A Vegetation History of the Far North of New Zealand during the Late Otira (Last) Glaciation

During the latter part of the last (Otira) glaciation the forest cover of New Zealand was much reduced. It has frequently been postulated, however, that diverse mixed forest communities survived in the far north of North Island. Pollen diagrams and radiocarbon dates from two last glacial and postglacial (Aranuian) sits on the Aupouri Peninsula in the far north of New Zealand are compared with other published palynological and plant macrofossil evidence from the region. Mixed kauri/podocarp/angiosperm forest was present at times during the late Otiran (and Aranuian) and no evidence was found for substantial loss of forest. However, radiocarbon samples from one site, at least, seem to have been contaminated with young carbon; this introduces uncertainty into the chronology established at that site. Possibly nondeposition or erosion has obscured part or all of the late Otiran record at all the sites studied so that very much reduced forest cover at that time cannot be ruled out.     

Bifurcation of volcanic plumes in a crosswind

Bent-over buoyant jets distorted by a crosscurrent develop a vortex pair structure and can bifurcate to produce two distinct lobes which diverge from one another downwind. The region downwind of the source between the lobes has relatively low proportions of discharged fluid. Factors invoked by previous workers to cause or enhance bifurcation include buoyancy, release of latent heat at the plume edge by evaporating water droplets, geometry and orientation of the source, and the encounter with a density interface on the rising path of the plume. We suggest that the pressure distribution around the vortex pair of a rising plume may initially trigger bifurcation. We also report new experimental observations confirming that bifurcation becomes stronger for stronger bent-over plumes, identifying that bifurcation can also occur for straight-edged plumes but gradually disappears for stronger plumes which form a gravity current at their final level and spread for a significant distance against the current. Observations from satellites and the ground are reviewed and confirm that volcanic plumes can show bifurcation and a large range of bifurcation angles. Many of the bifurcating plumes spread out at the tropopause level and suggest the tropopause may act on the plumes as a density interface enhancing bifurcation. Even for quite moderate bifurcation angles, the two plume lobes become rapidly separated downwind by distances of tens of kilometers. Such bifurcating plumes drifting apart can only result in bilobate tephra fall deposits. The tephra fall deposit from the 16 km elevation, SE spreading, bifurcating volcanic plume erupted on 15 May 1981 from Mt Pagan was sampled by previous workers and clearly displayed bilobate characteristics. Examples of bilobate tephra fall deposits are reviewed and their origin briefly discussed. Bilobate deposits are common and may result from many causes. Plume bifurcation should be considered one of the possible mechanisms which can account for come examples of bilobate tephra fall deposits.     

The frictional behavior of lizardite and antigorite serpentinites: Experiments,constitutive models,and implications for natural faults

Laboratory studies of the frictional behavior of rocks can provide important information about the strength and sliding stability of natural faults. We have conducted friction experiments on antigorite and lizardite serpentinites, rocks common to both continental and oceanic crustal faults. We conducted both velocity-step tests and timed-hold tests on bare surfaces and gouge layers of serpentinite at room temperature. We find that the coefficient of friction of lizardite serpentinite is quite low (0.15–0.35) and could explain the apparent low stresses observed on crustal transform faults, while that of antigorite serpentinite is comparable to other crustal rocks (0.50–0.85). The frictional behavior of both types of serpentinite is well described by a two-mechanism model combining state-variable-dominated behavior at high slip velocities and flow-dominated behavior at low velocities. The two-mechanism model is supported by data from velocity-step tests and timed-hold tests. The low velocity behavior of serpentinite is strongly rate strengthening and should result in stable fault creep on natural faults containing either antigorite or lizardite serpentinite.