iSERVO: Implementing the International Solid Earth Research Virtual Observatory by Integrating Computational Grid and Geographical Information Web Services

We describe the goals and initial implementation of the International Solid Earth Virtual Observatory (iSERVO). This system is built using a Web Services approach to Grid computing infrastructure and is accessed via a component-based Web portal user interface. We describe our implementations of services used by this system, including Geographical Information System (GIS)-based data grid services for accessing remote data repositories and job management services for controlling multiple execution steps. iSERVO is an example of a larger trend to build globally scalable scientific computing infrastructures using the Service Oriented Architecture approach. Adoption of this approach raises a number of research challenges in millisecond-latency message systems suitable for internet-enabled scientific applications. We review our research in these areas.     

Future changes of El Niño in two global coupled climate models

Idealized forcing experiments with 1% per year CO₂ increase to stabilized doubled and quadrupled CO₂, twenty-first century transient scenario experiments (SRES scenarios A1B and B1), and stabilized twenty-second century A1B and B1 experiments with two global coupled climate models (PCM and CCSM3) are analyzed for possible future changes of El Niño events. With increased CO₂ in the models, there is a reduction of amplitude of El Niño events. This is particularly apparent with larger forcing in the stabilized 4×CO₂ experiment in PCM and the stabilized greenhouse gas A1B experiment in CCSM3, where the reduction of amplitude is outside the range of the inherent multi-century variability of El Niño in the control runs of the models and is statistically significant. With moderately increased forcing (stabilized 2×CO₂ in PCM and the stabilized B1 experiment in CCSM3), the reduction in amplitude is evident, but it is not significant. The change in El Niño behavior with larger forcing is attributed to the change in base state temperature in the equatorial Pacific, which is similar with increased greenhouse gases (GHGs) in both models. Positive temperature anomalies in and below the thermocline, associated with a reduction of the trade winds, and weakened Pacific Ocean subtropical cells, produce a less intense thermocline, and consequently lower amplitude El Niño events. The previously noted intensification of El Niño tropical precipitation anomalies in a warmer mean base state that applied when there was no appreciable change in El Niño amplitude does not hold in the present study where the El Niño events decrease in magnitude in a future warmer climate. North American surface temperature anomalies associated with El Niño are reduced and become less significant in the future events, with the anomalously deepened Aleutian low in the North Pacific weakened and moved eastward with greater radiative forcing. Part of this is attributed to the smaller amplitude events and thus lower amplitude teleconnections as indicated by contrasting composites of medium and high amplitude El Niño events from the control runs. The change in midlatitude base state circulation also contributes to the change in El Niño teleconnections. The effects of this change in base state on the weakened El Niño teleconnections over North America are confirmed in sensitivity experiments with a version of the atmospheric model in which heating anomalies are specified to mimic El Niño events in a base state changed due to increased GHGs.     

Paleoecology of Beringian “packrat” middens from central Yukon Territory, Canada

Rodent middens from ice-rich loess deposits are important new paleoenvironmental archives for Eastern Beringia. Plant macrofossils recovered from three middens associated with Dawson tephra (ca. 24,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P.) at two sites in Yukon Territory include diverse graminoids, forbs, and mosses. These data suggest substantial local scale floristic and habitat diversity in valley settings, including steppe-tundra on well-drained soils, moist streamside meadows, and hydric habitats. Fossil arctic ground squirrel burrows and nesting sites indicate that permafrost active layers were thicker during Pleistocene glacial periods than at present on north-facing slopes.     

Field scale impacts of spatially correlated relative permeability in heterogeneous multiphase systems

Two-dimensional numerical simulations of two-phase (DNAPL-water) flow in spatially correlated random fields demonstrate the influence of nonwetting phase (NWP) relative permeability–saturation (k_r,N–S_W) relationships correlated to porous media intrinsic permeability (k). Both the volume of porous media invaded by the NWP and the length of time during which the NWP is migrating are under predicted if k_r,N–k correlation is not accounted for in the model formulation. Not accounting for the k_r,N–k correlation resulted in under predicting the volume of porous media invaded by up to approximately 10%, which is likely not significant for many practical applications. However, not accounting for the k_r,N–k correlation resulted in under predicting field scale migration times by up to a factor of 4, which is likely significant in that the migration times are on the order of years to several decades for the DNAPL (1,2-DCE) considered in this study. The under prediction of migration times was greater for lower permeability aquifers.     

