On the response of a turbulent coastal buoyant current to wind events: the case of the Western Adriatic Current

This numerical study focuses on the response of the Western Adriatic Current to wind forcing. The turbulent buoyant surface current is induced by the Po river outflow in the Adriatic Sea. Idealized and realistic wind conditions are considered by retaining the complex geomorphology of the middle Adriatic basin. In the absence of wind, the Adriatic Promontories force the current to separate from the coast and induce instabilities. Persistent 7-m s^− 1 downwelling favorable northwesterly winds thicken and narrow the current. Instabilities whose size is ~10 km develop but ultimately vanish, since there is not enough across-shore space to grow. On the contrary, 7-m s^− 1 upwelling favorable southeasterly winds thin and widen the current, and instabilities can grow to form mesoscale (~35 km) features. When realistic winds are considered, the same trends are observed, but the state of the sea set up by previous wind events also plays a crucial role. The turbulent regimes set up by different winds affect mixing and the WAC meridional transport. With downwelling winds, the transport is generally southward and mixing happens mostly between the fresher (S ≤ 38) salinity classes. With upwelling winds, the transport decreases and changes sign, and mixing mainly involves saltier (S > 38) waters. In all cases, mixing is enhanced when a finer 0.5-km horizontal resolution is employed.     

A critical zone observatory dedicated to suspended sediment transport: The meso-scale Galabre catchment (southern French Alps)

The 20 km² Galabre catchment belongs to the French network of critical zone observatories (OZCAR; Gaillardet et al., Vadose Zone Journal, 2018, 17(1), 1–24). It is representative of the sedimentary lithology and meteorological forcing found in Mediterranean and mountainous areas. Due to the presence of highly erodible and sloping badlands on various lithologies, the site was instrumented in 2007 to understand the dynamics of suspended sediments (SS) in such areas. Two meteorological stations including measurements of air temperature, wind speed and direction, air moisture, rainfall intensity, raindrop size and velocity distribution were installed both in the upper and lower part of the catchment. At the catchment outlet, a gauging station records the water level, temperature and turbidity (10 min time-step). Stream water samples are collected automatically to estimate SS concentration-turbidity relationships, allowing quantification of SS fluxes with known uncertainty. The sediment samples are further characterized by measuring their particle size distributions and by applying a low-cost sediment fingerprinting approach using spectrocolorimetric tracers. Thus, the contributions of badlands located on different lithologies to total SS flux are quantified at a high temporal resolution, providing the opportunity to better analyse the links between meteorological forcing variability and watershed hydrosedimentary response. The set of measurements was extended to the dissolved phase in 2017. Both stream water electrical conductivity and major ion concentrations are measured each week and every 3 h during storm events. This extension of measurements to the dissolved phase will allow progress in understanding both the origin of the water during the events and the partitioning between particulate and dissolved fluxes of solutes in the critical zone. All data sets are available at https://doi.osug.fr/public/DRAIXBLEONE_GAL/index.html .     

Effect of particle density and inflow concentration of suspended sediment on bedload transport in rill flow

Laboratory flume experiments were carried out to evaluate the effect of particle density on bedload transport of sand‐sized particles and the effect of a suspended load of clay particles (kaolinite) on bedload transport of sand‐sized particles in rill flow conditions. Three materials in the range 400–600 µm were selected to simulate bedload transport of primary particles and aggregates: sand (2650 kg/m³), crushed brick (2450 kg/m³) and anthracite (1300–1700 kg/m³). In the two first experiments, two different methods were applied to determine bedload transport capacity of coarse particles for various conditions of flow discharge (from 2 to 15 L/min) and slope (2.2, 3 and 4%). In the third experiment, clear water was replaced with kaolinite–water mixture and bedload transport capacity of crushed brick particles was determined for a 4% slope and different concentrations of kaolinite (0, 7, 41 and 84 g/L). The results showed that bedload transport increased significantly with the decrease in particle density but the effect of particle density on transport rates was much less important than flow discharge. Velocity measurements of clear flow, flow mixed with coarse particles and coarse particles confirmed the existence of a differentiation between suspended load and bedload. In these experimental conditions, suspended load of kaolinite did not affect bedload rates of crushed brick particles. Three transport capacity formulae were tested against observed bedload rates. A calibration of the Foster formula revealed that the shear stress exponent should be greater than 1.5. The Low and the Govers unit stream power (USP) equations were then evaluated. The Low equation was preferred for the prediction of bedload rates of primary particles but it was not recommended in the case of aggregates of low density because of the limited experimental conditions applied to derive this equation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Biokinetics of Radiocobalt in the Asteroid Asterias rubens (Echinodermata): Sea Water and Food Exposures

Uptake and loss of cobalt-57 were investigated in the starfish Asterias rubens, in order to assess its value as a sentinel organism for nearshore radionuclide contamination. Whole-body uptake from sea water was linear over a 32-day exposure period and reached wet weight concentration factor (CF) of 23 ± 5. Bioaccumulation of ⁵⁷Co was dependent upon body compartment, the aboral part of the body wall concentrating cobalt to the greatest degree (wet weight CF: 77 ± 16). After restoration of uncontaminated conditions, radiocobalt was released following an exponential loss kinetics characterized by a biological half-life (T_b1/2) of 27 ± 6 day. Dietary radiocobalt (taken up during a short-term feeding for 24 h on radiolabelled mussels) showed a much more rapid turnover time (T_b1/2: 14 ± 4 d), suggesting that A. rubens accumulates this radionuclide predominantly from sea water. A. rubens, and more particularly the aboral part of its body wall, would readily reveal the presence of an environmental contamination by radiocobalt and could preserve this information over a period of few months.     

