Groundwater recharge sources in semiarid irrigated mountain fronts

High-elevation mountains often constitute for basins important groundwater recharge sources through mountain-front recharge processes. These processes include streamflow losses and subsurface inflow from the mountain block. However, another key recharge process is from irrigation practices, where mountain streamflow is distributed across the irrigated piedmont. In this study, coupled groundwater fluctuation measurements and environmental tracers (¹⁸O, ²H, and major ions) were used to identify and compare the natural mountain-front recharge to the anthropogenically induced irrigation recharge. Within the High Atlas mountain front of the Ourika Basin, Central Morocco, the groundwater fluctuation mapping from the dry to wet season showed that recharge beneath the irrigated area was higher than the recharge along the streambed. Irrigation practices in the region divert more than 65% of the stream water, thereby reducing the potential for in-stream groundwater recharge. In addition, the irrigation areas close to the mountain front had greater water table increases (up to 3.5 m) compared with the downstream irrigation areas (<1 m increase). Upstream crops have priority to irrigation with stream water over downstream areas. The latter are only irrigated via stream water during large flood events and are otherwise supplemented by groundwater resources. These changes in water resources used for irrigation practices between upstream and downstream areas are reflected in the spatiotemporal evolution of the stable isotopes of groundwater. In the upstream irrigation area, the groundwater stable isotope values (δ¹⁸O: −8.4‰ to −7.4‰) reflect recharge by the diverted stream water. In the downstream irrigation area, the groundwater isotope values are lower (δ¹⁸O: −8.1‰ to −8.4‰) due to recharge via the flood water. In the nonirrigation area, the groundwater has the highest stable isotope values (δ¹⁸O: −6.8‰ to −4.8‰). This might be due to recharge via subsurface inflow from the mountain block to the mountain front and/or recharge via local low altitude rainfall. These findings highlight that irrigation practices can result in the dominant mountain-front recharge process for groundwater.     

A modelling framework for evaluation of the hydrological impacts of nature‐based approaches to flood risk management,with application to in‐channel interventions across a 29‐km2 scale catchment in the United Kingdom

Nature‐based approaches to flood risk management are increasing in popularity. Evidence for the effectiveness at the catchment scale of such spatially distributed upstream measures is inconclusive. However, it also remains an open question whether, under certain conditions, the individual impacts of a collection of flood mitigation interventions could combine to produce a detrimental effect on runoff response. A modelling framework is presented for evaluation of the impacts of hillslope and in‐channel natural flood management interventions. It couples an existing semidistributed hydrological model with a new, spatially explicit, hydraulic channel network routing model. The model is applied to assess a potential flood mitigation scheme in an agricultural catchment in North Yorkshire, United Kingdom, comprising various configurations of a single variety of in‐channel feature. The hydrological model is used to generate subsurface and surface fluxes for a flood event in 2012. The network routing model is then applied to evaluate the response to the addition of up to 59 features. Additional channel and floodplain storage of approximately 70,000 m³ is seen with a reduction of around 11% in peak discharge. Although this might be sufficient to reduce flooding in moderate events, it is inadequate to prevent flooding in the double‐peaked storm of the magnitude that caused damage within the catchment in 2012. Some strategies using features specific to this catchment are suggested in order to improve the attenuation that could be achieved by applying a nature‐based approach.     

Recent progress on combining geomorphological and geochronological data with ice sheet modelling,demonstrated using the last British–Irish Ice Sheet

Palaeo-ice sheets are important analogues for understanding contemporary ice sheets, offering a record of ice sheet behaviour that spans millennia. There are two main approaches to reconstructing palaeo-ice sheets. Empirical reconstructions use the available glacial geological and chronological evidence to estimate ice sheet extent and dynamics but lack direct consideration of ice physics. In contrast, numerically modelled simulations implement ice physics, but often lack direct quantitative comparison with empirical evidence. Despite being long identified as a fruitful scientific endeavour, few ice sheet reconstructions attempt to reconcile the empirical and model-based approaches. To achieve this goal, model-data comparison procedures are required. Here, we compare three numerically modelled simulations of the former British–Irish Ice Sheet with the following lines of evidence: (a) position and shape of former margin positions, recorded by moraines; (b) former ice-flow direction and flow-switching, recorded by flowsets of subglacial bedforms; and (c) the timing of ice-free conditions, recorded by geochronological data. These model–data comparisons provide a useful framework for quantifying the degree of fit between numerical model simulations and empirical constraints. Such tools are vital for reconciling numerical modelling and empirical evidence, the combination of which will lead to more robust palaeo-ice sheet reconstructions with greater explicative and ultimately predictive power.     

