Water partitioning between mantle minerals from peridotite xenoliths

The speciation and amount of water dissolved in nominally anhydrous silicates comprising eight different mantle xenoliths has been quantified using synchrotron micro-FTIR spectroscopy. Samples studied are from six geographic localities and represent a cross-section of the major upper mantle lithologies from a variety of tectonic settings. Clinopyroxene contains between 342 and 413 ppm H₂O. Orthopyroxene, olivine and garnet contain 169–201, 3–54 and 0 to <3 ppm H₂O, respectively. Pyroxenes water contents and the distribution of water between ortho- and clinopyroxene is identical regardless of sample mineralogy (D _water^cpx/opx = 2.1 ± 0.1). The total water contents of each xenolith are remarkably similar (113 ± 14 ppm H₂O). High-resolution spectroscopic traverses show that the concentration and speciation of hydrous defects dissolved in each phase are spatially homogeneous within individual crystals and identical in different crystals interspersed throughout the xenolith. These results suggest that the amount of water dissolved in the silicate phases is in partial equilibrium with the transporting melt. Other features indicate that xenoliths have also preserved OH signatures of equilibrium with the mantle source region: Hydroxyl stretching modes in clinopyroxene show that garnet lherzolites re-equilibrated under more reducing conditions than spinel lherzolites. The distribution of water between pyroxenes and olivine differs according to xenolith mineralogy. The distribution of water between clinopyroxene and olivine from garnet peridotites (D _water^cpx/oliv(gnt) = 22.2 ± 24.1) is a factor of four greater than mineral pairs from spinel-bearing xenoliths (D _water^cpx/oliv(sp) = 88.1 ± 47.8). Such an increase in olivine water contents at the spinel to garnet transition is likely a global phenomenon and this discontinuity could lead to a reduction of the upper mantle viscosity by 0.2–0.7 log units and a reduction of its electrical resistivity by a factor of 0.5–0.8 log units.     

Observations of eruption clouds from Sakura-zima volcano,Kyushu, Japan from Skylab 4

Hasselblad and Nikon stereographic photographs taken from Skylab between 9 June 1973 and 1 February 1974 give synoptic plan views of several entire eruption clouds emanating from Sakura-zima volcano in Kagoshima Bay, Kyushu, Japan. Analytical plots of these stereographic pairs, studied in combination with meteorological data, indicate that the eruption clouds did not penetrate the tropopause and thus did not create a stratospheric dust veil of long residence time. A horizontal eddy diffusivity of the order of 10⁶ cm² s^?1 and a vertical eddy diffusivity of the order of 10⁵ cm² s^?1 were calculated from the observed plume dimensions and from available meteorological data. These observations are the first, direct evidence that explosive eruption at an estimated energy level of about 10¹⁸ ergs per paroxysm may be too small under atmospheric conditions similar to those prevailing over Sakura-zima for volcanic effluents to penetrate low-level tropospheric temperature inversions and, consequently, the tropopause over northern middle latitudes. Maximum elevation of the volcanic clouds was determined to be 3.4 km. The cumulative thermal energy release in the rise of volcanic plumes for 385 observed explosive eruptions was estimated to be 10²⁰ to 10²¹ ergs (10¹³ to 10¹⁴ J), but the entire thermal energy release associated with pyroclastic activity may be of the order of 2.5 × 10²² ergs (2.5 × 10¹⁵ J).Estimation of the kinetic energy component of explosive eruptions via satellite observation and meteorological consideration of eruption clouds is thus useful in volcanology as an alternative technique to confirm the kinetic energy estimates made by ground-based geological and geophysical methods, and to aid in construction of physical models of potential and historical tephra-fallout sectors with implications for volcano-hazard prediction.     

Emission cores in H and K lines

Enhancement of the violet K₂ emission peak results when the atmospheric layers at heights where K₃ forms are moving downward with velocities of 10–20 km/sec or when the K₂ layers and those immediately below are moving upward with velocities of 3–7 km/sec. Evidence favoring the former alternative is cited.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Terrain Moisture Classification Using GPS Surface-Reflected Signals

In this letter, a novel method of land-surface classification using surface-reflected global positioning system (GPS) signals in combination with digital imagery is presented. Two GPS-derived classification features are merged with visible image data to create terrain moisture classes, defined here as visibly identifiable terrain or landcover classes containing a surface/soil moisture component. As compared to using surface imagery alone, classification accuracy is significantly improved for a number of visible classes when adding GPS-based signal features. Since the strength of the reflected GPS signal is proportional to the amount of moisture in the surface, the use of these GPS features provides information about the surface that is not obtainable using visible wavelengths alone. Application areas include hydrology, precision agriculture, and wetlands mapping     

Crowdsourcing the character of a place: Character‐level convolutional networks for multilingual geographic text classification

