Discrimination test between the Halphen (A and B) and the gamma distributions

Hydrological frequency analysis is the most widely used method to estimate risk for extreme values. The most used statistical distributions to fit extreme value data in hydrology can be regrouped in three classes: class C of regularly varying distributions, class D of sub exponential and class E, Exponential depending on their tail behavior. The Halphen distributions (Halphen type A (HA), Halphen type B (HB)) are separated by the Gamma distribution; these three distributions belong to class D and can be displayed in the (δ₁, δ₂) moment-ratio diagram. In this study, a statistical test for discriminating between HA, HB and the Gamma distribution is developed. The methodology is based on: (1) the generation of N samples of different sizes n around the Gamma curve; (2) the determination of the confidence zones around the Gamma curve for each fixed couple (δ₁, δ₂) moment-ratios and finally; (3) the study of the power of the test developed and the calculation of the type 2 error β and the power of the test which is 1-β for a fixed significance level α. Results showed that the test is powerful especially for high coefficients of skewness. This test will be included in Decision Support System of the HYFRAN-PLUS software.     

Long-Term and Short-Term Variations of Sea Level in Eastern Canada: A Review

This is a review of sea level data performed at three selected stations (Québec-Lauzon, Harrington Harbour,and Halifax) in eastern Canada in order to investigate the seasonal trends and other long-term and short-term changes which occurred since the beginning of the 20th century. Stations situated in riverine or estuarine regions (e.g., Québec-Lauzon) are significantly affected by freshwater flow in their annual cycle of sea level changes and exhibit a definite maximum in spring and minimum in autumn-winter. Other stations situated in the eastern half of the Gulf of St. Lawrence (e.g., Harrington Harbour) or near the open Atlantic coast (Halifax) mainly follow the general cycle of subarctic regions, with lows in spring-summer and highs in autumn-winter. Such seasonal variations appear to be related to the atmospheric pressure and baroclinic current variations. Secular trends in mean sea level in eastern Canadian waterbodies show a mean rise of about 2.56 mm/yr -1 due to tectonic motions, that is, land subsidence. At several stations in eastern Canada, evidence is found for the influence of the nodal tide (18.6 years), the sunspot cycle (10.8 years), the lunar perigee (8.47 years), the pole tide (14.5 months), the annual cycle (12 months), and semiannual tidal cycle (6 months) in sea level records. Beside long-term oscillations with periods of more than one year, evidence is found for high energetic semidiurnal and diurnal tides where they contribute largely (from 90-95%) to short term variability of sea level. In the residual signal (variations of sea level--tidal variations), short-term variations between 2 to 30 days can be attributed to meterological forcing (atmospheric pressure and winds), longitudinal seiches (2-10 h), atmospheric tides (12 h and 24 h) and inertial oscillations (16-18 h). A regressive model showed that the water discharge from the St. Lawrence River contributes 29% to the monthly residual sea level at Québec-Lauzon. The atmospheric pressure and winds contribute respectively 8.1% and 8.9% at this station. They contribute 52.1% and 7.7% at Harrington Harbour and 41.8% and 14.3% at Halifax. The regression coefficients of residual sea level on atmospheric pressure are respectively estimated to be -1.507 cm. ( hPa ) -1 ( - 0.345 cm. ( hPa ) -1 ), -0.776 cm. ( hPa ) -1 ( - 0.112 cm. ( hPa ) -1 ) and -0.825 cm. ( hPa ) -1 ( - 0.008 cm. ( hPa ) -1 ) at the three stations. Compared to the coefficient of the inverted barometer, estimated to be -1 cm. ( hPa ) -1 , these effects of the atmospheric pressure on sea level variations seem to be amplified at Que´bec-Lauzon by the wind effects (and water discharge) while they are reduced at Harrington Harbour and Halifax.     

