Saturn in hot water: Viscous evolution of the Enceladus torus

The detection of outgassing water vapor from Enceladus is one of the great breakthroughs of the Cassini mission. The fate of this water once ionized has been widely studied; here we investigate the effects of purely neutral-neutral interactions within the Enceladus torus. We find that, thanks in part to the polar nature of the water molecule, a cold (∼180 K) neutral torus would undergo rapid viscous heating and spread to the extent of the observed hydroxyl cloud, before plasma effects become important. We investigate the physics behind the spreading of the torus, paying particular attention to the competition between heating and rotational line cooling. A steady-state torus model is constructed, and it is demonstrated that the torus will be observable in the millimeter band with the upcoming Herschel satellite. The relative strength of rotational lines could be used to distinguish between physical models for the neutral cloud.     

Making local futures tangible—Synthesizing, downscaling, and visualizing climate change scenarios for participatory capacity building

Local in its causes and global in its impacts, climate change still poses an unresolved challenge for scientists, politicians, entrepreneurs, and citizens. Climate change research is largely global in focus, aims at enhanced understanding, and is driven by experts, all of which seem to be insufficient to anchor climate change action in regional and local contexts. We present results from a participatory scenario study conducted in collaboration with the municipality of Delta in SW British Columbia, Canada. This study applies a participatory capacity building approach for climate change action at the local level where the sources of emissions and the mechanisms of adaptation reside and where climate change is meaningful to decision-makers and stakeholders alike. The multi-scale scenario approach consists of synthesizing global climate change scenarios, downscaling them to the regional and local level, and finally visualizing alternative climate scenarios out to 2100 in 3D views of familiar, local places. We critically discuss the scenarios produced and the strengths and weaknesses of the approach applied.     

Wheat as food, wheat as industrial substance; comparative geographies of transformation and mobility

Wheat is the world’s second largest crop, supplies 19% of human calories, and is the largest volume crop traded internationally. Its uniquely malleable physical properties make it a valued industrial substance, albeit often an invisible one, as well as a food. This combination of transformation, invisibility and mobility demands new ways of thinking about wheat geographies. In this paper we document and analyse several ‘moments’ in the life of Australian wheat; at the supermarket, in the lives of coeliac sufferers, in laboratories, industrial factories and on the farm. We illustrate diverse patterns of interaction with wheat. The major plane of differentiation is between wheat as food and wheat as industrial substance. The explicit connection of food to the human body tends to fix the identity of wheat, whether as healthy staple of the nation, or harmful poison to coeliacs who must negotiate its presence using the regulatory regime of food labelling. This is no small task given the ubiquity of wheat; our survey of 10,235 supermarket items found it in 29.5% of labelled food items. In contrast, when wheat is physically and chemically disassembled to become an industrial substance, its presence and identity become mutable, hidden and often invisible.     

Flow stresses from microstructures in mylonitic quartzites of the Moine Thrust zone, Assynt area, Scotland

Recrystallized grain sizes, subgrain sizes and dislocation densities of quartz grains in quartzose mylonitic rocks have been examined using optical and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The samples come from the Moine Thrust zone in the Assynt district, Scotland. They had been studied previously and described in detail with respect to their structural position in relation to the various thrusts in the region and to their preferred orientation. Stresses were derived from these samples using empirical and theoretical equations relating flow stress to the scale of the microstructures. The stresses determined, 43–244 MPa from recrystallized grain size, 9–13 MPa from etched subgrain size, 50–95 MPa from TEM-scale subgrain size and 75–147 MPa from dislocation density, are not constant in individual samples. Simultaneous formation of the quartz fabrics and of the dynamically recrystallized grains during the period of mylonitization may have occurred under flow stresses ranging from 43 to 244 MPa. A later dynamic recovery event reset subgrain sizes and dislocation densities to a constant-value for each microstructure throughout the area. There is insufficient empirical information available on the flow stress/subgrain size relationship and on the effects of annealing recovery and annealing recrystallization to allow for a more detailed interpretation. Recrystallized grain size is still the most easily measured microstructural feature and the relationship of recrystallized grain size to flow stress has a sounder experimental basis than subgrain size or dislocation density. The effect of chemical environment on the behaviour of all the microstructures is still unknown.     

