Structure of the footwall of a listric fault system revealed by 3D seismic data from the Niger Delta

We use three‐dimensional (3D) seismic reflection data to analyse the architecture of the footwall of a listric fault, in a gravitationally driven extensional system, in the north‐western Niger Delta. In contrast to conventional listric normal fault models with a single master listric fault plane the level of detachment switches from a deeper to shallower level. The footwall evolves through the generation of new master detachment faults and detachments, which transfers hanging wall rocks into the footwall. New detachments form by branching off pre‐existing detachment levels, cutting‐up through stratigraphy to the next mechanical weakness, separating discrete sections of extended strata. As a consequence a deeper, older array of seaward‐dipping, tilted extensional fault blocks is now located in the footwall beneath the master listric detachment fault. The structural complexity located below the master detachment fault highlights extensional episodes on separate detachment faults that are not captured in conventional listric models. We speculate that changes in the level of the detachment are caused by mechanical weaknesses controlled by lithology, pore pressure and episodes of sediment loading related to deltaic progradation.     

GIS-based spatial prediction of landslide using road factors and random forest for Sichuan-Tibet Highway

Accurate evaluation of landslide susceptibility is very important to ensure the safe operation of mountain highways.The Sichuan-Tibet Highway,which traverses th...     

A fluid dynamics approach to modelling the 18th March 2007 lahar at Mt. Ruapehu,New Zealand

Lahars are water-sediment mass flows from a volcanic source. They can be triggered by a variety of mechanisms and span a continuum of flow rheology and hydraulic properties, even within the same event. Lahars are extremely powerful landscaping agents and represent a considerable hazard potential. However, this highly dynamic character and a lack of direct measurements has made modelling lahars difficult. This study therefore applies a fluid dynamics model; Delft3D, to analyse the 18th March 2007 dam break lahar at Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand. The modelled lahar routed through the Whangaehu gorge in ~30 min, crossed the Whangaehu fan in ~60 min, and then over a further 3 h travelled an additional ~22 km distance along the Whangaehu River to the Tangiwai bridge. The modelled mean frontal velocity was 6.5 m s⁻¹ along the gorge although peak velocity reached up to 19.6 m s⁻¹. The modelled lahar flow front progressively slowed across the fan but along the River it accelerated from 2.1–3.3 m s⁻¹. Calculated peak velocity along the River was <4.5 m s⁻¹. These results generally compare well with gauged records, with historical records, and with other modelling approaches. However, discrepancies in frontal velocity and time to peak stage arise due to (1) specifying roughness, which arises from slope variations between adjacent computational nodes, and which is stage-dependant, and (2) due to rapid topographic changes that produce frequent hydraulic jumps, which are inadequately accommodated in the numerical scheme. The overall pattern of discharge attenuation, and of relationships between topographic and hydraulic variables, is similar to that calculated for lahars on other volcanoes. This modelling method could be applied at other similar sites where a likely source hydrograph and high-resolution topographic data are available. These results have important implications for hazard management at Ruapehu and for examining geomorphic and sedimentary impacts of this lahar.     

Landscape and sedimentary response to catastrophic debris avalanches, western Taranaki, New Zealand

Catastrophic volcanic debris avalanches reshape volcanic edifices with up to half of pre-collapse cone volumes being removed. Deposition from this debris avalanche deposit often fills and inundates the surrounding landscape and may permanently change the distribution of drainage networks. On the weakly-incised Mt. Taranaki ring-plain, volcanic debris avalanche deposits typically form a large, wedge shape (in plan view), over all flat-lying fans. Following volcanic debris avalanches a period of intense re-sedimentation commonly begins on ring-plain areas, particularly in wet or temperate climates. This is exacerbated by large areas of denuded landscape, ongoing instability in the scarp/source region, damming of river/stream systems, and in some cases inherent instability of the volcanic debris avalanche deposits. In addition, on Mt. Taranaki, the collapse of a segment of the cone by volcanic debris avalanche often generates long periods of renewed volcanism, generating large volumes of juvenile tephra onto unstable and unvegetated slopes, or construction of new domes with associated rock falls and block-and-ash flows. The distal ring-plain impact from these post-debris avalanche conditions and processes is primarily accumulation of long run-out debris flow and hyperconcentrated flow deposits with a variety of lithologies and sedimentary character. Common to these post-debris avalanche units is evidence for high-water-content flows that are typically non-cohesive. Hence sedimentary variations in these units are high in lateral and longitudinal exposure in relation to local topography. The post-collapse deposits flank large-scale fans and hence similar lithological and chronological sequences can form on widely disparate sectors of the ring plain. These deposits on Mt. Taranaki provide a record of landscape response and ring-plain evolution in three stages that divide the currently identified Warea Formation: 1) the deposition of broad fans of material adjacent to the debris avalanche unit; 2) channel formation and erosion of Stage 1 deposits, primarily at the contact between debris avalanche deposits and the Stage 1 deposits and the refilling of these channels; and 3) the development of broad tabular sheet flows on top of the debris avalanche, leaving sediments between debris avalanche mounds. After a volcanic debris avalanche, these processes represent an ever changing and evolving hazard-scape with hazard maps needing to be regularly updated to take account of which stage the sedimentary system is in.     

