PREDICTING THE DEPTH OF EROSION IN RESERVOIRS FOLLOWING DAM REMOVAL USING BANK STABILITY ANALYSIS

1 INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Dam Removal The aging of the more than 75,000 dams in the U.S., coupled with the increasing awareness of their environmental costs, has made dam decommissioning and removal a topic of current interest to the scientific community, management agencies, and the general public. It is estimated that 85% of the dams in the U.S. will be near the end of their operational lives by the year 2020 (FEMA, 1999), necessitating thorough consideration of dam removal or repair for…     

Modelling the effect of form and profile adjustments on channel equilibrium timescales

A model for describing river channel pro?le adjustments through time is developed and applied to a river responding to base‐level lowering in order to examine the effect of channel widening and downstream aggradation on equilibrium timescales. Across a range of boundary conditions, downstream aggradation controlled how quickly a channel reached equilibrium. Channel widening either increased or decreased the equilibrium timescale, depending on whether or not sediment derived from widening was deposited downstream. Results suggest that pro?le adjustments are more important than channel width adjustments in controlling equilibrium timescales for a channel responding to base‐level lowering. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Incorporating Catastrophes into Integrated Assessment: Science, Impacts, and Adaptation

Incorporating potential catastrophic consequences into integrated assessment models of climate change has been a top priority of policymakers and modelers alike. We review the current state of scientific understanding regarding three frequently mentioned geophysical catastrophes, with a view toward their implications for integrated assessment modeling. This review finds inadequacies in widespread model assumptions regarding the nature of catastrophes themselves and climate change impacts more generally. The possibility of greatly postponed consequences from near- and medium-term actions suggests that standard discounting practices are inappropriate for the analysis of climate catastrophe. Careful consideration of paleoclimate and geophysical modeling evidence regarding the possibility of changes in ocean circulation suggests a reframing of the source of climate change damages in economic models, placing changes in climate predictability, rather than gradual changes in mean values, at the focus of economic damage assessments. The implications of decreases in predictability for the modeling of adaptation are further discussed.     

Getting away with it? Exposing the geographies of the super-rich

Geographers have often highlighted the existence of marginalized populations living on or below the poverty line. In contrast, little has been written about the principal beneficiaries of contemporary capitalism--the super-rich. While there have always been super-rich individuals, in this paper we chart the exponential growth in the wealth of the global elite. Suggesting that the globalization of the world economy benefits the wealthy in a variety of ways, we accordingly argue that much is to be gained by exposing the contemporary geographies of the super-rich, beginning by highlighting their transnational reach and global influence.     

The application of single zircon evaporation and model Nd ages to the interpretation of polymetamorphic terrains: an example from the Proterozoic mobile belt of south India

The technique of single zircon dating from the thermal evaporation of ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb (Kober 1986, 1987) provides a means of dating successive periods of growth and nucleation of zircons in polymetamorphic assemblages. In contrast Nd model ages may provide a measure of the period of crustal residency for the sample or its protolith. These two techniques have been combined to elucidate the tectonic history of the Proterozoic mobile belt of southern India, exposed south of the Palghat-Cauvery Shear Zone that marks the southern boundary of the Archaean craton of Karnataka. The two main tectonic units of this mobile belt comprise the Madurai and Trivandrum Blocks, both of which are characterised by massive charnockite uplands and low-lying polymetamorphic metasedimentary belts that have undergone a complex tectonic history throughout the Proterozoic. Evidence for early Palaeoproterozoic magmatism is restricted to the Madurai Block where single zircon evaporation ages from a metagranite (2436 ± 4 Ma) are similar to model Nd ages from a range of lithologies suggesting crustal growth at that time. The Trivandrum Block, to the south of the Achankovil shear zone, is comprised of the Kerala Khondalite Belt, the Nagercoil charnockites and the Achankovil metasediments. Single zircon evaporation ages, together with conventional zircon and garnet chronometry, suggest that all three units underwent upper-amphibolite facies metamorphism at ∼1800 Ma, an event unrecorded in the metagranite from the Madurai Block. This implies that the Madurai and Trivandrum blocks represent distinct terrains throughout the Palaeoproterozoic. Model Nd ages from the Achankovil metasediments are much younger (1500–1200 Ma) than those from the adjacent Kerala Khondalite Belt and Madurai Blocks (3000–2100 Ma), but there is no evidence for zircon growth in these metasediments during the Mesoproterozoic. Hence the comparatively young model Nd ages of the metasediments are indicative of a mixed provenance rather than a discrete period of crustal growth. Zircon overgrowths from the Madurai Block (547 ± 17 Ma) and Achankovil metasediments (530 ± 21 Ma) suggest that all tectonic units of the Proterozoic mobile belt of South India shared the same metamorphic history from the early Palaeozoic. This event has been recognised in the basement lithologies of Sri Lanka and East Antarctica, confirming that the constituent terrains of East Gondwana had assembled by this time. Received: 10 October 1995 / Accepted: 27 October 1997     

Optical dating of Holocene sediments from a variety of geomorphic settings using single grains of quartz