Variations of the age of tides in the global oceans

Abstract

Earlier studies on the age of tide dealt mostly with the age of the semi‐diurnal tide in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In these studies, the variations of the age of tide were determined making use of recorded tidal data up to and including the 1960s. In the present study, all available tidal data till the mid 1980s are utilized and the computations were done for the four global oceans: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. Also, in addition to the age of the semi‐diurnal tide, the age of the parallax and the age of the diurnal tide were determined. The distribution patterns for the positive and negative ages for the semi‐diurnal tide, parallax, and diurnal tide were related whenever possible with the tidal amphidromic point locations and the amplitude ratios S₂/M₂, N₂/M₂, and O₁/K₁.     

Sexual reproduction of Hippospongia communis (Lamarck, 1814) (Dictyoceratida,Demospongiae): comparison of two populations living under contrasting environmental conditions

The study of the reproductive processes of benthic invertebrates is essential to the understanding of their population dynamics and is also important in formulating conservation plans, especially for exploited species. The sexual reproduction of Hippospongia communis, the ‘honeycomb’ bath sponge, was studied at two locations in the Mediterranean Sea: the Kerkennah Islands (Tunisia, South Mediterranean), where the mean annual seawater temperature is 19 °C, and Marseille (France, Northwestern Mediterranean Sea), where the mean annual water temperature is 16 °C. The aim of this comparative study was to determine whether different environmental conditions could affect reproduction patterns. At both locations, H. communis was found to contain sexual reproductive elements year‐round. Oogenesis and embryogenesis occurred throughout the year, whereas spermatogenesis occurred during shorter periods between October and November, in both populations. While gametogenesis seemed to be synchronized, indicating that fertilization could occur at the same time at both locations, spawning was observed in late summer in Marseille, whereas it started in late spring for the Kerkennah population. Larval development of H. communis seems to take longer for sponges living at cooler locations such as Marseille. Reproductive effort calculated for both sexes showed significantly higher values for specimens from Kerkennah Islands. By comparing sexual reproductive patterns of populations living in two contrasted environments, we suggest that a change of thermal regime can affect H. communis phenology.     

Two Cu–Co sulfide phases and contrasting fluid systems in the Katanga Copperbelt, Democratic Republic of Congo

The Katanga Copperbelt is the Congolese part of the well-known Central African Copperbelt, the largest sediment-hosted stratiform Cu–Co province on Earth. Petrographic examination of borehole samples from the Kamoto and Luiswishi mines in the Katanga Copperbelt recognized two generations of hypogene Cu–Co sulfides and associated gangue minerals (dolomite and quartz). The first generation is characterized by fine-grained Cu–Co sulfides and quartz replacing dolomite. The second generation is paragenetically later and characterized by coarse-grained Cu–Co sulfides and quartz overgrown and partly replaced by dolomite. Fluid inclusion microthermometric data were collected from two different types of fluid inclusions: type-I fluid inclusions (liquid + vapor) in the quartz of the first generation and type-II fluid inclusions (liquid + vapor + halite) in the quartz of the second generation. The microthermometric analyses indicate that the fluids represented by type-I and type-II fluid inclusions had very different temperatures and salinities and were not in thermal equilibrium with the host rock.Petrographic and microthermometric data indicate the presence of at least two main hypogene Cu–Co sulfide phases in the Katanga Copperbelt. The first is an early diagenetic typical stratiform phase, which produced fine-grained sulfides that are disseminated in the host rock and frequently concentrated in nodules and lenticular layers. This phase is related to a hydrothermal fluid with a moderate temperature (115 to 220 °C, or less if reequilibration of inclusions has occurred) and salinity (11.3 to 20.9 wt.% NaCl equiv.). The second hypogene Cu–Co phase produced syn-orogenic coarse-grained sulfides, which also occur disseminated in the host rock but mainly concentrated in a distinct type of stratiform nodules and layers and in stratabound veins and tectonic breccia cement. This second phase is related to a hydrothermal fluid with high temperature (270 to 385 °C) and salinity (35 to 45.5 wt.% NaCl equiv.).A review of available microthermometric and ore geochronological data of the Copperbelt in both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia supports the regional presence of the two Cu–Co phases proposed in our study. Future geochemical analyses in the Copperbelt should take into account the presence of, at least, these two Cu–Co phases, their contrasting fluid systems and the possible overprint of the first phase by the second one.     