The use of tracers to assess leakage from the sequestration of CO2 in a depleted oil reservoir,New Mexico,USA

Geological sequestration of CO₂ in depleted oil reservoirs is a potentially useful strategy for greenhouse gas management and can be combined with enhanced oil recovery. Development of methods to estimate CO₂ leakage rates is essential to assure that storage objectives are being met at sequestration facilities. Perfluorocarbon tracers (PFTs) were added as three 12 h slugs at about one week intervals during the injection of 2090 tons of CO₂ into the West Pearl Queen (WPQ) depleted oil formation, sequestration pilot study site located in SE New Mexico. The CO₂ was injected into the Permian Queen Formation. Leakage was monitored in soil–gas using a matrix of 40 capillary adsorbent tubes (CATs) left in the soil for periods ranging from days to months. The tracers, perfluoro-1,2-dimethylcyclohexane (PDCH), perfluorotrimethylcyclohexane (PTCH) and perfluorodimethylcyclobutane (PDCB), were analyzed using thermal desorption, and gas chromatography with electron capture detection. Monitoring was designed to look for immediate leakage, such as at the injection well bore and at nearby wells, and to develop the technology to estimate overall CO₂ leak rates based on the use of PFTs. Tracers were detected in soil–gas at the monitoring sites 50 m from the injection well within days of injection. Tracers continued to escape over the following years. Leakage appears to have emanated from the vicinity of the injection well in a radial pattern to about 100 m and in directional patterns to 300 m. Leakage rates were estimated for the 3 tracers from each of the 4 sets of CATs in place following the start of CO₂ injection. Leakage was fairly uniform during this period. As a first approximation, the CO₂ leak rate was estimated at about 0.0085% of the total CO₂ sequestered per annum.     

Measuring quartz solubility by in situ weight-loss determination using a hydrothermal diamond cell

The solubility of quartz was determined using a hydrothermal diamond anvil cell (HDAC) within the temperature and pressure ranges of 126 to 490°C and up to 8.9 kbar, respectively. A novel approach has been used to measure the amount of dissolved silica. The quartz was abraded into spheres which have a diameter of ∼40 μm. The spheres were then placed in pure water inside the diamond anvil cell and heated externally. Because the transparency of the diamonds allows direct observation of the sample chamber during the experiment, we were able to estimate the amount of quartz dissolved in the water at various stages of the dissolution process by measuring the decrease in the sphere’s diameter over time. Experiments were performed along isochores between 0.92 and 0.99 g/cm³. The maximum solubility measured was 0.165 molal. The experimental solubility data were limited to 370°C because of overestimation of solubilities above this temperature. Reprecipitation of silica inside the HDAC sample chamber and the refaceting of the spheres to trigonal form at temperatures above 350°C are major contributors to the overestimation.     

Stratigraphic and tectonic settings of Proterozoic glaciogenic rocks and banded iron-formations: relevance to the snowball Earth debate

