The ClBrI composition of 3.23 Ga modified seawater: implications for the geological evolution of ocean halide chemistry

Fluid inclusion leachates obtained from vug and vein quartz samples from an Archean (3.23 Ga) Fe-oxide hydrothermal deposit in the west-central part of the Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa, were analyzed by ion chromatography for chloride, bromide, and iodide. The deposit, known as the ironstone pods, formed by seafloor hydrothermal activity and fluid discharge. Quartz is dominated by type I liquid-vapor, aqueous inclusions with a bimodal salinity distribution (0–0.25 M_Cl⁻ and 0.9–1.8 M_Cl⁻). Bulk analytical salinities range from 0.45 to 0.99 M_Cl⁻ represent averages of type I inclusions. Bulk fluid inclusion bromide and iodide concentrations are 1.44–3.32 mM and 0.01–0.12 mM, respectively. For comparison, modern seawater has halogen contents of 590 mM chloride, 0.9 mM bromide, and 0.5 μM total iodine. In the fluids from the ironstone pods, bromide and iodide are enriched relative to chloride, when compared with modern seawater.Approximate Br⁻Cl⁻ and I⁻Cl⁻ ratios of 3.2 Ga Barberton seawater are 2.5 × 10⁻³ and 40 × 10⁻⁶, respectively. Dispersion to higher values was caused principally by reaction with organic sediments whose trends are similar to those seen for modern vent fluids at unsedimented and sedimented ridges, relative to modern seawater. These halide ratios are greater than those of modern seawater, suggesting a change in the halide ratios of seawater over geological time. The analytical data are consistent with a model in which marine organic sedimentation has fractionated bromine and iodine out of seawater relative to chloride, thereby causing the halide ratios of seawater to decrease from high early and mid-Archean values towards their present day values.     

Numerical Studies with a Regional Atmospheric Climate Model Based on Changes in the Roughness Length for Momentum and Heat Over Antarctica

A regional atmospheric climate model is used toexamine the effect of changes in the roughnesslengths of momentum (_z0m) and heat (_z0h)on the structure of the lower atmosphere and on thesurface energy fluxes over Antarctica. Fourexperiments were carried out in which _z0mand/or _z0h were altered with respect to acontrol experiment. The changes consisted of (1) alowering of _z0m from a field aggregated froma vegetation map with an orographic correction basedon the European Centre for Medium-Range WeatherForecasts _z0m field, to a constant value of10^-3 m; and (2) a lowering of _z0h from a valueequal to _z0m to a constant value of 10^-3 mor a value dependent on the wind speed via a surfacerenewal model. A reduction of _z0m results in theexpected increase in near-surface wind speed. It alsoresults in an increase in the depth of the layer in whichsouth-easterly near-surface winds prevail, and in adecrease in the strength of the large-scale flow overthe continent, in particular in summer. In theescarpment region a decrease of _z0m is foundto result in too high wind speeds. Surface temperatureson average decrease while atmospheric temperaturesincrease, resulting in an increase of near-surfacestatic stability. Changes in roughness lengths donot significantly change the temperature profiles.The surface fluxes, on average found reduced, aremodelled best by using the _z0h based on thesurface renewal method.     

Assessment of predictions of the response of the Hualien containment model during forced vibration tests

Blind predictions for the response of the 1/4-scale reinforced concrete Hualien (Taiwan) containment model during forced vibration tests are compared with the observed data. The predictions obtained by the CLASSI approach reflect the experimental conditions prior to and after backfill of the soil surrounding the embedded foundation. The experimental data show a strong and unexpected coupling between the response in the NS and EW directions which is not present in the results for the axisymmetric theoretical models. Also, significant differences can be seen between the experimental responses in the two orthogonal horizontal directions which minimize cross-axis coupling. Although these differences are not accounted for in the theoretical models, the discrepancies between predictions and observations are within the uncertainty of the structural and geotechnical data. The obtained differences between predictions and observations give an excellent measure of the prediction error that can be expected in this type of analysis from uncertainty in the data. A detailed assessment of the initial structural and geotechnical data based on extensive comparisons with the results of previous identification studies is also presented. Finally, comparisons between the observed response and calculations based on revised models for the structure and the soil show that current methods of analysis can account accurately for the observed response.     

