Does carbon finance make a sustainable difference? Hydropower expansion and livelihood trade‐offs in the Red River valley,Yunnan Province,China

The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a carbon credit trading scheme intended to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and promote ‘sustainable development’. Hundreds of CDM‐sponsored hydroelectric dams have been constructed in southwest China's Yunnan Province, where carbon finance contributes substantial financial incentives to hydropower expansion. This article investigates whether riparian Handai farmers settled near the Madushan hydropower plant on the Chinese section of Red River have experienced positive outcomes from this project's participation in the CDM. I assess how Handai individuals' access to core livelihood assets has been modified following dam completion and probe how the CDM reconfigures scalar relations among the various stakeholders involved in hydropower governance in Yunnan. Though the CDM facilitates hydropower expansion, it fails to produce development that is more sustainable than ‘business as usual’ from a local perspective. Rather, the CDM consolidates hydropower governance in the same way as it unfolded in Yunnan before the province became an active participant in this scheme. The CDM also facilitates a national development campaign fostering specific socio‐economic modernization patterns in China's western provinces.     

On the solving of the Hill's differential equation through the method of operational calculus

Using a method previously applied to the treatment of the Mathieu differential equation, we solve the Hill's differential equation of lunar theory through the way of operational calculus, which avoids the cumbersome infinite determinants of the classical procedure. The one-sided Laplace transformation changes it into a difference equation with an infinite number of terms and variable coefficients. When its first member is divided by a suitable factor, this difference equation is the image of an integral equation of the Volterra type which is equivalent to the initial Hill's differential equation. Solution of this Volterra integral equation is unique and it is the general solution of the Hill's differential equation. This solution is a series in the powers of a small dimensionless parameter ² which appears as a factor in the second member of the Hill's differential equation. We reduce it to the sum of its terms of degree 12 with respect to which is the precision usually required in a lunar theory and we write down effectively the coefficients of the terms in ², ( ²)² and the coefficient of the term in ( ²)³ which depends upon the initial valuey(0) of the Hill's differential equation.     

L'Essor de la radiométérologie mondiale et la prévision du temps

Résumé Les relations entre les parasites atmosphériques (ondes hertziennes naturelles) émis par les orages ou d'autres foyers de perturbations de la troposphère, enregistrés sur de grandes longueurs d'ondes, et la météorologie synoptique (prévision du temps) ont fait l'objet de recherches de 1920 à 1950, principalement par des chercheurs européens, dont un historique est donné. Les organisations internationales intéressées à ces traxaux et leurs principales résolutions sont rappelées. Les méthodes instrumentales courantes font l'objet d'un court aperçu et quelques résultats acquis appliqués à la pratique journalière de la prévision radiométérologique du temps sont sommairement décrits. on indique la technique à suivre pour l'organisation d'un réseau de stations radiométéorologiques, en citant comme exemple celui de la République Argentine, qui devrait répondre à des conditions idéales, puisqu'il s'étend des régions subtropicales aux régions polaires, enregistrant ainsi tous les typs de parasites. Le problèmes des échanges télégraphiques de renseignements par codes et l'expérience européenne en la matière termine l'article.

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Summary Several authors, especially in Europe, have investigated since 1920 the relations existing between sferics and synoptical meteorology. Sferics are natural hertzian waves emitted by thunderstorm-hearths and similar tropospherical sources, observable on long waves. The history of these investigations is shortly summarized; and mention is made of the international organizations concerned with them, as well as of their most important resolutions. The current instrumental methods and some of the results obtained hitherto are briefly exposed, with a view to their application to forecasting practice. The author gives directive rules for the technical organization of radio-meteorological network. He refers to Argentine, offering ideal possibilities of radio-meteorological observation by the extension of its territory from sub-tropical to polar regions, as all types of sferics can be recorded in this country. Finally, he discusses the problem of the transmission of radio-meteorological results by code and the experience gathered in Europe.

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Zusammenfassung In den Jahren 1920 bis 1950 wurden, vorab durch europäische Forscher, die Beziehungen zwischen den atmosphärischen Parasiten und der synoptischen Meteorologie untersucht. Als Parasiten (englisch sferics) bezeichnet man natürliche Hertzsche Wellen, die von Gewitterherden oder andern troposphärischen Störungsquellen ausgehen und auf langen Wellen registriert werden. Die Arbeit enthält einen historischen Überblick über diese Forschungen, sowie Hinweise auf die an radiometerologischen Untersuchungen interessierten internationalen Organisationen und ihre wichtigsten Resolutionen. Nach einer kurzen Übersicht über die gebräuchlichen instrumentellen Beobachtunsmethoden und die bisher erhaltenen Ergebnisse, zeigt der Verfasser, wie man diese Ergebnisse in der praxis der täglichen Wettervorhersage anwenden kann. Er gibt ferner Richtlinien für die technische Organisation radiometeorologischer Beobachtungsnetze; als Beispiel wird Argentinien angeführt, das mit seinem von den Subtropen bis ins Polargebiet reichenden Territorium geradezu ideale Bedingungen für radiometeorologische Messungen erfüllt, indem dort alle Typen von Parasiten registriert werden können. Abschließend wird die Frage der übermittlung radiometeorologischer Meßergebnisse mittels Zahlenschlüssel behandelt, wobei die in Europa gesammelten Erfahrungen mitgeteilt werden.

