Polarized single-crystal FTIR-spectra of natural staurolite

Polarized infrared absorption spectra of thin single-crystal slabs parallel to (010) and (001) of a staurolite from Pizzo Forno, Ticino, with analyzed composition (Fe_2.9Mg_0.9Zn_0.1Mn_0.1)Al_17.5Ti_0.1(Si_7.7Al_0.3)O₄₈H₃ have been measured in the range of 3000–4000 cm^?1. From the pleochroitic behaviour of the OH-vibrations three groups of bands can be distinguished: the bands of group I, a strong band at 3445 cm^?1 plus a weak shoulder at 3358 cm^?1, and the bands of group II, a weak band centered at 3677 cm^?1 plus a shoulder at 3635 cm^?1, are assigned to the H1 and H2 protons, respectively. The bands of group III, a weak band at 3577 cm^?1 plus a shoulder, cannot be interpreted on the basis of the proton positions known so far. We assign them to an additional proton H3, which is bonded to O1 and shows a bifurcated hydrogen bridge to two O5 in a vacant T2 site.     

Quaternary evolution of Cedar Creek alluvial fan, montana

Cedar Creek alluvial fan is a textbook example of an alluvial fan because of its fan shape with smooth, concentric contours and excellent symmetry. Similar planimetric shapes have been used to infer uniform fan deposition; however, Cedar Creek alluvial fan is composed of four fan deposits of Quaternary age, Qf1 (oldest) to Qf4 (youngest), indicating that fan deposition was nonuniform in both time and space. Field studies indicate that deposition of Cedar Creek alluvial fan is related to glaciofluvial outwash activity during the Pleistocene and upper-fan entrenchment and lower-fan deposition during the Holocene.Qf1 and Qf2 deposits are sub-horizontally bedded, clast-supported sandy gravels uniformly imbricated upfan. Comparison of soil profiles developed in these deposits to radiogenically-dated chronosequences within the region indicates that Qf1 and Qf2 are correlative with Bull Lake and Pinedale-age deposits, respectively. These relationships are substantiated by physical correlation of Qf1 and Qf2 with Bull Lake and Pinedale moraines, respectively, in the Cedar Creek drainage basin. The sedimentology and timing of Qf1 and Qf2 indicate deposition in high-energy, proglacial, braided streams. Furthermore, the present morphology of Cedar Creek alluvial fan was established largely during aggradation of Qf1 and Qf2 when sediment supply to the fan was sufficient to activate 60% to greater than 90% of the total fan area. During Bull Lake glaciation, the apex of Qf1 deposition formed the apex of Cedar Creek alluvial fan as Qf1 covered more than 90% of the present fan area. During Pinedale glaciation, Qf2 deposition shifted downfan; Qf2 is inset into Qf1 above the intersection point, but below the intersection point it eroded and/or buried Qf1 as it activated as much as 60% of the fan area.Qf3 and Qf4, comprising 21% of the fan area, are inset into Qf2 in the lower fan area. Soil development in Qf3 and Qf4 deposits indicate episodic deposition and entrenchment beginning in early Holocene and continuing to present. A post-glacial decrease in sediment supply to Cedar Creek alluvial fan is indicated by sediment storage within the Cedar Creek drainage basin. Decreased sediment supply to the fan resulted in upper-fan entrenchment of Qf2 and deposition of Qf3 and Qf4 in the lower-fan area.     

Air flow over and through a forest edge: A steady-state numerical simulation

A numerical model was developed to simulate neutrally stratified air flow over and through a forest edge. The spatially averaged equations for turbulent flow in vegetation canopies are derived as the governing equations. A first-order closure scheme with the capability of accounting for the bulk momentum transport process in vegetation canopies is employed. The averaged equations are solved numerically by a fractional time-step method and successive relaxation. The asymptotic solution in time is regarded as the steady-state solution. Comparisons of model output to the field measurements of Raynor (1971) indicate that the model provides a realistic mean flow.Momentum balance computations show that the pressure gradient induced by the wind blowing against the forest edge is significant and has the same order of magnitude as the drag force in the edge region. The edge effect involves the generation of drag forces, the appearance of a large pressure gradient, the upward deflection of mean flow and the transport of momentum into the edge of the canopy.     

Age and paleoclimatic significance of the Stansbury shoreline of Lake Bonneville, Northeastern Great Basin

The Stansbury shoreline, one of the conspicuous late Pleistocene shorelines of Lake Bonneville, consists of tufa-cemented gravel and barrier beaches within a vertical zone of about 45 m, the lower limit of which is 70 m above the modern average level of Great Salt Lake. Stratigraphic evidence at a number of localities, including new evidence from Crater Island on the west side of the Great Salt Lake Desert, shows that the Stansbury shoreline formed during the transgressive phase of late Pleistocene Lake bonneville (sometime between about 22,000 and 20,000 yr B.P.). Tufa-cemented gravel and barrier beaches were deposited in the Stansbury shorezone during one or more fluctuations in water level with a maximum total amplitude of 45 m. We refer to the fluctuations as the Stansbury oscillation. The Stansbury oscillation cannot have been caused by basin-hypsometric factors, such as stabilization of lake level at an external overflow threshold or by expansion into an interior subbasin, or by changes in drainage basin size. Therefore, changes in climate must have caused the lake level to reverse its general rise, to drop about 45 m in altitude (reducing its surface area by about 18%, 5000 km²), and later to resume its rise. If the sizes of Great Basin lakes are controlled by the mean position of storm tracks and the jetstream, which as recently postulated may be controlled by the size of the continental ice sheets, the Stansbury oscillation may have been caused by a shift in the jetstream during a major interstade of the Laurentide ice sheet.     

