Impact of spectral nudging and domain size in studies of RCM response to parameter modification

The paper aims at finding an RCM configuration that facilitates studies devoted to quantifying RCM response to parameter modification. When using short integration times, the response of the time-averaged variables to RCM modification tend to be blurred by the noise originating in the lack of predictability of the instantaneous atmospheric states. Two ways of enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio are studied in this work: spectral nudging and reduction of the computational domain size. The approach followed consists in the analysis of the sensitivity of RCM-simulated seasonal averages to perturbations of two parameters controlling deep convection and stratiform condensation, perturbed one at a time. Sensitivity is analyzed within different simulation configurations obtained by varying domain size and using the spectral nudging option. For each combination of these factors multiple members of identical simulations that differ exclusively in initial conditions are also generated to provide robust estimates of the sensitivities (the signal) and sample the noise. Results show that the noise magnitude is decreased both by reduction of domain size and the spectral nudging. However, the reduction of domain size alters some sensitivity signals. When spectral nudging is used significant alterations of the signal are not found.     

High-pressure yield strength of rocksalt structures using quartz Raman piezometry

The Raman frequencies of quartz are used to evaluate deviatoric stresses in rocksalt-structure media in diamond-anvil cell experiments to pressures up to 20 GPa. The piezospectroscopic effect in quartz is modeled by first-principles calculations. Non-hydrostatic stresses measured in halogen salts give yield strength estimates of 3 GPa in the B1 structure (NaCl), and 4.5 GPa for the B2 structure (KCl and KBr). Raman measurements in MgO show that the yield strength is reached at around 6 ± 1 GPa. Measurements on quartz alone indicate similar yield strength. The estimated yield strength in MgO is thus likely a lower bound, in consistency with former radial X-ray diffraction measurements that gave a yield strength of 8 ± 1 GPa, and lower-pressure large-volume press experiments indicating a yield strength of 6 GPa at 5 GPa. Former values of the yield strength below 2 GPa determined by pressure gradient measurements were underestimated due to unverified assumptions in boundary conditions. The yield strength increases with increasing coordination of ionic solids, likely contributing to increase viscosity at phase transitions near the upper–lower mantle boundary.     

Magma chamber growth models in the upper crust: A review of the hydraulic and inertial constraints

Finite volumes of magma moving in confinement, store hydraulic potential energy for the generation,control and transmission of power. The Pascal's principle in a hydraulic jack arrangement is used to model the vertical and lateral growth of sills. The small input piston of the hydraulic jack is equivalent to the feeder dike, the upper large expansible piston equivalent to the magmatic chamber and the inertial force of the magma in the dike is the input force. This arrangement is particularly relevant to the case of sills expanding with blunt tips, for which rapid fracture propagation is inhibited. Hydraulic models concur with experimental data that show that lateral expansion of magma into a sill is promoted when the vertical ascent of magma through a feeder dike reaches the bottom contact with an overlying, flat rigid-layer. At this point, the magma is forced to decelerate, triggering a pressure wave through the conduit caused by the continued ascent of magma further down(fluid-hammer effect). This pressure wave can provide overpressure enough to trigger the initial hydraulic lateral expansion of magma into an incipient sill, and still have enough input inertial force left to continue feeding the hydraulic system. The lateral expansion underneath the strong impeding layer, causes an area increase and thus, further hydraulic amplification of the input inertial force on the sides and roof of the incipient sill, triggering further expansion in a self-reinforcing process. Initially, the lateral pressure increase is larger than that in the roof allowing the sill to expand. However, expansion eventually increases the total integrated force on the roof allowing its uplift into either a laccolith, if the roof preserves continuity, or into a piston bounded by a circular set of fractures. Hydraulic models for shallow magmatic chambers, also suggest that laccolith-like intrusions require the existence of a self-supported chamber roof. In contrast, if the roof of magmatic chambers loses the self-supporting capacity, lopoliths and calderas should be expected for more or less dense magmas, respectively, owing to the growing influence of the density contrast between the host rock and the magma.     

Modeling debris flow initiation and run-out in recently burned areas using data-driven methods

In the framework of the landslide susceptibility assessment, the maps produced should include not only the landslide initiation areas, but also those areas potentially affected by the traveling mobilized material. To achieve this purpose, the susceptibility analysis must be separated in two distinct components: (1) The first one, which is also the most discussed in the literature, deals with the susceptibility to failure, and (2) the second component refers to the run-out modeling using the initiation areas as an input. Therefore, in this research we present a debris flow susceptibility assessment in a recently burned area in a mountain zone in central Portugal. The modeling of debris flow initiation areas is performed using two statistical methods: a bivariate (information value) and a multivariate (logistic regression). The independent validation of the results generated areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves between 0.91 and 0.98. The slope angle, plan curvature, soil thickness and lithology proved to be the most relevant predisposing factors for the debris flow initiation in recently burned areas. The run-out is simulated by applying two different methods: the empirical model Flow Path Assessment of Gravitational Hazards at a Regional Scale (Flow-R) and the hydrological algorithm D-infinity downslope influence (DI). The run-out modeling of the 36 initiation areas included in the debris flow inventory delivered a true positive rate of 83.5% for Flow-R and 80.5% for DI, reflecting a good performance of both models. Finally, the susceptibility map for the entire basin including both the initiation and the run-out areas in a scenario of a recent wildfire was produced by combining the four models mentioned above.     