This article presents a new character‐level convolutional neural network model that can classify multilingual text written using any character set that can be encoded with UTF‐8, a standard and widely used 8‐bit character encoding. For geographic classification of text, we demonstrate that this approach is competitive with state‐of‐the‐art word‐based text classification methods. The model was tested on four crowdsourced data sets made up of Wikipedia articles, online travel blogs, Geonames toponyms, and Twitter posts. Unlike word‐based methods, which require data cleaning and pre‐processing, the proposed model works for any language without modification and with classification accuracy comparable to existing methods. Using a synthetic data set with introduced character‐level errors, we show it is more robust to noise than word‐level classification algorithms. The results indicate that UTF‐8 character‐level convolutional neural networks are a promising technique for georeferencing noisy text, such as found in colloquial social media posts and texts scanned with optical character recognition. However, word‐based methods currently require less computation time to train, so currently are preferable for classifying well‐formatted and cleaned texts in single languages.     

A geochemical and isotopic assessment of hydraulic connectivity of a stacked aquifer system in the Lisbon Valley,Utah (USA), and critical evaluation of environmental tracers

Hydrogeology Journal - This study investigates hydraulic connectivity of a stacked aquifer system in the Lisbon Valley of southeastern Utah (USA), within the Paradox Basin, where numerous faults...     

Commingled Fluids in Abandoned Boreholes: Proximity Analysis of a Hidden Liability

The interactions between old abandoned wellbores of suspect well integrity with hydraulic fracturing (HF), enhanced oil recovery (EOR), or salt water disposal (SWD) operations can result in upward leakage of deep aqueous liquids into overlying aquifers. This potential for upward fluid migration is largely unquantified as monitoring abandoned wells is rarely done, and leakage may go unnoticed especially when in deeper aquifers. This study performs a proximity analysis between old abandoned wells and HF, EOR, and SWD wells, and identifies commingled old abandoned wellbores, which are those wells where groundwater may flow from one aquifer to one or more other aquifers, to identify the locations with the greatest potential for upward aqueous fluid migration at three study sites in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Our analysis indicates that at all three study sites there are several locations where HF, EOR, or SWD operations are located in close proximity to a given old abandoned well. Much of this overlap occurs in formations above typically produced hydrocarbon reservoirs but below exploited potable aquifers, otherwise known as the intermediate zone, which is often connected between abandonment plugs in old abandoned wells. Information on the intermediate zone is often lacking, and this study suggests that unanticipated alterations to groundwater flow systems within the intermediate zone may be occurring. Results indicate the need for more field-based research on the intermediate zone.     

Identifying regional dust transport pathways: ­application of kinematic trajectory modelling to a trans‐Tasman case

A kinematic trajectory model is used to investigate potential pathways of dust transport from Australia to New Zealand. Historically, these have been assumed to follow rather direct west–east trajectories spanning 2 to 3 days, often resulting in red snow events in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. However, results from the present study which examined the route taken by air parcels originating in southern Australia during dust storms on 24 and 25 May 1994, indicate that trans‐Tasman dust transport trajectories are more diverse than previously thought, and display considerable variation during single events. These more divergent pathways tie in more closely with aeolian dust sedimentation patterns identified by ocean coring in the Tasman Sea, and may account for the deposition of Australian dust on sub‐Antarctic islands located well south of the Australian continent. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulated soil water storage effects on streamflow generation in a mountainous snowmelt environment,Idaho, USA

Although soil processes affect the timing and amount of streamflow generated from snowmelt, they are often overlooked in estimations of snowmelt‐generated streamflow in the western USA. The use of a soil water balance modelling approach to incorporate the effects of soil processes, in particular soil water storage, on the timing and amount of snowmelt generated streamflow, was investigated. The study was conducted in the Reynolds Mountain East (RME) watershed, a 38 ha, snowmelt‐dominated watershed in southwest Idaho. Snowmelt or rainfall inputs to the soil were determined using a well established snow accumulation and melt model (Isnobal). The soil water balance model was first evaluated at a point scale, using periodic soil water content measurements made over two years at 14 sites. In general, the simulated soil water profiles were in agreement with measurements (P < 0·05) as further indicated by high R² values (mostly > 0·85), y‐intercept values near 0, slopes near 1 and low average differences between measured and modelled values. In addition, observed soil water dynamics were generally consistent with critical model assumptions. Spatially distributed simulations over the watershed for the same two years indicate that streamflow initiation and cessation are closely linked to the overall watershed soil water storage capacity, which acts as a threshold. When soil water storage was below the threshold, streamflow was insensitive to snowmelt inputs, but once the threshold was crossed, the streamflow response was very rapid. At these times there was a relatively high degree of spatial continuity of satiated soils within the watershed. Incorporation of soil water storage effects may improve estimation of the timing and amount of streamflow generated from mountainous watersheds dominated by snowmelt. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.