Rb-Sr age of lunar igneous rocks 62295 and 14310

We report an age of crystallization for spinel-troctolite (VHA basalt) 62295 of 4.00 ± 0.06 × 10⁹ yr (I = 0.69956 ± 6) and an age of crystallization for KREEP-rich basalt 14310 of [3.94 ± 0.03 × 10⁹yr (I = 0.70041 ± 5). The ages probably date the cooling of shock melts.     

Oxygen isotope cosmothermometer revisited

A previously published estimate of the oxygen isotopic composition of the gas of the early solar nebula must be revised in light of the discovery of non-chemical isotope effects in carbonaceous chondrites. The solids which accreted to form the Earth, Moon and ordinary chondrites probably did not equilibrate isotopically with the gas below 1000 K.     

Organic versus inorganic trace metal complexes in sulfidic marine waters—some speculative calculations based on available stability constants

A theoretical model has been developed in order to test the hypothesis that simple organic acids are the chief agents of trace metal solubility in H₂S-rich marine waters. The model utilizes stability constant given by Sillen and Martell (1964, 1971) and assumes that the free cation activity of each metal is controlled by simple solubility products. Typical values of pH, pS and Eh are employed in the calculations. The results indicate that free amino acids and hydrocarboxylic acids probably are not effective but that bisulfide and polysulfide complexes may be the chief agents of trace metal solubility. To the extent that it is present, the effect of dissolved organic matter on trace metal solubility probably resides in highly polymerized substances (e.g. humic acids).     

Coexisting alkali feldspars in felsic members of the Cauro-Bastelica ring complex,Corsica

The granodioritic and gneissic Hercynian basement in Corsica was intruded, in the Triassic, by non-orogenic ring complexes in which the association early rhyolite-hypersolvus granite-granophyre-late subsolvus granite is clearly developed. The association of low albite and maximum microcline in mesoperthites cannot be attributed to Alpine low-grade metamorphism, restricted to fault zones. On a number of lines of evidence, the development of ordered, almost pure K-feldspar in this rapidly cooled complex appears related to an episode of mild reheating attending emplacement of late subsolvus granites, rocks formed from melts enriched, perhaps even saturated in aqueous fluids.     

Fluid-pressure variations and fault creep in central California

Observations of the change of water level in wells near the San Andreas fault in centra California indicate that there are pore-pressure changes associated with the process of fault creep. The sense of water-level and pore-pressure changes may indicate the direction of creep propagation.     

Impact of climate change on 24‐h design rainfall depth estimation in Qiantang River Basin,East China

The frequency and magnitude of extreme meteorological or hydrological events such as floods and droughts in China have been influenced by global climate change. The water problem due to increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme events in the humid areas has gained great attention in recent years. However, the main challenge in the evaluation of climate change impact on extreme events is that large uncertainty could exist. Therefore, this paper first aims to model possible impacts of climate change on regional extreme precipitation (indicated by 24‐h design rainfall depth) at seven rainfall gauge stations in the Qiantang River Basin, East China. The Long Ashton Research Station‐Weather Generator is adopted to downscale the global projections obtained from general circulation models (GCMs) to regional climate data at site scale. The weather generator is also checked for its performance through three approaches, namely Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, comparison of L‐moment statistics and 24‐h design rainfall depths. Future 24‐h design rainfall depths at seven stations are estimated using Pearson Type III distribution and L‐moment approach. Second, uncertainty caused by three GCMs under various greenhouse gas emission scenarios for the future periods 2020s (2011–2030), 2055s (2046–2065) and 2090s (2080–2099) is investigated. The final results show that 24‐h design rainfall depth increases in most stations under the three GCMs and emission scenarios. However, there are large uncertainties involved in the estimations of 24‐h design rainfall depths at seven stations because of GCM, emission scenario and other uncertainty sources. At Hangzhou Station, a relative change of ?16% to 113% can be observed in 100y design rainfall depths. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computational microstructure modeling to estimate progressive moisture damage behavior of asphaltic paving mixtures

This paper presents a computational microstructure model to estimate the progressive moisture damage of multiphase asphaltic paving mixtures. Moisture damage because of water transport is incorporated with mechanical loading through a finite element method. To simulate nonlinear damage evolution in the mixtures, the model includes Fickian moisture diffusion, a cohesive zone model to simulate the gradual fracture process, and a degradation characteristic function to represent the reduction of material properties because of moisture infiltration. With the model developed, various parametric analyses are conducted to investigate how each model parameter affects the material‐specific moisture damage mechanism and damage resistance potential of the mixtures. Analysis results clearly demonstrate the significance of physical and mechanical properties of mixture components and geometric characteristics of microstructure for the better design of asphaltic paving mixtures and roadway structures. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of anthropogenic activities in karst spring discharge volatility

The traditional hydrological time series methods tend to focus on the mean of whichever variable is analysed but neglect its time‐varying variance (i.e. assuming the variance remains constant). The variances of hydrological time series vary with time under anthropogenic influence. There is evidence that extensive well drilling and groundwater pumping can intercept groundwater run‐off and consequently induce spring discharge volatility or variance varying with time (i.e. heteroskedasticity). To investigate the time‐varying variance or heteroskedasticity of spring discharge, this paper presents a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average with general autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (SARIMA‐GARCH) model, whose the SARIMA model is used to estimate the mean of hydrological time series, and the GARCH model estimates its time‐varying variance. The SARIMA‐GARCH model was then applied to the Xin'an Springs Basin, China, where extensive groundwater development has occurred since 1978 (e.g. the average annual groundwater pumping rates were less than 0.20 m³/s in the 1970s, reached 1.20 m³/s at the end of the 1980s, surpassed 2.0 m³/s in the 1990s and exceeded 3.0 m³/s by 2007). To identify whether human activities or natural stressors caused the heteroskedasticity of Xin'an Springs discharge, we segmented the spring discharge sequence into two periods: a predevelopment stage (i.e. 1956–1977) and a developed stage (i.e. 1978–2012), and set up the SARIMA‐GARCH model for the two stages, respectively. By comparing the models, we detected the role of human activities in spring discharge volatility. The results showed that human activities caused the heteroskedasticity of the Xin'an Spring discharge. The predicted Xin'an Springs discharge by the SARIMA‐GARCH model showed that the mean monthly spring discharge is predicted to continue to decline to 0.93 m³/s in 2013, 0.67 m³/s in 2014 and 0.73 m³/s in 2015. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.