HNO3 deposition to a deciduous forest

The deposition velocity (V _d) of nitric acid vapor over a fully leafed deciduous forest was estimated using flux/gradient theory. HNO₃ deposition velocities ranged from 2.2 to 6.0cm/s with a mean V _don the order of 4.0cms^-1. Estimates of V _dfrom a detailed canopy turbulence model gave deposition velocities of similar magnitude. The model was used to investigate the sensitivity of V _dto the leaf boundary-layer resistance and leaf area index (LAI). Although modeled deposition velocities were found to be sensitive to the parameterization of the leaf boundary-layer resistance, they were less sensitive to the LAI. Modeled V _d's were found to peak at LAI = 7.     

Cellular modelling of river catchments and reaches: Advantages, limitations and prospects

The last decade has witnessed the development of a series of cellular models that simulate the processes operating within river channels and drive their geomorphic evolution. Their proliferation can be partly attributed to the relative simplicity of cellular models and their ability to address some of the shortcomings of other numerical models. By using relaxed interpretations of the equations determining fluid flow, cellular models allow rapid solutions of water depths and velocities. These can then be used to drive (usually) conventional sediment transport relations to determine erosion and deposition and alter the channel form. The key advance of using these physically based yet simplified approaches is that they allow us to apply models to a range of spatial scales (1–100 km²) and time periods (1–100 years) that are especially relevant to contemporary management and fluvial studies.However, these approaches are not without their limitations and technical problems. This paper reviews the findings of nearly 10 years of research into modelling fluvial systems with cellular techniques, principally focusing on improvements in routing water and how fluvial erosion and deposition (including lateral erosion) are represented. These ideas are illustrated using sample simulations of the River Teifi, Wales. A detailed case study is then presented, demonstrating how cellular models can explore the interactions between vegetation and the morphological dynamics of the braided Waitaki River, New Zealand. Finally, difficulties associated with model validation and the problems, prospects and future issues important to the further development and application of these cellular fluvial models are outlined.     

Using beamforming to maximise the detection capability of small,sparse seismometer arrays deployed to monitor oil field activities

Like most other industrial activities that affect the subsurface, hydraulic fracturing carries the risk of reactivating pre‐existing faults and thereby causing induced seismicity. In some regions, regulators have responded to this risk by imposing traffic light scheme‐type regulations, where fracture stimulation programs must be amended or shut down if events larger than a given magnitude are induced. Some sites may be monitored with downhole arrays and/or dense near‐surface arrays, capable of detecting very small microseismic events. However, such monitoring arrangements will not be logistically or economically feasible at all sites. Instead, operators are using small, sparse arrays of surface seismometers to meet their monitoring obligations. The challenge we address in this paper is to maximise the detection thresholds of such small, sparse, surface arrays so that they are capable of robustly identifying small‐magnitude events whose signal‐to‐noise ratios may be close to 1. To do this, we develop a beamforming‐and‐stacking approach, computing running short‐term/long‐term average functions for each component of each recorded trace (P, S_H, and S_V), time‐shifting these functions by the expected travel times for a given location, and performing a stack. We assess the effectiveness of this approach with a case study using data from a small surface array that recorded a multi‐well, multi‐stage hydraulic fracture stimulation in Oklahoma over a period of 8 days. As a comparison, we initially used a conventional event‐detection algorithm to identify events, finding a total of 17 events. In contrast, the beamforming‐and‐stacking approach identified a total of 155 events during this period (including the 17 events detected by the conventional method). The events that were not detected by the conventional algorithm had low‐signal‐to‐noise ratios to the extent that, in some cases, they would be unlikely to be identified even by manual analysis of the seismograms. We conclude that this approach is capable of improving the detection thresholds of small, sparse arrays and thus can be used to maximise the information generated when deployed to monitor industrial sites.     

