Stress-strain properties of Belfast estuarine clay

The extensive area of Postglacial soft silty clay at the head of Belfast Lough has caused many engineering problems in the central Belfast area. The clay is usually considered unsuitable as a bearing stratum, and consequently little attention has been paid in the past to detailed examination of its stress-strain behaviour. However, in the light of recent advances in foundation design based on clearer understanding of the response of soft clay to applied loading, tests have recently been carried out on typical samples of Belfast clay to achieve a more fundamental insight into the behaviour of the material. The paper describes triaxial tests on hand-trimmed samples of the clay and examines the behaviour with respect to yield and failure criteria, porewater pressure generation during shear, dependence of strength on direction and rate of testing, and “elastic” properties of the soil. The results show that the clay is lightly over-consolidated in the field, and that its behaviour is much more brittle, elastic and anisotropic than is suggested by routine sampling and testing procedures.     

Luna 24 ferrobasalt as a low-Mg primary melt

Luna 24 very-low titanium (VLT) ferrobasalts, metabasalts, brown glasses and impact melts form a tight compositional cluster with no gradation to other groupings postulated for the Luna 24 core components. This suggests that the Luna 24 VLT ferrobasalt was extruded as a liquid of its own composition and was not derived by fractional crystallization from a more magnesian parent in a surface flow. Furthermore, the characteristics of the core lithologies are not easily visualized as components of such a differentiated flow, e.g. brown glasses. Gravitative settling models purporting to demonstrate the validity of the flow differentiation model are merely permissive.Subsurface fractionation requires that plagioclase, not olivine, be the liquidus phase.The high-Mg component in the Luna 24 core can be constrained, though not identified, chemically, and it has neither the major element, trace element, isotopic, nor mineralogical characteristics required of a possible parent to the Luna 24 VLT ferrobasalt. Thus models of fractionation lack a physical expression of the less differentiated compositions, contrary to the belief that the high-Mg component in the core is the parent material.The Luna 24 VLT ferrobasalt is probably a primary low-Mg melt from a plagioclase-bearing source region, and may have undergone little or no fractionation prior to eruption. Such a model is compatible with, and suggested by, chemical and experimental data. Caution against postulating that all Mg-poor melts are fractionated products, based on terrestrial models, is advised. The terrestrial oceanic situation of primary melts with similar Mg/Fe is probably not valid for the Moon.     

A model equation for the transverse forces on cylinders in oscillatory flows

A quasi-steady model is presented to predict the transverse force on cylinders in waves and oscillating flows. The model assumes that the Strouhal number, based on the instantaneous flow velocity, is constant, taking a value of 0.2. It is also assumed that the lift coefficient, based on the instantaneous dynamic pressure of the flow, is constant over a half cycle of the flow. The predictions of the model are compared with measurements taken on a circular cylinder in planar oscillatory flow over the Keulegan Carpenter number, KC, range from 5 to 53. The agreement between predicted and measured transverse forces is good at high KC but deteriorates at low KC. For high KC, it is shown that the model can be further improved if additional variables are introduced into the model equation.     

Water quality in Sepetiba Bay,Brazil

Sepetiba Bay is located at 23 degrees S, 44 degrees W in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Water samples were taken at eight locations adjacent to the north shore of the Bay, near to villages and towns without sewage treatment provision. The samples were analysed and total and faecal coliform concentrations determined. A hydrodynamic model of the Bay was used together with a species dispersion model based on an adaptive quadtree mesh to predict faecal concentrations in the Bay. Effluent sources used in the model were defined using population data from census returns with flow and concentration values estimated using standard values recommended by the World Bank (WB) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). Sufficient agreement was obtained between the measured and predicted concentrations to support the use of WB and WHO summary statistics to estimate sources of sewage.     

Storminess and surges in the South-Western Approaches of the eastern North Atlantic: the synoptic climatology of recent extreme coastal storms

The climatology of intense winter cyclone events in the eastern North Atlantic responsible for high magnitude surge generation (top 1% of events) within the region of the South-Western Approaches to northwest France and southwest England is extracted from daily sea-level and 500-hPa level atmospheric pressure analyses. Cluster analysis yields discrete cyclone track regimes linked to upper airflow patterns being responsible for the generation of intense storms (central pressure at sea-level ≤990 hPa) which promote severe surge events ≥60 cm along the French coast of the South-Western Approaches. Fluctuations in storminess are strongly influenced by the southward intrusion and strengthening of the jet stream in mid-Atlantic. These occurrences are often associated with negative sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies near Newfoundland and a strengthening of the thermal gradient across the Atlantic well to the south of its normal position. Resultant cyclogenesis promotes storms displaying a delay in minimum central pressure attainment until well east of 14°W, encouraging enhancement of surge flow. Stepwise multiple regression analysis indicates that the most influential variables in promoting severe surge events in the South-Western Approaches are trans-Atlantic sea surface temperature gradients. The most important influence is the prevailing west–east sea surface temperature gradient during the month of the storm, followed by that for the prior month of the storm and thirdly, the north–south sea surface temperature gradient prevailing during the month of the event. Other influential variables reflect the character of the cyclone, storm duration, mean deepening rate of storm central pressure, the value of the outermost closed isobar around the storm centre, and the longitudinal position of the outermost closed isobar to the right of the cyclone track. In contrast, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is not very effective as a discriminator of surge activity. This may reflect the greater intra-month volatility of parameters used to derive the NAO index than of other monthly variables considered in the study. The lack of resolvability at the individual storm level probably also arises because of the monthly detailing of the NAO against storms of 2–3 days duration. This behavioural model of extreme storminess in the South-Western Approaches to northwest France provides the basis by which extremes of coastal susceptibility can be calibrated.     

