Apparent stress scaling for tectonic and induced seismicity: Model and observations

A macroscopic model of seismic sources provides a scaling relationship for the apparent stress, treated as a function of three independent parameters: seismic moment, rupture area size, and average slip acceleration. These parameters represent three different factors: kinematic, geometric and material. This relationship allows us to distinguish and explain the following statistical characteristics of the log apparent stress versus log seismic moment plot. The regional trends, represented by a series of 1/2 slope lines, are related to the averaged shape of slip velocity pulses, so they reflect kinematic characteristics of the rupture process. The global trend, represented by the 1/6 slope line, is expected to characterize sets of events of wide range of rupture area sizes and assumes dependence of rupture area size on total slip, so it is related to the rupture initiation, propagation and arrest conditions; therefore, it reflects earthquake rupture dynamics. Additional shiftings among the trend lines obtained for the smallest induced tremors, larger tectonic earthquakes, and slow tsunami earthquakes, reflect differences between the intact rock failure and the frictional slip failure, that is, between fracture energies of these different earthquake classes.     

Impulse approximation improved

Improved formulas of impulse approximation method for stellar perturbations are derived. The method proposed involves a deflection of the stellar path. It is also applicable to an arbitrary time interval. A comparison of the classical vs improved method is presented both in qualitative discussion and numerical results for Oort cloud cometary orbits.     

Heavy metals in sediments as evidence for recent pollution and quasi-estuarine processes: an example from Lake Druzno,Poland

This article presents the results of a geochemical investigation of sediments from Lake Druzno (northern Poland), a reservoir fed by freshwater from the catchment, with periodic input of brackish water from Vistula Lagoon. This study analyzed the spatial variation in heavy metal content in surface sediments as well as the temporal changes in metal content in two sediment cores dated using the ²¹⁰Pb method. In the surface sediments, the highest metal concentrations were recorded in the northern part of the lake, with lower concentrations in the central and southern parts. Absolute values of metal concentrations in the cores were low, but normalization with respect to Al showed an increase during the second half of the 20th century. Mean enrichment factors (EF) in sediments from the second half of the 20th century ranged from insignificant (1–1.2) for Fe to (1.55–3.3) for Cu, Cd, Pb and Zn. The sediments deposited before 1950 had lower EF values (>1.5) and had low variability. Results from both the surface sediments and the cores indicate that the main source of lake pollution is brackish water intrusion from the Vistula Lagoon via the contaminated River Elbląg.     

New Hormaphididae (Hemiptera, Aphidomorpha) from the Baltic Amber and its Palaeogeographic Significance

The present study describes a new genus and species Unicohormaphis sorini, which belongs to the subfamily Cerataphidinae. The contemporary distribution of aphids belonging to the Hormaphididae family is summarized and analyzed. According to the obtained data, the climate warming in Eocene was conducive to the expansion of the family over the areas of Europe. Subsequent climate changes, resulting from epeirogenic and orogenic movements towards the end of Eocene, led to a considerable cooling and drying of climate in the northern hemisphere. These processes contributed to the shrinking down of areas covered by subtropical forests, which constituted the habitat of Hormaphididae (Cerataphidinae). Retaining their way of life, the Cerataphidinae were forced to limit their distribution, and the representatives of the family in Europe became completely extinct.     

The significance of landforms – the contribution of geomorphology to the World Heritage Programme of UNESCO

This discussion paper addresses the role of geomorphology in designating UNESCO World Heritage properties. Two of the defined criteria employed in the process are explicitly relevant to geomorphology. Criterion (vii) emphasizes the occurrence of superlative natural phenomena, while criterion (viii) directly refers to landforms and on‐going surface processes, along with historical geological values. Superlative natural phenomena may be singular features, but in recent nominations the focus has tended to be on geomorphic diversity over limited areas. Overall, this is a criterion significantly influenced by subjective judgement. The significance of landforms, as included in the wording of criterion (viii), may be considered in three ways. Landforms may be significant for the science of geomorphology itself, and/or for other natural science disciplines, particularly biology and ecology, and/or be of wider cultural significance, including for history, architecture, general landscape aesthetics, art, or religion, underpinning cultural developments. To better determine the conditions to be fulfilled by a property to be considered as geomorphologically significant at the highest global level required for World Heritage listing seems a timely and useful exercise. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Les auditeurs polonais des cours de minéralogie de René Just Haüy au Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle,Paris

