A Compilation of Silicon,Rare Earth Element and Twenty‐One other Trace Element Concentrations in the Natural River Water Reference Material SLRS‐5 (NRC‐CNRC)

The natural river water certified reference material SLRS‐5 (NRC‐CNRC) was routinely analysed in this study for major and trace elements by ten French laboratories. Most of the measurements were made using ICP‐MS. Because no certified values are assigned by NRC‐CNRC for silicon and 35 trace element concentrations (rare earth elements, Ag, B, Bi, Cs, Ga, Ge, Li, Nb, P, Rb, Rh, Re, S, Sc, Sn, Th, Ti, Tl, W, Y and Zr), or for isotopic ratios, we provide a compilation of the concentrations and related uncertainties obtained by the participating laboratories. Strontium isotopic ratios are also given.     

Oxidation of the Kaapvaal lithospheric mantle driven by metasomatism

The oxidation state, reflected in the oxygen fugacity (fO₂), of the subcratonic lithospheric mantle is laterally and vertically heterogeneous. In the garnet stability field, the Kaapvaal lithospheric mantle becomes progressively more reducing with increasing depth from Δlog fO₂ FMQ-2 at 110 km to FMQ-4 at 210 km. Oxidation accompanying metasomatism has obscured this crystal-chemical controlled depth-fO₂ trend in the mantle beneath Kimberley, South Africa. Chondrite normalized REE patterns for garnets, preserve evidence of a range in metasomatic enrichment from mild metasomatism in harzburgites to extensive metasomatism by LREE-enriched fluids and melts with fairly unfractionated LREE/HREE ratios in phlogopite-bearing lherzolites. The metasomatized xenoliths record redox conditions extending up to Δlog fO₂ = FMQ, sufficiently oxidized that magnesite would be the stable host of carbon in the most metasomatized samples. The most oxidized lherzolites, those in or near the carbonate stability field, have the greatest modal abundance of phlogopite and clinopyroxene. Clinopyroxene is modally less abundant or absent in the most reduced peridotite samples. The infiltration of metasomatic fluids/melts into diamondiferous lithospheric mantle beneath the Kaapvaal craton converted reduced, anhydrous harzburgite into variably oxidized phlogopite-bearing lherzolite. Locally, portions of the lithospheric mantle were metasomatized and oxidized to an extent that conversion of diamond into carbonate should have occurred. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

XMCD at Fe L<Subscript>2,3</Subscript> edges,Fe and S K edges on Fe<Subscript>7</Subscript>S<Subscript>8</Subscript>

Pyrrhotite (Fe₇S₈) is a natural iron sulphide that can participate in rock magnetisation. Its electronic structure is not yet surely described. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) at Fe L_2,3 edges on Fe₇S₈, coupled with multiplet calculations, shows that iron is present only as Fe²⁺ in this magnetic iron sulphide. It reveals a strong magnetic orbital moment. XMCD at Fe and S K edges shows the quite strong polarization of both Fe and S in Fe₇S₈.     

Landslide Research at the British Geological Survey:Capture,Storage and Interpretation on a National and Site-Specific Scale

Abstract: Landslide research at the British Geological Survey (BGS) is carried out through a number of activities, including surveying, database development and real-time monitoring of landslides. Landslide mapping across the UK has been carried out since BGS started geological mapping in 1835. Today, BGS geologists use a combination of remote sensing and ground-based investigations to survey landslides. The development of waterproof tablet computers (BGS·SIGMAmobile), with inbuilt GPS and GIS for field data capture provides an accurate and rapid mapping methodology for field surveys. Regional and national mapping of landslides is carried out in conjunction with site-specific monitoring, using terrestrial LiDAR and differential GPS technologies, which BGS has successfully developed for this application. In addition to surface monitoring, BGS is currently developing geophysical ground-imaging systems for landslide monitoring, which provide real-time information on subsurface changes prior to failure events. BGS’s mapping and monitoring activities directly feed into the BGS National Landslide Database, the most extensive source of information on landslides in Great Britain. It currently holds over 14?000 records of landslide events. By combining BGS’s corporate datasets with expert knowledge, BGS has developed a landslide hazard assessment tool, GeoSure, which provides information on the relative landslide hazard susceptibility at national scale.     

The MAR-Vema Fracture Zone intersection surveyed by deep submersible Nautile

One of the two objectives of the Vemanaute cruise of the French deep submersible Nautile, was the geological study of the eastern intersection area between the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) and the Vema Fracture Zone in the equatorial Atlantic. Fourteen dives were conducted that allowed detailed geological survey and sampling of the main morphostructural units of this area: the northern and southern walls of the fracture zone, the median ridge, the northern and southern troughs and the nodal basin. In situ observations of recent tectonic features such as furrows, ridges and circular depressions, concentrated within the southern trough, allowed us to establish the location and the size of the present-day displacement zone. Geological investigations have shown that the nodal basin is entirely floored by basalts thus contrasting with other equivalent areas such as the Kane and Oceanographer fracture zone-MAR eastern intersections. Finally, this study stresses the great opposition between the relatively old and tectonically inactive northern part of the fracture, and the southern part which shows active tectonics and recent volcanic activity.     

