Groundwater—Surface waters interactions at slope and catchment scales: implications for landsliding in clay‐rich slopes

Understanding water infiltration and transfer in soft‐clay shales slopes is an important scientific issue, especially for landsliding. Geochemical investigations are carried out at the Super‐Sauze and Draix‐Laval landslides, both developed in the Callovo‐Oxfordian black marls, with the objective to define the origin of the groundwater. In situ investigations, soil leaching experiments and geochemical modeling are combined to identify the boundaries of the hydrological systems. At Super‐Sauze, the observations indicate that an external water flow occurs in the upper part of the landslide at the contact between the weathered black marls and the overlying formations, or at the landslide basement through a fault network. Such external origin of water is not observed at the local scale of the Draix‐Laval landslide but is detected at the catchment scale with the influence of deep waters in the streamwater quality of low river flows. Hydrogeological conceptual models are proposed emphasizing the role of the interactions between local (slope) and regional (catchment) flow systems. The observations suggest that this situation is a common case in the Alpine area. Expected consequences of the regional flows on slope stability are discussed in term of rise of pore water pressures and physicochemical weathering of the clay shales.     

Middle and Late Holocene Sea-Level Changes in Eastern Maine Reconstructed from Foraminiferal Saltmarsh Stratigraphy and AMS C Dates on Basal Peat

A relative sea-level history is reconstructed for Machiasport, Maine, spanning the past 6000 calendar years and combining two different methods. The first method establishes the long-term (10³ yr) trend of sea-level rise by dating the base of the Holocene saltmarsh peat overlying a Pleistocene substrate. The second method uses detailed analyses of the foraminiferal stratigraphy of two saltmarsh peat cores to quantify fluctuations superimposed on the long-term trend. The indicative meaning of the peat (the height at which the peat was deposited relative to mean tide level) is calculated by a transfer function based on vertical distributions of modern foraminiferal assemblages. The chronology is determined from AMS ¹⁴C dates on saltmarsh plant fragments embedded in the peat. The combination of the two different approaches produces a high-resolution, replicable sea-level record, which takes into account the autocompaction of the peat sequence. Long-term mean rates of sea-level rise, corrected for changes in tidal range, are 0.75 mm/yr between 6000 and 1500 cal yr B.P. and 0.43 mm/yr during the past 1500 years. The foraminiferal stratigraphy reveals several low-amplitude fluctuations during a relatively stable period between 1100 and 400 cal yr B.P., and a sea-level rise of 0.5 m during the past 300 years.     

Simulating compound flooding events in a hurricane

Ocean Dynamics - Compound flooding is usually induced by the concurrence of coastal storm surge and heavy precipitation induced river flooding, with the former involving oceanic processes and the...     

Density function evaluation from borehole gravity meter data – regularized spectral domain deconvolution approach

We present a new method of transforming borehole gravity meter data into vertical density logs. This new method is based on the regularized spectral domain deconvolution of density functions. It is a novel alternative to the “classical” approach, which is very sensitive to noise, especially for high‐definition surveys with relatively small sampling steps. The proposed approach responds well to vertical changes of density described by linear and polynomial functions. The model used is a vertical cylinder with large outer radius (flat circular plate) crossed by a synthetic vertical borehole profile. The task is formulated as a minimization problem, and the result is a low‐pass filter (controlled by a regularization parameter) in the spectral domain. This regularized approach is tested on synthetic datasets with noise and gives much more stable solutions than the classical approach based on the infinite Bouguer slab approximation. Next, the tests on real‐world datasets are presented. The properties and presented results make our proposed approach a viable alternative to the other processing methods of borehole gravity meter data based on horizontally layered formations.     

Geochemistry of a confirmed Precambrian impact ejecta deposit: The Grænsesø spherule layer,South Greenland

Samples from a single outcrop of the Graenseso spherule layer, Midternaes, South Greenland, consist of a spherule‐bearing dolomixtite with matrix‐supported intraclasts up to 1 m in size. In addition to field observations, we performed mineralogical and whole rock geochemical analysis, including electron microprobe, neutron activation analysis, X‐ray fluorescence, and mass spectrometry of the horizon and the overlying and underlying strata. We show that the spherules are petrographically similar to those in the Zaonega spherule layer, Karelia, Russia. Our petrographic and chemical results are consistent with the previous suggestion that the Grænsesø layer correlates with the Zaonega layer, and it is possible that both layers are related to the Vredefort impact event. The samples containing spherules, as well as the overlying rocks, have elevated REEs compared to the underlying pre‐impact layer, suggestive of a new continental source of sediment that may be coincident with the impact event. Zircons separated from the lower part of the Grænsesø spherule layer display complex age patterns suggesting that they have genetically different origins based on distinctly different Th/U ratios. Crystallization ages of all groups are ≥ 2.8 Ga, with ~2.8 Ga representing a time of major crustal growth globally. Therefore, we cannot conclusively determine in this study if the zircons are locally derived or if they are transported with the ejecta. The spherule layer was deposited by a high‐energy, subaqueous debris flow, an origin that is consistent with the hypothesis that the layer was deposited by impact‐induced waves and/or currents.     

Luminescence dating of lacustrine sediments from Tangra Yumco (southern Tibetan Plateau) using post‐IR IRSL signals from polymineral grains

Radiocarbon dating of bulk organic matter is the most commonly used method for establishing chronologies of lake sediments for palaeoclimate reconstructions on the Tibetan Plateau. However, this method is likely to be problematic because the dated material often suffers from old carbon contamination. Recently, advances in luminescence‐based chronological techniques have provided new options for dating lacustrine sediments. In the current study, we tested for the first time the applicability of a new post‐IR IRSL (pIRIR) measurement protocol for dating fine‐grained polymineral material from a deep‐lake sediment core from the central part of Tangra Yumco, on the southern Tibetan Plateau. Our results show that: (i) radioactive disequilibria in the uranium decay chain were observed in the studied lake sediments, and thus taken into account for dose rate calculation by using a dynamic modelling approach; (ii) the suitability and robustness of the pIRIR protocol measured at 150°C (pIRIR₁₅₀) for our samples are confirmed by a set of luminescence characteristic tests as well as the agreement with an independent age control; (iii) turbidite deposition partly caused an insufficient resetting of luminescence signals and thus apparent overestimation in luminescence dating; (iv) compared with the luminescence‐based age‐depth model, the ¹⁴C ages of bulk organic matter from the studied core generally yielded an age difference of ～2 ka, which is attributed to hardwater reservoir effects in Tangra Yumco. This study highlights the need for multi‐dating approaches of lake sedimentary archives on the Tibetan Plateau.     

Eutrophication assessment of the Baltic Sea Protected Areas by available data and GIS technologies

Concerning increased degradation of marine ecosystems, there is a great political and institutional demand for an array of different tools to restore a good environmental status. Thereby, eutrophication is acknowledged as one of the major human induced stressors which has to be monitored and reduced. The present study concentrates on an assessment of the eutrophication status of the Baltic Sea Protected Areas by use of available data and GIS technologies. Two geodata layers were used for analysis: (1) a map on the eutrophication status of the Baltic Sea generated by the Helsinki Commission applying the HELCOM Eutrophication Assessment Tool (HEAT), and (2) modelled data on atmospheric nitrogen deposition made available by the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP). The results yielded comprehensive and conclusive data indicating that most of the BSPAs may be classified as being 'affected by eutrophication' and underlining the need to decrease the overall emissions of nutrients.