An investigation of the controls on Irish precipitation δ18O values on monthly and event timescales

This two-year study investigates the relative influence of meteorological variables (precipitation amount and temperature), atmospheric circulation, air mass history, and moisture source region on Irish precipitation oxygen isotopes (δ¹⁸O_p) on event and monthly timescales. Single predictor correlations reveal that on the event scale, 20% of δ¹⁸O_p variability is attributable to the amount effect and 7% to the temperature effect while on the monthly timescale the North Atlantic Oscillation accounts for up to 20% of δ¹⁸O_p variability and the amount and temperature effects are not significant. In comparison, multivariate linear regression reveals that the interaction of temperature and precipitation amount explains up to 40% of δ¹⁸O_p variance at event and monthly timescales. Five-day kinematic back trajectories suggest that the amount-weighted mean δ¹⁸O_p value of southerly- and northerly-derived events are lower by 2‰ relative to events derived from the west. Because air mass history and atmospheric circulation appear to influence δ¹⁸O_p in Ireland, Irish paleo-δ¹⁸O_p proxy records are best interpreted as reflecting a combination of parameters, not just paleotemperature or paleorainfall.     

东昆仑三道湾流纹英安斑岩锆石U-Pb年龄及其地质意义

东昆仑格尔木河西三道湾流纹英安斑岩构成火山通道侵出相,侵入到纳赤台群哈拉巴依沟组碎屑岩系中,其形成时代对于造山带火山作用的研究和限定哈拉巴依沟组地层时代均具有重要的意义。采用激光烧蚀多接收器电感耦合等离子体质谱(LA-MC-ICP MS)方法,对三道湾流纹英安斑岩进行了锆石U-Pb定年,结果表明,流纹英安斑岩中25个岩浆锆石206Pb/238U加权平均年龄为425.9 ± 2.6 Ma,它被解释为流纹英安斑岩的结晶年龄,说明三道湾次火山岩所代表的火山通道为早古生代造山晚期牦牛山组火山岩形成时的火山喷发中心之一,而非晚侏罗世次火山岩。野外地质关系和次火山岩年龄可以限定哈拉巴依沟组形成于中志留世之前。      

Burying receivers for improved time‐lapse seismic repeatability: CO2CRC Otway field experiment

4D seismic is widely used to remotely monitor fluid movement in subsurface reservoirs. This technique is especially effective offshore where high survey repeatability can be achieved. It comes as no surprise that the first 4D seismic that successfully monitored the CO₂ sequestration process was recorded offshore in the Sleipner field, North Sea. In the case of land projects, poor repeatability of the land seismic data due to low S/N ratio often obscures the time‐lapse seismic signal. Hence for a successful on shore monitoring program improving seismic repeatability is essential. Stage 2 of the CO2CRC Otway project involves an injection of a small amount (around 15,000 tonnes) of CO₂/CH₄ gas mixture into a saline aquifer at a depth of approximately 1.5 km. Previous studies at this site showed that seismic repeatability is relatively low due to variations in weather conditions, near surface geology and farming activities. In order to improve time‐lapse seismic monitoring capabilities, a permanent receiver array can be utilised to improve signal to noise ratio and hence repeatability. A small‐scale trial of such an array was conducted at the Otway site in June 2012. A set of 25 geophones was installed in 3 m deep boreholes in parallel to the same number of surface geophones. In addition, four geophones were placed into boreholes of 1–12 m depth. In order to assess the gain in the signal‐to‐noise ratio and repeatability, both active and passive seismic surveys were carried out. The surveys were conducted in relatively poor weather conditions, with rain, strong wind and thunderstorms. With such an amplified background noise level, we found that the noise level for buried geophones is on average 20 dB lower compared to the surface geophones. The levels of repeatability for borehole geophones estimated around direct wave, reflected wave and ground roll are twice as high as for the surface geophones. Both borehole and surface geophones produce the best repeatability in the 30–90 Hz frequency range. The influence of burying depth on S/N ratio and repeatability shows that significant improvement in repeatability can be reached at a depth of 3 m. The level of repeatability remains relatively constant between 3 and 12 m depths.     

Analysis of the intensities and profiles of the spectral line Mg xii 8.42 Å in the solar X-ray spectrum

High resolution profiles of the Mg xii 8.42 Å line in the solar X-ray spectrum were recorded from the Intercosmos 7 satellite. The Mg xii line intensity provides a sensitive indicator of the hot plasma content (T ? 3 × 10⁶ K) in coronal condensations and X-ray flare volumes. The ratio of the line intensity to the intensity of the adjacent continuum has been used to compute approximate thermal models of the emitting regions. For all the investigated coronal condensations the temperature distribution of plasma has been found to be a function monotonically decreasing with temperature. But for some X-ray bursts there occurred a distinct excess of the hot plasma of temperature between 6–10 × 10⁶K. FWHM values of the Mg xii line profiles have been used to estimate ion temperature in the emitting regions.     

Ar/Ar ages of tephras intercalated in astronomically tuned Neogene sedimentary sequences in the eastern Mediterranean

We present new ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data for sanidine and biotite derived from volcanic ash layers that are intercalated in Pliocene and late Miocene astronomically dated sequences in the Mediterranean with the aim to solve existing inconsistencies in the intercalibration between the two independent absolute dating methods. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar sanidine ages are systematically younger by 0.7-2.3% than the astronomical ages for the same ash layers. The significance of the discrepancy disappears except for the upper Ptolemais ashes, which reveal the largest difference, if an improved full error propagation method is applied to calculate the absolute error in the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages. The total variance is dominated by that of the activity of the decay of ⁴⁰K to ⁴⁰Ar (∼70%) and that the amount of radiogenic ⁴⁰Ar_p in the primary standard GA1550 biotite (∼15%). If the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages are calculated relative to an astronomically dated standard, the influence of these parameters is greatly reduced, resulting in a more reliable age and in a significant reduction of the error in ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating.Astronomically calibrated ages for Taylor Creek Rhyolite (TCR) and Fish Canyon Tuff (FCT) sanidine are 28.53±0.02 and 28.21±0.04 Ma (±1 S.E.), respectively, if we start from the more reliable results of the Cretan A1 ash layer. The most likely explanation for the large discrepancy found for the younger Ptolemais ash layers (equivalent to FCT of 28.61 Ma) is an error in the tuning of this part of the sequence.     

Diagnostic monitoring of a changing environment: an alternative UK perspective

Adaptive management of the marine environment requires an understanding of the complex interactions within it. Establishing levels of natural variability within and between marine ecosystems is a necessary prerequisite to this process and requires a monitoring programme which takes account of the issues of time, space and scale. In this paper, we argue that an ecosystem approach to managing the marine environment should take direct account of climate change indicators at a regional level if it is to cope with the unprecedented change expected as a result of human impacts on the earth climate system. We discuss the purpose of environmental monitoring and the importance of maintaining long-term time series. Recommendations are made on the use of these data in conjunction with modern extrapolation and integration tools (e.g. ecosystem models, remote sensing) to provide a diagnostic approach to the management of marine ecosystems, based on adaptive indicators and dynamic baselines.