The Nordic geological surveys： Geology for society in practice

Since the mid-nineteenth century., when the first of the Nordic Geological Surveys were established, they have generated a substantial amount of information on the Earth＇s crust, its natural resources, its processes, and on the geological history of Nordic areas. The collective mission of the geological surveys is to carry out ＂Geology for Society＂, by doing research and providing services, and by making geological information and data easily accessible to all the varied end users in industry, government agencies, government institutes, public administrations, technical offices, academia and research institutes, as well as for private individuals. The present paper gives a brief overview of a few, selected, research areas and projects currently undertaken by the Nordic geological surveys. These serve as practical examples of how the Nordic geological surveys address important societal problems and challenges that require geological input for their solution.     

A technique to assess dispersion

A technique to arrive at conditions congenial to maintaining a stable suspension of fine particles has been described. The technique involves continuous monitoring of apparent loss of weight of a body suspended in settling slurries. Such a technique is useful in fixing the best conditions for gravity separation of fine particles involving Bartles-Mozley concentrators or hydrocyclones.     

40Ar-39Ar dating of the H3 chondrite Sainte Rose

Abstract— A whole rock sample from the H3 chondrite Sainte Rose, which was discovered in 1983, was dated with the ⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar technique. From the K/Ca spectrum and from an analysis of the ³⁹Ar recoil effect we conclude that this meteorite has at least two distinguishable K-carriers: a low temperature, high-K/Ca, fine-grained carrier with a typical grain size of about 2 μm and a high temperature, low-K/Ca, more coarse-grained carrier. The K-Ar clocks of both were started 4.40 ± 0.01 Ga ago.     

Photometry of pluto in the last decade and before: evidence for volatile transport?

Photometric observations of Pluto in the BVR filter system were obtained in 1999 and in 1990-1993, and observations in the 0.89-μm methane absorption band were obtained in 2000. Our 1999 observations yield lightcurve amplitudes of 0.30 ± 0.01, 0.26 ± 0.01, and 0.21 ± 0.02 and geometric albedos of 0.44 ± 0.04, 0.52 ± 0.03, and 0.58 ± 0.02 in the B, V, and R filters, respectively. The low-albedo hemisphere of Pluto is slightly redder than the higher albedo hemisphere. A comparison of our results and those from previous epochs shows that the lightcurve of Pluto changes substantially through time. We developed a model that fully accounts for changes in the lightcurve caused by changes in the viewing geometry between the Earth, Pluto, and the Sun. We find that the observed changes in the amplitude of Pluto’s lightcurve can be explained by viewing geometry rather than by volatile transport. We also discovered a measurable decrease since 1992 of ∼0.03 magnitudes in the amplitude of Pluto’s lightcurve, as the model predicts. Pluto’s geometric albedo does not appear to be currently increasing, as our model predicts, although given the uncertainties in both the model and the measurements of geometric albedo, this result is not firm evidence for volatile transport. The maximum of methane-absorption lightcurve occurs near the minimum of the BVR lightcurves. This result suggests that methane is more abundant in the brightest regions of Pluto. Pluto’s phase coefficient exhibits a color dependence, ranging from 0.037 ± 0.01 in the B filter to 0.032 ± 0.01 in the R filter. Pluto’s phase curve is most like those of the bright, recently resurfaced satellites Triton and Europa. Although Pluto shows no strong evidence for volatile transport now (unlike Triton), it is important to continue to observe Pluto as it moves away from perihelion.     

