The Bizielle vein (valle de Gistain): A case of iron oxide transformations at the Pyrenees of Spain

The Bizielle vein has some unique features among the Pyrenean alpine veins that allow us to address the question of the nature of iron oxides transformations under low temperature hydrothermal conditions, which is well known to prevailed over wide areas of western Europe between early Triassic to early Cretaceous times. Isotopic studies indicate a deep-seated origin of the ore-forming fluids and suggest that the metals were leached from the Variscan basement (mainly from granites). Isotopic geothermometry and regional evidences point to a 250 °C and reducing fluid, being SH₂ the predominant S specie. Under such conditions, the proposed in situ deposition of hematite is a consequence of Fe carbonates dissolution and oxidation involving dissolution/precipitation processes in the sense of Putnis. Non-redox model is a quite plausible origin for subsequent hematite to magnetite conversion.     

The paradox of gender discrimination in land ownership and women’s contribution to poverty reduction in Anglophone Cameroon

Land is the core of the predominantly agrarian economy of Cameroon. It is therefore an important factor of production to both men and women particularly in rural areas. While the legal framework in Cameroon advocate for equal rights and opportunities to resources, the majority of rural women who are mostly peasant farmers can neither inherit nor own land due to gender discriminatory customary practices. This study examines some of the arguments for sustaining these customary practices that violate women’s rights over the years and the role of these ‘landless’ women in poverty alleviation. The study is based on a field survey which was conducted among some 2,205 respondents in 2009 using questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions in Anglophone Cameroon. The findings revealed that although women are the livewire of rural households and key players in the struggle against poverty who depend solely on land, they still do not have security of tenure over the land they cultivate. The paper argues that even though women are assuming increasing roles in the education of the children, provision of food and paying for medical services for the homes, there are still some traditional belief systems that work against their rights to land. These belief systems have a strong grip on the attitudes and perception of both men and women on women’s rights to land in that even when men and women are unanimous on the need for women to own land, they both disagree on how they should own the land. The logical outcome of this dilemma is that men own the land while women work on it. The latter have very little possibilities to carry out any long term investment on land without the blessing of the former. We thus, advocate for gender mainstreaming in land reforms and gender consciousness among traditional authorities, men and even among the women as some of the ways of redressing gender discrimination in land ownership rights and poverty particularly in rural areas.     

A statistical approach in investigating the hydrogeological significance of remotely sensed lineaments in the crystalline mountainous terrain of the island of Naxos, Greece

A map indicating zones related to groundwater on the mountainous terrain of the island of Naxos, Greece, was produced, using statistics, remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques. Naxos mainly consists of polydeformed and polymetamorphosed crystalline formations where groundwater is restricted to secondary porosity; its movement is erratic and occurs along lithological contacts, solution openings, faults and fractures. As in the most central Aegean islands, water in Naxos is a scarce commodity. Many dry holes have been drilled. It is known that in areas of such geology, linear features may play a significant role in their hydrogeological regime. Various lineaments’ directional properties were calculated and statistically tested against collected spring data using GIS techniques in an attempt to evaluate the hydrogeological significance of remotely sensed lineaments. Based on the results achieved, a map was prepared to contribute to conventional ground surveys in the selection of drilling sites. The reliability of the map was tested with existing borehole data. The results obtained encourage the use of statistical analysis on remotely sensed lineaments for groundwater targeting studies in crystalline mountainous areas.     

Biomarkers in upper Holocene Eastern North Sea and Wadden Sea sediments

Total extracts of sediment cores from five different stations in the North Sea and Wadden Sea were analysed for their biomarker composition. Only sediments of the Skagerrak contained significant amounts of marine biomarkers (mainly alkenones), other sites contained predominantly terrestrial biomarkers. Bioturbation in the Skagerrak is, however, far too high to determine sea surface temperature (SST) changes within short time intervals. These results indicate that biomarkers contained in these sediments are not useful to reconstruct climate fluctuations during the upper Holocene. High amounts of α-, β- and ω-hydroxy fatty acids as well as small amounts of α, β-dihydroxy fatty acids were released from the insoluble organic material of the sediments from the Wadden Sea station, indicating a significant input of the eelgrass Zostera marina. This was confirmed by microscopic observations. This is the first time the α,β-dihydroxy fatty acids have been found in a sediment core and they have proven to be potential biomarkers for these seagrass species.     