This paper presents an improved method for the optical dating of Holocene sediments from a variety of geomorphic settings. We have measured the equivalent dose (D_e) in individual grains of quartz, using green laser light for optical stimulation, and have simulated the D_e distributions for multiple-grain ‘synthetic’ aliquots using the single-grain data. For 12 samples of known (independent) age, we show that application of a ‘minimum age model’ to the single-grain and ‘small’ (10-grain) aliquot D_e data provides the most accurate estimate of the burial dose for nine of the samples examined (3 aeolian, 5 fluvial, and 1 marine). The weighted mean D_e (as obtained using the ‘central age model’) gives rise to burial age overestimates of up to a factor of 10 for these nine samples, whether single grains, small aliquots, or ‘large’ (100-grain) aliquots are used. For the other three samples (two aeolian and one fluvial), application of either the minimum age model or the central age model to the single-grain, small aliquot, and large aliquot D_e data yields burial ages in accord with the independent age control. We infer that these three samples were well bleached at the time of deposition. These results show that heterogeneous bleaching of the optical dating signal is commonplace in nature, and that aeolian transport offers no guarantee that the sample will be well bleached at the time of deposition. We also show that grains sensitive to infrared (IR) stimulation can give rise to low D_e values, which will result in significant underestimation of the burial dose and, hence, of the age of deposition. We demonstrate that use of a modified single-aliquot regenerative-dose protocol incorporating IR stimulation prior to green light stimulation deals effectively with contamination by IR-sensitive grains. We conclude that application of the modified protocol to single grains or small aliquots of quartz, using the lowest D_e population to estimate the burial dose, is the best means of obtaining reliable ages for Holocene sediments from a wide range of depositional environments.     

Tectonostratigraphic relationships and coalification trends in the Narragansett and Norfolk Basins, New England

Carboniferous basins in southeastern New England provide insight into, and constraints on, models for Alleghanian orogenesis. In particular, the Narragansett and Norfolk basins represent Devonian- to Pennsylvanian-aged, non-marine basins in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island that were variably deformed and metamorphosed during the Alleghanian orogeny, and intruded by Permian granites generated by crustal thickening. As such these basins provide an unusually complete documentation of the Alleghanian orogeny. We summarize their sedimentologic, structural and metamorphic features, with emphasis placed on the Narragansett basin, and provide a comprehensive bibliography of recent work. The Narragansett basin also contains complexly deformed and variably metamorphosed coals that are unlike coal describe from other orogenic terrains. Thus we describe these unusual, high rank coal deposits and their response to orogenesis.     

Structure of the larvikite-lardalite complex,Oslo-region,Norway, and its evolution

Structures not previously described from the southern part of the Permian rift-system in the Oslo-district, Norway, are presented. These indicate that the larvikite massif is a ring complex consisting of numerous individual sections which are roughly circular and repeatedly cut each other in a manner that suggests sequential shifting of centres of igneous activity towards the west. The compositions of these sections vary from quartzbearing varieties in the earliest parts through intermediate types to larvikite and lardalite with excess nepheline in the youngest parts.As this complex covers almost the total width of the Oslo rift-system, it forms an important profile across the graben structure. It suggests unilateral westward migration of centres of igneous activity in this region, viewed either as magma injection or cauldron subsidence and therefore provides additional information regarding the origin and evolution of the Oslo paleo-rift system.

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Zusammenfassung Die Arbeit behandelt bisher nicht beschriebene Strukturen im südlichen Teil des permischen Bruchsenkungsgebietes im Oslogebiet in Norwegen. Sie zeigen, daß das Larvikit-Massiv einen ringförmigen Komplex bildet aus zahlreichen, ungefähr zirkulären und untereinander diskordanten Teilbereichen. Die Lage der Diskordanzen erlaubt die Annahme, einer westlich gerichteten sukzessiven Verlagerung der Zentren magmatischer Aktivität. Mit abnehmendem Alter dieser Teilbereiche verändert sich deren Mineralbestand von quartzführend über intermediär hin zur larvikitischen und lardalitischen Zusammensetzung mit Nephelinüberschuß.Da dieser Komplex fast den gesamten Bereich des Osloer Bruchsenkungsgebietes deckt, stellt er ein wichtiges Profil durch die Grabenstruktur dar. Dieses läßt plausibel erscheinen, daß die Zentren der magmatischen Vorgänge der Gegend einem einheitlich westgerichteten Trend gefolgt sind gleichviel, ob man in ihnen großräumige Vorgänge ringförmiger Magmen-intrusion sieht oder zylindrische Kesselbrüche (Cauldrons). Die in der Arbeit dargelegten Ergebnisse sind somit geeignet, die Frage des Ursprungs und der Entwicklung des Osloer Bruchsenkungsgebietes weiter zu erhellen.

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Résumé Une nouvelle analyse structurale de massif de larvikite au sud du rift permien d'Oslo, Norvège, montre que ce massif forme un complexe annulaire comprenant de nombreuses composantes à peu pres circulaires et discordantes entre elles. Les segments se recoupent successivement indiquant un déplacement des centres d'activité magmatique vers l'ouest. Les larvikites passent de types à composition acide avec quartz dans les premiers segments, à des types intermédiaires puis a des compositions sousatourée avec néphéline en excess dans les segments les plus jeunes.Comme le massif occupe presque toute la largeur du rift d'Oslo il constitue une coupe importante de cette fosse paléozoique. Sa structure suggère une migration continue vers l'ouest des centres d'activité volcanique pour autant qu'on y voie des intrusions annulaires de magma, ou des effondrements successifs de la caldeira. Ce résultat apporte une information nouvelle sur l'origine et l'évolution du rift permien d'Oslo au sud de la Norvège.

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