Reconstructing Phreatic Palaeogroundwater Levels in a Geoarchaeological Context: A Case Study in Flanders,Belgium

The complex debate on prehistoric settlement decisions is no longer tackled from a purely archaeological perspective but from a more landscape‐oriented manner combined with archaeological evidence. Therefore, reconstruction of several components of the former landscape is needed. Here, we focus on the reconstruction of the groundwater table based on modeling. The depth of the phreatic aquifer influences, for example, soil formation processes and vegetation type. Furthermore, it directly influences settlement by the wetness of a site. Palaeogroundwater modeling of the phreatic aquifer was carried out to produce a series of full‐coverage maps of the mean water table depth between 12.7 ka and the middle of the 20th century (1953) in Flanders, Belgium. The research focuses on the reconstruction of the input data and boundary conditions of the model and the model calibration. The model was calibrated for the 1924–1953 time period using drainage class maps. Archaeological site data and podzol occurrence data act as proxies for local drainage conditions over periods in the past. They also served as a control on the simulated phreatic palaeogroundwater levels. Model quality testing on an independent validation data set showed that the model predicts phreatic water table levels at the time of soil mapping well (mean error of 1.8 cm; root mean square error of 65.6 cm). Simulated hydrological conditions were in agreement with the occurrence of archaeological sites of Mesolithic to Roman age at 96% of the validation locations, and also with the occurrence of well‐drained podzols at 97% of the validation locations.     

Stratoid granites of Madagascar: structure and position in the Panafrican orogeny

Abstract

Stratoid granites constitute a major feature of the Precambrien basement of Madagascar. A detailed structural study was carried out NNW of Antananarivo. New zircon isotopic data on a typical alkaline granite ascertain their Panafrican age (585 Ma). The sheets of granites metric to kilometric of thickness, are interlayered with migmatitic gneisses and amphibolites. Their internal structures, determined by anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility measurements, everywhere yield foliations gently dipping to the west, and lineations striking WSW-ENE. These structures were mostly acquired at the magmatic stage in the granites, in the country-rocks they resulted from high-temperature plastic deformation.

The very constant structural pattern, interpreted in terms of shear deformation of a section of the crust, as well as the low P (P = 4 - 5 kb) - high T (T # 750°C) conditions, suggest that the emplacement of the stratoid granites was coeval with a late-orogenic stage in the Panafrican Mozambique belt, and possibly linked to the thinning of the lithosphere.     

La crue torrentielle du Bez (Hautes-Alpes,Briançonnais), 24 juillet 1995

Résumé

À la suite d’un violent orage, une lave torrentielle d’un volume supérieur à 100 000 m³ s’est répandue sur le cône de déjection du torrent du Bez, provoquant des dégâts considérables aux infrastructures. Les observations réalisées durant l’événement et les investigations menées dans le bassin versant nous permettent de mieux comprendre le déclenchement de cette lave. Le flot boueux marquant le début de l’événement a été en grande partie alimenté par les ravinements affectant le haut du bassin versant. La lave à blocs qui a suivi s’est nourrie quant à elle des dépôts morainiques recouvrant la rive gauche du torrent, dans la partie inférieure du bassin versant. Au lendemain de la crue, on pouvait observer deux grandes entailles d’une profondeur maximale de 15 m. L’instabilité des berges qui en résultait a alors été rapidement enrayée par d’importants travaux de terrassements et d’enrochements. © Elsevier, Paris     

Parallel Multiple-Point Statistics Algorithm Based on List and Tree Structures

Multiple-point statistics are widely used for the simulation of categorical variables because the method allows for integrating a conceptual model via a training image and then simulating complex heterogeneous fields. The multiple-point statistics inferred from the training image can be stored in several ways. The tree structure used in classical implementations has the advantage of being efficient in terms of CPU time, but is very RAM demanding and then implies limitations on the size of the template, which serves to make a proper reproduction of complex structures difficult. Another technique consists in storing the multiple-point statistics in lists. This alternative requires much less memory and allows for a straightforward parallel algorithm. Nevertheless, the list structure does not benefit from the shortcuts given by the branches of the tree for retrieving the multiple-point statistics. Hence, a serial algorithm based on list structure is generally slower than a tree-based algorithm. In this paper, a new approach using both list and tree structures is proposed. The idea is to index the lists by trees of reduced size: the leaves of the tree correspond to distinct sublists that constitute a partition of the entire list. The size of the indexing tree can be controlled, and then the resulting algorithm keeps memory requirements low while efficiency in terms of CPU time is significantly improved. Moreover, this new method benefits from the parallelization of the list approach.     

Interpreting maps through the eyes of expert and novice users

The experiments described in this article combine response time measurements and eye movement data to gain insight into the users' cognitive processes while working with dynamic and interactive maps. Experts and novices participated in a user study with a ‘between user’ design. Twenty screen maps were presented in a random order to each participant, on which he had to execute a visual search. The combined information of the button actions and eye tracker reveals that both user groups showed a similar pattern in the time intervals needed to locate the subsequent names. From this pattern, information about the users' cognitive load could be derived: use of working memory, learning effect and so on. Moreover, the response times also showed that experts were significantly faster in finding the names in the map image. This is further explained by the eye movement metrics: experts had significantly shorter fixations and more fixations per second meaning that they could interpret a larger part of the map in the same amount of time. As a consequence, they could locate objects in the map image more efficiently and thus faster.     

The fractional power law of wind wave growth in deep water for short fetch

Combining the 3/2 power law proposed by Toba with the significant wave energy balance equation for wind waves, wave growth in deep water for short fetch is investigated. It is found that the variations of wave height and period with fetch have the form of power function with fractional exponents 3/8 and 1/4 respectively. Using these exponents in the power functions and through data fitting, the concise wind wave growth relations for short fetch are obtained.     

Full‐scale dynamic response of an RC building under weak seismic motions using earthquake recordings,ambient vibrations and modelling

In countries with a moderate seismic hazard, the classical methods developed for strong motion prone countries to estimate the seismic behaviour and subsequent vulnerability of existing buildings are often inadequate and not financially realistic. The main goals of this paper are to show how the modal analysis can contribute to the understanding of the seismic building response and the good relevancy of a modal model based on ambient vibrations for estimating the structural deformation under weak earthquakes. We describe the application of an enhanced modal analysis technique (frequency domain decomposition) to process ambient vibration recordings taken at the Grenoble City Hall building (France). The frequencies of ambient vibrations are compared with those of weak earthquakes recorded by the French permanent accelerometric network (RAP) that was installed to monitor the building. The frequency variations of the building under weak earthquakes are shown to be less (∼2%) and therefore ambient vibration frequencies are relevant over the elastic domain of the building. The modal parameters extracted from ambient vibrations are then used to determine the 1D lumped‐mass model in order to reproduce the inter‐storey drift under weak earthquakes and to fix a 3D numerical model that could be used for strong earthquakes. The correlation coefficients between data and synthetic motion are close to 80 and 90% in horizontal directions, for the 1D and 3D modelling, respectively. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Network science, NetLander: a european mission to study the planet Mars

The planet Mars has many Earth like characteristics, but its evolution is different. An important future step in Mars’ geophysics is to deploy a network of stations at the surface of Mars inorder to study a wide range of properties of this planet, going from its deep interior structure to its atmosphere. Each ground station (small landers) will contain the same scientific instruments/experiments. The collected data will improve our knowledge of the Martian interior, surface and atmosphere, as well as its evolution. An important part of these objectives can only be achieved by a network of surface stations, as a network gives unique possibilities for performing studies of global scale phenomena and studies requiring simultaneous measurements from several sites.