THE MARBLE BEACHES OF TUSCANY*

ABSTRACT. Beach‐nourishment operations designed to replace sediment lost through erosion change the identity and meaning of coastal landscapes. Seven beaches in Tuscany, nourished with marble‐quarry waste, reveal how an industrial byproduct is naturalized by particle rounding and sorting and can become a positive symbol of human‐altered nature. The marble was placed on formerly sandy beaches, resulting in different grain size and color of sediments, beach morphology, and value for human use. The abrasion rate of marble makes the nourished beaches unsatisfactory when viewed solely as protection structures, but the rapid particle rounding and aesthetic appeal of marble increase the acceptability of the beaches for recreation.     

The NAFE’06 data set: Towards soil moisture retrieval at intermediate resolution

The National Airborne Field Experiment 2006 (NAFE’06) was conducted during a three week period of November 2006 in the Murrumbidgee River catchment, located in southeastern Australia. One objective of NAFE’06 was to explore the suitability of the area for SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) calibration/validation and develop downscaling and assimilation techniques for when SMOS does come on line. Airborne L-band brightness temperature was mapped at 1 km resolution 11 times (every 1–3 days) over a 40 by 55 km area in the Yanco region and 3 times over a 40 by 50 km area that includes Kyeamba Creek catchment. Moreover, multi-resolution, multi-angle and multi-spectral airborne data including surface temperature, surface reflectance (green, read and near infrared), lidar data and aerial photos were acquired over selected areas to develop downscaling algorithms and test multi-angle and multi-spectral retrieval approaches. The near-surface soil moisture was measured extensively on the ground in eight sampling areas concurrently with aircraft flights, and the soil moisture profile was continuously monitored at 41 sites. Preliminary analyses indicate that (i) the uncertainty of a single ground measurement was typically less than 5% vol. (ii) the spatial variability of ground measurements at 1 km resolution was up to 10% vol. and (iii) the validation of 1 km resolution L-band data is facilitated by selecting pixels with a spatial soil moisture variability lower than the point-scale uncertainty. The sensitivity of passive microwave and thermal data is also compared at 1 km resolution to illustrate the multi-spectral synergy for soil moisture monitoring at improved accuracy and resolution. The data described in this paper are available at www.nafe.unimelb.edu.au.     

Magnetite‐out and pyrrhotite‐in temperatures in shales and slates

Clay‐rich basins have undergone varying degrees of magnetic transformation during burial, affecting their ability to retain accurate records of Earth's dynamic magnetic field. We propose to bracket the magnetite‐out and pyrrhotite‐in temperatures in shales and slates from Taiwan and the Pyrenees by using a combination of low‐temperature magnetic transitions and geothermometers. For T_burial < 340°C, the magnetic assemblage is dominated by magnetite. Gradually with increasing burial temperature, the concentration of magnetite decreases to a few ppmv. We observe the magnetite‐out isograd at T_burial ~350°C. At T_burial >60°C and T_burial >340°C respectively, fine‐grained and coarse‐grained pyrrhotite develop. In the course of burial, a clay‐rich basin gradually loses its capability to retain a record of Earth's magnetic field. It is only during basin uplift, that coarse pyrrhotite might acquire a thermo remanent magnetization. Our results point out therefore highly contrasted magnetic properties and palaeomagnetic records between deeply buried basins and exhumed ones.     

Melting of some alkaline-earth and transition-metal fluorides and alkali fluoroberyllates at elevated pressures: A search for melting systematics

The melting curves of the fluorides ZnF₂ and NiF₂ (rutile structure), CaF₂, SrF₂ and BaF₂ (fluorite structure), and of the fluoroberyllates Na₂BeF₄ and Li₂BeF₄ have been studied at pressures ? 40 kbar by differential thermal analysis in a piston-cylinder high-pressure device. The initial slopes (dT_m/dP)₀ of these melting curves are respectively 7.2, 5.8, 16.7, 15.2, 15.7, 15.1 and <0°C/kbar. A new Li₂BeF₄ polymorph, apparently of the olivine structure type, is stable at pressures > 10 kbar and its melting curve has an average slope of ～6.7°C/kbar. These new data and those for SiO₂, BeF₂, GeO₂, LiF and MgF₂, recently studied by Jackson, are combined with existing data for elements, ionic compounds and silicates to assess the influence of crystal structure, molar volume and the nature of interatomic bonding on the initial slopes of melting curves. It is found that the entropy of fusion (ΔS_m) is primarily a function of crystal structure while the volume change on fusion (ΔV_m) is controlled by crystal molar volume within each isostructural series. Such systematics have recently facilitated estimation of the initial slopes of the melting curves of periclase and stishovite. New and existing melting data for silicates and their analogues have been analysed and a systematic dependence of (dT_m/dP)₀ on SiO₂ concentration has been demonstrated. Possible implications of this trend for partial melting of upper-mantle garnet lherzolite are illustrated. Finally, the use of the traditional silicate-germanate and oxide-fluoride modelling schemes is reviewed in the light of information from this present study.     

