Seismic stratigraphy records the deglacial history of Jakobshavn Isbræ, West Greenland

Jakobshavn Isbræ is one of the largest ice streams in the Greenland Ice Sheet, presently draining c. 6.5% of the Inland Ice. Here we present high‐resolution Chirp and Sparker sub‐bottom profiles from a seismic survey conducted just outside of the Jakobshavn Isfjord, which provides detailed insight into the glacimarine sedimentary history of the Jakobshavn ice stream during the Holocene. We observe acoustically stratified and homogeneous sediments that drape an irregular substratum and were deposited between ～10 and c. 7.6k cal a BP. The stratified lower units are interpreted as the product of ice‐proximal glacimarine sedimentation deposited rapidly when the grounded ice margin was located close to depositional basins on topographic highs. The upper acoustically homogenous units reflect suspension settling of fine‐grained material and gravitational flows that were extruded from an increasingly unstable ice margin as the ice retreated into the fjord. Proximity to the ice margin and bedrock topography were the dominant controls on sediment accumulation during deglaciation although the 8.2‐ka cooling event probably influenced the position of the ice margin at the fjord mouth. The post‐glacial sedimentary record is characterized by glacimarine and hemipelagic rainout with an increased ice‐rafted detritus fraction that records sedimentation following ice stream retreat into Jakobshavn Isfjord sometime after c. 7.8k cal a BP. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationship Between Subsurface Landfill Gas and Arsenic Mobilization into Groundwater

The maximum contaminant level for arsenic was reduced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. E.P.A.) for Drinking Water Standards from 50 micrograms per liter (µg/L) to 10 µg/L, effective January 23, 2006. The subject site is a double-lined sanitary landfill facility located in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Arsenic was reported above the maximum contaminant level in a downgradient monitoring well (MW-18) in July 2005. Since July 2005, arsenic levels in MW-18 fluctuated above and below 10 µg/L. This research focuses on determining whether reducing conditions in groundwater, enhanced by subsurface landfill gas emissions, were causing naturally-occurring arsenic to mobilize from the native variably-saturated vadose zone soils into groundwater. The groundwater data collected from the impacted well (MW-18) were compared to an upgradient well (MW-8) to determine whether significant differences existed during the time period of April 2004 to April 2007. Linear regression analysis was also used to determine whether other parameters had a significant relationship with the arsenic concentrations detected in MW-18. The groundwater located in MW-18 was consistently more reduced than groundwater located in the upgradient/background well MW-8, and this was most likely attributed to the presence of subsurface landfill gas in the area. According to the U.S. E.P.A., oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) values in groundwater less than 50 millivolts (mv) suggest that a reducing environment may be present. The data presented in this study indicate that arsenic can mobilize into groundwater under moderately reducing conditions, with ORP measurements averaging 53 mv.     

Base isolation for near‐fault motions

Three analytical studies of base‐isolated structures are carried out. First, six pairs of near‐fault motions oriented in directions parallel and normal to the fault were considered, and the average of the response spectra of these earthquake records was obtained. This study shows that in addition to pulse‐type displacements, these motions contain significant energy at high frequencies and that the real and pseudo‐velocity spectra are quite different. The second analysis modelled the response of a model of an isolated structure with a flexible superstructure to study the effect of isolation damping on the performance of different isolation systems under near‐fault motion. The results show that there exists a value of isolation system damping for which the superstructure acceleration for a given structural system attains a minimum value under near‐fault motion. Therefore, although increasing the bearing damping beyond a certain value may decrease the bearing displacement, it may transmit higher accelerations into the superstructure. Finally, the behaviour of four isolation systems subjected to the normal component of each of the near‐fault motions were studied, showing that EDF type isolation systems may be the optimum choice for the design of isolated structures in near‐fault locations. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modal equations of linear structures with viscoelastic dampers

Several types of energy dissipation devices using viscoelastic materials have been proposed to reduce vibration in structures subjected to wind and earthquake excitations. At constant temperature and small strain levels, the mechanical behaviour of Viscoelastic (VE) materials can be described using linear operators. In general, the stiffness and damping matrices of structures using VE devices are frequency dependent; this implies that the classical second-order differential equations for the modal co-ordinates are not a complete model for this type of structures. In this paper, the concept of modal coupling in the frequency domain is addressed, expressions for diagonalizable frequency-dependent stiffness and damping matrices are given, and an iterative technique for the computation of the response of viscoelastic structures is studied. Necessary and sufficient conditions for convergence of the technique are given and numerical examples are developed to illustrate the application of the method.     

