Analysis of lateral rock spreading process initiation with a numerical modelling approach

The first erosional front of the south‐eastern Alps has been affected by several deep‐seated landslides. The movements affected a Jurassic limestone sequence underlain by an upper Trias unit (Keuper) mainly composed of marl and clays. Horst‐ and graben‐like structures, newly formed gravitational faults, outflow and other field evidence suggest that such movements are consistent with lateral rock spreading processes. An example of such processes is the ‘La Marbrière’ slope, where field investigations have revealed that three distinct zones corresponding to three evolutionary stages of movement exist. The question is: What are the structural and mechanical modifications undergone by the slope between those evolution stages? To tackle this question, numerical models based on a 2D cross section of the ‘La Marbrière’ slope have been performed. Results show that, to fit the structural evidence of the precollapse situation, elasto‐plastic behaviour of the Trias Keuper unit is needed. The transition between the precollapse and fresh post‐collapse situations requires a modification of the mechanical behaviour of the Trias Keuper unit to Burger type, resulting in the formation of antithetic and synthetic gravitational faults (producing a graben‐like structure).     

Fluid-induced high-temperature metasomatism at Rundv?gshetta in the Lützow-Holm Complex,East Antarctica: Implications for the role of brine during granulite formation

We report new petrological, phase equilibria modeling, and fluid inclusion data for pelitic and mafic granulites from Rundv?gshetta in the highest-grade region of the Neoproterozoic Lützow-Holm Complex(LHC),East Antarctica, and provide unequivocal evidence for fluid-rock interaction and high-temperature metasomatism in the presence of brine fluid. The studied locality is composed dominantly of well-foliated pelitic granulite(K-feldspar+quartz+sillimanite+garnet+ilmenite) with foliation-parallel bands and/or layers of mafic granulite(plagioclase+orthopyroxene+garnet+ilmenite+quartz+biotite). The boundary between the two lithologies is defined by thin(about 1 -20 cm in thick) garnet-rich layers with a common mineral assemblage of garnet+plagioclase+quartz+ilmenite+biotite ? orthopyroxene. Systematic increase of grossular and decrease of pyrope contents in garnet as well as decreasing Mg/(Fe+Mg) ratio of biotite from the pelitic granulite to garnet-rich rock and mafic granulite suggest that the garnet-rich layer was formed by metasomatic interaction between the two granulite lithologies. Phase equilibria modeling in the system NCKFMASHTO demonstrates that the metasomatism took place at 850 -860℃, which is slightly lower than the peak metamorphism of this region, and the modal abundance of garnet is the highest along the metapeliteemetabasite boundary(up to 40%), which is consistent with the field and thin section observations. The occurrence of brine(7.0 -10.9 wt.% Na Cleqfor ice melting or 25.1 -25.5 wt.% NaC leqfor hydrohalite melting) fluid inclusions as a primary phase trapped within plagioclase in the garnet-rich layer and the occurrence of Cl-rich biotite(Cl = 0.22 -0.60 wt.%) in the metasomatic rock compared to that in pelitic(0.15 -0.24 wt.%) and mafic(0.06-0.13 wt.%) granulites suggest infiltration of brine fluid could have given rise to the high-temperature metasomatism. The fluid might have been derived from external sources possibly related to the formation of major suture zones formed during the Gondwana amalgamation.     

Tsunami runup on steep slopes: How good linear theory really is

This is a study of the application of linear theory for the estimation of the maximum runup height of long waves on plane beaches. The linear theory is reviewed and a method is presented for calculating the maximum runup. This method involves the calculation of the maximum value of an integral, now known as the runup integral. Laboratory and numerical results are presented to support this method. The implications of the theory are used to reevaluate many existing empirical runup correlations. It is shown that linear theory predicts the maximum runup satisfactorily. This study demonstrates that it is now possible to match complex offshore wave-evolution algorithms with linear theory runup solutions for the purpose of obtaining realistic tsunami inundation estimates.     

Late Wuchiapingian (Late Dzhulfian,early Late Permian) limestone olistolites within the Tertiary flysch of Glypia Unit (Mount Parnon,central–eastern Peloponnesus,Greece)

Some olistolites reworked in a Tertiary flysch of Mount Parnon (Peloponnesus, Greece) exhibit a Late Permian assemblage, dominated by Paradunbarula (Shindella) shindensis, Hemigordiopsis cf. luquensis and Colaniella aff. minima. This association corresponds to the Late Wuchiapingian (=Late Dzhulfian), a substage whose algae and foraminifera are generally little known. Contemporaneous limestones crop out in the middle part of the Episkopi Formation in Hydra, but they are rather commonly reworked in Mesozoic and Cainozoic sequences. The palaeobiogeographical affinities shared by the foraminiferal markers of Greece, southeastern Pamir, and southern China, are very strong (up to the specific level), and are congruent with the Pangea B reconstructions. To cite this article: E. Skourtsos et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 925–931.     