Mid-IR (8–13 μm) images of the 21 μm,carbon rich proto-planetary nebulae

We present 9.7 and 11.8 m narrow band (/=10%) images of three carbon (C-) rich proto-planetary nebulae with an unusual 21 m feature: IRAS 07134+ 1005, IRAS 22272+5435, and IRAS 04296+3429. The images were taken at UKIRT using the Berkeley/IGPP/LEA mid-IR camera. All three objects have a bipolar shape adding to the existing evidence that C-rich PPNe are by nature bipolar. Furthermore, we find the same bipolar morphology in a previous study of the C-rich, young planetary nebula, IRAS 21282+5050. We believe these four objects form an evolutionary sequence which links the C-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars with the C-rich planetary nebulae (PNe). From this evolutionary sequence, we conclude that bipolarity in C-rich PNe begins on the AGB and that the dynamical ages of these PPNe are in fair agreement with theoretical ages for a 0.6 M hydrogen burning core star.     

The mid-IR radio correlation at high angular resolution: NGC253

We present high angular resolution (1.2), narrow band (/=0.1) images of the nucleus of NGC253 at three wavelengths in the mid-IR (8.5, 10.0, and 12.5 m). We find that most of the mid-IR flux in the nucleus of NGC253 derives from a very small region 120 pc in diameter. Within this small region there are three spatially and spectrally distinct IR components: two bright compact sources, and a surrounding envelope of low level, diffuse emission. The mid-IR and 6cm radio are loosely correlated in position but not in brightness. The implication is that the mid-IR - radio correlation may begin to break down on small spatial scales relevant to individual star forming regions and large individual sources. These variations in the mid-IR spectra and in the radio-IR correlation imply that the nuclear emission is excited by more than one mechanism and source type.     

Structural evolution and asymmetric uplift of the Nanga Parbat syntaxis,Pakistan Himalya

The Nanga Parbat syntaxis, in the NW Himalaya, is a still growing crustal-scale north-trending antiformal structure in the core of which Indian Plate gneisses have been uplifted from beneath the overthrust rocks of the Kohistan island arc. Isotopic and fission track geochronology show that uplift rates within the syntaxis have increased to present day rates of > 6 mm/yr. Uplift has been accommodated by a combination of initial northwest verging thrusting on the western margin of the syntaxis, followed by crustal scale folding within the syntaxis and latterly by dextral reverse faulting on the western margin. This thrusting, folding and faulting is the effect of deformation at the north-western lateral tips of the main Himalayan thrusts where they interfere with the south-southeast verging thrusts of the northwest Himalaya.

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Zusammenfassung Nanga Parbat Konvergenz im nordwestlichen Himalaya ist eine noch im Wachsen begriffene nach Norden streichende antiformale Struktur im Krustenmaßstab. In ihrem Inneren wurden Gneisse der Indischen Platte aus der Nähe der überschobenen Gesteine des Kohistan Inselbogens herausgehoben. Isotopen- und Spaltspurengeochronologie zeigen, daß das Heraushebungsmaß innerhalb der Konvergenz zu der heutigen Rate von > 6 mm/a angestiegen ist. Die Heraushebung hat sich angepaßt an die Kombination von initialer NW-vergenter Überschiebung auf den westlichen Konvergenzrand, die gefolgt wurde von einer krustalen Faltung und lateral von dextraler antithetischer Verwerfung des westlichen Randes. Diese Deckenüberschiebung, Faltung und Verwerfung ist das Resultat der Deformation des nordwestlichen Ausstriches der Himalaya-Hauptüberschiebung, wo sie in Wechselwirkung mit der SSE-vergenten Überschiebung des NW-Himalayas steht.

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Résumé La convergence du Nanga Parbat, dans le nordouest de l'Himalaya, est une structure antiforme d'orientation nord-sud, d'échelle crustale et toujours active; son cur est occupé par des gneiss de la plaque indienne qui ont été soulevés à travers les roches charriées de l'arc insulaire du Kohistan. Les données géochronologiques obtenues à partir des isotopes et des traces de fission montrent que le taux de soulèvement a augmenté dans cette structure jusqu'à la valeur actuelle de plus de 6 mm/an. Le soulèvement s'est effectué par la combinaison d'un charriage initial, à vergence nordouest, sur la bordure ouest de la convergence, suivi d'un plissement d'échelle crustale dans la convergence et, latéralement, d'une fracturation par faille dextre inverse sur sa bordure ouest. Ce charriage, ce plissement et cette fracturation sont l'expression de la déformation à l'extrémité latérale nord-ouest des charriages principaux de l'Himalaya, où ils interfèrent avec les charriages à vergence sud- sud-est de l'Himalaya septentrional.

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