A new matrix for multiphase couplings in a membrane porous medium

The empirical Darcy's law of water transport in porous media, Fick's law of chemical diffusion, and Fourier's law of thermal transport have been widely used in geophysics/geochemistry for over 150 years. However, the strong couplings between water, temperature, and chemicals in a membrane porous medium have made these laws inapplicable and present a significant hurdle to the understanding of multiphase flow in such a material. Extensive experiments over the past century have observed chemical osmosis and thermal osmosis, but a model for understanding their underlying physicochemical basis has remained unavailable, because of the highly cross‐disciplinary and multiscale‐multiphase nature of the coupling. Based on the fundamental principles of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and mixture coupling theory, a rigorously theoretical and mathematical framework is proposed and a general model accounting for all of the coupled influences is developed. This leads to a simple and robust mathematical matrix for studying multiphase couplings in a membrane porous medium when all chemical components are electrically neutral.     

Influence of gas generation in electro‐osmosis consolidation

This paper presents a numerical model for the elasto‐plastic electro‐osmosis consolidation of unsaturated clays experiencing large strains, by considering electro‐osmosis and hydro‐mechanical flows in a deformable multiphase porous medium. The coupled governing equations involving the pore water flow, pore gas flow, electric flow and mechanical deformation in unsaturated clays are derived within the framework of averaging theory and solved numerically using finite elements. The displacements of the solid phase, the pressure of the water phase, the pressure of the gas phase and the electric potential are taken as the primary unknowns in the proposed model. The nonlinear variation of transport parameters during electro‐osmosis consolidation are incorporated into the model using empirical expressions that strongly depend on the degree of water saturation, whereas the Barcelona Basic Model is employed to simulate the elasto‐plastic mechanical behaviour of unsaturated clays. The accuracy of the proposed model is evaluated by validating it against two well‐known numerical examples, involving electro‐osmosis and unsaturated soil behaviour respectively. Two further examples are then investigated to study the capability of the computational algorithm in modelling multiphase flow in electro‐osmosis consolidation. Finally, the effects of gas generation at the anode, the deformation characteristics, the degree of saturation and the time dependent evolution of the excess pore pressure are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient transient‐state algorithm for evaluation of leakage through defective cutoff walls

Artificial barriers are widely used to prevent leakages. However, due to construction errors during the wall installation, passages with small dimensions may occasionally penetrate through the barrier, undermining its tightness. A three‐dimensional discretized algorithm (TDA) is proposed for quantitatively estimating the transient‐state discharge rate through defective cutoff walls. By discretizing the wall into a three‐dimensional refined mesh grid, the algorithm enables an examination of penetrating passages, an evaluation of defect dimensions, and an estimation of discharge rate through the penetrating passages. A rigorous realization‐by‐realization comparison between the TDA and the finite element method (FEM) was made, and it was found that the TDA results show strong correlations with the FEM results, but at a remarkably lower (1/10³‐1/10⁴) computational cost. The TDA generally gives a discharge rate that is 0.1‐1.0 times greater than its FEM counterpart, as the lengthened seepage distance due to random corrugations in the penetrating untreated zone cannot be replicated by the TDA.     

Water‐quality response to a high‐elevation wildfire in the Colorado Front Range

Water quality of the Big Thompson River in the Front Range of Colorado was studied for 2 years following a high‐elevation wildfire that started in October 2012 and burned 15% of the watershed. A combination of fixed‐interval sampling and continuous water‐quality monitors was used to examine the timing and magnitude of water‐quality changes caused by the wildfire. Prefire water quality was well characterized because the site has been monitored at least monthly since the early 2000s. Major ions and nitrate showed the largest changes in concentrations; major ion increases were greatest in the first postfire snowmelt period, but nitrate increases were greatest in the second snowmelt period. The delay in nitrate release until the second snowmelt season likely reflected a combination of factors including fire timing, hydrologic regime, and rates of nitrogen transformations. Despite the small size of the fire, annual yields of dissolved constituents from the watershed increased 20–52% in the first 2 years following the fire. Turbidity data from the continuous sensor indicated high‐intensity summer rain storms had a much greater effect on sediment transport compared to snowmelt. High‐frequency sensor data also revealed that weekly sampling missed the concentration peak during snowmelt and short‐duration spikes during rain events, underscoring the challenge of characterizing postfire water‐quality response with fixed‐interval sampling. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interactions between aquatic vegetation,hydraulics and fine sediment: A case study in the Halswell River,New Zealand

