Lateral dynamic analysis and classification of barotropic tidal inlets

The dynamical balances at shallow tidal inlets are highly nonlinear, and can vary substantially over sub-kilometer scales. In this study, barotropic dynamics are examined with numerical experiments on a series of idealized inlets with differing inlet widths and lengths. Circulation and elevation fields obtained from fully nonlinear depth-integrated circulation models are used to reconstruct the contribution of each term in the momentum equations. Momentum terms are rotated into a streamline coordinate system to simplify interpretation of the dynamics. Spatial patterns in momentum reveal that the lateral balances at inlets can vary from nearly geostrophic to strongly cyclostrophic. Marked dynamical differences are seen between inlets with different lengths and widths. Inlet regions of geostrophic or cyclostrophic balances can be predicted using two dimensionless parameters, the dynamic length L^* and dynamic width W^*. A classification scheme is proposed using L^* and W^* to compare the idealized inlets analyzed here with inlets from 20 previous studies. Four distinct inlet types are identified and discussed.     

Application of Marine Seismic Profiling to a Ground Water Contamination Study, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland

Continuous high-frequency marine seismic profiling was used to define the extent of geologic units in the offshore areas of J-Field, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, during March and April of 1988. J-Field is an area that was used by the U.S. Army for disposal of chemical warfare agents, munitions, and organic solvents from the 1950s through the 1970s. A major concern at this site is the subsurface migration of hazardous wastes into offshore areas and eventually into the Chesapeake Bay. A 150-foot (45.7 meter) deep paleochannel containing Pleistocene age fluvial and estuarine sediments was identified from boreholes constructed onshore. The paleochannel sediments consist of three lithic units. From bottom to top these units consist of gravel and sand, massive silty and sandy clay, and interbedded sand and clay. The seismic profiles were used to identify the extent of these units and map them in offshore areas. An accurate knowledge of the distribution of the geologic units in onshore and offshore areas is important to the investigation because the coarse-grained paleochannel sediments may provide a preferential flow path for contaminated ground water and the fine-grained sediments may impede the movement of contaminants into deeper aquifers.     

Prediction of future short-term stream chemistry — a modelling approach

The problem of predicting future short-term chemical behaviour in acidic and acid-sensitive streams is addressed. A relatively simple method is presented which combines a chemical technique for splitting the hydrograph into ground water and soil water components, based on the conservative component acid neutralization capacity, with the long-term hydrochemical model (MAGIC) in a ‘two-box’ mode. This method, coupled with a chemical speciation program (ALCHEMI), is used to assess short-term variations in stream chemistry with change in atmospheric deposition chemistry. The method is applied for a semi-natural moorland catchment in mid-Wales (Afon Gwy). For both hydrogen ion and inorganic aluminium, the modelled stream mixing relationships are non-linear, particularly at low hydrogen ion concentrations. The results also show that the relationship between hydrogen ion and inorganic aluminium concentrations varies with time in the stream. This result has important implications as it implies that aluminium concentrations will not recover, with reduced anthropogenic sulphur deposition, as rapidly as has previously been thought. Two methods, for use with critical load evaluation of ecological stress, are presented for describing the changes occurring: the hydrogen ion and inorganic aluminium concentration duration curve; the hydrogen ion and inorganic aluminium incident frequenty diagram.     

A continuous phase gradient in a “monocrystalline” pyrrhotite

X-ray diffraction and microprobe analyses of pseudomonocrystalline fragments of pyrrhotite from Bodenmais, Bavaria, revealed continuous gradients in composition and phase distribution. The gradients extend from the well-developed (0001) cleavage surfaces 15–30 μm into the bulk of the crystals. The phase gradient is made up two low-temperature pyrrhotites with monoclinic (4C) and hexagonal (5C) symmetry. The fraction of monoclinic pyrrhotite, expressed on the basis of recorded X-ray intensities, I, decreases exponentially according to I _(mon)/[I _(hex)+I _(mon)] = EXP (aX+b) where a is a constant ranging from ?0.04 to ?0.25, X is the depth from the (0001) cleavage surface in μm, and b is a constant determined by the intensity ratios obtained from the untreated cleavage surfaces. The phase gradient developed during retrograde reactions from a continuous composition gradient. This primary gradient was caused by the extraction of iron from a disordered, high-temperature hexagonal pyrrhotite during oxidation of the cleavage surfaces at temperatures above 254° C (upper stability limit of 4C pyrrhotite), probably above 308° C. The length of the c axis of the monoclinic superstructure slightly increases with the increase in iron and decrease in vacancy content of the bulk. This expansion is probably due to a minor compositional variation of the monoclinic phase controlled by the availability of vacancies during the transition to low-temperature phases.     

