Image resolution and evaluation of genetic hypotheses for planetary landscapes

The spatial resolution of image data tends to constrain the horizontal length scale of genetic hypotheses that are addressable by those data. No ‘simple’ formula exists when image resolution is sufficient to test a given geomorphic process, which is dependent on what characteristics are diagnostic of the particular process. Genetic hypotheses should be formulated along the lines of the “multiple working hypotheses” concept as described in a classic paper by Chamberlin [J. Geol. 5 (1897) 837]. An essential element of a viable working hypothesis is a clear indication of the characteristics predicted by, or a consequence of, the hypothesis. An untestable hypothesis is not an effective working hypothesis. The history of the study of lunar sinuous rilles is outlined as an illustration of the influence of image resolution and the formulation of genetic hypotheses on the subsequent advancement of understanding of the problem. Sinuous rilles on Venus and Mars, and controversial sinuous ridges on Mars are also reviewed. In the lunar case, the three-order-of-magnitude improvement in spatial resolution provided by Lunar Orbiter photographs over Earth-based telescopic photographs did not result in definitive examination and elimination of published hypotheses for the formation of sinuous rilles. Topographic data obtained from cartographically controlled Apollo orbital photographs, along with important observations and samples obtained by the astronauts on the lunar surface, did test and exclude several hypotheses. The formulation of a genetic hypothesis, including testable consequences of that hypothesis, is a greater determinant of its ultimate utility to the scientific community than is the image resolution available at any given time.     

Sydney's Ethnic Geography: New approaches to analysing patterns of residential concentration

Most studies of ethnic residential segregation in Australian cities have used single-measure indices of dissimilarity and segregation, which access the degree of unevenness between two maps. Segregation is a multi-dimensional concept, however, and in this paper we introduce an alternative way of measuring residential concentration which incorporates several of the key dimensions. The procedure is illustrated using birthplace and language-used-at-home data for collection districts in metropolitan Sydney in 1996. Results show no evidence of extreme spatial concentration of ethnic groups.     

Thematic Map Analysis Using Multiple Regression

Thematic maps can be analyzed by multiple regression for (1) forward prediction where a younger geological structural map is written as a least-squares function of older maps for information on historical perspectives or (2) by backward prediction where an older map is regressed stepwise on a series of younger ones to aid in prospecting. The technique was evaluated by a series of structure maps on different geological horizons from the U.S. Midcontinent (Kansas) where the forward prediction proved more effective than backward. In forward prediction, the first map entered into a multiple regression is invariably the immediately underlying one as expected. On the other hand, the first map in a backward prediction is not necessarily related to stratigraphy which limits the utility of the technique for prospecting.     

Fault-controlled dolomitization at Swan Hills Simonette oil field (Devonian), deep basin west-central Alberta, Canada

The partly dolomitized Swan Hills Formation (Middle‐Upper Devonian) in the Simonette oil field of west‐central Alberta underwent a complex diagenetic history, which occurred in environments ranging from near surface to deep (>2500 m) burial. Five petrographically and geochemically distinct dolomites that include both cementing and replacive varieties post‐date stylolites in limestones (depths >500 m). These include early planar varieties and later saddle dolomites. Fluid inclusion data from saddle dolomite cements (T_h=137–190 °C) suggest that some precipitated at burial temperatures higher than the temperatures indicated by reflectance data (T_peak=160 °C). Thus, at least some dolomitizing fluids were ‘hydrothermal’. Fluorescence microscopy identified three populations of primary hydrocarbon‐bearing fluid inclusions and confirms that saddle dolomitization overlapped with Upper Cretaceous oil migration. The source of early dolomitizing fluids probably was Devonian or Mississippian seawater that was mixed with a more ⁸⁷Sr‐rich fluid. Fabric‐destructive and fabric‐preserving dolostones are over 35 m thick in the Swan Hills buildup and basal platform adjacent to faults, thinning to less than 10 cm thick in the buildup between 5 and 8 km away from the faults. This ‘plume‐like’ geometry suggests that early and late dolomitization events were fault controlled. Late diagenetic fluids were, in part, derived from the crystalline basement or Palaeozoic siliciclastic aquifers, based on ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values up to 0·7370 from saddle dolomite, calcite and sphalerite cements, and ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb of 22·86 from galena samples. Flow of dolomitizing and mineralizing fluids occurred during burial greater than 500 m, both vertically along reactivated faults and laterally in the buildup along units that retained primary and/or secondary porosity.     