The paper analyses a list of thirty-four Poles, listeners to the mineralogy lectures given by R.-J. Haüy at MNHN in Paris. These students played an important role in the history of Polish Earth Sciences (S. Staszic and F. Drzewiński), but also in other scientific fields (J. Markowski, I. Ab?amowicz, F. Drzewiński, M.A. Paw?owicz, J.K. Skrodzki, E.K. Nowicki), and even in political and cultural life of Poland (A. Downarowicz, J. Weyssenhoff, S. Plater, J. Bieliński, F. Potocki). This paper presents later relations between R.-J. Haüy and his Polish students. A possibility of the Poles' attendance to mineralogy lectures given at other Parisian scientific institutions, like the ‘École des mines’ and the ‘College de France’, is also discussed. To cite this article: R. Tarkowski, P. Daszkiewicz, C. R. Geoscience 338 (2006).     

Isotopic and geochemical characteristics of groundwater in the Senegal River delta aquifer: implication of recharge and flow regime

Groundwater and surface water samples were collected to improve understanding of the Senegal River Lower Valley and Delta system, which is prone to salinization. Inorganic ion concentrations and environmental isotopes (¹⁸O, ²H and ³H) in groundwater, river, lake and precipitation were investigated to gain insight into the functioning of the system with regard to recharge sources and process, groundwater renewability, hydraulic interconnection and geochemical evolution. The geochemical characteristics of the system display mainly cation (Ca²⁺ and/or Na⁺) bicarbonated waters, which evolve to chloride water type; this occurs during groundwater flow in the less mineralized part of the aquifer. In contrast, saline intrusion and secondary brines together with halite dissolution are likely to contaminate the groundwater to Na–Cl type. Halite, gypsum and calcite dissolution determine the major ion (Na⁺, Cl⁻, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, SO₄ ²⁻ and HCO₃ ⁻) chemistry, but other processes such as evaporation, salt deposition, ion exchange and reverse exchange reactions also control the groundwater chemistry. Both surface water and groundwater in the system show an evaporation effect, but high evaporated signatures in the groundwater may be due to direct evaporation from the ground, infiltration of evaporated water or enriched rainwater in this region. The stable isotopes also reveal two types of groundwater in this system, which geomorphologically are distributed in the sand dunes (depleted isotopes) and in the flood plain (enriched isotopes). Consideration of the ³H content reinforces this grouping and suggests two mechanisms of recharge: contribution of enriched surface water in recharging the flood plain groundwater and, in the sand dunes area where water table is at depth between 8 and 13 m, slow recharge process characterized the submodern to mixed water.     

Understanding User Interaction Patterns within Online Systems for Public‐Participation Transportation Planning

Many research projects in public‐participation geographic information systems focused on the development of software prototypes that were conceptualized to complement traditional forms of public participation. Given the challenges introduced by the heterogeneity of their user base, system design, and decision making process, empirical evaluations of such systems based on actual use have been scarce. This article reports on a rigorous empirical assessment of human‐computer interaction of users of a web‐based system for participatory transportation planning. We devised three groups of participants with below‐average, average, and above‐average interaction duration through hierarchical cluster analysis. Subsequently, the characteristics of the clusters were subjected to logistic regression analysis to determine the significance and strength of statistical associations between duration of interaction and a host of individual‐level variables. Our results indicate a statistically significant reduction of the odds‐ratio for participants with above‐average duration of interaction in the case of no prior experience with online transportation discussions. No significant associations were found between overall duration of interaction and sociodemographic background, cognitive decision‐making style, and travel behavior. We advocate for the development of adaptable participatory systems which accommodate flexibility in terms of both the user interface and pathways of the decision making process.     

Impact of proximity-adjusted preferences on rank-order stability in geographical multicriteria decision analysis

This paper presents a new approach to deriving preferences assigned to evaluation criteria in geographical multicriteria decision analysis. In this approach, the preferences, expressed by numeric weights, are adjusted by distance measures derived from the explicit consideration of a locational structure. The structure is given by locations of decision options and high importance reference objects. The approach is demonstrated on the example of a house selection case study in San Diego, California. The results show that proximity-adjusted preferences for the evaluation criteria can alter significantly the rank order of decision options. Consequently, the explicit modeling of spatial preference variability may be needed in order to better account for decision-maker’s preferences.