The “Boscobel Landslip” of October 1st, 1901—the largest historic landslide in Barbados,West Indies

Barbados is a small Caribbean island located on the crest of an accretionary prism about 125 km east of the Lesser Antilles volcanic island arc. The oldest strata, Eocene sandstones and shales, are overlain by Oligocene–Miocene chalks and marls, in turn overlain by Pleistocene reef and lagoonal limestones that cover about 85 % of the island. The Eocene sediments, which crop out in the Scotland District of Barbados, are prone to soil creep and landslides covering tens to hundreds of hectares. The largest historic landslide, the “Boscobel Landslip,” occurred on 01 October 1901. We used nineteenth-century and more modern topographic and geologic maps, air photographs, and various archival and petrophysical data, to supplement reconnaissance of the landslide in the field. We identified about ten million cubic meters of the displaced material of the landslide, as well as the meteorological and geological conditions that contributed to the Boscobel Landslip. Similar landslides would pose a presently unquantified hazard to inhabitation and future development in the Scotland District.     

Efficient block preconditioners for the coupled equations of pressure and deformation in highly discontinuous media

Large‐scale simulations of flow in deformable porous media require efficient iterative methods for solving the involved systems of linear algebraic equations. Construction of efficient iterative methods is particularly challenging in problems with large jumps in material properties, which is often the case in geological applications, such as basin evolution at regional scales. The success of iterative methods for this type of problems depends strongly on finding effective preconditioners. This paper investigates how the block‐structured matrix system arising from single‐phase flow in elastic porous media should be preconditioned, in particular for highly discontinuous permeability and significant jumps in elastic properties. The most promising preconditioner combines algebraic multigrid with a Schur complement‐based exact block decomposition. The paper compares numerous block preconditioners with the aim of providing guidelines on how to formulate efficient preconditioners. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulating stochastically excited oscillations: The mode lifetime of ξ Hya

The discovery of solar-like oscillations in the giant star ξ Hya (G7 III) was reported by Frandsen et al. (2002). Their frequency analysis was very limited due to alias problems in the data set (caused by single-site observations). The extent to which the aliasing affected their analysis was unclear due to the unknown damping time of the stellar oscillation modes. In this paper we describe a simulator created to generate time series of stochastically excited oscillations, which takes as input an arbitrary window function and includes both white and non-white noise. We also outline a new method to compare a large number of simulated time series with an observed time series to determine the damping time, amplitude, and limited information on the degree of the stochastically excited modes. For ξ Hya we find the most likely amplitude to be ∼ 2 m s⁻¹, in good agreement with theory (Houdek and Gough, 2002), and the most likely damping time to be ∼ 2 days, which is much shorter than the theoretical value of 15–20 days calculated by Houdek and Gough (2002).     

The influence of central black holes on gravitational lenses

Recent observations indicate that many if not all galaxies host massive central black holes. In this paper we explore the influence of black holes on the lensing properties. We model the lens as an isothermal ellipsoid with a finite core radius plus a central black hole. We show that the presence of the black hole substantially changes the critical curves and caustics. If the black hole mass is above a critical value, then it will completely suppress the central images for all source positions. Realistic central black holes are likely to have masses below this critical value. Even in such subcritical cases, the black hole can suppress the central image when the source is inside a zone of influence, which depends on the core radius and black hole mass. In the subcritical cases, an additional image may be created by the black hole in some regions, which for some radio lenses may be detectable with high-resolution and large dynamic range VLBI maps. The presence of central black holes should also be taken into account when one constrains the core radius from the lack of central images in gravitational lenses.     

Quaternary volcanic ash zones on the Iceland Plateau,southern Norwegian Sea

Four Quaternary volcanic ash zones in the southern Norwegian Sea have been investigated in core P57-7 from the Iceland Plateau. Both the geochemical composition and morphological variation of each ash layer have been studied. The four volcanic ash zones appear in the light oxygen isotope stages 1, 5, 7 and 11. The ash zones are composed of transparent platy grains, light brown transparent grains, brown blocky and black blocky grains and white/transparent pumice, and each zone shows a distinct stratigraphic evolution. The geochemical results show a mixture of basaltic and silicic grains in each ash zone, and that each zone contains grains from more than one eruption. The geochemical investigations strongly suggest that all the ashes are derived from Iceland. The youngest ash zone includes two layers, which based on their geochemical composition and stratigraphic position are correlated with the ¹⁴C-dated Vedde Ash (10 600 yr BP) and Saksunarvatn Ash (9 100 yr BP). Possible sources on Iceland for these layers are discussed.     