Transport of juvenile gem clams (Gemma gemma) in headland wake

Accumulation of bivalve recruits in the bottom convergence at the center of coastal eddies has been suggested as a possible mechanism resulting in locally abundant adult populations. We investigated transport of juvenile gem clams (Gemma gemma) in a headland wake to determine whether they accumulated, and where. Velocity measurements during three flood tides showed that a wake consistently formed, but that flow speeds were too slow to transport juvenile clams to the eddy center. Instead, the clams were deposited just inside the wake perimeter, where shear velocities decreased to levels below critical erosion velocities of the clams. This result demonstrated that accumulation in a coastal flow separation can occur even in the absence of a well-defined eddy or a strong bottom convergence. Juvenile gem clams were carried, probably as bedload, to regions in the wake dominated by sediments with similar grain sizes, rather than similar fall velocities, suggesting that bedload transport was particularly dependent on particle diameter in this flow regime. Adult gem clam populations tended to be locally abundant in regions receiving transported juveniles, but clam transport on any specific flood tide was not sufficient to fully predict the adult distributions.     

Effects of annealing on deformation textures in galena

Experimental annealing of galena samples with known deformation histories shows that this mineral has the necessary properties to be a valuable source of information about low-grade deformational environments. Annealed galena displays recovery and/or recrystallization features dependent upon the type of texture inherited from the tectonic event, which in turn is closely linked to deformation temperatures.In samples deformed at temperatures less than 200 ° C in the laboratory, later annealing produced subgrains, mosaics of new grains, or rapid grain boundary migration as the annealing temperatures were varied from 200 ° C to 700 ° C. Kink bands maintained characteristic straight simple boundaries inherited from the deformation event. Samples deformed above 300 ° C developed syntectonically recrystallized textures. Kink bands had been converted to elongate grains with complex sutured grain boundaries during deformation, and mosaics of new grains were found in highly deformed regions. These textures were extremely stable through later annealing. Despite our changing annealing temperatures through 500 ° C, we did not produce similar textures from both low and high temperature deformation runs.Examination of polished and etched galena from low-grade tectonic settings may well be worth the effort since galena textures appear to display features indicative of deformational evironments, even after being subjected to considerable post-tectonic thermal perturbations.     

Chemical fractionations in meteorites—VIII. Iron meteorites and the cosmochemical history of the metal phase

The composition of the metal phase is traced through an idealized, traditional history from condensation, oxidation and accretion in the nebula to melting, segregation and freezing in a parent body. Fifteen elements are considered: Au, Co, Cu, Fe, Ga, Ge, Ir, Mo, Ni, Os, Pd, Pt, Re, Rh and Ru. All are strongly siderophile but differ in volatility and melting-freezing behavior. This simplifies the problem yet provides a means to resolve chemical trends which evolve at different stages in the metal's history.The parent bodies of 5 (IC, IIAB, IIC, IID and IIIAB) of the 12 iron meteorite groups resolved by Scott and Wasson (1975) seem to have had a traditional history. That is condensation, oxidation to various levels, accretion, melting, segregation and fractional crystallization during freezing, presumably in cores. The others seem to have had more unusual histories. The composition of the metal in group IVB matches that predicted for the metal condensate at 1270°K (at$\text{P}{}_{\mathrm{T}}\text{= 10}{}^{\mathrm{?5}}\text{atm}$). This implies accretion at high temperatures; no other combination of the processes can produce this composition. It does not rule out secondary processing, however. The metal in group IVA, whose members have different cooling rates (7–200°/myr), has a composition indicative of aggregates in a body undergoing progressive stages of partial melting. This is consistent with a model in which molten metal collects into pods or raisins at various depths. The composition of the metal in group IAB is indicative of a partial melt which refroze during the initial stages of segregation, before it had managed to aggregate into a single mass. The physical setting implied is consistent with observed inhomogeneities in the metal and abundant inclusions.Three of the 12 groups are deficient in volatiles (IIIF, IVA and IVB) implying a high accretion temperature. In all three cases, cooling rates are comparatively rapid, indicating small bodies or low radioactive element contents. Conceivably all three were deficient in K.