The drying up of Britain? A national estimate of changes in seasonal river flows from 11 Regional Climate Model simulations

As climate change may modify the hydrological cycle significantly, understanding the impact on river flow is important because it affects long‐term water resources planning. Here, we describe a high‐resolution British assessment of changes in river flows in the 2050s under 11 different realisations of HadRM3. In winter, river flows may either increase or decrease, with a wide range of possible decreases in summer flow. These results should encourage adaptation that copes with a broad range of future hydrological conditions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Removing the Pressure Limitations on Flux Pile-Up Reconnection

In a recent Letter, Litvinenko, Forbes, and Priest (1996) claimed that the rate of the very fast flux-pile up reconnection is severely limited by the effects of plasma pressure. They considered however only two-dimensional, zero-vorticity flows. Here we show that this limitation is a feature of these restrictive assumptions and can be removed by relaxing either of them.     

Association between Messinian drainage network formation and major tectonic activity in the Marche Apennines (Italy)

The Marche Apennines (Italy) offer an excellent opportunity to constrain the temporal and spatial relationships between drainage network formation and tectonic activity. Using a combination of field data, seismic lines and boreholes we show that the main deformation phase took place during the Messinian when the area, affected by the Messinian sea level drop, emerged and evolved from marine to continental conditions. The results highlight that during the Messinian emersion a drainage network developed contemporaneously with an increase in tectonic activity that could be related to sea level fall and river erosion. The present‐day river system, which is dominated by transverse rivers that cut straight across the tectonic grain, is located in older Messinian palaeovalleys, even though the region was subsequently covered by water until the late Pliocene–early Pleistocene.     

Determination of critical shear stress of non‐cohesive soils using submerged jet test and turbulent kinetic energy

Laboratory tests using Jet Erosion Testing (JET) apparatus, impinging normally on a horizontal boundary, were conducted to determine the critical shear stress (τ_c) of non‐cohesive soil samples. A three‐dimensional (3D) SonTek/YSI 16 MHz Micro‐Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (MicroADV) was used to measure turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) at a radial limit of entrainment in the wall jet zone and the measurements were used to calculate τ_c of the samples. The results showed that TKE increases exponentially with increasing particle size. The τ_c from this study were comparable (R² = 0.8) to the theoretical τ_c from Shields diagram after bed roughness scale ratio (D/k_s), due to the non‐uniform bed conditions, was accounted for. This study demonstrated that JET and TKE can be used to determine τ_c of non‐cohesive soils. The use of JET and TKE was found to be faster and easier when compared to the conventional approach of using flumes. A relationship of TKE at the onset of incipient motion (TKE_c) and samples’ D₅₀ developed in this study can be used to predict τ_c of non‐cohesive soils under similar non‐uniform conditions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

VOEvent authentication via XML digital signature

A trivial modification to the XML schema of VOEvent v1.1 allows the inclusion of W3C digital signatures. Signatures enable identification, identification enables trust, and trust enables authorization. Such changes would inhibit abuse of the VOEvent networks. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Intensity attenuation for active crustal regions

We develop globally applicable macroseismic intensity prediction equations (IPEs) for earthquakes of moment magnitude M _W 5.0?C7.9 and intensities of degree II and greater for distances less than 300?km for active crustal regions. The IPEs are developed for two distance metrics: closest distance to rupture (R _rup) and hypocentral distance (R _hyp). The key objective for developing the model based on hypocentral distance??in addition to more rigorous and standard measure R _rup??is to provide an IPE which can be used in near real-time earthquake response systems for earthquakes anywhere in the world, where information regarding the rupture dimensions of a fault may not be known in the immediate aftermath of the event. We observe that our models, particularly the model for the R _rup distance metric, generally have low median residuals with magnitude and distance. In particular, we address whether the direct use of IPEs leads to a reduction in overall uncertainties when compared with methods which use a combination of ground-motion prediction equations and ground motion to intensity conversion equations. Finally, using topographic gradient as a proxy and median model predictions, we derive intensity-based site amplification factors. These factors lead to a small reduction of residuals at shallow gradients at strong shaking levels. However, the overall effect on total median residuals is relatively small. This is in part due to the observation that the median site condition for intensity observations used to develop these IPEs is approximately near the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program CD site-class boundary.