Ensemble standardization constraints on the influence of the tree growth trends in dendroclimatology

Climate Dynamics - Tree growth trends can affect the interpretation of the response of tree-ring proxies (especially tree-ring width) to climate in the low-frequency band, which in turn may limit...     

40Ar‐39Ar step‐heating of impact glasses from the Nördlinger Ries impact crater—Implications on excess argon in impact melts and tektites

Seven impact melts from various places in the Nördlinger Ries were dated by ⁴⁰Ar‐³⁹Ar step‐heating. The aim of these measurements was to increase the age data base for Ries impact glasses directly from the Ries crater, because there is only one Ar‐Ar step‐heating spectrum available in the literature. Almost all samples display saddle‐shaped age spectra, indicating the presence of excess argon in most Ries glass samples, most probably inherited argon from incompletely degassed melt and possibly also excess argon incorporated during cooling from adjacent phases. In contrast, moldavites usually contain no inherited argon, probably due to their different formation process implying solidification during ballistic transport. The plateau age of the only flat spectrum is 14.60 ± 0.16 (0.20) Ma (2σ), while the total age of this sample is 14.86 ± 0.20 (0.22) Ma (isochron age: 14.72 ± 0.18 [0.22] Ma [2σ]), proofing the chronological relationship of the Ries impact and moldavites. The total ages of the other samples range between 15.77 ± 0.52 and 20.4 ± 1.0 Ma (2σ), implying approximately 2–40% excess ⁴⁰Ar (compared to the nominal age of the Ries crater) in respective samples. Thus, the age of 14.60 ± 0.16 (0.20) (2σ) (14.75 ± 0.16 [0.20 Ma] [2σ], calculated using the most recent suggestions for the K decay constants) can be considered as reliable and is within uncertainties indistinguishable from the most recent compilation for the age of the moldavite tektites.     

Optimization routine for identification of model parameters in soil plasticity

The paper presents an optimization routine especially developed for the identification of model parameters in soil plasticity on the basis of different soil tests. Main focus is put on the mathematical aspects and the experience from application of this optimization routine. Mathematically, for the optimization, an objective function and a search strategy are needed. Some alternative expressions for the objective function are formulated. They capture the overall soil behaviour and can be used in a simultaneous optimization against several laboratory tests. Two different search strategies, Rosenbrock's method and the Simplex method, both belonging to the category of direct search methods, are utilized in the routine. Direct search methods have generally proved to be reliable and their relative simplicity make them quite easy to program into workable codes. The Rosenbrock and simplex methods are modified to make the search strategies as efficient and user‐friendly as possible for the type of optimization problem addressed here. Since these search strategies are of a heuristic nature, which makes it difficult (or even impossible) to analyse their performance in a theoretical way, representative optimization examples against both simulated experimental results as well as performed triaxial tests are presented to show the efficiency of the optimization routine. From these examples, it has been concluded that the optimization routine is able to locate a minimum with a good accuracy, fast enough to be a very useful tool for identification of model parameters in soil plasticity. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigations on the runoff generation at the profile and plot scales,Swiss Emmental

This article describes an investigation on runoff generation at different scales in the forested catchment of the Sperbelgraben in the Emmental region (Swiss Prealps) where studies in the field of forest hydrology have a history of 100 years. It focuses on the analysis of soil profiles and the subsequent sprinkling experiments above them (1 m²), as well as on surface runoff measurements on larger plots (50 to 110 m²). In the Sperbelgraben investigation area, two very distinct runoff reactions could be observed. On the one hand, very high production of saturation overland flow was registered on wet areas of gleyic soils, with runoff coefficients between 0·39 and 0·94 for profile irrigation. On the other hand, almost no surface runoff was measured on Cambisols, with the exception at some sites of a hydrophobic reaction detected at the beginning of storms after dry periods (coefficients for profile irrigation: 0·01–0·16). This pattern was observed during 1 m² soil plot irrigation and on surface runoff plots. Apart from a less distinctive signal of the water‐repellent litter layer on the larger surface runoff plots, the dominant hydrological processes at the two scales are the same. The determined runoff reaction at the two scales corresponds well with information from a forest site type map describing soil and vegetation characteristics and used as a substitute for a soil map in this study. Theoretical considerations describing forest influence on flood discharge are discussed and evaluated to be in good agreement with observations. These findings are a sound foundation for application in hydrological catchment modelling. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.