Salt Marsh Sustainability: Challenges During an Uncertain Future

Many salt marshes throughout southern New England are exhibiting a trend toward submergence, as reported in this volume and other published literature. This paper provides a brief perspective on sea-level rise and the many other interacting factors that contribute to marsh submergence in this and other regions. Curtailing nutrient loading and removing or altering barriers (e.g., dams, dikes) to the delivery of suspended sediment to marshes are discussed as management or restoration techniques to consider for increasing long-term sustainability of marshes. Adaptation measures are many (e.g., thin-layer sediment application to marsh surface, facilitation of landward marsh migration, shoreline stabilization), but all require study to evaluate their potential for enhancing resilience. Research, monitoring, and dynamic modeling, coupled with appropriate management and adaptation approaches implemented at local and regional scales, will contribute to the challenge of sustaining salt marshes in an uncertain future of sea-level rise, other climate factors, and stressors associated with a developing coastal zone.     

Analytical models for velocity distributions in compound channels with emerged and submerged vegetated floodplains

The lateral distributions of depth-averaged velocity in open compound channels with emerged and submerged vegetated floodplains were analyzed based on the analytical solution of the depth-integrated Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equation with a term to account for the effects of vegetation. The three cases considered for open channels were two-stage rectangular channel with emerged vegetated floodplain, rectangular channel with submerged vegetated corner, and two-stage rectangular channel with submerged vegetated floodplain, respectively. To predict the depth-averaged velocity with submerged vegetated floodplains, we proposed a new method based on a two-layer approach where flow above and through the vegetation layer was described separately. Moreover, further experiments in the two-stage rectangular channel with submerged vegetated floodplain were carried out to verify the results. The analytical solutions of the cases indicated that the corresponding analytical depth-averaged velocity distributions agree well with the simulated and experimental prediction. The analytical solutions of the cases with theoretical foundation and without programming calculation were reasonable and applicable, which were more convenient than numerical simulations. The analytical solutions provided a way for future researches to solve the problems of submerged vegetation and discontinuous phenomenon of depth-averaged velocity at the stage point for compound channels. Understanding the hydraulics of flow in compound channels with vegetated floodplains is very important for supporting the management of fluvial processes.     

Interest in geological and palaeontological curiosities by southern African non-western societies: A review and perspectives for future study

Compared with other parts of the world, the study of geomythology in southern Africa, and the associated documentation of non-western awareness of palaeontological and geological phenomena, is in an early phase. We focus on examples of rocks and fossils as items of special interest and curiosity, and we search for evidence of an indigenous palaeontology and geology. We review twenty-one sites or cases for which published accounts exist, and we describe a newly identified trilobite manuport site. In combination these sites provide various levels of evidence of palaeontological and geological awareness exhibited by non-western cultures in southern Africa, and how these cultures incorporated this knowledge into their understanding of their world. We anticipate that in time a diverse heritage of such ‘natural knowledge’ may become evident in southern Africa, aided in part by recognition of the possibility that rock art images may be associated with awareness of body fossils and trace fossils. We suggest ways in which further analysis may bolster this contention.     

The stratigraphic implications of long‐term terrace agriculture in dynamic landscapes: Polycyclic terracing from Kythera Island,Greece

Geoarchaeological work in conjunction with the Kythera Island Project indicates that significant portions of the island are now or have at some time been terraced. Geoarchaeological observations and local historical records confirm extensive terracing during the last few centuries. Detailed stratigraphic, soil, and sediment analysis along with radiocarbon dating suggest, however, that some of the slopes and small drainages of the island were terraced more than once and that this relatively recent phase of terracing followed earlier efforts, some dating to the early second millennium B.C. (Bronze Age). During each phase of slope organization significant amounts of soil were moved locally on the slopes. Polycyclic terracing has, therefore, interesting implications for surface survey visibility, preservation of archaeological record, early agricultural landscapes and soils, and past land use, as well as for interpretation of local records of Holocene sediment mobilization and valley alluviation. Geoarchaeological investigation of terraces may reveal unique archaeological information not available in urban or village dwelling sites. Early features, such as those reported in this paper, however, usually remain hidden due to the remarkable lack of stratigraphic investigations of non‐site landscapes. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Uranium-lead ages for lunar zircons: Evidence for a prolonged period of granophyre formation from 4.32 to 3.88 Ga

Abstract The ages of a number of small fragments of lunar granophyre have been determined by the in situ U-Th-Pb isotopic analysis of zircon using a sensitive high mass-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP I). The zircon from lunar granophyre is characterized by consistently high U and Th contents (most 200–500 ppm and 100–300 ppm, respectively) compared to zircon from mafic lunar rocks. Some fragments of lunar granophyre are found to be as old as 4.32 Ga, supporting other evidence that the original lunar magma ocean crystallized completely within ～200 Ma of the formation of the Moon itself. Other fragments are as young as 3.88 Ga, which is much later than the time of formation of most of the lunar crust. The older lunar granophyres have rare-earth-element (REE) patterns that are similar to lunar KREEP, whilst the younger granophyres have bow-shaped REE patterns that feature a greater relative enrichment in the heavy REE. The wide range of ages of numerous lunar zircons, lunar granophyres and other rocks indicates that zircon-forming magmatism in the lunar highlands was most active prior to 4.3 Ga but continuous until at least 3.88 Ga. The U-Pb isotopic composition of much lunar zircon is near concordant, but the effects of isotopic disturbance as late as ～1.0 Ga are observed in some zircon, both within granophyre fragments recrystallized by reheating and within fragments in which the original delicate silica-K-feldspar granophyric intergrowth is well preserved. It is therefore essential to make multiple analyses of individual zircon grains, and preferably analyses of suites of zircons from lunar igneous rocks if they are to be dated reliably by the U-Pb method. It is possible that some of the younger lunar granophyres are the product of large-scale silicate-liquid immiscibility within late-stage differentiates, but this remains unproven until remnants of demonstrably cogenetic, Fe-rich, immiscible liquid are positively identified.     

The Cerro los Calvos and La Banderia chondrites

Abstract— The Cerro los Calvos meteorite is a single stone of 68.5 g found in the Nuevo Mercurio strewn field of Zacatecas, Mexico (24°20′N, 102°8′W). It is an unusual H4 chondrite. Its olivine (Fa_12.5) and orthopyroxene (Fs 11.7, Wo 0.8) are reduced relative to typical H chondrites. The La Banderia meteorite of 54.3 g from the same vicinity is an LL5 chondrite of shock classification e.     

A search for the K-line of CaII during the eclipse of 7 March, 1970

Conclusions At the 7 March, 1970 total eclipse, there were no significant differences between intensity levels between K-line and H-line, nor were there any finely structured features in the upper atmosphere of the sun in H larger than 2.5. The two H features close to the limb, though unexpected, do not appear to be remarkable.Operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, under contract with the National Science Foundation.