Non-linear channel–shoal dynamics in long tidal embayments

The dynamics of finite-amplitude bed forms in a tidal channel is studied with the use of an idealized morphodynamic model. The latter is based on depth-averaged equations for the tidal flow over a sandy bottom. The model considers phenomena on spatial scales of the order of the tidal excursion length. Transport of sediment mainly takes place as suspended load. The reference state of this model is characterized by a spatially uniform M₂ tidal current over a fixed horizontal bed. The temporal evolution of deviations from this reference state is governed by amplitude equations: these are a set of non-linear equations that describe the temporal evolution of bed forms. These equations are used to obtain new morphodynamic equilibria which may be either static or time-periodic. Several of these bottom profiles show strong similarity with the tidal bars that are observed in natural estuaries. The dependence of the equilibrium solutions on the value of bottom friction and channel width is investigated systematically. For narrow channels (width small compared to the tidal excursion length) stable static equilibria exist if bottom friction is slightly larger than r_cr. For channel widths more comparable to the tidal excursion length, multiple stable steady states may exist for bottom friction parameter values below r_cr. Regardless of channel width, stable time-periodic equilibria seem to emerge as the bottom friction is increased.Responsible Editor: Jens Kappenberg     

A model for grain-size sorting over tidal sand ridges

A model was developed and analyzed to quantify the effect of graded sediment on the formation of tidal sand ridges. Field data reveal coarse (fine) sediment at the crests (in the troughs), but often phase shifts between the mean grain-size distribution and the bottom topography occur. Following earlier work, this study is based on a linear stability analysis of a basic state with respect to small bottom perturbations. The basic state describes an alongshore tidal current on a coastal shelf. Sediment is transported as bed load and dynamic hiding effects are accounted for. A one-layer model for the bed evolution is used and two grain size classes (fine and coarse sand) are considered. Results indicate an increase in growth and migration rates of tidal sand ridges for a bimodal mixture, whilst the wavelength of the ridges remains unchanged. A symmetrical externally forced tidal current results in a grain-size distribution which is in phase with the ridges. Incorporation of an additional external M₄ tidal constituent or a steady current results in a phase shift between the grain-size distribution and ridge topography. These results show a general agreement with observations. The physical mechanism responsible for the observed grain-size distribution over the ridges is also discussed.Responsible Editor: Jens Kappenberg     

Use of microtremor measurement for assessing site effects in Northern Belgium – interpretation of the observed intensity during the MS = 5.0 June 11 1938 earthquake

To provide quantitative information on site effects in the northern part of Belgium, forty-seven H/V microtremor measurements were performed with 5 second seismometers over an area of about 15.000 km². Most of the results show a northward regular increase of the fundamental period in agreement with the augmentation of the Mesozoic and Cainozoic soft sedimentsthickness from a few meters 40 km south of Brussels to 900 m at the Netherlands-Belgium border. The measured resonance frequency values wereconsistent with theoretical computations performed at different sites onthe basis of existing information and shallow seismic experiments. At oneparticular site (Uccle) where borehole data were available, microtremor measurements using an array of four seismological stations with differentapertures allowed to obtain the low frequency part of the Rayleigh wave dispersion curve, extending the range covered by the analysis of surfacewaves artificially generated. The Vs profile derived from the surface waveinversion corroborates the 1 Hz natural frequency of the site. Comparison of these results with the macroseismic information concerning the M_S = 5.0 1938 earthquake which occurred 50 km west of Brussels,confirmed the hypothesis that the geological structure of the Brabant massifis likely to control damage distribution during such an earthquake. Comparisonbetween the intensity map of the 1938 earthquake and the resonance period ofsediments obtained by our microtremor study shows a clear relation betweenthe two parameters. During the 1938 earthquake, site effects played a prominent role due to the dimension of the source whose corner frequency wasabout 1 Hz.     

Neuralizing target superresolution algorithms

Tatem et al. (2001) have designed a Hopfield network-based algorithm for superresolving discrete targets that are larger than the sample spacing of an image. The algorithm iteratively minimizes a criterion function that contains a sigmoidal activation term. We have altered their algorithm to bring it in line with Hopfield's original network by reducing the pseudotemperature of the sigmoid. We found that smaller values of the pseudotemperature lead to faster convergence to a solution and resulting solutions that are more accurate.     