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Avec 2 figures.

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Dédié à M. le prof. Dr.H. Benndorf à l'occasion de son 80^ème anniversaire.     

Neue Ausblicke Über die Metallogenese in Nordafrika

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Palygorskite as a sediment dispersal tracer in the eastern Mediterranean

Palygorskite is a clay mineral widely distributed in late Quaternary deposits of the eastern Mediterranean, where, locally, it proves an ideal tracer of sediment dispersal. This study shows that the origin of this mineral is not limited to African sources. Cores containing late Pleistocene to recent sediment record the transport of palygorskite from the Plain of Helos on the Peloponnesus to specific deep basins along the Hellenic Arc. Palygorskite, commonly concentrated in the silt size fraction, may be overlooked in studies that focus only on the <2 μm fraction. In this region we find that the detrial palygorskite distribution is partially controlled by size-sorting effects related to gravity-induced transport processes. In consequence, comprehensive compositional analyses should be made both on the silt and clay fractions.     

Okinawa Trough genesis: structure and evolution of a backarc basin developed in a continent

The Okinawa marginal basin was opened by crustal extension into the Asian continent, north of the Taiwan collision zone. It is located behind the Ryukyu Trench subduction zone and the Ryukyu active volcanic arc. If we except the Andaman Sea, the Okinawa Trough is the only example of marginal backarc basin type, opened into a continent at an early stage of evolution. Active rifting and spreading can be observed. Synthesis of siesmic reflection, seismic refraction, drilling, dredging and geological field data has resulted in interpretative geological cross sections and a structural map of the Ryukyu-Okinawa area. The main conclusions of the reconstruction of this backarc basin/volcanic arc evolution are. (1) Backarc rifting was initiated in the volcanic arc and propagated along it during the Neogene. It is still active at both ends of the basin. Remnants of volcanic arc are found on the continental side of the basin. (2) There was synchronism between opening and subsidence of the Okinawa Trough and tilting and subsidence of the forearc terrace. The late Miocene erosional surface is now 4000 m below sea-level in the forearc terrace, above the trench slope. Retreat and subsidence of the Ryukyu trench line relative to the Asian continental plate, could be one of the causes of tilting of the forearc and extension in the backarc area. (3) A major phase of crustal spreading occurred in Pliocene times 1.9 My ago in the south and central Okinawa Trough. (4) En échelon rifting and spreading structures of the central axes of the Okinawa Trough are oblique to the general trend of the arc and trench. The Ryukyu arc sub-plate cannot be considered as a rigid plate. Rotation of 45° to 50° of the southern Ryukyu arc, since the late Miocene, is inferred. The timing and kinematic evolution of the Taiwan collision and the south Okinawa Trough opening suggest a connection between these two events. The indentation process due to the collision of the north Luzon Arc with the China margin could have provoked: lateral extrusion; clockwise rotation (45° to 50° according to palaeomagnetic data) and buckling of the south Ryukyu non-volcanic arc; tension in the weak crustal zone constituted by the south Ryukyu volcanic arc and opening of the south Okinawa Trough. Similar lateral extrusions, rotations, buckling and tensional gaps have been observed in indentation experiments. Additional phenomena such as: thermal convection, retreating trench model or anchored slab model could maintain extension in the backarc basin. Such a hypothetical collision-lateral backarc opening model could explain the initiation of opening of backarc basins such as the Mariana Trough, Bonin Trough, Parece Vela — Shikoku Basin and Sea of Japan. A new late Cenozoic palaeogeographic evolution model of the Philippine Sea plate and surrounding areas is proposed.     

Hellenic Trench sedimentation: An approach using terrigenous distributions

Sand-sized terrigenous material from 450 samples representing 24 piston cores is used to compare slope, perched slope basin, and trench apron, plain and margin depositional environments within the Hellenic Trench west of the Peloponnesus. Recognition of three stratigraphically defined layers in the core sections served as a basis for evaluating changes in time. Statistical testing showed that within the upper defined layer (0–5700 yrs. B.P.) terrigenous grains are distributed rather uniformly throughout the slope and basin complexes in contrast to distributions in underlying layers (5700–17,000 and 17,000–45,000 yrs. B.P., respectively. These distributions reflect intense reworking by gravitative processes as evidenced by sediment structures, incomplete slope sections, high accumulation rates, and dilution of sapropels. The homogeneity of the upper layer is explained by failure and downslope transport of sediments that were deposited on the slope during lower stands of sea level. The quantitative analyses performed highlight the rapidity by which land-derived sediments by-pass high-relief slopes, temporarily reside in perched basins on the slope, and ultimately are dispersed to distal trench apron and basin environments by sporadic gravity flows.