Application of multivariate approach in agrometeorological suitability zonation at northeast semiarid plains of Iran

At the present study, factor and cluster analysis were applied to evaluate the agrometeorological suitability zonation of 39 plains in Khorasan Razavi Province, NE Iran. For this purpose, the extracted 98 variables were processed, resulted in eight factors which explain about 90 % of the total variance. The explained variances of these factors are varied from 42.99 to 2.74 % for factors 1 and 8 after the Varimax rotation, respectively. The spatial classification maps of factor scores are extracted after the studied plains and the calculated scores were then classified by cluster analysis. It was revealed that five clusters were enough to classify the studied plains. The “negligible,” “low,” “moderate,” “high,” and “very high” classes included 4, 14, 9, 7, and 5 plains with 8.0, 35.6, 23.0, 15.1, and 18.3 % of the total surface area, respectively. The geographical distribution of the five major zones revealed that the plains with very high suitability are laid on the center and north parts of the study area, while the rest which are negligible and low suitability zones are mainly concentrated in the west, south, and southeast of the study area. Comparing the agrometeorological suitability between the corresponding zones revealed a general reducing trend from north to south along 3° geographical latitudes.     

Identifying regional dust transport pathways: ­application of kinematic trajectory modelling to a trans‐Tasman case

A kinematic trajectory model is used to investigate potential pathways of dust transport from Australia to New Zealand. Historically, these have been assumed to follow rather direct west–east trajectories spanning 2 to 3 days, often resulting in red snow events in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. However, results from the present study which examined the route taken by air parcels originating in southern Australia during dust storms on 24 and 25 May 1994, indicate that trans‐Tasman dust transport trajectories are more diverse than previously thought, and display considerable variation during single events. These more divergent pathways tie in more closely with aeolian dust sedimentation patterns identified by ocean coring in the Tasman Sea, and may account for the deposition of Australian dust on sub‐Antarctic islands located well south of the Australian continent. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic hazard analysis and local site effect of the 2017 Mw 7.3 Sarpol-e Zahab,Iran, earthquake

Natural Hazards - A strong earthquake occurred on November 12, 2017, in Sarpol-e Zahab city, western Iran, with the moment magnitude ( $$M_{{\text{w}}}$$ ) of 7.3 and a focal depth of...     

Aftershock probabilistic seismic hazard analysis for Bushehr province in Iran using ETAS model

Natural Hazards - Aftershock probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (APSHA) has a key role in risk management after a major earthquake. The main goal of the current study is to assess aftershock...     

Coherence between lake ice cover, local climate and teleconnections (Lake Mendota, Wisconsin)

Ice duration has shortened and the ice-off date has become earlier for Lake Mendota from 1905 to 2000 as air temperatures have warmed and snowfall has increased. In addition, the ice record has cyclic components at inter-annual and inter-decadal scales. We examined the frequency domain relations between ice, local climate and the teleconnections, Southern Ocean Oscillation (SOI), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and Northern Pacific Index (NP), through a three-tiered analysis of coherence. The coherence results provide evidence of linear relations between the three levels at inter-annual and inter-decadal frequencies. Of the three local climate variables analyzed, namely temperature, snowfall and snow depth, temperature is the variable that most significantly affects ice duration and ice-off date, at both inter-annual and inter-decadal frequencies. The most significant effect of teleconnections on local climate are the effects of PDO on snowfall and snow depth, and SOI on temperature, at inter-annual frequencies, and the effect of NAO on snowfall at inter-decadal frequencies. The teleconnections that most significantly affect ice-cover duration and ice-off date, particularly at inter-decadal frequencies, are the PDO and the NAO. The influence of PDO on ice-cover appears to be transmitted through temperature, while the influence of the NAO appears to be transmitted through temperature and snowfall. A cascading set of links between teleconnections, local climate, and lake ice explain some, but not all, of the dynamics in these time series.     

Metallogeny and Mineralization Potential of the Bazman Granitoids,SE Iran

The Mesozoic Bazman granitoids are located in Sistan and Baluchestan province, southeastern Iran. Geology of the study area consists of Carboniferous shale, sandstone, and limestone and Permian siltstone, shale, sandstone, limestone, and dolomite that were intruded by the Bazman granitoids. These granitoids include various phases of granite, granodiorite, quartz‐monzodiorite, monzodiorite, diorite, and gabbro. They are metaluminous to slightly peraluminous, reduced, calc‐alkaline and I‐type, and display geochemical characteristics of continental margin (ensialic) granitoids. In this paper, field, petrography, and geochemical data were used to discriminate the Bazman granitoids either as productive or barren granitoids. Although there are a few skarn‐related mineral occurrences adjacent to the Bazman granitoids, most exposed intrusions are not hydrothermally altered and mineralized. Rb/Sr, Zr/Hf, and K/Rb ratios indicate that the granitic magmas that formed most of the Bazman granitoids indicate that they are moderately evolved and have generally not undergone post‐magmatic hydrothermal activity. The Sm/Eu and Rb/Ba ratios and the concentrations of Rb, Ba, and Sr within the aforementioned granitoids show that the rocks are similar to the averages of granitoids devoid of Li, Be, U, Sn, W, and Ta deposits. The I‐type arc characteristics and other geochemical features of the Bazman granitoids show that they are not typical of parental magmas to Sn, W, Mo, and Zn mineralization, but are mainly fertile for Cu and Fe (Au) skarn‐related granitoids.     

