Rates of rockwall slope erosion in the upper Bhagirathi catchment,Garhwal Himalaya

Rockwall slope erosion is defined for the upper Bhagirathi catchment using cosmogenic Beryllium-10 (¹⁰Be) concentrations in sediment from medial moraines on Gangotri glacier. Beryllium-10 concentrations range from 1.1 ± 0.2 to 2.7 ± 0.3 × 10⁴ at/g SiO₂, yielding rockwall slope erosion rates from 2.4 ± 0.4 to 6.9 ± 1.9 mm/a. Slope erosion rates are likely to have varied over space and time and responded to shifts in climate, geomorphic and/or tectonic regime throughout the late Quaternary. Geomorphic and sedimentological analyses confirm that the moraines are predominately composed of rockfall and avalanche debris mobilized from steep relief rockwall slopes via periglacial weathering processes. The glacial rockwall slope erosion affects sediment flux and storage of snow and ice at the catchment head on diurnal to millennial timescales, and more broadly influences catchment configuration and relief, glacier dynamics and microclimates. The slope erosion rates exceed the averaged catchment-wide and exhumation rates of Bhagirathi and the Garhwal region on geomorphic timescales (10³−10⁵ years), supporting the view that erosion at the headwaters can outpace the wider catchment. The ¹⁰Be concentrations of medial moraine sediment for the upper Bhagirathi catchment and the catchments of Chhota Shigri in Lahul, northern India and Baltoro glacier in Central Karakoram, Pakistan show a tentative relationship between ¹⁰Be concentration and precipitation. As such there is more rapid glacial rockwall slope erosion in the monsoon-influenced Lesser and Greater Himalaya compared to the semi-arid interior of the orogen. Rockwall slope erosion in the three study areas, and more broadly across the northwest Himalaya is likely governed by individual catchment dynamics that vary across space and time. © 2019 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Morphology,structure and kinematics of a rainfall controlled slow‐moving Andean landslide,Peru

The large slow‐moving landslide of Maca is located in the upper Colca valley (southern Peru), a region characterized by a well pronounced rainy period, and intense and recurrent sustained seismicity. The landslide, developed in deep lacustrine deposits, has recently accelerated, threatening the Maca village. This work aims at understanding the rupture mechanism and the causes of the recent landslide reactivation/acceleration. We present a multidisciplinary characterization of the Maca landslide that includes: (i) geological and morphological mapping in the field; (ii) remote sensing analysis using an historical aerial photograph of 1955 and the Pléiades satellite images (2013); (iii) global positioning system (GPS) including time‐series of surveys over 13 years, and continuous measurements over 14 months; (iv) a geophysical campaign with deep electrical resistivity tomography profiles acquired across the landslide mass. Our study shows that this 60 Mm³ landslide, which can be classified as a clay/silt compound landslide, moved by 15 m between 2001 and 2014 with a large inter‐annual velocity variation (up to a factor of 500) depending on the rainfall intensity. We suggest that these dramatic changes in velocity are the result of the combination of a threshold mechanism and the short intense rainy season in Peru. This study reveals three main driving factors acting at different timescales: (i) over several decades, the river course has significantly changed, causing the Maca landslide reactivation in the 1980s due to the erosion of its toe; (ii) at the year scale, a minimum amount of rainfall is required to trigger the motion and this amount controls the landslide velocity; (iii) transient changes in slide velocity may occur anytime due to earthquakes. This study particularly highlights the non‐linear behaviour of the motion with rainfall. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Th sorption and export models in the water column: A review

Over the past few decades, the radioisotope pair of ²³⁸U / ²³⁴Th has been widely and increasingly used to describe particle dynamics and particle export fluxes in a variety of aquatic systems. The present paper is one of five review articles dedicated to ²³⁴Th. It is focused on the models associated with ²³⁴Th whereas the companion papers (same issue) are focused on present and future methodologies and techniques (Rutgers van der Loeff et al.), C / ²³⁴Th ratios (Buesseler et al.), ²³⁴Th speciation (Santschi et al.) and present and future applications of ²³⁴Th [Waples, J.T., Benitez-Nelson, C.R., Savoye, N., Rutgers van der Loeff, M., Baskaran, M., Gustafsson, Ö., this issue. An Introduction to the application and future use of ²³⁴Th in aquatic systems. Marine Chemistry, FATE special issue]. In this paper, we review current ²³⁴Th scavenging models and discuss the relative importance of the non-steady state and physical terms associated with the most commonly used model to estimate ²³⁴Th flux. Based on this discussion we recommend that for future work the use of models should be accompanied by a discussion of the effect that model and data uncertainty have on the model results. We also suggest that future field work incorporate repeat occupations of sample sites on time scales of 1–4 weeks in order to evaluate steady state versus non-steady state estimates of ²³⁴Th export, especially during high flux events (> ca. 800 dpm m^− 2 d^− 1). Finally, knowledge of the physical oceanography of the study area is essential, particularly in ocean margins and in areas of established upwelling (e.g., Equatorial Pacific). These suggestions will greatly enhance the application of ²³⁴Th as a tracer of particle dynamics and flux in more complicated regimes.     