Storylines: an alternative approach to representing uncertainty in physical aspects of climate change

Investigating the relationships between climate extremes and crop yield can help us understand how unfavourable climatic conditions affect crop production. In this study, two statistical models, multiple linear regression and random forest, were used to identify rainfall extremes indices affecting wheat yield in three different regions of the New South Wales wheat belt. The results show that the random forest model explained 41–67% of the year-to-year yield variation, whereas the multiple linear regression model explained 34–58%. In the two models, 3-month timescale standardized precipitation index of Jun.–Aug. (SPI_JJA), Sep.–Nov. (SPI_SON), and consecutive dry days (CDDs) were identified as the three most important indices which can explain yield variability for most of the wheat belt. Our results indicated that the inter-annual variability of rainfall in winter and spring was largely responsible for wheat yield variation, and pre-growing season rainfall played a secondary role. Frequent shortages of rainfall posed a greater threat to crop growth than excessive rainfall in eastern Australia. We concluded that the comparison between multiple linear regression and machine learning algorithm proposed in the present study would be useful to provide robust prediction of yields and new insights of the effects of various rainfall extremes, when suitable climate and yield datasets are available.     

Centurial Evolution of an Offshore Mud Deposition Area in the Changjiang (Yangtze) Estuary and Its Links to Environmental and Anthropogenic Activities

Large amounts of sediments originating from the Changjiang(Yangtze) River are deposited in the subaqueous delta and in the adjacent muddy area off the mouth and on the inner shelf of the East China Sea. The terrestrial sediments deposited in these areas not only contain information about the composition and environment of the source area, but they also record changes in anthropogenic activities. A sediment piston core(CJ0702) was extracted from the Changjiang subaqueous depocenter(31.00°N, 122.67°E) in a water depth of 22.0 m. The core was subsampled at 1 – 2 cm intervals and analyzed for grain size, clay mineralogy, and major element geochemistry. Results indicate a relatively high sediment accumulation rate of approximately 3.11 cm yr~(-1). These parameters exhibited only minor cyclical fluctuations in the core, which resulted from many factors. During the past 120 years, the Changjiang River-derived sediment is the primary source of sediment in the offshore mud area without evidence for the Yellow River-derived sediment increasing. After the trunk stream shifted from the North Branch to South Branch, the variations of proxies are controlled by the periodic fluctuation possibly linked to El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation(ENSO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation(PDO). In addition, anthropogenic heavy metal concentrations can be divided into three stages, which coincide well with economic development and environmental protection policies.     

Cartographica incognita: ‘Dijital Jedis’, Satellite Salvation and the Mysteries of the ‘Missing Maps’

Like Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) and Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) crowdsourced collaborative mapping is often imagined as an alternative to conventional cartographic practice. This paper examines collaborative mapping projects designed to assist in humanitarian work and respond to catastrophes. These projects, their technological complexity and wide range of collaborators, including affected locals, international Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and anonymous online contributors, invite closer consideration. In this article I unpick the gnarly question of how the remote sourcing of information through cloud collaboration and satellite imagery jostles with grounded work encouraging local control of local geoinformation. My critical analysis of these projects explores: (1) justifications for action – what is being promised through digital mapping as aid or satellite salvation?; (2) forms of participation – the role of ‘hotties’ ‘nodders’ and ‘digital jedis’; and (3) contingencies of mapping practices and the assemblages of actors within which they are embedded – as the mysteries of the ‘missing maps’. The conclusion considers differing approaches towards the inclusion of local knowledges within participatory digital aid mapping and identifies remote mapping practices that are both incognito and incognisant.     

Revealing Materials: plastics in alternative food economies

This article draws upon recent geographical work on assemblage to reconsider how we understand alternative food economies. In particular it brings attention to the devices upon which these economies rely—specifically plastics. Since the mid-twentieth century, plastics have developed close and complex relations with our agrifood systems; they facilitate commodity valuation and product circulation worldwide but are also recognised as problematic due to their environmental and human health impacts. Despite this paradox and the attention plastics increasingly receive, we know little of their relations with alternative food initiatives (AFIs). How do plastics inhabit alternative food economies? What associations and circulations become performed? What do these markets look like from a device-oriented perspective? To address these questions, the paper draws on fieldwork undertaken in Brisbane (Australia) with two AFIs—a weekly organic market and an online box program/wholesaler. Using visualisation and an assemblage approach discloses the presences, flows, functions, and tensions of plastics in AFIs. In this way, plastics are revealed but also act to reveal alternative food economies. This analysis steps away from evaluations of AFIs’ (in)effective challenge to neoliberalisation to consider them as complex, processual, sometimes ambivalent efforts that not only distribute ‘good food’ but engage in important ways with things like plastics.