Linking past flood frequencies in Norway to regional atmospheric circulation anomalies

Analysis of two continuous, high‐resolution palaeo‐flood records from southern Norway reveals that the frequency of extreme flood events has changed significantly during the Holocene. During the early and middle Holocene, flood frequency was low; by contrast, it was high over the last 2300 years when the mean flood frequency was about 2.5–3.0 per century. The present regional discharge regime is dominated by spring/summer snowmelt, and our results indicate that the changing flood frequency cannot be explained by local conditions associated with the respective catchments of the two lakes, but rather long‐term variations of solid winter precipitation and related snowmelt. Applying available instrumental winter precipitation data and associated sea‐level pressure re‐analysis data as a modern analogue, we document that atmospheric circulation anomalies, significantly different from the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), have some potential in explaining the variability of the two different palaeo‐flood records. Centennial‐scale patterns in shifting flood frequency might be indicative of shifts in atmospheric circulation and shed light on palaeo‐pressure variations in the North Atlantic region, in areas not influenced by the NAO. Major shifts are found at about 2300, 1200 and 200 years ago (cal. a BP). Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

1987 Compilation of Elemental Concentration Data for USGS BIR-1, DNC-1 and W-2

Elemental concentration data on up to 73 individual constituents in BIR-1, DNC-1, and W-2 have been collected from 94 journal articles and technical reports. These data are summarized in consensus (mean) values with uncertainties expressed as one standard deviation. Mean values are also calculated as a function of analytical procedure and all raw data are given in the tables.
Ce rapport rassemble des données analytiques sur 73 éléments dans trois échantillons, BIR-1, DNC-1 et W-2, publiées dans 94 articles scientifiques ou rapports techniques. Quand cela a été possible, les valeurs de consensus (moyenne) sont présentées pour chaque élément avec l'incertitude exprimée un écart-type. Des valeurs moyennes en fonction des procédures analytiques sont également présentées.     

Activity-composition relations in FeTiO3-MnTiO3 ilmenite solid solutions from EMF measurements at 1050–1300 K

The activity of FeTiO₃ in the binary ilmenitepyrophanite (FeTiO₃-MnTiO₃) solid solution has been determined for the temperature range 1050–1300 K by displacement of the reaction: 2 FeTiO₃=2 Fe+2 TiO₂+O₂ in T-O₂ space, using an electrochemical technique with calcia- and yttria-stabilized zirconia solid electrolytes. The activities show small positive deviations from ideality, which, although the data are unusually precise, may be perfectly described by the simple regular solution model, with an interaction parameter, W _Fe-Mn ^ilm , of 2.2±0.3 kJ g-atom^–1, which is independent of temperature. This value, together with the experimental data on the partitioning of Fe and Mn between ilmenite and garnet (Pownceby et al. 1987), gives W _Fe-Mn ^gt =1.2±0.5 kJ g-atom^–1 for the almandine-spessartine (Fe₃Al₂Si₃O₁₂-Mn₃Al₂Si₃O₁₂) solid solution.     

Inductively Coupled Plasma Determination Of Nine Rare-Earth Elements In Sixty International Geochemical Reference Samples

Data for nine rare-earth elements (REE) determined by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP-AES) in sixty international geochemical reference samples (igneous and sedimentary rocks, soils and sediments) are presented. The method is based on acid digestion of the sample and cation-exchange separation from matrix elements. Good agreement is generally achieved between the results of this work and the recent compilation values. The present paper includes analytical data on several reference materials for which existing data are rather scarce or even inexistent     

1988 Compilation of Elemental Concentration Data for USGS Geochemical Exploration Reference Materials GXR-1 to GXR-6

Concentration data on 73 individual constituents in United States Geological Survey (USGS) Geochemical Exploration Reference Materials GXR-1 to GXR-6 have been collected from 131 journal articles and technical reports. These data are summarized as consensus (mean) values with uncertainties expressed as one standard deviation. Mean values are also calculated as a function of analytical procedure and all raw data are given in the tables. Recommended values are proposed based upon data criteria used by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology, formerly the National Bureau of Standards or NBS).     

1988 Compilation of Elemental Concentration Data for USGS Basalt BCR-1

Concentration data on up to 82 individual constituents in USGS Basalt BCR-1 have been collected from 1395 journal articles and technical reports. These data are summarized in consensus (mean) values with uncertainties expressed as ± one standard deviation. Mean values are also calculated as a function of analytical procedure and all raw data are given in the tables. Recommended values are proposed based upon data criteria used by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology, formerly the National Bureau of Standards or NBS).     

Temperature dependence of the cation distribution in nickel aluminate (NiAl2O4) spinel: a powder XRD study

NiAl₂O₄ is a largely inverse spinel, which in detail shows increasing randomisation with temperature of Ni and Al between the octahedral and tetrahedral cation sites of the spinel structure. We have used powder XRD to determine this cation distribution in various samples of NiAl₂O₄ quenched after annealing between 700 and 1400° C. The inversion parameter (x) can be measured with a precision of ± 0.004 (one standard deviation), and a comparison of different methods of synthesis, X-ray diffraction and refinement techniques, suggests a probable accuracy of better than 0.01. The results are supported by some preliminary single crystal refinements on flux-grown samples.Below 800° C the rate of cation ordering becomes very slow, and, despite reaching an apparently steady state, it is doubtful if our samples attained complete internal equilibrium. Above 1250° C the cation redistribution becomes so fast that the quenching method becomes unreliable. Between 800 and 1250° C inclusive, the degree of inversion changes smoothly from 0.87 at 800° C to 0.79 at 1250° C, and is accompanied by linear changes in u, the oxygen parameter, from 0.2555 to 0.2563 (±0.0002), and a₀, the lattice parameter, from 8.0462 to 8.0522 Å (±0.0002 Å).     

Response variability in structural dynamics

This paper presents a technique for treating uncertainties in the dynamic models of a structural system. The formulation of the method is presented for a simple case of a single-degree-of-freedom linear oscillator. The uncertainties are modelled as random variables and are assumed to be time-independent. The solution is expanded as a series involving the random terms, and a system of linear ordinary differential equations for the unknowns of the problem is derived using the weighted residual method. The system of equations is then integrated in time and the response variability is computed. Validation calculations show that the results from the method agree well with those obtained by other solution techniques. Finally, some possible applications and extensions of the present work are discussed.