Meteorological analysis of the tornado in Ciudad Acuña,Coahuila State,Mexico, on May 25, 2015

Extreme meteorological conditions favor the development of severe storms and tornadoes that may have largely impacts on the population despite its relatively short life. Tornadic severe storms have been documented around the World. In Mexico (MEX), the study of the occurrence of tornadoes and severe storms is relatively new. In this research, we have selected an event of severe tornadic storm in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. The storm was driven by a frontal system moving southward from USA converging with a warmer moist air flux from the Gulf of Mexico. The tornado strikes on the Northeast of Mexico, in Coahuila State, on May 25, 2015. Imagery of infrared channel from GOES 13 satellite and the presence of a hook echo in radar data of May 25, 2015, indicate a supercell structure. The maximum values of radial velocity were about ?20 and 15 m s^?1. In this study, the WRF model was used in order to simulate the mesoscale meteorological conditions of the tornado. Model simulations capture atmospheric features observed in Doppler radar. The simulated storm-relative helicity values were between 400 and 500 m² s^?2. The simulated convective available potential energy values were of 3000 J kg^?1. These values were higher than values for convective storms, located over the region of Ciudad Acuña in Mexico and Del Rio in USA. The supercell was a result of high humidity and temperature gradients, conditioned by frontal activity and moisture flux intensifications from the Gulf of Mexico.

     

Vertical-axis rotations and deformation along the active strike-slip El Tigre Fault (Precordillera of San Juan,Argentina) assessed through palaeomagnetism and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility

International Journal of Earth Sciences - Palaeomagnetic data from poorly consolidated to non-consolidated late Cenozoic sediments along the central segment of the active El Tigre Fault...     

The Variscan belt: correlations and plate dynamics

International Journal of Earth Sciences -     

Saghro Group in the Ougnat Massif (Morocco), an evidence for a continuous Cadomian basin along the northern West African Craton

The Saghro Group (SG) is a folded, low-grade volcano-sedimentary series up to 8 km thick that crops out within and to the north of the Pan-African suture zone in the central and eastern Anti-Atlas. Here we describe the SG of the Ougnat inliers that are exposed in the easternmost Anti-Atlas beneath the unconformable, Late Ediacaran Ouarzazate Group (OZG) volcanic rocks. The Ougnat SG mostly consists of volcaniclastic greywackes accumulated in a peritidal-to-shallow basin. The basin infilling was deformed by NNE-trending, mostly upright folds with axial-planar slaty cleavage and low-grade metamorphism. The deformed SG rocks were intruded by the ～550 Ma Mellab hypovolcanic granodiorite. The latter also crosscuts the lowest OZG rocks that are dated to 574–571 Ma in the western Saghro region. The SG rocks that form the Siroua and Saghro inliers have an oldest age of 620–610 Ma and were folded at ～610–580 Ma at the onset of the Cadomian orogenic events. We show that the SG rocks are similar to the “Série verte” (SV) rocks that are exposed in the Ougarta and western Hoggar east of the Pan-African suture. We infer that the SG and SV rocks accumulated in a same, continuous basin that was bounding the West African Craton to the north and the east. This strongly subsiding basin formed close to a volcanic arc and was folded during the last Pan-African synmetamorphic events. Fold orientation and age of folding differ however along the edge of the West African Craton. The orogenic greywackes that form the remnants of the SG-SV basin thus constitute a precious record of the diachronic Cadomian event s.l. along the West African Craton northern margin.     

Cambrian–early Ordovician volcanism across the South Armorican and Occitan domains of the Variscan Belt in France: Continental break-up and rifting of the northern Gondwana margin

The Cambrian–lower Ordovician volcanic units of the South Armorican and Occitan domains are analysed in a tectonostratigraphic survey of the French Variscan Belt. The South Armorican lavas consist of continental tholeiites in middle Cambrian–Furongian sequences related to continental break-up. A significant volcanic activity occurred in the Tremadocian, dominated by crustal melted rhyolitic lavas and initial rifting tholeiites. The Occitan lavas are distributed into five volcanic phases: (1) basal Cambrian rhyolites, (2) upper lower Cambrian Mg-rich tholeiites close to N-MORBs but crustal contaminated, (3) upper lower–middle Cambrian continental tholeiites, (4) Tremadocian rhyolites, and (5) upper lower Ordovician initial rift tholeiites. A rifting event linked to asthenosphere upwelling took place in the late early Cambrian but did not evolve. It renewed in the Tremadocian with abundant crustal melting due to underplating of mixed asthenospheric and lithospheric magmas. This main tectono-magmatic continental rift is termed the “Tremadocian Tectonic Belt” underlined by a chain of rhyolitic volcanoes from Occitan and South Armorican domains to Central Iberia. It evolved with the setting of syn-rift coarse siliciclastic deposits overlain by post-rift deep water shales in a suite of sedimentary basins that forecasted the South Armorican–Medio-European Ocean as a part of the Palaeotethys Ocean.