辽东半岛海城-大石桥菱镁矿矿床成因探讨

辽东半岛古元古界辽河群大石桥组三段地层中赋存有全球最大工业储量的菱镁矿矿床.在总结和整理已发表的辽东半岛晶质菱镁矿床地质和地球化学数据的基础上,本次研究进行了Mg和B同位素测试及研究工作,获得以下认识:① 菱镁矿矿体呈北东东走向,产于大石桥组三段,但不同矿床的矿体厚度差异较大(30～300 m),菱镁矿矿体与顶、底板高...     

The impact of climate change on U. K. river flows: A preliminary comparison of two generations of probabilistic climate projections

The impacts of climate change on future river flows are a growing concern. Typically, impacts are simulated by driving hydrological models with climate model ensemble data. The U.K. Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09) provided probabilistic projections, enabling a risk-based approach to decision-making under climate change. Recently, an update was released—UKCP18—so there is a need for information on how impacts may differ. The probabilistic projections from UKCP18 and UKCP09 are here applied using the change factor method with catchment-based hydrological modelling for 10 catchments across England. Projections of changes in median, mean, high, and low flows are made for the 2050s, using the A1B emissions scenario from UKCP09 and UKCP18 as well as the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 emissions scenarios from UCKP18. The results show that, in all catchments for all flow measures, the central estimate of change under UKCP18 is similar to that from UKCP09 (A1B emissions). However, the probabilistic uncertainty ranges from UKCP18 are, in all cases, greater than from UKCP09, despite UKCP18 having a smaller ensemble size than UKCP09. Although there are differences between the central estimates of change using UKCP18 RCP4.5, RCP8.5 and A1B emissions, there is considerable overlap in the uncertainty ranges. The results suggest that existing assessments of hydrological impacts remain relevant, though it will be necessary to evaluate sensitive decisions using the latest projections. The analysis will aid development of advice to users of current guidance based on UKCP09 and help make decisions about the prioritization of further hydrological impacts work using UKCP18, which should also apply other products from UKCP18 like the 12-km regional data.     

Localized folding of viscoelastic layers

Naturally occurring fold systems are typically irregular. Although such systems may sometimes be approximated by a periodic geometry, in reality they are commonly aperiodic. Ord (1994) has proposed that naturally occurring fold systems may display spatial chaos in their geometry. Previous work has indicated that linear theories for the formation of fold systems, such as those developed by Biot (1965), result in strictly periodic geometries. In this paper the development of spatially chaotic geometries is explored for a thin compressed elastic layer embedded in a viscoelastic medium which shows elastic softening. In particular, it is shown that spatially localized forms of buckling can develop and the evolution of these systems in the time domain is presented. A nonlinear partial differential equation, fourth order in a spatial variable and first order in time, is found to govern the evolution. A related nonlinear fourth-order ordinary differential equation governs an initial elastic phase of folding. The latter equation belongs to a class with spatially chaotic solutions. The paper reviews the implications of localization in the geological framework, and draws some tentative conclusions about the development of spatial chaos. Crudely arrived-at, yet plausible, evolutionary time plots under the constraint of constant applied end displacement are presented. Emphasis throughout is on phenomenology, rather than underlying mathematics or numerics.     

Block-effective macrodispersion for numerical simulations of sorbing solute transport in heterogeneous porous formations

Heterogeneity is prevalent in aquifers and has an enormous impact on contaminant transport in groundwater. Numerical simulations are an effective way to deal with heterogeneity directly by assigning different hydraulic property values to each numerical grid block. Because hydraulic properties vary on different scales, but they cannot be sampled exhaustively and the number of numerical grid blocks is limited by computational considerations, the dispersive effects of unmodeled heterogeneity need to be accounted for. Dispersion tensors can be used to model the dispersion caused by unmodeled heterogeneity. The concept of block-effective macrodispersion tensors for modeling the effects of small-scale variability on solute transport introduced by Rubin et al. [Rubin Y, Sun A, Maxwell R, Bellin A. The concept of block-effective macrodispersivity and a unified approach for grid-scale- and plume-scale-dependent transport. J Fluid Mech 1999;395:161–80] is extended in this paper for use with reactive solutes. The tensors are derived for reactive solutes with spatially variable retardation factors and for solutes experiencing spatially uniform rate-limited sorption. The longitudinal block-effective macrodispersion coefficient is largest for perfect negative correlation between the log-hydraulic conductivity and the retardation factor. Because dispersion tensors, as they are usually implemented in numerical simulations, produce symmetric spreading, the applicability of the concept depends on the portion of the plume asymmetry caused by small-scale variability. The presented results show that the concept is applicable for rate-limited sorption for block sizes of one and two integral scales.