Web-cam’s potential for collaborative activities in the Earth sciences

We report here our experiences from using easily acquired web-cam components for collaborative ventures in the Earth sciences. We have used a variety of hardware and different software. We demonstrate from various locations in the U.S.A. the feasibility of using web-cam in multitudinous activities, relevant for conducting research and knowledge dissemination. We summarize the quality of the connections from the various combinations of communicating parties. Today, web-cams can be utilized as an economical and viable means of point-to-point communication in the Earth science community. Greater bandwidth is sorely needed for activities such as multi-party conferencing on the present internet network. We propose that web-cam can be readily deployed as a web-service for facilitating collaborative research over the GRID infrastructure, using the middleware Narada-Brokering. Web-cam will play an important role in the emerging field of geoinformatics.     

Reversibility of radiocaesium sorption on illite

Adsorption of trace amounts of radiocaesium on NH₄-, K-, and Na-saturated Fithian illite and subsequent desorption by 1 M NH₄ showed that a substantial amount of radiocaesium (44%, 46%, and 91% for NH₄-, K-, and Na-illite, respectively) cannot be desorbed after only 5 min of adsorption. Our results suggest that this instantaneous fixation is caused by the collapse of the frayed edges of the clay mineral and the relatively high concentration of radiocaesium building up in solution in the batch desorption experiments. Consequently, commonly applied high-NH₄ extractions underestimate truly exchangeable amounts of radiocaesium in soils and sediments containing illitic clay minerals. The rate of desorption of trace amounts of radiocaesium from the solids using high NH₄ or Cs concentrations has a half-life of about 2 yr, reflecting radiocaesium desorption from (partially) collapsed interlayers. Extraction of radiocaesium from illite after 5 min of contact time with a Cs-selective adsorbent or a 1 × 10^-6 M CsCl solution shows that 100% of the bound radiocaesium is readily available. The desorption rate in the presence of a Cs-selective adsorbent has a half-life of about 0.2 yr. Desorption of radiocaesium from illite using different ammonium concentrations shows that radiocaesium partitioning follows reversible ion-exchange theory if the NH₄ concentration is below 1 × 10^-4 M, and sufficient time (weeks) is allowed for the reaction to proceed. Thus, radiocaesium sorption reversibility in the natural environment is much higher than generally assumed, and equilibrium solid/liquid partitioning may be assumed for the long-term modelling of radiocaesium mobility in the natural environment. In the particular case of anoxic freshwater sediments with very high NH₄ concentrations in the pore waters (up to several mmol.L^-1), collapse of the frayed edges of illite may occur, influencing radiocaesium partitioning. If collapse occurs before radiocaesium adsorbs to illite, high caesium sorption reversibility as measured by high-NH₄ extraction can be expected because further collapse of the frayed edges during the extraction procedure will be limited. This effect has indeed been observed earlier in the extraction of radiocaesium from anoxic freshwater sediments with high-NH₄ solutions and was as yet unexplained.     

Beryllium-10 in Australasian tektites: Constraints on the location of the source crater

By using accelerator mass spectrometry we have measured the ¹⁰Be concentrations of 86 Australasian tektites. Corrected to the time of tektite production ∼0.8 My ago, the ¹⁰Be concentrations (10⁶ atom/g) range from 59 for a layered tektite from Huai Sai, Thailand, to 280 for an australite from New South Wales, Australia. The average value is 143 ± 50. When tektites are sorted by country, their average measured ¹⁰Be concentrations increase slowly with increasing distance from Southeast Asia, the probable location of the tektite producing event, from 59 ± 9 for 6 layered tektites from Laos to 136 ± 20 for 20 splash-form tektites from Australia. The lowest ¹⁰Be concentrations for tektites fall on or within a contour centered off the shore of Vietnam, south of the Gulf of Tonkin (107°E; 17°N), but also encompassing two other locations in the area of northeastern Thailand previously proposed for the site of a single tektite-producing impact. The ¹⁰Be concentrations of layered tektites show only a weak anticorrelation (R ∼ −0.3) with the numbers of relict crystalline inclusions.Loosely consolidated, fine-grained terrestrial sediments or recently consolidated sedimentary rocks are the most likely precursor materials. Dilution of sediments with other kinds of rock raises problems in mixing and is not supported by petrographic data. Sedimentary columns that have the right range of ¹⁰Be concentrations occur off the coasts of places where sedimentation rates are high relative to those in the deep sea. A single impact into such a region, 15 to 300 m thick, could have propelled near-surface, high-¹⁰Be material farthest—to Australia—while keeping the deeper-lying, low-¹⁰Be layers closer to home. We do not rule out, however, other proposed mechanisms for tektite formation.