Linking socioeconomic classes and land cover data in Lima,Peru: Assessment through the application of remote sensing and GIS

The spatial differentiation of socioeconomic classes in a city can deliver insight into the nexus of urban development and the environment. The purpose of this paper is to identify poor and rich regions in large cities according to the predominant physical characteristics of the regions. Meaningful spatial information from urban systems can be derived using remote sensing and GIS tools, especially in large difficult-to-manage cities where the dynamics of development results in rapid changes to urban patterns. We use here very high resolution imagery data for the identification of homogeneous socioeconomic zones in a city. We formulate the categorization task as a GIS analysis of an image classified with conventional techniques. Experiments are conducted using a QuickBird image of a study area in Lima, Peru. We provide accuracy assessment of results compared to ground truth data. Results show an approximated allocation of socioeconomic zones within Lima. The methodology described could also be applied to other urban centers, particularly large cities of Latin America, which have characteristics similar to those of the study area.     

A comparison of satellite-retrieved and simulated cloud coverage in the Baltic Sea area as part of the BALTIMOS project

A cloud-detection algorithm for METEOSAT first generation data has been developed. The algorithm utilizes solely infrared data from the METEOSAT thermal infrared window channel at around 11.5 μm. The developed algorithm estimates an assumed clear-sky brightness temperature from time series analysis on pixel bases. Land-/sea-depending dynamic thresholds are then utilized discriminating the infrared images in cloudy, undecided, and cloud free pixels. The cloud-detection algorithm has been validated against synoptic observations. The developed cloud-detection scheme has been applied to 10 years (1992–2001) of METEOSAT data, extracting cloud coverage statistics for the Baltic Sea catchment area. These have been compared to corresponding cloud coverage statistics derived from the BALTIMOS coupled model system. Building overall averaged values of the cloud coverage in the period from 1999 to 2001 gives results with very good agreement between simulation and observation: the total METEOSAT-derived cloud coverage amounts to 0.65 compared to 0.63 for BALTIMOS. In contrast, large discrepancies in the phase of the diurnal cycle of cloud coverage have been observed. A significant trend in total cloud amount was observed neither from the model nor from the satellite.     

Geochemical evolution of halogen-enriched granite magmas and mineralizing fluids of the Zinnwald tin-tungsten mining district,Erzgebirge, Germany

We remelted and analyzed crystallized silicate melt inclusions in quartz from a porphyritic albite-zinnwaldite microgranite dike to determine the composition of highly evolved, shallowly intruded, Li- and F-rich granitic magma and to investigate the role of crystal fractionation and aqueous fluid exsolution in causing the extreme extent of magma differentiation. This dike is intimately associated with tin- and tungsten-mineralized granites of Zinnwald, Erzgebirge, Germany. Prior research on Zinnwald granite geochemistry was limited by the effects of strong and pervasive greisenization and alkali-feldspar metasomatism of the rocks. These melt inclusions, however, provide important new constraints on magmatic and mineralizing processes in Zinnwald magmas.The mildly peraluminous granitic melt inclusions are strongly depleted in CAFEMIC constituents (e.g., CaO, FeO, MgO, TiO₂), highly enriched in lithophile trace elements, and highly but variably enriched in F and Cl. The melt inclusions contain up to several thousand ppm Cl and nearly 3 wt% F, on average; several inclusions contain more than 5 wt% F. The melt inclusions are geochemically similar to the corresponding whole-rock sample, except that the former contain much more F and less CaO, FeO, Zr, Nb, Sr, and Ba. The Sr and Ba abundances are very low implying the melt inclusions represent magma that was more evolved than that represented by the bulk rock. Relationships involving melt constituents reflect increasing lithophile-element and halogen abundances in residual melt with progressive magma differentiation. Modeling demonstrates that differentiation was dominated by crystal fractionation involving quartz and feldspar and significant quantities of topaz and F-rich zinnwaldite. The computed abundances of the latter phases greatly exceed their abundances in the rocks, suggesting that the residual melt was separated physically from phenocrysts during magma movement and evolution.Interactions of aqueous fluids with silicate melt were also critical to magma evolution. To better understand the role of halogen-charged, aqueous fluids in magmatic differentiation and in subsequent mineralization and metasomatism of the Zinnwald granites, Cl-partitioning experiments were conducted with a F-enriched silicate melt and aqueous fluids at 2,000 bar (200 MPa). The results of the experimentally determined partition coefficients for Cl and F, the compositions of fluid inclusions in quartz and other phenocrysts, and associated geochemical modeling point to an important role of magmatic-hydrothermal fluids in influencing magma geochemistry and evolution. The exsolution of halogen-charged fluids from the Li- and F-enriched Zinnwald granitic magma modified the Cl, alkali, and F contents of the residual melt, and may have also sequestered Li, Sn, and W from the melt. Many of these fluids contained strongly elevated F concentrations that were equivalent to or greater than their Cl abundances. The exsolution of F-, Cl-, Li-, ± W- and Sn-bearing hydrothermal fluids from Zinnwald granite magmas was important in effecting the greisenizing and alkali-feldspathizing metasomatism of the granites and the concomitant mineralization.Editorial Handling: B. Lehmann     

