12,000-Year, preliminary results of the stable nitrogen and carbon isotope record from the Empakai Crater lake sediments, Northern Tanzania

The stable isotope compositions of organic carbon and nitrogen, the contents of organic carbon and nitrogen and C/N ratios for two cores recovered from the Empakai Crater at water depths of 11 and 20 m are used to document climatic changes in northern Tanzania. Eight ¹⁴C AMS dates determined on total organic matter (OM) indicate that the sedimentation rate in this lake is about 30 cm/ka for the late Pleistocene to early Holocene period. There are differences in the δ¹³C values of organic carbon between the two cores, which may be a result of differences in location from the present shoreline and of different water depths. In the deeper-water core the δ¹³C values show a general downcore decrease to the base of the core with a sharp change to lower values of about 4‰ at a depth of 100 cm (8.7 ka). The general trend of downcore decrease in ¹³C values can be attributed either to a systematic decrease in the relative proportion of C₄ type of OM, owing to an increase in precipitation and change in vegetation cover from grassland to forest, or to utilization of isotopically enriched carbon during photosynthesis. The δ¹⁵N values show a general downcore increase with again a sharp change of about 5‰ to lower values at about 8.7 ka. A sharp change of about 5‰ and 4‰ to more depleted values at a depth of 100 cm of both ¹⁵N and ¹³C, respectively, suggests either hiatus or abrupt change in climatic condition from wetter conditions to drier conditions. There is enhanced preservation of OM in the lake as depicted by high mean values of organic carbon and nitrogen at both sites.     

Relating millimeter-scale turbulence to meter-scale subtidal erosion and accretion across the fringe of a coastal mangrove forest

Within a wave-exposed mangrove forest, novel field observations are presented, comparing millimeter-scale turbulent water velocity fluctuations with contemporaneous subtidal bed elevation changes. High-resolution velocity and bed level measurements were collected from the unvegetated mudflat, at the mangrove forest fringe, and within the forest interior over multiple tidal cycles (flood–ebb) during a 2-week period. Measurements demonstrated that the spatial variability in vegetation density is a control on sediment transport at sub-meter scales. Scour around single and dense clusters of pneumatophores was predicted by a standard hydraulic engineering equation for wave-induced scour around regular cylinders, when the cylinder diameter in the equations was replaced with the representative diameter of the dense pneumatophore clusters. Waves were dissipated as they propagated into the forest, but dissipation at infragravity periods (> 30 s) was observed to be less than dissipation at shorter periods (< 30 s), consistent with the predictions of a simple model. Cross-wavelet analysis revealed that infragravity-frequency fluctuations in the bed level were occasionally coherent with velocity, possibly indicating scour upstream of dense pneumatophore patches when infragravity waves reinforced tidal currents. Consequently, infragravity waves were a likely driver of sediment transport within the mangrove forest. Near-bed turbulent kinetic energy, estimated from the turbulent dissipation rate, was also correlated with bed level changes. Specifically, within the mangrove forest and over the unvegetated mudflat, high-energy events were associated with erosion or near-zero bed level change, whereas low-energy events were associated with accretion. In contrast, no single relationship between bed level changes and mean current velocity was applicable across both vegetated and unvegetated regions. These observations support the theory that sediment mobilization scales with turbulent energy, rather than mean velocity, a distinction that becomes important when vegetation controls the development of turbulence.     

Comparing Traditional Mass Balance Measurements with Long-term Volume Change Extracted from Topographical Maps: A Case Study of Storbreen Glacier in Jotunheimen, Norway, for the Period 1940–1997

Storbreen glacier is situated in the western part of Jotunheimen, a mountain area in central southern Norway. Annual mass balance data have been recorded since 1949. In addition, detailed topographical maps at the scale 1:10,000 exist from the years 1940, 1951, 1968, 1984 and 1997. In this paper, volume change calculated from maps is compared with annual mass balance data. The volume change was in reasonable agreement with the measured cumulative mass balance for the periods 1940–1951 and 1968–1984; however, for the periods 1951–1968 and 1984–1997, the mass balance measurements showed larger negative values than obtained from map comparisons. One obvious reason for this is the inaccuracy of the contour lines in the upper areas of the glacier on maps from 1940 and 1951. Other factors influencing the result are tested, and also suggestions are given for improving the techniques for mapping glacier volume changes.     

Inferred gas hydrate on the Barents Sea shelf — a model for its formation and a volume estimate

 On the southwestern Barents Sea shelf, sediments containing gas hydrates that overlie free gas have been inferred from multichannel seismic data. The volume of suspected gas hydrate is tentatively estimated to about 1.9×10⁸ m³. The gas hydrate zone probably formed from thermogenic gas leaking from a deeper source. The hydrate zone may have thickened during the Neogene by including gas originally trapped as free gas below the hydrate following a significant downward migration of the isotherms caused by erosion and/or subsidence. Within the present oceanographic conditions, gas hydrate is suspected to be stable or slowly decomposing. Received: 20 December 1996 / Revision received: 20 August 1997     

Rapid shoreline flooding enhances water turbidity by sediment resuspension: An example in a large Tibetan lake