Petrogenesis,zircon U–Pb age,and geochemistry of the A-type Mogou syenite,western Henan Province: Implications for Mesozoic tectono-magmatic evolution of the Qinling Orogen

The Mogou syenite intruded into the Mesoproterozoic Xiong’er Group is the main lithostratigraphic unit, along the southern margin of the North China Craton (NCC). This paper reports zircon LA-ICP-MS data, whole-rock major and trace element compositions of late Triassic magmatic rocks in the Mogou syenite, in order to constrain the formation age of the Mogou syenite, research the origin and evolution of the magma and analyse the geodynamic setting of the Qinling Orogen (QO) in Late Triassic. These rocks consist of medium- to coarse-grained syenite and fine-grained quartz syenite. Zircon U–Pb dating yields a crystallization age of 226.5±2.7 Ma. The syenites are characterized by high SiO₂ (63.49–72.17%), alkali (K₂O+Na₂O of 11.18–15.38%) and potassium (K₂O/Na₂O of 2.88–28.11), are peralkaline or metaluminous (molar A/CNK of 0.87–1.02) and belong to shoshonite series. The syenites have ΣREE of 33.01–191.30 ppm, LREE/HREE of 14–20, (La/Yb)_N of 11–24, with LREE-rich distribution pattern and obvious differentiation between HREE and LREE. Eu anomalies are positive for the medium- to coarse-grained syenite and weakly negative for the fine-grained quartz syenite. In addition, the syenites are enriched in large-ion lithophile elements (Ba, K, Sr, and Pb) but depleted in high strength field elements (Ti, Ta, Nb, Zr, and Hf), and have high differentiation indices of 91.69–97.06. These geochemical features indicate that the primary magma of the Mogou syenite most likely originated from a mantle source with minor crustal component, and underwent a fractional crystallization process during its emplacement. The late Triassic A-type Moguo syenite along the southern margin of the NCC was generated in the late stage of the syn-collision event of QO, recording a transition period from compression to extension at around 227 Ma.     

Producing time series of river water height by means of satellite radar altimetry—a comparative study

Abstract

Satellite radar altimetry is complementary to in situ limnimetric surveys as a means of estimating the water height of large rivers, lakes and flood plains. Production of water height time series by satellite radar altimetry technology requires first the selection of radar ground target locations corresponding to water body surfaces under study, i.e. the definition of “virtual limnimetric stations”. We propose to investigate qualitative and quantitative differences between three representative virtual station creation methodologies: (a) a fully manual method, (b) a semi-automatic method based on a land cover characterization that allows the water body surface under study to be located; and (c) an original fully automatic procedure that exploits a digital elevation model and an estimation of the river width. The results yielded by these three methods are comparable: maximum absolute magnitudes of water height differences being 0.46, 0.26 and 0.15 m for, respectively, 95, 90 and 80% of the water height values obtained. Moreover, more than 67% and 92% of time series jointly produced by the methods present root mean square differences lower than 20 and 50 cm, respectively. The results show that the fully automatic method developed herein provides as reliable results as the fully manual one. This opens the way to use of satellite radar altimetry for the generation of water height time series on a large scale, and considerably extends the applicability of satellite radar altimetry in hydrology.

Citation Roux, E., Santos da Silva, J., Vieira Getirana, A. C., Bonnet, M.-P., Calmant, S., Martinez, J.-M. & Seyler, F. (2010) Producing time series of river water height by means of satellite radar altimetry—comparative study. Hydrol. Sci. J. 55(1), 104–120.     

Post‐processing of medium‐range probabilistic hydrological forecasting: impact of forcing,initial conditions and model errors

The impact of errors in the forcing, errors in the model structure and parameters, and errors in the initial conditions is investigated in a simple hydrological ensemble prediction system. The hydrological model is based on an input nonlinearity connected with a linear transfer function and forced by precipitation forecasts from the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Ensemble Prediction System (EPS). The post‐processing of the precipitation and/or the streamflow using information from the reforecasts performed by ECMWF is tested. For this purpose, hydrological reforecasts are obtained by forcing the hydrological model with the precipitation from the reforecast data. In the present case study, it is found that the post‐processing of the hydrological ensembles with a statistical model fitted on the hydrological reforecasts improves the verification scores better than the use of post‐processed precipitation ensembles. In the case of large biases in the precipitation, combining the post‐processing of both precipitation and streamflow allows for further improvements. During the winter, errors in the initial conditions have a larger impact on the scores than errors in the model structure as designed in the experiments. Errors in the parameter values are largely corrected with the post‐processing. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.