Radial thresholding to mitigate laser guide star aberrations on centre-of-gravity-based Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensors

Sodium laser guide stars (LGSs) are elongated sources due to the thickness and the finite distance of the sodium layer. The fluctuations of the sodium layer altitude and atom density profile induce errors on centroid measurements of elongated spots, and generate spurious optical aberrations in closed-loop adaptive optics (AO) systems. According to an analytical model and experimental results obtained with the University of Victoria LGS bench demonstrator, one of the main origins of these aberrations, referred to as LGS aberrations, is not the centre-of-gravity (CoG) algorithm itself, but the thresholding applied on the pixels of the image prior to computing the spot centroids. A new thresholding method, termed 'radial thresholding', is presented here, cancelling out most of the LGS aberrations without altering the centroid measurement accuracy.     

Basement-controlled deformation of sedimentary sequences,Anadarko Shelf,Oklahoma

Structures rooted in the crystalline basement frequently control the deformation of the host bedrock and the overlying sedimentary sequences. Here, we elucidate the structure of the c. 2-km deep Precambrian granitic basement in the Anadarko Shelf, Oklahoma, and how the propagation of basement faults deformed the sedimentary cover. Although the basin is foreland in origin, the gently dipping shelf sequences experienced transpressional deformation in the Late Palaeozoic. We analyse a 3-D seismic reflection data set and basement penetrating well data in an area of 824 km². We observe: (a) pervasive deformation of the basement by basement-bounded interconnected mafic sills, and a system of subvertical discontinuity planes (interpreted as faults) of which some penetrate the overlying sedimentary cover; (b) three large (>10 km-long) through-going faults, with relatively small (<100 m) vertical separation (Vsep) of the deformed stratigraphic surfaces; (c) upward propagation of the large faults characterized by faulted-blocks near the basement, and faulted-monoclines in the deeper sedimentary units that transition into open monoclinal flexures up-section; (d) cumulative along-fault deformation of the stratigraphy exhibits systematic trends that varies with offset accrual; (e) two styles of Vsep—Depth distribution which include a unidirectional decrease of Vsep from the basement through the cover rocks (Style-1) and a bidirectional decrease of Vsep from a deep sedimentary unit towards the basement and shallower sequences (Style-2). We find that the basement-driven propagation (Style-1) shows greater efficiency of driving the fault deformation to shallower depths compared to the intrasedimentary-driven fault nucleation and propagation (Style-2). Our study demonstrates an evolution of cumulative Vsep trends with offset accrual on the faults, and the partial inheritance of the heterogeneous intra-basement deformation by the sedimentary cover. This contribution provides important insight into the upward propagation of basement-driven faulting associated with structural inheritance in contractional sedimentary basins.     

Who’s Winning the Public Process? How to Use Public Documents to Assess the Equity,Efficiency, and Effectiveness of Stakeholder Engagement

Abstract

It is widely recognized that stakeholder engagement processes produce advantages, but few studies acknowledge that they also can produce disadvantages. There is a global need to better assess stakeholder engagement processes by defining success and developing new methods to analyze stakeholder participation data. Our method of digitizing and coding stakeholder communications (1) produces a wide range of analyses, (2) tells the story of governance over time, (3) is comparable with other datasets, and (4) can be used wherever public documents exist. We demonstrate the utility of these integrated methods by examining statewide differences in public participation and success rates in Alaska’s Board of Fisheries’ (Board) proposal process. We determine that significantly different participation and success rates across the state indicate the existence of disadvantages and the need for further investigation into the equity, efficiency, and effectiveness of the Board process.     

Further analysis of singular vector and ENSO predictability in the Lamont model—Part I: singular vector and the control factors

In this study, singular vector analysis was performed for the period from 1856 to 2003 using the latest Zebiak–Cane model version LDEO5. The singular vector, representing the optimal growth pattern of initial perturbations/errors, was obtained by perturbing the constructed tangent linear model of the Zebiak–Cane model. Variations in the singular vector and singular value, as a function of initial time, season, ENSO states, and optimal period, were investigated. Emphasis was placed on exploring relative roles of linear and nonlinear processes in the optimal perturbation growth of ENSO, and deriving statistically robust conclusions using long-term singular vector analysis. It was found that the first singular vector is dominated by a west–east dipole spanning most of the equatorial Pacific, with one center located in the east and the other in the central Pacific. Singular vectors are less sensitive to initial conditions, i.e., independence of seasons and decades; while singular values exhibit a strong sensitivity to initial conditions. The dynamical diagnosis shows that the total linear and nonlinear heating terms play opposite roles in controlling the optimal perturbation growth, and that the linear optimal perturbation is more than twice as large as the nonlinear one. The total linear heating causes a warming effect and controls two positive perturbation growth regions: one in the central Pacific and the other in the eastern Pacific; whereas the total linearized nonlinear advection brings a cooling effect controlling the negative perturbation growth in the central Pacific.