Rapid water level rise due to climate change has the potential to remobilize loose sediments along shorelines and increase the turbidity of nearshore waters, thereby impacting water quality and aquatic ecosystem health. Siling Lake is one of the largest and most rapidly expanding lakes on the Tibetan Plateau. Between 2000 and 2017, this lake experienced an increase in water level of about 8 m and a doubling in water turbidity. Here, using this lake as a study site, we used a wave model and high-resolution remote sensing of turbidity (Landsat-8) to assess the potential connection between water-level rise, enhanced wind-driven sediment resuspension and water turbidity. Our analysis revealed that strong bottom shear stresses triggered by wind-generated waves over newly flooded areas were related to an increase in water turbidity. The spatial variability of Siling Lake turbidity showed a strong dependence on local wind characteristics and fetch. Two factors combined to drive the increase in turbidity: (1) high wave energy leading to high bottom shear stresses, and (2) flooding of unvegetated shallow areas. Using a new relationship between wave energy and turbidity developed here, we expect the increase in turbidity of Siling Lake to taper off in the near future due to the steep landscape surrounding the lake that will prevent further flooding. Our results imply that rising water levels along the coast are not only expected to influence terrestrial ecosystems but could also change water quality. The methodology presented herein could be applied to other shorelines affected by a rapid increase in water level. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of long-term aerial exposure on intertidal mudflat erodibility

Intertidal zones by definition are exposed to air at low tide, and the exposure duration can be weeks (e.g. during neap tides) depending on water level and bed elevation. Here we investigated the effect of varying exposure duration (6 h to 10 days) on intertidal mudflat erosion (measured using the EROMES device), where the effects of water content and biofilm biomass (using chlorophyll-a content as a proxy, Chl-a μg g⁻¹) were taken into account. Sediments were collected between spring and summer (in October 2018, January 2019 and February 2019) from an intertidal site in the Firth of Thames, New Zealand. Longer exposure duration resulted in more stable sediments [higher erosion threshold (Ƭ_cr, N m⁻²) and lower erosion rate (ER, g m⁻² s⁻¹)]. After 10 days, exposure increased Ƭ_cr by 1.7 to 4.4 times and decreased ER by 11.6 to 21.5 times compared with 6 h of exposure. Chl-a and water content changed with exposure duration and were significantly correlated with changes in Ƭ_cr and ER. The stability of sediments after two re-submersion periods following exposure was also examined and showed that the stabilizing effect of exposure persisted even though water content had increased to non-exposure levels. Re-submersion was associated with an increase in Chl-a content, which likely counteracted the destabilizing influence of increased water content. A site-specific model, which included the interplay between evaporation and biofilm biomass, was developed to predict water content as a function of exposure duration. The modelled water content (W_Mod.) explained 98% of the observed variation in water content (W_Obs.). These results highlight how the exposure period can cause subtle changes to erosion regimes of sediments. An understanding of these effects (e.g. in sediment transport modelling) is critical to predicting the resilience of intertidal zones into the future, when sea-level rise is believed to exacerbate erosion in low-lying areas. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recent developments of the Middle East catalog

This article summarizes a recent study in the framework of the Global Earth model (GEM) and the Earthquake Model of the Middle East (EMME) project to establish the new catalog of seismicity for the Middle East, using all historical (pre-1900), early and modern instrumental events up to 2006. According to different seismicity, which depends on geophysical, geological, tectonic, and seismicity data, this region is subdivided to nine subregions, consisting of Alborz–Azerbaijan, Afghanistan–Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Caucasus, Central Iran, Kopeh–Dagh, Makran, Zagros, and Turkey (Eastern Anatolia; after 30° E). After omitting the duplicate events, aftershocks, and foreshocks by using the Gruenthal method, and uniform all magnitude to Mw scale, 28,244 main events remain for the new catalog of Middle East from 1250 B.C. through 2006. The magnitude of completeness (Mc) was determined as 4.9 for five out of nine subregions, where the least values of Mc were found to be 4.2. The threshold of Mc is around 5.5, 5.0, 4.5, and 4.0, for the time after 1950, 1963, 1975, and 2000, respectively. The average of teleseismic depths in all regions is less than 15 km. Totally, majority of depth for Kopeh–Dagh and Central Iran, Zagros, and Alborz–Azerbaijan, approximately, is 15, 13, and 11 km and for Afghanistan–Pakistan, Caucasus, Makran, Turkey (after 30° E), and Saudi Arabia is about 9 km.     

Effect of selection and sequencing of representative wave conditions on process-based predictions of equilibrium embayed beach morphology

In order to decrease the simulation time of morphodynamic models, often-complex wave climates are reduced to a few representative wave conditions (RWC). When applied to embayed beaches, a test of whether a reduced wave climate is representative or not is to see whether it can recreate the observed equilibrium (long-term averaged) bathymetry of the bay. In this study, the wave climate experienced at Milagro Beach, Tarragona, Spain was discretized into ‘average’ and ‘extreme’ RWCs. Process-based morphodynamic simulations were sequenced and merged based on ‘persistent’ and ‘transient’ forcing conditions, the results of which were used to estimate the equilibrium bathymetry of the bay. Results show that the effect of extreme wave events appeared to have less influence on the equilibrium of the bay compared to average conditions of longer overall duration. Additionally, the persistent seasonal variation of the wave climate produces pronounced beach rotation and tends to accumulate sediment at the extremities of the beach, rather than in the central sections. It is, therefore, important to account for directional variability and persistence in the selection and sequencing of representative wave conditions as is it essential for accurately balancing the effects beach rotation events.