Local groundwater balance model: stakeholders’ efforts to address groundwater monitoring and literacy

Understanding groundwater systems is crucial to ensure their monitoring and protection. Global groundwater models and predictive tools exist to better understand them. In view of scarce groundwater data, especially in developing countries, the question of how to model these systems and make them usable for groundwater management is crucial. Herein, we demonstrate how a transdisciplinary process can overcome the data scarcity problem and lead to the development of a local groundwater balance model (LGBM). Over 50 actors from more than 15 disciplines and groundwater-related sectors were involved for the case of Yucatan, Mexico. Results revealed high wastewater emissions to the aquifer discharged without treatment and poor recycling practices. The method can be adapted to specific regions, can be used to address methodological challenges for monitoring, and can contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Development Agenda by addressing Sustainable Development Goal 6-related Targets (6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6(a, b)).     

Filtered incremental velocity: A novel approach in intensity measures for seismic collapse estimation

This study evaluates the performance of a new intensity measure, referred to as filtered incremental velocity FIV3, which is computed using time-domain features extracted from an acceleration time series and is aimed at the evaluation of structural collapse. This novel approach focuses on the area under a small number of acceleration pulses in the ground motion instead of focusing on the peak response of linear elastic oscillators as in many recently proposed measures of ground motion intensity. FIV3 is developed based on previous research that has highlighted the close relation between the incremental velocity of a ground motion and its potential to induce large inelastic incursions on structures. However, unlike the original definition of incremental velocity which provides a single level of intensity for a ground motion, this new intensity measure is period-dependent and computed as the sum of the three largest incremental velocities obtained from a low-pass filtered ground acceleration time series. Efficiency and sufficiency with respect to several ground motion parameters such as magnitude, source-to-site-distance, spectral shape, scale factor, and duration are carefully evaluated and compared against those computed with some traditional and recently proposed intensity measures using collapse results from a four-story reinforced concrete frame. Results indicate that FIV3 leads to lower variability of collapse estimates and therefore higher efficiency as well as high sufficiency compared with those of other ground motion intensity parameters indicating that this new intensity measure is a promising parameter for structural collapse risk assessment.     

Object-based image analysis supported by data mining to discriminate large areas of soybean

This research aimed to analyze the possibility to estimate and automatically map large areas of soybean cultivation through the use of MODIS (Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) images. Two major techniques were used: GEOgraphic-Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) and Data Mining (DM). In order to obtain the images, the segmentation algorithm implemented by Definiens Developer was used. A decision tree (DT) was created from a training set previously prepared. Time-series of images from the MODIS sensor aboard the Terra satellite were acquired in order to represent the wide variation of the vegetation pattern along the soybean crop cycle. The time-series data were used only for the CEI index. Furthermore, to compare the results obtained from GEOBIA, the slicing technique was used at the CEI level. After the training, the DT was applied to the vegetation indices generating the thematic map of the spatial distribution of soybean. In accordance with the error matrix and kappa parameter analysis, tests for statistical significance were created. Results indicate that the classification achieved by Kappa coefficients is 0.76. In short, the obtained results proved that combining vegetation indices and time-series data using GEOBIA return promising results for mapping soybean plantation on a regional scale.     

Predicting significant wave height with artificial neural networks in the South Atlantic Ocean: a hybrid approach

Ocean Dynamics - Accurate simulations of significant wave height (Hs) are extremely important for the safety of navigation, port operations, and oil and gas exploration. Thus, accurate forecasts of...     

The Langjiexue Group is an in situ sedimentary sequence rather than an exotic block: Constraints from coeval Upper Triassic strata of the Tethys Himalaya(Qulonggongba Formation)

The Upper Triassic Langjiexue Group in southeastern Tibet has long been an enigmatic geological unit. It belongs tectonically to the northern Tethys Himalayan zone, but provenance signatures of the detritus it contains are significantly different from those of typical Tethys Himalayan sandstones. Because the Langjiexue Group is everywhere in fault contact with Tethys Himalayan strata, its original paleogeographic position has remained controversial for a long time. According to some researchers, the Langjiexue Group was deposited onto the northern edge of the Indian passive continental margin, whereas others interpreted it as an independent block accreted to the northern Indian margin only during final India-Asia convergence and collision in the Paleocene. This study compares the Langjiexue Group and coeval Upper Triassic strata of the southern Tethys Himalayan zone(Qulonggongba Formation). Our new provenance data indicate that Qulonggongba Formation sandstones contain common felsic volcanic rock fragments, minor plagioclase, and euhedral to subhedral zircon grains yielding Late Paleozoic to Triassic ages. These provenance features compare well with those of the Langjiexue Group. Because the Qulonggongba Formation certainly belongs to the Tethys Himalayan zone, the provenance similarity with the Langjiexue Group indicates that the latter is also an in situ Tethys Himalayan sedimentary sequence rather than part of an exotic block. Volcanic detritus including Late Paleozoic to Triassic zircon grains in both Langjiexue Group and Qulonggongba Formation are interpreted to have been derived from the distant Gondwanide orogen generated by Pan-Pacific subduction beneath the southeastern margin of Gondwana. The Qulonggongba Formation, deposited above marlstones of the lower Upper Triassic Tulong Group, is overlain by India-derived coastal quartzose sandstones of the uppermost Triassic Derirong Formation. Deposition of both the Qulonggongba Formation and the Langjiexue Group were most likely controlled by regional tectonism, possibly a rifting event along the northern margin of Gondwana.     