Flood hydrology and geomorphic effectiveness in the central Appalachians

This paper compares hydrologic records and geomorphic effects of several historic floods in the central Appalachian region of the eastern United States. The most recent of these, occurring in November 1985, was the largest ever recorded in West Virginia, with peak discharges exceeding the estimated 500-year discharge at eight of eleven stations in the South Branch Potomac River and Cheat River basins. Geomorphic effects on valley floors included some of the most severe and widespread floodplain erosion ever documented and exceeded anything seen in previous floods, even though comparable or greater rainfall and unit discharge have been observed several times in the region over the past 50 years. Comparison of discharge-drainage area plots suggests that the intensity and spatial scale of the November 1985 flood were optimal for erosion of valley floors along the three forks of the South Branch Potomac River. However, when a larger geographic area is considered, rainfall totals and discharge-drainage area relationships are insufficient predictors of geomorphic effectiveness for valley floors at drainage areas of 250 to 2500 km². Unit stream power was calculated for the largest recorded flood discharge at 46 stations in the central Appalachians. Maximum values of unit stream power are developed in bedrock canyons, where the boundaries are resistant to erosion and the flow cross-section cannot adjust its width to accommodate extreme discharges. The largest value was 2570 W m^?2; record discharge at most stations was associated with unit stream power values less than 300 W m^?2, but more stations exceeded this value in the November 1985 flood than in the other floods that were analysed. Unit stream power at indirect discharge measurement sites near areas experiencing severe erosion in this and other central Appalachian floods generally exceeded 300 W m^?2; reach-average values of 200-500 W m^?2 were calculated for valleys where erosion damage was most widespread. Despite these general trends, unit stream power is not a reliable predictor of geomorphic change for individual sites. Improved understanding of flood impacts will require more detailed investigation of interactions between local site characteristics and patterns of flood flow over the valley floor.     

Geological and seismological evidence of increased explosivity during the 1986 eruptions of Pavlof volcano,Alaska

We present results of study of the best-documented eruptions of Pavlof volcano in historic time. The 1986 eruptions were mostly Strombolian in character; a strong initial phase may have been Vulcanian. The 1986 activity erupted at least 8×10⁶ m³ of feldspar-phyric basaltic andesite lava (SiO₂=53–54%), and a comparable volume of wind-borne tephra. During the course of the eruption, 5300 explosion earthquakes occurred, the largest of which was equivalent to an M _L =2.5 earthquake. Volcanic tremor was recorded for 2600 hours, and the strongest tremor was recorded out to a distance of 160 km and had an amplitude of at least 54 cm² reduced displacement. The 1986 eruptions modified the structure of the vent area for the first time in over two decades. A possible pyroclastic flow was observed on 19 June 1986, the first time such a phenomenon has been observed at the volcano. Overall, the 1986 eruptions were the strongest and longest duration eruptions in historic time, and changed a temporal pattern of activity that had persisted from 1973–1984.     

Consequences of explosive eruptions on small Solar System bodies: the case of the missing basalts on the aubrite parent body

Aubrite meteorites are composed of constituents which are almost certainly of igneous origin. If they were generated by the melting and fractionation of enstatite chondrite-like parental material, as seems very likely, then plagioclase-rich, basaltic complements to the aubrites should have formed. However, such materials are not known as individual meteorites, and the compositions of two plagioclase-silica clasts and one albite-silica-(diopside-anorthite) clast (probably an impact melt) in the Norton County aubrite breccia suggest that they are not the putative enstatite-plagioclase basalts. We propose a new mechanism that explains the absence of these materials, showing that the expansion of even very small amounts of volatiles present in a melt approaching the surface of a small, low-gravity body will be enough to disrupt the melt into a spray of droplets moving faster than the local escape velocity. This explosive volcanic process of melt removal requires larger melt volatile contents on larger bodies, and data on the solubility of volatiles in basaltic melts suggest that the process was limited to bodies smaller than about 100 km in radius.     

Extremely low temperatures in the stratosphore and very low total ozone amount above northern and central Europe during winter 1989

On 1 February 1989, -83.5°C was recorded in 27.8 hPa over Hohenpeißenberg, the lowest temperature in the 22-year series. This was measured together with a very low total ozone amount of 266 DU. This may be compared with nearly twice this amount on 27 February 1989. The situation was very unusual: following an extremely cold winter in the Arctic stratosphere, the stratospheric cold pole was located over southern Scandinavia on 1 February in a very southerly position. The analyzed temperatures of -92 °C in 30 hPa were also unusual. Even though the low ozone amounts over Hohenpeißenberg were probably dynamically caused, an additional very small ozone decrease due to heterogeneous reactions in altitudes from 23–28 km, where the temperatures lie below -80 °C, cannot be ruled out. Extinction measurements by the orbitting SAGE II instrument indeed show polar stratospheric clouds over Europe near 50° N during the period 31 January–2 February. Also, polar stratospheric clouds were previously observed over Kiruna at similarly low temperatures and signs of a corresponding small ozone decrease were noted there.     

On looming during Alpine foehn

The note deals with looming during foehn north of the Alps. The results show that there is a weak effect in stretching optically the orography. However, the increase in view angle is probably not detectable by human observers looking south from Munich towards the Alps. The impression that the orography seems to be stretched during a foehn is also due to psychological effects which might be a factor of greater importance.