Holocene climate forcings and lacustrine regime shifts in the Indian summer monsoon realm

Extreme climate events have been identified both in meteorological and long-term proxy records from the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) realm. However, the potential of palaeoclimate data for understanding mechanisms triggering climate extremes over long time scales has not been fully exploited. A distinction between proxies indicating climate change, environment, and ecosystem shift is crucial for enabling a comparison with forcing mechanisms (e.g. El-Niño Southern Oscillation). In this study we decouple these factors using data analysis techniques [multiplex recurrence network (MRN) and principal component analyses (PCA)] on multiproxy data from two lakes located in different climate regions – Lonar Lake (ISM dominated) and the high-altitude Tso Moriri Lake (ISM and westerlies influenced). Our results indicate that (i) MRN analysis, an indicator of changing environmental conditions, is associated with droughts in regions with a single climate driver but provides ambiguous results in regions with multiple climate/environmental drivers; (ii) the lacustrine ecosystem was ‘less sensitive’ to forcings during the early Holocene wetter periods; (iii) archives in climate zones with a single climate driver were most sensitive to regime shifts; (iv) data analyses are successful in identifying the timing of onset of climate change, and distinguishing between extrinsic and intrinsic (lacustrine) regime shifts by comparison with forcing mechanisms. Our results enable development of conceptual models to explain links between forcings and regional climate change that can be tested in climate models to provide an improved understanding of the ISM dynamics and their impact on ecosystems. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Filters for linear sea-wave prediction

Deterministic sea-wave prediction (DSWP) models are appearing in the literature designed for quiescent interval prediction in marine applications dominated by large swell seas. The approach has focused upon spectral methods which are straightforward and intuitively attractive. However, such methods have the disadvantage that while the sea is aperiodic in nature, the standard discrete spectral processing techniques force an absolutely periodic structure onto the resulting sea surface prediction models. As it is the shape of the sea surface that is important in such applications, particularly near the end of the domain which is important, the standard windowing techniques used in signal processing work to reduce leakage artifacts cannot be employed. This has necessitated the use of end matching methods that can be both inconvenient and may reduce the fraction of the time for which legitimate predictions are available. As a result, an investigation has been undertaken of the use of finite impulse response prediction filters to provide the necessary dispersive phase shifting required in DSWP systems. The present work examines the theoretical basis for such filters and explores their properties together with their application to both long and short crested swell seas. It is shown that wide band forms of such filters are only convergent in the sense of distributions having both infinite duration impulse responses and asymptotically divergent first derivatives. However, appropriate band limitation can produce useful finite impulse responses allowing implementation via standard discrete convolution methods. It is demonstrated that despite the prediction filters having a non-causal impulse response such filters can be used in practice due to a combination of the asymmetric nature of the impulse response and the fundamental nature of the prediction process. The findings are confirmed against actual sea-wave data.     

Dynamic Response Analysis of Interaction System of R.C. Gravity Single-Leg Platform

In this paper, the responses of the interaction system of R.C. gravity single-leg platform to seismic excitation are mainly analysed. A set of nonlinear equations for the interaction system are established by using the wave, one is the soil-structure interaction and the other is the fluid-structure interaction. The seismic response of the interaction system is analysed for the influence of the asymmetric structure, fluid action, etc. with the input of seismic SH waves in any direction. The numerical results are given for a simple example.     

Wolf-Rayet stars

Summary Recent literature on Population I Wolf-Rayet star research extending from the Milky Way to blue compact dwarf galaxies is reviewed, broken down into inventory, basic parameters and galactic distribution, atmospheres, binaries, intrinsic variability, mass loss, enrichment and evolution. Also the incidence of Wolf-Rayet stars with variable non-thermal radio emission, excess X-ray fluxes, and episodic/periodic IR excesses is reviewed. These phenomena appear to be associated with wind-wind interaction in wide long-period WR+OB binaries and with wind-compact object interaction in WR+c binaries, with orbit sizes of the order of magnitude of the WR radio photosphere sizes or larger.     

Cosmological implications of BL Lac objects

It has become clear in recent years that relativistic beaming is a good explanation for the BL Lac phenomenon. Of studies based on the relativistic beaming model of BL Lac objects, we note that the orientation of jet's axis to the line-of-sight is very small and, therefore, the observed flux emitted from a rapidly moving source is orders of magnitude higher than the flux in its rest-frame:F _obs = ^{3 +} F _intr, where is the bulk relativistic Doppler factor. Then the observed apparent magnitudem _v must be corrected for this effect. For our 39 samples, the corrected apparent magnitudem _v ^corr and logZ have a good correlation.