A melt and fluid inclusion assemblage in beryl from pegmatite in the Orlovka amazonite granite, East Transbaikalia, Russia: implications for pegmatite-forming melt systems

Beryl crystals from the stockscheider pegmatite in the apical portion of the Li-F granite of the Orlovka Massif in the Khangilay complex, a tantalum deposit, contain an assemblage of melt and fluid inclusions containing two different and mutually immiscible silicate melts, plus an aqueous CO₂-rich supercritical fluid. Pure H₂O and CO₂ inclusions are subordinate. Using the terminology of Thomas R, Webster JD, Heinrich W. Contrib Mineral Petrol 139:394–401 (2000) the melt inclusions can be classified as (i) water-poor type-A and (ii) water-rich type-B inclusions. Generally the primary trapped melt droplets have crystallized to several different mineral phases plus a vapor bubble. However, type-B melt inclusions which are not crystallized also occur, and at room temperature they contain four different phases: a silicate glass, a water-rich solution, and liquid and gaseous CO₂. The primary fluid inclusions represent an aqueous CO₂-rich supercritical fluid which contained elemental sulfur. Such fluids are extremely corrosive and reactive and were supersaturated with respect to Ta and Zn. From the phase compositions and relations we can show that the primary mineral-forming, volatile-rich melt had an extremely low density and viscosity and that melt-melt-fluid immiscibility was characteristic during the crystallization of beryl. The coexistence of different primary inclusion types in single growth zones underlines the existence of at least three mutually immiscible phases in the melt in which the large beryl crystals formed. Moreover, we show that the inclusions do not represent an anomalous boundary layer.     

The behavior of Mg, Fe, and Ni during the replacement of olivine by orthopyroxene: experiments relevant to mantle metasomatism

Replacement of olivine by orthopyroxene is a frequently observed phenomenon in mantle metasomatism. In order to study element redistribution in SiO₂ metasomatism we synthesised orthopyroxene reaction rims at the contacts between forsterite-rich olivine and quartz. The orthopyroxene rims grew from the original quartz-olivine interface into both directions implying counterdiffusion of iron/magnesium and silicon. Following local equilibrium partitioning the X_Fe is lower in the orthopyroxene than in the reactant olivine at the olivine-orthopyroxene replacement front. The resulting local iron excess is compensated by formation of orthopyroxene with a higher X_Fe at the quartz-orthopyroxene interface, which is out of equilibrium with the reactant olivine. This is facilitated through short circuit diffusion along grain boundaries within the orthopyroxene rim. Due to the low capacity of orthopyroxene to accommodate Ni, this component is forced to diffuse back into the olivine producing a Ni enriched zone ahead of the replacement front. This leads to Ni contents in the orthopyroxene rim, which are higher than what is expected in equilibrium with the unaltered olivine. Taking quartz as a proxy for a silica rich fluid or liquid metasomatising agent, we conclude that the overall element fractionation between olivine and the silica rich phase may deviate from equilibrium partitioning so that the Fe and Ni concentrations in the orthopyroxene which is in contact with quartz are higher than in equilibrium with the reactant olivine. This indicates that kinetic fractionation is important for the chemical evolution of both the mantle rocks and the metasomatising agents.     