Diagenetic mineralization in Pennsylvanian coals from Indiana, USA: C/C and O/O implications for cleat origin and coalbed methane generation

Cleats and fractures in southwestern Indiana coal seams are often filled with authigenic kaolinite and/or calcite. Carbon- and oxygen-stable isotope ratios of kaolinite, calcite, and coalbed CO₂ were evaluated in combination with measured values and published estimates of δ¹⁸O of coalbed paleowaters that had been present at the time of mineralization. δ¹⁸O_mineral and δ¹⁸O_water values jointly constrain the paleotemperature of mineralization. The isotopic evidence and the thermal and tectonic history of this part of the Illinois Basin led to the conclusion that maximum burial and heat-sterilization of coal seams approximately 272 Ma ago was followed by advective heat redistribution and concurrent precipitation of kaolinite in cleats at a burial depth of < 1600 m at  78 ± 5 °C. Post-Paleozoic uplift, the development of a second generation of cleats, and subsequent precipitation of calcite occurred at shallower burial depth between  500 to  1300 m at a lower temperature of 43 ± 6 °C. The available paleowater in coalbeds was likely ocean water and/or tropical meteoric water with a δ¹⁸O_water  − 1.25‰ versus VSMOW. Inoculation of coalbeds with methanogenic CO₂-reducing microbes occurred at an even later time, because modern microbially influenced ¹³C-enriched coalbed CO₂ (i.e., the isotopically fractionated residue of microbial CO₂ reduction) is out of isotopic equilibrium with ¹³C-depleted calcite in cleats.     

Evaluating the seismic hazard to the National Capital (Delhi) Region,India, from moderate earthquakes using simulated accelerograms

The National Capital Region (NCR) of India is exposed to high seismic hazard and risk due to a great earthquake in the central seismic gap of Himalaya and/or due to moderate-size earthquake within NCR. The high population density, rapid growth of infrastructure, and old engineering structures in the region make it more vulnerable to the human as well as economic loss due to moderate-size earthquakes also. The evaluation of seismic hazard is the first step to prepare a proper mitigation plan for the region. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the seismic hazard and risk due to moderate-size earthquakes in the vicinity of NCR. For this purpose, a suit of accelerograms have been generated from hypothetical moderate-size earthquakes (M 5.5 and 6.0) in the region. A basic fault-plane solution is assumed for this purpose. The ranges of the different parameters like depth of focus and stress drop values have been used in order to examine the effect of these parameters on hazard. The accelerograms have been synthesized using two basic velocity models, one representing a hard site and the other a site with a significant low-velocity cover. These two velocity models represent the ridge area and trans-Yamuna river area in the NCR. The decay of peak ground acceleration (pga) values with distance is fast in trans-Yamuna region (with low-velocity surface layer of 100 m) as compared to that of ridge area (with low-velocity surface layer of 1 m). Also, the decay of pga becomes slower if we increase the depth of focus from 10 to 20 km. The response spectra (5% damping) of the synthetic accelerograms for the three periods T = 0.4s, 0.75s, and 1.25s have been estimated and presented in the form of decay curves. The amplifications as a function of epicentral distance and stress drop have also been estimated. We note that the amplifications in 100-m layer case do not occur uniformly at all the distances, rather it is dependent on the angle of incidence of energy into the layers. The pga values are generally amplified by more than twice with increase in stress drop from 100 to 400 bars. The seismic exposure of the population in Delhi city has been presented. The results presented in this study may serve as an important input in the planning of mitigation and disaster management programs in the National Capital Region.     