Holocene History of the Bering Sea Bowhead Whale (Balaena mysticetus) in Its Beaufort Sea Summer Grounds off Southwestern Victoria Island, Western Canadian Arctic

The fossil remains of 43 bowhead whales were mapped on the raised beaches of western Wollaston Peninsula, Victoria Island, Canadian Arctic, near the historic summer range limit of the Bering Sea stock in the Beaufort Sea. The elevations and radiocarbon ages of the remains demonstrate that the bowhead ranged commonly into the region following the submergence of Bering Strait at ca. 10,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. until ca. 8500 ¹⁴C yr B.P. During the same interval, bowheads ranged widely from the Beaufort Sea to Baffin Bay. Subsequently, no whales reached Wollaston Peninsula until ca. 1500 ¹⁴C yr B.P. Late Holocene populations evidently were small, or occupations were brief, in comparison to those of the early Holocene. Although the late Holocene recurrence may relate to the expansion of pioneering Thule whalers eastward from Alaska, there are few Thule sites and limited evidence of Thule whaling in the area surveyed to support this suggestion.     

Evolution of Pangea: paleomagnetic constraints from the Southern Alps, Italy

A new early Late Triassic paleopole for Adria has been obtained from the Val Sabbia Sandstone in the Southern Alps. As Early Permian and Jurassic-Cretaceous paleomagnetic data from para-autochthonous regions of Adria such as the Southern Alps are consistent with ‘African’ APWPs[1–2], paleomagnetic data from this region can be used to bolster the West Gondwana APWP in the poorly known Late Permian-Triassic time interval. The Southern Alpine paleopoles are integrated with the West Gondwana and Laurussia APWPs of Van der Voo [1] and used to generate a tectonic model for the evolution of Pangea. The Early Permian overall mean paleopole for West Gondwana and Adria, in conjunction with the coeval Laurussia paleopole, support Pangea B of Morel and Irving [3]. The Late Permian/Early Triassic and the Middle/Late Triassic paleopoles from Adria and Laurussia support Pangea A-2 of Van der Voo and French [4]. The phase of transcurrent motion between Laurasia and Gondwana[5] that caused the Pangea B to A-2 transition occurred essentially in the Permian (at the end of Variscan orogeny) with an average relative velocity of approximately 10 cm/yr. Finally, the Late Triassic/Early Jurassic paleopoles from West Gondwana and Laurussia agree with Pangea A-1 of Bullard et al. [6], the widely accepted Pangea configuration at the time of the Jurassic breakup.     

Assessing integrated assessments

Integrated assessment of global environmental change is a relatively new field that is beginning to define itself and its forms of practice. As yet, the field has not grappled directly with issues of quality control and assessment of quality, and this work is a first attempt in that direction. We argue that if integrated assessment is to be successful in the long run, then building and maintaining credibility via quality control procedures is a necessary condition for realizing its potential. We highlight a number of pitfalls in the practice of integrated assessment, and discuss their causes. We buttress our concerns using examples from both within climate change integrated assessment, and from the history of other similar endeavors. We also provide a number of suggestions that we hope will serve to alleviate some of these pitfalls. For instance, tools, methods, and assumptions from disciplines form archetypes for components in integrated assessment models, and we need to apply greater scrutiny to these archetypes. Further, tools which may be reasonable to use in particular disciplinary, geographical, or temporal contexts may be unsuited to the broader contexts inherent in integrated assessment studies of global environmental change.