This paper contributes a field study of suspended sediment transport through aquatic vegetation. The study was run over a 3 month period which was selected to coincide with scheduled weed cutting activities. This provided the opportunity to obtain data points with no vegetation cover, as well as to investigate the effects of weed cutting on Suspended Sediment Concentrations (SSC), particle size distributions and river hydraulics. Aquatic vegetation cover was quantified through remote sensing with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and biomass estimated from ground truth sampling. SSC was highly dependent on aquatic vegetation abundance, and the distance upstream that had been cleared of aquatic vegetation. The data indicates that fine sediment was being trapped and stored by aquatic vegetation, then likely remobilised after vegetation removal. Investigation of suspended sediment spatial dynamics illustrated changes in particle size distribution due to preferential settling of coarse particles within aquatic vegetation, for example D50 decreased from 36.08 μm to 15.64 μm after suspended sediment travelled 304.2 m downstream and passed ~3700 kg of aquatic vegetation biomass. Hydraulic resistance in the study reach (parameterized by Manning's n) dropped by over 70% following vegetation cutting. Prior to cutting hydraulic resistance was discharge dependent (likely due to vegetation pronating at higher flows), while post cutting hydraulic resistance was approximately invariant of discharge. Aerial surveying captured interesting changes in aquatic vegetation cover prior to vegetation cutting, where some very dense regions of aquatic vegetation were naturally removed (without any high flow events) leaving behind unvegetated riverbed and fine sediment. The weed cutting boat had a lower impact on SSC than was originally expected, which indicates that it may offer a less damaging solution to aquatic vegetation removal in rivers than some other approaches such as mechanical excavation. This paper contributes valuable field data (which are generally scarce) on the research topic of flow-vegetation-sediment interactions, to supplement laboratory and numerical studies.     

Concentric zoning in the Tunk Lake pluton,coastal Maine

The Tunk Lake pluton of coastal Maine, USA is a concentrically zoned granitic body that grades from an outer hypersolvus granite into subsolvus rapakivi granite, and then into subsolvus non-rapakivi granite, with gradational contacts between these zones. The pluton is partially surrounded by a zone of basaltic and gabbroic enclaves, interpreted as quenched magmatic droplets and mushes, respectively, as well as gabbroic xenoliths, all hosted by high-silica granite. The granite is zoned in terms of mineral assemblage, mineral composition, zircon crystallization temperature, and major and trace element concentration, from the present-day rim (interpreted as being closer to the base of the chamber) to the core (interpreted as being closer to the upper portions of the chamber). The ferromagnesian mineral assemblage systematically changes from augite and hornblende with augite cores in the outermost hypersolvus granite to hornblende, to hornblende and biotite, and finally, to biotite only in the subsolvus granite core of the pluton. Sparse fine-grained basaltic enclaves that are most common in the outermost zone of the pluton suggest that basaltic magma was present in the lower portions of the magma chamber at the same time that the upper portions of the magma chamber were occupied by a granitic crystal mush. However, the slight variations in initial Nd isotopic ratio in granites from different zones of the pluton suggest that contamination of the granitic melt by basaltic melt played little role in generating the compositional gradation of the pluton. The zone of basaltic and gabbroic chilled magmatic enclaves, and gabbroic xenoliths, hosted by high-silica granite, that partially surround the pluton is interpreted as mafic layers at the base of the pluton that were disrupted by invading late-stage high-silica magma. These mafic layers are likely to have consisted of basaltic lava layers and basalt that chilled against granitic magma to produce coarse-grained gabbroic mush. Basaltic and gabbroic magmatic enclaves and gabbroic xenoliths are hornblende-bearing, suggesting that their parent melts were relatively hydrous. The water-rich nature of the underplating mafic magmas may have prevented extensive invasion of the granitic magma by these magmas, owing to the much greater viscosity of the granitic magma than the mafic magmas in the temperature range over which magma interaction could have occurred.