Spatial variation of the intertidal sediments and macrozoo-benthic assemblages along Eighty-mile Beach, North-western Australia

The extensive intertidal flats along Eighty-mile Beach in North-western Australia appear to be monotonous and homogeneous and seem ideally suited to study tidal zonation in macrozoo-benthic communities and their possible correlates with characteristics of the sediment. In October 1999, we sampled benthic invertebrates and sediments at a total of 895 sampling stations distributed over six different locations, each location separated by 15 km of unsampled foreshore along Eighty-mile Beach. To test for the presence or absence of patterns of tidal zonation (distinct height-related zones of specific sediment grain sizes or zoobenthic taxonomic groups) or patchiness (distinct patches of specific sediment grain sizes or zoobenthic taxonomic groups not related to tidal height) each location was divided into three along-shore sections and each section (transect) was examined at two or three tidal heights. Zonation was observed for sediment grain sizes. Sediments were coarser at the highest intertidal level and finer towards the low water line. Benthic assemblages also differed among tidal heights, but in terms of species-composition the differences were not consistent among the locations. Each location supported a unique collection of benthic invertebrates. Therefore the hypothesis of the presence of distinct zones of specific species or zoobenthic taxonomic groups was rejected; the presence of benthic patches was confirmed. The distribution of sediments and the composition of benthic assemblages were surprisingly poorly correlated compared to those reported in 12 previous quantitative studies around the world. One possible explanation might be that super-cyclone Vance, which hit the study-area only six months before this study, contributed to this poor correlation. Alternatively, the poor correlation may indicate that biotic interactions are more important than the assumed abiotic structuring.     

User expectations for multibeam echo sounders backscatter strength data-looking back into the future

With the ability of multibeam echo sounders (MBES) to measure backscatter strength (BS) as a function of true angle of insonification across the seafloor, came a new recognition of the potential of backscatter measurements to remotely characterize the properties of the seafloor. Advances in transducer design, digital electronics, signal processing capabilities, navigation, and graphic display devices, have improved the resolution and particularly the dynamic range available to sonar and processing software manufacturers. Alongside these improvements the expectations of what the data can deliver has also grown. In this paper, we identify these user-expectations and explore how MBES backscatter is utilized by different communities involved in marine seabed research at present, and the aspirations that these communities have for the data in the future. The results presented here are based on a user survey conducted by the GeoHab (Marine Geological and Biological Habitat Mapping) association. This paper summarises the different processing procedures employed to extract useful information from MBES backscatter data and the various intentions for which the user community collect the data. We show how a range of backscatter output products are generated from the different processing procedures, and how these results are taken up by different scientific disciplines, and also identify common constraints in handling MBES BS data. Finally, we outline our expectations for the future of this unique and important data source for seafloor mapping and characterisation.     

Is Io's Mantle Really Molten?

The tremendous heating dissipated by jovian tides in Io's interior is essentially evacuated by an intense volcanic activity so that the heat is removed from the interior to the surface, much more by advection than by conduction through the lithosphere. The efficiency of this heat pipe cooling process is investigated through numerical models of convection performed in spherical geometry with a permeable top boundary. This new heat-transfer model provides a cooling twice as efficient as that obtained with an impermeable condition traditionally used in mantle convection modeling. The globally averaged temperature varies as Ra^−1/2, where Ra is the Rayleigh number, whereas the power law exponent is classically −1/4, so that the expected Ra would not be in excess of 10⁷. If the whole mantle of Io is involved in the convection process, the major portion could remain solid, while a possible molten zone could be confined to a 100-km-thick layer between the solid part and the core. This model predicts the existence of a strong lithosphere, which is required to support the observed topographic amplitude of the Io's relief.     

Impact processing of chondritic planetesimals: Siderophile and volatile element fractionation in the Chico L chondrite

Abstract— A large impact event 500 Ma ago shocked and melted portions of the L‐chondrite parent body. Chico is an impact melt breccia produced by this event. Sawn surfaces of this 105 kg meteorite reveal a dike of fine‐grained, clast‐poor impact melt cutting shocked host chondrite. Coarse (1–2 cm diameter) globules of FeNi metal + sulfide are concentrated along the axis of the dike from metal‐poor regions toward the margins. Refractory lithophile element abundance patterns in the melt rock are parallel to average L chondrites, demonstrating near‐total fusion of the L‐chondrite target by the impact and negligible crystal‐liquid fractionation during emplacement and cooling of the dike. Significant geochemical effects of the impact melting event include fractionation of siderophile and chalcophile elements with increasing metal‐silicate heterogeneity, and mobilization of moderately to highly volatile elements. Siderophile and chalcophile elements ratios such as Ni/Co, Cu/Ga, and Ir/Au vary systematically with decreasing metal content of the melt. Surprisingly small (?10²) effective metal/silicate‐melt distribution coefficients for highly siderophile elements probably reflect inefficient segregation of metal despite the large degrees of melting. Moderately volatile lithophile elements such K and Rb were mobilized and heterogeneously distributed in the L‐chondrite impact breccias whereas highly volatile elements such as Cs and Pb were profoundly depleted in the region of the parent body sampled by Chico. Volatile element variations in Chico and other L chondrites are more consistent with a mechanism related to impact heating rather than condensation from a solar nebula. Impact processing can significantly alter the primary distributions of siderophile and volatile elements in chondritic planetesimals.     

Planetary Perturbers in Debris Disks

Neptune dominates the dynamics of the Kuiper Belt. By examining images of debris disks around other stars, we may be able to infer what kinds of planets shape the outer edges of other planetary systems. The last few years have seen a burst of progress in the modeling of azimuthal structures in debris disks created by planetary perturbers; new models incorporate planets on substantially eccentric orbits. I review this recent progress in debris disk dynamics and discuss the Kuiper Belt as a key example.     

Eagle Nebula Pillars: From Models to Observations

Over the past few years, our group has been developing hydrodynamic models to simulate formation of the Eagle Nebula pillars. The true test of any model is, of course, how well it can reproduce the observations. Here, we discuss how we go about testing our models against observations. We describe the process by which we “observe” the model data to create synthetic maps. We show an example of this technique using one of our model runs and compare the resultant synthetic map to the real one.