The response of Lake Tahoe to climate change

Meteorology is the driving force for lake internal heating, cooling, mixing, and circulation. Thus continued global warming will affect the lake thermal properties, water level, internal nutrient loading, nutrient cycling, food-web characteristics, fish-habitat, aquatic ecosystem, and other important features of lake limnology. Using a 1-D numerical model—the Lake Clarity Model (LCM) —together with the down-scaled climatic data of the two emissions scenarios (B1 and A2) of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) Global Circulation Model, we found that Lake Tahoe will likely cease to mix to the bottom after about 2060 for A2 scenario, with an annual mixing depth of less than 200 m as the most common value. Deep mixing, which currently occurs on average every 3–4 years, will (under the GFDL B1 scenario) occur only four times during 2061 to 2098. When the lake fails to completely mix, the bottom waters are not replenished with dissolved oxygen and eventually dissolved oxygen at these depths will be depleted to zero. When this occurs, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and ammonium-nitrogen (both biostimulatory) are released from the deep sediments and contribute approximately 51 % and 14 % of the total SRP and dissolved inorganic nitrogen load, respectively. The lake model suggests that climate change will drive the lake surface level down below the natural rim after 2085 for the GFDL A2 but not the GFDL B1 scenario. The results indicate that continued climate changes could pose serious threats to the characteristics of the Lake that are most highly valued. Future water quality planning must take these results into account.     

BaMn[CO3]2 – a previously unrecognized double carbonate in low-temperature environments: Structural,spectroscopic, and textural tools for future identification

Following a tentative evidence for the occurrence of low-temperature barium manganese(II) carbonates in brackish sediments of the Baltic Sea, a stoichiometric double carbonate, BaMn[CO₃]₂, was synthesized from aqueous solutions at ambient temperature for the first time. Here we report the results of a multi-method approach, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM–EDX) investigations, the chemical composition, and, in particular, the diagnostic powder X-ray diffraction pattern, as well as diagnostic parts of the FT infrared absorption and Raman spectra for future identification of this new carbonate in low-temperature environments, like brackish sediments.     

A modal α2-dynamo in the limit of asymptotically small viscosity

Abstract

A spherical α²-dynamo is presented as an expansion in the free decay modes of the magnetic field. In the limit of vanishing viscosity the momentum equation yields various asymptotic expansions for the flow, depending on the precise form of the dissipation and boundary conditions applied. A new form for the dissipation is introduced that greatly simplifies this asymptotic expansion. When these expansions are substituted back into the induction equation, a set of modal amplitude equations is derived, and solved for various distributions of the α-effect. For all choices of α the solutions approach the Taylor state, but the manner in which this occurs can vary, as previously found by Soward and Jones (1983). Furthermore, as hypothesized by Malkus and Proctor (1975), but not previously demonstrated, the post-Taylor equilibration is indeed independent of the viscosity in the asymptotic limit, and depending on the choice of a may be either steady-state or oscillatory.     

Parity coupling in α2-dynamos

Abstract

The modal α²-dynamo of Hollerbach and Ierley (1991) is extended to include both parities, dipolar and quadrupolar. Two choices of α are considered. As before, the solutions approach the Taylor state, and the subsequent equilibration is independent of the viscosity in the asymptotic limit. The first choice of α yields stable steady-state pure-parity solutions of either type, and may yield some insight into the question of parity selection. The second choice of α yields rather complex time-dependent mixed-parity solutions, and demonstrates the extent to which parity coupling can affect the evolution of time-dependent solutions.     

A Review of “The Future Control of Food: A Guide to International Negotiations and Rules on Intellectual Property,Biodiversity and Food Security”

Abstract

Surface soil texture controls many important ecological, hydrological, and geomorphic processes in arid regions and is therefore important from a land-management perspective. Soil survey efforts have traditionally fulfilled this need, but they are constrained by the size, remoteness, and inaccessibility of many arid regions, which renders simple field measurements prohibitively expensive. This article compares several different predictive soil-mapping techniques with a sparse data set in order to develop surficial soil texture maps. Our results suggest that data collected at the landscape scale can be used as input to predictive soil-mapping techniques to create maps of soil texture at higher fidelity and a fraction of the cost than would be required using traditional methods.