Introducing an effective coherence function to generate non-uniform ground motion on topographic site using time-domain boundary element method

In this study,a comprehensive parametric analysis was performed on non-uniform excitation of V-shaped topography using the boundary element method in time domain.For this purpose,wave scattering analysis was carried out on a topography subjected to the SV-wave for different predominant frequencies and shape ratios.Based on the numerical results,new coherence and time delay functions are proposed to generate non-uniform ground motion for topographic irregularities.The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed functions for real engineering problems are indicated by comparison with observations reported in previous literature.     

Tropospheric delay gradients from numerical weather prediction models: effects on GPS estimated parameters

Several numerical weather prediction (NWP) models provide information on the 3D state of the neutral atmosphere which has enabled GNSS researchers to have improved a priori information of the delay induced in the GNSS signals. However, the quality of weather models on the one hand and computational difficulties on the other, are motivations to develop an algorithm based partly on NWP models, while still estimating the remaining residual delay through GNSS processing strategies. An algorithm has been developed to estimate horizontal delay gradients from Meteorological Service of Canada NWP models. The GNSS software “Bernese” has also been modified to handle these gradients, as well as zenith delay and mapping functions based on NWP models in phase and code observation equations. Month-long precise point positioning results show strong correlation between north–south hydrostatic gradients and latitude differences, with significant but less strong correlation with the height and zenith total delay parameters. The longitude components were not sensitive to the implementation of gradients. High precision GNSS applications such as long term geodynamics studies, realization of terrestrial reference frames and climatology and consequential interpretations may be affected by ignoring the asymmetry of the neutral atmosphere. In addition to estimating the gradients, implementing a priori information on gradients in the processing software may have an impact on estimated results and consequential interpretations.     

A synergetic use of satellite imagery from SAR and optical sensors to improve coastal flood mapping in the Gulf of Mexico

This work proposes a method for detecting inundation between semi‐diurnal low and high water conditions in the northern Gulf of Mexico using high‐resolution satellite imagery. Radarsat 1, Landsat imagery and aerial photography from the Apalachicola region in Florida were used to demonstrate and validate the algorithm. A change detection approach was implemented through the analysis of red, green and blue (RGB) false colour composites image to emphasise differences in high and low tide inundation patterns. To alleviate the effect of inherent speckle in the SAR images, we also applied ancillary optical data. The flood‐prone area for the site was delineated a priori through the determination of lower and higher water contour lines with Landsat images combined with a high‐resolution digital elevation model. This masking technique improved the performance of the proposed algorithm with respect to detection techniques using the entire Radarsat scene. The resulting inundation maps agreed well with historical aerial photography as the probability of detection reached 83%. The combination of SAR data and optical images, when coupled with a high‐resolution digital elevation model, was shown to be useful for inundation mapping and have a great potential for evaluating wetting/drying algorithms of inland and coastal hydrodynamic models. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Matrilineal evidence for genetic structure and Late Pleistocene demographic expansion of the Ornate goby Istigobius ornatus (Teleostei: Gobiidae) in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea

The Persian Gulf and Oman Sea are characterized by an interesting paleoclimatic history and different ecological settings, and offer a unique study area to investigate the genetic structure of marine organisms including fishes. The Ornate goby Istigobius ornatus is widely distributed throughout the tropical Indo‐West Pacific including the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. Here, we present the population structure, genetic diversity, and demographic history of four populations of I. ornatus from the latter two regions using the D‐loop marker of mitochondrial DNA. The results reveal a shallow genealogy, a star‐like haplotype network, significance of neutrality tests, and unimodal mismatch distribution. This is concordant with a recent demographic expansion of I. ornatus in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea at about 63,000–14,000 years ago, which appears to be related to Late Pleistocene sea level fall and rise. The results of the pairwise Fst estimates imply high gene flow along the coast of the Persian Gulf, which is probably due to larval dispersion, whereas the Oman Sea population clearly differs from all Persian Gulf populations. The AMOVA result indicates that 7.74% of the variation is related to differences among ecoregions, while inter‐ and intra‐population differences explained ?3.20% and 95.47% of the variation, respectively. The haplotype network depicts two groups of haplotypes, most of them were specific to the Persian Gulf. No further evidence for geographic lineage substructuring was evident. The Mantel test result indicates that isolation by distance is not the main mechanism that promoted the genetic differentiation among the studied populations of I. ornatus. We suggest that cumulative effects of ecological and geographic barriers such as salinity, oceanographic conditions, and the presence of the Strait of Hormuz have shaped the genetic structure of I. ornatus in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea.