Fish remains from the Formative Period (1000 BC–AD 400) of Lake Titicaca, Bolivia: Zooarchaeology and taphonomy

This paper presents a detailed zooarchaeological study of fish remains from the site of Kala Uyuni, Bolivia. The fish remains of 31 flotation samples from different archaeological contexts and dated to the Formative Period (1000 BC–AD 400) are described in terms of frequency, weight, taxa distribution, sizes, skeletal representations, and exposure to heat. The results confirm the importance of fish in the diet of the inhabitants of the site and provide insights about the particularities of their exploitation, consumption, and differential discard across the site throughout time. A strong decline in the procurement and consumption of fish is observed for the Late Formative which seems to be a consequence of both environmental and social processes.     

The effect of African growth on future global energy,emissions, and regional development

Today Africa is a small emitter, but it has a large and faster-than-average growing population and per capita income that could drive future energy demand and, if unconstrained, emissions. This paper uses a multi-model comparison to characterize the potential future energy development for Continental and Sub-Saharan Africa under different assumptions about population and income. Our results suggest that population and economic growth rates will strongly influence Africa’s future energy use and emissions. We show that affluence is only one face of the medal and the range of future emissions is also contingent on technological and political factors. Higher energy intensity improvements occur when Africa grows faster. In contrast, climate intensity varies less with economic growth and it is mostly driven by climate policy. African emissions could account for between 5 % and 20 % of global emissions, with Sub-Saharan Africa contributing between 4 % and 10 % of world emissions in 2100. In all scenarios considered, affluence levels remain low until the middle of the century, suggesting that the population could remain dependent on traditional bioenergy to meet most residential energy needs. Although the share of electricity in final energy, electric capacity and electricity use per capita all rise with income, even by mid-century they do not reach levels observed in developed countries today.     

Sequence stratigraphy of the Mancos Shale,lower Tres Hermanos Formation,and coeval middle Cenomanian to middle Turonian strata,southern New Mexico,USA

Sequence stratigraphic analysis of four widely spaced outcrops of middle Cenomanian to middle Turonian strata deposited in the Western Interior foreland basin in southern New Mexico, USA, defines ten sequence boundaries in a marine shale‐rich interval ca 200 m thick. The majority of sequence boundaries are based on basinward shifts in lithofacies characterized by either a non‐Waltherian contact between distal‐bar or lower shoreface sandstone and underlying lower offshore shale, or an erosional contact between distal‐bar or lower shoreface sandstone and underlying upper offshore shale. The sequence boundaries commonly correlate basinward to packages of storm‐deposited sandstone and to beds of sandy grainstone composed of winnowed inoceramid shell fragments. In several cases, however, the sequence boundaries pass basinward into presumably conformable successions of lower offshore shale. Maximum flooding surfaces within the sequences are represented by one or more beds of locally phosphatized globiginerid wackestone and packstone or exist within a conformable succession of lower offshore shale. Following initial south/south‐westward transgression into the study area, the regional trend of palaeoeshorelines was north‐west to south‐east, although isopach data indicate that lobes of sandstone periodically spread south‐eastward across the study area. The ten sequences in the study area are arranged into a third‐order composite megasequence that is characterized by overall upward‐deepening followed by upward‐shallowing of sequences. The composite megasequence is similar but not identical to the previously established T‐1 transgression and R‐1 regression in New Mexico. Based on radioisotopic dates of bentonites, the average frequency of the sequences within the study area was ca 327 kyr, which is consistent with fourth‐order cycles of ca 400 kyr interpreted in coeval marine strata elsewhere in the world.     

The current status of mapping karst areas and availability of public sinkhole-risk resources in karst terrains of the United States

Subsidence from sinkhole collapse is a common occurrence in areas underlain by water-soluble rocks such as carbonate and evaporite rocks, typical of karst terrain. Almost all 50 States within the United States (excluding Delaware and Rhode Island) have karst areas, with sinkhole damage highest in Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. A conservative estimate of losses to all types of ground subsidence was $125 million per year in 1997. This estimate may now be low, as review of cost reports from the last 15 years indicates that the cost of karst collapses in the United States averages more than $300 million per year. Knowing when a catastrophic event will occur is not possible; however, understanding where such occurrences are likely is possible. The US Geological Survey has developed and maintains national-scale maps of karst areas and areas prone to sinkhole formation. Several States provide additional resources for their citizens; Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Pennsylvania maintain databases of sinkholes or karst features, with Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, and Ohio providing sinkhole reporting mechanisms for the public.     