Selective elemental depletion during metamorphism of archaean granulites,scourie, NW Scotland

The low abundances of large ion lithophile elements (LIL), K, Rb, U, Th, Cs, and high K/Rb ratio in rocks varying in composition from gabbro to granite in the Scourian complex, NW Scotland, are interpreted as due to depletion during granulite facies metamorphism. Depletion was controlled by the mineralogy of the rock, the composition of the associated fluid phase and its volume relative to the volume of the rock. K-feldspar granites and granodiorites were not depleted in K and only moderately in Rb, but tonalites and trondhjemites were strongly depleted in both K and Rb. Published mineral-fluid partition coefficients for LIL in aqueous systems indicate that between 0.075 and 2.0 rock volumes of fluid phase passed through the host rock in order to achieve the observed selective elemental depletion.     

The age of the sub Mid-Jurassic tropical weathering profile of andoya,northern Norway,and the implications for the late palaeozoic palaeography in the North Atlantic region

Results are given of a programme of K-Ar age determinations from an equatorial weathering profile beneath the Mid-Jurassic unconformitiy of Anøya, northern Norway. A model is presented where the original age of weathering is considered as Lower Carboniferous with partial resetting of ages during subsequent diagenesis. It is concluded that the Kaolinite of the weathering profile became a closed system of⁴⁰Ar diffusion in late Triassic times, and that a sufficient thickness of Mesozoic-Tertiary strata was never developed to occasion the resetting of the ages. The implication of the results is that a former thick cover of Upper Palaezoic age formerly existed in the region which was effectively removed by erosion in late Triassic — early Jurassic times. The results of the study are reviewed in a context of North Atlantic palaeogeographical evolution.

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Zusammenfassung Aus einem fossilen Bodenprofil unterhalb der mitteljurassischen Diskordanz in Nordnorwegen wurden K-Ar-Alter bestimmt, die auf eine Verwitterung während des Unterkarbons hinweisen. Während der folgenden Diagenese sind die Alter teilweise neu eingestellt worden. Dabei zeigt sich, daß der Kaolinite des ursprünglichen Bodenprofils erst ab Obertrias einem für Ar⁴⁰-Diffusion geschlossenen System angehört. Es folgt weiter, daß während des Mesozoikums und Tertiärs keine größere Sedimentbedeckung mehr über diesen Profilen möglich war, wohingegen eine erhebliche Mächtigkeit von jungpaläozoischen Sedimenten ehedem vorlag, die während der Obertrias abgetragen wurde. Diese Beobachtungen können mit der paläogeographischen Entwicklung des Nord-Atlantik in Zusammenhang gebracht werden.

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Résumé On a déterminé les âges K-Ar, donnés par un sol d'alteration formé pendant le Carbonifère inférieur et sous-jacent à la discordance du jurassique moyen, au nord de la Norvège. Les âges ont été en partie de nouveau déterminés, lors des diagénèses suivantes. Il en ressort que la Kaolinite du profil du sol originel n'appartient à un système fermé de diffusion Ar⁴⁰ qu'à partir du Trias supérieur. Il s'ensuit qu'un recouvrement sédimentaire épais n'a pu se déposer sur ce profil au cours du Secondaire et du Tertiaire, tandis qu'une épaisseur considérable de sédiments du Paléozoique supérieur existait, enlevès ensuite par érosion au Trias supérieur. Ces observations peuvent être mises en rapport avec le développement paléogéographique de l'Atlantique-Nord.

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