Hydro-environmental status and soil management of the River Nile Delta,Egypt

The sea level rise has its own-bearing on the coastal recession and hydro-environmental degradation of the River Nile Delta. Attempts are made here to use remote sensing to detect the coastal recession in some selected parts and delineating the chemistry of groundwater aquifers and surface water, which lie along south-mid-northern and coastal zone of the Nile Delta. Eight water samples from groundwater monitoring wells and 13 water samples from surface water were collected and analyzed for various hydrochemical parameters. The groundwater samples are classified into five hydrochemical facies on Hill-Piper trilinear diagram based on the dominance of different cations and anions: facies 1: Ca–Mg–Na–HCO₃–Cl–SO₄ type I; facies 2: Na–Cl–HCO₃ type II; facies 3: Na–Ca–Mg–Cl type III, facies 4: Ca–Na–Mg–Cl–HCO₃ type IV and facies 5: Na–Mg–Cl type V. The hydrochemical facies showed that the majority of samples were enriched in sodium, bicarbonate and chloride types and, which reflected that the sea water and tidal channel play a major role in controlling the groundwater chemical composition in the Quaternary shallow aquifers, with a severe degradation going north of Nile Delta. Also, the relationship between the dissolved chloride (Cl, mmol/l), as a variable, and other major ion combinations (in mmol/l) were considered as another criterion for chemical classification system. The low and medium chloride groundwater occurs in southern and mid Nile Delta (Classes A and B), whereas the high and very high chloride (classes D and C) almost covers the northern parts of the Nile Delta indicating the severe effect of sea water intrusion. Other facets of hydro-environmental degradation are reflected through monitoring the soil degradation process within the last two decades in the northern part of Nile Delta. Land degradation was assessed by adopting new approach through the integration of GLASOD/FAO approach and Remote Sensing/GIS techniques. The main types of human induced soil degradation observed in the studied area are salinity, alkalinity (sodicity), compaction and water logging. On the other hand, water erosion because of sea rise is assessed. Multi-dates satellite data from Landsat TM and ETM+ images dated 1983 and 2003 were used to detect the changes of shoreline during the last two decades. The obtained results showed that, the eroded areas were determined as 568.20 acre; meanwhile the accreted areas were detected as 494.61 acre during the 20-year period.     

Integrated mass balance of some heavy metals fluxes in Yaakob village,south Sohag,Egypt

The pollution of soil with heavy metals has direct or indirect adverse effect on human health. The present work was conducted to identify all the expected sources and sinks for heavy metals by applying mass balance model to identify the retention rate of metals by soils in Yaakob village, south Sohag Governorate, Egypt. The studied inputs (sources) include P-fertilizers, irrigation water and dustfall, while the main outputs (sinks) are drainage water and harvested plants. The measurements indicate that soil, clover, dustfall and P-fertilizers contain considerable concentration of Cd, Cr, Co, Cu and Pb. The mass balance measurements indicate that the accumulation rate of Cd, Cr and Co in soil was 5.4, 54.6 and 16.3 g ha^?1 year^?1, respectively. However, depletion trend of Pb and Cu was about 1.4 and 5.2 g ha^?1 year^?1, respectively. The main source of Cd, Pb, Cr and Co in the study area is P-fertilizers with input flux 14.9, 89.9, 198.6 and 18.5 g ha^?1 year^?1, while Cu source was dustfall with 19.33 g ha^?1 year^?1. The index of geoaccumulation calculations indicates different degrees of contamination with Cd, Cr, Co and Cu. On the other hand, the main sink for the studied heavy metals was the Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrinum) which can be considered a good bioaccumulator of heavy metals.     