Oceanographic Characteristics of a Multi-Specific Fishing Ground of the Central South Brazil Bight

In the Central South Brazil Bight, a multispecific demersal trawl fishery is conducted by trawlers licensed for the industrial pink shrimp (Penaeus paulensis and Penaeus brasiliensis) fishery. In addition to the pink shrimp, many by-catch species have become increasingly valued in the last two decades. In spite of the importance of this multispecific fishery, the oceanographic characteristics of the inner continental shelf, onshore the 100 m isobath, are poorly known. In this paper we present, for the fist time, monthly oceanographic records taken from December 1995 to May 1997 with the R/V ‘Diadorim’ at two of the main fishing grounds of this region. Water temperature data showed the formation of a strong thermocline during summer, from November to April. This thermal gradient, due to the South Atlantic central water (SACW) intrusion that reaches these shallow waters, disappeared with the homogenization of the water column during autumn and winter, from May to September. This cold and low salinity water does not originate from local river discharges, but also represents an advection of sub-Antartic water mass. After this and during spring, a new thermocline develops, reaching its maximal expression from February to March. A maximal gradient was registered in February 1997, when the temperature dropped from 26°C at 7 m to 16°C at 14 m depth. This result shows that the SACW intrusion is a large-scale phenomenon that regularly influences the whole inner continental shelf up to 20 m. Demersal fishing grounds located in this area were covered during summer by a cold and nutrient-rich mass of water that resulted in an unusual maximum of chlorophyll a values near the bottom (30 m). The homogenization of the water column and the presence of another cold water mass during winter resulted in a strong semi-annual thermal cycle on the bottom. The role of this important oceanographic process in fishery production and dynamics deserves further investigation, but the data presented here show evidence for the importance of this phenomenon.     

DDO integrated photometry of globular clusters and initial chemical evolution of the galaxy

Integrated photometry of 91 galactic globular clusters was carried out with theUBV and DDO systems. A method to determine reddening is presented. Metal abundances were obtained by means of a calibration ofC(42–45)₀ vs [Fe/H]. Thirteen other clusters whose metallicity values were made compatible with those observed here, were added to the sample totalizing a homogenous set of [Fe/H] estimates for 104 globular clusters. This sample is used to analyze the spatial distribution of metallicities. An estimate of the intrinsic metal abundance frequency distribution of the globular cluster system is provided. The chemical properties of the globular cluster system are compared with one-zone-chemical-enrichment models which take into account gas loss from star formation regions. It is concluded that these models cannot describe the complete chemical enrichment of the globular cluster system.     

Sedimentary provenance of the Late Paleozoic metamorphic basement,south-central Chile: Implications for the evolution of the western margin of Gondwana

ABSTRACT

U-Pb detrital zircon age patterns are presented for nine samples of metapelites from the metamorphic basement of south-central Chile between 37° and 40°S, along with detrital zircon ages for a sample from the Piedra Santa metamorphic complex and a crystallization age of the Chachil plutonic complex, farther east in Argentina. Two distinct zircon age patterns are identified. One is a pattern with a dominant population of zircons at ca. 470 Ma (Ordovician), a widespread presence of Mesoproterozoic ages (1200 ? 1000 Ma), and a Carboniferous maximum deposition age indicated by the youngest zircon population. The second pattern is drastically different, with a main population of Permian zircons, a 290–250 Ma maximum deposition age, and a minor contribution of Pennsylvanian age zircons. Our results, coupled with previously reported metamorphic ages, show that the patterns reflect the presence of different tectonic blocks separated by the Mocha-Villarrica Fault Zone at 39°S. Metapelites north of this structure have the Ordovician-dominated pattern characteristic of the Western Series of the Paleozoic basement, and those south of the fault show the Permian-dominated pattern observed in the younger high-pressure metapelites from the Bahía Mansa metamorphic complex. The Piedra Santa metamorphic complex also shows the Ordovician-dominated pattern and was intruded by the Chachil plutonic complex dated here at ca. 303 Ma. Therefore, the Piedra Santa complex is interpreted as coeval with the Chilean metamorphic basement. The present dislocation of blocks with different ages is attributed to continental-scale dextral strike-slip tectonics along the Huincul Fault Zone, Argentina, which extends to the west as the Mocha-Villarrica Fault Zone in Chile.