Sedimentology of the debris-flow-dominated Warm Spring Canyon alluvial fan, Death Valley, California

Facies analysis of widely distributed exposures of the 32·6 km² and 8·1-km-long Warm Spring Canyon fan, central Death Valley, shows that it has been built principally by debris-flow deposits. These deposits were derived from a mature Panamint Range catchment mostly underlain by Precambrian mudrock, quartzite and dolomite. Stacked, clast-rich and matrix-supported debris-flow lobes of slightly bouldery, muddy, pebble–cobble gravel in beds 20–150 cm thick dominate the fan from apex to toe, accounting for 75–98% of most exposures. Interstratified with the debris flows are less abundant (2–25% of cuts), thinner (5–30 cm) and more discontinuous beds of clast-supported and imbricated, pebble–cobble gravel deposited by overland flows and gully flows. This facies formed by the surficial fine-fraction water winnowing of the debris flows primarily during recessional flood stage of the debris-flow events. Two other facies associations make up a small part of the fan. The incised-channel tract consists of a 250-m-wide clast-supported ribbon of irregularly to thickly bedded, boulder, pebble, cobble gravel nested within debris-flow deposits. This channel fill is oriented generally perpendicular to the Panamint range front. It formed by extensive erosion and winnowing of debris flows deposited within the incised channel, into which all water discharge from the catchment is funnelled. The limited presence of this facies only straddling the present incised channel indicates that this channel overall has maintained a consistent position on the fan except for slight lateral shifts, some caused by strike-slip offset. Fault offset temporarily closed the upper incised channel, causing recessional debris-flow mud to be ponded behind the dam. The other local facies assemblage consists of subrounded to rounded, moderately sorted pebble gravel in low-angle cross-beds that slope both basinwards and fanwards. This gravel was deposited in beachface, backshore and shoreface barrier-spit environments that developed where Lake Manly impinged on the Warm Spring fan during late Pleistocene time. These deposits straddle headcuts into, and were derived from, erosion of the debris-flow deposits. Wave energy sorted finer sediment from the shore zone, concentrated coarser sediment and rounded the coarse to very coarse pebble fraction by selective reworking.     

GIS derived synthetic rating curves and HAND model to support on-the-fly flood mapping

Natural Hazards - Acknowledging the devastating consequences of past earthquakes, current research efforts focus on the development of tools for assessing and controlling the risk and losses...     

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SEDIMENT TRANSPORT IN ALLUVIAL RIVER WITH FLOODPLAINS

1 INTRODUCTION The transport of sediment in rivers with active floodplains is a two-dimensional process because the main channel and the floodplain can have very different transport capacities. Therefore, two-dimensional (2D) models are often used to simulate the streamwise and transverse variations of sediment erosion and deposition. Many 2D numerical models have been presented to simulate sediment transport in floodplains (James, 1985; Pizzuto, 1987; Howard, 1992; Nicholas and Walli…     

Urban influences on farming in Essex

The urban fringe is usually portrayed as a location of unrelieved adversity for farmers. It is rare for the costs of the urban fringe to be counterbalanced by an assessment of the opportunities that are also found there. This paper presents the results of a large scale farm survey in Essex which sought to examine the effects of urban proximity on farm management practices.The paper examines the nature and spatial extent of the following: conversion of farm land to urban uses (with special emphasis on the role of compulsory purchase orders); changes in farm labour; part time farming and the location of part time farmers jobs; vandalism and trespass damage and farmers response to this hazard; farm-based recreation and the sale of produce direct to the public. In general it is shown that the disadvantages of farming in the urban fringe have been overrated while the advantages have been underrated.     

Hydrochemistry of the Lake Magadi basin,Kenya

New and more complete compositional data are presented for a large number of water samples from the Lake Magadi area, Kenya. These water samples range from dilute inflow (<0.1 g/kg dissolved solids) to very concentrated brines (>300 g/kg dissolved solids). Five distinct hydrologic stages can be recognized in the evolution of the water compositions: dilute streamflow, dilute ground water, saline ground water (or hot spring reservoir), saturated brines, and residual brines. Based on the assumption that chloride is conserved in the waters during evaporative concentration, these stages are related to each other by the concentration factors of about 1:28:870:7600:16,800.Dilute streamflow is represented by perennial streams entering the Rift Valley from the west. All but one (Ewaso Ngiro) of these streams disappear in the alluvium and do not reach the valley floor. Dilute ground water was collected from shallow pits and wells dug into lake sediments and alluvial channels. Saline ground water is roughly equivalent to the hot springs reservoir postulated by Eugster (1970) and is represented by the hottest of the major springs. Saturated brines represent surficial lake brines just at the point of saturation with respect to trona (Na₂CO₃.NaHCO₃.2H₂O), while residual brines are essentially interstitial to the evaporite deposit and have been subjected to a complex history of precipitation and re-solution.The new data confirm the basic hydrologic model presented by Eugster (1970) which has now been refined, particularly with respect to the early stages of evaporative concentration. Budget calculations show that only bromide is conserved as completely as chloride. Sodium follows chloride closely until trona precipitation, whereas silica and sulfate are largely lost during the very first concentration' step (dilute streamflow-dilute ground water). A large fraction of potassium and all calcium plus magnesium are removed during the first two concentration steps (dilute streamflow-dilute ground water-saline ground water). Carbonate and bicarbonate are the dominant anions, and mechanisms by which they are extracted from the solution include precipitation of alkali and alkaline-earth carbonates, and degassing, as well as precipitation and re-solution of efflorescent crusts. Much sulfate is apparently lost from solution by sorption as well as subsurface reduction.Seasonal runoff, principally from the valley floor north of Lake Magadi, is considered to be the principal recharge to the Magadi ground water system. Evaporative concentration is the overall process responsible for the chemical evolution of the brines. This includes not only simple evaporation, but also mineral precipitation as films and cements in the unsaturated zone, re-solution, and reprecipitation of efflorescent crusts, with consequent recycling of salts. In fact, a large fraction of the solutes are acquired through dissolution of efflorescent crusts.Data were obtained for borehole brines from as deep as 297 m. They show the existence of two distinct brine bodies below the present lake, one shallow, coexistent with bedded salts, and highly concentrated (260 g/kg average dissolved solids), and the other deeper in lacustrine sediments or fractured lavas, and only half as concentrated.     