Traces of volcanic ash from the Mediterranean,Iceland and North America in a Holocene record from south Wales,UK

A tephra record is presented for a sediment core from Llyn Llech Owain, south Wales, spanning the early- to mid-Holocene. Seven cryptotephra deposits are discovered with three thought to correlate with known eruptions and the remaining four considered to represent previously undocumented events. One deposit is suggested to correlate with the ~6.9 cal ka bp Lairg A tephra from Iceland, whereas more distant sources are proposed as the origin for two of the tephra deposits. A peak of colourless shards in early-Holocene sediments is thought to tentatively correlate with the ~9.6 cal ka bp Fondi di Baia tephra (Campi Flegrei) and a second cryptotephra is tentatively correlated with the ~3.6 cal ka bp Aniakchak (CFE) II tephra (Alaska). The Fondi di Baia tephra has never been recorded beyond proximal sites and its discovery in south Wales significantly extends the geographical distribution of ash from this eruption. The remaining four cryptotephra deposits are yet to be correlated with known eruptions, demonstrating that our current understanding of widespread tephra deposits is incomplete. This new tephra record highlights the potential for sites at more southerly and westerly locations in northwest Europe to act as repositories for ash from several volcanic regions.     

Significance of post‐peak metamorphic reaction microstructures in the ultrahigh temperature Eastern Ghats Province,India

Ultrahigh temperature (UHT) granulites in the Eastern Ghats Province (EGP) have a complex P–T–t history. We review the P–T histories of UHT metamorphism in the EGP and use that as a framework for investigating the P–T–t history of Mg–Al‐rich granulites from Anakapalle, with the express purpose of trying to reconcile the down‐pressure‐dominated P–T path with other UHT localities in the EGP. Mafic granulite that is host to Mg–Al‐rich metasedimentary granulites at Anakapalle has a protolith age of c. 1,580 Ma. Mg–Al‐rich metasedimentary granulites within the mafic granulite at Anakapalle were metamorphosed at UHT conditions during tectonism at 960–875 Ma, meaning that the UHT metamorphism was not the result of contact metamorphism from emplacement of the host mafic rock. Reworking occurred during the Pan‐African (c. 600–500 Ma) event, and is interpreted to have produced hydrous assemblages that overprint the post‐peak high‐T retrograde assemblages. In contrast to rocks elsewhere in the EGP that developed post‐peak cordierite, the metasedimentary granulites at Anakapalle developed post‐peak, generation ‘2’ reaction products that are cordierite‐absent and nominally anhydrous. Therefore, rocks at Anakapalle offer the unique opportunity to quantify the pressure drop that occurred during so‐called M2 that affected the EGP. We argue that M2 is either a continuation of M1 and that the overall P–T path shape is a complex counter‐clockwise loop, or that M1 is an up‐temperature counter‐clockwise deviation superimposed on the M2 path. Therefore, rather than the rocks at Anakapalle having a metamorphic history that is apparently anomalous from the rest of the EGP, we interpret that other previously studied localities in the EGP record a different part of the same P–T path history as Anakapalle, but do not preserve a significant record of pressure decrease. This is due either to the inability of refractory rocks to extensively react to produce a rich mineralogical record of pressure decrease, or because the earlier high‐P part of the rocks history was erased by the M1 loop. Irrespective of the specific scenario, models for the tectonic evolution of the EGP must take the substantial pressure decrease during M2 into account, as it is probable the P–T record at Anakapalle is a reflection of tectonics affecting the entire province.     

Rainfall–runoff responses on Arctic hillslopes underlain by continuous permafrost,North Slope,Alaska, USA

The Arctic hydrologic cycle is intensifying, as evidenced by increased rates of precipitation, evapotranspiration, and riverine discharge. However, the controls on water fluxes from terrestrial to aquatic systems in upland Arctic landscapes are poorly understood. Upland landscapes account for one third of the Arctic land surface and are often drained by zero‐order geomorphic flowpath features called water tracks. Previous work in the region attributed rapid runoff response at larger stream orders to water tracks, but models suggest water tracks are hydrologically disconnected from the surrounding hillslope. To better understand the role of water tracks in upland landscapes, we investigated the surface and subsurface hydrologic responses of 6 water tracks and their hillslope watersheds to natural patterns of rainfall, soil thaw, and drainage. Between storms, both water track discharge and the water table in the hillslope watersheds exhibited diel fluctuations that, when lagged by 5 hr, were temporally correlated with peak evapotranspiration rate. Water track soils remained saturated for more of the summer season than soils in their surrounding hillslope watersheds. When rainfall occurred, the subsurface response was nearly instantaneous, but the water tracks took significantly longer than the hillslopes to respond to rainfall, and longer than the responses previously observed in nearby larger order Arctic streams. There was also evidence for antecedent soil water storage conditions controlling the magnitude of runoff response. Based on these observations, we used a broken stick model to test the hypothesis that runoff production in response to individual storms was primarily controlled by rainfall amount and antecedent water storage conditions near the water track outlet. We found that the relative importance of the two factors varied by site, and that water tracks with similar watershed geometries and at similar landscape positions had similar rainfall–runoff model relationships. Thus, the response of terrestrial water fluxes in the upland Arctic to climate change depends on the non‐linear interactions between rainfall patterns and subsurface water storage capacity on hillslopes. Predicting these interactions across the landscape remains an important challenge.     