Identifying Environmental and Human Factors Associated With Tick Bites using Volunteered Reports and Frequent Pattern Mining

Tick populations and tick‐borne diseases like Lyme borreliosis have been steadily increasing since the mid‐1990s. Realizing the threat that ticks pose to public health, two Dutch citizen science projects have collected tick bite reports since 2006. This unique volunteered geographical dataset, which currently has nearly 35,000 reports, was used to identify environmental and other circumstantial factors associated with tick bites. For this, we first enriched the tick bite reports with temperature, precipitation, vegetation and volunteered data associated with the location of the tick bite. Using this enriched dataset, we then derived a series of features to characterize the environmental and volunteer‐related conditions in which each tick bite occurred. Next, we discretized these features using the Jenks Natural Breaks algorithm and, after that, we mined frequent environmental patterns associated with tick bites using the AprioriClose algorithm. Finally, we checked that these patterns are specifically associated with the tick bites by comparing them with the frequent patterns mined from pseudo‐random locations. The frequent patterns were visualized using heat maps and ring maps and two representative patterns associated with tick bites were projected into geographic space to study their spatio‐temporal distribution. Our results show that factors linked to human activity are more relevant to model tick bites than seasonal accumulations of temperature, vegetation or precipitation. In particular, the number of warm and dry days per season are present in a significant number of patterns and the majority of tick bites are produced within a distance of half a kilometer of a forest, recreational or built‐up area. The study of patterns in the time‐series revealed that there are several persistent patterns consistently occurring each year and the validation process showed that the volunteer tick bites collection is capturing environmental conditions associated with tick bites, suggesting that these reports have a high scientific value. These results support the creation of a Dutch tick bite risk map that, in turn, will open the door to the design of public health interventions to reduce the incidence of Lyme disease.     

Stratigraphic architecture and quaternary evolution of the Val d'Agri intermontane basin (Southern Apennines,Italy)

The sedimentary record of the Val d'Agri basin is of great importance for understanding the Quaternary tectonic activity and climatic variability in the Southern Apennines. Changes in tectonic controls, sediment supply and climatic input have been identified. The interval from ～ 56 to ～ 43 ka was associated with asymmetric subsidence restricted to the north-eastern actively faulted margin of the basin and development of axial braided river and transverse alluvial fan systems. Short-lasting Mediterranean-type pedogenesis between ～ 43 and ～ 32 ka (MIS Stage 3) coexisted with progradation–aggradation of the southern alluvial fan deposits and southwards tilting of the basin floor. Aggradation ended with consumption of accommodation space after 32 ka. During a subsequent stage of decline of vegetation cover, possibly as a consequence of climatic cooling (probably MIS Stage 2), active progradation of alluvial fans occurred. Breakthrough of the basin threshold and entrenchment of the drainage network must therefore be attributed to a latest Pleistocene to Holocene age. The first stages of basin opening and fill, predating ～ 56 ka have only been inferred by stratigraphic considerations: the earliest lacustrine sedimentation should be middle Pleistocene or older in age. The following south-eastward basin widening allowed progradation of alluvial fan systems, which completely filled the lacustrine area (tentatively late middle Pleistocene). Pedogenesis in “Mediterranean-like” climate conditions caused the final development of a highly mature fersiallitic paleosol at the top of the fan surfaces, in areas of morpho-tectonic stability, plausibly during MIS Stage 5. The study results demonstrate the potential of applying a multidisciplinary approach in an intermontane continental settings marked by a relative rapid and constant tectonic subsidence and a high rate of sediment supply during the Pleistocene glacial–interglacial cycles.     

Active Citizenship in Later Life: Older Volunteers in a Deprived Community in England

Older people are typically characterized as recipients of care who make ever increasing demands on overstretched and underfunded social care services. This article is about older people as givers of care to nonhousehold members. It draws on an in-depth study of volunteering in an English community beset by concentrated poverty and worklessness. Older adults, especially women, make up a significant component of those who give time through volunteering for organizations that provide social welfare services for people in need in that community. Although older adults had diverse ways of thinking about volunteering, they often undertook the effort as an expression of care and support to others.