Impacts of Coastal Development on the Ecology of Tidal Creek Ecosystems of the US Southeast Including Consequences to Humans

Upland areas of southeastern United States tidal creek watersheds are popular locations for development, and they form part of the estuarine ecosystem characterized by high economic and ecological value. The primary objective of this work was to define the relationships between coastal development, with its concomitant land use changes and associated increases in nonpoint source pollution loading, and the ecological condition of tidal creek ecosystems including related consequences to human populations and coastal communities. Nineteen tidal creek systems, located along the southeastern US coast from southern North Carolina to southern Georgia, were sampled in the summer, 2005 and 2006. Within each system, creeks were divided into two primary segments based upon tidal zoning—intertidal (i.e., shallow, narrow headwater sections) and subtidal (i.e., deeper and wider sections)—and then watersheds were delineated for each segment. Relationships between coastal development, concomitant land use changes, nonpoint source pollution loading, the ecological condition of tidal creek ecosystems, and the potential impacts to human populations and coastal communities were evaluated. In particular, relationships were identified between the amount of impervious cover (indicator of coastal development) and a range of exposure and response measures including increased chemical contamination of the sediments, increased pathogens in the water, increased nitrate/nitrite levels, increased salinity range, decreased biological productivity of the macrobenthos, alterations to the food web, increased flooding potential, and increased human risk of exposure to pathogens and harmful chemicals. The integrity of tidal creeks, particularly the headwaters or intertidally dominated sections, was impaired by increases in nonpoint source pollution associated with sprawling urbanization (i.e., increases in impervious cover). This finding suggests that these habitats are valuable early warning sentinels of ensuing ecological impacts and potential public health and flooding risk from sprawling coastal development. The results also validate the use of a conceptual model with impervious cover thresholds for tidal creek systems in the southeast region.     

The remineralization of organic carbon on the North Carolina continental slope

The sources and fates of metabolizable organic carbon were examined at three sites on the North Carolina slope positioned offshore of Cape Fear, Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras. The¹³C/¹²C compositions (δ¹³C) of the solid phase organic matter, and the dissolved inorganic carbon (ΣCO₂) produced during its oxidation, suggested that the labile fraction was predominantly marine in origin. The ΣCO₂ concentration gradient across the sediment-water interface, and by inference the ΣCO₂ flux and production rate, increased northward from Cape Fear to Cape Hatteras. Methane distributions and ΣCO₂ δ¹³C values suggest that the rate of anaerobic diagenesis increased northward as well. The differences in sedimentary biogeochemistry are most likely driven by an along-slope gradient of reactive organic carbon flux to the seabed. This trend in reactive organic carbon flux correlates well with macrofaunal densities previously observed at the three sites. Proximity to the shelf and the transport of particulate material by surface boundary currents may control the deposition of metabolizable material on the Carolina slope.Evidence for methanogenesis was found only on the Cape Hatteras slope. The methane, which was produced at a depth of approximately 1 m in the seabed, was consumed nearly quantitatively in the biologically mixed layer as it diffused upward. Irrigation of the sediments by infauna may have provided the necessary oxidant for the consumption of the methane.     

Supernova 1993k — first photometric results

The 61 cm Lowell telescope at Perth Observatory has been automated by the Perth Astronomy Research Group (PARG) for the detection, confirmation and follow-up studies of supernovae and other transient events. This search program complements similar searches operating in the Northern Hemisphere, such as the Berkeley Supernova Search. The first supernova found by our search program, SN 1993k, was discovered on March 28, 1993 (IAUC 5733). The discovery has been made with the telescope in fully automated mode, including automated image analysis. We are currently imaging some 80 galaxies per night. Photometric methods for the analysis of lightcurves are at present being implemented.