MANGALA VALLES, MARS: ASSESSMENT OF EARLY STAGES OF FLOODING AND DOWNSTREAM FLOOD EVOLUTION

The Mangala Valles system is an ∼ ∼900 km fluvially carved channel system located southwest of the Tharsis rise and is unique among the martian outflow channels in that it heads at a linear fracture within the crust as opposed to a collapsed region of chaos as is the case with the circum-Chryse channels. Mangala Valles is confined within a broad, north–south trending depression, and begins as a single valley measuring up to 350 km wide that extends northward from a Memnonia Fossae graben, across the southern highlands toward the northern lowlands. Approximately 600 km downstream, this single valley branches into multiple channels, which ultimately lose their expression at the dichotomy boundary. Previous investigations of Mangala Vallis suggested that many of the units mapped interior to the valley were depositional, related to flooding, and that a minimum of two distinct periods of flooding separated by tens to hundreds of millions of years were required to explain the observed geology. We use infrared and visible images from the THermal EMission Imaging System (THEMIS), and topographic data from the Mars Orbiting Laser Altimeter (MOLA), to investigate the nature of the units mapped within Mangala Vallis. We find that the geomorphology of the units, as well as their topographic and geographic distribution, are consistent with most of them originating from a single assemblage of volcanic flow deposits, once continuous with volcanic flows to the south of the Memnonia Fossae source graben. These flows resurfaced the broad, north–south trending depression into which Mangala Vallis formed prior to any fluvial activity. Later flooding scoured and eroded this volcanic assemblage north of the Mangala source graben, resulting in the present distribution of the units within Mangala Vallis. Additionally, our observations suggest that a single period of catastrophic flooding, rather than multiple periods separated by tens to hundreds of millions of years, is consistent with and can plausibly explain the interior geology of Mangala Vallis. Further, we present a new scenario for the source and delivery of water to the Mangala source graben that models flow of groundwater through a sub-cryosphere aquifer and up a fracture that cracks the cryosphere and taps this aquifer. The results of our model indicate that the source graben, locally enlarged to a trough near the head region of Mangala, would have required less than several days to fill up prior to any spill-over of water to the north. Through estimates of the volume of material missing from Mangala (13,000–20,000 km³), and calculation of mean discharge rates through the channel system (∼ ∼5 × 10⁶ m³ s⁻¹), we estimate that the total duration of fluvial activity through the Mangala Valles was 1–3 months.     

Bi-dimensional observation of waves near the mesopause at auroral latitudes

During a campaign of optical observations at high latitude, a bi-dimensional study of the wave structure of the OH layer has been performed in December 1981 from Sodankyla (Finland). This site is one of the three stations of the EISCAT ionosphere sounding system. It has been found that a wave field covering an area of 1 million km² may extend to latitudes as high as 70°N. The OH wave structure shows many similarities with noctilucent clouds. The fairly large horizontal wavelength, of the order of 40 km cannot easily be explained by a wave motion at an interface. The observed wave structure seems to be a result of the propagation of an internal gravity wave in the 80–100 km region. This wave structure was often recorded during the same time as an active aurora was present. As a result, it appears that the perturbation might be correlated with particle precipitations at auroral latitudes.     

RELAXING ASSUMPTIONS OF PERFECT INFORMATION IN PARK VISITATION MODELS*

Variables related to urban park awareness are identified and methods for relaxing assumptions of perfect information in park use models are discussed. Park awareness is related to park characteristics (age and degree of development of the park), population characteristics (race, age, length of residence, recreation participation), and distance. Park attributes are stronger predictors of both park awareness and use than is distance. These findings parallel similar research on the cognitive aspects of shopping decisions.     

The Preboreal climate reversal and a subsequent solar‐forced climate shift

Accurate chronologies are essential for linking palaeoclimate archives. Carbon‐14 wiggle‐match dating was used to produce an accurate chronology for part of an early Holocene peat sequence from the Borchert (The Netherlands). Following the Younger Dryas–Preboreal transition, two climatic shifts could be inferred. Around 11 400 cal. yr BP the expansion of birch (Betula) forest was interrupted by a dry continental phase with dominantly open grassland vegetation, coeval with the PBO (Preboreal Oscillation), as observed in the GRIP ice core. At 11 250 cal. yr BP a sudden shift to a humid climate occurred. This second change appears to be contemporaneous with: (i) a sharp increase of atmospheric ¹⁴C; (ii) a temporary decline of atmospheric CO₂; and (iii) an increase in the GRIP ¹⁰Be flux. The close correspondence with excursions of cosmogenic nuclides points to a decline in solar activity, which may have forced the changes in climate and vegetation at around 11 250 cal. yr BP. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A model for the constant-head pumping test conducted in vertically fractured media

An analytical model for the constant-head pumping test is developed for a partially penetrating well that has a finite thickness skin, and intersects a single vertical fracture. In the model, the fracture is fully confined and flow occurs only in the fracture. The model is developed using Laplace transform and finite Fourier transform methods. The model is to be used for analysing well test data from vertically fractured media and for verifying numerical models. Dimensionless curves are used to study the effects of a finite thickness skin and a partially penetrating wellbore. In the presence of a finite thickness skin, or a partially penetrating wellbore, a typical flow response for the constant-head pumping test has three distinct periods of flow corresponding to small-, intermediate- and large-time. Small- and large-time approximations are presented for the model. For tests where the wellbore is fully penetrating, or the partial penetration ratio is known, these approximations can be used to analyse field data.     

The Relationship of Green-Line Transients to White-Light Coronal Mass Ejections

We report observations by the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) on the SOHO spacecraft of three coronal green-line transients that could be clearly associated with coronal mass ejections (CMEs) detected in Thomson-scattered white light. Two of these events, with speeds >25 km s^-1, may be classified as ‘whip-like’ transients. They are associated with the core of the white-light CMEs, identified with erupting prominence material, rather than with the leading edge of the CMEs. The third green-line transient has a markedly different appearance and is more gradual than the other two, with a projected outward speed <10 km s^-1. This event corresponds to the leading edge of a ‘streamer blowout’ type of CME. A dark void is left behind in the emission-line corona following each of the fast eruptions. Both fast emission-line transients start off as a loop structure rising up from close to the solar surface. We suggest that the driving mechanism for these events may be the emergence of new bipolar magnetic regions on the surface of the Sun, which destabilize the ambient corona and cause an eruption. The possible relationship of these events to recent X-ray observations of CMEs is briefly discussed. Supplementary material to this paper is available in electronic form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1004981125702     

Does time dilation tell us the distance to gamma-ray bursts?

Since the discovery that dim gamma-ray bursts last longer on average than bright ones (time dilation) the cosmological origin of this effect has been contested by various researchers. I discuss the current status of this issue and conclude that current models for a non-cosmological time dilation only explain part of the observed phenomenon, and even then betray themselves by distinct signatures in the data. As those signatures have not been seen, the cosmological origin remains the favoured explanation of the time dilation.