Bioindicator role of tintinnid (Protozoa: Ciliophora) for water quality monitoring in Kalpakkam,Tamil Nadu,south east coast of India

The feasibility of a potential bioindicator based on functional groups of microzooplankton tintinnids for bioassessments of water quality status was studied during southwest monsoon (June to September) along the coastal waters of Kalpakkam, India during 2012–2015. The work highlights the following features (1) tintinnid community composed of 28 species belonging to 11 genera and 9 families, revealed significant differences among the four study sites (2) maximum numerical abundance (2224 ± 90 ind. l^? 1) and species diversity (H′ = 2.66) of tintinnid were recorded towards Bay of Bengal whereas minimum abundance (720 ± 35 ind. l^? 1) and diversity (H′ = 1.74) were encountered in the backwater sites, (3) multivariate analyses [RELATE, Biota-environment (BIOENV) and canonical analysis of principal coordinates (CAP)] reveal that chl a, nitrate and phosphate were the potential causative factors for tintinnid distribution. Based on the results, we suggest that tintinnids may be used as a potential bioindicator of water quality status in marine ecosystem.     

Cation field strength effects on high pressure aluminosilicate glass structure: Multinuclear NMR and La XAFS results

We examined aluminosilicate glasses containing a variety of network modifying to intermediate cations (Li, La, Sc, and Fe), quenched from melts at 1 atm to 8 GPa, to further investigate the role of cation field strength in Al coordination changes and densification. ²⁷Al Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) reveals that the mean Al coordination increases with increasing pressure in the Li-containing glasses, which can be explained by a linear dependence of fractional change in Al coordination number on cation field strengths in similar K-, Na-, and Ca-containing aluminosilicate glasses (K < Na < Li < Ca). Measured recovered densities follow a similar linear trend. In contrast, the La-containing glasses have significantly lower mean Al coordination numbers at given pressures than the cation field strength of La and glass density would predict. La L₃ X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy results indicate a significant increase with pressure in average La-O bond distances, suggesting that La and Al may be “competing” for higher coordinated sites and hence that both play a significant role in the densification of these glasses, especially in the lower pressure range. However, in Na aluminosilicate glasses with small amounts of Sc, ⁴⁵Sc NMR reveals only modest Sc coordination changes, which do not seem to significantly affect the mean Al coordination values. For a Li aluminosilicate glass, ¹⁷O MAS and multiple quantum magic angle spinning (3QMAS) NMR data are consistent with generation of more highly coordinated Al at the expense of non-bridging oxygen (NBO), whereas La aluminosilicate glasses have roughly constant O environments, even up to 8 GPa. Finally, we demonstrate that useful ²³Na and ²⁷Al MAS NMR spectra can be collected for Ca-Na aluminosilicate glasses containing up to 5 wt.% Fe oxide. We discuss the types of structural changes that may accompany density increases with pressure and how these structural changes are affected by the presence of different cations.     

Rolling Back the State and Physical Development Planning: The Case of Barbados

The focus of this paper is the recent preparation of the Third National Physical Development Plan for Barbados. Interestingly, this blueprint for the future development of the country was prepared by Canadian consultants, under the auspices of Inter-American Development Bank funding, and thereby ostensibly represents the rolling back of the State in the context of physical development planning. The paper briefly examines the origins of town and country planning in Barbados and the wider Caribbean before critiquing the Third Plan produced in 1998. Emphasis is placed on salient issues such as operationalising sustainable development, the involvement of local stakeholders, the role of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) in the planning process, and the production of Community Plans. Throughout, it is shown that whilst the State appears to have been "rolled back", government has retained its strong-hold over the course of physical development planning, principally by "tactics" which have served to minimise the degree to which members of the public and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been able to participate.     

Food production and climate protection—What abandoned lands can do to preserve natural forests

Approaches to reconciling food production with climatic and environmental protection often require agricultural intensification. The production of more food per unit of agricultural land through “sustainable intensification” is intended to enable the protection of natural ecosystems elsewhere (land sparing). However, there are problems associated with agricultural intensification; such as soil erosion, eutrophication or pollution of water bodies with chemicals, landscape homogenization and loss of biodiversity; for which solutions have not yet been found. Reuse of abandoned agricultural lands – which are abundant throughout the world – to address the rising demand for food is a potentially important alternative, which up to now has been widely ignored. To test the power of this alternative, equilibrium economic land allocation to various land-use practices by risk-avoiding tropical farmers in Ecuador was simulated. The reestablishment of pastures on abandoned cattle lands lowered prices for pasture products, and also triggered conversion of existing pasture into cropland. The resulting land-use change increased total annual food production in a moderate scenario from the current level of 17.8–23.1 petacalories (10¹⁵ calories), which amounted to a production increase of 30%. At the same time, there was a 19% reduction in the amount of payments to farmers required to preserve tropical forests – one of the world's greatest terrestrial carbon stores.     

Racing climate change: Collaboration and conflict in California's global climate change policy arena

Media accounts routinely refer to California's Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32), the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, as “landmark” climate change legislation. On its surface, this label is an accurate reflection of the state's forward-thinking stance across many environmental issues including pesticides, toxic substances, solid waste, and air quality. For all its promise, however, AB 32 can also be considered a low point in the landscape of conflict between state environmental regulators and California's environmental justice movement. While the legislation included several provisions to address the procedural and distributive dimensions of environmental justice, the implementation of AB 32 has been marked by heated conflict. The most intense conflicts over AB 32 revolve around the primacy of market mechanisms such as “cap and trade.” This article examines the drivers and the manifestations of these dynamics of collaboration and conflict between environmental justice advocates and state regulators, and pays particular attention to the scalar and racialized quality of the neoliberal discourse. The contentiousness of climate change politics in California offers scholars and practitioners around the world a cautionary tale of how the best intentions for integrating environmental justice principles into climate change policy do not necessarily translate into implementation and how underlying racialized fractures can upend collaboration between state and social movement actors.