Modeling of seawater intrusion in a coastal aquifer of Karaburun Peninsula,western Turkey

Seawater intrusion is a major problem to freshwater resources especially in coastal areas where fresh groundwater is surrounded and could be easily influenced by seawater. This study presents the development of a conceptual and numerical model for the coastal aquifer of Karareis region (Karaburun Peninsula) in the western part of Turkey. The study also presents the interpretation and the analysis of the time series data of groundwater levels recorded by data loggers. The SEAWAT model is used in this study to solve the density-dependent flow field and seawater intrusion in the coastal aquifer that is under excessive pumping particularly during summer months. The model was calibrated using the average values of a 1-year dataset and further verified by the average values of another year. Five potential scenarios were analyzed to understand the effects of pumping and climate change on groundwater levels and the extent of seawater intrusion in the next 10 years. The result of the analysis demonstrated high levels of electrical conductivity and chloride along the coastal part of the study area. As a result of the numerical model, seawater intrusion is simulated to move about 420 m toward the land in the next 10 years under “increased pumping” scenario, while a slight change in water level and TDS concentrations was observed in “climate change” scenario. Results also revealed that a reduction in the pumping rate from Karareis wells will be necessary to protect fresh groundwater from contamination by seawater.     

Geo-environmental evaluation of Wadi El Raiyan Lakes,Egypt, using remote sensing and trace element techniques

Wadi El Raiyan depression represents a discharge area of excess wastewater from the Faiyum province. It comprises two lakes: the upper lake connects the lower one through a channel. The intensive agriculture in the area hazardously affects both lakes. To assess the status of these lakes, this work studies the change detection using image classification and post-classification comparison, physicochemical parameters, concentration of trace elements, and microbiological contents. The classified images indicate a maintained constant area of the upper lake from 1990 to 2012 and decreased by 1.6% in 2014. The lower lake area increased by 4.8% between 1990 and 2001, then decreased till 2014 and increased again by 8.4% in 2015. The change detection concluded that the lake could be disappeared by 2019 if the exploitation of water from the upper lake continues, or the lake could be rebounded if the government planned to increase the recharge. The factor analysis implies that the total Fe, Mn, Ni, Ba, and As are controlled by pH–Eh relationship, Cu by TDS, Pb by temperature, while Cd is attributed to anthropogenic factor. The upper and lower lake samples exhibit biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) values lower than fish farm samples. The high BOD and COD values were coupled by high nitrate contents in the studied water samples. The cultivated land drains and the fish farms samples have total coliform (TC) and fecal coliform (FC) higher than the samples collected from the upper lake.     

Aeromagnetic signature analysis of Gasus area and its surrounding,central eastern desert,Egypt

This study presents analysis and interpretation of aeromagnetic data to construct subsurface structure maps and determine the depths to magnetic basement. Subsequent analysis steps are applied to the total magnetic intensity (TMI) data. These steps include Reduction to the Pole (RTP) map that was derived from the TMI map then subjected to spectral frequency analysis to isolate RTP map into high and low frequencies and determine pseudo-depth for each map from power spectrum in which there were two main average levels (interfaces) at depth 1.3 and 0.7 km for the deep-seated and near-surface magnetic structures, respectively. 3D Euler deconvolution technique is applied to calculate the depth to the magnetic contacts; the results show clustering of solutions, the shallow solutions are related to the outcrops less than 80 m from flight level, and the solutions which are related to sedimentary cover locations (Um al-Huweitat, Wasif, and Mohamed Rabah basins) are ranged between 200 and to more than 1100 m. Moreover, anomaly enhancement techniques such as tilt derivative (TD), horizontal tilt derivative (TDX), and source edge detect (SED) are applied to enhance shallow features, and determining structure element boundary for both shallow- and deep-seated anomalies and revealing possible faults such as 2D forward modeling are applied to selected profiles to adjust the interpreted structures and map the boundaries and basement relief of the three basins (Mohammed Rabah, Wasif, and Um al-Huweitat). The analysis shows that the study area is affected with network of dip–slip faults due to high shearing and compression stress which formed grabens and horsts at different depth levels in the study area. The trends of predominant faults related to deep-seated structures are NW–SE with depths ranged between 1 and 1.4 km and in regard to the shallow-seated structure, the predominant fault trends are NW–SE, NNW–SSE, and NNE–SSW with depths ranged between 0.3 and 0.8 km.