn speziell ausgewählten Erdbeben ist die Dispersion der Love-und Rayleigh-Wellen für alle Ozeane und alle Kontinente mit Ausnahme von Süd-Amerika bestimmt worden. Die Beobachtungen haben in mehreren Fällen Auskunft über die Krusten-Struktur längs Wellenwege gegeben, die nie früher untersucht worden sind; in anderen Fällen haben sie frühere Resultate bestätigt. Die Methoden werden diskutiert. Die Resultate für ozeanische Gebiete sind in der folgenden Tabelle zusammengefasst: Die Beobachtungen beweisen sowohl die ozeanische Struktur des zentralen Teiles des arktischen Gebietes als auch die vollständige Gleichheit der atlantischen und pazifischen Krusten-Struktur. Kontinentale Dispersionskurven sind für sehr lange Wellenwege über Euro-Asien und für den bisher längsten Wellenweg über Nord-Amerika bestimmt worden. Diese Beobachtungen zeigen, dass die mittlere Krusten-Dicke 10–15 km grösser längs des euro-asiatischen Weges ist als längs des nordamerikanischen Weges; dagegen zeigen die Beobachtungen für Nord-Amerika und Afrika sehr gute Übereinstimmung. Eine Transversalwellen-Geschwindigkeit von 4.3–4.4 km/sek wird für den oberen Teil des Erdmantels unter den Kontinenten gefunden. Weitere Schlussfolgerungen müssen die Berechnung einer grösseren Anzahl theoretischer Dispersionskurven erwarten.

     

Formation of the Late Permian Panzhihua plutonic-hypabyssal-volcanic igneous complex: Implications for the genesis of Fe–Ti oxide deposits and A-type granites of SW China

The Late Permian (260 Ma) Emeishan large igneous province of SW China contains numerous magmatic Fe–Ti oxide deposits. The Fe–Ti oxide deposits occur in the lower parts of evolved layered gabbroic intrusions which are spatially and temporally associated with A-type granitic rocks. The 260 Ma Panzhihua layered gabbroic intrusion hosts one of the largest magmatic Fe–Ti oxide deposits in China and is coeval with a peralkaline A-type granitic pluton. The granite has intruded the overlying Emeishan flood basalts and fed at least one dyke which erupted onto the surface producing columnar jointed trachytes. The presence of syenodiorite between the layered gabbro and granite is evidence for compositional evolution from mafic to intermediate to felsic rocks. The syenodiorites have intermediate to felsic composition with SiO₂ = 61 to 65 wt.%, MgO = 0.27 to 0.6 wt.% and CaO = 1.0 to 2.5 wt.% as compared to the granite SiO₂ = 65 to 72 wt.%, MgO = 0.1 to 0.4 wt.%, CaO = < 1.0 wt.%. Primitive-mantle-normalized incompatible element plots show corresponding reciprocal patterns between the mafic and felsic rocks. The chondrite-normalized REE patterns show Eu anomalies changing from > 1(Eu/Eu? = 1.1 to 2.6) in the gabbroic intrusion, to < 1 in the syenodiorite (Eu/Eu? = 0.75 to 0.83), granites and trachytes (Eu/Eu? = 0.55–0.87). Previously published εNd_(T) values from clinopyroxenes (εNd_(T) = + 1.1 to + 3.2) of the gabbroic intrusion match the whole-rock values of the syenodiorite (εNd_(T) = + 2.1 to + 2.5), granite and trachyte (εNd_(T) = + 2.2 to + 2.9), suggesting that all rock types originated from the same mantle source. MELTS and trace element modeling confirm that all rock types can be generated by fractional crystallization of high-Ti Emeishan basalt. The jump in SiO₂ from the gabbro to the syenodiorite is attributed to the en masse crystallization of the Fe–Ti oxides. The geological and geochemical data indicate that fractional crystallization of a common parental magma produced the layered gabbroic intrusion and Fe–Ti oxide deposit, the syenodiorite, granites and trachyte of the Panzhihua region, which thus form a genetically related plutonic-hypabyssal-volcanic complex. Other granite–gabbro complexes in the region likely formed in a similar manner.     

Parameterisation of orographic cloud dynamics in a GCM

A new parameterisation is described that predicts the temperature perturbations due to sub-grid scale orographic gravity waves in the atmosphere of the 19 level HadAM3 version of the United Kingdom Met Office Unified Model. The explicit calculation of the wave phase allows the sign of the temperature perturbation to be predicted. The scheme is used to create orographic clouds, including cirrus, that were previously absent in model simulations. A novel approach to the validation of this parameterisation makes use of both satellite observations of a case study, and a simulation in which the Unified Model is nudged towards ERA-40 assimilated winds, temperatures and humidities. It is demonstrated that this approach offers a feasible way of introducing large scale orographic cirrus clouds into GCMs.