Among Palaeoproterozoic glacial deposits on four continents, the best preserved and documented are in the Huronian on the north shore of Lake Huron, Ontario, where three glaciogenic formations have been recognized. The youngest is the Gowganda Formation. The glacial deposits of the Gowganda Formation were deposited on a newly formed passive margin. To the west, on the south side of Lake Superior, the oldest Palaeoproterozoic succession (Chocolay Group) begins with glaciogenic diamictites that have been correlated with the Gowganda Formation. The >2.2 Ga passive margin succession (Chocolay Group=upper Huronian) is overlain, with profound unconformity, by a >1.88 Ga succession that includes the superior-type banded iron-formations (BIFs). The iron-formations are therefore not genetically associated with Palaeoproterozoic glaciation but were deposited 300 Ma later in a basin that formed as a result of closure of the “Huronian” ocean. In Western Australia, Palaeoproterozoic glaciogenic deposits of the Meteorite Bore Member appear to have formed part of a similar basin fill. The glaciogenic rocks are, however, separated from underlying BIF by a thick siliciclastic succession. In both North America and Western Australia, BIF-deposition took place in compressional (possibly foreland basin) settings but the iron-formations are of greatly different age, suggesting that the most significant control on their formation was not oxygenation of the Earth’s atmosphere but rather, emplacement of Fe-rich waters (uplifted as a result of ocean floor destruction?) in a siliciclastic-starved environment where oxidation (biogenic?) could take place. Some of the Australian BIFs appear to predate the appearance of red beds in North American Palaeoproterozoic successions and are therefore unlikely to be related to oxygenation of the atmosphere.Neoproterozoic glaciogenic deposits are widespread on the world’s continents. Some are associated with iron-formations. Two theories have emerged to explain these enigmatic BIFs. According to the snowball Earth hypothesis (SEH), ice-covered oceans would have permitted buildup of dissolved Fe. Precipitation of Fe-rich sediments would have taken place following reoxygenation of the hydrosphere as the ice cover disappeared. A second theory involves glaciation of Red Sea rift-type basins. Fe-charged brines in such basins would have precipitated on being mixed with “normal” seawater as a result of glacially driven thermal overturn. Both theories provide an explanation of the hydrothermal imprint on the geochemistry of Neoproterozoic BIF but the restricted development of BIF (relative to glacial deposits), evidence of rift activity such as significant facies and thickness changes, and association with volcanic rocks, all favour deposition in a rift environment.Cap carbonates are one of the cornerstones of the SEH. Escape from the snowball condition is said to have resulted from buildup of atmospheric CO₂ while the weathering cycle was stopped. Under such conditions, the first siliciclastic deposits following glaciation, should be extremely weathered, and should be overlain by sedimentary rocks that show a gradual return to more “normal” compositions. Using a chemical index of alteration (CIA) it can be shown that, in the case of the Gowganda Formation, the CIA shows a gradual upward increase, opposite to that predicted by the SEH. The Earth underwent severe climatic perturbations both near the beginning and end of the Proterozoic Eon but whether it attained a totally frozen surface condition (as postulated under the SEH) remains speculative.     

Electrical resistivity ground imaging (ERGI): a new tool for mapping the lithology and geometry of channel-belts and valley-fills

Efforts to map the lithology and geometry of sand and gravel channel‐belts and valley‐fills are limited by an inability to easily obtain information about the shallow subsurface. Until recently, boreholes were the only method available to obtain this information; however, borehole programmes are costly, time consuming and always leave in doubt the stratigraphic connection between and beyond the boreholes. Although standard shallow geophysical techniques such as ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) and shallow seismic can rapidly obtain subsurface data with high horizontal resolution, they only function well under select conditions. Electrical resistivity ground imaging (ERGI) is a recently developed shallow geophysical technique that rapidly produces high‐resolution profiles of the shallow subsurface under most field conditions. ERGI uses measurements of the ground's resistance to an electrical current to develop a two‐dimensional model of the shallow subsurface (<200 m) called an ERGI profile. ERGI measurements work equally well in resistive sediments (‘clean’ sand and gravel) and in conductive sediments (silt and clay). This paper tests the effectiveness of ERGI in mapping the lithology and geometry of buried fluvial deposits. ERGI surveys are presented from two channel‐fills and two valley‐fills. ERGI profiles are compared with lithostratigraphic profiles from borehole logs, sediment cores, wireline logs or GPR. Depth, width and lithology of sand and gravel channel‐fills and adjacent sediments can be accurately detected and delineated from the ERGI profiles, even when buried beneath 1–20 m of silt/clay.