Measuring and interpreting heat fluxes from shallow volcanic bodies using vertical temperature profiles: a preliminary test

 To test the potential of heat flux prospecting in active volcanic areas using shallow temperature data taken along vertical profiles, we carried out two thermal profile surveys, one not far from Yasur cone on Tanna Island, and another inside the caldera of Ambrym (New Hebrides arc, southwestern Pacific). The basic steady heat flux of internal volcanic origin was determined, taking into account both conductive and convective heat transfers. At both locations there exists, over small distances, significant differences in the heat flux. These differences correspond to shallow sources of heat. The use of a network of vertical profiles allowed: (a) heat flux mapping; (b) location of shallow volcanic heat sources; and (c) observation of the detailed structure of the heat release at quiescent but active volcanoes. Received: 18 July 1997 / Accepted: 13 May 1998     

Magnetostratigraphy of the lower Triassic volcanics from deep drill SG6 in western Siberia: evidence for long-lasting Permo–Triassic volcanic activity

The deep drill hole SG6 in western Siberia (66°N, 78.5°E) penetrated 1.1  km of lower Triassic basalts, which are possibly an extension of the central Siberian Permo– Triassic flood basalt province. About 300 samples of these basalts were progressively demagnetized and measured. Principal component analysis often shows multiple magnetizations carried by haematite and magnetite. The corrected mean inclinations are +77° and −77° for the haematite component. A magnetostratigraphic scale was derived and showed a N–R–N–R–N succession. This is quite different from the Noril'sk and Taimyr typical polarity scale, R–N.
  The basalts found in the SG6 deep drill hole are slightly younger than those of central Siberia and Taimyr. They correspond to middle–upper Induan age, whereas the Noril'sk and Taimyr sections correspond to an uppermost Permian and lower Induan age. Altogether they indicate that, after a high output rate of volcanic material near the Permo–Triassic boundary, this activity slowed down drastically on the Siberian platform and Taimyr, but persisted for several million years in western Siberia.     

Geothermal Characterization of the St. Lawrence Lowlands Sedimentary Basin,Québec,Canada

Defining temperature at depth to identify geothermal resources relies on the evaluation of the Earth heat flow based on equilibrium temperature measurements as well as thermal conductivity and heat generation rate assessment. Such high-quality geothermal data can be sparse over the region of interest. This is the case of the St. Lawrence Lowlands sedimentary basin covering 20,000 km² to the south of Québec, Canada, and enclosing only three wells up to a depth of 500 m with equilibrium heat flow measurements. However, more than 250 oil and gas exploration wells have been drilled in this area, providing for this study (parce que c'est 93 sinon) 81 locations with bottom-hole temperature up to a depth of 4300 m, however, not at equilibrium. Analyzing these data with respect to the deep geothermal resource potential of this sedimentary basin requires evaluating the thermal conductivity and heat generation rate of its geological units to properly extrapolate temperature downward. This was done by compiling literature and recent thermal conductivity measurements in outcrop and core samples as well as new heat generation rate estimates from spectral gamma ray logs to establish a first thermal assessment of geological units deep down into the basin. The mean thermal conductivity of the thermal units varies from 2.5 to 6.3 W/m·K, with peak values in the basal sandstones, while the heat generation rate varies from 1.6 to 0.3 µW/m³, decreasing from the upper caprocks toward the base of the sequence. After correcting the bottom-hole temperatures for drilling disturbance with the Harrison correction and subsequently for paleoclimate variations, results indicate a mean geothermal gradient of 23.1 °C/km, varying from 14 to 40 °C/km. Evaluating the basin thermal state from oil and gas data is a significant challenge facilitated by an understanding of its thermal properties.     

Impact of climate change on the hydrogeology of two basins in northern France

This study presents an analysis of climate-change impacts on the water resources of two basins located in northern France, by integrating four sources of uncertainty: climate modelling, hydrological modelling, downscaling methods, and emission scenarios. The analysis focused on the evolution of the water budget, the river discharges and piezometric heads. Seven hydrological models were used, from lumped rainfall-discharge to distributed hydrogeological models, and led to quite different estimates of the water-balance components. One of the hydrological models, CLSM, was found to be unable to simulate the increased water stress and was, thus, considered as an outlier even though it gave fair results for the present day compared to observations. Although there were large differences in the results between the models, there was a marked tendency towards a decrease of the water resource in the rivers and aquifers (on average in 2050 about ?14 % and ?2.5 m, respectively), associated with global warming and a reduction in annual precipitation (on average in 2050 +2.1 K and ?3 %, respectively). The uncertainty associated to climate models was shown to clearly dominate, while the three others were about the same order of magnitude and 3–4 times lower. In terms of impact, the results found in this work are rather different from those obtained in a previous study, even though two of the hydrological models and one of the climate models were used in both studies. This emphasizes the need for a survey of the climatic-change impact on the water resource.