Relative sea‐level change and postglacial isostatic adjustment along the coast of south Devon,United Kingdom

Previous sea‐level studies suggest that southwest Britain has the fastest subsiding coastline in the United Kingdom, but tide‐gauge data, GPS and gravity measurements and geophysical models show little evidence of anomalous subsidence in this region. In this paper we present 15 new sea‐level index points from four coastal barrier systems in south Devon. Eight are from compaction‐free basal sediments and others were corrected for autocompaction. Our data suggest that relative sea level along the south Devon coastline has risen by 21 ± 4 m during the past 9000 years. Sea‐level rise slowed during the middle and late Holocene and a rise of 8 ± 1 m has occurred since ca. 7000 cal. yr BP. Anomalous ages for many rejected points are attributed to sediment reworking during barrier transgression. The relative sea‐level history during the early and middle Holocene shows a good fit with geophysical model predictions, but the geological and modelled data diverge in the later Holocene. Unlike the geophysical models, sea‐level index points cannot differentiate between late Holocene relative sea‐level histories of south Devon and southwest Cornwall. It is suggested that this discrepancy can be resolved by obtaining additional high‐quality sea‐level index points covering the past 4000 years. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aspect control of water movement on hillslopes near the rain–snow transition of the Colorado Front Range

In the Colorado Front Range, forested catchments near the rain–snow transition are likely to experience changes in snowmelt delivery and subsurface water transport with climate warming and associated shifts in precipitation patterns. Snowpack dynamics are strongly affected by aspect: Lodgepole pine forested north‐facing slopes develop a seasonal snowpack, whereas Ponderosa pine‐dotted south‐facing slopes experience intermittent snow accumulation throughout winter and spring. We tested the degree to which these contrasting water input patterns cause different near‐surface hydrologic response on north‐facing and south‐facing hillslopes during the snowmelt period. During spring snowmelt, we applied lithium bromide (LiBr) tracer to instrumented plots along a north–south catchment transect. Bromide broke through immediately at 10‐ and 30‐cm depths on the north‐facing slope and was transported out of soil waters within 40 days. On the south‐facing slope, Br^? was transported to significant depths only during spring storms and remained above the detection limit throughout the study. Modelling of unsaturated zone hydrologic response using Hydrus‐1D corroborated these aspect‐driven differences in subsurface transport. Our multiple lines of evidence suggest that north‐facing slopes are dominated by connected flow through the soil matrix, whereas south‐facing slope soils experience brief periods of rapid vertical transport following snowmelt events and are drier overall than north‐facing slopes. These differences in hydrologic response were largely a function of energy‐driven differences in water supply, emphasizing the importance of aspect and climate forcing when considering contributions of water and solutes to streamflow in catchments near the snow line. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geology of London,UK

The population of London is around 7 million. The infrastructure to support this makes London one of the most intensively investigated areas of upper crust. However construction work in London continues to reveal the presence of unexpected ground conditions. These have been discovered in isolation and often recorded with no further work to explain them. There is a scientific, industrial and commercial need to refine the geological framework for London and its surrounding area. This paper reviews the geological setting of London as it is understood at present, and outlines the issues that current research is attempting to resolve.     

Three-dimensional numerical simulations of the Downie Slide to test the influence of shear surface geometry and heterogeneous shear zone stiffness

Massive slow-moving landslides often exhibit deformation patterns which vary spatially across the landslide mass and temporally with changing boundary conditions. Understanding the parameters controlling this behaviour, such as heterogeneous material properties, complex landslide geometry and the distribution of groundwater, is fundamental when making informed design and hazard management decisions. This paper demonstrates that significant improvements to the geomechanical analysis of massive landslides can be achieved through rigorous, three-dimensional numerical modelling. Simulations of the Downie Slide incorporate complex shear zone geometries, multiple water tables and spatial variation of shear zone stiffness parameters to adequately reproduce real slope behaviour observed through an ongoing site monitoring program. These three-dimensional models are not hindered by shortfalls typically associated with two-dimensional analysis, for example the ability to accommodate lateral migration of material, and they out-perform more simplified three-dimensional models where bowl-shaped shear geometries are incapable of reasonably reproducing observed deformation patterns.