Diel stream geochemistry,Taylor Valley,Antarctica

Unlike temperate and polythermal proglacial streams, the proglacial streams in Taylor Valley (TV), Antarctica, are derived primarily from glacier surface melt with no subglacial or groundwater additions. Solute responses to flow reflect only the interaction of glacial meltwater with the valley floor surrounding the stream channel. We have investigated the major, minor and trace element 24‐h variations of two proglacial melt streams, Andersen Creek and Canada Stream, originating from the Canada Glacier in TV, Antarctica. Both streams exhibited diel mid‐austral summer diurnal flow variation, with maximum flow being more than 50 times the minimum flow. Dissolved (< 0.4 µm) major, minor and trace solute behaviors through diel periods were strongly controlled by the availability of readily solubilized material on the valley floor and hyporheic‐biological exchanges. Anderson Creek had generally greater solute concentrations than Canada Stream because of its greater receipt of eolian sediment. Andersen Creek also acquired greater solute concentrations in the rising limb of the hydrograph than the falling limb because of dissolution of eolian material at the surface of the stream channel coupled with minimal hyporheic‐biological exchange. Conversely, Canada Stream had less available eolian sediment, but a greater hyporheic‐biological exchange, which preferentially removed trace and major solutes in the rising limb and released them in the falling limb. Given the dynamic nature of discharge, eolian, and hyporheic‐biological processes, solute loads in TV streams are difficult to predict. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of large‐scale seismites in Upper Cretaceous fluvial sandstones in a fault‐proximal setting

Large‐scale soft‐sediment deformation structures occur within fluvial sandstone bodies of the Upper Cretaceous Wahweap Formation in the Kaiparowits basin, southern Utah, USA. These structures represent an exceptional example of metre‐scale fault‐proximal, seismogenic load structures in nearly homogenous sandstones. The load structures consist of two types: large‐scale load casts and wedge‐shaped load structures. Large‐scale load casts penetrate up to 4·5 m into the underlying sandstone bed. Wedge‐shaped load structures include metre‐scale, parallel, sub‐vertical features and decimetre‐scale features along the periphery of the large‐scale load casts or other wedge‐shaped load structures. Wedge‐shaped load structures contain well‐developed, medial cataclastic shear deformation bands. All load structures contain pervasive well‐defined millimetre‐thick to centimetre‐thick internal laminae, oriented parallel to the outside form of the load structures and asymptotic to deformation bands. Both types of load structures formed because of an inverted density profile, earthquake‐triggered liquefaction and growth of irregularities (a Rayleigh–Taylor instability) on the sandstone–sandstone erosional contact. The internal laminae and deformation bands formed during deformation and clearly demonstrate polyphase deformation, recording a transition from liquefied to hydroplastic to brittle modes of deformation. Decimetre‐scale wedge‐shaped load structures on the edge of the large‐scale load casts probably formed towards the end of a seismic event after the sediment dewatered and increased the frictional contact of grains enough to impart strength to the sands. Metre‐scale wedge‐shaped load structures were created as the tips of downward foundering sediments were driven into fractures, which widened incrementally with seismic pulsation. With each widening of the fracture, gravity and a suction effect would draw additional sediment into the fracture. Superimposed laminae indicate a secondary syndeformational origin for internal laminae, probably by flow‐generated shearing and vibrofluidization mechanisms. Large‐scale and wedge‐shaped load structures, polyphase deformation and secondary laminae may characterize soft‐sediment deformation in certain fault‐proximal settings.     

Student Learning in an Introductory GIS Course: Using a Project‐Based Approach

Introductory courses in Geographic Information Science (GIS) expose students to the concepts and practices necessary for future academic and professional use of GIS tools. Traditional GIS courses balance lectures in the theories of GIS with pre‐built and pre‐packaged lab activities to learn the practices of GIS. This article presents a case study of an experimental introductory course in which students conducted novel, independent project‐based group research under the supervision of graduate or advanced undergraduate students enrolled in the course, culminating in a class presentation and publication quality paper. Surveys and interviews indicated that students reacted more positively to project‐based group research than to traditional activities. Students felt the projects better prepared them for ‘real world’ applications of GIS, and recommend project‐based group research in other GIS coursework. Additionally, our findings indicate that students appreciate interactions with peers of varying skill levels and experiences, as these broaden their capabilities to work with other GIS users.